In the first month of the fourth year of Jianwen, a terrifying news spread throughout Shandong, the whole army of 160,000 Yan troops went south, crossed the border line between Dezhou and Shandong, and left Sheng Yong's peaceful soldiers and horses far behind.

10,000 elite cavalry pioneers in front, open the way to break the city, set off again with supplies, 50,000 cavalry followed, took over the entire city with lightning speed, all civilians were expelled from the city, those wearing military uniforms were not killed, those who took up arms to resist were killed on the spot, and after clearing the danger for the 100,000 foot soldiers in the rear, they would continue to march to receive the next city.

This process has been staged several times, and no one can react, because the 10,000 Yan Army vanguard cavalry marched like crazy and broke the city like crazy! Often before the news reaches the next city, they have appeared outside the city gate, after suspending the horsepower, immediately attack all the city gates, as long as one city gate is not closed by the cavalry rushing into the city, countless grenades are overwhelming the entire city explosion, their strategy is to use the shortest time to make the entire city lose the ability to resist, to clear the way for the tens of thousands of cavalry behind.

When the news came out, Sheng Yong, Tie Xuan, Ping'an, and Xu Huizu were all panicked, at this moment they finally realized Zhu Di's attempt, his goal was no longer Jinan, but the final destination - the capital, if Zhu Di was allowed to achieve his goal, everything would be over!

No one dares to take a defensive posture anymore, all the soldiers and horses in the entire Shandong territory have begun to converge towards the crazy Yan army, even Tie Xuan has taken the soldiers and horses in Jinan City out of the city to chase the Yan army, if there is a satellite in this era above Shandong Looking down, you can see the entire Shandong boundary, a sharp arrow is advancing towards the south, and to the left and right of it and in the rear, is densely like a black tide chasing and surrounding the imperial court soldiers and horses, There is only one thought left in everyone's hearts - we must stop Zhu Di, who has gone crazy!

The first one to catch up was Ping'an, he didn't have to climb out of the mountains like Sheng Yong, after seeing that Texas was empty, he was the first person to realize Zhu Di's intentions, so the 40,000 soldiers and horses were led by him to march frantically, pursue frantically, almost without a moment's pause, and saw the shadow of Zhu Di's rear army very quickly.

At this time, Gu Huai's 10,000 elite cavalry had already broken through Pei County, and one step further was Xuzhou City, but Ping An was not too panicked, because in his opinion, although Zhu Di launched an attack unexpectedly and used the advantage of cavalry to break through the city all the way, it was only the reason why the information transmission was not as fast as the cavalry marched, and the Xuzhou city defense was strong, and the 10,000 elite cavalry could definitely not easily break the city, at least it could delay the Yan army for a while, and the imperial army that was currently blocking and chasing after completed the siege, and then it could be attacked inside and outside, and Zhu Di would be defeated!

Zhu Di's desperate gamble really caught everyone off guard, but he embarked on a dead end!

Ping An thinks like this, Sheng Yong Tiexuan and Xu Huizu all think like this, so Ping An followed the Yan army closely, Sheng Yong went around the river to the left flank of the Yan army, Tie Xuan led the troops directly into the right wing of the Yan army, Xu Huizu's 100,000 army took a shortcut to intercept the Yan army, and all actions had only one goal, that is, to block Zhu Di under the city of Xuzhou.

And outside Xuzhou City at this time, Gu Huai, who had marched here in a hurry, did touch a nose of ash, because Xuzhou City was so big, so big that the 10,000 cavalry were as insignificant as a swarm of ants in front of this Xiongcheng.

In fact, it has been two days since I arrived at Xuzhou City, and the news of this road has indeed not had time to reach Xuzhou City, when I saw the sudden appearance of the Yan cavalry, the city's reaction was no different from those previous small cities, the panicked guards, the city gate could not be closed in time, and the panicked people, everything looked like it could be captured at any time.

But the 10,000 elite horsemen who launched the charge touched their heads full of bags.

When he realized that the city gate could not be closed in time and that the Yan army might rush into the city, he made a very bold but proven effective choice - personally led his troops to block the streets of the city and fight with the Yan cavalry.

In those previous cities, the Yan army entered the city like a tiger entering the sheepfold, just waving a knife and throwing grenades all the way, but when entering Xuzhou City, not only had to face the southern army that was inspired by the morale of the soldiers, but also faced the rejection of horses and barricades composed of signboard planks that were temporarily removed from the street, and the crazy advance of ten days has actually consumed too much horsepower, and most of the soldiers are exhausted, and they are really unable to break through this scattered but effective defense, 10,000 elite horsemen were slowly forced out of the city like this, and even Li Qi led his troops out of the city to pursue, I want to beat up the water dogs.

Of course, Gu Huai would not give him this opportunity, the cavalry was roundabout, the field battle was only a few charges, the Xuzhou defenders were almost defeated, and Li Qi was also beheaded, but the Yan army did not have the ability to pursue, and the remaining defenders retreated into Xuzhou City, and since then they have not been able to retreat, trying to hold on to wait for reinforcements.

And the cavalry of the Yan army, which did not capture the city and did not have military rations to replenish, was about to run out of food.

At this time, Gu Huai seemed to have only two choices, one was to continue to attack Xuzhou, wait for the army behind him, and then bet on whether he could enter Xuzhou City, relying on the city defense to fight against the next imperial army surrounded on all sides, and the other was to return and join the army, and then try to continue to rush south, break out of the encirclement, and then turn to the south and continue to approach Jinling.

It's hard to choose, so Gu Huai played a trick that was even more amazing.

If you can't beat Xuzhou, you can hit Suzhou! The spirit of the defenders of Xuzhou has been defeated in the field before, even if they bypass Xuzhou and attack Suzhou instead, they do not dare to come out to pursue, if they come out, the army behind them will definitely be able to enter Xuzhou City.

Along the way, nearly a third of the cavalry lost in battle turned around, regardless of the fight all the way to Suzhou, the news came out, the nearest peace was taken aback, the vanguard of the Yan army ignored Xuzhou, it is obvious that the target is only the capital, the Yan army now does not care about anything, only towards the goal, this kind of enemy who gives up everything is the most terrible.

Catch up with them, be sure to catch up with them!

On the fifth day of the first month of February, the Yan army arrived at the city of Xuzhou, without the slightest hesitation, directly turned to Suzhou, seeing that the Yan army moved so quickly, and ordered the whole army to move quickly following the safety of the rear, so three days, finally rushed to the Huai River near Suzhou, in his opinion, the vanguard of the Yan army rushed like crazy, and the army behind the march was also so desperate, it must be in a hurry to hit the capital, and it will not stop more on the road, as long as it can catch up with the Yan army and drag Zhu Di's footsteps, it has already won half.

Adhering to this idea, it is not necessary to run safely, less than 10,000 of the 40,000 troops under his command are cavalry, and the rest are foot soldiers, chasing down all the way from Texas, all out of breath, and finally saw Zhu Di's back in the Xianghe River, and set up camp to bury the pot and prepare to rest before catching up, but what he didn't expect was that Zhu Di, who was running south with his life, did not forget himself.

Smoke rose on the side of the river, and the soldiers who were blistered all over their feet were taking off their shoes and resting, complaining while waiting for the meal, the blue sky and the white sun exploded, and the Yan army, which was originally ahead of the two-day journey, rushed out from the upstream and downstream directions, and began to rush and kill the unguarded southern army, and the peace that had been chasing the Yan army for a month did not expect that Zhu Di would actually wait for him here, the whole army was defenseless, and began to rout, at this time the upstream and downstream directions were all Yan troops, and forcibly crossing the river was sent to death, Ping'an could only forcibly gather some remnants of the army and prepare to break through along the way he came, but he killed all the way in the flatland, and it was the vanguard of the Yan army that bypassed Xuzhou and raided Suzhou.

Seeing that the general trend had gone, he immediately pulled his war horse and continued to gallop, but the direction of running was completely opposite to the direction of the pursuit of the Yan army at the beginning, and the southern soldiers who had no will to fight saw that the main general had run away, and they also followed suit, and the 40,000 army was in chaos, and there was no decent resistance, and it was completely defeated by the Yan army.

It's really pitiful to think about, what Ping An has done this month is to keep running around with Zhu Di, running all the way from Texas to Xuzhou, and now running to Suzhou and finally running to the end.

Completely defeated Ping'an's 40,000 army, the forward and the large army finally joined forces, Zhu Di and Gu Huai's initial strategic goal was finally achieved, but also because of Gu Huai's big detour and Zhu Di's ambush, the army's southward speed was slowed down a lot, for example, now Suzhou has closed the city gate, no longer giving the Yan army a chance to raid, and Sheng Yong, Xu Huizu and other generals also used this time to complete the deployment of the pursuit, re-caught up, and formed an encirclement near Suzhou.

Running one after another, fighting again and again, the Yan soldiers at this time were sleepy and tired, and it was obviously not possible to continue the raid method like before, and Zhu Di finally understood that Sheng Yong and these people would not let him go on the road with peace of mind, and the strategic idea at the beginning was still too ideal, and it was too whimsical to fight all the way to Jinling City regardless of the interception in front of the pursuers behind him.

But looking at the map, from Texas to Suzhou, hundreds of miles away, the Yan army actually fought hard! Along the way, the imperial army blocked and chased behind, but it failed to stop the footsteps of the Yan army, and this way of attacking the city and pulling out the village proved the Yan army's unrivaled ability to break through and raid, and also proved what a wise choice Zhu Di made to hand over the striker to Gu Huai.

If Gu Huai had not opened the way ahead, just like the fierce and unstoppable when the grassland rushed to the First World War, the Yan army would not have walked so steadily this way, and the ambush of the Xianghe River to solve the peace in the first battle was a strategy that Gu Huai had thought of when he bypassed Xuzhou.

In the Yan army camp, Zhu Di looked at Gu Huai in front of him with satisfaction, looked at his tired but still bright eyes, and knew that this scholar had finally grown into a qualified general in the three years of war.

He patted Gu Huai's shoulder and said succinctly:

"It's time to deal with these people, we have to go to Jinling... There is still a decisive battle missing! ”