Jiang Xiangming returned to Xuancheng under the banner of Ning Guojun, and urgently selected a day and night training march, and held a military parade in Xuancheng, which attracted cheers from Xuancheng City. It's just that some of the martyrs' families have received death notices and ashes one after another. It's just that this bit of grief quickly dissipates in the first month.

Just when everyone else thought that Ning Guojun had returned to Xuanzhou, the First Division had quietly started at the end of the first month, and Cui Feihu's division headquarters and the headquarters of the First Brigade, totaling about 5,000 people, had already arrived in Changzhou and Benniu Town, the westernmost part of the canal.

Cui Feihu can be described as high-spirited at this time. Just before Jiang Xiangming set off to return to Xuanzhou, Li Congyi presented general school uniforms to Cui Feihu, Jiang Xiangming, and Wu Feixing in front of a group of middle and senior generals. The school uniform is made of wool by Ruifuxiang, and the straight uniform, handsome belt, and shiny military boots make the generals salivate.

But as Li Congyi said, "The Battle of Changzhou is of great tactical significance, and it was a good start for the new army to become the first big victory." But from a strategic point of view, it is of little significance, in the days to come, there are still many victories waiting for everyone to fight, and there are still many honors waiting for everyone to fight for. I hope everyone will guard against arrogance and rashness, and go from one victory to another! ”

Cui Feihu didn't get carried away, but Lu Shilang is now also promoted to chief of staff of the army, it turns out that the division staff officers have been robbed a lot by Jiang Xiangming, and the level of the new division chief of staff is okay, but he is too young, the so-called hairless mouth and rough work, many things have to be more snacks for him. Otherwise, if the Runzhou Army or the Yangzhou Army knew in advance that the Ning Army was coming, it would be the same plan.

At this time, Li Congyi had already sailed to Runzhou.

"I heard that Ning Guojun has returned to Xuanzhou, but I didn't expect that Lord Guogong actually came to Runzhou, but my lord should go to Liu Liuhou first." Lu Jiang is a military attache and has little contact with Wenchen, but considering that Jiang Guogong can win this battle in Changzhou, Lu Jiang is also very impressed, and he has guesses about the purpose of Li Congyi's visit.

"General Lu fought with the Song soldiers on the front line of Qinhuai, which is really a highlight of the Jinling garrison, so there is no other purpose, I also want to come to see the general first." Li Congyi said with a smile.

Thousands of wears, but sycophants don't wear. Lu Jiang fought well in the Qinhuai River, and played Liang Zhen, the forward of the Song army, to fight with Hao Shou, and he did not suffer a loss under the disadvantage. Lu Jiang's expression was not as indifferent as at the beginning.

Lu Jiang didn't understand at first, but after arriving in Runzhou, how could he not understand what was going on with the emperor sending him behind Runzhou. It's just that when he arrived in Runzhou, Liu Cheng was reluctant to attack, just perfunctory.

Liu Cheng's thoughts, Lu Jiang also guessed some, but if Jinling is defeated, then Runzhou's side will fall; If Jinling survived, and the Song State still withdrew, it would not be too late for Runzhou to counterattack. Liu Cheng left a way back for surrender, and he didn't want to fight the Song soldiers early. Lu Jiang didn't want to waste time here, but he also had the intention of leaving.

"Lord Guogong is strategizing, can you teach me?" Lu Jiang also wanted to confirm Jiang Guogong's mind again.

"It's just that I want the two armies to join forces and break the Yangzhou army." Li Congyi is colorful.

Liu Cheng was reluctant to attack the Song Dynasty. If there are some moths in the middle of the Runzhou army, it will be me joining forces with the Ning Guojun, and I am afraid of folding here. Lu Jiang was silent for a while, and he was so happy that he said the point, and even rebuked Liu Cheng's name, because he really didn't want to be with such people.

Liu Cheng's intention to descend to the Song Dynasty was so clear, but Li Yu believed him. But Liu Cheng didn't descend to Song for a day, and others said that he couldn't do it for a day. If the battle is at a critical point, Liu Cheng surrenders with the Runzhou army, then no matter how strong the Ningguo army is, the people's hearts will also grow, and then the army's heart will collapse, and no matter how strong the army is, it will not be able to fight.

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"You want to be stationed at the South Gate?" Hearing Lu Jiang propose that the south gate should be guarded by his subordinates, Liu Cheng's face changed when he boarded, and his gloomy eyes looked at Lu Jiang unkindly.

"Not only the South Gate, our department wants to take over the defense of the East Gate and the South Gate, and our department will face the Song army. When the time comes, we only need to give an order, and our troops will counterattack. Lu Jiang was expressionless, just looked at Liu Cheng fiercely. If Liu Cheng can rest assured that Lu Jiang controls the east gate and the south gate, then it means that Liu Cheng has the intention of lowering the Song Dynasty, but he can fight for it again.

However, Liu Cheng was weak-hearted, and when he was defeated, he took the initiative to move his eyes elsewhere. Said slowly: "The Qinhuai River has been broken by the Song general Pan Mei, and now the Song army has surrounded Jinling. If Jinling is captured, what is the use of us holding Runzhou? Seeing that Liu Cheng said that it was useless to defend Runzhou, this statement was actually in Jiang Guogong's calculations, and Lu Jiang was also secretly convinced.

However, hearing the news of the loss of the Qinhuai River defense line, Lu Jiang was also shocked, "The Song soldiers have already arrived in Jinling?" Although he knew that Liu Cheng didn't need to lie to him on this matter, he really couldn't believe it in his heart, the Divine Guard Army and other armies backed the city and the water, deployed 100,000 water and army along the Qinhuai River, placed several water villages, and fortified them tightly. It's only been half a month, and such a powerful line of defense has collapsed?

The so-called soldier bears a nest of bears. Under Huangfu Jixun, it is difficult to find Lu Jiang, a general with offensive thinking, and everyone else does not seek merit, but seeks no fault. However, the Qinhuai River is so long, although 100,000 people listen to it, if you put it on the defense line, it will be full of loopholes. If there is no offense, there is no defense; To blindly defend is to guard to death.

The Song general Pan Mei led the main force to the Qinhuai River, taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the Tang army and the uneven ferry, so that he would attack early the next morning.

Early the next morning, the Song army rebelled on the fourth watch, and at the time of the fifth watch, it was still dark in winter, so Pan Mei took the lead in boarding the ship, and launched in three ways to attack the defense line of the Qinhuai River in the Southern Tang Dynasty. On this day, the north wind was blowing, and the military capital commanded Li Hanqiong to load reeds with small boats, and at the same time carried out a fire attack on the water village on the Qinhuai River of the Tang army. The Tang Army's water village has not yet been prepared, and before the personnel can board the boat, it has been set on fire everywhere, and the fire in each village cannot be extinguished, so it can only let the Song soldiers ferry the boat on the Qinhuai River, and constantly send the soldiers to the east bank.

The Tang army hurriedly got up from the camp and went to the shore to intercept it. It's just that Tang Jun's performance is really unbearable. One road was a one-touch collapse; On the other hand, they rushed to the shore, but they reorganized their troops in front of the enemy, missed a great opportunity to attack half-crossing, and ended up in a stalemate; There was also a long way to arrive, but the Song army had already been waiting for the battle, but the Tang army was beaten and retreated. When the Song army landed more than 50,000 and occupied the advantage of troops on some battlefields, the Shenwei army could no longer support it and retreated to Jinling City.

Huangfu Jixun was at the head of Jinling City, seeing that Ma Xinren and other generals were defeated and returned to the city, but he was smiling and didn't care about the loss of the Qinhuai River. just said to the staff on the side: "Today's battle report will be written: Our army fought with the Song soldiers in Qinhuai, and fortunately, the generals of our army fought bravely and killed 3,000 Song soldiers." ”

Li Yu listened to the good news of the emperor's Fu Jixun, and Xiao Zhouhou frolicked in the courtyard of the harem, and set up a small coal stove under the stone pavilion, and set up a vent to think that it was a "ground dragon", and surrounded the pavilion pillar with silk, and the pavilion was as warm as spring.

Li Yu wrote another poem to Xiao Zhouhou, and Xiao Zhouhou was as charming as silk, took a bite of the halva offered by Xuanzhou, and fed it to Li Yu with his mouth. Li Yu and Xiao Zhouhou shared this piece of halva, and Li Yu said: "If you are as happy as you are today, you and I will be able to race against that immortal." ”

Xiao Zhou replied later: "Didn't Xianggong go down to earth that day? ”

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Lu Jiang said that he would lead the army back to Jinling, but Liu Cheng did not allow it.

After Lu Jiang finished reorganizing his army, he was about to withdraw. Liu Cheng came to the south gate to see him off, and Lu Jiang stared at Liu Cheng coldly: "Your Excellency is the general of Runzhou, you must not abandon the city and leave." ”

Liu Cheng snorted coldly and did not answer. Seeing that Lu Jiang led his troops away, Liu Cheng ordered to summon the battalion commander and the above generals to the Shuai Tang to discuss matters.

There are more than 30,000 people in the Runzhou army, and there are more than 200 generals above the battalion commander. Naturally, Shuai Tang couldn't stand, so he could only stand in the courtyard outside Shuai Tang. The commanders of the battalions arrived one after another, but they didn't know what was going on, but they were divided into several groups and whispered non-stop.

Liu Cheng stayed in Runzhou Jiedu and served as the commander of the Runzhou army, and naturally there was no deputy envoy, and there were both left and right commanders and deputy commanders. The two commanders and deputies in the left chamber had heavy faces, and they stood there without speaking, and today the two of them also went to see the scene of Lu Jiang's withdrawal, guessing that Liu Cheng was going to surrender. Both of their families are in Jinling, and this fall will cause disaster to their families; But if he didn't agree to surrender, he was afraid that Liu Cheng would do something bad and would go to the Song army camp to send his head to him. The faces of the commanders and deputies in the right compartment were normal, but their eyes were erratic. The silence of the four senior generals made no one around dare to speak.

When the sun sank in the west, Liu Cheng was late for an hour.

Liu Cheng stood on the steps in front of Shuaitang, and looked at the people below with a gloomy face: "I, Liu Cheng, have been sticking to Runzhou for so long, and I don't want to lose the country." It's just that the situation is here now, and if we don't surrender, we won't have a way to live. ”

The audience was silent for a while. Then the battalion commander from the pro-army guard cried bitterly. This surrender is the end of the destruction of the family, although I have a premonition in my heart, but when it comes, there are a few people who can let go.

No one responded for a while, which was also expected by Liu Cheng. Liu Cheng turned to the two commanders and deputies in the left wing: "The emperor's favor to me is greater than everyone's, and my parents are also in Jinling now, don't I know filial piety?" But it's really invincible. ”

"Liu Cheng, how do you stick to the law in Runzhou? It is to sit in the city gate tower and watch the enemy build a fortress, that is, to drive away the generals who come to help, and to open the door to meet the enemy, is this also called holding on? Suddenly, a voice in the crowd said.

Liu Cheng was furious, "Who? Stand out! ”

Li Congyi Shi Ran walked out of the crowd, "In Changzhou, our army can defeat Wu Yue with 30,000 and 50,000, and it will also be a big victory. Now not counting other reinforcements, even the Runzhou army also has 30,000, and the Song army is only 30,000, but they don't even dare to fight, so they say that they can't be defeated, which is really a great shame for the generals! ”

Seeing Li Congyi roaring loudly and walking up to the stage, Liu Cheng pointed with his hand and stammered: "Jiang Guogong ......"

As he spoke, he took a few steps back and shouted, "Guard, guard!" ”

However, no guards came in, and then I saw a military general, surrounded by several people, striding in from outside the door, and it was Lu Jiang.

Liu Cheng finally gave up his legs and sat on the ground.

Li Congyi glanced at Liu Cheng with disdain, and walked to the center of the steps: "I am Li Congyi, the Duke of Jiangguo, who just took the Ning Guojun and the Changzhou Army to kill the 50,000 people of Wu Yueguo." Now with more than 10,000 good men from Ning Guojun, he quietly came to Runzhou. ”

"Now that Liu Cheng conspired to sentence the country to the Song Dynasty, the Duke took him! Next, I will ask everyone if they are willing to drive the Yangzhou army of the Song Kingdom to the Yangtze River with their father-in-law to feed the fish! ”

The commander of the right wing and the deputy commander and several battalion commanders who knew the details heard the sound and knelt down on one leg and saluted during the march: "My subordinates are willing to obey the orders of Lord Guogong and drive the Yangzhou army of Song State into the Yangtze River to feed the fish!" ”

The army relies most on confidence, and under the command of Liu Cheng, how can the Runzhou army have half the confidence to drive away the Yangzhou army of the Song State? However, Li Congyi went to the stage as soon as he stopped, and with the record of Changzhou, accompanied by Lu Jiang, who had gone and returned, he gave the Runzhou army great confidence.

The generals in the courtyard were in a mood for a while, so they knelt down and saluted, and they just shouted: "I am willing to follow the order of Lord Guogong and drive the Yangzhou army of Song Guo into the Yangtze River to feed the fish!" ”

For a while, the sound shook the roof tiles, sweeping away the previous decadent state of the Runzhou Army. Only Liu Cheng was left half-lying on the ground, his face like ashes.