Gong Chengze knew very well in his heart that Murong Xue's words were a warning to himself: he was not allowed to pass over him, the main general, and report directly to the emperor like before, let alone transfer troops without authorization.

Before the original expedition, Li Bing had a clear will, with Murong Xue as the main and Gong Chengze as the auxiliary. Therefore, the other party is now giving a warning, and even if Gong Chengze is unhappy, he can only honestly agree, including the adjustment of the military strength of the soldiers, he has to accept it all.

To be honest, Murong Xue's adjustment made Gong Chengze feel very embarrassed. Not only was the number of troops on hand reduced to 20,000, but they also broke away from the protection of the fortified city and ran to defend the temporary military fortifications.

For Gong Chengze, it's better not to come to reinforcements!

He thought about it again and again, wrote another letter, and sent someone to secretly send it back to the Eastern Capital, asking his friends to try to save him, and it was best to transfer Murong Xue directly.

Of course, Murong Xue knew the little abacus in Gong Chengze's heart, but he didn't care about spending energy on this kind of person at all now, and Bao Yuchun outside the city was the number one disaster.

Since the reinforcements made a detour to Nanyang, the rebels outside the city shrank rapidly, not only lifting the previous siege of the city, but also taking the initiative to retreat ten miles and set up camp on both sides of the Baihe River.

The navy also specially transferred five warships to dock on the surface of the White River, which could not only provide support and cover for the army, but also ensure the safety of the river transportation materials. With a strong land and water alliance and a stable camp, he is worthy of being a warlike general and an elite legion.

Murong Xue understood that Bao Yuchun's doing this was in line with the essence of the art of war of "being invincible first, and waiting for the enemy to be victorious", first ensuring the safety of the hundreds of thousands of rebels themselves, and further observing and testing the advantages and disadvantages of the Nanyang Legion, looking for key fighters.

Next, Bao Yuchun is not moving, and a move will inevitably be thunderous.

Taking advantage of this precious time, Murong Xue urged his subordinates to rush to work day and night, constantly reinforcing the fortifications of the city and the military fortress, determined to deal with Bao Yuchun's unpredictable means in a rigid manner.

No matter what tricks you play, I just can't hold on, and you have nothing to do with me. Wait until the rest of the battlefield is settled and more reinforcements come to converge, then launch a counteroffensive to completely wipe out the rebels.

Murong Xue's scheming plan naturally couldn't escape the eyes of veteran Bao Yuchun. Based on the performance of the defenders of Nanyang in the past few days, he made an accurate judgment: Murong Xue planned to wait for work, defend the city, and spend time with himself.

Objectively speaking, the strategy of "time-consuming" is indeed more beneficial to Murong Xue.

Nanyang is close to the eastern capital, and the transportation of grain and grass is convenient, so it has a more obvious supply advantage than Bao Yuchun, which came from afar. As long as Murong Xuejia sent men and took precautions, it would be difficult for the previous tactics of the Xuanjia Army to sneak attack the grain road to work miracles.

Secondly, to the east of Nanyang is the Lianghuai battlefield, with 70,000 to 100,000 troops in Liaodong Protectorate, and hundreds of thousands of troops in the west of Ma Hongjie of the Southern Army. As long as any of them free up their hands from their respective battlefields, they can indeed quickly rush to the aid of Nanyang and reverse the situation here.

More importantly, a pure city defense battle is a wise choice for the defenders with the least losses and the lowest probability of being successful.

"You want to learn how to hide in a tortoise, right? Think that's enough? Bao Yuchun smiled coldly: "It seems that Ben Shuai really needs to teach your student baby a good lesson." ”

On the seventh day of Murong Xue's arrival in Nanyang City, the rebels had a new move.

First of all, a group of large ships came from the south and reached Nanyang from Xiangcheng through the Baihe River. Immediately afterwards, the elite of the 20,000-scale rebels, in front of Murong Xue and them, boarded those big ships, and then continued north, disappearing from the sight of the defenders.

The Baihe River is a tributary of the Great River, which generally runs north-south and leads directly to the Yazi Lake a hundred miles north of Nanyang City. After passing the Duck Lake, which covers an extremely wide area, the Baihe River was diverted to the west, crossing Nanzhao County, and connecting as far as Baiyun Mountain and Laojun Mountain.

This is equivalent to saying that the 20,000 rebels can ignore Nanyang and take advantage of the convenience of the warship waterway to go straight to the Duck Lake behind the defensive line. Then, they can continue to sail upstream by boat to attack Nanzhao, Lushi and other county seats, or they can find a lake to land on the shore and go in other directions.

Even, go and harass Luoyi!

20,000 people is not a lot, but it is devastating. Especially at this time, the three battlefields in the Central Plains had already drained most of the imperial court's troops, and the area from Luoyang to Nanzhao did not have enough strength to contain or encircle this lone army.

After listening to the scout report, Dong Tianxing said in a deep voice: "It seems that he is indeed going to Duck Lake." Fortunately, the general guessed in advance that the other party would have this move, and deployed watchtower guards along the river early, so as not to completely lose the enemy's whereabouts. ”

Murong Xue shook her head and sighed softly, "That's useless." Knowing where the enemy is going, but unable to do anything, alas. ”

Dong Tianxing knew that he was upset, and hurriedly persuaded: "Knowing the enemy's movements, there will always be a way to deal with them." Bao Yuchun's intention is very obvious, that is, to send troops to attack and harass the rear of our army. It is impossible for a rebel army of 10,000 or 20,000 people to capture a big city, and at most it will add to the chaos. ”

"You can't say that!" Gong Chengze snorted coldly on the side: "What if that enemy goes directly to the Eastern Capital and disturbs the Holy Driver?" None of the three of us can get out of it! ”

Dong Tianxing frowned: "Then according to General Gong, how should we deal with it?" ”

Gong Chengze waited for his words, and hurriedly said to Murong Xue: "General, I am willing to lead a cavalry to pursue and intercept the enemy's fleet. No matter where they disembark, I can give them a head-on blow! ”

Murong Xue glanced at Gong Chengze silently and didn't speak, while Dong Tianxing couldn't help but sneer: "General Gong is so heroic." ”

Of course, Gong Chengze heard Dong Tianxing's ridicule, but he had his own interests and calculations, so he pretended not to know, and continued: "Heroic or not, I didn't think so much about my humble position, I was just worried that the rebels would threaten the safety of the Eastern Capital, Your Majesty was furious, and instead blamed General Murong." ”

Murong Xue knew in her heart that this guy was trying to intercept the rebels, and he was obviously worried about the danger of the situation in Nanyang and wanted to get out of this place of right and wrong as soon as possible. If the battle goes well, Gong Chengze will run back to grab the credit; If the battle did not go well, he kept circling in the rear under the pretext of pursuing the rebels.

Speaking from the bottom of his heart, he was very disgusted with the other party's shameless behavior of greedy for life and fear of death, shrewd calculation, but Gong Chengze was right about one thing, he couldn't let the rebels go north and attack the eastern capital Luoyi.

This is not only about the safety of the emperor, but also about the face and morale of the imperial court.

Dong Tianxing saw Murong Xue's thoughts, cleared his throat and said, "General, even if you want to pursue that lone army, General Gong should not be in charge. ”

"Why?!" When Gong Chengze heard this, he immediately became angry: "Dong Tianxing, what do you mean by this?" Look down on me? ”

Lao Dong smiled: "General Gong is serious." Not only did I not look down on you, but I looked down on you very, very much, so I said that I can't hold you responsible. You know, at the beginning, His Majesty approved the strategy of defensive operations, indicating that Nanyang was guarded by you, and now General Murong and I have come to reinforce, but you, the protagonist, have left Nanyang, what is the matter? ”

Gong Chengze was stunned when he heard this, and immediately retorted: "How can there be such a reason? The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and the commander cannot condemn a single person. Besides, now that the Nanyang Army has General Murong as the main general, I have already handed over power. ”

Murong Xue raised her hand to stop him from continuing, and said in a deep voice: "I can agree to your request to fight, but there are two conditions. 1. I can only give you 8,000 cavalry, if there is more; Second, you must make a military order, and you must not allow the rebels to cross the line of Ruzhou, let alone approach Luoyi, otherwise...... Military disposition! ”

Hearing Murong Xue say this, Gong Chengze couldn't help but hesitate. After a little calculation, he turned his heart sideways and said loudly: "I am willing to make a military order!" ”

Gong Chengze personally wrote the pleadings, signed and drew the pledge, and then took the order arrow given by Murong Xue and strode away.

After he left, Dong Tianxing was puzzled: "General Murong, why did you agree to Gong Chengze so easily, can't you see that he has selfish intentions?" ”

"How could I not see it?" Murong Xue smiled bitterly: "As soon as this guy brought up the idea of pursuit, I knew what he was thinking. However, I have no reason to say no. Lao Dong, think about it, if you really let Bao Yuchun's rebels kill under Luoyi City, can we have good fruits to eat? ”

Dong Tianxing nodded in understanding: "It will indeed be held accountable by the imperial court." However, you can do this with a different general. ”

Murong Xue waved her hand: "There is nothing more suitable than Gong Chengze." To be honest, if I keep him here in Nanyang, I am even more worried, I can't tell when I will make trouble for us, but it will affect the overall situation. Didn't he make a military order? Well, as long as he can't stop the rebels, then all the responsibility is his, let him come and see him! ”

Dong Tianxing listened to Murong Xue's words so decisively, and knew that the young general had been completely disappointed in Gong Chengze, and he also moved to kill. Once the pursuit and interception of the rebels failed, the emperor and the imperial court blamed him, and pushed Gong Chengze directly to the guillotine.

Lao Dong sighed in his heart, this real war has not yet begun, and the main general and deputy general have made such a fuss, which is really not a good phenomenon. However, in terms of his identity, it is difficult to say much.

However, neither Dong Tianxing nor Murong Xue expected that on the second day when Gong Chengze led the army to set off, a new batch of big ships appeared on the Baihe River again. This time, it was another 20,000 or 30,000 Xuanjia troops who lined up to board the ship, and then headed straight to the north.

Seeing this scene, Murong Xue immediately became calm.

Counting the previous group of men and horses, the rebels had already made about 40,000 or 50,000 men and horses through the White River waterway and ran behind them.

What does Bao Yuchun want to do?