"Urgent! Urgent! ”

A lieutenant of the Chinese military academy rushed into the big tent in a panic, and almost stumbled and fell directly to the ground: "Your Majesty, Luzhou is lost!" ”

Li Jiong, who was sitting on the handsome seat, suddenly stood up and exclaimed, "What did you say?" What about Cui Zhi? Didn't he go to join forces with Bao Yuchun to ambush the Zhenjiang army?! ”

"Your Majesty, General Cui is dead!" The captain said with a sad face: "Bao Yuchun, that bastard, suddenly ran away halfway, leaving General Cui and 50,000 brothers to Xu Youchang. The iron cavalry of the Zhenjiang Army seemed to be crazy and killed them all! ”

Hearing this, Li Jiong plopped down and sat on the chair, his face pale: "It's bad, it's bad!" ”

Zhang Qifang, the commander of the Huaiyang Army, frowned, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, the loss of Luzhou is still a trivial matter, and one hundred and seventy miles north from Luzhou is Shouchun City." It is a strategic point to control the Huai River, and it is also our most important supply base. Once Shouchun falls into the hands of the enemy, the whole army will be blocked on the north bank of the Huai River, and there will be a dilemma. ”

Li Jiong was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly asked, "Qifang, is there any good plan?" Why don't you send troops to protect Shouchun quickly? ”

"Your Majesty, it's difficult." Zhang Qifang shook his head: "Now Murong Xue and Chang Tao are violent, biting our army to death in several battlefields, and they can't transfer extra manpower anywhere." Besides, Suzhou, where we are located, is more than 200 miles away from Shouchun, and even if we send reinforcements immediately, it will not be faster than the cavalry of the Zhenjiang Army. For the sake of the ......"

Li Kui was a little panicked, and hurriedly asked: "If you have any ideas, tell me quickly!" ”

Zhang Qifang looked left and right, approached Li Jiong, and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, for the sake of today, it is better to move to the east as soon as possible." ”

"Moving east?" Li Kui was curious: "Where to go?" ”

"Chuzhou!" Zhang Qifang said: "In the Huaisi area, the water network is vertical and horizontal, and the terrain is favorable to defend and not conducive to attack. Let's temporarily retreat to that place, not only to avoid the danger of being flanked by the front and rear, but also to rely on the geographical advantage to block the enemy cavalry. Moreover, a few hundred miles further east, there is a vast open sea, which is really not possible, and you can still board a ship and leave. ”

Li Kui was dumbfounded when he heard it: "Board the ship and leave?" I...... Where else can I go? ”

Zhang Qifang said: "You can do it anywhere." The south and Baiyue are all places to go. Your Majesty, let's stay in the green mountains, and we won't worry about running out of firewood. ”

When Li Jiong thought of the fate of being about to drift all over the world, he couldn't help but feel sorry for himself, he was stunned for a while, and muttered: "Qi Fang, you just said that Murong Xue has bitten my army, if you want to move east, how many people can you take away?" ”

Zhang Qifang pondered for a moment and said: "Abandoning the city and retreating in an all-round way will probably be able to keep more than half of the people, about seventy or eighty thousand." ”

"What if you don't withdraw? I am saying that there is a chance of winning if you defend the defense line of the state in the north and the defense line of the Huai River in the south? Li Kui asked: "The time we have been running Lianghuai is not too short, there is always a way to carry it, right?" ”

Zhang Qifang was puzzled: "Your Majesty, it's not that the minister said frustrating words. Before, we competed with Murong Xue, and the victory or defeat was about fifty-five. The soldiers are confident that they will fight with him in the Lianghuai area. But now that Luzhou has fallen, the opponent is the Zhenjiang army that killed Ashinajin. Those barbarians in the western frontier are extremely violent, and even hundreds of thousands of Turkic iron horsemen can't beat them, so we have no chance of winning at all. If I continue to hesitate, I am afraid that even the opportunity to advance eastward will be lost. ”

Li Jiong knew that he was reasonable, so he couldn't help but sigh, and waved his hand helplessly: "You guys should step back first, and let me think about it." Alas, the passing year is not good, and even the Zhenjiang army came to help Li Bing, that bastard, the sky has no eyes! ”

-

Huaibei, the camp of the Blue Dragon Legion.

Murong Xue received the military report and jumped up directly with joy.

Three days ago, his good brother Xu Youchang led his troops to conquer Luzhou and surrounding counties and kicked Li Kui's ass hard.

The Zhenjiang army moved extremely quickly.

The first army of the wind was worthy of the name of "Hurricane", and on the second day of occupying Luzhou, they waved their army north and attacked Shouchun on the south bank of the Huai River. At this time, it is estimated that they have already taken the city.

In this way, the back road of the Huaiyang army was completely cut off, and it was about to face the dilemma of being attacked by the enemy.

Murong Xue immediately sent someone to invite Chang Tao, the commander of the Xuanwu Legion, and asked: "Li Kui's rear was copied by Xu Youchang, what do you think he will do next?" ”

Chang Tao smiled: "In my opinion, he is probably going to run." ”

Murong Xue nodded: "I think so too." If Li Kui wants to escape, he will most likely go east and go to Chuzhou. ”

"Well, he only went to Chuzhou." Chang Tao said: "There is us in the north, there is the Vermilion Bird Army under the command of Ma Da in the west, and the Zhenjiang Army of Youchang in the south, where else can Li Kui escape?" ”

Murong Xue continued, "That's exactly why I invited you here. Brother Chang, the old foundation of the Xuanwu Army is the Liaodong Metropolitan Protectorate and the Yinshan Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and the number of cavalry is considerable, can you send a fast force to take Siyang County first in front of Li Qiang's Huaiyang Army? ”

Chang Tao bowed slightly: "I understand what you mean." To the north of Siyang is Luoma Lake, and to the south is Hongze Lake, which is located between the two lakes and is stuck on the road from Suzhou to Chuzhou. Seal it there, Li Kui can't fly with wings! Lord Murong, don't worry about leaving it to us, we promise not to disappoint you. ”

"Okay, without further ado." Murong Xue stood up and said, "You go back immediately to arrange manpower, the more the better, the sooner the better." I command the Blue Dragon Army to launch a full-front onslaught on the enemy head-on and hold them back! ”

On the evening of the same day, nearly 100,000 soldiers of the Qinglong Army launched a full-scale attack on the Huaiyang Army on the vast battlefield from Bozhou to Xuzhou. There were as many as 37 attack points, large and small, and almost all of Li Qiang's troops were involved.

Zhang Qifang, the commander of the Huaiyang Army, was overwhelmed by this style of play. He hurriedly postponed the plan to retreat eastward, and ordered all his troops to resist desperately and strictly defend the defensive line.

If the defense line collapses and the army is defeated like a mountain, let alone transfer east to Chuzhou, I am afraid that the old life will be difficult to protect immediately!

The fierce offensive and defensive battles lasted for a night and a day. When the sun sank in the west on the second day, the Blue Dragon Legion finally stopped the offensive and retracted to return to the starting position.

The exhausted Huaiyang army couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but their main general was even more nervous than before.

Zhang Qifang knew in his heart that the reason why Murong Xue did this was neither to conquer the city nor to consume the strength of the Huaiyang army. His only purpose is to buy time.

Or buy time for the Zhenjiang army in the south, or buy time for the troops who intercept the eastern approach.

The most troublesome thing is the latter.

Zhang Qifang looked at Siyang County on the map and sighed softly.

It's over, it's all over.

-

The 20,000 cavalry of the Xuanwu Army rushed to Siyang County overnight, and broke through the county seat in just one hour, and all the 1,000 defenders in the city were ambushed.

At this point, the retreat of Li Kui, the king of Huaiyang, was completely cut off.

In the three days after the fall of Siyang, Xu Youchang led the First and Ninth Armies across the Huai River from Shouchun and approached Suzhou from the south. At the same time, the Suzaku Army under Ma Hongjie set out from Nanyang and encircled Suzhou from the east.

The Qinglong Army in the north and the Xuanwu Army in the east each consolidated their defensive lines and resolutely did not give the Huaiyang Army any opportunity.

The 500,000 troops of the imperial court surrounded Li Kui in all directions.

By this time, there was no suspense about the war. Even if Murong Xue didn't launch the final general attack, just cutting off the supply of grain and grass would be able to starve hundreds of thousands of Huaiyang troops to death.

In such a situation, a dramatic scene suddenly occurred in the city of Suzhou.

Huaiyang general Zhang Qifang felt cornered and the end was coming, so he secretly instigated a mutiny, captured all Huaiyang officials, including Li Kui, overnight, and then opened the city gate and announced his surrender to the imperial court.

After Murong Xue learned the news, he hurriedly sent a note to the friendly troops of all departments, and at the same time sent troops to Suzhou City to receive Li Kui and other important prisoners, control the city defense, and take care of the surrendered army.

Not long after, Xu Youchang, Chang Tao and Sun Cheng, the deputy general of the Vermilion Bird Army, also led their troops to Suzhou one after another, and joined Murong Xue to celebrate the victory of counterinsurgency.

In 821 of the Holy Tang Dynasty, the forward battalion of the Xuanjia Army fled to Western Xinjiang because of the assassination of Commander He Jingming. Since then, Xu Youchang and Murong Xue have been separated by thousands of miles and have not been heard from.

Now, the two good brothers finally meet again.

In the blink of an eye, time flies.

When they separated, the two were still high-spirited young men in the imperial capital and didn't know what to worry about; When they met again, they had all become dignified generals who commanded thousands of troops and horses and fought against rebellion for the country.

"It would be nice if Jiang Yao was here too." Murong Xue said with emotion: "Our three brothers are going around and around, and we are finally looking forward to the day of reunion, we should really get drunk together!" ”

Xu Youchang laughed loudly: "Don't worry, there will be a chance soon." Jiang Yao asked me to say hello to you on his behalf. You two are different from me, and I have met them once before in the Eastern Capital of Luoyi. ”

Murong Xue nodded: "Speaking of which, my life was saved by Jiang Yao." If it weren't for him, I'm afraid there would be no Murong Xue in the world. ”

"I'm not either." Xu Youchang couldn't help laughing: "Back then, Shen Lie chased me to the Western Xinjiang like a dog and a rabbit, if it wasn't for Jiang Yao's kindness to take me in, I might have burped a fart a long time ago." We both owe him. ”

Murong Xue pulled Xu Youchang to sit down, and said happily: "Not only do you owe him, but the more you owe him, the more you owe it!" No, Li Dadu attacked the east and west with a move, and immediately hammered the Huaiyang army to death, so that I could give an explanation to the court in advance. Brother, this battle town Xinjiang army must definitely be counted as the first merit! ”

Xu Youchang waved his hand modestly: "Don't talk like that, don't dare to take the lead." Recently, my subordinates have always said that they feel that after they came to the Central Plains, they have not played a very role, and they are quite a bit of an idle meal. Because all the way from Tongguan, we haven't fought any tough battles at all. ”

Murong Xue shook her head and smiled bitterly: "Didn't fight a tough battle? That's because your Zhenjiang army is too strong, so except for the Turks, you don't think it's hard enough to fight anyone! ”