Lu Jing and the others kept running back, running for a few hours in one go, and finally ran back to the Qiling Pass.

However, it was still night, and the Mengyuan troops at the Qiling Pass had already withdrawn from the water, leaving only the destroyed military food camp full of fire. The grain and grass of the 100,000 army were burned to the ground in an instant, and the plan of Yan Jitai's troops was really on point......

Lu Jing looked at the fire in the tent with anxious eyes, and it really burned at all. Lu Jing only hated that he hadn't thought of this earlier, so that the enemy army could seize the opportunity; now that the grain and grass barracks were burned to the ground, and the army in front had no supplies, the army would inevitably be demoralized, and it would be impossible to say anything about breaking the kettle and taking Xuzhou......

"Jing'er ......" Tang Zhan and Zhao Zichuan and others only ran up from behind at this time, and Lu Jing ran back at a surprisingly fast speed, even Tang Zhan and Zhao Zichuan, who had made light contributions, failed to catch up.

Lu Jing looked at the fire in front of her, and sat on the ground in a daze, her eyes full of confusion. It wasn't because she was too tired to breathe, but because she regretted her incompetence and failed to warn of the tragedy in time.

"Jing'er-" Tang Zhan ran to Lu Jing's side at this time, looking at Lu Jing's depressed appearance, Tang Zhan didn't know how to comfort him for a while.

"It's all my fault...... Lu Jing muttered, "If I hadn't been confused and thought of this earlier, this wouldn't have happened...... I couldn't have guessed such a simple trick, I was so stupid......"

"It's not your fault, Jing'er, if you want to blame it, blame Yan Jitai's tricks......" Tang Zhan comforted Lu Jing as he stroked Lu Jing's shoulder.

"Wait-" Lu Jing suddenly thought of something, looking at the fog that had been completely cleared by the firelight. Immediately stood up and said quickly. "Maybe there are still surviving soldiers in the barracks, let's go down and see what happens. Ask what happened tonight......"

After speaking, Lu Jing ran to the camp below the mountain in a fit of rage, and now she was anxious and couldn't take care of anything.

"Hey, Jing'er—" Tang Zhan kept shouting in the back, but he couldn't stop it. There was no way, everyone had to follow Lu Jing's direction again......

At the barracks, the fire was still raging, illuminating the entire Qiling Pass. No one organized firefighting, indicating that the garrison army was completely wiped out. Sure enough, the corpses of the defenders could be seen everywhere in the barracks. Although the number of defenders is small, it is not difficult to guess what kind of desperate struggle these defenders experienced in the face of the disparity in the number of Mengyuan troops......

Lu Jing even ignored the danger of the fire, and resolutely ran to the camp. However, there were dead soldiers' corpses everywhere, and it was not easy for Lu Jing to find someone to inquire about the situation.

And Tang Zhan, Zhao Zichuan, Lao Jiu and others ran to the back of the camp. is also doing the same thing as Lu Jing. However, the difference is that they did not appear "uncalm" like Lu Jing, and while looking for a way out, at most they were just surprised by the tragic situation at the scene......

Just when everyone was at a loss. There was movement next to the fire camp tent on Tang Zhan's side. Tang Zhan's perception was extremely keen, and he looked to the side at a glance, only to see the grain and grass carts that had been blown into ruins by the artillery. There was also a surviving soldier who reached out for help, but his injuries still made him unable to crawl out of the rubble. Even shouting is difficult.

Tang Zhan saw it and immediately ran over. And Lu Jing, Zhao Zichuan and others also saw it and rushed in this direction.

"Hey, wake up—what the hell is going on?" Tang Zhan asked while squatting down and using his internal force to help stop the bleeding of the seriously injured soldier.

"Ahem...... the soldier coughed twice as hard as he could, and when he saw that it was Tang Zhan, he seemed to know, and then trembled slightly: "Are you ...... Vanguard General...... Tang Zhan Tang General ......"

"I'm Tang Zhan, what happened, and where did the fire in the camp come from?" Tang Zhan didn't talk nonsense, and said straight to the point.

The soldier shook a few more times, if it weren't for Tang Zhan's internal force infusion, he might have died of excessive blood loss. The soldier gritted his teeth and held on for a moment, then continued: "A few hours ago, we were still ...... Garrison ...... Suddenly, there was a ...... from the cage lake The sound of war drums, if you look closely, is the troops of the enemy army of Mengyuan...... Taking advantage of the absence of the main forces of our army, they attacked and forcibly landed with fire, and then ...... Then he burned the grain and grass in the rear of our army, and then retreated from the army......"

Tang Zhan listened to the soldier's account, and there were almost no objections to the facts and their conjectures.

"Meng Yuan's troops are setting up an ambush on the water, didn't you notice it before?" Zhao Zichuan asked abruptly.

The soldier continued to reply in a weak voice, "Before, the fog covered the sky above the cage lake...... We...... We didn't even find out until ...... The gas fire on the cage lake, and we heard the war drums beating, and we ...... I found out, but it's already ...... Late ......"

Speaking of this, Lu Jing couldn't help but clench her fists and said: "Sure enough, I didn't expect that for this plan, Meng Yuan's ambush army would actually wait for three days and three nights in the fog on the foggy cage lake, we underestimated them......"

However, it was too late to say this, the grain and grass of the 100,000 army were all burned, although the loss of the troops was not large, but without the military rations of the main force, it was impossible to prevent a large-scale attack on Xuzhou or even go north in a short time. "Defeat 100,000 troops in one plan", I have to say that Yan Jitai's army, this plan is indeed to the critical point......

Lao Jiu and his cousins wanted to put out the fire, but just a few of them were a drop in the bucket. Zhao Zichuan was also clueless on the side, and he usually went to the battlefield to kill the enemy and charge without hesitation, but he was calculated by others a hundred times, just like a spear stabbed in the soft part of the place, and he couldn't exert any strength, this mood made Zhao Zichuan look very anxious.

"Sister Jing, what should we do next?" Zhao Zichuan also asked a little impatiently.

But Lu Jing was surprisingly calm at this time, she closed her eyes and thought about it, and then said: "Now I can only pray that General Chang Yuchun's troops can even withdraw and retain the main force of the 100,000 army." After all, setting up an ambush in Longhu will draw troops to defend the city of Xuzhou, and Yan Jitai must have been prepared to send reinforcements to other places, wanting to defend the city of Xuzhou to the death. If you really want to storm the city. It will definitely fall into it, and then the 100,000 army will probably be buried in the hinterland......"

"Strategist—" That's when he did. A brother from the Tang Ying Association ran back from the mountain trail on both sides of the cage lake, seemingly rushing back to report the situation.

"What's wrong. What did you find again?" Lu Jing hurriedly asked.

Tang Yinghui's brother gasped, and then said, "It's General Chang's troops...... Not far from the mountain road, General Chang's 100,000 troops had already withdrawn their troops and withdrawn to the Qiling Pass......"

Lu Jing listened, and a reluctant smile appeared on the corner of her mouth: "It's a blessing in misfortune, General Chang made a rational choice......

However, the crowd was not particularly happy, because they knew that although they did not lose too many troops in this battle, they still lost it......

Above Cage Lake. The naval fleet of the Mengyuan army all extinguished the lights on the ship, so as to hide the movement of their troops in the dense fog of the night......

"My lord, the spies on the shore just now came to report that Chang Yuchun's troops had begun to retreat, and it seems that they finally chose to give up attacking Xuzhou......" Li Chengsheng took the letter sent back by the spies he had sent privately just now, and read it to Yan Jitai in the faint night light.

Yan Ji Tai Bazar sat at the table because there was no light. He couldn't continue to look at the map deployment. Yan Jitai thought for a while, and then said: "In this way, as the military advisor said, our army said that it calculated the 100,000 army of Chang Yuchun this time, and it was just burning the enemy's grain and grass. Theoretically, there is no big victory, and the opponent's 100,000 main forces are still ......"

"After all, Chang Yuchun is a veteran of a hundred battles, and this judgment is still ......," Li Chengsheng continued. However, Chang Yuchun did not choose to attack the city in a backwater, and the defenders of Xuzhou did not worry about it. How to say it, it also made the tens of thousands of defenders in Huaibei run away in vain...... If you don't have anything to do, you will run back with tens of thousands of people, and your lord will have to communicate with General Shan in Huaibei when the time comes......"

"Needless to say. I will have my own sense ......of proportion," Yan Jitai Baza waved his hand, and muttered while thinking, "But although I blocked Chang Yuchun's 100,000 army, the main force of the other party still exists, and the difficulty of Xuzhou is still unsolved, as the military advisor said before, we can't take it lightly-"

Li Chengsheng thought for a moment and asked with a smile: "My lord said before that if we are often defeated and retreated, what we will face will be the vanguard troops under Tang Zhan's tent, right? Tang Zhan and Lu Jing...... If adults are really so taboo about these two people, then I really want to see what these two people are capable of......

"Don't underestimate the enemy too much, I heard that there are countless fierce generals under Tang Zhan's tent, all of whom have martial arts skills. Yuxing City almost didn't hurt any soldiers in the first battle, and ate the two thousand elite cavalry sent by Luoyang City raw, if we underestimated the enemy, maybe we would suffer a big loss......" Yan Jitai continued to remind.

"Hmph, when did the adults start to increase the prestige of others? No matter how powerful the two of them are, even Chang Yuchun's 100,000 army has been calculated, how much can they calculate?" Li Chengsheng seemed to show disdain, and chuckled, "If the next opponent is really them, I really want to ...... for a while."

Yan Jitai Bazar was silent, just thinking quietly......

Although the siege of the city across the Qiling Pass was declared a failure, although there were not many soldiers and horses, but the loss of grain and grass for the army of 100,000 was also very heavy, at least seriously slowed down the speed of the main force of the army to the north. Two days later, the 100,000 army withdrew from Qiling Pass and returned to the main camp. In addition to introspection, Chang Yuchun had to be responsible for re-preparing the military rations of the 100,000-strong army that had been lost, and then reinstate the official after the ten days of preparation......

Two days later, Zhu Yuanzhang's camp ......

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the map on the table, the topographic map of Qiling Pass had been rotten by him, but he had been repeatedly frustrated by repeated attacks, and Zhu Yuanzhang had not met such a difficult opponent for a long time. Once when Guo Zixing was in the past, his army had fought against Yanzhijitai Bazaar, and he lost more and won less, Yanzhijitai has always been a hard bone to gnaw. Now that he is the commander of the entire army, if he can't win the pass of Xuzhou, not to mention the Northern Expedition, the morale of the army will also be greatly fluctuated.

However, even the "ever-victorious general" Chang Yuchun failed, and almost no one in the army dared to take over this position, which was also the most troublesome place. However, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to be very calm, as if he already had a backup plan in his heart......

Xu Da walked to Zhu Yuanzhang's side, and he didn't need too much restraint when he talked to Zhu Yuanzhang about things, only to see Xu Da say bluntly: "Marshal, it's better to let the last general lead the main army to attack Xuzhou this time - this time our navy and army are ready, and the last general really doesn't believe that he can't take a small Xuzhou-"

However, Zhu Yuanzhang replied: "No, the morale of the army is a little fluctuating now, and it is not suitable for large-scale battles." Moreover, the grain and grass of the 100,000 army has been burned, and the army is short of grain and grass......

"Then what now?" Xu Da also had his own worries, "Even if we can't take Xuzhou, we at least can't lose the pass of Qiling Pass - Qiling Pass is narrow, and it is not easy for reinforcements to advance and retreat, if we let Meng Yuan's army occupy it first, it will not be easy for our troops to want to enter again-"

Zhu Yuanzhang paused slightly, and immediately said: "Qiling Pass - this name has already shaken the hearts of our army when they hear it, and every time they are deep here, I am afraid that our army will be up and down...... However, what General Xu Da said is not unreasonable, you are right, even if you can't take Xuzhou in a short time, at least you can't lose the pass of Qiling Pass - Qiling Pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, this is true for our army, and the same is true for the enemy army of Mengyuan and Yuan. Although there is now an empty grain and grass in the army, as long as there is an army to guard against it at Qiling Pass, to guard this dangerous road, to buy time for the main force of our army to prepare grain and grass, and when the time is ripe, we will wait for the army to counterattack, and the victory rate can be said to be improved-"

"The problem is, now that the defeat of General Chang Yuchun has come out, and no general in the army dares to take over, who can still take on this heavy responsibility and lead the troops to guard the Qiling Pass?" Xu Da knew that he had now reached the embarrassing situation of "no leader of the dragons" in the army, so he simply asked.

"So I finally kept a hand......" Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but smile, and sure enough, he knew everything in his heart.

"Is that what the marshal said......" Xu Da seemed to guess, and followed up, "General Chang's left three vanguard troops...... Don vs. General Tang's troops?"

"They were supposed to go out with General Chang Yuchun this time, but they couldn't move because of the military order......," Zhu Yuanzhang continued, "Now is the right time, the opportunity has come, General Chang Yuchun will collect his troops and retreat, and the vanguard troops can atone for their crimes." Although there are only 20,000 horses, it is not a problem to garrison Qiling Pass. And ......"

"And what?" Xu Da continued to ask.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes changed, as if he was a secret in his heart that he didn't want people to know. Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly, changed his words and said, "It's nothing, it's just that I think of something else that has nothing to do with it...... The descendants of the Tang family are heroes, since they have the ambition to expel the Tartar captives, then Ben Shuai will give him this opportunity. General Xu Da, you immediately send someone to send an order to the vanguard army tent, lift the military order for the vanguard army to dispose of it, and let General Tang Zhan lead an army of 20,000 troops to guard the Qiling Pass, and wait for the opportunity to cross the cage lake, and open a passage for our army's backup to follow up the Qiling Pass -- when the grain and grass are full, the two armies will immediately reconcile, and the Tang Zhan troops will be taken by Chang Yuchun and Xuzhou together-"

"Yes, marshal, the last general will give the order to go-" Xu Da resolutely accepted the order, took Zhu Yuanzhang's approval order, turned around and left the camp tent, ready to instruct his subordinates to pass the order to the vanguard military tent......

Leaving Zhu Yuanzhang alone in the camp to observe the military situation, looking at the map of Qiling Pass on the table, but Zhu Yuanzhang didn't seem to be completely on top of it.

"The descendants of the Tang family, famous heroes, don't live up to the expectations of Ben Shuai...... If you really have the talent of a general, the power of the world, you will be a hand...... However, martial arts are all in the same stream, if the general trend has been set and you have a deep meaning, I will regain the pattern of the world, and I can be different?" Zhu Yuanzhang muttered to himself, as if in his heart, there was an unknown grand abacus.

"And the military advisor Lu Jing......" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly thought of Lu Jing, who was also a military power under the vanguard army tent that day, and simply said secretly, "That woman is the most terrifying, I have to have a little heart, this time the battle of Qiling Pass, let Ben Shuai have a good ......."

Zhu Yuanzhang is fighting openly and secretly in his heart, and no one can guess the real intention in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart...... (To be continued......)