Xue Tong was marching quickly eastward with two hundred men and horses, and suddenly felt a shout of killing coming from behind, so he stopped and raised his hand to signal everyone to keep quiet.

"Kill—" If there was really a shout of killing, it must have been an ambush by the brigade led by the lieutenant general.

The general of the cadre army was so cunning that he did not attack these 200 people and let these people go, but ambushed nearly 2,000 people behind!

Xue Tong's face changed greatly, and he shouted: "Turn around and go back, rescue the comrades behind!" ”

The reins of Xue Tong's war horse were held by two pro-soldiers, and one pro-soldier persuaded loudly: "General, you can't save it, the cadres are obviously prepared, and they must have seen that we are exploring the way, so they let us go, and only ambushed the rear brigade, if we go back now, not only can't save them, but also put us in by ourselves, the general should hurry up, if we are caught up by the cadres soon, we won't be able to leave!" ”

The other generals also persuaded each other, Xue Tong's face kept changing, and finally he sighed in his heart, gritted his teeth and said, "Go, go to Dongyang City!" ”

When Chang Kun led the cavalry of the cadre army to annihilate all the 2,000 Liu Song troops led by Deputy General Xue Tong, he could not catch up with Xue Tong and the 200 people he led, so he had to return to Linzi City with his troops.

Before arriving in Linzi City, Chang Kun received an order to lead troops into the city to receive the city and pacify the people.

The fire on the west city wall burned for a whole day, and it was not extinguished until dusk, although the fire was extinguished, but the temperature of the city wall was still very high, Zhao Junsheng and the soldiers of the cadre army did not enter the city, but still spent the night in the camp outside the city.

At night, in the tent, Zhao Junsheng, Hua Mulan and the generals and officials discussed while eating.

"King, according to the report from the spies, the road is gradually drying out today, Tan Daoji led the army from Dongyang City to rescue Linzi in the morning, and met the fleeing defenders halfway, so he withdrew to Dongyang City halfway."

After listening to Li Bao's report, Zhao Junsheng said, "Tan Daoji, is this planning to block our army on the front line of Dongyang City?" ”

Dongfang Chen swallowed a mouthful of beef and said: "Great King, the minister doesn't think that Tan Daoji will defend Dongyang City, his troops are not less than ours, and now his troops are about 30,000 more than ours, he must have other considerations when he retreats to Dongyang City!" ”

Zhao Junsheng nodded and said to Li Bao: "Send elite scouts to keep an eye on every move of the Tan Daoji army, and if there is any change in Liu Songjun's army, report it immediately!" ”

"Yes, King!"

The cadres rested in Linzi City for three days, and Zhao Junsheng ordered the fourth day to march to Dongyang City, but there was a sudden change in the weather, and the originally good weather suddenly had a cold wind howling, and the sky became gloomy again.

In this kind of weather, Zhao Junsheng did not dare to order the army to continue to march, and let the soldiers stand by in the camp.

The cold wind howled for two days and one night, and the next night it snowed heavily.

Zhao Junsheng thought that this was an opportunity, in the ice and snow, the speed of cavalry movement was still incomparable to that of the infantry, and the flexibility of maneuver was also beyond the reach of the infantry, and in terms of marching, the physical exertion of the infantry was far greater than that of the cavalry.

Outside the handsome tent, Zhao Junsheng stood quietly and looked at the snowflakes flying all over the sky.

Mulan came out of the tent and put a cloak on him, "It's late, go to bed early!" ”

Zhao Junsheng pondered for a long time, then turned around and followed Mulan back to the camp.

Early the next morning, when the snow was still falling, Zhao Junsheng convened the generals and officials to discuss the matter.

"Ladies and gentlemen, which side of the snow has more obvious advantages for our army or Liu Song's army?"

"King, our army has many cavalry, and the war horses can be rotated and ridden, so naturally our army's advantage is more obvious!" Yang Zhen stood up and said.

Zhao Junsheng looked outside the tent and said to everyone: "It seems that the snow will not stop for a while and a half, but now the snow will not be too long at this time, if the snow stops before midnight today, we will set out for Dongyang City overnight to block Tan Daoji and his 70,000 army under Dongyang City!" ”

However, Zhao Junsheng still miscalculated the duration of the snow, and it was not until the next morning that the snow stopped.

The snow was not heavy, and it only covered the ankles for a day or two nights, which did not affect the march of the army.

Zhao Junsheng left 1,000 people stationed in Linzi City in order to deliver baggage, letters, official documents, and so on in a timely manner.

Dongyang City, outside the city.

This time, there were too many soldiers and horses in the Northern Expedition led by Tan Dao Jitong, and Dongyang City could not fit it at all, and most of the soldiers and horses could only camp outside the city.

A fast horse galloped to the camp and came directly to the tent, Tan Daoji was dancing an iron spear in front of the tent, which attracted a group of onlookers next to him to applaud.

The knight stopped outside the crowd and shouted: "Commander, urgent military situation, the cadre army brigade of about 40,000 people is coming in the direction of Dongyang City, and it will arrive in the afternoon at the latest!" ”

Tan Daoji put away the iron spear and immediately beckoned to the onlookers: "Enter the account immediately!" ”

The generals followed Tan Daoji to the tent, Tan Daoji said: "The cadres marched on this snowy day, that is, to bully our army with few cavalry, they don't need to spend much physical strength on horseback, and the infantry can still fight when they dismount, if our army waits for them to arrive, they will be blocked under the city!" ”

Gao Jinzhi said: "The marshal is right, if our army is blocked under the city by the cadres, we will either retreat into the city and defend it, but in this way, we will be passive; Either we have our backs to the city and defend them, don't look at us with our backs to the city, but once the war is unfavorable, we can't evacuate, which is not much different from fighting against the water! ”

Xue Tong asked, "What does the big marshal mean to take the initiative to attack?" ”

Tan Daoji said: "The passive defense is too passive, everywhere is led by the nose of the enemy, it is very unfavorable to our army, now we have 80,000 troops out of the expedition for more than half a year, the cost is too great, the court has a faint sense of unsustainable, the logistics burden is also decreasing, the emperor also gave the commander a secret decree, let the commander end the war earlier, the division returned to the court, this is now this situation is not we want to end can end, want to end, but also have to solve the tens of thousands of cadres!" ”

Speaking of this, Tan Daoji said: "What makes Ben Shuai puzzled is that when the cadre army went south to the north bank of the Yellow River, there were 80,000 troops, and 20,000 were sent to cooperate with Zhang Xing to fight Xiangzhou, and now Zhao Junsheng does not have 60,000 in his hands, there should be 50,000, why are there only 40,000 left?" Where did the nearly 20,000 people go? Xue Tong, didn't you find that there were 20,000 fewer cadres when you were guarding Linzi City? ”

"Back to the marshal, the last general really didn't find out when the cadre army was less than 20,000 people! However, the last general guessed that the 20,000 people who disappeared did not go to Jeju? After all, Wang Xuanmo had already led his army north to Jeju, and if Zhao Junsheng's news was well-informed, he should have gotten the news a few days ago, and it was normal to send 20,000 to Jeju to deal with Wang Xuanmo! It's just that in this way, Wang Xuanmo is really Xuanmo, after all, he only has 10,000 people! ”

Tan Daoji's forehead was wrinkled, and he was very annoyed: "Why don't we have any news about our fine work? We don't know how long it has been since the 20,000 cadres disappeared. ”

An official next to him stood up in horror and gave his hand: "The lower official is guilty, please punish the marshal!" ”

"Punishment? What's the use of punishing you? Can you put more thought into this? ”

The intelligence officer said with a bitter face: "Dashuai, it's not that the subordinate officials don't care, it's really difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, and the meticulous workers also have to eat, and they also have to marry a wife to support their families, and they can't eat enough, and the meticulous workers are only looking for work to support themselves, how can they have extra energy to find out the news!" ”

Tan Daoji's face was a little ugly, and he instructed the army lord Bo: "First allocate fifty gold from the military expenses to Lu Shixun!" ”

The commander of the army, Bo, said to the intelligence officer Lu Shixun: "Director Lu, the funds of your Imperial City Division have always been allocated by the imperial court, but now you want to rub oil from our military expenses, this is too unauthentic, right?" ”

Lu Shixun smiled bitterly and said: "The Imperial City Division looks at the scenery, in fact, who knows our suffering? There are few salaries, and they pin their heads to their belts all day to find out the news, and many people can't stand running away! ”

Tan Daoji waved his hand: "Okay, okay, you have to work hard if you get the money, this commander wants to know where the 20,000 disappeared cadres went, and there is news to report quickly!" ”

"Yes, Dashuai!"

Tan Daoji said to the generals: "After the cadres arrived on the north bank of the Yellow River, the commander wanted to take Licheng, and then use Licheng as a pedal to deal with the cadres, but I didn't expect that we were still one step behind in the end!" Later, the marshal lured the enemy deep and led the cadres to follow and pursue, but Zhao Junsheng was not fooled, but steadily took the entire army of Qizhou, and took the surrounding cities during the attack on Linzi City. If the commander orders to retreat to the south again, I am afraid that there will be more people in the court who think that the old man is a thief and self-respecting, and the emperor has been very annoyed that the old man has not fought in Licheng for more than half a year, and he is afraid that this military power will be taken away if he retreats, so this battle has reached the point where it must be fought! ”

Gao Jinzhi clasped his fists and said: "Marshal, generals, the last general thinks that our army is twice as strong as the cadre army, and if we really want to fight, we don't have to be afraid of them!" ”

It is no secret that the soldiers of the Southern Dynasty were afraid of the soldiers and horses of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and everyone in the world knows that several times the Northern Dynasty sent troops to the south and won a great victory, and the first few times the Southern Dynasty army went north was beaten back by the Northern Wei Dynasty every time, not only failed to take advantage, but also suffered heavy losses, which caused the Southern Dynasty soldiers and generals to be afraid when they saw the Northern Dynasty soldiers and generals, and the Northern Dynasty generals also despised the Southern Dynasty army.

Tan Daoji ordered: "Immediately make preparations for the pullout, and in an hour the army will set off to the north to meet the dry army!" ”

"Yes!"

Liu Song's army of more than 70,000 people was forced by the situation to send troops under the command of Tan Daoji to meet Zhao Junsheng's 40,000 cadres.

Although the snow stopped, the wind did not stop, the cold wind kept pouring into the clothes, and the thinly clothed Liu Song soldiers shivered one by one when they were marching.