The next morning, just after dawn, Du Fuwei got up, put on his clothes and armor, and walked out of the tent, when he heard hurried footsteps and scouts rushing towards him.

"Report-" The scout's voice sounded suddenly, pulling the end note, and when he was about to get closer, he clasped his hands into fists, knelt on one knee, and said, "Report to the general, there is an urgent military situation." ”

Du Fuwei was stunned for a moment, after a night, what is the emergency plot?

When he spread out the letter, there were not many words in it, but the content surprised him, Dingyuan City was lost, and it was taken by the Dahua army overnight?

How is this possible!

At the beginning, the Jianghuai army attacked Dingyuan City, and it took several days and more than 10,000 casualties to eliminate the defenders in the city with difficulty and capture Dingyuan City.

Only one night passed, and without warning, it was suddenly taken away by the Dahua army, which was too unbelievable.

Du Fuwei's palms were cold, and he had a premonition that something was wrong, after all, Dingyuan City still had a lot of grain and grass and military salaries from the allied army, and it was very dangerous to cut off the transfer base, and the two or three hundred thousand troops on the front line only had ten days of grain and grass.

Even if we continue to send troops to transport grain from Liyang County, Du Fuwei's base camp, it will take a certain amount of time, and second, this grain route will not be safe.

The only urgent task at the moment is to withdraw the troops, withdraw from Zhongli County, and camp in the southwest of Jiangdu County in the south, with Liyang County as the back, to be absolutely safe.

But how could Du Fuwei be willing to retreat like this?

In such a good situation, they can't annihilate Xu Shiji's soldiers and horses, and after Luo Zhaoyun leads the army to meet Xu Shiji's soldiers and horses, it seems that it is more difficult for them to confront.

"What about General Kan Ling?"

"Back to the general, General Kan has been wounded, and he is on his way to the barracks with the team, and in another hour, he will be able to arrive."

Du Fuwei heard that Kan Ling was not dead, but only injured, and he was relieved, he still had deep feelings for these righteous sons, and they were also the pillars of his foothold in Jianghuai.

However, Wang Xiongdan and Kan Ling were injured one after another, which is equivalent to hurting his right-hand man, and the situation is not optimistic.

"Come on, gather all the generals and leaders, and discuss the affairs!"

"Yes!"

Half an hour later, the generals of the various military camps, the marquis of Yu, and the leaders of several princes came to the tent and sat down.

Du Fuwei's face was serious, and he said: "Generals, there was another unfavorable news last night, Dingyuan City, which was attacked and lost last night, lost its support point in our southeast rear, and had more enemy troops, which is very unfavorable to our current situation. ”

"What, Dingyuan City is lost."

"This is too sudden, isn't it, when did the army of the imperial court arrive in Dingyuan City?" Someone was amazed.

"Aren't our grain, grass and supplies given away in vain?"

"How did General Kan Ling defend the city!"

In the big account, Zhang Shan'an, Shen Faxing and others all talked about it, their faces were not good, with incomprehension and anger.

They also knew the role of Dingyuan City, and deliberately left 20,000 soldiers and horses to garrison, originally thought that there was nothing to do, after all, the Dahua army was going to besiege the city, and the Jianghuai army in front of them would be able to turn around and come back to relieve the siege.

Therefore, I never thought that Dingyuan City would be taken overnight.

Du Fuwei stretched out his hand to stop it: "Calm down, everyone, something happened, it's useless to complain and blame, the top priority is to consider how to deal with the aftermath and what the next strategy is." ”

Shen Faxing shook his head and sighed: "Now that the water master is gone, the grain and grass in Shanyang Cang have also been burned, Qingliu City has been besieged, and half of Jiangdu County has fallen, which is not suitable for us to gain a foothold." ”

Zhang Shan'an nodded and said: "That's right, it will definitely not work to the east, the imperial army is in the eastern area of Jiangdu County, how many soldiers and horses are arranged, we don't know at all, the enemy is in the dark, we are in the light, we can't rush into the army, we can only go to the south and withdraw from this encirclement, otherwise, there are northern imperial court troops in the east, north, and south, we are trapped, there is a shortage of grain and grass, two or three hundred thousand troops, and it is easy to have something happen in the end!" ”

"But with the withdrawal of troops, our current achievements are not in vain."

"At this time and at that time, what is the situation at the moment, if you don't withdraw from here, it will be easy to be surrounded."

"There are many of us, we should fight to the death with the northern imperial court army!" Some generals insisted on fighting a war.

Most of the generals present agreed to withdraw their troops, and a small number planned to fight the Dahua army to the end.

Du Fuwei sighed lightly, this situation is not very good, and if the team is divided, it will be difficult to huddle together.

"Generals, listen to me." Du Fuwei's voice was strong, and he used his internal force to suppress the voices of other generals.

For a moment, silence returned to the tent, and all eyes were on him.

Du Fuwei looked calm and said calmly: "Our army of 300,000 is gathered outside Zhongli City, the city in front of it is high and thick, and it cannot be taken for a while, Xu Shiji with 100,000 soldiers and horses, at least able to resist for another half a month, until the grain and grass are vacant, but our army's grain and grass will last for ten days, even if we conquer Zhongli City, without grain and grass, we will not be able to stay here for a long time." ”

"Secondly, Luo Zhaoyun, as the emperor of the northern court, drove the expedition in person, and all the soldiers worked with their lives, their morale was like a rainbow, and their spirit was flourishing, and now they are fighting with them head-on, which is absolutely unwise. What's more, this Luo Zhaoyun is famous, using soldiers like a god, in just a few days, he shot one after another, pinching our lifeline, the ruthlessness of the usage, the poison of the eyesight, it is really rare, we fight with him in such a passive situation, the odds of winning are even less, in case he really deploys troops to trap our back road to the south, when the time comes, as long as we are trapped for ten days, we and other 300,000 troops will inevitably mutiny. ”

"Therefore, it is better to leave late than early, taking advantage of the fact that the Hua ** team did not rush to the south to form a circle, we left Zhongli County and returned to Jiangdu County, backed by Liyang County, there is no problem on the supply side, when the time comes, see how the Hua ** team meets us head-on!"

"What Mr. Du said makes a lot of sense, and I, Zhang Shan'an, am the first to agree!"

"I agree too!" Shen Faxing also agreed.

Wang Hua, Wenren Sui'an, Chen Dong and others also nodded in agreement.

"Since they have all agreed, without further ado, they will withdraw after noon, leaving a group of soldiers and horses to break off, so as not to prevent Xu Shiji from learning the news and sending troops to pursue, causing the Allied soldiers to be defenseless and become a rout."

Wang Xiongdan stood up, hugged his fists and said: "General, let the last general lead the troops to break off." ”

A few days ago, Wang Xiongdan led his troops to pursue Xu Shiji and was ambushed, and his soldiers were lost, so this time he wanted to make meritorious contributions.

Du Fuwei glanced at Wang Xiongdan deeply, nodded slightly, and advised: "Give you 30,000 soldiers and horses after they are broken, stop the pursuing soldiers, and don't be careless!" ”