First of all, Wan Yan Changzhi strictly ordered the generals that the news of the loss of Nanjing must be kept strictly confidential, and no one was allowed to leak it out, so as not to shake the morale of the army

The loss of Nanjing was obviously a heavy blow to the Jin army, but what happened happened was irreversible, and what we had to do now was the next step for the Jin army. The recapture of Nanjing is certain, so what about the two battlefields of Xiangyang and Jianghuai now? Whether to continue the offensive or to withdraw immediately.

Although the news of the loss of Nanjing is now temporarily blocked, it is impossible to hide it forever, and it will always be known to the soldiers. And when the soldiers find out, will they still be in the mood to fight again? But it's a pity to withdraw immediately, after all, now the Jin army has achieved a good situation on both battlefields, because it is on the front line of Xiangyang, captured Fancheng, and basically completed the encirclement of Xiangyang, although the Song army suddenly came artillery to catch the Jin army off guard, but from the overall situation, it is still the Jin army that has the advantage, once the army withdraws, is it not the previous work is lost?

At this time, Pu Cha stopped and said: "Your Majesty, how difficult it is for us to make such progress now!" And this time the Song army just took advantage of our carelessness to attack Nanjing, so the troops must not be very many, please give Weichen 10,000 horses, rush back to Xuan to rescue Nanjing is enough, Your Majesty is still here with Yang Yan to fight, and after the minister recovers Nanjing, we will attack Xiangyang again. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to retreat at this time. ”

But Fusan Zhongyi shook his head and said: "I also know that the Song army will not have many men and horses attacking Nanjing, and they will not occupy Nanjing for a long time, maybe they will not wait for our rescuers to arrive, they will take the initiative to abandon Nanjing and withdraw to the Southern Song Dynasty, but most of the grain and grass materials of our southern expedition are stored in Nanjing, and the Song army will never leave these grain and grass materials, and they will all be destroyed. And now Xiangyang is also difficult to capture, so the minister thinks that it is better to withdraw the army now. ”

Pu Chading said: "Grain and grass materials are not only gathered in Nanjing, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, and we can also collect in the Southern Song Dynasty, supply and demand for one or two months is enough, at that time, maybe Xiangyang will be captured by the scriptures, if you don't stick to it now, you will want to have such a good opportunity in the future, but it will be difficult." ”

After Yan Changzhi listened to their opinions, he couldn't help but fall into deep thought, in fact, what the two of them said made sense, so it was difficult for him to make a trade-off decision.

At this moment, suddenly a duty officer came in from outside the tent and said, "Your Majesty, there is an urgent report from Xiangyang." ”

After hearing this, Yan Chang hurriedly said, "Quickly bring it to me." ”

The officer on duty hurriedly handed the urgent report to Wan Yan Changzhi, and then turned around and withdrew from the big tent. After Yan Changzhi opened it, his face couldn't help but change greatly, and he couldn't speak for a long time.

Pu Cha Dingzhu and Fusan Zhongyi glanced at each other, both of them looked at each other's faces, and saw that Wan Yan Changzhi's face was wrong, I don't know what was written in this urgent report? Could it be that something big happened in Xiangyang? But now after seeing Yan Changzhi's appearance, the two of them didn't dare to ask questions easily.

After a long while, Wan Yan Changzhi sighed and said, "Two Aiqing, Fancheng Yijing was recaptured by the Song army, it seems that we must withdraw our troops." As he spoke, he handed the urgent report in his hand to the two of them.

When the two heard this, they were also taken aback, and hurriedly took the emergency report and watched it in detail.

It turned out that after Yang Yan's reinforcements arrived in De'an Mansion, he immediately sent Wu Xi to lead 30,000 horses and asked him to rush to rescue Xiangyang. He only took 70,000 horses, falsely claimed to be 100,000, stationed in the De'an Mansion Army, and fought with the Jin Army every day, making a decisive battle with the Jin Army.

During this time, Wu Xiyi led his men and horses from Fuzhou, passed through the Hanyang army, and transferred to Jiangling Mansion, and after making a big circle, he arrived at the Jingmen army. Then, together with Chen Min who was stationed in the Jingmen Army, a total of more than 40,000 people and horses were gathered to rescue Xiangyang.

When the reinforcements of the Song army arrived at the city of Xiangyang, they immediately launched an attack on the Jin army, and Shi Mo Yanshan and Shi Zhan also commanded the Jin army to rise up to meet the battle. Shi Jun and Liu Ren in Xiangyang City saw that reinforcements had arrived, and immediately led the army out of the city and cooperated with the reinforcements to flank the Jin soldiers.

The reinforcements plus the defenders in Xiangyang City, the Song army's men and horses exceeded 60,000, which was twice the strength of the Jin army, and it was also a two-way attack, so although Shi Mo Yanshan and Shi Zhan commanded the Jin army to fight desperately, and also personally went into battle to boost the morale of the Jin army, but because they were outnumbered, they were still defeated by the Song army, crossed the Han River, and fled into Fancheng.

After the Song army defeated the Jin army, only Shi Jun was left with 10,000 horses to hold Xiangyang, and Chen Min, Liu Renxian, and Wu Xi led an army of 50,000 to immediately take advantage of the victory to recapture Fancheng. Xiangyang Fancheng was originally separated by a river, and the Song army dragged out five artillery pieces from Xiangyang City, set up artillery on the side of the Han River, and bombarded Fancheng.

At this time, the Jin army's fear of artillery had not eased, and when they saw the Song army setting up artillery again, they were so frightened that they hid in the city one after another, and did not go to guard the riverside at all. The Song army took the opportunity to cross the Han River, and set up the artillery on the bank of the Han River, aimed at the gate of Fancheng, and bombarded more than a dozen rounds, only to hit the wall of Fancheng with potholes, covered with bruises, and the city gate was also blasted open by this fierce and dense artillery fire.

Chen Min, Liu Renxian, Wu Xi and others took the opportunity to lead the Song army into Fancheng from the city gate. The Jin army was already outnumbered, and was frightened by the ferocious artillery bombardment, which could still block the attack of the Song army, and in less than a day, the Song army recaptured Fancheng. Shi Yanshan and Shi Zhan were also helpless, so they had to lead the army to withdraw from Fancheng, flee to the Guanghua Army to garrison, and then send people to give Wan Yan Changzhi quickly.

After learning about the loss of Fancheng, Wanyan Changzhi couldn't help but look up to the sky and sigh, Yang Yan's strange use of troops really deserved his reputation, who would have thought that he would dare to personally lead an army of 70,000 as a bait to attract the attention of the Jin army, and secretly sent men and horses to rescue Xiangyang, and as a result, Fancheng was recovered in one fell swoop. Not to mention sending surprise troops to attack Nanjing again. At this time, Wan Yan Changzhi also had to admit that his ability to use troops was indeed slightly inferior to Yang Yan.

And the current situation, the Jin army's plan to attack Xiangfan is basically a failure, not to mention that Fancheng is now gained and lost, and Yang Yan's army has also returned to the front line of Xiangfan. What's more, after Nanjing was attacked by the Song army, it is still unknown if the current grain and grass materials are still capable of supporting the southern expedition.

Therefore, in this case, there is no point in continuing to attack Xiangyang Yijing, and you can only choose to withdraw your troops. And this southern expedition of the Jin army can also be officially declared and ended in failure.

Of course, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, but also in order to deceive the Song army, Wanyan Changzhi also ordered, the news of the loss of Fancheng was not allowed to be leaked to the whole army, the next day, the Jin army still sent troops to challenge the Song army, and the two sides fought fiercely for another day, still regardless of victory or defeat, and each collected his troops. After returning to the camp, Wanyan Changzhi immediately ordered, and the whole army immediately pulled out the camp and retreated to Suizhou overnight.

After arriving in Suizhou, Wanyan Changzhi first ordered Shi Zhan to immediately lead 20,000 horses and horses back to Nanjing, no matter what happened in Nanjing, they would be stationed in Nanjing, and the losses in Nanjing should be counted. Then he wrote a letter to Monk Wanyan Chen on the front line of Jianghuai, telling him everything that happened on the front line of Nanjing and Xiangyang, and asked Monk Wanyan Chen to immediately arrange for the withdrawal of troops. And after the withdrawal, the border was strictly guarded in case the Song army attacked.

Subsequently, Wanyan Changzhi also began to work on the Jin army on the front line of Xiangfan, preparing to withdraw the army.

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In fact, Yang Yan had already received the news that the Song army had recovered Fancheng, but since the Jin army was still fighting, he naturally accompanied him to the end, so he still led the army to fight during the day and fought fiercely with the Jin army for another day.

In the early morning of the next day, someone came to report that all the Jin troops outside the city had withdrawn. When the Song army in the city learned about it, they all cheered in unison, only Yang Yan only showed a little joy, and then he remained silent.

In fact, knowing that after the Song army recovered Fancheng, Yang Yan had already expected that the Jin army would inevitably withdraw, but he didn't expect the Jin army to withdraw so quickly and so simply. Now it seems that it is probably Zhao Yueru's expeditionary force that has succeeded. Therefore, what he is worried about now is whether Zhao Yueru's expeditionary men and horses can safely withdraw to the Great Song Dynasty.

The most difficult thing about a long-distance expedition is not to achieve the goals set before the expedition, because expeditions are usually unexpected, and as long as the action is kept secret, it is generally not difficult to complete the task. And the real difficulty is actually the return trip after completing the mission. If you don't get it right, you will be blocked by the enemy on the way back, and you will be completely annihilated.

More than ten years ago, Yang Yan led an expedition to Heiyang Mountain, and also achieved great success, but it was on the way back that Wanyan Changzhi led the army to catch up, and fought on the seaside, and was defeated by the Jin army, if it was not for the Song army's navy to arrive in time, Yang Yan's expeditionary army was also wiped out, despite this, the expeditionary force also lost most of it, and even Yu Yunwen's son Yu Gongliang also died in the battle by the sea.

However, at that time, the Song army thought that it was defeated on all fronts, and Yang Yan's expeditionary force was already a lone army without any assistance. And the Jin army can just let go of its hands and feet, cast a net in an all-round way, and surround Yang Yan's expeditionary force everywhere, and also force Yang Yan to use all his body to solve the trick, dodge and move, to avoid the Jin army's encirclement and pursuit.

And now it is different, this time the Jin army is defeated and retreated, and it is necessary to prevent the Song army from taking the opportunity to launch a counterattack, so it is necessary to keep a large number of men and horses on the border to prevent the Song army, so there are not many troops that can be used to contain the expeditionary force, as long as Zhao Yueru can seize the time and not stay in the city of Kaifeng Fucheng, then before the Jin soldiers complete the defense line, return safely to the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, there is still a great opportunity.