In Songcheng County, Zhai Rang is also training the army intensively, after more than half a year of attrition war with Yu Wenhua, his elite has been exhausted, so he had to requisition all the 30,000 reserve troops and gather 100,000 troops, but Zhai Rang has an unprecedented sense of crisis, he will face the world-famous Zhang Xuan army, whether he can survive this crisis, he can only pray to God.

At the head of the city, Zhai Rang stood under a big banner and looked into the distance, at this time, Shan Xiongxin slowly walked to his side and said in a low voice: "Zhai Gong, about Wagangzhai"

Zhai Rang interrupted him with a wave of his hand, "You don't have to apologize anymore, I have already said that the loss of Wagangzhai has nothing to do with you, I can also understand Cheng Yanjin's surrender, he is to save the lives of you and my family and soldiers, after all, he only led 5,000 troops to guard Wagang, but he has to face the attack of two armies, in this case, you and my family can be sent back to Liangjun, I will not blame him at all, let alone you." ”

Shan Xiongxin sighed, he was always worried about the loss of Wagangzhai, after all, Cheng Yanjin was the person he strongly recommended, he understood that Cheng Yanjin did not resist at all, and directly chose to surrender, but how Yang Qing's 20,000 troops would surrender to the Sui army, he was incomprehensible.

Zhai Rang looked into the distance and asked, "Xiongxin, do you think we can hold Song City?" ”

"This is exactly what I want to discuss with Zhai Gong."

Zhai Rang looked back at him, "Do you think we can't hold Songcheng County?" ”

Shan Xiongxin bit his lip and said: "The only reason we hold Songcheng County is that the Tang army will attack Hebei on a large scale, forcing Zhang Xuan to withdraw his troops, but how likely does Zhai Gong think this is?" Song City is an old city, the last repair was more than 100 years ago by the Northern Wei Dynasty overhaul, too old, although the city wall is tall and wide, but not solid, the moat is not wide and deep enough, it is enough to deal with the general bandits, but to deal with the elite soldiers of the Northern Sui, I estimate that it can only be confronted for about a month at most. ”

"You mean, we give up Song City? Then what about the hundreds of thousands of stone grain we have hoarded in Songcheng? Without food to back it up, our 100,000-strong army will soon collapse. ”

"This is not what it means, it means that we can't stay in Songcheng alone, we must first leave a way back for ourselves."

"Back?"

Zhai Rang's face was a little unhappy, and he thought about retreating before the war started, which would shake the army's heart, but he still couldn't help but say unhappily: "Do you want to retreat to Yingchuan?" But Wang Shichong is bound to Yingchuan County, Yuwen Chengdu and Zhang Zhenzhou have already led the army south, I think Yingchuan County is no longer my way back. ”

"But the lowly position is to consider Runan County."

Zhai Rang was slightly stunned, he had never considered Runan County, the south of Runan County was the reckless Huaiyang Mountains, and Tongbai Mountain was even more steep, if they could retreat into the Runan Mountains, it would be a good way to retreat.

Zhai Rang paced back and forth, he stopped and said: "We can indeed build a new Wagang village in the Runan Mountains, maybe we can send the family away first, but now there is a problem, as long as our army leaves the city, it will be discovered by the other party's scouts, and Zhang Xuan's cavalry is just deployed in the south, how can we break through the cavalry blockade?" ”

Shan Xiongxin said: "This is the second question that the humble post wants to say, is it too wasteful to use 100,000 troops to defend the city, in fact, 20,000 people to defend the city is enough, and the remaining 80,000 people are just consuming food, which has no meaning." ”

Zhai Rang somewhat understood what he meant, "You mean to say that we take the initiative?" ”

Shan Xiongxin nodded, "Unless we have 200,000 troops now, we can still fight with the Sui army, but compared with our 100,000 army and the 100,000 army of the Sui army, we are definitely not opponents, so this 100,000 army is more of a drag on us, if our army takes the initiative to attack, then the Sui cavalry in Gushu County will inevitably go north, which gives our family the opportunity to retreat south, this opportunity is fleeting, we must firmly seize it." ”

Zhai Rang pondered for a moment, and finally made up his mind, "Okay! Just follow your plan. ”

Shan Xiongxin immediately clenched his fists and said: "I am willing to lead the army to attack!" ”

In the afternoon of the same day, Shan Xiongxin led an army of 60,000 out of Songcheng County, and slaughtered in the direction of Chuqiu County, where the main force of the Sui army was located.

Zhang Xuan gladly accepted Wang Shichong's request, no longer asked him to fight the Wagang Army with himself, for Zhang Xuan, the Wagang Army is not important, the Tang Army is his number one rival, Wang Shichong led the army to fight fiercely with the Tang Army, and he was happy to see it.

At the same time that Zhai Rang decided to attack, Zhang Xuan was also packing up his army and preparing to march towards Songcheng, and at this moment, Zhang Xuan received a message from the scout's flying pigeon, and about 60,000 Wagang troops killed out of Songcheng County and killed in the direction of his camp.

The camp of the Sui army is about eighty miles away from Songcheng County, and the Wagang army can only be killed at least the next day, and the Sui army still has time to deal with it calmly, at this time, the 20,000 troops originally stationed in Jiangdu and belonging to Chen Ling have also gone north and joined the army of encircling and suppressing the Wagang army, so that the Sui army in Chuqiu County has reached 70,000 troops, and there are also 20,000 cavalry stationed in Gushu County, which is enough to defeat the Wagang army in a battle.

The Sui army temporarily gave up the camp, but concentrated 60,000 troops to prepare to meet the Wagang army in the north, Zhang Xuan also issued an order to Pei Xingyan, 20,000 cavalry ready to raid the Wagang army from behind, in order to ensure that they can defeat the Wagang army at the smallest cost, killing 3,000 enemies, self-loss of 800 such a tragic victory Zhang Xuan will not accept, that can only prove that the commander is incompetent, and the victory he pursues is to defeat the enemy at the smallest cost.

In the big tent, Fang Xuanling looked at the sand table for a long time, his eyes were thoughtful, and Zhang Xuan asked, "What did the military advisor think of?" ”

Fang Xuanling said slowly: "I'm a little surprised that this time the Wagang Army sent troops, there was no logistics to follow, if there was a fierce battle outside Song City, it would be fine, but it was in Chuqiu County, eighty miles away, if the battle was extended, how could they ensure food supply?" ”

When Fang Xuanling said this, Zhang Xuan was also a little strange, it was true, could it be that this Wagang army was a battle? If you don't succeed, you will succeed.

Fang Xuanling picked up the wooden pole and pointed to the south of Song City, "I think the real purpose of this army coming to fight fiercely is to cover the retreat of the Wagang army, and it is unlikely that the west retreat, Wang Shichong's main force has already arrived in the area of Yingchuan County, I think the possibility of retreating south is the greatest, if it retreats to Runan County, there are many mountains over there, which is suitable for the Wagang army to preserve its strength in order to make a comeback." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, "The military advisor is right, this army attacked, and our cavalry went north, maybe the Wagang army is going to transfer our cavalry north, since this is the case, the cavalry will continue to garrison Gushu County, and they don't need to go north to help in the war." ”

"Your Highness not!"

Fang Xuanling said with a smile: "If the cavalry doesn't leave, the Wagang army won't go out of the city, why don't we plan and the cavalry pretend to move north, first lead the Wagang army out of the city, and then we concentrate our forces to annihilate it?" ”

This plan is very clever, Zhang Xuan said happily: "It's so decided, we are not in a hurry to meet the 60,000 Wagang army, and then send troops to attack after they run out of food and morale subside." ”

Zhang Xuan sent someone to give Pei Xingyan a new order again.

After Pei Xingyan's 30,000 cavalry occupied Xuzhou, he immediately divided his troops into two routes, one was led by Luo Cheng, the general of Hu Benlang, to the south into Qian County, and captured the four counties of Qian County, Runan County, Ruyin County, and Huaiyang County, and he himself led 20,000 cavalry into Gushu County to surround the main force of Song Cheng Wagang from the south.

Pei Xingyan received an order from the commander Zhang Xuan asking him to send troops to help in the battle, and Pei Xingyan immediately led an army of 20,000 to the north, preparing to attack the 60,000 Wagang army from behind, giving the Wagang army a fatal blow.

20,000 cavalry of the Sui army ran all the way to the north, out of about 80 miles, at the beginning of night, in front of a river, the bridge across the river was seriously damaged, Pei Xingyan ordered the army to rest on the spot, and sent people to repair the wooden bridge.

The cavalry first fed the war horse black beans and water, and then sat down to drink water and eat dry food, Pei Xingyan also sat on the boulder and nibbled on dry cakes, this is the fine style of the Sui army, the soldiers share weal and woe, not only Luo Shixin, Wei Chigong and other generals from a poor family can do it, even Pei Xingyan and Su Dingfang and others from a family can do it.

The marching dry food of the Sui army was very simple, two dry cakes and a piece of salted mutton, and each soldier had a bamboo tube with pickles, the dry cakes were soaked in water and eaten in the helmet, and some pickles were put to taste, and the salted mutton was all based on sharp teeth, in the words of the soldiers, it was harder than a stone, and it could only be eaten by tearing the shredded meat a little bit.

Pei Xingyan had just nibbled on two mouthfuls of dry cakes, when several personal soldiers walked up quickly with a messenger, "General, there is an urgent order from the marshal!" ”

Pei Xingyan hurriedly put down the dry cake and took the warrant handed by the messenger, he looked at it carefully, pondered for a moment and asked, "Do you have any other passwords?" ”

"General Qiyu, the marshal has no password, everything he wants to say is in the letter."

Pei Xingyan nodded, and then ordered: "Stop building the bridge, let the brothers hurry up and eat, and set off in an hour!" (To be continued.) )