Yeliugan's camp, which is dozens of miles northwest of Yangzhou City, has not moved its position for two months.

It stands to reason that Liu Gan should have led his Mongolian iron cavalry to gallop across the hinterland of Jianghuai at this time, as if he entered a no-man's land, even if he could not destroy a few strong cities of the Song army, he should also kill the Song people in the field battle, so as to firmly contain the hundreds of thousands of troops under the command of Jia Yidao in Lianghuai, so as to facilitate the meeting of Meng Ke Khan and Kublai Khan in Jinghu.

But at this moment, what Liu Gan has to consider is not how to ravage the Song army, but how to save face - not his face, but the face of the entire Mongol Empire. Because the battle since the southern crossing of the Huai River has been really ugly. In addition to crossing the river and burning it at the beginning, he suffered a loss when he arrived at the city of Yangzhou, and was defeated by Jia Nidao in the field battle!

Yes, it was defeated. Although the Song army suffered greater casualties and heavier losses, it was once forced into a desperate situation. But more than 1,500 Mongol cavalry were killed, nearly 500 were crippled, and 1,000 Mongol heads were salted as salted meat by the Song. How can such a record still be cheeky and say that it won?

Speaking of bad luck, bad things often follow one after another, and this is not a one-way street! For Yeliugan, it is not a single line of defeat. In the nearly two months after the battle outside Yangzhou, his army suffered successive defeats in Zhenzhou, Tongzhou, Haozhou, Taizhou, Haizhou, Luzhou, Yingzhou and other places! Almost played the most humiliating record since the beginning of the Mongol and Song wars, and even the four kings Kublai Khan, who were far away in the Golden Lotus River, also sent envoys to question, and it is estimated that the envoys of Möngke Khan will also arrive soon, and then it will not be scolded but will be dismissed.

And this series of defeats of the Mongol army actually originated from the battle of Yangzhou. There is no other reason, that is, the losses of the Mongolian iron cavalry are too heavy. In just one day, 2,000 Mongol warriors were killed or seriously wounded. Although there were still 6,000 Mongol warriors under Liugan's command, there were still 2,000 Mongol cavalry available under his deputy commander Bohua. But Yeliugan was reluctant to take any more risks with the Mongols, and only sent the Mongol Han army that followed him south to attack from all sides to burn, kill and loot.

As a result, most of the troops sent out met the Song army, which was waiting for the battle, and they came back with a disgraced face in three or two blows, that is, Li Xiong's five or six thousand red jacket troops did not suffer any losses and came back with some food.

However, the little food that Li Xiong grabbed was not enough, and the sixty or seventy thousand troops under Liu Gan's command were wasted for a long time, if the food was exhausted, then Liu Gan could only retreat north with the army. As for the possibility of mobilizing military rations from the rear, there is basically none. Now the grain in the warehouse of Henan Province is prepared for King Kublai Khan's 100,000 army, and in Yidu Province, even the Mongolian Great Khan asks for food Li Pu! Even the military rations consumed by his troops to harass the Song army's defense line in the lower reaches of the Huai River were transported from the north bank of the Yellow River.

But if Liu Gan withdraws in such a gloomy manner, Meng Ge Khan, who is commanding the army on the front line in Sichuan, may have a big temper, and there is a possibility that he will die.

But what else can be done to retreat without food? The morale of the Han army has fallen, and the Mongol army can still fight, but the problem is that Jia Rudao has been defending the city since the Battle of Yangzhou two months ago. You can't let the Mongolian uncle personally climb the city wall with the strong bow and crossbow of the Han people, right? How many people have to die here?

As for sending the Mongol cavalry out to grab food...... It is already late autumn, and the grain in the fields of Lianghuai has already been cut, and it has been transported into the city and fortress for storage. If you want to grab food, you have to go to the siege!

So now Liu Gan is here, there is no more arrogance to slaughter here and there two months ago, every day like a trapped beast walking around in his big tent, waves of probe horses and rangers sent out, to explore the movement of the Song army, hoping to find a Song army that left the fortified city and came out for a walk, so that he could fight again before leaving to save some face.

It's just that the two Huai Song Jun have long learned to be obedient, even if they go out of the city and walk around, they won't leave too far, and it seems that they don't plan to give Uncle Liu Gan a little face at all.

More than a dozen knights galloped from the south as if flying. These are all knights in red armor and red jackets, and they know at a glance that they are the elite of the Li family in Yidu. They went to welcome Li Jiazaburo and Li Cui, who secretly infiltrated Yangzhou to spy on intelligence, and returned.

Li Cuixian has now changed into men's clothes, wearing a red jacket, a black mink hat, and a red horse on her hip, galloping all the way. The soldiers in charge of guarding the camp gate had already received an order - no matter when Li Cui returned, they must not be stopped! Therefore, Li Cuixian and the others were able to gallop all the way to Yeliugan's tent before they dismounted. Li Xiong, the commander of the Yidu Loyal Army, had already received the news and was waiting in front of Yeliu's tent. Seeing his righteous sister return safely, he breathed a sigh of relief and greeted him with a smile on his face.

"Third brother, come in quickly, the marshal is already impatient."

"Fourth brother, there is good news this time!" Li Cuixian smiled and strode into the big tent.

At this time, there were only three people in the big tent, including Ye Liugan, Bohua and Liu Xiaoyuan, the staff sent by Kublai Khan, and there was no one to wait, and the three of them were talking in a low voice around Mutu. Li Cuixian glanced at Liu Xiaoyuan, and saw that there was a faint smugness on his face, so he guessed that he must have gained something on the bank of the Yangtze River.

Seeing Li Cuixian come back with a happy face, Ye Liugan, who had never spoken Chinese, actually came out with a blunt sentence in Chinese: "How?" ”

Li Cuixian bowed respectfully, and also replied in Chinese: "Congratulations to the marshal, the flaws of Yangzhou Nanban are here!" ”

"A flaw?" The Mongolian deputy marshal next to him, Bohua, who knew Chinese, was a little older, with an angular face, like a knife and an axe, and asked a little strangely, "Isn't it flawed?" ”

"It's coming!" Li Cuixian smiled and changed to Mongolian, "This flaw is called Dong Songchen." ”

"Dong Songchen?" Liu Gan also looked at Liu Xiaoyuan.

"This person is the most favored eunuch of the Southern Barbarian Emperor, and he also has the military position of an envoy, and he may have come to Yangzhou to reward the army. It's just that the Nanban Emperor supervises the Tai very strictly, and Jia Rudao is a favorite minister, so I'm afraid that these two Huai military affairs won't be the turn of this Dong Songchen to speak, right? ”

Li Cuixian glanced at Ye Liugan, and said in a low voice: "This Dong Songchen was sent by the Southern Barbarian Emperor to check the head, and it was the beheading of the Southern Barbarian Army in the battle two months ago!" ”

Liu Gan snorted heavily, and the military attache on a big cake face was a little distorted.

Li Cuixian continued: "But this guy is very bold, and he didn't dare to cross the river after a delay of more than a month in Zhenjiang Mansion, until the Nanban Emperor issued an order to urge him, but he didn't dare to enter Yangzhou under my Great Mongolian soldiers, and only dared to go to the Yangtze Bridge twenty miles south of Yangzhou City." Let Jia Rudao send someone to send the head of my Great Mongolian warrior there for him to check. ”

Liu Gan heard the gurgling of his teeth, but his eyes turned to Liu Xiaoyuan.

"It's possible," Liu Xiaoyuan frowned and asked, "Is there a heavy army in the city of Yangziqiao?" ”

"There are about 3,000 people, which were replenished by the Wurui army that suffered a crushing defeat under the city of Yangzhou two months ago." Li Cuixian blinked her eyes and said with a smile: "Actually, it doesn't matter how many defenders there are in Yangziqiao City, what we want is not Dong Songchen, but the main force of the Southern Barbarians in Yangzhou City!" I don't believe it, Jia Rudao dared to let the eunuch who was the most favored by the Southern Barbarian Emperor die on the Yangtze Bridge! (A pie-in-the-sky event, cool phones are waiting for you!) Follow the ~ point / Chinese network public account (WeChat add friends - add public account - enter qdread can be), participate now! Everyone has a prize, now pay attention to the qdread WeChat public account! (A pie-in-the-sky event, cool phones are waiting for you!) Follow the ~ point / Chinese network public account (WeChat add friends - add public account - enter qdread can be), participate now! Everyone has a prize, now pay attention to the qdread WeChat public account! ）

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