Hua'an asked the five battalions of his own soldiers to assemble in the city, originally thinking that Sun Fu would not immediately lead the army to leave, and in this way, when the main army under Chen Ting arrived, the Maqiu army would be defeated, and thus be defeated.

Now, the Zhao army saw that it was unable to break through Jicheng, and withdrew to the east in an orderly manner, and the 30,000 main forces under Chen Ting had not yet arrived.

After all, the main purpose of this battle was to implement new weapons and help Liang Guo contain the Zhao army, not to go all out on the Northern Expedition, and there was no need to launch a strong attack regardless of losses, and to minimize losses while destroying the enemy, which was what Hua'an wanted most.

A few hours later, Chen Ting led his army to Jicheng, and pleaded guilty to Hua'an in person, saying that he was careless and fell for Sun Fudu's plan to get rid of the golden cicada.

Hua'an won a big victory in the battle to defend the city, so naturally he would not blame Chen Ting, but greatly encouraged him, which made Chen Ting quite moved.

The Jin army of 40,000 troops gathered in Jicheng, naturally could not stand still, in the Chinese army tent, Hua'an and the generals discussed the next action strategy.

Looking at the map in front of him, Hua An first said: "Generals, now, our army has occupied Jicheng, and not far to the east of our army is Xinyang City, where Sun Fudu's more than 20,000 troops are stationed, in addition, there is no main force of the Zhao army in the entire Tianshui County, in addition. In the area of Liangzhou in the northwest, it is the main force of the Zhao army's westward expedition, with more than 100,000 troops. ”

"General, at present, the main force of the Zhao army is in the direction of Liangzhou, and our army is in full swing, it is better to march directly to the east, first attack and destroy Sun Fudu's army, and then take the entire Guanzhong Plain." One of the generals said loudly.

Perhaps it was a couple of big wins in a row that boosted the general's confidence. He actually said his ambition to occupy the entire Guanzhong. With such a big ambitious plan, Hua'an didn't dare to think about it.

Hua An shook his head and said with a smile: "Take down the entire Guanzhong, your appetite is not small!" But. At present, the main army of Maqiu is in the Liangzhou area. But to return the help. Wouldn't our army face a strong enemy, and besides, all the passes in the pass were heavily garrisoned by the Zhao army, especially the easternmost Tongguan. The perennial garrison is no less than 20,000 troops, with the current strength of our army, how can we take the entire Guanzhong, besides, the main army of Zhao is east of Tongguan, the speed of reinforcement of Tongguan will be very fast, once the reinforcement of the main force east of Tongguan arrives, our army will face the two-sided attack of hundreds of thousands of main forces of the Zhao army, and there will be the danger of annihilation! ”

When the general heard this, he also felt that he was too arrogant, and bowed his head and retreated to the side.

Wang San hugged his fists and said: "Big brother, since it is not yet the time to take Guanzhong, then our army will march westward, attack the army of Liangguo on both sides, and destroy the main army of Ma Qiu." ”

Hua An nodded and said softly: "It is impossible to destroy Ma Qiu's main army, but it is possible for it to suffer heavy losses, and it is possible for the wolf to escape back to Guanzhong." ”

"General, if the main force of our army marches westward, Sun Fudu of Xinyang City will definitely cut off the back road of our army, and for the direction of Xinyang City, our army has to defend against it!" Chen Ting carefully analyzed.

When Hua An heard this, he immediately ordered: "General Chen Ting, the general will now order you to lead the 10,000 infantry troops of the Liangzhou Army to stay in Jicheng, and the remaining 30,000 cavalry will continue to march west with the general." ”

"Although the general can rest assured, if there is a general, he will definitely be able to hold Jicheng." Chen Ting clenched his fists and said.

Hua An nodded, and then began to arrange the tasks of marching and staying behind.

In order to achieve the high mobility of the troops, Hua'an's 30,000 troops on this expedition were all cavalry, and all the logistics supplies were all mobile and flexible new baggage vehicles.

In order to defend Jicheng well, Hua'an left most of the black powder brought by the Liangzhou Army to Chen Ting to increase the defensive strength of Jicheng, while Hua'an brought a small amount of black powder accordingly to prevent the task of attacking and defending the city in the direction of Liangzhou.

Before leaving, Hua'an specially left a large number of scouts to reconnoiter the terrain and roads of Tianshui and Luoyang counties, so as to facilitate the Northern Expedition in the future.

As soon as he was ready, Hua An led the 20,000 cavalry of the Pro-Guard Army and the Liangzhou Army to march in the direction of Liangzhou.

The first stop of this westward march was Xinxing City in Nan'an County, and then marched to Xiangwu City in Longxi County, and stationed in Xiangwu City, judging the situation and deciding whether to attack.

#####

In the direction of Liangzhou, the 30,000 army under Xie Ai and the 90,000 army under Ma Qiu launched a battle of wits and courage near Guangwu City.

Because of the fear of being tricked, Ma Qiu's actions are always cautious, and Xie Ai can always grasp Ma Qiu's weaknesses, so that he can deal a fatal blow to Ma Qiu's army.

In the tug-of-war that lasted for many days, Xie Ai's army won consecutive battles, while Ma Qiukong had three times the number of troops, but he was defeated in every battle, and the morale of the army also fell again and again.

Ma Qiu's army was able to gain a firm foothold near Guangwu City because of its large number of troops, and Xie Ai was also suffering from Ma Qiu's caution, and could not find an opportunity to break the main force of the Zhao army, but the initiative was always in Xie Ai's hands, and Ma Qiu's main army was passive everywhere.

In so many days of fighting, one after another small defeats, which made Ma Qiu's heart very anxious, he always looked down on Xie Ai before, thinking that his defeat was caused by the carelessness of the enemy, but now, he really felt Xie Ai's power, in such a cautious situation, he was still restrained by Xie Ai's nose, which made Ma Qiu have to admire Xie Ai's judgment and command ability.

In Ma Qiu's opinion, Xie Ai can always see through his mind, often he just thinks of an attack strategy, but after implementing it, he finds that he has fallen into Xie Ai's trap and returns defeated.

Xie Ai obviously has this, but Ma Qiu couldn't guess Xie Ai's next move, so he couldn't defeat Xie Ai, and he was attacked by Xie Ai everywhere.

Shi Hu's annihilation of the Liang Kingdom, the grand wish of unifying the north, often appears in Ma Qiu's mind, making Ma Qiu even more anxious, the failure of the previous year, has made Shi Hu angry, if it is not for the ministers to stop, Shi Hu will behead him to show the public, now, he led enough troops, and took a cautious plan of action, but still can not defeat Xie Ai, without defeating Xie Ai, it will not be able to destroy the Liang Kingdom, in this way, Shi Hu's ambition to unify the north can not be realized, with Shi Hu's tyranny, the consequences can be imagined.

Ma Qiu, who was anxious, paced anxiously in the big tent of the Chinese army, and frowned to think about how to deal with it, but thinking about it, there is no better way than defeating Xie Ai, but the problem is that Xie Ai always anticipates the enemy first, grasps the initiative everywhere, and defeats Xie Ai, it is too difficult.

"General, news has come from Jicheng that the 50,000 main force of the Jin army has captured Shichang City, and General Sun Fudu has led an army of 30,000 and has marched towards Shichang City." Just when Ma Qiu was restless, bad news came from the direction of Jicheng.

Ma Qiu was shocked when he heard this, and his heart was even more anxious, according to the scout's report, the Jin army's 50,000 main army had already entered the Kou, and the combat effectiveness of the Jin army's Hua'an Division, Ma Qiu had also heard of it, with the strength of 30,000 horses under Sun Fudu, he was really a little worried.

If the rear grain road is pinched, the consequences will be very strict, therefore, Ma Qiu had the idea of retiring from the army in his heart, but he was a little unwilling, especially for him, a famous general of Zhao State, there is no way to take a little scholar, and it is an extremely embarrassing thing to say.

Ma Qiu still held on to a bit of luck, hoping that Sun Fu could delay the Jin army for some time, so that he could have enough time to find a way to defeat Xie Ai and turn things around in one fell swoop.

"Adjutant General, whether there is enough grain and grass, and how much grain and grass are left in the army." Ma Qiu looked at the general and asked softly.

"General Hui, our army has enough food and grass, and the remaining grain and grass are enough for the army to consume for nearly a month." The ministry will be in the right color to reply.

Ma Qiu nodded when he heard this, he had a month's surplus grain in his hand, and he didn't have to worry about the problem of grain and grass for the time being, so he decided to continue to stay near Guangwu City and confront Xie Ai's main force to find Xie Ai's weaknesses and flaws, so as to defeat this scholar general.

After three consecutive days of fighting each other, Ma Qiu still lost consecutive battles, and the only victory was only killed by a dozen soldiers of Liang Kingdom, which was not worth mentioning.

He has never been able to find out Xie Ai's weaknesses, and he has never been able to predict the enemy before Xie Ai, which makes Ma Qiu have a feeling of collapse, he has killed countless people in his life, and he has seen all kinds of fierce generals, but none of them are more difficult than Xie Ai.

In Ma Qiu's impression, Xie Ai surpassed the most powerful generals he had ever seen, and even Zu Li, who made Shi Le frightened back then, didn't seem to be as difficult to deal with as Xie Ai, and Xie Ai's military ability was no longer under Zu Ti at all.

Thinking of Zu Ti who made Shi Le frightened, Ma Qiu was relieved, Shi Le's military talent was so outstanding, he was still inferior to Zu Ti, and Xie Ai's strength was above Zu Ti, so it was logical that his successive failures were natural.

No matter what, at this moment, the idea of retreating had already germinated in Ma Qiu's heart.

"General, Jicheng urgently." Just then, a letter arrived from a schoolmaster.

Ma Qiu saw that it was an urgent report sent by Jicheng, and he was shocked, so he hurriedly took it and opened it to watch, and suddenly he was speechless in shock.

"General, what's wrong with the direction of Jicheng?" Seeing this, the general hurriedly asked.

Ma Qiu handed the letter to the general, and sighed: "Jicheng was broken by the Jin army, General Sun led the army back to help, was defeated by the new weapons of the Jin army, and has now retreated to Xinyang City, and our army's food route has been cut off." ”

When the generals read the letter, they all looked at each other, surprised by the combat power and combat efficiency of the Hua'an Division of the Jin Army. (To be continued......)