Zhao Li and the generals returned to the city victoriously, and ordered the marching record room to record the meritorious soldiers in the military merit book, and ordered the reward of meat money. Then summon the generals in the city to enter the general's mansion to discuss the matter, and after the generals finished the ceremony, Zhao Li asked the cook to serve the meal directly, and discussed with the generals while eating.

Li Xu and the uncles and nephews of the Zhao family returned victorious, and they were very happy in their hearts. Only Zhao Li's face was solemn, and he stopped everyone's request for wine.

"What do you mean?" Li Xu asked: "Today, we all led the defeat of Gao Yu's forwards and killed more than 1,000 enemy horsemen, which can be described as a great victory." The thief suffered this defeat, but he was afraid that he would lose his heart for a while, and he would not come immediately within a day or two. Drink some wine and celebrate! ”

Zhao Li was covered in dust, his armor was not removed, and he shook his head and said: "Today's defeat of the enemy is due to the carelessness of the Huai army, and secondly, we are fighting the power of firearms. However, Anyi is not a fortress of Jiancheng, this is a small city, not far from Yangzhou, far away from Shanyang, Xuyi and other important cities. Gao Yu suffered a loss this time, and he will be more cautious in the future. Gao Biao is also a fierce general on the battlefield, with 60,000 soldiers and horses, if he really presses them all, he can't hold it for a long time at this time. Tonight, we will leave the city by night. ”

Li Xu's generals were stunned, they had just won a big victory, but the boss wanted to abandon the city and flee

"Big brother, His Royal Highness ordered the eldest brother and us to stay in Huainan, if we leave without a fight, wouldn't this be entrusted by Your Highness?" Zhao Jue said loudly: "I don't think Gao Yu is anything to be afraid of, even if he was a fierce general at the beginning, he has now become a toothless tiger." Let's not leave, just fight with Gao Yu here. ”

"Confused!"

Zhao Li shouted loudly and reprimanded his brother.

"Before leaving, His Royal Highness made a special confession to stay in Huainan. When the camera acts. The most important thing is the amount of preservation. At the beginning, Hu Tuzhou was 11,000 soldiers. It was because of the insistence on Hu Tuzhou that he failed to evacuate in time that he was almost wiped out in the end. ”

Li Xu said with some excitement: "Although the 11,000 soldiers of Hu Tuzhou are almost wiped out, they have more than 10,000 township soldiers, but they have destroyed nearly 30,000 Liang Zhang, although they are defeated, they are still glorious. What's more, we are not just village soldiers for autumn and winter training. We are the most elite soldiers of the Qin army, how can we flee from the battle? ”

Zhao Li's attitude towards Li Xu is much gentler, Li Xu is a nephew of the Qin Dynasty, and he is also an old general of the water division, not an ordinary person. "Li Junmen, Your Highness said something like this, if you lose your land, you will lose both people and land. If people lose land, people and land will survive. Although we are now in Huainan, we must be subordinated to the overall strategic situation. The mission of the Jianghuai camp. It is used as a front barrier for the Huaisi side, and it is used to contain and restrain the Jianghuai force. Your Highness has us here. It's not for us to fight with Gao Yu. ”

"Besides, we are just giving up Anyi, not the whole of Chuzhou. Now Gao Biao is attacking in a big way, we have few soldiers, so temporarily retreat into Shanyang, you can rely on the danger of Hangou and the Huai River, the strength of the city of Shanyang, the back of the Huai Si rear, the west of Xuyi, Zhongli, Huaiyin, Dingyuan towns, plus the north bank of the Huai River, Lianshui, form the Huai River defense line, the armies watch each other to help each other, then although we have few soldiers, but we are not afraid of Gao Piao. As long as we can hold on for three or five months, Gao Yu will not be able to hold on for a long time, and he will definitely withdraw from the army. When the enemy retreats, we will chase after us, and we can take back Anyi and other peripheral cities in one fell swoop. ”

As soon as he spoke, the generals couldn't help but be silent.

"Is this what His Highness meant?"

Zhao Li nodded, "Although His Highness didn't say it in such detail, he did leave a general instruction. ”

Since this was what King Qin meant, Li Xu and other generals naturally no longer objected. So he ordered to go, and the generals packed up their equipment and withdrew to Shanyang City as soon as it got dark.

However, it was said that the Chinese army under Gao Biao took a boat to go north along the Hangou Canal, but the river near the Anyi River was mostly blocked by Li Jing's shipwreck, so he had to send people to dredge the river, and sent Feng Shou and Lei Man to lead 3,000 horsemen from the land first.

When it was dark, the river was only half dredged, and as soon as the whole army was ordered to go ashore and camp, there were guards who reported that Feng Shou and Lei Man had returned.

Gao Biao announced it, but saw that Feng Shou and Lei Hai were embarrassed. As soon as the two entered the account, they immediately knelt down and pleaded guilty. Stating today's dispatch of troops, "The thief general Zhao Li first deliberately rode out of the city with 500 horses to meet the battle, so as to slow down the hearts of our army, and then when the two armies fought, he suddenly threw thunderbolt firearms. The firearm was extremely terrifying, our war horses were frightened, and the front army was in chaos. Then the Zhao thief transferred another thousand horsemen from the left and right sides to kill obliquely, the thief's firearms were sharp, and the throwing did not stop, our army could not stop, and the military horses were frightened and defeated. Fortunately, General Lei answered halfway, and fought with Zhao Li and other Qin thieves who came out of the city for half a day before repelling the Qin thieves. The last general is incompetent, the soldiers are lost, and there is no face to see the king of the county, please punish the king of the county! ”

Gao Biao heard that more than 1,500 horsemen had been lost in the first battle, and he couldn't help scolding: "Anyi Town, there are only more than 8,000 thieves in the city, the two of you led 6,000 elite cavalry, and almost led all the elite cavalry under a certain command, and they were defeated in a battle, with a loss of nearly 30%, and you still have the face to come back!" ”

He was both shocked and angry, surprised that Anyi was only a small county in the southernmost part of Chuzhou, and there were only 8,000 men and horses in the city at this time, and he also inquired clearly, the town general Li Xu was still a naval general, and he also assigned 3,000 soldiers and horses to garrison Yancheng in the east and patrol the sea. Although Zhao Li personally led 3,000 horsemen to help, there were only 5,000 people in the city.

But with such a small number of people, Feng Shou's 3,000 people fought in the field, and they were beaten in one round, and later they joined Lei Man's 3,000 horsemen, and they were still defeated. He couldn't believe that this was true, that Zhao Li and Li Xu were not well-known, and the two unknown people actually wiped out a quarter of his most elite six thousand cavalry in one battle.

Lu Yongzhi and Zhang Shouyi on the side glanced at each other, and the corners of their mouths showed a slight smile.

Lu Yongzhi and Zhang Shouyi and others are just Jianghu soldiers, relying on their appearance and appearance, as well as clever words and pretending to be ghosts, they have become high-ranking positions in the Huai Army. But Liang Zhang, Feng Shou, Chen Qi and other veterans have always looked down on them, and even Yu Gongchu, who recommended him at the beginning, drew a line with him, which made their relationship with these veterans very tense. Lu Yongzhi and others have long wanted to overturn these veterans and replace them.

Liang Zhang's defeat last time has now been slandered and demoted by Lu Yongzhi, and the Gao Jie brothers have also been given a cold reception. Now Feng Shou has been defeated again. They immediately saw an opportunity to make a move.

Lu Yongzhi immediately sneered and said, "General Feng guarded Huaiyin with Forty Lang last time. The result was a big defeat. Later, he fled to Sanyang. Not long after, Shanyang was lost again. This time he led the troops again, but the 3,000 cavalry was defeated by the 500 cavalry of the Qin army. Three leads, three defeats. ”

Feng Shou looked at Lu Yongzhi coldly, "What do you want to say?" ”

Lu Yongzhi snorted coldly: "Victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, but it is just strange why in a short period of time, General Feng lost three battles and three times." It's better than the defeat once, but every time you can come back safe and sound. Could it be that General Feng has a divine spirit body? ”

As soon as these words came out, Feng Shou's eyes were almost bursting with fire. Although Lu Yongzhi didn't say it directly, his words were already extremely vicious, accusing him of notifying the betrayal. Sure enough, Gao Yu's face immediately became gloomy, and the gaze that looked at Feng Shou was already cold and sharp.

There was silence in the tent for a while.

After a while, Gao Yu snorted coldly and slapped the table: "Pull it out, show the public!" ”

The last defeat. Gao Biao has not yet settled accounts with the generals, but today Feng Shou was defeated again. He was so defeated that he couldn't believe it, and in his anger, Gao Biao didn't really believe Lu Yongzhi's words or not, but now he wanted to push Feng Shou out and betray the crime and kill Feng Shou, first, to deter the generals, second, to let Feng Shou replace Gao Yu for the crime of defeat last time, and third, to sweep away the unfavorable atmosphere of successive defeats.

In the tent, Yao Guili and other Huaijun generals knelt down to plead guilty for Feng Shou, but Gao Biao became more and more angry.

"Whoever dares to intercede again will be beheaded at the same time."

As soon as these words came out, everyone had no choice but to retreat.

Lu Yongzhi beckoned to the outside of the tent, called the soldiers of Mo Yedu, and escorted Feng Shou out of the tent to behead. After a while, the soldier came in with a plate, on which was Feng Shou's dead head.

The generals watched the old brother die like this, and all of them felt sad that the rabbit had died and the fox had died. Wei Lu used a few others, but they were secretly proud in their hearts.

Gao Yu's anger was a little calmer at this time, and when he saw Feng Shou's head, he also regretted it slightly. But the head can no longer be installed, and it can only wave his hand, and let people take the head out of the head and pass it to the whole camp.

While he was talking, suddenly a horse galloped outside the tent to report.

Gao Biao summoned in, and Tanma reported that he found that the defenders of Anyi City had left the city overnight and fled north, leaving only an empty city in Anyi.

Lu Yongzhi reported: "The Qin thieves were afraid of the military power of the county king, and fled overnight, and An Yi broke himself without attacking. ”

When Gao Biao heard the news, he was also slightly proud, and at this time, Lu Yongzhi, Zhang Shouyi and others asked for orders to fight, and they were willing to go to pursue the Qin army. Gao Yu allowed him, and ordered Lu Yongzhi to lead Zuo Mo Xie to Anyi.

Lü Yongzhi waved his troops overnight, and arrived outside Anyi City near dawn, at this time, the city had already been empty, and half of the Qin army could not be seen. Even many of the big and wealthy families in the city fled to Shanyang with their families and children behind the Qin army. The rest of the city were ordinary people.

A general asked whether to pursue, and Gao Biao said with a smile: "There are still Qin troops left in the city, and we should destroy them together." So, Lü Yongzhi ordered his subordinates to break into the city, kill more than 1,000 innocent young men, cut off their heads and pretend to be Qin soldiers, and then threw their corpses into the canal. He also sent troops to search and loot from house to house, plundering all the wealth, and the last arson of the army robbed and raped women at will.

Gao Biao received the report delivered by Lu Yongzhi, and when he saw the head sent to him, although he had some doubts in his heart, he was still very happy and promoted Lu Yongzhi's official rank in public.

Two days later, Gao Biao dredged the canal and led his troops and horses to Anyi, which by this time had become a ghost town and was almost in ruins. Lü Yongzhi boasted and claimed that it was because he led the army to fight against the Qin army left behind.

Gao Biao only rested in Anyi City for half a day, and then led his army to Shanyang.

Two days later, the army arrived at the foot of Shanyang City, at this time, Zhao Li had already mobilized 12,000 men and horses from Linhuai, Xuyi, and Zhongli cities to defend the city, and temporarily recruited 20,000 young people in Shanyang City as auxiliary troops, and issued equipment to help defend the city.

Gao Biao arrived at the city of Shanyang in Chuzhou, and did not rest, so he ordered the siege of the city.

Zhao Li responded calmly, the two sides fought from the afternoon until dark, the corpses under Shanyang City piled up a gentle slope, and filled the moat out of several avenues, but after the last, the Huai army still failed to break the city.

It was dark to collect the troops, and in the middle of the night, Lü Yongzhi offered a plan to use the method of the Qin army to break Shanyang that day, and sent people to intercept the ditch and flood Shanyang. Gao Yu dispatched tens of thousands of horses to dig and fill the river overnight, filling in the river for a day and a night, and saw that another day would be able to build a dam, but that night, Li Xu led the sailors to suddenly enter the canal from the Huai River, and then directly transported several boats of gunpowder to blow up the embankment that had been half worked hard to repair.

Gao Biao did not give up, and then filled it twice, although he sent heavy troops to guard the coast each time, but in the end, there was no exception, and the embankment that had been repaired half of it was still blown up. If it was three times, Gao Biao finally had to give up the plan to block the canal and flood the city, and had no choice but to continue to besiege the city.

However, Shanyang is an important town at the gateway to Huaidong, although Zhao Li's soldiers are few, there are strong cities and sharp firearms, catapults and heavy crossbows, plus the terrain is dangerous, and there are sailors to assist in the periphery, and the Huai army has no progress under the fortified city. (To be continued......)