.

"How can we let go of the people who killed us so easily?"

"Actually, we won more. This time, Xiong Bonan took action and finally released our people."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that the thieves are not strong enough. It must be that they were really injured in the last battle, so they are afraid of us."

"That's exactly what they mean. Judging from the fighting experience these days, they only have a dozen or so battalions at most, and it should be for the sake of compilation that some of the good and bad are mixed."

"But the cavalry should be here."

"If the cavalry hadn't come, we would have eaten them whole battalion!"

"Can't you eat now?"

"You can eat it, but you have to go step by step and clear all the town ferries one by one, otherwise it will be too dangerous. Just for the cavalry battalions, there are quite a few infantry battalions that are well-organized and have powerful leaders...their soldiers The horse is no good, but the leader above is really good."

"This shows that the dozen or so battalions in front of us are real and have a serious background. We have really defeated them."

"No matter how bad it is, whoever is invincible should bring more towns to the city. We don't have enough rain gear, and the food is also moldy... I only lived in Jiangdu before. It's not that I haven't seen this kind of rain. I really didn't think about moving to the wilderness. It’s so powerful.”

"This is a matter of caution. Lack of rain gear and moldy food are not unpleasant things. You will get sick and die. Even if you are alive, you will be weak when the time comes to fight."

"So we have to fight to the north? Isn't this a side issue? How do you know there are not dozens of battalions behind these dozen battalions?!"

"There must be dozens of battalions, but don't the thieves need to guard against General Xue and General Sima? And how can these dozens of battalions be like the previous dozen battalions that all need to be tailed? Such soldiers and horses come to support, one If we can't take care of both the beginning and the end, the second one is incomplete, and the third one is trekking through the rainy season, isn't it just what we want?"

"Do you really want to fight? Don't we have a covenant?"

"What a heck! Not to mention that the fight has already ended like this, even the Yushe people who went to declare the decree were detained. What kind of covenant is this?! There is also Bai Youbin, who has obviously surrendered to them! They all deny it! "

"Pretending not to know or admit some things is already an attitude. We are officials and they are thieves. Do you really think we want to form an alliance?"

"Everyone is a traitor..."

"Shut up..."

"Ahem! We have already arrived at Xuzhou and Huankou. If we take Huaixi as the target, we are already halfway there. If we work harder, we will pass through Pengcheng and Qiaojun, and we will be there. Why bother?"

"Now that we have arrived at Huankou, I will just say something and follow the Huanshui River. It is faster to take the road of Qiaojun, Liangjun, and Xingyang, because the official road is different from the official road, and the river channel is different from the river. Huanshui This river and the official road next to it were originally used by the imperial court to transfer taxes from Jiangnan and Huainan. It was most suitable for the army to march... From here, the army was actually much faster and safer than walking to Huaixi, because there was no It doesn’t have to be like now, where the troops have to be spread out over dozens of miles before they can move through.”

"Yes, if we go to Huaixi, we have to cross one river after another. By then, our troops will be separated by these rivers. As the saying goes, we must not have the intention of harming others, and we must have the intention of guarding against others. We must counterattack

Come here to prevent others from coming down and cutting our backs... On the other hand, it would be much more appropriate if we all walk from Huanshui and walk together to the west bank."

"It makes sense. You can tell by looking at the regulations of the Huaiyou League lobby and the number of restaurants left here. They all relied on this water that day."

"What you said is wrong... General Tuwan Lao is still to blame for the troops spreading out now. He only had more than 10,000 people in front, but he took away all the food and rain gear along the way. Don't say this if he doesn't disperse.

I can’t even get enough firewood.”

"What does this have to do with General Tuwan? His 10,000 people are also human beings. After all, we are the more numerous, and we are unwilling to be restrained... Who wants to camp when there are towns where we can stay overnight?"

"That's true..."

"Stop." Prime Minister Sima, who was sitting at the head of the table, suddenly spoke up, interrupted everyone's quarrel, and raised glasses to each other. "Everyone, we have worked hard to come here and use the lobby of Huaiyou League to take shelter from the rain.

After all, you should have a drink first to warm yourself up and get rid of the moisture!"

After saying that, he stood up and took a drink proudly.

The people around did not dare to neglect, and the servants on the left shot Sima Deke, and the servants on the right shot Sima Jinda. They all stood up and congratulated in unison: "Thank you, Prime Minister."

Just now we raised our glasses and drank together.

The lobby of Huaiyou League in the rain seemed to return to its most glorious moment for a moment.

After finishing the drink, Sima Huada just sat down, then squinted his eyes and asked the people around him: "You guys have been fighting for a long time, but can someone tell me clearly what we are fighting about?"

Sima Deke wanted to answer with his hand, but he simply kept silent and only glanced at Sima Jinda opposite.

Sima Jinda had no choice but to answer: "Reporting to the Prime Minister, I have been walking in the rain these past few days, and have been fighting intensively with gangs. It can be said that it is difficult both internally and externally. Therefore, some people think that we should abandon the original plan and divert from Huankou.

, no longer go against the Huai River to the west of the Huai River, but go against the Huanshui River to Xingyang and return to the Eastern Capital, and for this reason do not hesitate to officially fight with the gang."

"Is this it?" Sima Huada was completely unimpressed, even a little dismissive.

"That's it." Sima Jinda bowed his head and replied sincerely.

"Then should we turn?" Sima Huada continued to ask.

Sima Jinda first took a long breath, then looked at the broken decorations on the roof of the lobby that had not been replaced in time, and then turned to look at the rainwater under the eaves outside. Finally, he turned around and looked at his brother under the gaze of many generals in the hall.

He slowly spoke: "I don't think it's necessary."

"Why?" Sima Huada asked a little more seriously this time.

"Although the Gang does seem to be lacking in combat strength, we have also suffered significant losses due to the rain. In this case, rather than risking a fight with a powerful force like the Gang and heading north, it is better to go quickly.

Let's go west into Huaixi to rest and recuperate." Sima Jinda replied seriously. "The current fighting is actually just friction. It can be clearly seen that the person helping the other side to steer the ship doesn't want to fight."

Obviously, this is not a temporary conclusion made by Sima Youpuse, but the result of careful consideration. It is not his own intention, but represents the final decision made by the group of people in the core team of the coup who have completely surrendered to the Sima brothers.

.

Of course, Sima Jinda's hesitation in replying can also explain the problem, but he still gave a clear answer.

Therefore, Prime Minister Sima, who used to be the head of Juyi Hall, thought for a while and nodded: "That's it, let's leave quickly! Go to Huaixi!"

"That's it, we have to leave as soon as possible." It was still the first day of May in Hebei. In the large iron workshop outside Jiangling City, under the light of the clear sky, Zhang Xing finished reading the letter in his hand, frowned slightly, and then raised his head.

He said to a few people around him, "Go to Huaibei!"

"Is there still fighting in the south?" Dou Lide, the new leader of General Lingxingtai on the side, immediately became nervous. "Sure enough, the Forbidden Army is coming towards our hinterland?"

"No." Zhang Xing shook the letter in his hand and spoke concisely. "The Forbidden Army did not cross the border on a large scale, and our people did not take the initiative to provoke a war. It was just that Li Ding and Li Longtou went to the front line to take a look and felt that the other party had flaws, so they formulated a plan

It was just a plan to raid Huankou from the south, rely on the Huaibei water network to divide the main force of the Forbidden Army, and eat part of the opponent... And now that we have this plan, even if we want to reject him, we should immediately go to the front to take a look and explain it clearly to him.

of."

At this point, Zhang Xing turned to look at Qin Bao: "Erlang, we're afraid we won't have time to wait for your mother and Yueniang on the white horse, so we need to go south quickly from Jibei County."

Qin Bao nodded and said nothing.

Xie Minghe, the director of foreign affairs, came to ask seriously: "Do you want me to follow you now?"

"Don't be in a hurry. Just stay in Hebei for now. When it comes time to do something, I'm afraid you'll still have to go east. There's no need to go south. And you haven't had a good rest since a year ago, so you should take a rest.

Rest... Leader Zhang, although you have just come back from Hejian, you can go south with me." Zhang Xing turned to look at Zhang Shizhao.

"Okay." Zhang Shizhao nodded immediately. "My old face is somewhat effective when it is first revealed, but it is useless later... In fact, Old Feng can do it, or even better, because he came from Jiangdu.

Yes, there are a lot of people there."

"Will transferring Mr. Feng here now disturb the enemy? Xue Changxiong?" It was Ma Wei who spoke.

"Mr. Ma is overthinking." Zhang Shizhao twirled his beard and laughed. "Transferring Lao Feng from the north is an ordinary move. How could it surprise Xue Changxiong? Let me tell you, if you don't transfer him, you might as well surprise Xue Changxiong.

Chang Xiong."

Ma Wei was stunned for a moment, then realized immediately: "That's right! Feng Gong has just surrendered. It would be generous not to make any arrangements, but there is no harm in making some arrangements."

The rest of the people are also smart people, and almost everyone is awake.

Let's say that Li Ding quickly reorganized his army and went north, combined with some of the previous reinforcements from the north, won three battles in three battles, quickly defeated Wang Chenkuo, and drove the opponent into the mountains. When the army was pressing down, they came as reinforcements.

The shaken Feng Wuyi naturally chose to cooperate and obey... From the outside, it was a surrender... However, due to the continuity of the war, this surrender was neither embarrassing nor embarrassing.

The Yizi of Erba Jing is a public announcement.

Under such circumstances, it would be reasonable to help take Feng Wuyi away from Zhao County and let the other party make a statement.

It even killed two birds with one stone, because the gang really needed Feng Wuyi's formal surrender... If he could go south to deal with the Forbidden Army together, it would be an act of formally obeying the gang.

"If you really want to confuse Xue Changxiong, you can ask Yuchi Qilang to continue sending the remaining two reinforcements from Beidi back north to Dai County..." Ma Wei came back to his senses and continued to suggest. "Let him think we have a big appetite.

We still want to continue the fight and withdraw our attention to the northwest corner of Hebei."

"Okay." Zhang Xing nodded immediately. "It's just that the favors from these families need to be remembered!"

"There is nothing we can do about it." Ma Wei tried his best to persuade. "One south and one north, Bai Hengqiu and Sima Huada are connected together. It's too urgent!"

"Call Feng Gong to go south, and let the reinforcements from the north go home to Dai County together. Is there anything else?" Zhang Xing nodded and continued to ask.

"I don't think Xue Changxiong will move. He was obviously mentally exhausted when he sent out the army last time. Now the troops are also exhausted. How can he come again? The one who should be worried most is Sima Zheng of Dongdu." Xie Minghe reminded seriously.

"So Ma Wei won't come with me. He is going to Baima. Several battalions led by the Military Law Department are there. King Xiongtian is not here, so someone has to capture him." Zhang Xing blurted out. "Even if I know the possibility that Sima is coming out of there.

Even if you don’t have much sex, you still have to show it off and take precautions.”

Everyone immediately fell silent, and Ma Wei was even more powerless... He was smart, but he was not the one who could make the decision with Qiao, so he essentially wanted to follow Zhang Xing or stay in a certain organizational structure as an assistant.

But now we still have to take charge of things on our own, even in a misplaced way.

But there is no way, this is the result of the spread of the stalls, and it is also the helplessness under the continuous military pressure.

You know, the previous breakout with heavy casualties ended in mid-February or late February, and starting in April, the gang entered a new state of combat readiness on the southern front.

Moreover, the middle gang even restructured the organizational structure, reorganized 61 battalions, and mobilized 40 of them to go south, so that the current situation is that 40 battalions are concentrated on the southern line, and only 40 battalions are concentrated on the northern line.

There are more than a dozen battalions, and there are only a few battalions on the Western Front...a typical emptiness in the rear.
To be continued...