After Zhang Xing learned that 20,000 reinforcements from the Northern King's Army had arrived in the north of Raocheng, he exclaimed that it was very dangerous. If he had not been determined to implement the orders of the Eastern King's Mansion and conquered Raocheng at any cost in one day, the battle situation would probably have reversed when the 20,000 troops arrived.

These 20,000 reinforcements may not be able to eat more than 60,000 troops led by Zhang Xing, but they can ensure that Li Shangqing's troops will retreat completely. After all, Li Shangqing's troops are the elite among the Luoyang cavalry. They will launch a decisive battle on the plains, and more than 10,000 excellent cavalry can influence the development of the battle at any time.

In addition to ordering the army to station and not easily advance, Zhang Xing was also inquiring about the trends of the reinforcements. When he learned that the troops were stationed in place, Zhang Xing also felt puzzled.

The Eastern Prince's Mansion is now stationed in the city, which can be said to be able to attack and retreat or defend. The Luoyang Army has only more than 20,000 reinforcements, and it is not an elite army that has been through a long battle formation. It is obviously a bit "superior" stationed outside the city.

When Zhang Xing felt hesitant and didn't know whether to attack or wait and see, a guard came to report that an enemy messenger came to see him.

"Please come to the military tent!"

Zhang Xing set up the temporary central army tent in the open space of the garrison camp in Raocheng. The place is spacious and easy to build tents. And it is mainly because there are too many dead bodies in the city and soldiers are still cleaning up. At the same time, many houses in the city are burning and burning, and the people in the city need to be temporarily resettled.

The two envoys, one tall and the other short, both looked over thirties, and came in plain clothes instead of military uniforms.

When they arrived at the Central Army tent, the two envoys said nothing, but were pressed to the ground.

"General, the two armies are fighting... If they don't kill me, the envoy will come." The tall envoy was held down and shouted loudly.

"The two armies are fighting? We are on the order of Your Majesty to eliminate the rebellion. The rebels have no right to say such things!" Zhang Xing shouted.

The tall envoy continued to shout, "We are here to abandon the darkness and turn to the light!"

Hearing this, Zhang Xing ordered the followers to let the two go. The two envoys patted their clothes, and then took out a letter from their arms and said, "This is a letter of surrender for my general to surrender. Please convey it to Your Majesty and the King of the East."

"Who are you the commander of the army?" Zhang Xing asked his servant to take the surrender letter, but did not read it. Because this did not meet Han Jian's order, Han Jian did not say that he would surrender on the battlefield. Although he also knew that 20,000 Luoyang troops surrendered, it would mean that one would rise and fall, which would be very beneficial to the war.

The tall envoy said: "The commander of our army is Sun Shaoqian, the general of the Dongwu Guard."

Zhang Xing followed Han Jian from Luoyang City, so he naturally knew that Sun Shaoqian had led his pursuers to chase him, but he deliberately let him go. Zhang Xingdi Sun Shaoqian was still quite respectful.

When he took the letter, he frowned, because it was not Sun Shaoqian who wrote the letter, but a general named Wang Yue, who was under Sun Shaoqian.

"You General Sun, why didn't you write a letter to surrender in person?" Zhang Xing asked.

The tall envoy said loudly: "Sun Shaoqian is not aware of the current affairs and surrenders to the rebels. He has been killed by us. Now General Wang is the leader in the formation. General Wang specially ordered us to come and surrender."

When Zhang Xing heard this, he couldn't help but feel angry. He admired Sun Shaoqian very much. Seeing that Sun Shaoqian was killed by this group of traitors and surrendered with shameless words, how could he not be angry?

But Zhang Xing was also very clear about his current situation. Although Sun Shaoqian was considered a famous general and had a great prestige, he was responsible for the mission of being a general. Even though he knew that Yang Yu was rebellious, he did not turn against him at the end. He was "under the trap" when he was chasing the Eastern Prince's Mansion and the Southern Prince's Mansion.

This also shows that if Sun Shaoqian was still the leader, he would definitely not surrender.

"You two will go ahead first, let General I think about this matter again." Zhang Xing said with a gloomy face.

After the two envoys went down to wait for the news, Zhang Xing asked someone to light up the lamp. It was already night, and he estimated the time. If Yun Jin's troops continued to approach Raocheng, they should be about sixty or seventy miles northeast of Raocheng. They were only twenty or thirty miles away from the Huaihe River.

According to Han Jian's military order, after capturing Raocheng, there is no need to pause and continue to lead troops northward to force Yunjin's troops. According to Han Jian's estimate, if Zhang Xing can successfully capture Raocheng and destroy Li Shangqing's entire army, Yunjin will never fight south of the Huaihe River, but will lead troops across the river and approach Luozhou.

Although the Eastern Prince's Mansion can take back more than a dozen cities occupied by the Luoyang army at that time, it has not achieved the effect of a decisive battle. Once the Luoyang army preserves its strength, the war will be equivalent to not ending. After that, the war will change rapidly and any result is possible.

Han Jian’s meaning was to take advantage of the decisive battle before Yunjin’s troops crossed the river and headed north to completely annihilate Yunjin’s troops.

At this time, the 20,000 troops originally belonged to Sun Shaoqian became a crucial part.

If the 20,000 reinforcements were led by Sun Shaoqian, if they learned that Raocheng had fallen, they would definitely set out north to join Yunjin's troops, that is, the large army, and continue to go north. That would be consistent with Han Jian's idea. At that time, Zhang Xing's troops and Lin Zhan's troops would have more than 100,000 troops, and more than 60,000 troops to fight Yunjin's troops, and there would be a great chance of winning in one go.

But now Sun Shaoqian was killed by the deputy general, and the deputy general ordered to station and sent people to surrender.

Originally, Zhang Xing was reluctant to accept the surrendered army, but now, if he does not accept it, it will mean that the 20,000 troops will become a stumbling block for the remaining more than 50,000 troops to go north. His army may not be able to set off north within a specified period of time to meet Lin Zhan's troops.

"General Zhang, how do you respond? I'm already urging me there?" The adjutant came to the tent and reported to Zhang Xing.

"Accept the conditions and send someone to the city to contact us." Zhang Xing felt helpless and thought that he had to make such arrangements.

Zhang Xing sent someone to the city to surrender overnight, which was related to whether his troops could go north on schedule.

Zhang Xing had not slept for several consecutive days and could not rest at all. But he still ordered the entire army to rest for one night before setting off the next day.

At the same time, this night, Zhang Xing also wanted to figure out whether the more than 20,000 troops of the Luoyang army were really surrendered or falsely surrendered. Any small decision may be related to the changes in the battle situation, and he knew that he could not neglect it. After all, now that the Dongwang is in Jiangdu City, he cannot ask for instructions directly. He believed that even if Han Jian knew about this, he would not blame him for not obeying the order.

By midnight, Zhang Xinggang was sleeping for a while and then he received news that Wang Yue, the commander of the soldiers outside the city, had personally brought a small number of entourages to Raocheng to surrender. In order to show his sincerity, Wang Yue would even come to the city to see him in person.

Zhang Xing was a little angry. Although he wanted to kill Wang Yue, he knew that killing Wang Yue would only cause a "murder" of more than 20,000 soldiers outside the city, and the chaos would be uncontrollable.

Zhang Xing was patient and met Wang Yue in person, and only then did he realize that Wang Yue was not a young general, but a "veteran" in his forties or fifties.

After receiving Zhang Xing's approval, Wang Yue was officially promoted to Zhang Xing's "deputy commander" level. He was nominally promoted, but in fact he was transferred to Zhang Xing's side, causing him to escape from his military generals.

Wang Yue was also very clear that this was the "basic treatment" of the surrendered generals. Since he surrendered and a war was imminent, in order to prevent him from surrendering, he would naturally be transferred from his post. The generals sent by Zhang Xing cooperated with the generals in the Luoyang army to coordinate the dispatch of the army.

By the dawn of April 26, the acceptance was basically completed. Zhang Xing sent more than 10,000 troops to head north first, while more than 20,000 troops outside the city were placed in the central army, dismantling the original overall structure and following the central army's large forces to head north.

At noon on April 27, after a day and night of rapid march, the army was less than twenty miles away from the Huai River. At this time, Zhang Xing's troops were less than ten miles away from the Yunjin troops.

Originally, Yun Jin had sent some troops to cross the river. He thought that with the speed of the Dongwang Mansion's army, his army could cross the Huai River smoothly, but he realized that the Dongwang Mansion's army was coming too fast, and there was not a whole group of troops coming at once, but Zhang Xing and Lin Zhan had a total of nearly 100,000 troops.

At this time, Yun Jin also had two choices. Because there were not many ships and not many people could cross the river for a while, he could choose to continue transporting troops across the river. However, before the soldiers and horses of the Eastern Palace arrived, he could only transport the main generals across the river. There were only more than 10,000 soldiers transported across the river, and the more than 30,000 people left on the south bank were ignored, but this would also mean that there were less than 50,000 people left, and less than 20,000 people left.

This is like a collapse without fighting.

Yun Jin obviously didn't want to admit defeat. Yun Jin was also an experienced general and was familiar with military books. Naturally, he knew very well that "defeat the boat" and "fighting with his back". His current situation is very similar to Han Xin more than a thousand years ago. He was both backed by a river, and his troops immediately had a disadvantage.

But he firmly believed that he would become the second Han Xin himself.

So before the troops of the Eastern Prince's Mansion reached the river bank, the thousand troops who had originally crossed the river were transported over again, and then they went all out to fight with their backs.

Yun Jin was naturally very clear that Han Xin was able to win at the beginning not just because he was leaning against a river, but he still had many preparations. But at the moment, he had very few conditions to use, and he could not penetrate the rear of the Eastern Prince's Mansion, nor did he have reinforcements, so he could only set up formations on the river bank.

There were no towns or high walls and deep cities around the river bank, so he could only temporarily build fortifications.

In his opinion, as long as he can hold on, he will have a chance to "kill out", but he did not expect to block the backroads.

Originally, he also flashed through his mind and wanted to take the initiative to attack. Taking advantage of the fact that the soldiers of the Eastern Prince's Mansion had just arrived from afar, he had not had time to rest, and caught him off guard.

This was originally the best strategy, but he felt that the risk of doing so was too great, and the Dongwang Mansion had many troops, so it was not possible to attack casually.
Chapter completed!