Otherwise, if the rear is unstable, there will be no spare power to attack Xinzhou.
Zhang Jian left and took the main force of the new city with him. Not long after leaving the city, another news came over, saying that the scouts had discovered that the Song army was preparing to attack Anci City. Someone saw a large number of Song people marching toward Anci City.
Assemble there.
"Quickly, the troops are sent to Anci City. This time we have to cooperate with the inside and outside to severely damage the Song army there." After receiving the news, Zhang Jian did not dare to neglect, and quickly issued an order, leading the army straight to the northeast of the new city.
Considering that the Song army might launch an attack on the city at any time, Zhang Jian led his army on the road day and night. The journey that originally took two days took them just over a day to arrive at Anci City, and what they saw was
The peaceful Anji Castle.
"What's going on? Didn't the Song army come to attack the city?" Seeing Anci City standing here intact, Zhang Jian suddenly felt bad again.
"No, no Song troops have ever been found here." The general guarding Anci City came to Zhang Jian and spoke truthfully.
"Song troops have never appeared? Then where could they go?" Zhang Jian was a little confused when he received this answer.
His brain kept spinning, and then his eyes flashed and he said: "No, we may have fallen into a trap. Quick, retreat to the new city, quick, quick!"
Zhang Jian reacted very quickly, but he had just led his army back fifty miles when he ran into the scouts who came to report the news, and the new city was captured by the Song army.
"What's going on?" Although he had already thought of this possibility, Zhang Jian still felt a sense of panic when he learned the exact result.
The world is spinning.
"Sir, the night after you led the army away, the Song army suddenly attacked the new city at night. Unprepared, the city was breached, and a large number of Song troops poured into the new city, and then..."
"What happened next?" Zhang Jian asked with an ugly face.
"Then these Song troops rushed into the new city and robbed all the food, grass and weapons we had prepared before." The young scout lowered his head as he spoke.
"Everyone was robbed?" Zhang Jian asked sharply after hearing the result.
"They robbed them all. When they left, they also set a fire and burned down the new city. By the way, we finally found out that this Song army was under the banner of General Zhongwu." The young scout seemed to have discovered some secret.
Generally, he said it with some excitement.
When he heard that the new city was burned, Zhang Jian staggered and thought in his heart that it was over, it was over. But when he heard the name of General Zhongwu, his eyes widened again. "General Zhongwu, this is Su Shi, this is Su Shi
coming."
At this moment, Zhang Jian finally figured it out.
No wonder these Song people are so good at fighting. It would be understandable if they were led by Su Shi.
Two years ago, didn't he just rely on the thousands of people from the Song Dynasty who had self-recruited to conquer the Liao Dynasty, leaving them helpless?
If it could be done two years ago, why can't it be done now?
It's a pity that Zhang Jian didn't know earlier that Su Shi was leading the army, otherwise, he wouldn't have left Xincheng and made such a big mistake.
"Su Shi is here. Immediately notify other cities. Be careful and careful. After notifying the rear, the army will gather faster. By the way, notify Xiao Xiaoyou who is besieging Xinzhou.
General, Su Shi has appeared in Liaodi, I'm afraid we won't be able to give him any support for a while."
After giving several orders, Zhang Jian sighed and returned to the new city with the 40,000 Liao troops who had accomplished nothing.
The new city was only burned, not destroyed. He had to go back and rebuild it.
Although this requires paying a high price, there is no choice now.
The new city is an important transportation hub. We must not lose anything here and must reoccupy it.
...
Guiyi City is located south of the new city.
At this time, Su Shi was gathering here with his army.
Capturing the new city and capturing countless things made the overall morale of the army much higher.
In particular, there were 20,000 war horses captured, which added 20,000 more cavalry to the civilian army.
There were also captured grain, grass and ordnance, and nearly 70,000 civilian soldiers were fully armed. At this time, the strength of Su Shi's army had increased by at least 30% compared with before.
As the saying goes, if you have food in your hands, you will not panic when trouble comes.
The civilian soldiers had enough food and grass in their hands, and they were all beaming with joy.
Xu Ba wandered in this sea of joy with 10,000 reserved imperial troops.
Before, Xu Ba never knew that fighting could be so easy.
The Liao army, which had always been regarded as a tiger by the Song people, was like clay in Su Shi's hands. He could toss him as much as he wanted.
The Liao army was fooled around and at the same time, it lost its city and food, and its strength was greatly reduced.
"This is war!" Xu Ba sighed in his heart.
In comparison, those who stayed in Xincheng before were really frustrated. They didn’t dare to attack and they were not resolute in defending. They could only eat two meals a day there, even if they were full, there was not much meat.
Food. But since I was with Su Shi, I didn't want to eat anything.
The morale of the 10,000 reserve imperial troops was also high.
No matter how high they are, they can't eventually be inferior to the people's army. In that case, they will really be embarrassed and thrown into the grandma's house.
Sensing the gap and fearing that he would be pulled too far behind, Xu Ba took the initiative to find Su Shi this time and asked to bring 10,000 reserve forbidden troops to fight a war.
Su Shi was very fair to his troops and could fight well. If he won the battle, he would receive countless rewards.
Otherwise, just eat three meals a day.
Although you can eat enough, and you still have three meals a day, it is very difficult to have enough food. But living in such an environment, watching other people eat meat every day, and you can't even drink soup, that feeling is...
Very very unhappy.
Especially before the war, Su Shi paid one hundred gu of settlement allowance to each of the reserve guardsmen.
This is not a small amount of money. Those deserters and cowards were all sent back, and they were also ordered to hand back the one hundred coins. When they return to Bianliang, they will hand it over to Huaxia Bank, and it will be given to you then.
Make a receipt.
If someone wants to keep this money secretly and refuses to hand it over, hey, you can try it.
Xu Ba didn't think that anyone dared not to surrender. Everyone had seen Su Shi's methods. Facing such a ruthless person, although a hundred swords was not a small amount, it was not enough for the reserve imperial army who all had some background.
Not enough to buy one of their lives.
In short, Xu Ba took the initiative to ask for a war. If he didn't fight, there would be no big war. Su Shi really asked them for a settlement allowance of 100 gu each, which was also a headache.
Faced with Xu Ba who took the initiative to challenge, Su Shi readily agreed and ordered him to lead the army.
The army hid ten miles north of the new city. They made it clear that no trace should be revealed without orders, otherwise they would be dealt with according to military law.
Ambush on the road north of Xincheng?
Facing this military order, Xu Ba thought he understood its intention, which was to rob the Liao army coming from the north.
The new city was burned down by fire, and it will be rebuilt next, but it will require a lot of money, which will need to be sent from various places. To the north is the base camp of the Liao Kingdom, so the possibility of coming from here should be the greatest.
Xu Ba was very happy to think that the purpose of ambushing here was for robbery. This proved that their gains were likely to be more.
After leading an army of 10,000 to ambush, Xu Ba soon discovered that things were not as he imagined. The road to the north was very quiet, except for the occasional Liao army passing by on horseback.
Not even a carriage could be seen.
What a joke, the new city has been destroyed, and now there is not even a Liao person in the city. So how can any supplies be transported here without ensuring safety?
Not to mention that Xu Ba was still waiting in ambush outside the city, but Zhang Jian and his army rushed all the way to Anci City. Not only did they not find Su Shi's main army, but he also lost his old nest in the new city.
When he came back here again, Zhang Jian had a look of anger on his face.
When 40,000 troops entered the city, what they saw was a messy city, as well as some incompletely burned remnants that were still emitting black smoke.
"It's gone, it's all gone." Zhang Jian sighed, and his head began to grow.
What was stored here was enough food and grass for three months for the 100,000 troops on the front line, and now it was all taken away.
, this is equivalent to cutting off the daily needs of the 100,000 troops entering the Song Dynasty. This loss is really too great.
Thinking of the millions more lost in a short period of time, Zhang Jian could only sigh and order the army to rest while writing a letter to the capital asking for more grain. In any case, the grain must not be cut off, otherwise the ten troops ahead would
Wan Dajun may change at any time.
When I returned to the new city with my exhausted body, it was already afternoon. The army had only cleared out some inhabited houses, and then ate some military rations and went to sleep.
In the past few days, we have done nothing but run away. Everyone is exhausted.
Zhang Jian was also very tired, but he still wrote the memorial before going to bed and rushed it 800 miles to the upper capital. Then he went to the four city gates to check on the guard situation.
After seeing everything in order, he returned to his small courtyard with peace of mind and fell asleep.
The exhausted Zhang Jian almost fell asleep on the pillow. It didn't take long for him to start snoring, but it didn't take long for him to be awakened by a cry of death.
The sounds of swords clashing, angry curses, and shouts came and went.
After Zhang Jian opened his eyes, he saw a group of soldiers coming to him. They hurriedly put clothes on him, protected him and rushed out.
"What on earth is going on? Why did the Song Army rush into the city?" At this time, Zhang Jian understood what happened, but he really couldn't understand why the Song Army could still be so fast after he had already strengthened the city defense.
invaded the city.
"Sir, the Song army has not finished leaving at all. They still left some people in the city. We did not launch any attacks before.
Now, after we took a rest, they suddenly rushed out and opened the city gate."
