After Wang Lusheng and Wang Yong left, Zhang Ziqi asked: "General Han, do you think what this person said is credible?"
Han Jin pondered for a moment and said: "It sounds more believable. Since Li Hui's army was completely annihilated, the imperial court has less than 100,000 available troops. They can only recruit new soldiers, so Han Shizhong's half of the new army and half of the veterans is completely consistent with the facts, and Han Shizhong
When passing through the mountainous area, we cannot carry siege weapons and can only move lightly with light troops. This is no problem. If our army goes south and challenges Han Shizhong's army, we can completely overwhelm the opponent with superior force."
"General Han means that we attack?"
Han Jin nodded, "Han Shizhong just wants to drag us along Jiangnan West Road. The confrontation between the two armies is in his interests, not ours. I think we should take the initiative."
"Do you want to ask the prince for instructions?" Zhang Ziqi hesitated and asked.
"Marshal, the prince is far away in Yangzhou. He has been going back and forth for at least half a time, delaying the military aircraft. Moreover, the prince is aggressively attacking Jiangnan. If the marshal annihilates Han Shizhong's army and attacks Lin'an Prefecture from the southwest, it will be of great help to the prince's main battlefield.
"
In fact, Han Jin was very dissatisfied with Zhang Ziqi in his heart. He was mediocre, timid, cowardly, and irresponsible. Although his military strength was far superior to the opponent's, he was timid and led an army of 100,000 to defend a city alone. He was the marshal of Jiangnan West Road, and
Not the Nanchang County Guard.
But Zhang Ziqi is the prince's eldest son and will inherit the throne in the future, so Han Jin must endure it no matter how dissatisfied he is.
Zhang Ziqi hesitated for a long time and asked: "What will happen to Nanchang County if our army goes south?"
"Marshal, it is impossible for our entire army to go south. We must leave at least 10,000 troops to defend the city."
"Isn't that ninety thousand versus sixty thousand?"
Han Jin was about to explode. He gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, the other side also wants to leave troops to defend the city. It is impossible for all of them to go out to fight!"
"So that's it, let's try it!"
Zhang Ziqi finally relented. Han Jin was afraid that he would regret it, so he immediately went out and shouted the order, "Send the order for the entire army to assemble, and the army is ready to go south!"
In the afternoon of that day, the Huaixi Army left 10,000 troops to guard the city, while 90,000 troops led by Zhang Ziqi and Han Jin marched towards Fuzhou in a mighty manner.
At the same time that the Huaixi Army in Nanchang took the initiative to attack, Zhang Jun also launched an attack on Zhenjiang Prefecture on the Yangtze River.
Wu Gao led 20,000 troops to blockade the dock of Zhenjiang Prefecture. The warships full of soldiers approached the dock slightly, and arrows rained down immediately. Countless gunpowder arrows were shot at the warships, and trebuchets were thrown at the big ships. Several big ships were blocked.
The gunpowder arrows and fire poles were ignited, and they had to turn around and leave.
Wu Gao was rich in experience. He established a three-layer defense system: far distance, middle distance and near distance. Large ships on the river used trebuchets to throw firecrackers at long distances. In the middle distance, they used divine arm crossbows to shoot gunpowder arrows, specifically to deal with ships that were about to dock.
From a distance, dense crossbow arrows were used to kill the soldiers disembarking from the ship.
From noon to dark, nearly a hundred large ships docked in turn, but no soldiers on any large ship could successfully land. Hundreds of warships simply moored in the Yangtze River, seemingly waiting for something?
"Du Tong, something is not right!"
Commander Song Yun whispered to Wu Gao: "I feel that the opponent did not attack with all their strength. There is no way they can land if they attack like this."
Wu Lao also felt something strange in his heart. The opponent's attack was indeed very conservative. No soldiers forcibly disembarked. They retreated immediately after being attacked. They must have done this for a purpose. What kind of medicine was sold in the opponent's gourd?
At this moment, a soldier rushed to report, "Du Tong, something bad has happened. Dantu City was attacked by the enemy and has been captured!"
"What?"
Wu Gao's eyes widened suddenly, how could this happen? Where did the enemy army come from?
"How many enemy troops are attacking the county?" Wu Ji asked anxiously.
"About five thousand people!"
There are three thousand defenders in the city. If the opponent only has five thousand people, they can still hold on for a while.
Wu Gao urgently ordered: "General Song, lead 5,000 people to urgently rescue Dantu County!"
"Follow the order!"
Song Yun immediately led his five thousand soldiers and rushed to Dantu County, three miles away.
At this time, Wu Zuo was in a state of confusion. Why did the enemy suddenly appear behind him? No wonder the enemy's attack was so strange. It turned out that they had an arrangement.
No! Wu Zhang suddenly realized that the opponent must have landed from somewhere else, such as Jiangning Mansion, and if they came to kill them, there would definitely be more than 5,000 people.
Song Yun led his army to rescue the city and would definitely be ambushed. He hurriedly ordered his soldiers: "Run immediately to inform General Song to withdraw, there will be an ambush!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard screams in the distance, followed by loud shouts of killing. It was in the direction of Song Yun's army, and they were ambushed.
At this time, someone shouted: "The enemy is coming!"
There were also shouts of killing in the west, and only countless figures appeared in the distance in the darkness, and arrows were shot towards this direction like a rain of arrows.
"Hold it!"
Wu Ga yelled. At this time, he could no longer take care of Song Yun and urged his horse to run towards where the enemy soldiers came from. "Brothers, follow me!"
More than 10,000 Song soldiers followed Wu Gao to the west to fight.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The drums beat like thunder, and 20,000 Huaixi troops came from the west to cover up the enemy. They fought fiercely with the Song army. At this time, Song Yun led the rest of his troops to retreat and joined forces with Wu Gao, 10,000 of them.
The Huaixi army came from the north.
Thirty-five thousand Huaixi troops crossed the river from Yangzi County, Jiangning Prefecture. Five thousand troops attacked Zhenjiang County. Ten thousand troops were ambushed halfway to ambush the Song troops who were going to rescue the county town. Another twenty thousand main force attacked the Song troops at the dock across the board.
The sound of war drums was a signal. The warships full of soldiers in the river approached the dock again. At the front were three ten thousand stone ships. Each warship was loaded with a thousand soldiers. The strong defense disappeared.
The soldiers began to disembark quickly and assemble.
Three thousand soldiers gathered together, and then three large ships docked, and another three thousand soldiers disembarked. Six thousand soldiers gathered together to form a protective wall to protect other warships from docking.
More and more ships docked, and more and more soldiers appeared in the team, soon exceeding 10,000 people.
Cao Zongqin, the governor of the capital, shouted: "Beat the drums and go to war!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The war drums sounded on the shore, and Cao Zongqin led 13,000 soldiers to kill the Song army from behind.
The Song army was attacked from both sides. Wu Gao knew that the situation was over and shouted: "The whole army is following me to break through the encirclement!"
"Woo--Woo--"
The horn sounded for the Song army to break out of the encirclement. Wu Gao led his army to break through the encirclement to the south. More than 10,000 soldiers followed Wu Gao and retreated to the south.
Tens of thousands of Huaixi troops did not chase, but seized the opportunity to occupy Zhenjiang City and the dock to protect the main force crossing the river.
It was getting daylight. Wu Gao's army had withdrawn to Danyang County, fifty miles away, and gathered some of the scattered troops. The number of his troops increased to more than 13,000, but he still lost more than 6,000. The key
Because the dock was not defended, Dantu County was also lost.
Danyang County is not a small town, but there is no food in the city. The food is all in Dantu County, which was captured by the enemy.
With no choice but to lead his army to retreat quickly along the canal to Changzhou, Jinling County in Changzhou has more food, a tall and strong city wall, and two to three thousand defenders in the city, plus his own ten thousand to three thousand people.
Jinling County can be defended.
Wu Gao sent people to report to the court, and he led 13,000 troops to quickly rush to Jinling County, a hundred miles away.
In the afternoon, all the 100,000 troops crossed the Yangtze River, and Zhang Jun also crossed the Yangtze River.
Zhang Jun was very satisfied with the outcome of last night's battle. It was all Yang Shi's strategy. He immediately rewarded Yang Shi with three thousand taels of silver and promised to make him prime minister after he ascends the throne.
Yang Shi was a little scared. Last night's strategy was completely implemented according to Chen Qing's plan. He was just a puppet. Everything was under the control of King Yong Chen Qing. Yang Shi had a deeper understanding of the feeling of being a chess piece.