Tang Qian returned to the Dengzhou military camp. After receiving the news, Liu Qiong personally welcomed Tang Qian out of the camp, comforted Tang Qian, and everyone returned to the military camp.
Tang Qian took a breath and sighed: "Fortunately, I am still a scout leader, and I was caught by the opponent. It is really embarrassing. Fortunately, the opponent is not a golden soldier, otherwise my life will not be saved."
"It's precisely because the other party is not a golden soldier that you let your guard down. You went to inquire about the information, not to spy on it. The meaning is different."
Speaking of this, Liu Qiong added: "I received a military order from His Highness, requiring us to seize Ruzhou and connect Henan Prefecture with Ruzhou, Dengzhou and Tangzhou."
Tang Qian was refreshed and said with a smile: "It seems that I came back at the right time!"
Liu Qiong nodded, spread out a map and said, "Actually, I'm still a little worried!"
He pointed at the map and said: "To the northwest of Dengzhou is Xiong'er Mountain, which stretches for thousands of miles, and to the northeast is Fangcheng Mountain, which stretches for hundreds of miles. With these two mountains blocking it, I am not worried that the Jin soldiers will attack Dengzhou. If they want to attack Dengzhou,
If we want to conquer Dengzhou, we must first capture Tangzhou and use Tangzhou to attack Dengzhou."
"So the general is only worried about Xiangyang?" Tang Qian understood what Liu Qiong meant.
"Yes! If Yue Fei's army in Xiangyang takes advantage of our march north to help us attack the Jin Kingdom and annex Dengzhou, there is nothing we can do."
Tang Qian pondered for a while and said: "Now it seems that Xiangyang has no intention of attacking us, at least there is no atmosphere to send troops, and it seems that something has happened to Yue Fei, and he may be detained by the imperial court in Lin'an."
"what happened?"
"I heard Cai Kejian say that it was a lie that the imperial court attacked Jinghu South Road, but that depriving Yue Fei of his military power was true. Of course, this is just their internal rumor and cannot be taken as true for the time being."
Liu Qiong nodded, "But at least it shows that the imperial court has no intention of attacking north. They are still bound by the armistice agreement between Song and Jin Dynasties."
"So we don't have to worry about the Song army in Xiangyang, we should concentrate on dealing with the Jin soldiers."
Liu Qiong smiled and said: "You are right, it is not a man's behavior to look forward and backward. We should face Jin Bing directly."
Liu Qiong pointed to the map and said: "The Jin soldiers have nothing more than two routes to attack us. One is to attack Tangzhou and take our back route, and the other is to support Ruzhou. Of course, the opponent can take both routes."
"Whose army will the other side send to support?"
"It should be Li Cheng. There is Li Cheng's garrison over at Yingchang Mansion, but I don't know if it is Li Cheng himself."
Tang Qian immediately concluded: "Soldiers are valuable and quick, we will send troops overnight to capture Ruzhou tonight!"
That night, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian led 20,000 cavalry northward, followed by 10,000 camels loaded with grain and grass. Two days later, they passed through the gap in the basin between Xiong'er Mountain and Fangcheng Mountain and entered the Ruzhou area.
Wherever the Song army went, they received warm welcomes from the people along the way. People in each village rushed out to eat pots of pulp to welcome their troops.
"Long live! Long live King Yong!"
Wherever he went, the people raised their arms and shouted, unable to contain their excitement.
The court and the emperor ruthlessly abandoned them, but King Yong did not hesitate to save them and never regarded them as a burden.
They had heard more than a month ago that King Yong's army was coming to kill them. The people had been waiting in anticipation. Finally, King Yong's army was coming. How could they not be excited?
The Song army passed through the densely populated plain area and entered the hilly area. At night, the army camped under a hill in the north of Longxing County.
There is a clear spring flowing down the hill. The water is extremely clear and sweet. In many cases, water is even more important to soldiers than food.
However, Chen Qing had already issued a strict order that during the march, no matter how clear the water was, it must be boiled for drinking.
The soldiers implemented this rule very well. The first thing they did when they stopped was to boil water for cooking.
Put down the marching stove, light the honeycomb briquettes, boil a pot of water, cook a large pot of gnocchi, and put in various seasonings. Each soldier put in a piece of dried sea fish, each holding a large bowl, and squatted aside to eat.
Got up.
Then he continued to boil water and filled each soldier's water bottle. He continued to work until nightfall, when the soldiers had eaten and drank enough, and fed the war horses with feed and water before lying down to rest.
At this time, just thirty miles away to the north, an army of ten thousand people was marching rapidly eastward.
This army was the 10,000 troops commanded by Zhang Zhongxiong. These 10,000 troops had previously gone from Dengzhou to support Luoyang. When they were approaching Yique Pass, they got the news that Dengzhou had been captured by the Song army. At this time, Zhang Zhongxiong got the news from Wanyanwu.
Shu Shu ordered his army to defend Ruzhou, and ordered Li Cheng's army to support Zhang Zhongxiong.
Zhang Zhongxiong's army went south from Liang County in the northwest, followed the official road on the south bank of Ru River, and went to Xiangcheng County, more than 300 miles away, to join Li Cheng's army. At this time, the team was marching in Longxing County, and Zhang Zhongxiong and
I didn’t know that the main force of the Song Army was thirty miles away to the south, and it was night again. If no accident occurred, the two sides would have passed each other like this.
Unfortunately, thirty miles is not a safe distance. In the dark night, a group of scout cavalry galloped up from the south path. This was the scout cavalry sent by the Song Army. They suddenly reined in their horses and looked at the people several miles ahead in surprise.
Official road, there was a large army marching on the official road in front, and the torches in the hands of the soldiers looked like a long flaming dragon.
"Watch out!" shouted the leader of the capital.
Dozens of arrows were shot at them in the darkness. Several soldiers screamed and fell off their horses after being struck by the arrows.
"There's an ambush, retreat!"
A dozen cavalrymen turned their horses and ran towards the road. Suddenly, hundreds of ambush soldiers appeared on both sides. Countless spears stabbed at them. An enemy general shouted: "Kill them all, don't let them escape!"
The scout cavalry fought desperately to break through the encirclement. They fought a bloody path, and the leader of the capital and two cavalrymen broke out of the encirclement and fled southward. There were fifteen of them in total, but only three of them broke through in the end.
The leading general asked for news from several injured soldiers who were not dead, and hurried to report to Zhang Zhongxiong.
Zhang Zhongxiong was furious, whipped the general across the head and face with a whip, and cursed: "Five hundred soldiers surrounded fifteen cavalry, and three of them escaped. Are you all shit eaters?"
The general bowed his head and reported: "I have interrogated an enemy soldier who is still alive. Liu Qiong's main force is thirty miles away to the south, with a total of 20,000 cavalry. I am afraid they will soon know about our existence."
"Shit! If you kill them all, don't you know?"
Zhang Zhongxiong wanted to chop up the useless bastard in front of him with a knife, but he had no choice but to order: "The whole army should speed up!"
The ten thousand soldiers accelerated their march and began to run.
Half an hour later, Liu Qiong received the report from the scouts. He was shocked and immediately sent someone to find Tang Qian.
"General, what happened?"
Tang Qian took a nap and was woken up by the soldiers. They said something big had happened, so he hurried over.
"Our scouts discovered the enemy's main force on the official road to the north and were moving to the east. Our fifteen scouts were surrounded by the enemy, and only three of them escaped."
Tang Qian reacted immediately, "Then it's very likely that the other party also knows about us. Why does the general think they moved?"
Liu Qiong said slowly: "I think the other side's reinforcements don't want to stay away from Yingchang Mansion, so Xiangcheng County has the greatest possibility of letting Zhang Zhongxiong go over to join them."
Ruzhou has three major counties, Beiliang County, Nanye County, Dongxiangcheng, and Xiangcheng County. The city is tall and solid, has a large population, rich food reserves, and is close to Yingchang Prefecture. Li Cheng’s reinforcements must have come from Xiangcheng County.
As the base of logistics, Zhang Zhongxiong must have withdrawn to Xiangcheng County.
Liu Qiong and Tang Qian immediately reached an agreement that Zhang Zhongxiong's army could not be allowed to merge with the reinforcements, and Zhang Zhongxiong's 10,000 troops must be annihilated before the two armies merged.
Liu Qiong immediately ordered the entire army to stop resting, pack up and set off. It was still the fourth watch, and the 20,000 cavalrymen packed their luggage and mounted their horses, leaving 2,000 troops in Longxing County to protect the logistics of 10,000 camels, and the remaining 18,000