Lu Fengtai took the telescope from Wang Xun's hand, wiped it carefully twice, and looked out of the city.
I saw Li Tingzhi's flag still flying in the distance, neither attacking nor retreating.
This situation has been going on for several days.
"Don't worry." Wang Xin said: "As long as the peace talks are still going on, the Song army will not take the initiative to attack again."
Lu Fengtai acted more cautiously and said, "But what if Li Tingzhi disobeys Song Ting's order and suddenly attacks us?"
"If he dares to disobey the imperial court, it means he is not pedantic. Then, since he is not pedantic, why does he not surrender but instead launch a sneak attack?"
"What Mr. Wang said is correct, but it's common sense. Everyone has different ideas. Who knows what Li Tingzhi thinks."
"No matter how you think about it, it's too late for him." Wang Xun smiled confidently.
"I hope so. At least there won't be any sneak attacks tonight."
Lu Fengtai handed the telescope back to Wang Shu, but Wang Shu waved his hand and said, "I'll give it to you."
"I'm afraid it's too expensive."
"The army will match you with one, and then you can return it to me."
"Thank you very much."
Lu Fengtai thought in his heart that Wang Xun was a very good person.
And he really liked the sightseeing tube, so he couldn't help but play with it a lot. Even at night, he stood on the top of the city and looked around with the sightseeing tube.
Suddenly, Lu Fengtai's eyes narrowed, and he faintly saw fire flashing in the distance...
~~
Under night, Li Tingzhi was still awake and was waiting for news in the camp.
Finally, the sound of communication sounded outside the tent.
"General."
"Enter."
Before the soldier could finish his words, Li Tingzhi already responded and asked people to come in.
He thought it was the news he was waiting for, but it was Zhao Huai who came in.
"Brother Yuanfu?" Li Tingzhi raised his head, a little surprised, and said, "You came here late at night, do you want to tell me that you are going to withdraw?"
Zhao Huai waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, I never meant this."
The reason why the two of them said this was because the imperial court had already handed them gold medals and quickly recalled them back to the army.
Including Zhao Shu in Jiankang Prefecture, they had no choice but to cut off the food and grass provided to them.
They did not dare to disobey the order and had promised to return as soon as possible, but in fact they were just trying to delay it for some time.
At this time, Zhao Huai slowly sat down in the tent and said, "I came here to find that the commander is preparing to attack the city, right?"
Li Tingzhi stroked his long beard and said: "I can't hide it from Brother Yuanfu. Not long after the new rebellion in Luzhou, there are still many people in the city who are loyal to the Song Dynasty. I have already contacted them."
"But seeing that this change has not yet occurred and the food and grass have been exhausted, the commander-in-chief is determined to disobey the imperial court's order?"
Li Tingzhi did not answer immediately. He stood up and opened the curtain, looked into the distance for a while, and asked: "Yue Fei received the gold medal back then. If he refused to teach, could he have recovered the Central Plains?"
“How can we win the war if we run out of food and grass?”
"Then if Gaozong knew that the Jin people had no intention of negotiating peace and would destroy the Song Dynasty, would he still recall Yue Fei?"
"The Jin people still have no confidence in governing the Central Plains, so they naturally want to negotiate for peace."
"Li Xia doesn't want to." Li Tingzhi said: "I dare to guarantee with my life that Li Xia has no intention of negotiating peace."
Zhao Huai sighed and said, "Even if I add this life, the court won't believe it. What can I do?"
"If the Tang army is ready to cross the Huaihe River, will your brother dare to support us?"
"real?"
"I have appointed envoys for the Huaidong system, and my brother has appointed envoys for the Yanjiang system. They are all responsible for defending against the enemy. If the main force of the rebels invades, it is natural to send troops."
Zhao Huai asked again: "Is the news accurate?"
Li Tingzhi walked to the map and pointed twice.
"Brother Yuanfu, please look at this. Once we get the news that the main force of the rebels has crossed the river, we will immediately go north to capture Luzhou. If we move north quickly, we can attack the rebels halfway across the river..."
"The rebels have really gone south? But Wang Xun still negotiated peace with the court yesterday."
"Young man Wang Xun can never be trusted." Li Tingzhi said: "As for the news about the rebels, I'm still waiting, but I trust my judgment."
Zhao Huai looked at it for a while and couldn't help but sigh.
"I'm afraid the officials are not as dedicated as the commander-in-chief to the country."
Of course he can see Li Tingzhi's dedication, otherwise he could just withdraw his troops and go back to enjoy peace and quiet, so why bother working so hard here?
The two talked for a while, thinking that there would be no news tonight.
At this moment, soldiers came over in a hurry.
"Commander, some news has arrived."
"quick……"
Li Tingzhi, who had slept very little recently, immediately became energetic.
After a while, some soldiers were led into his tent.
"Have you seen Tang Jun?"
The soldier had just come in and suddenly heard such a question and answered quickly.
"I saw it."
"How many people are there? Where are they?"
"I don't know how many people there are, but...looking at the momentum, it's possible that they have passed through Ezhou."
"Eh... where did you say?!"
Li Tingzhi and Zhao Huai were both surprised and stood up at the same time.
"You don't know!" The soldier was frightened and quickly knelt down on the ground, saying: "Our group was defeated in Jiangling. We took a boat down the river and never saw the Tang army again. We were captured after arriving at Jiankang Mansion.
We were sent to report, but we don’t know where the Tang army is!”
"What do you mean... Jiangling was defeated?" Li Tingzhi said in disbelief: "The army of 200,000 was defeated?"
Zhao Huai said: "Is what you said true? The rebels were negotiating for peace and sending troops at the same time?"
"We sent out troops. It should be a big defeat..."
This soldier was among the fastest to escape from the battlefield, and he didn't know much, so Zhao Shu simply had him sent to Li Tingzhi, and Zhao Huai made his own judgment.
This incident was nothing short of a bolt from the blue for Li Tingzhi.
He and Jia Sidao once served under Meng Gong. Although he disdained Jia Sidao's character, he still trusted his ability. He never thought that such a defeat would occur on the upper battlefield.
"..."
"Retreat?" Zhao Huai asked: "If Jinghu has been lost, I'm afraid we can only retreat and defend the Yangtze River."
Li Tingzhi was thinking.
At this moment, he did think about retreating.
But in the end he shook his head.
"No."
"Why?"
"Lu Wenhuan is still guarding Xiangyang." Li Tingzhi said: "With him here, the situation in Jinghu may not be irreversible, but the premise is that we have to take back Huaixi."
"good."
Zhao Huai nodded and agreed immediately.
The situation before us is this. If we retreat in Huaixi today, Lu Wenhuan will be defeated tomorrow. Even if we retreat across the river, we will not be able to defend the Song Dynasty.
No matter how difficult or dangerous it is, we can only face it.
"Brother Yuan Fu, you and I will each send people to ask Brother Ling for support." Li Tingzhi said: "Since the rebels have sent troops to attack Jiangling, it can be seen that they have no intention of negotiating peace. The court should not repay expectations."
Zhao Huai was disappointed when he heard this.
He was disappointed that they could have retaken Luzhou with a thunderous force, but it was delayed due to the weakness of the peace negotiators.
It seemed like he was being played by Li Ni from beginning to end.
At the same time, he knew very well that it was not Li Shunneng who manipulated them with his clever calculations, but that every time the Song Dynasty fought, it was like this and then that.
~~
Before dawn, someone else rushed to Li Tingzhi's tent.
"Commander, I found it!"
A small letter was handed to Li Tingzhi.
"At the end of the night, I went to the place where I found the letter and arrow again, raised a fire to remind the other party, and sure enough, I received the second letter."
Li Tingzhi unfolded the letter arrow and took a look, finally looking more excited.
Zhao Huai asked: "Have we contacted him? Is this person trustworthy?"
"Brother Yuanfu, please take a look."
Zhao Huai read the letter and found that the person who wrote the letter called himself Du Fan, a lieutenant general in the Luzhou army. He called Li Tingzhi his uncle and expressed his willingness to open the city gate for the Song army.
"Du Fan?"
"The grandson of Du Shangshu."
In this way, Zhao Huai should understand.
During the Duanping period, Mongolia invaded the south. Fortunately, Du Gao rescued Chuzhou, defeated the enemy in Anfeng, won a great victory in Luzhou, defeated the Mongolian army in Huaixi, and defended the Song Dynasty.
"After being loyal and good, you must be trustworthy."
"Then contact Du Fan and ask him to open the city gate tonight..."
The plan was decided, and Li Tingzhi got ready.
There is not much time left for him. He needs to seize Luzhou, defend the Huaihe River, contact Xiangyang, and counterattack Jiangling before the rebels in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River attack...
These are difficult to do.
But in fact, there was one person who did it in the past - Meng Gong.
That year, the Mongolian army conquered Jinghu, and the situation was no less serious than today. However, Meng Gong fought hard in many places, defended Jiangling, recovered Xiangfan, and supported Sichuan and Shu. The Mongols were defeated with overwhelming force.
Li Tingzhi was working under Meng Gong at the time and witnessed this process of turning the tide with his own eyes.
Now that the Song Dynasty is suffering again, it is his turn to defend the country.
He didn't want to surrender, because Meng Gong once told others to conquer the sky, and he really did it...