When the enemy he faced was no longer the Huaixi Army, but the main force of the rebels, Li Tingzhi suddenly found that the battle had become more difficult.
He couldn't even grasp the traces of large groups of enemy troops.
Only then did we get news that the main force of the rebels had "already crossed the river."
Zongze, a famous minister of the Song Dynasty, shouted "cross the river" before his death, as if the Huaihe River was a natural chasm for the Song army. However, Li Ni's soldiers and horses crossed the river with such ease.
"Report!"
The messenger sent back by Miao Zaixing hasn't spoken yet, but another soldier came to report the news.
"Rebel cavalry was spotted twenty miles east!"
"Report. General Zhao ordered me to report to Commander Li Jie that the rebel navy has been discovered in the lake to the west and will enter Luzhou from Shuiguan."
This was a situation of encirclement. In other words, the rebels had already discovered the location of the Song army and quietly laid out an encirclement.
But Song Jun didn't notice it at all.
Why?
Because the rebels had fast horses, telescopes, and even the people of Zhunxi reported the news.
The people of Zhunxi still regard Meng Yuan as a benevolent and righteous teacher, let alone the Tang army?
Li Tingzhi thought about this, and his eyes gradually became dull.
Meng Gong, Du Gao once made him believe that no matter whether the country is strong or weak, man can defeat nature.
Not long ago, Wang Xun talked about the general trend of the world, but he did not agree with it and believed that the general trend of the world could be changed manually.
But now he found that he was not determined enough.
If you are determined enough and don't care about the imperial court's bullshit gold medal, you will take back Luzhou half a month ago.
"retreat."
Li Tingzhi had no choice but to give the order. When the sound of gold was heard, the Song army had to give up its offensive on Luzhou and retreat southward like a flowing stream.
"Tell Zhao Huai that I will personally lead the troops to break up the rear and order him to quickly retreat to the river bank to protect the ships."
At this point, the strategic purpose of recapturing Huaixi has completely failed.
Although Wang Xun was conceited and Xia Fuyong was weak, they were quickly supported by the main force of the rebel army.
Li Tingzhi and Zhao Zhun were talented generals, but they were constrained by the imperial court, their food and grass were cut off, and they had no support.
The only comforting thing is that the imperial court had no expectations of recovering Huaixi by force. This retreat was a retreat under the order, and there was not much responsibility for the defeat.
In the next five days, Li Tingzhi fought and retreated, and fought three hundred miles southeast.
This time, they faced the main force of the Tang army that had just defeated Meng Yuan.
In terms of armament, morale, and combat power, the Tang army was at its peak, and could be regarded as the most powerful soldiers in the world. However, the Song army had no food and grass, and it was only supported by will, which was naturally difficult.
Fortunately, they finally retreated to Pukou Ferry.
The Yangtze River is rolling, and there are waves of waves.
The river wind blew on the faces of Song's soldiers, and they no longer had their original vigor.
"Li Jieshuai."
How many people have been ferried?
Li Tingzhi saw Zhao Huai's people rushing forward and immediately asked.
"No, no, the ship is gone."
"What did you say?"
The villain doesn't know, so the commander-in-chief invites you here.
Li Tingzhi rushed to Zhao Huai's army.
Zhao Zhun was standing by the river looking out, when he heard the footsteps and turned his head, he immediately looked guilty.
"Tingzhi, I..."
"Where are the boats?!" Zhao Huai shook his head and said with a bitter look on his face: "When I arrived, all the boats had been brought back to the south bank."
"Zhao Ming?"
Li Tingzhi was so anxious that he could no longer care about anything else and called Zhao Shu by his first name.
"Why is he like this? Why don't you do it right?!"
"I have sent people across the river to contact you and ask my brother to send a boat to pick him up."
"You know, I don't want to escape across the Yangtze River." Li Tingzhi said: "The rebels are chasing so fast. If there are no ships, how can the soldiers return to Yangzhou?!"
"I understand, I understand, I will advance and retreat with you."
"But there's no boat!"
Li Tingzhi became more and more anxious. She turned to look at the empty Yangtze River and felt more and more desperate.
He has not eaten for two days, and the hungrier he gets, the worse his temper becomes.
"Send people across the river again to warn Zhao Shu. If I don't send a ship, I will impeach him! There are also those courtiers behind him who only want to sue for peace. They are a bunch of incompetent rats who occupy high positions and eat nothing!"
As the country declined, he showed this attitude more than once.
"Mou~"
Before the Song army could take a breath, the horn sounded again in the distance.
"That is……"
"The rebels are catching up!"
Li Tingzhi was furious.
"We can't wait for the ships, so we have to retreat immediately! Take the land route to Yangzhou!"
The trumpets sounded louder and louder, and the rebels were getting closer.
Miao Zaicheng, who had been responsible for breaking up the rear for the past few days, knew that his troops could no longer run away, so he stopped retreating.
No matter how Li Tingzhi ordered or urged him, he would never listen.
"Fight to the death! Protect the commander and retreat."
Li Tingzhi looked back and saw Miao Zaicheng's flag standing there, but he could only abandon these subordinates and continue to retreat eastward.
However, the rebels were only held back for half a day, and then they caught up again.
Li Tingzhi knew in her heart that Miao Zaicheng had died in battle, and she couldn't help but burst into tears.
He couldn't even care about his sadness. In short, the situation obviously no longer allowed him to cross the river.
There are still more than a hundred miles away from Yangzhou, so we can only retreat to Liuhe County to guard and take a short rest.
However, Liuhe was just a small town, and more than 30,000 remnant soldiers suddenly came in. There was no food supply in the city.
Li Tingzhi walked through the streets and alleys, and could see the numb faces of the people, full of worry, and they did not welcome Master Wang.
He was more worried.
What I have seen and heard in the past few days can only be described in four words: "heartbroken and heartbroken."
It was night, and I had just taken a nap on a chair while wearing my armor, but another soldier came over in a hurry.
"Handsome."
"What's the matter?"
"Li Tingzhi was frightened and quickly stood up. His face was full of exhaustion, but his eyes were alert. The rebels have sent a messenger to see the commander-in-chief."
"No," Li Tingzhi said, "If you dare to send envoys again, I will kill you."
"yes."
The soldier responded, and after hesitating for a moment, he came back.
"Commander, the other party said that he brought a letter from Lu Xiufu to the commander."
"Junshi?"
Li Tingzhi was stunned for a moment, and then she thought of the talented and ambitious young man back then.
He pondered for a while and finally said: "Since I don't see any rebellion, I asked him to bring Lu Junshi's letter."
"yes."
The soldier hurried away, and after a while, he rushed back to Li Tingzhi with a letter in his hand. Li Tingzhi only took one look and recognized that the handwriting on the envelope did belong to Lu Xiufu.
After several years, Lu Xiufu's handwriting has actually changed a lot. It used to be clean and elegant, but now it has more boldness and vigor.
"Li Gong, Commander-in-Chief of Huaizuo, is well. The students say goodbye. The sun rises and the frost and snow melt. The benevolent wind passes by and sweeps away the thorns. Now Yanyun has regained control and the Central Plains has been cleared. I couldn't help but be overjoyed. I sent a letter to Yanjing and respectfully delivered it.
"Jieyin."
Li Tingzhi thought she would be very angry when she saw the letter.
Actually no.
Lu Xiufu's first words were about the success of recovering the Central Plains. This was Meng Gong's lifelong ambition, and it was also Li Tingzhi's lifelong ambition.
And when he saw that Lu Xiufu wanted to celebrate with him, he felt a little regretful in his heart.
More than ten years ago, it was he who first discovered Lu Xiufu's talents and invited him to serve under the curtain. Looking back now, if that had been the case, I am afraid that people would have missed the great cause of recovering the Central Plains, and now they are as panicked as a lost dog. Looking back,
, you can see from the lines that Lu Xiufu tried his best to tell him what the scene was like in the north and what kind of king Li Xia was.
But Li Tingzhi didn't understand Li Xia.
He has never interacted with the other party
Dao only heard from many news that the other party committed regicide and rebellion.
Only today did he begin to understand Li Xia.
Because at the end of the letter, Lu Xiufu left a sentence and a poem.
The poem expresses the ambition, Your Majesty said, this is not my ambition alone, it is the ambition of a Chinese man.
Li Tingzhi squinted his eyes and looked twice, but stopped, flicked the candle, straightened his clothes, and collected himself.
He also found a bronze mirror and took a look. The candlelight reflected his face, which still looked tired and embarrassed. So he washed his face and trimmed his beard. After doing this, he started to look again.
.
Facing a powerful opponent and a powerful poem, Li Tingzhi was unwilling to deal with it in an embarrassed manner.
This has nothing to do with enemy or friend, this has to do with the man's spirit.
Lin'an.
Xuan De Hall.
The chatter never stopped, so everyone could hear the officials on the imperial couch talking.
Don't kill me don't kill me.
The ministers just pretended not to hear it, lowered their heads slightly, and tried their best to ignore the sound.
However, what cannot be ignored is the increasingly irreversible situation.
The long silence was not because the news hadn't been received yet, but because everyone didn't know how to speak.
"Zhu Xusun, Yang Zhen and Jiangling Mansion surrendered."
"Xia Gui is stationed in Ezhou and seems to have the intention of defecting."
"Jia Sidao did not listen to the edict and led his troops eastward without authorization. He has arrived at Wuhu."
All kinds of bad news came one after another, which stunned the ministers who had finally taken control of the Song Dynasty. Only then did they realize that all their plans were based on peace negotiations.
Queen Mother, the officials gave them power to negotiate peace. Officials, gentry, soldiers, and the people supported them because they did not want to fight.
But once Li Ni refused to negotiate peace, they had no other option.
At this time, there were only two words stuck in everyone's throats.
Move the capital.
No one dared to speak first, but it was Xie Daoqing who spoke first.
Jiang Wanli sent a memorial from Huzhou, please show it to all your ministers.
Chen Yizhong took Jiang Wanli's memorial from Wang Yao and was a little surprised.
According to Jiang Wanli's intention, he advised them to shake hands with Jia Sidao and make peace.
Chen Yizhong immediately felt reluctant, but when he thought about it again, what could he do? Now Jia Sidao looked like a scoundrel who wanted to kill them all before being killed by Li Xia. The court could not fight Jia Sidao first, and then
Fight Li Xia.
Xie Daoqing asked: "What do you think?"
I think that the state of the country is the most important thing, so I can first appease Jia Sidao.
In fact, this kind of confrontation between the emperor and his ministers in Lin'an Palace City had very little effect on changing the situation.
On this day, Zeng Yuanzi arrived late in the middle of the duel with little effect.
Xie Daoqing was displeased and thought it was disrespectful to her, the Queen Mother, who was in charge of the government. She asked, "Why did Mr. Zeng arrive late?"
"Reporting to the Queen Mother, when I left the Privy Council, I suddenly received a report from Zhao Shu, the envoy along the river, saying that the main force of the rebel army had arrived in Zhunxi."
Zeng Yuanzi said: "Zhao Shu also received news that Li Tingzhi had surrendered Li Ni. He did not dare to damage the natural danger of the Yangtze River, so he recalled all the ships on the south bank."
Just these few words made Xie Daoqing turn pale with fright. The main force of the rebels had arrived in Huaixi, which probably meant that the peace talks had failed.
The surrender of Li Tingzhi meant that Huaidong would also be lost. It was said that they should defend the Huai River first, but now that the war started, the Huai River defense line had been completely lost.
Of course, the ships on the north bank of the Yangtze River were all emptied. The court actually didn’t know whether Li Tingzhi really defected...