Outside Lu Wende's big tent, two soldiers were whispering.
"The Sixth General came here last night and talked all night long, but he still hasn't slept yet."
"I'm afraid something big has happened and something bad has happened."
"Hush, be careful to punish us for confusing the morale of the army..."
The two immediately became quiet and did not dare to say any more words.
The barracks further away were still peaceful and orderly.
Chen Yuanbin woke up from his sleep, straightened his clothes and walked out of the tent. The autumn wind blew on his face, feeling refreshed.
Looking up, the scenery in Longzhong is uniquely beautiful. The mountains are not high but elegant, and the water is not deep but clear. It reminds people of Zhuge Liang's hard work in Nanyang.
He couldn't help but recite Li Bai's poems with his hands behind his hands.
"Chifu brought about bad luck, and Wolong gained Kongming. When it was Nanyang, Long Mu was self-cultivated. Fish and water came together, and storms arose all over the world."
What made him even more emotional were the following sentences that he didn't read out.
When Zhuge Liang did not rise to prominence, Cui Zhouping praised him the most. Now Chen Yuanbin also regards himself as a common man who serves the country and cares for the people. With Lu Wende's support, he may not be able to be famous and achieve great things in the future...
"Sir." A soldier came forward and interrupted Chen Yuanbin's leisurely mood, saying: "Sir, please come to the big tent to discuss matters."
"Now? You haven't eaten yet..."
"Sir, please come to the big tent immediately to discuss matters."
Chen Yuanbin immediately felt that Lu Wende valued him and was quite encouraged.
"Shaobao, you want to see me as soon as you wake up?"
The messenger had a straight face and didn't say much. He just raised his hand to signal him to come over.
All the way into the tent, Chen Yuanbin seemed to have stepped on something under his feet. Chen Yuanbin had no time to pay attention. He first bowed to Lu Wende gracefully, then turned around and saw that Lu Wenhuan was also there.
"The Sixth General actually..."
Before he finished speaking, Lu Wende strode forward, swung open his arm as thick as a tree trunk, and slapped Chen Yuanbin on the face.
"Snapped!"
Chen Yuanbin fell completely, his vision went dark, and he felt that his neck was almost broken due to the huge force, and then he felt a stinging pain on his face.
"I'll beat you up, you idiot!" Lu Wende yelled.
After a while, Chen Yuanbin's vision gradually became clearer. He knelt on the ground and looked at Lu Wende in shock. He recalled his recent plans and plans, but he still didn't know where the flaw appeared.
"Shaobao, I..."
"Damn it! I've already said that the strategy of the Hozen is not simple. If you insist on saying it's impossible, it's impossible. I'll spend money to hire a fool like you!"
After listening for a while, Chen Yuanbin realized that the "dog hozen" referred to Li Xia, but he didn't understand how Li Xia could break the situation.
"Did Li Ni break through? Student..."
"Breakout?" Lu Wende cursed a few more times, and his anger finally began to subside.
At least Li Ni hasn't broken through yet.
This day, messengers continued to send back more detailed battle reports.
The Yuan army stationed in the Lumen Mountain area has begun to provide the Song army with information about the Tang army.
Lu Wende summoned the generals to discuss, and Chen Yuanbin finally gradually figured out what happened.
"Shi Jun led an army of 10,000 to 20,000 people, marched from Chang'an to Shangzhou, and left Wuguan..."
"Ten thousand or twenty thousand?"
"It's not clear yet."
"How come the rebels have so many troops?"
"It is estimated that Li Ni had nearly 200,000 men. Deducting the garrisons in various places, the troops needed to defend against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, as well as the troops in Xingqing Prefecture and Hetao, he could muster at most more than 50,000 men to attack the Song Dynasty... At present, this is indeed the case
More than 50,000 people."
Lu Wende was furious and shouted: "Didn't you say that he only has 20,000 to 30,000 navy troops?"
"Shao Bao, please calm down. Shi Jun must be leading infantry."
Chen Yuanbin raised his hand timidly and said: "The offensive in Jiangling Mansion has not been fierce, and the ones led by Jiang Cai may not be skilled navymen."
Lu Wende gave him a cold look, his eyes full of distrust.
Instead, Lu Wenhuan nodded and said, "Yes, the soldiers led by Shi Jun are probably good at both land and water combat... Let's continue talking."
"After Shi Jun led his troops to leave Wuguan, they bypassed Nanyang..."
Lu Wende interrupted again and shouted: "How is it possible to bypass Nanyang so easily?!"
"Since we negotiated peace with the Meng Yuan Dynasty, Dong Wenbing has drawn a large number of troops from Nanyang to Tongguan. Moreover, since Li Ni personally went to the Han River, almost all the remaining Yuan troops in Nanyang have been attracted to the vicinity of the Han River to prevent Li Ni from escaping. Including
The Yuan army's scouting horses were all wandering around."
"Another point is that after Shi Jun's troops left Wuguan, they did not go south, but eastward. They followed the mountain road and bypassed the Nanyang Yuan Army's garrison, passed through Tongshan, passed Caizhou, and after being discovered, they went straight to Xinyang...
… "
Chen Yuanbin was shocked when he heard this.
He recalled that he had said that Li Xia only had two waterways to attack the Song Dynasty. This was true, but taking a detour from the Mongolian and Yuan territory was beyond the topic of "Li's counterattack against the Song Dynasty".
"It's impossible. With the speed of the Yuan army's reconnaissance, it only took a few days to deliver this news. How could it be possible that Shi Jun's troops traveled from Nanyang to Xinyang in less than ten days? How could the rebels attack the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties so quickly?
shuttle?"
Lu Wenhuan closed his eyes.
How can it be?
These people only shout "Mongolia is strong, Mongolia is strong", but they don't think about where Mongolia is strong or what its weaknesses are. When something goes wrong, they just shout "How is it possible?"
At that time, Qingyang Mengyan led his army all the way north to Cangzhou, Hebei Province, which was only more than 300 miles away from Yanjing. The Manchu Dynasty was also in disbelief. After the disbelief, they began to clamor to regain the Central Plains.
I don't want to change my mind and think about how the Mongols think about things. I just use my own thoughts to ask why the Mongols didn't defend the city.
This is just like the people of the Song Dynasty who cultivated the land and did not allow anyone to step on the fields; while the Mongolians herded cattle and sheep, only caring that their cattle and sheep would not get lost, and did not care who stepped on the grassland.
Now, Li Ni's rebels are running through the Mongolian pastures, but the people of Song Dynasty are still wondering how the Mongols can let people trample on their crops.
"What does Shi Jun want to do after he captures Xinyang?" Chen Yuanbin finally came to his senses and regretted blurting out a nonsense question. He should be the one giving advice to the Lu family brothers.
He swallowed, looked at the map, and tried to calm down.
"Xinyang... they can go south to attack Ezhou, or they can go southeast and attack the important town of Taipingzhou. But they can't cross the Yangtze River... maybe they want to attack us by surprise."
Lu Wenhuan still recognized Chen Yuanbin's intelligence. After all, no one thought that the rebels would detour to the Mongolian territory, including himself. And the commander-in-chief could not cover everything, and still needed staff to fill in the gaps.
"I think he probably wants to attack Ezhou." Lu Wenhuan said: "But the more times like this, the less likely it is to be chaotic. Before we get Shi Jun's specific movements, we..."
"Report!"
There were shouts and shouts outside the camp.
Lu Wende sat on the main seat with a displeased look on his face and said nothing. Lu Wenhuan ordered the messenger to be let in.
"Report! The Yuan people from Lumen Mountain sent a letter saying that yesterday afternoon they had a spy horse and saw the movements of the rebels at Sanligang, more than 70 miles south of Zaoyang..."
"So fast?"
Lu Wenhuan was startled and quickly looked at the map and muttered to himself: "It's actually heading west again. Isn't it going straight to Ezhou...is it to relieve Li Ni's siege?"
He has been in Xiangyang and does not understand Lu Wende's route from Ezhou to the north for support, so he has not yet reacted to some things.
Chen Yuanbin exclaimed, "Ship! Ship!"
Lu Wende, who was sitting on the main seat with Ma Jin Dao, suddenly stood up and became furious.
Lu Wenhuan pointed his finger at Xiangyang on the map, pointed down the Han River, and said: "Brother, did you stop the ship in Yicheng?"
"Um."
Lu Wende responded dullly, his face becoming more sinister.
When he came to surround Li Xia, he went all the way up the Han River to Yicheng, abandoned his ship and took the land route, bypassed Longzhong to the west and captured Gucheng first.
However, thousands of militiamen were left behind, and trackers moved the boats
They all arrived in Xiangyang. Most of the days have passed, but a small part is still in Yicheng.
"The dog thief Shi Jun wants to rob the ship and sail down the river?"
"Not necessarily." Chen Yuanbin analyzed: "It is possible that he came from Zaoyang and attacked us in the back."
"If you can't be my mastermind, I'll kill you with a knife..."
"Dong, dong, dong, dong." Suddenly there was a faint sound of drums in the distance.
The whistling sound came from far to near.
"Li Ni is about to break out!"
"Stop him!"
"Don't leave, Li Ni..."
Just now, Lu Wende wished he could kill Shi Jun immediately, but now he realized that he could not tolerate Li Xia, who was already trapped in a desperate situation, to escape.
He was impatient and wanted to personally supervise the battle and besiege Li Xia.
"Zhang Yanran, you bring 10,000 troops and go south quickly to stop Shi Jun. Sixth brother, your people are more familiar with the terrain of Xiangyang, so send a team of troops to assist him."
"yes."
"Stop Shi Jun for me."
After Lu Wende gave his instructions, he strode out of the camp. Chen Yuanbin raised his head and glanced at his back, shocked and terrified.
Standing outside the tent was a messenger from the Yuan Dynasty who came from Lumen Mountain. He happened to see Chen Yuanbin's frightened expression, and with a thought in his mind, he immediately wanted to bribe...
~~
Lu Wende's general Zhang Yanran received the military order, but he could not immediately raise his troops to go south.
Soldiers needed to be gathered, logistics needed to be arranged, the route needed to be planned, and the scouting horses needed to be arranged... It was not until the afternoon that Zhang Yanran was finally able to lead his army and leave the Longzhong Camp.
He had been paying attention to the war in the direction of the Han River, hoping that Lu Wende could annihilate Li Ni and determine the victory, so that he would not have to stop Shi Jun again.
It's a pity that the rebel army led by Li Ni himself is powerful and cannot be defeated in a day or two...
After leaving Xiangyang City, Zhang Yanran saw the grazing field on the east bank of the Han River and the small fortress on Lumen Mountain, and thought to himself, didn't this allow the Yuan army to drive a nail into Xiangyang?
Not long after the march, the sky darkened.
This Song army had military orders and did not dare to delay. They marched all night. Fortunately, they marched along the Han River. Although the speed was slow, they could barely keep up with the light of the stars and the moon.
The detective horses dispersed and found no trace of the rebel Shi Junbu, which made Zhang Yanran breathe a sigh of relief.
At dawn, we are already very close to Yicheng.
Looking from a distance, the front is still calm, which at least indicates that Shi Jun has not arrived yet...
"Report!"
Zhang Yanran's eyelids twitched, and he looked around and saw a group of defeated soldiers escaping from the woods. They kept waving because they saw the flag of the Song Dynasty.
He already guessed what happened.
"Report to the general that the rebels captured Yicheng Pier last night, robbed our ships and baggage, and moved down the river..."