It was the end of the year, the weather was cold, and the army was not moving very fast. Rainy days would further slow down the speed.
It took more than half a month for the army to pass through Qingliu Pass along the Nang River, then cross the Chi River and arrive at Haozhou.
Jia Lu's army was besieging Haozhou. Jiangnan's army went around to the north of Haozhou, camped five miles away from Jia Lu's army camp, and then sent people to invite Jia Lu to come over to discuss matters.
After Jia Lu came to the Chinese army's tent, he immediately proposed to break Haozhou first and then go to Xuzhou.
First, Timur sneered and said: "General Jia, go to Xuzhou with the army. Let me help you solve the mess here in Haozhou!"
Jia Lu's face changed slightly and he stared at him and said, "What do you mean by that?"
The king of Xining said with a smile: "You have been fighting Haozhou for so long without making any achievements. You should let General Ye Xian fight for you, otherwise Haozhou may never be defeated!"
Dong Tuanxiao said in a deep voice: "What the prince said is wrong. There are more than 50,000 rebels in Haozhou. General Jia can defeat the rebels with 30,000 horses and besiege Haozhou City. It is already a great achievement!"
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Ye Xian sneered and said: "The 30,000 men under him are my brother's elite troops. Anyone else can easily surround the Haozhou bandits. What kind of credit is that?"
Yang Tongguan folded his arms, stood behind Dong Tuanxiao, and said sarcastically: "I don't know who led the 300,000 elites of the imperial court, but was beaten to pieces by tens of thousands of red scarf thieves!"
Ye Xian's face instantly turned red, and he pointed at Yang Tongguan and said, "Who are you? You have no right to speak here!"
The King of Xining knew very well that Yang Tongguan was a tiger general, and his Miao soldiers were all his own troops. He was afraid that he would lead the troops back, so he persuaded him to make peace: "Okay, there is no need to argue. This matter is an order from the prime minister. Everyone just obeys." p>
Turning to look at Jia Lu, he said: "General Jia, you won't disobey the Prime Minister's order, right?"
Jia Lu's face was ashen, he took a deep breath and said: "I just obey your orders, but when the time comes and the army is defeated, don't say it is my responsibility!"
He handed the Tiger Talisman to Ye Xian, strode out of the camp, got on his horse, and headed towards Xuzhou.
On the second day, King Xining and Dong Tuanxiao continued to lead the army towards Xuzhou. Timur also merged his 10,000 men into Jialu's army and continued to besiege Haozhou.
Tuotuo asked him to replace Jia Lu this time because he wanted to give him the credit for regaining Haozhou.
With this credit, the negative impact of the Battle of Shahe can be offset, and it is logical for him to join the Battle of Yangzhou first.
However, Tuotuo also knew how useless this useless brother was, so he sent another helper to him.
When Tuotuo attacked Xuzhou, there were two of his most effective men who helped him with many ideas. One of them was Jia Lu and the other was named "Yesu".
At this moment, Yesu stood in the Chinese army camp and asked Xiang Yexian: "I wonder how the general plans to defeat the Haozhou army?"
After going through the Battle of Shahe first, I also realized how much I weighed, so I didn’t dare to be too rash.
"I want to continue to use Jia Lu's strategy, surrounding the north gate without attacking, draining the enemy's morale, and then conquering Haozhou City in one fell swoop when the enemy loses their fighting spirit!"
Yesu smiled and said: "Although the general's move is not wrong, but to offend the general, if the enemy knows that our army's general is replaced by a general, they will definitely feel that they have an opportunity to defeat our army!"
He suppressed his anger first and glared: "What do you think we should do?"
Ye quickly took two steps closer and whispered: "If my prediction is correct, the enemy will definitely raid our camp tonight!"
……
The Yuan Army and the Haozhou Army had been in confrontation for several months. There were enemy agents in the camps of both sides, and soon word spread to Haozhou City that the Yuan Army had changed its general.
The eight marshals in Haozhou City were all overjoyed when they learned that their general had been replaced by Timur.
Zhao Junyong immediately proposed to rob the camp at night, because Liu Futong relied on this strategy to defeat Ye Xian's 300,000 troops.
The other coaches all agreed, and each returned to his own mansion to prepare for an attack.
In the mansion of Commander Guo Zixing, General Guo Zixing told his troops about the replacement of the chief general of the Yuan army.
Guo Tianxu laughed and said: "Zhi Niang, old thief Jia Lu finally got out, and I will replace you with this idiot Timur. Our opportunity has come!"
Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice: "No matter who the enemy general is, the combat strength of the Yuan army will not be reduced. There are still 10,000 more people. We must not underestimate the enemy!"
Guo Zixing knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was very resourceful and asked him: "Do you think the robbery of the camp can be successful tonight?"
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a long time and then asked: "Father, don't you find it strange? Tuotuo is not a stupid person. He knows full well that he is a piece of waste first, how can he be allowed to replace Jia Lu?"
Guo Zixing frowned and said: "Yexian is his brother after all, so it's understandable that he wants to give credit to his family."
Zhu Yuanzhang added: "Then he is not afraid of losing another battle first? Everyone knows that he is about to go south. If he suffers a defeat before the big battle, it will definitely have a negative impact on the morale of the entire army!"
Guo Zixing frowned and said nothing.
Guo Tianxu glanced sideways at Zhu Yuanzhang and hummed: "You just like to look forward and backward to embolden others' ambition! If old thief Tuotuo was really so shrewd, there would be no Battle of Shahe!"
Guo Zixing's ears were weak and he couldn't make up his mind for a moment, so he asked his brother-in-law Zhang Tianyou: "What do you think?"
Zhang Tianyou said: "He is also a famous general who is often defeated. The last time he attacked Zhenzhou, he was defeated by Jiangdu's army! I think I must not miss this opportunity!"
Guo Zixing immediately took action and asked the generals to prepare for attack.
Seeing that he could no longer persuade him, Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while and said: "Father, this battle is of great importance, so why not ask Dingyuan's Lupai Village to help in the battle and let them lead the army behind to provide support?"
Guo Zixing did not refuse this time and asked Zhu Yuanzhang to go to Lupai Village in person to ask for help.
Lupai Village is not far from Haozhou City. Before noon, Zhu Yuanzhang rushed to Lupai Village without stopping. After reporting the news, he received a cold reception and was ushered into a wooden house to wait. Zhang Biao was not seen for a long time.
Zhu Yuanzhang vaguely felt that something was wrong. After being introduced to the village just now, he found that the village was extremely lively, and he also saw a nearby village leader being led into the direction of the main hall.
Lupai Village is the first village in Dingyuan. They often gather the heroes from the nearby green forest to rob the Yuan army's warehouses. Logically speaking, this is not surprising.
However, Zhuang Biao of Lupai Village has always been very respectful to Guo Zixing. Since he is in the village, why doesn't he see him?
After much thought, he felt that something must have happened in Lupai Village. He opened the door and was about to go directly to Zhang Biao, but found that there were four big men at the door, and he was not allowed to go out.
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flashed slightly and he said coldly: "What do you, Master Zhang, mean by this?"
A big man said: "The leader of the village has an order for Zhu Zhenfu to wait here, and he is not allowed to leave without permission!"
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "Okay, then I'll just wait." He closed the door, took out a flint from his arms, lit an oil lamp, and then lit the fire to burn the tablecloth in the room.
After a while, heavy smoke started to appear in the house. When the four gatekeepers opened the door, they were shocked to find that there was a fire in the house and quickly fetched water to put out the fire.