The current situation is giving Lu Liqing a very headache.
"Sir, when I was retreating back, I found that the bandit army was marching eastward with all its strength..."
"Listen to what those rebel scouts said, their next step is to capture Hanbei City!"
"General... we must make preparations early!" Yuan Zheng spoke sincerely.
Two days ago, although Lu Liqing wanted to find out the identity of the enemy, he also knew that Yong's army was advancing eastward, so he summoned the army.
Faced with Yuan Zheng's request, Lu Liqing did not express his position, but said: "I have already dealt with this matter. You go down and rest first..."
Seeing Lu Liqing's serious expression, Yuan Zheng wanted to persuade him a few more words, but he still recognized the situation and answered honestly: "Yes!"
After Yuan Zheng left, Lu Liqing immediately sent an order to summon his subordinates to discuss a response plan.
Now, the main forces of the Western Front Army have gathered near Donghe Mansion, so it is not difficult to gather them together.
After giving the order, Lu Liqing walked to the desk, crumpled the memorial he had written into a ball, and threw it into the wastebasket.
After convening his generals for discussion, he planned to submit an explanation of the matter and the response plan of the Western Front Army to the capital.
After waiting for less than half an hour, all the commanders of the guards and the officers of the division gathered outside Lu Liqing's lobby.
Those who arrived late were Lu Liqing's deputy Wuqing Hou Zhang An, Wang Shibin, the censor of the imperial army appointed by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Shen Cheng, the eunuch who also served as the imperial eunuch.
After everyone sat down, Lu Liqing was the first to speak: "Everyone, Yuan Zheng from Long Zhi's right guard escaped just now and told me two things!"
"First, the bandit army is marching eastward in large numbers, intending to capture Hanbei Prefecture!"
"How do you think you should respond to this?"
After Lu Liqing finished speaking, everyone fell silent.
How else to deal with it? Of course, it is to send troops across the Han River to strengthen the defense of Hanbei City.
However, there are many zombies in the land west of the Han River, and it is very dangerous to cross the river. Not to mention that there are bandits watching, so all the generals present are reluctant to send troops.
"Secondly, the so-called bandit army is commanded by King Yong. Now that King Yong's army is approaching the border, how should our army respond?"
Good guy, this second news surprised everyone even more.
"King Yong? That King Yong?"
"King Yong is still alive?"
"Where did he get his army from?"
The generals were talking a lot. As the deputy general, Zhang An and the two supervisors were already thinking about how to report the matter.
There was a lot of noise in the hall, and it was extremely noisy for a while.
"Quiet... shut up!"
As a general, Lu Liqing was old enough and had a high status, so he could naturally convince these people to accept him.
"Let's talk about the first one first..."
No one spoke, but Lu Liqing put forward his own opinion: "Now that the bandit army is invading in large numbers, Hanbei City is isolated to the west of the Han River. Either our army rushes to reinforce Hanbei and use Hanbei as a base to hold off the enemy!"
"Either our army uses the Han River as a natural barrier and blocks the enemy's troops to the west of the Han River!"
Speaking of this, Lu Liqing actually said: "Of course, these two things can also be done together!"
The two opinions put forward by Lu Liqing are indeed reasonable and effective.
All the generals were thinking. Sitting on Lu Liqing's right was Wuqing Marquis Zhang An, who said: "General, since the rebel army can pass through all the monsters in Hanoi, its strength cannot be underestimated!"
"And Hanbei City has no defensive ordnance. Even if more troops are sent to garrison, I'm afraid they won't be able to prevent the bandits from attacking!"
After the Hanbei City was cleaned up, the imperial court only sent a small number of troops to garrison, just to guard the city and wait for the next phase of the Western Front Army's garrison.
In the preset plan of the Western Front Army, after cleaning up the east of the Han River, the west of the Han River should be recovered with the support of Han North.
Who would have thought that in addition to zombies, the enemies the imperial court faced would also include serious armies.
Lu Liqing turned around and asked, "So what do you mean?"
Zhang An replied: "To support Hanbei City, I am afraid that the result of Long Zhi's right guard will be repeated, so I thought it would be more appropriate to defend Hanshui!"
What Zhang An said was indeed true, and everyone at the scene agreed.
If you send people to strengthen the defenses of Hanbei City, you will have to face fierce thieves and guard against dense zombies. Going there suddenly is extremely risky.
With the purpose of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, everyone present supported Zhang An's opinion.
"Do you mean to give up Hanbei City?" Lu Liqing asked.
In order to capture Hanbei, the Western Front Army spent a lot of effort, so naturally they would not be willing to give up Lu Liqing for nothing.
Of course, he also believed that what Zhang An said was reasonable, but he was just unwilling to do so.
Zhang An said in a deep voice: "My lord, everything is for the sake of the overall situation!"
Lu Liqing turned his head, glanced at the two people on the left, and asked, "Master Wang, Eunuch Shen, what do you think?"
"Our family doesn't understand things like fighting. All you have to do is be loyal to the emperor and the court!"
Although what Shen Cheng said was nonsense, it still showed his attitude of not getting involved.
Wang Shibin, the censor on the side, said: "To be on the safe side, it's better to defend the Han River!"
Long Zhi's right guard was defeated, causing the Western Front Army to lose a major battle force, so Wang Shibin's thoughts were cautious.
Hanbei is an empty city, so abandoning it is no big deal.
"Since you all feel that it is more appropriate to defend Hanbei, then simply withdraw the Hanbei defenders!" Lu Liqing said in a deep voice.
At this time, Shen Cheng said: "Sir, I'm afraid it's too late!"
"The enemy cavalry must have arrived around Hanbei City. If the people in the city come out, or if we send people across the river to lead them away, I am afraid they will attack them!"
After the defeated troops returned, Shen Cheng also asked many people and learned some things about the front line.
When the cavalry was smaller and could travel dozens of miles, it would only take an hour or two, but now it had been two days.
If the "thief army" really wanted to attack Hanbei, they should have arrived long ago. However, there was no big movement on the other side of the river, which can only mean that these troops were hiding.
In fact, Lu Liqing really didn't expect this.
There have been too many zombie attacks in the past few years, which has made him fall into a fixed mindset. On the contrary, an "outsider" like Shen Cheng can see things more clearly.
"What Eunuch Shen said makes sense..."
"That's true. I'm afraid that once we cross the river, not only monsters will attack us, but also the rebel cavalry will attack us!"
From this point of view, sending troops to cross the river to defend Hanbei seems even more unreliable.
Lu Liqing sighed: "If this is the case, the defenders of Northern Han Dynasty can only wish for themselves!"
Zhang An on the side said: "General, the top priority is to find out the details of the traitor army. As the saying goes, if you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be in danger in a hundred battles!"
The scouts they sent out either didn't come back, or those who came back mostly failed, and the news they brought back was extremely confusing.
"Um!"
Nodding, Lu Liqing continued: "King Yong led the troops to attack. This matter must be reported to the court as soon as possible so that the court can be prepared!"
Censor Wang Shibin nodded and said: "That's exactly it!"
I just don’t know what kind of impact it will have on the situation in the Southwest after word spreads about King Yong’s rebellion... Lu Liqing thought to himself.
The imperial court's intention was to use strong troops to suppress the border and force the southwest to surrender.
If King Yong had not raised troops, Lu Liqing felt that there was a 50% chance of forcing the troops to surrender to the southwest.
But now that this has happened, Lu Liqing now thinks that the forced surrender to the southwest is probably a scam.
"Report... Fifteen miles west of Hanbei, more than 20,000 enemy troops were found!"
…………
To the west of Hanbei City, ten miles away, the army was marching at the moment.
It has to be said that there are indeed many zombies west of the Han River, which greatly delayed the progress of Yong's army.