Volume 3 Chapter 24 Where to Go
"The man who escaped was Li Cheng! The one who defeated Li Cheng was the imperial commander, Yang Yizhong, who led the Imperial City Division!"
Under the sunshine after the summer rain, as Zhai Biao, who was lying on the ground, shouted again as he had done before, the offensive of the Pseudo-Qi troops came to an end at noon that day.
Of course, the actual situation had nothing to do with Zhai Biao's roar, because those long-sword armored soldiers were Li Cheng's confidants. As the saying goes, even if the bones are broken, the tendons are connected. They did not need to be responsible for the outcome of the battle, but only needed to do their best for Li Cheng. Therefore, when they saw Li Cheng running away, the group of people almost lost their desire to fight in an instant, and then withdrew from the Song army camp like a tide.
Judging from the shape of these people when they retreated, they obviously did not lose their combat effectiveness... This is no different from their Grand Commander.
Seeing this, Yang Yizhong, who had managed to force his opponent back with one move, remained calm but felt gloomy in his heart. For him, it was not right to fail to kill Li Cheng and end the battle... The two swords on the ground had undoubtedly revealed the identity of the man before.
Of course, Yang Yizhong, who was in the middle of the situation and always had to think of the worst, could not have imagined that his life-threatening blow not only forced Li Cheng to retreat, seized a pair of knives, and ended the opponent's round of pushing, but also put an incredible end to the entire battle that broke out suddenly this summer.
But we certainly can't blame Yang Yizhong for not seeing this, or even for mocking Li Cheng for being pretentious... because they are all part of the game.
In fact, thinking back to the Jingkang Rebellion in the past, Li Cheng led several brothers to travel all over the country, from Hebei to Huaishang, and then to Shandong. There were fights in the rivers and lakes, and gun battles between soldiers and bandits. When did they ever care about their lives?
When the eastern front of the Song and Jin countries gradually stabilized in the Jingdong area, he began to lead the troops to formally establish his foundation. He would not eat if the soldiers did not have food, would not sleep if the soldiers did not have sleep, and would never avoid rain, snow, wind or frost. Although the military orders were strict, he did his best to take care of the soldiers in private. Moreover, he quickly expanded to three states in Jingdong, which was ruled by military bandits... He looked like a big shot no matter how you looked at him.
However, such a person seems to be born at the wrong time.
After all, although the world seems to be in chaos in recent years , generally speaking, those messy things have never shaken the foundation of the existence of the two great countries of Song and Jin:
The Song Dynasty was indeed on the verge of destruction, but it managed to catch its breath and still firmly controlled core areas such as the southeast, Jingxiang, Bashu, and Lianghuai. No matter how difficult it was, it managed to preserve more than half of the world's population and territory... The so-called existence is everything, and everything is for existence. The size is there, and everything can be done.
At the same time, although the Great Jin Kingdom was also facing various chaotic contradictions and setbacks at home and abroad, which caused many knowledgeable people to have doubts, but so far, no one could question their absolute military advantage... The great victory of Yanling-Changshe at the beginning of this year was so shocking that it itself illustrated the military strength of the Jin people from another perspective. They were so strong that they were shocked to lose a mere fifteen Meng'an and return with an unsuccessful invasion. Isn't this enough to explain the problem?
Think about the troops lost by the Song army and the defeats they suffered since the Jingkang period, it is simply shameless to compare.
So back to the present, under this situation, it is no wonder that a figure as arrogant as Li Cheng had to accept the Jin army 's amnesty and become the Grand Commander of the Qi Dynasty... in order to gain a little political foundation to stand on.
Yet even this modicum of political foundation is murky and shaky.
Everyone knows what the Great Qi State is all about. They themselves know it, but they still had to jump in, and then they staged this ridiculous fighting performance today.
In fact, this was also an important reason why Emperor Zhao of Tokyo had treated the Pseudo-Qi regime so lightly before... Although he was calm when he heard about the military situation in Dengfeng at that time and had unlimited confidence in Yue Fei, with Emperor Zhao's experience and political growth in the past two years, he was also able to realize the fragility and ridiculousness of the Pseudo-Qi regime itself.
The sky cleared up and the day was silent. The defeated Li Cheng did not launch another attack, but set up camp with the nearby settlement as the core. As for that Prime Minister Hong, he did not urge him anymore... The two of them really did as they said before, and just "wasted time" here.
Not only that, something even more ridiculous happened that night.
A small group of soldiers sneaked into Wushan from the west and came to the battlefield. However, although Li Cheng's scouts had discovered the traces of this unit in the daytime, and knew through the captured people that the other side was a local reinforcement from Yanggu County in the west, and knew that the other side had only a few hundred people, and even knew that the leader was a county magistrate named Xiao En, they still chose to turn a blind eye and watched this unit "sneak" successfully and enter the camp of the imperial guards, effectively strengthening the defense.
On the second day, there was no fighting on the north bank of the Ji River.
On the third day, there was still no fighting between the two sides, but the leaders of both armies were frightened... because Beixinqiao only received 1,000 reinforcements from Zhang Rong, but there was no trace of Yue Fei's troops.
And sure enough, that afternoon, the Prime Minister of the Great Qi State, Hong Ya, was suddenly invited by Li Cheng to a house somewhere in the village, saying that he wanted to discuss important military matters in person.
"Mr. Hong."
Somewhat unexpectedly, Li Cheng, who had been restless in his room all morning and noon, immediately changed his calm demeanor as soon as he saw the newcomer. Although he got straight to the point, his words did not seem hurried or flustered. "Zhang Rong's reinforcements have arrived, but there is no sign of Yue Fei's troops. I wonder if Mr. Hong has any information?"
Hong Ya was slightly startled when he was asked a question right after he entered the house, and then he felt a little flustered... He claimed that he had led a hundred cavalrymen to see the flag, and turned the tide, and organized an orderly retreat for Wanyan Talan... But if others didn't know, how could he not know what was going on?
He understood military affairs, but only knew a little about logistics and food allocation; he had courage, but only three-tenths, and he used it all to pretend; he had strategy, but it was mostly about guessing people's hearts and digging into secrets; he also understood government affairs, but it was only acquired through temporary experience in Xinzheng County that day.
Now, with Dongping Prefecture as the core, a circle is drawn around it, with two large camps, four or five independent armies, and more than 100,000 people. Where do you want him to see it? And what exactly can he see?
Of course, although he didn't know, Mr. Hong still acted as he did before. He first twirled his beard and thought for a while, then sighed slightly:
"If the Zhao Song emperor was in charge of this battle, I would naturally be able to guess a little, but I don't know Yue Fei as well as the Grand Commander. Why would the Grand Commander ask me?"
Li Cheng felt relieved when he saw this, but he also sighed: "To be honest with you, Mr. Hong, I have been thinking about this for a while and I feel that there is nothing much to say about this matter... If Yue Fei did not come to Jishui to rescue Yang Yizhong, there would be only two places to go."
"Why don't you tell me?" Hong Ya said earnestly.
"First, he is a big shot. Maybe he has seen through our intentions and knows that you and I are just hanging out at the Jishui River. So he is too lazy to save us and just sits quietly in the south, waiting for the Pingyin front to be exhausted before making a thunderous move." Li Cheng answered sincerely in the simple house. "Second, after he got the news, he felt that it was too late to save us, so he decided to go all out and took action now."
"What does it mean to risk everything?" Hong Ya automatically ignored the first possibility.
"Of course we should select the best soldiers and horses, cross the Wenshui River, and attack the Pingyin front line!" Li Cheng said seriously.
Hong Ya's heart moved slightly, but he nodded instinctively, as if he acknowledged this possibility.
But for some reason, after talking about this possibility, the two people in the house stopped talking and were silent for a while, with only the croaking of frogs and the chirping of cicadas not far away.
It was unknown how long it had been before Hong Ya finally came to his senses and said cautiously: "If Yue Fei behaves like this, what will the Grand Commander do?"
"In fact, no matter what Yue Fei does, there is a proper response plan at this time." As he said this, Li Cheng put his hands behind his back, turned his head to look outside, and then sighed slightly behind Hong Ya. "In my opinion, we can't waste time any longer. We might as well take the safest approach... I will lead the Qingzhou and Weizhou soldiers to go downstream along the Ji River immediately, but no longer try to encircle Pingyin, but honestly go to Fujia'an, which is further downstream of Pingyin, and meet up with... the crown prince, the Grand Marshal and others... And here, Mr. Hong, I will give you a few thousand Mizhou soldiers, why not go to Yanggu, occupy the strong city and face the Yellow River, to protect the northern bank of the Ji River?"
Li Cheng spoke incoherently and with his back to the person he was talking to, which inevitably seemed a bit strange.
However, there was too much information in these words, and Hong Ya instinctively kept thinking about it, but he had no time to consider other things. And you know what, the more he thought about it, the more Hong Xianggong felt that this matter was feasible.
First of all, no matter whether Yue Fei continues to sit on the mountain and wait for an opportunity to fight, or has already marched to the front line to risk everything, it will be beneficial to the overall situation for Li Cheng to abandon the Jishui defense line which is difficult to cross at the moment and honestly go downstream to join Liu Lin and Kong Yanzhou. At least it is better than wasting time here.
Secondly, letting Prime Minister Hong lead several thousand Mizhou soldiers to the fortified city of Yanggu could not only act as a decoy to prevent Yang Yi Zhong and his imperial guards from making any rash moves, but could also provide the Da Qi troops with an alternative retreat route to Hebei after the defeat in Pingyin. At the same time, it could also monitor the west to prevent Tokyo from sending reinforcements from here.
Of course, these were all considered from a business perspective, and after these few days of contact, Hong Ya firmly did not believe that the other party would be dedicated to the public.
In fact, Prime Minister Hong also guessed Li Cheng's selfish motives.
The selfish motive of this commander-in-chief is actually very simple... He may not cross the Jishui River to join the battle when he reaches the downstream. He may form a camp with Kong Yanzhou and Liu Lin across the river at Fujia'an and continue to wait and see.
However, there is a huge advantage to waiting there rather than staying here, that is, the Jin people will not be able to catch him and deal with him! If he stays here for a long time, Pingyin will be defeated, which will inevitably cause the anger of the Jin people in Hebei, and they may even vent their anger on him.
But so what?
You have to know that General Li gave Prime Minister Hong several thousand soldiers and allowed him to enter the fortified city to escape the summer heat, which was probably intended as a bribe to silence him.
So why not?
Thinking of this, Mr. Hong finally nodded heavily under the gaze of Governor Li, and Governor Li couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief while sweating half of his body.
Then, he immediately gave an order and ordered the three armies to set off hastily that day.
Just like that, in the height of summer, when the afternoon was hot, Li Cheng, who had failed to launch a surprise attack by crossing the river from Hebei, suddenly divided his troops. The main force went downstream along the Ji River to the northeast. At the same time, four or five thousand Mizhou soldiers who had lost their leader went west under the banner of "Hong, the Prime Minister of the Great Qi", in order to calmly take the obviously vacant Yanggu County.
Regarding this, Yang Yizhong, who was already extremely anxious, did not dare to neglect it. He wrote down the military situation here clearly and sent them to Zhang Rong in Pingyin and Yue Fei in Zhongdu respectively... However, this was also a pretense, because he did not dare to tell his subordinates and the magistrate Xiao, who had come to rescue him out of loyalty and was also extremely anxious at this time, that the envoy who went to Zhongdu last time was like a drop in the ocean and never returned.
There seems to be only one possibility in this situation, that is, the envoy was detained for some reason!
Frankly speaking, there were some things and some people that Yang Yizhong was willing to believe. After all, that was the person that the official had been thinking about for several days after he fell into the well. But the same could not be said for other people... Because in the current situation, trusting someone meant entrusting your life to that person.
Why? Because your name Yue Fei sounds nice?
"Who is Li Qing impeaching?"
On the same day, in the Chuigong Hall in the palace of Dongjing City, Emperor Zhao, who had learned a lot from the rare lecture on classics, was preparing to leave and go back to practice calligraphy... Although Emperor Zhao seldom went to shoot "moving targets" these days, he still kept the habit of shooting arrows in the morning and practicing calligraphy in the evening... And at this moment, a new censor Li Jing suddenly stepped forward and impeached someone in public, causing Zhao Jiu to look back curiously.
"I impeach Yue Fei, the commander of the front army of the imperial camp." Li Jing responded sternly, his words fierce. "This man is thick on the outside but shallow on the inside, incompetent and ruining the country!"
Zhao Jiu couldn't help laughing when he saw Li Gang's younger brother... Yue Fei impeached Li Gang for being a capitulator, and now it was Li Gang's younger brother's turn to impeach Yue Fei for being incompetent.
It's really a changing world.
