Jiuxi

Chapter 240 238 [The Princess’s Counterattack]

Winter in Heluo City is always bone-chilling.

The shuo wind whistled by, and pedestrians on the street couldn't help but wrap up their warm clothes to resist the all-pervasive cold wind.

This problem should not exist in the luxurious and exquisite Zhuoyuan. However, in the flower hall paved with floor dragons, Qingyu Huaijin could not feel any warmth at all.

The Yan army on Dongyang Road suffered consecutive defeats, and several dangerous passes on the border were lost one after another. The only mobile force in the hands of General Li Shouzhen was also wiped out in the Battle of Wanting. The situation has become quite critical.

The Huaizhou Army of the Southern Qi Dynasty is coming with great force. If they cannot suppress their momentum, the worst result will be the loss of the entire Dongyang Road, which will then threaten the eastern defense of Heluo City.

If Qing Yu Huaijin was just an ordinary dignitary of the Jing Dynasty, she would not have to be so troubled by the poor performance of the Yan army. At worst, she could wait until the Jing army had completely pacified Zhao and stabilized the rear, then mobilized heavy troops to go south to clean up the Qi army.

But as the eldest daughter of the Qingyu family and the princess of Yongping County who was personally granted the title by Emperor Jing, she controlled a large amount of resources. If she couldn't even save Heluo City, how could she go back to see her father?

You must know that Emperor Jing's golden words said that after the world is pacified in the future, Heluo City and the vast territory to the south will be awarded to the Qingyu clan as fiefdoms. In other words, this vast territory is destined to be the property of the Qingyu family. How can Qingyu Huaijin sit back and watch Southern Qi covet it again and again?

Qingyu Huaijin's eyes were slightly cold, and he turned around and asked, "Man Pangda, what do you think of the war in the south?"

Privy Councilor Pang Shigu was originally the commander of the first army of the Jinghe Defense Line in the Qi Dynasty. After Yang Guangyuan died unjustly, he did not persist in resisting like others, and reached some unknown tacit understanding with Jing Jun. Later, when Emperor Jing supported the Yan state, he successfully entered the senior ranks of the Yan army, and took over as the privy envoy after Liu Wei retired and returned home.

Although his qualifications are sufficient to make acquaintances, his military ability is not outstanding, so he slowly said: "Your Highness, the Qi army is currently gaining momentum, but they may not be able to persist. As the front line lengthens, their The troops will gradually disperse and it will be difficult to organize a larger offensive. Just for Dongyang Road, they need at least 150,000 troops to control the entire territory."

The sarcasm in Qingyu Huaijin's eyes flashed and he said: "So according to Da Daren's idea, we should give up Dongyang Road in exchange for the Qi army to stop moving forward?"

Pang Shigu smiled slightly awkwardly, shook his head and said: "Your Highness misunderstood. I want to say that even if Dongyang Road cannot be defended, the Qi army will not be able to threaten Heluo."

Qingyu Huaijin asked: "Why is Da Da Da so determined?"

Pang Shigu was slightly startled and thought, didn't I just tell you the reason?

Qingyu Huaijin pressed forward step by step: "What if the Qi army does not want to capture the entire Dongyang Road? They now occupy Gushu City and can go north to threaten Ruyin at any time. They can also go west to attack Ningling, and then the army can go northwest and attack the river. Luo, how should we respond then?"

Pang Shigu was stunned, and after a moment he said with difficulty: "Your Highness, if the Qi army had not captured Ruyin City, how could they dare to come directly to Heluo City? The Qi army had to travel a long distance to carry supplies and it would be unsustainable. If Li Shouzhen gathered his troops and intercepted the Qi army, There is no way out for them, aren’t they just turtles in a urn?”

"But you can't rule out this possibility, and I don't think Li Shouzhen still has the courage to fight the Qi army in the wild."

Qingyu Huaijin looked cold.

Pang Shigu sighed: "Your Highness, please make it clear."

Qingyu Huaijin said quietly: "The female General Lu Huan led eight thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry to the Dongyang Road. Li Shouzhen sent six urgent reports, asking the female General Lu Huan to lead troops to Ruyin City because he was killed by Wanting. The result of the battle frightened me to death, and I was afraid that the Qi army would attack Ruyin City. I have rejected Li Shouzhen's request and let the female General Lu Huan lead the troops to stay in the Leize area. I wonder what the big people want?"

Pang Shigu quickly calculated in his mind and soon understood Qingyu Huaijin's intention.

Leize is located between Pingli City and Ningling City. This can not only prevent the Qi army from continuing to threaten Heluo to the northwest after conquering Ningling, but also prevent the Qi army in Panlong Pass from moving northward.

But this led to a new problem. Jingjun's stay in Leize meant that there were no reinforcements inside Dongyang Road, and Li Shouzhen could only rely on himself.

Suddenly an idea came to Pang Shigu's mind. He looked at Qingyu Huaijin and said, "Your Highness, do you want the defenders on the northern line of Fengqiu to go south to support?"

Qingyu Huaijin nodded and said, "That's right."

Pang Shigu pondered: "This can solve the problem of insufficient troops in Li Shouzhen's hands, but the Seven Star Army in Baotai Mountain is not good at fighting. Although they have accepted the imperial court's recruitment, these green forest bandits have no integrity at all. Once sealed, The defenders near Qiu move south, and the Seven Star Army is likely to emerge from the mountains and attack the back of Dongyang Road."

"I hope they do."

Qingyu Huaijin's face softened slightly, and he looked at Moulianghu sitting on the other side, and said warmly: "General, I'll leave this matter to you."

Moulianghu grinned, with a cold light in his eyes, and nodded: "Your Highness, don't worry, as long as that green forest army dares to come out of the mountains, I will let them die without a burial place."

Pang Shigu immediately understood that Qing Yu Huaijin was following the trend, and it was the general trend to concentrate the troops on Dongyang Road to the south. If the Seven Star Army thought this was their opportunity to go south, they would inevitably fall into the trap of the main force of Jing's army.

He couldn't help but praise: "Your Highness has thought very carefully."

Qingyu Huaijin nodded slightly and asked: "How is the situation on Moyang Road?" Pang Shigu sighed lightly: "It's not optimistic."

After the Huaizhou Army of the Southern Qi Dynasty launched the Northern Expedition, the Jingzhou Army also took corresponding actions.

Including the Xunyang Army and Jianghua Army under the jurisdiction of the Huaizhou Dudufu, Li Tianrun could mobilize more than 160,000 troops, while the new general Niu Cunjie of Moyang Road had only about 80,000 troops at his command.

Although Moyang Road has long been resolute in implementing strong walls and clearing fields at the border, and the defenders have the advantage of the city wall pass, Li Tianrun always uses troops by surprise. So far, Niu Cunjie still has not figured out the opponent's main attack route, so his troops are naturally stretched thin.

Generally speaking, the problem faced by Niu Cunjie was similar to that of Li Shouzhen. On the too long border, he needed more troops to fill the void in the defense line.

After Pang Shigu introduced the general situation, he said solemnly: "Your Highness, there are no big problems on Moyang Road yet, but we may have to be prepared to send reinforcements."

Qingyu Huaijin remained silent.

There are more than 50,000 Jing troops in Heluo City. Now they have sent 10,000 troops to reinforce Dongyang Road. An ambush must be placed on Baotai Mountain in advance. If there is another problem on Moyang Road, it means that the number of troops in her hands will become less and less. , regardless of whether the Qi army might threaten Heluo, the undercurrent in the city alone would consume a lot of energy for her.

"I understand. Please keep in close contact with Niu Cunjie and let me know if anything happens."

Qingyu Huaijin can only take one step at a time, because at this special time point, she is the passive defensive side and has no ability to turn passivity into initiative.

At this moment, the weathered Wang Shidao walked into the hall. After greeting everyone, he said to Qingyu Huaijin: "Your Highness, the south side is generally arranged, and we will choose the right time to take action in the near future."

After hearing this, Qingyu Huaijin secretly breathed a sigh of relief, nodded and said, "Thank you, Mr. Wang."

"I don't dare. This is the duty of a lower official."

Wang Shidao looked calm and said: "Based on our people's investigation at the border, Lu Chen disappeared from the front line of the Huaizhou Army after the Battle of Wanting. Now we are not sure whether he is staying with Xiao Wangzhi, only It can be confirmed that he is not in the frontline army."

Qingyu Huaijin frowned slightly: "Can we find out that he is in Huaizhou?"

Wang Shidao shook his head and said: "It's difficult. Now Qingtian City, Yongquan Pass, Panlong Pass and Shuangfeng Ancient Road are all under the strict control of the Qi army. Even if our people find out the information, they can't take a shortcut to send it over. They can only Cross the Yangtze River from Huaizhou and go south, make a large circle in the south of the Yangtze River in Nanqi, and then send the information from the upper reaches of the Hengjiang River."

"Then let's wait a little longer. The most important thing right now is to wait for some changes to occur in the capital of Nanqi, which may ease our pressure on the border."

Qingyu Huaijin was not an unreasonable person, and she would have to rely on Wang Shidao in the future, so she was not too demanding.

After the discussion, everyone left one after another. Qingyu Huaijin walked to the window and stood there, looking at the border topographic map on the big case, his eyes staying on the area bordering Dongyang Road and Nanqi Huaizhou, and murmured: "What on earth are you doing?" What are you planning?"

Perhaps she didn't even notice that the "you" in her mouth at this moment did not refer to Xiao Wangzhi or Li Tianrun, but to the young Lu Chen.

After a long time, she walked slowly to the corridor, looked at the gloomy sky in the south, and whispered to herself: "No matter what you want to do, this time I will let you understand that victory or defeat on the battlefield will never depend on how you conquer." Being good at fighting depends on whether you have a solid rear."

……

For the people in Yongjia City, Daqi, this winter does not seem to be that cold.

With the support of the emperor, the frontier army launched the Northern Expedition, and the war progressed quite smoothly. The Huaizhou Army's consecutive victories were overwhelming, and red feather victory reports appeared several times in the city, arousing heated discussions among the people.

For the vast majority of ordinary people, they don't pay much attention to the principle of northerners returning to the north and southerners returning to the south. They only know that the Daqi army swept away the malaise more than ten years ago and beat the Yan army to flee in panic. Warmth arose spontaneously.

As for the imperial students of the Imperial College, they talked loudly and sang loudly in wine shops and brothels. They wished they could transform into generals on the battlefield and command thousands of troops to clean up the old mountains and rivers.

In an atmosphere of national celebration, Li Daoyan, the left prime minister of the current court, stood leaning on the railing. Listening to the low-pitched report from a confidant behind him, he couldn't help but sigh: "Why is it like this?"

At this moment, the old man's eyes were unclear, as if he was in the midst of a hesitation between heaven and man.

(End of this chapter)