Jiuxi

Chapter 258 256 [How clearly can one see life]

In the fourteenth year of Qi Jianwu's reign, it was the first day of the first lunar month.

The New Year has arrived as promised, and most people in the world are immersed in the festive atmosphere of the festival, and the people of Huaizhou are no exception. Naturally, they don't know that just one day ago, on the last day of the thirteenth year of Jianwu, the soldiers of the Huaizhou Army achieved victory. A victory that shocked the whole country.

Even though some people in high positions knew that a war was going to happen, in this era of very slow transmission of information, they certainly would not be able to know the results of the war at the first time.

The messenger sent by Xiao Wangzhi galloped southward, which meant that it would take some time for the good news to reach everyone's ears. This storm would show its power in the not too distant future.

In the early morning, Lu Chen slowly opened his eyes, and then felt extremely sore all over his body.

In terms of fighting time, the Rui Shi Camp did not last as long as the Huaizhou Fourth Army.

It's just that the armies in Huaizhou can fight in turns. Lu Chen must lead the Rui Shi Battalion to fight with all his strength, and defeating the Jing Army's two thousand cavalry and finally seeing the opportunity to break the formation are real tough battles. Even though Lu Chen has the blessing of the Xuan Jing, He was still exhausted at the end of the battle.

Compared with physical fatigue, Lu Chen was under greater psychological pressure during this period.

Although he acted confident in front of Wang Chulong, in fact he was walking on thin ice with anxiety.

As a key node in the second stage of the Northern Expedition, the Battle of Leize affected more than just the gains and losses of one city and one place.

If the Huaizhou Army loses this battle, it will definitely be unable to fight again, because Zhenbei and other four armies are the core combat strength of the Huaizhou Army. Their defeat means that Xiao Wangzhi has no one to use. Perhaps there will be a more serious consequence, that is, Yanjing's army will counterattack and take back all the previously lost territory.

Lu Chen couldn't accept that situation, so when planning this battle against the main force of Jing's army, he spent countless efforts and energy, trying to calculate every detail accurately and not allowing himself to miss any clues.

During the more than half a month since he came to An City, he continued to integrate the intelligence sent by the Warp Weaving Department and military scouts. On the premise of determining the strength of the Jing army in Heluo City, he made dozens of preparations for the Battle of Leize that had not yet happened. times of deduction.

According to his estimate, if Jingjun wanted to maintain control of Heluo City, it could only use about 20,000 infantry at most, and the Huaizhou Fourth Army plus Ruishi Battalion was more than twice the opponent's strength.

Just in case, when Lu Chen asked Xue Huaiyi to treat Li Tianrun, he wrote a letter to Li Tianrun, imploring him to send Feiyu Battalion to coordinate the operation.

Such exhaustive preparations led to the Great Victory of Lei Ze, which annihilated more than 20,000 Jing's troops. This was Qi's greatest victory against the main force of Jing's Army in decades, surpassing the Great Victory of Mengshan created by Li Tianrun many years ago.

At this point, Lu Chen could completely relax.

He got up from the bed, dressed and washed, then went to the outside room. Soon the soldiers came in with breakfast, followed by Li Chengen.

"Congratulations to the young master for another great achievement!"

Li Chengen's face was filled with admiration.

Lu Chen smiled and said, "Have you eaten? Let's eat something together?"

Li Chengen waved his hand and said: "Master, please have a meal, I have already eaten."

Lu Chen stopped being polite to him. After sitting down, he launched a fierce attack on the food in front of him.

Li Chengen still stood and said unhurriedly: "Master, the battle report has been roughly calculated. In this battle, our army annihilated more than 13,000 Jing's soldiers, captured more than 6,000, captured countless armors, weapons, food and grass, and nearly 1,000 soldiers. Five thousand fine war horses.”

Lu Chen swallowed the white porridge and asked, "Where are the casualties of our army?"

Li Chengen hesitated a little and said: "Our army has a total of more than 6,000 killed and more than 4,000 injured. More than 80% of them are minor injuries. They can recuperate for a period of time and will not affect future combat effectiveness."

Lu Chen stopped moving and his eyes narrowed slightly.

Upon seeing this, Li Chengen comforted him: "Master, after all, the opponent in this battle is the main force of the Jing army. It is impossible for our army to defeat the enemy with minimal casualties. If the Jing army is so vulnerable, how can the Jing Dynasty attack from all sides?" Occupying an extremely huge territory. Since more than thirty years ago, this is the first time that the Jing army suffered a disastrous defeat with 20,000 casualties."

"I know."

Lu Chen said this, then looked up at him and said solemnly: "Before the war started, the Grand Governor gave me the power to supervise military law. Now you will transfer a group of people from the Rui Shi Camp to be responsible for supervising the military. The pension money for the soldiers killed and injured in battle. If anyone dares to embezzle the blood and sweat money of the soldiers, you must report it to me immediately no matter when and where."

"Follow the order!" Li Chengen responded solemnly.

Lu Chen picked up the handkerchief and wiped his mouth, then stood up and walked out.

Li Chengen said quickly: "Master, the Grand Governor sent someone to inform you last night that the army will not move in the past few days, and the aftermath of yesterday's battle must be dealt with first. The Grand Governor also said that you have been working too hard recently, so I specially gave you some time off. It's a day off for me to recuperate and rest, so I don't have to worry about military affairs for the time being."

"I'm not looking for the Governor."

Lu Chen was still walking out. When he reached the courtyard, he suddenly turned to look at Li Chengen who was following him and asked, "Where is Feiyu Camp's headquarters?"

Li Chengen was slightly startled, then lowered his head and said, "In Beicheng."

"You go do your thing, you don't have to follow me."

"Yes, Master."

Lu Chen rode towards Beicheng with a few soldiers. From time to time, soldiers passing by or on patrol saluted him.

Ningling City is not large in area and there are not enough ready-made barracks for tens of thousands of Qi troops to be stationed. The people in the city are naturally uneasy. However, what shocked them was that these troops were very well-behaved. Although they looked fierce and murderous, they would not bully the people as often as the Yan army did.

Compared with the armies in Huaizhou, Feiyu Camp was after all a guest army that traveled thousands of miles to help, so Xiao Wangzhi allocated the camp in Beicheng that originally belonged to the Yan Army to settle down.

In the small courtyard in the central area, Li Bingxue was sitting in front of the window writing and drawing. It could be seen from the lines on the paper that she was reviewing the details of yesterday's war.

"Captain, Lieutenant Lu of the Ruishi Camp wants to see you!" The loud voice of the soldiers sounded outside. Li Bingxue's hand holding the pen shook slightly, and an ink ball immediately spread on the paper.

"understood."

She felt that her tone was unnatural and couldn't help but laugh to herself.

Last night, she led the army back to Ningling. On the way, she kept thinking about what Lu Chen would say after seeing him, but she only saw Xiao Wangzhi. The chief governor of Huaizhou smiled and told her that Lu Chen had gone back to rest early because he was exhausted from the hard battle. Li Bingxue felt relieved but also a little unknown.

She knew that Lu Chen would definitely not avoid her on purpose, but many things in this world could not be determined with rigid principles.

Such as sudden mood swings.

Li Bingxue originally thought that she couldn't take the initiative to find him, but she didn't expect that he would come running over early in the morning.

Forget it, you can't just leave him outside, that's not the way to treat guests.

With this thought in mind, Li Bingxue stood up and walked to the porch outside the door, just as Lu Chen walked into the small courtyard.

Their eyes met, speechless for a moment.

"Li Duwei, thank you for your hard work and leading the brothers from Feiyu Camp to help from thousands of miles away——"

"Captain Lu, thank you very much for asking Divine Doctor Xue to travel across mountains and rivers to treat my father—"

The two spoke almost in unison, and then closed their mouths in perfect agreement.

Looking at each other again, they laughed at the same time.

Li Bingxue turned sideways and said, "Please."

Lu Chen walked into the main hall with a smile on his face, and Li Bingxue poured tea for him personally. After all, it was impossible to take a maid with him when he was on an expedition, and she was not used to those careless soldiers doing such things.

After the two sat down, Li Bingxue looked at Lu Shen's face and joked: "It's been a year since I last saw you. You've lost some weight and become darker, but luckily you're not ugly. Instead, you have a bit more sharpness."

With just these words, the slight alienation between the two people who had just reunited disappeared without a trace.

Lu Chen remembered that when we parted ways at Baimadu in Xinzhou, she had once said with a smile that "Renwen Township is the Tomb of Heroes", and confidently said that he was "a beautiful woman who is a source of trouble". When combined with her joke at this moment, she couldn't help but feel that the world has changed. At the same time, And secretly lamented that Li Bingxue's refreshingness was indeed different.

It gave him the feeling of eating popsicles in the dead of winter in his previous life.

He looked at Li Bingxue's face and said with a smile: "Miss Li is becoming more and more heroic. When I saw you leading the army yesterday, I knew that Jing's army would definitely be defeated."

Li Bingxue was a little surprised when he heard this, and asked with interest: "What have you experienced this year? Why do I feel that you are not like the taciturn and honest Lu Chen before?"

Lu Chen was surprised: "Why do you say this?"

Li Bingxue said leisurely: "Whether it was in Guangling or Jiangbei last year, or later when we went to the capital together, you never praised me so bluntly. At most, it was just some clichés for the occasion."

"I see."

Lu Chen smiled casually, and then said: "This is not a false compliment, but a sincere compliment."

"Thank you."

Li Bingxue's eyes were bright and bright, and she changed the subject: "My father said that this battle is important, so it is my duty to lead the troops to support. It's a pity that we didn't capture the princess yesterday. If we can capture this person alive, we will definitely You can cut off a piece of flesh from Jing Chao."

Lu Chen was slightly shocked and asked quickly: "Princess Princess? Are you talking about Qing Yu Huaijin?"

Li Bingxue nodded and said: "Yes, it is Qing Yu Gong's beloved daughter Qing Yu Huaijin. This person always likes to walk around the world disguised as a man. I fought with her on the battlefield yesterday, and I can confirm her identity."

Yesterday, Lu Chen led the Ruishi Battalion cavalry and passed by the main cavalry of the Jing Army, and then went deep into the opponent's infantry formation. Naturally, he did not know that there was a big fish hiding on the opposite side.

Thinking of this, he said with the same regret: "It is indeed a pity. With Qing Yu Gong's attention and preference for Qing Yu Huai Jin, we might have a chance to force Jing Jun to completely withdraw from Heluo City."

Li Bingxue sighed lightly.

Yesterday's opportunity was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, because Qingyu Huaijin's status is destined to be guarded by countless experts, and his usual range of activities must be within the area controlled by Jingjun, which will not give the assassins of the Weaving Department a chance to take action, otherwise Qin Zheng Qin Tiju had long thought of ways to kidnap him to Yongjia City.

After briefly chatting about yesterday's war, the room fell into an atmosphere of silence.

Lu Chen took the initiative to visit today, first of all to express his gratitude. If Feiyu Camp did not show up in time yesterday, the Huaizhou Army would most likely be at a disadvantage. Secondly, he had never contacted Li Bingxue in the past year, and he felt a little guilty.

In the past, he could use the excuse of being far apart, but now that they were both in Ningling City, he was considered a half-landlord, so naturally he couldn't turn a blind eye.

Li Bingxue did not pursue these questions. After a moment, she took the initiative and said, "Can you tell me about your experience in Baotai Mountain?"

Her voice is clear and beautiful, and her eyes are clear and calm.

It is impossible to think of rejection.

(End of this chapter)