Wanyan Zonghan was furious: "Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

Shi Liai said: "Marshal, what's wrong?"

Wanyan Zonghan gave Wanyan Gao's letter to Shi Liai, and the latter's face darkened after reading it.

"Lou Shi lost fifty thousand elite men in Shaanxi!"

Wanyan Loushi led a total of 100,000 troops, more than half of which were lost.

Is war a matter of simple arithmetic?

The political influence behind the dispatch, just the fact that more than half of it was damaged, means that the Lou family is in great danger at this time.

It seems that the casualties of the Song Army were several times that of the Jin Army, but the Jin Army was fighting on the road after all, and went deep into the hinterland of the Song Dynasty.

Moreover, this hinterland is not an ordinary hinterland, it is a hinterland densely populated with important military towns of the Song Dynasty.

The crisis of the Jin Army is as follows:

First, the supply of food and grass may be cut off at any time.

Second, morale is extremely low.

Third, once the Song army regroups, the Lou family will be in danger.

Therefore, war is never a simple mathematical problem.

Wanyan Loushi was the favorite general of Jin Taizu Wanyan Agu. Among the most capable generals of the Jurchen tribe, his military command ability was second, and no one dared to say he was first.

Even Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Zongwang did not dare to compare their commanding talents with him.

If even he can't defeat Shaanxi, it means that Shaanxi is more difficult to defeat than the Jin Dynasty imagined.

This is an extremely dangerous signal.

Zong Han now has two choices:

One, continue to stay in the Song Dynasty, burn, kill and loot, make a lot of war windfalls, plunder a sufficient population, and transfer the wealth to Hebei to enrich the three towns.

This also enriches his own strength.

If he continued to stay in the Song Dynasty, it would be considered as disobeying the military order of Banbo Jilie Wanyan Gao.

Wanyan Zonghan was Wanyan Gao's man, and he would not disobey Wanyan Gao's orders, just like Lan Yu in the Ming Dynasty would not disobey Zhu Biao's orders.

Second, quickly return to support Taiyuan, defeat the Song army in Taiyuan, then march westward to support Lou Shi, and completely wipe out Shaanxi.

Wanyan Zonghan almost didn't think twice and decisively chose to come back for support.

This is not just the reason why Wanyan Gao issued military orders.

If Wanyan Lou's family was allowed to fight hard in Shaanxi and even die in battle, Wanyan Zonghan would inevitably be bribed by Jin Emperor Wanyan Wu to seize power on the grounds of disobeying orders.

Jin Emperor Wanyan Wu Qimai had been very afraid of Wanyan Zonghan for a long time. Every day he went around looking for Zonghan's mistakes with a magnifying glass.

Lou Shi was Taizu's favorite general. Lou Shi died in battle, and no one could bear this responsibility.

On the twenty-seventh day of the first lunar month, Zong Han abandoned Xiangyang and immediately headed north along the same route.

He even threw away many of his trophies.

For him, as long as he defeats Shaanxi, he can still go south next year.

The Song Army is just a piece of meat on the chopping board. Now if the hardest part of the meat wants to resist, then hit it with force and chop off the hardest part. The other parts cannot escape.

At noon on the 27th of the first lunar month, Wushu also received Wanyan Gao's military order.

The Jin Army on the center line began to decisively withdraw northward.

However, Zhao Ning didn't intend for it to end just like that.

As early as the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he had received a lot of information from Shaanxi one after another.

Of course, there were also many memorials to impeach Zhang Jun.

In these memorials, Zhang Jun was described as a treacherous official who ruined most of the families in Shaanxi.

It was precisely because of his indiscriminate command in Shaanxi that led to the defeat on the Western Front.

Some people even threatened Zhao Guan's family in memorials, saying that Shaanxi was in danger and that the country's century-old accumulation would be burned to the ground.

After reading these memorials, Zhao Ning also broke into a cold sweat.

If Shaanxi is really defeated, Xixia will send troops in the blink of an eye, and that will be the beginning of disaster.

But Zhang Jun's memorial tells a different story.

Not only was Shaanxi not lost, but it also severely damaged the enemy, and many of the heroes of the Chang'an battle were also listed.

Among them, Liu Qi's name is prominently among them.

Sure enough, people like Liu Qi can really fight.

After searching for a long time, he found Qu Duan's name.

Good guy, Zhang Jun directly complained to Qu Duan for not obeying orders.

Sure enough, Zhang Jun and Qu Duan couldn't deal with them.

But fortunately, Qu Duan was not cut off.

From Zhang Jun's memorial, Zhao Ning once again captured the fighter opportunity.

The Jin Army will inevitably withdraw its troops to support the Western Front.

Withdrawing troops and attacking are two different things.

In the era of cold weapons, how difficult is it to withdraw troops?

Why did all the famous generals withdraw their troops, either overnight or using deception to leave their camps behind and then flee quickly with their men?

Suppose you follow a famous general to go to war. Before the war begins, you will inevitably receive various messages telling you that the enemy country has garbage and how evil it is. We are righteous people and can make a fortune. As long as we capture the city, how much money will there be? wealth.

You will be very excited.

But if you are still fighting, you suddenly receive an order: withdraw your troops, and withdraw immediately.

What would you think?

Damn it! Where am I? What happened? Why do we need to withdraw? Has the main force been defeated?

Has the main force already been defeated?

Yes or no?

Did you answer my question?

Everyone, has the main force been defeated?

what to do?

I want to go home, I want to go home and find Cuihua!

There is a high probability that you will follow most of them and evacuate anxiously.

As for the ambition to kill the enemy country when he came...

Just like you don't want to be fair and rich when you are 18 years old, and you are in the same state as long as you are female when you are 30 years old.

Therefore, in the era of cold weapons, withdrawing troops has always been more difficult than attacking.

If you're not careful, it could lead to a huge defeat.

No matter how strong the army is, this is the case.

Now is the time when the Jin Army is at its weakest, how could Zhao Ning miss this opportunity!

He immediately sent out a large number of spies and sent a message to the towns in Hebei. As soon as he detected the Jin army retreating north, he would start fighting immediately.

On the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month, Wushu left all the camps behind, set up blinders, and crossed the river overnight.

He also set up a cover-up in Hebei and sent various troops to pretend to attack the city.

In fact, the number of troops in each group was limited, but they carried many flags and made many dummies out of wood to mix with the army and deceive the Song army.

In ancient times, there were no telescopes, and it was impossible to see at close range. Most people judged the number of enemy troops based on footprints, baggage left behind, the number of flags viewed from a distance, etc.

Wushu, on the other hand, began to retreat northward day and night.

The twenty-ninth day of the first lunar month, Daming Mansion.

Liu Hao quickly entered the government office and said: "Commander Zong! We discovered the whereabouts of the Jin army, and a large-scale Jin army is preparing to besiege Cizhou!"

Zongze was preparing for the first month of the year, and when he heard the information brought by Liu Hao, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

"Besieging Cizhou? Why are the gold thieves besieging Cizhou now?"

Liu Hao said: "It must be that he found that Tokyo City could not be captured, so he decided to besiege Cizhou. After all, the golden thieves had penetrated into our Song Dynasty for more than several months."

"No, no, no, if I were the coach of the Jin Army, I would definitely go deep into the south, where the defenses are weak. Since I chose to take a detour before, there is no reason to come back!"

Zongze suddenly stood up: "Could it be true as the officials said, that the gold thieves withdrawing their troops and besieging Cizhou are just a cover-up?"
Chapter completed!