Tu Yuan did not lie. For a whole day, he did not add any more troops to the west gate. He simply opened such an opening so that the Huai'an army could smoothly exit through this opening.
This is not difficult to understand.
For Tu Yuan now, his goal is to recapture Xuzhou, not to annihilate the Huai'an army.
Because the latter is too difficult.
And if the city of Xuzhou could be recovered in a short time, then word spread that it was him who had a far-reaching goal. After Zhou Shizhong lost the important city of Xuzhou, he recovered Xuzhou in more than a month.
Reporting to Yandu at that time was inevitably a great achievement.
The more important point is that Tu Yuan also knew that the old emperor could not hold on for much longer.
It would be best to settle the credit while the old man is still alive and conscious, then there will inevitably be a generous reward.
After all, this is an errand assigned by the old emperor.
If he had waited until the new emperor came to the throne, although it would still be a credit, the reward would definitely not be as generous as that of Emperor Yongping.
Because Xuzhou City was lost during the Yongping Dynasty, the old emperor definitely wanted to take it back before his death and pass it on to a complete Qi Dynasty, so that he would not have any regrets before his death.
But in the new imperial dynasty, the new emperor may not necessarily have these feelings.
However, Mr. Shen did not follow his example. Although Ximen was almost undefended for a whole day, the Huai'an army in the city remained motionless, as if the thousands of Huai'an troops who broke out yesterday were different from the Huai'an troops in the city.
No relationship.
Tu Yuan didn't lie, and Shen Yi didn't lie either.
In fact, it took less than the next day. On that day, the 10,000 Huaihe Navy and the 20,000 Imperial Guards from Huai'an moved at almost the same time and began to ferry northward.
The Huaihe Navy in the west rushed towards Suqian, while 20,000 forbidden troops followed Shen Yi's orders and rushed towards Haizhou City.
The news of the large army's advance could not be hidden from anyone, and Shen Yi had no intention of hiding it from these Qi people.
At noon the next day, General Zhou Shizhong led his troops to the west of Xuzhou.
Today, the Qi army did not attack Xuzhou City, and Xuzhou City seemed quite calm.
Because there was no battle, General Zhou felt a little sleepy at noon. After lunch, he lay on the bed in the tent. As soon as he closed his eyes, a messenger rushed in.
Kneeling in front of Zhou Shizhong, he kowtowed and said: "General, urgent military situation!"
Zhou Shizhong suddenly opened his eyes, then sat up, looked at the messenger, and said in a low voice, "Say."
"Yesterday evening, the brothers stationed along the Huaihe River discovered that the southerners on the south bank began to cross the river and head north. There were more than one group, and two groups of Southern Dynasty troops from the east and west moved northward almost at the same time."
Xuzhou City is some distance away from the Huaihe River, so it is not surprising that the news was delayed for half a day. General Zhou stroked his beard and asked: "Where did the southerners go north from?"
"The east side is from Huai'an Prefecture."
The messenger lowered his head and said: "To the west, we cross the Huaihe River from Huaiyuan County and go north."
Hearing this, Zhou Shizhong closed his eyes and considered the situation. After being silent for a long time, he said expressionlessly: "I understand, let's report to the general."
The current commander-in-chief of the Southern Conquest Army is no longer Zhou Shizhong.
Although after decades of operation, the Zhou family, or General Zhou, is still in actual control of the Southern Army, but from the perspective of the court, it is easier to lead the army, so Zhou Shizhong does not need to do it for the Southern Army to go north.
Decided.
At the same time, he no longer needs to take the main responsibility.
At this time, a light word had already pushed the responsibility away and onto Tu Yuan.
As a result, the messenger hurried to another camp and reported to Tu Yuan the situation in the south. After General Tu heard the news, he frowned, reached out to take the detailed report, and asked
: "How many people are there approximately? Do you have a number?"
"The number of people going north from Huai'an Prefecture in the south is between 10,000 and 20,000, and the number of people going north from Huaiyuan is probably over 10,000."
Hearing this, Tu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.
After all calculations, the total number is 30,000 people.
Although this number of troops is definitely not small, it is not enough to threaten the nearly 200,000-strong Southern Conquest Army, and it is even less likely to change the situation in Xuzhou.
After reading the detailed information, General Tu said to himself.
"Attack Suqian all the way, attack Haizhou all the way..."
He glanced in the direction of Xuzhou City and said thoughtfully: "The man surnamed Shen is really sincere. He said he would increase troops today, so he did so today, but..."
"Including the manpower in Xuzhou City, the total army of the Southern Dynasties is more than 70,000..."
"Is Shen Qi really confident that with more than 70,000 people, he can defeat my nearly 200,000-strong Confederate Army head-on?"
Thinking of this, Tu Yuan frowned.
"A little too confident."
After muttering alone for a while, General Tu strode out of the camp, got on his horse, ran to the Qi Army camp outside the west gate, and met Zhou Shizhong.
When Zhou Shizhong saw Tu Yuan, he immediately cupped his fists and saluted: "General Tu."
Tu Yuan glanced at Zhou Shizhong, sighed and said, "Brother Zhou, you should already know the news about the southerners going north."
Just when Zhou Shizhong was about to deny it, he looked up and saw Tu Yuan's gaze. After hesitating for a moment, General Zhou smiled and said, "I'll find out with General Tu."
"General Zhou, how do you think we should respond?"
"There are not many people in the south. Even if they occupy Suqian and Haizhou, these two cities are not big. After our army captures Xuzhou, we can easily take them back."
Tu Yuan was silent for a while and said in a low voice: "But this is too ugly."
Zhou Shizhong shook his head slightly and sighed: "Indeed, it would be very ugly if our nearly 200,000-strong army were lost to less than 100,000 Southerners."
"But once the troops are divided, it will be difficult to surround Xuzhou..."
He looked at Tuyuan and said silently: "If the Huai'an army in Xuzhou City is no longer trapped in Xuzhou, it will be autumn now, and the food will be mature soon. When they are short of food, they can go out of the city to look for food. If they find food
If we shrink back later, then the recapture of Xuzhou will be far away..."
General Tu sat down and said slowly: "I understand the truth, but the city cannot be lost again, otherwise you and I will not be able to explain it to Your Majesty."
At this point, both of them were silent for a while.
General Tu took out a wine bag from his waist, raised his head and took a sip of wine, then exhaled a breath of alcohol: "Let's clear the country."
Zhou Shizhong's eyes widened, and then he whispered: "Since ancient times, I have never heard of anyone attacking a city to clear the country..."
Tu Yuan smiled and said: "It's okay to leave it for a while, but the crops within twenty or thirty miles near Xuzhou City must be burned or harvested half a month before they mature, otherwise Shen Qi in the city If you sneak out in the middle of the night and steal it, you'll be in trouble."
Zhou Shizhong was silent for a while, then nodded and said, "That's all."
Tu Yuan looked at Zhou Shizhong and said: "The Southern Dynasty army in Huai'an has attacked Haizhou. Haizhou is also a state city. It's hard to lose it. General Zhou, please go there?"
Zhou Shizhong lowered his head silently: "I obey my orders."
Tu glanced far to the south.
"As for Suqian..."
"Let's send someone over to take a look at the situation."
………………
Yandu, Xiude Hall.
Xiude Hall is the sleeping hall of Emperor Yongping.
At this time, the smell of medicine in this hall was so strong that it was a bit pungent.
In the dormitory, seven or eight imperial doctors gathered around and talked in low voices.
Among them, one or two imperial doctors were stumbling a bit when they spoke, obviously extremely frightened.
The great eunuch Liu Yi knelt silently in front of His Majesty the Emperor's bed. From time to time he would stand up and ask the imperial doctor about the specific situation.
It's midnight.
Eunuch Liu, who had been on guard for several days, was too sleepy to open his eyes. He knelt in front of the emperor's bed and dozed off.
In a daze, he heard a weak voice: "Liu Yi..."
Eunuch Liu suddenly opened his eyes, looked at the bed, quickly leaned on it, and said in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty, you're awake..."
Emperor Yongping's face was pale, and the blood was almost invisible: "Bring me some water..."
Liu Yi nodded hurriedly, quickly fetched water for the old emperor, helped the emperor up, and served him to drink water.
After drinking a bowl of water, Emperor Yongping's face looked a little better. He coughed twice, then lay on the bed again, rubbed his sore head with his hands, and asked: "How long...how long have I slept?"
Liu Yi burst into tears and whispered: "Your Majesty, it's been three days..."
Emperor Yongping closed his eyes, thought for a while, and asked: "What has the third child been doing these three days?"
"His Royal Highness King Qi is sincere and filial. For the past three days, he has been kneeling outside the Xiude Hall, barely eating water or rice..."
Emperor Yongping was silent for a while, then opened his eyes and asked: "Where is the fourth child? Aren't you still at ease?"
Liu Yi hesitated for a moment and whispered.
"His Royal Highness King Wei also knelt outside the palace three days ago, but left the next day..."