Zhou Shizhong's attack regardless of casualties was not very reasonable.
But if Northern Qi's decisive battle army is already gathering quickly, and soon the huge army including the border troops in the north, most of the forbidden troops near Yandu, and the local troops will press southward, then Zhou Shizhong, or the current behavior of the Northern Qi court, is relatively reasonable.
The first is to stick to Shen Yi's Huai'an army.
If Shen Yi's Huai'an army retreats south directly after the Northern Qi army is assembled, such a large-scale military mobilization and the use of border troops will directly severely damage the vitality of the Northern Qi Dynasty.
Even the Tatar tribe will follow them southward.
Now that Zhou Shizhong's troops are directly attached to him, it will not be so easy for Shen Yi to retreat if he wants to.
Because he will be chased by Zhou Shizhong's troops. You know, we are near Hejian Mansion now. If Shen Yi wants to retreat to the south of the Huaihe River, he will have to cross the entire Shandong Province, which is about 1,300 miles away. !
With such a long distance, if Zhou Shizhong's troops were stuck close to him, even if he wanted to retreat, it would probably be difficult to retreat.
In Shen Yi's view, in addition to this part of the reason, there is also part of the reason, which is the consideration of Emperor Zhaowu of the Northern Qi Dynasty...or the entire Zhu Li Zhenren.
Today, the largest Han general in the Northern Qi army is undoubtedly Zhou Shizhong. After the Naxi incident, Zhu Li was full of distrust towards all Han people, especially Han military generals.
The Northern Qi Dynasty ordered Zhou Shizhong to stick to the Huai'an army with all his strength, which was not without the intention of consuming Zhou Shizhong's troops. When Zhou Shizhong's troops were exhausted, the Huai'an army would also be severely weakened. By then, those "Master Zhu Lizhen" would be completely eliminated. Zhou Shizhong was a hidden danger. Secondly, the Northern Qi army arrived later. Even if they could not annihilate the Huai'an army, they could easily drive the Huai'an army back to the south of the Huaihe River and take away this huge fruit of victory.
Shen Yi pulled Du Yong into his Chinese army tent, asked him to sit down, and then asked a lot of information about the north.
The internal guards had been sharing information with Shen Yi for several years. Du Yong naturally did not dare to hide anything and basically told everything he knew.
After telling the information about the north, Du Yong bowed his head slightly to Shen Yi and said: "Master Shen, the inner guard is near Yandu, and there are many manpower that can be used. If you have any orders here, the inner guard can I’ll help you do it.”
Shen Yi shook his head slightly: "At this time, it is too wasteful to use intelligence personnel to do things."
Du Yong whispered: "Perhaps, the inner guards can help Lord Shen contact the Tatars and let the Tatars follow us southward to attack the Northern Qi Dynasty from both sides with us. Although the Tatars are not large in number, they are extremely powerful. If they end up, it will be easy for Marquis here immediately."
Shen Yi was startled when he heard this, then frowned and said with a frown: "Deputy Marshal Du, do you mean this by yourself or by the internal guards?"
"Or is it what His Majesty meant?"
Du Yong saw that something was wrong with Shen Yi's expression and quickly waved his hand and said: "Master Shen has misunderstood. This is Du's own little suggestion. It is neither His Majesty nor the internal guard's intention..."
He looked at Shen Yi cautiously and continued: "If you accidentally say the wrong thing, please don't take it to heart, Lord Marquis."
Shen Yi took a deep breath and said: "Deputy Marshal Du, I am waiting for the Northern Expedition to drive away the barbarians. Zhu Li is really a barbarian, but the Tatars may be more difficult and ferocious barbarians!"
"Once they go south, not to mention how much effort we will have to expend in the future to drive them out, the Han people living along their route will suffer countless hardships!"
Du Yong lowered his head and said, "What the Marquis said is true, but..."
He hesitated for a moment and then said: "But regardless of whether we contact the Tatars or not, since Northern Qi has mobilized border troops, it is impossible for the Tatars to not know about it, and they may still go south."
"It's their business to go south themselves."
"It's our business to call you."
Shen Yi looked solemn: "Deputy Marshal Du, not to mention such things that concern foreign countries, they have to be reported to the emperor. Even if you and I can make the decision to do such a thing..."
"In the future, I will bear infamy in the annals of history."
He looked at Du Yong and said seriously: "I'm not talking about the infamy you and I are suffering from, but the emperor of this dynasty. Do you understand?"
"Just tell me what you said. Don't spread it outside, let alone spread it to the court, otherwise you will suffer a big loss."
Du Yong was bluffed and frightened by Shen Yi. He quickly lowered his head and said in a trembling voice: "The official made a mistake. The Marquis just pretended that he didn't hear it!"
Shen Yi patted him on the shoulder and said softly: "Don't worry, I'm not a talkative person. I just treat him as Deputy Commander Du. You didn't say that."
After saying this, he looked at the seven or eight generals in the Chinese army tent. These generals were also very sensible. They all lowered their heads and clasped their fists: "Subordinates, I don't remember what Deputy Marshal Du said!"
Du Yong let out a sigh of relief and did not dare to stay here anymore. He lowered his head and clasped his fists at Shen Yi and said: "Master Hou, I still have a lot of things to do in my humble position. If anything happens, I will inform Master Hou at any time!"
Shen Yi nodded.
"I'll send the deputy commander."
Du Yong quickly shook his head, bowed and bowed, and exited the Chinese army's tent.
Su Ding took Shen Yi a few steps further and took him all the way to the gate of the camp. When he came back, all the generals in the camp had dispersed. He reached out and poured a cup of tea for Shen Yi and said softly: "Mr. Shen Don’t you want Deputy Commander Du’s voice to reach the imperial court?”
Shen Yi nodded.
"It's really not his place to say what he said. He is a bit too smart."
Su Ding thought for a while and said, "But if Deputy Commander Du doesn't say anything, the ministers in the court might think and say so."
"Those civil servants said it was the civil servants who said it."
Mr. Shen lowered his head to drink tea and said in a deep voice: "As the person responsible for the Northern Expedition, he should not say such things. It is easy for those civil servants to use him as a gun to persuade His Majesty to do this."
"We are the king of the Han family. We must be upright. We must get back the lost land by ourselves. We may rely on the more ferocious barbarians. In the end, we may be trapped."
In another world, there is a ready-made precedent of giving away gifts. Of course, Shen Yi would not have the slightest idea of cooperating with the Tatars.
He was even a little worried that Zhenren Zhuli would not be able to hold on and the Tatars would capture Yandu first. Then the difficulty of his Northern Expedition would suddenly rise to another level.
After Mr. Shen drank a cup of hot tea, he pondered for a long time and said, "You have to continue to deal with Zhou Shizhong and the others. You have to retreat when you should retreat, and you can't retreat blindly when you shouldn't retreat."
Su Ding lowered his head.
"You will eventually understand."
Shen Yi lowered his head and considered it, then said: "I will write to Xue Wei and Pei Jun later to ask them to speed up the progress of the war."
"But according to my estimation, it will take more than a month at least for the war in Henan to end."
"In this more than a month, no matter how fiercely Zhou Shizhong attacks, we at least..."
"We must meet the enemy outside Shandong. We cannot allow chaos to arise again in Shandong, which has already restored order. This will make people panic and make chaos more likely to occur later."
In a war, in addition to sufficient supply of food and grass, another important factor is the stability of the rear.
Shandong and Henan are currently Shen Yi's rear.
If the rear is in chaos, it will also affect the supply of food and grass.
Su Ding nodded first, hesitated, and continued: "It will not be a problem to block them, but the war in Henan will end in more than a month, and it will take more than two months to transfer General Xue and General Pei's troops over. After that."
"By the time…"
Su Ding looked at Shen Yi and whispered: "By then, Qi Ren's main force will probably have been assembled."
"At that time, there was a huge disparity in military strength. Mr. Shen, you..."
Shen Yi squinted his eyes and said softly: "It can only be said that there is a huge disparity in the number of soldiers, not in terms of strength."
"If we only look at the strength on paper, it would have been difficult for us to even defend Huai'an, let alone fight all the way to Hejian Prefecture."
"You can only know the strength of your troops by fighting them."
Having said this, Shen Yi closed his eyes and said slowly: "Go and do your business. Just fight every battle and leave the rest to me."
Su Ding bowed his head respectfully.
"I will finally retire!"
After Su Ding left, Shen Yi thought for a long time alone, and finally picked up his writing brush and wrote a letter to His Majesty the Emperor.
This letter first stated the situation. Later, Shen Yi expressed his request in a very tactful manner.
In other words, this is a letter asking for help.
Ask the imperial court to support 50,000 imperial troops in case of emergency.
After writing and signing the letter, Shen Yi called Jiang Sheng and gave him solemn instructions.
"Expedited delivery to Jiankang within six hundred miles."
Jiang Sheng took it with both hands.
"Yes, I'll have someone send him out immediately."