General Nuo stood in front of the father and son. He took out a map and spread it on the table in front of him. He pointed at Jingzhou on the map and said: "General Zhou, the left route army of the Huai'an Army. All the parts are here, I need you to storm Jingzhou in three days."
Nuo Yong said in a deep voice: "We don't need you. We must defeat the Huai'an Army's left army. We don't even need you to capture Jingzhou. We only need you..."
"Hold all the troops of the Huai'an Army's Left Route Army for me so that they can't support Ling Su, the Right Route Army!"
Zhou Shizhong frowned and asked: "General, how long do we need to hold them back?"
"The longer the better."
Nuo Yong replied: "But it will take at least half a month."
"Within half a month, I will attack Lingsu with all my strength and strive to defeat Lingsu's troops. Then I will turn back and repel the left army, and then divide my troops and go south to attack Jinan!"
Zhou Shizhong sighed and looked at Nuo Yong: "Has the general figured out how to deal with the southerners' firearms?"
"Those firearms may not be very powerful in the wild on weekdays, but once they enter the city, they are really powerful. When Shen Qi occupied Xuzhou, there were only 30,000 people defending the city. We have two or three times the number of them, so we can't do anything at all. Xuzhou cannot be captured."
"The Southerners are not fools. They will fight to the death in these two places. Once they retreat, for example to Dezhou, or directly to Jinan, what can the general do to defeat their big city?"
Having said this, Zhou Shizhong continued: "I'm afraid it will be difficult to surround them to death."
Zhou Yuanlang stood behind Zhou Shizhong, bowed slightly and said: "General, one more thing is that the Huai'an Army still has Xue Wei's troops in Shanxi. As far as we know, Shen Qi himself has gone to Shanxi and should be in Xue Wei's army now. If we move all the way south and Xue Wei abandons Shanxi and attacks our flanks, how should we respond?"
Nuo Yong said in a low voice: "Whether we can break the city, we have to fight to Jinan first!"
"As for Xue Wei behind the scenes."
Nuo Yong sneered and said: "How many troops can he still have if he has been fighting hard in Shanxi for so long? Our troops have been assembled, at least more than 200,000, and if we randomly distribute some of them, we can calmly deal with Xue Wei!"
When he heard the figure of two hundred thousand, Zhou Yuanlang immediately frowned, because he knew that with Hejian Prefecture and Zhending Prefecture currently having half of their troops, Nuo Yong's troops would never reach two hundred thousand.
He quickly reacted and frowned: "The general wants to withdraw our reinforcements from Hejian?"
When Nuo Yong arrived at the front line with the border troops, the Forbidden Army and part of the local army, in order to balance the strength of the troops, he allocated part of the troops to be deployed by the Conquest South Army. This way, it was ensured that both sides could deal with the left and right forces of the Conquest South Army. Both armies can gain an advantage.
But now, listening to Nuo Yong's tone, it is obvious that he has planned to take back this part of the force.
Nuo Yong squinted his eyes and said coldly: "It's been so long. Your Conquest Army has been too timid to fight. Why do you need so many soldiers?"
Zhou Shizhong was a little angry. He stood up and looked directly at Nuo Yong: "The general has never been timid in fighting, but he has never seen any results!"
Nuo Yong dismissed it and turned around and said: "I have made the specific general order very clear. If the Southern Conquest Army fails to do it after three days, I will report it to the emperor and engage in military law!"
He stopped, turned his head and glanced sideways at Zhou Shizhong and his son, and said in a muffled voice: "At that time, any failure on the battlefield will be blamed on you, father and son!"
After saying this, General Nuo turned his head and walked away.
Zhou Yuanlang walked to the door and waited until Nuo Yong's back disappeared. Then he returned to the room and looked at his old father. He said softly: "Dad, you saw it, we haven't fought yet..."
"You are already shirking responsibility."
"This is the commander-in-chief of Daqi's border army."
Zhou Yuanlang squinted his eyes and said coldly: "It's not as far as Tuyuantu, the general."
Zhou Shizhong sighed and said, "He is now a commander appointed by the imperial court. What can be done?"
Zhou Yuanlang sat next to his old father and said in a low voice: "It is precisely because of this that the imperial court is now on the verge of collapse."
"So far, apart from my father, who is in charge on the battlefield, who else is Han?"
"Among the four generals in the border army, the Han general Guo Chuang is the most famous and has the highest merit. He is called Guo Wudi by the Tatars."
"Nowadays, among the generals, Tu Yuan and Nuo Yong have been appointed commanders one after another, but Guo Wudi is still in northern Xinjiang, leading a group of new recruits to resist the Tatars!"
"I even heard that the Tatars sent envoys to Yandu, and then the court released the three guards of the Xuanfu and allowed the Tatars to enter Datongfu!"
Zhou Yuanlang clenched his fists and gritted his teeth and said: "Today, because of the changes that occurred when I took the throne, I am too suspicious. Otherwise, the situation in the imperial court would never have deteriorated to this point!"
Zhou Shizhong lowered his head to take a sip of tea and whispered: "General Guo, it is indeed a pity."
"Right now, he is still guarding the west side of Datong. I don't know how he will get along with himself."
While the father and son were talking, someone came to report in a hurry, knelt down in front of Zhou Yuanlang, lowered his head and said: "General, Major General!"
"The spies reported that the Huai'an army on the eastern front came north from Yanshan and headed straight for Cangzhou!"
The man paused and continued: "Moreover, someone discovered a fleet of hundreds of ships along the coast. The fleet has no flag, but it should..."
"It should be Nan Chen's ship!"
When Zhou Yuanlang heard this, he was silent for a while, and then waved his hand: "I understand, just step back."
"yes."
After the man left, Zhou Yuanlang turned his head, looked at his father, and said softly: "Dad, Shen Qi couldn't keep calm and started to take action."
Zhou Shizhong frowned: "The Qi army on the eastern front in Yanshan..."
Zhou Yuanlang looked calm and said: "It's that useless general Fuquan. He brought ten to twenty thousand people and planned to invade Shandong from Leling."
"result…"
Zhou Yuanlang sneered: "As a result, they were stopped by Shen Qi's guard camp and were killed. Even Zhu Lizhen's cavalry army, which the imperial court had high hopes for, was defeated."
He almost laughed out loud: "They were all defeated by Shen Qi's guard camp. Thousands of cavalry could not outrun Shen Qi's infantry on the battlefield. One or two thousand people were left behind!"
"It's really a strange story that has never happened before."
Zhou Yuanlang continued: "After that, Shen Qi's guard camp, along with the manpower of their imperial army, stayed in Yanshan, but they didn't do much. My father was busy with the war, so he probably didn't know much about it."
"Weiying..."
"The Wei camp is going to attack Cangzhou."
Zhou Shizhong frowned slightly: "Send five thousand more people to Cangzhou. It will be enough to block the actions of this Huai'an army."
"No."
Zhou Yuanlang shook his head and said slowly: "Dad, the Huai'an army made a surprise attack on Cangzhou. The number of people is tens of thousands, which is incalculable."
"Moreover, the Huai'an Army Navy is also heading north along the way. This is obviously Shen Qizang's secret killer move. If left unchecked, they may advance by land and water, attack the three guards of Tianjin, and threaten the capital of Yan!"
"What the boy means is to send an additional 30,000 people to garrison Cangzhou, to guard against the Huai'an Army on this road. At the same time, he will report to the imperial court and ask the imperial court to send a navy to attack the Huai'an Army's navy at sea."
"three…"
Zhou Shizhong's eyes widened: "Thirty thousand?"
Zhou Yuanlang's face was calm: "Father, do you think it's missing?"
Seeing the expression of his third son, Zhou Shizhong was startled and suddenly understood.
The purpose of sending heavy troops to Cangzhou is not to defend the enemy in Cangzhou, but to send the army to the core battlefield to preserve its strength!
He was silent for a while and sighed: "Will the court agree?"
"This is a serious enemy situation. Of course the court will agree. Is it possible that we just watch this army threaten the Holy Gong?"
"Father."
Zhou Yuanlang lowered his head and said quietly: "Our family has been loyal ministers for generations."
"We must go all out to deal with the great enemy in Cangzhou."
Zhou Shizhong frowned and looked north.
"family…"
"Father, don't worry."
Zhou Yuanlang said expressionlessly: "They don't dare to touch our family members."
"If we really move, my army can conquer the south..."