At this time, the spies sent by the Conquest South Army to the south bank finally sent the information. At this time, Major General Zhou Yuanlang was in charge of the intelligence work of the Conquest South Army. Therefore, the person who sent the message hurriedly found Zhou Yuanlang.
Half-kneeling on the ground, he lowered his head and said: "General Zhou, the informant on the south bank is reporting urgently!"
Zhou Yuanlang was originally concerned about the war on the front line. Hearing this, he immediately reached out and took the information, unfolded it with trembling hands, and after just one glance, his expression changed drastically.
His voice was hoarse: "Is it true?"
"true."
The man lowered his head and said: "The messenger said that the Xiangshui Camp of the Huai'an Army on the south bank is almost empty at this time!"
Zhou Yuanlang took a deep breath, stumbled out of the camp, and found General Zhou who was directing the battle in the commander's tent.
"father!"
Zhou Yuanlang didn't care whether to report or not, he broke into the camp directly, found Zhou Shizhong who was looking at the map, and said loudly: "Dad, withdraw the troops quickly, withdraw the troops quickly!"
"Go back to Haizhou City, go back to Haizhou City!"
Zhou Shizhong was shouted at a few times by him, and he was a little confused. He shouted in a low voice: "How can you behave in such a panic?"
After all, General Zhou has seen a lot of the world. At least he is not panicking on the surface. He frowned and said, "What happened?"
Zhou Yuanlang swallowed his saliva and his voice trembled: "Dad, the Huai'an Army's Xiangshui Camp is not like before, only sending a few thousand people to harass!"
He trembled: "But they almost came out in full force!"
"At least 20,000 people!"
Zhou Yuanlang looked at his old father and said, "Their goal is definitely not to harass our army, but Haizhou, or even a bigger goal!"
"At this time, our army has dispersed in order to encircle their front army. Little did we know that the main force of the Huai'an Army was following behind this vanguard army!"
"The strength of our army in Haizhou... may not be much greater than that of Xiangshui Camp. At this time, the formation is scattered. If we are surrounded by them, we will be defeated one by one immediately!"
"father!"
The major general's hands were shaking a little: "Quick! Before their main force has time to catch up, immediately shrink the army and transfer all the troops back to Haizhou!"
General Zhou's face turned dark. He was silent for a few breaths and then said, "Is the news true?"
"It's true, it's been confirmed!"
Zhou Yuanlang's voice was hoarse: "Dad, at this time, if we retreat earlier, we will have more chance of survival!"
General Zhou said with a sullen face: "Since the numbers are equal, why should I withdraw?"
"When will the King of Da Qi be afraid of the people of the Southern Dynasty on the frontal battlefield?"
He stood up directly, looked at the generals on the side, and said in a deep voice: "Send my order to the general, let go of the encirclement, shrink the troops on the east and west wings, assemble all the troops in Haizhou, and form a formation to meet the enemy!"
General Zhou's order means that he no longer thinks about encircling and annihilating Shen Yi, and takes the initiative to release Shen Yi from this pocket formation. At the same time, he gathers all his troops due north of the Huai'an Army to fight with the Huai'an Army with guns and knives.
Kill one.
In other words, although he had a tough mouth, in general, he still adopted the opinions of his son Zhou Yuanlang and began to shrink his troops.
Unfortunately, it's too late.
Before Zhou Shizhong's generals came out of the commander's tent, soldiers from the scout battalion stumbled in, half-kneeling in front of General Zhou, with their heads lowered: "General, due south of our army, a large number of Chen troops have been discovered.
More than ten thousand!"
Zhou Shizhong looked at the general and said coldly: "Why don't you go down and deliver the order!"
"yes!"
After the general ran down, General Zhou sat on the main seat, closed his eyes, and thought about the situation.
Just as he was considering the situation of the war, another messenger hurried in, knelt in front of the general, lowered his head and said: "General, the Suqian garrison reported urgently that a large number of Southern Dynasty troops have landed in the Huaihe River section to the west.
We are almost arriving at Suqian City now, and the number of people may exceed 20,000!"
General Zhou's face finally turned completely ugly.
He glanced at the messenger and said expressionlessly: "Return to Suqian quickly and tell the Suqian garrison to let him hold on for half a day. The nearby officers and soldiers of the Southern Expedition Army will immediately support him."
The man lowered his head, said yes, turned around and left in a hurry.
Zhou Shizhong sat in his seat and didn't speak for a long time. After a long time, he whispered: "I regret that I was afraid of death last year and let Shen Qi live. Now it has become a climate for him."
Zhou Yuanlang stood under his father and said in a low voice: "Dad, since the southerners are moving north in a large scale, it is necessary for both groups to move together. This is not surprising."
He looked at his old father and said, "Dad, please write a memorial to the imperial court to ask for help."
Zhou Shizhong raised his head and glared at his son.
"If we are attacked by the Southerners and ask for help, will our Zhou family still be able to gain a foothold in the Southern Army?"
Zhou Yuanlang whispered: "Your Majesty wants to kill us father and son, so let him do it. In this situation, the troops are not enough, and the left and right are weak. It is useless for anyone to come."
"Half a month ago, an attack in the west attracted more than 10,000 troops under your father's command. Now, Haizhou and Suqian's troops are probably not enough for 40,000 people."
"We are at a disadvantage due to the number of people."
"Dad, the Huaihe Army of the Southern Dynasties is no longer the 100,000 Huaihe Army of the past!"
Zhou Yuanlang lowered his head and said: "The Huaihe Navy and the Huai'an Army have already exceeded 150,000 people. They can divide their forces to attack. Our Southern Army only has 100,000 people. How can we defend it?"
Zhou Shizhong snorted: "Last year, Shen Qi had only 50,000 troops at most. He guarded Huai'an so tightly that our 100,000-strong army was helpless."
"That's because Huai'an is too small, with a defense line of only two to three hundred miles."
Zhou Yuanlang lowered his head and said: "And according to the information from the spies, the Huai'an army is very well-equipped with weapons and equipment and has an absurd number of warships. It is definitely not what an army of 50,000 people should have."
"Even so, if we ask them to defend the Huaihe River, which is thousands of miles away, they will not be able to defend it in front of twice as many enemies!"
"More importantly."
The major general whispered: "We don't have enough warships. It's difficult to defend the river like the people of the Southern Dynasties did."
In the past sixty or seventy years, even the Huaihe Navy in the Zhao Chong era had not been able to get any benefits from the Qi people. Therefore, the Qi people had no need to defend the Huaihe River.
Because people from the Southern Dynasties didn’t dare to come here at all.
This can be seen from the fact that the Huaihe Navy did not dare to cross the Huaihe River for twenty years.
Because of this reason, and the fact that the shipbuilding industry in the north was not as good as that in the south, although the Conquest Army had many ships, it had very few warships capable of water warfare.
"At this time, I am writing to the court. If His Majesty is angry, it doesn't matter to you, father."
Zhou Yuanlang whispered: "Then we, father and son, will return to Yandu and quietly watch how the new general defends 150,000 with 100,000."
General Zhou stood up silently, walked to his son, reached out and patted his son on the shoulder, and sighed: "So..."
"Go and write a memorial asking for help. My father will send someone six hundred miles away to Yandu."
Zhou Yuanlang breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head and said: "Son, I obey!"
………………
The sky finally broke, and Mr. Shen took charge of the central army, driving the army northward in a mighty manner.
Su Ding followed Shen Yi. Seeing the sky was getting brighter, the Eastern Front general waved his hand and shouted: "Put up the flag and march in!"
Soon, two large flags were erected, their flags flapping in the wind.
On the two big flags, two words were written respectively.
One of the flags is naturally embroidered with the word "Chen", while the other flag has the word "Chen" embroidered on it!
As the flag was raised, the soldiers of Xiangshui Camp looked up at the two flags, and their hearts surged.
The army advanced two or three times faster.
An hour later, the main army finally met Xue Wei's vanguard army. Su Ding came to report to Shen Yi, bowing his head and saying: "Mr. Shen, the Qi people to the south of General Xue retreated very fast. By the time we caught up, it was too late to kill them all.
Surround them."
Master Shen looked at him and asked, "How many people are around?"
"Less than two thousand."
"Well."
Shen Yi touched his chin, looked north, and smiled.
"General Zhou, it seems that he is a little smarter..."