Luo Zhao on horseback looked gloomy and seemed unusually silent.
He came in high spirits, came with the heroic ambition to make great contributions to the Song Dynasty, and came with the spirit of asking who is the hero of the world!
He successfully attacked the Dongyujiang River, and everything was as expected. But since Meng Shanming officially led the army for the Eastern Expedition, everything has changed, causing his lofty ideals to be frustrated again and again. Now not only is he unable to
If you fail to succeed, your future will be filled with gloom.
He knew that someone was waiting for him, that person who had never had a head-on confrontation was waiting for him, that Meng Shanming was waiting for him!
He withdrew not because he had received orders from the Song Dynasty to withdraw his troops.
He realized something was wrong when the first siege failed. After the second attack still failed, he did not lose his mind. He immediately realized that Yanjing, which was originally thought to be vulnerable, had great determination to resist and assembled a powerful force.
The human and material resistance cannot be conquered in a short period of time.
Two attacks, no, it should be three, and at the beginning there was a strong attack by the vanguard!
Three strong attacks were carried out, and 180,000 Song Guoerang were sacrificed one after another.
Just as they were climbing the high city wall of Yanjing, 180,000 Song Guoerlang fell, and their blood stained every inch of the land under the wall of Yanjing red!
With the men and horses in his hands, if he keeps attacking, he will be able to defeat it sooner or later!
But he didn't dare to spend any more time. First of all, he couldn't afford the time, and secondly, the men and horses couldn't bear it. If they were defeated in the end, I don't know how many of the three million Song Dynasty children could be left to go back.
There is someone waiting for him on the way, Meng Shanming is waiting for him!
After reaching this point, he suddenly woke up and seemed to understand Mengshan Mingkeng's intention of killing 600,000 prisoners!
Excluding other reasons, Meng Shanming was deliberately irritating the Song Army and triggering the Song Army's revenge. In turn, he was intimidating everyone in Yanjing to resist desperately, forcing both sides to fight to the death, thereby consuming a large amount of the Song Army's strength!
Meng Shanming used the lives of 600,000 people to turn Yanjing into a bait, thereby consuming the Song army's time, consuming the Song army's food and grass, and consuming the Song army's men and horses.
When a weak Song army appeared in front of Meng Shanming, Luo Zhao shuddered just thinking about the consequences!
That old guy is crazy. He doesn't care about his lifelong reputation, he doesn't hesitate to kill 600,000 prisoners, and he doesn't care about the life and death of everyone in Yanjing. He just fights to defeat the Song army and save the Yan country!
Suddenly understanding Meng Shanming's intention, Luo Zhao dared to continue fighting and decisively ordered the withdrawal of troops!
Also "escorting" the Song army away were the 100,000 cavalrymen of the Shang Dynasty, each of whom had a few days' worth of dry food on hand, and kept going back and forth with logistical replenishment.
Unlike when Qiu did not commit any crimes when he "escorted" the Song army to Yanjing, now the Nanzhou cavalry frequently takes the initiative to attack.
One hundred thousand cavalrymen have been coming and going like the wind around the Song army. If they seize the opportunity, they will take the opportunity to attack. If the situation goes wrong, they will withdraw immediately without entanglement.
From this, Luo Zhao more and more confirmed Meng Shanming's intention. The Nanzhou troops were indeed prepared for his retreat, in order to delay and consume him.
At the same time, the Shang Dynasty sent orders to various prefectures on the way to once again prevent manpower from destroying the Song army's retreat path and try to delay the consumption as much as possible.
When the terrain was favorable and the opportunity was right, Nanzhou Iron Cavalry even launched a serious and fast attack to tell the Song Army that I am not just going to harass you, I will be serious at any time!
Although they knew the intentions of the Nanzhou troops, the Song army had to guard against the retreat of the troops.
Facing this harassment from time to time is really a headache. The retreat of the two to three million troops is like a long queue. It is impossible to assemble into a group and retreat as a whole, and there is no such wide road to go. The Nanzhou Iron Cavalry just gets cold feet from time to time.
Once, once to the left, cross, and once to the right, then run away.
You don't know where the opponent will suddenly strike or when.
People are not greedy for more. They will kill hundreds or thousands of people at once and then run away. Only when the opportunity is right, will they take a few more bites. Although the casualties caused each time are not large, but after this long journey, the accumulated casualties will definitely not be small.
The numbers, especially those of Song Jun, made people panic, and no one could even sleep peacefully.
Two legs can't outrun four legs, especially when there are so many people and you can't get away from them.
Once they were harassed, they couldn't bear it anymore. The Song Army organized cavalry to pursue it. As a result, after the pursuing cavalry was lured away from the main force, the Nanzhou cavalry suddenly turned around and counterattacked, almost wiping out the Song Army cavalry.
The remaining hundreds of cavalry escaped and were no match for the Nanzhou cavalry!
Moreover, the Shang Chaozong often made attempts to attack the grain transport convoys, which caused a lot of monks to gather here to guard the grain. In fact, the Shang Chaozong had never touched the grain transport convoys, but who knows whether the Shang Chaozong would suddenly come.
Suddenly, the monks had to concentrate their efforts to strengthen the protection.
In order to carry out this harassment mission, Dachanshan also suffered a lot.
The Song army was not a fool. It angered the monks who accompanied the army and chased them. After the Dachan Mountain was destroyed, the price of death and injury paid was not light!
For the 100,000 cavalrymen sleeping in the open air in Nanzhou, not counting people, it is also a huge test to maintain the physical strength of the horses for such a long-distance attack!
"Grand Governor, His Majesty's decree has been received. He ordered the attack on Yanjing to be stopped immediately and the army to withdraw immediately!" After taking the decree from the young general and inspecting it, Wen You rushed to Luo Zhao's side to deliver the message to him.
Luo Zhao received the decree and checked it for confirmation. He was silent and thought a little.
He didn't know what His Majesty's sudden decree meant, or whether he had seen through Meng Shanming's intention.
He had already sent a message to Song Jing, telling them that they were also withdrawing their troops. It is estimated that Song Jing had received the news shortly after the order was announced.
The decree was given to Su Yuanbai and others for inspection, but he remained silent. Looking around, the morale of the Song army was also somewhat low.
After traveling such a long distance back and forth, we paid a huge price and came back with nothing. It's strange that our morale is good.
…
"Your Majesty, the Song army has withdrawn, really withdrawn."
In the imperial study room, Tian Yu quickly walked in and announced the happy news.
"Really withdrawn?" Shang Jianxiong remained skeptical after the case. His eyes were already red, the circles under his eyes were dark, and he looked very haggard.
These days, one day is like a year.
Tong Mo, Shang Yongzhong and Gao Jiancheng were not much better, and they all looked extremely haggard. Chairs were specially prepared for the three of them in the imperial study. The three of them were now sitting in the imperial study "chatting" with Shang Jianxiong.
"In the past, there was really no such privilege as being able to sit and chat with the emperor at any time.
Next to the royal study room, a sleeping room was prepared for the three of them, and the eunuchs from the palace were waiting on them.
Tian Yu nodded excitedly and said: "Confirmed, confirmed repeatedly, the Song army and horses are already eight hundred miles away from Beijing. They are so far away. They should not be cheating. They should not turn back easily. They should be withdrawing.
Got it!"
"Huh!" Shang Jianxiong, who slowly stood up, let out a long breath, sat down again as if he was relieved, and said excitedly: "We really withdrew, and our officers and soldiers in Yanjing have finally defended the ancestral foundation with their lives, otherwise we still have nothing left to do.
How should I go to meet my ancestors?"
The three ministers also breathed a sigh of relief, but Shang Yongzhong said a little strangely: "Luo Zhao still has enough strength in his hands. He came all the way, attacked so many times and then withdrew. Why do I feel something is wrong?
"
Gao Jiancheng hesitated and said: "Meng Shanming led our army to burn, kill, and loot in the Song Dynasty, and even massacred the city one after another. Did it put too much pressure on Luo Zhao and force Luo Zhao to retreat?"
Several people looked at me and I looked at you, and they all thought it was possible.
Tong Mo suddenly asked, "Where is Shang Chaozong? Are you still following the Song army?"
Tian Yu slightly leaned forward, "Yes, according to the spies, Prince Yong was not polite this time. He launched harassment and attacks on the Song Army one after another along the way, and even beat the Song Army hard once!"
Tong Mo snorted coldly, "When they were fighting hard to defend the city, they didn't respond when it was time to attack. When the Song army had no intention of fighting, they pretended to be there. It's a shame!"
Gao Jiancheng and Shang Yongzhong glanced at each other subconsciously, and both felt that these words were a bit indiscriminate. Luo Zhao's three million troops gathered outside Yanjing City, and they also organized a formation of siege equipment. No matter how powerful the Shang Chaozong's one hundred thousand cavalry could be,
We didn't dare to attack them forcefully. When the Song army's vanguard attacked the city, Shang Chaozong still had an impact and exerted force.
However, when the two of them looked up at Shang Jianxiong's resentful look, they knew full well that they would not argue with Tong Mo. They both knew that Tong Mo hated the Ning Wang family to the core.
"In any case, Yanjing was finally defended, and it all depends on the lives of the soldiers!" Shang Jianxiong said and stood up again, the anxiety on his face had been wiped away, "The soldiers and the people worked hard, and I also
You will not be treated unfairly! Please draw up a reward schedule for the soldiers. The common people... give out money and food, one gold coin to each person, and ten days of rations to each person. The people in the city will be counted on a per capita basis. The number of people who participated in the defense of the city will be doubled.
, those who have made meritorious service in defending the city will be rewarded separately..."
Listening to his eloquence, Gao Jicheng made a mental calculation. In addition to the food collected this time, the imperial court had also hidden a huge sum of money, which was more than enough to cope with his majesty's reward to win over people's hearts.
There was one thing he had to admire about Tong Mo. Whenever the court was tense, Tong Mo could always solve the court's worries and always make money and food. In this regard, he felt inferior.
…
Meng Xuan, who was sitting in the palace and meditating cross-legged on the high pavilion, opened his eyes and also received similar news to Shang Jianxiong.
"It was said that they had to defend for seven or eight days, but now they have only defended for a long time before the Song army withdrew. The Meng commander was really good at predicting the outcome of the battle. He is worthy of being a world-famous general! Now it seems that he
The strategy of not rushing to aid Yanjing is correct." Meng Xuan stood up, walked to the railing and sighed with his hands behind his hands.
The elder who accompanied him said: "Yes! I am becoming more and more confident in the continuation of his grand strategy."
Meng Xuan nodded, "Shang Chaozong has also begun to torment the Song army all the way. According to Meng Shanming's intention, it is to cripple the main force of the Song army. It seems that this army has no chance of returning to the Song Dynasty smoothly. There is no supply from the court.
, it is really difficult for them to fight the battle like this."
The elder standing nearby nodded slightly.
The senior leaders of the three major factions are aware of Meng Shanming's grand strategy, but this is highly confidential. They have been hiding it from Shang Jianxiong and others, and there is no way to tell it. The three major factions cannot say that they are sacrificing Shang Jianxiong and others.
To protect their own interests, fortunately Yanjing saved it!
PS: You are the lucky one in the world! Thank you to the new alliance leader "Yi Jin" for your support.