The Crown Prince's first words were fine, just flattery, but the last sentence really scared Zhou Shangwen into a cold sweat: "Then I ask Your Highness to turn back for a moment, and leave this place to the generals in charge of the defense."

Then he looked at the prince with expectation. After all, as long as the prince left, he, a mere civil official, naturally would not have to stay at the front line. It would be better for him to let those soldiers stay in such a dangerous place.

"That's not necessary. Our army is far superior to the enemy's. There's no need for me to retreat."

The prince shook his head. Zhou Shangwen was good in every way except that he was timid. If the news that the prince was forced to retreat spread on the first day of the war, would the morale of the army be maintained?

"Come here, pass the order."

The prince ordered.

The attendant immediately knelt down.

"Order all the remaining troops of Jiang Yuan's ruling department to go and reinforce their ruling officer. Tell Jiang Yuan to hold the center. Only if he holds the center can we attract the Qinghe troops to attack continuously.

Besides, where are the Ma Huaide people?"

"I will be here."

A military officer with broad shoulders, round waist and beard stepped forward and answered.

"Take your troops with you to fight. Qinghe has sent 10,000 men, and you have a full 50,000 men under your command. I don't believe they won't send more troops. If they don't, then you must push them back as far as you can. If they send more troops, I will send more troops for you as well. We have an absolute advantage in manpower, so even if a decisive battle breaks out early, it will be a win-win for us."

"I obey your orders!"

As a commander of tens of thousands of troops, Ma Huaide actually had many doubts about the prince's orders.

For example, how far should we push it?

The camp did not seem to be prepared for a decisive battle.

An army of 50,000 cannot be dispatched with just a word. Even the preparations will take a long time. Even if I follow the order, the troops I can mobilize at once are only a few thousand or tens of thousands of people.

Although Qinghe seemed to have dispatched tens of thousands of people, in fact most of them were still gathering and preparing in the rear. Only three teams of a thousand people were actually advancing forward, attacking in three directions.

But now is not the time to explain. The prince will not listen to his explanation. Instead, he will only think that he is afraid of fighting and is just finding many excuses to fool him.

"We must find a way to keep the Crown Prince in the main camp. If we let him command, the battle will be difficult, and we generals will be blamed. If all else fails, send some gifts to Zhou Shangwen and ask him to find a way to delay the Crown Prince."

This was Ma Huaide’s only thought while he was on the road.

No matter what both sides think, it seems that a major battle involving tens of thousands of people, which can effectively determine the direction of the future war, is about to break out when no one is prepared.

Isn't this just a simple test of the other party's quality?

How did it turn into a large-scale army battle?

Lin Hai asked angrily.

"If we were to engage in a battle of this scale, wouldn't our preparations be a bit hasty, or even unprepared?"

"Principal, we are actually preparing the First Army, which is about 10,000 people. The Chen Dynasty has a military advantage, and they are preparing only one or two ruling departments, with a maximum of 30,000 people.

Don't be fooled by the large number of troops mobilized at the main camp, but they're all unprepared soldiers. You see, they're even cooking, probably wanting the soldiers to have a full meal before setting off. So, the only troops they can deploy are the one already on the scene and the ones on guard in the main camp. The rest are just pretending to go into battle, to put pressure on our army."

Cheng Guorong said so.

"You mean, they want to put on a show of decisive battle to put pressure on our army, or simply to scare us?"

"Yes, this is a common tactic on the battlefield. I believe that the young crown prince of the Chen Dynasty was well aware that his army was completely unprepared for a decisive battle, or even a decisive engagement. Yet, he still sent a commander with a large banner to put pressure on us. If we became intimidated, we would withdraw from the battle, and they could then claim victory in this skirmish."

"Oh, that's a good idea. In that case..."

Lin Hai pondered for a while, then looked up and said to Cheng Guorong:

"Then I'll leave everything here to you. My presence here will only affect your command. I'll go to the back and help you with the logistics."

After saying that, Lin Hai left without looking back, leaving behind Cheng Guorong, who was so happy that he was about to explode, but still had a look of regret on his face.

The situation on the battlefield is now very clear.

Near the fortifications that had just intersected, both sides had already gathered their troops.

Huang Zong successfully joined forces with the guard battalion and used the fortifications to put up a defensive posture.

Jiang Zhijun joined forces with his deputy general's troops and surrounded Huang Zong tightly. As the rest of his troops were about to arrive, he was confident that he could wipe out Huang Zong's troops.

Of course, this is without any external interference.

On the edge of the battlefield, the soldiers of the Qinghe First Army took advantage of their first-mover advantage and arrived at the battlefield first. Although they failed to stop the remaining troops of the Chen Dynasty's ruling department, they surrounded Jiang's troops and had extra troops to stop the reinforcements that had just rushed out of the Chen Dynasty camp.

The only piece of news that could be confirmed was that the soldiers sent by the prince to raid the hillside where the important figures of Qinghe were watching the battle came back to report that the hillside was empty.

"That's impossible! If we want to watch the battle, that hillside is the perfect spot. If it's farther away, we won't be able to see it even with a telescope. Could it be that neither Lin Hai nor General Jiang Guoping came?"

The prince suddenly felt that he was looked down upon.

"I'm here, but none of you are here!"

The prince was so angry that he whipped one of his eunuchs half to death with a horsewhip before he slowly calmed down.

On the hillside farther away, Cheng Guorong watched the Chen Dynasty soldiers return empty-handed and chuckled, "You know nothing about high-powered telescopes."