Chapter 816 A Dream of Youth 348
In fact, Xu Hongying had the same question after she took over the army that her father had once led, which was assigned to her by General Xu. After all, although she had military merits, she was inconspicuous among the generals.
General Xu sighed, “You are the only legitimate daughter of the eldest branch. Although my great-uncle often lamented in his heart why our Hongying was not a boy, if you can restore the glory of the eldest branch, why should you care about whether you are a boy or a girl?”
And look at the long river of history, there have also been female generals.
In those chaotic times, it was a woman from the Xu family who took up arms to protect the family. Although this event is only briefly mentioned in the family genealogy, her heroic spirit remains in the hearts of every descendant of the Xu family.
General Xu was not pedantic. He was helping Xu Hongying now so that the Xu family could support each other when the eldest branch of the family rose to prominence in the future.
Even if Xu Hongying gets married, she will still be a daughter of the Xu family. Given her and Xie Qi's personalities, they will definitely support the Xu family in the capital.
With General Xu's tacit approval, Xu Hongying became even more confident and bold in recruiting people for her subordinates. However, General Xu Xiao couldn't keep an eye on things and quietly told her to be careful.
Xu Hongying recruited many women, and everyone assumed they were camp prostitutes, including the soldiers, but they turned out to be female soldiers.
They found it incredible, but because the general at the top was a woman, they dared not object.
Therefore, as long as there are no camp prostitutes in Hongying's army, as for the soldiers' needs, Hongying, on Xie Ning's suggestion, started other activities, such as wrestling and archery competitions.
Boosting morale doesn't necessarily require women; money can also be used.
As the battle in Hedong drew to a close, Xie Ning and Xu Hongying led their troops back to the capital, planning an encirclement strategy before news from Hedong reached Beijing.
Liu Yuanchang also returned to Beijing with them.
He originally came to provide support, and now that the fighting has subsided, he naturally has to go to the capital to defend the emperor.
After the army found an open space to rest, Liu Yuanchang invited Xie Ning and the others to his tent for a feast. It wasn't really a feast, but since they had finally gotten a break, they took the opportunity to eat meat, drink wine, and relax.
Liu Yuanchang really wanted to recruit Xie Ning to their Northwest. If Xie Ning went to the Northwest, their army would be invincible! Xie Ning not only knew how to make miraculous medicine, but also how to make gunpowder, which made him extremely desirable.
Xie Ning did not drink alcohol. Although her injuries had healed, her health was still poor and she needed to recuperate. So she only drank tea at her own table and had no interest in watching the dance in the center of the venue. Her mind was full of analysis of the situation in the capital.
Xie Ning didn't know what methods the royal guards used to transmit messages, but she and Yan Xi had been exchanging letters non-stop during this period, so she was fairly familiar with the current situation in the capital.
After ascending the throne, King Zhao immediately ordered Yu Tong and others to launch a night attack on the Northern Jin camp, but the attack failed and resulted in the loss of 50,000 soldiers. No, strictly speaking, it was 80,000, because Yu Tong led 30,000 soldiers south to escape.
Taking advantage of the situation, the Northern Jin army crossed the Yellow River, a natural barrier, and besieged the city.
As Yan Xi wrote in his letter, the scouts initially found that the Northern Jin army numbered only 50,000 to 60,000, but not long ago, when Yu Tong and others launched a night raid on the Northern Jin camp, they discovered that the Northern Jin army actually numbered 100,000!
Xie Ning calculated the time; that was precisely the time when Hedong would turn the tide.
After returning from the victory, Xu Hongying complained to her that this battle was easier than usual. Could it be that the Northern Jin army's morale had been dampened by the successive defeats, which is why they were not as brave as before?
Later, a portion of the resisting Northern Jin army was completely trapped in Fenglan City, while the rest were pursued and driven out of Shiling.
If you really look at it, the number of these Northern Jin troops is incorrect. Perhaps they were stalling for time from the beginning so that the main army could head south and join another Northern Jin army to attack the capital.
With roads cut off, news from Hedong arrived much slower than usual. Taking advantage of this information gap, the two Northern Jin armies successfully joined forces and turned the tables, thwarting the Great Zhou's night raid plan, and then successfully crossed the Yellow River.
The capital has been besieged for some time now, and they even broke through the city gates once. Although they were stopped, the Great Zhou suffered considerable losses.
The Northern Jin army had about 100,000 men, while the various armies that came to the aid of the emperor totaled about 200,000. Even though they had lost 80,000 men in the previous night raid, they still outnumbered the Northern Jin army by tens of thousands.
However, in the ensuing battles of defending and attacking the city, many people were lost, and now, it is estimated that the number of people on both sides is roughly the same.
Logically speaking, defending a city should be easier than attacking it. However, the generals defending the capital were divided into several factions and were not united. Therefore, they were naturally at a disadvantage when facing the united Northern Jin army.
King Zhao's throne was not secure. The Empress Dowager and he were not of one mind, and his own people were also not of one mind.
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