Chapter 575 No Obstacles
Outside Gaoyou City
Xie Wei asked, "Mr. Jiang, tell me what we should do next?" He stood there stupidly for a while. He had to make a decision whether to attack the city or not.
Jiang Boya thought for a moment and said, "Let's return to Xinghua."
If Gaoyou had not been captured by the Pingzhou Expeditionary Force, they would definitely have come forward to help. Now that Gaoyou has been lost, with their current military strength, it would be very difficult to recapture Gaoyou against the Pingzhou Expeditionary Force.
Xinghua is closest to them.
After a night of rapid march, the soldiers were tired.
They would first retreat to Xinghua, report the situation to the Grand Commander, and then make further arrangements. Furthermore, it was necessary to station troops in Xinghua and guard Yancheng.
"Soldiers, listen to my orders--" Xie Wei led the soldiers to evacuate in an orderly manner.
At this time, Qin Zhao, Guo Chong and others were standing on the city wall and watching them evacuate silently.
Qin Zhao: "Are they not planning to retake Gaoyou?"
Guo Chong laughed and said, "Jiang Boran is not stupid. If we attack by force, the chances of success are not high. It is better to retreat to Xinghua."
After they could no longer see anyone, the two turned around.
Looking at the soldiers standing ready for battle, Qin Zhao said, "Thank you for your hard work. Once we get through this night, everything will be fine."
For the expeditionary force in Pingzhou, this night was destined to be a busy and exciting one.
On the other side, Xie Wei and Jiang Boya had just arrived in Xinghua with their troops when the scouts ahead detected unusual movements.
"Who is it?" Xie Wei shouted.
At this time, a group of people stumbled out of the woods, "It's me, General Xie."
Xie Wei looked closely and saw that the man in the lead was still wearing the armor of a general of the imperial court. He had to work hard to recognize him from the blackened image as Hu Sha, the defender of Gaoyou.
"Why are you here?"
"The city has been captured. Seeing the situation was not good, I was planning to go to Yancheng to find you, General Xie."
Xie Wei: ...This guy surnamed Hu is also a talent. He describes abandoning the city and fleeing in such a fresh and unconventional way.
Jiang Boya asked him, "Why don't you hold on for another hour or two?"
Hu Sha: What you are asking is, does he not want to persist?
But Hu Sha said with a bitter face, "I can't hold on."
Xie Wei said impatiently, "Gaoyou is already lost, why are you still asking this?"
Jiang Boya then asked, "Did you destroy all the food and fodder in Gaoyou City before you left?"
Hu Sha nodded quickly and said, "It's destroyed. It's destroyed."
Gaoyou City
After Qin Zhao and Guo Chong confirmed that Xie Wei and Jiang Boya did not choose to attack the city, but left with the troops behind them, they came down from the city wall and went to the grain storage place in Gaoyou.
They learned from their subordinates that Gaoyou's general Hu Sha, seeing the situation was not good, ordered his deputy general Fu Lianheng to lead his men to burn the food and grass, and then he fled north with a group of troops.
When they arrived, they found that many imperial soldiers were tied up with ropes or handcuffed, and these people were all guarded by their Pingzhou soldiers.
In front of Yue Shu, his confidant was escorting the deputy general Fu Lianheng, apparently questioning him.
Qin Zhao directly asked Yue Shu, "How is the food supply being rescued?"
“Only more than half were saved.”
Sun Congyi had been following behind Qin Zhao and Guo Chong. Upon hearing this, he slapped Fu Lianheng on the shoulder and said, "You spendthrift bastard! You're going to burn so much food like that?"
Fu Lianheng was stunned and looked at the masked guy next to him. Who was he talking about? Are they familiar with each other?
They are the imperial army, the enemy side. When they find that they are defeated, they burn the food and supplies to prevent them from being defeated. Is this a normal operation?
Qin Zhao let go of his hand and said, "Why are you hitting him? He's just following orders."
"Okay, we've saved more than half of them." It's better than getting nothing, and we can save a few more lives.
Qin Zhao signaled Sun Congyi with his eyes to take it easy.
Qin Zhao's attitude made Fu Lianheng even more confused. Wasn't he a prisoner now? These people in front of him seemed to be generals from Pingzhou. Their attitude towards him was so strange.
…
The news that the Pingzhou expeditionary force had captured Gaoyou County soon reached Xie Zhan.
Xie Zhan was quite accepting of this, as he had long expected that the Pingzhou Expeditionary Force would not be so silent.
Xie Zhan's subordinates were talking about it.
"Why did the Pingzhou expeditionary force attack Gaoyou?"
"That's totally unconventional!"
“The key is how do we prepare for it next?”
"Yes, now we really can't predict where the Pingzhou Expeditionary Force will attack next."
Xie Zhan said calmly, "We shouldn't be led by the nose by the Pingzhou Expeditionary Force!"
"The most important thing now is to encircle and suppress King Jin!"
Xie Zhan's reminder was timely, and his subordinates instantly realized that they only needed to defend the places they thought were important. After all, the Pingzhou expeditionary force only had so many people. The more places they attacked, the weaker the defense would be.
After they kill the King of Jin, they can then deal with the Pingzhou expeditionary force.
Judging from the current situation, it won’t be long before they can capture Jiankang.
It was a close call, I almost fell into Pingzhou’s plan of besieging Wei to save Zhao!
…
The news that the Pingzhou expeditionary force had captured Gaoyou County reached the Prince of Jin, who immediately clapped his hands in applause, "It's truly fate that you, Xie Zhan, have also had this day!"
The Pingzhou Expeditionary Force finally gave him a chance to vent his anger.
The King of Jin said to Bai Xingzhi, "Pingzhou is manageable. If we capture Qutao, we will send troops so quickly."
Bai Xingzhi smiled, but the current situation was still worrying.
At this moment, his generals brought bad news, "Your Majesty, Jiankang is about to be lost. It will only take one or two days if we don't send more troops."
The King of Jin did not say anything. He understood what his subordinates meant. It was up to him to decide whether to defend Jiankang or not.
The King of Jin discovered that since they sent Qu Tao to Pingzhou, the imperial army's encirclement and suppression of them had become even more frenzied.
Now he has to consider the issue of further tightening the battle circle.
Everyone present was silent, even Bai Xingzhi had a frown on his face. During this time, he glanced at Prince Jin who was pacing, his eyes seeming to want to say something but unable to.
The King of Jin paced back and forth for a while, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "How about we give Jiankang to Pingzhou?"
After giving up Qu Tao and then Jiankang, the King of Jin had become very familiar with the situation.
Moreover, after giving away the city for free once, King Jin was very calm and there was no obstacle at all when he gave it away for the second time.
Hearing this, all the subordinates looked at Prince Jin in surprise.
Bai Xingzhi: As expected.
The King of Jin pinched his eyebrows and said, "Otherwise, defending Jiankang will be too tiring." Since you can't defend it, just give it away! Xie Zhan was furious, and Song Mo was furious!
Bai Xingzhi thought, if Jiankang were to be surrendered, the Pingzhou expeditionary force would go crazy, right?
At this time, everyone looked at the map. The prince gave Jiankang to Pingzhou, plus Qutao originally given to him. Then the entire territory of their Jin Wang forces faced the sea in the east and was completely bordered by the Pingzhou expeditionary force in the north. This meant that they could relax in defending the north and only focus on defending the west and south.
By doing this, their chances of holding on were greatly increased.
But, "Your Majesty, is it free again?"
"Yeah, can we exchange something with Pingzhou?" The main thing is that giving it away for free is too... cheap, cough cough.
"What do you think the Pingzhou expeditionary force can exchange for?" The King of Jin was not short of food and fodder.
"Pingzhou is indeed rich, but isn't Xie Zhan blocking the Cao Gang from transporting supplies to Pingzhou? Their supplies can't be delivered either."
Bai Xingzhi pleaded, "Your Majesty, can you let me go and talk to the other party about this matter?"
See if he can get some benefits outside the East China Sea. As the saying goes, those who don't plan for the future will have immediate worries. He must always plan for the prince's future.
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