"That's right, brother." Zhang Xian quickly replied perfunctorily.
"But today I do have a worry and a resentment that is hard to resolve." After Yue Fei finished speaking, he saw that his brothers did not believe him, but he did not explain. He just stood in the stable, then touched the head of the warhorse in front of him and sighed slightly, explaining the reason why he was in a bad mood all day. "What worries me is that once the Jin invades the south, they will surely launch a full-scale attack with an army of 200,000, and at least one main force will head for Nanyang. It is not terrible that there is a sneak crossing in Jinan today. What is worrying is that there will be other places as well, and then the front lines will collapse together, making the overall situation difficult. By then, we in Jeju will only have more than 10,000 people, and we will have to rely on the front. We have to defend the city and fight at the same time. I am afraid it will be difficult to take care of everything... In the past, I always felt that I had few soldiers and lacked strength. I thought it would be great if I could manage a military state and lead tens of thousands of people. Now the government has really made an exception and let me, a mere 25-year-old, be a pacification envoy, leading a state and an army, and more than 10,000 soldiers and horses. I can handle everything by myself, but I still can't do it alone, and I may not even be able to preserve the place. I can't help feeling depressed."
Zhang Xian nodded immediately... In the overall situation, one person cannot carry the whole thing alone. They have experienced this truth too much before. His brother's promotion speed in the previous year was like a dream, and in the end it was still the same. Naturally, he was upset.
"There is another infuriating thing. They all say that the Jin people in Jinan Prefecture pretended to be refugees from Hebei and sneaked south. I also think so..." Yue Fei continued to sigh. "Let's not talk about other places. Let's just talk about the four or five thousand Jin people in Jinan Prefecture. Where did they get their clothes when they pretended to be refugees? They couldn't have bought them, right?"
Zhang Xian was stunned for a moment, but Yue Fei took the opportunity to move aside, added some night grass to his warhorse, and then went to rest. Pingyin City rarely became peaceful.
There was silence in the middle of the night, but as time came to midnight, everyone in the city was awakened by the sound of scouts' horses' hooves, saying that they saw flashes of fire in the distance to the north of Pingyin City, as if a large army was marching all night. They didn't know if the enemy was preparing to attack at night... The enemy was nearby, and Yue Fei certainly did make a plan in this regard. He immediately stood up and ordered the troops to prepare themselves and be ready to attack at any time; at the same time, he ordered no one on the city wall to light torches without permission to show that they were unprepared.
However, the scouts came one after another and soon reported a detailed military situation that made Yue Fei completely change his color - there was indeed a large group of cavalry advancing overnight, and it was almost certain that it was the Jin army led by Wanhu Ali, but the Jin cavalry was moving southward at a high speed along the Jishui River on the opposite bank, and had no intention of attacking Pingyin at all.
This should have been good news, but the generals who had already gathered became nervous, because the enemy was likely heading for the Guangji Army and Jeju behind Liangshanpo, and wanted to use the advantage of cavalry to outflank the rear of Yue's army.
However, this possibility was still not enough to change Yue Fei's color as he sat in the hall in neatly armed armor. What really worried Yue Fei was that, based on his understanding of the Jin people's combat style, a greater possibility for the Jin people's southward march this time was... Wanhu Ali, as the pioneer of the sneak crossing, had a greater strategic mission!
Therefore, the other side did not take Yue Fei's 10,000 men seriously at all. They were simply anxious to meet up with other Jin troops, or even to join up with other sneak troops and directly attack Zhang Suo in Nanjing or Zong Ze in Tokyo.
With this in mind, Yue Pengju did not dare to delay at all. Early the next morning, he immediately mobilized the entire army. On the one hand, he sent Zhang Xian as the vanguard to lead the Ta Bai army southward at a high speed to find out the situation and pass on information; on the other hand, he ordered his own troops to go to the surrounding villages separately, in order for them to escort the people of Pingyin and the injured officers and soldiers of Dongping Prefecture southward to gather at the north bank of Liangshan Lake; finally, he personally led Tang Huai and Li Kui with less than 2,000 central troops to continue to gather the defeated troops in Pingyin and serve as the rear guard.
At this point, we can only hope that Liu Lin and Kong Yanzhou will come slower.
However, in the morning, just as the various troops had dispersed to the surrounding areas to gather and escort the civilians, military intelligence came in saying that Xu Qing, a general under Kong Yanzhou, had led 3,000 troops and appeared 20 miles north of the city.
"Xu Qing came so quickly!" Even the usually taciturn Tang Huai was anxious. "It must be that the scouts were attracted by the Jin army last night, and he took the opportunity to stop his movements and secretly marched over overnight..."
"Yue Zhenfu, the defeated troops are not enough to fight, should we let some of the troops that just dispersed come back?" Li Kui was also a little flustered. "You must know that Xu Qing doesn't have to defeat us at all, as long as he pins us down, and when Kong Yanzhou and Liu Lin arrive in the rear, we won't be able to escape."
"If that's the case, why did he stop his activities and sneak over here overnight?" On the top of the city wall, Yue Fei narrowed his eyes slightly, with the whites of his eyes bulging, as if he looked down on Xu Qing. "No matter what, this person is an old acquaintance of mine in Xiangzhou. Why don't you two follow me out of the city to the north and take the initiative to welcome this person?"
Tang Huai naturally had nothing to say.
Li Kui had no choice but to agree.
PS: Thanks to No. 56, Ward... wow, what a good name!
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