"We must speed up the marching! Obviously, the morale of the army is no longer stable now. Only by taking advantage of the news that has not completely leaked, the best way to rush back to Luoyang is to hurry back to Luoyang!" Li Congke gritted his teeth and thought to himself: "As long as you return to Luoyang, fight if you fight, go if you don't fight, go if you don't. The initiative is in his own hands. Anyway, Meng Jin is in the north of Luoyang. If it really doesn't work, he will cross the river to Hanoi. As long as he burns the floating bridge, does Wu army have wings on his body, and he can't fly to the Yellow River!"

Li Congke made up his mind, threw the dry food in his hand on the ground, stood up, and shouted loudly: "Bring Malai, send orders down, and the three armies set off!"

With the sound of the trumpet, the army began to move east again, but as the march continued, more and more soldiers fled. At first, they were still in the rear army behind, and later even the central and front army began to flee. The army was like a piece of dry mud placed in the water, which quickly became smaller under the erosion of the water.

"Persevere, hold on for a while, as long as you return to Luoyang, you will win! Anyway, those who escaped are all unstable guys, and staying will only make a bad thing!" Li Congke gritted his teeth and encouraged himself in his heart. He did not send Jin soldiers to the shelter, but just grabbed the three thousand soldiers by his side. Li Congke knew in his heart that he must not disperse his troops anymore. At the critical moment, maybe these three thousand people will be life-saving straws.

When it was fifteen miles away from Luoyang City, it was getting late. Li Congke hurriedly accommodated the troops and sent cavalry to inquire about the surrounding situation. After all, the enemy situation is not clear now, and even no one knows who Luoyang City is in. If he bumped into it in a confused manner, he would probably end up being wiped out by annihilation.

Li Congke just sat down and took a breath, counted the troops and reported back and forth. After hearing the result, he was shocked: Now he only has more than 30,000 troops in his hands, which is half less than when he was leaving the army. Almost all of them fled everywhere when he returned to the army. Even though Li Congke was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but feel heartbroken.

"Give me instructions, and I will distribute all the food and wealth of the general. As long as I stay, everyone will have a share, no matter which side of the soldiers!" Li Congke ordered in a deep voice: "Also, tell the soldiers of the three armies that as long as they can regain Luoyang City, I, Li Congke, don't even want any money in the city, and all of them will be distributed to the soldiers. If there is a half-word, the sky will be hit by five thunder!"

"Here!" The captain hurriedly retreated, but Li Congke did not hear the expected cheers. He couldn't help but feel a little shocked. Obviously, the soldiers under his command were extremely pessimistic about the current situation. Even such a heavy reward could not inspire their morale. It seemed that the hope of winning this battle aroused slimness.

At this time, a cavalry who went to inquire about military information came back. Li Congke hurriedly told him to come up. The cavalry came up and bowed and reported: "General, the old city of Luoyang, the Han, Wei and Jin cities have been occupied by the Wu army. I heard that all the Liang army guarding the city had surrendered. The gates of the Sui and Tang cities in Luoyang New City were opened, but there was no sign of being occupied by the Wu army."

"What? Are you saying that the Wu thief only occupied the old city but ignored the new city?" Li Congke asked.

“That’s right!”

"You go and rest!" Li Congke waved his hand and lowered his head to think: he knew in his heart that the main forces of the defenders were all in the old city, and the defense of the new city was very empty, and several key points on the periphery had been occupied by the Wu army. Now the defense of the new city is not much better than the eggs that have been stripped naked. It is unwilling, not impossible for the Wu army to leave the new city to attack. There is only one explanation. The Wu army general knows his inside story very well and is confident of defeating himself, so he lets open Luoyang New City not occupy him, ask you to get into the trap, and then wipe out himself.

"Come here! Please come to General Duan!" Li Congke ordered. Soon, Duan Ning responded to the call. His fair and plump face was covered by the iron helmet, which seemed a little ridiculous. His eyes swam and looked at the situation beside Li Congke, looking at the situation in his eyes.

"Mr. Duan, sit down quickly, sit down quickly!" Li Congke's attitude seemed particularly intimate. This unexpected enthusiasm more or less relieved Duan Ning's nervousness. He looked at Li Congke with some confusion and insisted on giving in a few times, but in the end he was pressed on Hu's bed by Li Congke. After sitting firmly on both sides, Li Congke smiled on his face: "It's something to invite Duan this time, and Duan is here to work!"

Duan Ning hurriedly bowed his waist and replied carefully: "General Li has given me the order, and I will do my best!"

Li Congke smiled and said, "Okay, okay, okay! It's true that Duan Duan is the one who is Duan. Duan also knows that the bastards under my command are all rough. They ride bad horses and draw strong bows, but it's impossible to let them care for the people and defend the city. Now that the Wu army is invading, I plan to let Duan lead troops into Luoyang City, thinking that I am guarding, and I lead elite troops outside to support it. The enemy cannot take into account both the head and tail. Duan Duan thinks what do you think?"

Duan Ning's face suddenly changed. Although he was not good at leading the army to fight, his intrigue skills were not bad, and he also knew the principle of being either a traitor or a thief for nothing. Li Congke brought himself alone at this critical moment, and sent him with a high hat and a free money. He must have to die by himself. Just as he was about to shirk responsibility, he saw the other party smiled with a fierce look on his eyes. His right hand was deliberately or unintentionally pressed on the hilt of the knife at his waist. When he reached his mouth, he shrank back and said with a hurried smile: "General Li is so kind, although the last general is incompetent, he can only try it!"

"Okay, okay! With Duan Gong's ability, our army will definitely win this battle!" Li Congke smiled and said, "Come here, come and get the wine!" A follower had already brought a bag of horse milk wine. Li Congke poured two glasses and handed one to Duan Ning, and said, "Duan Gong will definitely win this battle. This glass of wine in a certain family is for Duan Gong!"

"I thanked the general!" Duan Ning took the wine glass, pretended to be grateful inexplicably, and drank the horse milk wine in the glass. For some reason, he felt that the mellow wine in the past had become extremely bitter and hard to swallow.

Li Congke waited until Duan Ning finished drinking, so he personally sent him out of the tent and led his troops to Luoyang New City. When Duan Ning's figure had just disappeared from his sight, Li Congke's face immediately became gloomy.

"Come on, send orders, personal soldiers board the horse and drive straight to Mengjin!"

Mengjin is located fifty miles northeast of Luoyang New City. King Wu of Zhou defeated Zhou. As for this place, 800 princes came here, and the alliance came here unexpectedly. The place was named Mengjin. Later generations were called Mengjin. It has been an important ferry on the Yellow River since ancient times. The opposite bank is Heyang City. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, a floating bridge was established here to connect the two banks of the Yellow River. It is the largest bridge in the world and is the hub of north-south transportation. Crossing the bridge to the north, you can go straight to Tianjing Pass, Shangdang and Taiyuan; passing through Linqing Pass in the north, you can reach Yecheng and Yanzhao; entering the northwest into Zhuoguan, and reach Jin and Jiang in the river. The terrain is extremely important, and there has been "

The waist and waist of the world, the throat of the north and south, are what the masters believe in, and ancient and modern times are the saying "As the situation of the Jin-Liang War is becoming more and more unfavorable to the Liang Kingdom, the army of Shatuo's iron cavalry gradually approaches the north bank of the Yellow River, and the Liang army also camps elite troops at both ends of the Mengjin floating bridge and on the three cities on Shazhou in the middle to resist the enemy's troops on the north bank. After Li Siyuan broke Bianjing, Li Congke led his troops westward and entered Luoyang. The Liang army guarding the three cities of Heyang also abandoned their armor and surrendered. Due to the critical terrain here, Li Congke specially pulled out a thousand people from the scarce forces in his hands to defend this place. Looking back now, it can be said to be a wonderful move.

"General, let your brothers rest their horses. It's less than ten miles away from Fupingjin. If you continue, even if you can hold on, the horses can't hold on. It's not a joke to rush to the road at night and hurt people!" A knight rushed to Li Congke and shouted loudly.

Li Congke looked at the knights around him and saw that the horses were sweating like rain, their feet were trembling, and their horse's belly was sunken. This horse was a veterinarian who could not hold food. Even if he could eat enough, he would have to sanitize his stomach for thirty or forty miles. Not to mention anything else, if the horse's belly straps were tight, something could easily happen.

Li Congke snorted coldly and shouted loudly: "Okay, everyone will get off the horse. The horses will not stop, feed some food for half a quarter of an hour. After feeding, we will set off. This is a critical moment. After crossing the Yellow River, we will rest in a good life!"

Everyone was rolling on the horse's back. From Li Congke's current expression, he guessed six or seven points of the current situation. He agreed in unison and went to feed the horses and walk the horses. The horses were already hungry. Seeing the essence in the ration bag, he quickly started to eat. The riders quickly wiped away the sweat from the mounts to avoid the horses being caught. At this time, the horse's life is the life of a person, but it is not easy to ignore it.

After about half a quarter of an hour, Li Congke saw that everyone's horses were almost fed, and was about to whistle and let everyone get on the horse. At this time, a rumbling sound came from the north, as if thunder was thunder.

"What's going on? Could it be that it's thunder?"

"You are such a fool, this is winter. Where does the thunder come from!"

"There is no thunder in winter in the north, but this is Henan. How do you know there is no thunder in winter!"

Everyone was making a fuss. Li Congke was different from everyone. He had seen the launch of artillery many times and had already heard that it was not thunder, but the sound of cannons, and his face changed suddenly. He hurriedly brought more than a dozen followers and ran to a high place. Looking at Fupingjin, he saw that the bank of the Yellow River was already storming the sky, which was vaguely where the Zhongnan City of Heyang three cities was located. Flashes of cannons came from there, and it was obvious that the southern city was already under siege.

"Ignite, fire!" With a neat call, the gunners on the Wu army's position ignited the fuses one by one, and fire and white smoke were sprayed out of the muzzle, and the heavy gun body retreated. The gunners on the side rushed forward and began to clean the gun barrel in an orderly manner, preparing to load and carry out the next round of artillery bombardment. The fire was already rising on the Nancheng Tower more than 300 steps away, and the female wall made of rammed earth seemed to be gnawed by a dog, missing a large section. Behind the artillery position, the spearman and the melee gun shooter were lined up in a hollow square array, waiting for the order to attack. On the outermost side of the square array, hundreds of cavalry were swimming around, warning the defenders in the city to protrude and counterattack.

"One more round, open the city gate, let the short cannons come forward, replace the shotgun, and attack the city with infantry!" Under the banner, the commander of the Wu army ordered that the Wu army had already formed a standard for attacking such small cities: first use solid bullets to clean the city, then let the confiscators and short cannons use shotguns to eliminate the uncovered city guards, and use dense firepower to shoot the enemy troops who are fighting for the city. Finally, the book friend opened the city gate, broke into the city with a spear team, and annihilated the city guards.

Thank you for countless Bodhi, jonah_g’s rewards, and xuweixuwei’s monthly tickets. I was busy with the unit exam a few days ago. There should be another update tonight. It’s a little compensation. Everyone, please forgive me!
Chapter completed!