Xu Huailer stood in the morning light and looked towards the enemy camp on the east bank. It was empty. The enemy troops on the east bank had retreated overnight, leaving a place of disgrace, not giving them the opportunity to cross the river to intercept and pursue.

In a river berth southwest, several drowning bodies were wrapped in water plants; on the rugged river beach, there were stripped armor and abandoned knife bows everywhere.

In the early morning, the scouts crossed the river and entered the east bank to reconnaissance. At this time, several cavalry rushed north along the east bank valley, pinned their horses on the opposite river beach, and loudly sent a message: "The enemy troops in Yangcheng have all retreated!"

"The enemy of Yangcheng has retreated?" King Jing Zhao Tuan heard the message on the east bank and looked at Xu Huai's hesitant guess and asked, "Has the Western Army crossed the river and headed north through Taihang Xing?"

"One man in Taihang Xing is the pass, and ten thousand men cannot open it. Even if the Western Army crosses the river from Zhengzhou and goes north, Xiao Gan and Yue Hailou, there is no need to rush to retreat, right?" Yang Qiye asked hesitantly.

Yang Qiye witnessed the situation of the Western Army fearing the enemy's cowardice in Gong County. In his opinion, the combat effectiveness of the troops led by Xiao Gan, Yue Hailou, Cao Shili and others is not slightly weaker than that of the Western Army, and they also guard the dangers of Taihang, so there is no need to retreat.

"Xiao Gan led the foreign troops in Yunzhou to capture Jincheng for a long time. It was not easy for them to support them by plundering and supply," said Deng Gui. "Even if the Western Army did not go north through Taihang Xing, Xiao Gan and Yue Hailou should have retreated north!"

Xu Huai looked at Wang Zhang and Shi Hu, and asked them to send orders to send more scouts into the area east of Yangcheng to find out the enemy's movements.

He agreed with Deng Gui's judgment, unlike Chihu, who could rely on horse milk and cheese to maintain sufficient physical fitness in difficult times. Xiao Gan and Yue Hailou surrendered to the subordinate army. The supply for this southern invasion came entirely from plunder. Once the efficiency of siege and siege was reduced, or they were stranded in a certain place for too long, they would fall into a crisis of supply vacancy.

The guards rushed to Qinshui. Although they did not cross the Qinshui afterwards, they went directly to lift the siege of Jincheng, forcing Yuehailou and Xiao Gan to recruit five or six thousand troops from Jincheng to reinforce the river valley on the east bank of Qinshui, Yangcheng, Runcheng and other places. On the one hand, they weakened the strength of the surrendered army to attack Jincheng, and on the other hand, they also gave Jincheng defenders strong confidence and support.

In more than a month, Xiao Gan and Yue Hailou failed to capture Jincheng. Not only did they not receive large supplies in Zezhou, but they even confronted the Qinshui army. The local forces east of the Qinshui and the eastern foot of Taiyue Mountain were encouraged, and more and more people dared to stand up and resist.

These many factors inevitably make the situation of the surrendered army in Shangdang difficult.

However, reasonable speculation is one thing, to prevent the enemy from playing a resurgence for them before actually retreating. Xu Huai still advocated waiting for the outpost scout to fully understand the enemy's movements, and the main force of the guarding army crossed Qinshui to Yangcheng and Jincheng again.

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The Yiqi Camp first crossed the Qin River, headed south along the Qinshui River Valley to Yangcheng, Runcheng, and rushed east out of Taiyue Mountain and entered Shangdang Highland. This is the area where the famous "Changping Battle" once occurred in history.

A large number of scouts in the Yiqi Camp rode their horses in the western part of Jincheng, heading north along the Danshui, a tributary of the Qin River, and arrived at a small mountain with the same name as the 800-mile Qinling Mountains between Sichuan and Shaanxi. This mountain was also the site of the Battle of Changping.

It is called "Qinling Mountains" and is also the border between Zezhou and Luzhou.

In addition to the Luzhou area north of the Qinling Mountains, there were a small number of cavalry units responsible for the rear of the palace, and the south of Zezhou area was invincible, which also verified Deng Gui's judgment on the bank of the Fenshui River: the surrendered army was withdrawn because it could no longer quickly siege the city and siege in Zezhou to obtain supplies.

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The main force of the Tomb Guarding Army then crossed the Qinshui River and recovered Yangcheng and Runcheng, which were traveling to the river valleys in the Qinshui River.

Two days later, Xu Huai, Xu Wuli, Qian Shangduan, Qiao Jien, Zhong Yingqiu and others led the Yiqi camp to gather around King Jing Zhao Tuan into the Jincheng, Zezhou Prefecture, which was surrounded for half a year.

Zheng Huaizhong, Zhu Han and others who led their troops to enter Zezhou from Huaizhou through Taihang Xing, arrived in Jincheng on the same day.

Not to mention the crowds that were greeting each other, the officials of Zezhou (Jincheng County) who were out of the city to greet each other were all pale and thin.

During the city guarding, Liu Zhiyuan and other officials also stood on the city wall to encourage the soldiers to fight. The official robes they wore were not replaced, and they were all patched at this time. Many people even had blood stains on their official robes, indicating that when the offensive and defensive war was fierce, they did not all retreat from the city wall.

The Chihu people invaded the south for the first time. Although there were many cities and villages that fell in Hebei, Hedong and Hehuai, in addition to the so-called "confidence", it was mainly because most people in the court and the country believed that the Chihu people's invasion was intended to plunder and had no vigorous ambition to invade the Central Plains. Therefore, only a few officials who took the initiative to offer the city to surrender.

The guards and officials of most cities can still ensure their due "conformity" in the war that began last winter to the beginning of this summer. For example, officials such as Zhong Yingqiu, Liu Zhiyuan, etc., the city they guarded was besieged by the enemy soldiers for a long time, and the offensive was quite fierce, so their performance was even more outstanding.

However, Xu Huai didn't know how many officials who could maintain their "conformity" north of the Yellow River could remain after the Chihu people invaded the south twice and captured Bianliang.

Liu Zhiyuan and other Zezhou officials went out of the city to welcome the two generals into the city, and their attitudes were also very different.

Officials such as Liu Zhiyuan were cold and perfunctory towards the Western Army generals such as Zheng Huaizhong, but were enthusiastic about the arrival of King Jing Zhao Tuan from his heart, and were sincere.

Liu Zhiyuan walked closer to the city, helped King Jing Zhao Tuan off the horse, grabbed King Jing Zhao Tuan's robe sleeve, burst into tears. The judge Ma Sijing and other officials also led the generals and officials to kneel down and bow, shouting "Thousand Years".

All of this is definitely not because King Jing Zhao Tuan is the prince.

In fact, in addition to restricting princes from making friends with court officials and interfering in court affairs when the throne has not been set, the prince-level royal family's influence on court affairs is also very small, and scholars will basically avoid making friends with royal families.

What everyone really knows is that without King Jing Zhao Tuan’s army guarding the tombs and rushing to Qinshui to restrain the flanks of the surrendered army at critical moments, it is hard to say that Jincheng will hold on for another month.

After the main force of the Chihu East Route Army retreated north, the imperial court gathered more than 200,000 troops in the capital and Zhengzhou, but the main force of the Western Army aid division delayed for a month before crossing the river. After passing Taihang Xing and heading north to Zezhou, the surrendered army voluntarily abandoned the pass at the northern end of Taihang Xing.

Officials in the court and the country south of the Yellow River may feel that this is a steadfast behavior, but it is a completely different feeling for the generals and officials who are deeply surrounded by the enemy and are in danger of protection every day.

The court was still in an ambiguous attitude towards King Jing Zhao Tuan leading the army to cross the river and go north.

On the one hand, no one in the peace talks dared to stand up and accused the guards of crossing the Hebei region of the special period of time, which was a violation of regulations.

The court finally decided to select another banned soldiers from the southeast and southwest to Gong County, and Chen Youguixin formed the Lun Guling Army; the Xuanwu Army had basically been destroyed, and the original Lun Guling Army replaced the Xuanwu Army. Zhang Xin and Deng Gui were recommended by King Jing Zhao Tuan as commanders and were both given the title of commander of the commander of the military commander; Qian Shangduan was also appointed as the Privy Council's commander, and in the wartime, he also led the Xuanwu Army to command the Xuanwu Army; Qiao Jien was appointed as the military supervisor.

At the same time, Qian Shangduan, as the deputy envoy of the Hedong regime, accepted the restraint of the new Hedong regime envoy Zheng Huaizhong, and participated in the subsequent wars in Hedong.

This was a recognition of the tomb guarding the tombs crossing the river and winning the Qinshui victory, but at the same time, it did not give a substantial task to King Jing Zhao Tuan.

Of course, the court did not intend to order King Jing Zhao Tuan to return to Bianliang immediately, and Xu Liuzhong's army "consulted military affairs."

During this trip, Zheng Huaizhong and Zhu Han brought a lot of rewarded imperial wine. At night, the state yamen held a banquet. Liu Zhizhong and other generals were excited and drank a lot.

Xu Huai used the excuse of leading the military service of the Yiqin camp and did not dare to slacken off. He left the prefecture early and patrolled the city with Xu Wuji, Xu Xin'an, Niu Er and others.

A curfew is still being enforced in the city, but the porridge farms set up are still crowded with ragged hungry people.

The food in Jincheng was cut off for many days. Before, Shi Hu, Wang Zhang, Wu Chihai and others led their troops to conquer the enemy situation. When they passed by Jincheng, they saw that the soldiers and civilians in the city were so thin that they were not formed. The defending generals and soldiers basically held guns and spears or supported them against the walls to barely stand.

Shi Hu, Wang Zhang, Wu Chihai and others left behind not much dry food they carried, so they urgently transported a batch of military rations from Qinshui, first ensuring that each of the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city drank a bowl of thin porridge that could be seen every day.

Xu Huai avoided the porridge venue far away and rode his horse under the night. It was late at night and thought that the banquet in the state should end, so he returned to the inn.

In front of the gate of the inn, Zhu Han was seen coming back from accompanied by Lu Wenhu, Zhu Tong and others.

"I have always wanted to leave you and talk to you, why did you leave the banquet early?" Zhu Heng grabbed Xu Huai and asked, "I just heard someone say you went to the North City Gate, and I rushed over to find you."

"I advise Your Highness to lead the tomb guards across the river and go north. At this moment, I don't know whether it is right or wrong to do this!" Xu Huai said with a wry smile.

"How could it be wrong?" Zhu Tong was very surprised by Xu Huai's shaken at this time, and said, "Wang Qiyong and others interfered, and the officials must have doubts about many things, so they did not formally grant His Highness the real power to command the troops. However, the court did not recall His Highness to Bianliang after all, and the newly appointed generals of the Xuanwu Army were all his direct confidants. In fact, he just acknowledged His Highness to the commander of the Xuanwu Army. Look at the support of Liu Zhiyuan, Ma Sijing, Zhong Yingqiu and other local officials. If it weren't too ostentatious, I think they would have shouted "Long Live"..."

Zhu Tong was forced to be in charge of work by King Jing Zhao Tuan. He grew a lot in just half a year, but he still couldn't see it too deeply.

Zhu Han understood Xu Huai's mood and sighed softly: "The more sincere you encounter, the harder you will be to live up to."
Chapter completed!