Bright Spring

The next morning, when Zhu Gaoxu rode up the official road, he had no intention of admiring the beautiful scenery.Perhaps the beauty of the scenery is not important, what can really move people is their own state of mind.

In the afternoon, the troops of various ministries began to set up camp and sent people around to prepare some food.Zhu Gaoxu finally got news from Wang Bin's department again.

As expected, Wang Bin's vanguard army was defeated, with nearly 2000 casualties and scattered soldiers, and most of the supplies and armaments were lost!Fortunately, they avoided being destroyed... After the defeat, Wang Bin and others used a lake terrain to resist until dark; they took advantage of the enemy's retreat and retreated northwestward overnight, and finally left the battlefield.

In a tile-roofed private house, the generals circulated the report, and everyone was silent.Some people carefully observed Zhu Gaoxu's expression.

Zhu Gaoxu's tanned face turned red for a while, then turned white for a while, and his anger was suppressed in between.His mood is very complicated.

Perhaps because of his mental preparation, he is still a little bit lucky now.Although the loss of Wang Bin's troops was not small, and it was difficult to rejoin the battle for a while, at least the vast majority of soldiers survived; as long as they are still there, given time, they can still recover their combat power!

But the momentary luck could not cover up Zhu Gaoxu's anger.This was a completely avoidable defeat, but it had a serious impact on the entire battle situation.

The army of the Han Dynasty failed in the first battle, and the morale was bound to ebb and flow.

Originally, Wu Gao’s army fled everywhere, and the soldiers under his command must have been depressed, but their big victory in the first battle will allow Wu Gao to regain the trust of the soldiers... If the commander is not trusted, it is a very bad situation, and the military order will be questioned if it is passed on , and problems are more likely to occur when executing deployments; it is like winner-take-all in battle, and the advantage of the leader who wins consecutively will only increase!

What's more, Zhu Gaoxu's central army is short of troops, and it was against the trend before dealing with Wu Gao; now the strength of more than 1 people in Wang Bin's department has been greatly damaged, and it will be difficult to recover within a few days. Zhu Gaoxu has less than [-] cavalry left.

There was a dead silence in the simple hall.Zhu Gaoxu did not mention Wang Bin at all. He finally said: "Tomorrow the camp will be pulled out, and the Central Route Army will continue to go south according to the original arrangement! Wu Gao did not mobilize heavy troops to destroy Wang Bin's troops, but the enemy still wanted to run away; Wu Gao's first The destination must be He County. Judging by the distance, we can stop them near Pingle Mansion."

Zhao Ping clasped his fists and said: "Wang Dudu's troops are still in the north of Luorong County. Before Wu Gao's army arrives at Pingyue Mansion, they may not be able to come here. We have less than [-] troops. If we get close to the enemy, will Wu Gao go all out?"

Zhu Gaoxu groaned endlessly, he thought it was possible.

Now Wu Gao's army is marching eastward, and Hanwang's middle route army is marching south-eastward. The two armies are heading towards the same place, and the distance is getting closer. The south of Guilin Mansion has a relatively open view and many roads.In this way, the time for the scouts to go back and forth is short, and it is easier to inquire about each other's military situation. It is difficult to hide how many troops Zhu Gaoxu has.

After pondering for a while, Zhu Gaoxu said decisively: "We have to hold Wu Gao too! When Sheng Yong's army arrives in Wuzhou, and then go north; if Wu Gao's army has not reached He County by then, we can use our superior force to launch a decisive battle against Wu Gao's army! "

The risk is indeed not small, but Zhu Gaoxu is determined to take the risk.Otherwise, if 10 soldiers of Wu Gao's army were to go to Jiangxi, there would be a large battle in Huhu in the future, and maybe this enemy army could rush to join the battle; at that time, the King of Han's army would be even weaker.

If there is no long-term concern, there must be near-term worries.Zhu Gaoxu has determined that the adventure at this time is worthwhile...

From the eighth day to the ninth day of the eighth day, there were intermittent reports from Luorong County, including letters from civilian officials accompanying the army, and reports from generals of the Northern Division of the Imperial Palace.Gradually, Zhu Gaoxu learned the details of the battle in Luorong County.

He felt that Chen Zhen, Lu Liangwei's commander, was quite talented.So he sent people to the Qianfeng camp, ordered Chen Zhen to take the military power of the vanguard temporarily, and called Wang Bin back to the Chinese army to report on his duties.

On the evening of the ninth day, the army chose a place to camp.Zhu Gaoxu summoned the army and Wang Bin to the central army to Xingyuan.

Zhu Gaoxu sat on a square table and stool in a dilapidated hall, surrounded by generals and civil servants standing on both sides.After waiting for a while, Wang Bin walked into the poorly lit room from the light at the door.

Wang Bin knelt down on the ground, kowtowed, and said: "The general disobeyed the prince's military order, and was defeated in front of Wu Gao's army. He deserved his crime. Please forgive me, the prince! The general will never complain."

When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, there was a slight change in his eyes that could not be noticed.But he became even more furious immediately, and slapped the wooden table with a "bang", pointed at Wang Bin and cursed: "His mother! Do you think that you blocked the bullet for this king, and you are destined to pick it up?" If you don’t know how to fight, you can be proud of being favored?!”

The people around immediately looked sideways after hearing this.

Zhu Gaoxu was very angry and shouted, "Come here, pull me out..."

"No way!" Zhao Ping immediately interrupted Zhu Gaoxu's words, clasped his fists and said, "My lord, please think twice! Although the king's governor has failed, he has made merits, and his merits and demerits are equal. Please be merciful to me, my lord."

Hou Hai also hurriedly said: "If the king's governor didn't confuse the enemy properly, Wu Gao might not have been tricked into leaving Luoqingjiang. I also ask the prince to take the credit of the king's governor and give him a lighter sentence."

Zhu Gaoxu said angrily: "Military law is merciless, how can this be forgotten?"

All the generals pleaded for mercy one after another, and everyone had the same attitude, and no one made trouble.This Wang Bin was not very easy to get along with, and he had a bad relationship with many people, but at this time, there were many people who suddenly begged for mercy.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu's anger still persisted, and he said loudly: "Wang Bin! For the sake of my brothers pleading for you, I can avoid death and life. Come here, pull me out and beat me to death! Immediately Go to Wang Bin to be the governor!"

Wang Bin followed the sergeants out without saying a word, neither saying thank you nor calling for grievances.After a while, the sound of "cracking" whips came from outside, but Wang Bin's screams were not heard.

Zhu Gaoxu said: "He|what|, this Wang Bin is a stubborn ass. Next time he makes this mistake again, it will be useless for anyone to persuade me!"

Everyone said: "Your Highness is kind."

Zhu Gaoxu stood up angrily and walked away.

The main room was a bit dark just now, but at least it faced a main entrance.The earth-walled house inside is even darker; the windows are very small, and the house has to be lit with oil lamps before it gets dark.

At this time Miao Jin came in and said, "I'll bring in the food for the King of Han."

Zhu Gaoxu beckoned and said, "Miaojin is going to do another thing first. I have medicine from Yunnan in my bag. You can take the bottle for trauma to Wang Bin."

The light was not very good, and Miaojin's face could not be seen clearly. She seemed to hesitate to speak, and finally said in a low voice: "I used to think that Gao Xu was a soft-tempered person, but it is true that others say you are cunning."

Zhu Gaoxu said in a deep voice: "There is no way. If I blatantly bend the law for personal gain, the military law will be useless; but if I kill chickens to make an example to monkeys, I can't do anything with Wang Bin!"

At first glance, this king has hundreds of thousands of followers, but there are people with all kinds of thoughts in it; and Wang Bin is different, no matter how much ability he has, at least even if I am defeated, he will not betray me even if he dies. "

Miao Jin said: "I'll go find medicine."

Zhu Gaoxu then sighed again, "The old saying is good, once a general succeeds, ten thousand bones will die. How can it be so easy to forge a general's talent? They are all trained with the blood|sea of ​​corpses. So back then, the king risked a huge Risk, but also to keep Sheng Yong and others. In the battle of Luo Rong, if Sheng Yong was safe and Qu Neng had anyone to lead the army, such a mistake would definitely not happen.

Wang Bin was very brave in charging into the battle in the "Battle of Jingnan", but I think he can do a good job as a guard commander at most, no matter how great the military power is, he is not reliable. "

Miao Jin found a medicine bottle from the cloth bundle, opened it and smelled it, then plugged the wood, then turned and walked out.

Zhu Gaoxu was sitting alone, with his elbows on the dark table beside him, and he was motionless and silent, as if he had fallen into deep thought, as if he had fallen into a trance.The light from the oil lamp was very weak. If someone came in at this time, they might not be able to find someone sitting in the room.

... As night fell, Wang Bin lay on the edge of the bonfire in front of the tent without saying a word, clenching his teeth tightly.The light of the fire shone on his face, and the veins on his forehead were obviously bulging, with a look of ecstasy.

At this time, Miaojin came to the fire, her face could not be seen clearly behind the scarf.But Wang Bin recognized her at a glance, and she was the only woman in the army.

Miao Jin took out a bottle of medicine and knelt down in front of Wang Bin.She put the medicine bottle in front of him, and said softly: "The king of Han personally asked me to bring the medicine. Yunnan medicine is very effective in treating trauma."

Wang Bin didn't say a word, as if he didn't hear it.

Miao Jin stood up, couldn't help but turned her head and wanted to say something, but suddenly saw the glint of water in Wang Bin's ferocious round eyes, his face was full of remorse and pain, but he didn't say anything.

She immediately swallowed back the words that came to her lips, turned around and left silently without saying anything.

Chapter 473

Pinglefu City is surrounded by water on several sides and mountains on the other.Only the hilly terrain in the northeast is relatively open.

Just like many cities are built at the confluence of rivers, Pingle City is at the confluence of Li River and Lechuan Water (Tea River), which has the advantage of water transportation.The water of Lechuan surrounds the city from the north and flows into the Lijiang River in the east of the city; the water of the Lijiang River surrounds the city to the south.On the southeast side of the city, there is a mountain range running from east to west, and the ridge shields the southeast corner of Pingle City.

In the afternoon of the [-]th day of the eighth month, the main force of the Han army arrived in the north of Pingle Mansion, near a ferry on the west bank of Lechuan River.There are several islands in the middle of the river here, which are convenient for erecting pontoon bridges.

But the army could not cross the river immediately, and the pontoon bridge had not yet been completed.

Gein failed to find enough boats in time on the water of Lechuan; the civilian boats they found from the Lijiang River were going to pass through Pinglefu City, but they were intercepted by the official boats of Pinglefu, so far they have not been able to row to Lechuan water.

The Vanguard Army once sent envoys to Fucheng to persuade them to surrender. Unfortunately, the government saw that 10 soldiers of Wu Gao's army had reached the south bank of the Li River.

Zhu Gaoxu was furious when he heard the news, and blurted out in public: "I don't know how to flatter you! Does the magistrate think that Wu Gaojun will protect them?"

The generals showed indignation, and someone said: "When Wu Gao is destroyed, we will also raze Pingyue Mansion!"