The Invincible Sixth Prince

That day, Pang Jinjiu and Lu Xing rushed to Tianhu Lake.

Although the troops they could mobilize were very limited, the two men still signed a military order.

If you fail to defeat the enemy, I will bring your head to you!

After arranging the war in Li State, Yun Zheng continued to lead his men towards the imperial city.

Before they set off again, he sent someone to the imperial city to deliver a letter regarding the rewards for meritorious generals such as Yu Shizhong.

As soon as they entered Liaozhou, Yun Zheng received news from the imperial city again.

However, this time the news was not from Li State, but from Weizhou.

Weizhou is the original Western Guifang.

With the destruction of the Western Ghost Party, that place also became Weizhou of Daqian.

The saltpeter mine in Weizhou has been finalized.

It was an area rich in saltpeter.

The exact reserves cannot be ascertained, but they are definitely large.

After receiving this news, Yun Zheng's mood finally improved a little.

Saltpeter mine!

Finally found this thing!

Although it’s a little late, it’s not too late!

Upon receiving this news, Yun Zheng immediately changed his mind and decided to rush to Xindu.

The first thing was to personally determine the location of the future firearms workshop.

They have to go through Suizhou anyway, so they might as well go to Xindu first.

If Shen Kuan has new news or any new ideas, it can also reduce the time for information transmission.

Having made up his mind, Yun Zheng immediately called Qin Pu and said, "I have decided to go to Xindu first. Do you want to go to the imperial city of Daqian first, or go with me to Xindu to see what the future capital of Daqian will look like?"

"Of course, I'm going to see the new capital!"

Qin Pu answered without thinking, "The territory of Daqian is now extremely vast, and I also want to see what the new capital of Daqian will look like in the future."

Yun Zheng nodded, "Okay, then let's go to the new capital together and then go back to the imperial city!"

……

The State of Li.

Ten days ago, Shen Kuan used a trick to defeat the 10,000 enemy troops who had captured Pingji by surprise attack and recaptured Pingji.

Five days ago, Shen Kuan led his troops to block the enemy's frenzied counterattack, and launched a counterattack against the enemy at night, killing more than 5,000 enemy troops again.

After fighting two battles in ten days, Shen Kuan lost more than 4,000 troops.

After that, the enemy became obedient and temporarily gave up the idea of ​​attacking Pingji.

But Shen Kuan knew that this was only a temporary calm.

The enemy will soon attack again.

At present, Shen Kuan personally leads 8,000 troops to guard Pingji.

In addition, Duyang was also guarded by 10,000 troops.

Shen Kuan still left 5,000 troops in Heji, while Longqing Prefecture had only 2,000 troops, plus some wounded soldiers.

There are still two thousand troops in Xiongjin.

In other large cities, there are only a few hundred troops to maintain stability.

These are basically all the troops in Shen Kuan's hands.

What they have to face now is an enemy army of more than 100,000.

In the past two days, Shen Kuan has been thinking about whether to give up Pingji, Duyang and other places and concentrate all the troops on the front line of Longqing Prefecture.

As long as Longqing Prefecture has 20,000 to 30,000 people defending it, the enemy will never be able to capture it.

But Shen Kuan was hesitant to make a decision.

Retreat was easy, but the problem was that they did not store too much food and grass in Shangqing Road. Previously, because they had to build a bridge across the Dan River, a lot of manpower was mobilized, and the food and grass were mainly stored in Lu'an Road.

Once they retreated, they would no longer be able to obtain food and supplies from other places.

The food and fodder they now have is only enough to sustain the consumption of more than 20,000 troops for about a month.

If they retreat, and if His Highness cannot send food and grass support from the sea in time, they may very likely fall into a desperate situation of running out of food.

It was precisely because of the issue of food and fodder that Shen Kuan was unable to make up his mind.

After much hesitation, Shen Kuan gathered several generals in the camp to discuss the matter with them.

"It's easy for us to retreat, but once the enemy forces come, it will be difficult to fight our way out!"

"We can't just think about defense. Since we followed His Highness to fight, when have we ever been treated like this?"

"This is not a question of whether to accept or not. Right now the enemy is strong and we are weak, so we should focus on defense!"

"As long as Longqing Prefecture and Xiongjin are not lost, our reinforcements will arrive soon, and then it will be time for us to fight back!"

"If it were up to me, we should just retreat and confiscate all the food from the Li people in Shangqing Road, and leave these people without food to the enemy. Let's see if the enemy can take care of them..."

Several people expressed their opinions.

These people were basically the personal guards who had followed Shen Kuan to recuperate in the State of Li. Now they had all become generals of varying ranks.

It is precisely because they have basically served as Yun Zheng’s personal guards and inherited Yun Zheng’s combat style.

Even though they are at a disadvantage now, they are still thinking about finding an opportunity to bite the enemy.

Listening to everyone's conversation, Shen Kuan had already made a decision in his mind.

No more delay!

Just like His Highness said, if you don’t make a decision when you should, you will suffer the consequences!

withdraw!

Where there is life, there is hope!

"Then withdraw!"

Shen Kuan made up his mind and said through gritted teeth: "Before retreating, all troops should plunder as much food and grass as possible. Even if they cannot take them away, they must be burned! In any case, they cannot be left for the enemy!"

"Now, let's discuss how to inflict some damage on the enemy during the retreat!"

"Even though we have to retreat, we can't let the enemy have it too easy!"

Not taking advantage is a loss!

This is also what Shen Kuan learned from Yun Zheng.

"We have to find a way to eat up the enemy's cavalry!"

A general suggested: "Once we retreat, the enemy will definitely send cavalry to pursue us. We must think of a way to set a trap for the enemy cavalry!"

"We can think about this later."

Another person suggested, "Since we are going to retreat, we must first ensure our own safe retreat, and then consider setting traps for the enemy! Don't confuse the priorities."

Shen Kuan nodded slightly.

That's true!

What they need to do now is to preserve their manpower and build up their strength to defend Longqing Prefecture and Xiongjin.

If we can't even retreat safely, how can we expect to bite the enemy?

Just as several people were thinking hard, there was a sudden noise outside.

Listening carefully, it seems to be... cheers?

Hearing the noise coming from outside, everyone in the room was stunned.

Could it be that reinforcements have arrived?

No way?

No matter how fast the reinforcements arrive, they won’t come this fast, right?

According to their estimates, it would be a miracle if the reinforcements could arrive within a month.

Just as a few people were secretly puzzled and were about to go out to see what was going on, cheers were heard outside the door.

Then, their door was kicked open.

Bang!

A sudden loud noise startled the few people who were still in a daze.

Shen Kuan was already feeling very annoyed now, and someone actually dared to kick his door.

Shen Kuan's anger suddenly flared up.

Shen Kuan slammed the table, stood up with a frosty face, and roared: "Who the hell is that..."

However, he had just shouted half of his words when he swallowed them back, and the whole person felt as if he was struck by lightning.

The other few people also suddenly widened their eyes, and some of them rubbed their eyes hard, as if they were afraid of seeing it wrong.

"Why don't you scold me?"

The next moment, a cold voice sounded in Shen Kuan's ears...