Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 286: The bad time and the bad fate

Although Li Bao's participation in the war could not change the situation on the battlefield immediately, it did make Punianheda feel a sense of urgency.

Damn, this group of Song troops coming from the sea are different. They don’t have the style of harming their neighbors and attacking friendly forces.

Why the hell are there so many mad dogs in Shandong?

Punianheda cursed and was about to lead his troops to retreat, but he found that the armored cavalry with the Flying Tiger flag in the west had set out.

Liu Huai watched the show for a long time, and the scout finally found out important information.

"What?" Liu Huai asked in disbelief, pulling on the reins. "Five thousand Jin soldiers are lined up fifteen miles to the north? Another five thousand are retreating north from Rizhao?"

The scout nodded, sweating profusely in the cool autumn breeze, and seemed a little bit unbelievable, but this was indeed what he saw with his own eyes, so he had to believe it.

When all levels were mobilized yesterday, the captain clearly said that this battle would be a tough one and set various rewards. Everyone was ready to fight, but now it seems that the Jin army is about to escape!
Liu Huai was also a little confused.

Could it be that the Jin army discovered the ambush of the Loyal Army?

That's not right. Even if an ambush is discovered, what's the point of retreating in the middle of a battle? Aren't you afraid of being chased and routed? Are the Jin army really that good? Is such a dangerous tactical move as easy as drinking cold water?
If they hadn't discovered an ambush, what on earth was the Jin navy trying to accomplish by coming all this way?!
An armed march?
Although Liu Huai didn't understand what the Jin army was up to, he still knew what he should do now.

The more the Jin army wants to do something, the more we should prevent them from doing it!

"Silang, calm down. The Dongping banner has been raised, which means Uncle Zhang is fine." After calming the anxious Zhang Baiyu, Liu Huai loudly issued orders: "Divide the five hundred armored cavalry into three groups. Guan Qilang, you lead a hundred cavalry to patrol the perimeter and clear out the roaming cavalry. Silang, you and I will each lead two hundred cavalry, and you will be my rearguard! Do you understand what to do?"

Zhang Baiyu took a deep breath and nodded heavily: "Don't worry, my dear, I will definitely not fall behind."

After saying that, Zhang Baiyu hesitated again: "Don't we have to wait for the infantry?"

Liu Huai shook his head: "It's too late. Send someone smart to inform Deputy Commander Li and Commander Lei of everything going on here. It will depend on how they perform next.

Hey, we thought today was a big battle that would last from dawn to sunset, but who knew the Jin thieves were about to flee? If we were one day later, there would be no place to fight this battle."

As he spoke, Liu Huai rode his horse forward and took the lead.

He now had a bad feeling.

Something unrelated to history must have happened that caused the Jin navy to retreat inexplicably in the middle of a battle.

Liu Huai now urgently wanted to capture a senior officer of the Jin army and torture him to find out what had happened.

Was it that there was an error in the historical records, or did the Northern Expedition launched prematurely at his instigation lead to a huge butterfly effect?
However, even though he was extremely anxious, Liu Huai did not lead his armored cavalry and charge into the Jin army's formation.

Just as infantry alone couldn't defeat elite cavalry, in this era, cavalry alone couldn't defeat elite infantry. Especially with the high morale and well-trained infantry of the Jin Dynasty's regular army, it was impossible for 500 armored cavalry to defeat an army of tens of thousands.

The Jin army still had several hundred cavalry. Although the naval cavalry was not as elite as other regular cavalry, they were still able to maintain the front line together with the infantry.

If the Dongping Army could follow up and pursue at this time, it is hard to say what would happen to the others, but the 5,000 Jin troops led by Pu Nian Heda might really be able to be left behind.

However, the Dongping Army had just suffered a major defeat and was gathering its troops. For a moment, it was completely unable to pursue and could only watch as the Shenfeng Army withdrew its last troops.

The greatest victory was achieved by Li Bao.

The Jin army on the east side pursued too deeply and was caught by Li Bao's army. After leaving behind more than a hundred corpses, they retreated in panic, but were protected by the large formation and were able to reorganize.

By the time Zhang Rong had roughly organized some of his troops, the ambush troops of the Loyalty Army also rushed out from the Jiuxian Mountain Pass. But by then, the Jin army had already joined forces, with 15,000 soldiers from the Shenfeng Army and the Weizhen Army forming a large battle array, ready to fight.

Now, let alone Liu Huai, even the two veteran generals Li Bao and Zhang Rong did not dare to initiate an attack.

At this time, the Rizhao defenders had gathered about 6,000 people, plus the support of the Loyal Army and the elite Song Army, the number of people was almost the same as that of the Jin Army. How could they defeat the Jin army head-on in a field battle on flat ground?
Not to mention that the morale of the Dongping Army has been lost.

War really cannot be changed by personal will. Even if Zhang Rong and Li Bao are unwilling, they can only gather their troops and slowly retreat.

A well-prepared encirclement and annihilation campaign ended in such an anticlimactic manner. Of course, the Northern Expedition Army's propaganda still claimed that the army had returned victorious and the Jin thieves had fled.

But only you know how it feels.

The most confused one among them was Li Bao.

Whether it was the psychological preparation beforehand or the communication between them, the Song army was heading for a big battle.

But who knew that the Jin army fled away as soon as the 3,000 elite troops landed on the shore.

what's the situation?
Li Bao originally wanted to communicate with the Shandong generals, but when he saw Liu Huai and Zhang Rong coming to him in a hurry, he felt that the situation was a little abnormal.

"I was just about to ask you something." Li Bao spread his hands and said, "Could it be that some troops have gone to steal the retreat of the Jin thieves?"

Liu Huai didn't exchange pleasantries. He simply looked up and down at the famous historical figure in front of him, Li San, and shook his head. "Impossible! The two organized rebel armies in Shandong are here. Even if my father or the Tianping Army's leader Geng Da went around, there's no reason for them to hide it from us."

"That's strange." Li Bao stroked his beard and exchanged glances with Zhang Rong before finally coming to a realization. "You're saying the problem isn't with Shandong, but with the Song Dynasty?"

Liu Huai nodded and replied, "That's right. Chief Li, the Jin bandits are building ships in Shandong. The purpose is self-evident. It's either to help the Jin army cross the river, or to take Lin'an directly..."

Li Bao also nodded. If he didn't know the strategic purpose of the Jin Kingdom, he would have no time to run so far to deal with the Jin Kingdom's navy.

Both the Yangtze River defense line and a stable central court are extremely important to the separatist regimes in the south.

"And now that the Jin navy has given up the fight and is rapidly retreating, the only possibility is that they're heading south." Liu Huai said solemnly, "Uncle Zhang, let me be frank. A great victory for the Jin bandits was within their grasp today, but they don't even want that. They're after something bigger."

Zhang Rong nodded with a grim expression, but also felt a little helpless.

It is pure bad luck that the flagpole was blown down by the strong wind. Who could have imagined this?

As long as the Jin army completely defeated the largest Dongping army, even if reinforcements arrived, they could only defend themselves and would not be able to change the situation.

But the Jin army still retreated, and retreated very cleanly.

"General Manager Li, I've previously had Li Sanlang report that a deputy general manager of the Jin army has defected. We learned about the situation of the Song-Jin war through military reports, but since he defected, we in Shandong have been completely in the dark. We only know that the Song-Jin war has officially begun, and that military supplies, equipment, and troops are continuously moving south, but we have no idea what exactly happened."

After Liu Huai finished speaking, he looked at Li Bao with anticipation.

But Li Bao's next move disappointed him.

Li Bao shook his head and sighed, "Our army set out from Guan'ao on September 23rd. Luckily, a southerly wind blew, allowing me to reach Haizhou within a few days. I only dropped anchor once in Chuzhou. I only know that Liu Qi and the Jin army confronted the Jin thieves across the Huai River in Xuyi and Chuzhou. Each side crossed the river and each side won and lost. I don't know anything else."

Could it be that in just a few days, the Jin army could have crossed the Huai River? That shouldn't be the case. Although Liu Er is old, he is not a toothless tiger. The Jin thieves can't fly. How can a mere tens of thousands of soldiers and horses cross the river?

In those days, there were no radios, and carrier pigeons were more often point-to-point in their message delivery. They couldn't find moving targets, and there was a chance of loss or leakage. Therefore, important messages still relied on people to deliver them.

This also meant that once Li Bao went out to sea, it would be difficult for him to obtain important military intelligence unless he docked.

This is also the norm in this era.

There is a huge fog of war on both sides, and at this time you have to rely on the commander's experience, wisdom and a little bit of luck.

Liu Huai's experience not only comes from the war itself, but also from a time traveler's insight into history.

"That could only be because something went wrong in Huaixi." Liu Huai pondered for a moment and said, "It's impossible that Jingxiang or Bashu were breached and the Jin navy was about to rush out.

Well, the Huaixi garrison commander, if I remember correctly, should be Wang Quan. What do you think of him? Can he hold his ground against the main attack of the Jin Kingdom?

As soon as the question was asked, Li Bao and Zhang Rong looked at each other in silence, then looked up at Liu Huai.

The meaning is very clear. You still want to ask us about this?
(End of this chapter)