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

Chapter 294: Each of them has their own hidden agenda
On October 15th, the weather in Shandong East Road was still cloudy and windy.

Thanks to this winter rain, the temperature dropped rapidly, forcing us to put away our winter clothes early.

Fortunately, the treasury of the Jin army in Yizhou was too rich, otherwise even with Lu You's ability, he would be unable to cook without rice.

This also triggered a chain reaction, and the army led by Liu Huai had to stop marching for a day and wait for the arrival of supplies.

After experiencing a series of incidents such as uneven distribution and disturbances by guest generals, Liu Huai suppressed all the problems with a quick and decisive attitude and led the army to Chenjia Island, which is near Huangdao District of Qingdao City in later generations.

By the way, Chenjia Island is not an isolated island overseas, but a peninsula.

The coastline here sinks inward, forming a crescent-shaped natural harbor, and Chenjia Island is located at the tip below the crescent.

Even in later times, this semi-enclosed bay known as Jiaozhou Bay is still an excellent harbor in Shandong, a place where ships can be stationed.

After personally seeing the terrain, Liu Huai immediately understood why Zhang Rong did not raid the Jin navy from land.

The Jin navy consisted of 30,000 regular troops and 40,000 sailors gathered together. On the one hand, their strength was huge, but more importantly, the land terrain was too easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Moreover, this easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack fortification is not as steep as Tongguan, where one man can block the passage of ten thousand. Instead, it is a complex defensive fortification with layers of garrisons and defenses to prevent enemy surprise attacks.

After passing Caoqiao Town, the official road ahead runs from southwest to northeast, with Cangma Mountain to the northwest and Dazhu Mountain to the southeast. After only thirty miles, the relatively flat terrain suddenly narrows, leaving only a flat area less than two miles wide between Zhushan Mountain and the sea.

If the Jin navy's 30,000 regular troops were fully staffed, they would probably set up layers of defense between Dazhu Mountain and Zangma Mountain and lock the Zhushan Pass.

If this is the case, it would be impossible to chew this tough bone without 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers and horses.

But now there are only 5,000 Weizhen troops left. It is impossible to divide the troops further if they want to defend the Jin navy base. They can only retreat to Zhushan Pass and send troops to guard the warships and watch those Han sailors. Naturally, they are unable to take the initiative to do anything.

Just when Liu Huai led his army to set up camp at the northern foot of Dazhu Mountain, Gao Shi, deputy general manager of the Weizhen Army, no longer cared about hierarchy and cursed all eighteen generations of Su Baoheng's ancestors in the tent.

Don't blame him, really don't blame him. Anyone thrown into such a situation, with only 5,000 soldiers facing so many rebels and unable to even hide, would lose their composure like this.

"General, don't worry. I see that these Han dogs are only so-so in terms of combat effectiveness. As long as we hold on for two months, even without reinforcements, the Han dogs will tire out." A famous marching general, Meng'an, advised: "When the time comes, we can launch a frontal assault. These mere miscellaneous soldiers will be no problem."

"Bullshit!" Gao Shi cursed. "Do you know that loyal thief Feihuzi? He defeated 10,000 Wuxing soldiers. Now he's bringing over 10,000 to fight me. I only have 5,000 men. How do you think we can fight this?"

The marching general was speechless for a moment and dared not say anything more.

As soon as Gao Shi said this, he felt that he had lost his composure. He shouldn't show cowardice in front of his subordinates. Doesn't this mean that he is afraid of those loyal thieves?
But words spoken are like water spilled, and Gao Shi didn't know how to make amends. He could only sit on the mat and sulk.

Seeing the generals in the tent gradually panicking, the reprimanded Xingjun Meng'an gritted his teeth and said, "General, you can't say that. A few days ago, those Zhongyi bandits joined forces with the Dongping bandits, but we scared them off, didn't they? These bandits are all outwardly strong but inwardly weak, and they don't dare to fight head-on. I think the Wuxing army was also confused and fell into the bandits' cunning scheme.

As long as we guard the camp carefully and stay inside, we can only wear down the enemy's morale and not give the loyal thief any opportunity to exploit. What can the Flying Tiger do? Can he really fly over here?"

As soon as these words were spoken, all the generals agreed.

But some smart people thought that the Shandong rebels did not dare to attack that day because the Jin navy of 15,000 soldiers deployed in battle formation and scared away the Han army which was slightly smaller in number.

There are only 5,000 regular troops now.

Can this be the same?

If there were only 5,000 regular troops deployed that day, the enemy troops on the opposite side would have surrounded us long ago.

Seeing that morale in the tent had improved somewhat, the marching general Meng'an continued, "Captain, in addition to our 5,000 regular troops, we also have 7,000 Han'er sailors. We can't let these people stay on the ship any longer, otherwise the regular troops will have to allocate more manpower to watch over them. It would be better to use these Han'er sailors as contract soldiers. Even if they fail in battle, at least they can still help."

Gao Shi finally nodded. "That's a sound idea, Daliang Yu. You're right. But what about the enemy's navy? And the Song army... The Song navy is even here. How bizarre!"

The marching general named Da Liangyu thought for a moment and said, "Then send a few hundred soldiers and horses to continue to set up camp on Chenjia Island. If they see any enemy ships, they will directly fire rockets to stop them."

Daliang Yu lowered his head and thought for a moment, "But I think the enemy's navy is only a small number, and with such strong winds and waves on the sea, it will be difficult for them to get here.

As for the Song navy, why were they still harassing Shandong after leading the army south? Even if they couldn't return to defend their lords due to the strong sea waves, they wouldn't play the enemy's trick.

Don't we know what kind of character the Song army is? If the Song State was so tough, when the Donghai Rebellion broke out, General Xu would not have fought against the bandits, but against the Song dogs. "

Gao Shi took a long breath and said, "So, we can still hold on?"

Daliang Yu nodded heavily. "We can hold it. General, the commander-in-chief has entrusted us with the task of defending the city. If we fail to hold it for even one day, it would be unwise to flee. Besides, with so many ships, the wind and waves are too strong to leave."

Gao Shi nodded and pointed out a trusted Mouke: "Gao Pingchang, I will give you 500 regular soldiers. You must also recruit 1,000 sailors and occupy Chenjia Island!"

After saying this, he looked around at the generals in the tent again: "These two hundred-plus ships were built at the cost of a huge sum of money from the country. We must preserve them at all costs!"

From Daliang Yu down, all the generals nodded, which slightly boosted the morale.

The strategy was set, and soon only Gao Shi and Gao Pingchang were left in the central army tent.

"Come here!" Gao Shi waved to Gao Pingchang, motioning him to come closer.

Gao Pingchang didn't understand what was going on, but he still looked around vigilantly and then stretched his head over.

"You are on Chenjia Island. Think of a way to burn all the ships!" Gao Shi said in a low voice.

"What?" Gao Pingchang jumped up in surprise, then covered his mouth again and asked in a low voice, "Brother, why are you burning the boats?"

Gao Shi sneered and said, "You know shit. The key now is that the boat can't leave, and neither can we. Do you think Daliang Yu and his men really want to fight the bandits to the death? Isn't it because no one dares to abandon these boats that they are holding on here? As long as the boats are gone, we can retreat directly to Yidu Prefecture, Hebei, or even back to our hometown in Liaodi. It's all a way out.

You burned the ship, put the blame on the Haner navy, and then killed them all. There would be no evidence, so what is there to worry about?"

Gao Pingchang was speechless for a moment: "Then why don't we just abandon this ship and retreat?"

Gao Shi said with a look of frustration, "Let's not talk about aiding the enemy for now. Your brother is only the deputy general manager, and there's a general manager overseeing him. Can I really make all the marching soldiers obey me? If there's a fool who insists on guarding these ships and uses me as a pretext in a military meeting, what can I say then? Should I just say I'm a coward?"

Gao Pingchang was still a little afraid: "Brother, even if you can clear yourself of this matter, you are the garrison commander here after all. How can you escape responsibility?"

Gao Shi sneered, "The commander-in-chief left us in Shandong just to hold back the rebel army. He never thought of letting the Weizhen Army clean up Shandong. Damn it, the Wuxing Army can't do it, and the navy can't do it even with all their strength. How can we do it with only 5,000 soldiers and horses?

"Let's say someone inside colluded with the bandits and burned the ship. If the southern expeditionary force wins, who will care about our small defeat? If the southern expeditionary force loses, who will still care about our small defeat? As long as I can bring back these 5,000 powerful soldiers, I will be a hero!"

After speaking in a resounding voice, Gao Shi looked at Gao Pingchang again.

Under the pressure of his brother and general, Gao Pingchang had to nod with difficulty.

What the hell is going on?

(End of this chapter)