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

Chapter 308: The Situation is Pressuring and Destroying People's Hearts

On the morning of October 18th, Liu Huai woke up from his sleep, hastily put on his robe, held his armor tightly, walked out of the tent, yawned, and began to inspect the camp.

He actually didn't sleep for long, just an hour.

In any case, Liu Huai could not leave so many soldiers and horses behind, and he was really hungry, so he stopped sleeping.

Liu Huai now understood why ancient generals all had big bellies. Without this fat accumulation, it would be difficult to fight continuously at high intensity.

For example, Liu Huai today has a standard inverted triangle body shape, which can be used as a sculpture model. However, compared with those fat-muscled warriors, his endurance is too poor. After only a few days of running hungry, Liu Huai feels that he can't hold on any longer.

War is a technical job and also a hard job.

Liu Huai took out some dried meat and candied fruits from his small bag and stuffed them into his mouth while walking towards the stable. After picking up a horse, he went to the wounded camp.

In last night's battle, there were only five or six hundred direct casualties, and most of the injuries were not caused by swords, guns, or arrows, but by bruises.

Especially when the horse is galloping, if it stumbles and falls off, it will be either death or injury. Even if the horse is not crushed, it will be seriously injured when it falls. Even with the protection of armor, it is difficult to fall safely.

Similarly, the biggest loss of personnel was not casualties, but those who were missing. Even now, there were soldiers walking out of Zhushan in a daze, including not only the Northern Expedition Army, but also the Jin Army.

There is no way. This is the disadvantage of night combat. The organization is too difficult to maintain.

It should be said that the Northern Expedition Army's rewards and punishments were quite strict. If an ordinary peasant uprising army had experienced such a night battle, even if it won a great victory, half of them would have fled, and most of those who fled would never come back.

"Uncle Lei." Seeing the man sitting at the entrance of the wounded camp, munching on a piece of dried tofu, Liu Huai greeted him. "How many casualties are there? Have you figured it out?"

The one guarding the wounded camp was Lei Ben. Because his subordinates were the vanguard of the battle last night, they suffered the heaviest casualties.

Lei Ben swallowed the food with difficulty, took another sip of water and said, "One hundred and twenty-one people died, two hundred and two were seriously injured, and there were more than three hundred people who were slightly injured but needed to be treated by doctors. It's impossible to calculate this number. The bone-setting doctor just passed away."

Liu Huai nodded and sighed again: "If time wasn't so tight, I really want to temper the Jin thieves' temper and prepare a good attack before attacking. This way, there might be fewer casualties."

Lei Ben shook his head and laughed, "What you said is completely irrational. How can there be a war without casualties? A few hundred casualties can destroy the 5,000-strong Jin bandit army. If this military achievement had happened during the Jingkang period, it would have been enough to make you a husband right there.

Even now, if I tell my comrades in Lianghuai about this victory, they will be jealous to the point of going crazy."

At this point, Lei Ben's smile faded. "I just don't know what's going on in Lianghuai. It's really worrying."

Liu Huai was about to offer some words of comfort, but Lei Ben waved his hand and said, "Sir, please don't act like a child. If you have enough time, you can explain to me, an old revolutionary, why time is so tight."

Liu Huai looked at the wounded camp and pondered for a moment.

He himself was unwilling to exaggerate the urgency of the situation because this would inevitably cause panic in the army.

Therefore, this time he almost forced the encirclement and suppression of the Jin navy. In order to win over the people, he even led the troops through mountains and rivers to attack the enemy from behind.

However, Lei Ben had already brought the matter to the forefront, and Liu Huai could only explain, "Uncle Lei, what I'm worried about is nothing more than the war between Song and Jin. Uncle Lei should also understand the importance of Lianghuai to us. If the situation in Lianghuai becomes completely devastating, then we will have to go south to join the war.

As for marching south to join the battle, the muddy ground of Huaiyin is impassable, and the only way is to transport the troops by sea."

Lei Ben's heart tightened. His family was in Taizhou, the easternmost end of the Huainan East Road. If the Jin army wreaked havoc, his family would...

"Huaidong is guarded by Liu Shunchang, so it shouldn't be a big deal." Lei Ben hesitated for a moment and still asked.

Liu Shunchang is Liu Qi, the hero of the Battle of Shunchang.

Liu Huai shook his head. "Who knows? If it were the Liu Qi of twenty years ago, I think he would still be able to fight, but Liu Qi now is over sixty years old... Sigh..."

Lei Ben sighed inexplicably, and then he became a little nervous: "Mr. Dalang, you don't want to establish your foundation in Shandong and abandon Lianghuai, do you? My... my family..."

Liu Huai said sternly, "I know, I know everything. But this matter has never been decided by me alone. During the military meeting, you should firmly express your attitude."

Lei Ben also understood what Liu Huai meant without saying it.

If they wanted to march south to the Huai River and Huai River regions, the larger the military force, the better. Therefore, Lei Ben had to persuade other local Shandong factions, and even persuade his own troops.

After all, most of the lower-level soldiers were recruited from Shandong. If they were unwilling to fight in Lianghuai, it would be difficult for several officers to succeed no matter how willing they were. Thinking of this, Lei Ben stood up, almost unable to wait to start the chain.

"Uncle Lei." Liu Huai quickly stopped him. "Eat one bite at a time, and do one thing at a time. The more critical the situation, the more calm you must be. Uncle Lei, please continue to maintain the situation here at the wounded camp. I will go to the docks and see how many usable ships are left. Uncle Lei, please don't panic. Stay calm. Remember, haste makes waste."

After giving the instructions again, Liu Huai took a quick tour of the wounded camp and rode away, leaving Lei Ben alone to continue eating his dry food.

It’s strange to say, the food that he used to enjoy with relish now tasted like chewing wax, and Lei Ben couldn’t even swallow a single bite.

Not realizing that his words had caused such a worry in an old veteran, Liu Huai arrived at the dock and met Li Jinyan who had rebelled against the uprising. After expressing his condolences and making promises about the future and rewards, Liu Huai could not wait to inspect the dock.

"General, please look! These are the ships that were saved. They're all intact." Li Jinyan pointed to the more than 200 vessels of various types at the dock and said, "I know what you're asking. Why didn't these ships participate in the Southern Expedition? The reason is simple. They're relatively unusable, no match for the ones Su Laogou took away. They can only transport troops, not be used for naval combat."

Liu Huai looked at Li Jinyan in surprise, and thought to himself that this guy was quite honest.

You have to be honest to succeed.

Li Jinyan was actually quite hesitant, not knowing whether it was right or wrong to change his allegiance this time.

Now it seems that these loyal troops attach so much importance to ships that they are even preparing to sail south.

Who will raise the sails, who will row the oars, who will steer the ship?
Aren’t they just a group of surrendered sailors?

If we don't make the details clear now, and the young general in front of us gets carried away and drives these second-tier ships to fight a major naval battle, won't we be doomed?

Seeing that Li Jinyan was a little nervous, Liu Huai comforted him again, saying that the quality problems of the ship were due to that old dog Su's failure to control it strictly, and it had nothing to do with you.

At this time, the Dongping army generals led by Zhang Baiyu and the Song navy veterans led by Li Gongzuo finally carefully inspected the more than 200 ships.

Zhang Baiyu first shook off the water on his body, then lowered his head and twisted the hem of his robe before looking up and saying to Liu Huai, "Dalang, there are a total of 287 ships, of which nearly 100 are pure rotten wooden boats that will be smashed to pieces by the wind and waves at sea. Only a little over 190 are truly usable.

Fortunately, most of them are large ships with a capacity of 1,000 tons, so if you include the cavalry, they can only carry 7,000 men at most."

Li Gongzuo listened quietly and then said, "Zhang Silang, I see that those dozens of large ships are still usable, and we should be able to bring more horses."

Zhang Baiyu shook his head. "That won't work. A warhorse is such a voracious eater, it's like a water bucket. We need to bring enough food and clean water. Besides, if it's not a healthy horse, it'll probably die of thirst on the boat, which would be a complete waste of livestock."

Li Gongzuo paced around anxiously. "So, the final force is actually 3,000 of our army plus 7,000 Shandong volunteers?"

Zhang Baiyu shook his head again: "No, you forgot one thing. My father also collected a hundred ships and can bring an additional 3,000 men."

The two generals were both second-generation officials of the Song State, so they both understood their father's thoughts.

Even if the Loyal Army did not go to rescue Song, Zhang Rong and Li Bao would mobilize all their forces and return to Song to fight the Jin bandits to the death.

These two veterans had no intention of sitting on the sidelines and watching the tigers fight in order to strengthen their own plans.

Liu Huai felt a pang of annoyance listening to this.

Good heavens, the Loyal Army hasn't decided what to do yet, and you two have already made the decision in private, right?

Liu Huai coughed twice and was about to say something when a military envoy shouted to get out of the way and rode his horse in front of Liu Huai.

"Commander Sir, the commander-in-chief has urgent orders!"

Liu Huai immediately snatched the military order, looked it up and down, and his expression finally changed.

"Someone has delivered accurate intelligence on Lianghuai." Liu Huai's face turned pale as he said to Zhang Baiyu, whose expression had already turned solemn. "From the commander-in-chief and above of the Loyalty Army, except for Li Huoer who will continue to lead the army, only the deputies will be left to rest the troops. The rest will all go to Haizhou for a general military meeting."

"Silang, go tell General Xiao to take control of the Dongping Army and rest up. Uncle Zhang will be back from Linyi soon."

After saying this, Liu Huai said to Li Gongzuo, "General Li will arrive tomorrow at the latest to take over the navy. I'll naturally talk to you then. All I can tell you now is that the situation is very bad, extremely bad. The next battles are likely to be more dangerous than the last."

Li Gongzuo's dark face had turned purple by now. He wanted to ask something, but he didn't know where to start and could only stand there in a daze.

(End of this chapter)