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

Chapter 788 Soldiers' Half-Dead Life on the Front Lines

Although we are supposed to take a long time to plan, the actual time available for discussion is only a few hours.

After all, the Jin army wasn't dead, so it wasn't impossible for them to move the explosives to other places.

Therefore, we must act quickly.

On July 9th, at dawn, three thousand elite soldiers of the Loyal Army had been selected, and they prepared meals and armor.

Wei Sheng will personally lead two generals, Li Huo'er and Yu Yuan, to prepare for battle outside the city.

After a series of retreats, major battles, and surprise attacks, the Loyal Army had suffered nearly a thousand casualties. If the scattered troops resulting from the night raid on the Jin army camp are added, the number of casualties has exceeded a thousand.

In other words, the number of combat personnel in the Loyal Army had been reduced to just over six thousand at this point.

The casualties were already a significant blow, but firstly, this was an inside operation, with the local people behind them; secondly, the Loyal Army had won several consecutive battles in the previous years and was in high spirits, so even though they encountered setbacks, they were still able to maintain their morale.

"...Lord Lu, the morale of the army is actually not quite right."

At this moment, Cao Dache, the commander of the Flying Tiger Army who was acting as Lu You's personal guard, said in a low voice, "I just walked around the camp. The atmosphere was a bit somber. This is not how one should behave before battle."

Lu You remained silent for a moment before nodding: "I naturally know that morale is not good at the moment, but... has it reached a point where it is difficult to maintain?"

Cao Dache replied sincerely: "Of course, we can still maintain our morale, and we can even fight tough battles. What I said was inappropriate. The morale has been stretched to a certain point, and we don't know when it will break down. At that time, the whole army will be routed."

As he spoke, Cao Dache pointed around: "What's worse is that at this point, officers such as platoon leaders, squad leaders, and generals should be saying things to boost morale, but I've noticed that only a handful of them are doing so..."

Lu You finally realized the seriousness of the situation: "Are the officers below even more frustrated?"

Cao Dache remained sincere: "This humble general truly does not know, or perhaps he is simply exhausted and wants to seize the time to recover his strength."

Upon hearing this, Lu You finally became exasperated: "Brother Cao, Commander Cao, what are you trying to say? Are you just trying to make fun of this old man?"

We're about to start formal combat, and you're still saying ambiguous things. Are you, Cao Dache, trying to challenge the military's class system?

Cao Dache remained earnest, but then changed the subject: "Therefore, in this situation, we must fight with all our might."

Upon hearing this, Lu You finally understood: "I am still safe in the city. Your fifty Flying Tiger Armored Cavalry should not be idle. I am giving you a military order now. Go and protect Duke Wei. Hmph, next time, just say what you want to say directly, don't beat around the bush."

Cao Dache nodded loudly with some delight, but after taking two steps, he stopped and turned back again, bowing sincerely and saying, "Lord Lu, while your words just now certainly implied a desire to fight, the meaning behind them was absolutely correct. I hope you will make preparations as soon as possible."

Lu You opened his mouth, but ultimately remained silent, and could only wave his hand to tell Cao Da Che to leave quickly.

As the third general of the Flying Tiger Army who rose from a lowly soldier to a commander, Cao Dache's judgment of his own army was absolutely correct. The morale of the Loyal Army was indeed somewhat low due to repeated defeats, exhaustion, heat, and casualties.

Wei Sheng was naturally well aware of all this, but he was several levels above Cao Da Che, so his thoughts were naturally more comprehensive.

To be precise, if the Loyal Army, as the defending side, was in such a state, it's impossible for the Jin army to have emerged unscathed.

The Jin army suffered the same heat, exhaustion, and casualties as the Loyal Army, the only difference being that the Jin army forced the Loyal Army to retreat several times.

However, since the Jin army only repelled the loyal army but did not completely defeat it, they did not capture any prisoners of war, and the resulting morale boost was extremely limited.

Especially in the past few days, the loyal army has launched continuous night attacks. The Jin army's defenses are tight, preventing the loyal army from gaining any advantage. However, the Jin army has not actually had any effective rest, and the entire army is almost exhausted.

"The entire army is exhausted." Facing the gentle morning breeze, Jia Gu Qingchen inspected the camp, then came to the commander's tent and sighed, "Lord Liangbi, the morale of the army is somewhat unstable."

Instead of dealing with the heavy workload of official documents, Heshi Lieliangbi sat at the tent entrance, gazing at the sky. Upon hearing this, he remained silent for a long time, seemingly lost in thought, before finally asking, "Which unit failed? Was it the men we brought from the north, or the troops from Bianliang?"

Jia Gu Qingchen sighed again: "We have both. Our main force is afraid because the news of the Battle of Daming Prefecture has spread, and it seems that Hebei will not be under the control of the state."

Alas, it's no wonder the young men are upset; their families are all in Hebei, and anyone in this situation would be distraught.

"As for the troops in Bianliang, their morale is low due to their fruitless labor and the hot weather. In addition, after hearing about the victory in Daming Prefecture, they feel that Bianliang will also be unstable since Hebei has been occupied by Shandong bandits, so they are even more anxious."

“After we repelled the loyalist traitor last night, that scoundrel Shi Dunzhong came and told me frankly that he had no idea what the point of continuing the siege was.”

As Jia Gu Qingchen spoke, he looked at He Shi Lie Liangbi with a hint of hope, as if he too was waiting for an explanation from the other party.

Heshi Lieliangbi still did not answer directly, but instead looked at the city walls of Qixian and changed the subject: "Has any reinforcement arrived?"

Upon hearing that it was serious military business, Jia Gu Qingchen dared not be negligent: "Several thousand men have come from the direction of Xuzhou, about sixty or seventy li from here. Scouts have already discovered them, but they dare not approach. They are only building fortifications, seemingly wanting to support the retreat of the Qixian troops. I was just about to ask Prime Minister Liangbi for orders on whether to send troops to deal with them."

Heshi Lieliangbi remained noncommittal, gesturing for Jia Gu Qingchen to continue. "Some ships have arrived upstream on the Huan River, but our army, following your instructions, has already occupied two fortified positions upstream and laid chains between them to build a pontoon bridge."

Although the Shandong pirates' fleet appeared impressive, its fighting strength was weak. After only a short time downstream, three of their ships were ignited by rockets, forcing the Shandong pirates to retreat.

This time, without waiting for Jia Gu Qingchen to request permission to fight again, He Shilie Liangbi asked once more, "What about the Song army? Have they taken any action?"

Jia Gu Qingchen shook his head upon hearing this: "Didn't you say that the Song bandits would absolutely not come to our aid?"

Heshi Lieliangbi frowned: "Qingchen, don't try to fool me. Just because of my words, are you going to stop sending scouts?"

Jia Gu Qingchen immediately became solemn: "Of course they did send reinforcements. Just as you said, the Song traitors did not send any reinforcements."

The stiff expression on Heshi Lieliangbi's face finally softened a little, but he simply picked up the tea and drank it by himself.

Helpless, Jia Gu Qingchen could only ask the same question again: "Lord Liangbi, how far do we intend to go in our attack on the loyal bandits? We can't really march all the way to Haizhou, can we?"
These 15,000 troops have already suffered several hundred casualties, and with the troops being divided into several smaller units, they now only have a little over 12,000 combat soldiers. How can such a force possibly annihilate the Shandong bandits?

It's no wonder that the Jin generals were generally hesitant.

The Jin army followed Heshilie Liangbi on this expedition with the intention of taking advantage of a surprise attack.

If they cannot gain this advantage, they should not continue the siege, but should instead withdraw to the Jin army's Xia Cai camp, join forces with Pu San Zhongyi, and continue fighting the Song army.

It seems very wrong that over 10,000 armored cavalry are now forcibly attacking the city.

Heshi Lieliangbi shook his head and chuckled: "Qingchen, isn't my plan good? While fighting the main force of the Song rebels, isn't it only natural to cut off the surrounding wings?"

If we could have broken through the Zhongyi army's chariot formation as soon as we engaged in battle a few days ago, wouldn't we have been able to take whatever we wanted from the heart of Shandong?

If we could have taken Qixian County before the Shandong bandits crossed the river the day before yesterday, wouldn't the loyal bandits have become an isolated force on the south bank of the Huan River?

If we take advantage of the chaos caused by the bombing of Qixian County and the collapse of the loyalist rebel army, we can seize the opportunity to storm the camp and the great cause can be settled.

"So many opportunities, and you martial artists failed to seize them, yet now you demand an explanation from this old man—it's truly bizarre."

Kiyoshi Kagaya was filled with shame and indignation, but ultimately had no way to refute it.

Seeing this, Heshi Lieliangbi did not continue to berate his trusted generals: "The situation has been explained to you very clearly in the military council. The Shandong bandits are in southern Shandong, and they only have 8,000 regular troops. Judging from the situation of the surrounding reinforcements in the past few days, the intelligence can also be seen as correct. As long as our army swallows up these 8,000 loyal bandits, the famous cities and towns in Shandong will be at your disposal."

Upon hearing this, Jia Gu Qingchen showed no excitement. Instead, he sighed repeatedly and said, "Lord Liangbi, at most I can hold out until this city is captured. We dare not even think about other famous cities and towns. We only hope to withdraw our troops quickly. I hope Lord Liangbi will not break his promise."

Jia Gu Qingchen had no worries, after all, the army still had gunpowder. After a few more days of exhaustion, he could blow open the city gates or walls and attack the city with fresh troops, which would surely lead to a swift victory.

Heshi Lieliangbi sat on a stool, gazing at the sky and nodding slowly.

Then, the Jin Dynasty's Left Chancellor asked about another unrelated matter: "When you fought with that Flying Tiger, what did he say about how he would deal with my entire Jurchen tribe?"

Upon hearing this, Jia Gu Qingchen was jolted awake, as if a nightmare had been shattered. He slowly said, "Fei Hu Zi said that he wants to change the names, hairstyles, and languages ​​of the various Jurchen tribes and disperse them to different places."

Moreover, they will destroy all the laws and writings of the Great Jin Dynasty, and will personally send people to compile the history of the Great Jin Dynasty, so that our descendants will not know their own identity and will point to the "History of Jin" and denounce us as barbarians.

As he finished speaking, Kiyotomi Kagaya's breathing became heavy.

Although this was not the first time he had relayed these words, nor the first time he had thought of them in private, every time Kiyotomi Kagaya pondered them, he felt a shiver from the depths of his soul.

This feeling of trepidation became even more pronounced after news of the outcome of the Battle of Daming Prefecture arrived.

This fierce tiger from Shandong is truly advancing towards its goal step by step, leaving behind bloody footprints, and it's getting closer and closer.

Heshi Lieliangbi remained noncommittal. Just as he was about to ask something, he heard a loud drumbeat in Qixian County, followed by horns and shouts that resounded through the sky.

Jia Gu Qingchen was so shocked that he jumped up from his stool: "This...this is...is the Loyal Traitor trying to break out of the encirclement, or is he going to attack the camp?"

Heshi Lieliangbi, holding his teacup, shook his head and chuckled: "Qingchen, you'd better hurry up and meet the enemy. Do you really think I'm some kind of divine strategist?"

Jia Gu Qingchen immediately realized what was happening, then mounted his horse and galloped away.

As Heshi Lieliangbi held his teacup, watching Jia Gu Qingchen's receding figure, he thought about Liu Huai's words and couldn't help but sigh again.

The world is in flux, with one side gaining and the other losing. Now is the time for the Jin Kingdom to turn the tide, and we should do everything in our power to seize even the smallest path to survival.

(End of this chapter)