In addition to the five thousand Xia army, there were also the general Xu He who brought back, the five thousand Xia army, and the commander of Xu He. Xu He and Gao Chuo were both from Yan'an Prefecture and were together since joining the army. Compared with Gao Chuo, Xu He was one level lower than Gao Chuo. Xu He has always positioned Gao Chuo as the target he was chasing, but if Xu He was under Gao Chuo's command, he would probably never have this opportunity.

On this day, after some weighing the pros and cons, Xu He came outside the central army tent of King Li De of Liang. Xu He breathed a deep breath and walked into the central army tent. At this time, Li De was sitting in front of the case to review the official documents. After Xu He came in, he knelt on one knee and saluted to Li De and said, "I will meet the prince."

"General Xu, why are you here to find me?" Li De asked Xu He while reviewing the official documents.

Xu He said hesitantly: "The last general, the last general... I have something to ask the prince to beg for permission."

"I have something to say, but I have farts to say; I don't have time to listen to you nonsense." Li De said a little unhappy; what Li De is most annoying about is his subordinates talking hesitantly.

"Prince, General Gao takes the order to attack Xia Pi eastward. The last general also wants to lead a group of troops to attack the Song army. Please allow the prince to accept it." Xu He knelt on the ground and asked for his order.

"Where do you want to lead troops alone to attack?" Li De put down the pen in his hand and asked Xu He.

Xu He walked to the map and pointed to the map and said to Li De: "Prince, please see, the Song army's troops in the north are mainly arranged along the Daming Prefecture. Due to the pressure on our front line, the possibility of the elite Song army's northern army going south is very small, and the same is true for the Song army's Western army. Therefore, the last general thought that our army was stationed in the Mangdang Mountain Camp, the next step was to face the large army reinforced by the Song army in the south, that is, the Jianghuai Imperial Army controlled by the Emperor of Song himself;

The Jianghuai Imperial Army has two attack routes. The first is to attack from the east through Xia Pi and Xuzhou. The other route is to rely on Bozhou and Suzhou, and Yongcheng is the camp to launch an attack from the south of Mangdang Mountain. Therefore, the last general asked to lead the army to attack Yongcheng, so that our army could have an additional barrier in the south. If it were also possible, the last general thought that it should capture Suzhou and Bozhou..."

Hearing Xu He's analysis, Li De smiled and said, "General Xu Shen seems that I really underestimated you before. I didn't expect you to have such insight. What you said is the same as what I thought. Originally, I would personally lead the troops south in two days. Since you proposed it, I will hand it over to you. Tell me how many soldiers you need to take Yongcheng."

"Report to the prince, the last general only needs five thousand elite soldiers." Xu He said to Li De with his fists.

Li De nodded and said, "Okay, I will give you five thousand elite soldiers. After I allow you to capture Yongcheng, you can recruit 10,000 new soldiers by yourself. In the future, like Gao Chuo, you can recruit 10,000 soldiers for every prefecture in the Great Song Dynasty. How many soldiers you can recruit depends on how many cities you can capture."

Xu He knelt on the ground excitedly and said, "I thank you for the prince."

"Get up!" Li De said with a smile. Through this conversation, Li De found that Xu He is also a general. In the future, he will have another powerful general under his command. It would be strange if Li De was unhappy!

"Prince, the last general also has another suggestion. Yongcheng is too far from the Mangdang Mountain Camp, which is not conducive to our army's long-term persistence. The last general general recommends strengthening the city defense of Baoan Town and making it a barrier to the south of the Mangdang Mountain Camp." Xu He suggested to Li De.

"I have my own plans. Just do my own thing. I will go to the camp to collect the food and supplies I need." Li De waved his hand to Xu He and said.

"Yes, thank you, the prince, I will take my leave..." Xu He bowed and said.

In addition to cultivating him, Li De used Xu He to train him, another important reason was to check and balance Gao Chuo. Li De could not allow Gao Chuo to dominate his own family. Even if he was not Xu He, he would be someone else. This is inevitable. Li De needs all the forces under his command to reach a balanced state and ensure that everything is under his control. In fact, this is the art of an emperor.

Besides, Gao Chuo returned to Xuzhou as quickly as possible after leaving the Mangdang Mountain Camp. At this time, Gao Chuo had already 25,000 troops. Although most of the food and supplies in Xuzhou City had been transported to the Mangdang Mountain Camp, Gao Chuo still left some food and supplies in Xuzhou City. These food and supplies were enough for Gao Chuo's troops in Xuzhou City to use a month. In order to attack Xia Pi City, Gao Chuo made sufficient preparations and recruited the people in Xuzhou City to transport food and supplies for the duration of the time.

Of course, all the strong men in Xuzhou City were built for the Xia army. Gao Chuo was able to recruit a group of old, weak, women and children. Gao Chuo's 25,000 army was only 5,000 elite cavalry of the Xia army. Although the remaining 20,000 people had been trained for several days, they were still a group of mobs. Although the people who transported food and grass to them were all male men, except for the children aged ten to fifteen, they were 65 years old. The two aspects combined were more than 60,000.

Although there were 60,000 people, their combat power was worrying. Even so, Gao Chuo claimed to have an army of 100,000. Gao Chuo took this so-called 100,000 troops on the journey to fight Xia Pi. Gao Chuo's troops marched very slowly, and they only marched twenty miles a day. This nearly 130 miles of distance Gao Chuo walked six days before he arrived at the city of Xia Pi. Not only was Gao Chuo commanding an army, but not a group of mobs.

In Xia Pi City, Huo Chong, the commander of the Huaiyang military wing, was in a hurry. Huo Chong was a fat man, and the official position of this commander was bought by himself. After Huo Chong took office, he was greedy for military rations, withholding money from his salary, and fed himself to the pig-like figure, but sucked the entire Huaiyang army dry. Today, there are only 5,000 old people in the Huaiyang army, and even the armor is not enough. The only elite force in Xia Pi City is Huo Chong's personal guards composed of Huo Chong's servants, with only more than 500 guards.

After arriving at Xia Pi City, Gao Chuo wanted to write a letter of persuasion to Huo Chong. However, when Huo Chong saw the letter of persuasion to surrender and killed the envoy sent by Gao Chuo, the reason why Huo Chong was so brave was entirely because the ending of the Xuzhou magistrate Jia Kun was in front of him. Although Jia Kun survived, he was still the governor of Xuzhou. However, everything in the Jia family and Xuzhou city was basically emptied by Gao Chuo, which was absolutely unacceptable to Huo Chong, who regarded wealth as his life.

Outside Xia Pi City, the Xia army camp.

Gao Chuo said furiously: "Dare to Huo Chong, he dared to kill the envoy of this general and sent orders the three armies to attack Xia Pi tomorrow, and no one in the city will be left behind."

"Abide by the general's order..."

In fact, there is no need for Gao Chuo to send a large army to attack Xia Pi City. Just dig the Yishui River and Sishui River outside the city, and the flood will naturally flood Xia Pi City. The reason why Gao Chuo chose to attack was to fight the Song army in the city was actually entirely for training. The new recruits of the Xia army, let alone fighting, did not even conduct training today. If you want this new army to form combat power as soon as possible, it is to go to the battlefield and improve the combat power of the army through killing. Although this will cause great losses, Gao Chuo doesn't care at all. He can only recruit him if he dies. What Gao Chuo wants is an army that can conquer and fight well.

There are many things happening these two days. The last chapter was when I was taking a break at noon. I was too tired and I went to bed after this chapter...
Chapter completed!