"Okay, the fish finally took the bait. Chen Lin immediately gathered 200,000 troops out of the city to surround me." Emperor Zhao Xu of Song issued a military order and said, "You must not let the Xia cavalry run away."

"Yes, the last general takes the order..."

The other half of the Song army camp was completely in chaos, with burning fires everywhere. After seeing this scene, Zhou Hai immediately ordered: "The Song army has completely in chaos and ordered all departments to evacuate immediately and carry out the next action."

The horn sounded "Woo, Woo, Woo...", and the originally scattered Xia army began to gather together into a torrent and flow through the Song army camp and headed straight for Suzhou City. At this time, Chen Lin was gathering 200,000 troops in Suzhou City to prepare to go out of the city to rescue. Under Zhou Hai's command, the Xia cavalry quickly rushed outside Suzhou City.

"Star the rocket..." Zhou Hai ordered.

Tens of thousands of rockets immediately soared into the air and headed straight into Suzhou City. After the first round of rockets were released, tens of thousands of Xia army cavalry immediately divided into two groups and walked around the city from east and west, and set the rockets while walking. Soon a large fire ignited in the entire Suzhou City, and the fire became bigger and bigger.

"What's going on? Didn't all the fire-burning objects in the city be cleaned up?" Emperor Zhao Xu of Song said furiously: "Why don't you hurry up and gather the army to put out the fire."

The 200,000 Song troops who had just assembled became firefighters and carried buckets to put out the fire everywhere. Another 150,000 troops also gathered to participate in the firefighting operation, but the fire in the city was still burning fiercely. Under the command of Emperor Zhao Xu and Chen Lin, the Song army struggled for most of the night before extinguishing the fire. The Song army also paid a considerable price, killing and injuring more than 30,000 people.

After the fire was put out, Emperor Zhao Xu of Song asked Chen Lin: "What's going on? Did you tell me that the fire-attracting objects left by the Xia army in the city were cleaned up?"

"Your Majesty atones, and the last general doesn't know what's going on."

"waste……"

It turned out that when the Xia army evacuated Suzhou City, in addition to putting sulfur and charcoal on the beams, they also used heavy tin oil and tung oil to brush the houses not far from the city wall. The wood eroded by oil is very easy to burn, and once it encounters some Mars, it will burn immediately. This is a series of condoms Zhou Hai gave to Emperor Zhao Xu of Song.

The Song army lost nearly 50,000 people in this battle of wits and courage. In addition to 30,000 people who were burned to death by the fire, there were 20,000 people who were killed and burned by the Xia army. More importantly, part of the food and grass carried by the Song army this time was burned by the fire. Moreover, the trough ships on the canal dock were also burned by the fire. The Song army encountered a food and grass crisis and could only suspend its pace of going south for a while.

In the next half month, Zhou Hai was fighting wits and courage with Emperor Zhao Xu of Song, delaying the pace of the Song army's advance south. Although the Song army's advancement slowed down, it did not stop. Zhou Hai's harassment was just a tickling for the Song army with hundreds of thousands of troops, and it was impossible to hurt the vitality, not to mention that the Song army's reinforcements had arrived at this time.

Besides, King Li Qing of Yan led nearly 20,000 troops to Huzhou all the way south. At this time, the Xia army stationed 30,000 cavalry and 10,000 Japanese soldiers in Huzhou and other places. After arriving in Huzhou, Li Qing immediately took over all the troops and gathered all the Xia cavalry that were originally scattered in the city of Huzhou.

Inside the Xia Army Camp in Huzhou.

Zhao Ge and Zhou Tao were in Li Qing's central army tent. It had been an hour since they entered the tent, but Li Qing only stared at the map but didn't say a word. Seeing Li Qing's concentration, the two of them just waited quietly and did not dare to make any loud noises. In fact, the combat plan had already come out in Li Qing's mind, but Li Qing still wanted to ask for their opinions.

"You have read all my battle plans! Tell me what you two think."

"Prince, although this strategy is feasible, it is extremely dangerous. If you are not careful, you may be wiped out!" Zhao Ge said to Li Qing.

"I naturally know this, so I have to lead my troops to fight in person."

"Prince, I am willing to go with you." Zhou Yang expressed his opinion to Li Qing.

"Your Majesty, let the last general lead the troops!" Zhao Ge said to Li Qing; "Your Majesty is in the battlefield in Jiangnan, so you need to sit firmly on the central army's strategy."

"Then the king asked you, what should I do if I can't come back?"

"The last general will inevitably lead his army to fight the Song army to the death, and the net will be defeated by the death..."

Li Qing sneered, "What a death-death battle. Let my tens of thousands of elite soldiers accompany you to die. I am extremely stupid. If this is the case, why should I try so hard to fight directly with the Song army head-on battle? The purpose of this battle is to buy time for our army, and at the same time, to preserve the strength of our army as much as possible, and finally to be recorded in the history of history with the complete victory of our Xia army on the battlefield in the south of the Yangtze River. This battle is of great importance, and the situation on the battlefield changes rapidly and you two cannot cope with the level of your two;

In this battle, I will personally lead 40,000 cavalry to go there, and Zhou Yang will follow me. After I leave, you and Zhou Hai will want to enter all ways to drag the Song army to the south. Do you understand that you are extremely willing to block it north of Xiuzhou?"

"The last general takes the order..." Zhao Ge took over the military order.

"Zhou Yang ordered 40,000 elite cavalry to gather at the North Gate tomorrow morning; the entire army must bring enough rations for ten days." Li Qing ordered.

"Yes, let's arrange this..."

After Zhou Yang left, Li Qing said to Zhao Ge: "After I left, you will only have more than 10,000 cavalry and 10,000 Japanese soldiers left here. You must guard Huzhou. This is my retreat. Once Huzhou is lost, I will not be able to come back. I have recently received a report that the Song army has already shown signs of gathering a large army in Guangde. After I leave, you can try to attack Guangde..."

"Prince, the Song army does not have much force in Guangde, and most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled. Even if they gather troops, the new recruits are not in need of combat power."

"That's the case, but you still should not be taken lightly. Be careful is the only thing that concerns the life and death of this king and the 40,000 army."

"I will obey the order and be cautious..."

At this time, Emperor Zhao Xu of Song didn't know that he was going to be plotted by Li Qing again; when Li Qing fought in Jiangnan, Li De, the King of Liang in Jiangbei, was not idle either. The main force of the Song army had retreated to the north of the Huai River, and Li De's threat had disappeared. Now Li De's two choices were to advance west and the other was to go north. No matter which of these two choices had a significant impact on the battle situation of the Great Xia Empire.

If Li De leads his army westward, he can directly attack Chenzhou west of Bozhou, Yingchang and other places indirectly threaten the army of Zhong Shidao in the area of ​​Xingyang and Kaifeng; if he goes north, he can even threaten the rear of Zhong Shidao's army and the rear of Zhao Wang's army, but when he goes north, Li De will face hundreds of thousands of Song troops, and the situation is unknown; however, Li De's strategic plan needs to be coordinated, which is not possible independently by Li De's troops.

On the other hand, Li Hu'er has stabilized the Luoyang area, and Li Hu'er also faces two choices, one is to continue to advance eastward, and the other is to go south to attack Wang Kai's troops with King Qin Li Wu of the Song army; the choice between King Liang Li De and Li Hu'er will bring two different situations to the northern battle between Xia and Song; such a big event can only wait for the final choice of Emperor Xia Li Liangzuo.

The first update...
Chapter completed!