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Outside Ningping City.

In Shile's military camp.

In the battle last night, it was precisely because Shi Le's predictions were fulfilled that the Jin army attacked in Ningping City at night were ambushed, and thousands of elite soldiers were seriously damaged. In this way, Shi Le's prestige in the army was at its peak.

In fact, although Shi Le was the general of Fang Zhen of Hu Han, the troops he commanded were complex, not all the Hu people, and there were also a large number of Han refugees, bandits, etc.

Moreover, even the Hu people among them have a very complicated source.

Not only were the Jiehu in Bingzhou, but also the Lushuihu and Wuhuan people in the Taihang mountains, and the Xianbei in the Yanmen area. Instead, the Huns, the ruling class of the Huhan Empire, were very rare in the army of Shi Le and others. This is because the population of only five Huns was too small, and each of them was an important resource of the Huhan Empire. The emperors of Huhan Liu Yuan and Liu Cong and his son naturally refused to allocate them to Shi Le and Wang Mi and other foreign generals.

In short, Shi Le's troops are a mixture of Hu and Han people with a wide range of sources. The relationships are chaotic and the trust between them is very limited.

Such an army is difficult to have too high combat effectiveness without a strong commander.

Therefore, since the fourth year of Yongjia, Shi Le re-expanded his army in Hebei, as soon as he entered Henan, he has continuously used his victory to implement various military disciplines and strengthened his control and integration of various Hu Han soldiers.

Under the continuous siege of cities and land and the rich plundering brought by it, the Hu Han soldiers under Shi Le had gradually become extremely obedient to military orders and commands.

Shi Le was very pleased to see that these tens of thousands of Hu Han soldiers were no longer the mobs who had advanced and retreated without any action, charged or retreating without authorization.

Especially before defeating the Jin army's sneak attack last night, the Hu Han soldiers under Shi Le were still very afraid of the huge number of Jinting Central Army.

However, under Shi Le's plan to be a divine helper, the failure of the Jinting Central Army's night attack made his Hu Han soldiers have a great psychological advantage over the Jinting Central Army.

Among these Hu Han soldiers, Shi Le's prestige has also been greatly improved. Those who were originally dissatisfied with Shi Le's strict orders to govern the army did not dare to discuss it privately.

Shi Le also knew these results very clearly.

At this time, Shi Le had full confidence in this pursuit battle intended for Jin Tingxingtai.

"Shi Hu, Diao Ying!"

In the big tent, Shi Le gave an order.

"The last one will be here!"

"The last one will be here!"

Shi Hu and Diao Ying hurriedly stood up and obeyed.

"I ordered you two to lead three thousand light cavalry to the north to Wushui Kucheng. There is a ferry crossing of Woshui. There is no need to attack Kucheng. Just control the ferry crossing of Woshui and beware of Jin's help."

In this order, Shi Le had his nephew Shi Hu as the main general and his old subordinate Diao Ying as his deputy.

This is not simply because Shi Hu is Shi Le's nephew, but because Shi Le values ​​Shi Hu's combat talent. Since Shi Le led his army south to Yuzhou, Shi Hu has been making many military achievements, taking the lead, and has made a lot of contributions to killing generals. His bravery and hard work are even more than those of Diao Ying, and what he lacks now is more experience and experience.

Shi Le took Shi Hu as the main general this time, on the one hand, he was to train him, and on the other hand, he also wanted Shi Hu to have the qualifications to lead the way so that he could promote vigorously in the future.

Because Shi Le felt that even if Emperor Gao of Han was strong back then, he needed a large number of clan generals under his command. Guo Heiluo, Diao Ying and others who were more important in Shi Le's army were all outsiders after all, so there was no natural confidant of Shi Hu, his nephew.

Shi Le also thought that as long as Shi Hu had a stronger prestige in the army, he could become Shi Le's right-hand man, with Zhang Bin, and Shi Hu in charge, and Shi Le's great cause would naturally be more stable.

Shi Hu and Diao Ying naturally received the order quickly.

However, after accepting the order, the young Shihu still asked with doubts.

"General, now all the 100,000 troops of Jin State are in Ningping City. Why should I take my people to Wo Water in the north?"

Originally, Shi Hu, who had thought of slaughtering and killing Shi Hu after breaking through Ningping City, was actually resisting this order. However, now Shi Le's army's rules are gradually becoming more and more strict, and the vicious and arrogant Shi Hu dared not easily disobey, so he only dared to ask.

Shi Le didn't care about Shi Hu's doubts.

"Because, among the prisoners yesterday, the general learned that a few days ago, the Qingzhou army Liu Yu had sent people to the Jin court to go to Taiwan. The Qingzhou army led by Liu Yu had occupied Yanzhou. It is very likely that he would go south to Yuzhou to pick up the Jin court to go to Taiwan. The Wo Water is its final path. In order to prevent it, it is necessary to seize the Wo Water Ferry first."

"General, Yanzhou is hundreds of miles away from this place, and the Qingzhou army is all infantry. How could it come so quickly?" After hearing Shi Le's words, Diao Ying also had a different opinion.

In fact, Diao Ying said this, on the one hand, because Shi Le's fate, his power was under Shi Hu, and he became a subordinate of a young boy of sixteen or seventeen years old. This made Diao Ying, the veteran of the "Eighteen Cavalry", feel very unhappy. On the other hand, it is because the 100,000 troops of the Jin court were like weak and dying fat pigs. If he left Ningping City at this time, wouldn't he missed the credit and wealth he received?

Shi Le naturally guessed what Diao Ying thought, but he recently claimed to be the role model of Emperor Gao Bang of the Han Dynasty, so he explained patiently.

"The reason why I made such a arrangement was not simply to guard against the Qingzhou army."

After two or three confrontations with the Qingzhou Army, Shi Le and many of his old subordinates were already very afraid of the very evil Qingzhou Army. However, this time, Shi Le had a very negative attitude towards whether the Qingzhou Army came to support.

Shi Le thought that if he was Liu Yu, the Qingzhou Army, he would be more willing to sit idly by the Jin court and Taiwan Army collapsed. In that case, Yanzhou and Xuzhou around Qingzhou could all be safe and boldly eroded slowly.

Moreover, Yanzhou is so far from the southern end of Liang State that Shi Le didn't believe that the Qingzhou army could forcibly march for hundreds of miles, so he took advantage of the dangerous places for some irrelevant Jin court.

"Ningping City is small and cannot be guarded for a long time. The Jin State Army must abandon the city and break through to Xuzhou, and Kuxian and Qiaoxian are the only way to pass."

Shi Le continued.

"So, this time you two must not only guard against possible enemies in the north of the Wo Water, but also intercept the army that broke through Jin State at any time."

"This time, I want all the Jin central army to die!"

After hearing Shi Le's words, Shi Hu and Diao Ying took the order and stopped talking. Although this happened, the two of them would definitely not be as good as following Shi Le's main attack. Fortunately, it was basically impossible to encounter any strong enemy, and they could happily rape and plunder for a few days.

A moment later, a staff member in Jin State, dressed in a military sect suddenly entered Shile's tent. As soon as he came in, he said happily.

"General, the big thing is settled!"

When Shi Le saw the visitor, he immediately smiled and greeted him.

"Youhou, thank you for your hard work, what are the changes in the Jin army in the city?"

The person who came was Shi Le's planner Zhang Bin. After going south to Yuzhou this time, he had to rely on Zhang Bin's several suggestions and Shi Le made several plans to attack the city.

Therefore, Shi Le quickly officially regarded Zhang Bin as the right chief and general of Zhonglei, becoming the first strategist in the army. Even Diao Ying, Guo Heiluo and others were gradually compared by Zhang Bin.

In the army, since Shi Le, Zhang Bin was respectfully called "Youhou".

"General, the smoke columns are everywhere in Ningping City, more than ten times more than the morning smoke from cooking. It must be that the Jin army began to demolish houses and burn them. It was obvious that it was not a sign of long-term guarding. It might be that they began to prepare dry food and food, and they wanted to abandon the city and escape!"

"Youhou" Zhang Bin's face was filled with joy that he was about to usher in victory.

When Shi Le heard this, he also made such a judgment in his heart. After all, if the army breaks through, he will definitely want to march as soon as possible. It is common to cook and prepare rations in advance.

"Not only now, General, I am searching for residents near Ningping City, and finally learned that although there are wells in Ningping City, they are far from supplying the needs of a hundred thousand troops. These Jin troops will probably abandon the city in less than a day or two."

After hearing what Zhang Bin said, Shi Le was already very confident that the Jin army in Ningping City would definitely abandon the city and flee within one or two days.

Because Shi Le once thought that if he was a defender trapped in Ningping City and had no food to eat, he could eat other things to satisfy his hunger, such as snakes and rats, horse meat, or human meat.

However, if there is no water, even if there is sufficient food, it is impossible to last for two or three days. If you still have to deal with the enemy's siege, it will probably be difficult for even one or two days.

"Hahaha, Youhou is indeed worthy of being the descendant of Liuhou, the first person to be the planner in the world!"

Shi Le immediately praised Zhang Bin happily.

For a moment, Shi Taiji and Zhang Chengchou staged a picture of the complementary monarch and ministers complementing each other.

··········

Inside Ningping City.

"General, the command of the military commander Wang Taiwei has already come down. He will abandon the city and break through the encirclement tomorrow at Yin hour."

While Zhou Heng applied the ointment he had finally asked for, he told him the military order he had just received.

"Hey, what's the breakthrough? I see that those barbarians don't have a big fanfare in the city. Maybe they are still looking forward to us leaving the city to break through."

Another brigade commander officer next to him said.

"Yes, this time I'm afraid it's very dangerous to break through the city." Pinglu General Qian Duan said with a worried look on his face.

Because Qian Duan knew that the barbarian cavalry outside Ningping City were all coming and going like the wind. As long as the Xingtai army left Ningping City, without the protection of the city wall, in the empty plains and wilderness, they could be attacked by barbarian cavalry anytime and anywhere.

If it were the previous central army, I would definitely not be afraid of these light-loaded and fast-horse cavalry, but the Taichung army now has the right time, place and people, and it has no prejudice.

"However, this is good, and you can always find a way out, which is better than starving to death or thirst in this small Ningping city." General Qian Duan of Pinglu continued.

"Yes, those damn military officials have occupied many water sources in the wells. Today, the water on the heads of these soldiers was divided into two mouthfuls in total, which is not enough to moisten my throat. My throat is about to smoke."

Han Hun next to him said angrily with a hoarse voice.

"You guys have smoked your throat and there are so many nonsense!" Zhou Heng cursed his subordinate, and then kicked him.

"Why don't you go and find two good woods quickly. Let's make a lifting rack, so it will be used to carry the general tomorrow morning."

After Han Hun was kicked, he immediately went out to find the wood that he could use properly.

After leaving the house, Han Hun began to look for suitable wood in the messy alleys.

At this time, Ningping City was full of people, rushing around like messy flies.

Although many houses in Ningping City have been demolished as cooking wood, either the beams are too thick or the wood is too thin.

Han wandered around for a long time before he finally found a few handy pieces of wood that could be used to make a rack for dragging the wounded.

Just as he was about to turn back, he met several small soldiers from other battalions, and Han Hun immediately started talking to them.

At this time, everyone was worried about tomorrow's breakthrough.

Because the barbarians outside Ningping City were all cavalry, and the Xingtai army had no horse at this time, and they were all infantry.

In this way, the initiative in combat was completely in the hands of the Hulu cavalry. These hungry and exhausted middle-aged soldiers had no chance to fight with the Hulu.

The Hulu cavalry will definitely launch the most deadly attack when they are most powerless.

"Hey, even if you can run out, where can you go? I heard that Xuzhou is full of another group of soldiers from the Hu Han rebel Zhao Gu. I am afraid that even if I can get lucky, I will be killed and plundered by the Hu barbarians and other soldiers of Zhao Gu when I arrive in Xuzhou."
To be continued...