Immediately after learning that Cao Lin and the main force of Dongdu suddenly appeared in Hanoi, Zhang Xing, the chief of the gang, issued a military order, requiring the entire army to abandon Jijun and Liyangcang and evacuate north and east to avoid the edge.

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However, the execution of this order was obviously met with some resistance.

Some people were bewildered by the huge warehouse itself and were reluctant to part with it; while other people were bewildered by the previous successful raid and the huge follow-up impact, and felt that the Grand Master might not be able to fight, and felt that the Dongdu soldiers and horses

Vulnerable... As the saying goes, you have a grand master, I also have a grand master, and there are four or five Cheng Dan, and more than ten or twenty Condensation Dans. You can't make too much difference if you make do with it. As for soldiers and horses, Dongdu soldiers

The horses and the army have clashed many times in the past few years. It is obvious that Wang Xiaoer's New Year is not as good as the previous year, but the army is growing day by day, so he can only treat the Dongdu army as nothing. In this case, why not give it a try?

This is opportunism.

Frankly speaking, Zhang Xing is not qualified to accuse others of being opportunists, because some of the things he himself does are also suspected of opportunism... He is even considered a half-nihilist, a dogmatist, an adventurist, and has no bottom line.

A flexitarian, and sometimes, like now, he can hardly be called a capitulationist.

Because back to the matter itself, Chief Zhang resolutely reiterated the order and refused to leave any room for discussion.

Not only that, after the military order was issued, he quickly added a series of details... For example, the last troops must destroy bridges and block roads to delay as much as possible; for example, all leaders are no longer allowed to use whale bones.

To avoid being targeted, all vehicles and livestock must be moved into the war barracks, and the war barracks will be evacuated first; all field soldiers will also be withdrawn across the board, but if it is really due to

If the numbers are not enough to evacuate decisively, we are allowed to unite with the officials of the original Ji County and surrender the troops to defend the city on their own; if the officials of the Ji County surrender their troops, those who are willing to go can go together, and those who are unwilling are not forced; the soldiers who are too late to leave are allowed to join the original Ji army.

The county officials will surrender their troops and take flexible and independent measures to survive, and will not be held accountable for this matter.

The reason for being so determined is actually very simple.

First of all, although he doesn't know the power of the Grand Master, he will not underestimate the power of the Grand Master after meeting Fenshanjun as soon as he traveled through time, especially since the previous plan to conduct a large army array experiment in the reform failed.

; Secondly, Lingxun isolated the reinforcements from the south bank, making it impossible for the gang to gather all its strength to deal with the attack in the short term; in addition, the most important point is that this time it is not the Grand Master who comes alone, but someone like the Grand Master.

The high-end combat power arrived together with an entire army. There were also many masters of Cheng Dan and Dan Condensation in the army... The addition of these is definitely not a simple addition and subtraction, but constitutes a systematic and powerful violent machine.

...This means that once the two armies face each other, it is very likely that starting from the strongest point of Cao Lin, the great master, a situation will be formed where one point is broken and then the whole line collapses.

Zhang Xing didn't dare to gamble.

In contrast, the attitude of Zhang Bofeng, another great master who came to Hebei, can be left alone. Although this is also very important, we must first avoid the edge.

"Chief, withdrawing like this is not an option."

Faced with this situation, Xu Shiying couldn't continue to sit on the sidelines. In fact, he came from Linqing Pass at the intersection of Ji County and Hanoi County on Pegasus, and then outside Qingqi City on the south side of Zhiwei County in Ji County.

I saw Zhang Xing.

It is worth mentioning that Wei County and Qingqi City are a full thirty miles west of Liyang. In other words, while Zhang Xing ordered an all-round retreat, he took the initiative to come in the opposite direction.

He came to supervise the retreat and also came to see the ice conditions on the river.

"What do you say?" Zhang Xing, who was standing on the embankment of the river with his clothes ruffled by the south wind, turned around and looked at Xu Shiying who was under the embankment.

"Two explanations." Xu Shiying answered with a dark face as he walked up. When he reached the river embankment, he couldn't help but turn his face to hide from the wind. "First, there are too many of us and we are too scattered. We have no time to evacuate.

As long as the opponent insists on letting their horses chase, even if Jijun can escape, they will be caught up in Weijun and Wuyang, not to mention the densely packed field soldiers; secondly, if they pursue closely, they will not care about anything.

, what should we do if we attack Jiang Ling directly? What if we continue to pursue him and catch up to Dengzhou?"

"What you said makes sense." Zhang Xing nodded with his hands behind his back. "But the problem is that if we resist in Jijun, it will probably be even worse... Cao Lin and the main force of Dongdu have arrived. I don't know when this wave will happen.

Only then can we end it. If we can't come up, we will be defeated and we will lose our backup power."

"Of course." Xu Shiying nodded.

"Then what do you mean?" Zhang Xing asked immediately. "Did you think of any way?"

"No." Xu Shiying paused for a moment, and then answered with his hands behind his back. "I just didn't know what to do, so I came to find the chief... The one way I can think of is to withdraw first and wait until

When the drifting ice is over, let the Henan soldiers and Dengzhou soldiers and horses cross the river from the lower reaches to join us and pool their strength. The other side will also lengthen the front line and divide the troops to occupy the city layer by layer. One will decrease and the other will increase to see if they can defeat him.

battle."

"My meaning is the same as yours." Zhang Xing also nodded. "The current situation is that it is impossible not to withdraw, but it is nonsense to expect that withdrawing will solve the problem... We can only try to seize the opportunity while withdrawing.

Take all opportunities, change the situation, find opportunities to solve problems."

Xu Shiying nodded: "Does the chief have any specific ideas?"

"Yes." Zhang Xing answered immediately. "The first one is, as you said, the Henan troops will be mobilized immediately after the Ice Age, but it does not necessarily have to be gathered together to harass the back roads and cut off the access between Dongdu and this troops.

It may not be a solution, because Cao Lin's momentum is so fierce that the biggest loophole is actually the grassroots soldiers. If the morale of his troops is reduced and the combat effectiveness is lost, then the grand master will also be implicated in turn.

If there is no chance, there will be an opportunity; the second is to use diplomatic means as much as possible, and make negotiations with Beidi, Youzhou, Hejian, and Li Ding. It is best if you can pull them in, but if you can't pull them, you must try to avoid a pincer attack;

Three, that is Zhang Bofeng... At present, this is not the only one that can have an immediate effect."

"Zhang Bofeng..." Xu Shiying reluctantly nodded when he heard the previous one, but sighed when he heard this. "Even if Old Master Zhang is not from the same family as Uncle Cao, he is not from the same family as us. He is one of the first aristocratic families in Jin."

First of all, the great grand master is naturally a dragon who is 'good at benefiting the world', so how can he recognize our help?"

"We don't expect him to be the same as us, but if two great masters appear in the same place, they will restrain each other." Zhang Xing answered seriously. "I definitely don't believe that they are in the same group. If you take ten thousand steps back,

On the surface, we are a group, but there must be differences and conflicts inside. Otherwise, speed is the key to success. Why did Zhang Bofeng send us a letter of invitation when Cao Lin just crossed the river, instead of directly following the letter to find me and come here?

Capture the thief and capture the king, and take me? Therefore, Zhang Bofeng can definitely take advantage of it."

Xu Shiying nodded, then was silent for a while, blew the south wind, and continued to ask: "But we can't take chances... What if, I mean what if, these methods are useless, the retreat process

The opportunities here were of no use, and the situation even got worse. Xue Changxiong also came, and Li Ding didn't help us. Then Uncle Cao really chased us all the way to Jiangling, and then to Dengzhou. What should we do? Third brother, you

What should I do? What should I do with help?"

Zhang Xing glanced at the other party and asked again: "If that's the case, what would you do?"

Xu Shiying was silent for a moment, just stepping on his linen-lined Liuhe boots to press down on the soil that was gradually becoming softer under his feet.

Zhang Xing smiled and did not press the question further. Instead, he sighed: "Xu Dalang came to talk to me about this matter today, which shows that he has help in his heart. For this reason alone, I will not abandon you."

Xu Shiying was confused for a moment: "What...abandoned me...I'm asking what if we don't seize the opportunity, but the great master is more stable than anyone else and just bites us to death and chases us all the way to Dengzhou?"

"Of course I boarded the ship from Dengzhou and went to the north to take shelter." Zhang Xing responded calmly. "After boarding the ship and entering the East China Sea, he would not dare to pursue him, otherwise the Governor of Dongyi would come to take care of him.

When we arrived in the North, we took advantage of the Demon Guard's shell to hide. Even if Cao Lin drove us away, we couldn't stand up. Instead, we would definitely be taken care of by other great masters because we left the Black Tower in the East Capital. When the time comes, we will make a comeback and deal with it.

That’s Hebei.”

Xu Shiying was stunned for a moment, and sneered in her heart, but it didn't show on her face.

In his opinion, if this is true, as long as Zhang Xing escapes to the north, the gang will inevitably split, and Li Shu will definitely take the opportunity to tighten the situation. More importantly, all the powerful men from Hebei and the East in the gang will rely on him.

How can someone who is attached to the land be willing to walk with Zhang?

It’s okay to leave. Just avoid his sharp edge. The Grand Master will surprise you. It’s not shameful to flee all the way to find a place to stay. If Li Shu wants to calm down the situation, there’s no problem. This guy will definitely do it, and he’s also qualified to do it. Even

Being able to do it generously... The problem is that, in Xu Dalang's view, if Zhang Xing leaves, these gang backbones from powerful families in Hebei and Henan will most likely not follow Zhang Xing, and will defect to Li Shu next.

Even betrayed the gang.

And once this happens, and Zhang Xing comes back again, these people will become enemies rather than friends.

Because the unity that the two sides had maintained disappeared, a betrayal was enough to completely dissolve the so-called organization that Zhang Xing had worked hard to maintain and build in the previous three years.

Thinking of this, Xu Shiying was about to say something else, but suddenly, he reacted and was shocked on the spot: "What does the chief mean, even if you escape to the North, you will definitely not abandon me?"

"That's right." Zhang Xing smiled half-heartedly and stretched out his hand to touch the other person's shoulder. "Actually, I was thinking just now that if it really comes to the point where Hebei cannot gain a foothold, it would be fine with others, but I really don't know what the outcome will be for you Xu Dalang.

, especially since your troops and horses are all staying in Henan, so you may really stay when the time comes. And if we really keep you, there is no doubt that we will not end up well... But since you are so fast today

The fact that you are here shows that you are helping the overall situation in your heart, but I am judging a gentleman with a villain's heart, so I will take you with me no matter what, so that there will be no consequences between us."

Xu Shiying looked sideways at the other party. Countless thoughts came to mind, but she put them all away. She just nodded, deciding to wait and see.

After all, even from the current situation, Xu Dalang had to admit that although Cao Lin and the Dongdu army were coming fiercely, the general trend was not in Wei, so it might not last long. It was said that they could not help but retreat. If the Dongdu army moved forward, the latter would

There are many fatal flaws exposed, and with Chief Zhang's ability and the current strength of the gang, he can catch the opponent's flaws without a doubt, and then move up to the next level.

In this way, after the two of them left, they continued to organize the entire army to retreat, while Xu Shiying, who had followed Zhang Xing, went to search for Zhang Bofeng's whereabouts.

The letter sent by Zhang Bofeng the day before was delivered to Zhang Xing by sending a letter to the troops garrisoned in Tangyin at the intersection of Jijun and Weijun. But strangely, although there was an invitation in the letter, there was no location provided.

and time, and no instructions for replying.

Under such circumstances, when the entire gang was impatient and almost all the leaders, big and small, were dispersed to various cities to organize retreats, Xu Shiying took the initiative to come to Tangyin to search for Zhang Bofeng's whereabouts... but found nothing.

In desperation, Xu Dalang turned back again and met Zhang Xing at the Acropolis. The two discussed for a while and came to the conclusion that either Zhang Bofeng had just learned about Cao Lin crossing the river and was quite surprised by it and went to inquire, or he was

Wandering around freely, waiting for Zhang Xing's public reply.

He couldn't control the former, but Zhang Xing didn't make up his mind after hesitating for a moment.

It's one thing to expect Old Master Zhang to cause trouble and hindrance to Uncle Cao Huang, but when the opponent's Grand Master and the army are pressing down, publicly responding to the invitation is tantamount to openly asking for help. This is not impossible in normal times, but when the entire army evacuates in large numbers

At this time, publicly asking for help is likely to intensify panic, cause chaos, and cause irreversible serious consequences.

At this time, General Military Advocate Xiong Bonan and General Manager of Foreign Affairs Xie Minghe, who quickly returned from Yecheng, arrived. They discussed for a while and finally decided that the priority was to withdraw the troops first and not to make unnecessary moves.

Both Xiong Xie and Xiong Bonan went about their own business - Xiong Bonan accepted the task of breaking up the rear and urging soldiers from all over the country to retreat quickly, while Xie Minghe went north again with another letter from Zhang Xing, in order to

See Li Ding and ask him not to add insult to injury.

Therefore, the matter of publicly responding to Old Master Zhang was temporarily shelved.

In this way, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Cao Lin used the power of the great master to forcibly cross the river, which was already in the flood season. In fact, it had the effect of a surprise attack, but even so, the gang still managed to cross the river in just three days, that is, on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month.
To be continued...