end song

Chapter 339 Cloud Top City

It is more than fifty miles east of Chengdu.

Li Xia strode into Pu Ze's army. Looking around, he saw that the soldiers were exhausted and their morale was extremely low.

After entering the big tent, I saw Pu Zezhi sitting in front of the map and deducing, looking older and older.

"Pu Shuai."

"Feiyu is back?" Pu Zezhi looked up at Li Xia, then lowered his head again.

Li Xia handed over Zhu Yusun's letter and said, "Zhu Anfu said that he will bring troops from Xuzhou and Luzhou to meet Pu Shuai as soon as possible."

Pu Zezhi read the letter and accepted it casually, saying: "Fortunately, the people in western Sichuan were moved to southern Sichuan... what you said is true."

Seeing his depression, Li Xia couldn't help persuading him: "Pu Shuai doesn't have to worry too much. For the time being, the casualties are not too big."

"But the game is all lost."

Pu Zezhi lowered his head and continued to deduce, muttering in his mouth.

"In retrospect, even if it was a decisive battle at the beginning, when New Lin took over, I may have a chance of winning with 3 people against [-] Mongolian troops.

However, after Niu Lin joined the Sichuan Ximeng Army, he broke through Lingquan Mountain and Jianmen Pass, established contact with Wang Dechen's troops in Lizhou, and established his prestige in the army.

And I can only lead the infantry to follow the cavalry, and watch the defenders everywhere being defeated one by one.Tired of running... Tired of running. "

Li Xia understood Pu Zezhi's helplessness.

Niu Lin played fiercely and steadily, advancing and retreating freely.

Who would have thought that after beheading Adahu, the Mongolian army would change to a commander who was far superior to Adahu?
"This is also a helpless solution. He is the cavalry, we are the infantry, and he has the right to fight."

Pu Zezhi's hands were trembling when playing the game, and he slowly pushed his troops back to Chengdu.

Li Xia asked, "Pu Shuai plans to return to Chengdu?"

"Otherwise, where else can we go?" Pu Zezhi said, "The Mongolian army is tight-lipped, holding Han Yong's head high, pressing every step of the way. Our soldiers are exhausted, if they return to Chongqing at this time, they will be defeated. "

Li Xia stretched out his hand to point on the map, and asked, "Chengdu is ruined, and it's not enough to defend. Why don't you give up Chengdu and go to Yunding Mountain City?"

Yunding Mountain City is one hundred miles east of Chengdu City, more than fifty miles away from here.

This is the mountain city built by Yu Jie 14 years ago. It stands on the top of Yunding Mountain and uses the cliff as the city wall, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

After the Mongolian army captured Chengdu, they have not been able to capture Yunding City for two or three years.

If Pu Zezhi's strategy of "closing the door and beating the dogs" has failed, and now Yunding City has become the highest table in the house, Pu Zezhi should climb up to this table as soon as possible to avoid being bitten by the dogs.

However, Pu Zezhi chose to pass Yunding Mountain City and not enter, Li Xia was quite puzzled.

Pu Zezhi obviously had his concerns, and said, "It's not that I haven't thought about it, but Yunding Mountain City has been besieged by the Mongolian army for several years, and the food and grass have run out. Yao Chengshou discussed with me and said that if an army of [-] enters the city, there will be no food and grass supply." .It’s better to guard Chengdu, and use Yunding as horns to support each other.”

Li Xia said: "But I see Niu Lin fighting, if we attack Yunding first..."

At this point, someone outside the tent suddenly said: "Pu Shuai, there are rout soldiers outside the camp who came to vote, claiming to be Wu Xinjun who is going to take Nie Zhongyou and lead 300 people."

Hearing the name "Nie Zhongyou", Li Xia couldn't help turning his head.

"Pu Shuai, this is my old acquaintance, shall I go meet him?"

"It's actually Fei Yu's old acquaintance." Pu Zezhi responded flatly, as if he knew about it a long time ago, and said, "Go."

~~
When old friends met, Li Xia met Nie Zhongyou and saw that it was really him, so he introduced him to Pu Zezhi.

Nie Zhongyou's eyes turned red when he saw Li Xia, and when he came to Pu Zezhi, he was even more excited when he mentioned the defeat of Jiantandu.

However, the hardships he has experienced along the way are far more than that.

"The last general wanted to lead his troops to Chengdu to meet Pu Shuai, but the Mongolian cavalry came out everywhere and blocked the road, so we had to escape through the mountains and forests all the way. The army ran out of food, and more than [-] soldiers starved to death before finally reaching Yunding Mountain City. Unexpectedly Yao Shi'an, the guard of Yunding, forbade the general to enter the city. Fortunately, I saw Pu Shuai's army passing through the mountains and forests this morning, so I came after him..."

Nie Zhongyou obviously intended to sue Yao Shi'an.

Pu Ze's face sank like water, but he didn't say much, he just ordered people to prepare food for Wu Xinjun immediately.

At the end, he said to Nie Zhongyou: "Yunding City doesn't have much food and grass, Yaocheng guards are cautious, or they are afraid that the Mongolian army sent secret agents, so you are not allowed to enter the city, you can take the soldiers to eat first. Feiyu, you stay with them."

~~
After retreating from the big tent, Nie Zhongyou and Lin Zi hadn't seen Li Xia for a long time, they were very excited to meet this time, and asked a lot of questions.

"Mr. Xiaolang is actually the county magistrate?! Tsk tsk, since the founding of the Song Dynasty... I don't know if there has been such a young magistrate." Lin Zi turned to look at Nie Zhongyou again, and asked, "Brother, do you have any?" ? Mr. Xiaolang is the youngest county magistrate, right?"

Nie Zhongyou didn't answer, but looked at Li Xia and said, "Those people in Lin'an are talking empty teeth, talking about your extraordinary achievements in going north, they are far from Liu Zheng, and people like him are worthy."

"Okay." Li Xia said, "Eat something first, you guys."

"Liu Zheng is not the only one to be hated." Lin Zi chewed his dry food and said angrily, "There is also Yao Shi'an."

Mentioning Yao Shi'an, Nie Zhongyou's expression darkened, and the joy of reunion diminished a lot.

"I really don't understand why Pu Shuai didn't punish Yao Shi'an?"

Li Xia faintly felt that Yao Shi'an's name was familiar, so he patted the shoulders of the two of them, got up and said, "You guys eat first, I'll go find out something."

He went through the tent, asked people all the way, and found Pu Fu.

"Feiyu is back, so courageous." Pu Fu was busy counting food and grass, and greeted Li Xia as soon as he saw him.

"I want to ask Pu Qian about something, Yunding City Yao Chengshou..."

Pu Fu raised his hand and said: "I have also heard about the matter just now. But in the current battle, can one of the generals be punished? What if the morale of the army is disturbed?"

Li Xia asked, "Is there really no food in Yunding City?"

"How to say about this matter." Pu Fu frowned, and said in a deep voice: "Back then, when Commander Yu built mountain cities, one of the most important things was to 'accumulate millet to guard them'. These mountain cities were all capable of farming. There must be food and grass. But Yunding City can only garrison [-] troops at most, and it is true that it is difficult to supply [-] troops.

Niu Lin has broken through Jianmen Pass and has supplies from Lizhou.Conversely, if the army defends Yunding, it only needs to be surrounded for more than a month before they run out of food. How can they hold on? "

Li Xia asked again: "What if Niu Lin attacks Yunding first and stops Pu Shuai from returning?"

"Is it that easy?" Pu Fu said: "Yunding City is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Chengdu has fallen for two or three years, and Yunding City is still standing. Today, with my father's [-] army by his side, it will not be attacked. Take it easily."

Speaking of this, he said with a wry smile: "Father has thought about it, guarding Chengdu, and being a horn with Yunding City, this is the only way now."

Li Xia thought for a while, then asked again: "I think Yao Shi'an's name is familiar, but I can't remember where I heard it."

"Feiyu has heard of it, you are Yao Shian's political enemy."

"Political enemy?" Li Xia was taken aback.

Pu Fu said: "Back then, it was Yao Shi'an who presented Uncle Xie Fang with the crime of recruiting Yu Shuai."

Having said that, Li Xia remembered.

When he was in Lin'an, he had indeed heard about Uncle Xie Fang's plot to frame Yu Jie.

The Song Army had a bad policy called "judai", which means that Xie Ren's commander-in-chief can elect someone to take his official position.Yu Jie devoted himself to abolishing the bad government. After Yao Shi'an was elected as Yunding City Guard, Yu Jie personally led 3000 people to Yunding Mountain to replace Yao Shi'an.

Yao Shi'an refused Yu Jie to lead his troops to the city. So far, Yu Jie's "prestige has been ruined", and the grievances between the two sides have deepened.

Yao Shi'an and Uncle Xie Fang are family friends, so they collected evidence of Yu Jie's crime and presented it to Uncle Xie Fang.Uncle Xie Fang had a grievance with Zhao Kui, and Zhao Kui forced Yu Jie to kill Yu Jie.

Yao Shi'an dared not let Yu Jie go to the city back then, but now that Pu Zezhi has just taken office, his prestige is far inferior to Yu Jie's, and he is still a new loser.This time he couldn't go to Yunding City, I'm afraid it wasn't just a matter of food and grass as he said.

Li Xia thought about this, thanked Pu Fu, and then went to find Pu Zezhi.

……

Throughout the Battle of Chengdu, Li Xia felt that Pu Zezhi had almost done his best in the overall strategic situation, but in the small battlefield, it was obvious that his generals had too many problems.

Liu Zhengjian was defeated at Tandu, Duan Yuanjian was defeated at Lingquan Mountain, and Yang Dayuan was defeated at Jianmen Pass...

Of course, this is far more than a problem of Pu Zezhi's improper employment. There are too many bad policies left by the Song Dynasty.Especially since Pu Ze took office not long ago, it is true that there are not many talents who can stand on their own.

Now, the battle situation is taking a turn for the worse, and Yunding City has become the key, but Yao Shian's actions once again made Li Xia feel that Yunding may become the next Jiantandu, Lingquan Mountain, and Jianmenguan...

(End of this chapter)