my wonderful zoo

Chapter 208 Retreat Without Fighting
"My lord, the enemy is coming fiercely, we'd better avoid it for now." The generals under Zong Ze tended not to confront Chen's army head-on.

"We have won more than we lost against the Jin army before, so why are we so scared when we get here with Chen Zei?" Zongze was a little angry. Previously, in Li Gudu, the Jin army he killed was defeated, and he attacked the Jin camp at night. After breaking through more than [-] strongholds, wasn't the Jin people at that time also "invincible"? .

"How can we say the same thing? Chen Thief defeated the Jin soldiers ten times his own with a weak force. Most of our current men did not dare to fight against the Jin soldiers before..." Qin Guangbi, as Zongze's old subordinate, said when he spoke There are less scruples: "Zhang De led [-] troops to defend Ningling, but they could not hold out for even a day. This shows that Chen Zei is strong. We only have [-] troops, how can we defend Song City?" Song City is Yingtianfu City. It was also the capital of the Song Dynasty, Nanjing.

Zhang De and Qin Guangbi are both veterans who followed Zongze in the battle against Li Gudu. They have won his trust and are both good generals in terms of ability. They both know that Zhang De will definitely not lose Ningling in one day. It was because of command errors or other reasons, but because Chen Jiajun was too strong.

"This thief Chen's firearm is indeed too powerful." No matter how confident Zong Ze was, he had to admit it.

"Mr. Xianggong, Mr. Huang is here." A subordinate came in to report.

The two stopped talking, got up and went out to welcome Huang Qianshan in.

"Mr. Zong, the government has a purpose for you to preserve your strength." Huang Qianshan directly explained his intention as soon as he sat down: "When I came, I wanted you to stick to Daming Mansion and buy more time for Beijing, but I didn't Thinking of receiving the news of Ningling's fall as soon as we entered the city."

"What should I do now." Huang Qianshan said with a sad face.

When he went south this time, he originally wanted to persuade Zongze to preserve his strength and not fight with the Chen family army in the field. Unexpectedly, before the words reached him, half of Zongze's army was lost. How could he save it?

"Don't worry, Mr. Huang, even if I only have 3 people left, I can still defend the city of Nanjing." Zong Ze didn't want to lose confidence in front of this charming minister.

"I believe this, but the capital of the official family is only so little. If you spend these 3 people in Yingtian Mansion, what will the official family do in Xiangyang in the future?" The meaning of Huang Qianshan's words revealed that he He disagreed with Zongze's insistence on defending the city of Nanjing.

"It's not that there is still Wang Yuan. It's good to have him protecting the official family." Zongze replied. He had no intention of following Zhao Gou to Xiangyang.

"Xiangong Zong, I advise you to think more about the official family. The national situation is so difficult that every available soldier is valuable. Ningling is only one day's journey from Nanjing. While Chuqiu is still in our hands, We can still cross the river safely. When Chen thief takes Chuqiu again, we will be unable to advance or retreat." Huang Qianshan has been able to climb to his current position, and he still has some abilities. At least in terms of persuading people, he can always find the weakest breakthrough point. : "Yingtian Mansion is now between Kaifeng Mansion and Xuzhou, and has been flanked by Chen Thieves on both sides. It belongs to death."

"Escape for a while, escape for a lifetime?" Zong Ze's face was painful. Although he did not admit it, Huang Qianshan's last sentence was very reasonable.

……

The Song Army in Nanjing knew that Ningling had fallen on the afternoon of the 28th.

However, when the Chen Jiajun in Ningling knew that the Song Army in Nanjing had made a move, it was only an hour later.

"I was thinking of staying in Ningling for two more days to repair before I could attack Zongze, but I didn't expect that they would withdraw first." When Chen Xun learned this information, he was visiting the injured in the injury camp.

In this attack on Ningling, the training effect was very good, but the number of casualties on our side was also very high.

Chen Xun was very opposed to this kind of actual combat training before, because this kind of training method would cause a lot of casualties.

But now Chen Jiajun's development speed is too fast, and the training of new recruits cannot keep up. Apart from actual combat training, there is no more suitable method than this.

"Unexpectedly, this Zongze was a very determined fighter before. I thought that attacking Nanjing would be a tough battle." Gan Ping shook his head. There was no luck on his face, but a little disappointed.

"What's the use of him fighting again? He's not Song Guan's family." Chen Xun sneered.In the early days of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were still fewer generals who fought, were able to fight, and dared to fight?
Not counting Li Gang and Zong Ze, young generals such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong are all characters who can ravage the Jin Bing over and over again, but what is the final result?
"Then what should we do? Chase or not?" Gan Ping asked.

With the number of cavalry of Chen's army, they can definitely catch up and hold back Zongze's troops retreating north. Not to mention encircling and annihilating them all, it is still very safe to tear off half of them.

Chen Xun lowered his head and thought.

To chase or not to chase?
Chasing him can further weaken Song State's power, and if Zong Ze can be captured, it can also deal a huge blow to Song State's main combat faction.The disadvantage is that it will take time. Zongze is also very likely to cut off his tail to survive. It may also provoke a large-scale counterattack from the Song Dynasty in advance and drag the Chen family army into the quagmire of a large-scale decisive battle in advance.

The Chen family army has just completed a large-scale expansion, and the army is full of newcomers. This time is really not suitable for a large-scale war with Song.

Without chasing, Chen Jiajun would be able to complete the attack on the lower reaches of the Yellow River as planned, and also successfully complete troop training, steadily raising his strength to a higher level.

"Let the tiger go back to the mountain, there will be endless troubles." In the end, Chen Xun was still unwilling to put Zong Ze, a capable minister, back to Zhao Gou's side.

Chen Xun had heard too many stories about how one person could reach the Tenth Army.

Let’s just talk about Qian Lao in future generations. It is estimated that the American emperor will regret it later.If they knew that Mr. Qian was so powerful, they would definitely rather that the pilots who were exchanged exploded on the spot and the reputation of the country's democracy was tarnished than they would agree to let Mr. Qian come back.

The same is true.

If Zhao Gou lost his mind and suddenly began to reuse Zong Ze and let him go, Song would soon become the enemy of the Chen family army.

The state of song has been established for more than a hundred years, and there are still a lot of talents, but it lacks a person who can coordinate the overall situation.

Before Zong Ze was in Daming Mansion, in front of Zhao Gou, it was too far away to take care of him.

Now that he is right in front of us, there is no reason not to give it a try.

"Then chase?" Gan Ping confirmed.

"Pursue!" Chen Xun nodded: "But it's not you. I will lead the horse army and some water troops to chase, and you will lead the rest of the infantry to continue attacking Nanjing."

"Okay, without Zongze, Nanjing can be regarded as an empty city. Don't worry." Gan Ping did not argue. In horse fighting, he was indeed far behind Chen Xun.

Without stopping, Chen Xun led an army of [-] horses and set off directly that evening, crossed the river to the north bank of the fork of the Yellow River, and then headed directly to Chuqiu in the northeast.

A navy consisting of thirty warships also left Ningling at the same time and went down the river. They planned to enter the main channel of the Yellow River and then go upstream to Chuqiu to cooperate with Chen Xun in the battle.

Chuqiu is located directly north of Yingtianfu in Nanjing, eighty miles away.It is located northeast of Ningling, more than 100 miles away.

Even if he set off half a day later than Zongze, Chen Xun still believed that the Chen family cavalry could reach Chuqiu before Zongze.

(End of this chapter)