Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 330: Unparalleled Achievements and Dazzling Eyes

To be fair, Wuping Army's No. 1 Meng'an was definitely out of touch with the main force.

This is not Ali's fault. After all, the battle in Lianghuai was going so smoothly that the Jin army was like a fish in water. If they were still afraid of being surrounded and annihilated by the Song army, they would be ridiculed by people.

Aligua was originally just cleaning up Hezhou and guarding the retreat route of the Jin army in Huaixi. However, after some investigation, he suddenly discovered that a pontoon bridge had been built at the Caishi Ferry to accommodate the defeated army.

I don’t know whether I should praise the Dangtu officials for their quick response or scold them for being stupid. Can you defend the floating bridge you built?

When Aligua arrived with his troops, he saw more than 200 militiamen guarding the bridgehead. He was overjoyed and without saying a word, he followed the floating bridge to the island in the middle of the river, and then followed the second floating bridge to the east bank of the river.

After looting and slaughtering a group of surrounding villages, Aligua sent military envoys to inform his general manager Wanyan Alin that he had made an unprecedented contribution. At the same time, he set up a camp in Dongcai Shi, divided into large and small camps, to guard against the counterattack of the Song army.

Although this is basically unlikely.

The Song army in Huaixi had already lost their nerve. Even though several thousand defeated soldiers were gathering in Caishi Town, five miles east of the Jin army camp, Aligua didn't care.

The knife has been stabbed into the stomach, can the prey still resist?
Of course, Aligua was also a little troubled at this time.

"What? Hasn't Hui come back yet?" After hearing the report in the tent, Ali kicked the woman who had been abducted from the couch aside, quickly put on his armor, and strode out of the general's tent.

Haner Mouke, who came to report, followed closely and whispered back, "Hui Li has been out for two and a half hours with more than 30 people. It's time for the shift change, but there's still no movement."

On the watchtower of the camp, Aligua held his belt with one hand and touched his smooth scalp with the other, looking around.

There was complete silence all around, not even the sound of insects or birds chirping, let alone human voices or horses.

Haner Mouke asked in a low voice: "General, should we send some more scouts..."

Ali glanced at the Haner Mouke and said, "Han Feng, I know your nephew has also gone back home and won't go out, but the more this is the case, the more we must not panic."

"But around us..."

Ali Gua interrupted Han Feng: "If they are not in danger and are just having fun, they should be back soon. Then you will personally enforce military law and give him five military sticks.

But if they hadn't met with misfortune back home, would we be able to turn them back into living people now that the entire army has been dispatched?"

At this point, Aligua thought for a moment and continued, "If we hadn't returned, those thirty-odd people wouldn't have been able to escape, not even one reportor would have made it back, and they did it so quietly. The Song dogs' fighting power cannot be underestimated. What do you think is the best number of people to send? If we send too few, we might be devoured by the Song dogs lying in ambush nearby. If we send too many, will we still be able to hold the camp?"

Han Feng said somewhat unwillingly: "So let it go like this?"

Ali shook his head. "The news from the General Manager yesterday said that the army will arrive the day after tomorrow at the latest. All we have to do is hold the pontoon bridge. As long as the day after tomorrow passes, those 5,000 Song dogs on the other side will be at our mercy. I promise that when the time comes, I will make you kill them with pleasure!"

Han Feng nodded with difficulty.

Seeing that he had convinced his trusted confidant, Mouke, Aligua was relieved but also held his breath. He couldn't help but look in the direction of Caishi Town and said fiercely, "These four or five thousand Song dogs have fled all the way from Huaixi. They dared to be cowards a few days ago, but now they dare to sweep our surroundings. It must be that a responsible and influential person has arrived."

Han Feng was still a little unconvinced and said, "Five thousand Song dogs... humph... just five thousand Song dogs, General, and I have five Moukes and five hundred soldiers. I will go and kill them now, chop off the head of that Shezha man, and present it to the army and the General!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ali's whip gently landed on Han Feng's helmet, making a crisp sound.

Ali said with a look of disappointment, "I just said so much, but you ignored it? I'll say it again, the five thousand Song soldiers and the luxurious figures are not important, not even our number one Meng'an is important. What matters is only this floating bridge, this ferry! Do you understand?!"

"Even if we kill all those Song dogs, leaving only a dozen or so, burn this pontoon bridge, and destroy this ferry, we'll still be completely defeated. But even if most of the First Meng'an are killed, and your head and mine are chopped off and kicked around like balls, as long as we can hold out until the General's army arrives, we'll have achieved an unprecedented feat. Do you understand? If you understand, then go and assemble your army!"

Han Feng ran away in embarrassment.

"Wait." Ali Guafu stopped Han Feng again, stroking his chin and asking, "How many abducted Han women are there in the camp now?" Han Feng thought for a moment and said, "I haven't counted them carefully, but probably around three hundred."

"Kill them all, including those in my tent." Ali gave the order.

"Yes!" Han Feng bowed and turned to leave.

Aligua was still standing on the watchtower, looking towards the direction of Quarry Town in the east, thinking about something in his mind, as if the order just now was just a trivial matter.

On the other hand, when Liu Huai returned to Caishi Town with the spoils and really saw the defeated Huaixi army, his heart sank.

These defeated soldiers were actually young and strong, and most of them had weapons. A few of them were still wearing armor, so they were not completely unarmed.

In fact, the Song army was beaten into such a state in Lianghuai that if it were not for its elite troops, it would never have had the strength to escape to the south of the Yangtze River.

Moreover, after arriving in Jiangnan, the local officials of Taiping Prefecture did not let them starve, but sent them two shipments of food and fodder. On the one hand, Taiping Prefecture still relied on them to defend against the enemy, but on the other hand, they were really afraid that these defeated soldiers would go crazy and start looting the surrounding areas.

These defeated soldiers even retained some organization. It seemed that within just a few days, they quickly began to unite through internal oaths, solicitations, and collusion, forming an organizational relationship that was not a military structure but was quite useful.

Liu Huai even saw an officer... or someone who looked like an elder brother scolding a soldier for not maintaining his weapons in time.

However, Liu Huai still felt that these Huaixi defeated soldiers were useless.

The reason is very simple. The morale is really too low, and the whole town is filled with a decadent atmosphere.

If their morale cannot be boosted, even if these people are driven to the battlefield, they will just scatter in panic.

Of course, if they were full of revolutionary optimism, Liu Huai could also put it another way: as long as their morale was boosted, they could immediately form an elite force.

Comforting himself in this way, Liu Huai first asked more than a hundred Flying Tiger soldiers to find a place to rest in the town, and then brought Zhang Baiyu to a huge courtyard that had been recruited by Yu Yunwen as the central army.

"What's that smell?" Liu Huai had just finished greeting Yu Yunwen when he felt a foul odor coming from him. He frowned and asked, then realized, "Is it the stench of a corpse?"

Yu Yunwen sat on the chair with some fatigue and took off his old leather armor: "It is the stench of corpses. Cai Shi Town was massacred by the Jin thieves. When I arrived, the corpses had been collected but not buried. Although the temperature is low in winter, they have already started to stink.

I have already buried most of the bodies, but the smell won't go away for a while."

Shi Jun stood beside Yu Yunwen with a sword in his hand, like a sword-wielding guard.

Upon hearing this, Liu Huai could only nod and sigh: "When prosperity comes, the people suffer; when destruction comes, the people suffer. When war ravages the world, it is the people who suffer in the end."

Yu Yunwen also sighed, then waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about this, Dalang. I'm just a scholar who can talk about war on paper. Tell me, how should we fight next?"

Liu Huai did not answer this question, but instead asked: "Has Yu Sheren summoned the officers to hold a military meeting and discussed with the generals how to fight?"

Yu Yunwen nodded. "Yes, in addition to Commander Shi, there are four other commanders: Wang Qi, Zhang Zhen, Dai Gao, and Sheng Xin. Each of them has about a thousand soldiers under their command. However, they are all defeated soldiers from Huaixi, and their morale is low. The other day, I wanted to gather soldiers familiar with water to set fire to the pontoon bridge from upstream, but the generals prevaricated due to low morale and did not carry out the plan."

"Da Lang, the Jin thieves have occupied this floating bridge, which is like stabbing a knife into the heart of the Song Dynasty. If they move forward a little further, the Song Dynasty will be in danger. We must eliminate them."

Liu Huai breathed a sigh of relief: "Yu Sheren, it's a good thing that the troops didn't set out due to low morale and the pontoon bridge hasn't been destroyed yet. Otherwise, the situation would be completely unsolvable now."

Yu Yunwen was originally trimming his long beard. When he heard this, his hands trembled and he pulled out several hairs. The pain made the corners of his mouth twitch unconsciously.

(End of this chapter)