"What happened up ahead?"
When the army marched to the vicinity of Tanzhou, there was a sudden commotion ahead. Wu Dao, who was about to take Zhu Li out for training, asked Pang Honggu beside him in surprise.
Pang Honggu held Zhu Ning'er in her arms and nodded imperceptibly to a big man next to the cart. The big man understood and hurriedly ran to the front of the army, probably to get information.
Sure enough, the big man hurried back soon. When he was still five or six meters away from Pang Honggu, he knelt on one knee with a "dong" sound, clasped his hands and reported: "Captain Pang, General Qin Yan was sniped in the suburbs of Tanzhou, and the army suffered heavy losses. Now the news has been sent back that reinforcements are needed."
"Snipered?" Pang Honggu heard this, her pretty face became stern, and she gritted her teeth and said, "This bastard who can't do anything but always makes trouble, I gave him 800 elite soldiers under my command, together with the elite soldiers of the Grass Army, and he has tens of thousands of troops under his command, but he sent back this news. Why doesn't he just die? How dare he ask for reinforcements?"
After a while, Pang Honggu slowly calmed her heaving chest, looked at the big man with a serious expression, and said sternly: "What happened? Can you tell me in detail?"
Being angry cannot solve the problem. Since Qin Yan has already been defeated, the next thing to consider is how to remedy the situation. This still depends on the top leaders of the reserve army to find a solution.
"Reporting to the captain, the court has appointed Gao Pian as the governor of Zhenhai Army and divided the troops into two groups to snipe General Chongtian and us respectively. I think that since General Qin Yan was sniped, the situation on General Chongtian's side should not be optimistic either." The strong man did not care about Pang Honggu's anger and still speculated calmly.
"Gao Pian?" Wu Dao narrowed his eyes and murmured softly when he heard the words.
"How come Captain Wu knows this person?" Pang Honggu frowned when she heard the big man's report, thinking hard for a good plan. Suddenly she heard Wu Diao's voice and turned around to look at him.
Wu Dao glanced at her with a somewhat dissatisfied expression. This woman, in order to avenge her father, would unconditionally support any force that opposed the Tang Dynasty.
When Qin Yan was the vanguard, he advised Pang Honggu not to hand over the elite troops to Qin Yan, saying that Qin Yan was a gangster who was born a thug and could not lead troops at all. He could only fight when the wind was favorable. Although Pang Honggu hesitated for a long time, she finally handed over half of the elite troops to Qin Yan. Is it okay now
However, since things have come to this point, complaining is useless, so Wu Dao had no choice but to speak: "Gao Pian, a military man, was the former governor of Xichuan, has many brave generals under his command, and is currently the governor of Jingnan, guarding Jingzhou."
"He has been ordered to lead his army south from Jingzhou and enter Guangdong and Guangxi before us. He immediately turned back to attack us. I'm afraid that the enemy is not well-intentioned. He has many talented people and brave generals under his command, such as Liang Zun, Gao Xun, Chen Gong, Feng Shou, Yao Guili, etc. They are not ordinary people."
"Captain Wu is right. The one who defeated General Qin Yan was Liang Zun. He had a deputy general named Zhang. General Qin Yan was the vanguard and his troops were heading towards Tanzhou. However, he didn't expect that Liang Zun did not defend the city at all. Instead, he fought a face-to-face field battle with General Qin Yan on the outskirts of Tanzhou. The incident happened suddenly and General Qin Yan was forced to fight. When the battle between the two armies was in a stalemate, Zhang suddenly attacked from behind. With the pincer attack from both sides, he defeated General Qin Yan's troops in one fell swoop." After hearing what Wu Diao said, the strong and powerful man quickly echoed him.
"Then what should we do now? Should we support Qin Yan?" Pang Honggu looked at Wu Dao with some shame. If she had listened to him earlier and not entrusted the elite troops to Qin Yan, the situation might not have been so bad. Qin Yan was, after all, a minor general. As a vanguard, he had taken away nearly half of the elite troops. Now that they were defeated, the Cao army was in trouble.
Wu Diao glanced at her, thought for a moment, and immediately said seriously: "The only way now is to advance openly and retreat secretly to protect yourself."
"Advance in public but retreat in secret, what does this mean?" Pang Honggu was very puzzled. Could it be that Wu Dao no longer had any hope of going south and wanted to retreat back to the north
Although she had this doubt, she still looked at Wu Dao eagerly, hoping that he would explain.
Wu Dao glanced at him and said patiently, "Since Liang Zun alone has caused us such a big setback, then General Chongtian must have been under a lot of pressure along the way."
"If my guess is correct, General Chongtian must be facing an army supervised by Gao Feng himself. With so many powerful generals under his command, it has become very difficult for General Chongtian to go south. Perhaps it won't be long before we receive an order to go north."
"In order to reduce losses, we can no longer follow these two idiots, Bi Shiduo and Qin Yan. Madam Pang, if you trust me, hand over the other half of your elite troops to me. I will lead them to pretend to help Qin Yan, and you take the opportunity to evacuate the women and children in the reserve army, and then immediately take your confidants and head east with a small group. How about we meet in Xinzhou?" (Xinzhou: in the northeast corner of Jiangxi, close to Zhejiang)
"Why did you choose to meet in Xinzhou?" Pang Honggu was puzzled.
“When we decided to go south, General Chongtian set out from southern Fujian and led the army to approach Jianzhou. Since Gao Pian wants to snipe them, he will definitely hit them head-on and force General Chongtian to return the same way. Xinzhou is adjacent to southern Fujian. We will retreat to Xinzhou in the northeast and keep an eye on the battle situation. If things can be done, we will join forces with General Chongtian and continue to fight.” Wu Dao looked solemn and determined, but his implication was also very clear, that is, if things can't be done, he will no longer care about General Chongtian's life or death.
After listening to Wu Dao's analysis, Pang Honggu stared at him with her beautiful eyes. After three or four seconds, she glanced at Zhu Li again. Only then did she make up her mind and said resolutely, "Okay, Captain Wu, let's meet in Xinzhou. I will take Ning'er away first, and we will wait for you in Xinzhou."
Pang Honggu was leaving and was going to take her sister with her. Zhu Li was naturally unwilling and immediately asked for his sister to come over. He would never allow his sister to leave his sight. If something unexpected happened, who would pity this little girl with no relatives or friends? He was probably the only one who cared about her the most as her brother.
However, before he could open his mouth, Wu Diao's big hand slapped him heavily on the shoulder, causing him to stagger and almost fall to the ground. Zhu Li, who didn't know what was going on, had just stood up and hadn't said a word yet, when Wu Diao solemnly responded to Pang Honggu: "Okay, you take Ning'er and go first, we'll meet in Xinzhou."
Then, without waiting for Zhu Li to object, he grabbed Zhu Li and walked towards the big tent behind him. As soon as he entered the big tent, Wu Dao turned around, stared at Zhu Li, and said angrily: "As your master, do you think I would harm you?"
Zhu Li was stunned when she heard this. She was worried about her sister's mood.
Somehow, after Wu Diao's question, he felt a lot more relaxed, and even the pent-up anger dissipated a lot. However, he still looked at Wu Diao suspiciously, hoping that Wu Diao could give him an explanation.
"Zhu Li, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Although Pang Honggu and I get along well, when I asked for her last support, she was actually more nervous than us. However, given the trust between each other, it was difficult for her to refuse, and she would not refuse. She has made a mistake once, and this time, she cannot make the same mistake again. Leaving your sister as a hostage is her last bottom line, so I cannot refuse. Do you understand?" Wu Diao saw that Zhu Li had calmed down a little, and said earnestly.
"But Master, we can obviously go with Captain Pang, why do we have to separate? Besides, Ning'er is so young, what if..." Zhu Li was puzzled, but it went without saying that he didn't believe that Pang Honggu would love Zhu Ning'er as much as he did.
"Don't worry about Ning'er's safety. Pang Honggu has eight personal guards in total. They all have a good relationship with me. You are my only disciple and Ning'er is your biological sister. They naturally know how important Ning'er is. As for why we don't go with Madam Pang, why do you say that?" Wu Daoan first calmed Zhu Li down, then asked instead of answering, looking at him with burning eyes, "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I'm wrong."
Zhu Li understood that Wu Dao was testing him, so he had to put aside his complicated feelings and frowned in deep thought. After a while, he said, "Someone must divert the enemy's attention so that Captain Pang and his men can escape safely. Is that the reason?"
"Even if no one leads Liang Zun's army away, I can still get away if I leave with Madam Pang, so this is not the real reason." Wu Diao didn't give him any face and spoke bluntly.
Zhu Li frowned. It turned out that Wudao Tianwang was not just boasting. His thoughts were really hard to figure out. After a moment, Zhu Li's eyes gleamed and he quickly asked, "Master, do you want to train me?"
"Hmph, you just realize it now? Of course, this is just a by-product. The more important reason is that our master and I must have our own power. Relying on a woman's family background to survive is not what a real man does." Wu Diao looked at Zhu Li and sighed loudly.
"In fact, from the beginning, I predicted that the Western Army would be defeated on this journey southwards. However, due to some reasons, I had to go with Miss Pang. She is also a pitiful and good woman."
"Are you curious? Since I knew that I would fail in this trip south, why did I insist on going all the way? Because I have my own plans."
"As a warrior, I also have a sincere heart to serve my country, but I have no money, and I can't recruit soldiers to accomplish anything big. If I were asked to work for others, I would look down on those people. So I have to make plans on my own. After the army is defeated, what is the most important thing?" Wu Diao looked at Zhu Li and asked suddenly.
Zhu Li was stunned and blurted out instinctively: "Of course it's the defeated soldiers."
"That's right. I'll borrow Madam Pang's troops and use her elite troops as a guide to gather the defeated soldiers. Then, I'll take advantage of the chaos to plunder some food and grass. Then, these defeated soldiers will become our team. To be more precise, they will be your team. As my disciple, and born in a chaotic era, you should not harbor the illusion that you can stay out of trouble. I will never allow it."