Chapter 1024 Disagreement!

In a mansion in Tanzhou, Xu Zhaojie looked at the secret letter in his hand, and his hands could not help but tremble slightly························
During the time in Jingchu, Xu Zhaojie had been eagerly awaiting news from Anqing. With the Jingchu battlefield at a stalemate, Xu Zhaojie was very much looking forward to Xu Hu on the Anqing battlefield bringing him good news and opening a way out for the Zhennan Army in their desperate situation!
At this time, in the secret letter, Xu Hu, whom Xu Zhaojie had been looking forward to, told Xu Zhaojie that they had suffered a disastrous defeat in Anqing. Although Xu Hu tried several times to gather the defeated troops and regroup to fight the Fengwu Army again, they were eventually defeated by the Fengwu Army led by He Jingyun.

At the end of the letter, Xu Hu told Xu Zhaojie that the vanguard of the Fengwu Army had entered the Huainan area. He, Xu Hu, was ashamed of Xu Zhaojie's trust, but he would lead his troops to fight to the last man and fight the Fengwu Army to the death. He hoped that Xu Zhaojie could make plans for this early!

If there had been no news coming back from the Anqing battlefield before, Xu Zhaojie would still have a glimmer of hope in his heart, thinking that Xu Hu could help him win a great victory!
Now the secret letter sent by Xu Hu undoubtedly shattered Xu Zhaojie’s last hope and made Xu Zhaojie realize that the Zhennan Army he founded was on the verge of collapse at this moment...
Thinking of this, Xu Zhaojie couldn't help but close his eyes in pain. However, even though he closed his eyes, the figure of Ye Mingsheng appeared in his mind at this moment!

Then Xu Zhaojie couldn't help but recall the last time he met Ye Mingsheng. That was when he returned to Luoan and Ye Mingsheng provoked him at the city gate!

Even though Ye Mingsheng dodged his killing moves several times at that time, Xu Zhaojie still looked down on Ye Mingsheng and thought that this Ye was nothing but a bug!

So although Xu Zhaojie was very angry when facing Ye Mingsheng's provocation, he did not lose his temper because he also had to face Shangguan Hongyuan's suspicion at that time, thinking that a small loss would ruin a big plan!
But Xu Zhaojie never expected that Ye Mingsheng, who had left the Imperial Guards and his command, would become like a dragon returning to the sea and become out of control!
Thinking of this, a trace of regret emerged in Xu Zhaojie's eyes. If God gave him another chance, he would definitely shoot the bastard Ye Mingsheng to death with a single arrow. He would never give Ye Mingsheng another chance to develop and let Ye Mingsheng have what he has today!
Unfortunately, there is no regret medicine in this world. Even if you regret it to your heart's content, you cannot change the reality!

After suffering for a while, Xu Zhaojie’s expression gradually became firm. Although the current situation was on the verge of collapse for him, Xu Zhaojie...

But fortunately, it has not collapsed completely, Shouchun has not been conquered by the Fengwu Army, and he still has most of Jingchu and tens of thousands of soldiers under his command. He, Xu Zhaojie, is far from the end of his rope!
Thinking of this, Xu Zhaojie shifted his gaze to the sand table again. He handed over the 50,000 most powerful soldiers of the Zhennan Army to Xu Hu, but Xu Hu ended up with such results.

There is no doubt that Xu Zhaojie is extremely disappointed with Xu Hu, and he wants to kill Xu Hu with a knife to vent his anger. However, at this moment Xu Zhaojie still has to use Xu Hu. After all, although Xu Hu is a bit green, Xu Hu, who was born as a member of the Xu family, is loyal!

This was also an important reason why Xu Zhaojie let Xu Hu lead the attack on Anqing. Therefore, now Xu Zhaojie can only choose to continue to trust Xu Hu!

After all, if it were someone else in this situation, he might have led his troops to surrender to the Fengwu Army and offered Shouchun to the Fengwu Army!
Although he knew that once the Fengwu Army attacked the vicinity of Shouchun, it would be enough to shake the rule of the Zhennan Army, but at this time Xu Zhaojie could no longer care about the prefectures and counties around Shouchun!

Xu Zhaojie can now only ask Xu Hu to do one thing, and that is to gather all the troops in Huainan and defend Shouchun until the last moment!
After making up his mind, Xu Zhaojie immediately wrote a letter to Xu Hu and sent someone to deliver the letter back immediately...
Xu Zhaojie believed that as long as Shouchun was not breached, he would still have a last chance of survival, and he wanted to use this opportunity to have a decisive battle with the First Division!
Ever since the last ambush failed and they were defeated by the First Division led by Ma Zhongjun, the Fengwu Army and the Zhennan Army have been stuck in a strategic stalemate on the Jingchu battlefield!
Even though the Zhennan Army suffered a defeat last time, there are still more than 30,000 soldiers after gathering the defeated soldiers. Currently, they have been retreating to Tanzhou and are confronting the Fengwu Army by relying on the strength of the city!

Although the Fengwu Army won the war, it was unable to complete the siege because it had only more than 10,000 troops.

Both sides understand each other's predicament, so no one is acting rashly. Recently, only small groups of troops have been fighting and testing each other!

Originally, Xu Zhaojie was thinking of waiting for news of victory from the Anqing battlefield, so that he would have the confidence to ask Jiangnan for money and food, and then regroup and attack Hanyang again!

However, as the news of Xu Hu's defeat came, in order to avoid being implicated by the Fengwu Army, the Jiangnan side must have been eager to completely sever ties with Xu Zhaojie. There was no need to even think about the issue of money and food, it was definitely impossible!

The relationship with Sichuan and Shu also completely collapsed as Xu Zhaojie swallowed up more than 20,000 Sichuan and Shu troops, so now Xu Zhaojie knows that he can’t rely on anyone else, he can only rely on himself now··························

Now Xu Zhaojie needs to make a painful decision, that is, to choose to stay in Jingchu and give up Huainan, or to give up Jingchu and return to Huainan to protect Shouchun!

Xu Zhaojie was still very self-aware. He knew that under his aggressive military policy, Huainan had changed from a prosperous land of fish and rice to an increasingly poor and miserable place.

The common people were very dissatisfied with his extortion and heavy taxation, so when the Fengwu Army came to attack, it was good enough that the common people in Huainan did not help the Fengwu Army to fight him!

Without the support of the people, it is almost impossible to defend Shouchun and Huainan with only Xu Hu and other defeated remnants of the Fengwu Army!
If he wants to defend Shouchun, Xu Zhaojie must lead his troops back to provide support, but once he does, he will have to face the pursuit of the Fengwu Army!
Although Xu Zhaojie's troops still had a clear advantage on the Jingchu battlefield, many people knew that quality of soldiers was more important than quantity!

Although Xu Zhaojie has a large number of soldiers and horses under his command, many of them are mixed in from the Sichuan-Shu Army and the Jingchu Army, and the original Zhennan Army has less than 10,000 soldiers. To be honest, Xu Zhaojie himself has no idea how many of these 30,000 people can be relied upon if a real fight breaks out!
On the Fengwu Army side is the most elite, best-equipped and best-treated First Division of the Fengwu Army························

The previous ambush has proved everything. Xu Zhaojie's army of nearly 60,000 was unable to defeat Fengtian's First Division. Instead, it was defeated by the First Division in the end. This easily explains the problem!

Now there are only 30,000 troops left. Can they really defeat the First Division and successfully return to Shouchun? Thinking of this, Xu Zhaojie's face became bitter. He knew that this was almost an impossible task, but Xu Zhaojie had to do it!

After all, if he really watched He Jingyun capture Shouchun, the soldiers from Huainan under his command would inevitably collapse. With their collapse, the Sichuan and Shu armies, who were not on the same page with him, Xu Zhaojie, would be even less restrained!

In this way, the more than 30,000 soldiers under Xu Zhaojie's command would be defeated without fighting, so even if they rushed to Shouchun for assistance, the possibility of success would be slim, but Xu Zhaojie never wanted to give up!

He has already made up his mind that if he loses this battle, the only outcome will be death, but even if he dies, he, Xu, will bite off a piece of flesh from the Fengwu Army!

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Just when Xu Zhaojie received Xu Hu's secret letter, Ye Pengchao, Ma Zhongjun and others in Hanyang City also received good news from the Anqing battlefield.

However, Ye Pengchao and Ma Zhongjun had some differences in how to deal with this news.

Looking at Ma Zhongjun in front of him, Ye Pengchao spoke very seriously:
"General Ma, Hanyang is the top priority, and I don't think Xu Zhaojie will choose to rush to Huainan for help! The Zhennan Army was defeated this time, and they are doomed to lose Huainan. I don't think Xu Zhaojie will do this useless work!"

Regarding Ye Pengchao's opinion, Ma Zhongjun spoke very calmly:
"Ye Anchashi, you are a civil official, not a military officer. You don't understand military affairs, and I don't want to explain too much to you, but what I want to tell you is that Xu Zhaojie will definitely come to Huainan to help!"

Hearing that Ma Zhongjun actually used the excuse that he was a civilian and didn't understand military affairs, Ye Pengchao couldn't help but feel a little angry. He had something to say in his heart, but when the words came to his lips, looking at Ma Zhongjun's indifferent face, Ye Pengchao finally held back his words.

Theoretically, the Jingchu Censor was an official of the same rank as Ma Zhongjun, but after all, he was only appointed as Deputy Censor, so in reality, Ye Pengchao was more than one level lower than Ma Zhongjun!
Even though his surname is Ye and he has the status of “royal relative”, Ma Zhongjun is not an ordinary general. He is the general of the First Division…
Although Ma Zhongjun, the general of the First Division, was only a general in name, his status in the Fengwu Army was not much lower than that of a commander!

Therefore, if he really fell out with Ma Zhongjun, he, Ye Pengchao, would be the one who would suffer in the end!

While Ye Pengchao was reconsidering his words, Ma Zhongjun said in a deep voice:
"Envoy Ye, with my First Division's main force of more than 10,000 men facing Xu Zhaojie's 30,000 defeated soldiers, I don't know what you have to worry about. This is a battle that must be won!"

Looking at the confident look on Ma Zhongjun's face, Ye Pengchao couldn't help but say:
"General Ma, I know your troops are good at fighting and are an elite force, but the enemy is Xu Zhaojie! The Marshal once said that we should never underestimate Xu Zhaojie. He is a man who does not play by the rules. Moreover, Xu Zhaojie has more than 30,000 people under his command. I think we should still play it safe!"

Seeing Ye Pengchao pulling the Marshal out to pressure him, Ma Zhongjun couldn't help but snorted coldly and said:
"Ye Ancha told me that you were quite courageous before. Why are you so scared by Xu Zhaojie today?"

"Hearing what you said, I would have thought that Xu Zhaojie had the upper hand and we were losing ground. Your words are really boosting others' morale and undermining your own prestige, aren't they?"

"Since you are so worried about Hanyang, I will leave Zhang Shengli's battalion in Hanyang. Together with the young and strong men you have recruited, the garrison of Hanyang will be 10,000. Is this enough for Ye Anchashi?"

“We warriors are not like royal relatives like you, Ye Anchashi, who can get promoted and rich just by standing still. We brothers have to make great achievements and fight to the death to gain the favor of the Marshal…”

After hearing this last sentence, Ye Pengchao's face suddenly changed, and Ma Zhongjun also felt that he had not thought through what he said, and that what he just said was a bit too much!
Moreover, the man opposite, Ye Pengchao, was from the Coordination Office and was best at telling tales. If he were to seize the opportunity to report me, I would be in big trouble!
Thinking of this, Ma Zhongjun hesitated whether to make up for what he said, but Ma Zhongjun still had some face to save, and wanted to make up for it, but he couldn't bring himself to do it in front of Ye Pengchao!

Just when the atmosphere between the two was very tense, a messenger suddenly came over quickly, took out a letter and reported to Ma Zhongjun:

"General, Commander He has delivered an order!"

Upon hearing the news, Ma Zhongjun realized what He Jingyun's order would be, and his eyes suddenly lit up. He took the order from the messenger and checked it out!
The order was the same as what Ma Zhongjun had thought, which made Ma Zhongjun proudly hand the order to Ye Pengchao and said:
"Envoy Ye, this is an order from Commander-in-Chief He. The Central Council and the General Staff have already activated the plan left by the Marshal and appointed Lord He Jingyun as the commander-in-chief of the South to control the military and political affairs of the provinces. Lord He is now ordering our troops to take the initiative to attack and contain Xu Zhaojie's return for assistance!"

Looking at the bright red seal of the order, even if Ye Pengchao had other ideas at the moment, he could only nod and say in front of the military order to enter the mountain:
"I understand. I will do my best to cooperate with you, General Ma!"
"Then I'll leave everything to Censor Ye!" After saying this, Ma Zhongjun left with some pride.

Looking at Ma Zhongjun's leaving back, Ye Pengchao was silent for a while and then shook his head slightly. Because of the previous defeat of the Fifth Army, he was very wary of Xu Zhaojie. Now he hoped that he was overthinking...
(End of this chapter)