Chapter 854: The same old trick! (Thanks to the book friend Fallen Boy for the reward!)
Jinzhong, Fengwu Army Camp
At 1:00 pm, the first thing Yuan Song did when he arrived at the camp was to listen to the briefing from the front line...

Staff officer Zheng Chuang also understood Yuan Song's habit. When he saw Yuan Song coming, he immediately walked over and reported excitedly:
"Lord Yuan, there is good news from the front. The enemy has abandoned Xiaode County, and the 3,000 defenders have all retreated to Jinyang under the cover of night!"

Upon hearing this news, Yuan Song was also very surprised and asked Zheng Chuang:

"Who sent this message? Has it been confirmed?"

Facing Yuan Song's question, Zheng Chuang spoke without hesitation:
"Reporting to Lord Yuan, this news was sent by the Third Army stationed in Wenshan County. It is said that the scouts of the Third Army have entered Xiaode County!"

"Commander Xun of Wenshan County also sent a letter, asking whether Lord Yuan wants to occupy Xiaode County?"

Yuan Song did not rush to answer Zheng Chuang's request, but went to the sand table and thought secretly.

This was not the first time that the Yunbing Army had abandoned the county. As early as last year during the Second Yunbing War, Wang Muzhi had used this tactic in the face of the Fengwu Army's counterattack.
At that time, Wang Muzhi gave up the three county towns of Lingyuan, Pingrong and Wankang, and only retained the two county towns of Dagu and Pingyun·························
The purpose of Wang Muzhi doing this is that Wang Muzhi knows that the Yunbing army has limited manpower. If every city has to be defended, then the Yunbing army's manpower will be dispersed. At that time, under the tactics of Fengwu Army's cavalry division and heavy artillery attack, the connection between these cities will be cut off, the logistics will be unsustainable, and the cities will be blasted open one by one by Fengwu Army's heavy artillery!

So Wang Muzhi deliberately gave up the three cities and concentrated all his limited military forces in the two county towns of Dagu and Pingyun.

The first advantage of doing this is that the battlefield is chosen in a place that is beneficial to one's own. The two county towns of Otani and Pingyun form a pincer attack and are very close to each other, so they can support each other. The two cities are also very strong and can effectively resist the heavy artillery of the Fengwu Army.

In addition, doing so can also stretch the Fengwu Army's logistical supply line. Then Wang Muzhi can send cavalry to look for opportunities to try to cut off and delay the Fengwu Army's logistical supply.

It was under Wang Muzhi's strategy that the Second Army of the Fengwu Army, which was attacking Pingyun at the time, suffered a heavy blow. If it were not for the timely arrival of Xun Ke's Third Division, the entire Second Army would have been in danger of defeat. Even so, there were more than 10,000 casualties, which made Wang Muzhi's Pingyun County victory a success!

And now Wang Mu has repeated his old tricks and once again voluntarily given up Xiaode County. What does he want to do?
After looking at the sand table and thinking for a while, Yuan Song fixed his eyes on the sand table and the coordinates of Yi County, and then asked Zheng Chuang:
"What's going on with Yi County?"

Listening to Yuan Song's question, Zheng Chuang, the staff officer, thought for a moment and said:
“General Ye Tao of the Eighth Division has surrounded Heyi County and is bombarding the county according to your instructions. The defenders of Heyi County have not encountered any special circumstances except occasionally trying to attack the artillery camp…”

Listening to Zheng Chuang's question, Yuan Song frowned slightly, somewhat unable to understand what Wang Muzhi was up to!

Honestly speaking, in Yuan Song's eyes, Xiaode County was not that important. There were only 3,000 defenders in Xiaode County, and the city defense was not very complete. The terrain was not very suitable for defending the city. Overall, it was a city that was easy to attack but difficult to defend. It was not difficult for the Fengwu Army to capture Xiaode!
Therefore, if Yuan Song wanted to take Xiaode County, he would have let Xun Ke take it long ago, and it would not be Yun Bingjun's turn to give up today.
The reason why Yuan Song was slow to take action was that he wanted to lure Wang Muzhi to send troops from Jinyang for support, in order to eliminate as many of Yun Bing's troops as possible outside the city of Jinyang.

As the main general who had conquered big cities like Yijing and Yujing, Yuan Song could be said to be the most skilled and experienced general in siege in the Fengwu Army. However, this also made Yuan Song understand how difficult it is to conquer a big city!

Although Jinyang is not as big as Yujing, it is about the same size as Yijing. It is one of the top five fortified cities in the north of the Great Zhou Dynasty. The city defense facilities are very complete. Moreover, unlike Yijing and Yujing where the Fengwu Army originally came from, Jinyang has reinforcements!
The ones currently fighting against them are the local troops of Yunbing Fanzhen led by Wang Muzhi. The Great Zhou still has more than 100,000 elite imperial troops that have not been deployed...
It is entirely conceivable that once the Fengwu Army surrounded Jinyang, even if the Luoan court was in financial difficulties, at the critical moment of the court's life and death, they would grit their teeth and take out their last silver to issue a sum of money for the expedition, so that the imperial guards could support Jinyang!

Therefore, the time left for the Fengwu Army to attack Jinyang is very limited. If the Fengwu Army fails to capture Jinyang in the short term, things will become more troublesome once the reinforcements of the Imperial Guards arrive. This is why Yuan Song wants to lure out as many enemy troops in Jinyang as possible and annihilate them!

The number of soldiers in Yunbing’s army is limited. If you kill one more outside the city, you will have one less to kill when you attack Jinyang!
And if you want to attack Jinyang and annihilate an enemy army, you need three or even five times the force, then outside the city of Jinyang you may only need one times the force to do it!

So if possible, it would be easier and less labor-intensive to annihilate them outside the city!
Once enough Yunbing troops are annihilated, resulting in a shortage of troops in Jinyang City, the possibility of Fengwu Army quickly taking Jinyang will undoubtedly greatly increase!

Although Yuan Song’s idea was good, Wang Muzhi on the opposite side was not a fool either. He should have seen through Yuan Song’s plan, and this time he took the initiative to give up Xiaode County, as if he was sending a signal to Yuan Song...

I would rather give the city to you than let your evil plan succeed. No one from the Yunbing army in Jinyang City will go out to support you!
Yuan Song was deeply disappointed by this and was also somewhat puzzled as to whether Wang Muzhi's actions meant that he had given up on the more than 10,000 Yunbing troops in Heyi County?
Although Wenshan County was captured by the Fengwu Army before, the Fengwu Army could use it as a stronghold to cut off the connection between Heyi County and Jinyang City. However, Xiaode County was still in the hands of the Yunbing Army at that time, and they still had such a connection point. Therefore, as long as the enemy troops in Heyi County could break out of the siege, they still had a chance to withdraw to Jinyang.

And now Wang Muzhi has withdrawn all the defenders of Xiaode County back to Jinyang and handed over Xiaode County to the Fengwu Army. This is equivalent to completely closing the door for the Yunbing Army in Heyi County to withdraw!

Yuan Song was deeply confused about this. He didn't understand why Wang Muzhi would make such a major change!

You have to know that this is the defense line that Wang Muzhi has carefully arranged for several months, and he has paid a lot of blood, especially in Heyi County!

Wang Muzhi not only specially strengthened the city defense in Heyi County and dispatched more than 10,000 elite soldiers to be responsible for the city defense, but also stored enough food in Heyi County to last for several months when food was scarce. Finally, he also sent his trusted and beloved general Chen Wenzhao over there.

These actions were intended to make Heyi County and Wenshan and Xiaode counties behind it a barrier to Jinyang to block the conquest of Fengwu Army·······························
Now that the Fengwu Army has only captured Wenshan County, have you completely overturned your careful deployment over the past few months?
Just when Yuan Song was deeply puzzled, he also felt Zheng Chuang's gaze and immediately answered:

"Since the enemy has voluntarily given up, our army must occupy it! Send the order to Lord Xun!"

After capturing Wenshan County, Xun Ke wanted to continue attacking Xiaode County in one go, but he stopped him. Although Xun Ke faithfully carried out his military orders later, Yuan Song understood that Xun Ke still had some emotions in his heart!
After all, with the Marshal's exceptional promotion, Xun Ke, who served as the commander of the Third Army, faced doubts from both inside and outside the Fengwu Army. He urgently needed to use real combat achievements to prove his ability to his colleagues and the Marshal.

If he could capture a county town after capturing Wenshan County, the pressure on him would be reduced a lot! At that time, Yuan Song could have ordered Xun Ke to give up the plan to capture Xiaode County by luring the enemy deep into the city. However, the enemy troops in Xiaode County had already withdrawn, so Yuan Song had no reason to stop Xun Ke from occupying Xiaode County!
After receiving the order, Zheng Chuang immediately went down to pass on the order, while Yuan Song continued to look at the situation on the sand table, constantly wondering in his heart whether Wang Muzhi really intended to give up Heyi County and abandon the barrier he had carefully designed for several months.

An hour later, Zheng Chuang knocked on the door again and reported to Yuan Song:

"Sir, Captain Zhang Xiaojie from the Coordination Office is here. He said he has important intelligence to report to you..."

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Yijing, Liu Mansion

Liu Yun, the patriarch of the Liu family, was drinking wine in the bedroom with two beauties in his arms. In addition to the two beauties in his arms, there were three young dancers in the room who were constantly waving their willow-like limbs in front of Liu Yun to show off their graceful figures.

Liu Yun, who was already a little tipsy, was stunned by the extremely seductive dance in front of him.

When the three dancers finished their dance, Liu Yun clapped his hands happily and said:

"Beautiful! It's so beautiful! Come and sit next to me, Master!"

As soon as he said this, the two concubines in his arms became a little dissatisfied, and began to complain jealously.

Seeing the two concubines getting jealous, Liu Yun laughed and kissed them on the face.

"Don't worry, the two of you. I bought some medicinal pills from Dadongsheng yesterday. I will not show favoritism tonight!"

"Every one of you will be tortured tonight!"

Seeing Liu Yun’s heroic look, several women kept saying flattering words, which made Liu Yun very happy······························

These few months have been the happiest time of his life. Under his leadership, the Liu family not only successfully obtained the banknote license issued by the Fengwu Army and opened the Daxinchang Banknote Exchange to successfully enter the banknote industry, but also recently received an approval from Marshal Ye to open a savings business.

After the savings business was launched, accompanied by a series of publicity, the Liu family's Daxinchang Bank received hundreds of thousands of silver coins every day, and sometimes even several thousand taels of silver in a day!

Although he knew that the silver was only kept in the bank and did not all belong to him, Liu Yun was still very satisfied.

The banknote savings business is so lucrative that even if he takes a hand in it, the fat on it will be a mountain of gold and silver!
Whenever Liu Yun thought of this, he admired Marshal Ye very much. He really couldn't understand how Marshal Ye came up with such a good idea.

Liu Yun even thought that if Marshal Ye had not joined the army, he could have become a wealthy businessman! It was even possible that he could have become the richest man in the world in the Great Zhou Dynasty!
Whenever Liu Yun saw the Rishengchang Bank next door in Ji-Yu completing various tasks step by step under the leadership of Jiang Yuyan, he would feel deeply disdainful of it. He felt that Jiang Yuyan was still a woman after all, with long hair and little knowledge, no business acumen, and could only rely on her body to bribe Marshal Ye.

With such a huge amount of gold and silver saved in the banknote exchange, you can earn a lot of money with just a little thought, so why work so hard···························
Just when Liu Yun was enjoying his wonderful life, there was a knock on the door. Liu Yun said impatiently:
"Who is it? What happened?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the voice of the housekeeper Liu Huai appeared outside the door.

"Master, the Fifth Master is here to talk to you about something, and he looks very anxious!"

Hearing the name Wu Ye, Liu Yun immediately became alert. He was impatient and indulged in enjoyment the last second. He immediately stood up and walked out of the room. While he was busy tidying up his clothes, he asked Liu Huai:
"Master Wu, where is he?"

Facing his master's question, Liu Huai quickly said:

"Master Wu is in your study. He seems to be in a bad mood today. Please be careful!"

After hearing this, Liu Yun's heart trembled, and a hint of fear flashed across his face, but he could only bite the bullet and walk towards the study.

About a cup of tea later, Liu Yun returned to his study. At this time, a middle-aged scholar with a gloomy expression was sitting in the seat that originally belonged to Liu Yun...

(What do you think about the recent plot? Feel free to speak your mind. Tongming is all ears! I would also like to thank fellow book friend Fallen BOY for his reward. Ten thousand Qidian coins is the most reward I have ever received since I started writing books. Thank you for your recognition of this book and Tongming!)

(End of this chapter)