Chapter 874: Jinyang City Falls! (Part )
Understanding Yang Chongqing’s intention to devour the Third Division, Yuan Song’s confusion about why there were only 40,000 imperial guards in the direction of Shizhou was easily solved.
If Yuan Song's guess is correct, the remaining tens of thousands of imperial guards will appear in the direction of Wei Pass. Yang Chongqing will have to gather nearly 100,000 main imperial guards to attack from the front and back and take Pingyang in one fell swoop!
After understanding Yang Chongqing's entire idea, Yuan Song was deeply shocked by Yang Chongqing's courage. Although he had thought that Yang Chongqing, who was good at making surprise attacks, would not follow the rules and step into the trap he set step by step, he had never thought that Yang Chongqing would give up Jinyang so easily!
Although in previous battles, Wang Muzhi had voluntarily given up some small counties in order to confuse the Fengwu Army and stretch the Fengwu Army's supply lines.

But Jinyang is not comparable to those small counties. As the provincial capital of Yunbing, once Jinyang is captured by the Fengwu Army, it will inevitably cause a shock to the world, making the Luo'an court, which is already facing internal and external troubles, inevitably prone to decline!

Because Jinyang is so important, based on the information from the Coordination Office, Shangguan Changgong asked Yang Chongqing to defend Jinyang at all costs and not make any mistakes!
So Yuan Song had to admit that he had never thought that Yang Chongqing would give up the Jinyang move!
This move is really amazing!
After Yang Chongqing made his move, Yuan Song was left with two choices...
The first option is to accept Yang Chongqing's exchange and immediately attack Jinyang City, racing against time with Yang Chongqing to see whether our side will capture Jinyang first, or Yang Chongqing will lead the imperial army to capture Pingyang first!

The first one to capture the city can interfere with the opponent's battle, stop the opponent's siege, and win the war!

The second option was to reject Yang Chongqing's exchange and lead the army to Pingyang immediately to support the Third Division!
This is also the situation that Yang Chongqing most hopes to see. First of all, he can take advantage of his leisure time to fight against the Fengwu Army in Pingyang and have the physical advantage!
Secondly, although the firearms of the Fengwu Army are powerful, they are highly dependent on logistical supplies. If the main force of the Fengwu Army goes to Pingyang now, the entire logistical supply line will be stretched by hundreds of miles, and the difficulty of logistical support will increase a lot.

And the most important thing is that even if Yuan Song arranges some soldiers to stay behind in the vicinity of Jinyang City to protect the logistics supply, there are still 30,000 Yunbing troops in Jinyang City. Although these people are less powerful, their numbers are there after all, so it is not very difficult to harass the Fengwu Army's later supply lines.

Once there was a problem with the logistics supply line, resulting in a shortage of various ammunition and supplies, the various firearms of the Fengwu Army would become useless fire sticks.

This would be the best time for Yang Chongqing to lead the Imperial Guards and defeat the Fengwu Army in one battle...

And this is exactly what Yang Chongqing wants!

Yang Chongqing wanted an opportunity that would be beneficial for him in a decisive battle, but Yuan Song naturally didn't want to give it to him. After all, in terms of comprehensive strength, the Fengwu Army under his command was a level higher than the Imperial Guards, so Yuan Song didn't want to take risks. He knew very well how powerful Yang Chongqing was. As long as you gave him a chance, he might create a miracle and turn the tables!
If Yang Chongqing was not given the opportunity to attack Jinyang immediately, it would mean that more than 20,000 soldiers of the Third Division would be attacked from all sides by the 100,000 imperial guards.

Although he was confident in the combat effectiveness of the Third Division, Yuan Song also understood that it would be difficult for the Third Division to survive.

The Third Division had more than 10,000 cavalrymen, and the Pingyang area was hilly, which restricted the performance of the cavalrymen. Yang Chongqing's main purpose in annihilating the Third Division was actually to annihilate these Fengwu Army cavalrymen.

For Yang Chongqing, these cavalrymen were like the sharp swords of the Fengwu Army, which could give him a fatal blow at any time. With these cavalrymen, Yang Chongqing was not very confident of winning this war.

Therefore, even if Yang Chongqing had to give up Jinyang, he had to annihilate these cavalrymen and lay the foundation for victory in the upcoming decisive battle!

Although he was aware of Yang Chongqing's purpose, after weighing the pros and cons, Yuan Song helplessly discovered that compared to immediately rushing to Pingyang to give Yang Chongqing a favorable opportunity for a decisive battle, he believed that it was more in the interests of the Fengwu Army to capture Jinyang now...

Although doing so would put Xun Ke and the Third Division in danger and he felt very sorry for them, Yuan Song firmly believed that Yang Chongqing could not defeat the Third Division!
As the ace main force division of the Fengwu Army, the Third Division, which has made outstanding military achievements for the Fengwu Army since its establishment, will not be so easily wiped out by Yang Chongqing!
Thinking of this, Yuan Song also made up his mind and ordered:

"After daybreak, the entire army will break camp and march to Jinyang City to attack it fiercely. We must capture Jinyang within half a month!"

After hearing Yuan Song's order, Zheng Chuang and Ye Tao looked at each other. Ye Tao hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively:

"Sir, what about the Pingyang Third Division?"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Song glanced at Ye Tao and said in a deep voice:
"We must trust Commander Xun and his comrades in the Third Division. They will definitely be able to hold on in Pingyang!"

"The sooner we capture Jinyang, the sooner we can go to support them!"

Yuan Song paused for a moment and then said quietly after a while:
"If we were to switch places, I believe Commander Xun would definitely make the same decision. He and his comrades in the Third Division would understand us!"

“The more Yang Chongqing wants a decisive battle opportunity that is favorable to him, the more we must not give it to him easily. If we can capture Jinyang within half a month, we can make Yang Chongqing lose both his wife and his troops…”

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Three and a half hours later, in a luxurious restaurant in Jinyang City, a dozen generals of the Yunbing Army were toasting each other surrounded by a group of beautiful women.

"I thought these Fengwu troops were so powerful. And wasn't Yuan Song known as the best general of the Fengwu army? Why is he gone now?"

"Although the Fengwu Army is a bunch of bastards, they are also afraid of those who are more powerful. Marshal Yang once killed the Qipchaks on the grasslands and made them cry like ghosts and wolves. No matter how powerful the Fengwu Army is, can they be as powerful as the Qipchaks?"

"Brothers, let me tell you a secret. Although Yuan Song is known as the best general of the Fengwu Army, when he was in the Imperial Guard, he was just a sergeant under Marshal Yang. Now that he meets Marshal Yang on the battlefield, do you think he is afraid? Hahaha!"

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Over the past dozen days, under the onslaught of the Fengwu Army, the high-ranking officials of the Yunbing Army who had been hiding in the city of Jinyang were trembling with fear, fearing that the Fengwu Army would one day break into the city and settle accounts with them for their crimes of bullying men and women and taking human lives.

For this reason, some of the most heinous among them knew that once the Fengwu Army entered the city, they would be judged and liquidated, so they were afraid of death and even began to study how to disguise themselves as defeated soldiers and civilians to escape. However, as Shizhou was captured by the Imperial Army, Yang Chongqing led the Imperial Army to appear in Yunbing, and the Fengwu Army lifted the siege on Jinyang and retreated to Xiaode County. These people thought that Jinyang was safe, so they became arrogant again, and some even intensified their oppression of the people.

Just as this group of people were indulging themselves in a revelry in a private room with beauties and fine wine, a series of loud noises suddenly came from outside.

Although their minds were gradually numbed by alcohol and sex, some of the generals in the private room immediately realized that it was a bombardment.

"Is this an artillery attack? Didn't the Fengwu Army retreat to Xiaode County?"

"Hurry up and report to the Governor-General that the Fengwu Army is attacking!"

"Didn't they say that the Fengwu Army had been scared away by Marshal Yang? Why are these damned people here again? What should we do?"

Just when this group of people didn't know what to do, because the Fengwu Army had returned to the city of Jinyang again, another group of Jinyang dignitaries also came to the gate of Wang Muzhi's mansion and clamored to see Wang Muzhi.

"Where is the Governor? I want to see the Governor!"

"Where are Marshal Yang's reinforcements? Didn't we agree to rush to Jinyang to help? Where are they now?"

"Didn't the Governor-General guarantee that the Fengwu Army would not attack again? I also donated two thousand taels of silver. What on earth is going on with this, Governor-General?"

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Faced with the quarrel among these dignitaries, Lieutenant General Hu Wenxiong did not dare to use force against them. He could only try his best to appease them and maintain order to prevent them from rushing into the mansion to find Wang Muzhi.

At the same time, in the study of the Governor's Mansion, Wang Muzhi, with a bitter look on his face, lay powerlessly on the ground, and next to him was a handwritten letter written to him by Yang Chongqing.

This period of time was like a cycle of ups and downs for Wang Muzhi. First, he suffered a defeat in the battle and lost many soldiers and generals, and was killed by the Fengwu Army at the gates of Jinyang City. At that time, he had made up his mind to sacrifice his life, but the timely appearance of the imperial guards led by Yang Chongqing forced the Fengwu Army to withdraw from Jinyang.

Seeing that Yang Chongqing killed thousands of soldiers in a battalion of Fengwu Army with just one move, Wang Muzhi, out of admiration, could not help but place his hopes on Yang Chongqing, hoping that Yang Chongqing could kill all the enemies in Yunbing and save the Luoan court from collapse!
For this reason, Wang Muzhi vigorously promoted Yang Chongqing to the soldiers of Yunbing Army, saying that Yang Chongqing was the reincarnation of the God of War and possessed by Sun Wu. He also praised the soldiers of the imperial army as being like heavenly soldiers and generals, just to save the low morale of Yunbing Army.

Because the Fengwu Army was indeed forced to retreat, the officers and soldiers of the Yunbing Army all believed what Yang Chongqing said. However, just when the morale of the Yunbing Army was gradually recovering, Yang Chongqing, who was regarded as a life-saving straw by Wang Muzhi, gave Wang Muzhi a bolt from the blue...

Wang Muzhi really couldn't understand what was going on in Yang Chongqing's head. How could he dare to give up Jinyang and encircle and annihilate the Fengwu Army's Third Division?
This son of a bitch, even if he doesn't know the importance of Jinyang to the court, can't he understand the military orders of the Prime Minister?
Why does he dare to do this?
As much as he was looking forward to Yang Chongqing at that time, Wang Muzhi hates Yang Chongqing as much as he does now. He wishes he could eat Yang Chongqing alive and skin him alive!
Although he felt extremely painful in his heart, Wang Muzhi also understood that things could not be changed. Without Wang Muzhi's help, Jinyang was destined to fall into the hands of the Fengwu Army!
Although he already knew the result, out of loyalty to the Prime Minister, Wang Muzhi was determined to fight to the last moment in order to repay the Prime Minister's kindness!

And now he has to do something, something he must do. Thinking of this, Wang Muzhi's eyes gradually became firm.

He stood up from the ground, walked to the desk, picked up the brush, dipped it in ink and wanted to write something, but as soon as the brush touched the paper, Wang Muzhi seemed to have thought of something and stopped moving his hands.

After a while, Wang Muzhi found a piece of white cloth, cut his fingers with a dagger, used his fingers as a pen, and his own bright red blood as ink, and wrote furiously on the white cloth with hatred on his face...
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Luoan, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty

Looking at the handwritten letter written to him by Yang Chongqing in his hand, Shangguan Changgong's expression was very interesting. First he was stunned, then shocked, and finally filled with anger!
Shangguan Changgong took a deep breath and barely suppressed the anger in his heart. He asked Zhao Hucheng, the messenger who was delivering the letter to Yang Chongqing and Yang Chongqing's nephew:
"Who approved him to do this? Who did he discuss this with?"

Facing Shangguan Changgong's question, Zhao Hucheng spoke without hesitation:
"Reporting to the Minister, my uncle believes that a general in a foreign country may not obey the orders of the emperor. His approach is most in line with the situation of the Yunbing war!"

After hearing these words, Shangguan Changgong laughed in anger:
"What a general who doesn't obey the orders of his sovereign when he is away from home. Yang Chongqing is truly a loyal and good general of our Great Zhou!"

Looking at Shangguan Changgong clenching his fists with a cold expression in front of him, Zhao Hucheng realized that something was wrong. He began to murmur in his heart and then knelt on the ground with a plop.

Looking at Zhao Hucheng kneeling on the ground, Shangguan Changgong gradually regained his sanity. He waved at Zhao Hucheng, and Zhao Hucheng immediately retreated as if he had been pardoned. Looking at Zhao Hucheng's departing back, Shangguan Changgong coldly instructed the guard beside him:

"Let Chen Jingyu come to see me..."

(End of this chapter)