"Fourth Prince, I, A Li, a Mouke (Captain) under Meng'an (Commander) Pu Luhun, did not come here on my commander's order to report, but to ask the Fourth Prince three questions first!"

As the messenger sent by Jin Wushu hurriedly returned, a Mouke and deputy general under Pu Luhun also came to the platform. This man rode a large horse, wearing iron armor and carrying a large bow, with a cowhide mask covering his face, revealing only his eyes. This attire was in stark contrast to Jin Wushu's sleepy appearance. Upon his arrival, he did not dismount but cupped his fist from afar, his voice deep and muffled. "I wonder if the Fourth Prince is willing to listen?"

"Tell me!" Wanyan Wushu stood up on the platform, raised his chin slightly, but his anger was still evident.

"The first question, does the Fourth Prince desire victory?" the deputy general asked solemnly.

To this, Wanyan Wushu only snorted coldly.

"The second question, since you desire victory, do you want to attack?" the deputy general continued to press. "And since you want to attack, is it better for the cavalry or the infantry? And in the current situation, we are hastily blocked in the stronghold, losing the initiative. How can the cavalry attack?"

At this, Wushu suddenly turned his anger into laughter.

"The third question, my Meng'an said that next he wants the soldiers to eat some dry rations, then sit and watch the Song army fill the eastern trenches, push down the inner low walls and the last layer of large fences for us. I wonder if the Fourth Prince will still send people to ask at that time?" A Li, not waiting for Jin Wushu to understand and smile, threw out the third question and immediately rode away without waiting for a reply.

Jin Wushu beamed with joy, then turned back to Shi Wenbin and raised his chin, questioning, "How is it? Are we Jurchen sons just as I said? Tell me the truth, you Han people, not to mention now, but since ancient times, have you ever had such a heroic figure as Pu Luhun?"

Shi Wenbin was originally quite shaken, but upon hearing these words, he hesitated to speak.

"So there really is such a person?" Jin Wushu was not angry, but sat down again and continued to eat.

"There is indeed such a person, but he was a sinicized Khitan general, almost like a Han Chinese." Shi Wenbin forced a smile. "But it was a story from the Tang Dynasty. As soon as General A Li spoke, this student thought of it..."

"Never mind Khitan or Tang Dynasty, just tell me."

"The current situation is quite similar to that of the famous Tang general Li Guangbi during the An Lushan Rebellion when he was besieged by the rebel army..." Shi Wenbin said slowly. "They were also outnumbered, also trapped in the camp on all sides, and the commander also sat on the platform. But one of his generals was in charge of one side and just watched the enemy attack without making any effort. Li Guangbi asked this person, and this person also said to let the enemy fill the trenches and push down the fences, so that he could lead his troops out to attack!"

"Did it work?" Jin Wushu asked with slight curiosity.

"It worked!" Shi Wenbin answered immediately. "But it was very dangerous. Because once this happens, the victory or defeat of the battle depends on whether that general can break through in one breath, that is, the victory or defeat depends on one line. So in that battle, even Li Guangbi hesitated again and again, and repeatedly sent people to inquire. But in the end, Li Guangbi still trusted that general, and in the end, it still worked..."

"Then that's it! If you Han people can succeed, then we Jurchens will definitely succeed!" Jin Wushu replied proudly. "Moreover, I am definitely not as stingy as that so-called Li... Just watch, today I will never send anyone to ask Pu Luhun again!"

"Fourth Prince is extraordinarily heroic." Shi Wenbin said cautiously. "But Fourth Prince, since General Pu Luhun intends to open the gates to welcome the enemy, at that time, there may be a melee that engulfs the camp. Shouldn't you put on your armor and find a mount before eating, just in case?"

"Put on what armor, guard against what accidents? Even if there is an accident, how can the east stronghold not resist? How can the Song army attack here? Come, pour me wine!" Jin Wushu dismissed him with contempt.

Shi Wenbin had no choice but to nod repeatedly and continue to serve him wine.

Speaking of which, how much of Jin Wushu's arrogance was his true arrogant nature cultivated over the years, and how much was a deliberate pose to stabilize people's hearts, not to mention Shi Wenbin, even this Fourth Prince of the Jin Dynasty himself could not say for sure.

But in any case, an obvious fact was that the battle suddenly broke out, and most of the Jin army was directly called out of bed, and they had to face the battle in a hurry before they even had time to eat. Moreover, they were attacked from all sides. At this time, as the commander, Jin Wushu could not command calmly and control everything at will... In fact, at this time, he could only rely on his officers and rely on the core camps to fight their own battles.

Of course, it was also a fact that the Jin people had been winning battles for a long time, their morale was high, and they firmly believed that victory would belong to them if they persisted, and they did not waver because of this.

Moreover, speaking of the entire battlefield, even the two highest commanders of the Song army, that is, Zhang Jun and Han Shizhong, who had received Zhao Guanjia's personal order at the previous imperial meeting, the so-called "all after the formation look at Commander Zhang's flag language, all before the formation obey Commander Han's dispatching", did not seem to play a big role.

Once the battle broke out, Zhang Jun basically only sent out the supervising teams and the merit recording teams, and then did nothing, just letting the generals on the front line fight their own battles. As for Han Shizhong himself, he was obviously the actual initiator of this battle, and he was obviously on the front line, but he always just rode his horse and waved his flag, leading thirty or fifty cavalrymen to wander around the Jin army's camp, but no military orders were issued... Until he saw this spectacle in the east, and then finally sent a personal guard cavalry carrying a command flag, but it was towards the Xiacai city wall.

"Our Commander Han requests the city to order reinforcements to the east, listening to his orders!" The knight galloped directly into the city, jumped off his horse, and then, holding the command flag, quickly came to the city wall, then knelt on one knee and shouted loudly.

"Preposterous!" Zhang Jun was furious after a little thought. If Guanjia was not by his side, he was afraid that he would have cursed some dirty words long ago. "If we talk about heavy troops, isn't it your Commander Han's confidant general Wang Heilong (Wang Sheng's nickname) leading three thousand armored soldiers to do it in the east? It's not weak in the first place. Moreover, all the armored soldiers of the army have been sent out, and the only two reserve elites are your Commander Han's one thousand Beiwei soldiers and one thousand Cuipian soldiers, who are resting behind the dam at this time... I ask you, he doesn't use his own troops, how can he ask me, who is empty-handed, to support his subordinates? Is Wang Heilong so useless? So useless, he was the first to pull out the outer fence of the Jin army?"

"Our commander said!" This knight apparently received instructions, but he raised his head to face the somewhat bewildered civil and military officials, appearing fearless. "In a surprise attack, whether it wins or loses, it all depends on the time of a meal. If you can't win quickly, just delay it. It seems that you have the advantage, but it's just a waste of effort, waiting for the three armies to be exhausted and attracting the Jin army's counterattack! And since the opportunity for battle has appeared in the east, just maintain the rest of the places. We should do our best in the east..."

"After saying so much, have you made it clear why he doesn't use the reserve troops in his hands, but wants the troops from other places where the battle is in full swing?" Zhang Jun became even more angry, wishing he could immediately order to kill this little soldier.

"Our commander didn't say this..." After the knight finished speaking, looking at the angry Grand Commandant Zhang and a group of civil and military officials with pale faces, he was also suddenly discouraged.

Zhang Jun was exasperated and was about to drive this man off the city.

Well, I have to take this opportunity to say a few more words.

At this time, it was basically carried out according to the plan set by Han Shizhong on that day. Under Zhao Kuangyin's personal pressure, the Song army tried its best to gather the capable soldiers of various ministries, allocated precious armor and weapons, and gathered a total of more than 12,000 armored soldiers... This was the real fighting force of the Imperial Camp soldiers on the Shouzhou battlefield, which theoretically numbered as many as 40,000 and actually numbered as many as 60,000 when including the civilians.

And to tell you the truth, Zhao Guanjia himself didn't know whether to feel pity or rejoice that he could finally put together this number.

Then, these less than 13,000 armored soldiers were roughly configured in advance: Qiao Zhongfu, Zhang Jing, Liu Bao, Huyan Tong, and Yang Yizhong led 4,000 armored soldiers to launch a frontal attack on the west side of the Jin army's camp, that is, from the direction of Xiacai City; Tian Shizhong's troops and some of Zhang Jun's troops who were not listed as elites detoured to the north to block the enemy with a feigned attack. In fact, they were quickly digging trenches to prevent the enemy from breaking through in a cavalry manner when they surrounded three sides and lacked one, causing large-scale casualties to the Song army; The Wang De troops and the Fu Qing troops, who took the initiative to request the battle, combined a few hundred personal soldiers to form 2,000 armored soldiers to defend the west side of the Huai River because they could not deploy too many troops; The east side was surrounded by Wang Sheng, the commander of the Central Army under Han Shizhong, leading 3,000 armored soldiers...

As for the only reserve team, it was precisely Han Shizhong's own two thousand elite troops. One was his Beiwei Army, and the other was his Cuipian Army. The former was actually cavalry, but only seven or eight hundred people, who had only recently arrived from the south bank of the Huai River; The latter, with more than a thousand soldiers, was actually the Song army's best sharp crossbow soldiers.

Therefore, what Zhang Jun said was actually quite reasonable, and the civil and military officials on the city who knew the general military situation also nodded in agreement, or rather, understood Grand Commandant Zhang's anger.

But at this moment, suddenly a person spoke from behind, but it made Zhang Boying's heart tremble: "I, Zhang Jun, the Vice Censor-in-Chief, ask Guanjia to issue a clear decree, allowing General Han's words... I have just seen with my own eyes that General Han's flag has just circled the Jin camp once. He is in front of the formation and must know the inside situation better than the city! At this time, use people without doubt!"

ps: Also...

Happy New Year's Day 2! By the way, let me say that the book should be on the shelves on the first of next month without any mistakes. I'll give you a heads up first.