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"Hahaha!"

Suddenly, the hearty laughter broke the silence of the handsome tent, awakening the generals who were thinking from their thoughts, and their minds returned to the discussions of the handsome tent. ∈♀

Suddenly, more than 30 generals looked at Pang Tong, but they saw Pang Tong laughing calmly: "In the past, when I and Kong Ming and I finished their studies and left the academy, they said that if we meet on the battlefield in the future, we will be their own masters. The phoenix and lie on the dragon will definitely compete with each other. Unexpectedly, after seven years, the words of that year actually came true, and we met on the battlefield this time. This is a great pleasure in life, so Mr. Pang is so lucky!"

Sure enough, Pang Tong's words made the generals look different when they heard the sound. More than half of the generals' cheeks were slightly red and they were ashamed; the remaining generals looked surprised and looked at Pang Tong with a scrutiny, as if they wanted to see through his heart and see if he was forcibly smiling, pretending to be calm.

However, they were disappointed. Pang Tong looked calm and smiled naturally and sincerely, as if he was happy from the bottom of his heart. He was definitely not pretending to be a pretentious person and sensationalism. Obviously, Pang Tong was full of expectations for the upcoming head-on confrontation, looking forward to being able to compete with his former classmate Zhuge Liang and justify himself.

If he wins in the end, then from now on, when people mention their names again, the Feng Chu must be in front and the Long and the Feng Chu in the future, rather than the well-known Feng Chu, which invisibly makes him half inferior to Kong Ming. As for the failure, Pang Tong has not considered this issue yet, because he never thought he was worse than Kong Ming.

Huang Zu, who was in charge of the position of commander, was infected by Pang Tong's bold words. At the same time, he also knew what Pang Tong's intention was, so he immediately grew up and said loudly: "A military advisor and scholar are not afraid of powerful enemies. What are we afraid of as generals?"

As soon as these words were spoken, they resonated with the generals under the tent, causing the sluggish and depressing energy in the tent to be wiped out. The generals were excited and they all agreed. Some of the belligerent generals were even ready to try, and seemed to be eager to fight the death of Kong Ming's army.

This change fell into Huang Zu's eyes, but when he saw his face filled with a gratitude, he felt bitter deep in his heart. Although he knew that Liu Biao's original intention was to let Pang Tong lead the army, he was strongly opposed by Cai Mao, Cai He, Cai Zhong and Zhang Yun and other relatives of Cai's family, and the Kuai brothers were disturbed. So under the three-party game dispute, the position of the chief general of the three armies fell on him, Huang Zu, and he made him get a bargain.

Since he was the chief general, Huang Zu said that he was the only commander, and he would never be willing to be a puppet. After all, he was the first veteran general to follow Liu Biao to pacify Jingzhou and the long-standing general in the army on the battlefield. Therefore, he was somewhat hostile to Pang Tong in his heart, and deliberately suppressed Pang Tong's prestige for several days, thereby raising his prestige and establishing his lofty status as the chief general of the three armies.

However, what surprised Huang Zu was that in the face of his deliberate suppression, Pang Tong did not react or counterattack. Instead, he obeyed and maintained his position as the commander of the three armies everywhere. This made Huang Zu feel lost in the air and secretly ashamed. He felt that he was too narrow-minded and had no tolerance. He felt inferior to the gentleman's ambition of a villain. So Huang Zu quickly changed his mind and deliberately eased the relationship between him and Pang Tong. He joined forces to suppress the deputy commander Zhang Yun, deliberately raising the status and voice of the Jiangdong generals in the army, and prompted that the early stage of the Northern Expedition to win and conquer most of Nanyang County.

Just as Huang Zu was gradually immersed in the supreme authority of the commander of the three armies, the Western Jin army that reinforced Wancheng came. Faced with the attack of more than 100,000 Western Liang cavalry, the entire army was in panic, and the generals of each battalion were at a loss. At this time, Pang Tong stood up and chatted and laughed and resolved the fear of the generals from the bottom of his heart, alleviated the tension and depression in the commander's tent, and played a huge role in stabilizing the situation, encouraging the morale of the army and fighting spirit.

At this moment, Huang Zu felt the huge gap between himself and Pang Tong. The moment he heard that the Western Jin army was about to arrive in Wancheng, he was also panicked and confused, but Pang Tong was not afraid and easily resolved the crisis in front of him. What is the gap? This is the gap.

After truly realizing the huge gap between him and Pang Tong, Huang Zu felt very bitter, but he knew clearly what he should do next, consciously put his position in the right place, and cooperated with Pang Tong to complete the expected goals of this Northern Expedition. To put it bluntly, from this moment, Huang Zu voluntarily became a puppet, nominally the commander of the three armies, but in fact he cooperated with Pang Tong to command the army to fight, and he had to obey Pang Tong's orders in all actions.

From beginning to end, Pang Tong did not compete with him for the power of the commander, but made Huang Zu realize that his talent was not enough, so he had the awareness of being a puppet. No one forced him, but he knew himself and knew what he should and could do. This awareness stemmed from his loyalty to Liu Biao, his responsibility to the Jingzhou army, and his sense of overall situation taking into account the overall situation on the battlefield.

Not fighting is also fighting. Pang Tong silently conquered Huang Zu with his broad mind and extraordinary talent, and thus took charge of the army naturally. This is a perfect interpretation of wisdom, and it is also a model for wise people to convince people with reason and people with virtue.

At this point, Huang Zu made a quick decision and stood on the upper steps and said loudly: "Now that Wancheng has not been able to capture for a long time, the reinforcements of the Western Jin Dynasty arrived in a blink of an eye. The military situation is like fire and the situation is serious. I beg the military advisor to issue orders. All the soldiers of the army are dispatched by the military advisors from the generals. Those who dare to resist the orders will be punished according to military law and will be severely punished!" After saying that, Huang Zu bowed slightly, bowed to Pang Tong under the account, and then slowly sat down and did not say more.

When Pang Tong heard the sound, he immediately stood up and bowed to Huang Zu and returned the greeting. Then he stepped out and stood in front of the generals. He said slowly in a slow voice: "Our army attacked Wancheng for seven consecutive days, with little success. He is still blocked by Bocai's army on the south bank of the moat and cannot advance in an inch. The reason is that we are probably insufficient in the defense of the Wancheng defenders before the war. Without knowing the enemy's situation, we rashly launched an attack. The result is that we are like this in front of us, and we cannot capture it for a long time, and we will lose our troops and generals."

While speaking, Pang Tong slowly walked to the center of the commander's tent, but his voice did not stop: "According to the attacks on the surrounding cities of Wancheng in the past few days, at noon on the day our army attacked Deng County, the Wancheng garrison Bo had already learned the news, and immediately reduced his troops and transferred most of the troops stationed in the 36 counties under Nanyang County to defend Wancheng.

All the generals know that for a long time, in order to prevent our Jingzhou army from heading north to capture Nanyang, Emperor Li Li of Jin gathered heavy troops in Nanyang, and sent his general Bo Cai to lead 50,000 Wuweiying infantry to station in Wancheng, and Nanyang County had more than 50,000 defenders. In this way, the Western Jin army stationed in Nanyang had a population of 100,000. This time, our army went north and annihilated more than 30,000 defenders one after another, and killed more than 10,000 enemy troops in the siege of the city for several days.

At present, there are no less than 50,000 defenders in Wancheng. That is to say, when our army was at the city, there were 70,000 defenders in the city, and our army had only 120,000 troops to attack the city. It is not difficult to imagine why our army ended in failure in the last few days of siege. Unfortunately, we did not know these crucial information in advance. It was not until yesterday evening that I checked the battle reports submitted by each battalion to learn about this important military information."

Speaking of this, Pang Tong paused and his face became serious: "Only by knowing oneself and the other can we fight forever. We can attack a strong city defended by 70,000 soldiers with 120,000 infantry and cavalry. The result can be imagined that it is inevitable that we cannot conquer for a long time. However, compared with the defenders of Wancheng, our army has been in northern expedition for ten days. Before and after the expedition, the three armies of the middle and rear army had a total of 150,000 troops, which lost nearly 5,000 combat cavalry in Deng County and more than 24,000 in Xipingao.

The infantry and cavalry lost more than 30,000 soldiers during the seven consecutive days of siege, so that our army currently has only more than 86,000 troops, and its strength is almost the same as the defenders of Wancheng. There are 50,000 troops in Wancheng, twenty miles away, and 120,000 Xiliang Iron Cavalry are rushing to attack behind Wancheng. This is the situation we are facing now. All the generals should be able to see that the situation is very unfavorable to us, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is in danger!"

Before Pang Tong finished speaking, Han Song, the commander of the army, blurted out: "Retreat the troops. Once Zhuge Liang leads reinforcements, we will face the 170,000 Western Jin army, twice as strong as me, and most of them are war cavalry. Since we know we are defeated, we will take advantage of the fact that the Western Jin reinforcements have not arrived yet, and we will still have time to withdraw immediately. If the Western Jin reinforcements arrive in Wancheng, even if we want to withdraw, we will probably find it difficult to retreat unscathed." Although these words were a little abrupt and quite harsh, they made others' ambitions to destroy their own might, they expressed the voices of the generals under the tent. At least most of the generals have the intention to retreat at this moment, but they are just considering their own face and are embarrassed to say it in public.

But Han Song is different. He was not originally a military general, and this time he went to the army to fight, he was only responsible for escorting food and grass, and did not directly participate in the war. Now his life is at stake, and the generals are very secretive about withdrawing troops and are difficult to talk about. However, Han Song did not have so many concerns. After all, those who read history books understand the principle of a gentleman not standing under a dangerous wall. Compared with escaping, what is a mere face?

As soon as the withdrawal of troops was said, it was like a stone stirring up a thousand waves, causing the generals in the tent to look different, their eyes flashed, and they were quite moved. At this moment, Pang Tong showed a smile on his face, and said frivolously: "Retreatment is the best strategy, and thirty-six strategies are the best strategy. It is reasonable for General Han to propose withdrawal. It is not wrong. But have you ever thought that even if we withdraw the camp overnight and retreat, will the Wancheng defenders take the opportunity to chase them? Even if the defenders in the city dare not pursue them rashly, the attack speed of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry is far from comparable to our army. If we travel two hundred miles a day, I am afraid that before we reach Deng County, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry will chase them. By then, how can tens of thousands of people in our army resist the 120,000 tiger and wolf army? Wouldn't they sit and wait for death or surrender?"

When the generals under the tent changed their expressions, they immediately discussed: "Uh? Yes, we launched the northern expedition, with a lot of food, supplies, and most of them were infantry, so we could not escape the pursuit of the Western Liang Iron Cavalry."

"Yes! Usually, the army usually travels more than fifty miles a day, and at the fastest it can only march a hundred miles. At best, it is just a half-day trip for the Western Liang Iron Cavalry, and it cannot escape!"

"You have to run away even if you can't run away. Can you stay here and sit and wait for death?"

""

————To be continued————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

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Chapter completed!