Fu San Zhongyi sighed in admiration as he spoke, "The other routes of the Southern Song's Northern Expedition were fine. We blocked them one by one. Only Guo Jing's route was unstoppable. First, he broke through the strategic town of Sizhou, then Hong County. He went all the way north. It was like a sharp knife stuck between Xuzhou and Suzhou, making us unable to eat or sleep in peace."
"Guo Jing," Song Qingshu sighed with emotion, "When he was Mongolia's Golden Knife Prince Consort, he contributed greatly to the Mongolians' destruction of Khoresm. Later on, he defended Xiangyang and defeated the Mongolian army several times. He truly lives up to his reputation!"
He thought to himself, "Although Guo Jing is not very intelligent, he is pure. It can be said that he has no distractions. This way, he can achieve twice the results with half the effort. If he had not been burdened by military affairs these past few years, his martial arts would probably have improved by another level. However, from another perspective, it is the world's loss for such a talent to only focus on martial arts."
"Guo Jing is indeed powerful, but he has too many useless teammates. As the saying goes, a single log cannot hold up a pillar." Fu San Zhongyi suddenly revealed a confident smile.
Song Qingshu heard the hidden meaning in his words and hurriedly asked, "What do you mean by that?"
Fu San Zhongyi pointed to the map and said, "This is the current location of Guo Jing's troops. This is the current location of the other Song armies. Marshal, do you see anything?"
On the map, Guo Jing's troops outshone the others. They had penetrated deep into the heart of the Jin Kingdom. However, the other armies were blocked not far from the border of the two countries. Song Qingshu could not help but wonder, "With Guo Jing's battlefield experience, he shouldn't make this kind of mistake."
"He won't." Fu San Zhongyi pointed to the other armies and said, "According to the scouts, the Song armies are advancing side by side. They plan to meet at the city of Suzhou and take down Suzhou in one go. This way, the entire West Huainan Road will fall into the hands of the Southern Song. Unfortunately, the plan is good, but the reality is cruel. The other armies are unable to break through our defense line and did not arrive at the city of Suzhou at the scheduled time. This indirectly caused Guo Jing's danger."
"Will the Southern Song Dynasty just sit back and do nothing?" Song Qingshu asked curiously.
"Of course there are changes," Fu San Zhongyi explained. "According to the news from the scouts in the past few days, the Southern Song Dynasty has changed their battle plan. They have secretly transferred back the troops from the other routes and plan to attack Suzhou directly along the road that Guo Jing opened up. Originally, I had a headache, and the troops in my hands were a little stretched. But now that the marshal has brought fresh troops, we can close the gates and beat the dogs. It's enough to swallow this army!"
"General, you're truly a godly commander!" Song Qingshu praised him without restraint, but he was secretly worried. Although he had been mentally prepared for Guo Jing's future, he did not expect it to come so soon. If something happened to Guo Jing this time, how would he explain it to Huang Rong?
"Report!" At that moment, a scout suddenly came to ask for an audience, but was stopped by Tang Kuo Bian's personal guards. It turned out that the scout had rushed here in such a hurry, and was suspected to be an assassin.
Fu San Zhongyi's expression froze, and he hurriedly called out, "This is urgent! Let him in!"
Song Qingshu waved his hand at the guards, asking them to let the scout in. The scout did not care about anything else, and as soon as he entered, he quickly said, "I just received news that the Southern Song Dynasty has been moving their troops frequently. It's likely that they're about to make a big move."
"Report!" As soon as he finished speaking, another scout rushed over on horseback. "Not long ago, Guo Jing left the camp with his men."
Fu San Zhongyi hurriedly asked, "How many men did he bring with him?"
"I couldn't see clearly in a hurry, and they deliberately covered it up. I only know that they are all cavalry," the scout replied.
Fu San Zhongyi finally let out a sigh of relief. "I'm afraid he doesn't even have a thousand men under him."
Beside him, Song Qingshu was stunned. "Why do you think so, General?"
Fu San Zhongyi explained, "The Southern Song Dynasty has always been short of horses, and there are almost no cavalry troops. In recent military campaigns, there have only been a few hundred cavalry troops sent out each time. I overestimated them by saying a thousand."
Song Qingshu secretly clicked his tongue. Although he knew that the Southern Song Dynasty was short of horses, he did not know that it was to such an extent that they could only gather a few hundred cavalry troops for such a large-scale northern expedition.
"Report!" A third scout hurried over. "Reporting to General, another Southern Song army has left the camp. Their leader seems to be General Li Ruyi."
"Which direction did they go?" Fu San Zhongyi asked.
The scout shook his head. "It is temporarily impossible to determine their target."
Fu San Zhongyi spread out the map and began to study it. As he pondered, he muttered to himself, "According to our previous intelligence, Guo Jing's army is most likely a feint, and Li Ruyi's army is likely to be the main force. However, we do not know where their feint is, and where their main attack is. Is it Suzhou …"
Song Qingshu took the opportunity to say, "Then we should focus our efforts on Li Ruyi. Guo Jing only has a few hundred cavalry troops under his command, and they won't be able to do much." If he could avoid meeting Guo Jing on the battlefield, it would be best to avoid putting himself in a difficult position.
Unexpectedly, Fu San Zhongyi shook his head. "No, our main target this time is Guo Jing."
Song Qingshu was shocked. "Why?"
Fu San Zhongyi explained, "I have dealt with Li Ruyi before. He is just a mediocre person, or rather, the entire Southern Song army is composed of mediocre people. They can barely defend the city, but they are a mess when it comes to attacking. There is nothing to worry about. But Guo Jing is different. In his early years, he helped the Mongols in the Western Expedition. Later, he defeated the Mongols in Xiangyang. This time, he is also outstanding in the Northern Expedition. I can predict that he will definitely be a great threat to the Jin Empire in the future. He alone is equivalent to a hundred thousand soldiers, so we need to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill him! "
"But we do not know where Li Ruyi's main force is. If we do not do anything, will it cause the entire front line to collapse?" Song Qingshu tried his best to dispel the enemy's idea and save Guo Jing's life.
Unfortunately, Fu San Zhongyi had already made up his mind. "Li Ruyi is not capable of this. This time, he is most likely going to attack Suzhou. I have already prepared a big gift for him there. Li Ruyi is just a scabbard; Guo Jing is the real threat! "
Since things had come to this, Song Qingshu could not say anything more. After all, he was now Tang Kuo Bian, and he had to consider the interests of the Jin Empire. If he continued to speak, he might give himself away.
"I have just arrived, so I will not meddle in the specific deployment of troops. General, continue to be in charge. Remember to inform me at any time." Song Qingshu was well aware of the danger of changing generals at the last minute. Now that Fu San Zhongyi had managed the front line well, there was no need for him to interfere. It would be troublesome if he accidentally caused the southern front line to collapse. Of course, he did not completely let go. Although he had handed over the specific strategic design and tactical implementation to Fu San Zhongyi, he still retained the final approval power. Without his approval, Fu San Zhongyi could not mobilize the troops. This was to avoid being a mere figurehead in the army.
"Yes, sir!" Fu San Zhongyi breathed a sigh of relief. What he was most afraid of was that Tang Kuo Bian would come and seize power. Then, he would give orders blindly and ruin the good situation. Now that the two of them had divided the work, it was perfect.
Next, Song Qingshu excused himself from the long journey and returned to the main tent to rest for a while. Fu San Zhongyi continued to discuss the next battle plan with the generals.
After returning to the main tent, Song Qingshu took off his clothes and said to Taj-tish, "Come here quickly!"
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