"The one who fled was Li Cheng! The one who defeated Li Cheng was Yang Yizhong, the Imperial Guard Commander leading the Imperial City Division!"

Under the sunlight after a summer rain, as Zhai Biao, lying on the ground, shouted with all his might as he had done before, the offensive of the Qi forces came to an end this noon.

Of course, the actual situation had little to do with Zhai Biao's roar, because those armored soldiers with long sabers were Li Cheng's confidants. They didn't need to be responsible for the victory or defeat of the battle, they only needed to serve Li Cheng wholeheartedly. Therefore, seeing Li Cheng flee, this group of people was almost instantly drained of their desire to fight, and then retreated from the Song army camp like a tide.

Judging from the way these people retreated, they clearly had not lost their combat effectiveness... which was no different from their Grand Commander.

Seeing this, Yang Yizhong, who had luckily forced his opponent back with one move, remained expressionless, but his heart could not help but sink. For him, the failure to kill Li Cheng and end this battle was always inappropriate... The double sabers on the ground undoubtedly revealed the identity of the person from before.

Of course, being in the midst of it, Yang Yizhong, who always thought with the worst-case scenario in mind, could not help but imagine that his life-risking saber strike not only forced Li Cheng back, seized a pair of sabers, and ended the opponent's wave of pushing, but also directly marked the end of this sudden summer battle with an incredible period.

But it certainly can't be blamed on Yang Yizhong for not seeing this, or even for mocking Li Cheng for pretending... because they are all players in the game.

Actually, thinking back to the Jingkang Disaster, Li Cheng led a few brothers traveling north and south, from Hebei to Huaishang, then to Shandong, fighting in the Jianghu, military and bandit skirmishes, when had he ever cherished his life?

And after the eastern front of the Song and Jin Dynasties gradually stabilized in the Jingdong area, and he began to lead troops and officially establish his foundation, he would not eat if his soldiers did not eat, would not sleep if his soldiers did not sleep, and never avoided wind, snow, rain, and frost. In addition to strict military orders, he privately did his best to care for his soldiers, and quickly expanded to three states in the Jingdong area, which was divided by military and bandits... he looked like a man of importance in every way.

However, such a character was a bit unlucky.

After all, although the world has looked chaotic in the past few years, in general, those messy things have never shaken the foundation of the two great powers of Song and Jin:

The Great Song Dynasty did almost perish, but it recovered and still firmly controlled the core areas such as the Southeast, Jingxiang, Bashu, and Lianghuai, and managed to maintain more than half of the population and territory... So-called existence is everything, everything is for existence, the size is there, everything is possible.

At the same time, although the Great Jin Dynasty also faced various messy internal and external contradictions and setbacks, which made many insightful people doubt, so far, no one can question their absolute military advantage... The great victory in Yanling-Changshe at the beginning of this year was so shocking, it itself illustrated the Jin people's military strength from another perspective. Is it not enough to show the problem that they lost only fifteen Meng'an and one unsuccessful invasion made people stunned?

Thinking about the troops lost by the Song army since the Jingkang Disaster, the defeats they suffered, it was embarrassing to compare.

So, back to the present, in this situation, it is no wonder that even a formidable figure like Li Cheng had to accept the Jin army's amnesty and become the Grand Commander of the puppet Qi regime... in order to obtain a little bit of political foundation to stand on.

However, even this little bit of political foundation was absurd and precarious.

Everyone knows what this Qi state is all about, they themselves know it, but they still have to jump in, and then put on this ridiculous combat performance today.

In fact, this is also an important reason why Zhao, the official of Tokyo, treated the puppet Qi regime so lightly before... His calmness when he heard the military situation in Dengfeng was certainly due to his infinite confidence in Yue Fei, but with Zhao's experience and political growth in the past two years, he was also able to realize the fragility and ridiculousness of the puppet Qi regime itself.

The sky cleared up, and a day passed without a word. Li Cheng, who had been defeated, did not launch another attack, but began to set up camp with the nearby settlements as the core. As for that Lord Hong, he did not urge them any further... The two of them really did 'waste time' here as they had said before.

Not only that, but even more absurd things happened that night.

A small group of troops sneaked into Mount Wu from the west and came to the battlefield. However, although Li Cheng's sentries had discovered the traces of this troop as early as during the day, and knew through capturing prisoners that they were local reinforcements from Yanggu County in the west, knew that there were only a few hundred of them, and even knew that the leader was a county magistrate named Xiao En, they still chose to turn a blind eye and just watched as this troop successfully 'sneaked' into the Imperial Guard camp, effectively strengthening the defense.

On the second day, there was no war on the north bank of the Ji River.

On the third day, there was still no war between the two sides, but the leaders of both armies were seized by a sense of fear... because here at Beixin Bridge, they only received a thousand reinforcements from Zhang Rong, but no sign of Yue Fei's troops.

And sure enough, that afternoon, Hong Ya, the Prime Minister of the Great Qi State, was suddenly invited by Li Cheng to come to a civilian house in the settlement, saying that he wanted to discuss important military matters in person.

"Lord Hong."

Somewhat unexpectedly, Li Cheng, who had been restless in his own room all morning and noon, immediately changed into a calm appearance as soon as he saw the visitor. Although he went straight to the point, his words did not seem to be hurried or flustered. "Zhang Rong's reinforcements have arrived, but there is no sign of Yue Fei's troops. I wonder if Lord Hong has any insights?"

Hong Ya, who had just entered the house and was immediately asked a question, was slightly stunned, and then felt a little flustered inside... He claimed to be some 'one who can see the enemy's banner from a hundred miles away,' some 'one who can turn the tide,' and organized an orderly retreat for Wanyan Talan... But how could he not know what was going on?

He knew military affairs, but only a little about logistics and grain distribution; he had courage, but only three parts, and all of them were used to put on a show; he knew strategies, but mostly speculated on people's hearts and guessed at secrets; he also knew government affairs, but only from his temporary experience in Xinzheng County that day.

And now, with Dongping Prefecture as the core, draw a circle around it, two large camps, four or five armies that are not subordinate to each other, hundreds of thousands of people, where can he gain insight from? And what exactly does he see?

Of course, whether he knows or not, Lord Hong still pretended as before, first stroking his beard thoughtfully, and then sighed slightly:

"If Zhao Song's official oversees this battle, I can naturally guess a thing or two, but I really don't know Yue Fei as well as the Grand Commander knows him. Why is the Grand Commander asking me instead?"

Seeing this, Li Cheng felt slightly relieved, but also sighed slightly: "To be honest, after thinking about it for half a day, I feel that there is nothing to say about this matter... There are only two places that Yue Fei would not come to the Ji River in a big way to rescue Yang Yizhong."

"Tell me about them." Hong Ya looked earnest.

"First, he is indeed a person of importance, and perhaps he has already seen through our intentions, knowing that you and I are just wasting time here on the Ji River, so he is too lazy to rescue us, and just continues to sit quietly in the south, waiting for the front line of Pingyin to be exhausted before making a thunderous move." Inside the simple civilian house, Li Cheng also answered sincerely. "Second, he received the information and felt that he was too late to rescue us, so he decided to make a desperate bet, and has simply already taken action."

"What is a desperate bet?" Hong Ya automatically ignored the first possibility.

"Naturally, he selected elite troops, crossed the Wen River, and raided the Pingyin front line!" Li Cheng looked serious.

Hong Ya's heart stirred slightly, but he also nodded instinctively, as if he recognized this possibility.

But for some reason, after talking about this possibility, the two people in the house stopped there, so that they were silent for a moment, with only the croaking of frogs and the chirping of cicadas incessantly.

I don't know how long it took, but Hong Ya finally came back to his senses and asked carefully: "If Yue Fei does this, what does the Grand Commander plan to do?"

"Actually, no matter what Yue Fei does, there is exactly a proper response at this time." Saying this, Li Cheng put his hands behind his back, turned to look out the door, and then sighed slightly with his back to Hong Ya. "In my opinion, we can't waste any more time, it's better to take the most secure method... I will lead the Qingzhou and Weizhou troops down the Ji River immediately, but no longer try to outflank Pingyin, but honestly go to Fujiagan, which is further down the Pingyin, and join... the Crown Prince, the Grand Marshal, and them... As for Lord Hong, I will give you a few thousand Mizhou soldiers, and why not go to Yanggu there, rely on the strong city and the Yellow River to protect the rear of the north bank of the Ji River?"

Li Cheng's words were intermittent, and he spoke with his back to the person he was talking to, which seemed a little strange.

However, there was too much information in these words, and Hong Ya instinctively thought about it constantly, but he had no time to consider other things. And you have to say, the more Lord Hong thought about it, the more feasible he felt it was.

Because first of all, whether Yue Fei continues to sit on the mountain like a tiger, watching for opportunities, or has already marched to the front line for a desperate bet, it is beneficial to the overall situation for Li Cheng to abandon the Ji River defense line, which is difficult to cross for the time being, and honestly go downstream to join Liu Lin and Kong Yanzhou, at least it is better than wasting time here.

Secondly, letting Hong Ya lead a few thousand Mizhou soldiers to the strong city of Yanggu can not only create a diversion to prevent Yang Yizhong and his Imperial Guards from acting rashly, but it can also indeed provide the Great Qi troops with an extra retreat route to Hebei after the overall situation in Pingyin is defeated, and at the same time, it has the meaning of monitoring the west to prevent Tokyo from sending reinforcements from here again.

Of course, these are all considerations from a public perspective, and after these few days of contact, Hong Ya firmly did not believe that the other party would be wholeheartedly for the public.

In fact, Lord Hong also guessed Li Cheng's selfishness.

This Grand Commander's selfishness is actually very simple... After he arrives downstream, he may not cross the Ji River to participate in the war, and perhaps he will camp across the river with Kong Yanzhou and Liu Lin at Fujiagan, and continue his wait-and-see attitude.

However, going there to wait and see has a great advantage over staying here and wasting time, that is, the Jin people must not be able to find a handle to punish him! Staying here, if the time is too long, and if there is really a great defeat in Pingyin, it will inevitably cause the anger of the Jin people in Hebei afterwards, and perhaps there will be some indiscriminate anger.

But what about that?

You must know that the Li Grand Commander gave him, Hong Ya, a few thousand soldiers and let him, Hong Ya, enter the strong city to enjoy the cool and avoid the summer heat, and perhaps there was some meaning of bribery to shut his mouth.

So why not do it?

At this thought, Lord Hong finally nodded heavily under the gaze of Li Commander, and Li Commander could not help but heave a sigh of relief after sweating half of his body.

Then, he actually immediately gave the order and ordered the three armies to set off in a hurry that day.

In this way, in the hot summer, at noon, Li Cheng, who had failed to cross the river from Hebei in a sneak attack, suddenly divided his troops. The main force went downstream in the northeast direction along the Ji River. At the same time, four or five thousand Mizhou soldiers who had lost their leader went west under the banner of 'The Great Qi Prime Minister Hong' and went to take the Yanggu County city, which was obviously empty.

In response, Yang Yizhong, who was already anxious, did not dare to be negligent, and wrote down the military situation here again, and sent it to Zhang Rong in Pingyin and Yue Fei in Zhongdu respectively... However, this also had the meaning of pretending, because he did not dare to tell his subordinates and that County Magistrate Xiao, who had come to rescue him with righteousness before and was now equally anxious, that the messenger who had gone to Zhongdu last time had disappeared like a clay ox entering the sea, never to return.

And there seemed to be only one possibility for this situation, that is, the messenger was detained for some reason!

Frankly speaking, there are some things and some people that he, Yang Yizhong, is willing to believe, after all, that is the person that the official has been thinking about since he fell into the well not long ago, but the others may not be able to do so... because in the current situation, believing in someone means entrusting your life to someone.

Why? Just because your name is Yue Fei?

"Who is Li Qing impeaching?"

On the same day, inside the Imperial City of Tokyo, in the Chuigong Hall, Zhao, the official, who had rarely attended the scriptures and learned a lot, was preparing to leave here and return to practice calligraphy... These days, Zhao, the official, rarely went to shoot 'moving targets' anymore, but he still maintained the habit of shooting arrows in the morning and practicing calligraphy in the evening that he had been insisting on for many years... And at this time, Li Jing, a new censor, suddenly stepped forward and publicly impeached a person, which made Zhao Jiu curious and turned his head.

"I impeach Yue Fei, the commander of the Vanguard Army of the Imperial Guard." Li Jing said solemnly, his words intense. "This person is superficially kind but inwardly shallow, and incompetent in misleading the country!"

Zhao Jiu looked at this younger brother of Li Gang and really couldn't help but laugh... Thinking back to the day when Yue Fei impeached Li Gang as a capitulationist, now it was Li Gang's brother's turn to impeach Yue Fei for being incompetent.

It really is a cycle of karma.