During the dinner, he was gentle and approachable, which fully demonstrated Zhang Dun's characteristics of working with people.

He is always gentle and considerate towards his own people.

Otherwise he wouldn't have so many friends.

But he showed no mercy to his enemies and was ruthless and cruel.

Even if you risk the whole world to speak out, you must kill them all without leaving any future troubles.

…

Li Changjie wore armor and looked at the Song Army cavalry patrolling the hills in the distance.

He stuck out his tongue and licked his dry lips, his bloodshot eyes filled with despair.

"Are there still no reinforcements coming to Taiyuan City?" He asked in a low voice to his younger brother Li Changxian who was beside him and a confidant who followed him in the north and south.

Li Changxian shook his head: "Since the last envoy from Taiyuan City arrived at our military camp five days ago, Taiyuan City has lost contact with us."

“I don’t even know if Taiyuan City is still in the hands of Dai Viet!”

Li Changjie silently looked at the cruising figures of the Song Army cavalry in his sight.

To be honest, the Song army did not have many cavalry.

It is estimated that there are no more than 1,500 riders, but they are like clinging poisonous snakes, cruising and guerrilla all the time, forcing Li Changjie and making him feel uncomfortable, but he can't find a way.

Because there are fewer people going, the cavalry can eat them with a little temptation.

If too many people go and the formation is too big, the Song army will already know about it before they leave the camp.

When Li Changjie is ready, Song Jun is also ready.

The Song army of nearly 10,000 men, armed with tens of thousands of local chieftains, was prepared to prepare for the attack.

As a result, Li Changjie and his army were in an embarrassing situation where they could neither fight nor retreat.

Tens of thousands of troops, people eating horse chews, brought little food and grass.

What's even worse is that there is a lack of drinking water.

They tried their best to dig wells and springs, but they could not provide enough drinking water for tens of thousands of people and livestock within the control of their camp.

Especially those twenty war elephants, who drank nearly a thousand people's worth of water every day.

Therefore, Li Changjie had to organize his men and venture out of the camp to fetch water from a nearby river.

And this is often a fatal trap.

The Song Army's cavalry suddenly appeared and charged, and the men sent to fetch water never came back.

In addition to water, human and animal excrement accumulated on the mountains and in the forts, which also put Li Changjie and his army into a terrible situation.

Human and animal feces that cannot be cleaned up in time attracts countless flies and mosquitoes.

More and more soldiers are getting sick.

If this continues, if the Song army doesn't attack, they will be doomed themselves!

A breakout is necessary.

Li Changjie knew that he must lead his troops to break out.

When he set out from Taiyuan, he had 30,000 troops under his command, plus about 40,000 young men.

Now, after seven or eight days of siege and fierce fighting, the loss of soldiers and young men has exceeded fifteen thousand.

The main loss came from the night attack that night.

The cavalry of the Song Army trampled on each other and killed nearly ten thousand people. Countless people were injured. Among these injured, more than three thousand were young and strong. They died of their injuries in the following days (in fact, they were not treated at all. In this case,

In this era, it was almost impossible for most soldiers to receive effective treatment after being injured).

Although the vast majority of these deceased were young men and women.

Less than three thousand soldiers actually died in that chaotic night.

But the blow to the morale of Li Changjie and his army was devastating.

Since then, until now, his army has not had the courage to face the Song army head-on.

Usually, if there is any disturbance, the army will become restless.

Especially every night, the sound of the horse hooves of the Song Army's cavalry can be heard somewhere.

Many people are too scared to sleep.

Especially the young and strong people were in fear day and night, fearing that the Song army would set foot in the camp again.

However, let alone a breakout.

Since ancient times, retreating in front of the enemy has been a major event that has been difficult for countless generals.

If you are not careful, your entire army will be wiped out!

What's more, the army is surrounded by enemies?

Therefore, Li Changjie turned back to look at Li Changxian and said: "Brother, for the current plan, I'm afraid I can only lose pawns to save the car."

Li Changxian nodded, this is the current consensus among military lieutenant generals.

In fact, as early as a few days ago, on the day after the Song army set foot in camp, someone had already proposed that the young and strong men and baggage should be abandoned, and the entire army should immediately break away from contact and withdraw south to Taiyuan.

However, the consequences of doing so will inevitably be heavy losses. If the entire army is able to return south, it is inevitable that not even one of them will survive.

Therefore, Li Changjie refused without hesitation.

Because he still had hope at that time.

He is still looking forward to reinforcements from Taiyuan or Shenglong Mansion.

He also wanted to return to Taiyuan with his main force.

He was reluctant to leave his troops here.

Because Li Changjie knew that once he did this, the blow to the morale of the entire Dai Viet would be devastating!

It is very likely that no one will dare to challenge the Song army head-on from now on.

Running away or even surrendering without a fight will become the choice of countless people.

Li Changjie is proud.

Of course he would not allow such a thing to happen!

But now, he has no choice.

Because, the connection with Taiyuan has been completely cut off.

There were many illnesses and deaths in the camp, and food and drinking water were already in short supply.

If you hesitate any longer, the entire army will collapse without a fight.

The Song Army on the opposite side may be waiting for them to collapse!

Therefore, we must break out of the encirclement and bring our effective forces back to Taiyuan City, then withdraw to the Fuliang River and rely on the natural danger of the Fuliang River to confront the Song people.

Wait for the rainy season, wait for the heavy rain, let the miasma and disease teach those arrogant Song people a lesson!

"Brother, how much food and water are there in the camp?"

"There is still a lot of food." Li Changxian replied: "Although the food is less than a thousand dan, we still have about 10,000 livestock in the army, which is enough to last for a while."

During this expedition, Li Changjie took away almost all the available livestock in Taiyuan and several nearby states for transporting baggage.

When we set out, there were twenty thousand oxen, donkeys, mules and horses in total.

There are even hundreds of extremely valuable war horses.

However, after leaving Taiyuan, there were only more than 10,000 people left in more than ten days.

The others were either dead or lost due to the chaos of that night.

"But there is not much drinking water. The springs on the mountain and the wells dug under the mountain are drying up day by day. If it doesn't rain again, the whole army will be thirsty."

"Let's leave the wells at the foot of the mountain alone for now, but from now on, my brother and I will lead my close confidants to guard the springs on the mountain!"

"From now on, the water from the mountain spring can only be used for drinking by the four thousand elites I brought back from Maling and the war elephant camp!"

"No!" Li Changxian accepted the order with his hands raised, but his face was somewhat depressed.

The four thousand elites their brothers brought back from Ma Ling are already the most daring and experienced army in Dai Viet Kingdom.

If they die here, then the other armies of Dai Viet Kingdom may not have the courage to face the Song army again.

However, to break through, you must have a sharp knife.

This sharp knife can only be made by the elite.

Let Ma Lingjun and the Zhanxiang Battalion charge desperately to defeat the besieging chieftain soldiers and open a way to Taiyuan.

Li Changjie looked at Li Changxian's expression and naturally knew what his brother was thinking.

He said to Li Changxian: "Brother, it's not what you think."
To be continued...