Although it was incredible that the generals who attacked the army in the middle of the Dayan line felt that the millions of stones of grain from Pingwu, Qianyang and Gaoling were almost all burned by the spies from the Jinluo Kingdom overnight, the facts are the facts. The generals of the three routes of the army may experience food shortages in the short term.

This almost indicates that the fourth attack on Jinluo by the Great Yan Empire may come to an end. After all, the food of the Great Yan Empire is not endless. In order to raise the military rations of the three routes to attack the army, the Great Yan Empire has been preparing for more than half a year.

Du Huairen, deputy commander of the Central Army, sighed and said, "Now the grain stored by the guards and soldiers of our middle army, plus some of the grain seized from the various camps of the Jinluo army outside Lingzhou City, is probably enough for our middle army to use for a month. This does not include feeding the 250,000 prisoners captured today. In Pingwu City, it is definitely not possible to provide much food to our middle army within a month. After all, it takes a lot of time to collect food from various places again."

King Zhao Jing of Yue immediately said in a deep voice: "One month is enough for us to capture Lingzhou City. Since we have not seized much grain in the camps outside Lingzhou City, there must be a mountain of grain in Lingzhou City. The food and grass of more than one million Jinluo troops outside Lingzhou City should be placed in Lingzhou City."

Du Huairen smiled bitterly and said, "Even if we can capture Lingzhou City, the Jinluo army will almost never leave us the piles of food, just like the cities we captured before. At the last moment, the Jinluo army will inevitably burn military rations."

Xie Zhitong, the commander of the Central Army, sighed and said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince, Your Highness the King of Song, Your Highness the King of Yue, and all the generals. Now the military rations hoarded in Pingwu City are burned, which is not just a problem of food shortage. Since the food in Pingwu City is gone, the 200,000 new soldiers who were originally planning to supplement our Central Army will not be able to enter the Jinluo Kingdom as scheduled. With the current grain reserves of our Central Army, we cannot raise these 200,000 new soldiers at all."

After pausing, Xie Zhitong said again: "Although the court has no order, in order to leave some seeds for the 15 guards, I advocate temporarily withdrawing the troops. After solving the problem of food and grass and military replenishment, our middle army will come to attack Lingzhou City again. I wonder what you think?"

After Xie Zhitong made the proposal to temporarily withdraw the army, except for the crown prince Zhao Chang, the Song Dynasty king Zhao Zhi and Yue Dynasty king Zhao Jing, the other nine commanders of the imperial guards immediately expressed their agreement. After all, after this battle, the guards of the middle army were severely damaged. If they forcibly attack Lingzhou City, they would not mention the issue of food. If they could not solve the problem of their families, they would have to lose all their families in Lingzhou City.

Seeing this, the prince Zhao Chang, Song Zhao Zhi and Yue Zhao Jing were too unwilling to accept this, but they had to agree to Xie Zhitong's proposal to withdraw.

When Xie Zhitong saw everyone agreeing to withdraw the troops, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and said, "Since everyone has no objection, then from tomorrow, our middle army will begin to retreat towards Pingwu City, and at the same time convey the withdrawal of our middle army to the left and right side and side divisions."

Prince Zhao Chang asked, "What should I do if the 250,000 prisoners I captured today? Should I take them all back to my country?"

Previously, when the middle army captured more than 40 cities in the Jinluo Kingdom, it captured more than 200,000 prisoners. At present, most of these prisoners have been taken back to the territory of Dayan by the palace soldiers.

Xie Zhitong hesitated for a moment and said, "Among the 250,000 prisoners, almost 100,000 were from the Fujie Kingdom. No matter from what perspective, we must bring these 100,000 people from our vassal states in Dayan for resettlement. As for the 140,000 Jinluo people and nearly 10,000 barbarians captured, what are your suggestions?"

King Zhao Jing of Yue said coldly: "I think it is better to kill all the 140,000 Jinluo people and nearly 10,000 barbarians, so that they can save a lot of food."

Ma Huairen, the commander of the left guard, hurriedly said: "No, once we kill these 150,000 prisoners of war, then in the future, the Jinluo army will inevitably refuse to surrender easily. Moreover, it will only take about twenty days to withdraw from Lingzhou City to Pingwu City. We are fully capable of bringing these 150,000 prisoners of war back to Pingwu City, not to mention that among the many cities we captured along the way, we can also collect some food."

Xie Zhitong pondered for a while before nodding slowly and said, "Then bring all the prisoners of war you caught back to your country. Anyway, those Jinluo people and barbarians can all sell for a good price."

The prisoners of war captured by the Dayan army are generally sold as slaves, and the money obtained will become silver rewards for officers and soldiers.

After everyone left the general's tent, only the Minister of War Xie Zhitong and the Right Minister of War Du Huairen were left in the general's tent.

At this time, Xie Zhitong asked Du Huairen in a deep voice: "Brother Du, do you think the Jinluo Kingdom has the ability to burn almost all the millions of stones of grain from Pingwu, Qianyang and Gaoling overnight?"

Du Huairen sneered, "It is impossible for Jinluo Kingdom to do it at all. There must be an insider in our Dayan, but I don't know who did it!"

A cold light flashed in Xie Zhitong's eyes, "I also think it is impossible to do it with the Jinluo Kingdom alone. Don't let me know who was doing it, otherwise even if I am the king of heaven, I, Xie, will tear him to pieces!"

Du Huairen immediately sighed and said, "It's a pity that today's hard-won good situation. In order to win this bloody battle outside Lingzhou City, our middle army has more than 250,000 soldiers stained the battlefield with blood, and even the corpses cannot be transported back to the country."

Xie Zhitong gritted his teeth and said, "So the inner genius is even more hateful. This time, the fifteen guards in the middle army were all injured. They can't recover within one or two years. This time, they withdrew from the Jinluo Kingdom. It is impossible for me, Dayan, to send troops to Jinluo in a short time."

On July 18, 17th year of Jianping, the Dayan Middle Road attack army, which had just won a brilliant victory outside Lingzhou City, began to withdraw troops to the east in an orderly manner, confusing Yu Jin, the left assistant minister of the Jinluo State War Department in Lingzhou City. Yu Jin had even made plans to sacrifice his life for his country after Lingzhou City was captured, but why did the Dayan army retreat?

In a hall in the imperial palace of Jinluo City, the capital of Jinluo Kingdom, the emperor Xiahou Zhen of Jinluo Kingdom had just heard of a news that made him ecstatic, but before he was happy for long, he received the bad news that the Jinluo army was defeated outside Lingzhou City.

Xiahou Zhen asked Xiahou Cheng, the Minister of War with a gloomy face, “What should I do now? We, Jinluo Kingdom, must not miss such a good opportunity. We must eat as many elite troops as possible from the Yan State’s imperial guards!”

Xiahou Cheng, Minister of War, nodded and said, "I didn't expect that the millions of stones of food that the Yan army had hoarded in Pingwu City, Qianyang City and Gaoling City would be burned overnight. Now the Dayan army outside Lingzhou City has begun to retreat. I believe that the other two Dayan army will surely retreat into Yan's territory soon. It is the best opportunity for our Jin Luo army to intercept the Yan imperial guards!"

Xiahou Zhen, the emperor of Jinluo, sighed and said, "I didn't expect that the Yan army was so powerful. The Yan army and the imperial guards and soldiers who entered our Jinluo territory had a total of less than 1.4 million troops, but they had caused our Jinluo to lose more than 2.5 million troops. The Jinluo Imperial Guard alone had lost more than 600,000. I have now given up the plan to counterattack Yan. I just hope to take the opportunity to eliminate more Yan army so that Yan State can't attack our Jinluo State again in a short period of time. Give me some time to let our Jinluo State completely digest the wealth, population and land obtained from Fuzhi."

Xiahou Cheng, Minister of War, immediately suggested: "Your Majesty, I think it is better to cut off one finger than to hurt his ten fingers. According to the current situation, we can completely allow hundreds of thousands of troops of Jinluo, who are in the left and right sides of Yan State to attack the main force of the Yan State's middle route from the north and south directions. We will then directly send the 100,000 barbarian cavalry and the last 100,000 cavalry of our Jinluo Imperial Army to pursue the main force of the Yan State's middle route. At the same time, we order the left minister Yu Jin to lead the imperial guards, the wing army and the surrounding cities of Lingzhou and the 200,000 cavalry to pursue the central route of Yan State, striving to severely damage and even wipe out the central route of Yan State."

As soon as the Minister of War Xiahou Cheng finished speaking, Liu Hengde, the left prime minister of Jinluo State, agreed: "Your Majesty, in the battle of Lingzhou City, although our Jinluo army suffered heavy losses, the middle army of Yan State also suffered considerable losses. In addition, the morale of the army will definitely be unstable during the retreat of Yan State. I feel that there is a chance to eat the elite of Yan State's imperial guards."

Emperor Xiahou Zhen nodded and said, "Then follow the plan of Secretary Xiahou, and I hope to receive good news this time."

Then Emperor Xiahou Zhen hesitated and asked: "A few dear friends, who can burn the millions of stones of grain that the Yan army has hoarded in Pingwu City, Qianyang City and Gaoling City? Even I, Jin Luo, cannot do such a thing!"

The left prime minister Liu Hengde shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, I am also very confused about this. I don't know which force it is, which helped our Jinluo Kingdom a great favor at this time. If millions of stones of grain in Pingwu City, Qianyang City and Gaoling City were not burned, after the battle of Lingzhou City, it is very likely that the entire Lingzhou Prefecture would be captured by the Yan army."

Xiahou Cheng, Minister of War, immediately said: "Your Majesty, no matter which force does it, the burning of millions of stones of grain in Pingwu, Qianyang and Gaoling is already confirmed and it cannot be the plan of the Yan people."

Emperor Xiahou Zhen shook his head and said, "I don't think this is fake news. After all, I have confirmed it from many aspects. I am just wondering who burned millions of stones of grain. It really helped our Jinluo Kingdom a great help."
Chapter completed!