Zhou Zhi was horrified when he learned that the army's food route was threatened. He knew that the matter was serious and not trivial, so he immediately led the army to return for reinforcements after receiving the order, without daring to delay at all.
When he led his army to cross the Yellow River, he found that the bridge he had carried before was still there, so he immediately arranged for the army to cross the river.
But not long after, when the army had just passed the vanguard, a Jin army of about two thousand people suddenly attacked, blocking the path of the Liberation Army on the bridge.
Zhou Zhi's army was ordered to return for reinforcements after a series of hard battles. It was very tired and had no rest, but it had to go to war immediately.
As a result, You Yijun was slightly defeated by the strong resistance of the Jin Army.
The engagement area on the bridge was limited, making it difficult for Zhou Zhi to take advantage of his military strength. However, the Jin Army took advantage of this weakness of the Liberation Army and successfully blocked the Liberation Army's attack with a small number of troops.
After a hard fight, some of the troops that had crossed the river were unable to resist the attack of the Jin army and were defeated. Then they all rushed onto the bridge and tried to escape back to the other side.
However, at this moment, there were still many troops on the bridge trying to cross the river to support them, because Zhou Zhi had previously ordered the army to quickly cross the river to support the troops that had already crossed the river.
One side wanted to escape, and the other side wanted to cross the river for support. The two sides collided, and the bridge was suddenly crowded.
Just for a while, many soldiers fell into the water from the bridge and were washed away by the rushing river. They disappeared in an instant. It seemed that they were in danger and it was difficult to survive.
There were still many people who did not have time to squeeze onto the bridge and were chased by the Jin army. They had no choice but to jump into the river to try to survive. The probability of survival was not high. They were likely to be drowned or hit by dark rocks.
At this time, the crossbowmen of the Jin Army fired arrows at the chaotic Liberation Army on the bridge, killing many Liberation Army soldiers, making the chaos on the bridge even more serious.
A large number of Liberation Army soldiers were shot and killed, causing more soldiers to panic. They were on the bridge, with no retreat and lack of protection. In panic, order collapsed.
The collapse of order triggered a larger-scale chaos, with people squeezing and stepping on others just to squeeze out a way to survive.
However, this only pushed them completely from the brink of death.
Finally, the three river-crossing bridges could not withstand the huge vibration and weight in the extreme chaos, and collapsed one after another, and soon they all collapsed.
The soldiers on the bridge fell into the water one after another and struggled hard in the rolling water. Some of them disappeared soon, and some struggled hard while holding on to the wooden boards, trying to get ashore to survive. Unfortunately, it was too difficult.
Zhou Zhi watched helplessly as his attempt to cross the river failed miserably. He lost three bridges and was blocked by Jin soldiers on the south bank. He felt very regretful and felt that he should not have relied on bridges but should have taken a boat to cross the river.
But at this point, he had no other choice but to look for ships from other places, or rush to build ships to prepare for the second stage of the battle.
Zhou Zhi did not admit defeat, and Jin Jun was certainly not to be outdone.
They are now waiting for work, waiting for the Liberation Army to rush to cross the river, and they are ready to cause damage at any time.
From the sixth day of April to the tenth day of April, Zhou Zhi launched three forced crossing operations in four or five days, but all failed. He was blocked by the Jin army, unable to move, and unable to cross the river to launch an attack.
Zhou Zhi's confidence became less and less each time, and he gradually felt that he was unable to achieve his goals. The morale of the army continued to decline, and he could no longer persist.
His biggest hope now is that a force on the other side can stand up and attack from the rear of the Jin army, saving them blood and tears from the front.
This is of course impossible. It is better to expect them to stand up than to expect a sudden explosion of their own.
In fact, Zhao Kaishan's rear area is now facing an unprecedentedly severe threat.
A thousand-man Jin Army cavalry burned, killed, and looted in the Jeju and Tengzhou areas, burning a large number of military warehouses of the Liberation Army one after another, and killing local troops who tried to stop them. They galloped all the way into unstoppable territory, unstoppable.
The Jin general who led this cavalry was named Tudan Kening. He was the Suzhou defense envoy of the Jin Kingdom and one of the frontier generals on the border between Song and Jin.
He was born in a powerful family, but he was unsmiling, calm and composed, proficient in Khitan and Jurchen texts, and good at learning.
He was originally an official in the central government. After Wanyan Liang usurped the throne, a relative offended Wanyan Liang and he was implicated, so he was forced to go abroad.
Wan Yanliang was never merciful to people he didn't like, and he remembered very clearly that he didn't have a good life even outside, and it was difficult for him to stay in one place for a long time.
But at the moment, Tu Dankening happened to be a defense envoy in Suzhou, facing the Jianghuai War Zone of the Southern Song Dynasty. He commanded a force under his command, shouldered the heavy responsibility of border defense, and had certain independent powers.
During the Kaifeng war, Tu Dankening quickly learned the specific news, and he wanted to do something.
However, because Kong Yanzhou's previous order to the border generals was to strictly guard the local area and not to move out at will, and anyone who disobeyed the order would be killed, Tu Dan Kening did not take any action at first.
In fact, he was quite worried about the coordinated actions of the Liberation Army and the Song Army. The Liberation Army attacked Kaifeng, while the Song Army launched the Northern Expedition, so he ordered Suzhou to enter a state of emergency and mobilize troops.
But what made him feel a little confused was that since the Liberation Army launched its attack, he had not heard about any actions from the Song Army.
It is very difficult to guard against spies these days. As long as you are willing, there is very little military information that cannot be discovered. After all, military operations themselves are very dynamic. Unless the distance is too far, it is difficult for the information to be leaked.
The information conveyed by the several intelligence lines mastered by Tu Shan Kening showed that the Song Army on the front line did not receive any orders to dispatch or assemble, and everything was business as usual.
The Liberation Army was moving here, so the Song Army just pretended not to see it?
The Liberation Army attacked Kaifeng, the old capital of the Song Dynasty!
The Emperor of Song Dynasty didn't even plan to do anything?
Isn't this too strange?
As the saying goes, there must be monsters when things go wrong. Tu Shan Kening really thought that the Song army's lack of any movement was a delaying strategy of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was waiting for the moment when the Jin army relaxed its guard or the army went north to assist Kaifeng, so he continued to prepare. Be vigorous and vigorous.
But there is still no news from the Song Army.
News of Kong Yanzhou's retreat continued to spread southward, but there was still no movement from the Song army on the border, as if they had not heard anything.
The fighting on the Kaifeng side was extremely fierce. The Liberation Army and the Jin Army fought each other with red eyes, almost losing their minds. However, the Song Army had a quiet time.
When it's time to gamble, when it's time to drink, when it's time to play with women, they're doing everything, but anyway, they're not gathering or fighting.
Tu Dankening thought about it and felt very contradictory.
Even if they were to be caught by surprise, they wouldn't even have to prepare logistical supplies, right?
After all, war still requires logistical supplies. As the saying goes, the three armies must go ahead before food and grass are used. But now in the Southern Song Dynasty, supplies are not prepared, civilians are not recruited, and livestock are not arranged...
There was no preparation at all, how could it be unexpected?
Just bet that the Jin soldiers are all useless, win the battle, set off in the morning, and have lunch in the Jin Kingdom's city at noon?
Is this a decision that someone with some military knowledge can make?
On the one hand, the fact that the Song army was standing still, and on the other hand, the critical situation of Kong Yanzhou's retreat, made Tu Dan Kening very conflicted.
He really wanted to go north to support him, but if he took away all the elite troops and the Song army launched a surprise attack, Suzhou would be in danger.
In the final analysis, the biggest variable is the Song Army. If the Song Army attacks, the problem will be serious. If the Song Army does not attack, there will be no big problem.
After comprehensively judging the situation between the enemy and ourselves, and seriously considering the strange situation of the Song army not preparing for war, Tu Dankening hesitated for a while, and finally decided to take a gamble.
Just bet that Zhao Gou would not dare to initiate a war against the Kingdom of Jin.
Therefore, he decided to mobilize three thousand elite troops to follow him northward, leaving only a few troops to continue to garrison Suzhou.
In order to prevent a sudden attack by the Song army, he arranged some false appearances that the army was still there, but his subordinates were still worried.
"Will Song Jun come?"
"Not necessarily, I hope it won't come."
"What should we do if Song Jun really comes?"
"Fight to the death, hold on and wait for reinforcements."
"But what if I can't keep it?"
"I will die with you."
Tu Dankening was determined and would not waver any longer, leaving the lieutenant with a bitter look on his face to attack decisively.
