"General, why are we voluntarily withdrawing from Yucheng?"
Not only was Wanyan Loushi completely bewildered, but even the deputy generals around Zhe Kucun were all confused at this moment.
At this time, the entire Taiyuan City was tightly surrounded. No matter which direction they went, they would definitely have to fight the Jin people.
They took advantage of the Jin people's unpreparedness, reached Yucheng first, and captured the county town. This was originally a good thing for them.
After all, defending a city, even a county town, was much better than encountering the Jin people in the open field.
"Where did all this nonsense come from? Just do as you're told!"
Hearing their complaints, Zhe Kucun glared at them unceremoniously.
At his words, the deputy generals were all stunned.
They wanted to ask for details, but looking at his dark face, who would dare to talk nonsense at this time?
Helplessly, everyone could only cup their fists at him and retreated out of the large tent.
"A bunch of brats, with nothing to do every day but think about fighting!"
Seeing them all retreat, Zhe Kucun let out a long stretch and lay back down on the nearby couch.
He patted his chest, feeling the letter hidden close to his body, and Zhe Kucun's mood immediately brightened.
Before seeing this letter, he had almost resigned himself to death. But after reading the letter written to him by Han Mo, he suddenly realized that there was another way to fight a war.
Originally, according to his plan, he should have fought a decisive battle with the Jin people in Yucheng. Either they would defeat the Jin soldiers and rush to Taiyuan City to coordinate with Zhang Xiaochun, giving those Jin people a tough fight!
Or, they would be defeated in Yucheng, and he would die in battle, fulfilling the loyalty of the Zhe family.
But after reading the letter from Han Mo, he immediately changed his mind.
Apart from the 80,000 troops under Wanyan Loushi, most of the remaining Jin soldiers were concentrated under Bianliang City.
Even if there were occasional scattered Jin soldiers on the road, they were all strategically placed and unable to move, like dead pieces.
This meant that on the entire Hedong route, he only needed to deal with the 80,000 soldiers under Taiyuan City!
Although even 80,000 soldiers still far outnumbered Zhe Kucun's troops by more than three times.
But the problem was, just as that kid Han Mo proposed, he didn't need to clash head-on with these Jin people.
All he had to do was to tie down as many enemies as possible and reduce the pressure on Zhang Xiaochun and the others.
As long as he could achieve this, it didn't matter whether he was inside or outside the city. At this moment, although no exchange of fire had occurred, just by looking at the enemy's banners, he could see that this was the main general left behind by the enemy, Wanyan Loushi, leading the army personally. And the number of troops seemed to be at least over 30,000!
One should know that 30,000 Jin troops already accounted for nearly half of the attacking force.
As long as he could hold on with them and maintain the current situation, he would have already achieved the purpose of reinforcement. Whether the two sides fought or not was actually not important at all!
Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't even want to engage those Jin people.
After all, the court's compensation for fallen soldiers, especially for the Zhe family army, was merely a donkey's price!
Before, the Zhe family had no money, and the local fiscal revenue was barely enough to cover the basic military pay for ordinary soldiers.
But now, the situation was different. They were truly wealthy. The underground of the old Zhe family residence in Fuzhou had almost been dug out.
Don't misunderstand, they weren't digging for treasures, but merely for hoarding gold and silver!
To put it crudely, they were now so poor they only had money left!
Although the soldiers' equipment had been replaced one after another, no matter what, these were still flesh and blood. Unless necessary, Zhe Kucun really did not want to lead his Zhe family disciples to fight to the death with the Jin people.
"If the enemy retreats, we advance; if the enemy is stationary, we harass; if the enemy is tired, we attack; if the enemy advances, we retreat." These sixteen simple words, encapsulate the essence of military strategy!"
Recalling the sixteen characters Han Mo had enclosed in the letter, Zhe Kucun felt truly impressed from the bottom of his heart!
If it weren't for the obstacles of mountains and rivers, and the constant warfare everywhere, he would have really liked to ask Han Mo who was the master who had written these sixteen words.
Although the Jin people were cavalry, Hedong was not short of steep mountains and strategic passes.
Although cavalry had much greater mobility than ordinary soldiers, in such terrain, if Zhe Kucun was determined not to fight them, Wanyan Loushi would really have no way to deal with him!
Zhe Kucun's Zhe family army was basically composed entirely of mountain people from Lin, Fu, and San prefectures.
Just as the Jin soldiers were skilled at riding horses, these people had basically grown up on the mountains since childhood. They were either herding sheep for their families or searching for herbs and picking wild fruits on the mountains to exchange for money to supplement their household expenses.
They could traverse mountains and cross ridges as if walking on flat ground.
On flat ground, the combat power of cavalry was indeed astonishing, but if they were to attack uphill like this, they would truly become targets!
One should know that the archery skills of the Song army were traditional, especially in the Northwest. Organizations like archery clubs, which were semi-civilian and semi-official, were basically popularized in every village.
The ordinary people in the Northwest farmed, and during the slack farming season, retired veterans who served as instructors in the archery clubs would organize the young men in the village to train their archery skills.
The elite nature of the Western Army owed a great deal to these archery clubs!
As elite troops, the Zhe family army had even stricter assessments of archery skills. In the past year or so, even the soldiers' pay was differentiated based on their archery skills.
Hitting six out of ten arrows within fifty paces was considered passing. Within a hundred paces, hitting five out of ten would earn double pay.
As for those who hit a hundred out of a hundred arrows beyond a hundred paces, they would be directly selected as Zhe Kucun's personal guards, with rations and pay four to five times that of ordinary soldiers!
With such archery skills, if Wanyan Loushi dared to lead his troops up the mountain, Zhe Kucun really wanted to give him a big surprise!