Chapter 384 The offensive and defensive situation is reversing!

Chapter 384 The offensive and defensive situation is reversing!

Gao Yao sat at the table, enjoying the delicious food leisurely. Yu Shu sat on his left and Xiao Yue sat on his right. The two beauties served him on his left and right. They moved gently and carefully to bring the food to Gao Yao's mouth.

Gao Yao really knows how to enjoy life, especially in a place like Nanjing near the sea. The rich and diverse seafood here has become a regular guest on his table, with all kinds of fresh fish, shrimps and crabs. Gao Yao has a special liking for these seafood and often asks for them to taste.

There are all kinds of seafood on the table, which are mouth-watering. There are big fat lobsters, whose bright red shells are shining with an attractive luster; there are also huge crabs, whose thick crab legs seem to show people how tender and juicy their meat is. Of course, all the food is carefully cooked and cooked before being served. Because in this era, there are no advanced medical equipment and perfect sanitary conditions like in modern society. If you rashly eat raw food, once you are infected with some unknown virus, the consequences will be disastrous.

If modern people were lucky enough to see the table full of delicious food in front of Gao Yao, they would probably be envious. Those big lobsters and crabs are very expensive in the modern market, and ordinary people can only taste them occasionally. But for Gao Yao, he can enjoy them as he pleases. Not only that, there are two beautiful women who take care of him carefully, peeling the shrimp and crab meat little by little, and then gently put it into his mouth. This kind of treatment is undoubtedly the top luxury enjoyment, and even the gods would be surprised!

As the food entered his stomach, Gao Yao could clearly feel that his almost thirsty body was frantically absorbing the food. This made Gao Yao feel much more energetic, and his physical strength was slowly recovering. The ancients were not completely unable to eat after falling into a coma. They still had ways to eat through the body's natural reactions, but the effect was definitely not as fast as modern infusions. Otherwise, they would have starved to death after not eating or drinking for seven days.

When Gao Yao had almost finished eating, he noticed Zhang Liang who had been in the courtyard. He was also startled. Zhang Liang naturally noticed Gao Yao's gaze and then walked to the main hall door.

"My Lord..." Zhang Liang bowed slightly and was about to speak. However, Gao Yao suddenly frowned and his sharp eyes quickly swept over the servants around him.

"You guys are really talking nonsense! From now on, whenever Mr. Zhang Liang sets foot in my mansion, you must come here to report immediately! Don't you even have this little tact? Don't you even bother to bring a chair for him to rest for a while?" Gao Yao shouted loudly and mercilessly, his tone full of dissatisfaction and blame.

Hearing Gao Yao's reprimand, the servants turned pale, trembling all over and bowed their heads to admit their mistakes. They knew that in Gao Yao's mansion, Gao Yao would have his way and would not tolerate any disobedience. As long as Gao Yao thought you were wrong, even if you were not actually wrong, you had to accept the punishment. Because for Gao Yao, it was not to let these servants eat for free, but to spend a lot of money to support them.

However, although these servants seemed to be of low status in Gao Yao's mansion, once they left here, the situation was completely different. Even if one of the small servants walked out, the ordinary soldiers and even ordinary people would be in awe and respect him. After all, being able to work in Gao Yao's mansion itself represents a special identity and background.

"Sir, please take a seat quickly. Someone, please remove all the things on the table!" Gao Yao turned to Zhang Liang with a smile on his face and waved his hand to signal his servants to do it.

"Here!" A clever waiter responded and quickly stepped forward to pick up the dishes on the table. In a short while, the table that was originally piled with delicious food was cleaned up.

At this time, Zhang Liang had just sat down on the chair slowly and leisurely. Just as he sat down, Yu Shu lightly took the exquisite teapot from the hand of the maid beside him, then turned around gracefully, walked towards where Zhang Liang was, and began to pour tea for him.

This sudden action made Zhang Liang's face startled for a moment. He quickly stood up from the chair, clasped his hands together and bowed to Yu Shu, saying: "Thank you, mistress! How dare I trouble you to do such a small matter? Let me do it myself." After that, Zhang Liang hurriedly opened his mouth to express his attitude to show his respect for his master and mistress.

After all, respect for hierarchy has been the most basic and important thing since ancient times. It is impossible for a smart and clever person like Zhang Liang to be indifferent to this.

Seeing this, Gao Yao, who was standing nearby, immediately said, "Yu Shu, you and Xiao Yue should go down and rest for a while. I have some important matters to discuss with Mr. Zhang."

After hearing what Gao Yao said, Yu Shu and Xiao Yue did not dare to neglect and immediately responded in unison: "Yes."

Then, they immediately bowed and were about to turn around and leave. At this moment, Gao Yao seemed to suddenly remember something important and hurriedly reminded them again: "Oh, by the way! Before you leave, remember to fetch the letters in the study for me."

Hearing this, Yu Shu and Xiao Yue responded in unison, "Yes." Then they hurried away with light steps.

"My lord, are you okay?" At this time, after everyone around him had left, Zhang Liang finally couldn't hold back his concern, stepped forward, and asked solemnly. His deep and wise eyes stared at Gao Yao, as if he wanted to see through his appearance to see his true health condition.

Hearing Zhang Liang's question, Gao Yao nodded slightly, indicating that he was fine: "Well, there is no big problem, I just need to have a good rest and recuperate. However, the current situation is urgent, so let me first talk about the specific battle situation." After that, Gao Yao looked at Zhang Liang with a sharp gaze, obviously hoping to get more detailed and accurate information from him.

Zhang Liang naturally understood Gao Yao's thoughts, so he stopped talking and immediately said, "My lord, in this battle, General Han Xin led a large army to attack the flank of Zhang Han's troops unexpectedly. At the same time, our army took advantage of the situation to launch a full-scale attack, causing the enemy's formation to be in chaos. After a fierce battle, we killed more than 8,000 enemies and captured more than 10,000 enemy soldiers! Now, Zhang Han has been forced to retreat to the border of Nanhai County. I'm afraid he won't dare to act rashly or attack rashly in the short term."

Zhang Liang spoke at a moderate speed, but his words were clear and coherent, and he described the entire battle situation vividly. In contrast, what Lü Zhi had said to Gao Yao before only touched on the most basic and superficial aspects, and key information such as the details of the war and the changes in the situation between the enemy and us needed someone like Zhang Liang who was well versed in military strategy to explain one by one.

"Erniu has successfully launched a surprise attack on the food and grass supplies of the imperial army! The amount of food and grass supplies seized this time was slightly less than the initial estimate. But even so, the food and grass were completely destroyed. But the more difficult problem is that the original plan to take back Xia County in one fell swoop did not succeed. According to reliable intelligence, there are as many as 10,000 elite soldiers stationed in Xia County, who are well-defended and well-trained. Erniu led his subordinates to launch a fierce attack on Xia County for three consecutive days, but in the end he had to give up and chose to lead the army to retreat to Guilin County for garrison and rest." After hearing Zhang Liang's report on the battle situation, Gao Yao couldn't help but frowned slightly.

In fact, Gao Yao was not dissatisfied with Erniu, he just had some feelings. Ever since the moment when the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan attacked him without anyone noticing, Gao Yao had a premonition in his heart: since the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan could accurately perceive the situation and launch such a sudden attack, he would definitely not easily leave any obvious flaws or loopholes for himself. Now it seems that the many soldiers and horses left behind in Xia County are undoubtedly the backup plan reserved by the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan in advance just in case. Obviously, Yi Xiaochuan had already anticipated that Gao Yao might take the risk of attacking Xia County and trying to cut off the retreat of the imperial army. Therefore, he deliberately deployed a large number of troops here to defend the city to ensure that there is no risk.

"Ying Bu of Yecheng also defended Yecheng and repelled 30,000 imperial troops. Now the imperial army has fallen into a food crisis and is seriously short of military rations. In ten days at most, the imperial army will surely be ashamed if they don't fight. According to the battle report just sent back, the imperial army has begun to gather on a large scale. If my prediction is correct, the imperial army is likely to split into two groups, one to withdraw from Xiangjun and the other to attack Guilin County to attract our army's attention." Zhang Liang quickly explained the two main frontal battlefields.

As for the battle between Cao Shen and Wang Ben in the breakaway area, it was more of a tug-of-war between them. This does not mean that Cao Shen's position is not important. On the contrary, Cao Shen's importance is unquestionable. It is much easier to fight and kill the enemy directly than to contain the enemy. On the one hand, Cao Shen has to contain Wang Ben's troops, and at the same time, he has to ensure that the force is not too strong. Once Wang Ben is driven away, Wang Ben will directly converge on most of the court army, which is not good for the main battlefield. While preserving his own manpower, he has to contain Wang Ben's 70,000 troops, while Cao Shen only has 50,000 soldiers at most.

Moreover, most of the soldiers under Cao Shen's command were originally from Nanyue, with a small number of soldiers originally from the southern border. To put it bluntly, many of the soldiers Cao Shen took with him were somewhat unstable in mentality and might be persuaded to rebel. On the one hand, Cao Shen had to lead his troops to contain Wang Ben, and on the other hand, he had to stabilize the morale of the army and the internal situation. It can be said that Cao Shen chose a thankless position for himself.

"Sir, what do you think of the current war situation?" At this time, Gao Yao also began to ask Zhang Liang about his thoughts on the subsequent war.