In the first month of the second year of Deyou, the severe cold turned the earth into a white expanse, and the galloping wide river was quietly like a sleeping dragon, waiting for the spring to thaw and roar everywhere. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In this Spring Festival season, which should be celebrated by the whole world, the entire Huaibei Plain fell into the panic of war, and along the Yellow River all the way up the road, prefectures, prefectures, and counties, the people suddenly found that a large army that did not know where it came from, appeared in front of them so suddenly, with fiery red battle jackets, fiery red tasseled helmets, and fiery red flags, like fiery clouds on the horizon, dyed red on both sides of the river.

"Lie down at night and listen to the wind and rain, and the iron horse and the glacier fall into a dream." An old man in a shirt looked at everything in front of him, muttering to himself, tears rolling in his eyes, in stark contrast to the frightened expressions of the ordinary people around him.

"Phew!" A team of horses that had just galloped past them, led by a middle-aged man in military uniform, slowly stopped on the side of the road, the man unsaddled and fell off his horse, and walked briskly towards this side, more than a dozen sergeants who looked like soldiers hurriedly dismounted, stepped forward to support, and the people on the side of the road did not run, nor did they stand, and they all stayed there at once.

The man's long beard brushed his chest, his face was clear, and his eyes were even brighter, but under the shining phoenix-winged gilded helmet, his face showed an unusually thin face, he glanced at the group of people, and his eyes stopped on the old master's body.

"The old man is from this village?"

"Don't dare to be a handsome question, Xiao Lao'er is a local, who sets up a museum in the village to teach, collects some restraints, and barely makes ends meet." Swept by his gaze, the old master suddenly couldn't stand, but he couldn't help but answer the question, he gave a salute, felt that something was wrong, and wanted to kneel down when he lifted his placket.

Without waiting for the man to reach out to help, the two pro-soldiers fought one on the left and one on the right, and the old master's body suddenly stopped in mid-air, just as if he was going to be arrested, and his legs trembled in fright.

"Don't be afraid, I just heard you recite Lu Fangweng's poems, so I got off the horse and took a look." The man paused and continued: "Innocent people, the official does not kneel, this is the case in the Great Song Dynasty, and it is the same here, the official has a few words to ask you." ”

At his signal, the soldiers let go of the old master, who seemed to want to try to stand up straight, but his body was used to rickets, so he bent over and bowed his head and answered: "Boss, please ask, little old man has no answer." ”

"At this time of year, can you still get by?"

Perhaps he didn't expect the other party to ask this kind of question, the old master was stunned for a moment, and shook his head: "Last year, everyone in the village was dragged away, and now, none of the ten people who came back, poor people, can live if they have a stutter, and they can't get by." ”

The man's gaze went over his head, and he looked over the people, who were dressed in perhaps the best clothes in the house, but none of them smiled except for the ignorant children, and the old master was right, there were no more adult men in the village, and among them were either old men, women, children, and children, and the houses made of adobe and thatch in the distance were as silent as tombs, and there was not the slightest life in sight.

Everyone's eyes were dodging, for fear that disaster would befall them if they were not careful, perhaps for them, what color flag was planted on this land was far less important than the return of relatives or a bowl of food, looking at all this, the man suddenly lost the interest in asking, and turned around with his own soldiers and walked forward.

"I don't know who the handsome is?" Perhaps because of the kindness shown by the other party, the old master hesitated for a long time and asked boldly.

The man's footsteps did not pause in the slightest, a soldier who lagged behind stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction of the team, the overwhelming red tide covered the banks of the river, a knight on the horse provoked a big sword, in the ring formed by the dragon and tiger ornamentation, a huge and friendless "Li" character danced in the wind, and the long white flags on both sides were full of dense official titles, which was dazzling to read.

"The crown prince and the prince, the governor of the council, the privy council, the system along the river, the Jianghuai ambassador, the queen of the palace, the governor of the Jiankang Mansion and the Mabu Army, the founding prince of Handong County, 2,100 households, 900 households"

The old master muttered the names of these official positions, and suddenly a word that had disappeared for more than a hundred years came out of his mind, and those poems that he did not dare to pronounce in front of people of other races suddenly seemed so clear in front of this red tide.

This is an army from the Great Song Dynasty, but they have never been treated as "eating pot pulp to welcome the king's division", because they came too late, more than 150 years late.

In Li Tingzhi's sight, his army is rolling along a straight official road, the whole army crossed the Huaishui from the Qinghe estuary on the other side of Huaiyin County, along the Yellow River all the way north, with the momentum of breaking bamboo, connecting Qinghe, Taoyuan, Suqian and other counties, and attacked the Guide Mansion set up by the Yuan people, and for the Song people, this should be the Huaiyang Army on Jingdong East Road, and behind them is the Huaiyang Army's seat of Pixian, and now it is the Pizhou set up by the Yuan people.

At the same time, the other route of more than 50,000 troops led by Zhang Shijie set out from Sizhou, which is located on the north bank of Huaishui, and marched west along Bianshui, aiming at Suzhou, an important town in Huaibei under the jurisdiction of Defu.

This is not the first time he has set foot in the land of Huaibei, just three years ago, the Great Song Dynasty in Huaibei also has Huaiyuan Army, Huai'an Army, Qinghe Army, Andong Army and Sizhou, East and West Haizhou and other four armies and three states, the farthest place even borders with the Yuan people's Zhongshu Province under the jurisdiction of Jingdong, but Xuzhou is different, take it can overlook the whole of Henan, from the old capital Kaifeng Mansion is only a few days away.

At this moment, the excitement surging in his heart was beyond words, just as someone predicted before the war, the Henan Province of the Yuan people was outrageously empty, and the smooth offensive along the way had exceeded his expectations, from the beginning he was still a little cautious, afraid that in the unfamiliar terrain, there would be something unexpected happening, but he never thought that the spies who came out of the front had already put all the enemy situations in front of him, as if he had countless pairs of eyes.

It has been more than 20 days deep into the enemy's territory, and the battle that occurred is not even the scale of a thousand people, and all the county towns along the way either opened the city gate early, or gave up resistance after seeing his military appearance, and this situation continued until he safely entered the county town of Xiapi, which is the ancient Xuzhou Prefecture of Zheng'er, the gateway to the Defu is located, and there are less than 1,000 defenders in such an important town, except for nearly a hundred Mongols on the Daru Huachi Mansion, the rest are all Han troops, and like other places, these Mongols have run out before opening the city, so that he couldn't even find a sacrificial flag.

The offensive is so smooth, he naturally won't have any worries, Liu Yu's intelligence network is all over Jiangbei, there is something going on in the capital, the Yuan people may not receive the news as fast as him, this kind of strategic level advantage, if you don't make good use of it, it will be in vain to deal with someone's hard work.

Therefore, he only let the whole army rest for one day in the county town of Xiapi, and after replenishing the grain and grass, he set out again, this time to the destination of all plans...... Xuzhou.

Why is it Xuzhou, it is not the place of governance of the Defu, but it is the starting point of the instigation of the capital army, and it is also the material transit pivot, the food and ordnance mobilized from Zhongshu Province are all piled up there, and only by taking it can we really gain a foothold in Huaibei, because even if the enemy can make up the troops and horses, he can no longer get together the required military rations for a while.

Speed, what you want is speed, this is what Liu Yu has repeatedly emphasized before, there are more than 100,000 troops under his command, for the time being, it is an invincible existence in Jiangbei, and the news of the annihilation of the capital army has not been transmitted back at this moment, as long as he takes Xuzhou in one fell swoop before the Yuan people react, cut off this pivotal place, he can stand in an invincible position that can be attacked and defended, and now twenty days have passed, and it is unrealistic to expect the Yuan people to still be like a deaf and blind man, so he is no longer hiding now, but to show the enemy to threaten, Crush all the ants that stand in the way with absolute strength.

"Report, Inspector Zhang sent a message, please read it in person." A cavalryman caught up with a specially made bamboo tube in his hand.

"No need, read."

"The rest of the department has taken Suzhou City, annihilated a thousand households and 300 people, and is traveling day and night, hoping to hunt under Xuzhou City with the Xiang Guild, Shijie is the head."

"Haha, okay, Zhang Shuai's people went to the front and showed this news to the whole army, to see if the sons and daughters have confidence, go faster, and don't lose to the guest army."

This good news made Li Tingzhi's last worries disappear, Suzhou, Xuzhou became a bag, the only thing to worry about is that it is not like other places, it is impossible to have no garrison, for this reason, in addition to gathering the army under the city to show his authority, he has to think of other ways.

Li Tingzhi was not mistaken, the Xuzhou garrison even exceeded Suiyang, where the Guide Mansion was located, and the 5,000 Han army plus more than 1,000 Mongolian cavalry did not seem to be much, but it was a great trouble to defend the city, you must know that it is the cold winter season when water turns into ice!

Pengcheng County, where Xuzhou Prefecture is located, has a complete military armor and strict access control, and it is like a scene of facing a great enemy, which is of course due to the distribution center of large army materials, but the main reason is not that they know about the destruction of the capital department, but the anomaly from Zhongshu Province.

"But I don't believe it, can those grains still fly with wings?"

In the lobby of the Xuzhou Governor's Mansion, a Han man roared and roared, and his subordinates all lowered their heads and let the spittle stars shoot everywhere without saying a word.

This is an extremely strange thing, the official letters sent from all over Jinan Mansion clearly list that the grain, grass and military supplies were sent to Henan early in the morning, but Xuzhou, which is close at hand, has not received a grain of rice in two months, and the lawsuit has been fought from the two provinces to the capital, except for being severely reprimanded by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who is in charge of the country, there is no result.

In such a situation, how can you not let the marching Qianhu and Peijin Tiger Fu Zhang Mao, who are in charge of the rear of the entire army, be furious, Zhongshu Province can say that he doesn't know, but he can't help but ask, there is no food to send up, once there is a change in the front line, the first thing to use to open the knife is his camp to stay.

The most important question is, what is the war ahead? He didn't receive news for more than 20 days, whether it was the messenger sent out, or the military envoy who was held accountable in the army, he never appeared under the city of Xuzhou, the situation became more and more strange, and there were faint rumors in the city in recent days that the Song people had won a decisive victory on the edge of Huaishui, and even had invaded Henan Province.

How is this possible? Zhang Mao didn't believe it in his heart, the Yuan people were really defeated, did the Song people dare to cross the Huaishui to pursue? Not to mention anything else, Jiankang City lost like that, and the Song people only dared to recover a few state capitals that were not garrisoned, from Yangluo Fort to Xiangyang Mansion, wasn't it safe and sound.

However, whether these rumors were deliberately spread or not, he had to face a cruel fact, the army should be out of food, and there was not even a single grass under the city of Chuzhou, how could the army spend more than 20 days in the cold? Thinking of this, Zhang Mao suddenly felt a little colder on his body.

"Take Zhongcheng's Jun order to go to the various prefectures to urge, no matter what, you have to raise more, borrow or credit, so you can pass this pass first."

What is the situation in the house, how can he not know, these words are extremely difficult, the big families all have backgrounds, if they want them to bleed, they have to use swords, the people ...... There is no overnight food, and if he is forced again, he can only take risks, but if he doesn't force people, people will force him, Zhang Mao had to harden his heart and emphasize again.

Of course, the subordinates know the consequences of doing this, but at the moment there is no other way than to do this, the military law is ruthless, the steel knife can be cut down, the person in charge can't run, where can they hide, watching these people walk out of the lobby slowly, his boredom is almost above his head.

"Qianhu, there is a scholar outside the mansion, it is ......" A sergeant guarding the door stood outside the lobby and reported to him in a hesitant manner.

"Say what?" Zhang Mao turned his head suspiciously.

"It is said that there is a strategy that can solve the worries of thousands of households." When the sergeant said this, he obviously had no bottom in his heart, and as soon as he finished speaking, he quickly lowered his head, waiting for the sound of angry reprimands from above.

Who would dare to speak out so loudly? As the sergeant had imagined, Zhang Mao heard this idea at first glance, but at this point, whether it was a dead horse or a live horse, he always had to see it to know the clue.

"Bring it up and let the officer take a look."

Hearing his words, the sergeant immediately retreated, and a moment later, a middle-aged man walked into the lobby under the leadership of the sergeant, and the moment he saw the person, Zhang Mao's eyes suddenly narrowed, although this person was wearing a common shirt, but his demeanor was completely different from that of the soldiers in the Northland.

He's a Song man!