Some people may feel strange, since Zhao Yu is destined to be unable to capture Liangcheng, why not find a way to secretly leak this news to his brother Zhao Yin?

The reason is very simple, because the matter of 'Chen Taishi leading his two sons to personally conquest' is still in the secrecy stage, although the army has been assembled in Handan, but the outside world does not know the candidate for the commander of the army for the time being, if Zhao Yu secretly leaks the news to his brother Zhao Yin at this time, so that the righteous master side knows the news that 'Chen Taishi is about to personally conquest', this may arouse Xue Ao's suspicions.

After all, there are only a few people who know about this matter for the time being, as long as they have the heart to investigate, they can always find out something, which is what Zhao Yu wants to try his best to avoid.

As for the safety of his brother Zhao Yin, Zhao Yu is not worried about this, first, the righteous master must also have his own eyeliner, as long as there is a Jin army action north of the river, the righteous master will definitely receive relevant news; Second, Zhao Yin has a special status among the Jiangdong righteous teachers, like Chen Miao, Cheng Zhou, Wu Yi and others, how can they put Zhao Yin in danger.

This is the reason why Zhao Yu did not leak this news to the righteous master for a long time, and it is precisely because he did not know about this matter that the righteous master who claimed to be 300,000 was still in full swing preparing to attack Liangcheng, but the first battle to start was not in Liangcheng, but in Kaifeng County.

On the nineteenth day of the first month, the Taiyuan cavalry stationed in Kaifeng County found out that there was a team transporting grain and preparing to go to Xiaohuang.

After getting the news, Dong Dian and Zhong Liao, the generals of the Taiyuan Army Cavalry, discussed with Zhao Yu and Cao Wu, the two generals under Zhao Yu, and prepared to jointly rob this grain transportation team.

In all fairness, if it were to be replaced by the five thousand cavalry under the command of Dong Dian and Zhong Liao after the beginning of spring, it would be easy for the two of them to loot a grain team, but unfortunately the weather has not warmed up at this moment, and there are still ice and snow blocking the road outside, which greatly reduces the combat effectiveness of the cavalry.

In layman's terms, it's not that cavalry can't move in bad weather covered with snow and ice, but the effect they can have, in addition to their mobility, may not even catch up with ordinary foot soldiers.

It is precisely for this reason that General Dong Dian and Zhong Liaoer did not immediately lead the cavalry after receiving the relevant news, but made a request to Zhang Ji and Cao Wu to cooperate in the battle.

For the request made by these two, Zhang Ji and Cao Wu naturally did not dare to refuse, after all, in the final analysis, Dong Dian and Zhong Liao were just polite to Zhang Ji and Cao Wu because Zhao Yu was valued by Xue Ao, otherwise, this request may be a request or an order.

On the same day, the four of them summed up and finally decided that the cavalry led by Dong Dian and Zhong Liao would intercept the rebels' grain transport team first, and when Cao Wu led the infantry to arrive, the two sides would strike at the grain transport team together with the tactics of infantry and cavalry linkage, and defeat the rebels' grain transport team in one go.

Seeing Dong Dian, Zhong Liao, and Cao Wu discussing specific tactics there, Zhang Ji sighed secretly.

If Zhao Yu only cares about his brother Zhao Yin and other close relatives, and even has a little good impression of Jiangdong Yishi, then Zhang Ji not only has a good impression of Jiangdong Yishi, but he also has a little bit of 'camp feelings' for Chen Miao's Jiangxia Yishi and Cheng Zhou's Yuzhang Yishi, in his eyes, all the righteous teachers in the world are his allies of Jiangdong Yishi.

But unfortunately, now the Yingchuan army where he is now belongs to the 'Jin State camp', unless Zhao Yu changes his banner and leads a group of people under him to rebel, otherwise, they are destined to be enemies of the righteous teacher.

In the loud bang, the east gate of Kaifeng County slowly opened, and General Dong Dian and Zhong Liao each led a thousand cavalry and slowly left the city.

And behind them, it was the three thousand Yingchuan foot soldiers led by Cao Wu.

At that time, Zhang Ji stood in the city and watched, and his mood was really complicated.

On that day, Dong Dian, Zhong Liao, and Cao Wu commanded 2,000 Taiyuan cavalry and 3,000 Yingchuan infantry soldiers, and successfully intercepted the rebel army, which was trying to transport grain from Xianping County to Xiaohuang County.

The poor rebel army's grain transportation team, with only more than 500 civilians to control the grain, and only 2,000 soldiers to guard along the way, was attacked by 5,000 Jin troops, so naturally there would be no chance of victory.

In the end, the 2,000 rebel soldiers had no choice but to set fire to the food, and then scattered and fled under the pursuit of the 5,000 Jin troops.

These fleeing rebel soldiers fled back to Xianping County and reported the news of the attack on grain and grass to the guard general Xiang Geng.

Xiang Geng is Chen Xuan's general, when Chen Xuan sent Zhou Gong, Yan Xuan, Zhong Fei and others to lead the army to assist Xiang Xuan in attacking Xuchang, he and Zhao Jun, another general under Chen Xuan, were responsible for recruiting and training new soldiers in Runan County, until Chen Miao then attacked Chen County and Chen Liu, Xiang Geng was called by Chen Miao as a vanguard general, and assisted Chen Miao to lead the army north with Zhu Yuan.

It can be said that Chen Miao's efforts to lay down Chen County and Chen Liu's two places are indispensable to Geng.

Later, when Chen Miao laid down Xianping, considering the importance of Xianping County as a grain road hub, he sent Xiang Geng garrison here, responsible for the transportation of grain and grass, and also to prevent the Jin army from cutting off the back road of his righteous division.

On the same day, after learning the news that the grain transport team was looted by the Jin army, Xiang Geng was furious and said: "I knew something was going to happen!" ”

The left and right did not dare to speak, because this involved their Jiangxia Yishi's Qu Shuai Chen Miao.

It turned out that since the Yingchuan army succeeded in the sneak attack on Kaifeng County, Xiang Geng realized that the Jin army in Kaifeng County would seriously threaten the grain of his righteous division, so he sent people to ask Chen Miao more than once, hoping that Chen Miao would send troops to help him recapture Kaifeng.

However, considering that Kaifeng County was garrisoned by 7,000 Yingchuan troops and 5,000 Taiyuan cavalry, coupled with Zhao Yin's suggestion, Chen Miao finally gave up spending more energy in Kaifeng County and decided to devote all his energy to the attack on Liangcheng.

In all fairness, whether it is Xiang Geng's insistence on proposing to recapture Kaifeng first, or Zhao Yin's suggestion to use all his troops to put pressure on Liangcheng, there are their own reasons from a strategic level, but for Xiang Geng, who is responsible for supervising the transportation of grain and grass, there are more than 10,000 Jin troops eyeing Kaifeng County, which is indeed a huge threat to his supervision of grain and grass.

That night, Xiang Geng wrote a letter indignantly and sent it to the volunteer joint camp in Liangcheng and handed it to the commander Chen Miao.

A day later, Chen Miao received the letter and felt a headache.

He invited Cheng Zhou, the marshal of Yuzhangqu, who had a good relationship, to discuss privately with him: "Yesterday, Xiang Geng sent troops to transport grain, but unfortunately was intercepted by the Jin army in Kaifeng, and he hoped that I would send troops to defeat Kaifeng ...... first."

"This ...... I'm afraid it will take a lot of troops. Cheng Zhou said with a frown.

"yes." Chen Miao nodded with emotion.

It's not that he doesn't know the importance of Kaifeng, the question is like what Zhao Yin and Cheng Zhou said, how many troops do you need to mobilize to play Kaifeng?

Considering the current weather, considering the combat capability of the Yingchuan Army and the Taiyuan Army, it is no exaggeration to say that even if five times the number of troops is mobilized, it may not be possible to recapture Kaifeng in a short time.

What is five times the strength? Sixty thousand!

However, the so-called 300,000 righteous divisions now have a total of only 160,000 troops in Liangcheng, and 60,000 troops are divided, and the remaining 100,000 troops, how can they grasp the capture of Liangcheng, which is guarded by at least 70,000 Jin troops?

Since ancient times, there have been many examples of ten times the strength of the army being unable to capture a city, and considering the particularity of Liang City, Chen Miao naturally did not want this battle to end up in ruin.

After thinking for a while, Cheng Zhou suggested: "How about trying that Bohu boy's suggestion?" ”

"You mean to use grain and grass as a lure to ambush the Jin army in Kaifeng?" Chen Miao's heart moved slightly.

He immediately ordered the left and right to fetch the marching map and weighed it carefully.

At this moment, the 160,000 troops stationed in Liangcheng did not plan to move lightly, but in Yanling and Weishi, he still had at least 20,000 troops led by Yan Xuan and Zhong Fei.

It's just that these two forces are used to contain Yingchuan County, and if it weren't for the emergency, Chen Miao didn't want to move lightly.

After thinking about it, Chen Miao finally sent someone to send a message to Weishi County, ordering Yan Xuan, the general stationed there, to find a way to assist Xianping, or to contain the Jin army in Kaifeng County, or to assist Xiang Geng in ambushing the Jin army.

At the same time, Dong Dian and Zhong Liao also sent people to Liangcheng and the hands of the general Xue Ao to send the news of successfully intercepting a rebel grain transport team.

I have to say that this is the best news that Xue Ao got after he lost his own camp and had to lead his army to retreat into Liangcheng.

When he told Wei Bi about this, Wei Bi Zhengse reminded: "I'm afraid that the rebels will forcibly recapture Kaifeng." ”

Hearing this, Xue Ao couldn't help but fall into deep thought, after all, there were only 7,000 Yingchuan County and 5,000 Taiyuan cavalry stationed in Kaifeng, if the rebels desperately attacked Kaifeng, whether it was him or Zhou Hu, it would be difficult to provide support from more than 50 miles.

After a long time, he said in a deep voice: "You send someone to inform Dong Dian and Zhong Liao, if the matter cannot be violated, I will allow him and the local Yingchuan army to abandon Kaifeng, anyway, the defeat of the rebels has been decided, the difference is only in my hands, or in the hands of the old man, there is no need to sacrifice soldiers in vain for a city." …… But if the rebels don't send a heavy force to attack, tell them to make sure that the grain route from Xianping to Xiaohuang is cut off, and that not a single grain of grain is brought from under their noses to the rebels here. ”

"Yes!" Wei Xuan smiled slightly.

A day later, on the 21st day of the first lunar month, Xiang Geng, the general of Xianping County, received a reply from Chen Miao.

In this letter, Chen Miao explained to Xiang Geng the impedibility of 'sending heavy troops to storm Kaifeng', and asked Xiang Geng to adopt a more flexible method, and this more flexible method was to send a fake grain team to seduce the Jin army in Kaifeng, and set up an ambush during the process to inflict heavy losses on it.

To put it simply, in the face of the problem of the Kaifeng Jin army's attack on the grain route, Chen Miao proposed the solution of 'eliminating its living forces', instead of taking the 'recapture of Kaifeng' proposed by Xiang Geng, in Chen Miao's words, as long as the Jin army was heavily damaged, its remaining troops naturally did not dare to invade the grain route of the righteous division again.

In this way, the problem can be regarded as solving the problem without avoiding siege warfare.

In all fairness, this method is really good, at least Xiang Geng also had the idea of 'give it a try'.

On the 24th day of the first lunar month, the 5,000 troops of Yan Xuan, the commander of Weishi County, arrived in Xianping County, which was 50 miles away from it.

With these 5,000 soldiers, Xiang Geng began his plan to lure the enemy.

The next day, he organized a grain convoy again, but this time, instead of transporting a grain of grain, he sent his soldiers to hide in the grain cart and cover it with a green cloth.

Not surprisingly, as soon as his grain transport team left Xianping County, it was immediately discovered by the Taiyuan cavalry scouts wandering nearby, and these scouts immediately sent the news to Kaifeng and informed Dong Dian and Zhong Liao.

"Ha, the rebels still don't give up, and they still plan to transport grain and grass to Xiao Huang."

Dong Dian laughed when he learned about it, and immediately took Zhong Liao to discuss with Zhang Ji and Cao Wu, and discussed intercepting this grain transportation team again.

After some discussion, the four decided to continue with the last method: Zhang Ji would guard Kaifeng, while Cao Wu would lead 3,000 Yingchuan troops to assist Dong Dian and Zhong Liao in intercepting the rebel army.

Prepared and unprepared, Dong Dian, Zhong Liao, and Cao Wu blocked the rebels' grain transport team this time, but they were ambushed by the rebels.

When Cao Wu led 3,000 Yingchuan troops to kill, the rebel soldiers hiding in the grain cart came out together and killed Cao Wu's army by surprise.

What's worse is that because the climate and environment are not conducive to the Taiyuan cavalry to exert their original strength, the 2,000 Taiyuan cavalry led by Dong Dian and Zhong Liao almost did not play the level that cavalry should have, and it was even more unbearable than the Yingchuan infantry under Cao Wu.

Fortunately, the rebels did not have many ambush troops, and after Cao Wu ordered to form a formation in place, the rout of the Jin army was finally contained.

One hour, Zhang Ji, who received the news of the Taiyuan cavalry asking for help, led 3,000 foot soldiers to help, which forced back the rebels besieging Dong Dian, Zhong Liao, Cao Wu and others.

This defeat greatly damaged the face of the Taiyuan cavalry led by Dong Dian and Zhong Liao, but at the same time, it also sounded the alarm for these Taiyuan cavalry, making them more cautious when intercepting the rebels' grain convoy in the future.

After that, as of the sixth day of the second month, with the assistance of the Yingchuan infantry led by Zhang Ji and Cao Wu, Dong Dian and Zhong Liao launched three more attacks on the rebels' grain transport, two of which were the real grain transport teams of the rebels, and one was an ambush to lure the Jin army to take the bait.

However, in these three sorties, the Jin army was victorious.

I have to say that in this kind of plain area, the tactical advantage of infantry and cavalry linkage is too great, and it is not a rebel army without cavalry that can resist at all, not to mention, the Yingchuan army under the command of Zhang Ji and Cao Wu, and the Taiyuan cavalry under the command of Dong Dian and Zhong Liao, both of which are elite after a long battle.

On the evening of the seventh day of the second lunar month, Dong Dian's latest war report was sent to Liangcheng and delivered to Xue Ao, the general of the chariot cavalry.

After reading this battle report, Xue Ao was greatly pleased.

He smiled and said to Wei Xuan: "The rebels set up bait to ambush our army, but they never thought that they would still be defeated by Dong Dian and others, and now the rebels are skilled!" ”

Wei Bi smiled and nodded, and then said with a little surprise: "I heard that Cao Wu was originally a rebel general, and most of the soldiers under his command were from rebel backgrounds, I never thought that Zhou Duwei could really subdue them......

It was probably Dong Dian, Zhong Liao and others who succeeded several times, diluting Xue Ao's depression of losing the camp a while ago, he nodded and said: "This Zhou Hu is indeed a talent, and the group of wolf soldiers under him are quite good. ”

In recent days, because Zhao Yu transferred 500 brigade wolves back to Liangcheng, the scouts on the Jin army's side finally overwhelmed the rebels again, whether it was the scouts of the Henan army or the scouts of Liangcheng, in recent days, there was no need to worry about being ambushed and hunted by the rebels when they inquired about the enemy at night.

Instead, the scouts on the rebel side need to worry about being ambushed and hunted by the brigade wolf.

Although a discerning person knew at a glance that it was Zhou Hu who was taking revenge on the righteous teacher, Xue Ao was very satisfied.

On the same day, Xue Ao summoned Zhao Yu, Li Meng, and Tong Yan, and informed the three of them of the content of the battle report written by Dong Dian, and immediately said in a deep voice: "In the past 20 days, the rebels' grain transportation teams have been frequently attacked by our side...... I think that there should be not much food and grass in the rebel camp, and in this case, he can only storm Liangcheng, so I ask the three of you to strengthen the garrison, and not give the rebels any opportunity to take advantage of! ”

"Yes!"

Zhao Yu, Li Meng, and Tong Yan all responded with their fists clenched.

Facts have proved that Xue Ao's judgment of the righteous teacher is still very accurate, and the righteous teacher at this moment has indeed fallen into a tense situation where the grain and grass are running out, and the remaining grain and grass in the army is actually less than 160,000 troops to eat for another ten days.

The good news is that after twenty days of preparation, the righteous master has built a lot of siege equipment needed to attack Liangcheng, including six rushing vehicles, sixty ladder vehicles, and the rest of the siege ladders are nearly a thousand, which is enough to launch a large-scale attack on Liangcheng.

However, whether this siege can be successful, whether it is Chen Miao, Cheng Zhou, the two righteous teachers and Qu Shuai, or Wu Yi, Xiang Xuan, Zhou Gong and other generals who lead the army, there is not much certainty.

After all, Liangcheng, which they were preparing to attack, was guarded by a full 70,000 Jin troops - the total population of the county seat in Kunyang County was only 40,000 or 50,000.

Among these people, Zhao Yin is probably the most unsure, because his younger brother Zhao Yu transferred the five hundred traveling wolves back to Liangcheng to make a position - he will no longer secretly help the righteous master.

What was the reason for his little brother to change his mind?

Zhao Yin thought about it, there are only two possibilities.

First, his brother was suspected by Xue Ao;

second, his brother thinks that the righteous teacher has no use value;

After thinking about it, Zhao Yin felt that the second guess was more likely.

In his opinion, his younger brother Zhao Yu should not dare to attack that Tong Yan in Liang City, after all, there are so many people in the city, if it is exposed, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Therefore, Zhao Yin guessed that after his brother Zhao Yu withdrew into Liangcheng, he would most likely try to deceive that Tong Yan's trust, and as for the start, he estimated that Zhao Yu should find a way to attack outside the city.

For example, on the way to pursue the righteous teacher with Tong Yan, he suddenly became difficult.

In addition, Zhao Yin couldn't think of any other safer way.

But he couldn't understand that if his righteous teacher could capture Liangcheng, would his brother be able to take advantage of the chaos to catch Tong Yan?

Why do you have to watch the righteous teacher defeat?

His brother should understand that the victory of the righteous teacher this time is more beneficial to his Luyang Zhao clan.

In Zhao Yin's opinion, with his brother's ingenuity, he could get mixed with the official position of the governor of Yingchuan, and he should not have thought of this.

Unless......

『…… Unless he has decided that my righteous teacher cannot prevail.'"

Zhao Yin's heart immediately sounded the alarm.

Although he didn't understand the reason for the time being, his brother Zhao Yu's attitude was enough to make Zhao Yin vigilant and start to think about a way out.

If he can't capture Liangcheng this time, what should he do with his 180,000 righteous teachers.

Of course, this is something to consider later, as for the current situation, Zhao Yin still hopes to capture Liangcheng.

After a few more days, although the land was still covered with snow, the weather had begun to gradually warm, and both the soldiers of the Jin army and the righteous division realized that the great battle after the year was finally about to begin.

On 12 February, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the Third Route Righteous Division, Chen Miao issued an order to capture Liangcheng.

Around the time, 160,000 righteous teachers gathered in the southern suburbs of Liangcheng, mighty and mighty, connecting the heavens and the earth.

The largest war since the start of the Righteous Division began.