Chudi, Ezhou.

The beacon fire was lit, thousands of miles of grass and trees were soldiers, outside the gate of the four sides of Ezhou City, there were all recruiting positions, and there were a sea of people in front of the platform, all of them were men with swords.

The Chu people are still martial, and it is the place with the most people in the rivers and lakes except for Youzhou.

Like other vassal kings, Song Zhengping, the king of Chu, maintained an excellent reputation in the territory under his jurisdiction, and it can be said that he won the hearts of the people; In addition, Song Zhengping has been martial arts since he was a child, and he likes to be commensurate with the people of the rivers and lakes as brothers and has made extensive friends.

Now if you want to recruit troops and buy horses, you only need to put a sentence out of the leaders of the rivers and lakes in various places, saying that 'the king has no way, and the king of Chu wants to seek justice for the victims of the iron eagle hunting deer, etc.', and there are countless stunned young people who have deep bitterness and hatred and are hot-blooded, and they come over to be cannon fodder. Although the battle formation of the Jianghu people can't cooperate, no matter how bad it is, it is better than the croppers who can only use hoes to plow the ground.

Seeing that the banner came to help from all directions, the palace of the king of Chu was naturally in a thriving atmosphere. In the main hall of the palace, the king of Chu sits on the top, in addition to the generals from all walks of life, there are also the heads of the rivers and lakes such as Hutou Mountain and the boat gang.

Song Zhengping, the king of Chu, was dressed in a python robe, playing with the tea knife in his hand, with a warm expression. However, as the king of a land, Song Zhengping has not been carried away by this apparent strength.

Chu is backed by the three kings of the east, the front is Guanzhong, and most of it is a plain area, the land is vast, but the geographical location is really not very good.

said that it was an alliance with the three kings in the east, and after Song Ji was pulled off the horse, he would discuss who would be the emperor; But the meaning of the three kings in the east is obviously to let Song Zhengping be a pawn.

Song Zhengping was angry in his heart, but he was helpless. Standing on the side of the imperial court, it is impossible for Song Ji to give him the throne, which is equivalent to working for a day. Standing on the side of the three kings in the east, next to Guanzhong, who is the first to be the first if he is not the first?

If he wants to seek the greatest benefits in this civil strife, Song Zhengping's only way is to take the lead, take the lead on the battlefield of the 'Four Kings and Ji', suppress the other three kings, and then be the first to lead troops into Chang'an and let Song Ji take the throne. But if you want to get through this road, it is obviously not easy.

On the right side of Song Zhengping, Zhou Kai, the head of the Zhou family of the Chu Gate Valve, is also the father-in-law of the King of Chu. Zhou Kai held the wine glass in his hand, and after pondering for a long time, he spoke:

"Lord Wang, the old man has a plan, I don't know if it works."

Song Zhengping put down the tea knife and turned sideways slightly:

"Zhou Gong, but it doesn't hurt to say."

Zhou Kai touched his beard, pondered his words a little, and then said:

"The day before yesterday, an old acquaintance from Chang'an City sent the defense of Wuguan Road over. The counterinsurgency army of the imperial court involved 20,000 Chinese troops, 100,000 government soldiers, 50,000 militiamen, and more than 70,000 engineers and civilians. Only seventy percent of the government soldiers and militia were fully armoured, and most of the bows and crossbows and war horses were taken to the north, and the ordnance used was still adult old goods turned out of the warehouse; The Ordnance Supervisor is being built in full force, but it is still mainly in northern Xinjiang, and there are very few that can be delivered to the counterinsurgency army......"

Song Zhengping knew all about this, he dared to conspire with the three kings in the east, that is, he saw that the courtiers would rather change the emperor than let the Northern Qi enter the customs, and Song Ji, the son of heaven, could not take care of both inside and outside.

And Song Ji was too strong in power after taking the throne, and the military attache class was dissatisfied, and before the fight began, someone sent Guan Hongye's defense over, and the four kings of the east were equivalent to opening the whole map to fight, if they couldn't enter the pass, they deserved to be cut down.

Song Zhengping listened for a moment, felt a little verbose, raised his hand and said:

"These kings all know, but the six dangerous passes before and after Wuguan Road, even if it is just the people throwing stones on it, it will be very expensive for the Chu army to enter it; If you attack the key problems in advance, and wait for King Wu and them to come, there will be no one under this king's hands. ”

Zhou Kai nodded: "That's true." But the current situation is not without variables. Guan Hongye got 50,000 Xiliang troops, and his combat power doubled, but the government soldiers and militia under his command were really difficult to use, no matter how bold Guan Hongye was, he did not dare to take the soldiers and horses out of Wuguan Road, he would definitely be safe, choose to defend Wuguan Road, and wait for the situation in northern Xinjiang to take a turn for the better. Guan Hongye placed all the Xiliang troops in Shangnan, Wuguan and other places, and made a trend of attacking the horse pass, but secretly built a high wall to build a city defense, which also proved this speculation. ”

Song Zhengping nodded: "Guan Hongye has so many soldiers under his hands, if he comes out to fight, he will really be gone, he will definitely be the eighth king of the iron skin, and he will not let him move if he wants to move Song Ji." ”

Zhou Kai touched his beard and continued: "The Xiliang army belongs to King Su, and the court wants soldiers, but it doesn't want King Su's military achievements to be too heavy, and even robbed the military power, so he let King Su Shizi run away to Luanshan County outside the battlefield with 3,000 soldiers......"

"Yes, this king thought that Xu Buling would fall out with the court unconvinced, and he never thought that Xu Buling would hand over the military power without saying a word......"

Zhou Kai chuckled: "As the saying goes, 'use people without suspicion, don't use suspicious people', this move of the imperial court is obviously inappropriate, King Su and the prince of Su don't say it, and they must be dissatisfied in their hearts." If at this time, the prince sent more than 10,000 elite soldiers to take the 'Nanzhao County' detour and attack Luanshan County by surprise; Luanshan County is remote and worthless, and Guan Hongye has not stationed troops nearby, he will definitely not be able to rush to help; if the prince of Su dies in Luanshan County......

When Song Zhengping heard this, his eyes condensed slightly:

"If Xu Buling died in Luanshan County, the imperial court deliberately transferred Xu Buling so far, and it would definitely be difficult to escape the blame. And Guan Hongye would not have thought that if this king left Wuguandao and did not attack, he would waste his troops to fight in Luanshan County......"

Zhou Kai nodded: "That's exactly the reason." The soldiers are treacherous, attacking the city and attacking the heart. As long as Xu Buling can be captured and killed, the court will inevitably fall into civil strife, and it is possible for King Su to counterattack in anger. ”

Song Zhengping rubbed his fingers, thought about it carefully, and shook his head again:

"It's easy to attack Luanshan County, and it's hard to climb to the sky. Xu Buling is a tiger with only wings, Chen Daozi, Zhang Buzheng, and Chen Chong are gone, Xu Buling wants to break through, and no one under this king can stop him. ”

Zhou Kai shook his head: "If you can't catch Xu Buling, you will destroy the three thousand Xiliang army, and King Su will still be in pain." Anyway, I can't wait for the attack to retreat, and there is no loss. ”

Song Zhengping pondered for a moment and felt that it made sense, so he raised his hand and called over to his general......

-----

On the other side, Luanshan County.

Luanshan county is located in the col, the scale is not large, there are only about 300 households, because the back is the lofty mountains, there is no road that can march in the brigade, from ancient times to the present is the marginal area, the city wall of the county is still built by the previous dynasty, until now there is only one earthen fortress left, the city gate is a gap, and there is not even the door beam.

At the beginning of April, the weather was already a little hot, and the sappers and civilians were cutting down trees and digging trenches in the surrounding mountains to prepare for war. In the small county government of the county seat, the county magistrate was boiling tea on the small stove, and the only two officials were standing guard outside the door.

In the lobby, more than a dozen bamboo chairs were placed in a circle, Yang Guanyu's physique was too big, there was no stool to sit on, so he could only stand next to him with his hands behind his back, like a blind bear standing with his hands in his hands.

The nightingale, with its big pigtails, stands on top of a hand-drawn diagram and explains in detail:

“…… The east gate is the weakest guard, so when the time comes, let's take a detour from here, and we must rush to this position within a quarter of an hour, and enter the city quickly after the city gate is broken, so as to avoid the soldiers and horses from other places from reacting and galloping to help......"

In the courtyard behind the yamen, Xu Buling stood in front of the two artillery pieces that had just been sent, and had to be carefully wiped with a cloth as if he were treating his daughter-in-law. Zhongli Jiujiu stood in front of him, holding an umbrella to help Xu Buling shade the sun.

Zhongli Chuchu leaned back on the recliner and fed the sparrows grain, while Ning Yuhe was also meditating beside him. Ning Qingye leaned on the pillars and listened to the battle plan outside.

It has been seven or eight days in Luanshan County in a blink of an eye, and at first the four girls still had the ambition of 'advancing and retreating together, living and dying together', thinking of standing on the city wall with Xu Buling and fighting bravely to kill the enemy.

The result is good, when I go to Luanshan County, the city wall is not as tall as Ning Qingye, and the three thousand soldiers and horses can only stay outside the county seat, and it is estimated that they will not even be able to walk through the road when they enter the county.

As for the war, not to mention, the original garrison of Luanshan County only had a small team of soldiers in charge of the beacon tower, and there was not even a single bandit within a radius of ten miles.

What kind of battle is there going on in this hellish place? It is estimated that when the battle outside is over, the four of them will be able to rest here.

After listening for a while, Ning Qingye didn't understand a little, so he walked up to Xu Buling and asked softly:

"There won't be anyone here at all, you only have 3,000 soldiers under your hands, are you still going to fight out?"

With a little smile in his eyes, Xu Buling explained:

"In ancient times, those who used troops paid attention to 'attacking the city for the bottom and attacking the heart for the top'......

…… I was placed in this poor country, far away from the main battlefield, and the court would not care what I did; The King of Chu was busy fighting Wuguan over there, and he wouldn't notice me. Guan Hongye's general direction is to defend Wuguan Road, instead of running out to fight, it is estimated that the King of Chu can also see it, so he would not think that someone would go out of Wuguan Road and take a detour to copy the back road......

…… I took two thousand light horsemen, as long as I made a detour from 'Nanzhao County', I could reach the north of Nanyang, and at the speed of the Liang cavalry army in the west, as long as it took two hours, I could break through to the city of Nanyang, which is called 'Soldier's Tricky Road'......"

Ning Qingye frowned and thought for a while: "The one surnamed Guan asked you to guard here, will you get into trouble if you leave your post without permission?" ”

Xu Buling waved his hand: "Just say hello to him in advance, what kind of desertion is it?" ”

Ning Qingye didn't know much about this aspect, and he didn't seem to understand it, so he only nodded......