At the beginning of February, the weather gradually warmed up and the snow began to melt.

For the Jin army and rebels in Liangcheng, this change was not crucial, but in Kaifeng County, the situation of the battle changed dramatically.

I still remember that in the first month, in the wilderness of Kaifeng County to Xianping County, which was dozens of miles long, everywhere was covered with thick snow, which led to the movement and combat ability of the five thousand Taiyuan cavalry under the command of Dong Dian and Zhong Liao, and their combat ability on this snowfield was not as good as a foot soldier, and even needed the assistance of the Yingchuan infantry under Zhang Ji and Cao Wu to effectively hit the rebels' grain route.

However, with the gradual melting of the snow on the wilderness, the 5,000 Taiyuan cavalry finally began to show their strength as the 'king of the plain', they swept across the plain where the ice and snow had not completely melted like the wind, and gradually moved their range of activities from Kaifeng to Xianping, and gradually moved to a radius of dozens of miles centered on Xianping County, thoroughly monitoring the rebels' every move.

Once a rebel grain convoy is discovered by a small detachment of the Taiyuan cavalry, within a few hours, 5,000 Taiyuan cavalry will gather from all directions and launch a series of harassment and attacks on the rebel grain convoy until the grain convoy is finally annihilated.

In order to relieve the threat of these cavalry, the rebel general Xiang Gengwei stationed in Xianping County was forced to ask for battle, hoping to inflict heavy damage on this cavalry and force the Taiyuan cavalry to retreat to Kaifeng.

But unfortunately, in this kind of open plain area, the cavalry occupies a huge advantage, and it is entirely possible for them to 'choose their own targets' to attack, simply put, they adopt the tactics of 'the enemy is weak and we attack, and the enemy is strong and we disturb' - if they encounter a small number of rebels, such as rebel patrols, these small groups of Taiyuan cavalry will rush up like wolves to annihilate them; If they encounter a large rebel army, such as a rebel food convoy, they will follow and harass them until their allies arrive, and then annihilate them with superior forces.

With this guerrilla warfare method, the rebels in Xianping County had nothing to do with it.

On the seventh day of the second lunar month, General Xiang Geng of Xianping received the news of urging grain from the front, so he organized a grain transportation team again.

Because the grain trucks that transported the grain were pulled by manpower, even if the road gradually became smooth after the snow melted, the speed of the grain transport team could not catch up with the speed of the Taiyuan cavalry.

In just three hours, this grain transport team from Xianping County was surrounded by Taiyuan cavalry regiments rushing from all directions in a small river ditch twenty miles to the north.

The men who pulled the cart immediately fled, and the more than 1,000 rebel soldiers who escorted them along the way formed in place when they were surrounded, trying to force these Taiyuan cavalry to retreat with the desperate posture of 'not hesitating to die together'.

As a result, the Taiyuan cavalry summoned more than 1,000 Yingchuan army foot soldiers, and in the end, more than 3,000 Taiyuan cavalry and more than 1,000 Yingchuan army foot soldiers, with absolute superiority in strength, completely annihilated this small group of rebels, and more than half of the rebel soldiers could only choose to surrender, and then become prisoners of the Yingchuan army, otherwise they could only be wiped out.

By the way, the ownership of the prisoners is a condition for the Taiyuan cavalry to summon the Yingchuan army at any time, which is the agreement reached by Zhang Ji and Cao Wu with Dong Dian and Zhong Liao in advance.

Of course, people don't care - the cavalry who comes and goes like the wind, what kind of prisoners do they want?

In the following days, Kaifeng and Xianping continued to fight, in order to ensure the safety of the grain route, Xiang Geng sent several small forces to try to set up obstacles between a few hills between Xianping and Kaifeng, but was repeatedly broken by the Taiyuan cavalry and the Yingchuan army.

What made Xiang Geng even more resentful was that the Jin army on the opposite side did not confront the army under his command at all, and once Xiang Geng really couldn't hold it back, he raised troops out of the city to fight, but he didn't think that the Jin army on the opposite side retreated back, but as soon as Xiang Geng led the army back to Xianping City, the wilderness outside the city was once again controlled by the Taiyuan cavalry.

In this regard, Xiang Geng has no choice.

On the ninth day of the first month of February, after several unsuccessful attempts, Xiang Geng sent a letter to the Righteous Division, telling Chen Miao of the current battle situation in the Xianping area.

In the afternoon of the next day, the letter was delivered to Chen Miao, the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Division, who frowned after reading it.

You must know that at this time, the grain and grass of the righteous division under his command have basically run out, and even, if tens of thousands of soldiers were sacrificed in the previous attack on Liangcheng, it is impossible for the little grain and grass left in the army to even hold on to today, so Chen Miao only sent people to inform Xianping a few days ago, asking Xiang Geng to deliver grain and grass as soon as possible, but he never thought that these grain and grass were cut off by the five thousand Taiyuan cavalry led by the Jin generals Dong Dian and Zhong Liao.

In addition to being anxious, Chen Miao sent someone to invite Cheng Zhou, Wu Yi, and Zhao Yin.

He showed Xiang Geng's letter to the three of them, and immediately said with a sad face: "The spring equinox has arrived, the snow is gradually disappearing, and the Taiyuan cavalry under Xue Ao has been murderous in the Kaifeng area, killing my righteous soldiers and cutting off my grain route......

Hearing this, Cheng Zhou looked at Chen Miao, then at Wu Yi and Zhao Yin, and suggested, "Why don't you go back and solve Kaifeng first?" Anyway, Liang Cheng won't be able to capture it for a while......"

In all fairness, this is true, but the question is, Kaifeng County is easy to capture?

You must know that Kaifeng County has 5,000 Taiyuan cavalry and 7,000 Yingchuan troops, unless he turns around and opens the seal, just like they attacked Liangcheng a while ago, they stormed Kaifeng County, otherwise, even if 50,000 troops are sent, the more than 10,000 Jin troops in Kaifeng may be able to hold for 20 days or half a month.

If the Jin army can afford it, can he afford it?

What's more, if a large force is sent to open the seal at this time, what will happen to their joint camp?

Will Xue Ao, Zhou Hu, and Li Meng of Liangcheng stupidly watch their righteous teachers finish Kaifeng? They will definitely take the opportunity to destroy this camp, and once this camp is destroyed, then if he wants to attack Liangcheng, he will have to start all over again from the 'camp' - how many days will this have to be delayed?

Just when Chen Miao, Cheng Zhou, and Wu Yi were worried, Zhao Yin suddenly spoke: "Kaifeng is not the key...... The most important thing is whether my righteous teacher can take Liangcheng as soon as possible, or in other words, whether he can take Liangcheng. ”

"Childe ......" Wu Yi deliberately prevented Zhao Yin from going on.

But Zhao Yin raised his hand and interrupted Wu Yi in turn, looked at Chen Miao and Cheng Erren and continued: "We all know that although my righteous teacher has been making great progress since the incident, the Jin Kingdom has not yet made a counterattack, and most of the people who are currently fighting against my righteous teacher are generals from local counties such as Zhou Hu and Li Meng...... The Jin army in these places has greatly weakened the strength of our righteous division, and on the other hand, the Jin State still has the ability to requisition hundreds of thousands of troops in the north...... That's the biggest threat. ”

“……”

Chen Miao nodded approvingly.

Indeed, so far the confrontation with his righteous division is the local Jin army in the counties north of the river, and the Jin army in these places has seriously weakened the strength of his righteous division, the most notable example of which is Zhou Hu, the commander of Yingchuan - this guy almost wiped out the Yiyi division in Kunyang County, and this gang is also the direct cause of the failure of Jingchu Yishi and Changsha Yishi to meet Liangcheng as agreed.

If it is said that the reason why the Jin State did not send troops to suppress the righteous division was that it hoped that the Jin army in various places would weaken his righteous division step by step, then the appearance of the cavalry general Xue Ao meant that the Jin State thought that the time for a counterattack had come.

And this is also the reason why Chen Miao was in a hurry to capture Liangcheng - he wanted to deploy defenses along the Great River as soon as possible to prevent the Jin army from moving south.

However, his hundreds of thousands of righteous teachers tried their best, but they failed to capture Liangcheng, and seeing the time pass day by day, Chen Miao was anxious.

Because according to his estimates, if the Jin State prepares to launch a full-scale counterattack this year, then it is very likely that the Jin State will almost start to act at the end of February or early March.

And now, it is the ninth day of February, and there are only 20 days left until the beginning of March.

In these 20 days, can you take Liangcheng?

Chen Miao was unsure about this.

Just as Chen Miao was pondering, he saw Zhao Yin sigh and continued: "For some reason, this time my various righteous teachers will fight against Liang County, and it will not be smooth from the beginning......

“……”

Chen Miao and Cheng Zhou glanced at Zhao Yin with strange expressions.

Yes, this time his righteous division 'battle Liangcheng' was not smooth, a total of five righteous divisions, Jingchu and Changsha were directly absent, and Jiangdong righteous divisions were unwilling to send the main force, which led to the loss of half of the righteous divisions assembled in Liangcheng.

Otherwise, if the righteous masters of the five roads gather here, where will they not be able to beat a Liang City?

It may have noticed the strange gazes of Chen Miao and Cheng Erren, Zhao Yin's face was a little embarrassed, but he quickly recovered his expression and said solemnly: "Now that there is no hope of breaking through Liangcheng for the time being, and my righteous teacher is in a predicament, I wonder if Chen Shuai has ever thought about striking the army?" ”

"Strike?" Chen Miao glanced at Zhao Yin meaningfully, and said in a deep voice: "Forgive Chen for being stupid, the meaning of the son is ......"

Of course, Zhao Yin knew that Chen Miao was by no means unintelligible, but he didn't care, so he simply picked it out and said, "I mean, my three-way righteous master will temporarily retreat." Chen Shuai retreated to Chenliu and Chenjun, and Cheng Shuai retreated to Suiyang, temporarily recuperating and waiting for the coming day. ”

“……”

Chen Miao and Cheng Erren looked at each other.

I have to say that in fact, not only Wu Yi, in the current situation, Chen Miao and Cheng Erren also retreated one after another, but none of them dared to show it in public, even Wu Yi only dared to discuss with Zhao Yin in private, the reason is that the 'Battle of Liangcheng' is an extremely critical battle for their righteous teachers in the overall strategy of overthrowing the Jin State.

After all, Liangcheng was the closest to Handan, the capital of the Jin Kingdom, with a straight-line distance of only more than 400 li, which was closer than the other counties south of the Great River.

It is precisely because it is a crucial battle in the overall strategy that no one dares to speak lightly about the withdrawal of troops, lest they have to bear the responsibility for the failure of the incident in the future.

But Zhao Yin has his thoughts.

"The matter...... It needs to be considered in the long term. ”

Chen Miao also replied vaguely, ending the discussion.

When a few people were about to leave, he called out to Cheng Zhou, Wu Yi and Zhao Yin glanced back, but they didn't say anything, and left.

After Wu Yi and Zhao Yin left, Chen Miao asked Cheng Zhou privately: "Cheng Zhou, what do you think of what this Bohu Gongzi proposed?" ”

"This ......"

Cheng Zhou obviously hadn't thought about it yet, and said vaguely with a frown: "He is reasonable...... However, if we disperse this time, I don't know when we will be able to unite again next time......"

Hearing this, Chen Miao said meaningfully: "Do you mean that Jiangdong Yishi may alienate several other Yishi in the future and run Shandong by himself?" ”

Cheng Zhou's face changed suddenly, and he hurriedly said, "I didn't mean that......"

Looking at his changing appearance, Chen Miao said with emotion: "Cheng Zhou, you and I have known each other for many years, do you think I won't be able to see Jiangdong's selfishness?" Brothers Zhao Zhang and Zhao Yu, although they defected to the righteous teacher and borrowed the name of the righteous teacher, I know that their brothers are not the same as us......"

"On the issue of treating the Jin Kingdom, the Zhao brothers are also unanimous." Cheng Zhou explained.

Chen Miao smiled slightly: "But this doesn't mean that they will regard the other righteous teachers as their own...... Right? ”

"This ......" Cheng Zhou looked stunned.

Seeing this, Chen Miao Zhengse said: "Whether you are like-minded or not, in fact, it doesn't matter, at least as you said, the Zhao brothers are also hostile to the Jin Kingdom, but what I am worried about is the collapse of my righteous teacher in an unfavorable situation...... If we wait for this retreat, the righteous division of the world will be divided into several pieces, one of the righteous divisions of Jingchu and Changsha in Nanyang, one of the righteous divisions of Jiangdong in Shandong, and the rest will be you and me...... If the Jin State sends troops to suppress it, where do you say to send troops first? ”

After that, he replied on his own without waiting for Cheng Zhou to speak: "It must be you and me first, then Nanyang, and then Shandong...... I don't say anything else, I'm just worried about one thing, I'm afraid that when the time comes, Jiangdong Yishi will run Shandong by himself and let me wait. ”

"This ......"

Cheng Zhou's face was full of embarrassment.

It is undeniable that he has a pretty good relationship with Jiangdong Yishi, but the problem is that Jiangdong Yishi has not given him any promises in this regard.

What's more, what Chen Miao is worried about is indeed reasonable.

After a long time, he said to Chen Miao: "Why don't you talk to that Bohu boy in private?" He is the disciple of Mr. Ram and the nephew of Zhao Shuai......"

“……”

Chen Miao frowned and thought for a while, then nodded slightly, and instructed left and right: "When you go and invite Prince Bohu to come, just say that I have something important to discuss with him privately." ”

At the same time, Zhao Yin and Wu Yi were on their way back to their respective barracks.

During this period, Wu Yi frequently looked at Zhao Yin, and in the end, he couldn't hold back the doubts in his heart, and finally couldn't help but mention: "Gongzi's proposal to withdraw from the army is really beyond the expectations ......of the general."

Zhao Yin chuckled and said, "Isn't this exactly what General Wu wants?" ”

"Uh...... The words are so. ”

Wu Yi smiled awkwardly, and then said meaningfully: "But I didn't expect Gongzi to bring it up...... I thought that Childe was vowing to break through Liangcheng. ”

"Huh."

Zhao Yin stopped, smiled behind his back.

Indeed, once upon a time, he was eager to take advantage of the battle of Liangcheng when the righteous teachers from all walks of life would fight, and take the opportunity to catch Tong Yan, the murderer of the Luyang Zhao clan who framed him that day, and cut him with a thousand knives, but now he is not in a hurry, because his younger brother is also here......

He was very sure that even if he failed, his brother Zhao Yu would never spare that Tong Yan, in that case, why sit back and watch hundreds of thousands of righteous teachers be wiped out in Liangcheng?

You must know that in view of the degree of difficulty, most of the righteous teachers of the Jin Kingdom were the first to pacify the land of Yu and Jing, and then they turned their guns to deal with Shandong, which means that the longer the rest of the righteous teachers persisted, the more opportunities he Jiangdong righteous teachers could get to recuperate.

Just as the two were chatting, Chen Miao's guards suddenly came in a hurry, hugged their fists to Zhao Yin and Wu Yi and said: "General Wu, Bohu Gongzi, Chen Shuai has invited Gongzi, saying that there is something important to discuss." ”

"Am I alone?" Zhao Yin asked intentionally.

"This ......" The guard glanced at Wu Yi who was beside him, and nodded with a wry expression: "Yes." ”

Seeing this, Zhao Yin and Wu Yi exchanged a look, and immediately, he said with a smile: "In this case, please lead the way." ”

"Please."

"Please."

A moment later, Zhao Yin, under the guidance of this guard, returned to Chen Miao's barracks again.

"Chen Shuai."

"Childe."

After greeting each other, Chen Miao chuckled and said, "Mr. Lao has a trip, Chen has something to ask Mr. Lao." …… Childe, please be seated. ”

Of course, Zhao Yin knew what Chen Miao wanted to ask, and he didn't feel strange when he heard this, so he waved his sleeves and sat down in the barracks.

At this time, I heard Chen Miao Zhengse ask: "With all due respect...... If the righteous master is finally defeated and retreats to Liangcheng, I don't know what Jiangdong will do? ”

Zhao Yin said with a straight face: "No matter whether the righteous teacher wins or loses, my Jiangdong will not change......"

Chen Miao's eyes moved slightly, and he asked, "Childe refers to, running Shandong?" ”

"Yes."

Zhao Yin nodded, and then said in a deep voice: "This time, I came with the army all the way, and I also saw and heard about it on the way. Although the Jin Kingdom is decayed, as far as I can see, the hearts of the people of the counties are still towards the Jin Kingdom, and it is far from the point where my righteous teachers can respond to a hundred calls, so according to my teacher's ideas, the righteous teachers from all walks of life should not rush forward, and when they are in the camp step by step, they will gradually encroach on the Jin Kingdom. ”

"What Childe said is extremely true." Chen Miao nodded, then changed his words, and said: "However, in the land of Yuzhou, there is no danger of Mount Tai and Jishui, if the Jin Kingdom counterattacks, I am afraid I will not be able to support it." ”

Hearing this, Zhao Yin was relieved.

Of course, he knew what Chen Miao was worried about, it was nothing more than that after the Jin State launched a counterattack, his Jiangxia righteous division would not be able to hold the current territory.

And in his opinion, Jiangxia Yishi may indeed not be able to hold it - in the case of fighting separately, how can Jiangxia Yishi alone be able to resist the counterattack of the Jin State?

"Chen Shuai can rest assured in this matter, when the time comes, my Jiangdong will definitely try my best to contain the Jin State from Jishui, and assist the rest of the righteous teachers......" Zhao Yin Zhengse said.

Chen Miao glanced at Zhao Yin and did not doubt the latter's words.

After all, he also understands that Jiangdong Yishi will not sit idly by and watch the other righteous teachers finish - if the other righteous teachers are finished, then only Jiangdong Yishi will be left to face the Jin Kingdom alone, and he will definitely not be pleased.

It's just that he still has a feeling that the rest of the righteous teachers have been used by Jiangdong.

Just as he was muttering to himself, he suddenly heard Zhao Yin say again: "Chen Shuai's worries, I think I know a little bit about them, but in my opinion, the righteous teachers in the world share each other?" If this can't be done here, why doesn't Chen Shuai lead the crowd to Shandong together? I think my two uncles, as well as my teacher, must sweep the couch to greet each other. ”

“……”

Chen Miao glanced at Zhao Yin in surprise and couldn't help but smile.

He didn't expect that the kid in front of him would actually want to win him over......

But in all fairness, this is not a choice, after all, he himself has no ambitions, and he does not plan to overthrow the Jin State after that, whether it is to obey Jing Chu's orders or to Jiangdong, this is not much difference for him.

Merely......

"If the land of Yuzhou is recaptured by the Jin State, my righteous master will be cut off by the Jin State......," he solemnly reminded.

Indeed, if places such as Chenjun, Chenliu, Runan, etc. were all recaptured by the Jin State one after another, the righteous teachers of Jieshi would be divided into two parts, one was Jingchu, and the other was Shandong and Jiangdong, and it would be difficult for the two righteous teachers to support each other anymore.

However, in Zhao Yin's opinion, this is probably a matter of time.

On the same day, Chen Miao and Zhao Yin talked for an hour, although this conversation made Chen Miao appreciate Zhao Yin more and more, but he finally failed to make up his mind to withdraw from the army, and still hoped to 'fight again' in Liangcheng to see if he could defeat Liangcheng and create the best situation for his righteous teacher.

It was not until 15 February that Chen Miao, the Taishi of the Jin State Committee, led 500,000 troops south to suppress the rebellion.

Although Chen Miao knew that there must be a lot of water in the '500,000 army', the name of Taishi Chen Zhong really frightened him.

On the same day, Chen Miao, Cheng Zhou, Wu Yi, and Zhao Yin launched an emergency discussion, and several people unanimously decided to withdraw their troops!

The question is, will Xue Ao, who is in Liangcheng, sit back and watch them evacuate?

It turns out that Xue Ao won't!