Just when Zhao Yu was in full swing in Xuchang City to steal the military power that should have belonged to Cao Suo, in the military camp east of Yexian County and south of Shahe, Guan Shuo, the commander of Changsha Yishi, also received a letter from his general Xiang Xuan.

If Guan Shuo was greatly pleased with the news of the 'capture of Changshe', then Xiang Xuan's description in the letter that 'Zhou Hu personally led Kunyang soldiers to capture Yingyang' made him very angry.

He immediately said angrily: "How dare he break the agreement?!" ”

But soon he calmed down, summoned a few henchmen and commanded: "A few of you immediately go to Kunyang, go to the group of people with black scarves on their heads, find their heads, and ask them what is going on?" Warn them again, if Kunyang breaks the contract, then don't blame my righteous master for being unfavorable to him! ”

"Yes!"

The guards left in response.

They crossed the Shahe River and immediately ran into the 'West River Bank Patrol' led by Ishihara, or the 'Military Guard in Nantun County'.

"Is it Guan Shuo's messenger again?"

After understanding the situation, Ishihara did not embarrass the rebel envoys and sent them to Kunyang to meet Chen Mo.

After all, in the current situation, the relationship between Kunyang and the rebels is indeed a little delicate, although the two sides are still opposed to each other on the surface, but in fact, neither Kunyang nor the rebels want to go to war with each other, as the Kunyang side, Ishihara naturally does not want to break the subtle tacit understanding that the two sides have established with great difficulty.

Under the leadership of a team of county guards under Ishihara, those envoys from Guan Shuo came to Kunyang County.

At this time, Zhao Yuyuan was in Xuchang, and the person in charge of matters related to the rebels in Kunyang was Chen Mo, the commander of the Black Tiger Village.

After meeting Chen Mo, several of Guan Shuo's envoys told them about the situation, and immediately conveyed Guan Shuo's warning.

Chen Mo was not angry, and said lightly to the envoys: "At the beginning, the agreement between our Zhou leader and the righteous master was just to exchange 'Kunyang will not support Ye County' in exchange for 'the righteous master will not invade the three counties of Kunyang, Xiangcheng, and Runan', and it does not involve anything else. After all, my Kunyang is the county seat under the rule of Yingchuan County, and the county government asked me Kunyang to send troops to rescue, and I Kunyang should send troops to the army, and the righteous teacher is blameless. …… All in all, I, Kunyang, do not admit to violating the agreement, if Guan Shuai uses this as an excuse to be unfavorable to my Kunyang, Chen can only say that I Kunyang will not give in. Several, please. ”

These envoys of Guan Shuo had no choice but to return to the barracks with Chen Mo's reply and tell Qu Shuai Guan Shuo.

After learning of Chen Mo's reply, Guan Shuo gritted his teeth hatefully, eager to immediately raise troops to level Kunyang.

Of course, this is just an impulsive idea under a moment of anger, if Guan Shuo really wants to fight Kunyang, Guan Shuo still doesn't dare, after all, at this moment, he is in the stage of intensely attacking Ye County, a small fight a day, a big fight in three days, how can he have the spare troops and energy to provoke Kunyang again?

After defeating Ye County, the Jingchu rebels defeated Wang Shangde's Nanyang army, and it was not too late to turn around and attack Kunyang.

Thinking of this, Guan Shuo immediately wrote a letter to Xiang Xuan.

Three days later, that is, on the eighth day of the sixth month, the letter was delivered to Yingyin and to the general Xiang Xuan.

The content of Guan Shuo's letter can be summed up in two meanings: act cheaply, and the overall situation is important.

Xiang Xuan, of course, understood what this meant.

Acting cheaply, that is, letting Xiang Xuan judge for himself whether to fight with the strength of that Zhou Hu, and this matter will probably not affect the delicate relationship between Kunyang and Guan Shuo's Changsha Yishi.

As for the overall situation, it naturally refers to the matter of 'converging troops in Liang County'.

This is the agreement that Chen Miao made with Guan Shuo before leaving: Chen Miao asked Xiang Xuan and his subordinates Yan Xuan, Zhou Gong, and Zhong Fei to end the war in Yingchuan County as soon as possible, and after he led the Jiangxia Yishi to capture Chen County and Chen Liu, he helped him besiege Liang County, and then captured the southern capital of the Jin State with the army of the Jiangdong Yishi, and completed the ultimate goal of his Yishi at this stage, that is, to completely drive the Jin forces to the north of the river.

Based on these two points, in fact, Xiang Xuan did not think about being unfavorable to Kunyang, even after he captured Xuchang, after all, compared to the general strategic goal of 'chasing the Jin army from Hebei', a small local force like Zhao Yu would inevitably seem insignificant.

What's more, the 'Zhou Hu Force' has an ambiguous relationship with his righteous teacher, and it can barely be regarded as a green forest force that can be wooed.

But that Zhou Hu captured Yingyang, which posed a certain threat to Xiang Xuan's attack on Xuchang, which made Xiang Xuan a little annoyed.

"Since Guan Shuai told me to judge for myself, I might as well go and meet that Zhou Hu and see what he wants."

Xiang Xuan thought to himself.

On the same day, he led 5,000 Changsha troops, and Yan Yu reinforced his 3,000 Jiangxia troops, with 8,000 troops, and went to Yingyang.

At this time, there were brigade wolves active everywhere in Yingyin, and after these brigade wolves discovered Yingyin's abnormal movements, they transmitted the alarm to Yingyang two hours in advance, making Chu Yan, who was sitting in Yingyang, like a great enemy.

It's not that Chu Yan is timid, the problem is that he only had the experience of leading three or four hundred people to fight in the past, and he had no experience in commanding a large corps of soldiers, and now how many soldiers does he have under his command? That's 8,000 people!

To be exact, it should be 8,400 people, because the rebel prisoners captured that day, that is, the soldiers under the rebel general Guo Huai, have been persuaded by Ju Sheng and Cao Wu to surrender and put into the second battalion of the brigade - after all, both sides were once the soldiers of the Changsha Yishi, and in the case of being captured, those soldiers under Guo Huai were naturally willing to switch to the command of Ju Sheng and Cao Wu.

The number of soldiers led by this one suddenly increased by nearly twenty times, and Chu Yan, who was brave and brave, couldn't help but be a little at a loss.

Fortunately, he remembered Zhao Yu's instructions before leaving, and immediately invited Huang Ben, Zou Bu, Ju Sheng, and Cao Wu to discuss the matter with the four of them.

At the meeting, Ju Sheng saw Chu Yan's helplessness, and took the lead in reassuring: "The right commander and don't worry, according to the enemy situation reported by the brigade wolf, the troops led by Xiang Xuan are only 8,000 people, which is comparable to ours. ”

On the side, Cao Wu also opened his mouth to echo.

Chu Yan nodded, and made up his mind to fight a beautiful battle to defend the city, after all, he was the right commander of the Black Tiger Village, and his status was still above Ma Gai, Ma Hong, Ju Sheng, Cao Wu and others, how could he be underestimated?

However, to his surprise, Xiang Xuan did not mean to attack Yingyang immediately that day, he just came to Yingyang to meet Zhao Yu.

"I'm Xiang Xuan, ask Zhou Hu to come out to see me!"

After leading the army to the northern suburbs of Yingyang, Xiang Xuan came to the city with only a team of guards and shouted towards Yingyang City from afar.

Hearing this shout, Chu Yan, who is the current chief general of Yingyang City, replied loudly: "The big leader is not in the city. ”

These words can be said to have been unexpected by Xiang Xuan.

Zhou Hu is not in Yingyang?

Could it be that he is back in Kunyang? But didn't he want to save Xuchang?

Don't......

After thinking about it again, Xiang Xuan's color changed slightly.

He remembered that one night a few days ago, those damn Kunyang brigade wolves were extremely active, hunting down patrol soldiers in his army at night.

It was on that night that Xiang Xuan received a report from the patrol guards under his command, saying that it seemed that a team of hundreds of people took advantage of the night to bypass him Yingyin and go to Xuchang, originally Xiang Xuan didn't care, after all, it was just a team of hundreds of people.

But thinking about it now, Xiang Xuan was very suspicious that Zhou Hu was in this team of hundreds of people, and he mixed into Xuchang from under his nose......

"That's not good."

Xiang Xuan's expression immediately became solemn.

Don't look at his disdainful attitude towards Kunyang and that Zhou Hu all day long, but in fact, he is still a little wary of that Zhou Hu, after all, that Zhou Hu is the one who defeated the main force of his Changsha righteous division.

So......

"What should I do here?"

Xiang Xuan frowned and stared at the Yingyang City in front of him.

"It's all here, let's take a look, let's see this Yingyang's strength first...... If I can get Yingyang back in one go, even if Zhou Hu sneaks into Xuchang that day, I can still be invincible."

Thinking of this, Xiang Xuan immediately gave an order: "Prepare to attack the city." ”

Seeing the movements of the rebels outside the city from a distance, Chu Yan said excitedly and a little uneasily: "It seems that there is still going to be a fight." ”

Hearing this, Ju Sheng smiled and said, "It's just a temptation." …… I look at that Xuan, today I just came to meet the big leader, and the siege of the city is probably just his whim. ”

Chu Yan asked in surprise, "Ju Yingshuai is so sure?" I saw the rebels outside the city with long siege ladders......"

From the side, Cao Wu also said with a smile: "Right commander, that is not a long ladder specially used for siege, but a rule in the army...... If an army wants to conquer a city, it must carry some ropes and long ladders with the army, so as to open roads and build bridges when encountering mountains and waters. …… If that Xiang Xuan had come to attack Yingyang this time, then he would have brought a ladder that was more conducive to attacking the city, rather than some ordinary long ladder. ”

"Oh." Chu Yan suddenly realized.

Suddenly, he discussed with Ju Sheng, Cao Wu, Huang Ben, and Zou Bu, and sent 500 county soldiers from Xiangcheng and Runan counties, plus 500 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of Luben to resist the rebels, and the rest were used as reserves.

The 500 county soldiers of Xiangcheng and Runan counties have nothing to say, and they are not much better than the militia, but the soldiers of the second battalion of the brigade under Ju Sheng and Cao Wu are all regular soldiers of Changsha Yishi, compared to the soldiers under the command of Xiang Xuan, Xiang Xuan tentatively sent 2,000 soldiers to launch two rounds of attacks, just like a mud cow entering the sea, and failed to shake the city defense of Yingyang City.

Xiang Xuan saw that those powerful soldiers on the city wall had black scarves tied to their arms, so he summoned Guo Huai, the general under his command, and asked: "Those soldiers, could it be the rumored 'Kunyang Black Turban Soldiers'?" ”

"Yes and no."

Guo Huai shook his head and explained: "The last general has seen the real 'black scarf pawn', those people all wrap black scarves on their heads, and they are also soldiers, as for those in the city who tie black scarves to their left arms, they should be rebels who have turned their backs on my righteous master led by Ju Sheng, Cao Wu and others......"

"Oh."

Xiang Xuan suddenly glanced at Yingyang City in the distance with a frown.

Only then did he realize that there were some people on the other side who were the generals of his Changsha Yishi, so it was no wonder that his strength exceeded his estimates.

"Withdraw the troops and return to Yingyin."

After weighing the benefits, Xiang Xuan decisively gave the order to withdraw his troops.

Guo Huai was stunned, but he did not dare to disobey Xiang Xuan's order.