?? In the evening, under the warm winter sun, dragging a long shadow, waiting for a single horse, trampling the frost and snow, following the official road, flying north. In the depths of winter, the roads are sparsely populated, and they are being used for their Pegasus to gallop. The knight was a strong man, with a letter flag on his back, a pawn of the post army, full of wind and frost, and a tired expression, until the military intelligence station in the southwest of Tokyo City, he lived on his horse, and almost fell off his horse.

Immediately, a guard came forward to help him and pull the horses, and then the steward went out to ask questions.

The identity was quickly verified, the knife was waved to cut the dead knot, a bamboo tube was removed, and the knight said in a tired Nanyin: "Your Majesty hand-picked, Hunan war report, please submit it to the privy as soon as possible!" ”

The post official didn't talk much nonsense, and while ordering someone to take him down to rest, he quickly arranged for someone to report this "emergency military information" to the city of Tokyo.

By the time it was presented to Liu Chengyou's imperial case, the sky had completely darkened.

Liu Chengyou was tired, he returned from the barracks, and it took a hundred days for Liu Chengyou to patrol the forbidden army, from the front army of the palace to the guard army, from the horse army to the infantry army, from the imperial city to the outer city.

Regardless of spring, summer, autumn or winter, basically every month, Liu Chengyou will take time to go to the barracks to inspect and train military discipline, inspect the morale of the soldiers, and most importantly, strengthen the construction of loyalty and patriotism......

The military report submitted had a lot of content, and based on the military situation in Hunan, it basically reported the situation of the Ma brothers in Hunan for half a month. Hunan is far away from the Central Plains, and there is a Jingnan in between, so it is basically difficult to transmit news from the south to the north in a timely and effective manner. This time the military situation in Hunan is still Liu Chengyou's special order to pay attention, otherwise the transmission of news will lag behind.

The courtier who was interviewed in the palace was Wei Renpu, the deputy privy envoy, who had always been relied on by Liu Chengyou as an important minister. After Wang Jun was transferred to the deputy marshal of the guard and continued to command the army, Liu Chengyou promoted him to the deputy privy envoy and shared the privy council with Guo Wei.

"Come on, pass on Fan Qian, Wang Pu, Wang Pu, hmm...... Call Tao Gu too! After browsing a little, Liu Chengyou gave Zhang Dejun an order, and then read it carefully.

On the Hunan side, since the succession of Ma Xiguang, the king of Chu, the situation has been chaotic for two years, and it has reached a climax in this winter.

Because of the ancestral system of Ma Yin, the first king of Chu, "brother to brother and brother", as early as the year of Han Xing, Langzhou Jiedu Ma Xicao exposed his disobedience to Ma Xiguang, who inherited the throne. At the beginning of the succession, a subordinate suggested that Ma Xiguang, the king of Chu, strike first and get rid of Ma Xicao, but Ma Xiguang categorically refused, unwilling to kill his brother, but he just indulged in Langzhou and did not ask him.

As a result, in the next year or two, the dispute over the rights of the Ma brothers in Hunan intensified. In the second year of last year (the second year of Qianyou), it completely evolved into a military war, and Ma Xicao raised troops in Langzhou and went south to attack Tanzhou, the capital of Ma Chu.

Then, Ma Xicao was defeated very sharply, and Ma Xiguang once again showed his "mercy" to the Ma Chu army and people, in order to avoid hurting his brother, he stopped the front-line soldiers from pursuing Ma Xicao and let him return to Langzhou. I hope that Ma Xicao will learn a lesson, recognize the situation, and dare not rebel again.

As everyone knows, seeing that Ma Xiguang is so weak, Ma Xicao has no scruples at all, even if the army is defeated and captured, with Ma Xiguang's cowardice, the end will not be too miserable. If you lose, you can survive, and even keep your wealth, and if you win, you will be the lord of Hunan.

As a result, after returning to Langzhou, Ma Xicao did not stop at all, gathered the defeated troops, regrouped, recruited people, and licked his wounds.

It took nearly half a year to regain his strength, and on the Changsha side, Ma Xi's Guangzheng still did not change, without any achievements, and he did not pay attention to his subordinates' advice to beware of Ma Xicao, and shrank in the palace all day long.

In view of this, where can Ma Xicao endure it. This time, he thought it through and did not rashly raise troops to the south, after all, with the strength of Langzhou alone, compared with Ma Xiguang, the king of Chu, the gap in absolute strength is still very large.

Ma Xixu first sent someone to ask for orders from the imperial court, hoping that Liu Chengyou could send troops south to help him capture Changsha and depose Ma Xiguang, promising a lot of benefits. It's a pity that Liu Chengyou was not moved, but he neither agreed nor refused.

The Mahi Seo Castle Mansion was shallow and impatient, and although he did not receive a reply from the imperial court, it did not prevent him from continuing to move. Sent people to contact Chenzhou, Xuzhou and Meishan barbarians, induced to attack Changsha, the barbarians knew that Changsha accumulated the wealth of Hunan, could not stand the temptation, gathered troops to the east.

When Ma Xi heard about it, he sent troops to refuse, and he was defeated in successive battles, losing thousands of soldiers. The barbarian army was strong, and even broke the county and town of Tanzhou, and when the threat was greatest, it broke Ditian (now Xiangxiang) west of Changsha, which was less than 200 miles away from Changsha.

At that time, the situation was that Lang soldiers could not come out, and Tanzhou was already in chaos. At that point, Ma Xiguang finally felt threatened, knowing that his "beloved" brother was irretrievable. But in the face of this situation, there is no other way than to send troops to garrison Yutan, the gateway of Changsha, but to know "what to do".

The King of Chu is not without talent, nor is he a person without courage, or his subordinate general Liu Yanyu moved Ma Xiguang with some bold words, and took the initiative to raise troops to the north, wanting to attack Langzhou and capture Ma Xicao.

Ma Xiguang, who was at a loss, saw that there was a good general and accepted it. Immediately ordered Liu Yanyu to be the commander of the war capital and the commander of the camp in Langzhou, led more than 10,000 people of the navy and army to Langzhou in the north, and sent Zhang Hui, the commander of the horse army, to lead the army to take the dry road and not attack Langzhou.

As a result, of course, it was not as Ma Xiguang intended, Liu Yanyao was more than arrogant, but his talent was difficult to support Ma Chu's foundation, and he was negligent in Langzhou, and he actually fell into Ma Xicao's plan to confuse the enemy, and was cut off from the back road.

Liu Yanyan was defeated and almost annihilated, and the remnants of the army returned south. On the other hand, Zhang Hui's army, hearing the news of defeat, withdrew back to Yiyang, a small county northwest of Changsha, Ma Xicao sent an army of 3,000 to attack, the enemy did not arrive, and Zhang Hui fled first, resulting in Yiyang defenders without a leader, more than 9,000 people died.

Seeing that the situation was becoming more and more lonely, Ma Xiguang hurriedly sent an envoy north to Tokyo to ask for help from his father in the Northern Han Dynasty, hoping that Liu Chengyou could make decisions for him.

At that time, in the Han Dynasty, the destruction of Buddhism was in full swing, and Liu Chengyou had no spare strength to intervene. Just issued an edict and ordered the Ma brothers to withdraw their troops and defend their own places, as for what the effect is, the emperor of the Han Dynasty knows it, and even, he has hidden evil intentions.

However, the affairs of the south are not too much to describe as involving the whole body, and the civil strife in Ma Chu involves Jingnan, the Southern Han Dynasty and the Southern Tang Dynasty. Therefore, Liu Chengyou ordered people to strengthen his attention to the Hunan Rebellion.

And Ma Xixu's side, by the edict of the Northern Han Emperor, was furious, at that time he had gained the upper hand in the war against Ma Xiguang, only to feel that Liu Chengyou was helping Ma Xiguang, the incompetent master. So, angrily, he declared himself a minister to the Southern Tang Dynasty and asked to send troops to help him attack the pool.

Since the Battle of Meishui and the Battle of Yiyang, after a series of defeats, the Ma brothers attacked and defended differently, Ma Xicao turned from defense to attack, raised troops to the south, and marched towards Changsha again.

And Liu Chengyou's receipt of the military information was the progress of the Langzhou soldiers in November. Up to now, Ma Xicao led the army to the south, broke through the village, surrendered and rebelled, and the army was on the Xiangjiang River, and the troops were directed at Changsha City.