At dawn, General An Zhong led 8,000 soldiers to arrive in Xuancheng County, they set off at the same time as the cavalry, 10,000 cavalry took the Changzhou line, and 8,000 infantry set off from Jiangning, along the north bank of the Yangtze River into Xuanzhou, bypassing the enemy's defensive line, although they ran all the way, lightly armed, but still arrived in Xuancheng County two days later than the cavalry.

An Zhong is the nephew of An Guiren, the governor of Hexi, he was only seventeen years old when he joined the army, and he fought for more than ten years, and made many military exploits, and now he is also named General Wei, becoming the youngest general in the Jin army.

An Zhong led 8,000 soldiers into Xuancheng, and he and Su Zhen held a simple ceremony for the handover of city defense, and the defense of Xuancheng County was officially handed over to An Zhong and his 8,000 troops.

In Cangcheng, Su Zhen introduced to An Zhong: "There are a total of 460,000 stones of grain, 200,000 yuan of money, not bad, all of them are Kaiyuan Tongbao, there is no gold and silver, there are about 10,000 pigs and sheep, 20,000 pairs of armor, and other tents, war drums, banners, pig iron, copper ingots, etc. have not been counted, and the number is not small." ”

An nodded and asked, "How many troops are there?" ”

"There are more than 2,700 people in the army, all of them are from nearby states and counties, and they are being trained, I let them be responsible for the security in the city, the generals are all our people, and there are three generals, all of whom are Lang generals, among which Lai Wenbo is not bad, he was the guard of Xuancheng County, and he took the initiative to surrender to us, he sent several false information to Liu Shining in a row, and he expected Liu Shining to perish as soon as possible than we did."

The Jin army is divided into three categories of surrender generals, the first type is captured in the war, this kind of surrender is generally not used, unless the ability is outstanding, otherwise they are repatriated to their hometowns, the second type is the initiative to surrender in battle, this belongs to quasi-prisoners of war, and will generally continue to be used, but will be demoted and will go to the martial arts hall for training for a year.

The third type is Lai Wenbo, who took the initiative to surrender before the war, which is basically used by one level, and at the same time, he also has to go to the martial arts hall for training, but if he makes meritorious service, he can maintain his original official position, and if he has special talents, he will even be promoted, just like Zeng Jinghai, the chief general of the Guangzhou Navy Army, was originally only a Zhonglang general, but because of his naval leadership talent, he was promoted to a tiger general.

If Lai Wenbo can successfully lure Liu Shining to Youzhou, he will also be regarded as a meritorious service, and he will basically be able to maintain his original official position.

"Does General An have any questions?" Su Zhen asked.

An Zhong said with a smile: "There is basically no problem in the military aspect, and in terms of civil affairs, Han will not join the army!" ”

Han Senjun is Han Kuan, the grandson of Han Xuan, and also the son of Han Gao, who was originally a soldier of the militia army Cao Shenjun, this time following Su Zhen to raid Xuancheng, he will serve as the Xuancheng County Commander, in charge of civil affairs, the original Xuancheng County Commander is Liu Shining's henchman, greedy for money and bribery, has a very bad reputation, and has been dismissed for review.

Su Zhen said with a smile: "He is the commander of Xuancheng County, so he naturally stays in the county seat, he has good ability, and General An does not have to worry about civil affairs." ”

"I don't have anything else to ask, when will General Su leave?"

"I'm almost ready, I'll leave tonight!"

That night, Su Zhen led 10,000 cavalry to leave Xuancheng and march in the direction of Jiangzhou in the southwest, their target was not Jiangzhou, but Liu Shining's main force from Jiangzhou.

.........

Liu Shining was lured out of Jiangzhou by Wang Yu's interlocking conspiracy, and led an army of 10,000 to rescue Xuancheng.

But Liu Shining is not stupid, he will not directly lead the army to Xuancheng, he will stay dozens of miles away from Xuancheng, or a hundred miles away, and send someone to Xuancheng to investigate the situation first, and then decide his next move.

It was precisely because Liu Shining would be cautious that Su Zhen's cavalry could not wait for the rabbit in Xuancheng, and he had to take the initiative to attack and go to the west to find fighters.

At this time, Liu Shining led 10,000 troops from Jiangzhou into Xuanzhou, Xuanzhou has many mountains in the west, such as Huangshan, Gaishan, Jiuhua Mountain, Wushi Mountain, Lingyang Mountain, Liguo Mountain, etc., dozens of large and small mountains, each mountain is tens of miles to hundreds of miles in radius, the mountains are majestic, but there are no continuous mountains like Taihang Mountain, there are plains and hills around the mountains, and there are villages and towns one by one.

A flat official road winds through between the river and the mountains, the official road is green mountains and green waters on both sides, the trees are lush, this belongs to Xuanzhou Qiupu County, far away from Xuancheng County, a 10,000-strong army is marching in line on the official road.

Liu Shining rode on a white horse of a divine horse, compared to the eagerness when he set off, he slowly calmed down now, and began to feel a little uneasy in his heart, he remembered that attacking Changzhou, it was obviously a matter of nine out of ten, but he didn't expect that the other party would have an ambush, in the final analysis, he was too eager.

This time I rushed to rescue Xuanzhou, and it seems that I made the same mistake again, I am still a little too anxious, and there are many uncertain situations in Xuanzhou! With the opponent's 3,000 cavalry and the opponent's 20,000 troops, Liu Shining found that he didn't know anything about the other party's situation.

But Liu Shining is also comforting himself, Xuanzhou and Changzhou are not the same thing, Changzhou is the other party's territory, and Xuanzhou is his own territory, he still has 13,000 troops in Xuanzhou, the key is that Xuancheng County is still controlled by his own hands, if Xuancheng County is broken by the enemy, then he will definitely encounter the defeated army retreating westward.

The two contradictory mentalities were intertwined in Liu Shining's heart, causing him to suffer from gains and losses, and he just wanted to order the soldiers to turn around and return to Jiangzhou, but after a while, he denied his impulse to withdraw the army.

In this contradictory mentality, the army continued to move eastward, and arrived at Jing County in the morning, and then went east to a relatively large river, Qingge Shui, the terrain became open, and another hundred and fifty miles from Jing County was Xuancheng County.

Compared with the city of Xuancheng County, the county seat of Jing County is really not on the table, of course, Jing County is a small county town, the population in the city is only a few thousand, the city wall is dilapidated, in disrepair, and many places have collapsed.

However, the army came all the way from the deserted mountainous area, and when they saw a lively county town, it was as if they had returned to the world, and the originally low morale suddenly cheered up.

Liu Shining didn't want to go any further, he wanted to stay in Jing County and wait for news, so he ordered the army to camp in Jing County.

"See the lord for your humble duties!"

Liu Shining smelled a sour smell of wine emanating from him, and at first glance he was a good drinker, and he didn't like this kind of inaction county order.

"Look at what the walls have broken about?"

Liu Shining pointed at the city wall and the city gate with a horsewhip, and said very dissatisfied: "There is also this city gate, which is half-hung on the city, and the big hole on it can drill people, why don't you want to repair it?" ”

"Lord Qiqi, the population of the small county is too small, and you have to bear the military expenses of a thousand soldiers, so you don't have the spare energy to repair the city wall."

Liu Shining's face sank, "Other county towns also have heavy burdens, but the city walls are not as dilapidated as yours!" ”

"This ...... This is different in every place, we ......."

Without waiting for him to continue, Liu Shining interrupted him impatiently, "Don't talk about this, let me ask you, is there any news from Xuancheng?" ”

"What kind of news is the lord referring to?"

Since the county order asked like this, there must be no major events happening in Xuancheng, Liu Shining was slightly relieved in his heart, waved his hand and said: "No matter what the news is, as long as it is about Xuancheng." ”

The county commander thought for a while and said: "This morning, a group of merchants came from Xuancheng, as if General Lai was only allowed to go out of the city, not to enter the city, and the control was very strict, just like the feeling of going to war, but I didn't hear that there was a war over there. ”

Liu Shining was overjoyed, and hurriedly asked, "Are you sure it's General Lai?" ”

"It must be that in the morning, this group of businessmen also went to the county office to report to the official, saying that there were thieves stealing their goods!"

"Are these merchants still there?" Liu Shining asked anxiously.

"A few are gone, but the merchant who lost the goods is still there."

"Bring him to me at once!"

Not long after, the county magistrate brought a middle-aged man, wearing a hood, wearing a gray cloth short, with a small nose and eyes, at first glance, he was the kind of timid and cautious, but shrewd little businessman.

The merchant knelt down and kowtowed, "Xiaomin greets the general!" ”

General is the name of Liu Shining by the people in Jiangzhou, Liu Shining heard that he had a Jiangzhou accent, so he asked: "What is your name and where are you from?" ”

"Xiaomin's name is Li Gui, a native of Xunyang County, Jiangzhou."

I heard that he was from Xunyang County, and Liu Shining heard that he was from Xunyang County, so he immediately had a good impression of him, and asked, "You came from Xuanzhou?" ”

"Exactly! The villain is doing the four treasures of the study, went to Xuancheng to buy a batch of paper, last night when he stayed in the store, he found that there was a loss of one hundred and fifty catties, and the villain only entered a total of three hundred catties of paper, which is less than half, so the villain reported to the official today. ”

Liu Shining was not interested in his kind of, and he asked again, "How many days have you been in Xuancheng?" ”

"Stay for five or six days! Originally, we wanted to buy some pen and ink, but General Lai ordered that all people who were not from Xuancheng must leave the city, so we had to leave. ”

"You tell me the details, what day did you go and what day did you leave?"

"I went at the beginning of the month, I left three days ago, and I came directly after leaving."

"Nothing happened in Xuancheng?" Liu Shining asked.

The merchant thought for a while and said, "It seems that five days ago, a cavalry came to attack the county seat in the middle of the night, but General Lai seems to have received news in advance that all the troops had gone to the city, and no one was allowed to go out. ”

"How do you know it's cavalry?"

"The next day word spread in the county that there were thousands of cavalry, but they did not carry siege weapons."

"And then? No more troops coming? Liu Shining asked again.

The merchant shook his head, "Anyway, we didn't have it when we left, but the atmosphere in Xuancheng was very tense, and General Lai went door to door to mobilize young men to help defend the city, and each person was also issued a set of armor and spears. ”

"How many people were recruited, do you know?"

"I don't know, but we estimate that there are at least tens of thousands! When they lined up in the streets, they couldn't see the tail. ”

Liu Shining's heart finally fell, there were more than 10,000 militia soldiers, Xuancheng would not be easily lost, he was suddenly anxious, eager to fly to Xuancheng, he immediately ordered: "Pass my order, set off to Xuancheng immediately!" ”