Guan Shuo's Changsha Yishi was not the first to act after the Spring Festival, but the one who really took the lead was his general Xiang Xuan.

Before the winter of last year, Xiang Xuan captured Yingyin and Yingyang counties.

Yingyin is the county seat established during the Han Dynasty, once as the county government of Yingchuan County, and then to the end of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao's forces first settled in Yingyin, and established 'Xu County' in the east of Yingyin, welcoming the Han Emperor into Xu, which gave rise to 'Dingdu Xu County'.

Since then, Yingyin has gradually declined and Xu County has gradually prospered.

Later, according to legend, 'Han died in Xu, Wei Jichang in Xu', Emperor Wen of Wei changed Xu County to Xuchang, and became the county seat of Yingchuan County.

In other words, Yingyin is an ancient city quite close to Xuchang, although it was built a long time ago, and the scale of the city is far less than that of Xuchang, which was once one of the 'five capitals of Wei', but Xiang Xuan captured this county seat, which is a great threat to Xuchang, and can be called the 'side of the couch', which is enough to make Li Min, the guard of Yingchuan County, sleep and eat.

In addition to threatening Xuchang, Xiang Xuan's garrison of Yingyin is also equivalent to cutting off the connection between Xuchang and the 'west', where the 'west' mainly refers to Yingyang, Yangzhai and Xiangcheng.

Among them, Yangzhai is located in the upper reaches of Yingshui, and Yingyang is located in the lower section of Yingshui, just stuck between Yingyin, Xuchang and Xiangcheng, and its county area spans both sides of Yingshui.

From a strategic point of view on paper, Xiang Xuan's capture of Yingyang, on the one hand, 'blocked' the main road for Xiangcheng to aid Xuchang, and on the other hand, he could also threaten Yang Zhai - as long as Yangzhai County dared to send troops to aid Xuchang, the rebels stationed in Yingyang could immediately go upstream along the Yingshui, cut off the return route of Yang Zhai's army, and even take the opportunity to capture Yang Zhai.

This move made Xiangcheng and Yangzhai counties not dare to act rashly, so they could only stick to the county and watch Xiang Xuan threaten Xuchang.

In mid-February, the rebels stationed in Yingyin, after two or three months of separation, began to prepare for drills on the snow outside the city.

When the scouts of Xuchang found out about this, they immediately told the county guard Li Min: "Lord Qiqi, the Yingyin rebels are suddenly training outside the city, or they will be preparing to attack Xuchang. ”

Hearing this news, Li Min was very nervous, after all, just like Xun Yi, the governor of the western region, revealed to Zhao Yu last year, the current situation in Xuchang County is very bad.

In the west, Xiang Xuan of the Changsha rebels captured Yingyin and Yingyang, and in the south, the generals of the Jiangxia rebels, Zhou Gong, Yan Xuan, and Zhong Fei, garrisoned Linying, and these cities that had been occupied by the rebels were connected with the Zhaoling Tomb that Guanshuo was currently retreating to form a line to suppress Yingchuan County.

Looking at this layout, it is obvious that the rebels intend to 'advance from east to west', that is, to attack Kunyang, Xiangcheng, Runan, and Yexian to the west, and to capture Xuchang, Yanling, and Changshe to the east.

However, the momentum of the rebels' 'westward advance' has been weakened, but the momentum of the 'eastward advance' has not been damaged in the slightest.

On 19 February, the Jiangxia rebel general Yan Xuan led his army to Yingyin, where he joined Xiang Xuan's troops, while another general, Zhou Gong, led his army straight to Yanling County, east of Xuchang County.

Knowing the route of the rebels, the county lieutenant Cao Suo hurriedly pointed out to Li Junshou: "It must be that the rebels saw that they could not attack Xuchang last year, and they wanted to take Yanling first and surround Xuchang." If Yanling falls, Xuchang will be in danger! ”

Hearing this, Li Junshou was shocked and angry.

What was surprising was that he and Cao Suo had the same opinion, and what was angry was that although Cao Suo was able to see through the rebels' intentions several times, but when it came to the real fight, this guy was not Xiang Xuan's opponent, and he was repeatedly defeated by the latter, and in the end he could only be trapped in the city.

Just when Li Junshou was angry, an official reminded: "Zhou Hudong, the commander of the Ministry of Command, can attack the rebels!" ”

At this time, Li Junshou remembered that he also had a general in Yingchuan County who was good at fighting, that is, Zhou Hu, the former leader of the black tiger thieves he recruited last year.

So, Li Junshou immediately sent people to Kunyang.

In view of the fact that Zhou Hu promised to support Xuchang last year, this time he ordered that there was no need for Xun Yi, the governor of the western region, to make a personal trip, and Li Junshou only sent a small team of county guards.

About five or six days later, this small group of soldiers crossed the area occupied by the rebels, first arrived in Xiangcheng, and then came to Kunyang County.

At this time, Zhao Yu was busy preparing for spring ploughing, and when he received a request for help from Xuchang County, he also had a headache.

From a subjective point of view, he did not think of supporting Xuchang, first, he had reached an agreement with Zhang Zhai, Guan Shuo, and Chen Miao in private, and rashly led the army to reinforce Xuchang, which meant that he 'openly broke the agreement', and would inevitably break the 'tacit understanding' that the rebels and Kunyang had reached with great difficulty; second, he Kunyang really did not have the ability to reinforce Xuchang.

As for the third point, that is, he has a prejudice against Li Min, the county guard of Yingchuan, who he believes is not an 'enlightened' county guard, so he also has to prevent Li Min from crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, unloading the mill and killing the donkey.

I have to say that it is really a challenge to meet the rebels on both sides of Yingchuan County with the current situation, Zhao Yu can neither let the rebels be too strong, nor can he help Yingchuan County in a way that 'harms himself and others', how to grasp this scale, Zhao Yu needs to weigh carefully and think about it repeatedly.

But in any case, it is still necessary to send people to help Xuchang, and the key lies in what people to send and how many people to send.

After weighing the pros and cons, Zhao Yu decided to send the wolf to the Yingyang area first.

The brigade wolf is a special team attached to the brigade camp, with a total of twenty hundred teams, that is, an establishment of two thousand people.

However, the establishment is not equal to the actual number, after the battle of Kunyang, there were less than 800 brigade wolves left, and 4 of the 20 'wolf Benmu' were killed, not only most of them were injured, but even the worst team was left with only three 'wolf warriors' at that time, and the rest were all killed in battle, which can be described as heavy casualties.

It is precisely because of the heavy casualties that since last year's pursuit battle, Zhao Yu has arranged these brigade wolves to go to the main village, so that this group of people can recuperate in the cottage with peace of mind, and reunite with his newlywed wife by the way.

Among the remaining sixteen 'wolf benmu', Zhao Yu selected Xu Bai, Wang Ping, Hao Shun, Xu Rao, and Le Xing.

These five people are the five best of the brigade wolves.

On February 26, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, Hao Shun, Xu Rao, and Le Xing came to Kunyang from the main village, and Zhao Yu met these five people in the county government's house at that time.

He said to the five people: "At present, Xuchang County is under serious threat from the rebels, and the county guard Li Min sent people to Kunyang to ask for help. Kunyang is weak, I didn't want to send reinforcements, but considering that I want to have a good relationship with the county, it is not good to refuse in person, and after weighing, I intend to ask the five of you to bring people to support ......"

“……”

Xu Bai and the other five looked at each other.

You must know that the brigade wolves under their command are not yet in force, and the total number of people may only be 250, if they are removing the seriously injured brothers, most of them will not even have 200 people, so they will support Xuchang with this amount of manpower?

Perhaps guessing the thoughts of these people, Zhao Yu said with a smile: "Don't worry, you don't even need to go through Yingshui...... That Xiang Xuan occupies Yingyang, must want to prevent Xiangcheng and Yangzhai from supporting Xuchang in two directions, once he finds out that you are haunting near Yingyang, he will definitely strengthen the garrison, and send troops to hunt you down and expel you, and what you have to do is to be active in that area, so I can also explain to Yingchuan County......"

Of course, Xu Bai and the others understood that what the big leader in front of them said was 'being active', which was nothing more than ambushing the rebels and hunting the rebels, which was what they were best at.

"Obey!"

Xu Rao took the lead in holding his fists and receiving the order, and then said tentatively: "But the big leader, my brothers and other brothers are not yet in the army, can we draw some from the brigade camp?" Just take it to the workout workout. ”

Hearing this, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, Hao Shun, and Le Xing were also quite moved.

Regardless of the fact that they have all been promoted to the rank of 'Governor', as the name suggests, they can lead a hundred brothers, but to be honest, their men have not yet been full.

"Yes."

Zhao Yu nodded and agreed after thinking about it for a while, it wasn't a big deal anyway.

After getting Zhao Yu's authorization, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, Hao Shun, Xu Rao, and Le Xing immediately selected soldiers in the brigade camp, and even selected some from the county army and the militia of the Brotherhood.

This move made Ishihara quite unhappy, but because Xu Bai and Wang Ping were among the people who dug the foot of the wall from his county army, he did not have a seizure in the end.

Three days later, Xu Bai, Wang Ping, Hao Shun, Xu Rao, and Lexing went to Yingyang with nearly 500 brigade wolves and several grain trucks of grain, and soon exchanged hands with the local rebel patrolmen.

The defender of Yingyang County was called Guo Sheng, who was a general under Xiang Xuan, and led 3,000 rebels to garrison the city in the name of the latter, blocking the reinforcements sent to Xuchang in the direction of Xiangcheng on the one hand, and threatening Yang Zhai on the other.

Due to the lack of a large number of soldiers, Guo Sheng recruited about 2,000 new soldiers in the city since the rebels occupied Yingyang County last year.

It's not that the people of Yingyang County don't know what to do and are willing to be used by the rebels, it's just that the poor people in Yingyang County can't resist the temptation of food and are willing to use the way of being soldiers to get food to feed their families - this is a common thing in all dynasties.

From the end of February to the beginning of March, as soon as the brigade led by Xu Bai and others arrived at the Yingyang territory, Guo Sheng, the guard general of Yingchuan, immediately learned about it.

He couldn't be unaware, because the patrol guards he had deployed on the south bank of Yingshui outside the city that night were ambushed, and when the other patrolmen found the corpses after dawn, they had already been stripped of their bodies, not only their weapons and armor had been picked up, but even their clothes and pants had been stripped off, leaving only a slick and frozen corpse.

"Who did that?!"

Guo Sheng was furious about this.

In addition to being furious, he also felt secretly surprised, and said that the guys who attacked his patrol soldiers were also ruthless, and even took away their weapons and armor, and even let go of their underwear.

Enraged, he immediately ordered the vigilance to be strengthened, but even this could not stop the traveling wolves that came and went freely.

After suffering several losses, Guo Sheng finally figured out the enemy - a group of fierce men with black scarves on their heads!

In the south of Yingyang, is there such a gangster?

Yes!

That is Kunyang's 'black scarf thief'!

Since the defeat of Guan Shuo, the commander of their Changsha Righteous Division, in Kunyang, the reputation of the 'Black Turban Thief' has spread throughout the Changsha Righteous Division, and Guo Sheng has naturally heard of it.

Knowing that these people were not easy to mess with, he immediately reported the matter to General Xiang Xuan.