In Shiliang City, the heavily guarded yamen was temporarily requisitioned as the headquarters of the Northern Expedition, and Wu Mingche summoned all the generals to discuss the battle plan, of course Xiao Yao also had to participate, but he was still the lowest-ranking one among all the generals, but he was the most important one in Wu Mingche's heart!

"I just received an urgent report, yesterday, General Huang of the Western Route Army had defeated the 10,000 Qi soldiers who rushed to Liyang for reinforcements from the Qi army! Coupled with the 30,000 Qi army we have just defeated today, there is no longer the main force of the Qi army in this area of Huainan, and we were afraid that the main force of the Qi army could reinforce various places at any time and did not dare to easily capture the city, so the strategy at that time was to concentrate our superior forces to eliminate the main force of the Qi army! However, the situation is different now, and the various cities in Huainan now only have their defenders, and I believe that Qi will not send reinforcements to reinforce Huainan in a short time, so I am right to make a steady and steady strategy! Now our strategy is to start recovering the cities around Huainan, and then consolidate this area in preparation for the future resistance and defense of the large army sent by the Qi State to Huainan! Wu Mingche said.

"The Governor means we're going to attack the city? Is it to return to the south and attack Qin County? Qinjun is an important military town in Jiangbei, and its strategic position is very important, and now there are nearly 10,000 defenders in it, which cannot be ignored! There is also Liyang, which is surrounded by the Western Route Army, both of which are across the river from Jinling, if the two places are not recovered as soon as possible, if something goes wrong at that time, I am afraid that the situation of the Northern Expedition will be affected! Zhou Luo analyzed.

"Well, General Zhou is right, but now there are only 20,000 troops led by General Ren to continue to surround Qin County, if we want to break through Qin County, 20,000 people are probably not enough, we must send another strong force back to assist! However, we have just occupied this Shiliang City, and the people's hearts are undecided, if we want to stabilize the situation here, we must immediately deal with Waliang City and Yangping County near Shiliang City, if we now divide our troops to the south to reinforce General Ren, I am afraid that there will not be enough troops to deal with Waliang and Yangping at the same time. So I'm calling you here to discuss what we're going to do next! Shiro, what do you think? Wu Mingche said with a beard.

"I don't know! My infantry battalion is not good at these siege battles, and there is very little armament and material left, so most of the governors will not need to look for us during this time! Xiao Yao said to himself.

"Shiro is still mad at us? Haha, you don't look like such an angry person, and in these few battles with the Qi army, all the troops have suffered casualties, and some of them have suffered quite a lot of casualties! Just like your father's cavalry battalion, in order to help you block the pursuit of Changsun Hongluo, he used 5,000 cavalry to stop the opponent's 10,000 cavalry, although in the end it was the cavalry battalion that defeated the cavalry of Qi and captured thousands of their horses, but we also suffered casualties of 2,000 cavalry, nearly half of the number! This is the treasure of our Chen State, if you don't make a supplement, how can you let your father's cavalry battalion show its strength again! And your infantry battalion, which has been in the war for a month, has almost no casualties, that is, now Huang Jiazi went to pursue Wei Pohu and Wang Lin, and folded more than a dozen cavalry, this kind of record, if you still have to worry about the spoils of war, how does this make other soldiers think of you? Wu Mingche's set of combination punches with family affection and reasoning suddenly made Xiao Yao speechless.

"Tell me the truth, I can't talk to you!" Xiao Yao glanced at Wu Mingche and continued: "But I think that the siege of these battles should be easy first and then difficult!" There are still so many defenders on the side of Qin County, if we attack strongly, it will definitely be a defeat for both sides, not only will there be a large number of casualties among the soldiers at that time, but after the capture, we will have to leave the defenders to garrison the city, how many of our tens of thousands of troops can be left? The number of people has decreased, and even dealing with some cities will make us feel difficult! Therefore, it is better to concentrate our forces to deal with those easy cities first, and when we have solved these places, so that the defenders in Qin County feel that the general trend has gone and they are isolated, they will definitely surrender! Xiao Yao suggested.

"Captain Xiao's suggestion is good! Although Qinjun and Liyang are both important military towns, and they are across the river from Jiangling, we can't rush for a while! What's more, there are still General Ren and the Western Route Army surrounding them, and I believe they can't make any big waves! At this stage, we should take advantage of the fact that the Qi army is unable to reinforce Huainan for a while, concentrate our forces and promptly uproot all the strongholds of the Qi army in Jiangbei, consolidate our foundation in Huainan, and then fight steadily with the Qi army! Pei Ji also agreed with Xiao Yao's strategy.

"That's right! Since Pei Jianjun agrees with Shilang's strategy of first making it easy and then making it difficult, okay, then let's first solve a few cities near Shiliang City, consolidate our foundation, and then continue to go north, recover Xuyi, and completely drive the Qi army out of Huainan! Zhou Luo listened to the order, I ordered you to lead 10,000 troops to attack Waliang City, remove the threat to the west of Shiliang City, and then join forces with General Ren after breaking the city to further besiege Qin County! Ren Zhong led 10,000 troops to attack Yangping County and remove the threat to the east of Shiliang City! Wu Mingche ordered.

。。。。。。

Because Wu Mingche's Middle Route Army and Huang Faqu's Western Route Army both defeated the Qi army's reinforcements, leaving the Qi army's various strongholds in the Huainan region without reinforcements, the two armies could easily recover each city.

On the third day of the fifth month, Zhou Luo led an army of 10,000 to arrive and besiege Waliang City, a city located in Shiliang City and Qin County, and launched a siege, on the fourth day of the first month, Waliang City surrendered to the Chen army, willing to submit to the rule of Chen State!

On the eighth day of the fifth month, Yangping County, which had been surrounded by Chen's army, also surrendered to Chen's army, completely removing the threat of Shiliang City being attacked by the east and west, and Wu Mingche's middle route army could be stationed in Shiliangcheng with peace of mind.

The attack on the side of the Western Route Army did not lag behind, Lujiang County in the north of Liyang was broken by Huang Faqu, directly cutting off the connection between Liyang and the outside world, plus the reinforcements that had reinforced Liyang had been defeated before, and the troubled Liyang defenders sent people to contact Huang Faqu, saying that they could surrender to the Chen army, Huang Faqu believed it was true, so he slowed down the attack on Liyang, so that the defenders inside got a chance to breathe.

However, Huang Faqu waited for two consecutive days but still didn't see the defenders of Liyang open the city gate and surrender to the Chen army, feeling teased, he was immediately furious, and immediately led his troops to storm Liyang, and finally broke through Liyang on May 11, and also killed all the defenders to set an example!

After capturing Liyang, an important town in Jiangbei, Huang Faqu immediately waved his army north to attack Hefei! Perhaps the defenders of Hefei saw the form clearly and knew that Qi would not send reinforcements south to reinforce it; Perhaps because Huang Faqu executed all the defenders of Liyang and shook the hearts of the defenders of Hefei, when Huang Faqu's military flag appeared outside the city of Hefei, the defenders inside asked Huang Faqu to surrender, and immediately opened the city gate, allowing Chen Jun to enter the city to take over Hefei!

The defenders of Hefei surrendered so sincerely, Huang Faqu, of course, also had to respond with sincerity, and immediately promulgated a strict military law, prohibiting his subordinates from robbing, blackmailing and harassing the people of Hefei after entering the city! And after treating the soldiers defending the city and swearing that they would no longer work for the Qi army, let them go back!

The Middle Route Army continued to attack the surrounding cities and counties with Shiliang City as the center, and uprooted the strongholds of the Qi army in Huainan one by one.

On 14 May, Northern Gaotang County, which had just been surrounded by Chen's army, immediately surrendered to Chen's army.

On May 20, Huang Yong, a general under Wu Mingche, conquered the outer city of Qichang, and completely conquered the city of Qichang on the second day.

On May 21, the general Ren Zhong led the army to besiege Dongguan County, conquered the east and west cities of Dongguan within one day, and then immediately attacked Qicheng, the defenders of Qicheng were afraid of the offensive of the Chen army, and took the initiative to find the Chen army that was still on the march, asking for surrender!

On May 23, Qin County, which was surrounded by Chen's army, but had never been able to wait for reinforcements, and was even used by Xiao Yao to implement the strategy of encirclement and reinforcement, finally surrendered to Chen's army after holding on for almost two months!

At this point, the first stage of the Northern Expedition launched by Chen Guo was finally victorious!