As Shi Zhuang predicted, when faced with the choice between Eyue and Huai'an, Xiang Zhen did not hesitate to choose to return to his division to support Eyue.

His war in Huainan has actually fallen into a quagmire, from the initial as easy as stabbing tofu with a hot knife, to now paying a lot of price for every step forward, which has made him feel irritated. The enemy's resistance became stronger and stronger, and the organization became more and more tight, and with the two armies of Li Mi and Liu Chenglin approaching Huai'an in two ways, he was greatly shaken by the goal of taking Huai'an and then threatening Yangzhou.

The original plan was to quickly cut through the chaos, take advantage of the fierce battles between the Northern Tang army and the Great Liang army in Chang'an and Guanzhong, and take advantage of the fire to rob and take these targets with lightning speed. Unexpectedly, expectations are always far from reality.

The first is that I didn't expect that Huai'an, a place that had only been occupied by the Northern Tang Dynasty army for a short time, was actually won over by them in a short period of time, and after the initial panic, the people were quickly mobilized, and the army was in front, and more countless small groups of men and horses were almost day and night to attack and harass the Southern Alliance army, making them tired of coping.

The second is that I didn't expect the battle between the Northern Tang Dynasty and Daliang to end so quickly. Zhu Youzhen lost too well. In Chang'an, after a battle, Zhu Youzhen took his elite and ran away. From Zhu Youzhen's point of view, giving up Chang'an and retreating to Yizhou is naturally the best response to preserve strength in order to make a comeback, but for Xiang Xun, it is very bad. The expected standoff did not take place, allowing Li Ze of the Northern Tang Dynasty to quickly move his troops to the south.

The only benefit is political. Zhu Youzhen surrendered to the Guangzhou court, went to the emperor's title, and asked for a title. finally gave Xiang Xun some comfort.

Because this represents the legitimacy of the Guangzhou court, Zhu Youzhen's surrender to the Guangzhou court means that it is they who destroy the puppet Liang who usurped the Tang Dynasty and stand on its own, rather than the Northern Tang Li Ze who recovered Chang'an Luoyang.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen is also a ready-made ally who does not need to be mobilized. In Xiang Xun's view, at this stage, in addition to his old brother Rong Hong, Zhu Youzhen's reliability is much more reliable than that of his allies in Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Hunan.

Looking at the fact that Zhu Youzhen has not fully gained a foothold, he sent Cao Bin and Tian Mantang to attack Xiangyang and Yiling respectively with an army of up to 100,000 people, which shows that Zhu Youzhen and Li Ze of the Northern Tang Dynasty are not together.

Only by controlling Eyue can we effectively unite the forces of Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and other places, and then take Jingnan and other places, and completely unite the entire south, so that we can have the foundation of confrontation with the north, which is the consensus of the Guangzhou court. Compared with this goal, Huainan lost it.

Therefore, after learning that Shi Zhuang's Right Weiwei was marching towards Guangshui and that his vanguard troops had arrived in Xinyang, Xiang Zhen immediately began to arrange a retreat, and he himself was one step ahead and rushed back to Hongzhou, the Jiangxi Observation Embassy.

"Uncle Shi, ten days ago, I had already sent you a news of 800 li urgently, asking you to immediately gather the government soldiers, collect food and wages, and then join forces with me to enter Eyue, why haven't you started to act today?" After entering Hongzhou, Xiang Zhen was immediately annoyed when he saw that Hongzhou was still calm and calm like water.

Qian Wenzhong drank the tea unhurriedly, and said lightly: "General Xiang, why didn't you start moving?" I'm here, I've already issued the order, if you don't believe it, you can go to the archive and see if I did it? It's just that this thing is really difficult to do! ”

Xiang Zhen asked with a calm face, "I don't know where the difficulty is?" ”

Qian Wenzhong put the teacup on the table and looked at Xiang Zhendao: "Let's talk about money and grain first, for more than a year, the army of our two families has attacked Huainan and Xuanzhou, and the grain and grass needed have always been supplied by my Jiangxi, isn't it?" Jiangxi's savings for many years have been gone. Now, as soon as you open your mouth, you will ask me to requisition a million stones of grain and grass, and you say, in a hurry, where shall I go to find you this much grain? ”

Xiang Zhenqiang endured his annoyance, for more than a year, Jiangnan had indeed spent a lot of money and grain, but these money and grain were all obtained from the common people by levying taxes and looting land. But is Jiangxi's bulk grain and wealth really in the hands of the people? Of course not. This money, grain, and wealth were in the hands of the powerful landlords headed by the Qian family.

He was well aware of this, so he wrote a letter in advance, asking Qian Wenzhong to collect donations from large households, and for this reason, he even promised Qian Wenzhong that every large household who donated money and grain could get a knighthood.

Today's Guangzhou court prides itself on being authentic, and this usually very noble and rare title can also be easily divided. Even if it is a few empty titles, it is still quite attractive to some big dogs and landowners, and this is the best way for them to enter the mainstream society.

Xiang Zhen didn't believe that no one was moved, and there was only one possibility for Jiangxi to take no action, that is, Qian Wenzhong was making an obstruction.

Without waiting for him to question again, Qian Wenzhong spoke again, "Let's talk about the soldiers, now that we belong to Jiangxi, there are 20,000 people who follow you to fight in Huainan, and only 10,000 horses are left to maintain law and order in various places. Now that spring ploughing is imminent, the prefectures and counties have already disbanded the government soldiers and prepared for spring ploughing, which is a big deal. Moreover, your large army retreats from Huainan, the Northern Tang army will inevitably make a comeback, and when the time comes, my Jiangxi will inevitably bear the brunt of the opponent's counterattack. ”

Xiang Zhen took a deep breath: "Uncle Shi, even if the Northern Tang army arrives in Huainan, I have left troops at all checkpoints in Huainan, and they are fighting from place to place, it takes time, and we just need this time difference." Think about it, if Eyue is lost and Liu Xinda's troops are annihilated, will the situation facing Jiangxi be even worse. As long as we win the battle of Eyue, there will be no threat to your flank, and you will only need to concentrate on a possible attack in Huainan, and your left and right are our allies, so what's so terrible. ”

"I also know this truth, but in a short period of time, it is really difficult to gather money and food, recruit enough soldiers, to the general, it is better to lead your soldiers and horses into Eyue to fight with Shi Zhuang, my side, even if it is three feet to scrape the ground, it will ensure the supply of grain and grass for your department, your army is full of 50,000 people, people eat horses and chew, this consumption is enough to vomit blood three liters." Qian Wenzhong said with an embarrassed face: "I'll recruit follow-up troops later, as your supplement, okay?" ”

Xiang Zhen was angry for a while, and to put it mildly, didn't he just want to enter Eyue to participate in this big battle, and wanted to play the striker himself and take advantage of his fire?

Want to turn the other cheek?

Of course not.

It's really going to turn around, and the other party doesn't even supply food and grass, that's really bad.

It was hoped that Ding Taiyi would get enough reinforcements from the Hunan Observation Envoy there.

With 50,000 horses and horses, plus more than 50,000 soldiers and horses from Eyue Liu Xinda, if Ding Taiyi can send 20,000, there will be 150,000 soldiers, and the more than 30,000 Northern Tang troops of Shangshi Zhuang plus some miscellaneous troops of the other side will not exceed 50,000 at most, and the rest is still very large.

Among the Southern Alliance, the person who has the most intuitive understanding of the Northern Tang Army is none other than Xiang Zhen. After all, he sent envoys to the Northern Tang Dynasty many times, and when the relationship between the two sides had not yet broken down, he also observed the Northern Tang Dynasty army at close range, and even obtained a lot of top-secret information of the Northern Tang Dynasty military from Han Qi, the secretary of the military department back then. And his own pro-army directly used the military drill of the Northern Tang Dynasty, and these instructors came from Zuo Xiaowei led by Qin Zhao back then.

This incident caused an uproar in the Northern Tang Dynasty that year, Qin Zhao was deprived of all rights and put under house arrest in Wuyi. And the Zuo Xiaowei officers implicated in this incident are as many as dozens of people.

This incident also directly led to one of the two armies controlled by the royalist hall back then being directly cleaned by Li Ze and included in his own bag.

Maybe Li Ze has been watching the whole thing, and then waited for the incident to happen before he broke out in one fell swoop, with the purpose of eliminating the armed forces of the royalists.

Of course, it doesn't matter if it's right or not now. After all, Xiang Zhen also benefited from it. His pro-army is the most combat-effective unit in the entire Southern Alliance. Not even his father's pro-army.

He really wanted to promote this model of leading the army to the entire Lingnan army, but in the process of his efforts, he encountered great obstacles. The army of the Northern Tang Dynasty was a turnip and a pit, the establishment and the actual number of people were the target, the money and the army were separated, the soldiers' salaries were high, and the pensions were generous. Xiang Zhen tried his best, and he got these for his 10,000 pro-army, and he wanted to spread it, sorry, no one listened to you. Unless you take money from yourself.

The problem is that raising these 10,000 soldiers has made Xiang Zhen destitute.

This military reform was ultimately stillborn. In fact, it is not that you have not seen the benefits of implementing this kind of military reform, but the problem is that if it touches the interests of too many people, it will be absolutely unpopular.

Reforms that cannot even be implemented in Lingnan are pure dreams if they are implemented elsewhere.

Therefore, in this battle of Eyue, Xiang Zhen hopes to achieve absolute superiority in terms of troops, so that he has the determination and courage to fight with Shi Qiang.

Unexpectedly, at the beginning, he encountered a blow in Qian Wenzhong.