Xiang Zhen led this 50,000 troops under his direct command, and when he had just entered the territory of Eyue, the envoy of Ding Taiyi, the Hunan observer, also arrived quickly.

After being slapped on the head by Qian Wenzhong, this young marshal Xiang was slapped by Ding Taiji head-on.

It's just that compared with the straightforwardness in Qian Wen, this Ding observation made this slap more tactful. And the person who came was Ding Taiyi's eldest son Ding Sheng, who barely gave Xiang Zhen enough face.

Xiang Zhen hoped that Hunan would observe and make Ding Taiyi send 20,000 troops.

"General Xiang, it's not that we don't contribute to Hunan, 20,000 people, and now we really can't take it out!" Standing in the light rain, Ding Sheng, who was dressed in a hat, looked extremely sincere.

"The dignified Hunan observer, 20,000 soldiers can't be taken out?" Xiang Zhenqiang held back his anger and asked.

"General Xiang, we've been fighting Yueyang!" Ding Sheng shook his head again and again, and said with a wry smile: "Yueyang's difficulty is beyond our expectations, especially the enemy sailors in Dongting Lake, which has caused us great difficulties, they are familiar with the local hydrology and geography, and they are elusive, and often land, attack, harass, and do everything we don't expect, so that we have to divide our troops and garrison all over the place, so as not to be seen by Zheng Wenchang's bastard and take advantage, but in this way, our soldiers and horses are scattered too much, and we can't form an overwhelming advantage over Yueyang, You can only grind and beat slowly. ”

"Why can't the Ding Observation Envoy not fight Yueyangwei? Wouldn't that be able to draw troops first? "Speak to the truth.

"Where's my General Xiang!" Ding Sheng cried out: "You don't know the fierceness of Yueyang's soldiers, if our soldiers are few, and they attack by land and water, then it is not a matter of us capturing Yueyang, it is a matter of whether we will be driven back by him." Seeing the fat in our mouths, how can we just drop it? Moreover, taking down Yueyang and pulling out the old thorn in the eye is not also agreed upon by us in advance? ”

Xiang Zhen sighed, at the beginning, there was indeed such a statement.

But at that time, no one expected that Daliang would lose so quickly, and the Northern Tang army would come so quickly!

The situation is not changing as fast as it comes. Now I want to change my previous strategy, but these people have found an excuse.

"And we really don't have manpower." Ding Sheng said: "In addition to Yueyang, we also sent troops to help the Liang army in Yizhou, wanting to help them quickly take Jingnan. At the moment, it is difficult to draw even a single soldier out. ”

Xiang Zhen didn't speak for a long time.

Ding Sheng said that his Lao Tzu sent a force to Jingnan, and he believed it, but not to help the Liang army, but to take advantage of the fire to rob. The land of Jingnan is coveted by Zhu Youzhen, the king of Liang, and the observation of Hunan makes Ding Taiji not salivate?

He's going to grab the turf!

In the gentle spring rain, Xiang Zhen was completely silent.

"However, our confidence in Hunan to meet the Northern Tang army is firm, so although it is very difficult, we still reluctantly dispatched 5,000 people to help the general, which is also our last little mobile force." Seeing Xiang Zhen's speechless appearance, Ding Sheng finally revealed his last hole card.

I have to say that Ding Sheng is still a very successful lobbyist, he first hit the other party's expectations to the lowest point, and then threw out a little sweetness when the other party no longer had any hope, so that the opponent will not only not be disappointed, but will have a sense of surprise.

Sure enough, when Xiang Zhen heard this, he finally had a little smile on his face, and hugged his fists and said, "Thank you so much." ”

For Xiang Zhen, five thousand people, although a little less, but no matter how thin the mosquito's legs are, it is also meat. Moreover, the Hunan soldiers are still very good at fighting, and 5,000 people may be the last straw that breaks the camel's back!

"These people are all drawn from the Yueyang battlefield, absolute elite divisions!" Ding Sheng said again: "Now that they have set off, they will soon be able to arrive to serve under the general's account." ”

The smile that had just appeared on Xiang Zhen's face disappeared little by little.

He really wanted to kick this guy who was talking in one piece at a time, and threw him into a waterhole on the side of the road.

Damn, I'm only leaving now, is this to help myself fight?

He now understands perfectly. Feelings: Ding Taiyi, this is a two-handed preparation. Five thousand people are indeed elite, but they will definitely not arrive at the battlefield as scheduled, they will only slowly rub by, looking at the situation to determine the speed of their march. If they were to win in the confrontation with the Northern Tang Shi Zhuang, they would be able to travel fast enough to rush to collect credit, and if they were defeated, they would inevitably be as slow as a turtle crawling. If they really failed, they were afraid that they would immediately turn around and flee all the way back to Yueyang.

Ding Taiyi is really more hateful than Qian Wenzhong!

Qian Wenzhong is at least a real villain, and he made it clear that he has no reinforcements for you now.

Ding Taiyi gave it to people, but he went to grab the credit.

Let yourself rejoice in vain.

Can you count such an army into your own effective strength?

"In that case, I really appreciate the generosity of the Observer." Xiang Zhen didn't want to talk to this smiling hypocrite anymore, so he turned over and got on his horse directly: "This situation, remember it to someone, he will be rewarded in the future." ”

Dropping this ** sentence, Xiang Zhenyi whipped on the horse's stock and galloped forward.

Without Zhang butcher, do you still eat hairy pigs?

He and Liu Xinda also have 100,000 people, and he also knows that after fighting with the Northern Tang Dynasty many times, Liu Xinda is also well aware of the strength of the Northern Tang Army, so the empty number of soldiers and horses under his command is very small, and the 50,000 army can really be used as a 50,000 army. The combination of the two sides, 100,000 people, is more than twice as large as Shi Zhuang.

In this battle, it is still his own victory that is greater.

Ding Sheng, who was standing in place, wiped a handful of mud spots on his face, which were splashed on his face by Xiang Zhen's last galloping horse, and snorted coldly: "It's really a dog biting Lu Dongbin, I don't know the hearts of good people." He will be rewarded one day! Could it be that if we don't succeed in the Ding family, I'm afraid that you won't be able to go home? Don't pinch the soft persimmons in front of you, and we're rushing to follow you to gnaw hard bones? If we really go, you won't use people to death, and you will go to the fire for your army, and when the time comes, you will return with a full load, but we will come back with a coffin, who can you hide from this little trick? There are already 100,000 troops, and they still want us to transfer troops to you, this calculation is too loud, to preserve their own strength and consume our troops, it is really beautiful! Are you the only smart person in the world? You and Liu Xinda sang and joined together, and they both came to put pressure on our Ding family, who doesn't know that you are a gang? When I was in Ezhou City, I colluded together! ”

Remembering that before Xiang Zhen, Liu Xinda sent a messenger for help to Yueyang to ask Ding Taiyi for troops, and Ding Sheng was even more disdainful.

It is your family's business that your Xiang clan wants to take charge of the world, and our Ding family only wants to hold Hunan, let's talk about an alliance, but if it is advantageous, it will be combined, and if it is not profitable, it will be divided. Do you really think that the Guangzhou court is a thing? He wants to dictate to us!

Bah!

Looking at Xiang Zhen's subordinates who were constantly moving forward on the side of the road, Ding Sheng turned over and said to the guards: "Let's go, let's go back." When we return to Yueyang, our sailor will probably arrive, and when the time comes, we will go to Zheng Wenchang's nest first, without the help of the sailor, I want to see how many days Qian Biao can support! ”

A group of guards shouted in unison, hugging Ding Sheng and leaving.

As Xiang Zhen's army entered Ezhou and advanced rapidly all the way to Guangshui, Shi Zhuang's department, which had been nesting in Xinyang and had not moved, also began to act.

The first to be dispatched was the cavalry led by Zhonglang General Liang Han.

On top of the facts, Liu Xinda and Xiang Zhen's understanding of the current Northern Tang Army is still not detailed enough. Although he had already given the highest evaluation to the combat effectiveness of the Northern Tang Dynasty soldiers, there was one thing that he did not expect the most deadly, that is, the speed of the Northern Tang Army.

An ordinary army can be called a strong army if it can maintain its combat effectiveness after marching thirty or fifty miles a day, but the foot soldiers of the Northern Tang Dynasty, marching a hundred miles a day, can still fight an encounter with the opponent. Years of strong military policy have made the physical fitness of the Northern Tang army unrivaled in the world, and the perfect logistics support has allowed them to get sufficient physical strength in the rapid march. Moreover, among the Northern Tang Army, there were so many mules and horses that the Southern Army could not imagine. In the control of the desert south and desert north, as well as a large number of good at

These mules and horses are different from war horses, they do not need to be intensively raised, nor do they need to be spared, they can be pressed to their heart's content, and once they are too tired, they will immediately become a meal on the plate of the soldiers. And new mules and horses will naturally be replenished.

The lack of understanding of the Tang Army's marching speed made these two generals of the Southern Alliance miscalculate the days of the big battle between the two sides.

This is extremely fatal.

A day's error can be boiled.

The error of two days may also be spelled.

If it really reaches an error of more than three days, it is enough to fight a large-scale battle.

And Shi Zhuang pursues this.

Even though the opponent only has Xiang Zhen and Liu Xinda, it still reaches 100,000 people, and they really get together, not to mention that they can't win, but it's always too hard, so he wants to divide and annihilate them, kill Liu Xinda first, and then turn back to clean up Xiang Zhen.

When Liu Xinda, who was in Guangshui, knew that Shi Zhuang in Xinyang had moved, he left 5,000 people outside Guangshui City to monitor the Tang army in the city, and he set up a large army and moved forward to Xianrenling, where the general Fu Xiaotian was stationed. Where, Fu Xiaotian had already set up a camp, originally thought that Tang general Li Kang would launch an attack after arriving, but unexpectedly Li Kang just set up a camp to confront him. Fu Xiaotian took this opportunity to greatly repair the camp in Xianrenling, and now, he is waiting for Liu Xinda's army to enter.