At the same time when the Tang army occupied Chen Liucheng, Li Zheng had personally led an army of 50,000 to raid Puzhou, defeating the 10,000 Tian Chenghei army stationed in Puzhou, and thousands of Hebei defeated troops withdrew to Huazhou, and Li Zheng's army occupied Puzhou.

Tian Yue was furious, and then personally led 30,000 troops into Puzhou, in the south of Puyang County encountered Li Zhengji's second son Li Jing led 20,000 troops, the two armies broke out a fierce battle, Tian Yue personally led the bow in the army to wound Li Jing, the Ziqing army was defeated, the Hebei army was like a broken bamboo, the soldiers pointed to Zhencheng, Li Zheng was already afraid of the edge of the Hebei army, so he withdrew from Puzhou back to Jeju.

Li Mian led tens of thousands of troops north into Huazhou, stationed in Weicheng County, and confronted Tian Chenghe's Wei Bojun.

Li Zhongchen was not in the Central Plains, led the army south, he encircled and suppressed Li Lingyao's remnants of the army as the reason, the army slaughtered into the rich Songcheng County, wantonly raped and looted, for a time, Songcheng County was devastated, the people seized the city and fled, and the mourning was everywhere.

The news quickly spread to Zhengzhou, at this time, the prince Li Shi led an army of 100,000 to sit in Zhengzhou, and in the morning, the news of Songcheng County was delivered to the camp.

Inside the tent, Li Shi slammed the teacup on the ground and smashed it, and his roar came from inside the tent, "Damn dog thief, if you catch him." I didn't cut him with a thousand knives myself. ”

Marching Sima Cui Nan walked into the big tent and persuaded in a low voice: "Li Zhongchen was originally a wolf with ambition, although he did things that people and gods were angry about, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince must be calm. ”

Li Shi forcibly restrained the anger in his heart, turned around and walked to the front of the tent, looking at the sky with his hands in his hands, his chest rose and fell violently, Cui Nan hurriedly gave the guards a look, and the two guards stepped forward to quickly take away the fragments of the tea cup.

At this time, Li Shi said slowly: "I have been paying attention to Li Zhengji and Tian Chenghei, but I didn't expect Li Zhongchen to be a vicious wolf, at least Tian Chengsi and Li Zheng already know that they will pretend to buy the hearts of the people and will not set up troops to loot, this Li Zhongchen is more hateful than a jackal, he is simply a demon, this time I must destroy this demon!" ”

Cui Nan said in a deep voice: "Since he plundered Songzhou, it means that his ambition is not in the Central Plains, and Wechen still remembers that he proposed to the imperial court several times to set up a salt protection army, the purpose of which is to control Yangzhou, and Wechen suspects that his real purpose is to control the entire Jianghuai through Li Lingyao's rebellion." ”

Li Shi nodded, "Cui Sima's guess is very reasonable, now that he is retreating south in such a hurry, I am afraid that it is just to go south to Yangzhou, and we must not let him succeed." ”

He pondered for a moment, and then ordered: "Ling Ma Sui led 15,000 cavalry to follow Li Zhongchen, wait for the opportunity to annihilate them all, do not accept surrender, and be sure to kill the whole army!" ”

This was the first time that the crown prince Li Shi issued an order to kill, and the Huaixi army raped and looted Songcheng County under his nose, which made him hate it to the core.

He ordered again: "Tell Ma Sui that whoever obtains the head of Li Zhongchen will be made an earl and rewarded with ten thousand taels of silver!" ”

After sending out the order, Li Shi wrote a roll of pigeon letters on his desk and handed it to the guards, "Send the pigeon letters to Kaifeng County immediately!" ”

The guards hurried away, and Li Shi walked to the door of the tent with his hands in his hand, and said to himself: "I also hope that you will not disappoint me this time." ”

..........

That night, Guo Song led the cavalry out of Wagang Mountain, and marched southward, although Huazhou became a place of four battles, but there was no stage for him to display his talents, after all, he only had a thousand cavalry, and Li Zhongcheng, who retreated south, gave him the opportunity to display his talents, not to mention that the prince secretly ordered him to go south to deal with Li Zhongchen, even if the prince did not give the order, his goal was also Li Zhongchen.

A thousand horsemen galloped across the endless fields, and on either side of the road were large fields of wheat, which were almost ripe, and the waves of wheat were rolling in the night breeze.

When it was almost dawn, they arrived to the east of Renqiu County, Guo Song saw that there was a large forest and a small river in front of him, so he ordered the soldiers to rest on the spot, the soldiers and war horses were exhausted, and they ran for more than a hundred miles this night.

The soldiers led the horses to the river to drink, and Liang Wu sent a few people to the surroundings to guard, although it was unlikely that the enemy army would be encountered in this area, but Liang Wu was still very vigilant and did not dare to be careless.

After feeding the horses, the soldiers rested against the trees with their eyes closed, and now that it was hot, they could sleep without blankets.

Liang Wu sat beside Guo Song and said in a low voice: "Envoy, why did Li Zhongchen risk the world's condemnation to plunder? Isn't he afraid of being pointed at by a thousand people? I really can't figure this out. ”

Guo Song smiled and said: "He is now plundering Songzhou, the purpose is not to rob Yangzhou, he has led the army to the north thousands of miles, if you don't give the soldiers benefits, I'm afraid the loyalty of the soldiers to him will drop a lot, why is he a soldier, it is nothing more than to eat and earn money, he himself bears the infamy, so that the soldiers can get benefits, and his loyalty will also rise, everything has advantages and disadvantages, it depends on how you choose." ”

"The envoy said that the soldiers robbed Songzhou in order not to rob Yangzhou, could it be that Li Zhongchen's goal was Yangzhou?"

Guo Song nodded, "When Liu Xiangguo and I were in Yangzhou to control salt, Li Zhongchen wanted to send troops to Yangzhou, but he didn't have the courage at that time, and now Li Zheng has sent troops and Tian Chengsi has sent troops, how can he let go of this opportunity?" Now that he is withdrawing his troops and returning, he must be going to Yangzhou. ”

"So what are we going to do?"

Guo Song groaned and said: "The order given to me by the prince is to try to hold them back, I think I still have to start with the Huai River, let's go to the Huai River first to see the situation." ”

After resting for two hours, Guo Song once again led the soldiers to set off.

Five days later, Guo Song led a thousand cavalry into Sizhou and rested in a forest about three miles from Xucheng County.

Xucheng County is only 20 miles away from the Huai River, and about 80 miles away from Linhuai County, where the Cao River enters the Huaikou, and the reason why they want to stay here is because the dry food carried by the soldiers has been exhausted and must be replenished.

Guo Song asked Xu Jingnan to take a dozen soldiers to Xucheng County to buy grain while the rest of the soldiers rested in the woods.

At noon, Xu Jingnan arrived with more than 20 flat-bottomed boats, which were full of grain, black beans and a lot of meat. ”

Xu Jingnan smiled, "Now the grain is relatively cheap, as long as one stone of wheat is the same money, I bought five hundred stone of wheat and five hundred stone of black beans, and bought another hundred loads of pork, and gave the brothers a tooth sacrifice, and also bought a dozen cauldrons." ”

Guo Song glanced at several boatmen and asked, "How are these boatmen?" ”

"These boatmen are honest people, very reliable, I hired them with the boat, hired for a month, here the rivers are dense, the boat is the most important means of transportation, Xucheng County is a large grain producing county, the price of grain has not been high, we will replenish the lack of food, so that our logistics problem can be solved."

Guo Song nodded, Xu Jingnan was right, they didn't have a foundation in Wagang Mountain, if there was no mobile supply point, the food problem would always hinder their actions.

"Then I will ask Xu to join the army for logistics problems, and I will give you ten more soldiers to form a logistics army."

Xu Jingnan smiled slightly, this is also what he is willing to do, he arched his hand and said: "I am willing to share the worries of the king!" ”

The soldiers took grain to cook, steamed black beans for the war horses, Xu Jingnan said to Guo Song next to a big stone: "I also inquired about the news that Li Zhongchen's army crossed the river, they crossed the river in Linhuai County, but the boats are on the opposite bank, and they need to be notified here before the fleet will sail over." ”

"Then how do you notify the other side?"

"This is the key, there is a garrison of more than 1,000 people in Linhuai County, and they are responsible for receiving the main army of Li Zhongchen who is heading north. In fact, there was only one possibility, they were responsible for arranging the ships, and the lowly position believed that the order to notify the convoy on the other side was hidden in this army. ”

Guo Song nodded, Xu Jingnan's analysis was reasonable, in fact, they didn't have much time, and in three days at the latest, Li Zhongchen's army would arrive at the Huai River.

Guo Song immediately decided, "After lunch, let's go to Linhuai County!" ”

.........

Linhuai County is a middle county, located on the north bank of the Huai River, the east of the city is the canal, a large number of trough ships enter the Huai River from here, and then travel 100 miles to the east, from Xuyi County out of the Huai River to continue south.

The importance of Linhuai County is more reflected in the transit of shipping, its military value is not high, which makes Linhuai County not a strong city, the city wall is not high, the city gate is dilapidated, and there are basically no defenders.

However, after Li Zhongchen went north, he left a thousand soldiers here, and their task was to receive the main force to the south, that is, when the main army in the north needed a fleet, they had to immediately transfer ships to the north to meet it.

As soon as the morning dawned, the gate of Linhuai County opened, Guo Song took a few soldiers to pretend to be a priest and his entourage to the county seat, like other county seats, Linhuai County also only has the east city gate and the west city gate, there are few horses in the Huai River area, the horse riding is too eye-catching, Guo Song took a few soldiers to walk to the west city gate.

He stood under the city and carefully looked at the city gate and the city wall, and shook his head, such a city wall has no defense at all, can only restrain the people, in the eyes of any army, it is vulnerable, less than two zhang high, and very dilapidated, at least thirty or forty years have not been repaired.

On the north and south sides, several walls had collapsed, and the bricks had been taken home by the people to repair their houses, revealing the sand and decaying stakes that had been covered with weeds and moss, apparently having collapsed for several years.

Guo Song lost interest in the city walls, and he immediately turned and went into the city to check on the garrison of a thousand receiving troops.