October 26, Shouyang.

At the same time that the Qin Emperor held a court meeting in Xiangcheng, Xie Xuan, a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, also held a military meeting in Shouyang.

The most majestic building in Shouyang is the Huainan Taishou Mansion in the former Qin, which was forcibly occupied by Xie Xuan at this time and used as the headquarters of the Jin army. At this moment, in the hall of the command headquarters, there were several people sitting around the table, and the young general in armor sitting at the head of the row was none other than Xie Xuan. More people stood behind them, and everyone gathered in a circle to discuss the military situation.

"General, the sentry sent news that tens of thousands of Qin soldiers arrived in Xiangcheng yesterday, from the direction of Linyi County, but I don't know where the Qin Wang army came from the tyrannical Qin. According to a hasty estimate, there are about five or six hundred thousand Qin soldiers in Xiangcheng today. The person who spoke was a strange-looking middle-aged man, and this person's beard was better than Li Songlin. Of course, the beard is not the point, the point is that the skin of his face is strangely colored, half red as a monkey's buttocks, half purple as a rotten banana, and he looks like a hellish ghost. This person is Liu Gaozhi, the prime minister of Guangling in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a senior general of the Beifu Army, and the sneak attack on Luojian is the handiwork of this person.

Xie Xuan seemed to be distracted, listened to Liu Gaozhi's words, and didn't say anything. He just nodded unconsciously, not knowing what was going on in his head.

A young general standing behind Liu Gaozhi added: "There was news from the sentinel that the prince of the tyrannical Qin went to Linyi to pick up Pei Thief, maybe Pei Thief was also in the Qin army yesterday. ”

This young general is a member of Liu Gaozhi's army, and he is a general, but he is not ranked in the Beifu military system, and he is not qualified to participate in the military meeting presided over by Xie Xuan. However, he was very lucky, he followed his top boss Liu Jiaozhi to attack Luojian together, and he didn't know what shit luck he had, and he actually killed Liang Cheng, a famous former Qin general, in the chaos of the army. So he became famous, and Xie Xuan authorized him to participate in military meetings.

His name is Liu Yu, and his nickname is Liu Jinu.

Xie Xuan, who was originally distracted, suddenly came back to his senses after listening to Liu Yu's words, his eyes were instantly sharp, and his expression quickly became hideous.

"You say, Pei thief arrived in Xiangcheng?" Xie Xuan's eyes were like thorns, and he looked at Liu Yu.

Liu Yu subconsciously turned his head slightly, avoiding Xie Xuan's gaze as if he was going to choose someone to devour, and said: "Calculate the days, Pei Thief has been out to sea for a month, and it is time to land if nothing else, it is likely that he will follow the Qin Wang army from Linyi to Xiangcheng yesterday." ”

"Herald!" Xie Xuan slapped the table and said loudly: "The whole army will attack Xiangcheng." ”

All the Eastern Jin Dynasty generals were shocked by Xie Xuan's crazy appearance, and they all looked at him in disbelief. Attack Xiangcheng? Are you crazy or tired of being alive?

"Brother Xuan, there are five or six hundred thousand Qin troops in Xiangcheng, as well as the armed Ban Zhi and the Blue Fly Envoy who guard the puppet emperor Fu Jian. Even if all my Beifu soldiers are pressed, it is not enough to fill, how can I fight? "The person who spoke was called Xie Yan, and he was the son of Xie Xuan's uncle Xie An, that is, Xie Xuan's cousin.

"My sister is still in the hands of the thief, if you don't break Xiangcheng, how can you kill the thief and save my sister!" Xie Xuan stood up with a hideous face and yelled at Xie Yan.

Xie Yan was not afraid, he looked directly at Xie Xuan and said: "I am also very worried about the safety of Sister Dao Yun, but when state affairs are at the forefront, you and I are generals of the imperial court, how can we ruin the world's plans for our own selfish feelings?" Brother Xuan, have you forgotten what my father said before leaving! ”

The madness on Xie Xuan's face faded a little, and before he could say something, Xie Yan actually stood up and said loudly to him: "Xie Shuai has an order, not to disturb the three armies for Xie Daoyun's matter, General Che Cai, do you want to disobey?" ”

"Brother Yan... Uncle... I..."When Xie Yan offered a series of official titles, Xie Xuan's voice became smaller and smaller, the madness on his face finally disappeared completely, and the person sat down.

Xie Yan was originally still serving Xie An in Jiankang, but who knew that Pei Shengqin's sentence "The old thief with the gray hair, the first husband of Hao" actually forced Xie An and Xie Da to be so handsome that he was sick in bed. It happened that Xie Xuan rushed back to Jiankang from Shouyang overnight to discuss with Xie An about saving Xie Daoyun, Xie An naturally did not agree to give up the situation for a woman, so he strictly ordered Xie Xuan to send troops to "recover" Huainan after returning to Shouyang. It was at that time that Xie Yan was arranged by Xie An to Xie Xuan's side, and his role was to remind Xie Xuan and prevent Xie Xuan from acting rashly.

In today's entire Great Jin Dynasty, Xie An and Xie Dashuai are the highest authority. Even Xie Xuan, the actual commander of the Beifu Army, did not dare to have the slightest disobedience to Xie An's words.

After regaining his composure, Xie Xuan pressed his temples with both hands, lowered his head, and asked in a low voice, "In the army... How many people are gone? ”

General Sun Wuzhong said cautiously: "Hui General, all the generals who were born or befriended by the royal valve, as well as their subordinates, have recently withdrawn to Nanlangya. Now there are more than 57,000 soldiers left in my Beifu army. ”

Maybe it was because he was yelled at by Xie Yan before, Xie Xuan was not as angry as Sun Wuzhong imagined at this time, but smiled bitterly: "It's okay to go, Ben Jiang has finally seen the virtue of the Langya Wang clan by now." It's not a bad thing that my Beifu soldiers can get rid of these wall grasses. ”

That being said, anyone knows that this is actually a bad thing. There are only 80,000 soldiers in Beifu, how can it be overstretched to deal with hundreds of thousands of Qin troops? At this time, the smaller half is gone, and the situation is not just worse?

Xie Yan sighed beside him: "When there was an abnormality in the army before, I went to the memora to impeach the royal generals who ran away without permission, who knew that the Langya Wang clan also went to the recital, and actually said that they suffered too many casualties in the battle of Weishui and needed to be repaired by the class teacher. The matter... His Majesty is not easy to pursue, so he can only stop it. ”

The Eastern Jin Dynasty was originally a ruling group composed of several major families, and the Langya Wang family was equivalent to one of the largest shareholders, where could the imperial court easily punish it? Even if he is now reigning as Sima Yao, the most majestic filial piety emperor in the entire Jin Dynasty, he can only operate the major families to maintain balance, if you want to clean up which big family, I'm sorry he really can't do it.

Liu Yu said angrily: "I think this Langya Wang clan just wants to be a grass on the wall, waiting for the price to sell, maybe they are all ready to take refuge in Tyrant Qin." ”

Liu Gaozhi coughed dryly and reminded: "It's good to know, don't say it." "It's useless to say it, don't say that the Lord can't solve this matter, even if Xie Dashuai and the emperor can't do it.

Liu Yu also thought that his words had been transgressed, and when he saw his boss reminding him, he hurriedly apologized: "The last general has no words, please punish the master." ”

Xie Xuan was naturally in no mood to pay attention to the small army, he looked at Sun Wuzhong, and said in a deep voice: "The imperial court has been collecting reinforcements since last month, is there any news about this reinforcement?" ”

Seeing Xie Xuan mention the reinforcements, Sun Wuxuan's eyes lit up, and he said with a smile: "There is good news here, the imperial court has recruited 200,000 new troops, all of which have been assigned to the general. In these few days, we will arrive in Shouyang. ”

Hearing that there would be 200,000 reinforcements immediately, all the soldiers and generals of Beifu were shocked. Although the combat effectiveness of the new army is definitely far from that of the veterans of Beifu, the number of 200,000 is not enough for the Qin army in Shangxiang City. But everyone knows that His Majesty is doing his best to support the Beifu soldiers. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was small and weak, and it was not as good as the former Qin, and it was not easy to urgently recruit 200,000 troops. What's more, it seems that there have been changes in the Jingzhou battlefield in the southwest recently, and the Huan Valve has been asking for help, His Majesty has assigned these 200,000 new troops to the Beifu soldiers, and there must be a huge pressure from the Huan Valve behind it.

Emperor Sima Yao of the Jin Dynasty also knew in his heart that the southeast battlefield was the place that played a decisive role, and only when the southeast battlefield was carried could the Eastern Jin Dynasty breathe a sigh of relief. In comparison, he couldn't care about the southwest battlefield, so he could only let Huan Xuan fend for himself.

Xie Xuan paused and asked again, "How is the situation in Huainan now?" ”

Liu Gaozhi responded: "Back to the general, the entire county of Huainan has been recovered, but our army has not dared to go deep into the rest of the counties in Xuzhou. ”

In fact, even after winning the Battle of Weishui, the Beifu soldiers were still absolutely weak compared to the remaining forces of the former Qin. was able to take the entire Huainan County, which was fought with lightning speed when the front line of Qianqin had just been defeated, and all the cities near the front line were in a state of "wind and noise, grass and trees are soldiers". To put it bluntly, it was to take advantage of the danger of others, and took advantage of the fact that Qianqin was beaten and did not ease up, so he took advantage of this.

But with the strength of the Beifu soldiers, they can only defeat Huainan, and they will never dare to advance further. Not to mention that there are hundreds of thousands of Qin troops stationed in Xiangcheng who dare not move, even if it is a few other counties that do not have a large army, they dare not fight. There are tens of thousands of soldiers in Beifu, and they are overstretched to guard Huainan, and then divide the troops to go to a little land, will the Qin army in Xiangcheng really not burst chrysanthemums?

It is true that due to the internal instability of the former Qin due to the defeat of the Huishui Battle, although there were many Qin troops in Xiangcheng, the military spirit was unavailable, so they did not dare to move. Emperor Qin was also afraid that the army would have different intentions, so the generals sent out directly led the soldiers to mutiny. But if the soldiers of Beifu were really in a hurry, and the former Qin didn't dare to bet, would the Eastern Jin Dynasty dare to bet? Let's see if the Qin army, which is unstable, mutinies first, or the Jin army, which has a weak army, is overthrown first?

Therefore, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the former Qin Dynasty faintly reached a delicate balance, the Eastern Jin Dynasty did not send troops to Huainan, and the former Qin Xiangcheng did not send troops. Even in the original history, the Eastern Jin Dynasty waited until the Qin Emperor brought a large army back to Luan Chang'an before starting the Northern Expedition.

Unfortunately, this balance probably won't last long... Xie Xuan thought so in his heart.

"It has been some time since the first battle of Weishui, and the Pei thief has made a big fuss in the hinterland of our dynasty, and the morale of the tyrannical Qin must have recovered at this time. Xiangcheng... Something has to be done. Xie Xuan said affirmatively.

The generals nodded, and Liu Gaozhi analyzed: "Our army still has more than 50,000 people, plus the 200,000 new troops that are about to arrive, although it is not as wide as the violent Qin soldiers, it must be enough to hold Huainan." ”

"No, you can't hold on." Xie Xuan shook his head and sneered: "If you stick to it, Tyranny Qin will naturally be helpless in the short term." But when the army is outside, the consumption of grain and grass is staggering. The national strength of the Tyrannical Qin is ten times that of our Great Jin, once our army confronts the Tyrant Qin in Huainan for a long time, when the country is exhausted and the military needs are insufficient, after all, we can only let the Tyrannical Qin slaughter. ”

Sun Wuzhong cautiously asked, "What does the general mean that our army is going to take the initiative to attack?" ”

Xie Xuan nodded firmly.

The theory mentioned by Xie Xuan was put forward by Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of the Shu Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period more than 100 years ago, and all the generals present have also heard it. The core idea of this theory is that if the weak country and the strong develop simultaneously, the gap will only widen. Therefore, a weak country cannot fight against a strong country, but must fight. Now the logistics of the Qin and Jin armies are quite abundant, if you don't find an opportunity to take the initiative to attack, and wait until it drags on, the military supplies of the Eastern Jin Dynasty will not be available, and the military supplies of the former Qin are still abundant, so it will be a hair.

Xie Xuan sighed: "In today's situation, if I don't take the initiative, I can only sit and wait for death." ”

"The Lord is wise!"

"But the Lord will send you!"

"Hit the Lord and then fight!"

A group of Beifu generals echoed one after another.

Xie Xuan nodded with satisfaction and said, "Since this is the case, let's arrange it today, and when the new army arrives, we will immediately divide our troops to attack." ”

"Liu Gaozhi, I ordered you to lead 50,000 soldiers and horses to attack Donghai County. As soon as the new army arrived, they immediately ordered their troops to go to battle. ”

"Sun Wuzhong, ordered you to lead 50,000 soldiers and horses to attack Pi County. As soon as the new army arrived, they immediately ordered their troops to go to battle. ”

"Brother Yan, at that time, you will lead 50,000 soldiers and horses and stay in Huainan County."

"This general will lead an army of 100,000 to attack Huaibei County and deter Xiangcheng."

The soldiers of Beifu responded one after another.

Xie Xuan sneered: "If the violent Qin sends troops to fight, you will be improvised, you don't have to care about the gains and losses of one city and one place, you must make the Qin army exhausted." Everywhere you go, you can slaughter people and destroy the city, and the walls will clear the wilderness. At that time, most of Xuzhou will be eroded, and I will have to see how deep the national strength of Tyranny Qin is to invest in the bottomless pit of Xuzhou! ”