On the first day of the ninth month, Liu Ximing, who had settled down the affairs of Nanyang, led an army of 60,000 under the command of Cao Bianjiao, Shao Derong and Zheng Jingcai, the three chief military officers, to appear in Huguang.

Xiangyang Mansion, which is adjacent to Nanyang, has already become the territory of the Liu family at this moment, and everything from the fields to the official yamen is full of personnel from the Liu family system.

It stands to reason that Zhao Xiangyang was promoted from Guanghua Zhixian to Xiangyang Prefecture, and there should not be so much energy.

But who told the officials of Xiangyang Mansion to have a bad life, just in time for Zhang Xianzhong to lead his troops to ravage Huguang.

After a year's hard work, because Wuchang City was broken, the officials of the Huguang Third Division died cleanly, and Hu Guangde, the former prefect of Xiangyang, was transferred to Wuchang after Cao Bianjiao and others recovered Wuchang, and this Xiangyang Mansion naturally fell into the hands of Zhao Xiangyang.

Liu Ximing led the army and did not stay in Xiangyang for long, Xiangyang is also the place where Liu's Hanchuan Village is located, after so many years of development, there are 40,000 militia groups, which is enough when Zhang Xianzhong has not swept north.

The main purpose of the army's trip is Wuchang, which is now controlled by Zuo Liangyu.

No matter who it is, the important position of Wuchang can not be ignored, if Nanyang is to control the north and south, then Wuchang is to connect the east and west, north and south, only by controlling here, Liu Ximing's strategy can be successfully implemented.

In fact, now the Liu family's strategic planning for Liu Ximing has become clearer and clearer.

Especially now that Liu Ximing is the governor of the Central Plains, his strategic ambitions are undoubtedly exposed.

Around a large area of Nanyang, Huguang, Hanzhong, Shunqing, and Kuizhou, the Liu family has quietly controlled this piece of land of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.

Combined with overseas bases such as Luzon, it not only contributes financial support to the Liu family system, but also lays a solid foundation for the development of the Liu family.

So in this case, how could Liu Ximing tolerate Zuo Liangyu continuing to entrench in the key position of Wuchang.

Only after entering the territory of Wuchang Mansion, He Tianlei, director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, who was in charge of intelligence work in Huguang, quietly flashed into Liu Ximing's army.

In Liu Ximing's big tent, he specially summoned He Tianlei to listen carefully to the situation in Wuchang City.

"Lord", He Tianlei called out this title without any difference in his mouth, "Zuo Liangyu is worthy of being good at seeing the wind and making the rudder, he fled back from the defeat of Kaifeng, on the one hand, he pushed all the blame for the defeat to Ding Qirui to the governor of Huguang and other yamen, and on the other hand, he kept fooling Huguang about how powerful the thieves were, which made Huguang panic. ”

"Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zuo Liangyu recruited troops and horses in Wuchang, and when the money and food were not enough, he plundered the troops, and when the Huguang officials reacted, he was already too big to move."

Liu Ximing has long known about Zuo Liangyu's personality, so naturally he is not too surprised at this time, what he is most concerned about is Zuo Liangyu's current power.

"Zuo Liangyu has about 120,000 soldiers and horses, except for the 40,000 soldiers and horses he originally had, the other 80,000 were all pulled by Qiangla Ding during this period of time."

"Hiss"

Liu Ximing let out an exclamation, Zuo Liangyu is really a talent.

But thinking about the history of his claim to have 800,000 troops to occupy Wuchang, he can only be regarded as the early stage of development at this time.

Two days later, the army led by Liu Ximing successfully arrived at the city of Wuchang.

Ten miles outside Wuchang City, hundreds of officials from Huguang came to greet them, and when Liu Ximing's car arrived, a group of red, green, and green officials bowed in unison: "Huguang officials visit the supervisor." ”

Liu Ximing raised his eyes and looked at the team that came to greet him, and immediately sneered: "Why, only the Huguang magistrate came to greet the pavilion, Zuo Liangyu, I heard that he was stationed here, why didn't he come to see me!" ”

Among the Huguang officials who came to greet him, He Tengjiao, the new governor of Huguang, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and hurriedly came out of the queue and said:

"Dare to let the elder know that the lower official has already informed General Zuo, but he ......"

"What is he?" , Liu Ximing rode on the horse and said angrily directly.

"He claimed that he occasionally felt the wind and cold, and in order to avoid being rude in front of the elders, he did not come."

"Hahaha, it's a good occasional cold", Liu Ximing's face suddenly turned from anger to joy and laughed.

Suddenly, he turned his head to look at Li Biao, the leader of the guards beside him, and pointed to the direction of Zuo Liangyu's camp in the east of Wuchang City with the whip in his hand.

"Li Biao, you personally bring someone to Zuo Liangyu's army to spread the word, just say that this cabinet is in Wuchang, there is something important to consult him, let him be sure to come to the city to see me before the time, if he doesn't come, he won't need to come in the future."

"Well, my subordinates will do it." , Li Biao hugged his fists and left the horse.

Liu Ximing only turned over and dismounted at this time, walked in front of He Tengjiao, supported him and said with a smile:

"I have heard the name of Governor He for a long time, if it weren't for you to guard it, it would be a question whether this Wuchang could insist on coming to this pavilion, and you have a great merit."

Since Liu Ximing planned to take Huguang into his palm, he couldn't get around He Tengjiao and the others, so at this time, he was not as arrogant as in Henan, but politely greeted one by one, and the group entered the city in laughter.

On the other side of the Wuchang Chengjiang River, Zuo Liangyu's more than 100,000 men and horses were all stationed here.

This guy is also a thief, he is crazy to recruit troops in the name of guarding against Zhang Xianzhong's sneak attack, but he is not stationed south of the Yangtze River to defend Zhang Xianzhong, but is stationed in Jiangbei, which shows his cunning.

However, at this time, the atmosphere in Zuo Liangyu's tent was also very solemn, and the deputy general Ma Shixiu and others all gathered here anxiously to wait for his reply.

"General, please make a quick decision, then the leader of the pro-soldiers sent by Inspector Liu has been urging us, what do you think is good?"

Hearing the words of Hao Xiaozhong, the deputy general who was in charge of receiving Li Biao, Zuo Liangyu's brows furrowed even more.

"What is the attitude of the leader of the pro-soldiers?"

Hao Xiaozhong, who had a sharp face and a broad head, hugged his fists and said: "I can't see what I think, the general is not angry if he doesn't go to greet him, but it is the pestle there that he said that he wants to wait for the general to give an answer." ”

Hearing this, Zuo Liangyu kept pacing back and forth in the tent, and while looking at Ma Shixiu and the others, he hesitated: "What do you think?" ”

"I don't think I can go", Ma Shixiu is Zuo Liangyu's confidant, and at this moment he vaguely feels that something is wrong.

"This Inspector Liu is menacing, the key is that he still has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses with Cao Yanluo and them, if you want to be unfavorable to the general, then you will be in the mouth of a sheep."

"Yes, the general is better to be careful."

A group of generals Lu Guangzu, Li Guoying and others beside Ma Shixiu echoed one after another.

Zuo Liangyu's brows furrowed even more, "But Liu Ge Lao was ordered to supervise the teacher, and I didn't go to visit him when I first arrived in Wuchang, which will inevitably be true, and when the court is held accountable, I can't get out of it." ”

Ma Shixiu rolled his eyes, "Hmph, the imperial court, the imperial court has birds, hasn't the general seen it yet, this imperial court has long been out of order, now we have a lot of generals, even if Inspector Liu wants to turn his face, he has to look at the consequences." ”

Zhang Yingxiang, another general under Zuo Liangyu, said weakly: "I heard that Inspector Liu has defeated Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai in Henan, it can be seen that Cao Yanluo and Judge Shao are really obedient to him, if it really angers Inspector, when the time comes, we will ......."

As soon as these words came out, Zuo Liangyu, Ma Shixiu and others were all shocked.

The imperial court is not terrible, but Cao Yanluo and Judge Shao are all fierce generals who have come out of a hundred battles.

Zuo Liangyu has also cooperated with these people before, although I don't know why in the past few years, Cao Bianjiao and others don't seem to have made any groundbreaking achievements, not at all like now when they come to Liu Ximing's command, they are as fierce as a tiger.

But Zuo Liangyu still clearly knows that people have not made any great achievements, but he has not heard of any major defeats among them, so there are too many cats in it.

Thinking of the bravery of these people, Zuo Liangyu looked at the generals in his tent with some trepidation.

"If Cao Yanluo and the others are ordered by the Governor to attack with troops, what do you think our chances of winning?"

Ma Shixiu saw Zuo Liangyu's eyes looking at him first, and his scalp immediately went numb, so he had to hold his fist with a stiff expression and said:

"It doesn't matter who he is, as long as the general gives the order, I will obey the order, whoever dares not to listen, my old horse will be the first to kill him."

That's not sure.

Zuo Liangyu sighed in his heart, blaming him for his own excessive losses in the battle of Zhu Xianzhen, at this time, more of his subordinates were newly recruited, how much combat power could this have.

After thinking about his situation, Zuo Liangyu finally settled down.

He looked at the generals in the tent and said: "The strength is not as good as others, the general can only go to the city once, you are optimistic about the camp, whether I can come back safely depends on you." ”

"Please rest assured, the general will swear to defend the Chinese army", Ma Shixiu and the others saw that Zuo Liangyu had made a decision, and immediately patted their chests one by one to express their loyalty.