Ten years of Zhide, the second day of the second month of February, the time of the child.

The 400,000 troops of the Southern Jin Dynasty were divided into east and west routes to attack the north bank.

The 200,000 troops of the Eastern Route Army, led by Tang Yan, crossed more than half of the river, and encountered stubborn resistance from the Tiger Army.

The 50,000 sailors of the Northern Liang Dynasty, the boats were small and few, and they could not compete with the big ships of the Southern Jin Dynasty, and the Tiger Ben general Cao Dingguo ordered - put wood, pine oil, fire and thunder and other explosive things on the boat, select soldiers with good water quality to raise their shields and row the boat, rush to the vicinity of the enemy's boat, detonate the fire and thunder, and the soldiers jumped off the ship to escape.

It was night, the Yangtze River was turbulent, the north wind was howling, and the flames were soaring into the sky, and someone warned Tang Yan that the troops must be withdrawn, otherwise the 200,000 troops will inevitably be wiped out. Tang Yan said, Liang has few ships, it is impossible to set fire to all our warships, and I have long expected that the enemy will attack with fire, so I have prepared a large number of buckets on each ship, take water from the river, and directly extinguish the flames, why should you panic. In addition, our side is fighting lively, and it is precisely by attracting the main force of the enemy army that Hong Mingshan can easily cross the river, and after he crosses the river, the two armies will be surrounded by him, and it will be possible to win. Based on my understanding of the Tiger Ben Army, if the Jin Army does not have 300,000, it will be difficult to win the Tiger Ben 100,000.

That night, Hong Mingshan, Meng Sen, Meng Gong, Meng Liang, Pu Yunsheng, Lu Dengtian, and Zhang Baokui led the Western Route Army to break through the Shu, Lu, and Hezhou Yangtze River routes, and directly penetrated into the hinterland of Huainan.

Cao Sheng originally planned to take advantage of Tang Yan's failure to cross the river and fight a decisive battle with Hong Mingshan at the mouth of the Wujiang River, but he never thought that bad news suddenly came from the eastern front, and the tiger general Cao Dingguo was attacked by surprise soldiers and was martyred, and all 50,000 East Road Tiger Ben troops were annihilated.

Hearing the news, Cao Sheng suddenly vomited a mouthful of old blood and fell into a coma.

Cao Dingbang and Cao Bao led their troops to cover all the way and sent Cao Sheng back to Luoyang.

Along the way, Hong Mingshan and Tang Yan chased after each other, and in less than 20 days, they were already approaching Zhengzhou, the eastern gate of Gyeonggi.

Tang Qi ordered Cao Dingbang and Cao Bao not to return to Zhengzhou, and to hold on to Bian and Xu to wait for support.

Cao Bao was afraid of war and wanted to escape, and at the same time received a letter of persuasion from Tang Yan, the commander of the enemy's Eastern Route Army, but was discovered by Cao Sheng, who was seriously ill, Cao Bao brought the messenger to meet Cao Sheng, and the messenger said all the good things, as long as Cao Shengken led the Tiger Ben army to surrender, the emperor of the Southern Jin Dynasty will give you the same treatment, continue to let you be the king, the commander of the army, and take the Great Liang in the future, hand over the entire Hebei to you, and let you guard the north gate of the Han land against the northern Hu soldiers.

Cao Sheng sneered: "In the two hundred years since the founding of the Great Liang Dynasty, there have been constant disputes over gate valves, but which generation of gate valves have you seen surrender to other countries in times of crisis? Not to mention my Cao family, even the four families of Qian, Fan, Meng, and Ximen never considered taking refuge in other countries when they were defeated. If there were no people to maintain the Liang Dynasty, how could the Liang Dynasty hold out for 200 years? You asked me to surrender to the Southern Jin Dynasty, and from then on I was a slave in the country, even if I was asked to garrison Hebei, there would inevitably be countless royal cronies around me, and at that time, would I still be a king? If someone can replace me in commanding the Tiger Army, is there still a need for Sima Zhen to let me live? I, Cao Sheng, don't want to go downhill all my life, you go back and tell Tang Yan that the old man can still be full, and his heart to serve the country will not swerving to death, let him die of this heart. ”

The messenger slipped away.

Cao Sheng turned his head and scolded Cao Bao: "You foolish thing, our Cao family is staying in the capital, how can you have the heart to retreat?" If you don't escape, the soldiers and civilians of the Liang Dynasty work together, and there is still a battle of strength, and after the victory, the whole family can be safe. But if you surrender or escape, whether it is Liang Chaosheng or Nan Jinsheng, the whole family will be killed by you! ”

Cao Bao frowned and asked, "Uncle, I don't understand, since you are so loyal to the Liang Dynasty, why did you have to fight against the emperor in the first place and become the king of Huainan?" "Breeze literature

Cao Shengdao: "If I don't hold the military power, if I don't have this king of Huainan, can the courtiers let me go?" Will the emperor trust me to conspire with me to overthrow the Queen Mother? If I don't agree to cooperate with the emperor, won't the emperor overthrow the empress dowager in the future? If someone else cooperates with the emperor, will I still have a chance to protect the Cao clan? ”

Cao Bao sighed for a while and said, "Uncle is far-sighted, and my nephew is extremely ashamed." ”

"Hugh wants to talk nonsense, quickly integrate the soldiers and horses, and must resist in Xu and Bian for a few days, I believe Tang Qi will not ignore me. At this time, she may be more anxious than you and me. After that, Cao Sheng vomited blood, and it took a long time to stop the bleeding, and the old man fell on the bed in a daze, calling Cao Bao and saying, "Let Su Li, Fang Jin, and Yuan Hong come to see me." ”

These three people are Cao Bao's right-hand men, the reason why Cao Bao still has some combat effectiveness is all supported by these three people, when the old man can't stand up, he can't trust Cao Bao, but wants to see these three people.

The three of them quickly came to see Cao Sheng, and Cao Sheng said: "The dog nephew has a cowardly personality and is only a shallow learner, and whether he can hold Xuzhou depends on the three of them." Now, although we have few soldiers, but Xuzhou is the gateway of the Liang Dynasty, many years of operation, the city is high and the walls are thick, as long as the soldiers are united, 20,000 tigers and iron armor are enough to hold for ten days. Believe me, Tang Qi's troops will definitely come to our rescue. Let's buy her ten days, if the reinforcements don't come after ten days, then you cut off my head and go to Tang Yan to surrender." ”

Hearing this, Su Li, who was born as a literati, howled and shouted: "Swear to live and die with Xuzhou!" ”

The enemy army is coming.

After crossing the river, the troops of the Southern Jin Dynasty were somewhat depleted, but the formation of 40 divisions was still there, with 300,000 people.

Hong Mingshan and Tang Yan divided their troops, Tang Yan was responsible for attacking Xuzhou, and Hong Mingshan was responsible for attacking Bianzhou.

Cao Dingbang, the general of the tiger army, guarded his brother's coffin, climbed the Bianzhou city tower, looked at the enemy army from afar, and said: "Now there are 40,000 people left in our tiger army, half of them are in Xuzhou and half are in Bianzhou. Now that the enemy is attacking two states, we will face 150,000 enemy troops. In this battle, I, Cao Dingbang, will go to the city in person, I am here, everyone is not allowed to admit it, I am dead, you put me and my brother in a coffin, burn it, and then you will defend the city if you are willing to defend the city, and surrender if you are willing to surrender, and it has nothing to do with me and my brother. However, if before I die, if anyone is timid and afraid of war, it will be an insult to my brother's heroic spirit, and there will be no forgiveness! ”

——

"Empress Yu, the general Zhang Hanshan led an army of 200,000 to support Yue Ting, and attacked the old marshal Min Yue behind his back, the old marshal was caught off guard and defeated, and now he asks to return to Dagu Pass, hoping that the queen will be favored."

"No!" Tang Qi was furious: "Min Yue is known as the God of War in the Western Regions, how can he be so vulnerable? You scout, I look at the face, where did you come from? Why didn't Feng Feima or Zhao Feixiao come to report? ”

"Bang!"

Where is this scout, it turned out to be an assassin, with the convenience of the scout, at the time of this war, he went straight to the palace to see the queen Tang Qi, a word was exposed, took out a portable crossbow, and shot out a crossbow.