Li Qi led his army to Zhenzhou on 18 March, but after arriving at Zhenzhou, he stopped and did not move, and there was no obvious intention for the time being.

Youzhou Jiedu envoy Shi Jingjiao was ordered by Li Siyuan to send Liu Zhiyuan to lead more than 10,000 Youzhou troops to attack Waqiao Pass. Wang Quanbin, the general of the Northern Army, guarded the city and rescued Dingzhou and Zhenzhou on the one hand. Pei Yue, the northern defense envoy of the northern army, and Li Shaowei, the assassin of Wuzhou, led 30,000 northern troops from the Bauhinia Pass to Yizhou, which coincided with the emergency in Xiongzhou.

After receiving Wang Quanbin's urgent document, Pei Yue said to Zheng Jilin, the Yizhou garrison general of the Yiwu Army: "Zhuozhou is located in a key position, if our army directly takes Zhuozhou, the enemy will be saved, and the siege of Xiongzhou will be relieved." He ordered the army to join the Dingzhou army of 10,000 to attack Zhuozhou.

Shi Jingjiao heard that the northern army was coming to Zhuozhou, and really ordered Liu Zhiyuan to return to the new city of the army and form a horn with Zhuozhou.

Seeing the Youzhou army coming back, Fei Yue also retreated from Zhuozhou, camped in Xi'an, Laishui, and confronted the southern army across the river.

Shi Jingjiao's Youzhou Army was pinned down by the Shanbei Army and the Dingzhou Army, and they couldn't move for the time being.

Li Qi waited until the situation in Youzhou was stable, and then ordered the cavalry generals Fu Yanqing and An Xianqi to lead 3,000 cavalry troops to divide Shenzhen and Hebei Prefectures, and lead the army to Zhaozhou. Shen and Hebei are both small cities, and there are not many defenders, and when they saw Fu Yanqing and An Xianqi leading the northern army to come, they looked at the wind and surrendered, but there was no fierce battle.

The Hedong Army adjusted in Zhenzhou for more than ten days, and by the time Li Qi led the army to Zhaozhou, it was already mid-April.

Li Qi and Xia Luqi joined forces, and a total of more than 50,000 troops crossed Jishui and were stationed in Baixiang. And Huo Yanwei is the general of Liang State, because Zhuang Zong led the army to win the victory in the Battle of Baixiang, he was taboo in his heart, but retreated across the water, camped in Ganyan Mountain in Yaoshan, and confronted the northern army.

After the camp, Li Qi ordered the cavalry general Wude to lead the troops to the southern military camp to fight, that Huo Yanwei and An Chongzhi were in Luoyang to hunt and kill King Qu and King Ya, knowing that it fell into the hands of Li Qi, and there was no escape. Seeing that the northern army was strong, he ordered the generals to close the camp gate and refuse to fight.

Seeing that the southern army refused to fight, Xia Luqi volunteered to storm the enemy camp, but was vetoed by Li Qi.

"Now the wheat harvest is approaching, and we will wait until the season is over. To the north of Zhenzhou, most of them are military cantonments, and the grain collected directly goes to the military warehouse, but it cannot give the southern army the opportunity to collect grain and grass. Li Qi explained with a smile.

Yuan Xingqin said: "We have a lot of cavalry, if we don't attack the enemy's camps and cities, we can send cavalry to cut off the enemy's rear grain routes." In the Battle of Baixiang that year, the first emperor used this method to finally force the Liang army out of the camp for a decisive battle, although the southern army is now closed to the camp, but the morale still exists, and their morale must be worn down first. ”

Li Qi said: "This matter is all arranged by the privy envoy, and it is best to attract Li Congrong and Duan Ning from Heyang and Xiangzhou." ”

When Xia Luqi heard this, he knew that the Son of Heaven's intention was to go straight to the enemy's rear from Luze, so he opened his mouth and said: "Taihang is a pass, the enemy army must be well guarded, and it is not easy to attack. ”

Li Qi said with a smile: "This Taihang Bacheng, the pass is controlled in our hands, and now it is consumed with Huo Yanwei, cutting off its peripheral grain route, the enemy will definitely send troops to rescue, the nearest should be Cizhou, Xiangzhou and other troops, I estimate that Fukou should become a breakthrough." Unless the Southern Army doesn't want Huo Yanwei's troops, the strength in the rear will definitely be empty. ”

At the end of April, the weather in the North China Plain was hot and dry, and it was the summer season. The ears of wheat in the field have turned yellow, and it only takes half a month for them to be fully ripe.

The southern and northern armies have been facing each other in the area of Xingzhou and Huanshui for nearly three months, and there are many cavalry on the Jinyang side, plus the 5,000 cavalry in Xia Luqi's hands, the number of cavalry exceeds 25,000, which is incomparable with the southern army. After the military strategy was decided, every day the cavalry of the Northern Army took turns to go out in all directions, breaking into the territory of the Southern Army, blocking the grain transportation route of the Southern Army camp, making Huo Yanwei miserable even if he hid in the barracks, and only hoped that Li Siyuan could send troops to help earlier.

Yuan Ren had nothing to do, and even ran to the city of Xingzhou with a team of Praetorian Guards and cavalry to intimidate and scold, so frightened that the southern army guard Huangfu Yu closed the city gate for three days and did not dare to open it.

As a rule, the northern army took turns to send a general every day to bring people to the southern army camp to call for battle and hit the enemy's morale.

Li Qi led people to Zanhuang Mountain to inspect whether there were suitable places for building reservoirs in Huaishui and Jishui. Neither of these rivers is large, but if a reservoir is built between the mountains of Zanhuang and Lincheng, it can still irrigate tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land.

He already regarded this area as his own territory, and was considering the affairs of Tuntian in the future.

The wheat field in Zhenzhou finally opened, and as the Son of Heaven, Li Qi also rushed to the Tuntian area where the deer was captured, pretended to be, and cut the first handful of wheat ears.

Just after the Dragon Boat Festival, it is the season of wheat harvest in Hebei Province, and the weather is very hot.

After cutting a bundle of wheat, Li Qi threw down his sickle and hid in the shade under the big tree, watching his pro-army help the military households in Tuntian harvest the crops. Although these forbidden troops in Jinyang are also well-dressed in ordinary times, most of them have to help in the grange during the busy farming season. When the wheat is harvested, people are called as animals, and they are used to it.

Seeing that Li Qi began to rest, Xia Ruqi also stopped the sickle in his hand and grabbed a few ears of wheat in his hand and came over. The old guy was dressed in swarthy bulb meat, and he didn't see that he was almost fifty years old, and his body was still like that of Mr. Bodybuilder. It's just that he must not have done much farm work in ordinary times, and when he was cutting wheat, he actually cut a bloody wound on his foot and neck with a sickle, and now he is wrapped in gauze, which is particularly eye-catching.

He came to Li Qi's side, crushed a few ears of wheat in his hand, blew off the wheat husks, looked at the golden wheat grains and said: "This grain is full, I'm afraid that one acre can beat more than two stones of wheat." ”

Li Qi immediately laughed when he heard this guy pretending to be an expert.

Jiang Yuan, the captain of Lutuntian, brought someone to bring tea, and after listening to it, he leaned in front of Xia Luqi and whispered: "General, the average harvest of wheat in this paddy field is more than five stones per mu. ”

Charucci's eyes widened when he heard this, and he exclaimed, "What, impossible! ”

I don't read much, don't lie to me.

Li Qi looked at him with a smile on his face that you have never seen in the world and said: "The soil quality of this place is very good, and it will only take two years to catch up with the output around Taiyuan." ”

Xia Luqi said: "The old man used to care about people's livelihood, but he also asked about it in Heyang back then, and said that the yield per mu was only more than one stone. ”

Li Qi said: "That is the yield of dry land, and the other is that seed selection and fertilization are very important. This kind of place is also a university question, don't mix with the generals who lead the troops, and special things need to be done by specialized talents. Finding a way to make the soldiers have enough to eat is the guarantee of combat effectiveness. ”

Charucci heard what Li Qi said and thought for a while......