In February of the fifth year of the Republic, the northern army had arrived in Jingzhao Chang'an, and Li Qi had an edict ordering Yaozhou Yisheng Jiedu to make Yao Yanchou and Pizhou Jingnan Jiedu to make Mao Zhang lead the army to stay with Jingzhao, and Youguo Jiedu to make Zhang Jingda go out together. Mao Zhang, the envoy of the Suining Festival, was originally a grass on the wall, and this time he had no choice but to send troops, so he was reluctant, and secretly sent someone to report to Luoyang, so that Li Siyuan had already known the plan of Jinyang and responded in advance.

The southern army began to move to Hebei, and spies from the northern army had already transmitted the news back to Jinyang. After receiving the news that Li Siyuan had dispatched troops to prepare for a large-scale attack on Zhenzhou and Dingerzhou, Li Qi immediately convened his ministers to discuss and said: "The source of the disaster in the Xingjiaomen change is Li Siyuan, the first emperor died, and this traitor is to blame. The rite said: The enemy's hatred, the Buddha and the heavens. I used to be weak and forbearing, but now it's time to take revenge. ”

After weighing the military strength of both sides, Li Qi no longer hesitated, and immediately issued an edict to send more than 70,000 soldiers and horses from Hedong, Yunzhou, and Shanbei to conquer Hebei.

……

Zhaozhou, Zhizhou Bureau.

"When will Your Majesty's army arrive?" Xia Luqi looked at Xia Chengting and Huo Xunhao, who were fiddling with the sand table, and asked. These "student soldiers" who came back from Jinyang Academy liked to fiddle with this so-called "war chess" very much, and repeatedly deduced it on the sand table over and over again, making Charucci dizzy, and he didn't know what the use of this thing was.

Their own pro-army can obviously be ten on the battlefield, but these "rookies" never recognize this kind of strength, at most they are counted as one as three, and sometimes they can even only use one enemy to two, and the result of this deduction makes Charucci very depressed, and some of them underestimate themselves too much and elevate the enemy. I don't know why the emperor sent these "guavas" to his side to join the army.

"The army is dispatched, and it travels fifty or sixty miles a day, and there should be ten days left." Huo Xunliang replied.

"Won't Yuan Ren's cavalry arrive first?" Charucci sat down on the chair next to the table, "How long have you been spending time with each other?" Let me tell you, Huo Yanwei must have turned around and ran away when he saw the old man. ”

"Because of this, Your Majesty will first order us to guard Zhaozhou. If the southern army doesn't come, we won't move, and people will shrink in the walled city, can you still storm it? You are not in a hurry now, and the rapid march of the cavalry will damage the physical reserves of the war horses. Xia Chengting choked on his old acquaintance, and deliberately used "physical storage", a fresh word that Xia Luqi didn't quite understand.

Ordinary Charucci always scolded them for talking on paper, which made him very disgraced in front of several classmates.

The sand table in this plain area is much simpler than the mountainous terrain, and only a few rivers are obstacles. In fact, after the spring flood, all the rivers in Hebei can be crossed directly by war horses. With the gradual establishment of the intelligence system of the Jinyang side, the latest military deployment of the enemy is clearly displayed on the sand table.

Although Huo Yanwei of the southern army had more than 30,000 soldiers and horses, after hearing that Xia Luqi led the army to Zhaozhou, he set up camp in Yaoshan and refused to go any further. Although Xia Luqi's Zhenzhou army only had more than 15,000 soldiers and horses, the strength was only half of his. Obviously, Huo Yanwei was a little afraid of Charucci's prestige, and intended to defend the camp.

In the southern army, Li Siyuan's generals, only Li Congke and Shi Jingjiao can fight with Xia Luqi on the battlefield, and the others are indeed a little weak after seeing him.

Charucci wanted to have a seizure, but he only had two sons, and it was a pity that he had seven or eight sons in other people's families, and it was a pity that he was one and a half less. is usually spoiled, but he can't really be driven out of the house in a rage, this father-son fight is just a joke. Think about your own hero, but in the end, your own son can't look down on it, so you can only be angry.

Xia Chengting saw that his father had a kind face, and he was afraid that he would make him ugly, so he explained: "Yuan Ren's cavalry will arrive first, but it may not necessarily go in our direction, Huo Yanwei is so cowardly, the Son of Heaven may not take him first." This arrow shoots the first bird, you have to get Shi Jingjiao first. ”

In fact, there are nearly 30,000 Tuntian military households in Zhenzhou, and in an emergency, they can even mobilize and organize 40,000 or 50,000 infantry troops. It's just that food production is more important, and Xia Luqi did not use the Tuntian army this time, but only took the soldiers of the Zhenzhou headquarters to defend Zhaozhou.

The details sent by the imperial court to various places have long since passed back the situation of the enemy, and now it is clearly displayed on the sand table.

The southern army of more than 100,000 people was scattered on the outer line from Youzhou to Xingzhou, and there was not much connection with each other, and they basically belonged to a state of fighting on their own. In the middle, the Cangzhou Yichang Festival made Zhao Dejun's soldiers and horses the weakest, only more than 20,000 people, while the Youzhou Festival made Shi Jingjiao's troops the most abundant, more than 40,000 soldiers and horses.

"Back then, the first emperor won the great victory in Baixiang, and then began to dominate the industry." Wang Menshan, the commander of the Zhenzhou infantry army, said, "I think it is not small that Your Majesty will attack Xingzhou first. Xia Luqi followed the command of the pro-army to make Li Jianhe make a lot of contributions in the battle of Baixiang, as his general, Wang Menshan naturally lost no time in bragging about the general.

"This time is different, Liu Shouguang of Youzhou was not a threat during the Battle of Baixiang, and now Shi Jingjiao can't sit idly by." Huo Xunliang said, "In fact, Cangzhou is the weakest, and from the point of view of his subordinates, it is better to attack Cangzhou first." ”

"This is unlikely, although Cangzhou is weak, but Youzhou can be reinforced in time, and there is support from Qingzhou and Yunzhou behind it, it is difficult to capture it in one fell swoop." Xia Luqi said, "According to the idea of a certain family, it is to overturn Huo Yanwei's gang first." ”

"In this battle of Hebei, some incidents happened suddenly, and the southern army has more troops than ours, with Your Majesty's temperament, we will not take risks, and we will definitely confront each other temporarily, and we will talk about it when we have the opportunity." Xia Chengting said, "The military hospital in the town army has not yet been built, this is a top priority, otherwise when the Son of Heaven arrives, he will definitely lose his temper, this is what he attaches great importance to." ”

The medical treatment in the army, Xia Luqi also attaches great importance to it, but now there is a lack of enough trained nurses, and it is only after Xia Chengting and their arrival that personnel training begins, and the time is still short. In this matter, he is fully supportive.

"Can't you recruit all the Langzhong in Zhaozhou into the army?" Said the commander of the cavalry, Ude.

"Forget it, some of those Lang recipes work, some don't, the things taught in Jinyang Academy are different from them, let's train them yourself." Xia Chengting shook his head, there are only more than 200 students in the academy's medical hall, and there are indeed few talents. If it weren't for the fact that there was a big war expected in Hebei this time, then Yan Laodao would not necessarily agree to send someone over.

After a big battle, there will never be fewer casualties in this army......