The Tang River towards the wilderness of Zaoyang, covered with residual snow, the morning mist has not yet dispersed, like white clouds, rolling on the earth.

This once prosperous place has been destroyed by frequent wars in recent decades, and the world is silent, and a large flock of birds and finches fly like dark clouds, stopping in the snow to peck at grass seeds.

The Tongbai Mountains in the northwest are like a group of giant beasts squatting in the morning mist, quietly gazing at the world.

More than a hundred horsemen appeared at the far end of the horizon, wading through a stream and breaking through a thin layer of river ice, and the waves were clustered on the chests of yellow-brown or black horses, and the thin mist was even more stirred to pieces.

The mouth and nose of the war horse spewed out a hot mist, obviously continuing to run a long distance, at this time the qi and blood were running boiling, stepping into the icy stream, neighing and neighing, like dozens of sharp war blades, ruthlessly tearing apart the silence of the four fields.

The knights on horseback, dressed in black armor, had a rugged appearance, and most of them had messy hair, only the resolute pupils revealed a murderous iron and blood aura.

In the yellow barren grass beach on the south bank of the river, several Tanzhou scouts watched all this vigilantly.

As the vanguard general of the right front, Shizi abandoned the remnant city of the Tang River in the north ten days ago, and withdrew all the soldiers and horses belonging to the right front to the vicinity of Zaoyang City in the south.

The Tanzhou scout just hid in the barren grass, quietly staring at the stream to the north.

The river becomes very shallow after winter, but it is the boundary river between the Tang River and Zaoyang, and Zaoyang City is more than 50 miles south of here.

Soon another group of cavalry of more than 100 men crossed the low ridge to the north and appeared on the north bank of the river.

Seeing that the more than 200 cavalry did not continue to advance south, but repeatedly interspersed the stream, the experienced scouts quickly realized that Liang Jun was really looking for the most convenient passage to wade through the river.

Tonight, a large force of Liang troops will cross the river and go to Zaoyang City behind them?

This question did not disturb the experienced old scouts of Tanzhou for long, and soon saw hundreds of cavalry, like rushing black waves, crossing the hill and crowding towards the stream.

The Tanzhou scout looked at everything in front of him dumbfounded, the remnant city of the Tang River in the north was composed of more than 3,000 Liang troops, but when did so many elite Liang army cavalry appear in the Tang River?

Seeing that two teams of Liang cavalry crossed the river and galloped towards this side, these dozen or so Tanzhou scouts climbed and rolled, ran into the woods behind them, turned over their horses, and galloped towards Zaoyang City frantically!

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Tanzhou Jiedu made the prince Ma Xun, his hand tightly pressed the horizontal wood in front of the battlement wall, his finger joints were pinched white, and his face was solemn as if the black torrent was divided into two teams, bypassing Zaoyang City, and galloping straight to the south.

At this time, on the southeast flank, there was a group of about 500 soldiers and horses, they learned of the enemy an hour ago, and wanted to withdraw from a sentry in the south, wanting to avoid Zaoyang City, but they did not expect that the advance speed of the Liang cavalry would be so fast.

At this time, a large number of cavalry of the Liang army swarmed over like a huge wave, shaking the roar of heaven and earth, even the defenders of Zaoyang City, who were guarding the city behind closed doors ten miles away, still felt frightened when they heard it.

Seeing that the team of 500 foot soldiers who retreated to the foot of the mountain to form a formation were directly defeated by more than 100 cavalry and heavy cavalry in a charge, and then hundreds of cavalry swarmed up, swords, axes, guns and halberds were intertwined with blood and light, rushing back and forth repeatedly, constantly cutting, scattering, defeating and driving the Chu army, and mercilessly slashing a fresh life in front of the horse, blood splashed everywhere, limbs and flesh flying.

In just two teas, more than 500 foot soldiers were like crops that had been destroyed by the wind, and few people could still stand in place.

Even the survivors were prostrate in the muddy ground drenched in blood and begging, but the Liang army was not like being slowed down by the captives at this time, and the swords, guns, swords, and halberds wielded mercilessly slashed and stabbed at the humble begging Chu army over there.

"What are they going to do?"

This elite cavalry did not come straight to Zaoyang City, like a swarm of locusts to kill the Chu army in the southeast flank that did not have time to escape into Zaoyang City, and did not have the intention of stopping, and continued to move south like a torrent, but because of the iron-blooded momentum of this cavalry like a torrent of molten iron, Ma Xun was a little stammering when he spoke, looked at the general on his side and asked.

"They are going straight to Yingzhou." Sima and Si Bing of the Langzhou Army joined the army, and Ma Rong, the deputy general of the Tanzhou reinforcements and horses to assist the prince Ma Xun, said with a stern face.

Although Zaoyang City is much more dilapidated than Yingzhou City, even the garrisons on the periphery of the city fortress have been swallowed up by the Liang army like a swarm of locusts crossing the border, and there are still nearly 10,000 reinforcements from Tanzhou and Zhuzhou in Zaoyang City.

The Liang army only relied on thousands of elite cavalry raids, and it was unable to break through Zaoyang City in a short period of time, but Yingzhou City was different.

Yingzhou Tianyou eight years before it was included in the territory of Great Chu, before the war was messy, the people were not happy, the number of households in the state and county was greatly reduced, and a large number of cottage forces were outside the state and county, this time five or six thousand state soldiers were recruited, and the strong people, the local garrison of Yingzhou became extremely limited.

Besides, before everyone decided that before they had broken the defense of the line from Xiangzhou to Zaoyang, the Liang army would at most send a small force of soldiers and horses into Yingzhou and Suizhou to disturb the attack, because the local garrisons of Yingzhou and Suizhou were scattered in the prefecture and county.

There is not enough defense against the large-scale penetration of the Liang army to the south, and the garrison of Yingzhou Prefecture will not exceed 2,000, and it is very likely that it will not be able to withstand the wolf-like raid of the elite of the Liang army.

"Liang Jun intends to do the whole Jingxiang this time!" Wen Ruilin said with a pale face.

Ma Rong also figured it out in an instant.

If the Liang army's intention on the western flank was mainly to contain the Chu army, then it would not have used thousands of elite cavalry to intersperse adventures to the south.

The cavalry seems to be moving fast, but it is interspersed with hundreds of miles of long-distance travel, and once it is blocked under the city of Yingzhou, it will not be able to attack the city and defend the fortress in time to repair and obtain supplies, and it will also fall into a dilemma.

After all, in the cold winter season, war horses cannot graze in the wild, and the consumption of horse feed is ten times that of the pawns.

At this time, if the passage was blocked by the Xiangzhou army at the northern foot of Dahong Mountain, the elite cavalry of the Liang army heading south might suffer heavy losses.

Normally, the Liang army would not risk its elite cavalry, unless the Liang army's strategic intentions on the western flank far exceeded their initial expectations.

The Liang army forcibly captured Yingzhou on the east bank of the Han River, which will cut off the connection between Deng Xiang and the rear, and when the Liang army has more soldiers and horses into the Nanyang Basin, it will be able to storm the city of Xiangzhou - Xiangzhou City, the Liang army can take Jingnan along the west bank of the Han River, and go south along the east bank of the Han River, and take the Jianghu, and the Chu army has no place to contain the Liang army's troops except for the natural danger of the Yangtze River.

"Shizi, let's go to the city tower to discuss......" Ma Rong said to Ma Xun.

In Zaoyang City, there were not only reinforcements from Tanzhou, but also more than 4,000 reinforcements gathered from Suizhou, Ezhou and other places, who were restrained by Ma Xun, the vanguard general of the right front - Ma Xun also knew that some words could not be listened to by the generals, so he forced himself to walk calmly to the city gatehouse.

The so-called castle tower is a shed built with fence wood at the west gate of the city, so that the generals can shelter from the wind and rain and avoid arrows and stones when commanding battles on the city wall.

"Mr. Wen is concluding that Liang Jun is really attacking the east and west this time, and intends to attack the whole Jingxiang?" Ma Xun looked at Wen Ruilin with a somewhat pale face and asked.

Although the thousands of elite Liang cavalry did not directly attack Zaoyang City, they also cut off their retreat to the south.

If the Liang army's intention in this battle was to invade the entire Jingxiang, then not only would their retreat to the south be cut off, but they would also be worried that a large force of the Liang army would rush towards Zaoyang City from the north at any time.

"It sees, that's how it should be." Ma Rong was also shocked by the speed and resoluteness of the Liang army's advance on the right flank, and only in this way can the Liang army carry out such a wide range of detours on the right flank.

"Then should we send someone to meet the commander of the Liang army to negotiate peace now?" Ma Xun asked.

Once the Liang army controlled the entire Jingxiang region, Chu Ting's control over Tanzhou would be weakened to the extreme, and Tanzhou would in fact be qualified to compete with Chu Ting and in the Jingxiang region controlled by the Liang army.

Ma Xun never thought about fighting to the death for Chu Ting, but thought about secretly negotiating peace with the Liang army, and when the Liang army occupied the land of Jingxiang, Tanzhou was on the south bank of the Yangtze River and broke away from the control of Chu Ting.

"It's too early to make peace with Liang Jun at this time, and the commander is not well prepared in Tanzhou!" Wen Ruilin advised the prince not to act rashly at this time.

Ma Rong also nodded in agreement with Wen Ruilin's opinion.

Tanzhou did not expect the Liang army's strategy of attacking the east and the west, not only did not prepare for secession, but even sent tens of thousands of soldiers and horses and strong people to reinforce Xiangzhou.

At present, there are only 15,000 or 6,000 soldiers and horses in Tanzhou, and there has been no more extensive mobilization.

Once they make any rash moves here, the Jinling side would rather let Jingxiang be invaded by the Liang army, and will also send a large army to Pingtanzhou as soon as possible.

After all, in a short period of time, even if the Liang army occupies Jingxiang, it will not have the ability to force the Yangtze River, and even at the same time, it will have to consider the threat of the Shu army from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Han River.

Even if Tanzhou wanted to break away from the Chu State, it would have to wait for the Liang army to gain a firm foothold in the Jingxiang area.

"Then what should we do, won't we really have to defend Zaoyang City, or cross the Han River to Xiangzhou City?" Ma Xun asked anxiously.

The Liang army intended that in the entire Jingxiang region, Zaoyang was its battleground, and the Liang army could only organize soldiers and horses to cross the Han River and attack Xiangzhou after capturing Zaoyang.

If they don't withdraw, it will be a bloody battle to meet them.

Ma Xun knew that he would make peace with Liang Jun at this time, and the time was still early, but he didn't want to be buried here with the five thousand athletes in Tanzhou.

"If we go to Xiangzhou City, we may encounter an ambush of the Liang army, and we should withdraw to Suizhou." Wen Ruilin said.

"Withdraw Suizhou, there will be no ambushes?" Ma Xun asked questioningly.

"If I were the commander of the Liang army, if I didn't send someone over to persuade us to surrender at this time, I would also let us go to Suizhou to wait and see. Otherwise, what good will it do them to use their limited elite to fight with us first? Wen Ruilin asked.

Wen Ruilin's idea was very simple, the Liang army would definitely not let them cross the Han River to Xiangzhou City, which would greatly increase the difficulty of their later storming Xiangzhou City.

Ma Xun looked at Ma Rong, who was more experienced in using soldiers.

Ma Rong also agreed with Wen Ruilin's opinion, but this time the Liang army's strategy of attacking the east and west was too unexpected for them, and he frowned and said: "Even if there are ambushes, they should be on the way at this time, and when this Liang army passes, we will send scouts in the northeast and northwest directions, and it will be clearer which direction to retreat in that time." ”

Wen Ruilin glanced at Ma Rong with disdain, at this time, the soldiers were very fast, and sent detectives to explore the way, not to mention that it would be delayed for half a day.