At the end of March, the marriage between Yang Wu and Zhong Chuan's daughter had just ended, and the primary elections for the imperial examinations in various states were over. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Although Yang Wu had previously taken the recital to limit the age of the candidates, but at that time it was not long before the local primary election, and many unqualified scholars had already signed up to take the exam, if the temporary regulations were issued to restrict them, I was afraid that it would cause too much controversy, so Yang Xingmi and others discussed it, and decided that there was no age limit for the time being in this primary election.

As for the future imperial examinations, there will be a limit on the age, but there are still some controversies on the specific upper age limit.

On the last day of March, Yang Xingmi received an edict from the Son of Heaven, but it was issued by Li Ye before he was thoroughly monitored, in which he wrote: "If I go to Luoyang, I will be completely imprisoned by Zhu Quanzhong, and the edict will will come from his hands, and my will can no longer be conveyed to you."

The edict was earnest, asking Yang Xingmi to gather many feudal towns in the south to raise troops together to defeat the traitor Zhu Quanzhong.

After the edict was announced, Yang Xingmi cried and mourned, planning to immediately start the Northern Expedition to save the Son of Heaven from danger. Although the officials in Huainan were grateful for Yang Xingmi's loyalty to the Son of Heaven, they believed that Zhu Quanzhong was now powerful and should not compete with him, and he should preserve his strength and slowly try to do so.

Staff Yan Keqiu hurriedly dissuaded and said, there is a word in the edict, ordering Yang Xingmi to convene the southern feudal towns to crusade against Zhu Quanzhong, but now there are Hunan Ma Yin in the southern towns who do not think about the kindness of the Son of Heaven, but collude with the traitor Zhu Quanzhong, and regard the Son of Heaven as nothing, it is better to crusade against Ma Yin first, and then send troops to the Northern Expedition together after he is subdued.

Yang Xingmi did not listen to the persuasion of the crowd, insisted on sending troops to the north, and claimed that he would personally lead the army to the expedition.

The ministers persuaded hard, and the prince Yang Wu also said that the crusade against Zhu Quanzhong was not a matter for the Huainan family, and Li Keyong, the king of Hedong Jin, and Wang Jian, the king of Shu in Shuzhong, must have also received the edict, so Huainan should not rush to send troops to the northern expedition, but should send troops after agreeing with Li Keyong and Wang Jian.

Yang Xingmi listened to this and agreed, and on the one hand, he ordered to send envoys to Hedong and Chengdu, and on the other hand, he ordered Liu Cun, the commander of the capital, to recruit envoys to Hunan and lead an army of 10,000 to attack Yuezhou.

At the beginning of April, Zhu Quanzhong sent an envoy to Guangling, asking Yang Xingmi and Qian Biao to stop the war, and he was willing to reconcile with Huainan.

Yang Xingmi replied: "When the Son of Heaven returns to Chang'an, Lone will consider your suggestion."

Soon, Yang Xingmi ordered Zhu Siqing, the commander of the capital, to lead an army of 5,000 to reinforce Hangzhou, and ordered Chen Zhang, the assassin of Quzhou, to lead 5,000 troops to reinforce Wang Maozhang and prepare to attack Taizhou.

Then, after more than a month of field investigations, Chen Yanqian, the assassin of Shengzhou, finally wrote to the embassy and proposed to expand Shengzhou City.

According to his plan, the entire expansion plan was made by Shengzhou alone in the early stage, and it took a year to renovate the original Shengzhou City, and gradually relocate the people in the city, so that it would become Yang Xingmi's Jiangnan Palace after the transformation was completed.

After the completion of this stage of the project, the second phase will be carried out, and more than ten prefectures such as Sheng, Run, Chang, He, and Xuan will jointly contribute to the second phase of the city wall construction, and it is planned to build a brick and stone city wall with a total length of 42 miles in three years relying on the Qinhuai River, Zhongshan and other places.

The entire project is planned to take four years, and when completed, Shengju will become a true Jiangnan town.

After discussing with everyone, Yang Xingmi finally agreed to this plan and asked Shengzhou to start the construction project without delaying the agricultural time.

In mid-April, the results of the primary election of the imperial examination began to be announced, and at the same time, the time for the re-examination was also determined, and in the middle of next month, it was only a month before the release of the results.

Hangzhou.

Jiangnan is already rainy, but now it is the rainy season, and the rain is more and continuous.

Wangjia Village is a small fishing village on the Qiantang River, located more than 30 miles east of Hangzhou.

At this time, the tranquility of this small fishing village was shattered by the arrival of thousands of troops.

After nearly two months of preparation, the Yuezhou army successfully mobilized 5,000 troops here without alarming the Huainan army, preparing to join forces with the defenders in Hangzhou to flank the Huainan army.

However, after everything was ready, Qian Biao found a very embarrassing thing, that is, the rain was too big, and in this weather, it was difficult to send troops to fight, even if he forcibly sent troops and defeated the Huainan army, it was very likely that it would be difficult to continue the pursuit because of the weather.

In addition, there is another problem, that is, since the continuous heavy rains, the nearby rivers have swelled, and the Huainan army has withdrawn from the original camp for safety, and retreated ten miles to the north, to a safer and more defensible place to camp.

In this way, the originally prepared internal and external attack plan had to be suspended, which made Qian Biao feel very anxious. Although Wangjia Village is very remote, whether it is the logistics supply of the Huainan Army or the scout team, they rarely go there, but they are afraid that the longer the Yuezhou army stays in Wangjia Village, the greater the possibility of exposure.

"King, I don't know when I will wait until the rain stops completely, so why don't you wait until the rain is lighter one day? And it's raining lightly, if you're lucky, it's just right to make the vigilance of the Huainan Army drop! Beside him, Luo Yin was also full of worry.

Now everything is ready, if there is a problem in the last link, it will be a pity, and the consequences are too terrible, when the time comes under the control of the Huainan army, the Yuezhou army can not return to Yuezhou, I am afraid that even Yuezhou may be lost.

Thinking of this, Qian Biao couldn't help but say a little irritably: "For such an important battle, are you ready to hope for luck?" ”

Luo Yin was silent, and Qian Biao noticed that his heart was disturbed when he saw this, and he reluctantly calmed down and said, "Is there any news for the scout who went to investigate?" What is the current situation of the Huainan Army? ”

Although the time of the battle has not yet been determined, the scouts in the city have never stopped scouting the Huainan army, and Qian Biao does not want to wait until the war is about to start before sending scouts to investigate.

"Nothing new." Luo Yin shook his head and said: "The king also knows that in this kind of weather, the scout's vision will be blocked, and because the road is muddy, the movement of the scout's horses is also restricted, and it is only difficult to find out the enemy's intelligence at any time." ”

Although Luo Yin is Qian Biao's strategist, he rarely cares about this kind of military, but now that Hangzhou is in danger, he can only take care of these things.

However, he is old after all, he is seventy-one years old this year, although he has always believed in Taoism, he has a deep way of health preservation, but after this period of hard work, he still feels unbearable.

Seeing the tiredness on Luo Yin's face, Qian Biao rubbed his forehead and said, "It's been hard for Luo Lao during this time, you better go and rest first, and let Chuan Ying replace you for a while." ”

"Thank you, the king, the old decay can still hold on." Luo Yin said: "By the way, speaking of scouts, there is another thing I forgot to mention to the king, there was a scout the night before yesterday, it is said that he saw thousands of troops entering the camp of the Huainan army, but it was too dark at that time, and it was raining, he couldn't be sure, he could only judge by listening to the sound." ”

"What? Thousands of troops? With such important news, why didn't Luo Lao tell Gu earlier? Qian Biao suddenly couldn't sit still, it is not a trivial matter to increase the army of thousands at this time, if you suddenly find out when the big war starts, you may suffer a big loss at that time.

"Isn't this because the news can't be confirmed? It was so dark and rainy, and the scouts who went with him said that they couldn't confirm whether thousands of enemy troops had entered the camp, only one of them mentioned it, and he himself couldn't be sure. Such news is naturally old and decrepit, and he will have to wait for the scout to confirm it before telling the king. Luo Yin explained.

Qian Biao nodded in understanding, and then hurriedly asked, "So did the news confirm later?" Is there a large number of enemy troops arriving? ”

"Still can't be confirmed. It is difficult to see anything useful at night, and during the day, the scouts of the Huainan Army are also active outside in large numbers, and it is really difficult to get close to the enemy camp to reconnoitre. Luo Yin shook his head and said.

On the side, Bao Junfu, Qian Chuanying and others were disappointed, and at the same time they also had some bad feelings in their hearts, they were all ready to go to war at any time, but it was difficult to confirm the strength of the enemy army, and this battle would not be easy to fight.

"How's the situation on General Cao's side? Does he have any suggestions? ”

General Cao is Cao Gui, many years ago he was famous for sticking to Jiaxing, resisting the Huainan army for more than a year, and finally waiting for Gu Quanwu to send troops to relieve the siege.

Luo Yin was about to shake his head, when a guard outside suddenly ran in hurriedly and said, "King, this is General Cao's order to send someone quickly, saying that there is an extremely urgent situation!" As he spoke, he handed over a piece of paperwork.

Qian Biao took the paperwork, opened it and looked at it, only to see that it was written in very scribbled handwriting: "The situation has changed, our army has been discovered by enemy scouts, I hope the king will make a decision quickly!" At present, our army is moving closer to Hangzhou. ”

Qian Biao couldn't help but shake his body when he saw it, and he almost couldn't stand steadily.

What he feared most had happened, and the current response was either to launch it before the enemy could react, or to cancel the plan and let the Yuezhou army immediately retreat back to Yuezhou.

For a while, everyone in the audience looked at Qian Biao, hoping that he would make a decision as soon as possible.

However, how could Qian Biao make such an important decision immediately? It seems a bit risky to act immediately. If the plan is cancelled, not to mention that this rare opportunity is lost, the siege of Hangzhou cannot be lifted in a short time. Moreover, after the enemy has learned this lesson, will it be fooled next time?

"King, time is urgent, you can't hesitate!" Luo Yin said in a deep voice.

Qian Biao took a deep breath and finally made up his mind: "Pass the order, the army will immediately leave the city and prepare to launch an attack on the Huainan army!"