"If the Wu army wants my Zhang family to be the internal response and raise troops to help them seize the city, we will never agree to this kind of thing, do you hear?" Zhang Quanyi said solemnly.

"Father rest assured, the child will not dare to agree to such a thing." Zhang Jizuo hurriedly replied.

Asking them to provide information or something, it's a small thing, it's easy to do, and it's unlikely to be discovered; But raising troops to respond internally, such a thing is too risky, and once it is discovered, it is likely to be beheaded all over the house, how can Zhang Quanyi be willing to do such a thing?

……

At the same time that Zhang Quanyi began to arrange a way back for his family, many powerful people in Luoyang City also had no hope for Liang Guo, and began to send people to contact Wu Guo, wanting to leave a way back for their family.

Soon, the news that the Jin army had abandoned the southern city of Desheng and that the main force of the Liang army was about to go south was discovered by the Wu army and quickly spread to Yang Wu.

In the city of Xuzhou, with the progress of the war in various places, Yang Wu did not have the leisure he had before, and began to consider personally leading the troops to the front line.

During this time, he stayed in Xuzhou, in addition to paying attention to the development of the war in various places, mainly dealing with internal affairs.

If the newly occupied areas are not pacified and managed in time, problems are likely to arise in the future; Especially those Liang officials who had just surrendered, Yang Wu had to make arrangements for them in time.

For example, a few days ago, he ordered Wen Tao to be beheaded for the crime of stealing and excavating the imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty, and Zhu Youneng, the king of Hui who came with him, was renamed Chen Guogong by him.

In addition, the assassins who were retained from all over the country also rushed to Xuzhou to meet them, and the appeasement that should be appeased and the denigration that should be derogatory, it took a few months to finally restore order in various places; As long as there is no major rout of the Wu army, the rule in these areas should be solid.

Of course, the most important purpose of Yang Wu's stay in Xuzhou was to wait for the progress of the war on all sides, and at the same time wait and see the reaction of the Jin army, so as to respond to various situations.

At present, the army in Xuzhou City mainly has more than 10,000 naval troops, 6,000 Yulin troops, and 5,000 cavalry, although the scale of the force is not large, but they are all elite soldiers, especially 5,000 cavalry, and it is the largest cavalry in the Wu army, even more than the cavalry personally commanded by Chai Kehong, the governor of the Xiao cavalry army.

The chief and deputy commanders of the 10,000 naval army were He Jingzhu and Sima Fu; The cavalry commander is Shi Hongyi, the son of Shi Yan, who succeeded his father and is now the deputy governor of the Xiao Cavalry Army; As for the Yulin Army, according to tradition, it was led by six commanders, and there was no commander.

Now that everything is going well, the battle situation is basically developing according to the pre-war plan, and now the reaction of the Jin army has become clear, Li Cunqiao took the initiative to withdraw from Desheng Nancheng, concentrating his forces to solve Zhenzhou first, and at the same time counting on Wu and Liang to defeat both sides.

After these circumstances were clear, it didn't make much sense for Yang Wu to continue to stay in Xuzhou, so he decided to personally lead the troops into battle.

"The king, since you have learned that the Liang army is concentrating its forces south, why didn't the king go to Songzhou to sit in the town, but instead led his troops to Yunzhou? If the main force of the Liang army can be eliminated in one fell swoop, then what else can the Liang State do? Inside the camp, Shi Hongyi asked a little puzzled.

"King, now that the main force of the Jin army has been transferred to Zhenzhou, it is the time for us to concentrate our forces to eliminate the Liang State, if we wait until the Jin army captures Zhenzhou and then send troops south, I am afraid that the war in the Central Plains will be a little troublesome." The other generals were also a little confused.

In the eyes of these generals, the Wu army did not need to care about the war in Shandong at all, as long as it concentrated its forces to eliminate the main force of the Liang army and captured the core areas of the Liang State such as Luoyang and Kaifeng; As for the rest of the territory, it will inevitably surrender after learning the news, and there is no need to send troops to fight at all.

Moreover, the Jin army concentrated its forces to attack Zhenzhou, and with the weak strength of Zhenzhou, the generals were not optimistic about them, thinking that they would not be able to hold out for long and would be wiped out.

"The Jin army is heading south? No. Lone has long said that you should not underestimate Zhenzhou, and now it is still this sentence, Zhenzhou is not as weak as you think, and it may give us a surprise in the future. In addition, you must not forget the Khitans in the north, who dare to conclude that the Khitans will inevitably invade this year. Therefore, King Jin has a lot of troubles, and you don't need to worry about it at all in a short time. Yang Wu explained with a smile.

"Then we have to concentrate our forces to quickly defeat the main force of the Liang army, so that we can destroy the Liang State in the shortest possible time, so as to end the war in the Central Plains before the Jin army destroys Zhenzhou, wouldn't it be better?" Shi Hongyi then asked.

"You're so anxious!" Yang Wu still shook his head: "The situation of the Liang State is different from our Wu State, the envoys and assassins in various places have great rights, to completely pacify it, it is not enough to eliminate the main force of the Liang army, but also to bring all places under the rule of the imperial court as much as possible, rather than a nominal rule." ”

"Now that the situation in our Northern Expedition to the Central Plains is very good, we must take this opportunity to solve these problems, instead of leaving hidden dangers for the future. Lone doesn't want to compete with the Jin Kingdom in the future, but there will be some problems in our rear. ”

"What the king said is very true, let's send troops to completely seize the territory of the Liang State now, so it seems that it will waste some time and troops, but it is safe, and there is no need to worry about problems in the rear when we compete with the Jin State in the future." Ho Kyung-so agreed.

Of course, there is a difference between the ground that has been laid down and the territory that has been taken over directly.

The territory that is defeated with soldiers can be rectified by taking advantage of the situation, increasing the rule of Wu, and completely annexing it to Wu; If it is those territories that take the initiative to invest, Wu will be subject to various constraints if they want to rectify it, and it is easy to leave hidden dangers.

If there is a longer period of time, it is better to say that in the future, you can slowly adjust and eliminate these hidden dangers; But now it is obvious that it will not be long before the Jin army will go south, rather than worrying that these territories will surrender to the Jin State at that time, it is better to use troops to defeat those territories now, anyway, there are not many Liang troops in these places, and it will not take much time.

At this time, Guo Chongtao added: "Another point is Yang Liudu, after the Jin army abandoned the southern city of Desheng, their only crossing on the Yellow River was Yang Liu, and Yang Liu was located in Yunzhou. If we can capture Yunzhou, then our naval army can enter the Yellow River along the canal; If we can capture Yang Liu again, then we can block the Jin army north of the Yellow River, so as to achieve the goal of monopolizing the Central Plains. ”

"Yangliu Ferry?" Yang Wu was a little emotional, in history, Li Cunqiao directly crossed the river from Yang Liudu to seize Yunzhou, and then raided Kaifeng, and finally eliminated the Liang State; Now that the Jin army has given up the Desheng Ferry, the strength of the Jin army at the Yangliu Ferry will inevitably be strengthened, and it will inevitably be an important place for the Jin army to cross the river in the future.

It is precisely because of this that it is even more necessary for Yang Wu to rush to Yunzhou in person.

"The battle situation on Songzhou's side was handed over to Li Chengding, and Lone was very relieved of him; Although the Liang army is menacing, the strength may be twice that of Li Chengding, but since it is Duan Ning as a general, this person's ability is mediocre and it is difficult to take on big responsibilities, even if he has heavy troops, what is there to worry about? ”

"General Zhou Ben is under the command of Xuzhou in the west, and Gu has nothing to worry about, I think it won't be long before he can make progress; However, if the war in the east is not over, it is likely to affect the overall situation, so Lone must go to the town in person. ”

"It's just during this time that let's avoid Duan Ning's edge first, let him act with his majesty, and wait for Gu to solve the battle in the east, and then concentrate our forces to the west, and we will definitely be able to win in one battle!" Yang Wu said with confidence.

"The king is wise!" At this time, the generals will naturally no longer oppose his opinion.

"After Lone left, General Wang Juan stayed behind in Xuzhou, and it was necessary to ensure that the supply of money and grain in front was endless." Yang Wu finally arranged.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the minister will definitely arrange the logistics." The privy deputy envoy Wang Juan hurriedly replied.

……

At the end of November, Yang Wu left his two sons in Xuzhou, while leaving behind 3,000 Yulin troops; He himself took 5,000 cavalry, 3,000 Yulin troops, plus 10,000 sailors, and drove northward, waving banners all the way, and the momentum was violent.

On the seventh day of December, Yang Wu's army arrived in Yunzhou and joined up with Zuo Tianwu's army led by Liu Xin.

When Yang Wu's royal flag was raised in the barracks, Wu Jun immediately cheered enthusiastically, and the sound shook the heavens and the earth.

In the city of Yunzhou, in the face of Yang Wu's personal campaign, they all commanded Yan Kai, inspected Liu Suiyan and others for a while, and were shocked.

As an important town along the Yellow River, Yunzhou still has a lot of defenders, in addition to more than 3,000 state soldiers in the original city, there are more than 3,000 forbidden troops led by Liu Suiyan, the inspection envoy.

With so many defenders, coupled with the fact that Yunzhou is located on the front line, it is difficult for the Wu army to capture it in a short period of time.

However, after these two months, the losses on the defender's side were also not small; In particular, Yunzhou was surrounded on all sides, the news from the outside was cut off, and the reinforcements were delayed, which made the morale of the soldiers generally low; Now that the news of Yang Wu's personal expedition has been obtained, the defenders are even more frightened.

As the chief generals, Liu Suiyan and Yan Kai knew that something was wrong, and hurriedly convened the generals to start a military discussion to discuss countermeasures.

"Generals, everyone knows the situation now, with the arrival of King Wu in person, the momentum of the enemy army will inevitably be stronger, but our defenders are demoralized, and many people are afraid. Ben will know that many of you must be worried that we will not be able to hold the city; But rest assured, the location of Yunzhou is extremely important, and Your Majesty will definitely not give up here. As long as we hold on, reinforcements will definitely come. Liu Suiyan said loudly.

As soon as Liu Suiyan's words fell, someone replied loudly: "The arrival of King Wu in person will inevitably bring a lot of reinforcements, but the reinforcements that the general said are still unknown; If it continues like this, Yunzhou will be finished sooner or later. ”

Liu Suiyan's face turned dark, and he was just about to scold loudly, but he didn't want to be humane again: "Yes, two generals, where are our reinforcements?" It's been a few months, why haven't you seen a single reinforcement. ”

In this era, there are three main points to defend the city, the first point is that the defenders in the city must have enough determination to defend the city; If the defenders do not have the will to fight, then even the strongest city will be difficult to hold.

The second point is to have reinforcements, if you sit on the lonely city, the city will be captured sooner or later.

The third point is to have enough money and grain reserves, which Yunzhou City does not need to worry about, after all, as a front-line city, it usually hoards a lot of money and grain, which is enough for the defenders to hold on for a long time.

The biggest problem encountered by Yunzhou today is, of course, the problem of no reinforcements.

It has been two months since Liu Xin led his troops to besiege Yunzhou in October, during which Liu Suiyan and his wife repeatedly claimed that reinforcements were coming, but until now they have not seen half of the reinforcements.

Under these circumstances, the defending officers and men were naturally deeply disappointed and pessimistic about the battle.

was asked by the generals like this, and Liu Suiyan was suddenly a little difficult to answer.

Yan Kai hurriedly took over the topic and said: "The reinforcements must have been delayed by something, or the reinforcements are about to arrive, who knows?" However, I believe that Your Majesty will not forget us and wait, and the reinforcements must be on the way to come, and I ask the generals to be patient and wait! ”

"Two generals, it's not that I'm not at ease, but Yunzhou has been besieged for more than two months, and the news from the outside has never come in, or which general should we send to break through and ask for reinforcements?" Someone suggested.

"The last general is willing to lead the troops to break out of the encirclement and go to Luoyang to seek reinforcements!" Someone immediately replied.

Yan Kai looked at the man and saw that it was Lu Shunmi, who commanded him, and suddenly groaned in his heart: "This Lu Shunmi has a high prestige in the army, and he is not under the two of us." And this person has always relied on bravery, and does not take the two of us very seriously; Since he is willing to lead the troops to break through and ask for help, then the general will let him go, just send him to Yunzhou. ”

Thinking of this, Yan Kai hurriedly nodded and said, "Since General Lu has the heart to break through the siege and ask for reinforcements for us, the general will naturally agree, I don't know what General Liu's opinion is?" He looked at Liu Suiyan and winked at him secretly.

Liu Suiyan immediately understood and said, "The general has no objections, so let General Lu lead the troops to break through." ”

After some deliberation, the generals finally decided to let Lu Shunmi lead a hundred cavalry to break out of the siege and go to Luoyang for help.

After leaving the camp, Lu Shunmi hurried to his camp and summoned his henchmen and others.

"General Liu and General Yan have just ordered that General Ben lead a hundred cavalry to try to break through tonight, you guys hurry up and get ready to break through with Ben General."

"What? Break through with a hundred cavalry? How is this possible? ”

"Yes, tens of thousands of enemy troops have surrounded Yunzhou, and now that King Wu has arrived in person, the morale of the Wu army will inevitably be greatly boosted, and in this case lead a hundred cavalry to break through, General Liu and General Yan will not deliberately let the general send you to death, right?"

……

Everyone was in an uproar, and they all felt that Lu Shunmi should not accept this task and should give up immediately.

"Haha, what do you know? Pai Ben will break through and ask for help, this is not what Liu Suiyan and Yan Kai requested, this is Ben himself proposed. How could Ben have given up such a great opportunity? ”

"What do you mean?"

"King Wu is in charge, and Yunzhou will inevitably fall. In this case, it is better for the general to surrender as soon as possible, and still build credit, so why not do it? Lu Shunmi laughed.