In late May, after nearly a month of preparation, Wu's troops crossed the Yellow River in three ways and took the initiative to attack north.

Its 20,000 troops on the East Road crossed the river from Huliang, north of Puyang, and attacked Linhe, Liyang and other places.

The main task of this army was not to attack cities and seize land, but to attract the attention of the Jin army; Therefore, after crossing the river, the army did not touch Desheng Beicheng and Shanzhou, which were defended by more troops, but chose to attack the surrounding counties to threaten Li Cunxian's department, which was attacking the city in Weizhou.

At the same time, on the river, the Wu army had a large number of naval warships ready to support at any time, and once the battle situation was unfavorable, they would have to retreat to Henan by water.

The strength of the Central Route Army and the Western Route Army was also 20,000 men, and they crossed the river from Tongzhou and Luoyang respectively to attack Mengzhou, Huaizhou and Hezhongfu.

These three places were the focus of the Wu army's attack, of which the Western Route Army was commanded by Chai Zayong, while the Central Route Army was commanded by Li Chengding.

On the side of the Middle Route Army, Mengzhou and Huaizhou both surrendered to the Jin State after the fall of the Liang State, and according to the way the Jin State has always dealt with it, these two places still retained a greater degree of autonomy after the surrender, not only the assassin Shi and officials at all levels continued to be retained, but the local garrison also had no adjustment.

However, before the Liang State was destroyed, most of the garrisons in these two places had been exhausted by the Liang State, and it was difficult for the remaining few troops to hold the city, and their only hope in the face of the attack of the Wu army was the Jin army reinforcements.

However, because Weizhou was captured by the Wu army, the main passage of the Jin army to Mengzhou and Huaizhou was seriously threatened, and the Eastern Route Army was operating in Liyang and other places not far from Weizhou, Li Cunxun did not dare to risk going deep to rescue Mengzhou.

Li Cunxian in the east was restrained and did not dare to come to the rescue rashly, while to the north of Huaizhou was Zezhou under the command of the Zhaoyi Jiedu envoy.

If it was in the past, even if Li Cunxian's army in the east was contained, the Jin army could still send troops to rescue Huaizhou through Zezhou.

But now there have been major changes in the Zhaoyi Army, and the relationship between Li Jitao, the new An Yi Army, and the Jin Army has cracked, and although Zezhou Assassin Shi Pei You's heart is towards the Jin State, his own strength is not strong, coupled with various internal containments, he has no strength to rescue at all.

In this way, Mengzhou and Huaizhou have almost become isolated cities, and in the absence of reinforcements and the strength of the defenders is weak, the fate of the two places can be imagined.

At the beginning of June, the Wu army captured Mengzhou, and at the same time divided its troops to capture Wenxian, Jiyuan, Heqing, Wude, Wuzhi and other county seats, but the Huaizhou defenders were still holding on and waiting for reinforcements.

On the side of the Western Route Army, the battle against Hezhong Province did not go well.

After all, Hezhong Mansion is the territory of Zhu Youqian, the king of Ji, Zhu Youqian has been operating here for more than ten years, and his power is deep-rooted.

You must know that when the Liang army crusaded against Hezhongfu, the number of troops reached more than 100,000 when it was large, and there were 50,000 or 60,000 people when it was small, in the face of so many Liang army sieges, although Zhu Youqian could not break the enemy by his own strength alone, he was able to hold on to the arrival of Jin reinforcements every time, which in itself reflected his strong strength.

The Wu army used only 20,000 troops this time, even if the main force of the Jin army was pinned down by the Wu army in other directions, it was difficult to send reinforcements, but it was still difficult to break through Hezhong Province.

Fortunately, there is no rush for the Wu army, anyway, now there is a large-scale battle between the Jin State and the Wu State, and the focus is still on the Yangliu Ferry.

Whether it is the more than 20,000 defenders of Yang Liu Nancheng, or the 5,000 troops led by Li Siyuan in Yunzhou City, these are the most elite armies of the Jin State, and they are the most important basis for the Jin State to conquer the east and the west for so many years.

Not only that, in this battle of Jin and Wu, the Jin State, as the first party to challenge, if it is defeated on the key battlefield of Yang Liudu, it will definitely greatly affect the psychological state of the soldiers on both sides.

Whether it is the Wu army or the Jin army, in recent years, the two armies have won all the way, and the Wu army does not need to say much, not only eliminated the major feudal towns in the south and completed the unification of the south, but also recently eliminated the Liang state, expanding its sphere of influence to almost all areas south of the Yellow River.

The Jin army not only defeated the Liang army one after another in the strongest era of the Liang State, and defeated the Liang State, which was originally the strongest country in the world, but also achieved a complete victory in the face of the Khitan strong enemy, and thwarted the invasion of the Khitans one after another.

It can be said that both the Jin army and the Wu army have established a strong military momentum of "fighting all over the world"; This kind of momentum is invisible and intangible, but in many cases it can boost the morale and combat strength of the army, and it often has a great advantage in battle.

This is just like the Jurchens in later generations who claimed to be "invincible", in fact, it is not that the Jurchen army is really that strong, mainly because the Jurchens have achieved too many victories in the rising stage, so that other armies have a sense of innate fear when facing them, and even many timid generals flee in the face of the Jurchen army.

However, it is also a strong army that wins a hundred battles, and the Wu army and the Jin army must always be divided into superior forces.

And the battle of Yangliu Ferry is the first battle between Jin and Wu, if Wu wins, then the morale of the Wu army will be further raised: even the invincible Jin army has been defeated by our army, so who else in the world can compete with our army?

The defeated Jin army will inevitably suffer a big demoralization setback, and the comprehensive national strength of the Jin State is not comparable to that of the Wu State.

Therefore, whether it is Huaizhou, Mengzhou, Weizhou, or Hezhongfu, the battle for these areas is not the key, the most critical is the battle of Yang Liu.

And whether it is Yang Wu or Li Cunqiao, they obviously know this clearly, so although the Wu army crossed the river in three ways to attack, the main force never left Yang Liu.

The same is true of the Jin army, in the face of Wu's large-scale counteroffensive, the main force of the Jin army led by Li Cunqiao also stayed in the northern city of Yang and Liu and did not move, and at the same time ordered Li Cunxian, ordering him to abandon the plan of attacking Weizhou, and concentrate his forces to protect the two key points of Weizhou and Shanzhou, so as to prevent the Wu army from moving further north.

In addition, in order to prevent the Wu army from going north from Zezhou after capturing Huaizhou, Li Cunqiao ordered Li Jitao to be the envoy of the Anyi Army after the Jin Feng Anyi Army was left behind, and ordered Zezhou Assassin Shi Pei Yue to temporarily obey Li Jitao's orders, so as to win over and appease Li Jitao to the greatest extent.

Of course, the most important point is to seek allies, and who are the allies who can be valued by the Jin State today, except for Li Maozhen, the king of Qi, and Wang Yan, the lord of Shu?

……

In Fengxiang City, Li Maozhen, the king of Qi with white hair, couldn't help frowning when he looked at the battle report he had just received about the battle between Jin and Wu.

"I didn't expect the strength of the Wu State to be so strong, with the strong strength of the Jin State, they are all completely underwhelmed, can it be said that the Mandate of Heaven is really in Wu?"

As a battlefield veteran, Li Maozhen may not be a famous general who has won all battles, but he has a lot of war experience, and it is still easy to judge which side has the upper hand.

Although the war between Wu and Jin is now in a stalemate, whether it is the Yangliu ferry port as the main battlefield, or in Lanzhou, Weizhou and other places, the Wu army has the upper hand and shows strong strength.

Not only that, but what made Li Maozhen even more frightened was the strength of Wu State.

His eldest son Li Congyi is still on an envoy in Wu, and Yang Wu in order to win over Li Congyi, and also to let him understand the strong strength of Wu, so many military deployments have not been kept secret, so Li Maozhen also learned about the deployment of Wu's troops through Li Congyi.

The Wu army on Yang Liu's side alone has 100,000 troops, and the Wu army outside Yunzhou City has 30,000, in addition, the strength of the Wu army to cross the river in three ways this time is 60,000 troops, if you add the 5,000 defenders who have been holding on to Weizhou before, this is already close to 200,000 troops.

And the 200,000 troops put into the battlefield are not all of the Wu army, whether it is in the south, or in the Central Plains, or in Guanzhong, the Wu army still has many forbidden troops stationed; Especially in the south, there are many forbidden troops stationed in Jinling, Jiangling, Hongzhou and other places.

If Wu mobilized all these troops to the north, it is conceivable how many troops Wu could use.

This force is definitely much stronger than Zhu Wen in his heyday, and it is the number one force that deserves to be seen today.

Therefore, after learning these news, combined with the current battle situation between Jin and Wu, Li Maozhen is of course more optimistic about the Wu side in his heart.

At this moment, the guards outside suddenly came in and reported: "King, an envoy from the Jin Kingdom has just come and wants to ask to see the king. I wonder if the king wants to meet now? ”

"An envoy of the Jin Kingdom?" Li Maozhen was stunned for a moment, then frowned and shook her head: "I don't see!" ”

"King, this ......" The guard was stunned for a moment, obviously not expecting Li Maozhen to refuse so resolutely.

"What? Didn't you hear Lonely? Li Maozhen said unhappily.

"Yes, the little one." Only then did the guard react and hurriedly retreated.

Looking at the back of the guards retreating, Li Maozhen sneered in her heart: "Hmph! Whether it is the State of Wu or the Kingdom of Jin, this is something that cannot be provoked. However, if Wu wins this battle in the end, then Wu's power will definitely rise further, and it will be no problem to dominate the world in the future. ”

"And if the Jin State wins this battle, they will take advantage of some small advantages at most, not to mention destroying the Wu State, even if it is difficult to occupy the Central Plains, the Wu State will still be the strongest country in the world. In this case, why should Lone go to offend Wu Guo? ”

Of course, he knew the purpose of the envoy sent by the Jin State at this time, but if the battlefield situation was favorable to the Jin State, perhaps Li Maozhen would stand on the side of the Jin State and send troops to attack Wu, but now the battlefield is obviously Wu State has the upper hand, and Wu State still has a lot of troops left behind, in this case, of course, he is not willing to take the fire for the Jin State.

Of course, from the bottom of his heart, Li Maozhen still hopes that the Jin State can win, after all, as long as the Jin State wins, then the confrontation between Jin and Wu is likely to be protracted, so that the Qi State will have a chance to survive in the cracks.