Gao Shuo, Xia Yu's 20,000 soldiers and horses camped more than 30 miles away from Linjin City, before dusk, they received a report from the scouts in the army, the smoke and fire outside the city of Linjin, the camp outside the city has been ordered to burn, and the soldiers and horses originally stationed outside the city have all withdrawn to the city.

As for the original recruits of the three auxiliary displaced people, in addition to the part of the riot last night, the remaining households were also moved to the direction of the river by the guards, ready to rush overnight, as soon as possible to cross the river into the east of the river, the head of the city of Linjin City guards increased sharply, after the return of the soldiers who went out of the city to pick wood, the city gate was closed, and no one was allowed to enter or leave.

Judging from the current situation, the defenders of Linjin City plan to fortify the walls and clear the wilderness and hold the city to resist Guo Yan's soldiers and horses.

Linjin City is located in the West River, for the Spring and Autumn Period, Jin and Qin must fight for the place, Qin State set up counties to build cities, is to prevent Jin State. During the Warring States period, Qin and Wei also fought for this place for many years.

The years have passed, and now the Warring States are not there, but the geographical advantage of the soldiers has not changed. Zuo Fengyi and Hedong County are only separated by a big river, if Yan Xing of Hedong County can get the west river, then you can avoid the danger of Cuihan, and go straight to the hinterland of Guanzhong, if Zuo Fengyi's Guo Yan gets the west river, you can also follow Han Xin's example to take Wei land, cross the river and attack the important town of Anyi.

The Linjin City is the core of the Xihe Land, which is the place where the soldiers of the past dynasties have worked hard to manage, and the end is a high wall and a deep ravine, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Although Gao Shuo and Xia Yu looked down on Yang Feng and Fu Mengji, who were defeated and fled, they were not foolish enough to use 20,000 soldiers and horses to storm a fortified city guarded by elite soldiers.

It's just that the two of them sent cavalry the next day, and when they wanted to cut off the main road of Hejin of the big river, they accidentally encountered the Hedong cavalry who crossed the river from the east of the river and advanced westward in the field.

The Hedong cavalry encountered in the field was not many in number, but all of them were well-equipped, and one of the knights held the "Pingbei General" Daxu and shouted "General Pingbei is here!" ", fought loudly, and personally commanded the cavalry on both wings to outflank the attack.

The cavalry sent by Gao Shuo and Xia Yu were frightened that the reinforcements from Hedong were coming so quickly, and they were worried that they had fallen into the trap of the enemy.

When Gao Shuo and Xia Yu led the army to march eastward, they received a report from the light cavalry under their command, and they were also frightened, they originally wanted to cut off the crossing of the big river Hejin, so that the Xihe River became a lonely place, and after Linjin City became a lonely city, they planned to besiege the main and supplemented by the method of strong attack.

Unexpectedly, the soldiers and horses in the east of the river came so quickly, and it is said that Yan Yan, the general of Pingbei, led the troops in person, and the elite of the strikers had all crossed the river.

If the army in the east of the river crosses the river, I am afraid that there will be 20,000 or 30,000 people, and if they want to seek the land of the West River, I am afraid that there will be a few major battles, and only the 20,000 soldiers and horses under their command will be obviously powerless.

The two of them were frightened, but they were secretly glad that they did not rush forward with greed, and followed Yang Feng's advice to attack, if they chose the method of attacking yesterday, they were afraid that the army at this time, the people and horses were tired and rushed to the city, and then suddenly found that a large number of enemy reinforcements were coming, and morale would inevitably decline, and it would be too late to retreat at this time.

The two immediately ordered the army to retreat, only after retreating to the west bank of Luoshui, did they settle down a little, while sending scouts to sentry into the direction of Jincheng and the movements of the reinforcements from Hedong, while sending fast horses to Chongquan to report to Guo Yan that the reinforcements from Hedong had arrived in Xihe.

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Chongquan City, Guo Yan camp.

In the name of quelling Feng Yiqiang's rebellion, Guo Yan, who led the army to leave Chang'an, came all the way east and led the army to Zuo Feng Yi.

Feng Yiqiang was one of the Xiqiang who were forcibly relocated to Sanfu after the Qiang Rebellion at that time, and now there are less than 4,000 households in the family, and the Ding Zhuang who can be summoned is only 4,000 people.

Fu Mengji also heard about the upheaval in the clan, and realized that another Han force from Guo Yan seemed to be much stronger than the Ganling force from Hedong, so in the face of Yang Feng's contact and Guo Yan's promise, he immediately made up his mind to join Yang Feng and the candidate to sacrifice Linjin City in exchange for the position of the tribe lord.

Of course, the appetite of Guo Yan, who subdued Feng Yiqiang, was not limited to this, and Li Ru personally planned to send spies to Linjin City to spread rumors among the displaced people, and plot against Bai Bo's generals, Feng Yiqiang and others. And after the plan worked, Guo Yan divided his troops to Gao Shuo and Xia Yu, and ordered the two to go with Yang Feng, Feng Yiqiang and others, and attack Linjin City together.

Guo Yan himself also personally led the army to Chongquan City as a reserve army of Gao Shuo and Xia Yu.

At this time, he received the military report of Xia Yu and Gao Shuo in the camp, and after Guo Yan asked the military officials around him to read it, he immediately changed his face, sent someone to summon Li Ru to the tent, and handed the military report of the two to Li Ru, his attitude changed, and he sneered with a bad taste:

"It seems that the plan set for me by the waiter this time has been miscalculated one by one. It took time, and he planned to spread rumors and plot against Bai Bo's generals and Feng Yiqiang, but not only did he not be able to take Linjin City without blood, but instead gave Hedong a chance to reinforce. ”

Guo Yan sneered and didn't continue, but his meaning was obvious enough, in his hindsight, if he didn't listen to Li Ru's strategy, he directly sent troops to attack Linjin City, maybe before Hedong rushed out of the army, he had already taken Xihedi, and now it took time, not only did he not take Linjin City, but instead attracted reinforcements from Hedong, which can be said to be more than worth the loss.

Li Ru secretly sighed in his heart Guo Yan's short-sightedness, when he first offered a plan to outwit Linjin City, Guo Yan was not only greedy to be able to take Linjin City without blood, but also took the opportunity to annex the soldiers and horses under the command of Ganling, so he was naturally happy to see it come and excitedly admired Li Ru's plan.

But now that the strategy has suffered a slight setback, Guo Yan immediately changed his attitude and only focused on immediate interests in vain, which couldn't help but make Li Ru feel contemptuous in his heart.

Although Li Ru despised Guo Yan's short-sightedness in his heart, he still read the military report carefully on the surface, and began to think about it in his heart.

Fundamentally, Li Ru thought that his plan was not wrong, and the spies he sent were all in the weak points of Linjin City, whether it was the Sanfu Liumin, or Bai Bo's general, or Feng Yiqiang, the only disadvantage was that the resourcefulness of these people and horses was obviously insufficient, and they still missed when victory was close at hand, which led to the failure of the plan to outwit Linjin City.

This so-called plan is in the people, the success is in the sky, and the victory of the temple is not guaranteed. Even if it is Zhang Zifang, who is strategizing, there are precedents of mistakenly hitting the auxiliary car, but Guo Yan can't listen to these explanations, so Li Ru is confident, swears and smiles:

"Confucianism's strategy has not yet been exhausted, if Yan Yan from Hedong arrives in person this time, then this land of the West River, the general, should be able to fight without blood, and be happy!"

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Linjin City

The reinforcements from Hedong have entered the city, but in fact there are not many, only 800 cavalry, led by Bao out of 300 elite cavalry as the vanguard, in the field encountered and repelled Gao Shuo, Xia Yu sent by the light cavalry, converged with the follow-up 500 cavalry, together into the city of Linjin.

And Yan Xing is the commander of these 800 cavalry.

It was also thanks to the "Pingbei General" that Gao Shuo and Xia Yu mistakenly thought that the army in Hedong had arrived, so they retreated in a hurry and retreated directly to the west bank of Luoshui, before re-encamping in the village, and sent scout posts to investigate the movements of the soldiers and horses in Linjincheng.

The soldiers in Linjin City saw that the big war was coming, General Pingbei personally led the army to help, and then the scouts sentry and sentry outside the city The enemy retreated for twenty miles, and the morale was greatly encouraged, and then it rose a lot, but as the general of Xihe, Ganling's state of mind at this time was actually not comfortable.

Before Linjin City, there were rumors that Ganling was trying to separate and stand on its own, and then there was a rebellion of Yang Feng, Candidate, Fu Mengji and others, and Guo Yan's army was stationed not far from Linjin City, which can be described as internal and external troubles.

In this case, the Xihe guard Ganling is hard to blame, in the past year Deng Yu used the army in the pass, defeated in the hands of the red eyebrows, and then was conscripted into the court, no longer as a general, now Ganling learned that Yan Xing came in person, faintly also has the mood of the ancients to break the halberd battlefield.

In the autumn of last year, Yan Xing also studied in Hedong, and when he was leaving, he told him carefully on the bank of the river, and he also generously promised to keep the land of the West River for the east of the river, but now that a year has passed, the east of the river has been calm, but the land of the West River has been in chaos recently, and he really doesn't know how to face his brother.

Among the generals, some people even secretly speculated that General Pingbei might not have come to the aid of Xihe, because the turmoil in Linjin City was only a matter of these two days, even if General Pingbei received an urgent report in Hedong and led the troops to come, it would take at least a few days, and he couldn't only bring 800 cavalry, but Yan Xing still arrived.

Then there is another possibility, that is, Hedong Anyi also learned about the rumors in Linjin City from some channels, so he attracted Yan Xing to lead the troops and personally cross the river to Linjin, in order to stabilize the situation in Xihe.

Yan Xing did come for this, he was supposed to be still in Anyi City when he was newly married, but after receiving a lot of military reports and news from Xihe, he also faintly noticed that the land of Xihe was becoming more and more unstable, so he had to come in person.

Gan Ling is the head of his command, if he sends Xu Huang, Cao Yuan and other captains to come, it may not be able to stabilize the situation, but it is easy to stir up more rumors.

After Yan Xing met many generals and colonels of Xihe in the city, he left Ganling behind.

After Gan Ling waited for the generals to leave, his face was pale, and he looked at Yan Xing's difficult words.

"General, this change in Linjin City is really because the Emperor Ling is not strict, which caused chaos in the city, and afterwards failed to hold Yang Feng and other rebel generals, giving the enemy internal response, so that Guo Yan's soldiers and horses have an opportunity to take advantage of, garrison in the wild, peeping into the land of the West River, this is the crime of the tomb!"

At the end of Gan Ling's speech, he had already knelt down to plead guilty, and his face was sad.

Yan Xing sighed, personally stepped forward to help Gan Ling, and said:

"The rebellion in Linjin City, I already know, this can't be completely blamed on you, if Guo Yan pours all his strength to fight for the land of the West River, Hedong is only afraid that he will have to pour out all his troops to be able to compete with it, you have less than 10,000 soldiers, only a few cities, defeated by Guo Yan, this is the common situation, how can I blame you for the crime of non-war!"

From these chaos in Linjin City, although Yan Xing had never been in it, he also noticed that this conspiracy was mixed with the soldiers.

The land of the West River is a springboard for Hedong to intervene in the Guanzhong, and it is also a barrier for the defense of the Guanzhong in the East of the River, and Ganling operates the land of the West River here as if it were a jurisdiction in the east of the river, but if it is put in the eyes of people with a heart, this territory is like a piece of fat hanging from the bloated body after the rapid expansion of Yan Xing's power.

The gathering and integration of these soldiers and horses under the command of Ganling, such as the old department of Niu Fu, the general of Bai Bo, the three auxiliary people, Feng Yiqiang, and Shangjun Qianghu, the gathering and integration of these soldiers and horses have created a strong army and horses in the land of the West River, but the composition is also mixed and there are many flaws hidden in the secret.

The turmoil of the past few days is just the internal turmoil that erupted by those hidden enemies who found a flaw in the land of the West River, and took advantage of the situation to fuel the fire.

Yan Xing looked at Gan Ling, who stood up, and suddenly asked out loud:

"What if you abandon the land of the West River and migrate the people?"

Gan Ling's face was originally confused, but when he suddenly heard Yan Xing's inquiry, he was immediately shocked, and asked:

"Could it be that someone slandered the general, and wanted to abandon the land of the West River, absolutely not, the West River is the fence of the east of the river, if the West River is lost, the east of the river is in danger, in the past, the Qin State changed the law, the rich country and the strong army, and won the land of the West River of the Wei State, then the hegemony of the Wei State declined, and there was no longer the power to control Qin, but it was served by the Qin State, and the east of the river was also annexed by Qin."

"If you lose the land of the West River today, Hedong and Zuo Fengyi are only separated by a big river, and if Guo Yan has bad intentions in the future, he will be able to cross the river and drive directly to Anyi, then Hedong will be in danger!"

In Ganling's view, the land of the West River is a place where soldiers must fight, if the West River is lost, not only will his hard work be lost, and Hedong will only be able to rely on the big river to defend in the future, which is not advisable in the eyes of the soldiers.

How could Yan Xing not know, he looked at Gan Ling and said:

"The land of the West River is the fence of the east of the river, and it is also the important place in Guanzhong, Li Dao, Guo Yan, and Fan Chou have removed the threat of Ma Teng and Han Sui, and now they are eyeing the important land of the West River, if we are here to fight with Guo Yan's soldiers and horses, no matter who wins or loses, then the last proud, is Zhang Ji of Hongnong, and Li Dao and others of Chang'an."

Yan Xing looked at Gan Ling with blazing eyes, but he didn't finish his calculations completely.