Of course, in addition to these two problems, another problem is Huo Yanwei, the commander of the Liang army near Songzhou on the southern front.

Huo Yanwei was adopted as a righteous son by Huo Cun, the general of Liang State, because of the military rebellion when he was young, and changed his name to Huo Yanwei.

After that, Huo Yanwei followed Huo Cun to fight in all directions, and was once blind in one eye due to an arrow; Later, because of his bravery, he was valued by Zhu Wen, and was crowned as the military envoy of the left dragon and the general of the right prison guard.

During his tenure as the assassin of Pizhou, he was attacked by Liu Zhijun, who had surrendered to the Qi State, and Huo Yanwei held on for more than a year and never broke through the city.

If you want to hold on to the lonely city for a long time without reinforcements, the most important thing is to have a stable military spirit.

If the morale of the soldiers is gone, even if there are more defenders in the city, it is useless.

Huo Yanwei was able to block Liu Zhijun, obviously because this person won the hearts of the military.

A general who has won the hearts of the military, coupled with his brave fighting, his ability to command troops is not bad, with these points, it can be said that Huo Yanwei is enough to be called a famous general, and it is not so easy to deal with.

Zhou Ye analyzed: "What the Governor said is very true, it is indeed not easy to succeed in the raid; However, the total strength of the Liang army on the southern front is about fifty or sixty thousand people, and there are many strong and weak in these armies, and there are not many elite soldiers who can really be counted, plus the Liang army has to defend various places, so even if the surprise attack fails, it is still not difficult for our army to defeat the Liang army. ”

"Yes, the strength of our army should be above the enemy's, and it is prepared to attack unprepared, as long as you don't make too many mistakes, you can still win if you want to." Diao Yanneng thought so.

This time, the army that Yang Wu handed over to Li Chengding was a total of 30,000 forbidden troops and 3,000 cavalry, all of which were the most elite troops of Wu, and their combat power should be far above the Liang army, especially these 3,000 cavalry can be said to give the Wu army an absolute advantage.

After all, the cavalry of the Liang army was originally small, and it was mainly concentrated on the Yellow River defense line to deal with the Jin army, and almost none remained on the southern front.

With the advantage of cavalry, the overall strength of the Wu army is not worse than the enemy army, and the Wu army is prepared to attack unprepared, it can be said that the chance of victory is still very large.

Seeing that the generals were full of confidence, Li Chengding didn't say anything, and directly ordered: "Since King Hui plans to attack Kaifeng alone, he will expect to be defeated." Once King Hui's troops were defeated and fled back to Chenzhou, the Liang army stationed in Songzhou, Bozhou and other places would send troops to intercept it, causing the city's defenses to be empty, which was an opportunity for our army to surprise the enemy. ”

"But before that, in order to confuse the enemy army as much as possible, there must be no major movement of officers and soldiers in various departments, and everything is based on stability."

"I hope that the generals will be ready when they go back, loosen the outside and tighten the inside, and once they receive the order to attack, they will act as quickly as possible without any delay. Do you understand all the generals? ”

"The last general will obey the order!" The generals hurriedly stood up and answered loudly.

In the next few days, as expected, the garrison of the Liang army in Kaifeng held the city, waiting for reinforcements, causing great casualties to King Hui's army.

King Hui's army was originally a rabble of temporary recruits, and although it looked huge before it encountered a tough battle, those small county towns that were not defended by many people often fell to the wind, but once it was time to fight a tough battle, their true colors were suddenly exposed.

The rebels attacked the city fiercely on the first day, putting some pressure on the defenders, but they also suffered a lot of losses; The next day, as the news of the imminent arrival of Liang's reinforcements spread among the rebels, the morale of the rebels, who were still lively, was greatly demoralized, and many people took the opportunity to flee.

Zhu Youneng was furious and beheaded a lot of deserters in a row, which temporarily suppressed everyone, but there was no way to launch an attack on this day.

On the third day, under Zhu Youneng's various promises, and the reinforcements of the Liang army did not appear, the rebels regained their strength and launched another attack on Kaifeng City.

However, this attack was frustrated at the outset, and the siege equipment originally prepared by the rebels was improvised and not numerous; And the generals under Zhu Youneng lacked siege experience, and the various protection of these siege equipment was not in place, and as a result, they were all burned by the defenders in a surprise attack.

At this point, the siege had to be temporarily halted and the siege equipment was rebuilt; And with this stop, the reinforcements of the Liang army really arrived.

Just like a farce has an end after all, Zhu Youneng rebelled This farce after a few days of turmoil, soon like a snow-capped mountain collapsed, and most of the heroes he recruited were dispersed on the night of the fourth day, leaving only a small number of troops to restrain and protect Zhu Youneng to flee south overnight.

After the news reached Suzhou, Li Chengding immediately decided to send troops.

After the order was issued, in just two hours, the various departments were ready and began to march to Bozhou in accordance with the order.

The first to lead was naturally the 3,000 cavalry led by Chai Kehong himself, who were also the main force of the raid on the Liang army, and were the key to the success or failure of the operation.

"Quick, quick, quick! Speed up the back, don't be left behind! Chai Kehong kept urging.

The raid operation is a fast word.

Before the departure of the Wu army, the officers and soldiers of the various departments waited for the day without any action, for fear of arousing the vigilance of the Liang army; And after the operation was launched, Wu Jun suddenly changed, and his actions were extremely fast, like a tiger pounced on food.

As a pioneer, Chai Kehong ignored the fatigue of the horses and asked the generals to keep speeding up.

Their mission, not only the most important point, was to raid and capture Bozhou, opening the way for the army to advance.

As long as Bozhou is captured, then the Wu army will be able to make a choice depending on the situation.

If the main force of the Liang army on the southern front had been concentrated north of Chenzhou at this time, then the Wu army could send troops from Bozhou to attack the Liang army pursuing Zhu Youneng; If the main force of the Liang army on the southern front was still in Songzhou, then the Wu army could also go west to rescue Zhu Youneng, and at the same time send troops to try to attack Songzhou and other places.

As for whether Zhu Youneng is dead or alive, it doesn't matter.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Youneng's rebels are an outcast, which is used to attract the attention of the Liang army, as long as this goal can be achieved, Zhu Youneng's life and death do not matter.

"Zhu Youneng's retreat from Kaifeng was last night, and it has been almost a day now. With their speed of escape, they can escape about sixty miles in a day. ”

"From this point of view, their current location should be in Taoling County, and it stands to reason that the troops of Songzhou and Bozhou should have gone to intercept Zhu Youneng. And our army is still one hundred and forty miles away from Bozhou. ”

"A distance of one hundred and forty miles, at the speed of the cavalry, if we were to go at full speed, should be able to reach it in a day, but then our army must be very tired, and the horses may not be able to stand it, and these will not be of any benefit to the ensuing engagement."

"So the raid should be fast, but it doesn't have to be too fast." Chai Kehong was thinking in his heart while controlling the speed of the army's advance.

Li Chengding led the 30,000 forbidden army to attack north in two ways, one was from Yongcheng to attack Yanxian, Xiayi and other places; The other road followed behind Chai Kehong and sent troops from Lutang, aiming directly at Bozhou.