At Li Chengding's insistence, in the end, the generals had no choice but to agree to his plan.

However, for the sake of safety, Li Chengding did not use all his army for adventure, but only set off with Liu Renzhen's 5,000 troops and Chai Kehong's 2,000 cavalry, while the rest of the army stayed in the rear and slowly marched towards Songzhou.

Liu Renzhen's 5,000 troops were the most elite troops in the Youzhen National Army, and when Liu Renzhen was just promoted to commander, Yang Wu ordered Zhu Qianyou to select elites from the army to gather under Liu Renzhen.

And after Liu Renzhen took charge of these 5,000 people, he gave them the strictest training, and he was currently the strongest guard of the Youzhen National Army.

For an action like this, which is running for hundreds of miles, what Li Chengding can trust may be Liu Renzhen's ability and the strength of his 5,000 people.

……

When Li Chengding led his troops north to prepare for a surprise attack on Huo Yanwei, the Northern Expedition of the Wu army was also in full swing on all fronts.

On the Xiangzhou side, the Zuozhen Wu Army, which was directly commanded by Zhou Ben, had 30,000 troops, 10,000 Xiaoyi troops, and 2,000 cavalrymen, and had already begun to attack Xuzhou and other places; In addition to the 10,000 people who stayed behind, the other 20,000 troops also marched to Xiangzhou under the command of the governor Chai Zayong.

On the Shouzhou side, Li Jian led the 30,000 troops of Zuozhen to march to Caizhou and Yingzhou.

On the Xuzhou side, Liu Xin led 30,000 Zuo Tianwu troops, plus 10,000 Xiaoyi troops had already marched to Dangshan, aiming directly at the Chongde army and the garrison of Huizhou.

In addition, the main force of the Wu army under the personal command of Yang Wu, including 20,000 troops of Zuo Tengxiang with Zhu Qianyou as the governor, 30,000 troops from the right Tengxiang army with Mi Zhicheng as the governor, 6,000 Yulin troops, 10,000 naval troops, and 5,000 cavalry, a total of 71,000 troops, had already marched north a few days ago, and had now arrived in Sizhou.

The total strength of the Wu army mobilized everywhere reached 236,000 troops, all of which were used for combat; If we add the van troops mobilized in various places, its strength is even more amazing.

Such a large-scale use of troops can be said to be a battle for the Wu State, and it is a shocking war for the Liang State, which will definitely determine the national fortunes of the Wu State, the Liang State, and even the Jin State.

For a time, there was smoke everywhere in the entire Central Plains, and there were war drums everywhere.

……

"Eight hundred miles expedited, eight hundred miles expedited! The Wu army has gone on a northern expedition! On the gallop road to Luoyang, a flying horse was running at a very fast speed, and although the knight on the horse was tired and out of breath, he had no intention of stopping to rest.

"The Wu army has gone on a northern expedition!"

Who can sit still in the face of such shocking news? Even the county orders and assassins along the way turned pale one by one after getting the news, and they looked like a catastrophe was coming.

Yes, the current situation really seems like a catastrophe is on the horizon for them.

In the past few years, the Liang State has done its best, relying on the danger of the Yellow River to barely block the attack of the Jin army, but on the southern front, most of the Liang State is as if there is no defense, only Bozhou, Songzhou and other places have more than 50,000 troops to defend.

How can this little force stop Wu's all-out Northern Expedition?

At least the county commanders and assassins in various places know that except for a few heavily defended areas such as Songzhou, Bozhou, and Kaifeng, which can hold out for a period of time, other regions can be said to be powerless in the face of Wu's attack.

And what made them even more shocked was that the time chosen for Wu's Northern Expedition this time was too unexpected for them, and almost no one expected it in advance, even if it was Jing Xiang, Li Zhen and others in the court, they didn't expect Wu's Northern Expedition at all.

And now, Zhu Youneng's rebellion in Chenzhou has not been eliminated, but the Wu army's Northern Expedition has already attacked Bozhou, such an important news is still understood after the Wu army has captured several cities in Liang State one after another.

But how many troops Wu used and where the main direction of attack was, everyone knows nothing.

Frightened, pessimistic, and desperate, this is the current mentality of most Liang people.

The speed of the eight-hundred-mile rush is very fast, but it still takes a lot of time to get the news to Luoyang; At this time, it was Zhang Hanjie, Wang Yanzhang and other generals who were pursuing King Hui's rebels who needed to make a decision.

Whether to go south to rescue Songzhou, or to stay and wait for the order from Luoyang, or continue to carry out the previous order and completely eliminate Zhu Youneng first, these are the three choices in front of Zhang Hanjie and others.

After King Hui's rebels collapsed without a fight under Kaifeng City, Zhu Youneng fled all the way to Chenzhou under the escort of a small number of troops, while Zhang Hanjie, Wang Yanzhang and others led 10,000 Liang troops to pursue in the rear.

However, although Zhu Youneng can't fight, he is good at escaping.

On the way to the south, although the rebels' strength became smaller and smaller, they never broke down, and fled for their lives all the way south.

In this case, Zhang Hanjie's original plan was that they would pursue the rebels in the rear, with Huo Yanwei from Song Prefecture and Wen Tao from Bozhou leading the troops to intercept them.

When the time comes, the three armies will be encircled, and Zhu You will not worry about running into the sky.

Even if he could escape and return to Chenzhou, he would definitely not have many troops at that time, and when the time came, he would be surrounded in Chenzhou City, and it would not be long before he could be wiped out.

Therefore, Zhang Hanjie did not rush to pursue the rebels, who knew that he would actually receive the news of the Northern Expedition of the Wu Army now.

"General Zhang, the general has long said that he will destroy the rebels as quickly as possible, and he can't count on the Songzhou side, the army on the Songzhou side will stay to guard against the Wu people. General Zhang didn't listen, and now the Wu army is on the Northern Expedition, Bozhou is lost, and Songzhou is also in danger; Now let's talk about what we should do. Wang Yanzhang said coldly with a dissatisfied expression: "This general advocates immediately leading the army south to support Songzhou. ”

Zhang Hanjie also snorted coldly and said, "Go south to Songzhou? To send to death? The northern expedition of the Wu army is bound to be menacing, and if our army rushes there, it is likely to be attacked by the enemy. Therefore, I thought that we should stop for a while, send someone to find out the strength of the Wu army first, and wait for His Majesty's order at the same time, how could we make a decision privately? ”

"Find out the strength of Wu Jun? If you really wait until you find out the strength of Wu Jun before you make a move, I'm afraid that it will be too late by then. Wang Yanzhang sneered: "What, is the general afraid?" ”

"You?" Zhang Hanjie said angrily: "Wang Yanzhang, you are the deputy general of the general, if you dare to speak disrespectfully, Hugh blame will be engaged in military law!" ”

Wang Yanzhang was also furious and said: "Zhang Hanjie, I have put up with you for a long time, and for so many years, you have relied on Your Majesty's trust to act in cahoots with that Zhao Yan, ostracized dissidents in the court, and made the court into a miasma. The court has declined to this point, and you, Zhang Hanjie, are half of the responsibility, and now you dare to point fingers at this general? ”

"The two generals are angry, now that the enemy is now, peace is the most important thing, and you can't mess with yourself first." The generals hurriedly stepped forward to persuade the two.

"Humph! There was nothing to be nice to do with the traitor. Wang Yanzhang sneered.

"Wang Yanzhang, you don't want to deceive people too much!" Zhang Hanjie was also angry and scolded.

The main reason why Zhang Hanjie can get Zhu Youzhen's trust is that Zhu Youzhen's favorite concubine Zhang is his sister, and as long as this relationship is still there, he will always be able to be reused by Zhu Youzhen.

And the reason why Zhao Yan can be reused is different, when Zhu Youzhen was still staying in the eastern capital, Zhao Yan came to deliver the decree as Zhu Youzhen's messenger, but secretly persuaded him to raise troops; After Zhu Youzhen launched a mutiny and ascended the throne as emperor, Zhao Yan made great efforts.

Therefore, after Zhu Youzhen became the emperor, he has always trusted these two people, and it can be said that he obeys his words.

However, in Wang Yanzhang's view, the Liang army and the Jin army have lost in battles over the years, although there are certain mistakes in the command of the generals in the front, but the more important reason is that Zhang Hanjie and Zhao Yan in the rear court controlled the government and commanded indiscriminately.

In the past few years, almost all the personnel of the various feudal towns have been decided by Zhang Hanjie and the others, and they also have the final say on the selection of the leading generals in the front.

For example, Dai Siyuan and Duan Ning's generation were very mediocre in their ability to command troops, but they were friendly with Zhang Hanjie and others, so they were appointed as envoys to the north and were responsible for commanding the Liang army along the Yellow River.

And a capable general like Liu Cheng was brutally killed; Generals like Huo Yanwei were relegated to the south to command the second-line army; Like Wang Yanzhang himself, he has not been reused for so many years, and has always served as the deputy general of other generals.

The party fights against differences, the capable lose the way to promotion, but the mediocre can rise to the high position by currying favor with Zhang Hanjie, Zhao Yan and others, and it is strange that such an army does not lose one after another.

Therefore, Wang Yanzhang can be said to have been patient with Zhang Hanjie for a long time, and he has long wanted to find an opportunity to get rid of him.

On the other hand, Zhang Hanjie has also been patient with Wang Yanzhang for a long time, and in the past few days, Zhang Hanjie's decisions as the main general will basically be refuted and even ridiculed by Wang Yanzhang.

Who is he Zhang Hanjie? Although he can't say that he is a man of his word in the court, he is also a big man who covers the sky with his hands and eyes, and many festival envoys who call for wind and rain in the local area have to slap him one by one.

Now he was scolded by Wang Yanzhang pointing at his nose, and naturally he was angry in his heart.

Fortunately, whether it is Wang Yanzhang or Zhang Hanjie, they still have a sense at this time, and they know that now is not the time to do it.

However, Wang Yanzhang insisted on going south to rescue Songzhou, while Zhang Hanjie advocated a temporary stop, or return directly to Kaifeng, waiting for follow-up orders.

Wang Yanzhang led 5,000 elite soldiers to Songzhou, while Zhang Hanjie led the rest of the army to return to Kaifeng.

"Hmph, when Ben will come back victorious, he will definitely get rid of this thief for the country!" After leaving the Chinese military camp, Wang Yanzhang was furious, and sneered and said to his cronies beside him.

"Hmph, Wang Yanzhang is a thief who deceives people too much, if Ben General can't teach you a lesson, how will he gain a foothold in the court in the future?" At the same time, Zhang Hanjie, who stayed in the tent, also sneered in his heart.