At night, on the west bank of the Yellow River, the Yellow River is still covered with thick ice, white and bright, like a jade belt, but with the gradual arrival of the footsteps of spring, the time for the Yellow River to thaw is approaching.

In the distance is the swarthy Wusheling Ridge, the newly repaired Huixi Fort under the ridge stands majestically, at this moment the gate of the Huixi Fort is wide open, the three long soldiers pour out from the fort, the armor is neat, the queue is strict, the army of about 8,000 people goes to the east, not far away is the Yellow River that has solidified, there is a row of soldiers to walk down the ice surface of the Yellow River, and then to the east, to the county on the other side of the Yellow River.

In the night sky, a clear half-moon is shining on the thousands of miles of Datang

A group of light horsemen swept through the sky like a swift cloud, passing through the ridges, crossing the field, the slender and strong horses' hooves stepped into the muddy pond that was half ice and half water, splashing a large area of muddy water, and the road ahead was muddy, but they accelerated their speed and galloped westward towards Kaiyang County.

This is a team of scouts of the Xiliang Army, responsible for monitoring Li Zhengji's movements, last night, Li Zheng's army had a fierce battle with the main force of Li Na's army in Qingshiling, although Li Na's army was finally defeated, but Li Zheng's army was also a crushing victory, and the casualties of the two armies in this battle were close to 30,000.

The cavalry rushed up a hill and rested for a while, and in the distance was a large forest, which was the territory of Kaiyang County.

This day is the sixth day of the first lunar month, Zhang Huan is not in Jincheng County, but in Kaiyang County, and at this moment, the command center of the entire Xiliang Army has also moved to Kaiyang.

It had been four days since Zhang Huan returned to Longyou, as early as three days before when Li Zheng's army had entered Pingliang County. Zhang Huan had already mastered his detailed whereabouts, and it was obvious that Li Zheng was already trying to eat Li Na's 20,000 troops and 300,000 stone of grain.

Although Li Zhengji's army had left Yangjun less than 100 miles, Zhang Huan did not act rashly, but waited and watched, and at the same time sent a large number of scouts to monitor Li Zhengzheng and Zhu in Hanzhong.

Kaiyang County was already full of troops, with nearly 80,000 troops stationed in three large battalions, each dozens of miles apart. Arranged in a zigzag shape, Zhang Huan's handsome tent is in the largest barracks, at this moment the night has fallen, the handsome tent is bright, several civilian soldiers are busy collecting documents, inside and outside the handsome tent, the three-layer soldiers are guarding with knives, and the guard is very strict.

In the middle of the tent. There is a huge sand table. It is about two zhang long and one zhang wide. The plastic land in the sand table is the topography of the Guanlong area and Hanzhong, including the Yellow River, Qinling, Chang'an, Fengxiang and other mountains and rivers as well as the city passes, all available.

Zhang Huan, He Lou Wuji, Li Shuangyu, Li Su, Du Mei, Pei Mingyuan, Luo Guangping, and more than a dozen high-ranking civil and military officials of Longyou gathered together to study Longyou's response strategy under the great changes in the situation.

"Everyone. According to the division of labor I reached with Pei Xiangguo, he is responsible for controlling the situation in Jianghuai and will mobilize 100,000 Hebei troops to the south to quell Li Zhengji's rebellion, while we are responsible for dealing with Zhu and preventing him from fishing in troubled waters in this chaos. ”

Zhang Huan lightly tapped Nan Zhengcheng in the sand table with a long pole, and said slowly: "But I think there is no need for Zhu to exist, we have actually taken the west of Guanzhong." Finally, Hanzhong was captured. It can connect Bashu, Longyou, and Kansai as a whole, but the stakes are significant. I'd like to hear your opinions. ”

After speaking, he glanced up at everyone, and when he saw that Pei Mingyuan wanted to speak and stopped, he smiled and said, "Mingyuan, tell me your opinion." ”

"Governor, I am completely in favor of connecting our four territories into one, but I am afraid that when Li Zheng has rebelled, we will attack Hanzhong on a large scale, and I am afraid that the people of the world will be dissatisfied with us."

Speaking of this, Pei Mingyuan also picked up a long wooden pole, pointed at Shangyong and said: "I'm thinking, if Cui Qinggong really dares to attack Xiangyang at the risk of the world's greatness, causing King Cui to fight, then Zhu will take advantage of the situation, take Shangyong, and attack Xiangyang from behind, if that's the case, we will be famous." ”

Zhang Huan nodded secretly, Pei Mingyuan really had a unique vision, and he could actually guess Zhu's true intentions, he was just about to speak, but Du Mei next to him stood up and said loudly: "What Mingyuan said, I can't agree." ”

Pei Mingyuan put the wooden pole in front of him and said in a deep voice: "Please Brother Du speak clearly." ”

"It's very simple, since Pei Jun controls the situation in Jianghuai, how can he not deploy heavy troops to prevent Cui Qinggong from attacking Xiangyang? In that case, it will be difficult for Cui and Wang to fight, how can Zhu have a chance to sneak attack Xiangyang, if there is no famous teacher of Brother Mingyuan, will we not move? ”

"No!" Du Mei shook his head, and continued: "I thought that Zhu was in Shuzhong, in Hanzhong, perverse, and miserable to the people, the people of the world have already made a conclusion about him, he is a national thief, a demon in the eyes of the people of the Tang Dynasty, and a thorn in the eyes of the family of gate valves, if we can get rid of it, I think the people of the world will not only not have complaints, but will celebrate with their hands and praise the governor for eliminating harm for the people. ”

Pei Mingyuan also nodded, from a certain level, Du Mei said something reasonable, but he avoided Li Zhengji and ignored the possibility of Li Zhengji sitting on the throne. Test Text Watermark 5.

"Brother Du, let me ask you, if Li Zheng has defeated Pei Jun's Hebei army, and then the Yellow River thaws, and he takes advantage of our deep Hanzhong to develop and grow, then how can we explain to the world?"

Du Mei laughed and said, "Why is Mingyuan so arrogant? His 50,000 army has an absolute advantage over Li Na's 20,000 army, and in the end he won a tragic victory, let me ask, can such an army still be able to defeat your Pei family's 100,000 Hebei elite soldiers? ”

"That's it! All right! Don't argue with the two. Zhang Huan waved his hand and interrupted the argument between the two with a smile, "I want everyone to brainstorm and minimize the danger, instead of becoming at a loss in the end, I will first take Du Sima's theory of eliminating harm for the people, and decide whether Zhu has any changes or not, I will send troops to Hanzhong, and then take Brother Mingyuan's caution, Li Zheng's side, I can't take it lightly, and I am ready to cooperate with the Hebei Army to exterminate this rebel army at any time." ”

"Does the governor mean to prepare for a two-front battle?" He Lou Wuji, who had been silent, suddenly asked.

Zhang Huan shook his head slightly. "In fact, it is a three-front battle, I have ordered Changsha Lin Jiuhan to cross the river to the north to monitor Li Xilie's army, and ordered the Chenglie Department of Huixi Fort to also send troops to Huijun, once necessary, I will immediately attack Lingwu County."

"Governor, I have an idea, too." The one who spoke was Li Su, the envoy of Weizhou soldiers and horses, and the general of Zhonglang, who was the second son of Li Qiao, the king of Heidi, and the only authentic royal child in the Xiliang army. Although he was born in a wealthy royal family, he loved martial arts since he was a child, and he was instructed by a famous teacher, and practiced an outstanding martial arts.

In the process of Zhang Huan's development and growth, he has spared no effort to support Li Qiao, and he has donated 2 million stones in the past three years alone. There are nearly 500,000 yuan. In order to repay Li Qiao's support. Zhang Huan not only appointed his eldest son Li Han as the secretary of Longyou Jiedu Mansion to join the army and serve as Hu Yong's assistant, but also his second son Li Su also entered the Xiliang Army and served as the envoy of Weizhou. He was in charge of the 20,000 garrisons of Longxi County.

Li Su didn't say much, but it was very insightful, and when Zhang Huan saw him speak, he smiled slightly and said, "General Li, it's okay to talk about it." ”

Li Su took a step forward and said to everyone: "We seem to have been ignoring one person until now, Li Zhengji rebelled, and Cui Qinggong and Zhu Hui made a move. It's controlled by Bae Sang-kook and us. And Li Xilie was targeted by Lin Jiuhan, so what about Li Huaixian who stayed behind? I think everyone seems to have ignored him. Li Su's words reminded Zhang Huan at once. Yes, when he left Chang'an, Li Huaixian did not go to Beijing to report on his work, everyone only considered Cui Qinggong and Zhu, but omitted this person.

Could it be that he didn't have any ideas? Zhang Huan fell into confusion.

On the third day of the first month of the seventh year of Xuanren, Shuofang Jiedu made Li Zhengji suddenly send troops to Jingyuan, officially opened the curtain of his secession of one side, in the battle of Qingshiling, Li Zheng has defeated Li Na at the cost of losing 18,000 people, Li Na in the process of defeat, the warehouse was burned, 300,000 stone grain were burned, so that Li Zhengji chicken flying eggs, nothing, the old ashamed and angry Li Zhengji army plundered the people's property, at this time Pei Jundi 100,000 Hebei army has crossed the river into Yan'an County, Li Zhengji immediately concentrated the army north to fight with the Hebei army.

But at this moment, Duan Xiushi, who was guarding the surrendered city in the west, sent a message that shook the government and the opposition, and nearly 100,000 Hui troops had approached the line of Yinshan, and Duan Xiushi asked the imperial court to send troops to support quickly.

In order to prevent Li Zhengji from advancing into the empty Hedong, Pei Jun ordered to transfer back the 80,000 Hedong Army stationed in Nanyang, leaving only 30,000 troops to guard Cui Qinggong.

Without the pressure of Pei Jun's army, Cui Qinggong's ambition gradually increased.

Ruyang, here is Cui Qinggong's old nest, he returned here on New Year's Eve and began preparations for the attack on Xiangyang, it should be said that collecting Xiangyang is his Cui Qinggong's long-planned plan, the lack of grain production in Huaibei has limited the development of Cui Qinggong, although he claims to be 300,000 troops to the outside world, but in fact a large part of them are half-soldiers and half-farmers, there is almost no formal training, and the armor and ordnance are also seriously insufficient, and the army that can really fight is the old department he brought from Shandong, but unfortunately almost half of these Shandong troops were stolen by Li Huaixian, In addition, Li Xilie also took most of his money and grain, and Cui Qinggong knew the current situation, he relied on intercepting Cao Yun to supplement his huge army expenses, and once Cao Yun was rerouted, his Cui Qinggong's 300,000 army would be difficult to sustain.

For this reason, breaking through the geographical restrictions of Huaibei has become Cui Qinggong's immediate urgency, Huainan is the richest place in the entire Tang Dynasty, and it is also the most important financial source of the imperial court, Yang, Sheng, Chang, Su, Hu, Hangzhou, you can feed the whole army in one place, such a rich place, but only Chu Xingshui's tens of thousands of weak army control, a few months ago, Cui Qinggong put on a posture of wanting to attack Huainan, but it provoked a strong backlash from the imperial court, and even Zhang Huan sent an expeditionary force to support, Cui Qinggong also knew the importance of Huainan to the imperial court, Therefore, when making an offensive posture, it will not be stopped.

Huainan can not take, in order to appease the strong dissatisfaction of his generals, Cui Qinggong's eyes turned to Xiangyang again, in his plan to collect Xiangyang, there are two plans for civil and military, the so-called Wen, is to use his relationship with Wang Ang for his sons and daughters, first of all, the two families formed an alliance, and then secretly ordered Li Xilie to attack Xiangyang, and he used the means to support Xiangyang to achieve the dove occupy the magpie's nest, and Wu is to directly attack Xiangyang, relatively speaking. Just as Cui Qinggong was about to use the New Year to form an alliance with Wang Ang, the Cui Xiong incident broke out abruptly, forcing Cui Qinggong to change his plan and prepare to attack Xiangyang under the pretext of avenging his son.

The war machine has been rumbling, Cui Qinggong's troops from all over the country gathered in Ruyang, within five days, Cui Qinggong mobilized 100,000 troops, and the follow-up army is still in the process of being assembled. Grain, grass, horses, people, military logistics and requisitioned recruits that were originally planned to attack Huainan were all used at this moment.

The cart full of grain and grass on the official road struggled to move forward in the light rain, and there was no end in sight, and the wheels creaked! Splashed with mud, a wagon full of grain bales got stuck in the mud, hindering the advance of the brigade, and the coachman whipped the animal power desperately. Dozens of soldiers worked together. Pushed the wagon out of the mud. After filling in the mud pit, the huge convoy continued on its way.

Groups of newly requisitioned soldiers, most of them unarmoured, some with iron rakes and some wearing straw sandals, walked south between the vehicles and the cavalry. There was a hint of sadness in the silent eyes.

Suddenly, hundreds of war horses roared behind him, and under the shouts of orders and leather whips, all the carts and soldiers entered the field, vacating the official road, and in a moment, a group of cavalry with bright armor galloped from the distance of the official road. Continuous. It has been galloping past nearly 10,000 cavalry before I saw nearly 1,000 standard-bearers arrive. In the overwhelming banners, a carriage with hundreds of horses pulled slowly drove slowly, surrounded by hundreds of guards, and the security was extremely tight.

Behind the carriage, on a three-zhang black gold-edged flag, a bucket of the earth Cui character was embroidered with silver wire, and it was Cui Qinggong, the king of Ruyang County, who was sitting in the carriage.

At this moment, Cui Qinggong looked proud, Pei Jun's army, which he was most worried about, hastily retreated north two days ago, and only deployed 30,000 troops in the Linru area, obviously not to interfere with him Cui Qinggong's attack on Xiangyang, but to prevent him from going north to Luoyang.

Pei Jun was powerless about his behavior, and could only hope that Wang Ang would protect himself.

Cui Qinggong was like a soldier with heavy armor off, he was relaxed, and he pulled out the giant bow to the Shannan Wang family with a cruel smile.

The arrow to Xiangyang has been off the string, 100,000 troops rushed to Shannan Road in two ways, one way into Huai'an County from the front, the other way detoured through Nanyang County, from Xinye to Xiangyang Rush, at the same time, Cui Qinggong also sent a note to Li Xilie to send troops to assist, Li Xilie then sent 30,000 troops, from Qi'an County to attack Jiangxia, Hanyang.

Just when Cui Qinggong was attacking Xiangyang in the name of revenge for his son, the other wolf who was napping behind Cui Qinggong, Chen Liuli Huaixian, suddenly opened his blood-red eyes.

Li Huaixian was originally also an Lushan general, he saw that An Lushan had gone, so he surrendered to the Cui family in Shandong, garrisoned Jinan, because of his identity as a rebel general, has not been reused, after Cui Qinggong split the Cui family, he also led his troops to follow Cui Qinggong to the south, but waiting for the opportunity to find an opportunity for independence.

The opportunity was obtained in Cui Qinggong's rapidly expanding ambitions, Cui Qinggong wanted to expand his territory, sent Li Xilie south to seize Huaidong, sent him Li Huaixian to the north to take Chen Liu, a dramatic result was born, he and Li Xilie broke away from Cui Qinggong at the same time to stand on their own, Li Xilie took the route of independence but vassal Cui Qinggongdi, while Li Huaixian adopted the strategy of loyalty to Cui Xiaofu and the Tang Emperor, and both of them succeeded in becoming warlords, each controlling the prefecture and population.

Li Huaixian controlled Chen Liu, including Jiyin, Lingchang and the northern part of Suiyang County, all of which were densely populated and rich in land, and he was nominally loyal to the Empress Dowager, in fact he neither sent his son to Beijing as a hostage, nor did he go to Beijing to report on his work, but only sent someone to Cui Xiaofu every year to present an urn of soil and a basket of local products, and did not interfere with the imperial court's appointment and dismissal of local officials in the four counties.

Li Huaixian is also more than fifty years old this year, his hair has gray, his skin is rough, and his face is wrinkled, at first glance, he looks like an old farmer in the field, at this moment, he is sitting in the handsome tent and squinting at a handwritten letter written by Pei Jun, in the letter, Pei Jun asked him to attack Huaibei after Cui Qinggong sent troops to Xiangyang, and contain Cui Qinggong's offensive from behind.

Li Huaixian was very interested in these two conditions, especially King Chen Liujun, which meant that his identity was restored to orthodoxy and he could be on an equal footing with Cui Qinggong.

Li Huaixian closed his eyes and thought for a moment, he only had 60,000 troops in his hands, if he attacked Cui Qinggong's old nest Ruyang, it was obviously not enough, but it was more than enough to capture Peng County and the other half of Suiyang County, this has always been something he wanted to do but did not dare to do, and now that he has Pei Jun's order, he can realize his wish in a grand manner.

Thinking of this, Li Huaixian laughed proudly, he sat up straight and ordered sharply: "Where is Deqing?" ”

"Father, the child is here!" From outside the tent strode into a general, he was about thirty years old, tall and thin, dark-skinned, his expression was strange and alert, his face sparkled, he was completely different from the people around him, he seemed so trusting, manly, like a mild-tempered, smiling young wolf.

His name is Li Deqing, he is Li Huaixian's righteous son, and he is also his most powerful confidant general, four years ago, he stood out from an ordinary soldier and single-handedly entered the city to assassinate the lieutenant of Chen Liu's regiment, and made great contributions to the bloodless occupation of Chen Liu

Li Huaixian handed him the golden arrow for the transfer of troops, and ordered: "Cui Qinggong goes west, it is a great opportunity for us to expand eastward, I will give you 30,000 troops, and you will be limited to take the four counties of Suiyang, Peng, Linhuai, and Donghai within half a month, do you dare to take the order?" ”

"The father's life, the child will never give up!"

Li Deqing took the golden arrow and strode away, Li Huaixian looked at his lofty back, nodded with satisfaction, capable, calm, and stoic, this is his most admirable place, he is very fortunate to have this righteous son! Thankfully!

But he didn't know that at the moment when Li Deqing came out of the account, an imperceptible sneer flashed in his eyes, and if Zhang Huan saw this person, he would definitely be surprised.

So, who is this Li Deqing?