At the end of September and the beginning of October in 889 AD, the rebel army that was in full swing in the Youhe area had a tacit understanding overnight, and began to aim at Cangzhou and other places in the north of the Shandong Peninsula, hundreds of thousands of people went north to Ulzhou, Youzhou and other places, and west to the east of Qinzhou.

When the news reached Taiyuan Mansion, Li Keyong, who was worried about raising troops to exterminate these rebel armies, was ecstatic, and directly issued instructions to these generals stationed along the way, ordering all armies not to harass these rebel armies without authorization, except for major cities, they can temporarily give up, and even those warehouses and grain and grass can not be taken care of, concentrate all unnecessary troops in a few key cities, and once again recruit people from the tribes of Shatuo to re-form the Jin army.

In fact, this method of conscription has seriously affected the survival of the Shatuo tribe, and a large number of young and middle-aged people have been withdrawn, and some small tribes have even taken away children as young as thirteen or fourteen. For the first time, Li Keyong also faced the pressure exerted on him by the elders of his own tribe. But at this time, whether he wanted it in his heart or not, there was no way, the main force of the Jin army in the first battle in the river was annihilated in the first battle, and even Li Sixun among the thirteen Taibao under his command was killed, Li Siyuan was captured, Zhou Dewei was seriously injured, and Fu Cunxian's whereabouts are still unknown. This suddenly made this old man who had been in seclusion for decades lose the strength he was most proud of.

However, compared to Li Keyong's ecstasy, Zhu Quanzhong and Zhu Zhen, who was already fighting with Wang Fanfan, almost burst out of foul language, because in the strategic layout of the eastern front formulated by Zhu Quanzhong, Cangzhou must be taken as the forefront of the confrontation with the Tiance Army in the future. Therefore, many backhands have even surfaced, and the logistics department of the Xuanwu Army even added fuel to the fire some time ago, openly and secretly supporting the merchants in their own jurisdiction to transport food and other materials to Cangzhou, if Cangzhou is occupied by the rebel army, the strength of the rebel army that gets these supplies will more than double in an instant. So after getting the news, Zhu Quanzhong even diverted his energy from the direction of Qinzhou and ordered Zhu Zhen to take Wang Shifan in a short period of time and enter Cangzhou.

However, Xie Tong and Zheng Fan, who had always been indifferent to Zhu Quanzhong's northward strategy, smelled a strong sense of conspiracy. The relationship between the two has been much better since they exchanged views on Zhu Quanzhong's northward strategy in the mansion that day, and they will walk around from time to time. Just when Zhu Quanzhong was preparing to increase his troops on the Eastern Front, the two were also discussing this matter in Zheng Fan's mansion.

"Lord Zheng, you are engaged in intelligence sentinels, don't you think Li Ke's actions on the turf are a little strange? In just a few days, they almost swarmed towards the direction of Cangzhou, and the rebels from the nearby Yingzhou and other places had already entered Cangzhou. The rest are also on the way, these rebels belong to more than a dozen, why did they meet along the way but Qiu did not commit any crimes? And the rebels who have already entered Cangzhou, why did the Cangzhou defenders not have the slightest resistance? Xie Tong and Zheng Fan rushed to the map full of maps and were puzzled by the route of the rebel army, and asked Zheng Fan, who was in charge of the intelligence organization of the Xuanwu Army.

"I don't know the essentials either, did you think of something?" Zheng Fan was stunned for a moment, then reacted and said in astonishment: "My lord means that these chaotic parties are arranged by the Tiance Army?" ”

"Think for yourself about the abilities of your old rival, is there such a possibility. Also, if it is the arrangement of the Tiance Army, then why are they concentrated in Cangzhou? A mere Cangzhou projectile land has no value, and relying on these rabble to face us, it is impossible for the Jin army or even the northern Li Congwei and Liu Rengong and others to hold the flank, what is his intention in doing this? Xie Tong asked all the questions in his heart.

These questions made Zheng Fan's head break out in a cold sweat, if it was the back hand arranged by the Tiance Army, then it was hard to imagine how big the other party's plot was? And why did the other party let these people gather in Cangzhou?

If these just made Zheng Fan's head break out in a cold sweat, then the next question made him almost sleepless at night, and he also successfully diverted the attention of the intelligence leader of the Xuanwu Army from the Youhe region, laying a solid foundation for the next move of the Tiance Army.

"Also, if the opponent can play such a big game of chess on Li Keyong's territory, then what about our Xuanwu Army's territory? Lao Zheng, in charge of intelligence, you need to do everything in a down-to-earth manner. Xie Tong patted Zheng Fan, whose face was pale, and his face was also unprecedentedly dignified, if the other party also made such a move when he confronted us in the future, then how would you and I deal with it?"

"Thank you for your advice." Zheng Fan wiped the sweat on his face and bowed deeply to the colleague in front of him, "In the future, I hope that the adults can always mention it, Zheng Fan is grateful, and he should treat him as a teacher." ”

"You and I don't care about these false courtesies in an eventful season." Xie Tong helped Zheng Fan up and sighed: "I originally thought that the lord was outstanding in the Central Plains, but I didn't expect that it was Li Xuanqing who sprung up in the northwest, and it must be him who will compete with the lord in the future. ”

Regardless of whether Zheng Fan listened to Xie Tong's words or not, it did not prevent him from judging the world's top wise man in front of him, Zhu Quanzhong's opponent had always been in the west.

However, just when the Xuanwu Army was making emergency arrangements for the changes in the Youhe area, the Tiance Army also dispatched a group of basic officers under the leadership of Wang Houchun and the Flying Eagle Brigade from the northern line to the Cangzhou area along the secret passage left by An Xiu. At the same time, the major businessmen under the organization of the Department of Industry and Commerce also sent the required materials to Cangzhou through various channels through the blockade.

At this time, An Xiuxiu also officially displayed his banner in Cangzhou, announcing the appearance of this Shatuo force that had disappeared for nearly 20 days in Cangzhou, and according to Li Xuanqing's arrangement before leaving, the rebel army that had entered the Cangzhou area was organized in the name of Zhao'an, and asked the accompanying Xuan Yingwei to inform the leaders of the rebel army of the identity of An Xiuxiu. In this way, before the forces of all parties approached Cangzhou, preparations for internal integration and adjustment of combat strength began.

On the fifth day of October in 889 AD, Zhu Zhen, with the assistance of the Ding Hui of the Reinforcement Corps, attacked Clay Prefecture and Qingzhou, and completely forced Wang Shifan's forces out of the eastern part of the Shandong Peninsula. In this way, Wang Shifan was completely surrounded by major forces.

At this time, Hu Xiaosi, who had returned to the Hezhong region from the northern front, began to mobilize the Xuanyingwei branch on the Shandong Peninsula and launched a mutiny of the officials and troops under Wang Shifan to defect to Li Keyong, in order to divert Zhu Quanzhong's attention. Under the lies woven by Xuan Yingwei, Wang Shifan's subordinate generals led 50,000 people on the front line to surrender and occupy Zizhou with one blow, cutting off Wang Shifan's road to the north. At this time, the overlord of the Shandong Peninsula truly realized that Xuan Yingwei persuaded him to surrender to the Tiance Army that day, that the Shandong Peninsula was a strategic dead land, and there were no rescue soldiers outside, and there was a disaster of Xiao Wall inside. In desperation, Wang Shifan made a decision that stunned everyone, took the remaining army to Anxiuxiu, and brought all the goods, grain and grass accumulated over the years to Cangzhou.

This decision overwhelmed the forces surrounding Cangzhou, and even Hu Xiaosi, who was far away in the river and was ready to assist Xu Tianxiang in sending troops to Hedong, couldn't cry or laugh.

"I finally let Wang Shifan's subordinate generals defect to Li Keyong, and I want to mobilize Zhu Zhen to pursue and fight with Li Keyong, and now Wang Shifan's hand has disrupted my plan." Hu Xiaosi didn't know what to do for a while.

Xu Tianxiang settled down, pulled Yang Tiancheng to put down the pen in his hand, and the three of them pondered Shandong's coping strategy after this change overnight.

"Tianxiang, we can't wait any longer, the Western Front Corps must send troops immediately, so as to attract Li Ke to transfer troops to the west and reduce the pressure on the Jin army in Cangzhou, and after the internal forces in Bingzhou are empty, Ge Cunzhou's Qinzhou offensive will be much easier, and Zhu Quanzhong will also refocus his attention on the direction of Bingzhou, which is equivalent to invisibly buying time for Houchun and them." Yang Tiancheng said: "Our offensive on the Western Front might as well make the momentum bigger, so as to attract the attention of both sides." ”

"Yes, I agree with Tiancheng's opinion, in fact, if we move fast enough, we can occupy Fenzhou before Zhu Quanzhong takes Qinzhou and Luzhou, so that the forward is approaching Taiyuan Mansion, and the southern front can directly connect with Zhu Quanzhong's forces, and then we can directly contain Zhu Quanzhong on the battlefield." Hu Xiaosi took over the conversation and said.

"Then how should we cooperate with Chen Fan on the northern line?" Xu Tianxiang nodded, but then said with a headache. The strategy of the Tiance Army is to pay attention to multi-point cooperation, as long as there is an abnormality on one side, it will inevitably contain the change of the entire strategic layout.

"You can rest assured on the northern line, the lord is on the northern line, and it is impossible to be restrained by anyone." Hu Xiaosi said with a smile: "The strategic thinking of the lord is unlimited, as long as you do your own thing, he will find a way to cooperate with you." ”

Yang Tiancheng nodded and said: "Xiao Si is right, the lord may have already taken action on the northern front, and there are so many cavalry concentrated on the northern front, which is enough to deal with all the changes." ”

"Okay, let's notify, we will start sending troops and merging the state tomorrow, Tiancheng, you are still in charge of commanding the troops, and Xiaosi and I are in charge of the rear and other matters." Xu Tianxiang said with a smile: "I don't know if Houchun can handle that messy thing after he goes to Cangzhou." ”

"Haha, don't worry, Lao Jiu's ghost idea is not bad at all, and I have asked Xuan Yingwei's most powerful man to go to Cangzhou to cooperate with him on the spot. How to say that the rebel army also has more than 100,000 people, plus the two generals An Xiuxiu and Gao Siji, there will be no problem holding on until the end of the year. Hu Xiaosi patted his chest and smiled.

When Xu Tianxiang finished discussing the strategy of the western front, Li Xuanqing had already made a decision on the northern front, and after the directly subordinate battalion was transferred to the northern front, the pro-guard battalion was urgently assembled again.

"My lord, are you sure you want to go on a long run again? What if something happens? Chen Fan was stunned by Li Xuanqing's plan, and hurriedly stepped forward to dissuade him: "Last time, I took advantage of the Jin army's loopholes, but this time, all forces gathered in Cangzhou, how could the 30,000 horses of the personal guard battalion alone deal with the other party's nearly 100,000 horses?" ”

"Chen Fan, don't worry, I know it in my heart, don't worry." Li Xuanqing patted Chen Fan on the shoulder and said, "Your northern front needs to take immediate action, garrison Daizhou, and let the infantry brigade occupy the surrounding areas of Daizhou." The layout of the grassland of Xiaosi has also begun, but you still have to prevent the Khitans from suddenly going south to fight for Youzhou and other places, and the cavalry battalion needs to bear the heavy responsibility of competing with the Khitans. ”

"Please rest assured, Chen Fan knows what to do." Seeing that Li Xuanqing was persuaded not to move, Chen Fan had no choice but to secretly think about how to share the heavy responsibility of Li Xuanqing and the Eastern Front.

"Feixue, order the guard battalion to immediately pull out the camp and set off, let's go south." Li Xuanqing turned over on the back of the jade lion and gave Li Feixue an order.

The huge military formation of the pro-guard battalion began to move south rapidly at night, but instead of taking the passage left by An Xiuxiu, it rushed all the way, crossing the Taihang Mountain and Yanshan Mountain Range, advancing into the Zhenzhou generation, and truly entering the Central Plains.

No one knows what role this partial army can play in the south, except for Li Xuanqing, even Chen Fan and others on the northern front have forgotten that there are 50,000 Shatuo cavalry in the Cangzhou area, and after integration, there are more than 80,000 people, if such a huge cavalry force appears on the battlefield, it is enough to make Zhu Zhen desperate.

However, at this time, except for Chen Fan, no one knew that Li Xuanqing had left the northern line. And Chen Fan also faithfully implemented Li Xuanqing's strategy, on the eighth day of the first month of October, all the troops were concentrated in Daizhou, divided into three routes, the northern line directly took Yunzhou and other places, the western front cooperated with the friendly troops from crossing the Yellow River to the north to capture Linzhou, the southern line reached the city of Xinzhou, and the armies agreed on a time limit to capture the city, and then divided and reunited.

Coincidentally, after resting for nearly a month, Yang Tiancheng's corps on the western front also entered Bingzhou on a large scale, and even in order to concentrate his troops, Li Tianyi did not continue to advance after capturing Shaanzhou, and set off directly from Shaanzhou, crossed Yuzhou and other places, and joined forces with Yang Tiancheng to enter the boundary of Xizhou, and the cavalry corps also began to roam in the south of Fenzhou, driving away a small number of cavalry sentries of the Jin army and Zhu Quanzhong.

However, just when the fighting on the front line was rekindled, in the advance headquarters of the General Staff of Hezhong Prefecture, Hu Xiaosi received a piece of information from Bianliang and other places. It was also this piece of information that made him smell an indescribable conspiracy, and after urgently discussing with Xu Tianxiang, he once again led Xuan Yingwei's men into the Eastern Capital. And with his arrival, Bianliang and other places once again faced a different bloody war.

So far, the situation in the Central Plains has deviated from the pre-war expectations of either side, and all sides have invariably begun to increase the speed of the delivery of front-line materials to ensure that the army can continue to work hard to cope with unpredictable changes. And the beginning of the changes in the Central Plains started with grain and grass.

In this confrontation, it was not the Western Front or the Northern Front that began to engage in short-handed combat first, but Cangzhou. At this time, Li Xuanqing had just arrived in Cangzhou, and a battle was about to begin. For the first time, the banner of the Tiance Army fluttered in the land of Shandong.