"Lord, why did Hou Chun suddenly fight with the Xuanwu Army? Hasn't he already been summoned to carry out the policy of holding firm? Hu Xiaosi took the information and frowned.

"There is no need for the general to be outside the king's order, and it is estimated that there may be an emergency. Didn't Tianxiang's military report say that the defensive measures were taken because the Xuanwu army was approaching Jingzhou. Li Xuanqing changed a map and said while answering Hu Xiaosi's question. Wang Houchun's actions at this time were indeed very strange, the war on the northern front was imminent, and it was impossible for him to take the initiative to attack the Xuanwu Army at this time if there were no special circumstances.

"Could it be that Zhu Quanzhong's arrival in Texas has caused some adjustments in the Xuanwu Army?" Hu Xiaosi summarized the information passed by Xuan Yingwei during this time.

Liu Yi, chief of staff of the Northern Front Group Army, agreed with Hu Xiaosi's opinion and said: "Lord, marshal, General Hu's words make sense, Zhu Quanzhong is now usurping the throne and becoming the emperor, and arriving at the front line at this time can be described as a royal expedition, and if the Xuanwu Army below does not show some achievements, wouldn't it be a black face for Zhu Quanzhong?" ”

"Forget it, you don't care about this matter, Chen Fan, your task is the northern front. Your headquarters will also leave for the vicinity of Shangjing immediately, and Xiaosi and I will stay in Zhongjing City and wait for the follow-up news from Tianxiang's side before meeting you. Li Xuanqing waved his hand and said: "The key to the decisive victory now is you, as long as you defeat the Huangjiasi, the main force of our army can go south to converge with the various troops in the Central Plains and complete the strategic deployment of the Xuanwu Army." ”

"Okay, lord, junior, let's set off." Chen Fan marched and saluted: "Please rest assured, Chen Fan will definitely live up to his trust, exterminate the Huangs, and win time for my Tiance Mansion to unify the world." ”

Chen Fan said goodbye to Li Xuanqing here and went to Beijing first, but Xu Tianxiang couldn't help cursing Zhu Quanzhong in the Shenzhou Central Plains Command on the southern front, this guy didn't know what to do when he arrived at the front line, so that Kang Huaiying, who was deployed in Cangzhou and Jingzhou, suddenly crossed the defense line of the two armies and raided Jingzhou, and after being recognized by Wang Houchun, he counterattacked, and the two sides fought viciously south of Jingzhou.

"Tiancheng, do you want to support Jingzhou?" Xu Tianxiang looked at the military report sent at the command headquarters and frowned and asked.

Yang Tiancheng shook his head and said, "Tianxiang, have you noticed that the strategy of the Xuanwu Army seems to be adjusting with the intervention of the Northern Warriors?" ”

"You mean the Battle of Jingzhou was actually a temptation?" Xu Tianxiang was stunned suddenly, "Zhu Quanzhong is testing the strength of our army so that he can cooperate with the northern Huangxi in the future?" ”

"Hou Chun should have seen through the other party's plan, so he counterattacked and fought back against the other party." Yang Tiancheng nodded and said, "Look at it, the follow-up skirmishes will continue." Moreover, Xuan Yingwei has already said that Yang Xingmi of the southern front will join the battlefield, and if there is a change in the army of the Xuanwu Army, the troops deployed on the front line will also be responsible for coordinating the actions of the southern front when necessary. ”

"In that case, let's leave him alone and let the thick pure camera decide. Let's hurry up and report to the lord, such a big thing without explaining the reason will delay the progress of the northern front. Xu Tianxiang said with a smile.

Yang Tiancheng followed with a smile: "I think you've been under too much pressure lately?" The lord estimated that he had already seen the twists and turns in this, and Chen Fan estimated that he had already made contact with the striker of the Gang Gang at this moment. ”

When the two people in the Shenzhou Command discussed the changes in the Xuanwu Army, Wang Houchun, who was in Jingzhou, stood on the city tower after counting the results and looked at the more than 50,000 people of the Xuanwu Army Kang Huaiying who were eyeing him below, and after pondering for a long time, he suddenly came up with a solution.

On the night of May 19, 890 A.D., Wang Houchun personally selected 500 elite people to go out of the city in the rain and darkness, attacked Kang Huaiying's rear army at night, and set fire to the rear army's grain and grass camp with fire oil, and then took advantage of the chaos to kill the rear army from the rear army to the Chinese army, disrupting the entire Xuanwu army garrison, and did not withdraw until the early hours of the morning. The casualties caused by this night attack were not large, but the Xuanwu army lost a lot of grain and grass, but it brought an extremely bad consequence, in the next half a month of confrontation between the two armies, almost every night the Tiance army would carry out a night attack, the way is also strange, there are normal sneak attacks, there are also unheard of methods. The most spoof is that Wang Houchun ordered people to secretly come to the hive of hundreds of wild bees and then secretly stuffed into the camp of the Xuanwu Army, and suddenly released it when the Xuanwu Army had breakfast the next day, these tens of thousands of wild bees did not know what to stimulate, they stung people everywhere, and the Xuanwu Army was stung by this group of wild bees and cried for their mother, and the whole camp was in chaos. In desperation, after half a month of confrontation, Kang Huaiying did not get the slightest bargain in Jingzhou, so he could only lead the army to retreat more than 50 miles and camp on the bank of the Yellow River.

This farcical battle was regarded as the first battle in the Central Plains, and Wang Houchun's tactical means made the opposing Xuanwu Army Kang Huaiying's troops suffer, so that after the war, Kang Huaiying was afraid of his opponent and did not dare to forget it for a long time.

"Haha, Tianxiang, I'll find you a bunch of helpers, do you want it?" Wang Houchun's farce in Jingzhou did not cause a counterattack by other units of the Xuanwu Army, which also confirmed Yang Tiancheng and Xu Tianxiang's speculation that the other party was still waiting for the results of the battle on the northern front. But Xu Tianxiang of Shenzhou did not wait for the battle report on the northern front, but saw Han Xun, who had been preparing for the navy and naval academy in Tianjin.

"My Director Han, can you tease me less? I now have only 200,000 people in the entire Yellow River defense line of nearly 1,000 miles, where can you bring me reinforcements? "Han Xun has also done his best since he followed Zhang Tianhu and Ma Laosan to teach at the Military Academy, so he and the high-level leaders of the Tiance Army have basically eliminated the estrangement in the early years, and the two joked as soon as they met.

"No, Chongtao, why are you here? It can't be that this guy caught a strong man, right? Xu Tianxiang pointed at Guo Chongtao behind Han Xun and smiled.

"Chief of Staff, the Navy Department asks you for the battle, and asks the Chief of Staff to allow our Navy Department to lead the army into the canal to participate in the war." Guo Chongtao marched like Xu Tianxiang.

"Chief of Staff, the Navy Department now has three warships, and the strength is already 2,000 people, including 700 seamen, 1,000 marines, and 300 logistics personnel, which can fight in one battle." Guo Chongtao has become a lot darker after a year of training, but he is very confident in his troops.

Guo Chongtao's hand made Xu Tianxiang stunned for a moment, but then he understood the other party's thoughts, nodded and said: "You immediately lead your warship into the canal and then go south along the canal, obey the command of the chief of operations, and find a way to delay the movement of the Xuanwu army in the canal and strike at the enemy's interior." ”

After sending Guo Chongtao away, Xu Tianxiang asked the people from the staff office to send instructions to Yang Tiancheng, and then pulled Han Xun and said with a smile: "You can't come in vain when you come over, how about coming to my staff officer?" ”

"I said you are the Chief of Staff or am I the Chief of Staff? You need someone else to advise you as a chief of staff? Han Xun smiled: "You don't want to cover Yang Xingmi in the south, right?" I heard from the lord that this Yang Xingmi is our own person, so it's no wonder you are so concerned about him. But Tianxiang, you can actually move in the Longmen Formation of the Yellow River, Zhu Quanzhong will not move before the lord of the northern front and the people of the Yellow River divide the victory and defeat, this is the last time they will confront us head-on, you don't have to tie your hands, as long as the big strategic layout will not move, with Xie Tong's vision, it will not destroy the tacit understanding between our two sides, at most compete with us, and send a small force similar to Jingzhou Kang Huaiying to fight against us. ”

"And Tianxiang, although the lord has formulated a strategy of defending the south and attacking the north, there are many ways to defend, and the offensive defense is also a kind of attack, I think you and Tiancheng are a little worse than Houchun in this regard. In his thinking, no strategy is certain, as long as the overall situation remains the same, you can break at will. Han Xun woke up the dreamer with a word.

"And small-scale attrition will also narrow the comparison between the enemy and us on the southern front, don't forget that according to the current battle statistics, the ratio of casualties between the enemy and us should be five to one to ten to one, and the logistics and medical care system advocated by the lord will also save more wounded for us, which will close the gap between the two sides in little by little time." Han Xun patted Xu Tianxiang's shoulder and said solemnly: "Tianxiang, you and everyone on the southern front must understand that this battle on the northern front is a hundred-year war, otherwise the lord will not personally go north to command, what you have to do now is to reduce the pressure as much as possible, so that the lord has less worries on the northern front." ”

"So you brought Guo Chongtao here, and you plan to use the canal to disrupt the deployment of the Xuanwu Army and use the canal to find a new way, right?" Xu Tianxiang nodded.

Han Xun pointed to the canal on the map and said: "Xie Tong's eyes will always be on everything on the ground, they will not defend this Grand Canal, and they have no strength to stop the momentum of our ironclad battleships, this is what I admire the Lord the most, I was able to think of this method as early as a year ago, and it was realized." ”

"How long does it take to get from Zhuozhou to the front line in Jingzhou? Guo Chongtao: What about their logistics? Xu Tianxiang asked in a deep voice, "Their equipment is not what they prepared before this logistics quartermaster. ”

"Don't worry, before coming, Yang Yi had already entrusted the Murong family's transportation company to transport all the needed coal and weapons supplies from the equipment department to Jizhou to the Xu family's canal transportation company, and then the logistics materials would follow the ship to fight, so you army leaders don't have to worry about it." Han Xun said with a smile.

"Okay, let's not stay in Shenzhou anymore, just go to the front line in Jingzhou, I'm still looking forward to seeing how much trouble this kid Guo Chongtao will make." Xu Tianxiang pulled Han Xun and said with a smile as he walked.

The two got on the horse and took a few staff officers of the headquarters to quickly go in the direction of Jingzhou, and by the way, Yang Tiancheng, who had been notified by the guards to inform the western defense area, also came quickly towards Jingzhou. This time, the three giants of the southern front were concentrated in Jingzhou because of Han Xun's arrival, indicating that after Wang Houchun took the lead in the first battle on the southern front, the Tiance army ushered in a tactical change after a long absence.

In late May 891, that is, when the mobilization of troops on the northern front was basically completed, and all three warships of Guo Chongtao's fleet, which had been swimming in Bohai Bay, entered the Haihe River, and then transferred to the southern line of the canal and concentrated on the Jingzhou front.

"It's up to you." Xu Tianxiang looked at the three huge ironclad warships that drove to the outside of Jingzhou City, and suddenly said to Guo Chongtao with a smile. The 500-ton ship may not even bother to look at future generations of visitors like Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi, but it has extraordinary significance in this era. The pressure brought by this steel monster anchored outside Jingzhou City is not something that ordinary people can bear.

"Please rest assured that the Navy will not disgrace the Tiance Army." Guo Chongtao boarded the flagship of the pilot after the military salute, waved his right hand, the sound of conch continued to sound, the three warships began to spit out billowing black smoke, the long whistle began to remember, the three ships unmoored one after another and set sail, followed by the ironclad freighter and freighter of the Xujia Canal Company, all the way to the south.

This scene was not only stunned by the Tiance Army's own soldiers, but even the headquarters of Kang Huaiying, the Xuanwu Army who had not left dozens of miles away. This kind of thing that seemed to be a monster from an ancient flood and wilderness all the way south even surpassed the situation of the confrontation between the two armies for a time, and became a strange thing that everyone talked about in the next few days.

However, then these Xuanwu troops tasted the impact of these ancient giant beasts, and the ships of the Xuanwu Army, which were originally carefree and used the canal to transport grain, grass, soldiers and other materials from the Bianzhou base camp to the front line, were quickly overturned by these giant beasts, Guo Chongtao in order to hit the Xuanwu Army as much as possible, did not even use the weapons on his own ship, and directly and brutally used his advantage as an ironclad ship to forcibly target the Xuanwu Army ships, naval ships and soldiers who were stunned and even worshiped as divine beasts. On the first day alone, in Dezhou, Guo Chongtao took advantage of the opponent's surprise to overturn and sink 18 ships of various types of the Xuanwu Army. After beating these ships, Guo Chongtao headed south again towards Bianzhou, and all the Xuanwu army transport ships along the way were killed.

This completely blinded the high-level of the Xuanwu Army, and for a while, no one even knew what the names of these monsters were. Zhu Quanzhong was even more furious when he saw the losses reported by his subordinates, but so far there seemed to be no good way except to lose his temper, and in desperation, Zhu Quanzhong once again stared at the direction of Xie Tong and Zheng Fan.

"This should be a warship built in the shipyard under the name of Mrs. Li Xuanqing before, right?" Xie Tong looked at Zhuozhou, the northern starting point of the canal, and Yingzhou, which had been renamed Tianjin by Tiance Mansion, and asked Zheng Fan beside him.

"It should be eight or nine and ten." Zheng Fan nodded and said, "Last year, Li Xuanqing and his wife spent almost half a year in Tianjin, probably just to build this kind of steel giant ship. ”

"Is there any information about this giant ship, or does anyone know where his weaknesses are?" Xie Tong asked. But no one could answer him. Even Zheng Fan said with a wry smile: "This kind of monster covered in steel has almost no weaknesses, and as far as I know, the weapon it carries on it is the most troublesome for me, it should be the latest gunpowder weapon developed by the Tiance Army, but no one knows how specific it is." ”

"What's the deal with spitting black smoke?" Ge Cunzhou interjected at this time and asked.

"I guess it's burning coal." Zheng Fan was a little uncertain and said: "Almost all of the steelmaking and ironmaking in the Tiance Mansion area use charcoal, and all the blast furnaces are erected, which are much more clever than our beams. ”

"Then attack with fire, everything has its weaknesses." Xie Tong nodded and said, "Your Majesty, you can design a trap to use the fireship to attack when the Tiance warship returns." ”

"Very good, leave everything to the military advisor. The Generalissimo was responsible for acting in conjunction with the military division. Zhu Quanzhong was annoyed that no one was paying attention to him, but when he heard that Xie Tong had thought of a way to deal with these warships in such a short time, he was immediately happy.