The Xuanwu Army's series of adjustments on the front line and rear naturally couldn't hide from Xuan Yingwei's eyes, and Hu Xiaosi, who was in the eastern capital of Luoyang, got a secret report for the first time. After passing the intelligence flying pigeon from the front line to Yang Tiancheng and Li Xuanqing in Cangzhou, he began to concentrate all his efforts on Xuan Yingwei's counterattack measures.

In response to Zhu Quanzhong's full authority to hand over the internal counterattack power to Zheng Fan, Hu Xiaosi urgently ordered the Xuanying Guard Secret Guard Branch in the territory of the Xuanwu Army to double the size of the black market, and at the same time ordered the Dragon Group to increase its efforts to block the opponent's intelligence personnel. In this way, the battle between the two sides began to heat up around the black market, which is the most important part of the economic war. Zheng Fan relied on the yamen and armies of various states to stabilize the situation, and began to forcefully drive out the personnel of Xuanyingwei, and constantly investigated and dealt with the black market of Xuanyingwei that stirred up the markets of various states.

In the face of this brute force method, Hu Xiaosi instructed to kill the main person in charge of the other party, and on the other hand, he created an even greater panic and secretly transferred the materials hoarded in the early stage, causing a shortage of materials in some areas, and driving the people to join the trend of rushing to buy daily necessities.

However, with the addition of Xie Tong and other top wise men of this era, the difficulty of Hu Xiaosi to manipulate the market is gradually increasing, so Hu Xiaosi has gradually changed his previous practices, in addition to the previous approach of competition, he began to secretly publicize the news of the defeat of the front line, spread the news of the defeat of the Xuanwu army in Qinzhou and Cangzhou, and create a second round of panic.

This news caused a huge sensation at the beginning, and the people who did not know what was in the middle were blinded by this news, although the Xuanwu army had lost battles in recent years, but it had never been such a big defeat, and the losses in the two battles were 100,000 people, and for a while the people hid adult men at home, afraid that the Xuanwu army would recruit again. In this way, the adult males in the territory of the Xuanwu Army disappeared cleanly in a short period of time, and in order to emphasize the effect of hiding the population, those pervasive grassroots personnel of the secret guard even taught some of the methods of concealment. This move quickly caused the population of the people in the area controlled by the Xuanwu Army to artificially plummet.

To be honest, this trick really caught the other party off guard, and there was almost no way at the beginning, although Zheng Fan took out all the means, but in the face of the surging public opinion of the people in Bianliang and other places, he was powerless, and Zheng Fan had to ask Xie Tong again, and the other party took Zheng Fan to find Zhu Quanzhong and let him quickly implement the second step plan.

Hu Xiaosi used this trick to temporarily reverse the decline and then make persistent efforts, and when the other party was looking for countermeasures, he gave a dose of fierce medicine, and some of the personnel sent to the front line by the dragon group carefully planted the latest weapon of the Tiance Army - mines on the road where Ge Cunzhou rushed to the eastern front.

Since the last experiment on the front line in the river, after several rounds of improvements, this secret weapon of Li Xuanqing's piracy of later generations has already had a little rudimentary form of a mine in later generations. Although Ge Cunzhou sent a lot of sentries on the marching route, there was no way to explore this epoch-making secret weapon, so he was caught off guard by this fireball that came out of the ground. The terrain chosen by the dragon group is very strange, it is out of a valley, there is no ambush around, so Ge Cunzhou has no way to deal with it, the violent explosion caused landslides on both sides of the mountain, and the rocks and sand completely cut off the road, and for the effect, the dragon group buried hundreds of these mines, the scene was a mess, the explosion brought huge casualties, and also blew up the morale of ordinary soldiers, and Ge Cunzhou had no choice but to rest in place, save those injured soldiers, and send people to clear the road, Walk the distance you explore for hundreds of miles around to prevent another attack.

The biggest effect of this explosion is not actually casualties, but it greatly delays Ge Cunzhou's marching speed, forcing the other party to become more cautious on the subsequent march, and even as long as he encounters dangerous terrain Ge Cunzhou can only order the soldiers to dig the earth to prevent the other party from causing another explosion.

However, what Ge Cunzhou didn't know was that the dragon group did not continue to act after creating this explosion, but the main force went south and began to intercept and kill the messengers coming and going from the other party, creating chaos in logistics, so that Bianliang's communication to Cangzhou and other places was almost interrupted for a while.

This kind of pervasive attack method made Zheng Fan really difficult to deal with, and as soon as he discussed with Xie Tong how the other party spread rumors, the other party ran to the front line to harass his main force. When he received Ge Cunzhou's report and sent personnel to investigate and deal with the initiator of the explosion here, the heavy grain and grass sent to Cangzhou were robbed again. Moreover, some members of the dragon group even sneaked into Zhu Quanzhong's Guogong Mansion in secret, and a fire almost set Zhu Quanzhong's residence on fire, and the frightened Zhu Quanzhong had not yet taken a breath, Hu Xiaosi openly sent people into the palace, falsely claiming that Tiance Mansion asked the emperor to move to Chang'an.

Zhu Quanzhong couldn't bear it anymore because of the endless methods of the other party, and began to let the army enforce military management in various places, and arrest anyone who had the intention to make trouble as soon as possible.

This method of relying on violence did make Hu Xiaosi's action more difficult, but it did not affect his next plan at all, his harassment in various parts of the Central Plains had firmly restrained most of Zhu Quanzhong's energy, and now that the army had been used, his support for the front line would also become lower.

Therefore, Hu Xiaosi decisively changed the plan according to the other party's actions, and let the senior personnel lurking in the Xuanwu Army instigate Zhu Quanzhong's sons to compete for the throne.

This was not unusual, as at that time there was a struggle between the heirs of any prince for the right of succession, and in many cases this struggle was the main line of political life within the princely towns. Zhu Quanzhong's many sons also have no intention of not staring at Zhu Quanzhong's position as the son.

However, it is obvious that Hu Xiaosi's trick did not work at first, and the reason for this is Zhu Quanzhong's wife Zhang. Because Zhang and Zhu Quanzhong are married and have abnormal knowledge, Zhu Quanzhong respects her very much, not only all his inner rooms are handed over to Zhang's Dali, but even many military affairs are discussed with Zhang. Under the suppression of such an outstanding mother, Zhu Quanzhong's sons Zhu Youqi and Zhu Youshu and others competed fiercely, but they never dared to challenge their mother's authority in the open.

However, after encountering setbacks, Hu Xiaosi quickly understood his mistakes, since Zhang's importance to Zhu Quanzhong is not only the role of his wife, but even his important assistant, then everything must be opened from Zhang's gap.

Thinking of this, Hu Xiaosi came up with a way to make Zhu Quanzhong miserable, and it was later become a way for Xuan Yingwei to change the course of history, sending the most hidden personnel to infiltrate Zhu Quanzhong's mansion and break into Zhang's side, preparing to assassinate Zhang when necessary.

However, although this method can be done once and for all, it takes too long, and just when Hu Xiaosi was arranging and wondering if there was a faster way, the Cangzhou offensive and defensive battle on the eastern front also officially began. After Zhu Zhen's brigade arrived in Cangzhou, he reappointed Wang Yanzhang as the forward general, responsible for commanding the siege troops head-on, and he himself sat in charge of the Chinese army and coordinated all parties.

To be honest, Zhu Zhen is still very self-aware, his ability is not good, and the reason why he can achieve the position of the commander of one party is more because he and Zhu Quanzhong are brothers, so after arranging the things on the front line, Zhu Zhen began to contact Ge Cunzhou, so that the other party could join him as soon as possible. There was no hope that his 100,000 troops would be able to capture Cangzhou Zhu Zhen, and after urging his rear army Niu Cunjie to bring Zhu Quanzhong's 50,000 reinforcements as soon as possible, Zhu Zhen's idea was to let Ge Cunzhou come over as soon as possible.

However, Zhu Zhen's urging letter was intercepted by Su Xiaohu, who had been staring outside and thinking about how to assassinate Zhu Zhen. However, Su Xiaohu didn't take this letter seriously, but if Zhu Zhen, as the commander, hid in the barracks and didn't come out, there was nothing to think about relying on the hundreds of people in the Flying Eagle Brigade, so he could only go back after hesitating for a day. The letter intercepted by him was also placed on Li Xuanqing's desk.

At this time, Li Xuanqing led the personal guard battalion and Gao Siji's 50,000 Shatuo cavalry to secretly move to a distance of 100 miles west of Cangzhou City. But after seeing this letter, Li Xuanqing decisively changed his mind, but after secretly discussing with Li Feixue and Gao Siji for a long time, he summoned Zhao Si, the general of Xuanyingwei, and asked him to find someone to imitate Zhu Zhen's notes and rewrite a letter. changed the original ordinary reminder letter into a letter asking for help, and in order to convince the other party, Li Xuanqing instructed Zhao Si to write the situation extremely urgently, the Xuanwu army was hit hard outside Cangzhou City, and needed urgent help, etc. And in accordance with the practice of internal intelligence transmission of the Xuanwu Army, it was urgently sent to Ge Cunzhou in triplicate. After doing all this, Zhao Si took part of the Flying Eagle Brigade to find Ge Cunzhou's army and followed the other party throughout the process.

And Li Xuanqing's side also began to study the terrain and topography of this road, preparing to concentrate the cavalry forces in his hands and destroy Ge Cunzhou in advance. Only by eating Ge Cunzhou can Zhu Zhen's illusions and Zhu Quanzhong's heart be defeated. In this way, it will be possible to make time for the north to calmly eliminate Li Keyong.

However, when Li Xuanqing's side arranged to exterminate Ge Cunzhou, Wang Yanzhang had already launched an attack on Cangzhou City. It is actually normal for the Xuanwu army to defeat the Tiance army and the Jin army, which have superior cavalry, but when it comes to siege warfare, the Xuanwu army is not inferior to any army. Wang Yanzhang's forwards were quite skillful in the coordination of various arms during the siege, and all kinds of siege weapons continued to appear on the battlefield, and the timing of their appearance was very appropriate.

On the other hand, the defending troops commanded by Wang Houchun and An Xiuxiu did not fight very well. Wang Houchun finally completed the reorganization of the troops, and the internal training had just begun and was pulled over to fight, so naturally there was no way to compare with the veterans of the Xuanwu Army. In order to maintain the morale of his own side, Wang Houchun personally commanded the defense of the city, handed over the entire rear to An Xiuxiu, and drew the elite from each battalion to form a personal guard, put it into the city wall at a critical time, drove the other party out, and arranged a special law enforcement team, as long as there are signs of desertion, directly let the law enforcement team enforce the law on the spot, the harsh military law and the brutal battle made these rebel soldiers who were still a rabble have no other ideas at all, and this method also unconsciously promoted the rapid growth of these people.

Wang Yanzhang was determined to avenge the defeat of the army last time, and let his younger brother Wang Yantong personally lead the army to charge, and command the death squad to rush up the ladder. This move greatly boosted the morale of the Xuanwu army besieging the city, Wang Yantong's fame was still very big in the Xuanwu army, and everyone saw him personally drum up the courage to enter the city, and the morale began to rise, and Wang Houchun's city defense was also facing increasing pressure.

"Go and inform the logistics troops, bring me dozens of those big watermelons, and let them see the weapons of the Tiance Army." Wang Houchun saw that the opponent's morale was greatly boosted, and ordinary defensive weapons could not extinguish the opponent's confidence in landing the city, so he immediately no longer hesitated, and decided to use secret weapons to suppress the opponent, and by the way, also improve the confidence of his soldiers in defending the city.

"General Wang, I'm here, what's the situation?" Just when Wang Houchun asked people from the logistics department to find a big killer, An Xiuxiu also came to the city tower.

"General An, I remember that there seem to be 3,000 of your cavalry left in the city, right? Later, I will repel their attack, and you can send them out of the city immediately to disperse the opponents once and for all. Wang Houchun said as soon as he saw An Xiuxiu.

An Xiuxiu didn't know what Wang Houchun could do to repel the siege commanded by Wang Yantong personally, but he still nodded and said: "General rest assured, before the lord leaves, explain that Cangzhou City is dominated by you, and I will do whatever you arrange." ”

"General An, how can you-" Wang Houchun was taken aback by An Xiuxiu's address to Li Xuanqing, and was interrupted by An Xiuxiu before he finished speaking, "The lord is really thinking about us, and it is not strange for me to admit the lord, I will personally lead the charge later, and the general will command with peace of mind." ”

"In that case, let's fight side by side to welcome the return of the lord." Wang Houchun laughed, and immediately commanded the technicians of the logistics department who had already rushed to the city tower with one big box after another to start preparing the secret weapon.

This secret weapon is actually a bag of explosives that can be thrown manually, and this modified bag of explosives can be used in different weights depending on the distance. However, at this time, the Xuanwu Army, which had gathered a group of hedgehogs under the city wall, became the best place for explosives packs, almost at the same time as the logistics department opened the explosives bag box, a row of torches was quickly ignited, and the fifteen-pound explosive bags were taken out and ignited and thrown down to the city wall.

"Throw it at Wang Yantong for me." Wang Houchun personally lit an explosive bag and threw it at Wang Yantong.

At this time, a burst of violent explosions suddenly erupted under the city wall, and the power of this hand-thrown explosive bag was no worse than that of the Hellfire Brigade, and the black-red fireballs rose into the air, and the unprepared city defenders were shocked to the ground. After the explosion, the siege troops of the Xuanwu Army were also in a mess, and the violent explosion swept away all the sand and gravel weapons on the surface, turning them into the most powerful killing weapons, except for the soldiers who were shocked to fly high in the center of the explosion, and almost all the remaining soldiers were killed by these scattered sand and gravel weapons.

This fierce blow will be completely blinded by all the Xuanwu soldiers present, this weapon makes everyone unable to deal with it, and they don't know how to dodge, when the soldiers who survived by luck have not shaken their senses, more than a dozen explosive bags fell on the city tower again.

"Retreat." On the battlefield, I don't know who shouted, but at this moment, it woke up all the Xuanwu soldiers, and the Xuanwu soldiers who were beaten by this great change saw the explosives bag volleying down again, and they had no choice at all, and they all turned around and ran madly towards the rear.

"Open the gates, and the cavalry charges." Wang Houchun had no way to look at the life and death of Wang Yantong, who was thrown by himself with an explosive bag, and ordered the city gate to be opened. An Xiuxiu, who had been waiting at the city gate for a long time, rushed out of the city gate at great speed and rushed towards the defeated soldiers of the Xuanwu army, whose eyes were full of soldiers.

After An Xiuxiu rushed out, Wang Houchun also wiped the sweat on his head, and asked the people from the logistics department to go back quickly with the remaining explosives bags, without noticing the awe in the eyes of the soldiers around him.

The explosion just now not only caused chaos among the soldiers of the Xuanwu Army under the city, but also their own soldiers were also blinded, such an explosion has exceeded their cognition, and their own commander relied on this mysterious weapon to repel the other party with every move, how can this not make them frightened?

However, ordinary soldiers were frightened, but those grassroots officers who were transferred from the military academy as the backbone of the force quickly drove their soldiers to adjust their defense and rescue the wounded. Such movements also allowed the surrounding soldiers to quickly keep up with the rhythm, and this army was also maturing rapidly.

"It seems that the combat effectiveness of the Shatuo cavalry is really good." Wang Houchun couldn't help but smile when he watched An Xiuxiu chase after him with the cavalry, taking advantage of the chaos of the other party, galloping across the country, and almost no one could stop it.