Wang Deren switched to Wang Shichong under the attack of Qu Tutong and Xu Shiji, Wang Shichong ordered Dong Jun and Bing Yuanzhen to come to the north, but was defeated by Xu Shiji, and Yecheng was conquered by the Hexi army; Wang Deren ran to Hanoi County, and with the support of Huang Junhan, occupied several county towns in the vicinity of Lin Xishan. When Xu Shiji retreated the defensive line, the brothers Xu Shiren and Xu Shishun of Rencheng led 6,000 people to retreat to Liyang and join Qu Tutong's army.

Yang Chong received the news from Shandong, and praised Qu Tutong, Xu Shiji, Du Zhenglun, and Guo Xiaoke, and transferred Meng Rang back to Hedong to serve as a squire in the military department, and Xu Shiren served as Qu Tutong's corporal Cao Shen. The original Wagang Fourth Battalion and Rencheng Army were mixed into the Wagang Battalion, with Liu Heimin as the main general and Li Wenxiang and Xu Shishun as the deputy generals; Meng Rang and Hao Xiaode's qualifications were too old, and Yang Chong could only quietly move the positions of the two of them and give up their positions to Liu Heimin and Li Wenxiang.

In the heavy snowfall, Xu Gai and Xu Shigan's family arrived in Jiangxian County, and Yang Chong gave a house next door to his Yang mansion, which was renovated and used by the Xu family; Yang Chong also appointed Xu Gai as the waiter and Xu Shigan as the deputy supervisor of Yanmen Jiao City. Yang Chong was afraid that the generals on the Liyang side would have ideas, so he did not force his family members to come, but Yang Chong's side was stable and the conditions were good, and the generals of Liyang sent their families to Hedong and Changping County even if they did not send their families to Jiangjun.

According to Yang Chong's meaning, the household department transferred 15,000 cattle and sheep from the north to the soldiers on the front line for the New Year, as long as Chang'an does not fall for a day, tens of thousands of troops on the two fronts of Huayin and Fufeng cannot be withdrawn, Zhuge Quan and Li Jing told their subordinates to hold on for half a year. Fortunately, the Hexi Army's military salaries, grain and grass are abundant, and Fufeng Feng Yi is a rich county, and the troops have no disgust; It's just that during the New Year, you have to eat and drink better.

Yang Chong's heart was actually a little anxious, and even felt that Wang Shichong's pattern was not big enough, when he attacked Taiyuan, Dou Jiande and Yu Wenhua and Wang Bo did not win or lose, Wang Shichong did not defeat Zheng Yuanshou, so that the Tang army in Henan still had more than 100,000 people, and could draw out tens of thousands of troops to support Chang'an at any time. Liu Xuan did Yang Chong a favor and contacted one of his former students, Wang Shichong's subordinate Zhang Xingcheng, who offered Wang Shichong a plan to oppose Zhu Cang, but he has not yet seen the effect.

Yang Chong saw that the New Year was approaching, and sent a letter to Jiang Fei, Yuan Xiren and his son Yang Xin in Zhangye, in addition to greetings, as well as the milk powder that Pang Huan had just developed; In fact, both of them used their brains, and the specific operation was the forty students of Mozhuo Academy brought by Kou Jiuhui and Pang Huan and the craftsmen selected by Jiuquan City. This group of people is the main force of Yang Chong's workshop in Hedong, and the production of milk powder is a small test; However, Yang Chong still asked Cui Yao to open two milk powder factories, one in Shangxian and one in Jinju.

This year, from north to south, all the county governors and officials of Yang Chong released fireworks to celebrate; Yang Chong also sent some grain to the places seriously damaged by the war, and the household department specially sent 1,000 cattle and sheep to Liyang, exchanged the grain from Liyang Cang from Xu Shiji, and opened porridge sheds in Yecheng and other places for seven days. Yang Chong's move attracted many Wagang people scattered among the people and Wang Shichong to vote, causing Yang Chong to read the relevant reports every day, and after reading for a few days, he finally saw a celebrity Li Junxian.

Yang Chong remembered this name, not because of how brave Li Junxian was, but because Li Junxian died unjustly in history. It is said that at that time, Taibai Xing repeatedly appeared in the daytime, and it was widely spread among the people: "After three generations of the Tang Dynasty, the heroine King Wu replaced the Li family and owned the world." Li Shimin learned that Li Junxian called himself "Five Ladies", and thought that Li Junxian's official position, title, and county all had the word "Wu" and "Five Ladies", so he dismissed Li Junxian from his position, and soon found a stubble to convict and behead, and the whole family confiscated it.

The fire of gossip in Yang Chong's heart burned, and he specially summoned Li Junxian to see a young man in his twenties, a jade tree in the wind, sword eyebrows and starry eyes, and a capable atmosphere, no wonder a male lord like Li Shimin would be suspicious; Yang Chong asked Yuwen Chengdu to try Li Junxian's martial arts, and when he saw Yuwen Chengdu's approval, he transferred Li Junxian to the hundred cavalry battalion commanded by Yuwen Chengdu as a 500 commander.

The situation in Hebei and Henan was as Yang Chong expected, Wang Bo defected, Yu Wenhua and Yu Wenzhi were defeated and killed, Yu Wenshi and Feng Deyi, Zhang Qingte, and Zang Junxiang erected the banner of the Tang Army; Wendeng's Chun was difficult to respond to the Tang army's Ren Gui and Liu Jun's army, and Li Yuan sent to Henan to pacify Zheng Yuanshou at the same time sent troops to the north, and for a while, Dou Jiande's Xia army, Li Yuan's Tang army, and Wang Shichong's Zheng army launched a full-scale war in Shandong and Henan.

The war seemed to be unfavorable to the Tang army, Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande participated in the main force, and the Tang army's army was all reorganized new army, and its combat effectiveness was not as good as Xu Shiji's army; Li Shimin's negotiations with Luo Yi in Beiping were not over, and he could not send reinforcements. Less than half a month after the start of the war, the losses of the Tang army were not small, Dou Jiande fell into Xingzhou, and captured the governor Chen Junbin; Wang Shichong broke through Yinzhou, and Li Yude, the assassin of Zhizhou who had just taken office, was killed in battle, and Ren Gui, Chun Yunan and others could only lead their troops to retreat to Hanoi County and hide under the command of Huang Junhan.

At this time, Zhu Cang regathered his troops, proclaimed himself Emperor Chu in Champion County, and then led his army to capture Dengzhou and Nanyang, and the Tang generals Lu Zizang and Ma Yuangui were killed in battle. Zheng Yuanshou could only turn around and go south, and Yang Shilin and Tian Zan attacked Zhu Cang by separate routes, and successively captured Xizhou, Shangzhou, Huaiyuan and other places, Zhu Cang fled to Jutan and surrendered, Li Yuan didn't even have a basic scolding, and issued an edict to crown Zhu Cang as the king of Chu, and sent a loose cavalry attendant Duan Cheng to Jutan to comfort Zhu Cang.

Yang Chong learned that Niu Jinda, Cheng Yanjin, Qin Qiong, Wu Guang and others took the opportunity to leave Luoyang and went to Nanyang to Chang'an, Yang Chong could only acquiesce to the strength of historical inertia, Niu Jinda and Cheng Yanjin were both sons-in-law of the Pei family in Hedong, and Niu Jinda's father-in-law Pei Shen'an was the governor of Kui Prefecture under Li Yuan, Chengcheng Gong. Even if Yang Chong occupied Hedong, Pei's family was more right, and did not have more recognition and support for Yang Chong.

Wang Ji, Ling Jing, and Jiang Duo all came to Yang Chong when they heard the news, and Wang Ji said: "Although the Tang army has stabilized the battle line, it is now the time when it hangs in the throat in one breath, and the 20,000 cavalry of Hexi and Longyou have arrived at Fufeng, and there are no reinforcements from outside Chang'an in a short period of time, so it is the time to attack." ”

Yang Chong did not hesitate anymore and gave the order to attack Chang'an, and Zhuge ordered Shi Daqian to command 30,000 cavalry, using the mobility of the cavalry to sweep in the seven counties of Shiping, Wugong, Liquan, Shangyi, Sanyuan, Jingyang, and Yunyang; He commanded the armies of Xie Yingdeng and Yao Junsu to capture Wugong County, and always maintained pressure on Li Shentong in Xianyang. After Shi Daqian captured the line from Qishan to Fuping and came to join the division, Xie Yingdeng's troops bypassed Xianyang under the cover of 10,000 cavalry and directly attacked Chang'an City of Han.

(End of chapter)