On the first day of July in 891 AD, the Tiance Mansion issued a national proclamation, announcing the results of the two major battles on the northern front of the Tiance Army, and calling on all the people of the Tiance Mansion to support the front line as one, realize the national reunification as soon as possible, and let the people live and work in peace and contentment. For this reason, the media group issued a special special issue, which reported the details of the battle at length and included the voices of meritorious soldiers, and used extra-large words to inspire people: God bless the Tang Dynasty, the Han army is mighty.

All of a sudden, the streets and alleys of Chang'an City began to be full of shouts of "God bless the Tang Dynasty, the Han army is mighty", and all provinces and regions also released the same news for the first time, conveying the news of the great victory on the front line.

All this made the news that the Han army defeated the foreign army and regained the lost territory for the first time after a hundred years of war in northern China, and the vast number of people who benefited from the policies of Tiance Mansion once again regained the blood and enthusiasm of the Tang Dynasty, not only spontaneously took to the streets to support the great cause of reunification with their own practical actions, but also surrounded by the people again after a few years, so that these left-behind personnel who were originally demolished and relocated one after another could not cry or laugh.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs led by Cen Tianshi took advantage of the people's morale to be mobilized by the great victory, and quickly introduced a series of policies, including stimulating the development of industry and commerce, expanding infrastructure construction such as transportation, and vigorously developing the development of public utilities, etc., and let the Ministry of Finance and Qianzhuang issue the Datang unified bonds, bringing the unification war to every person for the first time. However, in several new areas, people do not have much to afford to buy except for novelty.

However, Qi Hong and Yin Honglin had long expected this, and for the people in the new district, they were more likely to let them understand the policies of Tiance Mansion and the differences in any previous era, and they had no special expectations. With the vigorous development of industry and commerce in the whole region, more changes will inevitably be brought about in the development of industry and commerce, and the outdated concepts of these places will be leveraged little by little.

While the Chang'an base camp had taken advantage of the great victory on the northern front, Chen Fan had already broken up with Taxi in the grassland, and the latter was stationed north of Yinshan to wait for officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs to come to take over the grassland affairs and deter the nearby tribes. Chen Fan led other troops to return to the south, and after receiving the order from the group army headquarters, each department returned to Youzhou, rested and replenished, and then entered the southern front and was assigned to the command of the Central Plains Command.

After Xu Tianxiang and others learned that Chen Fan's brigade began to be built, they immediately sent the mobile forces in their hands, that is, the men and horses of Xue Yang's headquarters, to the western front and placed them under the command of Wan Yi. Xue Yang became a veritable firefighting captain. However, he himself has no opinion, there are too many troops under the Central Plains Command, and the battle is basically the regular battle of the large corps, and Xue Yang's expertise cannot be displayed. Therefore, after receiving the order, he said goodbye to Wang Houchun and immediately set off to Shaanzhou to join Wan Yi.

With the return of the main force of the Tiance Army to the south, the battle on the southern front of the entire Tiance Army also began to adjust rapidly, and the strategy in the early stage also began to be adjusted.

The adjustment of the Tiance Army also drove the Xuanwu Army to respond urgently, and at this time, Xie Tong had already arrived at the front line and began to arrange it in person. After Jing Xiang's sacrifice, these things involved most of Xie Tong and Zheng Fan's energy, and in the face of this top-level strategic design, the other strategists of the Xuanwu Army still couldn't take Jing Xiang's position. In the face of this situation, Zhu Quanzhong is also helpless, the top strategists are not just found by looking for them, especially at this time, the planning and layout before the battle may be more important than the implementation after the start of the battle. It's just that what makes Zhu Quanzhong strange is that the Tiance Army on the opposite side has been formed for a shorter time, and most of the generals have risen in a hurry from the reckless, and according to their establishment, there is no strategist at all, so how did the strategic planning and layout of the Tiance Army be completed? Could it be that Li Xuanqing alone can replace a group of think tanks on his side?

Zhu Quanzhong couldn't figure out these questions, but no one could take care of him at this time. After Xie Tong arrived in Texas, he was already doing his best in the face of this life-and-death situation, and he didn't pay attention to these things outside the battlefield at all. And Zheng Fan has recently begun to implement his own plan, secretly arranging it with Zhu Quanzhong's son Zhu Youqi. Zhu Quanzhong, the emperor, couldn't intervene in the face of this situation, so he could only be secretly depressed.

After three days of sleepless planning with Ge Cunzhou, Kang Huaiying, Zheng Fan and other generals and strategists in the army, Xie Tong finally finalized the strategic phalanx of the Xuanwu Army, and held a camp combat meeting after reporting to Zhu Quanzhong.

Xie Tong's plan was still to concentrate on the northern front, transfer the troops encircling and suppressing Yang Xingmi on the southern front back to strengthen the direction of Qizhou and Dizhou in the east, take the lead in opening up the situation in the eastern region, and gather large armies on the front lines of Dezhou and Weizhou to fight against the fierce war that was about to begin. In short, the eastern part of the northern front is offensive and defensive, and the western front is the main force to defend and attack, forcing the Tiance army to use its forces separately in the east and west, and take the lead in reversing the development of the entire situation with the branch line.

As for the arrangement of the southern front, after the main force was withdrawn back, Xie Tong's plan was to immediately canonize Sun Ru and let him send troops to the southern line to fight Yang Xingmi for Yangzhou, so as to reduce the pressure on the southern front of the Xuanwu army. At the same time, he sent hidden personnel to secretly instigate other small forces in Huainan to compete for the dominance of the Huainan region and disturb Zhu Quanzhong's sight.

This kind of deployment of Zhu Quanzhong and Xie Tong is a typical example of artificially dividing the northern front into two parts, using the local offensive of the eastern front to drive the victory of the northern front, and the troops drawn from the southern front to strengthen Kang Huaiying, if they suddenly attack, they will inevitably form a local advantage in the east, and take the eastern barrier - Cangzhou before the Tiance army reacts.

Xie Tong's plan was supported by a number of generals such as Ge Cunzhou and Kang Huaiying. Now that the battle has been fought, there is not much room for planning, and the strength of both sides is basically on the table. For the sake of the suddenness of Kang Huaiying's attack, Zhu Quanzhong mobilized all the explosives bags made of black powder prepared by Xie Tong and prepared for a surprise attack.

By the way, in fact, the explosive bag is not a big secret after the gunpowder is made, and the procedure of making the explosive bag is too simple, relying on Zheng Fan's ability, there is basically no difficulty in this matter.

Xie Tong's plan was in full swing, and the army was also mobilized rapidly, and even Zhu Quanzhong's envoys quickly set off from Dezhou to Ma Ru's garrison, Chuzhou. In order to increase the chips, Zhu Quanzhong directly opened the title of Tiance General. This made Ma Ru very surprised, and at the same time, he was also weighing whether to get involved in this whirlpool.

You must know that the position of Admiral Tiance has never been established since Li Shimin. Because according to Li Yuan's definition of General Tiance at that time, it basically means opening a government and building a government office, and can establish its own subordinate officials and administrative system, which is almost equivalent to the meaning of establishing a separate imperial court. Previously, Li Xuanqing's Tiance general was robbed by himself by relying on his strength and clan identity. At this time, Zhu Quanzhong actually set up this unprecedented condition in order to attract Ma Ru to send troops.

Ma Ru was originally a subordinate of Qin Zongquan, Qin Zongquan has been occupying Chuzhou since Caizhou was exterminated by Zhu Quanzhong, and after the annexation of Qin Bangyan, the territory has expanded a lot, and the back is backed by the Yellow Sea, and the back originally relied on Xuzhou Jiedu to make the defense of the land live a good life. But since Zhu Quanzhong occupied Xuzhou, he became nervous, and then Yang Xingmi rose to prominence in the Huainan region. When he reacted from his panic, the competition between the two northern princes made a heroic figure like him smell something different. Once the dispute in the north is decided, an unprecedentedly huge force will inevitably be formed, and the next move of this force will inevitably be to seize the Tang dynasty and dominate the world. So during this time, he has been thinking about his retreat, and now the big cake sent by Zhu Quanzhong also gave him another choice, that is, to receive this cake and send troops to attack Huainan, if he can take Huainan, then even if the north divides the victory and defeat, he will definitely settle himself properly.

So after thinking about it again, Ma Ru agreed to Zhu Quanzhong's conditions, sent troops to Huainan, attacked Yangzhou, and attacked Yang Xingmi from behind. Speaking of which, this is also Ma Ru's selfishness, attacking Yangzhou can mobilize Yang Xing's secret troops and horses to help, and at the same time prepare for his own territory. Because according to Ma Ru's calculations, during the period when Yang Xingmi withdrew his troops from Yingzhou and returned to Yangzhou, he could at least take Yangzhou and nearby Runzhou.

On the tenth day of the seventh month of July in 891 AD, when Yang Xingmi's vanguard had already taken Yingzhou, Ma Ru led an army from Chuzhou and suddenly appeared on the border of Yangzhou and attacked the Huainan army stationed in Yangzhou. However, this news was obviously leaked out in advance, although the Yangzhou defenders were not as small as Ma Ru expected, but they were obviously on guard, and they did not take it in a hurry, but were brought out by the courier who asked for help.

In fact, when Ma Ru sent troops, Yang Xingmi, who was in Yingzhou, had already received the news that the person in charge of the Huainan branch of Xuanyingwei was Li Jipeng, because of the development of the war in the north, all the Xuanyingwei in Huainan and Jinling and other places were handed over to him, and after finding out that Zhu Quanzhong sent people to Chuzhou, Li Jipeng guessed that he would definitely form an alliance to deal with Yang Xingmi on the southern front, so while informing Yang Xingmi, the news of Ma Ru's dispatch to Yangzhou was spread to the Yangzhou guards. In fact, Li Jipeng in Yangzhou was only a guess, so while spreading the news, Feige sent a letter to Yang Xingmi and asked him to prepare for Ma Ru to send troops to intervene in Yingzhou.

However, just when Yang Xingmi was urgently discussing the military situation, the order from the Xuanyingwei headquarters also came, asking him to immediately negotiate with Yang Xingmi to withdraw the soldiers and horses to Huainan, and completely unify the Huainan region during the northern war between the Tiance Army and the Xuanwu Army, if he could recover Chuzhou.

This order allowed Yang Xingmi to dispel all his concerns, and let Li Shenfu lead the elite of the Huainan Army to take the lead in returning to Yangzhou, and he led the rest of the men and horses to follow. In this way, the hidden danger of the southern front was also lifted, and after Li Jipeng received the order, he began to activate the Xuanying Guard to provide intelligence support for Yang Xingmi. In the face of this meticulous way of intelligence collection and transmission, Yang Xingmi was surprised and at the same time more determined in his own ideas, and for the first time, he also opened up the restrictions on the internal affairs of his Huainan Army to Li Jipeng. Yang Xingmi's change made Li Jipeng also guess the other party's thoughts, and the two had a lot of friends when they were marching.

At this time, Hu Xiaosi, who was far away in the Chang'an base camp, immediately reported to Li Xuanqing after receiving Li Jipeng's news, and then issued an order to the Central Plains Headquarters to transmit all the basic information of the southern line to Xu Tianxiang. After learning of the changes in the southern front, Xu Tianxiang also began to adjust the strength of the northern front. However, unlike Xie Tong's idea of using local advantages to drive the overall situation, Xu Tianxiang's side planned to attack with the whole army and wipe out the forces of the Xuanwu Army on the northern front.

However, there are also people who have different opinions, Wang Houchun obviously does not agree with this kind of tactics that sweeps thousands of troops, he believes that the use of troops should be concentrated, and the main force should start from Jingzhou to take Dezhou directly under the guidance of the navy after Wan Yi's side as a partial division, and force Zhu Quanzhong to have a decisive battle with the main force of the Tiance army in the Dezhou area, so as to form a general battle, and the victory and defeat will be determined in a battle.

What Yang Tiancheng didn't expect was that Wang Houchun, who was good at fighting strange battles and clever battles, would insist on fighting regular battles this time, but he was very surprised. But then I knew Wang Houchun's thoughts, and defeating the main force of the Xuanwu Army in World War I would inevitably greatly accelerate the process of the war, so as to save military strength and sweep away the entire forces north of the Yangtze River.

"Houchun, according to Xie Tong's wisdom, he will definitely choose your defense area for the breakthrough, if we concentrate our forces from Jingzhou at that time, we will inevitably face the opponent's drama city and defend it, and send strange soldiers to capture Cangzhou, so as to cut off our largest bridgehead south of the Yellow River, how should we deal with it?" Hou Yong, who came back early, didn't agree with Wang Houchun's idea.

"If you are willing to give up, you will have to give to you. Not to mention that we will definitely be able to hold Cangzhou, even if we give up Cangzhou for the sake of the overall situation, so what? The Navy Department can control the canal and the Yellow River, and there is basically no obstacle for us to cross the Yellow River, so what's wrong with a decisive battle in Texas? Dezhou is the location of Zhu Quanzhong's camp, and our main force going south to Cangzhou will inevitably force Zhu Quanzhong to give up the Cangzhou attack plan, which can also play a role in supporting Cangzhou. Wang Houchun shook his head and said: "The main force of the northern front returns to the south, and our troops are nearly 200,000 more than Zhu Quanzhong, so we must not be led by the nose by the other side in terms of the initiative in the war. ”

Wang Houchun's words made Xu Tianxiang nod, interrupting Hou Yong's follow-up words: "I support Houchun's suggestion, let's concentrate Chen Fan's soldiers and horses on the northern front line to the Jingzhou front, and then follow the canal to Dezhou, forcing Zhu Quanzhong to enter the decisive battle state in advance." Our army of hundreds of thousands is enough to eat all the horses of the other side in one battle. After a pause, he continued: "Even if the other party gradually retreats and disperses our men, it is the current situation. And with the battle entering the territory of the Xuanwu Army, every time we conquer a city, we will also lay a foundation for the unification of the Central Plains. ”

As soon as he said this, the others didn't have many opinions, and after the three giants of the Central Plains Command reached an agreement, they quickly began to inform Chen Fan to transfer troops and horses into the Deep State to start making preparations. After the meeting, Wang Houchun also rushed back to Cangzhou, garrisoned Cangzhou with the strength of eight infantry battalions, and in order to deal with the attack of the Xuanwu Army, he took the initiative to abandon other areas near Cangzhou, concentrated his troops near Cangzhou, and took Li Tianyi as the main general to carry out offensive defense, and then mobilize other troops.

The main force increased most of the cavalry of the Northern Front Group Army on the basis of the previous Central Plains Central Line troops, with a total of 300,000 soldiers and horses, and chose the opportunity to enter the territory of the Xuanwu Army through Jingzhou. Moreover, in order to strengthen the intelligence intensity of the front line, Hu Xiaosi also transferred Zhao Si to act with the command to ensure that this great war could be won.

After Xu Tianxiang made a plan, he sent someone to send the battle plan to the Chang'an base camp as soon as possible, and at the same time began to make preparations for mobilization. The three warships of Guo Chongtao's naval department, which had previously ravaged the canal, also received orders to go north to prepare to carry out the order to cover the advance of the troops.

The two armies made battle plans and began to mobilize troops to carry out their respective deployments. And Li Xuanqing, who was far away in Lishan, nodded to Hu Xiaosi after receiving the plan sent by Xu Tianxiang, and the latter also had a smile on his face, and Liu Xuan, who was far away in Lishan, turned around and began to walk into the temporary office of Lishan and draft orders.