Choose an auspicious day, swear to raise troops, and raise troops to the north and south to sweep the north and south of the river.

In the slogan of "sweeping away the northern captives, clearing the world" and "recovering the Central Plains, and promoting peace" and the military songs of "Chengnanzi" and "Guerrilla Army", the swearing-in scene on the bank of the Nanqing River in the suburbs of Pengcheng, Xuzhou, although quite simple and unusually grand and solemn;

More than a dozen numbers and people in the school field, after going through the process after the proofreading, they immediately set off to the front. Before that, at least tens of thousands of stone supplies and armor had been shipped offshore and transported along the way to the north.

"Perhaps, what we are witnessing is the beginning of a great generation."

"This undoubtedly represents a new era of royal hegemony."

"Have you finally waited for such a day?"

Among the countless soldiers and civilians who stood on the head of the city to watch the ceremony, there were many people who made heartfelt sighs of one kind or another.

Among the ladies of the back house who saw off and watched the ceremony, the only difference was that there was an extra little Jin Jun who stood behind him step by step, and the little lady of Yuwen stood on the left and right sides dressed up;

Although it seems that it is the first time to see such an occasion, it seems a little timid and shy; But after all, it is a natural noble bloodline, and there is a kind of graceful and solemn demeanor and elegant bearing cultivated by the heavenly family, but it also makes people can't help but give birth to all kinds of different conjectures and thoughts.

Some people think that this is some kind of change of belief that there is still a sense of relaxation towards the Southern Dynasties; After all, after returning from the danger of Jiangnan, this marshal did not rush to move troops to Jiangning and raise the army to ask for guilt, but on the grounds that he needed to stabilize the rear after the turmoil, he first swept away and pacified the remnants of the threats and obstacles around the northland as the first priority;

But there are also people who have more peculiar ideas or are easy to drill the horns, and they have more extremely bold ideas and speculations, could it be that this marshal also has some ideas about the national unity of the Southern Dynasty, so he specially retained the position of this person in the back house, and brought it back from Jiangning Mansion not far away.

。。。。。。。。

And in the capital of Pinglu Road and the seat of Youzhou Governorship, in Jicheng, which has just regained some vitality and prosperity because of the short-term dividends and gains brought by the war.

The mood of Han Zhongyan, the governor of Pinglu Province, at this moment was described in the popular language of later generations as if it was a dog.

The sudden change in the wind and clouds is really too powerful, I thought that it was the internal changes of the Southern Dynasty, and my side could take the opportunity to sit on the ground and raise the price, and get a better condition, even the threat of Huaizhen that was not triggered by the side could also collapse or be seriously weakened in the civil strife;

But I didn't expect that the Southern Dynasty's claim to be well-planned acted was actually a thunderous rain and a small amount of goods, and the strength of Huaizhen after the chaos in Xuzhou was almost undamaged, instead of going to the trouble of the Southern Dynasty Liang, he aimed the spearhead at his side.

This made him overshadowed or lost most of his value and significance for the series of advantages and achievements obtained by attacking and plundering the forces of Zhang Bangchang in Hebei after the beginning of spring.

Moreover, because of the phenological environment, the autumn harvest in Pinglu Road is later than that in Hebei Province, and the mountain is later than outside the mountain, which also means that the autumn harvest activities, which originally required a lot of manpower to carry out, will bear the brunt of the surging soldiers in Huaizhen.

This is undoubtedly a great bad news and disaster for the soldiers and civilians of Pinglu Dao, who have been suffering from famine and hardship for several years, and have only recently eased up, or for the local army that has just been freed from shortage and hunger, but I don't know how many people will not survive this winter.

But what bothers him even more are other things that are imminent.

Although, the city wall of the Jicheng where he is located is as high as three zhang and one zhang and five feet wide, with a circumference of thirty-three miles, with the Yacheng where the Jiedu envoy and the governor's mansion is located as the middle line, divided into four huan in the east, west, north and south, plus a sub-city, there are ten city gates of all sizes and nine large square areas; It is a rectangular castle that is slightly longer from north to south and narrower from east to west, and it is also the largest castle in Pyonglu Province.

But it didn't give him much security and confidence; Because, for a long time, it has been used as the location of the camp of Andong in the Northern Dynasty and the center of the large rear transshipment, and also has an important military assembly place, but in fact, it has been seriously abandoned and in disrepair in terms of specific city fortifications.

Not only was the originally wide moat crowded and eroded by a large number of castle squares, but even the city walls were missing and broken, and even the wall billets and rammed earth inside were exposed; However, because of the relative peace of being the rear for a long time, these city bricks and other building materials with very good quality burned by the previous dynasties were stolen and excavated by local soldiers and civilians for private houses and industries.

Later, because the financial plans of the Northern Dynasty became increasingly difficult, they were unable to repair and maintain, but instead transferred the soldiers, horses, money and food located in Pinglu Road again and again to support the war needs to resist the Southern Dynasty's strategy; By the time Han Zhongyan began to take over the situation, it could be said that there was only this leaky and incomplete situation left, and he could only rely on the temporary erection of wooden fences and a small number of sentries to maintain basic vigilance and prevent the people in the city from entering and leaving without authorization.

This is also the reason why the Huai army, who came to retaliate and burn the place, was able to make hundreds of people in Youzhou City stomp on each other every day just after approaching the city of Youzhou to make some movements.

Although after Han Zhongyan regained control of the situation, he had the intention to redo repairs and rectification, but in the face of such a large city with a circumference of dozens of miles, even if he did some superficial work of tinkering, in terms of the manpower and resources he mastered, it was a drop in the bucket and could not improve much.

Moreover, compared with the grand occasion when hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians were at every turn, the permanent population here is only a few hundred thousand; And because after being siphoned off and losing a large number of young people of the right age, including military households; A large part of the more than 10,000 troops in the city to maintain the situation were made up of malnourished or weak soldiers, lacking adequate training and proper equipment, and poor morale.

Even if it comes in handy to requisition a batch of hastily, in the absence of enough moats as evidence, it is not enough to expect too many things.

Another reason for this situation of internal emptiness and external emphasis is because of his temporary greed and luck;

Although the rumors and reports that the Huaizhen general was about to send troops early on, because of this whole spring and most of the summer, the regrouped Pinglu Army broke through the Hebei Province along the relatively empty nine-sided line, and Zhang Bangchang's troops, who had most of Hebei, were defeated and retreated.

Under the persuasion, temptation and guarantee of a large number of people from the southern court, he believed that Huaizhen on the side of the couch might be unable to do anything for the time being because of internal instability, and since then he has decided to increase his investment in the war in Hebei;

Then, in order to prevent the threat of self-authoritarianism and power loss to the generals in the army when he was not in front of the army, he deliberately divided the originally concentrated forces into several branches that were not subordinate to each other, and let them attack all the way in Hebei.

However, the territory under Zhang Bangchang's control is large enough, and although he has repeatedly tasted defeats, he has always been defeated but not destroyed, defeated but not dispersed, and there is always a way to make a comeback and fight again; In addition, due to the fact that the forces began to disperse and there was a lack of mutual support and coordination, the overall offensive began to slow down, and even individual horses and horses had fallen into a state of stagnation that could not be moved;

So much so that now he is already a little difficult to ride a tiger, and it is not a simple matter to gather these men and horses who are fighting (plundering) from Hebei back to prepare for the south. Taking advantage of the situation to negotiate peace with Zhang Bangchang's subordinates and reach a sufficiently decent condition for land cession and payment also requires enough time and cycle to negotiate back and forth.

Although, through this period of buffering and preparation, he has successively transferred back three men and horses and a large number of corresponding supplies, but he has also received a lot of complaints and criticism, because he needs to abandon most of the existing achievements, so he is tired of running for his life, which makes these hastily returned troops very dissatisfied and opinionated.

The rest of the people, who had not yet had time to return because they had gone too deep, also raised various objective difficulties and disadvantages in the exchange of messengers for help, such as being in a standoff with the enemy, the destruction of roads, and the lack of food.

Although, before the Huai army really arrived from Hebei Province, he could still take his troops and most of the treasury materials, avoid its sharpness and retreat to the land behind the mountain north of Yanshan, relying on the land of several states and the geographical victory of the Yanshan Mountain Range that still supported him there, and continue to deal with those Huai troops, and wait for an opportunity to counterattack;

But it also means that he has given up his legitimate title and title as the Grand Governor of Pinglu Province.

And the military horses he sent out, I don't know how many can still be collected or defected back, not to mention, he easily used brutal internal cleansing and decisive iron-blooded methods, and the popularity and prestige he gathered collapsed.

Then a news that was suddenly sent in made his face change suddenly, and he blurted out

"So fast."

Now, he finally couldn't help but suffer from the choices he had made.

The various preparations for Huaizhen to send troops had begun more than a month ago, but it could be said that the thunder and rain were repeated and the wait was a little boring.

So much so that most of the staff and staff around him speculated whether according to the traditional practice among feudal towns, they would not have enough manpower to prepare for the army until most of the autumn harvest was completed.

Then, now that the other side has sworn to send troops, it only took three days for most of them to appear in Hebei, and with the cooperation of the garrison soldiers and civilians at the front of Cangzhou, they began to uproot the forts and outposts located on the line of Qingzhou, Xiongzhou, and Anzhou in Pinglu Province.

So much so that the remnants of those who fled back to report the news could not tell the direction and scale of the enemy's attack at all.

(End of chapter)