() These generals have the power of the forbidden army, Xue Chongxun is of course aware of their every move at any time, and he rarely asks in person just because he is as usual. **!。 * For example, Li Kuiyong has several concubines, and all the people and backgrounds in his family can be found in the inner factory, and even there are people in the inner factory in his family, but he doesn't know it.

Xue Chongxun had to guard against it, and the forbidden army had a knife and a gun in its hands, which itself had certain hidden dangers; However, he also needs the forbidden army to maintain a military superiority in foreign force, because compared with a group of generals who lack foresight and foundation, his hidden danger is also the Nanya's group of bureaucrats who are in charge of the military and political power in the world and have a deep foundation, so Xue Chongxun has never sent eunuchs to the forbidden army to affect their enthusiasm, and the surveillance only relies on the inner factory to carry out secretly.

In Xue Chongxun's eyes, the two systems of the north and the south are just a kind of checks and balances, and at the same time, there is also a balance between the forbidden army, three armies with different formations, and the three main generals have completely different backgrounds and positions; Moreover, the ordnance supervisor who controls the equipment is not all the way. It is difficult for them to twist into a rope, and they can only obey the edicts of the royal family separately. In short, it is one thing to follow Xue Chongxun to fight the country, and it is another thing to involve the distribution of power and the distribution of rich and noble interests, just like soldiers call each other brothers and sisters, but the rules still have to be observed, and military law is ruthless.

Such checks and balances, coupled with the values of loyalty and filial piety recognized in this era, in order to achieve the stability of the regime, of course, this is only relative.

After dinner, Xue Chongxun only asked the chief general Yin Ci and the inner factory to order Yu Wenxiao to enter the internal account to discuss military affairs. Yin Ci and Yu Wenxiao went to Zhengzhou first, one of them commanded the army to formulate a plan for the army, and the other provided information on the enemy's situation, and the cooperation was quite tacit. However, Xue Chongxun noticed that the relationship between them was very cold, and his words were limited to official business. Yin Ci is not as naïve as Li Kuiyong, it is estimated that Yin Ci has realized that he is being watched by Yu Wenxiao, and he obviously has no good impression of Yu Wenxiao in any case, just like the military generals of the previous dynasty have always had no good impression of the eunuchs of the prison army.

Yin Ci recounted his battle construction: "The Shence army came from the canal through the major cities, and Cui Qigao should have known our location through Guò Xizuo. According to Yuwen Gong's information, the large-scale rebel army that had been circulating in various counties in Hebei in the early stage was returning to Huazhou to defend itself. In the opinion of the last general, Cui Qigao wanted to concentrate his forces to fight our army in Huazhou, so as to protect their nest of complete control, because except for Huazhou, they have not occupied any state capital in Hebei, and losing Huazhou will lose their base base. Therefore, the combat goal of our army in the early stage is very simple, directly approaching the capital of Huazhou Prefecture, waiting for the decisive battle of the main force of the rebels, and winning this decisive battle will make the large number of rabble gathered by Cui Qigao disperse in frustration......

In case the main rebel force does not assemble in Huazhou to fight hard, we will first capture the state capital and clean its lair. The rebels will lose their foundation and become a rogue in Hebei, and the supply difficulties will inevitably plunder the people, and the loss of popular support will become a scattered sand, and the next situation will also be favorable to us. ”

Xue Chongxun didn't say anything, and asked Yin Ci after a while: "If you were Cui Qigao, how would you break this situation?" It's a dead end at both ends, he can't pick a dead end? ”

Yin Ci pondered for a long time and said: "Assuming that this is the case, although the elite soldiers transferred by the imperial court are well-equipped, the number is small, and the real Cui Qigao does not know the combat effectiveness of the Shence army, let alone the advantages of firearms, 'I' will fight in Huazhou, hoping to win the first battle to gain more time for expansion; if unfortunately defeated, he should lead the rest of the army to quickly cross the Yellow River and retreat to Hebei." At such a time, if the Khitan and Xi soldiers went south to attack all parts of Youzhou, 'I' would be able to take the opportunity to lead the people into Andong Mansion to try to seize Yuguan and other important places, and cut off the supply line from Yingzhou to Hebei. Next, there are too many soldiers and horses in Yingzhou, too little food, and it may be reoccupied by the barbarians in the case of the enemy, Cui Qigao can collude with the Khitan to share the territory of Yingzhou and Andong Prefecture, and rely on the help of the Khitan and the terrain to survive in a corner. Of course, this is only an imaginary possibility, in fact, it is very difficult for the Khitan to let Cui Qigao rely on it, and whether it will respond in time, and there are too many variables in it. However, Cui Qigao is an exile and a fugitive, which is equivalent to an outlaw, and he can only take one more step. ”

Xue Chongxun nodded and said, "Then let's fight Xiazhou first, I also want to fight with Cui Qigao's main force to try firearms tactics." The order will go down, send troops early tomorrow morning, and go straight to Huazhou along the south bank of the Yellow River, so that Cui Qigao doesn't have too much time to prepare. ”

…… The distance between Zhengzhou City and Huazhou City is more than 300 miles, and if you use the combat marching speed of the Shence Army, you can reach it in three days; However, this time the troops carried a large amount of baggage, more than 40 pieces of artillery alone, although the improved small dragon and tiger cannon was more suitable for field battles and could be transported by horse-drawn carriage, but it was still very slow. Coupled with the large amount of ammunition and forage, the Shence Army appeared even more cumbersome and slow. It is estimated that it will take more than five days to reach Huazhou City.

The procession of the actual march was not as beautiful as in Suzaku Street, and all the troops marched in loose queues in order to save their bodies, and there were mules and horses mixed with camels, and miscellaneous labor, and the rear army was even more ugly, and there were many people who were requisitioned, and the chariots and horses carried all kinds of things, as if they were moving.

It was the end of May, and the weather was already relatively hot, especially on sunny days, when the sun was sweating. However, Xue Chongxun still rode a horse with perseverance, he hadn't lived such a hard life for a long time, he was really not used to it, Sanniang couldn't see his face with a big hat, and he was inseparable behind Xue Chongxun. There were fields of crops on both sides of the road, but there were also sporadic sentry horses on the path in the middle of the fields extending their lateral line of sight, and it was not easy to step on the crops at all, unless they marched with their heads swaggering without warning.

"It's getting hot." Xue Chongxun turned his head to Yin Ci and said, "But I'm really afraid that it will rain, and I won't be able to use firearms when it rains." ”

Yin Ci hugged his fists and said: "Your Majesty, the Shence Army can still defeat the enemy soldiers in one battle without using firearms." ”

Xue Chongxun said: "But then I can't see the scene I want to see, I can only see the foot cavalry rushing to kill, this kind of situation is really nothing to see, in the past in the battle between Helong and Tubo, hundreds of thousands of people have been seen fighting all over the mountains." By the way, you are still the one who orders this battle, I won't interfere, just watch the excitement. ”

After setting up camp that night, Yu Wenxiao brought new information, Cui Qigao's main force had gathered in Huazhou City, Xue Chongxun said to Yin Ci: I'm afraid you guessed right, Cui Qigao just wants to compete with us.

When sleeping at night, the tent was lit with herbs to repel mosquitoes, the smell was very bad, and it was so smoked that people didn't want to open their eyes, and the generals of the Flying Tiger Regiment offered spices instead of herbs but Xue Chongxun refused. Xue Chongxun saw that Sanniang had been frowning and looking very unhappy, so he said: "It's better to order this thing, but the whole big tent is too fragrant, bear with it." ”

Sanniang said in a low voice: "It's not the smell of smoke, I sweat during the day, and I can't even take a bath." ”

Xue Chongxun suddenly realized: "If you take a bath, you have to wait a few days before the battle, and then the whole army will have to take a bath and change clean clothes to prevent the wound from deteriorating easily after being injured." ”

After marching for three days in a row, the sentry cavalry and the fine work had already made a clear picture of the rebel arrangements inside and outside Huazhou. Judging from the density of troops, Cui Qigao actually has two key lines of defense: the first is to choose a battlefield that is conducive to them at the main intersection and arrange heavy troops, so as to wait for work and plan to start a decisive battle with the official army; The second is the fortifications of Huazhou City and a military camp near the Yellow River, which wants to form a corner. According to the news reported from Huazhou City, Cui Qigao spent a lot of effort on the city defense, not only strengthening the city gates, but also hoarding fire oil, rolling wood, a large number of arrows, and grain and grass. It seems that he is really reluctant to his hometown and wants to stick to it for a long time.

Xue Chongxun was also pondering, using a small dragon and tiger cannon to bombard the city wall of Huazhou, I don't know if the power is enough, after all, the power of this batch of artillery mainly used in field warfare is far inferior to the previous batch of artillery weighing thousands of catties.

The staff of the Chinese army drew an illustrated picture of the battlefield chosen by Cui Qigao, but Xue Chongxun was very confused, and had to let them explain it orally to figure it out. Cui Qigao is indeed playing very loudly, and this terrain is very unfavorable for the people and horses from the west: the terrain is higher and open to the east, and the frontal attack of the official army is the upward attack; There is a mountain on the west side, and the horizontal open land is not wide, which is not conducive to swinging. Moreover, the rebels have already set up camp there and waited, eating, drinking, sleeping, and working well, and there are many men and horses, and they have taken up a lot of benefits; There must be people under this guy who are well versed in the art of war.

This place can be said to be the only way to go east to Huazhou, although there are other roads to bypass, but the road is not easy to walk, it is more troublesome for the Shence army with a large number of baggage, and it may be attacked after the army is heavy.

Yin Ci also proposed a frontal attack, but it was necessary to find a way to lead the enemy to attack, otherwise the road for a direct feint attack was too narrow and inconvenient for advance and retreat. And Xue Chongxun didn't have any other ideas, he just hoped that it wouldn't rain in the past few days, the summer rainstorm would come, and the luck should not be so bad.

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