A few days later, Murong Ke led an elite army of 100,000 to leave Jicheng and marched southward, among them, Murong Ba led 10,000 horses as the vanguard of the army, one step ahead.

The army of Yan attacked to the south, the first step was to capture Gaoyang, and then directly approached Lukou, and after breaking through Lukou, it continued to attack Julu and Zhao in the south, and then went straight to Xiangguo and Yecheng, and hit the core area of Wei.

There were not many Wei defenders in Gaoyang, and Murong Ba's 10,000 vanguards alone could easily capture it, but when the Yan army arrived at Lukou, it encountered fierce resistance from Wang Wu, the general of Wei.

Murong Ba was too light on the enemy, and after losing 500 men and horses, he led his army to retreat and joined up with Murong Ke's main force, preparing to capture Lukou with superior forces.

#####

In the direction of Guanzhong, Hua'an, who was sitting in Chang'an City, could no longer sit still, according to the reports of the scouts and Congshi, Ran Min successively eliminated Shi Yuan and Liu Xian, and nominally unified Hebei, and then, the 200,000 elite army of Yan State swore south from Jicheng and had advanced to Lukou.

Hua An knew very well in his heart that if it was according to the progress of history, it would not be long before Murong Ke's main army would annihilate Ran Min, and once Ran Min died in battle, the Hebei region would definitely fall into the hands of Yan State, and then, if the main force of Yan State went south, the vast area of the Central Plains would not be protected, which was obviously unacceptable.

For this reason, Hua'an hurriedly summoned Wang Meng, Deng Qiang, Wang San, Zhuge Xiong and other generals to discuss the specific matters of the troops out of Tongguan. First occupy Sizhou and Merge Prefecture, and then, according to the situation, further advance to Qingzhou and Jizhou, at least, the area around Luoyang must be occupied as much as possible.

In the main hall of the Thorn History Mansion in Chang'an City, Wang Meng, Deng Qiang and others arrived one after another and stood in the main hall.

Hua An saw that everyone had arrived, so he said, "Everyone, you must all know. Shi Yuan and Liu Xian in Hebei were defeated one after another. The strength of Zhao has completely disappeared, Ran Min's Wei has unified Hebei, and now, 200,000 elites of Yan have gone south. There is a momentum to seize Hebei in one fell swoop. If you let Yan Guo take the lead. Occupying the land of Hebei, our army will be passive, so. The general thought again and again, and decided to lead the troops out of the customs, first occupy the Central Plains, and then cross the river to the north and occupy the land of Hebei, what do you think? After speaking, he looked at Wang Meng and the others.

"Big brother, the soldiers have long been impatient, and it is the right time to send troops at this time." Wang San completely built yì soldiers out of Tongguan.

"General, the Wudang Flying Army is willing to fight."

"General, the Liangzhou army is willing to fight."

"General, and our Yizhou army, are willing to fight."

"General, don't forget our Guanzhong Legion."

Zhuge Xiong, Chen Poyu, Li Liang, Deng Qiang and others have successively issued statements that they are willing to fight.

Seeing that most of the generals were willing to fight, and the enthusiasm was very high, Hua'an was naturally very happy, but only Wang Meng did not speak, which made Hua'an a little worried.

"Wang Meng, if you have any opinions, you might as well talk about them." Hua An looked at Wang Meng and asked softly.

Wang Meng smiled, hugged his fists and said: "If the generals and soldiers go out of Tongguan, they will definitely succeed, I have no opinion." ”

Seeing that Wang Meng had no intention of objecting, Hua An'an was even more happy, he looked at Wang Meng and said, "Wang Meng, you are familiar with military books, but you must have never fought a war yet!" This expedition, let you lead the troops first, it's good. ”

Wang Meng shook his head, and said with a straight face: "It's good for the general to lead the main army to send troops, Wang Meng is willing to stay in Guanzhong and guard the eight hundred miles of Qinchuan in Guanzhong for the general, so that the general has no worries." ”

"The direction of Guanzhong is generally stable, it is enough to leave a partial general, and the front line is where talents are needed!" Hua An looked at Wang Meng with some regret.

Wang Meng smiled, and said: "The general has won the award, the Central Plains, there is no strong enemy at present, with the strength of the general and the bravery of the soldiers, it is easy to take, and although the direction of Guanzhong is generally stable, there are still many strong enemies around, and we must not guard against it, otherwise, once Guanzhong is occupied by the enemy, the consequences will be unimaginable." ”

"Oh, due west of Guanzhong is the Liang Kingdom, the southwest is Tuyuhun, and the north is the scattered Hu tribes, the Liang Kingdom is a subsidiary of my Great Jin, Tuyuhun is suppressed by the Liang Kingdom and my Qinzhou Legion, it is difficult to do anything, and the scattered Hu tribes in the north, with less than 10,000 soldiers, can also be regarded as a strong enemy?" Hua An wondered.

Wang Meng shook his head, and said: "Tuyuhun and the Hu tribe are not a big threat to Guanzhong, but Liang has an army of 100,000 people, and its strength cannot be underestimated. ”

When Hua An heard this, he felt that it made sense, so he asked: "Wang Meng, how many people do you need to ensure that Guanzhong is safe." ”

"30,000 Guanzhong legions are enough." Wang Meng said confidently.

Hua An nodded, and said: "Okay, the general will leave you with 30,000 Guanzhong legions, and the other 30,000 Guanzhong legions will be led by Deng Qiang and will go to the Central Plains with this general." ”

Wang Meng nodded, paused, and asked, "How do you plan to march when the generals leave Tongguan, and where do you want to capture them first?" ”

Hua An thought for a moment, and said: "Luoyang is the core of the Central Plains, the main army is approaching Luoyang, and then marching to the surrounding areas to control the Central Plains region with Luoyang as the center, and sending a division that has been partial, crossing the river to the north, first capturing the two counties of Hedong and Pingyang, and then going straight to the state, what do you think?" After speaking, he looked at Wang Meng.

Wang Meng nodded with satisfaction, and said with a straight face: "What the general said is extremely true, the main force will attack Luoyang, and the division will attack in the direction of Bingzhou, and the north and south will advance together, and the Central Plains and Hebei will be at your fingertips." ”

Seeing that Wang Meng affirmed his offensive strategy, Hua Anxin was even more satisfied, and made up his mind to march out of Tongguan.

At this time, in Chang'an and Tongguan, a huge amount of grain, grass and military materials had been hoarded, and there were countless ships of all sizes used for transportation, and these provided great convenience for Hua'an to send troops to the Central Plains.

After careful discussion with Wang Meng and others, Hua'an finally determined the specific route of the attack and the operational direction of each army.

First of all, the main army was personally commanded by himself, all the way to the direction of Luoyang, and the partial division that attacked in the direction of Bingzhou was commanded by Xie Ai.

This Xie Ai was originally a general of the Liang Kingdom, and it has been more than a year since he was borrowed, in this more than a year, Xie Ai saw that there was no war, and he had repeatedly asked to lead three thousand Liang troops back to the Liang Kingdom, and Zhang Chonghua, the king of Liang, also sent his henchmen to ask for Xie Ai many times, but Hua An refused for various reasons, and strictly ordered Yang An and Zhao Wu to watch Xie Ai, so that he could not leave Tongguan.

Originally, Hua'an planned to let Wang Meng lead the troops to go out as the main general of the partial division, but Wang Meng needed to stay in Guanzhong, and most of the remaining generals were not very strong, and it was difficult to assume the responsibilities of the main general, except for Xie Ai, there is really no more suitable candidate.

Besides, it cost a lot of money to borrow Xie Ai from Liangguo, so I don't need it now, let alone when.

In fact, in Hua'an's heart, the reason why a partial division should be sent to capture Bingzhou is because since ancient times, it is always easy to win by fighting from north to south and from west to east, while fighting from south to north mostly ends in failure, and the Central Plains is the core area, which cannot be occupied immediately, and after occupying the Central Plains, it is necessary to cross the river to the north, so that it is in a situation of attacking from south to north, losing a cut in momentum, and attacking from the east of Bingzhou is completely different.

Hua'an asked Yang An and Zhao Wu to each lead 20,000 troops to follow Xie Ai on the expedition, and sent another 40,000 reserve men and horses to serve as the logistics transportation and supply of Xie Ai's army.

In the direction of the main force led by Hua'an himself, there are 10,000 horses of the pro-guard army, 10,000 horses of the Wudang Fei army, Deng Qiang's 30,000 Guanzhong Army, with a total of 50,000 horses, as the core force of the attack on the Central Plains, and equipped with 50,000 reserve corps, in addition, Chen Poyu and Chen Huhu's 20,000 Liangzhou Army guards Tongguan, ready to reinforce the Central Plains direction at any time, and Li Liang's 10,000 Yizhou Army, which is responsible for escorting the grain and grass of the main army, can also reinforce the front at any time.

Those who remained in the direction of Guanzhong were Wang Meng and the 30,000 Guanzhong legions under his command, which could completely ensure that Guanzhong was safe.

The most important thing for a large army expedition is the logistical support, and the two armies are divided into troops, and the requirements for logistics are even higher.

In order to alleviate the pressure on logistics, the two armies all relied on waterway transportation for logistical supplies, especially the main army of Hua'an, which could rely on the wide Yellow River to transport a large amount of materials, and even, even the 10,000 horses of Hua'an's personal guards went east by boat to preserve the bodies of soldiers and horses, while Xie Ai's men and horses had to go upstream, so they could only use boats to transport various materials.

After nearly half a month of preparation, the two armies were fully ready, and all kinds of materials were transported onto the ship.

Under Hua'an's order, the two armies, totaling more than 200,000 horses, set off from Chang'an and Tongguan respectively, and marched towards Bingzhou and Sizhou.

Xie Ai had less than 100,000 men and horses all the way, crossed the river from Tongguan to the north, and marched along the Yellow River to Bingzhou, Hua'an led the personal guards and logistics transport men and horses, and set off from the vicinity of Chang'an by big boat, and went straight downstream, while Deng Qiang's 30,000 Guanzhong Army and Zhuge Xiong's 10,000 Wudang Flying Army, as well as tens of thousands of reserve troops, marched side by side with Hua'an along the south bank of the Yellow River, and the grain and grass and other materials of the main army on land were all supplied by ships on the waterway to reduce the logistical pressure faced by the main army.

Chen Polu and Chen Zhanhu led their troops to Tongguan as fast as possible to fill the gap in military strength after Xie Ai's army left, while Li Liang prepared a large number of supplies in Chang'an City and was ready to transport them to Luoyang at any time. (To be continued......)