-- On September 3, the 23rd year of Hongwu of the Great Zhou Dynasty, 60 miles east of Hangu Pass, the Zhou military camp was held, and he joined the army commander's tent.

"The rapid march of the past two days, hard work, should have set up a banquet to reward the whole army, because it is quite close to Hangu Pass at the moment, it is inevitable that there will be a mistake called the Hangu Pass rebels have a chance, therefore, this official is only here to replace the wine with tea, toast you a cup, but you can rest assured, when the Hangu Pass is conquered, the official will hold a feast and reward the three armies!"

In the tent of the commanders of the army, Xie An, who was the spokesman of the Western Expedition and the Western Zhou, held a teacup and saluted the dozens of generals sitting in the tent.

"Yes, yes, yes! General Xie is reasonable, and this king also respects you with a cup! Li Shou, who received Xie An's eyes, also stood up from the main seat, smiling and saluting the generals in the tent.

The generals in the tent hurriedly raised their glasses and laughed in unison, "Thank you Lord Wang, thank you to the generals......"

Although it seems to be happy, as long as the long-eyed people can see that in this army commander's tent, the generals of the Western Expedition Zhou Army and the rebel generals who surrendered are lined up on both sides, one side is headed by Zhang Dong, Ou Peng, Tang Hao and others, and the other side is headed by Fei Guo, Li Jing, and Su Xin.

Some people may wonder if when they were in Gucheng, didn't the rebel general and Zhou Jiang have already resolved the embarrassment, why are they still wary of each other like now?

It can only be said that the reason for this time and that time is that after saying that after the surrender of Tang Hao's 40,000 rebels, before leading the army to Hangu Pass. Xie An left Zhou generals Bubai, Shi Jin and 10,000 Zhou troops to defend Gucheng, and led an army of as many as 110,000 to Hangu Pass.

What does this mean?

This means that among the 110,000 troops at present, the Zhou army of the Western Expedition only accounts for 40,000 people, on the other hand, the rebels who surrendered have as many as 70,000 people.

Because of this, tensions between the two sides, which had been put on hold for the time being. Once again, it was made clear that the generals of the Zhou army were afraid of the overwhelming strength of the rebels, and the rebels were also subconsciously on guard because of the vigilance of the Zhou army, which made the two armies quite wary of each other.

All this, Xie An secretly saw in his eyes.

"Today, I convened all the generals to discuss military affairs, not for anything else, in view of the fact that Zhang Dong, Ou Peng, Tang Hao and other generals abandoned the darkness and turned to the light. This official consulted with General Anping, and they both felt that they would call the generals rebels again. It was too rude, so the official discussed with General Anping and decided to call the original Western Expeditionary Zhou Army the First Army of the Western Expedition, referred to as the First Army, and the generals Zhang Dong, Ou Peng, and Tang Hao temporarily called the Second Army of the Western Expedition. Referred to as the Second Army, I don't know what you think? ”

The Western Expedition Zhou Army, no, the generals of the First Army of the Western Expedition did not say a word, because they knew that Xie An was not asking them, but asking Zhang Dong, Ou Peng, Tang Hao and others.

"This ......"

I have to say. After hearing Xie An's words, the former rebel generals in the tent were overjoyed, and hurriedly stood up and hugged their fists to thank them.

"It's what I want. Don't dare to please! -- The guilty general has thanked General Anping for his compassion! Thank you for your compassion! ”

"Good!" Glancing at Li Shou, Xie An Zhengse said, "Since this is the case, you can no longer use the original title to call the generals of the Second Army......"

The generals of the first army in the tent felt a pang in their hearts, knowing that Xie An's words were aimed at them, so they hurriedly clenched their fists and took their orders.

"No! - Remember! ”

"Okay, well, then General Anping will give you another drink!" Xie An smiled and glanced back at Li Shou.

This king uses you to make a wish for me?

Li Shou rolled his eyes, but finally stood up and gave a toast to the generals in the tent.

In fact, Xie An discussed this matter with him for several days, and the reason why he couldn't think of the available army number for a while, so he put it on hold for the time being, and now, seeing that the relationship between the two armies was too tense, he agreed to Xie An's temporary number, which was almost a joke.

Afterwards, Xie An took the initiative to ask the generals of the Second Army to send a small team of troops to serve as his bodyguard.

I have to admit that although this trick to win people's hearts is superficial, it is very effective, when Liao Li, the general of the Second Army, took 300 foot soldiers to serve as Xie An's escort mission, the attitude of the entire rebel army, no, the entire soldiers of the Second Army, was obviously different.

As for the soldiers of the 300 Eastern Army Shenwu Battalion, Xie An asked them to protect Li Shou, not that he couldn't trust the soldiers of the Second Army, but Li Shou's identity was unusual.

After talking and laughing, the generals retreated in turn, and even Li Shou couldn't support it because of the hurried for days, so he went back to his tent to rest, leaving Xie An alone to write a letter to his family in the marshal's tent, after all, before the army set off from Jijing, Liang Qiuwu told Xie An more than once to let him write a letter to his family every day and send the soldiers of the Eastern Army to Jijing.

And the bad thing is that since leaving Luoyang, Xie An has been pulled down for more than three or four days.

Thinking that the good wife at home was very likely to be furious because of this incident, Xie An secretly suppressed the tiredness of traveling for days and days, and waved a pen under the lamp.

"To my wife, my husband has conquered Gucheng the day before yesterday, and said that the rebel general Tang Hao and his 40,000 soldiers are now leading a large army to Hangu Pass, which is only more than 60 miles away from this pass...... If it is not for the husband's perfunctory intentions, in fact, he has been in a hurry for days, and there is no opportunity to write a letter to his family, and the husband apologizes to his good wife here...... Now that the situation is very good, do not worry...... I don't know how my beloved wife and Yiyi are in Jijing, and I miss ...... very much."

While reading in a low voice, Xie An wrote down the battle situation in the past few days on the letter as if keeping a running account, adding a lot of sweet words to coax Liangqiu Dance in Jijing, lest the fierce little female tiger get angry because he didn't write to her for days.

Here, Xie An was writing, and suddenly, the voices of Liao Li's subordinates came from outside the tent.

"My lord, the general of the first army asks to see you!"

Brother Yan?

Didn't you just leave, why did you come back?

The pen in Xie An's hand paused and shouted. "Please!"

As soon as the words fell, Yan Kai walked in with a tent cloth, and saw Xie An sitting behind the desk with a pen, as if he was writing something, he smiled knowingly, and then hugged his fists and said, "Uncle, Miss has a letter!" With that, he took a few steps forward and handed the letter in his hand to Xie An.

I have to say. Xie An's expression was a little surprised, after all, Da Zhou is not as good as his former hometown, and the correspondence is extremely inconvenient, although Xie An sent people to Ji Jing along the way, but Liang Qiu Wu's letters were sent to him, it was quite difficult, although he had been away from Ji Jing for two months, but he had only received more than a dozen letters from Liang Qiu Wu, as for the rest. Most of the officers and soldiers of the Eastern Army who sent the letter were still looking for traces of Xie An's army in the mountains and fields around Luoyang and Yanshi.

I opened the envelope and glanced at it cursoryly. Xie An shook his head with a smirk, because he found out that the letter had been written at least a month ago.

After all, looking between the lines, Liang Qiuwu didn't say a word about Luoyang, but just told him to pay attention to the cold on the road.

After thinking about it, Xie An temporarily put down Liang Qiuwu's letter, picked up the letter he had just written, and roasted it by the candle flame until the ink was dry. It was handed to Yan Kai.

"Trouble Brother Yan to send someone to send this letter to Jijing ...... for me"

Yan Kai smiled and nodded, after all, this kind of thing, Xie An had entrusted them to the four generals of the Eastern Army more than once or twice, and it was not surprising, and when he put away Xie An's letter and was about to leave, Xie An suddenly called out to him.

"That's right, Brother Yan. There is one thing that the younger brother does not know...... That Wei Yun, have you had a gap with Brother Yan? ”

"Wei Yun?" Yan Kai turned his head and said in surprise, "Wei Yun, one of the three generals of the Southern Army? ”

"Yes!" Xie An nodded.

"This ......" Yan Kai was stunned. Shaking his head and smiling, "The Southern Army and our Eastern Army can be said to be in the same breath, how can there be a gap?" ”

"That'...... Didn't Brother Yan notice? Then Wei Yun looked at the expressions of you and Second Brother Chen, something was wrong......"

"......" Yan Kai frowned slightly, in fact, he had noticed it as early as Luoyang, when Wei Yun noticed that there were four generals of the Shenwu Battalion of the Eastern Army in the army, his eyes were shocked and angry, and even faintly mixed with a bit of hatred, which made Yan Kai, Chen Gang, Xiang Qing, and Luo Chao inexplicable, but they didn't know the specifics, so it was difficult to say it directly.

"Brother Yan are you sure that Wei Yun has no gap with the Eastern Army?" Xie An asked again.

As if noticing the solemnity of Xie An's tone, Yan Kai put away his smile, nodded and said, "This matter is definitely true!" ”

"That's weird...... That's it, it's late at night, Brother Yan, let's go back to the tent and rest first! ”

“…… Well! ”

Looking at Yan Kai's back as he clenched his fists and left, Xie Anxin was puzzled.

Of course, he would not doubt Yan Kai, after all, Yan Kai was Liang Qiuwu's confidant, and it would never hurt him Xie An.

In other words, is the problem with Wei Yun?

Or is it the entire Yugoslav Army?

I don't know how long it took, Xie An suddenly shook his head, although he vaguely felt that this matter was a little strange, but even if he wanted to break his head, he couldn't think of the problem.

It wasn't until he led his army to Hangu Pass the next day and joined the southern army that he learned the inside story......

At dawn the next day, the army set out as usual and continued on its way.

At this time, the news that Xie An changed the original rebel army to the Second Army of the Western Expedition has spread all over the 110,000 army, which makes the relationship between the two armies a little closer.

In this way, on the evening of September 4, Li Shou and Xie An, who led an army of 110,000 troops, finally arrived at the Hangu Pass.

What's funny is that when I heard that more than 100,000 Zhou troops from the west arrived at Hangu Pass, the rebels outside the pass hurriedly withdrew into Hangu Pass, most of them were incomprehensible, obviously they had sent Tang Hao to lead 40,000 rebels to aid Gucheng, why Gucheng still fell, and there was not even the slightest news.

Even, the strength of the Zhou army in this western expedition did not decrease, but increased.

In view of this incredible phenomenon, the rebels who originally surrounded the southern army in Hangu Pass retreated to the pass one by one, after all, according to the general Tang Hao, there were originally 100,000 troops in Hangu Pass, but now, there are only 60,000 left, no wonder the rebels in the pass are panicked.

Xie An's army arrived around the time of Shen, when the sun was gradually setting, therefore. Xie An asked Fei Guo and Li Jing to lead the First Army of the Western Expedition to set up two camps at the foot of Batu Mountain on the east side of Hangu Pass, and asked Zhang Dong and Tang Hao to lead the Second Army of the Western Expedition to set up two camps in Qinglong Mountain on the southeast side of Hangu Pass.

After arranging the corresponding affairs, Xie An took Zheng Hao, Su Xin, Yan Kai, Chen Gang and other generals to go to the southern army camp that was already within the protection of the Western Expeditionary Army with Li Shou.

This time, he did not bring the generals of the Second Army. The reason for this is that Zhang Dong, Ou Peng, Tang Hao, etc. also know it.

I have to say that the current southern army is really very miserable, under the small hillside they occupy, there are corpses of rebels everywhere, roughly estimated, as many as thousands, it is not difficult to imagine. What a fierce battle broke out here?

After all, even the air around it. It seems to have a strong smell of blood, unusually pungent.

Looking at the corpses of the rebels all over the hillside, Zheng Hao, Su Xin and other generals glanced at each other, and they all saw the horror in each other's eyes.

"It's worthy of the Southern Army, with only 8,000 people, facing more than 100,000 troops in Hangu Pass, they have stubbornly defended this place for more than 20 days......"

"But I don't know how many people are left at this moment......"

"I think it's less than four thousand, right?"

"Maybe less ......"

As if hearing the discussion behind him, Xie An, who was riding a horse and walking side by side with Li Shou, frowned and turned around. glanced at the generals who were whispering in displeasure.

Seeing this, these generals of the First Army hurriedly stopped talking.

It can be seen that Xie An at this time has a lot of prestige in the Western Expeditionary Army.

It's no wonder that although Xie An kept saying that he was acting according to the clever plan left by the eldest grandson Xiangyu, the generals of the First Army were not fools. Where can I not see that Xie An's way of using troops in the past few days is obviously very different from that of the eldest grandson Xiangyu.

The way the eldest grandson Xiangyu used his troops was like a thunderstorm in nine days. Advocating deterrence, she is accustomed to acting vigorously and resolutely, annihilating the enemy's living forces with overwhelming superiority, killing chickens and monkeys, and thus deterring other rebels; Xie An's way of using troops these days is aimed at dividing and absorbing the enemy's troops, as if snowballing, making his army more and more powerful.

It's not that Xie An is more clever than Changsun Xiangyu, you must know that with Changsun Xiangyu's intelligence, would he not think of such a thing?

It's just that she pays too much attention to stability, and is used to controlling everything and minimizing the variables that will happen on the battlefield as much as possible, so she will never do something as risky as Xie An, take Tang Hao as an example, if that woman really took down Tang Hao's 40,000 rebels without blood, then the most likely thing she would do was to try to kill all the 40,000 rebels, instead of surrendering them.

Because only in this way will she reduce all kinds of changes that she can't calculate, for example, Tang Hao, who has obviously surrendered, suddenly turned against him, instead of always dispatching troops and horses with this worry, the eldest grandson Xiangyu would rather kill all the 40,000 people and reduce the variables on the battlefield.

It can't be said that she is ruthless, it can only be said that she is too steady with her soldiers, and she steadily makes it possible for the enemy to turn the tables once they step into her calculations.

On the other hand, if it weren't for the battle of the eldest grandson Xiangyu in Luoyang, which made Zhang Dong speechless, Xie An would not have been able to say that Zhang Dong would have surrendered, and then it would have been impossible to say that Ou Peng, Tang Hao and others would have surrendered without blood.

It can only be said that both are tactics to attack the heart, deterrence and cultural warfare, each with its own merits.

To get back to the point, when Xie An and Li Shou arrived at the camp of the Southern Army, the soldiers of the Southern Army in the village had already opened the door to greet them.

Under the walled gate, there are two generals with resolute faces and fierce eyes like fierce beasts waiting, these two are burly, tiger-backed and bear-waisted, powerful and powerful, and even above Yan Kai and Chen Gang in terms of strength.

According to the explanations of Yan Kai and Chen Gang, Xie An knew that these two people were called Lin Zhen and Le Jun respectively, and they were called the three generals of the Southern Army together with Wei Yun, and they were not inferior to the four generals of the Shenwu Battalion of the Eastern Army.

"General Lin, General Le!" Riding in front of Lin Zhen and Le Jun, Xie An turned over and dismounted, hugged his fists and said with a smile, "This official Xie An, this is the commander of the Western Expeditionary Army, the general of the imperial order Anping, His Royal Highness Li Shou!" ”

Originally, with Xie An's current status, there was no need to dismount, but when he thought that Lu Gong had been kind to him, he still gave Nanjun enough respect.

After Xie An's introduction to Li Shou, Li Shou and the generals behind him also dismounted, after all, Li Shou still knew about the military regulations that horses were not allowed to run in the camp, not to mention the generals behind him.

Lin Zhen and Le Jun glanced at each other, and immediately knocked on the ground and hugged their fists.

"The last general, Lin Zhen, meet General Anping!"

"The last general, Le Jun, meet General Anping!"

"The two generals, please," Li Shou bent down to help Lin Zhen and Le Jun up, and then asked, "I don't know what is the current situation of Duke Lu?" ”

Lin Zhen and Le Jun were silent, and after being silent for a while, they said, "The old man hasn't woken up yet...... The Great General and the End of the World! ”

As he spoke, Lin Zhen raised his hand and introduced the generals into the camp.

Xie An clearly saw that Lin Zhen and Le Jun glanced at Yan Kai and Chen Gang at the same time as they turned around, and there was a faint hint of anger in their eyes.

Sure enough, is the problem with the Southern Army?

Xie An frowned slightly, exchanged glances with Yan Kai and Chen Gang, but he didn't know, and together with Li Shou, he walked into the camp with Lin Zhen and Le Jun.

After a short time, they came outside the tent, Lin Zhen and Le Jun took the tent and invited Li Shou, Xie An and others to enter.

After a cursory sweep of the tent, Xie An saw a bed in the corner of the tent, and there was a person lying on the bed, his head wrapped in bandages.

Around the bed, there were many angry generals of the Southern Army, with red eyes and bloodshot eyes.

Seeing this, Xie An was about to walk over, when suddenly, a cold sword stretched out from nowhere, and put it on his neck.

At the same time, Li Shou and the rest of the generals who entered the tent were also held hostage with swords by the soldiers of the Southern Army who were ambushed in the tent.

Xie Anxin secretly screamed that it was not good, and said without changing his face, "Everyone, what is this for?" ”

As soon as the words fell, I saw a man striding over beside the bed, grabbing Xie An's shirt with a fierce expression.

"Tiger Fu, where is it?!"