Liu Ziqiu made a lot of trouble in the Mobei grassland, except for Liu Wuzhou, who occupied the three counties of Mayi, Yanmen and Loufu, who knew a little about it, the other princes did not care about the changes that had taken place in the Turks, or they did not want to care. If there is anything else in the Mobei steppe that deserves their attention, it is the large number of war horses owned by the Turks, which will have an immediate effect on the improvement of their strength. Like Mobei, in their eyes, the West Sea is a wild place, and even the Hexi counties are not very eye-catching. Similarly, the sparsely populated Jiangnan and Lingnan provinces have a hard time attracting their attention.

It would be wrong to say that the heroes are short-sighted. Those who achieve great things must first look at the overall situation, at least Li Yuan can see farther, he has been paying attention to Liu Ziqiu in the West Sea. With the smooth flow of trade routes, Li Yuan and Yang Xuangan also sent Jiān to infiltrate Weiding City, of course, they already knew Liu Ziqiu's character. A young man with no foundation has occupied the entire Hexi in just one year, and the speed of progress is impressive. On the other hand, after knowing that it was Liu Ziqiu who occupied the West Sea, the eldest grandson Wuji also specially mentioned to his brother-in-law Li Shimin that Liu Ziqiu was not just a brave man, and he had to be guarded against.

Although Liu Ziqiu had a good impression of the eldest grandson Wuji, since his sister eldest grandson Wujian and Li Shimin got married, he has firmly stood on Li Shimin's side, which is the power of marriage. So at this time, he was evaluating Liu Ziqiu from another angle.

Of course, it's one thing to pay attention, but it's another thing to solve it. At least for the counties of Hexi now, Li Yuan is still out of reach, because there is a Yang Xuangan in the middle. Li Yuan also thought about sending someone to contact Liu Ziqiu, just like the alliance with Yu Wenhua at the beginning, to attack the east and west, and solve Yang Xuangan first. But Liu Ziqiu came to this position from an ordinary soldier, and most of the civil and military forces used by his subordinates were born civilians, and Li Yuan really had no one to do with Liu Ziqiu. Although the news that Li Yuan got also showed that Liu Ziqiu had a good relationship with the major families, Li Yuan himself did not trust these families.

The eldest grandson Wuji's brother and sister had a relationship with Liu Ziqiu, but none of their brothers and sisters were underage, and Gao Shilian didn't worry about letting them go to the Western Regions anyway. Gao Shilian is not only Li Yuan's in-laws, but also a number of capable ministers under him, and Li Yuan can't help but consider his attitude.

Although Li Yuan was very concerned about Hexi, the news he got was that Hexi was calm. Because Liu Ziqiu did not grasp the power in internal affairs too tightly, and a lot of power was delegated to Zhao Ling, He Chou and others, ordinary officials rarely saw Liu Ziqiu once in a few months, so Liu Ziqiu broke into the grassland for more than two months, and civil officials at all levels did not react. Of course, the generals in the army knew the news of Liu Ziqiu's Northern Expedition, but the army had a strict secrecy system, and the fate of the leaker would be very miserable. In the laws formulated by Liu Ziqiu, there are only two charges for implementing the policy of connecting with foreign countries, and the other is leaking military aircraft.

Of course, Liu Ziqiu's strategy of keeping the enemy out of the country during this Northern Expedition was indeed calm in Hexi, and it was not wrong for Li Yuan to get such information.

On the other hand, Li Yuan is also facing great pressure. To the north of him there is Liu Wuzhou's rebellion, in the west there is Yang Xuangan eyeing the tiger, in the south there is the powerful Wang Shichong, in the east there are Lu Mingyue, Wang Bo, Xu Yuanlang and other thieves from all walks of life are getting more and more fierce, and Zhai Rang, not far from Luoyang, is his henchman. In this case, Li Yuan did not spare too much energy to pay too much attention to the situation in Hexi and Mobei.

Yang Xuangan's rìzi is no better than Li Yuan. Although he only faced pressure from Liu Ziqiu and Li Yuan, and after Liu Ziqiu withdrew to Hexi, the area around Longxi had become a hollow area, and Liu Ziqiu in Hexi could not threaten him for the time being, he only needed to resist Li Yuan's side, but he lacked food. In fact, the land around Guanzhong is fertile and is an important grain producing area in itself. However, Guanzhong has a large population and is not self-sufficient in food. In the early years of the Great Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian once staged a big drama of escaping from the famine and chasing food, and he was nicknamed "the son of heaven chasing food" by later generations. It was not until Yang Guang dug a canal and unimpeded transportation that the situation of grain shortage in Chang'an gradually improved. But even so, Yang Guang still stays in Luoyang most of the time, just because Luoyang is a place that extends in all directions, and there will be no predicament of having no food to eat.

Now that the princes of the four sides are divided, other goods can still pass, but they are reluctant to release a grain of grain from their own jurisdiction. As a result, since the beginning of winter, the price of grain in Chang'an has skyrocketed, and even military rations have taken measures to halve them. At this time, Yang Xuangan's eyes were of course not on Hexi, which was not the main grain producing area and had no obvious threat to him, but on Bashu.

Bashu was originally the birthplace of the Western Liang Kingdom, and Queen Xiao was the princess of the Western Liang Kingdom. After Yang Guang ascended the throne, he appointed Xiao Miao, a nephew of Empress Xiao's own family, as the county magistrate of Luoxian County. coincided with the chaos in the world, Xiao Mo raised troops in Luo County and called himself Liang Gong. In just one year, he captured Yueyang, Jiujiang and other places, and restored the hometown of Xiliang. There is only one Wuguan between Bashu and Guanzhong, and out of Wuguan is the land of Bashu, and Wuguan is currently in the hands of Yang Xuangan. Yang Xuangan was dispatching troops to prepare to attack Xiao Miao, and of course he didn't have the energy to pay attention to Liu Ziqiu's situation.

For Zhai Rang, Wang Shichong, and Lu Mingyue, whether it is Mobei or Hexi, it is a very distant thing from them, and they have never thought of paying attention to those places.

However, even though Liu Ziqiu is in the desert and grassland, he has been paying attention to the situation in various parts of the Central Plains. So as soon as he returned to the territory of Wuwei, the post guard sent an urgent report of the military situation. It's just that Liu Ziqiu couldn't have imagined that what the post guard sent over was an urgent report about Jiangnan.

……

At the beginning of Chūn, the ice and snow had begun to melt, and the branches could not wait to bloom with new greenery, but the atmosphere in Moling Town, on the outskirts of Danyang, was tense. On the eve of the New Year, after Wang Shichong's marriage failed, he sent someone to ask for money and food again, but Xie Wengshan categorically refused. Xie Wenda, who had long been in contact with Wang Shichong, spread the news that the Xie family was going to move south to Lingnan, which was immediately opposed by most of the Xie family. Xie Wenda took the opportunity to push these people to force the palace on Xie Wengshan.

At this moment, Han Shige led a group of 5,000 jīng soldiers to Moling Town. These 5,000 jīng soldiers had bright armor and high morale, which greatly shocked the old and young of the Xie family. And Han Shige's attitude is very clear, he is here to support Xie Wengshan. The situation reversed in an instant, Xie Wengda was detained by Xie Wengshan with family law, and a ** disappeared invisibly.

However, Moling Town only temporarily lifted the crisis, and Wang Shichong of Jiangbei was their biggest threat. Now, Wang Shichong is gearing up, mobilizing a large army, searching for ships everywhere, and is about to go south. After more than half a year of development, Wang Shichong successively annexed Lujiang, Liyang, Huainan, Zhongli and other counties around Jiangdu, and his strength increased greatly, and the number of soldiers and horses increased to 100,000. However, while the number of soldiers and horses increased, there was also tremendous pressure on supplies. In this era, supplies are money. If there is no food, you will be hungry, and if you don't have money, you will not be able to pay your salary, and no matter which one you lack, it will cause the morale of the army to be unstable.

If the northern heroes continue to develop to the north, the plundering of money and grain will inevitably directly merge with the northern heroes. Although he promised Xiao Dapeng to help Empress Dowager Xiao regain power, the cunning Wang Shichong did not intend to expose his strength so early, he wanted to seize the time when the heroes were defeated and reaped the benefits of the fisherman.

In this case, if Wang Shichong wants to solve the dilemma of money and food, he can only set his sights on Jiangnan. Asking the Xie family for money and food is just a pretense, he knows that sooner or later the Xie family will be overwhelmed, he is waiting for the Xie family to refuse, when the Xie family refuses, he can become famous. Because of Xiao Dapeng's whistleblowing, Wang Shichong also knew the relationship between the Xie family and the Changshan Carriage and Horse Company, so Wang Shichong ordered the canal to be blocked, seized and confiscated many ships of the Changshan Carriage and Horse Company, and used them as combat ships and troop carriers. Now that Xie Wengshan refused to provide money and food, Wang Shichong had an excuse and immediately ordered troops to be sent to Jiangnan.

……

Liu Ziqiu has two roots, one is Hexi and the other is Jiangnan, the two places are thousands of miles apart, but they also affect his nerves. Hexi has his women and a powerful army that he has built single-handedly. Jiang Nan has his brothers, his wife who has lived and died with him, and the Xie family, who supported him in his most difficult time. Now that Wang Shichong has seized the ships of the Changshan Carriage and Horse Travel, and is going to attack the Xie family and Jiangnan, how can Liu Ziqiu ignore it! But the two places are too far apart, and no matter how strong the troops in Liu Ziqiu's hands are, they will not be able to fly to the south of the Yangtze River for a while.

Seeing Liu Ziqiu's uncertain face, Wen Hao was surprised: "Lord, Wang Shichong turned the world upside down in Jiangnan, and what did he do to me in Hexi?" ”

Wen Hao followed Liu Ziqiu after the end of Yang Guangxi's battle to conquer Tuguhun, and of course he didn't know the important position of Jiangnan in Liu Ziqiu's mind.

Liu Ziqiu didn't want to reveal all his secrets, he shook his head and said: "There is only one Yingyang Mansion in Jiangnan, and the number of troops is only a thousand, how can it resist Wang Shichong's 50,000 army?" Yuhang Yingyang Mansion Lang will Huayun is my righteous brother, and he will bear the brunt, how can I sit idly by. ”

Jiaoliyan is a rough man, but he only values righteousness. When he heard that Liu Ziqiu was so worried about a righteous brother, he couldn't help but clench his fists with both hands and said loudly: "Since the lord wants to save his brother, then let's kill Jiangnan!" I would like to be a pioneer in my corner! ”

Wen Hao pursed his lips disdainfully and said: "From here to Jiangnan, there is still Chang'an and Luoyang in between, and it will take to capture these two fortified cities, I don't know how much time it will take." At that time, Jiangnan would have been beaten down by Wang Shichong a long time ago, where can it be saved, we must think of other ways! ”

Kakuri grinned and said, "I only want to come up with this stupid way, and I can't think of anything else." ”