Chen Zhihu is in the mountain camp.

In the early morning of the 21st, some white mist spread out from both sides of the riverbank, covering the trees in the distance, and the treetops loomed.

In front of the camp of the mountain, eight thousand steps to ride a pillow and ready to go, Gao Yi put on armor, sat on horseback, held the reins, and Leng Zilin said: "Old Gao, I will take the first step, and I will wait for you to lead your troops over in Xinye." ”

"You remember to me, Tu An will listen to my orders, and if you don't obey the order, you will go with him, and you must not stop him. Once you're in the new wilderness, you can't go any further......"

"What should I do if General Shinno is not allowed to enter the city?" Gao Yi asked.

"Kill! After that, I explained it to Prince Mu. Chen Zhihu's scarred face looked even more hideous in the fog in the early morning, and he said to Leng Zilin, "You gallop back to Wuyang, lead your troops to the west foot of Tongbai Mountain to the south, and after entering Nanyang City, wait for my further military orders, you can know ......."

"Yes." Leng Zilin grinned.

Chen Zhihu motioned for Gao Yi and Leng Zilin to leave the camp first, his eyes looking at the mist in the distance, revealing a fierce light.

At this time, it was too late to rush to Fancheng, he led the main force to Fancheng, and the fastest would be four days later, to the city of Fancheng, I was afraid that even the cucumber vegetables would be cold.

Xinye is in the north of Fancheng and Zaoyang, he sent Gao Yi to lead 8,000 cavalry first, and take over the defense of Xinye, which will temporarily block the passage of the Huaidong Army to seize Xichuan and Wuguan in the west, and then he will lead the main force into Nanyang, fill in Wuguan, and control Baiyang Pass and Danjiangkou in the lower reaches of the Wuguan River, so as to avoid losing the entire Jingxiang Battle without even underwear.

Moreover, the Huaidong ambush soldiers will inevitably block the first line of Zaoyang and Fancheng, in order to annihilate the Northern Yan soldiers and horses on the east bank of the Han River first. At that time, a large number of routs will inevitably pour to the front line of Zaoyang and Fancheng. Gao Yi's entry into Xinye can make the Huaidong ambush soldiers unable to completely block the gap between Zaoyang and Fancheng that is nearly 100 miles wide, and in Xinye, they can also collect some defeated troops and preserve more strength.

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Due to Dong Yuan's deliberate delay, the military order to transfer Xinyang Mansion and the troops and horses of the Zhulu Road east of Xinyang Mansion to attack the northern foot of Huaishan Mountain was transmitted to Xinyang even later in Zhengyang County, which was far away in the northwest corner of Xinyang Mansion.

When Meng Yi and Meng Zhixiang received the military order and saw that Dong Yuan had crossed the Shihe River to the east bank to see Ning Zechen with a ghost in his heart, the sky was already shining brightly, and it was already early morning on the 21st......

Meng Yi and Meng Zhixiang walked into Ning Zechen's Chinese military camp tent, only to see Song Shixing, Liu Xilin, Yang Shi, He Zongliang, Hu Qiaokou, Ge Yuan, Wang Shouer and other generals were all there.

Song Shixing was Song Fu's cousin and was once the head of the Song family; After the Song family was annexed, Song Shixing resigned from his post as a general and took up the post of Huai'an Governor, Ning Zechen led his troops west to Xinyang, and Song Shixing was in charge of grain and straw.

After Luo Xiancheng surrendered to Yan and sent troops to Huaishan to attack Xinyang in the north, not only Xinyang's farming and farming were paralyzed, but Shouzhou and Haozhou were also greatly affected by the fact that all the soldiers were added to the camp.

Liu Tingzhou went to Huangzhou to see Lin Tie, and agreed that Ning Zechen would lead his troops to aid Huaixi, and at the same time agreed that after Ning Zechen led his troops westward, he needed to transport grain and straw from Shanyang for supply, and the grain and grass in Xinyang City also needed to be sent by Huaidong - although it was a long way from Shanyang, Huai'an Prefecture, fortunately, there was a waterway to communicate, and the Huaihe River into the Shihe River could directly transport the grain and grass into Xinyang City and the camp on the east bank.

Song Shixing had just supervised the transportation of nearly 100,000 stone materials four days ago, and he had not been able to completely unload the materials at this time.

Coupled with the more than 100 warships of the Huaidong Navy in the upper reaches of the Shihe River, in the past few days, the Shihe River has been crowded with large ships and small boats before.

Yang Shi and Ge Yuan were the generals of the Jinghai Second Water Battalion, and Yang Shi was the deputy commander of the position; Liu Xilin, Hu Qiaoguan and He Zongliang, Wang Shouer and others, who were born in the Huaisi Liumin Army, are the division army, deputy army, and brigade general of the first town of Fengli Battalion......

At this time, it was not yet dawn, and the tent was still burning with candles. It was already early winter, Xinyang was already a little chilly, Ning Zechen wore a white robe outside the battle armor, stood in front of the sand table, watched Meng Yi and Meng Zhixiang come in, and said, "I was planning to send someone to invite Lord Meng and Meng Bingbei to come over......

The sand table shows the terrain of Huaixi, Xinyang, Shouzhou, Haozhou, and Sizhou are all listed in the meantime, and according to the military order announced by Dong Yuan, the sand table also marks the route of the advance of the Huaixi Army.

"Dong Yuan ordered the soldiers of Xinyang Zhuzhai to assemble in the south to attack Huaishan on the same day, and Ning commanded the envoy to see this matter." Meng Yi was not dumbfounded, the situation was urgent, and he said straight to the point.

"Well, after midnight, Dong Zhao's envoy sent someone to tell this side," Ning Zechen said, "I was about to send someone to invite Lord Meng and Meng Bingbei to come over, just to discuss this matter." ”

The defenders of Xincheng were nominally under the jurisdiction of the Huai Dongxing Battalion, so they received orders; Ning Zechen was ordered to fight jointly with the Huaixi Army, so Dong Yuan sent an envoy to make a notice, and there were some differences.

"Dong Yuan wanted to immediately empty the soldiers and horses in Xinyang Mansion and hide his evil intentions," Meng Yi said, "It is expected that Chongguo Gong must have expected this, Meng Yi hesitated for a while, and specially crossed the river to ask Ning for advice." He also looked at Ning Zechen nervously, for fear that Ning Zechen would say that he was also caught off guard and helpless.

"Dong Yuan was also a generation of heroes before, and he had some fame, but he crossed the border today, and the matter leaked out, which was enough to ruin his reputation," Song Shixing stood aside, still disdainful of Dong Yuan's behavior, and said coldly, "Dong Yuan still wants to block in front of Huaidong, but it's just a mantis arm blocking the car, so it's really not a matter of worrying......"

"Dong Yuan is indeed a small act," Meng Zhixiang only thought that Ning Zechen had not yet realized the seriousness of the problem, and stood aside to take over and said, "If Chen Zhihu goes to aid Fancheng, it may not be a big harm, I am afraid that Chen Zhihu will take advantage of the situation to defend Wuguan and encircle the enemy on the west bank of the Han River, I am afraid that it will not be able to ...... successfully."

Meng Yi saw that Ning Zechen and Song Shixing exchanged glances, and suddenly realized that Song Shixing's words were testing them, and then concluded that Lin Tie had a back hand against Dong Yuan, and this move must be extremely spicy, and non-cronies and descendants must not be prophets.

Meng Yi pretended not to see that Song Shixing was tempting, and continued to ask: "Chaishan ambushed the troops, if you don't tell Dong Yuan in general, or delay for another three or four days, maybe it's better......"

"There are only a handful of scheming in the world that can be compared with Dong Yuan. Just told them about the attack on Fancheng, and he could probably guess many suspicious points; Moreover, Cao Shuai will probably attack Suizhou today; Suizhou is a dozen, Luo Xiancheng between Huaishan will inevitably be alarmed, Dong Yuan can also guess eight or nine when he looks at the movement between Huaishan. Since the lord wants me to tell him about the overall plan at this time, he has also considered all kinds of possibilities - if he wants to be the enemy of Huaidong, how can he be called wishful? Ning Zechen opened the locked wooden basket on the desk, took out a letter, handed it to Meng Yi, and said, "This is a secret letter from the lord, when I gave it to me, I said that Lord Meng would be able to see through Dong Yuan's intentions, and asked me to give the secret letter to Lord Meng to read together......

Lin Bin's official order letter, whether it is a letter that clearly tells the world or a secret order that is limited to a certain range of people, will be issued in the form of a Privy Council order, even within the Huaidong Army - Meng Yi heard Ning Zechen say that there was a secret letter, not a secret order, and his heart relaxed slightly: Sure enough.

Privy Council orders, no matter how secret, must be kept on file with the Privy Council.

Dong Yuan is now the head of the Huaixi camp, the envoy of Henan, and the minister of the imperial court, especially when Dong Yuan is not obviously wrong, Lin Jian naturally cannot directly draft the Privy Council order to think that he has a dissenting intention against Dong Yuan.

The secret letter is a private order of Lin Bin, and only those who are close to him can read it.

Meng Yi thought to himself that he had come over, he had come to the right place, if he couldn't peep through Dong Yuan's dissenting intentions or hesitated because of peeping into Dong Yuan's dissenting intentions, he would passively accept the secret order, and he would no longer be qualified to sit down and read Lin Lian's secret letter with Ning Zechen, Song Shixing and others......

After reading the secret letter, Meng Yi laughed and said: "Dong Yuan's organs have been calculated, and I didn't expect the lord to count his organs early......

Song Zechen said, "Leave two days for Lord Meng to prepare, is it too late?" Ning Zechen asked.

"The generals and their families are all in Xinyang City, and two days is enough." Meng Yi said.

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In the early morning of the 21st, in Luodian, at the intersection of Suizhou and Lishan, the fog was much greater than that of Xinyang Mansion on the north bank of Huaishan.

Because the channel connecting Zaoyang and Shicheng in the west of Suizhou has been blocked, Luo Xianyi, who is in the east of Suizhou City, does not know the news of the fall of Fancheng at this time.

Luo Xianyi led his troops out of Suizhou Aid Lishan before yesterday afternoon, and marched to Luodian at night, accumulating seventy miles, which is not unpleasant, and it is also quite a skeleton of elite soldiers.

There are few blind people among the generals of the Huaidong Army, but Lin Jian insists on supplying fish and meat to the generals. In the Suizhou Army, it is Luo Xiancheng's descendants and horses, and the military food conditions are not as good as those of the Huaidong Army. Ten of the men in this camp must have two or three pests of blindness, and they will not be good for night walking.

Luo Xianyi temporarily rested in Zhangjiawan in Luodian after dark yesterday, and only headed for Lishan after dawn this morning.

When the fog was rising in the early morning, Luo Xianyi was anxious, and he really didn't know when the fog would disperse before he could tell the army to move forward.

"General Zhenguo, I'm really worried about the safety of Lishan, I want to take the first step, and I might as well kill a few more enemy soldiers, please ask General Zhenguo's permission." Although Zhou Sheng, who was sent to Suizhou by Luo Wenhu to rescue, said that he had a rough temperament, he did not change his face when he lied.

Luo Xianyi was also suspicious of him, thinking that he was also a loyal savior, so he allowed him to lead several soldiers who accompanied the rescue to ride horses first, which could be regarded as a long post to explore the road to Lishan first.

Zhou Sheng led several soldiers and cavalry to cross the Zhangjia River, traveled east along the avenue in the fog, and walked out of ten miles, and suddenly galloped out of the fog on both wings of dozens of horsemen - Zhou Shengqing rushed to the attack, and was busy misunderstanding and killing, so he hurriedly threw away his saber and dismounted and shouted: "I am Lishan Zhou Gouyu, Grandpa Cao Shuai sent me to lure the Suizhou soldiers, and Luo Xianyi led the reinforcements in the meanders of Zhangjiawan in front of him......"

"Cao Shuai gave you the name Zhou Sheng, why did you lie on the ground and call yourself Zhou Gouyu?"

Zhou Sheng looked up and saw that Luo Wenhu was sitting on horseback with the reins and watching his jokes, got up one by one, and asked happily: "You guys have already come, shouldn't you have done it last night?" ”

"I arrived last night, but when I saw Luo Xianyi resting in Zhangjiawan and seeing the white fog rising from the river again, I didn't do anything, changed my plan, and waited until the main force behind me came over." Luo Wenhu motioned for Zhou Sheng to ride his horse and follow him to the low slope south of the road.

The fields on the side of the road have been barren for many years, overgrown with artemisia grass that can have no head, and after Zhou Sheng followed Luo Wenhu to the low slope, he saw that the artemisia grass on the side of the road was hiding all people and horses, and the frame type had been prepared to attack.

Zhou Sheng was about to ask Luo Wenhu when he would attack, when he heard a faint drum sound, and the generals hidden among the artemisia grass heard the drums, and the sound of the armor pieces slamming together was like a tide coming from afar-

Zhou Sheng and Luo Wenhu stood on the top of the slope, the white mist had not yet dispersed, and they could only vaguely see one or two hundred zhang away, but between these two hundred zhang there were crowds, and the armor pieces on the bodies of many generals and the blades in their hands were shining with cold light, just like the sparkling light of the tide, which was intoxicating to watch.

At this moment, Zhou Sheng thought: he should fight side by side with them.

Luo Wenhu was also intoxicated when he saw the army attacking in the morning fog, and thought: As a general, only when such an elite soldier gallops on the battlefield can life be happy.

Lishan City was taken over by a Huaidong Army led by Wang Xiang, and Luo Wenhu led 3,000 defenders to temporarily integrate into the Tang Fuguan Department and marched west with the army.

It's a pity, no matter how ruthless they are, the soldiers and horses of Zhangjiawan in front of them have all had a comradeship with them. took refuge in Huaidong to seek a new life, but he couldn't bear to trample on his old robes - fortunately, Cao Ziang did not force them to be pioneers to attack Luo Xianyi.

After a long time, I could hear the sound of killing in the white fog ahead, which seemed to be near and far, as if it was far and near.

After a long time, after a little more incense, the sound of fighting showed signs of moving westward, Luo Wenhu and Zhou Sheng looked at each other: Luo Xianyi can't stop him from retreating to Suizhou? Luo Xianyi has 5,000 soldiers and horses in his hands.

At this time, there were several horsemen galloping, led by Cao Ziang's personal guard Cao Peng, Le Ma listened to Luo Wenhu in front of him, dismounted and said: "Cao Shuai ordered you to lead your troops to prepare immediately, and after the fog cleared, you will rush to Pinglinbu with Liu Zhenzhi......"

"Ah," Luo Wenhu was stunned and asked, "Didn't you plan to ambush Luo Xianyi, and I led my troops to fight Zaoyang directly with General Tang Fuguan?" How did you suddenly change your plans......"

"In the early morning of Huaishan North, there was a letter riding into Lishan, and Dong Yuan intended to indulge Chen Zhihu to the south. Cao Shuai and General Zhou thought that it was too thin to set up a blockade line directly in Zaoyang and could not stop too many routs, so they temporarily changed their plan and General Liu Zhenzhi led his troops to Pinglinbu to set up an ambush ......" Cao Peng said, "Cao Shuai asked me to tell you that the first batch of enemy troops fleeing north is very likely to be the cavalry led by Meng Anchan, and you must be prepared to resist the impact of the enemy soldiers!" On the way, General Liu Zhenzhi will give you some shield carts and bed crossbows. ”

Pinglin Port is fifty or sixty miles south of Zaoyang, located between Dahong Mountain and Hanshui, the enemy soldiers want to flee north from the west foot of Dahong Mountain, Pinglin Port is the place that must pass, but there is no strong city there to rely on, and the infantry battalion should intercept the enemy cavalry fleeing north in the open field.

Luo Wenhu was a little puzzled: Since Dong Yuan intended to indulge Chen Zhihu in the south, shouldn't they rush to Fancheng to join and prevent Chen Zhihu from attacking Fancheng? Of course, he had just surrendered to Huaidong, and many of the inside affairs of the Huaidong army were not clear, although he had doubts in his heart, he kept his mouth shut and did not ask much, and took the military order given to him by Cao Peng, and sent Zhou Sheng to lead a few people to contact Liu Zhenzhi's army, and he went to the slope first and then temporarily led his troops to the west......

From here to Pinglin Port, there are two hundred and seventy or eighty miles, and they can't compare the distance with the elite of the Huaidong Army, if they don't fall too far, they can only hurry up every moment.