"Don't underestimate the Sogdian merchants, they can crisscross the north, whether it is Hedong or Guanzhong, whether it is Daliang or Heshuo, they all have figures, and they treat them as guests, and they are not capable of doing it at all. Pen~Fun~Pavilion www.biquge.info" Yuan Wuwei shook his head, "The head of the family also has some friendship with Sogdian merchants, but at that time, Sogdian merchants still looked down on us Caizhou, and it is estimated that they will be much more interested now." ”

"Third brother, it's not that I look down on Sogdian merchants, but I just think that Sogdian merchants can break into Huaiyou? You must know that Jiang Feng has a good eye for Persian Hu merchants, and it is said that those Persian Hu merchants provided Jiang Feng with a large amount of money and silver loan support, otherwise Jiang Feng would not have been able to support the water conservancy construction and army expansion in Huzhou and Shouzhou in the past two years. Yuan Wuxing thought with a frown.

"Oh? You mean this, the news from the head of the family, the Sogdian merchants are also providing a large number of war horses for Huaiyou, and in the past two months, no less than 2,000 war horses have entered Huaiyou through Nanyang and our Caizhou. Yuan Wuwei groaned: "It seems that Jiang Feng is going to vigorously expand the cavalry force, and the southern investment of the Heshuo army has given him greater confidence." ”

"Sogdian merchants have provided Huaiyou with 2,000 war horses?" Yuan Wuxing was taken aback, "Where did they get the war horses for Huaiyou? Guanzhong? Didn't the party and the Tubo people over there beat out the dog's brains? How could there be war horses shipped out?"

"It is said that the Sogdian merchants got a lot of horses from Hedong and the Tuyuhun people, and dredged up the relationship between the Liang, so the war horses crossed the Liang directly and crossed the border between Nanyang and Caizhou. Yuan Wuwei was also a little helpless.

Obviously, Caizhou and Huaiyou were still at war, but the Sogdian merchants were able to tell the head of their family to cross the border, which shows the ability of these Sogdian merchants.

But then again, as the head of the family said, Caizhou did not agree, and the Sogdian merchants could also make a detour to Nanyang, which would hurt the relationship between the two sides, and there would be no shortage of opportunities for Caizhou and Sogdian merchants to deal with them in the future.

"The war horses that the Shatuo people and the Tuyuhun people got from Hedong?" Yuan Wuxing seemed to be in disbelief, "Even if the Sogdian merchants are capable, it is impossible for them to make up 2,000 war horses in a month or two, right? It is impossible for the border areas of Hedong and Tuyuhun to have so many war horses in peacetime, where can they gather so many at one time!"

"The staff pavilion has checked the source of these horses, and there are indeed some problems, many of which are from the armies north of Daliang. Yuan Wuwei also had to admire his cousin's observation and analytical ability.

Yuan Wuxing's face changed slightly, "As expected, those guys in the Great Liang Army have become more and more bold, and now they even dare to secretly sell their war horses." ”

"You don't know those guys, why don't you dare to sell them?" Yuan Wuwei laughed and said: "As long as you are willing to bid, you let him sell his own armor to him, and it is sold to Huaiyou, you said to sell it to the Shatuo people or us, maybe they can still have some taboos, but Huaiyou, then it is their quasi-ally, what dare not." ”

"Third brother, Huaiyou is so eager to buy war horses everywhere, I'm afraid the price will not be cheap, even if they make a lot of money on food, it is not cost-effective. Yuan Wuxing's train of thought turned to the other side: "Their demand for cavalry is so urgent? What is the reason for this? To say that Luzhou and Haozhou were taken by them, and they also signed a contract with Li Yu, there is no reason to be so urgent." ”

Yuan Wuwei also heard the hidden meaning in Yuan Wuxing's words, and hesitated for a moment: "Could it be because the Heshuo army came in and couldn't form a cavalry without horses, so ......?"

"This doesn't make sense, so many war horses are expensive, and the price of one or two percent is equivalent to how much grain they make from selling? Moreover, now that Huaiyou is expanding at an astonishing rate, their finances must also be equally poor, and no matter how stupid Jiang Feng is, it is impossible not to understand this truth. Yuan Wuxing shook his head, "The party members and Yang Wenchang have already defeated the Tubo people, and they have won a large number of pastureland, population and livestock, as long as they wait for half a year, the Persian Hu merchants will be able to transport a large number of Tubo war horses to Huaiyou, and the price can be at least half cheaper, why does he need to be so careful?"

Yuan Wuwei was shocked, "Old Seven, do you suspect that Jiang Feng still wants to use soldiers?

Yuan Wuxing's face was cloudy, and after thinking for a while, he said: "Without more intelligence support, I can't judge, but if he wants to use troops against Hechu Erzhou, it stands to reason that the need for cavalry is not so urgent, if it is said that he wants to send troops from Haozhou to the east to seize Chuzhou, it is reasonable, but now that the ant thief and Li Yu are fighting fiercely in Chuzhou, he should sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, there is no reason to intervene at this time." ”

Yuan Wuwei was pulled by Yuan Wuxing's train of thought, his face slowly became a little pale, and he raised his gaze, just touching Yuan Wuxing's gaze: "Xuzhou?! Jiang Feng wants to take Xuzhou?!"

Startled by Yuan Wuwei's somewhat hoarse voice, Yuan Wuxing subconsciously retorted: "Impossible, Xuzhou has lost Yingbo and Erzhou, the main forces have been concentrated in Xuzhou, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, Yao Chengtai and Shang Yunxi are not as good as Shang Yunliu and Ryazan and the like, as well as Lu Qiming and Yu Mingzhen, Xuzhou has at least more than 50,000 troops, unless Jiang Feng is crazy, how can he go to fight Xuzhou when Luzhou and Haozhou are not stable?" Moreover, the city of Xuzhou has thick walls, which is not comparable to ordinary prefectures and counties at all, even if it is a surprise attack, it is purely a dream for 10,000 or 20,000 troops to defeat Xuzhou!"

"But Lao Qi, how do you explain Huaiyou's crazy expansion of cavalry?" Yuan Wuwei's tone became extremely hurried: "Isn't Jiang Feng's guy the best at taking him by surprise and attacking him unprepared?

was asked by Yuan Wuwei's words, Yuan Wuxing didn't know how to answer for a while, in fact, he also became more and more worried about Yuan Wuwei in his heart, Jiang Feng is afraid that this guy is the idea of fighting Xuzhou again.

Just from the superficial analysis of all aspects of intelligence, this is really an impossible task.

Even if the Huaiyou Army is a large expansion, it is only 20,000 horses, even if all of them are drawn out to attack Xuzhou, it is also at a disadvantage for the tens of thousands of troops in Xuzhou, and the other party is still the defender of the city.

In the fight against Xuzhou, it is meaningless for you to seize one or two county seats, but if you want to take Pengcheng, where Xuzhou Prefecture is located, is it possible? That is the land of tigers and dragons, and in the impression of ordinary people, without more than 50,000 soldiers and horses, you will not dare to touch this majestic city at all.

Not to mention that it is impossible for Huaiyou not to leave troops and horses to defend Shouzhou and Luzhou, these strategic places, do the math, you Huaiyou can draw more than 10,000 people to the sky, what can you do when you enter Xuzhou with this amount of troops?

"Could it be that Jiang Feng thinks that there is an opportunity on the Chuzhou side and wants to deal with the ant thieves, so he wants to ......" Yuan Wuwei asked himself again.

"I can't rule out this possibility, but I always feel that ......" Yuan Wuxing subconsciously shook his head, "Jiang Feng's gang is extremely ambitious, and You Shanbing is in danger, if this Xuzhou is obtained by him, we will have no room for expansion in the east, and we will face great pressure on us." ”

"Old Seven, it's still a little too early to say this, as you said, the huge Xuzhou is not so easy to gnaw, maybe he wants to seize Sizhou first?" Yuan Wuwei asked rhetorically.

"Sizhou?" Yuan Wuxing said in a deep voice, "At present, there is only Yu Ming's real department in Sizhou, and with the strength of Huaiyou, there is a lot to be done, but taking Sizhou will only increase the vigilance of Xuzhou, and it will be more difficult for Huaiyou to seize Xuzhou, and besides, Jiang Feng is not afraid that after taking Sizhou, he will startle the snake, once we intervene in Xuzhou? If we succeed in Xuzhou and then enter Sizhou, Sizhou will change hands, it will be inevitable, Huaiyou will not be stupid, right?"

Yuan Wuxing's words made Yuan Wuwei fall into contemplation again, and in the absence of sufficient intelligence to corroborate, it was indeed difficult to judge Huaiyou's purpose.

"In any case, Huaiyou's actions are very suspicious, and we must immediately strengthen the intelligence collection on the front line of Shouzhou and Haozhou, and we are still a little slack during this time. After a long time, Yuan Wuwei said categorically: "We must pay attention to this matter, we must focus on Huaiyou to fight Xuzhou to consider, and prepare, if Huaiyou really wants to fight Xuzhou, we must not sit idly by, even if we are difficult, we must intervene, and we must not let Huaiyou succeed in Xuzhou!"

"But third brother, our current situation ......" Yuan Wuxing swallowed with difficulty.

It is easier said than done, not to mention that the situation facing Yingbo Erzhou is not good, even the Caizhou army has suffered a lot of losses and is exhausted, and it urgently needs to rest and replenish, and there is a big difference in many materials such as heavy grain, grass and equipment.

If there is really a war, then it must be replenished immediately, which needs to be transported from Caizhou, where the affairs are complicated and time-consuming, and the head of the family may not agree.

"No matter how difficult it is, we have to do it, you and I both know that if it is really won by Huaiyou in Xuzhou, even if we have now won Yingbo Erzhou, the strategic situation has been greatly improved, but our strategic direction may have to turn, although the current situation of Daliang is very bad, we also have some preparations, such as Chenzhou, but Huaiyou is on the side, we have to prevent them from coming from the east at any time, this kind of taste, I feel unbearable when I think about it. ”

Yuan Wuwei's tone became more and more firm, and Yuan Wuxing also took a deep breath: "That is the case, then we really have to start immediately, but after Huaiyou annexed Luhao Erzhou, we don't know enough about Huaiyou's current strength, and there is no basis for making countermeasures, so we need to start preparing immediately, especially the collection of intelligence, the third brother is right, we must not let Huaiyou put the knife on our necks at any time, then we will always be in a passive state, we must strive for the initiative." ”