At the end of November, the Northern Zhou general Wei Chi Hui led an army of 150,000 and officially captured Puyang City, which had been defended by 100,000 Xia troops, while the 100,000 people under the command of Yu Wenjian, the king of the South Road, also captured Gaoping County after some battles, and the two places were captured by the Northern Zhou army almost at the same time.

On the surface, the progress of the Zhou army was very rapid, from the beginning of November to the east of Liangzhou, to now in just over 20 days, it has taken the land of the four counties of West Yanzhou, Yongchang County, Puyang County and Gaoping County in one go, and advanced the front to the east for more than 300 li.

This speed of progress may not be felt by everyone in later generations because of mechanization, but in ancient times it was an astonishing speed.

The Northern Zhou army, which is dominated by the infantry army, will take at least nearly ten days just to march, plus the time required to attack the city, and it will take months to calculate the results in front of them.

The news that the front-line army was progressing smoothly made the entire Northern Zhou Dynasty fall into a frenzy, and the officials and officials inside and outside Guanzhong were smiling one by one, even the former Northern Qizhou County, which had only been merged into the Northern Zhou Dynasty for two years, the people in these places also held grand celebrations to celebrate the victory of the Zhou army.

Because the soldiers of the Zhou army who fought were mainly the children of the former Northern Zhou Guanzhong, the people of Guanzhong inevitably paid more attention to the combat situation of the army.

However, although the people in Guanzhong were also worried about the safety of their sons and grandchildren who went to war, after hearing that the army was progressing so smoothly, they all thought that the Xia army must be invincible, so the combat losses of the Zhou army should be very small, and they all relaxed one by one.

In addition, the land of Guanzhong has been a place of fierce folk customs since ancient times, and the people have always admired the army and martial arts, and the people here seem to be normal to be soldiers to fight, and according to the military system of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, as long as the soldier fights and obtains military merits, even if he dies in battle, he can also get the corresponding Xuntian.

This is also the fundamental reason why the Northern Zhou Dynasty was able to more than double the army in just over a year, and it is useless to speak to the people, the most effective thing is to let them obtain a lot of benefits through the war, so that the people will fight to the death for you.

Since ancient times, whether it is the Qin Dynasty's reward farming warfare, or the Han Dynasty's favorable trend of the three Qin soldiers, or the Northern and Southern Dynasties' implementation of the Juntian system, in essence, the country's war and the people's vital interests are closely linked.

Only in this way will the people closely associate the country with themselves, but unfortunately many later dynasties did not have this awareness.

Compared with the joy of the people, Emperor Wu of Zhou Yuwen Yong in Chang'an City was not as happy as the people thought after receiving the information, because whether it was West Yanzhou and Yongchang County captured in the front, or Puyang County and Gaoping County captured now, they were all abandoned by the Xia army on their own initiative.

In order to let the people support this war, the Northern Zhou side only claimed that it was occupied by the front-line army through hard fighting, but it can be said to the people that if the Northern Zhou monarchs and ministers also think so, it is to lie to themselves.

However, after learning that Xia Jun took the initiative to abandon the land of these four counties one after another, Yuwenyong was a little puzzled, these four counties are located in the Yellow River and Jishui basins, with flat terrain, deep soil, and convenient irrigation.

In the past, it was a densely populated place from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and after the Qin and Han dynasties, it was a rich prefecture and county in the Central Plains, and in the Northern Wei Dynasty and Northern Qi Dynasty, it was the core ruling area of the Northern Dynasties, but now the Xia Army has taken the initiative to give up these lands!

After hearing that Wang Yong had taken the initiative to give up these states and counties, Yu Wenyong thought that he had heard it wrong.

Wang Yong gave up such a large area of land one after another, what was his real intention? After some thought, Yu Wenyong's brows couldn't help frowning, if things were really as he thought, I'm afraid that the Sanqi Xia Army would really be difficult to deal with.

Yuwen Yong identified Wang Yong as the first target that needed to be eliminated, which was carefully analyzed by the monarchs and ministers of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, whether it was from the analysis of the overall national strength or from the perspective of the combat environment of the Northern Zhou army, the land of Sanqi where Wang Yong was located was the most suitable target for attack.

Yu Wenyong had also analyzed the possibility of fighting against Nan Chen before, compared to the Northern Zhou that is now strong, the national strength of Southern Chen is also relatively weak, if the Northern Zhou wants to launch a comprehensive war of annihilation against it, it can be divided into three main forces.

The first army could start from Yizhou in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, sail down the river with a commanding height, attack Yidu, Jiangling and other prefectures and counties in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River in the west of Nanchen, and then continue to advance eastward.

The second route is to go down the Han River from Xiangyang, first attack the counties of Jianghan and Suijun, and then conquer Wuchang County and its surrounding areas at the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Han River, and then after the army of this road joins forces with the West Route Army, it will continue to attack the states and counties in the north and south of the Great River of Nanchen along the Yangtze River to the east. 000 Literature

The third way is to attack Chenliu County and other places in Huaibei from Liangzhou (Kaifeng) in the east of Luoyang along the Cai River and other rivers to the southeast and south, and take the opportunity to seize all the places in Huaibei occupied by Nan Chen, so that Nan Chen will inevitably not be able to take care of each other because of the vast land area and the limited number of troops, and the Northern Zhou will be able to defeat Nan Chen very quickly.

Judging from the combat effectiveness of the army alone, in fact, the Northern Zhou should attack Nanchen first, after all, Wang Yong's army combat effectiveness is still relatively strong, and the Northern Zhou Dynasty far surpasses Nanchen in terms of the number of troops and the combat effectiveness of the army.

In addition, if the Southern Chen is attacked, the Northern Zhou can also use various water systems to transport military grain and grass, and the powerful naval army of the Northern Zhou Dynasty does not have to fear the combat effectiveness of the Southern Chen naval army at all, and the two have the strength to fight to a certain extent.

However, after careful analysis, Yu Wenyong still gave up attacking Nan Chen first.

He believes that Wang Yong is broad-minded, and since he has formed an alliance with Nan Chen, he will definitely not sit idly by and watch Nan Chen be destroyed by the Northern Zhou, and the truth of his lips and teeth is still clear, so after Nan Chen is attacked by the Northern Zhou, Wang Yong will inevitably raise a large army to rescue Nan Chen.

In this way, the Northern Zhou faced the joint attack of the two countries, even if it could win, it would pay a strong price, and at this time, there were powerful Turks in the north who could go south at any time, and it was indeed not in their own interests for the Northern Zhou to carry out such a big war of attrition.

Another important reason is that most of the territory of Nanchen is located in the water town of Huainan, the climate is hot and humid, and the soldiers in the north are easy to die of various diseases after arriving in the south, especially the partition of the Yangtze River moat dozens of miles wide is particularly difficult to cross.

After a lot of arguments, Yu Wenyong finally chose to attack the prefectures and counties in the north and south of the Great River occupied by Wang Yong of Sanqi, as well as the land of Sanqi, Wang Yong's old nest.

In Yu Wenyong's view, Chen Ji and his ministers are too petty, coupled with the contradictions between Nan Chen, Wang Yong and Wang Ze in the past, when the Northern Zhou Dynasty attacked Wang Yong, according to Chen Ji's character, Nan Chen is likely to sit idly by, or wait for Wang Yong to fight to the death with the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and then come to pick up the bargain.

Even if Chen Ji didn't do this, Yu Wenyong could also cooperate with some scholars within Southern Chen who were willing to defect to the Northern Zhou, and then use various means to hinder the speed of Southern Chen's army.

Therefore, Yu Wenyong believed that as long as the Northern Zhou army attacked faster, they still had a good hope of defeating Wang Yong before Nan Chen reacted, and then the Northern Zhou side could unify the north, and then move south within a year to defeat Nan Chen and unify the world.

The reason why Yu Wenyong has so much confidence is not only that the strength of the Northern Zhou has doubled, but also because after defeating the Northern Qi last year, he suddenly mastered a powerful secret weapon, which will surprise Wang Yong and Nan Chen.

Before the attack of the Northern Zhou army, Wang Yong's 300,000 troops were scattered in the counties and counties north and south of the Great River, and the troops were relatively scattered.

It seems that Wang Yong occupied a lot of land in one go after the fall of the Northern Qi Dynasty, but when facing the attacks of others, he seemed very weak in defense, which was one of the reasons why Yu Wenyong chose to attack Wang Yong first.

But now when Wang Yong faced the attack of the Zhou army, he not only shrunk all his forces back, but even relocated all the people in these states and counties, and there was no one left.

Yu Wenyong also heard that after Wang Yong occupied these prefectures and counties at the beginning, he began to emigrate to Donghai, Sanqi and other places on a large scale, but even a few months ago, there were at least seven or eight hundred thousand people in these four counties, and if you want to settle these people, the food and materials consumed for a time are huge.

With Wang Yong's land of song and song, as well as the Xia Kingdom of the East China Sea, which has just been established for a few years, do Wang Yong's father and son really have the capital to consume to delay the confrontation against themselves?

Thinking of this, Yu Wenyong hesitated a little, this attack on Wang Yong, he can be said to have taken out all his family resources, the Northern Zhou is not as good as Nan Chen and Wang Yong, both of them only need to face one enemy, and the number of troops used to defend the border can be very small.

The Northern Zhou Dynasty was different, from the beginning of its establishment, the Northern Zhou Dynasty was almost surrounded by its own enemies, with a powerful Turkic in the north, an old rival in the east, the old rival Northern Qi in the east, a powerful Tuyuhun in the west, and an old rival in the south, the Southern Dynasty, which had been an old opponent for hundreds of years.

Even now, in order to guard against the Turks, Khitan, Tuyuhun and Nanchen, the Northern Zhou must prepare a large number of troops for defense, otherwise it is very likely to be robbed by all sides, so this time Yuwen Yong's battle against Wang Yong only needs to win and not lose.

In the end, Yu Wenyong still made up his mind, although now Wei Chi Hui and Yu Wenjian have encountered such a strange situation, but there is no turning back when they open the bow, since they have already started a war, they have to fight to the end, not to mention that they still have a lot of killer skills that they have not used.