In the Hanging Fortress City, when Murong Shaozong received the letter sent by the dignitaries of the King of Shouyang and read the contents, he immediately smiled, and sighed: "I can do everything!"

As he spoke, he sent the distress letter to the people in the hall, and everyone exclaimed in surprise after reading it. The amount of information contained in this letter is so great that many people cannot accept this shock for a while, and they lose the ability to think for a short time.

After a while, Fang Leopard, who joined the army, spoke: "These are all the words of the king's nobles, I am afraid that it is not enough to believe it, please Yan Gong carefully consider it!"

When Murong Shaozong heard this, he smiled and asked, "Then according to what I saw when I joined the army, why did Wang Xiangui deceive me with this?"

"The book also says that after the Qiang disciples plundered the Yang Dynasty, they were still greedy and continued to march. Wang Xiangui was afraid that the remnant city would be difficult to defend, so he dared to lie and ask for help. Hou Jing is already a giant in Jiangdong, if he fails, it will be rumored in all directions, and now only the king and dignitaries speak alone, which is really not enough to win the trust!"

Fang Leopard said again after hearing this, and at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a little strange in his heart, such an obvious fraud, why did Murong Shaozong have a convinced attitude?

Murong Shaozong's face suddenly sank when he heard this, and he immediately stood up and looked at Fang Leopard and said in a deep voice, "What if this is true? Wang Xiangui originally wore a sinful body, once he entered the country, life and death were uncertain, if he made such a lie because he was afraid of the danger of the army, even if he was saved for a while, the tall general asked in the future, can he avoid death? If what he says is true, because you are cowardly and bound to your feet, so that this sacred relic of the country is obtained by the thieves, how will you atone for your sins?"

When Fang Leopard heard this, his face suddenly became solemn. Yes, this kind of thing should rather be believed than not existed, especially now that the voice of revolution in the country is in full swing.

If they missed an opportunity to obtain the jade seal of the country and left them in Kansai, no matter how great the feats they had created before, they would probably not be enough to make up for such a big mistake. If someone uses the topic to play again, the crime of treason can even be deducted on the head!

"Humble and shallow gaffe, please forgive Yan Gong!"

After realizing this, Fang Leopard hurriedly confessed, and at the same time his eyes swept over the other colleagues in the hall, and then he realized in his heart that it was his quick thinking that he noticed that this matter was false, and it was clear that others saw it more deeply before he spoke up, only he was young and vigorous and liked to show off that he was bored.

Seeing that no one questioned this anymore, Murong Shaozong distributed the military camp to the people present, ordered them to quickly handle the affairs properly, and then went south to rescue Shouyang.

After these subordinates retreated, and only a few of his confidants and cronies who had followed him for many years were left, Murong Shaozong introduced the envoys of Shouyang into the hall one by one, and interrogated them strictly, and soon had a deep and comprehensive understanding of the situation in Shouyang.

Regarding the defection of the remnants of Yiyang to Shouyang, Murong Shaozong did not feel inappropriate. After all, the brothers Xiahou Kang and Xiahou Kui of Nanliang have been in Shouyang for many years, and their clans are poor and defect to Shouyang, and it is very normal to want to use the legacy of their predecessors to regain their momentum.

As for Fang Leopard's previous questioning, how could Murong Shaozong not realize it? But whether this matter is true or not, it has nothing to do with Murong Shaozong's original intention.

Previously, Xiahou Qiang came to invest in Yiyang, which made Murong Shaozong very happy, and even had already conceived that after entering Yiyang, the west could deter the Han East and the north, and the east could overlook the entire Huainan region, and through the escalation of the confrontation with Jingzhou in the Western Wei Dynasty, Huainan's personnel and materials would be gradually concentrated in Yiyang's own hands.

However, because of the restrictions of the Yedu Imperial Court and the decisive attack of Jingzhou in the Western Wei Dynasty, Murong Shaozong's plan to strengthen himself on the edge of the town was directly stillborn, which made him deeply regretful.

At present, Murong Shaozong urgently needs a logistics supply base to maintain his increasingly large army. It used to be Yiyang, and it was also Yiyang that had a tendency to control the Huainan region. Now that there is no Yiyang, it is also a good choice to go directly to Shouyang.

It's just that General Gao didn't give Murong Shaozong much self-esteem, even if he wanted to go to Shouyang, he needed an excuse and opportunity. Now the letter of distress sent by the king is a good excuse for him. Even if this incident is fake, and General Gao is investigated afterwards, he does not need to bear any responsibility at all.

"The Qiang thieves are already halfway through the march, in order to prevent them from entering Shouyang first, I will personally lead five thousand horsemen to Shouyang, and wait for the enemy to take the city first!"

With the lesson of the loss of Yiyang last time, this time Murong Shaozong has become more serious, and he has also explored the march of the Western Wei people and horses on the Yiyang side, if he wants to enter Shouyang before the arrival of the Western Wei people, the light cavalry running day and night is the only choice, and the five thousand light horses are now the largest scale that Murong Shaozong can use, which shows his attitude towards this trip.

"But the defenders in Shouyang City are still less than 2,000 soldiers, and the newly victorious army of the Qiang thieves may not be enough to defeat it with only 5,000 light cavalry!"

After hearing Murong Shaozong's words, the general said again, now they are not in the state of controlling the elite men and horses of the Juwan Jinyang soldiers before, and now their own people and horses plus the powerful troops who have come from all sides to vote, there are only nearly 20,000 people in total.

These horses were all engaged in the battle with the Western Wei and there was no absolute advantage, but Murong Shaozong planned to meet the other party with five thousand light cavalry, and he was already at a disadvantage in terms of troops.

When Murong Shaozong heard this, he said, "When the former met in Fangcheng, the enemy general could not come out, and he was cowardly and engaged. Now, although it has taken Yiyang first, its military momentum has been stretched to the extreme, and it does not respond to each other. Re-entering Huainan is nothing more than the inability to defend the land, sweeping people and goods, and there will be no long-term heart. Watching that I am well prepared for war, I should not have the courage to fight fiercely. Moreover, Huainan already has Li Bomu first occupied Hefei, and his people have no strategy, knowing that the thief will inevitably panic when he enters the country, he can take advantage of the situation to collect his troops to resist the strong enemy."

Just like Li Tai's previous judgment of Murong Shaozong's behavior, now that Murong Shaozong is the contingency party, he also judged through various signs that although the Western Wei Dynasty marched with great fanfare, it actually did not have a plan to occupy Huainan for a long time, because there was no such strength at all.

Even if Murong Shaozong was not here, if the defense line of the Western Wei side was lengthened, the cost would be unbearable for them. Therefore, as long as he can reach Shouyang in time, the invaders of the Western Wei Dynasty can only retreat back to Yiyang obediently like Murong Shaozong last time.

If the Western Wei people were not as determined to attack Shouyang as they guessed, it would be more beneficial to Murong Shaozong. He can use himself as a bait to attract the main forces of the Western Wei Dynasty in Huainan to Shouyang, and then use other troops to attack Yiyang.

Therefore, Murong Shaozong ordered the rear passers-by to march slowly and march directly to the south to reach the north bank of Huaishui, if he saw that the air defense of Yiyang City was weak, he would directly attack through Huaishui, and if he saw that his city defense was tightly organized, he would slowly move eastward along Huaishui, ready to cooperate with the main force of Western Wei retreating from the east at any time.

After making these arrangements, Murong Shaozong led the 5,000 men and horses under his command who had been fully equipped and went straight to the direction of Shouyang, traveling day and night along the way, and it only took more than five days to arrive at the north bank of Huaishui opposite Shouyang. Under the excellent command and dispatch of Murong Shaozong, the men and horses of the army still maintained a certain amount of physical strength after several days of rapid marching and could participate in the battle at any time.

However, this is not needed for the time being, because the boat division brigade that the scouts explored from Yiyang in the Western Wei Dynasty is still upstream of the Huaishui more than 70 miles away.

Due to the great damage carried out by Nanliang several times against the Huaishui, coupled with the general disrepair of the weirs and dais along the Huaishui this year, the Huaishui shipping conditions are even worse, so the Western Wei Zhou Division will have to arrive here the next day at the earliest.

Murong Shaozong was satisfied with this situation, so he first stopped his troops at the Huaibei wharf, where he sent a team of men and horses to cross the water in a light boat, and went to Shouyang City to order the guard Wang Xiangui to go out to meet him as soon as possible, and immediately arrange boats to cross the army.

However, Wang Xiangui and they naturally couldn't see it, Yang Zhong had already controlled and detained Wang Xiangui and others during the time he entered the city, and distributed the goods, grain and grass accumulated in the city to the city soldiers to win people's hearts, and now he has already completely controlled the city.

In the face of the request made by Murong Shaozong's envoy, Yang Zhong only replied on behalf of Wang Xiangui: "Some people know that the old sins have not been eliminated, and Murong Xingtai has made meritorious contributions by seeking peace against the Hou. Today's Shouyang Jincheng is a nest that depends on a certain kind of survival, and the thieves have not retreated, and the victory or defeat has not been decided, so they really dare not go out of the city to danger easily.

The horses around Shouyang, Kip Stone and other passes are still intact

, Murong Xingtai can send apprentices to divide the thief division. After the Western Army retreated, some kind of remnants of the ugly people must go out of the city to worship Murong Xingtai, and give the jade seal of the country to the hand. The boats and ferries are all moored at Kip Rock, and it is okay for the general to take it himself."

Murong Shaozong was indignant when he learned that Wang Xiangui refused to go out of the city to greet him, but he didn't have time to worry about these things for the time being, and the most important thing was to hurry across Huainan to build a defensive line against the invading enemy.