At the beginning of September, the Chinese and foreign governments reached the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion with the specific journey date, and Li Tai was about to lead his troops to officially set out on the expedition.

This time, the Chinese and foreign governments did not issue specific requisition and distribution tasks to Jingzhou, and the written order only said that it was cheap, which meant that under the condition of ensuring the stability of the defense area, of course, the more men and horses should be dispatched, the better.

The situation in the area under the jurisdiction of the Jingzhou Governor's Government is relatively stable, and the Shannan area is guarded by many local heroes such as Ankang Li and Kaifu Linghu Yanbao, Quan Zhongzun, and Yuwen Qiu.

As for the Handong region, because Li Tai completely stinked Liu Zhongli through the public trial, the obedience of both the people and the local garrison forces to the governor's office was much improved. Coupled with Li Tai's appeasement and preferential treatment of the local heroes, now Handong has carried out a benign interaction with the northern region in terms of personnel, and there is no confrontational atmosphere at all.

If there is any hidden danger that needs to be paid attention to under the entire governor's office, it is from the outside area bordering Nanliang.

Since the beginning of this year, some new changes have also taken place in the local forces and order in Nanliang.

First of all, Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling, who naturally flowed to Jiangxia from the Sanwu region, gradually gained a foothold, and not long ago dismantled a local military conspiracy against his people in Yingzhou, Southern Liang, as if he was already operating Jiangxia as his new nest.

However, Xiao Laoliu's good days are not a few days away, because there are moths in the downstream again. Xiao Fan, the king of Poyang, who had taken the initiative to abandon the important town of Hefei, was trapped in the middle of the river, and after moving to Huangcheng, he had a bad relationship with Xiao Daxin, the king of Xunyang, who was sitting in Jiangzhou on the other side of the river.

Xiao Daxin is the second son of Xiao Gang, the puppet emperor of the Jiankang court, and he attacked each other with the king of Poyang, and neither side had the energy to go to Hou Jing downstream. After all, it was Xiao Daxin who took advantage of the landlord to block the market trade in Jiangzhou, so that Xiao Fan's tens of thousands of troops had nothing to eat, Xiao Fan died of grief, and his subordinates were also divided.

At this time, Hou Jing had already controlled the Sanwu area, and was transferring his forces to the west, taking advantage of the exchange of these two towns, he ordered his subordinate Ren Yue and others to attack Jiangzhou.

Xiao Daxin, the king of Xunyang, because his father is now the emperor in Beijing, still has two concerns in his heart, and after the battle is unfavorable, he surrenders the state, so that Hou Jing's forces are advanced to Jiangzhou in one fell swoop, and the next target is Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling, who has just entered Jiangxia.

Even if there was no advance of Hou Jing's chaotic army, Jiangxia's life would not be easy.

Li Tai had communicated with Jiangling a few days ago about the problem of Xiao Lao Liu, but it happened that Xiao Ji, the king of Wuling in Shu, sent his son Xiao Yuanzhao to lead 30,000 troops out of Shuzhong, in the name of obeying Xiao Yi's moderation, but in fact, he was waiting and seeing.

Xiao Yi first dissuaded the men and horses in Shu and placed them in the White Emperor City, and then took advantage of Ren Yue and other chaotic armies to invade the west, and ordered Wang Seng Bi to lead 10,000 horses along the east of the river, called to meet Ren Yue, but in fact, it was mainly to seize Jiangxia, and also claimed that he would move Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling, to Changsha to serve as the assassin of Xiangzhou.

It's just that when he sent troops to attack Xiao Yu in Changsha before, he only declared that uncle, I, I want to discipline you little naughty.

Xiao Liang and these vassal kings along the Yangtze River interacted very lively, but in fact, the most important and next personnel change that had the most profound impact on the situation in Jiangnan was not them, but the Lingnan fierce man Chen Ba first crossed the Great Yuling and left the Lingnan region to the north, and he was about to arrive in the most turbulent area of the Jiangnan situation!

Of course, this matter is still quite far away from Li Tai, and Chen Baxian's group of Lingnan veterans are far from being enough to become the opponents of the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion in terms of geography and strength.

Although there is no hidden danger of war at the moment, whether inside or around, there is enough to contain the movement of Li Tai's army, but Li Tai does not plan to invest too much manpower and material resources in this eastward expedition to the north.

He only organized 5,000 cavalry elites, and the generals brought Gao Le, Shi Jing, Dou Yi and Guo Xian, who was still sitting in the Three Ya Dao, and the rest were a group of cronies and young generals such as a number of Feng and his own nephews, so that these teenagers could go north to Heluo to see the world, especially to feel the strength of the combat effectiveness of the elite soldiers of the Northern Qi and Jinyang soldiers, and to grind their restlessness.

Before leaving, Li Tai arranged the military and political tasks of the governor's office.

It is necessary to continue to promote the development of all kinds of industrial and peasant production and commercial and trade activities in the territory, and spare no effort to support the strategically important Shuzhong trade and trade activities for which Li Qianzhe is responsible. Cui Qian has been the governor of the Governor's Office for a long time, and of course he also knows the priorities of various internal affairs, and Li Tai is still relatively relieved about this.

As for the military aspect, since most of the Jingzhou people still stay in the town, even if there is any change, they can not lose the ability to adapt, but there is nothing that needs to be emphasized.

Therefore, Li Tai only instructed Hou Mo Chen Qiong, who succeeded as the governor of Fangcheng, to urge the people not to relax in their daily exercises, and at the same time not to shorten the personnel supply of Yiyang, Sanguan, Anzhou, Yingzhou and other important border defense towns.

In mid-September, Li Tai personally led 5,000 cavalry north into the Sanya Road, and Guo Xian's troops met in Luyang, and after a short rest, he sent Gao Le to lead a thousand elite cavalry to attack Xiangcheng with Guo Xian.

"May I ask the general, there are not many people and horses dispatched for this expedition, and it should be rushed into Yishui with elite troops and won by surprise, why do you want to part ways and attack Xiangcheng here? Do you want to move to the cities of Henan? ”

Hearing Li Tai make such an arrangement, the Metropolitan Governor of the tent on his side couldn't help but ask, while several other young cronies also looked suspicious, obviously all having the same doubts.

Li Tai led them on the road, in order to broaden their knowledge and experience, and after hearing this, he pointed out a little on the map and explained: "Xiangcheng leans on Guan Wangye, and it is an important place to control Henan. In previous years, our army was self-respecting in the north, and it was enough to defend the three crows, and even if there were strong troops wandering in Henan, it was not enough to disturb us. Today, after this northward advance, Xiangcheng is the key place to guard the advance and retreat, so that the disturbance of the side can be eliminated, and the military road can be guarded, so as not to lose the ground for advance and retreat. ”

This reason is still relatively simple, Li Tai explained it slightly, and all the cronies and young disciples could also understand and figure it out, but then someone asked: "Since you know that you need to divide your troops to hold the fortress, why don't you use more men and horses before leaving?" All sides are separated, and when you reach the front line, I'm afraid that the combat strength will not be enough! ”

This time it was Li Yuxiang, Li Tai's eldest nephew and cousin Li Yuxiang's son, who also looked at his uncle with a curious face.

"The Three Crows Road is the way of strange soldiers, if there are many people and horses, the logistics will inevitably be bloated and complicated, and the advance and retreat will be slow. Moreover, there are barbarians widely distributed in this realm, and when they are surprised to see a large army entering here, they will inevitably gather in the mountains and set up obstacles for self-defense. The first and second barbarians are not enough to worry about, but if the crowd is frightened, their behavior will be restricted. The crowd is easily irritable and uneasy, and it is more convenient to send an envoy to persuade than to gather a crowd to attack them. ”

Before, Li Tai was also a strong soldier and a strong and unscrupulous temper, where would he put the barbarians in his eyes. However, as he is in charge of the military and politics, it is more and more necessary to consider the cost performance of the marching strategy.

The barbarians have been migrating and multiplying in this mountain field for hundreds of years, and there are many barbarians distributed in the dense mountains and wilderness.

So try to keep a friendly atmosphere when you can communicate, and just kill a few of the thorns. Even if they kill these barbarians at the expense of the people and money, who will be sent to live and develop this vast mountain wilderness? In the end, it was only for the other barbarian tribes to clear the field.

After Gao Le and the others went, they led the elite cavalry back the next day, and Guo Xian led the men and horses of the headquarters to temporarily garrison Xiangcheng. The reason why the battle ended so quickly and captured a city was not that the Jingzhou soldiers were particularly brave, but that Xiangcheng itself was almost unguarded.

After the Battle of Yingchuan last year, the Eastern Wei Dynasty left Murong Shaozong in Henan to take over the land of Henan. However, after a long war, Henan could not provide enough supplies for Murong Shaozong, so Murong Shaozong led his army south, but was defeated by Li Tai in Shouyang and died by throwing himself into the water.

As for the rest of the people, some of them also flowed to Huainan and were absorbed by Li Bomu, the assassin of Hezhou, and some of them were classified as the Xinshu control of the southeast road of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the rest were scattered in the Henan provinces.

At present, the Northern Qi did not have a strong commander in Henan itself, only one Northern Yuzhou assassin Shi Fengzihua was the representative of Hebei Haoqiang to guard the tiger prison, and most of the other prefectures and counties in Henan appointed local Haoqiang, so there were no strong people in the local area.

With the temporary capture of Xiangcheng, the scouts sent by Li Tai to investigate Yichuan also brought back a group of people, led by Li Renjie, the nephew of Li Yisun of Kaifu.

Li Renjie was in his early twenties, and when he saw Li Tai, he cried to the ground: "The last general finally waited until the general led the army north and returned to Yiluo. Fortunately, with the help of all the heroic and righteous people in Inan, the last general and his relatives were saved......"

Before the Eastern Wei army besieged Yingchuan last year, in order to prevent the surrounding Western Wei forces from rescuing Yingchuan, they carried out a key sweep in the Heluo area, and Li Yisun was sitting in Fuliu City at that time, and he was also among the cleanups.

After Li Tai heard this, he was also quite embarrassed in his heart, he had fought side by side with Li Yisun in Heluo before, and he had seen the high prestige that his people had among the barbarians between Yiluo, but he didn't want to say goodbye before and say goodbye forever.

"The gate of loyalty and righteousness is not only protected by the heroic spirits of the ancestors, but the imperial court will never ignore the heroic feelings in this gate!"

Li Tai hurriedly stepped forward to help Li Renjie, and patted him on the shoulder and comforted: "The Loyal Bone Zhuangjie has this existence, and this time you can kill the thief with the army!" ”

Although their clan is only Yichuan Haoqiang, they have also served the Western Wei for many years like the Shangluoquan clan, and this Li Renjie's grandfather Li Changshou, father Li Yansun and uncle Li Yisun all died in the war with the Eastern Wei, and they can indeed be called loyal martyrs.