People have selfish motives, and it is impossible to expect a feudal army to be like a revolutionary contingent, just for the sake of faith, regardless of life and death, to complete the tasks assigned by the organization.

In the Southern Liang army, even Xiahou Xuan, who was eager to be his father and ashamed of himself, also took a clear stand against Yang Yaren going deep into the enemy territory regardless of the back road, and even reacted most fiercely with him.

And the reason for this situation is just that the 10,000 elites under their command are the private soldiers of their Xiahou family, and they are the hard work of their father Xiahou Kui for more than ten years, seeking financial ways to raise the army, and they have only been able to practice, which is the foundation of their Xiahou clan's foothold in the Southern Liang Dynasty.

If it was for the sake of Zhongxing Wangye and the north, then he would admit it, but if it was just to relieve the siege of the Western Wei Dynasty, Xiahou Xun would not want to lose this army no matter what.

Xiao Yan believed that the split of Yuan and Wei was in the best interests of the Southern Liang, but the front-line generals had a different view.

As the saying goes: the northerners are good at horses, and the southerners are good at boats.

Even if the north is unified and the Gao clan comes to attack, there is no need to be afraid in a place with a dense water network.

Tuoba Tao is so capable, drinking horses and horses on the Yangtze River, he is not allowed to cross the river.

The reason for this disagreement lies in their different identities.

As the Son of Heaven, Xiao Yan believes that once the north falls into a stalemate and there is no time to look south, the imperial court can save a lot of war expenses, so he naturally wants to try his best to promote such a stalemate.

After all, Xiao Bodhisattva never thought that the Northern Expedition would win the Central Plains.

As for the generals, if the country is peaceful and there is no war on the front line, it will be difficult for them to have a chance to get ahead.

Gao Cheng, who entered the customs to fight, was also worried that this idea would arise among the generals of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, so he kept preaching to them that after the unification of the two Wei Dynasty, when he 'raised millions of troops on the West Lake, he immediately became the first peak of Wu Mountain', and won a founding prince or even the prince of the county.

Seeing the anger of the crowd, Yang Yaren almost didn't want to go deep alone, so he had no choice but to give up this idea.

Just when he was hesitating about what to do next, news came from Nanliang's secret agents in the Eastern Wei Dynasty that Duan Shao led 55,000 troops to rescue Xuzhou.

Hearing this, Yang Yaren pondered for a long time, and finally made a decision:

"Gao Yue's strong wall is clear, I want to be tired, and if I attack it again, I will fall into its plan, but we must make a big noise, so that the outside of the city thinks that Xuzhou is in danger, Duan Shao must be first aided, we can attack halfway, if Duan Shao is defeated, he will parade under the city with his banner prisoners, there are no reinforcements outside, Pengcheng will be in chaos, and there should be an opportunity.

"Even if Pengcheng can hold on, seeing Duan Shao's rout, the army's heart is shaken, and they don't dare to go out of the city to fight, we can bypass Pengcheng and go north again, and the defenders of Pengcheng will let me come and go freely."

Yang Yaren's strategy of encircling the point to send reinforcements was unanimously echoed by the generals, after all, there was no better way for him.

According to the news of the spies, Duan Shao only has 5,000 soldiers, and the remaining 50,000 are all state and county soldiers.

So for the next period of time, the formation of 55,000 soldiers from the Southern Liang Prefecture to attack the city was very terrifying.

Due to the patrolling of the Southern Liang Sentinel Cavalry everywhere, the Eastern Wei Dynasty did not dare to get too close, only thinking that Pengcheng had been struggling to support.

However, the 10,000 private soldiers of the Xiahou clan and the 5,000 elite Yang Yaren, a total of 15,000 people, who knew the real elite, were always waiting for the news of Duan Shao to come again.

The perfunctory work of the Southern Liang army during the project, Gao Yue and his soldiers felt it the most, but they were helplessly surrounded on all sides, and it was difficult to pass on the news.

Gao Yue didn't think about going out of the city to fight, but his command were all state and county soldiers, so it was okay for them to defend the city, and if they really went out to fight, they would not be beaten by others.

However, Gao Yue did not think of a way, he arranged for some cavalry to venture out at night to break through and pass the news to Duan Shao, hoping that the other party would not fall for Yang Yaren's scheme.

However, he was hunted and killed by the Nanliang Sentinel Cavalry one by one, and when the matter came to this point, I can only believe that Gao Huan did not see the wrong person, Duan Shao is a real wise and brave man, and he is strategic.

Gao Yue's worries are obviously too much, as the head of the three heroes of Northern Qi in the future, Duan Shao is not all relying on nepotism.

In fact, when Duan Shao, who was about to enter the territory of Xuzhou, received the news of the attack on Pengcheng by Yang Ya Renmeng, he had already sensed the strangeness.

As one of Gao Cheng's confidants, Duan Shao heard his cousin mention that Xiao Yan missed the opportunity of the civil strife in Yuan Wei three times, which also solidified his impression of Xiao Yan's lack of progress.

And Xiao Yan's desire to maintain the division of the north is also well known.

Duan Shao had already made a clear judgment about the purpose of Southern Liang's dispatch of troops at this time, and firmly believed that with the infiltration of Liang and Wei over the years, he was not day and night, so with such fanfare, it was impossible for Yang Yaren not to receive the news.

Since they knew that they were going south to rescue and still spared no effort to attack the city, could it be that the purpose of their northward journey was just to take the opportunity to capture Xuzhou and stop there.

Otherwise, how dare they continue to attack regardless of casualties when reinforcements are about to arrive.

It can't be that he wants to take advantage of the fact that he has not yet arrived, plan to capture Pengcheng first, and then take the tired men to hold the city.

Duan Shao pondered for a while, and soon guessed Yang Yaren's thoughts of surrounding the point to send reinforcements.

This is also the reason why Gao Cheng is reluctant to scheming against the wise man, of course, if the other party is careless, he might as well give it a try.

After all, everyone has times when they are lax, Gao Huan when he is full of ambition, and Chen Qingzhi faces Gao Cheng who led the troops to the battlefield at the beginning of thirteen.

Yang Yaren didn't know much about Duan Shao, so he set up this plan to encircle the point to help, and after Duan Shao thought about it, he also had a countermeasure.

At night, he coerced the peasants in the villages along the way, making them disguise themselves as sergeants, mingling with the weaker soldiers in the army, and commanding them by the lieutenant general.

He led the elite men of the old army and the state and county soldiers, and went out day and night to hide people's eyes and ears, and fell behind the bait.

Duan Shao did not levy these peasants in vain, he promised these people that he would give a certain amount of compensation, with Duan Shao's stingy character, don't expect him to pay out of his own pocket, I still want to find Gao Cheng, let him give the nearly 10,000 peasants who were forcibly recruited with subsidies for the people, such as exempting taxes for one year and reducing the rent of some acres of land.

The peasants were generally cooperative, after all, Duan Shao also said that if they really wanted to meet the enemy, they could flee on their own.

Duan Shao obviously planned to take advantage of the Liang army's pursuit of these deserters to fight from behind and defeat the other party in one fell swoop.

He also made second-hand preparations for this, when the battle of Xiangyang, Gao Cheng's Gyeonggi army first went to the battlefield, saw the materials left by Chen Qingzhi, scrambled to grab it, and completely lost the establishment.

Duan Shao was also present at that time, not only the state and county soldiers, but even the Xianbei soldiers under his command were also coerced to snatch materials and did not listen to orders at all.

Now the Gao clan has invested heavily in the soldiers, emphasized battlefield discipline several times, and established the principle of unified distribution of war trophies after the war, and the chaos of the past no longer happens.

But Nanliang is different, for example, the 10,000 elites of the Xiahou clan, which are their own private soldiers, and there will never be a reason for the court to spend their own money to raise private soldiers for their courtiers.

Nowadays, the military discipline of the Southern Liang is not much better than that of the Gyeonggi Army in Xiangyang.

Duan Shao handed over a large amount of supplies to the bait escorted by the deputy general, no matter whether the Liang army was chasing prisoners or grabbing supplies, the two-pronged approach would definitely make him scattered.

On October 27, the ninth year of Taichang (540), the Eastern Wei army, which had rested for a short time in Yubi, finally pulled out its camp and went south, and because the Luoshui froze, the men and horses could easily cross the river.

At this time, Shao also entered the territory of Xuzhou, and under the city of Pengcheng, the handsome flag of Yang Yaren was still there, fluttering in the wind, but he and Xiahou and the elite of the 15,000 people under his command had already disappeared.

Pengcheng was besieged for a while, and Gao Yue couldn't learn from the outside world in the city, so he guessed that Yang Yaren might be singing about the empty city plan, and that handsomeness was just a cover-up.

But Gao Yue can't gamble, these state and county soldiers under his command can really only be used to defend the city, in case he guesses wrong, he will go out of the city at this time, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

At the same time, Lou Zhao, who was sitting on the slipway, asked for help from Yaoxiong and led 50,000 soldiers to Yuzhou.

In order to make the Gao family come back to help, Nanliang didn't just send Yang Yaren all the way.

Yang Yaren chose to use troops in Xuzhou, so Xiao Yan sent Yang Kan and others to lead 50,000 troops to attack Yuzhou.

Yang Kan and Yang Yaren have the same surname, and they are both from Taishan County, but they are not brothers, Yang Kan is from Liangfu County, Taishan County (Xintai, Shandong), and Yang Yaren is from Juping County, Taishan County (Tai'an, Shandong)

However, both of them were generals from the Northern Wei Dynasty to Xiao Liang, and Yang Yaren led the people to Liang during the ordinary years of the Southern Liang Dynasty (520-527).

And in the first year of Wutai (528 years), because of military merits into the Feng Zhengdong general, the east road Xingtai, Mount Tai Shou, Yang Kan, who gave the title of Juping Marquis, witnessed the chaos of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and also decided to surrender to the Southern Liang, in August of the same year, Yang Kan led 30,000 elite soldiers to besiege his cousin, and was then the Yanzhou Thorn Shi Yang Dun.

After Emperor Yuanziyou of Xiaozhuang of the Northern Wei Dynasty learned about it, he sent an envoy to crown Yang Kan as the hussar general, Situ, and Taishan County Duke, and promised him to be the assassin of Yanzhou forever, so that Yang Kan could change his mind.

Yang Kan killed the envoy to show his intentions, but Yang Yaren, who was sent by Southern Liang to meet him, was still on the way, and the Northern Wei counterinsurgency army that came to conquer had arrived in advance.

The commander was Yu Hui, the son and daughter of Er Zhurong, who sent more than 100,000 troops, and ordered Gao Huan and Er Zhuyang, who were still generals under the command of Er Zhu at that time, to lead reinforcements.

Yang Kan was besieged and fought hard for several days, with heavy casualties among the troops, and even the arrows had been exhausted, but he could not see Yang Yaren's reinforcements for a long time, so he could only break through and fight and go.

finally got out of trouble, and there were only more than 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 war horses left around him.

In November, when crossing the river, the soldiers were sad day and night because of their homeland, so Yang Kan let the soldiers return to the Northern Wei Dynasty, and he only took his family to cross the river and go to Nanliang.

In 529, Yang Kan finally arrived in Jiankang after thousands of miles away, and was warmly received by Xiao Yan, and was appointed as an envoy, a regular attendant of scattered cavalry, and a governor of Banqiu to conquer the military, the general of Anbei, and the assassin of Xuzhou.

The elder brother Yang Mo, the younger brother Yang Chen, Yang Zhi, and Yang Yuan were also appointed as the history of thorns, a history of five thorns, which shows grace.

In the eleven years that Yang Kan defected to Southern Liang, he participated in the small-scale Northern Expedition several times, and at the same time participated in the pacification of civil strife and made military achievements, so he was more respected by Xiao Yanxin, so he now has the opportunity to take charge of 50,000 troops all the way and attack Yuzhou.

Because Yaoxiong repeatedly defeated Chen Qingzhi, Xiao Yan was afraid of him, and before leaving, he was still tirelessly explaining, so that Yang Kan must be careful, there is no need to be in a hurry, care about the gains and losses of the city, just disperse the reinforcements in the rear of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, he never thought of making a breakthrough in the front line of Yuzhou.

In the end, it is the shadow of a man, the name of a tree.

Yang Kan took Xiao Yan's admonition to heart, his situation in Nanliang was very delicate, the northerners treated him as a southerner, and the southerners treated him as a human being.

Like people drinking water, they know their own warmth and coldness, but Yang Kan does not regret going south.

The Gao clan in the north, no matter how nice Gao Cheng said, can not change the characteristics of Gao's current Xianbei attribute is greater than the Han attribute, in Yang Kan's view, as a Han person, he is also an outsider to those Xianbei people in the six towns, rather than working hard for the Xianbei people, it is better to stay in the Han land in the south of the Yangtze River.

Moreover, Xiao Yan's love and kindness also made him have no regrets about defecting to this lord.

Yang Kan understands that Xiao Yan's importance is the foundation of his foothold in the south as a dead man in the north, so even if he is not convinced by Yaoxiong's great reputation in his heart, he thinks that including Chen Qingzhi, is just a fluke to take advantage of the civil strife in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which is not worthy of the name.

But he still resisted the urge to compete with Yaoxiong and faithfully fulfilled Xiao Yan's entrustment.

Yang Kan attacked the city all the way, but he never refused to knock on the important town of Yuzhou, which Yaoxiong personally sits.

Because he was too cautious, Yaoxiong did not find a suitable fighter to go out of the city to engage him, so he had to wait patiently for reinforcements, and planned to join forces with Lou Zhao and leave Yang Kan in Yuzhou.

When Lou Zhao arrived in Yuzhou, Yang Kan changed his strategy, Lou Zhao advanced, he retreated, Lou Zhao retreated, he advanced, fought and did not fight, that is, he dragged Lou Zhao's reinforcements, and did not let him arbitrarily mobilize to support Xuzhou and Jingzhou.

Jingzhou, which Hou Jing guarded, also had a Northern Expeditionary Army, that is, the Jiangling soldiers led by Chen Qingzhi in the past.

Chen Qingzhi has been in charge of this army for more than ten years, and it is precisely because he is so popular with the army that after Chen Qingzhi's death, the Jiangling soldiers also wavered with the army's spirit and lost their spirit.

Even though this army was not much of a threat, Zhang Liang still led 20,000 salt soldiers from Luoyang to Luyang, Guangzhou, according to the plan, ready to support Hou Jing at any time in a crisis.

After all, among the three generals on the southern front, Gao Yue is slightly inferior in terms of talent and military strength.

Of course, it also depends on who they are comparing with, Hou Jing and Yaoxiong are not cats and dogs, but they can't show that Gao Yue's level is low.

It's just that everyone in Nanliang didn't expect that Duan Shao, who came to the rescue of Xuzhou, would be the most dazzling existence among the generals on the Henan front.

Yang Yaren searched for a long time, but picked the strongest opponent for himself.

However, at this time, he was ambushing Duan Shao on the way to rescue Peng Cheng, looking at the dust raised in the distance, he was secretly excited, he didn't expect that he might have been calculated by Duan Shao's generals, and a trap was waiting for him.