In fact, Guo Rong really wanted to take the cavalry all the way to the east along the mother river of Huaxia, and kill Jiaodong directly after everyone reacted, and ask Li Shidao if he had any intentions for Datang.

However, the reality is cruel, and a large group of soldiers and horses, even at the cost of horses' hooves, can never be faster than a solo scout or courier.

The problem is that Guo Rong led a standard cavalry regiment to which the Changying Army belonged, plus a strengthened Datang heavy infantry regiment that had been strengthened to become a pack horse, with a total number of more than 8,000 people, and more than 20,000 war horses or pack horses.

At such a scale, in the Yellow River Valley, where the population has reached a certain level, it is almost a fool's dream to not be discovered.

As for why Guo Rong led not a few guards or one or two companies of light cavalry, but a huge team of 8,000 people, it was because ......

Guo Rong knows that what he is shouldering is the trust of too many people, the hope of the old men of the Anxi Army, and perhaps the fate of Datang in the next few decades.

Guo Rong knew that for the sake of everything in front of him, his opponents must have conspired for a long time, and what he was facing was a cruel war in which the enemy lived and died.

Guo Rong knew that if he was placed in a larger scenario, his opponents would not only be the enemies of the three towns of Hebei, but also unidentified enemies from Shandong and even Datang, and even from outside Datang......

Guo Rong knew that he was not only facing a war against the three towns of Hebei and the careerists of Shandong, but also outside Hebei and Shandong, there were also Tubo people who were eyeing each other, and the Tubo people were the only opponents who were qualified to fight in the same ring, which was the real opponent of Datang.

Everything told Guo Rong that he who was anchored in Anxi could not afford to lose, and Datang, who had just begun the road of rejuvenation, could not afford to lose.

In ordinary times, even if there is a large fleet, but the land is only four states, and the Jiaodong defense of only tens of thousands of soldiers and horses is really nothing in front of the powerful forbidden army.

However, at this critical juncture when he was about to start a war with hundreds of thousands of troops in Hebei Domain, how could Guo Rong dare to let Li Shidao, an X factor whose identity, position, and direction were uncertain, stay in Jiaozhou's defense, making such a position that might affect the entire battle situation.

It was impossible to follow the middle line of the Yellow River, and the northern line north of the Yellow River was already directly close to Wei Bo, one of the Hebei rebels.

At present, although the saber rattling, he and the three towns of Hebei are well aware of the plans of both sides, and Li Yu has even led his troops to the north, but the two sides have not directly started a war after all.

An independent cavalry battalion may be fine, but a group of nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses like himself is directly approaching Wei Bo, and it is likely that he will directly misfire.

Before the soldiers and horses were in place and the hidden dangers were not eliminated, Guo Rong would never dare to take such a risk.

Therefore, the only route that Guo Rong can actually choose is the south.

Compared with the chaotic situation, the situation is more tense, and the northern line and the Huaiyin area on the southern line where people's livelihood is withering are much better in terms of both the situation and the environment.

What's more, the only one in the south who may be a threat is Wu Shaoxiang, the Huaixi Jiedu envoy who has lost most of the main force.

After all, only two years ago, when he led his troops to raid the city of Caizhou last time, the Huaixi Army had been drained by himself, and there was not one of its main forces.

In this case, rebuilding the Huaixi Army is tantamount to building it out of thin air, and rebuilding a strong army out of thin air is not an easy task in any era, and it is even more difficult in more than a thousand years.

This requires both time and money, and even if you have both, you need enough people to train and lead.

At least Guo Rong believes that Huaixi at this time will definitely not have time for him to train a powerful army and become a threat to himself.

This means that even if he is discovered, and Wu Shaoxiang's thief heart is not dead, Guo Rong believes that Wu Shaoxiang is not capable of killing him, and even sending a letter must pass through the jurisdiction of the current Xuanwu Army and the Yanhai Defense Envoy.

Of course, there is a very important convenience in the Huaiyin area of the southern route, that is, supply, after all, the supply of his own team with a ratio of men and horses is one to three, which is an astonishing number.

Guo Rong specially sent Han Xiang to send a letter to Han Hong, and specifically mentioned that sending troops to the reverse included Huaixi, in fact, he tactfully reminded Han Hong if he could provide him with camps and supplies.

With Han Hong's resourcefulness, vision and understanding, Guo Rong believed that Han Hong would definitely be able to guess the direction and purpose of his march, and it should be no problem to prepare some grain and grass in advance on the south side of the Xuanwu Army.

Of course, if Han Hong really didn't prepare supplies and personnel supplies, he wouldn't be too worried.

The whole Jianghuai region is relatively stable, the people's livelihood is stable, the people are relatively rich, with the promotion of Champa rice, grain production has increased sharply, and the importance of the entire Jianghuai region in the economic map of the Tang Dynasty has been greatly improved on the original basis.

The improvement of the economic base also shows that the Jianghuai region can easily provide supplies for this army of soldiers and horses.

On the contrary, to march along the established road with the main force of the Changying Army and Zuo Wuwei, to attract the attention of the majority, and at the same time to send a small force to take over Li Yu's defense area, at least it seems that it is the most suitable and most reasonable way to do so.

There are two lines of soldiers and horses, which is enough to attract the attention of most people, and they can detour from the southern route calmly.

Of course, Guo Rong also made the third preparation.

That is Wu Shaoxiang defying the wind and daring to be a demon......

However, this is not a problem, and he is not as alone as when he fled back to Chang'an, with a cavalry regiment of 3,000 cavalry and an infantry regiment of 5,000 infantry.

Coupled with the request he made to Han Hong through Han Xiang, Han Hong would send at least 10,000 elite Xuanwu troops to the south.

And in the Changying Army, whether it is an infantry regiment or a cavalry regiment, there is at least one engineer battalion, which means that the Changying Army has a strong siege ability!

In fact, when Wu Shaoxiang was oppressed for the first time with the help of the general situation, if it wasn't for the Emperor Li Yu who gave Guo Rong a request to surrender without a fight, Guo Rong wanted to kill him at that time.

If, now, Wu Shaoxiang dares to be a demon, Guo Rong doesn't mind leveling him directly.

However, some things are not written by coincidence.

Although it is located in the Jianghuai region with a dense network of rivers, the current size of this team is more than 8,000 people, Rao is so, under the relatively complete reconnaissance and offensive system of the Changying Army, the entire team still walked out of the speed that Guo Rong is quite satisfied with - an average of 80 miles per day.

Under such circumstances, the Changying army marched south for two days, and then began to turn east, and after completing the turnback, it began to go straight to the junction of the Xuanwu Army and the Huaixi Army.

In Guo Rong's plan, Wu Shaoxiang, who had been disarmed, should show a relatively weak attitude in the face of the threat of the Xuanwu army.

After all, if you don't have soldiers in your hands, you should honestly pretend to be your grandson, otherwise your grandson will not pretend to be good, and his brain will fall to the ground.

And thus in this way, to free up a relatively secluded path for yourself.

However, just when everything was going well and Guo Rong's team was less than three hundred miles away from the southward part of the Xuanwu army, a messenger from the Xuanwu army brought Guo Rong quite unexpected news.

Wu Shaoxiang, who was supposed to be honestly waiting for his fate, rarely hardened, and in the face of the Xuanwu Army pressed by the army, not only did he not have the idea of showing weakness, but on the contrary, Wu Shaoxiang began to draw troops and horses from the entire Huaixi, and directly blocked the front of the Xuanwu Army.

Immediately afterwards, the soldiers and horses of the Huaixi Army began to assemble from the rear to the front line, and the posture of being ready for battle made the unsuspecting Xuanwu Army very confused.

What is even more surprising is that as time went by, the number of soldiers and horses transported from Huaixi became more and more numerous, and the number increased from the initial 20,000 to nearly 50,000.

As a result, the situation of the more than 10,000 Xuanwu Army, which was originally just harassing and diverting attention, became very unfavorable, because the Huaixi Army had a tendency to directly encircle the Xuanwu Army by virtue of its superiority in strength.

When a full 40,000 elites were placed in front of him, and when it was determined that the opponent's strength was far beyond his expectations, Han Hong understood that this was his own mistake, and a big enemy had grown up under his nose unconsciously!

Faced with this sudden situation, Han Hong had no choice but to personally lead the soldiers and horses from Bianzhou to the south, until the soldiers and horses of the Xuanwu Army reached nearly 30,000.

Soon, the two sides, which basically formed a balance of power, began to engage in large-scale confrontations in Songzhou, Bozhou, and Caizhou.

Originally, before the confrontation began, neither Guo Rong nor Han Hong, nor even Li Yu in Chang'an, regarded Wu Shaoxiang as a real problem.

After not paying attention to the changes in Huaixi for two whole years, at this moment, Wu Shaoxiang's sudden outburst brought a huge shock to Guo Ronghe and Han Hong.

More than a year ago, Chen Hongzhi arrived in Huaixi from Shannan Road with the attitude of trying it out, wanting to see if Huaixi, which was once the number one thief in the world, still has a thief's heart.

Then, Chen Hongzhi unexpectedly discovered that after the imperial court lifted the blockade of Huaixi, Huaixi Town, which had just recovered its strength, began to quietly and unobtrusively recruit soldiers and horses again.

Through this alone, Chen Hongzhi is sure that Wu Shaoxiong, a guy with great ambitions and talents, is even more ambitious than he imagined.

So, Chen Hongzhi tried to make a suggestion to Wu Shaoxiang, and then took the opportunity of the large-scale expansion of the imperial court to turn small-scale conscription into large-scale public training in the name of supporting foreign troops.

In fact, Wu Shaoxiang was originally a thief, and after Chen Hongzhi took the initiative to find the door, he learned from Chen Hongzhi's mouth that there were still so many anti-Tang righteous people in the world, and the whole person was even more ecstatic.

After hearing Chen Hongzhi's proposal, Wu Shaoxiang gladly accepted, and then the military strength of the entire Huaixi began to recover at a high speed.

Subsequently, at the invitation of Chen Hongzhi, he handed over his base camp to his younger brother Wu Shaoxiong, who was in the same line as him, and Wu Shaoxiang himself followed Chen Hongzhi north to Youzhou.

However, at that time, Guo Rong had already led the forbidden army to escort the Emperor Taishang to the north, and without leaving scouts, Guo Rong had no way to grasp the situation in Huaixi.

Of course, this is also related to Guo Rong's own failure to pay attention to Huaixi, after all, the Changying Army left a lot of scouts in Hebei Province, and for Huaixi, all of them were withdrawn.

The Changying Army scouts withdrew after Wu Shaoxiang's Huaixi army was dismembered, while Han Hong, who had been in charge of the confrontation with Huaixi, also shifted his main attention to the north to guard against the rebellion of the Three Towns at the behest of Guo Rong and Li Yu.

So, by chance, Huaixi got a development opportunity that no one paid attention to, and for two whole years, no one paid attention to it, and no one restrained the development, Huaixi's strength was quickly restored.

followed Chen Hongzhi to the north, participated in the meeting of the Anti-Thief Alliance in Youzhou, and after learning about Chen Hongzhi's plan to destroy the Tang Dynasty, Wu Shaocong, who returned to Huaixi, was full of confidence.

So, in the face of the Xuanwu Army, which only had more than 10,000 people, Wu Shaoxiang did not hesitate to pull out the Huaixi Army, which had been rebuilt for more than two years, ready to surprise Han Hong.

When the messenger sent by Han Hong informed Guo Rong of the situation, Guo Rong was also shocked.

Judging from this performance, Guo Rong dared to bet with others that if Wu Shaoxiang was not in the same group as the three towns of Hebei, he would gnaw and eat his own lance.

First Liaodong, Liaoxi, then Hebei, Peninsula, and now Huaixi, maybe there are Jiaodong and Xiaori...... No, it's not for sure, there must be Jiaodong's participation!

Without the participation of Li Shidao in Jiaodong, it would be too difficult for Xiao Ri to participate in the war involving the entire Tang Dynasty!

After reading Han Hong's letter, Guo Rong shook his head helplessly, although he had made a lot of preparations, but in the final analysis, he still underestimated the scope and scale of this judgment.

As far as the content that has been exposed in front of him, with this courage and strategy, his opponent this time is really powerful, and he has inadvertently gathered the entire Datang surrounding area, people with potential and qualified to become Datang's opponents.

After admiration, Guo Rong had the same fear as Han Hong.

Although he thought a lot about it before, he still despised the opponent after all, and Guo Rong dared to conclude that this time taking the initiative to jump out was definitely not the plan of the opponent's real master, but an accident.

Because compared to what is already known, the unknown and the icebergs lurking under the sea level are the most terrifying now.

Wu Shaoxiang's Huaixi army is definitely beyond the expectations of most people, and it can also be regarded as a good killer weapon for the opponent.

If you are the brain of the other party, you will never use your precious precision weapons to the extent of confronting a strong existence like the Xuanwu Army, which is simply a waste.

Just look at the surroundings of Huaixi, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Yue'e, Yanhai and other places can be called the heart center of Datang's emptiness, and attacking from all sides can definitely deal a heavy economic blow to Datang.

Guo Rong didn't believe that a person who could form an anti-Tang alliance of unprecedented scale would make such a low-level mistake, but looking back, this can be regarded as a god's curtailment.

After all, when he chose to take the southern route, he didn't consider that Wu Shaoxiang would really do it, and it is estimated that Wu Shaoxiang would not know that the Xuanwu army's demonstration to Huaixi was just to cooperate with his own requirements.

Now, now that all the enemy's hole cards have been discovered and revealed, it's good to see the move.

Since Wu Shaoxiang was the first to jump out, it would be better to take Wu Shaoxiang's sacrificial flag, and by the way, this time completely bring Huaixi into the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court.

Wu Shaoxiang dared to confront the Xuanwu Army at this time, which surprised the two coaches, Guo Rong and Han Hong.

However, several generals and colonels who accompanied the army smiled on their faces, they had waited for so long and finally had to fight, and only by fighting could they get the military merits they needed.

Guo Rong did not wait too long, and after thinking about it for a while, he immediately sent a messenger to the Xuanwu army, asking Han Hong to continue to advance his Xuanwu army south, so as to put the greatest pressure on Wu Shaoxiang in Huaixi, so that he would be forced to strengthen the defense, or continue to transfer troops from the hinterland of Huaixi.

Regarding Guo Rong's request, he has already determined that he will become the center in the future, and Han Hong, who has basically been bound to the interests of Datang, agreed directly without any hesitation.

Subsequently, Han Hong once again transferred 10,000 soldiers and horses from the Xuanwu Army to the south.

Two days later, the elite of the entire 30,000 Xuanwu army pressed towards Wu Shaoxiang's Huaixi.