Standing on top of the Bianzhou City Tower, looking at the dense rebel camp on the plain outside Bianzhou City, which stretched all the way to the horizon, Han Hong's scalp was also numb.

The number of rebels in Hebei exceeded Han Hong's expectations, and the development of the situation after crossing the river was far beyond Han Hong's inference, but Han Hong had a deep enough understanding of his situation!

From the very beginning, Han Hong was sure that Guo Rong's tactics similar to reducing the focus to lure the enemy would definitely succeed, and there was only one reason, the three feudal towns in Hebei would definitely not be able to resist the temptation of Bianzhou.

Bianzhou is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the terrain is flat, the land is fertile, and it is located in the core of the Grand Canal shipping, under the careful management of Han Hong, Bianzhou and the Xuanwu Army with Bianzhou as the core have accumulated a lot of wealth.

Before it fell to the imperial court, the rich Bianzhou had always been coveted by the feudal towns of Hebei, but the strength of the Xuanwu army itself was not weak, and there was no suitable reason, so no one dared to do it directly.

However, from the moment he openly fell to the imperial court, Han Hong knew that he had become a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of all feudal towns.

Now, the three towns of Hebei have torn their faces and openly raised the banner of rebellion, and they will definitely not let go of themselves and will not give up the money, grain and wealth accumulated in Bianzhou.

Other people may still have the possibility of living if they surrender, but once they surrender, there will be absolutely no place to die, and the Bianzhou that they have worked so hard to run will be carved up, and the Xuanwu Army that they have worked so hard to maintain will also completely disappear.

For Han Hong, it is absolutely impossible to surrender, even if it is death!

Before the rebels completely besieged Bianzhou City, Han Hong had already sent a messenger to pass on the news that Bianzhou City was besieged.

The targets of the relay included Guo Rong, who presided over the Jiaodong War, Li Xu, the Taishang Emperor Li Yu and Emperor Li Chun, who were in Chang'an, Guanzhong, and Han Chong, the younger brother and eldest son Han Gongwu, who were in charge of the main force of the 80,000 Xuanwu-Huaixi Army in Songzhou.

Thinking of Guo Rong, Han Hong couldn't help but look up at the east, Guo Rong's letter made it very clear that by the first day of September at the latest, the Changying Army led by him would definitely appear near Bianzhou, and he, Guo Rong, would definitely not let himself fight alone.

For Guo Rong, Han Hong still trusts, whether Chang'an can send reinforcements in time, Han Hong doesn't know, but Han Hong believes that Guo Rong will definitely come back.

Not to mention whether Guo Rong can arrive on the first day of September, even if Guo Rong really arrives, the amazing number of rebels is an indisputable fact, and Han Hong doesn't know if the rebels will have reinforcements arrive, to some extent, Han Hong doesn't even want Guo Rong to be too anxious, after all, Guo Rong is his real hope.

In addition to Guo Rong, Han Hong has enough confidence in his younger brother and his eldest son.

Faced with hundreds of thousands of rebels, Han Hong knew that a mere 80,000 troops was not enough to change his current situation, nor could he solve the current crisis.

On the contrary, once the operation is not done properly, it may expose Guo Rong's plan from the beginning to defend the city, copy the back road, blossom on the outside line, and wipe out the main force of the rebels.

Therefore, Han Hong did not ask Han Chong to lead the main force of the Xuanwu-Huaixi Army to the north, but asked Han Chong and Han Gongwu to separate a small number of elites to carry out high-intensity sneak attacks and harassment, trying to distract the energy and strength of the rebels, so as to buy time for himself and Guo Rong.

In fact, Han Hong's idea did play a role, and the troops and horses sent by Tian Ji'an and Wang Chengzong to the east, west, and south were largely due to the fact that Han Gongwu's endless raids seriously affected the process of preparing for war, and the dispersion of forces in turn continued to affect the concentration of forces, delaying the rebel offensive for at least five to ten days.

At the same time as external contact, in Bianzhou City, Han Hong himself did not sit still.

In the face of the tragic offensive and defensive battles that may break out at any time, Han Hong opened the treasury, arsenal and granary in Bianzhou City, directly recruited strong men from the people of Bianzhou to participate in the defense of the city, and at the same time began to frantically prepare all the materials that could be used to defend the city from Bianzhou City.

The Hebei rebels outside the city are desperately preparing, and Han Hong inside the city is also desperately preparing, and before the war, the internal and external sides have started a crazy arms race in terms of logistics and preparations.

meanwhile

The reinforcements on both sides are also racing against time on their respective paths.

At the beginning of August, the main force of the 150,000 Lu Long Army under the command of General Liu set off from Jixian County, and went south along Youzhou, Mozhou, and Yingzhou, and arrived at Weizhou, the base camp of Tian Ji'an, the envoy of Wei Bojiedu, on August 14.

Here, Mr. Liu met the owner of this place, Wei Bojiedu, the envoy Tian Ji'an, and the Chengde Jiedu envoy Wang Chengzong, who arrived here in advance.

The three of them appeared here at the same time for only one purpose, and that was to divide the interests and spheres of influence after the war.

The reason why the three of them dared to be so arrogant and dare to divide the interests in advance before the start of the war was because they thought they had won the battle.

First of all, Li Yu, who posed the greatest direct threat to the three of them, has now been trapped in a lonely place in Liaodong after the lone army went north and the lone army went deeper, and the only way to survive has been blocked by Mr. Liu's 100,000-strong army.

Guo Rong can obtain intelligence from Guanzhong and Longxi through the imperial court, although the three towns of Hebei are not the imperial court, but they also have their own sources of intelligence, maybe slower than Guo Rong, but it is not difficult to understand the information of Guanzhong and Longxi.

It has become an open secret that the Tibetan army is pressing.

This can also be regarded as a verification of Chen Hongzhi's promise that the Tubo people will act at the same time, so that the millions of troops from the east and west will besiege Li Tang, and in their eyes, Li Tang will definitely die this time.

Tian Ji'an, Wang Chengzong, and Liu Zong were also helpless about the Tubo people sending troops to confront each other, but not directly starting a war, after all, according to the timetable set by Chen Hongzhi at that time, as early as July, the Hebei army and the Tubo people should have started to attack Li Tang at the same time.

In this matter, the deaf are matched with mute, and no one can laugh at anyone, they are all foxes for thousands of years, and no one can blind anyone.

It's just that although the Tubo people did not directly launch an attack on Longxi, Longnan, and Jiannan, it was enough for the Hebei army to send troops to confront them.

Because of the confrontation of the Tibetan people, the already small number of troops in the imperial court has been completely contained.

This also explains why after Guo Rong led part of the forbidden army eastward, he did not send follow-up reinforcements, because the imperial court had no troops to replenish Guo Rong.

And Guo Rong's series of seemingly abnormal actions also have a reasonable explanation at this time.

With the more than 30,000 people of the forbidden army alone, it is absolutely not enough to defeat the hundreds of thousands of Hebei troops plus hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses from Liaodong, Silla, Baekje, and island countries.

The imperial court was unable to give Guo Rong reinforcements, except for the fact that he had already defected to the imperial court, and had become a thorn in the side of the feudal army, Xuanwu Han Hong, Zhaoyi, Obligation and other feudal towns Although they were pro-imperial court, these guys may not dare to rely on them in a decisive battle of this scale.

Therefore, Guo Rong, who was seriously short of troops, could only march slowly, so that he could frantically draw troops and horses from various feudal towns to supplement his strength.

And now, starting from Chang'an, all the way eastward to search, arriving in Caozhou, the main force of the forbidden army that was repaired after Yunzhou suddenly moved eastward.

Obviously, in the case of crisis, Guo Rong first decided to take action against Li Shidao of Jiaodong, who was the weakest on the surface among the rebels.

By assaulting Yunzhou, the Hebei rebels had a very high evaluation of the combat effectiveness of the forbidden army, and Li Shidao of the Jiaodong Army, which had only tens of thousands of people, could not stop it, and the forbidden army under Guo Rong was like a wolf and a tiger.

In the eyes of Tian Ji'an, Wang Chengzong, and Mr. Liu, Li Shidao, who neither works nor contributes, only likes to play tricks, and only likes to make money, is not a good thing.

However, they know that Li Shidao, who steals women and plays tricks, is not an idiot, this guy has been secretly strengthening the city defenses, hoarding grain and grass, with the heritage left by the Pinglu Army, Guo Rong wants to take the whole Jiaodong in a short time, and it is not easy to kill Li Shidao.

Therefore, Li Shidao is dead and dead, and he is not worthy of their sympathy at all, all they need is for Li Shidao to hold the corpse for a while, as long as it is enough to delay for a month or two.

As Li Yu went north and Guo Rong went east, the only thing standing in front of the three towns of Hebei at this moment was Han Hong, the envoy of the Xuanwu Army who was sitting in Bianzhou and mastering 100,000 male soldiers.

Han Hong's strength is really good, Bianzhou and Songzhou are rich, and the Xuanwu army is even more elite and well-fed, but Han Hong is only 100,000 when it comes to breaking the sky

It's just a centaur.

It's just that everyone knows that Wu Shaoxiang has already started in advance of Huaixi Jiedu, and the war between the Huaixi Army and the Xuanwu Army has begun, so Han Hong has a considerable part of his troops pinned down in Huaixi.

On Guo Rong's eastward march, with the support of the forbidden army, Han Hong's Xuanwu army once crossed the river to the north to threaten Weibo Town.

As Guo Rong's forbidden army marched eastward from Caozhou and Yunzhou, Han Hong put on a posture in front, but secretly withdrew the army that crossed the river.

Han Hong thought that his approach was seamless, but in fact, Tian Ji'an always kept a close eye on Han Hong's pace, and he had already found traces from the first time Han Hong withdrew his troops.

In the eyes of the three towns of Hebei, Han Hong has shown his lust and strength to the fullest.

In the eyes of Tian Ji'an, Wang Chengzong, and Liu Zong, Han Hongnan has Huaixi to contain him, and where it is possible to get support, Guo Rong goes east, Li Yu goes north, and Chang'an takes care of himself, this is the best opportunity to take Han Hong and Bianzhou!

The Bianzhou and Xuanwu armies in Han Hong's hands are the only obstacles to the southward movement of the three towns of Hebei!

As long as Bianzhou is taken, it is equivalent to opening the gateway of Hebei to the Central Plains, and the entire Central Plains, Jianghuai, and Jiangnan will be desired by Yu.

As long as Bianzhou is taken, it is equivalent to cutting off the Grand Canal, which is like an economic artery for Li Tang, and it is equivalent to making Li Tang's heart Guanzhong and Chang'an have insufficient blood supply and fall into chaos.

As long as you take Bianzhou, it is equivalent to obtaining the rich wealth accumulated in Bianzhou for dozens or hundreds of years, which can not only obtain great strength benefits, but also obtain sufficient grain and grass supplies.

Therefore, after discovering that Han Hong had quietly withdrawn his troops, Tian Ji'an did not hesitate and immediately ordered more than 100,000 Wei Bojun to cross the river and go south.

With Tian Ji'an's dispatch, Wang Chengzong and Liu Zong, who had been staring at Tian Ji'an, no longer hesitated, and the armies of Chengde and Lu Long began to move on a large scale, and the three towns of Hebei began to attack with all their might.

As President Liu followed Lu Long's army to Weizhou, the three rebel leaders who thought they were sure to win threw aside Chen Hongzhi, who had been organized in the early stage, and began to hold a meeting to divide the spoils.

In the secret room of Wei Bo Tian Ji'an's mansion, Tian Ji'an, Wang Chengzong, and Liu Zong had a secret meeting for a whole day.

When they walked out of the secret room, although they were tired, the three of them had satisfied smiles in their eyes, and no one knew what would happen in the future, but at this moment, the three of them had excluded all the others.

On the second day, August 15, 150,000 Lu Long's army marched south from Weizhou and headed straight for Bianzhou.

On August 18, the advance of Lu Long's army reached the north bank of the Great River and began to cross the river.

On August 21, the advance of Lu Long's army arrived outside Bianzhou.

On August 28, all the 150,000 Lu Long troops completed the river crossing, and the Hebei rebels outside Bianzhou reached a full 400,000!

At the same time, Jiaodong and Guo Rong have never stopped their footsteps.

After eliminating the islanders and the Jiaodong Naval Division, the soldiers of the Changying Army rested for two days near Wendeng County, while Guo Rong returned to Rongcheng Bay after sending his own letter.

Considering that the plan of crossing the sea could not be implemented for the time being, Guo Rong readjusted his plan, and as for the direction of adjustment, he had already written in detail in the letter to Chang'an.

Although he did not get a reply, Guo Rong knew very well that his suggestion was beneficial to Datang, whether it was Li Chun or Li Yu, he would not refuse his suggestion, the only difference may be the time for implementation.

Therefore, after returning to Rongcheng Bay, Guo Rong did not waste time, and immediately began to make drastic adjustments, first selecting a part of the original Jiaodong Sailor ships and incorporating them into the Jimo Division, making the scale of the Jiink Division exceed 100.

Subsequently, the ink artist was directly split in two.

After the division, part of it will go directly to Dengju and temporarily anchor in Dengzhou, and its main direction is the northern sea area of Datang such as the northeast of Jiaodong, Liaoxi, Liaodong, Silla, and Baekje north of Rongcheng Bay.

In the future, Weihaiwei will be the home port in the future, because the home port is located in the north, and Guo Rong is temporarily called the Beiyang Naval Division, and the exact name will be decided by the two emperors of Chang'an.

The other part will continue to use the Laoshan base as its home port, and the main direction of operations in its planning is the entire southern sea area south of Rongcheng Bay, including the island nation, and its name will also continue to be referred to as the ink division.

The two naval divisions have nearly 50 seagoing vessels, more than 5,000 crews, sailors, and soldiers on board at full strength, and nearly 10,000 soldiers can be transported at one time.

As for the part of the two sailors, Guo Rong has ordered to recruit and supplement them from Dengzhou, Laizhou, Jimo and other places.

Because of the huge shortage of personnel, the two naval divisions do not have the ability to conduct large-scale long-sea operations for the time being, but in Guo Rong's planning, these two naval divisions will support the future of Datang in the future.

Similarly, after the actual battle, Laoshan Wei was divided into four, but due to the lack of personnel, he will temporarily return to Laoshan for replenishment and training.

After spending four full days and completing the temporary establishment and reorganization of the two water divisions, Guo Rong quickly turned around and finally caught up with the brigade in Guanyang County that had finished their rest and started to travel west.

At this time, Guo Rong shifted his attention to the decisive battle.

And the most important thing before the decisive battle is to reorganize the Changying Army.

During the division of troops, some of the personnel who followed Guo Rong to Huaixi and Jiaodong increased greatly, and the part that was used as a feint was also supplemented by a large number of cavalry.

According to the current situation, Guo Rong roughly estimated the actual number of the current Changying army.

It doesn't matter, after doing the math, Guo Rong found that if it is not streamlined, the actual number of the Changying Army has exceeded 45,000!

Looking at the number of people calculated, Guo Rong felt that his teeth hurt, this number is too large, and a considerable number of people who are not enough in training, quality, and tactics will seriously affect the average combat effectiveness of the Changying Army.

Therefore, starting from Guanyang County, while advancing westward, Guo Rong began to streamline and reorganize the temporarily expanded Changying Army.

First of all, in order to deal with the battle of Wendeng, the remaining part of the people who were temporarily recruited by Lu Xiaobing was directly dismissed, and the non-elite reduction greatly increased the speed of the march.

Subsequently, the personnel specializing in equipment and gunpowder were separated from the sappers by Guo Rong and became professional equipment soldiers and gunpowder soldiers respectively.

Correspondingly, on the basis of Lu Xiaobing's temporary expansion of the two equipment battalions, Guo Rong directly expanded them into an independent equipment regiment.

The Taoist priests who were summoned by Chai Lao Dao Qingxuzi and were good at alchemy, because of Guo Rong's big stroke, directly became a member of the gunpowder battalion directly under the Changying Army.

The new 1st Regiment and the 2nd New Regiment composed of veterans of the Xuanwu Army and the Huaixi Army were merged, and the remaining part supplemented the vacancy of the original 1st Regiment, and the remaining part was directly dispatched to Jimo by Guo Rong to become a member of the four coastal defense forces of the future Jiaodong Peninsula.

Selected from the whole army, the reconnaissance battalion directly under the detachment, which suffered heavy losses, was rebuilt, the independent battalion that was replenished to Laoshanwei was rebuilt, and the independent battalion was renamed the guard battalion.

In this way, while marching, while adapting, it took half a month to march 700 miles.

On August 16, on the same day that Emperor Li Yu set out from Chang'an, Guo Rong led his troops to Qingzhou, and joined Mo Lingjun's troops who were resting in Qingzhou.

On August 24, Guo Rong led his troops to Caozhou, and the Changying Army, which had been divided for nearly two months, converged in Caozhou, and it took two days for Guo Rong to complete the final establishment of the Changying Army and Zuo Wuwei.

After the complete reorganization, the Changying Army had a total of four combat regiments, one cavalry regiment, one equipment regiment, four independent logistics battalions, one directly subordinate gunpowder battalion, one directly subordinate guard battalion, plus other auxiliary troops directly under the Changying Army, the actual number of the Changying Army was still close to 40,000.

Zuo Wuwei also added two additional cavalry battalions and two combat battalions, with an actual number of more than 8,000 people.

In the fourth year of Yuanhe, on August 26, Guo Rong's Eastern Expeditionary Army was divided.

Zuo Wuwei went north to Cangzhou, Dezhou, and Jingzhou.

And Guo Rong personally led his troops to continue westward, targeting the core of the Central Plains battle situation three hundred miles away, Bianzhou!

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