150,000 people may seem like a lot at first glance, but in reality it's not a lot. Although Zhaoyi in Lu Congshi's hands did not listen to the command of the imperial court, Liu Zong and Wang Chengzong had to think about it, otherwise once they and the Hedong Army really fought, Lu Congshi would attack from the middle, and they would lose everything.

Therefore, the Zhaoyi Army must also be treated as enemy defense. And this still means that the total strength of the Hedong Army and the Zhaoyi Army against them exceeds 200,000, and considering the terrain of Hedong, Zhaoyi, Lulong, and Chengde that is high in the west and low in the east, 150,000 people can only parry, but have no power to counterattack.

More importantly, the troops left behind by Chengde and Lulong were not only 150,000 people defending Hedong and Zhaoyi in the west.

In Liaodong and Liaoxi, Liu Zong reserved 100,000 soldiers and horses, and after Li Yu led the army to the north, he blocked the volume of Liaoxi, and Liaodong, Liaoxi and the Central Plains were completely isolated.

In the direction of Hebei, Li Yu led the army to the north, but the four states were still under the Hebei Jiedu envoy. Therefore, Wang Chengzong and Liu Zong each allocated 50,000 people, and gathered 100,000 people to surround Cangzhou, Dezhou, Jingzhou and other four states that were held by Zuo Weiwei at that time.

In addition, in order to defend against the attacks of nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples in the north, including the Uighurs and Khitans, Mr. Liu also specially reserved nearly 50,000 people to defend the border forts, beacons, fortresses, passes, and cities.

In fact, among the three towns of Wei Bo, Chengde, and Lulong, only Wei Bo chose to press all the main forces on the battlefield of attacking the imperial court.

On the one hand, it can be regarded as the behavior of Mr. Liu and Wang Chengzong who did not fight all their strength at once, but devoted a considerable part of their energy to defend the back road, as being prudent and old-fashioned.

But, on the other hand, they are not doing business together, they are not traveling together, they are rebelling!

Once the rebellion is successful, the returns are outrageously high. However, once the rebellion fails, especially if the rebellion fails, it will be the end of death and annihilation.

Although the behavior of Mr. Liu and Wang Chengzong is old-fashioned, and the reasons are barely appropriate, but in order to prevent the back road, do you really need so many troops?

In the case that there is a strong city to rely on, does it really need to mobilize 150,000 troops to guard against the 100,000 Zhaoyi Army at both ends of the first rat and the 100,000 Hedong Army guarding the pass?

Li Yu led the Hebei Army to the north, even with the support of Zuo Wuwei, the remaining manpower of Cang, Jing, De and other four prefectures would not exceed 20,000, is it really necessary to use a full 100,000 people to besiege?

As for the direction of Liaodong, Mr. Liu is the boss of the entire Lulong, even if Liaodong has given up, but who would believe that he will not send a scout over?

Who would believe that he didn't know anything about the situation in Liaodong? A corridor that can be sealed by a small pass, does it really take a full 100,000 Lu Long elites to defend?

In this case, it may be understandable to dare to be cautious, deliberately preserve strength, and consume the strength of allies, but it is more or less inappropriate to put it on such a thing as raising troops and rebelling.

Some things do not stand up to scrutiny, although what comes out is not necessarily the truth, but in the vast majority of cases, what is deduced according to the facts, the probability is not far from the unknown facts.

Compared with Mr. Liu and Wang Chengzong, who have their own ghosts and intrigues, Tian Ji'an, who pressed all his troops to Bianzhou at once, is more courageous, and he understands better what rebellion is, and he also understands the result of rebellion better: if you don't succeed, you will become benevolent!

There is no second way out. It's just that after seriously discussing with Li Chun and analyzing the strategy and deployment of the Hebei rebels, Guo Rong suddenly became curious about Tian Ji'an.

Tian Ji'an is just a middle-aged person, Guo Rong is very sure of this, after all, his big spy who can be called a trump card is in Tian Ji'an's mansion and is regarded as a guest.

With the existence of Tian Ji'an, who is a middle-aged person, he can make such a stud-like decision at the first time of the rebellion, which is really unexpected.

It's a pity that Li Chun couldn't answer Guo Rong's question, and at this time, Guo Rong and Li Chun invariably remembered that they had been promoted from the Emperor Taishang to the first emperor

"Xuan" Zong Li recited. If Li Yu was here, he might be able to give these two little characters a clear enough hint, however, the Emperor Taishang, who had sheltered the two young people, was really gone.

………………………………………………………………………… In the fourth year of Yuanhe, on the fourth day of November, the various units of the Tang Army that were about to participate in the Northern Expedition had completed their assembly, and the soldiers, auxiliaries, people, and servants had all arrived at the various ferries on the south bank of the river.

According to the plan formulated in advance, except for Zuo Jinwuwei, who would not participate in the front-line battle as Li Chun's protector, the Changying Army, Tiance Army, Zuo Wuwei, Qianniuwei and Zuo Qianniuwei, and the left and right prison guards who arrived in the war zone, nearly 100,000 people would be the vanguard of the entire Northern Expedition army and board the ship to complete the first wave of attacks.

Behind the forbidden army, there are 200,000 soldiers and horses drawn from Lubei, Xuanwu, Yanhai, Sanhe, and the defense envoys of the Eastern Capital, and these soldiers and horses drawn from various towns will board the ship as the second echelon, follow the forbidden army forward, and protect the flank of the forbidden army before the breakthrough.

These local armies were followed by nearly 100,000 county soldiers drawn from Heluo, Jiangnan, and Jianghuai, and their tasks were to take charge of order in the recovered areas, take over important cities after the change of hands, and protect the security of the grain routes in the rear of the army.

After the county soldiers, there were nearly 200,000 people and servants, whose task was to transport nearly 600,000 stone grain and 300,000 stone forage from all over the country across the river, and then under the protection of the county soldiers, transport the grain, grass and supplies to the front soldiers.

Between the local army and the county soldiers, there is also a very special part of the students who are on the verge of graduation from the various schools of the Guozijian, who will temporarily serve as local officials after the forbidden army recovers the prefecture and county, restore order as quickly as possible, maintain local stability, and wait for the official officials sent by the imperial court to arrive and take over, and after the official officials arrive, these students will temporarily serve as the officials' deputies to help the officials take over the prefectures and counties as soon as possible.

Although all these are temporary appointments, all of these students will gain a valuable experience in the administration and auxiliary administration, and these experiences will play an incomparable role in their official employment.

In fact, when Guo Rong first saw his staff members make a plan, he was also extremely confused, this kind of large-scale transfer was really terrifying.

Therefore, in order to avoid the trouble of crossing the river at the beginning, Guo Rong was ready to wait until after the freeze to carry out a large-scale march.

According to Guo Rong's memories before crossing, the big river, that is, the Yellow River, had a freezing period in the Henan section of the later generations, and the freezing period was not short.

However, after questioning the residents on both sides of the river and consulting the official records, Guo Rong sadly discovered that in this era, the river had almost no freezing period.

In the so-called cold winter wax moon, the river does occasionally freeze, but the thickness of the ice is very thin, at most only one or two inches, which is simply not enough to support the passage of such a large army.

Fortunately, the Changying Army has always had the habit of backing up plans, or rather, it was Guo Rong's wishful thinking to pass through the ice, and the river crossing plan formulated by the staff of the Changying Army at the beginning was slightly modified according to Li Chun's personal expedition, and it became the current river crossing operation where the ritual is greater than the substance.

In order to meet the unprecedented scale of river crossing operations within the scope of the Tang Dynasty, Guo Rong searched almost all the ships in the upper and lower reaches of the entire river.

From a small sampan that can only take three or five people, to a fishing boat that can take more than a dozen people, to a boat that can take more than 100 people, a boat that is responsible for the transportation of the north and the south, and even the private ships of the wealthy families in Henan, as long as they can float on the water, all of them are requisitioned.

In the later period, in order to increase the transportation force as much as possible and transport all the personnel, equipment, livestock, and materials in the shortest possible time, Guo Rong even considered temporarily setting up rafts and bamboo rafts in Henan.

Fortunately, it is not only Guo Rong and the garrison of Henan Province who are making efforts. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty spent countless manpower, material resources, and financial resources to build the Grand Canal, although it was the cause of the demise of the former Sui Dynasty, but the merit is in the present and the benefits are in the future, and the big river is also one of the rivers connected by the Grand Canal.

The Jianghuai and Jiangnan water networks are dense and there are many ships, but the topography of this Shandong is high in the north and low in the south, and the transfer of ships from Jiangnan Road to Henan Road is far away and cannot quench the thirst of the near.

Fortunately, there is still upstream in the downstream. At this time, the navigable capacity of Weishui is acceptable, which can be called the golden waterway of Guanzhong, and as the most important tributary of the big river, it can naturally be connected with the main channel of the big river.

Therefore, after learning that Guo Rong needed ships, Li Chun also began to frantically collect ships from Guanzhong, and even brought over the experimental fleet on Weishui that played a crucial role in the Chencang Road blockade.

When the time came to the fourth day of the first month of November, that is, two days before the day of the attack, the number of ships of all kinds gathered in the ports preparing for war on the south bank of the Great River had exceeded 1,000, not counting the ships that had been continuously supported from the south of the Yangtze River.

The entire Northern Expeditionary Army has officially entered a state of imminent war. Compared with the increasing number of soldiers, more and more ships, and the more and more obvious offensive rhythm on the south bank of the Great River, there was no anti-landing plan on the territory of Wei Bo's army on the north bank of the Great River.

On the contrary, the Wei Bo army, which had just been expanded to 150,000 through forced conscription and conscription, closely monitored all the wealthy families and clans in the six states of Wei Bo Town that had not been uprooted.

On the fifth day of the first month of November, Li Chun and Guo Rong successfully arrived at Baima, which is located about thirty miles west of Huazhou, which is the place where Changying's army set off from the north, and it is also the sense of ceremony arranged by Guo Rong for Li Chun.

After arriving at Baima, what appeared in front of Li Chun's eyes were the rows of various ships around Baima Harbor, the mountains of materials stored on the periphery of Baima Harbor, the rows of barracks between Baima and Huazhou, and the energetic and morale-boosting soldiers in the camp.

Everything in front of him gave Li Chun a feeling that the world was under control. Accompanied by Guo Rong, as the commander, after completing the inspection of such a huge camp with a scale of nearly 100,000 people, after eating a dinner made by the cooking soldiers, Li Chun fell asleep heavily.

However, Guo Rong and the main generals of the Changying Army were so happy, and after Li Chun fell asleep, Guo Rong and the staff group, as well as several military academies and several civilian officers in charge of logistics who would lead the team to cross the river tomorrow, conducted a final round of military discussions and determined the plans and steps that had been determined countless times.

When the time was approaching, the final discussion of the military conference ended, and the military academies who had ended the military discussion disbanded and went back to rest, while Guo Rong led a guard of more than ten people around him, and the military director had to complete the patrol.

Half an hour later, Guo Rong, who had finished patrolling the camp, also returned to his military tent, took off his armor, and soon fell asleep.

Just when Guo Rong fell asleep, in the north of the big river, in Weizhou, in the mansion of Situ and Wei Bojiedu, a middle-aged man with fair skin, medium stature, handsome appearance, thin figure, and his face was full of anxiety and worry quietly came to a quiet mansion in the back house.

Withdrawing several cronies and guards behind him, the middle-aged man stood quietly at the door of the mansion and closed his eyes.

After taking a deep breath, the middle-aged man opened his eyes, gently opened the courtyard door, stabilized his figure, and stepped in.

Immediately afterwards, the man entered the courtyard, came to the door of the main hall of the courtyard, took a deep breath again, and then stood upright, bowed, intervened, and bowed, purely in terms of etiquette, perfect.

After saluting, the middle-aged man kept his posture unchanged and said respectfully.

"New Year's greetings to the mother!"

"Ji An, don't be polite, come in and talk." The voice was not loud, and the tone was not high, a weakness and exhaustion that could not be concealed, however, after hearing the softness emanating from this voice, the middle-aged man stepped inside.

Entering the hall, an old woman in her sixties, with all white hair, a weak body, and a thin face, sat on a couch with a smile on her face.

Although she is nearly sixty years old, she is no longer in her prime, but her straight waist, her sharp eyes, and her gentle smile with a resolute smile can still see the old woman's former brilliance from every bit of it.

After looking up and glancing at the old woman, after seeing a hint of softness in his eyes, the middle-aged man felt relieved, and the whole person even had a feeling of lightness, and even his footsteps were a little scattered.

However, before he could completely relax.

"Ji An, Shen Du!" The voice was not harsh, but after hearing the voice, the middle-aged man immediately straightened his waist, and his somewhat scattered steps were also regular.

"Yes, Mother!"

"Okay, don't be too nervous, my son is here tonight, is it because the imperial court is ready?"

"Yes, Mother, according to the scouts sent by the child, ...... soldiers, auxiliaries, people, grain and grass, and ships are all ......available, I am afraid that it will be close to a million people!"

"Millions!" After the three words came out, a touch of light emanated from the old man's child's hole.

"It's really bold!"

"Sure enough!"

"It seems that Li Yu has really changed after his abdication, such a bold emperor and such a calm general, it seems that the revival of my Tang Dynasty is in sight!"