Late Tang

(Thank you Lin Biao for your reward here, thank you!)

The eighth day of April in the sixth year of Qianfu.

On this day, Emperor Li Xuan of the Tang Dynasty issued an imperial edict to confer Li Jing, the king of Qin, as the Marshal of the Army and Horses of the World.He worshiped Tongping Zhangshi and Lingnan Xidao Jiedu envoy Kang Chenghui as the Yicheng Army Jiedu envoy.Worship Tongping Zhangshi and Datong Army Jiedu Envoy Xin Xun as Xuanwu Jiedu Envoy to declare to the world.

On the same day, the imperial edict was established under the Daxing platform of the Northeast Dao, and the provinces of Andong, Liaodong, Liaoxi, Beiping, Hebei, and Shandong were six, and Yichang, Tianping, Taining, Zi Qingzhu Town was abolished and merged into the six provinces under Daxingtai in the Northeast Road.

After discussing with Daxingtai Wenwu for a long time, Li Jing finally made a decision, that is, to temporarily abandon the five prefectures of Yun, Pu, Cao, Hua, and Song that are currently occupied, and only keep Mi, Yi, Hai, and Song in the new land of Henan. Six states of Si, Yan, and Ji.

The six prefectures of Mi, Yi, Hai, Si, Yan, and Ji were merged into Shandong Province.

Spit out the meat I ate, although I was a little reluctant, but it was a decision after a long consideration.

The rapid expansion southward this time was completely beyond the expectations of Li Jing and others.Even on the other side of Hebei, the sudden addition of five states was somewhat unexpected.

After the excitement at the beginning, there were many problems that followed, which made Li Jing and others have to think carefully.

Before going south, Li Jing's goal was to open up the Hebei passage to the south, and then enter Henan, taking advantage of the emptiness of Henan, grab a ticket and leave.Move some people and return to Liaodong to enrich.

It's just that after obtaining more than ten states in Henan so easily, it would be a lie to say that he is not tempted and greedy.It's just that after looking back, Li Jing also found that if he really wanted to maintain this territory, some people felt that they were not enough.

Although there is no threat to the people occupying the territory of more than ten states in the land of Henan, after swallowing the eastern part of Henan, the center of gravity of Daxingtai began to be unstable.

The backyard of Liaodong is not stable, and the key passage in Hebei has not yet been cleared. The four towns and Li Ke are stuck between the northeast and Shandong. Once the two sides start fighting again, the entire strategic situation will be very unsafe for Li Jing. Danger of cutting off.What's more critical is that when the forces of the Qin army reached the northern part of the Huaihe River and the eastern part of the Bianhe Canal, Li Jing had to face the formidable enemy of Li Keyong and the four towns of Hebei, as well as Gao Pian and Luoyang in Huainan. The Qi army's joint attack.

On a battlefield, Li Jing is not afraid of any enemy, but if he is dealing with several extremely powerful forces at the same time, Li Jing is also powerless.

The final decision was to keep the Qilu hilly area, but to temporarily abandon the undefensible territory of the Tianping Army, Yicheng Army, and Songzhou, which were surrounded by the three families of Gao Pian, Huang Chao, and Wei Bo.

On the other hand, Li Jing gave up the five prefectures of Yun, Pu, Cao, Hua, and Song that were indefensible. However, in order to protect the land to the east, Li Jing decided not only to keep the Hai and Si provinces in addition to occupying the Qilu hilly area. At the same time, the territory of Huaisi in Erzhou was also planned to take Xuzhou, using Huaisi as a barrier to block Gao Pian's forces in Huainan, and completely stabilize the territory of Shandong province.

But even if he has decided to give up the five states such as Yun and Pu, Li Jing will not give up in vain.

Therefore, after thinking about it for a while, Li Jing finally made a statement to the court, using his teacher Zhenwu Army Jiedu Envoy Yu Jing as the Tianping Army Jiedu Envoy to govern the three states of Yun, Pu, and Cao.And with Kang Chenghui as the envoy of the Yicheng Army Jiedu, he governed the three states of Hua, Zheng, and Bian.Please also take Xin Yu as the envoy of Xuanwu Jiedu to govern the three prefectures of Song, Hao and Ying.

Yu Jian, Xin Xun, and Kang Chenghui are all handsome men at the moment. Li Jing suggested that they transfer to Henan, of course, for his own private interests.First of all, these three people are very close to me. If they were to be the commanders-in-chief of the three towns, then even if Li Jing gave up the territory of the five states that he currently occupies, he would not actually fall into Huang Chao or Gao Pian And in the hands of anyone from Han Jian.

Although Li Jing didn't expect the three elders of the Tang Dynasty to fall directly on him, as long as they didn't fall on their enemies, they would still be Pingfan and allies of Shandong Province.Moreover, the characters of these three people are not the kind of people with great power ambitions, so there is no need to worry that three hostile warlords will come out.

Originally, the three of them were already handsome, and they were transferred to Henan, especially Xuanwu Town. Right now, there is actually only one Songzhou in control.There is only one Huazhou in the hands of the Yicheng Army, but Li Jing also understands that, in fact, like Xin Yan in Datong, Li Jing was originally reserved as a backup, but now there are various tribes in Datong who actually control the states, and there are With Li Keyong's rise, Xin Yan will not be able to play much role in Datong. It is better to bring him to Henan, where there is still a lot of help.

With Li Jing's prestige now, Li Xuan still needs to use Li Jing's soldiers and horses to deal with Huang Chao, so naturally he will agree.Even though this new transfer was somewhat similar to relegation to the three of them, the emperor no longer cared about that.

At the same time, Li Jing began to assemble and mobilize soldiers and horses, dividing them into three groups.

In the Northeast, soldiers and horses were mobilized from Liaodong Province and Andong Province to Liaoxi to keep on guard against Khitan at all times.

On the other hand, Li Jing gathered troops from the two provinces of Hebei and Beiping in Shunzhou and Hejian to prepare for the battle with the four towns of Hebei and Li Keyong.

At the same time, Li Jing was also mobilizing troops from Henan and Shandong, preparing to concentrate his forces on attacking Xuzhou.

On the one hand, Li Jing sent people to Xuzhou to meet Shi Pu, and asked Shi Pu to hand over Xuzhou. On the other hand, he sent people to Hu Douzhou, planning to temporarily abandon Hu Douzhou, the southeast base.After all, the stall was too big, and Li Jing's troops were a little insufficient.Many soldiers and horses have been transferred from Hudouzhou before, but now there are only [-] township soldiers and a navy fleet with [-] people stationed.

Now that Gao Pian has judged that there may be changes, Hu Douzhou may become Gao Pian's first target.Temporarily recalling this force can not only prevent Gao Pian from attacking, but also transfer it to the Xusi battlefield to strengthen the Qin army's combat power.

In fact, for Li Jing's entire new strategic plan, abandoning the five prefectures of Cao and Song Dynasties, but attacking Xuzhou, especially at this critical time when the Supervisory Office has learned more and more about the frequent changes between Li Keyong and the four towns in Hebei.

There are quite a few voices who believe that at this time, the status quo should be maintained for Henan, and then the main force should be transferred to the north to pacify the four towns in Hebei first, and at the very least take down Youzhou, which has been destroyed, to occupy a favorable position.

But Li Jing insisted on the current plan in the end, so they had no choice but to obey.

But to realize Li Jing's plan, the most critical thing is to win Xu Si.

If Xu Si cannot be controlled, it will be difficult for Ying Song and even Hai, Yi, and Yan Zhuzhou to be truly stable.

Sizhou was already under Zeng Yuanyu's control, and everyone, including Li Jing, thought it would not be too much trouble to win Xuzhou.

On the one hand, Li Jing ordered Zeng Yuanyu to mobilize troops and horses to march towards Xuzhou, and on the other hand, he sent envoys to Xuzhou to let Shi Pu, the military governor of the probation army, join him.The Qin army estimated optimistically that when Zeng Yuanyu's soldiers and horses arrived in Xuzhou, it is estimated that Shi Pu had already seen the situation clearly and took the initiative to open the city and surrender.As for the recruits recruited in the Song and Cao states, it is estimated that they are almost the same, and they can just be handed over to the three new Jiedu envoys who rushed over.

After the situation in Henan is slightly stabilized, the soldiers and horses from Shandong and Henan will be able to go north and fight the four towns and Li Keyong in Hebei.

This is the most optimistic forecast, but the reality is not always smooth sailing.

On that night, a very bad news was delivered to Song Cheng Li Jing by a fast horse.

Gao Pian made a move, Hebei Sizhen and Li Keyong hadn't made a move yet, but Gao Pian, who had been silent for nearly a year, suddenly made a move.

If the tiger does not show its power, it will really make people think it is a sick cat.

Gao Pian was worthy of being a famous general, and his strikes were steady and ruthless. No one expected that he would be the first to strike first, not even Li Jing.Although Li Jing had discussed with his subordinates that Gao Pian might secretly form an alliance with the north, he only believed that Gao Pian might stab the knife in the back after Li Keyong fought with the four towns of Hebei.

No one thought that he was the first to do it, and if he didn't move, it would be amazing.

The Huainan army sent troops in two directions. Gao Pian's nephew Gao Jie led [-] soldiers and [-] auxiliary troops to raid Haozhou in the south of the Huaihe River, while Gao Pian's general Liang Yan led [-] soldiers and [-] auxiliary troops to raid the garrison of Hu Douzhou. Qin Jun.

Although Gao Pian and the Huainan army have been silent for a long time, their performance this time still proves their ferocity.It took Gao Jie only one night to capture Dingyuan City in Haozhou, and Zhaoyi City in Haozhou the next day, and now he has directly surrounded the important town of Zhongli in Haozhou City.

On the other hand, Liang Yan also killed Hu Douzhou...

The news about Haozhou was two days ago, and the news about Hu Douzhou was three days ago.

This bad news was like a dark cloud, hanging over the heads of everyone in Songzhou Daying.

Even Li Jing frowned tightly.He didn't need to speak, just by looking at everyone's expressions, he already knew that from Cui Yunqing to Gai Yu, Li Zhenjing, Xiang Lin Wei and others, everyone had almost agreed that Hu Douzhou's 1000 troops were probably gone.

The loss of Hu Douzhou, the loss of troops and the loss of a large amount of money, food and goods, although it was a big blow to morale, it was not the worst.

What made Jingxiang and others extremely worried was that Gao Pian's action was so fast this time, which was beyond expectations.And they attacked the city at a faster speed, one city a day. At this speed, Haozhou might have fallen by now.

And once Haozhou is lost, the entire area south of the Huaihe River will be Gao Pian's territory.

After going to Haozhou, you don't need to think about it, Gao Pian's next step must be Xuzhou and Sizhou.

On that day, in the Swallow Tower in Xuzhou City of the Probation Army, Shi Pu, the governor of the Probation Army, and his wife enjoyed the spring here.

It was said to be appreciating the spring, but in fact, Mrs. Shi saw her husband's expression was very bad, and she was so upset that she thought of a way to come out with him to relax.It's just that Shi Pu didn't have such thoughts at this time.

It was with great difficulty that he drove away the commander-in-chief sent by the imperial court, and took the position of commander-in-chief of the probation army after untold hardships.But I haven't been happy for a few days. First, Huang Chao crossed the border, captured Sizhou, and plundered it, which attracted Li Jing to come and occupy Xiapi City, so he couldn't take it away.

Later, when the imperial court set up a flood defense line, he responded positively and sent two troops to go there. He wanted to take the opportunity to clear up the opposition voices in the probation army and pay them first, so as to take the opportunity to strengthen the control over the probation army. .Who would have imagined that these arrogant soldiers would cause trouble as soon as they went out, which actually caused chaos in the army of Zhongwu Town. It didn't matter that 3000 people were slaughtered by themselves, and even the group that had gone with them also dispersed.

Immediately afterwards, instead of returning the previously occupied Xiapi, Li Jing took the entire Sizhou at once.

Negotiations have yet to come up with a reason, and now Gao Pian in the south suddenly made a move and robbed Haozhou.

The probation army only attacked three states, Xu, Si, and Hao, with no more than 2 troops.

As a result, Li Jing robbed Sizhou and Gao Pian robbed Haozhou. Now Zeng Yuanyu of Sizhou and Gao Jie of Haozhou sent envoys to ask him to hand over Xuzhou.

Shi Pu really wanted to cry but had no tears. He was so handsome at the time, he was so fucking aggrieved.

But what can he do?

Everyone could tell that the court was probably going to be doomed this time, and Li Jing seemed to be the most powerful in this world.With all the soldiers and horses in his hands now, there are only 1 people in Xuzhou City.

With just this little soldier, let alone Li Jing, even Gao Pian couldn't beat him.

But if he just sent the probation army out like this, he would be a little unwilling.What's more important is that it's not just one family that wants Xuzhou now, but two families.Li Jing and Gao Pian, he can't afford to offend either of them.

Surrendering Li Jing, it is estimated that Gao Pian will still have to fight.Surrendering Gao Pian, this Li Jing will not let Xuzhou go.

In fact, if he was willing to part with this handsome position, he wouldn't be so embarrassing. No matter how he fights, he can just rely on anyone.But in the final analysis, Shi Pu was not the commander-in-chief sent down by the imperial court, he was a real probationary general, relying on the mutiny of the superior.

At the beginning, he took such a big risk, caused military chaos and chased Yuan Jiedushi, and finally got this position. His buttocks are not hot yet, so how could he be willing to give it away.

Sizhou, Linhuai.

Zeng Yuanyu, the rear military governor of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion and the commander of the Xu Sixing Battalion, got up early in the morning, put on full body armor, and boarded the Sizhou city wall to observe the enemy's situation.It had just stopped after a day and night of heavy rain, and Gao Jie had already reached the south bank of the Huaihe River silently by virtue of the rain.

Haozhou has already fallen into the hands of Gao Jie, and he has reached the opposite bank of Linhuai a day ago.

Compared with the Huainan Army, the Qin Army can be counted as the Northern Army.Although it is said that the old foundation of the Qin army started in Dengzhou, most of the expansion in recent years came from Henan, Hebei and even Liaodong.The northern army is good at riding and shooting, and the southerners are good at boating and chariots. This saying is not false.

Since ancient times, Huaisi has been the dividing line between the north and the south.

When southerners attack north, they will basically choose to use river water to attack during the rainy season in spring.

When northerners attack south, most of them choose in autumn and winter when the river is dry and shallow.

The current season is the time when spring and summer are handing over. From the perspective of weather, the Qin army is actually at a disadvantage.

However, the Qin army occupied Sizhou first and defended by the river, but it was in a favorable location.

However, although the Huaihe River is also dangerous, for the Huainan army, the Huaihe River is not considered dangerous and cannot stop them. (To be continued.)