At the end of June, the two armies of Huainan totaled 6,000 elite people and marched up along the Huai River in Shouchun Town. After arriving at Yingkou, the troops divided into two routes, all the way under the leadership of Guo Yu, from Yingkou to the north, to the middle of Yingshui Wanqiu, Chenjun.

This group of people led not only the soldiers and soldiers, but also more than a dozen administrative officials of the Huainan Governor's Office, and Xie Shang of Chenjun was among them. This march was not a routine patrol and vigilance as in the past, but a formal establishment of rule in Chenjun and the complete inclusion of it under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Office. Cooperate with this army and Shen Mu, who has been stationed in Qian County, and the two departments cooperate to act, and the vast land in southern Henan between Ying and Vortex must be included in the order of the Governor's Mansion.

For this military operation, Shen Zhezi and a group of generals and subordinates were also discussing for a long time what step to advance.

The land of southern Henan has entered the Central Plains, and there is no danger in the region. If you want to get a natural and solid defensive line, you need to push your army all the way along the Yellow River to gain a geographical advantage.

In previous discussions, there was no shortage of generals who supported this plan, and the more radical even proposed to directly send troops to Chen Liu, and then march west to Xingyang and Luoyang. When the soldiers advanced to this point, it can already be said that they have restored the situation of the northwest expedition of the ancestral town, which can be described as a great achievement.

The reason why the soldiers dared to be so enterprising was not because they were blindly optimistic and arrogant. You must know that this route is the route of the army of the Qianguo country to the south last year, and along the way, more soldiers from the county and the countryside are armed, which is equivalent to clearing this area again. The army of more than 100,000 collapsed Huaishang, and there were not many formed and regular armed forces in this area.

The hostile forces identified in the north today are a part of the defeated troops of the Liang State and Yongqiu, which are mainly composed of Zahu Yicong, especially Tu Ge and Ding Lingren, and its leader is Zhai Su, the central general of the Yuan Shihu Army. During the Huaishang War, his troops fled north along the vortex all the way to Liang due to the impact, and collected more miscellaneous soldiers along the way, so far there are more than 6,000 people, and there is no stronghold so far, only in the area of looting and maintenance.

Shen Mu settled in Qiaocheng last year, in addition to cleaning up the defeated people and bandits in the countryside around Qiaojun, the main thing was to target this slave army. However, because these slave armies did not have a fixed stronghold, once the Huainan army advanced, it would be scattered in the countryside, and once the Huainan army retreated, it would gather again and cause trouble, and it was difficult to completely exterminate them. Moreover, the Huainan Army is really not friendly to the Zahu people, so it is also very difficult to recruit and surrender. It is said that Zhai Su has been appointed as the general of Lingjiang and the Taishou of Liangjun by the Xiangguo side of the state of Qian, but there is no conclusive source.

In addition to this Zahu, there is another enemy army, that is, Chen Guang, who betrayed Zu Yue and defected to the Kingdom of Qiang in the early years. His people originally stayed in Yingshang, and after the defeat of the front line of the Qianguo, they retreated to the territory of Chenliu before the Huainan Navy went north, relying on the Langdang Canal and backing the big river.

This Chen Guang is a more difficult opponent than the Hu general Zhai Su's subordinates. There are many miscellaneous people, including a part of the Yuzhou army of the Zu clan in the early years, and a part of the beggars, and at the same time it has accepted many soldiers of the Qiang State. At the same time, his people have been in the land of Yuzhou for a long time, and there are many township sects and docks attached to them.

This Chen Guang is a typical military leader in troubled times, and he has no concept of loyalty. Soon after the Huaishang War, last year he sent an envoy to ask Shen Zhezi to surrender, and the tone was not small, saying that the 50,000 people under his control and the land of several counties under his jurisdiction, as long as Shen Zhezi was willing to accept his surrender, and promised to erase his old sins from the Jiangdong court, and at the same time please seal a third-class marquis, then the people and land in his hands would all belong to Huainan.

Shen Zhezi's reaction to this is also very simple, as long as he disbands his subordinates and binds himself to the town to ask for guilt, then he will promise to only kill him, the first evil, and will not be related to his relatives. Of course, that Chen Guang would be crazy to accept such a condition. And Shen Zhezi is also not stupid, let alone being used by this Chen Guang as a ladder to get ahead in troubled times, so the two sides naturally tore their faces.

Shen Zhezi didn't know whether Chen Guang had 50,000 horses or not, but the Huainan rangers had previously spied on the military situation and the communication reports of those township sects in southern Henan, and it was conservatively estimated that there were 10,000 people. There is no income here in Huainan, on the one hand, this person sent scattered soldiers to cause trouble in the countryside, and on the other hand, he rebelled against the general, and entrenched himself in one side under the banner of the country.

These two bandit armies are the strongest in Yuzhou today, and there are some small groups of rogues, or local tyrants and dock lords who take advantage of the situation because of the chaos. At the beginning of the year, there were as many as a dozen Taishou and generals in this area alone, and there were also loyal people who claimed to have received the secret edict of Emperor Sima Ye and waited for the opportunity to rebel and eliminate thieves, and some asked Huainan to surrender and ask for official titles and titles.

However, with the previous order of the Governor's Mansion spread throughout the territory, most of the pastors, guards, generals, etc. have disappeared, and of course there are also those who commit crimes against the wind, but most of them flee to the north and dare not approach Huaishui.

With the current military strength of the Huainan Army, it is not difficult to completely eliminate these rebellious forces in Yuzhou, after all, this is just a temporary hustle and bustle. Moreover, several relatively large forces on the side of the Qianguo are still attacking each other, such as Guanzhong Zhuchao, Hedong Wang Shisheng is tired of suppression, and sends a group of people out of the east of the Guandong, intending to be the king of Qin, but was beaten back by the peach leopard who retreated to Luoyang. The peach leopard called himself the history of Sizhou Thorn and denounced Cheng Yao's relatives for harming the country.

In Xiangguo, it was more lively, after Shi Hu fled north, Shi Hui, the king of Nanyang, was the young emperor, and many Qushuai chieftains of the Qian nationality counterattacked Xiangguo. Cheng Yao and Shi Kan, who were still attacking each other, were forced to unite under the pressure of Shi Hu, and Shi Kan temporarily returned to Yecheng and called himself a general. And Cheng Yao and other king-killing people kept Shi Daya in Xiangguo, and frequently issued edicts calling on all parties to raise troops and serve the king. The national chaos and many demons are the true portrayal of the current situation of the country.

Purely from a military point of view, the Huainan Army wanted to repeat the old appearance of the Northern Expedition when Zu Ti was alive, and there was no too strong opponent.

However, after a long period of weighing, Shen Zhezi still chose a relatively conservative plan, first substantially occupying and ruling several counties along the Huai Dynasty in southern Henan, and then relying on the waterway to go deep into the chaos, entering and exiting lightly to harass all parties in the Central Plains, and not giving them a chance to breathe and settle down.

Because the foundation of Huainan is still too weak, once the army is too far away from the town, the border defense line and supply lines will be lengthened, and the consumption of military affairs will increase sharply several times, which will further slow down the operation of Huainan Town. Moreover, if you suddenly have to control such a large territory, the strength will be diluted, and once you encounter an accident, you will have to break through the bottom line of principle and rely on local armed forces such as the township sect.

Once that happens, it will be impossible for Shen Zhezi to have unparalleled control over Huainan as he does now, and there will be many discordant voices inside. So now, he has to trade time for a dominance and control to avoid the danger of greed getting out of control.

Therefore, after establishing a stable stronghold in Wanqiu, southern Henan will gradually increase its troops, and eventually maintain a combat force of 15,000 people.

The other part was led by Mao Bao and went west to Runan. This time I went to Runan, and it was no longer just a hasty defense, but to officially operate the hanging land that I had defended earlier, and build it at the same time. In the future, the Hanging Gourd City will be the center of trade between Huainan and the Central Plains and Jingzhou in Shen Zhezi's plan.

Runan will also be used as a follow-up focus on recruiting and accepting displaced people, and in terms of strategic position, it is more important than the counties in southern Henan between Ying and Wu, and the subsequent expansion and training of the Huainan Army will also be mainly concentrated in Runan.

At the same time, Mao Bao's department also had to cooperate with the Jingzhou Army to clean up Nanyang and other places. In the future, the land of Nanyang will be the key cooperative operation area of the two towns.