In the early spring of February, Jiangdong is already the season of new plants and trees and the revival of all things, but in Hebei, it is still frosty and frozen soil, and between heaven and earth is smeared with large patches of monotonous and boring pale residual snow, and the vitality of all things is also oppressed and withered to the extreme.

But what should happen will inevitably happen, and the oppressed vitality will eventually break through this shackle until it blooms more brilliantly.

Tobu Castle, as one of the main camps on the front line of the royal division, has gathered 50,000 troops in the past cold winter. This is only the strength of a camp in Tobu Castle, if you count the old city of Qinghe, which is a horn with Tobu Castle, and Guangchuan, which is further north, the main force of the East Road Wang Division is more than 80,000 people here.

In the past winter, although there was no direct battle between the Donglu Wang Division and the army of the Qiang Kingdom, the task was still not easy. The distance between Tobu Castle and Shindu in a straight line is less than 300 li, and there are no mountains and rivers in the realm to defend.

Although the scorching cold weather in Hebei greatly restricted the military activities of both the north and the south, the state of Qi first occupied the advantage of fighting at home, and the formed cavalry army adapted to the combat environment in Hebei, and the number of troops in Xindu is still unknown.

If Shi Hu, the lord of the Qiang, really chooses to attack the army in winter and launch an attack on Dongwu City, Dongwu City can only be strictly defended, and can only fight to the death to prevent the Qiang Kingdom from breaking through this line of defense and entering the southern Hebei region, which has already been governed and naturalized.

As the general of the Eastern Route Army, Shen Mu was naturally unwilling to give up the initiative on the battlefield. But under the constraints of this kind of time, no matter how hard he tried to forge ahead, he couldn't take the initiative to attack Xindu regardless of many practical difficulties.

It must be known that in addition to the heavy troops gathered in Tobu Castle, the logistics supplies of the East Road Wang Division were also stored here. With such a large amount of materials, it is necessary to maintain the use of the East Road Wang Division until the spring warm tide, and there is absolutely no room for loss. Once there is any mistake in these materials, the nearly 100,000 troops of the East Road Wang Division will be paralyzed in the land of eastern Hebei due to lack of food, which will bring irreparable losses to the Northern Expedition.

Because of this, the current Shen Mu is not seeking merit, but seeking no fault. As long as the results of last year's battle can be maintained until the spring of the new year, it is only a matter of time before the letter of the Kingdom of Karma can be defeated, and this time is not destined to be too long.

Perhaps it was because of the end-of-year endeavor of the Middle Route Army, and during the most difficult period of winter after that, the worst situation of the army of the Kingdom of China did not occur.

With the passage of time, the hanging hearts of the soldiers up and down the East Road Wang Division have gradually eased down, and the time is firmly on the side of the South King Division, as long as it drags on through the cold season when it is difficult to use troops on a large scale, the Wang Division will once again return to the rhythm of marching forward and forging ahead as last year, no matter how many troops the letter has gathered, they are not afraid of a battle.

You must know that what has entered Hebei at the moment is only the main front-line combat force of the Wang Division, and in Qingzhou, Henan, there are still a large number of Qingxu soldiers assembled on standby, and reinforcements can go north at any time.

In addition to taking advantage of the severe cold of winter and the critical moment when the royal division is not easy to dispatch, there is still a certain threat to the dying counterattack, once the war drags on to the spring, the time will no longer be a constraint, according to the internal stability and mobilization strength of the two sides, the size of the state is far less than that of Xingtai.

But after the New Year, there were still some strange signs between Tobu Castle and Shinto.

The first to find signs of mutation was the scout army of Tobu City, although the time of day also brought serious restrictions to the activities of the Wang Shi scouts, but in order to ensure the safety of Tobu City and be able to control the dynamics of the army at all times, Shen Mu still sent many scouts. Although the scout's actions could not directly reach Xindu, they had already moved as far as Zaoqiangcheng, which was less than a hundred miles away from Xindu.

As an important stronghold on the periphery of Xindu, Zaoqiang's strategic significance is similar to that of Jiangdong's quarrying to Jiankang. Around September last year, the East Road Wang Division also occupied this realm for a time, but under the strong counterattack of the Qian army, it finally changed hands regrettably. After that, the kingdom of Qiang gathered heavy troops here and used it as a bridgehead to defend against the royal division of Tobu Castle.

To be honest, since the beginning of winter, Shen Mu has been a little unable to see the operation of the Qi Kingdom. It is a normal idea to send heavy troops to defend Yu Zaoqiang, but in the next few months, the strength of Zaoqiang's garrison fluctuated severely.

When there are many times, the army crowd of black pressure flocks to this realm, not only the city is full, but there are also many soldiers outside the city. When it was young, there were almost no signs of garrison activity in the city, and there was no scout activity in the suburbs outside the city, so that the Wang Shi scouts could even directly bypass Zaoqiang and arrive in the suburbs of Xindu to peep at the situation.

Shen Mu had imagined many possibilities, but he was not sure, and once wanted to send the 8,000 troops stationed in the ancient city of Qinghe to Zaoqiang to try to occupy this important place, but he was worried that this might be a trap set up by the Qianguo, and once he did so, this part of the army would be surrounded by the Qianguo.

After all, although Tobu Castle has a garrison of more than 50,000 troops, it is not allowed to move without authorization, and it is necessary to ensure the safety of the baggage camp and firmly defend the defense line of the northern border of the Qing River. Once the army of the old city is invested in Zaoqiang, and the army of the city goes and returns, this part of the army will be reduced to the danger of fending for itself.

Therefore, in late January, when the front line scouts once again detected the withdrawal of Zaoqiang's defenders and the city's air defense, although Shen Mu was already itching, he still forced himself to put down some overly aggressive temptations, but only increased the scale of the scouts.

However, at this time, the realm was still covered with frost and snow, and although the scale of the scouts had expanded, the scope of actual investigation had not been greatly expanded. After all, the scouts were outside, and there was no opportunity to replenish the wilderness, and between Tobu Castle and Shinto, Wang Shi did not stay in a stronghold.

However, in this way, at least the vicinity of Zaoqiang is fully covered by the Wang Shi scouts. The scene of the city's weak defenses lasted for several days, and the army completely disappeared from here, but there were some strong Liang bandits passing through the city from time to time.

Combined with the letter sent back by the front-line scouts, Shen Mu finally made up his mind and sent three thousand foot soldiers to march towards Zaoqiang City. The reason why it was difficult for him to make a decision before was that the winter march was different from the past, because the logistics ration was greatly limited, once the troops were dispatched, they had to directly carry sufficient supplies with the army. If we still follow the practice of starting in batches, once we encounter bad weather such as wind and snow on the way, the first batch of soldiers will be in danger of running out of food at any time.

Wang Shi, whether it is the supply of food or armor and equipment, is very good. The three thousand foot soldiers plus the armed supply can be used in the country to supply 10,000 people with arms, and Shen Mu naturally needs to be cautious about this.

The winter march was really hard, especially the three thousand troops who were carrying their baggage together, and the daily march was barely between twenty or thirty miles. The distance from Dongwu City to Zaoqiang is less than two hundred miles, and this road still takes a long time.

And just on the way of the army's march, the abnormal conscription from Zaoqiang's side is getting bigger and bigger. There is no need to mention that the army of the country disappeared without a trace, but there were many refugees from the north to the south, appearing near Zaoqiang.

There are a large number of people gathered around the Xindu of the Kingdom of Qian, which Shen Mu naturally knows. In the process of advancing the Wang Division, similar to the northern border of the Qing River, including the Bohai Sea, and Guangzong in the middle route army theater, the suburban households were almost requisitioned by the retreating Qianjun army. Even in Zhangwu, Yanguo and other counties further north, according to the letter of Xu Mao and Wen Fangzhi on the sea route, the degree of requisition by the army was very serious.

The gathering of such a large number of people is no longer a simple scout, looking at it from afar to find out. But even according to the most vague estimate, the requisition of villagers across states and counties, and even some rural heroes and powerful dock walls are not spared, and at least the people around the current Xindu will be gathered in hundreds of thousands.

It is precisely because of such a large scale of the gathering of people around Shindu that Tobu Castle has never been able to find out how many troops were gathered inside and outside Shindu.

Although there is no shortage of village tyrants, ministers, and ordinary people who come to join Wang Shi in Xindu, one is that there are no real heavyweights and the information provided is also different, and the other is that Shen Mu does not dare to accept hearsay, so that he makes wrong judgments.

It is not surprising that many people have fled the country since last year. The reason why Zaoqiang classified it as an omen is that the scale of the refugees' escape to the south is too large, and if they let the horses gallop in the wild, they can encounter several fleeing teams of refugees in one day, as few as thousands, and even as many as 10,000 people!

When Shen Mu learned this, he first had a warning in his heart, speculating that the displaced people were coming south or that the Qian army was preparing to launch an attack. You must know that it is common for a group of homeless people to count in the hundreds or thousands, but if the scale is really too large, there is no need to doubt that there must be some strong factors behind it.

The bad situation is naturally the kind that Shen Mu is worried about, the Qian army uses the displaced people as a cover for its army movements, and drives the displaced people south to form an impact on the defense line of Dongwu City. The good thing is that there are unknown changes in the kingdom of Jin, so that the Xindu side has lost control over the people gathered outside the city, resulting in a large number of people fleeing.

In either case, the king of Tobu Castle had to prepare in advance. You must know that even in a good situation, if such a large number of people come south, if there is still no hope of life, it will cause a riot in the hearts of the people.

So, Shen Mu made a quick decision, first sent people to send a message to General Yecheng and Guangzong Hurun respectively to report the emergency, and then ordered the 3,000 troops on the road ahead to immediately divide 2,000 troops, and lightly armed Jian to take the Zaoqiang first. Even if the main force of the Qiang State attacks and occupies Zaoqiang one step in advance, it can still contain the offensive of the Qiang State a little.

At the same time, 1,000 foot soldiers stayed behind to guard the baggage on the way, and Tobu Castle sent another 2,000 light cavalry to the north, and the supplies on the way were abandoned on the way to supplement the cavalry. If the Qiang army captures Zaoqiang, these two thousand cavalry will be the first batch of reinforcements from Dongwu City, and if the Qiang army does not come, after the division will be met before and after, the Zaoqiang City will be completely occupied.

At the same time, Shen Mu ordered the 5,000 troops of Qinghe Ancient City to move closer to the camp of Dongwu City, and he himself led 10,000 troops to follow the rear road of the cavalry and march straight to Zaoqiang, and at the same time ordered the Guangchuan Wang Division to pay attention to cutting off the Bohai army from joining the battle here.

After years of experience in being a leader, Shen Mu is now quite a general, and even if he encounters changes, he can still dispatch all parties in an orderly manner.

Although Dongwu City, including scouts, has already drawn nearly 20,000 troops, even if Shen Mu is sniped by the Qian army on the way, the division of troops before and after echoes each other, it can still be maintained for a while. Although the kingdom of Qiang occupies the advantage of the home field, the king of Tobu City endured for a winter, and the morale has not lost much, and the special merit of destroying the country is in front of him, which is enough to motivate the soldiers to fight to the death.

If the Qiang army bypasses the frontal attack on Tobu City, there are still 30,000 guards in Tobu City, and then there are 5,000 troops in the Qinghe Ancient City to reinforce it, even if it is besieged and attacked by the army of the Qiang Kingdom, it can be maintained for a while, and it can be supported until the arrival of the Hurun Department of Guangzong City. In this way, even if the country exhausted the country's armor and sent tens of thousands of troops, it would be difficult to break through the defense line of Tobu Castle in a short time.

As long as the war drags on a little, it will be March in the blink of an eye, even if the Eastern Road Wang Division is suppressed on all fronts, Xie Ai, the middle route army of Xiangguo, will have enough time to react and directly attack Xindu, the old nest of the Qianguo.

Once the nest of Xindu is breached, no matter how many armies are dispatched, they will have to take care of one and lose the other, and the army will become a lonely soul. Even if it can be maintained for a short time, the war will be directly dragged out between April and May, which is the most favorable time for the battle of the king division as a whole.

In the old years, although Shen Mu also had the experience of bravely advancing and winning merits, he rarely had a comprehensive analysis of victory and defeat as he did now. And this point of care or not, is a huge difference between generals!