Luo Siping was a little worried and said: "Big boss, let's do this in the end and it will be cheaper for Dugu Zhen, what if he waits for him to gain a firm foothold and turns his back on us?" ”

Yuan Fang smiled faintly and said, "We have discussed this before. ”

Luo Siping frowned and said: "I don't think it's safe to just let him send a son over, if he is a hero, he won't give up the greater interests because of a son." ”

Yuan Fang nodded in agreement: "I also think the same, so, I plan to let him temporarily settle all his children and family in our imperial capital, as for when to let them go back, it can only be said after the war is over, and the same is true for those generals around Dugu Zhen, I don't believe that there are so many hostages and they dare to play any tricks." ”

Luo Siping gave a thumbs up: "Ruthless enough, but will they agree?" ”

Yuan Fang shrugged his shoulders and said: "If they really cooperate with us, there is no reason to refuse, if they refuse, it doesn't matter, it's a big deal, let's cooperate with his brother to turn around and destroy Dugu Zhen, in contrast, in terms of cooperating with the Yuanhe Empire to occupy some land and get rid of Dugu Zhen, the emperor of the Ningyuan Empire should pay more attention to the latter." ”

Luo Siping nodded and said, "Okay, that's it, I'll prepare for it, and we'll set off when the follow-up personnel arrive in the dark night." ”

Yuan Fang was surprised to see Luo Siping acting so vigorously and resolutely, and asked, "Fourth brother, how did you sneak into Guangyuan County again?" ”

Guangyuan County has been blocked, caravans and ordinary people are not allowed to pass, and many people were sent over in the dark night before, but they were unsuccessful, but now Luo Siping's tone seems to be very sure, and Yuan Fang is of course curious where he got the confidence.

Luo Siping smiled: "I've already thought about this, Lihua County is occupied by us, and some villages in the east have begun to move to Guangyuan County when they get the news, so we just mix in with those refugees and follow the past." ”

Yuan Fang was a little worried and asked, "Are you sure?" ”

Luo Siping nodded: "Well, let's be sure, when we encounter an investigation, we say that it is from Lihua County, anyway, there are not many people in the county town, and those who escape don't know our identity, so there should be no problem." ”

Yuan Fang still trusted Luo Siping's ability, and this little thing should not be difficult for him, so he nodded and said, "Then there is Fourth Brother Lao." ”

After discussing the contact method and code, Luo Siping and Ren Fei left and went to arrange the task, while Yuan Fang and the others began to discuss the next battle plan and main attack direction around the map, of course, it is only a general direction now, and the final attack focus needs to be determined after figuring out the deployment of the enemy army.

On the fifth day after occupying the city of Lihua County, the horse scouts had already checked a radius of 100 miles, and did not find any abnormal movements of the enemy army, so Yuan Fang was completely relieved.

Early in the morning of the sixth day, the west gate of Ewha County was opened, and the carriages pulled the seriously wounded out of the city gate and went straight to the southwest of Kaiyang Port, accompanied by a cavalry force of 2,000 people, who would be stationed at the supply transit station of Kaiyang Port.

Boarding from Kaiyang Port, the distance from the coastal road to Yingyue County, Gushui County, Nanzhou of the Eastern Sage Empire is much closer than the land route, and the time spent is also very short, I have discussed with Zhou Lei before, once Kaiyang Port is occupied, supplies will be transported by sea to reduce the pressure of land transportation, and now that Lihua County has been completely controlled, Kaiyang Port will naturally play its due role.

Of course, all the merchant ships anchored there during the occupation of Kaiyang Port were requisitioned by Yuan Fang, and it was precisely because of the more than 20 large merchant ships that Yuan Fang had such an idea, otherwise it would be difficult for those small and medium-sized ships in Nanzhou to sail such a long distance on the sea.

His own ships were forcibly requisitioned, and the merchants were very dissatisfied, but the merchants did not dare to resist under the threat of the army, fortunately, Yuan Fang was not an unreasonable person, especially among these merchants, there were many influential chambers of commerce in other countries, and Yuan Fang did not want to offend too much, so during the requisition of ships, Yuan Fang promised to give the merchants a certain amount of compensation, and the price offered by Yuan Fang was not low, even more than the merchants who worked hard for a year, and there was no danger in this sea area, so those merchants no longer complained, Satisfied, he undertook the logistics and transportation work of the Eastern Saint Empire.

Of course, the merchants of the Ningyuan Empire were not among them, they participated in labor as prisoners of war, there was no compensation, no wages, the only thing they had was Yuan Fang's promise to return their freedom after the war, and that's it.

On the eighth day after the occupation of Pear Flower City, good news came from Yunfu City, the main army of Dongzhou led by Tang Jian arrived in Yunfu City and joined Li Rui's troops and broke out with the combined forces of the Yuanhe Empire and the Ningyuan Empire, the two sides were evenly matched, but after the 10,000 cavalry led by Shi Ping appeared in the rear of the coalition army to cut off its supply line, the coalition army panicked, and no longer confronted Tang Jian's troops head-on, but fought while retreating and retreating, at the same time, the defenders who held Yunfu County also killed the county, detoured to the north and constantly attacked the supply line of the Yuanhe Empire, The coalition forces were barely supplied and had to retreat en masse, with the forces of the Yuanhe Empire returning to their territory from the northeast, while the men and horses of the Ningyuan Empire avoided the city of Ewha and made a detour to Guangyuan County.

After a big battle, coupled with the entanglement and sneak attack of Shiping's department and the Yunfu defenders, the coalition side lost 20% of the troops, almost 20,000 or so, while Tang Jian's side was well equipped because of its early preparations, plus the arms were mutually restrictive, and the losses were not large, and after the war, the statistics of 3,000 wounded soldiers and 5,000 soldiers were not injured, and they could still continue to fight after a little rest. In the past few days, the good news has been frequent, Yuan Fang is in a good mood, and he also sent several cavalry troops of 1,000 people to harass the retreating Ningyuan Imperial troops.

On the fifteenth day after the First Battle of Ewha City, Tang Jian led the main force of the Dongzhou Army to arrive at the county seat of Ewha County, Shiping, and Li Rui handed over the two cities of Yunfu County and Yanhai County to the Beizhou and Nanzhou armies and also rushed to Lihua County, so far, the first step of the Eastern Expedition campaign was successfully completed.

When Tang Jian arrived in Pear Flower City, the west gate was opened early, and a wooden platform was built with rough wood next to the gate, on which kneeled more than a dozen prisoners with disheveled heads, and the eyes of these prisoners were tyrannical and unwilling, without exception, they all looked at Yuan Fang who was riding on a horse not far away to greet Tang Jian.

Tang Jian couldn't help but be stunned when he saw this scene, and first exchanged a few words with Yuan Fang before asking, "Doctor Yuan, who are those?" As if I have a deep hatred with you? Indeed, the eyes of those people were really full of resentment as if they had a deep hatred with Yuan Fang.