Xiangyang City is located in the lower reaches of the Han River, built along the south bank of the Han River, in the north, east and southeast directions of the city, all surrounded by the Han River, and the south direction is Xiangshui, which is also the origin of the name of Xiangyang.

In the west of Xiangyang City, it is Yanghu Mountain and Phoenix, the terrain is extremely dangerous, it can be seen that Xiangyang City is surrounded by water on three sides, a strong city with high mountains on one side, it is extremely beneficial to defense, it is a city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack in Jingzhou.

And on the north bank of the Han River directly opposite Xiangyang City, it is another city of Fancheng by the mountains and rivers, Xiangyang City and Fancheng are not far apart, only separated by the Han River in the middle, since ancient times, the two cities are dependent on each other, the soldiers and horses in the city support each other, in order to block the invasion of the strong enemy, it is precisely because of the special geographical characteristics of Xiangyang City, therefore, Xiangyang City has been a place where soldiers must fight since ancient times, Xiangyang City, go north to deter the cities of the Central Plains, go south to get the hinterland of Jingzhou, it is an extremely important strategic city.

Huan Wen personally sat in Xiangyang City, and it was precisely because of the special geographical location of Xiangyang City, as long as the main troops and horses under his command were gathered around Xiangyang, he could prevent all strong enemies from going south to the hinterland of Jingzhou, and once there was a change in the Central Plains, he could lead his elite troops out of Xiangyang at any time and seize a large number of cities in the Central Plains.

However, what makes Huan Wen depressed is that the situation in the Central Plains is getting better and better, the Yan Dynasty and other countries in the north are simply unable to confront Hua'an, and can only shrink to defend, the soldiers and horses around Luoyang City have been as high as 500,000, and the strength is extremely strong, and this obviously has caused a lot of pressure on ↖ him, in order to prevent the soldiers and horses under his command from suffering losses, Huan Wen let the main forces under his command all shrink to the south, most of them are deployed in the south of Xiangyang City, not too far from Xiangyang City, as long as Xiangyang City has something, it can be quickly supported at any time.

In the days when he was sitting in Xiangyang City. Huan Wen has never stopped paying attention to the situation in Luoyang City, in order to understand the situation of the imperial court as much as possible, Huan Wen sent a large number of fine works to lurk in Luoyang City, and sent back all kinds of information from Luoyang City every day.

He also knows about the situation of He Zhong and others conspiring in private, but. Because He Zhong and the others were very tight, he didn't know much about it, and he didn't participate in it, he was just a spectator, knowing that He Zhong and the others were connected to the Nine Clans, he understood the conspiracy of He Zhong and the others, and they actually wanted to assassinate Hua'an.

Next, he sent a detailed work. successfully spied on the intelligence that Hua'an wanted to go north to Yanguo, and reported the bumper grain harvest in the Central Plains to the top.

When he learned that Hua'an was going to make a large-scale northern expedition to Yanguo, Huan Wen was somewhat happy in his heart, after all, there were hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in Yanguo, and the expedition to Yanguo must dispatch a large number of soldiers and horses and a large number of materials, so the strength around Luoyang City would inevitably be insufficient. Isn't this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? However, when I heard that there was a bumper grain harvest in the Central Plains. When the granary couldn't be loaded, Huan Wen seemed a little worried, after all, grain and grass are very important to the army, if the soldiers are good enough food, the Northern Expedition to Yan is likely to end a lot early. In this way, his chances are much smaller.

People's ambition is directly proportional to their strength, and the strength of the Jingzhou army under Huan Wen is relatively weak at this moment, so his ambition is naturally suppressed. As long as he is not sure enough, he will not take risks.

However, at this moment, the imperial court sent an envoy to Xiangyang and read the holy decree to his younger brother Huan Chong, which made him feel very surprised, and the imperial court suddenly issued an edict, and it was bypassing himself and directly issuing it to his own brother.

Due to the rush of the report of his henchmen, for this reason, the specific content of the holy decree is not very clear to him, but he always has a very bad feeling, and he always feels that it will not be a good thing.

"Your Majesty, General Zhenwei asks to see you." A subordinate reported.

Huan Wen waved his hand to let the report's henchman leave, and made a look, motioning for Chuan Huan to rush in.

At this moment, Huan Wen knew very well in his heart that Huan Chong's coming must be related to the fact that he had just received the imperial decree, and for this reason, of course he had to meet Huan Chong immediately.

Soon, Huan Chong strode in and saluted Huan Wen with his fists clenched.

"Haha! Fifth brother, you are in such a hurry to see me, is there anything important? Huan Wen said knowingly.

Huan Chong thought for a moment, looked at Huan Wen, and said: "Big brother, the emperor just issued an order for me to lead 100,000 elites to join the soldiers and horses under the command of the Northern King to attack the Yan Kingdom in the north. After speaking, he took out the holy decree from his bosom and handed it to Huan Wen's hands.

When Huan Wen heard this, his heart shook violently, obviously, it must be Hua'an's intention to transfer the Jingzhou army to the north to crusade against Yanguo, he didn't expect that Hua'an actually made such a bad move in order to weaken the Jingzhou army, which made him feel very dissatisfied.

After receiving the holy decree, Huan Wen took a closer look, and it was very clear in the holy decree that Huan Chong was canonized as the assassin of Pingzhou, General Pingdong, and ordered him to lead the 100,000 Jingzhou army to the northern expedition to Yanguo.

"Let my Jingzhou army of 100,000 sons and daughters go north to attack Yan Kingdom, this must be the meaning of the king of the north." Huan Wen threw the holy decree in his hand on the table in front of him and said angrily.

Huan Chong knew that his eldest brother would have this expression, so he said softly: "Big brother, since the emperor's decree has been issued, I think we should still obey it, so as not to be labeled as disrespectful by the imperial court." ”

"Oh, you mean you want to lead a hundred thousand troops to the Northern Expedition to Yanguo? It seems that the Pingzhou Thorn Shi and General Pingdong are very attractive to you? Huan Wen said dissatisfied.

Huan Chong hurriedly explained: "Big brother, I don't care about the official position, I just regain the lost territory, and our Jingzhou army is also responsible and should also contribute." ”

"My Jingzhou army only has 300,000 soldiers and horses, and this time I actually want to transfer 100,000 to the north, this is the king of the north to deliberately divide and weaken my Jingzhou army!" Huan Wen Zhengse said.

Huan Chong nodded and said: "What the eldest brother said has some truth, but now that the holy decree has been issued, if we don't lead the troops north, it will be disobedient and disrespectful, what reason do we have to refuse?" Moreover, the Northern Expedition to Yan is conducive to increasing the prestige of our Jingzhou army and improving the status of our Jingzhou army in the Great Jin, so why not? ”

When Huan Wen heard this, he fell into deep thought, he knew that what Huan Chong said had some truth, since the holy decree had been issued, he had to find a very reasonable excuse to prevaricate, if there was no strong excuse and refused to lead the troops to the Northern Expedition, it would be disrespectful to the decree, and the court would have a reason to punish the crime.

However, Huan Wen had contact with Yan Guo. Now, it is somewhat inappropriate to send his soldiers and horses to attack Yan Kingdom, but at this time, the strength under his command is relatively weak, and he has to bow his head under the eaves. Moreover, his younger brother Huan Chong seems to be very willing to lead his troops north, so it is imperative to agree to the will of the imperial court.

"Since the fifth brother wants to contribute to the country so much, then it is better to lead an army of 100,000 to the north, but my Jingzhou is short of grain and grass. However, the Central Plains region has obtained a bumper harvest, so all the grain and grass of the 100,000 army must be borne by the imperial court, if the imperial court does not agree, the Jingzhou army can only stand still. Huan Wen Zhengse said.

Obviously, even if he obeyed the holy decree of the imperial court, he had to put forward some conditions, at least to minimize his losses.

"Big brother. There is no shortage of grain and grass in Jingzhou, and it is enough to bear 100,000 troops to go north. Huan Chong blurted out.

Huan Wen glared at him dissatisfied. Zhengse said: "The grain and grass of the 100,000 army must be borne by the imperial court, this is the condition for my army to go north, okay, you go back and prepare!" There is a lot of grain and grass in the imperial court, and I will definitely agree. ”

"Yes, big brother. I'm going to go back and prepare. Huan Chong replied and turned to leave.

After Huan rushed away, Huan Wen closed his eyes and thought about it, from now on, he had already seen it. Hua'an has begun to attack the Jingzhou army, this time let Huan Chong lead 100,000 troops to the northern expedition to Yanguo, it is just a temptation, and next, there may be more will to weaken the Jingzhou army, that is to say, Hua'an's goal must be to completely disintegrate the Jingzhou army, and this will naturally make Huan Wen very anxious.

At this moment, in the face of such a situation, Huan Wen no longer has the ambition to dominate the world, and how to protect his immediate interests is what Huan Wen has to consider at this time.

The strength is relatively weak, and there is naturally no hope for a head-on confrontation, and compromising will only make Hua'an more arrogant, thereby further weakening the strength of the Jingzhou army, which makes Huan Wen fall into distress.

In order to deal with the impending crisis, Huan Wen gathered a number of henchmen and discussed with them what to do.

The henchmen soon arrived in the palace and discussed with Huan Wen, they agreed that only raising thieves to respect themselves is the best strategy, this time, the reason why the imperial court ordered 100,000 Jingzhou troops to go north to crusade against Yan is entirely because there is nothing to do in Jingzhou, hundreds of thousands of Jingzhou troops are idle, and if there are thieves in Jingzhou and Jiaozhou, Jiangzhou, Guangzhou, Ningzhou and other regions in the south of Jingzhou, then the Jingzhou army has enough reason to disobey the orders of the imperial court, after all, the Jingzhou army wants to crusade against thieves in the territory, There were no extra soldiers and horses to go north to crusade against the Yan Kingdom.

After listening to the discussion of the confidants, Huan Wen felt that it was very reasonable, it was really a good idea to raise thieves with self-respect, he really regretted that he hadn't thought of this earlier, if he had raised thieves earlier, the imperial court would not have asked 100,000 Jingzhou troops to go north to crusade against Yan.

In order to prevent the imperial court from transferring troops from Jingzhou again, Huan Wen decided to raise thieves in the five prefectures of Jingjiang and Guangzhou, and transferred some of his soldiers and horses out of Jingzhou, so that they could go to the four states of Jiangning and Guangzhou, and fight the thieves together with Jingzhou.

The method of raising thieves is also very simple, that is, to adopt excessive taxation methods to make the minorities in the states unbearable, so as to launch a rebellion.

Once these ethnic minorities rebelled, the Jingzhou army would immediately suppress it and reduce the scale of their rebellion to a certain extent to facilitate control.

The situation in Jiaozhou and Guangzhou in Jingzhou is relatively easy to control, but there are many ethnic minorities in Ningzhou and Jiaozhou, and if it causes a large-scale rebellion, it will be a stone to shoot itself in the foot, for this reason, in dealing with the problem of Jiaozhou and Ningzhou, Huan Wen and his henchmen are a little worried, after all, these two states are the two farthest states in the Great Jin Dynasty, there are almost no Han people, once a rebellion, it is very easy to form a huge scale, so it is difficult to control.

However, Jiaozhou and Ningzhou are the farthest away from the Central Plains, and it is not too easy to verify whether there is a rebellion there, as long as you casually encircle and suppress a hill and cut off a few bandits' heads, you can show the imperial court that there is turmoil there and needs a large army to defend it, so that there will be no extra soldiers and horses to reinforce the north.

After thinking of a countermeasure, Huan Wen suddenly felt a lot more relieved, he felt that in this way, he could protect his existing interests, which would make it difficult for Hua'an to attack the Jingzhou army.

Huan Chong returned to his mansion and immediately wrote a letter, saying to the imperial court that Jingzhou was short of grain and grass, and all the grain and grass consumption of the 100,000 army's northern expedition to Yan must be borne by the imperial court, otherwise, it would be difficult for the army to go north.

Subsequently, Huan Chong went to the barracks and began to mobilize all kinds of soldiers and horses, and let all kinds of soldiers and horses start training immediately, so that these soldiers and horses could enter the pre-war state in the shortest possible time.

Huan Chong's request was soon sent to Luoyang City, and after Hua'an learned of this request, he just smiled faintly, and immediately replied, and said that all the grain and grass for the Jingzhou army to go north were borne by the imperial court, and even the consumption of arrows was also borne by the imperial court, and asked him to immediately lead the troops north, and meet Yang An and Deng Qiang at the Mengjin Ferry, and then, together with the reinforcement of Hebei.

"Your Majesty, Imperial Doctor Fu and Li Shuqu have arrived in Luoyang City, and they are waiting outside the palace?" A confidant soldier, reported.

Hua An was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly ordered: "Let them come in quickly, this king has been waiting for them for a long time." ”

Soon, Li Shuqu and Huangfu Doctor walked into the main hall and saluted Hua'an.

Hua An hurriedly walked in front of the two of them, and said, "The two of you are finally back, and this king has been waiting for you for a long time." ”

"I don't know if the king is in such a hurry to find us, what is the important matter?" The Imperial Doctor asked first.

Hua An thought for a while, and said, "This king plans to double the population of the Great Jin Dynasty within twenty years, what do you think of the two?" ”

Doctor Huangfu and Li Shuqu glanced at each other, and their eyes widened.

"Your Majesty, this is absolutely impossible, the increase in population is a long process, how can the population grow so much in just twenty years, if it is to double, it will take at least a hundred years." Li Shuqu said.

Hearing this, Hua An smiled, and said softly: "It seems that this king is very happy, and it is indeed very difficult to double the population in twenty years, but this is the goal of this king, and it is beneficial to set a higher goal, and the increase in population is inseparable from the support of the two!" After speaking, he looked at the two of them.

Li Shuqu and Huangfu Doctor glanced at each other, both at a loss, what did the increase in population have to do with them.

"Your Majesty, forgive your subordinates for being stupid, how can we increase the population." Doctor Huangfu frowned and asked.

"Yes! Your Majesty, how can we increase the population on a massive scale? Li Shuqu also asked