"The villain is on the front line of Puyang."

"Is there any danger on the road?"

"Xu is the main force of the thieves is busy attacking Juancheng, and there are a lot of troops from all over the country, so the villain is very smooth along the way, and he has not encountered the thieves to intercept him."

Lu Yao chuckled lightly and said warmly, "Okay, I understand." You have worked hard, and if there is nothing else to do, go and rest. ”

The person who came bowed down and was about to retreat, Lu Yao called him back again, and after a moment of silence, he asked again: "In addition to Juancheng Zuo, have you heard of any traces of the actions of the thief army?" You are from Puyang, so what is the situation in the area of Lihu? ”

The man said with a slight embarrassment: "The villain's talent is limited, and he has never found out about this. I only know that the thieves took Liu Lingbu as the vanguard, pressing Juancheng step by step, and mobilized a very large number of troops. As for the situation in the area from the fox...... Ahem, there seems to be no trace of thieves, but the villain really doesn't dare to assert it. ”

Lu Yao nodded and stopped talking.

The spy waited for a long time before tiptoeing out of the military tent, and Lu Yao almost didn't notice it. His attention had already extended from the map, through the tent gates, past the layers of military camps, through the night sky, and towards the military towns of Yanzhou in the far east. The sky was full of stars, and the starlight sprinkled on the vast land with a strong field of vision, as if there were countless dark black giant beasts dormant.

"Went well along the way?" Lu Yao muttered to himself silently and laughed again.

Since ancient times, the Central Plains has used troops to use no one more than Yanzhou. From the northeast to the southwest, there is Taishan County with magnificent mountains and dangerous terrain, which is the only way to Qing and Xu; followed by Jibei, Dongping, Puyang and other counties, across the river from Jizhou, which is the most important in the world; Jiyin and Gaoping in the south are close to Yuzhou, and the official roads extend in all directions; To the westernmost side, there are sour dates, Fengqiu and other places, connecting Ruying in the south, and facing the heavy barriers of the Sili School Captain Department in the west.

The topography of Yanzhou is not only different from the state that merges with the mountains and rivers on the surface, but also different from the secluded state that controls and stangles. In the whole Yanzhou range, except for Mount Tai, the terrain is high, the rest of the place is a vast plain, even though there are dense forests, Daze is dotted around, but the horses gallop back and forth, there is no major obstacle. If it is the founding of the Great Jin Dynasty to rule the world, from Juancheng to Baimajin, there are at least a dozen official roads that are connected, and the public and private roads are full of public and private roads. Even the canals and waterways in various places are densely covered with Jindu, and the management of the lord of Jin, the thief Cao, and the officials who come and go cross the river with their names, identities, and appearances, which are extremely orderly and fast.

It's just that in recent years, the Central Plains has been in turmoil, and there are many rogues who are like cattle hairs running rampant, blocking traffic, and most of the local officials are stupid and incompetent, and after more than ten years, roads in various places have fallen into disrepair, bridges have collapsed, and rivers have broken and lakes and marshes have overflowed, not to mention the great damage caused to the local area by Wang Mi and Shile's army across the Central Plains. At this time, if travelers need to go from Juancheng to Baimajin, or through Puyang, or through Lihu, there is no third smooth official road to go.

Even so, the problem could not be more obvious: how superb Shi Le's ability to use soldiers is, Wang Mi has been crisscrossing the Central Plains for many years, and it is by no means easy to match. These two people led a large army to fight a decisive battle with the king of the East China Sea, how could they not arrange enough troops to block the communication along the great river? Even after the Youzhou army crossed the river and went south and defeated many important Jindu defenders, the thieves still did not react at all, so that the first line of Puyang roads was unimpeded...... That's too deliberate.

If it's too deliberate, there must be a problem.

On the side of the map, there are two jars of black and white chess pieces, which Lu Yao often uses to deduce the movements of friends and enemies. Lu Yao grabbed a handful of chess pieces and sprinkled them on the map, stared at them, and then slowly picked them up and placed them in the appropriate positions one by one.

That spy is Lu Yao's old acquaintance, in the Funiu Village, he is Hu Liuniang's right-hand man who is quite relied on, after Lu Yao occupied Dai County, he was convened by Hu Liuniang from the state, and he was directly instructed by Lu Yao to do a lot of things, and his vision and judgment are very reliable...... Otherwise, they would not have been singled out to take on the heavy task of reconnoitring military intelligence.

Lu Yao believed that even if what he said could not be completely true, there would always be no problem in the big picture, at least, the thieves' great offensive near Juancheng could not be faked. The East Sea King's troops may not be fighting well, but after all, they have a strong army and are concentrated in guarding a few cities in a small area, and to defeat them, the thieves must use a large army.

Shi Le's gang is really cunning, and his strategy is even more powerful. He openly allied with the Xiongnu and Han Kingdoms, and raised troops to attack Luoyang with great fanfare, but in fact, he led the army eastward and killed the shogunate of the king of the East China Sea sitting in the Central Plains by surprise. The only regret is that at the same time as the thieves attacked the headquarters of the East China Sea King, the Youzhou army, which had been patrolling Jizhou for a long time, suddenly crossed the river and went south, capturing the Baimajin Pass in one fell swoop.

As early as a few months ago, the thieves began to operate various Jindu along the river, trying to block the southward movement of soldiers and horses from Youzhou and Jizhou. Lu Yao knew very well that evenly distributing troops at various ferries along the river and strictly guarding to the death was a mediocre man's method of using troops. Experienced and experienced generals, when they will garrison heavy troops on the second line, once it is confirmed that the enemy army has crossed the river, they will quickly send troops to suppress the enemy with a thunderous force, and annihilate him when his foothold is not stable. Therefore, after Lu Yao crossed the river, he immediately ordered Mai Zeming to lead the army to capture Wating, preparing for the all-out counterattack that the thieves would inevitably come.

However, if the thieves were concentrating their all-out efforts on Juancheng, where would they be able to draw enough troops to fight back? Since their main forces were east of Puyang, what were they prepared to rely on to maintain the defensive line and restrict the movement of the Hebei army? Lu Yao stared slightly, thought about it slowly, and imagined what kind of response plan he would choose if he was Shi Le.

The first battle against Bingzhou, the encounter of Jianchunmen in Yecheng, the army led by Ding Shao, who was deceived in Guangzong City, Jizhou, and Gou Chun, who was defeated by lightning, was ...... Those scenes of fighting with Shi Le or observing his battles, and those deceitful tactics and tactics that Shi Le used to were repeated and scrutinized again and again in Lu Yao's heart.

That's right, although the thieves gathered hundreds of thousands, most of them were just a rabble formed by entrapping the Hu and Jin tribes within a year, and the elite who really won the decisive battle were the first batch of bandits who traveled to and from Qingxu, Hebei and other places. At this moment, since they are attacking Juancheng with all their might, they must have mobilized most of the elite, so they do not have enough troops to control the river, let alone counterattack.

Since the Youzhou army crossed the river, it has continuously broken through Wang Mi's old troops who were gradually excluded from the inner circle by Shile, which shows that the attention of the thieves is not here, and the strength is indeed stretched. From this point of view, he gathered the army of Youji Erzhou, but because of his heavy position, he stopped troops north of the river for more than a month, which seemed to be in line with Shi Le's intentions, and was bluffed by his bluffing Dahe garrison. As for the river crossing operation so smoothly, I am afraid it is also because the core figures of the thieves have already made a decision, and they have no intention of concentrating on defending those Jindu with all their might. Maybe...... What they are looking forward to is to wipe out the Youzhou Army and the army of the Shogunate of the King of the East China Sea and annihilate them all in the Central Plains!

After all, it is Shi Le who now leads the thieves in the Central Plains...... Although this person is from a humble background, when it comes to vision and courage, he is really superb, and he is worthy of being a heroic figure who has been famous in the annals of history for thousands of years!

Thinking about it along this line of thought, Lu Yao couldn't help but shake his head and smiled bitterly.

When the Youzhou army finally crossed the river, the main force of the thieves seemed to be besieging Juancheng, and they lacked skills. But they only need to besiege Juancheng like this, and give way to the west of Juancheng to the white horse...... Immediately, the king of the East Sea and himself were forced into an extremely difficult situation at the same time.

Lu Yao crackled the black and white chess pieces in his hand on the geographical map made of thick wooden boards, and successively arranged several possible situations: Baima, Puyang, Xiancheng, Juancheng, these large and small cities are arranged from west to east along the big river, and there are official roads along the way, which are shaped like beads, and the traffic between them is very convenient. There is no other river interval except for the Gouzi River, which is wide and shallow and can be easily crossed. That is to say, no matter whether the king of the East China Sea was forced by the pressure of the thieves and wanted to abandon Juancheng and move closer to the Youzhou army in the Baima area to the west; Or the Youzhou army intends to rescue the king of the East China Sea and intends to march to Juancheng in the east, which seems feasible at first glance.

However, after all, there is only one official road, and if tens of thousands of troops march along the official road, it will immediately form the shape of a long snake that cannot take care of both the end and is very vulnerable to horizontal attacks. Although the official road is easy to move, the two sides of the official road are not far away, because of the complex terrain caused by the negligence of the magistrates for many years, the rivers and swamps are intertwined, and the jungle is widely distributed. That's the best terrain to hide an ambush!

The roads and terrain in the area around Lihu must be the same. And Lu Yao can be 100% sure that the unimpeded flow of these two roads is all an illusion. Whether the king of the East Sea intends to go west, or he intends to go east; Halfway to Puyang or the fox line, you will inevitably suffer a tragic blow.

So, what if the King of the East China Sea held on to Juancheng?

No way. Lu Yao shook his head and immediately dispelled this idea. At the beginning of last year, the king of the East China Sea led hundreds of thousands of troops out of the Central Plains in the capacity of Taifu Lu Shangshushi, but in just over a year, he lost more than half of his divisions, and even lost Xuchang, one of the five capitals of Cao Wei, and fled to Juancheng like a lost dog. How can such an incompetent military and political clique have the determination and courage to persevere in the face of adversity? When faced with the full force of the thieves' attack, how many times a day is frightened, is it just an ordinary soldier?

Taking a step back, Lu Yao also knew very well the habits of these weak troops in the Central Plains, and in this situation, no matter how the King of the East China Sea and his staff judged the situation, it was very likely that the generals in charge of the army would ignore the danger in front of them and try their best to persuade the King of the East Sea to move westward, in order to take refuge in the Youji coalition army and protect their own strength. On the other hand, as the fiancé of the lord of Jingling County, he is an important member of the camp of the King of the East China Sea in the eyes of the world. If you don't want to be pointed at by thousands of people in the four seas, you must lead your army to the east to rescue the precarious Shogunate of the King of the East China Sea.

In this way, the Youji coalition army, which originally took the initiative, will be dragged down by the strength of the East China Sea King, and the shape of the long snake of the two armies will be completed, and the seemingly calm Puyang and Lihu areas will become the predetermined place for the Central Plains thieves to wield the snake with a knife!