Huai Mountain is the Yangtze River, Huai River, Han River's three water fields, and is the division of Jianghuai and Jinghu Lake, stretching for more than 1,000 miles, the southeast section is also called Huaiyang Mountain, the northwest section is also called Tongbai Mountain, crosses Nanyang, and connects with the Qinling Mountains of 800 miles.

Xinyang is located at the northern foot of Huai Mountain, Huaiyang Mountain stretches for about 400 miles in Xinyang, Tongbai Mountain stretches for nearly 200 miles in Xinyang, Huai River also travels through Xinyang, flows into Huai River from Huai Mountain, and also cuts Xinyang into many blocky terrains that connect with the valley.

The special geographical location makes the horse thieves and bandits in Xinyang very rampant, and the mountain bandits are also in groups, but the disaster caused by the horse thieves and mountain bandits to Xinyang is far less than the disaster that began in the ninth year of Chongguan and swept the Central Plains.

From the rebellion in the ninth year of Chongguan, until the twelfth year of Chongguan, until Chen Zhihu was appointed as the envoy of Henan, Xinyang was occupied by several groups of exiled people's army, and the number of counties and towns in Fuxian were invaded. The people of Xinyang were either coerced into joining the gang, or they fled from their hometowns, and the local clans were also the key targets of the raids of the exile army, and they were severely hit.

However, the terrain of Xinyang is complex, which can be used by rogue horse thieves, and in the steep places of the mountains, there are naturally many clans who survive tenaciously, build dock forts and barriers in the steep places, build villages to protect themselves, and shelter the homeless people, expand the township soldiers, and even expand their power to a certain extent.

After 13 years of Chongguan, the war in Henan and Huaixi was calmed, the refugees returned to their hometowns, and the dilapidated situation in Xinyang gradually recovered, but this state ended until Chen Hansan led the remnants into Huaishan.

Chen Hansan is not willing to decline like this, the three thousand people still have to survive and expand, in addition to plundering or plundering. From the middle of February when Xiao Kuian'an led his troops into Xinyang, Zhengyang and Huangchuan counties successively attacked and looted Chen Hansan, Jiangning's newly appointed magistrate of Huangchuan County gave the head of the city of hanging corpses, and the villages in Xinyang that were looted were even more unknown.

Huangchuan County was broken, and the county was hung at the head of the city, and the Xinyang prefect was frightened and abandoned the city and fled, but he went to Shouzhou to catch Dong Yuan, and played the Ming court, and beheaded him in Shouzhou City.

Speaking of Xinyang, it was also a fluke, the prefect abandoned the city and fled, but under the leadership of Meng Zhixiang, a small official of the government, the clan forces in the city were twisted into a rope, and they actually defended Xinyang City, and waited until Xiao Kuian led his troops into Xinyang City.

Although Xinyang City is attached to the northern foot of Huai Mountain, Liu An'er and Luo Xian Chengdu regard Xinyang as the north screen of Huai Mountain, although they were forced to give up Xinyang several times, but they all have the heart to recapture Xinyang to guard Huai Mountain, and even when they retreated, they did not destroy the city wall of Xinyang much. Although the prefect appointed by Jiangning was not a species, the clan forces that had experienced the war had gathered some defensive forces, so that Chen Hansan, who was very weak at this time, did not dare to attack Xinyang at this time.

When Chen Hansan was in Xuzhou, he also regarded himself as the envoy of Xuzhou canonized by the imperial court, and he was more restrained in doing things.

After Dong Yuan greeted the representatives of salt merchants in Haozhou, he hurried to Xinyang. Even if Luo Xiancheng is not considered, Chen Hansan is a great threat to Xinyang, and if this cancer is not removed, Xinyang and even Shouzhou will not be at peace.

After Dong Yuan went to Huaixi, he didn't sleep for a few days, his thin and pointed chin made his face look a little feminine, and he was also accustomed to armor piercing, standing in the southwest of Xinyang City in the village that had just been looted by the remnants of Chen Hansan's department, looking at the majestic Huai Mountain in the south with a sad face.

To the south is the junction of Huaiyang Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, different from the high and majestic ridge in the eastern section, the terrain of the junction is relatively wide and gentle, all of which are dominated by low mountains below 300 zhang, with hills distributed between them, and then to the west is the east ridge of Tongbai Mountain, which is also the passage of Xinyang to Suizhou Capital at the southern foot of Huaishan Mountain.

Luo Xiancheng's army wants to go north, and if you don't go to Nanyang, you can only go this way.

On the north entrance of the Huaishan Mountain Road, Minghezhai was once a very prosperous town, and now it has completely decayed, and it has just recovered some vitality in the past two years, and it has been looted again today. In addition to the houses being burned down and the money and food being plundered, Ding Zhuang and the women in the village robbed more than 100 people, leaving the lonely widows and old ugly people sitting on the ground and crying, and there were dozens of villagers' corpses lying on the ground.

"The thieves have horses, and when they heard the news, they rushed to the foot, and the thieves had already ransacked the village and withdrew...... Xiao Kuian said breathlessly.

Dong Yuan's face was gloomy, after the defeat of Xuzhou, Chen Hansan did not lead the remnants to flee north, which was surprising - indeed, the remnants of Chen Hansan's escape from Xuzhou had many horses, and in the entire Huaixi army, Tao Chun had more than 1,000 cavalry in his hands, and Xiao Kuian's hands were full of calculations and he could make up a hundred war horses to reach the sky.

Coming out of Huaishan, it is low mountains and hills, especially Xiao Kuian, who has just led his troops over, and the blockade of Huaishan is far from being strict, and it is inevitable that there will be mistakes.

Dong Yuan didn't want to let Xiao Kuian go, and said: "Without a war horse, can a mule and horse ride?" It shouldn't be difficult for you to find a way to get three to five hundred mules and horses to chase the enemy on horseback and dismount and fight on foot, right? I don't want to see a hundred or ten remnants rob a stockade! ”

"Yes." Xiao Kuian replied in a sullen voice, don't talk about war horses in Huaixi, mules and horses are also in short supply, Xiao Kuian collects some money and food according to the head every quarter, and can't disturb the people, where to get three or five hundred mules and horses? I just thought about sending someone to find a way for Lord Liu. The situation in front of him also made him have no confidence to argue with Dong Yuan.

Xiao Kuian excused himself to see the soldiers below burying the corpses of the villagers, walked away, and a cronie who followed him said softly: "In a few days, it will be the big day of the Pengcheng County Prince, why didn't the general think of sending someone to send a gift?" ”

"......" Xiao Kuian stopped, glanced east, and thought that he had almost forgotten about it, he didn't feel anything when he was in Huaidong, and only then did he know that everything in Huaidong was much smoother.

Xiao Kuianan was originally a military captain in Huai'an Prefecture, barely a middle-level military attaché, but Lin Tie rectified the Huai'an military administration, and he was able to take charge of the government army. Then he went north with Liu Tingzhou to cross the Huai army, suffered a big defeat, and did not suffer severe punishment afterwards, and was able to continue to command the government army, which was due to Lin Lian's mercy to his subordinates, and even when Liu Miaozhen led the army eastward, Xiao Kuian was able to lead his troops to cross Huai and guard Shuyang. This step made Xiao Kuian'an really developed, not to mention serving as the commander of the Northern Army of the Huaidong Army, and the troops were expanded from more than 2,000 to 12,000 people, and then he had the opportunity to go out of the town of Wuyang with Liu Tingzhou and truly become the main general of the first army.

Xiao Kuian knew that he could have today's status, which was most directly related to Liu Tingzhou's promotion and trust, but without Lin Lian's help, he would never have been able to sit in today's position, and he was still grateful to Lin Lian in his heart.

Now that Liu Miaozhen is married to Lin Tie as a concubine, noisy and shouting, the world knows that Xiao Kuian, according to reason, wants to give a gift to the past, but thinking of Liu Tingzhou's attitude, Xiao Kuian gave up again, no matter what, he can't betray Liu Tingzhou's kindness, without saying a word, and continue to walk outside the village.

Looking at the back of Xiao Kuian's departure, Chen Jingrong said to Dong Yuan: "Xiao Kuian's afraid he won't be able to deal with Chen Hansan'......"

Dong Yuan just glanced at Xiao Kuian, but didn't say anything.

Xiao Kuianan is a general promoted by Liu Tingzhou from a low level, and the foundation of his subordinates is the Huai'an Mansion Army, and the foundation is not very good.

Sun Zhuang abandoned the Suining and Suyu armies, and Liu Miaozhen marched eastward, and the Huaidong Infantry Army Division of the Northern Army at that time could only be abolished, and Lin Jian gave Liu Tingzhou the establishment of the Huaidong Infantry Army Division of the Northern Army in exchange for Liu Tingzhou's silence on Liu Miaozhen's eastward advance.

On the basis of the Huai'an Mansion Army, Xiao Kuian recruited displaced people in Shuyang and Haizhou to be brave and brave, so that he had the scale of today's Xinyang Army - Xiao Kuian was a general promoted from the bottom and had some talents, but most of his generals and colonels had not experienced any tough battles, and it was difficult to say that they were useful.

It is not possible for the Xinyang Army to say that it is useless, but fortunately, after Liu Tingzhou was transferred to the west, Xuehuaidong reclaimed the barren tuntian in Haozhou, and most of the families of the generals of the Xinyang Army moved to Haozhou for resettlement. Liu Tingzhou withstood the pressure and allocated tens of thousands of acres of land to the generals in Haozhou, so that although ordinary generals were not afraid of death, they were also resentful of military discipline.

An army, as long as it has strict military discipline, has the foundation of elite soldiers - Xiao Kuian's Xinyang Army cannot be said to be vulnerable.

Xiao Kuian's rise is directly related to Liu Tingzhou, Dong Yuan also knows that he can't win him over, and he also believes that Huaidong has not won over Xiao Kuian-it is precisely because Liu Tingzhou can rely on Xiao Kuian, and in many affairs in Huaixi, he can fight against Dong Yuan, and Xiao Kuian'an has Liu Tingzhou to rely on, and he is also unconvinced by Dong Yuan's top boss.

Dong Yuan thought to himself, it would be good to ask Xiao Kuianan to suffer some hardships in Xinyang, but Xinyang's side can't rely on Xiao Kuian's side after all.

"Master Meng is here!" The guards came on horseback to report.

"Okay, I'll go and meet you." Dong Yuan said.

This "Lord Meng" is not Meng Zhixiang who guarded Xinyang some time ago, and the former prefect Meng Zhen, who was dismissed from office in the prefect, was out of the Huangchuan Meng clan with Meng Zhixiang, and was a generation older than Meng Zhixiang in terms of seniority - Meng Yi is Chen Xibo's protégé, and he is regarded as a member of the Western Qin Party.

The prefect of Xinyang abandoned the city and fled, and Meng Zhixiang led the children of the clans in Xinyang City to finally defend the city, so that Dong Yuan realized that the preservation of the clan power in Xinyang was much better than that of Shouzhou in most of the low hills and plains. Although Xinyang said that Xiao Kuian led his troops to come and garrison, Dong Yuan really thought of using Xinyang's local forces at this time, using local forces to suppress Xiao Kuian, and then suppressing Liu Tingzhou's influence in Huaixi.

Now that Huaidong is in full swing, Dong Yuan knows that there is not much time left for him, if there is no scale in Huaixi in a year or two, then it will be difficult to say what will happen next.