The crossing is just in time for the first snow of this winter.

Because a large number of Hu cavalry were operating less than two hundred miles away from Huaiyang, Chen Hansan was quite unstable, and Lin Lian crossed Huai, and his whereabouts had to be kept strictly secret, and a limited number of people such as Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou, Sun Zhuang, and Li Liang were also told about Lin Lian's itinerary two days in advance, but they no longer went out of the city to greet them, so as not to arouse the vigilance of the enemy infiltrating the secret agents.

In the vast snowflakes, hundreds of horsemen surrounded Lin Lian, Cao Ziang, Gao Zongting, Ye Junan and others galloped into Huaiyang City, and did not dismount until they arrived in front of the post house.

Looking at Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou, Sun Zhuang and others who were standing in the post house to greet them, Lin Lian put down his hood, shook off the snow, and said: "It's winter again, I came along the road and saw that there was a thin ice near the shore of Bianshui, what is the situation in the north of Huaiyang?" ”

"It was only the day before yesterday that it turned cold suddenly," Ma Lantou said, "The scouts sent out have not yet turned around, and the ice situation for a hundred miles is not serious, and according to this weather, it will take half a month before the ice is solid......"

Once the river freezes down, the low hills and plains north of the Huai River will become a paradise for cavalry combat. The war horses that Yanhu's generals stepped on were well-known for their hardiness, and if there was no last resort, Lin Lian really didn't want to take the foot soldiers out of the city to fight with the Yanhu cavalry, and it was not easy to cultivate some elites.

Lin Jian looked at Sun Zhuang, pointed to his arm hanging from his neck with a bandage, and said: "You should also be more leisurely, Huaidong is fighting for his family, and he finally managed to make up three or four thousand cavalry, but I don't want to be able to make up even a cavalry general when it comes to big use......"

Dongping is also 400 miles away from Huaiyang, and the cities within 100 miles around Dongping, except for Caozhou and Jining, the rest have all fallen. Relying on the city, the range of activities of the Yanhu cavalry naturally extends to the northwest of Xuzhou, and it is less than 200 miles away from Huaiyang.

In the rest of the past month, the main force of Huaiyang Town held the fortress without moving, but the two cavalry within Huaiyang Town, respectively with Li Liang and Sun Zhuang as generals, in the area north of Huaiyang Town, and Yanhu outpost trial cavalry had continuous encounters, Sun Zhuang in the half month of the encounter, the shoulder to the enemy general with a halberd stabbed, although there is armor, but the injury is not light, to this day has not ridden back on horseback.

Lin Tie complained at the mouth, Sun Zhuang grinned, and said: "Careless, what I encountered was a cavalry team under the jurisdiction of the new attached army, looking at the number of people, I thought I could eat it, but I didn't expect the opponent to be very hard, I didn't eat it in my stomach, and I also lost a tooth." ”

Lin Jian shook his head and said: "This is a trap set by the enemy general against you, I don't know if it is Yuan Lishan's plot - the military information sent by Huaiyang, the military department has studied it, it should be that your activities in the north during this period are more frequent, attract attention, the enemy general wants to lure you deep into the encirclement and eat it." Fortunately, you have a great appetite at the beginning, and you will start to devour your opponent when you encounter it, and if you get entangled in the depths, it is likely that other enemy horses will come to outflank you - and the combat power of the new annex army, you should not underestimate it. The collapse of the Yanji situation is very distressing, and what is even more distressing is that the elite border army deployed by the imperial court on the front line of Yanshan is the main force of the new annexed army that invaded the south at this time, and the new annexed army is not as vulnerable as we imagined. The detailed battle report of the First Battle of the Seven Armor Sets has also been sent to you, and it cannot be regarded as a special case. From mid to late September, headed by Yuan Lishan, nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses of the new annexed army crossed the intersection of the two mountains of Taiyi from Yangxin through Linzi, interspersed with the sharpness and swiftness of Tai'anxi, which can be seen. The situation this winter is not optimistic. ”

There is no need to fight directly, and the strength of an army can be roughly judged from the movement situation.

In the past, the army of the Yue Dynasty was divided into inner towns and border towns, and the inner towns were stationed in the hinterland, with few wars and soldiers. Although the problems of the border army are also very serious, they mainly appear on the first floor of the generals, and the lower-level officers and ordinary generals want to erode, but there is no place to erode, and they are often close to the enemy, so the combat strength at the bottom of the border army is not so unbearable.

The first group of people who followed Liu An'er in trouble, including Sun Zhuang himself, many of them were low-level officers from the border army. There are also a group of people in Huaidong, like Qin Chengzu, Zhou Pu, and Cao Ziang, who are all from the army.

After the collapse of the Yanji situation, the border army surrendered on a large scale and was reorganized into a new annex army as the Yanhu precursor, which just solved some of the original problems of the border army.

Although five years ago in the Battle of Yangxin, Lin Jian had beaten the rebels all over the ground to find teeth, but at that time, Donglu was more of a cannon fodder for the new annexed army, and what really has reference significance and needs to be learned from is the battle of Dengzhou Qijiaji.

In the first battle of Dengzhou Qijiaji, although Zhao Hu led his troops to successfully repel the rebel general Gao Yi's troops, they also paid heavy casualties.

The most important point reflected in the First Battle of Qijiaji was that in an era when the people were generally attached to the fields and the rise and fall of the country was only related to scholars, the rebel generals turned around and fought their own families, and there was almost no psychological burden.

Although the elite cavalry of Yanhu needs to be paid attention to, the new annexed army cannot be underestimated, and the contempt for the new annexed army is precisely a common phenomenon of the Huaidong Army and other soldiers and horses under the jurisdiction of Jiangning.

At present, Sun Zhuang has suffered a little, which is a good thing, it is better than planting a big heel because of contempt in the future.

Liu Miaozhen was still wearing a bronze mask with rough lines, and her voice came from behind the mask, which was a little low, and she said: "We are also aware of some problems, although the soldiers and horses entering the Caoxu area are mainly newly annexed, but the reconnaissance range of the Huaiyang cavalry has been strictly limited to one hundred and twenty miles......

"Collect some later, the area north of Mangdang Mountain, leave it alone......," Lin Jian said.

Mangdang Mountain is about 70 miles northwest of Huaiyang, almost on a relatively straight east-west line with Xuzhou City, so that the cavalry can control the range of activities within a half-day trip from the city, even if it encounters an accident, it will not be beyond the reach of the whip to withdraw or rescue, but it will also almost give up the area northwest of Xuzhou.

"Okay......" Liu Miaozhen nodded in response, although Lin Jian is good at using tricks, but he is quite serious about making all kinds of military deployments, which is deeply rooted in the essence of the soldier's "right fit and victory by surprise".

Moreover, it was not easy for Huaidong to make up so many cavalry, and he could not withstand such fierce attrition in the outpost battle. As the weather gets colder and colder, the activities of the cavalry in the north will become more and more frequent, and with the three or four thousand cavalry in Huaiyang City, it is also very effective to suppress and restrict the enemy cavalry......

In Lin Bin's vision, the main force of Huaidong's decisive victory on the battlefield can only be foot soldiers, and the cavalry mainly plays the role of covering the flanks of the infantry formation.

In the plain area, infantry and cavalry confrontation, because the cavalry is mobile and flexible, and has the initiative on the battlefield, the flank of the infantry formation is often the weak point of the cavalry to break through, and a small number of elite cavalry is equipped to cover the flank of the infantry formation, which is the classic tactics summed up by the ancients, which no one can avoid vulgarity or can innovate casually.

At present, Jeju is a relatively stable horse breeding ground in Huaidong's hands, and Huaidong lists Dahengdao separately to raise horses and buys good horses from Fuso Honju and other places, and can only ensure the supply of four to five thousand war horses every year - because the battlefield has always had the combat principle of shooting people first and shooting horses, once the cavalry is pulled into the battlefield, the consumption of war horses will far exceed that of the generals; After deducting the needs of the generals and scouts to explore the horses, Huaidong will strive to maintain the size of the cavalry at about 6,000 people, and even need to select some good breeds from camels and horses and cultivated horses to supplement them.

After talking for a while at the door of the post house, Lin Jian introduced Ye Junan to the generals of Huaiyang, and walked into the post house - Ye Junan, as one of the most important advisers in Huaidong, could not but be familiar with the main combat forces under Huaidong's jurisdiction, which was also the main reason why he worked hard to follow Lin Jian to Huaiyang in the snow.

In the Xusi area, Huaiyang and Xuzhou are quite special existences, all of which originated from the Huaisi Liumin Army, and they were all formed by Zhao'an. made Ye Junan sigh, Huaiyang Town was so quietly used by Huaidong.

When they entered the room, it was as warm as spring, Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou and others all sat in the center of the main seat, and insisted on letting Cao Ziang sit on the throne, and then Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou, Gao Zongting, Ye Junan and others sat down on both sides in turn.

Huaiyang Town is nominally controlled by the Huaidong Military Division, and there is nothing to say about Lin Lian sitting in the center of the main seat, but insisting on letting Cao Ziang sit on the throne is actually quietly setting the name of master and slave, otherwise, Cao Ziang and Liu Miaozhen should sit at the table to be in order.

Drinking hot tea, the cold body in the wind and snow gradually warmed up, Lin Jian said to Ma Lantou and the others: "Since I am here, I plan to send someone to Xuzhou and invite Chen Hansan and Zhang Yubo to Huaiyang to ......"

"Chen Hansan probably didn't dare to move his nest." Ma Lantou said.

"I didn't expect him to really come," Lin Jian said, "but if he doesn't come, at least he can plant a charge of disobeying military orders on his head, and if he really wants to take the initiative in the future, there will be a reason." ”

Jiangning officially divided the area west of Bianshui into the war defense zone of Huaidong, including Xuzhou, including the remnants of Shandong's army east of Bianshui, all of whom had to accept Huaidong's control, and Lin Tie summoned Chen Hansan in Huaiyang and did not come, and planted a charge on his head for violating the military order, which was not wronged against him.

Attacking Chen Hansan, Ma Lan and the others are the most energetic, and they can't wait to trick Chen Hansan into coming to Huaiyang tonight to kill him - of course, this is delusional, Chen Hansan attacked and killed Liu An'er with a trick, which means that he will not be easily fooled by this. But listening to Lin Bin's tone, no matter whether he can grasp the empirical evidence or not, as long as the situation is favorable, Chen Hansan will start - this attitude is liked by Ma Lantou, Sun Zhuang and others.

Chen Hansan's problem is very tricky, Chen Hansan himself has 20,000 elites loyal to him in Xuzhou, and the main force of the Yanhu army is less than two hundred miles away from Xuzhou, there is almost no possibility of getting rid of Chen Hansan's troops without pain, sending an envoy to Xuzhou, Lin Bin's main intention is to summon Zhang Yubo to Huaiyang to meet.

In addition to sending envoys to Xuzhou to summon Chen Hansan and Zhang Yubo, Lin Jian also sent people to Wuyang to contact Dong Yuan.

Huaidong was in charge of the eastern front, Dong was in charge of the western front, and the company commander Huaijun was also assigned to his control, and it was half a step away from Jiang Ning's agreement to withdraw the Changhuai army into Huaixi to be organized.

The status of Lin Jian and Dong Yuan is equal, they are both the right attendants of the military department and the commander of the troops, and there is no question of who summons whom. It's just that Lin Lian is the marquis of the county, and his power is above Dong Yuan, and if he has something to discuss, Dong Yuan also sent an envoy to see Lin Lian, but Lin Lian also had to send someone to inform Dong Yuan that the others had arrived in Huaiyang.