It was expected that Luo Xiancheng would not be stupid enough to sell Chen Hansan to Dong Yuan, but after Ma Zhen passed through Huaishan and arrived in Suizhou, he found that the atmosphere in the Changle Army was not exactly what they had expected.

Luo Xiancheng has been crisscrossing Jinghu Lake for many years, in the early years with Gong Yuxi, Yang Xiong and other generations and called the two lakes and five heroes, after ten years of Chongguan, Liu An'er convened the Zhuliu army Qu Shuai in Fangling to hold the Fangling Conference, Luo Xiancheng called the king of the Black Tower, Liu An'er led the troops to the east to return to Huaisi, Luo Xiancheng occupied Xiangyang, Suizhou, and honored the king of Changle, and the world called his department Changle bandits.

The marshal of Fangling at that time, Liu An'er died in Xuzhou, and the remnants are now all merged into Huaidong; After the Cao family entered Sichuan, Gong Yuci was beaten out of breath in eastern Sichuan, and the remnants retreated into the deep mountains and old forests in southern Sichuan, relieving their breath; If it weren't for the luxury family entering Jiangxi in time and defeating the southern Gannan Domain with the momentum of devastating and decaying, which made Jiangxiang shake, Yang Xiong's days in Dongting Lake are almost over, and only Luo Xiancheng is still living a good life.

After the Cao family entered Sichuan, the Jinghu soldiers and horses had to guard against the Cao family going out of eastern Sichuan, and they had no time to take care of Luo Xiancheng in the north for a while; Before digesting the two rivers, the Cao family had no intention of getting involved in the chaos of the Central Plains, and at this time, the north was threatened by the Yanxi Hu cavalry, and the soldiers and horses gradually moved northward, and they did not intend to enter Xiangyang from the eastern Han Dynasty; Nanyang and Xinyang in the north and northeast have also become remnants - if there is anything unpleasant about Luo Xiancheng, Dong Yuan left the town of Huaixi, and the Changhuai army withdrew into Huaixi, which caused a surge in Huaixi soldiers and horses in the west of Xiangyang, and after Liang Chengchong led his troops into Nanyang, he was too close to Xiangfan.

Compared with Liang Chengchong, Dong Yuan and the Cao family who entered Hanzhong in the west, Chen Hansan, who led the remnants into Huaishan with the Jinghu envoy in the south, became a small miscellaneous fish, and Chen Hansan sent Ma Zhen to say something, but Luo Xiancheng was too lazy to deal with it.

After Ma Zhen arrived in Suizhou, he didn't see Luo Xiancheng for several days, and even Luo Xiancheng's confidants Wang Xiang and Zhong Rong couldn't meet him, only the old Wei Zhang, who he met when he was in Fangling, came forward to receive him.

Although Wei Zhang is Luo Xiancheng's staff, he is not a confidant, and the weight of speaking in front of Luo Xiancheng is not heavy, but it is better than nothing, and Ma Zhen can at least learn some about the current situation of Changle Army from him.

"You have done too much in Xinyang, but I won't hide it from you, Dong Yuan sent letters twice, asking us to send troops into Huaishan to encircle and suppress you. Luo Shuai is still thinking about it, you came over this time, and you didn't detain you, it is already a great affection, and you can't afford to offend Dong Yuan, don't talk about other things...... "Wei Zhang set up a banquet at his own house to invite Ma Zhen, but no one else came over, and he was willing to have something to do with Chen Hansan's remnants, which was convenient to speak.

How can you not talk about it? Xiao Kuian's troops led into Xinyang, not to mention, Dong Yuan also personally went to Xinyang to supervise the battle, and also recommended Xinyang Luo's Luo Yi to serve as the prefect of Xinyang, and made a strategy of forming a joint army. Now at the northern foot of Huai Mountain, the small village and the big village, the big village trains the township soldiers, guards the key pass valley road, and has no intention of immediately entering the mountain to clear the road, but the situation is to first trap their more than 3,000 remnants in the local area of the Huai Mountain, restrict their access to supplies, and restrict their large-scale transfer.

More than 3,000 remnants, plus more than 2,000 Ding Zhuang, nearly 6,000 people, and more than 1,000 head of cattle who had been coerced since they fled westward, would not have plundered from Xinyang and other places, and it would have been impossible to get sufficient supplies in the Huai Mountains.

Chen Hansan was not afraid that Xiao Kuian's army would lead the army into Huaishan to fight, but he was afraid that a dense net would be laid outside and trap them in Huaishan - Chen Hansan could only get enough supplies from Suizhou in the south at this time, otherwise he would become more and more sleepy and weak, and when a certain time came, he would not let Huaixi soldiers and horses enter Huaishan to encircle and suppress, and they would not be able to carry the gang first.

"Dong Yuan built a big village in the Ming River, what kind of place the Ming River is, you must all know it in your hearts," Ma Zhen said, "The Ming River is the north entrance of Xinyang into Suizhou, Dong Yuan Ming used to encircle and suppress us, in fact, he wanted to build a strong net and completely seal Suizhou in the south." When Dong Yuan has a firm foothold in Huaixi, the Huaixi soldiers and horses will be the first to cross the Huaishan Mountain from the Ming River to fight Suizhou......"

"What you say, some people say," Wei Zhang shook his head and drank, and said, "But if my marshal accepts Jiang Ning's gift and becomes the Marquis of Suizhou, what name does Dong Yuan have to send troops?" Moreover, if Dong Yuan comes, we can go west to Hanzhong, and we can go south to Qichun ......"

Hanzhong in the west has been occupied by the Cao family, and the Cao family is no easier to bully than Dong Yuan, listening to Wei Zhang's words, Ma Zhen thought to himself: Could it be that the Cao family also sent someone to win over Luo Xian? Think about it, Fang Ling Marshal, Luo Xiancheng is the most useless one, I didn't expect to live so well now, in addition to the Suizhou Marquis promised by Jiang Ning, even Yanjing in the north also opened the chips of the King of Xiangyang, Luo Xiancheng actually received more than 20 "concubines" last year, and now the military and political army are also entrusted to the confidants Wang Xiang and Zhong Rong.

But being able to live a long time is also Luo Xiancheng's ability; Luo Xiancheng now has so many choices, it's no wonder that he no longer cares about people.

Ma Zhen took out a bag of things wrapped in a silk towel from his arms, spread it out on the table, but it was two beads the size of pigeon eggs, shining under the oil lamp, and said: "Wei Ye helped this bead to give it to General Zhong, if you can't even see General Zhong and go back, it's really unwilling......"

Wei Zhang saw that he had his own share, so he was naturally willing to help with this, and besides, he helped Ma Zhen send the beads over, Zhong Rong would never scold him, wrapped the beads with a silk scarf, and said: "Then I'll give it a try for you, but I don't guarantee that General Zhong will meet you......"

"I know, I know, as long as Wei Ye is dedicated." Ma Zhen said.

At this time, the weather was late, Wei Zhang first arranged Ma Zhen to rest in his own guest house, read the bead, and sent a big-footed maid to warm Ma Zhen's feet.

Ma Zhen was panting on it, and the woman was crying and crying when she spread her legs, so that he was not interested in getting it any further, so he did it hastily, took the dirty pants and wiped off the filth, and then lay there thinking about things.

If Xuzhou is undefeated, and the soldiers and horses of the Northern Yan army successfully reach the north bank of the Huai River, Luo Xiancheng will probably not hesitate - and at this time, if Luo Xiancheng accepts the gift of Yanbei, before he leads his troops to attack Nanyang, Dong Yuan of Huaixi and Liu Wenmu of Jinghu may even join forces with the Cao family to fight Luo Xiancheng.

Luo Xiancheng seems to have a lot of choices, but in fact, each choice is not easy to make, so it is impossible to listen to Dong Yuan's words and send troops to encircle and suppress Huaishan - Ma Zhen is not worried that Luo Xiancheng will send troops to Huaishan from the south, but he came this time because he wanted to get more from Suizhou, and even Chen Hansan intended to retreat to the southern foot of Huaishan and rest with his back to Suizhou, and he was worried that Luo Xiancheng would be too timid.

At present, the most important thing is grain and grass, nearly 6,000 people, more than 1,000 head of livestock, and the monthly consumption of grain is 4,000 or 5,000 stone......

***********

A headache for food is not only Chen Hansan, but Liang Chengchong also has a headache for food in Nanyang.

Although Jinan and the plains are dilapidated, they are still a little angry, and after arriving in Nanyang, looking at the city's head overgrown with artemisia grass that can drown people, Yuan Guizheng was half cold for Liang Chengchong.

Although Shouzhou, Xinyang, and Haozhou were dilapidated, the imperial court fortunately sent Zhengyin officials to clean up the mess, and then took over to Dong Yuan and Liu Tingzhou, and Nanyang completely gave up. In addition to some homeless people in the countryside to form associations to reclaim the wasteland, the city that can not be cultivated is completely deserted, there is scorched earth everywhere, there are ruins everywhere, a good Nanyang city has become a fox and a rabbit hiding place, the city is full of hundreds of families, and the surrounding mountains are also full of bandits.

After Liang Chengchong abandoned Caozhou and went west to Nanyang, he drove the Northern Yan's troops and horses in Henan and Shandong to adjust.

Ye Jiduodi led the army to retreat to Jinan to rest, Yuan Lishan entered Tai'an, Dongping, Jining and other places to manage the defense line of confrontation with Xuzhou, Nahe Xiongqi led his troops east into Qingzhou and Dengzhou, and Chen Zhihu led his troops into Henan.

About February, Chen Zhihu, who had moved west to Henan, was also busy taking over the defense of eastern Henan, and had no time to take care of Hezhong Mansion in western Henan and Nanyang Mansion in southwest Henan.

The most critical three months after Liang Chengchong went west to Nanyang can be regarded as a smooth endure.

Liang Xi killed the rebels in Dongping, which led to the destruction of Dongping City, and finally made Liang Chengchong avoid the notoriety of abandoning his father and fleeing.

Before February, the grain needed for Nanyang was transferred from Hezhong Province. Although Nanyang is dilapidated, nearly 100,000 displaced people moved in with Liang Chengchong, and they were supported by grain and straw from Hezhong Prefecture.

No matter how desolate the land is, if the seeds are sown, there will always be some harvest in the autumn, and the city will be cleaned up, and 20,000 soldiers and horses will be stationed in it, but it will barely be able to cope with it.

Playing the loess, although it is not necessary to sift through the miscellaneous stones, but after all, before February, the collapsed city wall is filled, and the foot soldiers wearing armor stand in the battlement wall, and the flags are planted, and there are mules and horses in and out of the city gate hole, which is somewhat vibrant.

However, in mid-February, Chen Zhihu personally marched west into Ruzhou, and his troops reached Funiu Mountain, cutting off the connection between Hezhong Province and Nanyang, and the situation in Nanyang took a sharp turn for the worse.

In the end, there is still a shortage of food.

The 20,000 soldiers, including their families and the displaced people and refugees who accompanied them to the west, amounted to about 167,000 people, and the rations for life cost 350,000 stone per month.

In the past three months, countless manpower and material resources have been spent to urgently transport 100,000 stone of grain from Hezhong Province, which has been almost consumed.

There is no grain of grain in Nanyang City, and those remnants of the clan regard food as more precious than their lives, and they pick up the whole stone of gold and silver and go over, and they don't sell half a bucket. These clans were already in danger of resisting the riots in troubled times, and the folk customs were also fierce, Liang Chengchong had too late to take food to slap them, and at this time his foothold was unstable, how could he rob them of their rations?

Looking at the frame style, Chen Zhihu wants to hit Hezhong Mansion first.

Although Chen Zhihu is good at using soldiers, but there are few soldiers and horses, after entering the west, there are 20,000 elites in his hands, and he received some miscellaneous soldiers when he enters Henan, and finally Chen Zhihu personally led the west into Ruzhou with 20,000 elites.

Liang Chengyi gathered 40,000 soldiers and horses in Hezhong Mansion, and there was no big problem in temporarily holding the counties and towns of Hezhong Mansion, but Nanyang couldn't count on Hezhong Mansion at all.

Jiangning's side did not care about the previous suspicions caused by the Ninglu dispute, and asked Huaixi to support Nanyang's grain and grass, but Huaixi's grain was also expensive, Dong Yuan and Liu Tingzhou only agreed that the Huaixi military commander would allocate 200,000 taels of silver to Nanyang every year to support the army and help the people, and the grain would be raised by Nanyang itself.

The Liang family has accumulated over the years, there is no shortage of gold and silver, Liang Chengchong went west into Nanyang, and also loaded dozens of carts of property, but after the passage to Hezhong Mansion in the north was cut off, the grain in Huaixi was extremely scarce, and the west was Qinling, Funiu Mountain, and Shangshan were separated from West Qin, could they still buy grain from Xiangyang, which was controlled by Luo Xiancheng in the south?

"In a few days, Lin Tie married Liu Miaozhen in Xuzhou, I plan to go to Xuzhou to watch the ceremony, Nanyang has 20,000 or 30,000 stone grain and grass per month, and I can only count on Huaidong......" Yuan Guizheng stood at the head of Nanyang City, looked at the devastated land of Nanyang, and said to Liang Chengchong.

The Huai River has been navigable to the territory of Xinyang Prefecture, Xinyang West and Nanyang East have the valley road that crosses the northwest section of Baitong Mountain, although the terrain is also quite dangerous, but only more than 100 miles, this valley road is transported by mules and horses, and it is not too laborious.

Of course, it is not only possible to buy grain from Huaidong, but also from Weiyang, Jiangning or Dongyangfu, and it is not necessarily troublesome to go west through the Huai River.

The problem is that the north bank of the Huai River is not very peaceful, and the grain merchants in Weiyang, Jiangning, and Dongyang may not be willing to transport grain to Nanyang to sell. If grain merchants don't transport grain, where will Liang Chengchong and Yuan Guizheng raise so much capacity? Also, in addition to food, there are many materials in short supply in Nanyang, and if Huaidong is willing to supply, the pressure on Nanyang may be relieved.

Yuan Guizheng is also a dignified hereditary marquis, and today he has to go all the way to congratulate others on marrying concubines.