The fifth year of Kaiping, July 19th.

Fourteen red-feathered messengers set out from Kyoto carrying the imperial edict and galloped eight hundred miles to Lingzhou.

In the afternoon of the same day, Ye Qi left Green Willow Village in the northern suburbs, one person with one horse and one gun. He did not return to Kyoto to say goodbye to Gu Zhen and Tao Hua, and embarked on the official road to the border alone.

On July 21st, Xifu Youjun, Cheng'anhou Lu Min, led the Beijing Army's Beida Camp to march westward. Emperor Kaiping and all the civil and military officials personally came out of the city to see him off, and the streets of Kyoto were deserted.

The reaction of the Daliang court was not unpleasant. It could be said that the necessary procedures had been simplified to the extreme. For example, Emperor Kaiping did not hold a large-scale military parade ceremony, and even the food and grass for the Beida camp had to be replenished by the state capitals along the way.

War is never far away. This is the simplest world view in every Liang people's heart.

At this time, no one dared to hold back. The imperial court was like a sophisticated instrument from top to bottom, operating efficiently and accurately. Emperor Kaiping not only promoted Pei Yue to the commander of the Tibetan Front Guards, but also asked him to recruit local troops in Lingzhou to form a powerful force.

maneuvering power, even allowing him to do so in secret edicts other than the imperial edict

Select soldiers who are good at fighting from the frontier army. Of course, this astonishing trust and respect left most of the important ministers puzzled. Except for a few big figures like Wang Pingzhang and Mo Haoli who could barely guess the emperor's thoughts,

Others could only lament that the boy from the Pei family who broke out of the house was so lucky.

But even if Kyoto has done its best, the situation in Lingzhou is still not optimistic.

From Kyoto to the western border, you need to pass through Qizhou, Dengzhou and Lingzhou. The distance is nearly two thousand miles. The marching speed of the northern camp requires at least twenty-five days. Relatively speaking, this speed is close to the limit for ancient armies.

, this is entirely due to the widest and smoothest official road built by Daliang in the west, as well as the excellent quality of the Beijing army itself.

In other words, for nearly a month, we must rely on the border army and Lingzhou itself to deal with the attack of the Western Wu people.

On July 12, Daokou Village fell.

On July 15th, Wufeng Village fell. Before dawn the next day, Tribulus Village fell.

In just four days, one-third of the nine military strongholds to the west of Dongqing Mansion had been lost.

It was not until July 16th that the Guping Camp responded. Wuwei Hou Ningzhong led an army of fifty thousand to the west, but stopped at Nanshan Village, which was more than fifty miles away. This was the closest to Guping Camp among the nine military strongholds.

One of the battalions, the lieutenant general of the army was quite puzzled by this. The explanation given by Ning Zhong was that the Xiwu army was aiming at the Dongqing Mansion behind them and had to be careful to guard against it.

After capturing three military strongholds in a row, the Xiwu people did not stop and continued to attack eastward. They seemed not to worry about the Hucheng garrison in the north cutting off their retreat. This Xiwu army was strong, including 30,000 cavalry.

and 120,000 infantrymen, commanded by Zhennan General Zhang Qingbai, one of the "Four Generals".

After Ning Zhong's army and the Hucheng garrison were unexpectedly silent, Jiming Village, located in the center of the nine military villages, became the target that the Western Wu army must capture.

The terrain of Jiming Village is dangerous, with Jiming Mountain to the south and Xiong River to the north. The village is built on the mountain and controls the main east-west route. As long as the Xiwu people can capture Jiming Village, it means that they can completely break the army west of Dongqing Mansion.

After the village system, the north, east and south were all flat and flat.

After dividing his troops to occupy Daokou Village, Wufeng Village and Tribulus Village, Zhang Qingbai led his army to continue marching eastward.

Zhang Qingbai was a special anomaly in the Western Wu military, which highly valued individual martial arts. He was an elegant man with a gentle temperament. Although he was born as a general, he did not practice martial arts. Nowadays, such a person who cannot go into battle to kill the enemy has almost no chance of getting ahead.

In this era, it seemed strange that Zhang Qingbai, a scholar, could be among the "Four Generals", but in fact it was because of his excellent military ability. Even Xie Lin, one of the "Four Generals", General Zhendong, admired his attitude towards his subordinates.

Control.

Zhang Qingbai emphasized the word "stable" in his military use. Unlike Xie Lin who often led his troops to move across large areas and then made surprise attacks, he rarely used overly strange and dangerous moves. With his accurate judgment of the battlefield situation and his superb command, he

Art, when both sides have the same military strength or are even slightly weaker, he can rely on exquisite local operations and the innate ability to predict risks to complete the gradual cannibalization of the enemy in a stalemate battle.

Fifteen years ago, Pei Zhen led the Western Expedition. Although he did plan for a major defeat along the way and prepared for the final capture of Hucheng, he still suffered a big loss at the hands of Zhang Qingbai who was stationed in Gancheng at the beginning of the campaign.

Zhang Qingbai was only thirty-seven years old at that time.

It was no luck that he reached his current position, which is why Emperor Xiwu specially sent twenty masters of the Imperial Guard to protect him personally.

On the vast Gaoyang Plain, a large number of Western Wu scouts were scattered out like chess pieces, constantly collecting news about Liang Jun.

Ten thousand infantry marched towards Jiming Village, and three thousand light cavalry raided the formation.

It is impossible for Zhang Qingbai to throw all his troops at Jiming Village. Not to mention him, even a general with a few years of experience in the army would not do this. After all, for him, although Jiming Village is important, it is only the whole battle.

A node in the process is far from a decisive battle.

Northeast of Wufengzhai, the temporary station of the Western Wu Army.

In the handsome tent, Zhang Qingbai, who was wearing a long gown, stood in front of the sand table and looked at the battlefield pattern quietly. There were also seven or eight Western Wu tiger generals in the tent, all of them with strong backs and shoulders, and bright eyes, but none of them made a slight sound.

No one cares that Zhang Qingbai doesn't look like a military commander at all.

"There has been no movement from the Hucheng defenders yet?" Zhang Qingbai asked.

The general leading the scout battalion cupped his hands and replied: "Back to the general, according to the news from the scouts, starting from July 12th, Hucheng has closed its gates and prohibited entry and exit. Currently, not a single soldier has left the city."

Zhang Qingbai's tone was calm, as if with a hint of approval: "Xiangcheng Hou Xiao Jin may seem inconspicuous among the Liang generals, but he is an extremely rare city defender. No wonder after Lu Min returned, Emperor Liang promoted him to the rank of

The Hucheng camp is under control. Is Ning Zhong still staying in Nanshan Village?"

The general responded: "Yes, Ning Zhong led the four guards of Guping out to the west and stopped after arriving at Nanshan Stronghold. The general thought that he was planning to abandon the remaining military strongholds and fight our army decisively at Nanshan Stronghold. In this way

, even if he loses, he can still retreat to Guping Camp, at least he can keep the overall situation intact."

"Marquis Wuwei."

Zhang Qingbai said Ning Zhong's title, smiled softly, and shook his head.

The general said again: "General, the thousand-man team that was responsible for chasing the enemy in Daokou Village before was already heroic. We found their bodies forty miles north of Daokou Village. We also found that someone was gathering the collapsed troops of Wufeng Village and Tribulus Village.

Soldier."

Zhang Qingbai nodded and said, "I understand. I'm ordering Guo Rong to capture Jiming Village within ten days."

"yes!"

"Just step back."

Zhang Qingbai said calmly, and after everyone left, he frowned slightly.

The disappearance of the thousand-man army and the efforts to gather Liang's defeated troops to escape were enough to show that there was a lone army on the Gaoyang Plain that was not in his mind.

Over the years, he has figured out the military situation on the border of Liang State, and he knows that there is unlikely to be a large group of elite cavalry that suddenly appears. It is expected that this lone army will not be large in number and will not pose too much of a threat.

But for Zhang Qingbai, who is accustomed to controlling everything, this lone army is like a dark shadow in his sight. If it cannot be erased, it means there are variables.
Chapter completed!