As Shi Zhuang predicted, when facing the choice of Eyue and Huai'an, Xiang Zhen chose to return to support Eyue without hesitation.

His war in Huainan was actually in a quagmire. From the initial ease as if stabbing tofu with a hot knife, to the fact that he had to pay a considerable price for every step forward, he was very upset. The enemy's resistance became stronger and stronger, and the organization became more and more tight. With Li Mi and Liu Chenglin's two armies approaching Huaian in two directions, he was greatly shaken about the goal of taking Huaian and coercing Yangzhou.

The original plan was to cut the mess quickly, and take advantage of the fierce battle between the Northern Tang army and the Daliang army in Chang'an and Guanzhong to take advantage of the situation and win these goals with lightning speed. Unexpectedly, expectations are always far from reality.

The first one was that Huai'an, a place that had been occupied by the Northern Tang army, was actually won by the hearts of the people in a short time. After the initial panic, the people were quickly mobilized, and the army was heading forward, and more numerous small groups of people were harassing the Southern Confederate troops almost day and night, making them exhausted to deal with it.

The second one was that he did not expect that the battle between Northern Tang and Daliang would end so quickly. Zhu Youzhen lost too well. In Chang'an, Zhu Youzhen took his elite troops and ran away. From Zhu Youzhen's perspective, giving up Chang'an and retreating to Yizhou was naturally the best response to preserving his strength to make a comeback, but for Xiang Xun, it was very bad. The anticipated confrontation battle did not happen, allowing Li Ze of the Northern Tang Dynasty to quickly transfer his troops to the south.

The only benefit he gained was political. Zhu Youzhen surrendered to the Guangzhou court, went to the imperial court, and asked for a title. Finally, Xiang Xun received some comfort.

Because this represents the orthodoxy of the Guangzhou court, Zhu Youzhen surrendered to the Guangzhou court, which means that they were the ones who destroyed the pseudo-Rich who usurped the Tang Dynasty and relied on their own, rather than struggling to recover Li Ze of the Northern Tang Dynasty in Luoyang, Chang'an.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen is also a ready-made ally without mobilization. In Xiang Xun's view, at this stage, in addition to his old brother Rong Hong, Zhu Youzhen's reliability is much larger than that of Jiangxi, Guizhou and Hunan.

Before Zhu Youzhen fully gained a foothold, he sent Cao Bin and Tian Mantang to attack Xiangyang and Yiling respectively, and saw Zhu Youzhen's irreconcilable relationship with Li Ze of the Northern Tang Dynasty.

Only by controlling Eyue can we effectively connect the forces of Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and other places, and then take down Jingnan and other places, completely connect the entire south, so that we can have the foundation for confrontation with the north. This is the consensus of the Guangzhou court. Compared with this goal, if Huainan is lost, it will be lost.

So after learning that Shi Zhuang's Right Guard was heading towards Guangshui and that his vanguard troops had arrived in Xinyang, Xiang Zhen immediately began to arrange a retreat. He himself took the lead and rushed back to Hongzhou, the capital of Jiangxi observation envoy.

"Uncle Shi, I have sent you 800 miles in a hurry ten days ago, asking you to summon the troops in the palace to collect food and pay, and then join forces with me to enter Eyue. Why haven't you started to move until today?" When entering Hongzhou, Xiang Zhen was still calm and calm in Hongzhou.

Qian Wenzhong drank tea slowly and said lightly: "General Xiang, why didn't he start the action? I have already issued the order. If you don't believe it, you can check the archives and see if I did it? But this is really difficult to do it!"

Xiang Zhen asked calmly: "I don't know where the difficulty is?"

Qian Wenzhong put the teacup on the table and looked at Xiang Zhen and said, "Let's talk about money and grain first. Over the past year, our two armies have attacked Huainan and Xuanzhou. The food and grass required by Jiangxi have been supplying it? Jiangxi's savings have been gone for many years. Now, as soon as you open your mouth, you ask me to collect millions of stones of grain and grass. Tell me, where can I find you so much food?"

Xiang Zhen resisted his anger. Over the past year, Jiangnan has indeed spent a lot of money and grain, but these money and grain are obtained from the people's taxes to collect land. But is the bulk of Jiangxi really in the hands of the people? Of course not. The money and grain and wealth are in the hands of the powerful landlords led by the Qian family.

It was precisely because he knew this that he wrote a letter in advance, asking Qianwenzhong to raise funds from major households. For this reason, he even promised Qianwenzhong that every major household who donated money and grain could get a title.

Today, the Guangzhou court claims to be authentic, and this is a very noble and rare title that can be entrusted with stolen goods. Even some short titles are still quite attractive to some big dog owners and landlords. This is the best way for them to enter mainstream society.

Xiang Zhen doesn’t believe that no one is moved. There is only one possibility that Jiangxi has no action, that is, Qian Wenzhong is interfering.

Before he could question again, Qian Wenzhong started speaking first, "Let's talk about the soldiers. Now we belong to Jiangxi, there are 20,000 people who follow you in Huainan. Only 10,000 people are left to maintain public order in various places. Spring farming is imminent, and prefectures and counties have already disbanded the soldiers and prepared for spring farming. This is a big deal. Once spring farming is missed, what should we do next year? Furthermore, if your large army retreats from Huainan, the Northern Tang army will definitely make a comeback. At that time, Jiangxi will definitely be the first to face the counterattack of the opponent. If I recruited the soldiers at all costs at this time, I will not only give up the problem of spring farming. I will not be able to say that I will be attacked by my opponent when I am in trouble. At that time, it will be the real disaster!"

Xiang Zhen took a deep breath: "Uncle Shi, even if the Northern Tang army arrived in Huainan, I left troops at various checkpoints in Huainan. They fought one by one, which took time, and we just needed this time difference. Think about it carefully, if E Yue falls and Liu Xinda's troops are annihilated, will the situation facing Jiangxi be even worse? As long as we win the battle of E Yue, there will be no threat to your flanks. Just concentrate on dealing with the possible attacks in Huainan, and your left and right are our allies, so what's so scary?"

"I know this truth, but in a short period of time, it is really difficult to collect all the money and grain and collect enough soldiers. General Xiang is worse than this. You will lead your troops into Eyue to fight Shi Zhuang. Even if you scrape the ground three feet, you will guarantee the supply of food and grass in your army. Your army has a total of 50,000 people, and people eat horses and chew it. This consumption is enough to vomit three liters of blood." Qian Wenzhong said in embarrassment: "I will recruit subsequent troops later as your supplement?"

Xiang Zhen was angry for a moment. After all, wasn’t he just unwilling to join Eyue to participate in this battle and wanted to fight the forward by himself and win the fire for him?

Want to turn against each other?

Of course it won't work.

If you really want to turn against each other, the other party will not even supply food and grass. That is the real bad.

I hope to get enough reinforcements from Hunan Observation Entry Ding Taiyi.

If Ding Taiyi could send 20,000 troops, and more than 50,000 troops, and if Ding Taiyi could send 20,000 troops, there would be 150,000 combat soldiers. If Shi Zhuang's more than 30,000 Northern Tang army and some miscellaneous troops from the opponent, there would not be more than 50,000 troops at most, and the remaining ones would be extremely large.

In the Southern Alliance, the person who has the most intuitive understanding of the Northern Tang army is Xiang Zhen. After all, he has been on missions to Northern Tang many times. Before the relationship between the two sides has broken down, he has also observed the Northern Tang army at close range, and even obtained a lot of top-secret information from the Minister of War Han Qi at that time. His personal army directly used the Northern Tang army's military teachings, and these instructors came from the Zuo Xiaowei led by Qin Zhao at that time.

This incident caused a sensation in the Northern Tang Dynasty. Qin Zhao was deprived of all rights and was imprisoned in Wuyi. Although Jin Shiren, who was directly involved in the matter, saved his life under the protection of many people, he was driven out of the army and finally had to go abroad. There were dozens of Zuo Xiaogu officers implicated in this matter.

This incident also directly led to one of the two armies under the Imperial Hall that year being cleaned by Li Ze and was taken into his own pocket.

Maybe Li Ze was watching the whole thing all the time, and then waited for the incident to happen before it started to happen in one fell swoop. The purpose was to eliminate the armed forces of the royal party.

Of course, it doesn't matter at all now. After all, Xiang Zhen also gained benefits from it. His personal army is the most combat-capable force in the entire Southern Alliance. Even his father's personal army cannot compare with his father's personal army.

He really wanted to promote this model of leading the army to the entire Lingnan army, but in his efforts, he encountered great obstacles. The Northern Tang army, one carrot and one pit, had a benchmark of organization and actual number, and money and the army were separated, the soldiers' military pay was high, and the pension was generous. Xiang Zhen tried his best, and got these for his 10,000 personal troops. He wanted to promote it. Sorry, no one listened to you unless you, Xiang Zhen, took the money himself.

The problem is that raising these ten thousand soldiers has made Xiang Zhen poor.

This military reform ended up in the womb. In fact, it is not that everyone has not seen the benefits of implementing such military reforms, but the problem is that if it touches too many people, it will definitely be unpopular.

Reforms that cannot be implemented in Lingnan, such as those implemented in other places, are purely dreaming.

Therefore, in this battle of E Yue, Xiang Zhen hopes to achieve an absolute advantage in military strength. Only in this way can he have the determination and courage to fight Shi Zhuang.
Chapter completed!