In mid-September, a few days after the Changsha Yishi attacked Runan County, Wang Shangde and deputy general Li Zhi discussed the matter while training new soldiers in the military camp outside Jiangling City.

"According to the news sent by me, Xiang Xuan had sent Zou Yuan to attack Runan County a few days ago. Runan has been weak for many years and is afraid he is unable to resist the rebels."

“…”

Listening to the deep voice of Li Zhi coming from his ears, Wang Shangde silently said, holding his hands behind his back to look at the new soldiers under his command in the distance.

From mid-last year to around mid-this year, the battle between him and Xiang Xuan lasted for nearly a year, causing each other to consume a lot, whether it was soldiers or money.

However, what made Wang Shangde extremely unwilling was that he paid such a huge price but ultimately failed to win.

All of this is to pay damn Zhao Bohu and the damn Jiangdong rebels under his command!

Even he had never expected that the Jiangdong Yishi, who had obviously been destroyed, had resurrected because he had escaped one of the Zhao Bohu from the hands of Grand Master Chen and the Five Tigers of Chen Men. He did not expect that Han Jun, one of the Five Tigers of Chen Men, would be defeated by Zhao Bohu under a great advantage and die in the battlefield, so that Zhao Bohu took the opportunity to occupy Jiangdong again.

What was even more unexpected was that after Zhao Bohu controlled Jiangdong, he actually supported Xiang Xuan of Changsha County as soon as possible. Regardless of the huge Yuzhang County between the two places, he led his troops to aid Xiang Xuan, which greatly boosted the morale of the Changsha rebels under Xiang Xuan. At the same time, it completely extinguished his ambition to try to capture Changsha County and was forced to withdraw back to Nanjun.

Whenever Wang Shangde thought of this, he was very upset and wanted to avenge his previous shame.

Not only did he want to retaliate against Xiang Xuan, he even wanted to retaliate against the Jiangdong rebels, retaliate against Zhao Bohu, and led the Nanyang army to attack Jiangdong...

But no matter how much he thinks about it, the cruel reality does not allow him to do so.

At present, not only did he not have the ability to organize another war immediately and lead his army to attack Jiangdong, he could not even stop Xiang Xuan's "northern advance". There were three problems that seriously restricted him.

That is, the source of troops, arms, and money and food.

Some people may say that it is natural that people cannot die in war. Isn’t it better to replenish people immediately after they die?

This is reasonable, but the question is, where to add it?

Wang Shangde could only replenish his troops from Nanyang, and as for Jingchu, Nanjun... Sorry, the people of Nanjun did not accept him at all.

The reason is very simple, because Nanjun was the vassal of Yang Gu, the Chu Marquis who rebeled against Jin in a few years, and was also the base camp of Anping Road with the support of this Chu Marquis.

In the long-term stability, the people of Jingchu not only supported the Chu Hou and were close to Anping Road. Although Jingchu's righteous army was not good, they were defeated in Nanyang and were defeated by Wang Shangde, General Cheqi and Cavalry Xue Ao, Henan Commander Li Meng and other generals, Wang Shangde, who later led his army to Nanjun, never won the hearts of the people here.

The reason is that the people here only recognize the Marquis of Chu and the Anping Road. They even think that the Jin army was the invaders.

What a joke!

The Chu State of Chu Marquis Yang Gu's state of Chu was just a fief of Jin! Nanjun is also the world of Jin!

But unfortunately, the people of Nanjun do not agree.

Yang Gu, the Chu Hou who was resentful to the Jin royal family, and Anpingdao, who secretly supported him, tried to overthrow the court, had already changed the recognition of the people of Nanjun to the State of Jin with ulterior motives, secretly incited the relationship between the local people and the State of Jin so that the people under his rule could fully support them in a war to overthrow Jin.

Although the rebellious traitors finally failed, the people of Nanjun were reversed by them, so that one year after Wang Shangde led the Nanyang army to Nanjun, they were still outsiders and even invading enemies in the eyes of the local people.

Of course, Wang Shangde didn't see this, and even both him and the court actually tried to remedy it. After the death of Chu Marquis Yang Gu, the court tried to inherit the title by allowing his sons to inherit the title, in fact, in order to appease the people of Nanjun.

But unfortunately, the court's idea failed.

Because the sons of Chu Marquis Yang Gu had already followed the remnants of Jingchu Yishi's army to flee south to Wuling County, and might even flee to Bashu, and they did not dare to return to Nanjun. Perhaps they knew that even if they returned to Nanjun and inherited the Marquis, they could enjoy wealth and honor, but at best they were just a puppet.

It was impossible for the Jin court to let his Yang family take charge of Nanjun anymore.

In addition, Wang Shangde's cruel hunting of the remaining party of Anpingdao was also one of the reasons why he lost the people's hearts.

You should know that Anping Road is a very widely spread religion in Nanjun. It is the sustenance of the people of Nanjun in terms of beliefs. It also provides various help to the people here, such as borrowing money and grain from credit, which is an existence similar to the "good religion".

However, after Wang Shangde captured the believers of Anpingdao, he hung them one by one on the head of Jiangling City, which of course further aggravated the conflict between the Nanyang army and the people of Nanjun.

Of course, although Wang Shangde was arrogant and arrogant, he was not a cruel person himself. The reason why he treated Anpingdao's believers so cruelly was mainly because he was annoyed by these guys.

After the Nanjun battle, Jingchu Yishi, Anping Road behind it, and the Chu Marquis Yang Gu's forces were defeated one after another.

Then, the Jingchu Yishi took the remnants of defeated generals to protect the sons of Chu Marquis Yang Gu to Wuling County in the south. However, the group of Anping Road believers and the group of fish that missed the net seemed unwilling to be defeated, and still lurked in Nanjun, destroying and harassing them everywhere.

Either incite civilians in a certain place to rebel, or destroy road facilities and attack the Nanyang Army's transportation convoy, and even there are single soldiers who attacked him.

If Wang Shangde can endure this kind of thing once or twice, how can he endure it again and again?

After a failed negotiation with Anping Road, Wang Shangde ordered a comprehensive search of Anping Taoist monks in Nanjun, and hanged one if they catch one, and hanged all of these guys at the top of Jiangling City to kill one to warn a hundred!

But even so, there are still damn fish that escaped the net, destroying and harassing everywhere.

What's more, when he attacked Changsha County last year, there were still believers from Anpingdao behind him in various ways, causing him to be attacked from both sides.

In short, the effect was not good. Wang Shangde's approach of killing one to warn hundreds not only did not scare away the Anping Dao believers, but instead intensified the rift between the Nanyang Army and the people of Nanjun. The reason was that in addition to Anping Dao's prestige in Nanjun, the Nanyang Army also had to bear certain responsibilities.

After all, the Nanyang Army inevitably hurt innocent people during the strict implementation of Wang Shangde's orders, which naturally intensified the disgust and hatred of the Nanyang Army by the people of Nanjun.

In a nutshell, it is difficult for Wang Shangde to recruit soldiers in Nanjun.

Unless he forcibly enlisted the army.

But the problem is that he dares to use the force that the men have to replenish?

He dares to send weapons and armor to these Nanjun soldiers?

God knew whether these soldiers from Nanjun would suddenly rebel after obtaining weapons and armor. They even brought him a fight against Wang Shangde and Xiang Xuan's Changsha charity army.

In short, Wang Shangde was unable to recruit soldiers in Nanjun, so he could only send people back to Nanyang to recruit new soldiers.

Some people may ask, in the past few years, the situation is not good, and the world is generally short of food this year, so why don’t the people of Nanjun join the army to support their families?

Of course, there is, but this group of Nanjun people who voted not by Wang Shangde's Nanyang Army, but Xiang Xuan, who was next door, defected to Changsha Yishi.

Yes, in the eyes of the people of Nanjun, the Changsha Yishi is an ally of the Jingchu Yishi, and it is also an ally recognized by Anpingdao. Since he joined the army for food, why not join the Changsha Yishi, but risk being scolded by his neighbors to join the despicable Nanyang Army?

This is also the reason why Xiang Xuan has not lacked military resources in the past two years, and it is also one of the reasons why he has fought with Wang Shangde for nearly a whole year since last year.

Although Wang Shangde now occupies two counties in Nanyang and Nanjun, and Xiang Xuan only has one Changsha County, in fact, Wang Shangde can hardly gain any advantage in this area. Instead, he is disturbed by the various uprisings and harassment in Nanjun over the past year.

Not to mention that Xiang Xuan has now received full help from the Jiangdong Yishi. Even though it was separated by Yuzhang County, the three Jiangdong counties continued to transport grain and arms to Changsha.

Therefore, in terms of military sources, food and military facilities, Xiang Xuan is not short of now. The only regret of the Changsha Yishi is that the newly recruited soldiers cannot form combat power in a short period of time. This is also one of the reasons why Xiang Xuan dared not provoke Yingchuan County.

Compared with Xiang Xuan’s “bitter first and then sweet”, Wang Shangde is much more difficult.

Although Xiang Xuan also survived the hardships of last year, he received full assistance from the Jiangdong Yishi after this year. What assistance did Wang Shangde receive?

The only assistance that Wang Shangde has received so far is only the only way for the imperial court to order Yingchuan County to transport a batch of grain to Nanyang a few years ago. In addition, Yingchuan County neither sent troops to help Nanyang County nor provided a weapon.

Yingchuan County explained the reason for this: I didn’t think it was enough to use it myself and I could do nothing.

What's more, as of the previous year, Nanyang County gradually resumed grain production, Yingchuan County simply cut off even the food assistance.

Of course, Wang Shangde could not blame Yingchuan County, because the two consecutive years ago and last year, the court recruited more than one million stones of grain from Yingchuan County. The year before yesterday was to provide military rations for Taishi Chen to help him to suppress the Yishi of Jiangdong; and last year, the court used relief to the counties that broke out in Jiyin, Dongping, and Shanyang.

In other words, in the previous battle, Wang Shangde finally carried the Changsha Yishi and Jiangdong Yishi almost at the same time, and received no assistance at all.

In fact, Yingchuan County could help him at that time.

Not to mention anything else, just in Kunyang, there are 10,000 troops stationed by Chen Mo, the commander of the Western Supreme Division.

Wang Shangde really couldn't figure out what Yingchuan County asked this ten thousand troops to garrison in Kunyang? Could it be that he was guarding against him in Nanyang?

If it were others, Wang Shangde would probably send people directly to Yingchuan to force the other party to send troops. Unfortunately, there was a lieutenant named Zhou Hu in Yingchuan. That guy was the adopted son of Grand Master Chen and the brother of Chen Jun Wuhu. What did he use to summon the other party?

As for asking for help from him...

Wang Shangde couldn't hold back his face.

After all, when Zhou Hu was still in Heihu Mountain, he had sent troops to encircle and suppress it. Although the two sides finally reached a tacit understanding to some extent, there was no friendship at all. How could Wang Shangde pull this face?

"...Let's watch the changes first and see the response of Yingchuan County. As long as Xiang Xuan's army attacks Runan, Yingchuan will not ignore it..."

After a moment of silence, Wang Shangde said in a deep voice: "When Yingchuan and Changsha rebels fight, we will wait for an opportunity to move."

Hearing this, Deputy General Li Zhi wanted to say something but stopped.

After hesitating for a while, Li Zhi then clasped his fists and said carefully: "Why don't you contact Yingchuan? It is rumored that under the rule of Zhou Hu, the county army in Yingchuan has greatly improved in terms of number and strength, not to mention that there are many surrendered generals from former Changsha rebels under his command. I believe that those surrendered generals know how to deal with Xiang Xuan..."

“…”

Wang Shangde frowned and glanced at Li Zhi, and said unhappily: "Without Yingchuan, our army could not defeat Xiang Xuan's rebels?"

Seeing that the general was still unwilling to face the reality, Li Zhi sighed and said helplessly: "General, you actually know that with the current military strength of our Nanyang Army, it is enough to defend Nanjun and Nanyang, but he is unable to stop Xiang Xuan and is not even sure to recover Jiangxia. Furthermore... Xiang Xuan's rebel army occupied the convenience of the name of "Yi Zheng" and bewitched the people from joining each other. He has no shortage of military sources. In addition, he has now received full support from Jiangdong and has no shortage of food and military supplies. As long as Xiang Xuan has given him a period of time, he will quickly expand his rebels to 100,000, or even the fifteenth.

Ten thousand, 200,000, gradually widen the gap with our army. If you want to curb this rebel, you must severely damage it before it expands its army, defeat its spirits heavily, and defeat it back to Changsha, and even capture Changsha County. However, now our Nanyang Army alone is not enough to do this. We need a large number of well-trained soldiers. At present, only Yingchuan County has this ability. It is said that Yingchuan County currently has nearly 100,000 troops, and more than half of them are old soldiers who have been training for more than one year, not to mention the former Changsha rebel generals they had previously accommodated..."

"Do you also know that there are a large number of former Changsha rebel generals in the Yingchuan County army?" Wang Shangde snorted coldly.

Li Zhi shook his head and said, "That's the issue that Zhou Hu needs to consider. It's not ours. How can we ignore the strength of the Yingchuan County Army because of this?"

"..." Wang Shangde frowned and said impatiently: "Didn't I say to see Yingchuan's response first?"

As if he had guessed the thoughts of the commander, Li Zhi smiled bitterly and said, "The most urgent task is that both sides should join forces immediately to fight Xiang Xuan's rebels together. How could he say 'Look at Yingchuan' first to respond'? If we have no expression, how could Zhou Hu know that our army needs reinforcements in urgent need?"

Wang Shangde's expression was a little uneasy after these words.

After all, what he called "Look at Yingchuan County's response first" was just because he couldn't bear to ask Zhou Hu for help, or he didn't want to owe the other party favors for this.

Seeing that Wang Shangde's face was not good, Li Zhi said again: "At least, the general should contact Zhou Hu to understand the other party's plans."

Wang Shangde frowned and looked at Li Zhi for a few times, and then he nodded slowly after a while.

On the same day, he wrote a letter in person and sent someone to Yingchuan.

Around mid-October, Wang Shangde's letter was finally delivered to the Jin army camp in Wuyang, Yingchuan, and to Zhao Yu.

At that time, Zhao Yu was watching the battle report sent by Wang Qinggang.
To be continued...