Strictly speaking, Emperor Cao Tiancheng of Qi attached great importance to Zhou Jiyun. As one of the two generals of the Great Qi Dynasty after Cao Yun, Zhou Jiyun's ability is unquestionable. Compared with Guo Xiancheng's steady use of troops, Zhou Jiyun is more aggressive. If Zhou Jiyun was not from a wealthy family and was a person who had been focusing on cultivating the wealthy family, then Guo Xiancheng's position should obviously be Zhou Jiyun. For an emperor who wanted to unify the world, Zhou Jiyun's style was obviously more favored by him.

But if such a person becomes an enemy, it is extremely dangerous. In order to deal with Zhou Jiyun and his direct subordinates, Cao Tiancheng and Cao Yun also took great pains to deal with him. The years-long plan finally forced Zhou Jiyun to a situation where he is now alone. After cutting off his contact channel with wealthy families, he finally took the last step and resolved with force.

After Zhou Jiyun was defeated by Bian Wushuang in Wanzhou, his strength was greatly damaged and he had to retreat to Kunling County. His troops also shrank to 50,000, and the losses of veterans were even more serious. In Cao Tiancheng's view, this was naturally the best time. If Zhou Jiyun could be taken down in one go, the powerful families entrenched in Luoyang would be hit hard.

For several years, Cao Tiancheng has been stationing troops in Luzhou. Since Chu was defeated by Qi, the elite border troops have basically been transferred to the front line that confronted Ming. However, in Luzhou, Qi still put down 20,000 border troops, and then transferred tens of thousands of county soldiers from various prefectures and counties one after another, making Luzhou's troops reach 100,000. In addition, the border troops retreated from the Hengduan Mountains, the number of troops attacking Kunling County reached 150,000. This was completely enough in the eyes of Emperor Qi.

What made Emperor Qi even happier was that before the beginning of winter, Bian Wushuang launched a large-scale attack on Kunling County. Although the final result was that Zhou Jiyun won the victory, such a large-scale war would not doubt the consumption of Kunling County's military strength. Zhou Jiyun is obviously at a lowest point in both manpower and financial resources.

There is no better opportunity than now. Even though everything in Luoyang is still being prepared closely, the Qi court still issued an order to attack Kunling County.

Zhong Ai was a veteran, but he was stubborn and disliked by Cao Yun. After Cao Yun became the Grand Marshal of the Qi State, he was immediately inscribed into the cold palace, driven out of the border army, and eventually became the commander of the Chang'an garrison. Speaking of which, his position had been promoted, but when he arrived in Chang'an, the position of a garrison general was naturally not enough. More importantly, the Chang'an garrison was nominally an army, but his actual responsibility was more to maintain the public security of Chang'an, guard the city gates, patroll the streets, and guard the houses and the powerful families and the powerful people. The only force was a pitiful 10,000 people. The emperor's personal army, Long Xiangjun, was the emperor's personal army. This was naturally a painful torture for Zhong Ai, who was very arrogant.

But Cao Yun has always been at its peak. In the next ten years, Cao Yun's prestige in the army rose sharply and became the war god of the Great Qi. No matter how dissatisfied Zhong Ai could only lock himself in the house to vent his depression.

His time came from the dismissal of Cao Yun. The emperor was eager to eliminate Cao Yun's influence in the army, and experienced generals like Zhong Ai were naturally the first choice. The first step was to transfer him to Longxiang's army. After more than a year of investigation, the emperor transferred him to Luzhou, nominally the commander of the Luzhou county army, but in fact he had heavy troops.

The attack on Kunling County was his first major military operation since taking office.

As a veteran, he was not very convinced by Cao Yun, and even more dissatisfied with Zhou Jiyun, who was promoted by Cao Yun.

Now Zhou Jiyun is trapped in the Yungu County, and his strength is greatly damaged and he faces two battles. Zhong Ai does not take his opponent seriously at all. Even if he pushes him to the side, he can easily crush his opponent.

For him, his biggest enemy is not Zhou Jiyun's army that he is about to face, but the cold weather.

Compared to Cangzhou, it was already snowing heavily, although Kunling County and Luzhou were cold and the weather was as cold as the day, the snow seemed to be hesitant and refused to fall down happily. Occasionally, it fell in the middle of the night, but when it came to day, it immediately disappeared.

There was no snow, but the wind was particularly strong, squirting everyone's exposed muscles like a knife. In the long march, the soldiers were not as proud as possible, but instead shrank their necks one by one, trying to curl up tighter to reduce the area of ​​the wind.

This wind is more hateful than snow.

Zhong Ai probably lacked the cold weather, which led to his army not being short of food and weapons, but the supplies for keeping cold were seriously insufficient. The daily consumption was much more than the previous estimate. The consumption was too fast, and the logistics supply was tight, but it was not enough to replenish. This caused the rapid increase in the number of people suffering from frostbite and illness every day, and the team was still marching, and it was quickly reducing staff at a rate of hundreds of people every day.

"Why haven't the charcoal been shipped yet?" In the big tent, Zhong Ai looked at his logistics officer Nguyen Phu angrily. "There are also various medicinal materials. Are you missing the opportunity for war, do you know?"

Ruan Phuc looked at Zhong Ai helplessly: "General, it's not that the general is not trying his best, but that these things are gone in the entire Luzhou. Now the price of charcoal in the Luzhou market has doubled, and there is still no market. All kinds of cold-proof materials, due to the needs of the army, have doubled the price."

"This kind of military and national affairs cannot be bargained. What price is there? Just requisition it for me." Zhong Ai said coldly.

"General, there is no such materials at all!" Nguyen Phuc said with his hands spreading out.

"Why isn't there?" Zhong Ai widened his eyes and asked in disbelief: "Whoever dares to tun Juqi, just use his head to count."

"The general is not like this. The trade routes of Daqi are basically controlled by the wealthy families. You know the situation in the country now that the trade routes have basically been cut off. All kinds of materials have soared prices, but there is no goods on the market. The last general wants to grab them, but there is nothing to grab them. The materials collected before are almost consumed." Ruan Phuc was also a little annoyed. Now Luoyang is closely preparing to rebel. A large amount of materials controlled by the wealthy families are heading in that direction, but they consume a huge amount of money here. With some small vendors, the consumption of the army cannot be guaranteed.

Zhong Ai punched me hard in anger and said, "I don't care what method you use, I must raise enough cold-proof materials for me in the shortest time. If I do it, you will be the first achievement. If I can't do it, don't blame us for military law."

Ruan Phuc said goodbye helplessly, and it was hard for a good cook to cook without rice. In this situation, where did he raise these things? He could only do his best and leave his will. If he really couldn't raise them, what could he do?

After driving Ruan Phuc away, Zhong Ai walked out of the tent depressedly. The bitter cold wind immediately made him shudder. The guard behind him quickly took the cloak and put it on his shoulders.

The smoke in the entire camp was rolling because of insufficient charcoal. The soldiers could only cut down trees to burn to keep the cold. But how could the wet trees burn fully? The entire camp was filled with smoke. From time to time, soldiers' eyes were red and swollen and tears rushed out of the big tent. After a moment, they took a breath and ran back. The big tent was so smoky and the people were frozen outside. In short, there was no place to stay.

Morale is inevitably falling.

"General, this is not a solution." The deputy general around him said with some concern. "The weather is too cold, and it is still not snowing. Once the heavy snow falls, I am afraid that the weather will be colder and the morale of the army will fall."

"We can only speed up the march, try to fight with the enemy earlier, and fight to Kunling County earlier, so that we can stay in the warm room." Zhong Ai said coldly. "If you send the order, starting tomorrow, the entire army will have to travel at least fifty miles a day before camping."

The deputy general smiled bitterly. How could Kunling County be so easy to fight? Nothing else, the tall and strong city walls of Kunling County alone were enough for them to drink. At that time, Cheng Wu originally built an eastern defense line known as the iron wall of Chu with Kunling County as the core. General Cao Yun confronted them for more than ten years, but he still failed to break it. The only hope now is that the border troops from Hengduan Mountains can make a breakthrough from the direction of Cangzhou.

Zhong Ai was optimistic, but he had been staying in Luzhou for a long time, but he was not that easy. If Zhou Jiyun was really so easy to deal with, the court would not have gathered so many troops.

Compared to the Qi army struggling in the snow, it was much more comfortable to have arrived at Guanning's headquarters in Xiaoshi City, the border of Kunling County. Xiaoshi City was originally just a small city. After Zhou Jiyun's relationship with the court became worse and worse, the number of troops here was more and more, and the defense of Xiaoshi City was getting stronger and stronger. Before the beginning of winter, the city walls here had been raised a lot. Xiaoshi City was not big, but it guarded the main road entering Kunling County. If the army wanted to attack Kunling County, it had to conquer Xiaoshi City first.

Compared with the lack of preparations in the Qi army, the preparations made by the Guanning army are much stronger. They have always lived in the north and have a stronger adaptability to the bitter and cold weather than the Qi people. More importantly, they have strong logistical supplementary capabilities. Merchants from the six eastern counties entered Kunling County in a steady stream and transported the resources they needed in continuously. The merchants of the Ming Dynasty and the merchants of the Chu State seized this opportunity to make a fortune. The cold was in front of the white silver, so naturally nothing was left.
Chapter completed!