When the news came from Liao Shanhe that he was less than a hundred miles away from Yangping Pass, Li Zhongyi had already stayed in Xingyuan Mansion for eight days.

In the past eight days, while pacifying the people, the officials and soldiers of the imperial court launched an operation to raid the homes of the big landlords and gentry.

Li Zhongyi was very satisfied with the income from the raid, not to mention it, just the copper coins, he got more than two million yuan.

As for the food obtained from the raid, it reached an astonishing more than two million stones, and the logistical crisis of the imperial court officials and soldiers was resolved in an instant.

After beating the local tyrants, it is time to divide the land, and the officers and soldiers of the imperial court have long been familiar with it.

First, he took out 500,000 stone of grain and distributed it to the poor people inside and outside the city, and then told the whole city that each adult male could share 100 acres of land, and the adult female could share 80 acres.

Under the premise that the vast majority of the people are illiterate, their vision is naturally short-sighted, and they are naturally extremely grateful to Li Zhongyi.

For a time, Li Zhongyi's reputation was so good in the entire Xingyuan Mansion that it was simply regarded as an offering to the Buddha of ten thousand families.

Li Zhongyi knew very well in his heart that in the era of agricultural civilization, if land annexation was not suppressed, the tax revenue of the imperial court would be reduced day by day, and eventually it would be unsustainable and arbitrary.

The expropriation and expropriation will continue to increase the burden of the people, and the final result will inevitably be uncovered!

Therefore, not only Xingyuan Mansion, but also throughout the country, Li Zhongyi increased the number of yeoman farmers as much as possible by means of seizing his family and distributing grain.

The yeoman peasants are the source of soldiers and money for the empire, while the big landlords are parasites lying on the empire.

After leaving 5,000 soldiers and horses to guard Xingyuan Mansion, Li Zhongyi led the main army out of the city and rushed to join Liao Shanhe's soldiers and horses.

When there were still ten miles away from Yangping Pass, Li Zhongyi turned over and dismounted, and sat on a big stone on the side of the road.

Zhang Sanzheng brought the water bladder and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, drink saliva." ”

Li Zhongyi took the water bladder, drank a few big sips, wiped the water stains on the corner of his mouth, and said with a smile: "Lao Liao and you, who will command the attack on Yangping Pass?" That's a problem, haha! ”

Zhang Sanzheng was broken by Li Zhongyi's words, he really wanted to continue to lead the army alone, and strive to break through Yangping Pass first.

However, Zhang Sanzheng also understood in his heart that Liao Shanhe was one of the leaders of the six major fronts of the empire and the famous Nanxiang Marquis.

Whether it is qualifications or military exploits, Zhang Sanzheng is slightly inferior to Liao Shanhe, and he cannot be compared at all.

However, on the way to the west, Li Zhongyi repeatedly granted Zhang Sanzheng full authority to command the whole army.

As the saying goes, if people go to high places, who will go to low places!

Once he tasted the great sweetness, it was difficult for Zhang Sanzheng to turn back, and he even dreamed of continuing to command the battle independently.

Li Zhongyi naturally understands Zhang Sanzheng's mind very well, but Zhang Sanzheng's qualifications are really shallow, far less experienced than Liao Shanhe.

Today's imperial court officers and soldiers, with the support of artillery, cocktails and crossbows, the command ability of the generals only needs to remain above the middle class to ensure victory.

That is to say, as long as you are steady and do not fall into an ambush, you can crush any army of the same era.

Li Zhongyi was very sure that in the future when the Northern Expedition came, the Khitans would never dare to fight a large-scale positional battle with the imperial court officials and troops after suffering a big loss, but would fight on the fly and take the opportunity to sneak attack the logistics supply line of the Han army.

After resting for about half an hour or so, the army continued on the road, Li Zhongyi turned over the "small blood killing", and surrounded by the guards, he went straight to Yangping Pass.

In terms of terrain, Yangping Pass is the real key pass between Hanzhong and Shudi, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Yangping Pass was called Yang'an Pass in ancient times, north of Qinling, south of Hanjiang River and Bashan, majestic in the west of Bashu Jinniu Road and north to Qinlong Chencang Pass. It is the western gateway of the Hanzhong Basin, and it is also the northern frontier of Bashu leading to Guanzhong, and the geographical location is very dangerous.

It can be said that the advance can be attacked, the retreat can be defended, and the terrain is extremely dangerous.

Therefore, Guyang Pingguan has been regarded as "the throat of Shu" and "the gateway of Hanzhong" since ancient times, and it has the evaluation of "the most dangerous in Han, as good as Yangping"!

"Your Majesty, Liao Shanhe, please come and greet you." After the sentinel reported the news, Li Zhongyi couldn't help but smile and said, "He's not slow to come." ”

Zhang Sanzheng made a look, and the guards changed a formation, protecting Li Zhongyi more closely in the crowd.

"Chen Liao Shanhe, meet the emperor."

Seeing Li Zhongyi coming on horseback, Liao Shanhe got off his horse early, retreated to the side of the road, and fell to the ground.

"That's it, let's get even." Li Zhongyi looked at Liao Shanhe with a smile and waved his hand to signal that he didn't need to be polite.

Liao Shanhe came over, grabbed the reins of the "Little Blood Kill", and said with a smile: "Thanks to your blessings, the ministers came all the way, and it was extremely easy." ”

Li Zhongyi smiled and asked Liao Shanhe: "Are the Shu army all papery?" ”

"Hehe, run away from the wind!" Liao Shanhe explained in detail, "The training of the Shu army is seriously insufficient, and if it is slightly frightened, it will run away with its head in its arms." ”

Li Zhongyi nodded, objectively speaking, the combat effectiveness of the Shu army is extremely different from that of the Han army.

Moreover, neither morale nor equipment can be compared.

In return, this is also the strategy of Li Zhongyi, Liao Shanhe and Song Yunxiang to attack Shu at the same time in three ways, which has played a good role.

Three-way attack, which makes the Shu army unable to take care of each other, unable to reinforce each other, and it is easy to break through each other.

After the two armies joined forces, the number of Han officers and troops under Yangping Pass had exceeded 40,000.

After setting up camp, Li Zhongyi summoned Liao Shanhe and Zhang Sanzheng, two important generals, in the big tent of the Chinese army.

"Xiaoda, Yangping Pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, how to seize it quickly?" Li Zhongyi asked Liao Shanhe with a smile.

Liao Shanhe arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, in the opinion of your subordinates, the Yang Platform is the key point of Shu, and it is guarded by heavy troops, I am afraid it will be difficult to outwit." Nowadays, our army has more than 50 artillery pieces, more than 100 improvised trebuchets, and cocktails to cheer on. After this battle, the army of pseudo-Shu will be frightened. ”

Li Zhongyi nodded, Liao Shanhe's attitude was very clear, the army marched to Yangping Pass, and the road was smooth sailing, without encountering real twists and turns.

If Yangping Pass is taken by storm, then the Shu army that escapes will definitely spread the news. In this way, the defenders of the Sword Pavilion, whether it is military morale or morale, will be seriously affected.

Of course, because of the dangerous terrain of Yangping Pass, if it is attacked, the casualties of the soldiers will definitely be relatively large.

The question is how many casualties will there be, and this is indeed a big and fatal question.

Zhang Sanzheng saw Li Zhongyi's gaze looking at him, so he arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, in the opinion of the last general, since you have an artifact like artillery in your hand, you must make full use of its advantages. ”

"Your Majesty, please look here," Zhang Sanzheng walked quickly to the side of the military sand table, lifted a thin wooden stick, and pointed to Jigong Mountain on the west side of Yangping Pass, "The minister has carefully calculated that the top of this mountain is only about a hundred zhang away from Yangping Pass. If the artillery and simple trebuchets are placed on the top of Jigong Mountain, then, even if it is a little lower, it does not matter, you only need to adjust the angle to reach the wall of Yangping Pass. ”

Li Zhongyi walked to the side of the military sand table, looked at it carefully for a while, and couldn't help but ask Liao Shanhe with a smile: "Xiaoda, what do you think?" ”

Liao Shanhe touched his head, carefully considered it, and couldn't help sighing: "If you follow the idea of Yungai, the enemy army in Yangping Pass will be difficult to rest day and night. ”

Zhang Sanzheng and Liao Shanhe are old acquaintances, Zhang Sanzheng is a cloud cover, and Liao Shanhe is naturally clear.

Between the mountains, even if there is a difference in altitude, as long as the angle of the artillery is adjusted, after the experiment, it is completely possible to bombard the wall of Yangping Pass day and night.

Not to mention the effect of the bombardment at such a long distance, the effect of harassment alone is not small.

Li Zhongyi looked at Zhang Sanzheng with satisfaction, recently, he has always drilled to the artillery camp, obviously had a deep communication with Li Yongtang, and summed up the use of artillery.

However, according to Li Zhongyi's observation, the wall of Yangping Pass is built extremely thick, and the effect of long-distance artillery bombardment is likely to be good, but if it is said that it is directly broken through the wall, it is obviously unlikely.

Zhang Sanzheng's idea also reminded Li Zhongyi that if he temporarily built some heavy trebuchets and erected them on Jigong Mountain, taking advantage of the characteristics of cocktails that are difficult to extinguish, he could create huge trouble for the Shu army.

In fact, Li Zhongyi insisted on bringing a large number of simple trebuchets before cutting down Shu, just to make full use of the power of cocktails.

Now, with 40,000 strong troops gathered at Yangping Pass, Li Zhongyi can completely adopt the method of building a frontal fortress to attract the attention of the Shu army.

At the same time, on the top of Jigong Mountain, the advantage of the tools of the engineer battalion was used to prepare positions for artillery bombardment, as well as firing positions for giant trebuchets.

Objectively speaking, the weapons mastered by the Han army are different from those of the Shu army.

However, under the specific terrain of Yangping Pass, the use of artillery and cocktails is impossible to stick to the rules.

Relatively speaking, Zhang Sanzheng understands the use of artillery skills, while Liao Shanhe has a greater sense of the overall situation, but he still lacks a deeper understanding of the characteristics of artillery.

Based on this, Li Zhongyi made a decisive decision, he said with a smile: "Xiaoda, the frontal attack will be handed over to you." I'll give you twenty pieces of artillery and try to build the fortification as soon as possible. ”

Just when Zhang Sanzheng was a little lost, Li Zhongyi turned his head to look at him and said with a smile: "Your suggestion is very good, then, I will hand over the important task of occupying the top of Jigong Mountain and arranging the artillery and trebuchet positions." If you bombard the enemy, you'll be a great achievement. ”

When the two generals are competing for merit, there is a difference between frontal and flank attacks, and reasonable competition is obviously necessary.

"Whoa!" Liao Shanhe and Zhang Sanzheng both have a strong sense of crisis, but they are afraid that the other party will take the lead, which will be embarrassing.