Both sides have their own scruples, and they are also afraid of beating wolves with hemp sticks, so Wuguan has changed from a battlefield to a stage, Ma Ning does not go out of the pass, Liu Tichun does not attack the city, and scolds each other across the city all day long.

After Liu Tichun finished breakfast every day, he took the hundred and ten flower-armed men with embroidery tattoos who were picked out from the army, and went to Wuguan to set up a formation with their chests and backs, and asked Ma Ning if he dared to come out and fight him alone.

Ma Ning just laughed it off, he wouldn't be so stupid, he didn't want to be a hero, but he didn't think that he and Liu Tichun were both tricks.

Tianlang had analyzed it with Li Jin before the war, and both of them felt that in this battle, they divided their troops into two ways to attack Shaanxi, and the momentum was not small, but after all, even if Tianlang trained and expanded the army day and night, the time was less than a year, and the Ming army still lacked training.

Such a team, it is best to fight a smooth battle, but Wuguan is a natural danger, it is not easy to capture it, once the first battle is frustrated under the pass, if you want to take Shaanxi in the future, it will be delayed, it will not be smooth, and it is even likely that it will be driven away by the reinforcements of the Qing army when the foothold is not stable.

So the two came up with a strategy: outwit.

But fighting a war is not a singing, and the martial arts are closed, how can you outwit it?

Tianlang and Li Jin asked Liu Tichun to contain and confuse the defenders of Wuguan on land, and Li Jinbu set out from Junzhou along the Han River by water, and went north to the Danjiang River, a tributary of the Han River, and then went all the way up the Danjiang River to the Shangzhou Mansion on the bank of the Danjiang River.

Where is Shangzhou? He was in the north of Wuguan, that is, when Liu Tichun and Ma Ning were scolding and fighting in Wuguan, a Ming army had already appeared behind Ma Ning.

There are only a few hundred soldiers in the Qing court in the Shangzhou Mansion, but Li Jin's command is 5,000 veteran elites, and he is the old foundation of the Dashun army.

When Li Jin arrived in Shangzhou, Shangzhou City did not even close the city gate, and tourists and traders were entering and exiting the city gate.

When Li Jin appeared in the Shangzhou Mansion with a knife, the prefect was so shocked that he didn't even care about wearing shoes, so he fled in a hurry, but although the city was in chaos, his figure of pulling out his legs and running was caught by a group of Jinyi Wei spies who disguised themselves as woodcutters and mixed in the city to inquire about intelligence. A few brocade guards turned the prefect into chopping wood as soon as they took their hands.

Since then, Li Jin has used Shangzhou as a base, and traveled between Junzhou through the Danjiang River, and still did not fight the military pass, but transported soldiers, horses, grain and grass to Shangzhou by water day and night.

You locked the main gate, but the side door forgot to close, what's the point of guarding the martial gate?

But it's like a man and a dog facing each other, you don't be afraid of it when you face its stick, but if you want to run, it will definitely bite and chase you.

After learning that Shangzhou City had fallen, Ma Ning couldn't sit still, he thought that the gods were unaware, planted flags all over the city, and then led most of the people to escape at night, and Liu Tichun outside the city could not see the movement in the city.

But he forgot that there were Jinyiwei's spies in the city, and when he saw Ma Ning fleeing with his troops, Jinyiwei took the opportunity to touch the gate of the city and let Liu Tichun's army in.

After Liu Tichun entered the city, he didn't even stop, leaving some men and horses to defend the city, and took most of the soldiers through the city and began to pursue.

The recruits are easy to fight, although they are still inexperienced, but the newborn calves are not afraid of tigers, Ma Ning did not run far, and found a steaming team behind him.

Liu Tichun caught up with him, he didn't even say hello, he picked up the coiling dragon stick and swept away, and the soldiers behind him also shouted to cover the past.

The whole battle did not even arrive for half an hour, and the 2,000 Han troops of Liaodong under the Han army of Xianghongqijia Lazhangjing Maning were basically annihilated, and the rest fled to the mountain.

This battle could not be fought at all, the back road of the Qing army had been cut off, and if you wanted to escape, you had to go over the mountains and mountains, and the army had no fighting spirit, and it was almost crushed at the first touch.

The two armies of Li Jin of the loyal battalion and Ma Jinzhong of the Eguo State arrived in Shangzhou through the Danjiang waterway and the Wuguan road and land.

Ma Jinzhong then marched north, arriving at the city of Xi'an in early April of the fourth year of the Yongli calendar, and besieged Xi'an, while Li Jin marched to Tongguan seven days later after separating from Ma Jinzhong in Shangzhou.

Ma Jinzhong still chose to besiege Xi'an instead of fighting, he needed to wait for Liu Wenxiu to obtain Hanzhong, especially after Li Jin took Tongguan, before launching a siege of Xi'an.

Although he has a large number of troops, he is not too sure of attacking Xi'an Jiancheng, especially Tianlang sent 200,000 troops to Shaanxi, the purpose is not just a Xi'an city, he wants Liu Wenxiu and Ma Jinzhong to rely on these forces to gain a firm foothold in Shaanxi.

And if you want to gain a firm foothold in Shaanxi, what Tianlang needs most is not Xi'an, but first Tongguan, he wants to occupy the passes from Shaanxi to Shanxi and the Central Plains, and then close the door and live slowly.

In addition, the defender of Xi'an is Meng Qiaofang, the governor of the three sides, who can be described as a general of wisdom and bravery, he was also a Ming army, under the command of Hong Chengchou.

The trilateral governor, as the name suggests, Meng Qiaofang's jurisdiction is not just a city and a place in Xi'an.

In the city of Xi'an, there were 12,000 men of him and his army, and also thousands of cavalry.

Another 10,000 men and horses were stationed in Dongtong Pass, Nanwu Pass, West Dasan Pass, North Xiao Pass, and the Great Wall defense line.

In addition to these forces, 18,000 troops of Li Guohan, Gushan Ezhen, who retreated from Sichuan, were stationed in Hanzhong, which was the target of Liu Wenxiu's attack.

As for Li Guohan, in principle, he can also be controlled by Meng Qiaofang, but his seniority in the Qing court is older than Meng Qiaofang's, and his roots are deeper.

The city defense of the rest of the prefectures and counties in Shaanxi is more ugly, basically made up by a small number of township bravery, which is also the rebel army of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu is too widespread, and the destructive power is too great, so that the governors of the provinces have suffered serious losses, and many areas are now without troops to send.

Ma Jinzhong besieged the city for the time being, and Li Jin, who was leading the army to Tongguan at this time, had endless feelings.

When Li Jin walked all the way from Shangzhou and passed by the incomparably familiar Shangluo Mountain, he couldn't help but think of his uncle and the former Dashun Army and the past of this mountain and Tongguan.

Although Li Jin has been fighting horses for half his life, how can he strip away the common memory between him and his uncle Li Zicheng in his life?

For this battle, Li Jin is the most looking forward to, when walking on this extremely familiar road, he is even more convinced of this, he must take back Tongguan, because Li Zicheng's conquest years, more than half of the battles were fought around Tongguan.

Walking on this road, recalling their past with Tongguan, Li Jin's feet stepped into the land of Huazhou County again, which was already very close to Tongguan, and here, this place called Huazhou County was probably the most authentic proof that he could find his uncle in this world.