When Liang recovered Guanzhong, it not only added the land of Kyushu and more than 2 million Dingkou, but also further captured more than 70,000 prisoners of war who could expand the number of soldiers and horses, and the national strength of the Liang army was further greatly increased.

Chu Guo's feelings about this may not be so strong.

After all, the war of the Chu army in Fujian also successfully came to an end in late June, Gu Zhilong and Huang Zhi joined forces in Jianzhou Mansion, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, escorted the Fujian King and his family of tens of thousands of generals, and also embarked on the road to Jinling.

However, the feelings in the hearts of the monarchs and ministers of Shu were completely different.

The recovery of Guanzhong is for the Liang State to completely remove the threat of the western flank, and it can rest assured and boldly shift the strategic focus to the north and east, but the Liang army can also not rush to attack the Mongolian army in the north and the Eastern Liang army in the east, and shift the strategic focus to the south, first annex Shudi, and connect with Xuzhou, the enclave that Han Qian has operated for the longest time.

In fact, Gu Qian, Zhu Juezhong and others in the DPRK even advocated the use of troops against Shu first, and the conditions were permitted.

At this time, the combat effectiveness of the Shu army was not taken into account by the generals of the Great Liang at all, and the use of Wang Xiaoxian, Zhao Mengji's surrender and the subordinate army as the vanguard of attacking Shu could even take advantage of their eagerness to return to their hometown, and they could play an unexpected effect.

The soldiers and horses of the Great Liang attacked Shu at this time, not only the offensive channel was smooth, but they also did not have to worry much about being interfered by the Mongolian army, the Eastern Liang army or the Chu army.

After the annexation of Shu, it will be connected with Xuzhou, not only will the national strength further rise sharply, but also the Chu army, the Eastern Liang army and the Mongolian army will have a strategic advantage in the terrain.

The monarchs and ministers of Shu were also worried that the Liang army was covetous, and they were worried that the cold attitude towards Qiao Zhiyong and Wang Ji's envoys would become an excuse for the Liang army to send troops to Shu.

Cao Gan's envoy to Luoyang, in addition to explaining his previous indifferent attitude, was also to spy on the reality of Luoyang, and to test whether Han Qian and the monarchs and ministers of Liang had coveted Shu.

Cao Gan set out from Chengdu Mansion, traveled all the way north, crossed the Han River, crossed the Qinling Mountains on the Fu Luo Road, and entered Guanzhong, which had just been recovered by the Liang State for less than two months.

He stayed in Yongzhou City for two days, met with Jing Zhen, Xi Xunqiao, Han Chengmeng and other core figures of the new Yongzhou Province, and then took a boat to the tomb to meet Feng Yi, and learned that Han Qian was inspecting Mengzhou, so he chased all the way to Mengzhou.

At this time, taking a carriage and going north along the west bank of the Nanguan River, Cao Gan's mood was mixed, and the past was vivid.

In the sixteenth year of Tianyou, Han Qian, as the envoy of the Great Chu, went to Shu, Cao Gan met Han Qian at that time, and then the two sides were mostly cooperative:

Including their foothold in Yuzhou, the purchase of sophisticated warships and weapons from Xuzhou to attack the Banan region, and even secretly inducing the generals of the Zuoqingjiang army's lineage Wang Hongyi's family to send troops to Wuchuan, so that Han Qian had the opportunity to recruit Ansizhou's rebellious soldiers, and they also took the opportunity to kick out the descendants of the prince Wang Hongyi from the Zuoqingjiang army, and then Han Qian helped them seize the throne, and they jointly forced Chu Ting to choose Liang and Chu to negotiate peace......

Now that Liang and Shu have entered the most critical crossroads, Cao Gan doesn't know what will happen next, but he will not be naïve enough to think that the old friendship in the past can really maintain something.

It was really unfortunate that when Feng Yi accompanied Cao Gan to the construction site of the Nanguanhe Bridge, suddenly dark clouds rolled in four rolls, and a burst of rain fell suddenly.

Han Qian was not formal, and directly used the camp tent at the construction site to meet Cao Gan.

The imperial camp was surrounded by more than a dozen accompanying chariots, and some of the imperial guards sheltered from the rain in the vehicles, but there were also 200 imperial guards standing directly in the rain to form a defensive formation to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the rain to cause chaos.

Watching the heavy rain pouring down, these guards were as if they were cast of iron and stone, revealing a chilling majesty.

Cao Gan's carriage and entourage could only stop outside the car array, and Feng Yi accompanied Cao Gan and the two deputy envoys of Shu State, holding oil-paper umbrellas, and walked towards the big tent.

Cao Gan's envoys came all the way, Liangzhou Mansion had just passed the most difficult period, the Guanzhong area had just ended the war, the military garrison had just been lifted from Huatong to Xingyang, and Mengzhou was still in the war zone, and all along the road were broken.

Except for the priority construction of roads and bridges in these places, other construction has not been carried out much, and there is no prosperity in sight.

However, the generals of the Liang army seen along the road are all neat and brave; Even if he is assigned to the patrol department to be responsible for local security, he is also capable and brave, giving people a completely different feeling, which is far beyond the reach of the Shu army.

"I haven't seen the old man for many years, and when I first came to Mengzhou, I don't have to be formal."

Seeing Cao Gan enter the tent, Han Qian stepped forward, welcomed him to the back of the long case and sat down, and then introduced the Liang generals in the tent to him.

Zhou Daoyuan and Shen Peng are all former officials of the Liang Army, Guo Rong, Han Donghu, Wang Zhe, He Liufeng, Lin Jiang, Xue Chuan, Huo Li and other generals of the Tangyi Army, An Jixiang can be said to be the widow of the Late Red Mansion, in addition to Zhao Mengji's son Zhao Shuo, and the general He Xu.

Seeing Li Zhihe and Li Zhi's father and son, Cao Gan's mood was even more complicated, the monarchs and ministers of Shu once hoped that Li Zhihe and Chai Jianneng would actually divide the two states of Liang and Jin, thinking that it was a buffer between Liang and Chu, who would have thought that Shu had not had time to make any moves in secret, Chai Jian was transferred to Longyou as the envoy of Qinzhou Mansion, and Li Zhihe entered the center of Liang and served as the left counselor of the General Staff.

From this small tent, he could see that the Great Liang generals were a hodgepodge, but it was precisely under Han Qian's leadership that they condensed into the strongest force in the world.

Zhao Mengji was transferred to Hedong as an envoy, and Han Qian did not temporarily summon him to Mengzhou to meet Cao Gan's old man.

However, Zhao Shuo and He Xu, Cao Gan had met before, and at this time, they belonged to Liang Shu and sat down on the case, which made Cao Gan feel emotional.

Han Qian was even casual, with the enthusiasm of seeing old people, but Cao Gan still remembered the identity of the Shu envoy, handed over the letter of state, congratulated the Liang army on its successive victories, and did not forget to pay attention to the fact that so many elite soldiers and horses were stationed in Mengzhou and the progress of the Mongolian army in southern Jin.

"Listen to you, I originally stayed in Luoyang to see you, after all, the conditions here are too simple, not a way of hospitality, but Zhao Shuo and He Xu's two soldiers and horses are fighting in Wanzi City, Hu Lu resists very resolutely, and I don't know when I can fight down, I ......am a little relieved" Han Qian didn't care about introducing the progress of Mengzhou's work to Cao Gan, as if he was really worried about the slow progress of the war here, so he came to Mengzhou to inspect the war situation.

At the beginning of the annexation, Zhao Mengji still wanted to master the military power, even if the original soldiers and horses were reduced to 10,000 elite soldiers, but in addition to his son Zhao Shuo and the descendant general He Xu, who served as the brigade envoy and directly commanded the elite soldiers of the two brigades, the middle-level generals and grass-roots military attachés were all Shu people.

After recovering Guanzhong, Zhao Mengji completely realized that his surrender did not play a key role, and realized how much of a disadvantage the Mongolian army was after the balance of power between Liang and Mengxi was reversed, and he didn't want to arouse suspicion anymore, so he directly took the initiative to resign from the Mengzhou Prefecture and the Mengzhou Camp Army Commander, Commander and Envoy, and asked the General Staff Office to send generals to carry out a more thorough reorganization of the Mengzhou Army.

Han Qian transferred Zhao Mengji to serve as the envoy of Hedong, but for the time being, he continued to use Zhao Shuo and He Xu as brigade generals, and only transferred a group of trainees from the Military Academy to strengthen the soldiers and horses of the two brigades integrated into the second central camp.

The reorganization of the Shu soldiers of these two brigades is still a short time, and a number of sophisticated combat weapons have just been incorporated into the army, and they are not yet familiar with the drills, but the launch of the war is not waiting for anyone.

At present, Han Donghu made He Liufeng, the deputy commander of the deputy capital, sit in Qinyang, use elite soldiers and horses to build a hard village in front of the enemy's pass, and then take turns to transfer the Shu soldiers of Zhao Shuo and He Xu to the front, operate the combat equipment, bombard the enemy village, and use actual combat to strengthen the run-in between the dispatched military attachés and the soldiers, but there is no need to worry about what casualties will be suffered.

The main attack on Jinnan involves the coordination of troops and horses on both sides, at least until Kong Xirong and Li Xiuhui take Yangcheng to the west of Jincheng, the second central marching army will not alone attack the enemy army that is blocking many passes in Taihang.

In that case, it will be difficult to control the casualties.

"After the rain stops, I plan to go to Qinyang, and you can also go to Qinyang with me - many Sichuan and Shu veterans have been living in foreign lands for many years, and they must be extremely touched when they see people from their homeland." Han Qian invited Cao Gan to go with him to the front line to inspect the military situation.

Of course, Cao Gan would not refuse, and he didn't know whether Han Qian was really anxious that the war on his side was not going well, or if he intended to show him the might of the Liang army.

The rain was menacing, but it stopped quickly.

A heavy rain, the weather is not so severe, the two of them are riding together along the Nanguan River to the north, the peaks and ridges at the southern foot of Taihang Mountain, presented under the blue sky and blue sky.

Qinyang was originally Hanoi County, Huaizhou Prefecture, Liang Jin did not know how many wars had occurred here in the past few decades, Huaizhou Prefecture moved eastward, Qinyang became a pure military town.

Zhao Mengji's attachment made Qinyang City completely included in the territory of Daliang.

With Qinyang City as the core, the soldiers and horses currently deployed at the south entrance of Taihang are mainly He Liufeng, Zhao Shuo, and He Xu, and the other troops have not been in a hurry to be transferred.

Han Qian went to Qinyang City to see the army, which was already the limit that the accompanying generals could bear, and he also wanted to go to the vicinity of the enemy's village Wanzi City to watch the enemy's situation, Han Donghu and other Mengzhou generals and Zhou Daoyuan, Guo Rong, Wang Zhe and other accompanying generals were strongly opposed, and he could only give up.

In fact, Qinyang City is only seven or eight miles away from the frontline battlefield, and the weather is fine, and you can clearly observe the situation of the enemy and us on the battlefield with a bronze telescope.

Han Qian was pressed by everyone in the safer city of Qinyang, but Han Donghu invited Cao Gan to go to the front line with them to visit the Shu soldiers who had become a Liang soldier who had become a soldier in a foreign land at this time, and Cao Gan readily agreed.

The bowl city is built on a low ridge at the south entrance of Taihang Cheng, the city wall is only 300 steps square, leaning on the entrance of Taihang Cheng, the communication with Zezhou in the north of the mountain is cut off, and the other three sides are quite steep slopes, it is indeed a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The roots of many Shu soldiers and veterans are not here, and military merits do not have much significance to a certain extent, so it is difficult to expect them to charge into the mountain without hesitation of casualties under such inferior terrain, but the current attack on the enemy village mainly uses a large number of obstacles and dry trenches and fence walls, at the foot of the low slope mountain, the enemy army out of the bowl city along the ramp to fight back along the channel to block - the trench can also effectively block the bowl city condescendingly throwing down the stone and wood, and then take advantage of the advantage of the weapon, close to the back of the enemy's walled wall, Perform an onslaught.

The Liang army will not be in a hurry to annex the city and seize the fortress for the time being, which is a conservative method of warfare that slowly bleeds the enemy.

The enemy generals did not dare to stand at the head of the city easily at this time, but fortunately, the range of the whirlwind cannon attack was limited, and it could not pose a threat to the interior of Wanzi City, but it could not restrict the Liang army from bypassing Wanzi City, from the steep slope on the east side, and re-opening a trail, interspersed with the Taihang Pass behind Wanzi City.

The southern slope of the mountain is quite steep, and it is naturally difficult to reopen a three- or four-mile winding mountain path, but fortunately, the current time is on the side of the girder, and there is enough time to play this kind of water mill.

Cao Gan is also a person who knows soldiers.

In the face of the Liang army's actions, the Mongolian army appeared extremely passive, and he couldn't help but wonder, is the Mongolian army powerless or dare not easily send troops and horses out of the southern entrance of Taihang to fight the Liang army, or is it that the Mongolian army intends to use a small number of soldiers and horses to borrow the dangerous terrain of Taihang Cheng, and delay the Liang army going north from Mengzhou, so that they can concentrate their forces on the west flank of Zezhou and first fight a decisive battle with the Liang army advancing east from the southern foot of Taiyue Mountain?

When Cao Gan first arrived, of course he couldn't guess the thoughts of the Mongolian army, but the Liang army only had 30,000 elites in Mengzhou, while the Eastern Liang army had 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers and horses in Bianliang and Wuzhi on the south bank, but he didn't even have the posture of crossing the river and fighting, he saw it all in his eyes.

Xu Mingzhen and Sima Tan each had their own thoughts, Liang Shixiong and the last Wei Bo elite soldiers were surrounded and annihilated in Xingyang City, and Zhu Rang and Liang Ren and others could no longer pose any threat to the Liang army.

This is a fact that Cao Gan is unwilling to bear but has to accept.

Accompanied by Han Donghu, Feng Yi, Zhao Shuo, He Xu and others, Cao Gan walked around the forward camp, and then went to Qinyang City after dark.

"Since the Lord of Shu is unwilling to accept the soldiers who have been exiled to return to Shu, can you bring their families to Mengzhou, and after Lord Cao returns to Chengdu Mansion, he will have a few good words with the Lord of Shu!" Han Donghu accompanied Cao Gan to ride the horse side by side, and said with a smile.

Han Qian met Cao Gan in Mengzhou, and he had no intention of changing the relationship between Liang and Shu for the time being, and he mainly wanted to promote as many Shu generals as possible to take over the family in order to stabilize people's hearts.

Han Donghu, Feng Yi and other generals also tried their best to persuade Cao Gan to return to Shu to help talk.

Cao Gan would not promise anything in addition to the regular envoys, and he only dealt with Han Donghu's words a few words.

The conditions in the army are simple, and the night banquet is quite simple, in addition to roast venison, vegetables, and wheat cakes, only Cao Gan and his entourage have a wine jug in front of the desk, Han Qian said very apologetically: "I am in the army, I have to abide by military discipline, I can't accompany the guests to drink, I can only wait until I return to Luoyang, and then enjoy myself with the guests." ”

Seeing that Han Donghu and the others were enjoying the current humble food, Cao Gan thought to himself that the top leaders of the Liang army could adhere to a simple life, which would boost morale more than anything else.

After the night banquet, Han Qian arranged Cao Gan and his entourage to live in a single courtyard, he didn't have to rest, in addition to Li Zhihe, Wang Zhe, Guo Rong and others, Han Donghu also asked He Liufeng, Zhao Shuo, He Xu, Li Zhi, the battalion-level military attachés of the forward camp were all summoned and held a meeting.

"Cao Gan is here, to put it bluntly, it is to explore the reality of my Great Liang, of course, there is nothing to test the virtual reality of Great Liang, he may be more concerned about whether the 60,000 Shu soldiers can really be used by my Great Liang," Han Qian looked at He Xuan and other Shu generals with blazing eyes, and said, "I will stay with Cao Gan in Qinyang for another two or three days, let him see how you attack the enemy village, and you should also know in your hearts that the stronger the will to fight you show, the closer the day of your reunion with your family will be......"

Han Qian had no intention of adjusting his strategic direction until the threat of the Muguls was completely resolved, but how to motivate the morale of the soldiers who had returned to Shu was a headache for everyone.

Thinking of taking over their family from Shudi, the lord of Shu, Wang Yong, did not let go, and it was difficult for Han Qian to adopt any tougher measures and postures.

The families of Zhao Mengji and Zhao Shuo's father and son were detained in Jinling at this time, but in the face of Han Qian's gaze, He Xuan and Shu were eager to put their minds into it.

After Zhao Mengji's surrender, Han Qian followed the military academy's training of the generals who surrendered to Shu, mainly to tend to understand the situation, so as to strengthen their sense of recognition of the Great Liang, and the middle and senior generals above the battalion commander could actually realize that Cao Gan's envoy was a weak heart of the monarchs and ministers of the Shu State.

Whether the soldiers who returned to Shu can show real strong combat effectiveness and whether they can really touch Cao Gan and his entourage will have a direct and far-reaching impact on the subsequent negotiations between Liang and Shu.

If the soldiers and horses of the Great Liang really want to annex Shu in the future, the soldiers from other places will inevitably have too much discomfort after entering Shu, which will seriously suppress the play of combat effectiveness, prolong the war, and greatly weaken the morale of the generals.

This is a prerequisite for the military masters of all dynasties and dynasties to solve it well, but it must be solved well in order to achieve military victory.

Like Zheng Hui led his troops into Lingnan to fight for so many years before finally capturing Xingwangfu, in fact, it cannot be said that Zheng Hui was not an outstanding general in the world, in fact, for many years, how many generals have folded on the way to fight in other places.

If Daliang really wants to annex Shu one day, it is natural to use the attached Shu soldiers as the forerunner, which is the most convenient.

Therefore, the stronger the combat effectiveness of the Shu soldiers in front of Cao Gan, the deeper the threat will be felt by Cao Gan and other Shu envoys.

This will also directly prompt the monarchs and ministers of Shu to soften their attitudes on the issue of sending them to Shu to join the small family, and even in the future, they will not be able to solve the fundamental problems of Liang and Shu in a more conciliatory way.

There were no outsiders in the yatang, so Han Qian explained these truths thoroughly to the attached Shu generals, and also hoped that they would convey some of them to the grassroots military attachés, hoping that the attached Shu soldiers would have a good performance during the short time he invited Cao Gan to stay in Qinyang.

…………

…………

Cao Gan did not know that Han Qian had summoned all the middle and high-ranking generals and military attaches attached to the Shu army for mobilization at night, and from the current military deployment, he could not see how long the Liang army planned to take to conquer Jinnan.

The next day, he went into the big tent to meet Han Qian, and discussed the business and trade affairs between the two countries in the afternoon.

At the beginning of Wang Yong's usurpation, a large number of materials from Tangyi and Xuzhou were imported cheaply, and the taxes were concentrated in Wang Yong's hands, including the Xuzhou Official Money Bureau lent more than 2 million yuan to purchase Xuzhou's armor and weapons, which played a vital role in Wang Yong's control of the situation in Shu.

However, after Wang Yong completely mastered the land of Shu, after comprehensively balancing the national treasury and the local financial revenue, he found that a large number of cheap cotton cloth, ironware, paper, tea and medicine and other commercial goods poured into Shu, which greatly hit the local weaving, shipbuilding, smelting, casting, papermaking and other industries in Shu.

In particular, Shu brocade weaving, iron smelting, and well salt are the largest sources of income in Shu in addition to field taxes, which have decreased sharply in recent years.

Cao Gan would not say anything about raising taxes or restricting the scale of commercial goods transported by Liang State, but he hoped that Liang State would increase the selling price of imported goods, so that the weaving, iron control and well salt in Shu could take a breather.

He always felt that this should not be an issue that would embarrass both parties.

"Merchants and peddlers go all over the world, pay taxes and taxes, and the convenience of the land should be convenient, even for the sake of the people's livelihood, they should also be restricted from profiteering, hoarding and hoarding to make huge profits, and where is the reason to force them to increase the price, afraid that they will not make enough money?" Han Qian snorted and said, "If I really give such an edict, won't the subjects of Daliang think that I am a confused and dumb king?" ”

Han Qian also deceived Cao Gan and the monarchs and ministers of Shu who may not have explained the reason for dumping, so he pretended to be confused and threw the problem back to Cao Gan.

Cao Gan is a very pragmatic person, but he is by Wang Yong's side, mainly taking care of military affairs, and he can't think of any powerful words to refute Han Qian, and he is really panicked.

Han Qian didn't have to make things difficult for Cao Gan, and immediately comforted him with words: "Shu weaving and iron smelting are not prosperous, and it consumes too much manpower and material resources, as Liang Jun, I can't make too many demands on Liang Shangjia, but if Shu wants to cause weaving and iron control, I can promote ......."

Cao Gan thought that this would not lose a solution, and hurriedly thanked him.

Han Qian came forward, but only to reminisce about the past, or put forward some programmatic suggestions, specifically involving the border garrisons of the two countries, commerce and trade, and even the exchange of envoys, all of which were led by Feng Yi, and officials from the various academies were sent to negotiate many details, and in the afternoon, Han Donghu and Feng Yi accompanied Cao Gan to the forward camp to watch the soldiers and horses attacking Bowl City.

Compared with yesterday's slow order, after the main military attachés of the battalions returned to the camp last night, they mobilized this morning, and the attack on Wanzi City suddenly became fierce in the afternoon, no longer purely using equipment to smash the enemy village on the periphery even if it was to complete the day's combat mission, but a group of men and horses came out from behind the fence, raised their big shields, held bows and crossbows, and struggled to gather siege vehicles and ladder vehicles, and attacked up along the steep hillside.

The enemy did not realize that the Liang army would launch a fierce attack at this time, and there was not much preparation for the broken city wall to roll the wood and stone fire, and even when the Shu soldiers attached to the city to attack, most of the defenders hid under the city to avoid the bombardment of the whirlwind cannons.

He Liufeng ordered to open a mountain along the steep slope on the east side of Wanzi City, and currently wanted to bypass Wanzi City and insert it into the Taihang Chengnankou Pass behind Wanzi City, so as to cut off the connection between the enemy army inside the Taihang Pass and Wanzi City.

He Liufeng ordered the soldiers to put more than 100 spring arm crossbows with a range of more than 400 steps, and put them on the ridge on the east side of the bowl city to suppress the defenders on the east wall of the bowl city, so that the Shu soldiers led by He Xu could occupy the south city wall and resist the defenders' counterattack from the east city wall and the city through the two boarding roads.

The defenders were unable to counterattack, and more and more Shu soldiers attached to the wall climbed to the top of the city, until they completely gained a foothold on the city wall, and began to follow the road to the city, or set up the ladder to the inner side of the city wall, and attacked the interior of the bowl city.

Cao Gan originally thought that the soldiers who belonged to Shu had no roots in the Liang State, and there would not be a few people desperately to charge into battle, but when he saw this scene, his face turned pale for a while......