Regardless of whether Tian Weiye, Zhao Mengji and other enemy generals have seen through the intentions here, and regardless of whether Tian Weiye and Zhao Mengji strengthened the defense of Pu and Jin prefectures on the north side of Xiangshan after the winter, and then strengthened the attack on Xiangshan, and even preemptively built additional anti-blockade strongholds in some vacant places, such as relatively open valleys and flat slopes, they could not restrict the Liang army from continuously sending elite soldiers and horses to the north bank after the winter, and dispersed into the mountains and dense forests to carry out infiltration operations.

At first, Wen Bo mainly sent a small group of elite scouts and horses from the eastern foothills of Pishan to infiltrate the north bank, and after entering mid to late October, Chen Kun's garrisons in Hujiao Pass and Mengjin successively increased their efforts to infiltrate the mountains on the north bank, find a foothold, and build strongholds.

The reason for such a gradient arrangement is that the Yu River is not frozen in the early stage, and the Mongolian army and naval division still occupy an absolute advantage on the Yu River for the time being, and it is still difficult to ensure the sufficient material supply needs of the soldiers and horses crossing the river in the early stage.

The two phases of the Heluo battle successfully repelled the enemy, and the generals and fields were also closed, and the morale of the generals was raised, and the combat effectiveness was guaranteed, but the generals who entered Xiangshan for infiltration operations could not provide sufficient material support, and there was no way to grow their momentum.

At the same time, it was necessary to conduct further reconnaissance and survey of the complex terrain of Lishan, Zhongtiao Mountain, and Wangwu Mountain in the early stage, and finally decided to focus the infiltration operation on Lishan (the eastern section of Xiangshan) and Wangwushan (the branch of Xiangshan), where the terrain on the northern slope is more steep and the mountains in the north and south are more wide.

There is another factor, that is, the soldiers and horses stationed in the eastern section of Pishan, from the grassroots military attachés to the low-level soldiers, most of them are Tangyi veterans, and they have a very strong ability to fight independently with sentinels and even dismantled into smaller units.

The soldiers and horses that were included in the Jingzhao garrison and stationed in Mengjin, as well as the two infantry brigades with Chen Kun as the main general and stationed at the Tiger Prison Pass, accommodated a large number of generals of the old Liang army in the middle and bottom.

The grass-roots military attachés of these units, even after three or four months of surprise training, cannot be compared with the elite military attachés who have repeatedly undergone various trainings at the grass-roots level of the Tangyi Army, and their ability to carry out independent operations from time to time with sentinels as a unit is still much weaker, and it takes a longer time to adapt to the infiltration operations that persist in infiltrating operations in Lishan and Wangwushan.

Infiltrating Lishan and Wangwu Mountain, in addition to fighting against the Mongol army who entered the mountains to clear and suppress, they also had to face the mountain villagers who lived in the mountains and formed a certain hostility and even hatred towards the Liang State in their hearts because the Liang and Jin countries had been fighting in this area for thirty or forty years, as well as local village forces.

It sets stricter demands on how to divide and win over these people, how to mobilize them to become a force to jointly resist the Mughuls, and how to set stricter demands on the military attachés at the grass-roots level of the team leader.

The western section of Xiangshan is more narrow and long, and the villagers and villages in the mountains have fewer forces; The north-south mountains of Lishan and Wangwu Mountain in the eastern section are strong, and there are many wide valleys and streams in the mountains, and the villages in the mountains are relatively dense.

Dealing with these cottages becomes more complicated, and it will take a while for the generals to become familiar with the customs of Jindi.

In the early stage, more than a dozen people, twenty or thirty people went through the mountains and drilled into the forest, and the Mongolian army who went into the mountains to clear and exterminate played hide and seek, and even many soldiers and horses could not gain a foothold, many generals were killed or wounded or captured, and many generals were forced to retreat to the south bank, but after further familiarizing themselves with the terrain, small groups of men and horses gathered to form a combat force of dozens or even two or three hundred people, looking for a relatively stable foothold in the mountains, or building a stronghold.

During this period, Chen Yuanchen and other middle and senior generals who participated in the rotational combat troops also traveled back and forth to both sides of the Yu River many times, personally visiting the front line to command the construction of strongholds and the anti-clearance operations in the mountains.

The elite cavalry of the Mongolian army could not enter the rugged and narrow mountains to fight, and Zhao Mengji's generals were all Shu soldiers who were forced to leave their homeland and could not return to Shu.

During the second phase of the war in Heluo, nearly 40,000 Shu soldiers from Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing were transferred to the south bank of the Yiluo River, and they defended the camp, or fought in formation with the elite cavalry of the Mongolian army covering the flank, and they could still exert a certain combat effectiveness, but even if Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing forcibly captured more than 30,000 women from Heshuo, Hedong and other prefectures and counties for marriage and mating, and transformed them into Mengzhou soldiers, at this time, they were separated into one or two hundred, three or five hundred people, and entered Wangwu Mountain and Lishan to fight, but it was difficult to overcome the low morale.

The small group of men and horses who entered the eastern and southern foothills of Wangwu Mountain, even if their number was much lower than that of Zhao Mengji's troops when they encountered narrow terrain, could often defeat these Shu soldiers.

The combat effectiveness of Tian Weiye's generals is stronger, but with two to three times the number of men and horses, in the steep mountains, they can only fight a tie with the infiltration soldiers and horses of the Liang army.

Of course, in order to prevent the generals from being eager to fight, Han Qian ordered several times, requiring infiltrators to take advantage of dangerous and complex terrain to fight with the enemy, strictly prohibit wave battles, strictly prohibit war of attrition, avoid unnecessary casualties, and be sure to base themselves on the early stage.

By the time of entering Taihe for three years, more than 10,000 elite men and horses had entered Lishan, Wangwu Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain in the western section from the south bank to carry out infiltration operations, occupying the existing cottages before the enemy army and selecting dangerous terrain and building new cottages based on local and simple materials, and establishing a total of 17 mountain gorge strongholds.

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The Liangzhou army also embarked on the course of the western expedition during this period.

Through the west wing of Liangzhou Luoyang County, along the west source of the Jialing River rhinoceros river, you can reach Chengzhou between Qin and Wuzhou.

The rhinoceros river is dangerous, the reef is staggered, it is not conducive to boats, but there is an extremely dangerous ancient road on the north bank, it is also a dangerous road for the soldiers and horses of Longyou to attack Hanzhong and Sichuan and Shu in the early years, and the Shu army in the late Han Dynasty has taken this road many times to enter Qishan.

Niuji Station has been in disrepair for a long time, and even in the hands of Wang Jian, the lord of Shu, he has not been able to spend great efforts to repair it; At that time, Wang Jian was mainly worried that after repairing this road, it would become a passage for the Liang army to attack Hanzhong from Longyou.

Feng Yi, Lu Ze and others rushed to Liangzhou in late November, but the transportation of armor, crossbows and other ordnance materials was only partially assembled in Liangzhou Chuyang County because of the dangerous roads.

At the same time, it is very dangerous to enter the Niuji Road in the west, and a team of soldiers and horses is needed to open the way, and Li Zhihe is worried that the situation in Longyou will change at any time, and he will not be able to wait until he is fully prepared to send troops.

In addition to Chai Jianzhen guarding Jinzhou, at the end of November, Li Zhihe sent Zhou Tong and Hao Zixia to temporarily take charge of Liangzhou's military and political affairs, and Deng Tai, as the chief general of the rear army of the Western Expeditionary Army, led the main force of the rear army and heavy grain and straw with Feng Yi, Lu Ze and others, and he personally led 2,000 forward soldiers and horses, and Zhang Song and other generals advanced westward.

They walked for more than 20 days until late December.

The generals all wore light armor, but the rhinoceros road was in disrepair more than they imagined, and at this time, the armor on the general's body was very damaged, and they looked ragged, like a large group of people called flowers.

Chengzhou governs Tonggu, Changdao, Shanglu, governs Shanglu County, from the second year of Baoying to the thirteenth year of Xiantong, all more than 150 years are occupied by Tubo, until the Zhaozong period of the previous dynasty was nominally attached to the previous dynasty.

The 2,000 Liangzhou army marched into the territory of Chengzhou exhausted, and as long as they crossed the last section of the valley called Niuwei Gorge, which was sandwiched between the mountains and the turbulent stream, they could enter the Shanglu Valley of Chengzhou, where the terrain was relatively gentle, but at this time, there was a cavalry in front of the canyon to block their last westward advance.

Seeing that the cavalry under the pressure of black were all armed with bows and spears, the number was no less than 1,000, and Zhang Song, who personally led a sentry to explore the way in the front, felt that his scalp was faintly numb when he saw this scene.

Zhang Song carefully discerned the appearance of the cavalry in the distance, most of them were Qiang people, but he didn't expect that just ten days ago, they sent scouts to find out the news and confirmed that the Qiang tribes in Chengzhou were still divided, and at this time, they all joined forces to block their way?

If the 2,000 infantry armor behind him had been fully rested, he might still be able to fight, but they walked here exhausted, and the enemy army was stuck in front of the canyon with leisure, how could this battle be fought?

"Looking at the situation in front of us, it must be that we have opened up the mountains all the way, and there has been too much delay on the way, so that the forces of Chengzhou have been united during this time, of course, maybe the Mughurs or Wang Xiaoxian have sent people to Chengzhou - we are now this little man, I'm afraid we can't enter Chengzhou," Zhang Song led people back, stopped at Li Zhihe's side, and suggested, "Why don't we retreat to the east pass first, and wait for the reinforcements in the rear to come with big shields and crossbows, and then march west?" ”

They led a large army from Weiyang to the west of Luoyang on the bank of the Jialing River, and then led 2,000 forward soldiers and horses to take the dangerous road first, and the road was narrow, and there were not even a few horses.

In addition to the necessary supplies, the soldiers were all lightly armed, mainly armed with spears and crossbows and light leather armor.

At present, they are in a position where the post road is more than 100 steps north of the skyscraper cliff, which is not conducive to the terrain of the enemy's roundabout attack, but the rhinoceros river on the south side is extremely shallow at this time, and the exposed large river beach is connected with the post road with a gentle slope, about three or four hundred steps wide.

At this time, in addition to blocking their way, the enemy cavalry can also attack their flanks from the river beach.

Fighting on such terrain, Zhang Song was very worried that the two thousand soldiers behind them who were loosely formed and tired of men and horses would not be able to stop the enemy cavalry from attacking several times.

Zhang Song didn't feel that this was the time to engage in a hasty battle, and advocated retreating to a dangerous pass more than ten miles away that was more conducive to their defense, and waiting for Deng Tai and Feng Yi to lead the main force of the rear army to come over before making plans.

"When we meet on a narrow road, the brave wins, and the enemy's fighting spirit is not strong, and this battle can be won." Li Zhihe shook his head and did not take Zhang Song's suggestion.

Even if they wait for ten days and half a month, and wait for the main force of the rear army to come, the narrow terrain near Niuji Station is not enough for them to give full play to their superior strength of five or six thousand, and if the time drags on, it may promote more tribal forces in the vicinity to unite more closely, and they will be more prepared to resist their westward advance.

Another point is what Zhang Song said, if the Mughurs or Wang Xiaoxian had already sent people into Chengzhou to win over the forces of various tribes, and only then would there be thousands of soldiers and horses united to intercept their westward advance, and the problem would be more troublesome if the time was delayed for a long time.

The tribes of Chengzhou who had thrown themselves into the Mengwu were most likely to ask Wang Xiaoxian for reinforcements when they saw that their troops and horses were increasing day by day in the west. At present, Wang Xiaoxian has 4,000 troops stationed in Tianshui City, which is less than 200 miles away from Shanglu County in Chengzhou.

The climate between Qinmin is warmer and drier, and they have not encountered rain and snow all the way, but it does not mean that there will be no rain and snow to block the post road in the next ten days and half a month.

Since the defeat of Xiangbei, the generals have been disheartened, although they have been recuperated for half a year after being attached to the Great Liang, but the recuperation is the weak body of the generals, and the morale of the army is actually quite low. At this time, it is okay to choose to retreat temporarily, but if you are afraid and retreat without a fight, will it further damage the low morale and morale of the military?

Now thousands of cavalry are intercepting in front of the canyon, but seeing that their armor and uniforms are mixed, and the cavalry is quite scattered among the teams, it can be seen that even if the Mughal people or Wang Xiaoxian have sent people into Chengzhou to unite the local forces, it should be quite hasty; As a result, this cavalry currently occupies the convenience of the terrain on the flanks, but there is no sign of an immediate offensive.

Li Zhihe decided to fight and decided to fight now.

The generals had already rested and hastily eaten some dry food, even if they were still so tired, Li Zhihe knew a lot about the generals who had followed him for many years, and knew that they should still be able to hold on to the battle.

The forward 2,000 soldiers and horses could not be fully deployed, Li Zhihe deployed the front, middle and rear armies, and first led more than 300 people by Zhang Song himself, and advanced forward along the river beach in front of the side to prevent the enemy cavalry from bypassing the river beach and attacking their flank, while he personally led 500 armor soldiers, with sword and shield hands in front, heavy crossbowmen in hand, spears and halberds mixed in the middle, and advanced head-on to the enemy cavalry.

The cavalry of the various tribes of Chengzhou united and stuffed in front of the canyon, and the original intention was to call the enemy to retreat knowing the difficulty, but the soldiers and horses of the Liangzhou army, who did not want to advance westward, were all sleepy at this time, but they didn't even have the intention of stopping and resting, and they took the lead in attacking at the first time.

Even though the cavalry of the tribes was a little flustered, they were still urged by Hou Mo, the assassin of Chengzhou, and the tribes hurriedly sent 300 cavalry to cooperate with Hou Mo's more than 100 personal cavalry to meet them.

Chengzhou is close to Longshan, only a stone's throw away from the Fengxiang Jiedu Embassy in the west wing of Guanzhong, but for more than 100 years of Tubo rule, the nomadic wind has risen again, all tribes are good at riding and shooting, and there are many elites who can shoot strong bows on horseback.

The first team of enemy cavalry were all archers, and at a distance of one hundred and forty or fifty paces, they opened their bows and arrows one after another—the hard bow of Takaki was more than five feet long, and the elite archers who were not very powerful could not sit on horseback and shoot with their bows, and the messy rain of arrows seemed to be a sharp wind whistling.

Even if the Liangzhou army held a shield in the front, it was a small shield, which could only cover the face, chest and abdomen, and the leather armor at the shin crotch could not block the sharp arrow clusters, and many people were hit by arrows in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately, after the arrows broke through the armor, they did not hit the vital point, and the generals in the front could still support themselves, listening to the dark sound of horns, and pressed forward along the potholed post road and the more rugged slope of the right flank.

And the crossbowmen and halberders who did not have shields to protect them in the rear, but people were constantly shot to the ground.

The batch of crossbows provided by Luoyang had a range of about one hundred and forty or fifty paces, but Li Zhihe did not let the heavy crossbowmen rush to fight back.

The front of the enemy cavalry was mainly longbowed, but the small 300 cavalry in the rear set up their spears at this time, obviously expecting to see their formation scattered by arrows, and then directly rushed over, completely disrupting their formation.

There are spears and halberds to suppress the formation, Li Zhihe is not afraid of the enemy cavalry rampage, but the terrain they are in at this time is relatively open, and the enemy cavalry will inevitably spread out to the two wings when they see that it is useless to rush forward and kill, and then find a way to drag them down, so that the cavalry archers in the rear can shoot their bows faster and more steadily.

The arm-open crossbow provided by Luoyang is extremely strong, but the shooting speed is much slower than that of the familiar cavalry archers, about three arrows from the enemy cavalry, and the arm-open crossbow can shoot one arrow.

In addition, because the crossbow arrows with arm open crossbows have no tail feathers, only the tail of the arrow shaft is made into a narrow wing shape to improve balance, but it is still less accurate than long-feather arrows when shooting at long distances.

If the two-handed generals have no heavy armor defense, and the bows and crossbows are so far apart, they will definitely suffer a great loss.

Li Zhihe suppressed the crossbowman's impulse to shoot, and continued to press forward at the risk of casualties, and when the two sides approached to within a hundred steps, he saw that the terrain on the right side had narrowed, and the towering cliff gave people a strong sense of oppression.

More than 200 crossbow arrows shot fiercely at the head of the enemy cavalry, and immediately shot more than 20 enemy cavalry and men and horses to the ground.

The penetrating power of the crossbow arrows was amazingly strong, which shocked the enemy cavalry, and the remaining hundred or so cavalry archers subconsciously thought about pulling the distance back, and did not dare to shoot at such a close distance with the Liangzhou army.

Although there is no strong enough force in Longyou to dominate Longyou and Hexi Prefectures, and there are endless battles between the tribes, it is precisely the case that the number of elite soldiers in Longyou and Hexi Prefectures is definitely quite large, and there are many brave and good generals.

Seeing this scene, the more than 300 cavalry in the rear did not want to let the cavalry archers who were retreating in front collide, so they immediately decided to gallop to the river beach on the left flank, although the formation was also quite scattered in a hurry, but under the loud shouts of the leading generals, they were quickly divided into two teams, one team went to Zhang Song's department along the river beach to kill, and the other team wanted to attack the flank of Li Zhihe's department.

Zhang Song also ordered the crossbow arrows to be fired first, and he also knew that the generals were tired, so they could only take the lead, and entered the front with the guards, and the generals with halberds and sabers met the enemy horses, and the two sides fought together on the river beach first.

The enemy cavalry swarmed over, and Zhang Song was on the low terrain of the river, even if he and several guards around him were still riding horses, but they could not see the battle on the post road and the slope to the north.

He had only one thought in his heart, that is, to turn diagonally and attack the post road, which could not give the cavalry enough room for the enemy to make a detour.

"Bell!"

Zhang Song has a lot of guards on the left and right, but there are only a few war horses, and he sits on top of the war horses, which stands out in the array.

At present, seven or eight enemy horsemen are also brave, seeing that he is covered with armor and not afraid of arrows, and also knows that he is the main general of this team of men and horses, regardless of the left and right spear stabs, with the momentum of the war horse, he directly tore open the thin layer of eyes and cut down the weak soldiers, and directly bullied Zhang Song's side, and at the same time, six or seven sharp knives and spears slashed at Zhang Song.

Zhang Song stabbed an enemy to death in the head, and the spear in his hand pierced directly into the man's eye socket accurately and ruthlessly, and even though he held a shield and stabbed a spear in the chest, his right shoulder was slashed by the enemy horseman, and his left armpit was stabbed by a spear that drilled like lightning from the side.

There were too few guards on the left and right, and they were the first targets of the enemy's shooting, and in the blink of an eye, there were only two horsemen left by his side, which could not help him to follow up the attack from the heights.

It is difficult to break through the armor with a knife slash, but it is difficult to block the stab of a sharp spear, after all, the force of the stab is much greater than that of a knife on horseback.

Zhang Song was not worried about the obstacle on his right shoulder, but he subconsciously looked at his left armpit, and looked down to see that although the spear of the enemy horse pierced the armor in the left armpit, the spear blade was stuck less than an inch in, and it failed to pierce the inner layer of armor, let alone hurt him in the slightest.

When Zhang Song was stabbed by a spear, his body tilted to the side, of course he knew how powerful this stab was, but he didn't expect that the more than ten pairs of full-covered plate armor sent by Luoyang were more than ten catties lighter than the full-covered armor, and the protection power was actually a better than the one - they had tried to use the sword to slash to test the protection, but they were not willing to use the spear to stab.

Zhang Song couldn't help laughing, withdrew his spear, and swept the blade-wielding enemy on the right side with force.

The Qiang rider had a red face, a beard, and was wearing a rare Shanwen ring chain mail in Longyou, and at a glance he knew that he was also a leader-level figure in the tribe - this man obviously didn't expect that his spear with such a tricky angle would fail to pierce Zhang Song's armor.

Although he withdrew his spear at the first time, his body was slightly short, and he used his arm to catch Zhang Song's spear and whip him, but at this time he found that he and the six cavalry did not cut Zhang Song off his horse at the first time, and the cavalry behind him was blocked outside, and there were soldiers of the Liangzhou army on the left and right.

He was under siege.

Even if he blocked Zhang Song's spear, he couldn't block the four spears that stabbed from the left and right at the same time, and the next moment his thigh was pierced by a spear, and his body froze, watching Zhang Song stab at his front door in advance......

"Qu Shuai is dead!"

The enemy riders in front shouted and suddenly panicked.

Zhang Song saw this scene, of course, he knew that what they killed was an important person in the enemy army, taking advantage of the panic of the enemy cavalry in front, he pressed forward with his horse, stabbed down two enemies with spears, and roared to boost the morale of the generals on the left and right, and went to the slope of the post road to the river beach with all his might......