More than a dozen brown-armored cavalry galloped towards the Iron Crocodile Ridge, they were Zhao Wuji's men and horses who set off directly from Xiangcheng last night and went north to reconnoiter the enemy's situation.

"In addition to the more than 200 Liang armies, stationed outside the inner countryside city, there are two Liang armies, each with about 500 people, are heading towards the inner countryside city, and the distance is less than 30 miles." Zhao Wuji turned over and reported the enemy situation in the direction of the inner countryside, then took off the skin bag on his waist and poured a sigh of air to quench his hunger and thirst all the way.

They penetrated into the area controlled by the Liang army last night, which was very arduous.

There were two other generals behind Zhao Wuji, whose shoulders and armpits were pierced by iron arrows, and their faces were pale, and they could only cut the shafts of the arrows on the way, and they could only pull out the arrows to stop the bleeding and heal their injuries until the camp.

Han Qian personally walked over to see the wounds of the two wounded soldiers, and the medical officer put down the alcohol in his hand, and used light salt water brewed with refined salt to clean the wounds, and then bandaged them with steamed gauze to prevent the wounds from festering.

There are gold medicines in the army to stop bleeding and dissolve stasis, but they are all precious medical materials, which are difficult to popularize, and only military attachés and generals can use them.

The wound treatment of ordinary soldiers is quite simple, even so simple that they directly stop the bleeding with plant ashes, so that there is a lot of war in the world, and the main reason for defeat or retreat is uncontrolled injuries and epidemics, rather than direct casualties.

Han Qian knew that alcohol and light salt water could be used to clean wounds, and he also knew the importance of maintaining personal hygiene, but whether it was high-purity alcohol, high-purity refined salts, or pancreas obtained from coagulation of oil with salty water, it was difficult for Zuo Si to produce them in large quantities, so these methods could only be promoted within Zuo Si for the time being.

The Liang army marched to the inner countryside city in a big way, and Li Zhihe's idea of recapturing the inner countryside city and other high Chengyuan troops for reinforcements had already failed.

"In this way, Du Yuhou can only use this remnant village to resist the attack of the Liang army......

Han Qian pointed to a remnant village on the topographic map located at the northern foot of the Iron Crocodile Ridge, four miles away from the river beach, and said to Li Zhihe.

This remnant village is not big, it was a village before it was abandoned, but it is not only backed by the Iron Crocodile Ridge in the terrain, but also has a river that originates from Funiu Mountain and bypasses from the west side of Neixiang City to join the Danjiang River.

Surrounded by mountains and rivers, the remnants of the village were slightly reorganized, and only the east could allow the Liang army to launch an attack; And they can use warships to reinforce the remnants, and they don't have to worry that the back road will be cut off by the Liang army.

"Deng Tai, you immediately take my general seal and go to Jingzikou, so that Zhou Tong and Hao Zixia will immediately lead their troops to Tie Crocodile Ridge to meet me." Li Zhihe beckoned to a leader of the guards, and after signing the military order, he handed him the token tied around his waist, and ordered him to rush back to Jingzikou immediately.

"The high general is about to lead his troops over, and the Iron Crocodile Ridge may be handed over to them for defense." Deng Tai, the leader of the guards, glanced at Han Qian and suggested to Li Zhihe with some hesitation.

"You've been raising fat for a few years, who can fight this battle, who can't fight, and the dog can still see clearly even if he's blind?" Li Zhihe didn't have a good temper at this time, so he scolded and urged Deng Tai to quickly take someone back to Jingzikou to give orders.

Han Qian bowed slightly, he was also worried that Li Zhihe would not be willing to use his descendants to fight a tough battle, but Li Zhihe would not take the responsibility of guarding the Iron Crocodile Ridge, but would push it to Gao Chengyuan, and the problem would be more serious.

It's not that Emperor Tianyou personally assigned Gao Chengyuan to the side of the three princes as a general did not dare to fight a tough battle, but in fact, the first capital led by Li Zhihe and the fourth capital led by Gao Chengyuan had a huge gap in combat power.

The five soldiers and horses of the Dragon Bird Army, the first capital Li Zhihe is the Marquis of Duyu, he is the adopted son of the Marquis of Xinchang, the second is headed by Zhou, he is one of the leaders of the family soldiers of the Marquis of Xinchang, and the third Duyu Hou is Li Mingsheng is the nephew of the Marquis of Xinchang, and these three people were originally descendants of the Marquis of Xinchang and the Late Red Mansion.

Since the establishment of the Dragon Bird Army, the first, second, and third capitals have given priority to the fourth and fifth capitals headed by Gao Chengyuan and Guo Liang, both in terms of selection of pawns and material supply.

Among them, the first capital headed by Li Zhihe has the strongest combat power, and the number of soldiers and horses is also full, not to mention that after the military admonition, the most elite guard battalions were scattered and incorporated into the first capital, and even had 700 war horses.

From Wuguan into Jingzikou, the road is narrow and steep, the three walled cities that Jingzikou rushed out of the repair, are also relatively strong, even if the Liang army is attacked from Wuguan, the pressure is relatively small, but the iron crocodile ridge to the north to the inner countryside city, the terrain of the hills and mountains is relatively much smoother, the Chu army can rely on a wall of thin walls, and a large area of collapsed remnants, just relying on the village will be very difficult, and even need to take the initiative to attack, in a relatively narrow and dangerous place, the Liang army will not dare to peep at the Danjiang, which is much more arduous.

…………

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The speed at which the Liang army gathered troops and horses in Neixiang City was very fast, and the Ma Bu army gathered near Neixiang City before night had exceeded 3,000, and the scouts also detected that Liang troops had gathered from the direction of Xinye and Wancheng, and it was difficult to determine the size of the Liang army that would eventually gather in Neixiang for the time being.

At this time, the five hundred people who Han Qian transferred from Canglang City also landed in a hurry, cutting down trees and building fences to plug the gaps in the remnants.

Gao Chengyuan led more than 100 guards to Iron Crocodile Ridge a little later, and the main force of 1,500 generals in the fourth capital entered by boat, and it was not possible to reach Iron Crocodile Ridge until tomorrow at the earliest.

"The Liang army in the inner countryside is attacking the Iron Crocodile Ridge, and it is impossible for the Wuguan Liang army to be without action,"

The full moon shone in the sky, and the Liang army scattered a group of horse infantry to approach the Iron Crocodile Ridge, Li Zhihe stood on a high ground in the north of the remnant village with a blue face, looking at all this, he said to Gao Chengyuan, who hurriedly got off the horse to see him,

"I can't go back to Jingzikou for the time being, so I can only ask General Gao to go to Jingzikou and preside over the defense over there."

Li Zhihe transferred another thousand elites over, and there were two battalions left in Jingzikou plus the elite of the first battalion of the Xiangzhou Army headed by Zhang Bao, it should be enough to hold Jingzikou, after all, the Liang army in Wuguan did not have many soldiers and horses, but he was worried that he was not in Jingzikou, and Zhang Bao, who was a descendant of Du Chongtao, might not be able to hold on to the city according to his arrangement, so he asked Gao Chengyuan to rush to Jingzikou to sit down.

Gao Chengyuan is the person next to Emperor Tianyou, if Zhang Bao dares to disobey the order and make any changes, Gao Chengyuan will kill him, and Du Chongtao will have nothing to say.

Li Zhihe actually wanted to change guards with Gao Chengyuan, let Gao Chengyuan lead his troops to defend Jingzikou, and he transferred the elite of the first capital to fight this defensive battle on the east bank of the Danjiang River, which may be more bloody.

The Liang army has been fighting in the south and the north for many years, and the combat effectiveness is quite strong, Gao Chengyuan is not strong, and temporarily left nearly 100 guards in the Iron Crocodile Ridge, and he only took a dozen people to take the remnants of the road to Jingzikou to sit in the town.

Gao Chengyuan temporarily left most of the guards in the Iron Crocodile Ridge, and this arrangement was also worried that the Liang army might launch a surprise attack on the remnants of the Iron Crocodile Ridge at night, and at that time, Li Zhihe only had five hundred generals in his hands, which was not enough to resist - Gao Chengyuan left nearly a hundred guards, and they were also carefully selected elites.

Li Zhihe had too few troops in his hands, only 600 people, and he was worried that he would be in danger if he went out rashly, so he decided to hold the remnants of the village and wait for the follow-up reinforcements to be transferred, and then make other decisions depending on the development of the situation.

After arranging these, Han Qian did not stay in the Iron Crocodile Ridge to assist Li Zhihe in guarding the village, on the one hand, Li Zhihe commanded a war of this scale, and there was no need for him to stay and point fingers, on the other hand, there were already some Liang army scouts, interspersed with the eastern foothills of Heilong Mountain.

Bypassing the Black Dragon Mountain is Canglang City, before he led the Zuo Si scouts back, he only had sixty slave soldiers and nearly three hundred people in Canglang City to use, Han Qian was worried that Canglang City would be lost, so he took a boat overnight to lead Tian Cheng, Xi Yi and others down the Danjiang River and returned to Canglang City.

Han Qian rushed back to Canglang City at midnight, and sure enough, there were more than 100 Liang army scouts and horse soldiers, interspersed with the narrow road between Heilong Mountain and Hanshui, and could not patrol in the snow east of Canglang City.

After a month and a half of rushing work, and with the subsequent increase in the number of strong people gathered to 800, Han Qian still rushed to build a hundred-step-square earthen city on the shore of Danhan.

Although the earth city is small - perhaps it is more appropriate to call it a walled city - the walled wall is built of rammed earth, the bottom is six feet thick, eight feet thick, and the top of the walled wall is also three feet thick, and the people and horses avoid entering the walled city, unless the Liang army builds siege equipment, at this time, it is not afraid that more than 100 Liang army scouts dare to storm it.

Seeing the speed of Liang's army gathering in the inner countryside city today, the number of soldiers and horses, somewhat unexpected, Han Qian wrote a letter, and Lin Haizheng rushed back to Xiangzhou City by boat to hand over to the three princes and Shen Yang, except for the fourth capital, Gao Chengyuan's department has already advanced westward along the Han River, and it is possible to pass through Canglang City tomorrow morning, he hopes that the third prince and Shen Yang can transfer the 1,500 soldiers and horses of the fifth capital Guo Liang from Niushouzhai in the east of Xiangzhou City to the west, as close as possible to Canglang City, so as to prevent the need for reinforcements from the western front, the distance is too far and beyond the reach of the whip.

After Han Qian entered the city, he summoned Xi Chang over to inquire about the situation.

"A few small groups of Liang troops appeared outside the city at night, but seeing that we were well guarded, there was no other action except for setting fire to some camp tents around the city......" Xi Chang was also nervous for a little half of the night, before he only had sixty slave soldiers in his hands who had been trained for a month and a half available, I really didn't know how much combat power he had, I was afraid that Han Qian would stay in the Iron Crocodile Ridge, and he would not be able to hold Canglang City with this little slave soldier.

Han Qian, Tian Cheng, and Xi Ying led more than forty elite scouts of the Zuo Division back, but Xi Chang was relaxed, at least he could sleep peacefully today.

At this time, there was a commotion outside, and Han Qian frowned and asked Xi Chang, "What's going on?" ”

"The people are clamoring to go back to the cottage." Xi Chang said.

Han Qian transferred 500 people from Canglang City to Iron Crocodile Ridge during the day, these people didn't know that the war was imminent, but when they went to Iron Crocodile Ridge and saw the soldiers and horses of the Liang army, there were also many people who were in commotion, but Zhang Zhihe had 600 elites in Iron Crocodile Ridge at this time, but he was able to suppress these people's bullets.

Han Qian didn't expect that the three hundred people on the side of Canglang City also wanted to go back to their respective cottages, frowning and saying to Tian Cheng and Xi Chang: "You go to appease these people, and say that the Liang army is only attacking this side and is unable to attack the city - there are no ships to send them across the river for the time being, and when the Liang army retreats, they are allowed to return to the village to rest, and then each person will be given another five liters of salt, and they will never be owed to them." ”

Canglang is east of Danshui and north of Hanshui, and most of the cottages are located in the mountains and mountains west of Danshui or south of Hanshui. Of course, whether it was coaxing or cheating, it was impossible for Han Qian to let these strong people leave Canglang City at this time.

Han Qian ran for a day and a night without closing his eyes, Tian Cheng and Xi Chang were responsible for trivial matters, he went back to the house and took off his clothes and armor and lay on the bed, thinking that the Liang army would launch an offensive against Iron Crocodile Mountain before noon tomorrow at the latest, if there was no threat from Canglang City, he would have to go to Iron Crocodile Ridge to watch the development of the war.

Han Qian was in a daze and heard the bells and drums outside, and suddenly woke up, sat up a little confused, and heard Tian Cheng report outside:

"There is a large force of Liang troops coming in!"

"A large force of Liang army, how many are there, how can there be a large force of Liang army to attack Canglang City?" Han Qian was shocked and suspicious, took the fire fold to light the lamp, and hurriedly knocked the oil lamp to the ground and smashed it.

At this time, the sky was faintly bright, Han Qian didn't care too much, hurriedly put on his jacket, took the armor sword and bow in his hand and walked out of the room.

At this time, Xi Ying had just put on his clothes, and hurriedly came over to help Han Qian put on his armor.

"There are almost more than 400 Liang troops, and the three scouts we arranged at the southeast foot of Heilong Mountain have not come back to report, they should have been killed!" Tian Cheng said.

"So many Liang Jun?" Han Qian was startled.

Zuo Si's elite scouts are still too few, except for leaving Fan Dahei to lead a group of people to stay in Iron Crocodile Ridge to obey Li Zhihe's command, Han Qian was worried about the lack of manpower to guard Canglang City, so he gathered most of the scouts back, and only left three people in the Black Dragon Mountain northeast of Canghai City, but he didn't expect to be able to rush back in time to report the news.