Shen Yang and the third prince negotiated with Du Chongtao for several days, and Du Chongtao finally agreed to give the Dragon Bird Army additional money and food according to the standard of 3,000 strong people, so that the Dragon Bird Army could recruit people near the garrison to meet the needs of building a walled city and assisting in defense.

In fact, it is an additional 3,000 stone corn, 1,000 stone bean feed, and 60 stone salt for the Dragon Bird Army every month.

Zhou Shu, Guo Liang, and Gao Chengyuan's headquarters were stationed in Niushou Village on the east side of Xiangzhou City, and this money and grain were naturally given priority to Li Zhihe and Zuo Si stationed in the left front of the station under the initiative of the three princes and Shen Yang.

With this money and food, Han Qian didn't need to send additional supplies to Jingzikou and Canglang City, and he could even collect some mountain goods to make up for the previous shortfall.

Han Qian not only built the city in Canglang, but also suggested that Li Zhihe first use the remaining roadway foundation to build a small fence 100 steps or 70 or 80 steps square.

Li Zhihe was good at managing the army and charging into battle, but he was not good at managing logistics, so he simply handed over the more than 200 craftsmen and craftsmen who accompanied the army to Han Qian for unified management.

Han Qian's cooperation model with Shanzhai in Jingzikou is also to send craftsmen to guide lime firing, coal and iron mining, smelting, and Zuo Si is responsible for the acquisition, which can actually save most of the manpower and make the related work move forward quickly.

After the admonition, Han Qian was worried that Li Zhihe's control of the first capital would be severely tested, after all, almost all the grassroots military attaches of the Dragon Bird Army were filled by the soldiers of the Xinchang Marquis Mansion, and theoretically they were all loyal to the Xinchang Marquis Li Pu.

However, it turned out that Han Qian's worries were somewhat unnecessary.

When Li Yu, the king of Zhedong County, commanded the troops, Li Pu was more engaged in auxiliary matters, and Li Zhihe was incorporated into the battalion at the age of fourteen, the first was the personal guard soldiers around Li Yu, and at the age of eighteen, he officially led the troops to the front line, and initially served as a scout officer.

After the founding of the Great Chu in Jinling, the northern territory was generally confirmed, and Xu Mingzhen, Du Chongtao and others would guard the northern line and confront the Liang army, but the expansion of the southern line lasted until the eighth year of Tianyou, which was basically stabilized.

During this period, Li Yu's unit undertook the most onerous combat tasks.

Li Zhihe is very young, but he is good at managing military soldiers, and he is also brave in battle, and he is very appreciated by his uncle Li Yu, and he has also grown step by step from a team leader to a general - Li Yu was transferred to the court and no longer led the troops, and Li Zhihe also left the army and went to the state and county to serve as a law cao to join the army, and accumulated experience in governing government affairs and prisons.

Zhou Yuan, Zhou Shu, Chai Jian and others are indeed the descendants directly cultivated by the Xinchang Marquis Mansion and the Late Red Mansion, which are beyond Li Zhihe's control, but many of the ordinary soldiers in the Xinchang Marquis Mansion are elite soldiers directly brought out by Li Zhihe in the army.

Li Zhihe also intended to arrange his relatives and cronies to the first capital he personally led, and before that, Li Pu, the Marquis of Xinchang, also wanted to strengthen the combat power of the first capital as much as possible under the condition of limited resources, and did not raise any objections to Li Zhihe's arrangement.

They didn't expect Li Zhihe to get out of their control at all.

The dependents of these generals were all incorporated into the cantonment military government, and they were no longer under the direct control of the Xinchang Marquis Mansion.

As for the 500 elites of the original guard battalion into the first capital, there was no resistance.

After all, the expansion of the guard battalion of the Linjiang Marquis Mansion from one hundred and fifty people to five hundred elites was completed in the hands of Li Zhihe.

At this time, even if there were some dissenting voices in the first place, they were quickly suppressed by Li Zhihe.

…………

…………

In mid-December, the Liang army captured Suiping City in the southwest of Caizhou, and the Shouzhou army was forced to shrink eastward, so that the northern line of the Nanyang Basin was completely exposed to the prying eyes of the Liang army.

At this time, there were more and more soldiers and horses of the Liang army who entered the activities of the Nanyang Basin.

Du Chongtao was forced to withdraw the soldiers and horses guarding Fangcheng, Tanghe, Wancheng, Xinye and other northern lines.

As for whether to abandon the garrison of the left front vanguard army and the right front vanguard army led by Li Zhihe and Ma Xun respectively, and withdraw all the soldiers and horses to the south of Hanshui to hold on, there was a fierce dispute within the northwest camp.

On this point, Han Qian and Shen Yang have a consensus, and even Guo Rong has a consensus.

For Guo Rong, if the western flank completely gave up the defense north of the Han River, it would actually be equivalent to completely giving up containing the Liang army from the western flank, and the Liang army only needed to place a small number of soldiers and horses in the interior of the Nanyang Basin, and then all the other forces could be applied to the Shouzhou army.

In this way, even if the Liang army's offensive is finally resisted, the casualties of the Shouzhou army this year will be extremely heavy.

This is by no means what Anning Palace and the crown prince's family, including Guo Rong, Xu Zhaoling and even Jin Rui and others, are willing to see.

As far as Shen Yang is concerned, he does not want the Chu army to suffer a heavy setback because of the factional disputes within the imperial court - the Chu army on the western flank has gathered a certain amount of strength, and it should not be so passive in fighting.

As far as Han Qian was concerned, Deng Xiang's soldiers and horses had given up in all other directions, and only Li Zhihe's troops and Zuo Si had only 26,700 people, and it was too much pressure to retreat to the south bank of the Han River and defend the Danjiang River alone.

And if they withdraw to the south bank of the Han River, the preparations for more than two months in the early stage will be in vain, and his plans in the Dengxiang area will also be in vain.

However, when Du Chongtao arranged the defense, he mainly arranged the main force of the Xiangzhou Army in Fancheng and Xiangzhou City, and arranged the reinforced buses on the two wings.

In this case, in addition to the special purpose of the Dragon Bird Army, other guest generals such as Zheng Hui, Xia Zhen, and Ma Xun, the envoy of Tanzhou Jiedu, all hoped to withdraw to the south bank of the Han River to avoid facing the elite edge of the Liang army.

In the end, it was the will of Emperor Tianyou to dispel the controversy within the camp in the northwest.

Emperor Tianyou really wanted to cut the military power of Xu Mingzhen in Shouzhou, in that case, whether he abolished or not, it would not cause uncontrollable chaos, but at the same time, he never wanted to see the Shouzhou army defeated or destroyed, so that Cai, Shen, Guang, and Shou Zhuzhou all fell into the hands of the Liang army, but the entire northern front of the empire will become fragile and not weak, and the Liang army can threaten the Yangtze River at any time.

As the Emperor of Heavenly Blessing, who single-handedly created the Chu Empire, his mind is still sober.

He did not have the illusion that the Shouzhou army and the Liang army would be defeated, and was quite dissatisfied with the negative response of the soldiers and horses on the western flank to the Liang army, and the edict sent to Xiangzhou at the end of December strictly forbade Du Chongtao to withdraw all the soldiers and horses to the south bank of the Han River.

This also put an end to the controversy within the camp in the northwest.

However, at this time, the right front troops and horses led by Ma Xun, the envoy of Tanzhou Jiedu, withdrew from the defense village at the western foot of Tongbai Mountain to Zaoyang, and made every effort to defend the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Dahong Mountain, and prevented the Liang army from interspersing Suizhou in the east; Seeing that he could not withdraw to the south of Hanshui, Xia Zhenjian also led the Yingzhou soldiers to abandon the inner countryside city and advance westward to Xichuan City, where the situation was more precipitous, to join Zheng Hui, who joined the army of Huangzhou.

In this way, the river channel of about sixty or seventy miles downstream of the Danjiang River is exposed.

The Danjiang River flows into the Han River from Canglang City (the ancient city of Junxian County).

Canglang City (the ancient city of Junxian County) and the outside world are mainly connected by waterways, in addition, it is along the east bank of the Danjiang River and the north bank of the Han River, there are roads leading to the inner countryside in the north and Fancheng in the east, but the roads are relatively narrow and steep, and the large number of soldiers and horses of the Liang army easily dare not break in, otherwise, it is easy to be dumplings.

Danjiang River from Canglang City to the north, after passing the Qinling Mountains and the remaining veins of the Heilong Mountain, the river course is north-south, the west bank of the river is all lofty mountains and mountains, but there is a gap of sixty or seventy miles on the east bank, mainly located between the Black Dragon Mountain and the Funiu Mountain, the hilly terrain with a height of tens of meters to two or three hundred meters, not to mention how steep.

Without the protection of the inner countryside city in the northeast corner, the Liang army entered the interior of the Nanyang Basin, and could directly cross the low hills and mountains in this area, drink the Ma Danjiang River, and then it was possible to cut off the connection between Canglang City and Jingzikou.

Knowing the news that Xia Zhen abandoned the inner countryside city, Han Qian was in Xiangzhou at the time, and he was so anxious that he stomped his feet, but he could only go west along the Han River non-stop that night, pass through Canglang City, and go north from the Danjiang remnant road east of Heilong Mountain, and take the Zuo Si scouts to the Iron Crocodile Ridge, which is sixty miles away from Canglang City.

The Iron Crocodile Ridge is located on the east bank of the Danjiang River, less than ten miles to the north, where the Danjiang River channel forms a large right angle of almost 90 degrees, turning west into the lofty mountains at the southwest foot of the Qinling Mountains.

The main peak of the Iron Crocodile Ridge is only more than 60 zhang high, but the terrain is quite steep, standing on the top of the mountain, looking left and right, there are many criss-crossing remnants and deserted villages quietly lurking under the heavy snow, distributed between the hills and ridges between the inner countryside city and the Heilong Mountain for more than 70 miles, there is no danger that can not be opened, and the soldiers and horses of the Liang army can be prevented from entering the Danjiang River.

Han Qian stood on the main peak of the Iron Crocodile Ridge, and could even see a group of Liang army scouts in black robes and armor, wandering in the wilderness less than twenty miles away—from there to the east, the Nanyang Basin, which was two or three hundred miles deep.

If Xia Zhen still led his troops to garrison the inner countryside city more than 20 miles to the northeast, the Liang army scouts would not dare to operate in this area so presumptuously.

The morning sun shone on the snow, and the surroundings were white, and six black canopy boats descended the water and landed at the foot of Iron Crocodile Ridge Mountain.

Seeing Li Zhihe jump off the river beach, Han Qian took Tian Cheng, Xi Ying and others, and quickly walked down the Iron Crocodile Ridge to meet Li Zhihe.

"Why did Du Yuhou come here in person?" Han Qian asked.

"Xia Zhen, the dog thief, is cowardly, abandoning the inner countryside city, the flanks of this section of the Danjiang waterway are exposed, I am worried that the Liang army has the intention of controlling the Danjiang waterway, and the Xiangzhou side is slow to react, so he first led a battalion of soldiers and horses to come over to be prepared," Li Zhihe led the troops and horses from the upper reaches of the Danjiang River to rush over very quickly, and said, "I didn't expect you and me to go to one place, and you also rushed to the Iron Crocodile Ridge one step earlier." ”

"I got the news last night, so I persuaded His Highness to go down to see Du Chongtao and strive to raise the Chengyuan Division, but I couldn't wait for His Highness to see Du Chongtao's results, so I rushed over to check the movements of the Liang army first," Han Qian said, "You lead a battalion of soldiers and horses to arrive, I can be a little relieved, at least two or three days of peaceful sleep." ”

"How do you predict how Liang Jun will fight?" Li Zhihe asked.

"You have to be prepared to fight a tough battle," Han Qian admonished Li Zhihe, "When the Liang army enters the Nanyang Basin, how to fight next is no longer a matter for the vanguard general Han Yuanqi to decide." If I were Han Jian, the commander of the Liang army, I would order Han Yuanqi to control the Danjiang waterway at all costs, and then attack Jingzikou with Guanzhong soldiers and horses. In this way, the grain, soldiers, and horses collected in its pass can go directly down the Danshui from Wuguan to support the main force of its southern line in the internal operations of the Nanyang Basin! ”

Li Zhihe nodded, he judged the same.

The Liang army entered Fancheng, although it was a flat river to the Fangchengkou in the north of the Nanyang Basin, but there was also a land route of 300 miles.

Especially when Deng Xiangchu's army did not give up the dangerous mountains on both sides, the supply pressure of the Liang army on the southern front would be great.

In addition, the Liang army mainly collected grain from the area east of Luoyang in this operation, and the pressure was still very great to ensure that nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses and a similar number of people were killed.

If grain and grass were collected from the Guanzhong area west of Luoyang, and then went south to Ruzhou and Xuzhou, and then from Ruzhou and Xuzhou to the front line, it was still quite troublesome.

As long as the Liang army can control the Danjiang waterway, the grain and grass in the central and southern parts of the Guanzhong can be transported to Shangzhou for assembly, and after arriving at Wuguan, it can go directly down the Danjiang River, which will save a lot of trouble.

Only then can they achieve the goal of occupying Nanyang Bunyang for a long time.