The attack on the Guanzhong area came much faster and earlier than expected.

At the end of January, the Yu River and the Beiluo River north of Tongguan, and the Wei River to the west had not yet begun to thaw, and the ice was so thick that it could still be walked.

The slave boy who was useless except for brute strength back then has grown into a burly and sturdy young man at this time.

In the cold season, Han Bao sat on the back of his beloved jujube red horse, held the rope, stroked the smooth neck of the horse, and looked at the two forward camps on the left and right like the tide marching towards the west bank.

Pujin Pass, which has been built for many years and has been repaired last time, does not know how many years have passed, is not big, as if a blue-black beast is entrenched in the wilderness on the west bank of the Yu River.

Pujin Pass is built on the river beach plain formed by alluvial formation on the west bank of the Yu River, surrounded by a horse flat river, there is no danger in the terrain at all, but it controls the west mouth of the Pujin Bridge, and the strategic position is quite important.

After the Qin and Han dynasties, in addition to Puban east of Pujin Bridge as the economic, political, and military center of the Hejin region, the west side of Pujin Bridge also often built a pass to garrison elite soldiers and horses to strengthen the control of Pujindu, a strategic point.

After the victory of Yiguan, Daliang has actually formed a strategic advantage of encircling Guanzhong from three sides and four roads:

Kong Xirong sent troops from Lantian Pass, and the troops pointed directly at the south of Yongzhou; Li Zhihe sent troops from Qishan, and the soldiers could be directed at Qinzhou, Longyou; Chai Jian and Deng Tai sent troops from Hanzhong, and the soldiers could be directed at Fengxiang; The most core road is Jing Zhen's control of Huatong and Hejin soldiers and horses, and the soldiers are directed at the eastern gateway of Guanzhong.

Of course, the attack on Pujin Pass as the first battle in the recovery of the pass is mainly to focus on the re-erection of the Pujin pontoon bridge destroyed by the Luoyang Navy after the capture of Pujin Pass, which can connect the post road on the north bank of the Wei River with the post road at the northern foot of Xiangshan leading to Puban, Anyi, Jiangxian and other cities on the south bank of Fenshui.

In order to save transportation costs, the garrison should requisition grain and straw as close as possible; The repair of the post road from Anyi to Pusaka, as well as the erection of the Pujin pontoon bridge, also required the Kawazu Prefecture to organize manpower to implement.

After crossing to the north, he first went to Huazhou to serve as the governor Shi, and then served as the governor of Huayin County for three years, and in early November, as the first governor of Hejin, he rushed to Pusaka to take office.

Before the New Year's Festival, the war to recover Guanzhong entered the preparatory stage, and Hajin, as the gateway to the eastern part of the Guanzhong, even if the military pressure was limited, Han Duan could not rest for a moment.

At this time, he was also surrounded by more than a dozen officials and officials, standing on the embankment on the east bank of the Yu River, looking at the vast land covered by snow, and his heart was full of emotion.

Thirty years with a flick of his fingers, who would have imagined that the childish boy with a violent temperament and no learning skills thirty years ago would one day become a generation of heroes.

Occasionally thinking of the old things many years ago, Han Duan can only say in his heart that all this is a sign of the hidden dragon in the abyss.

"My lord, now we have to transfer troops from Hejin to fight Guanzhong, if the Mengwu people counterattack from Taiyuan and Jinnan, Pingyang and Jiangzhou only have a total of 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers and horses, and they may not be able to stop it?" There was a government official, watching the army march towards the west bank, standing beside Han Duan and saying worriedly.

In the past three or four years, the Mughal people have migrated more than 500,000 people to Hedong, Heshuo and other places, of which more than 100,000 are skilled in riding and archery, brave and good at fighting. Even if the Mengwu lost more than 30,000 elite Ding Zhuang of their own clan in the Battle of Yiguan, they could still recruit 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers and horses from these two places to be incorporated into the army.

Hedong (Taiyuan Basin, Shangdang Basin), Heshuo and Yanyun have a population of seven or eight million, and there are as many as two or three million young and strong men, which makes the Mongolian army replenish troops and horses in Taiyuan, Ze and other places very quickly after experiencing the fiasco of the Battle of Yiguan.

Just after the New Year's Festival, the scale of the Mongolian army's soldiers and horses in Taiyuan and Jinnan (Zezhou and Luzhou) quickly recovered to more than 100,000.

After the great victory of Yiguan, although the new Taiyue Camp Army and the Pingyang Camp Army were responsible for the offensive and defensive operations against Taiyuan and Jinnan (Zezhou and Luzhou), the two defense lines, consisting of five main infantry brigades and six reserve brigades full of prisoners, totaled only more than 55,000 generals.

"The Mongolian army lost 130,000 elite soldiers and horses in the Battle of Yiguan, and the vitality damaged was by no means simple, and the newly recruited seventy or eighty thousand soldiers could be replaced," Han Duan laughed, and said to his subordinates who were somewhat worried about everything, "The strong men of the Mengwu clan who have moved south in the past few years have lost about 100,000 people, and they have lost thirty percent of them at once. ”

After he grew up, he was mainly responsible for taking care of clan affairs, and after Emperor Yanyou ascended the throne in Jinling, he entered the government in Beijing, and then went to the state and county to experience after the northern crossing, and now he does not rely on the special identity of the children of the Han family, and he is confident that his vision and ability will not lag behind others too much.

It may be that the middle and low-level officials are not particularly deeply aware of the changes in the situation of the entire north by the victory of Yiguan, but the self-confidence of the middle and high-level officials in the hearts of the middle and high-level of the Great Liang is indescribable.

In addition to the losses of the Mongolian army, in addition to tens of thousands of elite soldiers, there are also nearly 2,000 generals and military attaches above the centennial commander who have been killed or captured - mature, brave and warlike military attachés and generals are the backbone and soul of an army, and they are accumulated from bloody battles on the battlefield again and again, and these are irreplaceable by newly recruited and newly recruited soldiers.

The Fenshui River Valley, which lost the essence of Hedong, had a large amount of grain prepared before the war, nearly 100,000 large cattle, including fine war horses, countless armor, and a large number of wounded soldiers who needed to be treated.

In addition to this, the morale of the Mongolian army's generals and soldiers, its deterrence to the soldiers and civilians who were annexed to the Jin land, and even the degree of risk that the Mongolian army could bear in the same battle, were greatly weakened.

This also means that the Mongolian army can only take a defensive position in Taiyuan and Zelu for the time being, even if the Liang army is in Ping

The defensive line in the eastern part of Yang and Jiangzhou had only more than 50,000 garrisons in total, but the Mongol army was unable to launch a new offensive to recapture the upper and lower reaches of the Fenshui River Valley.

Although Wang Xiaoxian and Wang Yuankui promptly withdrew their soldiers and horses from Lantian Pass and Huatong to Qizhou and Yongzhou, and their descendants did not suffer direct losses, before the Yiguan battle, Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing transferred nearly 20,000 garrisons from the four prefectures of Tong, Sui, Yan, and Lin north of the Wei River, and gathered them to Jiangxian and Quwo to participate in the battle.

The Mongol army still had new soldiers in Taiyuan and Jinnan who could be forcibly conscripted into the camp, and the situation was even worse in the northern part of Guanzhong, that is, in the prefectures of Tong, Yan, Lin, and Pi north of the Wei River.

In order to carry out the battle in Jiangxian County, Wusu Dashi transferred more than 20,000 reinforcements from the prefectures north of the Wei River into the Fenshui River Valley before August last year, and the more than 20,000 Weibei reinforcements were completely lost, so that the defenders of the four prefectures on the north bank of the Wei River at this time were only about 20,000 people.

Although Wusu Dashi repeatedly ordered Wang Yuankui and Wang Xiaoxian to divide troops to assist in guarding the four states north of the Wei River, where did Wang Yuankui and Wang Xiaoxian dare to divide their troops from the south bank of the Wei River at this time?

Han Duan was not only not worried that the Mongolian army would fight from Taiyuan and Jinnan, but also did not worry about the difficulty of Han Bao leading his troops to capture Pujin Pass on the opposite bank.

Han Duan was about to show off more knowledge with his subordinates, when he heard Han Bao, who was sitting on horseback in front of him and observing the enemy situation on the other side of the strait with a bronze telescope in hand, scolding his mother.

"What's wrong?" Han Duan walked over and asked, thinking that something had happened on the other side.

At present, in the territory of Daliang, the bronze telescope is not a particularly rare object, and there are a few in the Hejin Prefecture Capture and Patrol Division, but Han Duan is a Wenchen sequence, and he is embarrassed to pretend to hold the bronze telescope in front of Han Bao and other commanders.

Han Qian did not restrict the children of the Han family and the Zhu family from serving in local positions, but he was more strict with them, and he also bitterly advised them to maintain a humble attitude when they took up local posts.

"The enemy troops at Pujin Pass have fled!" Han Bao said regretfully, "Jing Shuai strictly ordered us to cross the river and take Pujin Pass, and we must not continue to extend to the west and north with troops." Damn it, I haven't been down-to-earth in the whole New Year, but I can't get a chance to bleed the Mongolian army when I cross the river, not to mention how much I hold my breath! ”

"There are more than 400 defenders in Pujin Pass, and the defenders in Dali, Yanghe and other places are also extremely limited. Han Duan said with a smile, "Now that you can take Yuxi without bloodshed, you want to rush to Pujin Pass, what else is there to be unhappy about?" ”

After a while, the generals in the front line rushed to report on horseback: "The defenders fled westward, only more than 90 people, because there is a small family in or near Pujin Pass, choose to surrender." ”

Han Bao asked Nadu to lead his troops to be responsible for guarding Pujin Pass, alerting to the surrounding enemy, and sent Xin to ride a fast horse to Tongguan and Luoyang to report the news, and he was excited to go to Puban City with Han Duan and others under the support of Hu Cai......

…………

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Even if the Mongolian army on the north bank of the Wei River and the Yanlin Prefectures stationed in the same prefecture as the soldiers and horses were limited, and they were mainly reduced to a few major cities for defense, making the defense of some county towns and affiliated cities useless, but the Huatong marching army should delay as far as possible to capture fighters on the eastern front, and even if there was an opportunity, they should not rush to recover the cities on the north bank of the Wei River.

The following generals want to ask, Jing Zhen only said that the Liang casualties are very large, and all battles must be extremely careful, and the troops must not be excessively dispersed.

In addition to the garrisons of Huatong Mansion and Shangluo Mansion, Han Qian's requirements for the garrison of Hejin Mansion were mainly to race against time in the early stage, repair the Pujin Bridge, and open the passage for the army to quickly attack the Weibei area, and not to rush to block the passage for the Yongqi defenders to flee north.

Of course, Han Duan, Han Bao and other middle and high-ranking generals still knew very well in their hearts that the military deployment of the monarch and the General Staff Office for the first battle of recovering Guanzhong, the focus of the early operation was in the west rather than the east.

In early February, the Yu River, the Wei River, and Jingshui to the north and west of Huatong were thawed one after another, and the Luoyang Navy mainly gathered in Huayin County, west of Tongguan, to accept Jing Zhen's control, and all the way to break and remove the iron cables pulled up by Wang Yuankui's troops on the Wei River, lay hidden piles, and even a large number of boats filled with sand and gravel to clean up the waterway channel along the Wei River to the west.

In the early stage of the battle to recover Guanzhong, the real focus was on the west flank.

To this end, Chai Jian succeeded Li Zhihe as the envoy of the Hanzhong Prefecture, and led Chai Xun, Hao Zixia, and Zhou Tong to march out of Baocheng in Hanzhong, through Lianyun Road and Baoxian, approaching Fengxian in the south of Fengxiang and Meiwu in the southeast.

Feng Xuan, who served as the deputy envoy of Longyou Xuan, led the cavalry of Cao Ba, Lu Ze, and Zhao Ci to the west through the Niuji Road in Hanzhong, and entered Chengzhou to meet Li Zhihe and Feng Yi before the end of the first month of Taihe Qihe.

In the middle of February, the valley of Longyou is still covered with snow and ice, the cold wind of early spring blows like a knife, after a simple rest, more than 20,000 steps under the leadership of Li Zhihe, Feng Xuan and other generals, starting from the north of the Datan River and the west of Longshan, like a cold and ruthless storm, swept away to Qinzhou, that is, the old county of Tianshui.

At this time, except for Jiequan County in Qinzhou, where the site of the First Battle of Shuwei Street Pavilion was located, which was garrisoned by Wang Xiao's advance general, the rest of the territory was under the rule of the Pingxia cavalry led by Li Yuanshou.

Under the leadership of its leader Li Yuanshou, the cavalry of the Pingxia Department was brave and good at fighting, and after going south to Qinzhou, it once blocked the pace of the Longyou army advancing north at the western foot of Longshan Mountain.

Li Zhihe led more than 15,000 cavalry to be blocked for two whole years, unable to advance north, so he could only retreat to the second place, concentrating on building a walled city at the western foot of Longshan Mountain.

However, in Han Qian's view, the courage and good fighting of the Qiang cavalry in Pingxia are also situational.

Before the Mengwu people were extremely strong, occupying Heshuo, Hedong, Guanlong and other places, the Pingxia Qiang cavalry was attached to the Mengwu people, and the Mengwu people ordered them to curb the Liang army from the west flank along the northern foot of Longshan Mountain, and the Pingxia Qiang cavalry did not dare to easily disobey.

As far as the Qiang cavalry of the Pingxia Department is concerned, the previous troops at the western foot of Longshan Mountain can not only raise the tribes in a land with abundant water and grass, but also integrate the Qiang tribes in the north of Qishan to Zhuang people, which is really a matter of killing two birds with one stone, and its combat is naturally brave and fierce.

Only two or three months had passed since the first battle of Guanzhong, but the news had already spread to Longyou, Hexi and other places, and even the situation in Guanzhong had become precarious.

The Pingxia Department at this time

Qiang cavalry, in his heart, should consider in his heart, under the current situation, is it worth it to take out the elite of his own clan to fight hard, or to temporarily avoid the soldiers of the Liang army, and shrink the soldiers and horses to Yinzhou and Xiazhou in the north to recuperate?

"Although it is much easier to send troops from Huatong and Shangluo to attack Yongzhou, the monarch thinks that Wang Xiaoxian has a lonely temperament, so he is worried that my Liang soldiers and horses will attack Yongzhou first, and Wang Xiaoxian will coerce Fengxiang soldiers and civilians out of Longshan and join forces with Li Yuanshou. So no matter how difficult it was in the early stage, the king finally decided to recover the battle of Guanzhong, starting from the west flank, but it was hard for Li Dushuai! Feng Xuan sat on the thick saddle, held the reins, looked at the snow-capped mountains in the distance, and said.

On the nearby slopes, the snow was trampled by horses' hooves, revealing dead grass that had been covered for the winter; The war horse, which has not yet raised a hungry appetite with bean feed, bows his head and gnaws the grass stalks under the snow.

Longyou is vast and sparsely populated, and there are only more than 90,000 Han people in the two prefectures of Chengwu and Wuzhou.

In the past two years, Li Zhihe built a village at the western foot of Longshan Mountain, and hoarded grain from the surplus of commerce and trade, but it could only supply more than 25,000 foot riders for more than three months.

The cost of transporting grain and grass to Hanzhong, which was short of grain, and then transporting it from the rugged Niuji Road to Chengdu and Wuzhou, was staggering.

Because of this, Han Qian was even more determined to fight in Guanzhong and regain Qinzhou from the west flank, fearing that Wang Xiaoxian would coerce the Fengxiang army and civilians to flee into Longyou and join Li Yuanshou.

In that case, Li Yuanshou would not only have elite cavalry, but also infantry soldiers who were good at defending the city and building walled cities, as well as a large number of Han people who could forcibly move to the Hetao Plain for cultivation and craftsmanship.

It is very likely that its power will grow rapidly in the Hetao Plain and the Hexi region like the Mughal people ran Yanyun, and even if it costs several times the price, it may not be able to solve this hidden worry.

“…… The king will give the battle merits to Zhihe to get it, how can Zhihe be troubled? Li Zhihe strangled the reins and fought for half his life, which made his forty-year-old yellow thin face add many wrinkles like knives and axes, but it revealed the perseverance that was not afraid of the wind and cold, and he laughed with Feng Xuanlang, and also had an indescribable indifference.

"Father, the first battle will hit Daqiu Village, and the child will go with General Hou Mo!" Li Zhi, a young man who fled from Jinling with Su Hongyu in a hurry, has grown into a young general with a tiger's back and a bear's waist at this time, riding on the saddle with a sword in his hand, and asking Li Zhihe for battle.

Li Zhihe looked at Hou Mo, the leader of the Qiang tribe in Wuzhou, and said, "Hou General, the first battle still asks you to take care of Li Zhi more, don't ask him to cause you any trouble." ”

"Hou Mo still wants the young marshal to carry him, how dare he hold it up?" Hou Mo said.

"Li Zhi has been in Luoyang for more than two years, and they have learned some things, but the situation in Longyou is complicated, they are not familiar with the situation, and it is difficult to achieve great things simply by talking about books on paper," Li Zhihe said solemnly, "Forward soldiers and horses, you are the main general, you can accept their suggestions, but everything has to be decided by you; If Li Zhi does not obey the order, you will be punished by military law, and you don't have to leave me the slightest affection. And if there is a problem with the strikers, I will also ask you. ”

"Yes, Hou Mo obeyed the order!"

Li Zhi and Chai Jian's eldest son Chai Xun and others were selected to be transferred to Luoyang Military Academy for further study two years ago, but in order to strengthen the integration of the Qiang tribes in Wucheng and other places, Hou Mo and a group of leaders of the Qiang tribes rushed to Luoyang to accept Han Qian's summons long after the battle of Yiguan began.

Hou Mo thought that he would go to Luoyang for this reason, and it might be difficult for him to return to Longyou in his life as a hostage, but he didn't think that after arriving in Luoyang, he and a group of students from the military academy such as Li Zhi were assigned to the former affairs of the Wen Bo account of the forward battalion, and participated in the formulation and arrangement of the operational plan of the forward battalion staff for the middle and late stages of the war, which was very touching.

The battle lasted for 11 months, and the preparation of the soldiers and horses of Daliang was the ultimate in the world, whether it was the preparation of materials, the mobilization and assembly of generals, as well as the precise and meticulous topographic survey and intelligence collection before and after the war.

As a result, when the first battle of Yiguan took Yuanqu City in the early stage, it annihilated more than 30,000 elites of Tian Weiye's headquarters and enemy aids, and the total casualties of the Great Liang were only seven or eight thousand, of which nearly half were surrendered prisoners.

In this process, Wen Bo can be said to be not so much a faithful and precise executor as the intention of the General Staff, so that a famous general and veteran general like Tian Shouye has no room for struggle from beginning to end.

Studying at the Luoyang Military Academy and personally participating in the Battle of Yiguan, it can be said that Li Zhi, who was born in the standard general's family, has a new understanding of the war.

In the past, he was full of thoughts about leading an elite cavalry to break through the mountains and rivers of Helan, but at this moment, he is even more eager to lead a horse infantry equipped with well-equipped crossbows and armor to mediate with the Pingxia cavalry, who can be called the heroes of Hexi, to mediate on the Gobi Desert of Iron Horse Jinge.

Hou Mo is the same age as Li Zhihe, and the leaders of the Zhuqiang tribes in other large and small Wucheng prefectures, what they saw and heard after arriving in Luoyang, especially the last surprise attack on the Mongolian army by taking advantage of the fog, completely laid the foundation of the great victory of Yiguan, and the shock in his heart has not completely subsided at this time.

After returning this time, they re-commanded the 3,000-strong Chengwuqiang Cavalry Brigade, and the last bit of wandering thoughts in their hearts were also swept away.

At this time, several fast horses galloped from the rear, and when they saw that it was a letter rider coming from the direction of Datan City, the guards took them to Li Zhihe.

"Luoyang biography, please read it." The letter rider presented a secret letter.

Li Zhihe took it and glanced at it, then sighed lightly and handed it to Feng Xuan, Feng Yi and others for circulation.

Feng Yi has been staying in Longyou for the past two or three years, and his face is also dyed with a little bitter cold, seeing that it is written in the secret letter that Zhao Mengji has decided to surrender to Luoyang, and has recently placed Zhou Yuan, Lu Qingxia, Yao Xishui and others under house arrest, just waiting for the Longyou army to defeat the Pingxia Qiang cavalry from Qinzhou and block the passage for Wang Xiaoxian to flee westward, it will officially change the banner.

The garrisons of Huatong, Shangluo and Hejin are all standing still for the time being, and even Zhao Mengji's official flag surrender will be delayed as much as possible, all in order to block the passage of Wang Xiaoxian's westward escape.

However, the news that Zhao Mengji was under house arrest for Zhou Yuan, Lu Qingxia, Yao Xishui and others could not be concealed for too long, and Wu Su Dashi and Xiao Yiqing would soon find out that Zhao Mengji did not obey orders, and in fact, there would not be much time left for the Longyou Army.