At this time, Luoyang did not have substantial control over Li Zhihe and the Liangzhou army, so that Li Zhihe led the Liangzhou army westward, and there was indeed a hidden worry that the tail of the Qiang tribe would not be able to fall, but in addition to Li Zhihe leading his troops to the west, it was indeed used to contain the enemy army in Guanzhong and suppress the rise of the Pingxia Department in Longyou, and the people in Luoyang, especially the generals who followed Han Qian all the way to today, have considerable self-confidence.

Therefore, Han Qian made a good decision on this issue, and even directly appointed Li Zhihe to serve as the envoy of Longyou, and the generals had nothing to strongly oppose, so they immediately sent officials to Liangzhou with a new engraved consolation envoy and the edict to Liangzhou to announce Li Zhihe's new appointment.

The armor and ordnance needed for the Liangzhou Army's Western Expedition also ordered the Military Staff Office to raise and transport it to Liangzhou as soon as possible after receiving the order from the three armor ordnance stations directly under the jurisdiction of the Southern Inner History Mansion and Shouzhou and Huaiyang.

In early November, Li Zhihe sent an envoy to Luoyang again, and sincerely asked Luoyang to send a prison army to guide the western expedition, Han Qian and Gu Qian, Feng Yi and they discussed again and again, and decided to appoint Feng Yi as the military envoy of Longyou, Lu Ze and Yang Qin's son Yang Mu and others as military officials, led 200 cavalry into Liangzhou, and cooperated with Li Zhihe to lead his troops west into Longyou.

While Wen Bo, Chen Kun, Feng Xuan, and others were responsible for gradually promoting the infiltration operation plan in Xiangshan and Wangwushan on the north bank of the Yu River, the Liangzhou Army's western expedition was also officially put on the agenda.

However, the matter of the clan and the noble personnel group suggesting the political yuan has set off a lot of waves in the hearts of the Luoyang generals.

In terms of the central power structure, the parliamentary yuan is similar to the menxia province, which is not unacceptable to the generals and ministers who are familiar with the previous dynasty and the origin of the Liang, Jin, Chu and Shu state systems, but the selection and appointment of officials in the parliamentary yuan is too different from the tradition.

However, to say that the generals and ministers rejected the new thing of the House of Representatives from the bottom of their hearts, it would never be enough.

In the final analysis, the appointment of the ministry is still in the hands of the emperor (the lord of the state), and the ministry is ultimately a tool used by the emperor to check and balance the Zhongshu province.

However, the new Senate is filled with clans and nobles, and the selection and appointment of senators is more stable and powerful than that of the traditional Menxia Province, and is less controlled by the emperor (the lord of the state), which determines that the council will eventually divide a considerable part of the final ruling power from the hands of the emperor (the lord of the state).

Han Qian wants to limit his authority, and it is shared by the clans and ministers who no longer serve as ministers, not to mention that Han Daoming and several old ministers such as Lei Jiuyuan and Wen Duqiao have actually assumed the role of senators, Gu Qian, Feng Yi, Guo Rong, and Han Yuanqi, Jing Hao, Gao Shao and other generals in the army, even if they think about the way out after they no longer serve as military and political officials, they will not oppose this matter.

In this way, within the framework of the House of Representatives, a certain degree of grace and shade can continue to be maintained, which is also desirable to all; Even this can be regarded as Han Qian's unremitting efforts to implement the new system over the years, and finally made some concessions at this time.

The selection of the Senate and the delineation of the first Senate are easy tasks, but the key is the selection of the subsequent Senate Ministers, the rules of procedure and the guiding principles of Senate and State Affairs, which involves an extremely complex new system, and no one can say that they have eaten the rules in a short period of time.

Han Qian was not in a hurry, and first gave Uncle Han Daoming the title of Senate Minister, and he and Zhu Juezhong, Lei Jiuyuan, Wen Duqiao, Xi Chang and others thought about this matter first; Even if the early framework is simpler, it is not a problem, and at this time, the follow-up gives him more room for adjustment.

What Han Qian was most concerned about at the moment was the progress of the war in all directions......

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Xiangshan stretches for more than 300 miles from east to west, there is a trap valley in Yuanqu County, Puzhou, so that the soldiers and horses can directly lead to the bank of the Yu River from the Fenshui River Valley, Xiangshan is also divided into the west section of Zhongtiao Mountain, the east section of Lishan, and then the east of Lishan is the Wangwu Mountain that protects the west of Mengzhou.

Zhongtiao Mountain, Lishan, Wangwu Mountain are like hundreds of miles of continuous barriers, standing on the north bank of the Yu River, protecting the Fenshui River Valley behind them, and facing each other across the river from Pishan and Songshan on the south bank.

In early October, the Yu River is turbid and reveals a little green and blue meaning, the north wind blows, has some bone-seeping chill, a tall figure stands on the riverside military fortress between Lishan and Zhongtiao Mountain, looking at the stretching mountain on the south bank.

I saw that this person was wearing a mountain armor in the scarlet coat, he was in his forties, with a red and broad face, and a short mustache that looked unusually brave, but Tian Weiye, as the first fierce general of the Mongolian army at this time, established so many military exploits, but did not rely on his personal bravery.

From the position where Tian Weiye stood, he could only see that on the Yu River on both sides, there were several teams of warships, trying to approach the north bank of the Yu River, risking damage to the wind on the shore of the ship, the warships forcibly docked, and a team of soldiers jumped off the boat like wolves and tigers, and went to the mountains to the north.

Whether it is Zhongtiao Mountain, Lishan, or even the Pishan Mountain on the south bank, the north slope is steep and the south slope is soothing, which leads them to cross the Yu River and directly attack the Pishan Mountain on the south bank, and it is extremely difficult to climb the Bishan Mountain from the north slope, while the Liang army crosses the Yu River from the south bank, and it is much easier to enter Lishan and Zhongtiao Mountain from the south slope.

And they wanted to clear the small Liang army that entered Lishan and Zhongtiao Mountain, and it was easier for the soldiers to enter the Yu River by warship, and then land on the southern slope of Lishan and Zhongtiao Mountain, than to attack directly from the northern slope.

"The Liang army only has more than 1,000 soldiers into Lishan and Xiangshan, and has been besieged for half a month, and now it has sent several times the soldiers and horses to clear it from the southern slope, strangling them is like strangling lice, why is Tian Shuai so worried?" A soldier saw Tian Weiye standing on top of the military fortress, frowning for a long time, and couldn't help asking.

"If only it were that simple!"

Tian Weiye shook his head, frowned at the brow that was broken by a scar, and said in a hoarse voice,

He Haishan and Zhehe regarded the flattering Zhou Yuan as a clown and despised him, but Zhou Yuan's words could not be heard. Han Qian and his father Han Daoxun were born in the mountainous and dangerous Xuzhou, and Zhou Yi and Chen Jingzhou were born in the mountains and bandits, like the rise of the Chishan Army in Jinling, relying on Maoshan Mountain to resist the elite of Chuzhou in the early days, and then retreating to Fuyu Mountain to gain a foothold, and finally reversing the chaos in Jinling, it can be seen that Han Qian and his troops attach great importance to the construction and attack and defense of mountain camps. After that, Tan Yuliang, Tan Xiuqun, Dong Tai, Dong Ping, Zhang Guangli, Zhang Guangdeng and other generals were instigated by Han Qian to form a cottage in the deep mountains and old mountains of Sizhou to launch a popular rebellion, so that the Sizhou Yang clan had nothing to do, and had to sit and watch Han Qian recruit Tan Yuliang and his troops - and when Han Qian entered Huaixi, he brought the mountain guerrilla warfare to the extreme. Look at the beam at this time

The army sent more than 1,000 soldiers into Lishan and Zhongtiao Mountains to toss, but I am worried that this is only the first step of the Liang army, it may be that they are not very familiar with the terrain, and it is very likely that they will send a large number of infiltration troops and horses to Lishan, Zhongtiao Mountain and Wangwu Mountain in the future......

Perhaps to verify Tian Weiye's words, at this time, I saw from a distance that in an inlet west of the south bank, several fast boats suddenly rowed out from among the reeds, and with the help of the current, they approached the north bank of the Yu River from the southwest to the northeast.

The location of these clippers on the shore was only seven or eight miles away from the riverside military fortress under their feet, at this time the sky was high and crisp, and the field of vision was scarce, Tian Weiye and his subordinates could see that there was a stream and ditch that was almost cut off after late autumn because of the decrease in rain, forming a gap on the north bank of the Yu River.

In less than a stick of incense, several clippers drilled into the ravine seven or eight miles to the west, and Tian Weiye also saw a group of Liang generals coming out of the mountains to meet these clippers.

Although they are in the Yu River waterway between Bishan and Xiangshan, there are thousands of sailors and one hundred and fifty or sixty large and small warships at this time, it is impossible to completely block this section of the Yu River that is more than 300 miles long, nor can they prevent these clippers from drilling through the gap of the blockade in time and crossing the Yu River, which is only more than three miles wide on the left and right, into the north bank.

Finally, more than a dozen large and small warships carrying hundreds of generals surrounded the past from both sides, but Tian Weiye saw that the Liang army that rushed to cross the Yu River had already taken the initiative to throw several fast boats directly into the stream ditch and set them on fire.

"Liang Jun's horses, could it be that they belong to monkeys, and they also went into the mountains?" Seeing this scene, a general behind Tian Weiye shouted depressedly.

"These are dwarf horses that have been transported from Guizhou, and they can't run fast, but they are used to taking narrow mountain paths." Someone familiar with the situation explained.

Tian Weiye frowned, this scene in front of him meant that Liang Jun could have completed the reconnaissance in the early stage, and at this time began to deliberately send more materials and men and horses to a certain point in Lishan or Zhongtiao Mountain to gain a foothold, and even did not hesitate to use these easy-to-build fast paddle boats as consumables.

Now their naval army still has an advantage in the Yu River, but after another month, the Yu River will be frozen.

They gave up the offensive against the Heluo area this winter, but the Liang army could put a large number of soldiers, horses, and materials into the Lishan, Wangwu Mountain, and Zhongtiao Mountains on the north bank, take root, and form strongholds, and wait until the Yuhe River thaws in February next year, is it still possible for them to successfully uproot these strongholds one by one?

In the first half of the year, from the Heluo war, Tian Weiye clearly understood that the opponent who was entrenched on the opposite bank at this time and did not retreat may be more difficult than Zhu Yu, which made him cast a shadow on the tug-of-war around Xiangshan in the future, and secretly felt that he had to make some preparations as soon as possible, so as not to completely fall into passivity.

"The generals of the Mengzhou Water Battalion have landed on the shore to chase and kill this Liang army, and it seems that Zhao Mengji's subordinates also clearly told the Liang army to burrow into the belly of Lishan and Wangwu Mountain, and it will not be good for them......" At this time, a subordinate reminded Tian Weiyedao.

Tian Weiye looked sideways and saw two or three hundred generals landing from the ravine, apparently trying to bite the Liang army just now and enter the mountain to clear it.

The Mengzhou water camp was controlled by Zhao Mengji.

In the early stage, the warships of the Mengzhou water camp were mainly responsible for blocking the waterway of the Yu River, but the generals of Mengzhou did not directly attack the small Liang army that had penetrated into the mountains from the south bank of Xiangshan and Wangwu Mountain, but only sent the Hejin defenders ashore with warships at the request of Tian Weiye.

It seems that Zhao Mengzhou has realized that it is extremely harmful to let the Liang army drill back and forth in Xiangshan and Wangwu Mountain on the north bank.

"Spread the flag, ask those dozen or so ships to come over here and pick up a team of our elite men and horses to assist in the battle!" Tian Weiye said.

The ravine was only seven or eight miles away from their side, but the terrain on the bank of the river in the middle was broken, and there was no complete road, so there was no way for their side to directly go over to reinforce the elite, and they needed warships to pick them up.

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Seeing that there were enemy troops chasing into the mountains in the rear, Chen Yuanchen sent a small group of men and horses to lead the western Yunnan horses to carry the materials into the depths of the ravine first, and he took more than 100 generals to stop in the valley.

The valley is not too steep and rugged, overgrown with shrubs, and separated by a dry ditch that carries floodwater.

After winter, there is no rain on the southern slope of Xiangshan for several days, and the dry ditch is full of dead leaves and pebbles.

The forest slopes on both sides of the dry ditch do not seem to be particularly steep, but the ridges and cliffs are intertwined with miscellaneous shrubs, and in comparison, the dry ditch full of dead yellow rotten grass leaves and pebbles is the most convenient passage for them to enter the mountain at this time, and it can be reluctantly climbed by people and horses.

The enemy army also pursued along the dry ditch.

When Chen Yuanchen was born, the Jingxiang area had not yet been incorporated into the territory of the Chu State, and many small separatist forces and the remnants of the Liumin Army were constantly fighting, and in the sixth to eighth year of Tianyou, the Jingxiang Prefectures were successively incorporated into the Chu State, and the big war stopped, but for the sake of the mountains on the west bank of the Danjiang River, in order to compete for the limited living space, the cottage forces were not peaceful among themselves.

Chen Yuanchen can be said to have grown up with the war since he was a child, and when the Jingxiang War broke out, he joined the Dragon Bird Army with his father Chen Jingzhou, and at the age of fifteen, he stood at the head of Xichuan City with a sword and bow in his hand, and participated in the extremely tragic Xichuan Guard.

Later, stationed in Junzhou to blockade the Wuguan Liang army, as well as the war of cutting the feudal domain, pacifying the rebellion in Jinling and other battles, although Chen Yuanchen served as a military attache of the guard beside his father Chen Jingzhou, but whenever he had the opportunity, he would rush to the front to participate in the battle, and he was one of the most courageous generals of the younger generation of the Shanzhai system.

After Emperor Yanyou ascended the throne in Jinling, Chen Jingzhou, Zhou Yi and other major generals of the cottage system were successively transferred out of the forbidden army system, although Chen Yuanchen still wanted to stay in the forbidden army as a general, but his brother was unfortunately killed by an arrow during the attack on Jinling City, he became the eldest son in the family, and needed to bear more responsibility.

At the same time, Emperor Yanyou was already quite suspicious of the cottage generals at that time, and he finally followed his father Chen Jingzhou to serve in Guangde Mansion, and then transferred to the Jinling Military Department as the director.

This time he went to Luoyang, Chen Yuanchen asked to serve in the front-line army, and after Han Qian consulted Chen Jingzhou's opinion, he took him to Wen Bo's side to serve as a senior member of the army.

The senior members of the camp joined the army and enjoyed the treatment of the deputy brigade commander, and he was already a middle-level and high-level general in the army, but Chen Yuanchen was unwilling to sit in the main general's tent around the sand table and the battle map to guide the war.

In the early stage, a small group of soldiers and horses had entered Xiangshan for more than half a month, and they had a more learned understanding of the complex terrain inside Xiangshan

The blockade sent supplies and manpower to the north bank, considering trying to find a foothold in the interior of Xiangshan and establish a stronghold, Chen Yuanchen asked to lead the team to the front line to grasp more detailed information.

At present, he is regarded as the highest-ranking general in the army to enter Xiangshan.

Watching the enemy rank and tail chase and kill, Chen Yuanchen calmly squatted behind a two-foot-high mountain rock, and took the spring-arm crossbow carried by the guard beside him.

This special spring-arm crossbow, although it is a single crossbow, weighs fifty pounds for a crossbow.

The elite infantry in the army carries a weight of 80 catties, and the mountain combat carries a weight of 50 catties.

Chen Yuanchen had the power to bind the ox when he was a teenager, and he could shoot a three-stone super strong bow and shoot at an enemy of 300 steps, which can be called a miracle skill in the army, but the newly created spring arm crossbow of the Ordnance Institute has a crossbow power of up to five stones, and can shoot a special long crossbow arrow to kill the enemy 400 steps away.

Compared with the heavy spring-arm bed crossbow, it is incorporated into the battle formation, focusing on suppressing the enemy's cluster attack, or shooting at the enemy's large weapons or larger targets such as city towers and towers, which do not have high requirements for accuracy, but the requirements for accuracy of individual spring-arm crossbows are extremely high.

Each individual spring arm crossbow needs to be carefully calibrated for a long time in the later stage of production, and at present, only dozens of crossbows are trial-produced for front-line combat troops, and even the official model and name have not been determined.

To be honest, the accuracy of this kind of individual crossbow is still a little unsatisfactory, but when Chen Yuanchen knew that the range of this kind of individual crossbow was as high as 400 steps, he was also speechless for a long time.

At the same time, he knew how significant it was to fight in the rugged mountains, and how significant it was that this one-man crossbow could make the enemy feel insecure four or five hundred paces away.

He directly suggested that Wen Bo take out all the spring arm crossbows and equip them with soldiers and horses to infiltrate the battle in Xiangshan, without particularly caring whether these weapons would be captured by the enemy.

The enemy pawn chased after him four hundred paces away, because of the complicated terrain, the array was relatively scattered, and the enemy pawn in the front was also quite relaxed, obviously not realizing what threat there would be from such a distance.

Chen Yuanchen did not hurry to pull the thin wire rope string apart with the gear winch, loaded the two-foot-long special long crossbow arrow into the arrow magazine, and stabilized the trembling crossbow body as much as possible when pulling the machine.

After a period of panic, the enemy quickly became vigilant, raised heavy shields in front of them to find cover, and also tried to speed up the pursuit, rather than slowly pulling away and hanging behind to find a hole in this side.

However, the ditch was full of rocks, the enemy was holding heavy shields high, and the threat of such long-range crossbows did not make the climb up the ditch much faster.

Chen Yuanchen did not hurry or slow to shoot four arrows in a row with a single soldier spring arm crossbow, injuring two people, and one of the enemy guards' face was directly shot through by the powerful crossbow arrows, at this time more than 300 enemy soldiers only advanced 200 steps away.

In addition to the special individual spring arm crossbow in Chen Yuanchen's hand, the soldiers around him were also equipped with more than 50 arm crossbows.

The effective range of this kind of arm crossbow still reaches the standard of the military strong bow, reaching one hundred and thirty paces, and it is more advantageous to be condescending, it can already be said to reach the standard of the heavy crossbow, but it is well-cast, and the lightly armored generals can bear it into the mountains to fight.

Chen Yuanchen commanded these heavy crossbowmen to divide into three teams, taking turns to go down the dry ditch, closing the distance with the enemy and shooting, alternately suppressing the enemy soldiers in the dry ditch below, buying more time for the supplies to be transported into the mountain.

The enemy saw that it was difficult to force the dry ditch, and regardless of the danger of the dense forests and slopes on both flanks, they immediately divided their troops to the two flanks, thinking of taking advantage of the numerical advantage to pinch from the flanks and suppress Chen Yuanchen and them.

Chen Yuanchen led his generals to retreat while fighting, avoiding entanglement as much as possible.

When encountering terrain on both flanks that is difficult to climb, Chen Yuanchen will also lose no time in organizing men and horses, fighting one or two counterattacks, and killing the enemy troops who are chasing after him in a scattered manner.

Unconsciously, they zigzagged and walked more than ten miles in the mountains, climbing more than 200 zhang high, but the first mountain crest had not yet climbed to the top, and the Yuhe River had fallen far away at their feet.

More than twenty soldiers were shot dead or wounded along the way, and the speed became slower, and at this time they were far behind, but they did not retreat.

The mountain is very long and narrow, and the north-south direction is quite thin.

In terms of Chen Yuanchen's position, there are only two mountain ridges in the north and south, and the south mountain ridge is the southern slope, which is said to be a gentle terrain, but the average height of the Nanshan ridge is still 300 zhang high from the water surface of the Yu River, and the north mountain ridge is 100 zhang higher, and the canyon in the middle is also extremely steep.

In the early stage, the people who entered Xiangshan found a village that had been abandoned for a long time in the halfway up the mountain behind the ridge of Nanshan, thinking that they could establish a stronghold there.

Turning over the ridge gap at the top of the dry ditch, along a wild path close to the cliff, Chen Yuanchen saw the abandoned cottage hidden in the mountain col.

In the peaceful and prosperous era, Chen Yuanchen secretly felt that this place can be said to be a good paradise, there is a living spring on the back wall of the cottage that flows endlessly in winter, and there is a gentle slope in the west that can reclaim more than 100 acres of slope fields, and more than a dozen families have no problem living and reproducing here.

The key Liang and Jin have been fighting around Xiangshan for many years, and some necessary living materials from the outside world cannot be transported in, and all the survival needs can be met by cultivation alone; Besides, Liang Jin would have a small group of scouts break in from time to time, and it was impossible to disturb the mountain people.

Even if they want to escape the war, not many people will choose this kind of Xiangshan Mountain, which is narrow in the north and south, sandwiched between the defense line of the two countries.

Chen Yuanchen brought over a deputy battalion commander and two team members who had gathered in advance, and said: "The enemy army is quite entangled this time, even if we can hold this remnant village, most of us can't ask them to withdraw - the enemy army is very likely to camp in the mountain ridge gap or in the col with relatively stable terrain on the south side of the mountain ridge, in an attempt to block us here." We need to build a defense at the ridge to prevent them from gaining a foothold on the southern flank, and if we can't do that, or if we need to pay a lot of casualties to do so, we can't choose this remnant of the village, where the exit is easily blocked, as a stronghold......"

The goal of establishing a stronghold is not only to be easy to defend and difficult to attack, but also to provide various supports for the soldiers and horses scattered into Xiangshan to carry out infiltration operations.

This remnant village is in danger, but as long as the enemy occupies the mountain ridge gap on the side of the ground, the only cliff path in and out of the cottage will be blocked, so to establish a stronghold here, first consider holding the mountain ridge gap together, and consider whether there is a second alternative address nearby that can be withdrawn.

Of course, they also had to take into account how determined the enemy was to attack the stronghold, which required actual engagement to figure it out............