Bishan is the remaining vein of Qinling, the branch vein of Cuishan, from east to west, where 33 peaks and ridges, through Gongxian, Yanshi, Mengjin, Luoyang, Xin'an, Mianchi six counties, more than 380 li, across the south bank of the Yu River, the north wing of the Heluo Basin, looking at Xiangshan (Zhongtiao Mountain) in the north.

The terrain of the mountain is not much precipitous, the mountain range is about more than 100 zhang at the high and dangerous place, on the whole, the mountains on the east and west sides are towering and steep, and the middle mountain is relatively gentle, but the mountain shape is slow in the south and dangerous in the north, and it is close to the Yu River, so that the enemy ship is difficult to cross.

At the beginning of February, the Yu River was still firmly sealed by the ice cap, Han Qian and Guo Rong, Feng Yi, Wen Bo and others stood on the mountain ridge at the head of the east of Pishan, with the help of the lookout glass, you can see that the north bank is controlled by the enemy in the city of Mengzhou, in addition to tens of thousands of soldiers and horses have been assembled and stationed, there are also a large number of boats and boats in the north side of the naval army Dazhai.

Seeing this scene, Guo Rong said with emotion: "The Mengwu people have long been preparing to wait for Emperor Xianwu to die, and then in addition to making the Eastern Liang army enter the Tiger Prison Pass from Xingyang, and making Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye lead their troops to attack Tongguan and Huazhou, they will gather a group of soldiers and horses in Mengzhou and cross the Yu River from Mengzhou to attack Yanshi, Mengjin, Gongxian and other places!" ”

Although the main force of the enemy army in Mengzhou was assembled from Huaiwei, Luze and other prefectures in the past half a month, after the summer and autumn of last year, the Mengwu people built a naval army village in Mengzhou and assembled large-scale boats and boats for drills.

It's just that the river on the north bank is currently blocked by ice, and these boats are temporarily useless.

However, in another half a month to a month, the north will also gradually warm up, and when the ice of the Yu River and Luoshui River melts, these boats and boats assembled by the enemy army on the north bank will be able to play a role.

And because Heluo had been occupied by Liang Shixiong before, and the Wei River and the Yuhe Hejin area west of Hangu Pass at this time completely fell into the hands of the Mengwu people, so that the boats and boats in Heluo, Jingwei and other places were either destroyed by the rebels or taken away by the enemy.

It is now difficult to find even a few fishing boats in the Heluo area.

After the Yu River burst its embankment, the water invaded the Jialu River from the open and shallow floodplain on the west bank and then went south into the Shaying River, which determined that as long as Xingyang was under the control of the enemy, the Yu River embankment was not blocked, and the sluice of the Jialu River connecting the Yu River was not repaired, and the warships of the Tangyi Navy could not directly enter the Yu River from the Shaying River and the Jialu River.

Han Qian had already mobilized a group of engineers to organize the construction of a shipyard on the shore of Yique Lake in the west of Luoyang City.

However, even if there is a special process for felling and harvesting large trees, it does not need to be treated for several years according to the traditional process before it can be used, and even if the generals, soldiers, boatmen, and sailors of the navy can be transferred from Huaixi, it is possible to build all kinds of warships and form a naval army that can resist the enemy's invasion of the Yiluo River valley and have combat effectiveness, and it will not be possible until the autumn at the earliest.

They still seem to have 80,000 soldiers and horses in Heluo, and even more than 200,000 strong men and horses in the Heluo area that can be mobilized, but before the two armies are integrated, the new system is implemented, and the weak, mostly wounded and sick Liang generals are fully rested, they are not able to launch a decent counteroffensive, and even have to withstand the enemy's initial offensive before they can be regarded as having a preliminary foothold in the Heluo area.

In addition to Kong Xirong's absorption of Li Qi's troops and the remnants of Yongzhou, he had to take on the important task of containing the main force of the enemy army in Guanzhong from the southern flank from the direction of Shangluo and Lantian, Han Qian also ordered Feng Xuan to lead his troops into the Tiger Prison Pass in the east of Gongxian County, block the offensive of the Eastern Liang armies such as Xingyang and Bianjing from the east, and ordered Zhou Yi to lead his troops to enter Tongguan and resist the enemy's offensive from Hejin and Yongzhou with Jing Zhen, who was stationed in Huazhou City.

However, in addition to the defensive deployment of the eastern and western flanks on the northern front, the gap that is most vulnerable to enemy attack at present is the Yiluo River estuary area between Bishan and Hugao Pass.

The Yichuan River and Luoshui have their own sources, but they merge into the Yiluo River in Yanshi County, northeast of Luoyang City, and join the Yu River (Yellow River) from the territory of Gong County, and form a flat and open alluvial plain of the lower reaches of the Yiluo River in Gong County.

At present, they have no naval force in the Yiluo River, and they cannot prevent the enemy's warships from entering the Yiluo River directly after the ice melts, so it is difficult to prevent the cavalry and foot soldiers of the Mughal people from landing on both sides of the Yiluo River estuary, and then advance along the Yiluo City to Yanshi and Luoyang, and isolate the Tiger Prison Pass to the east of the Yiluo River and become an isolated city.

Han Qian turned to look behind him at Wen Bo, Han Yuanqi, Chen Kun, Su Lie, Xue Chuan, Han Donghu and other generals and said:

"The momentum of the Mughal people is extremely strong at this time, but whether they can keep the enemy out of the mouth of the Yiluo River and make it impossible for them to extend their tentacles directly into Heluo not only determines whether we can successfully gain a foothold in Heluo, but also determines the rise and fall of the Qiqi of the Muguls - Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing must also know this truth very well, and the generals must be ready to be shrouded in horse leather on the banks of the Yiluo River! And I will also set up the big tent in the mountains at the eastern foot of the mountain, and you don't persuade me to withdraw the big tent to Luoyang City, if I have to withdraw to Luoyang City, Luoyang City will not be able to hold ......."

In addition to the soldiers and horses used by Feng Xuan and Zhou Yi to strengthen the defense of the two flanks of Heluo, Han Qian currently deployed the 8,000 elites of the two brigades of Su Lie and Xue Chuan led by Wen Bo and the 20,000 infantry and cavalry of Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun in the area on both sides of the Yiluo River to guard the northern gate of Luoyang.

In addition, there are 3,000 guards and cavalry led by Han Donghu, Huo Li, and Shi Ruhai who will defend his tent at the eastern foot of Pishan Mountain.

In a short period of time, the enemy army only gathered 40,000 soldiers and horses in Mengzhou City on the opposite bank to attack the Yiluo estuary area, and they were not at a great disadvantage in terms of strength, but the problem was that after the Yuhe River thawed, the enemy army had a large number of soldiers and horses in the pass, and it was difficult to expand on Huazhou, Tongguan and Lantian Pass.

In the past, Tangyi used to take advantage of the convenience of waterways and rivers to quickly assemble and mobilize troops and horses to attack the enemy, but at this time, the situation was reversed, and it felt naturally very passive.

The only thing that can give people a little peace of mind is probably their defensive advantage.

Don't say that there are many walled cities on both sides of the Yiluo River, Pishan is the place where the feng shui dragon is prosperous in the north wing of Heluo, and countless princes and nobles have been buried in it for thousands of years, so that the southern slope of Bishan has been excellently developed, and the roads between the mountains on the southern slope extend in all directions.

Only the Xixuan Temple built four or five hundred years ago at the eastern foot of Pishan Mountain and during the Northern Wei Dynasty is very spectacular in scale.

Xixuan Temple is a temple community composed of three large temples of Wolong Temple, Lotus Temple, Pujing Temple and two small temples of Yongle Temple and Yongfu Temple.

After Liang Shixiong withdrew from Heluo in November last year, Zhu Yu immediately led Chen Kun to lead his troops into Xixuan Temple, and requisitioned the people's military forces to transform Xixuan Temple into a military garrison fortress on the west bank of the Yiluo River.

This has formed favorable conditions for the southern slope of the mountain to be guarded, and the soldiers and horses can enter and exit conveniently.

Even if the enemy's elite army is strongly inserted into the north bank of the Yiluo River, the defenders of Heluo can make better use of the favorable terrain of the mountain to transport counterattack troops to the mouth of the Yiluo River.

When the war is unfavorable, the defenses on both sides of the Yiluo River, which have no danger to defend, can even be temporarily abandoned and shrink the troops to the west and south, but the mountains at the eastern foot of the Yiluo River on the west bank of the Yiluo River must be defended to the death.

Han Qian did not retreat to Luoyang City to sit in front of the town, but set up a big tent at the eastern foot of Pishan Mountain, that is, to win the defensive battle at the mouth of the Yiluo River at all costs.

Even if he could not compete with the Mengwu people in the plain area on the north bank of the Yu River in a short period of time, he sent soldiers and horses into Xiangshan, and brought into play the superior tactics of the Tangyi army over the years of relying on the mountains for the city and fighting according to the mountains, so that the north could threaten the Hejin area controlled by the enemy, and to the east it could threaten the Menghuai area controlled by the enemy.

After Zhu Yu died of illness, Han Qian returned to Luoyang City and stayed for two days, meeting with more generals in the Heluo area, and running non-stop between Yiluo and Pikuo, depending on the terrain defense, and at this time in front of the Tiger Prison Pass, Feng Xuan and the Eastern Liang Army had started a small-scale contact war, and the enemy army in Mengzhou City on the north bank was also ready to move.

At present, the ice of the Yu River is still quite thick, and it is obvious that the enemy army in Mengzhou will directly step on the ice and insert it into the mouth of the Yiluo River, and will not wait for the ice to melt before crossing it by boat.

"Li Zhihe didn't choose to defect to the Mengwu people at a difficult moment, Liangzhou and Sichuan Shu don't have to worry, but there are too many variables between Jianghuai," Han Qian turned to look at Guo Duanduo, Wen Ruilin and the others and said, "When you set off to the south today, the most important thing to pay attention to is the movement of the Chuzhou army - under the instigation of the Mughu, it cannot be ruled out that Yang Yuanyan has the possibility of jumping off the wall in a hurry......"

Even if it is subservient, it is only in name.

No matter what the outcome of the follow-up negotiations is, and no matter what the new capital is determined to be in Luoyang, the follow-up Liyang Academy, the central institutions of the Establishment Mansion, as well as Wang Jun, Zhao Ting'er, Xi Ying and other women will come to Luoyang to meet Han Qian, but the status of Liyang and Donghu will not be weakened too much.

Han Qian also decided to take Liyang, Donghu, Shiquan, Wushou, Tangyi and other places as the core, and included Chaozhou and Chuzhou on both wings, and divided them into a separate administrative region.

This area will not only be the core area for the development of industry, mining, commerce and trade by the New Liang State in the past few years, but also for a long time in the future, and the most important tax source of the New Liang State.

Han Qian decided to directly set up a dispatched agency directly under the Luoyang Central Government in Donghu to be responsible for the military and political affairs of the region.

This time, a large number of Tangyi generals and middle and senior generals went north, and Han Qian also had to select a group of generals from Heluo to go south, so as to accelerate the integration of the two armies.

Wen Ruilin has been lurking in Chu for a long time, and Guo Duanduo has been mainly responsible for the communication between Liang and Chu in the past two years, and the first batch of officials who went south from Heluo to join the Southern Division were also headed by the two of them.

Guo Duanduo has had more opportunities to meet with Han Qian in the past two years, and he is also one of the most resolute officials in Liang Guo to welcome Han Qian. Wen Ruilin's scalp was a little numb, and he was even worried about whether the remnants of the Five Teeth Army would have someone who hated the old things and came over to assassinate him.

Wen Ruilin was also a stalwart general in Liang State, but he only learned about Chan Rang after Han Qian arrived in Luoyang, although half a month had passed, the shock in his heart had not completely disappeared.

He was so shocked, which showed how strong the shock in the hearts of the low-level generals of the Liang army would be.

In this case, it was hard for Wen Ruilin to imagine that Han Qian would make the decision to defend the mouth of the Yiluo River, but he thought about it carefully, although it was difficult to hold the mouth of the Yiluo River in this situation, if he gave up the mouth of the Yiluo River this spring and allowed the enemy army to advance to Luoyang City, wouldn't it make the hearts of the people of Heluo become more hesitant and wavering, so that the integration of the two armies could not be carried out at all in the Heluo area?

From this point of view, whether it is Chan Rang, the integration of the two armies, and the stubborn defense of the mouth of the Ilo River, it is really consistent.

Only by surviving the difficulties can the situation be stabilized.

Wen Ruilin thought about how to show his loyalty, which was just right, but he heard the sound of a horn from the north, and they all turned their heads to look over, and saw soldiers and horses like ant colonies rushing out of the walled city on the periphery of Mengzhou City.

Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun didn't have much nonsense, and after saluting Han Qian, they hurried to the camp on the west bank of the Yiluo River to preside over the battle.

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Xiao Yiqing urgently entered Yongzhou on the 15th of the first month, met with Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye, arranged the military deployment of the western wing, and he even rushed to Qizhou in person to meet with Wang Xiaoxian, the Marquis of Wei.

However, he did not stay on the Western Front for too long, whether Wang Xiaoxian agreed to lead his troops to attack Lantian Pass, or Tian Weiye was responsible for attacking Huazhou, and Wang Yuankui was responsible for leading his troops to cross the river from Hejin to attack Tongguan, he did not have to worry too much about the war arrangement.

In fact, due to the limitations of the terrain, after the incorporation of Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian's troops, their troops and horses on the western flank expanded to 130,000 people, but they could not effectively expand against Lantian, Huazhou and Tongguan.

Considering that Zhao Mengji, Wang Xiaoxian, and Han Qian deployed 60,000 soldiers and horses on the western flank, they had no way to draw a large number of troops and horses from the western flank to strengthen the offensive on the northeast flank.

Although Xiao Yiqing went to Yongzhou in the hope of persuading Zhao Mengji to lead his troops to transfer to Mengzhou, Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian and their troops occupied the three prefectures of Fengqi and Qin in the past two years, and the ration supply could only maintain one-third of the normal.

At present, Wang Xiaoxian can only agree to participate in the attack on Lantian Pass on a small scale, and Zhao Mengji's troops want to transfer eastward, and under the condition that the follow-up grain supply is sufficient, they need to rest for at least two months before it is possible to restore a certain combat effectiveness.

Even if everyone knows very well in their hearts, the real offensive, in addition to urging Liang Shixiong to lead his troops from Xingyang to attack the Tiger Pass, is mainly to gather troops and horses from Mengzhou and attack Gongxian, Yanshi and other areas on both sides of the lower reaches of the Yiluo River on the other side of the Yu River.

From the moment when Wen Bo led his troops to abandon Dan County, crossed Yingshui, and entered Heluo through the Songnan Plank Road, Xiao Yiqing realized that his previous advocacy of Liang Shixiong's remnants to abandon Luoyang, Yanshi and other cities, and retreat east to Xingyang and Bianjing to rest and recuperate, was probably the biggest mistake he had made since the southern invasion of the Mengwu army.

He advocated that the remnants of Liang Shixiong withdraw from Heluo, of course, not sympathetic to the difficulties and heavy casualties of the Eastern Liang army in defending the remnants.

The reason why he and Wusu Dashi both wanted to ask Liang Shixiong to lead the remnants to withdraw first, in fact, they wanted to wait for the death of Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang, and then the descendants of the Mengwu people would take Luoyang and other cities, so as to justifiably incorporate Heluo, a very critical area, into the direct territory of the Mengwu Empire.

No one in this world wants to be a puppet through and through, Zhu Rang bowed down to Mengwu at this time, but after the Eastern Liang army captured Heluo, its strength became further stronger, will it continue to be willing to be under their control, and have no ambition to break away from their control?

This is a problem that Xiao Yiqing and Wusu Dashi had to consider, so they finally decided to ask Liang Shixiong to withdraw first in November last year, instead of continuously sending additional troops and horses to defend Luoyang, Yanshi and other remnants.

They even considered the possibility that the remnant Liang and the Tangyi army would merge, and considered the possibility that after Zhu Yu's death, the matter of Heluo would be handed over to Han Qian, so Wusu Dashi also secretly ordered Tian Weiye to leave a way for Zhu Zhen, the king of Liangluo, to survive when he attacked Yongzhou City, otherwise they would not even be able to defeat the Lantian Pass on the southern wing of Yongzhou.

But how could they not have thought that when Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang, when his eldest son Zhu Zhen was still in Shangluo commanding the army, he would resolutely make the generals directly welcome Han Qian as the new master?

Because Zhu Zhen stayed in Shangluo and did not return to Luoyang, they even mistakenly thought that Zhu Yu's body would not collapse so quickly, so that they regrouped their troops and horses on both flanks of Heluo, and they were also a little slower.

They were originally able to unite with the Eastern Liang army to hold Luoyang, Yanshi, Gongcheng, Hujiaoguan, and Mengjin at a relatively low cost, but the mistake of this crucial decision forced them to pay several times more casualties this time before it was possible to recapture these walled cities.

Xiao Yiqing and Wusu Dashi stood side by side on the Mengzhou City Tower with a solemn expression, looking at the banner display between the mountains on the south bank, which can be clearly identified from the shape of the armor and the color of the uniform, there are a large number of elite soldiers of the Tangyi army stationed in the meantime, and in the southeast of the Tiger Prison Pass, the elite soldiers stationed in Tangyi have been fully replaced.

The battle in front of the Tiger Prison Pass was in full swing three days ago.

Tiger Prison Pass is sandwiched between the Songshan Yu River Xiongguan, only ten miles away from the mouth of the Yiluo River in the west, and then only fourteen or fifteen miles away from Xixuan Temple in the west, the geographical location is extremely important, but it is located in the hinterland of the Liang State for a long time, after the establishment of the Liang State, it is only repaired according to the general scale, and it has experienced many major battles in the past two years, and the Guancheng is quite dilapidated.

Feng Xuan guarded the Tiger Pass, knowing that he could not ask the Eastern Liang army to display the whirlwind cannon and other siege weapons, so the enemy army approached from the east, he did not simply defend the city, but sent troops and horses, relying on the city to fight, and resolutely did not let the enemy army approach the city within a thousand steps to set up camp.

Limited by the narrowness of the Songnan plank road, in order to ensure the rapid passage of soldiers and horses, Feng Xuan led his troops into Heluo, and almost all the heavy weapons were temporarily left in Xia Cai and other places, and the soldiers only carried their armor and rode on horseback, and even from Ruzhou to Yichuan This section of the road, mainly on foot.

However, the enemy army could not set up camp in front of the Tiger Prison Pass, nor could it push heavy weapons into the battlefield, as one of the most elite heavy armored infantry brigades in Tangyi, it only took three days to kill the Eastern Liang army crying father and mother.

The reversal of the offensive and defensive situation has too great an impact on the generals of both sides.

The defenders of Xingyang have also been fighting hard for many years, not to mention the broken armor, the proportion of wounded and sick in the army is extremely high, and the condition is not much better than that of the Western Liang army, especially this part of the Liang army withdrew from the Tiger Prison Pass and returned to Xingyang to rest for less than two months, and then they had to attack the Tiger Prison Pass in turn, and the morale was even more bleak.

Xiao Yiqing didn't expect the Xingyang defenders to win any decisive victory at the beginning, but he didn't expect that the combat strength would be so weak.

Due to the rugged terrain at the northern foot of Songshan Mountain, there is no space for cavalry to intersperse on a large scale, and Xiao Yiqing can only hope that Liang Shixiong will advance steadily and steadily from attacking Tiger Pass from the east flank.

In the end, they still had to fight from the fourteen or fifteen mile wide gap between the Tiger Prison Pass and the Xixuan Temple along the banks of the Yiluo River.

After Mengwu captured Yanyun, he operated for more than ten years, although he did not invade the south on a large scale before, but in addition to the cavalry, he also formed a huge infantry pawn, and his combat effectiveness was tempered during the attack on the Bohai Kingdom, and after absorbing the Bohai soldiers, before this southern invasion, it was expanded to 100,000 soldiers and horses.

This is also the elite of the Mengwu lineage in addition to the cavalry.

Although the time was short, by this time they had also gathered 20,000 cavalry and 20,000 Yanyun infantry soldiers in Mengzhou, and recruited 40,000 strong people from Taiyuan, Shangdang, and Heshuo.

The soldiers are fast, especially the matter of Chan Rang makes the hearts of Heluo and the old Liang army float, whether it is Xiao Yiqing or Wusu Dashi, they will not delay until the ice of Yu, Luo and other rivers completely melt before launching an offensive.

In that case, it would give Han Qian at least a month's respite.

More than 10,000 armor soldiers and cavalry have sent troops from the walled city on the south wing of Mengzhou City, and soon under the command of the forward generals, they were assembled and divided into three roads, stepping through the ice of the Yu River, and advancing to the plain on the west side of the Tiger Prison Pass on the south bank of the Yu River and the east bank of the Yiluo River, but the Liang army on the south bank, in addition to the defenders in the Tiger Prison Pass, did not move, and the soldiers and horses of the Zhuzhai distributed along the northwest foot of Songshan Mountain in the southwest of the Tiger Pass and the soldiers and horses of the Zhuzhai on the east bank of the Yiluo River were also dispatched in the sound of war drums that shook the sky, divided into several roads, and advanced near the embankment on the south bank of the Yu River.

Even if Xiao Yiqing and Wusu Dashi stand on the Mengzhou City Tower nearly 20 miles away, looking through a lookout glass, they can clearly distinguish that the Tangyi army is mainly from the direction of Xixuan Temple in the west wing, and the Han Yuan Qi division of the old Liang army is mainly from the northwest foot of Songshan in the east wing.

The total size of the Liang army's troops this time was even lower than theirs, around 16,000 people, and it was obvious that Han Qian also intended to keep enough reserve soldiers and horses at this time to watch the changes in the battlefield.

The cavalry of the Liang army was small in size, and did not advance directly and quickly to the area along the Yu River, but spread along the hills on both flanks to prevent their cavalry forward troops from occupying the hilly terrain on both flanks, and both sides handed over the core combat mission of the battle to the foot soldiers entering the plain on the west bank of the Yiluo River.

Soon, nearly 40,000 soldiers and horses on both sides were divided into several roads, as if the three-color torrent was colliding on the battlefield distributed in east and west on the south bank, stirring up waves of iron and blood......