Han Qian, Guo Liang, Li Chong and others rushed back to Canglang City at dawn.

At this time, the artisan camp was urgently building two temporary camps with wooden fence walls between Canglang City and Hanshui and Danjiang.

Nearly 200 people have been transferred to Canglang City for treatment, plus the subsequent grain gathering and transit, and the Canglang Tucheng built before is only a hundred steps square, accommodating thousands of people from the craftsman battalion, the Xuzhou battalion and the Zuosi scouts, which is already crowded.

At present, only logging can be used as a fence, and two waterfront camps can be enclosed with wooden fence walls.

Han Qian did not stay in Canglang City, and took Tian Cheng and others with him, so he and Guo Liang and Li Chong continued to follow the remnants of the western foot of Heilong Mountain and rushed to the Iron Crocodile Ridge.

Fortunately, Liang Jun did not continue to attack Iron Crocodile Ridge today.

Li Zhihe lost nearly 1,000 men in the Iron Crocodile Ridge in two days, but after all, he occupied a favorable terrain, and there was a remnant village that was better than nothing, and the casualties of the Liang army were twice as many as theirs.

Although the Liang army was fierce and brave, seeing that Li Zhihe's troops were so strong in the Iron Crocodile Ridge, no matter how many elites they had in their hands, they did not dare to continue to consume them in vain.

Han Qian rushed to the Iron Crocodile Ridge, and saw that the Liang army had more than 2,000 soldiers and horses, trampling on the remnants of snow and gathering at the bend of the Danjiang River more than ten miles away in the north, and it seemed that he wanted to build a camp next to the river beach.

Li Zhihe's more than 3,000 soldiers and horses were exhausted, and he was powerless to prevent the Liang army from approaching the Danjiang River to build a village, but the Danjiang River there was open, even if the Liang army camp was approaching the river beach, there was no way to block the open Danjiang waterway for several miles, and Han Qian was not worried that the Liang army had the ability to block the connection between Canglang City and Jingzikou through the waterway at this time.

In comparison, the mountains of the Iron Crocodile Ridge invade the Danjiang River, especially the section of the Danjiang River at the northern foot of the Iron Crocodile Ridge, which is only two or three hundred steps wide, which is much more dangerous than the mouth of the bay.

If the Iron Crocodile Ridge fell into the Liang army, the Liang army only needed to build a dozen or twenty catapults on the cliff of the Iron Crocodile Ridge, or then control the dangerous ridge on the opposite bank and pull an iron chain between the two banks, which would block the Danjiang River and make Jingzikou fall into a Jedi attacked on both sides.

The Dragon Bird Army did not want to retreat to the south bank of the Han River, which made Iron Crocodile Ridge a must-defend place for the Dragon Bird Army.

To a certain extent, the strategic position of Iron Crocodile Ridge is even more important than Jingzikou.

After all, after the loss of Jingzikou, the Liang army was directly threatened by the Iron Crocodile Ridge, and there was no way to directly build a material distribution wharf on the river beach ten miles away to the north to undertake the grain transported from Wuguan, and the Danjiang waterway was not completely controlled by the Liang army.

Li Zhihe's face was tired, his chin and cheeks were full of unshaved stubble, but he was a little rough.

When he saw Han Qian and them coming, he still cheered up and greeted him, and he was quite surprised to see Li Chong.

Han Qian told him about Shen Yang's proposition, and Li Zhihe nodded, and he had no objection to this.

In fact, Han Qian and Li Zhihe did not have the qualifications to stand on their own at this time, and it was beneficial for Han Qian and Li Zhihe to really introduce the secretary and Xu officials from the outside, and reduce the proportion of the Hou Yan of Xinchang Mansion among the generals and officials of the Longque Army.

Guo Liang didn't know that the relationship between Han Qian, Li Zhihe and Li Chong had become so complicated, and he was about to go to see the battlefield when he got off the horse.

He has given the death order, his 1,500 soldiers will march day and night, and they will be here tomorrow night, he is willing to obey Li Zhihe's moderation, but the soldiers and horses must be commanded by himself, and he needs to determine the location of camping and resisting the attack of the Liang army with Li Zhihe.

Li Zhihe didn't say much, so he accompanied Han Qian and them to see the battlefield that had been soaked in blood.

The Liang army threw thousands of corpses into a ravine on the east side of the remnant village, and hundreds of people were rushing to repair the remnant village, and at the same time began to dig a trench on the enemy side on the east side of the remnant village, so as to block the direct attack of the Liang army.

In addition to the previous 500 cottage people, Han Qian transferred 200 people from the artisan camp under the extremely tight manpower situation in Canglang City, giving priority to meeting the employment needs of the Iron Crocodile Ridge; The materials transported from Xuzhou are also a priority to ensure this.

"The Liang army used troops on the left flank so with the intention of occupying the Nanyang Basin for a long time?" Seeing a bloody battlefield that had not yet been cleaned up, Li Chong also realized that the Liang army's use of troops in the Dengxiang area this time was a little different from usual.

Previously, they, including the vast majority of Deng Xiang's defense envoys, thought that the Liang army's intention to start a war on the northern front this time was to occupy more territory at the northern foot of Tongbai Mountain, so as to control the upper reaches of the Huai River.

At this time, seeing Guo Liang and his subordinates running to the northwest side of the mountain to see the terrain on the left and right, Li Zhihe lowered his voice and said to Li Chong and Yao Xishui, who was dressed as a woman:

"Second brother and cherish water, can you understand my and Lord Han's hard work at this time?"

Li Zhihe said this, still wanting to ease the previous tense relationship, but Han Qian was indeed secretly happy.

Thanks to him, he persuaded Li Zhihe to forcibly abolish the control of Chai Jian, Zhang Ping, Li Chong and others over the three princes in time, ensuring that Li Zhihe's department was strengthened to the maximum during this time, and also enabled him to gather nearly a thousand cottage people in Canglang City as scheduled.

Otherwise, the two key points of Iron Crocodile Mountain and Canglang City, as soon as the Liang army came up, launched such a fierce surprise attack, it was unlikely that they would be able to defend it.

Li Chong was silent, but in retrospect, he was a little afraid, if it weren't for Han Qian and Li Zhihe to launch an army, he should also guard Jingzikou at this time, then he should be caught by the Liang army, whether he can successfully break through is really two words.

Yao Xishui raised her eyebrows slightly, and said: "What the eldest brother did, but it made my sister heartbroken, and I thought many times that my wife and the Hou Ye would ask me to come to Xiangzhou, and I decided that the eldest brother would not be so unkind-but I don't know if I should let my sister come?" ”

Seeing Yao Xishui mention Su Hongyu, Li Zhihe's eyelids twitched slightly, and Han Qian smiled in his heart.

In the past, Han Qian did not have much contact with Su Hongyu, but it can be seen that Su Hongyu has a deep affection for Li Zhihe.

However, even if Su Hongyu's past interactions with Li Zhihe were not necessarily a means for Mrs. Heisha and Xinchang Marquis Li Pu to control people's hearts, Yao Xishui said at this time that Su Hongyu might go to Xiangzhou City, so he must have useful intentions.

Han Qian was also worried that Li Zhihe might be indecisive, but seeing that Li Zhihe could defend the Iron Crocodile Ridge under the fierce attack of the elite of the Liang army, he secretly felt that Li Zhihe's will might be even firmer than he guessed.

It's no wonder that in another historical trajectory, those characters were wiped out in the chaos three or four years later, and Li Zhihe could still be active for so long!

Seeing Guo Liang coming back from inspecting the nearby terrain, Han Qian looked at the movements of the Liang army in the direction of Wankou and Neixiang City, and said to Li Zhihe and Guo Liang:

"No matter how the stall is cleaned up after the war, even if it is hired with heavy money, the Dragon Sparrow Army must recruit soldiers and horses from the cottage to supplement the loss of troops."

The special history of the Dengxiang area for nearly 100 years has made it possible to recruit at least 3,500 elite soldiers with extremely high literacy in the cottages within more than 100 miles of left and right.

Of course, forcibly ordering these elite cottage men to enlist in the army will only meet with strong resistance, so they can only fund recruitment.

Although the central army of Chu State implements the world military system and the local state battalions implement the conscription system, the conscription system is nothing new, and it only puts forward stricter requirements for military supplies.

Of course, no matter how big the hole may be after the war, the current defense of Iron Crocodile Ridge is the key and the most important thing.

Han Qian proposed that the soldiers were mainly to supplement the loss of the first capital, and Li Zhihe would not object.

Guo Liang walked left and right, and clearly realized that the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Capital led by him was not strong enough, and it was really difficult to withstand such a fierce battle, but the Iron Crocodile Ridge had to be defended, and he naturally hoped that the more soldiers and horses, the better.

As for money, food, supplies, and recruiting funds, it has never been something that their front-line generals need to consider.

Seeing that Li Zhihe and Guo Liang had no objections, Han Qian asked Li Zhihe to recruit the warriors from the cottage people he had previously transferred to Tie Crocodile Ridge, and even the two hundred prisoners with four surnames who were assigned to the artisan camp were also handed over to Li Zhihe as consumables, and said: "In order to raise funds for recruitment, we jointly wrote a letter and sent someone to Xiangzhou City as soon as possible, or we could find the third prince and Lord Shen to come forward as a guarantee to borrow the salt from the salt and iron prison in Xiangzhou - and the money for the purchase of salt was settled directly by the Linjiang money shop in Jinling to the salt and iron transfer envoy." ”

Between the mountains of Hanshui and Danjiang, salt is the hard currency.

Many cottages can basically be self-sufficient in food, there are also cottages to open iron mines, copper mines to cast ironware, trade with each other, although tea medicine is scarce, but it is not absolutely nothing, only salt must be purchased from the outside world, in the case of Chu and Shu to crack down on illegal salt, the price is unimaginable.

Han Qian went to the cottage to talk about recruiting soldiers and continuing to hire people, and other materials were not good for salt.

Han Qian immediately leaned against the remnant wall, wrote the letter, signed it with Li Chong and Guo Liang, and asked Li Chong to name the letter.

Han Qian did this, which could be regarded as respect for Li Chong's joining the army as a recorder, but the corners of Li Chong's mouth twitched.

Li Chong is not stupid, and at the same time, Han Qian has made any moves, he is almost used to thinking twice.

Han Qian supervised the purchase of salt from the Xiangzhou Salt and Iron Institute in the name of Zuo Si, but in the name of recruiting troops, this batch of salt was used, and finally the war was written off, so should it be written off at the price of salt purchased, or at the price of salt sales?

If the latter is the case, it is equivalent to doing nothing, and a large surplus has already been intercepted.

"Li joins the army, what do you think, could it be that there is a better strategy to hold this Iron Crocodile Ridge and let the Liang army retreat without a fight?" Han Qian cleared his throat and looked at Li Chong, who had been silent for a long time, and asked.

Seeing Li Zhihe and Guo Liang looking at each other, Li Chong woke up in shock, and knew that no matter what other details, winning the current battle first was the most important thing, even if he was extremely reluctant, he still picked up the pen and named the letter, and watched Han Qian send someone to send it to Xiangzhou City.