Hanzhong is located in Qinling, Bashan two mountains surrounded by two mountains, the former dynasty set up Liang, Jin two states, a hundred years of war spread, the two states of more than a dozen counties were tragically destroyed several times.

At the beginning of Wang Jian's rise to Sichuan and Shu, the situation in Liangzhou was slightly better, and Jinzhou, east of Liangzhou and west of Junzhou, had less than 3,000 registered households, which was even more bleak than Junzhou before the Jingxiang War.

Wang Jian operates northern Sichuan, mainly to the Liangzhou city as the core of the Hanzhong Basin to relocate and fill in Dingkou, more than 20 years of Liangzhou households barely increased to 1230,000 mouths, but Jinzhou has only never been reset, only on the east side of the Hanzhong Ping Basin, according to Shiting, Han yīn, Xicheng, Xunyang four remnants of the city set up a military wall, by the Liangzhou defense embassy sent soldiers to garrison, guarding the border of the northern line of Chu and Shu.

The center of gravity of Shu's defense has always been on the northern front, with Liangzhou and Lizhou forming two defense lines to defend Shuzhong, especially after the Liang army captured Guanzhong, Shu will be the most elite left and right Huangtou Army, left and right Wuxin Army are stationed on these two lines of defense.

In this Northern Expedition of Lianchu, in addition to the Heiyun Army led by Wang Xiaoxian, Marquis of Wei, and the soldiers and horses recruited from Zhuzhou, the Huangtou Army and the Wuxin Army on these two lines of defense were the mainstay, and a total of 70,000 soldiers were gathered to attack Qizhou, Fengzhou, the southwest of Yongzhou, and the western part of Shangzhou in Guanzhong from the four passages of Baoxu and Chencang.

At this time, there were only more than 10,000 garrisons in Lizhou and Liangzhou, and the four military villages east of Liangzhou, Shiting, Han Yīn, Xicheng, and Xunyang, after the garrisons were transferred, also dropped to only maintain a warning strength of three to five hundred.

The Hanzhong Basin, where Liangzhou is located, is more than 200 miles long from east to west, and more than 10 to 30 miles long from north to south, and is an alluvial plain with complete topography.

The Han River flows through the basin from the west to the east, the river channel is wide, and the water flow is gentle, but after entering the territory of the old Jinzhou from the east mouth of the Hanzhong Basin, the waterway is sandwiched by the mountains on both wings, and it shrinks sharply to the previous two-third, even in the dry season of autumn and winter, the water flow is extremely turbulent.

Even if the Shu army did not set up barrage cables at the key points of the Han River, these restrictions also made it difficult for hundreds of small sailing boats to quickly pass through the blockade of Xunyang, Han Yiīn and other villages built on the shore, and directly break into the hinterland of the Hanzhong Basin.

To attack the Hanzhong Basin, Xunyang, Xicheng, Han Yīn, Shiting four villages are unavoidable obstacles, only to capture these four military villages distributed along the Han River, only more than 1,000 slender men to take the plank road on the shore, the fleet can quickly pass through this turbulent river section.

On the afternoon of the eighth day of the first month, at the head of the east city of Xunyang, more than a dozen soldiers were holding spears, sitting on the ground with their backs against the battlement wall and basking in the sun.

Although it is the cold winter season, Jinzhou is sandwiched between the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountain, the cold current in the north is blocked by the towering peaks, the climate of Jinzhou in winter is warm, and the upper reaches of the Hanshui River in the west of Junzhou are also rare to see ice once in 100 years, and the river is gurgling.

At this time, sitting in the city and basking in the sun is undoubtedly the most moist time for many soldiers in the afternoon.

"Huh!" Some people shouted in disbelief, and more people looked up, and saw a straight pillar of smoke rising from the depths of Matouling in the east.

Opposite Matouling is the border of Chu State, Xunyang army built a beacon tower on top of Matouling, stationed a small army, high to monitor the movement of Hanshui and the opposite peak.

At this time, the Matouling beacon tower burned wolf smoke, and the straight black smoke pierced the clear sky like a column, and the city head of Xunyang Village suddenly became disturbed like a boiling pot of boiling water.

"What are you making a fuss about, maybe Gu Ergou and they missed and lit a beacon fire." There was an old pawn who still couldn't believe that there would be any enemy in the east, thinking that the guards of the Matouling beacon tower had made some mess.

However, before the words fell, soon the beacon tower of Black Snake Ridge on the south bank also lit wolf smoke.

At this moment, the alarm bell at the head of the city rang violently, and the city wall suddenly became chaotic and busy.

The guard of Xunyang Village is a battalion commander of the Shu army, and at this time he is summoning the camp prostitutes to the house to listen to the songs, and when he hears the gongs and drums and alarm bells, he hurriedly puts on his armor, climbs up to the city with the support of two soldiers, and looks towards the east.

Although there is a trail between the Matouling beacon tower and Xunyang Village, the Wangshan runs dead horses, three mountain beams, and thirty miles of rugged and undulating dangerous and narrow mountain roads, and when the team guards of Matouling rush over to report the detailed enemy situation, no matter how fast it is, it will have to wait until the second half of the night.

And more than half an hour later, the defenders of Xunyang Village saw hundreds of black-canoped sailing ships sailing against the water and waves like dense dark clouds, and the bow and stern were full of murderous armor guards with knives and bows in their hands.

Xunyang village is built according to the Han River, the side of the city wall near the water, the upper and lower beds, crossbows, whirlwind cannons and other defensive facilities are quite complete, the fleet is naturally not able to directly rush to Xunyang City before the generals abandon the ship and land.

Hundreds of black-canopy sailing boats chose to dock about three miles east of Xunyang City.

Xunyang City is located in a small basin that is twelve or three miles long from east to west and more than seven miles long from north to south.

Seeing that there were three or four thousand soldiers in the enemy, and the defenders of Xunyang Village only had four hundred soldiers, the guards naturally did not dare to go out of the city to play anything in a hurry.

At this time, the defenders could only set fire to the three beacon towers in the city in a hurry, so as to show the military situation to the rear military fortress that the military situation was urgent, and at the same time sent several messengers to the west along the plank road, reporting the enemy attack in more detail along the way, while hurriedly bringing hundreds of farmers living and cultivating outside the city into the city, activating the many deserted defense systems.

For the Shu army, they were full of panic and confusion, and they didn't know what was going on, so that the Chu army tore up the alliance between the two armies on the shores of the Han River for so many years, wasn't it just that the two sides had just promoted the Northern Expedition of the coalition army?

Of course, no matter what, it is a certain thing that the Chu army suddenly attacked Xunyang Village.

Wolf smoke rose at an extremely fast speed from the beacon towers and walled cities distributed on both sides of the Han River - the war of Shu and Chu suddenly broke out at such a moment.

Although there are no people in the old Golden State, and the Shu State has not restored the establishment of the counties of the Golden State over the years, the old Golden State is the gateway to Liangzhou, which cannot be lost.

At this time, the main force of the northern line of the Shu army has already entered the hinterland of Guanzhong, and when the first batch of reinforcements receives the letter and rushes back to reinforce, it will be ten days and a half months later.

At present, there are only 7,000 soldiers and horses in Liangzhou City, and the other 3,000 soldiers and horses are guarding the outer walled city, although it is not certain for the time being

How many soldiers and horses did the Chu army that tore up the alliance come to attack, but for the middle and high-ranking generals of the Liang army's defenders, everything in front of them looks like the Chu army has been determined at the beginning of the Northern Expedition of the two countries to discuss the alliance, and it is expected that the next invading Chu army will inevitably come like a tide.

Under such circumstances, they sent more troops and horses to Shiting, Han Yiīn and other places, and took advantage of the steep terrain in Jinzhou, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, to delay the invading enemy in Jinzhou as much as possible, so that it could not quickly enter the Hanzhong Basin, in any case, it was a normal choice.

If the limited elite soldiers and horses were shrunk back to Liangzhou City, and the Chu army occupied the walled city west of Liangzhou, even if the main force returned to help, the early war would fall into a stalemate, and it would be impossible to expel the Chu army from the east of Liangzhou in a short time.

The Shu army launched the Northern Expedition this time, although the main force of the battle was the Huangtou Army and the Wuxin Army stationed in the two defense lines of Liliang, but the auxiliary soldiers and the grain and grass valley were still requisitioned from the counties of Shuzhong and southern Shu.

From the beginning of the preparation of the Northern Expedition, the many passes south of Liangzhou, mainly the Micang Road, the Golden Bull Road, and the Lychee Road, were an endless stream of carriages and horses, which transported hundreds of thousands of grains and straw through Liangzhou to the places occupied and controlled by the Shu army in southwest Shaanxi, or directly transported them into Liangzhou City for storage.

The Chu army suddenly attacked along the Han River, and in addition to sending 4,000 soldiers and horses to reinforce Yuancheng, Shiting, Han Yīn and other dangerous places, the defenders also sent reconnaissance messengers to order the people and township soldiers of Zhuzhou who were transporting heavy grain and straw from Liangzhou to immediately assemble in Liangzhou City to make up for the lack of soldiers in the defenders.

Of course, this is also a normal decision, but the generals of the defending army never thought that they would go north from Kip, Kui, Chongqing and other places to catch up with the thousands of auxiliary soldiers of eastern Sichuan and southern Sichuan who passed through Liangzhou, and it would be the elite of the Tangyi army led by Tan Yuliang and Han Donghu to pretend to be, how could they not think that behind this change in the Chu army, the fundamental reason was that Wang Yong, the Marquis of Changxiang, conspired to launch a mutiny and usurp the throne, so he was defenseless and directly led the wolf into the house.

At dusk on the 11th, Tan Yuliang led his troops into Liangzhou City and launched a surprise attack at night, when there were only 3,000 defenders in the city and 2,000 Zhuzhou citizens who were ordered to enter the city for reinforcements.

In the case of extreme chaos, the enemy and the enemy are difficult to distinguish, the defenders can not organize a strong defensive counterattack, when the dawn, only more than a thousand remnants of the army fled from the city gate in a hurry, and the remaining 4,000 men and horses were killed or surrendered, Tan Yuliang took Liangzhou City more easily than imagined.

After confirming that the defenders were defenseless, and even took the initiative to invite them into the city, Han Donghu did not sneak attack Liangzhou City with Tan Yuliang, but led more than 1,000 guards and cavalry, pretending to be reinforcements to enter Yuancheng County in the east of Liangzhou City, and launched a surprise attack when the defenders of Yuancheng County opened the city gate defenselessly.

Almost at dawn, Han Donghu was either killed or captured, annihilated nearly 1,000 defenders in Yuancheng County, took Yuancheng County, and blocked the retreat of more than 4,000 Shu troops in Jinzhou.

On the 14th, Wen Bo led the main force of the right Shenwu army, traced the Han River into Xunyang and other places, and after Li Xiu received Li Changfeng's secret letter, he led 3,000 soldiers and horses to take the boat first, and directly retreated from Wuguan along the Danshui to the north, and the speed was also extremely fast, and at about the same time forced Han Yīn City from the waterway.

The Shu army of Jinzhou, seeing the loss of Liangzhou City and Yuancheng, and the thousands of Chu troops in the east were killing violently, frightened, morale was low, according to the walled city only resisted for two days, or surrendered or fled, Jinzhou four villages were all lost on the 17th, and the right Shenwu army completely opened the passage along the Han River into Liangzhou.

On the 19th, Wen Bo led the main force of the Right Shenwu Army into Liangzhou, and at this time, 5,000 Shu troops from Lizhou in the north and Fengzhou in the depths of the Qinling Mountains in the north rushed to reinforce Liangzhou.

Wen Bo didn't bother to take a breath, and after meeting with Tan Yuliang, taking advantage of the fact that the Shu army had not yet completely figured out the situation, he first joined forces to defeat the Shu army on the south bank of the Han River that had rushed from Lizhou to reinforce and had an unstable foothold.

Seeing this scene, the 5,000 Shu troops who returned from the south of Fengzhou hurriedly retreated north to the Jitou Pass on the west bank of the Baoshui River and between the Liancheng Mountains, and joined the remnants of the troops guarding the Jitou Pass, holding on to the rescue.

The river valley along the Baoshui River is the southern line of the main passage of Liangzhou north into Guanzhong, the plank road was built on the bank of the Baoshui River in the Qin Dynasty, and then all dynasties have repaired to open to traffic and horses, which is the main passage connecting Sichuan and Shu in Guanzhong.

The peaks on both sides of the Baoshui River stand upright, and the terrain is extremely dangerous; In the early years of the Han Dynasty, a weir was built there to intercept the water from the upstream to irrigate the fields between the mountains on both sides, but it also made the river water from the weir extremely shallow in winter, and it was not realistic to borrow a warship to carry the soldiers around the north side of the Jitou Pass.

On the 21st, Cao Gan led a group of soldiers and horses to enter the Jianmen Pass (Jiange Pass) in the south of Lizhou from the south, and Zheng Yuantong, the assassin of Lizhou, led 5,000 remnants of troops from Lichuan and Guangyuan to surrender.

At this time, the remnants of the Shu army who retreated to the dangerous cottage pass in Liangzhou and intended to resist to the end, waiting for Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian to lead their troops to return to help, only to know that as early as the night of the 11th, the privy deputy envoy, the general Wu Ji, the deputy commander of the horse infantry of the forbidden army, Qi Lun, and the middle imperial doctor Jing Qiongwen and others opened the south gate of the Shu capital, and secretly welcomed the Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong and Cao Gan who led the 8,000 elite forwards to secretly march into the Shu capital, launched a mutiny in the name of the Qing monarch's side, and besieged the Shu Palace after killing the prince Wang Hongyi and the privy deputy envoy Zhao Weisheng and others.

On the 14th, Wang Jian, the lord of Shu, was forced to issue an edict in the Jinyang Hall of the Shu Palace, announcing that Wang Hongyi and Zhao Weisheng and other henchmen intended to usurp the throne and seek rebellion, and canonized Wang Yong, the Marquis of Changxiang, who had made meritorious contributions to the "escort", as the prince, and concurrently led the privy envoy and the Shangshu order to control the national government.

Shudu was initially decided, worried that there would be a mistake in the northern line, Cao Gancai led 8,000 elites to the north non-stop, but he didn't expect Wen Bo and Tan Yuliang to successfully capture Liangzhou.

It was also on this day that Guo Rongcai accompanied Li Changfeng into Liangzhou to supervise the war.

Of course, it was a bit of a fluke to be able to take Liangzhou so smoothly.

Chongqing and Huo are two or three thousand miles apart, separated by mountains and rivers, and there is no way to report their whereabouts in time.

Tan Yuliang and Han Donghu pretended to be Yuzhou soldiers and horses escorting grain and grass from Yuzhou to the north via the Lychee Road, and surrendered to the west with the Youshenwu army, and there was no way to cooperate with each other in advance.

In particular, the surrender and westward advance of the Right Shenwu Army, the whole process is not completely controlled by Han Qian, Tan Yuliang and Han Donghu are ready to enter the Bao Slope Road in advance, and plan to control the southern line of the Bao Slope Road on the way under the pretext of the mutiny of the people's auxiliary soldiers and wait for the Right Shenwu Army to advance westward.

If that's the case, a few vicious battles will definitely be indispensable, and the current situation is better than expected, but even if they take Liangzhou extremely smoothly now, it doesn't mean that the whole thing is successful.

Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong is in Qi Lun and Jing Qiongwen

With the assistance of others and others, they are currently under control of Shudu, Cao Gan led his troops into Lizhou, and Han Yuantong's surrender also made Jianmen Pass, the most important gateway in northern Shu, fall into their control, but there is also the right Qingjiang army stationed in southern Sichuan with an ambiguous attitude, and Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian are leading 70,000 elite Shu troops, which have already occupied the western flank of Guanzhong, Fengzhou and Qizhou, not only from the Baochuan Road and Chencang Road to counterattack Liangzhou, but also from the Yīn Pingdao west of Fengzhou to attack Shuzhong.

The Yīn Ping Ancient Road is difficult to walk from south to north, and there are several mountain ridges that block the pass, all of which are steep in the south and gentle in the north. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, Deng Ai led his troops to attack Shu and walked the Yīn Flat Road from north to south, all of which were to climb the north slope first, and then wrap the pawns in thick felt, and slide directly down the steep south slope before the road was opened from north to south.

Now it cannot be ruled out that Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian led their troops to return to Shuzhong from this road.

And even if Wang Yong currently controls Shudu, the descendants and horses that can be used in his hands are still very limited, even if the attached soldiers and horses are not half-hearted, the morale is low at this time, it is difficult to say what combat effectiveness there is, and it is really expected that these attached soldiers and horses will block the army of Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian, and it is possible that they will surrender as soon as they engage in battle.

Of course, for Guo Rong, Li Changfeng, Wen Bo, Tan Yuliang and others, the top priority is to strengthen the defense of Liangzhou Zhucheng, they not only undertake the main task of intercepting Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian's counterattack, but also determine whether they can better occupy and control Liangzhou in the war.

However, since it was agreed in advance that Liangzhou would be controlled by the Xiangbei Army, and the two cities west of Liangzhou City, Baocheng and Weiyang, which had better defensive tasks, would be led by Li Xiu and Chai Jian's son, Yu Hou Chai Xun, the first capital of the Zuo Shenwu Army, to lead the defense.

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Although Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong did not directly usurp the throne, the mutiny was also a preliminary success, after Cao Gan led his troops to Jianmen, he also brought the official Shu lord Wang Jian's personal pen to be stamped with the title of the minister's letter of state, and on the 24th, it was sent to Canglang City to replace the previous "national letter".

After that, Cao Yong and Wang Ang, who was named the grandson of the world, were under the escort of Huo Li, and Chen Ruyi, the regular attendant of the Chongwen Palace, and Yao Xishui, Xu Jing, and his party, took the merchant ship of the Chishan Society, all the way down the Han River and the Yangtze River, and arrived in Jinling in early February.

At this time, it had only been 20 days since the secret fold headed by Li Changfeng and jointly signed by Guo Rong and others arrived in Jinling, and the court was still arguing endlessly about how to deal with Li Changfeng's "unauthorized behavior".

Yang Zhitang and others in Shouzhou even strongly advocated that the Right Shenwu Army be ordered to withdraw from Liangzhou, and the Left Shenwu Army was strictly forbidden to act rashly, but they did not expect that the matter would become a foregone conclusion so soon.

The letter of state from Wang Jian, the lord of Shu, claimed that Wang Hongyi, the prince of the world, Zhao Mengji, Wang Xiaoxian, the Marquis of Wei and others conspired to rebel, in addition to the above table of vassals, directly ceding Kipzhou, and paying 200,000 yuan of money and grain, he also asked the Chu army to send troops to Liangzhou to eliminate the rebels.

At this point, there is no possibility of shaking hands with Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian, and the strategic significance of Kip Zhou and Liangzhou is self-evident in the eyes of the court princes, and of course there is no reason to order Li Changfeng, Wen Bo and others to withdraw their troops from Liangzhou at this time.

In the court, no one is really naïve to think that it is against morality to encourage the usurpation of the township marquis Wang Yong, the key is to see the gains and losses of Da Chu's involvement.

The original plan was for Lianshu to attack Guanzhong and dismember the Liang army in Guanzhong, so that the Xiangbei Army, Tangyi and Huaidong soldiers and horses could take advantage of the situation to cross the Huai River and attack the land of Hehuai, but the news of the demise of the Jin State was transmitted back to Jinling by Li Changfeng, and Shen Yang, Yang En and others were still very jealous of the strong Mengwu people far beyond their previous expectations.

Even if they were inclined to advocate that Li Changfeng and them should withdraw from Liangzhou and not intervene in the civil strife of Shu, there were some different voices in the DPRK and China on whether to cross the Huai River and attack the Huai River in the future.

From a more cautious point of view, Shen Yang, Yang En and others are inclined to postpone the attack on Hehuai.

Now that Cao Yong and Wang Ang have entered the dynasty, Wang Yong's usurpation of the throne has become a foregone conclusion, in addition to being a minister, Shu can greatly increase the face of Dachu, and greatly satisfy vanity inside and outside the government and the opposition, and Kip Zhou can make the situation in Jinghu completely complete, unlike in the past when the Shu army inserted a knife in the waist and eye is so uncomfortable, and in the future, it is much more convenient to attack the pass from Liangzhou than to take the Wuguan Road.

In the current situation, it is not a loss-making deal.

Even more sinky to calculate, Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian really wanted to bypass Liangzhou and directly counterattack Shu from Yiīn Pingdao, and the follow-up was not a good opportunity for the Chu army to advance into Shu and seize Shu.

In this way, no one will delve into what kind of collusion Han Qian had with Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong a long time ago.

After the princes and ministers discussed secretly in the government hall for a night, the day after Cao Yong and Wang Ang arrived in Jinling, a series of edicts were quickly drawn up and stamped from the Chongwen Palace.

Since Wang Hongyi, the prince of Shu, conspired to usurp the throne, and Shu made Wei Qun as a fellow party, naturally he was also detained here first, and then found a suitable opportunity to escort him back to Shu.

Shu ceded Kipzhou, and there was no reason for Zhang Pan, who had not made an inch of merit and had not participated in the secret treaty, to send troops to take over and occupy it, but directly ordered Kipzhou to be included in the jurisdiction of Hunan Xingshangshu Province, and ordered Hunan Xuanwei to send officials to Kipzhou to take over the military administration.

Under the proposition of Cishou Palace, Han Daoming and others, Liangzhou was assigned to the Xiangbei Metropolitan Defense Mission, and Li Changfeng, the military squire and the governor of the council, was appointed as the military envoy of the capital supervisor, and also led the history of the Liangzhou assassination, temporarily presiding over the war in Liangzhou.

In addition to the Right Shenwu Army, the Left Wuxiang Army and the Left Shenwu Army were ordered to enter Liangzhou to fight.

Zhou Yi left his post without permission, dismissed the post of Assassin of Shangzhou Jiangzhou, and demoted to the Assassin History of Gwangju in Xiazhou, and at the same time, the military and political affairs of Gwangju were assigned to the jurisdiction of the Tangyi Camp and the government.

This is also the fulfillment of the secret agreement between the two states of the two countries, and others can only sit and watch it come to fruition, but for the imperial court, it is also a real benefit to be able to merge Kip Prefecture into Hunan Xingshangshu Province.

This time, after Emperor Yanyou and the princes of the imperial court learned about the role played by Zhou Yi in Canglang City, they also made a quick decision and quickly transferred Chen Jingzhou from Guangde Mansion back to Jinling and promoted him to the rank of squire of the military department.

Chen Jingzhou returned to Jinling, and before he officially took up his post in the Ministry of Advancement, there was an important task to be completed first, that is, to bring a decree to Shu and renegotiate the peace between the two countries.

Li Changfeng was already a governor before, and he was also the military envoy of Xiangbei at this time, and the actual authority above him Li Zhihe and Han Qian, and the two of them had great merit in recovering Guanghuo Shouhao and other Huaixi states, and it was also logical to be awarded the governor of political affairs this time.