As soon as the war began, the Chinese army immediately launched a ferocious offensive.

On the Jianghuai front, the Chinese army attacked in three directions, and the First Army Corps composed of 40,000 people went south along the canal and attacked Jinling on the Yangtze River.

The 40,000-strong Second Army was responsible for attacking Luzhou, and the 50,000-strong Third Army was responsible for the direction of Xiangyang in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

On the Zhou army's side, the forbidden army led by Tong Guan was divided into blockages, but only 150,000 soldiers were scattered on a front thousands of kilometers long, and the result of being deployed everywhere was that there were insufficient troops everywhere.

Only ten days after the start of the offensive, the Chinese army broke through the Huai River defense line in an all-round way, except for Xiangyang, Tong Guan, who had broken the battle line inch by inch, had to order the troops to begin to retreat, trying to seek the protection of Xu Shisong's mobile troops.

On the other hand, Xu Shiliu, the Jinghu Road Commander of the Great Zhou Dynasty, announced that the Jinghu Army would change its flag and join the Chinese Army, and then the 60,000 Jinghu Army would join the Third Army of the Chinese Army.

Xu Shiliu's actions severed the connection between Xiangyang and Sichuan Province and the Great Zhou court, allowing the Chinese army to easily complete the siege of Xiangyang, and the Chinese army was able to control the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Finally, the Huaxia Navy set out from Taiwan Island, occupied Chongming on 25 May, and established a transit base on the island.

Six thousand marines entered the Yangtze River directly from here in small and medium-sized boats and began to try to cut off the Yangtze River shipping in the Great Zhou.

At the beginning of the war, the Chinese army showed its superiority, and Xu Shisong's strategy of using the forbidden army as a shield, delaying the Chinese army, and using the new army as a spear to carry out a defensive counterattack proved unsuccessful from the beginning - the forbidden army, which was originally considered to have some combat effectiveness, could not even delay the Chinese army for a moment, but because the Chinese army was not ruthless enough, most of the forbidden army was able to retreat safely.

The Chinese army did not advance quickly, and each time they occupied a place, their first task was not to clear the armed forces of the Great Zhou, but to appoint officials, severely suppress violations of law and discipline, and count local stockpiles.

If the reserves of grain, cloth and other essential materials are insufficient, a part of them must be replenished from the local area to ensure the stability of the market.

In order to ensure that there was no major unrest during the war, all the former Great Zhou officials of the new territories were to be retained for the time being (if they did not flee or die for the Great Zhou), and what to do with them afterwards was to be audited by the local investigation team.

What made Xu Shiyang feel relieved was that although some people fled to the mountains during the Chinese army's offensive, and there were also reports that some young women hid at home and smeared the ashes on their faces, there was no large-scale flight of people to the south - compared to the southward migration of the Great Zhou Dynasty more than 40 years ago, millions of people in Jiangbei fled south together, and then a large number of people moved south every year.

Of course, Da Zhou is not without a loyal minister.

At least Lü Wenhuan, the defender of Xiangyang City, resolutely refused to surrender.

Before the war, he stored a large amount of grain and grass in the city, which was enough to supply the military and civilians of the city for ten years, and at the same time he also rectified the city defense, continued to increase the height on the basis of the original city wall, and at the same time dredged the moat to expand the geographical advantage.

In order to counter the artillery of the Chinese army, Lü Wenhuan prepared more than 300 eight-bull crossbows, and obtained dozens of artillery pieces of various types and a large number of muskets from the Great Zhou court.

Lü Wenhuan believed that if Xiangyang City was surrounded by water on three sides, with mountains on one side, and was easy to defend and difficult to attack, he could defend Xiangyang for more than ten years - of course, the premise was that the imperial court could ensure the smooth flow of the upper waterways of the Yangtze River, and could transport supplies and reinforcements by water.

When the Third Army could not allow itself to continue the offensive, there was such a big nail in its back, so Xiangyang-Fancheng became the place where the first real major battle broke out between the north and the south during the southward march of the Chinese army.

Xiangyang-Fancheng in this era is actually a mother-child city, Xiangyang is south of the Han River, and Fancheng is north of the Han River, guarding the horns.

Among them, Fancheng looks like a rectangular city, the terrain is high in the south and low in the north, but it is close to Hanshui and Xiangyang in the south, so it is not as worried about the attack from behind, and only needs to defend the lowlands in the north.

Coupled with the height of the Fancheng city wall, attacking Fancheng from the north is equivalent to attacking the high ground from the top, and the geographical advantage suffers a great loss.

Moreover, there is a pontoon bridge connection between Fancheng and Xiangyang, which can withdraw the wounded at any time and get reinforcements and supplies from Xiangyang.

As for Xiangyang City itself, it is easier to defend and difficult to attack, after Lu Wenhuan's reinforcement, its city wall is more than 8 meters high, with a circumference of thousands of meters, protecting the entire Xiangyang City in it, in addition to attracting the water of the Han River to form a moat that is tens of meters wide.

In the era of cold weapons, if the defenders are determined and have enough food and grass, and the attackers do not have a strong naval division to control the river, no matter how large the superiority in troops, it will be difficult to conquer.

From this point of view, Lu Wenhuan's confidence cannot be said to be arrogant.

If he were to be replaced by a contemporary opponent, he probably really had a good chance of holding on.

Unfortunately, his opponent was not in the same era as Zhou Jun.

With the support of the Jinghu Army, the Chinese army was able to easily control several commanding heights and key positions around Xiangyang.

Later, the Chinese army brought in some large sampans by land to blockade the water surface of the Han River.

On June 12, the Chinese army began its first attack on Xiangyang.

The Chinese army deployed six 30-pound mortar guns on the commanding heights of Hutou Mountain south of Xiangyang, and directly fired at Xiangyang City with its altitude advantage and high ballistics.

Under the cover of mortar artillery, the Chinese siege artillery crossed Wanshan to the west and forcibly arranged siege artillery positions near the west gate of Xiangyang.

Lü Wenhuan concentrated all his artillery to try to stop the Chinese army, but the artillery in his hand could not attack the Chinese artillery outside the effective range, while the Chinese mortar could destroy the Zhou artillery step by step under the correction of the observer.

The range advantage of the Chinese artillery made Lu Wenhuan regret giving up the commanding heights of Nanshan too easily, but the big mistake had been made, and it was useless to regret it.

On the 14th, Lü Wenhuan sent troops out of the city to fight in the field, trying to hinder the gradually forming Chinese siege artillery position, but the Zhou army, which took the initiative to go out of the city, was easily defeated by the Chinese field artillery and had to retreat into the city.

On the 16th, a fleet of Zhou troops loaded with reinforcements and supplies went upriver from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River into the Han River to try to reinforce Xiangyang, but on the way it was defeated by the Chinese inland river fleet and land-based artillery deployed on both sides of the Han River, more than 2,000 of the reinforcements were killed in battle, more than 5,000 were captured, and the whole army was wiped out but not a single ship broke through the mouth of the Tangbai River, let alone reached Xiangyang.

On the 17th, the Chinese siege artillery was deployed, and a general attack was launched on the same day.

The Chinese army bombarded for two hours and opened a huge gap in the wall of the west gate of Xiangyang, and then the army took a large sampan to force the moat.

Lü Wenhuan ordered the defenders to use the eight-bull crossbow to shoot at the Chinese fleet, causing some casualties to the Chinese army, and a sampan was hit by a trebuchet and sank.

Unmoved, the Chinese continued their attack, and the first sampan, supported by muskets and artillery, landed near the western city of Xiangyang, and then stormed the city walls with bayonets.