The climate at the southern foot of the Qinling Mountains is much warmer than in the north, and by the end of February, the withered and depressed hills are tinged with a faint blue color, and they are no longer tasteless.

Looking down from the wall, in the cracks of the broken wall tiles, there are still traces of blood that have not been washed away by the rain, and the tender yellow grass stems seem to be nourished by flesh and blood.

Han Qian stood at the head of the city and looked around with a solemn expression.

Although so far, 120,000 Liang troops have passed through the gap in Fangcheng and stepped into the land of Jingxiang like a rolling iron stream, but the Liang army has no way to completely block the mountains and mountains on the west bank of the Danjiang River, so Han Qian and the others are trapped in Xichuan City, and they can also grasp the development of the situation on the east and south banks of the Han River at any time.

Zaoyang, Suizhou, Yingzhou and other cities almost did not have decent resistance, they fell one after another, in the late first month of the 14th year of Tianyou, the main force of the Liang army with Xuanjiadu as the core of the southern line, all crossed the Han River from the east of Yingzhou City, and entered the Shimen Mountain line on the west bank of the Han River.

The Liang army on the southern front first captured Pingzhou City south of Shimen Mountain, and then unswervingly advanced to the north, and fought fierce battles with Du Chongtao's troops in Beijieshan and Xuancheng.

In early February, Du Chongtao had to abandon the northern passes of Xiangzhou City, such as Beijieshan and Xuancheng, so that the Liang army forced Xiangzhou City from the south.

At the same time, the Liang army on the northern front also advanced to the city of Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River.

In addition to tens of thousands of local defenders who became prisoners of war, hundreds of thousands of people on the east bank of the Han River also fell under the control of the Liang army, which made the Liang army march north and south of the two lines of soldiers and horses, forced Xiangzhou City and Fancheng, and soon recruited more than 30,000 strong men from the east bank of the Han River to participate in the construction of fortifications and the manufacture of war weapons from the east bank of the Han River.

Fancheng and Xiangzhou City face each other across the Han River, and the Xiangzhou Water Camp has more than 2,000 generals and nearly 100 small and small warships, communicating the two cities.

It's a pity that the people of the world, more precisely, the Chu Dynasty, which was based on the Jianghuai region and focused more on operating southward at this time, paid more attention to Xiangcheng Prefecture on the south bank of the Han River, and seriously lacked understanding of Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River, or the strategic defense position of Xiang and Fan as a whole.

Du Chongtao and his predecessor Deng Xiang, as well as other officials appointed to Jingxiang, such as assassins, soldiers and horses, mainly made every effort to restore the livelihood of the prefectures and counties on the south and east banks of the Han River.

Even if the city is repaired, it is also the first city of Yingzhou, Suizhou, Xiangzhou City and Xuancheng on the east bank.

On the north bank of the Han River, the people fled and the land was barren, even if Du Chongtao had the heart, he could only allocate money and grain from Xiangzhou, but he was unable to repair it.

Han Qian and the others arrived in Xiangzhou in the winter last year, and the walls of Fancheng were still full of collapsed gaps.

After the winter of last year, the war became tense, and the money and grain transferred from Jiangsu, Hubei and other prefectures to Xiangzhou surged, and Du Chongtao had the spare strength to start repairing the fortresses on the northern front.

However, before confirming that Zhu Yu, the king of Liang Yong, led the elite of Xuanjiadu into the Nanyang Basin, Deng Xiangxing's battalion had a serious lack of understanding of the strategic intentions of the Liang army on the western flank, thinking that what they would ultimately have to resist was only the second line of the Liang army's soldiers and horses that would not be very resolute in harassing them.

Therefore, the limited money and grain were allocated to the repair of many fortresses on the northern line such as Zaoyang and Tanghe, and did not concentrate on the repair of Fancheng.

In the end, Zaoyang, Tanghe and other cities fell into the Liang army without blood, and when the Liang army was killed under Fancheng, the old city walls that had been destroyed by more than a dozen wars in the past hundred years were not demolished, but only repaired the gap first, and then directly added to the three zhang high on the basis of the remnant wall.

It is conceivable how fragile the structure and foundation of the city wall of Fancheng are.

The Liang army made up its mind to occupy Jingxiang this time, and was also fully prepared to storm the city, and there were a large number of craftsmen with the army, and in early February, a batch of trebuchets were built, and they collected stones day and night to bombard Fancheng.

More than 10 days later, more than 2,000 soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded, and the fragile city walls collapsed one after another, making it difficult to defend again.

Du Chongtao had to abandon Fancheng and withdraw the last remaining defenders of less than 20,000 to Xiangzhou City on the south bank.

The Xiangzhou water battalion, which had nearly 100 warships of all sizes, wanted to break through to the lower reaches of the Han River at night and enter the Yangtze River and other Jinling sailors to rendezvous, but when passing through the waters southeast of Yicheng, it was surrounded by hundreds of fireboats loaded with firewood, grass and oil and lit after being driven by the Liang army.

After the fall of Fancheng, the morale of the generals of the Xiangzhou army was low, and the water camp encountered a surprise attack when it sailed at night, and had no intention of fighting, and was bent on escaping, and finally was killed by the Liang army water camp formed by hastily gathering and surrendering troops, more than 1,000 generals drowned, and seventy or eighty warships were burned.

After the fall of Fancheng, in addition to Xiangzhou City, almost all the fortresses in the upper reaches of the Han River fell into the hands of the Liang army, and the Liang army built a pontoon bridge between Fancheng and its camp on the south bank to strengthen the communication between the north and south banks of the Han River, and make final preparations for the storming of Xiangzhou City.

When Zaoyang fell, Han Qian and the others were the first to abandon Canglang City, and before the Liang army raided again, they transported the materials of Canglang City, including the prisoner soldiers, the cottage recruits, Zhou Yibu and nearly 3,000 people, into Xichuan City as soon as possible.

The third capital of the Dragon Bird Army of the Zhou Shu Department rushed to Jingzikou by boat as soon as possible.

After the Liang army captured Fancheng, Han Qian and the others finally gave up the Iron Crocodile Ridge and withdrew Li Zhihe and Guo Liang's troops into Xichuan City.

At present, Chai Jian, Gao Chengyuan, and Zhou Shu led more than 3,000 soldiers and horses of the third and fourth capitals of the Longque Army and the Zhang Bao Department of the Xiangzhou Army, and resisted the offensive of more than 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Zhongjun Army of Liang Guoguan from the direction of Wuguan at Jingzikou.

Due to the narrow and steep terrain of Jingzikou, which was not conducive to the development of the Liang army, and at the same time, the Liang army's time to control the Guanzhong area was also short, and the Liang Guoguanzhong army's combat will was far less than that of the main force of the Liang army.

The situation on the side of Xichuan City is much more severe.

Li Zhihe, Guo Liang, Zheng Hui, Zhou Yi and the Xuzhou battalion that was directly controlled by Han Qian at this time, after dividing up the Yingzhou state soldiers, the total strength was a little more than 8,000, and Xichuan City was also dilapidated.

In front of them, the main general Han Yuanqi commanded nearly 40,000 Liang troops, which was four or five times as many as theirs.

However, the Liang army also realized that the defenders of Xichuan were well prepared and had a firm will to fight, and knew that it was difficult to fall suddenly, and they were reluctant to consume the elite soldiers in the bloody siege of the city.

Han Qian stood on the city wall on this side, holding a telescope, and could clearly see that more and more craftsmen from the Liang Kingdom had gathered over, cutting down trees non-stop, dragging them to the camp built by using the remnants of the fortress on the periphery of Xichuan, and stepping up the time to build siege weapons such as building cars, partial vans, siege vehicles, and catapults.

When Yang Yuanpu was about to take the goggles from Han Qian's hand to spy on the enemy camp, they saw that the city gate near the Xichuan River wharf in the west was slowly opening at this time.

"What's going on?" Yang Yuanpu looked at Han Qian suspiciously and asked.

Although the west wall of Xichuan City is backed by the Xichuan River, there is only four or five hundred steps wide open space in the middle, and there are eight warships and three hundred sailors of the Xuzhou Boat Gang on the other side of the wharf, which is not enough for Liang Junqiang to insert it, but under normal circumstances, it is strictly forbidden to open the city gate casually even during the day.

Han Qian sent someone to Xicheng to ask what was going on to open the city gate at this time, picked up the lookout glass and looked over, but saw Shen Yang and Chen De patrolling the west city wall at this time, and said to the third prince: "Mr. Shen Yang is over there, maybe Du Chongtao sent an envoy to break through from Xiangzhou City and rushed to Xichuan." ”

Although Xiangzhou City did not fall, and Du Chongtao still had a small 20,000 defenders in Xiangzhou, Han Qian and they were not particularly clear about the situation of the defenders, what their morale was, and whether the material reserves in the city were sufficient.

At this time, Xiangzhou City and Xichuan City were two isolated islands trapped in the vast sea of the Liang army, even spiritually, they needed to support each other in order to be able to hold on until the arrival of reinforcements.

Whether it is Xiangzhou City or Xichuan City, the fall of any city will be a devastating blow to the morale of the defenders of the other city.

Hearing that Du Chongtao might have sent an envoy over, Yang Yuanpu was also very happy, and he wanted to pull Han Qian to rush directly to Xicheng.

At this time, Han Qian saw through the mirror Shen Yang and Chen De excitedly walked down the city wall from Dengcheng Road, and strode towards the West City Gate Cave.

"It's not the military envoy sent by Du Chongtao, it's the envoy sent by His Majesty from Jinling!" Han Qian couldn't help but shout excitedly at this moment.

…………

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"The old slave really wants to die His Highness, and he thought he would never see His Highness again all the way......"

Shen He and Yang En also endured all the hardships along the way, especially from Jingzhou to the north, to avoid the eyes and ears of the Liang army, trekking through mountains and rivers all the way, and also encountered the Liang army scouts three times in the deep mountains and old forests.

Nearly half of the guards who were with him died, and Shen He and Yang En were able to enter Xichuan City alive to meet the third prince Yang Yuanpu.

Yang En was born and died with Emperor Tianyou many times in his early years, even after arriving in Xichuan City, the life and death after that were uncertain, he didn't feel anything.

Shen He mainly served in the inner mansion, and he was used to intrigues, but he had not experienced much dangerous battles, and he was extremely tired from running all the way, he knelt on the ground almost paralyzed at this time, grabbed the hand of the third prince, and his voice was choked, which could be regarded as unbearable and true feelings.

"Lord Shen, please get up, uncle, please take a seat." Yang Yuanpu happily helped Shen He and Yang En to take their seats.

If it weren't for Shen He, who had already changed into an official robe when he entered the city, Yang Yuanpu and the others would have been unable to recognize Shen He, who had grown white and fat since Jinling's parting, and had lost a lot of weight at this time.

"This is His Majesty's handwriting!"

Shen He unfastened his belt and removed the Heavenly Blessing Emperor's edict hidden in his belt.

Shen He and Yang En rushed to Xichuan, and were blocked by the Liang army scouts all the way, and they were all mentally prepared to throw away their bags at any time, and sewed the Heavenly Blessing Emperor's edict and belt together to prevent them from being discarded.

At a critical time, naturally everything was simple, Yang Yuanpu took over the edict, and motioned Shen Yang, Han Qian, Zheng Hui, Li Zhihe and others to come around and watch it together, and they would not go to the incense case to receive the order.