Fangcheng is located at the northern edge of the Nanyang Basin, sandwiched between Funiu Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, the strategic topography is extremely important, and has always been the key point of contention between the north and the south.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the southern overlord Chu State built continuous defensive walls in Nanzhao, Fangcheng, Miyang, Lushan and other places to block the passage of northern forces to the south through Funiu Mountain and Tongbai Mountain; During the Three Kingdoms, the battle of Bowangpo between Cao Cao and Liu Biao/Liu Bei took place between the mountains and forests fifty miles south of Fangcheng County.

After the Jingxiang War, Emperor Tianyou realized that only defending the two cities of Xiangfan, which was sandwiched by the Han River, could not protect Jingxiang well, and even if the entire vast Nanyang Basin was deserted, it was necessary to build a new defense line in the northern edge of the Nanyang Basin in order to better keep the Liang army out of the Jingxiang hinterland.

Emperor Tianyou once sent Du Chongtao to move the defense embassy of Deng Xiangdu into the remnant city of Dengzhou in the Nanyang Basin, and requisitioned a large number of Dingkou from Hunan, Jiangxi and other places to fill in Deng and Pingdi to enrich the border defense; Between Fangcheng County and Wuyang County of Caizhou, a continuous defensive city was built, and the east and west wings extended to the eastern foothills of Funiu Mountain and the western foothills of Tongbai Mountain.

The defense line of Fangcheng is not a simple city, but a defensive cluster composed of more than 50 large and small cities and tunzhai.

During the period of Du Chongtao, in addition to the 12,000 generals of the forbidden army stationed in the Fangcheng defense line all the year round, there were more than 15,000 soldiers relying on many tunzhai villages in the north of Fangcheng, Nanzhao and Qinyang counties to cultivate tuntian fields and practice and prepare for war, which was also an important part of the military strength of the Fangcheng defense line.

After Du Chongtao, Zheng Hui and Chai Jian took over the defense line of Fangcheng, and the standing guards never fell below 10,000 elites.

At this moment, there are only 3,000 troops left in the Fangcheng defense line.

A part of the original Tunzhai military households, a part of Ding Zhuang was transferred to the Xiangzhou marching camp army, and a considerable part of the tunzhai military households in the past three months, moved to Liangzhou for resettlement, and there are currently less than 5,000 tuntian Yuding left (the young and strong soldiers are not incorporated into the active battalion, called Yu Ding, when the Fangcheng defense line was at its peak, the enemy could urgently requisition 20,000 Tuntian Yu Ding to participate in the defense of Zhucheng Walled).

When the beacon fire and wolf smoke were everywhere, the Tuntian soldiers also picked up their blades, put on armor, stood in front of the wall, and looked at the elite of the Tangyi army from the south of Wuyang County like a black tide covering the Mashiping Post Road built by the previous dynasty and starting in Song County.

The Mashiping Post Road extends to the hinterland of Dengzhou (Nanyang Basin), across the Tangbai River, from the west bank of the Tangbai River, to Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River.

Fangcheng County is an important node of the Mashi Ping Post Road, its city is eight or nine miles away to the north, the tiger head and Shangguanzhuang two defense villages, built on both sides of the Mashi Ping Post Road, about ten zhang high on the mountain ridge, the terrain is precipitous, it is the northernmost wing of the whole Fangcheng defense line, at present there is only one hundred people and three hundred Tuntian soldiers stationed there.

When the forward soldiers and horses of the Tangyi army arrived at Tiger Head and Shangguanzhuang, they almost did not stop, and each sent more than 500 elite soldiers with heavy armor, holding high swords and shields, along the slope path from the fork of the Mashiping Post Road, not afraid of scattered arrows and falling stones, and launched a direct attack on the two defensive villages.

Where is the morale of the defenders at this time?

After the twenty or thirty military attachés and soldiers who could be called Chai Jian or the descendants of the late Red Mansion were killed, the other guards all dropped their guns, shields, knives and bows and surrendered.

Twilight fell, but the stars and moon were in the sky.

The main force of the forward army did not choose a place to camp between Tiger Head and Shangguanzhuang, lit a pine resin torch, and continued to move south along the Mashiping Post Road.

Seeing this scene, Shi En, the defender of Fangcheng, abandoned the city and fled south in a hurry.

There were only more than 2,000 defenders in Fangcheng, and there were only 1,000 defenders in Dengzhou City, a hundred miles to the south.

Although there are still 6,000 defenders in the two cities of Xiangfan, three hundred miles to the south, even if they are all reinforced, it will take four or five days at the fastest to enter the territory of Fangcheng County.

Seeing the banner of the Tangyi army, and it was real, Shi En did not flee at this time, did he expect the five thousand Tuntian soldiers in the surrounding cities and villages to fight to the death for them?

The more than 2,000 defenders of Fangcheng can be said to have quite a lot of descendants of the late Red Mansion, but when they took the road and fled, they were disorderly, and they only hated their father and mother for having two legs, and even many generals took advantage of the chaos to flee to the mountains and forests on both wings, or deliberately dragged them back and fell behind, waiting for surrender.

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Cao Ba did not lead the hundreds of cavalry behind him to enter Fangcheng County to govern the city, and rushed to the south bank of Shangtaoxi, twenty miles south of Fangcheng, overnight, caught up with the Fangcheng deserters who fled south, went around to the west flank, and launched a night attack on the enemy troops in a hurry from the upper reaches of Shangtaoxi, and broke the enemy army with less than 1,000 people left, preventing them from escaping to Dengzhou City.

It was Kong Xirong who sent people to chase after him, and strictly ordered Cao Ba to lead hundreds of cavalry to retreat into a mountain forest on the west flank to rest, and give up the plan to attack Dengzhou City overnight.

The Xiangzhou rebels had only 6,000 standing troops in Deng Jun and Deng Jun, and they were still guarding Zhucheng, and they were sure that Xiangcheng had only learned about the southward passage from Caizhou a day earlier.

Not to mention the Zhou Shu Department guarding the three passes of Pingjing and the rebels guarding Jingmen and Yingzhou, even if Lu Qingxia and Zhou Yuan are willing to take out the last bit of reserve soldiers and horses in Xiangfan and Xiangfan, they may not be able to enter Dengzhou City before dusk tomorrow.

The purpose of their attack was not to kill or injure many rebel generals, and even to avoid causing too many casualties.

Among the Tangyi army, the number of elite and Song Domain's war horses who are good at shooting and riding is also quite limited, and the Nanyang Xingying Army temporarily reluctantly reorganized a cavalry of 600 cavalry and handed it over to Cao Ba to lead as a precursor, Kong Xirong has to guard against Cao Ba's indiscriminate battle, causing unnecessary casualties.

In the second half of the night, the clouds suddenly became dense over the night dome, and the north wind howled, blowing the earth, and in the early morning, heavy snow drifted scattered.

Cao Ba set off as a team at this time, regardless of the heavy snow, and arrived outside Dengzhou at noon.

Dengzhou had become an empty city at this time, and more than 1,000 defenders abandoned the city in the first half of the night and fled south.

Cao Ba did not lead his troops into Dengzhou City, but went west into the hills at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain, passed through the two counties of Qicheng and Neixiang, and rushed straight to Xichuan, two hundred miles away.

Considering that the rebels may abandon Xiangfan Suiying, and the intention of defending Junzhou is advantageous, Xichuan, an important town in the north of Junzhou, is also the most important turning point in the Jingxiang War, and the Xichuan Defensive War is the most important node for Tangyi to control Wuguan Road.

Cao Ba rushed to Xichuan as soon as possible, even if he couldn't capture the city at the first time, he had to find ways to restrict the rebel reinforcements from entering Xichuan along the Xichuan River......

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At noon on the 7th, Chai Jian led 4,000 remnants of the army to flee into Xiangcheng in a hurry, it can be said that he wanted to cry without tears, and he was also confused when he saw Lu Qingxia, Zhou Yuan and others.

The recruiting army was not notified in advance, but not to mention Zhou Bingwu and Zhang Pan, Zhao Zhen can be said to be the general of Great Chu, who caused quite tragic casualties to the Chishan Army during the Jinling Rebellion.

Chai Jian received the news that the 20,000 elites of the Tangyi army were going south from Caizhou in the early morning of the night before, and he and Zhong Yanhu, who guarded Yingzhou City, began to arrange for soldiers and horses to abandon the city and flee north.

From the beginning of October, under the supervision of Zhou Bingwu, Zhang Qian and Zhao Zhen both transferred the main elite of the Right Armed Guard Army and the Right Armed Forces to Jingmen and Yingzhou under the two city walls, and organized the siege of the city in an orderly manner.

The previous offensive was not hurried, not to mention how fierce it was, mainly to call on craftsmen to build whirlwind cannons to attack the city, but seeing that the main force of the rebels had signs of fleeing north, Zhang Qian and Zhao Zhen not only strengthened the offensive against Jingmen and Yingzhou, but also organized a small group of elite cavalry to go around the south side of Jingmen and Yingzhou, delaying the speed of the rebels' southward escape.

When Chai Jian abandoned Jingmen City, there were more than 10,000 soldiers and horses under his command, but along the way he was pursued by Zhang Ben's elite soldiers and horses, countless soldiers were killed and scattered, and a large number of generals mutinied and fled on the way, and he was able to lead more than 4,000 remnants to flee into Xiangcheng, which was already a very fluke, and he was extremely powerful on weekdays.

Due to the decisive killing of the water battalion of the Right Dragon Wu Army from the lower reaches of the Han River, Zhong Yanhu, who was guarding Yingzhou City on the east bank, suffered even heavier casualties, and finally the infantry and water army were added together, and the remnants of the soldiers who fled into Fancheng on the north bank were less than 4,000 people.

At this moment, the soldiers and horses of the right wing of the recruiting army, which was dominated by the Right Wuxiang Army, were quickly assembling along the passage between Hanshui and the western foot of Dahong Mountain, and quickly assembled in the area between Fancheng and Zaoyang.

Obviously, Zhou Bingwu and Zhao Zhen had already confirmed that the Tangyi army had launched an attack from the north at this time, and this move was intended to intercept Zhou Shu's retreat from the Suizhou camp army to Fancheng through Zaoyang.

At this time, the weakness of Jing Xiangjun was completely exposed.

Not to mention the war horses that charged into battle in the previous Xiangbei Army, the number of military horses was also very limited, and most of them were brought to Liangzhou by Li Zhihe.

Although there are not many war horses in the recruitment army, there is no shortage of military horses.

Among the Left Guards and the Right Guards, the faster Mabu Army accounted for almost half of the total strength, and it was these Mabu troops that made it difficult for Chai Jian and Zhong Yanhu to effectively get rid of the pursuit and suffered heavy losses.

And Zhao Zhen personally led 5,000 horse infantry troops, and at this time they had already gathered in Chiyang, thirty miles west of Zaoyang, and the first batch of soldiers and horses of the Zhou Shu Department to retreat to the west entered Zaoyang City.

More critically, the Tang River and the Bai River, which originate from the remnants of Funiu Mountain and Qifeng Mountain, converge in the southern part of Xinye County, continue to the south, and join the Han River in the eastern part of Fancheng, at which time thin ice has just formed; The downstream is close to the mouth of the river, and there was originally a pontoon bridge, but Zhong Yanhu burned down the pontoon bridge in order to prevent the pursuers from advancing into Fancheng.

This also means that unless Zhou Shu can lead his troops to defeat Zhao Zhen's troops, his troops will have the opportunity to escape into Fancheng by ferry across the Tangbai River!

Thinking that Zhong Yanhu led the remnants of Fancheng from the west flank to respond, it was impossible to break through the siege in the next week, but it was not that Zhong Yanhu did not dare to fight, but nearly 20,000 elite Tangyi troops had entered Dengzhou, and at this time they were dividing their troops and advancing non-stop to Xichuan. If Zhong Yanhu could not lead his troops to strengthen Canglang City, which was located at the mouth of the Danshui River into the Hanshui River, and caused Canglang City to be captured by the Tangyi army first, it would mean that all the men and horses west of Canglang City would become turtles in the urn.

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Under the remnant sun, trampled by people and horses in a muddy snowfield, thousands of corpses lay on the banks of a nameless stream, the temperature was slightly higher during the day, and the warm fresh stream converged on the stream, melting the thin ice, and the stagnant stream was like a long river of blood, lying between the earth.

Zhao Zhen sat on the saddle with great ambition, stopped by the river, and looked at the snow-covered mountain ridge in the distance.

"Governor, the number of weeks didn't survive, the breath has passed!" A small colonel pressed the satchel on his waist, lifted the curtain of the tent, and ran over in small steps to report.

"Find a coffin, collect Zhou's corpse, and wait for Zhou's military department to come over and dispose of it." Zhao Zhen said.

This battle can be said to be a devastating victory, and the only decent battle is that Zhou Shu led two thousand descendants to break through the siege and kill Tang Baihe under the interception of the right Wuxiang army.

Although Zhao Zhen finally annihilated this rebel army on the east bank of the Tangbai River, the Youwu Army, which had an absolute advantage in terms of troops, also paid more than 1,000 casualties.

When Zhou Shu was finally captured, Zhou Shu was hit by dozens of arrows in his body, and he also killed and injured more than ten generals of his right Wuxiang army.

Zhao Zhen was a man who respected Zhou Shu, and he also wanted to capture him alive and send him to Jinling, and his merits were even more obvious, but he didn't think that Zhou Shu lost too much blood, and finally failed to save him.

At this time, the remnants of the rebels had fled to Canglang, Yunyang, and Fangling on both sides of the upper reaches of the Han River, and guarded the gateway to Hanzhong in the west according to the steep terrain of the Qinling Mountains and Wudang Mountains.

After the winter, the upper reaches of the Han River to the west of the Danjiang Estuary are shallow but rapid, the reefs are dense, large and small ships are not allowed to enter, and the trails on both sides are even narrower and more dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In any case, before the water level in the upper reaches of the Han River rose in spring and summer, it was extremely difficult for the recruiting army to open the passage west into Hanzhong in a short period of time.

What's more, at this time, the Tangyi army occupied Xichuan, Jingyun, Jingzikou, Neixiang, Suicheng, Dengzhou, Miyang, Nanzhao, Fangcheng and other eleven counties that occupied most of the two states of Dengjun, and at the same time, Zhou Yi occupied the three passes of Pingjing, Wusheng and Huangxian in Guangzhou, and controlled another passage from Huaixi to Jingxiang through Huaiyang Pass.

Of course, the Tangyi army is also ordered to attack the rebels, and it can't be said that they are not, but how to allocate the crusade combat tasks between the follow-up recruiting army and the Tangyi army needs to be carefully considered.

At present, Zhang Qian led his troops to Xiangcheng, and Zhao Zhen also sent forward soldiers and horses to occupy Fancheng, how to fight the follow-up crusade operation, and even how to divide the follow-up defense area of Jingxiang, don't say that they can't be the master, Jinling may not be able to directly make an order, in the end, it still needs to see how Jinling and Tangyi bargain!

In the final analysis, too many people did not expect that the first Hehuai War would temporarily end with such an ending.

"It should be the official ship of the Zhou Army!"

Jun Sima Ruan Cang pointed to several warships sailing south on the Hanshui River in the distance.

Ruan Cang is the son of Ruan Yan, once served as the governor of Yangzhou, Huaidong cut the domain, in addition to his father Ruan Yan continued to serve as the assassin of Chuzhou, assisted the king of Xin Yang Yuanyan to lead the Chuzhou camp army to guard the lower reaches of the Huai River defense line, Yang, Taizhou Thorn History, Sima, Changshi and Liucao joined the army, all by Jinling officials to serve, Ruan Cang also followed Zhao Zhen to the west, in the right Wuxiang army as a military Sima.

Zhou Bingwu was the highest military and political chief of the imperial court in Jingxiang, Zhao Zhen took Ruan Cang and other generals to the shore to see Zhou Bingwu; When they arrived at the river beach overgrown with reeds, Zhang Ben also rushed over from Xiangcheng by military boat.

Zhou Bingwu is more than sixty years old, but he is still energetic, wearing a purple robe official uniform, no hat, gray sideburns are blown a little messy by the cold wind, landing on the shore to look at the desolate wilderness, he is thin and standing on the shore, like a clear and elegant minister.

In comparison, Zhang Python's appearance is much rougher, wearing battle armor, holding the shoulder knife on his waist, he can't tell his age, he is actually two or three years older than Zhou Bingwu.

The one who landed with Zhou Bingwu was to recruit Zhang Qian, the military capital supervisor, wearing a scarlet official robe.

Not to mention the official position, Zhou Bingwu and Zhang Qian can be said to be the few remaining old commanders and generals in the Great Chu Army, and Zhao Zhen stepped forward to greet them.

"Which cities are the Tangyi army currently stationed in?" Zhou Bingwu asked with concern.

"The Tangyi army was mainly stationed in Dengzhou, Xichuan and other cities, and only a few hundred soldiers were stationed in Xinye and Tanghe; In the direction of Suizhou, Zhou Yi only sent troops to take over the three passes of Pingjing, Wusheng, and Huangxian, and did not continue to the south - I sent someone to see Kong Xirong at dusk yesterday, and there should be a reply soon. Zhao Zhen said.

"The war is over, sweeping the battlefield and taking over Suiyang, etc., will be responsible separately, let's go to Fancheng first." Zhou Bingwu said.

Defending Xiangcheng must defend Fan, and the two cities of Xiangfan stand between the Han River, and holding Fancheng can not only prevent the Tangyi army from reaching the shores of the Han River, but also control the southern area of the Nanyang Basin in the lower reaches of the Tangbai River.

Coincidentally, when Zhao Zhen, Zhang Ji, and Zhang Qian arrived in Fancheng by boat with Zhou Bingwu, Kong Xirong and Li Xiu also happened to arrive surrounded by a team of guards, and the two armies officially met in Fancheng.

In late July, Jinling sent an edict to Tangyi and sent troops from the flank to attack Xiangbei, and did not officially incorporate Tangyi's soldiers and horses into the recruitment army, so Zhou Wujun's Tangyi soldiers and horses entering Dengjun and Dengjun Prefectures did not even have nominal control power.

Therefore, the two sides entered the government office that had been set on fire by Zhong Yanhu before abandoning the city and fleeing, and sat in the hall on the same side.

The left column is Zhou Bingwu, Zhang Ji, Zhao Zhen, Xue Ruogu and others, even Zhao Zhen and Zhang Qian are all over fifty years old, and their temples are dyed with frost hair.

On the right, only Kong Xirong and Li Xiu sat alone; Li Xiu is a little three or four years older, and Kong Xirong is only thirty-one years old this year, which can be said to be too young.

"The Tangyi army is going south from Caizhou, and the Marquis of Qianyang should have foreseen that the rebels would be devastated and vulnerable, but can you say how the Tangyi army should participate in the battle in the next stage?" Zhou Bingwu asked.

"Presumably, the Zhou military department already knew that the Mengwu people had captured Yongzhou, and Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian wanted to surrender to the Mengwu," Kong Xirong didn't say anything sloppy with Zhou Bingwu, and said directly, "The follow-up Xirong will be ordered to enter Shangluo and join forces with the Liang army to attack the enemy troops occupying both sides of the Wei River, but considering the inconvenience of the Tongbai Mountain Post Road, it will not be possible to repair it until next autumn at the earliest, and it is extremely inconvenient for the ordnance grain to be transported through the land valley, and the Zhou military department is also requested to send troops to capture Canglang City as soon as possible, so that the Chishan Hui merchant ships can enter the Danshui ...... as soon as possible."

A large number of ordnance, grain and grass can be continuously transported into Shangluo from Donghu and other places to support the operation of the Nanyang camp army in the Shangluo area - this waterway must be opened, first of all, it is necessary to ensure that the Canglang City located at the mouth of the Danjiang River is taken from the rebels; If Canglang City could not be recaptured, the merchant ships of the Chishan Society could only enter the Tangbai River from the east side of Fancheng, and the ordnance grain would be transported to Xichuan by land through Xinye, and then shipped from Xichuan to Wuguan.

Although the materials from the period of Si landing, from the north of Caizhou to the north, to Dengzhou, and then to Xichuan, the land route is about 1,000 miles, which is much closer than taking the southern route waterway, but there is no perfect and smooth high-grade post road, and the transportation capacity of land vehicles and horses is far from being comparable with waterway boats.

Even if in the future, in Tongbai County, a post road will be built across the valley at the northern foot of Tongbai Mountain, which can shorten the land transportation from the upper reaches of the Huai River to Dengzhou by nearly 300 miles, but it is not as convenient as the waterway.

Of course, the completion of this post road can ensure that the connection between Nanyang and Huaixi will not be cut off.

This also indicates that Tangyi will have the ambition to control Deng and Jun for a long time.

Zhou Bingwu glanced at Zhang Xuan, Zhao Zhen, Xue Ruogu and others who were sitting at the bottom, and sighed in his heart, it was obvious that even if Han Qian had the ambition to merge Deng Jun and the two states into Tangyi, it was not something that they could refuse......