Han Qian is still responsible for staying in Hanshou.

The Wuling Army has a total of three battalions of Gao Shao, Tian Cheng, Lin Haizheng and a battalion of Yang Qin's water army.

At present, with the addition of the baggage battalion, the Wuling army is also 7,000 people, from Qianyang, Longya, Chenyang, Yuanling, Wuling, all the way to the division of troops to guard, if you have to divide the troops to guard Hanshou, once an accident occurs, there will be no sufficient troops to deal with.

Han Qian sent someone to see Gao Chengyuan, and asked Gao Chengyuan to lead the main force of his department to Hanshou to rendezvous, Shishou's strategic position at this time was somewhat insignificant, and only a small number of soldiers and horses were needed to defend.

In this way, even if something happens, as long as they hold the two most important cities in the lower reaches of the Yuan River, and cut off the rebels' territory, making it difficult for them to deal with each other, the whole battle situation will not have any major reversals.

Yao Xishui, Chun Thirteen Niang and the two daughters had no excuse to rush to the mouth of the Xiangjiang River with the army, and stayed in Hanshou with Han Qian anxiously, but the accidents they were worried about did not happen, and the good news came one after another two days later.

On the night of May 28, Gao Long made his subordinates open the east gate of Baimao City, and Li Chong led two hundred elite guards into the city as soon as possible to control the east gate, but Gao Long's control over the defenders was extremely limited, and soon the whole city was worried and boiling.

Several lieutenant generals in Baimao City and the guards who fled into Baimao from Hanshou were loyal to the Ma clan, even if two people were not prepared to be booby-trapped by Gao Long, but the others successfully killed the encirclement that Gao Long introduced them through the night banquet under the desperate protection of the guards' own soldiers, and immediately organized soldiers and horses to counterattack the East Gate, wanting to take the East City Gate back.

Although Gao Long is the main general of Baimao City, but really loyal to his descendants and guards only more than 300 people, and Li Chong, Wen Ruilin after the rendezvous, stubbornly defend the streets and alleys near the East City Gate, at dawn, Xinchang Hou Li Pu, Zhou Shu, Xiying led the main force of soldiers and horses into Baimao City, fierce battle until noon, only to take Baimao City.

Although there were many casualties in this battle, the so-called fears that Gao Long might surrender by fraud and Wen Ruilin might design to harm each other were swept away.

After confirming that Gao Long and Wen Ruilin were credible, Zheng Hui did not rush to Baimao City to meet with Xinchang Hou Li Pu, but personally led the elite of 6,000 horse infantry troops, and directly interspersed with Yuelu Mountain in the north of Tanzhou City.

When Baimao City was attacked, the defenders of Tanzhou City divided three thousand horse infantry troops to reinforce along the Xiangjiang River to the north, but halfway, Baimao City was lost, hundreds of rout soldiers fled to the south, after the three thousand horse infantry army gathered the rout, it was also a rush along the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, fled back to Tanzhou City.

They did not expect that Yuelu Mountain had changed hands at this time, and the defenders in Tanzhou City were also in a panic, no one reported the news, and more than 3,000 rebels stepped into the ambush circle laid by Zheng Hui without warning, and they scattered and fled without carrying two rounds of offensive......

Li Zhihe originally led his troops and Zhang Feng, the son of Zhang Jiao, to lead 6,000 elites to force outside Jiang'an City, and planned to join the Jingzhou soldiers and horses on the north bank, and first forced Ma Yuanheng, who was stationed in Jiang'an City, to surrender out of the city.

No one had such a smooth battle in Dongting Hunan, knowing that Li Pu and Zheng Hui, the Marquis of Xinchang, had captured the two key points of Baimao and Yuelu Mountain, Li Zhihe and Zhang Feng then directly gave up the siege of Jiang'an City and decisively led their troops south.

In addition to departing a part of the soldiers and horses to strengthen the defense of Wuling, Yunpanling and other places, in case Ma Yuanheng may jump over the wall in a hurry and lead his troops to flee along the Yuan River to defend the two states of Void Chenxu, other soldiers and horses under the leadership of Li Zhihe and Zhang Feng marched east along the north bank of the Yuan River non-stop.

Ma Yuanheng's love to descend or not has nothing to do with the overall situation.

The several cantonment military offices under the direct control of Tanzhou were mainly located in Baimaocheng, west of the Xiangjiang River, and north of Shaoshan on the southwest plain of Dongting Lake.

Located in the southwest plain of Dongting Lake, in the three counties of Taojiang, Yiyang and Ningxiang, the cantonment military government set up has a total of more than 24,000 military households, which is also the foundation for the Ma family to gain a foothold on both sides of Dongting Lake and the Xiangjiang River.

At present, Ding Zhuang and Jianyong in these military households have been transferred to fight by Ma Yin and Ma Xunzheng, and they are also the soldiers most loyal to the Ma family's father and son, but their dependents are still in Taojiang, Yiyang, Ningxiang and other places.

If Taojiang, Yiyang, and Ningxiang fall into the hands of the imperial court's soldiers and horses, then how much fighting spirit do these soldiers have, and how much loyalty will they have to the Ma family's father and son?

Speaking of which, the loss of the two cities of Wuling and Hanshou was too fast and too unexpected, and Ma Yuanheng's department was cut in Jiang'an City in the north, and the main generals who stayed in Tanzhou City did not have time, and there were no extra soldiers and horses in their hands to deploy to the southeast of the Yuanjiang estuary, and the Chu army suppressed Hanshou and prevented it from advancing south.

The generals of the rebels who stayed in Tanzhou City could only send an order to gather the families of the soldiers scattered in the tunzhai to Ningxiang, Yiyang, and Taojiang in a hurry, but who would have thought that Baimao City would be lost so quickly, and even Yuelu Mountain, a key pass north of Tanzhou City, was occupied by the Chu army?

As a result, not only the southward escape of the soldiers and horses led by Ma Yin's father and son in Yueyang was cut off, but also the eastward escape of the soldiers and dependents of the soldiers in Ningxiang, Yiyang, and Taojiang was also cut off.

Li Zhihe and Zhang Feng led their troops to cross the river from Hanshou and came straight to Yiyang, Ningxiang and Taojiang.

Everyone knows that if you take the three cities of Yiyang, Ningxiang, and Taojiang and resist the counterattack of the rebels, the elite generals of the descendants of the Ma family who rely on the father and son of the rebels will have low morale and will become unmotivated.

This will probably be the heaviest and most powerful blow to the fighting spirit of the rebels.

The three cities of Yiyang, Ningxiang, and Taojiang are only three or five hundred defenders, where can they withstand the onslaught of the tiger and wolf division led by Li Zhihe and Zhang Feng? It was all symbolic resistance, and then they abandoned the city and fled or surrendered the city, and all of them fell before June 10.

Before 10 June, Li Zhihe and Zhang Feng's subordinates still wasted most of their time on the road, and even the most serious attrition in combat effectiveness was the generals who could not keep up with the speed of the march and fell behind.

On June 14, the prisoners Ma Yin and Ma Xun opened the city gate and went out of the city and surrendered to the three princes who were sitting in the camp in Yuedong.

Ma Yuanheng was still a little backbone, and only after two days of delay did he open the gate of Jiang'an City after knowing that Ji Zhongqi had surrendered.

On the 18th, Wen Ruilin infiltrated Tanzhou and persuaded the rebel general Miao Yong to assassinate the last core figure left by Ma in Tanzhou City.

Lipu, Marquis of Xinchang, then took the city of Tanzhou, which had been standing on the banks of the Xiangjiang River for hundreds of years, almost effortlessly, and saved the city from the destruction of the war.

At this point, in addition to Shaozhou and Hengzhou in the south of Tanzhou, which were still under the control of rebel generals Zhao Sheng and Luo Jia, the 800-mile Dongting Lake had all returned to the embrace of the Great Chu court.

On this day, Yang En, the Marquis of Liyang, who sent an envoy to Shu and reached a peace agreement, and Wang Yong, the second son of the King of Shu and the Marquis of Changxiang, had just arrived in Hanshou, preparing to meet Yang Yuanpu, the third prince of the army, and Shen Yang, who were going south on the warship of the military division of the Lou boat.

When Han Shou learned that Tanzhou had been taken, and saw the letter sent back by Xinchang Hou Li Pu in the rockery pavilion of the state government's back house, Yang En felt a little incredulous, and asked Han Qian in a daze: "Tanzhou City has already been taken?" ”

"The news sent by the Marquis of Xinchang should be true." Han Qian smiled slightly and said.

Yang En glanced at Wang Yong, the second son of the King of Shu, who was standing outside the pavilion looking at the water of the Yuanjiang River, and asked Han Qian bitterly in a low voice: "Then why did I risk my life to go to Shu to persuade the Lord of Shu to live in harmony with our dynasty?" ”

In fact, it was only after it was confirmed that Li Zhihe, Zhou Shu, Zhou Yan, Fan Xiang and others led more than 10,000 elite people to march westward that the attitude of Wang Jian, the lord of Shu, was reversed.

At that time, there were only two possible endings left for Jinling to cut down the Tanzhou domain, either to completely defeat the rebels and recover Tanzhou, or this part of the elite of the Chu army was annihilated, so that the vitality was greatly damaged, and it was no longer able to work with the Shu army to contain the more powerful Liang army.

Wang Jian, the lord of Shu, naturally did not want to see the second outcome, so he could only agree to withdraw his troops from Yiling, negotiate peace with Chu, and sit back and watch the Chu army recover Tanzhou.

It's just that no one has Li Zhihe and other generals to lead their troops westward, the progress of the war will be so rapid, Yang En and Wang Yong have just left Sichuan, and Tanzhou has almost been pacified?

During the period of envoy to Shu, Yang En was assassinated four times, and these four times were the Shu army guarding his soldiers and horses deliberately exposed flaws, so that the assassins successfully infiltrated his residence, if it were not for Zhao Wuji, Xi Fa'er and several masters sent by Zhang Ji to protect desperately, whether he could return to Chu alive is still two words.

Han Qian smiled slightly, lowered his voice and smiled: "Of course it makes sense for Yang Hou to make Shu, otherwise this battle would not be so easy." ”

It was also because of Yang En's envoy to Shu that he successfully misled the rebels from the beginning to shift the focus of the early defense to Jiang'an City in the south of Jingzhou, and transferred a considerable part of the soldiers and horses in the hinterland of Langzhou; It also made the rebels mistakenly think that the Chu army would wait until Yang En made Shu have a result, and then they would really launch an offensive, until Xinchang Marquis Li Pu took advantage of the chaos to capture Tanzhou City, not to mention that the rebels in Yueyang and Jiang'an did not divide their troops to defend the hinterland, and Hengzhou and Shaozhou had more abundant soldiers and horses, and they did not advance north in time.

There is an ancient post road connecting Shaozhou and Xuzhou between Xuefeng Mountain, but this ancient post road is extremely dangerous, and there are more than a dozen Fanzhai along the way, whether it is Shaozhou or Xuzhou, it is difficult to use troops against each other.

However, the cities of Shaozhou have maintained nearly 12,000 soldiers and horses to defend them.

In Hengzhou, east of Shaozhou, the rebel general Zhao Sheng gathered nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses.

At this time, Yang Zhitang's department, which could threaten Hengzhou, only had 13,400 state battalions, and its combat effectiveness was weak.

If the rebels transferred 20,000 soldiers and horses from Shaoheng and Heng Prefectures to fill the hinterland threatened by the Wuling army, the whole war might really have to be stalemate until the Shu army withdrew before it could break through.

How can it be said that Yang En's envoy to Shu is meaningless?

At this time, Yang Qin ran over and said, "The ship is ready, when will the Lord and Yang Hou leave?" ”

"King Linjiang should be about to arrive at Baimao, right? We rushed over at this time, maybe we can enter Tanzhou with the king of Linjiang! Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong turned around and said in a loud voice.

Han Qian saluted to the Marquis of Changxiang and said, "The Marquis of Changxiang is not tired of the journey, so we will take a boat to meet His Highness." ”

Wang Yong, the Marquis of Changxiang, is the second son of Wang Jian, the lord of Shu, who was only twenty-six years old at the time, with a face like a crown of jade, eyes like a star, wearing a white silk shirt, looking very personable, revealing a temperament as warm as jade.

The Shu army was slightly weaker, and Wang Jian was forced to declare himself a vassal to Emperor Liang and accept the canonization of Liang, so his sons were all marquis but not kings.

Since the founding of Chu and Shu, there has not been a major conflict on the border, so after Han Qian formed the Zuo Division, he did not send a limited number of people to sneak into Shu in a short period of time.

Han Qian doesn't know much about the characters and customs of Shu, but he also knows that the Marquis of Changxiang Wang Yong is versatile, good at poetry, and can be called everyone, even Jinling also circulates his literary name, which can be said to be the first-class romantic and suave character in Shu.

However, Wang Yong was jealous of his brother and the son of the king of Shu, Wang Hongyi, indulged in poetry and Buddhism, and rarely participated in the military and politics of Shu.