Previously, Liang Guo sent condolences, Bai Liyan and Gu Ruquan had a few acquaintances, but they also knew each other, so they went to the camp to greet each other.

"I haven't seen you for two years, Lord Taiwei, don't come unharmed."

"The Xian army has reached the border of our country in two months, and Gu is not as powerful as Your Excellency's million-strong army."

Gu Ruquan still had some unhappiness in his words, intending to set the tone for the next conversation in order to blackmail the Xianjun, Bai Liyan ignored it, and continued:

"Master Gu, please enter the camp."

"Yongxing Hou, please."

led Gu Ruquan into the army, and came to the Shuai tent when he was young, waiting for the two to sit down. Baili Yan first said:

"Captain Gu led the army from Wucheng, he must have fled into your country's guards."

"Exactly. The guards have the powerful firearms of the Xian army, injured our soldiers, and entered our country, Gu came to ask for a good strategy to defeat the enemy, and hoped that the Marquis of Yongxing would not hesitate to advise. ”

"Oh......" Bai Liyan twisted his short beard and nodded slightly, as if in agreement, after thinking for a moment, he frowned and said, "I'm afraid this is not easy." Our army has all the firearms, and the guards have them. Moreover, there was a group of thousands of guards from Du Ruixun, a subordinate of Dekang County, who had been pursued by our army all the way without a trace. This guard is familiar with our army's firearms and tactics, and it will be very tricky to engage them. ”

Gu Ruquan felt that Bai Liyan was prevaricating with him, his face was a little unhappy, and he said:

"The guards are rampant in our country with salty arms and firearms, and the responsibility lies with the salty army, and the Marquis of Yongxing won't want to push it off."

"Oh, not really. If your army is unable to crusade, Benhou does not mind sending troops to annihilate this guard, and this guard army has hijacked our army's new weapons very powerfully, and Benhou must take them all back. However, after all, it is to lead an army into the territory of your country, and if you enter without the permission of the Son of Heaven, you may be offended, so if you want our army to send troops, you still need the permission of the Son of Heaven. ”

Gu Ruquan listened to the smoke of the seven orifices, where could he let the Xianjun spread wild on his own territory, he said:

"Gu doesn't dare to make the decision about the entry of your army, and it should be discussed by King Xian at the request of the Son of Heaven. But now that the guards are rampant in my territory, the loss of the salty firearms is to blame, in the eyes of the general, the Marquis of Yongxing might as well borrow some of your firearms to the general to ask the thief. ”

"Hehe......" Bai Liyan smiled coldly, and he said: "General Gu is joking with Ben Hou, the treasure of the town army can be borrowed from foreign troops." If you want to borrow it, you can also ask the Son of Heaven to tell my king, if my king orders to lend it, this marquis will lend it to your army immediately, what does General Gu want. ”

Gu Ruquan clenched his fists, angry in his heart, he said:

"The military situation is like fire, how far away the Son of Heaven is from Xiandu, when the order of King Xian arrives, the guards have already committed a heinous crime, how can they be in time."

"But Lingchang is not far from Boyuan, General Gu can ask the Son of Heaven to allow our army to enter and exterminate the guards, wouldn't it be faster."

Gu Ruquan was furious, he stood up and said:

"Okay, Gu Mou immediately ask the Son of Heaven to play, and Yongxing Hou will wait for the news."

After finishing speaking, Gu Ruquan left abruptly, what he said just now was just to find a step for himself, perfunctory Baili Yan.

When Gu Ruquan walked away, Xu Jin said:

"Deputy marshal, Gu Ruquan won't lead the army to the crusade."

"Of course not, the secret agreement between the guards to cut the land and sue for peace has been reached, and the Liang army is secretly negotiating with the guards wherever he goes, Gu Ruquan is really blackmailing our army when he comes to our army, and he must surrender here, but he deduces that the war with the guards has caused losses, so as to deceive our arms. When the time comes, he will lend him a hundred, and he will only repay half of it, and the rest will be reported as battle damages. ”

"Now that the Wei army has made peace with the Liang army, Gu Ruquan went to recruit Jiang Jie, Tian Peng, Fang Liang and others, what should I do if I am found out."

"General Xu, rest assured, there are more than 50,000 people in our army who have entered the territory of Liang State, and more than half of Gu Ruquan's soldiers and horses have been nailed to Wucheng and Rening in a short period of time, Gu Ruiquan can only mobilize more than 40,000 soldiers and horses in Lingchang, and Wei and Yang are secret agreements, and our army is so close that he does not dare to easily take over the Wei army and withdraw to the south, otherwise Liang Guo's plan will be exposed, so Gu Ruquan must be mainly lobbying and will not attack. However, it is difficult to say whether he can see Jiang Jie and the others, and it is even if he can escape back to Lingchang. ”

The Liang army and Wei Guo reached a secret agreement, even if the city was opened peacefully, under the nose of the Xian army, the Liang army would not be able to give preferential treatment to the Wei army and let it withdraw easily, so Gu Ruquan's forty or fifty thousand soldiers and horses pressed in Wucheng and Wei Ning could not be recovered in a short time, and Gu Ruquan could only use more than 40,000 soldiers and horses now, Jiang Jie, Zhou Kong, Tian Peng, and Fang Liang had 50,000 people, well-equipped and strong in combat, and 40,000 people fighting 50,000 people equivalent to 200,000 people was simply dreaming, and Bai Liyan even suspected that Gu Ruquan might not even be able to enter the border of Liang State.

When Gu Ruquan returned to Lingchang City in a hurry, an even worse news fell out of thin air like a thunderbolt in the clear sky.

"What, Tian Yun is lost." Gu Ruquan was shocked, and hurriedly asked, "Where did the news come from!" ”

At this time, Kong Lin said:

"It's Tongshang, Tongshang found that there was a beacon fire in the direction of Lingchang, and then sent someone to investigate in detail, only to learn that Tian Yun had been lost, so he quickly sent someone to report to our army for help."

Beacon towers are generally arranged along the direction of the border, and then they are built all the way from the important border cities to the national capital, but they are rarely placed in the hinterland and inland areas of the ruling areas. At present, countries are setting beacons on their borders, but the situation is very different.

For example, the old land of Sun Guo occupied by the Patriotic Empire, the beacon tower was built along the border, and the army was also stationed in front, while the old land of Sun was far away from the capital of the Patriotic State, and it was of little significance to build the beacon tower all the way from the Central Plains to the national capital, because half of the main army of the Patriotic State was concentrated in the Central Plains, and even if the troops were transferred from the mainland, it would take three to half a year.

And Liang because it is the suzerain, its political significance is special, all the border beacons in the country are all the way to the Taoist capital of Jinye, one is to guard against the invasion of princes, the other is to prevent the invasion of the princes, the second is to start from the southern border of the Red Cloud Beacon Tower, and the last way to the Liang State, the beacon tower must be repaired.

Tian Yun was attacked to the loss of less than half a day, the Xian army took advantage of the night to accumulate explosives under the city of Tian Yun, a blast blew down two gaps in the west of the city and the city gate, because there are not many defenders, the Xian army did not encounter fierce resistance after entering the city. At ten o'clock in the morning, Tian Yun was lost, but Jiang Jie did not cut off the beacon tower on the periphery of Tian Yun, but let it be ignited, putting a little pressure on Liang Jun and Liang Tianzi to cooperate with Bailiyan's actions.

Tian Yun lost the door and opened the hole, Gu Ruquan was furious and quickly ordered troops to rush to Tian Yun, and on the afternoon of the second day of departure, he got the news of Tongshang's loss, which can be said to be worse.

On the nineteenth day of the first month, the second group army of Lu Gao came with good news, and all the north of the Yunjiang River in Zhongmo County fell into the hands of the Xian army, 60,000 conscripts were disarmed, and the main reinforcement of the guard army collapsed. Gu Zhong's main force and Mo Yunfeng's first force rushed to Chunjiang and Shangxue counties and smashed the border of the country.

On the twenty-first day of January, the war of Ruijun ended, and the 200,000 people of the Wei army went south to meet the main force of Xue Sheng's Seventh Town Army, Ye Xin's heavy cavalry, and the Wei army knew that the artillery of the Xian army was powerful, so they did not dare to fight, and retreated fifty miles back to camp and hold on to the confrontation. Xue Sheng took the initiative to attack and seek battle, defeated the guards, killed, wounded and captured more than 43,000 guards, and the guards were routed and fled north in three ways.

At the same time, the beacon fire in Tianyun, Tongshang and other places was transmitted to Boyuan one after another, but it was not confirmed until the news of the loss of the two places on January 23.

"The army only got three places in January, but the guards took away the widows and two places, and the captain was too disappointed to the widows. Also, King Wei ordered the guards to garrison and besiege the Xian army on the spot, and not to resist our army entering the city, why would there be a guard army attacking our country for no reason, and even occupying the city of the widow, it is simply unreasonable! ”

At this time, Xiangguo Jia Zhou said:

"Your Majesty, orders are slow to be delivered, and not all guards can be ordered by the king at the same time. Moreover, according to the report from the Southern Army, our army's takeover of Peijun was not smooth, and five or six out of ten people refused to open the city, and it was difficult for them to take over Weiguo County as soon as possible for a while, which delayed the pace of our army. ”

"Damn! Where is the captain's soldiers and horses now, and why there is no news so far. ”

"Your Majesty, the minister has sent people to contact him many times, but so far no news has been sent back, I think it is because the guards blocked the road, the news is not transmitted smoothly, for today's plan can only go around Pingnan County to Gongxiang to contact the captain."

The shortest distance between the two points is a universal truth, all countries build roads in a straight line, no one will go around the bend to build a gallop road, especially in an agrarian society with low productivity, road construction requires a lot of manpower, material resources and money, and building roads along a straight line is the most time-saving and labor-saving.

Another problem arises from low productivity and straight road construction, because of low productivity, the road network is not dense, resulting in a monolithic transport network. In modern society, the basic realization of the village through the road, the good has been paved with asphalt road, the almost paved cement road, and the rammed earth road paved with stone slabs is also available.

But it can't be done at the moment, the gallop road can only lead to the big cities of the counties, and the ordinary post roads lead to small cities and county seats, and there are no standardized roads further down. As a result, the current transportation network is very monotonous, and as long as one or several arterial roads are cut off, the communication network is paralyzed.

Since most of the main forces are abroad, the country tends to be undefended, after Jiang Jie led the army to invade the Liang State, he sent a small detachment to cut off all the east-west communication roads in Guanling County, Gu Ruquan's scouts could not send a battle report to the west, and the Son of Heaven also could not send an order to the east, and the messages on both sides were blind, so the Son of Heaven did not know the news of Gu Ruquan, and Gu Ruquan did not know the domestic situation.

As Xiangguo Jia Zhou said, the fastest way is to go to Gongxiang via a detour through Pingnan County, and there is no other way.

On the same day of the twenty-third day of January, Gu Ruquan encountered the "guards" in an open area more than 150 miles east of Tianyun.

Gu Ruquan suffered a big defeat for this, and the experience was roughly the same as Kong Lin, but the intensity of this encounter was unprecedented, first about 8,000 guards attacked Gu Ruquan head-on, and then Zhou Kong's rebels took advantage of Gu Ruquan's defeat and retreat, and set fire to the Liang army's baggage.

Although Jiang Jie's subordinates showed mercy and released a lot of empty guns and artillery, the casualties of the Liang army were not large, but 8,000 people beat more than 40,000 people at a distance of 200 steps, and they didn't even see each other, and they also caused more than 2,000 casualties.

However, Gu Ruquan, who was unwilling to fail, was unwilling to fail, and resorted to the Dafa of delay, preparing to drag the guards in various places to completely defect, and then recruit and incorporate this guard army with powerful firearms.

However, time waited for no one, Jiang Jie took advantage of Gu Ruquan's defeat and took Mengteng City with a backhand.