Gongzhou is not far from Hanzhong, Xingyuan Prefecture, in fact, it is separated by a Fengzhou, when the Western Army led by the Northern Song Dynasty and the Zhejia was still strong, Gongzhou was still far from the front line of confrontation with the Western Xia.

At that time, among the western roads of the Song Dynasty, Qinzhou and Gongzhou were all part of the Qinfeng Road, jointly defending the Song Dynasty's western Beijing Zhaofu and Sichuan barrier Lizhou, even in the long years when the Northern Song Dynasty's western army declined and the northern Haoqiang gradually encroached on the northwest border of the Song Dynasty, Gongzhou was also an important part of the Song Dynasty's famous five-state and three-pass defense system, which made great contributions to resisting the Jin State and defending the northwest side of the peace.

At that time, the Wang family, who now occupied the front line of Qinzhou and Gongzhou, didn't know where they were.

None of this is important, in Wang Liangchen's opinion, in thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi, the Wang family is now the important minister of Mongolia and leads the most powerful broad-end soldiers and horses in the entire Monan, which is enough.

With such strength, it is enough to crush the Song people who invaded Hanzhong.

Because he wanted to capture Hanzhong City in front of Kublai Khan, the prime minister of Monan, and he had the heart to show his ruthlessness, Wang Liangchen recruited all the soldiers in Qin, Gong and the surrounding prefectures and counties, which took a little time, but it was also necessary, because Wang Dechen took away most of the main forces that could fight when he went north, and there were only a few thousand soldiers left behind, and an army of 30,000 people had to be organized in an instant, and the only way to do so was to recruit second-class Han soldiers and Semu soldiers.

This process was not long, and it was only about ten days, and Wang Liangchen was on the road in a hurry.

He didn't know that in this time gap, the Hanshui River Valley had become a Ze country, and the water had broken Kublai Khan's army and the confidence of the thousands of households in the Han land in Monan.

Tens of thousands of people were pursued and killed by the Song army, the defeated soldiers fled in a hurry, the majestic Mongol army withdrew from Henan under the leaderless dragons, the stragglers all over the land were in exile, and the remnants of the 10,000 households shrank their military strength and returned to their nests.

Because of the information transmission, Wang Liangchen didn't know all this, and he still maintained the state of mind of advancing from north to south and Mount Tai at the top, and drove his troops forward very easily.

Such a mentality, for Wang Liangchen, is not a big support, but the experience that has been laid for him by years of war, and Song Jun has given him the feeling that he can't support him in these years.

He sometimes wonders why the Song Dynasty, with its vast land, large population, and tens of millions of money, couldn't train a strong army? I didn't mention it when I was bullied by the Jin State before, but now Mongolia can beat the Song Dynasty by pulling someone out with some troops, so weak is really incredible.

The cavalry of the Song army is not good, the foot soldiers are slightly better, and they also rely on strong bows and crossbows to sharpen, leaving the turtle shell-like foot pawn array, Wang Liangchen is confident that the Song army will not be able to find the north in a stick of incense.

So he took the mighty army and entered Minzhou from Qinzhou.

Minzhou is close to Lizhou, three hundred miles south, is Xingyuan Mansion Hanzhong.

From here, along the Baishui River over the Qishan, then through Xihezhou and Chengzhou, and finally over the Qingniling belonging to the Qinling Mountains, Xingzhou, the gateway of Xingyuan Mansion, is in front of you.

This road bypasses the main vein of the towering Qinling Mountains, and no longer passes through the Chencang Road that the Song army has cut off, although the distance is farther, but from the Qin and Han dynasties, it is the main passage from Hanzhong to the Western Regions, although there are some mountains along the way, but compared with the difficult Qinling Plank Road, it is still much easier, at least the cavalry can pass through in large groups.

On this road, there have been many famous wars, Wang Liangchen is familiar with history books, naturally familiar, but at this moment he did not take the lessons of many souls buried under this road in the past to heart, this time and that, the past does not mean the present, the Song army in Hanzhong must have paid attention to Kublai Khan, on his side, there is not much pressure.

Although the Mongolian troops withdrew, the Han people who stayed in these territories still loyally guarded their jurisdictions and respected the Great Khan of Mongolia as the monarch.

And along the way, all the way to collect, along the way there are constantly soldiers and horses in the states and counties to join in, these overlords are forced to fight with the Mongolian army on the one hand, on the other hand, it is also a normal mentality to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.

Therefore, Wang Liangchen had more and more men and horses, and when he walked to Qingniling, the army under his command had exceeded 45,000 people.

If there are many people, the power is heavy, everyone shouts together, sweats into rain, raises sleeves into clouds, and waives the flag to show armor and gold scales, which is more and more indispensable.

Wang Liangchen is as strong as an ox, but it does not mean that he is a reckless man, and his perennial military career has made him develop a cautious style, and he sent out a large army of thirty miles before the horse, constantly reporting the enemy situation in front, although the news he gets is often "invincible in the front".

It wasn't until Qingniling that the news was slightly different.

According to the local natives, yesterday morning, a large number of Song troops came from Xingyuan Mansion and set up camp on the ridge."

A scout horse came from a distance, rolled the saddle and dismounted in front of Wang Liangchen, and knelt down on one knee to report the latest military information.

"Oh? Big Song Army? "Wang Liangchen is surrounded by everyone, is slowly marching with the army, marching and fighting is not better than light cavalry, there is no need to blindly pursue speed, on the contrary, because of the relationship between Hanzhong was taken away, Wang Liangchen this time to drive away the Song army, there is also a plan to gather the hearts of the people, let the Han people along the way see how majestic and mighty the Mongolian army is, so as to intimidate the people who are secretly centrifuging, boost the morale of the loyalists, and collect some filial piety by the way, it is also necessary.

Therefore, Wang Liangchen is greedy for everything, although he is very anxious to rush to Hanzhong as soon as possible, but he drags it out, hundreds of miles of road, and it has been delayed for a long time on the road, and the team is getting bigger and bigger, there are a lot of vehicles and cages, in addition to the soldiers who joined, there are also many more items to collect, cattle and sheep.

If you change to the style of the Mongols, you will fight and walk all the way, as fast as the wind, maybe you will arrive at the city of Hanzhong in two or three days, where is it like Wang Liangchen is so procrastinating.

It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you have more fetters, but just slow down a little bit and stretch out a little longer, it doesn't matter, at this speed, it can be faster than Kublai Khan, who needs to sweep Henan, but he didn't expect that Kublai Khan didn't put Henan in his heart at all, as soon as Junzhou was taken, he rushed to Jincheng and left Wang Liangchen far behind.

The unexpected time difference, if you change the person who is in charge of the overall situation of Hanzhong, you may be in a hurry and at a loss.

Na Tuo Zhi on Qingni Ridge is this feeling.

The 2,000 barbarian soldiers he brought and the 3,000 Song soldiers sent by Wang Kui to support him were digging up the mountains and digging under his nose, busy with endless work.

Qingniling is a mountain ridge on the edge of the Qinling Mountains, named because the ridge is high and rainy, and the roads are muddy. Although this ridge is far away from the hinterland of the Qinling Mountains, it does not insult the reputation of the Qinling Mountains at all, from Qinzhou to come, all the way is a smooth road, only to the bottom of this mountain, it is difficult to walk an inch, the mountain is steep and the wall stands thousands of feet, the commanding height of the mountain is five hundred zhang high, the road that passes over the mountain passes under the peak of the Iron Mountain, the whole mountain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is the most dangerous place to enter Xingyuan Mansion from the Western Regions.

Na Tuozhi stood on the top of the Iron Mountain, overlooking the post road that stretched in the distance, his brows furrowed, his eyes solemn, and the thoughts in his heart stretched his dark face as smooth as Sai Wenkui's paper.

The barbarian general Yang Xiaolei was covered with sweat, climbed up from below, walked to Na Tuozhi's side, and arched his hand: "General, it's all right." ”

Na Tuozhi suddenly woke up from his contemplation, turned around and asked, "Is it all right?" ”

"Yes, it's all right." Yang Xiaolei repeated: "All the paths on the front of the mountain that can allow people to climb up have been dug up, and even the bird path taken by the medicine pickers has not been spared, and two people have fallen down the mountain because of this, and their bodies have not been found." ”

He licked his chapped lips and said, "But just because the road is cut off doesn't mean that you can't climb up, this ridge is so big, there is always a gentle place, and the Mongols will definitely find the direction to come up." ”

"It's always good to delay a little longer." A sad expression flashed across Na Tuozhi's face: "Write down the names of the two brothers, and report them to Mr. Changsun for meritorious service and family members after the war." ”

"I've asked the clerk to write it down." Yang Xiaolei said.

Na Tuozhi breathed a sigh of relief: "You are right, Qingniling is so big, we have a lot of people, and we can't even find a figure in this mountain, if you carry the front fortification everywhere, the Mongols can always find a weak place to kill, so fortification everywhere is equal to not defending everywhere, it is useless." ”

Yang Xiaolei nodded in agreement, only to hear Na Tuozhi raise his legs and step on the mud under his feet and said: "But here, they can't get around, Tieshan is the commanding height of Qingniling, there is only one way to go over the mountain, there are cliffs everywhere, unless the Mongolians learn from Deng Ai to roll down the mountain, otherwise don't want to cross, we just need to hold here, even if the Mongolians occupy the entire Qingniling, they can't pass." ”

As he spoke, his eyes kept looking into the distance below the mountain.

On the road from the direction of Qin Feng, as always, the loess is long, and there are no people, and since the Song and Mongolian armies exchanged troops, few brave merchants dared to go.

(End of chapter)