According to the instructions on the marching map, Qingshui County was on the east bank of Qingshui, and Li Zicheng traveled eastward along Weishui Road, passing the intersection of Weishui and Qingshui, before crossing Weishui and cutting into the Qingshui Valley.

On the afternoon of 3 August, Li Zicheng finally arrived in Qingshui County.

The cavalry left in Qingshui County only had two small flags, which was in the easternmost part of Longyou, surrounded by the imperial army, it was particularly lonely and dangerous, once attacked, not only did not have reinforcements, but also had no chance to escape.

When Li Zicheng came to Qingshui County, he immediately rectified the military camp and let the soldiers set up camp, and at the same time, let the cavalry originally stationed in Qingshui County return to Liu Yunshui's side and inform Liu Yunshui and Li Guo of the news that the army had come to Qingshui County.

After Qingshui County was taken by Liu Yunshui and Li Guo, the magistrate refused to surrender and was cut off by Liu Yunshui in public.

The money and grain in the county were originally intended to be handed over to Gongchang Mansion, but now they are no longer needed, and they are directly taken over by Li Zicheng and used as food and salary for the Mandate of Heaven Army, which also saves time and loss in transportation.

From Qingshui County to the first line of Guguan, the garrison along the way will be handed over to Qiu Shike, Qingshui County will be the grain transit place of the Mandate of Heaven Army in Guanshan Road, concentrated in two hundred households, stationed by Qiu Shike himself, along the way Changning Station, Red Deer Station, Lao Yeling, Anrong Pass, there are soldiers stationed, and Changning Station, which guards the southern line and the middle line, is also stationed a hundred soldiers.

Although the name of the Great Earthquake Pass is very great, but since there is Anrong Pass, it is basically scrapped, there is a solid pass in the east, there is an Anrong Pass in the west, there is really no need to repair, however, if the city wall of the pass is still there, it can be simply repaired, it is also good as a post station, it is called the Great Earthquake Station, so that from Qingshui County to Guguan, there are Changning Station, Red Deer Station, Lao Yeling, Anrong Pass, Dazhen Station along the way, basically there is a post station every thirty miles.

In a valley like Guanshan, thirty miles is almost a day's journey for a convoy, and it will be much easier to transport grain and grass in the future.

On the afternoon of the 4th, Zhou Bin also rushed to Qingshui County with nearly 2,000 prisoners of war, and Li Zicheng handed over the matter of taking over the prisoners of war to Tao Zhiyong, ordering him to spend an afternoon to get these prisoners of war for the use of the Mandate of Heaven Army.

After breakfast the next day, Li Zicheng took the soldiers of the Ma Youshui Department, carrying grain and grass, plus all the prisoners of war, and a huge team of more than 4,000 people, all the way to Guguan.

Zhou Binbu did not accompany him, but stayed in Qingshui County to rest, and the auxiliary soldiers escorted the nearby grain and grass to Qingshui County.

The number of prisoners of war is too large, in addition to Zhou Bin, there are also prisoners of war from Qin Zhouwei, seven or eight hundred households under Tao Zhiyong, which can also be regarded as prisoners of war, but they surrendered earlier, and now they not only take care of the rest of the prisoners of war, but also set an example and continue to instill positive influence on the prisoners of war.

When I just left Qingshui County, there was still a wide official road, but after passing the Red Deer Station, it was already a trend to go up the mountain, and the valley became narrower, and the two soldiers could barely walk side by side, but the war horses could not be bridled, and they could only pass one by one.

Although the mountains on both sides are not high, the road begins to be rugged, and from time to time there are rocks blocking the road, and people and horses can pass through, but the vehicles loaded with grain and baggage are quite difficult.

In order to speed up the march, Li Zicheng gave up the baggage troops, and only took Ma Youshui and three or four thousand prisoners of war to move forward, and let the auxiliary soldiers escorting the food and baggage move slowly.

Entering the depths of Guanshan, the road becomes more and more difficult, although you can still see the traces of the official road, but the rocks of the road are more and more, and the mountain is also circling, sometimes rushing to the peak, looking directly at the sky, sometimes whirling back and forth, and swooping to the bottom of the valley.

Li Zicheng frowned, has been thinking about the road under his feet, if it is such a mountain road, when transporting grain and grass in the future, it will indeed be very difficult, a large amount of grain will be consumed on the way to transportation, the Mandate of Heaven Army is not as great as the great cause of the imperial court, whether it is the manpower of transportation, or the food itself, it cannot afford a large amount of loss.

The only thing that makes Li Zicheng feel a little relieved is that the official road has already been opened up in the valley, although the damage is serious, but the roadbed is relatively wide, if this road is rebuilt, the difficulty is much reduced.

According to the standards of this era, the best road is the official road, which is made of rammed earth, using a lot of manpower to tamp and tamp the loess little by little, and even the grass is difficult to take root and sprout.

This kind of official road can also cross the valley, first open up the roadbed in the valley, then cover the gravel on the road with loess, and finally use manpower to tamp the loess, that is, the army, businessmen, and the people choose which official road is the most favorite.

But this kind of official road also has a fatal weakness, due to the problem of transportation, the loess on the road can not be too thick, after a long time, the gravel will be exposed, just like now, the official road must either be rebuilt, or abolished.

Even on flat ground, the official road is not resistant to rain, not to mention the rainy season, even a light rain, will make the loess road slippery, even muddy, pedestrians can barely travel, but the military vehicles transporting grain and baggage, and the commercial vehicles carrying goods, can only lie down halfway.

Li Zicheng wanted to build roads, mainly to transport grain, and he was obviously not satisfied with such an official road.

Since this era could not solve the problem, Li Zicheng set his sights on the future generations, and there were two main types of broad avenues in later generations, one was asphalt road, and the other was cement avenue.

The main material of asphalt road is asphalt, asphalt comes from the residue of coal and petroleum smelting, natural asphalt is extremely rare, and more importantly, in this era, even coal, oil, asphalt does not know what it is, how can coal and oil be smelted?

This road obviously doesn't work!

The only way is cement, Li Zicheng vaguely remembers that in his treasure record, there seems to be a cement production process.

Solved the supply problem of Guanshan Road, although it was only a long-term plan, Li Zicheng's heart was also relaxed, in addition to observing the situation of the mountain road along the way, he also took a look at the scenery in the mountains.

Maybe it's because the climate in the mountains is low, the season comes late, the wildflowers and weeds in the valley are like the mid-spring of "red all over the mountains", the grass seems to be still the first stubble, and the growth is extremely vigorous, Li Zicheng's heart throbs: The grass in the valley is so abundant, the cavalry of Yunshui and Shuangxi Department should not lack horse material, right? If part of the grass is harvested, dried and stored, winter fodder will be available.

The army marched through the valley for two more days, and arrived at Guguan at noon on the 8th, at this time, more than half a month had passed since Liu Yunshui and Li Guo took Qingshui County and entered the Guanshan Road.

Liu Yunshui and Li got the message that Li Zicheng rushed to Guguan too early, and they welcomed them out of Guguan City, and the two knocked on the mountain road to see Li Zicheng, "Metropolitan Governor!" ”

"Yunshui, Shuangxi, get up quickly," Li Zicheng turned over and dismounted, helped the two of them up, and said: "It's really hard for the two of you to go deep into Guanshan alone!" ”

"The subordinates are not hard," Liu Yunshui grinned: "The Metropolitan Governor is strategizing, and he has to go to the battlefield in person, and the Metropolitan Governor is really hard!" ”

"Haha, don't be poor," Li Zicheng's gaze had already crossed Guanshan and threw himself at Guanzhong in the east, "Yunshui, double happiness, how about outside Guguan, is there a movement of troops gathering in Shaanxi?" ”

"Back to the Metropolitan Governor, we have also sent rangers to the east, the farthest has crossed Longzhou, but we have not found the army of the imperial court, according to the estimation of subordinates, the imperial court and Shaanxi, should not have found our eastern expedition to Longyou!" Liu Yunshui has long wanted to go deep into Longzhou, and even controlled Longzhou as the first line of defense outside the Guguan.

If it weren't for Li Zicheng's repeated warnings to him, don't alarm Shaanxi and the imperial court for the time being, he would probably have taken action a long time ago, and in the past half a month, he has been hiding in the depths of Guanshan every day to herd horses, his iron gun will be rusty, his brain will be in water, and his waist and back will be even more sore.

"It's good that you didn't find out!" Li Zicheng was a little relieved, what he needed most now was time, although he had occupied the Guanshan Road and grasped the initiative to fight with the imperial court, but Longyou had not yet completely surrendered, and the road from Qingshui to Guguan was only in his mind for the time being.

If the imperial court and the garrison in Shaanxi were slower to react, let him integrate Longyou first, and then concentrate on confronting the imperial court at Guguan, the possibility of victory would be greatly increased.

On the contrary, the Mandate of Heaven Army had to integrate Longyou and deal with the army of the imperial court, fighting on two fronts, and it would inevitably fall into passivity. The imperial court is huge, and even if it is defeated, it will draw a steady stream of reinforcements from other places, and it will recover quickly, but the Mandate of Heaven army cannot afford to lose, in case it is defeated...... It could be a complete loss!

Li Zicheng had already come to Guguan, Guguan leaned on the mountain, although the road, but did not completely cut off the entire road, it was located on the southern half of the road, if there was no threat from the Guancheng, the merchants and pedestrians could completely bypass the Guancheng from the northern half.

He entered the Guguan and looked up, the Guancheng was not big, the circumference of the Guanqiang was only four or five miles, and there were almost no people in the Guan, it was a real military city, or a pass.

Li Zicheng walked around the inner wall for a week, and also climbed the head of the city, the wall is three zhang high, and the thickness is also up to one zhang and a half, but it has been in disrepair for a long time, and some places have been damaged, and there is an obvious crack in the northeast corner, and he frowned unconsciously.

"Governor, what should I do now?" Unlike Liu Yunshui's initiative, Li Guo has always been too lazy to think, and with the governor in charge of the overall situation, he only cares about implementation.

"There is no way to accommodate a large number of garrisons in Guguan, but this is the key to rush, there is no small road to sneak attack, and there is no need to station a large number of troops, as long as the supply of food and weapons is sufficient," Li Zicheng thought for a moment and said: "Yunshui, there is water to guard the pass, there are auxiliary soldiers and prisoners of war of the Ministry of Water, first repair the wall, and then, under the supervision of the auxiliary soldiers of the Ministry of Water, they will build the Guanshan Road, widen the road, and level the foundation to facilitate the transportation of grain baggage!" ”

Li Guo didn't hear his own name, and hurriedly said: "Governor, that subordinate ......"