The people in the hall were stunned for a moment, and then they reacted, Jinling County is iron, Huating County and Huiji County must be salt, and there are countless people who beat their chests for a while, and they all say that Yang Chong does not do loss-making business, and the calculations are here.

Fang Yanzao was satisfied, and it was a good thing for the household department to increase taxes for no reason, and the Wuchuan Iron Works tossed to this day, not how much the iron factory itself was worth, but a group of people who wanted to steal Yang Chong's technology and mess around. This time, it was Duhu who usurped the power of the boss to settle many powerful people in Chang'an, and was praised by Du Fuwei and Yuan Wei that it was no less than taking down an Anzhou; According to the estimates of Yang Chong's subordinate Wang Fu, the output of the iron works will increase by three times.

Li Jiancheng finally rejected Du Zhisong and did not surrender, so that Wang Qi and Wei Ting went to Yuzhou, Ba County, with a large number of officials, and he was determined to defend the White Emperor to the death, preparing to learn from Zhao Yun back then, relying on a lonely city to block Lu Xun's 100,000 elite soldiers. The White Emperor City is located at the top of the White Emperor Mountain on the north bank of the Yangtze River at the mouth of Qutang Gorge, with Kuimen in the east, eight formations in the west, one side of the mountain, surrounded by water on all sides, leaning on the high gorge at its back, standing on the water and land to the key points, choking the gateway of the Three Gorges, and being the place where the soldiers of all dynasties must fight. The White Emperor City was built with salt, prosperous for a while, the population was twice that of Yuzhou, the Tang army expanded the city fortress, and the troops were strictly defended.

The mighty fleet of the Hexi Army went west along the Yangtze River, and the 50,000 troops of Wang Xiongdan and Li Guangdu, as the front army, saw the tall pontoon bridge between Jingmen Mountain and Huya Mountain, and was about to give the order to fight, when they saw the banner of the Hexi Army itself. It turned out that Li Jing ordered Kan Ling to be the general, equipped with Shi Derui's 3,000 cavalry to assist in the battle, killed from Nanjun, and captured Jingmen County by land; Kan Ling commanded 5,000 infantry troops to kill all the way from the riverside, killed more than 1,000 crossbowmen, and captured the pontoon bridge.

After Li Jing led the follow-up 10,000 sailors and the fleet transporting supplies to arrive, he left Kan Ling to run supplies in Jingmen, ordered Li Guangdu to break through Wushan County first, sent envoys to get in touch with Jiang Duo, and asked Jiang Duo to divide his troops to attack Ba County and Badong County, and he commanded the naval army to attack the White Emperor City. Jiang Duo received the news of great joy and personally commanded an army of 35,000 to attack Yuzhou, Wang Qi and Wei Ting only had 5,000 men and horses, and fought hard for four days, most of the Tang army suffered casualties, and Wang Qi and others tied themselves out of the city and surrendered.

Jiang Duo saw Zheng Yuanshou follow Wang Qi's army out of the city, and asked, "Didn't Li Jiancheng keep you by his side?" ”

Zheng Yuanshou said helplessly: "Li Jiancheng was afraid that I would continue to persuade him to change his mind, and he was unwilling to kill me, so he sent me to Yuzhou." ”

Jiang Duo understood that this was Li Jiancheng's reluctance to surrender, and ordered Yuwen Chengdu and Wang Junkuo to be the main and deputy generals, with Wei Ting as the guide, to command 15,000 troops to Luzhou to contain the Tang army. Luzhou is located in the southeast of Bashu, the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Tuojiang River, Tang generals Qiu Shili and Qiu Xinggong led an army of 10,000 to hold in Luzhou, and their father Qiu He died in the Yangtze River, and the Hexi army had a deep enmity of blood, and it was impossible to surrender.

Li Jiancheng saw that the Hexi army had destroyed the upstream pontoon bridge in the White Emperor City, and was about to sneak across the Three Gorges and rush into Shudi, so he had to send a naval army out of the city to intercept it; At that time, Lu Xun didn't dare to steal it because Bajun and Badong were in the hands of Shu Han, and the west of Baidi City was the Shu army.

The Hexi army was three times larger than the Tang army, and Wang Xiongdan adopted a frontal attack, with Suhuer's 10,000 water army as the vanguard, using shields to resist the Tang army's arrow rain, and after approaching, he used Greek fire to impact the enemy formation, and then Mingjin engaged. As soon as there were many warships, the river seemed narrow, and the Tang army could not move, and for a time the Hexi army broke seventeen ships, and the formation was disordered; Suhuer fought all the way to the center of the Tang army, Wang Xiongdan and Li Guangdu took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack, the Tang army was defeated, 6,000 sailors were killed, and more than 2,000 people surrendered.

Although the guards of the castle on the hill smashed the boulder wood, the casualties were close to 2,000 people, but after this battle, the Tang army in the White Emperor City completely lost its ships, and could only watch the 30,000 Hexi army sail all the way west. Under the capture of the Hexi Army, Luchuan, Fushi, Jiang'an, and Mianshui were lost successively, and Qiu Shili led 3,000 remnants to retreat to Hejiang County on the one hand, and flew to Chengdu on the other.

Qiu Shili knew that Chengdu was a place of death, and retreating to Hejiang was preparing to retreat to the inaccessible Chishui River generation, and he would not surrender to death; When he arrived at Baisha Town, he was ambushed by the 5,000 naval army led by Wang Xiongdan himself, and fought hard for two days and two nights, and the reinforcements of the Hexi Army continued to arrive. With Jiang Duoqin leading an army of 20,000 to capture Renfu County behind the White Emperor City, Li Jiancheng only left the mountainous area between the White Emperor City and Qutang Pass, Li Jing left Li Guangdu to lead 13,000 sailors to cooperate with Jiang Duo, and he and Wang Xiong sent troops to Chengdu, only using ships to transport 2,000 war horses.

Entering the hinterland of central Shu, the Hexi Army abandoned ship and landed in Neijiang County, and successively captured Panshi and Yang'an counties. Yuwen Chengdu led 4,000 cavalry, passed through Shuangfengyi in the north, and caught up with Li Jing in Ziyang County; The army then captured Pingquan County, crossed Longquan Mountain, and was less than 100 miles away from Chengdu.

Li Yuan received the news of the loss of Luzhou, so he led 30,000 troops back to Chengdu, and replaced himself with Li Yuanji to defend Mianzhu, but the mountain road was difficult to walk and delayed time, and the generals in the army did not agree with each other, quarreling endlessly, until the Hexi army occupied Pingquan County, it was decided to go out of the city to face the battle.

The strength of the two armies was equal, the Tang army was 40,000 and the Hexi army was 44,000; Li Jing ordered Yuwen Chengdu to serve as the vanguard and lead the cavalry assault. Yuwen Chengdu took the lead, rushing left and right in the Tang army's formation; But the Tang army understood that starting today, every battle was a battle of life and death, so everyone had a desperate heart, although there were countless casualties, but they still fought to the death and retreated. The armies of both sides entered the battle with arrows flying wildly.

Li Jing ordered the drumming to march and personally led the 2,000 cavalry in the naval army to enter the Tang army camp. Both sides fought to the death, and it was best for the class to decide the victory. The Tang army only had 3,000 cavalry, and after the Tang cavalry was lost, the last 2,000 cavalry led by Li Jing and Yuwen Chengdu scuttled through the Tang army's position, the Tang army was defeated like a mountain, and only less than 10,000 people fled back to Chengdu, and 20,000 were captured by the Hexi army.

Li Yuan no longer had the heart to fight, but just ordered to defend Chengdu to the death, and drank and had fun in the palace of the king of Shu every day; Li Jing was not in a hurry to march, divided his troops into Yuwen Chengdu, captured Yuxian, which had no army, and cut off the connection between Mianzhu and Chengdu. Li Yuanji learned that Yuxian County was lost, and knew that he couldn't hold it, so he left Jia Yanfu and Gao Jifu to defend the city, put on his horse himself, and led the three armies out of the city with Li Yude and Liu Dewei.

(End of chapter)