Fenshui originates from Luya Mountain and Yunzhong Mountain in the northwest of Shanxi, and then flows from north to south along the valley between these two mountain ranges, passing through Jingle, all the way south to Loufu, and then with the change of mountain terrain, it turns from west to east and enters the north mouth of the Taiyuan Basin. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

After that, it turned south again, passed through Taiyuan, and continued southward through the Mouse Bird Valley in the south of Jiexiu, flowing to Pingyang, which was the Linfen of the later generations, and then flowing into the Yellow River through Hejin.

Where the Fenshui flows through, two huge basin plains are formed from north to south, namely the Taiyuan Basin and the Linfen Basin, which are the most important granaries in the central and southern parts of Shanxi, so that Shanxi, which is dominated by mountains and hills, will not be as short of grain as northern Shaanxi for generations.

Just in the westernmost part of the Taiyuan Basin, but also at the eastern foot of the middle section of Luliang Mountain, there is an important city, which was called Fenzhou in the Ming Dynasty and Fenyang in later generations.

From the place name Fenyang, it can be known that this city is located in the northwest direction of Fenshui.

The reason why this city is important is that it is located on the choke point from Yongning Prefecture to the Taiyuan Basin.

This choke point from west to east is the closest road from Yongning Prefecture and other places in the west of Luliang Mountain to the rich hinterland of Shanxi.

Therefore, the mountain road leading from Yongning Prefecture to Fenzhou in the middle section of Luliang Mountain has always been a battleground for soldiers, from west to east, scattering many dangerous passes, the most important of which are two.

One is called the Golden Lock Pass, and the other is called the Yellow Reed Pass.

The Golden Lock is in the west, just at the east exit of this mountain road, which is the most important for the survival of Fenzhou City.

The Huanglu Pass is on the highest Huanglu Ridge in the middle of Luliang Mountain, which is the commanding height of this mountain road.

If the thieves wanted to cross the Luliang Mountain from Yongning Prefecture and enter the hinterland of Shanxi, the first thing to do was to seize the Huanglu Pass.

For this, Wang Jiayin, who turned east into Luliang Mountain, knew, and Wang Guoliang, the chief military officer of Shanxi Town, also knew.

However, when Huanglu Pass reached the late Ming Dynasty, the city was dilapidated and basically abandoned, and it was impossible to garrison the standing army, and even the Golden Lock Pass, which was extremely important to Fenzhou City, was only sent to set up a patrol inspection department at this time.

Since the thieves of northern Shaanxi entered the Jin Dynasty in a big way, Wang Guoliang, the chief military officer of Shanxi Town, led the main force of Shanxi Town to move to Fenzhou City, and soon divided a partial division into Jinsuoguan.

However, when Wang Guoliang met Li Banghua, the minister of military aircraft and the supervisor of the suppression of thieves, from Lu'an Mansion, he returned to Fenzhou City and sent people to seize the Huanglu Pass on the Huanglu Ridge again, but he was ambushed by a large number of thieves, and the guerrillas who led the team to occupy the Huanglu Pass were shot in the neck by a stray arrow and killed on the spot, and only more than 200 of the 1,000 people in the department escaped.

Huangluguan has been occupied by bandits, and Huangluling has become one of the main camps of bandits.

After the news was sent to the Lu'an Governor's Mansion, Li Banghua did not hold him accountable for the defeat of the army and the loss of generals, but only asked him to look for an opportunity to take back Huanglu Pass.

In early April, the failure of hastily sending people to rob Huanglu Pass made Wang Guoliang learn a lesson, and while sending people to report to Lu'an Mansion and plead guilty, he also sent people to Taiyuan City to ask Zhang Xiao, the governor of Shanxi, to order the artillery to be moved.

With the continuous improvement of the artillery output of the Armament Institute, the Shenwei Invincible General Cannon produced by imitating the Western Hongyi Cannon, after being equipped with Liaodong Town, Shanhai Town, Jizhou Town, Xuanfu Town, Rehebao and Juyong Pass, is advancing to the various dangerous passes of Datong Town and Shanxi Town.

Among them, Taiyuan City, as the top priority of Shanxi Town, has naturally become the first city equipped with Shenwei invincible general cannon within Shanxi Town.

Most of the old-style Franc machine guns, tiger squat guns, and Zhankou general cannons that were previously equipped at the head of Taiyuan City have been eliminated.

Now that it is idle, it is better to transport it to the army, first, it can be used to equip a large number of Fenzhou City and Jinsuoguan City, and secondly, it can also be used to capture Huanglu Pass.

You must know that in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, although the popularity of muskets and artillery was not backward compared with the colonial powers of the West at that time, because the Ming Dynasty needed to defend too many places, most of the cities like the prefectures and counties in the interior did not have the opportunity to be equipped with artillery.

Even strategically important places such as Fenzhou City and Jinsuo Pass, forty miles west of Fenzhou City, were not equipped with any decent artillery.

In this way, for more than half a month before the middle of April, the only thing Wang Guoliang did was to wait, except for asking people to further inquire about the distribution of thieves in Luliang Mountain.

When Li Banghua received Sun Chuanting's good news on the northern front at Qinyang Station outside Qinzhou City, Wang Guoliang also waited for the old-fashioned artillery dismantled from Taiyuan City in Qinzhou City.

Fenzhou City is not far from Taiyuan City, but because the road traffic conditions in this era are generally poor, so it is more difficult to transport artillery, riding a horse for a maximum of two days, bringing more than 100 old artillery pieces of all kinds, it will take five or six times as long before and after.

This is still an average of six or seven hundred catties of small and medium-sized artillery, if it is a heavy Hongyi cannon purchased or imitated by the imperial court, each weighing three or four thousand catties, then when it can be transported, it is even more uncertain.

On the morning of 19 April, the sun was as bright as ever, and Wang Guoliang reorganized his troops and horses the day after the artillery arrived in Fenzhou City, and went to Jinsuo Pass with the main force.

Because it was not only the artillery that arrived in Fenzhou from Taiyuan, but also the news that Zhang Xiao, the governor of Shanxi, had passed on to him, another of the thieves had already appeared in Lanxian and Jingle in the mountains northwest of Taiyuan, and Sun Chuanting, the governor of Yansui, was going to attack with the border army of his department.

And Wang Guoliang has been in Fenzhou City for two months, except for a small loss on Huangluling, he has not done anything, he is originally guilty, and he is naturally very anxious in his heart.

On the morning of this day, Wang Guoliang left 40 artillery pieces of all kinds and handed them over to his henchmen to stay in the city of Fenzhou, and he personally led an army of 5,000 and carried the artillery, leaving Fenzhou and going to the Golden Lock Pass, which was more than 40 miles west of Fenzhou City.

The so-called Golden Lock Pass, as the name suggests, is like a lock, locked on the throat of Luliang Mountain from west to east.

Luliang Mountain stretches for thousands of miles from north to south, nearly 100 miles from east to west, high in the west and low in the east, the mountain is undulating and undulating, endlessly, the front of the golden lock pass is also a group of peaks and forests, the two mountains on the left and right of the Guancheng are sandwiched, all use the boulder to build according to the mountain situation.

There are two places to close the door, one is stuck in the mountain road and land, and the other is stuck in the mountain stream, looking from a distance, it is steep and abnormal.

Wang Guoliang came to the front of the pass with a large army, and secretly rejoiced in his heart, if he hadn't taken the opportunity to send troops into this pass, if it was occupied by the thief army, it would be difficult to lead the army to attack at this time.

There is only one gate city in the west, and there is a relatively open mountain valley floor in the east, and the original garrison camp has long been abandoned, leaving only a broken wall and ruins.

Wang Shixuan, the deputy general under the command of Wang Guoliang, commanded the army to camp and rest in the open ground east of Guancheng, and he himself was greeted by the generals guarding the pass, all the way to Guancheng.

I saw that in the west of Guancheng, a winding mountain road, sometimes hidden and sometimes appearing, sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, leading straight to the depths of the mountains.

Wang Guoliang took the monocular clairvoyant mirror on the ground of the soldiers beside him and looked westward, and could vaguely see another pass on the Huanglu Ridge, the Huanglu Pass, and hesitated for a while.

Huanglu Pass, which is only twenty or thirty miles away from Jinsuo Pass, is not as dangerous as Jinsuo Pass in terms of situation, but Huanglu Pass is located on the Huanglu Ridge in the north-south direction, whether it is from west to east, or from east to west, it has to go through a long uphill road.

Such a ramp, even if it is usually difficult to climb over with heavy objects, not to mention that at this time, on the high and steep Huanglu Ridge, there are still heavy guards of the thief army?

In this way, after Wang Guoliang arrived at the Golden Lock Pass, in addition to equipping the artillery to close the city, making the Golden Lock Pass more solid and unbreakable, he could only stay in the Golden Lock Pass, hesitated to come and go, and still did not dare to enter an inch.

When the messenger sent by Li Banghua, Minister of Military Aircraft, passed through Fenzhou and found the Golden Lock Pass, the direction of Fenzhou, the middle line of Shanxi's suppression of thieves, was such a stalemate.