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In February 394, shortly after the defeat of Murong Long, the Northern Wei Dynasty united with Western Yan and Hexi to attack Houyan.

Hearing that Tuoba Jue was about to attack Houyan on a large scale, Murong Bao, the crown prince who stayed in Zhongshan, immediately convened the civil and military forces to discuss countermeasures.

Murong Lin, the king of Zhao, proposed to take the initiative, and he said to the prince: "In the past, the Northern Wei Dynasty repeatedly violated our borders and kidnapped people and killed officials. ”

"Today, I took advantage of His Majesty's southern expedition to openly entangle Murong Yong and Wei Shuo, and committed a big offense."

"I really don't take my Dayan in my eyes, why don't you take this opportunity to destroy the other party in one fell swoop by force, and then remove my threat to the north."

As soon as Murong Lin's words fell, he aroused criticism from other ministers.

Now it is no longer than ever, not to mention that the tripartite alliance is menacing.

At this time, Houyan's domestic forces were very weak, and they were unable to meet the enemy head-on.

Zhongshan Yin Fumo thought that a rash attack would make Houyan vulnerable to the enemy left and right, and he would be in danger.

"The king's words are wrong!"

"Now the Wei State has strong soldiers and many cavalry, and the flat terrain of Hebei will help the Wei army to become stronger."

"And the enemy of Dayan is not only the Northern Wei Dynasty, in case of defeat, then Hexi, Western Yan, and Eastern Jin will all pounce on it, even if there are three heads and six arms, it may be difficult to resist the enemy."

"Therefore, instead of taking the risk of attacking, it is better to clear the wilderness, hold on to all dangers, and wait for reinforcements."

Fu Mo's insistence on it caused a fierce debate in the court.

Most of the civil servants, such as Gao Hu, a regular attendant of the loose cavalry, and Zhang Teng, the middle of the imperial history, agreed with this proposal.

"What Master Fu said is extremely true, judging from the current situation, it is indeed not appropriate to make a rash attack."

"The Wei army has a large number of cavalry and moves quickly, but the amount of food they carry is small, and they can only eat for more than ten days."

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince should immediately order the people to be relocated to the city and implement the fortification and clearing."

"After the arrival of the Wei army, once there is no food in the field, it will not be long before the food will run out, and then there is no need to send troops and horses, it will retreat on its own."

King Zhao Murong Lin frowned, and retorted: "Originally, in the face of the enemy's large-scale attack, rumors have been spreading in the country, and people's hearts are fluctuating. ”

"If we move the people into the city on a large scale, we will only show weakness to the enemy and shake people's hearts even more."

Since Murong Bao has always been friendly with Wenchen, he is more inclined to the opinions of Fu Mo, Gao Hu and others.

However, Murong Lin, the king of Zhao, has a heavy army in his hands and is his younger brother, so it is not good to offend him.

The indecisive Murong Bao thought about it again and again, and in the end not only did not take Murong Lin's advice, but also did not fully follow Fu Mo's advice.

He did not divide his troops to hold various dangerous passes, but concentrated his troops, grain and grass in Lunu, Yecheng, Jicheng and other major cities, so as to hold on for a long time.

At the same time, Murong Bao also hurriedly asked his father Murong Chui for help, asking the southern army to return to the north as soon as possible.

In fact, Murong Bao also has a certain reason for doing this, due to the southern expedition, the Yan army is seriously understaffed.

And there are many dangerous passes in Taihang Mountain, if all the troops are divided, the number of defenders in each key pass is small, and it will not work.

And there are more defenders sent, and there will be a shortage of troops to garrison Lunu and other cities in the hinterland of Hebei.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Murong Bao had no choice but to stick to the big city first, and as for other dangers, he could only choose to give up.

……

In 394 AD, in February, Wei Shuo crossed the Yellow River east and arrived in Xihe County.

From now on, he will sit in the West River remote control Quartet.

This time, with Zhang Teng's secret help, Murong Yong demarcated a marching route for the Hexi army, that is, from Jinyang through Jingcheng to the east of Hebei.

On the surface, it seemed that Murong Yong was afraid of the Hexi army, so he sent them far away, but in fact, everything was in Hexi's control.

Jinyang, the strategic position is very important, there are mountains and mountains of Luliang Mountain in the west and the roar of the Yellow River to the south.

There are Taihang Mountain and the extremely steep Jingcheng Pass in the east, and there is Yanmen Pass in the north.

In the southeast, there are Fukou and Tianjingguan in the Shangdang area, and in the southwest, Pingyang and Puban, Longmen, Pujin and other dangerous points.

Wei Shuo had already decided with his staff that the first step in seizing the state was to capture Jinyang first.

Each of the three parties has its own plans for this joint military dispatch.

Among them, Tuoba Jue personally led a large army out of Tieguan (now Downed Horse Pass), and after converging with the Northern Route Army of Xi Jin and Tuoba Lie, he would take advantage of the situation to attack Jicheng.

If they can capture and occupy the entire Youzhou in one fell swoop, the Northern Wei Dynasty will cut the Houyan Empire into two sections.

Then, the army first cleared the Houyan forces around Youzhou, occupied the various dangerous passes leading to Liaoxi on the Yanshan Mountain Range, and after defending the north of the Youzhou area, it then waved south with the main army and swept Yan Zhao.

As for Hexi, on the bright side, Wei Shuo fooled Tuoba Jue and Murong Yong, saying that the Hexi army would cross the Jingcheng Ancient Road, adopt the method of going straight to the heart, and directly attack Lunu.

In fact, the seizure of the annexed state was the only goal of Hexi.

In the face of such a rash move by Hexi, Tuoba Jue and Murong Yong were full of doubts, but the two suspected that the place was different.

Among them, Tuoba Jue did not suspect that Wei Shuo had ulterior motives to target Bingzhou, but doubted whether the Hexi army would storm Lunu as agreed.

It must be known that Lunu, as the city of the king of Houyan, is not only tall, but also has a lot of garrisons.

Once attacked, it will definitely attract the attention of Hou Yan, and from another point of view, it can be regarded as reducing the pressure on the Northern Wei Dynasty.

However, no matter how Tuoba Jue thinks of Wei Shuo, he doesn't look like a good student who learns from Lei Feng's good example, but he can't guess Hexi's true intentions.

As for Murong Yong, he didn't expect that Wei Shuo was fighting Xiyan, he just doubted whether the Hexi Army was capable of capturing Lunu.

Unlike Hexi and Northern Wei Dynasty, Murong Yong followed Zhang Teng's strategy and was just bluffing, but I didn't cross Taihang Mountain to the east.

……

Due to Wang Zhenwei's close friendship with Murong You, he was appointed by Wei Shuo as the governor of the conquest and was responsible for the command of the Northern Route Army.

The Northern Route Army had a total of 30,000 cavalry, bringing together young generals such as Tan Daoji and Xue Tong as deputy generals.

At the same time, another 20,000 foot riders have quietly hidden in the west of Luliang Mountain.

Just waiting for Wang Zhenwei to take Jinyang, Wei Shuo will personally lead the army to the east to attack the eldest son.

Although the purpose of this battle in Hexi is to annex Xiyan and bring the annexed states under its rule, it still needs to be played well before that.

Wang Zhenwei led 30,000 horsemen to Jinyang smoothly and was warmly welcomed by Murong You again.

Last time, Wang Zhenwei left a very strong impression on Murong You, and he didn't suspect that the other party had ulterior motives this time.

In order to facilitate the Hexi Army's expedition, he also sent people to renovate the Jingcheng Ancient Road in advance.

Jingcheng is the shortest road from Jinyang to the central part of Hebei, if the east out of the occupation of Zhongshan, Changshan and other counties, it is equivalent to controlling the center of Hebei.

With Zhongshan as the center, the hinterland of Hebei can be divided and disintegrated.

In 204 BC, Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin, crossed Jingcheng and destroyed the Zhao State.

Now, after hundreds of years of vicissitudes of life, most of the old roads of the original wells that Han Xin passed through have been annihilated and destroyed.

Fortunately, Murong You renovated it in advance, and because Hou Yan had already given up guarding the pass, he was able to let Wang Zhenwei pass through the well smoothly.

30,000 Hexi soldiers walked in the depths of Taihang Mountain.

Shadowy figures are dotted with winding and rugged mountain trails.

Bidding farewell to Murong You, Wang Zhenwei went east from Jinyang, crossed the Taihang Mountain through the well, and went straight to Houyan Changshan County.

Seeing that Zhending City was in sight, Wang Zhenwei wiped the sweat on his forehead, and couldn't help but think of his mission again.

According to the deployment of the Military Division before the war, Wang Zhen's first battle should be to attack Changshan, and its purpose was to confuse Murong Yong and Tuoba Jue.

In particular, it is necessary to dispel Murong Yong's suspicions and lay the foundation for seizing and annexing the state in the future.

Since Murong Bao had concentrated most of his troops in Lunu, Jicheng, Yecheng and other places, the defenders of Changshan Zhending were seriously insufficient.

In the face of the powerful offensive of the Hexi army, the defenders only held out for less than a day before they were captured, and they also captured Houyan Changshan Taishou Gouyan.

The rapid fall of Zhending City shocked both the enemy and us.

Houyan, who was originally panicked, finally caused a riot, and the magistrates in Changshan County fled and surrendered.

Wang Zhenwei took the opportunity to divide the way and swept through Changshan County, and captured a large number of materials and population.

Sure enough, when he learned that the Hexi Army had occupied Changshan County, Murong Yong was both shocked by the strong combat power of the Hexi Army and quietly relieved.

In his opinion, since the Hexi army has begun to conquer the city, it means that the other party really wants to conquer Houyan, and will not have ill intentions towards Xiyan.

It's a pity, where did Murong Yong know the truth, he was completely deceived by Hexi.

After the attack on Changshan, Wang Zhenwei immediately ordered the army to stop going deeper into the hinterland of Hebei.

Next, while making the intention of attacking Lunu to the east, he secretly moved his army westward and transported the captured booty to the rear.

When everyone thought that Wang Zhen would raid Zhongshan, he shook a shot and returned to the state along Jingcheng again, kicking off the prelude to the annexation of Hexi.