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In October of the first year of Long'an, without waiting for Jiankang's side to send a holy decree, Wei Shuo issued an order to fight against Shu.

Tens of thousands of soldiers who had already gathered in the territory of Yongqin divided the road and raided Hanzhong along the plank roads such as the Meridian Road, the Bao Slope Road, the Fu Luo Road, and the Chencang Road.

Unexpectedly, without waiting for the smoke to ignite, when Wei Shuo announced the commanders of the various armies, he couldn't help but cause an uproar.

It turned out that King Yong abandoned a large number of military generals, but entrusted the newcomers with important tasks.

For example, generals such as Hu Fan, Mao Dezu, and Zhu Lingshi were all entrusted with the main generals of the road and served as important raids.

"Your Highness is so arranged, is it rare that you are not afraid that the generals will not accept it?" Cui Hong didn't understand King Yong's move, and said uneasily.

"Shu is dangerous, I think how brave Wei Wu was back then, and he gave up halfway in the Han Dynasty."

"Now His Royal Highness has sent Zhu Lingshi, Hu Fan, Li Sui and other generals to serve as governors, is it too Meng Lang?"

In the eyes of many people, in history, those who pacified Shu were all heroes, important ministers, and famous generals.

How can Hu Fan, Zhu Lingshi and others be worthy of the important task entrusted by King Yong?

This undoubtedly greatly surprised everyone's expectations, not to mention that the generals were unconvinced, and even Cui Hong, Jiang Ji and other civilian staff members were puzzled.

Cui Hong couldn't figure it out, and couldn't help muttering secretly: "There are many people in the Hexi Army who can fight and are famous, but King Yong is vigorously promoting newcomers, is he worried that someone will be highly meritorious?" ”

"Can't!"

"At present, the world is undecided, and it is not a great achievement to cut down Shu, so why should you be suspicious of this?"

Wei Shuo was so shrewd, he saw through Cui Hong and Jiang Ji's concerns at a glance.

He smiled and asked, "The two gentlemen must have felt that Lone was acting risky, and even thought that Lone was jealous of his ability?" ”

"Don't dare!" Cui Hong and Jiang Ji hurriedly bowed down and pleaded guilty.

Jiang Ji said bluntly: "Please also ask Your Highness to speak clearly, and the ministers will listen to you." ”

Wei Shuo patiently explained: "Ling Shi, Dao Xu, and Dezu are indeed young, but all three of them are people of extraordinary intelligence. ”

"The reason why newcomers are newcomers is because of the lack of opportunities to exercise."

"Whenever there is an opportunity, newcomers will become more experienced."

"Buying virtue, suppressing evil, Daoquan and other generals, which one is not growing up step by step like this?"

"If we don't give it a chance, the newcomer will always be the newcomer."

"Yes...... But what if the plan to attack Shu is delayed? ”

"No!"

"It's not a lonely rebel, but it's not a matter of worrying about the people who are not eloquent, impotent, and Hou Hui."

"In addition, there is also Mai De sitting in the martial arts, coordinating the overall situation, which is enough to ensure that nothing goes wrong."

……

Criticism in the army naturally spread to the ears of Zhu Lingshi, Hu Fan, and Mao Dezu, among whom Mao Dezu was okay, after all, he had the merits of defending Handan, and the controversy was the least.

But Zhu Lingshi and Hu Fan are different, and they are stared at by strange eyes almost when they come here, which makes the two of them very annoyed.

But Hu Fan and Zhu Lingshi are not ordinary people, and they did not rest assured of the disturbances of the outside world, but seemed unusually calm.

Because they know that this situation is not unusual, who called them shallow?

Could it be that they can still have a big fight with other generals?

Not to mention, this will stiffen the relationship with colleagues, and it will also make it difficult for King Yong, who promotes and reuses them.

Smart people would never do that, so how can we change the current situation?

Very simple! As long as this battle is fought well, all the criticism in front of us will disappear.

From the moment they received the order to go to battle, the two devoted all their energy to how to complete the combat mission.

This time Hexi went to Hanzhong, and Hu Fan was responsible for crossing the Baoxia Valley and capturing Baocheng.

Bao Slope Road is a valley road formed by following the two river valleys of Weishui tributary Diagonal Water and Hanshui Tributary Baoshui.

Xieyukou is in the south of Yixian, and Baogukou is in the north of Baocheng in Hanzhong.

Hu Fan led 3,000 infantry from Yixian, first into the valley, then into the valley, and then into the Baogu valley, after leaving the plank road to attack Baocheng.

And Zhu Lingshi has to cross Fu Luo Road and be responsible for going south to capture Xingshi City.

……

With the order of King Yong, Hexi slowly opened the prelude to the southern expedition.

In the plan to attack Shu, the first step is to seize the peripheral passes of the plank road and knock on the gate of Hanzhong in the south, which is undoubtedly the key to the overall strategy.

Baocheng is an extremely important strategic place in Hanzhong, due to the topography, Baocheng is not wide, with a circumference of about 15 li.

Although Baocheng is not big, it is built on a mountain, and the construction site is very tall and strong, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

It guards the entrance at the south end of the slope road, and there is a tendency that the husband is not open.

It is said that the ancient road leading to Guanzhong in Hanzhong has four parts: Bao Slope Road, Old Road, Fu Luo Road, and Meridian Road.

However, compared with the other three roads, the whole journey is shorter and shorter, and it is the post road that has been opened up early and used for a long time among the four roads.

Under normal circumstances, only when the ramp is wasted, other plank roads will be used.

From the pre-Qin and Han dynasties to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, a large number of merchants traveled between Guanzhong and Hanzhong through the Baochuan Road.

They transported the goods from Yongzhou and Sanfu to Baochuan Road, through Baocheng, and then to Hanzhong and Shu.

Or the specialties from Shu are also transferred in Baocheng, or go west to Wudu, or continue north to Yixian and Chang'an.

Therefore, due to its location in a transportation area, Baocheng has become the most important commercial center in Hanzhong.

There are dozens of commercial houses in the city, including Hexi merchants from Guanzhong and Longyou, all of whom have branches in the city.

For example, the ban on trees in Guanzhong has led to a huge increase in demand for coal.

Many merchants and merchants have set up large warehouses in Baocheng in order to transport the fine coal produced in Bajun to Guanzhong to make a profit.

In particular, Liangzhou was the old place of the Huan family, and it has closer contacts with Guanzhong, and the business travel in the plank road is endless.

……

As the saying goes: spring is sleepy and autumn is lacking! A sunny autumn afternoon is always drowsy.

In the afternoon, the whole city was bathed in the warm autumn sunshine.

The defenders were drowsy from the autumn sun, but they still held on to their spirits and dutifully checked the passing merchant travelers.

Don't look at the Huan family has been driven out of Liangzhou, but Baocheng has not been affected in the slightest.

As usual, there are still a large number of merchants who come and go between Hanzhong and Guanzhong to do business.

Since the rise of Hexi and the opening of the Silk Road, commerce that had been depressed by war has flourished again.

The only difference is that Yongcheng is more strictly inspected than in the past, and there are more garrisons, and it seems that Qian Zong and others also know the importance of this place.

Suddenly, the general guarding the city saw a caravan coming from the depths of the Bao Valley in the north.

Every four knights followed the caravan slowly around a carriage, which was stuffed with sacks and did not know what to hold.

There were not a hundred but eighty caravans of such caravans passing through Baocheng every day, and most of them were engaged in coal and grain business.

However, the group of business travelers in front of him was not an ordinary person, Hu Fan deliberately found someone to pretend.

In order not to arouse the suspicion of the defenders, except for the fifty guards who were soldiers in Hexi, the rest of the men and stewards were all hired from the real merchants' homes.

The person at the front of the caravan was a middle-aged man in his forties, and everyone called him the cattle butler.

This person has been going back and forth to the Qinshu plank road for many years, and is familiar with the grass and trees on the plank road.

Seeing that he was about to arrive in Baocheng, Butler Niu turned around from time to time and secretly looked at the young guy in the team, his heart was full of apprehension.

This guy is pretending to be Hu Fan himself, and this time King Fengyong will order him to go south to capture Baocheng.

Since Baocheng is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there are nearly 3,000 defenders stationed in it, if it is attacked, it will pay a huge price.

In order to become famous, in order to prove himself to the outside world, Hu Fan chose to outwit.

Before the army set off, Hu Fan had already inquired clearly, and now that the imperial decree had not been issued, the rebels in Hanzhong would never think of the Hexi army attacking.

It was this that allowed him to find a good opportunity to break the enemy.

Seeing that he was about to come to the city gate, Hu Fan, who was originally careless, suddenly opened his eyes and asked, "Have you arrived?" ”

A knight next to him hurriedly replied: "My lord, there is Baocheng in front." ”

"Good! Quietly command to go down and get the brothers ready. ”

"Look at my gestures then, and everyone will work together to seize the city gate."

"Stop! What's on the car?! ”

"Back to the general, the car is loaded with tea and salt, and I want to exchange some food in Chengdu." Steward Li stepped forward and said.

"Why are there so many people? What do they do? ”

The goalkeeper frowned, looking at the fifty guards, and a trace of uneasiness flashed in his heart.

"General Hui, I heard that there has been a war in Shu recently, and for the sake of safety, the small one has to hire more guards."

"Really?" The little colonel guarding the gate was suspicious, and kept scanning the guards back and forth with a suspicious gaze.

Seeing that the gatekeeper was suspicious, he couldn't help but let Hu Fan behind him secretly pinch a cold sweat.

But apparently he was overly concerned, and Steward Niu deserved to be a veteran of running business all year round.

I saw that after he quietly handed a handful of silver dollars to the goalkeeper, all the problems were solved.