Li Yin, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin each led 5,000 troops, combined 15,000 troops, set off from Jinyang, and drove directly to Xihe City, the county of Xihe County.

Xihe County and Taiyuan County are located in the plains of the upper reaches of Fenshui, which are closely related, and their status is related to the safety of Taiyuan, which is extremely important, so the Li family must first take Xihe County to open the way to the south.

There were no other counties between Xihe City and Taiyuan County, so the army marched all the way to the southwest without any decent hindrance.

The army attacked in three ways, the soldiers led by Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin were all newly recruited, had no training, and the marching speed was slightly slower, while Li Yin's army was all veterans who had followed him for many years, and the order was forbidden, and the marching speed was naturally much faster than that of Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin.

However, Li Yin did not rush forward lightly, and the attack on the city in this battle was secondary, and how to express himself was the most important thing.

It was April, there were many vegetables and fruits on the side of the marching road, Li Yin ordered that they were not allowed to eat what they were not bought, and occasionally the brave soldiers who stole the melons and fruits would immediately find the owner to compensate, and they did not blame the thieves, and the soldiers and the people were happy and convinced.

Wherever Li Yin's army passed, Qiu did not commit any crimes, and punished the bullies who bullied the people all the way, upheld justice for the people, and distributed land to the people.

Although Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin brought new soldiers, they were able to share the joys and hardships with the soldiers, and took the lead in encountering the enemy, so the soldiers were all admired, and because of their strict discipline, they did not do anything against the people, so they were also admired by the people.

Soon, Li Yin, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin all led their troops to the city of Xihe, and the people nearby who wanted to enter the city all allowed them to enter and did some harm.

Xihe County Cheng Gao Deru then closed the city and refused to defend, Xihe City, also known as Xi (xi) City, a total of four city gates, Li Yin and Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin each led the army to surround one of them, this is the art of war "encirclement of three lack of one" strategy, can reduce the determination of the soldiers defending the city to resist.

The three brothers began to tacitly attack the city by their own means, and Li Yinguan saw that the morale of the soldiers defending the city was low and the armor was not in order, so he directly ordered his soldiers to attack the city immediately.

The combat effectiveness of the soldiers defending the city can not be compared with Li Yin's army at all, the fight was half loud, Su Dingfang took the lead with a team of men and horses to seize a city wall, and gained a firm foothold there, Li Yin's army immediately continued to ascend from there, and the soldiers defending the city fled one after another when they saw this, and Li Yin led the troops directly to the Taishou Mansion to kill.

Not long after Li Yin's soldiers surrounded the Taishou Mansion, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin also arrived with troops almost at the same time, and the speed at which they entered the city was so fast that Li Yin was greatly surprised.

The reason why Li Jiancheng broke through the gate of Xihe City so quickly was because he had already sent people into Xihe City as an internal response on the way to the army, so although the combat effectiveness of the soldiers he led was not as good as Li Yin, he easily entered the city under internal and external attacks.

Li Jiancheng originally thought that his speed of entering the city must be the fastest, and he thought about revealing his means this time in advance, but he didn't expect that in the end, he was one step too late for Li Yin.

As for Li Shimin, there is also a reason why he was able to attack the city gate so quickly.

He originally attacked the east gate, but in the end only sent a small number of people to shout and interfere at the east gate, and the main force suddenly went to attack the gate that was missing in the "siege of three missing one", where there were not many defenders, and they couldn't resist it when they were caught off guard, so it didn't take long for Li Shimin to lead the army to break through.

Although the process was different, the three brothers finally broke through Xihe City, and then they ordered to besiege the weak Taishou Mansion, and soon captured Gao Deru, and sent someone to escort Gao Deru to the gate of the barracks.

Gao Deru is sour and stubborn, but he is not a cruel person, he has not done anything to hurt nature and reason, and it would be okay to let him go at any other time.

But at this time, when the Li family first started to fight, Gao Deru was the first to jump out against the Li family, and it was not enough to establish his authority if he was not killed, so Li Yin, Li Jiancheng, and Li Shimin found an excuse and said: "Gao Deru used wild birds to pretend to be Luan Birds to deceive the monarch and deceive high-ranking officials. ”

So he ordered Gao Deru to be executed, but none of the other officials were killed, and Qiu did not commit any crimes, and comforted the people and let them resume their jobs, and the people near and far were very happy when they heard it.

Since the county administration of Xihe County was captured, the other county towns were soon decided, and Li Yin, Li Jiancheng, and Li Shimin led their troops back to Jinyang, and it took only ten days to go back and forth.

Li Yuan happily praised the three brothers and said, "If we all use soldiers like this in the future, our Li family will be able to run rampant in the world!" ”

Xihe County, since it has been decided, Li Yuan will then gather all the officials and begin to formulate a plan to enter the customs.

The so-called Guanzhong refers to the west of the Yellow River and Tongguan, the north of the Qinling Mountains, the south of the Longdong Plateau, the east of Liupan Mountain, and the area of the Jingweiluo River Valley. Because its place is in Tongguan, Wuguan, Xiaoguan, Dasanguan four passes, so it is called Guanzhong.

The land of Guanzhong, located in the mountains and rivers on all sides, the situation is the most dangerous, Jing, Wei, Luo three rivers run through the period, 800 miles of Qinchuan, the products are incomparably rich, there has always been "those who get the Guanzhong get the world", "Guanzhong according to the upper reaches of the world, the life of the world".

Before the Sui Dynasty, Shang took the country of 600 worships and died in the Qizhou of 100 miles; The Warring States were ordered by the Qin, which was eight thousand miles of Zhao, Wei, Qi, Chu, Han, and Yan. Later, Liu Bang started from Buyi, entered the customs and Wang Hanzhong, then received Bashu, set the three Qin, and became the emperor in five years.

The reason why Sui was able to unify Liuhe was also because the Northern Zhou Dynasty occupied Guanzhong before Yang Jian's usurpation, and after decades, it finally destroyed the great enemy Northern Qi, and then pacified Jiangnan after Yang Jian's usurpation, so that the world was restored to unity.

These past histories have all shown the world the importance of the land of Guanzhong, and it can be said that Guanzhong is to the world, just like the human body is to the head.

Therefore, there are many people who covet Guanzhong now, except for Li Yuan.

Xue Ju, a native of Fenyin, lived in Jincheng County, the county of Jincheng (now Lanzhou), Xue Ju was extremely brave, had thousands of family wealth, and was good at making friends with heroes, and was the captain of Jincheng County.

At that time, the thieves in the Longyou area were rising, and Jincheng ordered Hao Ying to recruit about a few thousand soldiers and send Xue Ju to lead the crusade against the thieves.

On the third day of the fourth month, as soon as the recruits were given weapons, the Jincheng Mansion set up a banquet to reward the soldiers, Xue Ju and his son Xue Rengao and thirteen members of the same party coerced Hao Ying to send troops from their seats, imprisoned the county officials, and opened warehouses to help the people and recruit soldiers.

Xue Ju then proclaimed himself the overlord of Western Qin and changed his name to Qin Xing. He named Xue Rengao as the Duke of Qi, and his youngest son Xue Renyue as the Duke of Jin, recruited a group of thieves, robbed the government's horses, and greatly increased his strength.