More than ten days after Ma Chao's army left Qishan, Liu Bei also led the Chinese army of 40,000 and quickly returned west to Hanzhong.

Liu Bei ordered Pang Tong and Ma Chao to sit in Jicheng, and ordered Huang Zhong and Pang De and other generals to divide their troops to capture the three counties of Tianshui, Nan'an and Anding, and sent envoys to Liangzhou to recruit Wuwei counties and make good alliances with Zhuqiang. Liu Bei led 30,000 elite soldiers by himself, and rushed to Jieting to reinforce Fang Shao at night.

At this time, Cao Ying, who was in the Central Plains, had just assembled a large army, and the soldiers and horses were rushing from Luoyang to Tongguan, wanting to enter the pass.

More than 40,000 people in Xia Yuanhou's department did not carry much food, besieged the street pavilion for more than ten days, and suffered a lot of damage, now seeing Liu Bei leading a large army to come, he knew that he could not resist, so he had to retreat to Wangxian to the east of Longshan, waiting to meet with Cao Ying's reinforcements.

Originally, when the counties of Longxi heard that Xiahou Yuan led the army to the west to help, they all reported a glimmer of hope, and many counties were still holding on, but after hearing the news that Xiahou Yuan retreated east and Liu Bei's army entered Longxi, the counties saw that there was no hope of receiving help, and they all fell in despair.

To the west of the street pavilion, Liu Bei's army camp Fang Shao and Wang Ping just galloped into the camp gate, Liu Bei led a cadre of civil and military personnel to greet in person, the two saw this, hurriedly turned over and dismounted, Fang Shao stepped forward and bowed, "Shao has seen the king." ”

With a smile on his face, Liu Bei took a few steps to help Fang Shao up, stroked his shoulder and said: "Zhongzheng, Zhongzheng, pacify Longxi, you are indispensable." Yes, yes, Lone really didn't look at the wrong person. ”

Fang Shao hurriedly said: "The king praised it, this battle is all the soldiers' lives, and Shao is just doing his best." ”

Fang Shao's modesty is the way to be a minister, but Liu Bei, who is the lord, knows the important surname of Fang Shao's achievements in this battle, so he should be excited: "Let's go, take Gu to see the battlefield first." ”

With 7,000 foot soldiers, he resisted the onslaught of 40,000 Xiahou Yuan's elite infantry cavalry for more than ten days, and for a person like Liu Bei, who was born as a military general, he was not only interested in the fruits of victory, but also the thrilling of the entire combat process.

So, Fang Shao led Liu Bei to the Nanshan battlefield, and while taking him to inspect various battlefields, he explained the entire process of the battle.

When Liu Bei stood on the top of Nanshan, looked down on the appearance of the entire street pavilion, and looked at the corpses and flags left by Cao Jun everywhere, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Zhongzheng's way of forming a village, the way of arranging and deploying troops, are all really wonderful in the art of war, and the use of this terrain makes people who have led soldiers for many years sigh to themselves." Well, this battle will definitely leave a strong mark in history. ”

In fact, Fang Shao just drew a gourd according to Ma Tan's tactics, but the specific details were slightly modified, if he really said that his ability to use troops surpassed Liu Bei, it would really kill him.

Of course, if the leader says that the level is not as good as you, it can only represent the leader's appreciation and recognition of you.

So, hearing Liu Bei's beautiful words, Fang Shao hurriedly said: "Before the soldiers left Qishan, the king once said that the street pavilion was an important place, and he had also given the law of guarding the emperor many times. ”

Liu Bei smiled slightly, and asked: "Now that the Longshan Passage has been taken by the lonely, the counties of Longxi can be determined, according to Zhongzheng's opinion, what is the next step?" ”

Fang Shao said: "The counties of Longxi are attacking Guanzhong, Cao Ying will not give up easily, presumably he is now leading a large army on the way to Longxi." According to Shao's opinion, the king should rebuild the street pavilion city, so that it can become a strong pass that can block the westward invasion of Guanzhong, as long as the Longshan passage can be held, then Cao Ying can not help us even if he raises the army of the country. At that time, the king can easily pacify the counties of Longxi and Liangzhou, recuperate the soldiers, form cavalry, and then go east out of Longshan, then Guanzhong can be decided in one fell swoop. ”

Liu Bei thought deeply of Fang Shao's suggestion, but he also had his own opinion, "Zhongzheng's strategy is indeed safe, but I think that it is better to take advantage of the victorious army to quickly fight for Guanzhong in the east, and expel Cao Ying's forces from Guanlong in one fell swoop." ”

Fang Shao coughed lightly twice, "Well, it's naturally good for the king to have such ambitions." It's just that the supply of grain and grass for our army needs to arrive from Shuzhong, one is far away, the supply line is too long, and Longxi has not yet been settled, and the grain route will be affected. Instead of fighting a decisive battle with it in the Guanzhong Plain, I am afraid that our army will not be able to restrain the enemy's cavalry at the moment, and it is better to steadily encroach on it than to risk a breakthrough. ”

After Fang Shao's patient analysis, Liu Bei had the idea of rushing forward with the news.

Liu Bei immediately ordered to quickly build a larger gate on the basis of the original small city of Jieting, so that it could form a real horn with the camp of Nanshan and control the main entrance of the five roads of the Longshan Pass.

Liu Bei then ordered Wu Yi to be appointed as the Taishou of Nan'an, and to shoot for the Taishou of stability, and enabled a large number of subordinate officials of the Longxi clans such as Liang Xu and Yin Xian, or appointed high-ranking officials in the county, or promoted to the Great Sima Mansion. As for the most important Tianshui Taishou among the three counties, Liu Bei served as Pang Tong.

In view of the fact that there were still those who had not yet returned to the counties of Longxi, Liu Bei had to divide 5,000 troops to each county to exterminate those who refused to submit. At the same time, Liu Bei led an army of 10,000 with Ma Chao, Chen Shi, and Li Hui to collect Wuwei and other Liangzhou counties.

Liu Bei led an army of 70,000 to be stationed in Luoyang County near Jieting, preparing to deal with Cao Ying's army. At the same time, the edict was sent to Shuzhong, and a large number of Yizhou officials were transferred to Longxi to take over the key positions of the counties.

When Liu Bei calmly completed the deployment, it had been nearly a month since the Battle of Longxi, and Cao Ying, at this time, led an army of 130,000 to arrive in Wangxian County and joined Xiahou Yuan's more than 30,000 soldiers.

In October of that year, Liu Bei's 70,000 soldiers and horses and Cao Ying's 160,000 troops formed a confrontation situation on the front line of the Longshan Pass.

Although the number and combat effectiveness of the Han army were inferior to Cao's army, because of the key points of the street pavilion, they only defended but did not attack, although Cao Ying had tens of thousands of iron cavalry and more than 100,000 elite foot soldiers, but they could not be used in the narrow Longshan pass. Therefore, although Cao Ying organized several large-scale strong attacks, he was still unable to break through the resistance of the Han army on the Jieting side.

Unconsciously, the two sides have been in a stalemate for a month, when it is close to the end of autumn, the weather is getting colder, all the grass is withering, and Cao's cavalry has encountered the dilemma of running out of forage. Although the land of Guanzhong is rich, it has become quite poor after years of warlord warfare, although under the governance of Zhong Xuan, the economy has improved considerably, but the people of Guanzhong are naturally difficult to support such an army of nearly 200,000 people for a long time. Therefore, Cao Ying had to order the transfer of grain from Xu Luo and other places into the customs, but because of the long distance, it was also difficult.

In fact, the situation of the Han army may not be much better than that of the Cao army.

Although the victory of the battle of Longxi greatly boosted the morale of the Han army, however, the counties of Longxi were initially peaceful, and the Han army could not eat nearby in the short term, and the supply of grain and grass also needed to be transported from Shuzhong, and from Chengdu to Hanzhong, and then from Hanzhong to Longxi, all of which were taken in the Qinling Valley Road, and the difficulty of transporting grain was actually much higher than that of the Cao army.

At the same time, the main composition of the Han army is the soldiers of Jingzhou and Yizhou, these soldiers mostly live in the humid and hot environment of the south, and now go to the northwest, in the late summer and early autumn, the weather is still cool and adaptable, and in the late autumn and early winter, the weather is colder and more irritable, these soldiers from the south will have to take advantage of the huge physical test, the non-combat attrition is increasing, and the sharp decline in morale is inevitable.

Liu Bei originally thought that Cao Ying would not be able to capture the street pavilion, so he had to return to Chang'an, but he didn't expect Cao Ying's anger to be so big, it seems that he was determined to spend it on the Longshan line, and at this critical moment when the two sides were deadlocked, news came from Shuzhong that there was a rebellion in several counties in Nanzhong.

Chengdu, Zhuge Liang Mansion.

In the study, Zhuge Liang held the handwritten book of the King of Hanzhong, and there was a look of distress between his eyebrows.

"Strategist, is it another edict from the king to urge food?" The man who was helping to sort out his business in front of the case asked.

This person's surname is Dong name and the word Youzai, is a native of Zhijiang in Nan County, when the world was in turmoil, the family moved west to Yizhou, was an official under Liu Zhang, was a county commander in Chengdu, and then because of offending the magnates of Chengdu, he was sent by Liu Zhang to Nanzhong to serve as Taishou, and when the king of Hanzhong got Yizhou, Zhuge Liang recommended Liu Beizheng as the general in charge of the army, and assisted Zhuge Liang to participate in the affairs of the Great Sima Mansion.

Zhuge Liang sighed, "Yes, the king is in a stalemate with Cao Ying in Longshan, this time not only urging us to transport grain to the front line, but also recruiting troops to Longxi again." ”

Dong He said without thinking: "The battle of Guanlong is a matter of success or failure, and we should go all out to support the front line." It's just that now that the south and middle have launched a rebellion, and now they want to recruit Yizhou Benshi men to join the army, I am afraid that it will make sincerity and benevolence unstable, and I think that at this time, we should try our best to solicit the support of Yizhou scholars. ”

Zhuge Liang smiled: "What you say is exactly what I thought, I have already made arrangements, just wait for that person to arrive." ”

The voice is not named, and the attendant Yan Shu County is engaged in Yang Hong.

Zhuge Liang called for please enter, and at this time, Dong He suddenly understood, and couldn't help but smile meaningfully.

This Yang Hong is a famous person of the county of Qianwei in Yizhou, and when Li Yan was the Taishou of Qian, the first guard of the county was served by Yang Hong, who was born in the big family, according to the custom. At the beginning of Li Yan's tenure, he thought that the county's governance was not good, so he had to rebuild one, so that the local people had to pay for the army, which Yang Hong did not want to bring disaster to the township, so he handed in his resignation under the condition of persuading Li Yan not to obey. And Li Yan was not angry, but recommended Yang Hong to serve as the head of Shu County under Fazheng. At this time, from the barbaric land of Qianwei's Gong Cao to the central engagement, it can be described as soaring.

Therefore, although this Yang Hong is a native of Yizhou, he is also an old subordinate of Fa Zheng and Li Yan's faction, and he is a dual identity of Guan Longshi and Yizhou local scholars.

Now the king of Hanzhong wants Zhuge Liang to increase his troops, and the additional soldiers are naturally Yizhou soldiers, which naturally requires the opinions of Yizhou scholars, and at this time, there was a rebellion in Qianwei County, and Li Yan wanted to quell the rebellion.

Therefore, at this special time, Zhuge Liang must seek the opinions of Yang Hong, who is both a Yizhou and a Guan Longshi, and is also from Qianwei.

(To be continued)