Most of the lower reaches of Weishui and the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are wide enough and the river water is deep, which is very suitable for the passage of boats, but there are also some dangerous sections of the river, and the current is particularly turbulent, which poses a great threat to the safe navigation of boats.

In a safe, gentle section of the river, all boats sail in turn, but in the case of a dangerous section of the river with strong currents, multiple boats are tied together to fight against the rushing river with a huge hull to tide over the difficulties.

However, in general, the dangerous river section is a small number after all, and the people and horses who take the waterway, with the boat as the support, are still much more comfortable than the people and horses who take the land, at least, sitting safely in the cabin, than riding and walking. Moreover, there are cabins as a place to rest, saving the trouble of camping and pulling out camps, and when the ship is moving slowly, some soldiers can also use some simple tools to catch all kinds of fish in the river and enrich their own food.

The flotilla departed from the dock near Chang'an and traveled east along the Weishui Road, where Hua'an and dozens of his own soldiers, on the largest three-story boat, traveled at the front of the procession, observing the scenery on both sides along the way.

Hua An stood at the highest point of the ship, holding the fence with one hand, sometimes looking at the rippling Weishui, and sometimes looking at the scenery on both sides of the Weishui.

Weishui looks quite clear, generally showing a green and yellow color, and even, you can occasionally see fish swimming on the surface of the river, while most of the banks of Weishui are yellow and abrupt, occasionally dotted with some green trees, it looks quite lonely.

Along both sides of the Weishui River, there are many cities and villages and towns distributed. After all, the proximity to the water source makes it very convenient for people and livestock to drink water, and the irrigation of crops is inseparable from the water in the Yellow River.

The environment in Guanzhong gives Hua'an the impression of being desolate with a little atmosphere, which is in stark contrast to the scenery of birds and flowers in the south of the Yangtze River, which makes people suddenly broad-minded.

"Big brother, the fleet has been set off for several days, why haven't you arrived at Tongguan yet?" Wang San, who was beside him, opened his mouth to ask.

Hua An looked at the topography on both sides of Weishui. Whispered, "It's coming." At most, the fleet will definitely arrive in Tongguan tomorrow. ”

Wang San nodded, and asked again: "Big brother, it takes so long to travel from Chang'an to Tongguan, so if you go from Tongguan to Luoyang." How long will it take? ”

Hua'an heard this. He groaned for a moment. He whispered, "It will take about twice as long!" This is still without enemy troops blocking the way, what's the matter, you can't wait. After speaking, he looked at Wang San.

Wang San smiled and shook his head. He said softly: "I'm not in a hurry, just ask casually, but since we just entered the barracks, we have been shouting about the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains and recovering the lost territory, and now, more than ten years have passed, and our wish is finally about to come true, and we are a little excited in our hearts." ”

"Yes! The eldest brother's heart is also very excited! After more than ten years, the hard work was not in vain, and this time he entered the Central Plains, did not recover the lost territory, and never returned to Guanzhong. Huaan Zhengse said.

"Big brother, rest assured, the main forces of Ran Min and Murong Jun are all in Hebei, and most of the Central Plains are warlord forces that take the opportunity to divide one side, and it is not difficult to deal with at all, just with the strength of our army, it is enough to fully control the Central Plains region." Wang San said affirmatively.

Hua An smiled and said softly, "I hope so!" As long as our army obtains a large area centered on Luoyang, it can greatly threaten Hebei, so as to capture the land of Hebei as much as possible, and finally go north, and take all the lost territories such as Youzhou, Pingzhou, and Liaodong, and it would be better if we further expanded the territory. After speaking, he looked at Wang San.

"Big brother, rest assured, as long as the soldiers work together, it will be a matter of time before they recover all the lost territory." Wang San said.

Hua An nodded in satisfaction and looked up at the north shore of Weishui.

The fleet marched for another day, and at noon on the second day, it first entered the Yellow River, and then arrived near Tongguan, where on the south side of the fleet was Tongguan, and on the north side was the ferry port to Hedong County, from which Xie Ai led nearly 100,000 horses and horses all the way north.

Since the speed of the fleet was the same as that of the main army on the south bank, when the fleet led by Hua'an arrived on the north side of Tongguan, the main forces of Deng Qiang and Zhuge Xiong arrived at Tongguan one after another, and from Tongguan to Guò, along the south bank of the Yellow River, in the direction of Luoyang.

The fleet led by Hua An went straight down the Yellow River and kept pace with the main army marching by land to prevent the lone army from going deep and encountering accidents.

The 20,000 Liangzhou troops led by Chen Polu and Chen Zhanhu, as well as the 20,000 reserve regiments, remained near Tongguan and were responsible for defending this extremely important pass.

Not long after Hua'an's main army set off from Tongguan, good news came from the northern front, a partial division led by Xie Ai had successively taken Hedong and Pingyang counties, and approached the border of Bingzhou, and it only took one or two days to enter the territory of Bingzhou.

At this time, the main army led by Hua'an was also all the way like a bamboo, and a small number of powerful armed forces in Huxian and other cities along the way, heard that the Great Jin Dynasty sent Wang Shi to recover the Central Plains, and they all opened the door to surrender and swore allegiance.

For the landlords who surrendered to him, Hua'an gave them all reuse, and let them continue to defend the city, so as to save their own troops.

Of course, those cities occupied by the Hu people refused to surrender to Hua'an, but in the face of Hua'an's more than 100,000 horses, these scattered Hu people's strength was simply not enough to resist, so they had to abandon the city and flee to the mountains to hide.

After Hua'an occupies these cities, he is faced with a dilemma, if he leaves a small number of troops to defend, once the Hu soldiers and horses return, he is afraid that it will be difficult to hold, but if he leaves enough soldiers and horses, he will strictly weaken his own troops, after all, there are too many cities along the way, as long as it is not an important strategic city, Hua'an is unwilling to let his main army stay here.

After thinking about it, Hua'an finally decided to leave a small army of about ten people to be responsible for organizing and training the young and middle-aged people in the city, and encouraging the powerful landlords in the city to lead their subordinates to join in guarding the city.

In this way, Hua'an does not need to leave a large number of troops, so as to avoid the gradual weakening of the main force, and let the locals in the city be responsible for defending the city, guarding their homes, which can stimulate their enthusiasm for defending the city.

When Hua'an led the army to Hongnong City, the capital of Hongnong County, in order to let the team rest and recuperate, Hua'an ordered to stop the advance and brought a group of generals into Hongnong City to rest.

Hongnong City is the first county city occupied by Hua'an soldiers after going out of Tongguan, which is an extremely important strategic city, for this reason, Hua'an inside and outside the Hongnong City inspected the whole area, and decided to leave a reserve army of 2,000 men and horses, responsible for guarding the city and protecting the grain route of the army.

#####

Just when Hua'an was still resting in Hongnong City, in the direction of Lukou in Hebei, a big war was about to break out.

Wang Wu, the general of Wei, led 30,000 horses to defend Lukou, and north of Lukou, Murong Ke's 100,000 army had been assembled and was ready to attack Lukou.

In the face of Murong Ke's 100,000 elites, Wang Wu, the defender of Wei, was not afraid at all, and was determined to defend Lukou to the death, and gave Murong Ke a heavy lesson.

On the south bank of Rongshui in the northeast of Lukou City, Wang Wu, the general of Wei, personally led 10,000 horses and horses to deploy defenses along the river, and had the intention of blocking Murong Ke's army on the north bank of Rongshui.

In Wang Wu's opinion, if Murong Ke wanted to attack Lukou, he would most likely attack from here, after all, if he went northwest, he would have to cross two rivers in the upper reaches of the river in a row, and it would be more difficult to attack Lukou.

In order to prevent the Yan army from circumambulating to the south of Lukou, Wang Wu left 20,000 horses to defend the city to ensure that nothing was lost.

On the north bank of the river, Murong Ke and Murong Ba led nearly a hundred cavalry, riding horses along the river, in order to reconnoiter the situation on the south bank of the water, seeing that Wang Wu was in the best position to cross the river on the south bank of the water, and arranged a large number of defensive troops, Murong Ke secretly sighed that there are many talents in the Wei State, and a brave and resourceful general like Wang Wu can be called a famous general of the Wei State.

"Fourth brother, Wang Wu has arranged a large number of defensive troops on the south bank, and it seems that it is impossible to cross the river here." Murong Ba pointed to the large number of Wei troops on the south bank and said.

Murong Ke nodded and said softly, "Yes!" The Wei army's arrow towers have been built, and if our army forcibly crosses the river from here, it will definitely suffer heavy losses. ”

"Fourth brother, since we can't cross the river here, how about we attack on the west side?" Murong Ba said.

When Murong Ke heard this, he shook his head and said softly: "No, on the west side are two tributaries of the water, that is, our army has to cross two rivers in a row before it can reach the city of Lukou, our army is cavalry, it is very inconvenient to cross the river, and it is very inconvenient to cross the two rivers in a row, once the Wei army is attacked by the Wei army in the process of crossing the river, our army is divided into three sections, and we cannot meet each other, and the loss will not be small!" ”

When Murong Ba heard this, he nodded, and said again: "Since this is not possible, then our army can only secretly cross the river from the downstream of the river on the east side, and then make a detour to attack Lukou City, so that we can definitely capture Lukou by surprise." ”

Murong Ke smiled and said: "Fifth brother, you are only half right, our army does have to secretly cross the river from the lower reaches of the river, but not directly attack Lukou, but attack the Wei army that defends the water, in order to meet the main army to cross the river, and then, gather all the soldiers and horses before launching an attack on Lukou City." ”

"Fourth brother, why is it so troublesome, wouldn't it be more convenient to directly capture Lukou." Murong Ba said. (To be continued......)