Seeing that Jicheng was captured by the Jin army, Ma Qiu knew that the grain route of the army had been cut off, and the previously envisaged that the Jin army would not intervene in the battle of Liangzhao was completely wrong, and at this time, there was no better way than to withdraw to Guanzhong.

Ma Qiu looked at the generals in the tent, and said: "Generals, our army is now suffering from the enemy on its back, and the grain route has also been cut off by the Jin army. After speaking, he looked at the generals in the tent.

After successive defeats, the generals had lost their enthusiasm for the Western Expedition, and the morale of the army was extremely low, so they all agreed with Ma Qiu's opinion and withdrew their troops to return to Guanzhong.

As for the price to be paid for returning home, all the generals had no intention of thinking about it, after all, keeping the main army was the most important thing, as for how Shi Hu dealt with them, it was all the destiny of heaven, and they were powerless to fight.

After making some preparations, Ma Qiu led the main army under his command and left Guangwu City to the southeast of Great Xia City.

In order to prevent Xie Ai from leading the army to sneak attack, Ma Qiu placed the most elite 30,000 cavalry at the rear as the palace army to guard against the men and horses under Xie Ai's command. At the same time, in order to create an atmosphere of terror, Ma Qiu frantically ordered the burning of Guangwu City in order to weaken the strength of Liangguo.

Seeing the Zhao army burning Guangwu City, Xie Ai and the soldiers under his command were immediately furious, and the generals knew that the Zhao army had retreated, so they all asked for orders to lead the army to pursue.

However, Xie Ai concluded from Ma Qiu's nearest table that Ma Qiu was extremely cautious in leading the troops in this battle, and since the whole line was retreating, he would inevitably leave a strong palace army in the rear. Therefore, instead of agreeing to the pursuit request of his subordinates, he asked his soldiers to go to Guangwu City to put out the fire and comfort the homeless people.

A few days later, the 30,000 army led by Hua'an arrived at Xiangwu City, which is the core area of Longxi County, the location is extremely important, it can be said that it is the most important road connecting Liangzhou and Qinzhou, as long as Xiangwu City is occupied, it can block the most convenient road for the main army of Maqiu to return to Guanzhong. Ma Qiu wants to return to Guanzhong. In addition to the vicinity of Xiangwu City, there is also a rugged and difficult path that follows Pingxiang, Chengji, Lüyang, and Qingshui to reach Guanzhong directly. But this trail is more difficult to walk. Very detrimental to the actions of tens of thousands of troops. In particular, all kinds of heavy weapons and baggage vehicles are impassable.

Xiangwu had long been occupied by the Zhao army, but there were only a few hundred defenders in the city. Hua'an did not use black powder, and only sent a surprise attack of 20,000 troops of the Liangzhou army to occupy Xiangwu City.

Xiangwu City is built along Weishui, the north and east sides are rivers, the west and south are a large open land, although it is not easy to defend and difficult to attack, but there is a moat that is not wide, connected with Weishui, if the Zhao army is stationed here with some more soldiers and horses, Hua'an's siege will become a lot more difficult, fortunately, Xiangwu City has been taken smoothly, the next step, Hua'an has to do is to reconnoiter the nearby terrain, prepare to block the main force of Maqiu, in order to show their support for the Liang State's posture, and at the same time can also weaken the military strength of Zhao.

Hua An stayed in Xiangwu City to pacify the people, and sent a large number of scouts to the northwest to explore the terrain, and by the way, to reconnoiter the movements of the Liang and Zhao armies.

Through the careful exploration of the scouts, Hua An found that Xiangwu City was not the best place to block the Ma Qiu army from returning to Guanzhong, and the terrain of Bird and Mouse Mountain, not far from the northwest, was complex and changeable, which was very suitable for using various field tactics, which was much better than staying in Xiangwu City to defend to the death.

After some discussion with the generals, Hua'an left 2,000 soldiers and horses to garrison Xiangwu City, led the main army to march in the direction of Bird Mouse Mountain, and arrived at the foot of Bird Mouse Mountain that night.

Hua An and his generals rode their horses on the top of a bare hill, surrounded by mountains, and several streams flowed into a small river, giving people the feeling of being in a paradise.

"Big brother, this is Bird and Mouse Mountain, it's so beautiful!" Wang San said with emotion.

"It is said that the northwest is a desert and bitter cold place, but I didn't expect to have such a wonderful scenery, which is really surprising." Hua An also opened his mouth and sighed.

"Big brother, there is only one winding road here, as long as our army is ambushed halfway up the mountain on both sides, we can block the road to Guò of Maqiu's main army." Wang San pointed to the winding path in the distance and said.

Hua An nodded and replied: "As long as our army makes good use of the nearby terrain, the 30,000 army is enough to block the Zhao army's more than 100,000 troops, and the main force of the Zhao army will not be able to pass through Guò." ”

Wang San pointed to a few hills in the distance and said softly: "Big brother, the two hills on the left and a few hills on the right are good, and a few thousand people and horses are enough to block the road in each place." ”

Hua An thought for a while, and said softly: "How to configure the army, we have to carefully inspect it, it's late today, tomorrow morning, the generals will go to both sides of the road with me to personally investigate." Then he turned his horse's head and returned to the tent at the foot of the mountain.

After dinner, Hua An carefully thought about the next strategy in the camp tent, and Hua An'an was still a little hesitant about how to fight Ma Qiu, the first is to show his strength, let Ma Qiu retreat from the difficult path, and return to Guanzhong from the small road of Pingxiang and Chengji, and the second is to put part of Ma Qiu's main force into his own encirclement, and then launch a strong attack to destroy one of them, so as to warn Ma Qiu and let him retreat to the goal of the path. The third is to use the terrain of Bird and Mouse Mountain to carry out large-scale raids and harassment battles against the Maqiu army, so as to cooperate with the Liangguo army and break the main army of Maqiu, thereby greatly weakening the strength of the Zhao army.

Ma Qiu is a famous general of Zhao State, the first way may not work, the second way will not force Ma Qiu to give up the road, Hua An can't make an accurate judgment, as for the third way, it is the best way, but Hua An feels that the army under his command will suffer heavy losses, and he is a little distressed.

In order to show the sincerity of his alliance with Liangguo, Hua'an plans to arrange it in the third way, but if Ma Qiu retreats timidly, Hua'an will not press forward step by step, in short, control the conflict as much as possible within a controllable range to avoid suffering too much loss to himself.

After resting for the night, early the next morning, Hua An took Wang San, Zhuge Xiong, Chen Poyu, Chen Zhanhu and other generals and dozens of personal soldiers to ride along the winding road of Bird and Mouse Mountain.

Listening to the chirping of birds along the way, Hua An smiled and said softly: "There are so many birds in Bird and Mouse Mountain!" I wonder if there are many mice? ”

Hua An just said casually, Zhuge Xiong immediately replied: "Since it is Bird and Mouse Mountain, it is naturally the most birds and mice, and in the end, there must be a lot of rats here, otherwise, why do you have to call it Bird and Mouse Mountain?" ”

Seeing that what Zhuge Xiong said made some sense, most of the generals nodded in approval.

A subordinate general clasped his fists and said: "General, about the origin of this bird and mouse mountain, the last general knows something?" ”

"Oh, if it's related to birds and rats, let's talk about it." Hua An hurriedly asked, in the interval between the war, talking about some light and interesting topics will help to relax.

The general replied: "As far as the last general knows, this bird and mouse mountain has enough food, and there are many birds, but there are not many big trees that can build nests, and the birds have no choice but to settle in the nest of the rats. ”

When Hua An heard this, he suddenly felt interesting, and said with a smile: "It is said that the dove occupies the magpie's nest, but I didn't expect that there are birds occupying the rat's nest, but this bird occupies the mouse's nest, can the mouse be willing?" ”

The general immediately replied: "The general doesn't know, in the Bird and Mouse Mountain, birds and mice are the best friends?" There are a lot of eagles here, and the sound of birds can alarm the rats, so that the rats are ready to guard against the eagles, which can be regarded as a reward for the rats to provide them with nests! Moreover, the birds make their home in the outermost part of the nest, while the rats give birth to their children in the depths of the nest, and they give birth to each other without harming each other. ”

After listening to the introduction of the general, Hua'an has a thorough understanding of the origin of Bird and Mouse Mountain, as well as the close friendship between birds and mice here, which has to cause Hua'an to sigh.

Birds and rats live under the same roof, but they are safe with each other, while the Great Jin and Zhao are facing each other across the Qinling Huai River, but they are incompatible with each other, which may be due to the unique greed of human beings and the need to expand their living space! Other than that, Huaan couldn't find any other explanation.

After a whole day of investigation in Bird and Mouse Mountain, Hua'an finally selected the eight best positions as the tactical fulcrum to block the army of Ma Qiu's department, for these eight fulcrums, Hua'an arranged a full 20,000 troops, the most important position deployed 5,000 troops, and the most secondary position was also arranged with 1,000 men and horses, and the remaining nearly 10,000 horses were used as mobile corps, ready to respond at any time according to the development of the war.

After some discussion with his generals, Hua An finally decided on a plan for arranging the army, and immediately returned to the camp at the foot of the mountain to arrange for the troops to enter the battle position.

In the camp of the Jin army, Hua'an, according to the plan studied in advance, scattered the army of his headquarters in various important positions on Bird and Mouse Mountain, and told the generals of each army to be careful and vigilant, and prepare a good lesson for Ma Qiu, so that Ma Qiu, the chief general of the Guanzhong Army of Zhao State, knew the strength of the Jin army, so that he would lose the idea of invading Liangzhou and ensure the peace of Liangzhou for several years.

The main army of 20,000 went to camp in various places on Bird and Mouse Mountain according to the orders arranged by Hua'an, while Hua'an and the remaining nearly 10,000 horses stayed in the camp at the foot of the mountain to control the three armies remotely.

In order to give the Zhao army a fatal blow and make the Zhao army soldiers completely frightened, Hua'an concentrated most of the black powder carried by the army and buried it on the road that the Zhao army must pass. (To be continued......)