Liu Zhang's purpose is to force Liu Ze to fight a decisive battle with him in Jiangyang, the Sichuan army occupies the advantage of the right time and place, and also occupies a significant majority in the army, Liu Zhang is not afraid of Jiangyang's tough battle, a third-class small county seat, there is not much defense ability at all, under the attack of the two armies, Liu Ze's probability of holding Jiangyang is almost equal to zero, even if Liu Ze cannot be annihilated in Jiangyang City, as long as it is forced to the south of the Yangtze River, Liu Zhang's strategic intention will be realized.

Liu Ze naturally knew the current situation, how could he let Liu Zhang get his way, just when the Sichuan army on the north and east roads was getting closer and closer, Liu Ze decisively abandoned Jiangyang City and marched north, aiming at Deyang, an important town in central Sichuan.

At the same time as marching into the army, Liu Ze gave Pan Feng an order to spare no effort to eliminate the scouts and horses of the Sichuan army, so that the Sichuan army would become deaf and blind, and it would not be clear at all the true movements of the Jing army.

Generally speaking, the scouts have the characteristics of being fast and agile, and are good at capturing and transmitting information, but their own combat effectiveness is relatively weak, and it is difficult for them to escape when they encounter an anti-reconnaissance opponent like the Golden Eagle Guard.

Without the scouts, Liu Bi didn't know anything about the news from Jiangyang, but he didn't listen to Zhang Ren's cautious construction, but ran all the way to Jiangyang and killed Jiangyang City. But after arriving in Jiangyang, Liu Bi was dumbfounded, Jiangyang City was already an empty city, and the more than 50,000 Jing troops had already disappeared.

Just when the Sichuan army arrived in Jiangyang, Liu Ze's army was already in Deyang, preparing to force the Fushui crossing.

Deyang City is located in the east of Fushui, built along the river, as one of the most important water and land fortresses in Sichuan, the city defense of Deyang City is compared to Jiangyang. There was a world of difference, soon the city walls were strong, and the defense facilities were complete, after Yang Huaigaopei led the army to garrison Deyang, he did not dare to slack off, patrolling day and night. Heavily guarded.

Deyang is the transportation hub between Bashu, the geographical location is extremely important, Liu Ze led the army north into Sichuan, the primary goal is to capture Deyang, not only can obtain the supply of grain and grass, but also can occupy the strategic initiative, as long as Deyang is occupied, whether it is east or west, you can do whatever you want. Therefore, Deyang is the most important move for Liu Ze to play the game of Sichuan and Shu, in any case, Liu Ze must take Deyang before the reinforcements of Liu Bi and Li Yan's two armies, otherwise the entire Jing army will be in a desperate situation.

If you want to take Deyang, you must first cross the water, but unfortunately, this is the time when winter and spring are alternate. The spring tide floods and the river swells. The originally relatively easy means of crossing the river are now useless, and how to cross this turbulent water has become the biggest problem in front of Liu Ze.

Liu Zeke didn't have time to wait for the flood to subside, although the results of the Jinyingwei anti-scout operation were remarkable, but it was only enough to let Liu Bi and Li Yan get the news a day or two later, and now Liu Bi is estimated to have killed Jiangyang. After discovering that Jiangyang is an empty city, he will definitely raise troops to chase after him, the time is already quite urgent, and it is impossible to allow Liu Ze to wait any longer, Liu Ze decided to force the Fushui River.

In order to avoid the interference of the defenders of Deyang in the operation of crossing the river. Liu Ze chose the crossing point fifty miles south of Deyang, where the river was slightly wider and the water was relatively gentle, and this distance made the defenders of Deyang dare not attack lightly. Fortunately for Liu Ze, this was originally a ferry port, and there were several ferries moored. The boatmen did not dare to ferry lightly, so they stopped at the ferry and waited for the flood water to subside.

Liu Ze requisitioned these ships, first sent a team to the opposite shore by boat, and requisitioned more ships from the opposite bank, with these ferries, all the men and horses of the Seventh Infantry Division could be ferried across the river in one day and one night. In addition, the central Shu region is full of bamboo, Liu Ze made people cut down a large number of bamboo, on the one hand, to build a ladder for attacking the city, on the other hand, to build a bamboo raft to cross the river, to speed up the speed of the Jing army's crossing the river.

The 7th Infantry Division, which crossed the river in advance, under the command of the commander-in-chief Sun Guan, first launched an attack on Deyang City. The Seventh Division is the best at attacking fortified positions, and Liu Ze transferred the Seventh Division to fight in Sichuan this time, just to use the Seventh Division as a sharp knife to call.

During the siege of Yinling, the Seventh Division was commended by Liu Ze for its bravery, fearlessness, and hard fighting. However, during the siege of Yinling, the Jing army was equipped with a considerable number of heavy siege weapons - catapults, bed crossbows, rushing vehicles, siege vehicles, etc., but now in their hands, except for the manufacture of simple bamboo ladders, there are almost no large-scale siege equipment. This thousand-mile march was carried out on a rugged and difficult road, and the Jing army could only be lightly armed and simple, and all the large equipment was abandoned, and the attack on the fortified positions became the most difficult checkpoint for the Jing army to cross.

But Sun Guan is fearless, the soldiers of the Seventh Division are also fearless, after receiving the order to siege the city, Sun Guan led all the soldiers of the Seventh Division to launch a fierce attack on Deyang City without hesitation, the blood was stirring in the chest, everyone held the determination to die, and went all out into the siege battle.

Yang Huai Gaopei, who defended Deyang, only had 5,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, so they wisely chose to stick to the city, and did not rush out of the city to face the battle, the city had plenty of grain and grass, perfect fortifications and a large number of bows and crossbows and arrows rolling wood and stones, although the Jing army was menacing, Yang Huai and Gao Pei still firmly believed that they could hold Deyang.

But they obviously underestimated the morale of the Jing army, 10,000 people were united, and the 7th Division, under the leadership of Sun Guan, united as one, launched a fierce attack on Deyang City again and again.

There were only rudimentary ladders, so the Seventh Division adopted the method of attacking the city with ants, erected ladders, and under the cover of archers, struggled to climb towards the city. Yang Huai Gaopei personally came to the city and commanded the battle, and the two sides fell into an unprecedentedly fierce bitter battle.

Dense arrows like rain, roaring down the rolling wood and stones, blazing burning oil, boiling boiling water, as long as it can be used to defend the city, the Sichuan army will use it, and the Jing army can only be on the shield, stepping on the bamboo ladder that may fall apart at any time, and crawl towards the city with all their might, countless Jing soldiers were shot by arrows, hit by wood and stones, and rolled down from the ladder, and the corpses of the entire Deyang City were pillowed together, and the situation was unbearable.

However, the death of Pao Ze did not bring fear to the soldiers around him, but only inspired their fighting spirit even more, and launched a wave of offensives.

A grenade used by the Jing army also caused a large number of casualties to the Sichuan army defending the city. This kind of grenade was also developed and invented by Ma Jun, who was provided with a sample drawing by Liu Ze, the ceramic shell, which was filled with gunpowder and steel balls, and was thrown out after igniting the fuse, and after the fuse burned out, the gunpowder exploded, and the ceramic shell was blown to pieces, and the explosion shock wave of gunpowder and the steel balls filled inside could effectively kill the target within one zhang. Compared with the pottery bomb used on the trebuchet of the Jing army on the Han River, this ceramic grenade is small in size and light in weight, easy to carry by a single soldier, although the power is far from the catapult pottery bullet, but as a single weapon, its power is far more than the bow and arrow, so in the siege of Deyang, the ceramic grenade still shows its might, although it cannot shake the city wall, but also kills and injures a lot of Sichuan soldiers.

The siege lasted for a day and a night, and Sun Guan divided the troops of the 7th Division into two shifts, one to rest and the other to attack the city, which rotated every four hours, maintaining the momentum of the offensive day and night.

Yang Huai and Gao Pei don't have extra troops to rotate, in order to deal with the fierce attack of the Jing army, they went all out and mobilized almost a qiē force that could be mobilized, but with the increase in casualties, Yang Huai and Gao Pei also felt a little powerless, these Jing troops are too crazy, they have fought for so many years, they have fought with the barbarians, with the rebels, and with Zhang Lu, but they have not encountered such a fierce and sleepless style of fighting.

After a day and a night of fierce fighting, the defenders of the city were exhausted, but the Jing army that crossed the river continued to gather towards Deyang and surrounded Deyang like an iron bucket. (To be continued......)