The terrain of Wuling is precipitous, and the Shun Dynasty court needs a breakthrough to send troops south, and no one expected that Liu Yu would choose to take Meiguan, the first pass of Wuling. The Qi side sent troops to attack Meiguan by surprise, and in less than a day, they broke through the pass from the east of Meiguan, and took three cities around Meiguan on the same day, laying the foundation of the imperial court's war in Lingnan.

In Liu Yu's view, only a solid fortress base can start a tug-of-war against many forces in Lingnan. As the leader of this war, Liu Yu has to play smarter than before.

"The city is broken? I don't believe it, you have been purified of me! Huo Yi heard that Qi Fang had taken down Mei Guan, and there was a great sense of frustration when he landed. He was in Lingnan for three months, but he was a caged bird for three months, and Qi Fang conquered Meiguan within a few days of coming, which seems to show that his ability is far inferior to Qi Fang.

Liu Yu glared at Huo Yi and said, "Temporarily dismiss you from your military position and stay in front of the army." Study hard. ”

Huo Zhi angrily went out of the big tent of the Chinese army, and when he went in, he was aggressive to find Liu Yu to settle accounts, although his temper was still not small, but the sense of grievance was even worse, and the whole person was like a defeated rooster, losing the arrogance of standing out from the crowd.

Zhang Wuzhu chased him out, wanting to persuade Huo Yi to make him want to open some, Huo Yi wiped his nose and suddenly asked: "Lao Zhang, what is the pre-military retention?" ”

Zhang Wuzhu smiled dumbly, it turned out that Huo Yi didn't even know what the pre-army retention was, and he pretended to be indifferent.

"Pre-army retention means that you can't lead troops with Huo Illness, you have to stay in front of the military tent to serve, and be dispatched at any time."

Huo Yi pointed in the direction of the Chinese army's big tent, and said with some dissatisfaction: "Hey." He...... What does he mean by that? ”

"General, this is for good. I don't want to think about it. Something happened to the general, but he went in with the guy, how angry was the general? ”

"Phew! He's still holding the on my head. Huo Yi said angrily again, "He asked us to stay in front of the army, maybe he is going to pit me, Lao Zhang, you can help more in the future." ”

Zhang Wuzhu sighed in his heart, to talk about his status in the army. He is not as good as Ho at all. In terms of prestige, ability, and the weight in Liu Yu's heart, this Huo disease is a cut above him, he is very similar to saying that we can't help, but after thinking about it, he still didn't say it. It's useless to talk to Huo Disease, Huo Disease's child has a temper, and he still has to coax it.

Soon, Qi Fang's battle reports were sent to Zhen County one after another. Liu Yu held two meetings, which also made the generals in the army temporarily understand the current war situation. After the imperial court conquered Meiguan, it only took several cities around Meiguan. And there is no deeper action, because the front line needs logistics and material support. At present, the transportation of grain can only go through Yuzhou City and Zhongnan Road, which makes the front-line logistics supply under great pressure.

"General Zhang is in charge of logistics for the time being, and the army will go south tomorrow." Liu Yu concluded.

Zhang Wuzhu asked, "Then are our roads still being repaired?" ”

Liu Yu said: "The renovation still needs to be repaired, but there is no need to repair it with great fanfare, the places that can be widened are widened, and those that cannot be widened are also strengthened and leveled, and the carriages that carry materials will continue to go south from Zhongnan Road, and we still have to beware of those rebels of unknown origin from appearing again to rob our grain routes." ”

When it comes to those rebels of unknown origin, Zhang Wuzhu is also a little worried in his heart. If it weren't for the army pressing the border, those rebels would not have left so easily, but if Liu Yu brought the army to Lingnan, it was hard to say whether the rebels would make a comeback.

"General Zhang is leading 2,000 men and horses from the Jiangyou Armed Battalion and the local garrison battalion this time, so as to ensure that the logistical supply is not leaky." Liu Yu marked several key points on the map, including the series of Zhenxian and Yuzhou City and Zhongnan Road in the south into a line, and a few points in several directions slightly north of the Lu, "These are all places that need to be guarded against, if you encounter rebels, you must not be hard-hitting, you must wait for reinforcements." We still have about 10,000 men and horses in the north, ready to be sent south. ”

Zhang Wuzhu was in charge of logistics supply this time, and although he had experience in this area before, he was still inexperienced after all. He also wrote down what Liu Yu said. And the most critical point he is responsible for logistics is to seek stability, after all, the army is short of food and grass, and it can't withstand losses, plus Liu Yu brought not many troops to the south, and the 50,000 troops are basically stationed in Lingbei to form a deterrent to Lingnan, and there is a problem with the grain road, and it is mainly based on the reinforcements from Lingbei rushing south.

After explaining this, Liu Yu also relieved his heart and officially led the army south on April 25.

Liu Yu led thousands of soldiers and horses on this trip, most of them were recruits from the new army and local garrison battalions, and the best soldiers and horses were left to Zhang Wuzhu to garrison the grain road. Coupled with the men and horses of Qi Fang who went south before, Liu Yu's army that was ready to fight directly in Lingnan was less than 10,000 soldiers.

After two days of arduous trekking, the army finally crossed the Tianwei Zhongnan Road and headed south into Meiguan.

Meiguan is the last checkpoint from Lingnan to Jiangxi, and it has always been a military stronghold in the south. Several dynasties in Lingnan, Baiyue and Nanyue, all stationed heavy troops in Meiguan Zhongtun to resist the southern invasion of the Central Plains Dynasty.

The Qi side could easily break through Meiguan this time, and it was also taking advantage of the competition between the Zhang and Ma regimes in the north around Meiguan, which was tantamount to picking up the omission and catching the opponent by surprise. After the Qi side broke through the Meiguan, the men and horses of the Zhang and Ma clans immediately retreated to the south of the Meiguan, and their soldiers and horses combined were about four or five thousand, and the Qi side did not dare to advance without knowing the place, so they could only wait for Liu Yu's arrival.

The first thing Liu Yu had to do after entering Meiguan was to get rid of the Zhang and Ma regimes that coveted Meiguan.

"After Feng Xiao's death thirteen years ago, his subordinates Zhang Yao and Ma Hui divided the original Feng clan's territory into two, and the two sides have been fighting for more than ten years. Now the Lingnan and northern systems are no longer considered to be the general trend, but in the past two years, their strength has developed again......"

Liu Yu listened to the information of his subordinates and remained silent.

Lingnan's power is intertwined, the political power is chaotic, they are only nominally the people of the Great Shun Dynasty, but they never pay taxes to the Shun Dynasty, and they do not need the imperial court to pay them food and salary. The Lingnan regime used the local people to pay taxes to raise soldiers, and when food was really scarce, it plundered the ethnic minorities in Lingnan. Liu Yu also calculated, there are now a total of 25 regimes in Lingnan, and this is not counting the power of ethnic minorities, if this is calmed down according to the conventional model, it will not work in ten or eight years, and it will be a drop in the bucket to send tens of thousands of soldiers and horses.

"It's hard to get rid of." Liu Yu listened to it for a long time, and then said with emotion, "General Ben divided the potential power of Lingnan into six parts, you see, if there is anything missing, you can add it." ”

Originally, the imperial court's division of the various forces in Lingnan was divided into three parts: north, south, and west, but Liu Yu's division method was more detailed, and the forces of the various regimes in the six regions were basically equal.

At this time, the generals who participated in the pre-military meeting were all brought by Liu Yu from the north, and they did not understand the situation in the south, let alone make supplements. Looking at the military map, they could only stare dryly, and they couldn't make any good suggestions.

Liu Yu added: "For the time being, we are stationed in Meiguan, so don't attack easily. This is not the north, the terrain and climate here are very unsuitable for the soldiers in the north, if there is any epidemic in the army, they must report to me as soon as possible. ”

Liu Yu didn't say much at the first pre-military meeting, mainly to let the generals understand the situation in Lingnan and let them be mentally prepared. In fact, Liu Yu is most concerned about the establishment of an intelligence network now, because Lingnan has belonged to the realm of power outside the Central Plains since ancient times, and it is difficult to establish a perfect intelligence network here, and Qu Zhu is in charge of these matters for the time being.

When everyone left the camp, Huo Yi asked impatiently, "Let's come here, just hide here, be a mouse?" Why don't you go and have a good fight with them? ”

"Just know that the Tao will resort to force!" Liu Yu said disdainfully, "Let me ask you, which direction is that window facing?" ”

"Which direction ......" Huo Yi ran to the window to look, and said with a little hesitation, "It should be east, the weather is bad and there is no sun, who knows where the road is......"

"You haven't even figured out the direction, so you're going to go out and have a good fight with people, no wonder you can be surrounded by the rebels in Yuzhou City. If you just take people out of the city, even if people don't set traps for you, you may not come out. ”

Huo Yi was scarred by Liu Yu, and he was a little annoyed and shouted: "Then how do we get it?" ”

"Go back and reflect on it, if you want to go to war, I will definitely be the first to throw you out of the city as cannon fodder, and your battle is indispensable."

Huo Yi smiled and said: "That's okay, let's talk about it, don't charge into battle when the time comes, you just remember that your relative doesn't care about me." ”

Huo Ill's relatives of Liu Yu refer to Qi Fang, Huo Ill has courage and no strategy, and has always been more concerned about Qi Fang's position than him, and now Qi Fang has a relationship with Liu Yu again, and he feels the crisis even more. This defeat contrasted with Qi Fang's victory in the first battle, and he already sensed that a crisis was approaching and that a victory was needed to strengthen his position in the army.

Although Huo Ill doesn't like to listen to big truths, he still has his own ghost cleverness.

When Huo's illness also came out, Liu Yu sighed, and when the previous generals were there, he still wanted to show that he was winning. Now there was only one person left, and even he couldn't help but sigh.

In Liu Yu's opinion, this battle is really impossible to fight. If it really continues to fight like this, it may not be possible to distinguish a winner for several years, and it may also make these powerful forces unite against the imperial court, which will go against the original intention of the imperial court to stabilize the south. And he will stay in the south for a long time and cannot go back to reunite with his wife and children.

Liu Yu couldn't help but think of the five Lingnan generals that Liu Liniang wanted him to help kill, these five generals may not be the most powerful in Lingnan, but they are the ones with the deepest grievances with ethnic minorities, that is, several powerful forces in the west and south. Liu Yu even thought that if the imperial court uprooted these forces as a condition and united with the ethnic minorities to fight against the 25 forces in Lingnan, on the one hand, it could achieve Liu Yue's goal of stabilizing the south, and on the other hand, it could also co-opt the ethnic minorities and let them work for the Dashun Dynasty.

The idea is good. It's a pity that Liu Yu lacks a person to mediate. (To be continued......)