Anlu is located in the north of the Great River, which is an important area for east-west communication in the Yangtze River Basin, and is also the leading Xiongcheng Dayi in the east of the Han River, and the seat of Sizhou Prefecture in the South Liang.

At the beginning of the year, Jiankang Taicheng was broken by Hou Jing's rebels, Liu Zhongli, as the commander of the Qinwang coalition army, failed to rise up to kill the enemy, and after Hou Jing entered Taicheng, he was disarmed and surrendered, which can be described as a great disappointment.

Later, although Liu Zhongli was released by Hou Jing, most of the elites of the two states of Yong and Si were left in Jiankang City, and only a few henchmen returned to the west with him.

His own power has shrunk greatly, although Liu Zhongli was reinstated by Hou Jingguan, but he also knew that this puppet official of the puppet dynasty was afraid that it would not be enough to deter the heroes and forces between Sui and Lu, so that they would bow down to themselves as before.

Therefore, after returning to the west, Liu Zhongli did not go straight back to Anlu Prefecture, but first went to Jiangling upstream to meet Xiao Yi, the king of Xiangdong.

After the second palace was in charge, the towns under the world went their own way, and Jingzhou, which was ruled by the king of Xiangdong, was the strongest party between Jiang and Han, and he himself was also the most prestigious and reputable person in the clan. If he can get the acceptance and endorsement of the king of Xiangdong, he can greatly compensate for Liu Zhongli's loss of popularity in Jiankang.

The facts are indeed as Liu Zhongli expected, although he was vain and humiliated, but in order to expand his strength and influence, the king of Xiangdong did not blame him more, but treated him with more courtesy.

However, what Liu Zhongli didn't expect was that the king of Xiangdong turned his head and appointed himself as the assassin of Yongzhou, and asked him to deal with Xiao Jing, the king of Yueyang in Xiangyang. This Zongwang, who was originally the most friendly with the crown prince, now openly usurped the authority of the second palace, and disregarded the feelings of the Zongjia family, and unabashedly pointed the finger at his nephew, without any intention of stealing the government.

Rao is Liu Zhongli himself is an expert in appeasement and inaction, but he can't help but sigh secretly about the performance of King Xiangdong.

Originally, he didn't think that this was a problem, King Yueyang was young and couldn't convince the masses. In addition, the Liu clan in Hedong was originally a big family in Xiangyang, and Liu Zhongli was also a famous Yongfu hero, after receiving the support and funding of the king of Xiangdong, it was not difficult to replace the king of Yueyang.

But when he really understood it, he knew that this matter was still more tricky, compared to the king of Xiangdong who was in the same room, although the king of Yueyang was a junior but went further, he had already colluded with the people of the Western Wei Dynasty, and now the history of the Western Wei Jingzhou thorn is even more grandiose and directly built a city garrison to cooperate with the defense of Xiangyang. With such strong foreign aid, the king of Yueyang dared to be the enemy of the king of Xiangdong.

In the past, Liu Zhongli did not take this seriously.

When Li Boshan, the assassin of Jingzhou in the Western Wei Dynasty, arrived in the town, he was still sitting in Anlu, Sizhou, and knew a little about him, he was a famous disciple who was promoted by He Batsheng, Duguxin and other townspeople, but even He Batsheng was a defeated general under his own men, and this Li Boshan naturally made Liu Zhongli jealous.

But now Liu Zhongli is also as down-and-out as a lost dog, and he is no longer as strong as before, so he can't turn a blind eye to the collusion between Yongfu and Jingzhen in Western Wei, and he must be cautious and dare not be rash as an enemy.

So he first begged the king of Xiangdong to temporarily borrow a part of the armor soldiers on the grounds of rectifying his forces, so that he could return to gather in Xiangqu with Lu and reorganize his troops before attacking Xiangyang.

The king of Xiangdong also had high hopes for Liu Zhongli because of his brilliant achievements in the past, so he temporarily lent him 2,000 armor soldiers to listen to the envoy.

With men and horses in hand, Liu Zhongli was even more courageous, and after leaving Jiangling, he took the lead in going to Jingling, where he continued to recruit armor soldiers and collectors, and his men and horses soon grew to more than 5,000 people.

When the soldiers were strong and strong, Liu Zhongli continued to lead his troops eastward, and finally returned to Anlu's lair, and his elder Shi Maxiu and others also gathered to follow Lu Haoqiang to welcome Liu Zhongli back to the town after hearing the news.

An encounter in Jiankang City was tantamount to a catastrophe for Liu Zhongli, making him no longer as vigorous as before, and he was careful in everything. After Anlu's nest initially settled down, he was not in a hurry to toss, but patiently handled state affairs and rectified personnel, and turned a deaf ear to the king's several envoys and urges.

But this does not mean that Liu Zhongli is willing to stay in Anlu and stay in Anlu, he is still concerned about the changes in the situation in the outside world, especially various personnel changes in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

After Hou Jingjin took Taicheng and Qinwang's armies retreated, Hou Jing took control of the government and dispatched his minions to all parties, especially to increase his control over the Sanwu region, and did not have time to take care of the upstream for the time being.

However, Huainan also had Xiao Fan, the king of Poyang, who was sitting in Hefei, who pretended to be brave and extraordinary, and still wanted to cross the Jiangqin King, so he abandoned Hefei, and sent his two sons to the Eastern Wei Dynasty to ask for reinforcements, and at the same time wrote to the upstream armies, hoping to gather all the people and horses to recapture Jiankang.

However, after the Eastern Wei Dynasty received his two sons, he had no intention of sending troops to help, as for the upstream parties, the king of Xiangdong had already sent troops to fight with Xiao Yu, the king of Hedong in Xiangzhou, and the others were still waiting and watching, and no one paid attention to the king of Poyang.

The king of Poyang originally planned to gather all the troops in the town of Mixukou, but when the grain ran out, he did not wait for reinforcements, and Hefei was occupied by the Eastern Wei Dynasty, so that his people could only move their troops to the west. And Hou Jing took the opportunity to leave Jiankang and leave Tungu, and Pei Zhiyi, the general of the Poyang Wang, led the troops to surrender.

After learning of this, Liu Zhongli secretly hated, originally Hou Jingna Demon King was still focusing on controlling the Sanwu region and had no time to look west, but he was blindly tossed by the waste King of Poyang to attract his attention.

Although there are many towns in the upper reaches and the battle line is long, they do not belong to each other, and even fight endlessly.

Liu Zhongli can be regarded as having learned Hou Jing's strength, but he only feels that once he leads his troops westward, the upstream towns will inevitably be defeated one by one, and Anlu, where he is located, is also unsafe.

Once Hou Jing advanced to this point, An Lu would inevitably become the front line to stop the enemy's attack on Jiangling, and Liu Zhongli had already deeply realized the danger of cooperating with the clans of the Liang State after all the experience, so he was naturally unwilling to fall into this desperate situation.

If you want to get rid of such a situation, you can only open up a larger living space outward, and between the Jiang and Han, Xiangyang is naturally the best choice. So putting aside the urging of the king of Xiangdong, in order to improve his situation and increase his power, Xiangyang is also the target that Liu Zhongli must capture!

After realizing this, Liu Zhongli continued to reorganize his troops while strengthening the news spying on the Xiangyang area, and soon the troops under his command returned to more than 10,000 men.

Although quite a few of them were subordinate to the local tyrants of Suilu, under the temptation of Liu Zhongli's prestige and the goal of aggressive Xiangyang, these people were also willing to obey Liu Zhongli's orders, intending to be able to get a piece of the pie after taking Xiangyang.

This kind of force is naturally inferior to Liu Zhongli's heyday, but it is enough to fight.

Xiangyang is where Liu Zhongli is located, and he knows his city defense layout well, and the Hedong Liu clan also enjoys a high reputation among the people of Xiangyang, as long as some foreign variables are eliminated, Liu Zhongli is still confident in taking Xiangyang and expelling Xiao Jing, the king of Yueyang.

When Liu Zhongli put the capture of Xiangyang on the agenda, there was soon good news from Xiangyang. According to the eyeliner he infiltrated into Xiangyang, a large number of boats and boats on the Hanshui channel were full of flags and carried a large number of men and horses up the river a few days ago, and the scale was at least tens of thousands, but the defenders of Xiangyang did not decrease significantly.

Liu Zhongli groaned a little after learning the news, and immediately became overjoyed: "It must be the Wei army plotting against Hanzhong, using the Han water to move westward!" Hanzhong is the south gate of Guanlong, which is related to the comfort of the heart of the country. Xiangyang is far away in Hannan, and several times the soldiers have been defeated in Handong. It's clear which is more important! ”

Liu Zhongli's taboo was that when he attacked Xiangyang, the Western Wei Dynasty might suddenly intervene and reap the benefits of the fisherman, but now that he has figured out that the Western Wei Dynasty is about to march into Hanzhong in a big way, his scruples in his heart have been greatly eliminated.

Although Xiao Xun, the Marquis of Yifeng, who was sitting on the other side, was not known for his courage and strength, he was also benevolent and popular. Moreover, there is Shuzhong in the south of Hanzhong, where Xiao Ji, the king of Wuling, is seated, and he can come to the nearest aid, even if he can't hold Hanzhong in the end, it can be done to delay the Wei army for a while.

As for this time, it is a good time for Liu Zhongli to enter Xiangyang. After entering Xiangyang, his power will span the east and west of the Han River, and he will not be much better than the king of Xiangdong, and he will definitely make a lot of achievements regardless of offensive and defensive advances and retreats!

However, Liu Zhongli is also an experienced general, and he did not rejoice in this good news, first led a group of men and horses to enter the Xiawei garrison adjacent to Jingzhou in the north of the country, and his men and horses did not go north directly through the Suijun passage, but went south along the Jiangxi to reach Jingling, and then went north from Jingling.

Next, Liu Zhongli's army stopped Shicheng south of Xiangyang and sent an envoy to Xiangyang to inform Xiao Jing, the king of Yueyang, that he was about to attack Jingzhou in the north on the orders of the king of Xiangdong, hoping that the king of Yueyang could provide a group of boats and ships at Xianshan Yan for his troops to attack the enemy in the north.

After attracting the attention of the defenders of Xiangyang to the Hanshui line in the east and taking heavy precautions, Liu Zhongli finally revealed his true colors, led 3,000 elite horsemen to abandon the ship and landed, and then quickly rushed to the Wanshan Embankment in the west of Xiangyang City, according to which he could control the Xiangyang waterway wharf, cut off the connection between Xiangyang and Hanbei, and directly attack Xiangyang Fucheng!

King Jiankang Qin's failure to be forced to surrender to Hou Jing is a big stain on Liu Zhongli's life, but it does not mean that his talent is inferior.

As a famous general of Southern Liang, and in his hometown with soldiers, Liu Zhongli easily grasped the king of Yueyang in Xiangyang City, when he was still in Xianshan to personally supervise the formation and arrange to connect Liu Zhongli to the north of the boat division, Liu Zhongli's elite cavalry has already rushed to the embankment, only one step away from Xiangyang City!