The upper reaches of the Gushui River valley area was separated from Luoshan County and merged into Le'an County.

The imperial edict also ordered the Xiangbei Army to immediately send troops to attack Qisi City on the upper reaches of the Huaihe River. They must capture Qisi City before the troops on the west route and the Shu army opened the gateway to the hinterland of Guanzhong, and open up the Northern Expedition to capture Caizhou and Ruzhou.

Channel, no more delays.

At the same time, 3,000 military horses will be recruited from the Tangyi and Xiangbei armies each to strengthen the long-distance marching capabilities of the You Shenwu Army.

There are not enough military horses and other animal-powered camels to transport heavy supplies and injured soldiers. A force of about 12,000 troops and horses must march along the post road and maintain a speed of thirty miles a day. It is normal.

This means that it will take almost twenty days for the newly formed Youshenwu Army to enter Junzhou. After entering Junzhou, it will follow the Dan River into the depths of the Qinling Mountains, pass through Jingzikou, Wuguan, and then to the Aoguan front line.

Twenty more days of marching are needed.

That will happen at the end of January next year.

Such a speed is obviously unsatisfactory.

To speed up the march, a large number of mules, horses and other animal power were indispensable.

The Luoshan garrison had two to three thousand horses before, but after the siege, in order to save a huge amount of horse feed, except for more than 300 horses, all the other horses were slaughtered and stored as military rations.

Now if 6,000 military horses can be incorporated, the marching speed of the Right Shenwu Army can be almost doubled.

It may not be difficult for the Tangyi Army to obtain three thousand military horses, but the Xiangbei Army has tried every means to raise them in the past two years. It has a total of eight or nine thousand military horses on hand, and it suddenly needs more than one-third of the three thousand military horses.

It's quite strenuous.

Even though the imperial court promised to compensate the Tangyi Army and the Xiangbei Army at the price of twelve horses per horse, the Huangjing and other places near Xiangbei were extremely short of animal power.

Zhao and other places purchase military horses, but they do not have strong enough transportation capabilities. If they only rely on scattered livestock traders, it may take two or three years to make up for this gap.

However, no matter what, the matter has advanced to this point. Even Li Changfeng, the Minister of War sitting on the side of the Xiangbei Army, would never see that the matter would get stuck on such trivial details.

In the end, on the 18th and 19th, Li Zhigao delivered all 3,000 troops, allowing the newly formed Shenwu Army to embark on the Western Expedition on the 20th as scheduled.

In addition to ordering the fortresses along the way to strengthen defenses, Li Zhigao also ordered his general Chen Xiong to lead an infantry of 3,000 horses along the way to monitor the actions of the You Shenwu Army.

Also on the 20th, Su Lie escorted more than 20,000 Luoshan civilians out of Luoshan City and embarked on the journey eastward to Le'an, Huangchuan, Xinjing and other counties. On the 22nd, he handed over Luoshan City to

Xiangbei Army garrison and govern.

Probably stimulated by the failure of two long-term sieges, on the 22nd, all Tangyi troops withdrew to the east bank of the Gushui River and handed over Luoshan City. Li Zhigao led his troops to attack Qisi City at the mouth of the Gushui River and the Huaihe River.

.

The fight was extremely violent from the beginning.

When the cyclone cannon advanced to Si City, they mainly used scattered stone bombs to suppress the defenders. Two fierce generals, Li Qi and Zhong Yanhu, rushed directly to the city to supervise the battle, and even led their elite troops to directly attack the city in turn.

Perhaps Qisi was not the focus of the Shouzhou Army's defense. Only 5,000 defenders were stationed in it, and the troops and horses were not strong. Or maybe Wen Bo led his troops to surrender, which severely damaged the fighting spirit and morale of the Qisi defenders, and

Either under the supervision of Li Changjun, the Minister of War, or because the Luoshan garrison flew away like a duck that reached its beak, the generals of the Xiangbei Army felt a fire in their hearts, and they fought extra bravely during the attack.

At the cost of 2,000 casualties, it only took four days from the time the troops arrived to lay out war equipment at the city gate to the capture of Qisi City, forcing more than 3,000 remaining soldiers of the defenders to flee into the river mouth.

For the Xiangbei Army, after capturing Qisi City, the forward troops crossed the Huaihe River and entered the southern area of ​​Caizhou to establish contact with the Fangcheng defenders on the other side of Tongbai Mountain and north of Nanyang (Dengzhou).

This also means that Li Zhigao can concentrate his elite troops at any time to capture the counties of Caizhou one by one, and then expand his troops north and east.

However, on January 3, Li Zhigao, who had led his troops into Qisicheng for rest, and Li Changfeng, who planned to leave for Jinling in the near future, suddenly received a report that the newly formed Youshenwu Army had been stranded under Canglang City for more than three days and had no intention of leaving to continue the journey.

Head up the Danjiang River to Jingzikou.

Canglang City was the old seat of Junzhou, which was destroyed by war in the middle of the previous dynasty.

Also during the Jingxiang War, Han Qian mobilized resources to rebuild Canglang City at the northeast corner where the Danjiang River meets the Han River. He also played a vital role in preventing Liang Jun from fully controlling the Danshui River in the early stages of the Jingxiang War.

.

It was also because Liang Jun failed to control the Danshui coast in time that the subsequent Xichuan City Defense Battle took place.

Although Canglang City is located at the junction of Han and Dan, the scale of the city was small when it was first rebuilt. And because Xichuan City could better take into account the defense lines of Jingzikou and Wuguan, when Junzhou was re-established, the state government was located

Xichuan.

Regardless of whether Zheng Hui before him or Chai Jian after him, they all set up their tents in Xichuan, which can take into account two lines of defense. The development of Canglang City has been relatively slow in the past seven or eight years. Only now has a rammed earth wall been built.

By surrounding several small forts earlier, the city was expanded to a size of 600 steps square.

Since the population of Junzhou is still at a very low level after the new establishment, and the garrison fortress on the south bank has been developed for a longer period of time, even though Canglang City has convenient water and land facilities, for now, it is still an extremely inconspicuous city between Deng and Jun.

small town.

Wen Bo led the newly formed Youshenwu Army and suddenly stopped at the foot of Canglang City. At such a sensitive moment, it was not a trivial matter!

In addition to ordering Chai Jian to immediately lead a force of troops to approach Canglang City, Li Changfeng did not dare to delay for a while, so he angrily took Yao Xishui, Xu Jing and Chen Ruyi, the permanent attendant of Chongwen Palace, who had not yet embarked on their way home, that night

He crossed the Gushui River and Huanghe River on horseback and rushed to Huangchuan City. He urgently asked to see Han Qian who was staying in Huangchuan and planned to personally command the Tangyi Army on the west wing to attack Huoqiu.

"Marquis Qianyang, what exactly do you want, and what sinister intentions do you hide?"

The 12,000 elite members of the newly formed Youshenwu Army suddenly stopped at the foot of Canglang City. How can this make people not panic? Li Changfeng, Yao Xishui, Xu Jing, and Chen Ruyi were on their way there. They also agreed that Xu Jing would be the one to play the red face. When they saw

In front of Han Qian, he also asked unceremoniously and aggressively.

"The Youshenwu Army is marching westward under the supervision of Xiangbei elites. Canglang City is also a city guarded by soldiers and horses sent by the Xiangbei Defense Envoy. The current situation is that Wen Bo suddenly led his troops to attack Canglang City. Or what happened?

I don’t know anything. At this time, Mr. Xu aggressively questioned me about the reason. I also wanted to ask Mr. Xu whether it was your capriciousness that angered Wen Bo and irritated the generals of the Youshenwu Army, which caused the whole incident.

Will things get messy again?" Han Qian sat in the center of the hall and stared at Xu Jing with a cold face and asked.

"Everyone in the Wen clan is under your control. Do you really think that with just a few words, you can really stay out of the matter and say that it has nothing to do with it?" Yao Xishui asked in a stern voice with restraint.

"I don't share your experience," Han Qian glanced at Yao Xishui contemptuously and asked Li Changfeng, "What is the current situation? Wen Bo suddenly led his troops to capture Canglang City, or what should I say?"

Yao Xishui was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood, but in terms of status, only Li Changfeng could compare with Han Qian at this time. Even if Chen Ruyi was the special envoy of Emperor Yanyou, Han Qian didn't take a serious look at it, so what could they do?

Got him?

"Wen Bo has no signs of rashly attacking Canglang City yet, but his front and rear units have blocked the land access to Canglang City. I really don't know what his intention is." Li Changfeng said with a serious face.

"Don't say that Wen Bo hasn't captured Canglang City yet. Even if he captures Canglang City, the food stored in Canglang City will probably only be enough for more than 12,000 elite soldiers and horses for ten days. I

I don’t think Wenbo has any different ideas. Is there any misunderstanding?” Han Qian frowned and asked, “Or maybe the imperial court mobilized Zuo Wuxiang’s army to attack Wuguan and re-activated Canglang City as a grain storage base.

A lot of grain? I didn’t hear about this!”

"Not at all. The grain and grass entering Wuguan are transported directly from Xiangcheng via Danshui to Jingzikou for handover. There is no transit in Canglang City." Li Changfeng said.

When they received the letter, they were surprised and suspicious. The biggest suspicion was that Canglang did not have a large amount of grain reserves, and there were only five or six hundred households in the city. What would Wen Bo really do to Han Qian in Xiangbei?

The army's conspiracy should also launch a surprise attack on the two important towns of Xiangcheng or Xichuan under careful arrangements, instead of stopping at Canglang City for no reason.

The newly formed You Shenwu Army has temporarily stopped under Canglang City and has no signs of directly attacking the city. Even if it captures Canglang City, it will soon be forced from both sides by the Xiangbei Army, which has superior strength and combat effectiveness.

If the elite are surrounded and killed, the food will be exhausted in ten days.

Of course, Wenbo could kill the army horses to use as military rations, but it was already January, and in more than a month, the weather would get warmer, and the slaughtered army horses would not be easy to store.

Even if there are five or six thousand military horses at that time - it is impossible to have a supply of up to 112,000 kilograms of horse feed every day, such a huge number of military horses must be slaughtered as soon as possible - it will be called Wenbo's headquarters.

After occupying Canglang City, we can support it for two or three months, but after two or three months, it will inevitably be a dead end.

They couldn't imagine why Wen Bo suddenly stopped in Canglang City. Of course, they believed that the problem was with Tangyi Army and Han Qian. They didn't know what Han Qian and Wen Bo had secretly accomplished that they didn't know.
Chapter completed!