The climate at the southern foot of the Qinling Mountains is much milder than that in the north. By late February, the withered and depressed mountaintops will have a faint green color and are no longer boring.
Looking down from the top of the wall, there are still blood stains that have not been washed away by the rain in the gaps between the incomplete wall bricks. The bright yellow grass stems seem to have been nourished by flesh and blood. At this time, they have stubbornly come out, and there are even one or two tiny pink-white nameless flowers.
The little flower has bloomed.
Han Qian stood at the top of the city, looking around with a solemn expression.
Although 120,000 Liang troops have so far passed through the gap in Fangcheng and entered Jingxiang like a rolling iron stream, Liang Jun has no way to completely blockade the mountains on the west bank of the Danjiang River. Therefore, Han Qian and the others are trapped in Xichuan City and can't do anything at any time.
Be able to grasp the development of the situation on the east and south banks of the Han River.
Zaoyang, Suizhou, Yingzhou and other cities fell one after another with little decent resistance. In late January of the 14th year of Tianyou, Liang Jun's main force on the southern front, with Xuanjiadu as the core, crossed east of Yingzhou City.
The Han River enters the line of Shimen Mountain on the west bank of the Han River.
On the southern front, Liang's army first captured Pingzhou City south of Shimen Mountain, and then pushed unswervingly to the north, fighting fiercely with Du Chongtao's troops in the northern boundary mountains and Xuancheng.
The Liang army had a large number of soldiers and horses, and the troops were strong and fought bravely. In early February, Du Chongtao had to abandon the North Boundary Mountain, Xuancheng and other city passes to the north of Xiangzhou City, allowing the Liang army to force Xiangzhou City from the south.
At the same time, Liang Jun on the northern front also advanced to Fancheng City on the north bank of the Han River.
Liang Jun almost took over Zaoyang, Suizhou, Yingzhou and other important cities on the east bank of the Han River without a fight. In addition to tens of thousands of local defenders becoming prisoners of war, hundreds of thousands of people on the east bank of the Han River also fell under Liang Jun's control.
This caused Liang Jun's troops from the north and south to advance under Xiangzhou City and Fancheng. They quickly recruited more than 30,000 able-bodied civilians from the east bank of the Han River to participate in the construction of fortifications and the manufacture of war equipment for the siege.
Fancheng and Xiangzhou City face each other across the Han River. Xiangzhou Shuiying has more than 2,000 generals and nearly a hundred large and small warships to communicate with the two cities. Logically speaking, Fancheng and Xiangzhou are horns with each other, so they can be like each other.
A giant sky-cutting lock blocked the Han River at its waist.
It is a pity that the world, more accurately speaking, the Chu Dynasty, which was based on the Jianghuai region and focused more on operating southward, paid more attention to Xiangcheng Prefecture on the south bank of the Han River, and to Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River, or to Xiang and Fan as a whole.
There is a serious lack of understanding of strategic defense status.
Du Chongtao and his predecessor Deng Xiang, as well as other officials assigned to Jingxiang, such as governors, military envoys and other officials, mainly tried their best to restore the people's livelihood in the prefectures and counties on the south and east banks of the Han River.
Even if the city is repaired, Yingzhou and Suizhou on the east bank, and Xiangzhou City, Xuancheng and other cities on the south bank will be taken first.
On the north bank of the Han River, the people fled and the land was deserted. Even if Du Chongtao wanted to, he could only allocate money and food from Xiangzhou, but he was unable to repair it.
When Han Qian and others arrived in Xiangzhou last winter, the walls of Fancheng were still filled with collapsed gaps.
After the winter of last year, the war became tense, and the money and grain transferred to Xiangzhou from Jiang'e and other prefectures increased sharply. Only then did Du Chongtao have enough energy to start repairing the city fortresses on the northern line.
However, before it was confirmed that Liang Yong Wang Zhu Yu led the elite troops of Xuanjiadu into the Nanyang Basin, Deng Xiang's camp had a serious lack of understanding of the Liang Army's strategic intentions on the west flank, thinking that what they would eventually have to resist was only the Liang Army's second-line troops and horses.
It's just a very determined harassment.
Therefore, the limited money and food were allocated to the repair of many fortresses on the northern line such as Zaoyang and Tanghe, but not concentrated on the repair of Fancheng.
In the end, Zaoyang, Tanghe and other cities fell into the hands of the Liang army without a single blow. When the Liang army reached Fancheng, the old city walls were not demolished despite the wind and rain, which had been destroyed by more than a dozen wars in the past century.
Just repair the gap first, and then directly build it on the basis of the remaining wall to a height of more than three feet.
It can be imagined how fragile the wall structure and foundation of Fancheng are.
Liang Jun was determined to capture Jingxiang this time and was fully prepared to storm the city. He had a large number of craftsmen accompanying the army. They built a batch of trebuchets in early February and worked day and night to collect stones to bombard Fancheng.
More than ten days later, the soldiers and civilians defending Fancheng suffered more than 2,000 casualties, and the fragile city walls collapsed one after another, making it difficult to defend the city.
Du Chongtao had to abandon Fancheng and withdrew the remaining garrison of less than 20,000 to Xiangzhou City on the south bank.
The Xiangzhou water camp, which had nearly a hundred warships of all sizes, lost the open water area to deal with the enemy near Xiangcheng Prefecture. It wanted to break out of the encirclement downstream of the Han River at night and enter the Yangtze River to wait for Jinling's navy to come and join them. However, in
When passing through the waters southeast of Yicheng, they were surrounded by Liang Jun's hundreds of fireboats loaded with firewood and fuel.
After the fall of Fancheng, the morale of the generals of the Xiangzhou Army was low. When the water camp encountered a surprise attack during the night flight, they had no intention of fighting. They only thought about escaping. In the end, they were defeated by the Liang Army's water camp that hastily gathered the surrender troops and formed a massive rout. More than a thousand generals were killed.
The soldiers drowned, and seventy or eighty warships were burned.
After the fall of Fancheng, except for Xiangzhou City, almost all the important fortresses in the upper reaches of the Han River fell into the hands of Liang Jun. Liang Jun even built an iron cable pontoon bridge between Fancheng and the fortress on the south bank to strengthen the connection between the north and south banks of the Han River and prepare for the storming of Xiangzhou City.
Make final preparations.
When Zaoyang fell, Han Qian and others were the first to abandon Canglang City, and before Liang Jun raided again, they took Canglang City's materials and nearly 3,000 people, including criminals, copycat soldiers from the Zhou Dynasty tribe, and civilians.
It was transported to Xichuan City as soon as possible.
The third capital of Longque Army under Zhou Shu's command was to take a boat to Jingzikou as soon as possible.
After the Liang army captured Fancheng, Han Qian and others finally gave up on Tieguling and evacuated Li Zhigao and Guo Liang's troops into Xichuan City.
Currently, Chai Jian, Gao Chengyuan, and Zhou Shu command more than 3,000 troops from the Third and Fourth Capitals of the Longque Army and Zhang Bao of the Xiangzhou Army. They are resisting the offensive of more than 10,000 troops from the Liangguan Pass Central Army coming from the direction of Wuguan at Jingzikou.
Since the terrain at Jingzikou is narrow and steep, it is not conducive to Liang Jun's deployment. At the same time, Liang Jun has only a short time to control the Guanzhong area. Liang Guanzhong's fighting will is far less elite and firm than the main force of Liang Jun. Therefore, Chai Jian, Gao Chengyuan, Zhou Shu, Zhang Bao, etc.
People only need to hold on to the fort before they run out of food and supplies.
The situation here in Xichuan City is much more serious.
After dividing the Yingzhou state troops among Li Zhigao, Guo Liang, Zheng Hui, Zhou Pang and the Xuzhou camp, which was under the direct control of Han Qian at this time, the total strength was only a little more than 8,000, and the city of Xichuan was also in dilapidated condition.
In front of them, General Han Yuanqi commanded nearly 40,000 Liang troops, which was four to five times their number.
However, Liang Jun also realized that the defenders of Xichuan were well prepared and had a firm will to fight. They knew that it was difficult to attack suddenly, and they were reluctant to waste their elite soldiers in bloody battles in the siege. The focus of the early operations was mainly east of Fancheng.
Move to the west.
Han Qian stood on the city wall here, holding a telescope, and could clearly see that more and more craftsmen from Liang State had gathered, cutting down trees non-stop, dragging them to the camp built using the remaining forts outside Xichuan, and stepping up their efforts.
Time to build chariots, sidecars, siege engines, catapults and other siege weapons.
When Yang Yuanpu was about to take the telescope from Han Qian and spy on the enemy camp, they saw the city gate near the Xichuan River dock in the west slowly opening.
"What's going on?" Yang Yuanpu looked at Han Qian doubtfully and asked.
Although the west wall of Xichuan City is backed by the Xichuan River, and there is only an open space of four or five hundred steps wide in the middle. There are eight warships of the Xuzhou Boat Gang and three hundred naval troops on the other side of the dock, which is not enough for Liang Jun to force his way in. Under normal circumstances, it is strictly forbidden to open the city gate casually even during the day.
Han Qian sent people to the west city to ask what happened and needed to open the city gate at this time. He picked up the telescope and looked over, only to see Shen Yang and Chen De. They were patrolling the west city wall at this time and said to the third prince: "Mr. Shen Yang Over there, perhaps Du Chongtao sent military envoys to break out of Xiangzhou City and rush to Xichuan."
Although Xiangzhou City did not fall, and Du Chongtao still had 20,000 defenders in Xiangzhou, Han Qian and others were not particularly clear about the condition of the defenders, their morale, and whether the city's material reserves were sufficient.
At this time, Xiangzhou City and Xichuan City were two isolated islands trapped in the vast ocean of Liang Jun. Even mentally, they needed to support each other in order to hold on until reinforcements arrived.
Whether it is Xiangzhou City or Xichuan City, the fall of any city will be a devastating blow to the morale of the defenders of the other city.
Hearing that Du Chongtao might have sent an envoy, Yang Yuanpu was also very happy and rushed directly to Xicheng when he asked Han Qian to come.
At this time, Han Qian saw Shen Yang through the looking glass. Chen De walked down the city wall from the city climbing road with excitement, and strode toward the west city gate. After a while, Han Qian saw the young eunuch who looked like he was thin and dehydrated. Shen He, Marquis of Liyang, and Yang En, the right school administrator, walked into the city in a state of confusion, escorted by Gao Shao and others.
"It's not the military envoy sent by Du Chongtao, it's the envoy sent by His Majesty from Jinling!" Han Qian couldn't help shouting excitedly at this moment.
…………
…………
"I really want His Highness to die. I thought I would never see His Highness again all the way here..."
Shen He and Yang En also endured a lot of hardships along the way. Especially when they went north from Jingzhou, they had to avoid Liang Jun's eyes and ears. They traveled all the way through mountains and rivers and encountered Liang Jun's scouts three times in the deep mountains and forests.
Nearly half of the guards he brought with him were dead, and Shen He and Yang En were able to enter Xichuan City alive to meet the third prince Yang Yuanpu.
In his early years, Yang En went through many life and death situations with Emperor Tianyou. Even after arriving in Xichuan City, his future life and death were still uncertain, and he didn't feel anything.
Shen He mainly served in the inner palace. He was used to intrigues, but he had not experienced many dangerous battles. He was extremely tired from traveling all the way. At this time, he was almost paralyzed and knelt on the ground, grabbing the third prince's hand, his voice was full of emotion. Choking up sobs can be regarded as being unable to control oneself and revealing one's true feelings.
"Master Shen, please rise. Uncle, please take a seat." Yang Yuanpu happily helped Shen He and Yang En took a seat.
If Shen He had not changed into official robes when he entered the city, it would be difficult for Yang Yuanpu and the others to recognize Shen He, who was fair and fat when they saw each other in Jinling, but now he had lost a lot of weight.
"This is His Majesty's decree!"
Shen He untied his belt and took out the oracle of Emperor Tianyou hidden in his belt.
Shen He and Yang En rushed to Xichuan, but were blocked by Liang Jun's scouts all the way. They were mentally prepared to discard their bags at any time, and sewed Emperor Tianyou's oracle and belt together to prevent them from being discarded.
In critical moments, everything was naturally kept simple. Yang Yuanpu took over the order and motioned to Shen Yang, Han Qian, Zheng Hui, Li Zhigao and others to gather around and take a look, not to mention doing the trick of setting up incense and receiving the order.
