Xiaoqi

Time is the most ruthless, time can kill all grievances and fighting spirit.

In less than three years, Ma Teng has come all the way from the torment of living through the years at the beginning, and now he has adapted to the quiet and peaceful life of leisure, and his mood tends to be peaceful.

Two years ago, his eldest son, Ma Chao, was promoted to the commander of the Longxiang camp, worshiped as a general and made him a marquis, and his nephew Ma Dai was promoted to the general of Zhonglang.Last year, the eldest daughter Yunluo, who had been left alone by him, officially became Li Li's concubine and gave birth to a big fat boy with a tiger's head and a tiger's brain; for this reason, Ma Teng couldn't help but made a special trip to Meiwu to visit his grandson, and lived in Wubao. For more than half a month.

It was this trip to Chang'an that made Ma Teng completely let go of his obsessions, no longer harboring hostility towards Li Li, and truly treated Li Li as his own son-in-law, without the slightest thought of striving for hegemony.Because he saw with his own eyes the great achievements Li Li had made in just two years. The wheat fields and the places in Xiliang are peaceful and peaceful, and the people live and work in peace and contentment.Such a prosperous scene, Ma Teng never dreamed of, and Li Li's ability to govern the state, he thought he would never be able to do it, and he didn't even think about it.And all of this was witnessed by him with his own eyes, so that he admired his son-in-law from the bottom of his heart, and secretly sighed that Li Li is really an amazing person!

In addition, Li Li treated Ma Yunluo very well. Although there were many female relatives in the entire Mei Wu Nei Mansion, they got along extremely well, and they were happy and full of joy and laughter.In Ma Teng's impression, although his daughter Yunluo was born beautiful, she was a little thin and frank, with no intentions.Therefore, he had been worried that his daughter would inevitably be bullied by the wife after she became Li Li's concubine, and would even be in dire straits, suffering terribly. However, as a father, he could only stand by and watch, unable to change his daughter's situation at all.However, after he went to Meiwu, he realized that he was just thinking wildly, judging others by himself, and the reality was completely different from what he thought.Daughter Yunluo, who has not seen each other for nearly two years, has become more and more beautiful and plump, with graceful manners, smiles all day long, caresses her husband and teaches her children, plays the piano and paints with a group of sisters, sings and dances happily, and is extremely happy.

Seeing that his daughter is living a happy life and his son and nephew are appreciated by Li Li, Ma Teng is finally relieved.For this reason, he also thought about taking the initiative to ask Li Li to become an official, and to do his best for Li Li in his lifetime, no matter whether it was governing counties or guarding borders, he would go wherever he was needed. Do your best for your sons and daughters, and accumulate more.It's a pity that he couldn't save face after all, and he was too embarrassed to beg Li Li, so he could only return to Hanyang with regrets, and continue to retire for retirement.

But he didn't know that since he was out of work, there has been a Hawkeye who has been following him all year round. Although it can't be called monitoring, he is always watching his every move.Therefore, his thoughts spread to Li Li, who was on the front line of Hangu, just as the situation in Hanzhong was unclear, so Li Li appointed Ma Teng as Fufeng prefect to guard against Zhang Lu's surprise attack on Chang'an in Hanzhong.

Facts have proved that it is undoubtedly a wise move for Li Liqi to use Ma Teng to sit in Fufeng County.

Chapter 827 The Battle of Chen Cang 2

Facts have proved that it is undoubtedly a wise move for Li Liqi to use Ma Teng to sit in Fufeng County.

When Chen Cangcheng was in danger, Ma Teng personally boarded the city tower, took the lead, and defended the city to the death, making Zhang Wei's army unable to attack for a long time, directly defeating Zhang Lu and the Central Plains Allied Forces' huge conspiracy to attack Chang'an.

The reason why Li Li re-appointed Ma Teng was because the Ma family was originally a rich family in Fufeng, and the purpose of letting Ma Teng sit in Fufeng County was to encourage the big families of Fufeng to support him, so as to resist the invasion of Chang'an by Hanzhong soldiers.

However, Li Li declared to the outside world that he should not avoid relatives if he is a virtuous person. This will not only make Ma Teng feel grateful to him, and be loyal to him wholeheartedly, but also achieve the strategic goal of defending against the enemy.It can be seen from this that his art of controlling people has been used perfectly, and his appearance of the emperor is becoming more and more mature.

The discussion in the lobby this time was not long, and there were no major decisions. I just asked about the latest battle situation, so as to understand the battle situation as soon as possible and wait for an opportunity to attack and defeat the enemy.

In fact, during this march, Li Li had already understood the situation of the battle clearly, and now he asked Ma Teng to tell it again, in fact, it was just to inform Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun and others of the military situation through Ma Teng's mouth, so as to save him from conveying it himself.

At present, the Xiliang army and the Hanzhong army are in a stalemate. The Hanzhong soldiers and horses have turned from offense to defense, posing a posture of guarding the pass, waiting for the Xiliang army to attack.

Before that, the battle situation was really unfavorable for the Xiliang army.On the eastern front, Chencang City was under heavy pressure, and Zhang Wei's army repeatedly attacked the city; on the western front, Zhang Lu's general Yang Ang used his troops skillfully, and sent a small group of troops to contain more than [-] tiger battalions. Leading the army to attack the city and occupy the land wantonly.In half a month, most of Wudu County was included in the bag.

However, since the end of the Battle of Sili, Li Liban returned to Chang'an.Then the news of the Xiliang army's return to aid spread like wildfire, causing Zhang Lu's army to move on hearing the news and hastily shrink their troops.On the battlefield on the western front, Yang Ang resolutely gave up several cities near Longyou, occupied the strong city and defended it, and did not dare to send troops wantonly to loot the surrounding towns.Zhang Wei's army under Chencang City retreated for thirty miles and set up camp in the mountains.Like Yang Ang, he took an active defense by occupying dangerous places, and was always on guard against the Xiliang army going out of the city to attack and kill.

At the same time, in order to prevent the Xiliang army from invading Hanzhong.Zhang Lu again recruited [-] troops to garrison Yangping Pass.So far, on the border between Liangzhou and Hanzhong, Zhang Lu successively dispatched [-] troops to set up a defensive front, as if he was facing an enemy.Stand by.

It is precisely because Zhang Lu mobilized his troops so aggressively.On the contrary, it attracted Li Li's attention, and even a little curiosity.

It should be noted that although Hanzhong is located on the main road between Chang'an and Xichuan, with a vast area, fertile land and rich products, it is an important county guarding the throat of the Shu Road; but it is still a county after all.

The time when Zhang Lu occupied Hanzhong was roughly the same as Li Li's appointment as the prefect of Wuwei, that is, he occupied Hanzhong in the second year of Chuping. Therefore, in a sense, he and Li Li started at the same time.The only difference is.After Zhang Lu occupied Hanzhong, he died down, willing to guard Hanzhong and enjoy the wealth; Li Li was different.After establishing itself in Wuwei County, he continued to conquer east and west, and expanded his territory wantonly. It took only one year to become the overlord of the western part of Liangzhou, and the second year to occupy Yongliang and Liangzhou.

Perhaps stimulated by Li Li's growing up day by day, Zhang Lu was eager to move after Liu Yan's death in Yizhou Mu. Taking advantage of Liu Zhang's first leadership of Yizhou Mu, he aggressively seized more than ten cities in four counties in the northern part of Berkshire. , and occupying Jiameng Pass, there is a great tendency to send troops to capture Yizhou.Under the persecution of Zhang Lu, Liu Zhang, who was tired and lazy by nature, became furious and mobilized heavy troops to garrison Bajun, and sent additional troops to guard the passes.So far, the dispute between Zhang Lu and Liu Zhang has gradually calmed down, but the city that Zhang Lu took away is still in his hands, which increased the nine counties of Hanzhong to thirteen counties, and the territory and population increased by [-]%.

At the same time, Zhang Lu has been coveting Wudu, which borders Hanzhong, and the counties and counties of Longyou, always wanting to jump up and take a bite.Long before seizing the four counties of Berkshire, he had privately sent troops to occupy several cities in Wudu County, and his tentacles extended to the entire territory of Wudu County, which was quite likely to seize Wudu County.

Unexpectedly, Li Li quickly pacified the two prefectures of Yongliang and Liangzhou, and sent heavy troops to Wudu County. Step back beyond the border.However, Zhang Lu was not a fuel-efficient lamp. When he withdrew his troops, he forcibly kidnapped tens of thousands of people and evacuated several cities, leaving hundreds of miles of counties near the Hanzhong border deserted and extremely desolate.

Generals such as Guo Si and Ma Chao, who were ordered to garrison Wudu, Jincheng and other places at that time, were extremely annoyed by this. They immediately sent troops to attack Zhang Lu and took Hanzhong in one go.However, Li Li was forced by the pressure of food and grass, and in view of Xiliang's initial decision and the urgent need to maintain stability for a period of time, so he had to reject the suggestions of Guo Si, Ma Chao and others, and decided not to send troops to attack Zhang Lu temporarily.

Because of this, Zhang Lu in Hanzhong was able to separatize Hanzhong, become king and do whatever he wants.It is said that when Li Li was promoted to General of Hussars, Zhang Lu wanted to go to the imperial court and request that he be crowned King of Hanning, his wolfish ambition was clearly revealed.Later, he was dissuaded by counselor Yan Pu and stated that he was powerful, so Zhang Lu gave up angrily, otherwise he would be the first vassal force to ask for an edict to be a vassal king, and he would surely attract a large-scale crusade by the Xiliang army.

Only two years later, Zhang Lu was very still and wanted to move. He couldn't hold back and sent troops to harass Liangzhou again, trying to take advantage of the battle between Li Li and the Kwantung princes to send troops to surprise Chang'an and reap the benefits.But he never expected that the Kwantung princes would be defeated so quickly, let alone that Li Li had been prepared for him, leaving Guo Si to lead the [-] Qinglong battalion warriors to station in Longyou, and temporarily appointed Ma Teng as the prefect of Fufeng Guard Chencang.In addition, Li Li also dispatched Ma Chao to lead the Huben battalion to assist Guo Si during the war, and prevented Yang Ang from invading the hinterland of Liangzhou in time.

Now Li Li mobilized three main battle battalions to go to Hanzhong, and stationed a full 15 military pawn battalion in Hanyang County, and [-] county soldiers led by Guo Bang and Teng Yu stationed in Jincheng.In addition, the thousands of city guards who were originally stationed in Chencang and the original tens of thousands of prefectural soldiers in Wudu County gathered no less than [-] heavy troops on the south bank of the Weishui River alone.

Therefore, Li Li didn't take Hanzhong Zhang Lu seriously at all, and this western expedition was not just as simple as regaining the lost land, it was imperative to seize the land of Hanzhong.

However, when Li Li listened to Ma Teng's briefing on the military situation, he was quite surprised, or rather surprised. He couldn't understand why Zhang Lu, who only had one county in Hanzhong, was so arrogant and arrogant, and dared to risk the disapproval of the world, and tried to surpass King Ning of Han position.What made him even more curious was why Hanzhong County had 15 troops, and it seemed that the [-] troops were not Zhang Lu's full strength. There should be [-] to [-] defenders in Nanzheng City, Hanzhong County even more.This means that Zhang Lu has at least [-] soldiers and horses in his hands. Where did so many soldiers and horses come from? Could it be said that the population of Hanzhong County already exceeds one million?

After hearing Li Li's question, Ma Teng replied: "My lord, I don't know something. Hanzhong is the place where the Han Dynasty prospered. After more than [-] years in the Han Dynasty, the population in the territory was once the highest among all the counties in Yizhou, and the registered population was as high as There are more than [-] households, the territory is vast, the land is fertile, and there are dangerous passes such as mountains and mountains in the surrounding area. There have been few foreign barbarian invasions and disturbances, and the territory is stable and peaceful.

Therefore, as early as when Zhang Jiao preached the Tao of Taiping in the states and counties of the Central Plains, there were also preachers in Hanzhong.This person wandered around Hanzhong, Xichuan, Jingzhou, Liangzhou and other places, curing diseases and saving lives, and the cured people only need to pay five buckets of rice, so it is called "Five Dou Rice Sect".Afterwards, Zhang Jiao set up a rebellion in Julu, Jizhou, and this person also raised troops in Hanzhong. It seemed that he had premeditated and echoed each other in an attempt to overthrow the Han Dynasty and change the dynasty in one fell swoop.Afterwards, the Taiping Dao initiated by Zhang Jiao was quickly wiped out by the government army, and the Wudou Mijiao in Hanzhong was also suppressed by the government army, and the Taoist ancestor disappeared without a trace.The only difference between the two Taoisms is that Zhang Jiao’s brothers were killed, and their congregants were repeatedly suppressed by the court, and they ran for their lives in a hurry; while Wu Dou Mijiao is different, the Taoist ancestor Zhang Ling was not captured, but died of illness in the mountains. Then his son continued to lead the congregation, and continued to grow and develop, which has continued to this day.

And Zhang Ling, the Taoist patriarch of the Five Dou Rice Sect, is the grandfather of Zhang Lu in Hanzhong nowadays.Therefore, although Zhang Lu only occupied Hanzhong four years ago, the foundation of the Zhang family in Hanzhong is extremely deep, and there are tens of thousands of believers in the Five Dou Rice Sect alone.In addition, it is said that Zhang Lu is also the tenth grandson of Zhang Liang, the founding father of the Western Han Dynasty, and the patriarch of the Zhang family, a large family in Hanzhong.Because of this, after Zhang Lu and Zhang Xiu killed the prefect Su Gu, and then got rid of Zhang Xiu, they easily occupied Hanzhong, and the foundation was solid, and there have been no troubles for several years.

At the same time, since the turmoil in Luoyang, the states in the Central Plains and our two states in Xiliang have been in chaos.However, in order to enter Yizhou, in addition to the waterway and Jingzhou, you must pass through Hanzhong. Therefore, many people were left in Hanzhong, which caused the population of Hanzhong to increase rapidly.Today, the registered population of the Hanzhong government has reached 15 households, and there are not a few people who have not registered in the government.Therefore, the entire population of Hanzhong is quite large. If a family counts four people, there are at least 50 people in Hanzhong. "

Speaking of this, Ma Teng paused, and after seeing Li Li's normal expression, he went on to say: "Before this, there were 10,000 to [-] soldiers in Hanzhong, so Zhang Lu dared to be on the same level as us and other Xiliang princes. Discussion. This time the lord’s army marches westward, Zhang Lu must be terrified, and he is bound to temporarily form an army of Wudou Mijiao members, so that he can pull up an army of [-]+ in a short period of time. These Wudou Mijiao members themselves are not strong in combat , most of them are honest peasants, but these people are very fanatical and obey Zhang Lu's orders, so that they are not afraid of death when they fight, and they are very difficult to deal with."

After Ma Teng's detailed explanation, Li Li couldn't help frowning, his eyes were cold and solemn.Obviously, this conquest of Zhang Lu in Hanzhong is by no means as easy as he imagined, and this Zhang Lu is not a soft persimmon, otherwise Liu Zhang in Yizhou would not suffer repeated losses in Zhang Lu's hands, but he has nothing to do with him.

Chapter 828 The Battle of Chen Cang 3

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The sun is rising and the flowers are blooming in spring.

On the upper floor of Chencang City, Li Li, dressed in a Confucian robe, stands on the top of the city, and the rolling mountains are in sight.

Chencang City is not so much a city as it is a pass blocking the exit of the mountains. It is a throat fortress entering and exiting Hanzhong and Chang'an.

In fact, Chencang was originally only a county under the jurisdiction of Fufeng County, but it became famous all over the world because Han Xin outwitted Chang'an during the Chu-Han struggle for hegemony;

After this battle, the great ancestor Liu Bang took the lead in attacking Chang'an, and was named "King of Han", which laid the cornerstone of Liu Bang's leadership and laid a solid foundation for his subsequent unification of the world.

Since then, Chencang has transformed from a small county located in the deep mountains into an important town where one man guards the gate and ten thousand men cannot open it, guarding the throat of Chang'an leading to the southwest.

Standing at the top of Chencang City at this time, overlooking the endless towering mountains, Li Li couldn't help shaking his head slightly, feeling infinitely sighed.In the annals of later generations, a generation of famous ministers and Wuhou Zhuge Liang suffered repeated setbacks under the city of Chencang, and went out of Qishan Mountain six times in vain, so that he vomited blood and died in this vast mountain range.No wonder the poets of later generations sighed with emotion: "Death before leaving the teacher will make the hero burst into tears."

Fortunately, at this moment, Chen Cang is in Li Li's hands, and Zhuge Wuhou, who has been famous for thousands of years, is still a junior at this time.As long as this Western Expedition can successfully capture Hanzhong, there will be no more tragedies in Qishan.Once Hanzhong is in hand.Within three years, Li Li vowed to seize Xichuan and attack Chengdu.Turning Yizhou into the rear of the Xiliang Army is also the lifeline of the Xiliang Army's subsequent pacification of the world.

For Hanzhong and Yizhou, Li Li has been coveting for a long time. As early as when Yongliang and Liangzhou were pacified, he was thinking about Yizhou, the land of abundance.However, Xiliang was initially established at that time, but his foundation was not stable.It is urgent to take a period of time to consolidate the foundation; in addition, Hanzhong Zhanglu is in the middle, once the Xiliang army changes slightly.Liu Yan in Yizhou must have taken precautions early.In view of this, under the constraints of many unfavorable factors, even though Li Li had the desire to covet Yizhou, he had to restrain his mind.Set aside for now.Wait until the time is right before sending troops to Hanzhong to seek Xichuan.

Therefore, Li Li has not been in a hurry to send troops to the Central Plains. What he really cares about is Hanzhong and Yizhou.Because, although the states and counties in the Central Plains are vast in land and resources, they are all powerful, and the forces of all parties are intertwined.The situation is complex and changeable.In contrast, in terms of geography and population.Once Hanzhong and Yizhou are captured, the Xiliang Army will also occupy half of the world, the population and territory will double on the current basis, and they will be invincible before leaving the Central Plains.From a strategic point of view, after seizing Hanzhong and Yizhou, the Xiliang Army has a broad strategic depth. It can attack and retreat. Even if it suffers a big defeat, as long as the territory is not lost, it can fight again after two years of rest.In contrast, the states in the Central Plains had no way to retreat. Except for Youzhou, which bordered Liaodong, and Jiangdong, which bordered Jiaozhou, the other states were already saturated, and there was no way to retreat except to flee overseas.

This is the fundamental reason why the north is strong and the south is weak since ancient times.Strategic depth determines the potential of war. The longer the war lasts, the side with broad strategic depth will highlight its huge war potential and eventually win.This is an undeniable truth in thousands of years of war, whether it is in the ancient barbaric period or in the future thousands of years later, it is the key factor that determines the final victory of the war.

Li Li, who is a person of later generations, sees this point very clearly and firmly believes it.Therefore, in the previous battles, he didn't care about the gains and losses of a city or a place, and he didn't care whether to eliminate the Central Plains one after another; what he really cared about was the gains and losses of population, money, food and supplies, and strategic locations.As long as these strategic points that determine the success or failure of the war are not lost, and there is no major loss of population, money and food, it is only a matter of time before the army goes straight to the Central Plains.Once the time is right, whether it is Yuan Shao in Jizhou, or heroes such as Cao Cao and Liu Bei, they can all be captured in one go; even if it is a protracted war with the princes of the Central Plains, Li Li can afford and sustain it.No matter how bad it is, if you sit and eat and wait to die, Li Li can also kill these gangsters with energy.

Because of this, Li Li personally led the army to conquer Hanzhong, because he valued the land of Hanzhong very much.As long as Hanzhong is captured, Yizhou will be a piece of fat on the lips. Even if there are natural dangers in the Shu Road, it will not be able to withstand years of trials and beatings.Once the Shu army relaxes a little, the Xiliang army can take the opportunity to invade Yizhou and seize the whole territory of Yizhou in one fell swoop.

Therefore, the purpose of Li Li's western expedition this time was not to swallow Hanzhong and Yizhou in one go, but to seize Hanzhong, pry open the gateway to Yizhou, and then gather heavy troops here to look at Xichuan.

At the same time, another plan that Li Li has been planning for a long time will also be carried out.In order for the plan to be implemented smoothly, he had to leave Chang'an, because his departure from the capital was tantamount to removing a sharp sword hanging over the heads of many plotters, allowing them to let go of their courage and flex their muscles.

"Zilong, blindly defending is not the answer, you must take the initiative to attack. Otherwise, Zhang Wei's army will not move and stick to the valley, what should I do?"

On the tower, Li Li looked in the direction Ma Teng pointed, and saw faint banners flickering in the valley more than ten miles away, and smoke rising from the kitchen. That was where Zhang Wei's troops were stationed.

As of today, the Hanzhong Army with Zhang Wei as the chief general, Yang Bai as the deputy general, and Yang Song as the military adviser has camped in a valley twenty miles away, and it has been more than half a month.At the beginning, Zhang Wei had only [-] soldiers and horses. After more than ten days of storming Chencang, tens of thousands of soldiers were lost. Then Zhang Lu mobilized [-] Dou Mijiao to supplement them. Therefore, Zhang Wei now has [-] soldiers in his tent. horse.After learning that Li Li led the army to go out, Zhang Wei led his troops to withdraw, but he did not retreat to Hanzhong, but he set up a big village in the valley [-] miles outside Chencang City, blocking the way for the Xiliang army to attack Hanzhong. Confronted with Chen Cangcheng.

It has to be said that this Dazhai and Chen Cangcheng have the same effect.Chencang City is in the north, and Zhang Wei's Dazhai is in the south. The Hanzhong army can't break through Chencang City, and the Xiliang army can't even try to attack Hanzhong.It can be said that repaying others with one's own way, neither of the two armies can only take advantage of it without suffering losses.

The generals standing next to Li Li at this moment are Li Zhi, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Ma Teng and other chief generals of this Western Expedition, as well as Cao Xing, Chen Dao, Ma Dai, Ma Xiu and other deputy generals and generals of each battalion. .

After hearing Li Li's words, Zhao Yun thought for a while and respectfully said: "My lord's words are very true. Zhang Wei's army has been stationed in the valley for more than [-] days. Not only has there been no sign of withdrawing troops, but they are strengthening the camp every day. It is necessary to confront our army for a long time until we return in vain and withdraw from the army. Therefore, it is imperative to take the initiative to attack, otherwise we will have to hold on to it and cannot advance an inch. It is just that the enemy's camp is quite high and It is very strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and we are mostly war cavalry this time, not good at attacking fortifications. Therefore, the last general can't think of a way to defeat the enemy for a while."