Chapter 181 Longshan Road

The war in Hebei ended, with only sporadic operations to wipe out the remaining enemies.

The Jianghuai battlefield fell into a stalemate.

In the Guanzhong and Longyou areas, a great war was also imminent.

Unlike the well-developed waterways between the Yangtze River and the Huai River, large-scale transportation of soldiers and supplies can be accelerated by using waterways.

Between Guanzhong, Longyou and Hanzhong, there are the Longshan Mountains and the Qinling Mountains, with thousands of ravines and gullies.

In other words, the Western Yan army in Guanzhong actually began to advance at the end of August, more than ten days earlier than Jiangdong, but the two sides had not yet met in the Longshan area. After more than ten days of fighting on the Jianghuai battlefield, the overall situation had been settled.

On the other side, Li Yuan, the governor of Yizhou, also led his army from Hanzhong, took the Qishan Road, and headed to Longyou.

The situation faced by both sides is very similar to the situation when Zhuge Liang first went out to Qishan.

The difference is that the three counties of Longxi, Nan'an and Tianshui were originally in the hands of Dongyan, so they sent people to set up camp on the road to Jieting early in the morning and garrisoned heavily.

As for the Western Yan army, they actually have three choices.

Take the Longshan Road to Jieting, the further Xiaoguan to enter Longyou, and the Wei River Valley with its steep road.

The geographical features of the Celestial Empire are very obvious. From east to west, the terrain gradually rises.

From Guanzhong to the west, it can be divided into several layers, with each layer higher than the previous one. To the west of Guanzhong is the Longshan Plateau, and to the west of Longshan is the Longxi area, which can also be called Longyou. From Longxi, go down to Guanzhong from the Weishui River Valley, go down to Hanzhong from the Xihan River Valley, and go down to Shuzhong from the Bailong River Valley. They are all in a high-rise building, which is why "get Long and look to Shu".

Further west of Longxi, north of the Qilian Mountains and west of the Yellow River, is the Hexi region, namely Liangzhou, or the Hexi Corridor. South of the Qilian Mountains, there is the Hehuang River Valley that leads to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and its terrain is higher than that of Longxi.

The gradually rising terraced terrain in the northwest of Guanzhong also provides a recursive logic for successive generations of people who have managed the northwest.

That is, if you want to keep Guanzhong stable, you must control Longxi. If you want to control Longxi, you must control Hexi.

If you want to control Hexi, you must pacify the Western Regions.

Therefore, the biggest threat to Longxi was not the Guanzhong army, but the enemies from Liangzhou. Liangzhou Governor Xiao Juan led 30,000 infantry and cavalry to Longxi.

So judging from the situation, Western Yan still has the advantage in military strength.

The actual commander of the three counties in Longyou was the prefect of Nangan, the General of the Protectorate of the Qiang, and the Prince of Xihe, Murong Abao.

His father Murong Xianyi died at an early age, and he was raised by his uncle Murong Xianzong, King of Wei. He had a very good relationship with his uncle, King Gaoyang.

Now that the King of Wei is in the court in Luoyang and has his uncle's revenge, it is absolutely impossible for Murong Abao to make peace with Western Yan.

Before the war began, Murong Abao contacted Shuzhong several times, asking Li Yuan to send troops to help.

Li Yuan naturally agreed, but did not give an exact time for sending troops.

The Western Yan army claimed to have 300,000 soldiers, but in fact they had about 120,000 combat soldiers, more than 30,000 auxiliary soldiers, and more than 100,000 civilians to transport military rations and do labor, build camps, etc. The commander was the general Yuwen Chengye.

In addition, there were several thousand troops under the command of the Anding prefect, and tens of thousands of troops under the command of Xiao Juan, the governor of Liangzhou.

On the Eastern Yan side, the counties in Longyou included Longxi, Nangan and Tianshui, with a total of more than 13,000 county soldiers that could be mobilized.

In addition, there were more than 10,000 Qiang and Hu cavalrymen participating in the war, some of whom were recruited by Nannan prefect Murong Abao, and some by Li Erlang.

The Yizhou army had about 60,000 men.

Among them, 20,000 were from the Zhenrong Army of Yizhou. The Qiang and Di chieftains from Wudu and Yinping sent out 8,000 cavalry troops. The Bandunman from Baxi County sent out 6,000 troops. Li Yuan recruited about 20,000 new soldiers from the refugees who entered Shu, and Li Sanlang recruited 3,000 "flying troops" from the barbarians in southern China.

In addition, there were also some large families in Yizhou who led their troops to join the army, numbering 6,000.

Similarly, tens of thousands of laborers and forced laborers accompanied them.

Li Yuan was not that boastful and only announced to the outside world that he had an army of 100,000.

The overall deployment of the two sides in the battle was that Li Yuan personally led his troops from Hanzhong, out of Qishan Road, and rushed to Longyou.

In addition, he sent his nephew Li Xiaojie with several thousand troops to guard Chusan Pass as a decoy.

Yuwen She, the General of Chariots and Cavalry of Western Yan, Yuwen Xiao, the Supervisor of the Central Guard Army, Murong Jian, the Former General, Murong Yanqing, the Prefect of Anding, Tuoba Yuji, the Central Protector General, and other troops took the Longshan Road.

Cheng Shiji, the general of the Eagle Guard, led 2,000 troops to defend Chencang. Li Yuan and Yuwen She, two experienced military commanders, tacitly agreed not to compete on the road to Chencang.

In Longyou, Li Erlang led 3,000 cavalrymen from his own army and 5,000 cavalrymen from the vassal states, a total of 8,000 cavalrymen, to garrison in Didao, responsible for blocking the tens of thousands of troops led by Xiao Juan, the governor of Liangzhou.

Murong Abao led his army to Jieting, set up camp on the road, and guarded the Longshan defense line to resist Yuwen She's army.

Therefore, the confrontation between East and West Yan in Longyou was almost a replica of the situation during Wu Hou's first Northern Expedition.

Whether Western Yan could successfully seize the counties in Longyou depended entirely on whether Yuwen She could capture Jieting before Li Yuan's Yizhou army entered Longyou.

Murong Abao naturally knew that during the Three Kingdoms period, Ma Su was quickly defeated by Zhang He of the Wei army because he did not set up camp on the road at Jieting, which led to the failure of Shu Han's first Northern Expedition.

Unexpectedly, two hundred years later, this place would become an important point that could determine the direction of the world.

Murong Abao probably anticipated that Jieting would be the deciding factor, so he started sending people to build a wall in Jieting in August.

In mid-September, Yuwen She led the Central Guard General Yuwen Xiao, former general Murong Jian and other troops of more than 50,000 people, crossed the Long Mountains through Fanxukou, and marched towards Jieting in a mighty force.

The Western Yan army set up camp ten miles away, and then Yuwen She brought several generals, personal guards, and hundreds of scouts to Jieting to watch the battle. But when he saw the city wall erected in front of the road in Jieting, he sighed for a long time.

"If we want to win quickly, it's impossible to enter Longyou. The Eastern Army's defense is too perfect."

A hundred steps in front of the camp, there were countless rocks, caltrops, pits and other obstacles, scattered in a jagged and chaotic manner. In front of the camp, there were two deep and wide trenches.

The camp was surrounded by a high wall, almost ten feet high.

Not to mention that the cavalry could not gallop, even the infantry had difficulty charging fast.

If they wanted to attack the camp, they would have to brave the crossbows of the Eastern Army, clear the roadblocks, and fill the pits. It would be impossible to pass without thousands of casualties.

Former General Murong Jian said: "General, it seems that the Eastern Army has been prepared for a long time. Since Jieting is attacked from the south, it is better to take the Weishui Road."

The still very young Yuwen Xiao directly retorted: "General Murong is taking things for granted. Murong Abao built a city wall in Jieting. Although it is only a few feet high, it is enough to fight us. Do you think he will not be on guard against the Wei River Valley? Moreover, Linwei City is built by the water and only requires a few thousand soldiers to defend it. Xiaoguan Road is also difficult to travel, which is not conducive to the army's march. If we take a detour through Xiaoguan, I am afraid that when we enter Longyou, the Yizhou army will be ready for battle."

Murong Jian stopped talking after hearing this. He was originally a surrendered general. Although he was a member of the royal family, in the Chang'an court of Western Yan, the Murong clan was not as prominent as the Yuwen family.

As the maternal clan of Emperor Wuxing Murong Zan, Yuwen She, Yuwen Chengye and other Yuwen clan members played an important role in Murong Zan's uprising in Bingzhou and the capture of Chang'an.

At present, there are four generals in Western Yan, two of whom are named Yuwen.

After Murong Jian remained silent, Yuwen Xiaoze suggested, "Why not send a messenger to ask Liangzhou Governor Xiao Juan to send troops to join our army in attacking the enemy at Jieting."

Yuwen She nodded and said, "For now, this is the only solution, but we cannot relax at this moment. We will start attacking the enemy in Jieting tomorrow."

In terms of topography, Longxi is located at a high altitude over Guanzhong, but Liangzhou in Hexi is also located at a high altitude over Longxi.

So the two of them placed their hopes on the Hexi Army.

After all, when Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu, captured Longxi, the support of Dou Rong in Hexi also played a big role.

For the Eastern Yan army, the current war is a replica of the Northern Expedition of Shu Han two hundred years ago.

But for the Western Yan army in Guanzhong, it was just like the old story of Emperor Guangwu.

Yuwen She also estimated the strength of the Eastern Army in Longyou, which was at most 20,000 people. He needed to leave 2,000 people to guard Linwei, and at most 3,000 to 5,000 people to guard Longxi Didao and Jiuguan. After all, the enemy had at least 15,000 troops.

In fact, this number is not much different from what he thought.

The Linwei defenders indeed had only 2,000 men, while their opponents had 18,000 men.

The only troops responsible for stopping the Liangzhou army were the 3,000 cavalry of the Longxi frontier army and the 5,000-odd cavalry of the vassal states, as well as several thousand troops of the Longxi tyrants.

In Yuwen She's calculations, these vassal cavalry were not taken into account at all. After all, the cavalry of Liangzhou were elite troops famous throughout the world.

Even if the 30,000 infantry and cavalry could not win a quick victory, they should have captured Longxi and attacked Jieting with the main force before the Yizhou army left Qishan.

Perhaps the only thing he underestimated was the young general who led the cavalry.

His surname is Li and his nickname is Erfeng.

(End of this chapter)