A five-foot road winds southward, with more than four hundred Qingfu troops marching slowly.
The terrain in front gradually becomes flat, the field of vision becomes wider, and finally the most open valley is formed in the hinterland of Wumeng Mountain where Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou meet.
"well!"
Yang Guo, who was riding on the horse, couldn't help but sighed, turned to Wu Ang, who was riding the horse next to him, and said: "There is no way out despite the mountains and rivers, but there is a village with dark willows and bright flowers."
Wu Ang smiled and said, "How does Yang Gong feel about this place?"
"It borders Jinjiangsha to the west, Guizhou to the east, Sichuan and Shu to the north, and Dali to the south. The mountains are high, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack."
At the end of his words, Yang Guo said with emotion: "The key to the south is Yunnan, and the throat is to the west of Shu."
Wu Ang was born as a class leader and has never read a book, but he has heard a lot of Fang's regular and elegant words. If he works hard, he can speak elegantly.
"Li Zhizhou said that he would set up a government in Zhaotong and then open up Chengdu. In this way, Lingguan Road and Wuchi Road would form a... ring."
"What Feiyu said was 'closed loop', and the wording was exquisite."
"Yes." Wu Ang added a touch of awe.
Yang Guo actually looked very tired and could not bear the long journey in such hot weather.
But he was still very excited, quoting classics and talking eloquently.
"In ancient times, this place was the Yelang Kingdom. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Zhuti County in Shu. From the Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the people of Zhuti were eager to learn and had many scholars. They were the crown prince of Ningzhou. Their rich literary style was not inferior to that of the Central Plains...
…Sigh, now, it has become a land of barbarians and desolate.”
At the end of his words, Yang Guo couldn't help but sigh: "It's a pity that the land of China is falling apart."
Wu Ang was deeply touched and wanted to say something, but he didn't know how. He could only say: "No wonder Li Zhizhou wants to build a city here."
"That's right." Yang Guo nodded and said, "Zhaotong, Zhaotong City should indeed be built to show the darkness in the past and the blockage in the past."
"What a good name. No wonder Zhizhou was named like this."
Wu Ang plans to study more in the future.
He used to watch Jiang Chun and Fang Yankai in the county and thought that studying was for becoming an official. Now that he has done more things with Li Xia and traveled far, he realizes that by studying, he can know why and how to do many things.
Do.
After walking forward for a long time, Wu Ang raised his hand and said: "Yang Guo, please look, that is the site of Zhaotong City."
"where?"
"That's right ahead."
Yang Guo looked around and saw a posthouse standing beside the road in the wilderness, with only a market around it.
Other than that, it's empty.
He was stunned for a moment and said in surprise: "This...is Zhaotong City?"
"Exactly."
Yang Guo opened his mouth, forgot to urge the horse again, and looked around.
The mountains are high and the valleys are wide, and the sky and the earth are quiet.
The old man on the horse looked a little confused.
After a long time, Yang Xiao smiled bitterly.
"Six hundred miles of mountains and rivers, no wonder you said I can tell at a glance..."
~~
"Feiyu said that he had occupied mountains and rivers 600 miles southwest, sent troops out of Dali, and transported grain and grass from Lingguan Road... Is this all false?"
After Pu Lei finished speaking, he tapped Li Xia's desk with his finger, sighed helplessly, and said, "The food and grass haven't come yet."
"The six hundred miles of mountains and rivers are real," Li Xia said, "but the transportation of grain is fake."
"Fake."
"Huh?" Li Xia asked doubtfully, "Do you think it's true? From the beginning, I told you to release 'fake news'."
Pu Ling said: "I thought the false news was used to lure the enemy into annihilation, but there should always be food and grass delivered. Whether it's by taking the Minjiang River or Lingguan Road, Chengdu will soon be out of food."
"We are not that rich." Li Xia waved his hand and said, "We are very poor."
There was a map in front of him, but what was marked on it was not the strength of the troops, but a flurry of numbers.
It is true that the power has expanded, but the money and food needed in various places are also staggering.
The two cities of Weining and Zhaotong were built, relying on the income from Qingfu County and the income from the tea and horse trade, which was far from enough.
I did steal a lot of money and food in Xuzhou some time ago, part of it was sent to Zhaotong, and the other part provided the military supplies for the attack on Chengdu...it was all used up just after I got it.
"No food and grass will be delivered to Xuzhou." Li Xia said: "Next, we have to do it ourselves to have enough food and clothing."
Pu Lei smiled bitterly and glanced at the map, unable to understand the strange symbols on it.
But he also roughly understands Li Xia's current sphere of influence, and understands that Li Xia is calculating where he can adjust food supplies within the entire sphere of influence... No.
"When the horse meat is finished, we will run out of food." Pu Wei said, "Fortunately, we defeated Liu Heima. Otherwise, if we wait for a while, we will be defeated."
"Now that we are opening up wasteland, we won't have food and grass until winter at the earliest?"
"It's difficult, just force it." Pu Ling said, "What should I do now?"
Li Xia said: "There is no food coming from the south, but there may be some from the north."
"Can Feiyu still go to rob Lizhou?"
"I'm still thinking." Li Xia said thoughtfully.
He is obviously still planning and has not reached a conclusion yet.
The Mongolian army occupied various places in eastern Sichuan. It was obviously unrealistic to capture Lizhou at this time. What they had to face was Jianmen Pass, a strong city and a stronghold.
When the news of Liu Heima's defeat spreads, Brother Meng is likely to send troops, but he can easily annihilate Li Xia. This is because Li Xia defeated Niulin in succession, and after Liu Heima, he was already at the end of his war effort.
Only when Brother Meng is dead can we counterattack Hanzhong.
But there is no sign yet.
Li Xia has sent sentries to various places to gather information, and at the same time sent letters to Xuzhou, hoping to get news from Chongqing.
For the first time, he cursed in his heart, hoping that Meng Ge would die soon.
I'm still vaguely worried, but I can still control it...
After Pu Wei finished talking about the most important military supplies at hand, he saw that Li Xia was already thinking about it, so he didn't say more about it.
He sat down in the hall, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "I have been busy for a few days, and all the post-war matters are finally finished. Can you and I talk about some personal matters?"
"good."
"My father has surrendered, and the court... I have no problem with it, but my uncle is afraid that he will not be tolerated by the government and the public."
"I know." Li Xia looked at Pu Lei. After pondering for a moment, he seemed to have reserved some words, and said calmly and calmly: "I'm here to keep Pu Shuai and you safe. Can you trust me?"
Pu Wei was silent for a long time, thinking of Li Xia's complete trust in him, so he nodded and said: "Trust."
"That's it, I'd like to hire you as a curtain man, can you?"
"It's not what I asked for. It's just...what did you want to talk about after defeating Liu Heima?"
The two looked at each other for a moment, and Li Xia smiled.
"Since you trust me, you will gradually understand."
Pu Lei also smiled and didn't ask any more questions. He said cheerfully: "In this way, I entrust the safety of Cheng Sheng and uncle to Feiyu."
"I said, you just have to protect your family and the country, and you don't have to worry about it anymore."
Pu Lei nodded, the smile on his face gradually solidified, and said: "One more thing, although my father is traitorous to the country, he...how to say..."
He thought about it, some of which were a little hard to say.
At that time, Li Xia and Pu Wei agreed to surrender. Pu Wei believed that the interests of the family and the country were important and did not refuse. However, he was also worried about implicate Pu Yuangui.
He believed that only the Liu family and his son would know about the fraudulent surrender, and he could just capture and kill them all.
As a result, Liu Yuanzhen, Liu Yuanli, and Jia Hou were all captured, but Liu Heima escaped.
Pu Wei was afraid that Liu Heima would be angry with the Pu family when he returned.
Although he hadn't finished speaking, Li Xia already understood what he meant. After thinking about it, he said: "If you are worried... maybe we can try to contact Pu Yuangui."
"What?"
Pu Wei was a little surprised, he had never thought of it this way.
Li Xia pondered: "Get in touch with Pu Yuangui... It would be nice to get news about Brother Meng..."
"Do you really want to persuade my father to change his ways?"
"It may not happen anyway, but I need information channels." Li Xia tapped the table with his fingertips, the look of contemplation in his eyes became darker, and he said softly: "How to do it...what other bargaining chips are there..."
Obviously, even if the battle of Chengdu was won, Pu Yuangui, who surrendered to Mongolia, would not have much leverage to secretly convey his emotions.
Now that he has surrendered, he has weighed the pros and cons and made a choice... Pu Ling is not the only son...
With a "click" sound, Li Xia's fingers stopped on the desk and murmured: "Son?"
"What did Feiyu say?"
"After you captured Liu Yuanzhen, did you go see him?" Li Xia asked.
Pu Lei shook his head and said, "No. Although he was a captive, he treated me politely. Now that he is a prisoner, there is no need to humiliate him."
"You can go meet him." Li Xia said, "He is quite interesting."
Pu Wei still didn't understand that Li Xia had already stood up and headed towards the prisoner camp...
~~
The city of Chengdu no longer builds city walls.
Li Xia's defensive strategy was obviously different from that of any Song general. If another large group of Mongolian troops came to attack, he planned to retreat directly.
But he thought that before Meng Ge got the news and sent troops over, Meng Ge would die immediately. So he asked the soldiers to start building houses and cultivating fields for rest and recuperation.
There was a busy scene everywhere. Song soldiers drove the captives to build a lot of construction projects.
On the city wall, Liu Jinsuo was standing there shirtless and shouting. When he saw Li Xia coming this way, he ran down in a hurry.
"Alang!"
"Is Yang Ben back?" Li Xia asked.
Yesterday, a sentinel horse detected the traces of Liu Heima in Pengzu Mountain, so Yang Ben led his troops to pursue him.
Liu Jinsuo shook his head and said: "Not yet. Liu's black horse is difficult to catch. I guess Yang Ben can't catch it."
In the past two days, he had to show off his cleverness from time to time.
Li Xia was too lazy to pay attention and asked again: "Where is Liu Yuanzhen imprisoned? Take me to see him..."
"yes!"
Liu Jinsuo led Li Xia all the way, but ended up in an underground kiln.
"Look, Alang, we have captured so many prisoners that we can hardly hold them anymore. Too many houses in this city have been destroyed again, but the underground kiln cannot be destroyed. I will lock up all the leaders of these captives."
Underground, tied up tightly, there will be no escape..."
The torch came closer and shone on Liu Yuanzhen. He was indeed tied very tightly. Nowhere on his body could move, and even his mouth was gagged.
"It's not necessary to tie him up so tightly." Li Xia said to himself, stepped forward and took off the cloth from Liu Yuanzhen's mouth.
"Huh...huh... Li Feiyu, if you were in a different place, I would never treat you like this... Even if you were captured and expelled, I would never treat you like this..."
Liu Yuanzhen gasped for air and shook his head, but he was still able to speak in an instructive tone, with a good sense of proportion.
"Really? You want me to brand you and drive you like an animal?" Li Xia said.
"That was before. Now under the rule of the Northern Prince, things are different, different." Liu Yuanzhen always tried his best to take the lead when speaking. After a topic, he immediately said: "Let me guess, you want to recruit me?"
"wrong."
"Could it be that the news of the fall of Chongqing came so quickly?"
"No."
"Oh? It seems that you want to use me..." Liu Yuanzhen frowned and thought, and asked one sentence after another: "Father is counterattacking?"
He observed Li Xia's expression, and without waiting for a reply, he added: "You want me to help you cheat on the sword gate? No, you can't trust me... Oh, you want to contact Pu Yuangui?"
Li Xia frowned.
Liu Yuanzhen's reaction was too fast, which was somewhat beyond his expectation...
He suddenly turned around and walked out.
"Feiyu, what do you mean?!" Liu Yuanzhen called loudly, "You and I can talk."
Li Xia ignored him and said to Liu Jinsuo: "This prisoner is self-righteous and needs labor. Bring him to me when he has no strength to speak."
"Yes!" Liu Jinsuo responded with clasped fists, turned to look at Liu Yuanzhen, laughed "ha" and asked: "Do you think you are very smart?"
"I dare not take it seriously." Liu Yuanzhen was still laughing, "I am a little smarter than you."