The next morning, in the Han army camp, 1,500 wooden oxen were ready. This was their first time to transport grain, which could transport more than 7,000 stones of grain at a time. The destination was Licheng, which the Han army had just occupied not long ago.

The team responsible for transporting grain this time were 2,000 barbarian soldiers. This was the first batch of soldiers sent to Bashu after the agreement reached by Barbarian King Meng Huo and Liu Jing in Chengdu. A total of 5,000 elite barbarians will serve in the Han army within half a year. These two thousand were the first batch of soldiers to join the Han army two months ago. They were organized into Liu Jing's tooth army, commanded by General Wang Ping.

After repeated consideration, Liu Jing decided to use the first batch of barbarian soldiers to manipulate wooden oxen to transport food, and use their expertise of walking in the mountains to maximize the advantages of wooden oxen to transport food.

Two thousand barbarian soldiers have been training hard in the Han army camp for two months. They not only learned to manipulate wooden oxen, but also made great progress in military discipline, military orders and combat formations. Many smart soldiers have also learned a little Chinese.

Their equipment is no different from that of ordinary Han soldiers. They wear iron horns, leather armor with iron pieces, shields and bows and arrows on the back, and battle knives on the waist and rings. Each person has a standard spear, a foot wears combat boots, a dagger in the boots, and each soldier also has a military blanket. Although it is only the equipment of ordinary soldiers, it is a world of difference compared to their previous equipment.

The two thousand barbarian soldiers are generally not tall, but they are all extremely strong, and their dark muscles are glowing with a bronze luster in the sun. At the beginning, the Han soldiers looked at these barbarian soldiers from southern Xinjiang with a strange look. However, after spending a long time together, both generals and ordinary soldiers fell in love with these barbarian soldiers who are hard-working and simple and kind by nature.

These soldiers received a military salary of 300 yuan a month, but they never spent it randomly, nor did they go to the city to drink and prostitute, and saved up all the money and sent it to their wives and children. This was widely praised by senior officials of the Han army.

One thousand,500 wooden oxen were neatly placed on the open space of the camp. Each car contained five bags of grain, weighing five stones in total. In front of the wooden ox was a row of nine-arrow crossbow holes, which could shoot nine crossbow arrows at the same time. Although the range was not far and only fifty steps, it had a great lethality for close-range attacks, which gave the wooden ox a certain defense ability.

In addition, there are spear brackets and hooks for hanging bows and arrows and swords on both sides, so that soldiers can march lightly without being bound by weapons. On the side of the wooden cow, they are hung with hats, food bags and water hyacinths on the side of the wooden cow, while the military blanket is rolled and stuffed into the leather pockets under the wooden cow, and they are thoughtful in all aspects.

Next to each ox cart was a barbarian soldier, and another 500 were patrols and guards. In front of the team, Liu Jing told Wang Ping: "Although the Qishan Road to Licheng north has been controlled by us, you should still be careful all the way and not be careless."

Wang Ping bowed and said, "Please rest assured that the governor of the state. He will definitely march with caution and will never be careless."

Liu Jing nodded, and he looked at the barbarian soldiers who were more energetic and smiled and said, "Okay! You can go!"

Wang Ping urged the horse to the front of the team, held up his sword and ordered: "Go away!"

The gate of the military camp slowly opened, and the barbarians put the wooden cow belt on their shoulders and pushed the wooden cows. Although the wooden cows were loaded with five stones of food, they walked very lightly. The barbarian soldiers walked quickly and drove out the gate of the military camps, driving towards the Qishan Road under the cross-section of tens of thousands of soldiers.

Seeing that the wooden ox was extremely fast and light and flexible, Liu Jing felt quite moved and turned to Fa Zheng and said, "I am going to build 30,000 wooden oxes so that Guanzhong and Longyou can be closely linked to us."

Fa Zheng also smiled and said, "The key reason why the Qin Dynasty could unify the world is that it has the Bashu granary. We will be the same in the future. Longyou produces horses, Bashu and Jingzhou produces grain, and have the benefits of Guanzhong. I believe that within ten years, we will definitely be able to sweep the Central Plains and unify the world."

Liu Jing also felt a lot of passion in his heart. He turned around and said to the guard order: "Let all officers above the lieutenant come to the Central Army's tent to discuss the strategy of seizing the Xicheng."

Since Cao Cao led his army to evacuate Jicheng, the garrison in Jicheng has also been reduced to 10,000 people. The chief general Cao Ren is in charge of the defense of the entire Qishan Road, including six defense points: Jicheng, Licheng, Qishan Fort, Xicheng, Mumen City and Shangqiu County.

According to Cao Cao's inference when he withdrew his troops, Liu Jing had to prepare for at least one year before he could launch the second Northern Expedition. In terms of time, it would be until next spring. It was also based on this inference that Cao's army only deployed 100,000 troops in Guanzhong and Longxi areas, of which 70,000 troops were deployed in Guanzhong, led by Xiahou Dun and Xun You.

The Qishan Road in Tianshui County deployed 30,000 troops, with Cao Ren as the main general and Mao Jie as the adviser. Before the Han army launched the second northern expedition in full swing, Cao Ren's mission was mainly to prevent small-scale harassment and invasion of the Han army.

However, the recent series of events made Cao Ren frightened. The Han army suddenly launched an attack on Licheng just after the autumn harvest ended, and captured Licheng and captured Xiahou Ba. If this was a large-scale attack by the Han army, the troops seemed to be a little less, with only more than 5,000 people.

If this is just a small-scale harassment of the Han army, but it is not very similar, and it is led by Huang Zhong, the veteran general of the Han army, the highest military rank in the Han army, this contradictory military situation made Cao Ren deeply confused. Shortly after the fall of Licheng, the Han army began to build a grain storage military city in Fengyun Valley south of Licheng.

Only then could Cao Ren be sure that this was not a large-scale attack by the Han army or a small-scale harassment, but the Han army changed its strategy and began to attack the Qishan Road fortress one by one, and built a grain transfer station along the Qishan Road.

Realizing the changes in the Han army's strategy, Cao Ren immediately sent someone to Yedu to report to Cao Cao urgently, and at the same time asked Xiahou Dun, who was guarding Chang'an, for military support.

Above the head of Ji County, Cao Ren stood in front of the battlements holding the hilt in his hand and looked into the mountains in the south. His eyes were filled with deep worries. Xicheng was not very far from here, less than two hundred miles away. The place he was most worried about was Xicheng, which was the strategic location of the entire Qishan Road. The city was tall and wide, and could station tens of thousands of troops and store hundreds of thousands of stones of grain. Once the Han army took Xicheng, the Han army's northern expedition would have the upper hand. How could he explain to the Prime Minister at that time?

At present, Xicheng has stored tens of thousands of stones of grain, and 5,000 troops stationed, and commanded by general Zang Ba. If only 5,000 Han troops attacked, it would be fine. I was afraid that the Han army would increase its troops. Once the troops were 20,000 or 30,000 troops were added, Xicheng would be in danger.

If Chang'an reinforcements could come in time, it would be good for him to lead the army to support Xicheng, but Cao Ren also knew it was impossible. He sent someone to Chang'an for help three days ago. It would take at least seven or eight days to come. The Prime Minister ordered him not to lead his army easily, so as not to be empty in Jicheng and be attacked by the Han army.

At this time, Mao Jie walked to Cao Ren and smiled and said, "General, don't be too anxious. Even if the Han army goes north, at least they have to face Qishan Fort first. Otherwise, the army of Qishan Fort cut off their food routes, and even ten Huang Zhongs are useless. The terrain of Qishan Fort is dangerous and it is almost difficult to seize only a few thousand people. So I think there is no danger in the West City for the time being, so the general can be at ease."

Cao Ren did not like Mao Jie. It was not that Mao Jie was incompetent, but that Mao Jie was too honest and he was poor. But he was in a high position and also required all civil and military officials of the court to be honest and dedicated, so it was easy to offend people. Although Cao Ren himself was not greedy for bribes, his brother Cao Hong was impeached by Mao Jie several times and was almost dismissed from his official position, which made Cao Ren always dissatisfied with Mao Jie.

More importantly, Cao Ren looked down on Mao Jie's wisdom. When he was in Fancheng, Mao Jie's mistake in judgment, he was attacked by the Jiangxia navy at that time. General Le Jin died in Xinye, which became a regret that Cao Ren had always been difficult for him to explain to the Prime Minister.

Although Mao Jie later made great contributions to obtaining the secret recipe for tinder oil, Cao Ren was always worried about him. This time, the Prime Minister sent Chen Qun to Chengdu for negotiations, but appointed Mao Jie as the military service in Longxi, which made Cao Ren very unhappy.

However, Cao Ren also knew that the Chief was very respectful to Mao Jie. After the Wei State was launched, Mao Jie was appointed as the Secretary of the Shang Dynasty, and he was a high-ranking position. He could not afford to offend him. Cao Ren said lightly: "In theory, Licheng should be difficult to attack, but the Han army captured Licheng overnight, so everything will happen on the battlefield. We should not think too simply. If the Xicheng is in danger, I will still lead troops to rescue."

Mao Jie felt the coldness in Cao Ren's tone, and he was silent for a moment: "If the general is worried, he can order two thousand soldiers from Mumen City to reinforce Xicheng. The Xicheng army will have 7,000 people, enough to resist the siege of 20,000 people."

Cao Ren was still acceptable to this suggestion, and he nodded, "According to the words of Shangshu Mao, the soldiers in Mumen City should be transferred to reinforce Xicheng."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier ran up from the city and shouted: "General, the pigeon letter from Xiabian County is here!"

Cao Ren was stunned. It turned out to be a Gexin. There must be emergency information. He immediately ordered: "Support the letter!"

The soldier ran forward and handed a pigeon letter to Cao Ren. Cao Ren opened the pigeon letter and looked carefully. He was shocked. Seeing that Cao Ren had a strange expression, Mao Jie hurriedly asked, "What happened in Wudu County?"

Cao Ren sighed and said, "Liu Jing is in Xiabian County now, I'm afraid he will lead his army north in person."

Mao Jie thought for a while and said, "Liu Jing should only be inspecting Hanzhong and will not lead the army north easily. After all, Chen Qun and Mr. Zhi are both in Chengdu. Before the negotiations break down, he will not rush to launch an attack. I believe the Prime Minister's judgment is not wrong. Liu Jing wants to lead the army to fight north, at least until next spring."

"But their strategy has changed now!"

Cao Ren was a little angry, "Liu Jing went north step by step. Once he captured Xicheng, his Northern Expedition would be half the victory. What else should he have to wait for next spring? No, I will go to Xicheng to preside over the defense in person!"

Cao Ren was anxious and did not listen to Mao Jie's advice and quickly walked down the city. He ordered his deputy general Niu Jin to say: "Select five thousand troops and horses quickly, I will rush to the west city immediately!"
Chapter completed!