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From Xiabian County to the north, the Han army spent nearly two years to build two military cities, Fengyun City and Qishan City, and connected them with the original Xiabian City, Licheng and Xicheng. In addition, six castle-like transportation shelters were built between the military cities, forming a complete grain and food transportation chain.

This is the basis of the Han army's northern expedition. Without this foundation, no matter how many more troops the Han army sent, even if it captured Longxi, it would have unstable foothold and eventually retreated.

However, this Qishan transportation chain is no longer just for the Northern Expedition, but for connecting Bashu, Hanzhong and Guanlong. In order to ensure the long-term occupation of Guanlong by the Han army, this is also the deep-seated reason why Liu Jing always chose the Qishan Road to expedition in the Northern Expedition.

Queen Liu Jing led a 60,000 elite army to Xicheng. At this time, there were 20,000 troops stationed in Xicheng. In this way, the Han army on the front line had reached 80,000.

"Although Cao's army has 150,000 troops, 20,000 cavalry of Di people were removed. In addition, there were many strategic areas and the troops should be dispersed. The Cao's army's troops were only about 100,000 troops, which was basically the same as us."

The lobby of the Xicheng Military Office was crowded with people, and all the officers above the general gathered together. Listening to the analysis of the current military situation by commander Liu Jing, a wooden frame was placed in the middle of the lobby, and a huge map was hung on the wooden frame. Liu Jing pointed to the map with a wooden pole and said to everyone: "Cao's main force is concentrated in Jicheng and Shangfang Valley, each stationed with 50,000 people, and the rest of the troops are stationed in various fortresses. If I am not wrong, the current deployment of Cao's army is just for confrontation. Once our army goes north, Cao's army will inevitably increase troops in Shangfang Valley. Now the troops in Shangfang Valley should be more than 50,000."

Speaking of this, Liu Jing looked at everyone, and saw that everyone was fully focused and full of expectations in his eyes, he said slowly: "But we must recognize the situation. The force is quite strong. Cao Cao will arrive soon. He will lead at least 20,000 tiger and leopard cavalry to assist in the war. In terms of force comparison, we do not have the advantage. Moreover, Cao Cao has been in war and has sufficiently rich war experience. He will not easily make moves, and has the assistance of the master Xun You. It will be very difficult for us to defeat Cao's army in this battle, but it is not easy for them to win, so this will be a contest of will and endurance. Don't think that we can defeat Cao's army as easily as before. Now it is in the north. Everyone should forget the Battle of Red Cliff. Everyone here must be prepared to die on the battlefield. This battle will be a key battle for whether we can go to the north."

The lobby was silent, and everyone was listening to Liu Jing's lecture silently. They began to feel heavy and began to realize the cruelty of this battle.

Finally, Liu Jing said: "Everyone here, the lowest military posts are all generals. You are not ordinary soldiers. Your morale should not be shaken easily. But what I said today is not allowed to spread among soldiers, nor to shake the morale of the army. If anyone dares to say it and affects the stability of the morale of the army, he will definitely be killed."

All the generals bowed and bowed together to "accord to the order"

The generals dispersed one after another, and only Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Zhang Ren, Ma Chao, Pang Tong, Fa Zheng and other core military officials were left in the tent. At this time, Huang Zhong smiled and said, "The words from the provincial governor made many generals change their faces. I saw that many people were eager to try at the beginning, but in the end their expressions became very serious."

Liu Jing snorted coldly and said, "A arrogant army will be defeated. In the past, we were prone to defeat Cao's army in the south, which made everyone feel underestimated the enemy. If they did not dispel their intention to underestimate the enemy, we would still fail this northern expedition."

At this time, Ma Chao interjected: "In fact, the tiger and leopard cavalry can only play an open space in the area of ​​Jicheng. The upper valley is not good. The cavalry is greatly restricted by the terrain. We don't have to rush to attack the upper valley, and we don't have to worry about Cao Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry reinforcements."

It has been almost two years since Ma Chao surrendered to Liu Jing. As time goes by, his earliest ambitions gradually faded. In addition, he married Liu Hu's widow sister and had a marriage relationship with Liu Jing, so he began to be loyal to Liu Jing. He naturally received Liu Jing's heavy use. He is currently Huang Zhong's deputy general.

This Northern Expedition was actually composed of two armies, one was Huang Zhong's Ba Army, with about 10,000 people, and the other was Zhao Yun's Hanzhong Army, with 10,000 people. In addition, Liu Jing's 20,000 directly under the Jingzhou Army, formed an army of 80,000, so Liu Jing had to be the head commander himself, in order to command the two armies.

Liu Jing looked at Ma Chao with praise, and smiled again, "If I were afraid of Cao Cao, I would not have fought north. I only talked about the advantages of Cao's army, but not their weaknesses. In fact, among the twenty armies deployed in Guanlong, there were only 70,000 to 80,000 elite troops, and the rest of the troops were recruited after the Battle of Chibi. The combat effectiveness was not terrible. Although we were the southern army, we had various elite troops, such as heavy armor infantry that dealt with cavalry, able to carry out special operations, the Eagle Strike Army that was good at mountain combat, the Wudang Flying Army that was not afraid of arrows, the heavy shield, gun and crossbow army that was not afraid of arrows, and our various heavy weapons. These are all things that Cao's army cannot have. Because of this, I said that our strength and Cao's army are equally matched, and we even have to be slightly better. This is where we dare to fight the Northern Expedition."

Zhao Yun also laughed, "The provincial governor said it well, which makes people feel more confident. I think the more important thing is that we have solved the problem of food transportation, which has already made us invincible."

Liu Jing nodded, "So our first battle is Shangfang Valley. This is a hard battle. If we seize Shangfang Valley, we will get the advantage of geographical advantages. We can look down at the Wei River Valley from top to bottom. Let's discuss how to fight our first battle."

The upper valley is about fifty miles north of Xicheng. It is the exit of Qishan and a commanding height of Qishan Road. From the upper valley to the north is the Weihe Valley, which is about a mile wide. Taking the upper valley down, it forms a condescending momentum against Ji County.

Because the strategic location of the upper valley is very important, Cao's army attaches great importance to it. It has built a wall camp in the open area here, distributed in a font, and stationed 50,000 troops.

The reason for building a camp was not because of tactical needs, but because of the terrain of the valley above, Cao's army could not find an open space where the entire camp could be built, and could only deploy the army separately within a radius of ten miles.

This separate deployment has its advantages. First, it can form a horn-like force, and the camps echo each other and help each other; secondly, it occupies an empty and flat land in the upper valley, leaving the Han army nowhere to garrison.

However, the disadvantage is that the camps are four or five miles apart. There are not flat roads between them, but rugged mountain roads, and the speed of rescue will be affected. In short, it is easy to be defeated by the Han army.

As Liu Jing judged, just as the main force of the Han army arrived in Xicheng, Xun You also led 20,000 troops to Shangfang Valley, making the number of Cao troops in Shangfang Valley reach 70,000.

The head general of the Shangfang Valley is Xiahou Dun, the deputy general is Xu Huang, and Xun You are the military advisor, but the actual decision-making power is in the hands of Xun You. Even the 200,000 troops in the entire Guanlong area are unified by Xun You, while Cao Zhi is only the nominal commander and is in charge of Chang'an.

In terms of absolute control of the army, Cao Cao generally would not hand over the 200,000 military power to outsiders, but blocking the Han army's northern expedition was too important. Cao Cao was afraid that Xiahou Dun and Cao Ren were not opponents of Liu Jing, so he handed over the final decision-making power to Xun You. Of course, the specific army was in the hands of Xiahou Dun and Cao Ren.

Xiahou Dun welcomed Xun You into the tent of the front army. Before Xun You asked, Xiahou Dun said impatiently: "The West City Investigator sent information, Liu Jing personally led nearly 60,000 troops to Xicheng. With Huang Zhong's Xicheng army, the total number of Han troops would reach 80,000, and it might be necessary to launch an attack on us."

Xun You nodded, "This is as expected, so I rushed over."

He quickly walked to the sand table, looked at the terrain carefully, and pointed to the valley road about ten miles long and asked, "Last time I asked the General to cut down all the trees in the valley road, have you done it?"

Xiahou Dun smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, military advisor, I have cut off all the trees in the Shili Valley Road to build a camp. The valley is already bare."

At this time, Xu Huang asked in confusion: "Why do you want to cut down all the trees? When the Han army enters the valley road, we can use fire to burn the enemy. The trees are used to help burn, wouldn't it be better?"

Xun You smiled and shook his head, "Gongming only knows one thing, then Liu Jing is a person who plays with fire and is skilled in fire attack. We are not as good as the Han army. How could he easily fall into our fire plan and leave trees to hide the Han army, making it impossible for us to grasp the position of the Han army, and instead be easily attacked by them. Moreover, if the Han army uses fire attack plan instead, these trees are our hidden dangers."

Xu Huang then realized that he bowed and said, "I feel ashamed of my humble position. Thank you for your military advisor."

"Gongming doesn't have to be ashamed. It is important to know that everything has its pros and cons. In fact, Gongming's doubts are also correct. After cutting all the trees, we really lost the opportunity to attack the Han army with fire. It was just that Liu Jing was good at using strange tricks, including Fa Zheng and Pang Tong, who were under his command, advocated victory with strange things. It is precisely because of this that I asked to cut all the trees so that Liu Jing had no strange troops to fight against us head-on. But we have a good geographical advantage, and this kind of hard battle will only be beneficial to us. I believe Liu Jing is also very clear about this."

Speaking of this, Xun You pointed to Mumen Valley east of Xicheng and continued: "If Liu Jing is unwilling to fight us hard, then he only has one, that is, go east and walk up the road to Guangwei County. If he really decides like this, then Mumen Valley is the fortress he must face, and I know that Liu Jing will definitely send troops to Mumen Valley."

"Why is the military advisor so sure?" This time Xiahou Dun didn't understand.
Chapter completed!