The General of the Cavalry Du Mao had been stationed in Zhuo County, with the main purpose of preventing the troops from Shanggu. He was at the gate of Shanggu. Seeing that Shanggu County had frequent movements over the past few months, the grain from Hedong, Taiyuan, Guanzhong, and Bingzhou were constantly gathering in Dai County and Shanggu, Du Mao was mentally prepared for the troops from Shanggu.

He wrote to the court, constantly demanding more troops and grain transport, which increased the troops in Zhuojun from 30,000 at the beginning to more than 80,000, and the reserves of grain and grass also increased. However, for the continuous increase in the number of troops, the supply of grain and grass is still not sufficient.

Because the construction of Wuhan has not solved the problem of food, the entire country is generally short of food, so it can only give priority to ensuring the food demand on the battlefield.

When the war between the Han Dynasty started in full swing, the most undesirable thing was the battlefield. The southern border was all battlefields, and the western front was repeatedly launched. The emperor's last two personal expeditions were heading westward to the Taihang Mountains, and the overall distribution of money and grain was tilted westward to southward.

Regarding the North Line, although Du Mao had been calling for threats from Shanggu and calling for garrisoning grain on the North Line, Shanggu had never sent troops. After all, this battlefield has not started, so the demand for military rations is not so urgent, and the plan to transport grain for the North Line was postponed.

Liu Xiu also realized the threat from the Northern Line, but there were too many places to use grain, so he was a little powerless. Liu Xiu ordered the military rations on the Northern Line to be solved on the spot first, and the wheat was just ripe and could be harvested for use as military rations. If the fight started, the country would uniformly allocate grains.

General Du Mao's army surrounded Shanggu, stationed in important centres and strengthened inspections. He mainly accumulated grain and grass in Gaoyang, which was on the banks of Zhuo County and Yishui. As for the grain used in the other cities, they were temporarily called from these two cities.

Fortunately, spring harvest is coming soon. When the wheat harvest is harvested, the grain storage will increase significantly and the army will no longer be in short supply.

Zhang Kan, the prefect of Yuyang, was also preparing for the war. Yuyang County, as a close neighbor of Shanggu County, was also one of the front lines of resistance to Shanggu. What was different from Du Mao was that he did not shout for food from the court, but instead wanted to save food by himself.

In addition to Zhuo County, Yuyang County is also a neighbor of Shanggu. Yuyang was the foundation of Peng Chong at that time. Peng Chong used this county to seize the border for several years, which shows the strength of Yuyang County. Although Yuyang County only has a population of more than 200,000 and is not considered a big county, it has salt and iron officials in the territory and rich resources.

Zhang Kan was one of the county prefects who actively responded to the imperial court's strategy of military farming. He had been farming in Yuyang for the past two years. He attached importance to the construction and maintenance of water conservancy facilities in the county and worked hard to ensure the irrigation water source required for farmland. He often went to the fields to cultivate, took the lead in digging fields, and collected refugees to farm. During the years when Zhang Kan was in charge of Yuyang, the fields and population of Yuyang County had increased greatly. Correspondingly, the grain output of the county increased year by year, and the grain reserves also increased significantly.

Zhang Kan not only actively cultivated farms, but also brought the benefits of salt and iron in Yuyang County to the extreme. He organized people to cook salt and iron to sell, obtain huge profits, and then used money to buy back the grain. Zhang Kan was like a wealthy slave, accumulating grain bit by bit, causing more and more grain to be stored in Yuyang County. So when Liu Xiu made great progress in Youzhou Tuqi, Zhang Kan wrote to the court, saying that a county in Yuyang could supply the food and grass of several counties in Youzhou, and there was no need for the court to transport grain.

Liu Xiu was very happy when he heard this and praised Zhang Kan very much.

Guangyang County, close to Shanggu, is located between Yuyang County and Zhuo County. The county seat is Ji County, which is also the seat of Youzhou Governor's Governor. There are 15,000 soldiers and horses in the city, which is a large city with a large city that Youzhou is worth. When Zhu Fu, the governor of Youzhou, was defending Ji County, and Peng Chong defeated the power of nine oxen and two tigers before conquering it.

Du Mao's army was stationed in Zhuo County. Jixian and Zhuo County are the closest cities to Shanggu. These two cities are both hard cities that are easy to defend and difficult to attack. In addition, Du Mao's continuous strengthening of city defense and large-scale infrastructure have made the defense of the two cities more solid.

Jianshihan Shanggu was used as a springboard to send troops to Youji. This is almost a bright card. Both sides knew this clearly, but they didn’t know just when the war would be launched.

Shanggu and Daijun are both places where cavalry are out, so the number of cavalry in the army out of Shanggu will never be small. Du Mao and Zhang Kan continuously strengthened the city defense in order to deal with the cavalry.

No matter how powerful the cavalry legion is, it can never leap around the city walls. The Hu soldiers in the north have always been rampant in border counties and are invincible in field battles, but what they fear most is the Han army defending the city, because siege has always been the shortcomings of the cavalry.

The Hu cavalry had no risk of being cut off from the food route, so they could not capture the city, but the cavalry did not dare. When there was a major enemy city behind them, it was difficult for the cavalry to drive straight in because the enemy could harasse its food transport channels at any time. If you want to get rid of the restrictions of the food route, you would not be able to replenish yourself in the enemy's territory. Generally speaking, the cities on the main passage should be taken first to protect your retreat.

Du Mao, in line with the policy of defending the thunder cavalry with cities, continuously strengthened the city defense of nearby counties, and wanted to force the thunder cavalry of Shanggu and Dai County to abandon the long term and attack the city. Once the cavalry dismounted and attacked the city, he used the high-cost military king work to do the hard work of these cheap infantry soldiers, then the advantage of the cavalry would no longer exist.

Du Mao did not expect that Geng Yan did not want to compete with the city wall at the beginning. His eyes were firmly fixed on the wheat that had just matured in the fields.

When Zhuo County began to harvest Sumai in full swing, Geng Yan suddenly led a large army out of Shanggu. The legion included 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry.

As soon as the cavalry army came out, it was as powerful as thunder and unstoppable. Jixian and Liang Township, on the front line, were first threatened. But Geng Yan's army did not come to attack the city, but went straight to the fields.

Geng Yan divided the army into several teams and divided them to predate among the fields. Before the piles of wheat piles in the fields could be transported back, they were directly stolen by Geng Yan's army. If they really couldn't take them away, they would burn them on the spot.

There should have been a good harvest this year, but now it is all about to be ruined.

In just a few days, almost all the spring wheat around Ji County was robbed by Geng Yan's army. Seeing the enemy raging, the Ji County defenders finally couldn't help it. When the farmland outside the East City of Ji County was captured again, the city finally sent troops.

The defenders of Ji County did not dare to act rashly and went to stroke Geng Yan's tiger beard. However, they saw that there were not many cavalrymen coming to plunder, and there seemed to be only four or five hundred cavalry, so they became bold and drove out of the city to drive them away with 700 cavalry and 1,000 infantry.

The dispatch of troops started very smoothly. The enemy began to retreat after just a little resistance. Seeing that they were vulnerable, the soldiers of Jixian became bolder, especially the cavalry, who were eager to make a fortune and began to pursue them.

After chasing for more than ten miles, when passing Hejiadian, a large number of enemy cavalry suddenly rushed out of the hillside next to them, dispersing the Jixian cavalry, encircling them, and annihilated them all. The infantry several miles behind the cavalry did not escape the bad luck and were completely wiped out by the enemy cavalry. More than a thousand people were lost in Jixian's battle.

After this battle, Liu Xiu's decree came, and the defenders were required to defend the city and not fight easily. Jixian also took advantage of this decree and did not leave the city to fight. As for the crops around, they had been almost robbed, so the rest would be trampled on by others.

But Liu Xiu still ordered the counties to seize the spring wheat.

Ji County was almost robbed, but the other counties still have the hope of robbing the warehouse.

Liangxiang, dozens of miles southwest of Ji County, saw that there were no enemy troops in the fields, so he boldly mobilized the people of the county to go to the ground. Even the defenders came out of the city to help harvest the spring wheat. The military and civilians worked together to quickly harvest the wheat and transported them all into the city. Even the people outside the city entered the city to take refuge. There was almost no one or food outside the city, and it perfectly implemented the solid walls and cleared the fields under the emperor's will.

Just as the defenders breathed a sigh of relief and sighed that they had finally put the grain in the warehouse, a bolt suddenly came from the blue and news that the enemy entered the city came.

It turned out that Geng Yan ordered people to pretend to be a commoner and entered Liangxiang City with the large group of people harvested back to the city. Then they suddenly launched and captured Liangxiang City. The eight thousand defenders were either annihilated or surrendered directly. The wheat harvested after working hard for several days became Geng Yan's spoils.

Liangxiang City is close to the river, and it is very developed in water and land transportation. It is an important link between Jixian and Zhuoxian. The fall of Liangxiang has made a nail between the two cities, and the difficulty of connecting the two cities is increasing. It does not mean that it cannot be contacted, but that it is necessary to detour in the future and cannot walk through this direct and convenient avenue in Liangxiang.

Because Liangxiang fell and the defenders were completely wiped out, Du Mao wrote a letter to apologize, asking the emperor to relieve his general and send another Liang future to replace him.

At this time, Liu Xiu had arrived in Gaoyang, a hundred miles south of Zhuo County, where there were tens of thousands of troops gathered from all over the country, as well as countless military weapons and food.

Liu Xiu received Du Mao's letter and said to Han Xin, who was following the army, "Are Du Mao scared? Did he feel that he could not defeat Geng Yan, so he wanted to resign as a general and go to the rear to hide from Qingjing?"

Han Xin said: "The General of the Cavalry General Governor fought on the northern front. He lost Jicheng and lost more than a thousand soldiers. He lost two of Liangxiang and lost his territory and troops, and lost eight thousand soldiers. In just these two battles, the Han army lost 10,000 elite soldiers and a city. With such a record, shouldn't we write a letter to apologize?"

Liu Xiu said: "To be honest, I was relieved that Du Mao did not lose Zhuo County and Ji County. Although Liangxiang is also a must-have, it is not as important as these two cities after all."

"Your Majesty hurriedly sent troops northward, urging the march every day. After a few days, he arrived in Gaoyang, but stopped here and did not rush to Zhuo County again. What is this intention?"

The emperor rushed to the road a few days ago, but as soon as he entered Gaoyang, he suddenly stopped rushing, and Han Xin was a little confused.

Liu Xiu said: "My eagerness to go north is because the enemy is strong and the cities are panicked. I want to calm the hearts of the generals. As long as the soldiers of each city know that I have arrived in Gaoyang and are only a hundred miles away from them, they will be at ease to defend the city without any major mistakes. It doesn't matter whether I will continue to advance north at this time."

"Your Majesty means that you will no longer go north and stay here to command? It's better that the battlefield is dangerous. Your Majesty shouldn't have come to this dangerous place with the honor of ten thousand chariots."
Chapter completed!