Rome was not built in one day, and Yizhou was not decided by an edict. Since it was discovered that the imperial edict was of no use at the military level, Liu Bei's army had to return to Nanzheng and slowly farm to find another breakthrough.

The Hanzhong area can only be taken over in the first year, and the entire Shu area can be completely pacified in the second year and the third year. The pace is not slow. The princes of the outside world have not yet begun to fight against Dong, so Liu Bei can afford it.

However, this trip was not a waste of time. In addition to persuading the scattered counties outside Jianmen Pass, which originally belonged to Liu Yan, it was also possible for the generals and civil servants from the capital to witness the peak of the difficult level of Shu Road with their own eyes, which would definitely be beneficial to making plans in the future.

Reading thousands of books is worse than traveling thousands of miles.

Jiange Road where Jianmen Pass is located is located, with cliffs that are straight up and down on both sides. Li Su, who knows some geography, knows that this is a typical Danxia landform. The plank road is thirty miles long, and the trough in the middle is only half a mile wider, and the narrowest place is only twenty-four feet!

Jianmen Pass is built in this narrowest place, and the 24-meter-side is still a turbulent mountain stream with rocky rocks. It cannot be passed by boats, and it cannot be walked by rushing around. The road left to Shangguan is only a dozen meters wide.

When Gao Shun brought soldiers from the camp to the front of the pass to announce the order to surrender, the reason why he only brought twenty soldiers was not that he didn't want to bring more, but that the narrow mountain road in front of the pass was that he could only take more than twenty tactics at a time.

Moreover, the road leading to the front of the pass is very rugged, with abrupt large stones everywhere, and the slope of the uphill is relatively obvious. Only people can walk and horses to avoid the stones and walk slowly, and they have to carry the physical punishment of the uphill.

All vehicles using wheels cannot be pulled before closing due to rocks on the road, which limits ladder trucks and city-drilled wooden donkeys. The vehicle siege hammers approach the walls, so you can only use simple ladders without wheels or directly chop a tree to carry them as door hammers.

Is this still a yarn?

At most, after going back, I will farm this winter and try to tinker with long-range trenchers. In the future, I will be able to attack here to restrain Liu Yan's troops and create conditions for the main attack in other directions.

As for whether he could imitate Deng Ai and Fu Youde to smuggle Yinping, Li Su had actually thought about it, but he felt that the times were easy to move and was not comparable. Not to mention whether Li Su could find a way to cross the mountains, even if he found a way, there were not many people who died. After smuggling through Yinping, he had to fight two tough battles between Jiangyou and Mianzhu if he wanted to take Shu County.

When Deng Ai and Fu Youde faced Liu Chan, one of the cowardly lords and the other of the young lords, Mingsheng was no longer able to gather and mobilize the war potential of the Chengdu Plain to counterattack the small troops. Liu Chan's Jiangyou Guardian Ma Miao even surrendered directly to the enemy.

But Liu Yan was the first emperor who established a foundation. His subordinates could organize the exiled Northern Soldiers and were definitely loyal to Liu Yan's own Dongzhou soldiers. You cannot pin your hope of victory on such a hero who was a low-level mistake and did not even defend Jiangyou.

Of course, in history, Liu Yan seemed to have died of anger shortly after Dong Zhuo's death because his son was killed. He was "suffered from the back". If Liu Yan could be pissed to death in this life and wait for his son to take the position, he could consider taking the risk of Yinping as a backup plan, because at that time, the three counties of Shu will definitely be dissipated and will never resist again.

...

Li Su couldn't even think of how to break through Jianmen Pass, and others couldn't even think of it.

During the days on the way back to Nanzheng, they were idle too. Wu Kuang, Gao Shun, and Zhao Yun were inevitably talking about strategic issues with Li Su, wanting to see where to go to Sichuan.

Cai Yong did not understand military affairs, but he was of high level and was cautious and willing to keep it secret. It would be okay to listen to it by his side.

Li Su replied in an inquiring tone: "I am going to persuade the generals of the Western Expedition to fight from the side of Ba County. If you find a way to take down Diaoyu City, you can break through Jiangzhou, and then go upstream along the Yangtze River and Minjiang River waterways, and you can go directly to Chengdu and Fucheng. However, Liu Yan's newly built Diaoyu City is probably very dangerous. If there is a confidant general who cannot be persuaded to surrender, it will be extremely difficult to capture it. It can only be said that it is slightly better than Jianmen Pass.

By the way, Duke Cai, Jiangzhou has been unable to recover for a long time, and you, the prefect of Ba County, cannot take office as the county governor. The general of the Western Expedition means that the land of Ba County should be demolished into Ba County and Baxi County. The current recovery area is called Baxi, and one of them can be selected as Langzhong or Dangqu as its capital.

Moreover, this will facilitate the future governance of civil affairs, and limit the policy of "barbarians to replace taxes and labor service with military service" to Brazil. In the future, only Han people and no barbarians will live in the core areas of Ba County. According to the facts of the old tax law of the court, the people will not be worried about the lack of fear of inequality and unevenness. Moreover, the powers appointed by the court will not be less, as long as Jiangzhou and Yong'an are recovered, they will still be under your jurisdiction."

Li Su still called Cai Yong and Gong Cai in public. He suggested this because he was afraid that the Han people and Banyan Man would live in the future. In peacetime, Han people thought that Banyan Man was treated well and wanted to secretly pretend to be Banyan Man and not pay taxes as a soldier who did not need to fight. In the war era, Banyan Man felt that it would be better for Han people to pay money without working hard. They pretended to be Han people to pay money, completely separate the area and use different policies, so they would not be afraid of pretending to be fake.

Cai Yong would not reveal his additional deal with Li Su. He felt that Li Su's plan was indeed a masterpiece. He just nodded after hearing this: "This method is feasible, but I don't want to take office in Langzhong or Dangqu. Just go to Dianjiang County opposite Diaoyu City, which is close to Jiangzhou. Once Diaoyu City is broken in the future, the capital will be moved back to Jiangzhou immediately."

Li Su worried, "Dianjiang County is too close to the front line, across the river from Diaoyu City..."

Cai Yong: "I believe that the general of the Western Expedition is good if Liu Yan's thief can defend Diaoyu City. It is absolutely impossible to counterattack the general of the Western Expedition - by the way, why not talk about how steep the Diaoyu City is? Will you be sure to attack next year?"

Li Su had never been to Diaoyu City, but he could imagine that, and Liu Bei had also shown him the map drawn by the front line scouts these days, so he took out the map and discussed it with other generals who had never been to the Eastern Front battlefield.

After looking at the map, everyone couldn't help but gasp, and then they realized how steep the Diaoyu City was.

The Qu River, Fu River and Jialing River three rivers converge to one place near Diaoyucheng and Dianjiang County. The water flows rapidly, which doesn't count.

The key is that Diaoyu Mountain on the south bank is very high - Liu Beijun made a detailed mark on the map that the cliff on the bank of the river is thirty-five meters above the river surface, so after the three rivers converge, they can only flow around the mountains here, forming two S bends. The trend of the river is almost the same as the maps deliberately designed by later tower defense games. (Note: You can map Chongqing Hechuan District on Baidu)

Therefore, at least seven-eighth of the entire Diaoyu City is turbulent rivers and cliffs in the direction of 360° a week, with only the northeast half of the east, accounting for 45° a wall of the entire city, and is connected by land to the outside world.

There is no need for defense in other places, because the attacking forces cannot cross the turbulent Jialing River and land, and then climb up the cliff thirty-five feet high to attack the city.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the catapult was not mature, but the defenders wanted to block the transportation of the river surface, but they did not need to use the catapult at all. Liu Yanjun set up some log slides on the top platform of the wall on the cliff, placed the rolling stones on the slide rails, and naturally accelerated and fell down obliquely, which could directly sink the ships in the Jialing River that were trying to sneak across this section of the river.

In fact, there is no need to describe the steepness of Diaoyu City. Just think about why the Mongolian and Yuan army in history had been besieged for less than 30 years, and Mengge Khan was shot dead under the city, and you will know that the terror of this place is.

Also, don’t expect anything to go around. From Diaoyu City to Jiangzhou Yangtze River, there are five to seven layers of horizontal mountains. If we could go around later generations, Mengge Khan Kublai Khan would have gone around long ago. Even the reason why the three rivers converge here is because the three rivers are blocked by these Hengshan Mountains and cannot flow out. After flowing from east to west for hundreds of miles, there is only a gap below Diaoyu City, which can leak the river and pour it into the Yangtze River. The natural wayfinding rule of "returning the water" will not deceive people.

Wu Kuang, Gao Shun and Zhao Yun were also numb when he looked at this map. How could there be such a disgusting place in this world?

Li Su also thought of a question temporarily: "I don't know who the guards of Jianmen Pass and Diaoyu City are respectively. If it is Liu Yan's direct lineage, it is impossible to betray it, so it will be troublesome."

This question is easy to answer. Soon, a junior school in charge of summarizing scout intelligence from Liu Beijun gave the answer: In order to ensure the reliability of the Jianmen Pass defender, Liu Yan asked Zhang Ren, a young army marquis under him to promote himself to be poor and humble, to be responsible for the defense of the Jianmen Pass front line.

Zhang Ren was only in his twenties and had no deep qualifications. Originally, when the clans in Shu were in power, they were the most sergeant commanders, and the lower class of the chief. After Liu Yan came, he killed aristocratic families and promoted them to promote Zhang Ren, so he was considered to be a great kindness to Zhang Ren. Zhang Ren did not have many soldiers under his command, and there were usually more than a thousand people at the close of Jianmen, but because the front was too narrow, Liu Yan could make someone add more troops to Zhang Ren at any time, and he was not afraid of losing all his troops.

The Jiangyou County behind Zhang Ren is also guarding the city with Liu Yan's confidant general Pang Yi. Pang Yi is much older than Zhang Ren. Now he is nearly 40 years old. He is the confidant of Liu Yan's family from outside to Shu. Pang Yi has much more troops. Jiangyou stationed tens of thousands of troops all year round and can reinforce nearby areas.

At the same time, it is said that Liu Yan also sent Zhang Lu's mother, who had been with him for two years, to Jiangyou to secretly monitor Pang Yi.

Zhang Lu's mother is a witch in her forties. It is said that she has the ability to keep her face, so she is still attractive to Liu Yan, who is over 60 years old. She gave birth to a younger brother who is only one year old for Zhang Lu. Because Zhang's mother was killed by Liu Bei, she must resist to the end, so she would never expect her to let go.

(In history, Zhang Lu's young brother and his mother were killed by Liu Zhang after Liu Yan's death because Liu Zhang did not want to have an unknown half-beast who lived in the world and threatened his status. This is how Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu's revenge came from. Zhang Lu's young brother was equivalent to being half-brother Zhang Lu and half-brother Liu Zhang.)

It is said that Liu Yan himself did not live in Chengdu, Xinjun, but suddenly went to Mianzhu to garrison. In Chengdu, there were more than 10,000 troops stationed in Mianzhu, and always reinforced the possible gap in the north.

The defender on the Eastern Front battlefield was Liu Yan's only son who was now following him into Shu, Liu Mao.

Liu Mao personally entered Diaoyu City and defended Diaoyu City. His direct subordinates included his brother-in-law Wu Yi, and his distant relative Liu Xun (Liu Mao's fiancee Wu stayed in Chengdu because it was unsafe for women to go to the front line. Liu Yan asked Liu Mao to go back to his hometown to get married after the war. Diaoyu City is a pure military fortress, so there are only soldiers, no people, and no women and family in the city)

Liu Mao also asked the adviser Zhang Su, generals Yang Huai and Gao Pei to guard Jiangzhou. There were more than 4,000 troops in Diaoyu City, because the city was too small and there were not many grains. If there were too many soldiers, they would easily be besieged and short of food. However, Jiangzhou behind them had 10,000 or 20,000 troops, and they could suffer casualties and losses in Diaoyu City at any time, so they would take the Jialing River waterway to replenish Diaoyu City from behind.

In this way, there are six key checkpoints and cities in the central Sichuan, including Jiangge, Jiangyou, Mianzhu, Chengdu, Diaoyucheng, Jiangzhou, and six key checkpoints in Shu. This is still a peaceful state where Liu Yan did not mobilize fully. It is said that there are 40,000 soldiers in Dongzhou, and the others are local soldiers. Liu Yan felt that the locals were unreliable, so he did not continue to expand his army.

This scale is quite difficult to hear in the ears of Liu Bei's generals and civil officials.

Who made Liu Bei only have half a Ba County in Hanzhong (Shangyong), Wudu, Yinpinghe? Liu Bei controlled the territory with a population of 350,000 in Hanzhong Basin, which is the largest. Shangyong and Wudu have a total of 250,000, and Yinping has only 70,000 to 80,000 people. The total population of Han people controlled by Liu Bei is less than 90,000, and there are 200,000 barbarians. Therefore, Liu Bei led the 35,000 long army and some new barbarians, and then expanded the troops and became a bit exhausted and fished.

But the three counties in the Chengdu Plain controlled by Liu Yan were rich and dense farming areas, Shu County, Guanghan (including the separated Zitong), and Jianwei, which combined together had a population of nearly four million!

There are more than one million people from the four counties in Nanzhong. Liu Yan has a population of five million Han people, plus the incalculable southern barbarians.

Although Liu Bei has many powerful generals, many counselors, and excellent weapons. It is really more powerful than the military force, population and food, Liu Yan's comprehensive mobilization potential is four times that of Liu Bei! As long as Liu Yan dares to expand his locals on a large scale, it is entirely possible that the total force will reach more than 100,000 people.

Liu Bei also hoped that after breaking through the key pass, he could win over those forces that dared to be angry but did not dare to speak out, and hoped that Liu Yan would be free from his inner self-reliance.

...

With all kinds of unoptimistic worries, Li Su, Cai Yong and others finally returned to Nanzheng on October 12th.

Liu Bei expressed his gratitude to everyone for their dedication, and on the other hand, he also took advantage of these days to prepare for some happy events—

Guan Yu's marriage was only prepared after hearing that Li Su was about to come back. While they went to Jiange, Yinping walked around and was almost ready when they came back.

At the same time, Liu Bei also took advantage of the past few days to get in close contact with Zhen Yao, the second son of the Zhen family. It was at this moment that Zhen Yao realized that there had always been a woman around Liu Bei, Mi Zhen, the younger sister of Mi Zhu, the new Liaodong prefect Mi Zhu. However, he had never dared to announce it because he was afraid that the court would suspect Mi Zhu's reason for taking office.

Now even if it is announced, it can only be used as a concubine for Mi Zhen. Considering that Mi Zhen came earlier than Zhen Jiang, the price offered by the Mi family was higher than that of the Zhen family, and Mi Zhen could only be a concubine, Zhen Jiang had to be a concubine. After all, Liu Bei was a general in the Western Expedition and his status was already much higher than that of the Zhen family, and his concubine was recognized by the Zhen family.

After the Zhen family's daughter Zhen Jiang was settled, her second sister stopped struggling.

So, he said that a few days later, Liu Bei first held a drink to hold a concubine, and at the same time took Mi Zhen and Zhen Jiang.

Then it was Guan Yu's turn to marry Du first with the etiquette of marrying his wife, and then take Zhen Tuo as his concubine.

Finally, Zhang Fei officially married Zhen Dao as the wife ceremony - of course, it was probably just a ceremony first, a name was set, and a fun following the good things of the elder brother and the second brother.
Chapter completed!