Jiang Wei targeted Xiangwu, who was the county seat of Longxi County, but the more important thing was Xiangwu's geographical location.

Xiangwu is in the upper reaches of the Wei River. Going further up, the Wei River enters the steep mountains, so the Xiangwu Ferry has become the terminal for the Wei army's canal transportation. All ships from Guanzhong and even the Central Plains have to unload goods at the Xiangwu Ferry and then transport them by land to Liangzhou.

Therefore, Xianglu is the real water and land rush. The Shu army fought a beautiful ambush at Gaochengling. Although it cut off a supply channel for the Wei army, the Wei army's losses were not too great. If the Shu army could take down Xiangwu, it would be a major event that could affect the entire Yongliang battle situation. Therefore, Jiang Wei decided to attack Xiangwu and took advantage of Deng Ai's opportunity to seize Xiangwu before he arrived in Longxi.

The one who stationed in Xiangwu was Yang Xin, the prefect of Longxi. Yang Xin was formerly the magistrate of Tianshui County. After the Wei army attacked Longyou, they voluntarily surrendered. They were promoted by Deng Ai and promoted to the prefect of Longxi County.

Yongzhou spans thousands of miles, and Longxi County is at the westernmost position. However, because it connects to Liangzhou and Nantong Shu in the west, it naturally becomes the most important place. Especially after Xiangwu became the water and land terminal of the canal transport, the importance of Longxi County's location was more prominent, and the burden Yang Xin shouldered became heavier.

In order to ensure that there is no problem with the water and land pier of Xiangwu, Deng Ai drew 4,000 new garrison troops transferred to Guanzhong and specially allocated them to Yang Xin, increasing the number of county soldiers in Longxi from 3,000 to 7,000. Deng Ai asked Yang Xin to seize the time to repair and strengthen Xiangwu's city defense, with the purpose of preventing the attack of the Shu army.

Cao Liang arranged Deng Ai in Yongzhou to let him preside over the Guanlong defense line. Although the Wei army won a great victory in the Battle of Longxi, Cao Liang did not think that Jiang Wei would be at peace. Once the main force of the Wei army evacuated Guanlong, Jiang Wei would likely make a comeback. This undefeated Xiaoqiang is not a false reputation.

After Cao Liang led the two middle and right armies to leave, Deng Ai actively deployed defenses. The borders between Wei and Shu were quite long, excluding the three eastern counties such as Shangyong. Yongzhou alone stretched thousands of miles away. From Tongguan to Longxi, it can be said that Deng Ai needed to carefully prevent each place. After all, there were many old roads in the Qinling Mountains, and there were as many as six or seven from the Ziwu Road to the westernmost Didao. Any of these old roads could become a channel for Jiang Wei's northern expedition.

Due to the distance between high mountains and ridges, the Wei army had a great difficulty in obtaining information from the Shu army. Often, the Shu army had already arrived at Guanlong, and the Wei army would receive news, and then they could dispatch troops and make countermeasures.

Faced with such lagging sources, Deng Ai had no good idea. Although the military commander had sent a large number of spies to Hanzhong and even Shu Kingdom, due to limited conditions, even if these spies could obtain first-hand information, they could not transmit the information back to Guanzhong as soon as possible. Therefore, when Deng Ai was developing the Guanlong defense system, he could only stick to various fortress strongholds and set up mobile corps. No matter what direction the Shu army appeared in, he had to rush to reinforce and block the Shu army as soon as possible.

Therefore, after Deng Ai received the news that the Shu army raided Gaochengling, Deng Ai immediately made arrangements and ordered other defensive strongholds in Guanlong to strengthen their vigilance, increase their combat readiness levels, and strictly prevent the Shu army from attacking the east and west.

After all, Jiang Wei is cunning and has many tricks when fighting with Jiang Wei, he must be more careful. If Jiang Wei deliberately sends troops to Longxi to lure the main force of the Wei army to rescue, and then sends troops to attack Chang'an, it is very likely that the Wei army will not have time to return to the army to rescue.

Deng Ai often uses danger and strange military service, and uses his own aptitude to save others. Deng Ai is more cautious in defense. He must eliminate all hidden dangers and be prepared for any dangers.

Since Jiang Wei's attack target was Longxi County, Deng Ai specially ordered Yang Xin to shrink his troops and defend Xiangwu. He was not allowed to leave the city to meet the enemy before the Wei army reinforcements arrived, and he would defend Xiangwu at all costs.

Although the Wei army lost dozens of baggage trucks and a lot of food and supplies in the battle of Gaochengling, just one grain transport team was just a wound and could not shake the foundation of the Wei army.

But Xiangwu is different. As a dock for canal transportation and a transit station for water and land transportation, Xiangwu is a fulcrum of the entire logistics supply system from Longxi to Liangzhou. If Xiangwu loses it, Liangzhou will fall into trouble.

If you just go to the camp and the Yueqi camp first, then there will not be too many materials and food. However, the number of more than 100,000 refugees and prisoners of war is quite large. Now it is the spring famine, and crops cannot be changed from the field, and cattle and sheep have not yet been given birth. Therefore, the situation in Liangzhou is in the most difficult time. Without Guanzhong's strong support, even if Ma Long can defeat the bald tree function, it is not easy to clean up the end of Liangzhou.

Therefore, even if the supply line was sneak attacked by the Shu army, Deng Ai would immediately consider re-planning a supply line, and the transportation in Liangzhou must not be cut off.

At the same time, Deng Ai wrote a letter to Ma Long, so that he would not have to worry about Longxi's affairs and do his best to do the things in Liangzhou. After all, Liangzhou's strong rivals have not been eliminated, and Deng Ai did not want to waste the hard-earned victory in vain. Therefore, Deng Ai asked Ma Long to just deal with the affairs in Liangzhou. Leave the affairs in Longxi to him.

Deng Ai knew that Ma Long had a calm personality, but Wen Yang was different. He had a very hot temper. If Wen Yang knew that the Shu army had seized their retreat and cut off their food route, he would probably lead Yueqiying back to Longxi as soon as possible.

In this way, wouldn’t Deng Ai’s entire plan be disrupted?

Therefore, Deng Ai's main purpose of writing a letter to Ma Long was to restrain Wen Yang and prevent him from acting voluntarily. Everything should be put first and Deng Ai's ability was completely confident to deal with Jiang Wei. Ma Long and Wen Yang could do their job well, and there was no need to worry about the battle situation in Longxi.

Deng Ai was not wrong. Before his letter was delivered to Wuwei, Ma Long and Wen Yang, who were in Liangzhou, had already received news that the Shu army had attacked Longxi.

If the Shu army attacked elsewhere, perhaps Ma Long would not have been particularly concerned, but this time the Shu army attacked the Wei army's grain transport team at Gaochengling. The Wei army not only lost some people, but the most important thing was that dozens of trucks of food and supplies fell into the hands of the Shu army, and these food and supplies were originally planned to be sent to Liangzhou.
Chapter completed!