Shaanxi Road is one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization and culture. Since the Western Zhou, Qin and Han Dynasties, a total of 14 regimes have established their capitals here. In the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an's population once exceeded one million, making it the largest city in the world at that time.

The largest city. The Tang Dynasty, which had its capital in Chang'an, was one of the most prosperous dynasties of Chinese civilization and had contacts with more than 300 countries and regions. At that time, a large number of foreigners came to Chang'an every year by water and land.

A holy place in their hearts.

Nowadays, Shaanxi Road, which has experienced many wars, is already in a state of decline.

Xiao Jing, who was riding his horse on the still smooth galloping road, couldn't help but feel filled with emotion when he thought of the past glory of this land.

Not to mention the Huangchao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty and the subsequent chaotic era that devastated Shaanxi Road, it seems that the war has never stopped in this land for more than ten years.

As long as I can remember, war has been with this land.

First, the imperial court fought against the Li Xu Group of the Dingnan Army. In fact, it was my father and Li Xu who fought, and then the Shaanxi Road at that time was involved. Everything north of Jingzhao Mansion was involved in the war, especially the Suide area.

He was beaten until it was almost completely white.

Then came the rebellion of King Jing, and the Xiao family was involved. Then the imperial court sent Zhang Chao to lead an army of more than 100,000 to attack the Western Army, and fought to the death with his own father.

Shaanxi Lu, who had not yet recovered his strength, was pushed hard into the bottomless abyss.

Next, the city of Tokyo was destroyed, the Song Dynasty was almost destroyed, and the Shaanxi Road was carved up by the Western Army, Liu Quanyi of the Jin State, and Cui Angquzhen of the Zhao State. At that time, Li Chun on the Qinfeng Road was also spying on this land and sent people from time to time.

Come and grab a handful.

From then on, this land never had a moment of peace. Several major forces conquered each other, captured young men, and imposed food, salary and taxes. Endless suffering befell the people of this land.

The king's flag changes at the top of the city, but it is always the common people who suffer.

Zhang Cheng, who was entrenched in the Qinling Mountains, was called a bandit by these forces, but became the only hope of the local people. Every time Zhang Cheng went down the mountain, he always vented his anger on the people, and the puppets he killed were

Whether they are people from Zhao or people from the pseudo-Jin Dynasty, in the eyes of the common people, neither one of them is a good thing.

It's just that at the beginning, Zhang Cheng's power was weak. He went down the mountain to grab some grain and grass supplies, and then had to go back. At the foot of the mountain, he basically couldn't stand up.

But slowly, more and more people went up the mountain, and finally they dragged their families and fled to the Qinling Mountains.

Zhang Cheng finally became the number one figure in this world.

Now, Zhang Cheng is already the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu in the Song Dynasty. Most of Shaanxi Road and Qinfeng Road are under his governance. Moreover, the Gansu area that was originally under the control of the Western Army will also be divided next.

Under the rule of Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Cheng's current influence is no less than half that of his father Zhang Chao back then.

Xiao Jing actually felt uncomfortable, because in this way, Zhang Cheng's power had completely penetrated between them and the Central Plains, and had become a faint barrier between them and the Central Plains.

Is the second uncle guarding against their Western Army? Does this mean he doesn’t trust their father and son?

But thinking about the vast majority of foreign armies under the Western Army, he had to admit that there was actually nothing wrong with his second uncle's approach.

Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of what happens.

It's always better to be prepared for anything.

This is also the way my second uncle always does things.

Last winter, the Liao Kingdom's southern expedition finally kicked off. Yeluzhen was the commander, and he assembled almost all the mobile troops of the Liao Kingdom. Together with almost all the troops of the puppet Zhao and puppet Qi, the total number was nearly 500,000.

The army, almost twice as many as the civilian population, launched an all-out attack on the Song Dynasty from Nanyang in the direction of Jingxiang and Jianghuai.

But throughout the winter, the Daliao army's progress was extremely limited.

In the direction of Nanyang, Yelu Longxu and Wang Zhu fought on the Nanyang Plain. In three months, Wang Zhu only gave up the Nanyang Basin and retreated to the Xiangfan area.

In the direction of Jianghuai, Yeluzhen personally commanded, but with little effect. The Jianghuai area was turned into a pot of porridge, but Xuzhou was still firmly controlled by the Song army.

The Liao Navy commanded by Liu Zheng, for which the Empress Dowager Chengtian placed great hopes, not only did not gain half the advantage in the battle between Jianghuai and the Inland River Navy commanded by Jiang Xiong of the Song Army, but because of the lack of quantity and quality.

Under the double disadvantage, one-third of the troops were lost in one winter. Now they can only gather all the troops to resist the Song Navy in some areas.

After the Song Navy gained the upper hand, the Song Army was able to withstand the Liao Army's massive attack in the Jianghuai Theater with greater ease.

This blitzkrieg that Yeluzhen hoped for has so far turned into a back-and-forth offensive and defensive battle.

In the Jingxiang War Zone and the Jianghuai War Zone, the Liao people did have the upper hand, but it was just the upper hand. They wanted to defeat the Song army, but they were powerless.

Instead, the Song Army began to counterattack.

The first to sound the clarion call for counterattack was the Song Dynasty's ocean-going navy.

The ocean-going naval forces commanded by Zheng Zhihu not only launched raids on the coastal areas of the Puppet Qi Dynasty, but even began to directly attack the Liao mainland.

At sea, the Liao Kingdom was completely unable to compete with the Song people.

The Empress Dowager Chengtian of the Liao Dynasty worked hard to build a maritime navy, but the ocean-going fleet she finally built only went to sea a few times and was almost wiped out by the Song people.

Without the support of land forces, the Liao people had no competitive power at sea.

The Liao Kingdom eventually gave up this effort.

But now, without sea power, they are suffering backlash.

In Goryeo, Lu Ben'an completely gave up the defense of the coastal areas and even evacuated the coastal people for dozens of miles in order to prevent the Song Dynasty's ocean-going navy from attacking.

Now Qi had to follow Lu Ben'an's example.

But this is not something that happens overnight.

The coastal areas of Qi State are also relatively wealthy areas of Qi State. To give up completely would be enough for Liu Yu to feel distressed for a while. The current momentum of Qi State's offensive, affected by these things, is far from what it was last winter.

So fierce.

Of course, here, Liu Yu took advantage of the situation and found an excuse to preserve his strength.

But even if the Liao people went into battle shirtless in person, the Jianghuai War Zone was still as stable as a rock.

Today this place was taken away by the Liao people, and tomorrow that place was taken back by the Song army. Back and forth, you fought for it, but the battle line remained stable and did not move.

This was in line with the expectations of the Song Dynasty, but not the hope of the Liao people.

This time, Xiao Jing came to Jingzhao Mansion to join forces with Zhang Cheng to deal a heavy blow to the Jin Dynasty in the direction of Hedong, draw the energy of the Liao people in another direction, and reduce the Song Dynasty's power in the direction of Xiangfan and Jianghuai.

pressure.

Xiao Jing actually had no confidence in his heart.

Zhang Cheng had a deep hatred for the Xiao family, or to be precise, his father.

Zhang Chao died under his father's spear.

The reason why I came here in person this time was to show the sincerity of the Western Army.

The area around Jingzhao Mansion is slowly returning to life.

Around the city, once-abandoned villages are now filled with smoke, and the sound of roosters and dogs barking once again proves that this place is still a world of fireworks.

On both sides of the road, there is land that has completed spring plowing, and a little further away, more land has just been burned. The weeds that were originally taller than a person have now turned into a black carpet of ashes.

above the ground.

Xiao Jing saw a young woman with her trousers rolled up and her sleeves rolled up, holding an iron plow, driving a big buffalo, plowing the ground there. The big buffalo buried its head forward, and as the iron plow passed by, the soil was like waves.

Open both sides and bury the black grass ashes in the ground.

The big buffalo was not the only one pulling the plow. Behind the big buffalo, there were two seven- or eight-year-old children. They even had ropes on their shoulders, and they were bending down to help the big buffalo pull the plow.

Xiao Jing couldn't help but stop.

"Major General, the road to Shaanxi has been repeatedly ravaged, and the young and strong have suffered great losses. It is common for women to plow the fields. In fact, in our northwest, there were many such things in the past. When we were fighting abroad, the people outside Xingqing Mansion

Those fields are also cultivated by women. It’s just that under the leadership of the prince, oh, no, the grand master, everyone’s life has become better and better in recent years, so this situation has become less common!" Beside me, there was a person.

The guard whispered, "In this family, either all the men in the family are dead, or they are serving as soldiers or doing corvee labor and are not at home. The women can only come out and do these things by themselves!"

"Those two children?"

"For a poor family, a big animal is the most valuable asset of the family. Looking at the way this woman treasures it, this big buffalo should belong to her own family and not be leased to her by the government, so she cherishes it so much!"

"How can humans be inferior to animals?"

The guard smiled bitterly: "Major General, this is what poor families are like."

"When we take care of Liu Quanyi and defeat the Liao people, everything will be fine." Xiao Jing looked at the field. The woman plowing the field also stopped at this time, straightened her waist and turned to look at them.

The two children were also looking at Xiao Jing, and even the big buffalo looked over. "Children of this age should be studying in school, instead of helping the big buffalo plow the fields here!"

"Send some food over here!" Xiao Jing waved his hand, "Give me more!"

"Here!" One of the guards reached out and took out a bag from a spare horse, and walked towards the woman.

Whipping up his whip and spurring his horse, Xiao Jing galloped all the way.

The closer you get to Jingzhao Mansion, the better the appearance is and the wealthier the people are. At least, you can see complete clothes on those people. Although there are many patches, at least they look clean.

Don't underestimate this, it shows that the people here are more hopeful about the future, so they live a clean life every day.

Beggars don't care if they are dirty.

People who have no tomorrow after today will not care about this.

Xiao Jing did not expect that the person who greeted him at the city gate would be Zhang Cheng's deputy Gan Quan.

Zhang Cheng is now the governor of Shaanxi-Gansu, while Gan Quan is the nominal supreme military leader of the land of Shaanxi-Gansu, and is truly the number two figure in this land.

Upon arrival, Master Zhang Yuan, Tuoba Yangwei and others made a detailed analysis of Zhang Cheng and the important figures under his command, and Xiao Jing was informed in detail.

Sweet spring is naturally the most important one.

He was an old member of Zhang Chao's group and was more than ten years older than Zhang Tiao. He was very loyal to Zhang Chao and Zhang Cheng and his son. Even when Zhang Cheng was at his lowest, he never left him.

However, Xiao Jing, who took a trip to Jiangning, knew that Gan Quan had another identity.

Gan Quan is from the Imperial City Division.

Not now, but always.

In the past, Gan Quan was sent by the Imperial City Division to monitor Zhang Chao.

There are only a handful of people who know this now, and Liu Fengkui, the current Ambassador of the Imperial City, is exactly one of those very few people.

On behalf of Zhang Cheng, Gan Quan went to Jiangning to negotiate with the court. At that time, Xiao Cheng and Liu Fengkui did not want to exchange this matter with Gan Quan. In their opinion, they could still follow Zhang Cheng and never leave under such circumstances.

People who are loyal to the Song Dynasty can be said to be unparalleled in loyalty and are worthy of their admiration.

But what I didn't expect was that Gan Quan confessed this when he met Xiao Cheng.

Gan Quan was loyal to Zhang Chao and Zhang Cheng, but he was even more loyal to the Song Dynasty.

Only Xiao Jing and Xiao Ding know about this matter now.

Even Zhang Yuan and Tuoba Yangwei didn't understand.

Xiao Jing and Xiao Cheng were both unwilling to use this kind of thing to make trouble for Gan Quan, but Zhang Yuan and Tuo Ba were not necessarily willing to show off their power.

"General Gan!" Xiao Jing swung his saddle and dismounted, strode towards Ganquan, crossed his arms and raised eyebrows, and bowed deeply.

"The young general is so polite!" Gan Quan smiled and helped Xiao Jing up: "The governor is feeling a little unwell today, so I have to replace the general and the governor to greet the young general!"

Xiao Jing smiled in his heart. Zhang Cheng was not feeling unwell physically, but feeling unwell in his heart. He was uneasy in his heart. He must be feeling uneasy in his heart, but the fact that Ganquan came showed his attitude.

This time I came by myself, and my father repeatedly told me to lower my profile and give others face.

No matter what, my father died at the hands of my own father.

No matter what the reason.

"Governor Zhang is concerned about the safety of the entire land of Shaanxi and Gansu, so you must take care of yourself. This time, my nephew came and brought a lot of good supplements!"

"It's not a serious illness. It's just that the governor took everyone to do spring plowing a few days ago and got caught in the rain. After he came back, he stayed up all night to approve various files. The wind and cold entered his body. However, the governor is in good health, although he still feels a little uncomfortable.

, I took medicine and slept well, but I am already fine." Gan Quan said with a smile: "Although the young general has been to Jingzhao Mansion before, he always passed by. This time, let's take a good look at Jingzhao Mansion.

Scenic spots, how about taking a good rest for a few days and waiting for the governor to recover well before we meet again to discuss it in detail?"
Chapter completed!