In the house, Tianshui County's meritorious Cao Liang Xu, chief bookkeeper Yin Shang, and chief bookkeeper Liang Qian were discussing the invasion of Shu soldiers. Suddenly, a young official in his twenties or seventies broke into the house and shouted: "Master Ma, run away." Why are you still sitting here?"
When everyone looked, it turned out to be Jiang Wei and Jiang Boyue, who was participating in the county's military as a prefecture official.
"Boyo, what happened? Why are you so anxious?" Liang Xu asked.
Jiang Wei said: "Guo Ci, Shi Ma, and the others have already rushed to Shanggui overnight. They only left me and a few others behind, and they still don't know anything."
"What?" The three of them stood up in surprise.
Yin Shang looked at Jiang Wei in confusion and asked, "But why?"
As the chief registrar, he had the closest relationship with Ma Zun, but he didn't receive news of his departure, so he was naturally surprised.
"Who knows? I'd better go after them soon." Jiang Wei said anxiously. In fact, he already had a guess in his mind as to the reason for Ma Zun's move, but it was not confirmed and he couldn't tell others.
Liang Qian: "Boyo is right, let's go catch up quickly."
So, the four people hurriedly went out and called the other two Tianshui County officials. After telling the reason, they drove their horses to chase in the direction of Shanggui.
By the time Jiang Wei and others caught up to Shanggui City, a day and a night had passed. Everyone called for the door to be opened under the city, but the city gate did not open, so they had to ask Ma Zun to come out and speak. Ma Zun ignored him and asked no questions, so he went up to the top of the city to answer.
Everyone asked why the prefect didn't tell them when he left, but Ma Zun hesitated and didn't answer.
Seeing this, Jiang Wei stopped questioning and changed the subject: "The Shu army is approaching and the situation is serious. The prince should return to Jicheng to take charge, so why rush to Gui?"
Hearing the question in his words, Ma Zun became angry and pointed at Jiang Wei and others and shouted: "You guys are all thieves when you reply to the letter." After saying that, he went away.
Jiang Wei and others looked at each other in shock after hearing this, and froze on the spot, watching helplessly as Ma Zun and others left. After a long time, Jiang Wei smiled bitterly: "The governor doesn't believe us locals!"
Everyone was silent again after hearing this. After a while, Liang Xu looked at Jiang Wei and asked, "Bo Yue, what should we do now?"
"The only plan for now is to return to Jicheng first and then worry about it." Jiang Wei replied weakly.
Everyone had no objection. Their families were all in Ji County. Since they couldn't follow the prefect to defend the enemy, they had no choice but to go back and defend the city.
However, when everyone returned to Jicheng, they saw that the gates around the city were closed tightly. The defenders on the city threatened that Jiang Wei and others would not be allowed to enter the city because of the orders of the county magistrate.
It turned out that when Ma Zun passed through Jicheng before, he had asked everyone outside the city to guard the city. He mentioned that Jiang Wei and others were arrogant, so the officials in the city had doubts about Jiang Wei and others. Seeing that the eunuchs had abandoned them, they were even more afraid to do so. Risk letting them into the city.
Jiang Wei and others were angry and helpless, so they had no choice but to come to Liang Xu's manor in the countryside to stay and inquire about the movements of the city and the Shu army before making any calculations.
Xinxing County is located in the southernmost part of Nan'an County and is the gateway of Nan'an County. The city is not big, the walls are not high, and the garrison only has three to four hundred people. Even if the people are included, there are only more than a thousand people.
At this moment, Gao Xiang was leading five thousand Han troops to surround Xinxing. The city was small, so he didn't have to work hard to build complicated siege equipment. He set up ladders and besieged from all sides. After only half an hour, the city was already crumbling.
Seeing this, Gao Xiang ordered his troops to retreat, preparing to let the sergeants rest for a while before breaking through the city in one fell swoop. After a while, when he was about to give the order to attack again, he suddenly saw the city gate opened and dozens of people came out without weapons.
A middle-aged scribe dressed as a county official walked up to the Han army's formation holding a human head and shouted: "General Gao, Yuan Yi, the puppet county magistrate of Wei Xingxing, and other rebels who stubbornly resisted the king's army have been killed by us. This is Yuan Yi’s head. Please check it with the general. Now that the officials, soldiers and people in the city are willing to rebel against Wei and return to the Han Dynasty, please general quickly enter the city to calm the people."
Gao Xiang was overjoyed. He wanted the newly minted officials to surrender on their own initiative. He ordered the local guards who served as guides in the army to come forward and verify that it was indeed Yuan Yi's head, and then he entered the city under the leadership of these people.
He is not afraid of deception. There are only two to three hundred county soldiers in the city, so it doesn't matter if there is an ambush. Fortunately, the surrender of the city's officials and people was genuine, and no further war broke out.
After resting in the city for a night, Gao Xiang chose
He appointed a county official with a good reputation as the county magistrate temporarily, left three hundred Han troops behind, and then led the army to march towards Zhongtao County.
Little did they know that Zhongtao County had been taken over by the Han army without any resistance. It turned out that the wandering guards who had been lurking in the city for several years saw the opportunity and gathered martyrs to launch an attack. They killed the county magistrate and occupied the city, allowing Gao Xiang to take Zhongtao without any blood. .
Cui Liang, the prefect of Nan'an County in Bidao County, was shocked when he heard that Tan Ma reported that Xinxing and Zhongtao had been captured by the Shu army. He quickly called everyone to discuss how to deal with it.
However, there are only three counties in Nan'an County, and now two of them have been taken by the Han army. Bidao County is no longer able to support itself. What's more, there are less than a thousand county soldiers in the city, and there are no wise and brave generals. They are really no match for the Han army. Everyone has been debating it, but they can't come up with any good ideas.
Cui Liang had no choice but to order everyone to retreat, saying that it was up to him to think of ways to defend himself against the enemy. Unexpectedly, late at night, Cui Liang led his right and left confidants to quietly open the city gate and abandon the city.
Seeing that Nan'an was really difficult to secure and he didn't want to surrender to the Han army, he had no choice but to flee and go east to join Guo Huai.
On the second day, all the officials found that the prefect had fled and had no intention of fighting. They either returned home and stayed behind closed doors, or ran away to the countryside with their families. The city suddenly became chaotic and panicked.
Later, the local powerful came forward, found the county officials who had not left, and agreed to defect to the Han, and then sent envoys to meet Gao Xiang's army. So Nan'an County was recaptured by the Han army, and Gao Xiang immediately sent people to Lucheng to report the victory.
Gao Xiang's side is progressing smoothly, and Guan Xing's good news in Guangwei County is also spreading frequently, which makes Zhuge Liang, who is in charge of Lu City, laugh constantly.
According to Guan Xing's report, two days ago he had broken through Linwei County, the capital of Guangwei County, and killed Bi Shao, the prefect of Guangwei who was stubbornly resisting. Linwei County Magistrate Hou Chang led his troops to surrender.
When the news came out, the remaining three counties were immediately frightened. Qingshui and Lueyang counties had recently sent letters of surrender, but only Pingxiang County had not yet responded. Guan Xing had divided his troops to Qingshui and Lueyang counties to receive them, and he personally led 3,000 troops to capture Pingxiang.
After Liao Hua read the victory report, Yang Yi took advantage of the situation and drew a circle with a red pen on the captured cities of Nan'an and Guangwei counties on the map. There are currently nine red circles on the map.
"Prime Minister, the current situation is very good." Yang Yi said with a smile.
Zhuge Liang nodded slightly, came to the map and looked at the four counties of Longxi from west to east, and said, "Mingzhi should still be in Nan'an and has not arrived at Longxi County yet. I'll ignore it for now. I just don't know what's going on with Zhang Wen and the others? "
It had only been one day since Yang Qing led his troops to attack Longxi County. In fact, he should have passed through Nan'an County before going to Longxi County. The reason why he did not go with Gao Xiang was because the Wei army from Qishan Fort suddenly launched a night attack and beat Chen Shi. Caught off guard.
Fortunately, Chen Shi's timely response prevented many casualties among the soldiers. Therefore, in order to prevent the Wei army in Qishan Fort from making any changes, Zhuge Liang asked Yang Qing to stay late for a few days just in case. But he didn't expect Gao Xiang to take Nan'an so quickly, which made Yang Qing's journey quite smooth.
Yang Yi said: "Lucheng is hundreds of miles away from Ji County and Shanggui. Calculating the distance, they should have arrived by now."
"Prime Minister, General Wu is reporting urgently."
