As far as the eye can see, what is presented in front of Zhao Yu is dozens of continuous groups, and Hutou Mountain is one of them. However, the mountains here are not very tall compared to other places, but they also respond to the saying "small but dangerous". And the vegetation here is well preserved, the trees are luxuriant, the forest is deep and leafy, it is difficult to pass through, and it is not conducive to the deployment of the attacking troops.

After taking a look at the mountains, Zhao Yu focused his attention on Hutou Mountain City. Strictly speaking, this is not an isolated fortress, but a series of large and small fortresses and outposts, either occupying dangerous places or places with a wide field of vision, and the access roads in and out of this side are under surveillance and attack, forming a blockade line and cutting off the communication to Xiangyang.

Looking at the past from the direction of Zhao Hao, the main fort of Hutou Mountain was not built on the top of the mountain, but built according to the danger of the mountain, located in the saddle between the two peaks, overlooking the large and small passages between the mountains. The ramparts were surrounded by earthen walls, reinforced with wooden fences and stones, and soldiers were stationed in them. The various access roads in the mountains were also blocked by villages, and troops were sent to defend them, forming a complete defense system.

In the whole system, the main city of Hutou Mountain is like a giant palm pressed from the sky, and the small fortresses scattered around it are like separate fingers. The small fort relies on the main city to block the passage, protect the flanks of the main city, and play the role of early warning. Even if the small fort is breached, it will only break the perimeter, and it will be difficult to shake the main city. It can still defend against danger and condescendingly block the passage.

Zhao Hao secretly admired the Meng general who designed this city, and this arrangement not only took advantage of the geographical situation, so that the entire system could help each other, but also took into account the supply of the garrison. Everyone knows the story of Ma Tan's loss of the street pavilion, precisely because it only takes into account the use of the dangerous mountain, but does not take into account the difficulty of getting water from the mountain.

As a result, Zhang He led the Wei army to Jieting, and saw that Ma Jian had abandoned the ready-made city and did not defend it, but stationed his men and horses on the mountain, and immediately ordered his soldiers to build a camp under the mountain and besiege the mountain where Ma Tan was camping. The Shu army on the mountain was thirsty, and Ma Tan could only order the soldiers to rush down the mountain several times, but because Zhang He held the camp, the Shu army could not break through, and the result was a great defeat and the street pavilion was lost.

Therefore, when building a city on a mountain, it is necessary to consider not only the terrain, but also the problem of water source. Building a city on the top of a hill does make the most of the terrain, and it is difficult for the enemy to attack from the back, while the defenders are condescending to defend and can also take advantage of the situation to attack. But everyone knows that the water flows low, and there is no water on the top of the mountain, and even if there is spring water available, the flow is very small, and it is difficult to satisfy the large number of people.

Therefore, experienced generals will place the cottage on the waist of the mountain, that is, they can use the stream on the mountain, and the spring water is much more abundant, to meet the needs of more people. However, there are limits to everything, and it is also necessary to take into account the problem of water shortage caused by the enemy's digging of water veins. The Mongolian army must have taken this problem into account when building the city, and dispersed the garrison, which could not only help each other, but also reduce the consumption of the main city, and was not afraid of the siege of the enemy, which was conducive to long-term holding.

Zhao Hao felt a little funny when he thought of this, history is so mysterious. At that time, the Mongol army built the mountain city to block the passage and prevent the Song army from receiving foreign aid; And now that the offense and defense are exchanged, the mountain city has become an obstacle to the passage of the Song army's march. The Hutou Mountain City is an important stronghold to shield the south of Xiangyang City, if you want to attack the city from the south, you must break through these fortresses one by one, in order to open the way to advance. This is an extremely time-consuming and laborious process, and once you can't afford this attrition, you have no choice but to withdraw.

"Fifth brother, go out of the observation post to send a signal, there are enemy troops coming to our side, let's take shelter for a while!" Peng Hu leaned over and said.

"No, the enemy army is still far from us, and they can't be seen from their position!" While observing, Zhao Hao took out a pen and paper and quickly sketched the mountain shape in this area, marking the location of the main city and the small fort on it.

"Fifth brother, I'll paint it!" Peng Hu suggested.

"Do you understand?" Zhao Hao twisted his face and asked.

He knew that the strength of the internal guards was close guards, they were skilled in combat and the use of cold weapons, and four or five well-trained soldiers were no match for him when they were armed with cold weapons. This was because by the time they struck, the Assassins had already broken through the outer guard and the inner circle guards, and had already reached the point of hand-to-hand combat.

Of course, the internal guards are not weak in observation, they must be able to distinguish whether everyone who approaches the emperor is hostile and whether they are hiding sharp weapons, so that they can react in time. Another is that he is good at makeup, able to imitate all kinds of characters, to adapt to different environments, and hide in them. In addition, the physical strength is excellent, otherwise the emperor can't run, or is injured, how can he quickly take people away. In fact, I am not familiar with other related military business, and it is okay to read a map, but to draw a map is a layman.

"This should be similar to the city map and the building map, I have some hunting for those!" Peng Hu replied with some vagueness.

"Interlacing is like separating mountains, although they are all diagrams, the drawing method and recognition are very different." Zhao Hao knew that it was for his own safety, not for merit, so he didn't blame it, but just chuckled. Seeing that His Majesty refused, Peng Hu didn't say anything more, honestly performed his own work, and vigilantly observed the situation around him.

Zhao Yu kept adding numbers to the map, marking angles and paths, forts and important locations. Although his drawings are only partial, they can accurately reflect the whole front when compared with the pictures of the other two observation points. He regretted that he could not go behind the mountain and map the entire mountain to find weak points in the defenses.

Zhao Yu was not worried about his own safety at all, a few guards had already controlled the main point, and even if the enemy found out, they would be suppressed by a few of their guns under the steep slope. Give yourself time to retreat calmly, as long as you enter the trees, it is a mud cow into the sea, and it will be difficult to catch them if you mobilize thousands of people. However, reconnaissance behind enemy lines should try to avoid firefights, because once discovered, the surrounding enemy forces will strengthen their vigilance and block the roads, causing great suffering to future activities.

After the guard post warned again, Zhao Yu looked northwest for a while, but still did not identify one of the targets of this trip in the group of peaks - Pipa Mountain, which belongs to the remnants of Hutou Mountain, which is hidden in the mountains in front of him, but it is difficult to see its true face. But he didn't insist any longer, and made a gesture to the crowd to retreat into the woods......

After retreating into the forest, the other two groups also retreated, and Zhao Yu took their maps, but still could not determine the location of Pipa Mountain. Although Xu Wujian proposed to go west, he failed to conduct in-depth field reconnaissance and did not know the exact location, which was only set based on visiting the local people in the countryside and consulting historical materials of the past dynasties.

But Zhao Yu knows that historical records can be used as a reference, but can not be too serious, the vicissitudes of life seem too far away, but with the increase of human activities, the transformation of geography, many place names have also changed several times, and even far from the current location. Although the battle of Xiangyang in Songmeng and Mongolia has only passed for more than ten years, due to language differences, there will be misunderstandings, or even simply another name, and multiple names will appear in one place.

Whenever Zhao Yu went to a place, he would collect relevant historical materials and notes from his predecessors in advance, just to understand the local historical changes. In ancient times, information was closed and difficult to transmit, so we could only find clues from it. And he has consulted the information, in the historical books about Pipa Mountain there is only one record: Danxi originates from Liuzi Mountain, and then collects the stream flowing from Hutou Mountain, passes through Pipa Mountain, Zhenwu Mountain, Yanghu Mountain, Zhengjia Mountain, and flows south around Da Shou Mountain to inject Han water, which is forty miles long.

According to this clue to find Pipa Mountain, it is necessary to determine the location of Danxi first, and Danxi became famous in history because of the Lu horse ridden by Liu Bei, which is recorded in many historical books and notes. "Tongzhi" cloud: "The water source of Tanxi comes out of this mountain, so it is close to Xiangshan." Xiangshui, five miles west of the city, the source of Xiangshan. "Xiangyang Mansion Chronicles" said: "Tanxi, four miles west of the county, that is, the river crossed by Lu crossed by the Han ancestors.

"Water Jing Note": The water comes out of the county Xiliuzi Mountain, the east is the duck lake, the north canal of the lake, and the stream is also guided. North through Hanyin Taixi, next to the north of the city, note in the 沔. He also said, "Duck Lake, outside the county seat, looking north of Chu, the mountains and rivers converge into the lake." The water is divided into two points from the lake, the north canal is the water of Tanxi, and the southeast of the water is the Xiangshui. "Old Chronicles" also clouds: "The Han ancestors passed through this when they leaped into Tanxi." ”

There are also historical records, Emperor Liang Jianwen once boated the source of Tanxi in poor Liuzi Mountain, and Meng Haoran, a famous poet in Xiangyang in the Tang Dynasty, went boating from Tanxi to Wanshan to fish, "Fishing sits on the rock, the water is pure and the heart is idle". However, due to the diversion and change of the Han River, the two are no longer connected, and the current Tanxi has long lost the charm of the year, many places have dried up, and where there is water, it is only a trickle. In addition, the lake has been reclaimed and houses have been built by people, and the lake has also been encroached upon. Fortunately, rivers can be diverted, and moving mountains and reclaiming the sea is a legend after all, and the changes in mountains are relatively small.

Therefore, in order to determine the location of Pipa Mountain, it is necessary to determine the exact location of Liuzi Mountain, Xiangshan Mountain, Xiangshui and Tanxi Mountain. Zhao Yu flipped through the historical materials and geographical records, and the record of the geographical location of Xiangshan is: Xiangshan, five miles northwest of the county, drives down the mountain with water, hence the name. Its water flows south as Xiangshui, and north flows as Tanxi. Liuzi Mountain, fifteen miles northwest of the county, there is Liuzi Pass below.

The record of Liuziguan also has the "Xiangyang Chronicles" that says: "Liuziguan County West Qili. Pi Rixiu, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, said in "Liu Zaoqiang Inscription": "Sir, died unharmed...... The grave went to Xiangyang Guo Wuli, and it was called Liuziguan. From the above records, it is not difficult for us to see that Xiangshan is five miles northwest of Xiangyang City, among them, there are two places where the water originates here, one is called Xiangshui to the south, and the other is called Tanxi to the north.

Judging from the above records, Xiangyang is a typical landscape garden city. It is not by chance that the ancients named the three mountains Samhyeon. In addition to the geographical location of Sanhyeon just in the upper, middle and lower, the three mountains are surrounded by the Han River or Tanxi, which is in line with the aesthetics of the ancients by the mountains and rivers.

From this, it can be inferred that Tanxi originates from Liuzi Mountain, and Liuzi Mountain is very close to Xiangshan Mountain. This provides an accurate basis for determining the location of Xiangshan. Regarding Liuzi Mountain, whether it is from the geographical location recorded in the historical records or from the birthplace of Tanxi, it is proved that Liuzi Mountain is the highest peak of Daxian Mountain, which shows that the mountain adjacent to Bian Mountain is Xiangshan. And the record of hesitating Pipa Mountain in the southwest of the county is five miles away, indicating that the two mountains will not be too far away.

Zhao Hao was now able to determine his location, and asked Liu Tong to compare it with his map, although the map of the bureau was more detailed, and he could not but be cautious. As the so-called loss of a thousand miles, it is also appropriate to use it here. Don't talk about thousands of miles at the moment, even three or five miles will miss a big event. At that time, the soldiers will gather and besiege and attack for half a day before they find that they have gone to the wrong place, which not only wastes time and troops, but may also put their own side in danger.

Zhao Hao didn't want to make such a low-level mistake, not to mention the loss of troops, he would also fall into a big laughing stock, so that he would have no prestige, and how would he lead the troops to fight in the future. After comparing the two times, the predicted position was not much different from his map, so he delineated the general range of the target and planned the route of the march at night.

When night fell again, and the reconnaissance detachment had eaten enough, it sorted out its equipment, checked its weapons, and filled its water bottles. Zhao Yu also put on the 'lost weight' backpack again, and he didn't say anything more. First, I don't want to live up to everyone's kindness; Second, I am afraid that I will not be able to keep up with my physical strength halfway through the journey, so I will drag my feet. I accepted it cheekily.

Because tonight's route has to pass through several outposts in Mengyuan, in the dead of night in the mountains, the slightest sound will be transmitted far away, so it is necessary to eliminate hidden dangers to the greatest extent. Zhao Hao sorted out the equipment, picked up the gun and jumped a few times, but did not find that the items were scattered, and did not hear the sound of the equipment colliding with each other. Then everyone checked each other again until there were no mistakes.

Although the weather is sunny tonight, there is still no moonlight to borrow, and you still need to rush in the dark. Although there is no interference from the rain tonight, the road is much better, but what annoys Zhao Hao is that the mosquitoes in the mountains are raging. They are so pervasive that even if they have tightened their cuffs and trouser legs, they can still find gaps to bite in, and they don't know how many bites they have been bitten without much effort on their bare heads, faces and hands.

And mosquitoes don't care if you are the emperor or not, they won't let it go, and they carry out indiscriminate attacks. It didn't take long for Zhao Hao to feel that his body was scratched, thinking that if he looked in the mirror at this time, it must be a pig's head, and the queen might not be able to recognize herself. But he did not dare to slap uncontrollably, lest he make a noise and alarm the enemy sentries. The others are probably no better, and they shrug their shoulders from time to time and rub their faces on their sleeves twice to relieve the pain of itching a little......

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