More than 100,000 soldiers and civilians retreated from Hezhong Prefecture to the south and blocked the north bank of the Beiru River, and it was difficult for them to move south smoothly for a while. Although the Beiru River is not as sweeping and spacious as the Yangtze River and the Huai River, the dilapidated ferry port has no ability to erect pontoon bridges and lacks ferries, so it can only cross more than 20,000 people in two days by relying on dozens of small fishing boats collected.

On the one hand, Liang Chengyi sent cavalry to drive a large number of displaced people to the Huangbai Valley in the upper reaches of the Beiru River, and took some long detours so that they could cross the river from the shallow water upstream; On the one hand, he urged the soldiers and horses of the headquarters and their dependents to cross the river at a speed, and at the same time made his son Liang Yanshun take the lead in crossing the river with Yuan Jinsheng to Wuyang to take over the defense. Only half a day after Liang Yanshun and Yuan Jinsheng crossed the river, the enemy soldiers pursued the Lushan Pass, which was less than 30 miles away from the Beiru River.

Liang Chengyi was not too worried, Chen Zhihu's main force was still on the north bank of the Yellow River in Mengjin, and Yuan Lishan's main force was far away in Tai'an and Jining, and there was no movement of large westward advances.

Xingyang and Daliang are under the jurisdiction of Henan and are under the jurisdiction of Chen Zhihu, but after Yan Ting transferred Chen Zhihu north to cross the Yellow River and then west to Guanzhong to participate in the autumn of last year, Yan Hu's troops in Henan were extremely limited, and most of them were weak brigades, and they were only used to defend the fortress.

Of course, Yanhu also has a large number of elite cavalry stationed in Jinan, which is under the control of Ye Ji Duodi, but it is a long way from Jinan, and even if the news of the withdrawal of the army from Hezhong reaches Jinan, it will take two or three days to say the least, and the reaction will not be so fast.

Liang Chengyi asked Tanma: "How many soldiers and horses does the enemy have, and how many cavalry are there?" ”

In order to prevent the enemy from chasing from the north, in the wide valley formed by the confrontation between the Lushan Mountain and the Dayu Mountain, Liang Chengyi led the troops and horses to temporarily camp there, he was not afraid of a small group of enemy soldiers chasing from the north, but he was worried that there would be a large number of enemy soldiers in the pursuers, and they would go around to the eastern foot of the Lushan Mountain and attack from the lower reaches of the Beiru River, which would be quite a headache.

Tanma replied: "There are about 3,000 chasing the enemy, and the foot and half are half, and they come day and night, and they are close to the Huangque Ridge of Lushan Mountain to watch, and General Liang Dai is worried that the enemy will attack at night, so please make the deployment of troops to reinforce the Lushan Pass......"

"Liang Dai has 5,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and there is a simple camp to rely on, I am afraid that 3,000 enemy soldiers will seize the camp, it is really a soft bird!" Fang Keshan, the captain of the left military academy, came over to discuss the matter, he had a gap with Liang Dai, the main general of the soldiers and horses in the palace, regardless of whether Liang Dai was the nephew of the old lord Liang Xi or the cousin of the new lord Liang Chengyi, and he had the opportunity not to forget to ridicule at this time.

Liang Chengyi frowned, ignored the contradictions between his subordinates and generals, and said, "It's not the same thing to ask three thousand enemy soldiers to keep an eye on the back. Keshan, you go back to the inner port, to guard against enemy soldiers coming around from the east, I will go to the Lushan Pass, if you can eat this chasing army, the problem will be simpler......"

There are enemy soldiers biting on the tail, no matter how many, it always makes the soldiers and civilians who are blocked at the ferry and cannot go south for a while restless, adding a lot of panic. In addition, if the enemy soldiers are not annihilated, they will gather more and more in a short period of time, and take a bite in the east and a bite in the west, which will also make it difficult to defend against this side.

If this group of enemy soldiers is annihilated, it will deter other small groups of enemy soldiers from chasing them, and it will be able to buy more time for the soldiers and civilians in the river to cross the river and retreat to the south, and the area of crossing the river will be more wide.

Liang Chengyi looked up at the sky, the sunset had sunk, and the crescent moon was a little pale, but it was gradually bright, and it was easy to cross at night under the moon, and it was easy to fight at night.

Liang Chengyi ordered the left and right to continue to cross the river, not to stop, he checked the 3,000 cavalry, went to the Lushan Pass, and joined Liang Dai who was guarding the Lushan Pass, intending to drag it until tomorrow and eat up the enemy soldiers who entered the northern section of the Huangque Ridge in Lushan.

When Liang Xi was in charge of the border army, Liang Xi's nephews had ten people in the border army as generals, and they were known as the Ten Tigers of Liangmen. Over the years, the campaign has withered, and there are only four people left, Liang Chengchong, Liang Chengyi, Liang Dai and Liang Chengdong, who appointed Liang Chengchong as the captain of Fang Cheng.

The strength of the soldiers is transferred to the front ferry to weave ropes and build ferries, the camp here is very simple, and the camp of the Lushan Pass is mainly based on a stone mountain pass that rises abruptly in the wide valley of the Lushan Pass. The col is like a stone valley, the south and west sides are on steep slopes, and the northeast two sides are standing trees for fences.

Liang Chengyi led his troops to come, it was late at night, and it happened that a small group of enemy soldiers tried to attack the camp to repel it, the camp fence opened a gap, and a corner of the camp was set on fire, but the enemy soldiers were repulsed, except for the severed limbs and broken arms, broken halberds and arrows in one place, the night gradually returned to silence.

The soldiers and horses entered the camp, Liang Chengyi and Liang Dai rode to the stone mountain under the support of Hu Wei, and under the moonlit night, looking at the figures in the north, it can be seen that the enemy soldiers repelled this night attack, and failed to bluff back this enemy army.

"Are there any other enemy troops coming from the north?" Liang Chengyi asked.

After he joined forces with Liang Dai, he had 8,000 soldiers and horses, but he was not afraid of 3,000 pursuers, but he was afraid that there would be other pursuers coming to converge, and the enemy's momentum would be greater.

"In Mengzhou, there is still a small force of enemy troops crossing the Yellow River, about 1,000 people," Liang Dai said, "It should be that after our troops withdrew from the river, Yanhu transferred Jinnan troops and horses to the south." After nightfall, the enemy army from the north came over, and there was no chance to let the horses out to reconnoiter the situation in the north. ”

In the past, Liang Chengyi occupied Hezhong Mansion and confronted the southern Jin Dynasty across the river, and Yanhu mainly stationed troops on the north bank of Mengjin for defense, but there were also garrisons in the counties on the north bank of the Yellow River east of Mengjin, ranging from about 1,800. The garrisons in each city seem to be small, but there are nearly twenty counties in southern Jinnan, and the total number is very considerable.

Now that Liang Chengyi has abandoned Hezhongfu, the banks of the middle reaches of the Yellow River will completely fall into the hands of Yanhu, and the counties of southern Jinnan will not need to garrison troops, and the troops will gather in Hezhongfu at the ferry, which is also the trend of the times. However, these scattered garrisons should be gathered to form a large force of chasing troops, which cannot be done in three or five days.

Liang Chengyi wouldn't be too worried about Yan Hu transferring Jinnan's garrison to the south, but he was just too anxious because Yan Hu was too anxious.

Liang Chengyi saw that Liang Dai obviously had an advantage in troops, and he also suppressed 3,000 enemy soldiers in the valley and couldn't get out, and he was dissatisfied, but he also knew that giving up Hezhong and retreating south, coupled with last year's rout, made the soldiers in Hezhong demoralized and lacking in fighting spirit.

Liang Chengyi instructed the generals behind him: "Dong Biaozi, you and Chen Rong will each have 300 horses, stick to Dayu Mountain and Lushan Mountain to the north, and drive the enemy scouts out of the mountain pass," and said to Liang Dai, "Your generals will lead 2,000 foot soldiers out of the village and go out to the north, we can't have 8,000 soldiers and horses, so that 3,000 enemy soldiers are pressed in the camp and dare not go out." ”

Liang Chengyi didn't accuse Liang Dai of anything, and first sent his subordinates to fight out at night to compete with the enemy for the terrain of the north mouth.

Take advantage of the night to fight for the topography of the mountain pass, and after dawn, there is a chance that you can eat the enemy soldiers who are chasing after you, and it will also increase the morale of the depressed.

Liang Chengyi commanded a lot of cavalry, Hezhong Mansion at its peak, 50,000 soldiers and horses, cavalry will be more than 10,000 people.

Last year, the battle to cross the Yellow River was lost, and this time he retreated south with Liang Chengyi, and there were still four or five thousand cavalry. The 3,000 soldiers and horses who came with Liang Chengyi from the ferry to join Liang Dai were all cavalry, and 600 cavalry galloped out at that time, divided into two teams, and took advantage of the moonlit night to kill the pursuers in the north of the mountain.

***************

Yanque Ridge is the remaining vein of Hengshan Mountain to the north, it is a barren ridge of forty or fifty zhang high, seven or eight miles long, there are boulders and bird heads at the head of the ridge, so it is called Yanque Ridge.

Chen Zhihu stood on top of the rock, watching the Hezhong army attacking from the Lushan Pass under the moonlit night.

What Liang Chengyi never imagined was that the soldiers and horses chasing from the north were simply the garrisons dispatched by Xingyang or Daliang, but the elite led by Chen Zhihu and chased from the east of Mengzhou.

Although the number of this chasing army is small, only about 3,000 people, it is really a hundred battles that have been fighting with Chen Zhihu for many years.

Since he was transferred to Jinzhong to fight against Guanzhong after the autumn of last year, although the number of soldiers and horses around Hezhong Mansion has decreased sharply, both Chen Zhihu and Yan Ting have paid close attention to the movements of Hezhong Mansion.

The overall strategy of the Yan king Yezier, Yeji Luorong, and Yeji Duodi kings on the western front was to seize Guanzhong with strong military pressure, force the Cao family to retreat south, and seize the passage south into Jinghu.

Hezhong Mansion and Guanzhong are interdependent, Liang Chengyi can't stand the pressure and withdraws early, which is not something that the Yanhu kings can't consider - in fact, the transfer of soldiers and horses around Hezhong Mansion and the storming of the fortified are to scare Liang Chengyi away from Hezhong Mansion.

Around the second day of the sixth month, after confirming that Liang Chengyi was going to flee south, Chen Zhihu led his troops eastward from Hejin in western Jinxi to the north bank of the Yellow River in Mengjin via Hengqu.

It was early summer, the Yellow River was turbulent, the river was wide and dangerous, and it was not easy for a large group of soldiers and horses to cross the river. After Liang Chengyi withdrew from Hezhong Province, a small number of soldiers and horses were still left on the south bank of the Yellow River in Mengjin.

Chen Zhihu immediately made a decision, handed over the main force of troops and horses to Gao Yi for the time being, and crossed the Yellow River from Mengjin and Huaibei to confuse Liang Chengyi, while he himself led 3,000 elites to the east at night, crossed the Yellow River from the ferry east of Mengzhou, and pursued him through Xingyang to the south. Only when Liang Chengyi thought that these 3,000 pursuers were the 3,000 weak brigades in Xingyang.

It was still when he was about to chase after Lushan that Chen Zhihu ordered the Henan soldiers and horses from Xingyang and Daliang Zhucheng to come over and converge.

Watching the army in the river attack at night, under the crescent moon, the stubble was full of black shadows, and it was not clear what soldiers and horses were dispatched, in short, there were no less than 2,000 people. General Leng Zilin said to Chen Zhihu: "Hu Shuai, the army in the river wants to eat us all, do you want to retreat and retreat, first lure them to spread out their soldiers and horses, and then counterattack after Xingyang and Daliang soldiers and horses come over?" ”

Chen Zhihu was born in Dakou, rescued Li Zhuo on the execution ground, and has been working by Li Zhuo's side since then.

At the beginning of the war in Eastern Fujian, the Zhejiang soldiers and the Jiangxi soldiers fought unfavorably, and the Jiangxi side called the luxury flying bear to Fuzhou, when Li Zhuo was the deputy envoy and governor of Fuzhou, and ordered Chen Zhihu to lead the Fuzhou prisoners to form an army to go to the city to participate in the war.

Since then, Chen Zhihu has led the army independently, and his subordinates are either from the pardoned felons or from the co-opted bandits.

Such a tiger running army, like Gao Yi and Leng Zilin, are all from Dakou like Chen Zhihu, and they may value personal kindness, but after Li Zhuo's death, they were not loyal to the imperial court. They killed people like hemp, when they killed the exiled people in Jinnan and Henan, they didn't have the slightest mercy, and after joining Yanhu, they killed people, and naturally they didn't have the slightest mercy.

Chen Zhihu shook his head and said, "The soldiers and horses of Xingyang and Daliang will not be able to come before the sun sets tomorrow. Now Liang Chengyi drove the displaced people to Dayu Mountain, so that his headquarters soldiers and horses could cross the Beiru River as soon as possible, and drag it for a day, not to mention that more than 10,000 people in the river army should be asked to cross the river, which is not conducive to the future. I had the intention of storming their strongholds, but since they are going to fight, it is only good that they must not retreat north......"

As soon as Liang Chengyi withdrew, the Cao family naturally would not hold on, and its soldiers and horses on the south bank of Weishui also began to withdraw. However, after capturing Guanzhong, the western route can be regarded as the biggest obstacle to remove, but it is necessary to take Nanyang and march to the Hanshui River to finally open up the western route to the south.

Liang Chengyi's soldiers and horses in the river are more than 30,000 people, and the elite who can fight is less than 10,000 people, which is not very important in the overall situation of the confrontation between the north and the south. However, if the more than 30,000 soldiers and horses of Hezhong Mansion were allowed to escape to Nanyang smoothly and join Liang Chengchong's department, the soldiers and horses guarding Nanyang would be as high as more than 60,000 people.

Once the situation develops like this, Nanyang will be difficult to bite, and this is by no means the situation that Dayan wants to see.