Wanyan Chen Heshang hesitated for a moment before beginning, "Last year, when my elder brother was reassigned as commander-in-chief, I followed him to garrison Fangcheng..."
Song Qingshu had spent so long in the Jin Dynasty that he was naturally thoroughly familiar with its geography. He knew that the Fangcheng Wanyan Chen Heshang spoke of lay in what would later be Henan. In ancient times, it had been a fiercely contested strategic location.
During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the State of Chu from the Jianghan Plain had marched north and destroyed the many small states of the Nanyang Basin one by one. North of the Nanyang Basin lay the Funiu Mountains, to the west were the Qinling Mountains, and to the southeast stood the Tongbai Mountains—all perilous terrain. To the northeast, between the Funiu and Tongbai Mountains, were scattered stretches of hills. As early as the Xia Dynasty, they had formed a passage connecting the Central Plains and the Nanyang Basin, hence the name Xia Road. Later, Chu often used this route to attack the Central Plains, while the states of the Central Plains used it to invade Chu. Chu therefore built the Chu Great Wall among these hills, calling it Fangcheng. Thus, this strategic location came to be known in history as Fangcheng Xia Road.
Now that the Jin Dynasty occupied the Nanyang Basin and faced off against Southern Song at Xiangyang, Deng and Tang Prefectures formed Jin's first line of defense. Should Southern Song breach that first line and seize the Nanyang Basin, Fangcheng Xia Road would become the second line of defense. This showed just how crucial the place guarded by the two brothers was.
"Could your elder brother be Wanyan Xielie?" Song Qingshu asked curiously. Having controlled the Jin Dynasty for so long,