Chapter 231 Surrounding the Enemy and Resisting Rescue
In just half a month, Yue Hailou had a deeper understanding of the word "deep in mud", but this feeling was extremely bitter.
He initially decided to stick to Jiaopi and wait for reinforcements because he believed that Beijing and Xiang were unable to solve the problems of land logistics and transportation in the icy and snowy winter. It would take at least one to one and a half months to complete the semi-encirclement deployment of the Jiaopi-Quanhe camp.
Seeing that Jingxiang had laid two sleeper tracks between Yongjin River and the south side of Jiaopi in just three to five days, Yue Hailou realized at that time that his judgment was greatly deviated.
However, the strengthened Jingsheng Army's Second and Third Towns, with a total of 40,000 troops, had already entered the Jieche Camp to the west of Quanhe River. Only Zhangzigou and the surrounding areas north of Quanhe River were returned to the capital.
The Western Han army left a small opening to break through.
The forward troops, mainly the selected vanguard troops, had not only invaded the inner city of Ruyin, completely annihilated the remnants of Sun Yanzhou and Hu Dangzhou, and controlled the entire city of Ruyin, but also had Yang Ji, Chen Man, Liu Huting, Guo Yunkun,
Tang Yuan, Yu Mo and others led the formation of an 8,000-strong Ruyin uprising army. They used the grain and materials captured in Ruyin to set up camp west of Ruyin City and directed their troops at the 12,000-strong Western Han Army and Red Army in Beijing.
Zhangzigou where the cavalry troops were stationed.
At this time, Yue Hailou also wanted to lead his troops to escape westward from Jiaopi-Quanhe, which became doubly difficult. In addition to the extremely maneuverable red cavalry, the 670,000-to-70,000-strong Western Han Army in Beijing, Bianlu and others were mainly infantry.
How can the soldiers and horses who have been reinforced from the ground break out of the encirclement?
For this group of people, it became extremely difficult for these 10,000 to 20,000 remaining soldiers to escape into Wanqiu City. It could even be said to be a dream.
After only three or five days, the best opportunity to break out was missed, and Yuehai Tower was in deep trouble.
However, he watched helplessly as the Jingxiang Army built barracks one after another south and southwest of Jiaopi, forming a company camp with a coverage area of more than 40 miles from the Jiaopi-Quanhe camp. He still had the last hope in his heart.
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After quickly building the company camp, the Sikong Mansion was not in a hurry to launch a strong attack on the Jiaopi-Quanhe enemy, nor was it even in a hurry to transport siege equipment, stone bombs, mud pellets and other materials to the Jiaopi front line.
In addition to clearing the snow, transporting truckloads of gravel and cinders to the north through the Yongjin River, and laying a new post road between Jiaopi and Huaichuan, the Sikong Mansion focused on encircling the enemy and blocking reinforcements on the east wing.
In Lugou, east of the Ying River, in the area close to the Huai River, Yang Qiye first led the Xiaosheng Army, and the main forward force of the Xuanwu Army quickly set up camp, and simultaneously established beachheads and plank roads on the north bank of the Huai River.
Nearly twenty miles of sleeper tracks are also laid between the plank roads and docks to ensure the transportation of people, horses and materials, and at the same time strengthen the Ludong Camp step by step.
Although Sikong Mansion still has hundreds of miles of open space between Ludong Camp and Ruyin, the deployment of troops on the eastern front is also relatively limited. The forward troops who invade Ruyin and Ludong Camp total only 50,000 troops.
Prince Yan Zong's Mansion can organize more reinforcements, and from such a large gap, they can continuously march westward to Lugou and Yingshang to meet up with Meng He's troops.
However, the speed of the Pingyanzong Prince's reinforcements moving westward will undoubtedly be greatly suppressed. Even before the situation is unclear, they only dare to assemble the reinforcements in Mengcheng and other counties in Bozhou, and do not dare to rush directly to the coast of Yingshui River.
Come.
Prior to this, Cheng Xiao and Su Mi had already led 10,000 soldiers and horses to set up camp at Raozhuang Village to the west of Lugou. Subsequently, Sikong Mansion recruited more than 10,000 soldiers and horses from Zhuluzhou Prefecture to strengthen Raozhuang Village.
Area defense.
In addition to strengthening the response to Ruyin, this move is also more important to restrict Yingshang.
-The enemies of Lugou advance westward.
Yingshang is located on the right bank of the Yingshui River estuary, and Lugou is located on the left bank of the Yingshui River estuary.
After Huaichuan was besieged, Meng He, the general of Prince Pingyanzong's palace, led 40,000 cavalry reinforcements and settled in Yingshang-Lugou to control the mouth of Yingshui River.
Generally speaking, they should be enough to block the channels for the Beijing and Xiang naval forces to enter the Ying River.
However, there are no absolutes in everything.
The Yongjin River connects Rushui and Yingshui downstream. The Yongjin River flows into the Yingshui estuary, located between Raozhuang and Ruyin. As a semi-artificial river, the Yongjin River was originally quite shallow and narrow. In recent years, it has become
There was no one to control the dredging, and the siltation became even worse.
It is unrealistic for Sikong Mansion to dredge and widen the nearly 200-mile-long Yongjin River in a short period of time. The manpower and material resources consumed are too great.
However, the waterway in the lower reaches of Yingshui River is winding, and the waterway in the middle reaches of Huaihe River is also winding and winding. Bypassing Yingshang and the estuary area controlled by Lugou, Raozhuang Village is only 23 or 20 miles south from Longwan Village on the north bank of Huaihe River.
distance.
There is even a natural river called Shilipu in the north of Longwanzhai, which flows northward into the Yingshui River from the west of Raozhuangzhai.
Just after the eighth year of Emperor Long's eighth year in Shaoxing, Deng Gui suspended sending troops from the Lujing camp to contain the enemy forces in Bozhou and Xiacai, and instead sent his limited troops to
Ma Shing returned to the Lujing concentration camp where the city construction had been initially completed. He personally led the Xuanwu Army's First and Second Towns to land on the north bank of the Huai River at Longwanzhai, and together with the garrison at Raozhuangzhai, contained and blocked it from the west.
The enemy troops from Yingshang to Lugou advanced westward.
At the same time, the Sikong Prefecture mobilized 20,000 troops to dig a new river channel between Longwan and Raozhuang on the basis of the original Shilipu River, in an attempt to completely open the connection between the Huai River and the Ying River and facilitate the transportation of the Beijing-Xiang Navy Division.
Large iron-clad iron ships were able to bypass the mouth of the Yingshui River controlled by the enemy forces of Prince Ping Yanzong's Mansion and enter the Yingshui River.
Although the twelfth lunar month of winter is full of ice and snow in Yingzhou, the depth of frozen soil in Yingzhou in winter is only about one and a half feet. Therefore, as long as the supply of manpower and material resources is sufficient, it is not difficult to dig rivers in the Hehuai area in winter. It is an unimaginable task.
thing.
With the construction of multiple blockade camps between Longwan and Raozhuang, and large-scale iron wire ropes put into use, multiple blockades with a length of more than 20 miles were quickly established between the camps to prevent small groups of raiders from penetrating and harassing.
Recruit nearby and organize more young men and women to speed up the excavation of Longrao River.
Prior to this, Yue Hailou thought that he would stick to Jiaopi and Quanhe and wait for reinforcements. At the same time, as long as Meng He could hold Yingshang and Lugou without losing control and control the mouth of the Yingshui River, he would wait until the Yingshui River thawed later in the year to gather reinforcements.
If it is not enough for the Jingxiang Army to withdraw, they can also calmly use the Yingshui River to retreat westward; they can even take advantage of the fact that the Jingxiang Navy has no way to enter the Yingshui River, and organize troops to recapture Ruyin on the left bank (north bank) of the Yingshui River.
It can further turn the situation in Yingzhou from danger to peace.
However, after learning that Sikong Mansion had assembled 40,000 soldiers and horses to block the enemy's westward passage from Yingshang to Lugou, he recruited 70,000 to 80,000 troops and civilians to dig a new river channel between Raozhuang and Longwan, directly
Shatter the illusion and expectation of Yue Hailou.
This is also the last hope for Yue Hailou to break out of the encirclement.
In early February, the Yingshui River began to thaw, and the Longrao River, which was more than 25 miles long, was excavated on the basis of the original Shilipu River and was officially completed in less than a month.
Behind the dam at the mouth of the Longrao River - time was tight and there was no time to build a ship lock on the dam. The water from the Huaihe River poured into the river like a herd of galloping horses, filling the Longrao River in one day.
Early the next morning, more than two hundred large and small warships of the Beijing and Xiang naval divisions, which had already assembled at the Longwanzhai water camp, with twenty armored warships as the core, headed north via the Longrao River.
The Yingshui River has just thawed, and there are still a lot of ice floes in the river. However, in order to prevent the Western Beijing Navy from setting off from Wanqiu and other places in advance to advance westward, they first control the river west of Ruyin and coordinate Yue Hailou's troops to cross Ying from Jiaopi.
To escape north, the Jingxiang Navy also took advantage of the floating ice and went northward from the newly excavated Longrao River into the Yingshui River in advance, and then moved westward along the Yingshui River to meet up with the main force of the Selected Front Army stationed in Ruyin.
The Yingshui River Basin is still small, and there is almost no possibility of freezing floods. The river flow rate in early spring is also very slow, and the damage from ice floes is limited. However, the medium and large warships currently built in Beijing and Xiangzhou use keel structures widely.
The partitions are also reinforced with a large number of fine iron components, and the entire ship also adopts a watertight cabin structure, which is far stronger and more stable than traditional boats.
At that time, there were only a very small number of boats, and they began to use aniseed as the keel to strengthen the hull structure.
The warships of the Beijing-Xiang Navy arrived in Ruyin in advance. It was only 20 miles away from the Zhangzigou Floating Ferry. There were three to four thousand naval forces in the west of Beijing and two to three hundred large and small warships. How could they dare to rush eastward to receive reinforcements?
????????????Yue Hailou crossed Ying and fled north?
On February 15, the Beijing-Hangzhou navy went up the Ying River, stormed the Zhangzigou floating bridge, set fire to the Zhangzigou floating bridge, and cut off the communication between the enemy at Jiaobei and the remaining troops of Mo Lihu and Zhong Changqing on the north bank of Zhangzigou. This meant that
Complete the encirclement against the enemies of Jiaopi and Quanhe.
Before that, on the same day when the Longrao River was filled with water, Meng He, the general of Prince Pingyanzong's palace, did not dare to bite the bullet and defend Yingshang-Lugou. Instead, he took advantage of the fact that there were hundreds of troops between Ruyin and Lugou.
In the free time, taking advantage of the fact that the Southern Dynasty's troops on the left bank (north bank) of Yingshui River were less than 70,000, he led his troops to flee to Mengcheng County, which was affiliated with Bozhou.
Since Prince Ping Yanzong's palace has assembled 70,000 new infantry and cavalry in Mengcheng County, Bozhou and other places in the past month or so, and Wang Ju and Yang Qiye are in Ruyin, the soldiers and horses of Ludong Camp did not dare to act rashly.
After Meng He's troops withdrew, they went to take over the two cities of Yingshang and Lugou that had been set on fire by the enemy.
There were tens of thousands of local civilians in Yingshang and Lugou, but before Meng He led his troops to withdraw, all of them, regardless of gender, old or young, were massacred. Dozens of secret spies from the Military Intelligence Department lurking among the civilians were unable to do anything.
Escaped disaster.
Fearing that the main force of Beijing and Xiang would temporarily let go of Jiaopi-Quanhe and not fight, they would instead take advantage of the Longrao River-Yingshui River to move north. Zhennan King Wu Lulie, who had just arrived in Chenzhou to take charge, was forced to cut off his arm to survive and give up the Jiaopi soldiers.
After Ma's decision, he ordered Mo Lihu and Zhong Changqing to lead more than 12,000 remaining troops to abandon the Zhangzigou camp and withdraw to the northwest into Taihe County, where they would join the 30,000 infantry and cavalry newly assembled in Taihe.
At this time, the reinforcements entering Yingzhou and nearby areas were far less than those belonging to the Zhennan Zongfu.
This is not because the king of Zhennan, Ulullie, is slacking off. In fact, it is under the jurisdiction of Zhennan Zong’s palace. The soldiers and horses on the southern front are either restrained by the elites of Beijing, Xiangzhou and Caizhou in Ruzhou and Caizhou and cannot escape, or they have already gone south before winter.
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The new reinforcements are mainly from Puzhou, Zezhou, Luzhou, Taiyuan and other places in the east of Hedong, or seconded from the Guanshan area affiliated to the Jingpan Zong Palace.
In the cold winter with heavy snowfall, marching and raising food supplies were not easy.
The ability to gather 30,000 cavalry at Taihe within a month was only the result of Uluru Lieutenant personally urging various places to launch reinforcements after receiving the message.
Larger reinforcements are still on the way, but there is nothing they can do about the siege of Jiaopi in a short period of time...
