In the north of Ruyin City, with Xuanfeng Army's You Town, Jingsheng Army's 4th Town, and Tianxiong Army's 5th Town as the main forces, the reinforcements for Ping Yanzong's palace were marching westward from Mengcheng and other places during the middle of the day.
The Xiaosheng Army's first and second towns entered the battlefield from the northeast of Ruyin at the end of the day, and the intensity was especially fierce compared to the battlefield east of Taihe's enemy camp.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of surrendered Han troops recruited from Yanji, Yunshuo, Hedong, Hebei and other places, Zhennan Zongfu and Pingyan Zongfu also assembled a total of more than 80,000 troops in Yingzhou and Bozhou.
Elite cavalry. It can be said that after years of campaigns with almost no interruption, Chihu controlled the two prefectures in the main areas of the Central Plains. At this moment, it has squeezed the military potential it can mobilize in the Central Plains to the extreme.
After all, in addition to the main battlefield in Yingzhou, both sides also invested hundreds of thousands of troops in confrontations or fierce battles in the Ruyang area in the upper reaches of the Yishui River, the Xuchang area in the upper reaches of the Yingshui River, and Haoshou, Haisi and other places in the lower reaches of the Huaishui River.
Combat.
In the Qinling Mountains, although the Western Qin Army remained stationary, the Dongchuan Army commanded by the Gu family of Gu Jiqian also actively sent troops to Ziwu Road to attack the captive troops belonging to Prince Jingpan Zong's Mansion who occupied the Weihe Plain in Guanzhong???
????????????Counterattack.
Although Zhennan Zongfu and Pingyan Zongfu had previously stationed up to 80,000 enemy cavalry in the city on both wings of Ruyin, due to the super maneuverability of the elite cavalry, if a large number of infantry cavalry were not sent out of Ruyin,
Yin went north to cut and block it. Ren Ping Yanzong's palace sent nearly 40,000 cavalry east of Ruyin to quickly move westward to reinforce the area east of Taihe. The consequences would be unimaginable; it can even be concluded that once the Chihu people were on the west wing,
To gain absolute strength advantage, they will ruthlessly tear open the flank defense line of the main force of the front army at all costs.
The outcome of this battle depends to a large extent on whether the main force of the left army in Beiruyin City can successfully drag down the more than 40,000 cavalry reinforcements from Prince Yanzong's Palace before the winner is determined on the battlefield east of Taihe.
live.
For this reason, the main force of the left army, led by the fourth town of Jingsheng Army and the fifth town of Tianxiong Army, and supplemented by more than 20,000 Luzhou soldiers and horses, left Ruyin City and spread out in a diagonal line to the north.
In contrast to the 40,000 elite cavalry that Ping Yanzong's palace marched westward to reinforce, more than 50,000 armored soldiers formed a formation with their backs against a 56-foot long and wide river called Wuma River in the north of Ruyang City, stretching out for more than 40 miles.
The interception defense line is actually extremely weak.
Even if the main force of the left army leaves the city from Ruyin and heads north, in addition to hundreds of refined iron shield vehicles and iron-armed crossbow vehicles, Ruyin has also organized craftsmen to urgently build thousands of simple side carriages for more than a month.
The vehicles were used to strengthen the Jiabu array, and at the same time, more than 100 small warships such as walking boats and row oar boats were transferred to Wuma River, which was backed by the interception defense line, to support the operation, but overall they were still at a disadvantage.
The selected front army's right-backed armored cavalry plus heavy armored horse infantry totaled about 10,000 troops, but they needed to be concentrated on the north flank to prevent the main cavalry force of Prince Ping Yanzong's palace from continuing to detour to the north.
This is destined to be a difficult interception battle. The purpose is to hold back the cavalry troops of Prince Ping Yanzong at all costs and drag them to the battlefield east of Taihe to determine the winner.
The main cavalry force of Prince Ping Yanzong arrived in the area east of Wuma River at noon. Without any rest or recuperation, they directly launched wave after wave of attacks on the interception position; they also did not wait for the up to seven or eight people behind them.
The main force of Wan's infantry rushed over.
General Chi Yuan, who replaced Meng He and took charge of the reinforcements to the west of Prince Ping Yan Zong's Mansion, knew very well that he would have to wait until the earliest dawn of the next day before launching a violent attack if the main force of infantry from the rear arrived.
Attack, and he simply did not dare to bet that the main force assembled by Zhennan Zong Palace in Taihe Camp would be able to survive today.
Under the fierce attack of Prince Ping Yanzong's westward reinforcement cavalry, the defense line deployed along Wuma River was once in danger. Countless soldiers fell under the horse hooves and war blades of the captive cavalry. When the battle was at its fiercest, General Xu Huai
Yang Ji and Guo Yunkun's troops were all sent to the battlefield, leaving less than 3,000 reserve troops in Ruyin City.
In order to buy time, the main force of the cavalry of Prince Pingyanzong's Palace did not choose to make a detour from Zhiqiao City in Bozhou, which was 123 to 30 miles away. Instead, the main force of the front army in Youzhen then rushed into the cavalry formation of Prince Pingyanzong's Palace.
North wing, engage in melee.
At noon (three o'clock in the afternoon), Yang Qiye led the Xiaosheng Army's first town and the main force of the second town finally arrived at Ruyin. The more than 25,000 horse infantry did not have time to take a breath or adjust their formations.
The soldiers immediately abandoned their horses and charged into the Ruyin battlefield from the east of Ruyin City and from the south wing.
Until sunset, the main force of the front army, under the command of Chen Zixiao, completely defeated the 80,000 surrendered Han troops reinforced from Yunshuo, Hedong, Guanshan and other places east of the enemy camp in Taihe.
At this time, the cavalry troops of Zhennan Zongwangfu and Pingyanzongwangfu saw that the situation was over, so they slowly withdrew from the two battlefields east of Taihe and the northern flank of Ruyin.
, and went to Luyi, Bozhou Zhiqiaocheng and other places.
On the two interception battlefields, Chi Hu left nearly 20,000 cavalry corpses.
In order to block the red cavalry from the main line of the front army, more than 20,000 people were killed by the Jingsheng Army, Xiao Sheng Army, Tianxiong Army and soldiers and horses from various prefectures.
It was tragic, nearly half of it was damaged.
In comparison, attacking Taihe from the front and defeating the 80,000 main force of the former army that surrendered to the Han army resulted in only over 10,000 casualties.
The main cavalry of the Chi Hu was intercepted from the northern flank of Ruyin and the northeastern flank of the enemy camp in Taihe. When the battle was the fiercest, the generals of both sides were almost completely mixed together. Almost all the generals had to charge into the battle with their guards and horses, and participated in the fierce battle.
The killings were brutal and the casualties were extremely heavy.
Veteran general Jie Zhong, who had followed Xu Huai during the Tongbai Mountain Bandit Rebellion, Han Qi, the commander of the fourth town of Tianxiong Army, and Han General of Shuozhou, deputy commander of the first town of Tianxiong Army, and Han Lurong, who was Chen Zixiao's right-hand man
, and Chen Su, who was a military official in the deployment department of Jinghu North Road, and deputy commander of the second town of Jingsheng Army, unfortunately died on the battlefield.
Simply judging from the number of casualties, this battle can only be regarded as a tragic victory; even since Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang, there has not been a large-scale battle in which so many senior generals died on the battlefield.
Subsequently, Xu Huai not only ordered the main force of the former army to station in Taihe City to clear out the remaining enemies, but also mobilized 10,000 elite troops from the siege troops in Jiaopi and Quanhe, and 10,000 state soldiers boarded navy warships and sailed up the river overnight. , passing through Yingshui directly to the vicinity of Zhiwanqiu in Chenzhou to wait for opportunities.
The Xuanfeng Army, Tianxiong Army, Jingsheng Army and Xiaosheng Army either garrisoned on the spot at Taihe Camp, or withdrew to Zhangzigou Camp. Ruyin City rested and reorganized. Xu Huai stopped all the soldiers and horses and carried the victory along the north bank of Yingshui River. The original battle plan of advancing directly to Shenqiu, Xiangcheng and other places even gave up the idea of selecting vanguard cavalry to detour into the hinterland of northern Xuzhou and cut off the northward escape route of Xuchang's 30,000 enemy troops.
However, judging from the strategic purpose of initiating the Yingzhou Battle, this battle is still the most glorious victory since the Chihu invasion of the south, and it is also a key victory that completely determines the war situation in Hehuai and even the entire Central Plains.
After severely damaging the main force of 670,000 to 70,000 Western Han troops in Beijing, and continuing to besiege the remnants of the Western Han troops in Beijing outside the two cities of Jiaopi and Quanhe, this battle further dealt a devastating blow to the town.
The 80,000 people under the jurisdiction of Nanzong's palace surrendered to the Han army.
So far in the battle of Yingzhou, the main force of the Han army that surrendered to the Zhennanzong Palace, except the Heluo Han Army Cao Shixiong and the Han Army in Xuzhou, has been almost completely wiped out. , that is, the garrison troops and horses of the two prefectures were also severely damaged.
When Wu Lulie and Tu Ge, the two kings of the Red Husband, marched southward through Yanyun and swept through the Central Plains, they had the elites of the Red Husbands themselves and the Semu cavalry recruited from the tribes in Monan and Mobei as their direct line, with a total strength of about 120,000.
After several battles, injuries and illnesses, and the return of old soldiers to their hometowns, after the two governments swept through the Central Plains, they mainly relied on the Han army to fight and govern the place. Subsequently, they only supplemented a small number of new soldiers from the grassland tribes. Before this Yingzhou battle, The number of garrison cavalry under the jurisdiction of the two governments has dropped to more than 80,000.
Even counting the Khitan and Tibetan cavalry who surrendered to Yanji with Meng He and others, the cavalry troops under the jurisdiction of the two governments in the entire Central Plains region were only a little over 100,000.
The number of cavalry corpses abandoned by the two governments on the battlefield this time was as high as 20,000. It can be expected that the number of cavalry who were seriously injured and disabled should not be less than this number.
This also means that before the Zhennan Zong Palace and the Yan Zong Palace recruit new elite cavalry from the grasslands, they can drive them on the battlefield in the Central Plains. The size of the cavalry has been greatly reduced to about 60,000.
Although the 80,000 Han soldiers and horses that Ping Yanzong's palace sent westward for reinforcements fled to Mengcheng and other places in time, did not participate in the war, and preserved their strength, after this battle, at least in the Hehuai area, Dai Viet had completely occupied the military position. Advantage.
However, with such tragic casualties, Xu Huai could not sleep all night.
He now had no chance to go to the battlefield again, so he stood on the Ruyin North Tower at night, watching hundreds of soldiers collecting the corpses of generals and soldiers along the Wuxi River, lit by bonfires.
Unconsciously, another day dawned, and Liu Shiwang, who had also stayed up all night, climbed up to the tower, saluted Wang Ju, walked to Xu Huai, who was standing like a sculpture at the entrance of the crenellated wall, and said: "With Shen Qiu, Xiang Cheng Shou. Like the army, the Wanqiu defenders also fled in a hurry overnight. Fu Liang had led 5,000 front troops to garrison Wanqiu City. The defenders fled in a hurry and did not have time to damage the city. In addition to more than a thousand houses being set on fire, The rest is generally intact; more than 100,000 people and their families who surrendered to the Han army are still stranded in the city. However, the Wanqiu granary has been set on fire, and there is very little food left by the people. Fu Liang requested that 100,000 stones of grain and fodder be quickly transported to Wanqiu!"
"That's all you have arranged," Xu Huai turned around and asked, "Is there any news from Xuchang?"
Xuchang is the capital of Xuzhou, located in the middle reaches of the Yingshui River from Songshan Mountain. It is an important town on the west wing of the enemy's Yingshui defense line in the west of Beijing. It has long been in confrontation with the Caizhou defense line with Xiangcheng and Zhaoling as its core.
Since the Yingshui River flows out of the Songshan Mountains and flows into the Huai River from northwest to southeast, Xuchang is located in Ruyin and the northwest side of Wanqiu. Geographically, it is quite far north, less than 150 miles away from the south bank of the Yellow River.
Before the Battle of Yingzhou, Xuchang was garrisoned by Yue Hailou's general Feng Shizhao commanding 30,000 troops.
The enemies of Wanqiu, Xiangcheng, and Shenqiu abandoned the city in a hurry and fled north. This was expected - even if he didn't escape, Xu Huai could calmly rely on Yingshui to surround these cities on the north bank of Yingshui, causing The Red Army's remnants of cavalry no longer dared to send reinforcements to the south easily.
However, Xuchang is almost on the same straight line as Yanling, Zhecheng, Luyi and Qiaocheng, and it is adjacent to Changge and other cities under the jurisdiction of Zhengzhou to the north. It is still unknown whether Feng Shizhao will abandon the city in a hurry and flee... …
