The rain of arrows was like locusts, and it was like a huge sky net covering it. Zhong Changqing, who was in the wilderness, held up a big shield, only heard the strange sound of "Duoduo", and countless arrowheads hit the iron hard.
On the shield, he was about to kill into the dense forest ahead, when suddenly blazing flames burst out of the ground, and countless ferocious faces of the dead were struggling in the sea of fire to rush towards him...
Zhong Changqing woke up from his nightmare. He was stunned for a long time before he suddenly realized that he had another nightmare: he was neither surrounded by pursuers nor trapped in a sea of fire and unable to escape.
He was sleeping in the house in Zhongmou City, with the beautiful concubine newly gifted by the king of Zong lying beside him. He was sleeping soundly, which made him slightly forget about his wife and children who were kidnapped by the Southern soldiers after the fall of Wanqiu.
Zhong Changqing couldn't stand the stuffy heat in the room and the irritability in his heart, so he put on a thin robe, opened the door and walked into the courtyard, where the night wind blew slowly, which relieved the irritability in his heart.
At this time, it had been a full month since Yue Hailou set fire to himself in Jiaopi, and it had been more than half a month since Zhong Changqing had retreated to Zhongmou with his troops led by Zhennan Zong Wang Wulu Lie, but he, who thought he had a heart of stone, had not yet
I have recovered from the sad news that Yue Hai Tower burned himself to death.
Why did it fail so miserably?
Zhong Changqing, who claimed to know Beijing and Xiangxiang better than anyone else, was deeply trapped by this problem at this time.
Except for a few generals such as Feng Shizhao, Mo Lihu, and Kuo Ti, who led more than 10,000 remnant tribesmen to escape hastily, the General Administration of the Military and Horse Capital in the west of Beijing was completely destroyed this time.
"Tap-tat" the sound of horse hoofbeats could be heard clearly from the direction of the West City Gate. Zhong Changqing listened for a while, feeling confused and worried at the same time. He didn't know what urgent news had come from the direction of Luoyang overnight.
Zhong Changqing waited anxiously in the house for a long time, but the king did not see him urgently summoning them to discuss matters. He thought that the matter might not be that urgent. Then he went to wash up with some peace of mind, and had some simple food before going to the dental tent to attend the meeting.
.
After entering the Yazhang compound and seeing Mo Lihu on duty, Zhong Changqing realized that an envoy from Prince Jingpanzong's palace had arrived late at night, and Prince Jingpanzong agreed to send troops to cover the retreat of Heluo soldiers and civilians to the north.
The most important thing now is to move as many Heluo soldiers and civilians as possible to Puzhou, Fen and other places north of the Yellow River before autumn and winter. Handu's previous suggestion of massacring those who could not be taken away will not be mentioned again.
Such a change is definitely not the kindness of the Chihu people, but the tragic defeat in the Battle of Yingzhou was so shocking and unexpected.
When Handu initially suggested that the main forces of the two governments should withdraw from Hehuai and advocated massacre of all the old, weak, sick and disabled who could not be taken away, in addition to Yue Hailou, Meng Jie and other generals also led 60,000 cavalry to defend Jiaopi-Quan.
He camp dragged the main force of the southern army outside the right bank of Yingshui River. The two prefectures also assembled nearly 200,000 reinforcements on the left bank of Yingshui River.
Considering that the rainy and flood season is approaching, and after autumn, the land of Hehuai is once again dominated by red cavalry, the southern soldiers must not dare to rush northward. They should have enough manpower and relatively ample time to conquer the hinterland of Hehuai.
All the military households and households were forcibly driven to the north of the Yellow River, and then the troops were divided to massacre all the remaining people who could not be taken away, set fire to villages and cities, and destroy as much as possible the post roads and rivers in the hinterland of the Hehuai River.
However, the development of the war situation was completely different from what they had initially expected. The Southern soldiers not only rushed to annihilate the main force of the Jingxi infantry cavalry on the south bank of Yingshui River before the rainy and flood season came, but also bravely crossed the
They crossed the Ying River and defeated their main reinforcements.
Nowadays, although Zhennan Zong's palace can barely scrape together 100,000 infantry and cavalry in the middle, it is already at an absolute disadvantage compared to the 200,000 elite Nan soldiers in the middle. It is difficult to organize the army step by step in western Beijing, Heluo and other places.
They were forced to retreat northward, and they even had to ask Prince Jingpanzong to dispatch elite infantry and cavalry from Guanshan, Longyou and other places to cover them.
At the same time, the Heluo Han Army and the remnants of the Han Army in Western Beijing were withdrawn to the north of the Yellow River. Facing the increasingly powerful Southern Dynasty soldiers and horses, if you want to defend Hedong and Yanjing and other places north of the Wei River, you need to recruit military households and larger-scale troops.
They selected young men from among them, formed a new Han army and trained them. Even if elite cavalry were recruited from the grasslands to supplement the deficiencies of the garrison, the overall size of the garrison was far from enough to defend so many cities.
of.
Therefore, apart from completely abandoning Hedong and other places, withdrawing from the Central Plains, and hoping that the newly organized Han army would have combat effectiveness, the strategy of massacre could not be truly implemented.
Otherwise, not only will the resistance and resistance of the Han people increase sharply, but also we should not expect the newly trained Han army to have any combat effectiveness.
Zhong Changqing followed Mo Lihu into the yamen hall and saw Zong Wang Ulullie and Handu and other generals talking to the envoys sent from Hexi - Cao Shixiong wanted to stay at Yique Pass to take charge of the defense line, and he did not dare to escape easily. Heluo soldiers
Shi Mengjian, the head of the Madu Governor's Office, and others came to Zhongmou to discuss the specific details of the northward retreat.
Zhong Changqing and Mo Lihu came forward to see Li and sat aside to listen to their discussion.
Yue Hailou set fire to himself, which greatly shocked the Heluo generals.
In the middle of the Battle of Yingzhou, Handu advocated the withdrawal of troops from the two provinces from the hinterland of Hehuai River. There was still a big dispute among the Heluo generals about whether to give up Heluo. Generals Cao Cheng and Meng Pingping strongly opposed giving up Heluo.
They believe that in addition to its extremely important strategic position, Heluo's geographical situation is also surrounded by mountains, with Laoshan to the west, Xiong'er, Waifangshan to the south, Songshan and Jishan to the east, and the north slightly open, but facing each other across the river.
Hedong is also the hinterland of the jurisdiction of Zhennan Zong Palace, which is a firm and powerful backing.
If the Southern troops want to attack Heluo, they have only three routes: one is to send troops from Wuguan Road to the upper reaches of Luoshui River, and the troop channel is extremely narrow; the other is to send troops from the upper reaches of Yingshui River valley to attack Shexuan Pass, the eastern gateway of Heluo, on the mountain road
The first danger is to send troops from Ruyang and Guangcheng, go down the Yishui River, and attack Yique Pass and Dagu Pass. The passage for sending troops is also not much wider.
Although Generals Cao Cheng and Meng Ping admitted that the Heluo Han army was no longer as elite as the Beijing and Xiangxiang troops in the field, they did not think that the 60,000 to 70,000 Heluo soldiers could defend the strong passes in the mountains and keep the southern troops away from Heluo.
question.
In addition to the Heluo generals, the Zhennan Zong palace and even the ministers of the Khan court were also full of controversy at first about whether to abandon Heluo. The initial compromise plan was to move the Han people in Xu, Chenying and other places to areas beyond the Yellow River.
north.
Who could have imagined that the final outcome of the Battle of Yingzhou would be so bleak and tragic?
The entire Han army in the west of Beijing and even in the east of Heluo were defeated. The newly organized Han army should not be expected to have any combat effectiveness within three to five years. This means that if Cao Shixiong does not withdraw from Heluo, the southern troops will still be able to attack Zhengzhou after they capture it.
You can launch an attack on the northeastern part of Heluo from Hulao Pass north of Songshan Mountain without restraint.
General Cao Cheng and Meng Pingping still dare to
Are you really sure you can defend Heluo?
Furthermore, the Zhennan Zong Palace now urgently needs to withdraw the Heluohan Army to fill in the defense line on the north bank of the Yellow River.
In this way, the cavalry troops, whose strength has become limited, can be concentrated to threaten the southern troops from spreading out along the south bank of the Yellow River.
Although the atmosphere was depressing, no one raised any objections to the evacuation to the north. They all wanted to prepare many tasks before the flood season passed.
Of course, Zhong Changqing noticed that the envoy from Prince Jingpanzong's palace looked somewhat dismissive of the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Yingzhou. He probably thought that this defeat was due to the incompetence of the Han army, right?
Zhong Changqing could not defend himself against this.
It is true that although the two government garrison troops suffered heavy casualties on the battlefield northeast of Taihe and north of Ruyin, they mainly wanted to defeat the flanks of the southern army before the main force of the Han army was defeated. They did not want to gather the 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers on the front battlefield of Taihe.
The Han army could not hold out for half a day.
As for the battlefields that the garrison troops of the two prefectures were responsible for, the results were not ugly, and they finally withdrew from the battlefield calmly.
Zhong??????????????? Chang Qing also knew that another key reason why the envoys from Prince Jingpanzong’s Palace were disdainful was that the size of the Han army under Prince Jingpanzong’s Palace was very large.
Although it is small, it has the largest and most powerful cavalry force in the Red Army.
On the one hand, King Kusigu of the Jingpan sect, as the youngest son of the old Khan, although he failed to inherit the throne in the end, he directly inherited the most elite royal army of the Chihu directly from the old Khan based on the tradition of the youngest son of the Chihu guarding the stove.
On the other hand, King Jingpanzong led his troops to conquer Dangxiang, Heishi and other tribes in the Western Regions, and recruited mainly the elite cavalry from the northwest Tibetan tribes.
At present, the Zhennan Zong Palace and the Pingyan Zong Palace have only 60,000 or 70,000 cavalry left, while the Jingpan Zong Palace has an elite cavalry of 150,000. Naturally, they have the right to be disdainful. Maybe the Jingpan Zong
The people in the palace are still eager to Zhennan, and the Ping and Yan mansions will completely abandon the Central Plains.
Once the Zhennan and Pingyan mansions completely withdraw from the Central Plains, the large-scale army that surrendered to the Han Dynasty will become water without a source and a tree without roots, and its strength will be significantly lower than that of the Jingpanzong Palace.
The power structure within the Husbandry has undergone new changes.
To be honest, at this time, Zhong Changqing did not have particularly strong confidence in whether the two governments could defend the area north of the Yellow River.
Although everyone knows that the southern army is stronger than the navy and the armored soldiers are weaker than the cavalry, the garrison forces of the two provinces have also suffered heavy losses this time. Even if they can barely scrape together 100,000 cavalry, they can really defeat the hundreds of thousands of powerful cavalry.
Are the southern soldiers blocking the way south of the Yellow River?
At this time, the Sikong Mansion in the Southern Dynasty was focusing on the Xuchang and Wanqiu lines, and the distance from Xuchang to the south bank of the Yellow River was only 1,670 miles, which would not form a sufficient strategic buffer - even if the Nanbing soldiers built one every three to five miles.
Wubao and strongholds used hundreds of strong forts to fill the gap between Zheng, Bian, Xu and Chen, and they could also form a stable channel for troops to approach the Yellow River, without fear of long-distance roundabout attacks by the cavalry of the two prefectures.
The chance of victory in the future may be to lure hundreds of thousands of elite Southern soldiers into the Guanzhong or Hebei Plains, which are wider and farther away from the Southern Dynasty's supply areas. Only then will the Khan's court have the opportunity to take advantage of the cavalry and crush them.
?
No matter how strong the army in the south is, and no matter how powerful the troops in Chushan are, will they dare to enter Guanzhong and Hebei and fight against the red cavalry with more than 100,000 people?
