In the Hehuai land in mid-August, the autumn wind has gradually become bleak, and the turbid Yellow River water is surging down.
Hundreds of boats went down the river and entered Puzhou with great momentum.
Since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, Yunyan and other places have been occupied by the Khitan. For more than a hundred years, in order to prevent the Khitan cavalry from passing through the vast Hebei Plain, the imperial court deliberately did not build dams in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and even prohibited private people from building dams, allowing the Yellow River to pass through Pu.
After the borders of Wei and other states, it flooded freely on the Hebei Plain——
The Yellow River has no fixed channel on the Hebei Plain, or it changes its channel frequently, which not only makes people living on both sides of the lower reaches of the Yellow River miserable, but also makes it impossible for larger boats to use the unpredictable and shallow river channel to directly
Entering the Hebei Plain.
After the Sikong Mansion regained Heluo, Zhengbian and other places, it built several shipyards and therefore lacked aniseed materials. Although it could only urgently build a batch of small and medium-sized warships to supplement the use of the newly formed Luoyang Water Camp and Xingyang Water Camp, this was not the case.
There is no need to worry that the enemy's naval warships in Dengzhou can enter the middle reaches of the Yellow River.
At the same time, Prince Pingyanzong's Palace does not need to worry that as the Sikong Palace's water camp power in Zheng, Bian, Heluo and other places gradually strengthens, it will be able to cut off the connection between Hebei and Qilu by controlling the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
However, as the Sikong Prefecture's water camp in Zhengbian and other places gradually strengthened, the middle reaches of the Yellow River were completely under the control of the Xingyang water camp. Every once in a while, warships would go down the river and go deep into Puzhou.
, reconnaissance and raiding in Weizhou.
The enemy troops in Puzhou, Weizhou, Caozhou, Yunzhou and other places were not surprised by this.
It's just that today there are too many boats coming from upstream and heading into Changyuan County.
In addition to the warships, there were also a large number of civilian ships accompanying them, as many as five to six hundred, like narrow dark clouds, completely blocking the Yellow River waterway for more than ten miles to the south and east of Changyuan County.
The enemy troops in Changyuan and other places were also very nervous at this moment, thinking that the southern soldiers stationed in Zhengbian were finally going to launch a large-scale offensive against Puzhou, which was just around the corner.
After Sikong Prefecture recaptured Zhengbian and other places, the troops moved north to the coast of the Yellow River, and the east wing was deployed along the east bank of the Surabaya River, which also forced the soldiers to deploy defense lines north of the Yellow River and east of the Surabaya River.
Changyuan is a node in the thousands-mile defense line of the captive soldiers. The city of about six miles around was destroyed by war in the early years. At this time, it was repaired hastily and 3,000 defenders were stationed. The main ones were surrendered to the Han army. When they saw the Southern soldiers were killing them fiercely,
Of course, he didn't have the courage to go out to fight in the city. At this moment, he just closed the city gate tightly and sent cavalry to various places to ask for help.
The sound of horse hoofbeats echoed on the ground, and dozens of horsemen galloped out of the city and galloped in the sparsely populated wilderness.
A low trumpet sound sounded in the city, and groups of soldiers picked up their swords and guns, put on their armor, and climbed onto the city wall to prepare for the attack.
Beacon fire and smoke also rose to quickly convey emergency military information to nearby cities.
The Yellow River turned a big bend in the southeast of Changyuan City, forming a large open river beach on the left bank. Hundreds of boats docked on the river beach. Xu Tan, wearing armor, was the first to land on the shore surrounded by many cavalry guards.
Xu Tan galloped up a low hill, reined in his horse and looked at the vast wilderness of the Hebei plain. There were some farmers in ragged clothes in the fields, looking numbly towards this side, neither escaping hastily nor coming over with joy.
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Xu Tang looked towards the top of Changyuan City several miles away.
The defenders who boarded the city were in a hurry and confusion. They saw the first thousand cavalrymen who landed on the city rushing toward the outskirts of Changyuan City. Three or four hundred steps away, someone fired their bows and arrows in a hurry. The arrows fell feebly on the Changyuan City. A wasteland full of weeds.
The river crossing this time was not a raid on Changyuan City. The main force climbed to the left bank through the emergency trestles. After a short preparation, they bypassed Changyuan City and went straight north.
Surrounded by the guard cavalry, Xu Zang finally set off north together with the returning vigilance cavalry.
The destination of their trip is not Changyuan, nor Hua County or Tangyin County to the north of Changyuan, but to go straight to the coast of Zhangshui River north of Anyang County in Xiangzhou, and to Qinglong Ridge and Baiyan Ridge, which are active in the upper reaches of Zhangshui River.
The rebel troops from other places gathered together and then entrenched themselves like a nail in the mountains upstream of Zhangshui River to launch guerrilla operations.
The upper reaches of Zhangshui River not only points directly to the west of Daming Prefecture in Weizhou, but also to the hinterland of the north. Several post roads across the Hebei Plain are all concentrated in this area. They insist on carrying out guerrilla and mobile operations here. On the one hand, they can greatly contain the East Route pirates.
After the soldiers entered winter, they transported grain, livestock, and horses from north to south. At the same time, they also controlled Fukouxing, the main artery from Zezhou to Luzhou that crossed the Taihang Mountains and connected with the hinterland of Hebei.
Before the three main corps in the west of Beijing, south of Beijing and Xuzhou camp officially launched the winter counterattack, Xu Fang led a partial division to go straight to Zhangshui, in order to cut off the communication between the east and west route soldiers to the maximum extent, reinforce them, and disrupt the east route to the maximum extent.
The soldiers transported grain, men and horses from north to south...
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In the past two hundred years, there have been three major breaches on the right bank of the Yellow River. The rolling river water poured into Jeju, and connected with Juye Ze and Oh Ye Ze, forming an endless large water park with crisscrossed harbors and branches, spanning the territory of Jeju and Yunzhou.
It is more than 800 miles in all directions, with mountains and huge waves, and water touching the distant sky.
Liangshan, Qinglong Mountain, Fenghuang Mountain, Guishan, Hutou Peak, Xuefeng Mountain, Haoshanfeng Mountain, Xiaohuang Mountain and other hills and mountains in the original Liangshan County have also become islands in the big water.
After the fall of Hehuai, countless officers and soldiers, as well as the people who could not bear the oppression and exploitation, fled to the large lakes, fished for a living, and persisted in fighting. The captive soldiers launched repeated attacks, and although they slaughtered tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, there was no one from the beginning to the end.
Completely annihilate the Liangshan Rebel Army.
In Liangshan Mountain in mid-August, the wild eucalyptus trees on the mountainside were ablaze.
Yu Gong, who climbed up the Juyi Cliff, looked far into the distance, where the water and the sky met in the distance. Jeju City, dozens of miles away, had only a pale blue shadow, crouching under the clear sky.
In the winter battle, the Jingxi camp will take the lead in launching an offensive from the east coast of Surabaya.
More than two years ago, the Liangshan Rebel Army accepted the incorporation of the Sikong Mansion. The Sikong Mansion secretly transferred hundreds of military officials from the Yanhuai Navy and the Jingxi Camp to Liangshan to reorganize the Liangshan Water Camp. It also transferred hundreds of craftsmen to use the Liangshan original force.
Some simple shipyards built or renovated hundreds of warships.
Today, Liangshan Water Camp has more than 6,000 water infantry troops.
Yu Gong came to Liangshan at this time, and will be responsible for commanding the Liangshan Water Camp, annihilating the insignificant navy forces in the three states of Jiyun and Caozhou, and then using the criss-crossing river branches to conquer more than a dozen cities such as Jeju, Yunzhou, and Caozhou.
It was completely separated from other areas occupied by Ping Yanzong's palace and turned into isolated cities, which were torn out one by one.
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Mountains such as Yishan Mountain, Wangwu Mountain, Zhongtiao Mountain, Weishan Mountain, and Huashan Mountain are located in the buffer zone between the enemy and the enemy or in the hinterland of the enemy-occupied area.
Rebel camp holding on to resistance.
In the past three or four years, a total of hundreds of rebel camps in these areas have been recruited by Sikong Mansion. The Military Intelligence Staff Department then transferred a large number of military officers from various camps to provide support and reinforcement, and overcame all difficulties to import necessary supplies.
Although small-scale raids and guerrilla operations have never stopped, these rebel camps have mainly rested and recuperated in the past two years to avoid premature exposure of their strength. However, in the autumn of the eleventh year of Shaolong, these rebels
The camps were activated one by one.
Dozens of rebel camps near the control areas of various camps were even directly reinforced by the elites of the main camp forces.
At the same time, Xu Huai also signed a general mobilization order. In addition to the five armies of Tianxiong, Jingsheng, Xuanwu, Xiaosheng, Longwu and Xuanfeng, which were moderately expanded to 250,000, the Jingxiang and Huainan routes and
In the four major garrison areas of Heluo, Jingxi, Jingnan, and Xuzhou, the number of garrison troops has been expanded from the previous 100,000 to 200,000; the garrison troops and horses of the various prefectures have also been expanded from the previous 50,000 to 100,000.
Four hundred thousand heavy troops and horses were organized away from daily production and divided into four major camps for the transportation of grain and fodder and the construction of forts and roads.
The war machine that had been silent for two or three years was fully activated in the autumn of the eleventh year of Shaolong, on the eve of the wedding of Privy Councilor Xu Huai and Princess Yingyun in Sikong, Dayue, and launched a campaign to regain the Central Plains with sweeping momentum.
The final battle of lost ground.
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In front of Pinglu City, Zhong Changqing reined in his horse and stopped on a hill, looking at the Yellow River rolling past in front of him.
This section of the Yellow River is only a thousand paces wide and narrow, and is also where the famous Maojin Ferry is located.
Emperor Jianji crossed the river from here and went north, then crossed Taiyue Mountain and entered Zezhou and Luzhou to fight.
At this time, Zhong Changqing could clearly see the fortresses and strongholds built on the opposite bank along the steep slopes of Mount Wei and the northern foot of Mang Mountain. He could clearly see that there was a steady stream of new materials and manpower coming from the east to Luoyang.
They came here and stationed themselves among the many fortresses facing the river in the north of Shaanzhou City.
Although the Yellow River in Pinglu County is not very wide, it is the most dangerous and rapid section before it enters the Great Plains.
After passing through Tongguan East, the Yellow River is surrounded by the Zhongtiao Mountains on both sides. The water flow is extremely fast and the river is densely covered with dangerous shoals and rocks. There have always been ghost gates, divine gates and human gates, which is why Sanmenxia is named after it.
The origin is that it is difficult for boats to travel, and gods and ghosts cannot cross it.
Although Luoyang is adjacent to Guanzhong and connected by the Yellow River and the Wei River, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, after the bad climate in Guanzhong, the land became deserted. The imperial family led the civil and military officials to Luoyang several times, or established Luoyang as the companion capital, or simply directly
The capital was moved to Luoyang, but there was no thought of transporting grain from the Jianghuai River to Guanzhong through Luoyang. The main reason was that the Sanmenxia waterway was too dangerous and difficult for boats to cross.
In this section of the Yellow River, the Wei and Mang mountains on the south bank are like screens across the Yellow River and the Luoyang Basin, while the Zhongtiao and Wangwu mountains on the north bank stand tightly on the bank of the Yellow River like city walls.
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Pinglu City is perfectly embedded in the narrow canyon between Zhongtiao Mountain and Wangwu Mountain.
Because of the rapid and dangerous water flow in Sanmenxia, Luoyang soldiers and horses have been fighting in the surrounding area for thousands of years. They would rather attack the majestic Hangu Pass and Tongguan to the west than cross the river from Shaanzhou to attack Pinglu City.
Because once the force across the river fails to attack Pinglu, there is not much buffer space in the south of Pinglu City, and the siege troops will easily be counterattacked. The defenders rushed into the rapids of the Yellow River and became food for fish and shrimps.
However, just eleven or twelve miles upstream from where Zhong Changqing was standing, a suspension bridge seemed to appear out of nowhere and stretched over the turbulent flow of the Yellow River, connecting the cliffs on both sides.
Zhong Changqing had expected this scene.
After the fall of Heluo, Cao Shixiong led his remnants to retreat to Hezhong Prefecture. In addition to guarding the cities of Pinglu and Yuanqu, Cao Shixiong's 30,000 to 40,000 remnants also attacked the north bank of the Yellow River, the wider Wangwu Mountain, Zhongtiao Mountain, and the area between Zezhou and Hezhong.
The Taiyue Mountain area between the provinces has lost control.
As the Southern Dynasties continued to transport men, horses, money and food, the resistance forces in the mountainous areas became increasingly active, and even unscrupulously opened plank roads and built camps in the mountains and mountains adjacent to Pinglu and Yuanqu; but they had nothing to do.
Building a suspension bridge spanning thousands of feet on the north and south banks of the Yellow River is an impossible task in the eyes of others.
After all, the weight of the thousand-foot-long iron ring cable is too alarming, so it can generally only be used for the erection of pontoon bridges. Floating boats are used to support the iron ring cable to minimize the pull on the fixed ends on both sides of the bank.
However, the iron cables built by Jingxiang were strong enough to span a thousand feet, but weighed only one-fourth and five-fifths of the iron ring cables. This made it possible to build a suspension bridge with such a span.
Even so, the suspension bridge upstream of Pinglu City could only pass two to three thousand kilograms of men, horses or supplies at a time. However, the Pinglu defenders were unable to break through the mountain fortress built by the Heluo Xing camp in the west of Pinglu City, and they could not destroy the forts that were more than fifty meters above the water.
The suspension bridge is 10 feet long, and one can only watch the people, horses and supplies on the south bank heading north day and night.
As long as enough supplies are stored in Zhongtiao Mountain, supplies can be transported to the north bank continuously through the suspension bridge. The men and horses entering Zhongtiao Mountain from Heluo Camp can completely bypass Pinglu City and directly enter the hinterland of Hezhong Prefecture, or even completely cut off Pingglu City.
The retreat route of the land defenders made them a lone army trapped in a single city.
Of course, Zhong Changqing thought that Heluo Xingying would not rush into Hezhong Mansion, because Jingxiang General Xu Tan led an elite army of about 5,000 people and had already landed from the east of Changyuan and bypassed Changyuan.
The wall crosses northward, reaches the coast of Zhangshui River, and then penetrates into the mountainous area west of Xiangzhou and Weizhou.
Zhong Changqing speculated that Beijing and Xiang must use Xu Dan's partial division to continuously attack Pingyan Zong's palace to recruit men, horses, and grain from Yanji, Liaodong and other places, and try their best to suppress Pingyan Zong's reinforcements to the area south of the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
, so that the main troops and horses of the Beijing-nan camp and Xuzhou camp can recover Jiyi, Yuncao, Denglai, Qingzi and other prefectures as quickly as possible.
Only when they see that the war to recover these areas is progressing smoothly will Heluo Xingying actually send troops into the hinterland of Hezhong Prefecture.
However, if Zhong Changqing can see through all the plots of Jingxiang at this time, what is the use?
This winter, in the name of Sikong Prefecture, Jingxiang, in addition to the four major camps in Heluo, Jingxi, Jingnan, and Xuzhou, are expected to mobilize as many as 600,000 troops to defend the war. The Gu family has also assembled 30,000 troops on Dongchuan Road.
The elite re-entered Ziwu Road, intending to wash away the shame of losing Lantian and other places a few years ago.
Especially for this general battle that is about to be launched in an all-round way, the nearly 400,000 elite soldiers and horses that can be focused on in the early stage of Jingxiang will be concentrated on the eastern front to attack the city, while the Zhennan Zongfu, Jingpan Zongfu are in Guanshan and Hedong.
However, due to the long journey or the fact that he has not yet recovered from the heavy damage, he is not strong enough to provide reinforcements. Can the Prince Ping Yanzong bear such a huge pressure alone this winter?
