Over one hundred and seventy years after the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, in order to prevent the Khitan cavalry from going south, the Yellow River deliberately did not build levees after entering the Hebei Plain, and allowed it to break up and flow freely on the Hebei Plain. Over the years, many rivers flowing out of the Taihang Mountains have caused great harm to the people.
The entire Hebei Plain, especially the eastern area near the Bohai Sea, has been subject to severe flooding for more than a hundred years.
The general scope covers Binzhou, Cangzhou, Xiangzhou and the east of Weizhou, with a depth of about 300 miles.
Of course, these areas are crisscrossed by river branches and densely covered with swamps, but they are not completely submerged under the swamps. The main reason is that the land is cut into pieces by shallow silt swamps and river branches.
In order to resist the Khitan cavalry going south, the Dai Viet Dynasty did not just let the floods overflow for more than a hundred years. They also deliberately built embankments and dredged canals in small areas to connect them to each other and control the depth of flooding, forming an "unreachable"
The water defense line is shallow and cannot be moved by boating.
In addition, seventy or eighty military towns including Changhe, Wuqiao, Anling, Micun, Linjin, Panhe, Xianping, and Matiao were built at selected locations in this area, where elite imperial troops were stationed.
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Since the previous dynasty lost the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yan to the Khitan, Hebei has no danger of defending against the Khitan cavalry occupying Yanji. This area has always been the key defense line of the imperial court, and the emphasis is even on Yanmen and Lan in the north of Hedong Road.
Above the state defense line - if we don't pay attention to it, Cangzhou, Binzhou and Weizhou to the west, and Xiangzhou will be penetrated by the Khitan cavalry, which will directly threaten the safety of Bianliang.
However, when the red cavalry invaded south, this line of defense failed to play its due role at all.
Since Chihu invaded the south, the garrisons in these military villages and towns were either recruited by Emperor Shaolong, who was still King Jing at the time, and then withdrew southward. Now they have become the backbone of the Longwu Army and the Ge Boyi Ge family's control of the Western Zhejiang Army.
, or surrender without any spine, and turn around and become the pawn of the Red Hu people in the southern invasion of Qilu and Jianghuai.
Of course, some of the garrison troops and local people did not have time to retreat south, nor did they surrender to the Chihu people.
However, after the winter in this area, the rivers froze and there was no danger to defend. After several futile battles with heavy casualties, the garrison and the people who did not surrender were forced to withdraw into the Taihang Mountains and continue to resist.
After the Chihu people occupied Cangzhou, Binzhou and other places, their troops quickly swept towards the hinterland of the Hehuai River. It was like entering a no-man's land. Naturally, it was impossible to disperse their elite soldiers and horses to garrison dozens of military villages and towns.
, but they did not destroy it, but handed it over to the local government to take over and use it to settle the families who surrendered to the Han army.
During the Jianji and Shaolong years, the Chihu people had always regarded Hebei as their hinterland and had never thought about these military strongholds. The military strongholds would one day become an obstacle for them to flee north in embarrassment.
After the Battle of Yingzhou, King Wululie of Zhennan once suggested that the East Road should voluntarily abandon the occupied area south of the Yellow River, and withdraw all the remaining main forces to the north of the Yellow River, relying on the dotted military towns and military towns and the western flank close to Taihang Shandong
Weizhou, Xiangzhou and other powerful cities at the foot of the mountain established defense lines. In the end, it was not adopted because the main generals of the Yanzong Palace were unwilling to accept it, and the Khan's court in Mobei was unable to correctly examine the major defeat they suffered in Hehuai.
The East Route soldiers chose the beginning of spring to break out from Shanghe, Yangxin, Wudi, Leling and other places to the north. After the beginning of spring, the ice and snow in these areas melted, and there were indeed muddy swamps everywhere, making it difficult for the elite soldiers of Sikong Prefecture to deploy.
Combat.
Although the large-scale horse infantry could use their horses to wade into shallow water and marshes, it was difficult for them to dismount and fight in formation, and they were not good at fighting on horseback.
Even if you choose the vanguard cavalry, it is impossible to compare with the red guard cavalry who have been rolling and crawling on horseback since childhood.
However, there are sixty or seventy military villages and military towns widely distributed in the north and northwest of Binzhou and throughout Cangzhou. They are seven to eight to ten miles apart from each other, and are dotted in this silt tidal flat.
However, it provides an extremely rare support and joint anchor point for the cavalry and infantry of the selected vanguard troops responsible for interception operations.
Su Mung and Xu Pang led their subordinates At the beginning of Weizhou's eastward advance, it was not expected that the main force of the east-route rebel troops would delay their breakthrough until the beginning of spring. At that time, they concentrated their troops and horses and mainly attacked and captured the three cities of Shanghe, Yangxin, and Leling as the basis for interception operations.
After Yang Qiye personally led 80,000 horse infantry and cavalry to advance eastward quickly a year ago, he temporarily frightened the main force of the east-route Japanese soldiers who were not well prepared at the time and did not dare to flee north in a hurry, so he immediately divided his troops to control these military strongholds.
, military town.
After that, it was predicted that the troops from the east route would either stay on the south bank and wait for death, or they would inevitably choose to break out to the north after the spring but before the flood season - advancing or delaying would only make the troops from the east route suffer.
Falling into a more passive predicament.
Therefore, Yang Qiye and his generals also formulated a battle plan very early on to rely on these military villages and towns to intercept the main force of the breakout cavalry after the spring.
To put it bluntly, the criss-crossing shallow water marshes, as well as the wild grass and bushes that grow wantonly in the shallow water silts and are easily ignited by arson, make it impossible for fifty or sixty thousand horsemen to advance and retreat quickly, so the horsemen have to disperse into hundreds.
Troops ranging in size from one to two thousand horsemen broke out to the north; at the same time, their mobile combat capabilities of rapid roundabouts were also severely restricted.
Sikong Prefecture selected a main force of cavalry and infantry for the vanguard, totaling more than 90,000 troops. Under the command of General Yang Qiye and other generals, they also relied on scattered military forts and military towns to carry out resolute assault operations against the scattered captive cavalry who broke through.
The existence of military strongholds and military towns can, on the one hand, allow the cavalry of the vanguard army and the infantry to wait for work, and on the other hand, it can more conveniently assemble more superior troops and horses on local battlefields to intercept and surround the enemy.
Even if the battle fails, the soldiers and horses can quickly withdraw to the nearby military villages and towns. Not only will they not be chased and defeated by the cavalry, but they can also quickly conduct new gatherings, reorganization, and launch new attacks.
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At the same time, these military fortresses and military towns are reliable and safe support points for the rapid penetration and mobilization of the vanguard army and the horse infantry over medium and long distances. There is no need to worry about being attacked by the cavalry during the roundabout maneuvers.
flank.
Of course, when the main force of the Donglu cavalry broke out to the north, they left sixty or seventy thousand Han infantry behind. On the one hand, the Chihu people knew that the ice and snow had begun to melt, and these Han infantry were destined to be unable to pass.
It covered a shallow silt area of three to four hundred miles, and marched separately from them after setting off. On the other hand, these Han army infantry also realized that they had become abandoned, and under the persuasion of the lurking personnel of the Military Intelligence Staff Department, they deliberately slowed down
At the pace of the march, some Han troops even retreated directly to Qizhou and Zizhou, waiting to present the city in exchange for greater preferential treatment.
This allowed Yang Qiye and other generals to completely ignore the more than 60,000 Han infantrymen who were slowly advancing northward, and concentrated their superior troops and horses to encircle and annihilate the main force of 50,000 captive cavalry.
In addition to taking the first step to control the dotted military villages and towns, the sophisticated armor defense is more accurate in resisting the red soldiers on horseback, and the rapid crossbow shooting plays a huge role, effectively reducing one's own casualties.
In addition, in the past two years, each camp has successively formed a crossbow cavalry team of 1,000 people.
The crossbow cavalry mounts iron-spine crossbows that weigh more than forty or fifty kilograms and cannot be used as individual crossbow equipment on their saddles for combat.
The crossbow cavalry does not have high requirements for the rider's mounted shooting, and ordinary horse infantry can do the job.
To put it bluntly, the crossbow cavalry cooperates with the elite cavalry and armored soldiers to quickly gather a group of iron-spine crossbows that are inconvenient for infantry to carry to the front of a narrow local battlefield. They use the iron-spine crossbow's ultra-long range and strong penetration ability to attack
The enemy's formation will attack them head-on, and then quickly retreat to a relatively safe position such as the middle and rear of their own formation for new reloading.
This time, the various camps and the Biyang garrison were added.
The army's crossbow cavalry, totaling 5,000 people, was also gathered together and put under the unified command of Yang Qiye, who played a huge role in intercepting the east-route cavalry.
A team of crossbow cavalry cooperated with the elite cavalry of the vanguard army, and went out to fight from various military strongholds and military towns. They were fired two to three hundred steps away from the enemy, and then quickly retreated to the military strongholds and military towns for new reloading.
This almost rogue tactic basically wiped out the advantage of the Red Husband Cavalry in mounted shooting.
The entire interception operation began in the middle of January in the twelfth year of Shaolong and ended in early February, lasting nearly twenty days; the battlefield started from Shanghe County in the north of Qizhou, Yangxin County and Wudi County in the north of Zizhou, all the way.
It continued into Changlu County and Huichuan County in the south of Jizhou; during this period, more than a hundred fierce battles broke out. In the end, in addition to an estimated three to four thousand captive cavalry who escaped, the selected vanguard cavalry and various road horse infantry withdrew nearly 30,000
They suffered heavy casualties and almost completely annihilated the main force of the Eastern Route Cavalry, achieving the most glorious victory since the Chi Hu's southern invasion.
This battle can be said to have completely annihilated all the main forces of the captive troops under the jurisdiction of Prince Yan Zong's Mansion on the East Road. They were not able to be annihilated and they were all stranded in Yanzhou and south of Jizhou. It was difficult to escape and ascend to heaven.
At the same time, the puppet Qizhou magistrate Chen Tushen and others, who led their troops to retreat to Qizhou, surrendered in Qi, Zi and other places, and then occupied Guixiang, Anyang and other places. The defenders who had resisted until now saw that the situation was over, and also
In the end, unable to bear the force of the defender, they either fled the city and surrendered, or captured the defender and opened the city gate to welcome the soldiers of Sikong Mansion. .??.
By the end of February, generals such as Fan Zongqi and Chen Jin led the elite infantry camp to the west of Beijing, and almost all the cities along the Yellow River were recovered one after another.
At the same time, Han Shiliang led his troops to camp in Xuzhou and went north from Mizhou to regain the cities in eastern Shandong.
In addition to Yang Qiye who led some troops to Xiongzhou for rest and recuperation, generals such as Shi Hu, Sun Yanguan, Wu Sanrong, Xu Pang, and Su Mi led their troops north to recover the defenseless cities of Yanzhou, Jizhou, etc., and at the same time completely cut off Hebei and other cities.
A small number of people on Jingdong East Road are still resisting stubbornly and have not yet reached the enemy's south escape channel.
Seeing that the situation was lost, King Wu Lulie of Zhennan ordered Cao Shixiong and Meng Pingping to abandon Pinglu, Yuanqu and other places and flee to Taiyuan, Lanzhou and other places in the middle and north of Hedong Road as early as early February.
Since the main forces of the camps south of Beijing and Xuzhou are still carrying out mopping up operations on the East Jingdong Road in Hebei, and before the camp west of Beijing, a large number of elite soldiers and horses were deployed to reinforce the eastern front, and they are temporarily unable to carry out a large-scale attack on the soldiers on the middle route who fled north.
A large-scale roundabout pursuit can only proceed step by step through Pinglu, Yuanqu and other places, into the lower reaches of the Fen River Basin and the Zelu Basin, and step by step push the front to the hinterland of Hedong Road to regain the lost ground.
The soldiers and horses under the jurisdiction of Prince Yan Zong's Palace on the east road were almost completely wiped out. The troops and horses from Zhennan Palace on the middle road fled northward like frightened birds. The troops and horses of Prince Jingpan Zong's Palace on the west road were unable to support themselves, so they also chose to retreat from Guanzhong in late February.
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Wang Xian led the soldiers and horses of the Heluo camp, and Gu Cong led the Dongchuan army. They passed through Tongguan and Ziwu Valley and entered Guanzhong, first recovering the cities along the Wei River...
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Although it was early summer in Bianliang in early April, the remaining city was shrouded in falling rain and the weather was slightly cool.
Holding an oil-paper umbrella, Yingyun followed Xu Huai and climbed the steps onto the stone bridge. She saw another ruins in front of her, with only some broken walls and ruins standing among the ruins.
After March, even if the strength of the troops in the middle and west routes still exists, they do not have the intention to fight with the main forces of the Heluo camp and the Jingxi camp in Hedong or Guanshan for the time being.
It can be said that within the scope of the Central Plains, the main war has been declared over. The next step is to recover the lost territory in Hedong, Guanshan and other places one by one and clear out the remaining enemies.
Xu Huai did not directly return to Biyang just because the main battle was over.
He first walked along the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain We went to Yanzhou, which was once established by the Khitan as the southern capital of Xijin, to learn about the local people's situation about Yanji's return to the Central Plains, and then returned south to Bianliang.
Xu Huai also summoned Shi Zhen, Xu Wuqi, Su Laochang, Cheng Lunying, Dong Cheng, Liu Xian, Xu Wujiang, Zhu Tong, Xu Wukun and other generals to Bianliang to meet and discuss how to deal with Hedong and Hebei in the next stage.
Wait for the newly recovered areas to be restored to order.
Xu Huai and Yingyun didn't have the chance to stay together in Biyang for a few days after their wedding, so they had to rush to Bianzhou in person to supervise the battle. This time, they took this opportunity to specially let Yingyun come to Bianliang to get together.
Firstly, Yingyun thought about getting together with Xu Huai, and secondly, she thought about finally returning to her old capital. She rushed to Bianliang with excitement. However, when she entered the city through the dilapidated Nanxun Gate, her inner excitement was mercilessly overwhelmed by everything in front of her.
was beaten to pieces.
This was no longer the Bianliang she was familiar with, nor the Imperial Capital where she was born and raised.
Except for the two inner and outer city walls, which are still largely intact across the south bank of the Yellow River, there are almost no complete and unexposed buildings in the city.
The reason why the city wall is relatively well-preserved is that it is mainly made of earth and stone. It would be too time-consuming and laborious to destroy it. Unlike the large and small buildings supported by the beam and column structure in the city, it can be set on fire.
However, even if the dozens of wooden beam structure towers and a larger number of towers and war tents on the inner and outer city walls were not seriously damaged in the previous battles, the central route troops withdrew from the south of the Yellow River more than four years ago.
When they came out, they were destroyed as much as possible.
After regaining Zheng Bian and Heluo, the Sikong Mansion never thought about returning the capital to Bianliang, so they would not use the scarce resources to repair Bianliang City, and temporarily left it abandoned.
More than four years have passed. This bustling city, which is nearly 40 miles away and was once the most prosperous and prosperous city in the world, with millions of people living inside and outside the city, has completely turned into a nest and paradise for pikas, rabbits and pheasants.
Except for the well-preserved stone bridge under her feet, Yingyun could not recognize the large ruins at the head of the bridge as the Prince Jing's Mansion where she had been born and raised.
"This is my old house, and the Zhu family's mansion is on this side of the river. When I came here this time, I wanted to revisit the place where I first saw you, but I didn't expect it to turn out like this."
Yingyun identified the direction and found the location of Zhu's Mansion. The situation was slightly better, and there were still several dilapidated houses standing among the ruins that had not completely collapsed. She held Xu Huai's hand with some sadness, charmingly
He raised his little face and asked,
"Do you remember the first time you saw me and sent me?"
Xu Huai recalled that he went south from Shuozhou in embarrassment and rushed to Bianliang to stay in Zhu's Mansion before meeting Wang Zhen. At that time, he was troubled by the current situation. He was confused and mistook Yingyun for the maid of Zhu's Mansion, and actually wanted to kill Zhan.
He threw the muddy and dusty robe to her to wash and mend, and asked with a smile, "Did you think that I was just a rude and rude soldier at that time?"
"How could it be?" Yingyun was immersed in the memories of the past, pursed her lips and said with a smile, "When I first heard Sister Xuan talk about you, I was very curious. After seeing it, I was very novel. After all, I have never seen it before.
For a person like you, Bianliang was surrounded by barbarians. No one in the imperial family or the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty had the courage to kill the enemy. They wanted to use the women of the clan and concubines in the harem to beg for mercy from the barbarians.
At that time, I was just hoping that someone like my husband would kidnap Yingyun and run away, and then my husband appeared..."
At the time of the wedding, the Battle of Yizhou had just ended. Su Miao and Xu Fang led their troops into southeastern Hebei with the intention of intercepting the main force of the east-route Japanese soldiers. At that time, Xu Huai's main thoughts and energy were focused on the new military deployment——
At the same time, they were entangled in the tedious number of weddings. During the few days of the wedding, the two had no chance to have a proper conversation except during the bridal chamber. Later, Xu Huai went to supervise the war in person...
It was only then that Yingyun had the opportunity to express her deep inner feelings.
