Going south from Bianliang City, there is a vast plain, and everyone did not deliberately follow the post road. They went directly from Weishi, a county in Gyeonggi Province, through the ice and snow to the south, passed Yanling, crossed the Yingshui River, and started from Xuzhou (Xuchang), Chenzhou
Go south between (Zhoukou) and enter the territory of Caizhou.
When Caizhou was in charge of Shangcai, Hu Kai had not yet set out to reach Caizhou. Of course Xu Huai and the others would not enter Shangcaizhou, but passed through the sparse forest from the west of Shangcai City and continued south to cross the Ru River.
At this time, the terrain has some undulations. The southern and western parts of Caizhou belong to the hilly areas at the eastern foot of Funiu Mountain and the northern foot of Tongbai Mountain.
Going further south into Queshan County, looking up from south to west, you can see the rolling snow-covered mountains. The three larger mountains, Dafu Mountain, Jinding Mountain and Dengtaijia Mountain, still lie across the southwest of Caizhou.
Separated from Nanyang Basin.
The north and south ridges of Tongbai Mountain and its offshoot Dafu Mountain belong to Biyang County in Tangzhou, while Jinding Mountain, which is the remnant of the northern ridge of Tongbai Mountain, and Dengtaijia Mountain, which is the remnant of the eastern foothills of Funiu Mountain, belong to Queshan County under the jurisdiction of Caizhou respectively.
, Wuyang County.
In addition to the horse trail between the northern and southern ridges of Tongbai Mountain, which can enter the Nanyang Basin from the direction of Yiju, and the square city gap between the eastern foot of Funiu Mountain and Dengtaijia Mountain, which have always been battlegrounds for the military strategists competing for balance between the north and the south, the large
There is also a valley between Fushan and Jinding Mountains, and you can directly enter the Nanyang Basin from Queshan County in Caizhou.
Although Jinding Mountain and Dengtai Mountain belong to two different mountain ranges, the terrain in the northern area between the two mountains is gentle, forming a fairly open valley where many people live and breed. However, there are mountains running across the southwest of the two mountains.
Separate the valley and the hilly area in the north from the Nanyang Basin.
On the first day of the first month of the eighth year of Tianxuan, Xu Huai, Wang Ju, Xu Xin'an, Zhou Jing, Niu Er, Yan Xiaoyi, Zhu Shicong and others, accompanied by more than a hundred horsemen, arrived at the northeastern foothills of Dafu Mountain southwest of Queshan County.
Underfoot.
Zheng Tu and Wang Xian led more than 20 cavalry to escort the young Shi Zhen family and Wang Xuan south in a carriage. Although they set off one night earlier, because the carriage needed to take a post road, they were overtaken by Xu Huai and others.
Xu Wujiang and Xu Wuliang, who had already received the news, as well as Su Laochang, Xu Wukun, Fan Yong, Wang Jun, Fan Zongqi and others who had rushed back to Tongbai Mountain in advance, were also convinced at this time and rushed to Dafu Mountain to meet with Xu Huai, Wang
Let's meet up with others.
Although Liu Qiong'er and Xu Huai set off south from Fuzhou at about the same time, Liu Qiong'er could not withstand the hard work of riding horses for days and nights without sleep. She followed the large army to retreat south. At this time, there was no
Return to Huaiyuan; it will take another five or six days to arrive at Tongbai Mountain.
Xu Huai reined in the reins, stopped his horse and stopped at the foot of Dafu Mountain, looking around.
Although it has only been two years since I left Tongbai Mountain, it feels like a lifetime ago.
Two years ago, he, Xu Xin'an, Yin Peng, Tang Pan, Tang Qing and others escorted Wang Xun to Lanzhou to take up his post. The main reason was that when the situation in the North collapsed, he could gather as many soldiers from Tongbai Mountain as possible and withdraw to Huaiyuan.
Huaiyuan, whose vitality was severely damaged in the bandit rebellion, has regained some vitality.
This purpose has been well achieved.
After the Tongbai Mountain Bandit Rebellion, almost six thousand bandit soldiers were transferred to the forbidden army in Lanxin and other places to participate in the Northern Expedition against Yan. Xu Huai withdrew his troops through Datong and received them from Xiao Linshi.
By collecting some of the captured soldiers, a total of more than 4,000 Tongbai Mountain soldiers will be able to withdraw to Tongbai Mountain.
In addition, more than 4,000 women and children of the Hu tribe and more than 800 people of the Wuchi tribe have moved into Tongbai Mountain in batches.
These more or less made up for Huaiyuan's heavy losses in population during the banditry in Tongbai Mountain.
However, in the Hehuai War that will last for who knows how long, maybe ten years, or even decades, no one knows how many Tongbai Mountain soldiers will be wrapped in horse leather on the battlefield!
The situation was grim, and everyone did not have much joy in meeting again after farewell. After a brief exchange of greetings, Xu Wujiang said: "Yesterday, you sent back the news. We summoned some old people who are familiar with the terrain of Dafu Mountain and Beiling to discuss it all night.
If this place meets your requirements, we can go and have a look right away?"
"Okay, let's just go there and take a walk. What you see with your eyes is more intuitive than what you can tell!" Xu Huai said.
Zhu Tong led the Zhu Mansion and dragged two to three hundred servants with his family to escort the old lady of the Zhu Mansion. The speed was slightly slower. Xu Huai arranged to escort the Shi Zhen family to Queshan County for a short break, waiting for Zhu Tong and others to catch up from behind.
Together, we took the road from Yizhou (Xinyang) and took the easy-to-walk Tongbai Mountain Road to Huaiyuan.
After Xu Huai met Xu Wujiang, Xu Wukun, Su Laochang, Fan Yong and others, he rode directly southwest along the valley between the northern foot of Dafu Mountain and Jinding Mountain.
Although the southwest part of Queshan Mountain is divided into Dafu Mountain and Jinding Mountain, they both belong to the northern branch of Tongbai Mountain and have adhering topography. The valley between the two mountains is also uneven and intertwined with ravines.
Although there was a valley road here in the early years to go to Biyang City in Tangzhou within the Nanyang Basin, Dafu Mountain and Jinding Mountain were divided into the southwestern Jingzhou Road and Tangzhou Road and the northwest Jingzhou Road Caizhou in terms of administrative planning.
Not only has no place been willing to invest in repairing the valley road between the two mountains for many years, but bandits from the nearby cottages have been robbing houses and other things at every turn, and the state and county governments on both sides have also pushed each other to blame.
When Xu Huai's biological father Wang Xiaocheng came to Tangzhou, he severely cracked down on Tongbai Mountain and nearby copycat forces. However, after Wang Xiaocheng was transferred from Tangzhou, Tongbai Mountain Road was mainly located in Biyang County, Tangzhou, and the local clan forces
It is relatively united and well maintained, and local forces also benefit greatly from the increasingly active and prosperous commerce and trade.
However, the valley road between Jinding Mountain and Dafu Mountain has long been abandoned. Only individual business travelers in Queshan County sometimes want to take a shortcut and try to take this road to Biyang or south of Biyang.
area.
Xu Huai and the others rode their horses slowly for more than ten miles through the rugged valley at the northern foot of Dafu Mountain, and finally stopped in front of a creek.
"Rolling Stone Rush is right here!" Xu Wujiang reined in his horse and pointed to the ravine in front of him and said to Xu Huai and the others.
Xu Huai raised his head and looked over. Just like this ravine named Rolling Stone Chong, it looked as if a knife had cut a crack in the eastern section of the Big Belly Mountain, and the crest of the mountain was obviously dented.
"This gully is not only a shortcut across the eastern foot of Dafu Mountain. From the southeast foot of Dafu Mountain, there is also a trail across the northern ridge of Tongbai Mountain, directly intersecting to Huaiyuan Town, which can connect Huaiyuan to Queshan.
The distance from the county to the county is shortened to sixty miles. Otherwise, take the eastern section of Tongbai Mountain Road to detour through Yizhou, and go from Huaiyuan Town to Queshan County.
"It's one hundred and fifty miles," Xu Wujiang said, "but this trail was only walked by Orion Mountain residents in the past. It is very rugged and steep, and most sections of the trail cannot be passed by horse!"
"Then let's arrange for someone to lead the horses to Queshan first. We still have to go on a real trip to confirm whether this wild road is worth it and whether a horse trail can be opened!" Xu Huai got off his horse and put it on his back.
He took off his sword, bow and quiver and put it on his back.
Huaiyuan is located deep in the Tongbai Mountain. Although the Tongbai Mountain Road is connected to the Huaibei Plain in the northeast and the Nanyang Basin in the west, the Tongbai Mountain Road is a bit rugged and narrow everywhere. Even if the highly mobile horse infantry is dispatched on a large scale,
Taking the road out of Tongbai Mountain from Yizhou, it will take at least two days to enter Queshan County and wait for orders.
From the perspective of facilitating rapid dispatch and reinforcement operations, Xu Huai could not station his main troops in Huaiyuan Town (County) deep in Tongbai Mountain.
When Xu Huai left Bianliang, Hu Kai was not familiar with the terrain of Tongbai Mountain, but he also asked Xu Huai to find a suitable village at the northern foot of Tongbai Mountain and station the recruited and assembled troops there for training.
time, Xu Huai's troops can be mobilized more quickly.
At this time, Xu Huai was serving as the magistrate of Huaiyuan County and the inspection tour of Huaiyuan City.
The county was established in Huaiyuan. In order to facilitate centralized mobilization, mobilize resources within Tongbai Mountain, and effectively manage the townships and villages in Tongbai Mountain, the county government naturally had to be placed in the heart of the city, Huaiyuan Town, which had been built during the bandit rebellion.
As a large camp for guarding against captives and enemies, the capital inspection camp does not necessarily have to be placed in the same place as the county government. It is mainly subject to operational convenience and is conducive to the goal of defense.
Xu Huai now wants to choose a place at the northern or eastern foot of Dafu Mountain to build a large camp (du inspection camp) for the soldiers of Tongbai Mountain and garrison it to prepare for war.
However, from a longer-term strategy, after selecting the inspection village, a direct connection to Huaiyuan Town must be opened.
Otherwise, when the Japanese soldiers move south in a large scale, once the passage between Xinyang and the northern part of Fangcheng is cut off, even if they can reach Huaiyuan through the mountains and ridges, tens of thousands of supplies and soldiers and horses will not be mobilized.
accomplish?
Thousands of men and horses are stationed at the camp at the northern foot of Dafu Mountain. Tens of thousands of kilograms of grain are consumed every day. If the supply channel is cut off, do you still need to ask how serious the consequences will be?
And if a remote road cannot be opened directly from the North Ridge of Tongbai Mountain and Dafu Mountain, Huaiyuan will take a detour from Yizhou to Gunshichong, which is almost 1,670 miles, and the detour is too far; this will also be detrimental to the development of Tongbai Mountain.
It became the deep hinterland of Caizhou.
If Xu Huai wanted to build his camp at the eastern or northern foot of Dafu Mountain, he must open a road directly to Huaiyuan.
They did this not even for this defensive operation, but more because after the fall of most of the Hehuai area, they relied on Tongbai Mountain as their hinterland to contain the main force of the captive troops north of Tongbai Mountain, so that they could attack Jianghuai, Jingshan, etc.
Establish a wider defense depth between Xiang and Xiang.
Whether the Central Plains can really resist the invasion of the Red Husbands, Xu Huai is really counting on the organization and construction of the Jianghuai defense line. By then, Tongbai Mountain will be the bridgehead of this defense line...
