At this time, the rising sun is smearing the clouds on the horizon with great brilliance, and Qingyi Ridge seems to be enveloped in a layer of shining golden light.
"Let Qian Zerui go back to Taiyuan like this?" Liu Qiong'er accompanied Xu Huai and stood in the watchtower of the camp at the foot of Qingyi Ridge, watching Qian Zerui climb onto the horse in embarrassment with the support of two followers, his figure
As he headed north desolately, he couldn't help but ask.
"Manpower is sometimes exhausted, and God's will is hard to control..." Lu Xiong leaned on crutches and couldn't help but sigh as he looked at Qian Zerui's desolate figure heading north.
He had the best understanding of all aspects of the situation at this time. As such, he felt even more sad for the soldiers and civilians of Taiyuan who refused to surrender even after holding on for more than seven months.
Now it is no longer just King Jing, Zheng Huaizhong and others are standing still in Zezhou as a plan. Lu Wang Zhao Guan, Yang Maoyan, Ge Boyi and others also see clearly how bad the situation is. The people they command in Weizhou
The number of soldiers and horses was greater than that of Zezhou, but they all stopped moving towards Fuyang and stopped advancing westward.
The 40,000 elite Western Army on the West Route, commanded by Gao Junyang, the strategic pacifier of Fuyan Road, originally planned to go north along the Fen River to attack Hanxinling, but their forward elite stopped going north after arriving in Jinzhou.
There are many reasons for this phenomenon, but undoubtedly the most important one is that when resisting the first southern invasion of the Chihu people, the imperial court made so many unpopular and unpopular maneuvers that the power accumulated over hundreds of years was lost.
It is collapsing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The imperial edicts are no longer as effective as they used to be.
Now the imperial court not only wants to push troops and horses northward to relieve the siege of Taiyuan, it has become difficult to do so. It also wants to collect grain and grass from the southeast and Jinghu roads to go northward at all costs, but the efficiency is also much lower than before.
This is not just the damage to Bianshui, Caihe and other canal channels.
However, for more than a hundred years, Dai Viet has used civility to control the military and civility to control the military. The status of the generals of the Forbidden Army has always been low. The army accommodates a large number of refugees, bandits serve as soldiers, and military discipline is loose. In the past, they mostly used relatively sufficient supplies and pre-war
, generous rewards issued after the war maintain morale and combat effectiveness.
Now Hedong and Hebei are unable to keep up with supplies, let alone rewards such as demobilization silver and merit reward. Everyone is now very worried that this will directly lead to a direct loss of morale among the generals, the growth of resentment, and even the possibility of mutiny.
Talking about loyalty to the imperial court with these ordinary generals is a bit luxurious.
Although the army and people of Taiyuan refused to surrender and vowed to live and die together with Taiyuan City, their integrity and ironclad strength are admirable, but under such circumstances, how can the siege of Taiyuan be solved?
"Old Qian has become stubborn now. He refuses to stay. He wants to go back to Taiyuan and die. I can't really let anyone tie him up."
Zheng Tu returned to the camp, climbed up to the watchtower, sighed, then rubbed his hands and looked at Xu Huai and asked,
"Why don't you prepare some dry food, water and transportation and send someone to send them there? They were originally going to Hedong to find you. They got the news in Huaizhou that the Yiqi Battalion returned to Chushan to rest, so they hurried to Chushan. They met in Zhengzhou
The robbers, entanglements, and horses were all snatched away by the hungry people, so I borrowed three skinny horses in Linying to make the journey."
Xu Huai did not answer Zheng Tu's words for a long time, and kept staring at the figure that was getting smaller along the west bank of the Wuzhai River.
"What are you thinking about?" Wang Ju asked.
"I'm wondering if it is not necessary for the Chi Hu people to attack Taiyuan this time when they go south?" Xu Huai looked back and looked at the people around him and asked.
"Ah?" Wang Ju, Xu Wuqi and others were slightly startled.
Xu Xin'an asked subconsciously: "How come the soldiers and horses of Chihu West Road left Taiyuan instead of attacking and went south directly?"
"It's not that I don't want to, but it may be too late," Xu Huai said.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Dai Viet dynasty, Emperor Taizu led hundreds of thousands of troops to the north of Hedong in order to wipe out the last separatist forces. The political situation of the Northern Han Dynasty, which had its capital in Taiyuan at that time, was in a dizzying state. Faced with the fierce and aggressive Dai Viet troops, the capital of the Northern Han Dynasty
An edict was issued to open the city gates and surrender, but the Taiyuan army and people were stubborn in their decades-long hatred against Dai Viet and refused to submit.
More than 150 years ago, Emperor Taizu was unable to attack Taiyuan and had to divert the Fen River to flood the city. Even after the city was breached, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city continued to engage in brutal street fighting, causing Dai Viet to pay an extremely high price.
Only then did they finally capture Taiyuan.
Emperor Taizu ordered the destruction of Taiyuan City in anger. Today's Taiyuan City was rebuilt northeast of the old site.
This time Taiyuan was besieged. The only defenders in the city were Wen Hengyue's troops and temporary reinforcements from Zelu. The forbidden army was less than 10,000 men. From the perspective of the defenders alone, it is difficult to imagine that Taiyuan City could survive in the tens of thousands.
Under siege by soldiers twice as many as our own, we held out for more than seven months.
However, the Chihu West Route Army used Taiyuan City as bait at this time, set up a death trap, and wanted to encircle the point for reinforcements. It was definitely not that they did not want to capture Taiyuan City.
At the beginning of the siege of Taiyuan by the Chihu West Route Army, tens of thousands of surrender troops were organized to attack Taiyuan day and night. After wanting to capture Taiyuan, the main force moved south along the Fen River and penetrated Hangu Pass and Luoyang. However, the attack failed for more than a month.
After conquering Taiyuan, the main force of the Chihu West Route Army was forced to stay north of Luzhou.
Even at this time, if the Chihu West Route Army can easily capture Taiyuan City, why bother to encircle the point and call for reinforcements?
The Taiyuan garrison seems to be less than 10,000 people, and they must have suffered a lot of losses in the previous brutal city defense battles. However, under the siege of nearly 100,000 prisoners, they were able to hold on for more than seven months. It is obvious that the hundreds of thousands of people in the city have the courage to do so.
Iron bones and indomitable blood.
This is almost a reenactment of the scene in which Taiyuan was captured with great difficulty at the beginning of the Dai Viet Dynasty.
This may be the reason why Qian Zerui decided to rush back to Taiyuan to die even though he knew there was no hope of seeking help.
…………
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Returning to the public hall, Xu Huai spread out the Kanyu map, directly sketched the Taiyuan City with charcoal, and said loudly: "The three armies and horses are stalled in the three states of Jin, Ze and Lu. Of course the Chihu people know that they are
The strategy of encirclement and reinforcements didn’t work, I thought that if they couldn’t capture Taiyuan before the end of September, they would temporarily abandon Taiyuan City and go south!”
"The first time the Red Husbands went south, they delayed their departure until the end of the year. Why did they have to move two months earlier this time?" Xu Wujiang asked puzzledly, "At that time, the Yellow River had not yet been frozen. Even if they arrived
On the north bank of the Yellow River, the main force will have to wait until the Yellow River is completely frozen around mid-December before it can cross the river and enter the Hehuai area..."
"The Marquis's judgment is correct. The key lies in food," Shi Zhen said. "The Hehuai River is about to enter the dry season. The destruction of the dams of the Bianshui and Cai Rivers is not very serious. Once the rivers are reopened, the number of people congested in the Huaisi River will not be serious."
A hundred stones of grain can be transported on a large scale through the Bianshui River and the Cai River to Bianliang. Therefore, the Chihu people will most likely rush to the north bank of the Yellow River before this, and then send a small group of elite soldiers and horses to the south bank of the Yellow River to cut off the grain road!
It won't be long before Bianliang will be defeated without a fight! This is also the fastest and most convenient opportunity for the Chihu people to capture Bianliang. If it is delayed for another year, the chaos in all aspects will gradually be sorted out, and the Chihu people will be able to conquer Bianliang again.
If you want to go south, you will encounter much greater resistance..."
"Mr. Shi, are you saying that the Chihu people saw the opportunity to capture Bianliang in one fell swoop, while Taiyuan became an irrelevant chess piece?" Xu Wujiang asked.
"The capture of Taiyuan is at least far less important than the capture of Bianliang!" Shi Zhen said, "In order to achieve the goal of capturing Bianliang, if the main force of the Chihu West Route Army cannot capture Taiyuan before the end of September, it is very likely that it will temporarily abandon Taiyuan and fight with
The East Route Army marched together to ensure that they had an absolute advantage along the Yellow River! If the military princes could not bear to see the iron-clad Taiyuan soldiers and civilians end up with a tragic end in which the entire city was massacred, the only chance was to take advantage of the main force of Chihu's West Route Army to move south.
After that, the soldiers were empty outside Taiyuan City and made a surprise attack!"
Shi Zhenxin took a charcoal pen and drew a line through Chushan, Ruzhou, Luoyang, Maojindu, Puban, Yanzhou, Fuzhou and other places.
"Should I go and chase Master Qian back?" Xu Xin'an stood up, eager to lead people to chase Qian Zerui.
"There's no rush," Xu Huai shook his head and said, "Wait until Qian Zechui leaves Caizhou and rob them at night!"
Before the first and second northern expeditions against Yan, the Red Husbands and others did not realize how vulnerable Dayue was. They had not yet annexed the entire territory of Khitan and could not send many troops to the Central Plains.
However, during the first northern expedition against Yan, the Tianxiong army was defeated in Datong. There must have been a strong voice among the Red Husbands to go south. And they were more meticulous in spying on intelligence than those in Dai Viet. Later, the Yue people
Hailou and other people who knew the Central Plains very well surrendered. Xu Huai suspected that the Chihu people had spies watching Chushan.
Entering Lanzhou from Fuzhou, then taking the Yangguang Old Road through the Luliang Mountains and entering the northern area of Taiyuan, there are several passes that must be quickly crossed while the enemy is unprepared.
If their whereabouts are leaked, or if the Red Husbands are aware of their intentions, they may not even be able to enter Lanzhou if they only organize three to five thousand troops...
