Xu Huai wants to personally sit in Xincai and use Xincai and Wangshanjin as bases to harass the enemies on the north bank of Ru River. This is much safer than Xu Huai leading Chushan elites to find the main force of Yue Hailou's troops for a battle. Shi Zhen
Others stopped trying to persuade me.
Now that Xu Huai was in Xincai, the number of refugees going south had dropped significantly, and Shi Zhen also rushed back to Zhouqiao overnight.
It was already autumn, and after the flood season passed, not only Tongbai Mountain was about to enter a new round of construction peak period, Zhouqiao New City, but also Chushan City in the true sense, would also officially start construction after autumn.
As the seat of the prefecture of Shenzhou and the headquarters of the Chushan camp, Chushan City was built on the low hills north of the Huai River and east of Shimen Ridge. It is about four miles deep from south to south and more than nine miles long from east to west. There is definitely no way it can be completed this year.
What's more, no one knows when the main force of Ping Yan's army on Chihu East Road will advance westward.
The first step of Chushan City will be to lay the foundation of the city wall, and then choose to build city walls in the low-lying areas in the north and northeast. If the enemy advances, even if the new city has not been completely built, these can be used as the inner city's outer perimeter defense.
Facility use.
In addition, on the north bank of the Huaishui River, military settlements will also be established between the site of Chushan New City and Shimenling in the autumn.
For a long time to come, it will be difficult to defend Ru River. All troops will have to withdraw to the inner lines. Xincai, Zhenyang, Queshan and other counties will become war zones, and the enemy will occupy an absolute position.
Advantage.
In a short period of time, the narrow area between Chushan New City to the west and Shimenling is relatively safe.
Although this area is small, it is already part of the plain on the north bank of the Huai River. The terrain is flat and the irrigation conditions are good. There are now more than 30,000 acres of cultivated land that can be cultivated.
You can also select a dozen villages with better conditions between Chushan New City and Shimenling to be strengthened as garrison villages, and deploy 3,000 troops from the Xiang army to station them there to farm and fight.
This will not only make the defense system between Chushan New City, Qingyi Ridge, and Shimen Ridge closer, but also provide Chushan with 60,000 to 70,000 shi of food every year.
If the situation of the confrontation is optimistic, the next step will be to build a city at the mouth of Mingxi River on the opposite bank of the northeastern foothills of Jinniu Ridge, and use the Mingxi River, which originates from the southeastern foothills of Qingyi Ridge, to construct a peripheral defense line.
The location of Chushan New City and the Huai River at the mouth of Mingxi River are in an inverted V-shaped flow direction, that is to say, Qingyi Ridge, Shimen Ridge and Mingxi River. The Huaihe River here encircles a flat terrain and is about forty miles deep.
rhombus area.
If a stable defense line can be further established along the Mingxi River, it means that Chushan will add 400,000 acres of cultivated farmland on the north bank of the Huai River.
If we really achieve this step, Chushan's grain production will become self-sufficient.
Chushan can't do it now because he is still too weak.
At present, there is no friendly army that can reliably support each other. If the Xuanwu Army and the Xiaosheng Army on the left and right are beaten to the point where they are unable to fight back, and the Tianxiong Army protrudes too far and attracts the main force of the captive soldiers, it will not last long.
When the enemy is strong and we are weak, especially since Dai Viet has not yet curbed the rampaging power of the Red Husband Cavalry in the plains, building forts layer by layer on the periphery, although clumsy, is one of the few options to accelerate the stalemate.
…………
…………
Although Xiangyang knew very well that once the Huainan Army abandoned Xu and Su and retreated to Sizhou, it would greatly increase the defensive pressure on the entire central and western front. He repeatedly sent envoys to Shouchun to emphasize the importance of "defending Huaihe must defend Xu", but Jian continued.
In September of the first year of the first year, King Zhao Guan of Huai ignored Xiangyang's dissuasion and ordered Han Shiliang and his troops to withdraw from Sizhou to the south from Xuzhou and Suzhou.
Even on the way to the south to withdraw from Sizhou, Han Shiliang and his troops did not get into chaos. It can even be said that they fought bravely. With the power of water and land, they repeatedly repelled the red cavalry who were outflanking and attacking, and achieved great results. Even though
Zhao Guan, king of Huai, defended Shouchun's flank, and sent General Ge Yu to lead his troops to occupy the cities of Ruyin and Yingshang. However, they could not reverse the huge negative impact of strategically abandoning Xu and Su.
At this point, except for a few cities that are still holding on, the entire Hehuai region can be said to have fallen into enemy hands.
At the same time, the Khitan general Xiao Qian sent troops from Zhengzhou in the past few months and successively captured the two cities of Xingyang and Hulao. Zheng Huaizhong and his troops are currently defending Gongxian and Pinglu cities to defend the hinterland of Heluo.
Pinglu was the focus of defense for Zheng Huaizhong's troops in Heluo. Once it was captured by the Japanese soldiers, the Japanese soldiers could cross the river from Maojin and go south, cutting off the connection between Heluo and Shaanxi.
Although Heluo soldiers and horses were tightly guarded, Pinglu persisted for half a year. However, Cao Shixiong, Yin Chao and other surrendered generals gathered tens of thousands of surrender troops, built trebuchets and other siege weapons, and took turns to attack the city.
More than ten sections of the urgently reinforced Pinglu City Wall collapsed, and the two sides fought repeatedly over the gaps in the city wall. Heluo soldiers and horses suffered extremely heavy losses.
Facing the weaker auxiliary troops of Xiao Qian's tribe, Heluo soldiers and horses failed to defend Xingyang and Hulao, which was even more disappointing.
At the same time, the two cities of Hejin and Puban, which guarded the east bank of the Yellow River and served as the gateway to Shaanxi, also fell at the end of September.
The 20,000 troops Gao Junyang sent to guard the two cities suffered heavy setbacks during the breakout, and only less than 5,000 remnant troops were left to retreat to Jingzhao Mansion.
In order to avoid the Gaojunyang tribe, Gu Jiqian's tribe was trapped on the north bank of the Wei River by the captives. Xiangyang had to issue an edict, ordering Gu Jiqian's tribe to abandon Yanlin and other northern Shaanxi prefectures and counties, and evacuate south to the south of the Wei River in advance.
Before that, Yuehai Tower could be said to be quite conservative. Its main troops were stationed on the left bank of Yingshui River for purges and drills, and more than ten thousand soldiers and horses were sent across the river in turns to enter the right bank of Yingshui River to burn, kill and loot, but they mainly stayed close to Yingshui River.
Water activities, especially on the left bank near Ru River, mainly involve sending small groups of elite troops to harass.
However, after the Chihuping Yan Army effortlessly occupied Xuzhou, Suzhou, and the Zhennan Army successively captured several key cities on the west flank, the main force of Yue Hailou and his troops crossed the Ying River on a large scale and swarmed up to the other side of Shangcai River.
.
When the left and right wings suffered successive defeats, and the Chihu Army was likely to bring more main troops closer to Rushui in the next step, Hu Kai rushed to Rushui to inspect the defense; those who accompanied Hu Kai rushed to Xiangyang to ask for help.
Heluoxing Battalion Commander Shi Zhaofan and others assisted.
Because Xincai was among the three places, Hu Kai summoned Yang Lin, Liu Xian, and Fu Qian to Xincai to discuss countermeasures.
"Yuehailou and his troops went south, extremely cautiously, and built two pontoon bridges in the south of Chenzhou City, and then all the way to the other side of Shangcai, they used Wuzhai to rebuild a series of strong garrisons. Yuehailou and his troops crossed the Ying River,
It can be said that we are working step by step, and we did not take advantage of the opportunity to concentrate our forces to severely damage his troops before reinforcements arrived - now we must make a decisive decision to abandon the Ru River..."
The war on the east and west fronts suffered successive defeats, and there was no hope of a reversal in the short term. Xu Huai did not dare to be even vague about his defensive and offensive attitude.
In addition to Hu Kai's arrival in Xincai, he wrote to Emperor Jian many times, advocating the immediate abandonment of the cities along Ru River and shrinking the limited forces to the inner line; after Yang Lin, Liu Xian, Fu Qian and others arrived in Xincai
, Xu Huai also directly stated his position again.
Zhao Fan came on behalf of Zheng Huaizhong. He also supported abandoning the Rushui defense line, but his views were different from Xu Huai's.
Xu Huai hoped that Yang Lin's Right Xiaosheng Army would be used as a mobile force to shrink near Wuyang first, so that it could form an angle with Liu Yan's Left Xiaosheng Army stationed in Wuyang. After the soldiers crossed the Ru River, they would actively look for fighter opportunities.
.
If they have the opportunity to inflict heavy damage on the enemies entering the right bank of Ru River, they can at least alleviate the current crisis.
However, Zhao Fan advocated abandoning the Ru River defense line, but he hoped to transfer Yang Lin's troops into Heluo for reinforcements.
Faced with such a severe situation, Yang Lin no longer insisted on sticking to Zhaoling, Shangcai, Pingyu and other cities, but contracted to the vicinity of Wuyang, or entered Heluo for reinforcements. This required Xiangyang to determine.
There are also different opinions on whether the Xuanwei Army should all shrink back to Huaichuan, Huangchuan, Liu Xian and the Xuanwei Army to control Fu Qian.
At present, generals such as Ge Yu of the Huai Prince Mansion are leading their troops to occupy Ruyin, Yingshang and other cities. Currently, the Xuanwei Army's Jiaopi, Lucheng, Chaiji and other villages on the left bank of the lower reaches of the Ru River are close to Ruyin. It can be said that they are
They are each other's horns.
As for Ruyin and Yingshang, as the flanks of Shouchun, their significance to Shouchun is not inferior to that of Sizhou.
Liu Xian and Fu Qian also communicated with the Huai Palace many times, and the Huai Palace also repeatedly stated that they would never abandon the two cities of Ruyin and Yingshang.
Fu Qian intends to lead his troops to guard Jiaopi, Lucheng, Chaiji, and Ruyin. This is the lip and tooth.
When Huai Wang Zhao Guan entered Shouchun, he urgently trained a naval force to reinforce the cities of Jiaopi, Lucheng, Chaiji and Ruyin through the Ying River. Unexpectedly, he was besieged by the captive soldiers.
"Xu, Su is very important, but if he is alone in the northeast, once he is surrounded by a heavy army of Red Guards, only Shouchun's troops and horses can slow down, but it may not be able to solve the immediate emergency. The King of Huai sent Han Shiliang to retreat to Sizhou, but it was also a good thing.
,"
Liu Xian and Fu Qian still agreed in their hearts that King Huai abandoned Xu Su, saying,
"What Ruyin is to Huaishang can be said to be what Xuzhou is to the Huaihe River. Xuzhou is worried about being trapped by the enemy and it is difficult to rescue it. It can be said that it is a helpless move to be forced to abandon the defense. However, Ruyin is only 200 miles across the Shouchun waterway, and the land route is even closer.
However, Xuanwei’s army is stationed in Huaichuan, Huangchuan’s troops and horses, and Tianxiong’s army is stationed in Luoshan and Chushan. Reinforcements are all close by, so how can we abandon them lightly?”
Although Hu Kai was the privy envoy, the generals had different opinions and he could not act on his own initiative.
He came here this time mainly to listen to the opinions of the generals on behalf of Emperor Jianji. He would eventually return to Xiangyang, discuss with Zhou He, Gao Chunnian and others, and ask Emperor Jianji to make a decision...
