In October, there are already signs of early winter in the Hehuai River. The grass and trees are withering, and the world is in a state of depression.
The early morning mist rolls over the water and over the weedy wilderness.
A group of cavalry walked slowly on the post road.
Xu Huaigong sent Hu Kai off, Zhao Fan and others followed Yang Lin to Shangcai along the right bank of Ru River, and returned to Xincai City with Wang Ju, Shi Zhen, Xu Wiqi and others.
Compared with the vast mist two or three months ago, with the arrival of the dry season, the rainfall in Funiu Mountain, Songshan Mountain and other places to the east has dropped significantly. At this time, the Ru River is flowing quietly on the earth, with the water surface only about ten feet high.
It is wide and sparkling under the mist.
Before, we were worried that Chihu East Road and Pingyan Army would detour from Bianliang. Now that we have entered the dry season, the Bianshui, Woishui, Yingshui and other river sections will only become shallower and narrower in the middle and lower reaches due to siltation in the upper reaches and collapse of river banks.
, as long as the cavalry finds a suitable ford, they can directly cross the river, and it will be more difficult to capture their whereabouts.
"Your Majesty has too many factors to weigh, and most likely he will dispatch Yang Lin to assist Heluo," Shi Zhen said to Xu Huai, "and Liu Xian and Fu Qian have been very close to the Huai Palace during this time, and the Huai Palace
There will definitely be efforts to win over the Xuanwei Army and defend its flanks! If Liu Xian and Fu Qian have already made up their minds, Xiangyang may not intervene forcefully!"
The complexity of the matter cannot be clearly explained and solved in a few words.
Xu Huai hoped that Xiangyang would be prepared to abandon Heluo and ensure that the Huaishang defense line had enough troops to deal with the upcoming winter offensive by the enemy. However, the situation would not develop according to Xu Huai's wishes, and there was no guarantee that Zheng Huaizhong would definitely comply.
Xiangyang's will is carried out.
If Zheng Huaizhong cannot be persuaded to give up Heluo, and Xiangyang does not send reinforcements to Heluo, then not only do we have to consider that the Heluo army and horses may suffer heavy losses, but we also have to worry about other changes.
Although no one would talk about this sensitive topic openly, if Pinglu fell, Gongxian, Yanshi fell, and Zheng Huaizhong led his remaining army to be trapped in Luoyang, would he have the steadfastness to die for the country of Dai Viet?
Not everyone in the world has the integrity of people like Xu Wei, Wen Hengyue, and Qian Zerui.
There was no way to bring up this sensitive topic, so Zheng Huaizhong insisted on guarding Heluo, so Xiangyang could only send reinforcements into Heluo to prevent the worst case scenario from happening.
The problem of the Xuanwei Army is also a bit complicated. Xiangyang cannot interfere too much in the specific defense matters that the Xuanwei Army is responsible for. There is no way to directly order the Xuanwei Army to abandon the defensive stronghold north of Huaichuan, leaving the Huainan Army to defend Ruyin alone.
Yingshang and other cities.
Since Xiangyang would not necessarily interfere with the Xuanwei Army's specific defense in Huaichuan, it would not be Chushan's turn to dictate what to do. Xu Huai looked around at the fertile, flat land and drove his horse to Xincai City.
He walked slowly and said:
"Ignore these, I will lead my troops to cross Ru River twice tomorrow. When Xiangyang makes the final decision, we will withdraw to the inner line!"
"That's right, Ruyin, if something goes wrong in Jiao Pi, Zhao Guan's grandson is in Shouchun, and Luzhou has 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers and horses that can be mobilized, so it's not our turn to worry about it!" Xu Wuqi said, waving his whip.
.
Huai Wang Zhao Guan led 100,000 troops to retreat southward, and Huainan was enfeoffed. Huainan East Road and Huainan West Road also had more than 40,000 forbidden troops, all of which were under the jurisdiction of the Huai Palace.
In comparison, the troops that Prince Huai's Mansion could mobilize were no more than those directly under Xiangyang's command, and there were also capable generals such as Han Shiliang and Ge Yu under his command.
The biggest headache now is that the Huai Palace has so many resources, troops and horses, but it keeps shrinking southward and does not share the military pressure it deserves.
This was definitely not what Xu Huai and Xiangyang wanted to see.
Chushan has shrunk back to the inner line. Ruyin, Jiaopi, Lucheng, Chaiji and other fortresses are located on both sides of the lower reaches of the Ying River. They will become protrusions that attract Japanese soldiers, forcing the Huai Palace to send more troops and resources to the Ruyin line.
, it might not be a bad thing to confront the main force of the Japanese soldiers...
…………
…………
Early the next morning, before the main force of the Red Guards Cavalry entered the coast of Yingshui River, Xu Huai led his guard camp northward from Wangshanjin to the upper reaches of Yingshui River in search of fighters.
Yue Hailou and his troops recruited generals who surrendered their troops and rebelled. Later, they were willing to serve as the vanguard of the barbarians, and they fought non-stop in the east and west.
Although his troops obtained many good horses from Yunshuo and had thousands of cavalry, Yue Hailou's troops went south and were mainly responsible for attacking cities and villages. His cavalry lacked training and did not have many opportunities for actual combat, so they were far away.
Not to mention elite.
Yue Hailou was also self-aware of this. He knew that the provocative troops led by Xu Huai to cross the Ru River only had more than a thousand horses, but he was able to calm down and strictly ordered the more than 30,000 troops who entered the right bank of the Ying River to guard the camp.
Not leaving the camp easily gave Xu Huai an opportunity to fight in the field.
Six days later, an official edict was issued in Xiangyang, calling for Yang Lin to lead the right-hand victorious army to aid Heluo. Xu Huaikong stayed on the left bank of Ru River but had no chance to fight. It was even more impossible to mobilize a large number of troops to go north to attack the city and pull out the stronghold, so he had to withdraw to Xincai.
.
After Xu Huai withdrew to Xincai, he immediately demolished the Wangshanjin Floating Bridge and began to withdraw to the south.
On the one hand, more than 400 large and small boats that could be collected in Xincai were transferred to Zhouqiao via Rushui; on the other hand, the last remaining more than 20,000 soldiers and civilians from Xincai, Queshan, Zhenyang and other places were sent there in turn.
Qingyi Ridge and Chushan New City were evacuated.
In Luoshan County, the floating bridge at the mouth of Shixi River was also removed.
On October 16, Xu Huai led his bodyguards and barracks to finally return to Chushan New City.
Chushan City was completely built at this time. It was only an inner city with a depth of more than 400 steps. The four walls were built with rammed earth and the city wall was two feet high. It was definitely not a majestic city. Xu Huai never thought of completely passively occupying the city.
And keep.
If we really get to this point, we might as well give up on the new city on the north bank for the time being and defend the more steep Shimen Ridge and Qingyi Ridge.
Chushan Outer City, also Chushan City in the true sense, currently only has a long winding wall less than one foot high built on the northern edge of the low hillock area.
The long wall stretches along the hills.
In order to make it easier to meet the approaching enemy troops and prevent them from figuring out the movements of Chushan's troops and horses, this nine-mile-long city wall had eight gate exits.
Between Zhouqiao and Chushan City on the north bank, a new pontoon bridge was built after October. In order to protect these two pontoon bridges, the two docks to the west of Chushan City were reinforced and used as garrison camps. Together with the Chushan rammed earth inner city in Huaihe
They are lined up on the north bank of the water, about two miles apart from each other.
In addition to the Tianxiong Army's 10,000 regular troops, the Xiang Army has been expanded to 8,000 people and has entered full combat readiness. It is mainly transferred to Luoshan, Qingyi Ridge, Chushan and other places for garrison, and the Xiang Army has been expanded to 5,000 people.
They also worked day and night to strengthen the construction of long trenches, retaining walls, forts and other defensive fortifications.
Tens of kilograms of caltrops, boatloads of raw coal and other materials were also expedited to be transported to Qingyi Ridge, Chushan, Luoshan, Chushan New Town and other places.
The entire north bank of the Huai River suddenly started to roar...
…………
…………
As You Xiaosheng's army was transferred to Heluo to reinforce Zheng Huaizhong's troops and take over the defense of Luoyang's east wing cities such as Gongxian and Yanshi, and as Tianxiong's army shrank inward, Yue Hailou and his puppet Chu army effortlessly
Crossed the Ru River and captured Zhaoling, Shangcai, Pingyu, Xincai and other cities.
At this time, the Huaishang defense line was divided into three parts by the North and South Ridges of Tongbai Mountain and Dafu Mountain.
To the west of Beiling and Dafu Mountain is the Wuyang defense line. Liu Yan led Zuo Xiaosheng's army to defend Wuyang. Two cities in Ye County and the south side of Wuyang also had troops from Zuo Xuanwu's army and Nanyang Prefecture's army, totaling 10,000 troops.
City, blocking the gap between Funiu Mountain and Tongbai Mountain heading south to Nanyang Prefecture.
The middle section of the Huaishang defense line is Zhouqiao (Chushan City), Shimen Ridge and Qingyi Ridge, which protect the hinterland of Tongbai Mountain from the northeast and also block the westward passage to Nanyang via Tongbai Mountain Road.
The eastern section includes the Huaichuan, Huangchuan, and Luoshan defense lines. In addition to protecting Xinyang County on both sides of the Shixi River and the Dongshan area of Tongbai Mountain, it also mainly protects the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain going south to the north bank of Jinghu Lake.
.
The eastern section of the defense line connects with Shouchun's west flank.
Liu Xian and Fu Qian are more willing to work closely with the Huaiwang Army and station in the lower reaches of Yingshui River, mainly to guard Ruyin and Jiaopi, Lucheng and other walled cities, so that they can well protect the east flank defense lines such as Huaichuan and Huangchuan.
On the inside.
In response to this situation, Yue Hailou certainly would not spread all his troops to attack the three defense lines on the east, middle and west of Huaishang.
The Yuehai Tower was only located in Shaoling, in the upper reaches of the Ru River. Sui defeated the two cities with thousands of garrison troops, keeping an eye on Liu Yan's Zuo Xiaosheng army, and sealed Liu Yan's troops from Jinding Mountain and the north of Dafu Mountain.
It is possible to go around to reinforce Queshan and Qingyi Ridge.
The main force of Yue Hai's command mainly focused on the center line that Xu Huai's command mainly defended. About 30,000 soldiers and horses of his command were stationed in Queshan, Zhenyang, Xincai and other cities, and built forts along the Mingxi River on the east side of Qingyi Ridge.
Ensure that the main force of the Chushan Army is contained in Qingyi Ridge, Shimen Ridge and Chushan New City, making it difficult to take care of other areas.
Since Ruyin, Jiaopi, Lucheng and other cities guard the lower reaches of the Ying River and block the Huai River, Ying Shang and the upper reaches of the Huai River, the first step for the Chihu people to launch an offensive on the Huai River in winter is to remove this obstacle.
.
However, not all the attacks on Ruyin, Jiaopi, Lucheng and other fortresses were carried out by Yue Hailou's puppet Chu army. Only Zhong Changqing led his troops from Taihe across the Ying River southward to Jiaopi.
Lucheng and Chaiji villages are approaching.
The main force that actually attacked Ruyin City came from the main force of the Pingyan Army on the Chihu East Road and the Yan Jijiang vassal troops who followed the Pingyan Army southward to conquer the east and west.
The Huai Prince's army did not defend Xu and Su, so the main force of the Ping Yan army on the east side of Chihu and the subordinate tribes of Yan Ji were liberated.
In mid-October, the Chihu people mobilized cavalry from the east road and Yan Ji's auxiliary troops, a total of 80,000 horses, marched westward and occupied Qiao County, Bozhou, and then from Qiao County along the Wo River southward to Woyang and Mengcheng, but did not continue towards
Xiacaicheng on the other side of Shouchun is advancing. In early November, 50,000 main troops were sent west from Guoyang to advance towards Ruyin City...
