The long gorge on the north side of Jiuliguan has narrow entrances and exits at the north and south ends, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it is slightly wider in the depth.
As the cavalry entered the Long Gorge, there were undulating mountains on both sides, steep cliffs and steep peaks, and snowflakes were falling in droves.
There are still many refugees trapped in the Long Gorge. They have built large and small shacks on both sides of the post road. Their faces are yellow and skinny, and they are shivering in the cold wind.
Xu Huai discussed with Meng Jie, Xu Kang and others, and also set up porridge farms mainly in Jiuliguan and the south of Xianshan to relieve the refugees from Jinan. However, there were still some people who were unable to leave their homeland and hoped that they could quickly regain their lost land and return to their homeland.
In the past two years, as many as three to four million people have fled the war from Hedong, Hehuai, Nanyang, and Anzhou, and most of them stopped at Jinghu North Road.
It is not easy for so many refugees to have a place to live, to eat, and to survive.
Since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, Jinghu North Road has been relatively fully developed, but it is impossible to accommodate nearly half of the refugees at once. The refugees can only continue to Jinghu South Road, Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, and two Zhejiang provinces.
Road evacuated.
For the vast majority of refugees, the journey away from their homeland is excruciating.
In today's world, ordinary people with weak bodies have to travel thousands of miles, and those who are weak and sick may simply die on the way.
And even if we can eventually go to Jianghuai, Jingnan and other places, there will still be fierce conflicts with local people competing for land.
A large number of refugees went south, causing serious land annexation. At this time, the people in the Jianghuai and Jinghu areas, which were mainly tenant farmers, had a huge impact.
On the one hand, landowners can obtain cheaper labor, which will inevitably raise tenant rents higher.
On the other hand, wars are still frequent, and it is necessary to continuously increase taxes to maintain the huge consumption and fight against the barbarians, and most of the additional taxes will inevitably be passed on to the tenants and farmers, making them even more vulnerable.
The situation worsened.
Of course, Xu Huai didn't have the energy to take care of too many things at this time, but because of these considerations, some villagers were unwilling to go south and leave wild land, so he would not forcefully drive them away.
Jiuliguan and Jiuguan City have long since been in ruins. The patrol village still in use at this time is only a small city that is less than 300 steps square. There are rammed earth walls that are about a mile long on each side to resist the cliff.
If the enemy soldiers really want to come in large numbers, this kind of defense will not be enough.
The remnants of the Xuanwei Army and the local defenders of Huaichuan, Huangchuan, and Guangshan were recruited to eliminate the weak and retain the strong. A total of 3,000 soldiers and horses were organized into the sixth wing of the Tianxiong Army, plus some small family members accompanying the army. This was called a large patrol.
Jiansizhai was overcrowded.
However, at this time, at the mouth of Changxia on the north side of Junzhai, thousands of young men were braving the snow to build a city wall, connecting it with the cliffs on both sides, and forming a real Guancheng with the Junzhai on the south side.
The old village was too crowded, so there were two newly built camps on the north side of the wall and south of the new wall.
Chen Zixiao usually led his soldiers and horses to garrison in these two camps, and made some generals and their families temporarily live in the military camp to prevent interference from each other during drills.
Accompanied by Chen Zixiao, Xu Huai walked to one of the camps and saw several groups of soldiers practicing on the school field in front of the camp, including Xu Zang.
Xu Huai stopped at the edge of the school field to watch the drill.
Xu Huai sent Chen Zixiao to recruit and command the remnants of the Xuanwei Army. Of course, he would not ask him to bear all the burdens alone.
Xu Huai not only assigned a group of young generals from Tongbai Mountain, such as Du Zhong and Xu Peng, to Chen Zixiao as generals and commanders, but also incorporated an elite battalion with Du Wu as the battalion commander into the sixth compartment as the Dinghai Shenzhen.
The generals on Jinghu North Road and the original Xuanwei Army also had their own arrangements at this time and went their separate ways.
Meng Jie, Xu Kang, Cheng Xiao and others were middle- and high-level officials of the Jingbei Supervisory Department, and they returned to Jinghu North Road after the Huaichuan Defense Battle.
Han Qiwen, as the magistrate of Huaichuan County, was temporarily placed under Jinghu North Road after Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang. In fact, he had nothing to do with the Jingbei Supervision Bureau.
He was upright and qualified for the imperial examination, so he went directly to Xiangyang to listen to the candidates.
Although Xu Ling, the former captain of Huaichuan County, had obtained an official status, he was a military official. He knew that when he went to Xiangyang to be a candidate, he would only be transferred between county captain, inspection envoy and other low-level official positions, and it was difficult to get ahead.
And he once served as the Ruhuai Inspection Department. Although a few years ago, the Ruhuai Inspection Department only had a few small boats and less than two hundred soldiers, arresting and attacking water bandits in the upper reaches of the Huai River and the lower reaches of the Ru River.
General, Xu Ling must be more experienced in commanding the navy than everyone else in Chushan.
Xu Ling understood the water conditions in the upper reaches of the Huai River, and he was awarded the title of Huaichuan County Lieutenant because of his merits in serving as the Ruhuai Inspection Envoy.
At the beginning of the Dai Viet Dynasty, most of the county captains were military officials. However, more than a hundred years later, it has become very rare for military officials to serve as county captains.
Xu Huai deliberately retained Xu Ling in Chushan, and specially set up a new Shuiying Cao Division under the Xingying Sima Yuan, so that Xu Ling could also lead the military and be responsible for organizing and training a naval battalion for Chushan.
Among the 2,000 remnant soldiers who escaped from the Jiaopi battlefield, the proportion of military officers and generals was quite high, with almost more than 400 people. Xu Huai did not talk to them about human rights at all, including the soldiers at the festival level and other grassroots soldiers.
He was sent to a warrior's residence for three months' training.
However, the generals and battalion commanders had already entered the general class and had to be awarded military titles. In theory, the Privy Council could directly select and dispatch them, so Xu Huai had no way to force them to stay, so he gave them their own choice.
Most of the generals who experienced this battle were killed to pieces.
Besides, their status in the army was not very low, so they were unwilling to stay in Chushan and chose to return to the Jinghu North Road Deployment Department to await their disposal.
Of course, they still don't know about Xiangyang's adjustments to the Jinghu North Road Metropolitan Deployment Department and the Zhuzhou Army.
However, Fu Liang, Chen Su and Shi Shu will all choose to join the Tianxiong Army.
Dozens of Fu family members followed Fu Qian and died on the Jiaopi battlefield this time.
Although Xiangyang was quite generous to Fu Qian, who had died in the battle, and gave him the title of Marquis of Lingshui as a posthumous gift. Fu Liang himself was lucky enough to escape, but he didn't know how he would face so many orphans and widowers in the Fu family when he returned.
The same was true for Chen Su and other generals who chose to stay.
Xu Huai sent Fu Liang, Chen Su and some generals under Chen Zixiao, who continued to command the remnants of the Xuanwei Army.
After entering the camp and waiting for Chen Zixiao to summon the generals, Xu Huai directly asked everyone to discuss the matter of building a new Luoshan City at the north entrance of Changxia.
Xu Huai hoped that Chen Zixiao could build a military stronghold at the north entrance as quickly as possible. As long as there was no large group of soldiers crossing the Huaihe River this winter, they could use the military stronghold to build the outer city wall this winter.
Build it first.
It is still necessary to consider that other battlefields may deteriorate at any time, which will free up more prisoners to move south.
If Luoshan New City can be built within this time window, Chen Zixiao can lead the Tianxiong Army's Sixth Wing to move to the mouth of the North Gorge, forming a corner with Luoshan Old City and Xinyang to block the possibility of a large-scale crossing of Huainan.
of captive soldiers.
Xu Huai stayed at Jiuli Pass for two days, talking with the generals about offensive and defensive matters, the current situation facing Huaishang, and the actions and intentions of the puppet Chu army in the Queshan and Zhenyang areas at this time.
, when returning to Chushan City, it was believed that Wang Fan, the newly appointed Jinghu North Road Military and Horse Command, had arrived at Lishan, Anzhou.
Xu Huai, as the commander-in-chief leading the army outside, was not allowed to leave the garrison lightly according to the law, so he sent people to Lishan to deliver the message.
One day later, Wang Fan, Lu Xiong, Zheng Shou, Wang Kong and others, accompanied by Meng Jie and other officials, rushed to Jiuliguan to meet Xu Huai.
"It's just right that you are at Jiuliguan, but you save me a trip to Chushan Mountain!"
After Liu Xian, there was no longer a Jinglue pacification envoy in Jinghu North Road to be in charge of military affairs. Instead, the military deployment department under the direct jurisdiction of the Privy Council was in charge of the military deployment department. He was in charge of the troops and horses of the states in Jinghu North Road. His power and status were no longer as good as those of Jinglue pacification.
Envoy, but be included in the list of supervisory officials.
However, the main force of the Xuanwei Army was defeated, and the remaining troops remaining on Jinghu North Road will be mixed with the weak Zhuzhou Army. This is an extremely arduous task.
Wang Fan did not feel as proud as he had for the first time since he had won an important task, but looked tired.
After taking office, he rushed to Anzhou to urgently reorganize Anzhou's troops and horses, and then send them to Chushan in batches to accept Xu Huai's control and participate in the defense of the puppet Chu army.
Since he knew that Xu Huai was at Jiuliguan, he naturally came with the generals from the Anzhou Military and Horse Supervision Department to discuss assisting in the defense.
"This is a simple matter. Although the people in Huangchuan and other places have been evacuated, it is impossible to abandon these fortresses. And I estimate that this winter, it is unlikely that the Japanese soldiers will cross the Huainan River in large numbers, so I established a new settlement east of Luoshan.
Set up five inspection departments, Anzhou soldiers and horses, with battalions as units, just enter the inspection department's military stronghold to assist in defense..." Xu Huai said straightforwardly.
The Red Husband Cavalry are invincible in the world. Do they have three heads and six arms?
It is nothing more than the good fortune to have a group of outstanding generals who led the campaigns for thirty or forty years and accumulated a large number of elite generals.
In the past, Dai Viet relied on culture to control military affairs, and culture to control military affairs. The soldiers and horses, who seriously lacked the experience of commanding troops in combat, read a few more military books and had more official experience. They thought they had seen everything and relied on their ability to guide the country.
However, these officials did not have the experience of sharing the joys and sorrows with the generals, and lacked sufficient understanding of the many detailed practices of marching operations. They took it for granted more than just talking on paper, and suppressed experienced generals from participating in strategic decision-making.
How can he be a qualified military commander if he interferes excessively in battlefield command?
In addition, in the year of peace, there was serious fraud in the army, the sources of soldiers were mixed, and their status was low. How could the combat effectiveness of Dai Viet soldiers and horses not be low?
However, is it certain that Dai Viet cannot produce a strong army?
Bianliang fell, Hedong and Hebei fell to the enemy, and the Hehuai River and Huaihe River areas were all in ruins. It was not that there were no people with lofty ideals to resist.
Even if they lost their armor along the way and suffered countless defeats, the soldiers and horses withdrawn from Hedong and Hebei also grew and tempered in repeated encounters with the enemy.
The fighting strength of Han Shiliang's tribe in Prince Huai's Mansion is not weak.
The generation of generals of Ge family and Ge Huaicong were ruined after the collapse of Tianxiong's army. However, Ge Yu's new generation of young generals, while following Zhao Guan, King of Huai, showed the fighting qualities expected of a general's disciples.
This time Ge Yu led his troops to break out by water, and his performance was remarkable.
Zheng Huaizhong's son Zheng Cong and nephew Zheng Jinqing led their troops to guard Pinglu, and they had been fighting with the surrendered vassal Cao Shixiong and Yin Chao's troops for more than half a year.
Gao Junyang and Gu Jiqian had two troops, and some generals performed well.
The Anzhou soldiers and horses wanted to improve their combat effectiveness, but Xu Huai didn't have much energy to take care of both. He might as well just abandon the patrol inspection division's military stronghold on the periphery and give them a chance to confront the small group of soldiers first.
At least when you see the captive soldiers not panicking and trembling, then you can have a basic guarantee of combat effectiveness...
