When Chushan troops withdrew, the remaining houses in Huaichuan City were not only set on fire, but many of the city walls were also dug down.
Piles of bonfires were burning brightly, snowflakes were flying down above the bonfires, and the night was freezing. Thousands of civilians were driven to the top of the city to repair the city wall even late at night.
The gap was tightly supported with wooden frames. A dozen people stood on both sides of the gap, shouting chants, rolling up the stones with ropes and then letting go. They kept pounding and filling the gap, stumbling into the lime soil.
Not far away, groups of men and horses gathered behind the North City Gate, holding torches and slowly leaving the city. The front end was submerged in the turbulent night, and occasionally a clear whistle from the war horses could be heard.
In the early morning, the civilian laborers who had worked hard all night at the top of the city dragged their exhausted bodies back to the simple camp, and another group of civilian laborers went to the city to continue repairing the city wall.
At this time, a team of mules and horses entered Huaichuan City from the North City Gate carrying thousands of bags of rice grain. Under the close supervision of soldiers, the bags of rice grain were unloaded into the warehouse.
This team of mules and horses set out from the north of Chenzhou and traveled for five days to unload the grain. They rested for one day in Huaichuan before embarking on the return journey and then took on the next task of transporting grain.
As for the tens of thousands of civilians and hard laborers in the city, most of them were young men who had been forcibly recruited from Chenzhou. Many of them were related to the grain transport team. Early this morning, some people found the hard labor camp and brought clothes and food to them.
"The city has been changing troops and horses for three consecutive nights - the newly replaced troops and horses have good armor, but the military discipline and military capacity are much worse. Yesterday, I couldn't wait to leave the city to attack the two towers in the north that had not yet been evacuated.
We came back from the village and robbed dozens of young women!”
In the corner of the hard labor camp, a thin middle-aged man sat behind the earth wall, mouthing the wheat cakes sent by his fellow villagers, and spoke slowly.
Another young man wearing a short homespun jacket stood behind the earthen wall. The two of them were staggered, talking in a low voice, and could see the scene in the distance.
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"Huaichuan Secret Report!"
Xu Huaizheng was sparring with Niu Er with a blunt-headed spear. When he saw Zhou Jing walking into the side courtyard and saying that there was new news coming from Huaichuan, he hit the iron shield Niu Er was holding with his gun, and a huge force exploded from his muscles and bones, knocking Niu Er away.
The second company man took a few steps back with his shield, then threw his spear aside, took the secret letter from Zhou Jing, read it, patted his thigh and shouted:
"Okay, this old fox Yue Hailou will inevitably drink our foot-washing water! Immediately send an order to Xu Xin'an and ask him to secretly transfer the troops back to Zhouqiao!"
Chushan had long noticed signs that Yue Hailou secretly transferred elite soldiers and horses to Huaichuan.
This is also a reasonable thing.
No matter how reluctant Yue Hailou was, when the Ping Yan Army and Yan Jijiang's auxiliary army on Chihudong Road intended to attack Shouchun across Huaihe with all their strength, Yue Hailou's troops would inevitably be required to contain the Huai Prince's troops from the flanks.
However, Xu Huai had to consider whether the elite Chu army that had crossed the Huaihe River would turn to attack Luoshan and Xinyang once their intention to dam the upper reaches of the Mingxi River was exposed.
This would force the limited Chushan elite to fight on two fronts, putting them in a more unfavorable situation.
Therefore, Xu Huaishi secretly leaked to Zhong Changqing that the heat absorbed by coal would accelerate the melting of the ice, thus dispelling Yue Hailou's idea of mobilizing secretly assembled elite troops from Huaichuan to cross Huainan on top of the ice.
Covering the river with raw coal can accelerate the melting of the ice in a certain river section, but whether it can cause a freezing flood disaster of sufficient scale to threaten both banks downstream is something that is completely impossible to determine at this time.
On the one hand, it is limited by the thickness of the ice layer, on the other hand, it is limited by the terrain of the river between Chushan and Huaichuan, and on the other hand, it is limited by weather changes. With the contemporary understanding of hydrology, climate and river geography, and the construction methods, many things
There is simply no way to control it accurately.
The original intention of Zhujunzhai's reserve of raw coal, which Chushan can definitely control at present, is to cover the crushed coal, which can weaken the ice layer in a small area in front of the Junzhai, making it difficult for the enemy to take advantage of the cold winter season to advance.
On the south bank of the Huai River, the military stronghold was deployed along the northern foot of Jinniuling; Ling Luqi had no way to bypass Chushan City and directly threaten Zhouqiao on the south bank.
At this time, Xu Huai's real intention was to successfully force Yue Hailou to give up his intention of sending other elite soldiers and horses to cross the Huainan River, and at the same time to attract all the elite soldiers and horses under Yue Hailou to the frontal battlefield on the west bank of the Mingxi River.
On the one hand, Chushan still occupies an absolute geographical advantage on the battlefield west of the Mingxi River. On the other hand, it can also secretly transfer Xu Xin'an's elite troops to the center line and concentrate the elite soldiers and horses for use.
As a result, in addition to Tangpan's troops guarding Qingyi Ridge in the north, Chen Zixiao's newly-organized sixth camp guarding Luoshan New City (Zhai), and the elites of Tianxiong's four columns and bodyguards all gathered on the front battlefield.
When the conditions are ripe, the damming of the Mingxi River can be used as bait to force Yue Hailou and his troops to come out of their turtle-shell-like forts to fight...
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At the end of November, except for Tang Qing's troops in the second wing of the Tianxiong Army who were mobilized from the inner line and stationed in Huangyangzhai, and built several temporary camps east of Huangyangzhai and near the south bank of the Mingxi River, the three engineering and supply camps were
The Thousand Craftsman Army also carried tools, small carts for transporting earth, and carried loads. They set out from Huaiyuan and entered Huangyangzhai eastward via the newly established mountain road between the North Ridge of Tongbai Mountain and Dafu Mountain (Qingyi Ridge).
Such a big movement in Chushan almost immediately attracted the attention of Zhong Changqing, the former commander of the puppet Chu army, and Mo Lihu, who personally led the red cavalry to fight in conjunction with the front army.
They also immediately informed Yue Hailou, who was supervising the entire Huaishang battlefield in Shangcai.
Zhong Changqing's strategy of marching and building a company camp was of course clear that the upper reaches of the Mingxi River was a strategic location that must be fought for.
When Chushan had long established the Huangyangzhai Inspection Division to control the upper reaches of the Mingxi River, Zhong Changqing had also built a new Dazhai at the southern foot of the Iron Curtain Mountain to the east of the upper reaches of the Mingxi River as a means of future competition.
A stronghold for control of the hills on the upper reaches of the Mingxi River.
After learning that Chushan was mobilizing troops on a large scale to Huangyang Village, Yue Hailou rushed to the South Village of Iron Curtain Mountain as soon as possible.
The snow has stopped in the sky, and although the cold wind is still biting, the view is extremely broad under the cloudless sky.
Everyone could vaguely see the sparkling waves of the Mingxi River thirteen or fourteen miles away, and they could also see people thousands of miles away digging and digging canals beside the original channel of the Mingxi River.
"What do they want to do? Why do they want to dig a new ditch in the west to divert the water from the Mingxi River to the west?" Meng Jie asked in confusion.
Yue Hailou was speechless towards Meng Jie who was uneducated and incompetent.
Zhong Changqing patiently explained to Meng Jie: "... Chushan is going to build a dam on the upper reaches of the Mingxi River to block water. However, when filling the dam to build the dam, in order to avoid rainfall affecting the filling, it is necessary to dig another channel.
drain!"
"In order to block the original river channel, we have to dig a new river channel. Isn't this a waste of effort?" Meng Jie scratched his head and asked, "Isn't it necessary to dig another river channel in order to block the newly dug river channel? Chu
Are you, these grandsons of Shan, stupid?"
Zhong Changqing couldn't help but want to roll his eyes, and said patiently: "The natural channel in the upper reaches of Mingxi River, plus the shallow valleys on both sides, is three to four hundred steps wide - I want to build a dam to fill it.
, it takes a long time, so you need to dig a diversion canal to prevent heavy rain. The newly dug diversion canal only needs to be a dozen steps wide. It will be filled up very quickly afterwards, and there is no need to dig another diversion canal!
"
"Why did they block the upper reaches of Mingxi River to prevent us from drinking the water in Mingxi River?" Meng Jie asked.
Yue Hailou stopped Meng Jie's words, frowned and asked Zhong Changqing uncertainly: "The valley in the upper reaches of the Mingxi River is not deep and wide. Just blocking the river channel does not seem to pose a great threat to the lower reaches?"
"Xu Huai has built large cofferdams in Tongbai Mountain in recent years to intercept streams and rivers to irrigate slope fields and valleys, but the water of the streams and rivers intercepted is not very large," Zhong Changqing said, "I have also considered Chu
It is possible that Huangyangzhai built a dam in the upper reaches of the Mingxi River to block the river. People sneaked into the upper reaches of the Mingxi River and repeatedly confirmed that it was just blocking the river, and the water captured would not pose much of a threat to the camp below us.
However, just to fill up the river, it is enough to requisition more than a thousand civilians to work for more than a month, and the civilian laborers gathered in Huangyangzhai this time by Chushan seem to be too many - I urgently sneaked into the depths of Tongbai Mountain yesterday.
There are various signs that the hinterland of Tongbai Mountain is still mobilizing more civilian laborers to come to Huangyangzhai!"
"Are you saying that in addition to intercepting the river, Chushan also needs to build low weirs in the valleys on both sides to store enough rainwater after spring?" Yue Hailou asked in shock.
Because the rainfall in Tongbai Mountain is very limited in the cold winter, this is also the best time to build a dam to block the river. When the rain begins to accumulate in spring, enough rainwater can be stored to create a large lake suspended above the fortresses in the middle and lower reaches of the Mingxi River.
Once the big lake pours down, both sides of the Mingxi River will become puddles, and every fort will become an island!
Zhong Changqing nodded bitterly and said, "This may not seem easy, but Chu Shan seems to be doing it intentionally!"
"Right now, it seems that the only way to attack Huangyangzhai is the easiest!" Mo Li said with a frown.
Yue Hailou, Zhong Changqing nodded bitterly and said: "It seems that this is the only way..."
Although Chushan has mobilized so many people in the upper reaches of the Mingxi River, it may be a necessary strategy to attack it, but they cannot wait for the dam to be built before attacking by force.
By then, not only will the dam be built, but the defense system near Huangyangzhai will also be more complete, and Chushan City will also be so strong that it cannot be conquered without a strong attack.
If they do nothing until next spring and abandon the company camps built with such effort on both sides of the Mingxi River and withdraw their troops, how will they explain to Bianliang and Zhennanzong's palace?
"Tch, you've wasted so much effort, why don't you just stick your neck in to hit me!" Meng Jie muttered dissatisfied.
Zhong Changqing was filled with bitterness, but could not argue with Meng Jie's dissatisfaction:
If we had known this, it would have been more advantageous to have tens of thousands of soldiers and horses swarm Chushan City two months ago before the outer city wall was built to attack Chushan City...
