The military stronghold on the west slope of Xiaoquegang was previously built according to the standard of a sentry fort, with logging and fences. The stronghold was only about a hundred steps square, making it very small. At present, in addition to the first battalion of elite troops stationed there, a large amount of supplies have also been secretly transported into the reserve.
This is extremely crowded.
The area of the public tent is also very limited. Two rows of narrow rooms built with logs serve as the official halls of the officials. There are also collective dormitories for generals to rest, a meeting hall, and a command tent.
In the center of the command tent is a wooden table that is more than ten feet long. On it is a sand table made of pine resin and river sand, which clearly shows the topography of Ru River and Ying River north of Wuyang.
Xu Huai stood at the wooden desk, examined the sand table, and asked Chen Zixiao and Zhou Jing: "Have you figured out the enemy's deployment in Xuchang and Wanqiu?"
Chen Zixiao said: "... Yue Hailou withdrew his troops from Mingxi River after the spring, and his main force retreated to Wanqiu (Chenzhouzhi) for rest and reorganization. His general Jiang Zhaode also abandoned Zhaoling City to the north and returned to Xuchang (Xuzhouzhi). We went north from Xiaoque
Gang, there is no movement in Xuchang. Two thousand soldiers and horses from Wanqiu marched westward from Shangshui River and stationed themselves in this small village called Heishigou, which is about forty miles away from Changpo on the north bank!"
The ancient city of Zhaoling is just ten miles east of Xiaoquegang. However, when Yang Lin withdrew from Caizhou, in addition to setting fire to the streets and lanes in the middle of Zhaoling City, he also dug up the Laoyu River embankment on the south side of Zhaoling to divert water for irrigation.
Enter Zhaoling.
After the autumn of last year, General Jiang Zhaode under Yue Hailou led his troops southward to attack Liu Yan's Youxiaosheng Army stationed in Wuyang. He did not repair the remaining Zhaoling City, but instead built a camp on the southwest side of the remaining Zhaoling City.
However, Jiang Zhaode withdrew back to Xuzhou in spring and calmly destroyed the camp before leaving.
Now in the ancient city of Zhaoling, there are basically only a few broken walls left.
"We have been discussing for a long time," Chen Zixiao stood in front of the sand table and introduced the defensive battle plan that he had pondered after arriving at Xiaoquegang.
We also need to send manpower to occupy it in order to blur the rebels’ sight!”
In the early stage of Chushan, it is necessary to avoid alerting Yuehai Tower as much as possible. Even Xiaoquegang does not send too many manpower, and it is impossible to send a large number of troops to Zhaoling to start repairing the remaining city.
Generally speaking, breaking through mountains and digging canals should be carried out on the north bank of Ru River. Chushan's top priority is to establish a solid defense on the north bank to ensure that the thousands of young people and craftsmen who break through mountains and dig canals are not affected by the enemy.
Instead of wasting limited resources and manpower on the repair of Zhaoling City on the south bank.
However, the problem is that Chushan abandoned the nearby Zhaoling remnant city without occupying or repairing it, and suddenly transported tens of thousands of horses and countless resources across Ru River. Even though Yue Hailou could not understand Chushan's true intention, he
Even if he did not allow others to sleep soundly under the couch, he would immediately dispatch troops and generals to advance and drive Chushan soldiers and horses away from the north bank of Ru River.
In order to confuse Yue Hailou and draw the attention of the rebels, even if it will waste a lot of resources and manpower, Chushan must first divide its troops to defend the remaining city of Zhaoling and invest resources in repairing the remaining city.
In this way, Yue Hailou is very likely to mistakenly believe that Chushan's movements in Xiaoqueshan and Changpo on the north bank are to build a forward camp that can maintain a certain pressure on Xuzhou and Chenzhou.
After Chushan also led the west flank defense line on Huaihe River, the normal defense system was improved, instead of suddenly making other big moves.
Only in this way can it be possible for Yue Hailou to slack off in the early stage and waste some time, energy and resources on the corresponding defense deployment, so as to gain another half month to a month of preparation time for Chushan.
One of the most critical tasks in this process is to establish a stable connection between Xiaoqueling and Changpo on the north bank.
Once a large number of young and strong civilians and craftsmen officially enter the long slope of the North Bank to dig canals, Yue Hailou will also realize the problem.
Now, a large number of soldiers and horses will inevitably be gathered to attack.
At that time, the south bank will need to quickly support the north bank and continuously transport grain, men and horses, or consider the worst case scenario, unable to withstand the enemy's offensive, and have to temporarily abandon the plan to break through the mountains and dig canals. With so many people and horses, the civilians must quickly
To evacuate to the south bank, relying on a ferry is far from enough.
In addition, the enemy also controlled Huaichuan City near the Ru River into the Huai River.
This also means that the enemy's navy in Yingzhou can enter Rushui via Huaichuan and force Xiaoquegang to coordinate operations; but the navy trained by Chushan in Zhouqiao and Xinyang cannot enter Rushui to fight.
Simply building pontoon bridges on both sides of the river would be too easy for the enemy to destroy.
Chen Zixiao, Zhou Jing, Tang Tiande, Yu Chengzhen and Zhuang Yong, the son of Zhuang Shouxin who was responsible for leading the team of craftsmen, repeatedly studied several plans and decided to build a suspension bridge between Xiaoquegang and Changpo on the north bank.
At that time, the suspension bridge was also called Zuo Bridge. Zuo was a cable made of twisted bamboo strips. It was the common bamboo cable bridge in Tongbai Mountain.
However, in the early years, the bamboo cable bridges in Tongbai Mountain were mostly built over streams with small spans, and required natural fixtures on both sides, such as giant trees or holes drilled in solid cliffs.
Even so, the carrying capacity of the bamboo cable bridge is extremely limited and cannot bear dozens of carriages loaded with supplies or dozens of people passing through it at the same time.
Tongbai Mountain uses a bottle-shaped blast furnace to smelt refined iron, and the cost of making iron cables has been greatly reduced. Last year, we started building an iron cable suspension bridge in Tongbai Mountain and accumulated some experience.
Chen Zixiao and the others plan to build an iron cable bridge at Xiaoquegang. The height of the rock formations in Xiaoquegang and the Chang Slope on the north bank from the water is very limited. At the same time, the span of the river is up to a hundred steps wide. Chen Zixiao and the others plan to quarry stones and extend them in Xiaoquegang.
On the stone cliff entering the river channel, a stone pier platform seven to eight feet high was built as a support.
"This stone platform cable bridge cannot be built in a short time, and will eventually lose its function due to the stone filling and interception of the river on the east side of Xiaoquegang. However, it still needs to be built simultaneously," Chen Zixiao said, "This takes into account that once we have a large area on the north bank,
It will take time to break through the mountains and open canals on a large scale, and it will take time for the enemy forces to gather in large numbers and advance over. This stone platform iron cable bridge is prepared for the large-scale enemy forces to gather and launch an offensive on the north bank!"
"Mr. Yu, where is the depression zone that the northern discharge of the Shuishui River may flow through?" Xu Huai pointed to the sand table and asked Yu Chengzhen.
Making a sand table is not easy, so Yu Chengzhen pointed with her hand on the sand table, roughly pointing out to Xu Huai the low-lying drainage strip that he had identified on the north bank of Xiaoquegang during this period of time.
The purpose of digging a channel through the mountains on the long slope of the north bank is to use the depression zone as a natural river channel to guide the Kuishui River to the Yingshui River.
Of course, this cannot be a straight line running from north to south. According to preliminary measurements by the people sent by Yu Chengzhen, it is a straight line running from north to east, extending all the way to Shangshui County on the south side of Wanqiu (Chenzhouzhi). It is a quite clear depression.
district.
"We need ten craftsmen who are familiar with geodesic methods to form a scout team and sneak into this area immediately to further verify the terrain!" Xu Huai said thoughtfully.
Chen Zixiao and Zhou Jing's eyes lit up, and they asked in unison: "Jie Shuai wants to..."
"The flood season is coming. If we can dig out the long slope of the north bank before the year is over, it will be quite successful." Xu Huai frowned and muttered, "In winter, the Shui River and the Lishui River are thin. It is impossible to divert the water to the north."
If you break through the levee on the south bank of Yingshui River and enter the Huaihe River through the Yingshui River, you can only dump it downward along the depressed terrain..."
The flow of the Juishui and Lishui rivers in winter is very low, and it is obviously impossible to form a large flood that irrigates the entire lower reaches of the Yingshui River, turning Chenzhou, Yingzhou, and the northern part of Caizhou into a vast expanse of water.
However, water leaking northward in winter will still flood a relatively small area as long as it is blocked by the embankment on the south bank of Yingshui River.
Xu Huai wanted Zhou Jing to personally take charge and send out manpower to find this area.
Because in later generations there will be no change in the water flow
According to the records of the river entering Ru, this area is probably in Shangshui County between Wanqiu, Shangcai and Zhaoling.
Of course, we must also consider that Wanqiu and Yingshui in Shangshui County have some small-scale tributaries on the south bank. If they are located in low-pressure areas, they will become drainage channels, and they need to be confirmed in advance.
This work will next become the top priority of the enemy spying team in Xiaoquegang.
After ordering this matter, Xu Huai stopped thinking about the flooded area and asked Yu Chengzhen and Zhuang Shouxin's son Zhuang Yong, the engineer responsible for leading the team of craftsmen, in detail about the construction details of the Shitai Iron Cable Bridge.
A simple night banquet was prepared in the camp. After the night banquet, Su Laochang, Yin Peng and others came to Xiaoquegang from Wuyang City.
Although Xu Huai and Shi Zhen were sitting in Ye County before, and many matters that were already in progress would be presented to his case in time, but throughout the night, Xu Huai still pulled Su Laochang, Yin Peng, Chen Zixiao, and Xu Wukun,
Zhou Jing, Tang Tiande, Yu Chengzhen, Zhuang Yong and others deliberated on many details of building bridges, opening canals and defensive arrangements.
Xu Huai also asked Fu Liang, Du Wu, Shi Hu, Wang Zhang, Wu Chihai and other middle-level generals to participate in the discussion.
Time is limited, facing enemy forces several times larger than ours, everything we do is difficult, the project is huge, and the combat deployment involved is unprecedentedly complex since the rise of Chushan.
Many middle-level generals can participate in the discussion, and it is unimaginable for their respective promotions.
Most of the people in Chushan were born in the rough or low-level military officials and poor people, but they have grown rapidly over the years, and their experience, knowledge and ability are much better than those of some of the current generals who were born as generals or who have studied hard for more than ten years or who have taken the imperial examination for decades.
Be stronger.
In addition to following Xu Huai step by step in rising from the bottom, they are truly familiar with the details of various affairs including uniting troops in combat, and have a hard-working and pragmatic spirit. There is also a very important reason. As long as there is an opportunity, Xu Huai will do his best.
He carefully led everyone to discuss the details of everything.
Xu Huai also ordered all ministries and generals, regardless of their rank, to develop the habit of formulating plans in advance and summarizing afterwards.
A batch of middle- and lower-level generals and military officials were selected to practice in the warriors' houses. The explanations of military formations and the art of war were also based on actual examples. Astronomy, topography, water conservancy equipment, etc. were all involved. Different special trainings were even developed regularly.
Improve the quality of middle and lower-level generals at all levels.
Early the next morning, Xu Huaixian, who had not slept all night, signed an order and asked Guo Jun to take charge of Zhaoling County on his behalf. He led five battalions of Xiang troops and two thousand young men to enter the remaining city of Zhaoling to deploy defense and repair the remaining city.
If the work of breaking through the mountains and opening canals can be carried out smoothly, after next summer, the Yinghe River system north of Ru River, including its tributaries, will receive an increase in water flow from the upper reaches several times, and the two banks of the lower reaches will become a vast expanse of water.
.
However, Yue Hailou was not able to organize enough troops in a short period of time to build a thicker embankment for the Yingshui River. Therefore, in the next three to five years, Chushan will probably no longer need to worry about the military threat from the north.
It is indeed possible to restore the county administration between Tongbai Mountain and Rushui.
The restoration of county administration in Zhaoling was just a step ahead of schedule.
Of course, in order to ensure the smooth progress of this plan, Wuyang and Zhaoling only mobilized Yin Peng and Chen Zixiao plus the bodyguard barracks, which was far from enough.
Xu Huai signed a series of military orders, and under the command of Xu Xin'an and Tang Qing, the two divisions were further expanded to 5,000 soldiers, the focus of the east wing defense line was reduced to Xinyang and Luoshan New City, and Jiuliguan was officially handed over to the Jinghu North Road Capital Deployment Department.
Han Qi was ordered to expand his headquarters to 5,000 regular soldiers, Chen Zixiao's troops were ordered to move the sixth camp to Huaiyuan to further expand the troops and horses on standby, and another ten battalions of Xiang troops were deployed to open up the new post road.
The camp is on standby; except for the necessary stallions, all other war horses raised in the pastures are put into active service...
