To build an iron cable bridge over the Kuishui River with a span of 30 feet was not even impossible in the contemporary world. After all, there were precedents for the construction of iron cable bridges in certain areas in the Han and Tang dynasties. However, it had to be done simultaneously with the construction of canals through the mountains.
It is somewhat incredible to complete the work in such a short time limit before the large-scale enemy troops gather to attack.
Stone piers and high platforms need to be built on both sides of the river to provide support for the cable bridge. They not only need sufficient strength, but also sufficient height to pull the cable bridge to a certain height above the water.
Of course, before the real cable bridge is built, pontoon bridges need to be erected to connect the north and south sides in the early stage. In this regard, Chushan has accumulated considerable experience.
Large pontoons were erected, and stone piers were used as supports on the river beaches on both sides.
The stone piers used to support the pontoon bridge are relatively low, only about ten feet high, and have been completed.
These two stone piers are built using strips of stone weighing over a thousand kilograms. They are excavated and exposed on the foundation of the underground rock formation. In addition to being built with highly adhesive ash mosaics, holes are also staggered to pour iron juice.
Hundreds of strips of stone are extremely firmly combined with the rock formations excavated beneath the foundation, forming a whole that cannot be broken down by rapids.
The day after Xu Huai arrived at Xiaoquegang, he officially decided to dig a canal on the north bank of the Shuishui River. Tang Tiande led the generals of the labor camp to connect the dozens of boats that had been prepared with giant ropes and built them with two piers.
Drag as an anchor point.
Xu Huai had time in the afternoon and walked out of the camp accompanied by Chen Zixiao, Wang Ju, Xu Wukun and others. He saw that the pontoon bridges had been laid with pallets. At this time, Tang Tiande, Yu Chengzhen and others were standing on the river beach, directing their hands to count.
An ox cart loaded with land was pulled onto the pontoon bridge to test the stability of the pontoon bridge.
At this time, the flood season has not yet passed, and the water flowing upstream from the Juishui River and the Lijiang River is very strong. Even if the pontoon bridge is located on the west side of the long cliff of Xiaoquegang, the impact of the water flow is extremely strong.
Several loaded oxcarts boarded the pontoon bridge. As the supporting boats drew deeper into the water, the impact force on the entire pontoon bridge became stronger, straining the iron cables fixed on the piers and making a "chacha" sound.
However, that was all, the ox cart soon arrived at the north bank.
In principle, there is no essential difference between a suspension bridge and a pontoon bridge.
It's just that the suspension bridge needs to be suspended in the air and cannot rely on the buoyancy of water as support, so the anchor points on both sides need to be stronger.
Generally speaking, the larger the span of a suspension bridge, the more difficult it is to build.
Therefore, Chushan will also make full use of Xiaoquegang's terrain to build multiple continuous piers on both sides of the bank as support anchor points, reducing the maximum span to less than 30 feet.
After the canal is dug through the long slope of the north bank, the river flow direction will change to the north-east direction, and the river itself will not disappear. In order to use the completed suspension bridge to connect the two sides in the future, the plan that Chen Zixiao and Yu Chengzhen discussed before was revealed last night
Still made minor adjustments.
The pontoons and piers of the south bank pontoon bridge and suspension bridge will be built close together, but the piers and abutments of the north bank suspension bridge will be sited slightly to the west, so that the channel opened through the mountain in the future will be located between the two sets of piers and abutments used by the north bank suspension bridge and pontoon bridge.
between.
The suspension bridge was changed from its initial north-south orientation to a northwest-to-southeast direction so that it could continue to function on the river after the Nian River changed its flow.
The pontoon bridge that has been built so far will not only pass vehicles and horses in the early stage, but will also be used to intercept possible
The warships that came downstream from the Ru River can be dismantled after the Ru River and the Nian River are completely cut off.
By then, the land on the south bank of Ru River and the land on the east side of the new canal will be integrated because of the interception of the river, and there will be no need for bridges to connect them.
The oxcart made two trips back and forth, doubling the load again. Zhuang Yong personally led a dozen craftsmen onto the pontoon bridge to check the conditions of the iron cable buckles one by one. After confirming that they were correct, he declared the pontoon bridge officially completed.
At this moment, the people and horses who had been waiting at the bridge head on the north bank and the ox carts loaded with supplies began to go north via the pontoon bridge in batches.
"What we have to do next is to quickly transport men, horses, and supplies to the north coast. Before Yue Hailou reacts, we can initially establish a defense on the north coast that can withstand thousands of enemy troops' harassment and attack. In this time window, it is likely that
There are only three or four days! We really can't waste any time!" Xu Huai held the saber at his waist, looked at the busy figures on the riverbanks on both sides of the river, and said to Chen Zixiao, "Next, you have to go to the north bank in person to keep an eye on it!
"
Previously, Chushan only built a small outpost as a stronghold on the north bank, stationed with more than a hundred troops. This was far from establishing a defense. Even so, it attracted the attention of Yue Hailou and attracted nearly two thousand enemy troops to garrison on the four sides.
Ten miles away in Heishigou, watch what's going on here.
Chushan spent a month on the south bank of the Juishui River in the early stage, carrying out a lot of preparation work, including stockpiling large pieces of stone, building piers and platforms along the river beach, and secretly collecting boats for modification, hoping that once the pontoon bridge was successfully erected,
It can transport a large amount of materials including logs, tents, food, etc. to the north coast as quickly as possible, and then build a fortress further north before Yue Hailou can react to protect the site where the mountain is about to be broken and the canal will be opened to the enemy.
Harassment, invasion!
The focus of the institute's defense deployment in the later period will be on the north bank.
Xu Huai likes to charge into battle, which no one else can stop. Chen Zixiao thought that Xu Huai rushed to Xiaoquegang himself and would definitely go to the north bank to take charge.
When Chen Zixiao saw that Xu Huai had ordered him to go to the north bank to take charge, Chen Zixiao asked in confusion:
"Will Commander-in-Chief not go to the north bank to take charge?"
"Of course I want to go to the north shore, but I won't stay in the camp on the north shore!" Xu Huai said calmly, looking at the turbid current.
Seeing that Xu Huai actually wanted to lead his troops to contain the enemy near Yingshui River, Chen Zixiao advised:
"Jie Shuai can stay on the north bank. We only need to use these three or four days to initially form a certain defensive capability on the north bank. Yue Hailou cannot attack when he sees thousands of people. With his cautious character, especially when he is on Jieshuai
If we have suffered losses once or twice, we will definitely think about mobilizing more troops and launching an offensive again. This will also buy us more time to further improve our defense! Building forts on the north bank and breaking mountains to collect soil can
If we do this at the same time, it will be difficult for Yue Hailou to be alert!"
"Yue Hailou is not that easy to fool!" Xu Huai shook his head and said, "It is impossible for Yue Hailou to guess our intentions, but it is also difficult for us to fool him. Think about it, we gathered tens of thousands of people on the north bank of Xiaoquegang.
Centaur, does Yue Hailou need to thoroughly understand our true intentions before he can take corresponding actions? He is cautious, but it is precisely caution. The less clear he is about our intentions, the more determined he will be to remove us from the situation.
Drive away from the north shore so that you can eat well and sleep well! We need bigger movements and bigger baits to really attract their attention away from Xiaoquegang!"
"..." Chen Zixiao looked at Xu Huai in astonishment. He had thought that Xu Huai
Xu Huai intended to personally lead the elite cavalry to the coast of Yingshui River and even Chenzhou to contain the enemy forces, but he did not expect that Xu Huai wanted to use a bigger bait to distract Yue Hailou and cover up their true identity in Xiaoquegang for as long as possible.
In other words, Yue Hailou had no energy to look south.
Where is the bigger bait?
Chen Zixiao couldn't help but look to the northeast in the direction of Bianliang, and a cold sweat broke out down his spine at Xu Huai's bold and wild idea.
As far as the current Hehuai region is concerned, the one that can really disrupt the vision of Yue Hailou and even the Chihu people is Bianliang, the capital of the pseudo-Chu Kingdom!
Moreover, Bianliang's current defense is very weak.
Everyone in the world knows very well that Li Ji is just a puppet pushed to power by the Chihu people, and basically has no existence. The real military and political power is still in Yue Hailou and others who surrendered to the Chihu people for a period of time and played a role in the two southern invasions.
A surrendered general recognized by the Red Husbands.
However, would Yue Hai Tower or the Red Husbands behind Yue Hai Tower sit back and watch Bianliang being attacked and ignore it?
On the one hand, the Chihu people did not have a large number of officials who were familiar with the Hehuai region and the governance model of the Central Plains. They were also afraid of suddenly arousing fierce confrontation among the Hehuai people. Therefore, they needed to support puppets to rule the Hehuai area and tame the surrendered generals.
Because the Chihu people would not sit back and watch Bianliang being attacked, Xu Huai's thoughts were even more frightening.
Bianliang's defense is currently empty. Except for some of the captive cavalry, the other surrendered soldiers have little combat effectiveness, and are even far inferior to those of Yue Hailou's troops.
However, the defense of Bianliang City is empty, but the places to the west of Bianliang, Zhengzhou, Xingyang, Hulao and other places are occupied by Yunzhou's surrender general Xiao Qian; to the east of Bianliang and Qingqi and other places, Yanji's auxiliary troops are stationed to sweep and suppress the occupied areas.
Taiyue, Yimeng and other mountains defended the rebels; and in the southwest of Bianliang, Yue Hailou commanded his troops to occupy Chenying and other places, and surrendered the vassal troops along these roads. In addition to having an extremely large number of soldiers and horses,
There are also thousands to more than 10,000 red cavalrymen to assist in garrisoning and fighting.
Directly south and southeast of Bianliang, the main 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers and horses of the Ping Yan Army on Chihu East Road are mainly concentrated in the camps in Xusu, Songbo and other places, and are urging the accompanying Yan Jijiang vassal army to actively drill the navy.
, prepare to attack Huainan southward.
Bianliang seems to be empty of defenses, but if something happens, reinforcements can rush in quickly from four directions.
The mobility of the Red Husband Cavalry is definitely no worse than that of the guards' barracks.
What a bold and adventurous idea this is!
"..." Chen Zixiao was stunned for a while, and hurriedly tried to dissuade him, "The Zheng family will have to wait until the Yellow River freezes before they can all evacuate from Heluo. Before that, Chushan can gather up to 20,000 people in the west wing when necessary.
The men and horses have no fear of Yue Hailou coming to attack, so why does Commander Ji need to take such a risk?"
"It is possible that the Zheng family will wait until the Yellow River freezes over before fully withdrawing their troops and horses from Heluo," Xu Huai shook his head and said, "But the Zheng family had already abandoned Pinglu a month ago and withdrew their troops from Pinglu on the north bank to Hangu.
At the pass line, no matter how stupid the Chihu Barbarian King is, he will be quick, or he may have realized that the Zheng family wants to escape. The Chihu people in Puzhou and other places north of Pinglu and the cavalry of Cao Shixiong's troops will wait for the Zheng family to leave Hangu Pass.
After Mengjin, Luoyang and other cities are withdrawn, will they take over step by step? What if the Japanese troops detach an elite force from the north of Pinglu and go south in advance, and cooperate with Jiang Zhaode, who is stationed in Xuzhou under Yue Hailou, to attack Xiangcheng and try to
What should we do if we intercept the people evacuating Nanyang through Ruzhou?"
