Horse hooves galloping, like spring thunder rolling deep in the earth, rolling up smoke and dust all over the sky, more than a hundred armored cavalry galloped towards the remaining city of Zhongmou from the east.
The generals of Yunzhou and Xiao Qian stood in the ruins of the north city and looked at the enemy. They saw a cavalry galloping from the east. They were far away. The face of the incoming man was covered by the smoke and dust, but they couldn't see clearly. How brave they were.
A thrilling feeling.
Lai Qi seemed to have noticed the gathering of officials in front of the ruined building in the North City, and soon they galloped straight to the North City Gate. Several cavalry galloped directly to the city gate, raising their heads and shouting: "Zhengzhou Jiedushi Master Xiao Qian is in the city."
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"Who is here, and why are you looking for my commander?" A Yunzhou military general stuck his head out of the crevice and asked.
Jieshuai is an honorific title for Jiedushi. It has only been widely used to address commander-level generals in border states since Yue Dynasty. If a senior military general also holds the titles of privy envoy, deputy envoy, and privy envoy to judge, the title
The next step is to become a "pivotal commander".
"The governor of Songzhou, Wu Chi, the general of Wanhu, was shocked to hear that Bianliang was attacked. He sent Qianhu Heqin in front of the tent to lead the front troops to rush to the rescue. At Zhuxian Post, he met Zhengzhou Tan Ma. He knew that Xiao Shuai was here, so he came to meet him!
"The visitor shouted in front of the city gate.
"It is indeed Heqin Qianhu!" Yang Qingshan said to Xiao Qian when he recognized that the young general surrounded by cavalry a stone's throw away was indeed Qianhu Heqin under Wu Chi.
Chihu, Zhennan Zongwangfu and Pingyanzongwangfu were divided into east and west routes and went south to the Central Plains. Xiao Qian was always under the Zhennan Army on the west route and was not familiar with the generals of the Pingyan Army on the east route.
However, as the commander-in-chief of the Xiongzhou surrender army in Hebei Province, Yang Jingchen was initially assigned to fight under the Pingyan Army in the East Route.
On the one hand, the focus of Dai Viet's two northern expeditions was not on Yanji. On the other hand, the remaining forces of the other three capitals of the Khitan mainly withdrew to Yanji in the later period. This made the Khitan surrender at Yanji extremely large, with as many as 100,000 troops.
huge.
After the fall of Bianliang, Chihu's war in the Central Plains focused on the West Road. Therefore, in the later period of the Wangzhang period, some surrendered troops and generals from Xiongzhou and other Hebei Road were placed under the control of the Southern Army in West Road Town.
As a general of Xiongzhou, Yang Qingshan recognized many middle- and high-level generals in front of Pingyan's military tent on the east road.
Xiao Qian was worried about how Prince Ping Yanzong's Palace would react to the attack on Bianliang. At this time, he saw Wu Chi, a general under Prince Ping Yanzong's Palace, sending Qianhu General He Qin to Zhongmou, and hurriedly asked people to open the city gate.
, and welcomed Heqin's troops into the city.
"The people from Chushan sneaked into Bianliang, and Yang Jingchen sent an envoy to report that they passed through Songzhou in the afternoon the day before yesterday. General Wuchi mobilized troops and horses to gather at Yongqiu, and at the same time sent people to follow the envoy to Xuzhou to meet the third prince," He Qin boarded the North City
When Zhanlou saw Xiao Qian, he asked directly, "The third prince doesn't know what is going on in Bianliang for the time being. He just ordered the Songzhou governor's office to act according to the opportunity. General Wuchi had assembled three to four thousand cavalry in Yongqiu yesterday, but
When there was no further news from Bianliang, Heqin was ordered to lead five hundred cavalry to go ahead to find out!"
Wu Chi, as the general of Ping Yanzong Palace, did not stand still after hearing the news of the attack on Bianliang because Bianliang was returned to the jurisdiction of Zhennan Palace.
However, after he, as a senior general of the Red Army, assembled three to four thousand elite cavalry in Yongqiu City, southeast of Bianliang City, no new news came out from Bianliang City.
They didn't dare to send troops rashly to Bianliang City.
Therefore, Heqin was sent to lead half of the cavalry first. On the one hand, he tested the strength of the enemy troops attacking Bianliang, and on the other hand, he tried to contact the defenders in Bianliang City to learn more about the military situation.
However, after Yang Jingchen closed the inner city of Bianliang, the Bianliang defenders stationed in the outer city and the nearby military villages in Bianliang all formed their own formations and fell into great chaos.
He Qin's men were all red soldiers. In addition to the inconvenience of communication, he did not dare to trust Bianliang's surrender. When he encountered the scouts sent by Xiao Qian to explore the horses, he directly led more than a hundred cavalry to Zhongmou.
Xiao Qian witnessed his beloved second son Xiao Heng being killed by the Chushan Cavalry yesterday in the north of Caihe Ancient Crossing. He was afraid of Chushan's powerful soldiers and horses, so he suppressed the hatred and anger in his heart and evacuated the Yunzhou Cavalry to the south bank. At this time,
When he learned that the Prince of Pingyanzong did not just sit back and watch, but had even assembled three to four thousand elite cavalry in Yongqiu, which is less than a hundred miles away from Bianliang and about 150 miles away from Zhongmou, his expression perked up immediately, and the flames of hatred in his eyes became more intense.
Become prosperous.
"...Xu Huai is good at using tricks and surprise troops to defeat the enemy. My son Xiao Heng was not aware of it. Blood was spilled on the battlefield yesterday. I wanted to kill him quickly," Xiao Qian said, "Since Yongqiu has gathered thousands of elites, we still have to wait.
Please ask General Heqin to immediately send people to Yongqiu to defeat General Wuchi. Xiao Qian invites troops to gather at Zhuxianyi to block the return of the rebel army and relieve the siege of Bianliang..."
Xiao Qian couldn't make up his mind for a long time because he was worried that Xu Huai might use the bandits from Yanling, Weishi and other places as bait to trick them into intercepting them on the south side. However, he actually led Chushan's sneak attack on Bianliang's elite troops from Zhengzhou and
They passed through the gap between Xuzhou and entered the eastern foothills of Songshan Mountain, but they were unable to gather enough elites to intercept them in a short period of time.
At this time, they learned that Wu Chi had assembled three to four thousand elite cavalry in Yongqiu to aid Bianliang. In Xiao Qian's view, they actually had a better choice.
That is to rendezvous with Wuchi's troops at Zhuxianyi and directly intercept Chushan's soldiers and horses sneaking into Bianliang in the Gyeonggi area, unable to go south. This way, there is no need to worry about Xu Huai's plot to attack the east and west and divert the tiger away from the mountain.
The reason why Zhuxianyi is key is that it is directly related to the intersection of the old Cai River channel (Xingyang-Zhengzhou-Zhongmu-Zhuxianyi) and the new channel (Bianliang Baijimen-Zhuxianyi). At the same time, there are channels extending eastward to connect with the Whirlpool River.
If the soldiers and horses of Chushan retreat south along the Xinqu and the main trunk of Cai River from Baiji Gate in Bianliang to Zhiwanqiu in Chenzhou and enter Yingshui River, Zhuxian Station must pass through.
If Xu Huai's ultimate goal is to lead Chushan's sneak attack elites and penetrate them in the direction of Songshan, he also needs to lead his troops to the south of Zhuxianyi first. Otherwise, Chushan's elites will be blocked by the old Cai River road, which is still quite turbulent.
There is no way to bypass the evacuation route to the areas west and south of Zhongmou, Zhengzhou.
Another key point is that Zhuxianyi has a weir to cut off the new canal and old road of Caihe River.
Yanpi is also called a weir dam.
Many rivers in the Hehuai River, especially the canals excavated to connect the natural water systems, are greatly affected by seasonal factors. During the dry season, there is usually insufficient water from the upstream, resulting in shallow and slow water flow, which is not conducive to navigation.
Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, millions or even millions of stones of grain, fodder, and cloth were imported from the southeastern region every year, which was very important for maintaining the rule of the Central Plains.
It has become extremely important. In order to ensure that the Cai River can be navigable all year round, the most common practice in the past dynasties is to build dams with earth and rocks to cut off the river channels.
This will ensure that the river between the two weirs maintains a relatively high water level for navigation.
When a watercraft passes through these weirs and dams, it usually unloads its cargo first, and then uses large rollers to drag the boat through the gentle slopes on both sides of the weirs and dams to the other side; of course, sometimes segmented transportation is also used to organize water transportation.
Although in the eyes of future generations, weirs and dams that cut off river channels will greatly reduce the efficiency of shipping, they had been in place for hundreds of years before the establishment of the Dai Viet Dynasty.
After the establishment of the Dai Viet Dynasty, in order to maintain the huge daily consumption and trade needs of Bianliang, the capital, and to further improve the efficiency of transporting grain to Bianliang, Doumen began to be built on Cai River and other rivers.
Doumen is also the prototype of later ship locks. To put it simply, one or several water inlets are excavated side by side on the basis of the original weir and dam for ships to pass through, and giant trees are installed as gates.
The bucket gate is usually closed to maintain a high water level in the river. After the boats on both sides gather to a certain number, the bucket gate is opened to allow these boats to pass quickly. The bucket gate is usually covered with rocks as a roof, which also ensures that both sides of the river are protected.
land routes are not interrupted.
Although it cannot be compared with the compound ship locks of later generations, Doumen is still much more advanced than a simple weir dam that cuts off the river channel.
Chushan built a stone gate between Huangyang Lake and Mingxi River to separate it, ensuring that Huangyang Lake could store a sufficient amount of lake water at ordinary times, and threatening the enemy from entering both sides of the Mingxi River. In fact, it was the master of Doumen construction methods in the world.
.
The reason why Zhuxianyi has become a famous and prosperous town in Gyeonggi Province is that the three large Doumen gates that control the water level of the Cai River's new canal, the old channel and the upper reaches of the Wo River were all built around Zhuxianyi.
However, the Chihu people destroyed the three Doumen gates near Zhuxianyi during their first southern invasion. After the Chihu people evacuated from their first southern invasion, Bianliang had no time to repair the Doumen and was eager to restore the navigation of Cai River and Guoshui River.
The water gates were refilled with earth and rocks to maintain the water levels of the rivers.
In other words, the Cai River New Canal, the old river channel and the main road going south are actually cut off by two weirs. These two weirs are also the land routes for people and horses to travel between the north and south of the old Cai River channel and the east and west sides of the new canal.
The boats coming and going are destined to stop at Zhuxianyi.
This is also the reason why the guardsmen disguised themselves as black-shirted troops and went north through the Caihe River. After arriving at Zhuxianyi, they abandoned the ship and landed ashore. The river was cut off by the dam, and there was no way to directly take a boat to Baekje Gate to launch a surprise attack.
This also determines that whether the soldiers and horses from Chushan sneaking into Bianliang are escaping south along Caihe River or westward to Songshan Mountain, Zhuxianyi is the place they must pass through!
Even if the Chushan Army collected a large number of boats in Bianliang, they would still need to stop when passing Zhuxian Station and drag these boats across Yanpi before they could start a new journey of escape.
Xiao Qian didn't think that with just his four thousand soldiers and horses rushing to Zhuxianyi, he could block the Chushan army's escape to the south and west. But what if Wu Chi led the elite cavalry from Yongqiu to join them?
