Counties in Ruzhou are bordered by the towering Songshan Mountain to the north and the vast Funiu to the south. The mountains on the north and south sides extend continuously towards the middle, forming a trough-shaped basin landform that alternates between hills and rivers and stretches from east to west for nearly 200 miles.
The North Branch of the Ruishui River is also the source of the old Ru River. It was born among the mountains and canyons in the southwest of Ruzhou. It twists and turns along the way and receives streams. By the time it enters the Ruzhou Basin, it is already a big river with strong waves.
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The northern branch of the Shuishui River enters the Ruzhou Basin in the northeast of Ruyang County, which was called Ziluokou at that time. The Ziluo Mountain on its west bank and the Yunmeng Mountain on its east bank face the river, standing like a giant gate, like a pair of jaws.
Live in turbulence.
There is a danger of locking Yin at Ziluo Pass. The prefectures and counties set up Ziluo Post here, formerly known as Ziluo Pass. If one man is in charge of the pass, it is dangerous for ten thousand people to open it.
Because of the steep terrain of Ziluokou and the fact that Ruyang was built so dangerously, it was difficult for everyone in Chushan to imagine what the enemy forces in Heluo would do to Ruyang this winter.
After the Shuishui River branches out of Ziluokou in the north, it is the scope of the Ruzhou Basin. The northwest side of Ziluokou has been flooded by streams for thousands of years, forming an area ranging from several miles to ten miles in depth from north to south and stretching for thirty miles from east to west.
Yuli, from Ziluokou to the water bank on the west bank of the Yi River, is Guangchengze, formerly known as Ruhai. Guangchengze River also flows eastward to join the northern branch of the Suishui River, passing through Ruzhou to Zhaoling.
The narrow trough-shaped entrance between Guangchengze and the southern part of Songshan Mountain is less than ten miles at its widest point and less than four or five miles at its narrowest point. There are also hills such as Kongtong and Lingtai standing in between. In the old days, Guangzhou was known as the Eight Passes of Luoyang.
Chengguan is located here.
Unofficial history also reports that the ancient Yellow Emperor asked Guangchengzi in Kongtong, Ruzhou, so the names of nearby Guanze are mostly related to Guangcheng.
After the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, the hinterland of the Central Plains has never experienced any wars. There are no garrisons. The old pass has long been abandoned. Prefectures and counties set up Guangcheng Post here to facilitate business travel, food and accommodation. If you want to choose a place as the real western gateway of Ruzhou,
Guangchengyi, which is backed by Lingtai Hill, is definitely the first choice.
In the winter of the third year since the founding of Dayue, it was also the winter of the third year after the fall of Bianliang. To the west of Guangchengyi, the valley covered with yellow leaves had turned into a bloody battlefield with mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Thousands of generals of Zuo Xiaosheng's army met on this narrow road with Heluo enemy troops who wanted to advance eastward from Guangcheng Yi Valley Road.
After Zhou Jing rushed to Liang County to meet Yang Lin, he rushed to Guangcheng Station to watch the battle. Yang Qiye led his troops to garrison here, and the enemy troops in Heluo had been fighting for two days and two nights.
"Major General, the casualties among our brothers are too heavy, we can't continue fighting like this!" A middle-aged military general's armor was stained with blood, his face and beard were full of flesh scraps, his face was ferocious, as if he had devoured the flesh and blood of the captives, and he choked
The horse stopped in front of Yang Qiye and shouted hoarsely, begging Yang Qiye to withdraw his troops decisively.
"Those who disturb the morale of our army will be punished with thirty sticks!" Yang Qiye ordered dozens of generals on the left and right with an expressionless face. They stepped forward and dragged the unwilling middle-aged general off his horse for execution.
Zhou Jing, who was sitting on the saddle, grabbed the reins, his face twitching slightly:
Enemy troops came from all over the mountains and fields from the west, with drums beating and horns wailing, resounding throughout the heaven and earth, and flags covering the sky and the sun.
After the enemy forces in Heluo moved south along the Yishui River, Yang Lin sent his son Yang Qiye to lead Zuo Xiaosheng's army and 6,000 state soldiers to rush to the vicinity of Guangchengyi to meet the enemy, hoping to block the enemy's eastward march into Ruzhou.
Zuo Xiaosheng's army formed a formation at Guangchengyi Xiaozhai and Lingtai Mountain, which was less than 20 feet high. They fought for two days and two nights, killing nearly half of them. The defensive formations were torn open by the enemy one after another.
Although Yang Qiye led his elite soldiers into battle several times to recapture the defense line, the elite soldiers around Yang Qiye
Almost all of them were dead and injured, and there were only a dozen or so people left who were mostly injured and reined in their horses to guard Yang Qiye.
The enemy troops in Heluo came out in full force this time. Although the generals of Zuo Xiaosheng's army fought bravely, the difference in numbers between the enemy and us was too great.
The enemy army in Heluo was based on the Han army in Shuozhou and had experienced countless battles in recent years. Its combat effectiveness was greatly improved compared to when Xu Huai led the Chushan army to attack Taiyuan three years ago.
Nearly 20,000 enemy soldiers and horses from Heluo formed their camp west of Guangchengyi. They took turns to fight in battle. The advantage was too obvious.
And if Zuo Xiaosheng's army's defense line is torn open again, there will be no reserve elites to fill it.
To be honest, Zhou Jing was worried that if Yang Qiye didn't decisively order the retreat, he might not even have the chance to retreat at the end, and Guangcheng Station, which was only a hundred paces square, could not accommodate the three or four thousand remaining defeated soldiers to retreat and defend.
Of course, Yang Qiye was the main general on the Guangchengyi battlefield. Even if he was jealous, Zhou Jing, as a guest general watching the battle, was most taboo about gesticulating in front of the battle.
The terrain to the west of Guangchengyi is undulating. Even if Zhou Jing climbs Lingtai Hill, he will not be able to see the enemy's deployment in Heluo. However, Cao Shixiong is a veteran who has been entangled with Chushan for several years, especially in the past two or three years.
Here, there are more chips in hand, and there may be other plans waiting to be launched when Zuo Xiaosheng's army cannot hold on and retreats.
"Cao Shixiong is in a hurry to attack Ruzhou. The situation is very critical. I hope that Zhou Junhou will rush to Xiangcheng as soon as possible to report to Xu Shuai!"
Yang Qiye cupped his hands towards Zhou Jing and said.
Zhou Jing, as a guest general who came to watch the battle, had no obligation to defend Guangcheng Station with them till death. Yang Qiye said this to Zhou Jing and told him to leave now.
Zhou Jing could of course say goodbye and leave at this time, but when he saw that Yang Qiye asked his guards to help him organize his armor and prepare to fight again, but there were only a dozen elites left with fighting power, he gritted his teeth and said:
"It's getting late today. I'll wait until dawn tomorrow to set off!"
Zhou Jing signaled that the team would lead everyone to prepare their armor and prepare to go into battle with him and Yang Qiye. Chushan and Ruzhou were closely related and had a tacit understanding of each other in the past. Zhou Jing and he withdrew in advance at this time. Yang Qiye really wanted to have someone in Guangcheng Station.
What's wrong? When he returned to Wuyang, he passed by Liang County and didn't even have the nerve to see Yang Lin.
However, he also made it very clear in his words that if he could barely hold on today but Yang Qiye still insisted on not retreating, he would not be able to pay too much attention.
Zhou Jing was surrounded by more than 20 guards and cavalry. They dismounted and put on large shields, heavy spears or long knives. Together with Yang Qiye's soldiers, they filled in a precarious defense line on the left wing. They fought hard and tried to clear the two sides.
The enemy troops retreated, barely keeping the formation from collapsing.
The enemy obviously noticed that the defenders were reaching their limit, and sent troops and horses to kill them in succession, constantly tearing open small holes in the left defense line to bleed blood.
When Zhou Jingshen felt that it was difficult to continue, and had to consider which direction to break out of the encirclement when the enemy's defense line was completely torn apart by the enemy's superiority, a cavalry appeared behind them, the drums were beating, and the flags were ordered.
Turn over, the soldiers formed in front of the post road get out of the way, and the cavalry rushes westward along the post road into the enemy's position.
Xu Huai, wearing a bright green war armor, led the way, slashing left and right with his sword, and the sharp edges fell like thunder. Almost all of them used the sharpest slashing force to kill the enemy soldiers standing in front of him and to the left and right.
The armored cavalry on the left and right were like tigers descending from the mountain, killing a group of enemy troops in pieces and retreating. The scattered arrows could not do anything to the heavy cavalry who were wearing armor and went into battle.
threaten.
Seeing that fresh troops had joined and the fighting force was still so fierce, and it was getting late, the enemy troops also ordered their troops to retreat, ending today's battle.
After all the soldiers had retreated into the shallow trenches and the crude defense line constructed by the horses was rested, Zhou Jing accompanied Yang Qiye back to the flat hillock on the north side of Guangcheng Posthouse, and saw Yang Lin and Xu Huai who had personally led the cavalry to come for reinforcements.
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"Why did Commander Jie come to Ruzhou?" Zhou Jing took off the blood-stained iron jacket and asked curiously.
"I'm in Xiangcheng and I can't feel at ease, so I came over for a walk," Xu Huai said.
Xu Huai, as the commander-in-chief of a town, had a strong enemy in Chushan at this time, so generally speaking, he should not just go to other defense areas.
The imperial court even strictly ordered the coach to leave his garrison.
However, after learning that the enemy from Heluo was coming towards Guangchengyi on a large scale, Xu Huai, who was stationed in Xiangcheng, did not care so much and rushed directly to Liang County to meet with Yang Lin first to observe the enemy's situation.
It happened that Yang Qiye sent a messenger to ask for help and rushed back to Liang County. Xu Huai did not delay, so he and Yang Lin each led 500 cavalry to Guangchengyi.
"I'm afraid we can't fight this battle!" Yang Qiye no longer needed to pretend to be calm in front of his fathers Yang Lin and Xu Huai. Regardless of the blood seeping from the arrow wound on his right arm, he fiercely leaned his saber on the stone ground and spat.
, said, "The casualties of the generals were too heavy. If father and Xu Hou hadn't come, I don't know if I would have been able to defend until tomorrow!"
Xu Huai looked at the enemy camps that stretched for more than ten miles to the west of Guangchengyi. He had a sense of continuity and a deep understanding of Yang Qiye's powerlessness.
Yang Lin led Zuo Xiaosheng's army to garrison Ruzhou. In addition to 15,000 regular soldiers, there were also more than 10,000 state soldiers. However, compared with the Heluo enemy army, which was almost overwhelming, they were still too weak.
Although abandoning Guangchengyi will cause the enemy to advance to the east of Ziluokou and separate Zhiliang County of Ruzhou Prefecture from Ruyang and Songshan Mountains, in the face of the absolutely superior enemy forces, Zuo Xiaosheng's army is not qualified to rely on
The crude defense line was attrition with the enemy.
Looking at the enemy's camp deployment in Heluo to the west of Guangcheng Yi, Cao Shixiong seemed to be happy to attract Zuo Xiaosheng's army to the front line of Guangcheng Yi.
Guangcheng Station is adjacent to Guangcheng Ze in the south, with a series of small lakes and swamps that will not freeze even after winter. Eleven or twelve miles to the north is the main line of the southern foot of Songshan Mountain. If Yang Lin builds a city here,
, then the Ruzhou Basin can be shielded.
But Xu Huai had no way to complain about why Yang Lin didn't build a new city in Guangchengyi.
As a traditional military general, Yang Lin was appreciated by Hu Kai and was very good at commanding troops in battle.
At the beginning, he helped Hu Kai organize and train the Caizhou Army and fought in Xu Cai, Chen Ying and other places, which was remarkable. After he officially commanded Zuo Xiaosheng's army and fought in the north and south, he also made great achievements. The combat effectiveness of Zuo Xiaosheng's army was also extraordinary.
However, Yang Lin had no experience in commanding troops and managing local areas, and he did not have enough civil servants under his command to help him.
Therefore, with the large-scale migration of people to the south, the tax revenue Yang Lin could obtain from the local government was extremely limited, and it was not enough to pay salaries to county officials.
Although the imperial court said that the military resources paid to Zuo Xiaosheng's army and apportioned to each general and soldier may be slightly higher than those in Chushan, but in addition to the fifteen thousand regular soldiers of Zuo Xiaosheng's army, Yang Lin also had to support him.
If you want to squeeze out money and food to train state soldiers, where will you deduct 200,000 to 300,000 yuan of money and food to build a new city in Guangchengyi?
Of course, no one expected that just after the great victory of Ruying, Chushan's determination would be so strong when the enemy forces attacked Ruzhou this winter...
