The courtyard of the third entrance hall of Luoyang City's Heluodu Governor's Mansion is brightly lit, and red lanterns are hung under the eaves and along the verandah, driving away the hazy night.
The young and beautiful maids in royal robes carried trays of fine wine and delicacies, and like bees and butterflies, they quickly shuttled through the halls and verandas.
In the hall of Nuo Da and the side halls on both sides, hundreds of generals and Han officials were sitting together. The tables were littered with cups and plates, and they were drinking and drinking.
Several Hu generals took off their robes and wrapped them around their waists, and ran to the yard to wrestle for fun, making a lot of noise.
Many generals were so drunk that their faces were red, their breasts were exposed, and they held the young and beautiful maids on their laps like catching little rabbits and teased them.
Of course, today, Zhennan Sect King Ululu Lie was present, and even the rude General Hu restrained himself somewhat, and did not have the audacity to directly take off the thin clothes of the maids and play with them.
However, they have experienced many such scenes.
What they talk about the most is that some generals were "lucky" enough to escort the children of the Yue Ting clan and their female relatives to Mobei, all the way north, and met in Dayi.
After stopping to rest, it was truly unforgettable to see the Yueting Royal Concubine and Princess accompanying the banquet.
When the wine was in full swing, a Hu general who had participated in the escort could not help but show off loudly:
"Princess of the Southern Dynasties, the princess is really very delicate. Her hands feel like touching the softest silk in the world. Her skin is as white as mare's milk. She looks like she can't help but want to take a few sips..."
Many Hu generals were also keen on this matter and became very interested. They clamored for the man to explain it in more detail.
The ancestors of Cao Shixiong, Meng Jian, and Meng Ping were all Han people in Yunshuo. They had no sense of identification with Vietnam, so they temporarily surrendered to the Yue court. When they heard this, they were not touched at all, and they even joined in the drinking and laughing of many Hu generals.
Yue Hailou, Zhong Changqing and others were more or less embarrassed.
Yue Hailou cupped his hands towards the king of Zhennan, Wu Lulie, and said: "I have been summoned by Your Highness. I am in a hurry to come to Luoyang. I feel tired at this time and cannot drink with Your Highness. Please forgive me..."
Someone noticed the real reason why Yue Hailou wanted to leave at this time, and frowned slightly, feeling displeased. However, Wu Lulie did not feel dissatisfied and said with a smile:
"I don't like to drink too much either."
Uluru Lie then spoke to several general-level figures around him:
"It's rare for the generals and officials from all the governments to get together. I'm afraid the wine may not stop all night long. We don't want to disturb their interest and talk somewhere else..."
Most of the generals from top to bottom of the Red Army like to drink; the newly ascended Khan Kuosa sometimes even has banquets for several days in a row, and it is common for him to stay up all night.
Uluru Lie doesn't like drinking very much, and he often advises his eldest brother to exercise moderation, but today is a rare occasion and he doesn't want to dampen the interest of the generals.
Leaving the generals to continue drinking in the hall, he and generals such as Mu Chi, Meng Tulie, Wu Ge, Yue Hailou, Cao Shixiong, Xiao Yunqing, Zhong Changqing, Meng Jian and Meng Ping moved to the flower hall to discuss matters.
Sitting down in the garden hall of the Westward Journey Garden, except for Zhong Changqing, Meng Jian, and Meng Pingping who came with Yue Hailou, the others are all important figures in the Zhennan Zong Palace; Wuge, as the King of Jingpan Zong,
The Wanhu-level generals under Ku Sigu were the plenipotentiary representatives who came to discuss taking over the defense of Guanzhong.
At this time, Yue Hailou no longer held the hand, and went straight to Uluru Lie and said: "The time to attack Jingxiang should not be delayed any longer. Even if it cannot be won quickly, it cannot be given another chance to increase its arrogance..."
"Aren't you already planning to wait until the autumn comes and the water becomes less fierce to gather troops and attack Rucai? Why are you wasting your time now?"
Marshal Wu Ge, deputy commander of the army and horses in Guanzhong, was a playmate who grew up with the king of Zhennan Zong, Ulullie, when he was a child. In these years of fighting in the south and north, other generals from the Zhennan Zong royal family also gathered less and separated more.
It was a rare gathering in Heluo, and before we had a good drink, everyone had to accompany Yue Hailou out because he didn't like to hear about the erotic affairs of the concubines and princesses of Yue Ting, and they felt a little unhappy.
Furthermore, everyone has discussed the attack on Beijing and Xiangzhou countless times in the exchange of letters. This time, Wang Ting specifically asked them to put the strategic focus of attacking Canyue on the middle road.
He didn't let everyone have a good drink, and Yue Hailou mentioned the matter so eagerly, anyone else would be upset.
"..." Although Yue Hailou was highly regarded by Ululu Lie as the general manager of the military capital in the west of Beijing, and his general position was nominally higher than that of Uge, he knew that he was not a direct descendant of the Red Guards and could not compete with Uge for words, which was embarrassing.
sitting aside.
???????????????Cao Shixiong didn't dare to be careless at this time, and said to Wu Lulie:
"According to past calculations, it may still be insufficient; we can't expect to be successful in one battle..."
After the death of the old Khan, there were some twists and turns in the succession of the new Khan, but overall the transition of the Red Army was smooth.
In these years, the Chihu not only swept through all the countries (tribes) in the Western Regions, but also completely conquered the Khitan and Dangxiang, the two most powerful opponents in the past. It can be said that the military front has reached its peak.
This will inevitably cause a considerable number of red generals to develop the arrogance of looking down on the world and cherishing the invincibility of their opponents.
Even though the offensives launched in the east and west Qinling Mountains last autumn and winter failed to finally break through the Qinling defense line and advance into Sichuan and Shu, and even suffered a lot of casualties, this did not dampen the optimism of the Chihu monarchs and ministers.
On the one hand, when advancing into the depths of the Qinling Mountains, the snipers encountered were secondary. The terrain was dangerous and the Chihu troops had rarely seen it in the past. On the other hand, the Chihu soldiers had been fighting in the south and north for many years, and they could not even bear this little setback.
More importantly, they still easily captured all the cities north of the Qinling Mountains, completely controlled the Longyou and Guanzhong areas, and achieved the core strategic goal of last year's autumn and winter offensive.
What's not satisfying about this?
After the new emperor of Yue Ting came to the throne, although he successfully pacified the Dongting Lake bandits, on the one hand, the instability in Huaidong caused by the execution of the Zheng family and his son would not be eliminated in a short time. On the other hand, the discord between Jingxiang and Yue Ting,
It is almost an open secret between the government and the public in the Southern Dynasty.
Therefore, the Red Hut generals such as Yin Nanhai, Uge, and Montulie were confident in leading the Red Hut cavalry to annihilate the Southern Dynasty.
However, Yue Hailou and Cao Shixiong have fought fiercely with Chushan over the years, suffered so many losses, and led the Jingxi and Heluo troops to directly confront Chushan. However, they are far less optimistic than Wu Ge, Montulie and others.
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At this time, Chi Hu was at the peak of his military strength, conquering Khitan, Dangxiang, Hehuai, Heluo, Guanzhong, Hedong, Hebei and other countries in the Western Regions. There were as many as 20 million young and strong men who could sign for conscription. In addition to
Elite soldiers and horses can throw whips to cut off the flow, and can recruit young men and women to the battlefield in a steady stream.
There were indeed many conflicts within the Southern Dynasty, and everything was not settled just because the Dongjinghu bandits were not pacified. It was even more divided than when Emperor Jianji was in power.
However, Yuehailou and Cao Shixiong knew very well that the problem they had to face was that Jingxiang was too strong. It was far more than Xu Huai and the Chushan generals who were good at fighting and had tens of thousands of elite troops under their command.
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Xu Huai was not only good at conquering and fighting, but also possessed rare martial arts in the world. He also had a large number of elite soldiers and generals who followed him in the southern and northern wars. In addition to the mobilization of troops and horses, the preparation of soldiers and armors, the repair of cities, water conservancy, reclamation, and even iron smelting, Xu Huai
It has amazing potential in all aspects such as equipment.
In this regard, Cao Shixiong and Yue Hailou have the same opinion.
Perhaps in the early days of the rise of the Tongbai Mountain people, these things were not deeply felt by them, but after Yue Hailou suffered an extremely tragic defeat at Ru Ying, they deeply felt that the situation at that time was no longer the same, and many clues had already emerged.
The superficial reason for Ru Ying's tragic defeat seems to be Xu Huai's clever use of tricks, as if he was repeating the strategy of running thousands of miles to attack Taiyuan.
In the early days, Xu Huai also contacted the defeated generals who persisted in resisting in Hehuai, and used surprise troops to infiltrate the north of Yingshui River and launch a surprise attack on Bianliang. He mobilized their troops on a large scale, making them unsure of what the Southern Dynasty's strategic intentions were.
Relying on the Ruying River, Xu Huai was intercepted in the Hehuai River and encircled and annihilated. In the end, he was defeated by the flood plan.
After the defeat, Yue Hailou also reflected repeatedly, but found that there were no major problems with the decisions he made at that time. The most critical points were:
First, at that time, the Chushan Army forged a large number of strong and lightweight fine iron shield vehicles for actual combat, which brought the Queyue Formation, which had been dormant for hundreds of years, to reappear on the battlefield. It was also a highly maneuverable Queyue Formation, which made Xu Huai
After leading his troops to evacuate from Bianliang, they relied on the river to go south, and were completely unafraid of the pursuit and interception of the superior cavalry of the Red Army in the plain areas along the river.
The second is that the Chushan Army was able to build a batch of high-quality warships in a short period of time, which caused Xu Huai to lead the troops retreating south to stop north of the Ying River. They did not have the corresponding naval power to rely on to attack them as quickly as possible.
——At that time, everyone advocated delaying the final general offensive until the cold winter when the rivers were frozen.
The third is that the Chushan Army dug the river channel before it was frozen and diverted the Ru River to the north, which was completely beyond their imagination.
Even at this time, engineers from Yue Hai Tower and Prince Zong's Mansion who were highly accomplished in astronomy, water conservancy, etc., had not figured out how Chushan had already calculated the correct diversion point for digging mountains.
Cao Shixiong killed Yang Lin in Ruyang and achieved a great victory in Ruyang, but then failed to capture the entire territory of Ruzhou. This battle also allowed them to appreciate Chushan's extremely strong mobilization ability.
Xu Huai occupied Rucai and ruled only 600,000 to 700,000 people. However, after the fall of Ruyang, Xu Huai mobilized a total of 100,000 troops and sneaked into Liangxian, Xiangcheng, Zhaoling and other defense lines to resist the west of Beijing and the river.
The pace of Luojia's attack on Rucai.
Although the mobilization in Chushan was temporary and the stalemate lasted for a total of three months, it was enough to be frightening.
After Chihu unified Monan and Mobei, he mobilized 160,000 troops and horses to conquer the Khitans with less than two million people, which already made the Khitan people tremble with fear. This was mainly due to the fact that Chihu and the conquered Hu men had all grown up.
He grew up on a horse and was good at riding and shooting.
What was the mobilization ratio of Chihu at that time? What was the mobilization ratio of Chushan after the Ruyang victory?
This was Xu Huai's mobilization ability when he only occupied the remaining land in the three prefectures of Rucaishen. Now Nanyang, Xiangyang and Jingbei counties are all under the rule of Jingxiang. The population controlled by Jingxiang has increased six to seven times, and the cultivated land controlled by Jingxiang has increased by six to seven times.
A sudden increase of more than ten times. To what extent has Jingxiang’s strength increased? Can it still be seen from the old perspective of two or three years ago?
