After the Shenwu Army led by the Zheng family withdrew southward, both sides of Jishan fell into the hands of the enemy. However, the battles and large-scale confrontations between the two sides on both sides of Jishan all occurred in autumn and winter. When the floods begin every spring, the scale of the battles and confrontations is rapidly reduced.
, even out of direct contact.
This is mainly caused by Funiu Mountain, Tongbai Mountain and the Songshan Mountains including Jishan. Heavy rains occur frequently every year in the rainy season, causing the Shu, Li, Ru, Ying, Yi and Luo waters to become majestic and unbridled after entering the flood season, often causing damage to the roads.
The weirs, embankments and canals were damaged, making it difficult for people and animals to travel.
If the site of the camp is not chosen well and it is flooded by flash floods, the losses will be even more horrific.
However, nothing is absolute.
After the autumn of last year, the Red Husbands assembled 300,000 soldiers and horses in the middle road to advance from the two wings of Jishan to the land of Ru and Cai. This has been going on for five months. By this time, not only has there been no sign of withdrawal, but they have even continued to advance.
The civilians further repaired roads and bridges on both sides of Jishan Mountain, and selected strong and dangerous locations to build strongholds one after another, creating a strong posture for long-term high-intensity confrontation.
And the many deeds of the Chihu people are not just bluffs.
???????????????The Military Intelligence Department is still unclear on how the top management of Chihu made the decision. At this time, the enemy forces gathered in front of Rucai were still based on the subordinates of Zhennan Zong Wangfu.
The main force is soldiers and horses, and there is no sign of more soldiers and horses gathering and mobilizing. However, the grain and other materials consumed by the enemy on the Rucai battlefield are no longer limited to Yunshuo and Hedong under the jurisdiction of the Zhennan Zong Palace.
Heluo, Jingxi and other places.
In addition to Guangzhong, Yanji and other places, and even as far away as the Bohai Sea, there are supplies including cattle, sheep, cloth, leather, iron materials, etc., which are being continuously transported to Zhengxu and other places.
In the letters circulated among the Chihu people, it has been mentioned many times recently that half of the levies were transferred from Taiyuan.
All this shows that Jingxiang deliberately pretended to be poor and cried out for poverty, but it did not have much effect on the Chihu people. The military confrontation in Guangchengze and along the Majian River will probably not end for a while.
However, terrain restrictions are not limited to the Chihu people. Jingxiang is also troubled by the surge in river water after the flood season.
Especially in the Ruzhou Basin, both sides of the Beishui River (Ru River) originate from Jishan Mountain, and the tributaries of the Funiu Mountains have strong and rapid water flow after entering the flood season, often destroying roads and bridges, and destroying the Ruzhou Basin.
The interior is also extremely cut.
For example, the Majian River in front of everyone may only have shallow water three to four feet wide in the dry season. You can directly wade across the river on horseback without the need for ferries or bridges. However, after the flood season, a heavy rain in the mountains will bring flash floods.
Down below, the river is more than tens of feet wide, and the water is as strong as thousands of horses galloping. At this time, it becomes extremely dangerous and difficult for people and animals to travel between the left and right banks.
At this time, the enemy did not retreat. Instead, they took advantage of the inconvenience of reinforcements from the east coast and besieged Guangcheng and other villages. How should the production department respond?
The east side of the Majian River belongs to the hinterland of Ruzhou. Roads and bridges have been washed away by floods. It is quick to repair the roads and build floating bridges, but there is no need to worry too much.
Wang Ju went south for nearly a year. When he returned this time, he hurriedly sought out Xu Huai to discuss the resettlement of the remaining Khitan troops. He didn't know much about the many strategies formulated by Zhisi, but he wanted to know how Zhisi would solve the problem after the Majian River flooded.
Cross-strait traffic matters.
"These bridge piers are still very structurally built and cannot be destroyed by floods. The enemy troops who seized the bridge before could only set fire to the wooden beams and bridge decks above, but they could not do anything to capture the bridge piers," Shi Zhen said.
The arch beams have been cast a year ago and will soon be shipped to Guangcheng to install the iron bridge. The installation may take two or three months. By then, the east bank of the Majian River will be the most violent enemy offensive, so you will be here.
The main reason for coming to Guangcheng is to see the preparations for the next stage of defensive operations..."
"Iron cast arch beams?" Wang Ju asked with some surprise, "Three sets of bridge piers, each two spans are more than six feet wide, and cast iron arch beams are directly erected instead of an iron cable bridge?"
The world has long mastered the relatively mature cable bridge technology. Three to four hundred years ago, the Tubo Dynasty built an cable bridge in front of the Lushui River. The world called it the Shenchuan Iron Bridge, connecting the north and south sides of the Lushui River. At this time, a long bridge was also erected in the west of Zhaoling City.
A thirty-foot-long iron cable bridge spans the diverted Ru River, connecting the left and right banks.
However, to build an iron cable bridge in Pingkuo area, it is necessary to build strong and towering giant bridge piers at both ends, which is more difficult. Only in this way can the bridge that is thirty to forty feet long be built?
????A dozen of iron ropes as big as arms were pulled steadily above the river.
In addition, the cable bridge is still subject to great restrictions, the most critical of which is its limited load-bearing capacity.
If several heavy-duty carriages drive on the bridge at the same time, not only will the 30 to 40-foot-long iron cables swing deeply, but it will also be a severe test to the strength of the bridge piers on both sides.
However, Chushan has also tried to build a true iron bridge for a long time, which is to use cast iron parts instead of wood to cast straight bridges or ribbed arch beams. However, due to the limitations of the casting process and the output of iron materials, the span of the iron bridges built is usually
They are all extremely limited - in addition to dangerous streams and rift valleys with narrow spans, Tongbai Mountain also usually builds multiple solid bridge piers and short-span iron bridges under weirs and ponds and in rivers with slow water flow.
Even so, the amount of material used for each iron bridge is as high as tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of kilograms. Only after Chushan's smelting and large-component casting and forging technology breakthroughs were able to be so luxurious - and mainly because of the early Chushan
A large number of hydraulic equipment must be built on both sides of the stream with steep terrain, and a large number of bridges are needed to open the passage between the hydraulic workshop and the outside world.
To build an iron bridge with a total length of 12 to 30 feet over the Majian River, millions of kilograms of iron materials may be required. For Beijing and Xiangzhou at this time, it is no longer rare, but the problem
Except for the bridge piers built next to the embankment at both ends, there is only one set of bridge piers in the river right in the rapids, which means that the single span length of this iron bridge will be more than six feet.
Wang Ju usually doesn't care much about the technical details of construction. At this time, he really doesn't know how the construction institute can cast an iron bridge with such a long span?
"At first, we considered building a double-span bridge, but there was still a risk of the stone piers in the river being washed away, so I asked the construction company to build a single-span iron bridge!" Shi Zhen said.
The bridge piers at both ends are close to the river embankment. It is very convenient to reinforce them in the later stage. Even simply laying some wooden piles on both sides can greatly reduce the impact of the water flow. However, the bridge piers built directly in the river have to withstand extremely severe conditions not only during the flood season.
It is a test, and the foundation is easily eroded little by little by the water flow.
Even when a flash flood occurs, a small group of enemy troops sneak into the upstream mountains to cut down giant trees and plunge them into the turbulent water, which will pose a great threat to the bridge piers.
Abandoning the bridge piers in the river and directly building a single-span bridge across the river would avoid many disadvantages, but the iron bridge with a span of 12 to 30 feet was beyond Wang Ju's imagination.
At this moment, Wang Ju could only shrug his shoulders at Shi Zhen, Xu Wuqi and others, and wait until the construction institute built the bridge.
Xu Huai returned to the camp on the east bank of the Majian River from Song County in the afternoon. Together with everyone in the camp, he listened to Wang Ju, Sun Yanguan, Xu Pang, and Xiao Chunyu describing in detail how the aid army went north along the Lu River through Shanju County in Dali, and how the remnants of the Khitan army left Nang.
Qian went south along the Lushui River, and finally the two sides met at the foot of Shenwang Mountain.
During Wang Ju's trip, in addition to successfully coordinating the Khitan's advance troops and severely damaging the Buqu Monastery tribe, which was the biggest obstacle to the main force of the remaining Khitan troops moving south, Wang Ju also had a general understanding of the topography, customs and customs of the Duogansi area.
Combining the experience of the remnants of the Khitan, they also roughly drew the azimuth and topography of the old Tang-Tibet road, Lushui and Tea Horse Road, and were basically able to determine that Shenyu Mountain and Semo Gang were located in an area west of Sichuan.
??????????????????It's just that there is the Qionglai Mountains in the middle, but no one knows its relative orientation.
Seeing that Xu Huai remained silent after listening to Wang Ju and others describing the journey, and kept staring at the mountains west of Sichuan and Sichuan on the Kanyu map, Han Gui asked: "You think there should be a road here that can connect to the Tubo Highlands in the west..."
Although there are fewer and fewer memory scenes now, Xu Huai knew that there should be a road leading to the Tubo Highlands, which was the famous Sichuan-Tibet Line in later generations.
Xu Huai nodded and said in deep thought:
"Although the two main thoroughfares connecting the Tubo Highlands at that time, the Tangbo Road and the Tea Horse Road, were formed by the northward and southward expansion with the rise of the Tubo Dynasty three to four hundred years ago, and are well known to the world, but since the Qin and Han Dynasties, Sichuan and Shu
Yazhou and Lizhou in the southwest are the places where the Qingqiang tribes have lived for generations. Before the rise of Tubo, there were many people who came into contact with the Dongnu Kingdom, Ling Kingdom, and Bailang Kingdom that lived in Duogan Sese Mogan and other places at that time.
Record. It is unlikely that the Qingqiang people came into contact with Dongnu, Bailang and other barbarians through the Tangbo Road or Tea Horse Road? I think there should be some wild trails in the Qionglai Mountains, which are familiar to the local Qiangbo barbarians.
It’s just not recorded in the history books!”
"Shall we immediately send a messenger to Shenyu Mountain, and Xiao Shuai will send people to search the terrain eastward from Shenyu Mountain to find a direct passage to Sichuan and Shu?" Han Gui asked with a cheerful look.
"In addition to Master Xiao, we should also send people directly to Yazhou and Lizhou to explore the roads. A two-pronged approach may be able to find the corresponding passage faster," Shi Zhen said. "Otherwise, Xiao Shuai led the remnants of the Khitan to go south, but in the end
Asking the Chihu people to discover the road directly into Sichuan and Shu first is a big danger!"
Whether the remnants of the Khitan tribe stay and take root near the foothills of Shenyu Mountain or continue to migrate south, there will still be many difficulties ahead. If Beijing and Xiangxiang continue to send reinforcements through the southern tea horse road, the journey will be extremely long and the cost will be extremely high.
If a passage connecting Sichuan and Duogansi can be found in the Qionglai Mountains, then the remnants of the Khitan can move to the western foot of Qiongxia Mountain and take root. If the men, horses and materials from Beijing and Xiangxi want to reinforce the crossing, they will have to take the southern route to tea.
