There are no trees growing on the southern cliff of Yintiling Ridge at the southwest foot of Jishan Mountain, and the stone cliff is bare. But at this time, it is covered with ice and snow, like a white giant standing between heaven and earth. The cold wind blows sharply from under the shaded sky. It made a pitiful whistle.
The Majian River is like a shining silver chain, winding out from the mountains to the east of Yintiling, spanning the vast sky and earth.
One after another, the Wuzhai camps are distributed in an unprecedented density between the plains and hills south of Yintiling.
Guangchengze, whose water area has shrunk to less than one-third of the flood season, is now completely frozen and covered with heavy snow. It merges with the plains and mountains to the north and south, but it is called the Wuzhai camp complex on the southernmost side of the two armies. The outline of the zigzag foothills to the south is clearly outlined.
In addition to Guangchengze, there is also a large open area with a depth of about ten to twenty miles, which divides the Wuzhai group into two distinct parts -
Everyone stood on the top of the southern cliff of Yintiling Ridge and looked toward the open area. Under the refraction of the sun, they could see a little bit of light shining through the ice and snow.
???????????????Wululu Lie knew that those were broken swords and broken halberds abandoned by soldiers from both sides on the battlefield and were not completely covered by ice and snow.
The two sides continued to confront each other at close range on this land, fighting fiercely for nearly two years, and dozens of major and minor battles occurred. But at this time, no one was willing to drive the generals and drag their exhausted bodies to the battlefield again on this freezing day.
As a result, the vast area there was rarely quiet. Apart from a few scouts and warning men and horses, there were only groups of crows and vultures circling over the snow.
Although it is far apart, the black iron bridge located in the northeast of Guangcheng Village and spanning the Majian River is still very clearly visible to everyone in the ice and snow.
At the west end of the Iron Bridge, there is a small castle standing on the bank of the Majian River. In addition to protecting the Iron Bridge, it also protects the post road that extends westward from the Iron Bridge to Guangcheng Village. However, the post road is completely covered with ice and snow and cannot be identified.
However, on the east bank of the Majian River, from the iron bridge to the east, cars and horses continued to pass as usual in such a cold season. The snow on the road was crushed and melted by the ruts of human feet and horse hooves, almost extending in a straight line to the east...
"I knew from the beginning of March that the Jingxiang Army had the intention to rebuild the bridge on the Majian River. But at that time, I didn't know that Jingxiang Smelting had reached this stage, so I didn't pay much attention to it."
Cao Shixiong's face was solemn and he introduced the fierce battle that had been going on around the Majian River for more than half a year, or more precisely around the Majian River Iron Bridge.
"There was no special vigilance after entering the flood season. It was expected that the soldiers and horses of Beijing and Xiang would not be able to launch a large-scale counterattack at that time. Our troops mainly rested and recuperated in Wuzhai on the west wing. By almost mid-August, we sneaked into Liang County and other places Only after the scouts confirmed that the many large iron lumps that had been transported from Lushan to Liang County for several months and stored in them could be used to bridge the iron bridge, did we realize that the bridge rebuilt by the Beijing-Xiangxiang Army on the Majian River was different from the past... "
The soldiers, horses, forts, and camps in the camps in Beijing and Xiang Ruzhou are mainly distributed along both sides of the Majian River, and they are even lighter in the west and heavier in the east.
This layout was mainly caused by the fact that there were only five or six thousand garrison troops left in the Guangcheng area in the early stages of Beijing and Xiangzhou. In the early stage, only a few limited forts were built west of the Majian River to form a complete defense line.
At the east entrance of the Ruzhou trough basin, the limited defense line of the garrison is close to the Majian River. In addition to taking advantage of the terrain, it can also rely on Ruyang, Jiufeng Mountain and other places in the south.
However, after the flood season the year before last, the confrontation between the two sides increased sharply on the west bank of the Majian River. In the future, the Ruzhou camp could only build more reserve camps east of the Majian River.
The layout of this Wuzhai camp group has natural flaws because it is cut into two sides by the Majian River.
Cao Shixiong also seized this point at first, mainly seizing the connecting points of the Jingxiang Army on the Majian River such as pontoons, bridges and ferries to launch an offensive, thereby avoiding to a considerable extent the disadvantages of directly attacking Wubao.
Although they did not really take the initiative on the battlefield from the beginning to the end, and were unable to push a large number of Western Region stone cannons to the front line to bombard the fortress, the exchange ratio between the enemy and us in the early stage was not very different.
It can at least be said that they have completed the important strategic task of consuming Beijing and Xiang that was assigned by the Zong Palace.
The bridge that previously connected Guangcheng Village to the east bank of the Majian River was also successfully destroyed by them.
They noticed in early March that Beijing and Xiangxiang had the intention to re-erect the bridge on the original site on the Majian River, but Cao Shixiong did not pay attention to it.
The main reason is that the pontoon bridge built at the beginning was a wooden structure and was easily burned by arson. Cao Shixiong thought that if they could burn it down once, they could burn it down a second time and a third time.
Cao Shixiong even hoped that Jingxiang would spend more effort to build the bridge, so he would regard this as a weak point and launch continuous attacks to consume Jingxiang.
Therefore, Jingxiang spent great efforts to strengthen the original bridge piers in the early stage, but Cao Shixiong did not send troops to harass or stop it.
Even when he realized in mid-August that Beijing and Xiangxiang were finally going to build an iron bridge over the Majian River, Cao Shixiong did not take immediate action.
Firstly, the flood season had not yet passed, and at that time there were still two sets of bridge piers left in the rapids of the Majian River. The Heluo generals thought that as long as they could throw the giant trees into the river from the upper reaches, they would hit them when the rainstorm surged. The bridge piers can threaten the bridge.
They believed that this fact would allow them to launch attack points all along the upper reaches of the Majian River, instead of rushing to organize troops to attack the Beijing-Xiangang Army's well-defended positions on the west bank of the bridge.
It was not until mid-October that Cao Shixiong discovered that the iron bridge built by Beijing and Xiangxiang over the Majian River did not rely on the piers in the center of the river for support. Fearing the threat from upstream, they were forced to organize troops and horses to attack the Jingxiang Army's position west of the bridge.
They organized and launched three large-scale attacks, with nearly 30,000 soldiers and horses deployed at most at one time, which was close to a decisive battle. Recently, the vanguard soldiers and horses even reached the west end of the bridge.
However, for an iron bridge that is closely connected by riveting, even if the bridge deck is set on fire, the bridge body remains intact.
Although the Heluo soldiers and horses hastily set up two medium-sized Western Regions stone cannons, they failed to cause any actual damage to the iron bridge in such a short period of time before the Beijing-Xiangang Army counterattacked to retake the west bank positions.
.
Only a small area of the bridge deck was set on fire. After the fire was extinguished, those damaged bridge decks were replaced, and the iron bridge quickly returned to normal traffic.
With the cooperation of the warships in the Majian River waterway, they quickly entered the west bank, joined the soldiers and horses on the west bank, and quickly regained the initiative on the battlefield.
Due to the existence of the iron bridge and the East Bank Avenue, in addition to the elite infantry and cavalry of the Beijing-Xiangang Army on the east bank of the Majian River, a large number of war weapons, such as fine iron shield vehicles, three-bow ballistas, scorpion cannons, etc., also make it easier to enter and exit the battlefield.
——This is not to say that the Heluo Army does not have these war weapons, but due to the limitations of the terrain and the solidity of the battle formation, they are greatly restricted in putting war weapons into the battlefield, and the effect is small and the losses are high. In the confrontation between the two armies,
It is difficult to gain an advantage.
Because they also relied on the Wuzhai camp complex south of Yintiling, their defeat in the battle would not cause the defense line to collapse. However, after several large-scale battles, the exchange ratio between the two sides became a bit ugly.
In fact, in addition to the elite garrison troops under the direct jurisdiction of the royal account, the army under the jurisdiction of the Heluo Military and Horse Capital has lost more than 20,000 people in the past two years. The other soldiers are also exhausted and suffer from a large number of injuries. For the time being, they have not returned again.
The ability to launch large-scale attacks along the Majian River.
Because elites from Beijing and Xiang could enter the battlefield on the west bank of the Majian River through the iron bridge at any time, Cao Shixiong and others did not dare to ask Ullu Lie to come to see the condition of the iron bridge in person.
After all, Yintiling Ridge is a bit further away than the Iron Bridge, but listening to Cao Shixiong's description, Uluru Lie and the generals of the Zong Palace around him can still roughly imagine what the Iron Bridge looks like.
Cao Shixiong summoned craftsmen and experienced stone cannons, and estimated that he would have to set up several large Western Region stone cannons and use hundreds of kilograms of stone bullets to bombard them repeatedly to endanger the iron bridge itself. But the problem is that the Heluo soldiers
If Ma can do this, he is already capable of controlling the battlefield on the west bank, so why bother thinking about destroying the iron bridge?
The generals in Zongwang's palace who accompanied Ulul Lie to inspect the front lines fell into silence.
Although the elite garrison troops have not yet been used on a large scale, the confrontation in the past two years has not damaged the foundation of the Beijing-Xiangxiang Army. Moreover, after several years of construction and strengthening, the defense lines between each other are so perfect that everyone can see in a short period of time.
There is no hope of a breakthrough.
After years of fighting against the Beijing-Xiang army, everyone knows very well that over-eager military adventures, or so-called conspiracies, will only bring unnecessary huge risks, and may even ruin Chi Hu's career on the battlefield in the Central Plains.
strategic advantage.
What to do next?
After two years of confrontation, the consumption of Beijing and Xiangzhou was limited, far from achieving the expected results. On the contrary, their rear areas were complaining endlessly about such huge allocations and material transportation in the past two years.
In order to ensure the transportation of materials, the Zongwang Mansion forcibly recruited hundreds of thousands of civilians from various places. Hedong, Hebei, Yunshuo and other places finally recovered some production, but were hit hard again: more and more civilians went into exile and were bewitched by the bandits.
, more and more Han people are rioting or fleeing in local areas. Simply suppressing them with force cannot solve the fundamental problem.
