The envoys carried an imperial edict from Jianye to various places, and ordered the road supervisors to gather troops and horses to reinforce Huaixi. Among them, Jingnan responded the most quickly. In early November, troop ships were seen one after another, from Yuezhou,
It departs from Tanzhou, Xiangzhou and other places, passes through Dongting Lake and Jingjiang River and heads towards Luzhou.
For a time, the boats at the mouth of Dongting Lake were like a forest, and the shadows of sails blocked out the sun.
"Ge Boyi still risked his life to reinforce Huaixi!"
Standing at the top of the Chishan military stronghold, Han Gui looked at the troop transport passing by the lake entrance to the east and said with emotion.
Chishan Bay was originally the lair of the Hu Dangzhou thieves. It is located on the south bank of the Jingjiang River and west of the mouth of Dongting Lake. It is an alluvial sandy land that has gradually become land in the past hundred years. It was originally part of Jingzhou Gong'an County.
During the expedition against the Dongjing bandit army, Chishan Bay was captured by the Nancai Recruitment Division. When establishing the Jingxiang Road, Xu Huai thought that there were still remnants of bandits in Dongting Lake that had not been wiped out, so he set aside Chishan Bay separately and established a military unit under Jingzhou.
The inspection military stronghold of the Department of Supervision, together with the Yuezhou City east of Hukou, jointly controlled this important place on the Hujiang River.
Chishan Military Stronghold is also the only military stronghold of Beijing and Xiangzhou south of Jingjiang River.
At this time, Xu Huai, accompanied by Han Gui, Zhang Xiongshan and others, climbed up the high wall of Chishan Military Village and looked towards the lake entrance to see the clouds.
See how Jingnan is doing its best to reinforce Huaixi.
Of course, this didn't surprise him at all.
Ge Boyi, Han Shiliang, Wang Boqian, and Yang Maoyan, the envoys of the Jinghu South Road System, were all direct descendants of Emperor Shaolong's Qiandi. They were closely related to each other and had a stake in each other. It could even be said that they shared weal and woe; Ge Yu, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Region,
A general, the next generation successor of the Ge family, whose status was still higher than that of Wei Chujun, he and Han Shiliang were guarding Shouchun and other cities together - Ge Boyi was stationed in Jingnan, how could he sit back and watch the fall of Shouchun?
In addition, the several years of encirclement and suppression of the Dongjinghu bandits not only made the state troops under the jurisdiction of the Military and Horse Supervision Department of the various states in Jingnan stronger in combat effectiveness, but also gave Ge Boyi a deeper grasp of the Jingnan area.
Of course, Ge Boyi had already made preparations in Jingnan when he saw signs that the Chihu people would launch a large-scale attack on the East Road this autumn and winter. Otherwise, if he really waited for the imperial edict to be issued before taking action, the troops in Jingnan would be
The horse's response would never be so fast. Usually, waiting a month or two before officially sending out troops would be considered a quick move.
A fast boat came from the direction of Jiangling and quickly docked at the dock outside Chishan Military Village.
But it was the envoy who came from Jianye to deliver the imperial edict. When he passed through Xincai, he learned that Xu Huai was still in command in Jingzhou at this time, so he rushed directly from Xincai to Jingzhou to govern Jiangling City, and then took a boat to Chishan Military Stronghold to meet with Xu.
Meet me.
Xu Huai did not recognize the envoy who passed the imperial edict. Seeing that he was relatively young, he thought he must be a newly promoted Hanlin in the imperial examination in the past two years.
At that time, there was not so much emphasis on receiving imperial edicts. Xu Huai stood at the top of the city and took the imperial edict from the hand of the minister. He just folded his hands and made a bow in the direction of Jianye to show respect, and then unfolded the imperial edict to read.
"..."
Xu Huai read the imperial edict and silently handed it to Xu Wujiang, and Han Gui and others circulated it.
After officially receiving the news that the Chihu East Road army was crossing the Huaihe River to launch an offensive against Shouchun and other places, Xu Huai not only reported the enemy situation faced by Rucai and Shenzhou to the Privy Council immediately, he also considered the situation faced by Huaixi this year.
Due to the severe situation, it was my duty as a courtier to personally prepare a memorial and formally request Emperor Shaolong to personally lead an elite force to reinforce Huaixi.
In the imperial edict that arrived in Beijing and Xiangyang today, Emperor Shaolong expressed his praise for Xu Huai's willingness to relieve the imperial court's worries, and sent envoys to bring some rewards as a token of recognition. However, he was not satisfied with Xu Huai's request to lead troops to reinforce Huaixi and
Mentioning the matters that the imperial court should focus on in the new round of Huainan Battle, the imperial edict stated in a tactful tone that both the DPRK and China had weighed in, and Xu Huai was asked to focus on the defense of Rucai, Shenzhou and other places to prevent any gaps.
"Your Majesty is very confident in expelling the Hulu from Huainan again!" Han Guishi said with a smile.
Xu Huai waved his hand. It was really inconvenient to say anything in front of the envoy, so he arranged for his guards to lead the envoy into the stronghold to rest temporarily.
In any case, Emperor Shaolong had given him a reward, and Xu Huai had to write a letter of thanks for the envoy to take it back; so the envoy who passed the imperial edict could not return directly for a while.
"The imperial court is still following the strategy of the First Huainan Battle. The overall troop deployment is sufficient, but the hidden dangers have not been eliminated!" Han Gui said.
Xu Huai frowned and said to Zhang Xiongshan: "No matter how difficult it is, the Military Intelligence Department still needs to send more scouts to Lushou..."
Shenzhou was under great military pressure at this time. Xu Huaite envoy Zhou Jing went to Shenzhou to take charge of military intelligence spying work, assisting Xu Xin'an in guarding Xinyang and Luoshan, ensuring that
Mountains and other places.
When Zhang Xiongshan returned from Dajianlu, he naturally took charge of the affairs of the Military Intelligence Department around Xu Huai.
"Okay!" Following Xu Huai's instructions, Zhang Xiongshan agreed and recommended Chen Songze to take charge of the matter.
Huaixi was not under the jurisdiction of Jingxiang, and the imperial court clearly refused Jingxiang to intervene in the war in Huaixi. At this time, the Military Intelligence Department sent scouts to spy on the military situation, not only to avoid the enemy, but also to avoid the reconnaissance under the Huainan West Road Envoy Department.
When soldiers and horses are in danger, they cannot ask for help from the nearest place. To put it bluntly, they have to bear double the risks and difficulties.
However, the situation in Huaixi was complicated. If Xu Huai wanted to get first-hand war information in time, he could only send more scouts to infiltrate regardless of the risks.
Chen Songze is Dong Cheng's brother-in-law, a former Xichuan County official. He first participated in the Criminal Prison Department's investigation of the Xichuan official grain theft case - because he was very familiar with the copycats and private salt caravans in the East Qinling Mountains, the Military Intelligence Department wanted him to go over there specifically.
Responsible for spying on military intelligence in Shangluo and other places.
In the past two years of confrontation operations, Chen Songze made great achievements in successfully resisting enemy attacks from Shaanxi direction for the Xichuan camp.
After the two-year confrontation ended, Chen Songze studied at the Advanced Military Command School for half a year and was recently transferred directly to serve in the General Academy of the Military Intelligence Department.
At this time, it was necessary to strengthen the infiltration and reconnaissance of Huaixi, and a strong person was needed to take charge of the matter. Zhang Xiongshan had been in contact with Chen Songze for a period of time and recommended him to go to Huaixi.
Xu Huai nodded and agreed that Chen Songze should go to Huaixi first.
It is still difficult to predict whether the war in Huaixi will undergo unexpected sudden changes. After all, the imperial court has sufficient overall deployment of troops and horses.
First, there are Shenwu Army, Zuo Xuanwu Army, Zuo Xiaosheng Army, 50,000 soldiers and corresponding state and county garrison troops in Huaidong. Prince Ping Yanzong only has 50,000 soldiers in the north of Chuzhou to contain them.
Dong can dispatch at least 20,000 elite troops to fight between Luzhou and Shouzhou.
In addition, the additional reinforcements that can be mobilized from various routes, in addition to the Jingnan troops and horses with stronger combat effectiveness, the Jingbei troops and horses have participated in the garrison in Rucai and other places over the years. They have experienced precious actual combat training, and their combat effectiveness is also beyond the capabilities of ordinary local troops and horses.
and.
The Jingbei Army, led by Wang Fan, participated in the First Battle of Huainan. Although it could not be used as an elite main force to charge into battle, its performance was remarkable.
In recent years, in order to prevent Jingxiang and at the same time to weaken the negative influence of the remaining forces of Zheng Huaizhong and his son on the Shenwu Army and the Huaidong Defense Line, the imperial court has extracted a large number of former Zheng tribes who had brought order from chaos to the Shenwu Army and added them to the Shenwu Army.
He serves as the capital commander, duyu marquis, commander and other local military positions in the military deployment department of Jinghu North Road and the military and horse supervision departments of various prefectures.
Gao Juntang, who served as the commander of the military and horse capital in northern Jingzhou, was himself a general-level figure from the Gao family and had rich experience in commanding troops in combat.
Therefore, the troops in northern Jingzhou have been further strengthened in the past three or four years, and they also participated in the encirclement and suppression of the Dongjing bandit army before.
Emperor Shaolong and the princes of the imperial court certainly had reason to believe that by deploying 70,000 to 80,000 troops and horses from Huaidong, Jingnan, and Jingbei to reinforce Huaixi, they would at least be able to fight the Chihu East Road army crossing Huainan between Shouzhou and Luzhou.
The situation is evenly matched.
In addition, there are a total of 40,000 to 50,000 people from the Gyeonggi Forbidden Army and the Jianye Navy near Jianye, who can reinforce the Luzhou front line at any time. They can also be recruited continuously from Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, Liangzhe East Road, and Liangzhe West Road.
Large-scale reinforcements——
In short, the imperial court's overall military deployment was sufficient, at least much better than during the first Huainan Battle. However, what Xu Huai was most worried about at this time was that the two key positions had been replaced before.
First, the Privy Councilor responsible for the overall coordination of the various armies and horses, the formulation and implementation of the Second Huainan Campaign was changed from Hu Kai to Wang Boqian.
Although Wang Boqian had served as the deputy privy envoy for several years, he had no experience in commanding or controlling troops before becoming the deputy privy envoy. It is difficult to imagine that he could play a good role in coordinating and overseeing the overall situation.
Another key position is that the deputy envoy was appointed in Huaixi, and You Xiaosheng was in charge of the army and knew Luzhou. Liu Yan was replaced by Xu Pu.
Reinforcements from various routes were needed to reinforce Huaixi. When Shouchun and other cities were besieged by superior enemy forces, they basically needed to focus on Luzhou, with Luzhou as the center, as the fulcrum to assemble and organize counterattacks.
At this time, Han Shiliang, the pacifying envoy of the Huaixi system, was stationed in Shouchun and was besieged. If the imperial court did not send another military commander to Luzhou to take charge, he would replace Liu Yan as the deputy envoy of the Huaixi system. You Xiaosheng would be in charge of the army and know Luzhou.
Xu Pu naturally became the frontline commander who came forward to organize the Second Huainan Battle.
Even if the court was not confident about Xu Pu's ability to lead an army of hundreds of thousands in battle, who else in the court besides Liu Yan could be worthy of this task?
Wang Boqian?
Emperor Shaolong removed Liu Yan from his military power and transferred him to the position of Deputy Privy Envoy because of his suspicion. How could he easily ask him to lead troops in Luzhou again?
Liu Yan would not be entrusted with an important task. Compared with Wang Boqian, who had served as deputy envoy to the Privy Council for several years but had no actual experience in commanding troops, Xu Huai hoped that Ge Boyi could go to Luzhou to preside over the war.
In his previous memorial, Xu Huai also suggested this to the court.
However, the imperial decree that came at this time explicitly and secretly required Xu Huai not to interfere in the Huainan war. At this time, Xu Huai had no way to figure out who the frontline commander in Emperor Shaolong's mind was...
