The military situation was so strong that Liu Yan received the imperial edict early the next morning and set off surrounded by dozens of generals including Liu Fuer. However, he did not go to Runzhou (Zhenjiang) immediately to prepare to cross the river to Yangzhou. Instead, he set out from Beicheng
Xinhuamen galloped out and headed for the Majia branch camp.
At this time, the pontoon bridge upstream of the Majia Branch Camp had been erected overnight. The troops of the Suwei Forbidden Army who had previously gathered on the east bank were heading to the west bank through the pontoon bridge, and then headed towards the mouth of the river along the road on the west bank.
Liu Yan stood by the Ma River and looked at it for a while, and soon noticed that near the Majia branch, neither the river barrage nor the pontoon were the common iron ring ropes in the world, but were wrapped with thin iron wires, slightly thinner than a thumb.
iron wire rope...
"Liu Hou..."
Dong Cheng still stayed in the capital to coordinate various matters with the Privy Council. Liu Shiwang and Han Gui left Jianye City last night. Han Gui was inseparable from Xu Huai's side to handle many complicated affairs. Liu Shiwang is currently mainly responsible for coordinating the reorganization of the Suwei Imperial Army.
He had just arrived at the Majiacha camp early in the morning and was discussing the follow-up war arrangements with Yu Gong, Zhou Shu, Chen Jin, Zhu Tong, and Jiang Ping. He heard that Liu Yan stopped at the south side of the camp accompanied by his generals.
, they hurried out of the camp to meet each other,
"The envoy has rushed to Tongling overnight to take charge. If Liu Hou wants to see the envoy, he may have to take a long detour!"
"..." Liu Yan didn't expect Xu Huai to leave Jianye so quickly and had already gone to the Tongguan Mountain camp. He asked unexpectedly, "Where are the soldiers who crossed the river?"
Before the expulsion was over, Marquis Xu rushed to Tongguan Mountain to take charge, who would be responsible for the war here?"
"In addition to selecting Shi Hu, the left commander of the vanguard army, and Fu Liang, Chen Su, Cheng Xiao and others to stay and control the Niushoushan rebels, Chen Jin's army will also postpone their westward advance and jointly participate in the attack on the remaining enemies at the mouth of the river," Liu Shiwang said,
"The Japanese soldiers will intensify their attacks on Lujiang and other cities in the next stage. In order to strengthen the confidence of the defenders in Lujiang and other places, it is necessary to build a pontoon bridge between Qianshan and Chizhou as soon as possible. You will make a special trip to Tongling to take charge of this matter!"
For defenders who are heavily besieged, their combat effectiveness and will to resist are often directly linked to their confidence.
There has been no movement on the south bank. The defenders of Lujiang and other cities are demoralized and will probably collapse directly in an enemy attack. However, if the defenders are determined, even if the city eventually falls, the enemy will inevitably pay a heavy loss.
cost.
Of course, the faster the pontoon bridge is set up and a larger number of elite soldiers and horses are assembled in Qianshan and other places on the north bank, the more the enemy will be forced to hoard heavy troops to the west of the Lujiang River, thereby reducing the pressure on the defenders of Lujiang and other cities.
"Has this kind of iron wire rope been produced on a large scale in Beijing and Xiangxi?" Liu Yan pointed at the iron wire rope wrapped around the willow tree on the bank and looked at Jiang Ping and asked.
He also knew that Liu Shiwang, Zhu Tong, and others were not necessarily familiar with the situation in Jingxiang, but Jiang Ping was still the chief of the Military Intelligence Department in Jingxiang, and he knew many things in detail better than ordinary generals in Jingxiang.
"We can't talk about large-scale preparation, but it should be able to meet the needs of the Huaixi War." Jiang Ping said.
"Can you provide part of the iron wire rope to the armies on the east route?" Liu Yan asked.
"This has to make you nod, but if Liu Hou can open up the communication between Runzhou and Yangzhou, it shouldn't be a big problem." Jiang Ping said.
Jingxiang is not stingy with friendly forces. Last night, the Hekou camp was discussing the issue of upgrading the equipment of the Suwei Forbidden Army. Liu Yan went to Chuzhou to supervise the battle. Jingxiang will also support them as much as possible, but Jiang Ping cannot guarantee it now.
Of course, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are currently still tightly blockaded by the Japanese navy. Even if Beijing and Xiangzhou have sufficient supplies, there is no way to bypass the Japanese naval blockade and transport supplies there.
"This is really good stuff!" Liu Yan couldn't help but sigh.
Liu Yan has been leading the army in battles for many years, and he can certainly see the huge role that iron wire ropes can play in war.
Take the pontoon bridge and cables built on the Qinhuai River as an example. If hemp ropes are used, the enemy can burn them if they set fire to them from a distance or if they approach quickly and pour oil on them.
Although it is not impossible to destroy the iron rope if it is replaced, the enemy will need to bring the warship closer, or even need to park in front of the iron rope for a short period of time, and then chop it with a giant ax to break it.
However, during this period, the enemy ship will be completely exposed to the various attacks of the defenders behind the iron rope. Even if they suffer huge losses, they may not be able to cut off the iron rope.
Although the iron rope is much superior to the hemp rope, the traditional iron ring rope is not without its shortcomings, and even has huge shortcomings.
The Qinhuai River is more than a hundred paces wide, and a strong enough iron ring rope usually weighs about three to four thousand kilograms.
An iron ring rope weighing three to four thousand kilograms does not require much fixation on both sides of the bank. It is barely enough to be tied directly to a large elm and poplar tree with a strong root system.
However, to erect a barrage iron cable on the vast Yangtze River, a single iron hoop weighs tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of kilograms. How much effort does it take on both sides of the bank and what means are used to fix it?
live?
Historically, iron cables have been erected many times in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Firstly, the water surface of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is narrow. Secondly, in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, especially in the Wu Gorge and other sections, there are cliffs on both sides of the river, so the ropes can be fixed through stones.
However, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, can we expect a few old trees to firmly hold the iron hoops that weigh tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of kilograms each without being uprooted by the weight of the iron hoops and sinking together into the roaring river?
?
Not to mention the weight of the floating bridge and the impact of the water flow, which is even more terrifying.
Generally speaking, if you want to successfully build a pontoon bridge in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, you must first control the nearby river surface before using hemp ropes to connect boats in the narrow waterway.
Liu Yan can't yet see the firmness of the iron wire rope with the naked eye, but at a rough glance, the weight of an iron wire rope may be only one-fifth or sixth of the same length of an iron ring rope, or even lower.
No one raised any doubts about the memorial Xu Huai sent to the capital yesterday. However, during the internal discussion in the Privy Council, many officials complained loudly, thinking that Jingxiang proposed to occupy the enemy's navy between Chizhou and Qianshan.
Erecting a pontoon bridge when there is an absolute advantage is pure fantasy.
Liu Yan also had some doubts in his heart at the time, but of course he didn't bring it up because he knew that Jingxiang had unexpectedly produced too many examples of tactics in recent years that could do what others couldn't.
It seemed to him now that Xu Huai was quite confident since he dared to raise this point.
Take the blockade of the Qinhuai River and the erection of pontoons on the Qinhuai River as an example. If traditional iron ring ropes are still used, even if they are built in Jingzhou or Nancai in advance, when the Lubing Navy blocks the Yangtze River waterway, it will be difficult to transport it to
Building Ye is very difficult.
What's more, if you want to re-establish the defense line along the river near Gyeonggi in a short period of time, you need to urgently blockade the rivers that restrict the indiscriminate entry and exit of enemy warships, and the rivers are far more than just a tributary of the Qinhuai River.
Now not only has the entire transportation scale been reduced to only one-fifth or six-fifth of what it was before, transportation has become much more convenient.
At the same time, the choice of fixtures on both sides of the Zhuxi River is also much wider.
If that doesn't work, you can just drive wooden piles directly on the river beach to pull up the river barrage cable; this is unimaginable with traditional iron ring ropes.
In other words, Beijing and Xiangzhou were able to blockade the Qinhuai River in just two days, but with traditional means, it might take half a month or even longer.
At this time, Liu Yan could also imagine installing large winches at both ends of the barrage cable. Normally, the barrage cable could even be sunk into the water to facilitate the entry and exit of his own warships. If an enemy ship was chasing after him, he would be able to use the winch to pull out only the barrage cable.
The barrage cable, which is one-fifth or sixth of the weight of the traditional iron ring rope, is quickly straightened.
Whether it is to intercept enemy ships outside, or to intercept the enemy ships' retreat route and encircle and annihilate them, this is a good tactical choice for them under the current situation of serious lack of naval power.
Liu Yan estimated that it would not take long to make enemy ships dare not leave the main Yangtze River and enter the branch rivers at will.
Isn't this actually the tactic used by Xu Fang to ambush the Qi soldiers outside Yueting Gate?
At this time, Han Gyu took a boat to the east bank - the single pontoon bridge was narrow, and the priority was to ensure that people, horses and supplies could move from the east bank to the west bank. If the people and horses from the west bank wanted to come over, they had to use ferries.
"Is Liu Hou getting ready to leave?" Han Gui saluted Liu Yan and asked after landing.
"I wanted to meet Xu Huai before crossing the river in Runzhou, but I didn't expect that he had already gone to Tongguan Mountain..." Liu Yan said with regret.
Han Gui nodded and said: "Your Majesty still wants to erect the pontoon bridge blocking the river as soon as possible, but the soldiers will obviously not sit idly by. The water battles between Chizhou and Qianshan will be frequent in the future, and you need to personally go and take charge."
"Oh," Liu Yan asked doubtfully, "Can Jingzhou navy enter the waters near Chizhou?"
"It is still difficult to confront the Japanese soldiers head-on, but the Japanese soldiers and naval forces have no foothold on both sides of the strait. Our Jingzhou naval forces rely on the camps on the banks and fight against the Japanese soldiers in the branch streams and rivers, but there is nothing to fear," Han Gui said, "Thoroughly
Controlling the waters west of Chizhou is only a matter of time."
Liu Yan nodded and thought to himself, it does not mean that the soldiers and navy are strong enough to control the entire Yangtze River Basin without restriction.
After all, the current navy's ability to station warships and counterattack is extremely limited.
The Lubing navy is powerful, but does it dare to stay on the river west of Chizhou for a long time without fear of the Jingzhou navy's continuous attacks from both sides?
The Lubing Navy simply cannot do this, and even daring to do so will only lead to tragic losses.
In fact, the waters that the Imperial Navy can really control must be close to the areas controlled by its infantry and cavalry. After all, at night or in bad weather, the Imperial Navy warships must anchor to lakes or rivers protected and controlled by their infantry and cavalry.
Only in the midst of it.
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Chaohu, which is controlled by Ruxukou, is actually the safest anchorage for the Lubing Navy.
From this point we can also see how bad the impact of Xu Pu's restlessness led to the fall of Hefei.
Otherwise, as long as the naval forces from various places continue to launch harassment attacks, the Japanese navy can be driven out of the Yangtze River waterway.
From this point of view, it can only be said that the situation of Emperor Shaolong, Wang Boqian, Yang Maoyan and others was their own fault. Liu Yan suspected that if Hu Kai continued to be the privy envoy, the soldiers would not be able to rashly dispatch the navy to raid Jianye.
Seeing Han Gui's confident look, Liu Yan couldn't help but ask: "Are Jingxiang very sure of winning this battle now?"
Han Gui smiled slightly and did not directly answer Liu Yan's question. He smiled and said: "It can only be said that everything depends on man-made..."
The attack on the enemy camp at the mouth of the river, especially when Jiang Ang led his troops to kill Wu Chi, had fully demonstrated the superiority of the Jingxiang Army in armor.
When Jiang Ang and Wu Chi met, the elite soldiers on both sides were comparable. Even based on the individual elite level of the generals, the Red Hu warriors around Wu Chi were stronger. In addition to being on horseback since childhood and growing up drinking goat milk, their bodies were stronger.
In order to be strong, he has experienced only a lot more bloody battles than those who choose to be strong as a vanguard, and his martial arts skills are even more exquisite.
However, the result of the encounter was that Wu Chi and his fifty-six red warriors were wiped out, and seventeen of the selected vanguard generals were killed.
After knowing such a battle loss ratio, especially after successfully controlling the military power of the Suwei Forbidden Army, Han Gui did not even advocate being too anxious. He did not think that the temporary fall of Huaixi would be a big problem, and even advocated improving the armaments of the Suwei Forbidden Army.
, giving more time for deeper control of the Suwei Forbidden Army.
Of course, Xu Huai did not want to see the soldiers and civilians of Huaixi suffer further tragic killings, and hoped to relieve the siege of Huaixi as soon as possible. Han Gui had no way to dissuade him.
As for Liu Yan's question about whether Jing and Xiang were sure about the upcoming war in Huaixi, Han Gui couldn't be too complacent in his answer...
