The cold wind gradually became biting. Zhong Changqing reined in his horse and stopped among the yellow and green grass that was not completely withered. He looked at the many flags in the direction of Yongjin River with a somewhat dazed expression.
In just six or seven days, the Jingxiang Army not only built a dozen large and small forts on both sides of the Yongjin River, but also recruited 20,000 to 30,000 troops to go north to block the Yongjin River and connect the dozens of camps on both sides.
A weir dam was dug to reopen the Yongjin River waterway, allowing its armored warships to enter, thereby more completely blocking their land route to the south to support Huaichuan.
Of course, it is not appropriate to say a complete blockade.
If Zhennanzong Palace and Pingyanzong Palace can gather 100,000 elite infantry and cavalry and tens of thousands of auxiliary troops at Jiaopi and Quanhe River at all costs, and use the power of Mount Tai to press towards the banks of Yongjin River, they can still first
Re-block the Yongjin River from both sides, and then attack the fortresses of Jing and Xiang along the Yongjin River.
After all, the Yongjin River is only a semi-artificial canal excavated on the basis of several natural rivers. The wide part of the river is only twenty or thirty feet, and the narrow part is only five or six feet. It cannot be compared with the Huai River and Ying River.
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And because no one has thought about repairing or protecting it for more than ten years, the Yongjin River has been flooded three or four times by floods from the lower reaches of Ruying, causing severe siltation and blockage.
Even though the Beijing-Xiangang Army had dug out dozens of weirs and dams that cut off the river at this time, only some small and medium-sized warships such as fighting ships and platoon warships could enter before further dredging.
What's more, in a month or two, the Hehuai area will enter the really harsh winter season. The Yongjin River and other rivers with slow water flow and narrow channels will be worse than
Large rivers such as the Huai River and the Ying River are frozen more solidly and have a longer freezing period. This will provide convenience for the Zhennan Zong Palace to carry out large-scale troop mobilization in the area near the Huai River.
However, the question is whether the Zong Palace will be determined to gather hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses to Jiaopi and Quanhe to fight against the Jingxiang Army this winter?
Another one is, can Huaichuan City sustain for two months, until the moment when hundreds of thousands of reinforcements are assembled?
Zhong Changqing frowned, he had doubts about both.
Their disadvantage in the navy and warships is too great, and they have lost control of the Huaihe River. According to the established plan, Huaichuan and other areas close to Huaicheng Walled City can be abandoned.
The Prince of Zhennan Zong also clearly requested the General Administration of the Military and Horse Capital in the West of Beijing to focus the defense of the western Hehuai area on cities such as Ruyin, which are located in the lower reaches of the Ying River, but are still a certain distance from the mouth of the Ying River, making it easy to block the river.
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According to the established plan, the General Administration of the Military and Horse Capital in the West of Beijing should rely on cities such as Ruyin (Yingzhouzhi) to open a distance of sixty or seventy miles from the Huai River, and build a real first in Quanhe, Jiaopi and other places.
Dao guards the Huai defense line.
Only in this way can the logistics supply line of Beijing and Xiang be slightly exposed on the north bank of the Huaihe River, and the Red Hussar cavalry can more fully exert its mobility advantages.
The core advantage of cavalry is always its much higher mobility than infantry.
This is also a strategic advantage that cavalry has that infantry cannot match.
However, with the help of warships, soldiers from Beijing and Xiangyang could quickly move and mobilize along open waterways such as the Huaihe River. In addition to infantry and cavalry relying on rivers to form formations, they could even use warships to quickly transport large and medium-sized war equipment, making material supply more efficient.
fast.
Therefore, when fighting in the Huaihe River area, the strategic advantage of the Jingxiang Army is more obvious than that of the elite infantry and cavalry of the Chi Hu.
In the previous interception battle, the main reason was that most of the landing places around Huaichuan City were shoals, which made it more difficult for the Jingxiang Army to land and seize the beach. However, even so, since there was no space for detours, the flank arrays of the Jingxiang Army were sufficient.
Thousands of red cavalry reinforcements were so dense that they had no chance to participate in the battle in the early stage.
Now the Beijing-Xiangang Army has occupied many docks east of Huaichuan. It has not only rushed to repair a number of plank road docks on the north bank of the Huaihe River that can pass through the silt, but also quickly erected a pontoon bridge that can be opened and closed to the south of Changtan Village.
These measures fully demonstrated the strategic advantage of the Beijing-Xiangxiang Army in the area near Huaihe.
Considering this point, not to mention the military commander of the Western Jing Dynasty, even the entire Zhennan Zong Palace, or the Ping Yan Zong Palace, should avoid fighting with Jingxiang in the Huaihe area.
This is the consensus reached by the two governments before this winter.
The two government offices also have strict opinions on Huaichuan, Xiacai, Yingshang, Huaiyuan and other cities close to Huaihe. They also want to consume as much of Jingxiang's effective strength as possible and delay Jingxiang's advance to the north - these cities
If you cannot defend it, you can set it on fire, massacre the people, or drive them north to withdraw the defenders.
In the overall strategic direction, Chenzhou, Xuzhou, Suzhou and Xuzhou are the focus of defense in the Hehuai area. Generals Chen, Xu, Xu,
The depth of about one or two hundred miles between Suzhangnan and the Huaihe River has become a buffer zone with bones exposed in the wild and no grass growing. The Prince Zhennan Palace and the Prince Pingyan Palace are not under any pressure.
If necessary, the two governments can even set fire to all the villages and cities in the Hehuai area, drive all the Han people to Hedong, Hebei and other places, or directly massacre them all. They can turn the entire Hehuai area into a deserted place.
A deserted battlefield where troops can roam freely.
If we clearly understand the advantages of the Beijing-Xiang navy, Huaichuan will never be a must-defend position.
The generals in the west of Beijing had already made plans to withdraw the defenders and set fire to Huaichuan City after losing the war.
However, who could have imagined that the interception of the troops and horses crossing the Huaihe River between Beijing and Xiang would be defeated so suddenly. When the defeat occurred at dusk, most of the defeated troops were blocked by the Yongjin River, and they were like headless flies under the night, heading towards the Huaihe River in panic.
Sichuan City fled; the Huaichuan defenders did not have time to retreat, and their retreat was blocked by the Jingxiang Army.
The troops in the west of Beijing gathered to intercept the troops from Beijing and Xiang across the Huaihe River until the rout occurred. The direct casualties were only four to five thousand, which was completely bearable. After all, the formation killed nearly two thousand elite troops from Beijing and Xiang. This was something they had expected in advance.
exchange ratio.
However, at this time, nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses were besieged in Huaichuan City, unable to fly, but they were the thorns in the west of Beijing that the generals could not let go of easily.
After two years of brutal confrontation, the General Administration of the Western Beijing Military and Horse Capital took two years to recuperate and finally expanded the standing army to 80,000 people.
If we lose more than 30% of our troops in the first battle, how will we defend Xu, Chen, and Ying in the future??????????????????????
Another point is that the casualties in a rout are generally mostly new soldiers. As long as the military generals and the old soldiers who have been tested for a long time in bloody battles can be preserved and do not suffer heavy losses, new soldiers can be added at this time and rest for a year and a half.
Once loaded, combat effectiveness will almost be restored.
As long as the west of Beijing does not need to bear heavy and cruel wars in the future, and sufficient reinforcements are mobilized from Hedong and other places to help defend Xuchen and other places, if the generals and troops in the west of Beijing can lose 30% of their troops relatively evenly, they will not be called Zhong Chang.
You are so worried.
This time, most of their main generals successfully escaped, and no one fell directly on the battlefield. However, generals such as Zhong Changqing and Meng Jie, whose troops comprised more than 70% to 80% of veteran soldiers and middle- and lower-level military officials, were in chaos.
Zhongdu fled to Huaichuan and was besieged in Huaichuan City.
If they cannot successfully coordinate the retreat of the Huaichuan garrison to the south, Zhong Changqing, Meng Jie and other generals can recruit tens of thousands of new soldiers from military households in Xu, Chen, Zheng, Ying and other places to join the army, but there will not be enough middle- and lower-level military officials.
With old pawns as support, how tragically will the combat effectiveness decline?
Not to mention other things, just for the new recruits, it may take three to five years to complete the armor.
Is it possible to expect other generals to cut off some of the military officers and veterans who have been following them for many years? Or is it possible to expect other generals to let their generals cut off part of their armor?
There is no such harmony and friendship among the generals in the west of Beijing.
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The main force of Jingsheng's army crossing the river was deployed along the Yongjin River first, and the forts along the Yongjin River were built first. It was only then that 3,000 troops were mobilized. Under the cover of thousands of infantry and cavalry, they arrived at Huaichuan City to build the company camp.
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The company camp also started to be built from the small camp facing the city gate. First, a car array was used to block the outside of the city gate, and then trenches were dug and barriers and walls were built.
The south gate of Huaichuan City is only more than 500 steps away from the Huaihe River. There is also a few remaining long embankments along the Huaihe River near the river, which mainly prevents the Huaichuan city wall from being impacted by floods.
The land outside the south city is too narrow, and most of it is within the attack range of the trebuchets in the city. No forts were built, but two long and narrow car formations were wedged into the south city from the southeast and southwest along the causeway.
on the front; build forts and plank roads and piers on the outside of the vehicle array.
And because the South City Gate was the only city gate that the defenders did not completely seal with earth, wood, sand and gravel, two additional buildings were anchored in the Huai River on the outside of the long embankment to strengthen the blockade.
After the company camp first took shape, in addition to some of the elite soldiers of the Jingsheng Army, more garrison troops and horses were mobilized to fill in.
Although it is generally said that withstand the enemy's arrows and stones, the casualties in the attack on the attached city will not be small, but the outer camp is firmly established, and there are elite defensive formations and defenders out of the city to counterattack, even if the siege troops cannot withstand the heavy casualties,
Even if an escape occurs midway, it will not trigger a chain reaction, and the overall scale of casualties can be effectively controlled.
Xu Huai stopped and stood on an earth platform four miles away, looking at the dusty rammed earth city wall. The trees on the left and right had been cut down, making it look particularly desolate——
To the south of Tutai, there is a small village. Most of the villages
The people either fled, died of epidemics, or died under the iron hoofs of the captive soldiers, or were captured by the General Manager of the Military and Horse Capital in the west of Beijing to serve as young men. Only a dozen old, weak, women and children were left, hiding in the distance in fear, heading towards this
As I looked around, I saw that everyone was skinny and skinny.
Xu Huai listened to Fan Zongqi and others reporting on the siege deployment, but his thoughts were diverted to the dozens of old and weak women and children. Chen Zixiao, Han Gui, Liu Shiwang and others who followed him said:
"In the newly recovered areas north of the Huaihe River, land distribution must be consistent with that on the south bank. It is not appropriate to directly grant land to landless farmers. However, in the past few years, they have endured extremely harsh exploitation by the soldiers. After deducting the normal land taxes and levies, other
Part of it can be properly disposed of among the seized materials. But if this is done in a solid manner, it will increase the workload a lot!"
The core of the New Deal implemented by Beijing and Xiangyang is the allocation and granting of land to ensure that veterans and meritorious generals are favored. At the same time, consistency and coherence need to be maintained. Therefore, the newly recovered regional cultivated land will basically be taken over as government-owned, and then organized
People in the recovered areas farmed and collected rent and taxes.
However, the lives of the people in the occupied areas were extremely difficult. At the same time, as Beijing and Xiang promoted the Northern Expedition, they needed to maximize the support of the people in the occupied areas, so they needed to provide in-kind subsidies in a reasonable name.
"It won't add too much..." Han Gyu responded with a smile.
The core areas controlled by enemy forces in the west of Beijing, such as Xuzhou, Chenzhou and other places, are still slightly densely populated, while the population in the south is very sparse.
Before the war, Huaichuan County was a large county with a population of more than 100,000. Currently, except for Huaichuan City, they have recovered most of the area in Huaichuan County and are conducting a ?????????????????????
?????Preliminary statistics show that there are only more than 8,000 people.
For this group of people, providing each household with four or five dan of grain, clothing, salt, sugar, agricultural tools and other materials as relief, and organizing troops to help them repair their houses, would be a better solution to their urgent needs than directly granting land to them.
Otherwise, even if the fields are directly transferred, many people will not be able to survive this winter, let alone wait until the fields grow a harvest next summer and autumn.
And since there is only one out of ten people left, the workload and the materials that need to be invested are not as scary as imagined.
Among the refugees going south, there are many Confucian scholars who are proficient in writing and even studied hard in poverty. They can be recruited according to the territory to participate in related work; in the future, recovering more lost land can also be implemented in Huaichuan.
In this regard, Jingxiang has already done it well, and Han Gui doesn't think it will be too difficult.
Xu Huai nodded and asked Han Gui to discuss the specific matter directly with Shi Zhen. He turned back to Fan Zongqi and said: "Only after we capture Huaichuan City, we can conquer Queshan, Chushan, Xinyang, and Luoshan."
, Huangchuan, Guangshan and other places can be protected on the inside. Only then can we safely transfer Xu Xin'an's headquarters to Caizhou to promote the construction of Linying Dike. This matter should be done sooner rather than later. The method you mentioned can be tried, but
You need to complete the siege deployment first. You can even set up the trebuchets and bombard them for three to five days to further shake the will of the defenders. The possibility of success will be greater. If you fail, don't worry, just attack the city step by step...
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In order to restrict the soldiers from going south in the past few years, Jingxiang (Chu Mountain) within the jurisdiction of Zhaoling built a dyke on the south bank of the Ru River and dug a stone canal on the north bank of the Ru River to drain the water above the Zhaoling section of the Ru River to the north bank, seizing Ying.
The water flows into the Huaihe River.
Of course, the Ru River discharges to the north, with only a short section of stone canals to divert the water. Further north, it basically follows the terrain and irrigates everywhere. It is almost in the south of Chenzhou and the west of Yingzhou, forming a stretch of more than 200 miles from east to west and several kilometers from north to south.
A floodplain area ranging from ten miles to more than a hundred miles in depth.
This winter, Xu Huai was thinking of building a dyke north of the Zhaoling Stone Canal to divert the water from the upper reaches of the Ru River directly into the Yingshui River. In this way, only the flood plains to the north and east of Zhaoling would be possible.
In the next three to five years, the water will gradually recede, making it suitable for passage, farming and building camps.
Only when the embankment is built, will a real river channel navigable for ships be formed between the upper reaches of Ru River and the Ying River.
This is also the preparatory work for attacking and regaining Xuzhou and Chenzhou. It should be done sooner rather than later.
Otherwise, even if Xuzhou and Chenzhou were recaptured, they would have to rely on the narrow strip of land near the northeastern foot of Jishan Mountain to transport supplies to the front line, which would be too easily cut off by the superior cavalry of the Chihu people.
The planned embankment is located in the buffer zone between the Caizhou camp and the Xuzhou garrison area in western Beijing. Currently, there are more than 20,000 elite soldiers stationed in Caizhou camp and more than 10,000 garrison troops. Compared with those stationed in Xuzhou,
The enemy troops are still slightly lower in strength and cannot guarantee the smooth start of the embankment construction.
Now it is necessary to capture Huaichuan as soon as possible so that the garrisons in Chushan, Luoshan and other places can be freed up to go to Caizhou and increase the military pressure on the enemies of Xuzhou.
To this end, Fan Zongqi and the Military Intelligence Staff Department formulated a secret plan...
