The mountains stretch continuously, outlining fierce undulations on the land in the southwest.
Under the surging leaden clouds, white snow fell on the ground. From Xiangfan to Jiange, for thousands of miles, some were chaotic and some were dead silent.
In the past few months, the door of the originally strong city has been knocked open, and the damage caused by hundreds of thousands of troops has not been remedied. Among the charred ruins, there are still people in shabby clothes looking for the last.
Hope; in villages ravaged by soldiers and bandits, elderly couples slowly died in cold homes; refugees who fled gathered outside the few unbroken cities in this land. After the heavy snow fell, they began to arrive in large numbers.
He died of cold and starvation.
The earth extends towards Jiange, and hundreds of thousands of troops are densely packed like ant colonies, building a new ecological community on the increasingly cold land. In the mountains adjacent to the military camp, all the trees have been cut down, and every day, people who keep themselves warm are
Pillars of smoke are rising in the huge military camps, like forests with towering clouds. In some military camps, new war materials are built every day, and are transported by ox carts to the direction of the battlefield on the other side of Jiange. Some of them are self-sufficient.
The self-sufficient army was still raging in the Han lands further away.
In the past autumn, most of the autumn harvest fruits collected by the army across thousands of miles have been gathered here. Correspondingly, millions of Han people have completely lost their winter food and their past savings.
The logistics camp that supported the Southwest War had hundreds of thousands of troops and a radiation warning range of hundreds of miles.
In November, Wanyan Xiyin had arrived here to take charge. What he was waiting for and on guard for was a black flag team of 20,000 people coming over the mountains from the direction of Tubo Dayang. This was a team that had been watered by the blood of the Xiaocang River.
The most elite revenge force of the Chinese Army, led by Qin Shaoqian, was like a poisonous snake, pointing its blade at the hundreds of thousands of troops gathered outside the Jin Kingdom's sword pavilion.
If Xiyin had not prepared for the attack on Black Flag for several years and investigated the situation of this army in detail, the Jurchen army's rear defense would have been defeated by this army.
It is difficult for them to get out. They are chained across the river and cannot go up or down.
So in November, Xiyin arrived here and took over the command of tens of thousands of Jurchen elites. He was targeting this army and made a heavy blow. Qin Shaoqian knew that his actions had been discovered, and more than 20,000 Jurchens were killed.
The man stopped quietly in the mountains. At this moment, he had not made any move.
Some things are hard to believe when told before they happen, but Xiyin knew in his heart that if the Southwest War failed, the 20,000 people quietly watching the battle would cut the sharpest knife in the Jurchens' path.
Will the Jurchens lose? - No one on my side has thought about this for the time being. But the Black Flag Army, who are waiting for revenge, is obviously considering this as a real future.
Not long after the war started, Ning Yi put down the steel knife in the rear, carried out sneak attacks, speculation... or even waited for the Jurchens to kill the entire West Route Army on their way to escape. This kind of boldness and arrogance made Xi Yin unhappy.
He calmly reorganized and trained the surrendered Han troops in the rear, selected available soldiers step by step, and at the same time organized sufficient logistics materials to support the front line.
The line of sight starts from here, passes through Jiange, and extends all the way. In the vast mountains, the spreading team weaves a long dragon, and there are military camps one by one at the nodes of the dragon's body. Traces of human activities radiate from the military camps, and in the mountains and forests, there are also
Scenes of pitch-black patches of bald spots, fighting and flames have created ugly scabies everywhere.
In December, there were occasional rain and snow under the blue sky, and the roads were muddy and slippery. Although the Jurchens organized a large number of logistics personnel to maintain the roads, it gradually became more and more difficult to maintain forward transportation capacity. Moving forward
The army accompanied the bullock carts, slipping in the mud and water. Sometimes people crowded together in the mountains. At every transportation node, you could see soldiers sitting in front of the fire and shivering.
Moving forward from the sword pavilion, figures of people, ox carts, and horse-drawn carriages filled the fifty-mile muddy mountain road. Encouraged and mobilized by Jurchen Marshal Zong Han, the advancing Jurchen troops looked strong, while the Han troops who were forced to move forward
It seemed numb, but the team was still stretching. Some rugged places in the mountains were even forcibly opened up new roads. Some people were shouting in the mountains. Scout troops dressed in weird clothes and with different expressions came out of the forest from time to time.
He supported his companions, carried the wounded, and after resting, headed into the mountains in waves.
In order to reduce the pressure on the roads, the wounded on the front line were basically no longer moved to the rear at this time. The dead were burned together near the battlefield. The wounded were also left on the front line for treatment.
When the weather is sunny, hot air balloons will rise high in the sky; when it is rainy and windy, people are wary of possible small-scale raids in the woods.
The Chinese army secretly attacked the Jin troops, and Jin's scouts sometimes raided the Huaxia army.
The chaotic road stretches for fifty miles. On the battlefield a little to the south, in front of the small town called Huangming County, the ground is littered with corpses. Artillery shells have made craters on the ground, and scattered catapults have left residual traces on the ground.
The remains of various siege engines and even iron cannons were mixed among the corpses and stretched forward.
Several huge siege shield vehicles that could withstand shelling collapsed across the battlefield. The shield vehicle looked like a right triangle as high as the city wall, with a thick shell-resistant surface in front and an oblique slope in the rear.
With enough people on board, the siege soldiers pushed it to the city wall, and the siege soldiers could board the city in groups from the slope to take advantage of the formation. Now, these shield cars are also scattered on the battlefield.
In the past month or so, the Jurchens have used various equipment to mount several battles on the city, but it was of little significance. The scattered soldiers who climbed up the city would be set on fire by the Chinese soldiers, and rushing up in groups would only
Encountered a grenade thrown by the opponent.
Before all the Chinese soldiers on the city wall died, it became a completely unrealistic attempt to climb the city and win with one blow. During this period, it seemed that the only thing that could really cause damage to the defenders on the city wall was
Bows and arrows, fire mines, catapults or iron cannons that were forced forward and fired at the city wall, but the Chinese army still had an absolute advantage in this regard.
For Balisu, who is presiding over the war here, there are even more devastating things happening ahead.
The attack on Huangming County began in early November. During this process, hot air balloons from both sides were observing the movements of the opposing positions every day. The attack had just begun, and the soldiers in the hot air balloons reported to Bali Su.
After noticing the changes that had taken place in the other side's city, in that small city, a new city wall was being built dozens of feet away from the rear.
The Chinese Army organized a large number of engineering personnel and demolished the buildings in the city at a jaw-dropping speed - some preparations had actually been done long ago, but they were just used as camouflage by the buildings in front - they quickly put up iron and wooden structures
The framework was built, the foundation was built, the earthwork and stones that had been removed from other houses were put in, and the gray "mud" was poured... In just half a month, the front of Huangming County resisted the Jurchen attacks in turn.
, and later a dusty new city wall several feet high was built.
During the construction of the new city wall, the leader of the Chinese army named Ning Yi even appeared at the construction site several times, gesticulating and participating in the construction of some key places.
For Ba Lisu, this is simply an extremely bad slap in the face.
But this also made this famous Jurchen general calm down and give up many illusions. He exchanged a large amount of lives and materials for the lives and materials on the city wall. By mid-December, the first city wall of Huangming County was completed.
Already riddled with holes and teetering on the verge of collapse, the troops that took turns taking part in the attack suffered tens of thousands of casualties, among which the direct Jurchen lineage, which he regarded as the main force, suffered more than 5,000 casualties.
If you use refueling tactics on the city wall in waves, the casualties will be higher if you go forward with the artillery bombardment. But if you rely on the manpower advantage to continue and saturate the attack in turns, the exchange ratio will be narrowed. In one and a half months,
Ba Lisu organized several rounds of attacks that lasted for eight or nine days. He filled the battlefield with Han army skirmishers to reduce the efficiency of the opponent's artillery fire as much as possible. He occasionally feinted and stormed. In the early stage, a large number of Han prisoners were driven out.
, wave after wave made the Black Flag Army on the city wall completely unable to relax.
In the early stages of this battle, the Black Flag Army on the city wall was obviously very high-spirited, but later on, the city gradually became silent, enduring wave after wave of Bali Su's fierce attacks. Under the premise that the Jurchens had to pay huge casualties, the city was destroyed.
The number of casualties on the head was also rising. They quickly organized artillery formations and catapults to occasionally focus fire on the city, and then ordered soldiers to seize the city, but each time they were recaptured by Chinese soldiers.
The terrain of Yuyuxi battlefield in the north is relatively low-lying. At this time, the offensive position has long been turned into mud. Jurchen attacks often have to cross the blood-stained mud to fight with the Chinese army, but the nearby woods are relatively easy to pass.
, so the defensive front was stretched, and the rhythm of attack and defense was a little strange.
The defense here is not based on the flawless city wall, but on occupying several highlands at key points, controlling the main road leading to the rear, and there are three lines of defense in front and back. There are actually many paths in the nearby streams and woods.
, the vicinity of the position has not been completely sealed off, but if you force a breakthrough without hesitation, you will be trapped in a narrow mountain road and step on landmines, and then be attacked from both sides by the effective forces of the Chinese army, you will die faster.
Because of this situation, the nearby mountains are like a huge enchantment formation. The Chinese army often has to take the initiative to attack at the right time to create results. The Jurchens have more and more tactics to choose from. For more than a month, both sides will fight against each other.
In the past, the Jurchens suffered several losses and also forcibly removed a frontline position of the Chinese army.
The person responsible for guarding this position is Yu Zhongdao of the 5th Division of the 5th Chinese Army. In a battle in early December, the two sides fought hand-to-hand in the mud and cold muddy water, with heavy casualties on each other. Qu Zhengyan of the 4th Division led half of the regiment
A team of less than 500 people carried out a counter-attack across the mountains and ridges, and went straight to the outskirts of the Jurchen military camp on the Yuyu River side. At that time, the Jurchen general who was commanding the Yuyu River battle was about to lead a surprise attack, but he was caught in the air.
He intercepted him and almost killed the opponent on the spot.
News of the trouble at the rear reached the front, and the Jurchens' front line was in chaos, with heavy casualties. Seeing that he could not kill Nulili, Qu Zhengyan immediately ordered his soldiers to rush towards the Yuyuxi formation.
His charge was so resolute that people held a head in their hands and shouted: "The enemy is dead! Attack them from both sides and destroy them!" There were thousands of Jurchens withdrawing from the front line to rescue the general, but at first glance, this attack
With such a posture, I really felt that I was being attacked from both sides. After a slight hesitation, Qu Zhengyan burst out from the center of the team.
The smell of blood permeates the winter air, and fighting and hedging continue to spread among the mountains every day.
Yuyu Creek, Huangming County Going southwest, you can see stretcher teams and reinforcement teams running by from time to time on the mountain roads. Packhorses carry supplies on their backs, pulling shells, gunpowder, grain and other supplies, every day.
They were all being sent to the battlefield. In the wounded soldier camp built in the mountain col, screams and shouts could be heard from time to time. The heat and black smoke from the boiling water in the shack lingered over the camp. It seemed that
Like a strange mist.
Ning Ji ran out of the tent and poured the bloody water in the wooden basin into the ditch next to the camp. Without any rest, he went to the shed to pour boiling water into the wooden basin and ran back. The wounded soldiers camp behind the battlefield, theory
It is not safe in terms of appearance. The Jurchens are not soft persimmons. In fact, it is not impossible that the frontline battlefield will suddenly collapse on any day, and it is even very possible. But Xiao Ningji still stalked the ground.
here.
In a sense, this is the bottom line he can accept.
Not far from the Wounded Soldiers Camp, there was a prisoner-of-war camp that stretched out. In November, the prisoner-of-war camps mostly housed civilians who had survived the battlefield. By December, Han troops who had broken into Yuyu Creek were gradually surrounded.
After the blockade, he surrendered and was sent here.
These people are not trustworthy. The Han troops who could be selected by Zong Han to join this war must either have outstanding combat capabilities or be relatively "reliable" in the eyes of the Jurchens. They were not driven into the mountains in turn during the Xiaocang River War.
That kind of team is basically impossible to absorb in a short period of time.
These people can't stay nearby for a few days, and the biggest reason why they can't be moved quickly is also because of road problems. The Chinese Army staff responsible for guarding them will conduct a quick review of them, and the missionary work will also start as soon as possible. Earlier
Hou Wu, who had left the main army to participate in rear security work, was one of the people in charge here. Hou Yuanyong, who was involved in battlefield intelligence management at this time, was able to come over and meet his father several times.
The winding road extends to Zizhou and unfolds all the way to the Chengdu Plain in the southwest. In the winter, the clouds in the Chengdu Plain are extremely low, and the sky seems to be covered with an oppressive green cover. Every workshop is in the middle of the city.
Operating at full capacity, blast furnaces of all sizes were churning out flames under the hazy sky. Driving oxcarts, pushing wheelbarrows, and even people carrying burdens were continuously gathering various materials towards Zizhou and Jiange.
, this is a similar scenario to the material transportation outside Jiange.
This is also the scene of two giant beasts fighting under the winter sky...
******************
December 19th, the Little New Year has not yet arrived, and it rains continuously.
For more than a month, every rain has brought about the most brutal fighting, because the Jurchens believe that rain will take away firearms, and now is the time when they can take advantage most.
On the branch road near Yuyu Creek, in the direction of Yingzui Rock where the road was not wide, Mao Yishan breathed out heat in his hands and clenched his fists. In his field of vision, a dark figure was advancing this way.
A decisive battle is about to break out at this moment...