In Yuanzhou and New Chongqing, scarlet battle flags were waving in the wind on the dilapidated city top. Huaidong soldiers who looked like wolves and tigers let out earth-shattering shouts. They climbed to the top of the city from ladders and city cars, annihilating the stubborn enemies.
He died, and more guards fled into the city in a panic, howling miserably.
The city towers were all on fire, and black smoke billowed up in the sun, covering the city and making the sunny day look like a dark night.
The four gates of Xinyu City were surrounded, and the defenders had no other way out except surrender. Fortunately, most of the defenders were willing to surrender. They heard the shouts of killing and chased after them from behind. They threw away their armor and knelt down with their heads in their hands.
The Huaidong Army only took away the weapons and made the surrendered troops retreat to the streets to wait for the follow-up troops to come into the city to accept them.
The city gates are blocked by the defenders from the inside. The soldiers and horses entering the city are all climbing up the city. There are less than 2,000 people. At this time, the defeated defenders must be cut up to prevent them from gathering in one place.
Knot.
When the city was broken, Zhang Xiongshan fled into the city, and there was obviously no hostility yet; Zhang Xiongshan still had two to three hundred elite members of his direct lineage who would not surrender even to the death. If they were not careful, there would be unnecessary casualties.
Zhang Jiheng climbed to the top of the city in order to keep abreast of changes in the city's situation. Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao also climbed up from the city boarding car to the top of the city.
The eldest son of Gu Hao, the Secretary of the Tanzhou Zhizhi Envoy, and Zhang Han, the Tanzhou Zhizhi Envoy, Zhang Zuowu, who is currently the general magistrate of Tanzhou Prefecture and supervises the military preparations, entered Xinyu on August 6, in the name of reporting on his duties.
He joined the Huaidong Army as a hostage to show Tanzhou's sincerity in not ceding territory to stand on its own and resisting Jiangning.
At that time, Lin Fu and Gao Zongting had already left Xia Yuan and rushed to Jiangzhou. They ordered Zhang Jiheng to join Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao in the army and accompany them. They would see them again in Jiangzhou.
Zhang Jiheng's troops were still responsible for clearing out the remaining enemies in Xinyu. They were unable to go north for a while. Naturally, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao could only stay in Xinyu. Unexpectedly, the brave Zhang Xiongshan led four to five thousand remaining troops to defend the city.
, it didn’t even last a day, so the Huaidong Army broke the city.
Although the remnants of Yuanzhou's army trapped in Xinyu with Zhang Xiongshan had long lost their fighting spirit, there were still four to five thousand people. They knew that Lin Fu wanted to stay in Xinyu to watch the battle, which made Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao feel frightened.
.
Yuanzhou's soldiers and horses were defeated unjustly. The soldiers had no fighting spirit and the generals had no courage. And the Huaidong Army was so powerful, how could it not be defeated?
Zhang Jiheng was on the other side of the city tower. Gu Hao and Zhang Zuowu were lagging behind. He lowered his voice and said to Zhang Zuowu: "Dong Chongguo didn't have the means to capture Yuanzhou in late May, but he delayed it for more than two months.
It’s so hard to figure it out…”
Even though the road from Xinyu to Yuanzhou is rugged, the generals of the Huaidong Army have such strong morale, skilled tactics, excellent soldiers and sufficient weapons, that even if they send 20,000 armored soldiers to march westward, they should be able to crush Yuanzhou.
Come down.
Zhang Zuowu frowned slightly, but it was not convenient to discuss Huaidong in private at this time, so he suppressed his thoughts and walked to meet Zhang Jiheng.
Although Huaidong mostly adopts lenient methods towards the forces in Huaidong and Jiangnan, it does not mean that if trouble occurs in Tanzhou, Huaidong can be asked to continue to use lenient methods to deal with it - Huang Binghao died and his family was wiped out, but Lin Fu gave it to those who returned.
There was no warning from some forces not controlled by Huaidong. The one who felt the warning most directly was the Zhang family in Tanzhou.
"Master Gu, Master Zhang..." When Zhang Jiheng saw Zhang Zuowu, Gu Hao came over and greeted him.
"Looking at the situation in the city, maybe the battle will be completely over after dark?" Gu Hao asked.
"Two to three hundred dead soldiers followed Zhang Xiongshan and retreated into a large house in the east city. The courtyard wall of the house was high and thick, and the surrounding alleys were narrow, making it difficult to attack for a while..." Brigade Commander Feng Yan said from the side.
Feng Yan was originally from Yu Wangao's old tribe. After defecting to Huaidong with Tang Fuguan, Yang Zichen and others, he accumulated military merit and was promoted to brigade commander. He was also a native of Yangle County, Yuanzhou, Jiangxi. It was his troops who attacked the remnants of Xinyu this time.
Hearing that Zhang Xiongshan still refused to surrender, Zhang Jiheng and Gu Hao secretly sighed: Huang Binghao still has one or two old subordinates who are loyal to him and will never forget him.
Zhang Jiheng said: "Hold some fire oil cans into the city with hanging baskets. Since they don't fulfill your orders, let's fulfill them..."
Feng Yan responded and arranged to annihilate the last remaining remnants of the defenders who refused to surrender. Zhang Jiheng, Zhang Zuowu, and Gu Hao passed by the city wall and walked to the east gate tower to watch the battle.
The mansion was wrapped in a cluster of residential buildings, with stone alleys connecting the front and rear doors. At this time, Feng Yan was asked to lead his troops to block it from both sides. The soldiers of the Huaidong Army collected firewood and other fire starters all over the city, and threw them into the courtyard together with the kerosene cans.
, ignite and ignite.
When the remnants of the enemy were forced by the fire and broke through the siege, waiting for them deep in the wide alley outside the door were sharp arrows as dense as locusts.
Zhang Xiongshan, who claimed to be the most brave general in Jiangzhou, held a sword and wanted to rush out for a fight, but a huge spear was fired at him, which opened a bloody hole in his armor and chest. He howled unwillingly and stood at home.
He suddenly fell dead in front of the door, mixed with the blood of other dead soldiers.
Thinking that Huang Binghao had set fire to the Huaidong Army to force Zhang Zuowu out when Yuan Cheng was defeated, Gu Hao felt somewhat sad that the rabbit was dead and the fox was dead.
Nearly 500 enemies were annihilated and more than 4,000 were captured. Yuanzhou's war came to an end. Everything was as expected. The last remnants of Yuanzhou's troops in Xinyu seemed to have ended like this.
The entire city of Xinyu was in dilapidated condition. Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao lived with Zhang Jiheng in the military camp outside the city. Xinyu only ordered Feng Yan to lead his troops to temporarily station.
The people's livelihood inside and outside Xinyu City is also in dire straits. Fortunately, the war will not last long, otherwise we don't know how long it will take for Xinyu City to regain its vitality.
***************
Unable to wait to clean up the mess in Xinyu, Zhang Jiheng led his main force to leave Xinyu the next day and headed north from the eastern foot of Mengshan Mountain, with Feng Yan and his troops staying for a few days. Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao accompanied him.
Arriving in Yuzhang on August 12th, the army did not enter the city after arriving in Yuzhang. They bypassed Yuzhang City and headed north to Jiangzhou. They traveled hundreds of miles every day and were delayed even for a moment. Zhang Zuowu,
Gu Hao was a scribe and had mules and horses to ride on. After walking for several days, he still felt exhausted. He felt more and more that the strength of the Huaidong Army was well-deserved. Just relying on the ability to march 500 miles in five days, he defeated the Tanzhou Army.
Go out to a few streets.
The post road from Yuzhang to Jiangzhou is located on the west bank of Poyang Lake.
Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao followed the army. In addition to the post roads crowded with troops and horses, there were also thousands of sails on the shore of Poyang Lake. These warships, loaded with armored soldiers, headed north at the same time as Zhang Zuowu and the others.
He was far away and couldn't see the flag clearly, and Zhang Zuowu didn't know whether it was Ganzhou or Fuzhou that was gathering troops to go north.
If you think about it more carefully, Chen Zhen's tribe in Ganzhou and Zhang Gou's tribe in Fuzhou are both the elite combat forces of the Huaidong Army.
If Nanyang falls, the Northern Yan army will unite with the She and Luo families to go south. At most, nearly 300,000 soldiers and horses will sweep southward along the Han River like a flood. How can Lin Fu possibly bring Chen Zhi and Zhang Gou's elite troops close to them?
Thirty thousand troops were lost in the hinterland of Jiangxi?
Although it is not certain that the Huaidong Army cannot contain the momentum of the Beiyan West Road Army moving south, at least judging from the current situation, even if Jinghu, Chizhou and Huaixi can advance and retreat with Huaidong this time, they will still be at a huge disadvantage.
obvious.
On the surface, it seems that the total number of soldiers and horses of the Yue Dynasty on the western front is quite large. The Jinghu, Chizhou, Huaixi and Huaidong troops will be transferred to Luzhou, and the total number of soldiers and horses in Jiangzhou is as many as 300,000. However,
The troops were scattered in the periphery and it was difficult to gather in the Jingxiang area to fight Beiyan.
Once Beiyan is asked to capture Nanyang, Beiyan will be able to gather up to nearly 300,000 troops to move south in addition to leaving a small number of troops (such as Chen Zhihu's troops) on the east wing to contain Dong Yuan in Huaixi.
In the south, Huaidong is in Jiangzhou, Chizhou Army is in eastern Hubei, and Jinghu Army is in Jingzhou. The total strength of Jiangxia is only 170,000.
The Chizhou army had just suffered a heavy setback at Congyang, and its morale had not yet recovered. We could not expect too much from the 30,000-horse force. Hu Wenmu, on the other hand, relied on Jinghu to establish himself. Although he had 60,000 men and horses, he did not even dare to attack Suizhou in the early years.
The combat effectiveness is even less worthy of expectation, and there are no famous generals under his command.
Therefore, if Huaidong really wants to cross the Yangtze River and go north to fight the Beiyan soldiers and horses heading south in Jingxiang, they can only rely more on their own combat power.
Although Huaidong still has more than 30,000 elite troops in Luzhou, the troops and horses deployed by Huaidong in Luzhou are to protect the flanks of Huaixi. Once Huaidong transfers Luzhou troops and horses to Jiangzhou, Northern Yan will seize Nanyang.
Taking advantage of the situation and heading east from Tongbai Mountain, sweeping through Xinyang and attacking Shouzhou is a better choice.
The troops Huaidong can gather in Jiangzhou alone will be difficult to compete with the main force heading south to the north and west of Yanxi. However, for Huaidong, the biggest advantage is that it has the natural danger of the Yangtze River to rely on. The worst is to abandon the Jingxiang area on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
Retreat to the south bank and still manage to cross the river without losing one.
For Hu Wenmu, even if he had to give up his territory on the north bank, he could still keep Jiangxia and Ezhou on the south bank.
The most difficult thing is the Chizhou Army.
The Chizhou Army guards Huangmei and Congyang. Although they are separated from Jiangzhou across the river, they have to directly contact the Beiyan army and become a blocker for Jiangzhou and Luzhou. But if the Chizhou Army wants to abandon Huangmei and Conongyang and withdraw, will they be able to do so?
Where should they retreat? To the east is Luzhou, and to the south across the river is Jiangzhou. Only if Lin Fu agrees with their retreat will they have room to retreat.
The closer Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao got to Jiangzhou City, the more they believed that Huaidong would eventually give up Jingxiang. Although giving up Jingxiang would be quite detrimental to Huaidong, they believed that Huaidong did not have the conditions to compete with Beiyan for Jingxiang at this time.
When arriving in Jiangzhou, Zhang Zuoyou and Gu Hao naturally wanted to meet Lin Fu. However, when they entered Jiangzhou on the 15th, none of Huaidong's important figures in Jiangxi, starting from Lin Fu down, were missing.
At this time, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao knew that Lin Fu, Fu Qinghe, Gao Zongting, Song Fu, Ao Canghai and others had led Ge Cunxiong's troops in Jinghaihai camp, and Yu Wencheng's troops in Changshan army had crossed the river to the north bank and marched to the south of Qichun City.
, and Chizhou Army Deng Yu's troops formed a pincer attack on Qichun Chen Hansan.
Only then did Gu Hao and Zhang Zuowu realize that their guesses along the way were wrong. Huaidong was planning a battle with the Northern Yan army in Jingxiang.
On the Jiangzhou side, Yang Zichen, the prefect of Jiangzhou, is temporarily in charge.
Yang Zichen told Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao that if they wanted to go to the north bank, they could send a boat to take them there. Of course, they could also stay in Jiangzhou City temporarily until the war was over.
Although it was safer to stay in Jiangzhou, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao couldn't understand why the Huaidong Army chose to fight with Yanbei's western front army in Jingxiang when it was clearly at a disadvantage in terms of military strength, so they wanted to go to the front line to watch the battle. They all understood.
As long as you stay with Lin Fu, no matter what happens, you can still escape back to Jiangzhou with your life.