Naturally, Lin Fu could not wait until the main force of Huaidong was gathered in Jiangzhou before crossing the river to attack the eastern Hubei region. Otherwise, how could he persuade Hu Wenmu to invest all his troops on the north bank to defend Jingzhou?
In order to prevent Hu Wenmu's determination to defend Jingzhou from wavering, in early August, Lin Fu personally led the Changshan Army's 3rd Town Division under the cover of the Jinghai 3rd Water Battalion, and forcibly landed south of Qichun, joining forces with Deng Yu's troops.
The Chizhou Army, with a total strength of 60,000, advanced towards Qichun City.
Facing such a large army, the enemy general Chen Hansan did not stick to the protruding Qichun City. Instead, before the battle, he decisively led his troops to withdraw from Qichun City, traveled more than a hundred miles northwest, and retreated to Fengshan in the northwest of Qichun.
, Jiulianhe and other villages; at the same time, the newly attached Han army Sun Jichang led more than 15,000 infantry and cavalry troops to Huangpi northeast of Hanjin City; Suizhou general Zhong Rong led 10,000 elite troops to enter between Huangpi and Fengshan
of Tiemen Mountain.
From Hanjin (today's Hankou, Wuhan) to Qichun City, the entire eastern Hubei region is a flank of the Jingxiang region. This flank protects the depth of Suizhou and the east bank of the Han River from attack. Beiyan, together with the She and Luo families, wants to win
After descending to Nanyang, they attacked Jingzhou with all their strength. This flank must not be broken by the Huaidong Army.
However, the straight line width of this flank defense line along the river is more than 250 miles.
Whether it is Shewenzhuang or Ye Jiluorong, or Chen Hansan, Yang Xiong and other generals who are responsible for guarding the flanks, they all know very well that blocking the Han River is their limit, and there is no extra ability to block the Yangtze River.
There is no way to prevent the Huaidong Water Camp from entering the river section from Hanjin to Qichun.
Once the main force of the Huaidong Army is gathered in Jiangzhou and joins the Chizhou Army to cross the river, they will simply not be able to defend the wide defense line along the river from Hanjin to Qichun with only 50,000 to 60,000 troops.
Even if they had to forcefully capture the cities along the river in eastern Hubei, Huaidong would only be forced to seize every opportunity to defeat them and capture Qichun, Huangzhou, Huangpi, Hanjin, Xishui, Tuanfeng and other cities one by one.
Abandon Qichun, which protrudes to the southeast of the eastern Hubei region, and even abandon the cities such as Huangzhou, Xishui, Tuanfeng, and Bahe near the river, and withdraw nearly a hundred people in depth in the directions of Junshan, Qishan, and Fengshan to the northwest.
miles, the entire defense line on the eastern Hubei flank can be separated from the attack range of the Huaidong Water Camp, and the width of the defense line has also been sharply reduced from more than 250 miles before to less than 150 miles.
The shorter the defense line, which also means the concentration of troops, the stronger the defense, and the harder it is for the Huaidong Army to break through the defense line.
In addition, if we abandon Qichun and Huangzhou and retreat more than a hundred miles to the northwest inland, we can rely on the continuous and connected steep terrain of Fengshan, Chajunshan, Qishan and other mountains at the southern foot of Huaishan Mountain to defend effectively.
The Huaidong Army was restricted from making circuitous moves, and behind them was the deep hinterland of Suizhou. Reinforcements could come at any time through Fengshan, Chajunshan, Qishan, and Han River, so there was no danger of being surrounded and isolated by the Huaidong Army.
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Before Chen Hansan withdrew, he set fire to Qichun City, but Chen Hansan was unable to burn down Qichun City to the point where not a single wood or tile remained. After the Qichun City was sorted out, it could still be used reluctantly.
The Chizhou Army and the Huaidong Army were stationed in Qichun City, east and west, and Lin Fu's camp was still located in Qichun Can City.
In addition to Lin Fu, Fu Qinghe, Gao Zongting, Song Fu and others in Qichun, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao came across the river by boat. Yue Lengqiu, who escaped from Nanyang in time, also came south from Shouzhou to meet Lin Fu.
Three days earlier than Zhang Zuowu, Gu Hao and the others met Chizhou Army Deng Yu, Yue Zhi and others, who were also in Qichun City at this time.
The map is hung on the north wall. The map plots the geographical situation of the Jingxiang area. The hills, mountains, streams, cities, villages, slopes and forests are plotted in all sizes. Yue Lengqiu is familiar with military affairs and has led troops in battles for many years.
Of course we can understand how much Huaidong paid to draw such a detailed map.
On the map, the defense line built by the She and Luo families after they surrendered to the Northern Yan along the remaining mountain ranges of the east, west and south of the Huaihe River was accurately marked, forming a huge obstacle blocking the east bank of the Han River.
As Sun Jichang and Zhong Rong led their troops to enter, the total number of soldiers and horses invested by Beiyan on this defense line, which was built on the dangerous mountains and rivers and was about 160 miles long, had reached as high as 60,000.
Nanyang might have been captured, but even if it hadn't been captured, it wouldn't have been able to hold out for a few days. Yue Lengqiu was also at a loss as to how to tear apart this line of defense before the main force of Beiyan's troops crossed the Han River and headed south.
Yue Lengqiu did not doubt the combat power of the Huaidong Army, but no matter how powerful the Huaidong Army was, it would still take time to tear apart the enemy's defense line built along the dangerous mountains and rivers in eastern Hubei.
In the Shangrao War, Lin Fuqin led the main force of the Huaidong Army to tear apart the She family's defense line in Shangrao with great force, deciding the battle situation in Jiangxi in one fell swoop. Although the climax of the entire Shangrao War was very short, it only took more than ten days to tear apart the Shangrao defense line.
It was a mess, but before that, the Huaidong Army had been preparing for this for about half a year, and nearly two million shi of supplies were sent to the Quzhou front line.
The strength of the Huaidong Army and its famous generals and warriors are only superficial. The ability to deliver two million stones of supplies in half a year is the real strength of Huaidong.
During the war at Shangrao, the Huaidong Army only used 100,000 soldiers. Perhaps Yue Lengqiu's ability to manage the army was not as good as that of Lin Fu. Maybe he could not break through Rao's defense line with 100,000 soldiers, but two million soldiers were needed.
The pile of rocks and materials on the front line is enough to give Yue Lengqiu considerable room to organize two hundred thousand troops and horses. With two hundred thousand troops and horses, he can always build up the Shangrao defense line.
It's just that the Privy Council was poorly prepared for the upcoming battle of Jingxiang.
Not to mention that the Chizhou Army has not yet recovered its morale from the tragic defeat at Songyang. Many of the main forces of the Huaidong Army also rushed in from Ganzhou, Yuanzhou, and Fuzhou, and most of the troops had not had time to cross the river.
The Privy Council invested too many resources in the Shangrao war. Afterwards, in order to stabilize the situation in Jiangxi, not only did they get nothing, but they also invested nearly two million taels in disaster relief, dispatching officials, etc. Although the annual income of the Ministry of Revenue this year is more than
Last year was much better, but Jiangxi completely consumed all the new revenue.
What money is there to invest in the Battle of Jingxiang?
If the endgame in Nanyang can drag on for a year and a half, even if the autumn season passes, Jiangning's financial situation will be much better than it is now.
It is precisely because of this that Yue Lengqiu can better understand why Beiyan is so eager to go south.
Under the control of Huaidong, Jiangning's annual income increased too quickly.
Emperor Yongxing abandoned Jiangning, allowing the She family to capture the city of Jiangning without wasting a single soldier. Although the She family was repulsed in the later period, Jiangning, Chi, Hui and other prefectures were severely damaged.
According to common sense, Jiangning does not have three to five years, and it is impossible for Jiangning to recover; who would have thought that in just one year, the annual income of the Ministry of Household Affairs would return to the level before the Jiangning war.
Today, the Ministry of Revenue allocates up to 400,000 taels of military resources to the Huaidong Army every month. If Beiyan cannot turn the core area controlled by Huaidong into a war zone in a short period of time, the Ministry of Revenue will allocate as much as 400,000 taels of silver to the Huaidong Army.
Military capital will rise sharply again in two to three years.
Yue Lengqiu would not be surprised that the military resources the Huaidong Army could receive from the Ministry of Household Affairs alone reached a level of 10 million taels of silver per year in three years.
After retaking the two counties of Jiangxi and Fujian, including Guangnan and Xiangtan, they also expressed their surrender one after another. The number of Dingkou actually controlled by Jiangning increased by nearly 10 million, including the previous two Zhejiang, Jiangdong and other places. Jiangning actually controlled
Dingkou is approximately between 25 million and 30 million. This number does not include Liangchuan and Jinghu.
At this point, Yue Lengqiu believed that the situation in the confrontation between the north and the south would become favorable to the south, and Lin Fuli's northern expedition would not be far away.
The best way for Beiyan to avoid this situation is to occupy Jingxiang, threaten Jiangning from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, force Huaidong to invest a large amount of resources and troops on the western front, and continue to turn Huaidong and other places into war zones.
In addition to the five counties of Chongchuan that are Linfu's fiefdoms, the four prefectures on the north bank of the Yangtze River, Hailing, Huai'an, Weiyang, and Dongyang, contribute no less tax to Jiangning than the prefectures along the Taihu Lake. As long as the Jianghuai area is turned into a war zone
, Jiangning's annual income will be greatly reduced as a result, and its war potential will naturally be greatly reduced.
"Master Yue, Master Yue..."
Lin Fu called softly twice, finally bringing Yue Lengqiu back to his senses.
"Oh..." Yue Lengqiu raised his head and looked at Lin Fu. He was distracted just now and did not listen to Lin Fu's words. He was a little embarrassed.
Lin Fu did not blame Yue Lengqiu. Yue Lengqiu was almost trapped in Nanyang, but finally ran out before Nanyang was encircled by Beiyan. It was unavoidable to be uneasy, and said: "The enemy's defense line in eastern Hubei is due to the
There are mountains such as Chajun Mountain and Qishan in the middle as natural obstacles. The focus of its defense is actually on two ends. One end is concentrated on the line of Hanjin (now Hankou, Wuhan), Huangpi and Tiemen Mountain, and the other end is concentrated on Fengshan between Qishan and Fengshan.
Mountains and Jiulian River. If you capture Tiemen Mountain and Fengshan, you can move straight into the hinterland of Suizhou, attack Lishan and Chaishan, and capture Hanjin and Huangpi. You can seize the Han River branch and attack the hinterland on the east bank of the Han River.
In order to tear open the enemy's defense line in eastern Hubei, our army believes that we can only let go of the enemy in Tiemen Mountain, and divide the troops into two groups to attack Fengshan, Hanjin, and Huangpi. Master Yue will supervise the Chizhou Army and use Qichun to lay the foundation.
, attack Fengshan to the northwest, while our army will lead the main force of the Huaidong Army to attack Hanjin, Huangpi... What do you think, Mr. Yue?"
Although Lin Fu was in charge of the world's military affairs as a privy envoy, the Chizhou army had its own system. It was naturally reasonable and advisable to divide the troops into two groups to attack the two ends of the enemy's defense line in eastern Hubei.
Deng Yu, Yue Zhi and other generals of the Chizhou Army in the hall were all looking forward to Yue Lengqiu's return to the army. When they heard that Lin Fu had promised Yue Lengqiu to take charge of the Chizhou Army again, they naturally looked excited.
Yue Lengqiu felt bitter in his heart. He divided his troops into two groups and attacked both ends of the eastern Hubei defense line. Is it that easy to fight?
Fengshan and Jiulian River, which the Chizhou Army wanted to attack, were the key areas to defend the southwest foot of Fengshan and the Xishui River. Chen Hansan retreated with a force of 13,000 to 4,000 men. It is said that the Chizhou Army had 30,000 troops.
, have an advantage in military strength.
However, as you go up the Xishui River, the terrain becomes more dangerous as you go north. When you reach the upper reaches of the Xishui River, you will face the obstruction of high mountains. You can only attack the two villages of Fengshan and Jiulianhe that are built against the danger from the front.
The two villages of Fengshan and Jiulianhe are built against the dangerous mountains. The distance between the two villages is only five or six miles, and they are connected by the horns. Although there are only 313,400 soldiers and horses of Chen Han guarding them at this time, behind them is the hinterland of Suizhou.
Reinforcements can quickly enter Fengshan at any time.
With the fall of Nanyang, Beiyan only needed to leave Chen Zhihu's troops to contain Huaixi, while Luo Xiancheng's troops could quickly move south through the hinterland of Suizhou to supplement the defense line in eastern Hubei.
Different from the Yuanzhou Army, the Yuanzhou Army had a large number of officials, and the generals surrendered to She. After the She family was defeated in Jiangxi, these people were eager to return to Jiangning. Not only Zhou Cheng, Wei Zhong and others openly supported the surrender, Zhou Zhizheng and others
People secretly defected to Huaidong early on, and Huaidong was able to defeat Yuanzhou's army in one fell swoop, with almost no casualties. However, Luo Xiancheng's troops were all rogues. They had been entrenched in Suizhou for many years and refused to accept recruitment, because they had great influence on Jiangning.
Extremely wary.
This wariness was not due to Luo Xiancheng, Zhong Rong and a few others, but to the Suizhou army generals who generally distrusted Jiang Ning and defected to Bei Yan at this time. Especially when Bei Yan already had an absolute advantage in Jingxiang, Suizhou soldiers and horses would be even more determined.
Defend the eastern Hubei defense line.
At this time in Fengshan, the Jiulianhe garrison only has three troops, Chen and Han. I believe that it will not be long before the number will increase to 30,000, 40,000, or even higher; and Tiemen Mountain, which is less than 40 miles away from Fengshan,
, Suizhou general Zhong Rong led more than 10,000 elite troops to advance. They had no extra troops to contain Tiemen Mountain. What could the Chizhou army do to capture Fengshan?
Of course, Yue Lengqiu could not blame Lin Fu for unfair distribution. The cities of Hanjin and Huangpi that the Huaidong Army had to deal with were more than ten miles apart. At this time, Yang Xiong and Sun Jichang had already stationed nearly 40,000 enemy troops.
At this time, the Huaidong Army had only assembled 30,000 water infantry troops near Qichun, and had not yet attacked Hanjin. Although Huaidong could eventually mobilize more than 80,000 water infantry troops, at the same time, as Beiyan
After capturing Nanyang City and stationing in Hanjin in the later period, the number of enemy troops defending Huangpi will increase sharply.
Even if Beiyan finally deployed 120,000 to 150,000 infantry and cavalry to attack Jingzhou, it would be able to invest at most 150,000 to 180,000 troops and horses on the eastern Hubei defense line.
Although the troops invested by Beiyan in the defense line in eastern Hubei will be mainly composed of the She and Luo families, and the soldiers of the two families are weak in combat, they are better because they have more people, and they defend against the dangers of mountains and rivers. The Huaidong and Chizhou armies are
If the military strength is weak, what can be used to penetrate the eastern Hubei defense line in a short period of time? What can be used to destroy Beiyan's plan to attack Jingzhou and relieve the siege of Jingzhou?
Once Beiyan is asked to capture Jingzhou first, Beiyan will be able to draw a large number of troops from the west bank of the Han River to make up for eastern Hubei. Not to mention piercing the eastern Hubei defense line, they will be forced to switch from offense to defense, and the defense will also be defensive.
It has to be difficult.
In Yue Lengqiu's view, the only hope now is that Hu Wenmu can hold on in Jingzhou! If the war in Jingxiang can drag on for a year and a half, the situation will become favorable to Jiangning - perhaps it should be said to be favorable to Huaidong. One year
It will take half a year for the situation in Jiangxi to recover better, so that we can better support Jingxiang's tug-of-war.
Regardless of whether Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao were actually hostages or not, they represented Tanzhou in Qichun and were naturally qualified to attend the highest-level military meeting. Unexpectedly, Lin Fu was still determined to fight in the Battle of Jingxiang.
The reason why Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao thought that Lin Fu could not fight the Battle of Jingxiang before this was mainly because they had a narrow vision and could not see that the Battle of Jingxiang would affect the pattern of confrontation between the north and the south and affect the initiative of the next war situation in the world.
Will it fall in the south or the north? Furthermore, they still can't clearly see Lin Fu's ambitions.
Yue Lengqiu has been dealing with Lin Fu for many years, so he naturally sees some things more clearly than others in Tanzhou. However, it was precisely because he saw so clearly that he misjudged Lin Fu's determination to aid Nanyang.
If Nanyang can be defended, the next situation will definitely be favorable to the south. At least when Yuzhang met Lin Fu, Yue Lengqiu did not doubt Lin Fu's determination to defend Nanyang.
The subsequent development of the situation showed that although Yue Lengqiu misjudged Lin Fu's determination to defend Nanyang when he was in Yuzhang, he still believed that Lin Fu would not give up Jingxiang easily, and at the worst, he would fight Beiyan in the Jingxiang area.
Keep going, unless Lin Fu really doesn't have the ambition to conquer the world.
Beiyan must be allowed to completely occupy Jingzhou, control the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and threaten Jiangning from the upper reaches. The entire situation is extremely unfavorable to Huaidong.
Of course, after Yue Lengqiu escaped from Nanyang and saw Lin Fu giving up Nanyang so neatly, his confidence was not so firm. Only then when he saw Lin Fu leading the front across the river to establish a foothold in Qichun did he believe in himself again.
judge.
In any case, the Chizhou Army has no retreat.
Of course, in addition to Zhang Zuowu, Gu Hao, Yue Lengqiu and others who arrived in Qichun at this time, Vice Prime Minister Zuo Chengmu and Hu Wenchang, son of Hu Wenmu, also came over.
After the fall of Nanyang, if the main force of the Huaidong Army had not crossed the river into the eastern region of Hubei and contained the main force of the Beiyan soldiers and horses heading south from the east bank of the Han River, the Jinghu Army would have absolutely no confidence in holding Jingzhou with its own strength.
In fact, following the example of Nanyang, people in Jinghu were deeply afraid of being played by Huaidong. Before they saw Huaidong officially crossing the river and sending troops to the north bank of Hubei, people in Jinghu would not
Completely commit the main troops to Jingzhou for defense.
On the one hand, Zuo Chengmu came to work on behalf of the imperial court. On the other hand, Zuo Chengmu was a deputy prime minister from the Jinghu system and was the representative of the Jinghu family in Jiangning. Whether Jingzhou can be defended will give Huaidong an opportunity to weaken it.
, it is related to Zuo Chengmu’s vital interests, and he cannot sit idly by.
Naturally, the Jinghu Army will not take Jingzhou lightly, because once it abandons Jingzhou and retreats to the south bank, only the Jiangxia Banfu and Ezhou Prefecture can be defended. It will only be like the Chizhou Army gradually becoming a vassal of the Huaidong Army.
Yue Lengqiu was almost trapped in Nanyang and could not escape due to being played with by Lin Fu like that.
Of course, if the Huaidong Army was not determined to cross the Yangtze River and join the war, the Jinghu Army would have no choice but to temporarily abandon Jingzhou due to the situation.
In addition to leading Yu Wencheng's troops to cross the river and go north, after taking the remaining city of Qichun, Lin Fu ordered the supplies of the Jianghuai government to assemble directly with Qichun as the center, and took practical actions to demonstrate his determination to enter eastern Hubei and attack Jingzhou.
Xiang’s determination.
Only in this way could Lin Fu get the people in Jinghu to put down their psychological burdens and concentrate their efforts to defend Jingzhou; at the same time, he also ordered the Xiangtan government to send their aid supplies, troops and horses directly to Jingzhou via waterways.