Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengqiu landed at the Jianggang in the south of Huangzhou City.
Huangzhou and Ezhou stand across the river. The two cities are only eleven or twelve miles apart. They are both built on the Qiuhui area close to the bank of the Yangtze River.
The hills are close to the coast, with many cliffs and few silts, so it is a natural and excellent river port, which is convenient for large ships to berth.
Huangzhou and Ezhou have long been important riverside port cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and are also one of the main distribution centers for Jingxiang materials to be transported to the Jianghuai region.
For more than two hundred years, Huangzhou and Ezhou have been the big cities of Jinghu. If we only compare the prosperity of business and tourism, Huangzhou, Ezhou and Jiangxia are much more dazzling than Jingzhou. But strategically, because Jiangxia is in the Han Dynasty,
Shuihekou, and Huangzhou and Ezhou are very close to Jiangxia, so their status is not very important, and they cannot be compared with Jingzhou.
Because of this, although the prosperous business travel in the port area south of Huangzhou City formed the Jiangbu market town close to Huangzhou City, Huangzhou City itself is short and small.
In this way, the prosperous market town of Jiangbu was reduced to ruins, and the city of Huangzhou was also in dilapidated condition.
After Liu Tingzhou entered the city, he found that there were not many direct troops stationed by the Huaidong Army in Huangzhou City. Most of them were civilians and scholars who were encouraged by the land grant order and the order to recruit Confucian scholars into the camp and army to cross the river and come to Huangzhou to recruit.
"Master Liu..."
When Liu Tingzhou heard someone calling him, he stopped and looked into the crowd. He saw an extraordinary-looking young scholar dressed as a Confucian scholar, bowing and saluting, and then striding towards this side.
The guard looked at Liu Tingzhou's reaction and asked the scholar to come closer.
"Student Ning Yujie, meet Mr. Liu and Mr. Yue..."
"Oh, Ning Yujie, the eldest son of Yandu County." Liu Tingzhou recognized the person as Ning Yujie, the eldest son of Yandu County who had participated in scientific examinations and gained honors when he was the magistrate of Yandu County.
After Liu Tingzhou's introduction, Yue Lengqiu also had some impression that he was a scholar from Jiangdong in the fifth year of Chongguan.
In the fifth year of Chongguan, the eighth year of Chongguan, and the eleventh year of Chongguan, nearly 500 candidates were admitted in Jiangdong County. The reason why Yue Lengqiu remembers Ning Yujie's year is that he was only young when he was in the fifth year of Chongguan.
Only seventeen years old, he was a talented Jianghuai talent who became famous before Chen Mingzhe. Even today, Ning Yujie is only in his early thirties.
However, in the sixth year of Chongguan, Ning Yujie was frustrated when he went to Beijing to take the exam. In the ninth year of Chongguan, he was unable to enter Beijing due to illness. In the twelfth year, because the situation in the North was close to collapse, the Beijing exam was interrupted. Ning Yujie has been unable to achieve more success in his career.
further.
Although he is qualified to be an official if he wins the imperial examination, Lin Fu has climbed from the official position of a ninth-grade prison clerk to the position of a highly respected official today. However, Jiangdong County is a land of farming and reading, and there are many imperial examinations admitted, but there are no vacancies.
There are few vacancies, and if you want to become an official, you can only wait in line. Most people wait their whole life and never become an official. Ning Yujie is a typical example.
Liu Tingzhou, Yue Lengqiu and others did not expect that a figure like Ning Yujie could not wait for the resumption of scientific research in Jiangning, but also submitted a letter to join the army and was recruited to join the army from the east.
Ning Yujie called him out on the street, naturally he wanted to get a good job in the Huaidong Army through Liu Tingzhou's recommendation, instead of joining other soldiers and being incorporated into various ministries.
Liu Tingzhou invited Ning Yujie to accompany him, thinking that if he had the opportunity to mention it in front of Lin Fu, it would be regarded as the beauty of adulthood.
Naturally, Ning Yujie could not go with Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengqiu, but also went with their staff.
Liu Tingzhou knew that Yu Wencheng of the Huaidong Army and Chen Zhe's two armies of nearly 30,000 infantry had crossed the river and entered the north bank. However, he saw that there were not many troops stationed in Huangzhou City, and most of the people guarding the streets were cavalry, which should be soldiers and horses of the Forbidden Camp Cavalry.
Yue Lengqiu asked doubtfully: "The Huaidong Army is not in Huangzhou City. Has it already advanced towards Huangpi and Tiemen Mountain?"
"Yu Wencheng and Chen Zhi have entered Wuyun Village in the northwest of Huangzhou and Fenghuang Mountain in the west of Huangzhou. They control both sides of the Jushui River and have indeed formed a trend of attacking Tiemen Mountain and Huangpi." Yue Lengqiu said.
When the Huaidong Army and the Chizhou Army joined forces to fight in eastern Hubei, they naturally had to inform each other of the movements of their troops and horses at all times, and each sent military attachés to observe the advance and retreat of the army. Without a certain degree of trust, the joint operation would be a lie.
Before Liu Tingzhou came here, he had carefully studied the geography of eastern Hubei. He was naturally familiar with the names of mountains and rivers in eastern Hubei. He knew that Fenghuang Mountain and Wuyun Village were both sixty or seventy miles away from Huangzhou City. A straight line was drawn between Huangpi City and Huangzhou City.
, Phoenix Mountain is at the midpoint of this straight line.
The terrain advantage of Fenghuang Mountain is that it is adjacent to the river, facing Miaoling Mountain in the east of Hubei City across the river. It is the key point controlling the Yangtze River in the upper reaches of Huangzhou. Slightly downstream of Fenghuang Mountain, there is a sandbar in the Yangtze River called Laolongzui, which is where the water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River comes.
, it is also the right time to lift the water to the mouth of the river...
Liu Tingzhou was also very familiar with military affairs and asked Yue Lengqiu: "So, the Huaidong navy has one of its camps at Laolongzui?"
Yue Lengqiu nodded and said: "Yes, there is a garrison in Laolongzui. In addition, all Jinghu's navy in eastern Hubei moved west to aid Jingzhou. The Privy Council did not directly ask the Huaidong Army to take over the city of Ezhou.
However, there was originally a post station at Miaoling Mountain on the south bank. The Privy Council sent a group of troops to build an additional camp at Miaoling Post to guard the south bank. From Laolongzui to the west, the Yangtze River is sandwiched between Miaoling Mountain and Fenghuang Mountain, and the river surface is narrow.
Only five miles…”
Liu Tingzhou nodded, everyone is knowledgeable about military matters. Lin Fu deployed this way and built the fortresses on the outskirts of Huangzhou to a strategic location sixty or seventy miles away from Huangzhou City, extending the direct control of Huangzhou to nearly a hundred miles.
They also controlled the upper reaches of the Yangzi River, and the water camp's troops were directly at the mouth of the Han River. It was clear that they were ready for a battle with Yan Hu in eastern Hubei.
Even if Jingzhou is unfortunately captured by Yanhu, as long as Huangzhou is managed well, it can still be firmly embedded in the north bank and contain Yanhu's large number of troops in the eastern region of Hubei, preventing them from concentrating their forces to attack Huaixi.
Of course, to achieve this step, Huaidong must also invest a lot of troops and resources in the Huangzhou area. Resources and troops are always limited. Once the two sides are locked in a stalemate in the east of Hubei, Huaidong will free up its hands to open another battlefield.
It will become extremely difficult.
Ning Yujie and Liu Yue's entourage were walking behind, and they could vaguely hear their conversation in front. They interjected and asked: "In my humble opinion, in the battle between Jingxiang and Jingzhou, the most important thing is to defend Jingzhou, but Jinghu is recruiting people."
Since the troops under his command are weak, why don't the Privy Council send an elite force to take over Jingzhou's city defense?"
It was very rude for Ning Yujie to interrupt suddenly, but since he became famous at a young age, it is not surprising that he is a little arrogant.
Yue Lengqiu turned around and smiled and said: "I'm afraid the envoy from Jinghu may not agree with what you say..." Of course, he knew that even if Hu Wenmu agreed to hand over Jingzhou's defense, the Huaidong Army might not take over.
No matter how elite soldiers and horses are, they must be concentrated and used; if another 20,000 to 30,000 elite troops are dispersed in Jingzhou City, Lin Fu will be able to gather even fewer elite troops for use in Huangzhou.
Dividing troops is a taboo for military strategists.
What's more, how could Hu Wenmu easily give up military power and hand over the defense zone?
Hu Wenmu was now able to free up his hands and concentrate the main combat power of the Jinghu Army in Jingzhou. Jingzhou is a large city located along the river, so he was not afraid of cutting off his retreat. To be honest, if you defend Jingzhou and have a strong city to rely on, even if there are many enemy soldiers,
The situation is strong. As long as the soldiers and civilians defending the city can work together and have a firm will, 30,000 defenders will be enough. No matter how many troops there are, it will be bad and waste the materials needed to defend the city in vain. As long as more Yanhu soldiers and horses can be contained here,
Hu Wenmu should have some confidence in holding Jingzhou.
Liu Tingzhou also turned around and smiled, and said with emotion to Yue Lengqiu: "For the Yanlu, even if they can't defeat Jingzhou, they probably want to have the main force of Huaidong's soldiers and horses contained in the east of Hubei, right?"
Yue Lengqiu nodded, Lin Fu rose in Huaidong, but in the early days of his rise, he was very restrained in developing Buying's combat power. On the contrary, Shuiying's development was very rapid. In the early years of Yongxing, Huaidong's Shuiying was in
On the East China Sea, he achieved the position of completely suppressing the She family's navy. After the war in East Fujian, he completely destroyed the She family's naval power in the East China Sea.
How could Yan Hu not notice this?
Once the Huaidong Army is called upon to regain Jiangxi and free up its hands, how can Yanhu defend the nearly two to three thousand miles of coastline from Shandong to Yanqi and the two Liaos?
Battalion attack?
Now that Yanhu has captured Jingzhou, he is trying to pin down the Huaidong Army's infantry camp and water camp's main force of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses on the western front, unable to move.
"In addition to Chen Zhi and Yu Wencheng, Zhang Gou's troops in Fuzhou should also go north, right?" Liu Tingzhou is also very familiar with the Huaidong generals, but he has just gone south from Shouzhou and is not aware of the recent mobilization of the Huaidong army.
Yue Lengqiu is not familiar with the deployment. "After all, the remnants of the She family in Jian'an have not been completely wiped out. Are there any hidden dangers?"
After Shewenzhuang surrendered to Yanhu, it was on the rise again, which meant that its remnants in northern Fujian still had the last glimmer of hope.
Jian'an is located in the upper reaches of the Min River, with mountains and rivers crisscrossing it. When Yu Wangao led his remnants to retreat into the mountains, the She family could not be wiped out in three years. However, the remnants of the She family in Jian'an fled into the mountains. Even if Zhao Qingshan captured the most important Jian'an city
, it is not easy to completely wipe out the remnants of the She family.
"The privy envoy Zhao Qingshan is guarding Eastern Fujian. Since Zhang Gou's troops have been transferred to the north, he should be sure of stabilizing the situation in Eastern Fujian. There are three to five thousand remnant soldiers who fled into the mountains and cannot affect the overall situation. In the south of Ezhou, Huang Binghao's general
Chen Zishou has gathered a group of troops in Mubu Mountain, but they still refuse to surrender, which is somewhat of a problem." Yue Lengqiu said.
Liu Tingzhou glanced at Yue Lengqiu. It was Yue Lengqiu who returned to the mountain to give Chen Zishou a chance to join the She family and join forces with Huang Binghao. Yuanzhou's army was severely defeated. Even if Chen Zishou gathered three to five thousand remaining troops in Mufu Mountain, his morale would be reduced.
It won't cheer you up, and it won't pose much of a threat.
The situation on the south bank of the Yangtze River has almost stabilized. Liu Tingzhou is just worried about whether the troops Lin Fu can gather in Huangzhou are enough.
The infantry camps Lin Fu could mobilize in Huangzhou included Yu Wencheng, Zhang Jiheng, Zhang Gou, and Chen Zhi, with a total strength of 60,000. However, a small number of garrison troops and horses were left in Jiangzhou, Yuzhang and other places, as well as those injured during the war in Yuanzhou.
There are still some generals who have not recovered, and Lin Fu can only mobilize more than 50,000 infantry in Huangzhou.
As for the water camp, Hu Yuer's troops of the Jiangning Forbidden Camp Navy have been ordered to move westward and join up with Ge Cunxiong's troops of the Jiangzhou Navy, with about 30,000 troops.
As for the cavalry, they were the subordinates of Zhou Pu, the Jiangning Forbidden Camp Cavalry, and the elite cavalry of Lin Fu's guards, with a total of five thousand people.
In addition, there are Huaidong's troops stationed in Luzhou, Liu Zhenzhi, and Tang Fuguan's two troops of 30,000 people.
Liu Tingzhou believed that once it was confirmed that the main attack direction of Yanhu troops and horses was Jingzhou and they could not turn to attack Huaixi, Lin Fu would definitely transfer Luzhou troops and horses to Huangzhou.
The total main force of the water infantry and horse troops that the Huaidong Army can use on the western front is less than 120,000.
Although Lin Fu was determined to fight the Jingxiang Battle, Liu Tingzhou still felt that it was difficult to fight. It was too difficult to fight. The Huaidong Army could not form an advantage over Yanhu in terms of strength and attack and defend. How could it contain the main force of Yanhu?
Although the Huaidong Army was the most elite in the world, during the Shangrao War, in order to attack and defend, Lin Fu still gathered more than twice the strength of Shangrao's defenders and almost the same number of supply troops to accompany the soldiers and civilians, and defeated the She family in one fell swoop.
Capture Shangrao's defense line.
Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengqiu were walking and talking, and unknowingly walked into Lin Fu's heavily guarded compound.
Their accompanying soldiers stayed outside the camp, while the civilian guards followed them into the camp.
Lin Fu stood in front of the meeting hall and learned that Yue and Liu had entered the city. He also specially invited Zuo Chengmu, the deputy prime minister who was watching the army in Huangzhou, to meet Yue Lengqiu. Liu Tingzhou said: "We have missed the welcome from afar, but we still hope."
Mr. Yue and Mr. Liu are not here. I just got the news and I want to tell Mr. Yue: Luo Xiancheng’s troops have another 20,000 soldiers and horses going south from the northern line and entering Tiemen Mountain..."
"Ah!" Yue Lengqiu and Liu Tingzhou were both startled.
Luo Xiancheng was the most powerful, with 200,000 troops. Later, more than half of the bandit troops were laid off for farming, leaving only 80,000 fighting troops.
After Luo Xiancheng surrendered to captivity, he organized a large number of garrison troops into battalions and marched out of Huaishan to attack Xinyang to contain the troops in Huaixi. The actual number of troops was likely to exceed 120,000.
Although the combat power of Luo Xiancheng's troops may not be as good as that of the remnants of the She family, they are still more difficult to deal with due to the large number of troops.
Now Luo Xiancheng's troops gathered at Tieshanmen, with Zhong Rong as general, have exceeded 40,000 people, and it is believed that the number will continue to increase in the future; while in Hanjin and Huangpi cities, Yang Xiong, Sun Jichang and others later came to capture General An
The total number of cavalry led by Shengliang also reached 50,000.
In comparison, Chen Hansan's troops in Fengshan were not replenished, but the terrain of Fengshan and Bailian River was steep and easy to defend and difficult to attack. Although the Chizhou Army had twice the strength, it had no confidence that it could attack Fengshan——
Chen Hansan himself was a fierce general, and he was also a strong general whose retreat was blocked. His subordinates were all heinous and vicious people.
Seeing the depressed looks on Yue Lengqiu and Liu Tingzhou's faces, Lin Fu knew their worries, so he just smiled and invited them inside to talk.
Indeed, in terms of military strength, the Huaidong Army plus the Chizhou Army did not have an advantage at all.
Of course, the strength of the Huaidong Army is not as lacking as it appears.
Due to the rapid expansion of the Huaidong Army, the early scale of the engineering camp, which had tens of thousands of people, shrank rapidly last year, once reaching less than 50,000 people. However, after the Jiangning War, one of the most important tasks of the Huaidong Army was to re-large the army.
Expand the scale of the labor and supply camps to ensure sufficient reserves of soldiers.
This work focuses on Xuzhou, Luzhou, and Jin'an, and strives to expand the size of the supply troops in Xuzhou, Luzhou, and Jin'an to more than 50,000 people.
After the Shangrao War, Zhang Gou led his troops from Fuzhou to the south to attack Shaowu, and cooperated with Zhao Qingshan of eastern Fujian to attack along the west of Fujian and Jiangxi to build Anfu. The remaining troops of the She family in northern Fujian only had 10,000 people, and they were attacked by 40,000 soldiers and horses.
The next step is to abandon the cities along the Min River and retreat into the deep mountains and old forests.
Lin Fu left Zhao Qingshan in Jian'an and continued to suppress the remaining forces of the She family in northern Fujian, and ordered Zhang Gou to lead his troops north to join the war. In fact, at the same time, Lin Fu secretly ordered Chen Dingbang's troops from the Eastern Fujian camp to be organized on the spot.
The Second Division of Changshan Camp went north together.
Zhang Gou led his troops north to join the battle. The strength of the troops was actually not the full strength of the fifth brigade of 15,000 as predicted by outsiders, but the overstrength of the seventh brigade of 24,000 elite troops.
Chen Zhi's troops suffered heavy casualties in the Shangrao War. Nearly 2,000 generals were killed and more than 4,000 wounded. Therefore, after the Shangrao War, Lin Fu transferred Chen Zhi's troops to
Go to Ganzhou for rest and recuperation. In addition to rest and recuperation, another purpose of Chen Zhi's troops stationed in Ganzhou is to absorb the resistance forces in southern Ganzhou. In addition to strengthening Chen Zhi's troops, it also consumes hidden dangers to local security.
Chen Zhi led his troops north to participate. The strength of the troops was not the full strength of the fifth brigade of 15,000 soldiers predicted by foreigners, but the overstrength of the sixth brigade of 22,000 soldiers.
In Jiangzhou, Yuzhang's garrison troops and horses, Lin Fu, all transferred troops to replace the elite soldiers. In Yu Wencheng, Zhang Jiheng and other troops passed Jiangzhou and crossed the river north to Qichun, then entered Huangzhou, and then
Part of the supply troops were recruited as combat soldiers. Although the establishment of the five brigades of the two town divisions remained unchanged, each brigade and each battalion had an excess of 20% of the combat soldiers.
Not counting Tang Fuguan, Liu Zhenzhi, Sun Zhuang, Huang Zuyu and other troops in Luzhou as partial divisions, the infantry and battalion combat forces that Lin Fu could mobilize in Huangzhou included Zhang Jiheng, Yu Wencheng, Zhang Gou, and Chen Zhi.
Up to 85,000 people.
Zhou Pu led a cavalry camp of five thousand men.
The naval force led by Ge Cunxiong, Su Pinxiao, and Hu Yuer was not only 30,000 men in name, but actually had to be overstretched by 10,000, making a total of 40,000 men.
In addition, Lin Fu has ordered Zhao Hu to lead the Jiangning Forbidden Camp Infantry with 10,000 soldiers and horses to immediately march westward, leaving only 10,000 soldiers and horses for Qin Chengzu in Jiangning to sit in the center. However, there is no threat around Jiangning, and 10,000 defenders are enough.
.
Not counting the Chizhou Army and the Chaishan Offensive Division, the number of troops Lin Fu could gather in front of the eastern Hubei defense line would reach 140,000. If the Chaishan Offensive Division was included, the number of troops Lin Fu could directly mobilize in Jingxiang would be 140,000.
Nearly two hundred thousand; including Chizhou Army and Jinghu Army, the strength of the entire southern front was actually not much lower than that of Yanhu.
Compared with before, Lin Fu could only mobilize 20,000 troops from Huangzhou to assist in the battle. Therefore, he issued a land grant order to attract and encourage civilians, tenant farmers and urban poor to come to Huangzhou to assist in the battle to supplement the army.
The shortcomings of common people.
For this battle, Lin Fuliang worked hard and carefully prepared for a long time. Naturally, he had to use all the tricks to show the enemy's weakness, which was just the most basic method.