Although the Privy Council is the governor of the world's military and has the power to control various camps, envoys, towns, and military offices, Huaixi, like Jinghu, has its own system of military and political affairs, including soldiers' pay, money, food, and even the preparation of soldiers' armor and weapons.
Most of them rely on self-production and are not deeply restricted by the Privy Council.
The armies are not so much affiliated as they are fighting together.
The prerequisite for coalition operations is to trust each other - everyone is used to bloodshed and intrigues, and they all know that any possible basis for trust will not be based on a piece of paper or other people.
on top of the promise.
Zuo Chengmu, as the deputy prime minister, stayed in Huangzhou on behalf of the imperial court to "observe the appearance of the army". In name, he was sent as a military supervisor. In fact, he was more in Huangzhou on behalf of the Jinghu forces to supervise the Huaidong Army's attack on Hanjin, Huangpi and Tiemen.
The combat performance of Mountain Enemy.
In addition, Hu Xuechang, the son of Hu Wenmu, went to Ezhou. On the one hand, he was responsible for leading Ezhou soldiers and horses to encircle and suppress Chen Zishou's troops who gathered the remaining soldiers at the northern foot of Mufu Mountain. On the other hand, he requisitioned grain and grass for Huangzhou and Qichun war zones in Ezhou. More importantly, one
On the other hand, it is also because Ezhou is located in Huangzhou. After Qichun, Senior Hu was stationed in Ezhou on behalf of Hu Wenmu. If the Huaidong Army and Chizhou Army wanted to leave without warning, Senior Hu would be able to detect it in advance, and the main force of the Jinghu Army would be able to avoid being left alone.
The dangerous situation in Jingzhou.
Liu Tingzhou's arrival was to represent Huaixi to learn about the combat readiness of the Huaidong Army, Chizhou Army and Jinghu Army on the southern front.
In order to make Huaixi confidently concentrate its troops on the Xinyang front line to contain the Yan Army's Chen Zhihu on the northern front and Tu'an tribes, so as to reduce the military pressure on the southern front, Lin Fu must definitely move the Huaidong Army on the Huangzhou front line.
Liu Tingzhou was asked to see clearly the military deployment and to convince him that the Huaidong Army was determined to fight the Jingxiang Battle.
For the arrival of Yue Lengqiu and Liu Tingzhou, Lin Fu specially prepared a small banquet.
Liu Tingzhou came here, in addition to more than a hundred soldiers, and ten accompanying staff. After all, he had to observe the Huaidong Army's comprehensive combat readiness on the Huangzhou front line in just three to five days. Liu Tingzhou could not see it with his two eyes.
Came here.
Only four or five staff members with official positions followed Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengqiu into the hall for a banquet.
When the Huaidong Army captured Huangzhou City, it was also in dilapidated condition. Lin Fu chose a slightly tidy courtyard as a camp, but it was also very simple. When Liu Tingzhou and others walked into the hall, they could see burn marks on the pillars.
Of course, you can't expect Lin Fu to prepare a banquet with any delicacies. There is no shortage of seafood, and you can even smell a faint fishy smell as soon as you walk in.
Some people are sensitive to the fishy smell of the sea. Seeing the few accompanying officials behind Liu Tingzhou frowning slightly, Lin Fu smiled and said: "The most delicious meat here in Huangzhou is pickled fish, which is a specialty for banquets."
Come on, Governor Yue and Lord Liu, don’t dislike it..."
Huaidong has developed offshore fishing on a large scale in places such as Changguo, Shengsi and Hecheng to supplement the shortage of meat in the army. It is only September now. After being caught and pickled in Changguo, Shengsi and Hecheng, marine fish are transported to the Yellow River by waterway.
Zhouzhou, it takes ten days anyway. As long as you can eat it, how can you expect that there will be no fishy smell at all?
Of course, if people in Huangzhou start eating pickled sea fish on a large scale, it means that the supply line from Huaidong from the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the Huangzhou theater has been established.
As long as food and other combat materials can be continuously transported from the rear to the Huangzhou war zone, and Huaidong soldiers and horses are quickly mobilized and assembled in Huangzhou, even if the soldiers are consumed on a large scale during the war, they can still
Soldiers were recruited from the civilian men who were encouraged to cross the river to join the war by the land grant order.
At this time, Liu Tingzhou felt that the meridians of the Dai Viet Dynasty were unblocked. Even if there would be disadvantages in the early stage of the Jingxiang Battle, the longer the time dragged on, the more favorable the situation would become to Dai Viet - but it was a pity that all this was in Lin's hands.
Under the control of the bondage.
Lin Fu called Gao Zongting, Cao Zi'ang and other people who had interacted with Liu Tingzhou to come over to accompany him to the banquet. Naturally, they also exchanged pleasantries. During the banquet, Lin Fu smiled and said to Liu Tingzhou: "Jingtang and the others are all in Wuyun Village.
It’s too late to come back and clean up Mr. Liu’s dust—but it’s okay, it’s not easy for Mr. Liu to come to Huangzhou, and he also has to make a trip to Wuyun Village.”
Huaidong set up a labor camp to train soldiers for battle and build fields. Sun Jingtang has always been the core figure in Huaidong in this regard. In his early years in Huai'an, he had a lot of contact with Liu Tingzhou. Before that, he had been sitting in Xusi.
In recent years, Huaidong has managed the Xuzhou defense line like an iron barrel. On the one hand, generals Liu Miaozhen, Ning Zechen, Ge Cunxin, and Geng Quanshan led elite troops and strong generals to take charge. On the other hand, Li Wei and other civil servants helped the refugees and settled the place.
On the other hand, Sun Jingtang led the labor camp to build fortifications, Chidao and river ports on the Xusi front line.
Now Lin Fu is going to fight against the Yan army in Jingxiang. In addition to his famous commanders and brave generals, Sun Jingtang, Ge Siyu, Zhu Ai and other figures who are good at creating will naturally not be absent.
In addition to the construction of fortifications, roads and bridges in the war zone, the collection and transportation of grain, fodder, weapons and other strategic materials were also core affairs of the war. Lin Mengde, the branch envoy, and Lin Xuwen, the Minister of Household Affairs, naturally sat in Jiangning and were responsible for the general affairs.
In order to coordinate the transportation of grain and grass supplies from Jianghuai, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places to Jingxiang, Chen Huawen, the prefect of Luzhou, and Yang Zichen, the prefect of Jiangzhou, both served as deputy envoys this time to be responsible for the two key transshipment points of Luzhou and Jiangzhou.
of transportation.
In the Huangzhou War Zone, capable officials from Huaidong such as General Fu Qinghe's former battalion Liangmo, Sun Wenbing, Lin Xuhong, Song Fu, etc. were also transferred to Huangzhou to assist in the transfer.
The outpost has been engaged, and the people transferred to Huangzhou from Huaidong are all busy. Although Liu Tingzhou has interacted with many officials from Huaidong, he can't expect them to put down what they are doing and come over to the banquet.
.
Lin Fu casually mentioned that Sun Jingtang and others were in Huangzhou, and he also wanted to explain to Liu Tingzhou how determined Huaidong was to fight the Jingxiang Battle.
During the dinner, Liu Tingzhou asked about the arrangements for the soldiers who were recruited to join the camp.
"Well," Lin Fu said, "the news of the fall of Nanyang reached Jiangning. The scholars in Jiangning were furious. Many scholars knocked on the palace gate to petition, wanting to join the army and kill the thieves. Prime Minister Lin and Prime Minister Cheng wrote to ask about this matter. I and
The Prime Minister of the Left and the Governor of Yue discussed it together and finally issued an order to recruit people. Unexpectedly, there were so many candidates. Scholars from Jiangning, Weiyang, Pingjiang and other places came with the ship to Huangzhou, and there were already five hundred people. They were built in the army and transferred to Huangzhou.
There is a lack of civil servants to keep track of matters such as military affairs, so the enlistment of scholars in the military camps has solved many headaches. In addition, some military camps will temporarily serve as the generals' deputies to learn military skills, and they will have the opportunity to lead troops in combat in the future...
"
At that time, the generals would recruit scholars to be responsible for matters such as food, fodder, and accounting. However, these people could only be regarded as aides invited by the general personally, and they were private officials. In the future, if these people want to become officials, the general can recommend them, but whether they will be hired or not depends on the general's face.
Big enough or not, but even if the general's reputation is big enough, he will never be able to recommend three to five hundred staff to become officials at once.
Lin Fu's recruitment of scholars into the army camp was mainly responsible for logistics affairs. It was not much different from recruiting staff, but the scale was larger. However, in the official letter issued to the world, he clearly wrote down his expectations for future recruitment.
This is to turn private officials into public officials.
Including the private officials who had followed Lin Fu before, they could be formally appointed as magistrates, county magistrates, county captains, magistrates, general magistrates and other local officials. Before this, whoever Lin Fu wanted to recommend as county magistrates had to write a separate letter.
The entire process must be approved by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Political Affairs Hall.
Liu Tingzhou had his own selfish thoughts, so he did not recommend Ning Yujie, a talented Yandu scholar, to Lin Fu during the banquet. After the banquet, he returned to the post house and invited him to serve as an official in Huaixi.
Lin Fu naturally knew every move Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengqiu made after entering Huangzhou.
Hearing Gao Zongting say that Ning Yujie was temporarily recruited by Liu Tingzhou to go to Huaixi, Lin Fu just smiled and said: "Huaixi can win over one, and I can win over five hundred, let him go!"
Yue Lengqiu stayed in Huangzhou with Liu Tingzhou for two days, both of which discussed the cooperation of Huaixi soldiers and horses on the northern front. Lin Fu also officially informed Liu Tingzhou that Ning Zechen would lead a part of Fengli Battalion into Huaixi for coordinated operations.
After July, the Shandong soldiers and horses, commanded by Ye Jiduodi, also fully advanced towards the Xu Si defense line. Yuan Lishan, Na He Xiongqi and other generals respectively led the main force of nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses, entering Jining and Linqu.
The purpose of the buffer zone in the south is to contain Huaidong's troops on Xusi's defense line and prevent them from sending reinforcements from the west.
To the north of Xu Si, the total strength of Liu Miaozhen, Wu Qi, Malantou, Li Liang, Geng Quanshan, Chu Zheng and other generals on the Xu Si defense line was only 60,000, after supplementing some of the supply troops.
Although there are 30,000 elites from the Fengli Battalion and 20,000 naval troops from the Jinghai Second Water Battalion in Shanyang, Yuntiguan and Huaidong, Shanyang and Yuntiguan are the back line of Xu Si's defense line, and Yanhu is on the east line. In addition to Yuan Li,
In addition to Shan and Nahe Xiongqi, Ye Jiduodi, who is stationed in Jinan, also has 40,000 cavalry at his disposal, which can quickly press the front line of Xu Si - Lin Fu cannot drain all the troops on the front line of Shanyang and Yuntiguan.
Therefore, the number of troops that could follow Ning Zechen into Huaixi to fight was only 20,000.
Lin Fu was able to mobilize elites from Huaidong to Huaixi for coordinated operations. How could Liu Tingzhou be dissatisfied with the lack of people at this time?
In the past two days, Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengtian could see that almost tens of thousands of Huaidong soldiers entered Huangzhou every day, and then moved from Huangzhou to Wuyun Village, Fenghuang Mountain and other front base camps.
After discussing these matters, Yue Lengqiu went back to Qichun to supervise the war, but what Liu Tingzhou didn't understand was that Cao Ziang also hurriedly returned to Luzhou after Yue Lengqiu. Lin Fu returned to Luzhou on September 6th.
Personally accompanied Liu Ting to Wuyun Village, Phoenix Mountain and other front base camps to inspect the military situation...
***************
From Wuyun Village to Fenghuang Village, you have to cross the Jushui River. Although the Jushui River is already the outskirts of the Huangzhou War Zone, the Huaidong Army still built a pontoon bridge on the Jushui River, not afraid of enemy troops raiding in and destroying the pontoon bridge.
As far back as the Zhou and Shang Dynasties, there are records of connecting boats as bridges.
The pontoon bridge on the Jushui River is also a bridge with stilts and boats connected.
A total of two pontoon bridges were erected on the river that is nearly 300 paces wide, with a distance of 200 to 300 paces upstream and downstream. Each pontoon bridge must be fixed with twenty bridge boats and piles, with large iron nails and iron hook chains on pallets.
They are connected and fixed on both sides with iron ropes as thick as arms.
The most important fixation of the pontoon bridge is to withstand the weight of passing people, carriages and horses, and the impact of the river water. Therefore, the choice of fixations at both ends of the iron cable is the most important.
If conditions permit, locks are usually carved out of rocks, and the iron cables that fix the boat bridge are tied to the rocks and integrated with the hills. This way they can withstand the impact of the river and carry hundreds of people across the bridge at the same time.
The pontoon bridge on the lower reaches of the Jushui River is located at the official ferry crossing from Huangzhou to Huangpi. It is surrounded by plains. Old trees that can be used to fix the iron cables can also be cut down by the enemy soldiers before retreating. There are no natural fixings, but the boat
At both ends of the bridge, there are huge black objects, several bottles of huge iron blocks.
Huaixi is extremely short of iron materials, and Huaidong actually uses iron chips to fix the pontoon bridges, and just throws tens of thousands of kilograms of iron blocks into the wild for two pontoon bridges!
Liu Tingzhou walked astride his horse, followed Lin Fu, and walked across the stable Jiushui River pontoon bridge. He didn't know what to say.
A beacon fire village was built northwest of the pontoon bridge to guard the pontoon bridge and monitor the enemy's situation.
Fenghuo Village is not big, just a barracks camp, but large pieces of caltrops are sprinkled outside the barracks. The spikes of the caltrops stand up and shine in the overgrown weeds, warning humans and beasts not to approach.
There is a sentry stationed there, and more than a hundred civilians accompanying the army to protect the floating bridge so that it can be repaired at any time, materials and soldiers can pass through, and civilians can be recruited to help cross the river at any time.
Liu Tingzhou followed Lin Fu over and saw that Lin Fu could actually call the sentry general's name. He also knew that Lin Fu's control over the Huaidong Army was irreplaceable by others.
Although it is only Fenghuo Village, the soldiers are well prepared. Even the most ordinary soldiers are all wearing armor. In addition to knives and spears, the guards have many strong bows and crossbows. On the fence wall, there are three
Set up a bed crossbow covered with oilcloth.
In such a Beacon Fire Stronghold, even if one or two thousand enemy cavalry leaked in, there would be no way to remove them in a short period of time before reinforcements arrived.
Seeing this, Liu Tingzhou no longer doubted Lin Fu's determination to fight the Jingxiang Battle. He also believed that no matter how ineffective the Huaidong Army was, even if Jingzhou fell, they would still be able to fight the Yan Army in the eastern Hubei area...