Lin Fu and others entered Huaiyang City before nightfall, and there was no trace of Yanhu's outpost outside Huaiyang City.
Yanhu's outpost did not have the opportunity to cross the defense line and give the Huaiyang army cavalry a chance to outflank them. They retreated after a slight contact in the north of Huaiyang city. However, a small number of refugees poured in from the south.
Before nightfall, the snow stopped, but the biting cold wind was still blowing, blowing on the face like a knife. Looking at Liu Miaozhen wearing a bronze mask, Lin Fu thought to himself: No wonder there is no frost color on her face, and she is as white and tender as...
infant.
"I'm afraid there is a large group of cavalry hiding in the north!" Zhou Pu frowned, and was quite puzzled that Yan Hu's outpost retreated after the slightest contact. He guessed that a larger group of Yan Hu's outpost cavalry was hidden somewhere in the north.
The solid, well-organized, and heavily defended Huaiyang City prevented them from infiltrating deep into the city easily.
The Yellow River flows eastward from Tongguan in an almost straight line. After crossing Daliang, it turns around and heads northwest.
The Changhuai army withdrew to the south bank of the Yellow River. Even though it still occupied several cities on the north bank, due to its limited force, the entire area from the southern foot of the Taihang Mountains to the north bank of the Yellow River became the area controlled by Yanhu troops in southern Shanxi.
From the southeastern foothills of Taihang across the Yellow River to the north of Huaiyang City, the straight-line distance is only four to five hundred miles. The river is frozen all the way, and there is almost no obstruction.
Originally, this area was densely populated, with a large number of villages, forts and local armed soldiers, which would become resistance to the deep penetration of Yanhu Tanma. After several years of war, this area was almost crippled, and Dingkou ten
To save one or two, the village fortress was destroyed and the rural soldiers were completely destroyed. As long as Yanhu Tanma crossed the weak defense line along the Yellow River and entered the hinterland of Hehuai River, he would almost enter no man's land.
Tao Chun led his troops to retreat to the south bank of the Yellow River. The number of soldiers and horses increased to about 40,000, and the defense line spread out to the left and right was about 300 miles. Compared with the 600 to 70,000 soldiers in Datong Town who defended the 600-mile defense line, the military strength was not too weak.
.Only with Datong City and the border wall as the core and more than 400 forts built on the steep terrain were the complete Datong defense line able to effectively prevent the infiltration of small groups of enemy cavalry.
Tao Chun withdrew to the south bank of the Yellow River. The Yellow River was frozen in winter, and only a few remaining cities could be garrisoned. The ability to prevent infiltration was naturally weak. Jiangning's strategy for Tao Chun was to stick to the city in winter and prevent Yanhu from crossing the river.
After seizing the city, after the Yellow River was unblocked, the Yanhu cavalry that had penetrated had no place to stay, so they naturally had no choice but to retreat to the north bank.
In the past six months, the post stations, ponds and people stranded in the countryside that were finally established between the Hehuai River and the Huaihe River became the targets of the infiltration of Yanhu scouts and raids because there were no strong fortresses to rely on for defense.
Farming in the Hehuai area, which had just made some progress, was destroyed again.
Based on the fighting method of the Yanhu cavalry, it is very likely that a group of three to five hundred cavalry crossed the Yellow River defense line and penetrated deep into the Hehuai River, and then dispersed to raid and conduct reconnaissance. When encountering resistance, they retreated and concentrated, waiting for opportunities.
The Yanhu detectives penetrated in, and the weak communication between the Hehuai and Yitangpu was interrupted, and no news came from the north. But it is difficult to verify Zhou Pu's judgment. Today, hundreds of refugees crossed the defense line and went south, sending people
Just go and ask for details.
Someone was sent to interrogate the refugees who entered the city, and indeed they found out that a large group of Hu cavalry had besieged Yanling before they entered the day before yesterday. However, Yanling's city was complete and there were more than a thousand defenders in the city. The Hu cavalry dispersed without being able to capture them.
Based on the information obtained through interrogation, it was confirmed that there were approximately four to five hundred Huqi troops in the north of Huaiyang.
"This group of cavalry is not too far from Huaiyang. Should we send out the cavalry camp to search north at night and beat them hard?" Malantou asked Liu Miaozhen. Huaidong has invested a lot of resources, and now there are large
There are a lot of captives lurking in the north of Huaiyang City. It would be unreasonable to remain indifferent.
"Okay..." Liu Miaozhen nodded. If he didn't take the initiative, more and more prisoners would come to harass him, which would be troublesome. He looked at Lin Fu inquiringly.
Lin Fu said to Sun Zhuang, "You join the search for the enemy cavalry in the north." He also told Liu Miaozhen and Malantou, "The scope of the search to the north should not be too deep. It should be limited to a hundred miles, and the search should be divided into two or three groups to outflank and search on the way.
Please discuss the meeting and contact locations before departure and formulate a detailed plan..."
The Huaiyang Town Army had two cavalry battalions. One battalion was more elite and searched from the left wing. The other battalion had poorer horses and walked the middle at a slightly slower speed. Sun Zhuang led the Huaidong Cavalry Battalion to search north from the right wing and agreed on the way.
At the two meeting points, they led the cavalry and horses out of the city and headed north.
After riding the camp out of the city, Lin Fu did not go down to the city wall to rest, but inspected the construction of the city.
Compared with the dilapidated earthen walls a year ago, Huaiyang's inner and outer sides were covered with city bricks, and the wall foundations were reinforced. More importantly, the old city walls were renovated.
The old-style city wall has a slightly better adaptability to defend against small groups of enemies and short-term strong attacks. However, as large groups of enemy forces siege and siege the city for a long time, its siege methods will become more and more diverse and heavy-duty.
The city will expose some fatal weaknesses.
In the newly renovated Huaiyang City, a high and thick protective wall of sheep and horses was built between the big city and the outer trench. An inner trench, or inner trench, was dug inside the main city wall, and a thick wall was dug inside the inner trench, forming a
A duplex structure with two trenches and three walls. The city tower and urn were abolished, and a gate wall was built outside. A three-story log hole-cut gate was built in the city gate. The suspension bridge in the inner and outer trenches was abandoned and replaced with a fixed solid bridge. The four corners of the city wall were changed to arcs.
The crenellation wall on the city is a flat-headed wall. The watchtower on the horse-facing wall was abolished and a protective wall was rebuilt.
In order to strengthen Huaiyang City and the Bianhe City on the west bank of Bianjiang River, which is adjacent to Huaiyang City, the work camp recruited nearly 30,000 brave soldiers from Huaisi, took soil to build kilns, and fired more than 200 kilns in total.
Thousands of city bricks were built; wood was consumed, almost all the trees within 20 to 30 miles around Huaiyang City were cut down, and the waterway connecting Nanhu Lake and Bianshui River in the south of Huaiyang City was dug and dredged.
The four cities of Huaiyang, Bianhe, Suining, and Suyu form a solid defense line between Huai'an and Xuzhou that is 240 to 50 miles long. Huaiyang City is exposed on the periphery and naturally bears the greatest pressure.
Of course, this line of defense is still weak with only these four cities. After all, there are not many field cavalry to block the gaps between the cities. When a large group of enemy cavalry approaches, the range of activities of the elite infantry outside the city is also very limited. These four cities
In between, a large number of defensive fortresses must be built to fill in the gaps.
Of course, whether the defense line is ultimately stable, the city, and the defensive fortress are relatively minor factors. The key is whether the soldiers and horses guarding the defense line are elite, and whether they have a firm will and determination to fight.
In order to strengthen the Huaiyang Town Army, Huaidong allocated 3,000 sets of armor alone to the Huaiyang Town Army in the past six months, not counting ordinary ordnance.
The predecessor of the Huaiyang Town Army was the downsized elite refugee army, with 30,000 soldiers and horses, and five to six thousand sets of armor. The armor coverage rate was not even worse than that of the newly formed ordinary town army.
Huaidong successively replenished 3,000 sets of high-quality armor, which increased the armor-wearing rate of the Huaiyang town army to more than 30%. For example, the Northern Zhejiang Army controlled by Dong Yuan, the Huinan Army controlled by Deng Yu, and the Changhuai Army controlled by Tao Chun all increased their armor-wearing rate to more than 30%.
Generally speaking, it does not even reach 30%.
In addition, Huaidong also provided the Huaiyang town army with more than 2,000 infantry bows, arm-shaped crossbows, and kick-shaped crossbows, more than 500 flying conflict vehicles, hundreds of bed crossbows, and light and heavy riprap including scorpion crossbows.
There are more than a hundred crossbows.
The sufficient supply of rice and grain for one year and in the later period Huaidong also supplied Huaiyang Town with 150,000 kilograms of meat, mainly pickled meat and fish, every month, which allowed the physical fitness of Huaiyang Town's generals to be fully restored.
and strengthened. There are also Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou, Li Liang and other generals who have been eliminated through brutal wars - at this point, the Huaiyang town army has been able to form elite soldiers.
Gao Zongting secretly thought that it was probably because of the revolutionary changes in Huaiyang Town Army over the past year or so that Huaidong truly gained the trust of Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou, Li Liang and other generals who recruited security forces, right? Obviously, Jiangning only relied on the official title
Jiajue's crude methods of winning over were unable to compete with Huaidong for control of the Huaiyang town army.
That night, while waiting for the cavalry who had gone out to search for the city to receive news of success, they also exchanged their experiences on the city's attack and defense with the generals of the Huaiyang town army.
When it comes to the attack and defense of the city, the Yangxin and Jinhai city defense battles are both of typical significance. In the Jinhai city defense battle, we can best see Yanhu’s progress and development in siege tactics, including stone crossbows and other large-scale siege tactics.
The use of siege equipment caused the Tianjin Navy to suffer more than half of its casualties in the past six months.
Gao Zongting had been assisting in the defense of Jinhai for a long time. He himself had studied tactics and military strategy, so it was natural for him to introduce the gains and losses of the Jinhai defense battle to the generals of the Huaiyang town army.
In the past six months, the generals of the Huaiyang town army have been fully supplied with soldiers, armor, ordnance and materials, and they consider themselves to be a strong army. It is inevitable that they will have the rash thought of inviting battles to gain glory. Therefore, Lin Fu needs to take Yan more seriously.
The relationship between Hu Zhujun and the Huaiyang Zhenjun generals were thoroughly explained.
A general will use his troops without morale, but if his morale is too high, he will inevitably use his troops rashly and cause unnecessary casualties.
I think that when Jiangdong Zuojun went north to Qinwang, he was able to achieve such a great result mainly because he took advantage of the Donghu people's fatal weakness of rashly underestimating the enemy. He bit them hard several times and completely knocked out the morale of Jiangdong Zuojun.
Lin Fu didn't want the same lesson to happen to the Huaidong Army or the Huaiyang Town Army.
Although the Huaiyang defense line has been strengthened in the past six months, once the main force of Yanhu breaks through the first line of defense and more than 100,000 troops and horses gather on the front of Huaiyang, the pressure Huaiyang will bear will not be greater than that of the Tianjin Navy defending Tianjin Sea.
How much less pressure you bear.
Although Yanhu also suffered twice as many casualties in the storming of Jinhai, Yanhu mainly drove the new annexes to attack the city. The fierce and cruel siege war was conducive to Yanhu's integration of the complex new annexes with varying combat capabilities.
The strength of the army caused the newly attached army generals to abandon their hesitation and second-guessing, and from then on they were determined to work for Yan and Hu.
Lin Fu has always emphasized the importance of meat to the combat effectiveness of generals. Hu people eat more meat and have obvious advantages in physical fitness compared to Han people.
Perhaps after Yanhu occupied the North, the amount of rice he could directly plunder was limited, but after occupying Yanjing, he was able to plunder a large amount of gold and silver treasures from the royal family and a large amount of royal estates.
You can buy rice grains here, and you can also buy a large number of livestock from Yanxi to supplement meat. The supplies for the newly attached army are relatively sufficient.
The Yan-Hu offensive often condoned killing, looting, rape, and adultery, and it also unleashed the brutal and bloodthirsty side of human nature - the new vassals often showed stronger combat effectiveness than before, which is really not surprising.
Of course, when Yan Hu launched a massive attack on the North, the Liang family and the Chang Huai Army who were guarding the Hehuai line chose to watch. There were tens of thousands of relatively complete and well-rested soldiers and horses on the Hehuai line, and Jiangning was the most
Establishing a relatively stable regime quickly, these two points are also the main reasons why Yanhu did not rush south after conquering the Northland.
Maybe Yanhu will not make any big moves this winter.
At least until he has a more accurate judgment on the combat power and resistance of the Liang family and the Changhuai army, Yanhu will not rush to use troops when the foundation of the North is not stable, but Qingzhou's weakness is too obvious.
Even if Yanhu's main task on the southern front this winter is to test the strength of the entire Hehuai defense line and destroy production on the inner Hehuai line, he may focus mainly on the eastern front...
Lin Fu really didn't know how the people of Qingzhou should deal with the current predicament.