Huangcheng Island is located at the mouth of the Bohai Sea. It is more than 120 miles away from Dengzhou Daoyu Village in the south and about 80 miles away from Tieshan in Jinzhou, Liaodong in the north. It is divided into two islands, the north and the south. The two islands are less than three miles apart.
They are both long and narrow in shape, and the narrow islands and mountains thirty to forty feet high face each other. Throughout the ages, they have been a sheltered anchorage for ships traveling from north to south on the sea.
The fleet of the Haidong Marching Army was hidden in Laoyukou Xiaowan on the east side of Nanhuangcheng Island, like a group of evil sharks lurking in the distance and staring at the mountains on the coast of Dengzhou, waiting for the opportunity to pounce on them for food.
The sea between the North and South Huangcheng Islands is as clear and calm as a large blue lake. Zhao Hu stood on the top of Nanhuang Mountain, which is about 30 feet high, and looked into the distance to see the large Qinshan Island, Zhushan Island, and the temple in the southwest.
The mountain islands are like colored models on the sand table, lying quietly on the blue sea. The shore mountains in the direction of Dengzhou Daoyu Village cover this series of islands at the mouth of the Bohai Sea.
Otherwise, even from such a long distance, it is said that you should be able to see the line of Danya Mountain where Daoyu Village is located.
Two young generals in their thirties climbed to the top of Nanhuang Mountain from the back slope. They saw Zhao Hu looking to the southwest and came over.
The two generals were no one else. One was Chi Yuanji, the son of Chi Zhou, the governor of Jisi Dudufu in Dongzhou of Danluo Kingdom, and the other was Ge Changgen, the son of Ge Cunxin. They were both generals who followed Zhao Hu from Haidong to lurk outside Dengzhou.
As early as June, Lin Fu predicted that the main force of Huaidong's water infantry would be contained on the southern front and would be unable to escape and go north - which was exactly the case - Huaidong wanted to interfere in the war situation in Shandong, and the expedient solution was to attack from Haidong
Deploy troops.
After the Danluo War, in order to control the Haidong trade route and the situation in Jeju, Dongzhou and other places, Zhao Hu followed Lin Fu's order to form a Haedong marching army in Jeju, with more than 5,000 water infantry.
In addition to some of these troops stationed in Jeju City on Danluo Island, a considerable part are scattered to guard maritime trade routes. The actual number of troops that can be mobilized is limited, and it takes time to gather in advance.
Zhao Hu received Lin Fu's secret order in mid-June to assemble troops in Jeju. In Lin Fu's name, he also borrowed troops from Dongzhou's Jisu Governor's Mansion and Danluo Kingdom, and the assembly was not completed until late July.
After news of the fall of Linzi reached Jeju, Zhao Hu led his troops across the sea from Jeju. After joining Yang Yihang's troops, the total strength of the water infantry hidden between Huangcheng Island was only more than 7,000.
After the fall of Yanji, maritime shipping into the Bohai Sea was almost cut off. The mouth of the Bohai Sea was a battleground between various forces, and fishing boats disappeared. But once there was no fighting, not even a ghost was seen in the waters around Huangcheng Island.
It becomes the best place for warships to hide their traces and lurk.
Even if a patrol ship from the Dengzhou Navy occasionally passed by, Zhao Hu would still order it to be detained.
Of course, Huangcheng Island is quite close to Tieshanjiao in Jinzhou, Liaodong. On a clear day, Yanhu's troops stationed in Jinzhou might be able to detect anomalies in the waters of Huangcheng Island standing on the high mountains. But it cannot be directly accessed from Jinzhou, Liaodong.
To send a warning across the sea, it would take ten days and a half to send the message to Yanjing, and then from Yanjing to Shandong.
Therefore, there was such a group of editors hidden between Huangcheng Island, and the various forces fighting fiercely on the Shandong Peninsula were not aware of it for a while.
Ge Changgen stood beside Zhao Hu, looked into the distance with him, and said: "General Zhao, Qingzhou has won a great victory. General Zhao thinks that our troops should immediately enter the Jiao Lai River from the west of Laizhou to support the Qingzhou Army in the battle!"
Huaidong did not expect that Chen Zhihu would use the strategy of defrauding the tiger to leave the mountain. He was just worried that the Dengzhou Navy would lose. The victory in Qingzhou turned the situation in the eastern part of the Shandong Peninsula from danger to safety, and Huaidong's previous worries seemed to disappear.
.
At least for now, it seems that the back-up move deployed by Huaidong off the coast of Dengzhou has lost its due effect.
The generals in the Haidong camp, including Ge Changgen, Chi Yuanji, etc., were unwilling to make the trip in vain and intended to take the initiative. They hoped that Zhao Hu could make a decision and immediately command the troops to enter Qingzhou from the Jiao Lai River on the west bank of Laizhou and cooperate with them.
The Qingzhou Army fought against the new auxiliary army that entered the hinterland of Qingzhou.
Although the Jiaolai River was severely damaged at the beginning of the year, the damage was mainly concentrated in the middle section. The section of the river from Changyi County to the north to the west of Laizhou where it meets the sea is still intact and can be used by the Haidong Water Infantry to enter the battle.
Lin Fu's previous order to Zhao Hu was to tell him to wait and see what happens in the waters outside Dengzhou, but the battlefield is changing rapidly, and whether the general is qualified or not depends on his ability to capture fighter planes, rather than sticking to the established plan.
After listening to Ge Changgen's suggestion, Zhao Hu was eager to try and take the initiative, but after all, he was more patient than Ge Changgen and Chi Yuanji. He said: "The military commander has made arrangements in Yishan, we are following here
, it is inconvenient to contact Huaidong, but the secret agent sent to Yishan should be able to return in two days, so it is not too late to wait patiently for two more days..."
They have been lurking on Huangcheng Island for eight days, and they don't care to wait two more days.
In any case, even if there is to be a counterattack, the troops and horses in Qingzhou must be adjusted in place, otherwise it will be difficult to rely solely on their six to seven thousand water infantry to play a big role.
"Then I will make some preparations first..." Ge Changgen said.
Zhao Hu nodded and was watching Ge Changgen and Chi Yuanji go down the mountain. In the distance, two ships were approaching from south to north.
Ge Changgen also saw the incoming ship, stopped and said hesitantly: "Could it be a letter ship sent by Huaidong?" At that moment, he ordered a warship to go around to intercept it, so he accompanied Zhao Hu and stood on the top of the mountain to watch.
He took a boat out to sea and came to meet up.
Accompanying Gao Zongting to Huangcheng Island was Chen Enze.
Zhao Hu briefly met Gao Zongting in Jiangning in his early years. Lin Fu was afraid that he would not have a deep impression of Gao Zongting, which would cause communication problems with them, so he specially sent Chen Enze here.
Knowing that it was Gao Zongting who was coming, Zhao Hu, Ge Changgen, Chi Yuanji and other generals rushed to the simple dock to greet him and introduced the generals to Gao Zongting.
The troops of the Haidong camp were already insufficient, but they borrowed troops from the Chi family of Dongzhou and the Danluo Kingdom to cobble together a partial force. When Gao Zongting met Zhao Hu, he introduced Chi Yuanji as the eldest son of Chi Zhou, the former pirate leader and the current governor of Dongzhou.
, I felt quite emotional in my heart: Lin Fu’s strategic thinking in managing Haidong far exceeded the imagination of the world at that time.
Others thought that Huaidong was weak on its own, and it was true that Lin Fu rose up in Huaidong and had only occupied the land of the four prefectures until now. It was even far from being compared with the Cao family who had just occupied two rivers.
However, only Huaidong operates Haidong. Through trade exports, the annual profits from the Haidong area have exceeded two million taels of silver, about 60% of which are directly used by the Huaidong Army to support the army. The Cao family occupied Guanzhong, and from hundreds of
Xiqin County, which had been reduced to a bitter and cold place in the northwest frontier a few years ago, directly contributed taxes in a year, which was not even as much as Huaidong's income from operating the Haidong Trade Route.
What Huaidong brought back from the Haidong region was not just silver, but also many strategic materials such as rice, grain, coal and iron, silver and copper, leather, wood, isinglass, etc.
Because of the existence of sea routes, Lin Fu made the entire Haidong region a strategic material export base for Huaidong.
Nowadays, the sea route to the Nanyang Islands via Yizhou has been opened. After two years of exploration, the route has been stabilized. In the first half of this year, a net import of rice from the Nanyang Islands was 200,000 shi. This is almost as much as the Huaihe River.
Dongfu’s tax contribution before the implementation of the New Deal.
Nowadays, the Chi family of Dongzhou and the Li family of Danluo State are directly supporting the Huaidong war, and the significance is even more extraordinary.
Zhao Hu stationed a simple camp at the foot of Nanhuang Mountain, invited Gao Zongting and others ashore, entered the command tent, and then asked seriously: "Did something unexpected happen? Why did Mr. Lao Gao come to Dengzhou?"
"The collapse of Chen Zhihu's troops under Qingzhou City was most likely a scam," Gao Zongting said. "The deployment in Dengzhou needs to be adjusted. Your Excellency, I wanted to come here in person, but I couldn't get away. I have a better understanding of the situation in Dengzhou than others."
I am familiar with this place, so I came here..." The analysis of the situation in Qingzhou by the generals was explained in detail to Zhao Hu and the Haidong generals.
Zhao Hu, Ge Changgen, Chi Yuanji and others were doubtful, but Gao Zongting brought Lin Fu's warrant, so they had no choice but not to believe it.
"You have been lurking here for several days. Has there been any change in the Dengzhou Town Army?" Gao Zongting asked. He had not received the latest information for two days. When he went out to sea from Huaikou, the Dengzhou Town Army still made obvious movements.
Regarding the latest intelligence in Dengzhou in the past two days, he wanted to ask Zhao Hu, "Has Dengzhou Town noticed anything unusual here?"
"Dengzhou Town is sending some naval forces ashore to assemble, and there are indeed signs of concentrating troops into Qingzhou to fight," Zhao Hu frowned and said solemnly, "Thanks to our dislike of Liu Yefei, we didn't mistakenly think that
When the situation in Qingzhou turned from crisis to safety, we took the initiative to contact Dengzhou Town - Dengzhou Town should not be aware of our existence yet! Yang Yihang will take people to the mouth of Zhulong River to spy on the opportunity and send people to sneak into Yangxin to contact the Gu family. But even if
Even if Yang Yihang reveals the details about Lu to the Gu family, the news will not reach Dengzhou Town."
"That's good..." Gao Zongting breathed a sigh of relief.
Although there are more than 7,000 soldiers and horses assembled on Huangcheng Island, after excluding the sailors on the boats, there are less than 6,000 sword-wielding soldiers, and about 4,000 infantry, plus the battalion he brought urgently from Shukou.
Armor soldiers can gather eight battalions of infantry soldiers.
However, these eight infantry battalions are made up of five parts: Fengli Camp, Haidong Marching Camp, Dongzhou Army, Jinwei Island Remaining Army and Danluo King Army. The overall combat effectiveness level is absolutely limited.
If you use them as the elite combat brigades of Fengli Camp and Changshan Camp to fight tough battles, you will probably suffer big losses.
The biggest advantage at the moment is that such a partial force is lurking just over a hundred miles away from Dengzhou Daoyu Village, and has not yet been noticed by Liu Yefei and Chen Zhihu.
"If Liu Yefei really secretly surrendered Yanlu and actively cooperated with Chen Zhihu's plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain, there is nothing we can do to stop him!" Ge Changgen said.
"Chen Zhihu used deception, why can't we use deception?" Gao Zongting smiled softly and said, "The biggest headache right now is Yangxin. Yangxin City is only surrounded on three sides, and the scouts can still come in and out. Qingzhou is a great victory.
The news should have reached Yangxin City, and the Gu family is probably determined to defend Yangxin - if they don't break out, no matter how many ships we send to meet them at the mouth of the Zhulong River, it will be of no use."