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Chapter 88: First Arrival in Yanling

Chapter 88

At the end of September in the 16th year of Hongde's reign, King Su Zhao Hongrun and twenty clan guards arrived at Yanling.

Yanling is not a city that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, but its geographical location is somewhat special. To the south of it is the Yan River.

Yanshui, also known as Zhengshui, was a relatively well-known river in the ancient Zheng Kingdom. With historical changes, after the demise of the Zheng Kingdom, Wei and Chu gradually included the Zheng Land in their respective expansions and developments, forming what is now the state of Zheng.

The confrontation between Wei and Chu.

On the east side of Yanling, about a hundred miles away, there is another river. This river is the Cai River running from north to south. Because of this river, when the Chu army invaded the territory of Wei on a large scale,

Materials from the Ministry of War were continuously transported from Daliang to Yanling via the Cai River.

Don't think that the officials of the Ministry of War only know how to sue for peace. In fact, when they asked God to sue for peace with Chu, they would still do what they should do. They would not simply do it because they thought Yanling could not resist the Chu army's offensive.

Abandoning Yanling, we didn't even bother to transport necessary supplies.

Precisely because of the support of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs, although the current situation in Yanling is not optimistic, it has finally been able to firmly hold the Yan River and prevent the Chu army from crossing this natural danger.

After arriving at Yanling, Zhao Hongrun did not enter Yanling City immediately. Instead, he climbed the nearby hills with the clan guards and looked at the topography of Yanling. Although there must be local waterway topographic maps in Yanling City, those drawn in

The topographic map on the canvas paper will eventually have more or less deviations.

Therefore, Zhao Hongrun had to see this land with his own eyes. After all, with his super memory, it would not be a problem to remember these terrains.

Yingshui County is a county with a relatively complex topography. There are many hills in the county. Therefore, there are many cities named after mausoleums in Yingshui County, such as Yanling, Chenling, Anling, Xinling, Xiangling, etc., and

Between the hills, there are mostly flat plains and numerous rivers.

It is undeniable that Yingshui County is the county with the densest rivers in the territory of the Wei Dynasty. Those many rivers gather together to form the world-famous Yingshui River Basin. Its tributaries are widely distributed in Wei, Song, and Chu.

The Lu State, and even the Qi State, eventually flowed into different sea areas, which was a very important water transportation and water conservancy in these countries.

The Yan River is a small branch upstream of the entire Ying River. The river starts from Xinzheng, passes through Changshe, Yanling and other places, and finally merges into the Cai River, and then flows into the Ying River from the Cai River.

The river is fifteen or six feet wide at its widest and eleven or twenty feet at its narrowest. The water is not turbulent. On the contrary, because it is late autumn and winter, the water level of Yan River has dropped significantly, which makes it difficult for the Chu army's boats to

From the lower reaches of the Cai River, we drove upstream into the Yan River and drove to the vicinity of Yanling City to help Chu's infantry land on the other side.

After all, the Yan River is just a small upstream branch of the Ying River system. Its water level in late autumn and winter is not enough for the Chu State's boats to travel normally.

It is for this reason that the Chu army built several camps on the other side of the Yan River near Yanling City. They could only rely on infantry to forcefully cross the Yan River and attack Yanling.

However, the situation of the Chu army was not optimistic either.

Although the state of Chu was able to attack several cities in the state of Wei that were in danger of rivers at first, this was only because the Wei generals on the front line were not well prepared or did not have enough troops to defend the large number of Chu troops.

With the fall of these cities, the defeated Wei army retreated step by step, and finally retreated to Yanling City. This greatly increased the number of defenders in Yanling City, although the morale of the army was generally low due to repeated defeats on the front line.

According to reports sent to the court from Yanling City, there are currently more than 10,000 soldiers in Yanling City, including 2,500 local defenders and more than 8,000 defeated frontline troops.

However, on the other side of the Yan River, there were more than 50,000 Chu troops.

What's worse is that these Chu troops are not all the troops under the command of Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Yangcheng. According to the news from the front, Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Yangcheng, this time, in order to attack the Wei Dynasty, reported that the Song Dynasty was tricked by the Emperor of Wei. Qiu exhausted all the troops in his territory, and together with the troops of several other Xiong clan princes and nobles, the Chu army's strength in Yingshui County reached a full 160,000.

There were 160,000 troops invested in the Yingshui battlefield alone, plus Chu's army attacking Song Dynasty. It's no wonder that the officials of the Wei Dynasty's Ministry of War generally disagreed with declaring war with Chu, because the difference in military strength was too great. Huge disparity.

Facing such a powerful Chu army, the soldiers and civilians in Yanling City were in a state of panic, and even the guards were frowning all day long.

The so-called fushou refers to the civil and military officers of Yanling City.

In the local cities under the rule of the Wei Dynasty, civil and military affairs were separated.

Civil officials are called Fu, also called county governors, county magistrates, Fu Zheng, etc., and they are always responsible for the criminal, people's livelihood, taxation and other matters in the area; while military generals are called Shou, also called Wu Wei in popular terms, and they are generals at the level of school captain. , always responsible for anti-theft, public security, city defense and other matters, and is Fu's assistant officer.

The county magistrate of Yanling City is named Pei Mingzhan, and the military officer is named Chen Shi. In the past, they were just unknown local civil and military officials among the officials of the Wei Dynasty. But now, they have become the highest-ranking officials on the front line. There are tens of thousands of refugees and more than 10,000 troops in charge.

Of course, Pei Zhan is not the only one in Yanling City at the moment. The two county magistrates Chen Shi and Wu Wei are also present. After all, after county towns like Chenling fell, the local magistrates and captains also fled to Yanling one after another. It is no exaggeration to say that, Now there are three county magistrates and military commanders in Yanling City.

These people discussed with Pei Zhan every day. Some advocated counterattack, while others advocated perseverance, and their opinions could never be completely unified.

As for the military officers headed by Chen Shi, the military commander of Yanling City, they began to consolidate Yanling's defense line.

After all, these people are military officers, so they naturally do things more decisively than civilian officials.

But even so, facing the Chu army's offensive, Yanling City was still in a precarious situation.

There is no way. After all, including Pei Zhan and Chen Shi, these county magistrates and military officers are not generals who are good at fighting. In the past, they only had experience in people's livelihood, criminal justice, public security, and anti-theft. They were really good at fighting. The generals were far away at Fenxing Fortress and were dragged to death by a partial army of Xiong Tuo, Lord of Chuyang City.

The strategic significance of Fenxing Fortress is far more important than the cities of Yanling. Therefore, even if the generals of Fenxing Fortress learned that the Chu army had invaded their country of Wei, they did not dare to send troops to rescue them. After all, Chu State and Da Wei The territory bordering Wei is too long, and the role of Fenxing Fortress is to block the west side of Chu. Once this fortress is lost, Chu will not have two routes to attack Wei, but three. By then , Dawei will become more passive.

Therefore, it would be better for Chu Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo's army to attack from Yingshui than Fenxing fortress' army to dare to move lightly.

Until one day, Pei Zhan, the magistrate of Yanlingcheng, received news from Daliang, the capital of Chen, that the imperial court sent Su Wang Zhao Hongrun and General Bailiba of Junshuiying to go south to support Yanling and formally declare war on Chu.

After receiving this news, many county magistrates and captains in Yanling City breathed a sigh of relief, especially Chen Shi, the military commander of Yanling City. After all, he was performing the functions of a frontline general during these days and had to command several of his former colleagues. Normally speaking, it is against the rules to have a fellow military officer of rank with an army of more than 10,000 people. After all, he is just a military officer in a county. How can he be qualified to command an army of more than 10,000 people?

But there is no way, after all, Yanling City lacks a person of sufficient importance these days.

Now, the imperial court officially declared war on Chu, and at the same time sent two important figures of sufficient weight. One was the general Bailiba of Junshui Camp, a veritable general, and the other one's identity was even more remarkable. He is the son of the current Emperor of Wei, King Su Zhao Hongrun.

However, the civil and military officials in Yanling City were more or less confused about this. After all, in the past, they had only heard of King Yong, King Xiang, King Yan, and King Qing. When did King Su appear again?

But it doesn't matter, anyway, as long as he is the son of Emperor Wei, as long as he is the prince of Wei, it will be enough to reassure the soldiers and people of Yanling City, and it will also be enough to cheer up the low morale of the soldiers in the army.

Yes, that's what they thought at first.

But when they later saw with their own eyes that the so-called His Highness Prince Su was just a child of only fourteen years old, their hearts suddenly sank to the bottom of the valley again.

"That's right, His Highness Prince Su..."

After welcoming Zhao Hongrun into the city guard house in Yanling, Pei Zhan, the magistrate of Yanling County, carefully checked the documents that Zhao Hongrun handed over to him.

These documents were issued by the imperial court and stamped with the seals of the Ministry of War and Emperor Wei to indicate Zhao Hongrun's identity.

While he was checking the documents, the other magistrates and military officers who had heard the news and had lost the county seat looked at Zhao Hongrun eagerly, not knowing what they were thinking.

too young...

Yanling Military Lieutenant Chen Shi's eyelids twitched and he couldn't help but look Zhao Hongrun up and down.

Because he was far away in Yanling and had never seen the princes of Daliang, after hearing about Prince Su going to the front line, he subconsciously judged His Highness Prince Su to be a prince in his twenties, but Unexpectedly, His Highness Prince Su is not yet fifteen years old this year.

This...are we really going to hand over military power to such a prince who is less than fifteen years old?

Chen Shi, the military commander of Yanling, couldn't help but hesitate.

And Zhao Hongrun was also carefully looking at the Yanling military commander Chen Shi in front of him, because he heard when he entered the city that the reason why the Chu army could not attack the north bank of Yan River was precisely because the Yanling military commander led the army. The result of repeated attacks.

Although the lives of many soldiers were sacrificed in repeated interceptions, the fact that the Chu army, whose strength far exceeded that of Yanling, was blocked to the south of the Yan River, and that many attempts to cross the Yan River failed to succeed is enough to prove that this Yanshui military officer was very capable in leading troops to fight. There is a certain level.

Otherwise, how could the military commanders in other counties listen to his orders?

If you can convince this person, you can save a gold token...

Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but think about it.

But it was obvious that Chen Shi, the military commander of Yanling, looked at Zhao Hongrun with a clear lack of trust.


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