Shen Yang and the third prince negotiated with Du Chongtao for several days, and Du Chongtao finally agreed to give extra money and food to the Longque Army according to the standard of three thousand strong civilians, so that the Longque Army could recruit civilians near its base to meet the needs of building forts and assisting in defense. .
In fact, it is to allocate an additional three thousand shi of corn, one thousand shi of bean feed, and sixty stone salt to the Longque Army every month.
Zhou Shu, Guo Liang, and Gao Chengyuan were stationed at Niushou Village on the east side of Xiangzhou City. At the suggestion of the third prince and Shen Yang, this money and food was naturally given priority to Li Zhigao and Zuo Si who were stationed at the front left of the station.
With this money and food, Han Qian does not need to go to Jingzikou and Canglang City to replenish supplies, and can even collect some mountain goods to make up for the previous deficit.
Han Qian not only built the city in Canglang, but also suggested to Li Zhigao at Jingzikou that he first use the remaining tunnel foundations to build a small fortification of a hundred or seventy or eighty steps square.
Li Zhigao was good at running the army and charging into battle, but not good at managing logistics, so he simply handed over the more than 200 army craftsmen and craftsmen he was assigned to Han Qian for unified management.
Han Qian's cooperation model with Shanzhai in Jingzikou also sent craftsmen to guide the lime burning and the mining and smelting of coal and iron materials. Zuo Si was responsible for the acquisition. In this way, most of the manpower could actually be saved, making the relevant Work can be advanced quickly.
After the military remonstrance, Han Qian was worried that Li Zhigao's control of the first capital would be severely tested. After all, the grassroots military attachés of the Longque Army were almost all served by soldiers from the Xinchang Hou Mansion. In theory, they were all loyal to Xinchang. Hou Lipu's.
However, it turned out that Han Qian's worries were somewhat unnecessary.
When Li Yu, the king of eastern Zhejiang, commanded the army, Li Pu was more engaged in assisting, while Li Zhigao joined the army at the age of fourteen. He was first a personal guard around Li Yu, and officially became the first officer at the age of eighteen. The line leader initially served as a scout sentry.
After the founding of Da Chu in Jinling, the northern territory was generally confirmed. Xu Mingzhen, Du Chongtao and other generals guarded the northern front and fought against Liang Jun. However, the expansion of territory on the southern front continued until the eighth year of Tianyou's reign before it was basically stabilized.
During this period, Li Yu's troops undertook the most arduous combat tasks.
Li Zhigao was very young, but he was good at running the army and fighting bravely. He was highly appreciated by his uncle Li Yu, and he gradually grew from a team leader to a general. Li Yu was transferred to the court and no longer led troops, and Li Zhigao also After leaving the army, he joined the army as a magistrate in prefectures and counties, and gained experience in government affairs and prisons.
Zhou Yuan, Zhou Shu, Chai Jian and others are indeed the direct descendants of Xinchanghou Mansion and Wanhonglou. They are beyond the control of Li Zhigao. However, many of the ordinary soldiers of Xinchanghou Mansion were directly led by Li Zhigao in the army. The elite soldiers came out.
Li Zhigao also intended to arrange his close relatives to the first capital that he personally led. Before that, Xinchang Hou Lipu and the black veiled woman also wanted to strengthen the first capital's combat power as much as possible despite limited resources. There was no objection to Li Zhigao's arrangement.
They never thought that Li Zhigao would escape their control.
The families of these generals were all incorporated into the garrison military mansion and were no longer under the direct control of the Xinchang Hou Mansion.
As for the integration of the 500 elite members of the original guard battalion into the first capital, they did not encounter any resistance.
After all, the expansion of the Linjiang Hou Mansion's guard camp from 150 people to 500 elites was completed by Li Zhigao.
At this time, even No. 1 had some objections, but they were quickly suppressed by Li Zhigao.
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In mid-December, the Liang Army captured Suiping City in the southwest of Caizhou, and the Shouzhou Army was forced to shrink eastward. At this point, the northern line of the Nanyang Basin was completely exposed to the prying eyes of the Liang Army.
At this time, more and more Liang Jun soldiers and horses entered the Nanyang Basin.
Under pressure, Du Chongtao withdrew all the troops and horses defending the northern front such as Fangcheng, Tanghe and even Wancheng, Xinye and so on.
There was a fierce dispute within the northwest camp over whether to abandon the positions of the left front vanguard army and the right front vanguard army led by Li Zhigao and Ma Xun respectively, and withdraw all troops and horses to the south of the Han River.
On this point, Han Qian and Shen Yang have a consensus, and even Guo Rong has a consensus.
For Guo Rong, if the west wing completely gives up the defense north of the Han River, it is actually equivalent to completely giving up the containment of Liang Jun from the west wing. Liang Jun only needs to place a small number of troops inside the Nanyang Basin to defeat the enemy. Put all other forces on the Shouzhou Army.
In this case, even if the Liang Army's offensive is finally resisted, the Shouzhou Army's casualties this year will be extremely heavy.
This is definitely not what Anning Palace and the prince's family, including Guo Rong, Xu Zhaoling and even Jin Rui, want to see.
As far as Shen Yang was concerned, he did not want the Chu army to suffer a heavy setback due to factional disputes within the imperial court - the Chu army on the west wing had gathered a certain amount of strength and should not fight in such a passive manner.
As for Han Qian, Deng Xiang's troops had given up in other directions. Only Li Zhigao's troops and Zuosi had only 2,670 people. If he did not want to withdraw to the south bank of the Han River and defend the Danjiang River alone, the pressure would be too great. Big.
And if they retreat to the south bank of the Han River, all the preparations made in the first two months will be in vain, and all his plans in the Deng Xiang area will also come to nothing.
However, when Du Chongtao arranged his defense, he mainly arranged the main force of the direct Xiangzhou Army in Fancheng and Xiangzhou City, and arranged the reinforced passenger cars on both wings.
Under this situation, apart from the special purpose of the Dragon Bird Army, other guest generals such as Zheng Hui, Xia Zhen and Tanzhou Jiedushi Prince Ma Xun all hoped to withdraw to the south bank of the Han River to avoid facing the elite Liang Army. of edge.
In the end, it was Emperor Tianyou's decree that settled the dispute within the northwest camp.
Emperor Tianyou really wanted to reduce the military power of Shouzhou Jiedushi Xu Mingzhen. In that case, no matter whether he abolished the direct descendants or not, he would not cause uncontrollable chaos. But at the same time, he never wanted to see the Shouzhou army defeated or defeated. If defeated, all the states of Cai, Shen, Guang, and Shou would fall into the hands of Liang Jun, but the entire northern frontier of the empire would become fragile, and Liang Jun could threaten the Yangtze River at any time.
As Emperor Tianyou who single-handedly created the Chu Empire, his mind was still clear.
He did not have the illusion that both the Shouzhou Army and the Liang Army would suffer losses. He was quite dissatisfied with the passive response of the Western Wing troops to the Liang Army. The edict that reached Xiangzhou at the end of December strictly prohibited Du Chongtao from withdrawing all his troops to the south bank of the Han River.
This also ended the dispute within the northwest camp.
However, at this time, the right front troops led by Ma Xun, the prince of Tanzhou Jiedushi, all withdrew from the defense camp at the west foot of Tongbai Mountain to Zaoyang, and tried their best to defend the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Dahong Mountain to prevent Liang Jun from crossing into Suizhou in the east. Seeing that Xia Zhen could not evacuate to the south of the Han River, Xia Zhen led the Yingzhou soldiers to abandon Neixiang City without authorization and marched westward to Xichuan City, where the situation was more dangerous, and joined Zheng Hui, a soldier from Huangzhou.
In this way, the river channel about 60 to 70 miles long in the lower reaches of the Danjiang River is exposed.
The Danjiang River flows into the Han River from Canglang City (the old city of Jun County).
Canglang City (the old city of Jun County) is mainly connected to the outside world by waterways. In addition, along the east bank of the Danjiang River and the north bank of the Han River, there are roads leading to Neixiang in the north and Fancheng in the east, but the roads are relatively narrow and steep.
, Liang Jun's large number of troops did not dare to break in easily, otherwise, they would easily be made dumplings.
The Danjiang River goes north from Canglang City and passes through the Heilong Mountains, a remnant of the Qinling Mountains. The river course runs from north to south. The west bank of the river is full of high mountains, but there is a gap of sixty or seventy miles on the east bank, mainly between Heilong Mountains and Funiu Mountains.
, the hilly terrain with heights ranging from tens of meters to two to three hundred meters is not very steep.
Without the protection of Neixiang City in the northeast corner, if a large number of Liang Jun's troops entered the Nanyang Basin, they could directly cross the low hills and mountains in this area and drink from the Danjiang River, and then it would be possible to cut off the connection between Canglang City and Jingzikou.
When he learned that Xia Zhen had abandoned the defense of Neixiang City, Han Qian was in Xiangzhou at the time and stamped his feet in anxiety. However, he could only head westward along the Han River without stopping that night, passing through Canglang City, and starting from Danjiang River east of Heilong Mountain.
Can Dao went north and led Zuo Si's scouts to Tie Crocodile Ridge, which is sixty miles away from Canglang City.
Tieguling is located on the east bank of the Danjiang River, less than ten miles to the north, where the Danjiang River forms a large right angle of almost 90 degrees, turning westward into the high mountains at the southwest foot of the Qinling Mountains.
The main peak of Tieguling is only over 60 feet high, but the terrain is quite steep. Standing on the top of the mountain and looking to the left and right, there are many criss-crossing broken roads and abandoned villages quietly lurking under the heavy snow, distributed from
Between Neixiang City and the hills and mountains more than seventy miles away from Heilong Mountain, there are no dangerous passes that cannot be cleared by tens of thousands of people, which can prevent Liang's troops from reaching the Danjiang coast.
Standing on the main peak of Iron Crocodile Ridge, Han Qian could even see a group of Liang Jun scouts wearing black robes and armor, wandering in the wilderness less than twenty miles away - from there to the east is a flat river with two
The Nanyang Basin is three hundred miles deep.
If Xia Zhen had led his troops to garrison Neixiang City, which was more than twenty miles away to the northeast, Liang Jun's scouts would not have dared to act so recklessly in this area.
The morning sun shone on the snowy field, and the surroundings were bright. Six awning boats sailed down the water and docked at the foot of Tieguling Mountain.
Seeing Li Zhigao jumping off the river beach, Han Qian took Tian Cheng, Xi Rong and others and quickly walked down Tieguling to meet Li Zhigao.
"Why did Du Yuhou come here in person?" Han Qian asked.
"The thief Xia Zhen was too timid and abandoned the defense of Neixiang City. The flanks of the Danjiang waterway were exposed. I was worried that Liang Jun had the intention to control the Danjiang waterway. However, Xiangzhou was slow to respond and took the lead.
The soldiers and horses of the battalion came here to be prepared," Li Zhigao, who led his troops and horses from the upper reaches of the Danjiang River, said, "I didn't expect that you and I were thinking of going to the same place, and you arrived at Tie Crocodile Ridge earlier."
"I got the news last night and persuaded Your Highness to go to see Du Chongtao and try to mobilize Chengyuan's troops. But before His Highness met with Du Chongtao, I rushed over to check on Liang Jun's movements," Han Qian said, "You are the leader.
Now that the battalion troops have arrived, I can feel relieved and can sleep peacefully for at least two or three days."
"How do you predict Liang Jun will fight?" Li Zhigao asked.
"You must be prepared for a tough battle," Han Qian warned Li Zhigao, "Liang Jun enters the Nanyang Basin, and how to fight next is no longer a matter for vanguard general Han Yuanqineng to decide. If I were Liang Jun's coach Han Jian, I would order
Regardless of the cost, Han Yuanqi first controlled the Danjiang waterway, and then attacked Jingzikou with Guanzhong soldiers and horses. In this way, the grain, soldiers and horses collected from Guanzhong could go directly down the Danjiang River from Wuguan to support them.
The main force on the southern front is fighting inside the Nanyang Basin!"
Li Zhigao nodded, he also judged the same.
Liang Jun arrived at Fancheng. Although it was a flat river to Fangchengkou in the north of Nanyang Basin, there was still a land route of 300 miles.
Especially if Deng Xiang and the Chu Army did not abandon the dangerous mountain passes on both sides, the supply pressure on the Liang Army on the southern front would be great.
In addition, Liang Jun mainly collected grain and fodder from the area east of Luoyang for this battle. It was still very stressful to ensure nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses and a similar number of civilians.
If we collect grain and grass from the Guanzhong area west of Luoyang, go eastward through Tongguan, then go south to Ruzhou and Xuzhou, and then transport it from Ruzhou and Xuzhou to the front line, it will still be quite troublesome.
As long as Liang Jun can control the Danjiang waterway, the grain and grass in the southern part of Guanzhong can be transported to Shangzhou for assembly. After arriving at Wuguan, they can directly go down the Danjiang River, which saves a lot of trouble.
Only in that way can they achieve their goal of occupying Nanyang Penyang for a long time.