Han Qian, Guo Liang, Li Chong and others rushed back to Canglang City at dawn.
At this time, the Jianghu camp was urgently building two temporary camps with wooden fence walls between Canglang City and the Han River and the Danjiang River.
Nearly two hundred people suffering from serious trauma in the fierce battle at Tieguling have been transferred to Canglang City for treatment. In addition to the subsequent gathering and transfer of grain and fodder, the previously built Canglang Earthen City is only a hundred paces square and can accommodate the craftsmen's camp.
With thousands of scouts in the state camp and Zuosi, it was already crowded.
At present, we can only cut down trees to build fences, and use wooden fence walls to enclose two camps near the water.
Han Qian did not stay in Canglang City, and took Tian Cheng and others with him, and then he, Guo Liang, and Li Chong continued to rush towards Tie Crocodile Ridge along the broken road at the western foot of Black Dragon Mountain.
Fortunately, Liang Jun did not continue to attack Tieguling today.
Li Zhigao lost nearly a thousand men in Tieguling in two days, but after all, he occupied a favorable terrain and had a remnant stronghold which was better than nothing. Liang Jun's casualties were twice as much as theirs.
Although Liang Jun was fierce and brave, seeing how strong the fighting will of Li Zhigao's troops at Tieguling was, no matter how many elites they had, they did not dare to waste them in vain.
Han Qian rushed to Tieguling. When the sun went up, he saw more than two thousand soldiers and horses of Liang Jun, trampling on the remaining snow and gathering at the bend of the Danjiang River ten miles away to the north. Judging from the movements, he seemed to want to build a tower next to the river beach.
Camp.
Li Zhigao's more than 3,000 soldiers and horses were exhausted and unable to stop Liang Jun from approaching Danjiang to build a fortress. However, the Danjiang water surface there was open. Even if Liang Jun's camp approached the river beach, there was no way to block the miles of open Danjiang waterway.
, Han Qian was not worried about Liang Jun's ability to block the waterway connection between Canglang City and Jingzikou.
In comparison, the mountains of Tieguling invade the Danjiang River. In particular, there is a section of the Danjiang River at the northern foot of Tieguling. It is only two to three hundred steps wide and is much more dangerous than the mouth of the bay.
If Tieguling falls into the hands of Liang Jun, Liang Jun only needs to build dozens or twenty stone crossbows on the cliff of Tieguling, or control the dangerous ridge on the other side and pull out an iron chain between the two banks.
The Danjiang River was blocked, leaving Jingzikou in a desperate situation where it was attacked from both sides.
The Longque Army did not want to retreat to the south bank of the Han River, which made Tieguling a must-defend place for the Longque Army.
To a certain extent, Tieguling's strategic position is even more important than Jingzikou.
After all, after losing Jingzikou, Liang Jun was directly threatened by Tieguling and had no way to directly build a material distribution terminal on the river beach ten miles to the north to accept the grain transported from Wuguan. The Danjiang Waterway would not
It was considered to be completely controlled by Liang Jun.
Li Zhigao's face was full of exhaustion, his chin was down, and his cheeks were covered with unshaved beard, but he looked a bit rough.
When he saw Han Qian and the others coming, he cheered up and came over. He was quite surprised to see Li Chong.
Han Qian told him about Chang Shi Shen Yang's proposition. Li Zhigao nodded and had no objection to it.
In fact, neither Han Qian nor Li Zhigao have the qualifications to stand on their own at this time. It would be beneficial to both Han Qian and Li Zhigao to bring in secretarial offices and subordinate staff from outside and reduce the proportion of direct descendants of Xinchang Prefecture among the subordinate staff of Longque Army Generals.
.
Guo Liang didn't know that the relationship between Han Qian, Li Zhigao and Li Chong had become so complicated, so he got off his horse and went to see the battlefield.
He has given a death order. His 1,500 soldiers are marching day and night and will arrive here tomorrow night. He is willing to obey Li Zhigao's control, but he has to command the troops himself. He needs to make sure to set up camp and work with Li Zhigao to resist Liang Jun's strong force.
The location of the attack.
Li Zhigao didn't say much and accompanied Han Qian and others to see the battlefield that was soaked in blood.
Liang Jun left thousands of corpses and piled them into a ravine on the east side of the disabled village. Hundreds of civilians were working non-stop to repair the abandoned village. At the same time, they started to dig a trench on the enemy side of the east side of the disabled village to block the enemy.
Delay the Liang Army's direct attack.
In addition to the previous 500 villagers, Han Qian transferred 200 people from the craftsmen's camp under the extremely tight manpower situation in Canglang City to prioritize the employment needs of Tiecrocodile Ridge; the materials shipped from Xuzhou were also
Give priority to protecting this side.
"Does Liang Jun intend to occupy the Nanyang Basin for a long time by using troops on the left wing like this?" Seeing the bloody battlefield that had not yet been cleaned up, Li Chong also realized that Liang Jun's use of troops in the Deng Xiang area this time was somewhat different from usual.
Previously, they, including the vast majority of people in Deng Xiang's Defense Ministry, thought that Liang Jun's intention to start a war on the northern front was to occupy more territory at the northern foot of Tongbai Mountain in order to control the upper reaches of the Huaihe River.
area.
At this time, seeing Guo Liang and his men running to the northwest mountain to see the terrain on the left and right, Li Zhigao lowered his voice and said to Li Chong and Yao Xishui, who was disguised as a woman:
"Second brother and Xishui, can you understand the painstaking efforts of Master Han and I at this time?"
Li Zhigao said this because he still wanted to ease the tense relationship before, but Han Qian was indeed secretly glad.
Thanks to him persuading Li Zhigao to forcibly abolish Chai Jian, Zhang Ping, Li Chong and others' control over the third prince in time, he ensured that Li Zhigao's troops were strengthened to the maximum extent during this period, and he was able to gather nearly a thousand people in Canglang City as scheduled.
Copycat folk husband.
Otherwise, if Liang Jun launched such a fierce attack on these two key points, Tiegushan Mountain and Canglang City, it would be impossible for them to be able to defend them.
Li Chong remained silent, but in retrospect, he was a little scared. If Han Qian and Li Zhigao hadn't launched a military remonstrance, he would have been guarding Jingzikou at this time, and he would have been sandwiched between Liang Jun. Whether he could successfully break through is really a matter of debate.
.
Yao Xishui raised her eyebrows slightly and said: "What the eldest brother did made my sister heartbroken. I asked my wife and the Marquis many times to come to Xiangzhou, and I was sure that the eldest brother would not be so heartless and unjust - but he didn't
Do you know if I should ask my sister to come over?"
When Yao Xishui mentioned Su Hongyu, Li Zhigao's eyelids twitched slightly, and Han Qian laughed in his heart.
Han Qian didn't have much contact with Su Hongyu in the past, but it can be seen that Su Hongyu has a deep affection for Li Zhigao.
However, even if Su Hongyu's past interactions with Li Zhigao were not necessarily a means by Madam Heisha and Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu to control people's hearts, Yao Xishui's current statement that Su Hongyu might go to Xiangzhou City must have a purpose.
Han Qian had previously been worried that Li Zhigao might be indecisive, but seeing that Li Zhigao was able to defend Tieguling despite the fierce attack by Liang Jun's elite, he secretly felt that Li Zhigao's will might be stronger than he had guessed.
It’s no wonder that in another historical trajectory, those characters were wiped out in the catastrophe three or four years later, but Li Zhigao could still be active for so long!
Seeing Guo Liang returning from inspecting the nearby terrain, Han Qian looked at the movements of Liang Jun at the mouth of the bay and in the direction of Neixiang City, and followed Li Zhigao with determination. Guo Liang said:
"No matter how the stalls are cleaned up after the war, even if they pay heavily for recruitment, the Longque Army must recruit soldiers and horses from the cottage to replenish the loss of troops."
The special history of the Dengxiang area for nearly a hundred years has made it possible to recruit at least three to five thousand elite soldiers with extremely high quality from the villages within a hundred miles to the left and right.
Of course, forcibly ordering these elite copycat civilians to serve will only encounter strong resistance, so the only option is to fund recruitment.
Although the Chu State's central army implemented a soldier system and local state camps implemented a military service system, the recruitment system was nothing new. It just put forward more stringent requirements for military supplies.
Of course, no matter how big the hole may be after the war, holding on to Tieguling Ridge is the key and top priority at the moment.
Han Qian proposed that the sudden attack was mainly to make up for the losses in the first capital, and Li Zhigao would not object to it.
Guo Liang walked around and realized clearly that the combat effectiveness of the fifth capital he led was not strong enough to withstand such a fierce battle. However, Tie Crocodile Ridge had to be defended, so he naturally hoped that the more troops the better.
As for money, food supplies and recruitment of troops, they have never been what their frontline generals need to consider.
Seeing Li Zhigao, Guo Liang had no objections. Han Qian asked Li Zhigao to recruit brave warriors from the villagers he had previously transferred to Tieguling. Even the two hundred prisoners with four surnames who were incorporated into Jianghu Camp were handed over to Li Zhigao as consumables.
Yong said: "In order to raise funds for recruiting troops, we jointly wrote a letter and sent people to Xiangzhou City quickly. We may be able to find the third prince. Mr. Shen will come forward as a guarantee to collect the salt stored in the Xiangzhou Salt and Iron Institute Prison.
All the money is borrowed - and the money for the salt purchase is settled directly by Linjiang Money Shop in Jinling to the Salt and Iron Transfer Department."
In the mountains of Han River and Danjiang River, salt is the hard currency.
Many cottages are basically self-sufficient in food. There are also cottages that mine iron ore, cast ironware from copper mines, and trade with each other. Although tea and medicine are scarce, they are not completely unavailable. Only salt must be purchased from the outside world. In the capitals of Chu and Shu,
In the case of severe crackdown on illegal salt, the price is higher than imagined.
Han Qian went to the village to talk about recruiting soldiers and continuing to hire civilians, but there was no salt for other supplies.
Han Qian immediately leaned against the broken wall, wrote the letter, signed it with Li Chong and Guo Liang, and asked Li Chong to sign the letter.
Han Qian did this as a sign of respect for Li Chong who joined the army as a recorder, but the corner of Li Chong's mouth twitched.
Li Chong is not stupid, and at the same time, he has almost become accustomed to thinking twice before making any move made by Han Qian.
Han Qian supervised the purchase of salt from the Xiangzhou Salt and Iron Institute in the name of Zuo Si. However, he used this batch of salt in the name of recruiting troops. In the end, it was written off as the war wasted. Should the price be written off at the price of the salt purchase, or at the price of the salt?
Write off the price of salt sold?
If it were the latter, it would be equivalent to Zuo Si not doing anything and having already cut off a large amount of profit.
"Li Canjun, what are you thinking about? Do you have a better strategy to defend this Iron Crocodile Ridge and prevent Liang Jun from retreating without a fight?" Han Qian cleared his throat and looked at Li Chong who had been silent for a while and asked.
Seeing Li Zhigao, Guo Liang looked at him eagerly. Li Chong woke up with a start and knew that regardless of other details, winning the current battle was the most important thing. Even though he was extremely reluctant, he picked up the pen and signed the letter,
Watching Han Qian send someone to rush to Xiangzhou City.
