Zhao Mingting bent his knees and half-crouched among the reeds, looking at the sails and masts on the south side of the lake that blocked the sky and the sun. In the cold wind, his skinny face looked like a long-standing rock. When the wind blew, the reed flowers floated up, as if it was snowing heavily.
Although after crossing the Yangtze River and fleeing north, he was appointed as the governor of Haozhou. Among the many generals who fled north, he was one of the few who was highly valued by Xu Mingzhen except Wen Bo.
Wen Bo is good at guarding. He is currently leading the remnant troops to stand firm in Chaozhou City and confront the main force of the Chu army led by Li Zhigao. It can be said that he is in danger. However, Zhao Mingting, who only has more than seven or eight thousand defeated troops in hand, is not having an easy life in Haozhou.
Whether he can breathe a sigh of relief depends on the battle in front of him. How can he not feel the heavy pressure of shouldering a huge task?
"There are two hundred and sixty-seven warships, large and small, and the soldiers and horses of the Left Five Tooth Army have sailed into Nidun Lake! The Right Five Tooth Army has been lured to the north. Sir, if we don't seal our mouths, the left and right Five Tooth Army will
The warships of the Five Tooth Army may enter the green reed swamp tomorrow morning. Liu Zhi and his men only have sixty or seventy small boats and more than two thousand men. They may not be able to resist there!" A military attaché wearing armor said
, bent down and walked to Zhao Mingting under the cover of reeds and said.
"Okay, send someone to order Wu Jin to build the boat, seal the Loach River, and break the sand pond entrance!" Zhao Mingting said through gritted teeth.
Hongzepo is a group of shallow lakes composed of a series of large and small lakes, swamps and depressions. Different lakes and swamps are connected by streams, depressions and other short and long water mouths of different sizes, forming an integrated whole.
The southwest of Hongzepu is close to the Wujian Mountains, and the lake bed on the southwest side is significantly higher than that on the east side.
It’s just that the water coming from Hongzepo mainly comes from the Qianshan in the southwest, the streams and rivers in Wujianshan and the Huaihe River on the west. In addition, the lake water is blocked by accumulated sand and mud between the lakes and lakes, so it flows slowly. Normally, the water in the southwest of Hongzepo
The water depth of the lakes on the side is not much different from the lakes on the east side.
However, after entering winter, the flow of streams originating from Qianshan and Wujianshan has dropped significantly, and the lakes in the southwest and west mainly rely on water from the upper reaches of the Huaihe River to replenish the lake water.
Zhao Mingting and others planned to cut through the sand and gravel paddle boats and sink them into several water supply streams in the north of Nidun Lake that received water from the Huaihe River, blocking the waterway.
Although this approach may not be able to reduce the water level of Nidun Lake by one foot overnight, the impact on the sharp-bottomed warships of Zuowu Yajun, which has a rather deep draft, is already huge.
Of course, Zhao Mingting and others had prepared several plans before.
If the main warships of Zuo Wuya Army can be lured into Caowei Lake further south, the effect will be better.
The lake bed there is shallower. Once the water entrance is sealed, a considerable number of the main warships of the Left Five Ya Army will be stranded directly in the middle of the lake, unable to move.
However, in that case, they would have to consider the possibility that the remnants of the more than 2,000 buildings of the naval force that had retreated into Caowei Lake as bait might be annihilated.
The navy in Shouzhou's hands was already extremely limited. Zhao Mingting was reluctant to sacrifice the more than 2,000 naval troops and horses retreating into Caowei Lake at this time. He decided to use Nidun Lake as a way to severely damage or even completely annihilate Zuo Wuya's navy.
On the battlefield of the main force, the combat plan is fully launched.
In order to prevent falling into a trap, Gao Chengyuan, as the vanguard commander, deliberately parked all the main warships of the Left Five Ya Army in Nidun Lake, which was nearly 20 miles wide, before nightfall, and sent out a small group of ships.
The troops formed formations in the directions of the three main entrances and exits of the lake to guard against the possibility of enemy troops entering Nidun Lake at night.
It was initially discovered that the water level had dropped
, is a warship responsible for guarding the entrance of the lake on the west side.
A warship anchored before nightfall, and it was clearly confirmed that the bottom of the ship was still some distance from the river bed. However, in the early morning, it was found that the bottom of the ship was directly resting on the river bed, and the hull was obviously tilted.
Gao Chengyuan received the message and felt that the situation was not good. He was about to send generals out in small boats to scout out the enemy's situation, but at this time, the patrol boats outside sent out warning signals.
After two sticks of incense, the stern-looking Gao Chengyuan saw hundreds of small enemy ships coming from the surrounding lake mouths like they were covering the sky. At this moment, although he tried his best to remain calm on the surface, he commanded the troops on the left and right to form a ship formation.
Welcoming the enemy attack, we groaned in pain: Mr. Chang Guo is harming me!
As one of the two chief generals of the Dachu Navy, Gao Chengyuan served as a guard for Emperor Tianyou in his early years. He was assigned by Emperor Tianyou to protect Yang Yuanpu. Later, he served as the general of the Longque Army. From the beginning to the end, he can be said to be the most trusted by Yang Yuanpu.
general.
After the vassal reduction war, he served as the governor of Yuezhou and was responsible for establishing the Yueyang Navy. From then on, he became the main commander of the Dachu Navy.
Gao Chengyuan is not a famous general in water warfare in the traditional sense, but he also knows that he has not understood the water conditions of Hongzepu. The main warships of the Wuya Army are mainly sharp-bottomed boats built by Xuzhou. The deep draft is not conducive to entering Hongzepu in the shallow lake area.
Combat.
Duke Chang Guo proposed a plan to use the main force of the navy as a partial force to attack Hongzepu. He was firmly opposed to it. However, His Majesty and most of the princes in the court were eager for the court to obtain more dazzling military exploits in Jiangbei before the year. They thought that the remnants of the Lou Chuan Army were already extremely exhausted.
Weak, and the Liang Army has almost no decent navy, the Wuya Army Navy will be able to overcome the disadvantages of Hongzepu, and even scare the remnants of the Lou Chuan Army out of Hongzepu, as long as it is conducive to the Right Shenwu Army to attack Zhongli City from the land
, can be regarded as achieving the goal.
But, where did the remnants of the Lou Chuan Army in front of me look the least bit frightened?
Gao Chengyuan looked at everything in front of him in pain...
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In the white mist, Li Chong reined in his horse and stopped on a low hill at Songlinkou.
Obstructed by the mist, the scenery more than a hundred steps away became blurry, but Li Chong still pretended to be overlooking the cliff.
After a while, Xu Jing, who was wearing official robes, led two strong men dressed as woodcutter, climbed to the hill, and said to Li Chong: "The defenders of Haozhou received the report late yesterday morning, and hurriedly rushed to the scene in the early morning.
Send two thousand infantry out of the city to reinforce Zhongli! I just don’t know if I can capture Zhao Mingting’s head this time?”
Before the Jinling Incident, Zhao Mingting was in charge of the Privy Council Office. Xu Jing did not seek to stand out in the army at this time, but being able to chop off Zhao Mingting's head during the war was also a symbol in a sense.
The west of Haozhou City is still seventy or eighty miles away from Hongzepu. The important walled city that really controls the west entrance of the Huaihe River into Hongzepu is Zhongli City.
The first goal of their attack plan was to severely injure the remnants of the Lou Chuan Army and occupy Zhongli City, so that the Right Shenwu Army and the main force of the Navy could be entangled on the west bank of Hongzepo, relying on each other on land and water.
Seeing the rebel troops in Haozhou City rushing towards Zhongli City for reinforcements, Li Chong thought that the development of the situation was as they expected. He looked uplifted and said proudly:
"Okay! Let's go and chop off Zhao Mingting's head to use as a urinal."
He personally led more than a thousand elite cavalry to sneak in from Mopanling the night before. Last night, he entered the northern foot of Cangwu Gang southeast of Haozhou City, where he was responsible for intercepting the reinforcements that were reinforcing Zhongli City.
Even if you can't be in the wild
In order to severely damage or annihilate the enemy reinforcements, he would also use the mobility advantage of the cavalry to delay the enemy reinforcements until Chen Mingsheng and Gao Long led the main force of the right Shenwu Army's horse infantry to rush over from Mopan Ridge to encircle and annihilate them, and then take advantage of the momentum to besiege Zhongli City.
Li Chong ordered the wolf smoke piled up in the mountains to be lit, sent a message in the direction of Mopanling, ordered the cavalry hidden in the pine forest, stepped on the mud roads in the fields, and galloped north.
The advantage of cavalry over infantry is that they can pass quickly between shallow hills, ridges and fields even if there are no roads. It only takes more than an hour for them to defeat more than 2,000 enemies who came out of Haozhou City.
Aid interception.
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The morning sun rising above the treetops, looking up, is so gentle in the mist, not dazzling at all.
Several points of smoke were lit one after another in the direction of Cangwugang, more than thirty miles away from Haozhou City.
Wen Muqiao and Niu Gengru were standing on the Haozhou city wall. Blocked by the mist, they naturally couldn't see the smoke rising from Cangwugang. However, after they heard the report of the scouting horse, they seemed to be able to vaguely hear the war horses.
The sound of running across the earth.
"Do you really want to abandon the two thousand men and horses who have just left the city without saving them?" Niu Gengru asked Wen Muqiao with difficulty.
"If you keep cutting off, you will suffer the consequences. Shouzhou has no right to hesitate." Wen Muqiao opened his dim old eyes and looked at the white mist rolling on the moat outside the city wall.
"..." Niu Gengru sighed.
When things got to this point, they had two options.
The first option is for the 20,000 elite cavalrymen of the Shouzhou Army who have already gathered at the southwest edge of Haozhou to march eastward and completely annihilate the main force of the Youshenwu Army that has been lured north of the Wujian Mountains.
This will not only force Li Zhigao to lead the Wuwei Army, Zuo Longque Army and other elite Chu troops to rescue the siege from Chaozhou City, but also more securely preserve Chaozhou City and the defenders inside. It can also take advantage of the situation to recapture Chuzhou City and blockade the imperial court.
The passage for the remaining naval forces to escape south.
At this point, there is no need for the elite main force of the Liang army gathered in Yingzhou and Xuzhou to go south. Shouzhou can almost maintain its independent status and does not need to completely fall into the arms of the Liang Kingdom.
However, even if they severely damaged the main force of the imperial navy and the main force of the Youshenwu Army, it would only take three to five years for the Chu imperial court to recover from such a setback; not to mention that they would also completely anger Liang Jun.
Next time, how will they face the onslaught of killing imperial troops?
The second option is to abandon the two thousand miscellaneous soldiers who have left the city, and ask fools like Yang Yuanpu and Chang Guogong Li Pu to decide that even if the main force of the navy is ambushed and severely damaged in Hongzepu, it does not prevent them from having enough time to capture the city.
Chaozhou City.
The left and right Wuwei troops and the Zuo Longque army commanded by Li Zhigao, Guo Liang, Zhou Pan and others were dragged under Chaozhou. Even if the Chaozhou defenders were completely wiped out, they would not hesitate to wait until the elite cavalry of the Liang army crossed the Huaihe River and join forces with them.
The main force of the Shouzhou Army went south, almost destroying the imperial military power in Huaixi in one fell swoop.
After that, Liang Jun was able to take advantage of the situation and capture Jingxiang and Huaidong.
Of course, if we do this, there is no question whether Wen Bo can defend Chaozhou City and survive, and the Shouzhou Army and them will have no choice but to completely surrender to the Liang Kingdom and will no longer be able to maintain their independence.
In fact, without Wen Muqiao's reminder, Niu Gengru also knew that they had only the second option, but he was somewhat unwilling to do so...
