Chapter five hundred and fifty second crossing the river
Yang Yuanpu was persistent and delayed for three days without convening the courtiers to discuss Han Qian's memorial, but the court had its own operating system.
Chen Zhiyong came to visit, but Feng Liao and Guo Rong came across the river this time. In addition to presenting a memorial on Han Qian's behalf, they would also negotiate with the Privy Council, the Branch Office and other departments according to normal procedures, so they would not rush back for the time being.
Tangyi met with Han Qian and Zhou Zan.
Therefore, Han Daoming and Han Daochang's inner anxiety has not been relieved at all in the past few days, and they cannot guess Han Qian's inner thoughts towards the Han family; and the old man has been angry and has not seen anyone, let alone crossed the river in person.
Meet Han Qian.
Han Daoming and Han Daochang could only pay attention to Feng Liao and Guo Rong's negotiations with the academy director.
No matter whether the defense of Dasi Mountain, Chuhe River to Tangyi is finally handed over to Han Qian, as long as the Queen Mother's edict is regarded as valid, the Xuzhou water camp will serve as the king's troops, and the generals will receive food, pay, and military merit.
Necessary cooperation must be carried out in the repair of damaged ordnance warships and the construction of camps, the deployment of mules, horses, and able-bodied civilians, as well as the headquarters, branch offices, and military headquarters.
Of course, after the main force of the navy was destroyed in Hongzepo, the imperial court also considered the unfavorable situation of the storming of Chaozhou City, and further mobilized the Kinkishu counties such as Gyeonggi and Xuanshechi and Surunjang Lake. At this time, there were also a large number of
provided mules and horses with food, rural soldiers and civilian bravery, and hundreds of merchant ships and fishing boats that were intended to be reused to form a navy.
Among them were 60 shiploads of supplies, more than 3,000 civilians, and more than 1,000 horse infantry recruited by Guangde Prefecture and personally escorted by Chen Jingzhou, the prefect of Guangde Prefecture.
The original plan for this part of the troops and supplies was to pass through Tangyi and then transfer to Chaozhou Camp.
In the past, this was nothing. The imperial court also preferred people with rich experience like Chen Jingzhou who could personally lead reinforcements into the front line.
However, as the Xuzhou water camp moved eastward, especially after Han Qian, led by Han Qian, rushed to Tangyi to join Zhou Tan, who led Jiangzhou soldiers for reinforcements, many things became sensitive.
Regarding the matter of negotiation, the Privy Council can delay as long as they can. In the end, they still want to see what the Emperor and the Queen Mother want.
In fact, most of the civilian men who can be recruited from Guangde Mansion are former members of the Zuo Guangde Army. Can you call this group of people to transport supplies to Tangyi? Feng Liao, Guo Rong and others have been going to Changchun Palace for several days to pay their respects.
In fact, we negotiated with Lu Qingxia, Yao Xishui and the others.
While Emperor Yanyou was delaying the decision, the Empress Dowager's edict issued by the Changchun Palace could also legally determine the whereabouts of this group of people and supplies.
Things did not drag on for too long and progress was made.
On December 16, news of Liang Jun's 20,000 infantry garrisoning in Zhongli reached Jinling. At this time, 40,000 Shouzhou troops had arrived in Chaozhou from Huozhou and Shouzhou, increasing the number of troops stationed in Chaozhou to six.
Zhongli's 40,000 cavalry and infantry could move south at any time, and the situation west of Hangou became tense again.
The scouts who went deep into the northwest of Hongzepu also confirmed that the civilian men, mules and horses requisitioned by the Liang State from the direction of Songzhou, Chenzhou, and Yingzhou were transporting a large amount of grain and materials southward. The team stretched for more than ten miles.
The hinterland of Liang State also rushed to formally announce the imperial announcement in these days, publicly canonizing Xu Mingzhen as Huo Guogong, canonizing the emperor's grandson Yang Fen as Chu Guogong, canonizing Zhu Gengru, Wen Muqiao and others as marquises, and the Xu family leads the Yang family.
More than a hundred of his descendants moved to Bianjing and other news.
Many people know in their hearts that in the past year, the Shouzhou Army soldiers and horses were suppressed and beaten by the Northern Army's forbidden troops. This is not because they lacked strong combat effectiveness.
How could the Shouzhou Army led by Xu Mingzhen be weak in combat effectiveness after more than ten years of confrontation with the Liang Army in the middle and upper reaches of the Huaihe River?
How could the imperial army and bodyguards used by Emperor Tianyou to defend the imperial capital be weak in combat effectiveness?
The weakness of the rebels, in addition to being deceived by King Xinling Yang Yuanyan at the beginning, was on the one hand the moral confusion caused by the Jinling Incident, and another important reason was the shortage of supplies since the Jinling Incident.
After the rebels of the Peace Army fled north across the Yangtze River, the problem of material shortage became more prominent and acute.
Even so, the soldiers and horses of various battalions attacked Jinling City and Li Zhigao led the Huaixi Forbidden Army to besiege Chaozhou City, but they failed to gain much benefit.
When Shouzhou was extremely short of supplies, the Forbidden Army on the north bank could freely attack. However, even if the main force of the Liang Army had transferred to Chuzhou, the situation in Huaixi could be said to have been completely reversed.
On the one hand, the main naval force of the imperial court was destroyed in Hongzepu, and the You Shenwu Army, which had only a few motorized horse infantry and cavalry, was almost completely destroyed. The strength of Da Chu's imperial army on the north bank had been severely weakened.
Purely in terms of the number of troops, including the generals of the water division, nearly 120,000 troops were gathered on the north bank before the war. However, except for the few remaining defeated troops gathered in Tangyi, Li Zhigao led a retreat from Chaozhou City to the southeast of Qianshan.
There are only more than 60,000 men and horses at the foot of the mountain.
After the Shouzhou Army has received sufficient supplies, its combat effectiveness will soon be improved. Twenty thousand Liang Army reinforcements will come in, and its total strength in Huaixi will also increase to 140,000.
No one can imagine how serious the defense situation in Gyeonggi will be once Tangyi, Dasishan, and the Chuhe River line all fall to the enemy, and the remaining warships of the Lou Chuan Army can directly enter and leave the Yangtze River from these areas.
Although there are still 60,000 soldiers and horses stationed in the capital on the south bank of the capital, including the left and right guards and two imperial troops, these soldiers and horses were hurriedly formed after Yang Yuanpu ascended the throne. They were drawn from the soldiers of various states. In terms of the proportion of old soldiers, soldiers and equipment, etc., they are all for the time being.
It was not as good as the Zuo Longque Army, Zuo Wuwei Army, and the annihilated Right Shenwu Army led by Li Zhigao.
No matter what kind of guesses and suspicions there are, you can't throw the pot away first.
No matter how big and deep the prejudice against Han Qian the family clans were, they had to admit that Han Qian was the candidate most likely to turn the tide.
Although Du Chongtao and Zhou Bingwu were both famous generals in Chu, they did not have any trustworthy direct soldiers and horses, and they did not dare to say that they could cross the river to the north bank to replace Han Qian.
After Shenyang, Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu, Han Daoming, Du Chongtao, Zhou Bingwu and other participating ministers submitted numerous requests, Yang Yuanpu finally established the Tangyi camp at dusk on the 18th, and appointed Han Qian, Marquis of Guizhou Yang, as the general manager of the camp and commander of the camp.
Envoy, with the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, is fully responsible for the construction of a hundred-mile-long defense line in Tangyi, Dachishan, Chuhe and other places, and is responsible for a length of about three hundred miles from Fucha Mountain on the east bank of Chaohu Lake to Nashan Mountain on the west wing of Yangzhou.
war zone operations.
At the same time, it was also agreed that Han Qian summoned the old troops of Zuo Guangde Army and the brave refugees, and newly organized infantry battalions to assist Tangyi and other cities. Chen Jingzhou led the first batch of troops and supplies to Tangyi urgently for use, while Tangyi camp paid soldiers
As well as the loss of war equipment and the construction of camps, the temporary quota of 20,000 regular soldiers will be allocated by the Duzhi Envoy in full, and an additional 100,000 yuan will be allocated as usual...
The imperial edict was immediately conveyed by Zhou Bingwu, deputy envoy to the Privy Council, and Jiang Huo, the young eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, across the river to Tangyi.
How the situation in Huaixi will develop is still unknown, but the return of Qianyang Hou Han Qian to the center is a foregone conclusion.
On the 21st, Han Daoming asked for an order from Laojun. He, Han Daochang, Han Jun, Han Duan, Chen Zhiyong and other Han family members met with Feng Liao who stayed on the south bank to supervise the transportation of grain and grass supplies, and then crossed the river by boat to meet Han Qian in Tangyi.
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Tangyi City is less than forty miles north of Jinling City. When the sky clears, standing on the north wall of Jinling City, you can vaguely see the walls of Tangyi City on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
At this time, there are only ten days left before the New Year's Day, the weather has reached the coldest time of the year, and the water level of the Yangtze River has dropped to its lowest.
The section of the Yangtze River north of Jinling City is only eleven or twelve miles wide.
However, there are still shallow depressions for nearly thirty miles from the north bank of the Yangtze River to Tangyi City. Traces of river erosion can still be seen in these areas, with silt deposited everywhere. Streams and rivers meander in these shallow depressions, and there are also
There are many lakes, ponds and swamps.
Every summer and autumn when the river rises, most of these areas will be submerged, and the river will even spread directly to the bottom of Tangyi City.
Sometimes the floods in the upper reaches are particularly serious, and the land north of Tangyi City will be submerged in a vast ocean.
This particularity means that even if there are streams flowing into the Yangtze River outside Tangyi City, the river beds are extremely shallow.
Even the Chu River, the main trunk stream in Chuzhou, stretches for more than 500 miles and has a river channel of 30 to 50 miles downstream. It seems to be 300 to 400 feet wide, but the water level is only 3 to 4 feet deep in winter.
The main warships of the Xuzhou Shuiying had a draft of seven or eight feet, and could not even enter the Chu River. There was also no way to pass through other streams and rivers and directly reach the foot of Tangyi City.
Han Daoming and the others took a boat across the river with Feng Liao. They saw four newly arrived galleys in the middle of the river anchoring directly in the surging waves. They were completely unafraid of the impact of the river waves. Hundreds of small paddle boats
The ships gathered from the north and seemed to be transferring the supplies from the four rowed warships to Tangyi City.
Seeing this scene, Han Daoming thought to himself that no wonder Han Qian insisted in his memorial to expand the defense line on the north bank to Dachishan, which is more than forty miles away to the west.
Han Daoming may not be a famous official or general in Da Chu, but he is also very familiar with the mountains and rivers near Chizhou and Gyeonggi.
Dasi Mountain rests on the Chu River in the north and the Yangtze River in the south. Especially the mountains on the south side invade the Yangtze River, which makes several natural bays on the south side have extremely deep drafts and can be used as water camps to accommodate large warships.
Han Qian obviously wants to set up a navy stronghold in Dasi Mountain on the north bank to ensure that the only naval combat force in the Jianghuai River is always under his control, instead of setting up a navy stronghold on the south bank of the Yangtze River.
which place.
At this time, a black-paneled boat sailed into the Yangtze River from the Chuhe estuary. The small black-paneled boat was rocked by the waves in the Yangtze River.
The ships on the Yangtze River, no matter how big or small, all formed a group of three or five, flying the battle flag of Xuzhou Shuiying. Only this black awning boat crossed the river alone. There were dozens of generals on board, but there were no
No flags were hoisted, but Xuzhou's guard ships on the river did not go over to intercept them.
"Who is on that ship?" Han Daoming asked Feng Liao curiously.
Feng Liao has been staying on the south bank these days. Apart from passing on necessary information, it is impossible for him to know everything about the situation on the north bank in detail.
They were sailing towards each other, and soon they saw the ship approaching. Feng Liao stood at the bow of the ship and was about to ask, when he heard a sad cry from the other side's cabin: "The general has died!"
