Chao Lake, also known as Juchao Lake and Jiao Lake, is located in the southwestern part of Huaihei. It extends for more than 130 miles from east to west and more than 50 miles from north to south. It is so vast that it is second only to Hongzepu between the Jianghuai River and Fanliang Lake.
superior.
The Chaohu Lake water system extends to the entire Huaixi area, forming the Huaixi water network, connecting the Huaihe River above and reaching the Yangtze River.
Occupying Chaohu Lake can pose a threat to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It can be said that "looking into the chasm of the sky, Jinling is in danger". Therefore, it has always been one of the important passages for northern soldiers and horses to go south, and it has also been a must-win place for military strategists in the Jianghuai River competition of all dynasties.
Because the terrain around Chaohu Lake is low mountains and shallow hills, the upper reaches gather streams and rivers from the surrounding mountains, while the lower reaches flow out from between Ruxu Mountain and Qibao Mountain in the west of Liyang County through the Yuxi River, winding for more than 60 miles.
flows into the Yangtze River.
Yuxi River is also the only river-connected waterway in Chaohu Lake in the world.
As Ruxukou, the southern outlet of Chaohu Lake, two mountains confront each other, the Yuxi River flows through it, and the upper reaches is the deep and wide bay of Chaohu Lake. The terrain is very dangerous.
During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, the coast of Chaohu Lake was the focus of competition between Wu and Wei.
Zhuge Liang later declared that Cao Wei "could not cross Chaohu four times", which meant that Wu and Wei launched four large-scale wars in the Chaohu area in just eight years.
In order to resist Cao Wei, Sun Wu built a fort on Ruxu Mountain on the east bank of the Yuxi River, called Ruxuwu. It served as a land stronghold for the Wu Kingdom's navy. It was also called Dongguan because it was located on the east bank of the Yuxi River. It had to be repaired in every dynasty.
, has been preserved to this day.
Silt accumulates along the coast of Chaohu Lake, and thirty or forty miles south from Ruxu Mountain, mainly on the north bank of the Yangtze River, the Yuxi River is not only seriously silted up, but the river course has also changed many times over the past hundred years, making it unnavigable.
Conditions are extremely poor.
In particular, the terrain between Ruxu Mountain and Qibao Mountain is high, blocking the mighty Chaohu Lake water to the north. The water level is even lower in the dry season of autumn and winter, and it is common for the flow to dry up in previous years.
Although the Yuxi River has not stopped flowing in the autumn and winter of the past two years, small and medium-sized ships with a load of about 100 rocks cannot enter Chaohu directly through Ruxukou.
Even so, Li Zhigao led his troops to seize Chaozhou and Chuzhou. When the army advanced into Chaozhou, he immediately further strengthened the construction of Dongguan Village on the east bank of Yuxi River at the location of ancient Ruxuwu.
Of course, after the Huaixi Forbidden Army withdrew, Dongguan Village fell into the hands of the Shouzhou Army.
On the 20th day of the first month of the third year of Yanyou's reign, dozens of winged boats set off from Fanchang City on the south bank, crossed the Yangtze River, entered the Yuxi River through the mouth of Yuxi, and headed north. Under the command of He Liufeng, thousands of soldiers were among the first batch.
Abandoned the boat and landed on the south side of Dongguan Fort.
Even though the navigation conditions of the Yuxi River are extremely poor, as the only river-connected waterway in Chaohu at that time, the strategic value of Dongguan Village cannot be ignored.
The Shouzhou Army stationed two battalions of more than 600 elite troops in Dongguan Village.
For Han Qian, Dongguan Village, located at the foot of the southern foothills of Ruxu Mountain, is not only the only way to cut off the enemies on the southwest bank of Chaohu Lake to bypass the south bank of Chaohu Lake to reinforce Liyang City, but also after the Dongguan Village is captured, even with the use of a winch,
Even if thousands of trackers are recruited, a group of small and medium-sized warships can be dragged through Ruxukou and into Chao Lake.
At this time, all the streams and rivers north of Chao Lake are still frozen, and there are no warships of the Louchuan Army in Chao Lake. Whoever can send the warships into Chao Lake first will definitely have the upper hand, and may even force the enemy to strengthen.
Defenses along the north shore and west shore of Chaohu Lake.
Therefore, the first battle of the Liyang War took place at the southern foot of Ruxu Mountain without any warning - Han Qian chose the Dongguan Village for the first battle. More importantly, this could directly interfere with the enemy generals' understanding of their combat intentions.
judge.
When the Shouzhou Army entered the territory of Chuzhou, the hastily built camp at the eastern foot of Tingzi Mountain was only built on top of the village. The protective wall was only more than two feet thick. It could not withstand the violent impact of the car several times and suddenly collapsed, leaving a gap.
But Dongguan Village has long been a standard military fort.
Dongguan Village was strengthened in the hands of the Huaixi Forbidden Army. The city wall is more than ten feet high and one foot and three feet thick, and is covered with bricks both inside and outside.
The city wall of Dongguan Village has turrets at the four corners. The wall is only more than 300 steps wide on one side, but there are three rectangular piers protruding from the city wall, commonly known as horse-faced piers.
This not only further strengthens the structure of the city wall, but also directly suppresses the attacking annexed city from the side.
Even if the roads between the hills and silts are inconvenient, it will only take two or three days for reinforcements from the enemy troops on the left and right.
At this time, Tangyi soldiers had not yet been able to break in and effectively block the reinforcements of the enemy.
At this time, in addition to the subsequent mobilization of new troops and horses from the mouth of the Yuxi River, they landed directly on both sides of the Yuxi River and dispersed along the Ruxu Mountain and Qibao Mountain to the two wings of Dongguan Village to intercept the enemy reinforcements.
His attack was even more brutal and direct.
Thousands of barrels of tung oil or oil extracted from other crops were transported to the offensive positions.
After a dozen cyclone cannons were set up, they were not throwing stone bombs.
When attacking such a strong fortress, even if a stone bullet weighing two to three hundred kilograms can hit the front accurately, it will not be possible for the city wall to collapse and create a large gap in three to five days; not to mention that the soldiers and civilians in the stronghold may collapse at any time.
Move bricks, wood, rocks and soil to fill the gap.
What was thrown was a lit fire oil tank. As long as the fire was ignited, hundreds of tung oil and other oils were thrown into Dongguan Village regardless of the cost. They even poured molten iron into the city, directly and violently destroying the city wall.
While defending facilities and buildings in the city, try to kill and injure the defenders as much as possible.
Dozens of building carts and nest carts were assembled, and more than a hundred generals, all armed with powerful crossbows, suppressed the guards at the top of the city. They covered Han Bao and other warriors wearing heavy armor, and used climbing vehicles and other weapons to attack the city.
The guards were all veterans who had grown up in bloody battles. The counterattack was extremely brave and fierce. The Tangyi soldiers did not know how many weapons were destroyed.
However, no matter how limited the effects of war weapons in the Cold Weapon Age were, a well-prepared side still had a huge advantage that was irreversible. The 600 defenders held on for two days before being completely annihilated.
The war did not stop because the defenders of Dongguan Village were completely wiped out.
As Dongguan Village controls the only river channel in Chaohu Lake, its strategic position is too important.
The Tangyi soldiers stormed Dongguan Village regardless of the cost. There are enough reasons to believe that Han Qian was determined to send the warships to Chaohu first to seize the opportunity. Otherwise, the Loujun army that entered Chaohu later would be blocked.
From Chaohu Lake, it is difficult to enter the Yangtze River.
The enemy forces on the west bank of Chao Lake were restrained by the Huaixi Forbidden Army and did not send troops and horses to assist. However, after the Tangyi soldiers captured the camp at the eastern foot of Tingzi Mountain and built a fortress at the mouth of the Wushou River, the Shouzhou Army also strengthened the west of the Wushou River and the Chu River.
The defense in Liyang County to the west; the number of Liyang defenders increased from 2,000 at the beginning to more than 4,000.
Tangyi soldiers launched a raid on Dongguan Village, and Li Yangshou general Li Yang couldn't just sit idly by and watch Dongguan Village fall.
General Liyang sent people to Chaozhou City and Chuzhou City to request reinforcements. At the same time, he personally led 3,000 soldiers and horses to reinforce Dongguan Village from the southern foot of Ruxu Mountain non-stop.
It is only more than eighty miles from Liyang City to Dongguan Village.
The battle of Dongguan Village continued until noon on the second day. Xiao Dahu led the soldiers and horses that entered the southern foot of Ruxu Mountain. They entangled and fought with the Liyang defenders who came out of the city to reinforce Dongguan Village.
At this time, Zhou Chu, Lin Haizheng, Zhao Qi, Su Lie and others led more than 10,000 soldiers and horses gathered in Tingzi Mountain, Wushou River and other places, and then boldly dispatched, moving as quickly as possible along both sides of the Chu River.
Push westward.
Zhou's troops went straight to Liyang City. He wanted to take advantage of the large number of defenders being mobilized to lure out of Liyang City, complete the encirclement of Liyang City with only a thousand defenders left, and capture Liyang City as quickly as possible.
Lin Haizheng and Zhao Qi led their troops, with the cooperation of Shuiying warships, to enter the upper reaches of the Chu River, intercept the reinforcements coming from Chuzhou City and Chaozhou City, and cross the shallow and narrow Chu River in the upper reaches to reinforce Liyang...
Even if we do not consider that Xu Mingzhen can mobilize a large number of troops and horses from Shouzhou, Huozhou, and Zhongli in the future, and even if the enemy forces west of Chaohu are entangled by Li Zhigao, Xu Mingzhen has more than 30,000 troops and horses in Chuzhou and Chaozhou that he can mobilize.
In comparison, the military strength of Tangyi soldiers was still at a disadvantage.
Even if we do not consider that new soldiers who have been trained for less than a month account for more than half of the total force, the total number of Tangyi soldiers that Han Qian can mobilize is only more than 24,000.
The only favorable factor was that the Tangyi soldiers relied on the Chu River and the Yangtze River to transport supplies, war equipment and troops, which was much more convenient and faster than the enemy's army.
Of course, years of accumulation in Xuzhou gave the Tangyi soldiers a far greater advantage in terms of armor and weapons than the Shouzhou army, which had just received a considerable supply of supplies.
This also made the Tangyi soldiers rely on war weapons and the mature military attache system in Xuzhou for command, and showed stronger combat effectiveness than the Shouzhou army in field battles.
Therefore, Han Qian dared to order Lin Haizheng, Zhao Qi, Su Lie and others to lead their troops to form formations directly on the north bank of the Chu River, relying on the mountain passes and passes of Fucha and other mountains to intercept the enemy reinforcements going south.
In the field battle, killing the enemy troops to the maximum extent possible and severely damaging the morale of the enemy troops was also Han Qian's operational intention.
After all, the subsequent fierce military confrontation will not end just because they capture Liyang City.
At this time, in addition to capturing Liyang City as quickly as possible, they also had to consider suppressing the enemy forces to the north of Fucha Mountain on the north bank of the Chu River.
Otherwise, even if they capture Liyang City and let the enemy control Fucha Mountain to establish occupation, as long as Xu Mingzhen transfers enough troops and horses from Huozhou, Shouzhou, and Zhongli, they can cross the upper reaches of the Chu River at any time
The shallow and narrow river channel launched a counterattack against Liyang City.
In that case, Han Qian's strategic intention of allowing Tangyi's troops to rest and reorganize calmly after he captured Liyang would not be realized.
Once the follow-up war evolves into a situation where the main force of the Liang Army shifts its strategic focus from the Eastern Front to the Western Front, the Tangyi soldiers will most likely face a protracted and brutal war until they are completely crippled, without any rest in the middle.
Opportunity.
You must know that the main force of the Liang Army's cavalry was adjusted very quickly. Emperor Zhu Yu of the Liang Dynasty transferred 20,000 to 30,000 Liang Army cavalry from the eastern front to the western front. The fastest speed may only take five or six days.
For a time, war broke out across the board in and around Liyang, with the interception battle at the western foot of Fucha Mountain being the most brutal...
