In the early morning of the 11th, the guard of Anfeng Village was killed by the Tangyi soldiers who rushed into the village through the gap. The soldiers and civilians in the village immediately chose to surrender. On the 7th, the Tangyi soldiers left Fucha Mountain and crossed northward, at Chaozhou.
This is how the first large-scale battle with Huozhou came to an end.
In this battle, the Tangyi soldiers had less than a hundred casualties, including those who were slightly injured, but the Shouzhou army had more than 1,500 corpses abandoned on the battlefield.
In addition, nearly 400 remnants of Anfeng Village surrendered, and the Tangyi soldiers also took over nearly 20,000 people who had fled to Anfeng Village to escape the war before the war. Han Qian and the others did not expect to capture such a large number of people.
A large number of soldiers and civilians, as small as 20,000 people, are equivalent to the population of a city with a prosperous state.
After dawn on the 11th, the weather became gloomy, the cold wind howled, and snowflakes as big as goose feathers fell one after another in the afternoon, blocking the mountains and rivers continuously for days.
Wen Ruilin, who had accompanied more than 4,000 horse infantry reinforcements from Chaozhou, did not brave the heavy snow until noon on the 17th, struggling to come over and meet Xu Mingzhen.
In addition to the first batch of remnant soldiers who were beaten, plus more than 4,000 soldiers and horses from Chaozhou and 3,000 horse infantry urgently transferred from western Huozhou for reinforcements, Xu Mingzhen can mobilize more troops near Gaocheng.
to more than 10,000 people.
It's just that the heavy snow weather has hindered the transportation on the post road.
Not to mention large-scale war equipment such as the cyclone cannon, it is quite difficult to transport the cold clothes needed by the generals, various tools used for camping, as well as the generals' rations and horse feed - especially the eight or nine thousand army horses and the bean grass for the war horses.
The consumption of horse materials was eight to nine times that of tens of thousands of generals, and recruitment and transportation were even more inconvenient.
The status of Gaocheng is far inferior to that of Anfeng Village. There are only five or six hundred households in the city. The materials that can be collected in the city are far less than those of Anfeng Village. The consumption of tens of thousands of horses and horses needs to be recruited from other states and counties.
For the time being, the Shouzhou Army can only use Gaocheng as the core and station its troops and horses in several villages east of Gaocheng and west of Anfeng Village. They dare not easily crowd up and attack and recapture Anfeng Village.
Of course, it was also unexpected. After Tangyi soldiers captured Anfeng Village, to their surprise, they did not rush to destroy the dam and sluice at the mouth of Anfeng Canal, which made the Shouzhou generals realize that the problem was not what they initially predicted.
That way.
The camp where Chaozhou reinforcements were stationed was located on the northeast side of Gaocheng. It was originally a post station called Shiliupu, which was exactly sixteen miles away from Anfeng Village, hence its name.
The post station is not big, with only more than 20 houses in the yard and dozens of soldiers stationed there. However, there is a village called Xujiajizhai adjacent to it, where the wealthy Xu family of Huodong lives together. There are many houses in a row.
There is also a tall village wall built on the outside. It is built in a valley with difficult terrain, which is easier to defend and harder to attack than Anfeng Village.
When the Tangyi soldiers attacked, in addition to the dozen soldiers at the post station, the Xu family also organized more than 200 soldiers from nearby villages to guard the stronghold, and the village did not fall to the Tangyi soldiers.
Yingzhai is slightly modified on the basis of Shiliupu Station and Xujiaji Village.
It was less than 200 miles from Chaozhou, but the march was difficult in heavy snow and more than 4,000 horse infantry were stationed in the camp. It was already so tiring that people turned their backs on their horses.
In such cold weather, there is a huge difference between guarding and guarding in the camp and marching in the snow day and night.
The generals did not have enough cold clothes. Not only did they suffer frostbite along the way, dozens of soldiers even froze to death while staying in the wild. To be honest, even if there were sufficient supplies here, these soldiers and horses would have to rest for several days before they could recover.
A certain amount of combat effectiveness.
After a little preparation here, Wen Ruilin and Xu Jin, the commander of the Chaozhou reinforcements, rushed to Jiming Ridge to meet the Shouzhou army commander Huo Guogong and Shouzhou Jiedushi Xu Mingzhen who were inspecting the enemy's situation.
Xu Jin is the son of a bandit in the mountains of Huaiyang. He was captured by the Shouzhou Army when he was young and served as a soldier in the army. He was brave and good at fighting and made many military exploits. He was later adopted as an adopted son by Xu Mingzhen and became one of the main generals of the Shouzhou Army.
.
Jiming Ridge is located between Anfeng Village and Gaocheng. The main peak is only more than 20 feet high, but stretches for more than ten miles from north to south. At this time, it was the outpost camp of the Shouzhou Army advancing on Anfeng Village from the west.
Wen Ruilin led the horse and walked along the slippery path with Xu Jin.
Together, surrounded by many guards, we hiked up the mountain in the snow. Along the way, we could see the bodies of many Shouzhou Army generals buried under the snow on both sides of the mountain path. They had not had time to bury them, so it was difficult to
Imagine how badly Xu Mingzhen was beaten by Tangyi soldiers without warning a few days ago.
Walking into the outpost camp near the main peak, I saw Xu Mingzhen standing on a huge black-brown rock from a distance, looking at Anfeng Village ten miles away, with fine flakes of snow falling from the sky.
Xu Mingzhen was just over fifty years old, but her hair on the temples was already frosty white, and her face was as thin as the rocks beneath her feet.
"Father, Duke Huo..." Wen Ruilin followed Xu Jin to pay homage, but Xu Mingzhen didn't turn around for a long time, and Wen Ruilin didn't know what to say.
The Shouzhou Army suffered a heavy loss in front of Anfeng Village a few days ago, and could only sit back and watch Anfeng Village fall to the enemy. It seemed that Xu Mingzhen was unaware of everything and rushed to fight, but the more critical reason was that his son Xu Sizhao was there.
Chaozhou was too hesitant.
Xu Sizhao and the generals guarding Chaozhou were worried that they would fall into the enemy's plan of luring the snake out of the cave. Until Tangyi soldiers penetrated in front of Anfeng Village, there were 30,000 elite troops in Chaozhou but they did not move.
Otherwise, Chaozhou only needs to send three or four thousand fine cavalry to entangle them. Even if they cannot see through the Tangyi soldiers' strategy of hiding from the sky, they can still greatly slow down the marching speed of the Tangyi soldiers, thus making it easier for reinforcements to enter Anfeng Village in time.
to enough time.
Different commanders, different styles.
If Xu Mingzhen had continued to use Wen Bo to defend Chaozhou, the early situation would not have been so unfavorable and passive for Shouzhou.
It was a pity that Wen Bo was used to defend Chuzhou instead of Chaozhou. Wen Ruilin could see that Xu Mingzhen had selfish motives.
The importance of Chaozhou in the entire Huaixi is much higher than that of Chuzhou.
In addition to the terrain, Chuzhou is more vulnerable to the attacks of Jinling and Huaidong soldiers and horses. There are only a few empty cities left in Chuzhou. The households were driven to the south of the Chu River by Han Qian. Large areas of fields were deserted and uncultivated.
It is impossible to move residents there.
Chaozhou is different.
Even though both sides of Chao Lake have become war zones, there are not many civilian households. However, the vast area north of Chaozhou, along the Nanfeishui River to the west, and along the Beiye River to the north is the hinterland controlled by the Shouzhou Army, and there are more than two dozen people.
Hundreds of thousands of people live and breed in these places.
In the current situation, Wen Ruilin certainly would not poke Xu Mingzhen's scars. His Majesty would have been able to see through Xu Mingzhen's secrets at that time. Therefore, he would not think of pointing out Xu Sizhao's responsibility for delaying the fighter plane at this time. The key is still
How to fight the subsequent battle?
After another long while, Xu Mingzhen slowly turned around, looked at Wen Ruilin, and asked: "Mr. Wen, what do you think Han Qian wants to do when he personally leads his troops to seize Anfeng Village?"
Except when Wen Ruilin set out with Xu Jin to lead Chaozhou reinforcements, news from inside sources confirmed that neither Han Qian nor Wang Wenqian's daughter showed up at the wedding held in Liyang. Han Qian had already planted a tree in Anfeng Village at this time.
He raised the banner of the general manager of the camp in Tangyi, the Marquis of Qianyang, and the Minister of War.
Wen Ruilin was one of the few officials appointed by Bianjing to serve in Huaixi. His rank was not high, but his status was quite special. Xu Mingzhen, as Duke of Huo and the governor of Shouzhou, saw Wen Ruilin.
He is also referred to as Mr.
Wen Ruilin handed over his hand and talked about the latest situation he had learned along the way and the opinions he had exchanged with Wen Bo Kuai Ma several times:
"Han Qian took control of Anfeng Village and sent a large number of scouts along the South Feishui River Valley into the Huaiyang Mountains. On the night of the 12th, the main force of Kong Xirong's troops also jumped out of Wujian Mountain and braved the heavy snow to enter Yongfeng Village to join Han Qian.
In the short term, Tangyi's troops were overwhelmed by the lack of troops and should have given up on Wujianshan, which they had been operating for nearly a year. They did not even consider the possibility of retreating to Wujianshan if the war here was unfavorable. This shows that they have no regard for Huaiyang.
The mountain has deep plans..."
"..." Xu Mingzhen let out a long breath. They were unable to judge Han Qian's intentions at first, but four or five days had passed, and they watched helplessly as Tangyi soldiers continued to enter the Huaiyang Mountains along the Nanfeishui River Valley.
If he couldn't guess it yet, that would be too stupid.
What's more, they have been in Gaocheng these days, only a stone's throw away from Anfeng Village. They saw that Tangyi soldiers had surrendered nearly 20,000 soldiers in Anfeng Village in batches in the past few days.
The soldiers and civilians were sent to Shenjiaji, thirty miles away to the southwest.
There is the valley pass where Nanfeishui River flows out of Wujinling, the main mountain on the northwest slope of Huaiyang Mountain.
Although the terrain there is not particularly dangerous, thousands of elite soldiers have been requisitioned. Under the supervision of thousands of elite Tangyi soldiers, they are braving the snow to build fences and other defenses in the river valley.
"When Yang Yuanpu and Yang Yuanyan conspired against each other, Han Qian occupied Maoshan in Lishui and strengthened the Chishan army. He once claimed that the mountain was a city. This time he is going to repeat what happened to Maoshan in Huaiyang Mountain?" A middle-aged scribe
Standing next to Xu Mingzhen, he looked at Wen Ruilin and asked.
Wen Ruilin recognized this man as Xu Yin, the secretary-general of the Shouzhou Jiedu Envoy Office, and the head of the Xu family of the Xujiaji Village where the Chaozhou reinforcements were stationed. The Xu family was a local aristocratic family in Huaixi.
Xu Yin once served as a doctor in the Privy Council, and after he withdrew to the north of the Yangtze River with Anning Palace, he was given a new job.
Niu Gengru, Wen Muqiao and others moved to Bianjing with Xu, and Xu Yin can be said to be one of the most important advisers who stayed with Xu Mingzhen.
Obviously, he did not guess the fundamental intention of Tangyi soldiers in launching this raid at first.
Speaking of using the mountains as a city, Wen Ruilin was initially worried that Han Qian would focus on Wajianshan, and then use Wajianshan as a base to continuously plunder and invade the hinterland of Chaohao and Haozhou, consuming and destroying the strength of the Shouzhou army.
Therefore, in the early stage, he also urged the Shouzhou Army to build large-scale villages on the west and north sides of Wujian Mountain.
However, during the period when Kong Xirong led his troops to be stationed in Wujianshan, although he continued to fight out of Wujianshan, Han Qian continued to move tens of thousands of mountain residents in Wujianshan to Liyang, Tingshan, Wushou and other places for resettlement.
Now think about it, Wujian Mountain seems to stretch for nearly two hundred miles from north to south, but there is a fault zone called Mopan Valley between the north and south sections, which has been cut off by their superior troops and horses.
Taking the southern section only, the Wujianshan mountain range stretches for hundreds of miles from southwest to northeast, but the depth from east to west is only thirty miles, and the main peak is only more than forty feet. There are too many passages in and out of Wujianshan between the peaks and ridges.
They will only wait for the surrounding defense system to be completed before sending small groups of troops into the mountains to clear out the area.
This was different from Maoshan at that time.
In the early days of the Jinling Incident, Anning Palace was in a confrontation with the Chuzhou Army, and they had no time to look south. Only then did Han Qian get a chance to breathe in the narrower Maoshan Mountain.
However, after the Chishan Army became slightly larger, Han Qian quickly led the Chishan Army to move south and took root in Anji, Guangde and other counties between Jieling Mountain and Fuyu Mountain.
This is mainly because Maoshan is too small.
Huaiyang Mountain is completely different.
Not counting Tongbai Mountain at the junction of Guangdeng and other prefectures, Huaiyang Mountain stretches for more than 500 miles from Jiuliguan in Lishan County to the east. The mountain is far more dangerous than Wujian Mountain.
And just go into the mountains along the Nanfeishui River Valley, go deep for more than a hundred miles, and reach a height of more than five or six hundred feet. The main peak of the eastern section of Huaiyang Mountain, Baimajian, is the boundary between Huozhou in Huaixi and Suizhou in Jingxiang.
More importantly, there are only about 10,000 people who have fled the southern section of Wujian Mountain to live and breed or to escape the war. However, in the foothills of the northwest slope of Huaiyang Mountain, an unknown number of households have fled to the southern section of Wujian Mountain in the past hundred years.
To escape the chaos of war and flee into it, they would have children and heirs and take root.
These mountain farmers have built hundreds of villages, large and small, in the valleys and hills of the mountains, and their farming has long reached a certain scale.
The Shouzhou Army had weak restraint on the villages in the mountains, but in previous summer and autumn grain collections, it could still collect more or less tens of thousands of stones of grain and twenty to thirty thousand pieces of cloth every year.
The easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack terrain, tens of thousands of mountain farmers fleeing their households, and the relatively mature production of grain and other materials will provide the Tangyi soldiers with opportunities to take root on the northwest slopes of Huaiyang Mountain and implement the strategy of using mountains as cities.
necessary conditions.
But all this is too uncomfortable for the Shouzhou Army.
The innermost places such as Chaoxi, Huodong and Shounan will be completely exposed to the front of this Tangyi army.
If they build a defensive belt around the northwest slope of Huaiyang Mountain, not to mention how many additional troops and horses they will invest, how much will the agricultural losses within this defensive belt be?
