Over the past few days, the snow had fallen and stopped, and in the wilderness outside the village, there was more than a foot of snow.
"It's been a cold winter in Huaiyang, but the snow has been about a foot thick in the past few days, which is rare in Huainan." Wang Jun followed Han Qian up the wall of the village and looked at the white snow outside Anfeng Village. "When my grandfather was alive, he read nearly
According to the historical records of the past century, between the Hehuai River and the Huaihe River, in the past forty years, there have been severe droughts in spring and summer, and ice and snow disasters in autumn and winter. They were much more frequent than in the middle of the previous dynasty, and every time they happened, they were doubly more severe.
Then the refugees became bandits, and the disputes over the feudal towns became more and more intense..."
Han Qian thought of the concept of the Little Ice Age mentioned in the dream world, and mentioned that the frequent wars in dynasties were closely related to the frequent natural disasters caused by large-scale changes in climate, but the deeper factors did not lie in this.
Of course, Wang Jun was also emotional about this, saying: "The rivers and floods between the Jianghuai River and the Huaihe River have been raging in recent years. Looking at various classics, it is indeed much more severe than that in the middle and early periods. But in the 20 years since the founding of the Chu Kingdom, when it comes to grain, grain and hemp,
The production of silk is absolutely insufficient, but it does not exist, and there is even a lot of surplus. The surplus is more than the surplus, and the poor is more than the deficit. However, the world is getting worse, the princes, ministers, and the aristocratic clans are still living in dreams and death, and they can achieve something.
Those who are alert and make concessions are very small..."
At this time, several scouts on horseback returned from the north on horseback through the snow. They were the scouts sent out to spy on the Chaozhou reinforcements stationed in Xujiaji. Han Qian immediately asked Tian Cheng to call them to the wall of the village to ask for details.
"The sky is getting cloudy again, maybe there will be heavy snow tonight, and we are not afraid that the Shouzhou Army will dare to attack hastily."
Feng Xuan, Tian Cheng, and Feng Yi also noticed that the scouts had returned and rushed to the wall to listen to the report. Feng Xuan climbed up to the wall and saw that the sky had darkened early, so he said a word of relief.
Han Qian signaled the scouts to continue reporting and confirmed that when more than 4,000 enemy reinforcements came from Chaozhou and entered Xujiaji in the snow, most of the generals were trapped and their formations were lagging and disorganized. Along the way, there were scouts looking at the horses and staring at them.
The enemy troops along the way had already discovered that enemy reinforcements coming from Chaozhou were rushing through the snow, and dozens of generals froze to death on the way.
It is certain that these will have a huge impact on the enemy's morale and combat effectiveness.
They don't have to worry about Xu Mingzhen organizing a large-scale offensive against Anfeng Village in the short term.
After hearing this, Feng Yi said with great luck: "God still favored us. When we set out until we captured Anfeng Village, the weather was cold and cold, but there was no strong wind or snow. It would be much easier to march and attack the village. If this were the case,
The heavy snow fell one day early. Our attack on Anfeng Village may not have resulted in only thirty or fifty casualties. Maybe we may not have been able to block the passage outside Anfeng Village before the enemy's reinforcements. And if the follow-up attack did not last for several days
The heavy snow is falling, maybe Xu Mingzhen will follow our example and walk on the ice with our troops and horses, and has already assembled enough troops and supplies to besiege us - do you think God is helping us with this snow?"
In Tiancheng, Feng Xuan smiled and did not answer Feng Yi's words.
"Why, do you think what I said is wrong?" Feng Yi asked.
"In Xuzhou, Tangyi grows cotton weaving, which not only provides a large amount of tax for Tangyi, but also for ordinary generals, having cotton wool to fill their winter clothes, marching and fighting in such a snowy weather, I don't know how much better it is.
How superior are the kudzu military uniforms stuffed with straw," Wang Jun said, "Feng Yi, you have been picky about winter clothes since you were a child, whether the furs were gorgeous or not, whether they fit close to the body, whether the beads, rings, and jade pendants were exquisite, so naturally you couldn't recognize the cotton.
It is different from grass wadding, and I don’t know how much a piece of dog skin is worth in the cold weather, so I attribute all this to destiny. Only for this point, the Shouzhou Army would not have had the awareness to intercept my surprise attack regardless of casualties in the early days.
, the situation at this time is inevitable, and it is not a fluke as you said."
"Take off Feng Yi's fox fur cloak and put it on with a suit of straw and linen clothes. Then he will understand the meaning behind it." Tian Cheng smiled and saluted Wang Jun again, "But I don't want Madam to see this.
It’s also so deep.”
"Now that she has Han Qian'er advising her all day long, her experience is certainly different," Feng Yi curled his lips and changed the topic, "The most important thing now is to discuss how to fight next. Although the heavy snow slows down the Shouzhou Army,
After all, they are on their inside line. No matter how slow the speed is, the soldiers and horses surrounding them will only have more and more supplies. Our number of people here will not increase, but the supplies will only become less and less. If the battle a few days ago had
If we can have two or three more exciting sniper battles and kill tens of thousands of Shouzhou Army elites, there will be no pressure."
"You are so greedy. If Xu Mingzhen was really that stupid, Emperor Tianyou would have dealt with him long ago. It is not our turn to deal with him." Han Qian smiled and looked at Wang Jun and asked, "As you see
, where is our biggest problem now?”
Han Qian and Wang Jun were newly married, and they had been inseparable in the past few days. He also deliberately asked Wang Jun to express her opinions in front of everyone and cultivate her prestige. Tian Cheng, Feng Xuan and others also looked at Wang Jun.
"According to what I see, the advance to Huaiyang Mountain is much slower than expected due to the heavy snow. The heavy snow and severe cold are huge obstacles, but they are another advantage. The ability of our generals to withstand the cold
We must be far stronger than the Shouzhou Army, and we must be stronger than the rural village forces in the Huaiyang Mountains who want to resist the entry of our army. As long as we have the determination to overcome the obstacles of heavy snow and severe cold, we will find that under the same harsh situation,
"Our generals have a greater advantage than the enemy," Wang Jun said. "If we want to wait until the heavy snow weather passes before taking action, in addition to greatly reducing the advantage gap with the enemy, our main troops are still there."
The northern line is entangled by the main force of the Shouzhou Army, and the advance into the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain will be seriously slowed down."
Tian Cheng and Feng Xuan looked at each other and felt that Wang Jun was right. The heavy snow had blocked the Shouzhou Army on the periphery. In fact, it was a rare opportunity for their main force to directly advance into Huaiyang Mountain to occupy and subdue many cottages.
When the Shouzhou Army swarms over, they must put their main force on the periphery of the northern line. Without enough troops and horses, the capture and surrender of the mountain stronghold will be slow, and the number of people and materials they can recruit from the mountain stronghold will be limited. This is actually not good for them.
Negative cycle.
"The heavy snow weather has its advantages and disadvantages," Han Qian nodded and said with his hands folded. "The advantage is that it delays the assembly of Shouzhou troops, horses and supplies. In just three to five days, it is impossible for the Shouzhou army to go to An."
Fengzhai besieged them; to be more optimistic, Xu Mingzhen may not be able to launch a decent offensive against Anfengzhai within half a month, let alone send troops to climb the dangerous mountains on the west side and bypass the dangerous path into Huaiyang.
However, on the negative side, in addition to slowing down our transfer of supplies and men to the Huaiyang Army, more importantly, the heavy snow weather also seriously slowed down our mobilization of slaves and poor people in the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain.
Efficiency, this is the most important thing - so next, everyone should not think about being comfortable. Tomorrow morning, you will personally lead a team of people into the mountain, and I will follow you into the mountain. You only need to leave one or two in Anfeng Village
It is enough for one person to be in charge. Who will be left in charge in Anfeng Village, what are the responsibilities of others entering the mountain, and how to choose several routes? You guys can discuss a plan overnight..."
In this battle, nearly half of the core generals in Tangyi gathered here. Tian Cheng, Feng Xuan, Zhao Wuji, Kong Xirong and even Tan Xiuqun, Han Donghu, Dou Rong, He Liufeng, Su Lie and others can choose any one to stay in Anfeng Village alone.
Block one side.
The fundamental intention of Han Qian's determination to organize this raid was not in Anfeng Village, but in Huaiyang Mountain.
Tangyi's troops were limited. In order to seize the rare opportunity to open up a second base in Huaiyang Mountain and open up a battlefield behind enemy lines, he even gave up Wujian Mountain, which he had been operating for nearly a year, and transferred Kong Xirong's
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The main force of the guerrilla infantry force was transferred over.
If you want to open up a second base area in Huaiyang and open up a battlefield behind enemy lines, you must first gain a foothold on the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain.
If you want to establish a foothold on the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain, you must first solve the human problem.
After Kong Xirong led the main force of the guerrilla infantry to join them, the Tangyi soldiers gathered 7,000 troops in Anfengzhai and Wujinling. However, in extreme circumstances, Xu Mingzhen was able to organize several troops in addition to maintaining other lines of defense.
Many times or even ten times their number of men and horses came to attack and surrounded the nest.
We cannot expect that as soon as the army here moves, the large and small villages in the Huaiyang Mountains will surrender, offer food to the people honestly and obediently, and help them loyally fight against the Shouzhou Army.
Nothing in the world is so cheap.
If things were really that simple, it would be impossible for Xu Mingzhen to have failed in these years to successfully relocate the fleeing mountain people from the Huaiyang Mountains on a large scale to supplement the insufficient population in Shouhuo and other places.
If you carefully study the wars in Huaixi in the past hundred years, you will find that these wars mainly occurred in different vassal towns and even within the Huainan vassal towns in the early stage. In the recent period, they were the military confrontation that lasted for twenty years after the founding of the Liang-Chu Kingdom.
In the Huaixi region, there are no large-scale refugee armies to dismember and destroy the local social structure.
This means that even if the mountain people who have retreated to the Huaiyang Mountains have fled their households, in terms of the overall social composition, they are still the wealthy mountain people who occupy the vast majority of the cultivated land and forests, enslaving the lower-class villagers and slaves who have low status and worrying living conditions.
Since the land that can be cultivated in the Huaiyang Mountains is limited and more isolated, this situation is even worse than in the plains outside the mountains.
The entire social structure has even tended to degenerate in the rural areas dominated by large local clans such as Chenxu and other prefectures.
In the past, Xu Mingzhen wanted to be a "loyal minister" of Dachu, but she did not dare to stand on the opposite side of the aristocratic clans. She was also hesitant to deal with the wealthy people in the Huaiyang Mountains, and she never had the determination to severely suppress them.
As a result, his intention to relocate the escaped mountain residents out of Huaiyang Mountain was naturally difficult to realize, and he could only receive a small amount of tax every year, symbolically maintaining his rule over Huaiyang Mountain.
Of course, just suppressing the rich and powerful without uniting the poor and slaves at the bottom will be ineffective.
What Han Qian and the others have to do this time is to mobilize as quickly as possible the poor people at the bottom of the Huaiyang Mountains, who account for the largest number of people but have the most humble status and the most worrying living conditions.
The rich and powerful people attacked and suppressed them.
There is absolutely no shortage of gore throughout.
In order to seize Shenjiaji, the pass into Wujin Ridge through the Nan Feishui River Valley, while the main force surrounded Anfeng Village, Han Qian led Xi Faer and more than a hundred elite troops to sneak into Wujin Ridge immediately, taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the soldiers guarding the village.
, broke into the stronghold unexpectedly and disarmed more than two hundred copycat soldiers, so that a fierce offensive and defensive battle to seize the stronghold did not break out.
However, there are mountain roads connecting the large and small river valleys, plains, and low mountains on the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain, and news can be transmitted quickly, so all small and large villages are on guard.
And the resistance of the poor villagers and slaves against the oppressive wealthy people cannot be easily incited by a few passionate words.
They have struggled for a long time under the power of wealthy people, and have long been accustomed to obedience, accustomed to accepting slavery and oppression, and have become insensitive.
What's more, the rich and powerful families themselves have a relatively prosperous family and even control the armed forces of the village, ranging from thirty to fifty people or even three to five hundred people.
This is not the same thing as during the Jinling Incident, due to severe food shortages, a large number of slaves were semi-abandoned and in a state of severe famine.
What the Tangyi soldiers could do was to first capture part of the village by force, directly suppress the wealthy households with military means, and then open warehouses to release grain and divide the fields equally, so that the poor villagers and slaves could be mobilized.
After this, able-bodied men can be recruited from slaves and poor people at the bottom to make up for the shortage of troops, and the shortage of combat materials can also be made up from the seizures.
They raided in this time, carrying more than a million kilograms of grain, arrows, cloth and other supplies. It seemed like a lot, but seven thousand generals and more than six thousand military horses and war horses consumed up to ten tons of grain and horse feed every day.
Thousands of kilograms.
If they cannot get replenishment on the spot in time, the supplies they carry can only last for ** days.
Of course, Anfengzhai is the most important water and land strategic point in Chaoxi. The powerful clans have a large power and sufficient reserves of supplies. Just by confiscating the granaries of more than ten clans, more than 20,000 shi of grain were confiscated.
A large amount of food, supplies and nearly 20,000 surrendered soldiers and civilians have to be sent to Shenjiaji, thirty miles away in the south, in the snow. The advance into the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain is much slower. Currently, only Kong Xirong is leading his troops to the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain.
Advance deep.
Now the Shouzhou Army cannot attack because of the large army, but for the Tangyi Army, it is a rare window of time, and they must race against time to advance to the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain.
If we don't overcome the difficulties and seize this rare window of time at this time, we will seize thirty or fifty more cottages to mobilize the poor people at the bottom. When the main force of the Shouzhou Army encircles us, a large number of soldiers and horses will be tied up in the periphery for defense, and they will attack the Huaiyang Mountains.
The advance into the hinterland cannot be faster.
…………
…………
In order to seize the rare opportunity created by the heavy snow weather, they accelerated their advance towards the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain. The result of a night of discussion was to stay in Tiancheng, Han Donghu and Su Lie led two battalions of infantry and one battalion of cavalry to stay in Anfeng Village.
No matter what the weather is like the next day, other soldiers and horses will cross Wujin Ridge and enter the depths of Huaiyang Mountain. Kong Xirong, Feng Xuan, Zhao Wuji, and Tan Xiuqun will each lead one to two battalions along the main tributary valley of the upper reaches of the Nan Feishui River.
, advancing towards the hinterland of the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain.
In particular, Kong Xirong's troops, who had entered the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain first and had only captured two mountain villages so far, had to work as quickly as possible to overcome difficulties and cross the mountains in the snow, from the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain to the upper reaches of the Longtan River valley.
.
As an equally important tributary of the upper reaches of Chaohu Lake and the Nanfeishui River, Longtan River originates from the south wing of the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain, flows from west to east, and flows into Chaohu Lake from the north of Lujiang County.
It can also be said to be the Chaozhou soldiers and horses, the main passage from the southwest of Chaozhou City to the east slope of Huaiyang Mountain.
By controlling the valley pass in the upper reaches of the Longtan River, one can have a commanding view of Chaozhou's soldiers and horses stationed on the north side of the Lujiang defense line of the Huaixi Forbidden Army, and keep them out of the east slope.
If the Shouzhou Army did not want the warships of the Tangyi Navy to establish contact with the Huaiyang Mountains through these rivers, it would have to pay a greater price to cut off several major waterways such as the Nanfeishui River and Longtan River at the same time.
Of course, only by controlling the valley pass in the upper reaches of the Longtan River can Tangyi soldiers completely control the vast hinterland on the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain, and thus hope to be able to completely conquer it in a short period of half a year to a year.
Reversing the offensive and defensive situation in Huaixi.
In the end, Han Qian did not go directly to the mountain, but stayed with Wang Jun in Shenjiaji.
How fast the city was conquered and demolished in the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain was not the decisive factor. What was more critical was the speed and effectiveness of mobilizing and mobilizing the poor people and slaves at the bottom of the mountain stronghold that had been conquered and controlled by military forces.
Otherwise, every time a stronghold is conquered, there will be tens, thirty or fifty casualties, and they will have to divide their troops to garrison them. If combined, they will soon be able to thin out the only 7,000-odd troops they have in hand at this time.
To the north and west of Anfeng Village, every day, the Shouzhou Army
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The gathered troops became stronger.
Only by quickly and effectively mobilizing the poor people and slaves at the bottom can not only make up for the lack of military strength, but even quickly strengthen the Tangyi soldiers, and also control the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain on a deeper level, giving the powerful people who are not afraid of being suppressed a chance.
Counterattack.
Shen Jiaji is a large village in Wujinling, but it only has a population of more than a thousand people.
The nearly 20,000 soldiers and civilians captured during the capture of Anfeng Village were almost equal to the population of a prosperous city.
This is mainly because Anfengzhai is located at the hub of water and land transportation, where commerce, shipping, and craftsmanship are relatively developed. However, the nearby terrain is flat and broad, with developed water conservancy, developed farming, and serious land annexation. A group of wealthy clans from the countryside have
I would rather gather together and live in Anfeng than live in Gaocheng twenty or thirty miles away.
Anfeng Village itself accommodates nearly 10,000 daily residents, which is comparable to a prosperous county town. When the Tangyi soldiers raided, nearby households thought that Anfeng Village was safer with elite soldiers and horses guarding it, so they all dragged their troops away.
His sons and daughters fled into it, which ultimately led to Han Qian directly capturing so many soldiers and civilians in Anfeng Village.
Due to the rush of time, the preliminary treatment of nearly 20,000 soldiers and civilians in Anfeng Village was relatively rough.
Regardless of whether they were willing or not, they were forced to leave their homes by force and gathered in Shen's home in the snowy weather.
In the early stage, more than 4,000 young and strong men were requisitioned without distinction. Then, under the supervision of two battalions of elite infantry, they braved the severe cold weather to build fortifications on river beaches and slopes.
Han Qian knew very well that if these young and strong men could be mobilized, it would be a great supplement to their currently stretched troops.
However, the initial time was too hasty, and they had to be forced to leave Anfeng Village immediately and move to the narrower Wujinling Valley. The methods were inevitably rough, and it was difficult to use them for their own use.
Even if they are forcibly incorporated into the battalion, apart from increasing consumption and making the troops look stronger, it will not have much effect on improving the overall combat effectiveness.
Han Qian was now free to sort out these people.
In addition to the poor people at the bottom and slaves and maids separately, Han Qian also classified the middle and upper-class wealthy households who surrendered in Anfeng Village as well as those who owned slaves and a large number of slaves and maidservants based on criteria such as kinship distance, inheritance rights, land ownership, and the number of slaves and maidservants.
The wealthy people in the fields organized into different formations.
Even with the same lowly status, the relationship between the slaves and the master's family was divided into close and distant, and they were more loyal to those who served the master's family personally, and the households who were threatened by the Anning Palace and were sent across the river to Gaocheng County for resettlement.
Etc., Han Qian also divided them into separate groups and gave them different treatments and treatments to weaken the resistance that might arise within them as much as possible.
And what is currently being mobilized is only limited to the poorest people at the bottom and slaves who have been sold or enslaved for generations to do heavy manual labor and live in extremely poor living conditions.
Divided down, these people are not particularly large. In addition, women, children and children account for about one-third of the surrendered soldiers and civilians in Anfeng Village. However, Han Qian knows that after these people are recruited, they can most firmly follow Tang Yi.
The soldiers are fused together.
Han Qian established a separate camp in Shenjiaji.
Although so many people suddenly poured into Shenjiaji, and the villages along the river valley suddenly became overcrowded, Han Qian still tried to find a way to arrange these people and their families into warm tents or houses.
, provide adequate food and clothing supplies.
In addition to relatively easy work, Han Qian also organized their accusations and tragic life experiences. In the process, he unearthed the murders committed by the aristocratic families in Anfeng Village and nearby areas, and then uncovered them for public trials and executions.
After three or five rounds, these people seemed to have become insensitive in their hearts. They would only obey and accept their tragic fate, and their bloody courage was quickly activated.
Then the young and strong men were organized into the auxiliary barracks and arranged for grassroots military attachés to be trained. The activists were selected for key training in literacy classes, and the able-bodied women were organized into the battalions and youth camps to assist in the internal security management of Shenjiaji.
Households in the middle and upper classes who are wealthy and have no bad deeds are still treated as prisoners of war. They are mainly arranged to build houses, fences and terraces inside and outside Shenjiaji Village and in the front section of the valley.
At such a critical moment, some manpower was spared to cultivate sloping terraces, and they were also poor people who were recruited as auxiliary soldiers. The slaves saw hope - that is, even if they were blocked in the Huaiyang Mountains, they would soon obtain land and land.
Residential.
In comparison, the more than 40 households in Shenjiaji, with 300 poor people and slaves at the bottom, are best mobilized. In addition to each household being allocated 15 acres of grain land and a small yard, each household is also allocated 100 yuan according to the population.
With only a kilogram of rations, a set of cold clothes, and two kilograms of salt, I wanted to sell my life to the Tangyi soldiers.
In addition to children and the frail and elderly, others, including more than 400 prisoners of war, rushed to the depths of the mountain forest to cut down trees, dig mines, and undergo heavy physical labor.
Perhaps every day there are people who cannot bear such heavy physical labor and die from exhaustion or freezing to death, but this is a cruel and bloody war.
During the Jinling Incident, Wang Jun was not particularly free around Han Qian, but he also witnessed the establishment and operation of the women's camp and the youth camp, and assisted Han Qian in writing a series of various teaching materials to guide the generals to work in the mountainous area at the northern foot of Mount Fuyu.
Now she was also very good at this matter. She followed Han Qian around with her maids such as Wang Tang, Huo Li and Xiangyun, who had not yet been able to change their minds.
Han Qian also wanted Feng Xuan, Tan Xiuqun, and Kong Xirong to treat the many large and small cottages on the northeastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain differently.
They must resolutely take control of the mountain villages located in the valleys of the main tributaries of the upper reaches of the Nanfeishui River and Longtan River, and completely mobilize the poor people and slaves at the bottom.
For those who deviate from the core areas they want to control, they can trade with them for military horses, cloth, and salt, buy grain and other materials they are in short supply, and send generals to persuade them to use slaves as hired servants to reduce the land rent and interest of the poor at the bottom. Of course.
, and temporarily ignore those copycats and villages that firmly refuse.
Entering the mountainous area, more places require soldiers to walk. They have more than 6,000 military horses, which is a bit redundant. They also consume a huge amount of extra beans and millet to feed them every day.
In addition to exchanging these military horses and salt for food with remote villages, the low-level poor and slaves who actively enlisted in the army were also directly distributed as necessary farming materials...
On the sixth day of the first lunar month in the fourth year of Yanyou, which was also the twentieth day after the enemy reinforcements from Chaozhou arrived at Anfeng Village, Kong Xirong led his troops into Jinxi Village in the upper reaches of the Longtan River and controlled the pass along the Longtan River into the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain.
.
Feng Xuan, Tan Xiuqun, Zhao Wuji and others divided their troops and marched along the upper tributaries of the Nan Feishui River to occupy and capture a total of forty-seven mountain villages along the route.
In addition to accumulating nearly a thousand casualties among soldiers and horses from all walks of life, dividing the troops to control these strongholds also diluted nearly two thousand elite soldiers and horses.
Feng Xuan, Tan Xiuqun, Zhao Wuji, Dou Rong, and Han Donghu only had one or two hundred guards left in their hands. They were temporarily unable to continue advancing into the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain. They could only lead the few remaining guards back to Shenyang.
Home collection.
Returning to Shenjiaji, on the basis of the guards and horses, auxiliary troops were added, and five new infantry battalions were quickly organized to strengthen the defense of the northern line and prepare for the counterattack of the Shouzhou Army at any time...