At present, there are two main water canals in Huaixi from the Yangtze River to the Huaihe River, the Yongyang Canal (Shiliang, Puyang River) and the Anfeng Canal (North and South Feishui) connecting each other. However, both rivers are flat water and have to be crossed in between.
There are two stone weirs and ship locks. There are currently a lot of boats transporting supplies from south to north, but the waterway can't speed up.
Both Jinling and Han Qian set a date for the Li family to arrive at Xia Cai to report. After crossing the river, Li Xiu and the others, in order to make time, followed the post road starting from the embankment on the east bank of Chao Lake, turned eastward via Shiquan, and arrived at Chaozhou.
The city goes further north, passes through Shoudong, and reaches the south bank of Jiaoshan Gorge.
This post road is currently the main land road running from north to south in Huainan. The main branch post roads along the way connect the flattest and richest areas in Huaixi such as Donghu, Liyang, Shiquan, Chaozhou, Feidong, Huailing, Shoudong, Shouchun and other areas.
Along the way, the post road encounters several relatively wide streams and rivers. In the past, it was mainly carried by ferries, but now there are opening and closing pontoons.
The opening and closing pontoon bridge mainly builds concrete or masonry piers in the shallow water area near the coast and sets up fixed bridges, and the deep water area in the middle is connected by a pontoon bridge.
The pontoon bridge opens and closes at a fixed time period. In this way, relatively large and medium-sized ships that cannot pass through the shallow water area can pass through the floating river during the pontoon bridge opening period, while land vehicles and horses can use the post road during the pontoon bridge opening and closing period.
.This can reduce the construction period and cost of large bridges, and at the same time, the pontoon bridge will not block the waterway of the creek.
When encountering narrow ditches, straight iron girder bridges are basically erected; the traditional arch bridge has disappeared on the main post road. Currently, it is to ensure the smooth passage of heavy-duty carriages and ensure the land transportation capacity.
This post road was not newly built. After Tangyi took over Huaixi, it spent two years mainly repairing and transforming it on the original basis. However, it left a very deep impression on Li Xiu. This fully reflects that Tangyi is stronger than other prefectures and counties.
The strength lies.
What impressed Li Xiu deeply was that the horse-drawn carriages traveling on this post road were different from those in other states and counties, as most of them were four-wheeled horse-drawn carriages.
The Jianghuai river system is developed and boats are convenient. Horse-drawn carriages are rarely used to haul goods, and four-wheeled horse-drawn carriages are also extremely rare in the Central Plains.
This is mainly because although the traditional four-wheel carriage has a large load capacity and a relatively stable body, all four wheels are fixed on the frame, the steering is extremely stiff, and the road conditions are slightly complicated or bumpy, which consumes a lot of wheels and animal power.
The four-wheeled carriages in Huaixi seem to have no such drawbacks. Judging from the cargo loaded, a heavy-duty carriage walking on a straight post road contains almost thirty stones of cargo. The load capacity can be said to be extremely amazing.
In addition, another thing that impressed Li Xiu deeply was that there were more than 40 iron beam bridges on this post road that was nearly 400 miles long.
To ensure the passage of carriages with a total weight of more than 4,000 to 5,000 kilograms, the bridge must be straight and straight without slopes, otherwise it would be impossible for a military horse to pull such a heavy carriage across the bridge. However, the bridge body is straight, considering that there may be
When three or four carriages and several pedestrians pass by, traditional wooden beams cannot bear the weight, not to mention that masonry materials can only be used in the construction of arch-type bridges.
Tangyi uses iron beams.
At that time, iron smelting and casting could be said to be quite developed, with official and private iron workshops distributed in various states and counties. However, large castings, such as four-claw iron anchors weighing more than 2,000 kilograms, were still only capable of casting in the smelting workshops in Xuzhou and Donghu.
A grooved iron beam weighing more than 1,000 kilograms seems to be much lighter than a large iron anchor, but it is three feet long and has to ensure sufficient and repeated pressure for many years. It is actually much more difficult to cast than an iron anchor.
Li Xiu thought that if he could urgently build two iron beam bridges on the two trenches between Lijia Xinzhai and Xiacaicheng, which would not be easily destroyed by the enemy, so that Lijia Xinzhai and Xiacaicheng would truly be at each other's horns,
If it is not cut for the enemy, the enemy will not be able to attack the Li family's new village without restraint, and it may be possible to defend the village.
However, Feng Xuan only gave him a team of sixty craftsmen. Even if he could recruit two to three thousand laborers from the refugees, he would not be able to build two iron beam bridges while strengthening the new village.
Seeing Li Xiu staring at the stream trough to the west, Zhou Qiaoan asked: "General Li wants to build an iron beam bridge because the pontoon bridge between Xiacai and Xinzhai is easy to be set on fire by the enemy?"
"Yeah." Li Xiuyin responded with a stern face.
"This is something Feng Shuai specifically ordered Zhou Qiaoan to assist General Li as soon as possible. Is General Li worried about the lack of manpower?" Zhou Qiaoan asked.
"What is the use of this small manpower? Is it possible that hundreds of masons can be urgently recruited from the refugees?" Li Xiu asked coldly.
"Ha, you have walked all the way from East Lake, do you think that the iron beam bridge in Huaixi is built on a stone foundation?" Cao Ba sneered.
"Isn't it made of bricks and stones?" Li Xiu asked doubtfully.
Along the way, he saw that there were many places in Huaixi that were different from other prefectures and counties, but he was so depressed and rushed on the road under the supervision of guards that he really didn't stop to see many details.
"Take our General Li and take a walk near the floating bridge to open your eyes." Cao Ba joked.
It was a matter of life and death for the five to six hundred members of the Li family. Li Xiu didn't mind Cao Ba's sarcastic attitude and took Li Chi, Li Yan and others to drive their horses to the pontoon where he had walked twice.
At this time, he calmed down and took a closer look, and then he noticed that the piles hanging giant ropes on both sides of the creek channel looked like gray-white cliff rocks at first glance, but in fact they were giant pillars that looked like rocks but not rocks, and were deeply embedded in the mud pillars.
, neither of them could encircle them.
Look at the top of the giant pillar and there are dozens of thin iron bars as thick as your thumb sticking out.
"This is not a natural stone pillar?" Li Xiu asked in shock.
"This is stone mud produced in Huaixi, mixed with river sand and gravel, and watered and solidified with iron cages. The time was too hasty before, and only the foundation piles were poured to fix the pontoon. Later, more watering will be done.
It is 10 feet high, built with iron beams, and even the iron beams and pile foundations can be poured together. It cannot be destroyed casually by the enemy!" Cao Ba said proudly, "There is no need to spend manpower digging mountains and quarrying rocks!"
Cao Ba pushed Zhou Qiao An's shoulder and said jokingly: "It seems that General Li knows very little about Huaixi. No wonder he was so miserable this time! By the way, the inspectors in the Weaving Bureau used to have shit in their eyes.
This kind of stone mud pile was first used in Huaixi when building the Huazhu Peak Plank Road, and you still don’t know anything about it yet?"
Li Ji ignored Cao Ba's cynicism and grabbed Zhou Qiao'an to confirm that he could erect the two iron beam bridges in the shortest time. He calmed down his mind a little. Seeing that there was still some time before nightfall, he asked for help first.
Cao Ba took Li Chi and dozens of generals and rushed to the camps where refugees gathered to recruit the best.
With more energy available, all things can be unfolded in sequence.
He took several generals with Zhou Qiaoan to discuss the camp reinforcement plan.
If hundreds of members of the Li family were not here, Li Xiu wouldn't mind leaving some holes in the camp. Even if the walls of the camp were thin and easy to be broken by the enemy, there would be no problem at all. On the contrary, it would be easier to capture the enemy.
The army was introduced into the stronghold to fight a battle of annihilation.
This is more
Can attack the enemy's spirit.
However, hundreds of Li family women and children were in the stronghold. Even if the reinforcements from Caicheng could ensure that the enemy did not dare to easily surround the stronghold, they did not want the stronghold to be easily torn open by the enemy's frontal attack.
Fortunately, Zhou Qiaoan and Guan Zhui are extremely capable. Li Xiu only needs to make a request, and they can formulate corresponding plans. They can even figure out matters such as manpower arrangements in a short time, without Li Xiu's need.
Work hard.
Li Xiu and his nephew Li Yan (the third son of Li Changfeng) gathered together dozens of young family soldiers in the clan, and first acted as scouts to guard the outside of Xinzhai. Not long after, Cao Ba rode on his own.
A skinny horse came over.
Li Xiu thought there was something in the way of recruiting the best refugees, so he looked over with a frown, but Cao Ba waved his hand and said disapprovingly: "Your nephew is quite capable. I'll take him on a trip to talk to you about everything."
It's a familiar face to avoid making things difficult for him. He can supervise the rest. I don't have anything to do! There are also materials needed to build bridges and strengthen the stockade. I made a special trip to Feng Liao to say hello, but they are not available.
What's the problem? Mr. Cao, my face is quite useful to Xia Cai..."
"How many villages will be built outside Xiacai City, and how many strong villagers will Xiacai City plan to recruit as supplements from the refugees?" Li Xiu asked Cao Ba with a frown.
He now needs to have an overall understanding of Tangyi's defense plan on the north bank in order to better decide how to strengthen Xinzhai and how to build future defenses, but currently this information can only be obtained from Cao Ba.
"Five stockades need to be built outside Xiacai, so as to protect the north entrance of the pontoon bridge and prevent small groups of enemy troops from entering and setting fire to the pontoon bridge - each stockade seems to be planned to house six to eight hundred able-bodied households.
This side of the family has the most; in addition, there will be three thousand households in Xiacaicheng," Cao Ba curled his lips and said, "However, you don't have to worry about whether these are available, the enemy is really going to attack the east bank of Guoshui in a large scale.
Gather together, when the time comes, we will mobilize 20,000 elite war horses from the rear. We don’t really expect your Li family, women and children to defend this village - when the time comes, there will be 80,000 Tangyi soldiers and horses in Dan County and Xia Cai.
Enough is enough, is it possible that the Weizhou rebels can still move their main force of hundreds of thousands to the southern front to fight us decisively?"
Li Xiu shook his head and said unoptimistically: "If I were Wu Su Dashi, the commander-in-chief of the southern courtyard of the Mongol people, in addition to instructing Zhu Rang, Xu Mingzhen, and Sima Tan to gather 100,000 infantry to attack Dan County, Xia Cai
, we will also mobilize another 30,000 to 40,000 elite cavalry, how will Tangyi respond then?"
"The Mongol people have not yet established a stable foothold, and now they are going to engage in a big battle with us?" Cao Ba didn't believe Li Xiu's judgment and shook his head and asked.
"The Bianjing Liang Army has less than 20,000 troops and has been almost disabled. It should no longer be the first target of the Mongol people to eliminate. Their only primary goal is to severely damage the Tangyi Army on the west bank of Guoshui River," Li
Xiu said solemnly, "Only in this way can the confidence and low morale of the Shouzhou Army and Xu Si Army be restored. Otherwise, the Mongols will forcefully push Zhu Rang, the puppet emperor, out to consolidate the forces, troops, and horses in the eastern part of the Liang Kingdom.
It is always an empty show. Not to mention that it poses no threat to Tangyi, it is also difficult to pose a substantial threat to Huaidong - this is definitely not what Wusu Dashi or Xiao Yiqing want to see."
"Listening to what you said, it makes sense. Xu Mingzhen has indeed been frightened by the Tangyi Army in recent years. The Tangyi Army did not feel any pressure at all against the Shouzhou Army." Cao Ba said, scratching the back of his head.
Li Xiu said: "The Marquis of Qianyang did not go north to supervise the battle, but stayed in Xiacai. He seemed to be free, but in fact he should have expected that this battle was inevitable. Of course, this battle was inevitable for Tangyi.
Yes, but some people are already concerned about how many casualties the generals on both sides will suffer..."
"When General Li led his men into Shangshu Province with the intention of detaining Empress Dowager Changxin and the new emperor and going to Chongwen Hall, he didn't seem to think too much about the twists and turns of right and wrong?" Zhou Qiao'an interjected at this time.
Of course, Li Xiu knew that Zhou Qiaoan, who was sent by Feng Xuan to assist him in managing the Li family's new village, was by no means an ordinary petty official in Tangyi.
, and can only bear it sadly.
Cao Ba chuckled and asked Li Xiu: "According to you, the best outcome of this battle in Tangyi is just a miserable victory?"
"Otherwise, what do you think?" Li Xiu asked back. Seeing Cao Ba being questioned by him, he sighed and said, "Of course, for the Marquis of Qianyang, even a tragic victory is a result he can accept.
…”
Hearing that Li Xiu still believed that the Li clan would be in trouble in this battle, Cao Ba stretched his waist and said: "Master Cao, I just hope to kill a few more enemy troops. I'm not as worried as you. By the way."
, Li Xiu, if you are worried about the heavy casualties among the children of your Li family, then call your children from the Li family to form a team and leave it to me to lead them - there are probably not many people who can follow me if I pick them from the refugees.
Trapped."
A troop, even if it is to defend a stronghold, must have top soldiers who can ascend or get trapped first, disrupting the enemy's offensive rhythm from time to time, but this is definitely not something that refugees who have been hastily trained for ten or twenty days can do.
In his mind, Li Xiu planned to gather half of the elite soldiers, and then select an equal number of elite refugees to form a team of elite soldiers as a reserve team.
Of course, the Li family has no shortage of qualified candidates to be the leader of the trap team, but it must be said that in the bloody battlefield, the top candidate for the leader of the trap team, there may only be three or five people in the entire Tangyi army who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Cao Ba!
Wen Bo has a reputation for being good at fighting, partly due to the fact that Cao Ba personally led an elite team and could always control the trend and rhythm of the local battlefield when necessary.
"You are so hesitant. Do you think that Mr. Cao, a little chicken, will deliberately cause the children of your Li family to die?" Seeing Li Xiu silently groaning, Cao Ba said displeasedly.
"I can use you to get into the battle, but if you don't listen to my orders, I will kill you in front of the battle. I think Wen Bo will have nothing to say when he comes back." Li Xiuyin threatened with compassion.
"Jijiwaiwai like a girl, how long have you been besieging Chaozhou? When did I let you take advantage of me?" Cao Ba muttered.
Listening to Cao Ba's information, Li Xiu estimated that when the big battle came, Han Qian might gather more than 30,000 troops in Xia Cai, but the hundreds of people in the Li family were nothing in this rolling tide of flesh and blood, and
He was not allowed to be free, and Tang Yi was able to command countless generals, and he was not allowed any room to speak. He just wanted to seize the last gap before the battle as much as possible, and make more preparations to make up for the situation.
With the main force of the aid force moving north to Bian, tens of thousands of refugees are migrating from north to south every day. Previously, there were 60,000 to 70,000 people gathered in the refugee camps on both sides of the camp on the north bank. Women and children were also given priority to go north, and the strong ones were left behind to assist.
The construction of the walled city.
Li Xiu selected 1,200 strong men from them and moved some of the families and small families to the Li family's new village. It was extremely simple and trouble-free, and there were no twists and turns.
This time, more than 130 soldiers and a considerable number of their children were exiled to Xiacai with the Li family. They were all elite military generals who had accompanied Li Xiu in his campaigns in the north and south in recent years. Li Xiu selected 70 people as military attachés. In three days, they
The framework of a thousand-man team was set up.
A mature man who has led hundreds of troops in the past
A military attache with extensive training and combat experience was only responsible for leading fourteen or five new soldiers, so he was naturally very handy.
Even though the time before the battle is extremely tight, it is still barely enough for simple training.
Li Xiu formed a trap team with 60 elite soldiers and 140 refugees, with Cao Ba as the leader - the training of the trap team was even simpler, and it was ready to fight almost as soon as it was formed.
.
The follow-up focus will be on defending the stronghold, and there is no need to control too complicated battle formation changes. Instead, the battle formation will simply use swords, shields and spears as the main weapons, with nearly one-third of the elite soldiers as the backbone, and will be trained for three to five days.
You will become proficient.
Li Xiu also used several old soldiers to assist Li Yan in organizing the children of the soldiers into an inner guard to protect the small families inside in case the wall was torn open.
Li Chi was more adept at internal affairs, so he, his mother Zheng, and the healthy wives of the Li family, together with Zhou Qiaoan, took charge of cleaning up the homes of homeless people and building camps.
To reinforce the camp, in addition to pouring eight stone and mud iron core pillars to support the thin fence wall on the east and north sides that were easily attacked by the enemy, Li Xiu also piled earth and rocks inside the fence wall.
Without enough manpower and time, these earth and stones cannot be compacted layer by layer according to the construction method, but they can effectively absorb the impact force on the outer fence wall.
Han Qian came to inspect twice, and finally distributed armor and weapons to the Xinzhai Xiangyong of the Li family according to the standards of the main battle camp.
This is also the part that Li Xiu values most.
With two hundred arm-loading crossbows, new recruits only need to learn how to draw and load them, and they can cover a certain range of battlefields. They can be put to use after ten days of training. Longbowmen, on the other hand, do not need three to five months of hard training to even draw a bow.
If you don’t know where to shoot the arrow, there may be no accuracy even thirty steps away.
In ordinary prefectures and counties, village warriors can only wear leather armor and fight with swords, spears and small shields. However, in the main battle camp of the Tangyi Army, almost all the elite soldiers wear heavy armor, mainly armor.
The protection of heavy armor and leather armor on the battlefield are completely different concepts.
Cao Ba's formation team all wore armor, so they could charge into the formation against the enemy's arrows. Even with the addition of swords and spears, it was difficult to break through the armor.
Leather armor may be able to withstand long-range arrows, but it is difficult to fully protect against strong bows and powerful crossbows at close range, let alone withstand spear thrusts at close range.
The Tangyi Army's heavy armor coverage was much higher than that of the Guards and Guards Army. In recent years, the confrontation between the Shouzhou Army and the Tangyi Army was deeply felt on the battlefield.
Thanks to the fact that the Shouzhou Army was mostly the elite of the original Chu Army, it did not perform too badly on the frontal battlefield in recent years. However, the huge strategic disadvantage still caused the Shouzhou Army to retreat steadily.
Facing the Tangyi Army, the Shouzhou Army had no psychological advantage at all. What's more, it retreated to both sides of the Guoshui River a year later to establish a foothold, which was extremely unstable at this time.
Li Xiu also concluded from this that the Mongols would definitely dispatch their elite cavalry to Dan County. On the battlefield of Xia Cai, they would never expect the Shouzhou Army, which had been defeated many times, to be the main force on the southern front and fight against the Tangyi Army.
Battle.
Li Xiu estimated that the Tangyi Army with the same size of troops could defeat the Shouzhou Army at this time. The Mongols would never fail to consider how bad the situation in Hehuai would be if the Shouzhou Army was defeated across the board.
within the degree.
A dozen days after the Li clan arrived in Xiacai, the aiding Bian army advanced very smoothly to the north.
Although the Shouzhou Army sent a large number of elite troops to the southern flank of Dan County to intercept the aiding Bian Army based on the favorable river terrain, they were defeated in several battles and had to retreat hastily to the walled city in the north.
The Shouzhou Army in Woyang combined with the Xu Si Army forward, trying to attack the flanks of the Bian Aid Army led by Wen Bo, but failed several times and could only watch the main force of the Bian Aid Army move towards Danxian County step by step.
Advance.
This situation is in line with Li Xiu's prediction.
Li Xiu also believed that the Shouzhou Army alone was unlikely to be able to defend Danxian, Wuting and other cities on the west bank of the Guoshui River under the strong offensive of the supporting Bian Army.
Xu Mingzhen, as a veteran general who has been in the Jianghuai River for half his life, self-knowledge is indispensable. Based on the performance of the Mongols in the north in the past two years, Li Xiu also concluded that they must have a very strong influence on the situation of the Tangyi Army and the Shouzhou Army.
A clear understanding.
If not for this, the Mongol people would not have been able to make so many moves in Jinling City before.
Every time she thought of this, Li Xiu felt an uncontrollable stabbing pain in her chest.
Just ten days after the Li clan arrived at Xia Cai, King Xin Yang Yuanpu led more than 30,000 elite troops to sit and watch in Chuzhou. They had no intention of crossing the Huai River and advancing to the hinterland of Xu Si. They did not even conduct basic raids.
This allowed Xu Si's troops one after another to escape from the north bank area of the lower reaches of the Huaihe River, bypass the north bank of Hongzepu, and advance to the east bank area of the lower reaches of the Uishui River.
The great battle that Li Xiugang predicted when he arrived at Xia Cai can be said to become a reality at any time at this moment.
In the east bank area of the lower reaches of the Wo River, the reinforced Xu Si Army can cross the Wo River and join forces with the Shouzhou Army's soldiers and horses stationed in Wo Yang to directly insert between Dan County and Xia Cai; while crossing the Huai River to the south, they can
Head south to attack the area between Zhongli, Linhuai and Zhunling in Haozhou.
Even though the Tangyi Navy firmly controls the Huaihe River waterway from the north of Haozhou at this time, the time will soon enter the late autumn season. In another two months, there is a high probability that the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River will freeze solid again.
.
No one can expect the battle to end within two months.
If the battle has not ended after two months, or even just kicked off, the Tangyi naval forces will have to withdraw from the frozen Huaihe River. A large number of enemy troops will directly cross the Huaihe River and go south, and they will be able to attack Shouhao and other hinterland areas.
.
In fact, time, and therefore the initiative in fighting, is in the enemy's hands.
For Zhu Rang and the Mongol people, they only need to defend Luoyang, Xingyang, Yanshi, Hangu Pass and other key cities in the Heluo area at this stage from being taken away by Zhu Yu. In this case, Wu
Even if the tens of thousands of enemy troops gathered on the east bank of the water do not directly enter the west bank of the Uishui River, they will put great pressure on the troops supporting Bian, making it difficult for them to attack Danxian, Wuting and other fortresses.
In this way, the Mongol and Zhu Rang could postpone the battle until the end of October or even November, and launch the battle at a more favorable time for them.
This also forced Tangyi to dare not relax the land defenses on the front line of Linhuai and Zhongli, further limiting the scale of elite troops that Tangyi could assemble in the Xiacai area on the north bank.
Cao Ba once said that if necessary, Han Qian would deploy 20,000 more elite troops and horses into the Xiacai area, but in fact he had to place an elite brigade in Linhuai. In the end, he only transferred Dou Rong, Zhao Qi, and Xiao Dahu to strengthen the main brigade.
Go to Xia Cai, merge Feng Xuan's troops, gather 20,000 elite soldiers and 10,000 auxiliary troops, and make final preparations for the upcoming battle.
By the beginning of September, in addition to the 70,000 fully mobilized Shouzhou Army soldiers and horses, the number of Xu Si Army soldiers and horses gathered on the east bank of the lower reaches of the Guoshui River also exceeded 30,000; and Tangyi scouts also reconnoitered that around the end of August
The 10,000-strong Weizhou cavalry was heading south from the Xiji area of Bianjing, but Li Xiu knew very well that this was by no means all the enemy troops on the southern front. The main force of the Mongol cavalry would definitely go south to join the battle...
