The Battle of Yaowuling lasted for twelve days. The elite soldiers of Luzhou who had surrendered to the Mengwu dropped 3,000 corpses in front of the valley in front of Yaowuling. They watched as more and more Liang Jun troops crossed the river on ice.
Even if he could temporarily capture one or two positions and push Liang Jun back 200 or 300 steps, and then be captured again immediately, Tian Weiye would have no other solution other than sending people to Taiyuan Prefecture to request reinforcements.
At this time, there was heavy snow in the mountains of Jin.
Especially on the northern slopes of Wangwu Mountain and Lishan Mountain, the snow was more than two feet thick, which greatly slowed down the assembling of reinforcements and their march south.
Although Mashou Village is strong and dangerous, the space inside the stockade is narrow and there are many wooden buildings. The defenders are blocked in the stockade and cannot come out to attack. Seven or eight cyclone cannons and more spring-arm scorpion crossbows are constantly attacking.
Throwing stone bullets and fire oil cans into the stronghold, igniting them, and smashing down the buildings in the stronghold, making it impossible for the defenders to hide.
Ten days later, guard Gu Yanling saw that the reinforcements were still unable to kill Yaowuling and came in for reinforcements. In particular, the granary in the village was unfortunately hit by a stone bullet through the roof in the first two days and was set on fire by a fire oil tank. Not long after,
After eating all the remaining food, they opened the gate of the village from the inside and offered the village to surrender.
Attacking Mashou Village is the first step of the Northern Expedition, and it is also the first step for the subsequent war to start smoothly.
The special geographical location of Mashou Village guarding the south entrance of Zhiguan Xing determined that Mashou Village must be attacked in the first battle.
In addition, the Yuhe River was frozen for only more than two months, but there were many fortresses along the Zhiguanxing Road and many were difficult and dangerous. It would even take a year or two for the army to march north before it could finally gain a foothold on the east bank of the Fenshui River.
During this period, it is necessary to ensure that stable material supply channels are established on both sides of the north and south banks that are not disturbed by enemy naval forces upstream and downstream.
Even though the Luoyang Navy had an absolute advantage on the Yu River, the enemy built many large ships in the upper reaches of the Yu River, and quickly rushed downstream with the help of the rapid water flow. If the iron-clad Mengchong ships did not want to be knocked over, they would have to
Able to retreat.
The Mongolian army built a large number of boats in the Wei River, Yanzhou and Jinzhou last year. They must have thought that they could use this tactic to counter their control of the waterway in the middle reaches of the Yu River. They will definitely use this method to interfere with them in the future.
Shipping on the north and south coasts.
After capturing Ma'shou Village, the next step is to pull up iron cables between Ma'shou Village and Lingshang Village on the south bank to block the river.
With the smelting and casting technology and scale of Daliang at this time, there is no problem in building iron cables as long as you want. However, if the iron cables must be stably stretched across the Yu River, further construction of an iron cable pontoon bridge will even need to be considered. The weight of the iron cables and
The impact of water flow after the bridge is built is a difficult problem that needs to be overcome.
The actual length of the iron cable and the iron cable pontoon should be as short as possible.
Mashou Village and Lingshang Village are built on prominent positions on the north and south banks respectively. The river here is the narrowest, forming a canyon with only less than 1,300 steps. The river narrows at the mouth of the gorge, and west of the gorge mouth
The impact force of the water flow on the east side is still slightly smaller than that on the east side.
All things considered, this is also the most suitable place to build a cable pontoon bridge.
Li Qi and Lin Sheng's two infantry brigades had also arrived at Lingshang at this time. After capturing Ma Shou Village, they led their troops to join Su Lie and Huo Li, and Wen Bo rushed over to take command in person, following closely behind Xiang Yuan.
Behind the retreating Mongolian troops from Queen Cang of Qucheng, they directly pursued Benyuan Qucheng.
Although there are still six enemy villages south of Yuanqu City, their scale and number of troops stationed are quite limited.
If we conquer the six enemy villages in the south one by one first, we will waste a lot of time south of Yuanqu.
By then, Tian Weiye must have mobilized a large number of reinforcements from the northern front to enter Yuanqu City and guard the key areas near Yuanqu City. By then, if they want to capture Yuanqu City, it will be a protracted tug-of-war.
It is even very likely that it will return without success.
At this time, Wen Bo ignored the six enemy strongholds in the south of Yuanqu. Except for ordering Chen Yuanchen to lead his troops out of Lishan and Wangwushan to contain the defenders in these strongholds, he was not worried that the grain road might be cut off.
Directly leading the elite infantry brigade such as Su Lie, Lin Sheng, Wen Yuan, Huo Li, and Li Qi, they followed Tian Weiye's deserters and approached Yuanqu City.
Facing the swarming elites of the Liang army, Tian Weiye could not give up Yuanqu City, and knowing how passive Yuanqu City would be if he was trapped in it, Chen Bing fought in front of the city.
Under Wen Bo, Su Lie, Wen Yuan, Li Qi, Huo Li, and Lin Sheng were all brave generals. When they entered the Yuanqu Basin, their soldiers and horses rushed into battle. Tian Weiye could not resist and was forced to retreat into the city.
In front of Wenbo's formation, we did not rush to attack the city, but first divided our troops into two passes in the northeast and northwest of Yuanqu City.
These two passes are also the main passages for the enemy troops in the north to support Yuanqu from the south. As long as these two passages are blocked, they can slowly surround Tian Weiye's more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in Yuanqu City, and slowly
to solve.
As for the six enemy strongholds in the south, after He Liufeng and Han Bao's two infantry brigades arrived, it was too late to capture them one by one and restore the smooth flow of grain routes to Luoyang on the south coast.
Although Zhao Mengji's troops in Mengzhou could advance westward through the riverside area on the south slope of Wangwu Mountain and reach the south entrance of Zhiguanxing, the Yuhe River was frozen at this time, Han Donghu was in Xingyang, and Hulao Pass could send troops directly to the north bank.
Cut off the westward advance of Mengzhou reinforcements.
In addition, they only need to build defenses on the riverside area on the southern slope of Wangwu Mountain before the Yu River freezes.
This is the responsibility of Han Donghu leading the Xingyang Army, and Wen Bo does not need to worry too much about it.
Daliang had been preparing for this battle for two years, taking all factors into consideration. The minimum goal of this battle was to seize Yuanqu City, which occupied the key point in the middle section of Zhiguanxing.
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Yuanqu City was built between Li Mountain and Wangwu Mountain. The core area is in the Yuanqu Basin, which is about twelve or thirteen miles deep. The city only occupies a corner of the basin.
Yuanqu City is also the most important town guarding the middle section of Zhiguanxing between Lishan Mountain and Wangwushan Mountain.
During the thirty or forty years of the Liang-Jin struggle for supremacy, the Jin army occupied Yuanqu City many times and killed the Liang army that entered Zhiguanxing.
The surrounding terrain of Yuanqu City ranges from flat to rugged. Generally speaking, the south, northeast and three sides are relatively flat, while the west side of the city is built close to the cliff at the eastern foot of Mount Li, and the terrain is rugged.
Yuanqu City also has only three gates in the south, south, north and south.
In addition to Su Lie, Huo
Li led his troops around to the north of Yuanqu City and blocked the passes in both directions for reinforcements to go south. Wen Bo led Wen Yuan, Li Qi, and Lin Sheng to set up camps in the south and west of the city respectively.
After Yao Xishui and Lu Qingxia climbed from a mountain stronghold guarded by the Mongolian army at the northern foot of Mount Li, over a treacherous mountain path, and climbed to a peak on the west side of Yuanqu City, they had a panoramic view of the interior of the Yuanqu Basin, which is only a dozen miles in radius.
At that moment, my heart felt cold.
More than 20,000 reinforcements from Jiangxian, Anyi, Quwo and other places were blocked by Liang Jun in the deep and long gorge in the north of Yuanqu with thousands of elite troops and a large number of bed crossbows, scorpion crossbows, chariots and other sophisticated weapons.
, unable to go south to reinforce Yuanqu, and Yuanqu City was surrounded by nearly 30,000 Liangjun soldiers and horses on three sides except for the side facing the cliff in the east.
Yao Xishui could not imagine how the Mongolian army could break through the blockade of deep gorges and narrow valleys with crossbows with a range of 400 steps.
Even if they led with large shields and fine iron chariots, rushed to the front of the Liang Army formation regardless of casualties, and fought hand-to-hand with the Liang Army generals wearing strong armor in a small battlefield, the Mongolian army would suffer most.
Although there were still six defensive forts scattered in the 40-mile-long ditch south of Yuanqu City, and it seemed that they were not lost, the defenders totaled less than 3,000, and they were surrounded by tens of thousands of Liang troops and were eaten one by one.
It's also a matter of time.
Liang Jun also established defenses on the southern slope of Wangwu Mountain near the north bank of the Yu River to intercept Zhao Mengji's troops from Mengzhou attacking the south entrance of Zhiguanxing.
In the Lingshang Gorge and the upstream direction, a total of twelve arm-thick iron cables were already straddling the Yu River.
Tian Weiye led only more than 12,000 of his own elite troops, and they might be able to defend Yuanqu City for a long time, but the problem is that the channel for the Mongolian army to reinforce Yuanqu City has been blocked.
To break the siege of Yuanqu, only Wang Yuankui and Wang Xiaoxian led their troops to counterattack Huazhou, Tongguan and Lantian Pass, which Kong Xirong led his troops to defend, regardless of casualties. They exerted military pressure on Liang Jun from these two directions, forcing him to finally
Evacuate from outside Yuanqu City.
This strategy was not thought up by Lu Qingxia, but suggested by Tian Weiye himself when he sent a messenger from Yuanqu City to cross the peaks at the northeastern foothills of Lishan Mountain and rushed to Anyi to meet Xiao Siqing.
In order to facilitate this, Xiao Yiqing did not go to Anyi to supervise the battle, but rushed directly to Yongzhou to see Wang Yuankui.
Wusu Dashi's edict has been issued. On the one hand, Yan, Lin and other places gathered reinforcements to go south to strengthen the attack on Huazhou and Tongguan from the west. On the other hand, Xiao Yiqing came forward to urge Wang Yuankui and Wang Xiaoxian to leave Qizhou as soon as possible.
Yongzhou sent troops.
It was already the end of the first month of the sixth year of Taihe, and the Hehuai area was about to completely thaw. For the time being, it was impossible to count on the Dongliang Army and Mengzhou troops to cooperate in attacking the eastern flank of the Liang Kingdom.
It was a brilliant idea to dig up the embankment of the Yu River and release the floodwater into Ying. But who would have thought that the situation would change with time, and the floodplain formed on both sides of Yingwo would now become a barrier to the east flank of the Liang Kingdom?
Yao Xishui couldn't help but wonder whether Wu Su Dashi and Xiao Yiqing had any regrets in their hearts. Unexpectedly, they did not expect that Zhu Yu would take the Zen position of Han Qian before his death, so he made two crucial steps wrong and fell into passivity at this time.
At this time, Yao Xishui couldn't help but think of her elder brother who was far away in Longyou. His wife also sent people to Chengzhou last year, but the two envoys were beheaded in public as soon as they arrived in Chengzhou, which made them feel bitter...