After Liang Chenglei led the First Corps north to Pingnan Prefecture, he launched military operations along the Jing River and its many tributaries. The journey was actually smooth sailing.
Most of Pingnan Prefecture's main troops had been lost in the Battle of Jingzhou and the Battle of Zhenbeicheng, and the few remaining troops were simply unable to resist such a large-scale regiment of the First Army.
Bei'an Prefecture in the north has never been a big state. Even though some troops were sent south to assist in the battle, the number of troops dispatched was not large.
As for Gaoqing Prefecture and Ningwu Prefecture, these two prefectures are now too busy to take care of themselves. They have already suffered heavy losses in the battle on the southern front of Jingzhou. In the Battle of Jingshi, they continued to face the continuous attacks of the Second Army led by Ye Keming in the northeastern area of Jingzhou.
, it is even difficult to protect ourselves, and it is simply impossible to send troops to assist.
In Nanhu Prefecture in the west, they are also under great pressure. They are facing the threat of the Third Army in the east, and they are also facing the threat of the Fourth Army along the Luo River in the west, especially the Fourth Army is just south of the Luo River. They are thinking about it every day.
They want to fight up the Luo River. In this case, they have no ability to send troops for reinforcements.
Since the surrounding states were unable to protect themselves, Pingnan Prefecture could only receive limited help from Bei'an Prefecture. However, with just this help, how could it possibly withstand the First Army Corps led by Liang Chenglei.
The First Army Corps led by Liang Chenglei has three corps, a cavalry corps, and two heavy artillery. Its front-line combat strength has reached nearly 200,000, and it also has a large number of heavy weapons, equipped with a large number of 150 mm caliber rifles.
, 120 mm caliber, 100 mm caliber medium and large caliber breech-loaded artillery, and have fire support from the artillery fleets under the Mirror River Squadron.
They are simply unable to engage in a head-on confrontation!
This is why the First Army Corps was able to quickly advance deep into the hinterland of Pingnan Prefecture after moving north.
In order to restore their disadvantage, they reduced their forces and at the same time sent troops to bypass and attack the Imperial Army's logistics lines.
This caused the First Army Corps to encounter a certain amount of trouble, but this trouble was not fatal. At most, it would make the First Army Corps' rear transportation more troublesome and require more troops to be dispatched for armed escort.
But even so, Liang Chenglei didn't intend to give them too many chances.
This kind of harassment and resistance by the enemy also needs the support of the rear. Without a stable territory in the rear, they cannot maintain the army at all. Their army cannot destroy all the territory and still get into the ravines and ravines to fight with the empire.
The army is playing hide-and-seek. They don't have the organizational ability, and their army itself is unlikely to be willing.
Fight if you can, and surrender if you can't. This is the normal choice for the troops in various states and vassal towns.
Therefore, Liang Chenglei decided to adjust the battle plan. Instead of spreading out his troops and trying to fully control them as before, he planned to concentrate his troops and capture Pingnan Prefecture City and several other important cities in one go, and then fight all the way to Bei'an.
The states captured their state capitals and major cities.
When these medium and large cities are captured, it will basically be possible to declare the destruction of the local vassal and town regimes in Pingnan Prefecture and Bei'an Prefecture.
Even the feudal government has been destroyed, so the remaining resistance will naturally disappear.
After this decision was made, the First Army also began to shrink its forces. It did not even care about the central and southern areas where some counties and towns were still controlled by the enemy. Instead, it directly concentrated its forces, with each army as the main attack direction, and at the same time moved towards Pingnan.
They marched to the prefectural cities and counties and cities.
When the First Army began to concentrate its forces, although the enemy troops continued to harass and attack, the First Army quickly captured major cities.
On September 18, the Fourth Army under the First Army captured the city of Pingnan Prefecture. The Third Army and the Seventh Army also successively captured several counties and cities in one direction from the east to the west.
On October 2, the First Army captured the county seat of Yanqiu County in the northern part of Pingnan Prefecture, declaring that all eleven counties and cities in Pingnan Prefecture were under the control of the Imperial Army.
Zuo Pingshu, the prefect of Pingnan Prefecture, resisted to the end and died in Yanqiu County.
Immediately afterwards, the First Army did not stop, but continued to move north to Bei'an Prefecture. He wanted to take advantage of the cold winter in the north to completely capture Bei'an Prefecture.
On October 4, the forwards of the First Army had already entered Bei'an Prefecture, seized the Ningbei County Fort at the southern gate of Bei'an Prefecture, and opened the checkpoint leading to Bei'an Prefecture from the upper reaches of the Mirror River.
Then, under the cover of naval gunboats, the army killed and wounded the hinterland of Bei'an.
Bei'an Prefecture is located in the north, and further north is the frigid tundra zone. Because the geographical environment is not very good and the climate is not good, the population is small, the agriculture can only be said to be average, and its own strength is weak.
Although they tried to mobilize 50,000 troops to resist, the 50,000 troops they mobilized at the last moment did not resist according to their wishes. Instead, when the First Army arrived, under the leadership of senior generals, they completely
He quickly surrendered to the uprising on the spot.
Bei'an Prefecture was completely captured by the First Army without even putting up any decent resistance, and the Bei'an Prefecture feudal town was destroyed.
The First Army quickly moved north and successively captured Pingnan Prefecture and Bei'an Prefecture, which also caused a huge change in the situation of the Daheng Empire's unification war.
The army and navy of the Lin Dynasty relied on the Jinghe River to divide the northern states.
The remaining four states, Ningwu Prefecture, Gaoqing Prefecture, Nanhu Prefecture, and Northwest Prefecture, basically have no possibility of continuing to resist.
Many people can clearly see this general situation, including the vassal towns that control these areas, so the attitudes of these vassal towns have begun to soften.
At this time, Lin Ziran issued an order to the above-mentioned four states that were still resisting. In addition to reaffirming the policy of preferential treatment for surrender, he also issued a strongly worded threat for the first time during the Unification War: If you do not surrender now, you will have to surrender later.
There is no chance to surrender!
This threat made many people shaken. Many generals in the four states have already begun to bypass the feudal towns above and directly contact the Imperial Army to discuss the uprising.
Although the vassal towns in the four states still want to resist, well, in fact, their resistance is not to resist reunification. In fact, they themselves know that reunification is a major trend of the times, and they cannot resist it no matter what.
Their stubborn resistance is just to gain some voice for themselves through their stubborn resistance, so that they can gain a better way out for themselves in the subsequent peace negotiations. For example, they can continue to be the governor of the state with actual military and political power, and continue to be a governor.
A vassal town that obeys the seal but not the rules.
However, the vassal towns want to let their troops continue to fight and gain a better future for themselves. The generals under them are not stupid, and they will not act foolishly as a stepping stone for the vassal towns above.