In the face of Li Xiu's huge surprise, Han Qian just said indifferently:

"Between Xihua and Yanling, we have built two trestle bridges nearly 20 miles long to pass through the floodplain, so that when the enemy's main force is completely attracted to the south and southeast sides of the Chenbian Post Road, the Bianjing army and civilians can withdraw as quickly as possible!"

Two trestle bridges nearly twenty miles long!

Li Xiu suddenly understood why the war in Xia Cai was so urgent during this time, and the number of craftsmen and craftsmen invested in Xia Cai in Tangyi was so harsh, and he actually built two trestle bridges west of Chen Bianyi Road at the same time to pass through the floodplain to ensure the rapid withdrawal of the military and civilians in Bianjing.

Li Xiu had not thought about the possibility of building a pontoon bridge before, but the terrain of the floodplain is complex, and even if you don't need to consider the impact of the current, the difficulty of building a pontoon bridge is far greater than that of a river with a gentle current.

The floodplain is flooded with depth and shallowness, but in general, shallow silt is the majority.

Especially after autumn, with the reduction of water from the upper reaches and the reduction of rainfall in the Hehuai area, the flood water has gradually receded, and the water has receded in many places, but the mud left in the Yellow Flood Area is deep, like a swamp, making it extremely difficult for mules and horses to walk in it.

All pontoon boats erecting trestles need to be specially built to be used to build pontoon piles in the floodplain, and existing civilian boats cannot be requisitioned for modification.

The two trestle bridges add up to thirty or forty miles long, and this kind of special pontoon boat alone needs to build three or four thousand new boats to be enough, right?

Li Xiu guessed that it would not be more than May at the earliest, and Han Qian began to transfer craftsmen and craftsmen on a large scale to several shipyards in Shouzhou and Huoqiu, but in just five months, such a huge number of special pontoon boats could be built, and how strong was Tangyi's shipbuilding capacity?

As long as these pontoons are pre-formed in the shipyard, and then go north through Yingshui, and after reaching the predetermined location, they can be quickly laid from the central river to the edge of the floodplain, so that naturally there is no need to worry about the detection of the Mughult scouts who are blocked by the floodplain.

Of course, it would not be possible for hundreds of thousands of women and children to withdraw to the vicinity of the entrance of the floating stack in Yanling and Xihua counties, and before that, it was necessary to completely isolate the enemy's main force from the floating stack passage.

Before everyone thought that Chen Bianyi Road was the only way for the Bianjing army and civilians to evacuate to the south and west before the Huaixi River was frozen and frozen, and the early combat deployment of the Tangyi Army and the Bianjing defenders was also centered on Chen Bianyi Road, and even Kong Xirong led 6,000 advance troops were being held by the Muguls at the south end of Chen Bianyi Road, and there were only elite troops but they could not be deployed.

Now it seems that all this is a plan to attack the west from the east, the purpose is to attract the enemy's main force to the southern front, to the east and south sides of the Chen Bian Post Road, and more than 100,000 Bianjing soldiers and civilians have built a new floating stack from the west side of the Chen Bian Post Road, and the golden cicada has successfully broken out of its shell.

Perhaps by now, Wu Su Dashi, Xiao Yiqing or Xu Mingzhen still thought that tens of thousands of Bianjing women and children and more than 50,000 Liang-Chu allied troops had been successfully blocked north of Chenzhou by them.

"The so-called conference battle is purely bait to lure the enemy?" Li Xiu asked in shock.

"Not necessarily, if the main force of the Mengwu cavalry does not go south, I still want to drive all the Shouzhou troops to the east bank of the vortex, then the situation will be more favorable!" Han Qian said behind his back, "Now I can only say that I have a draw with them!" ”

With more than 10,000 casualties, he successfully withdrew more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians from Bianjing, and even guided more than 300,000 people from Danxian, Wuting, Xiacai, Wuyang and other places to the south.

Even if this move is far from reversing the situation in Hehuai, it is not a draw, right?

Such a situation is much stronger than the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, and the millions of people in Bianjing City and between Yingshui and Whirlpool are controlled by Zhu Rang.

Han Qian had no obligation to appease Li Xiu's inner shock, and immediately asked him to walk to the long case that spread out the map, and introduce the battle plan to receive the defenders of Danxian and Wuting.

One day, the military and civilians of Bianjing will be able to completely withdraw between Yanling and Xihua, and the men and horses who will go first will quickly retreat south through the two floating trestle long bridges, and then evacuate to the new embankment on the south side of Wanqiu through the military and civilian ships that stay in the upper reaches of Yingshui.

On the north side and two wings of the two floating stacks in Yanling and Xihua, there are several small and strong walled cities, which can be used by Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun to lead the Bianjing defenders and reinforcements to resist the enemy's pursuit after withdrawing in, but all the soldiers and horses on the northern front will be withdrawn within half a month, which is not a big problem.

What is more troublesome now is the two villages of Danxian and Wuting, which were guarded by Wen Bo and Tan Xiuqun, and they were completely encircled by the enemy.

Due to the fact that when the main force of the reinforcement army went north, they left enough weapons and grain and grass, and these two walled cities were not afraid of the enemy's strong attack in a short time, but the Tangyi army still needed to respond to them.

The plan is to use the special box boats and pallets withdrawn from Yanling and Xihua, at the mouth of the Danxi River - the Danxi River is relatively shallow, flooded in summer and autumn, and the river is silted up with sediment, which is no longer navigable after the water level drops in winter - to build a trestle bridge to the Yatouling on the west side of Dancheng to form a support point to aid Yingdancheng in the east and Yingwuting in the northeast.

If the enemy army does not give up the siege of Dancheng and Wuting, considering that the muddy land will freeze in another month at most, and the Mengwu cavalry will be able to gallop across the country at that time, then Li Xiu needs to lead his troops in Yatou Ridge and take advantage of the steep terrain to hold on until the ice and snow melt in the spring of next year, and then make other plans.

Of course, in the future, Yatouling will also be considered as a front camp fortress on the west bank of Yingshui to directly threaten the enemy's foothold in the central and western part of Bozhou, but it will basically be considered to be handed over to the Liang army in the later stage.

"You don't need to worry about the safety of the Li clan, after you lead your troops north, I will arrange for Dou Rong to lead a brigade of elites to be stationed in the middle to protect Cai's east flank." Han Qian could see a trace of worry in Li Xiu's eyes and said.

Once it is found that the military and civilians of Bianjing have successfully broken out of their shells, the enemy army that is unwilling to be frustrated is very likely to launch a more fierce offensive against Xia Cai, but if Han Qian orders Dou Rong to lead his troops to defend the east flank of Xia Cai and take Lijia Xinzhai as the main camp, Li Xiu is not very worried that Li Jia Xinzhai will be captured by the enemy.

After all, the core combat power of the Tangyi military brigade level is more than a little stronger than the combat power of the more than 1,000 township soldiers led by him; After two months of construction, Lijia Xinzhai has been greatly strengthened as the main support point of the eastern wing.

And Li Xiu also understood that Han Qian arranged this, or to use the main camp to resist the enemy's crazy counterattack on the Xia Cai defense line, in comparison, the defensive combat task of Yatouling in the early stage was not heavy, and it was enough to call in the Xiangyong auxiliaries to station, and in the later stage, after the main force of the reinforcement army was withdrawn from the north, the troops in Han Qian's hands would be completely relaxed.

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"Day, day, day, I'll just say where did his grandmother's craftsmen and craftsmen go, who have played with adults all these years, no one has played!"

Li Xiu took Li Chi back with a new combat mission, and Cao Ba could only sigh when he learned the details.

Li Xiu knew very well that all this could not be covered by intrigue and trickery.

It is impossible for the Mugwu people not to guard against Han Qian's evacuation of the military and civilians in Bianjing, and to push the battle to the climax before the Beidi River is completely frozen for a month, and the calculation can be described as very accurate.

After the main force of the Mengwu cavalry went south to participate in the battle, both the Shouzhou army and the Xu Si army showed quite strong combat effectiveness and morale.

It's just that who would have thought that Han Qian had secretly prepared to build two floating channels across the floodplain with a total length of nearly 40 miles from the beginning of the preparation of the northern aid to today, and it was only four or five months or half a year from the beginning of the preparations for the northern aid.

In addition to the newly built nearly 4,000 special pontoon ships, considering that the floating stacks need relatively reliable stability when large-scale people and horses pass quickly, hundreds of groups of giant anchorage blocks consume as much as three or four million catties of iron, which is about the total output of Jinling Guanye Iron Yard for more than a year.

Military strength can never be measured simply by the size of the troops.

Since Tangyi has the ability to build super-long floating stacks to pass through the floodplain, the floodplain on both sides of Yingshui can be said to be an obstacle to the Mengwu army from the east to the west of Yingshui, rather than an obstacle to Tangyi's march from the west and east of Yingshui.

This will also directly limit the subsequent control of this area between the Yingxuan vortex by the Shouzhou Army or the Mughutures.

Even the Mugwu people were aware of Han Qian's plot at this time, and wanted to bypass the main force of the reinforcement army that was blocking the west of the middle section of the Chen Bian passage at this time, and mobilize troops and horses from the periphery to attack Yanling and Xihua, but it was too late.

Is it possible for the Mugultures to defend and attack from the south to reinforce the main force of the Bianjun army at any cost?

Li Xiu thought that the Muguls would not be so impulsive.

The size of the forces of the two sides in the vicinity of the Chenbian Post Road is comparable, especially the more than 50,000 enemy troops hastily entered the south side of the Chenbian Pass, and before that, they were more considering cutting off the Chenbian Pass.

The more than 50,000 enemy troops on the south side of the Chen Bian Pass, especially the more than 6,000 advance troops of Kong Xirong in the south threatening their backs, hastily reversed the offensive and defensive momentum, and took the initiative to attack the main force of the reinforcement army with the Mabu army as the main force and a few simple villages to rely on, and the odds of victory would definitely not exceed 30%.

Li Xiu and Cao Ba gathered more than a dozen teams to convey the new combat command, and when Dou Rong led the personal guard battalion to come over and handed over the defense, Li Xiu left Li Chi and Li Yan behind, and he and Cao Ba gathered more than 1,000 villagers to take a boat along the Huai River to trace into Yingshui.

On the 6th, they arrived at the mouth of the Danxi River on the west side of Danxian County.

It was the first time Li Xiu had taken a boat into Yingshui, and it was also the first time he had entered the core of the floodplain.

Although it is already winter at this time, the water level in the upper reaches of the Huaishui and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River has dropped, and even the water level in the upper reaches of Yushui has dropped to the level of the same period last year, but after the Yingshui flows into the upper reaches of Yushui, the flow is seven or eight times larger than that of the same period in previous years.

Even if the water level of most of the floodplains on both sides receded at this moment, the remnants of the embankments on both sides of the Yingshui were almost still submerged, and at most a large number of houses collapsed in the mud.

Along the way, you can see the decomposed corpses of people and animals along the coast from time to time, and flocks of black crows are like oppressive black clouds hovering in the air, making a noisy cry.

It's hard to imagine what the banks of Yingshui look like when the water level is at its peak in summer!

"General Li, Cao Lushuai......"

At this time, there was already a boat bridge water battalion, which was parked at the mouth of the Danxi River in advance, with more than a dozen large pontoon boats fastened together with iron cables, and a huge anchor was built in the middle of the river to build a floating dock sixty or seventy steps square.

A military attache of the Zhouqiao Water Battalion waited for Li Xiu, Cao Ba and others to go to the floating dock to report the situation nearby.

The scale of the southward withdrawal of troops and civilians in Yanling is more than half, and they have all been withdrawn, and the first batch of flat box ships and pallets can be transported to the mouth of the Danxi River at night, and will be used to lay floating stacks to pass through the floodplain at the western foot of Yatouling, which is 17 or 8 miles away on the east side.

At this time, the weather is not yet cold.

Yatou Ridge extends only four miles from east to west, the east foot is about eleven or twelve miles away from the remnant city of Danxian County, its main peak is only more than 20 zhang high, the surrounding is low, the flood recedes, but it is full of muddy mud, like a swamp, in addition to laying a floating stack, even a high-headed horse can not wade through the muddy field that is deeply sunken by the foot.

In fact, at this time, the enemy army had already sensed the plan to attack the east and the west, but the general trend had been achieved, and they did not dare to rashly attack the main force of Bianjing and the defenders of Bianjing on the north side in a hurry, so they could only retreat part of it to Wuting and Danxian, intending to eat the elite of the two Tangyi armies left behind in Wuting and Danxian to relieve the hatred in their hearts.

The enemy army obviously also saw the key node of Yatou Ridge, and realized that the Tangyi army would lay a floating stack leading to Yatou Ridge to aid Yingdancheng and Wuting.

Walking in the muddy field was much more difficult than expected, and more than 200 enemy troops had to endure all the hardships at night to wade through the muddy field four miles wide on the east side of Yatou Ridge, but they were killed head-on by the auxiliary generals who were ambushed by the Zhouqiao Water Battalion.

At this time, there were still more than 130 enemy troops entrenched at the eastern foot of Yatou Ridge.

Although there were 200 men and horses left in the Zhouqiao Water Battalion at the western foot of Yatou Ridge, as an auxiliary soldier, the armor and personal physical fitness were much inferior to the main camp, and they could kill a wave while the enemy was unprepared, but now there was no way to eat the remaining 130 or 40 enemy elites.

More enemy forces are driving people east of the floodplain to harvest reeds and cut down trees, trying to make an improvised passage through the mud fields.

"Send me and the trap team to Yatou Ridge first!" Cao Ba said.

It took more than two hours to send Cao Ba and a hundred elite people to Yatou Ridge.

Li Xiu led the rest of the trapping team into the second batch of Yatou Ridge, Cao Ba did not wait for him to come, he had already led the first batch of elite trapping team to capture the eastern foot of Yatou Ridge, the enemy army could not figure out the passage of the Tangyi army in Yingshui, and did not reinforce the eastern foot in time in a hurry.

When he arrived at the top of the eastern foothills, he saw fifty or sixty remnants of the enemy fleeing into the mud in a hurry, and Cao Ba, the grandson, was calling the new pawns in the trap team to practice shooting at the enemy soldiers who had just escaped forty or fifty paces away.

In the distance, you can see that the enemy army is using the grass and trees from the felling to lay an improvised passage, and there are about four miles of muddy land to the east of the eastern foot of Yatou Ridge, and it is also a loss to the main force of the previous reinforcement army to attack and defend with the Shouzhou army here for more than a month, and cut down the nearby trees, so that the enemy army has not been able to build this four-mile-long simple passage at this time.

As the Xinzhai Township soldiers ascended Yatou Ridge in batches, the enemy could only give up the construction of simple passages.

The simple passage is more unstable than the floating stack, and it is extremely narrow, and it can't pass through many soldiers at a time, even if it can be successfully repaired to Yatou Ridge, but if you really want to send troops over, isn't it to send food to the elite of the Tangyi Army who have been stationed in Yatou Ridge?

Even though more than 1,000 soldiers were sent to Yatou Ridge in batches for more than two days, Li Xiu still did not dare to be sloppy, and the Zhouqiao Water Battalion still laid the floating stack non-stop as originally planned.

By the end of October, there is a high probability that the muddy ground on the left and right will be completely frozen, and then thousands of enemy troops can surround from all directions, and the main peak is only 20 zhang of Yatou Ridge, and the terrain is limited no matter how dangerous it is, and without sufficient materials and weapons, it is impossible for 1,200 soldiers and horses to hold Yatou Ridge.

There are ready-made flat box boats and pallets, and more professional boat bridge water battalions will be transferred to come over, and the speed of floating stack construction is also very fast, and the fifth day is repaired to the west foot of Yatou Ridge, and bulk materials are continuously transported from the waterway, and then transported into Yatou Ridge through the floating stack; When the main force of the reinforcement army retreats south, a group of elite combat forces will come over.

Of course, Li Xiu led the Xinzhai Township Yong who climbed Yatou Ridge in the lead period, and he also seized the time, digging trenches and building soil slope retaining walls according to the terrain day and night, and widening the passage between the east and west ridges as much as possible.

In the past few days, although the enemy's attack on the remnants of Wuting and Danxian was very fierce, Li Xiu stood at the eastern foot of Yatouling, and the naked eye could vaguely see the situation of the attack and defense of the two cities when the sky was clear.

At this time, it also reflects the significance of their foothold in Yatou Ridge.

They are separated by the Yellow Flood Area, and even if they are not able to threaten the enemy troops on the east side now, their appearance on the Raven's Head Ridge can greatly boost the morale of the defenders, and also make the enemy feel like they are thorns in the back.

At this time, not only did the women and children of Bianjing withdraw to the west bank of Yingshui, but Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun also led their troops into the western region of Chenzhou, and after a simple rest, they could pass through the treacherous plank road in the north of Ruzhou at any time, enter the southern area of Heluo, and join the main force of the Liang army led by Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang, and launch a final assault on the rebels in Luoyang and other cities......

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"Your Highness, this is Han Qian and his Tangyi army! In the past three or four years, I have ordered Guanjianglou to devote one-third of its manpower to focus on Tangyi and study Han Qian's every move in Huaixi, but I did not expect that the Tangyi army would attract the main force of our army to the southern front, and even build a floating stack at any cost to take the military and civilians out of Bianjing. We still lost between Hehuai and Huai, but fortunately, His Royal Highness gave Tian Weiye a death order, asking him to take Yongzhou City before November, regardless of casualties. Otherwise, the situation is really ugly. ”

Xiao Yiqing was dressed in a gray robe, and Xu Mingzhen, the king of Huainan County, stood beside a burly and sturdy middle-aged Mugwu man, looking in the direction of Yatou Ridge.

The middle-aged Mugwu is the Mugwu prince and the privy envoy of the Southern Yuan, Wusu Dashi.

In these years, he accepted the northern fugitive clan, and even set his fief as a state and county thirty years ago, and fully implemented the Han system.

Looking at his burly and sturdy face and beard, perhaps the first impression may be that he is an invincible general, but at this time, he is wearing a dusty fur to keep out the cold, holding a bronze lookout mirror captured from the battlefield in his hand, observing the defense of Yatou Ridge more clearly, and said to Xiao Yiqing:

"Zhu Yu's body can't bear it for too long, and it's not the same time that he wins or loses with Tangyi."

"That's right, Zhu Yu's condition may not be able to survive next spring, and the remnant Liang will be the main one for Zhu Zhen's children, why be afraid?" Xiao Yiqing smiled and said.

Wu Su Dashi pointed in the direction of Yatou Ridge and asked, "By the way, who is the general sent by Han Qian to Yatou Ridge, have you found it?" Its deployment and defense are very methodical, the advance and retreat are well-founded, and the rise of the Xuzhou and Tangyi armies has only been ten years, and there are really a lot of capable generals under Han Qian! ”

The scout scout horse can't get close to reconnoitre, and with the help of the captured lookout scope, it is impossible to see the faces of people four or five miles away, Xiao Yiqing still doesn't know that the guards who entered Yatou Ridge at this time are Li Xiu and Cao Ba, but Yatou Ridge and Danxian are ruined and Wuting form a horn trend, Han Qian's intention to make such a military deployment, he is clear in his heart.

The general of Wuting was Tan Xiuqun, who could be the general of Tanzhou to surrender to Han Qian, and his brother Tan Yuliang was used by Han Qian, causing civil unrest in Sizhou, and finally forcing Jinling to recruit an as the balance capital.

The Wuting city wall is relatively complete and difficult to gnaw, and the county city of Dan County is dilapidated, but the person in charge of guarding the remnant of Dan County is Wen Bo who shocked Jianghuai with the name of defending the city.

In fact, the war here has become a chicken rib, and they have not withdrawn their troops until this time, and they are not thinking of encircling the point to send reinforcements.

One main thing is that there is no news of the capture of Yongzhou City from Tian Weiye's side, no matter whether Zhu Yu's body can survive until the spring and summer of next year, the gains and losses of Yongzhou City are too crucial for the entire Western Front, so don't make sure that they fall into their hands before the year.

The other is to organize the Shouzhou Army and Xu Si's Army to attack Dancheng and Xia Cai in turn at this time, which is also conducive to regaining their confidence in gaining a foothold on the southern front, so that Zhu Rang, Xu Mingzhen and other troops can really contain the Tangyi army from the eastern front......

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On October 18, Shen Peng and Zhao Ci led 3,000 soldiers and horses into Yatouling, joined up with Li Xiu's troops, and strengthened the support for the besieged soldiers and horses of Danxian and Wuting.

At this time, the low and shallow water was just covered with thin ice.

At this time, the main force of the reinforcement army also retreated from the territory of Xihua County in the north of Chenzhou by boat to the south.

The advance army led by Kong Xirong was still nailed to Wanqiu for the time being, peeking at the enemy army in the north from the south side of Chen Bianyi Road, and also pinning down the enemy's flank, so that it could not let go of its hands and feet to attack the main force of the reinforcement army that had withdrawn into Xihua County.

Judging by the weather in mid-October and the cold snap in the south, Yingshui will be frozen in another half a month, and the Mengwu cavalry may cross Yingshui and advance westward at any time.

With the main force of 30,000 generals of the reinforcement army, they successively withdrew south to the line of Xia Cai and Linhuai, and in the last half month, they frantically counterattacked the Xu Si army and the Shouzhou army and the Mengwu cavalry of the Xia Cai defense line, and finally returned in vain on the 21st, retreating to the east bank of Wuyang and Wushui.

The enemy troops on the periphery of Dancheng and Wuting also broke the siege at about the same time, some of the soldiers and horses withdrew into Bozhou and Luyi, and some of the soldiers and horses withdrew to the Bianjing Nangi Walled City in the north.

The battle between the vortex and the Huai River finally ended with a loud thunder and a small raindrop, and the Mengwu people finally did not want to use the defenders of Danxian and Wuting as bait to attract the main force of the Tangyi army to the north and launch a general battle in the Pingchuan area south of Dancheng.

In addition to Wen Bo leading a group of men and horses to continue to defend the remnants of Danxian County and hand over Yatouling to the Liang army for defense, Tan Xiuqun's troops and Li Xiusuo's troops, who suffered heavy casualties, retreated south to rest.

On the way back to the south, Cao Ba kept nagging in Li Xiu's ears for more than two days, complaining that this battle was really thunderous and rainy, and the fight was too enjoyable......