To the east and south of Xingyang City, except for Mi County, which is located on the slope of Songshan Mountain, half of Xinzheng County, including Xinzheng County, in the southeast of Mi County, including Xinzheng City, has become a floodplain.

The year before last, the Yu River flooded down, and the Liang army was also forced to abandon Xinzheng City, which was flooded three or four feet deep.

At present, the soldiers and horses closest to Xingyang City in Daliang have also withdrawn to Niujianling in the south of the flood plain and set up camp, which is about 130 li away from Xingyang City and less than 90 li away from Mi County in the south of Xingyang.

The river ice is about to thaw, and when the floodplain area will restrict them from using troops against Xingyang and Mi County from the southern front, and the ice period in the Hehuai area south of the Yu River is only more than two months, which is far from enough time for them to capture the walled cities on the periphery of Xingyang such as Mi County, and then calmly organize thousands of soldiers and horses and tens of thousands of materials to pile up camp under the city of Xingyang to organize the siege.

Even if the two naval brigades in Luoyang could develop a large enough scale and put into actual combat before the autumn of this year, there was no way to prevent the enemy troops from Mengzhou and Bianliang from reinforcing Xingyang after the Yuhe River and the southern floodplain and the Jialu River were frozen.

If you want to use the Yu River and the floodplain to block out enemy aid, you can only take Xingyang before the ice period.

This requires the solution of two problems: first, the Luoyang Navy must develop a strong enough combat strength to solve the problem of the enemy army in Yuzhou crossing the Yuhe River to reinforce Xingyang from the direction of Hugao Pass; second, they must solve the problem of how a large force of troops and horses can go north through the floodplain to attack Mixian and Xingyang through the floodplain.

Although the floodplain is frozen solid at this time, and there is no problem with the horses galloping, but in another ten days and half a month, the weather will warm up, and the ice will be thinner day by day, and a large stream of Yu water with a large amount of sediment has been poured into the southern area of Xingyang for more than two years, silting down, making a large area including Xinzheng City become a large lake and pond.

The west side of the floodplain, especially to the west of Xinzheng County, is a rugged peak at the eastern foot of Songshan Mountain, with cliffs and apes that are difficult to cross.

Even between the floodplain and the rugged peaks, several passages could be found to send troops from Niujianling into the western part of Xinzheng and the southern part of Mi County, but the Eastern Liang army had built a number of fortified castles in the southern part of Mi County, and only a small number of soldiers and horses were needed to block their troop routes.

"Click......

Zhao Wuji turned his head to look and saw a group of cavalry galloping towards the Dingjun Village camp from the hills in the north.

"Maybe it's General Li and he's back?" He Liufeng said hesitantly.

The floodplain is greatly affected by the flood season of the Yu River, and the low-lying land that drains into the Jialu River from Xingyang East will increase with the increasing sediment sedimentation, and the floodplain will also undergo unpredictable changes.

Therefore, after receiving Han Qian's secret letter, Zhao Wuji, as the main general, could not leave the camp at will, and Li Xiu took the initiative to personally lead a team of men and horses to Xingyang for further terrain reconnaissance.

Zhao Wuji wasn't sure if Li Xiu had returned, but there were only a few days left before the river ice would melt, and he had to make a decision in those two days.

With a wave of the big flick, he and He Liufeng galloped to the Dingjun Village camp surrounded by Hu Wei - in order to protect Xuzhou from enemy attacks as much as possible, after Zhao Wuji arrived in Xuzhou, he did not set up the big tent in Xuzhou City, but found a remnant village on the edge slope of Dingjun Mountain, which was more than 20 miles northeast of Changge Remnant City (north of Xuzhou) and was on the verge of the floodplain on the west bank of the upper reaches of Yingshui, and set up a large camp, and as far as possible, the inner line of the walled city was vacated, so that the people could hide in it to avoid the invasion of the enemy.

In front of the gate of the Dingjun Zhai camp, he met the cavalry that had rushed back from the northern hills, and it was Li Xiu who led the men and horses who went to Xingyang to reconnoiter the terrain.

Zhao Wuji, Li Xiu, and He Liufeng walked into the big tent, and sent people to summon Cao Ba, Zhao Ci, Feng Zhang, and others to discuss things.

The big tent made of cut logs looks dim at dusk in early spring, even if the lamps and candles are lit.

Li Xiuxian made some adjustments to the map of Xingyang that they had drawn before, and supplemented the more specific deployment of the Xingyang defenders and some defensive equipment and measures that could be seen in Xingyang City and the surrounding walls.

As the sediment on the west bank of the Jialu River became quite serious in just two years, several of the northbound passages they reconnoitred became narrower, and by the time the flood season approached this year, they could be inundated by the time the flood season approached.

"There is nothing to hesitate, although there are 2,000 defenders in Chenqiaozhai, as long as you can send troops to block the passage between Xingyang, Mixian and Chenqiaozhai at this time, if I can't take Chenqiaozhai within three days, I will give you the head of the neck as a urinal!"

Cao Ba didn't care that he was a cavalry general, and when he opened his mouth, he wanted to ask for the errand of attacking Chenqiaozhai, patted his chest and said,

"Take Chenqiaozhai, and then you can widen the road between Niujianling and Chenqiaozhai, and when the time comes, whenever you decide to attack Xingyang, we can all pass through the slope at the northeast foot of Songshan and kill under Mixian and Xingyang City. If you can't take Chenqiaozhai, before the end of this year, you still want to organize soldiers and horses to forcibly attack Xingyang, I think most of them will be able to draw water with bamboo baskets and only end up empty, and even Mi County may not be able to take it down, anyway, we can't do anything on our side. ”

Chenqiaozhai is a village located in the west of Xinzheng City, at the foot of Songshan Mountain, and is a porcelain production area in Xingzhou that has become famous since the middle of the previous dynasty.

The porcelain merchants of Chenqiaozhai went into the mountain to take the porcelain clay to burn the cellar nearby, accumulated a huge amount of family assets, occupied the slope valley of the west foot of Songshan to repair the house and build the village at any cost, built both gorgeous and solid, in the later period, in order to prevent the flow of the Kou, it is to repair the strong fort wall.

However, in the last ten years of the previous dynasty, the original owner and the villagers of Chenqiao Village did not know where they had gone, leaving only a remnant village.

After Xinzheng was flooded, Liang Shixiong divided his troops to garrison Chenqiao Village, re-spent his efforts on the south of Mi County, built a military fortress, and formed the enemy's defensive core on the southern flank of Xingyang together with Mi County.

After the ice period, Xinzheng and Xingyang are flooded swamps, and several passages from the north of Xuzhou near the western foot of Songshan to enter Xingyang almost all have to pass through Chenqiaozhai, and then advance from the slope of the northeast foot of Songshan to the higher Mixian and Xingyang cities.

Admittedly, he

If we want to send troops to the north, Chenqiaozhai is the key to it; After all, the ice period of the year is still too short, and if they want to go north, they can't bypass Chenqiaozhai most of the time, and as long as they capture Chenqiaozhai, when they attack Mixian and Xingyang in the future, they can not be affected by the flood-deficient area in the east.

If you want to fight, you have to fight early.

If they waited for the river ice to thaw, they could only attack Chenqiaozhai from the front.

At that time, the area for attacking from the front was narrow, and it was difficult to deploy troops, not to mention that it would not take half a day for Xingyang and Mi counties to send reinforcements to Chenqiaozhai, but they did not have the ability to go around to the Songdongpo Valley north of Chenqiaozhai to intercept them.

However, they want to forcibly capture Chenqiaozhai before the ice of the river is thawed, this time may be less than ten days left, and they have to divide troops to intercept Liang Shixiong from Xingyang to send troops to reinforce Chenqiaozhai, the difficulty of this operation is really not ordinary.

Feng Zhang said with some hesitation: "Did you send someone to Luoyang and ask for advice?" ”

Even if their early goal was only Chenqiaozhai, considering that they had to divide their troops to intercept the reinforcements of the superior enemy army, and they also had to ensure the capture of Chenqiaozhai before the river ice began to melt, they were destined to put the main elite of the entire Xuzhou marching army into the battlefield.

The use of troops on such a scale obviously exceeds Luoyang's requirements for them years ago.

"The river ice is going to thaw in a few days, if you want to fight, send someone to Luoyang to ask for instructions, and it will be delayed for three or four days on the way, and when the king gives an edict, I see that the daylily will be cold," Cao Ba was dissatisfied with Feng Zhang's hesitation, and said, "We will send troops directly, as long as Chen Kun, Shen Peng and others will send troops from Tiger Prison Pass to cooperate." ”

Although Li Xiu dared to sneak to Xingyang in person, although he was the deputy commander, he did not express his position directly at this time.

Zhao Wuji clenched his fists, exhaled lightly, put it on the long case and said:

"The enemy army did not expect that Jun Shang would have a plan to recover Xingyang this year, so they would not be able to estimate how strong our determination to attack Chenqiaozhai was, which would directly affect their determination and strength to reinforce Chenqiaozhai. This is also the biggest benefit of our attack on Chenqiaozhai at this time. Li Xiu, you and Cao Ba led two brigades of cavalry, responsible for interspersing to the north of Chenqiaozhai, delaying and intercepting the enemy aid from Xingyang, I personally went to Chenqiaozhai with He Liufeng, Feng Zhang and Zhao Ci each led a brigade of infantry and a brigade of cavalry in Changge and Xinzheng to guard the flank......"

Since Feng Zhang had doubts, he would use He Liufeng's department as the main force to attack Chenqiaozhai, but he would concentrate a limited number of dozens of spring-arm bed crossbows, scorpion cannons and other sophisticated weapons to He Liufeng's headquarters.

Although Han Qian encouraged and did not restrict the lower-level military attachés and generals to express their different opinions, the final decision on whether this battle should be fought, whether it was worth fighting, and how to fight was still the main general.

…………

…………

At that time, no one in the world could accurately predict the weather changes, and it was impossible for the Eastern Liang army to wait until the river ice actually began to melt before withdrawing.

The Xuzhou Army's interception, counterattack, and harassment operations were extremely resolute, and there were also formidable and extremely sophisticated field weapons, and the invading soldiers and horses of the Eastern Liang Army withdrew ten days and half a month ahead of schedule according to the experience of the past years, also in order to be more calm.

As the Eastern Liang army retreated to the area east of Yingshui, the defenders of Xingyang naturally thought that the two-month raid and counter-attack and harassment on both sides of Yingshui this year should also be temporarily over.

Even at this time, dozens of people, more than 100 people and a team of Liang cavalry, stepping on the river ice that has not yet begun to melt, like large and small locust swarms, interspersed from the south, directly bold and almost provocative to approach Xingyang and Mixian counties, and wander between the slope valley and the defense village south of Xingyang and at the eastern foot of Songshan Mountain, in the eyes of the Xingyang defenders, this is just some retaliation and provocative actions taken by the Liang army in the last less than ten days before the river ice thaws this year after seeing Chen Xu and other places being attacked and harassed and suffering serious casualties.

Liang Shixiong strictly ordered the defenders of Rongyang, Mixian and Zhucheng to guard the city, and strictly forbidden to go out of the walled city to fight.

In such a state of mind, in order to avoid unnecessary losses, the defenders even took back the walled city by scouts.

This is consistent with Zhao Wuji's expectations, and the most direct benefit is that Cao Ba led a team of cavalry to intersperse it and completely block the channel between Chenqiaozhai and Mixian and Xingyang.

Even if He Liufeng led 5,000 elite infantry soldiers and dragged many light vehicles and weapons to advance to the wall of Chenqiao Village, Mi County, which was less than 30 miles away from Chenqiao Village, was unaware.

The people sent out by Chen Qiaozhai to ask for help were intercepted.

The woods between the slopes and valleys at the western foot of Songshan Mountain, although they have been cut down by people and become sparse, there are also a lot of weeds and shrubs, and they are lit by Cao Ba everywhere, and black smoke rises up, which also disturbs the distress signal lit inside Chenqiao Village.

…………

…………

It wasn't until He Liufeng led his troops to formally attack Chenqiaozhai on the third day, and the thrown fire oil canisters set fire to a large number of buildings in Chenqiaozhai, and after nightfall, the southwest half of the sky was red, reflecting the stars and the moon, and Zhu Wei, the guard of Mi County, realized that something was wrong, and sent a team of cavalry to break through the encirclement and rush to Xingyang to report to Liang Shixiong.

Even if Liang Shixiong didn't realize that Han Qian had the determination to recover Xingyang this year, even if it was to ensure that the Xingyang defenders had enough room to move at the eastern foot of Songshan Mountain, suppress the Xuzhou army south of Mi County, and prevent it from passing through Mi County, the northeast foot of Songshan Mountain west of Xingyang City, and making direct contact with the defenders of Tiger Prison Pass, he could not sit back and watch Chenqiao Village lose.

In addition to sending people to Wuzhi, Bianliang, and Mengzhou for help, Liang Shixiong also opened the city gate, and Liang Xing, a general and his nephew, led his troops and horses to Mi County, so that he could reinforce Chenqiaozhai nearby.

Li Xiu and Cao Ba led two brigades of cavalry, and Shen Peng led 5,000 horse infantry from the Tiger Pass, at this time, with lightning speed, inserted from both wings into the northeast foot slope valley of Songshan between Xingyang and Mi County, fought fiercely for a day, killed and wounded more than 5,000 soldiers of the Eastern Liang army, and forced Liang Xing to lead the remnants of the army to retreat to Xingyang City to rest - Mi County is closer to Chenqiaozhai, but the defenders of Mi County are limited, and it is more difficult to reinforce Chenqiaozhai.

Xiao Siqing, the deputy general of Mengzhou, led 5,000 Mongolian cavalry to cross the Yu River to the south for reinforcements, while Li Xiu, Cao Ba, and Shen Peng led their troops to entangle with them according to the northeast foot of Songshan Mountain, until three days later, He Liufeng's troops completely captured Chenqiaozhai, and they successfully completed the blockage

After attacking the combat mission, he distanced himself from the enemy and withdrew to the south.

Since the focus of the follow-up operation was to capture Pingmi County in the south of Xingyang from the southern front, after learning of Zhao Wuji and Li Xiu's battle plan, Han Qian issued an edict to transfer Shen Peng's troops to the Xuzhou marching army sequence, and temporarily returned to Zhao Wuji's control, so that he could organize a more powerful elite combat force from the southern front to attack Mi County.

…………

…………

Hearing the news of the fall of Chenqiaozhai, Xiao Yiqing rushed to Xingyang from Taiyuan in mid-February.

At this time, the ice in the upper reaches of the Yu River has begun to melt, the annual flood is eroding the low and wide land on both sides, although the floodplain east and south of Xingyang is still covered with river freezing, but it is already a thin layer, and there are many underground that have been broken by the surging floods, and the eyes are full of a mess.

Xiao Yiqing rushed over so urgently, naturally guessing that the Liang army's capture of Chenqiao Village regardless of casualties was not just a gain or loss of a ruined village.

Li Xiu, Cao Ba and Shen Peng led their troops into Mixian and Xingyang to fight, although they killed and wounded six or seven thousand men and horses, mainly because the Xingyang defenders were unprepared at first, Liang Xing led his troops and horses south to reinforce, encountered ambushes from both wings, and lost nearly 5,000 soldiers in a battle.

After that, the entanglement war mainly occurred between Xingyang City and Mi County, the Eastern Liang army occupied the geographical advantage, Xiao Siqing also led the elite cavalry to help, so that the Liang army could not suffer a lot, almost more than 2,000 elite generals died on the battlefield, and the number of excellent war horses lost was more.

In Xiao Yiqing's view, the Liang army was just to capture Chenqiaozhai, and there was no follow-up plan, and there was no need for a follow-up entanglement war.

Liang Shixiong, as the general who followed Zhu Wen to lay the Hehuai base, also realized at this time that the Liang army had the possibility of attacking Xingyang this year, frowning with frost-white long eyebrows, and sat against Xiao Yiqing.

Xiao Yiqing was also quite speechless.

Liang Chu reached a peace agreement, which meant that Han Qian could transfer more elite soldiers and horses from the southern front to fill in Yingxi, Heluo and other places, and the Zhugui Attached Army and the Eastern Liang Army had been fighting for many years, and they also needed to rest and recuperate, so he strongly suggested that it was not appropriate to rush into another war at the beginning of this autumn and even this year and next year, but to stabilize the defense line and recuperate.

For this reason, Wusu Dashi even agreed with his proposal to send thousands of craftsmen to Bianliang, and he also suggested that Zhu Rang build a Yandao through the floodplain east of Xingyang and west of Wuzhi.

That is, to learn from the original Liang army on both sides of the Yingshui, from both sides will build a weir through the shallow silt area that can not be navigated, although the side of this weir road to withstand the impact of the Yuhe River, the difficulty of construction is not low, but in order to ensure that the connection between Xingyang and Bianliang is not cut off by the floodplain, it is also extremely necessary.

He didn't expect that Zhu Rang and Liang Shixiong were afraid of difficulties, and they did not start to build such a weir road, but focused on attacking the Yingxi area last winter.

Xiao Yiqing realized last winter that the Eastern Liang Army's attack on the Yingxi region at this time could not play a substantial role, but Zhu Rang was proclaimed emperor in Bianliang, even if he was a minister and a tribute to Mengwu, not only him, but even Wusu Dashi was no longer suitable for the military and political affairs of the Eastern Liang Army.

Of course, he didn't expect that Han Qian would stabilize the situation in Heluo in less than a year, and even start to defend and attack.

Now the situation in Heluo is really a headache for him.

Although Luoyang has not yet been able to build a large ship of more than 2,000 stones, there are already more than 200 small and medium-sized warships such as the Mengchong ship and the Red Horse Boat, and the two naval brigades have been largely organized and trained.

Luoyang|The navy, even if it may not have the strength to enter the Yu River, but at this time, the warships of the Mengzhou navy still want to enter the Yiluo River again, I am afraid that they will be resolutely blocked.

This started from Han Qian's efforts to build fortifications directly on the mouth of the Yiluo River and even on the river beach, and it can be seen that Han Qian has no longer allowed them to set foot on the land on both sides of the Yiluo River.

In addition, tens of thousands of elite Liang troops drilled into Lishan and Wangwushan to establish a solid stronghold, and because Lishan, Wangwushan and the Liang army's heavily garrisoned Bishan and Hugao Pass were across the river, and it was convenient for each other to reinforce each other, Zhao Mengji and Tian Weiye, who were not good at mountain warfare, wanted to capture these strongholds and expel the Liang army from Lishan and Wangwushan, and it was impossible to do it in a short time.

In this regard, Tian Weiye and Zhao Mengji chose to build fortifications in the north of Lishan and the eastern part of Wangwu Mountain with the help of natural ditches, which can also limit the elite of the Liang army and avoid its intrusion into the hinterland of Puzhou and Mengzhou, but the current problem is that Xingyang is isolated south of the Yu River and west of the floodplain of the Jialu River.

Xiao Yiqing's head is incomparable.

Bringing in too many defenders would cause the consumption of grain and grass to be too large on the one hand, and on the other hand, it would cause loopholes in the defensive line in the southern part of Bianjing and the east bank of the Yinghe River due to the reduction of garrison troops and horses.

The Liang Army's naval division had the ability to erect long-distance floating stacks, so that the floodplain on the east bank of Yingshui was no longer a natural barrier to shelter its western flank defense line.

And if Zhu Rang is not urged to send additional reinforcements to Xingyang, once the Yuhe waterway north of Xingyang is cut off by the Luoyang Navy, with Liang Shixiong's existing more than 20,000 soldiers and horses with low morale, can they hold on to the Yuhe River and the floodplain again under the attack of the Liang army?

When he met Liang Shixiong this time, he could even feel that Liang Shixiong had the intention of giving up Xingyang.

It is true that whether it is for Liang Shixiong or the Eastern Liang Army, if it can hold Xingyang, if the situation does not allow it, there is no need to try to survive and die with Xingyang, after all, the territory that the Eastern Liang Army really wants to keep is in the area east of the Shaying River floodplain.

As far as Zhu Rang is concerned, if he wants to make Xu Mingzhen and Sima Tan bow down and obey his orders, and show obedience, the soldiers and horses he directly controls cannot be lower than Xu Sijun and Shouzhou Army.

From this point of view, don't say that Zhu Rang sent a large number of reinforcements to Xingyang, even if Zhu Rang sent three or five thousand additional reinforcements to Xingyang, he may not be willing.

However, the Eastern Liang army was reluctant to send reinforcements to Xingyang, even if he didn't consider the difficulty of coordinating between the two commanders, where could he suggest that Wusu Dashi draw enough elite soldiers and horses into Xingyang to cooperate with Liang Shixiong to defend this place?

Xiao Yiqing's head was extremely big, and he had no plan for a while, before leaving Xingyang and crossing the river to Mengzhou to meet Zhao Mengji, he could only encourage Liang Shixiong in words, and stick to his determination to defend Xingyang.