After the autumn equinox, it is late autumn and September, and the areas north of the Yangtze River have also entered the autumn grain harvest season.

No matter how strong the clouds of war loomed over the north bank of the Huai River, Huaixi still maintained the stability it deserved.

At the beginning of August, Li Xiu knew that Han Qian had decisively requisitioned tens of thousands of strong people in Shou and Huo Prefectures to build and strengthen the embankment and excavate the floodway in Shou and Huo Prefectures in response to Liang Shixiong's excavation of the Yuhe River embankment in Xingyang at the beginning of August.

Although Li Xiu did not know the specific data, but what he saw along the way and when they went to the Xiacai area, there were many transport teams composed of people recruited from Shouchun and Huoqiu areas to transport materials to and from the north and south of the Huaihe River, including the repair materials of Lijia Xinzhai and nearby roads and bridges, and a considerable part of them were transported from Shouchun and Huoqiu areas. Lime cellars, ironworks and other workshops.

This may be Han Qian's confidence in fighting the enemy army on the north bank of the Huai River!

Chen Xiu was wearing scale armor, holding the saber at his waist with his hand, and straddled the back of the Song Domain's war horse, looking out at the wilderness that was gradually feeling bleak.

Behind him were more than 100 generals led by Cao Ba and more than 200 Xinzhai villagers.

Although the military task assigned by the Xinzhai Township soldiers is to defend and build the Li family Xinzhai and do a good job as the defensive support point of the eastern wing of Xia Cai New Town, not to mention Li Xiu, Cao Ba is unwilling to stay in the small camp.

At the end of August, a batch of military horses and Song Domain war horses arrived in Xia Cai, and Cao Ba snatched back more than 50 Song Domain war horses and more than 200 military horses, so that Li Xiu could organize a 300-strong horse infantry army and enter the eastern part of the area, near the mouth of the Whirlpool River, to scout and reconnoitre.

At this time, there were also groups of Xu Sijun scouts who crossed the Whirlpool River and entered the eastern area of Xia Cai, and small-scale engagements between the two sides occurred every day.

Although the reconnaissance and anti-infiltration operations of the Tangyi Army were mainly undertaken by the scout cavalry of the main battle battalion, Li Xiu also took the initiative to lead his troops to participate in the small-scale anti-infiltration operations in the area of the eastern wing of Xia Cai.

In addition to allowing Xinzhai Xiangyong to take turns to adapt to the pressure of the battle as soon as possible, Li Xiu's main thing is to closely observe the enemy's penetration and penetration on the west bank of the whirlpool, as well as the composition of the enemy's scout soldiers and horses, and speculate on the process of the battle.

Li Xiu was not in the middle and senior generals of the Tangyi Army, as more and more soldiers and horses crossed the Huai to the north, the alert level of the Beiying Battalion and Xiacai Xincheng became higher and higher, and the activity area of Xinzhai Xiangyong was more and more restricted, from the end of August onwards, Li Xiu could not understand the overall information of the Yingxing War, which made him uncomfortable.

At present, the area of the eastern wing of Xia Cai is still under the control of the Tangyi army, and every time an enemy scout crosses the river and crosses the river, the anti-infiltration operation is equivalent to hunting, but every time he goes out to hunt the enemy scouts, Li Xiu personally leads the team, which makes Cao Ba have a stomach.

"There are more than a dozen people swimming over from the shallow water area of Chen Jijin, all of them are Mughu!"

Two Chazi, disguised as hunters, quickly passed through the barren grass and ran to Li Xiu's side to report what they had just found lurking by the Whirlpool River.

Li Xiu's expression perked up, and the battlefield in the lower reaches of the whirlpool finally appeared for the first time, which meant that Tian Cheng and Lin Haizheng's progress on the northern front was quite smooth, and the Shouzhou army was weaker than expected, and Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing had to mobilize the main force of the Mengwu cavalry to the south earlier than he expected to launch a battle - of course, it could also be that Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang stepped up his offensive in Heluo, making it difficult for Liang Shixiong to support.

"Did the other scout cavalry notice this enemy cavalry crossing the river?" Cao Ba was more concerned about whether he could eat these dozens of masked spies alone, and asked the two inspectors.

"On the north side of our lurking point, there is an observation post of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Town, I don't know if they didn't see this group of Mughal spies......" Chazi said.

"Day, they have lookout glasses, don't think you can eat alone this time, let's hurry over, don't not even eat a piece of meat!" Cao Ba ordered the generals of the trapped team behind him to mount their war horses, and prepared to follow him to the direction of the embankment, and asked the other township brave horse infantry to disperse on both flanks, and prepare to encircle and disperse the rout.

Li Xiu did not stop Cao Ba from commanding and leading the elite of the formation to attack first, but still looked north with a worried face.

After the time of half the incense, the enemy soldiers did not flee to the west, but they saw Cao Ba rushing back with men and horses, and a head was hung on each side of the saddle of the two generals on the left and right.

"Let's retreat quickly, there is a large group of enemy horsemen assembled behind the mud bank on the east bank, and the black pressure is overwhelming a large group, I am afraid that there are thousands of people - the small group of enemy horsemen who crossed the river before were measuring the depth of the water and the current, and we rushed over and killed two people." Cao Ba shouted, urging the horse infantry who were not very smooth on horseback to hurry up and retreat to the west.

At this time, a melodious and somber horn was heard in the distance, informing the scouts on the shore to retreat westward.

In the process of Li Xiu's retreat, they encountered the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Town, the 202nd Brigade of the Tangyi Army, and a scout cavalry under the command of Dou Rong, and withdrew side by side in the direction of Xiacaicheng.

Only then did Li Xiu know from this scout cavalry that along the east bank of the lower reaches of the whirlpool, four Mongol thousand-strong cavalry teams that were preparing to cross the river appeared at the same time.

Not only did this mean that the Mughal cavalry would enter the west bank of the lower reaches of the whirlpool earlier than they expected, but from this day onwards, the enemy would cross the river on a large scale - four Mongwu cavalry teams of 1,000 men would only cover the advance of the enemy's main force crossing westward.

The main battalion of the Tangyi army was obviously faster than Li Xiu had imagined, and they and the scout cavalry of the 202nd Brigade withdrew to the vicinity of Xinzhai, and from a distance, they saw from a distance that several groups of horse infantry in the battalion were moving north along the newly built post road in the north of Xiacai.

"What is this for?" Cao Ba couldn't help but ask with some confusion.

The news that the large-scale Mengwu cavalry was about to cross the whirlpool should have reached Han Qian's tent, even if it was necessary to organize soldiers and horses to fight the enemy army first, the soldiers and horses of the Xiacai City and the large camp on the north bank should move to the east and northeast, instead of going north in a straight line.

"This is the soldiers and horses sent to reinforce the flank of the reinforcement army......" Li Xiu said with a frown.

"It is enough to reinforce the Bianjun army to shrink dozens of miles to the south at this time, what soldiers and horses do you need to reinforce the flank?" Cao Ba asked puzzled.

"What if the reinforcement army wants to continue north after capturing Danxian County?" Li Xiu was not among the middle and high-ranking generals, so he could only speculate on Han Qian's true intentions as the supreme commander of the Tangyi Prefecture according to the signs he observed, "Completely attract the enemy's main force and the center of gravity of the battle from the east bank of the vortex to the southern front, and form a convenient condition for the northern line to cover the southern retreat of the Bianjing army and civilians along the Chen Bianyi Road, which is probably the real intention of the Marquis of Qianyang." Therefore, it is only necessary to gather enough thick troops on the front line of Danxian and Wuting to delay and intercept the enemy's main force south of Danxian, so that its main force will not have the opportunity to penetrate the two flanks of the Chenjiyi Road, and there will still be a chance to pass the 100,000 soldiers and civilians of Bianjing through the south of the Chenjiyi Road

side pier, withdraw to the west bank of the Yinghe River! Perhaps the Marquis of Qianyang and Emperor Liang have known each other for a long time, and Bianjing is no longer defensible, but the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Bianjing are too crucial to the morale of the Liang generals to continue to participate in the war in the future, and they must be evacuated safely! ”

"It's just that this is too risky," although Cao Ba was relegated to Li Xiu's command as the head of the trapping team, although he preferred to charge into battle with a fierce pawn, but the overall strategic vision is still above the ordinary generals, with his bravery and fearlessness, at this time he still felt a little disturbed, smacked his lips and said, "Chen Bianyi Road is too thin, the enemy army does not need to use the main force of soldiers and horses, only a few thousand cavalry commandos need to intersperse it, which can cause enough damage to Chen Bianyi Road, and greatly delay the speed of the southern retreat of the Bianjing army and civilians." And Chen Bian's post road is nearly 200 miles long, with Han Yuanqi and Kong Xirong's department, it is only 30,000 elite soldiers and horses, it is impossible to protect Chen Bianyi Road so that not even a gap is exposed - once the southward retreat of the Bianjing army and civilians is delayed, the main force of the enemy's southern line is full of strength, attacking the flank of the reinforcement army from south to north, how long can the reinforcement army support the front line of Danxian and Wuting? ”

"The Marquis of Qianyang is accustomed to using swords to go sideways, maybe the Marquis of Qianyang is confident that the main force of the reinforcement army can support the area of Danxian and Wuting for a long time." Although Li Xiu also felt that Han Qian was still too risky this time, what was he qualified to say? And the future of the Li clan is already closely related to the fate of the Tangyi army, and he can only hope for a better result at this time.

Although Cao Ba felt that the Tangyi army's decision-making was too risky, he still couldn't help but exclaim with emotion: "For the small withdrawal of the Liang army's ministers, Hou Ye will fight the Tangyi army's family background, it's really okay, it's just a damn damn, Cao Ye, I can't go to Danxian County, it's really fucking unhappy!" ”

With the current development of the situation, Cao Ba can also fully foresee that the most fierce battle will inevitably occur on the battlefield in Danxian, Wuting and other places where the reinforcement army intercepts the northward movement of the enemy's main force on the southern front, and he only hates that he cannot be transferred to Danxian and Wuting to participate in the war at this time.

"Your Excellency will definitely order the soldiers and horses of Xia Cai to go all out to help the Bianjun, and the enemy army will definitely do their best to cut off the contact between the reinforcement army and Xia Cai, we will inevitably have a tough battle to fight, what does Cao Ye call?" The scout team of the 202nd Brigade laughed.

Li Xiu led his clan to enter Xia Cai for just over a month, and what impressed him the most about the Tangyi army was that the grassroots generals at the level of scout cavalry soldiers had quite good tactics and strategic vision-Han Qian did his best to run various schools in his early years, which was too crucial to the cultivation and reserve of grassroots talents in Tangyi.

Li Xiu had previously checked the seal letter with this scout Li Shu, and only knew that his name was Zhou Bao, and saw that he would temporarily lead a team to patrol near Li's Xinzhai to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, and invited him to lead more than 20 scout cavalry into Xinzhai for a temporary rest, only to know that he was a descendant of the cottage who moved from Junzhou to Gwangju a few years ago, and he should be regarded as the nephew of Zhou Yi, a Gwangju assassin and soldier and horse envoy.

"How is Gwangju doing?" Li Xiu asked Zhou Baodao.

The four counties of Gwangju lost the most tragic population due to the war in these years, and he withdrew his soldiers and horses from Luosan, Jisi and other places with Li Zhihe, and the number of households in Gwangju was less than 30,000, and even if 15,000 or 6,000 people from the cottage were moved into Gwangju at the end of last year, there should be only about 50,000 registered households, which is not even as good as a central county in Jiangdong.

Of course, Li Xiu knew that from April and May, when the Yuhe River was seized through Yingshui, Han Qian built several camps for displaced people in Gwangju to accept the victims who moved south on the west bank of Yingshui, but he didn't know anything about the more specific situation.

Zhou Bao also knew the identities of Li Xiu and Cao Ba, and told him some of the current situation in Gwangju with respect.

By the end of August, Gwangju had accepted the affected households from the west bank of Yingshui, expanded the number of Dingkou to 130,000, and increased the total area of cultivated land to 900,000 mu, of which more than 700,000 mu were planted with grain.

Although Zhou Bao was only the leader of the scout cavalry, he was trained as a backbone military attache in the main battle camp, and he knew even more comprehensive information than Li Xiu, and he didn't mind telling the truth about some of the things he knew at this time.

In the summer and autumn after April this year, although the flooding of Chuhao Prefecture and Chuhao Prefecture was quite serious, the population of the two prefectures was only a little over 120,000, and the impact of the floods on the cultivated land and households was also very small, and the total flooded fields were only 1120,000 mu, but through the reclamation of new fields, not only did they make up for it, but the total cultivated land area also increased by 780,000 mu.

The population and cultivated land of the prefectures and counties in the central and southern parts of Huaixi have generally remained stable, with a slight increase compared with last year, and the main focus is still on the development of industrial and mining industries.

Due to the fact that the new cultivated land in the three prefectures of Shou, Huo, and Guangzhou since spring and summer is mainly watered land, the total output of autumn grain in Huaixi this year has increased quite significantly, not to mention the production of various primary industrial products.

Therefore, even though Li Xiu was quite worried about the outcome of this battle, Zhou Bao, the grassroots military attache of the main battle camp, was quite optimistic about the future.

"We discussed privately, and felt that the enemy's current deployment, according to the current deployment, is likely to transfer the Xu Si army and the Weizhou rebel cavalry to the east and north of Xia Cai, cutting off the connection between Xia Cai and the main force of the reinforcement army, and the main force of the Mengwu cavalry in the south and the main force of the Shouzhou army will attack the reinforcement army in the north. Zhou Bao said optimistically.

Li Xiu smiled, but he thought in his heart that the Xu Si army that was advancing westward and the Weizhou cavalry that went south currently had a total of about 40,000 horses, and Tangyi gathered 20,000 elite combat forces and 10,000 township brave auxiliaries in Xia Cai, and according to the city, it could be said that it was invincible, but once the battle began, there were only one or two dilapidated cities to rely on on the west bank of the vortex, and there were not many abundant reinforcements in terms of materials and grain, so could it really drag the Shouzhou army and the Mengwu cavalry with twice the strength for a month or even longer?

Entering September, the combat intentions of both sides surfaced, and the subsequent evolution of the battle situation basically did not take off the judgment of Li Xiu, Cao Ba, and Zhou Bao.

After the Mengwu cavalry crossed the whirlpool, mainly to cover the westward advance of the Xu Si army and the Wei Zhou cavalry, and then the Meng Wu cavalry quickly advanced north, and after the Xu Si army and the Wei Zhou cavalry converged, more than 40,000 soldiers and horses from east to west, to the north bank of the camp, Xia Caicheng and Lijia Xinzhai and other advanced over.

Of course, it was impossible for the Tangyi army on the north bank to completely retreat to the walled city, so Xu Si's army was asked to successfully build a fortified fortress on the eastern flank of Xia Cai and the northern region, and then cut off the connection between Cai and Dan County.

Leaning on the walled city and the Huai River behind them, the main camp of the Tangyi army actively dispatched to block and intercept the advance direction of Xu Si's army and the Weizhou cavalry in the wilderness again and again, and drove them back to the vortex coast, so that they could not spread their forces in the north of Xia Cai and form an effective cutting defense line.

Li Jia Xinzhai was not directly attacked by the enemy, and Li Xiu led the Xinzhai Xiangyong, whose combat effectiveness was not very strong, and did not defend in vain in the village, even if he could not undertake the combat mission of the forward battalion, but it was also deployed on the flank of the forward soldiers and horses many times to block the enemy's roundabout attack.

Although it was not clear whether the enemy was Wusu Dashi or Xiao Yiqing was in Wuyang, they would not slow down the offensive against the main force of the reinforcement army that had entered the northern part of Danxian because of the progress of Xu Si's army on the southern front.

In mid-September, the Shouzhou Army took the initiative to abandon the remnants of Danxian County, which had been beaten and damaged for more than a month, but the remnants of the army did not retreat to the two villages of Wuting and Xinji in the north, and even together with the two villages of Wuting and Xinji

The defenders withdrew eastward to the two cities of Luyi and Bozhou along the coast.

At this time, the enemy's intention was extremely clear, to open the passage to the north to reinforce the Bianjun army, and move the main forces including the Shouzhou army to the south through the vortex water, and fill the area south of Danxian with the Mengwu cavalry.

At this moment, the scouts who infiltrated the east bank of the whirlpool to reconnoitre, and the main force of the Mengwu cavalry heading south was also roughly counted, and the elite cavalry of more than 40,000 people, together with the main force of the Shouzhou army, crossed the river from the east bank of the whirlpool like a tide into the south of Dan County.

To the south of the remnants of Danxian County to the north bank of the Huai River, 1560 miles from north to south and about 120 miles from east to west, the Mengwu people combined with the Weizhou rebels, the Shouzhou army, and the Xu Si army with a total of more than 130,000 strong troops, the purpose of which was to cut off the connection between Yanxian and Xia Cai.

In fact, the main force of the Mengwu cavalry entered the west bank of the whirlpool, and this intention had been realized, no matter how strong the Tangyi army was, it could not cooperate with the infantry cavalry, and the enemy army, which was several times larger, fought in the wasteland north of Xia Cai.

He could only watch Xu Si's army in the north of Xia Cai, using the east-west ditches and river valleys to establish an interception line.

Although these ditches and river valleys are not much wider or deeper, there are floods in the summer, and at this time the flood waters reced, and a large amount of mud accumulated in the low-lying areas on both banks, forming an obstacle to the movement of troops in the north-south direction - of course, the mud and muddy land on both sides of the Yingshui are wider, and they are also full-coverage, except for the thin passage of the Chen Bianyi Road, it is almost impossible to find the possibility of transporting people and horses across the depth of thirty or fifty miles to the main channel of Yingshui - Xu Sijun only needs to establish a solid defense in a few high-rise places on the terrain, can effectively suppress the offensive of the Tangyi army from south to north.

Although the soldiers and civilians of Bianjing took advantage of the emptiness of the enemy army on the western flank and began to retreat south under the cover of 20,000 defenders in mid-to-early September, the enemy army gathered superior forces in the southern part of Danxian County, bitten the main force of the reinforcement army entrenched in the northern part of Danxian County and the Wuting area, covering the eastern flank of the Chenbian Post Road, and launched an extremely fierce offensive.

After mid-September, only the best scout horses were able to pass through the enemy's blockade line, travel between Danxian and Xiacai, or pass the news with the help of flying pigeons, and take the waterway detour from Yingshui to the south side of the Chenbian Post Road.

After mid-September, two elite cavalry teams of 1,000 people, identified as Mughu, were directly inserted into the two flanks of the Chen Bian Pass.

From Bianjing to the south to the north bank of the Yingshui River in Wanqiu, the Chen Bian Post Road is 190 miles long, and it is impossible to completely cover the Chen Bian Post Road by relying only on the 20,000 horse infantry troops led by Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun.

The enemy cavalry that inserted in could not fight head-on with the defenders of Bianjing, but took advantage of the high mobility of the cavalry to divide into several units and intersperse on both sides of the Chenbian Pass, which actually interrupted the retreat of hundreds of thousands of unarmed women and children to the south, and could only retreat to the large and small walled cities along the line and protected by the city walls to wait for the opportunity.

At this time, the reinforcement army could only send more than 10,000 elite horse infantry from the northern part of Wuting and Danxian to open the defensive line to the north on a larger scale, and limit the range of activities of attacking and harassing the enemy's cavalry, so that the southern withdrawal of the army and people in Bianjing could continue intermittently.

By the end of September, Li Xiu knew that there were only more than 50,000 women and children who had withdrawn from the south of the Chenbian Post Road, crossed the Yingshui, and withdrew to the west bank.

The reinforcement army can only abandon all the weapons and materials in the two walled cities of Danxian and Wuting, and the two generals Wen Bo and Tan Xiuqun each lead 8,000 elite soldiers and horses to defend it, like two reefs in the raging waves, as much as possible to delay and delay the movement speed of the enemy's main force on the southern front, and the 20,000 elite main forces quickly left the battlefield on the south side and headed north, intending to meet the defenders of Bianjing, the advance army led by Kong Xirong and the 10,000 soldiers and horses who moved north in advance, concentrate 60,000 superior forces, and make every effort to annihilate the enemy troops interspersed with the southern line of the Chen Bian passage in the shortest possible time.

However, the two cities of Danxian and Wuting only have a total of 16,000 soldiers and horses, and it may not be a problem to defend the city in a short time, but if you want to drag down as many as 100,000 enemy troops in the south and east of Danxian, how can you do it?

On October 3, it was the frost season, and Li Xiu felt that the weather was obviously turning from cold to cold in Xia Caidu, and under the whistling north wind, the generals all put on cold clothes.

Letters and newspapers sent back from the northern front for several days in a row all said that thousands of enemy cavalry had bypassed Wuting and the remnants of Danxian County and entered the northern area of Wanqiu, increasing the number of enemy infantry and cavalry that had cut off the passage of Chen Bian to more than 50,000.

Even if Kong Xirong's department had 6,000 elite soldiers in the south of this enemy army at this moment--more troops could not be arranged in this direction, and the Chen Bian Post Road, which was higher than the floodplain and muddy land on the left and right, was only more than two zhang wide, and no matter how many troops could spread out to the north to attack the enemy army-Tian Cheng and Lin Haizheng led the main force of the reinforcement army to join Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun, and gathered more than 50,000 horse infantry troops in the central area of the Chen Bian Pass to the north of the enemy, but it was so hasty that a decisive battle was fought in the Pingchuan area, which was more conducive to large-scale cavalry combat by the Mughal people. Li Xiu doubted that they could have a 30% chance of winning.

In the afternoon, Li Xiu left Cao Ba to guard the new village, he took Li Chi to the already built Xia Cai City to find Feng Xuan to give him a new combat mission, walked into the front courtyard to see the guards, and saw Han Qian, Feng Yi, Guo Rong and Wen Duqiao and others, curious about what they were not in the camp on the north bank, and ran to Xia Cai, who was more in the front, to do so?

Li Xiu didn't want to cause a misunderstanding, so he and Li Chi stood outside the yacha waiting for the summons.

"Oh, you're here," Han Qian saw Li Xiu probing outside the courtyard, and directly raised his voice to invite them into the yahall to speak, "The soldiers and civilians of Bianjing can all withdraw to Yanling and Xihua in these two days, and then retreat to the west bank across Yingshui, and Han Yuanqi's troops and the main force of the reinforcement army will also retreat simultaneously." The operational difficulty in the follow-up of this battle is to respond to the soldiers and horses who are encircled and hold on to the two cities of Danxian and Wuting. It will take time for the main force of the reinforcement army to withdraw, and the next defensive situation of Xia Cai is also difficult to be severe, and the main camp cannot be transferred for the time being, so I am ready to use Xinzhai Township to form a capital, first accompany the naval army, enter the mouth of the Danxi River in the northwest of Danxian County, and wait for the opportunity to aid the two divisions of Wenbo and Tanxiuqun that Yingdanxian and Wuting ...... insisted on."

"The passage of Chen Bian has been cut, and there are still 1230,000 Bianjing soldiers and civilians in the north and more than 50,000 soldiers and horses of the two armies, how can they withdraw from the waterway when they retreat to Yanling and Xihua?" Chen Xiu asked in shock, "Could it be that Tangyi has built a passage through the floodplain and close to the main channel of Yingshui in addition to Chen Bianyi Road?" ”

To the west and north of Chenbian Post Road, it is located in the northwest of Chenzhou and the west of Xuzhou in Yanling and Xihua counties, and the flood plain is 350 miles deep and 156 miles deep.

In the ordinary plain area, requisitioning one or two hundred thousand strong laborers, it is very convenient to build a wide gallop road, but in the floodplain, both wings are muddy land or water, and the strong people have no place to stand, so they can only excavate soil and stone from seventeen or eighteen miles away, fill in the flood mud field little by little, and hide the monitoring of the Mughal scouts and avoid the attack of the Mughal cavalry.

No matter how great Han Qian's ability is, it is impossible for him to turn the dilute mud into hard earth and stone with a single finger!

Generally speaking, shouldn't you wait for another month, when the weather is completely cold, and the mud and river water on both sides of Yingshui are completely frozen, then it is possible not to take the Chen Bianyi Road and retreat westward, isn't the two sides fighting for the last month?