The soldiers and horses who were drawn from all the departments and interspersed with Han Qian into Huaiyang Mountain can be said to be the elite of the Tangyi soldiers; The outside world can also confirm this from the lineup of Tangyi generals who followed Han Qian's troops.

It is hard to imagine what kind of turmoil these seven or eight thousand elite soldiers and horses will cause to the situation in Jianghuai if they suffer irreparable heavy losses in the Huaiyang Mountains.

Although Han Qian was on the expedition, signed a military order, and recruited tens of thousands of strong people into the army, which even increased the number of generals on the defense line of Chuhe River and Fucha Mountain, he never nodded in commanding the army.

It's more expensive, not more expensive.

The situation in Huaidong is already extremely difficult, if the situation in Huaixi that has finally stabilized changes again, and let the princes and ministers of Jinling City sleep well with the girl in their arms?

Everyone knows that if Li Zhihe does not shrink his forces back from the defense line, it can already be said that he is benevolent and righteous, and he has no obligation to go off the rails of the enemy's defense line without saying hello to the Marquis of Qianyang without full preparation, and send the elite of his lineage to attack the enemy's defense line regardless of casualties.

If you want it, you have to come up with enough tempting conditions.

Maybe it was the rare reunion of Cishou Palace and the Han family, or the fact that many princes and ministers didn't want to play with their heartbeats anymore, and added Li Zhihe as a soldier and a leader of the two states, and the governor Shu Sui Ying, Deng Xiangjun, the state army, and the Zuo Longqi army were all commanded by the envoys, and the holy decree of the Zuowu Guards was transmitted to Shuzhou on the last day of the first month.

As a condition, we cannot wait until the soldiers of Suiying, Deng and Xiangjun have gathered in Yingshan County and Lishan County before taking action, and after receiving the holy decree, we should lead thousands of elite Zuowu Guards who have already been stationed in Yingshan County and Lishan County to immediately advance from Wusheng Pass and Pingjing Pass to the northwest foot of Huaiyang Mountain, and try to attract more elite soldiers and horses of the Shouzhou Army to the west of Huozhou as soon as possible.

At the same time, Yuan Guowei, the young eunuch of the inner chamberlain, was ordered to cross the lofty mountains and mountains at the southern foot of Huaiyang Mountain with Han Daochang from Shuzhou, and rushed to Wujin Ridge to comfort the raiding soldiers and horses.

Of course, it was nominally a consolation, but the meaning of the princes of the court was that after Yuan Guowei arrived at Huaiyang Mountain, according to the actual situation, he persuaded Han Qian to see that the situation was not right, and to have the determination of a strong man to break his wrist, so as to avoid irreparable damage to the main elite in Huaiyang Mountain.

The straight-line distance from Shuzhou to Huaiyang Mountain to Wujinling may only be 200 miles, but Yuan Guowei and Han Daochang, accompanied by a dozen followers, rushed to Shenjiaji to meet Han Qian on the fifth day of the second lunar month.

In just a few days, Han Daochang was thin and emaciated, and he almost fell off the slippery cliff several times; Yuan Guowei is old and strong, and he has a lot of energy.

When they arrived at Shenjiaji, it happened that the Shouzhou army launched a new offensive, so they went directly to the eagle's beak cliff in the north to meet Han Qian.

On the north side of the Shenjia Village, the eagle's beak cliff is a brown boulder that stretches out obliquely from the steep slope, like an eagle's beak, about 300 steps away from the outermost fence wall, and before walking up to see the broken fence wall, a large number of smashed chariots, war weapons and dozens of corpses that were slashed and shot by swords and crossbows were lost, and several corpses were hit by the stone projectiles thrown by the whirlwind cannon, which was even more miserable.

Yuan Guowei and Han Daochang rushed over to see Han Qian, passed by the wounded barracks in the stockade, and saw that the wounded soldiers with severed limbs and stumps abounded, and they also knew that the Tangyi soldiers were also suffering heavy casualties at this moment.

Climbing the eagle's beak cliff and looking to the north, you can see that more than 500 steps away from the north of the outer fence wall, the outpost position of the Shouzhou army has occupied two or three miles wide river beach.

Thousands of generals and whirlwind cannons stood behind the criss-crossing trenches and parapets - it was extremely difficult for the elite Tangyi soldiers to come up with a fence to fight a counterattack.

And from the forward position to the north, the enemy camp under the steep hillside stretched for miles along the river flats.

A wave of enemy attacks has just been repulsed, but the new men and horses have been organized, and soon surrounded by shield carts, scorpion cannons and other weapons to force over, making it clear that they want to use wheel tactics to consume the Tangyi soldiers who are holding the pass without retreating an inch, and then completely crush the morale of the Tangyi soldiers.

Yuan Guowei and Han Daochang stood beside Han Qian, watching the battle for more than an hour, and saw that the Shouzhou Army launched a total of five charges of different sizes and scales, and even successfully killed through the gap in the fence wall torn by the whirlwind cannon.

In the end, it was the fierce general Han Donghu who led the elite in armor to fight and fight before he retreated this wave of enemy troops.

In just over an hour, nearly 100 Tangyi soldiers died, and Yuan Guowei frowned.

In the past hour or so, Han Daochang has successively talked about the changes in the situation in Jinling in the past ten days and the fact that Li Zhihe went to Suizhou to supervise the army.

In front of Yuan Guowei, Han Daochang would not explicitly say that behind this scene involved a transaction between the Han family and the Wanhong Mansion, but I believe that Han Qian can understand.

Han Qian stood with his hands in his hands, noncommittal about Li Zhihe's matter, or didn't want to say too much in front of Yuan Guowei, looked at the clear sky in the north, and said: "The southeast wind blew yesterday, and this day seems to ......have changed."

Yuan Guowei thought to himself that even if the southeast wind gradually rose, the weather inside and outside the mountains was moist, and the river ice melted, but the Tangyi Navy wanted to pose a deadly threat to the Shouzhou Army from Chaohu Lake and force the Shouzhou Army in the north to withdraw, and it would not be able to become a momentum in ten days and half a month, so he said in a low voice:

"Master Hou, the Marquis of Xinjin may follow His Majesty's will and make the Zuowu Guards enter Huozhou as quickly as possible, but the Zuowu Guards are alone in the western flank, and thousands of elite soldiers and horses pose little threat to the Shouzhou Army. Xu Mingzhen should be able to tolerate the Zuowu Guard's invasion of the hinterland of the western flank of Huozhou, even if he loses one or two cities, but the war on Hou Ye's side doesn't seem to be able to drag on for too long, right? ”

He and Han Daochang crossed the mountains and mountains, first rendezvous with Kong Xirong, who was stationed at the pass of the upper reaches of the Longtan River, and then Kong Xirong sent people to escort them through the northeast slope of Huaiyang Mountain and rushed to Shenjiaji.

They had a two-day trip on the way, which was passed

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The cottage controlled by the Tangyi soldiers also learned about the latest situation in Huaiyang Mountain.

In addition to taking advantage of the Shouzhou army's lack of vigilance in the early days, the Tangyi soldiers quickly occupied and captured more than 40 villages, and because of the fierce fighting on the Wujin Ridge side, Han Qian had to concentrate the main elites on the northern line, and the expansion to the depths of Huaiyang Mountain was stopped.

In the past twenty or thirty days, there are only seven or eight cottages under the control of Xinzhan.

The pace of recruitment has slowed down dramatically, far from outpacing the attrition.

In addition to the fact that the resistance of the cottage forces has become more resolute, and it is more difficult for the poor people and slaves at the bottom to be greedy for life and fear of death, another major factor is that Xu Mingzhen not only intensified the offensive from the front of the river valley day by day, but also sent a number of small groups of elite soldiers and horses to cross over from the outer mountains and enter the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain to attack and harass everywhere.

Yuan Guowei can't say that Han Qian's strategy is wrong, but Xu Mingzhen is a famous general in the world, and such a resolute onslaught, to put it bluntly, is to resolutely not give Han Qian time to deeply cultivate and operate the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain at all costs.

Of course, Han Daochang and Han Qian didn't say some things thoroughly in front of him, but Yuan Guowei has also had rich experience and extraordinary knowledge for most of his life, and he can guess some things.

Most of the Han family wanted Li Zhihe to lead the Zuo Longque Army to go north directly from Lujiang County and launch an offensive against the Shouzhou Army Defense Village on the west bank of Chaohu Lake, so that in addition to the Tangyi Navy Army being able to land on the west bank of Chaohu Lake, Han Qian could also transfer some elite soldiers and horses to attack the enemy village on the west bank of Chaohu Lake from west to east along the Longtan River, forming a three-sided attack.

In this way, even if Han Qian gave up Wujin Ridge, he could only force the Shouzhou army to retreat from the west bank of Chaohu Lake, and open the passage for Chaohu Lake to enter the eastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain through the Longtan River, at least to a certain extent, he could control the peaks and ridges on the eastern slope of Huaiyang Mountain.

However, this is obviously not the situation that Li Zhihe and Lu Qingxia are willing to see.

Therefore, the agreement that the Han family finally formed with that side was only that the Zuowu Guard Army would go north from Wusheng Pass and Pingjing Pass between Huaiyang Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, and contain a part of the Shouzhou Army from the west flank of Huozhou.

It's just that this is not of much help to the situation in Huaiyang Mountain.

In other words, he was Xu Mingzhen, and he would rather temporarily abandon the city on the west flank of Huozhou, and drive Han Qian and Tangyi soldiers out of Huaiyang Mountain.

At present, the Shouzhou army on the west bank of Chaohu Lake has not gathered troops and horses to attack upstream along the Longtan River, in addition to guarding against the Zuolongque army, it is probably also a strategy to encircle and avoid Han Qian from having the determination to defend the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain, right?

Yuan Guowei pointed out these meanings, and also hoped that Han Qian could understand that not only Li Zhihe and Lu Qingxia, but also His Majesty, the Queen Mother, and most of the ministers in the DPRK and China were thinking like this.

At this time, the vast majority of people did not want the elite of Tangyi soldiers to suffer irreparable heavy losses in Huaiyang Mountain, so as not to make Tangyi's defense line unstable, but most people also did not want to see Tangyi soldiers really gain a foothold in Huaiyang Mountain.

In other words, even if the war here has improved, the attitude of the court and even Huaidong and Shouwangfu is very likely to undergo subtle changes.

In any case, Yuan Guowei felt that Han Qian had made a decision at this time.

Yuan Guowei's words were said by Han Daochang who worked tirelessly to enter Huaiyang Mountain to tell Han Qian, but he didn't expect Yuan Guowei to say it first, and secretly felt that Han Qian had made countless enemies in the government and the opposition, but there was no shortage of people who treated each other sincerely.

Han Daochang didn't say much at this time, just looked at Han Qian, hoping that he could make a decision early.

The situation in Tangyi is very good, Han Qian is so young, take a step back and open the sky, there will be opportunities in the future, and there is no elite of Tangyi soldiers at all.

Han Qian frowned slightly, looking into the distance, as if too many thoughts were churning in his chest, and after a long time, he sighed faintly and said:

"Yes, this war can't go on any longer."

Yuan Guowei and Han Daochang felt relieved, thinking that Han Qian was moved by what they said.

Han Qian turned sideways and said to Tian Cheng and the others: "Lord Yuan and my second uncle came by trekking through the mountains, it is extremely hard, Wang Jun and I will accompany them back to the camp first, and you will act according to the plan......"

Yuan Guowei thought that Han Qian had already prepared an exit plan for the current unfavorable situation, and the generals of Tangyi were responsible for everything.

…………

…………

Yuan Guowei's body can barely support it, but Han Daochang has to be supported, otherwise, it will be difficult to even stand; This time it was really hard.

Han Qian and Wang Jun first invited Yuan Guowei, Han Daochang and Sui Hu to return to the Daying Tooth Tent, and arranged for them to rest after a simple wine banquet.

Yuan Guowei was also tired enough, and he didn't pay attention to the simple barracks, he slept until it was dark, and slept until the next day, when his spirit recovered, he pushed the door and saw Han Daochang hurriedly coming over, and his complexion was better than yesterday.

Han Daochang hurriedly ran over and grabbed Yuan Guowei and said, "Lord Yuan, let's go see Han Qian." ”

Seeing Han Daochang's anxious expression, Yuan Guowei asked in surprise, "What's wrong?" ”

"I woke up just now, walked around the camp, and saw that the guards of many stockades in the south were gathering in a steady stream, Han Qianmo wouldn't think about breaking through from the north?" Han Daochang said.

"Won't it?" Yuan Guowei said suspiciously, "At this time, shouldn't you give up Shen Jiaji, lead the troops and horses to retreat to the upper reaches of the Longtan River to meet Kong Xirong, and then break through along the Longtan River to the west bank of Chaohu Lake?" ”

"I think so too, now I'm afraid that Han Qian has never suffered a big loss from others before, and he wants to gather his soldiers and horses on the river beach in the north and fight Xu Mingzhen to the death - Xu Mingzhen can be as famous as Li Yu, how can he not be guarded against jumping over the wall in a hurry?" Han Daochang said, he became impatient and somewhat unscrupulous.

Yuan Guowei thought that Han Qian would make up his mind to withdraw his troops last night, but at this time, he couldn't figure out the situation, so he decided to go to see Han Qian with Han Daochang first.

On the way, he met Chen, his niece and son-in-law who accompanied Han Qian on his expedition to Huaiyang Mountain

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Zhiyong, Han Daochang saw that his expression was indescribably strange, as if he was shocked and excited, as if he knew something, he stepped forward and grabbed him and asked, "Zhiyong, do you know what Han Qian is thinking?" Is it to gather soldiers and horses to fight to the death with the Shouzhou army? ”

"Second Uncle doesn't know yet?" Chen Zhiyong saluted with Yuan Guowei, and said to his second uncle Han Daochang, "Han Qian decided to flood the Shouzhou Army, and he is sending people to inform the soldiers and civilians along the upstream Xihe to avoid the flood!" ”

"Flooding?" Yuan Guowei said, "There is little rain in the mountains in autumn and winter, the streams and rivers are shallow, and there is no water available; Besides, you didn't build a dam in the mountains—what did you do to flood the enemy? ”

"I just met Feng Yi and asked him about this," Chen Zhiyong was about to explain, but he saw Feng Yi, who had a grass stalk in his mouth, walking over leisurely, hurriedly calling him over, and said, "Lord Yuan and my second uncle are asking how to flood the Shouzhou Army, or you will explain." ”

"Lord Yuan, Lord Daochang?" Feng Yi walked over proudly, arched his hand, and said, "The northern rivers sometimes have floods, but do you two adults know?" ”

"The northern rivers have floods from time to time, but the Jianghuai River has never heard of floods." Yuan Guowei said.

"I'll have to explain this to the two adults carefully,"

Feng Yi said with a good teacher,

"When it comes to the formation of the northern rivers, it is also simple, taking the Yellow River as an example, the river is thousands of miles long, the temperature difference between the upstream and downstream areas after the beginning of spring is very large, if the downstream river is still covered by ice, and the upstream river begins to thaw first, the water travels under the ice, the upstream water is full, and the downstream ice is broken, and a large number of broken ice is blocked by the ice layer further downstream, forming ice jams and ice dams, which will further aggravate the rise of the water level, and finally break the embankments on both sides, forming a catastrophe. On the one hand, the Yangtze River and the big rivers to the south will not freeze, while the rivers north of the Yangtze River are not far enough to be wide, and the temperature difference between the river basins at the same time is very small. Even in the Huai River, the ice in the upper and lower reaches of the river will thin and melt almost simultaneously after the beginning of spring, so there is no need to worry about the damage caused by flooding. However, the Nanqishui River has not thawed at this time, if it can artificially create a temperature difference between the upstream and downstream, will it be able to form a flood? Do you know how much firewood has been accumulated and how many cellars have been dug in the upstream villages for today's day? Besides, since the night before, the temperature at night has returned to zero degrees Celsius, which is destined for Xu Mingzhen to not escape this catastrophe! ”

"Degree zero?" Yuan Guowei listened to the new term and asked puzzled.

"It's to put a few pieces of crushed ice in a basin of clear water, so that people can keep an eye on it all the time, the crushed ice increases below zero, and the crushed ice melts, and it will be above zero - Han Qian also said that he wanted to get a thermometer, but he couldn't get it, and a stack of messy drawings was thrown to the engineering school." Feng Yi said.

Yuan Guowei thought that Han Qian's use of ice water to measure cold and heat was extremely wonderful, which was suitable for the current situation, but he still had a lot of puzzles and asked:

"There is no rain in autumn and winter, and the streams and rivers are shallow, and I came all the way, but I didn't see you building dams in the streams and rivers in advance to store water. Even if you can accelerate the melting of river ice more than 100 miles upstream overnight, it will not be enough to form the water potential to wash away the Shouzhou Army river beach camp! ”

The river beach north of Shenjiaji is two or three miles open, if you can't store enough water and water level in advance, how much impact can it form?

What's more, the enemy camp also used fence wood and earth walls to build a certain amount of protection along the periphery of the river, obviously to prepare in advance for the arrival of the rainy season and the sharp rise of the water potential of the Nanqi River.

"When we enter the mountain, in fact, when the water volume of the Nanqishui River is the smallest, knock open the river ice, and the ice is almost cut off, but at that time it is also the easiest to do tricks, and even only need to break the river ice and expose the shallow water below to the severe cold, so that the ice can freeze layer by layer and form an ice dam,"

Feng Yi said,

"If you want to build a Ming Dam, Xu Mingzhen and they will be on guard no matter how stupid they are, but at this time, you can see that there is nothing abnormal in the river before and after Shen Jiaji, and in fact, many hidden dams have already formed under the ice. The river below the dark dam has been cut off under the ice, which makes people think that there is still little rain in the mountains this winter, but in fact, they are all intercepted under the ice upstream, and they are divided into several hidden dams and ice dams all the way to hold back the water layer by layer. In this way, each layer of ice dam only slightly raises the ice sheet of the river, otherwise the ice sheet of the river near Shenjiaji would have been squeezed open by the overflowing water. And if the water in the entire upstream tributary channel can be broken layer by layer by tomorrow morning, along with the ice sheet on the water surface, it will be enough to raise the water level on the lower side of Shen Jiaji by five or six feet, which is calculated. Below Shen Jiaji, there were two rows of fence trees directly into the river, and the Shouzhou army may have thought that it was to restrict them from attacking upward by river ice, but in fact, it was to prepare for this moment, so as to intercept the broken ice rushing up from the upstream and form a larger-scale ice jam and ice dam. The height of the ice dam that these two rows of fence trees can withstand is also calculated, as for how it is calculated, then I can only ask Han Qian him......"

"......" Yuan Guowei's mouth opened slightly, and he didn't know what to say for a long time, but he didn't expect Han Qian to say yesterday that the war could not be delayed any longer, referring to this.

"All this was planned a long time ago?" Han Daochang didn't expect that there would be changes they never expected, and he grabbed Feng Yi excitedly and asked.

"Of course, the Shouzhou Army can't intercept us before the fall of Anfengzhai, what step can they take to seize the initiative?" Feng Yi said arrogantly, as if all this was his strategy.

"The Marquis of Qianyang is really unpredictable, and we have been worried for so long in vain." Yuan Guowei said abruptly.

Han Daochang excitedly asked Feng Yi and Chen Zhiyong to accompany them to find Han Qian, and saw the elite soldiers and horses transferred from the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain along the way, mainly to assemble at the gaps on both wings of Wujin Ridge......

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