Chapter 764: Shu Envoy (1)
Zhao Mengji went to Pingyang Mansion in early July to serve as the envoy of the newly established Hedong Province, while Han Donghu, who was in charge of the Second Central Military Battalion, was moving the tooth tent from Xingyang to Mengzhou.
After the completion of the reorganization and formation of the 1st Central Marching Army, its main force will enter Qinshui to join up with the Taiyue Marching Army stationed there led by Li Xiusuo, and will advance eastward along the Qinshui River Valley in the early stage, responsible for attacking Yangcheng in the west of Zezhou.
The main force of the Second Central Camp Army led by Han Donghu, in addition to the Eastern Liang Army, which was semi-responsible for monitoring Bianliang, Weizhou, and Huaizhou, after the war started, it had to cross the southern foothills of Taihang Mountain from Taihang to directly attack the southern area of Jincheng in Zezhou Prefecture.
The former, because in the midst of the great victory in Yiguan, took advantage of the enemy's lack of reinforcements, and had already captured the most important Qinshui City in the west of the southern foot of Taiyue Mountain, and had already grasped the dangerous and important part of the area west of Qinshui City to the border of Yicheng County.
After that, troops were dispatched along the Qinshui River Valley and entered Yangcheng, and there were no particularly dangerous passes along the road.
However, Taihang, which began in the north of Qinyang County, was much more dangerous.
Taihang is also known as Dan Cheng, standing at the southern end of Taihang Mountain, three steps wide, more than 40 miles long, it can be said that the hole is like silk, winding and coiling.
In addition to a large number of defenders of the Mongolian army to defend Jincheng, Tianjing Pass, eighty miles south of Jincheng, was also stationed with elite soldiers and horses.
Tianjing Pass is not a gate, but refers to a series of defense systems including Tianjing Pass, Hengwang Pass, Xiaokou Pass, Wanzi City, Xingyi Station and a series of pass walls.
At that time, Zhu Yu led the elite of the Liang army to march north through Taihang and Baicheng, but it was also too difficult to attack the passes of these two provinces, and the casualties were too great, so that the troops arrived at Zezhou City and Luzhou City, and had to choose a long-term siege and siege of the city.
Han Donghu was stationed in Mengzhou, and he also took the post of the Mengzhou Prefecture Government, and grasped the soldiers and the people.
He is not in a hurry, in addition to the rear of the Second Central Camp Army in the Tiger Prison Pass needs to be built, he is currently in Mengzhou mainly to promote the strengthening of the defense of the eastern flank of Mengzhou.
In view of the enemy army in the direction of Jincheng, he only ordered the defenders of Qinyang to build a walled city in Tianpingling outside the southern pass of Taihang Mountain, widen the post road from Tianpingling to Qinyang, and renovate the Xihe bridge, so as to prepare for the large-scale use of troops in the later period.
At the same time, a large amount of manpower and material resources were concentrated to continue to excavate the barrage dam in the southeast of Mengzhou City.
At the end of May, the water potential of the Yu River rose completely.
A part of the river water continues to pour into the Jialu River and the Shaying River along the gap in the south bank of the embankment in the east of Xingyang City, but there is also a part of the river water that flows into the Yuhe River from the gap dug at the beginning of the year, but this is not enough.
According to Han Qian's arrangement, it is necessary to strive to dig up all the barrage dams by next spring, and the gap in the embankment east of Xingyang should also be repaired, so that the water of the Yu River will completely return to its original path.
In this way, the warships of the Luoyang Navy will be able to directly enter Weibo and other places downstream along the Yu River outside the ice period by next year; With the receding of the floodplains on both sides of Yingshui and Whirlpool, the Henan marching army could also enter the eastern Henan region on a large scale to conduct mobile operations and prepare for the subsequent recovery of Wuzhi, Bianliang and other places.
Of course, the prerequisite for the recovery of Wuzhi, Bianliang and other places is that the war in southern Jin can be successfully ended first.
Although the Mongolian army mobilized a large amount of manpower and materials in the early days to transport soil to intercept the river and build a dam, the water potential of the Yu River rose up and overflowed the gap, and for the soldiers and civilians of Mengzhou, it is much easier to expand the gap step by step and let the river water wash the sediment downstream.
Several dredgers were anchored to the gap with huge anchors, and the impellers on both sides were directly impacted by the water flow, driving the winch and the scraper plate fixed together with a fine iron vertical shaft, stirring up the sediment at the bottom of the ship and letting the water carry away.
The gap is widening almost at a rapid rate, and Han Donghu expects the main body of the dam to be dug up before the water level drops at the end of August, and only needs to be dredged more intensively.
Compared with the optimistic estimates of Han Donghu and the soldiers and civilians of Mengzhou, according to Zhu Rang, who was called emperor of Bianliang, and the generals of the Eastern Liang army, the mood was much more uncomfortable.
The defeat of Xingyang, the annihilation of Liang Shixiong and 20,000 Wei Bo's elite soldiers, the defeat of the Mongol army in the Fenshui River Valley, and the surrender of Zhao Mengji to Luoyang, they were already so devastated that they did not even dare to send troops from Huaizhou and Bianliang to threaten Mengzhou.
However, the bad news did not stop there, they had not yet come to their senses, Wang Xiaoxian and Wang Yuankui were annihilated before and after, and Yongqi Feng and Yuanqing Yanlin and other prefectures completely fell under the control of Luoyang, and it only took three months in total.
This means that Luoyang will completely solve the security problem of the western flank, and then the strategic focus will be completely shifted to the northern and eastern fronts.
Of course, after June, Luoyang transferred the soldiers and horses from Guanzhong to Hejin for rest on the one hand, and transferred some of the soldiers and horses from Xingyang to Mengzhou on the north bank of the Yu River on the other hand.
However, Zhu Rang and the generals of the Eastern Liang Army can feel lucky?
Liang Shixiong died in battle, and there were not too many elite soldiers and strong generals in Bianliang City, but Wuyang Hou Liang Ren and these people have also experienced a lot of wars over the years, and they still have basic strategic vision.
If the southern Jin Dynasty falls, it will be difficult for them to defend Huailiangzhou, and the Luoyang soldiers will also extend from Pukou and along the Yu River into Weibo, which will cut off their ties with the Mongol army.
Dead lips and cold teeth.
Wusu Dashi sent Wang Tuo to Bianliang and asked them to strengthen the forces of Weihuai Erzhou and contain Luoyang's troops and horses in Mengzhou from the east, making it difficult for them to go north along Taihang with all their strength, but the problem is that after all these years of hard fighting, in the end, more than 20,000 Wei Bo elite soldiers were also buried in Xingyang City with Liang Shixiong.
Zhu Rang forcibly recruited elite soldiers from Biansong, Weibo, Qingzi and other prefectures, and currently has more than 70,000 soldiers and horses in Bianliang, Wuzhi and other places, but the problem is that these 70,000 horses are not only lacking in training, but even incomplete armor, what qualifications do they have to fight with the elite of Luoyang in the wilderness between Menghuai and Huaizhou?
Zhu Rang could only send envoys to Xuzhou and Bozhou, urging Xu Mingzhen and Sima Tan to send elites north.
Compared with Sima Tan's claim that the Chu army was disturbing the border and unable to draw out a single soldier, Xu Mingzhen sent his adopted son Xu Jin and the general Zhao Mingting to rush to Bianliang with 3,000 cavalry to listen to the order, which was already quite positive and polite.
However, even if there are 3,000 cavalry led by Xu Jin and Zhao Mingting, how much effect can it be worth?
Zhao Mingting, who is more than fifty years old, wears armor, rides a horse and stands on the embankment, looking at the gap in the Wuzhi Dam has been broken away by the flood more than 200 zhang wide, and there are five dredgers moored side by side in the middle of the mud constantly stirring the mud, letting the river rush downstream, looking at the river east of the Wuzhi Dam has already been rolling turbidity waves, and there is a lot of powerlessness in my heart.
There were nine years before and after the Yu River was broken, and the mud embankments on both sides of the river from Wuzhi to the east did not undergo any repair and reinforcement for nine years.
The Wuzhi Dam was only opened this year
A part of the gap makes the water level of the old road east of Wuzhi only half as high as in the summer and autumn before the interception, but Caozhou and Puzhou on the south bank and Changyuan in Weibo on the north bank have been washed away by the flood, and the fields and houses on both sides of the bank have been flooded.
Over the past two or three hundred years, sediment has been deposited, and the riverbed of the Yu River from Xingyang to the east has been suspended on both sides of the Pingchuan, and the consequences of the embankment's disrepair have been completely exposed after the summer of this year.
If we wait until next year, Han Qian sent soldiers and horses to completely block the gap in the east of Xingyang, and the water of the Yu River completely returned to its original path, and the areas on both sides of the old road of the Yu River east of Bianliang would be flooded.
Zhao Mingting had to consider at this time, if they traveled thousands of miles to the east of Puzhou to cross the Yu River and reinforce the eastern part of Mengzhou, in the case that the soldiers and horses of Bianliang were blocked by the Yu River on the south bank, if the soldiers and horses of Luoyang were not in a hurry to attack the southern Jinnan region, but sent troops from Mengzhou to attack the two states of Weihuai in the east, they and the local defenders of the two states of Weihuai combined, only 15,000 soldiers and horses, how long would they wait?
Although Zhao Mingting knew the truth of cold lips and teeth, and they had been fighting bloody battles with the Liang army all these years, and there was no possibility of easing, he also advocated with Xu Jin that their soldiers and horses were not enough to plug their teeth in the area east of Mengzhou.
If the Mongol army could not hold Jinnan, they should have made other plans earlier.
Xu Jin was adopted as a righteous son by Xu Mingzhen because of his courage and good fighting, and he can also be said to be the first brave general of the Shouzhou Army, but over the years, he has suffered too much and too much in the hands of the Tangyi Army and the Liang Army.
People always have to bow to reality.
The 130,000 elites of the Mongolian army were wiped out in the north and south of Wangwu Mountain, and more than 80,000 soldiers and horses of Wang Xiaoxian and Wang Yuankui could not hold Guanzhong for three months.
At this time, Zhao Mingting noticed that several groups of cavalry on the north bank were galloping from the direction of Mengzhou City, and stopped near the embankment on the north bank to strengthen the guard.
Zhao Mingting also thought that they were observing the enemy situation on the south bank, which attracted the attention of the chief general of the Liang army, and there were also some characters on the other side to observe this side, and soon they noticed that the scale and level of the Liang army on the other side of the river were much higher than they imagined, and even in the upper reaches of the Yu River, there were several ironclad warships quickly heading towards the gap in the dam.
Han Qian was in Mengzhou at this time?
Zhao Mingting suddenly realized this, and after waiting for a stick of incense, he saw a group of cavalry rushing from the direction of Mengzhou City to the embankment on the opposite bank, looking at the scale of the ceremony, it must be Han Qian in it.
Zhao Mingting even thought of a possibility, when everyone thought that the Liang army would launch an offensive in Jinnan this autumn, would they wave a shot and send troops to attack Wuzhi and Bianliang?
It seems that the deployment of the Liang army at this time is aimed at the southern Jin Dynasty, but Zhu Rang really wants to transfer a large number of troops to Weihuai and Huaizhou on the north bank to contain the Liang army attacking Taihang from Mengzhou to the north, and the Liang army gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Hejin and Mengzhou, together with its soldiers and horses stationed in Xuzhou and Chenzhou, to attack Wuzhi and Bianliang in a big way, how should they respond?
The dam is almost dug up, the Liang army has a strong naval force, and the mobilization of soldiers and horses in the north and south of the Yu River is extremely convenient, but the Huaizhou, Weizhou and Bianliang controlled by the Eastern Liang Army seem to be across the river, but to avoid the soldiers of the Liang Army's water division, the soldiers and horses of the two places must go around to the east of Puzhou to cross the river to be safe enough, and the soldiers and horses of the two places are forcibly pulled away by thousands of miles.
Zhao Mingting's tail vertebrae were chilling, even if he realized this, he couldn't do anything.
Could it be that Han Qian gathered 100,000 elites to attack Bianliang, and Xu Mingzhen and Sima Tan dared to do their best to help?
It has been some years since the Shouzhou army withdrew to defend the land between Wushui and Surabaya, but these years have been endless, the people's livelihood has withered, and forty or fifty thousand soldiers and horses are tired.
Not only was the Shouzhou army unable to break through the Xia Cai and Xu Chen defense lines led by Lin Haizheng and Zhao Wuji, but in recent years, the Liang army's Xia Cai and Xu Chen soldiers and horses were interspersed and infiltrated from time to time, taking away hundreds of thousands of people.
With the fall of Xingyang and the intrusion of a part of the Yu River into the whirlpool, the situation of the Shouzhou army became more difficult.
Relatively speaking, Xu Sijun's situation is much better.
First of all, Xu Sijun and Yang Yuanyan's Huaidong Army have been safe on both sides of the lower reaches of the Huai River over the years, mainly along the northeast coast of Hongzepu to prevent the attack of the Liang army's naval division.
The military pressure borne by Xu Sijun was much lighter than that of the Shouzhou army, which directly faced the soldiers and horses of Cai and Xu Chen under the Liang army.
Secondly, the Sima clan took Xuzhou as the foundation, took root for more than 30 years, and after joining Zhu Rang, he took the opportunity to expand his power to Jeju, Mizhou, and Yizhou in the north.
According to reason, Sima Tan's requisition of 100,000 soldiers and horses from Xuzhou is more than enough, but Sima Tan, an old fox, in the face of Zhu Rang's edict, does not want to send a single soldier to be used to contain the Liang army that is very likely to attack Taihang from Mengzhou to the north, is it possible to expect Xu Si's army to enter Bianliang and fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Liang army?
Sima Tan and the other characters of the Sima clan were already thinking about other things?
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"There are high-level enemy generals on the other side of the river, and they are watching here......"
Han Donghu reined in his horse and reported to Han Qianyu.
Han Qian also had no intention of taking the bronze telescope to observe the enemy situation on the other side, the water of the Yu River was leaking down from the gap in the dam, the water was turbulent, and small and medium-sized boats could not resist the whirlpool, and the Eastern Liang army did not have the ability to build large ships.
On the other side, Wuzhi and Bianliang gathered 70,000 or 80,000 Eastern Liang troops, even if they dared to fight them, they could only look at the water and sigh.
Han Qian came to Mengzhou in person at this time, on the one hand, to inspect the military situation and defense, but in addition to Li Zhihe, Guo Rong and other entourage, accompanied by Zhou Daoyuan and other political officials from the Right Inner History Mansion, to inspect the water situation in Mengzhou.
Huatong Mansion, Luoyang and the north bank of Hejin Mansion, Jiangzhou Mansion, Yu River on both sides of the river by Huashan, Pishan, Songshan, Xiangshan, Lishan and other mountains sandwiched, no matter how big the water potential in summer and autumn, it is difficult to infringe on both banks, Luoyang water conservancy projects, mainly to prevent and control the flooding of the Yiluo River.
Even in Xingyang Prefecture, most of the terrain is quite high, and there is no fear of flooding of the Yu River.
However, from Xingyang and Mengzhou to the east, into the plain area, the flood of the Yu River became severe.
And more critically, west of Xingyang, the Yu River is sandwiched by the mountains, the water flow is turbulent, the sediment precipitation is less, and there is no siltation in the riverbed, but to the east of Xingyang, into the plain area, the river channel is widened several times, the water flow suddenly slows down, and a large amount of sediment carried down from the upstream is precipitated in large quantities.
The consequence of sediment accumulation in the past three or four hundred years is that the middle and lower reaches of the Yu River have become semi-hanging rivers, and the remote embankments on both sides of the river have been built higher and higher.
However, when the Shiyao embankment is all mud embankment, the Yu River has a large flood in addition to summer and autumn, and there is a flood season in the cold winter and early spring.
There are floods almost every year, and they are more severe than those along the Yangtze River and the Huai River.
Han Qian asked the newly established province of Yongzhou to pay attention to the conservation of forests, grasslands, water and soil on both sides of the Wei River, but how to manage the riverbed downstream, which has been raised by muddy sedimentation, is a difficult problem.
The reason is very simple, and later generations have summarized it, mainly focusing on the eight characters of "harnessing water and attacking sand, dividing floods and silting beaches".
However, along the banks of the Yu River, how to build a strong and narrow embankment that can clamp the water potential and make it turbulent, as well as leave a buffer zone for flood discharge and flood distribution at the necessary places on both sides of the river, is a complex system engineering.
For this reason, Han Qian directly set up the Yuhe River Water Supervision under the Younei Shifu last year to study the problem of controlling the floods of the Yu River, and at this time planned to set up a special government office in Mengzhou, and start preparing some work now, instead of waiting until the Hehuai area is completely recovered to consider these.
"In Mengzhou, most of them are the people of Daliang, who were invaded by rebels and Hulu, and their survival is hard, so the Water Supervision and Administration Department concentrates its efforts to cure the floods in Mengzhou, not only the local money and food are gained, but the people will also return to ......their hearts if they get their convenience."
Han Donghu was also the envoy of the Mengzhou government, but his main focus was still on military defense, and if the war in southern Jinnan ended smoothly, he would inevitably be transferred from Mengzhou.
Han Qian's words were mainly said to the capital water supervisor and local officials such as An Jixiang and Gu Mingfu.
At this time, an official ship docked at the Nanguanhe Wharf, Han Donghu looked over and said, "It should be Lord Feng Yi, who accompanied the Shu envoy Cao Gan over." ”
"Then let's go to the Nanguanhe Bridge and wait for them to come." Han Qian said.
The Nanguan River Bridge was a pontoon bridge in the early days, and Li Xiuchi aided Yuanqu, which was to seize the Nanguan River Bridge through the southern area of Mengzhou to the west, and at this time, near the pontoon bridge, an iron bridge more than 100 steps long was being erected......
After the iron bridge was completed, the heavy-duty carriages had a post road to the east to Weihuai and other places, and along the east bank of the Nanguan River, they could also go to Qinyang by land, and then the war materials could be directly reached at the south entrance of Taihang.
The iron bridge uses concrete columns as the bridge piles, and the current bridge takes the two-way driving of the heavy-duty horse bridge as the standard, with a width of eight steps, which is extremely narrow in the eyes of future generations, but it is a large-scale project in the present world.
What's more, dozens of such iron girder bridges are currently being built every year, and the national strength embodied is even more jaw-dropping.
Accompanied by Feng Yi, Cao Gan disembarked and changed to a carriage, and traveled six or seven miles north along the muck road on the west bank of the Nanguan River, arriving at the Nanguan River Bridge to meet Han Qian.
After Zhao Mengji surrendered to Luoyang, Han Qian sent Chen Zhiyong and Wang Ji to represent Daliang in March and sent an envoy to Chengdu to meet Wang Yong, telling him that some of them were attached to the generals and military attachés and hoped to return to Shu to settle down.
Wang Yong was courteous to Chen Zhiyong and Wang Ji, and he didn't mean to tear his face, but he ignored Han Qian's request.
Chen Zhiyong and Wang Ji stayed in Chengdu Mansion for a month, and then rushed directly to Xuzhou to replace Qiao Weiyan and Zhang Guangdeng, who had expired their terms, as governors and military envoys of Xuzhou Prefecture, and the relationship between Daliang and Shu State barely maintained the status quo.
However, it was not Wang Yong or Cao Gan, Jing Qiongwen and other close ministers who were so resolute, in essence, in the face of the great victories of the Liang army on the northern front, the generals and ministers within Shu had great differences in the relationship between Liang and Shu.
Between countries, after all, interests come first, and the basis for the maintenance of the alliance between the two countries is the most important thing is that no one will eat anyone, or even if it is weak, it must have the confidence and strength to make the other party jealous.
No one would think that the Liang-Shu Covenant could be maintained forever.
In the battle of Yiguan, the news that the Liang army had inflicted heavy losses on the Mongolian army reached Chengdu Mansion, and the worry about the monarchs and ministers of Shu was unimaginable.
Wang Yong, Cao Gan, and Jing Qiongwen of course knew that the Tangyi army under Han Qian's governance had extremely strong combat effectiveness, but the situation in Heluo was so clumsy, and they were attacked on three sides, Han Qian went to Luoyang Chan to succeed the lord of the Great Liang State, and took over the remnants of the land and the remnants of the army, not to mention that the integration of the two armies was by no means an easy task, and the suspicion between them was the most difficult to resolve.
They originally thought that even if Han Qian could barely hold Heluo, he would definitely have to work hard to support, and maybe he would need to suffer for ten or twenty years before he had a chance to change the situation a little.
Shu did not hesitate to choose to increase troops in Yuzhou to threaten the western flank of Chu, and also agreed very well to Liang to purchase grain from northern Sichuan and transport it to Liangzhou to help the soldiers and civilians of Liangzhou survive the famine.
They never thought that Han Qian not only held Heluo, not only successfully completed the integration of the two armies, but also successfully used a group of old ministers and former generals left by Zhu Yu to his command, and even won great victories one after another.
They did not expect that the Mongolian army would be so vulnerable.
In the battle of Yiguan, it seems that the new territory and population of Liang State are not very large, but Wang Yong and Cao Gan know in their hearts that the balance of power between Liang and Shu has actually changed greatly, and the balance is completely tilted towards Liang State.
Of course, even if Shen Yang sent his private servant Xue Ruogu to secretly rush to Chengdu Mansion to meet Wang Yong, Cao Gan and others, hoping to join forces with Shu to interrupt trade with Liang and interrupt Liang to continue to suck blood from Chu and Shu by dumping commercial goods.
Even if Wang Yong, Cao Gan and others became more and more wary of the increasingly powerful Liang State, when it came to directly tearing up the alliance, they also knew how big the risks were.
With the help of Han Qian's strategy, Wang Xiaoxian and Zhao Mengji's 70,000 elite Shu soldiers were blocked in Guanzhong, Wang Yong successfully launched a defeat, and then sat firmly in the position of the lord of Shu.
However, they knew in their hearts that the newly formed 120,000 Shu forbidden army, not to mention ordinary soldiers, from high-ranking generals to middle- and lower-level generals, experienced the severe test of bloody wars, and very few.
The generals and veterans brought out by King Taishang to create the foundation of Shu are almost all in the army of Wang Xiaoxian and Zhao Mengji.
In particular, Li Zhihe led his troops into Chengdu and Wuzhou, and the Liang army had four passages bordering Shudi.
Before the Chu State set an example, they could only secretly maintain closer ties with the Chu State, and maintain a higher degree of vigilance against Xuzhou and Liangzhou.
Returning the Shu generals' soldiers, Wang Yong and Cao Gan naturally would not agree, who knows how many nails Han Qian will bury to infiltrate Shu?
Give the small family of the Shu generals to the Liang State in vain, and enhance the strength of the Liang State, they will not do it.
If the situation has changed further, it is that after Zhao Mengji surrendered to Liang, Han Qian sent Li Zhihe, Feng Xuan, Kong Xirong, and Jing Zhen to recover Guanzhong in less than three months......