Chapter 605: The Battle of Juma City (Part I)
The Juma River, a small tributary of the Haihe River system, converges with another Tang River downstream to form the Daqing River, and finally joins the famous Grand Canal, and the northernmost part of the Grand Canal has fallen into the hands of the Liao State, and the Juma River is also in the territory of the Liao State.
Juma River is just like its name, the river is deep and wide, horses can not cross the river at all, it is said that when the Khitan people went south, they were blocked by this river, and finally forced the Han people to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river, so the name Juma River was left.
Juma River and Yongding River are very close, the two rivers are almost parallel, and finally flow into the Grand Canal together, the nearest place of the two rivers is only more than ten miles apart, and the north bank of the Yongding River is the treasure of the Liao State, at the same time, the most important grain producing area of the Liao State, with the irrigation of the Haihe River water system, coupled with the fertility of the Hebei Great Plain, here is almost half of the grain and grass of the Liao State, here is also one of the foundations of the Liao State's strength, if it is lost here, it is simply a devastating blow to the Liao State.
On the north bank of the Juma River near the Yongding River, there is a Juma City, which was originally a town formed by natural settlement, and later the Liao State took a fancy to the topography here, so it set up a city here, and an army of 3,000 people was also stationed in the city.
On the Juma River on the south side of Juma City, there is a strong wooden bridge, which is also the only way to go to Xijin Province in the south, and Li Zhang used to walk from this bridge when he was envoy to Liao.
It is worth mentioning that Juma City was built along the river, when the city was first built, the Juma River was actually a moat in the south of the city, and Juma Bridge was originally just a suspension bridge, and the bridgehead could be hung up every night, so that when the enemy attacked, it could not cross the river at all.
But later, with the signing of the alliance between Song and Liao, there was no war between the two countries for many years, but the commercial exchanges between each other were very frequent, and countless cars and horses crossed the river every day, but the load of a suspension bridge was limited, and there were even cases where the vehicles were too heavy, resulting in the collapse of the suspension bridge.
Coupled with the strength of the Liao State, the Great Song Dynasty has been in a defensive state, which also makes the Liao people not worry about the attack of the Great Song Dynasty at all, so in this case, the Juma Bridge outside the Juma City has changed from a suspension bridge to a fixed wooden bridge, it is said that the craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty were invited to build, after all, the bridge repair technology of the Great Song Dynasty is far superior to that of the Liao State, such as the Bianhe River in Kaifeng City across several large-scale wooden bridges.
Usually during the day, there are people and cars coming and going on the Juma Bridge, which are mainly merchants from the Great Song Dynasty to Liao, after all, the Liao State is very dependent on the goods of the Great Song Dynasty, such as tea, porcelain, cloth, etc., these are the goods that the Liao State urgently needs, and the Liao State exports all kinds of leather goods, mountain goods, etc. to the Great Song Dynasty, and the price is also very low, it can be said that the Liao State is in deficit with the Great Song Dynasty all the year round.
However, due to the recent civil strife in Liao, although Xiao Yunjin transferred a large number of troops from the border regardless of it, it was not completely unguarded against the Great Song Dynasty, but temporarily closed the border, and all the caravans on the Great Song Dynasty could not enter at once, resulting in a sparse population on the Juma Bridge, and the Liao merchants in Juma City were all idle.
In the evening, Juma City also closed the city gate early, as for the Juma Bridge outside the city, there are no more than half pedestrians, if it is placed in the usual, even if it is dusk, the bridge is still full of people, even if the city gate is closed, but there will be some small business vendors on the bridge and on both sides of the river, specializing in those caravan business that can not enter the city.
However, now there is no longer the lively scene of the past, the empty Juma Bridge is full of birds, although the checkpoints on both sides of the bridge that were originally used for tax collection are guarded by soldiers, but at this time they are all listless, after all, no one passes, they will not be able to get oil and water, and now the weather is hot, there are many mosquitoes by the river, standing by the river for a night, except for being bitten full of bags, there is no harvest.
The sun is in the east, the lanterns on both sides of the Juma Bridge have also risen, the soldiers guarding the bridge are barely vigil in the first half of the night, but in the second half of the night, they also began to doze off, as for the soldiers on the head of the Juma City behind them, it is even more sparse and less than half, after all, the Liao State has been comfortable for too long, even if many troops have been transferred, but most of them still do not have any sense of crisis.
At the same time, ten miles south of the Juma Bridge, a small number of cavalry was speeding forward, but their horses' hooves were wrapped in cotton cloth, which made the sound of galloping down a lot, but if they were closer, they could still hear the sound of horses' hooves like thunder.
A few miles behind this cavalry, there is a much larger army, the soldiers in this army are different from ordinary soldiers, they are dressed without armor, their weapons are different, only a long iron pipe is behind their backs, if there are people who know here, they will definitely be able to recognize this army at a glance is the musket army established by the Great Song Dynasty.
Cao Ma and Hu Yan Shouxin rode on horses, commanding the army to sneak quietly, Juma City was originally on the border of Song and Liao, Cao Ma They received the order to go out yesterday afternoon, and they came to the south of Juma City more than ten miles away in just a few hours, I believe that they can definitely kill the city before dawn.
The cavalry in front was also sent out by Cao Mata, when he was in the northwest, Cao Mata found that the cavalry and the musket army could play a greater role, so there were also cavalry in the musket army, and their cavalry was also equipped with grenades, muskets and other firearms.
The cavalry in front was the vanguard sent by Cao Mata, and their order was to kill the city as quickly as possible, and take the bridge to Juma, and the cavalry also had siege tubes, so they had to blow up the city gate before the army arrived, so that Cao Mata's army could directly enter the city and take the city as quickly as possible.
Liu Ping didn't give the order to go on the expedition before, and many people were wondering if Liu Ping was cowardly, but Cao Yu and Hu Yan Shouxin discussed it and came to a conclusion that Liu Ping was probably gathering momentum by doing this, after all, the generals were eager to fight, but Liu Ping kept blocking it, which would only make the generals more anxious, which was like stopping a dam in the river, and when the river turned into a flood, the dam was removed directly, which would naturally make the flood wash away everything.
In fact, Liu Ping did plan to do so, last night he suddenly ordered to send troops, and divided into three road armies, of which Cao Mata and their firearms army is the East Route Army, the main task is to take Juma City, and then converge with the other two roads on the south bank of the Yongding River, and then merge into a road to the north bank of the Xijin Mansion.
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