Chapter 88

At the end of September of the sixteenth year of Hongde, Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su, and twenty Zongwei had arrived in Yanling.

Yanling is not an easy city to defend and difficult to attack, but its geographical location is really special, and its south is Yanshui.

Yanshui, also known as Zheng Shui, is a relatively well-known river of the ancient Zheng State, and with the historical changes, after the fall of the Zheng State, Wei and Chu gradually included Zheng Di in their respective successive expansion and development, forming the current situation of confrontation between Wei and Chu.

On the east side of Yanling, about more than 100 miles away, there is another river, this river is the Cai River running north-south, because of this river, therefore, when the Chu army invaded the territory of Wei on a large scale, the material transportation of the military department was continuously transported from Daliang to Yanling through the Cai River.

Don't think that the officials of the military department only know how to make peace, in fact, while they ask Providence to make peace with Chu, they will still do what they should do, and they will not simply abandon Yanling because they think that Yanling is difficult to resist the offensive of the Chu army, and they don't even bother to transport the necessary materials.

It is precisely because of the support of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household that although the current situation in Yanling is not optimistic, it finally firmly holds Yanshui and does not allow the Chu army to cross this natural danger.

After arriving at Yanling, Zhao Hongrun did not enter Yanling City for the first time, but climbed the nearby hills with the Zongwei and climbed to look at the terrain around Yanling. Although there must be local waterway topographic maps in Yanling City, those topographic maps drawn on canvas paper will eventually have more or less deviations.

Therefore, Zhao Hongrun had to look at this land with his own eyes, after all, with his super memory, it would not be a problem to memorize these terrains at all.

Yingshui County is a county with complex landforms, and there are many hills in the county, so there are many cities in Yingshui County with the name of "Ling", such as Yanling, Chenling, Anling, Xinling, Xiangling, etc., and between the hills, there are mostly flat plains and many rivers.

It is undeniable that Yingshui County is the county with the most dense rivers in the territory of the Great Wei Dynasty, and those many rivers converge together, which is the world's well-known Yingshui Basin, and its tributaries are widely distributed, covering the Wei State, the Song Dynasty, the Chu State, the Lu State, and even the Qi State, and finally flow into different sea areas, which is a very important water transportation and water conservancy in these countries.

Yanshui, on the other hand, is a small branch of the entire Yingshui upstream, which starts from Xinzheng, passes through Changshe, Yanling and other places, and finally joins the Cai River, and then flows into the Yinghe River from the Cai River.

The widest part of the river is 156 zhang, and the narrowest part is 12 zhang, and the water potential is not turbulent. On the contrary, since it was late autumn and winter, the water level in Yanshui had dropped significantly, which made it difficult for the boats of the Chu army to sail into Yanshui from the lower reaches of the Cai River and sail to the vicinity of Yanling City to help the Chu infantry land on the opposite bank.

After all, Yanshui is only a small branch of the upper reaches of the Yingshui system, and its water level in late autumn and winter is not enough for the boats of Chu to sail normally.

It is precisely for this reason that the Chu army built several camps on the opposite bank of Yanshui in the area of Yanling City, and could only honestly rely on infantry to force Yanshui to cross Yanshui and attack Yanling.

However, the situation of the Chu army was not optimistic.

Although it can be said that the state of Chu was at first overwhelming, it was said that several cities in the Wei state that were in danger of rivers were attacked, but that was only due to the lack of defense of the Wei generals on the front line, or the strength was not enough to defend the large number of Chu troops.

With the fall of these cities, the defeated Wei army retreated step by step, and finally retreated to Yanling City, which greatly increased the number of defenders in Yanling City, although the morale of the army was generally low due to the repeated defeats at the front.

According to the report conveyed by Yanling City to the imperial court, there are currently more than 10,000 soldiers in Yanling City, including 2,500 local defenders, and as many as 8,000 front-line defeated troops.

However, on the other side of Yanshui, there were more than 50,000 Chu troops.

And the bad thing is that these Chu troops are not all of the troops under the command of Chu Xuancheng Jun Xiong Tuo, according to the news from the front, this time in order to attack the revenge of the Great Wei Dynasty Song Land by Wei Tianzi, he poured out the troops in his territory, plus the armies of several other Xiong princes and nobles, so that the strength of the Chu army in Yingshui County reached a full 160,000.

The Yingshui battlefield alone invested 160,000 troops, plus the army of the Chu State to attack the Song Land, so it is no wonder that those officials of the Great Wei Imperial Court Military Department generally did not agree to declare war with the Chu State, because the difference in strength was too great.

In the face of such a strong Chu army, the soldiers and civilians in Yanling City can be said to be panicked, and even the "Fu Shou" is worried all day long.

The so-called "Fu Shou" refers to the civil and military generals of Yanling City.

In the local cities under the rule of the Great Wei, the civil and military were separated.

Civil officials are called "fu", also known as county fu, county order, fuzheng, etc., and are always responsible for the criminal, people's livelihood, taxation and other matters of the place; The military general is called "Shou", and the popular point is also called Wu Wei, who is a general at the rank of school captain, and is always responsible for anti-theft, public security, city defense and other matters, and is the adjutant of "Fu".

In the past, they were only unknown local civil and military officials among the officials of the Great Wei Dynasty, but now, they have become the highest-ranking officials on the front line, not only tens of thousands of refugees, but also in charge of more than 10,000 troops.

Of course, at present, there are not only Pei Zhan and Chen Shi in Yanling City, after all, after the loss of county towns such as Chenling, the local county commanders and commanders have also fled to Yanling, it is not an exaggeration to say that there are now three county commanders and military commanders in Yanling City.

These people consulted with Pei Zhan every day, some advocated counterattack, some advocated sticking, and their opinions could not be completely unified.

As for the military captains led by Chen Shi, the military captain of Yanling City, they began to consolidate Yanling's defense line.

After all, these people are military attachés, and they naturally have to be more decisive than civilian officials.

But even so, in the face of the offensive of the Chu army, Yanling City's situation was still precarious.

There is no way, after all, including Pei Zhan and Chen Shi, these county commanders and military lieutenants are not generals who are good at fighting, they only have experience in people's livelihood, criminal, public security, and anti-theft at most, and the generals who are really good at fighting are far away in Fencheng and are dragged to death by a partial division of Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Xuancheng.

Who said that the strategic significance of Fen Cheng Sai was far more important than that of Yanling, so even if the generals of Fen Cheng Sai learned that the Chu army had invaded their Great Wei country, they did not dare to divide their troops to come to the rescue. After all, the territory bordering the State of Chu and the Great Wei is too long, and the role of the Fencheng Fortress is reflected in blocking the west of the State of Chu, once this fortress is lost, then the route of the State of Chu to attack the State of Wei is not two, but three, and at that time, the Great Wei will become more passive.

Therefore, it would be better for the army of Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Xuancheng, to attack from Yingshui, and the army of Fen Chengsai did not dare to move lightly.

Until one day, Pei Zhan, the commander of Yanling Cheng County, received a message from Chen Du Daliang, saying that the imperial court sent Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su, to support Yanling with the general of the Junshui Battalion, Bailiba, and officially declared war on Chu.

After receiving this news, many county commanders and captains in Yanling City breathed a sigh of relief, especially Chen Shi, the military captain of Yanling City, after all, he was exercising the functions of a front-line general these days, and he always had to command several military lieutenant colleagues of the same rank and an army of more than 10,000 people.

But there is no way, after all, Yanling City lacks a figure of sufficient weight these days.

And now, the imperial court officially declared war on Chu, and at the same time sent two big men of sufficient weight, one is the general of the Junshui Battalion, Bailiba, a veritable general, and the other is even more remarkable, it is the son of the current Wei Tianzi, Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su.

However, in this regard, the civil and military officials in Yanling City were more or less puzzled, after all, they had only heard of King Yong, King Xiang, King Yan, and King Qing in the past, when did a King Su emerge?

But it doesn't matter, anyway, as long as it is the son of Wei Tianzi, as long as it is the prince of Great Wei, it is enough to reassure the soldiers and civilians of Yanling City, and it is also enough to cheer up the soldiers in the army with low morale.

Yes, that's what they thought at first.

But after they saw with their own eyes that the so-called His Royal Highness King Su was only a fourteen-year-old child, their hearts suddenly sank to the bottom.

"It's His Royal Highness King Su, that's right......"

After welcoming Zhao Hongrun into Yanling's city guard mansion, Yanling County ordered Pei Zhan to carefully check the documents given to him by Zhao Hongrun.

These documents were all issued by the imperial court and stamped with the seals of the Ministry of War and Wei Tianzi to indicate the identity of Zhao Hongrun.

And while he was checking the documents, the rest of the county commanders and military lieutenants who had lost the county seat were staring at Zhao Hongrun with blank eyes, and they didn't know what they were thinking.

"Too young......

Yanling Martial Lieutenant Chen Shi's eyelids jumped, and he kept looking Zhao Hongrun up and down.

Because he was far away in Yanling, he had never seen the princes of Daliang, so after hearing about "King Su going to the front", he subconsciously judged this Royal Highness King Su to be a prince in his twenties, but he didn't expect that His Royal Highness King Su was not even fifteen years old this year.

"This ...... Do you really want to give the military power to such a prince who is not yet fifteen years old?'

Yanling Martial Lieutenant Chen Shi couldn't help but hesitate.

And Zhao Hongrun was also carefully looking at the Yanling military lieutenant Chen Shi in front of him, because he heard when he entered the city that the reason why the Chu army could not attack the north bank of Yanshui was precisely because of the result of this Yanling military lieutenant leading the army to repeatedly block attacks.

Although it is said that many soldiers have been sacrificed for repeated blockades, the Chu army, which was able to block the troops far exceeding Yanling, was able to block the south of Yanshui, and repeatedly failed to force crossings, which is enough to prove that this Yanshui military captain has a certain level in leading troops to fight.

Otherwise, how could the military captains of the other counties listen to him?

"If you can convince this person, you can save a golden order......

Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but think.

However, it is obvious that this Yanling military lieutenant Chen Shi, his gaze on Zhao Hongrun obviously lacks trust.