In early March, the planned assembly of troops and horses on the southern front was completed.

All the Chongcheng Army, the main force of the Changshan Army, Sun Wenyao, Su Pinxiao and other units and the First Brigade of the Cavalry Battalion were transferred from eastern Zhejiang, nearly 100,000 soldiers, including the soldiers and people of the army, with a total size of 170,000 men and horses, successively completed the assembly in the area east of Quzhou, and marched into the defense line built by the Zhejiang and Fujian armies on the periphery of Shangrao in three ways.

Among them, Guanxiling-Hengshan is the main direction of attack, with Ao Canghai as the main general, Lin Jian also personally supervised the battle in Fenglinbu, the rear camp of the Guanxiling battalion, and the Huaidong Army gathered the elite combat strength of the Huaidong Army such as Tang Fuguan, Zhang Gou, and Zhang Jiheng in Guanxiling, including the soldiers and people who went out with the army, and the total scale of the men and horses assembled in Guanxiling reached 90,000 people.

In the face of the pressure exerted by the Huaidong Army, Hao Feixiong was forced to transfer another 10,000 elites from Fujian to the north to strengthen Shangrao's defense, so that more than 50,000 soldiers were assembled in Shangrao, plus the people who came from the local coercion to assist in the defense, the total number of men and horses was nearly 100,000.

The eastern line of defense built by it in Shangrao, with Shangrao City as the inner line, and the two cities of Changshan and Hengshan as the outer fortress centers, respectively built the three defense lines of Shanxi, Jiankou and Litang.

The main direction of the Huaidong Army's attack was set on the Guanxiling-Hengshan line, and Luxury Feixiong was also forced to build a fortress in the Shanxi River valley in front of Hengshan City to fill in the heavy troops.

Aside from the reserve forces in Shangrao City, which is 20 miles away, there are 20,000 elite soldiers who have been filled in by the extravagant bears to Hengshan and Shanxi fortresses, which are twice as many as the garrisons in Litang and Jiankou Pass, and they want to rely on the danger of the pass to block the fierce offensive of the Huaidong Army that is about to hit like a torrent.

The two sides are also battle-hardened veterans, and the two sides infiltrated nearly 300,000 people on a narrow battlefield, and the victory was more of a flesh-and-blood battle, and it was difficult to take a trick.

From the relatively easy southern section of Guanxi Ridge, it is the source valley of the Shanxi River, and to the north until the Shanxi River joins the Xinjiang River, it is a relatively flat river valley plain, and the most open is up to 20 miles wide.

There are occasional hills ranging from 2 to 40 zhang in the middle, which do not constitute an obstacle to the passage of large armies, and Hengshan Castle is located at the end of the river valley, on the southeast ridge where the Shanxi River joins the Xinjiang River.

Bypassing Hengshan City, along the south bank of the Xinjiang River to the west less than 20 miles, is the core of the Zhejiang-Fujian Army's Shangrao defense line, Shangrao City. Bypassing Shangrao City to the west, it is the open hinterland of Jiangxi; To the south, through Shanguan, you can attack Shaowu, an important town in northern Fujian, and directly besiege the soldiers and horses of the luxury family in the middle and upper reaches of the Min River and the clan forces that will have time to withdraw into Jiangxi in the future.

Naturally, the Zhejiang-Fujian Army could not let Hengshan and Shangrao City be directly exposed to the superior forces of the Huaidong Army.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Huaidong Army had mobilized a large amount of manpower to dig the Guanxi Ridge Road in the past four months, the Zhejiang-Fujian Army built two forts in the middle reaches of the Shanxi River, at the narrowest part of the river valley, to block the route of the Huaidong Army to directly attack Hengshan City along the river valley.

Surrounded by the generals, Lin Liang galloped up the ridge, raised his eyes and looked into the distance, took in the defensive situation of the Zhejiang and Fujian army in Hengshan, pointed to the two fortresses built by the river, and smiled with the generals: "The extravagant flying bear is bullying me and I can't transfer the water camp over!" ”

Usually the fortifications will be chosen in high places, but the naval warships of the Zhejiang-Fujian army can come from Poyang Lake and Xinjiang, and the Huaidong army can fight from the west of Zhejiang over the mountains and mountains, so it cannot rely on the elite water battalions that have not been disadvantaged in the past battles.

It is the same as the pattern of Yongjia City guarded by Qin Zitan back then, but with the Hengshan City on the rear wing as the back, the Huaidong Army can never separate the Jiahe Ersai and Hengshan City to encircle it.

If the fortress is built on a high place, it is easy to divide and besiege the Huaidong Army with superior forces.

"I don't think there is anything to be done about the extravagant flying bear," Ao Canghai said, "They didn't expect that we would have water mills to open Guanxi Ridge Road and take Hengshan as the main direction of attack." Prior to this, they had only occupied a village on the east bank of Shanxi and rebuilt it to strengthen their control over the hinterland of the river valley - when they could be sure that the main direction of our army's attack was here, they could only passively build a defensive line on the periphery of Hengshan on that basis. ”

At this time, several people climbed uphill from the west, led by men dressed in crimson official robes. Although he was wearing an official robe that only officials of the fifth rank or above could wear, the placket of the robe was tucked around his waist, and the official boots and trouser legs were covered with mud, as if he had just trekked through the mud. This person is not an outsider, it is the Wailang of the Ministry of Engineering who went south with Lin Jian and led the Privy Council Supervisor Ge Siyu.

Ge Siyu climbed uphill, saluted Lin Jian and the others, and said: "I have touched the coast, and there are three places suitable for damming......"

Lin Jian turned around and took the map from the hand of the attendant, held it in his hand himself, and asked Ge Siyu to mark the three suitable places for damming on the map.

"......" Ge Siyu took the charcoal land from his ear, marked the three sites, and stood on the ridge, pointed out the general location of the three sites, and said, "The spring water has risen, if you want to build a big building quickly, there is a method available now......

"I said that Si Yu can be of great use when he comes over," Lin Jian smiled, "Let's hear it!" ”

"The key is to put some effort into the wooden piles that support the dam body, and then to collect the water and pull out the wooden piles to collapse the dam and discharge the water." I just don't know if the material preparation here is sufficient? ”

"Bamboo, wood, linen and other materials, Guanxiling already has a large amount of reserves, just wait for Lord Ge to give an order, I will dispatch craftsmen to make bamboo cages! The location of the dam should also be decided by Lord Ge. Ao Canghai said.

"I intend to build a dam at Taowu Pass, where the terrain is steep, the pass is narrow, and there are ridges on both sides to clamp the water potential, which is easy to store the big lake. Moreover, it is rich in woods, and it is easy to conceal it, so that the enemy soldiers will not be aware of it. However, when the dam was built to store the lake in Taowu Pass, when the dam collapsed and the lake was lagoon, the front barrier of Guanxi Ridge was also within the impact range of the lake! Ge Siyu said.

"As long as you can break down the fortress on the periphery of Hengshan, what's the use of leaving the front base?" Ao Canghai said, and asked Lin Tie for his life, "Since a water attack strategy can be done, Canghai asks your lord to allow Canghai to immediately drive troops into Hengshan." First, to cover up the damming, and second, to suppress the enemy forces in the fortress, even if they find out that we are damming upstream, they will not be able to withdraw calmly! ”

"Good!" Lin Jian said.

******************

The Huaidong Army mobilized a large amount of manpower and materials to dig the Guanxi Ridge Road, and a large number of men, horses, and supplies were able to pass through, and it had the ability to build a front fortress close to the Shanxi Fortress on the periphery of the Zhejiang-Fujian Army, and the confrontation between the two armies was only four or five miles away.

In the early stage, because a large number of soldiers and horses did not come up, the front base was in the hinterland of the most open river valley, and it was built simply on a low slope near the river.

Although only 3,000 elites were stationed in the front base, Tang Fuguan led his troops behind, and he was not afraid of besieging the Zhejiang-Fujian army.

As the battle progressed, the fort became stronger and stronger, and the scale became larger and larger.

After Lin Tie went to Quzhou to supervise the battle, the front base had been built into a village, and the upper reaches of the Shanxi River Valley were controlled into the deep hinterland controlled by the Huaidong Army.

From 15 March, Zhang Gou also led his troops and Zhou Pu led the 1st Brigade of the cavalry battalion from the main camp of Guanxiling to the front base, and joined up with the Tang Fuguan department, so that the number of soldiers assembled in the front base reached 30,000, and Ao Canghai also personally went to the front base to command the battle.

Both sides are generals, and the outer defense line built by the Zhejiang-Fujian army with the east and west stoppers of the Shanxi River as the core is also impregnable, and it is difficult to attack the fortress suddenly, and it is difficult to have a place to take tricks.

From the 15th, Ao Canghai sent the elite out of the front base to enter the forced city.

The infantry formed a formation, the chariot and shield were connected, and the ballistas, scorpion crossbows and other weapons were filled to force the enemy to be unable to fight back, and after the formation, the soldiers and men dug the soil and dug trenches to build a protective wall.

When attacking the city, the most afraid of the defenders in the city out of the fortress to fight back, and the defenders who guarded the Hengshan defense line led by the luxury Fei Xiong personally were mostly the elite of Fujian, when it was impossible to sit in the city and watch the Huaidong army besiege it, dig a trench and build a wall outside the city, and completely enclose the enemy city, it can effectively limit the defenders' counterattack, and then can calmly attack the fortress.

Standing on the city wall of Jiahe Dongsai, Hao Feixiong could clearly see that Huaidong's mobilization ability was strong, which was beyond the reach of the Zhejiang-Fujian army at this time.

About 6,000 Huaidong Army infantry formed three dense defensive formations outside the wall, and advanced to within 300 steps from the foot of the wall, in case this side sent troops and horses out of the fort to counterattack. Although the head of the city can barely be shot with a bed crossbow, there is a shield wall erected on the periphery of the Huaidong army, and it is difficult to penetrate the shield wall when the bed crossbow shoots through.

Between the infantry formations, there were still several teams of cavalry waiting for them, which made the connection between the infantry formations closer, so that Xuan Feixiong did not dare to send troops and horses out of the fortress to fight a counterattack.

Unless the 10,000 elites in the city are sent out to fight back, it will be difficult to shake the defensive formation formed by the Huaidong army outside the city. But if you really want to send out 10,000 elites, once they are entangled, there are nearly 20,000 elites in Huaidong's front base four miles away who can quickly press up.

The forces are at a disadvantage, and the counterattack options available to the Flying Bear have become extremely limited.

Although there were warships that could attack from between the two villages of the Jiahe River, enter the upper reaches of Shanxi, and go deep into the hinterland of the river valley controlled by the Huaidong Army to attack and harass. However, I don't know how many iron cables Huaidong sank in Shanxi, and the Huaidong army's stone-throwing crossbows and ballistae were equipped with low wheels, which were very easy to move on the easy river beach, and they could attack the warships from the river bank that came back to the water.

After the spring of Shanxi, the water gradually rose, but the middle reaches were only three or four hundred steps wide, and the warships went up the water, and they could just hit the rock-throwing crossbows and ballistae of the Huaidong Army, making it difficult for the warships to go deep into the hinterland of the river valley to disturb what role it was.

In this case, Xu Feixiong could only watch the Huaidong Army's soldiers and recruited people, about 20,000 people digging and digging trenches after the infantry defense formation. Compared with the more conscripted people, the soldiers and people organized by the Huaidong Army dug trenches very quickly and efficiently. Almost in one day, a long trench with a length of six or seven miles, a width of nearly two zhang, and an unknown depth was dug out four hundred steps south of the east village of the Jiahe River.

The long trench was dug during the day, and it was the night and the moon, and the Huaidong army retreated to the long trench. The prefabricated fence wall was divided into sections and operated from the baggage behind the front base, and the baggage soldiers erected the fence wall in the south of the long trench day after night.

The generals of the Zhejiang-Fujian army could only watch as the Huaidong army pushed the confrontational position to less than 400 steps from the city. The distance of 400 steps is already within the attack range of Huaidong heavy catapults, and the veterans of the Zhejiang-Fujian army who have experienced the wars of Jin'an, Yongjia, Dongyang, etc., recall the intensive siege of the Huaidong heavy catapult array, and they can't help but change color, and they really don't know if the city head can stop the bombardment of the Huaidong heavy catapult with the double-layer wooden canopy.

However, the generals of the Zhejiang-Fujian army knew in their hearts that when these preparations of the Huaidong army were completed, the bloody battle at the head of the city would follow, and after the first battle, I don't know how many people could be left behind......