Tongqiao was originally the seat of Suzhou Prefecture, although it has been withdrawn and merged several times, and now it is not even counted as a county government, but in fact, its liveliness is even more than that of Fu in the north, and it is still more than Qi County in the south. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

This special situation is because it is just at the intersection of Bianqu and Xuzhou Nanxia Post Road, it is a first-class land and water wharf in Xuzhou, Tongqiao Town is not as good as Liuzi (Liuzi) Town in the middle of the three cities of Fuli, Yongcheng and Linli in the northwest in the early Tang Dynasty, but with the late Tang Dynasty feudal lords, wars are frequent, Tongqiao Town, located between Xuzhou to Haozhou Post Road and Bianqu, quickly surpassed Liuzi Town, and became the seat of Suzhou Prefecture.

However, due to the withdrawal of Suzhou, Tongqiao itself is a prosperous land and water wharf, and it is located in the hinterland of Xuzhou, surrounded by the garrison of the probation army, so in order to facilitate the construction of granaries and wharves, the city wall of Tongqiao has long been demolished, forming a scattered large town, which is extremely prosperous.

Tongqiao is not only an important granary in Huaibei, but also an important military material storage place for the probation army, a large number of materials such as military armor, weapons, equipment, robes, and forage are stored here.

There were not many garrisons in Tongqiao, only one army, but Yao Chengtai felt that it was more than enough.

Not to mention whether the Caizhou army in the west has the spare strength to attack the bridge, first adding a canal to the distance can make the Caizhou army sigh.

Whether it is the Caizhou army or the Liang army, the strength of the water army is not worth mentioning, this is the common problem of the feudal lords north of Huaishui, the water army north of Huaishui has little effect, and it is susceptible to the influence of the season, so it generally does not pay attention to the water army, Tongqiao is located in the hinterland of Xuzhou, who can sneak attack?

But I didn't expect the sneak attack to happen right under my nose.

You don't have to think about Yao Chengtai to know that it must be the Huaiyou Water Army, except for the Huaiyou Water Army, who can make a detour from Sizhou thousands of miles away, the problem is that the Huaiyou Water Army can pass through Linhuai and Hongxian and cross the entire hinterland of Sizhou, can it be said that Yu Mingzhen knows nothing?

Yao Chengtai felt a chill in his heart, could it be that Yu Mingzhen hooked up with Huaiyou?

With such a large-scale convoy transit, especially the key pass of Hongxian, how could Sizhou be completely unaware?

Yao Chengtai was well aware of the danger of losing Tongqiao, not only his military assets, but also Shang Yunxi and Shi Yu's military assets, most of which were stored in Tongqiao.

If it is obtained by the Huaiyou Army, the Huaiyou Army basically does not need to supply from the rear, and the grain and grass military funds directly relying on the bridge are enough to support the two battles.

Maybe the only good thing is that Shang Yunxi and Shi Yu will spare no effort to come to help, otherwise these military funds for Tongqiao will be swept away by Huaiyou, then they don't have to think about it.

Yao Chengtai slowly calmed down.

If it is the Huaiyou naval army that raids the bridge, then it means that the number of enemy troops will not be too much, if it is really tens of thousands of enemy troops advancing through the waterway, no matter how disguised they are, don't want to avoid the scouts along the line, and now suddenly fight back, maybe they can quickly recapture the bridge.

The question is to wait for Shang Yunxi and Shi Yu's Yuan army to recapture Tongqiao, or to immediately transfer the army from Qi County back to Tongqiao?

This made Yao Chengtai extremely entangled.

The Huaiyou army will arrive in Qi County within two days, if it draws troops back to help Tongqiao, not to mention whether it can go down with a drum, even if it defeats the enemy army and recaptures Tongqiao, it is difficult for the remaining army to hold Qi County.

As soon as Qi County was lost, Huaiyou still had the advantage of the naval army to cut off the Bianshui, and the southern part of Xuzhou would fall into the hands of the enemy, and the bridge could be attacked again at any time, and the situation would be extremely dangerous.

The only way is that the Qixian army does not move, and there is only one army of defenders in Fuli now, only to wait for Shang Yunxi and Shi Yu's army to come to help, and recapture the bridge, the key is to see how fast Shang Yunxi and Shi Yu's reinforcements come, if you can quickly go south, take advantage of the unstable foothold of the Huai Right Army, defeat the Huai Right Army that attacked the bridge, recapture the bridge, and then reinforce Qi County, but it will be no problem, but if the momentum is slow, the enemy takes the opportunity to loot the military funds of the bridge, it will be a big loss.

After thinking about it again and again, Yao Chengtai still felt that he could not lose Qi County, although the bridge was occupied by the Huai Right Army, but the Huai Right Army was at most the two armies and the water army used the surprise attack to succeed, once the army of Shi Yu and Shang Yunxi pressed up, the Huai Right Army was difficult to hold, and once Qi County was lost, I am afraid it would be difficult to take it back, where would they survive?

Especially once the Caizhou army enters Xuzhou, they don't even have a place to hide, how can they gain a foothold in the Caizhou military system in the future?

As for the loss of military funds, it is not their own family anyway, Shang Yunxi and Shi Yu will naturally be anxious, and when they recapture Tongqiao, it is estimated that the Caizhou army has already entered Xuzhou, and it is really hard to say where the situation will go at that time, and I can't care about much.

Mei Kuang's eyes were gloomy, with a pestle and sword in one hand, standing on the gate outside the grain hoard, looking at the route that had been interrupted in the Bianqu.

The blade of the pale cyan green sword still seemed to have a blood-red aura, and a few drops of blood stretched along the outside of the gate towards the embankment of the Bianqu River.

Half an hour ago, he killed the military commander stationed here with a "thousand sails on the side of the sinking boat", a strong man in the early stage of Taixi, while Tian Chunlai killed the deputy envoy of the military commander and another master in the late stage of recuperation.

As soon as they came forward, Mei Kuang and Tian Chunlai personally led the elite to launch a surprise attack, and Wu Wentang's meticulous work set fire to Tongqiao Town before, attracting some of the probation troops to put out the fire, so this battle went particularly smoothly.

Of course, Yao Chengtai's elite is not in vain, and the landing operation of the naval army itself has limitations, but Mei Kuang and Tian Chunlai both skillfully used the power of the only few ships equipped with fire dragon cannons in the naval fleet, attracted a probation army to the wharf embankment, and then used the naval dragon cannon to strike, which directly led to the destruction of the elite of this battalion in a very short time.

Having suffered a surprise attack itself, coupled with the disadvantage of troops, and then suffered the devastating blow of this new weapon, as well as the killing leaders of the two masters, Mei Kuang and Tian Chunlai, the reforming army was not able to hold out for long.

Tian Chunlai had already sent people to reconnoiter the terrain.

The defeat of this probation army is nothing, in fact, after passing through Hongxian safely, the outcome of this battle is already doomed, and the key is that the next one will face a possible attack from the north and south of the probation army.

If Tongqiao is a city, then it is fine, leaning on the city to defend, there are two armies, and it can almost hold out for a while, and when the right first army and the right second army arrive, Mei Guo still has this confidence to resist the attack of the probation army.

But the problem is that Tongqiao is a large town, relying on the Bianqu canal, which is extremely prosperous, but there is no commercial port with a city wall, which is troublesome.

Moreover, the main wharves, warehouses, and grain hoards of Tongqiao are almost concentrated in the north of Bianqu, which means that if you want to take these military materials and grain as your own, you have to hold the north, and now it seems that the army from Fuli and Pengcheng may quickly move south along the post road, and perhaps in less than two days, the probation army will be on the bridge, and the first and second armies of the Huaiyou Water Army will have to fight a hard resistance battle in Tongqiao Town.

It is not clear how many troops Xuzhou will have to go south, but as long as Shang Yunxi and Shi Yu are not stupid to a certain extent, they will think that this battle is already related to the life and death of the entire probation army, in this case, I am afraid that Shang Yunxi and Shi Yu will attack with all their might.

Watching Tian Chunlai come quickly with a few subordinates from a distance, he knew from the expression on Tian Chunlai's face that the situation was not good.

In fact, they had already discussed it before, and had done research on the topographic map of the bridge, and at that time they felt that it would be very difficult to stop the reforming army moving south.

They judged that as long as there were more than 10,000 reformers going south, it would be difficult for these two armies to resist them, but the problem was that it was not up to them to decide how many reformers would go south, and they judged that it was very likely that the reformers would go south.

"Brother, the situation is not good. Tian Chunlai didn't have any politeness, and said straightly: "I think it's very difficult to set up a blocking position here, the bridge is too big, and the streets are messy and scattered, if the probation army goes south, it can be attacked from several places, if it is a street battle, we can't take advantage of it at all, and our ships and fire dragon cannons don't dare to use it at will in Tongqiao Town, this market town is very important, if it causes a fire, it's a pity, and more importantly, even so, it is difficult for us to hold here." ”

"Then what should we do?" Mei Guo sighed, his eyes wandered, "The king asked us to defend this place, the scout came to report, Yao Chengtai on the side of Qi County seems to be unable to hold out, the king and they want to defeat Qi County, I'm afraid it will take time." ”

Tian Chunlai was also a little anxious.

Although the overall performance of the probation army is not good, it does not mean that the probation army has no combat effectiveness, and they dare not take this risk, and it is okay if they are defeated, but once they fall and are successfully reinforced, they will be completely passive in this battle.

"Chunlai, you said that if we take the Fu Li, the situation will be better?" After thinking for a long time, Mei said leisurely.

"Take down Fu Li?!" Tian Chunlai was taken aback, "Is it feasible?"

"I'm pondering, let's take the bridge and capture these hundreds of probation soldiers, if we can convince some of them, and then disguise ......" Mei Guo paused, "This may still need the assistance of people from Wuwentang, whether it is feasible or not, we have to think about it carefully." ”

"Whether it works or not, we can also give it a try! Otherwise, it will be too late!" Tian Chunlai jumped up suddenly, "I'll lead the team to give it a try!"

Fu Li is only thirty or forty miles to Tongqiao, and the rapid march can be reached in half a day, and some of the remnants of the reformed army that were defeated before must have fled to Fu Li, if you don't hurry up, it will be impossible.