In the first battle of Xiakou Village, the Song army's sneak attack turned into a strong attack, if it were not for the general Wang Ming to deal with it properly and fight bravely, it would be difficult for Xiakou Village to be taken so quickly.

It's just that the soldiers and horses of the Xiakou Village, the water camp escaped more than a dozen warships, about 1,000 soldiers went out, and the infantry battalion also escaped about 2,000 people, but the infantry battalion finally collapsed, but it had no combat power for a while. It's just that Shuiying fled back to Chizhou, which is also a trouble.

Wang Ming didn't care about rejoicing in this big victory, but he secretly had a headache about the attack on Chizhou, but he didn't expect someone to send a pillow when he was sleepy.

The Xiakou Zhai Buying Chambers commanded Qin Cheng to abandon the battle and flee, snatched a horse before leaving the village, and galloped all the way to Chizhou. When Peng Gaozhuo escaped from Xiakou Village, the Song army chased the north and had to hide in Tibet, so when he fled to Chizhou, it was already dark, the city gate was locked, and he should not shout the door, so he could only stay outside the city for one night.

When Qin Cheng returned to Chizhou, he went to the city to find his uncle, the late Yan Yongrui, the son of the former Chizhou Thorn History. Qin Cheng fled back alone, his face was frightened, he couldn't justify his words, Yan Yongrui didn't understand what was going on.

"For today's plan, we can only surrender." Yan Yongrui usually loves this nephew very much, and he is reluctant to abandon the pawn to protect the car, so he can only be ruthless at the moment.

Although Yan Yongrui no longer has an official position, he has the help of the Yan family's protégés and former officials in Chizhou, and the Yan family's marriage for many years, his influence in Chizhou is no less than that of the assassin. At that moment, he took Qin Cheng to find Wang Bin, the history of Chizhou, overnight.

Hearing that the Xiakou Village was lost, the water camp and the infantry camp might surrender, and even came to Chizhou, Wang Bin closed the city gate and the water gate under Yan Yongrui's suggestion, and the remnants of the Chizhou water division had just come to the vicinity of the water gate. The commander of the battalion suggested going to Tongling downstream, and the commander of the water camp made Zheng Yangbo hesitate for a long time, and finally decided to stay near the water gate and wait for dawn before entering the city.

After the army cleaned up the Xiakou Village and rearranged the defenses, Wang Ming rested in the early hours of the morning. Not long after lying down, I still felt confused, and I was woken up by the guards. Hearing that the Tang army was defeated at the dock and the current situation in the city, Wang Ming believed it.

Immediately, he lit up 3,000 people and went to Chizhou in the starry night.

When the sky was still bright, Yan Yongrui came out of the house, surrounded by dozens of guards, and went to the Thorn Shi Mansion to meet Wang Bin, and then came to the water gate of Chizhou City. Qin Cheng stepped forward to take a look, and then said to Wang Bin, "These people have all surrendered!" Otherwise, he left last night, and he would have stayed outside the city until now. ”

Wang Bin was about to give the order to send arrows, and Yan Yongrui said: "It's better to catch turtles in the urn." ”

Zheng Yangbo saw that there were people looking at the head of the Water Gate, and then the Water Gate was wide open, afraid that the Song Army Sailor would appear at some point, so he hurriedly led the crowd to rush in. The soldier signaled to stop the boat and dock, Zheng Yangbo was frightened on the boat, and he didn't sleep well, so he didn't doubt it, so he took the lead in going ashore. Unexpectedly, as soon as the shore was reached, a large number of soldiers appeared, surrounding everyone tightly.

At this time, he heard the sound of shouting and killing coming from the direction of the south gate, and then the shouting and killing quickly rushed to the center of the city. Wang Bin was stunned and couldn't help asking, "What's wrong?" ”

Looking at each other on the left and right, Yan Yongrui said: "Let the adults know, but this is the Song army soldiers entering the city." ”

Wang Bin couldn't stand up, his body fell to the ground as soon as he softened, and Orr remembered something: "Lord Yan, you actually colluded with Song Bing, you are ashamed of Your Majesty, ashamed of your ancestors......"

Yan Yongrui snorted coldly: "Great Song Heavenly Soldiers, how can we resist?" Will Lord Thorn Shi go with me to greet General Song, or will I take Lord Thorn Shi's head to meet General Song? ”

Wang Bin saw that Yan Yongrui's guards were scattered left and right, and he was eager to try. sighed at the moment, knowing that the general trend had gone, after all, he didn't want to die like this, so he had to stand up and follow Yan Yongrui to meet the Song general Wang Ming.

Chizhou, which had 5,000 defenders, fell overnight. At this time, Jinling did not know that the Song army had already started a war against Tang.

Li Congyi also didn't know that due to his intervention, Xiakou Village gave the Song army a lot of trouble and almost made the Song army lose the first battle. However, Chizhou surrendered to the Song army in an unbloodless civil strife the day after the loss of Xiakou Village.

Historically, Wang Ming of the Song army captured Chizhou in the following month, the fifth day of the tenth month of Run, that is, ten days later. In the two planes, the losses of the Song army in Chizhou were actually roughly the same. However, one suffered losses under the city of Chizhou, and the other suffered losses in Xiakou Village.

A few days later, Li Congyi, who received the letter, was really angry and vomited blood. According to Li Congyi's original assumption, with the battle at Xiakou Village as a buffer, how could Chizhou be prepared for defense. History can hold on for ten days, and if this plane can double the period of perseverance, then Li Congyi's plan can be more calm. As a result, this will steal chickens and rice.

Chizhou did not buy time for Li Congyi, and the big cities east of Chizhou, Tongling (belonging to Chizhou), Wuhu (belonging to Taiping Prefecture), and Dangtu (Taiping Prefecture) fell one after another.

Tongling also has another camp of the Chizhou Naval Division, a water camp of 3,000 people, and more than 200 warships of all sizes, all of which were given to Cao Bin intact. After reading the battle report, Li Congyi really wanted to strangle that Zheng Yangbo to death, you can't enter the city if you escape to Chizhou, and if you don't go to another water village in Tongling, you have to die under Chizhou City, so you can send a boat to report a message! And then cut the Chizhou Thorn Shi Wang Bin, the Xiakou Village was broken, one did not think of counterattack, and the other did not think of warning, you slept peacefully, how could you sleep? As a result, the Chizhou Shuiying camp in Tongling was defenseless, and was attacked by the Song army Hao Shourong at dawn, and the sailors surrendered without even boarding the warship, causing Tongling, which lost the protection of the water camp, to surrender quickly. At this point, the Chizhou Army (known as the Kanghua Army in the Southern Tang Dynasty) had been reorganized and eliminated by the Song Army.

When Cao Bin attacked Wuhu, Wuhu was already prepared, but there was no large-scale garrison in the county, and the Song army put on a siege posture and broke through the city gate with giant trees, and hundreds of defenders could not continue, so they surrendered, which is nothing to say. Only when Tu's defenders finally held out for 20 days barely contained the first wave of the Song army's overwhelming offensive.

When the Tu army held the city, the Southern Tang Dynasty court ordered the health army of Jinling (the army in charge of the defense area outside Jinling) to come to the aid of Dangtu from Lishui. In the middle of leap October, 20,000 healthy troops and 20,000 Cao Bin's troops fought in quarrying. The number of soldiers on both sides was equal, but the result was that the Tang army was completely annihilated, Li Chen was killed in battle, more than 1,000 people including Yang Shu, Yang Shu, deputy and Sun Zhen, the prisoner of soldiers and horses, were captured, and more than 10,000 soldiers of the healthy army were scattered in the countryside.

The health army was defeated, the reinforcements were cut off for a while, and the morale of the Tu army was low. In order to ensure the timely construction of the quarrying pontoon bridge, Cao Bin led his troops to storm Dangtu, day and night, to the end of leap October, when the Tu army finally failed, the Song army broke the city when the Tu army was deployed and died, Taiping Prefecture Assassin Shi and other officials self-immolated in the government office, when Tu surrendered.

Fan Ruoshui and Cao Bin came east together, when they arrived at Tongling, Fan Ruoshui was worried about the turbulent water near the quarry, if the bridge failed, it was afraid of losing morale, so it was suggested that the pontoon bridge should be tried at the upstream stone paikou. Cao Bin was as good as a stream, so he intercepted thousands of yellow and black dragon boats and bamboo rafts sailing from Jiangling at Shipaikou. Under the guidance of Fan Ruoshui, Song Bing soon successfully tested the pontoon bridge. Everyone was overjoyed, and Fan Ruoshui said to Cao Bin with a smile: "If you go to quarry, our army will definitely be able to win a big victory!" Cao Bin was also extremely excited, and responded loudly: "This is a move that is in line with the weather, why worry about the surge of the quarrying river?" I'm going to win! ”

In early November, the Song army escorted the pontoon bridge to the quarry river, and at this time the ministers of the Southern Tang Dynasty realized that the Song army was actually going to build a pontoon bridge in quarrying. During the court discussion, Xu Xian said with a smile: "For thousands of years, I have never heard of anyone who built a pontoon bridge on the Yangtze River, and I saw the jokes of the Song army. Everyone laughed and didn't care.

However, at this time, Fan Ruoshui was full of confidence. Rao Liang, the governor of Hezhou, has already been on the north bank of the Yangtze River, with more than 50,000 catties of iron, and poured it into the cracks of the boulder on the bank to think that the pontoon foundation pile, and the south bank is naturally based on the stone tower carved out of his own stone cliff as the foundation pile.

The pontoon bridge lies across the quarry river, and it is not bad at all. Fan Ruoshui had already prepared the iron cable, and only used the iron cable to string the yellow and black dragon boats together, and then tied one end of the iron cable to the Jiangbei iron pillar, and the other end to the cliff stone tower. Then lay a bamboo raft on the yellow and black dragon boat. Fan Ruoshui only took three days to build the pontoon bridge.

This season coincides with the heaviest dry time of the Yangtze River, the current slows down, and the drop in water level makes some yellow and black dragon boats have to run aground on the river beach, which greatly reduces the tension of the iron cable. Zheng Deshui was on the top of a mountain a few miles away, holding a telescope to observe the pontoon bridge. Zheng Deshui calculated repeatedly in his heart, but he still couldn't help but be very worried in his heart, thinking that if he couldn't sell it, he could only raid the pontoon bridge, then the more than 30 elite soldiers here, how many people would survive at that time, it was really difficult to say. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but glance at Xu Le'an, the deputy commander of the division's reconnaissance battalion beside him. Although Xu Le'an is not Xu Meilan's brother, he is still better than his brother, if there is an accident here, Zheng Deshui has no doubt that he will eat Xu Meilan's hanging in the future.

Xu Le'an didn't think that Zheng Deshui would think so much at once, but just took the telescope and looked towards the pontoon. This telescope is during this time, Li Congyi found someone to try out the new thing, the principle is very simple, the material also has ready-made crystal, but it is not easy to polish. The production is extremely low, and the team is only one telescope.

The pontoon bridge was built, and the Song soldiers on both sides of the strait cheered and jumped, and the sound moved the sky. In the distance, there are also Tanma sent by Jinling, and at this time they are just lost and depressed, or they are stunned.

Cao Bin immediately ordered Pan Mei on the north bank to cross the river. Pan Mei was the first to walk on the pontoon, and it was really like walking on the ground. Pan Mei crossed the river and looked back, but saw that the infantry of the Song army was endless, crossing the bridge one after another, and couldn't help but be arrogant. Just as he was about to say something big to coach Cao Bin, he heard a boom not far away.

The crowd didn't know why, and they followed the prestige, and they were all shocked.

I saw that the cliff wall on the south bank that was the foundation pile of the pontoon bridge had collapsed under the pull of the pontoon iron cable, and the entire cliff boulder had collapsed. The cliff collapsed, the boulder fell, the strength was more than hundreds of millions of catties, the stone towers were all broken, and more than a dozen iron cables lost their restraints, and they lay soft on the river beach. Immediately driven by the river, the entire pontoon bridge slid downstream.

For a moment, the Song soldiers in the south and north of the Yangtze River were like being choked by the throat, and they were silent. Then there was a soldier on the pontoon bridge who stood unsteadily, screaming and falling into the water. Several soldiers did not know how to water, so they tossed in the water at this time, shouting for help. The whole scene came to life again and again. And Fan Ruoshui was still like a wooden man, looking at the direction of the cliff in a daze, unable to say a word.

Cao Bin glanced at Fan Ruoshui, and didn't blame anything, but just gave an order: "Hao Shourong's department sent a small boat to rescue the soldiers who fell into the water first, and then collect the yellow and black dragon boats and bamboo rafts that drifted away, and prepare to build a bridge next time." Then take a big boat to cross the Pan Mei department. He also ordered to notify Rao Liang, the governor of Hezhou on the other side, to prepare another 50,000 catties of iron, and wanted to work on the iron pillar on the other side of the quarry.

Seeing that Fan Ruoshui was still like a lost soul, Cao Bin ordered someone to help Fan Ruoshui to rest. Unexpectedly, as soon as the guards supported Fan Ruoshui, they saw him wow and spit out a mouthful of blood. Even Cao Bin was secretly frightened, worried that Fan Ruoshui would be hit too hard, so he immediately said: "Lord Fan, victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, and you need to protect this useful body and build a pontoon bridge!" ”

Fan Ruoshui spit out a mouthful of blood, as if he had come back to life, and said: "The general doesn't need to worry, I will go to the cliff site to see the situation first, summarize the lessons, and build a pontoon bridge here!" After walking a few steps, he turned back and said: "General, there may be iron storage in the nearby quarrying iron yard, and if it is not good, the iron yard can be operated to make iron, and 50,000 catties of iron will be a matter of a month, which is much more convenient than transporting iron from Jiangbei." ”

When the world iron is a strategic material, there is not much iron stored in the states and counties. Including the capture of Tang Zhichi Prefecture and quarrying, the government's iron inventory is only a few thousand catties. Jiangbei and Hezhou previously melted iron cast piles, which were also transported from Bianliang. If the railway is transported from Bianliang and then to the south bank, I am afraid that it will not be possible in a few months.

And Zheng Deshui, who was on the top of the mountain in the distance, breathed a sigh of relief. "It would be easy for the Song army to get tens of thousands of catties of iron. I, Senior Brother Fan, want to build this pontoon bridge again, I'm afraid it will be the Chinese New Year next year! Then he asked, "Is the quarry cleaned up?" ”

Xu Le'an smiled and thought, "Mr. Zheng, how many times have you asked this. Our ministry promised not to let Song Jun find a pound of iron. There are thousands of people in the mine, and they should also be on the Shuiyang River at this time. ”