In March, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the north were shouting anxiously, and the weather in the Jiaodong Peninsula and the North China Plain began to gradually become warmer.
Li Jinglong personally led an army of 100,000 cavalry and infantry to Dezhou, forming a fighting force with 70,000 infantry and cavalrymen including Wu Jie and Yu Tongyuan in Cangzhou to the north.
They relied on the canals and river networks of the North China Plain to suppress Zhu Di in Peiping and Zhu Gaoxu in Qingzhou.
At the same time, Yu Lin's left and right guards who stayed in the capital crossed the Yangtze River under the command of Sheng Yong, gathered more than ten guards in the north of the Yangtze River to garrison troops and headed for Xuzhou.
On the first day of March, Sheng Yong arrived at Huai'an Prefecture, with 40,000 soldiers and horses around him. However, he did not rush to Xuzhou. Instead, he set up a defense line in Huai'an relying on the Huaihe River, as if he wanted to see if Zhu Gaoxu would suddenly attack southward.
His approach was correct, because at this time, the Bohai Navy already had 20,000 horse and infantry crossing the sea. With his small force marching in the Huaibei Plain, it was easy for the Bohai Navy to surprise him.
His mission was to set up a line of defense in Jianghuai to prevent Zhu Gaoxu from disturbing His Majesty in the capital when he went south.
Besides, the 40,000 troops stationed in Jiangbei are not enough, so he needs to step up training.
Sheng Yong is preparing, Li Jinglong is also preparing, and even Zhu Di is preparing. Only Zhu Gaoxu, at this moment, he is still staying outside Qingzhou City with his cavalry, continuing to surround Qingzhou, as if he will not leave until Qingzhou surrenders. posture.
"What was he thinking about?"
"Are you waiting for the troops to cross the sea? But this will take too long."
Dezhou City looks very small under the stretched barracks of a hundred thousand troops, but on the map of the government office in the city, it appears very important.
At present, Li Jinglong has arrived in Dezhou, but Zhu Gaoxu did not make a surprise attack on Dezhou as he had envisioned, nor did he attack Jinan to seize Dongchang and Dongping to cut off the North-South Canal.
"Calculating the time, he now has as few as 10,000 troops and as many as 20,000 or 30,000."
"With such a number of soldiers and horses, whether they are attacking Dezhou or Xuzhou, they are sure to succeed. Why has he been staying in Qingzhou and not leaving?"
Standing in front of the map, Li Jinglong frowned and kept looking at the map. At the same time, he answered the generals' questions: "He is waiting for us to leave."
"Wait for us?" The generals were stunned for a moment, and then they saw Li Jinglong pointing at Deng, Lai, and Qingzhou.
"Right now, Dengzhou and Laizhou have been captured by him. The grain and grass baggage he has harvested is enough to make Liaodong worry-free. Qingzhou occupies 20% of Shandong's cultivated land and is also the main place that provides Texas with grain and grass."
"Although it is only March and no crops have been sown yet, without the hundreds of thousands of shi of grain provided by Qingzhou, we can only continue to rely on the canal to transport grain, and he can rely on the cavalry to constantly harass the canal."
"But we also have a lot of cavalry." Li Jian, the commander-in-chief of the Prince Consort, asked in confusion, but Li Jinglong shook his head:
"We have many cavalry, but he is not the only enemy we have."
"The real enemy is the Yan common people in the north. And judging by the time, he should have returned to Peiping by now. He might appear behind our army at some time."
"What I said is not alarmist, so you send people to inform Wu Gao and Xu Kai to strengthen the walls and clear the country. They are not allowed to leave the camp to fight with the common people of Yan."
"Yes!" The generals bowed, and Li Jinglong also rubbed his brow:
"Although the cavalry cannot be mobilized too much, it cannot be mobilized at all. Otherwise, if our army's horse steps are used as Tang cavalry, it will be easy to be deceived by the common people of Bohai."
"Instructions are sent to Yu Tongyuan and Ping'an to lead 10,000 cavalry south. Chen Hui and Teng Ju will continue to lead the remaining cavalry to stay in Cangzhou, waiting for my military order."
Li Jinglong made arrangements and prepared to wait for Yu Tongyuan and Pingan's cavalry to arrive, and then let them pretend to be Tangqi and enter Qingzhou territory to learn about the situation of the Bohai Navy.
Unequal intelligence is a major taboo in marching and fighting, and right now they are on the unequal side.
The Southern Army was now in a very awkward situation. They had gone from being a one-sided enemy to being flanked from the east and north.
Because they have a large number of troops, the cavalry and horse infantry they can use are far less than those of the Yan Army and the Bohai Navy.
Li Jinglong wanted to wait for Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di to make any move before taking action, but the south would not allow it.
"It has been seven days since the army arrived in Dezhou, and he has not taken any action. Could it be that he is preparing to watch the rebel army capture Qingzhou?"
In the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City in Yingtian Mansion, Zhu Yunwen asked Qi Tai in a serious tone.
He stood in front of the two-foot-long sand table, looking at the current situation in Jiangbei, and it was difficult not to be angry.
Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru, Bao Zhao and others who followed him were silent. Only Qitai pointed to Dengzhou and Jinzhou and said:
"When the general arrived in Texas, the rebel army had been crossing the sea for many days, and the number of soldiers and horses was probably no less than 30,000."
"The thieves have many horses and ours has few. If we use less to attack many, our army will be easily attacked by the enemy if we don't have complete intelligence."
"The traitor army has many horses?" Huang Zicheng seemed to have heard some big joke: "If I remember correctly, the traitor army has only more than 10,000 cavalry, and our army has more than 20,000 cavalry, why are we afraid of him?"
"The thieves also have horses and infantry." Qi Tai replied with a frown, but Zhu Yunwen didn't want to hear excuses. He waved his sleeves and said:
"There are only four months until autumn. Within four months, even if I don't expect to succeed in countering the rebellion, I will drive the Bohai pirates back to Liaodong."
"You should inform Mr. Cao Guo about this matter and don't let me down again."
Zhu Yunwen walked away with a puff of his sleeves, obviously angry that Li Jinglong had not moved troops for many days.
Qi Tai could only sigh when he saw this, and then arranged for people to send the news of sending troops to Li Jinglong.
On the ninth day of March, when Li Jinglong received the news of dispatching troops, he did not delay any more, because if he continued to delay, Zhu Gaoxu was very likely to really capture Qingzhou.
Thinking of this, Li Jinglong's army began to march across the canal, leaving only 10,000 people to guard Texas.
But as soon as they left, news of breaking up the camp was sent to Peiping and Laizhou.
"Your Highness, Li Jinglong has finally broken camp."
Outside Qingzhou City, Xu Sheng, who received the news from Laizhou, walked into the commander's tent with the news, while Zhu Gaoxu looked at the map with the dogma.
Zhu Gaoxu was not surprised or surprised when he heard Xu Sheng's news, but pointed at Dezhou calmly and dogmatically.
"It is four hundred miles from Dezhou to Qingzhou, and five hundred miles from Texas to Zhuozhou."
"Now that he is withdrawing from Texas, whether he comes to attack us or Peiping, he will be farther and farther away in the other direction."
"Send Tangqi to investigate and see if he is coming towards us or heading north."
"Yes!" Xu Sheng bowed in agreement, and Zhu Gaoxu asked again: "Have all the troops landed?"
"Brothers have all landed, but there are still more than 13,000 horses that will take ten days to arrive in Dengzhou." Xu Sheng responded.
"Faster than I thought." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and then looked at the map.
"Tell Zhu Chenggong and Cui Jun to take a ship with more than a thousand materials and go south immediately after transporting the horses. I have asked people to prepare a gift for them at Dasongwei and ask them to receive the gift according to this gift. Bar."
After Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, he also said to Xu Sheng: "Have the cavalry all gathered together?"
"Everyone has gathered together. The three thousand brothers from the east just arrived this morning and are resting now."
"Okay..." After listening to Xu Sheng's words, Zhu Gaoxu's eyes flickered: "Let the news out that we only have 6,000 people in Qingzhou and will attack Jinan soon."
"Yes!" Xu Sheng thought that Zhu Gaoxu was going to release false news, so he turned around and went to take care of it.
Just when they were communicating, after half a month of preparations and rest, the Yan army in Peiping was ready to go.
From the reports submitted by his own guests, Zhu Di successfully learned about the new military trends of the Southern Army field group.
At noon on the ninth day of March, after Zhu Di had sacrificed to Zhu Yuanzhang and Queen Ma, he immediately led 60,000 horse infantry out of Beiping City, preparing for a strategic decisive battle with them.
On the tenth day of March, the Yan army went south to camp at Hongren Bridge to rest and recuperate. The next day, the Yan army officially marched into Dong'an City.
The two armies of Tangqi encountered each other in the valley to the north and quickly spread the news back to their respective formations.
"The rebels have gone south? Can you see the scale?"
In the camp outside Dong'an City, Xu Kai learned that the Yan army was heading south, and immediately asked for details.
"Looking at the number of cavalry, there are only a few hundred cavalry. They should be a small group of Tang cavalry who came to investigate the movements of our army. But judging from the way they dare to pursue our army, there should be a large group of troops behind them."
The commander Yu Duan bowed in response, but Xu Kai frowned after hearing this: "The general reminded me not to leave the camp to meet the enemy, but now the rebel army has approached our army fifty miles away..."
He thought for a while and then said: "Send Tangqi to Cangzhou to deliver a message and ask generals Chen Hui and Teng Ju to lead their cavalry to assist our army."
"General, take your orders!" Yu Duan agreed upon hearing the words, turned around and went to Cangzhou for help.
After he left, Xu Kai walked back and forth in the tent, and news came again from outside the tent.
"Captain, the bandits are camped forty miles north of our city."
"I understand, please step back!" Xu Kai waved his hand to signal the Qianhu official who was delivering the message to step back.
The current actions of the Yan Army have made him certain that the main force of the Yan Army is coming this time.
As long as he sticks to his camp, even if the Yan army has sharp cavalry, they will not be able to get any advantage from themselves.
Thinking like this, Xu Kai began to calm down, and at the same time, Tang Qi, who was dispatched, also passed the news of Dong'an's request for help to Cangzhou after changing horses and people overnight.
Wu Jie, the Marquis of Anlu, didn't think much about it, because Li Jinglong had told him to rush to aid Dong'an and Zhuozhou, so he immediately sent Chen Hui and Teng Ju to lead 10,000 cavalry to the north to rush for reinforcements, and at the same time sent the news to the south.
Time passed, and in the early morning of the next day, when Chen Hui and Teng Ju led 10,000 cavalry to the north, the Yan army moving from the north to the south again pulled out its camp thirty miles away and stationed ten miles north of Xu Kai's camp in Dong'an City. The soldiers of both armies could The flames of the camps on both sides were clearly visible.
"kill!!"
"Beep--"
"Enemy attack!!"
In the early morning of the 13th, while the sky was gray, the Yan army launched an attack while the Southern army was sleeping.
Fortunately, Xu Kai had been making preparations, so when the sound of enemy attack and the sound of wooden whistles sounded at the same time, many Confederate soldiers who had not taken off their armor immediately woke up and began to form formations out of their camps to defend against the enemy.
Xu Kai also wore armor all night. After getting up, he immediately put on his helmet and went out of camp with the generals.
But when he left the camp, the Southern Army had already chased the Yan Army's infantry out of the camp.
"Withdraw the whole army, don't chase the poor bandits!"
Xu Kai was timid and cautious. Geng Bingwen's pursuit was defeated and he died in front, so he did not dare to let his soldiers pursue in depth.
The southern soldiers who were still unfinished were recalled by him and returned to the camp one after another.
In the next hour, the Yan army seemed to be extinguished and never launched a decent attack again.
This made Xu Kai feel strange. He did not see the Yan army's cavalry and horse infantry in this battle.
"Send the River Guards to attack. If you encounter rebel cavalry, withdraw immediately."
"The last general takes command!"
Xu Kai tested Yan Jun's situation, fearing that Yan Jun would leave a suspicious soldier and doubt him.
He watched with his own eyes the three thousand soldiers and horses of the Hejian Guards leaving the camp and heading towards the Yan Army camp. Not long after, a dusty scene appeared in the north. The three thousand Hejian Guards and horses formed an formation with spears and fired guns and spears. Cover each other, prepare for the enemy, and retreat slowly.
The Yan army's cavalry did not get any benefits, and the Hejian guards successfully withdrew at the cost of only more than ten casualties.
"How about the number of Yan army's cavalry?"
"There are no less than ten thousand people!" Yu Duan, who led the Hejian Guards to attack, gave what he saw. Xu Kai breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.
There are more than 10,000 cavalry, which is not considered a small force anywhere. It is impossible for Zhu Di to use so many cavalry as suspects. It seems that the one attacking him is indeed the main force.
Xu Kai felt relieved, but still did not let the soldiers take off their armor to rest tonight, but asked them to sleep with their armor on.
At the same time, Chen Hui and Teng Ju, who were ordered to aid Dong'an from the north, also led more than 10,000 cavalry from Ganliang and Shanxi to Jinghai County to rest and recuperate.
The night passed in a flash, and in the early morning of the next day, Chen Hui and Teng Ju led the army to break out of camp and march to Yang Qingshui Station in the north.
To the west of Yangqingshuiyi is the Sanjiangdian Lake, which is more than a hundred miles long from north to south and more than twenty miles wide from east to west. It is large in scale and nourishes millions of acres of cultivated land.
It's just that for Chen Hui, Teng Ju and others, these are just a slightly larger lake. Except for the cold wind, there is no other hindrance to them.
They went north along the canal and soon arrived at Yangqingshui Station.
After a brief replenishment of horse materials, the group of them continued northward. However, when passing through the narrow place to the north of Yang Qingshui Station, Chen Hui raised his hand and ordered the cavalry to stop.
"What's wrong?"
Chen Hui was extremely vigilant, while Teng Ju was fierce in combat. The two of them complemented each other well, so Teng Juce immediately stepped forward to inquire.
"It's easy to set up an ambush here. Let people shoot a batch of arrows into the reeds in the triangle lake to the west."
"good!"
Faced with Chen Hui's vigilance, Teng Ju didn't think it was redundant. Instead, he asked people to shoot a batch of arrows into the reeds stretching for more than ten miles to the west to explore the way.
Chen Hui was very worried in that narrow area and did not relax until he came to the wide area.
"should……"
"kill!!!"
Chen Hui just wanted to say it was okay, but he heard shouts of death filling the sky.
He quickly looked into the reeds, but saw no one coming.
"East side!!"
"Didn't we explore the east side?"
Teng Ju shouted to draw his sword, but Chen Hui was confused. He clearly remembered that he sent Tangqi to explore the east side. What is the situation now?
"The whole army wears armor!!"
Following Teng Ju's reminder, Chen Hui looked at the endless cultivated land to the east.
In that direction, the Yan army cavalry wearing armor had already risen from the field and was coming to cover them up.
Chen Hui didn't have time to think too much about how they appeared, so he could only order the armor piercing.
"Kill me!!"
Zhu Di took the lead, and with the horse and infantry who kept getting up, they began to encircle and suppress Chen Hui's troops.
Chen Hui could think of the reeds as an ambush, and so could Zhu Di. Therefore, Zhu Di chose the fields to the east and had trenches dug early, laid with wooden planks, and covered with soil and turf.
The sweet and cool Tangqi patrols the road, but will not trample into the fields without crops.
Their sleight of hand gave Yan Jun a chance, and Zhu Di learned this skill from Wang Yi, or from Bohai.
He left the cavalry and a small number of horse infantry to confuse Xu Kai in Dong'an County. He led more than 40,000 horse infantry to set up an encirclement at Yangqingshuiyi, catching him off guard.
"Wear armor! Prepare to break out!"
Chen Hui did not expect that Zhu Di was so good at hiding. If they fought in the plains, it would still be unknown between them. But now they had been tired after marching for a whole morning, and now they were surprised by the Yan army.
At present, Chen Hui could not think of any other means except for letting the whole army break through armor.
Zhu Di did not give them a chance to pierce the armor. He personally led Qiu Fu, Zhu Neng, Chen Wu and others to lead more than a hundred cavalry into the Ganliang cavalry formation, and started killing them before most of them had time to armor. .
Their desperate efforts made the formation chaotic. Chen Hui and the others could not do any other means of organizing the army except rushing to penetrate the armor.
In an instant, the Ganliangjing cavalry scattered in all directions, trying to armor their upper bodies while escaping.
However, under the arrows of the Yan army, the body without the protection of armor appeared extremely fragile.
Every arrow can take away a life. The Ganliang Jingqi who were crossing Xifan were heavily surrounded by the Yan army's horse and infantry. Except for a few who escaped with quick eyesight and quick hands, most of them were surrounded by the Yan army.
There were heavy clouds in the sky, and there was a faint sound of thunder.
The Yan army's horse infantry were wearing strong armor and holding powerful weapons. They caught the unsuspecting Ganliang cavalry by surprise in the chaos. Seeing their men fall to the ground one by one, Chen, who had finally put on the armor, Hui and Teng Ju led more than a hundred armored cavalry to fight against the Yan army.
Blood dyed the official road of Yang Qingshui Station red, presenting a miserable scene.
The Yan army's horse and infantry surged towards the strong Ganliang cavalry like a tide, even though they were fully armored, they could not resist it.
"Xu Kai! Even if I die, I won't let you go!"
Chen Hui cursed Xu Kai because Tang Qi sent by Xu Kai said that the main force of the Yan army was entangled with him in Dong'an, so he led his cavalry to go north without worry.
But now, eighty miles away from Dong'an, they were encircled and suppressed by the main force of the Yan army.
If the intelligence is correct, then he will definitely arrange for the army to wear armor and go northward. Even if they are defeated now, they will not be in such a mess.
"Xu Kai..."
While shouting and cursing, Chen Hui and Teng Ju were swallowed up in the ranks of the Yan army's horse and infantry. They fell off their horses one after another and were trampled to death by the horses in an instant.
During this melee, the Ganliang cavalry was seriously lacking defensive equipment, and they did not even have armor to protect themselves.
On the contrary, the Yan army's horse infantry wore hard iron armor and were invincible when their bodies were hit.
The Yan army's horse infantry, which came like a tide, constantly waved their weapons and launched charges, dividing and outflanking the Ganliang cavalry, and chopped them into pieces alive.
The sound of weapons falling to the ground often sounded, and the whine of war horses echoed throughout the battlefield together with the shouts of killing.
More than ten thousand Ganliang cavalry died miserably, being slaughtered by the Yan army's horse and infantry.
"Chen Hui and Teng Ju are dead. Those who surrender will not be killed!!"
Suddenly, news came out that Chen Hui and Teng Ju had died in battle, and many Ganliang cavalry dropped their weapons.
Zhu Di gasped and turned the horse's head: "Sign up and count the horses."
"Your Highness, more than a hundred horses escaped just now, don't you need to pursue me?" Wang Yi asked breathlessly, but Zhu Di shook his head:
"Just let them spread the news and let Xu Kai know that his reinforcements are being attacked."
Tens of thousands of cavalrymen who were entrusted with important tasks by Li Jinglong were defeated and captured by Zhu Di at the minimum cost due to wrong intelligence and news.
After the raid, the entire battlefield was silent except for a few birds flying.
The green grass has eroded away, and the blood has contaminated this ferocious land.
In this raid, the Ganliang cavalry without armor or preparation was just an obstacle on the way for the Yan army's horse and infantry to sprint forward.
Zhu Di led the army to rest. Although he failed to attract Wu Jie's main force, it was enough to defeat Chen Hui and Teng Ju and capture thousands of Ganliang cavalry.
"Rest for half an hour. We will go north in half an hour. Then Xu Kai should be in a panic!"
Zhu Di was as calm as if he had just won a victory, more like a game.
Perhaps for him, attacking the unarmored Ganliang cavalry was no different from a game.
"kill!!"
At dusk, Xu Kai of Dong'an County led the Southern Army to once again defeat the Yan Army's attack of tens of thousands of cavalry, which made him very proud.
No matter how sharp the Yan Army's cavalry were, they were not that weak when faced with the Southern Army's array of spears.
"Commander, this should be the last charge of the rebel army. After today, we will be able to see the cavalry coming from Cangzhou at noon tomorrow."
The conductor Yu Tian wiped the sweat from his face and communicated with Xu Kai with a smile.
When Xu Kai heard this, he also took off his helmet and wiped the sweat from his forehead: "The Yan army's cavalry is indeed difficult to deal with, but as long as the spears are arrayed, they will be helpless against us."
"When the cavalry arrives tomorrow, they will cover the left and right wings of our army. At that time, our army can launch a counterattack against the rebels."
"This common man from Yan seems to be only good at surprise attacks, not facing the enemy head-on."
Xu Kaizhi was very proud, but just when he was very proud, the magistrate of Dong'an County hurriedly rode to the north of the camp.
He dismounted with the help of the soldiers and bowed to Xu Kai: "Captain Xu, Yan Ni... Yan Ni went south and attacked the reinforcements coming from Cangzhou!"
"What did you say?" Xu Kai couldn't believe it. He looked at the retreating Yan Army cavalry in the distance, pointed over there and asked, "You said Yan Ni was going south, but their cavalry are all here with us. How did you get there?"
"Xiaoguan doesn't know, but the cavalry coming from Cangzhou to help have fled into the city. They said that Yan Ni's raid numbered no less than 40,000 to 50,000. Before they broke through, the two generals Chen Hui and Teng Ju had been heavily besieged by the bandits."
The magistrate's words were like a heavy hammer hitting Xu Kai's chest.
"Order the entire army to withdraw to the camp, and also ask for help from Cao Guogong, and send a message to Anlu Marquis in Cangzhou, telling him to be careful about Yan Ni!"
Xu Kai explained to Yu Tian, but Yu Tian was also in a hurry when he learned that the reinforcements were surrounded.
The two commanded the army to retreat to the camp, and at the same time released homing pigeons to the south, but even Tangqi did not dare to release them for fear of being intercepted by Zhu Di in the south.
Zhu Yunwen spent a lot of effort to mobilize tens of thousands of cavalry from Ganliang, which became a small part of Zhu Di's achievements.
(End of chapter)
