【Blooming in the South】
The Central Army was caught off guard and did not know how many people were on the opposite side. They collapsed instantly, abandoned the camp, and fled back to Jianmen Pass. After that, I didn't dare to come out for more than ten days.
The two battalion commanders, with a thousand men, stole the camp and robbed the village, scaring away more than 10,000 Central Army troops, giving Jianzhou a respite for more than ten days.
Meng Zhixiang was overjoyed when he received the report. He was very pleased to have such a wise and courageous general under his command. At the same time, he also saw that the strategic level of the Central Army was on the same level as Dong Zhang, and there was nothing to worry about. Meng Zhixiang said to the people around him :
"I thought that after conquering Jianmen Pass, the Central Army would definitely control Jianzhou and then go straight to Zizhou. In this way, Dong Zhang would definitely abandon Langzhou and return to his home base of Zizhou, and then we, Xichuan, would be isolated Without help, they can only lift the siege of Suizhou and retreat back to Chengdu. In that case, the two rivers will be attacked from both inside and outside. The morale of the military will be weakened, the morale of the people will be shaken, and it will be extremely dangerous! Haha, I didn’t expect that they would abandon Jianzhou and hide in Jianzhou. If the door cannot be closed, the opportunity to advance is lost. It seems that our great cause can be accomplished."
Meng Zhixiang was not laughing at Dong Zhang and Shi Jingtang, but at himself, for overestimating these two things. It's obviously a diamond round, but I insist on treating it like a king round, and I feel like my IQ has dropped.
Pang Wanfu and Xie Kun's sneak attack caused Shi Jingtang to seriously misjudge the situation in Jianzhou. To be on the safe side, Shi Jingtang sent a force to detour to Wenzhou in the northwest, and then went south from Wenzhou to attack Longzhou.
However, Meng Zhixiang had already sent troops to garrison Longzhou, and Shi Jingtang's strategy of bypassing Longzhou failed.
Subsequently, Dong Zhang's three thousand Dongchuan Army, led by Wang Hui, joined forces with Xichuan general Li Zhao and jointly entered Jianzhou. Shi Jingtang also went to the front line of Jianmen Pass in person.
The two sides are about to start the third round of the contest.
Zhao Tingyin set up an array in the back mountain of Jianzhou, and ambushed 500 divine archers on Shi Jingtang's retreat; Wang Hui and Li Zhao formed an array at the river bridge nearby.
Shi Jingtang personally led the infantry to attack Zhao Tingyin. Suddenly, there was a sound of artillery on the mountain roads on both sides, followed by flags waving, drums thundering, and the sound of killing shaking the sky. Shi Jingtang retreated in a hurry, losing hundreds of people.
Subsequently, Shi Jingtang ordered the cavalry to attack the two Sichuan soldiers on the river bridge. Li Zhao used strong bows and crossbows to suppress fire, but the cavalry could not get close and could only end hastily.
At dusk, Shi Jingtang led his army back, and Zhao Tingyin led his troops to follow. When Shi Jingtang entered the ambush circle of the magic archers, Zhao Tingyin sent out a secret signal, and then cooperated with the magic archers to launch an attack and achieved a great victory.
Shi Jingtang retreated to Jianmen Pass again.
In this way, the two sides entered a stalemate stage.
Shi Jingtang sent an envoy to report to the court, saying that the mountain roads were rugged and narrow, making marching extremely difficult. The Central Army was struggling, and most of the transportation teams responsible for transporting grain and grass supplies had fled, and the situation was worrying.
When the main forces of both sides were in a stalemate at Jianmen Pass, Nishikawa's successes in the southern battlefield were reported frequently:
Zhang Wu led the navy down the Yangtze River. As soon as the pioneer officer Zhu Xie entered the jurisdiction of the Wutai Army in Qianzhou, his military commander Yang Hanbin abandoned the city and fled into the neighboring vassal Ningjiang Army. He captured Qianzhou, Fuzhou, Shizhou and other places were surrendered to the Xichuan Army. The Xichuan Army took over the Qianzhou Wutai Army without any effort. Zhu Xie bit Yang Hanbin and pursued him until he reached Fengdu before turning back to pick up the loot.
So Meng Zhixiang wrote another message to cheer up his own people and add salt to the enemy's wounds. The summary said:
"... (Yang Hanbin, the military governor of Wutai Army) threw his state into the water and ran away... He stole a large number of boatmen and expedition to the gorge road. Only when the flags and drums were heard, he went down to the lake. Yun Qiang pointed to the upper reaches. He successively descended to the county and city, and then collected the camp and prison. . The power is as fast as breaking bamboo, and the sound is similar to that of burning bamboo."
——Comrades, take a look, as soon as I sent out troops and the warships were launched, the enemy troops abandoned the city and fled. Our army is in overwhelming strength!
"... Moreover, the Ningjiang Army uses southern Guizhou as its elbow and Yuhe as the thoroughfare for transportation. I have cut it off, so where can I hope for it?"
——Yang Hanbin of Qianzhou fled to the Ningjiang Army, and later organized a tentative small counterattack with the Ningjiang reinforcements, but was severely defeated by our army. It’s no wonder he’s undefeated! Due to special geographical reasons, the territory of the Ningjiang Army is like a belt, governing three states: Zhong, Wan, and Kui, which are lined up along the Yangtze River. There is a long border with the Qianzhou Wutai Army in the south. If the Qianzhou Wutai Army falls into It is impossible for the Ningjiang Army to protect itself against the enemy; and the Ningjiang Army's supply transfer stations are Yuzhou and Hezhou located upstream, and these two states are also controlled by the Sichuan and Sichuan armies.
"The purpose is to stabilize the situation in order to consolidate the corner..."
——So, it is just around the corner to capture the Ningjiang Army and expand the territory of Sichuan and Sichuan.
The strategic significance of the Ningjiang Army in Kuizhou is very important. It borders Jingnan to the east and controls the Yangtze River waterway in and out of Shu. If the two Sichuan provinces control Kuizhou, they will directly threaten the hinterland of the Central Plains and may launch a surprise attack on Luoyang.
The soldiers from Sichuan and Sichuan took the Yangtze River waterway, and their speed down the river was much faster than that of Shi Jingtang's main force who returned from Jianmen Pass by land. If the two Sichuan provinces capture Kuizhou, this situation will arise: nine people from both sides are fighting in a team battle on the upper road, and Liu Chan, who is interfering with us, leads his troops and secretly demolishes the three towers on the lower road.
The current war situation is: the main force of Shi Jingtang's Central Army and the main force of the rebels from both Sichuan are confronting each other at Jianmen Pass; Suizhou Xialuqi is besieged by Xichuan and is also in a stalemate; Kuizhou Ningjiang Army is threatened by Xichuan.
The war situation was not favorable to the court.
At this time, an important node emerged within the imperial court: An Chonghui went to the front line to supervise the war.
In the later Tang Dynasty, the only staunch "main war faction" was An Chongjie, and almost all the rest were "main peace faction". Most people, including Li Siyuan and Shi Jingtang, did not approve of the Sichuan War.
It will be reviewed in detail later. At this time, An Chongjie was already deeply involved in the vortex of political struggle, his position was in jeopardy, and Li Siyuan lost his trust in him. The Battle of Sichuan and Sichuan was a huge gamble made by An Chongjie.
After An Chongjie left, the suppressed voices in the court finally dared to be boldly released, constantly urging Li Siyuan to cancel the war; Shi Jingtang also actively wrote about the difficulties on the front line and the unwiseness of the war.
According to Shi Jingtang's report, the loss of grain and grass transportation at the front line was astonishingly high at more than 90%, and less than one-tenth of the grain that could be successfully transferred to the front line (from the west of Tongguan, the people were struggling to transfer food, and every stone spent was not worth a bucket. Roads complain).
Li Siyuan originally did not advocate the use of force against the two Sichuan provinces. After receiving Shi Jingtang's report, he became more inclined to resolve the issue between the two Sichuan provinces through dialogue.
In order to ease the conflict, Li Siyuan ordered the release of 1,500 Xichuan soldiers stationed in Kuizhou.
These soldiers were stationed in Kuizhou when the "Three Route Army Conquered Jingnan". After the Jingnan War, Meng Zhixiang requested to withdraw, but was rejected. Historical records record that the garrison commander Mao Chongwei was "broken into pieces" by Meng Zhixiang's instructions and fled back to Xichuan.
Whether these 1,500 people belonged to Mao Chongwei's troops, historical data did not give a sufficient explanation.
In short, these 1,500 Xichuan soldiers have been detained in Kuizhou by the imperial court, and Meng Zhixiang was ordered to transport Xichuan grain and grass to support them. Meng Zhixiang went to court many times, citing the end of the Jingnan War as an excuse, and requested to withdraw the garrison, but was rejected. Meng Zhixiang continued to go to court, saying that Xichuan was in dire straits and that there was not enough food to be transported to Kuizhou, and requested to stop the food supply, but was also rejected. .
Later, Meng Zhixiang took the opportunity of Dong Zhang's uprising in Dongchuan to extort 13 salt fields from Laiyun Anjian from the imperial court on the pretext of subsidizing the Kuizhou garrison.
Now, in order to ease the conflict and pave the way for a strike and peace talks, Li Siyuan finally took the initiative to release these 1,500 Xichuan soldiers.
