Zhao Kaishan was still clear-headed at this time and knew who could and who could not be beaten.
Failure cannot be accepted in this kind of war. In order to ensure victory, Zhao Kaishan also mobilized his elite and brought out the strongest team he could.
He did not send out the Zhao family's cheating generals, but asked Li Xiao, Chen Qiaoshan and Zhou Zhi to take turns in the battle. Zhao Yucheng led the team to give them the bottom line, and let them lead their own troops with combat experience to fight against the Jin soldiers.
These people are all fierce generals who have been trained by beheading and are good at fighting. They have a certain level of generals. Of course, they look better in battle than that group of scammers. They fought back and forth with the Jin soldiers, and they kept the front lines straight. Push to the west.
After making considerable sacrifices, the Liberation Army pushed the front line to the fork of the Yellow River not far east of Kaifeng Mansion, and then was blocked by the Yellow River water.
In order to prevent the Liberation Army from taking the opportunity to cross the river, Kong Yanzhou destroyed all the bridges in advance, took all the ships into his own hands, and temporarily formed a navy to wander on the river to prevent the Liberation Army from crossing the river to attack Kaifeng City.
As long as they cross this river, the road for the Liberation Army to attack Kaifeng will be really smooth.
But crossing the river is not easy. Boats are needed, and the group of Jin army navy on the river needs to be dealt with, or another reliable crossing point needs to be found for a forced crossing.
It was already early April, and Zhao Kaishan ordered the army to complete the crossing of the river and march to Kaifeng within ten days. This requirement made some officers on the front line feel very embarrassed.
But what Zhao Kaishan only wanted was victory. He forced all armies not to bargain with him. Everything was for victory, and everything was for the capture of Kaifeng. After Kaifeng was captured, everyone would be rewarded with money, everyone would be rewarded with whatever they had, and they would never break their promises. .
Under the temptation of a huge reward, the exhausted Liberation Army once again burst into fighting will. They cut down trees, rushed to build ferries, and prepared to forcefully cross the river.
The Liberation Army and the Jin Army faced each other across a river, and small-scale battles broke out from time to time. Although there was no problem for a while, the Liberation Army had a large number of people after all. Once they successfully crossed the river, Kaifeng would be very dangerous.
Kong Yanzhou speeded up the deployment of troops to defend Kaifeng, mobilized troops to set up defense lines, and sent more troops to the front line to face the Liberation Army, trying to block their progress.
It happened that at this time, Jing Sihui, a political official from the Central Government, arrived in Kaifeng under the escort of the army, and brought a large number of craftsmen and building materials to prepare to build the Kaifeng palace for Wan Yanliang.
He and Zuo Prime Minister Zhang Hao were jointly responsible for this matter.
In order to handle things faster, Zhang Hao negotiated with him to have one person in Zhongdu and one person in Kaifeng. It would be more convenient to communicate back and forth and handle various matters.
So he came.
As soon as the result came, it was learned that Kaifeng was facing the threat of the Liberation Army, and Kong Yanzhou was mobilizing troops and generals to fight against the Liberation Army.
After learning about the current war in Kaifeng, Jing Sihui was shocked.
"The bandit army can actually threaten Kaifeng? How could this happen?"
Of course, Kong Yanzhou would not say anything about his initiative to attack the Liberation Army. After all, it seems now that the reason why the Liberation Army spared no effort to attack Kaifeng was most likely caused by Kong Yanzhou's initiative to attack Caozhou and Shanzhou.
Kong Yanzhou would not choose to take the blame at this time.
So he lied and said that how the Liberation Army chose to attack was not something he could control. All he could do was to resist with all his strength.
Jing Sihui quickly asked about the specific situation.
"So how is the war going now? Can it be defeated? Is Kaifeng in danger?"
"Of course there's no danger!"
Kong Yanzhou quickly patted his chest and expressed that there was no problem: "Although the rebel army is outnumbered, our army is elite and waiting for work, and with the danger of the Yellow River, the rebel army will definitely not be able to break through our defense line."
Jing Sihui had heard about Kong Yanzhou's ridiculous behavior for a long time and looked at him suspiciously.
"It's best this way, Kong Liushou, you must know what Kaifeng means to His Majesty. If Kaifeng is not preserved, it will not only be the loss of a city, but also the loss of Kong Liushou's wealth and life. Needless to say, right? "
Kong Yanzhou wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"I see……"
Jing Sihui did not understand military affairs. He was a purely civil servant and came here to build a palace.
Because of Wan Yanliang's strict order, even if the current situation is not good, the construction of the palace cannot be slowed down. Otherwise, Wan Yan Liang's southward expedition plan will be blocked. Not to mention his official position, whether he can keep his head is a problem.
It happened that Kaifeng City still had a large number of soldiers and civilians mobilized by Kong Yanzhou, who could all be used, and the construction of the Kaifeng Palace could begin.
Since the Jin Kingdom captured Kaifeng and experienced two puppet regimes, the Puppet Chu and the Puppet Qi, the city of Kaifeng has more or less returned to its original appearance. Some buildings have been repaired and some palaces have been maintained.
Of course there's nothing wrong with using it as an advance base. If it's used as the capital, it might not make sense, but it's not impossible.
However, Wan Yanliang wanted to be the emperor, and Kaifeng City in the Northern Song Dynasty was not qualified to be the capital of the emperor. Kaifeng City had to be renovated according to the highest standards.
No matter how much money is spent, how much manpower and material resources are spent, it must be built with full style, surpassing the Kaifeng of the Northern Song Dynasty and becoming a brand new Kaifeng.
Only in this way can he be worthy of the status of the emperor who unified China.
It can also lay a good foundation for him to go south to attack the Southern Song Dynasty and seek a good omen.
This is what he thought about it.
Regarding this matter, many courtiers in the court privately criticized it, thinking that if the money could be used for the army, the Jin army would be stronger and the rebels would be wiped out easily.
But Wan Yanliang wanted to renovate Kaifeng City.
At this moment when thieves from the north and south are launching rebellions, he actually wants to renovate Kaifeng City!
Someone tried to write a letter to stop it, but remembering that Wen Dunsizhong was still under house arrest and was not allowed to go out, they could only stop.
Who asked them to set up such an emperor?
Seeing that a large part of the logistics prepared for the army was used by Jing Sihui to build palaces, Kong Yanzhou did not dare to say anything. He could only admit that he was unlucky and use the remaining limited supplies to continue organizing defensive operations.
Due to lack of food, horses and vehicles, the number of Jin troops on the front line has been unable to increase.
The Liberation Army's offensive has been very fierce. In the past few days, because they have more ships on hand, they have launched several threatening beach landings.
It even almost succeeded once.
Chen Qiaoshan unconsciously used a formation similar to Queyue Formation. After landing on the beach, he ordered his men to form a formation with their backs on the river, and let all their own ships land in the space created by their formation, trying to increase the number of troops crossing the river and gain a firm foothold.
This situation was noticed by Kong Yanzhou, who immediately realized that something bad was going on. Once the Liberation Army gained a foothold and had more troops, his side might not be able to hold on.
So Kong Yanzhou immediately sent out Xia Ou, the most valiant general under his command, and asked him to lead the infantry and cavalry to violently attack Chen Qiaoshan's military formation. Regardless of the rain of arrows, he charged with no fear of death and fought fiercely with Chen Qiaoshan's elite enemy troops.
At the same time, the remaining navy ships of the Jin Army also launched a fierce attack on the ships of the Liberation Army under Kong Yanzhou's heavy reward. The two sides engaged in an extremely fierce fight on the river.
In the end, Chen Qiaoshan's enemy army was unable to rest for a long time and was exhausted. It could no longer form a formation to fight. It was torn open by the impact of the Jin army's infantry and cavalry and collapsed.
Xia Ou led his troops in a large-scale charge and defeated the Po enemy troops in one fell swoop, driving them down the river bank. More than 400 Po enemy troops were killed in the battle and more than a thousand were drowned. Chen Qiaoshan escaped by boat under the desperate cover of his men. , there were no casualties.
The enemy troops suffered a severe blow, their morale declined, and they could no longer fight for a while.
Of course, Kong Yanzhou also paid a heavy price, losing a group of cavalry and a group of ships, and his defensive power was greatly reduced.
Zhao Kaishan was very angry and did not stop fighting. He replaced other troops and stepped forward to fight, absolutely not giving the Jin army a chance to breathe.
Zhao Yucheng led the Tabai Army to take over Chen Qiaoshan's main offensive task. He led troops to attack the river bank defense line several times and was defeated several times. However, Zhao Yucheng was not discouraged and continued to organize troops to attack.
As the Liberation Army took control of more and more ships, the Jin Navy began to lose ground, and it was only a matter of time before the defense line was breached.
Zhao Kaishan seems to have seen his own dawn.
Kong Yanzhou also hurriedly found Jing Sihui, trying to explain the situation to him and get back some supplies and transportation capacity so that he could organize an army to continue resisting.
However, at this important juncture, on the third day of April, Zhao Kaishan was shocked to hear that his rear had been hit.
His army was cut off by a group of Jin cavalry, which destroyed a lot of grain and crops. The defensive forces of Caozhou and Shanzhou were also defeated.
This was great, not only was the food route gone, Caozhou and Shanzhou were lost again, and Zhao Kaishan was shocked.
He immediately realized that if he could not recapture Caozhou and Shanzhou, he would lose his way back to the base area, and his main force would be isolated from the base area, with disastrous consequences.
So almost immediately, Zhao Kaishan immediately ordered the army to return for reinforcements.
Zhou Zhi, who had performed well in the previous war, was ordered to lead You Yi's army to quickly return to Caozhou and Shanzhou to rescue Caozhou and Shanzhou.
