Not only Liu Qi, but also knowledgeable people in the Southern Song Dynasty had long raised the issue that defending the river must defend the Huaihe River. They also hoped that the court could correct it.
However, after the Shaoxing Peace Conference, the Southern Song Dynasty was afraid of any friction with the Jin Kingdom. Huainan itself was also facing the risk of the Yellow River diversion and flooding. It was not worthwhile to invest large sums of money to build long-term military defense facilities.
If a flood floods, it will be enough to wash away all the military defense facilities in Huainan. Then all the money will be lost, and the court will be the one to pay.
With such considerations in mind, the Southern Song Dynasty government simply decided to focus on defending the major ferry crossings of the Yangtze River instead of focusing on defending the Huaihe River, and moved the defense line back.
Firstly, it can avoid the danger caused by the flooding of the Yellow River. Secondly, it can also increase the military buffer zone and prevent conflicts with the Jin Kingdom in Huaibei.
Once the war begins, they are prepared to abandon Huainan and use Huainan to lengthen the enemy's supply line and increase the possibility of the Song army's defensive victory.
Moreover, if the Yellow River floods during the war, then the Song army will win without fighting, and the northern army will be defeated without defeat. Isn't it flattering?
With this idea in mind, this strategy of the Southern Song Dynasty has been implemented. Even after the fall of the Jin Kingdom, this strategy has been fully continued and has not been changed.
When Liu Qi transferred defenses from the Jinghu War Zone to the Huainan War Zone, he found that the Southern Song government's approach of not setting up defenses along the Huaihe River was really unsafe, so he repeatedly requested to garrison important towns along the Huaihe River.
He planned to set up the general headquarters in Yangzhou, an important town in Huainan, and divide his troops to defend Baoying and Xuyi. The three places would coordinate with each other to ensure that Huainan was not lost. He also planned to garrison Qinghekou to monitor and block the Ming army's possible southward march.
The imperial court did not respond to Liu Qi at first and ignored him.
The court at that time only wanted peace, who could care about war?
What if the Ming Dynasty misunderstood the destined construction of Huaihe River defense and surprised its allies?
It was not until the clouds of war in the Ming and Song Dynasties gathered that the imperial court took Liu Qi's suggestions seriously.
When Zhou Linzhi's chance of success on his mission was slim, the imperial court hurriedly agreed to Liu Qi's suggestion to focus on garrisoning the important town in Huainan, allowed Liu Qi to leave Yangzhou, and implemented his three-place garrison plan, and also proactively provided him with a considerable amount of military expenditure.
When Liu Qi got permission from the court, it was already March 20, and there were only three days left before the Ming army sent troops. No matter how fast he rushed, he couldn't do it.
Unless there is a train, it is impossible to realize his Huainan garrison plan within three days.
Not to mention that after Liu Qi moved from the Jinghu War Zone to the Jianghuai War Zone, it took him a long time and a group of officers to barely control the Zhenjiang Prefecture's army. Otherwise, he would not be able to command the Zhenjiang Prefecture's army.
There are many mountains and hills in the Southern Song Dynasty army. Although Liu Qi was a famous general who started his career in the Huaihe area, he was later relieved of his military power and transferred to the Jingnan prefecture and became a civilian official.
More than ten years later, things have changed. Liu Qi has been a civil servant for a long time and is no longer a fighting general in the army. Even if Liu Qi once defeated the Jin army and became famous, he could not help but be burdened by the factions in the army. Commanding an army is a headache.
The original capital commander of the Zhenjiang Prefecture army was Liu Bao. After Liu Bao was impeached and resigned, Liu Qi took over. Liu Qi was the capital commander who was parachuted in. There were still doubts in the army and they often ignored his orders.
In desperation, Liu Qi could only ask the court for orders to mobilize his old cronies, including his nephew Liu Si, to help him control the army.
Under this situation, the court did not make things difficult for him and allowed his request. However, despite this, he still needed time to integrate the morale of the army and deal with the disobedient thorns.
The actions of the Ming army were indeed beyond Liu Qi's expectations.
When he got permission from the court to garrison Huainan on March 20, he thought that even if the Ming and Song Dynasties were to go to war, it would still take one to two months. The Ming army needed to be dispatched and arranged. It was impossible. Attack immediately.
He didn't know that all the arrangements for the Ming army had been completed, and he was just waiting for the order.
He felt that this period of time was enough for him to calmly deploy his troops and arrange the defense of Huainan.
So on March 20th, he sent people to Yangzhou to arrange the situation after the army crossed the river. On March 22nd, he began to reorganize the army and prepare to cross the river.
He never expected that on March 23, the Ming army would send troops.
At that time, there was no army in Huainan that could compete with the Ming army. The officials fled south in a hurry and handed over the city to the Ming army. The Ming army made rapid progress and almost only rushed along the way.
When Liu Qi learned that the Ming army was sending troops on March 26, the Ming army had already reached Baoying County.
Liu Qi was shocked and immediately made arrangements, asking his general Wang Gang to immediately lead 10,000 troops to cross the river first and rush to Baoying to garrison. The Ming army's journey south.
When Wang Gang led his army to advance rapidly in Huainan, on March 28, the Ming army captured Gaoyou County. When Wang Gang received the news, he knew that something bad was going on, but he could not continue to go north, so he could only choose to garrison at Lujin Town. Tell Liu Qi the news and ask what to do next.
On March 29, just when Liu Qi moved from Zhenjiang Prefecture to Yangzhou despite his illness, he received a report from Wang Gang and learned that the Ming army had occupied Gaoyou and was likely to move further south.
Liu Qi was shocked and realized that he had lost the opportunity and had no chance of successfully establishing Huainan defense.
He forced himself to calm down and found that the only thing he could do at the moment was to find ways to contain the Ming army's front, and to find ways to defend Yangzhou and Guazhoudu to prevent the Ming army from successfully crossing the river and setting foot on the south of the Yangtze River.
Damn it!
Liu Qi punched the table and hated the Ming army.
He did not expect that the Ming army would suddenly attack, nor did he expect that the states and counties in Huainan would fall so quickly. He felt that the Ming army might not be fighting at all, and there was no resistance in these states and counties. The Ming army was just on its way, and then garrisoned the city. , penetrated Huainan with no effort at all.
His guess was correct. The officials in Huainan did not choose to resist at all. Firstly, they were timid. Secondly, they did not have troops or weapons and equipment to resist, so how could they defend themselves?
They can only choose to escape.
Liu Qi had no choice but to order Wang Gang to defend carefully and block the Ming army's path south to buy time for him to deploy troops and generals next.
Wang Gang began to set up defenses after receiving the order, thinking that he would complete the task assigned to him by Liu Qi no matter what, and buy him time here.
At this point, Liu Qi had to lament that the Ming army had already gained a foothold in Huainan with its quick actions and sophisticated tactics. Unless the Song army could recapture Gaoyou and push back to the edge of the Huaihe River, it would be difficult to defend Huainan. .
Liu Qi dragged his sick body and looked at the map to think about strategies. Looking left and right, he felt that it would be difficult to achieve anything by relying on his own troops.
He didn't have much time to reorganize the army, but he managed to organize an army of 40,000 people for use. He brought 30,000 troops to defend Huainan and left 10,000 troops to defend Zhenjiang.
Although the number of the Ming army is not yet known, no matter how you look at it, the 30,000 people he brought are not enough to push the Ming army back with a wave of counterattack. They can only defend at best.
Previously, the imperial court promised to dispatch the Imperial Guards to come for support, and the Imperial Guards had organized and dispatched troops very early, but so far they have not seen any sign of it.
He also sent people to contact Wang Quan of Jiankang Prefecture, hoping that Wang Quan could send troops to Zhenjiang Prefecture to assist in defense, and cross the river to Yangzhou for reinforcements to strengthen his troops. However, Wang Quan promised but did not take any action.
Liu Qi suddenly felt that he was backed by the Song Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River, but he seemed to be fighting alone in a desperate situation. No one could help him. He could only watch the situation slide into an abyss that was extremely unfavorable for him. among.
This feeling is really amazing.
They are all armies of the Song Dynasty, but they are separated so widely and divided into so many details. Is this really okay?
Liu Qi just lamented, but did not hope for more, because he himself had done similar things before. It can only be said that this kind of thing is difficult to recover from, and it cannot be established without a big break.
If the reinforcements never come, then all he can do is to stick to Yangzhou and Zhenjiang Prefecture, and use the power of the Yangtze River Navy at his disposal to defend the Yangtze River, defend to the death, desperately block the momentum of the Ming army going south, and hold the Ming army back in Yangzhou .
This was the best situation he could imagine right now.
