The early morning mist filled the river.
The sun was blocked by the fog, and the sky and the earth looked a little hazy. The cold river wind blew across the river.
"It's so cold. It's so early in the morning and no one is here at all. I don't know what Shangguan is doing. What's the point of guarding it? It's better to sleep in the bed and feel comfortable."
Wang Qing murmured in his mouth and gathered up his slightly thin cotton-padded clothes. The heavy armor was bone-chilling under the mist, and passed to him through the clothes.
It is not a pleasant thing to get up from the warm bed early in the morning and change duties with others.
But there is no way. The duty of duty has been arranged, which is the military order.
Military orders are like mountains and cannot be changed.
"Stop talking nonsense. We have a bad relationship with Chu State now. I heard that Yangxia County has been beaten to a mountain of corpses and seas of blood. Countless people have died.
It's good that we can defend the river port in the south, at least we don't have to fight on the battlefield. "
The guard next to him, Lao Qin, was an older man. When he heard Wang Qing's nonsense, he quickly taught him a lesson: "And you'd better be careful. Now the countries in the north are trying their best to get into our country of Liang, and the country of Chu in the south Can you not think about it?
Be careful now, you might be able to save your life. "
When Wang Qing heard this, he didn't take it seriously: "More than thirty years have passed since the Chu people lived in peace and prosperity in Jiangnan. I even envy those peaceful and prosperous times.
Okay, they are stupid and want to beat us?
Do you really think that no one will die in a war?
This time too, if the Chu people want to take the Yangxia County of Zheng State, give it to them. They are not here to rob our Liang State of land.
Now it's fine, but the court refused to give in, and the two countries started fighting.
Jiaodong County was in chaos, countless people died, a lot of money was spent, and the place was probably in ruins.
Even our Jiangkou has become an enemy country because of Liang Chu. The Chu merchant ships that come and go here have disappeared for several months. "
Wang Qing was full of complaints and seemed extremely angry about the war between the two countries.
Lao Qin glanced at him and sighed slightly.
He knew why his companion was like this, because he himself was actually quite dissatisfied with the war between the two countries.
As a garrison guard, he sounds like a soldier, an officer.
But in fact, they were not included in the establishment of the Liang State at all. They were essentially civilian men recruited from the local areas and then forcibly assigned to guard the port.
As civilian husbands who were drafted, they came to serve as garrison soldiers, which was a form of corvee service and was an obligation as a registered citizen of the Liang Kingdom.
Not only did they not receive wages, they also had to provide their own dry food and meals, and were responsible for all expenses while serving in the corvee.
The time of corvee service can be as short as a month or two, or maybe half a year. Everything depends on the commander's wishes.
One can imagine what a heavy burden this is for ordinary people in a place.
Fortunately, as a garrison guarding the river mouth, Wang Qing and the others could take the opportunity to claim a docking fee when passing merchant ships docked at this small port.
Although the bulk of this fee still has to be handed over to the higher-ups, after paying the share that the higher-ups want to take, what is left over is their extra income.
Therefore, the collection of port fees has become a fixed income for all port guards. The people above also know this, but they also choose to acquiesce.
Liang Guo's merchant ships have connections here, so they can pay less.
Chu's merchant ships have nothing to do with it, and they can charge more port entry fees.
Over the years, all the garrison soldiers have done this.
But now, due to the war between the two countries, Chu's merchant ships simply stopped coming. The merchant ships of Liang State were also unable to go to Chu State because Chu State closed the trade ports.
So the extra income of all the garrison soldiers was simply lost.
Not only was it gone, they also had to be on guard because the Chu State might attack.
Those who were there were put on guard duty in shifts at night, and those who were woken up early in the morning were freezing in the wind blowing from the river.
If the money is gone, your life may be gone.
If you add the two together, you will know how much resentment a low-level garrison soldier like Wang Qing has in his heart.
But it's a pity.
It was the decision of the superiors to be at odds with the Chu State, and it was the decision of the Chu State.
No one listens to the thoughts, opinions, words and voices of local people like them, and no one cares about them.
What people like Wang Qing need to do is to obey the superior's arrangements, obey the military orders honestly, and just be their own pawns.
He was still complaining at this time, just because he was still young, had seen less cruelty, and had received less severe beatings.
I don’t understand what fate is, and what misfortunes are just coming from the mouth.
But Lao Qin, who is already in his thirties, has become a grandfather. Although he is only a low-level person, his knowledge is much wider.
So after listening to Wang Qing complain for a while, Lao Qin just shook his head, and then interrupted: "Stop talking. Stand your guard properly, why do you talk so much. But what you just said, if the superior listens to it, If you go there, you can beheaded directly.
You tell me it's okay, tell others..."
Lao Qin is educating the younger generations.
To be honest, if Wang Qing hadn't been from the same village as him and the other party's parents had a better relationship with him, he wouldn't have wanted to care so much.
However, just halfway through the sermon, Lao Qin stopped talking instantly, his eyes looked into the distance, and his whole person was stunned for an instant, with a fear showing in his eyes.
I saw countless black shadows appearing in the thick fog in the distance. Gradually, the black shadows came closer. Tall and ferocious buildings crossed the river and sailed towards the port from the south.
The building ships were getting closer, and the flag on the big ship in the front was fluttering.
Although Lao Qin was illiterate, he had seen a lot of Chu ships in the past, and gradually he could roughly recognize how the character Chu was written.
At this time, the flag on the leading ship had the word Chu.
"Chu...Chu army, Chu army is coming——"
The sound of panic and despair sounded instantly, and Wang Qing behind Lao Qin shouted.
However, before he could say anything more when he opened his mouth, a strong wind suddenly hit him in the distance. A powerful force shattered his front teeth and penetrated him. The arrow took Wang Qing's body and rolled directly to the ground.
Wang Qing twitched a few times. The arrow that penetrated his brain missed and blood flowed from the wound, and he became silent in an instant.
When Lao Qin saw this scene, his heart trembled.
With his experience, he understood instantly that the Chu army was coming just as Shangguan said.
As for the densely packed Chu warships seen on the river in front, it goes without saying that their small port cannot handle this force.
Can't hold on any longer.
With this thought in Lao Qin's mind, he immediately threw away the short knife in his hand, turned around and fled towards the rear.
However, before he could escape far, another wave of arrows from the Chu army disappeared, turning into raindrops and falling again from behind in an instant.
In the small port, there was a rain of arrows in an instant.
Screams came from the port, and after Lao Qin ran for more than ten steps, a sharp pain came from his back, followed by a strong force, which made him roll.
Lying on the cold and humid port, he stared at the sky, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, foam mixed with blood flowed out, and he slowly died.
Less than half an hour later.
With the last scream ending, this small port near the south of the Yangtze River fell into the hands of the Chu army without any suspense.
A Chu army boarded the port and began to assemble in the land north of the Yangtze River.
The residents of the harbor were forcibly taken out and, in fear, sent to remove the bodies and the ship's supplies.
Huang An got off the ship, looked at the captured port, and nodded slightly.
Although it is only a small port, as the first battle of the Northern Expedition, it is always a good sign to successfully win.
"General, the 200 Liang defenders and 300 civilians in the harbor have all been cleared."
At this time, a small school boy covered in blood walked into the port. After seeing Huang An, he immediately saluted and reported.
Huang An showed a smile on his face: "Well done, your troops will rest for a while, and then leave a team of people to guard the port and receive the follow-up army. The remaining people, together with me, will continue before Liang Ren can react. Advance north.”
"yes!"
The principal responded and immediately turned around to prepare.
A short while later, among the fleet coming across the river, the 5,000 Chu troops in the first batch of ten large ships had already disembarked and assembled in the harbor.
Seeing this, Huang An left a few generals behind and continued to arrange for the subsequent troops to disembark from the ship, allowing them to follow one after another.
Then he personally led the five thousand vanguard troops and horses, quickly left the port and rushed north.
Since the Chu army and the Liang army started fighting on the border between Jiaodong and Yangxia before winter last year, the relationship between the two countries has quickly turned sour.
After the battle, Liang Jun suffered repeated setbacks, which was also accompanied by the memorial of Liang Guo's famous general Yan Yunqing, which caused shock in the Liang Guo court.
So in order to reduce the pressure on the eastern border, in order to support the battle with Chu State in Yangxia County, or in other words to protect the war in Jiaodong County on its own border.
Liang Guo began to mobilize resources from all parties at home to support the war in the east.
However, this kind of support was relatively restrained at first and did not fully exert its full strength.
After all, Chu State is the largest country in the world after Liang State in the Nine Provinces. There are three million soldiers and horses on display alone.
With this military strength, on paper, it is no longer weaker than Liang Guo.
At this time, Chu State only sent a million troops to Yangxia County. Although it was extremely large, it was only equivalent to one-third of Chu State's military strength.
This pressure is far from the limit of Chu State.
If the Chu State wanted to do so, it could send millions more soldiers and horses from the country at any time to fight against the Liang State.
Therefore, as long as these millions of soldiers and horses do not move, Liang Guo will naturally not dare to show his trump card easily.
But since the beginning of this year, the news that the Chu State and the Wei State had sent troops to Yongxi spread and was confirmed.
The last scruples in Liang Guo's heart were finally let go.
The reason is simple.
The Chu State has only three million troops in total. Now there are one million in Yangxia County and another one million in the Helong battlefield, so there are only one million left in the country.
But these one million people have to defend not only tens of thousands of miles of sea territory, but also the southwest border, and they have to leave enough strength at home to guard it.
Divided among several places, there are not many soldiers and horses that can be used by Liang Guo.
No matter how hard the Chu State takes away, they will still be able to use at most three to five million people to target the Liang State.
Although this number of soldiers and horses is not small, it is not afraid of Liang Guo, the most powerful country in Kyushu, and cannot even pose a threat.
Not to mention.
There are still tens of millions of immigrants in Chu State who need resettlement, which is a huge project and expense.
If this is not resolved, will the Chu State really have the remaining power to open a third battlefield in addition to the two battlefields of Yongxi and Yangxia?
Thanks to the Chu State's constant show of weakness and false news released to the outside world over the years.
and this series of obfuscation and cover-ups.
Anyway, after discussion, the monarchs and ministers of the Liang State agreed that the current Chu State had absolutely no spare capacity to open up a third battlefield.
Therefore, based on this view, in March of this year, after it was confirmed that Chu State had opened another battlefield in the northwest, and the battle was fierce.
The main force of Wei State was also dragged on the grassland and could not be used in Henan County.
After feeling that his southern and eastern territories were worry-free, Liang Guo was completely relieved.
So they began to mobilize troops and horses from the western front, the internal areas, and the central area of Gyeonggi Province. They gathered an army of 500,000 and sent it to the eastern front and handed it over to Yan Yunqing.
At this point, Liang Guo's troops in Jiaodong County on the eastern front have officially reached 1.5 million, which is more than half after excluding the 100,000 people lost last year.
The support for Yan Yunqing is not small.
And to value it so much, Jiraiya also had requirements.
The request of the monarchs and ministers of the Liang Kingdom was also very simple, that is, relying on this advantage of troops and horses, they could quickly defeat Huang Xuan's tribe in Yangxia County and drive them out of Yuzhou.
At the end of the day, the Chu army will be severely damaged and driven out of Jiaodong County, so that they cannot threaten the security of Liang's eastern border.
And this must be done quickly and not for too long. The war will be over by the end of this year at the latest.
The reason is also very simple, that is, the two countries of Chu and Wei will withdraw their troops at the end of this year.
When the two million troops from the two countries return, Liang's defensive pressure on the western and southern fronts will suddenly increase sharply.
At that time, for the sake of border security, they had to redeploy the troops and horses they had deployed and spread them to the two defense lines to re-consolidate the front.
Therefore, the monarchs and ministers of the Liang Kingdom can only support Yan Yunqing until the end of this year.
Once this year is over, when Wei and Chu adjust their national policies, it will be difficult to say whether the court will be able to allocate spare efforts.
If Yan Yunqing does not seize this last opportunity, Jiaodong County will be destined to become Liang Guo's eternal pain from now on.
Therefore, according to the above description, the defensive troops and horses in the Liang Kingdom today, in the east, inland hinterland, and Gyeonggi area, are extremely empty.
There are even no regular troops in some places, and only some government militia groups are relied on to maintain public order.
On the southern side of Jiangbei, Liang Jun still maintained enough troops, about 500,000 troops and nine innates, distributed along the Jiangxia and Guangling lines to defend against Chu.
According to the assumptions of the monarchs and ministers of Liang State.
With such a large number of troops, even if the Chu State mobilizes another three and a half million troops for the northern expedition, the Jiangbei defense line can handle it on its own and keep the enemy at bay.
And if the Chu State mobilizes more troops, such as a million troops, it can hold on for a long time with half a million people, enough to delay the Liang State to respond and send reinforcements from the country.
It can be said that this arrangement is very strict, very thoughtful, and attaches great importance to Chu State.
However.
When the soldiers and horses of Chu's Northern Expedition were replaced by 3.6 million soldiers, 6 million civilians, and nearly 10 million soldiers and horses.
This mere 500,000 Liang troops seemed so vulnerable and ridiculous.
A full nineteen-fold difference in military strength and a nearly seven-fold innate difference are enough to break through any line of defense.
Liang Jun blocked the front, just trying to block the car with his arms, not overestimating his own capabilities.
Therefore, the strategy formulated by Lu Yuan for this Northern Expedition did not take Liang Jun on the Jiangbei defense line into consideration at all.
According to his arrangement, this time when he crosses the river and goes north, he will camp in three directions: east, middle and west. There will be nine soldiers and horses arriving first, totaling 900,000 people, as well as nine clones.
These soldiers and horses are all elites. They will be led by clones, carrying a small amount of supplies, and go straight north, desperately advancing into the hinterland of Liang Kingdom.
There is only one goal, and that is to hit as far north as possible.
Taking advantage of the time before Liang Guo could react, attack Liang Guo's heart as much as possible and occupy more territory to reduce the area that Liang Guo can control and stifle its subsequent mobilization potential.
After these nine pioneers, a large force followed, taking over their marching route, to surround and deal with the Liang army that was alerted along the way.
For example, the 500,000 Liang troops in the Jiangbei defense zone on Liang's southern line waited until they noticed that the Chu army was heading north and prepared to pursue and cut off the retreat.
The Chu army will follow up and launch a fierce attack on the Liang army who have just been mobilized from the defensive area.
In this way, one after another, Liang Guo's Jiangbei defense line can be disintegrated in an instant.
certainly.
Even if those Liang soldiers were not fooled, they would be cowered when they saw the Chu soldiers crossing the border, and would not come out of the city, it didn't matter.
In this Northern Expedition, Chu State mobilized enough troops and horses, tens of millions of people.
With so many soldiers and horses, even if one city is surrounded, it is enough to divide them.
Chu State did not need to storm the cities defended by Liang Jun. It only needed to send two or three times more troops and horses than the defenders inside the city to guard outside the city and completely surround them.
Anyway, there are only half a million people. If it were doubled or tripled, it would only be a million.
For the Chu army in the Northern Expedition, it was only 12/10, and it would have no impact if they were divided into thin groups.
What does it mean to have strong soldiers and strong horses, and to have a large number of soldiers and a broad general? This is it.
The overwhelming force is crushing you. No matter how strong your fortress is or how perfect your strategy is, it will be useless in the face of absolute strength.
As long as there are no internal problems within the Chu army, it will be invincible.
As for Lu Yuan, who had already dispersed thirty-nine clones to various camps and troops, and was personally in charge of the overall situation.
With these avatars helping him to go down to the grassroots and look after all the troops, could there be any internal problems?
It can't be.
The people of Liang fell into the trap of luring the tiger away from the mountain. They were not prepared at all, and there was such a huge gap in strength. No matter how they looked at it, they looked like they were defeated.
In such a simple game, even if you are a fool, as long as you don't give random instructions and follow the original method, you can't lose.
So for this Northern Expedition, just head over there.
On April 20th of the 41st year of Shenwu, the Chu army crossed the river. The nine vanguards advanced abreast, with light cavalry and fast horses. They ran thousands of miles in more than ten days and reached the two counties of Xingyang and Donghai.
Liang Guo's defense line north of the Yangtze River was penetrated, and Chu troops broke out in the hinterland. The whole country was shocked.
In the same month, millions of Chu troops crossed the river, and Liang State fell southward.
