When Pan Mei's army conquered Shaozhou and made a major breakthrough in the War of Peace and Guangdong, the situation on the Jianghuai battlefield also entered a new stage, with various Han armies soaring and progressing smoothly.
On Cao Bin's side, after winning the battle at the mouth of the lake, he took a short rest and left a force to garrison on the spot. After controlling the waterway, he led the land and water army southward, first breaking the enemy's water stronghold, controlling the entrance and exit of Poyang Lake, and then continued Marching south along the Ganjiang River, the troops approached Hongzhou.
After the Battle of Hukou, the strength of the Southern Army in Hongzhou was greatly damaged. Facing the attack of Cao Liu's 60,000-strong army, they were even more vulnerable. If it weren't for the veteran Lu Jiang who still had a certain degree of prestige and led the people in arranging defenses, the king's division might have collapsed as soon as they arrived.
Even so, when Cao Liu's troops arrived, people in Nanchang City were in panic and the situation was precarious. In fact, under the pressure of the enemy's overwhelming force, it would be too difficult for a veteran general in his seventies to shoulder the heavy responsibility of defending the city and protecting the people. Lu Jiang's ability to lead the defense of the city at such an advanced age is already a legend. How can we expect him to do more?
Still as they did in Ezhou, Cao Bin and Liu Guangyi led the navy and army to wipe out the fortresses, strongholds, and camps outside Nanchang City, and then surrounded Nanchang, cutting off all water and land transportation and internal and external connections.
Cao Bin had been notified of the situation in Nanchang City long ago. While preparing for the attack, Cao Bin personally wrote a letter of persuasion to surrender and sent it to Lu Jiang. Since the time of Li Jing, there have been many thoughts of moving the capital to Hongzhou. Although it failed in the end, a lot of manpower has been invested in repairing the city and strengthening various facilities, and there have always been sufficient troops to garrison. Therefore, the city is solid and its defense power is amazing. If the army and the people can work together and make good use of it, it will be difficult to break it without paying some price.
However, the difficulty lies in the unity of the army and the people. Everyone has a sense of crisis, and the army and the people also have their simplest understanding of the situation. Even if the information and intelligence are insufficient, they know that the situation is not good. Resistance requires sacrifices, life, and even family members, endangering the entire city.
Surrender, but it is not easy to say it, especially for a veteran like Lu Jiang. There is a saying that no matter how the country declines, the three generations of the Li family are still very kind to their meritorious elders.
Therefore, in the face of Cao Bin's persuasion to surrender, Lu Jiang turned a deaf ear and neither agreed nor refused.
Before the offensive and defensive battle in Nanchang began, the battle situation in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River also entered a new situation. Zhang Yongde led the army to cross the river, which represented the collapse of the Yangtze River defense line in the south of the Yangtze River, and that was just the beginning.
At the same time that the Han army launched a cross-river battle in Dangtu, a bloody battle was also fought in Changzhou. After several hesitations, Lin Renzhao, who was unwilling to sit still and wait for death, decided to take a risk and chose a desperate attack. He personally led five thousand elites and sneaked eastward to Changzhou, where he cooperated with Zheng Yanhua who was defending the city to launch an assault on Guo Tingwei's army.
Regarding the news that Lin Renzhao intended to attack eastward, Guo Tingwei had received intelligence before, and Li Gu also issued a reminder. Therefore, the Han-Vietnamese coalition was on guard. However, things are often like this. When you know all the details, it is easy to be careless.
Because Lin Renzhao launched his troops suddenly and quickly, using the most well-trained soldiers under his command, when he led his troops to lurk to Jinling and launched the attack, it really had a surprise effect.
In addition, the Han army is in Pingnan, and its momentum is overwhelming. All battlefields are smooth sailing. The soldiers of the Han army will inevitably become arrogant and relaxed. This mental state is difficult to completely avoid.
Therefore, the Han army in Changzhou was really caught off guard by Lin Renzhao's surprise attack. That is to say, Guo Tingwei was rigorous in military management and had the basic qualities of the Han army officers. When attacked, he spontaneously organized resistance, and Guo Tingwei personally stabilized the morale of the army and organized resistance.
However, the Wuyue army was not so lucky. As a servant army, they followed the Han army to fight. Their morale and fighting will were not high. There were some generals who were close to the court and wanted to please the court, but most of the soldiers at the grassroots level were just dealing with them. Done.
The main target of Lin Renzhao's raid was the Wuyue army. Therefore, the Wuyue army was the first to be defeated. Not only the coalition forces, but also the Han army was affected. Changzhou's defender Zheng Yanhua received the news in advance. After the fighting broke out on the canal bank, he decisively led the attack and cooperated with Lin Renzhao to attack the Han-Vietnamese coalition forces.
Lin Renzhao's attack showed his courage and military strategy, and he successfully defeated the Wuyue army. However, the Han army, under the command of Guo Tingwei, resisted. The two sides fought fiercely on the bank of the canal for more than two hours. In the end, the Han army, which had superior physical power, won.
In particular, Guo Tingwei ordered a naval force to abandon the boat and land, counterattack the Southern Army from behind, and defeat it in one fell swoop. The Battle of Changzhou was a truly bloody battle since the imperial court pacified the South, and it was also the most powerful resistance launched by the Southern Army against the Han Army.
However, in terms of results, the expected results were not achieved. Lin Renzhao won first and then lost. In the end, he only left the battle with less than 10,000 remaining soldiers led by Zheng Yanhua. Not only that, but Jinling City was also lost, and Changzhou fell.
Lin and Zheng had to retreat to Runzhou. This was not because of Lin and Zheng's incompetence, but because the situation was such that the gap between strength and weakness was difficult to bridge, which led to their failure. Even so, Lin Renzhao's raid still caused considerable losses to the Han-Vietnam coalition. The Wu-Yue army suffered more than 3,000 casualties. Of course, this also provided Guo Tingwei with a more favorable opportunity to digest and control the Wu-Yue army.
With the fall of Changzhou, it also meant that the Yangtze River defense line was heading for complete collapse. Even without the Battle of Dangtu, its situation would have been difficult to recover. News of Dangtu's defeat and Changzhou's fall reached Jinling one after another, causing Li Yu and his ministers to become completely confused. The situation in the former was relatively stable, but this sudden decline was completely unexpected to them.
However, this time, the Jinling court reacted the fastest. It immediately decided to abandon Runzhou and transfer all the tens of thousands of troops there back to Jinling. It was not that they were concerned about the dangerous situation in Runzhou, and that the strong men cut off their arms and retracted decisively, but Zhang Yongde's eastward march along the river made them feel that they must first ensure the safety of Jinling, which was their last plan at first. I just didn't expect that this last step would come so quickly.
On the Han army's side, after the Battle of Changzhou, Guo Tingwei was a little angry. After a little rectification, he led the navy and army to march westward, aiming directly at Runzhou, hoping to save some face. At the same time, the main force of Jianghuai on the north bank also took advantage of the situation and mobilized troops to make large-scale movements, preparing to cooperate with the actions of Guo Tingwei's army.
In this life-and-death situation, Jinling's withdrawal order came. Since ancient times, withdrawing troops has been a difficult task, especially when crises are everywhere and the morale of the troops is turbulent. If you are not careful, the retreat will turn into a rout.
Even if Lin Renzhao acted quickly and was well prepared, he would not be spared. After all, the Southern Army was not an elite division with unified command and good training. They all went their own way and were eager to retreat. Under the pursuit led by Guo Tingwei, they still ended in a rout. .
The Han army pursued for fifty miles along the road, and finally stopped after Zheng Yanhua took the initiative to lead the army. Zheng Yanhua was injured and captured, and successfully escaped back to Jinling. The Runzhou garrison only numbered more than 20,000, and they were basically a group of stragglers.
At the same time, the Jianghuai army, which had been stationed in Guazhou-Yangtze City for nearly a month, also successfully crossed south and landed at Jingkou. As the head coach of Pingnan, Li Gu finally set foot on the land of Jiangnan after four full years in Yangzhou.
Before the defenders retreated, a general suggested that all supplies such as grain, grass, and cloth be burned, but Lin Renzhao refused. As a result, all the Runzhou settlements were left to the Han army. Although he didn't say why, this kind of behavior can also give a glimpse of some of Lin Renzhao's thoughts.
With Zhang Yongde in the west and Guo Tingwei and the main Jianghuai army in the east, the situation in Jinling was completely in danger. Together with the troops withdrawn from Runzhou, the Jinling court organized 60,000 defenders, a ragtag group of 60,000 people with low morale and turmoil.
Under this situation, Li Yu did another stupid thing that made him hate each other. On the advice of several famous officials, he arrested Lin Renzhao and imprisoned him. The reason was that he sent troops without permission and was defeated, which led to the fall of Changzhou and the crisis of Jinling. Behind this matter, Zhong Mo was exerting his strength.
It was already a dangerous situation and they abandoned the Great Wall. Although Lin Renzhao's Great Wall could not withstand the Han army's front and save the tide. After Lin Renzhao was imprisoned, he still needed to choose someone who could lead the army. However, no one could be found. Chen Qiao took the lead in the battle, but he had no ability to lead the army at all.
Therefore, when the Jinling court was selecting a commander to lead the army to defend against the enemy, the Han army came to the city. Zhang Yongde led the army to the west and forced the Qinhuai River. Li Gu's army was stationed in Zhongshan to the east. Several Han troops combined with a land and water army of 120,000 to besiege them. Jinling.
The war in the south of the Yangtze River directly entered the final stage. It took less than a month since the Han army sent troops according to the imperial edict.
