Chapter 57: Outside Yanmen Pass
For Geng Bingwen, the real test really begins.
Geng Bingwen has already finished all his calculations. But in the end, hard power speaks for itself on the battlefield, and swords and guns speak for themselves. From the south bank of Sanggan River, it is less than a hundred miles to Yanmen Pass. Geng Bingwen set out overnight first, but was still caught up by the Northern Army outside Yanmen Pass.
the reason is simple.
It's the horse's problem.
War horses and pack horses are different.
War horses are excellent breeds selected from countless horses and have advantages in speed. As for Geng Bingwen, who would lead a chariot, he did not have such a big hand. In the final analysis, it was a matter of money.
The cavalry led by Geng Bingwen were able to enter the pass first, but most of the mounted infantry found it difficult to enter the pass on time.
So Geng Bingwen led his cavalry outside Yanmen Pass and launched a charge.
Tens of thousands of cavalry from both sides started a fierce battle outside Yanmen Pass.
This fierce battle was extremely fierce. Of the more than 10,000 cavalrymen who followed Geng Bingwen out of the pass, less than 3,000 entered the pass. Qu Neng became even more angry and went into battle himself, killing several generals, breaking several formations, and even shot Geng Bingwen, making Geng Bingwen almost unable to return to Yanmen Pass alive.
After all, everyone in the Northern Army was holding their breath. After the victory in Hejian, they carried out large-scale military reforms and increased military pay. To improve the treatment of soldiers, everyone is holding their breath, wanting to win the battle, and want to be rewarded for their meritorious service. But I never expected that I would hit this turtle shell in the first battle. I can't bite my mouth from all sides.
Not only was Qu Neng holding a fire in his heart, there was also a sense of arrogance in the Northern Army.
Even in order to pursue Geng Bingwen, he rushed directly to Yanmen Pass and was bombarded by artillery from the top of Yanmen Pass before stopping.
Although more than 10,000 people were beheaded, more than 10,000 war horses were captured, and more than 10,000 carriages still had some baggage. But without capturing Geng Bingwen, Qu Neng felt that today was a defeat.
Qu Neng could only comfort himself.
In any case, after this battle, the strength of the Shanxi Southern Army was greatly damaged. The Confederate troops who came out of the border this time, whether on foot or on cavalry, were all top-notch elite warriors who dared to die. You know, Qu Neng has a lot of cavalry in his hands. This time, several regiments and tens of thousands of cavalry were mobilized. Although the number of the Confederate cavalry was several times greater, the Confederate cavalry was not completely wiped out. In fact, it was because Geng Bingwen fought until the last moment at any time and stabilized the morale of the army. At the same time, it was Geng Bingwen who screened them in advance to make these people strong-willed, and even many of them died together.
Although there are many troops in Shanxi, there are not many such elites.
Without cavalry, it would be very difficult for the infantry to escape alone, and it was impossible for Qu Neng to be fooled a second time.
He has decided to build a large camp facing Yanmen Pass. The first thing to do is to dig out the road outside Yanmen Pass and dig one, no, at least five trenches. Looking at the so-called vehicle formation of the Confederate Army, what else can be done?
And time waits for no one. Since Geng Bingwen can't get out for a while, what Qu Neng has to do is to leave Shaanxi westward as soon as possible.
A lot of time has been lost.
But I don’t know how Shaanxi’s defense is doing now.
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At this moment, the commander of the Shaanxi Province, the deputy governor of the Chinese Army Governor's Mansion, and the chief military officer Song Sheng.
Song Sheng's identity is actually not much different from that of Geng Bingwen and Qu Neng.
Song Sheng's father took his family brothers to defect to Zhu Yuanzhang. Not long after he conquered Nanjing, he resigned because of his old age. Although he is the second generation of the founding generals. But he actually participated in the founding of the People's Republic of China, but at that time he was only a member of a thousand households. He climbed up step by step from the early years of Hongwu.
Basically, Miaogenzhenghong was from Dingyuan, Huaixi, and his father and son were from the same family. As for Song Sheng himself, he also served as a bodyguard beside Zhu Yuanzhang. It can be regarded as a close friend selected by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Similar to Geng Bingwen and Qu Neng.
But there is a difference. Geng Bingwen and Qu Neng's father's shadow is big enough, so when they come up, they are high-ranking generals, instead of like Song Sheng who came up step by step from below. In history, Song Sheng's status in the Yongle Dynasty was also very high because of his status in the northwest.
Historically, Song Sheng's fourth town was in the northwest, and now it is his third time to serve in the northwest. He also attacked the western regions, captured Hami, and made Hami surrender. The king of Hami, also known as the Eastern Chahatai Khan. Of course, due to the distance, Hami's surrender was only nominal.
There is no garrison.
This kind of nominal surrender has been repeated several times in history. At the beginning of Jiajing, it completely lost control of Hami.
Looking at Song Sheng's resume, we know that Song Sheng is actually not favored. After all, the situation in the northwest is not what it is. There are only two to three million people in the entire northwest. Support the border defense of Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia. There is no possibility of any major military action. Guarding this place is also hard work. If there was someone above him, how could he come here to guard the place again and again, even though he was promoted every time.
However, it was also a blessing in disguise.
Because Song Sheng was in such a remote place, no one in the court cared about him at all. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's killing spree in history did not kill him, and now Zhu Yunzhang's purge does not kill him either.
Historically, he guarded the northwest. In order to win over him, Emperor Yongle married two daughters to the Song family. In exchange for the surrender of Northwest. Let the Song family rise up and become a marquis family. Of course, the Song family did not suffer losses in the Jingnan War. One of Song Sheng's sons died in the Huaihe River.
There are some differences between today and history. Geng Bingwen was mobilized to fight in Shanxi.
As a veteran who was familiar with the northwest, Song Sheng replaced Geng Bingwen in charge of the northwest military. This is very different from history. The really big difference is that historically, the northwest has never been the main battlefield. Song Sheng just sat back and watched the success or failure. In the end, he used the northwest as his capital in exchange for his own glory and wealth.
Now the northwest has become another battlefield where the two sides are fighting.
Suddenly Song Sheng was pushed to the forefront.
There is even a crazy idea in Nanjing to change the general. Just thinking about it, changing generals before the battle will have a great impact on the army. There was no change of generals at this time, but it seemed that the center found out on the first day that there was another person named Song Sheng in the northwest.
It can be said that Song Sheng has received edicts in the past few months. More than he had in the first half of his life combined. There are even secret edicts from the emperor, private letters from dukes and earls, etc.
Song Sheng's identity is not qualified in front of these nobles. No one cared about the Song family before, but now it seems that the Song family has suddenly become the Northwest Tianzhu, the pillar of the country. This situation makes Song Sheng simply flattered.
He has never received so much attention. It was too much for him to bear.
As a result, he could no longer sit still in Guanzhong, so he got soldiers and horses from Sichuan Dusi transferred from the south. He almost deployed all the troops in Guanzhong. Almost all of them were transferred to Yulin, and Yulin City was reinforced at all costs.
Yulin Town was an important military town in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. During the Zhengtong period, the Mongols entered the Hetao area and Shaanxi became a border area. Before that, there was no trace of the Mongols in northern Shaanxi.
Because of this, the so-called Qianliguan Wall in Shaanxi was built by Yu Zijun and others. Not at all today. Naturally, no walls were built in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Jin and Song Dynasties, the border line corresponding to Xixia was completely different from the border line of Guanqiang.
So it’s impossible to borrow it.
But Song Sheng also knew that it was impossible to block the Northern Army east of the Yellow River. The reason is very simple. Dongshengwei controls a long section of the Yellow River, and there is a large area of desert south of the Yellow River. It was simply impossible to station people there.
Moreover, the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River are not as changeable as the lower reaches, and there are many problems. The water flow is gentle in almost most places and can even be forded in some places. So crossing the Yellow River is an easy task.
Nomads can even cross the Yellow River using sheepskin rafts. Even if Song Sheng deployed all the Shaanxi troops, he would not be able to block the thousands of miles of Yellow River. We can only settle for the next best thing.
That is to say, Fuzhou and Yulin are on the same line. As the defense line in northern Shaanxi. This was originally a very important border area, and it was the place where the Zhejia family was established during the Song Dynasty. The key point of the confrontation between the north and the south is at the intersection between the grassland climate and the agricultural climate.
To the north of this line of defense is desert and wilderness with a small amount of vegetation. And south of this line of defense is a place that can barely be farmed.
