The river valleys flowing through the mountains are natural roads. If a person gets lost in the mountains, he can usually find a settlement by following the river. During the war, the terrain in the mountains and the human settlements in the basins and valleys were like melons that provided nutrients and moisture. The valley channels that connected these basins and valleys were like vines connecting the melons. Mountain warfare is the struggle for basins and valleys, and along with it is the control of river and valley passages.
Lanzhou and Xianzhou are a small connected mountain basin. Starting from Fangshan County to occupy Lanzhou and Xianzhou is actually from the Chishui River Valley to the Fenshui Valley. The Ningwuguan Passage that can attack Datong Prefecture is from Fenshui Valley to Huishui Valley. Follow the gray water upstream and enter the Datong Basin.
Wang Xiaolie's roundabout route from Jinzhou to Shizhou to attack Datong Prefecture actually bypassed the Taiyuan Basin and directly entered the Datong Basin. When the Jin army gathered heavy troops on the front line of Taiyuan Prefecture, they cut off their retreat.
Such a big detour is not so strange to think of, but the difficulty is to execute it.
The journey from Jinzhou to Shuozhou is more than a thousand miles, all of which involves traveling through mountains. In this era, no one except Wang Xiaolie can complete the task of ensuring the supplies of tens of thousands of troops and making their offensive effective. Even in Jin Jun's eyes, even Wang Xiaolie couldn't complete it.
It can be seen from the map that after Wang Xiaolie passed through Shizhou, he occupied Xianzhou just to enter Ningwuguan. The occupation of Xianzhou was the first step, which meant that the grand detour strategy officially began.
Wang Xiaolie did many great things in Shizhou, regaining Shaanxi and Linfu Road. While Wang Xiaolie was busy, what was Jiang Min doing? Are you just sitting there, waiting for Wang Xiaolie to do everything well?
of course not.
Jiang Min is organizing manpower and material resources to build a road from Shizhou, through Pingyi, Xichuan, and Pu County, to Jinzhou. This road cannot only be walked, but also can drive two large vehicles side by side. The road is now basically complete and is being renovated.
Wang Xiaolie proposed the strategy and Jiang Min was responsible for completing it. It includes not only battles, but also transportation, food and grass gathering, troop gathering and other matters. Wang Xiaolie had not dared to explicitly mention the Great Detour Strategy before, so one can imagine how difficult it would be. Jiang Min turned this dream into reality bit by bit.
Before coming to Xianzhou, Jiang Min told Liang Xing in detail about Wang Xiaolie's grand detour strategy. Tell him clearly that the main purpose after arriving in Xianzhou is Wuning Pass and to ignore the surrounding state troops. To enter Wuning Pass, we must first capture the Ninghua Army.
This section of the road actually goes from the Fenshui Valley to the Gray River Valley. The mountainous area between the two river valleys, the watershed between the two rivers, should be a natural pass. If a checkpoint is set up at the pass, it will cause great difficulties to the attackers.
But the actual situation is that this area is sparsely populated and many places are inaccessible. Setting up checkpoints at the pass makes it impossible to actually resupply. Not to mention at the pass, in fact, the Jin army had no defenses all the way to Shuozhou. Liang Xing's main task was to build roads after capturing Ninghua Army.
Ninghua Military City is located between two mountains, with the Fen River flowing through it. The military city is located on a flat land, which just blocks the north-south road.
Standing on the hillside, Liang Xing looked through the telescope for a long time. Putting down the telescope, he said: "The mountain roads in this area are difficult. As long as there are one or two hundred people defending the military city, the north-south road will be cut off. It is a dangerous place. However, for us, it will be easier with artillery in our hands."
Qin Xiang, commander of the Chinese army, said: "The Ninghua army has less than a hundred defenders, and there are no local Tibetan soldiers. We don't need artillery. We only need ants to attack the city, and it won't take much time."
Liang Xing smiled and said: "Since there are cannons, why not use them? Pay attention to sending out rangers to completely seal the military city. Send two artillery pieces over tomorrow and blast open the city gates!"
Qin Xiang crossed his hands and said yes.
Looking at the surrounding mountains, Liang Xing sighed: "It's two hundred and fifty miles from Xianzhou to the entrance of Chenjia Valley. The most difficult thing is not that the Jin army is holding on to the dangerous position, but how the army is going to get there. Look at this road, in the river There is only one line on the border, and the transportation of supplies can only be carried on the shoulders of people, not even mules and horses. How can this be done? Xuanfu wanted to send tens of thousands of troops from here to the front line, but they starved to death on the way."
Qin Xiang said: "What should we do?"
Liang Xingdao: "When we occupy Ningwuguan at this time, we need to spend the next few months to repair the road. At the very least, it must be able to carry large vehicles. As long as the road can carry large vehicles, how many supplies cannot be transported? Just this task , very difficult.”
Qin Xiang nodded and did not answer any more.
This is the upper reaches of Fenshui River and connects to the upper reaches of Gray River. The water in the upper reaches is small, the valleys are relatively underdeveloped, and it is among mountains. You can imagine how difficult it is to build a road in this kind of terrain. With a circuitous route of more than a thousand miles, this section of the road is the most difficult.
Turning around and looking at it, Liang Xing said: "Fortunately, we have gunpowder and can open up the mountain. Otherwise, how could we have done anything else? After defeating the Ninghua Army, there is no more Jin Army ahead. Our most important task is to build roads. Next month, Dutong will We will send an engineering corps and an engineering team to find a way to build the road."
Capturing the Ninghua Army was not a difficult task at all for Liang Xing, who had a cavalry regiment and an infantry regiment under his command. As long as the army comes, it will trample the military city to the ground. The question is, how will the army come?
After descending into the river valley, Liang Xing walked along the road downstream. Looking at the mountains on both sides, I felt very worried.
In Shizhou Yamen, Jiang Min looked at the map on the table and frowned.
Zhang Jun held a cup of tea, glanced at the map on the table, and sat down next to him. He said: "No matter how you look at it, it's still those roads. Now, except for Xianzhou to Ningwuguan, all other places have been surveyed and maps have been drawn. The next work is nothing more than construction according to the map."
Jiang Min said: "Fighting in the mountains, to put it bluntly, means fighting for basins and valleys one by one. The valleys connecting these basins are dotted with dangerous points. Most of these valley passages are rivers. The so-called building of roads means to connect these rivers one by one. Connected one by one. Go south from Shizhou, follow the Ningxiang River through Pingyi County, turn to the Pushui River, and go down the river to Xichuan County. Then follow the Xinshui River to Puxian County, and then cross the mountains. Arrived in Jinzhou."
Having said this, Jiang Min also sat down. Said: "One of our jobs is to build roads along the river, and the other is to build roads across the watershed. If these roads are built, it goes without saying that we will go to Datong in a big car. If they can't be built, we won't be able to do it this winter. It’s not going to be easy.”
Zhang Jun said: "There used to be a road south of Xianzhou. Although it is a little narrow, there is still a roadbed. We just need to widen it. From Xianzhou to Ningwuguan, there are only small roads in the mountains, which are difficult for people to travel. We need to It is not easy to transform that section of road into a road that can handle large vehicles."
"Yeah, I'm worried about that stretch of road too." Jiang Min sighed. "The Jin Army's defense in that area was only one Ninghua Army. The Liao Dynasty originally had a Shenwu County near Ningwuguan, but recently I heard that the Jin Dynasty also abolished it. To put it bluntly, the Jin Army thought that this stretch of road There is no way an army can leave.”
Zhang Jun nodded. He said: "We are going to give Liang Xing an engineering corps and 8,000 road construction workers. Is that enough?"
Jiang Min said: "I think now that there may be one less engineering corps. Two hundred and fifty miles, it will take fifty days to build five miles a day. But can one engineering corps build a five-mile road in a place like that? I'm afraid not. .”
Zhang Jun couldn't help but frown after hearing this: "A regiment of three thousand people, with gunpowder and road construction experience, can't build a five-mile road in one day?"
(End of chapter)
