If Tongguan cannot be defended, Chang'an City and even the entire Guanzhong will be in danger.
Once Guanzhong is lost, even if Sun Chuanting can take Emperor Longxing south to Sichuan, the good situation of Longxing's administrative power that he has finally managed to pull up will collapse instantly.
Therefore, even if Hanzhong Mansion was in danger, he did not intend to mobilize too many troops from the Tongguan front line. He even ordered thousands of troops on the Jiezhou front line to be transferred back to the Tongguan front line.
Anyway, that is Zuo Liangyu's territory, let him hold it by himself, not to mention that the Yellow River has thawed. Even if the Chu bandits capture the front line of Jiezhou, it will be difficult to cross the rolling Yellow River and enter the hinterland of Guanzhong.
When Zuo Liangyu learned that Sun Chuanting had transferred troops from Jiezhou's front line, he was so angry that he yelled: "I agreed that I would guard Datong and Taiyuan, and leave Linfen to him. How long did that bastard take care of him?" The troops have withdrawn!”
"None of these people who read books about sages have any shame!"
The general below asked: "What should we do now? Should we send someone to negotiate with them and let them stay on the front line of Jiezhou?"
"Send no nonsense. That guy Sun Chuanting is obviously giving up on us to protect ourselves. Otherwise, it would be impossible to withdraw the troops without saying a word. It's useless to send people over now."
"Some time ago, Hanzhong Jinzhou was captured by Chu thieves. Sun Chuanting would definitely send troops to protect Hanzhong Mansion. However, Chu thieves stationed heavy troops at Tongguan, and they have made great moves in recent months. It is estimated that the attack on Tongguan will not last long. It won't be too late, probably because of this, that guy Sun Chuanting will withdraw his troops from Jiezhou regardless of our covenant."
"Now, it is estimated that they are unable to protect themselves, so they will still listen to our words."
"We still have to defend our own territory!"
When Zuo Liangyu said this, he was already thinking about where to deploy troops to fill the vacancies on the Jiezhou front line.
No matter how much pressure Taiyuan and Datong faced, he couldn't really give up on Jiezhou and let the Chu thieves come from this direction.
Behind Jiezhou, there are vast plains on both sides of the Fen River. This kind of plain is not only convenient for military operations, but more importantly, it is an important grain-producing area in mountainous areas.
In Shanxi under the control of Zuo Liangyu, the main grain-producing areas are the Fenhe Plain and the Taiyuan Plain. Other places are inferior. Especially Datong in the north is directly located in a war zone, making it difficult to cultivate grain.
Therefore, if necessary, he would actually rather give up Datong than the plains along the Fen River.
Finally, it is very important to ensure that the banks of the Fen River are not lost. Then if he suffers a defeat in Datong or even Taiyuan, he can still retreat to Pingyang Mansion along the Fen River.
If necessary, they can even retreat directly across the Yellow River to the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi.
If all the Chu thieves come to Guanzhong by then, they will have no choice but to retreat to the Loess Plateau, but by then I am afraid life will be very difficult.
——
As the 17th Division of the Da Chu Empire captured Jinzhou City in Hanzhong Prefecture and annihilated nearly 15,000 Western Ming Army soldiers, this battle also caused a violent chain reaction, forcing Sun Chuanting and Zuo Liangyu to Troops were mobilized, thereby easing the difficulty of attacking on some frontal fronts.
And this is also the reason why the senior officials of the Chu Empire launched an attack first in Hanzhong Prefecture instead of in Tongguan or Shanxi, in order to contain more enemy troops and prepare for the subsequent strong attack on Tongguan, Taiyuan and other places. Reduce difficulty.
At the same time, another purpose is to capture Hanzhong Prefecture and cut off the communication channels between the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi and the Sichuan area before launching the entire Western Front offensive.
The Guanzhong area is the best land passage between the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi and the Sichuan Basin. It can also be said to be a springboard.
As long as the Chu army can capture this place, it can divide the Ximing Longxing regime into two and cut off Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou region and Shaanxi-Gansu-Shanxi region.
Therefore, after capturing Jinzhou City, the 17th Division did not stop in Jinzhou City. After capturing Jinzhou City on February 17, Huang Guangmao dispatched the previous reserve team on the 18th and had no actual plans. An infantry regiment, cavalry and other troops participating in the battle fought towards Hanyin.
Huang Guangmao himself also briefly handled the military affairs in Jinzhou City on the 19th. After arranging the processing of prisoners of war and the handover of defense, he continued to lead the main force of the 17th Division westward along the Han River and headed straight to Ziyang. Go to the county.
The above two places were previously used as the rear areas of the Ming army, and there were not many troops stationed there. Without huge changes, it would be impossible to stop the Chu army's attack.
And this is indeed the case. Just three days later, Hanyin fell into the control of the Chu army. There were more than a thousand local guardsmen and young and strong troops in the city, who only made symbolic resistance and quickly attacked the local counties. Ling surrendered.
There were no accidents in Ziyang County. Huang Guangmao personally led tens of thousands of troops to fight along the Han River, and there were also many river warships from the navy to cooperate. It was not difficult to capture a small county with only a few hundred troops stationed there. .
When Huang Guangmao personally led the 17th Division to attack westward, the 115th Division in the rear also followed and took over the defense of Jinzhou City, and sent troops to Hanyang and Ziyang County to take over the local defenses. defense.
The task of this second-class division is not light either. They need to carry out a clearing operation in the local area in accordance with the tradition of the Chu Empire, and eliminate the remaining local soldiers, recalcitrant gentry and other illegal armed forces one by one.
Considering that the 115th Division has only more than 7,000 troops, it is insufficient in strength and lacks rapid mobility. In addition, a group of new Qin troops surrendered during the Battle of Jinzhou.
Therefore, officials from the Ministry of Military Affairs in Shaanxi Province, in accordance with pre-war instructions, established the 121st Division in Jinzhou. The division was based on a regiment under the 115th Division and was incorporated into the It was established with thousands of surrendered soldiers of the New Qin Army.
As for the one regiment that the 115th Division lacks, it will be added in the future.
With these two second-class divisions carrying out clearing operations at the back, suppressing local areas and guarding the logistics line, the 17th Division, the main force, could run westward with confidence.
The target is pointed directly at the Hanzhong Plain, and its first target is the east gate of the Hanzhong Plain: Yang County.
Obviously, the Ximing Army on the opposite side also knew the importance of the Hanzhong Plain. After learning that Jinzhou City in the east had been lost, the local troops of Hanzhong Prefecture gradually gathered together and concentrated on the Yangxian line, trying to capture Chu here. The army was blocked.
The reason why it is here is not only because Yang County is at the easternmost edge of the Hanzhong Plain, but also because the Han River passes here...
As we all know, the main force of the Chu army relies heavily on artillery and baggage for combat. It is fine in plain areas. It can also use horse-drawn carriages and numerous official roads to pull artillery and baggage carriages around. Once it reaches areas with complex terrain, , especially in mountainous areas, military operations are basically launched along rivers.
The Chu army would rather attack all the way along the river and attack the cities one by one than go over the mountains and climb the mountains...
The main reason is that the artillery is too heavy!
Even if it is a lightweight-designed Chu army field gun, the weight of a nine-pound field gun is nearly two tons in marching state... Even if the ammunition boxes are transported separately, it is just one artillery plus a lead vehicle. It must be more than a ton.
On weekdays, when marching on a well-formed road, more than ten horses are required to pull it. When encountering some uphill roads, soldiers have to help push it.
Even the lighter five-pound field artillery weighs just over a ton. Not counting the ammunition box, it weighs eight to nine hundred kilograms.
To pull an artillery of more than one ton or even two tons to climb a mountain, and this kind of mountain has not yet formed a road, is purely brain-burning.
This is also the reason why the Seventeenth Division and many troops fighting in mountainous areas are not equipped with many nine-pound field cannons. Even five-pound field cannons are relatively few, and more are two-and-a-half kilogram field cannons.
Currently, the divisional artillery regiment of the 17th Division has sixteen five-pound field guns, but only four nine-pound field guns.
There are more two-and-a-half-pound field guns, a total of thirty. The entire battery of this two-and-a-half-pound field gun weighs only more than 500 kilograms. And for the sake of mobility, the Chu army often combines the lead vehicle and the gun. The carriage is pulled separately, so that the marching weight can be reduced to about 350 kilograms. In such plain terrain, one horse can pull it. If it is mountainous terrain, then two horses can also pull the gun barrel and Gun mounts are running everywhere.
However, even these already relatively light two-and-a-half-pound field artillery can easily weigh hundreds of kilograms. It is very difficult to cross mountains and ridges, especially in places where there are no roads.
This led to the fact that when the Chu army was marching and fighting, they all liked to walk along the river.
As long as there is a river, even if you are going upstream, you can build a flat-bottomed boat to transport artillery and a large amount of ammunition. Even if you are pulling it along the shore with a fiber rope, it is much easier than crossing the mountains.
Naturally, the Ming army, which had fought against the Chu army for many years, knew this, so when they heard that the Chu army was coming, their first reaction was to build a new defense line in Yangxian County, east of the Hanzhong Plain and where the Han River passes.
In order to keep the Chu army out of the Hanzhong Plain, the local civil and military officials in Hanzhong Prefecture mobilized almost all the troops they could mobilize.
At any rate, they were allowed to gather more than 10,000 people.
But among the more than 10,000 people, there are only more than 5,000 soldiers who can really be regarded as soldiers...
Among them, there are about two thousand New Qin troops and more than three thousand guardsmen. As for the remaining thousands of people, they are all young farmers recruited urgently and temporarily.
And can such a force be able to stop the fierce attacking Chu army?
Not to mention others, the local Ming army themselves didn’t believe it...
As a result, they kept sending people to the north to urge Sun Chuanting's reinforcements to rush south, and at the same time they kept sending people to the south to urge Sichuan's reinforcements to rush north.
Although the envoys sent by local officials spoke euphemistically, they all had the same meaning: Don’t blame me for not warning you, if you don’t hurry up, my master will surrender! (To be continued)
