In the crucial battle that determines whether the South can be unified, every day is crucial for the three forces.
In particular, the mobilization of the three parties and the speed of troop deployment can have a great impact on the outcome of the war.
For example, the Ming army in Jinling, limited by its own national strength, could only maintain an army of 800,000, and many of them were new recruits.
The Ming army had 800,000 soldiers, while the Xia army went south with only about a million soldiers. It seems that the gap between the two sides is not too big.
But in fact, in addition to mobilizing combat troops, Daxia also had temporarily formed auxiliary troops and guard troops. If these men and horses are included, Xia's army has more than 1.5 million soldiers and horses.
With Jurong Camp and Dangtu both requiring large armies, there are not many troops left in Jinling and Xuancheng.
At this time, the Ming army was recruiting a large number of troops from various military posts with a small number of elites as the core.
These newly recruited troops are not very useful in the frontal battlefield against Da Xia.
If Xu Da and Chang Yuchun could persist in the two places for more than half a year, these new recruits could alleviate the Ming army's dilemma.
In addition to emergency mobilization, the Ming army also continued to send envoys to urge the Song army to move north as soon as possible.
However, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, they could not march any faster even if they wanted to.
Moreover, the Song army knew how powerful the Xia soldiers were and did not dare to divide their troops, lest they split their troops and go north to feed the enemy.
Compared with the mobilization and marching speed of the Ming and Song armies.
The speed of Daxia's mobilization and troop dispatch was almost overwhelming both sides.
When the main force of the Song Army was still on the road. The elite soldiers of the Xia army had already traveled south from Jiangyin to Taihu Lake by water at an extremely fast speed, and began to fight with the Song army.
Changxing was a key location for the Song Army's northward march.
In history, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng fought for this place repeatedly. Geng Bingwen was also granted the title of Marquis because he stationed in Changxing for ten years and repelled Zhang Shicheng's more than ten attacks.
Geng Bingwen's ability is judged by the benevolent and the wise, but he is definitely not a ninth-level famous general. Just like some generals, they only won a battle at a critical moment, but it cannot be said to be their true strength.
I believe that with Zhu Yuanzhang's eyesight, he can also know Geng Bingwen's true ability.
Otherwise, how could Ming Taizu, who had been striving to suppress the nobles of Huaixi and even Shengzong of Tang Dynasty, let go of a noble general who was granted a title for his military merits.
It can only be said that Geng Bingwen was not very capable, but he made great contributions to guarding Changxing, so he was not taken seriously by Zhu Yuanzhang after he was granted the title of Marquis.
All these can illustrate the importance of Changxing City.
Changxing is located on the southwest side of Taihu Lake, with mountains to the west and south, and only the southeast side leads to Huzhou.
Huzhou is located in the Jiahu Plain, which is one of the most fertile places in the southeast.
Eighty percent of the land is cultivated land with high grain yields and guaranteed harvests despite droughts and floods.
In the world of China, Huzhou and Suzhou are the dominant places in the southeast. If a force can occupy them, it will not take long for the force to grow rapidly.
However, in the first year of Taichu, when hundreds of millions of creatures first arrived, this place had not been developed. After Liu Bi developed it, there were Liu Yu in the north and the Song Army in the south. There is no room for the Liubi to expand.
Changxing is the western gateway of Huzhou. It is also the only way to enter Yixing and go north to Changzhou.
At this time, Wuxudu, north of Changxing, was being attacked by the Xia Navy.
In the history of the original world, Wuxu Ferry is said to be the ferry that Wu Zixu passed when he fled to the Kingdom of Wu. Of course, the terrain of the Shenzhou world and the source world are roughly the same in terms of the mountains and rivers, but the details are different.
The name of this ferry was just named by the people of Changxing according to their previous habits.
This is where Changxing entered Taihu Lake. After the Song army occupied Changxing, they also set up a water fortress here to defend against water thieves from Taihu Lake.
The Song army did not have many soldiers and horses left in this water village. There were about five thousand sailors, but most of them were organized by the manpower left by Liu Bi from the Western Han Dynasty.
Boom!
On the vast lake to the east, hundreds of warships looked like dragons.
Among them, the warship acting as the vanguard had already approached the water stronghold and rushed into the water stronghold under the cover of kerosene bombs.
There were only a dozen or so warships in the water village, which were bombarded by kerosene bombs and smoke was everywhere. Although thousands of Song Army sailors discovered the Xia Army Navy, they were too weak to fight back.
Many Song Army sailors were covered in flames and fell into the lake screaming. Extremely tragic.
kill!
A Xia Army guerrilla general who rushed forward was holding a long sword. The sword flashed, and the corpses of more than a dozen Song Army sailors were separated. They were filled with evil aura and shot straight into the sky, like man-eating tigers, which made people shudder.
The blood splashing everywhere was bounced away by the body-protecting aura before it even got close.
With a glance, his powerful battlefield sense and experience in battle formations immediately locked onto a figure in the distance who was wearing Song Army armor and fleeing in embarrassment.
"die!"
He tiptoed, picked up a spear from the ground, raised his hand and threw it, a thunderbolt sounded in the void, and in just an instant, the Song Army general who was fleeing in the distance was pierced.
After the leader of the Song Army's water village was killed, the sound of fighting in the entire water village quickly dissipated.
"General, the guerrilla general Pan Zhang formed a formation to kill the main general of the Song army, beheaded more than 2,300 people, and captured 1,800 prisoners..."
On a large five-tooth ship not far away.
The messenger was reporting to a man wearing light armor, elegant appearance, and short beard.
This man is Chen Qingzhi, the general who led the elite Xia army and was responsible for going south to capture Changxing!
According to the plan discussed by Wang Jing, Gao Xi and Wei Rui, they planned to send 200,000 soldiers to go south to intercept the hundreds of thousands of Song troops heading north. The commander in charge of these 200,000 soldiers is Wei Rui.
Chen Qingzhi first led 50,000 soldiers, with the white-robed army he had trained as the core, acting as a vanguard and heading south first.
Going south with them was also part of the navy.
However, the navy only serves as troop transport and auxiliary, not the main force... The river from Jiangyin to Taihu Lake cannot accommodate too many warships.
"Okay, let General Pan Zhang lead his troops to station here and rest for a while. The rest of the troops will disembark immediately and raid Changxing!"
Chen Qingzhi pinched his short beard, nodded, and ordered.
Before going south, Chen Qingzhi had a brief understanding of Changxing through spies and the sentinels he sent out.
Song Jun also knew the importance of Changxing.
Although they did not leave many troops in the water village of Wuxudu, there were about 30,000 troops stationed in Changxing City. After the Song army decided to send troops, the number of defenders in the city reached 50,000.
These troops were not the imperial army of the Southern Song Dynasty, but they were used to defend the city and their strength was not weak.
After Chen Qingzhi gave the order.
He was the first to disembark, and then groups of elite soldiers in white robes disembarked in silence and solemnity. The pace and energy of these white-robed soldiers were all connected in a subtle way, and their momentum was extraordinary.
Xia Jun was extremely fast.
Half an hour later.
Chen Qingzhi took some of his soldiers and rushed to Changxing City.
The walls of Changxing City were very strong, and the defenders on the city walls, led by the Song Army generals, did not panic when the enemy troops approached the city.
On the top of the city, Chen Qingzhi saw the divine arm bow, the city-breaking crossbow, and various instruments with powerful lethality.
The various instruments built by the Xia Army's Construction Department are very sophisticated, and the Song Army's instruments are not weak either. You must know that Xia Army's divine arm bow originated from the Song Army...
"attack!"
Chen Qingzhi's expression did not change at all. Changxing City's defense looked good, and there were traces of military formations, but there was a fatal weakness, that is, there was no ninth-level general in the city.
Before the troops behind him could arrive, Chen Qingzhi issued the order to attack.
The first to launch the attack were five thousand elite soldiers wearing white robes.
Five thousand elite soldiers in white robes formed an array. In an instant, an invisible aura enveloped a radius of more than ten miles. Then the five thousand troops strode forward. When they approached the city wall, they took out their strong bows from behind.
Whoosh whoosh!
Five thousand elite soldiers, the weakest have third-level strength. In other places, any soldier can serve as a hundred households, with a strong body, powerful strength, and the faint aura flowing throughout the body after being blessed by the military formation...
The feathered arrows were blessed with Gang Qi. Each feathered arrow was like a small stone bullet thrown away by a trebuchet. It was extremely precise and hit the heads of the defenders at the top of the city one after another.
Pengpeng, the heads of many defenders were violently exploded, with red and white splashing.
Many soldiers were severely wounded and screamed in agony.
On top of the city, the scene was extremely miserable.
A single arrow strike greatly reduced the morale of the defenders at the top of the city.
