Qian Song

Chapter 87 Tong Guan: This battle is not good for our army (read more!)

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March 27.

The assembled 50 Song troops headed south.

The Song army was divided into two armies, left and right.

Liu Yanqing is in charge of the left army, Liu Zhen and Yang Keshi will be the front army, Wang Huan will be the left army, Ma Gongzhi and Liu Guangguo will be the right army, Qu Qi and Wang Yu will be the rear army, Huang Di and Liu Guangshi will be the front army .

The army on this road went to Haozhou, Sizhou, and Suzhou, and marched into Xuanhua Town, Changlu Town, and Guabu Town.

Xin Xingzong was in charge of the army on the right, with Wang Zhi as the front army, Wang Yuan as the left army, Ji Jing and Zhe Kecun as the right army, Lieutenant General Yang Wei as the center army, Jiao Anjie as the rear army, and Zhao Ming and Yao Pingzhong as the front army.

The army went south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, went from Chuzhou to Gaoyou Army, and then went straight to Yangzhou, waiting for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Huben Army in Yangzhou. After repelling the Huben Army, they marched into the area of ​​Yangzi Town.

In addition, the Gyeonggi Forbidden Army under the command of Guo Zhongxun, He Guan and others was also divided into left and right groups, and Guo Zhongxun, He Guan and other generals commanded the southward movement.

What needs to be explained is that many future famous generals were also mixed in the 50 army and went south along with them.

The two most famous of them are Han Shizhong under Liu Yanqing and Wu Jie under Liu Zhen.

In addition, there are Qu Duan, Wu Lin, Yang Zheng, Guo Hao, Wang De, Zhang Zongyan, Yao Zhong, Yao Youzhong, Tian Sheng, Li Shiyan, Guan Shigu and a large number of outstanding generals in the Song Dynasty.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Song army who went south this time can definitely be said to be star-studded.

The two armies of the Song Army marched southward like horns, helping each other and taking care of each other, not giving the Huben army any chance to sneak attack.

After the army on the right arrived at Gaoyou Army, Xin Xingzong followed Tong Guan's previous order and directly took Wang Bao, Zhao Ming, and Yao Ping Zhongbu as the forwards, and the army pointed directly at Yangzhou, preparing for a decisive battle with the Huben Army in Yangzhou.

But to the great disappointment of Xin Xingzong and others, the Huben army had already evacuated Yangzhou the day before their arrival.

Yangzhou is the headquarters planned by Tong Guan, not the place where the right army is stationed.

Therefore, Xin Xingzong let the right-hand army rest in Yangzhou for a day, and then ordered the right-hand army to advance to Yangzi Town.

At about the same time, Liu Yanqing also led the army from the left and marched into Xuanhua Town, Changlu Town, and Guabu Town.

Since Li Cun led his personal guards and horse troops to cross the river secretly from the Baidu Bridge in the Caishiji area of ​​Dangtu County, as soon as Liu Yanqing arrived in Xuanhua Town, he immediately sent his son Liu Guangshi to occupy the Baidu Bridge.

But before Liu Guangshi led his troops to Baiduqiao Town, he heard from the locals that the Huben army had already burned down Baiduqiao.

This pontoon bridge, which was built in the early Song Dynasty, just disappeared in the long river of history.

From then on, if the people in Jiangbei want to go to Jiangnan, or if the people in Jiangnan want to go to Jiangbei, they can only take a boat by water.

From the decisive attitude of the Huben army, it is not difficult to see that the Huben army is preparing to rely on the natural danger of the Yangtze River to fight the Song army decisively.

After Liu Yanqing and Xin Xingzong arrived at the front line, through various methods, they found that the defense line of the Huben Army had no loopholes. There were warships of the Huben Army everywhere on the Yangtze River. They wanted to sneak across the south of the Yangtze River. possible.

At the beginning of April, Tong Guan came to Yangzhou, put up the signboard of Xuanfu Division on Jiang, Huai, Jing, Zhejiang and other roads, and the army that went south to suppress the uprising officially went online.

Tong Guan sits in Yangzhou and intends to use political, diplomatic, military and other means to coordinate and command, hoping to suppress the uprising army led by Fang La and Li Cun in one fell swoop and recover the Zhejiang and Zhejiang regions.

On this day, Tong Guan convened a meeting of generals in the Xuanfu Division, and all the main generals came to Yangzhou to participate in the pre-war meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, Tong Guan said with a serious face: "This battle is not good for our army."

Although Tong Guan sent a memorial to Zhao Ji as soon as he arrived in Yangzhou, saying that as soon as his army arrived, Yangzhou would be recovered, and all the ant thieves would be beaten to the south of the Yangtze River, so the capital would have no worries.

But this is just a rhetoric to fool Zhao Ji.

As a battle-tested veteran, how could Tong Guan say such absurd things to these veterans who had also fought for a lifetime?
In fact, before going south, all those who understand military affairs, including Tong Guan, hoped that Li Cun would lead the Huben army to fight them in Yangzhou, even if it was a difficult siege battle, what they feared most That is, Li Cun retreated to the south of the Yangtze River without fighting, and then relied on the natural danger of the Yangtze River to defend to the death.

Because this means that this battle will be dominated by water warfare.

Although the Western Army is good at fighting, they have never seen water since they were born. It is really difficult for them to fight in water.

It is not an exaggeration to say that most of the soldiers of the Western Army are now on board, and most of them will vomit weakly. How can it be possible to fight?
Also, you need a boat to fight water, right?

I'm sorry, almost all the nearby boats and boatmen, including the materials for building the boat, have been taken away by Li Cun.

Now if Tong Guan wants to fight Li Cun, he has to go to the Lianghuai area to collect ships and find boatmen to build them.

But things like ships are not something that can be built, especially the kind of big ships that sail in the rivers and seas, the keel of which can never be made in a short time.

In addition, the food and grass consumed by these half a million people every day is absolutely astronomical.

The key point is that a large part of the nearby grain and grass was also taken away by Li Cun. If the Zhao Song Dynasty wanted to maintain this war, it had to transport grain and grass to Tong Guan from other areas.

Let's say that.

This battle seems to have just begun.

In fact, Li Cun had already started planning a long time ago.

Yes.

Zhao Song came with 50 troops, including 15 Western troops capable of conscripting and fighting well, and there were many famous generals, which seemed to be able to destroy the dead.

But the actual situation is that it is really not that Zhao Song has the upper hand now.

The key point is that if Tong Guan's opponent is a mediocre person, it's fine for them to cross the river easily, but their opponent is Li Cun, a professional rebel, who doesn't give them a chance.

Also, consider the time of day.

It is the beginning of April, and the weather is moderately hot and cold, and it is not clear who has the advantage and who has the disadvantage.

But you can wait for two more months until the weather is completely hot.

At that time, the temperature can reach [-] degrees when it is high.

Under such a high temperature, the northern soldiers of the Western Army must be so hot that they don't want to move, and you want them to fight?
On the other hand, the Huben army, the southern soldiers of Yishui, they have long been accustomed to working in that hot weather, and the impact of high temperature on them is absolutely limited.

Therefore, if the battle was dragged on for two months, Tong Guan and the others' chances of winning would definitely be even smaller.

But this battle is now still because the Huben army is defending the Yangtze River to death, and the Song army can't get up quickly without ships.

Finally, let’s talk about Renhe.

Zhao Ji's monarchs and ministers extorted violently in the Lianghuai and Liangzhe areas, and flourished in Huashigang. People here have already hated the Zhao and Song Dynasties.

The landlord and gentry class in the Liangzhe area (including part of the Lianghuai area) that originally stood on the side of the Zhao and Song Dynasties was swept away by Li Cun.

It can be said that the right time, place and people are all in the Huben Army, not in the Song Army.

It's no wonder that Tong Guan would say that this battle is not good for our army.

Seeing that no one objected to his judgment on the current situation, Tong Guan looked around and asked, "Then who can teach me how our army can win this battle?"

……

(End of this chapter)