Jinan Prefecture is not far from Daming Prefecture. There is only Bozhou in between. Eagle Letter delivered it on the same day.
Wanyanchang received a letter from Wanyan Wushu asking for help. In the letter, Wanyan Wushu implored him to send troops to attack Bianliang and force the Western Army to withdraw from Shandong Road.
Wan Yanchang and Wan Yan Wushu had a bad relationship with each other because of the supply incident. Last year, with the emperor's mediation, the two reluctantly put aside their old feud.
But this was just a superficial reconciliation to give the emperor face. In fact, there was still a hidden thorn in the relationship between the two. This kind of thorn was not visible at ordinary times, but would appear at critical moments.
For example, at this time, Wanyan Wushu asked Wanyan Chang to send 50,000 troops to attack Bianliang.
The secret thorn in Wanyanchang's heart quietly emerged. He had only a small number of troops, only 150,000. Adding in Wanyan Helisa's 50,000 troops stationed at Yanshan Mansion, there were only 200,000.
If he sends an army of 50,000 to attack Bianliang, and Chen Qing's army returns from Shandong Road, and their retreat is cut off by the Western Navy, the entire army of 50,000 will be destroyed. With Chen Qing's viciousness and cruelty, the five-man army will be destroyed.
Not a single one of the ten thousand soldiers could survive.
Wanyan Wushu made the request without any trouble. He casually asked him to send 50,000 troops. This was like asking him to cut off a thigh to save him!
What next? How to compensate yourself? The letter didn’t even mention it.
Wanyan Chang and Wanyan Wushu had deep personal grievances, mainly manifested in the struggle for power in the imperial court. After Wanyan Dan ascended the throne, in order to seize Wanyan Zonghan's power, he appointed Wanyanchang as prime minister. Wanyan Zonghan was captured by Chen Qing, and finally
He was redeemed by the Jin Dynasty court with Zhao Huan and his son.
Wanyan Quan immediately reformed the official system, abolished the Bojilie system, and changed it to the three provinces. Wanyan Chang was kicked out of the court and became the Marshal of the Right Army, taking charge of Hebei.
Wanyan Zongqian passed away last year. Wanyanchang was expected to enter the court to succeed the post of Taifu and lead the three provinces. However, he was stabbed in the back by Wanyanwushu. Wanyanwushu wrote to the emperor, criticizing Wanyanchang for not having an overall concept and bringing Hebei to the throne.
The Jin soldiers regarded themselves as their own private army and refused to rescue the Central Plains, resulting in the fall of Henan Road.
The Emperor of Jin immediately gave up the idea of promoting Wan Yanchang and instead promoted Wanyan Zonghan, who had made great achievements in attacking the grassland, as Tai Tu.
As a result, Wanyanchang lost the opportunity to join the cabinet. How could he not hate Wanyan Wushu deeply?
Now Wanyan Wushu asked him for help without any compensation. Of course Wanyan Chang could not send troops, but he had to think of a good excuse to prevent Wanyan Wushu from complaining to the emperor again and criticizing himself for not having a sense of the overall situation.
General Han Chang suggested to him: "A few days ago, Balisu sent someone from Yanshan Prefecture to deliver a message, asking us to ensure that the pontoon bridge can be built. It is estimated that Balisu's reinforcements will arrive in three days, and Marshal Du can let Balisu
Go to rescue Shandong Road quickly."
The 50,000 troops led by Ba Lisu were reinforcements sent by the imperial court. Because many soldiers in the army fell ill, Ba Lisu led the army to rest in Yanshan Mansion for ten days, but could not withstand Wanyan Wushu's repeated urging.
, Ba Lisu had no choice but to lead his army south quickly and rush to Jinan Prefecture for rescue.
Of course Wanyanchang wanted Ba Lisu's 50,000-strong army. Besides, Wanyan Yinshuke died of illness last year. Ba Lisu was Yin Shuke's brother, and he happened to be his right-hand man when he stayed.
How could such precious 50,000 elite soldiers be given Wanyan Wushu?
Han Chang's suggestion just reminded Wanyanchang that if Wanyan couldn't cross the Yellow River, wouldn't the 50,000 elite soldiers have to stay in Hebei?
Wan Yanchang suddenly thought of a clever plan.
In the afternoon of that day, Wan Yanchang posted notices everywhere in Daming City, requisitioning 20,000 civilian laborers to build two pontoon bridges at Zhujia Town and Hongliu Bay. The civilian laborers were recruited at a price of fifty cash per day.
Generally, the construction of pontoon bridges is carried out quietly by the army, and is only built before crossing the river to avoid being discovered by the enemy.
Wan Yanchang recruited civilians in such a big way and also clearly stated the location where the pontoon bridge was to be built. This was because he was afraid that the Western Army would not know about it. Even if the Western Army did not take action, he would send an army of confidants to pretend to be the Western Army and burn down the two bridges.
pontoon.
Sure enough, two hours later, Li Qingong, the commander of the Yellow River Navy, received a pigeon message from the Damingfu Intelligence Station in Puyang, saying that the Jin soldiers were about to cross the river.
Of course, Li Qingong would not completely believe it. Maybe this was the Jin soldiers' pretext to attack the east and west, creating a great momentum in Damingfu area, but in fact they were preparing to sneak attack Bianliang.
Li Qingong immediately divided his troops into three groups, one going to Bianliang, the other staying where he was, and the other going to Damingfu under his personal leadership.
More than a hundred vehicles and ships rumbled on the Yellow River, with waterwheels rolling on both sides, driving the ships forward. Most of the warships of the Western Army were vehicles and ships, so they had power and could sail freely on the water.
Flexible and maneuverable.
Twenty miles away from the two bridge construction sites in Daming Prefecture, a sentry ship came. The soldiers on the sentry ship reported to Li Qinggong: "General Qi, Zhujia Town and Hongliu Bay are indeed building pontoon bridges, and the scale of the construction is very large."
There are countless migrant workers busy here."
"Has the repair been completed?"
"No! It's only half-finished, and their progress in repairing the bridge is relatively slow. They still have to drive piles."
Li Qingong immediately ordered: "Go forward at full speed and destroy the enemy's pontoon bridge!"
One hundred warships accelerated and sailed eastward. Within half an hour, a pontoon bridge appeared in front of them, and another pontoon bridge was faintly visible on the river a few miles away.
A thousand-stone warship equipped with a pig iron head rushed up and slammed into the bridge head. "Boom!" The bridge head was smashed to pieces. Dozens of craftsmen turned around and fled in fright. Dozens of warships approached.
, the soldiers sprayed kerosene with skin bags and threw torches, and the fire immediately burst into flames.
More than a dozen warships continued to move forward, and soon, warships several miles away also burst into flames.
Wan Yanchang stood at the top of the city, looking at the thick smoke billowing more than ten miles away. A proud smile appeared on his face, and he immediately ordered: "Don't stop the work and continue building a new pontoon bridge!"
Just burning two pontoon bridges is not enough to explain to the emperor; it is necessary to burn more than a dozen pontoon bridges to explain to the emperor.
Not only that, Wan Yanchang also sent a thousand of his close soldiers, put on the armor of the Western Army soldiers, rushed to various hiding places overnight, pretended to be the Western Army and burned all the more than 300 small boats, which completely cut off the reinforcements.
Hope of going south to support Shandong Road.
The next morning, Wanyan Balisu rushed to Daming Mansion with 50,000 cavalry. Although Balisu had a good relationship with Wanyanchang, he was not Wanyanchang's man. He was loyal to the emperor and he really wanted to go.
Supporting Wanyan Wushu, if the soldier had not been ill, he would not have wasted ten days.
"Marshal Du, what's going on? There's not even a pontoon bridge?" Ba Lisu said in shock.
Wan Yanchang pointed to three places with thick smoke billowing in the distance and said helplessly: "There are three pontoon bridges under construction over there. Today they were discovered by a Western warship and set on fire. In the past two days, five pontoon bridges have been burned, including those I collected.
More than 300 of them were also found by Western Army scouts and burned down. The Western Navy Navy completely blocked the old route of the Yellow River."
Ba Lisu frowned, "What should we do?"
Wan Yanchang pondered for a moment and said: "General Ba Lisu can lead his army to the east for more than two hundred miles and use rafts to build a pontoon bridge overnight. This is the only way. If that doesn't work, then we can only go to Bianliang.
Let’s try our luck.”
Ba Lisu nodded, "Thank you, Marshal Du, for reminding me, I'll give it a try!"
Ba Lisu didn't notice that when Wan Yanchang turned his head, there was a hint of fierceness in his narrowed eyes.