Chen Qing's army arrived at Changshou County in Yingzhou. In the night, he looked at the dark county town from a distance and felt a little emotional in his heart.
He now knew why Li Gang fought so hard and always lost more than he won. The fundamental reason was that Li Gang didn't pay attention to intelligence and couldn't know himself and the enemy. He always fought with others in the dark. How could he win?
It's a simple matter. How much food does the 30,000 puppet Qi army confronting the Song army have? Li Gang didn't know if there were any spies he planted in Changshou County. The result was no. So if the enemy occupied Changshou County, did they need supplies? Li Gang
Still don't know.
Chen Qing was really depressed when he asked three questions and didn't know. How could he win the battle if he was so negligent?
Li Gang did not have an informant in Changshou County, but Chen Qing did. Hu Yanlei sent two brothers to sneak into the county to inquire about various information about the county.
Now he had to find a way to contact these two people. Chen Qing immediately sent someone to find Zhao Xiaoyi.
Not long after, Zhao Xiaoyi hurried over, cupped his fists and said, "Please give me your orders!"
"I'll give you two things. First, send someone to Changshou County to inquire and see if the enemy knows about our arrival. Second, send a few brothers to Hanshui to inquire and contact the Niugao fleet coming from Hanyang.
!”
"Follow the order!"
Zhao Xiaoyi left in a hurry.
Chen Qing immediately ordered the entire army to rest on the spot.
At this time, Yang Zaixing walked forward quickly and said: "Du Tong, a big local businessman has sent over twenty carts of black beans!"
Chen Qing stood up and said with a smile: "Where is it? Take me to see it."
Chen Qing came to the south of the woods. Outside the woods, there was indeed a large convoy. What was a middle-aged man saying to the soldiers?
"Everyone is here!"
A soldier shouted, and everyone moved out of the way.
Chen Qing walked in front of a large car and grabbed a few handfuls of black beans from the bottom of his pocket to take a closer look. The black beans were of good quality and plump. More importantly, the black beans were not adulterated with croton. This was what Chen Qing was most concerned about. He was worried that
The enemy's strategy.
The soldier led the middle-aged man forward. He knelt down and saluted, "Young man Zhang Qifa bows to the general!"
"Please get up, Yuan Zhang. Thank you for the black beans you sent me!"
Zhang Yuanwai sighed and said: "Originally we had 30,000 kilograms of black beans at home, but when the puppet Qi army crossed the border, all the granaries were robbed. Dozens of fat pigs and more than a hundred sheep were also robbed, leaving only the cellars.
These five thousand kilograms."
"Are these puppet Qi troops cruel?"
"Actually, we can't even call it brutal. There was no murder, arson, or rape of women. But it's just disgusting. They specifically robbed grain, pigs, and sheep, and they even called it temporary requisition by the army. The grain, pigs, and sheep were taken away by force. It's possible that
still coming back?"
Chen Qing's heart moved. Looking at this performance, the other party really had a problem with their food supply.
"Do they have a large baggage truck?" Chen Qing asked again.
Zhang Yuanwai shook his head, "I didn't see any heavy baggage trucks, just infantry. I just temporarily grabbed some large trucks to load pigs, sheep and grain."
This is a bit strange. The puppet Qi army had a camp and a large tent in Changlin County, but the army did not carry any baggage. So where did these things go?
After thinking about it, Chen Qing probably understood that the other party should have left in two groups, with the baggage train heading north, while the main army was afraid of being overtaken by him, so he moved lightly. This should be the case.
........
In the afternoon, Zhao Xiaoyi sent someone back to report that they had contacted Niu Gao's fleet. The fleet led by Niu Gao was anchored thirty miles south of Changshou County.
In addition, Zhao Xiaoyi has sent someone to sneak into the city and contact Hu Yanlei's men.
Chen Qing asked: "Can outsiders still enter the city?"
The soldier shook his head, "Just open the city gate for half an hour at noon. You are only allowed to go out but not enter. Only under special circumstances can you enter the city. Our brother pretended to be a coachman and followed the cart delivering food to the army into the city. They are
Special case."
Chen Qing nodded. It seemed that the enemy army had spies near Changlin County. They knew that he was leading his army to Yingzhou, so he controlled it so strictly.
When it was almost dark, Chen Qing led his army to set off. They did not go to the county seat, but passed through the south of the county seat and came to the Hanshui River. There were a hundred thousand-stone chariots and ships parked here, loaded with food and tents. They were also
Supply ship of Chen Qing's army.
In fact, regardless of whether the enemy troops had withdrawn to Yingzhou or not, Chen Qing would lead his troops to the Hanshui River to obtain supplies from the fleet.
Otherwise, the supply of ten thousand cavalry would be very troublesome. It would be impossible for them to carry logistical equipment, which would seriously hinder their high-speed mobile march.
The river network in the Huguang area is dense, so it is undoubtedly a wise idea to use the fleet for supply.
The army immediately set up a camp by the Han River without a fence. Chen Qing sent hundreds of patrol sentries to patrol around the camp.
In the big tent, Niu Gao reported the situation of the Hanyang battle to Chen Qing. Chen Qing nodded. The other party forced the ships on the Han River. They couldn't all be two-thousand-stone cargo ships, which meant that the puppet Qi army still had a large number of five-hundred-stone ships.
With a thousand-ton ship, they will definitely use the Han River to transport grain and grass supplies to Changshou County.
The government in Changshou County did not have food in stock, Li Gang was sure of this, and the 30,000 puppet Qi soldiers themselves did not carry food. They could only exploit food from the people. Even so, to satisfy the food problem of the 30,000 soldiers, they had to rely on the people alone.
It is also difficult to meet the food requirements.
Xiangyang will definitely send supplies of grain and grass materials to Changshou County.
What Chen Qing thought of was not to cut off the opponent's supplies, but to use this fleet as an opportunity to seize Changshou County.
...........
Changshou County is the seat of the prefecture of Yingzhou. The county seat is very large, and the city wall is thirty miles in circumference. However, it is not a strategic location like Xiangyang City. Therefore, although the city wall is very long, it is not tall and strong, the moat is not wide enough, and the city gates are very narrow.
old.
According to the battle plan of the puppet Qi army, they will use Xiangyang City as the fulcrum, and then launch attacks on the three fronts of west, middle and east. The west line is Xiazhou. They must capture Xiazhou and open the passage into Bashu.
The middle line is to seize Jiangling Mansion, control the Yangtze River waterway, lure Wang Yan's army northward and annihilate them all. This is the middle line strategy. In this sense, the middle line strategy has been mostly successful.
But the focus of the Puppet Qi Dynasty is still on the eastern front. Their eastern front strategy is divided into two steps. The first step is to seize the west of Han River to seize the symbol of Hanyang. Then they will use Changshou County and Hanyang County as fulcrums to east of Han River.
Expand and seize the entire north of the Yangtze River.
Unfortunately, just as their strategy started to advance, they were attacked twice by Chen Qing's army, resulting in the loss of more than 13,000 people.
However, Changshou County was the starting point of the puppet Qi army's eastward strategy and was of great strategic significance to the puppet Qi army. Therefore, Dong Xiancai ordered 30,000 troops to withdraw eastward from Changshou County.
As long as we firmly hold Changshou County, we will have a foothold whether we expand eastward or seize Hanyang County southward.
There is a Gaochang Inn near the south gate of Changshou County. Scout Zhang Hua, who sneaked into the city at noon, lives in this inn. This is also the meeting place that was arranged in advance. Otherwise, Changshou County has a population of hundreds of thousands, so big
In the county seat, where can we find two of Hu Yanlei's men?
Zhang Hua is the leader of the scouts. He is very skilled in martial arts and has strong adaptability.
He was sitting alone in the room, waiting patiently. At this time, there was a knock on the door, very rhythmic, 'dong dong dong - dong - dong!'
Zhang Hua drew out his dagger, stood up and opened the door a crack, "Have a good time!" he asked in a low voice.
"Business as usual!"
Zhang Hua opened the door, and a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy walked in. He opened his sleeves with a smile, revealing a blue mark on his arm. This was the logo of the Second Scout Battalion.
"Sit down!"
Zhang Hua asked the other party to sit down, poured him a glass of hot water, and took out the token from his waist to show him.
The young man was in awe and said, "It turns out to be Zhang Dutou. It's disrespectful to hold such a low position."
Zhang Hua smiled and asked, "What's your name and how old are you?"
"My name is Wang Du, from Jingzhao, and I am sixteen years old."
The other party was actually just a teenager, but Zhang Hua was not surprised at all. The Second Scout Battalion was like this. There were men and women, old and young, working in all walks of life, so that they could sneak into the city behind enemy lines to gather intelligence.
"What do you two do?"
"In the practice of medicine, I am the medicine boy. I am responsible for grabbing medicine, dispensing medicine, decoction medicine, and also carrying the medicine box for the master."
"Why didn't your master come?"
"He was conscripted into the military camp for medical treatment. There were many soldiers in the military camp having diarrhea."
Zhang Hua was surprised, "Is there an epidemic?"
Wangdu shook his head, "Master said it was either an epidemic or acclimatization. Many soldiers drank raw water directly and developed diarrhea."
"I would like to know some information. How much food does the enemy have and what is their morale? You should know about it!"