"If you ask me what I think, let's give up Luchuan City."
"Abandoning Luchuan means abandoning the estuary of Tuojiang River and leaving the natural dangers of the Yangtze River to Niulin."
"This is the significance of the Battle of Luchuan." Li Xia said: "We captured the Mongolian army's baggage and ships. The Mongolian army who lost the ships will not be able to cross the Yangtze River in the short term. The advantage of the cavalry is no longer available and they are stuck here."
Li Xia clicked on the Minjiang River, Tuojiang River, and Yangtze River on the map, and drew a circle with his fingertips...
"To defeat cavalry with foot, terrain is the key. The reason why I can arrive faster than Niulin is that the time difference is one, and the flow speed of Tuojiang River is the other. In the same way, the Mongolian army lost its ship and marched after arriving at Luchuan City
It’s going to be difficult.”
Zhu Susun turned his head and glanced at Yi Shiying. Seeing that he was thinking, he asked: "Can't we take advantage of the victory to fight to the death with Niulin?"
"It makes no sense." Li Xia said: "In the battle of Luchuan, the upper reaches attacked the lower reaches, and we won by luck. Now that we are on the lower reaches, we need to change our fighting style. The soldiers are tired and there are many wounded, so it is not suitable for a decisive battle."
"In that case, let's withdraw." Zhu Xusun said, "It takes time to carry supplies and people, but it is faster to go along the river to God's Arm City."
"To appease the envoy, I suggest that only 2,000 men sail back to God's Arm City, and the rest of the troops take the land route to Xuzhou."
Li Xia has a very clear understanding of the strength of the Luzhou Army.
Zhang Shi originally had an army of 20,000, but lost more than 3,000 after the battle with Niulin.
At that time, Zhu Xusun could only take the remaining soldiers and horses back to the Divine Arm City, because the Divine Arm City was located downstream of the Tuojiang River estuary, and it would be faster to retreat there.
In this battle of Luchuan, Zhu Susun led 8,000 troops to fight, and 8,000 troops were left in Divine Arm City.
"I think the strength of the Divine Arm City is completely sufficient for defense." Li Xia said: "It is unlikely that Niulin could forcefully cross the Tuojiang River without a navy to attack the Divine Arm City on the Yangtze River, which is defended by a navy."
Yi Shiying spoke. He clicked on the map and said: "But from Luchuan to Xuzhou, it is two hundred miles. It is very likely that Niulin's cavalry will catch up."
"I plan to station at Laojun Mountain in front of the two places to contain the Mongolian army. In this way, Niulin can't cross the natural dangers of the Yangtze River to the south, and can't attack the God's Arm City to the east. To the west, we have to face nearly 10,000 people stationed in
The soldiers and horses of Laojun Mountain..."
Li Xia had obviously thought about it all early and talked about it eloquently.
This was actually Yu Jie's strategy of defending Shu with bases, using mountains and rivers to drag the Mongolian cavalry into unfavorable battlefields.
It is a pity that after Yu Jie's death, Yu Hui was incompetent, and now Pu Zezhi has been unable to fully mobilize these lines of defense.
First of all, it is reflected in the employment of people. Zhang Shi is good at mountain warfare but not water warfare. However, Pu Zezhi has only been running Shu for two years and has no prestige to replace Zhang Shi;
Zhu Xusun was too literary and had no experience in commanding on the battlefield; Yi Shiying was only a defender of Lingxiao City, and his duty was only to prevent the Mongolian army from attacking from Dali...
The difference between Li Xia and these officials of the Song Dynasty is that his ambition is far more than just celebrating the fortune.
The officials of the Song Dynasty could only retreat deep into the territory and build a city in Lingxiao Mountain, unable to explore the reality of the Mongolian army in Dali.
But to defend against the Mongolian army in Dali, how can these be compared to using Dali people to garrison Weining?
Only with vision that breaks through the shackles can the elite troops of the Changning Army be mobilized from Lingxiao City, and only then can the role of Yunding City be seen beyond their duties... and finally the defense line used to defend Shu can be revitalized.
If you want to have great talent and great strategy, you must first broaden your horizons.
Unfortunately, Zhu Xusun and Yi Shiying still felt embarrassed after listening to Li Xia's strategic arrangements.
One is the magistrate of Luzhou and the other is the defender of Lingxiao City. If they are asked to allocate their troops to Xuzhou, they must have concerns...
"Feiyu, let me think about it for a moment." Zhu Xusun sighed.
"Yes." Li Xia bowed, exited the dilapidated government office, and breathed out in the corridor.
…
After discussing with Yi Shiying, Zhu Xusun agreed to Li Xia's proposal.
Li Xia felt a little relieved.
He also understood the difficulties of these Shangguan officials. Originally, if they were defeated, Zhang Shi would be blamed. As long as Zhu Xusun and Yi Shiying defended the Divine Arm City and Lingxiao City, at least they would not make any big mistakes.
By making such a decision, they risked their future and lives.
Especially Yi Shiying, who came from southern Shu where the war had not yet started, won with little effort, but suffered heavy losses in defeat.
On March 26, Niulin troops arrived in Luchuan and saw that Wanyan Shizhu had been defeated, and all the baggage and ships had been captured by the Song army...
Luchuan County, the original administrative seat of Luzhou, has become an empty city.
At this point, Li Xia has completely regained the results achieved by Nu Lin after defeating Zhang Shi.
But Niulin was still confident that he could win. While sending sentry horses, he began to analyze the Song army's movements.
"They can only retreat to Divine Arm City or Xuzhou City. If they retreat to Divine Arm City, they will give up the upper reaches. As long as I capture Xuzhou, I can rob the food and population of southern Shu. Therefore, Li Xia must choose Xuzhou.
Counting time, the infantry cannot arrive so quickly...in the car! Lead the vanguard to catch up and hold off the Song army!"
Just as Niulin expected, the Song army only retreated to Laojun Mountain at the junction of Xuzhou and Luzhou.
Unfortunately, there are many mountains around this place, including rock tops, sheep's ear rocks, and steep cliffs, all of which are easy to defend and difficult to attack.
The Song army had already set up camp and dug deep trenches in the mountains. The three thousand vanguard soldiers and horses led by the car did not dare to launch an offensive immediately.
For the car, the order was to hold back Song Jun. But now, Song Jun was indeed "dragged" by him in Laojun Mountain.
Nulin received the letter with a sneer on her face.
"Li Xia is very smart. But if he stays in Laojun Mountain, it means he can't evacuate. Sooner or later, he will have a decisive battle with me...in the mountains and fields, with my cavalry."
Laojun Mountain is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River. Across the Yangtze River is the famous Lizhuang Town, which was once the seat of the prefecture of Gurong Prefecture, but now the population has moved to Xuzhou.
Thousands of soldiers from Xuzhou went to support Zhang Shi before, but they were ambushed by the Mongolian army here.
"We're afraid we won't be able to evacuate." Yi Shiying looked at the Mongolian cavalry at the foot of the mountain and said.
He spoke with a straight face and a stern smile.
It was as if he wanted to use Haoran's righteousness to influence Li Xia and turn him into a true minister.
"yes."
Li Xia spread the map on the rock and calmly pressed the four corners of the map with stones to prevent it from being blown away by the mountain wind.
"The Mongolian army is in the east, the Yangtze River is in the south, and we can't go to the north. We can only go to Xuzhou City in the west, and we must cross the Minjiang River."
"The Mongolian army is very fast. Once we cross the river, we will be attacked halfway across the river."
"So, we can only fight Nulin."
Yi Shiying asked: "Can we win? We don't have much food and grass."
"It's hard to say, and I'm not completely sure..."
Over there, Song He came up and reported: "County magistrate, Jiang Fan has arrived and captured a Mongolian soldier."
"Where are the people?"
"Over there, Ambassador Zhu is interrogating..."
The Song army only brought a small amount of baggage, and after setting up camp on the mountain, they lived in plundered Mongolian tents.
If you look at it from the bottom of the mountain, you might think that some Mongolian army is stationed here.
This is something that has rarely happened since the Mongols entered Sichuan, and it is also a shame for Nulin.
But Li Xia found these tents uncomfortable to live in.
He and Yi Shiying went down the rugged hillside and saw Zhu Xusun interrogating the prisoners outside the tent, with Yang Ben standing aside to translate.
The prisoner was a short Mongolian with a beard all over his face, and he was explaining some important military information.
I saw Zhu Xusun taking a few steps forward, stroking his long beard, and asked another sentence.
The sudden change.
The Meng soldiers who were being held on the ground suddenly broke free from Song Bing's control and suddenly hit Zhu Xusun's stomach with his head.
"Protect the Comforter!"
…
There was a sharp shout, and Yi Shiying had already strode over there.
Li Xia was faster and jumped down the hill. He reached the Mongolian soldier in a few steps, raised his foot and kicked him away, landing in the grass.
Jiang Fan, who was escorting the Mongolian soldiers, rushed forward and struck with his knife.
Amidst the screams, Yi Shiying hurriedly turned around and ran towards Zhu Susun.
He was naturally worried. As the two armies faced off, if the coach had any shortcomings...
"The Comforter!"
Before Yi Shiying could rush to him, Li Xia had already helped Zhu Susun into the tent.
Yi Shiying followed in stride and opened the curtain, only to see that Zhu Xusun had passed out and Li Xia was bandaging him. The white cloth was stained with blood.
"The pacifier broke his head." Li Xia turned around and said, with a worried look in his eyes.
Just as Yi Shiying was about to speak, he suddenly heard a soldier shouting outside the tent.
"Defender, the Mongolian army is attacking the mountain."
"I will take command." Yi Shiying said, "Don't make any noise about this matter for now, so as not to disturb the morale of the army."