Taizhou, Yangzhou, Yizheng and Guabu are almost spread out in the shape of a long snake on the bank of the Yangtze River.
Taizhou is in the east, followed by Yangzhou, Yizheng, and Guabu.
This is the reason why Bian Hao did not believe that Murong Nobunaga could attack him. Now Zhao Kuangyin led his army to defend Yizheng, and Murong Nobunaga of Taizhou had to bypass Yangzhou if he wanted to attack the Southern Tang army that had just landed from Guabu.
This road is not close, it is a small area of 200 miles, and the surrounding population is densely populated. It is impossible to come and go without a trace like in the northwest and grasslands.
The Southern Tang Army could completely use the local tycoons to set up short-distance sentinel points everywhere. The whereabouts of Zhou's army would be discovered even more than ten miles away. No matter how fast the war horses ran, they could not match the speed of the smoke.
Li Jingda also quickly adopted Bian Hao's suggestion. He personally led the main force from Guabu to the east to besiege Yizheng.
Then a large number of civilian and military generals who were originally from Dongdu were sent to various places to win over people's hearts. While regaining Dongdu, they also recruited athletes from various places and united rural soldiers to come to help in the war.
It has to be said that at this time, the Southern Tang Dynasty's mobilization power in the core Huainan and Jiangnan East Road was still very strong.
Before the officials of the Southern Tang Dynasty entered Yangzhou City, those Yangzhou officials who had taken refuge with Murong Nobunaga immediately changed their ways.
Feng Yanlu, the judge of Dongdu who had hid in a temple, also appeared on the streets of Yangzhou with a bald head.
It turned out that this guy actually put on silk robes and had his own hair done to pretend to be a monk, so he escaped the Zhou army's search.
This is also a clear proof of which side the people of Yangzhou, the eastern capital, are leaning towards. Feng Yanlu was hiding in Yangzhou, and Murong Nobunaga offered rewards several times but could not catch him.
When they wanted to attack Taizhou, Murong Nobunaga threatened them with a knife and finally managed to recruit less than 10,000 men.
Li Jingda of the Southern Tang Dynasty did not show up, so he sent a few officers and generals, and immediately mobilized more than 30,000 athletes around Yangzhou, plus hundreds of thousands of grains, and thousands of large and small boats.
This time, Zhao Kuangyin, who was stationed in Yizheng, was under great pressure.
About 50,000 people crossed the river from the Southern Tang Dynasty, and after recapturing Yangzhou, another 30,000 people were mobilized within a few days.
Although most of them are rural soldiers with poor training, the momentum is still amazing, and when fighting against the wind, beating the drum is still very useful.
This is also the reason why Zhao Kuangyin chose not to defend Yangzhou. In order to mobilize the Southern Tang Army, Murong Nobunaga could only divide his troops to attract them.
If he leaves 3,000 men to defend Yangzhou, then it is very likely that more than 100,000 people in Yangzhou, plus athletes from surrounding prefectures and counties, will be mobilized.
These people of the Southern Tang Dynasty colluded with each other inside and outside, and drowned three thousand of his people alive in Yangzhou in a sea of people.
But it was different when it came to Yizheng. Zhao Kuangyin used a boat to transport 30,000 shi of grain down the river, so there was no shortage of food. Yizheng was not far from the river, and there was no need to worry about water.
As for the firewood for cooking, Yizheng City is still a small county town with a population of two to three thousand people. After burning its own firewood, it can still demolish the houses.
Of course, the most important reason is that there are no insiders here, they are all our own people, and we can calmly arrange defense.
Zhao Kuangyin also had enough confidence in Murong Nobunaga and these 10,000 comrades. If the Southern Tang Dynasty really came with 50,000 elite soldiers, it is hard to say whether the victory or defeat would be successful, or it would be very difficult to win.
But among the 70,000 to 80,000 people, there are less than 20,000 elites, so there is nothing to worry about.
On the eighth day of the fifth lunar month, the Southern Tang Army's main force was 30,000, with 30,000 rural soldiers recruited, plus 20,000 to 30,000 civilians. It was known as an army of 150,000. It surrounded Yizheng City from the east, west and north.
Yizheng City showed its weakness, with four closed gates and a two- to three-meter earth wall. Surrounded by nearly 100,000 people, it stood alone by the spring-filled river, like a bird about to
Like a skinny sheep eaten by a tiger.
However, Li Jingda's 'tiger' was more like a fat cat. At the beginning of the day (at one o'clock in the afternoon), the army began to gather on all sides, and the civilians and soldiers began to set up strongholds.
However, at the beginning of the Youshi period (five o'clock in the afternoon), not to mention setting up the stronghold, many soldiers and civilians had not even arrived at the designated position.
Most of the villages are just surrounded by bamboo or wooden fences, stone walls, and nothing else.
Li Jingda was also extremely dissatisfied and angrily ordered his guards to urge the officers of each battalion.
But managing so many people is not an easy task. First of all, he didn't make arrangements well.
The guards used chicken feathers as arrows and urged them with false pretense, which immediately made things even more chaotic.
In order to avoid being subject to military law, the officers of each battalion went everywhere to snatch materials that could be used to establish a stronghold. In the end, they even started fighting for civilians. The atmosphere was chaotic everywhere, and the speed was actually slower.
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If Li Jingda had clairvoyant eyes, he would have been shocked, because in Yizheng City, more than two thousand people had finished eating and drinking, and were putting on their helmets and shaking their armor.
Zhao Kuangyin was tightening the leather belt around the waist of a young cavalryman with ape-like arms. The cavalryman looked at Zhao Kuangyin, who was not much older than him, and chuckled.
"General, do you want to squeeze out the beef patty that I just ate?"
Zhao Kuangyin gently punched the breastplate on the young cavalry's chest, with a smile on his fat face.
"Eat some beef patties to see how beautiful you are. I heard that Jiangnan has a lot of delicacies. Once we destroy the army of Nanwu, I'll treat you to a meal of the best Jiangnan cuisine!"
When we were in Hexi, there was actually no shortage of beef, because the Tubo people had many long-haired cattle, and there were merchants who bought them, killed them, and sold them.
But this is rare in the Central Plains, where cattle are the main labor force.
In the current state of Zhou, if someone's cow dies, the meat must be reported to the pavilion chief and the village elder and approved by the county magistrate before the meat can be sold.
Generally, except when the army was about to fight a decisive battle, he could eat a meal of air-dried beef to improve morale, and Zhang Zhao didn't have to eat it.
"Jiangnan not only has delicious food, but also beauties? A certain family doesn't like our big girls from Hexi. No matter how good-looking they are, they can choke someone to death as soon as they speak. They are arrogant at home, and they also like to get physical.
I heard that the beauties from Jiangnan are so gentle. I saved five thousand dollars and decided to marry one back!"
A little man who looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old gathered around Dongxiang and said with a smile. His words immediately resonated.
In the eyes of these young people, Hexi women are indeed boring and cruel, because the Hexi women they can marry with their status are basically from well-heeled families, and both parties have basically equal status.
Moreover, under the influence of their father and brother, many Hexi women are able to wear armor, mount horses, and shoot arrows. They are very fierce. Of course, they are not as gentle as women from the Central Plains and Jiangnan.
Everyone was laughing and joking, not taking it as a big deal that they were about to raid tens of thousands of Southern Tang troops.
Because these cavalry are not ordinary people, 30% of them are from Hexi, and more than 70% are from Longyou, Hexi. The core elites are even Han descendants from Guasha and Shazhou.
These Guasha Erlangs are different from their father's generation. Their father's generation has become a bit older after Zhang Zhaodong returned.
Moreover, he also carries the identity of a traitor to the Zhang family, so both his skills and his closeness to Zhang Zhao are problematic.
But they were different. When Zhang Zhaodong returned, the younger ones were six or seven years old, and the older ones were about ten years old.
Moreover, they suffered hardships in their childhood, and then witnessed Zhang Zhao's rapid rise as teenagers, and experienced the improvement of their own status. Now everyone has a bright future.
Therefore, whether it is their closeness to Zhang Zhao or their own sense of pride and mission, it is very terrifying. In addition, they have received strict military training since childhood, and their combat effectiveness can be imagined.
Zhao Kuangyin looked very happy when he saw that all the soldiers under his command were fully equipped, but his heart was churning.
Because he knew the reason why Murong Nobunaga left the young man with him.
It's not because these young people have the strongest willpower and can complete tasks better, but because he, Zhao Kuangyin, can only command these young people.
In front of these young people, although he, General Zhao Lang, was from Luoyang, the capital of the gods, he was Murong Nobunaga's 'horseman' and was the first Central Plains person to serve in Hexi. Moreover, the saint also admired him very much, so he could be regarded as half
Hexi people.
However, no matter whether they are the Yuan Cong Sect, the Donggui Sect, or the Conglong Sect in Longyou, Hexi Province, no one who is a little older will really obey the command of Zhao Kuangyin, a handsome young man.
Zhao Kuangyin took a deep breath. He knew that if he wanted to make further progress in a short time, he could only take the path of becoming the adopted son of a saint, because in this way, he could convince the public.
However, Zhao Da asked his father Zhao Hongyin to ask all the relatives in the family, but there was no suitable beauty.
Well, it’s not like there are none, it’s just that you got married early and have several children.
Otherwise, he can learn from Li Cunhui and present a beautiful aunt, and then he can be promoted to an adopted son.
Now that there is no beautiful aunt to 'betray', there is only one way.
Rely on military exploits!
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Xue Guizhong, who was born in three families in Xinqiuci, was a small man. He slipped out of the observation cart like a macaque. As soon as he landed, he began to write and draw on the white paper prepared.
Zhao Kuangyin also surrounded him with officers from generals and above, and Xue Guizhong quickly drew out the formation of the Southern Tang Army to the west.
"The Juma on this side is the slowest to stand up. Now there is only one row of Juma from here to here. On both sides of the Juma, there are about two troops commanded by the army on each side.
There were many flags in the formation. We did not see the flags of the main force of the Southern Wu Forbidden Army and the Jiangning Prefecture County Soldiers' Healthy Army. Instead, we saw a large number of flags of the Jing Navy.
If the coach of Nanwu hadn't set up a doubtful formation, the west side would be their weak point."
The so-called Jing Haijun is of course not the Jing Haijun of the Southern Han Dynasty. In fact, the Southern Tang Dynasty, Qian Yue, and Nan Han Dynasty all had the military number Jing Haijun.
The Jinghai Navy of the Southern Han Dynasty was of course located in the hometown of Jiaozhi. It was first established by the Tang Dynasty and later separatized as a vassal town by Qu Chengyu. It was recovered by the Southern Han Dynasty more than 20 years later and then lost again.
Qian Yue's Jinghai navy was Wenzhou, and he was called the Jinghai Jiedushi of Wenzhou.
The Jinghai Navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty was located in Nantong, Jiangsu Province in later generations. Although the Jinghai Navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty was only a zhizhiyuan, it was actually a separatist regime within the Southern Tang Dynasty.
This is because the predecessor of the Southern Tang Dynasty Jinghai Navy Zhizhiyuan was the Dongzhou Zhenjishi of the Tang Dynasty. The Zhenjishi Yao Cunzhi had been separatist here for more than thirty years and had always supported Yang Xingmi in his wars with Sun Ru and Qian Liu.
After Xu Zhigao (Li Min) usurped the throne, Yao Cunzhi went to court in person to confirm the Yao family's status as a separate power in the Southern Tang Dynasty.
You must know that Nantong is not far from Nanjing. There is a semi-separatist regime in such a close place, and the Southern Tang court cannot be unprepared.
Therefore, Jing Haijun's supplementary equipment and salary in the Southern Tang Dynasty were at the bottom.
The Yao family's land of Jinghai and Haijun could not support many soldiers and horses. Not to mention armored men, they didn't even have many cowhide armors. The elite could only have about a thousand people at most.
And he is better at water fighting. If he fights head-on on land, his combat effectiveness will be very low.
Everyone looked at Zhao Kuangyin. Only he could make this decision.
Nineteen-year-old Zhao Da looked calm on his face, but he was extremely nervous inside. He quickly went through Li Jingda's information in his mind, and then showed a confident look on his face.
"Li Jingda is a mediocre person! He definitely doesn't have the ability to create doubts about the formation. Even if he did, the Southern Wu army outside the city would be in chaos. Isn't it a little too realistic?"
When he said this, the surrounding soldiers all laughed, yes! Even if they were trying to disguise themselves, they were not as serious as those in Nanwu uniforms, right?
As soon as the laughter subsided, Zhao Kuangyin's face turned solemn, and he reached out and pointed at the sketch drawn by Xue Guizhong.
"It is my intention that the left and middle battalions attack, and all members of the right battalion are equipped with hard bows and divine arm bows to respond.
We attacked from the due west and penetrated the southern Wujing naval position, and the right battalion responded in the east."
"Here!" the officers hurriedly crossed their arms in response. No matter how joking they were in front of them, no one was allowed to laugh at them during the military discussion.
Zhao Kuangyin's face became darker and darker as he aged, and he already had the temperament of a famous general.
"We agreed in advance that this time we will attack the enemy with a small number, and we must attack according to the agreed route.
If anyone kills someone to the point of death and lacks discipline, even though you are all the saint’s most trusted warriors, and you have to seize the rank of officer, beheading can also be used on your heads.
Military law is ruthless, and even I, Zhao Dalang, cannot be an exception."
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Xue Guizhong was right. To the west were more than 6,000 people belonging to the Jinghai navy envoy Yao Yanhong, plus more than 10,000 united rural soldiers.
Zhao Kuangyin also guessed correctly. How could Li Jingda have the ability to create a suspicion formation? Not only did he not know about the formation, he didn't even expect that the three thousand people in the city would dare to come out of the city to attack him.
Yao Yanhong was deployed to the west of the Southern Tang Dynasty and placed his commander's camp on the right side of the army.
The reason why it is not placed in the middle according to regulations is because the Yangtze River is on the right side. If anything goes wrong, I, the Yao Army Envoy, can immediately get on the boat and escape.
Although this man is a second-generation soldier, he has a lot of shadows about the war.
This shadow comes from a war that took place between the Southern Tang Dynasty and Qian Yue in the fifth year of Zhenming Dynasty in Later Liang Dynasty (919).
This was also the last of the three battles between the Southern Tang Dynasty and Qian Yue for Wuzhong. The Southern Tang army was defeated on the river south of Jinghai Haijun.
Peng Yanzhang, the governor of Shuzhou in the Southern Tang Dynasty, committed suicide after his troops were exhausted. Yao Yanhong's brother Yao Yangui and more than 70 other generals of the Southern Tang Dynasty were captured.
What is even more terrifying is that among the more than 70 generals captured in the Southern Tang Dynasty, there were more than 10 members of the Yao family. It can be said that the entire family has lost all its talents.
At that time, Yao Yanhong personally experienced the tragic defeat that almost caused his father Yao Cunzhi to commit suicide, and he also remembered the tragic situation of wearing Xiao in every family member of the family.
Even his elder brother Yao Yangui was never released and died in Qianyue a few years ago.
Since then, a deep fear of war has been planted in Yao Yanhong's heart.
Historically, during the Later Zhou Dynasty's expedition to the Southern Tang Dynasty, after the Zhou army captured Yangzhou, Li Jing ordered Yao Yanhong to go in for rescue. Yao Yanhong simply abandoned his home and went to Qian Yue with more than 10,000 people, which shows that he was afraid of war.
With this fear of war, Yao Yanhong drank a lot of wine before it got dark. He couldn't sleep without drinking!
But, to be honest, Yao Yanhong's side was the fastest among the Southern Tang army to set up camp.
Because Jing Haijun's territory is small, he has thousands of people who are with him all year round. They are all fellow villagers and even relatives. It may not be possible to set up a defensive formation, but there is still a tacit understanding when setting up camp.
After setting up camp, it was time to eat. At this time, China had been in chaos for almost two hundred years, and its products had declined sharply. The three-meal system that had begun to rise in the Tang Dynasty was forced to change back to a two-meal system.
Therefore, this 'supper' eaten in the afternoon is extremely important to people at this time, especially civilians.
The Jinghai soldiers and Tuanjie soldiers on Yao Yanhong's side began to fetch water for cooking. When other soldiers of the Southern Tang Army saw this, they also started clamoring to cook.
Li Jingda had no choice but to ask them to stop building the fort, and smoke began to rise from the formation.
Zhao Kuangyin saw the birds and smoke rising from the Southern Tang military formation at the top of the city and was immediately overjoyed. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
With a strong wave of his hand, the south gate of Yizheng City opened wide, and Zhao Kuangyin personally led his army out of the city.
However, the place where the Southern Tang army camped was still about a mile away from Yizheng City. The Zhou army who left the city did not mount their horses directly, but led their horses out of the city.
They had to wait about half a mile before mounting their horses in order to save horsepower.
This is what determines the quality of an army. Not only must they be able to walk in armor and know how to save horsepower, but they must also have the ability and discipline to mount armor and mount a horse.
Half a mile later, the guards around Zhao Kuangyin raised a red flag for equipment assault, and the two thousand cavalry of the Zhou army immediately began to help each other mount their horses.
The horse archers wearing light armor and using horse bows as their main output method immediately assisted the shock cavalry in cotton armor to mount their horses one-on-one.
After the shock cavalry mounted their horses, they began to press forward slowly. At this time, the horse archers began to mount their horses.
At this time, the shock cavalry could not start running wildly immediately because there was still half a mile to go, but later the horse archers who mounted their horses could start to speed up slowly.
Amidst the sound of horse hooves, a thousand horse archers, guided by three large flags, suddenly accelerated and began to charge at two hundred paces.
Although Nan Tang Jing's navy saw it when Zhou Guo's cavalry went out, the responsible junior officers also reported the situation.
But Yao Yanhong, a military envoy with war stress disorder, still moved a little slowly.
By the time he gave the order to withdraw and stick to the camp, the cavalry led by the three brothers Xue Guizhong, Yang Guizhong and Zheng Guizhong had already rushed to the front of Jing Haijun's army.
At this moment, most of Jing Haijun's soldiers are waiting to eat. Not to mention that they don't have any armor in the first place. Even if they have armor, not many of them can put on armor so quickly.
Moreover, after waiting for a long time, the food was still not available. Many people's stomachs were growling with hunger, and how could they think of fighting.
Therefore, this wave of 1,000 horse archers was originally there to test, but it actually had the effect of attacking the cavalry.
Jing Haijun's military camp seemed to be made of tofu, and a huge gap was cut directly by a thousand people.
Xue Guizhong spread his wings like an eagle, and the unarmored soldiers of the Jing Navy fell to the ground one after another. Looking at the relatively neatly built fortress, it looked like it was nothing.
The soldiers set off a wave of fleeing people, undulating like waves and running around amid the screams of crying fathers and mothers.
As a separatist group for decades, Jing Haijun was still on the front line of the battle between the Southern Tang Dynasty and Qian Yue. Its main force was Yao Yanhong's thousands of tooth soldiers.
Although Yao Yanhong's first reaction was to run away, his subordinates stopped him.
The first reaction of these tooth generals and tooth soldiers was, don't be kidding, there are more than a thousand cavalry coming from the opposite side. If they do this, they will break through our camp of more than 10,000 people, and beat the commander to the point where he fled to the river.
Then how will they hang out in the future?
However, when the Jingjun Navy, which calculated the combat strength of Zhou's cavalry by two, based on the combat strength of Qian Yue's army, had assembled the Ya soldiers, and organized the running soldiers and country soldiers, they immediately became numb.
Because at this time, Xue Guizhong's thousand horse archers had swept through their military camp like a whirlwind. When they came out, they could hardly even see the horse's buttocks.
What they happened to bump into was a thousand assault cavalry led by Zhao Kuangyin himself.
A Jing naval officer looked at Zhao Kuangyin who was rushing to the front in a white cloth-covered armor. He raised his hand and shot an arrow, but then his eyes suddenly widened.
Because the arrow missed, it was bounced away. Zhao Kuangyin also noticed this military academy. He roared angrily and fired the horn crossbow in his hand.
The short crossbow arrow, with a trace of white light, pierced into the chest of the military academy.
The cowhide armor of the military academy could not stop the arrows shot from the One Stone Eight Lijiao crossbow. He could only watch helplessly as the crossbow shaft sank into his chest and then disappeared.
He screamed like a military academy being hit in the air. He threw away the long bow in his hand and quickly grabbed the place where the crossbow arrow disappeared with both hands, as if he wanted to dig out the crossbow arrow.
But after only two grasps, he felt so weak that he was spinning around, and then fell heavily to the ground. In a few breaths, he even lost the ability to scream.
At the same time, brilliant flames flashed, and it turned out that the shock cavalry at the front ignited the pear blossom gun in their hands.
Jing Haijun, who was the closest, was sprayed on the head. In an instant, his face was sprayed into a standard pockmark by the iron sand wrapped in the pear gun.
After inhaling a breath of choking poisonous smoke, he screamed and fell to the ground. The poisonous smoke, iron sand, and severe burning made him so painful that he could hardly breathe.
Du Tou fell on the ground, twisting back and forth like a fish on the beach, his hands were like chicken claws, scratching out traces on the ground. Only the fingernails he grabbed could not relieve the pain of at least four pear blossoms.
The pain of being sprayed from the front of a gun.
The soldiers of Jing Haijun had never seen this formation before, and they were familiar with gunpowder, because Yang Xingmi had soldiers who knew gunpowder under his command back then, but they had never seen anyone who could make gunpowder so terrifying.
Pear-shaped spears opened the way, horned bows and crossbows fired, horses and sabers struck randomly, Zhao Kuangyin led a thousand assault cavalry, and immediately dispersed Jing Haijun's weak resistance.
Relying on his senses, Zhao Kuangyin rushed towards Jing Haijun's central army. These soldiers were so weak, it was better to capture their commander.
But immediately, Zhao Kuangyin met Xue Guizhong, who looked shocked.
Xue Guizhong looked at Zhao Kuangyin with anger, "Damn it, the commander of Jing Haijun is not in the Central Army!"
Zhao Kuangyin was also speechless. Only then did he realize that the most suitable command position in the Chinese army did not have the commander's banner and canopy.
"This is an incredible coach! Do you have any military knowledge?"
While the two were complaining, Dongdong's drums sounded. Although Li Jingda was slightly incompetent, the Imperial Army of the Southern Tang Dynasty and the healthy troops guarding Jiangning were not incompetent.
Li Jingda only needed to give a symbolic order, and Bian Hao commanded thousands of forbidden troops, health troops, and thousands of state and county soldiers began to assemble.
At the same time, hundreds of cavalry from the Forbidden Army also rushed out in advance, preparing to block Zhao Kuangyin and others' route back to the city.
Zhao Kuangyin spit hard and immediately turned the horse's head. Shuai Qi also immediately changed direction. They were going to rush back according to their original plan.
Hum hum! Zhao Kuangyin sneered and wanted to stop me from returning to the city, but I had no intention of returning to the city at this time.