Chapter 46 Drinking Horses and Yangtze River (4)

Just after the first month of the second year of Jianwen, the ice at Shanhaiguan Port was still frozen tightly. The soldiers and generals of the Yulin Right Guard and Dingliao Central Guard were in the warm camp, waiting for the weather to warm up every day. But what they were looking forward to was amazing news.

Zhu Zhi, who was in the Jinzhou Maodong, received a report from the front line. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, four guards of the Yan army suddenly went south, Zhenshuo Guard, Dingbian Guard, Xuanfu, and the right guard led the attack on Zhending in Tan Yuan. Zhu Neng, another route commanded the Miyun Guard, Longqing Guard, Zhuolu Guard, and Lu Long Guard to go to Jinan.

Zhu Zhi couldn't help but sigh: "The Fourth Brother's offensive spirit is really strong. He resisted such a great defeat. After only two months of rest, he went to trouble the emperor again."

Yang Rong handed over a piece of information sent from Peiping, which was more clearly written. The four guards of Yanshan, Duoyan, and the two Mongolian guards of Bohai were also departing together on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, but the whereabouts of this army were unknown.

This information immediately attracted Zhu Zhi's attention. Since Fuyu and Taining Guards were crippled, the four Yanshan Guards and two Mongolian Guards have become the main force of the Yan army. It is of course a big deal that they have no idea where they are going.

But Zhu Zhi didn't have to worry too much about this direction, he could only think of it. He was just going south.

But which road was he going? Tie Xuan suddenly smelled a very strong smell of danger. He suggested sending troops to dig out the ice of Shanhaiguan Port immediately and dig out a waterway. The two guards gathered here should be shipped to Shandong as soon as possible.

Zhu Zhi immediately agreed to the suggestion and ordered all engineers from all guards near Shanhaiguan to be dispatched and the port must be opened within three days.

Just as Liaodong was still chiseling ice in the north wind, the front from Shandong to Hebei was already in a mess. Tan Yuan rushed to attack Zhending and made a lasting plan in three days and made lasting plans.

On the other side, Zhu Neng rushed towards Jinan with great momentum. Xu Kai, the governor who defended Dezhou, led his army to fight. He was defeated by Zhu Neng. Xu Kai was captured and surrendered to Zhu Di. Zhu Neng got Dezhou alone and rushed straight to Jinan.

Xu Huizu's troops were twice as strong as Zhu Neng. But he just didn't go to fight. With the construction of Jinan City Wall for half a year, he led his troops to defend the city. Zhu Neng attacked for three days and did not act randomly, and set up a camp tent, which seemed to be about to fight a protracted battle.

On the fifth day of the second month, the ice at Shanhaiguan was finally chiseled open. Two hundred transport ships entered one after another, carrying troops on the dock. Floating ice appeared on the waterway from time to time, which was very dangerous.

The transport ships entered one by one, and there were still some wind and waves on the sea. They loaded the ship day and night. Three days after the first group of people who boarded the ship set out, the last horse of the Yulin Right Guard neighed and got on the ship. The process was very unsuccessful. Fifteen horses fell into the sea in three days, and seven soldiers fell into the sea and died.

Time in Dingliao Central Defense is also very wasteful. Tie Xuan has no way of doing this.

Zhu Zhi came from Jinzhou to watch the loading of the ship. He sat in the tail building of the Taishan. His telescope was as fast as an ant moving house, which made Zhu Zhi particularly irritated.

It seems that it is very important for all army guards to receive amphibious combat training, otherwise they would have fought if they were so shaking at sea. But I turned around and thought.

This is indeed difficult for them. For the army still in the era of cold weapons, amphibious combat is indeed a bit of arousing growth.

While the Liaodong Army was pounding on the sea with difficulty, the Southern Army guarding Dongchang Prefecture suddenly found that the Yan King's flag appeared outside Dongchang City. It was originally several hundred miles away from the front line. The guarding Dongchang was the Dongping Guard composed of scattered soldiers and brave men.

When they saw the Yan army rushing towards the mountains, the scattered soldiers who had been beaten to death by the Yan army ignored the obstacles of their superiors and opened the south gate and scattered.

On February 20, the Yan army continued to go south to capture Dongping, and the news came to the world shocked! This was the first time that the Yan army had fought so close to Yingtian, and the military newspaper asking for help flew into the palace like snowflakes.

Apart from the last 100,000 old, weak, sick and disabled Beijing camp, there was no military force to be adjusted.

Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai together, ordered the garrisons in Huguang and Fujian, Jiangxi to raise troops to Beijing. On the other hand, they selected 50,000 troops in the Beijing camp and led the north to guard the only way for the Yan army to go south. Xuzhou.

At the same time, Xu Huizu was strictly ordered to lead the Jinan army back to attack the Yan army. Yang Jing also suggested to Emperor Jianwen.

At this time, only Zhu Zhi was able to resist the Yan army. Emperor Jianwen was already in vain and immediately sent 800 miles to Dengzhou to take a boat to Liaodong to order the Liao king to dispatch troops south and fight for the king's capital.

On the same day that the Yan army captured Dongping, Tie Xuan led two guards to land in Dengzhou. He only sailed on the sea for five days, and both the people were tired. Even Tie Xuan himself claimed to be overly seasick and unable to fight.

Twenty thousand people had to camp and rest in Dengzhou.

This time, Zhu Di seemed to be determined to go south. He only rested in Dongping for one day. He immediately went south with light troops. He conquered Dong'a and Wenshang, and the troops headed straight to Pei County. Pei County is the northern gate of Xuzhou.

The terrain was dangerous and was a place that must be fought for by military strategists. The guard Yan Bowei was originally a descendant of Yan Zhenqing, a great calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty. He originally recruited 5,000 people to form a militia and built seven fortresses to resist the Yan army.

However, the front line suffered consecutive defeats, and most of the young and strong militias were transferred to enrich the front line guards, and most of the people who left behind were the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled, so how could they talk about combat effectiveness?

Yan's army suddenly arrived, and Yan Bowei knew it was impossible. On the one hand, he sent people to Xuzhou to warn, and on the other hand, he led the militia to defend the city. But when the Yan army arrived, he commanded Wang Xian to lead the people to open the door and surrender.

Yan Bowei had no choice but to walk into the county government and bow to the direction of the capital, and then died of his own scriptures, and his son was also martyred.

Passing Pei County was like knocking on the gate of Xuzhou. Zhu Di led six guards to drive to Xuzhou and arrived in northeastern Xuzhou on February 30th. At this time, the reinforcements led by Qi Tai had only crossed the Yangtze River, and were beyond the reach. Zhu Di beat the drum himself to help his subordinates attack the city.

However, Xuzhou was tall and deep, and the defenders were determined to defend the enemy. The Yan army lost nearly a thousand people in five days to attack. However, they still failed. Daoyan proposed that if a strong city like Xuzhou could not be captured, it would be put aside. The army should not be hindered by one city and one place, and should take the capital directly.

Zhu Di understood it and led his army to bypass Xuzhou and headed straight to Su County. Su County was in a slight gaze and descended.

Zhu Di believed that the Xuzhou garrison might send troops to pursue the army, and sent the commander Jin Ming to lead a unit of ambushing the road. After more than 6,000 Xuzhou garrisons left the city, they were ambushed in Qingou, waiting for the Southern Army to cross the river and attack halfway, and the Xuzhou garrisons collapsed.

At this point, Zhu Di sent troops on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and went south and across thousands of miles. It took two months to go to Dongchang and Dongping and seven or eight cities. After the Yan army fought for thousands of miles, they were very tired and stayed in Suxian for ten days.

Xu Huizu, who received the urgent report from the capital, was forced to helplessly. In addition to leaving a few people to defend the city, he personally led 40,000 people out of the city and went south to pursue the main force of the Yan army. Zhu Neng saw Xu Huizu out of the city.

He ignored him and urged the army to attack the city overnight. Two days later, Jinan was finally taken down.

The Yan army was waiting in Suxian for ten days, and Qi Tai finally led his men to arrive, entered Lingbi, and confronted the Yan army across the Bian River.

On the other hand, Xu Hui's ancestral land also rushed to Xuzhou day and night. The two armies were holding Yan army one by one, one behind, but no one dared to attack rashly.

After receiving the order from the court, Zhu Zhi finally smiled. This was exactly what he was waiting for. He immediately ordered Xiao Ma Wang to lead Fuzhou Guards, 30,000 Guards and Lalu Guards to east of Ji, and merged with the Second Army to send troops quickly and attack Peiping with great fanfare.

On the first day of March, the army of Xiao Mawang had already crossed Xianghe. The situation here was similar to Shandong, but the other side was changed, and the Liaodong army was as powerful as the bamboo. The Yan army had gone thousands of miles away.

Zhang Xin, the Yan army, assisted the prince Zhu Gaochi to defend Peiping. On the one hand, he sent messengers to inform Zhu Neng, who was still in Jinan, and on the other hand, he rectified the troops and horses to defend the city.

On March 20, the Yan army was resting and left Su County to cross the Bian River. Zhu Di ordered the general Chen Wen to urge the auxiliary troops to build bridges on the river, and then first sent a thousand households to cross the river to guard the bridgehead to cover the army's baggage across the river.

The Southern Army general He Fu, who was lined up on the south bank, saw the Yan army's baggage halfway and led his cavalry to cover the bridgehead of the floating bridge. The Yan army's garrison was caught off guard. He was defeated by the Southern Army, and He Fu killed Chen Wen at the bridgehead.

Seeing this, the King of Yan led the cavalry of the left guard of Yanshan Mountain to cross the Bian River to seek rescue. As soon as he got ashore, Zhu Di's mount was shot to death by the Southern Army. Fortunately, he commanded the King of Yan to rescue him. The King of Yan changed his horse and raised his sword to charge himself, and defeated He Fu's cavalry. At this time, there were not many Yan troops on the southern bank of the Henan River.

Seeing that the opportunity was rare, Qi Tai personally beat the drums and cheered, promising the killing of the King of Yan to reward 1,000-house Marquis. The Southern Army mustered up the courage to swarm and surrounded the King of Yan who was guarding the bridge.

The King of Yan fought and retreated, and led his troops to retreat to the north bank. He Fu led his army to chase after him. Fortunately, Yan general Han Gui led an army to attack Xizili before taking over the king of Yan. The two sides fought on both sides of the Bian River for a day and returned to their starting position. The Yan army occupied the north bank.

The Southern Army defended the southern shore.

The Battle of Bianhe was the first time that the Yan army encountered setbacks when they went south. On the one hand, the King of Yan sent troops to confuse the Southern Army head-on, and on the other hand, he led the main force to cross the lower reaches of the river overnight.

The next morning he appeared at the back of Qitai military camp and led his army to attack the Nanjun camp at dawn. Just as the Southern Army could not leave and resisted stubbornly, Xu Huizu led reinforcements from Jinan to the battlefield, and the Yan army was suddenly in a state of being attacked from both sides.

The King of Yan had to gather the battlefield and the Yan army withdrew from the battlefield and moved to Qimeishan.

On the first day of April, Xu Huizu and Qi Tai joined forces, claiming to be 200,000, and came along Qimei Mountain. Both sides fought fiercely at the foot of Qimei Mountain all day long. Although the Yan army achieved a small breakthrough, the Southern Army was fortunately not collapsed due to Xu Huizu's death battle.

The Southern Army had many soldiers but average training, and the Northern Army had few soldiers and was very tired when they fought for thousands of miles. The two sides once again formed a confrontation between the mountains and the mountains and the north.

In the south of April, it was raining heavily, and most of the Yan army were from the north and were not adapted. Seeing that the troops were exhausted, Qi Tai and Xu Huizu were chasing each other again, they were a little discouraged. They asked Zhu Di to retreat a little north and find other plains with abundant water and grass to eat.

At the critical moment, Zhu Di slapped the table and threw down the sentence, "The two armies are brave and brave! Now that things have come to this point, our army can only fight a bloody road and go straight to the capital."

While the two sides were confronting each other, Huang Zicheng actually thought that Yan's military commander was exhausted and would retreat northward. At the same time, there were no generals in the capital. Emperor Jianwen then transferred Xu Huizu back to the capital.

Yang Jing sighed to the sky, saying that the sky was about to destroy Jianwen. He knew that Huang Zicheng told Jianwen that Xu Huizu led the troops to fight against rebellion for half a year, but he could not stop the Yan army from moving south. He had to be wary of him communicating with the King of Yan. Just such rumors of catching winds and shadows made Jianwen issue an order.

If Xu Huizu was the last door bolt on the capital gate, he was gently pulled away by Huang Zicheng.

On the fifth day of the fifth month, the Southern Army, which had poor food and salary, had to leave Qimei Mountain and go to Lingbi to eat. Zhu Di keenly noticed the troubles of the Southern Army and immediately sent Li Bin to lead a side army to intercept 50,000 stones of food and grass in the Southern Army.

Qi Tai led nearly 100,000 troops to guard Lingbi, but Zhu Di led his army to siege. Qi Tai persisted in the city for another five days, and the food and grass were gradually exhausted. He was forced to order his subordinates to take the lead three days later and the guns were shot out of the south city to break through.

Maybe it was really a matter of heaven. The Yan army came to attack the city again the next day, and the cannons rang three times. The southern army in the city thought that the breakout signal was in advance, so they opened the city gates and rushed out. Those outside the city wanted to come in, but the city gates were about to go out, and the city gates were crowded together.

The Southern Army was originally running away but knew that it was blocked at the door and could not move. The morale of the army collapsed. He Fu led his army out of the north gate to rush out of the Yan army camp, but was killed by gunfire. Qi Tai ran out of the east gate under the cover of his personal soldiers and fled in panic.

The poor Emperor Jianwen hoped that the last force that blocked the Yan army was swept away in Lingbi.

After the Lingbi War was over, Zhu Di had no power to stop him. On May 12th, the Yan army avoided Fengyang, Zhongdu, marched into Sizhou, and then crossed the Huai River and fell into Taiwan.
Chapter completed!