Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

What we are good at is sticking, they are weaker than attacking, this is not to use his weaknesses to touch our strengths!

The old man affirms that in this battle, as long as you all work together and work hard, the Zhou army will surely be beaten to death by the Huaihe River! "Zhu Yuan said confidently.

As soon as these words came out, everyone's confidence was greatly boosted. They already had a large number of people, and what the commander said was right. As long as they fought defensively, they would not suffer any losses in most cases!

Now that the war has been fought, both sides have almost understood each other.

Thinking about it carefully, it is indeed the same as what the commander said. Most of the time they suffer the most from field battles with Zhou Jun.

If you fight defensive battles and city defense battles, Zhou Jun will suffer more, and this has been the case in most cases this year.

Thinking of this, everyone trusted Zhu Yuan more in recruiting from the north.

.......

After the big tent meeting, Xu Wenzhen was already full of confidence in the next battle.

That Zhou army coach Shi Congyun was said to be only eighteen or nineteen years old, still too young. He thought that the commander only thought of the first floor, and he was on the second floor, who could encircle and destroy their main force with a surprise attack.

But in fact, it's not that simple, the commander-in-chief had long thought of the third floor, but Shi Congyun presumptuously stayed on the second floor, waiting to be tricked.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little excited. Is this the silent game between the commanders of the two armies, thousands of troops!He had never thought about this before, but now he has experienced it personally. These things are quietly determining the overall situation of the entire Huainan, thousands of miles of land.

Is this the so-called planning and strategizing!He couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Just as he was thinking, the commander-in-chief came out and said to him, "How about writing the letter to Haozhou for reinforcements in your name?"

Xu Wenzhen saw that Zhu Yuan, who was about the same age as him, looked uncomfortable, and understood what was going on, nodded and said: "Don't worry, Commander, I will draft the order and send the messenger to Haozhou."

Zhu Yuan nodded, cupped his hands and said, "Thank you very much."

Xu Wenzhen watched him go away, and understood why the commander asked him to write it instead of sending the letter for help himself.

Zhu Yuan was at odds with Qi Wang Li Jingda.

The two had disputes over power, one was recruiting envoys from the north, and the other was the marshal of the soldiers and horses of the various realms. Who had the final say in the battle in Huainan, both of them were dissatisfied with each other in their hearts.

In addition, Li Jingda was too weak and had no prestige in the army. Last year, he led a large army across the river, but was beaten to death by the Zhou army general Zhao Kuangyin near Liuhe in the south.

If Li Jingda is not a member of the royal family, then what is he?What is the ability to sit in Haozhou, why should he be the marshal of all the soldiers and horses, and command the armies in Huainan?

This is where Zhu Yuan refused to accept him, and it is also where many generals refused to accept. A general with military exploits and skills is always under the command of a weak and incompetent clan, and everyone is angry.

In comparison, Zhu Yuan, who relied on his military exploits to get to the top, won Zhu Yuan's hearts much more.

Xu Wenzhen shook his head, he didn't want to participate in the fight for power and profit among these high-level officials, and he didn't have that ability.

He wants to finish this battle well, the commander has seen through Zhou Jun's tactics of recruiting envoys, and the chances of winning the battle in the future are great!

If they fight well this time, and the Zhou army suffers serious casualties here, they will continue to advance westward, and then relieve the siege of Shouzhou, and then go to the Bohai Sea to contact the Khitan and Northern Han in the north, and it will take another year or two to completely drive the Zhou army out. Huainan is also feasible!

Xu Wenzhen didn't think about the future, nor did he think about it at all. Driving Zhou Jun out of Huainan was already the greatest expectation, and it was also the most urgent thing at the moment.

Zhu Yuan didn't procrastinate. After the order was issued, all the soldiers began to get busy in the afternoon according to the previous instructions.

On the second day, the scouts from all directions reported back one after another, and things really happened as the commander expected!

Two groups of Zhou troops at the foot of Zijin Mountain in the west are building trenches and fortifications, making a confrontation with them. The cavalry of the Zhou army in the east has already left Zhengyang and is approaching them. Flank them!

However, these were all expected by the commander-in-chief Zhu Yuan. The soldiers were dispatched and prepared early, repaired the traps and fortifications, and knew how to fight this battle, how to fight!

At this point in the matter, everyone is full of confidence, because Zhou Jun thought that he could catch his surprise and attack from three sides. Didn't they have already prepared well and waited for work with leisure, just waiting for Zhou Jun to come to the Huai River to die!

Chapter 152: What is Zhou Jun doing?

"Such a thought..." Li Zhongjin expressed surprise on his black face.

He didn't continue speaking in the middle of the words in his mouth, but looked at him in surprise.

In the distance, there are undulating hills at the eastern foot of Zijin Mountain, and a large area of ​​woods is being cut down by auxiliary soldiers and civilians to build fences to keep horses away. Pan Mei is directing this matter.

Yesterday afternoon, Shi Congyun made a dispatch and asked Li Chongjin from Feishuinan to replace Zhang Yongde as the leader, and Zhang Yongde continued to besiege the city.

Shi Congyun hesitated for a long time last night, and he still had a lot of uneasiness in his heart. After thinking about it, he still felt that Li Chongjin was more capable, and he was more at ease leading the army than Zhang Yongde.

He can't help it, he doesn't know what is the most perfect way, and he is always hesitating in some places and needs to think about it.

The siege of Shouzhou must be pressed step by step, and neither side seems to be able to let go. In comparison, he felt that the city of Shouzhou had no ability to fight back, and people were starving to death. two positions.

Talking to Li Chongjin was not that difficult, he only said a few words, Li Chongjin immediately guessed his intention, and then his face was full of surprise, he was much smarter than Zhang Yongde.

"You mean we are here to hold back the main force of the Tang army!"

Shi Congyun broke a branch from the side and held it in his hand: "Yes, I have thought about it carefully, if we don't completely destroy their navy, no matter how many victories we win, it will become a protracted war.

Their water army can supply food and supplies for the army, and transport a steady stream of soldiers from the south. Even if we win a game here, Haozhou, Sizhou, Chuzhou and other places will still receive their continuous support , rather than that..."

"It's better to target their navy once and for all." Li Chongjin said.

Shi Congyun nodded, looking at the Southern Tang camp in the distance, "Zhao Kuangyin and Si Chao are already on the way, and they will be responsible for intercepting the reinforcements from Haozhou.

Shi Yanchao will approach the Southern Tang army camp from the east, seemingly outflanking, but in fact the main purpose is to cut off their connection with Tu Shan.

In this way, Tang Jun thought that our encirclement circle was here, on the bank of the Huaihe River, so a certain soldier would not hesitate to give up Yangzhou, Liuhe, Chuzhou, and Qingliuguan and send soldiers to surround them.

In fact, I am besieging Tushan. Sichao, Li Chuyun's navy troops, Zhao Kuangyin's troops, Xiang Xun's, and Han Lingkun's troops will all besiege them, and even Shi Yanchao's cavalry can reinforce them. In fact, they are all heading for Tushan. "

There was something else in Li Chongjin's eyes, and he fixed his gaze on him, "But in the eyes of Zhu Yuan and others in the Southern Tang Dynasty, you want to encircle and wipe them out..."

Shi Congyun nodded, "The Southern Tang Field Battle is not our opponent, so as long as the supplies and follow-up are cut off, they have no capital to confront us at all.

I didn't think about rushing to attack them at all, and I didn't put my mind on them.

In the long run, when they have no navy, no matter what, as long as they keep fighting, Tang Jun will lose.

The difference is that they are thinking about the present, and some are thinking about the future. This battle has been fought for more than a year, and the land of the Southern Tang Dynasty is thousands of miles away, and the future will not happen overnight. "

Li Chongjin was speechless for a while, then suddenly said, "You really look like a handsome man."

"It's rare for you to say something nice." Shi Congyun dropped the branch in his hand and smiled triumphantly, "I'm a genius! I learned it slowly.

In the past, a certain soldier only had to consider the life and death of each soldier, and their eating, drinking, and scavenging. Now I find that if I continue to think about issues like that, the war cannot be fought.

So the matter of how to kill people should be left to the generals who lead the army to think about it. I think about those long-term things that can determine the overall victory or defeat. "

"The recruitment envoy wants to say that this army should be handed over to someone, so I'll go and confront Zhu Yuan, right?

Just say it, don't beat around the bush. "Li Chongjin said bluntly, and then said: "You can rest assured that the envoy recruits, I know what you mean, I won't rush forward, and I can grasp my sense of proportion. "

Hearing what he said, Shi Congyun felt relieved, and then instructed: "Destroying the enemy is not the goal, as long as they are contained here, wait until Tushan and Haozhou have results, and you can make your own judgment on the details.

I will order Wang Shenqi in the south and Gao Huaide's troops to be dispatched by you. "

"Li Chongjin cupped his hands.

Shi Congyun nodded. The reason why he handed over the battle in the north to Li Chongjin was because he was going to Shouzhou, where he could take care of all parties and better command the armies.

After that, Shi Congyun crossed the Fei River again and arrived at the city of Shouzhou.

.......

After arriving in Shouzhou, Shi Congyun asked the officials to write many letters urging surrender and shoot them into the city. Everyone in the surrendered city will be safe.

He had already sent someone to ask the officials on the north bank of the Huaihe River for instructions on this point, and Guo Rong agreed. As long as Liu Renshan surrendered, he would not die, and he would be rewarded heavily. mind.

Shi Congyun kept asking people to shoot letters persuading them to surrender into the city, and sent people to hold copper horns and approach the city with the grille to loudly persuade them to surrender. They came in rotation, 24 hours a day.

In addition, he has no effective means of siege.

Li Jixun, Li Chongjin and others who were able to use it all tried it.

Large and small equipment such as ladders, siege vehicles, bed crossbows, and catapults, as well as siege methods such as hitting doors, digging waterways for drainage, digging tunnels, and building earth mountains, were all used, all of which were resolved by Liu Renshan.

At this moment, it is almost impossible to break through the city by physical means.

Horses can be raced at the top of Shouzhou City, and the foundation below has a city wall about two feet wide. Even the methods of later generations are not so easy.Not to mention gunpowder, even chemical explosives require a large amount.

Ancient city walls, especially fortified cities like Shouzhou, are not just thicker walls as people think. Most of them are bricks and stones on the outside and rammed earth on the inside.

In order to facilitate the defense of the city, transport materials and take into account the hardness, the width of the upper part of the city alone requires at least two-wheeled flatbed vehicles to pass through, and the wall becomes wider as it goes down.

It is almost impossible to destroy it by brute force, unless he has TNT explosives.

So Shi Congyun actually gave up the idea of ​​physically destroying Shouzhou City from the very beginning.

It was sunny and clear on March [-].

Early in the morning, as soon as Shi Congyun came out of the big tent, he washed and ate something casually, when the drums and trumpets shook the sky in the north.

"It's fighting!" A messenger from the north bank of Feishui told him the news after a while.

Shi Congyun stared at the north, he had already explained to Li Chongjin how to fight, Li Chongjin should not make any mistakes...

Afterwards, the soldiers sent by Xiang Xun, Zhao Kuangyin, Shi Yanchao and others also arrived and reported their location to him. At the same time, they told him that they had read the letter, understood the combat intention, and made arrangements.

Zhao Kuangyin went northward from Dingyuan and attacked Tu Shan's enemy head-on.

Xiang Xunhui went to the east, on the one hand, he was responsible for attacking Dangtu from the east, and at the same time cut off possible reinforcements in the direction of Haozhou.

The most outstanding among them is actually his father Shi Yanchao. He said in the letter that he ordered his general Long Jie to command Murong Yanzhao to lead a thousand horses to the west, pretending to pinch the main force of the Southern Tang army, while he himself personally Lead the army to attack Tu Shanshui village from the west to the east.

After reading these battle reports, Shi Congyun was very excited. The Tushanshui Village was surrounded on all sides and attacked on three sides. He concentrated almost half of his troops on the small Tushan in order to wipe out the Southern Tang navy in one fell swoop.

There, the Zhou army has a huge advantage in strength!

Of course, the most important thing is Si Chao's navy. If there is no navy, the Southern Tang navy will flee from the Huaihe River if they can't beat it.

In the afternoon, the battle reports from the north continued to come back.

First, in the morning, Zhu Yuan, the coach of the Southern Tang Army, couldn't hold back his temper and confronted them. He sent [-] forwards through the woods to tentatively attack Wang Shenqi and Gao Huaide's troops in the north.

However, before they reached Wang Shenqi's camp in the north, Li Chongjin learned of the situation in the south, and immediately sent Zhao Chao to lead more than a thousand cavalry to support them from the side.

The Southern Tang army realized that the situation was not right, and they retreated in fear of being attacked on both sides. Zhao Chao led his army in pursuit, killing dozens of people, and was immediately called back by Li Chongjin.

After waiting for more than an hour, many Southern Tang soldiers withdrew from the woods outside the Southern Tang army camp one after another.

It turned out that Zhu Yuan was not only probing, but also setting up an ambush to lure them.

Fortunately, Li Chongjin had Shi Congyun's explanation, and he understood that the purpose of this battle was to hold back the Southern Tang army, not to fight them, so when the Southern Tang army retreated, Li Chongjin also retreated.

In the afternoon, Zhu Yuan's strategy failed, and he had no choice but to stop probing, and directly sent two large armies through the woods in front of the camp to attack in two directions, north and south, with about 4000 people on each side.

The temptation this morning taught him a lesson. You must not only fight on one side. The Zhou army on the other side will support the pincer attack, so you can only fight on both sides.

Fortunately, the Southern Tang Army had a large number of troops.

So the two sides entered into a tough battle, and this time was almost different from all previous battles. Since the Zhou army entered Huainan last year, most of the time the Zhou army attacked and the Southern Tang army defended. There was almost no chance of winning in a frontal field battle.

Now it is reversed, and the Southern Tang army is attacking, and the Zhou army is defending.

The result was also expected. The Southern Tang army, who was not yet an opponent in the field, had prepared early, and the Zhou army, who was defending on the spot and waiting for work, was naturally more difficult to fight.

When the sky darkened, the army withdrew, and the two Southern Tang armies continued to retreat to the camp to rest, the Southern Tang army had already suffered a lot of damage, but they only wiped out the deer firewood and some rejected horses on the periphery of the Zhou army's camp.

Shi Congyun was always paying attention to the battle in the north of Feishui. After listening to the report of the messengers, he was very satisfied with Li Chongjin's performance, and felt that his replacement was the right one. If it was Zhang Yongde, he might be on Zhu Yuan's team when.

Now that the fight has started here, the major events in the overall situation should be about the same.

Looking at the clear moon on the top of Shouzhou City, Shi Congyun began to feel nervous. He had planned for so long just for the next day or two. Whether he succeeds or fails will determine the situation in Huainan.

.......

The Southern Tang Army Camp is located by the river five or six miles east of the foot of Zijin Mountain.

The Huaihe River began to diverge in the upper reaches, split into north and south, and then converged in the lower reaches, forming a huge island in the middle of the river, which was ten to twenty miles long and four to five miles wide.

So the Huaihe River they are backing on is exactly half of the Huaihe River, and the other half is on the other side of the island, which cannot be seen from the south side of the river.

Zhu Yuan was pacing along the river agitatedly. Today's battle is not going well is just one of them. The most important thing is that he has lost his confidence at the beginning of the period, and he is increasingly confused about what Zhou Jun's intentions are.

A few days ago, he originally thought that the Zhou army was going to attack them from three sides, and the battle would enter their defense and the Zhou army's attack.

But for the next two days, they were actively preparing to defend, but the Zhou army on the opposite side was also actively preparing to defend, so they built camps and trenches against them, and they seemed to be ready to hold on!

what is this?

Zhu Yuan couldn't sit still, Zhou Jun planned to spend with them?Or is there another conspiracy?Or did he simply not want to fight and just wait for Liu Renshan to surrender?

He became more and more puzzled, and more and more irritable, and finally couldn't hold back his anxiety, and launched an active attack this morning.

He was not in a hurry, but tried first and then set up an ambush, all of which were resolved one by one by the opponent's generals, so he had no choice but to fight hard!

He thought about it, and he didn't feel that he missed anything, but he always felt that Zhou Jun's movements were not right.

Fortunately, in the afternoon, the scouts discovered that Shi Yanchao's cavalry, who had gone northward from Yangzhou, had indeed appeared on the west side of the Xihao River, approaching them.