Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

In mid-October, Guo Shao heard that Li Chuyun had captured Tongling (northeast of Chizhou). ;top;point;fiction

The situation is a bit complicated. There are two Jiangxinzhou in the middle of the river near Chizhou, called Fengyi and Changxiang. The existence of Jiangxinzhou greatly shortens the distance across the Yangtze River, making it possible for Li Chuyun to build a pontoon bridge. However, the river here is relatively fast and the water surface is not narrow. The fragile pontoon bridge was destroyed within a few days.

Gao Yanchou of the Jiannan Army was still in the north of the Yangtze River, and was ordered to cross the river by boat, failing to catch up with Li Chuyun's main force. Li Chuyun marched into Tongling in a hurry, captured the Southern Tang army's garrison and water fortress, and captured more than 200 warships... At this time, Gao Yanchou's troops were still in Chizhou and had not fully crossed the Yangtze River.

Li Chuyun was in such a state of momentum all the way that the generals couldn't hold back under such circumstances. After he occupied Tongling, he continued to march northward to Wuhu without stopping. Completely disregarding the threat from the direction of Hukou (Poyang Lake) and the situation of Gao Yanchou.

Guo Shao couldn't sit still anymore, and hurriedly sent an order to relocate the Xingyuan of the Chinese Army to Hezhou (Hexian County on the opposite bank of Caishiji, Ma'anshan City), so as to pay close attention to the battle situation in the south of the Yangtze River. They also sent people to urge a part of the Huben army in Luzhou to rush to Chizhou.

In the second ten days of the month, the Wunan Tang garrison was empty and defeated. After more than 10,000 people from Li Chuyun occupied this place, they stayed in a small number of soldiers and horses, and continued to spy on Dangtu Town near the quarrying ferry... When Guo Shao got the report, Li Chuyun had already marched to Dangtu.

...and in the lobby of the state government office, all Guo Shao can do is measure the distance between various places with a ruler.

Wang Pu said beside him: "Li Chuyun is faster than Shi Yanchao..."

Shi Yanchao's expression was very embarrassing, and he couldn't expose Li Chuyun's fault at this time.

Guo Shao felt like he couldn't stop even if he stepped on the brakes. It was only a few dozen miles from Wuhu to Dangtu. Even if he sent someone to order Li Chuyun to stop the attack now, it would be too late. Maybe Li Chuyun had already reached Dangtu... What's more, Guo Shao didn't want to stop Li Chuyun at all, otherwise he should have given the order long ago.

Dangtu Town is the "Gushu" that is always mentioned in the military books and history books. The places that are always mentioned in the books are very important strategic places. Because wars always happen in these place names, they are mentioned many times. This place controls the amount of quarrying, the upper reaches of Jiangning Mansion, a very important place in the Jiangnan area... To conquer this city, the quarrying ferry is in the bag.

As long as this place is occupied, the flames of war will directly burn to the Jiangning Mansion, the center of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the blocking effect of the Yangtze River's natural danger will disappear. Central breakthrough, a very fast offensive route; compared to advancing from upstream city to city, this road is a shortcut. Li Chuyun is greedy for merit, and Guo Shao is equally impatient.

There are really loopholes in the national defense management of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and Guo Shao is unwilling to stop Li Chuyun, otherwise he may be accused of being timid and afraid of delaying the battle if he brings up this campaign again in the future.

But at the same time, Guo Shao is also under great psychological pressure... The strength of the Southern Tang Kingdom is still very strong, and there are at least hundreds of thousands of troops in various places, which is not an imaginary number. However, Li Chuyun had tens of thousands of people in the middle of his border, and there were threats from all sides. He stretched the front line hundreds of miles long without backup and insufficient preparation, and his army went deep into the strategically important area of ​​the Southern Tang Kingdom.

Guo Shao felt that Li Chuyun's approach was very risky, and he couldn't bear any accident. Once defeated, the entire front from Dangtu to Chizhou, Chizhou to Jiangbei would be broken.

"It's almost November, and the war has been going on for more than a month." Guo Shao mused, "The enemy troops in the Southern Capital are still standing still, won't they come?"

Wang Pudao: "If Zhu Lingyun would have come from Hukou, he should have come long ago. If Li Yu or Zhu Lingyun can delay the reinforcements from Hukou for more than a month, the delay will be even longer..." He then persuaded, "Li Chuyun must be a knowledgeable person who can go all the way through Dajiang. He is in a hurry to attack Dangtu, so he should have a chance of winning."

Guo Shao paced back and forth: "Jiangning Mansion (Nanjing) wants to reinforce Dangtu, and the journey is not far away... I just hope that Li Yu will continue to make mistakes, and the Southern Tang Guochaotang will still be as unresponsive as before."

...

In Dangtu Town, Li Chuyun took the lead to ride his horse to the south bank of the Guxi River, the army was still behind, and they clashed with the Southern Tang army scouts along the way.

The ancient city walls and towers faced each other across the river. Li Chuyun reined in his horse and observed the city in sight. The city was not big, but there was a Jiezhen Xiongyuan army at the disposal of the Southern Tang Kingdom; the brick-clad walls and the moat made it look different from other small cities. The Guxi River in the south of the city has become a natural moat to the south of Dangtu. There are water gates in the city wall, and moats have been dug on the east, west, north, and east sides... If the city is defended carefully, it will not be easy to attack.

There were sporadic warships of the Southern Tang Army cruising on the Guxi River, and the people on them could see clearly, but the warships did not rush to threaten Li Chuyun's team, they just watched from a distance on the river.

Looking back at the surroundings, Li Chuyun saw a flat open land, which was very suitable for the army to set up a battle formation. The place where he was standing had the Guxi River and Dangtu Town on the north side of the front, and the Qingshan River flowing north-south into the Guxi River on the east side, and then flowed westward into the Yangtze River; the west side of Li Chuyun Station and the west side of Dangtu City were all open land.

The neighing of a horse came from far behind, Li Chuyun turned his head, and saw that the troops on several roads had appeared in sight, and his men and horses were advancing here.

On the west side of Dangtu City and across the Guxi River, there are faint signs of the Southern Tang Army. The Southern Tang Army seems to have deployed troops outside the western city.

Li Chuyun looked sideways at the westward sun, and said, "Order the various ministries to choose a place to set up camp. At night, send a spy to cross the river and report the situation of the Southern Tang Army."

"Decree!"

Zhang Lingduo, commander of Long Jiejun's right wing, asked at this time: "Mr. Li has a plan to take the pawn?"

"No." Li Chuyun said calmly, "This city is well-fortified, we have too few people now, and a strong attack will not be effective."

Zhang Lingduo asked, "Are you waiting for Gao Yanchou's reinforcements?"

Li Chuyun said disapprovingly: "The people of Shu are willing to sacrifice their lives for us, it's not very useful, don't worry about it... don't wait, our army will not attack the city, first cross the Guxi River and seize Caishiji.

The defenders of Dangtu City have no strength to block our troops. First of all, their water army is very weak, obviously no reinforcements came to strengthen the defense; secondly, the Southern Tang army retreated to the north bank of the Guxi River, showing signs of staunch defense, only a shortage of troops would be so conservative. "

Li Chuyun rode a horse and walked west along the river until he reached the edge of the Yangtze River. The sun was almost setting. All the soldiers persuaded him to return to the barracks, but he still sat on his horse and observed the surrounding situation with his own eyes.

Looking west, the Yangtze River is very narrow here, but the opposite bank is not Jiangbei, but Jiangxinzhou; if you hadn’t found out the terrain in advance, you might think that the Yangtze River narrows here, and the opposite is the land of Jiangbei... It’s not true, it’s just that the Jiangxinzhou is too big, and the water of the river is divided into two streams.

Not far to the north is Caishiji, one of the most important ferry crossings in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but Li Chuyun still can't see it with his eyes. His eyes were on the northern horizon, and he could imagine the place.

Opposite Caishiji is the North Point of Jiangxin Island, and the opposite bank is Jiangbei Hezhou territory. Li Chuyun had already learned that Guo Shao moved the Central Army to Hezhou, and the two of them were already very close at this time.

Caishiji is a very important place, which has always been the breakthrough point for the north to attack the south of the Yangtze River; and from the perspective of Guo Shao's strategy for attacking the southern Tang Dynasty, the target is also here, and this place will be the core of the overall campaign.

Li Chuyun secretly pondered: No other generals have done as much credit as me for taking down the quarry! As long as Guo Shao ascends the throne in the future, the old man will establish the luck of the Li family for a century by virtue of the two most critical contributions of last year's Tokyo mutiny and this year's attack on the Southern Tang Dynasty!

"Tomorrow, we will cross the river to clean up the Southern Tang army outside Dangtu City, and then attack Caishiji. If we achieve our goal, we will connect the pontoon bridge at Caishijia. When the time comes, the reinforcements from the north of the river will cross the river and plan to plan Dangtu City." Li Chuyun said to the general.

... The next morning, as soon as it was dawn, the elite main force of Long Jie's right wing was deployed on the south bank of the Guxi River, by the river. In the morning, the fighting broke out first on the water, and the Nantang army was quickly wiped out on the water. The most important function of this place is to control the Yangtze River Ferry, but the Southern Tang Army has very few naval divisions here, and it is no match for the more than 300 warships of the Zhou Army.

When the sun rose, Zhou Jun's warships with relatively shallow draft had entered the Guxi River for activities.

A large number of troops from the Southern Tang Army on the north bank faced the Zhou Army across the river, but this did not stop the Zhou Army from crossing the narrow Guxi River. To the west of the city alone, there are more than ten miles of land along the river bank. It is impossible for the Southern Tang army to disperse the small number of troops on the river bank.

More than 200 people from Zhou Jun's naval division first went ashore at one place, and the Southern Tang Army mobilized cavalry to go there. When Li Chuyun rode his horse and rushed to the place where the river was crossed, he saw that the cavalry of the Southern Tang Dynasty had broken up the phalanx of the naval infantry, and the sound of killing on the other side was loud, and there was a chaotic battle with swords and guns. More sailors abandoned their boats and went ashore, gathering battle formations by the river.

Commander Zhang Lingduo was a little impatient. After watching for a while, he yelled: "Looking at the battle of those navy troops, let me lead the troops to go there by boat!"

Zhang Lingduo has nothing to do with Li Chuyun, he is the commander of one wing, and now he can't control the right wing of Long Jiejun. So Li Chuyun didn't stop him.

Zhang Lingduo then led his soldiers to abandon their horses and boats and cross the Guxi River. The surface of the river is not wide, and the fighting over there can be seen clearly from the south bank. Seeing Zhang Lingduo jumping off the boat, he rushed forward with a long gun and killed the two of them with his own hands in an instant. This guy is really good at martial arts... Zhang Lingduo has no one above him, and his ability to command all the troops basically depends on his military exploits. These generals are not lacking in bravery.

Li Chuyun saw that the Southern Tang army was unable to attack the group of people who had landed, so he judged that there was hope for crossing the river from here. Immediately, he ordered the elite soldiers of the guards to cross the river by boat, and there were more and more Zhou army soldiers on the other side.

More soldiers of the Zhou army appeared at more landing sites. At this time, the warships began to transport horses, and some cavalry got their horses and gathered in the west to form a cavalry. The Southern Tang army came from the east with a second cavalry reinforcement, but a horse team of more than a hundred cavalry from the nearby Zhou army had already established momentum, and immediately charged forward under the leadership of Zhang Lingduo.