Qiming 1158

Chapter 684 Liu Qi, who lost the chance

Regarding the matter of guarding the river and guarding the Huai, not only Liu Qi, but also people of insight in the Southern Song Dynasty have long raised it, and they also hope that the court can correct it.

However, after the Shaoxing peace negotiation, the Southern Song Dynasty was afraid of any friction with the Jin Kingdom, and Huainan itself was also facing the risk of diversion and flooding of the Yellow River, and investing a lot of money to build long-term military defense facilities was not worth it.

In the event of a flood, it would be enough to wipe out all the military defense facilities in Huainan. At that time, everything would be lost, and it would be the imperial court who would lose money.

Considering this, the government of the Southern Song Dynasty decided to focus on defending the major crossings of the Yangtze River rather than the Huai River, and moved the line of defense back.

On the one hand, it can avoid the danger caused by the flooding of the Yellow River, and on the other hand, it can also increase the military buffer zone and prevent the accident with the Huaibei Jin Kingdom.

Once the war begins, it is ready to abandon Huainan, and use Huainan to lengthen the enemy's supply line to increase the possibility of the Song army's defensive victory.

Moreover, if the Yellow River flooded during the war, then the Song army would win by lying down and win without fighting, and the northern army would be defeated without defeat. Wouldn't it be nice?
With this idea in mind, this strategy of the Southern Song Dynasty has been implemented all the time, even after the fall of the Jin Kingdom, this strategy has been fully continued and has not been changed.

When Liu Qi was transferred from the Jinghu Theater to the Huainan Theater, he found that the Southern Song Dynasty government did not set up defenses along the Huaihe River.

He planned to set up the general headquarters in Yangzhou, an important town in Huainan, to divide troops to defend Baoying and Xuyi, and to cooperate with each other in order to protect Huainan.

The court did not respond to Liu Qi at first, and ignored him.

At that time, the court only wanted peace, who could care about war?

If the act of building the defense of the Huaihe River is destined to be misunderstood by the Ming Dynasty, and the friends are amazed, what should be done?

It was not until the war in the Ming and Song Dynasties was overcast that the court paid attention to Liu Qi's suggestion.

When Zhou Linzhi had little chance of success in his mission, the imperial court hurriedly approved Liu Qi's suggestion to garrison the important town of Huainan, allowed Liu Qi to leave the town of Yangzhou, and realized his plan of garrisoning in three places, and also offered him a large amount of military expenses.

It was already March [-]th when Liu Qi got the permission of the court, and there were only three days left before the Ming army dispatched troops.

Unless there is a train, it is simply impossible to realize his Huainan garrison plan in three days.

Not to mention that after Liu Qi was transferred from the Jinghu Theater to the Jianghuai Theater, it took a long time for the army of Zhenjiang Prefecture to be controlled by a group of officers, otherwise he would not be able to command the army of Zhenjiang Prefecture.

The Southern Song army was full of large and small hilltops. Although Liu Qi was a famous general who started his career in the Lianghuai area, he was later relieved of his military power and transferred to the prefect of Jingnan as a civil official.

More than ten years have passed in a flash, and things are different. Liu Qi has been a civil official for a long time, and he is no longer a combat general in the military sequence. Even if Liu Qi once defeated the Jin Army and became famous, he would inevitably be burdened by the factions in the army. Commanding the army is a huge headache.

The original commander-in-chief of the army of Zhenjiang Prefecture was Liu Bao, and Liu Qi took over after Liu Bao was impeached and removed from office. Liu Qi was like an airborne commander, and the army still harbored doubts and ignored his orders.

In desperation, Liu Qi could only ask the imperial court to mobilize his old cronies, including his nephew Liu Si, to help him control the army.

In this case, the court did not embarrass him and allowed his request, but despite this, he still needed time to integrate the military and clean up the disobedient thorns.

The actions of the Ming army were indeed beyond Liu Qi's expectations.

When he received permission from the imperial court to garrison Huainan on March [-], he still thought that even if the Ming and Song sides were to go to war, there should still be a month to two months left. The Ming army needed to be dispatched, and it was impossible. Attack immediately.

He did not know that the dispatch of the Ming army had been completed, so he was waiting for the order.

He felt that this period of time was enough for him to calmly dispatch the army to arrange the defense of Huainan.

So on March 22, he sent people to Yangzhou to arrange the situation after the army crossed the river. On March [-], he began to rectify the army and prepare to cross the river.

He never expected that on March 23, the Ming army would send troops.

At that time, there was no army in Huainan that could fight against the Ming army. The officials fled south in a hurry and surrendered the city to the Ming army. The Ming army made rapid progress.

When Liu Kai learned of the Ming army's dispatch on March 26, the Ming army had already attacked Baoying County.

Liu Qi was shocked, and immediately made arrangements to let his general Wang Gang immediately lead [-] troops to cross the river first, and rushed to Baoying for garrison. The road of the Ming army to the south.

When Wang Gang led his army galloping forward in Huainan, on March 28, the Ming army captured Gaoyou County. When Wang Gang got the news, he knew that something was wrong, but he couldn't continue to go north. Tell Liu Kai and ask what to do next.

On March 29th, when Liu Kai dragged his sick body from Zhenjiang Prefecture to Yangzhou, he received a report from Wang Gang, who learned that the Ming army had already occupied Gaoyou, and there was a possibility of going further south.

Liu Qi was shocked and realized that he had missed the opportunity and had no chance of successfully establishing the Huainan defense.

He forcibly calmed down and found that the only thing he could do at the moment was to find a way to contain the Ming army's front, try to defend Yangzhou and Guazhou crossing, and prevent the Ming army from successfully crossing the river and setting foot on the south of the Yangtze River.

Damn!

Liu Qi slammed the table with his fist and hated the Ming army.

He didn't expect the Ming army to attack suddenly, and he didn't expect those states and counties in Huainan to fall so quickly. He felt that the Ming army might not have fought at all, and these states and counties had no resistance at all. The Ming army was just hurrying, and then stationed in the city. , pierced through Huainan without much effort.

His guess was right. The officials in Huainan didn't choose to resist. First, they were timid. Second, they didn't have troops or weapons to resist. What about defense?

They can only choose to run away.

Liu Qi had no choice but to order Wang Gang to guard carefully, block the way of the Ming army southwards, and buy time for his next deployment of troops.

After Wang Gang received the order, he began to set up defenses, thinking that he would complete the task Liu Qi gave him anyway, and buy him time here.

At this point, Liu Qi had to sigh that the Ming army was quick and tactical, and had already established a firm foothold in Huainan. Unless the Song army could retake Gaoyou, push back and push down the Huaihe River, otherwise Huainan would be difficult to defend. .

Liu Qi dragged his sick body and looked at the map to think about strategies. He looked left and right, and he felt that it would be impossible for him to do anything with his own troops.

He didn't have much time to reorganize the army, but he also reorganized an army of 4 people for use. He brought 3 people to defend Huainan and left 1 people to defend Zhenjiang.

Although the number of the Ming army is not yet known, no matter how you look at it, the 3 people he brought are not enough to push the Ming army back with a wave of counter-push, and can only defend at most.

Previously, the imperial court had promised to dispatch the imperial guards in front of the palace to come to support them.

He also sent someone to contact Wang Quan in Jiankang Mansion, hoping that Wang Quan could send troops to Zhenjiang Mansion to assist in the defense, and cross the river to Yangzhou to reinforce his troops, but Wang Quan promised him, but no action was taken.

Liu Qi suddenly felt that he had his back to the old nest of Jiangnan Song Dynasty, but he seemed to be fighting alone in a desperate situation. No one could help him. He could only watch the situation slip into the abyss that was extremely bad for him. among.

It's such a wonderful feeling.

All of them are the Song Dynasty army, but they are divided so far apart, and they are divided so finely, is it really good?

Liu Qi just sighed with emotion, but he didn't hope for more, because he had never done similar things himself, and he could only say that this kind of thing is difficult to return, and it cannot be established unless it is broken.

If the reinforcements never come, then all he can do is to stick to Yangzhou and Zhenjiang, and use the strength of the Yangtze River navy in his control to defend the Yangtze River. .

This is the best situation he can imagine right now.

(End of this chapter)