In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 305 If you can’t hold the Huaihe River, you will be doomed

After the meeting, Wu Sangui and Zhou Meng took the senior generals of the [-]rd and [-]th legions respectively and hurried back to Nanyang and Hanzhong without daring to delay for a moment.

After all, both of them are not stupid. Compared with the Central Route Army and the West Route Army, the East Route Army has an absolute advantage in terms of terrain and time.

Indeed, Namuzhong once again adopted Li Yan's suggestion and did not send cavalry to lead the charge south, nor did he care about Xuzhou to the east.

Instead, they directly led the 2 troops of the Fourth Army and Li Yan and his wife, a total of [-] troops, and killed them along the official road south to Fengyang Mansion.

The main thing is to crush someone directly with strength. Obviously, Li Yan knows very well how many pounds Chuangjun has.

Seven days later, the army entered Fengyang Mansion. Sure enough, although King Chuang left 30 troops in Fengyang Mansion, commanded by his nephew Li Guo and general Liu Zongmin, the 30 troops were defeated near Taihe in just one battle. They were beaten to the point where they collapsed and fled in all directions.

Li Guo and Liu Zongmin had no choice but to flee back to Fengyang City in embarrassment with tens of thousands of defeated soldiers, and hurriedly asked King Chuang for help.

If there weren't too many rivers and fields and too many defeated troops, Li Guo and Liu Zongmin might not have a chance to escape back to Fengyang.

After resting for five days, the army continued southward along the official road with more than [-] surrendered troops, heading straight towards Fengyang Fucheng.

The states and counties along the way also heard the news and surrendered one after another.

This was the first time Namu Zhong fought such a battle. There was not a serious battle, but the number of troops increased several times. Everywhere she went, there were countless Ming Dynasty officials and gentry who came to see her.

Faced with this situation, Na Muzhong was immediately confused. At first, she wanted to catch all the defeated soldiers, and she also enthusiastically received the officials and gentry who came to see them one by one.

But later he became numb and didn't bother to see him anymore, and sent him directly to Li Yan to deal with surrendering troops and generals.

Four days later, the army arrived at the north bank of the Huaihe River. Looking at the swamps and lakes on both sides of the river and the wide Huaihe River, Namuzhong finally realized the horror of the Jianghuai area.

There is simply five miles and one river, and ten miles and one lake. Let alone the cavalry galloping, it is difficult for the infantry square formation to be deployed. I feel a little unsure at once, and the officers of the Fourth Army are also dumbfounded.

"My Majesty, don't worry. Fortunately, summer is over now. Our army can rest on the north bank for a period of time, then collect the boats and practice lowering the troops. When winter comes, it won't be too late to attack across the river!"

Li Yan naturally knew how terrible the Jianghuai region was. Countless armies from the north had been defeated here throughout the ages, especially now when the Yellow River was seizing the Huaihe River. So he immediately suggested to Namu Zhong to fight slowly and let the northern soldiers adapt to the southern climate first. Practice those 10,000+ pawns again, because the next battle is best to focus on pawns, with the fourth legion as the finale.

"Oh, will the Huaihe River freeze in winter?" Namuzhong's eyes suddenly lit up. If these rivers and lakes freeze in winter, it will not have much impact on the army.

Seeing that the queen was expecting the Huaihe River to freeze, the red lady almost laughed out loud. Li Yan also felt ashamed and quickly explained: "My queen, this is already considered the south. Even in winter, the river will not freeze." It’s icy, even if there is a small amount of ice, it will be absolutely impossible for people and horses to pass.”

"That's it, then just follow General Li's advice. The army can't reach the river for now!"

Na Muzhong was disappointed for a while, and then nodded. She really didn't know how to fight in this kind of terrain.

In this way, the army temporarily stationed on the north bank of the Huaihe River. Li Guo and Liu Zongmin in Fengyang City on the other side also breathed a heavy sigh of relief. While asking for help from King Chuang, they set up defense lines along the river bank, hoping to rely on the Huaihe River to block the Chinese army. pace.

Because the battle in the past few days had really shocked the two of them, and it also made them clearly realize that if they could not rely on the Huaihe River to stop the Chinese army, they might really be doomed.Originally, Li Yan was worried that the [-]-strong army of the Fourth Army would become acclimatized on a large scale. Who would have thought that only a few hundred people would fall ill?

But most people only feel a slight discomfort in their body, and the discomfort disappears in the same night, and they are not affected at all.

Even the situation of the five thousand Mongolian cavalry led by Ebutu was similar, which really shocked Li Yan.

After all, according to historical records, when the northern army arrived at the Huaihe River for the first time, it took at least ten days and a half to adapt. During this period, a large number of soldiers would fall ill.

However, I felt relieved after thinking about the food and daily drills of the Chinese army. It can be said that no army in the past and present can match the Chinese army in terms of food and drills.

It is true that ordinary soldiers in the ancient army were generally malnourished, and it was easy to suffer from large-scale acclimatization. However, even ordinary soldiers in the Chinese army had very balanced nutrition. They had meat and broth almost every other day. Coupled with daily rigorous training, this did not happen. Large-scale acclimatization.

King Chuang, who was enjoying the blessings in Luzhou City, broke into a cold sweat when he learned that his 30 troops were almost wiped out in one battle.

Shi Kefa, who had also just arrived in Yangzhou and was in charge of recruiting troops, was also confused when he received the direct defeat of the 30-man army on the north bank of the Huaihe River.

Prince Xiao Fu and all the civil and military officials in Nanjing City were also panicked and couldn't sit still.

But just one battle by the Chinese army made the whole Jiangnan people panic, and they began to make their own small calculations.

"Everyone, the Chinese army is currently on the north bank of the Huaihe River, training troops and horses, and building warships. Zong Min and Guo'er only have [-] or [-] troops and horses left, and they will never be able to defend the Huaihe River. Everyone, let's talk, what should we do now?"

After King Chuang finished speaking, all the veterans of the Chuang army immediately got into a fuss. Some proposed to defend the Huaihe River, while others suggested crossing the river directly. A small number of people even proposed to hide in the Dabie Mountains. .

Of course, this suggestion was directly rejected by others. In the past two or three months, everyone had embraced him and lived a luxurious life of beautiful women and wine. They would rather submit to the Chinese army than go to the mountains to fight hard.

This is a typical example of how easy it is to move from frugality to luxury, but how difficult it is to move from luxury to frugality.

Chuang Wang also didn't want to live the hard life of being hungry, full, and sleeping in the open.

Song Xiance and Niu Jinxing were worried, and they both felt a sense of regret for having chosen the wrong master, but it was too late to say anything now.

"King Chuang, at this point, even if our army crosses the Yangtze River, we can only have temporary peace of mind. Even if we can capture Nanjing, we may not be able to escape defeat in the end, so we can only choose to defend the Huaihe River. As long as we can defend the Huaihe River, If we defeat the Chinese army, we can cross the river and capture Nanjing at any time, and we can still seek hegemony!"

"Yes, since ancient times, one must defend the Huaihe River to defend the river. If the Huaihe River cannot be defended, it will be impossible to compete with the Chinese army wherever it escapes."

No matter how bad Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance were, they were still scholars. They knew that they could never run away at this time. If they continued running, they would really become bandits again.

The reason why the two of them defected to King Chuang in the first place was naturally because they wanted to assist King Chuang to achieve hegemony, so that they could leave their name in history, and they would never be willing to follow King Chuang to become a bandit, and finally find a hilltop to fall into the grass. In that way, they Might as well learn from Li Yan.

King Chuang still has 70 to [-] horses. Of course, there are only about [-] young men who are really capable. There are only [-] or [-] old brothers brought from Henan. However, there are only [-] of them who are really capable and capable of fighting. People, but they couldn't stand the strength of the crowd, and they were not willing to surrender to the Chinese army or become rogues, so in the end they gritted their teeth and decided to lead all the troops to defend the Huaihe River.

(End of this chapter)