Chapter 1207: Guard against death
Chapter 1207: Guard against death
Shanxia's messenger finally reached Huaiyang Hill, Liangshan Island and the south bank of the Yangtze River at night.
The Jin army is now feeling as if its communications have been severely disrupted. Information transmission is sporadic and is often intercepted and monitored. They are feeling helpless.
On the sixth day, the Niuzhushan camp on the other side of Liyang was the first to receive the news.
The garrison took action immediately.
On Caishiji, which protrudes into the river, the Jin army set up fences along the river and equipped themselves with bows and crossbows. As long as the Liang people dared to climb up here, thousands of arrows would be fired at them immediately, making them all food for the fish and turtles in the river.
After the weather cleared up, Shan Xia climbed up the city wall and looked out, nodding secretly.
Niuzhu Mountain and Caishiji are key locations, and he set up the Niuzhu Camp with 3,000 infantry and 200 cavalry against all odds.
This "against all odds" is very frustrating. It is obvious that Sun Ce in the late Han Dynasty and Chen Min of this dynasty both crossed the river to the south from here, but no one is willing to take it seriously. In history, Su Jun, Chen Xianda, Hou Jing and Han Qinhu all crossed the river from here without any obstruction.
After blocking this ferry, the Liang army could no longer cross the river easily.
Yes, Shan Xia still has no idea how many Liang soldiers have arrived. He is completely in the dark and can only guess.
Since we have made a guess, we must be lenient with the enemy, because Da Jin cannot afford the cost of mistakes.
On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the main forces of the navy stationed in Liangshanzhou and Wuhu began to set out.
There were also small-scale naval vessels in Hengjiang, Danglipu, Dongkoupu, Wujiangkou and other places, which were also dispatched in large numbers at this time to patrol day and night.
The scope of their patrol was very wide, from Niuzhu Mountain down to Jiyang, a total of six or seven hundred miles, which was jointly patrolled by the Liyang Navy and the Jianye Navy. From Niuzhu Mountain up to Wuhu, Liyang was solely responsible.
The river section is very long, and the land and sea troops of the big families in Wu have not had time to mobilize, so it is definitely impossible to completely block it. Therefore, they can only focus on controlling the large sections that are easy for "tens of thousands of troops" to cross the south. For other places that are not easy to cross, only a small number of ships need to be sent to patrol.
On the eighth night, Jianye also received the news.
The Northern Army mobilized on a large scale.
Liu Kun, who had just recovered a little after recuperating for several months, came out of the mountains despite his illness and took charge of Jingkou.
His first order was issued to the garrisons in the cities north of the Yangtze River, ordering them to guard their borders and not to act rashly.
After fighting the Xiongnu for so many years, he knew that it was very dangerous to go out without authorization when the enemy situation was unclear. Because you don't know how many troops the enemy has, where the main force is, and when they will attack you, the consequences of recklessness are very serious, and precious troops will be annihilated by the enemy. In this way, the city that could have been defended could no longer be defended.
Rather than acting blindly, it is better to defend the city and wait for the situation to become clear.
Moreover, Liu Kun always felt that Shao Xun did not send a large army south.
This judgment has no basis, but it is not completely a blind guess. The most realistic question is, where did the Liang army come from?
It's definitely not the Huaiyin direction, this can be ruled out. Then it can only be the Huainan direction.
The rebel general Zhang Shuo had been cultivating land in Shouchun and other places for many years, and had accumulated a considerable amount of food and fodder, enabling him to sustain a large-scale army.
They marched south from Shouchun, and Lujiang, Hefei, Liyang, and Guabu all sounded the alarm. It seemed that they had no clear direction to advance and were fighting indiscriminately. According to the limited information sent back, no large group of Liang army infantry had been seen so far.
There is no large-scale infantry! This information is very critical.
How can you capture a city without infantry?
Therefore, Liu Kun boldly guessed that this was a harassment, but just a larger-scale one.
If tens of thousands of Liang infantrymen appeared later, he would revise his judgment. Anyway, it seemed to be just a harassment at the moment, and the Liang army had no appetite to destroy the Jin army.
But it's useless for him to figure it out, he needs others to have the same rationality...
******
As a senior member of the royal family, the Prime Minister, the Recorder of the Secretariat, and Sima Rui's regent, King Xiyang Sima Ying was very panicked.
On the ninth night of the first lunar month, he arrived in Jingkou with thousands of soldiers and hundreds of cavalry granted by the court.
He had just turned fifty after the Chinese New Year and did not care about the fatigue of the journey. He began to inspect the river defense section under the charge of the Governor of Jingkou that night.
On top of Suan Mountain, the lights are bright.
The militiamen who were originally happily celebrating the New Year at home were conscripted in batches to cut wood, dig soil, and build camps.
Fortunately, heavy snow fell in the first half of the night. The soil was frozen hard and cracked when the pickaxe was used to dig it.
There was no other choice, so someone went to look for firewood, intending to heat the ground and soften it first.
On the top of the mountain, team after team of soldiers gathered, but in such a hurry, only a few hundred relatively regular Northern Army soldiers arrived, and more were strong men who were temporarily recruited - yes, among the militiamen, those who were strong and healthy were equipped with equipment and joined the Northern Army soldiers in defending the Suanshan camp.
The weak could only chop trees, carry soil, dig ditches, and even run around in the cold winter to transport military supplies.
Sima Ying looked at it for a long time and sighed.
Chaos! Such a fucking mess!
He remembered the previous false alarm incident, where seven or eight Liang cavalrymen sneaked into Piling, attracting reinforcements from various armies. In the end, they discovered it was a false alarm, and they dispersed in a noisy manner. Isn't that ridiculous?
If King You of Zhou was a bad person for lighting beacons to trick the princes, then that false alarm was just stupid!
General Gao Di is not only cowardly, but he also has no military skills at all.
In the past, when he was with Sima Yi, the King of Changsha, he did participate in military planning and gained a lot of knowledge.
Later, he joined Sima Yue and witnessed one war after another, listened to the opinions of Gou Xi and others, and saw Shao Xun's military reports.
Even if you haven't eaten pork, you will have seen pigs run. He originally thought that he had mediocre abilities, but now he finds that there are a lot of people who are worse than him. However, those people are still unaware and dare to speak so shamelessly!
Your mother is a slave! He really wanted to swear.
At this moment, several riders came galloping from a distance, dismounted and reported: "Prime Minister, there are already two thousand soldiers at Sushan Ferry (Xijin Ferry)." "It's not enough, continue to send more troops. If Liu Yueshi refuses, I will go and negotiate with him myself." Sima Ying said immediately.
"Yes." The knight mounted his horse and rode away as quickly as a flash.
Not long after, two more messengers arrived and reported: "Grandmaster, there are already two thousand soldiers at Qiaoshan."
"Not enough! Not enough!" Sima Ying was already a little angry, and said, "How can two thousand soldiers be enough? At least five thousand soldiers are needed. Qiaoshan, Sushan Ferry, Sushan, Lianbi, Beigushan (Beigushan), etc., are the key points of river defense. If we defend these places, the Liang people can't fly over even if they have wings. Go away, are you all stupid? If Liu Kun doesn't have enough soldiers, he can mobilize the troops of each family."
After that, he stamped his feet and said, "Follow me to Beigu Mountain."
"Yes, sir." Everyone responded in unison.
Sima Ying immediately got into the carriage.
If the northern troops crossed the river to the south and chose to stop near Jianye, they would only have two places to go: Liyang and Jingkou.
Between Jianye and Jingkou, the river is wide, the wind is strong and the waves are fierce, and the south bank is covered with rocks and reefs, like the Great Wall. Who the hell would have the time to cross the river there?
Well, it seems that I crossed the river with the late emperor in that area (near Yanziji), but they were not many in number, only a few princes and their followers, and they came in batches. They really suffered a lot on the river and almost died in the belly of fish.
How did tens of thousands of Liang troops cross the river from there?
Sima Ying was thinking about all sorts of things. He was thinking about how to stop tens of thousands of Liang troops in Jiangbei, whether to withdraw Shan Yanlin, and how to quarrel with Liu Kun...
******
The cold wind blows hard and the waves crash against the shore.
In the midst of the heavy snow, a team of soldiers escorted the emperor's carriage out of the city and headed north towards the river.
The wind was so strong that the torches were often blown out.
King Sima Yu of Kuaiji huddled in the carriage, leaning his hands against the small copper stove to get as much warmth as possible.
It’s too cold, the weather is cold and my heart is cold too!
How sad! When he was only fourteen years old, he was urgently appointed as the Right General and given the title of Palace Attendant, and was given a dangerous mission to inspect the "gangs and banks" in the north of Jianye.
Since it is called "Gang'an", it is naturally a place with continuous high hills and difficult to climb.
But no matter how difficult it is to capture the criminals, we cannot be completely careless. We need to send someone to inspect and take charge of the overall situation.
Sima Yu knew that at this extremely delicate juncture, the emperor and the empress trusted neither of them and only the royal family!
King Xiyang went to Jingkou and urged the Northern Army to defend the city with all their might, and to build camps and station troops in all dangerous areas.
King Langya went to Niuzhu Mountain and commanded the land and sea troops in Liyang Town south of the Yangtze River.
King Qiao Sima Wuji was once again appointed as the "commander-in-chief of the naval and land military affairs of Shitou", guarding Shitou City and protecting the western suburbs of Jianye.
As for him, King Sima Yu of Kuaiji, he went to the riverside for inspection with the two thousand imperial guards hastily allocated to him.
"Wang Gongcao, how many soldiers do I lead?" After feeling a little warm, Sima Yu suddenly thought of a question, so he looked at Wang Shu who was sitting opposite him and asked.
As a result, Wang Shu widened his eyes and did not answer.
"Hmm?" Sima Yu was a little confused, so he asked again: "How many soldiers do I have?"
"My king, we are going to pile up stones." Wang Shu said.
Sima Yu's eyes widened. What a irrelevant answer!
He couldn't help but look at Wang Shu a few more times. This shouldn't be the case!
Wang Shu was born into the Wang family of Taiyuan. His father, Wang Cheng, was a famous wise man with rich knowledge and high reputation.
When Sima Yue was in power, he asked him to teach the crown prince Sima Pi, and later he was appointed as the prefect of Donghai and managed the fiefdom for Sima Pi.
After crossing the Yangtze River, Wang Dao and others placed themselves under Wang Cheng. Later, he died of illness, and the court and the public mourned.
Wang Shu inherited his father's style, being quiet and reserved, so much so that some people said he was mentally retarded. But Sima Yu did not believe it, because before he was appointed Gongcao, Prime Minister Wang Dao wanted to summon him to be a Zhongbing official to manage military affairs, and Sima Yu had managed to snatch the position with great difficulty.
If he had no talent, how could the prime minister employ him? Don't be ridiculous.
But why did he remain silent and answer the question irrelevantly?
Sima Yu pondered over it and felt that there must be a deeper meaning behind it.
"Gongcao, are you saying that the Liang bandits are weak in force and we only need to pile up stones by the river to repel the enemy?" Sima Yu asked.
"The ways of heaven are profound and mysterious, and the ways of ghosts and gods are hard to predict. How can we mortals know them all?" Wang Shu said.
Sima Yu: “…”
He stopped asking, what the hell is this! What the hell are you talking about?
He had lowered his head in anger, not wanting to talk anymore, but then he thought that his wife-to-be was Wang Shu's younger sister, so he shouldn't be too cold to her. So he changed his tone and said in a friendly way, "Huai Zu, this time--"
At this moment, a dull sound of horse hooves was heard from the heavy snow ahead.
Just as Sima Yu was puzzled, a horrifying scream rang out, followed by a cry of surprise: "There are bandits!"
"Where did the bandits come from?"
"From the river!"
"Protect the king!"
"What's wrong with the navy? How many thieves are there?"
The sounds came one after another, and Sima Yu's face turned pale all of a sudden.
(End of this chapter)