The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 800
Summer has a great impact on both marching and combat.

Soldiers on the march are exposed to the scorching heat. If they are not careful, they are in danger of fainting from heatstroke. However, it only takes a few minutes to fight in armor and they can sweat profusely all over their bodies.

The fighting slowed down a bit. In the summer, the Ming army in the north showed no sign of wanting to go south. It seemed that they had already focused all their attention on the land of Hebei, and the Han army finally got a respite.

At the beginning of the year, [-] troops crossed the Yellow River to attack Wei Ting.

The [-] Han troops spread mighty and mightily across a land of more than ten miles, and the people of Yanzhou Dongjun all saw that spectacular scene.

The river is full of fire flags in full swing, spears and halberds are like forests that almost block out the sky, spears and spears are like hemp like a forest of steel.

Letters of success came one after another, and the Wei army was declining day by day.

Qu Yi was entrenched in Qingzhou and did not rush to help, and Youzhou in the north was blocked by Gongsun Zan.

The prosperous Wei army resisted stubbornly, but it was powerless to advance.

Destiny seems to be on the side of the Han Dynasty.

At that time, the entire court in Chendu was excited about it.

It's just that no one thought that in just a few days, everything had changed.

The bad news came that in the battle of Fanyang, the Ming army suddenly appeared in the south of the city like magic soldiers, defeated the Han army in the south of the city, and captured the leader Huang Fusong alive.

Then the Han army gathered its main force and fought against the city, but the finally assembled Han army was still defeated by the Ming army...

Sun Jian was beheaded, and Liu Bei, Xu Zhu, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ji Ling, Cheng Pu, Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin and other generals were all trapped in the enemy's line, and their lives were uncertain.

Of the [-] Han troops, less than [-] fled back to Yanzhou, and the rest of the soldiers were trapped in the northern border.

Although Yuan Shu wanted to gather the remnant soldiers and wait for the possible evacuation army, but the Ming army was encircling, and more and more Ming troops finally dispelled Yuan Shu's thoughts. Yuan Shu finally took the remaining [-] soldiers through the ferry. Li Yang was evacuated.

In the end, Yuan Shu burned the Liyang Ferry to the ground, and even after crossing the river, he sent a navy to search for all the ferries in the north that could be gathered in the north, and finally burned them all.

The purpose is just to hope that the Ming army can slow down the pace of attack, temporarily unable to go south.

The Han army who fled back to Yanzhou was already like a frightened bird at this time, and any disturbance might attract their attention and arouse his fear.

If the Ming army went south at this time, it would be easy to capture most of Yanzhou.

Today's Yanzhou defense is extremely empty, and it can even be said that it is like an undefended village gathering in front of the Ming army.

News of the fiasco of the Northern Expedition reached Chen Duzhong.

In just a few days, this terrifying news spread throughout Chendu like a hurricane.

Even if the embroidered clothes envoys came out everywhere, there was no way to curb the spread of the news. Before this news appeared in Chendu, it had already been spread in other places and caused an impact.

Fear spread like a plague, affecting the hearts of everyone who heard the news.

Huangfu Song was captured, Sun Jian was killed, and [-] Han troops were trapped in Hebei. When Liu Xie heard this shocking news, his first reaction was the rumors fabricated by the Eagle Wolf Guards, trying to influence the hearts of the soldiers and the people.

But the information he got was a secret letter written by Yuan Shu himself, and the blood-red seal on it was the best evidence.

No matter how powerful the eagle and wolf guards were, they couldn't reproduce Yuan Shu's secret letter.

In Chen Du, the Dongming Hall was completely silent.

Dim sunlight penetrated into the hall from outside the hall and fell into the dark hall.

Situ Wangyun, Sikong Zhangxi, Chariot General Liu Chong, Jingzhou Biejia Liu Xian and other important court officials were all in the palace pavilion.

The atmosphere in the hall was terribly dull, Liu Xie sat in the first seat, without saying a word, and everyone's expressions were dark.

The Northern Expedition failed miserably, and only [-] soldiers fled back to Yanzhou.

Yuan Shao's death was originally a happy news, but now no one in the hall can be happy.

The Ming army has now swept the three prefectures of Ji, You, and Qing, and the entire land of Hebei.

This time during the Northern Expedition, they lost troops and lost more than [-] elite soldiers who were able to fight well, and lost a large number of generals and schools. In the end, they made wedding dresses for the Ming army.

It took a long time to prepare troops and even overdrawn the finances, so that the total number of troops directly under the Han court that could be used in field battles was [-]. Jingzhou was not included, and the Central Forbidden Army included a total of [-] troops.

This is already an extremely huge number. The army opened the way, the gold and silver paved the ground, the soldiers and horses did not move, and the food and grass went first.

Among them, a large number of soldiers are actually recruits, not an army composed of selected good families as in the past, so there are many differences in military discipline, military appearance, and combat power.

Now in the entire Han court, only Qingzhou has more than [-] soldiers and [-] remnants led by Yuan Shu in Yanzhou that can be used in field battles.

The Central Forbidden Army originally had a scale of nearly [-] after continuous expansion, but [-] of them went to Yanzhou to join the sequence of the Northern Expedition Army, and only [-] troops stayed in Chendu.

That is to say, the field force that the Hanting can mobilize now is only more than [-] people.

And these more than [-] people need to defend the long line of defense from Yanzhou Dongjun to Qingzhou Donglai County to prevent the Ming army from going south.

According to the latest news from Hebei, Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi were killed and Yuan Shang was granted the title of Marquis of Wei.

Wei Ting has collapsed, and now Jupiter is lobbying a group of powerful families in the three prefectures of Ji, You, Qing, and Hebei.

Qu Yi has now announced that he has joined the Taiping Dao, and has brought more than [-] old soldiers to the Taiping Dao, greatly enhancing the power of the Taiping Dao.

The Ming army has now become the only big force in Hebei. If anyone dares to disobey, even if they are exterminated, all the powerful families in the three states have already surrendered.

According to scattered news, the Han court also learned of the changes that took place in Youzhou. Gongsundu, the Ming army of the two counties and Wuhuanli of the three counties should join forces. Youzhou was captured by the Ming court in less than two months. .

The navy of the Ming army in Liaodong was also restless. This time they went south and harassed many cities along the coast of Qingzhou. They looted the official warehouses of many cities, and broke down the fortresses of many powerful families. , and their food was also taken captive.

Not only did they plunder money, they even plundered civilians along the coast. Many coastal people were taken onto ships by the navy of the Liaodong Ming Army.

Part of the Liaodong Ming Army Navy Fleet has returned, but part of it continues to loot and disturb the coastline of Qingzhou.

The Han court had just captured Qingzhou from the Wei army, and they were still strengthening the defense of the Yellow River, so where did they find the time to build sea ships.

When the navy fleet of the Liaodong Ming Army came suddenly, no one reacted at all.

And they also had nothing to do with the Ming army's navy that was harassing the coastline. Wei Ting left behind only a dozen naval warships, and the hulls of these warships had a lot of wounds.

At the beginning, Wei Ting didn't just sit and get beaten. They also wanted to take back Donglai County, which was invaded by Gongsun Du, so they also trained a navy.

However, this navy was almost completely lost in the first battle, and only a dozen or so ships managed to escape back to the port. With the help of the port's ballista and a large number of crossbowmen, they were able to survive This last bit of tinder.

At this time, the threat of the Han court in the south became more and more serious, so Wei Ting also shifted the spearhead to the Han court, no longer making warships, but turned to making military equipment, and these things were put on hold.

For the harassment of the Ming army's navy, the Han army had nothing to do.

If the number is smaller, they can't beat the navy of the Ming army at all. Once the number is slightly larger, the navy of the Ming army will immediately flee to the coast. With few ballistas, without the cover of warships, if you fight against the enemy on the coast, you will undoubtedly become a target.

Those Ming army sailors are basically wearing light armor, with extremely fast hands and feet, they can easily throw them far away, and they are extremely cautious, and they will never go to places where the line of sight is not open, no matter how big the temptation is. Hold back.

The Han army's several attempts to lure the enemy all ended in failure. In the end, they could only order the villagers from all the coastal villages to return to the city forcibly, relying on the city to hold on and strengthen the patrol team.

During the Northern Expedition, most of the cavalry were recruited to Yanzhou to participate in the Northern Expedition. Now the entire Han army in Qingzhou did not have many cavalry.

The actions of the Liaodong Ming Army navy in Qingzhou can be described as unscrupulous, and they are not afraid of the counterattack of the Han army in Jizhou.

Now whether it is the western front, the eastern front, or the southern front, the Ming army has the advantage.

In the Battle of Nanyang, the Jingzhou soldiers were defeated and defeated, and they retreated all the way to Xiangyang to stop the defeat.

In the water battle in Nanjun, the Han army had more than [-] naval warships, while the Ming army had only about [-] warships. Although the number is not much different, the Han army navy has more large ships.

Most of the naval forces of the Ming army were small and fast boats such as "Zouge", "Zouge" and "Chima", while the Jingzhou navy had many large ships of the "threshold" and "lou" level.

In fact, the combat power is quite different, and the Han army has a considerable advantage. No one thinks that Chen will lose.

Chen Jiu used to be a general under Huang Zu's command. Later, due to the fall of Jiangguan, he was transferred by Liu Biao to be the naval general of Nanjun.

But the result of the war was a crushing defeat.

At first, Gan Ning led the navy to advance eastward, and Chen led the troops to counterattack.

When Chen discovered that the warships under Gan Ning's command were far inferior to those of his navy, he wanted to quickly defeat Gan Ning with tall ships and large ships, and then take Jiangguan in one fell swoop with the prestige of a great victory.

Chen Ju ordered Deng Long and Zhang Wu, the generals under his command, to lead a team of boats and boats to attack the navy of the Ming army.

Then he directed the building boats to collide with the Ming army navy, intending to use the huge hull of the building boats to forcibly rush into the Ming army navy fleet, and then use ballistas and crossbows to kill the Ming army, completely defeating the will of the Ming army.

His tactics cannot be wrong, but he misestimated Gan Ning, and also misestimated the combat power of the Ming army navy.

Except for the yellow scarf who was born in Taipingdao, the generals under Gan Ning's command were all water thieves who had followed him very early.

Seeing that Chen directed the building and boats to head straight for the main formation, Gan Ning did not panic and ordered the ships to move forward.

In the narrow space, these water thieves who have been following Gan Ning and lived in the water since childhood skillfully piloted the building boats, and unexpectedly avoided the two building boats rushing straight at them.

Gan Ning's ship collided directly with Chen Jiu's, and a group of water thieves who were good at boarding and jumping gangs immediately steadied themselves and brought the two boats together.

Gan Ning, holding a shield and a Yanling sword, boarded Chen Jiu's ship with the arrows and stones in his hand, and jumped into the panic-stricken Han army, like a tiger entering a pack of wolves. The Han soldiers on board fled in all directions. He was also beheaded by Gan Ning.

Seeing that Chen Jiu's flag fell and his boat was captured, all the Han soldiers were frightened and fled one after another.

As a result, the Nanjun navy was defeated by the Ming army, and even more than ten warships were captured.

Chen was beheaded by Gan Ning, and his ship was also captured by Gan Ning. As a result, a large area of ​​Nanjun was captured. At this time, the Ming army in Yizhou was going down the river, marching eastward to Nanjun to capture Yiling.

The defeat in the battle of Nanyang is actually irrelevant. The city of Xiangyang is well built and its natural terrain. Even if the Ming army had a sharp weapon like a catapult, it would not be easy to capture Xiangyang.

However, the defeat of the Nanjun water battle and the Ming army's intention to capture Yiling could affect the survival of Jingzhou.

Yiling has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times.

Yiling is located between the Taihu Plain, Jianghan Plain, and Sichuan Basin. If the three areas want to communicate with each other, they must not bypass Yiling. Yiling is the most important link in the Yangtze River water transportation.

Yiling is located at the east mouth of Xiling Gorge, one of the Three Gorges. The river several hundred miles in front of Yiling is narrow and torrenting. It is often dilapidated for boats to sail. The roads on both sides are also rough and difficult to walk. There are many victims, but here is a place that must be passed, but it has to go.

But once Yiling was passed, the surface of the river suddenly became clear and the current became more moderate.

The roads on both sides also entered the Pingchuan area where cars and horses can be used.

If Jiangguan is the eastern gateway of Yizhou, then Yiling is actually the western gateway of Jingzhou.

Yiling is connected to Zhangshui and Jushui in the north.

To the north, you can pass Xiangyang and threaten the Central Plains.

To the south, you can go to Wuling through Yi Road.

To the east, you can see the entire Yangtze River Basin.

To the west, you can enter Yizhou.

"What's the situation in Jingzhou now?"

After a long silence, Liu Xie, sitting in the first seat, asked aloud.

Liu Xie's voice broke the silence, and also made everyone's eyes focus on Liu Xian, Jingzhou Biejia.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Ming army is currently stationed in the north of Xiangyang City. Although they have launched several attacks on Jingzhou, they were all repelled by our army."

"only……"

Liu Xian looked a little embarrassed.

"The situation in Yiling is a bit difficult. According to the news reported earlier, the Ming army is storming Yiling, and General Huang Zu is still on his way leading his troops."

"If Yiling falls..."

Liu Xian didn't finish his words, and the Dongming Hall was quiet again.

So everyone knew what Liu Xian meant. Once Yiling fell, Xiangyang would be lost if it was double-teamed by the north and the south.

If Xiangyang is not protected, then the entire Jingzhou will fall into an extremely dangerous situation.

Once Jingzhou is in danger, the current Han court will fall into a truly besieged situation.

There is no more chance of victory...

(End of this chapter)