Fenghou

Chapter 1193 First Battle
In early March, Chen Qing led an army of [-] to Bianliang. This was his fourth visit to Bianliang within two years, and this time he would launch an Eastern Expedition to completely capture Shandong Road.

This is also the plan that was formulated before the first Eastern Expedition. The second step of the two-step strategy. He has already realized the first step. He has captured the Henan Road area west of the New Yellow River, including Bianliang and Luoyang. After two years of preparation, the time to implement the second-step strategy is finally ripe.

Thousands of acres of military camps have already been set up in the west of Bianliang City. Twenty days ago, [-] troops arrived. This time, Chen Qing commanded another [-] troops to arrive, bringing the strength of the military camp to [-]. The scale is very large. huge.

Zhang Xiao, Yang Zaixing, Liu Cui, Gao Ding and other civil servants and generals came to Chen Qing's tent one after another.

Chen Qing brought everyone to the sand table, and said to everyone: "I just arrived today, so I won't talk about how to fight, but let's talk about the prospect! Before capturing Henan Road, everyone can see that Wanyan Wushu is not He didn't try his best, but in the end he saved his strength and withdrew, which shows that he didn't want to compete with us too much for Henan Road, and it was also because Henan Road was squeezed to death by the golden soldiers, and even Wanyan Wushu was regarded as tasteless, so he didn't want it anymore.

But Shandong Road is different. Shandong Road has not been deeply oppressed by Jin Bing. Two million sheep were brought in, and the farm cattle, mules and donkeys on Shandong Road were saved, but even so, the people in Shandong were overwhelmed by heavy taxes and urgently waited for us to rescue them. "

Zhang Xiao also said: "I feel that the timing of the first Eastern Expedition and this Eastern Expedition is different. We need to consider more things, especially the external ones. factor, has His Highness considered it?"

Chen Qing smiled lightly and said, "I'm not worried about the nomadic cavalry. We have made a lot of preparations, and I believe they will return home. As for the imperial court's northern expedition, I am actually not optimistic. It's not that the soldiers don't die, but that the imperial court There is a problem with the strategy, first of all, strategic positioning, what is the purpose of the Northern Expedition of the imperial court? Did they prepare enough money and food, and whether they had enough troops to defeat the Jin soldiers? I felt like I could defeat Jin Bing.

Secondly, their strategy for the Northern Expedition was also problematic. Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you win a hundred battles. I saw them aggressively attacking Qushan County in Haizhou, and I knew they would definitely lose. "

"How does Your Highness know?" Yang Zaixing asked curiously.

Chen Qing sighed softly, "Li Cheng personally commanded [-] elite soldiers to garrison Qushan County. There are hundreds of thousands of grains in the city, and [-] barrels of fire oil. They couldn't see that Li Cheng was wasting their troops? When the Song army was nearly half dead and wounded, and exhausted from fighting, Li Cheng led an army of [-] to fight out. How could the Song army resist?

I guess Liu Qi is not that stupid, it should be the emperor who ordered them to take Haizhou at all costs. "

"Does your Highness think that Wanyan Loushi will send troops to support Shandong Road this time?" Gao Ding asked from the side.

Chen Qing nodded, "This is actually what Master Zhang said just now. The timing of the Eastern Expedition is a matter of timing. Our first Eastern Expedition attacked the Henan Road, and Jin's strategic focus was on the grasslands to deal with Muwu. Jin had no time to take care of the Central Plains. It’s different now, the Kingdom of Jin has pacified the grasslands, and their eyes will naturally focus on Hebei Road and Shandong Road, so it has become the national policy of the Kingdom of Jin to keep Hebei Road and Shandong Road intact, so they will definitely have countermeasures, mainly Increase troops to Shandong Road, so the attack on Shandong Road this time will be a hard battle, and it will also be a fierce battle. I will send [-] troops to fight this battle, just to ensure victory."

Liu Cui asked, "Excuse me, Your Highness, what is the goal of our first battle?"

Chen Qing pointed at Haizhou with a wooden pole, and said with a faint smile: "Our first battle is also Haizhou!"

In the middle of the night, the soldiers woke Chen Qing up from his deep sleep, "Your Highness, General Li and General Pan are here!"

This was Chen Qing's order. If Li Qiong and Pan Gui came in the middle of the night, they should wake him up immediately. The two of them would not spend the night in the barracks. After reporting to themselves, they should rush back immediately.

At present, Li Qiong is stationed in Bozhou with [-] troops, and Pan Gui is stationed in Shouzhou with [-] troops. Pan Gui is the deputy general and is controlled by Li Qiong.

The lights of the handsome tent were turned on, and it was not yet three o'clock, and the two of them came rushing all the way.

The two knelt down on one knee to salute, "See Your Highness for humble positions!"

"The two generals have invited you, and you have worked hard all the way."

Both of them were notified early this morning. They ran all the way and changed a few horses before arriving at the Bianliang barracks in the middle of the night.

Chen Qing asked the two to sit down, and then served tea to the soldiers. Chen Qing asked, "How is the situation in the army?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, the brothers are all gearing up and waiting for the order to attack."

Chen Qing nodded, "This time you are not asked to go out to fight the enemy, but to seize the territory. I estimate that the imperial army will be defeated in a few days, and will be defeated all the way to the south of the Huaihe River. Li Cheng's army will not cross the Huaihe River." In this way, there will be no troops stationed in Suzhou, Sizhou and Lianshui Army temporarily. You must seize this opportunity to occupy the two states and one army, and control the north bank of the Huaihe River. If the Song Army sends people to negotiate , you say it is my order, let them come to me!"

"Understandable!"

Chen Qing pondered for a while and said: "But you can't be careless. It is not ruled out that Li Cheng will leave a small amount of troops to garrison, so you need information first. I have sent the commander Yu Shouzhong to lead [-] scouts to sneak into Fuli County and Xuyi County. Get in touch with them as soon as possible."

The two looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

Chen Qing asked the two of them a few more words, and they remembered them one by one. Then they left, and left the Bianliang camp overnight, and returned to Bozhou and Shouzhou. The two troops will gather in Shouzhou, waiting for the opportunity to send troops.

After the two generals left, Chen Qing couldn't sleep anymore. He simply stood in front of the sand table and meditated, carefully deduced his combat strategy, and found out all the omissions one by one.

Donghai Island is also called Yuzhou, which is today's Lianyungang. It was an independent island in the Song Dynasty and was not connected to the mainland. In fact, it includes some areas such as Yancheng, Taizhou, and Nantong in Jiangsu today. In the Song Dynasty, it was also a vast ocean. Not yet land.

At present, Donghai Island is separated from the land by a three-mile wide strait. The island is quite large, ten miles long from north to south, eight miles wide from east to west, and has an area of ​​about [-] mu. It can definitely be built into an important shipping strategic transit point.

This morning, a huge fleet of [-] Wanshi ships arrived at Donghai Island. The [-] ships not only brought [-] soldiers, but also brought a large amount of food, supplies and tents.

The [-] troops will still be under the command of Liu Qiong. The leader is Tang Huai. He bowed to Liu Qiong and handed a letter to Liu Qiong, "This is a letter written by His Highness. Your Highness asked me to hand it over to Liu Dutong."

Liu Qiong took the letter and read it hastily, nodded, and handed the letter to Tang Qian, the lieutenant general. He smiled and asked Tang Huai, "Have you been intercepted by the court navy when passing Zhenjiang Mansion?"

Tang Huai shook his head with a smile, "We didn't even see the shadow of the court navy, let alone intercept it."

At this time, Tang Qian read the letter and handed it to Liu Qiong. Liu Qiong raised the letter and asked, "Has General Tang not read this letter?"

Tang Huai shook his head, Liu Qiong said flatly: "Your Highness, let us pay attention to Qushan County. Once the Song army is defeated, it will be our chance to seize Qushan County."

(End of this chapter)