Kai Fu Han

Chapter 258 Chasing and Suppressing the Remnant Enemies 2
"Information passed back an hour ago, the Jin cavalry had already crossed the boundary river to the boundary of Laizhou before the first fleet arrived at the boundary river. They are now heading towards Ye County, Laizhou. It is estimated that they will reach Ye County tomorrow and join the five thousand people in Ye County. Pseudo-Qi infantry."

After hearing the bad news, Liu Xinqi began to lower his head and think.

The currently available manpower basically has tasks, and only half of the second fleet is left as a mobile force, but these ships are reserved by Liu Xinqi to deliver supplies to the infantry battalion planes, and they cannot be used easily.Otherwise, [-] cavalry and horses would require at least [-] civilian men to transport logistics supplies. Now the Xinghan League can't support such a large number of people to participate in the war, which will greatly affect normal production.

"Immediately send a message to the third fleet. If Yexian can keep it, we will withdraw. If we can't hold it, we will withdraw. Just destroy the grain and grass stored in Yexian before withdrawing." Liu Xinqi ordered his guard to arrange for the golden eagle to send the message.

The third fleet had previously captured Ye County in a sneak attack. They were in the enemy's hinterland and had only 1000 soldiers and horses available to defend the city. The Jin cavalry plus the 1 Puppet Qi infantry left in Ye County had nearly [-] people. It's hard to get up.

In the current situation, we can only concentrate our forces to deal with the 5000 men in Liu Lin's hands, and the Jin cavalry that has withdrawn to Laizhou can only be put aside temporarily.

"Report!" a soldier shouted outside the headquarters.

"Come in!" Jiao Rui responded.

"Report! After Liu Lin's army discovered that Huang County was occupied, it turned westward and did not attack Huang County." said the soldier who reported the news.

"Where is the first fleet?" Liu Xinqi asked the General Affairs Department again.

"There is no latest information. According to the information passed back before, if everything goes well at this time, it is estimated that it has entered the boundary river." The person in charge replied.

The communication methods are backward and the information transmission is extremely delayed. The troop strength, marching position and current situation of various parts of the battlefield can only be estimated and guessed.

"If Liu Lin's soldiers and horses cannot cross the boundary river, how do you think he will go?" Liu Xinqi asked everyone present.

Everyone started thinking after hearing the question.

"The boundary river is not a big river. You cannot cross it directly. It only takes a day to go around to the shallow water upstream. If it were me, I would lead my troops to go around and then continue to Laizhou." Liu Xinang replied first.

Even if the first fleet has shallow-draft sand ships, they must be large ships. They cannot sail to the upper reaches of the boundary river. They can only block the soldiers and horses crossing the river at the downstream where the river is wide and deep, so they go around to the upper reaches to wade. Crossing the river is possible.

"Ye County in Laizhou has been captured by a sneak attack before. Liu Lin must know this news. If it were me, I would not choose to retreat to Ye County, but to Laiyang in the south. At that time, I will have more choices, or after resting If you want to go to Penglai again, you can either return to Jinan Prefecture by land, or follow the Jiulong River into the sea and directly reach Mizhou by sea." Jiao Rui put forward a different opinion.

The other battalion commanders either supported Liu Xin'ang or Jiao Rui, but did not raise other possibilities, and they did not think that Liu Lin's troops would burn their boats and return to attack Penglai again.

"The terrain in the upper reaches of the boundary river is complicated and there are no roads. If there are few people, you can still go around it. But Liu Lin has 5000 people in his hands, and he must have run out of food and aid now, so he will definitely not go into the mountains to make a detour, so he The chance of going south to Laiyang is the highest." Liu Xinqi concluded.

"Are we going to chase Laiyang?" Liu Xinang asked.

According to Liu Xinqi's previous battle plan, after the beheading battle, the [-] Jin-Qi coalition troops would basically be captured by the Xinghan Alliance, and the remaining defeated troops would no longer be fearful.Liu Xinqi then arranged a three-way march. The first army bypassed the Shandong Peninsula and headed for Laoshan Bay, then landed and occupied Jimo County in the southwest corner of Laizhou.The Second Route Army marched westward from Ye County and occupied Haicang Town, located at the junction of Weizhou and Laizhou, located in the northwest corner of Laizhou.The Third Route Army moved south from Laizhou to occupy Jiaoshui County, the westernmost part of central Laizhou.

Occupying these three places will form a defense line on the west side of Laizhou. After the defense line is formed, Laizhou and Dengzhou will become the back gardens of the Xinghan League, which can be occupied gradually and calmly.

However, the plan could not keep up with the changes. Although the beheading battle was successful, it also disrupted the offensive of the Jin-Qi coalition against the Xinghan League.However, two big fish were missed, resulting in the enemy still having two organized troops. The existence of these two troops made Liu Xinqi dare not split up his troops, otherwise he would definitely fight in the front and start a fire in the backyard.

"Compared to the [-] Han troops led by Liu Lin, the puppet prince of Qi, the remaining cavalry of the Jin Kingdom is a greater threat to us, so the main combat target now is Wanyan Jingzhe's tribe. As long as it is confirmed that Liu Lin's tribe has gone to Laiyang, we will be The troops went to Ye County and joined the third fleet to eliminate Wanyan Jingzhe's tribe, and then went south to eliminate Liu Lin's tribe." It would be better to cut off one of his ten fingers than to hurt him!
The Xinghan League still had too few troops, and its muskets lacked gunpowder, so they could only concentrate their forces to eliminate one of the two enemy armies first.

"Shall I send someone with the Golden Eagle to follow Liu Lin's whereabouts?" the person in charge of the Military Intelligence Department asked tentatively.

"Okay, report the situation as soon as possible." Liu Xinqi agreed.

"Others, hurry up and rest and reorganize your troops. We will all take a boat to Yexian tonight at the latest!" Liu Xinqi ordered the others.

……

November [-], Chenshi, off the coast of Huang County.

The Fifth Infantry Battalion, which had arrived by boat the day before, was on standby on the boat.

Standing on the bow of a county-level sand ship, Zhao Yinghao looked eagerly in the direction of Huang County.

Finally, three fast horses from the east were galloping towards this direction with their whips raised.

Standard Xinghan League reconnaissance team.

"Quick! Get to the shore! Get to the shore!"

Zhao Yinghao quickly said to the captain.

Four sand ships moved toward the shore. Zhao Yinghao jumped ashore, and three cavalrymen just ran up to them.

"The enemy's central army has passed Huang County and is heading to the Huangshui River."

"Okay! Okay! Okay!" Zhao Yinghao shouted three times: "It's finally time for us to show our faces."

Then he immediately ordered the fifth infantry battalion on the ship to disembark and march quickly to Huang County.

Huangxian County does not face the sea. It is more than twenty miles away from the coastline in the west and north. It is the closest to the Huangshui River, only a little more than ten miles away. However, in order to block the enemy's retreat, they can only go ashore from the west of Huangxian County.

The Fifth Infantry Battalion are all soldiers who have completed recruit training. From the moment they enter the recruit camp, they have a full diet of fish and meat, and occasionally other meat. Their physical strength is much better than that of soldiers of this era.After a rapid march of twenty miles, without the burden of supplies or heavy equipment, all members only carried weapons and armor, and arrived at the west gate of Huang County after an hour and a half.

Zhao Yinghao looked back at the troops behind him. No soldiers were left behind, but the ordinary soldiers had basically reached their physical limit. If Huang County's internal troops could not open the city gate as planned, they would have to rest for a period of time before attacking the city.

Fortunately, Zhao Yinghao, who had just stopped to take a few breaths and before giving any orders, saw that the west gate of Huang County opened.

(End of this chapter)