The legend of the king of crossing

Chapter 204 Jianghuai Theater

For the Mongolian army's southward march, the military preparations I made were all based on the history I knew. The key battle between Song and Mongolia was the Xiangyang War that began in the late autumn of 1267. This war that determined the fate of the Southern Song Dynasty dates back to today. There are still two years to go, and I don't know of any other fighting going on during that time.

Whether it is a new army dominated by musketeers or an existing navy, the reorganization of the forbidden army cannot be accomplished overnight. Wars are not that simple. Only relying on muskets that are ahead of the times can be invincible. This situation can only happen In the novel, war is fought with comprehensive strength, military power, material resources, financial resources, and even human perseverance, all of which are indispensable.

I opened the urgent report, and it was played by Fan Sheng, the commander of Huainan West Road. It roughly meant that Mongolian Ashu led an army to suddenly attack Anhua Town in the frontier of Luzhou on the second night of August. Anhua, but Gao Xing and Lieutenant Meng Xing were killed at the same time, details will be reported later.

"Xiaoqi," I said after reading.

"The little one is here,"

"Show the Privy Council,"

"Yes, Your Majesty,"

"Teacher,"

"The old minister is here,"

"It is said that the Privy Council, the Ministry of War, and the Government Council will go to the Privy Council to discuss and withdraw from the court,"

Along the way, Jia Sidao felt a little uneasy in his heart, and thought to himself, could it be because of Hao Jing.

I sat on the Luanjia to the Privy Council and gradually calmed down.

The battle between Mongolian Kublai Khan and Ali Bukor for the position of Khan has just ended, and there should not be too much power to launch a large-scale invasion of the south. Its domestic financial and material resources do not allow it. I don't know that Mongolia is not capable of launching a full-scale southern invasion war with its national strength at this time.

Then why did Kublai Khan come to Luzhou this time?

In the meeting hall of the Privy Council, Xia Gui and others who arrived earlier hung the military map of the Luzhou area on the front wall. Although it did not have the three-dimensional effect of the sand table of later generations, they could still see it clearly.

I've only seen military maps in movies before, but this is the first time I've seen them for real.

This military map clearly marked the mountains, plains, rivers, towns, and villages around Luzhou, but there were no arrow symbols drawn with different colored pens on the maps of later generations.

"Sit down," I said from the chair, "Xia Aiqing, first tell me about the situation of the troops stationed in Luzhou Prefecture."

Xia Gui got up and said, "Your Majesty, there are 3 Zhenbian troops and 5000 Xiang troops on Huainan West Road. At present, the restructuring of Xiang troops has been basically completed. Except for the unqualified soldiers, there are nearly 6000 Xiang troops. Incorporated into the town border army, there are a total of 3000 people, mainly distributed in Luzhou and Anqing. In addition, there are about [-] people from the Navy along the river in Anqing. Luzhou Prefecture is where the Huainan West Road Administration is located. Famous town frontier army, led by Commander Fan Sheng, Commander Zhang Lin and Miao Zaicheng, etc., "

Xia Gui went to the map and continued: "Your Majesty, please see, the Huaihe River was the boundary between my dynasty and the Kingdom of Jin. After Mongolia annexed the Kingdom of Jin, our defense line basically retreated to the Luzhou area. Although Shouchun on the south bank of the Huaihe River It is still under the control of our dynasty, but the surrounding land has been looted by Mongolia. The Anhua Town mentioned in the battle report is about [-] miles north of Luzhou Mansion. It is an important town on the outskirts of Luzhou. Anfei Town together constitute the main line of defense outside Luzhou,"

"Is there any news about Shouchun?"

"Return to Your Majesty, not yet,"

"If both towns are lost, Luzhou will be in danger," Lu Xiufu said carefully looking at the map.

"Exactly, Master Lu is right," Xia Gui said.

"How many soldiers and horses does Mongolian Ashu have?"

"Your Majesty, I haven't received accurate information yet. The Privy Council and the Ministry of War have already issued a document to find out,"

This battle was really useless. There was no warning in advance, and the Mongolian army had already appeared in the front line of Luzhou. Moreover, our own side lost two generals, and they didn't even know the number of opponents. The intelligence agency was really incompetent, and Luzhou The defenders were even more incompetent, and the Mongolian army did not respond until it was under their noses.

It seems that Longya's intelligence agency has to speed up and move northward.

"By the way, which war zone is in charge of this West Huainan Road?" I asked suddenly. I always thought that West Huainan Road was under the jurisdiction of Li Tingzhi. How could Li Tingzhi be so negligent.

Xia Gui glanced at Jia Sidao, and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, in name, it belongs to the Jianghuai War Zone, but currently Huainan West Road is basically directly controlled by the Privy Council and the Ministry of War."

"Why is that?"

"Your Majesty," Jia Sidao coughed dryly, "this matter has been going on for a long time. The old minister wanted to submit a memorial to His Majesty on this matter, but unexpectedly, the incident suddenly happened. Your Majesty, since Emperor Gaozong's journey to the south, in order to resist the invasion of the Jin Kingdom in the north, Our dynasty divided the border along the Yangtze River into three theaters, namely the Sichuan theater in charge of the defense of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the Jinghu theater in charge of the defense of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Jianghuai theater in charge of the defense of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Among these three theaters, the Sichuan theater and the Beijing theater The Lake theater basically remains the same, only the Jianghuai theater has the most complicated changes, mainly because the Jianghuai theater is divided into Huaidong and Huaixi. Oneness,"

My known memory tells me that the defense lines at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty were Sichuan, Xiangfan, and Yangzhou. I didn’t know anything about Huainan West Road, and after I crossed to become Zhao Yu, I basically focused on internal affairs, except for the new army. , I have never been involved in the military. Since Jia Sidao’s party members are in control of the Forbidden Army, I adopted the strategy of establishing a new army while rectifying. The rectification of the original army also started with the Navy and the Xiang Army. I plan to put the core forbidden army at the end. Before my throne is stable, I don’t want to rush to a showdown with Jia Sidao, and there are still two years left in the battle of Xiangfan. I think the time is still enough, but I didn’t expect a sudden one The Battle of Luzhou is coming.

In fact, the Battle of Luzhou did happen in history, but the scale of the war was small, so there is basically no record, but I think it was a butterfly effect caused by my arrival.

After all, I am a human being, not a "god man" as Lu Xiufu said.

"Master, why is there such a situation?"

"Your Majesty, there are two main reasons for this. The first is that from the perspective of geographical location and administrative area, the other war zones in our dynasty are all established on the same administrative area, and only the Jianghuai theater is named after the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River. According to an administrative region, the Jianghuai and Huaihe Rivers are easily separated and each becomes an independent war zone. The distance between the Jianghuai River and the Huaihe River is very far, and the terrain is different, so the border defense arrangements are also different. Huaidong has a lot of water, so it is dominated by water villages, and Huaixi is mountainous, so it is dominated by Shanzhai. For example, Anhua Town is a Shanzhai. The second is from the perspective of coordinated operations. Regardless of the overall situation, the two roads act independently, and it is difficult to ensure that the two sides rely on each other and rescue each other, so there has always been no conclusion on whether to divide or cooperate."

The division and combination of theaters is related to the entire defense system, and has a major impact. Generally speaking, the main factor leading to the adjustment of theaters is the change in the military strength of the enemy and the enemy. Different periods and different situations will have different effects on the adjustment of theaters. However, throughout the Southern Song Dynasty, the separation and integration of the Jianghuai theater was always vacillating, and the frequent changes were indeed puzzling, and the reason for the change was not mainly due to changes in the situation, but more due to human factors.

I paused for a while to digest Jia Sidao's words, and then asked: "Master, what is the situation in the Lianghuai theater now?"

"Your Majesty, in the first year of Duanping, the first emperor divided the war zone into three, and in the tenth year of Chunyou, it was combined into the Lianghuai war zone. An envoy was appointed in Yangzhou to be in charge of military affairs on the East Road, but there was no envoy in the West Huainan War Zone. Instead, the frontier army of Luzhou Town was assigned to control Zhang Lin and others to control the army, and they were temporarily under the command of the Privy Council and the Ministry of War. Therefore, the current Jianghuai theater is neither divided nor combined,"

Song Lizong was indecisive, and during his tenure, he split up and joined up many times.

The division and combination in the theater have their own advantages and disadvantages. For Song Lizong, who has a volatile temperament, the division and combination are also suitable for his personality.

Of course, there is another reason for this, and that is the relationship between Jia Sidao and Li Tingzhi. At that time, the two of them listened to orders under the tent of the commander-in-chief Yu Gong. Li Tingzhi's talent, later, Jia Sidao guarded Jinghu, appointed Li Tingzhi as a counselor for the system, and soon, because of Li Tingzhi's excellent performance, under Jia Sidao's strong recommendation, Li Tingzhi was promoted by the court and ordered him to move to Lianghuai However, Jia Sidao gradually felt that Li Tingzhi was more loyal to the imperial court and Zhao dynasty than to himself, so he was not allowed to serve as the Jianghuai system envoy to govern the two Huaihe Rivers.

I think it's hard to choose between the two, so I shook my head and said, "Master, in your opinion, how should we deal with the Mongolian attack on Luzhou?"

"Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that we should first understand the situation in Luzhou. The old minister estimates that there will be news from the Luzhou government in the near future. The second is to judge Kublai Khan's intentions, whether he wants to invade the south in an all-round way or occasionally."

"The grand master's words are the key," Fan Wenhuan, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, agreed. "Only by understanding Mongolia's intentions can we treat them separately."

I nodded in agreement and said, "The two love ministers are right,"

Lu Xiufu thought for a while and asked, "Your Majesty, my defense against Huainan West Road is the weakest among all the war zones. Do I need to send troops to rescue?"

Instead of answering directly, I asked rhetorically, "Junshi, if you were Ashu, what would you do next?"

Lu Xiufu got up and said: "Your Majesty, if you ignore the intentions of the Mongols and just guess from a military point of view, I think there are two possibilities. Your Majesty, my lords, please look at the map. If I am Ashu, one is to take down the security forces." The two towns of Hua and Anfei surrounded Luzhou; the second is to bypass Luzhou, pass through Lu'an, pass through Huoshan, Tongcheng, and reach Anqing directly. It shows that if the defenders in our city attack, they are very likely to be wiped out in the field; if they stick to the city, they can plunder the surrounding crops, "

"Well, Junshi, what do you think Mongolia's intentions are?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, I thought that the Mongols' attack on Luzhou was just for fun,"

"Oh, what does this mean?" I asked. As for Lu Xiufu, everyone knew that Li Tingzhi held him in high esteem, and he was a calm man with extraordinary military insights, so he was naturally not a liar.

"Your Majesty, my lords, Mongolia has just gone through the Khan battle, and with its current national strength, it is impossible to go south in one fell swoop, and the west road of Huainan is mainly mountainous, which is not suitable for large-scale cavalry battles. Even if the Mongolian cavalry is brave and good at fighting, If we want to make a full-scale southern expedition, we need at least [-] troops, plus heavy logistics, and the land of Huaixi is not suitable. From the analysis of these two points, I think their purpose is not to have a large-scale war with our dynasty. I guess , the Mongols came to Luzhou only for some unknown purpose, "

Lu Xiufu's words made everyone here breathe a sigh of relief, and felt a little more at ease. As long as the Mongolian army didn't focus on invading south, they would return after looting at most.