Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 465 87 Wei Jun Gu Fang Mausoleum - 4

"Zhao De led five thousand soldiers to rescue Fangzhou?" Zhang Shanfu handed over the secret report and sighed, "It's true that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. Five thousand weak soldiers are going to trouble 5000 troops."

This military report was reported by Zhao Xingde through the Military Intelligence Department.General Xia's mansion has never been said to be remotely controlled, Zhao De is far away, and it is the action of Song's Baoyi Army, so after deciding to send troops, they just reported to the Marching Division as usual.Zhang Shanfu knew the strength of the so-called "righteous soldiers" of the Song Dynasty. The military commander estimated that a thousand "righteous soldiers" might not be a match for two hundred Liao army cavalry. After receiving the military report, Zhao Xingde had sent troops from Ezhou to stop the capital That's too late.

Liu Yi raised his hand to pick up the military newspaper, looked through it roughly, put it on the table, and said with a calm smile: "The waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves ahead, maybe Zhao De has a solution." He thought for a moment, looked at Zhang Shanfu and smiled. He said, "The general does not go to the Three Treasures Palace for nothing, so he came to the Prime Minister's Mansion in person this time, could it be for the soldiers and horses of Baidi City?"

Since Zhao Xingde went to contact Ezhou, Xia Guo has been hoarding food, grass and military equipment in Baidi City in central Shu, preparing to send a large-scale aid to Ezhou.However, Chen Dong was still wary of Xia Guo. He not only insisted on buying Xia Guo's military equipment with money and food, but also limited the number of Xia Guo's reinforcements to less than five thousand.After discussing with Zhang Shanfu, Liu Yi and Zhang Shanfu felt that since Ezhou can survive now, there is no need to rush to give them a lot of assistance.After the first five firearms battalions arrived in central Shu, they also stationed themselves in Baidi City.

"Talents are hard to come by," Zhang Shanfu sighed, "Zhao De's leadership is like catching beans. In ten days, he recruited and kneaded thousands of bandits and bandits, and forcibly pulled together an army to protect the rebels. The momentum in Ezhou is only slightly inferior to that of Zhao De. It's just suppressing the army. This person is a rare general. He is eager to make a contribution. It would be bad if the Baoyi army loses its vitality because of this. After all, this team is different from suppressing the army. His men, the soldiers and horses are not the former Song Dynasty army..."

Liu Yi nodded: "The general has a heart of love for talents, and Liu will be perfect." He thought for a while, "Let the five firearms battalions stationed in Baidi City set off, and go to Guizhou to reconcile with Zhao Dehui under the banner of the Baoyi Army." Guizhou is in the middle of the Three Gorges. Although it is a city of the Song Dynasty, because of the remoteness of the place, the Jiangling Navy only sent a small number of troops to station it.The Song army in Guizhou knew that if the Xia army marched eastward, this tiny place would not be able to hold at all. Therefore, they had become very familiar with the Shu navy in the early years.The Jiangling Navy saw it, and could only acquiesce, and regarded the section of the river from Guizhou to Xiazhou as a buffer for the forces of both sides.

After Zhang Shanfu left, Liu Yi showed a smile in his eyes.

"Fang Ling, Fang Ling," he said to himself, took out a file under the desk, and opened it, "Say Cao 'Cao', and Cao 'Cao' will be here." He looked through it In the dossier, there is a map drawn by Road Cao, densely marked with the route from Hanzhong Lizhou to Jinzhou, and then to Fangling.The dangerous passes where troops can be stationed, the river channels for transporting grain, and the mountain trails are all clear.

............

It rained non-stop in April, and the humid climate in the south made Yelu Xianzhen very irritable.In the muddy pond where the sewage was stagnant, the body of the signing army began to grow yellow and white maggots, which made people sick.Yelu Xianzhen had to assign some troops to burn the corpses.It is said that the summer is hot and humid, and Yelu Xianzhen is very worried about the outbreak of disease on the horses.This small Fangzhou city actually blocked the Liao army for more than a month, which made Yelu Xianzhen's teeth itch with hatred.If it weren't for the rugged mountain roads and the difficulty of transporting heavy artillery to attack the city, Fangzhou City would have been opened long ago.Unknowingly, the Liao army had already relied heavily on heavy artillery to attack the city.

Yelu Xianzhen secretly became ruthless, even if Fangzhou Zhizhou Gao Zhen surrendered, he would never accept it, and all the men in Fangzhou City must be killed.What made Yelu Xianzhen even more anxious was that the battle in Xiangyang was also in full swing. It was said that His Majesty had already rushed to the city of Xiangyang in person, and Yelu Xianzhen did not want to miss the battle to break Xiangyang.Yeluxianzhen's eyelids suddenly jumped up uncontrollably. He frowned, looking at the plum rain that seemed to have never broken the line. The green hills behind the rain curtain were like a wall, and he couldn't gallop like a grassland. Yeluxianzhen felt that The chest is very, very stuffy, and I miss the open, cool and pleasant Hebei Plain.

Compared with Hebei and Henan, which are rich and flat, Fangzhou is a place with poor mountains and bad waters, with few people and no oil and water.Many poor people's families have a few tattered clothes, and they are even poorer than the Khitan people in the north.This also greatly reduced the enthusiasm of the Liao army to loot around.The mountain road was not only difficult to walk, but also the bandits of the Southern Dynasty were very cunning. More than a dozen days ago, a Liao army of more than a hundred cavalry was lured into the deep mountain when they attacked Caogu, and suffered a big loss.Yelu Xianzhen strictly forbade his subordinates to enter the mountainous area. These days, those Southern Dynasty thieves did not have the courage to go to the plain to challenge the Khitan cavalry.Hebei Yelu Xianzhen outside the mountain gave a slight "hum" in his nose.

The city walls of Fangzhou in the rain looked dilapidated and decayed, and the originally majestic and orderly city walls were damaged a lot.Outside the city, there are ladders and siege engines scattered all over the place.The siege army marched numbly in the rain like a group of walking corpses outside the city, piling up soil bags under the city.The round tents of the Liao army are scattered around the city like gray mushrooms.Because the Song army in Fangzhou did not have the strength to fight out of the city at all, and the Liao army was mostly cavalry, so the camps were spread out, just to prevent water accumulation in rainy days, and the Liao army's camp was slightly higher than the river embankment.

In the field of vision of the telescope, a large river runs through the plain below the mountain, and several small rivers flow into it.Because of the continuous spring rain, the water level has risen not far from the river embankment, and this is the result of the Baoyi Army building seven or eight embankments upstream to intercept the mountain torrents.The soldiers of the Song Army who used to guard the ponds, dams and streams in various places fled long ago.It was getting late, and in order to prevent the Liao army from being bombarded by catapults, the city was pitch black and silent, and it looked like a ghost town from a distance.After the Liao army retreated outside the city and returned to the camp, they lit clusters of bonfires, and the smoke wafted far away with the smell of barbecue.Regardless of the continuous rain for more than ten days, or the slow rise of the river, neither of them aroused the vigilance of the Liao Army.

"Just tonight, dig the dike." Zhao Xingde whispered.

"Follow the order." They lowered their voices and replied together.The eyes of Lu Mingyu, Luo Xianshi, Liu Zhijian, Gao Su and others were all sparkling with fire. These days, under the guidance of the local Qingfeng and Taiping villages in Fangzhou, the generals ignored the heavy rain and mud, and urged their subordinates to build dams to block the torrents , It took a lot of effort, just waiting for this day.The two village masters, Qin Ye and Liu Fan, were also extremely excited, and they mustered up all their energy to kill the Khitan Gouzi tonight.

"Qin Village Master, Liu Village Master," Zhao Xingde asked, "several barrier lakes burst their embankments together, can they really break down the embankments?" The key to tonight's operation is to create several artificial small flood peaks, Floodwater from the mountain streams flowed into the rivers near Fangzhou within a short period of time, putting unbearable pressure on the embankments of the big and small rivers, and finally caused the embankments to collapse and the flood to overflow.

Liu Fan nodded again and again and said, "It must, it must be overwhelmed!"

Zhao Xingde nodded, looked at Qin Ye, and Qin Ye also said: "Don't worry, Mr. Zhao, we are all natives of Fangzhou, and we are all too familiar with this sad mention. Every year when spring begins, the government will catch up with the dam to reinforce it. River embankment. Many brothers fled to the mountains because of delayed spring plowing and could not survive. This year, because Liao dogs came in, the river embankment was left unattended, just like paper, where it can withstand rising water Ah." He laughed "hehe" twice, and said triumphantly, "Master Liao Gou pulled the lottery, he missed repairing the embankment, and he suffered for himself.

"Heaven's evil is still alive, but self-inflicted evil is impossible!" Zhao Xingde said in a low voice.

"Ah—yes!" Qin Ye smiled flatteringly, "We are rough people, but Mr. Zhao is the best!" Liu Fan also nodded empathetically, and thought to himself, these deadly rivers are on our doorstep. In front of us, we just can't see it, we can only fight recklessly with the Khitan dog.Either way, we are all covered with an invisible sheet of paper, blind with our eyes open, only Wenchang Jun like Mr. Zhao can see clearly.

Hearing the leaders of the two villages express their loyalty to General Zhao, all the generals laughed secretly.

Du Chuijiao and other old ministries have long been used to Zhao Xingde's ability as a commander.Even if Zhao Xingde said that he had his own arrangements and led the army to thin the enemy's line, I'm afraid they would also believe it.And Lu Mingyu, Luo Xianshi and other newly recruited generals are also gradually feeling this way, as if any kind of difficulty can be solved calmly by Zhao Xingde.This time, five thousand mobs marched west from Ezhou to rescue Fangzhou, which was originally a matter of knowing that it could not be done.But the journey went smoothly, with more than 2000 firearms battalions with a well-organized team added in Guizhou, and the strategy of flooding the Seventh Army with water instead of soldiers, it turned out to be a stable chance of winning now.Unknowingly, all the generals had a deeper respect for Zhao Xingde, the coach.

"Gao Su, Zhi Jian." Zhao Xingde said again, "After it gets dark, the Firearms Battalion will occupy the pre-set positions and not disturb the Liao army."

"The general understands!" Gao Su and Liu Zhijian replied in low voices.What the Firearms Battalion wanted to occupy was a small low hill near the mountain.The artillery is mounted on this hill, and its firing range can just cover the largest highland outside Fangzhou City.Zhao Xingde predicted that after the flood, the Liao army would be caught off guard in the dark, and the brigade would not be able to find a way out quickly. If they were smart, they would flock to the nearby high places to avoid the flood, and the high ground would be crowded with the Liao army.And by that time, the Xia army's artillery, which had roughly calculated its shooting range, could bombard the high ground fiercely, and the Liao army would either hide on the high ground and stand next to each other, or be driven into the flood.

The night gradually deepened.The fire in the Liao army camp gradually went out, leaving only some dim bonfires.The sound of drizzling rain makes people feel sleepy.It was a very quiet night, except for the faint roar that seemed to be the wrath of the river god coming from afar...