Forty Turns to Jiankang (I)

Luzhou, the camp of the Song army. At this time, Li Xianzhong was sitting in the big tent and discussing things.

After the provisional court of Tianlin Mansion ordered a comprehensive counterattack against the Jin army, Li Xianzhong was fully responsible for the march to Jiangbei. Most of the 100,000 reinforcements from Sichuan were transferred to Li Xianzhong's subordinates to fight in Jiangbei. Several major generals in the Sichuan army, Yang Changpeng, Zhou Hongming, Yang Juyuan, Li Haoyi and others were also under Li Xianzhong's account at this time.

Now the Song army in Jiangbei is under the control of Li Xianzhong, and there are also two groups of Li Bao and Qi Fang, with a total strength of 2.78 million. Qi Fang's troops are now stationed on the front line of Xiangfan to resist the Jin army in Nanyang. Li Xianzhong and Li Bao joined forces and went all out to capture Huaidong.

The attack of the Song army in Jiangbei was divided into three routes, under the command of Ma Jun Sidu, Chen Min led 70,000 horses to attack the Xuyi army on the left road, Li Xianzhong personally led an army of 80,000 troops to attack Chuzhou on the middle road, and Li Bao led an army of 60,000 troops on the right road, advancing by land and water, capturing Hezhou, and launching an all-round attack on Huaidong.

The defender of the Jin army in Huaidong was the monk Wanyan Chen, with a strength of about 100,000. He had already prepared and guarded Huaidong very closely. After crossing the clouds for more than half a month, the Song army only advanced by land and water on the right side of the Song army and captured Hezhou, while the progress of the other two roads was not great. The stalemate in the war also made Li Xianzhong a little anxious.

Li Xianzhong returned to the Song Dynasty in the ninth year of Shaoxing (1139), when Li Xianzhong was exactly thirty years old, which was that year. But because he returned to the Song Dynasty late, his seniority in the army was too shallow, so in the Song and Jin Wars during the ten and eleven years of Shaoxing, Li Xianzhong basically did not catch up. And then the Song, Jin, and Shaoxing negotiations were successful, the two countries boycotted the army, and there was a war at the end of nearly 20 years, during which Li Xianzhong was gradually promoted to the position of the envoy of the festival, but he never realized the return to the Song Dynasty for the country, and the good years were wasted.

It was not until the 31st year of Shaoxing (1161) in the battle of Song Jin Quarrying that Li Xianzhong really had a chance to lead the troops to fight alone, and finally became one of the main generals of the Song army. In the following time, as the group of famous generals in the Shaoxing period gradually withered, Li Xianzhong's position in the Song army became more and more important, and now Yijing has become one of the most important generals of the Great Song Dynasty.

After returning to the Song Dynasty, although Li Xianzhong has also experienced several ups and downs, no one has ever said that Li Xianzhong is a jealous person, but Li Xianzhong knows that he is getting old, so he has established his achievements and the mood of serving the country is more urgent, and at this moment, Yang Yan was suddenly born, in just a few years, he has repeatedly performed miraculous feats, although he is young, but he has also been promoted to the festival degree, as if he has the momentum above Li Xianzhong.

Li Xianzhong was not dissatisfied with Yang Yan's promotion quickly, firstly, because Yang Yan's promotion was completely based on his own meritorious achievements, and there was no luck. On the other hand, in the past, Yang Yizhong had the grace of recommending and promoting Li Xianzhong, Li Xianzhong was a person with great feelings, so he has always been grateful to Yang Yizhong, so he was not only not unhappy with Yang Yan's promotion, but also happy that Yang Yi had such a good grandson, and at the same time, he was also pleased that the imperial court had produced another outstanding young general. It's just that there will inevitably be some regrets in my heart, after all, Li Xianzhong is now over sixty years old, and there is not much time left for him to make meritorious contributions, realize his ambitions, and become famous in history.

After the Jin army invaded the south, the Great Song Dynasty court also experienced several ups and downs, and now there is even a situation where the two monarchs are juxtaposed. Li Xianzhong has always been very firmly on the side of Zhao Chen, who is supported by Yang Yan, and has never wavered. After Zhao Chen succeeded to the throne, he also trusted Li Xianzhong very much, and handed over all the military affairs of Jiangbei to Li Xianzhong from the beginning, and set up the Governor's Mansion in the court, and Yang Yizhong, who was most respected by Li Xianzhong, served as the governor and was in charge of overall military affairs. This also made Li Xianzhong feel very comfortable, and at the same time, he was more loyal to the Tianlin Mansion court in his heart.

During the time when Yang Yan went to Sichuan to quell the rebellion, Li Xianzhong led the Song army to resist the Jin army's two-way attack from Nanyang and Luzhou on the front line of Xianghu, so that Wanyan Changzhi also felt that there was no opportunity to take advantage of it, and held the Jinghu defense line, and finally insisted until Yang Yan pacified the civil strife in Sichuan and returned from Sichuan. It can be regarded as repaying the court's trust in itself.

Later, in the battle of the Song army to recover Huaixi, Li Xianzhong, as the commander-in-chief of the Jiangbei Song Army and a participant in this battle, naturally also has a share of Li Xianzhong's contributions. However, it is the same as Yang Yan's situation, because Li Xianzhong's official position is too high now, he will not be sealed immediately, and he can only wait until the Jin army is defeated, and then he will be rewarded according to the size of his merits.

But Li Xianzhong also understood in his heart that the battle to recover Huaixi was planned by Yang Yan, and the two major battles of Guan Jianxing, which regained Huaixi, were all due to Yang Yan's contribution in attacking Anqing and attacking Luzhou. Although he also participated in this battle, the first contribution to the recovery of Huaixi was not his own. He was not jealous of this, on the contrary, he was also very worried about Yang Yan's idea of using soldiers, eclectic, brave and good at fighting, and he admitted that it was inferior. It's just that the regret in Li Xianzhong's heart is even deeper, so he has always hoped that he can have a chance to fight independently and fight a great feat, so as to prove his ability and be worthy of his return to the Song Dynasty.

Later, the Sichuan army marched eastward, and the Tianlinfu court decided to launch a comprehensive counterattack against the Jin army, and Li Xianzhong was still the main general of Jiangbei, responsible for capturing Huaidong. The total number of men and horses under his command was close to 300,000, and he could not imagine that the opportunity he had been looking forward to would come so soon, so Li Xianzhong was full of ambition and vowed to fight a beautiful victory this time to repay the young monarch's kindness.

It has been more than half a month since the Song army was dispatched, and the progress of the Song army in Jiangbei was not great, and it only captured one Hezhou. At this time, the Song army in the south of the Yangtze River was a succession of good news, Yang Yan defeated Yan Changzhi in Yanzhou, Li Gongzuo defeated the Jin army at sea, and the Song army successively recovered Huizhou, Yanzhou, Chuzhou, Wenzhou and other places. Compared with these two, Li Xianzhong also felt that his face was dull, so he was also very anxious.

At this time, an order was sent from the Governor's Mansion of Tianlin Mansion, asking Li Xianzhong to temporarily stop attacking Huaidong, immediately mobilize men and horses, prepare to cross the Yangtze River, and join forces with Yang Yan to attack Jiankang, and Li Xianzhong was responsible for the main attack on Jiankang, and Yang Yan was responsible for blocking the reinforcements of the Jin army.

It turned out that after Yang Yan defeated Yan Changzhi, because he found Dugu Idiot who could contain Pufeng, he let go of his hands and feet, and immediately reported to the Governor's Mansion, suggesting that he should temporarily delay the attack on Lin'an, concentrate his forces, recover Jiankang, and block the Yangtze River, completely trapping the Jin army in Jiangnan.

Lin'an is located in a corner, and geographically speaking, it is not a strategic location. It is only as the current capital of the Great Song Dynasty that the establishment of the land is very important. But even if it is recaptured, it will have more political significance than actual strategic significance. Jiankang Mansion is different, as the current capital of the Great Song Dynasty, its own political significance is second only to Lin'an, and the importance of its strategic position cannot be underestimated.

If Jiankang is recovered, Li Gongzuo will march from the sea again and block the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the naval army of the Great Song Dynasty can not only completely control the waterway of the Yangtze River and block the retreat of the Jin army in the south of the Yangtze River, but also attack Huaidong from all parts of the Yangtze River to the north, making it impossible for the Jin army to garrison. To the south, you can go straight to Lin'an. It can be said that it has controlled the main points of the two Huai and Zhejiang. The Great Song Dynasty could not help but be able to completely regain the lost territory, and it was also able to inflict heavy losses on the Jin army, so that the Jin Dynasty could not recover for at least ten years.

And now the Song army's naval army has an absolute advantage on the Yangtze River, facing Jiankang across the river in the north of the Yangtze River, and has just defeated the Jin army in the south of the Yangtze River, forcing the Jin army to retreat to Lin'an, and now the main defense of the Jin army is focused on the direction of Lin'an, and the defensive side of the Jiankang area is relatively empty, it can be said that the conditions and timing for recovering Jiankang are ripe.

Therefore, after receiving Yang Yan's letter, after a brief discussion, several ruling ministers in the court also believed that it would be more beneficial and more certain to recover Jiankang first, so they immediately agreed to Yang Yan's suggestion, temporarily postponed the attack on Lin'an, concentrated forces, and recovered Jiankang. Yang Yi and the others only made some minor changes to the details of Yang Yan's plan, further perfected the plan, and then transmitted it to Li Xianzhong and Yang Yan's army at an expedited speed of 800 miles, respectively, and asked the two of them to start immediately and implement the plan to recover Jiankang.

At this time, Li Xianzhong was worried about the delay in Jiangbei to open the situation, and after receiving the military order from the Governor's Mansion, he couldn't help but light up. Before the Jin army invaded the south, Li Xianzhong was the commander of the garrison in front of Jiankang Mansion, and he was naturally very clear about Jiankang's strategic position, and understood that once the Song army regained Jiankang, then defeating the Jin army and achieving a complete victory in the counterattack was just around the corner.

Of course, Li Xianzhong also knows that it is not easy to recover Jiankang. Jiankang Mansion is also known as Jinling, is a historical city, the southern court of the north and south has always been to Jiankang Mansion as the capital, surrounded by three mountains and one water, the terrain is very dangerous, and it has been tested by war repeatedly.

In fact, Jiankang's defense power is even better than that of Lin'an, in addition to the natural barrier of the surrounding mountains and rivers, after several generations of repair, the defense structure is designed very reasonably. The whole city is also divided into two parts, the inner city and the outer city, once the outer city is lost, the defenders can also retreat into the inner city and continue to resist the enemy's attack.

The outer city is surrounded by a long wall, the city wall is tall, generally above four zhang, very strong, the outer city wall is up to five zhang wide, can accommodate many horses to gallop side by side, can not only place the bed crossbow, catapult and other large city defense weapons, and is divided into upper and lower two layers, the defenders are on the lower layer, and the crossbowmen are on the upper layer. Even if the enemy attacks the wall, it can also be met by the defenders on the lower floors, and the archers can calmly use the cover on the walls to deal with the enemy on the upper floors. And the city tower is even grander, as high as five zhang, you can see the whole city.

Although the inner city wall is lower than the outer city wall, there is a distance of about 200 steps between the inner city and the outer city, which is a large blank area, and there is no place to cover it in any direction, and the enemy army will be completely within the range of the Jin army when attacking the inner city.

Fortunately, when Li Xianzhong evacuated Jiankang, he destroyed all the trebuchets and bed crossbows that were difficult to carry, and the Jin army now lacked such large-scale city defense weapons, but despite this, Jiankang City was still an easy city to defend and difficult to attack.

It can be said that if there is enough food and materials, even if there is a million troops, it may not be able to break through Jiankang. Of course, the premise is that Jiankang still needs to have enough troops. Because Jiankang City is too big, if you want to completely hold Jiankang, you need at least more than 100,000 troops. And now the Jin army's troops stationed in Jiankang are obviously far from enough, which is also an important reason why the Song army can change its strategy and take Jiankang first.

The Song army was good at defending the city, and naturally it was also good at attacking the city, and Li Xianzhong knew Jiankang's city defense situation well. Therefore, in this case, Li Xianzhong believed that in a maximum of fifteen days, the Song army could capture Jiankang. Of course, in the meantime, Yang Yan must be able to block the reinforcements of the Jin army. It can be said that whether or not this time to attack Jiankang can succeed, Guan Jian is actually on Yang Yan.

Therefore, after receiving the general's order, Li Xianzhong immediately discussed with Chen Min and Li Bao about crossing the river to get Jiankang. Chen Min and Li Bao also think that it is indeed a good idea to go to Jiankang now. It's just that the work of recovering Jiankang is by no means small, and this time it is Li Xianzhong as the main general, Yang Yan is just assisting, and it is an absolutely thankless thing to block the reinforcements, and the imperial court and the Governor's Mansion gave themselves a great opportunity for meritorious service for no reason, but I don't know what Yang Yan thinks. Although Li Bao had some contact with Yang Yan before and had a good impression of Yang Yan, he was not sure whether Yang Yan was willing to make wedding dresses for others.

At this time, Yang Yan's letter was also sent to Li Xianzhong, in which he made it clear that he was willing to assist Li Xianzhong and recover Jiankang. And explained that he set off with the army led by Jing and would organize a defensive line between Lishui and Shijiu Lake to block the Jin army. Therefore, Li Xianzhong was asked to cross the Yangtze River quickly and attack Jiankang.

In fact, Yang Yizhong also understands that this kind of resistance war is the most difficult to fight. But the reason why he still made such an arrangement was actually to give Li Xianzhong the credit for recovering Jiankang. Because the feats that Yang Yan has established now are too great and too attention-grabbing, although he is deeply trusted by Zhao Chen, if he continues like this, he will not only be slandered, but also among the generals, it is also inevitable that he will be looked down upon. Therefore, I hope to let Li Xianzhong capture Jiankang and pay attention to Yang Yan.

After Li Xianzhong received the letter, he was very grateful and immediately discussed the matter of entering the army with Li Bao and Chen Min. After the three of them discussed, it was decided to leave Chen Min to preside over military affairs in Luzhou, leading an army of 80,000 to confront the Jin army, Li Xianzhong and Li Bao combined a total of 130,000 troops, plus 20,000 naval troops, and more than 650 warships, and led the army to cross south and attack Jiankang.

The next day, Li Xianzhong immediately began to transfer troops south. And Li Bao rushed back to Hezhou overnight, and immediately led the navy down the river to launch a fierce attack on the Jin army's Yangtze River navy.

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