Lin Jian naturally couldn't wait until the main force of Huaidong completed the gathering in Jiangzhou before crossing the river to attack the eastern Hubei region, otherwise, how could he persuade Hu Wenmu to put all the troops in his hands into the north bank to defend Jingzhou?

In order to prevent Hu Wenmu's determination to defend Jingzhou from wavering, in early August, Lin Jian personally led the Third Town Division of the Changshan Army under the cover of the Third Water Battalion of Jinghai to forcibly land south of Qichun, and united with the Chizhou Army led by Deng Yu, with a total strength of 60,000 troops, to force Qichun City.

In the face of such a large army, the enemy general Chen Hansan did not stick to the prominent Qichun City, but before the engagement, he decisively led his troops to withdraw from Qichun City, traveled more than 100 miles to the northwest, and retreated to Fengshan, Jiulian River and other villages in the northwest of Qichun; At the same time, Sun Jichang, the newly attached Han army, led more than 15,000 soldiers and horses to Huangpi in the northeast of Hanjin City; Zhong Rong, the general of Suizhou, led 10,000 elites into Tiemen Mountain between Huangpi and Fengshan.

From Hanjin (present-day Hankou, Wuhan) to Qichuncheng, the entire eastern Hubei region was the flank of the Jingxiang region, which protected the depth of Suizhou and the east bank of the Han River from attack. Northern Yan united with the Hao and Luo families, and if they wanted to attack Jingzhou in one go after taking Nanyang, this flank must not be broken by the Huaidong Army.

However, the straight-line width of this flank defense line is more than 250 li.

Whether it is Hao Wenzhuang or Ye Ji Luorong, or Chen Hansan, Yang Xiong and other generals who are responsible for guarding the flanks, they all know very well in their hearts: blocking the Han River is already their limit, and there is no extra ability to block the Yangtze River, so it will not be able to prevent the Huaidong Water Camp from entering the section of the river from Hanjin to Qichun.

Once the main force of the Huaidong Army was gathered in Jiangzhou and the Chizhou Army crossed the river, they could not hold such a wide defense line along the river from Hanjin to Qichun with only 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers and horses.

Even if he had to reluctantly take the cities along the river in eastern Hubei Province, he would only ask Huaidong to seize the opportunity to break through and capture Qichun, Huangzhou, Huangpi, Hanjin, Xishui, Tuanfeng and other cities one by one.

Abandoning Qichun, which protrudes in the southeast of eastern Hubei and even abandoning the cities of Huangzhou, Xishui, Tuanfeng, and Bahe in the river, and withdrawing nearly 100 li in depth and stride in the direction of Junjunshan, Qishan, and Fengshan in the northwest, will be able to detach the defense line of the entire eastern Hubei flank from the attack range of the Huaidong Water Battalion, and the width of the defense line will be sharply reduced from more than 250 li to less than 150 li.

The shorter the defense line, it also means that the more troops are gathered, the stronger the defense, and the more difficult it is for the Huaidong Army to tear through the defense line.

In addition, abandoning Qichun and Huangzhou and retreating more than 100 miles to the northwest inland, you can rely on the steep terrain of Fengshan, Jijun Mountain, Qishan and other mountains at the southern foot of Huaishan Mountain, which are continuous and seamlessly connected, which can effectively limit the Huaidong Army's roundabout intersperse, and behind them, it is the deep hinterland of Suizhou, and the reinforcements can come through Fengshan, Jijun Mountain, Qishan and Hanshui at any time, and there is no danger of encircling and isolating the Huaidong Army.

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Before Chen Hansan withdrew, he set fire to Qichun City, but Chen Hansan did not have the ability to burn Qichun to the point that not a single tree or tile remained. After Qi Chuncheng is sorted out, it can still be barely used.

The Chizhou Army and the Huaidong Army were stationed in the east and west of Qichun, and the line of Lin Tie was still set up in the remnant city of Qichun.

In addition to Lin Bin, Fu Qinghe, Gao Zongting, Song Fu and others in Qichun, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao crossed the river by boat, and Yue Lengqiu, who escaped from Nanyang in time, also rushed south from Shouzhou to meet with Lin Bin, only three days earlier than Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao, they met with Deng Yu and Yue Zhi of the Chizhou Army, and they were also in Qichun City at this time.

The map hangs on the wall to the north, and the map depicts the geographical situation of the Jingxiang region, the hills, mountains, streams, walls, walls, slopes, and forests, all of which are plotted in great detail - Yue Lengqiu is familiar with military and political affairs, and has led the army to fight for several years, so he can certainly understand how much Huaidong has to pay for this detailed map.

On the map, the defense line built by the Hao and Luo families along the Yumai mountain system at the southern foot of the east and west of Huai after they joined the Northern Yan is marked with great accuracy, forming a huge obstacle blocking the east bank of the Han River.

With the entry of Sun Jichang and Zhong Rong with their troops, the total number of soldiers and horses invested by Beiyan has reached 60,000 on this defense line built according to the dangers of mountains and rivers with a total length of about 160 miles.

Nanyang may have already been captured, even if it was not captured, it would not be able to support it for a few days, how to tear this defense line before the main force of Northern Yan crossed the Han River and headed south, Yue Lengqiu also felt helpless.

Yue Lengqiu did not doubt the combat strength of the Huaidong Army, but no matter how strong the Huaidong Army was, it would take time to tear apart the enemy's defensive line built by the mountains and rivers in eastern Hubei Province.

Although the climax of the entire Shangrao war was very short, it was also a dozen days to tear up the Shangrao defense line, but before that, the Huaidong Army had been preparing for about half a year, and almost two million stone supplies were sent to the Quzhou front.

The strength of the Huaidong Army, the famous generals and soldiers are only the surface, and the ability to deliver two million stone materials in half a year is the real strength of Huaidong.

During the Shangrao War, although the Huaidong Army only used 100,000 soldiers, perhaps Yue Lengqiu's ability to govern the army was not as good as Lin Lian, and he may not be able to lead 100,000 soldiers to break through the Shangrao defense line, but it was enough for Yue Lengqiu to have a considerable amount of leeway to organize 200,000 soldiers and horses, and use 200,000 soldiers and horses to fight hard and grind, and always be able to penetrate the Shangrao defense line.

It's just that the Privy Council is very inadequately prepared for the upcoming Battle of Jingxiang.

Not to mention that the Chizhou Army has not yet recovered its morale from the defeat in Zongyang, many main forces of the Huaidong Army have also hurried from Ganzhou, Yuanzhou, and Fuzhou, and most of the soldiers and horses have not yet had time to cross the river.

For the Shangrao war, the Privy Council invested too many resources, and then in order to stabilize the situation in Jiangxi, not only did it collect nothing, but also invested nearly two million taels of silver for disaster relief and famine relief, dispatching officials, etc. Although this year's annual income of the household department is much better than last year, the new annual income is also completely consumed by Jiangxi.

What other silver was thrown into the Battle of Jingxiang?

If Nanyang's endgame can drag on for a year and a half, even if it is to wait for the autumn to ripen, Jiangning's financial situation will be much better than now.

It is precisely because of this that Yue Lengqiu can better understand why Beiyan is so eager to go south.

Jiangning, under the control of Huaidong, has the ability to increase its annual income too quickly.

Emperor Yongxing abandoned Jiangning, so that the luxury family would take Jiangning City without abandoning a single soldier. Although the luxury family was repelled in the later period, Jiangning, Chi, Hui and other prefectures were seriously devastated.

According to common sense, Jiang Ning does not have three or five years, and it is impossible to recover at all; Who would have thought that in just the past year, the income of the household department would return to the level before the war in Jiangning.

At present, the military resources allocated by the household department to the Huaidong army alone are as high as 400,000 taels of silver every month, and if the Northern Yan cannot turn the core area controlled by Huaidong into a war zone in a short period of time, the military resources allocated by the household department to the Huaidong army will rise sharply again in two or three years.

After three years, the military resources that the Huaidong Army could only obtain from the household department reached the height of 10 million taels of silver per year, and Yue Lengqiu would not find it strange.

After the recovery of Jiangxi and Fujian counties, including Guangnan and Xiangtan, they also expressed their submission one after another, and nearly 10 million people were added to the number of Dingkou actually controlled by Jiangning, including the previous two Zhejiang, Jiangdong and other places, and the Dingkou actually controlled by Jiangning was between 25 million and 30 million. This figure does not include Liangchuan and Jinghu.

At this point, Yue Lengqiu believed that the situation of the confrontation between the north and the south would become favorable to the south, and it would not be far from Lin Lian's northern expedition.

The best way for the Northern Yan to avoid this situation was to occupy Jingxiang and threaten Jiangning from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, forcing Huaidong to invest a large amount of resources and troops on the western front; Continue to turn Huaidong and other places into war zones.

In addition to the five counties of Chongchuan as the fiefdom of Linbin, the four prefectures of Hailing, Huai'an, Weiyang, and Dongyang on the north bank of the Yangtze River contribute to Jiangning every year in no less way than the prefectures along the Taihu Lake. As long as Jianghuai is turned into a war zone, Jiangning's income will be greatly reduced, and the war potential will naturally be greatly reduced.

"Lord Yue, Lord Yue......"

Lin Jian shouted lightly twice, and finally made Yue Lengqiu come back to his senses.

"Oh......" Yue Lengqiu looked up at Lin Bin, he was distracted just now, and he didn't listen to Lin Bin's words, and he was a little out of shape.

Lin Tie didn't blame Yue Lengqiu, Yue Lengqiu almost fell into Nanyang, and finally ran out before Nanyang gave Beiyan a siege, and it was inevitable that he would be uncertain, and said: "The enemy's defense line in eastern Hubei is naturally hindered by mountains such as Insertion Mountain and Qishan in the middle, and the center of gravity of its defense is really two-ended, one is concentrated on the line of Hanjin (now Hankou, Wuhan), Huangpi, and Tiemen Mountain, and the other is concentrated on Fengshan and Jiulian River between Qishan and Fengshan. If you capture Tiemen Mountain and Fengshan, you can go straight into the hinterland of Suizhou, attack Lishan and Chaishan, capture Hanjin and Huangpi, and capture the Hanshui Pass and attack the hinterland on the east bank of Hanshui. In order to tear apart the enemy's defense line in eastern Hubei, this court thought that it could only let go of the enemy in Tiemen Mountain, and the troops were divided into two roads to attack Fengshan, Hanjin and Huangpi, and Yue Daren supervised the Chizhou army, and attacked Fengshan to the northwest with Qichun as the foundation, while this court led the main force of the Huaidong Army to attack Hanjin and Huangpi...... What does Lord Yue think? ”

Although Lin Jian was in charge of the military and political affairs of the world as a privy envoy, the Chizhou army was self-contained, and it was naturally reasonable and desirable for the troops to fight at both ends of the enemy's eastern Hubei defense line in two ways.

Deng Yu, Yue Zhi and other generals of the Chizhou Army were all looking forward to Yue Lengqiu's return to the army, and at this time, when they heard that Lin Liang Xu Yue Lengqiu was back in charge of the Chizhou Army, they were naturally excited.

Yue Lengqiu felt bitter in his heart, the soldiers were divided into two ways to fight at both ends of the eastern Hubei defense line, is it so easy to fight?

Fengshan and Jiulian River, where the Chizhou army was going to attack, were the key places to defend the southwest foot of Fengshan and the Xishui River, and Chen Hansan retreated, with 13,400 people in his troops. It is said that the Chizhou army has 30,000 soldiers and horses, and it has an advantage in terms of troops.

But along the Xishui River, the more north the terrain is more dangerous, to the upper reaches of the Xishui River, you have to face the obstruction of the mountains and mountains, you can only attack the Fengshan and Jiulian River two villages that are fortified according to the danger from the front.

Fengshan, Jiulian River two villages are built according to the mountain danger, the two villages go to only five or six miles, depending on the horns, although at this time only Chen Han 313,400 soldiers and horses guard, but behind it is the hinterland of Suizhou, and the reinforcements can quickly enter Fengshan at any time.

With the fall of Nanyang, Beiyan only needs to leave Chen Zhihu's troops to contain Huaixi, and Luo Xiancheng's troops and horses can quickly move south through the hinterland of Suizhou and supplement the defense line in eastern Hubei.

Unlike the Yuan Zhou army, the Yuan Zhou army has a large number of officials and generals who are coerced and surrendered, after the defeat of the luxury family out of Jiangxi, these people are eager to return to Jiangning, not only Zhou Cheng, Wei Zhong and others openly support the surrender, Zhou Zhizheng and others are secretly taking refuge in Huaidong early, Huaidong was able to defeat the Yuan Zhou army in one fell swoop, and almost did not pay any casualties for it. But Luo Xiancheng's subordinates are all from rogue backgrounds, and they have been entrenched in Suizhou for many years and do not accept Zhao'an, that is, they have a deep wariness of Jiangning.

This wariness is not Luo Xiancheng, Zhong Rong and a few other people, and the generals of the Suizhou army generally do not trust Jiangning, and at this time they surrendered to Beiyan, especially when Beiyan has an absolute advantage in Jingxiang, Suizhou soldiers and horses will firmly defend the defense line in eastern Hubei.

At this time, there was only one garrison in Fengshan and Jiulian River, and it was believed that it would not be long before it would increase to 30,000, 40,000, or even higher; And to Tiemen Mountain, which is less than forty miles away from Fengshan, Zhong Rong, the general of Suizhou soldiers and horses, led more than 10,000 elite soldiers to enter, they have no extra soldiers and horses to contain Tiemen Mountain, what will the Chizhou army take to capture Fengshan?

Of course, Yue Lengqiu can't blame Lin Tie for the unfair distribution, the two cities of Hanjin and Huangpi that the Huaidong Army wants to deal with are more than ten miles apart, and at this time, nearly 40,000 enemy soldiers have been stationed in Yang Xiong and Sun Jichang.

At this time, the Huaidong Army gathered no more than 30,000 soldiers and horses near Qichun, and it did not attack Hanjin. Although Huaidong will eventually be able to mobilize more than 80,000 troops of the Shuibu Army, at the same time, after the Northern Yan take Nanyang City, the enemy troops stationed in Hanjin and Huangpi for defense in the later period will also increase sharply.

Even if Beiyan finally took out 12 to 150,000 cavalry to fight Jingzhou, then at most 15 to 180,000 soldiers and horses could be invested in the eastern Hubei defense line.

Although the troops invested by the Northern Yan in the eastern Hubei defense line will be mainly the luxury and Luo families, and the combat strength of the two soldiers is weaker, but they are better than the large number of people, and they defend according to the dangers of mountains and rivers, and the Huaidong and Chizhou armies are inferior in strength, so what can they do to pierce through the eastern Hubei defense line in a short period of time? What to do to sabotage the Northern Yan's plan to attack Jingzhou and relieve the siege of Jingzhou?

And once the Northern Yan is called to capture Jingzhou first, the Northern Yan will be able to draw a large number of soldiers and horses from the west bank of the Han River to make up for the eastern Hubei region, not to mention piercing through the eastern Hubei defense line, they will be forced to switch from attack to defense at that time, and the defense will also be difficult.

In Yue Lengqiu's view, the only way to hope for Hu Wenmu is to hold on to Jingzhou at the moment! If the Jingxiang War drags on for a year and a half, the situation will become favorable to Jiangning—perhaps it should be said to be in favor of Huaidong. It is a year and a half to make a better recovery of the situation in Jiangxi, so as to better support Jingxiang's tug-of-war.

Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao, regardless of whether they were hostages or not, they represented Tanzhou in Qichun, so they were naturally qualified to attend the highest-level military meeting, but they didn't expect Lin Hao to still make up his mind to fight the Battle of Jingxiang.

The reason why Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao thought that it was impossible for Lin Tie to fight the Battle of Jingxiang before this was mainly because their vision was narrow, and they could not see that the Battle of Jingxiang would affect the pattern of confrontation between the north and the south, and affect whether the initiative in the next battle in the world would fall in the south or the north; Again, they couldn't clearly see Lin Bin's ambitions.

Yue Lengqiu has dealt with Lin Lian for all these years, and some things are naturally more thorough than the people in Tanzhou, but it is precisely because he sees it too clearly that he miscalculated Lin Lian's determination to help Nanyang before.

If Nanyang can be defended, the next situation will inevitably be favorable to the south, at least when Yuzhang and Lin Lian met, Yue Lengqiu did not doubt Lin Lian's determination to defend and aid Nanyang.

The next development of the situation, although it shows that Yue Lengqiu misjudged Lin Lian's determination to defend Nanyang when he was in Yuzhang, he still believed that Lin Lian would not give up Jingxiang easily, and at worst, he would have to fight with Beiyan in the Jingxiang area, unless Lin Lian really didn't have the ambition to swallow the world in his heart.

It must be called for the Northern Yan to completely occupy Jingzhou, control the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and threaten Jiangning from the upper reaches, and the whole situation is extremely unfavorable to Huaidong.

Of course, after Yue Lengqiu escaped from Nanyang, he saw Lin Lian give up Nanyang so neatly, and his confidence was not so firm, as long as he saw Lin Lian leading the front to cross the river and gain a foothold in Qichun at this time, he regained confidence in his judgment.

In any case, there is no way out for the Chizhou army.

Of course, in addition to Zhang Zuowu, Gu Hao, Yue Lengqiu and others, Deputy Prime Minister Zuo Chengmu and Hu Wenmu's son Hu Wenchang also rushed over.

After the fall of Nanyang, if the main force of the Huaidong Army had not crossed the river into the eastern Hubei region and contained the main force of the Northern Yan soldiers and horses from the east bank of the Han River, the Jinghu Army would have absolutely no confidence to hold Jingzhou with its own strength.

In fact, the example of Nanyang is in the front, and the Jinghu people are also deeply afraid that Huaidong will play with it, and before they see Huaidong officially cross the river and throw troops into the eastern Hubei region on the north bank, the Jinghu people will not completely put the main force into Jingzhou for defense.

On the one hand, Zuo Chengmu came to work on behalf of the imperial court, and on the other hand, Zuo Chengmu was born as a deputy minister from Jinghu and was the representative of the Jinghu family in Jiangning. Whether Jingzhou can hold on to it or not, whether it will give Huaidong an opportunity to weaken it is related to Zuo Chengmu's vital interests, and he can't sit idly by.

The Jinghu Army will naturally not easily let Jingzhou go, because once it abandons Jingzhou and retreats to the south bank, only Jiangxia Banfu and Ezhou Mansion can be defended, and it will only be like the Chizhou Army gradually becoming a vassal of the Huaidong Army, and it will be like Yue Lengqiu who played with Lin Tie and almost fell into Nanyang and couldn't escape for his life.

Of course, if the Huaidong Army did not have the determination to cross the river and go north to participate in the war, the Jinghu Army could only temporarily abandon Jingzhou due to the situation.

In addition to leading Yu Wencheng's troops to cross the river to the north first, after taking the remnants of Qichun, Lin Jian ordered the materials of the Jianghuai provinces to be assembled directly with Qichun as the center, and showed his determination to resolutely enter eastern Hubei and attack Jingxiang with practical actions.

Only in this way can the people of Jinghu let go of their psychological baggage and concentrate on defending Jingzhou; At the same time, he also ordered the Xiangtan prefectures to send the supplies and soldiers and horses to Jingzhou directly by water.