Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengqiu landed at Jianggang in the south of Huangzhou City.

Huangzhou and Ezhou stand across the river, the two cities are only eleven or twelve miles apart, and they are all built on the hilly area close to the bank of the Yangtze River.

The hills are close to the shore, with many cliffs and few silt beaches, so it is a natural excellent river port, and it is convenient for large ships to berth.

Huangzhou and Ezhou have long been important port cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and they are also one of the main distribution centers for the transshipment of materials from Jingxiang to the Jianghuai region.

For more than 200 years, Huangzhou and Ezhou have been the big cities of Jinghu, and if you only compare them with the prosperity of business and travel, Huangzhou, Ezhou and Jiangxia are much more dazzling than Jingzhou. However, strategically, because Jiangxia is at the mouth of the Hanshui River, and Huangzhou and Ezhou are very close to Jiangxia, their status is not very important, and it is far from being comparable to Jingzhou.

Because of this, although the Jiangbu market town close to Huangzhou City was formed because of the prosperous business tourism in the southern port area of Huangzhou City, Huangzhou City itself is short and small.

In this way, the prosperous Jiangbu market town was completely ruined, and the city of Huangzhou was also dilapidated.

After Liu Tingzhou entered the city, he found that the Huaidong Army did not have many direct garrisons in Huangzhou City, but more civilians and scholars who were encouraged to cross the river and come to Huangzhou to recruit by the order to grant fields and recruit Confucian students.

"Lord Liu......"

Liu Tingzhou heard as if someone was calling him, stopped and looked into the crowd, and saw a young scholar dressed as a Confucian scholar with an extraordinary appearance saluting this side, and striding towards this side.

The guards looked at Liu Tingzhou's reaction and asked Shizi to approach.

"Student Ning Yujie, meet Lord Liu and Lord Yue......"

"Oh, Ning Yujie, the son of Yandu County." Liu Tingzhou recognized the person, or Ning Yujie, the son of Ning Yujie, who participated in the scientific expedition and gained fame when he was the governor of Yandu County.

After Liu Tingzhou's introduction, Yue Lengqiu also had some impressions that he was a Jiangdong juzi who had been in Chongguan for five years.

Chongguan five years, Chongguan eight years, Chongguan eleven years, Jiangdong County admitted nearly 500 people, Yue Lengqiu remembered Ning Yujie this year, is that he was only 17 years old when he was raised in the fifth year of Chongguan, he was a Jianghuai genius who became famous before Chen Mingzhe, and his fame was not small. Even today, Ning Yujie is only a little in his early thirties.

However, in the sixth year of Chongguan, Ning Yujie was frustrated in entering Beijing to catch up with the examination, and in the ninth year of Chongguan, he could not enter Beijing due to illness, and in the twelfth year, because the situation in the north was close to collapse, the Beijing examination was interrupted, and Ning Yujie has been unable to go further in the fame of the son.

Although he has the qualifications to be an official after winning the move, Lin Jian has also climbed from the official position of the Jiupin Prison Prison to the status of today's extremely popular minister, but Jiangdong County is the hometown of cultivation and study, and there are many people who are admitted, and there are few vacant seats.

Liu Tingzhou, Yue Lengqiu and others did not expect that figures like Ning Yujie would not be able to wait for Jiangning to resume scientific research, and they also put pen to paper and joined the army in the east to join the army.

Ning Yujie called on the street, naturally wanting to get a good messenger in the Huaidong Army through Liu Tingzhou's recommendation, instead of being incorporated into the ministries with other soldiers.

Liu Tingzhou invited Ning Yujie to accompany him, thinking that there was a chance to speak in front of Lin Lian, which could be regarded as the beauty of adults.

Ning Yujie naturally couldn't go with Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengqiu, and went with their staff.

Liu Tingzhou knew that the two infantry of the Huaidong Army, Yu Wencheng and Chen Yan, had crossed the river and entered the north bank, but seeing that there were not many troops stationed in Huangzhou City, and most of the garrisons along the street were cavalry, which should be the soldiers and horses of the forbidden camp cavalry, he asked Yue Lengqiu suspiciously: "The Huaidong Army is not in Huangzhou City, has it already advanced to Huangpi and Tiemen Mountain?" ”

"Yu Wencheng and Chen Yan have entered Wuyunzhai in the northwest of Huangzhou and Phoenix Mountain in the west of Huangzhou, controlling both sides of the Jushui River, and have indeed formed a situation of attacking Tiemen Mountain and Huangpi." Yue Lengqiu said.

The Huaidong Army and the Chizhou Army fought in eastern Hubei with joint forces, and the movement of soldiers and horses naturally had to inform each other at any time, and they also sent military attachés to observe the advance and retreat of the army -- without a certain amount of trust, joint operations were nonsense.

Before Liu Tingzhou came, he had a serious study of the geography of eastern Hubei Province, and was naturally familiar with the place names of mountains and rivers in eastern Hubei Province, and knew that Phoenix Mountain and Wuyun Village were sixty or seventy miles away from Huangzhou City, and Huangpi City and Huangzhou City pulled a straight line, and Phoenix Mountain was at the midpoint of this straight line.

The topographical advantage of Phoenix Mountain is that it is close to the river, facing Miaoling Mountain in the east of Hubei across the river, and is the key point to control the Yangtze River in the upper reaches of Huangzhou. Slightly downstream of Phoenix Mountain, there is a sandbar named Lao Longzui in the Yangtze River, which is just when the water comes from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and it is also the mouth of the water that lifts the water......

Liu Tingzhou is also very familiar with military affairs, and asked Yue Lengqiu: "So in this way, one of the garrisons of the Huaidong Navy is in Laolongzui?" ”

Yue Lengqiu nodded and said, "Yes, there is a camp in Laolongzui. In addition, Jinghu's naval army in eastern Hubei all moved west to aid Jingzhou, and the privy envoy did not directly ask the Huaidong army to take over Ezhou City, but there was a post station on the south bank of Miaoling Mountain, and the privy envoy sent a soldier and horse to build additional camps with Miaoling Station, and guarded the south bank, from Laolongzui to the west, the Yangtze River was sandwiched by Miaoling Mountain and Phoenix Mountain, and the river was narrow for only five miles......"

Liu Tingzhou nodded, everyone is a person who knows the affairs of the army, Lin Tie deployed like this, built the camp on the periphery of Huangzhou to a key place sixty or seventy miles away from Huangzhou City, spread the depth directly controlled by Huangzhou for nearly a hundred miles, and controlled the upper reaches of the Yangzi River, and the soldiers of the water camp were directly at the mouth of the Hanshui River, making it clear that he was ready to fight a battle with Yanhu in eastern Hubei.

Even if Jingzhou is unfortunate enough to be defeated by Yanhu, as long as Huangzhou is well managed, it can still be embedded in the north bank, and a large number of Yanhu's troops will be pinned down in eastern Hubei and unable to concentrate troops to fight Huaixi.

Of course, to achieve this step, Huaidong also has to invest a lot of troops and resources in the Huangzhou area. Resources and troops are always limited, and once the two sides are stuck in eastern Hubei, it will become extremely difficult for Huaidong to free up his hands to open another battlefield.

Ning Yujie and Liu Yue's entourage walked behind, and they could vaguely hear them talking in front, and interjected and asked: "In the humble opinion of the students, the battle of Jingxiang should be based on defending Jingzhou, but the soldiers and horses of the Jinghu Envoy are weak, why didn't the privy envoy send an elite army to take over the city defense of Jingzhou?" ”

Ning Yujie suddenly interjected, which was very rude, but it was not surprising that he became famous at a young age and was a little arrogant.

Yue Lengqiu smiled back and said, "I'm afraid that the Jinghu envoy may not agree with your words...... Of course, he knows that even if Hu Wenmu agrees to hand over Jingzhou's defense, the Huaidong Army may not take over.

No matter how elite the soldiers and horses are, they must be used in a centralized manner; If another 20,000 or 30,000 elites were to be dispersed in Jingzhou City, Lin Jian would be able to gather and use fewer elite troops in Huangzhou.

The division of troops is a taboo for soldiers.

What's more, how could Hu Wenmu easily give up his military power and hand over the defense area?

Hu Wenmu can now free up his hands and concentrate the main combat strength of the Jinghu Army in Jingzhou, which is a big city standing by the river, and is not afraid of being cut off. To tell the truth, to defend Jingzhou, there is a strong city to follow, even if there are many enemy soldiers, as long as the soldiers and civilians defending the city can be united and determined, it is enough to have 30,000 defenders. No matter how many troops there are, it is not good, and the materials for defending the city are consumed in vain. As long as more Yanhu soldiers and horses can be contained here, Hu Wenmu should have a certain degree of confidence in holding Jingzhou.

Liu Tingzhou also turned around and smiled, and said with emotion to Yue Lengqiu: "For Yan Yu, even if he can't defeat Jingzhou, he probably wants to let the main force of Huaidong's soldiers and horses be contained in eastern Hubei, right?" ”

Yue Lengqiu nodded, Lin Lian rose in Huaidong, but in the early days of his rise, the development of the infantry battalion combat power was very restrained, but the development of the water battalion was very rapid. In the early years of Yongxing, the water camp of Huaidong achieved the status of completely suppressing the luxury sailors on the East China Sea, and after the war in eastern Fujian, the navy forces of the luxury family in the East China Sea were completely destroyed.

How could Yan Hu not notice this?

Once the Huaidong Army is called to recover Jiangxi, how to guard against the attack of the Huaidong Army's nearly 100,000 infantry elites with 30,000 to 50,000 water battalions from Shandong to Yanqi to the coastline of nearly two or three thousand miles in Liangliao?

At present, Yan Hu took Jingzhou, which was to firmly contain the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses of the main force of the Huaidong Army's infantry battalion and water battalion on the western front.

"In addition to Chen Yan and Yu Wencheng, Zhang Gou's department in Fuzhou should also go north, right?" Liu Tingzhou is also very familiar with the Huaidong generals, but he has just gone south from Shouzhou, and he is not as familiar with the recent movement and deployment of the Huaidong Army as Yue Lengqiu, "After all, the remnants of the luxury family in Jian'an have not been completely wiped out, will there be hidden dangers?" ”

After Luwenzhuang joined Yanhu, there was a trend of resurgence, which made it still have the last glimmer of hope in the remnants of northern Fujian.

Jian'an is located in the upper reaches of the Min River, the mountains and rivers are vertical and horizontal, at the beginning Yu Wangao led the remnants to retreat into the deep mountains, three years did not call the luxury family exterminated, and the remnants of the luxury family in Jian'an fled into the mountains, even if Zhao Qingshan occupied the most important Jian'an City, it was not easy to completely exterminate the remnants of the luxury family.

"The privy envoy made Zhao Qingshan guard Eastern Fujian, and since Zhang Gou's troops were transferred to the north, he should have a grasp of stabilizing the situation in Eastern Fujian. Three to five thousand remnants fled into the mountains, which could not affect the overall situation. It was in the south of Ezhou that Huang Binghao's general Chen Zishou gathered a group of men and horses in Mubu Mountain, and he still refused to surrender, which was more or less a trouble. Yue Lengqiu said.

Liu Tingzhou glanced at Yue Lengqiu, it was Yue Lengqiu who returned to the mountain at the beginning, so that Chen Zishou had the opportunity to join the luxury family and join Huang Binghao. The Yuan Zhou army was defeated, and even if Chen Zishou gathered three or five thousand remnants in Mufu Mountain, the morale would not be boosted, and there would not be much threat.

The situation on the south bank of the Yangtze River has almost settled down, and Liu Tingzhou is just worried about whether Lin Lian can gather enough troops to gather in Huangzhou.

Lin Tie can call up four infantry battalions in Huangzhou, including Yu Wencheng, Zhang Jiheng, Zhang Gou, and Chen Yan, with a total strength of 60,000, but Jiangzhou, Yuzhang and other places must leave a small number of garrison soldiers and horses, and there are still some generals who were injured during the war in Yuanzhou and have not healed, and Lin Tie can only mobilize more than 50,000 foot soldiers in Huangzhou.

In terms of water camp, the Jiangning Forbidden Camp Naval Army Hu Yu'er's Department has been ordered to move westward and join up with the Jiangzhou Naval Army Ge Cunxiong's Division, with about 30,000 soldiers and horses.

In terms of cavalry, it is the cavalry of the Jiangning forbidden camp Zhou Pu, and it is also the elite cavalry of the guards, with 5,000 people.

In addition, it is Huaidong's garrison in Luzhou, Liu Zhenzhi and Tang Fuguan, two departments of 30,000 people.

Liu Tingzhou believed that once it was confirmed that the main direction of attack of Yanhu's soldiers and horses was Jingzhou and could not be turned to Huaixi, Lin Jian would inevitably transfer Luzhou soldiers and horses to Huangzhou.

The total number of main forces of the Huaidong Army on the Western Front was less than 120,000.

Although Lin Jian had a firm determination to fight the Battle of Jingxiang, Liu Tingzhou still secretly felt that it was difficult to fight, too difficult to fight, and the Huaidong Army could not form an advantage over Yanhu in terms of strength, so as to attack and defend, how could it contain Yanhu's main force?

Although the Huaidong Army is an elite that is difficult to reach in the world, during the Shangrao War, with attack and defense, Lin Jian still concentrated more than twice the strong strength of the Shangrao defenders and almost the same number of soldiers, soldiers and civilians, so as to conquer the defense line of the luxury family in Shangrao in one fell swoop.

Liu Tingzhou and Yue Lengqiu walked and talked, and unconsciously walked into the heavily guarded line of the forest.

Their entourage remained outside the line, and the civilian servants followed them into the line.

Lin Jian stood in front of the Ming Hall, learned that Yue and Liu had entered the city, and specially invited Zuo Chengmu, the deputy minister of the Huangzhou Guanjun, to Yue Lengqiu and Liu Tingzhou: "If you miss the distance, I hope that Lord Yue and Lord Liu will not be seen; I just got the news, and I want to tell Lord Yue: Luo Xiancheng's department, another 20,000 soldiers and horses have gone south from the northern line and entered Tiemen Mountain......"

"Ahh Yue Lengqiu and Liu Tingzhou were stunned.

Luo Xiancheng was at its most powerful, with 200,000 soldiers, and later cut more than half of the bandits to the cantonment, and only retained 80,000 soldiers.

After Luo Xiancheng surrendered, he incorporated a large number of garrisons into the battalion, went out of Huaishan to attack Xinyang, and contained the Huaixi soldiers and horses, and the actual strength was likely to exceed 120,000.

Although the combat power of Luo Xiancheng's department may not be comparable to the remnants of the luxury family, it is difficult to deal with because of the large number of people and horses.

Now the soldiers and horses of Luo Xiancheng's troops gathered in Tieshanmen, with Zhong Rong as the general, have exceeded 40,000 people, and it is believed that it will continue to increase in the later period; In the two cities of Hanjin and Huangpi, Yang Xiong, Sun Jichang and the cavalry led by the general An Shengliang who came later also reached 50,000 soldiers.

In comparison, Chen Hansan's soldiers and horses in Fengshan have not been replenished, but the terrain of Fengshan and Bailian River is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, although the Chizhou army has twice the strength, but it has no confidence that it can take Fengshan - Chen Hansan himself is a fierce general, and he is also a fierce general who has blocked the way to retreat, and his subordinates are all heinous and vicious.

Seeing the uncheerful looks on Yue Lengqiu and Liu Tingzhou's faces, Lin Jian knew their worries, so he just smiled slightly and invited them to come in and talk.

Indeed, in comparison with troops, the Huaidong Army and the Chizhou Army are not superior at all.

Of course, the strength of the Huaidong Army was not as lacking as it seemed.

Due to the rapid expansion of the Huaidong Army, the industrial battalion, which had a scale of more than 100,000 people in the early days, was rapidly reduced last year to less than 50,000 people. However, after the Jiangning War, one of the most important tasks of the Huaidong Army was to reorganize the workers' battalions on a large scale to protect the sufficiency of reserve soldiers.

In this work, the focus is on Xuzhou, Luzhou, and Jin'an, and efforts are made to expand the scale of the army in Xuzhou, Luzhou, and Jin'an to more than 50,000 people.

After the Shangrao War, Zhang Gou led his troops from Fuzhou to the south to fight Shaowu, and cooperated with Zhao Qingshan in eastern Fujian to attack Jian'an Mansion along the west of Minjiang. The remnants of the luxury family in northern Fujian only had 10,000 people, and under the attack of 40,000 soldiers and horses, they could only abandon the cities along the Min River and retreat into the deep mountains and old forests.

Lin Jian left Zhao Qingshan in Jian'an, and continued to suppress the remnants of the luxury family in northern Fujian, so that Zhang Gou led his troops north to participate in the war. In fact, at the same time, Lin Jian secretly ordered Chen Dingbang's troops of the Eastern Fujian Xingying Army to be incorporated into the Second Town Division of the Changshan Camp on the spot and go north together.

Zhang Gou led his troops north to participate in the war, and the strength of the troops was actually not the full strength of 15,000 people in the Fifth Brigade predicted by outsiders, but the excess of 24,000 elite members of the Seventh Brigade.

The Chen Yan Department suffered a lot of casualties in the Shangrao War, with nearly 2,000 soldiers killed and more than 4,000 wounded. In addition to resting and recuperating, another purpose of Chen Yan's troops stationed in Ganzhou was to absorb the resistance forces in southern Ganzhou. In the same way as the strengthening of the antiquated department, the hidden danger of local security is consumed.

Chen Yan led his troops to the north to participate, and the strength of the troops was not the full number of 15,000 soldiers in the Fifth Brigade predicted by the outsiders, but the 22,200 soldiers in the Sixth Brigade.

In the garrisons of Jiangzhou and Yuzhang, Lin Jian all transferred troops into the army and replaced the elite soldiers. In Yu Wencheng, Zhang Jiheng and other units crossed the river through Jiangzhou to the north to Qichun, and then entered Huangzhou, and they all added some of the soldiers as soldiers, although the establishment of the five brigades of the two town divisions remained unchanged, but each brigade and each battalion exceeded the quota by 20 percent.

In Luzhou, Tang Fuguan, Liu Zhenzhi, Sun Zhuang, Huang Zuyu and other troops and horses are not counted as partial divisions, and the combat strength of the infantry battalion that Lin Tie can mobilize in Huangzhou includes Zhang Jiheng, Yu Wencheng, Zhang Gou, and Chen Yan, and the actual number of people is as high as 85,000.

The cavalry battalion led by Zhou Pusuo was 5,000 men.

The naval army led by Ge Cunxiong, Su Pinxiao, and Hu Xian'er was not 30,000 in name, but actually exceeded by 10,000, a total of 40,000.

In addition, Lin Jian had already ordered Zhao Hu to lead 10,000 soldiers and horses in the Jiangning Forbidden Camp to march west immediately, leaving only 10,000 soldiers and horses for Qin Chengzu in Jiangning to sit in the center. However, there was no threat around Jiangning, and 10,000 defenders were enough.

Not counting the Chizhou Army, not counting the Chaishan Division, Lin is bound to the front of the Eastern Hubei Defense Line, and the number of troops that can be gathered will reach 140,000. If the Chaishan partial division is counted, the number of troops that Lin Tie can directly call in Jingxiang is nearly 200,000; Counting the Chizhou Army and the Jinghu Army, the strength of the entire southern front was actually not much lower than that of Yanhu.

Compared with before, there were only 20,000 soldiers who could be transferred to Huangzhou to assist in the war, so the land grant order was issued to attract and motivate civilians, tenant farmers, and the urban poor to come to Huangzhou to assist in the war, so as to supplement the shortage of soldiers and civilians.

For this battle, Lin Lianliang worked hard and carefully prepared for a long time, so he naturally wanted to play all the tricks and show the enemy weakness, but it was just the most basic means.