On the 19th, the Zhejiang-Fujian army abandoned Ouhai and crossed the Yongjia River to the north to strengthen Yongjia's city defense, and Zhang Jiheng, the general of the Huaidong Military Department, led his troops to recover Ouhai. On the 22nd, the obstacles in the lower reaches of the Yongjia River were cleared, and nearly 100 warships of the Jinghai Battalion entered the Yongjia River waterway.

Yongjia City is located in the valley of the lower reaches of the Nanxi River, both sides are lofty mountains and mountains, especially the North Yandang Mountain between Yongjia and Yueqing, ten thousand mountains overlap, the peaks compete for the male, the hanging mountains cover the sun, the road is cut off, and the large number of soldiers and horses are difficult to pass. The Zhejiang-Fujian army is firmly defended by Yongjia City, Shangtang and other cities, as long as the cities of Xianju and Linhai in the north are not lost, they will not be cut off.

When the world speculated that the Huaidong Army would take the first step to recover Hengyang, Pingyang, Cangnan and other counties on the south side of the Ouhai Sea and advance to northern Fujian, the Jinghai Sea Battalion used two days to build two trestle bridges at the mouth of the river where the Nanxi River joins the Yongjia River, and a large number of soldiers and horses crossed the river from Ouhai on the south bank of the Yongjia River and advanced along the north bank of the Yongjia River from Wushanjian.

In terms of topography, although Yongjia City is not afraid of being cut off from the back road, it is built in the valley of the lower reaches of the Nanxi River, entering from the mouth of the river, and along both sides of the Nanxi River is a shallow and broad river valley plain with a depth of more than 20 miles and a width of four or five to seven or eight miles, which is enough for the Huaidong Army to deploy a large force of troops and horses to advance from the front.

Extravagant Feihu defeated Ye Su's troops to recapture Yongjia City, and carried out a brutal massacre of the soldiers and civilians in the city, and the surrounding people avoided Yongjia City from then on; Except for a small number of township generals who took the city as hostages and a small number of local forces who followed the luxury family, the Yongjia garrison until the end of March, plus the soldiers and horses who withdrew from Ouhai and other cities and rushed from Xianju, Dongyang and other places to help, there were only more than 8,000 people, and there were not many people who could coerce to help defend the city.

In the direction of the Huaidong Army, in addition to the adjustment and expansion of the new southern Zhejiang Army to the 20 battalion and the Chongcheng infantry battalion in Yueqing to keep the elite strength of the 15 battalion unchanged, by the end of March, Lin Jian transferred Chen Kuili, Mao Tengyuan, and Han Caizhi from Mingzhou and Yizhou, and from Chongzhou to Gengquanshan's headquarters to land in Yueqing by sea, plus the main force of the Jinghai Second Water Battalion and the first water battalion, the Huaidong Army gathered nearly 40,000 troops on the north and south banks of the Yongjia River estuary, and also recruited more than 10,000 people from the localities.

In addition to the garrison forces of Wenqiao, Wuyun, Yueqing, Ouhai and other places, as well as the water battalion to control the open sea and the waterway of the Yongjia River, the soldiers and horses that entered Yongjia County along both sides of the Nanxi River on 25 March included the main force of the New Zhejiang Southern Army under Tang Fuguan, Chen Dingbang, and Zuo Guangying, the main force of the eastern Zhejiang camp led by Chen Kuili and Mao Tengyuan, and the Chongcheng infantry battalion led by Zhang Jiheng and Liu Zhenzhi with more than 24,000 soldiers and more than 10,000 people.

Even though he could not climb over the lofty mountains and cut off the back road of Yongjia City, Lin Jian still authorized Zhou Tong to launch a siege battle from the south of Yongjia City on March 28.

Yongjia City is located in the valley on the west bank of the Nanxi River, and the east bank is Shangtang Village, and the terrain is more precipitous. Yongjia City and Shangtang Village are connected by a trestle bridge, and the bottom of the trestle is naturally blocked by various obstacles such as shipwrecks and dark piles.

On the-for-tat, the Huaidong Army entered the territory of Yongjia County, built two camps in front of Yongjia City and Shangtang Village, and launched a strong attack on Yongjia and Shangtang in turn.

Yongjia County was once attacked by pirates, and then it fell into decline, and Yongjia Prefecture was once forced to move to Ouhai; In March last year, when Yongjia City was attacked by the troops led by the Luxury Flying Tiger, the damage became even more serious.

After that, most of the resources of the Southern Zhejiang Governor's Office were pumped to Dongyang County, and a defensive line was built in front of the Huaidong Army stationed in Luohe Mountain. It was not until the situation in southern Zhejiang was critical and Qin Zitan's representative Hao Feihu went to Yongjia to supervise the battle that he took out manpower to strengthen the defense of Yongjia and Shangtang.

After Qin Zitan returned to southern Zhejiang, some deficiencies in Yongjia and Shangtang city defense have been effectively strengthened, but after all, the city is low, unable to fully cover bricks and wood, Yongjia is far from being a solid city, the most able to rely on is Yongjia more than 8,000 defenders, eight or nine out of ten are loyal to the luxury of the Fujian soldiers.

The siege of Yongjia began on March 28 and lasted until April 18. During the 20 days, including the continuous organization of sieges and sneak attacks by the Huaidong Army and the counteroffensive and sneak attacks organized by the Yongjia defenders, there were no less than 100 large and small battles, each of which tried its best to capture the city or repel the incoming enemy, and the war fell into a cruel tug-of-war.

The blood stains at the head of the city were black and purple, and both sides did not know how much blood had been shed at the head of the city, and they had already overflowed the cracks in the brick road at the head of the city. Broken arrows, halberds, and fallen armor pieces were picked up and re-fused with swords and arrows, and broken arrows, spears, and shafts were everywhere. Everywhere there were crumbling battlements and marks of burning fire—the wounded soldiers resting on the back of the battlements were more striking than the decay of the city......

In the distance, the cloud platform built by the Huaidong army for the siege of the city is one zhang higher than the string of towers in the city, placed on the cloud platform, and the large and small stone crossbow and bed crossbow that can be fired without being dragged by people and animals are a big trouble on the head of the defenders.

Although the stone bullets thrown are not very accurate, as long as they are hit, they will lose half their lives if they don't die; The sound of the huge bed crossbow and the big arrows shooting into the air made people shudder when they heard it.

Under the cloud platform, the soldiers of the Huaidong army lined up and were as solid as a rock.

In order to limit the suppression of the Yuntai giant crossbow on the head of the city, Qin Zitan and Wen Tingrui organized generals to go out of the city to counterattack many times, and fought fiercely with the Huaidong army under the city, setting fire to many Yuntai at a heavy price, and destroying dozens of stone-throwing crossbows and bed crossbows of the Huaidong army.

Standing behind Zhou Tong and personally going to the camp outside Yongjia City to supervise the battle, Lin Jian had the intention of fighting a war of attrition in Yongjia. In terms of troop deployment, Lin Jian used Zhang Jiheng and Liu Zhenzhi's two elite Chongcheng infantry battalions to hold the position, prevent the Yongjia defenders from counterattacking out of the city, and use the relatively weak combat effectiveness of the new southern Zhejiang army and the eastern Zhejiang camp army to take turns to capture the city, and the preparation of siege equipment is even more sufficient.

At that time, almost all the casting workpieces in the world were made of mud, and Huaidong had adopted the flap steel mold as a model for casting some important workpieces. The cost of making a steel mold is incomparably high, but a set of steel molds can cast thousands of workpieces without damage, and the cost of spreading it evenly over each workpiece is far from what traditional craftsmen using clay models can imagine.

With the military industry battalion is organized with a variety of craftsmen, all kinds of workpieces, components can be prepared in advance at a relatively low cost and in accordance with the standard parts production mode, including bristles, hemp, silk, glue and other materials are also in large reserves before the war, and the nearby new sandalwood, new oak and other wood to make cannon tips, Huaidong Army can build dozens of nest cars, bed crossbows, throwing crossbows and other ordnance every day in the war to supplement the damage in the war.

The tug-of-war lasted for 20 days, and although a large number of ordnance was destroyed in the counterattack of the Yongjia defenders every day, by April 21, on the south side of Yongjia City, the cloud platform constructed with the skeleton of the nest car reached the level of one 200 paces apart, and the striking surface covered the entire southern wall of Yongjia City. It is surrounded by a gimbal, as well as a parapet wall, a fence wall, a ditch and other enclosures.

Before the generals of the Huaidong Army climbed to the top of the city from the wall or attached to the wall with a ladder or a cloud bridge, the defenders could only hide under the low-level war tent built of double-layer hardwood to avoid the arrow stones, and could not enter the city first, so that they lost the opportunity to take the initiative to defend the city, and the advantage of defending the city was greatly reduced.

Perhaps it was in the brutal confrontation with the Eastern Fujian Army led by Li Zhuo that the Fujian soldiers honed their super tenacious will, so that the Fujian soldiers continued to withstand nearly 20 days of repeated attacks, and their will was still as solid as a rock and did not waver in the slightest, but the accumulated casualties were shocking.

More than half of the 8,000 defenders suffered casualties, and perhaps the casualties of the Huaidong Army were more, but Qin Zitan, Wen Tingrui and the other Yongjia defenders knew in their hearts that if such a brutal fight continued, their situation would be very unfavorable.

The Yanhu cavalry can threaten the northern front of Huaidong, threaten the Huaisi area, and force the main force of Huaidong to move north, at least until winter and the rivers in the Hehuai region are frozen, and it will take half a year - this is only speculation.

In half a year, the Huaibei front will hardly be threatened in the slightest, and Huaidong will have the conditions and foundation for a protracted war outside Yongjia City. The Huaidong Army also has such thoughts, and has been continuously strengthening the barracks on both sides of the Nanxi River, and to this day, the Huaidong military camp opposite Yongjia City is as solid as a walled city.

If he wanted to grit his teeth, let such a brutal war of attrition continue, and hold the Yongjia army, Qin Zitan estimated that he would have to send 10,000 elite soldiers from the Western Front. In fact, as long as the strength of the Yongjia defenders increases, it can limit the attack intensity of the Huaidong army, after all, the total number of soldiers and horses that the Huaidong army can call on is also limited.

Lin Shushe was able to capture Yongjia City with 10,000 casualties - 10,000 casualties were within the range that the Huaidong Army could bear on the southern front, and it would not greatly reduce the Huaidong Army's combat effectiveness and combat will, but when the casualties increased to 20,000, the situation would be very different.

Once the strength of the Yongjia defenders was greatly strengthened, Lin Jian could only turn an active battle to a long-term, close-range military confrontation in the end.

Qin Zitan, Wen Tingrui, and the extravagant Feihu in Dongyang County, the extravagant Feixiong in Wuyuan, and the Zhejiang-Fujian Governor's Mansion in Jin'an, all had to weigh the pros and cons of the brutal military confrontation between the two sides with Yongjia City at this time.

If Qin Zitan and Wen Tingrui could hold Yongjia City, the Taizhou defenders would not need to abandon the coastal counties of Huipu and Wenling—otherwise they would not be able to defend alone—retreat to the deep cities of Linhai and Xianju. In this way, the Zhejiang-Fujian Army had a certain strategic depth, and the situation was stalemate with the Huaidong Army to the northern front.

But if the strength of the Yongjia garrison is increased to 15,000 or even higher, can it last half a year or even longer in terms of material preparation?

Meat is not extravagant, soldiers eat two liters of rice grain per day, 15,000 soldiers, 10,000 stone of grain per month, and the grain storage in Yongjia City can only support two months. After two months, 10,000 stone of rice would need to be transported from Dongyang County and even Quzhou further west to consume it.

Unlike taking the sea route, where a ship can hold thousands of stones, thousands of stones, or even tens of thousands of stones of rice and grain, the Zhejiang-Fujian army lost control of the waterway, and from Dongyang County to Yongjia City, it was a winding and narrow mountain road of more than 400 miles.

These 400 miles of mountain roads are located between Yandang Mountain, Kuocang Mountain and other mountain ranges, there is no need to worry that the Huaidong Army can have a large force to attack, but it is difficult to prevent the Huaidong Army from infiltrating and destroying small groups of elite scouts - the Huaidong Army is slightly north of Luohe Mountain and Tiantai Mountain, and the infiltration operations of small groups of elite scouts are very frequent, which makes the Zhejiang and Fujian army have a headache - even if the small elite does not directly attack the grain transportation troops, as long as they continue to destroy the mountain road, it will greatly increase the difficulty of transporting supplies from Dongyang County into Yongjia.

More than 400 miles of steep mountain roads can not be used by cars, and there are also the destruction and harassment of the small elite scouts of the Huaidong Army, whether it is horses and camels or organize the force to carry the transport, the speed is not fast, and it takes a month to make a round trip.

To employ people, at least 15,000 porters must be organized, and counting the consumption of porters along the way, Dongyang County must supply 20,000 stone of rice grain every month.

South of the Qianjiang River, in addition to Huiji, Mingzhou two prefectures have a large number of arable land, the whole southern Zhejiang grain production area is mainly distributed in two places, one is the Yongjia River, Jiaojiang River, Feiyun River and other downstream river valleys, coastal plains, one is the east end of Dongyang County in the central Zhejiang valley, later also known as the Jinqu Basin.

With the Huaidong Army relying on Yueqing City and wantonly entering the southern coastal areas of Zhejiang, the Zhejiang-Fujian Army naturally lost control of the coastal waters and river valley plains, and the grain-producing areas in southern Zhejiang that could still be firmly controlled were mainly concentrated in the valley plains of central Zhejiang.

In the valley plain area of eastern Zhejiang, which is dominated by Quzhou Prefecture, the number of acres of registered fields is as high as 4 million mu, but it is mainly dry land, and the output is far from being comparable with that of mature paddy fields. Therefore, there were more than 50,000 Dingkou households in Quzhou Mansion at its peak, which is far from being comparable with Mingzhou Mansion, which had 200,000 Dingkou households in its heyday.

In order to organize the Dongyang defense line, Luxury Feihu has already tried his best to squeeze Quzhou Mansion; Can Quzhou Mansion still withstand the transfer of 20,000 stone of rice grain and 15,000 people per month?

Once Quzhou could not withstand such a heavy pressure and provoked a popular uprising, the entire eastern front of the Zhejiang-Fujian army would first cause internal collapse.

In addition to the supply of rice and other materials, what Yongjia City lacks even more is wound medicine.

Twenty days of fierce fighting left the defenders suffering nearly 4,000 casualties.

Casualties, casualties, injuries and deaths.

In siege warfare, compared with catching and killing, swords and guns are more about shooting and throwing bows, crossbows, arrows, and stones. In a short period of time, far more people were wounded than killed, and there were more arrow wounds than slash wounds.

Bumps and bumps are not considered injuries, at least they must temporarily lose their combat effectiveness and be unable to continue fighting, and the total number of casualties will be counted, with nearly 4,000 casualties, in addition to more than 1,000 people who have been killed in battle and are not healed, there are also nearly 3,000 wounded, and all the wounded medicine reserves in Yongjia City have been exhausted.

If we don't treat them, there will be 3,000 wounded people, and half of them will not survive, and if they are treated, they will have to transfer a large amount of wounded medicine from Dongyang County. Dongyang County can barely supply enough wound medicine here for the time being, but the military standoff in Yongjia City has been stalemate for half a year or even longer, what should I do?

The soldiers of Fujian may not be afraid of death, but a large number of wounded soldiers gathered in the city without effective treatment, enduring great pain and waiting for death, at that time, the morale and will of the generals will face a truly cruel test.

In addition to the superficial swords and guns and flesh and blood, the deeper and real contest is here.

Qin Zitan believed that Lin Lian's intention to fight a war of attrition under Yongjia City was also here: he dragged down this side.