For more than 170 years, in order to prevent the Khitan cavalry from moving south, the Yellow River deliberately did not build a large embankment after entering the Hebei Plain and allowed it to flow freely on the Hebei Plain. Over the years, many rivers that originated from the Taihang Mountains have brought more than 100 years of severe flooding to the entire Hebei Plain, especially the areas near the Bohai Sea in the east.

The general scope involves Binzhou, Cangzhou, Xiangzhou and eastern Weizhou, about 300 miles deep.

Of course, these areas are crisscrossed with rivers and swamps, but they are not flooded under the water. The main reason is that the land is cut into pieces by shallow silted water rivers.

In order to resist the Khitan cavalry's southward movement, the Great Yue Dynasty did not allow floods to flood for more than 100 years. It also intentionally passed through the construction of dikes and dredged canals in small areas to connect them one after another, and controlled the depth of the flooding, forming a water defense line that "the deep cannot be sailed, and shallow cannot be moved and walked".

In addition, seventy or eighty military camps, including Changhe, Wuqiao, Anling, Micun, Linjin, Panhe, Xianping, Maji, etc., were also built in this area, and the elite imperial guards were stationed in the imperial guards. ??

Since the previous dynasty of the 16 Yan prefectures in the Khitan period, Hebei has no danger to defend against the Khitan cavalry that occupied Yanji. This area has always been a key defense line for the imperial court, and its attention is even above the Yanmen and Lanzhou defense line in the north of Hedong Road. It is impossible to pay attention to it. Cangzhou, Binzhou and Weizhou on the west side, Xiangzhou was killed by Khitan cavalry, which will directly threaten the security of Bianliang.

However, when the Chihu cavalry invaded south, this line of defense was completely unable to play its due role.

Since Chihu invaded the south, the garrisons of these military camps and military towns were either incorporated by Emperor Shaolong, who was still King Jing at that time, and then retreated south. Now they have become the backbone of the Longwu Army and Geboyige's army controlled by the Western Zhejiang Army, or surrendered without backbone and turned into the minions of the Chihu people invading Qilu and Jianghuai in the south.

Of course, some garrisons and local people did not have time to retreat south, nor did they surrender to the Chihu people.

However, after the winter of this area, the rivers were frozen and there was no danger to defend. The garrisons and people who had no surrender were forced to retreat into the Taihang Mountains and continue to resist after several fierce and futile battles.

After the Chihu people occupied Cangzhou, Binzhou and other places, the troops swept quickly to the hinterland of Hehuai, and it was like entering a deserted land. Naturally, it was impossible to disperse elite troops to guard dozens of military camps and military towns, but they did not destroy them, but handed them over to the local area to settle the small family that surrendered to the Han army.

During the Jianji and Shaolong period, the Chihu people always regarded Hebei as their hinterland management. They never thought that these military camps would one day become obstacles for their fleeing north.

After the Battle of Yingzhou, Wululie, the King of Zhennan, suggested that the East Road voluntarily abandon the occupied areas south of the Yellow River and withdraw all the remaining main troops to the north of the Yellow River. Relying on the scattered military towns and the western wings of Weizhou and Xiangzhou, which are close to the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, the defense lines are established. In the end, because the main generals of the Pingyanzong Palace are unwilling to give up, the Khanate, who is far away in the north of the desert, cannot correctly examine the major setbacks they suffered in the Hehuai River, and are not adopted.

The eastern enemy soldiers chose to break out from Shanghe, Yangxin, Wudi, Leling and other places in the beginning of spring. After the ice and snow melted after spring, they were indeed filled with muddy water siege and mudflats, making it difficult for the elite soldiers of the Sikong Mansion to start fighting.

Although the large-scale horse and infantry can use horses to enter shallow water silt, it is difficult to fight from horses and laid-offs, and it is not good at fighting against horses.

Even if it is a cavalry of the vanguard, it is impossible to wading and shooting with cavalry and shooting as a cavalry of the Red Husband who have been rolling on horseback since childhood.

However, the sixty or seventy military camps and towns widely distributed in the northern part of Binzhou, the northwest and the entire territory of Cangzhou are seven or eight miles apart, and are distributed in this silted mudflat, but are extremely rare support and joint anchor points for the cavalry of the selective army and the cavalry of various cavalry and infantry in the various routes of intercepting operations.

Su Chong, Xu Yan led his troops from

At the beginning of Weizhou's advance eastward, it was not expected that the main force of the eastern enemy troops would delay until the beginning of spring before breaking through. At that time, the troops were concentrated to attack Shanghe, Yangxin and Leling as the support for interception.

After Yang Qiye personally led 80,000 horses, infantry and cavalry to advance eastward before the New Year, he was shocked to the main force of the eastern enemy soldiers who were not prepared at the time and did not dare to flee north in a hurry, so he immediately divided his troops to control these military camps and military towns.

After that, it was predicted that the Eastern Army soldiers would either stay on the south bank and wait for death, or they would inevitably choose to break north after spring but before the flood season came - or continue to delay the backwards, which would only cause the Eastern Army soldiers to fall into a more passive dilemma.

Therefore, Yang Qiye and the generals also formulated a combat plan to intercept and break through the main forces of the enemy cavalry after the beginning of spring.

To put it bluntly, the crisscrossing shallow water silt and the wild grasses and bushes that grow freely between shallow water silt and are prone to arson, which makes it impossible for 50,000 enemy cavalry to gather together to advance and retreat quickly, forcing the enemy cavalry to disperse into teams ranging from hundreds to one or two thousand cavalry to break north; at the same time, its mobile combat ability of quickly detours is also severely restricted.

The main forces of the cavalry and cavalry of the Sikongfu Selection Army had a total of more than 90,000 troops and horses. Under the command of Yang Qiye and other generals, they also relied on the scattered military camps and military towns to carry out resolute assault operations against the scattered cavalry.

The existence of military camps and military towns can enable the cavalry of the front-selling army and the cavalry of various routes to wait for work, and on the other hand, it can more conveniently gather more advantageous troops on local battlefields, intercept and surround the enemy.

Even if the battle fails, the troops and horses can quickly retreat to the military camps nearby. In the military town, they will not only be chased by the enemy cavalry and defeated, but also quickly carry out new gatherings, rectifications, and launch new attacks.

At the same time, these military camps and military towns are the fast interweaving and mobilization of the selection army and various horse and infantry at medium and long distances, and are also reliable and safe support points. There is no need to worry about being attacked by the captive cavalry during the roundabout way.

Of course, when the main force of the eastern cavalry broke north, they left as many as 60,000 to 70,000 Han army infantry directly behind, on the one hand, the Chihu people knew that the ice and snow had begun to melt, and these Han army infantry were destined to be unable to pass through the shallow water silt area of ​​300 miles, and then marched separately after setting off. On the other hand, these Han army infantry also realized that they had become abandoned sons. Under the persuasion of the hidden personnel of the Military Intelligence Staff Department, they deliberately slowed down the pace of the march. Some Han army even retreated directly to Qizhou and Zizhou, waiting to offer the city for greater preferential treatment.

This allowed Yang Qiye and others to completely ignore the more than 60,000 Han infantry who were slowly advancing north, and to concentrate their superior troops and fully encircle and annihilate the main force of the enemy cavalry with a total of up to 50,000.

In addition to controlling the military camp and military towns first, the excellent armor defense is more accurate in resisting the backs of the Red Hu people and the rapid crossbow shooting plays a huge role, effectively reducing casualties on one's own side.

In addition, in the past two years, various camps have successively formed a team of crossbow cavalry with a scale of thousands of people.

The crossbow cavalry is a iron-ridge crossbow that weighs more than 40 or 50 kilograms and cannot be used as a single crossbow to be equipped with an iron-ridge crossbow, and is mounted on the saddle to fight.

Crossbow cavalry has little requirement for riders to archery, and ordinary horse and infantry can do it.

To put it bluntly, crossbow cavalry is to cooperate with the elite cavalry and armored soldiers to quickly concentrate a group of iron ridge crossbows that are inconvenient to carry infringement at the front end of a narrow local battlefield. Using the ultra-long range and strong piercing ability of the iron ridge crossbow to attack the enemy's formation head-on, and then quickly retreat to a relatively safe position such as the rear of the formation for new filling.

This time, the city of Zhuxing and Bianyang station

The crossbow cavalry of a total of 5,000 troops were also concentrated and handed over to Yang Qiye to command, playing a huge role in intercepting the eastern route of the enemy cavalry.

A team of crossbow cavalry cooperated with the elite cavalry of the vanguard army to fight from various military camps and military towns, launching two or three hundred steps away from the enemy. Then they quickly withdrew back to the military camp and military towns to carry out new loading.

This almost rogue tactic basically eliminates the advantages of the Red Hu cavalry in cavalry.

The entire interception operation began in mid-January of Shaolong and ended in early February, which lasted nearly twenty days. The battlefield ran from Shanghe County in northern Qizhou, Yangxin County in northern Zibo County, Wudi County, and continued to Changlu County in southern Jizhou and Huichuan County. During this period, more than a hundred fierce battles broke out. In the end, in addition to the estimated 30,000 cavalry and 40,000 cavalry escaped, the cavalry of the Selected Front Army and the cavalry of the various routes were seriously injured and killed by nearly 30,000 people, almost completely wiped out the main force of the Eastern Rank Cavalry, and achieved the most glorious victory since Chihu invaded the south.

This battle can be said to have completely wiped out all the main forces of the captive soldiers under the Pingyanzong Palace on the East Road - they were stranded in Yanzhou and south of Jizhou, and it was difficult to escape and ascend to heaven.

At the same time, Chen Tushen, the pseudo-Qizhou magistrate Chen Tushen and others who led their troops to retreat to Qizhou, surrendered in Qi, Zibo and other places, and also fought stubbornly in Guixiang, Anyang and other places. The defenders saw that the situation was hopeless, and finally could not bear the forced force of the defending generals. They either fled out of the city to surrender, or captured the defending generals and opened the city gate to welcome the troops from Sikong Mansion to garrison. .??.

By the end of February, Fan Zongqi, Chen Jin and others will lead the elite troops in the west camp of Beijing to regain all the cities along the Yellow River.

At the same time, Han Shiliang led the troops in Xuzhou to go north from Mizhou to recover the cities in eastern Lu.

In addition to Yang Qiye leading a part of his troops to Xiongzhou for rest and rest, generals such as Shi Hu, Sun Yanguan, Wu Sanrong, Xu Yan, Su Zun and others led their troops to the north to recover the empty Yanzhou, Jizhou and other cities, and at the same time, they completely cut off a small number of Hebei and Jingdong East Roads and still resisted stubbornly and did not surrender the enemy's escape route south.

Seeing the general situation, Wululie, the King of Zhennan, ordered Cao Shixiong, Meng Ping and others to give up Pinglu, Yuanqu and other places as early as early February, and flee to Taiyuan, Lanzhou and other places in the central and northern Hedong Road.

Since the main troops of the Xuzhou camp in southern Beijing were still on Hebei and Jingdong East Road, the Jingdong West Camp had already drawn a large number of elite troops to reinforce the Eastern Front. They were temporarily unable to carry out large-scale roundabout pursuit of the middle-range envoys fleeing north. They could only go through Pinglu, Yuanqu and other places step by step, and entered the Fen River downstream basin and Zelu Basin and pushed the front line to the hinterland of Hedong Road and recovered the lost ground.

The troops under the jurisdiction of the Prince of Pingyanzong's Mansion on the east road were almost wiped out, and the soldiers and horses in the Prince of Nanzong's Mansion on the middle road were like frightened birds and fled north in a hurry. The soldiers and horses in the Prince of Jingyan's Mansion on the west road were alone and could not support them. In late February, he also chose to retreat from Guanzhong.

Wang Xian led the Heluo camp troops, Gu Cong led the Dongchuan army to pass through Tongguan and Ziwu Valley to enter Guanzhong, and first recovered the cities along the Wei River...

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Although Bianliang in early April is already early summer, the remnant city is shrouded under the drizzling rain curtains and the weather is slightly cool.

Yingyun held an oil-paper umbrella and followed behind Xu Huai. He climbed the steps and climbed the stone bridge. He looked at another ruin in front of him, with only some broken walls standing among the ruins.

After March, even though the strength of the enemy troops in the middle and west routes was still alive, they were not able to see their intention to fight with the main troops in Hedong or Guanshan and the Heluo camp and the Beijing West routes.

It can be said that within the Central Plains, the main war has been declared over. The main thing to do is to recover the lost land in Hedong, Guanshan and other places one by one, and eliminate the remaining enemies.

Xu Huai did not return to Biyang directly because the main war ended.

He first followed the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain

I went to Yanzhou, which was once established as the southern capital of Xijin Prefecture by the Khitan, and learned about some of the local people's reintegration of Yanji's return to the Central Plains. Then I returned south to Bianliang.

Xu Huai also summoned Shi Zhen, Xu Wuli, Su Laochang, Cheng Lunying, Dong Cheng, Liu Xian, Xu Wujiang, Zhu Tong, Xu Wukun and other generals to Bianliang to meet, and discussed how to restore the ruling order in the next stage of the newly reclaimed areas such as Hedong and Hebei.

Xu Huai and Yingyun had no chance to stay together in Biyang for a few days, so they had to personally rush to Bianzhou to supervise the battle. This time, they also took this opportunity to specially let Yingyun come to Bianliang to meet.

Ying Yun thought about reuniting with Xu Huai, and secondly, she thought about finally returning to the old capital, and rushed to Bianliang with excitement. However, when she entered the city from the broken Nanxun Gate, her inner excitement was mercilessly shattered by everything in front of her.

This is no longer the Bianliang she is familiar with, and it is no longer the imperial capital she was born here and raised here.

In addition to the two inner and outer walls, which are generally intact, lie across the south bank of the Yellow River, there are almost no complete buildings in the city, without overdraft.

The reason why the city walls are relatively well preserved is mainly because they are built by earth and stone, which is too time-consuming and labor-intensive to destroy them. Unlike the large and small buildings supported by beam and column structures in the city, they are just set on fire.

However, more than a dozen wooden beamed city towers and more numerous watchtowers and war sheds on the inner and outer city walls, even though they were not seriously destroyed in the previous war, they were destroyed as much as possible when the middle road troops retreated from the south of the Yellow River more than four years ago.

After recapturing Zheng Bian and Heluo, the Sikong Mansion did not think about returning the capital to Bianliang, so it would not take the scarce resources to repair the city of Bianliang, and temporarily let it be abandoned.

More than four years have passed, and this circumference is nearly forty miles. It was once the most prosperous and magnificent capital in the world. Inside and outside the city, there are millions of people living in it. It has completely become a nest and paradise for rats, rabbits, wild pheasants.

Except for the stone bridge under her feet, Yingyun could not recognize the large ruins at the bridgehead, which was the King Jing's Mansion that once gave birth to her.

"This is my old house, and the Zhu family mansion is here on the river. This time I came here, and I thought about visiting the place where I saw you for the first time, but I didn't expect it to be like this,"

Yingyun identified the direction and found the location of Zhu's mansion. The situation was slightly better. There were several dilapidated houses standing in the ruins and not completely collapsed. He held Xu Huai's hand sadly, raised his delicate little face and asked,

"Do you remember sending me the first time I saw you?"

Xu Huai remembered that he had gone south from Shuozhou and rushed to Bianliang to temporarily stay in Zhu's mansion before meeting Wang Bing. He was troubled by the current situation. He was dizzy and mistakenly recognized Yingyun as the maid of Zhu's mansion. He actually threw the cloak covered with mud and dust to her for washing. He asked with a smile, "At that time, do you think I am a rude and rude soldier?"

"How could it be?" Yingyun indulged in the memories of the past and smiled, "I heard Sister Xuan talk about you at first, and I was very curious when I saw you. After all, I had never seen a person like you in the past. However, Bianliang was surrounded by the barbarians, and none of the imperial ancestors and civil and military officials in the court had the courage to kill the enemy. He wanted to beg for mercy on the barbarians with the royal family and concubines in the harem. Yingyun was young at that time, and when he was at a loss, he was just full of hope that a person like his husband would kidnap Yingyun and leave, and then his husband appeared..."

At the time of the wedding, the battle of Yizhou had just ended. Su Chong and Xu Yan led their troops to intercept the main force of the Eastern Front Army. At that time, Xu Huai's main mind and energy must be focused on the new military combat deployment - at the same time, he was entangled by the cumbersome weddings. Their wedding days were not the chance to say something well except for the bridal chamber time. Xu Huai later supervised the battle...

It was not until this time that Yingyun had the opportunity to convey the deep emotions in his heart one by one.
Chapter completed!