Speaking of, Chen Ru, the capital of Dongchuan, resolutely implemented Song Hao’s deployment at the beginning. He not only successfully attacked several towns, ferry ports and piers downstream of Shehong City, and burned them to the spot. Taking materials from the river surface where the water flow is slowed down, many shallow barrier places have been constructed with sunken ships and wooden piles.
During this period, the men, women, and children who were driven from nearby villages were soaked in the cold water with residual ice and snow. They also died of freezing, dying of illness, drowning, or being re-exited. However, his painstaking arrangement and limited imagination have not been able to block the flow of information that is rising with the upcoming spring, and the Taiping army fleet is moving up the river.
Although he had cleaned up and expelled the manpower and animal power along the river in disguise that could provide fiber-stretching, he did not expect the Taiping thief to have vehicles and ships that could rely on water wheels to walk on its own, not to mention the rough water surface and underwater obstacles. What obstacles can cause these vehicles and ships has been detected in advance with a few poles extending from the bow.
Then, many light boats leaned on to work a few times. After a roar and spray of the old high waves, countless dead fish rolled, the large pieces of debris drifted away with the current, the river became a wide and smooth road again; and he was here. The ambush set by the river has become a joke. Several cannons from the vehicles and ships blasted over, the horses being pressed on the ground were shocked, and then people couldn't hide them.
The wharves and ferry ports are destroyed and it is of no use. These vehicles and ships will soon be able to use the lowered boats and hauling materials on the barges to quickly construct a suggested landing site on the shore. However, Chen Ru's subordinates were all relatively rare cavalry in Dongchuan, but they couldn't cross the river to attack the opponent. After suffering three times, they could only switch to inland activities.
So they retreated and began to use swords, bows and spears to liquidate those stubborn husbands and fools who were "attached to thieves" and "subordinated to thieves" in these places. For a time, there were not many real thieves found, but those who thought they were obedient to the government for generations were good people who had little to do with foreign peace thieves, and there would be nothing to do, and they did not want to leave their homes for a while. Killed the heads of a person smoothly.
However, when the thief army dormant in Shehong City received follow-up supplements and began to take the initiative to attack, their good days of relying on burning, killing, looting, and looting Jianyin have also come to an end. After being ambushed and intercepted one after another, relying on horsepower and familiar terrain to barely escape, Chen Ru smelled a certain kind of crisis and imminent disaster.
Therefore, he finally abandoned the mounts that were conducive to running on the flat ground before the thief army that was continuously transported from the rear, and formed the final encirclement, and the village soldiers who launched and gathered together with the last eight hundred. Ten people got into the forest to the east of Shehong City, and they were able to get rid of the chase of the thief cavalry, who had just arrived and were unfamiliar with the terrain.
However, when Chen Ru and others walked out along the hunting trail in the mountains and were able to walk back to Qixian, the city of Zhoucheng, there were only the last twenty-odd people who could continue to follow. Compared with Qianqi's vigorous affair, it can be described as miserable and desolate to the extreme.
However, Song Hao had to pay attention to the local information he had brought about fighting and encountering the thief army, and temporarily let go of his plan to be held accountable. Because, in Shehong and other places, the thieves are no longer simply plundering big households and rich houses, or inciting and recruiting poor households and poor families to drive and work together.
Rather, after confiscation of the local tyrants with surnames, subordinates, officials and gentry, they dispatched people to start measuring the land and check their household registration in a serious way, and let the poor people choose the village heads and lizheng people by themselves. Many temporary co-organizers were appointed from it; it was basically a long-term management plan to abandon the old gentry system of the countryside and start anew.
If the thief army's schemes and methods that clearly want to fight against the guest are really allowed to succeed, then they have mastered the local money, food and military service and have a firm foothold; it means that the world under the rule of the Tang Dynasty is turned upside down, and the strength of the enemy is further compared with that of the enemy. He disappeared from this rise; even if the officials and subordinates who fled to the city in the future had a chance to return to their homeland, they might not be able to continue to please.
Thinking of this, Song Hao became even more distressed and troubled. He only hated himself for failing to send more people behind enemy lines to harass and restrain these thieves when he had the advantage and the upper hand. The army easily destroyed and mastered the local situation.
Immediately, he confronted Zhu Jingmei next to him resolutely:
"Also ask the Supervisory Court to let people tell that the Dongchuan Army can't go there if it has no time to take care of it! Not only that, I need more reinforcements and transportation; otherwise, once the thief breaks through the boundary of my Dongchuan, will it be the only In the territory of Xichuan, separated by a Lutou Pass, can it be easy to please it alone?"
As a general of Yuzhou’s other army, Zhong Yi, also on the mound on the south bank of the river, faintly wanted to look at him, and with a pair of wind-milled copper telescopes, he carefully looked at Qi County (now The layout and pattern of the upper and lower cities in Santai County, Sichuan Province.
This is a large city located on a platform at the turning point of the river. There are few large cities with thick rammed earth and a large number of gravel walls. The city wall is about three or four miles wide in the view of the south; except for the northwest and southwest In addition to the main stream of the Fujiang River that passes by, there is also a tributary of the Qijiang River that bypasses under the southern wall of the city, and Qi County is named after it.
It is also because since ancient times, the Fujiang River has extremely convenient water transportation, and because of the convenient and accessible means of transportation relative to land, business and trade exchanges are like weaving. Ships can go upstream to the hinterland of Xichuan in Mianyang and Jiangyou, and downstream to Shehong, Suining, Hechuan, Yuzhou and other Xiajiang waterways. Here is the confluence of the Kaijiang River into the Fujiang River, and the ship headed westward to reach the Zhongjiang River.
Therefore, since the opening of the port, Santai has been a distribution center and an important transit point for goods in central Shu. It is known as “Fushui on the left and Zhongjiang on the right. It is the key point of water and land, and it is the city of Jiannan”. As a result, a large number of local guests and financial resources are listed as Shangzhou, and since Qianyuan, it has acted as the governor of Jiannan Dongchuan Jiedu.
At its peak, Zizhou had sixty-one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-four households and two-four thousand six hundred and fifty-two. Among them, the most quintessential three Chengdu districts are gathered in Qi County, the state city; therefore, Qi County was once comparable to Chengdu, and the second most prosperous Shu area is expected to be Dayi.
The east and south sides of Qixian County are both natural dangers facing the water and the river. Only the land on the north and west, which is covered with hills, has open terrain in the traditional sense that can be used to deploy troops and carry out siege operations. However, here is a large paddy field. Although it has been hardened by Qingye, the accumulation of water and silt in the field is no small hindrance.
As the only official road and land commercial road that crosses the narrow riverside area in the east of the city from north to south, it is almost uncovered and exposed to the threat of attacks from the city wall, slinging stones and archery from high ground, and can be used anytime, anywhere. Cut it off easily. Even the town square and wharf on the riverside, which originally seemed to be densely tasted, were burned down, and the Taiping Army Water Camp was not given a chance to get close to the shore calmly.
The city walls of Qixian County are not like those cities that Yuzhou’s other troops have attacked before; because they are located in the relatively peaceful hinterland of the inland, apart from a few savages and private traffickers, there is no more threats they want; Therefore, it is inevitable that the situation is in disrepair or deficient defense. Only some trappers and tax collectors maintain the situation.
According to Zhong Yi’s observation, this tightly glued city wall structure with earth and stone inlays cannot easily create a large enough opening with a few rounds of shelling; not to mention that the city wall seems to have been repaired this year. , It is suspected that a small urn city has been built inside the city gate, and there are faint shadows of stone cannons and crossbows, and it seems that the materials on the city head are ready to be sufficient.
However, even with these imminent difficulties and obstacles, he couldn't shake his determination and will to defeat the enemy, break the situation, and drive into Shu for a long time; he thought about the restraint and harassment of the civil war. After all, the trend of the situation as it is today is very clear, and what remains is how these generals can use less cost and beautiful tactics to give the big governor Jiang a large amount of satisfaction.
And from a small school with two guns in the Houguan town of Fujian Observation Envoy, to the general of the divisional division who is now leading the way. Zhong Yi has gone through a lot of things, and has gained enough experience and insights. He has also experienced several short-term studies through resignation and transfer. In terms of vision, layout, and city government, he has gradually matured and grown steadily. Woke up.
Therefore, during the inadvertent process of the Taiping Army's conquest of the world, he was already in the same position as the old jinshi and Pi Rixiu, the superintendent of education from Suzhou, Suzhou, and Piling deputy envoy. ; Faintly represents the descendants of the old Japanese army, the highest ceiling and a certain weather vane in the new system of the Taiping Army.
"Set up camps on the spot to repair the ferry, apply for more tactical support from the navy, and seize the towns on the east side of the river beach. Then use the construction of a new pontoon bridge as a breakthrough and water surface support to extend to the east bank of the north of the city. ..."
Afterwards, Zhong Yi already decisively ordered:
"Zhengjiang, it seems that we are going to fight a long and hard battle here."
The old and old subordinate beside him couldn't help but ask:
"No, we don't need to smash the fortresses of the big city that is waiting for it again. As long as we gather enough boats and vehicles, we can go around directly from the river... At least on the water, the defenders can't help it. of.."
Zhong Yi shook his head without hesitation:
"If the enemy in the city is indifferent, we will take the upper reaches of Mianzhou, Mianyang, Jiangyou and other places, and wait for an opportunity to attack and seize the Lutou Pass, the gateway to Xichuan; if the enemy in the city cannot resist coming out to intercept and fight, then we are turning around in our army. Under the combined waters of the decisive battle"
"Since the Fujiang waterway has been restored to navigation throughout the city, and our army has also entered the city of Qixian by land and water, it also means that the strategic initiative in the battle is already in the hands of our army. The biggest mistake of the enemy is that it clearly underestimated me. The navigable capacity and load upper limit of the military in the Xiajiang waterway..." (End of this chapter)