Soon after, Fu Jinzhan granted Guo Shao the military seal of the Grand Marshal of the Army of the World. Guo Shao then requested an order to establish a temporary military headquarters on the south side of the Dianqiansi, called the Jiangnan Front Camp Shogunate, which was specifically responsible for managing the war against the Southern Tang. The Privy Councilor Wang Pu replaced Guo Shao in charge of military affairs, and under him were the Prime Minister Li Gu, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites Zuo You, the Left Office of Kaifeng Prefecture Huang Binglian, the Guest Minister Zan Jurun, two Privy Councilors, and dozens of officials.
Everyone collected and organized information, formulated strategies, and began to prepare step by step for launching a war against the Southern Tang Kingdom.
Unexpectedly, at this time, Guo Shao suddenly received news: Li Chuyun captured Chizhou
Guo Shao was sitting in the hall of the shogunate. He was stunned for a moment when he heard Wang Pu's words. He quickly turned around to confirm on the map behind him, and then turned to look at Wang Pu: Chizhou, I didn't hear it wrong.
Wang Pu was not a man used to joking, and his expression was very serious: The report that the Privy Council had just received was about Chizhou. The report on Chizhou, which is just south of Shouzhou, is in my hands. Inspector Guo will know after taking a look.
Wang Pu came forward and handed the report to Guo Shao. Guo Shao took the report and turned back to confirm the direction.
As the saying goes, plans cannot keep up with changes. Seeing the location of Chizhou is indeed incredible.
After Li Chuyun destroyed Zhou Xingfeng, his main force was originally in the Dongting Lake area of Hunan. Originally, Guo Shao hoped that Li Chuyun's troops would go eastward along the river and occupy the relatively weak Wuchang Jiezhen. The suggestion of the Southern Tang general Lin Renzhao was not adopted, and he himself was transferred back to Nanjing; then, with Wuchang as a stronghold, they would go down the river by land and water. The initial goal was to put pressure on the western side of the Southern Tang Kingdom and deal with the main force of the Southern Tang army in the southwest centered on Hongzhou and Nanchang.
Wuchang Jiezhen is in Hubei. Along the Yangtze River, it is Jiujiang Poyang Lake in Jiangxi. Chizhou is in Anhui. To the east, it is close to Jiangsu. There are many important towns from Wuchang to Chizhou.
Guo Shao was a little puzzled as to why Li Chuyun acted so quickly, and quickly unfolded the report and took a look.
Li Chuyun reported that after the Battle of Wuping, he sent a fleet to cruise eastward along the Yangtze River, originally just to find out what the Southern Tang army was doing; he found that the Southern Tang army was trying its best to avoid them on the river, and did not stop them. Li Chuyun guessed that Jinling was afraid of getting into trouble and was unwilling to easily clash with the Great Zhou army.
At this time, the imperial court issued a commendation order, and Li Chuyun was given the power to make decisions on the spot. Li Chuyun believed that once Wuchang was attacked, it would be a declaration of war, which would alert the enemy. The goal of the Great Zhou army was Jinling. If the eastern route started from Wuchang and attacked the city and stronghold on the south bank of the river, it would face countless obstacles, especially since there were heavy troops from the Southern Tang Kingdom in Hukou, and it would be difficult to advance eastward.
So Li Chuyun temporarily adopted a bold strategy and ordered the navy fleet of hundreds of ships to go ahead and try to cross the Poyang Lake into the Yangtze River. As expected, they were not blocked by the Southern Tang army. The cavalry and infantry troops prepared in the north of the Yangtze River hurriedly followed up and caught up with the navy from the north bank of the Yangtze River. Soon, the navy burned down the Southern Tang army camp that was not well guarded to the west of Chizhou, and after landing, they raided Chizhou. Chizhou's defense was relaxed and the city was broken in one day. Li Chuyun then built a floating bridge at the mouth of Jiajiang River, relying on the sandbar in the middle of the river, and mobilized the main force to cross the river to manage the defense of Chizhou.
Due to insufficient troops, they did not dare to divide their forces to advance, and only occupied Chizhou and sent fast horses to wait for reinforcements.
Guo Shao paced back and forth quickly after reading it. Wang Pu said: Li Chuyun's approach may seem radical, but in fact he has great consideration for the overall situation.
The Southern Tang Kingdom relied on the natural barrier of the Yangtze River; the battle in the south of the Yangtze River focused on the navy. If the Central Plains army wanted to cross the Yangtze River, they had to fight on the river first. If the water battle was not favorable, even a million cavalry would be helpless. If the Central Plains navy wanted to enter the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there were two ways: one was to go down the river from the upper reaches; the other was to go south along the Yangtze-Huai Canal and cross the river from Yangzhou Guazhou.
In addition, the navy could not enter the lower reaches. They could also build ships temporarily on the riverside, but the large amount of oak and nanmu needed to build warships had to be transported from land, which was very expensive; if the wood was not suitable, they would be defeated by the Jiangnan navy.
It is difficult to rush down the river by land and water from the upper reaches. As Li Chuyun reported, there are many important towns along the way, and it is difficult to break through Hukou alone. Downstream, Guazhou crosses Jingkou, that is, Runzhou Zhenjiang of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which has always been a battleground for military strategists; the Southern Tang Dynasty has made every effort to manage it. There are many naval forces on the river and many important towns on the south bank, making it extremely difficult to cross the river.
Now Li Chuyun has occupied Chizhou, and east of it is the most important ferry crossing downstream, Caishi. As long as he has a foothold here, he will have a way to advance to the south of the Yangtze River. I advise that we should immediately support Li Chuyun with all our strength and readjust the overall strategy.
Guo Shao thought for a while and said: The main force of Li Chuyun's land division is the left wing of the Hujie Army with 20,000 soldiers, and there are also Xiangzhou Zhoujun navy. Jingnan captured warships and Shu captured more than 300 large and small warships. It is impossible to provide strong reinforcements on the water for a while. After capturing Chizhou, the Southern Tang Kingdom must block the lake mouth. While the Chizhou floating bridge is not lost, they will first dispatch cavalry and infantry to help and store food and grass in Chizhou, just in case Li Chuyun is isolated on the south bank in case of unfavorable conditions on the river.
This is a good idea. Wang Pu pondered for a moment. At present, Huainan is empty, and the elite troops are gathered in Dongjing. Where can we send reinforcements
Guo Shaodao: Gao Yanchou's Jiannan Army in Shouzhou
The expression on Wang Pu's face was uncertain.
Guo Shao hesitated for a moment and said seriously: I think Gao Yanchou is a reliable person, and there are no elite troops available to reinforce us now.
Wang Pu did not comment.
At this time, Zuo You, Zan Ju Run and others also came to the lobby, and they exchanged the news.
Guo Shao took a map and looked at it silently, imagining the scene of the front line in his mind based on Li Chuyun's description. After a while, he picked up a pen and made a mark between Chizhou and Jiujiang, writing the words "Wankou". He then flipped through the classified files and found the records that the Privy Council had ordered the Shuzhou Jiedushi to build ships on the Wanshui River a few months ago. The ships were the kind of warships that Wang Pu said would be defeated because the materials were not up to standard.
Ahem! Guo Shao made a sound. Everyone stopped talking and turned around.
Guo Shaodao: I think the advance reinforcements cannot be delayed. You can immediately order Gao Yanchou, the commander-in-chief of the left and right wings of the Jiannan Army, to rush south and obey the orders of Li Chuyun, the leader of the Western Army. You can also order the governors of the various towns in Huainan to send food and troops to Chizhou.
Li Chuyun seized the opportunity and brought the war forward. Although it was a bit hasty, we should adapt to the situation and immediately formulate a strategy centered on Li Chuyun's troops.
The second step was to order the Shuzhou Jiedushi to lead the Wanshui navy to enter the Yangtze River from Wankou to prevent the Nan Tang army from going eastwards at Hukou in the west, in order to block and warn them. It was suggested that Li Chuyun move the Jiannan army to the west and attack Hukou by land to intimidate the Hukou garrison.
He ordered the Jiedushi of Xiangzhou to be the commander of the western front, and to send troops to Jiangling Prefecture to cross the river. He also ordered Fang Jun, Deng Tangshen and others to follow Anying to dispatch troops and food reinforcements to attack the Wuchang military town. If Wuchang was captured, they would move towards Jiangzhou and Jiujiang, threatening the Southern Tang army from the west.
This deployment was intended to relieve Li Chuyun's pressure in the west.
The third step was that after Han Tong's navy crossed the Huai River, they immediately went south to Yangzhou from the Caoqu, threatening the Southern Tang navy in the east and looking for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle. He also advised the Queen Mother to issue an order to urge the Wuyue Kingdom to send troops to attack Runzhou. This was to reduce the threat from Li Chuyun in the east.
The fourth step is to mobilize the elite troops of the Imperial Guard to go south to reinforce Chizhou; advise the Queen Mother to deploy troops to guard against the Northern Han. Then I and the officials of the Front Camp Shogunate will lead the main force of the Palace Front to go south to coordinate the various combat objectives: Caishi Ferry
The hall fell silent, because Guo Shao had said a lot and everyone was thinking about it. But Wang Pu and Li Gu looked at Guo Shao differently than before. After all, Guo Shao was a warrior, and it was very rare for him to sort out the situation in a short time.
Once a war breaks out, the entire battle line along the river will be in turmoil, and wars may break out everywhere, affecting the overall situation. It really takes a brain to grasp the key clues in the chaotic situation.
Although Guo Shao was a military man and his writing and calligraphy were poor, his thinking was not rigid. After all, he had received many years of education and thinking training in modern times, so he still had a lot of ideas.
The powerful lord who was able to grasp the overall situation and had rich experience in civil and military affairs was no longer there. This was the first time that Guo Shao presided over such a large-scale battle. Attacking Shu was a completely different experience, because the entry road to Shu was narrow and the route was single, and the difficulty lay in the danger of attacking rather than the deployment. The Southern Tang was different. The two-dimensional battle on land and water, the front line was vast, and the situation was relatively complicated, which put more pressure on the decision makers' deployment.
Guo Shao couldn't tell whether his idea was useful or not, because he had no similar experience. But he had adjusted his mindset during this period. There is no road in the world, only after walking through it, there is a road. How can you get the result without trying
Seeing that no one spoke, he said, "Let's get started now, and Envoy Wang can issue a transfer order to Gao Yanchou. The rest of you, prepare paper and ink, and we will work out a draft first."
Everyone had something to do, so they followed Guo Shao's instructions and got busy. Wang Pu sent someone to arrange for an official to ride fast, while he went to the government office to get the seal to write the transfer order.
Guo Shao's tone was calm, but his eyes were bright and he spoke fluently and quickly, showing an image of being energetic and clear-headed. The officials had already trusted him unconsciously at this time.
There is roughly a key target, Caishi Ferry; around a central breakthrough point, Li Chuyun's troops. Then it is divided into four steps. The first step is that our shogunate has been granted military power by the Queen Mother and has decided to implement it. Guo Shao said to Zuo You, Zuo Shaoqing will write the overall combat program, and others will write the steps from beginning to end. I will narrate them separately with you. Make a draft first, and then discuss and fill in the gaps; after it is perfected, go to the court early tomorrow morning to report to the Queen Mother and the central government officials to determine the implementation plan.
Wang Pu took charge of the seal and returned to the lobby after finishing his work. He then looked through the files that had been sorted out some time ago while thinking about the strategy proposed by Guo Shao.
The draft was not very long, and everyone reasoned over it repeatedly, and then went through it in detail after they dispersed. They had lunch and dinner at the Palace Front Office, and Guo Shao, Wang Pu and several others also stayed in the suite of the government office at night to save time going back and forth.
Li Chuyun's approach undoubtedly pushed the war into a tense atmosphere; major events are often decisive at the beginning, because as the situation develops, the road will become narrower and the results will become clearer, and the controllability will be very small.