In mid-October, Guo Shao heard that Li Chuyun had captured the northeast of Chizhou, Tongling.
The situation was a bit complicated. There were two islands in the middle of the river near Chizhou, called Fengyichangxiang. The existence of the islands greatly shortened the distance to cross the Yangtze River, making it possible for Li Chuyun to build a floating bridge. However, the river was fast and the water was not narrow, so the fragile floating bridge was destroyed in a few days.
Gao Yanchou's troops of the Jiannan Army were still in Jiangbei, crossing the river by boat as ordered, and they did not catch up with Li Chuyun's main force. Li Chuyun hurried to Tongling, captured the water fortress of the Southern Tang Army, and seized more than 200 warships. At this time, Gao Yanchou's troops were still in Chizhou and had not completely crossed the Yangtze River.
Li Chuyun was unstoppable all the way, and the generals could not stop him at all under such circumstances. After occupying Tongling, he continued to march north to Wuhu, completely ignoring the threat from Hukou Poyang Lake and Gao Yanchou's situation.
Guo Shao could no longer sit still, and hurriedly ordered the relocation of the central army headquarters to Hexian County, across the Caishiji River from Ma'anshan City, Hezhou, so that he could keep an eye on the war situation in the south of the Yangtze River. He also sent someone to urge a part of the Luzhou Tiger Guards to rush to Chizhou.
In the second half of the month, the Nan Tang garrison in Wuhu was empty and defeated. After Li Chuyun occupied the place with more than 10,000 troops, he left a small number of troops and continued to spy on Dangtu Town near Caishi Ferry. When Guo Shao received the report, Li Chuyun had already marched towards Dangtu.
In the lobby of the Hezhou government office, all Guo Shao could do was to use a ruler to measure the distances between various places.
Wang Pu said: Li Chuyun is faster than Shi Yanchao.
Shi Yanchao's expression was very embarrassed, and he couldn't expose Li Chuyun's shortcomings at this time.
Guo Shao felt like he couldn't stop the attack. Wuhu was only a few dozen miles away from Dangtu. Even if he sent someone to order Li Chuyun to stop the attack, it would be too late. Li Chuyun might have already arrived in Dangtu. What's more, Guo Shao didn't want to stop Li Chuyun at all, otherwise he should have given the order long ago.
Dangtu Town is Gusu, which is often mentioned in military books and history books. The places that are often mentioned in the books are very important strategic locations, because wars often occur in these places, so they are mentioned many times. This place controls the upstream of Jiangning Prefecture, and it is a very important place in the Jiangnan region. If you take this city, the quarrying ferry will be in your pocket.
As long as this place is occupied, the war will directly burn to Jiangning Prefecture, the central government of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the barrier of the Yangtze River will be gone. A breakthrough in the center is a very fast attack route; compared with advancing from the upper reaches city by city, this road is a shortcut. Li Chuyun is greedy for merit, and Guo Shao is also anxious.
The defense management of the Southern Tang Kingdom was indeed flawed, and Guo Shao was unwilling to stop Li Chuyun, otherwise, if the battle was brought up again in the future, he might be questioned for being cowardly and missing the opportunity to fight.
But at the same time, Guo Shao was also under great psychological pressure. The strength of the Southern Tang Kingdom was still very strong, with at least hundreds of thousands of troops in various places, which was not an imaginary number. Li Chuyun had tens of thousands of troops in the middle of his country, and there were threats on all sides. He also stretched the battle line for hundreds of miles without reinforcements and was alone in the strategic area of the Southern Tang Kingdom.
Guo Shao felt that Li Chuyun's approach was very risky and that he could not afford any accidents. Once he was defeated, the entire front line from Dangtu to Chizhou and from Chizhou to Jiangbei would be broken.
It was almost November, and the war had already begun for more than a month. Guo Shao pondered and said, "The enemy troops in Nandu are still not moving. They are not coming."
Wang Pu said: If Zhu Lingyun would come from Hukou, he should have come long ago. If Li Yu or Zhu Lingyun can delay the reinforcements from Hukou for more than a month, they will delay it even longer. He also advised that Li Chuyun must be a man of insight as he could weave needles all the way along the Yangtze River. He is eager to attack Dangtu, so he should have a chance of winning.
Guo Shao paced back and forth: Nanjing, Jiangning Prefecture, was going to reinforce Dangtu, and the journey was not far. He only hoped that Li Yu would continue to make mistakes, and the court of Southern Tang would remain as slow to react as before.
In Dangtu Town, Li Chuyun was the first to ride his horse to the south bank of Guxi River. The main army was still in the rear, and they had a conflict with the scouts of the Southern Tang Army along the way.
The old city walls and towers were across the river. Li Chuyun stopped his horse and looked at the city within his sight. The city was not big, but the Southern Tang Kingdom had a military station there. The brick-clad walls and moats made it look different from other small cities. The Guxi River in the south of the city became a natural moat in the south of Dangtu. There were water gates in the city walls, and moats were dug on the east, west and north sides. If the city was well defended, it would not be easy to attack.
There were a few warships of the Southern Tang army cruising on the Guxi River. The people on board could see them clearly, but the warships did not rush over to threaten Li Chuyun's troops. They just watched from afar on the river.
Li Chuyun looked around and saw a flat open area, which was very suitable for the army to set up a battle formation. The place where he stood was directly north of the Guxi River and Dangtu Town, and to the east was the Qingshan River, which flowed from north to south and merged into the Guxi River, and then flowed west into the Yangtze River; to the west of Li Chuyun's station and to the west of Dangtu City was an open area.
The sound of horses neighing was heard from far behind him. Li Chuyun turned his head and saw that the troops on several roads had appeared in his sight and his own troops were advancing towards this side.
There were also faint signs of the Southern Tang Army on the other side of the Guxi River west of Dangtu City, and the Southern Tang Army seemed to have deployed troops outside the city to the west.
Li Chuyun glanced at the setting sun and said, "Order all troops to choose a place to set up camp. Send spies across the river at night to report the situation of the Southern Tang army."
Get the order
Zhang Lingduo, the commander of the right wing of the Longjie Army, asked at this time: Lord Li has already made a plan to take Dangtu.
No. Li Chuyun said calmly, this city is well fortified, we have too few people now, and a strong attack will not be effective.
Zhang Lingduo asked: Should we wait for Gao Yanchou's reinforcements
Li Chuyun disapproved and said: The people of Shu are not willing to work for us. They are of no use. Don't worry about it. There is no need to wait. Our army will not attack the city. We will cross the Guxi River first and seize Caishiji.
The defenders of Dangtu City were not strong enough to stop our troops. First, their navy was very weak, and there was obviously no reinforcement to strengthen the defense; second, the Southern Tang army huddled on the north bank of Guxi River, showing signs of defending to the death. They would only be so conservative if they were short of troops.
Li Chuyun rode westward along the river until he reached the Yangtze River. The sun was about to set. The soldiers advised him to return to the barracks, but he still sat on his horse and observed the surrounding situation with his own eyes.
Looking west, the Yangtze River is very narrow here, but the opposite bank is not Jiangbei, but Jiangxin Island. If you had not explored the terrain in advance, when you come here and take a look, you might think that the Yangtze River has become narrower here, and the opposite side is the Jiangbei land. In fact, it is just because this Jiangxin Island is too large that the river is divided into two streams.
Not far to the north was Caishiji, one of the most important ferry crossings in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but Li Chuyun could not see it with his eyes. He looked at the northern horizon and imagined the place.
Opposite Caishiji is the northern corner of Jiangxinzhou, and on the other side is the territory of Hezhou in Jiangbei. Li Chuyun had learned that Guo Shao had moved the central army to Hezhou, and the two were already very close.
Caishiji is a very important place. It has always been a breakthrough point for the north to attack the south of the Yangtze River. Judging from the strategy for attacking Southern Tang formulated by Guo Shao, the target is also here. This place will be the core of the entire battle.
Li Chuyun secretly pondered: "No other general has made greater contributions than me in taking over Cai Shi. Once Guo Shao ascends the throne in the future, I will lay the foundation for the Li family's fortune for a hundred years with the two most critical contributions of the Tokyo mutiny last year and the attack on Southern Tang this year."
Tomorrow we will cross the river and clean up the Southern Tang army outside Dangtu City, then attack Caishiji. To achieve our goal, we will build a floating bridge across the Yangtze River at Caishiji. When the time comes, the reinforcements from Jiangbei will cross the river and then attack Dangtu City. Li Chuyun said to his generals.
The next morning, at dawn, the elite main force of the Longjie Army on the right wing was deployed on the south bank of the Guxi River. The battle started on the water in the morning, and the Southern Tang Army was quickly swept away. The most important function of this place is to control the Yangtze River crossing, but the Southern Tang Army had very few naval forces here, and was no match for the Zhou Army's more than 300 warships.
When the sun rose, the Zhou army's warships with shallow draft had entered the Guxi River.
A large number of Southern Tang troops on the north bank were facing the Zhou army across the river, but this could not stop the Zhou army from crossing the narrow Guxi River. The river bank was more than ten miles west of the city alone, and it was impossible for the Southern Tang army to disperse its already small number of troops along the river.
A naval division of the Zhou army with more than 200 people first landed at one place, and the Southern Tang army dispatched cavalry to that place. When Li Chuyun rode his horse to the place where the river was crossed, he saw that the Southern Tang cavalry had already broken up the square formation of the naval infantry. On the other side of the river, there were shouts of killing and a chaotic battle with swords and spears. More naval officers and soldiers abandoned their boats and landed, gathering for battle on the riverside.
Zhang Lingduo, the commander of Xiangdu, was a little impatient. After watching for a while, he shouted: "It's suffocating to watch those navy soldiers fighting. Let me take the troops and sail over."
Zhang Lingduo had little relationship with Li Chuyun, and as a wing commander, he could not control the right wing of the Longjie Army. So Li Chuyun did not stop him.
Zhang Lingduo then led his personal soldiers to abandon their horses and board the boat to cross the Guxi River. The river was not wide, and the fighting over there could be seen clearly from the south bank. Seeing Zhang Lingduo jump off the boat, he rushed over with a spear and killed two people in an instant. This guy's martial arts are really good. Zhang Lingduo has no one above him. He can become the commander of Xiangdu basically because of his military exploits. These generals are all brave.
Li Chuyun saw that the Southern Tang army was unable to defeat the group of people who had landed, and judged that there was hope of crossing the river from here. He immediately ordered the elite soldiers of the Imperial Guards to cross the river by boat. More and more Zhou army soldiers appeared on the other side.
More Zhou soldiers appeared at the landing site. At this time, the warships began to transport horses. Some cavalrymen got the horses and gathered in the west to form a cavalry. The Southern Tang army came from the east to reinforce the second cavalry, but a cavalry of more than 100 Zhou soldiers had already formed a force nearby, and immediately rushed forward under the personal leadership of Zhang Lingduo.