The Southern Tang army suffered a major defeat. It did not collapse immediately, but it did not go through any difficult tug-of-war either.
In the wilderness, the chaotic crowds of people and horses were like the refugees of a flood. There were people everywhere. By noon, the Zhou army's infantry and cavalry pursued to Dangtu City, and the ambushing troops on the northern left wing also rushed over, but the city gates were closed, and neither the defeated soldiers of the Southern Tang Kingdom nor the Zhou army could enter.
As a result, the troops of the Southern Tang army outside the city had nowhere to go and nowhere to rely on, and most of those who had not yet surrendered knelt down and begged for mercy.
Li Chuyun rode his horse to the foot of the city and observed the situation. Although the result was a great victory, the war did not develop in the direction he had expected, and he failed to achieve his goal of taking advantage of the opportunity to seize Dangtu City.
Li Chuyun shook his head and said: "The use of troops by Yang Shou, the commander of Dangtu, is really unreasonable. He has already sent troops out of the city, so why does he want to defend the city to the death? The Southern Tang army has lost most of its troops in vain. The troops in Dangtu City are empty and cannot go out of the city to counterattack and threaten our front and back. What's the point of defending the broken city?"
Zhang Lingduo agreed: Dangtu City is useless, we can just go straight to the quarry.
That's exactly what I want. Li Chuyun said decisively, leaving a thousand cavalrymen to camp on the west side to monitor the movements of Dangtu City, and the army went straight to Caishi
The area around Dangtu City was still in chaos. The scattered Zhou army soldiers and the defeated soldiers who surrendered in a mess had not been reorganized yet. Li Chuyun ordered the vanguard to go directly north in the afternoon. He himself also rode north.
The Zhou army advanced very quickly, and Li Chuyun's approach in this battle was also very radical.
There were still dozens of miles from Dangtu to Caishi, but Li Chuyun and his vanguard cavalry moved quickly and arrived near Caishi in the afternoon. They encountered no large-scale resistance, only some scattered scouts, and dispersed them.
Cai Shi was located on the west side of the Yangtze River in today's Ma'anshan City. However, there was no Ma'anshan City at that time, not even a city. The government seat of this area was Dangtu City.
There was a military camp near Caishi, but it was no longer manned. The Southern Tang army retreated to Caishiji Military Camp, a mountain that stood out in the middle of the river. Due to the impact of sand and soil, Caishiji at that time was slightly different from the modern one.
The small river that Li Chuyun rode on was the Suoxi River, which was narrower and shallower than the moat of Dangtu City. In winter, the water was shallow and it looked like you could wade across the river. Standing by the river and looking west, you can see lush mountains. Even in winter, you can see large tracts of forest. On the top of the mountain is a famous building: Taibai Tower. There is a port and a low hill on the northeast side of the mountain, which is the ferry.
Li Chuyun rode his horse along the Suoxi River and went further north, and he could see the Yangtze River. The large piece of land opposite the Yangtze River was Jiangxinzhou. From here, it was easy to mistake the other side for the river bank. According to the terrain known by the Zhou army, if they continued to go north, they could see the north end of Jiangxinzhou.
The main mountain of Caishi was covered with dense jungle, and there was no road to be seen; but there was a Taibai Tower on the top of the mountain, and there must be a small path leading up. The Southern Tang army was stationed at Caishiji Port, with a small number of warships and naval forces on the shore. There were dense flags and a large number of soldiers and horses inside and outside the military camp.
This place is not difficult to capture. Li Chuyun observed for a long time, then turned back to his staff and said, "The water of Suoxi River is shallow, and the navy of the Southern Tang Army cannot enter; the military camp is low and not strong, and the mountain here is not dangerous. If we attack from the land east of the Yangtze River, the Southern Tang Army will have no place to take advantage of."
As for the Southern Tang defenders, Li Chuyun had ignored their combat effectiveness and only considered whether they had any strategic locations to occupy.
Li Chuyun didn't know that Guo Shao was looking at him across the river, but they couldn't see each other because of the wide Yangtze River and the island in the middle of the river. There was an island here, so the river was not wide; but looking north, looking across the northern end of the island to the Yangtze River, the smoke and waves were vast, just like standing on the seashore.
Li Chuyun's navy controlled the surface of the Yangtze River and reported directly across the river to the Hezhou Central Army. Guo Shao already knew that Li Chuyun had defeated the Southern Tang army outside Dangtu City, and Li Chuyun's troops were advancing non-stop towards Caishi.
Guo Shao was on the other side of the Yangtze River at Cai Shi, but he could not see the famous ferry crossing in the legend. Although it was only separated by the Yangtze River, the distance was too far and out of sight. The two pieces of land in the middle of the river formed a "刂" shape.
Now Guo Shao looked towards the east of the river. In the past, there was a bare sandy beach, which looked like land. Perhaps the sand was too soft and often flooded, making it unsuitable for building houses and planting trees, so it looked so empty. Otherwise, such a well-located land would have been used by the people.
That beach was of no value to the people, but it was very useful militarily. The boats could be pulled into the beach at the north end to establish a leverage point in the middle of the river; the boats would be more stable on the beach than in the water by means of piling, etc., and could be used when building a floating bridge.
The beach cannot block the view. Looking far ahead, there is another river. Because it is blocked by the beach, the second river is not wide either.
Looking further into the distance, you can vaguely see trees on the hillside and even a village, which is Jiangxinzhou. Jiangxinzhou, which has a rather flat terrain, is very deep and you can't see farther, but the survey map of this place records that there is a river past Jiangxinzhou, and Caishiji is on the other side.
The reason why the river flows slowly is that the entire river is very wide in this place, but it is divided into three waterways, which makes the river narrow in some places. The river is narrow, the river is slow, and there is a deep-water port. With all these factors, it is difficult to find such a suitable place in the entire lower reaches of the Yangtze River. No wonder there are always wars of crossing the river in Cai Shi. In fact, Guo Shao didn't need to think about it. He could also determine that this place is convenient for connecting the two sides of the Yangtze River. After all, so many people have crossed the river from ancient times to the present, and there must be a reason.
Two riders were galloping towards them from the direction of Hezhou. The sound of horse hooves was getting closer and closer, but Guo Shao was still gazing at the Yangtze River for a long time.
At this time Zuo You reminded: My lord, there is a report from Hezhou.
Guo Shao came to his senses and ordered someone to take the report and open it. Guo Shao smiled and looked relieved: Wuchang victory report
Wuchang reported that the Zhou army's western garrison troops had captured Wuchang and were continuing to advance to Jiangzhou and Jiujiang according to the deployment of the central army. Guo Shao showed the report to Zuo You and his generals, and the atmosphere suddenly became heated, with everyone congratulating him.
Jiangzhou was a big city, and the water was in the hands of the Southern Tang army, so the troops of the Xiangzhou Jiedushi could not capture it; Hukou was separated from it by Poyang Lake, and without controlling the waterway, there was no way to threaten Hukou's Guo Shaodao. But these were not a big deal, as Jiangzhou and Hukou were just across the lake from each other and were very close, which would inevitably put great pressure on Zhu Lingyun, the Zhennan Jiedushi of the Southern Tang army, and create worries for him when he was reinforcing the downstream.
Zuo You agreed: Zhu Lingyun is faced with obstacles at Wankou and Chizhou ahead, so it is not easy for them to get to Caishiji.
It depends on how determined Zhu Lingyun is. Guo Shao said that the two lines of defense in front of him were not strong. If the Southern Tang army was determined to fight on the water, the two lines of defense could only play the role of intimidation, delay and early warning. Hukou was the frontier of the Southern Tang State's Yangtze River defense line. The main force of the Southern Tang Army's navy was in Poyang Lake; and the materials used in the newly built warships in Wankou were not up to standard, the hull was not strong enough, and the navy lacked training, making it difficult to fight against the main force of the Southern Tang Army's navy. Chizhou was even worse. Most of the navy was transferred to Caishiji by Li Chuyun, and it was even more impossible to resist the Southern Tang Army on the water.
However, it would be difficult for the Hukou army to launch a surprise attack on the quarry; and as Wang Pu said, Zhu Lingyun probably did not have the determination and ability to do so.
At this moment, another messenger came on horseback on the road in the direction of Hezhou.
Military reports from generals from all over the country were first reported to the Hezhou Central Army Headquarters, because messengers from other places did not know where Guo Shao was, but the military headquarters was stationed in a fixed location. Wang Pu, who stayed behind in the Central Army, knew where Guo Shao was at any time.
Hezhou was on the west side of the river. At this time, the sun was already hanging on the western horizon. Guo Shao faced that direction. The sunlight was blinding. He squinted his eyes and looked at the men and horses, waiting for them to come over.
Guo Shao was the commander of the entire army, and everyone around him paid attention to him, and when they saw this, they also paid attention to the person who reported the news. But people didn't know whether the news was good or bad.
When Guo Shao got the thing, he took a look at it. It was not about the battle situation or military information, but a letter from Gao Yanchou.
Gao Yanchou's main force finally crossed the Yangtze River and marched towards Tongling. After the pontoon bridge in Chizhou was easily damaged, the Jiannan Army transported troops across the river by boat. At this time, Li Chuyun had already fought from Chizhou to Tongling, from Tongling to Wuhu, and then advanced to Dangtu to fight another battle. The vanguard had already reached Caishiji on the opposite bank. Gao Yanchou really couldn't catch up with the previous battles.
In addition to reporting his itinerary, Gao Yanchou mainly asked for orders: he wanted the more than 200 warships of the Southern Tang army seized in Tongling Water Fort.
The reason was that most of his Jiannan Army soldiers had served in the navy and were familiar with water and naval warfare; the captured warships of the Southern Tang Army were idle and wasted in Tongling.
Guo Shao showed the letter to Zuo You and others, and said: The warships are not idle. Now that Hukou and Jingkou are blocked on the east and west ends, it is very difficult to transfer warships to the central government. I am planning to transfer soldiers from Han Tong to increase the strength of the Caishi navy.
Zuo You smiled and said: In the war against Southern Tang, naval battles are particularly important. Moreover, Gao Yanchou has never been valued by Li Chuyun on land. He is thinking about the opportunity to make meritorious deeds, but he does not know whether the Shu army soldiers are really good at naval battles as Gao Yanchou said.
Guo Shao thought for a while: We should give a chance to those who want to make contributions and have the ambition to make progress; besides, if Gao Yanchou can transfer some soldiers to expand the Caishi Navy, it will save the manpower on Han Tong's side. He immediately wrote a letter to Gao Yanchou and sent it overnight, agreeing to his request.
At this time, the sun was about to set. Guo Shao turned around to look at the other side of the Yangtze River, called on the people around him to mount their horses, left the riverside, and returned to Hezhou.
Li Chuyun's quarrying unit is still the key to the whole situation. Guo Shao has been thinking about it in his heart. This feeling is like people doing high-risk business who are always thinking about whether they will lose money or be in debt. This constant psychological pressure makes people feel like their hearts are hanging in the air.
The key to Caishiji is not whether Li Chuyun can take over the wharf; after the Southern Tang capital Jiangning Prefecture is attacked at this important location, there will inevitably be a reaction. The key is how the main force of the Southern Tang army will be deployed to reinforce. After all, the Zhou army on the opposite bank is relatively weak.
How he wished that when he woke up from a nap, someone would tell him that he had won.
I wish all my book friends a happy Lantern Festival. The New Year has passed, and I wish you all the best this year. : I was delayed tonight and updated late. I am very sorry, but I caught up with the early blessings for the Lantern Festival.