Chapter 371 Private Message
Why did the war start?
This question is as stupid as "Why do autumn leaves fall?"
Regardless of whether it is because the weather is too cold to absorb water, or because of the accumulation of minerals, the falling of autumn leaves is a natural phenomenon... The same goes for the current situation. The state of total war has lasted for ten years. There is no need to emphasize over and over again how much the people of the two rivers have suffered, or how many times Guanzhong has been looted, or even how many cities in the Central Plains have been massacred. There is no need to even bring up the Jingkang Shame.
As early as the beginning of autumn this year, when the Zhao Song officials came back from the south, everyone knew in their hearts that a war was going to happen. Even when the Jin high-ranking officials were in the Secretariat, after listening to the judgment of Qin Hui and Wuzhu, they just nodded and secretly said in their hearts, "Here it comes!"
But everyone knows that there will be a war, and there must be a war. They all know that this mountain will collapse and that piece of land will crack. But when the moment of the mountain collapsing and the earth cracking really comes, no matter north or south, everyone can't help but have their eyelids twitching, their hair standing on end, and their hearts startled.
It was early October, early winter had arrived, but the weather was still warm, the water level in the Yellow River was still abundant, and several old roads were still able to accommodate large ships.
After ten days of mobilization in late autumn, because Emperor Zhao officially issued the order from Zilu Sha in Jingdong, the Song army generally entered combat from east to west. Among them, the slight exception was Shanzhou - Li Yanxian's troops had long controlled Pinglu, the only regular city of the Song army in Hebei, and the surrounding troops had also carried out several rounds of sieges on Hezhong Prefecture, so this time they were familiar with the route and sent troops immediately upon receiving the order.
In other words, at the beginning of October, the Song and Jin countries had already opened a battle line stretching from Fenglingdu to Bohai, a distance of 1,700 miles.
That’s not all. It can be imagined that as Han Shizhong and Wu Jie launched their attacks one after another, the battle line continued to extend beyond the river. Then the extreme length of the battle line of this war might very well reach a true length of three thousand miles.
The sun in early winter is warm but not dazzling, and the rain in early winter is drizzling but not gloomy.
On the coast of the East China Sea, Li Bao, who had long been unable to contain himself, received a military order and immediately led his troops out of the port with his deputy general Cui Bangbi. He headed north with a number of ships that were not enough to suppress the Jin navy, but he crossed the Magu River estuary, which he had to suppress as part of the military mission, and even crossed the Cangzhou Mountains to the north of the estuary, heading straight for the Cangzhou Hills.
That place is exactly where the Jin navy, led by Li Qi, the former commander-in-chief of the Pseudo-Qi navy and now the deputy commander-in-chief of the Jin navy, is located.
In fact, Li Qi, as a powerful and pirate leader in Dengzhou at that time, also organized a righteous army after Jingkang, claiming to go up the river to defend the king. However, it was fate and time. Li Bao, Li Kui, Liu Heshang, Xu Dadao, Hu Cheng, Du Yan, Wu Shun, and Li Zhang were all heroes in the Shandong righteous army at that time. They were not necessarily worse than each other, but they often took completely different paths just because of an idea or a situation.
It may be decided who is right and who is wrong, but it is still unclear who will have the last laugh.
In Qingzhou on the east road of Jingdong, Tian Shizhong was unusually calm after receiving the imperial edict and military orders, but he did not send troops in a hurry. Instead, he followed the convention and took the initiative to make a detailed report to his father-in-law Zhang Jun... After Zhang Jun nodded, he ordered the entire army to cross the river, first concentrate forces to attack Yanci, and then divide the troops to capture Zhao'an, Shanghe, Wudi, and Leling.
Not only that, after actually entrusting the vanguard mission to several of Zhang Jun's nephews and confidants, Tian Shizhong still chose to stay in Qingzhou and had a banquet with Zhang Jun, a banquet for only two people.
No one knows what this unrelated father and son said in private.
Further west, it was raining in the Jinan area, but this section of the Yellow River front was calm to the point of being almost silent. The heavy troops stationed here were the first to be mobilized and had assembled upstream early, while in the rain, countless conscripted people from Jingdong were transporting the local warehouses upstream despite the mud... Under the misty rain, the scenery on the road seemed no different from the situation when Liu Yu conquered Dongping Prefecture.
In Dong'a City of Dongping Prefecture, after receiving the imperial edict, Wanqi Xie, the governor of the Jingdong Road, arrived at this important place for material transportation early.
And today, facing the sudden early winter rain, after inspecting today's storage situation and ordering all the laborers to cook two more bowls of porridge at noon, Wanqi Jinglüe refused to follow his staff and rejected their flattery. He climbed up the north gate tower of Dong'a City alone, then looked north with his hands behind his back without saying a word, letting the rain wet his purple robe.
If the weather was clear, you could clearly see Wushan Mountain on the other side of the Jishui River from here. Even during the flood season, you could vaguely see the Yellow River channel which was not far behind Wushan Mountain. But at this time, it was raining heavily in winter and the weather was gloomy, and no one knew what Wanqi Yuanzhong saw.
Why remain silent?
To the west of Dongping Prefecture is Zilu Sha. After Emperor Zhao personally appeared on the other side of the river and the third prince Erlido suddenly died, the shocked magistrate of Liaocheng made the decision to surrender the city, and successfully welcomed the Song army into this important military town as soon as possible.
But unexpectedly, Yue Pengju did not choose to continue to use Liaocheng as a breakthrough point to expand the results of the battle. Instead, he ordered Tian Shizhong to march to Dizhou downstream at a medium speed, while he and the main force of his unit chose to advance from Zilusha further upstream.
As many as 40,000 imperial army and naval forces gathered here and crossed the river in large numbers. Their overwhelming force told everyone in the world that the Song army was marching north!
After crossing the river, the Song army, with its absolute superiority in force, quickly captured Guancheng on the other side of the river with an overwhelming force.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
