Chapter 997: A bloody journey to health

Chapter 997: A bloody journey to health

As early as March, Xu Sihui, who had surrendered to the Northern Qi Dynasty, reported to the Southern Liang Dynasty that Chen Baxian was busy quelling the civil strife. The leader of Qi, Gao Yang, decided to continue sending troops to Jiangdong. Minister Zhao Yanshen was appointed as the southeast leader, and he established the government of Murong Yan, Liangzhou governor Zhang Paulo and others. The generals such as Xiao Gui and Dongfang Lao, who had previously launched an army in Pengcheng, once again led a mighty army to the south.

Since the Northern Qi Dynasty's goal this time was to cross the river and directly attack Jiankang, boats and other water warfare equipment were also the focus of the tactics used in this battle. However, since Yiyang in the upper reaches of the Huai River and Hefei, an important north-south transportation route, were both occupied by the Western Wei Dynasty, it was difficult for the Northern Qi army to take the route of Feishui and Chaohu to enter the Yangtze River. They could only choose the east side of Huainan, which was still under the control of the Northern Qi Dynasty. road.

To the east of Huainan, in the territory of Northern Qi, there is also a waterway, Zhongdu Water, connecting the Yangtze River and the Huai River. Zhongdu Water is the Hangou River, which is connected to the Yangtze River from the Jiangdu under Guangling County, to Sheyang Lake in the north and then to the Huai River. When Emperor Wu of Liang took advantage of Hou Jing's betrayal of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, he launched the Battle of Hanshan. The Nanliang army followed this route north to Pengcheng.

However, combat marches on waterways are not what the Northern Qi is good at. In addition, Huainan has been in war for many years, making the Zhongdu River quite congested, and the navigation conditions are not good. With the recruitment of civilians to step up dredging, the Northern Qi army did not arrive until May. Arrive at Guangling, Huainan, and arrange operations along the north side of the Yangtze River in an attempt to cross the river.

At this time, although the land of Sanwu in Nanliang had basically been pacified, Xiao Bo of Guangzhou still refused to obey orders, and even aggressively sent troops several times to cross the Yuling Mountains and march north in an attempt to contact a group of Nanchuan powerful men to jointly fight against Chen Baxian.

In the old years, Chen Baxian rose to prominence in Lingnan because he put down the Jiaozhou rebellion. He was appointed by Emperor Wu of Liang as the governor of Xijiang and the governor of Gaoyao in Guangzhou. Soon after, Hou Jing's rebellion broke out in Nanliang Kingdom. Yuan Jingzhong, the governor of Guangzhou at the time, wanted to raise troops to respond to Hou Jing and plot against Chen Baxian, but Chen Baxian led his troops to counterattack.

After defeating Yuan Jingzhong, Chen Baxian invited Xiao Bo, a member of the Nanliang clan who was the governor of Dingzhou at the time and was in charge of Yulin, Guangxi, to come to Guangzhou to take charge. He himself planned to unite his troops to march north to King Qin to quell the rebellion. Although Xiao Bo was invited to Guangzhou by Chen Baxian, he did not want Chen Baxian to lead the Lingnan troops away and went north, so he tried to obstruct it. However, Chen Baxian broke through and went north.

From this level of origin, Xiao Bo can also be regarded as Chen Baxian's old boss. Chen Baxian, through a series of events such as King Qin's suppression of the rebellion and the attack on Wang Sengbian, has now become a powerful minister in charge of the power of Nanliang. However, Xiao Bo is still entrenched in Lingnan, so he is not very willing to obey Chen Baxian's orders.

If it was just Xiao Bo's group causing trouble, Chen Baxian wouldn't pay much attention to it, but now Xiao Bo is trying to lead an army into the Nanchuan area of ​​​​Lingbei, intending to unite with the local Nanchuan powerful, this will undoubtedly double the threat.

Nowadays, in addition to the local powerful Nanchuan powerhouses in Jiangzhou, there is also the existence of Wang Lin's group. Wang Lin is cunning and fierce, and is also a hidden danger that cannot be ignored. If it joins forces with Xiao Bo, it will definitely become a serious problem in the southwest.

The world is really strange. Of course, Wang Lin was appointed as the governor of Guangzhou by Emperor Xiao Yi of the Liang Dynasty. His original intention was to replace Xiao Bo who ruled Lingnan. Xiao Bo was once forced by Wang Lin like a bereaved dog. It was only through the Battle of Jiangling that he became the governor of Guangzhou. Take a breath. Now the original enemies have the possibility to unite because of Chen Baxian's existence, which shows that the current situation in Nanliang is complicated.

In order to prevent the two sides from joining together and suppress the space for activities of this opposition force, Chen Baxian led a group of troops westward to Nanchuan with Zhou Wenyu, the governor of Southern Yuzhou, as the commander-in-chief of his army, shortly after quelling the Sanwu rebellion.

At the same time, he sent envoys to persuade Hou Qi, the former governor of Jiangzhou, to surrender, who was expelled by the local tyrants of Nanchuan and Wang Lin, and appointed Hou Qi as the governor of Wuzhou to guard Poyang County.

However, Zhou Wenyu's brigade had just left and had not made any achievements. The rebel general Xu Sihui, who was entrenched in Qin County, led his troops across the river, attacked and occupied Caishiji. At the same time, the Northern Qi army from Liyang also crossed the river to attack Gusu, and occupied Liangshan, an important river defense area near Gusu, officially kicking off the Northern Qi army's cross-river operation.

The loss of the important defense area in the upper reaches of the river immediately made the defensive situation of Jiankang City become more serious. Now Chen Baxian's available troops were insufficient. Coupled with the loss of Guangling and the situation where the Northern Qi army gathered in Guangling, he was very difficult in arranging defense. Some are stretched thin and care about one thing at the expense of another.

Regarding the fall of Caishi and other places, Chen Baxian had no good plan to deal with it. He could only order Zhou Wenyu of Xuancheng to lead his troops back to defense as soon as possible, but he still had to lead the main force to garrison Jiankang. Because the Qi army in Guangling downstream also took advantage of the situation to advance and launched a cross-river attack, their frontline was naturally aimed at Jiankang City.

The Northern Qi Dynasty invested more than 100,000 troops this time, and launched an attack from Liyang, Qinjun, Guangling and other places. Although the Qi army was not good at water warfare, it tried its best to disperse the Liang army's interception force and shorten the time the team stayed in the river through tactics such as marching through various routes and raiding key points of river defense.

Therefore, soon after the Qi army launched its attack, various river defense strongholds along the river were successively destroyed, and the entire river defense front was penetrated and destroyed. The Qi army's ranger scouts even reached the south of Jiankang City in a very short period of time, and even approached the Qinhuai River for a time.

Although it was only a small group of rovers, it caused great shock and fear to the people of Jiankang City who had just settled down. These soldiers and people who had been devastated by wars were frightened, so they dragged their families and families out of the city to flee.

The large-scale flight of soldiers and civilians intensified the atmosphere of panic. Many defenders were also worried. Some generals even advised Chen Baxian to give up Jiankang for the time being to avoid the enemy's attack, and then launch a counterattack when the time was right.

Given that Chen Baxian had once accomplished the feat of swimming upstream and attacking Wang Sengbian, such a proposal did not seem so absurd. Of course, the most important thing was that it showed that the soldiers really did not have the confidence to win.

Facing a group of worried soldiers, Chen Baxian just smiled and said: "Although the Qi army seems to be powerful, it lacks the vital agility in using troops. The division and brigade patrolled for many days and repeatedly missed the opportunity to fight. Now it has entered the rainy season." The season is rainy and cloudy, making it harder to use the troops. When the weather is in jeopardy, it will be difficult to boost morale!

The natural dangers of the river, the imperial residence in the east of the Yangtze River, and the city of Jiankang are nestled on the river and surrounded by mountains. How can a crazy thief take this lightly? People from the north are good at dry farming, and water and lakes are my hometown. Now I am sitting and looking at the river. Although the thieves are strong, they can be attacked halfway across the river. How can we retreat when we enjoy this advantageous location?

Moreover, the bandits are rampant and have made enemies in all directions. Li Boshan of the Wei State also regards him as an old enemy who must be punished. In order to punish the bandits, he sent envoys to me, hoping to attack with me from above and below, and defeat the bandits! You officers and men don't need to be afraid, but if you listen to the punishment, it's not difficult to defeat the thief! "

Hearing that Chen Baxian was so confident, although the generals were still not too optimistic, they finally felt a little calmer and no longer fearful of the enemy as before.

But although these ordinary generals were comforted, Chen Baxian's real confidants, such as Hou Andu, knew very well that the situation was not as simple as Chen Baxian had described.

Especially the content about the alliance with the Western Wei Dynasty was just an oral message from the Western Wei Dynasty. Whether the other party will cooperate in sending troops, how many troops it will send, and when it will send troops are all unknown. Moreover, even if the Western Wei Dynasty sent troops and successfully helped Nanliang resolve this crisis, it was just a dangerous trick to drive away the tiger and devour the wolf. If you are not careful, it may become more dangerous.

At least according to the current situation, the Northern Qi army can easily break through the important river defense positions along the Hengjiang River. This is also because the power of the Western Wei Dynasty in Huainan has not exerted the slightest effective containment effect. Therefore, even if the Western Wei Dynasty makes a promise, its credibility is still a big question mark.

The current development of the situation did not allow everyone in Nanliang to carefully evaluate the role and value that the Western Wei Dynasty could play in this battle, because as people from all walks of life scrambled to cross the river, they soon launched an attack on Jiankang.

First, the Qi army crossed the river from Qin County and arrived directly to the west of Jiankang City. They first launched a fierce attack on Stone City. However, under the stubborn resistance of the defenders, they had to retreat and occupy Xiye City. Although it was not as great a threat to Jiankang City's defense as Stone City, they finally managed to capture a stronghold on the outskirts of Jiankang City.

Although the Qi army successively captured Caishi, Gushu and other places, due to the small number of troops invested in this direction and Zhou Wenyu's timely counterattack, the enemy forces here did not take the opportunity to expand their results. , and the defensive pressure from the southwest of Jiankang is also relatively small.

Therefore, Chen Baxian was able to focus on the northern area of ​​​​Jiankang City. In addition to the heavy troops stationed in Stone City and Taicheng, defenses were also set up in Zhidu, Mufu Mountain, Zhongshan and Fuzhou Mountain near the river to block the attack. A steady stream of Northern Qi troops came from the south on the river.

However, due to the initial loss of the Jiang defense front, despite the heroic fighting of the soldiers, the Qi army still swarmed ashore and pressed on Jiankang step by step. Chen Baxian's so-called situation of blocking the river to defend and attacking halfway across the river did not occur at all. Instead, he was defeated steadily by the Qi army who swarmed ashore, so that he had to increase the remaining troops in Stone City and Taicheng. On the front line, we must stabilize the front.

Just when the two sides were engaged in a bitter battle, fortunately, the continuous rain during the Meiyu season did not fail. Heavy rain poured down for several days, causing the river to surge. The Qi army soldiers who landed were stationed in low-lying areas along the river, and the camp was completely flooded by the river and Flooded by rain, the situation suddenly became difficult.

Just when the situation seemed to be improving, suddenly a Qi army cavalry, led by its general Murong Yan, braved heavy rain to bypass Zhou Wenyu's defense line, took Fangshan and the east bank of the Qinhuai River to kill Jiankang Dongfucheng. , and even the forwards directly knocked on Taicheng, which immediately caused a shock in the capital. Even Liang Emperor Xiao Fangzhi was rushed out of Taicheng by the imperial guards in desperation, and rafted on the river to avoid the war.

Fortunately, due to poor communication between the enemy's two divisions, Chen Baxian seized the opportunity to lead his troops back and drove back the enemy in a bloody battle. However, the defense line south of Jiankang was also penetrated, and Zhou Wenyu had to lead his troops to retreat to the southern section of Dacheng, while the two enemy armies of Gushu and Caishi were also able to press against the south bank of the Qinhuai River.

Just as the defenders of Jiankang City were in a harsh situation of fighting on two fronts and being attacked from both sides, the Western Wei Dynasty, which had been silent and unmoved, finally took action.

Doulu Ning, the general manager of Yingzhou, sent troops from Jiangxia and led 20,000 people on land and water boats down the river. Together with Wang Jie, Lu Xida and other soldiers, he joined forces with Quan Jingxuan of Hefei at Ruxukou, and then advanced by land and water. They attacked Liyang directly and captured Liyang, an important town in the north of the Yangtze River, with lightning speed. They captured Sima Gong of Xingtai in the Northern Qi Dynasty alive and nearly 10,000 defenders.