Volume 1 Chapter 54: Disturbance (Part 2)
Han Shizhong's arrival on the mountain immediately caused a commotion in the army. Let's not talk about how Emperor Zhao talked to Han Shizhong. Lü Hao asked, after all, there were many important people gathered here, and most of them were smart people. At this time, these people sat together, talking about this battle, and they actually guessed Zhao Jiu and Han Shizhong's plan from beginning to end...
First of all, there is no doubt that the government valued Han Shizhong. This was known to all officials. The officials who fled did not know it before, but when they arrived in Sizhou and Chuzhou and saw the jade belt on Han Tongzhi, they definitely knew it.
So the question is, considering how much Emperor Zhao valued Han Shizhong, and how he almost risked his life in this battle (although there was already suspicion of a desperate move), when the time came to actually fight, how could he possibly throw aside Han Shizhong, his chosen hero, as a detachment?
Therefore, Han Shizhong must be the main force, and if he is not the main force, he must be promoted to the main force! So Han Shizhong's assistance today should have been part of the plan.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, Han Shizhong's words and judgments seem to be the real basis for Emperor Zhao's choices all along... For example, the death of Liu Guangshi on that day seemed to be more or less directly related to the military intelligence documents of Han Tongzhi - what Huyan Tong delivered that day was the military intelligence ascertained by Han Shizhong. The military report clearly stated that the Jin army had less than 20,000 to 30,000 troops. It was based on this military report and the fire at Xiacai Neidu that Emperor Zhao disregarded everything and personally killed Liu Guangshi with a knife.
As for the batch of huge warships brought by Han Shizhong, it was not a pleasant surprise. On the contrary, these people knew the origin of this fleet better than anyone else, because this fleet of sailing ships was actually put together by the two coastal military states in Jingdong!
It turned out that not long after Han Shizhong was transferred from Hebei to Jingdong to quell the rebellion, that is, right after the emperor ascended the throne, before the Mingdao Palace fell into the well, Han Shizhong received an order from the central government at that time because of a memorial... At that time, the prefects along the coast of Jingdong and the east were worried that the Jin people would attack by sea, so they submitted memorials to the Nanjing (Shangqiu) imperial court, requesting protection. Han Shizhong then got this task, which was to let him quell the rebellion while collecting the sea vessels from the military states along the rivers in Jingdong and the east!
Later, when the army was heading south, Han Shizhong also went south to quell the rebellion. However, according to the unspoken rules of that time, these ships were treated as private property by him and reluctantly brought all the way to the southern part of Shandong Peninsula... According to the mutual confirmation of these people, when Emperor Zhao was discussing this battle with Han Shizhong in Shunchang Prefecture, this fleet was parked at the Huaikou Lianshui Army!
In other words, this fleet was originally intended to be of great use to Han Shizhong, but Huang Qianshan was in power before the government fell into disgrace, so the purpose of this fleet was questionable. Later, when the government decided to fight the war, this fleet entered the Huai River.
Therefore, the logic of the matter is probably the opposite of what it seems on the surface. It may be because of this fleet that Han Shizhong boldly made suggestions to the emperor and launched this battle!
You know what, although these officials were hindsight experts, they basically guessed most of the things correctly... That's basically what happened.
The reason why it is so complicated is that these officials still have no way of knowing what information gave Emperor Zhao the courage to risk his life, and they also completely misunderstood the primary and secondary positions of Han Shizhong and Zhao Jiu in planning this battle.
In fact, long before he asked that question on the bank of the Yingshui River, Zhao Jiu had learned about the fleet from Han Shizhong, and as a time traveler, he almost immediately used his information advantage and instinctively thought of the famous battle that was tied to Han Shizhong... Yes, it was the famous Battle of Huangtiandang that had been in history books and countless novels!
As a time traveler, Emperor Zhao immediately realized why Han Shizhong had inexplicably pulled out such a navy with sails under such circumstances and fought such a classic battle!
The reason is very simple. General Han Wu had sailing ships at the beginning, and he had experience in commanding sailing ships very early! He may be the first general in Chinese history to command a large-scale sailing ship fleet, and he really played a key role at a critical historical node.
Of course, the sea vessels Han Shizhong had in the Battle of Huangtiandang were definitely not limited to the Shandong Peninsula, that is, the so-called Jingdong and Jingdong routes. There must have been the joint efforts of the military states in the Yangtze River Estuary with richer sea vessel resources.
However, wasn't the Jin army the main force of the Eastern Route Army with nearly 100,000 troops at that time? Wasn't Jin Wushu already a formal marshal? So if Han Shizhong could use a large sea fleet to block Jin Wushu's 100,000 main forces on the Yangtze River at that time, why couldn't he use a smaller sailing fleet to block Jin Wushu's 30,000 troops on the Huai River?
Besides, Jin Wushu had just come to power and was leading an army for the first time. His military experience was far less than that of Huang Tiandang. However, Han Shizhong, who was forty years old, was at the golden age to be a top general!
In short, apart from the various accidents led by the Liu Guangshi incident and the deviations from the plan that were taken for granted during the war, this was the fundamental idea of this battle. It was Zhao Jiu who took the initiative to propose it, and Han Shizhong gave a positive answer. And this navy unit was the reason why Zhao Jiu spent all his efforts to stabilize the situation here, and it was also the reason why he had the courage to issue random manifestos, such as the whole country resisting the war, not retreating a step, and preferring death to peace.
On the fifth day of November last year, Zhao Jiu and Han Shizhong made a plan on the embankment of the Yingshui River outside Shunchang Prefecture. On that day, Han Shizhong immediately set out with his infantry to march eastward along the Huai River, and sent fast horses to summon the fleet to quickly enter the Huai River.
Before the end of November, the two sides met and reorganized at Hongze Town (there was no Hongze Lake at that time , and summoned the military and civilians, sailors, and supplies from Chuzhou, Sizhou, and Lianshui with the gold medal secretly given by Zhao Jiu.
By the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhao Jiu was ready, and Han Shizhong was also fully prepared. He took the initiative to slowly move upstream and enter Sizhou.
During the Liu Guangshi incident, Han Shizhong took the initiative to find out the military situation, and then he did not hesitate to sail the warships and sailed upstream again, but it was basically the New Year after Tushan in Haozhou next door;
After the New Year, with Zhang Jun's success in "borrowing arrows with straw boats", and Jin Wushu still not attacking the city, Zhao Jiu, after determining that the Jin army was going to cross the river, did not hesitate any longer and immediately called Han Shizhong here!
Even according to the agreement, Han Shizhong should have arrived earlier...
"We encountered the Jin army last night in front of Juejian, 40 miles to the east." Liu Hongdao, who was a little drunk, answered frankly. "The officials should have known about this as soon as we landed... Otherwise, we would have arrived at noon today. It is possible that the Jin army would not even dare to build a floating bridge."
"How many Jin troops are there in Juejian? Where are they from?" Lu Haowen, who was also a little drunk, was immediately shocked. "Have they been stopped?"
"There are only about a thousand of them, they should be a detachment, how could they not be stopped?" Liu Hongdao said casually. "And they were not only stopped, but also Han Wu's good fortune... We stopped sailing in the back and waited for a while, and didn't know the truth. I just heard that the Jin army was intercepted by Han Shizhong's fleet as soon as they crossed the river at night. At that time, the sun just came out, and the whole river was golden. The Jin army lost many ships in an instant, and finally had to abandon the ships and go to the small island in the center of the river. Now they are trapped there by the few ships left by Han Wu and are waiting to die! I took a special look when I passed by, and there were probably as many as four or five hundred Jurchen soldiers among them. The thousands of horses left on the north side of the river were also taken away by Han Wu. This is really a great achievement!"
"If that's the case, it's really fate!"
"Who knows, Commander Han may turn back into Grand Commandant Han tomorrow morning."
Everyone couldn't help but sigh.
"In my opinion, this may not be a matter of luck." Among the crowd, only Scholar Xiaolin was drunk and blurted out, "I'm afraid that Commander Han learned about the military situation and did it on purpose, so he won a good battle. But he is so greedy for credit, isn't he afraid that if we lose at Bagong Mountain today, it will ruin everything?"
"Not really." Zhang Jun thought for a moment and then responded casually. "There is certainly some greed for merit, but it won't cause any mistakes. You must know that large sailing ships do not need manpower, they can travel day and night with the help of wind, which is much faster than land transportation. The Juejian Town is only 40 miles away, and the southeast wind is just right today, so I'm afraid it will take half a day to get there... Han Shizhong arrived in the afternoon, and it seems that he knew that the Jin army would build a bridge to cross the river today, so he deliberately slowed down his speed and planned to arrive in the afternoon to do something on the river. But he didn't expect that Zhang Yongzhen would come out to boost the situation, which made the Jin army lose the opportunity to advance early and retreat directly."
After everyone thought about it carefully, they all understood and felt relieved.
However, just as everyone was discussing this and preparing to drink another round before leaving, suddenly, there was another commotion outside the wooden house... At first, everyone thought that Han Shizhong was going back , but after asking, they found out that Han Wu had already left and boarded the ship. After asking again, they learned that Emperor Zhao in the imperial tent suddenly ordered the entire army to purge and prepare to meet the enemy! Not only that, just as these people were about to go to the imperial tent to ask the reason, they saw Yang Yizhong personally wearing armor, under the bright lights, leading hundreds of armored squads and running straight past everyone, and hurriedly leaving the camp to the west.
At this moment, almost everyone, including Lu Haowen, looked pale and could not hold back their emotions!
"I want to ask the Fourth Prince three questions!" At the same time, in the Jin army camp, at the highest military meeting of only three people, Ali was looking at Jin Wushu with a dark face. "First, you know the reputation of Han Wu, the Zhaozhou scoundrel, and you also know that he deployed defenses downstream. Then why did Han Shizhong lead such a large ship here today, and the entire Meng'an we sent downstream before didn't have a single rider to report the military situation?"
Jin Wushu's face was dark and he said nothing. Erlubu was about to speak, but Ali waved his hand to stop him: "Second, what is your plan for what you said today? And third, why did you wait until now to hold the military meeting? What are you waiting for?"
Jin Wushu finally looked up and said, "Just as General Ali guessed, the two Meng'an found ferries on both sides... The one on the east should have been reserved for Liu Guangshi's troops to cross the river; the one on the west was abandoned by a Song general named Ding Jin after the defeat in Feikou. There are not many of them, just dozens of small boats. Without the mounts, they can barely carry a thousand people. Therefore, after I received the report, I did not let them come to join us, but directly crossed the river from both sides early this morning, and then rushed to Bagong Mountain from both sides. If we can continue to fight until now, no matter how much we lose on the water, we will be attacked from three sides at night. With the incompetence of the Song army in land warfare, we will definitely be defeated!"
"What about now?" Ali asked coldly. "The Fourth Prince is delaying the military meeting because he must be waiting for the two armies to surprise you. Have you received any news?"
"The ones in the east must have been destroyed by this giant ship." Being questioned to this point, Jin Wushu also felt his breath was unstable. "I don't know the news about Shulie's Meng'an in the west... Maybe he retreated because he didn't see the battle, or maybe he is still on the way, or maybe he just captured a city from the Song people on the way and waited for my news! General Ali also knows that with the kind of troops and horses that the Song people have, a thousand people can attack at night, and nine out of ten times they can capture the city! They can even directly attack the camp and destroy the Song Huainan camp! I'm afraid that he will not dare to act rashly when he sees that there is no movement here!"
Ali asked clearly and was too lazy to say more, so he just walked away.
"Where is General Ali?" Erlubu asked hastily. "The military meeting has not yet come to a conclusion."
"What result?" Ali replied angrily without even turning his head. "No matter what, Shulie's 1,000 men have become isolated. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the Song army will know and be prepared, and there will be nothing they can do! And today, whether you want to remind Shulie or help him, you must make a move now... Quickly call up the entire army and pretend to attack Cai at night! Seeing this, Shulie will definitely make up his mind to directly attack the Song army's Huainan camp at night!"
Jin Wushu and Elubu were both suddenly aware of what was going on, but they hurriedly got up and followed him out. When the three of them left the military tent, before they could mobilize their troops, they heard from across the river that the Song army's camp at Bagua Mountain in Huainan began to make excessive noise, and a fire broke out at the water fort to the west!
Seeing this, Jin Wushu's worry turned into joy, and he became excited again: "Shu Lie is really a good man, and he brings honor to us Jurchens!"
Ali was speechless, but he could only urge Jin Wushu to quickly beat the drum and raise his troops to attack Xiacai at night!
