Chapter 432

Xie'an's capture of Xingyang plays an important role in the war. The stone tiger headquarters that lost Xingyang has no way to retreat to the West. Even if the stone tiger wants to retreat, it can't be to the South or East. It should be to the north still controlled by the state of Zhao in Shijie.

"There are seven bridges in Jijin, of which three were built during the period of Zhaoxuan (that is, Liu Xianji), which have been used today, and the other four are temporary floating bridges." Ji Chang went to the shelf hanging the mountain map and pointed to the map for detailed explanation: "the four floating bridges can be easily burned by fire. It is very difficult to destroy the bridges with stone as the main structure. If you want to cut off the retreat of the stone tiger to the north, you can only attack and seize it and then firmly control it."

What Liu Yan needs to know is whether the three bridges built in Zhaoxuan can let the warships pass, and what kind of warships they should be if they can pass.

"The minister and others collected a lot of information and questioned the original stone tablet officials and military scouts who had seen the bridge with their own eyes." Ji Chang nodded all the time and said happily, "the three bridges are stone hole bridges. Maybe considering the navigation of building ships, the height of several holes in the middle was designed to be close to three feet at the beginning of construction."

The Western Han Dynasty once attached great importance to the use of water systems, which was the ideological consciousness of emperor Xiaowu of the Han Dynasty when he attacked the south. After exterminating those countries in the south, the Western Han Army did not immediately put aside the importance of boats. Even with the attack of Jizi, North Korea paid more attention to the military use of boats.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty paid great attention to boats and boats, but the importance of the bridge over Jijin to connecting the north and south banks of the Yellow River did not need too much words. Therefore, all dynasties of the Eastern Han Dynasty attached great importance to the maintenance of the bridge.

The importance of the water army was that in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, especially when the Cao Wei Dynasty was bound to go south, the northern and southern princes paid more attention to the construction of the water army, but it must be noted that they focused on the Yangtze River rather than the Yellow River.

The ships under Liu Yan's command do not belong to building ships, but are more inclined to the style around A.D. 1000. The highest mast is a crossbow ship, and the highest mast is less than two feet.

In the Western Han Dynasty, there were five storey building ships, and the more common one was three storey building ships. Then the Jijin bridge was designed to be three feet. It is estimated that the three storey building ship was considered to pass through.

Liu Yan looked through the military information report. The fleet from Qingzhou arrived at the Yellow River Reach of zhu'a county. There was no accident that it could appear near the reach of dunqiu county within four days. The difference is whether it needs to be mobilized.

"The fleet is advancing westward in large numbers, and it cannot be kept secret for a long time." Liu Yan looked at Ji Chang and asked, "according to Tai'an's estimation, how long will Shi Hu know that Xingyang is lost, and when will he find our fleet?"

"Xingyang needs to walk more than 600 miles to Puyang County. Based on the speed of express horse express, it should have been before and after we know, and the delay will not exceed one day." Ji Chang smiled, but said, "what Xie an did after conquering Xingyang is to block the road immediately. Can Shi Hu know that the war in the West still belongs to two theories."

Blocking the road can achieve the purpose of delay at most. It is impossible to block a message forever. From such a thing, Liu Yan can see that Xie an is not only a person with military literacy, but also knows the layout at the national level.

"I thought it over carefully. It is optional to send troops to Yecheng or Xiang, but I need to take the first step to capture Yangping, dunqiu, Ji and other counties." The counties mentioned by Ji Chang are located on the North Bank of the Yellow River and around Puyang County. He asked, "Your Majesty, do you want Huan Wen's headquarters and the troops in zhu'a to act from both sides at the same time?"

Huanwen's headquarters can only take the first line of governing the city (under the jurisdiction of Xingyang county) and then bypass Hanoi county. He doesn't have as many as 60000 troops under his command. 3000 armour riding gear must be transferred to Puyang battlefield. Some cavalry needed for decisive battle will also be transferred, and the rest will not exceed 50000. Most of them are infantry.

Zhu'a's Han Army has 30000 troops, some of them are transferred from Xuzhou garrison, and 14000 are promoted from auxiliary soldiers to combat soldiers. It is equivalent to a field corps with almost half of the old and half of the new. Its combat effectiveness has not been tested.

"The main force of Shijie gathers in Puyang battlefield, and the periphery is basically dominated by miscellaneous Hu and Jin slave soldiers." Ji Chang's meaning is very clear. Whether it is to reorganize the troops from the former Ran's Qin state or the newly formed field corps, there is no obvious loss in dealing with the Shijie Zhao army composed of miscellaneous Hu and Jin people. He pointed to the Yellow River and said, "in addition, the river is controlled by our army. Thanks to the convenience of the water system, the king can carry out rapid reinforcement at any time according to the actual needs."

Liu Yan needs to ask the most critical question: "when do you think it is appropriate to launch a decisive battle?"

"Showdown?" Ji Chang said in surprise: "Your Majesty, what needs to be achieved at present is to besiege the main force of the stone tiger. The real decisive battle can naturally come slowly."

This is what Liu Yan must know. Whether he can complete the siege of Shi Hu and how long it will take to launch a decisive battle. Now in his opinion, the civil servants headed by the prime minister think that the later the decisive battle is launched, the better.

"The enemy's national strength is poor and its preparations for the war are not sufficient. On the contrary, our army is not short of materials." Jichang seems to have a bad smile? He said: "in the process of encircling the stone tiger headquarters, we must not expect the stone tiger to watch helplessly. In that case, it will be a series of wars. Fang caichen said that the real decisive battle is the final stage. In fact, the decisive battle has already begun when we set out to encircle the stone tiger headquarters."

Speaking of it, Liu Yan has entered a misunderstanding. After listening to Ji Chang, he immediately reacted.

Indeed, since Shi Hu personally led the army to participate in the war, the decisive battle between the state of Han and the state of Zhao in Shijie has begun since that time. However, in the early stage, the two sides played a little tardy, but it can not be denied that the fate of the two countries took place at that moment.

"The king ordered another 200000 conscripts, and the first batch of recruits will arrive in the battlefield by September at the latest?" Ji Chang is not asking at all. It is a matter that the national policy has long set a date. He extended this topic for the following words. He said: "judging from the current situation, if there is no accident, the troops of Yuzhou, Sizhou, Yanzhou and so on can also continuously solve the peripheral enemy forces in September, and then the troops of all parties will be compressed to the Puyang battlefield."

The number of Han troops serving Puyang battlefield is very large. Counting the group led by Liu Yan, the total number of Han troops including the forbidden guards has exceeded 300000.

Comparatively speaking, Shi Hu used more and more troops. There are 167000 in the headquarters of the Jie nationality alone, and at least 300000 in Qiang, Di, Xiongnu, Xianbei (Yuwen and duanbu), zahu and Jin. Then Shi Hu used nearly 500000 troops.

In history, there are few battles in which the combined strength of the two sides is close to one million. The more famous ones are the battle of Changping, the siege of Baideng and the battle of going out of the fortress (Wei Qing was the commander of the Western Han Dynasty). Generally, even if there are no casualties in this level of battle, it will seriously damage the vitality of the two sides.

It is very clear that if someone becomes a soldier, the society will reduce the labor force, and the stagnation of production will become inevitable. So it's not crazy enough and as a last resort, no ruler will do something detrimental to national strength.

The 500000 men selected by Shi Hu are young and strong, which is not the previous model of Yao Yizhong. According to the social customs of the Hu people, young and strong and even healthy women can be regarded as soldiers who can play. The difference is the combat effectiveness.

Ji Chang left, and Liu Yan read the previous war report.

In the past seven months, the belligerents in Puyang County alone have lost nearly 60000 personnel, the combat effectiveness of the Han Army has lost nearly 20000, and the loss of personnel that can be counted by the Zhao army in Shijie is nearly 40000. In the peripheral battlefield, the sun Fudu headquarters of the Shijie Zhao army was destroyed by 70000, and the Shijie Zhao army led by fan Tan, Cao Fu and Yinong lost nearly 170000 at the cost of more than 40000 war losses of the Han army.

Now there are tens of thousands of losses. If it had been five years ago, Liu Yan would have more than 10000 soldiers and people in hand.

The current population of Han has been steadily rising. The war liberated the Jin people (including all ethnic groups) under the rule of Shijie, and people continue to go north to take refuge in the south of the Yangtze River. The new demographic statistics have not been carried out. Liu Yan's rough understanding from Jichang and Sangyu is that the total population of Han, including slaves, is close to 7 million.

In just five years, with almost nothing, it has ruled a population of 7 million, and the rate of rise is amazing. When the stall is large, it brings constant problems and troubles. Among them, the most worrying thing is the local giants.

By the end of August, Liu Yan, who had been in fan County, kept listening to the development of the war situation. The process of the war was both fast and slightly chaotic.

Huanwen headquarters had crossed the Yellow River and entered Jijun county. Shijie Zhao Jun's reaction was that the backup troops of the state continued to arrive and jointly blocked with Cao Fu's headquarters. The two sides seemed to be fighting in martial arts. Shijie Zhao Jun was defeated by the Han Army and retreated to Chaoge. Under the pursuit of Huanwen's army, he fought hard in the field near Chaoge.

Led by Li Kuang, the Han army from zhu'a to the North advanced into Qinghe County. They made great strides in the early stage of their journey and did not encounter effective resistance. They were intercepted by Shijie Zhao army led by Yinong in Suoyang City, Yangping county. The war between the two sides radiated outward with Suoyang City as the center, and it is still a state of war at present.

The key core of the whole war, that is, on the battlefield of Puyang County, Shi Hu did not stay in place foolishly. Half of the troops once withdrew from the white horse to wenshijin, which was also an action to help Cao Fu attack Huanwen's headquarters. During this period, ran min ordered Xu Zheng to lead his army into Baima. Before the Han army arrived at Baima City, it encountered Shijie Zhao army led by Shi Xuan. As a result, Xu Zheng and Shi Xuan broke out a war north of Weicheng, which became the Third Battle of Weicheng in history.

"Your Majesty, you can let the fleet of the river come out." Ji Chang looked very tired. He took the post of prime minister Zuo not only to deal with major and small affairs of the country, but also to regulate the outbreak of war as a counselor. He looked at Liu Yan, who was sitting at the head of the military tent, closed his eyes and said in a hoarse voice, "it's time for the Yulin army and the forbidden guards, who have been preparing to seize the Jijin bridge."

Hu Benjun and Yu Linjun stayed with Liu Yan in fan county all the time, and Huan Wen's 3000 armour riding gear also arrived in fan county. The first batch of 60000 Han troops newly recruited later arrived in fan county. The number of Han troops under Liu Yan's personal command, including the forbidden guards, was 100000.

The armour and riding gear reorganized from the original Ran's Qin army have not been incorporated into the Huben army. The number of Huben army excluding auxiliary riders is 5000, and the total number of auxiliary riders is 20000.

The Yulin army is a sudden cavalry combined with close combat and long-range attack. It comes from the first group of veterans who are good at riding. The combat force has only 10000 troops and 20000 auxiliary riders.

Whether they are auxiliary soldiers on foot or auxiliary riders, they are alternative servants. The difference is that they mostly serve, and there are few opportunities to go to war. When necessary, they are not unable to fight, but their combat effectiveness is worse than that of soldiers.

Liu Yan opened his eyes and looked sharp: "prime minister Zuo thinks the war has come to a critical moment?"

Shi Hu has begun to try to break through. It is not a critical moment for the war to develop to this point. Whether we can capture Jijin is related to whether we close the door of stone tiger breakthrough. Then Jijin belongs to the indisputable land for Shijie Zhao army or Han army.

"Here we are." Ji Chang saluted very solemnly and said, "the competition for Jijin is the key."

Liu Yan was silent for a moment. He recalled and thought about the control area and force deployment of the warring parties in his mind. Recently, Shi Hu continued to enrich the number of defenders to Jijin. Most of the heavy infantry of Longteng guards were also transferred to Jijin. It seems that Donggong Gaoli under Shi Xuan was also transferred.

According to the fighting situation in the past, the soldiers of the Jie people are both ferocious and violent. Among them, the most elite are dragon guards and East Palace colliers.

When the Han army fought with the ordinary Shijie Zhao army, the war damage ratio was basically in a favorable exchange, while when fighting with Longteng guard and Donggong Gaoli, it suffered a loss in the war damage ratio.

"Yu Linjun and 20000 forbidden guards..." Liu Yan had to ask, "is that enough?"

"I just mentioned these two names, not just two troops." Ji Chang smiled bitterly and said, "the minister is not so big."

Liu Yan understood that the Dragon Guard and Donggong Gaoli put a lot of pressure on the Han Army, and no one dared to underestimate it. He didn't have to wait for Ji Chang to say it again. He ordered Wang Meng to prepare the troops for departure and give orders to the troops everywhere at the same time.

It's not so easy to capture Jijin, especially if we need to clear the obstacles on the road first, and then the fleet blocking the Yellow River, including Huanwen and Li Kuang, will bear great pressure. After all, the peripheral Shijie Zhao army doesn't have the courage not to rescue Shi Hu, and Shi Hu will fight back for his own sake.

"I don't understand." Liu Yan was really confused: "didn't Shi Hu realize what we wanted to do from the beginning?"

Ji Chang is not easy to answer this question. Fighting is what you plan for me and I plan for you. That's why you need to be careful in everything.