Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 326: East and West of the Yangtze River Compete for the Lead

In this era, even a highly motivated and well-trained army would find it difficult to carry out large-scale maneuvers immediately.

Organization is one aspect, but more importantly, the road conditions are not sufficient to support tens of thousands of troops moving at the same time.

It is still good now because it is winter and the river is relatively low. If it is spring or summer when the river is abundant, it would be even more difficult to travel.

It wasn't just the Jin army that was troubled; the Shandong rebels also struggled to march south of the Yangtze River. Even with the assistance of local Song officials, guides constantly leading the way, and the Yangtze River as a landmark, the Shandong rebels, as outsiders, found it difficult to maneuver quickly.

On November 6, when 5,000 elite troops had just crossed the Qinhuai River in front of Jiang Ning, Liu Huai received another piece of bad news.

The Jin navy separated a part of its fleet, and more than a hundred ships were sailing upstream, and had already passed Jiankang Prefecture.

Just as everyone expected, Zhang Guang, the commander-in-chief of the Jiankang navy, was cowardly and did not send the navy to stop them.

"It's obvious that something big has gone wrong at Caishi." Liu Huai said to Xin Qiji, "The Jin army went there because they saw an opportunity at Caishi."

Xin Qiji tightened his grip on the reins and wanted to say something, but then he looked back at the Shandong rebels on the march, sighed, and said, "Da Lang, even though we have many cattle and horses in our army, our current pace is already the fastest. If we go any faster, I'm afraid we won't be able to fight even if we reach Cai Shi."

Liu Huai nodded: "Wu Lang is right. The key now is to have military force projection in Dongcai Shi. The amount is not important, but it must be there."

Xin Qiji was no longer surprised by Liu Huai's frequent novel remarks: "What does Dalang mean..."

"I will lead 500 elite Flying Tiger cavalrymen to advance, and Wulang will lead the troops in the front. As long as we can arrive at about the same time as the Jin thieves in Jiangbei, we will be fine."

Liu Huai's explanation was simple, but Xin Qiji still had some concerns: "There are so many waterways south of the Yangtze River, especially those small rivers that have to be crossed by floating horses. Aren't you afraid that the Flying Tiger Army will be wiped out?"

Liu Huai shook his head. "There's nothing we can do. We can only march all the way and relocate the soldiers who are having trouble moving forward. Even if we only have a hundred cavalrymen to reach Dongcaishi, that's still good. Wulang, you'll follow me and gather them along the way."

Xin Qiji nodded with difficulty.

Even when the iron army of later generations was on a forced march, some people would fall behind along the way, let alone the army of the classical era.

However, Xin Qiji was still a little worried.

Liu Huai is extremely thick-skinned. He always thinks that I am a time traveler and I have the greatest ability, so if you want to fight against the Jin, you all have to listen to me. Therefore, he doesn't care who he takes over the military power from.

Liu Huai once commanded the Tianping Army, Dongping Army and even the Song Army.

But Xin Qiji was different. He was a general of the Tianping Army and had never commanded any other army. He was instinctively worried about whether generals like Luo Shenyan and Wang Shilong would obey his orders.

But then he thought, why bother with so much? As long as he kept his heart upright and acted honestly, even if these people disobeyed military orders, it would be their fault.

Thinking of this, Xin Qiji gritted his teeth and said, "I will obey the general's order."

Liu Huai nodded, turned around and summoned several generals. After issuing the military orders, he waved his hand and called on Zhang Baiyu, the commander of the Flying Tiger Army, to assemble his elite cavalry, each with three horses, and headed west at high speed. Then, he turned along the Yangtze River and headed south to Dangtu.

It is said that the Yangtze River flows from west to east east of Jiankang Prefecture, and from southwest to northeast west of Jiankang Prefecture.

Therefore, the area on the south bank of the Yangtze River below Wuhu is also called Jiangdong.

I still think of Xiang Yu, who refused to cross the Jiangdong River. In fact, the Wujiang River, where Xiang Yu committed suicide, is nearby. When Liu Huai was halfway between Jiankang Prefecture and Dangtu, he could see Wujiang County by looking across the river.

But at this point, no one was in the mood to reminisce about the past, and Liu Huai was the same.

If you really have this idea, you should hurry to Caishiji and pay tribute to Li Bai who died while trying to catch the moon!

The saying "Southern ships and northern horses" is certainly not wrong.

After experiencing large-scale development, Jiangnan is no longer full of swamps and lakes like it was during the pre-Han Dynasty. However, there are too many rivers and ditches to irrigate the paddy fields.

Even if these ditches dried up in winter, they were enough to delay a large number of marching troops.

Non-combat casualties also inevitably occurred.

This wasn't to say anyone was deserting. After all, the Flying Tigers were elite armored cavalry, well-compensated, and wouldn't be tempted to act petty in a foreign land with an unfamiliar accent. Rather, after wading through the icy stream and crossing the unsteady bridge, even at full speed on the official road, both men and horses would quickly lose strength.

This hundred-mile journey was only covered a little over half in one day, just over seventy miles.

At this time, Liu Huai had no choice but to order his troops to gather and rest for a while.

Fortunately, Jiangnan was the ruling core of the Song Dynasty and a prosperous place. Liu Huai had Liu Qi's appointment documents and was guided by state officials along the way, so the military stations set up by the state governments along the way were also open to him, so he did not have to build camps and chop firewood for cooking so early.

After counting the troops, Liu Huai found that after a long and rapid march, even the elite Flying Tiger Army had only about 300 people left, and they were all exhausted.

Liu Huai had no choice but to select more than a hundred of the most elite cavalrymen and march south again at high speed at dawn the next day.

Chen Wenben was assigned to lead the remaining 200 cavalrymen, and they rested for a few hours before continuing their march.

However, contrary to Liu Huai's expectations, the rest of the journey was much easier.

After a detailed conversation with the guide who had just arrived from Taiping Prefecture, I learned that trade was flourishing near Dangtu. After the peace agreement between Song and Jin, a border trading market was opened in Shouchun, which immediately formed a trade network along the Shouchun-Hefei-Dangtu line.

Therefore, after arriving in Taiping Prefecture, the official road is much smoother than other places.

This is the disadvantage of being unfamiliar with the place. Many things that are common sense to the locals are like the fog of war to him, a visitor from Shandong.

Although there is a guide to lead the way, the guide is not omnipotent. He can only roughly plan the corresponding route and answer all questions. How can he take the initiative to discover the impact of road conditions on the war?

The Song and Jin dynasties had been at an armistice for twenty years. Even when the Song and Jin dynasties fought a major war, Jiangnan was rarely affected, and ordinary officials had no military experience at all.

Liu Huai was also a little annoyed. If he had known this would happen, he should have let the entire army speed up the march despite being exhausted. After reaching the official road in Taiping Prefecture, he would organize the troops while marching and requisition horse-drawn carriages on the spot to transport food and fodder.

But it's too late to say this.

At this point, Liu Huai could only send someone to pass the military information back, and then he led more than a hundred elite cavalrymen under his command to gallop on the official road, rushing towards Dongcai Shi, thirty miles away.

(End of this chapter)