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

Chapter 438: Xiangfan's Millennium of War

"What? Fancheng has been lost?! Xiangyang is in danger?!"

At about the same time, Liu Qi also received an urgent letter from Wu Gong, which was sent eight hundred miles away. After opening the document and taking just a glance at it, he felt dizzy.

"Hurry... hurry and invite Mr. Ye." Liu Qi's mind was in turmoil. He forced himself to calm down and made a quick decision.

Next, there must be a strategic move, and no matter what the Huainan East Road wants to do, it must require the approval of Ye Yiwen, the Privy Councilor.

Soon, Ye Yiwen, who was at Guazhou Ferry, rushed to the camp with his external military thinking brain Lu You, and saw Liu Qi frowning as he looked at the map in the general's tent.

"This is top secret military information. It must not be spread out." Liu Qi handed the document to Ye Yiwen.

After Ye Yiwen read it quickly without changing his expression, he handed it to Lu You.

This is not to say that Ye Yiwen has the bearing of a prime minister, who can remain calm even when there is thunder in his heart. It only means that even though Xiangfan has appeared many times in history books, this guy still lacks understanding of its importance.

In his opinion, isn’t it just the loss of a city?
Since the war between Song and Jin broke out, Song has already lost most of Lianghuai, but no one has lost their composure.

Lu You's reaction was extremely intense, almost losing his composure on the spot. He stamped his foot and said, "General Wu is also a famous general, and Minister Wang is even more famous as an official. How could they have let Fancheng be lost?"

Liu Qi sighed, "I just looked through the military intelligence documents and found that the problem was caused by Cheng the Rascal."

Liu Qi pointed to the map and explained in detail.

The Xiangfan defense system was built around the Han River, with two cities sandwiched between a river. The two cities of Xiangfan have existed since people settled on both sides of the Han River, but the construction of the defense system has changed with the times.

For example, was it necessary to build Xiangfan into a fortified city during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty?
There is no need for that. Only when Xiangfan became the frontier, various military cities and forts were built to form a complete defense system.

After Yue Fei recaptured Xiangyang during the first Northern Expedition, he built Xiangyang as a base for the Northern Expedition, and the Xiangfan defense system gradually took shape.

Of course, Yue Fei's goal has always been to recover lost territory, so even if he personally built the defense system of Xiangfan, the strategic focus was to form a reliable field army, and it was impossible to put all his energy on building fortifications.

It was not until the time of Meng Gong that Xiangfan truly became an impenetrable frontal wall of the empire.

However, even so, the fall of Fancheng was too easy.

Just as Xiangfan is not just two cities, Fancheng’s defense facilities are not just a lonely military city. It also has two small cities and eight forts guarding it around, forming a corner for each other.

In addition, the city moat and various outposts are also available.

Although after Yue Fei's death, Song and Jin negotiated peace, Song was at peace in both culture and war, and Xiangfan was severely damaged by the foolish and greedy Tian Shizhong, the mountains and rivers could not be moved.

If a moat is blocked, it can be dug; if a camp collapses, it can be rebuilt. It is impossible to say that Tian Shizhong is so greedy that he can embezzle an entire mountain. Wu Gong and Wang Che have been in charge of Xiangfan for two or three years. They have made all the necessary repairs, especially in Xiangfan, which cannot be neglected.

In Cheng Min and Wu Gong's prior calculations, they only felt that Xiangfan would be in danger due to the lack of elite troops.

However, in the temple's calculations, by exchanging space for time, the Jin army would attack cities and strongholds from the periphery little by little. By the time they could threaten Fancheng and Xiangyang, it would take at least two or three months.

No matter how you look at it, there's plenty of time.

If Liu E was still in charge of the Jin army, then when the Song army faced the superior strength of the Jin army's central route, even if they could not fight for Nanyang and Caizhou in the early stages of the war and fight on the outside as in history, they could still guard Guanghua, Zaoyang and other places to serve as an outer barrier for Fancheng.

But Pushan Zhongyi's ability to seize opportunities in battle is too strong.

What is more crucial is that this time when Cheng Min led his troops to support Lianghuai, he did not lead the reserve troops south during the stalemate, but selected the elite of the Ezhou army, including the elite soldiers stationed on the front line.

There is no other way around this. Historically, Cheng Min had the mentality of just being a bystander, but if he wanted to take out the retreat of the Jin lord Wanyan Liang at this time, he might face a desperate counterattack from the Jin army, and he would have to use elite troops.

However, retreating when engaging the enemy head-on and moving when two miles away are two completely different tactical actions.

To be precise, the person who went wrong this time was Zhao Xun, the commander of the Imperial Guard Cavalry.

In real history, Zhao Xun stayed in Xiangfan at this time, and joined forces with Wu Gong, Qi Fang and others to fight a battle in Caizhou, which they won at first but then lost. His fighting power should not be underestimated.

At this time, Zhao Xun led his troops to follow Cheng Min, and a huge gap appeared in the Zaoyang army area.

Although Wu Gong quickly dispatched troops to plug the gap, he was still seized by Pushan Zhongyi. However, he did not launch a surprise attack. Instead, he sent a large army to attack Zaoyang and encircled Qi Fang's troops there, intending to capture Suizhou, attack Anlu, and go straight to Hanyang.

Now Wu Gong could no longer sit still. Xiangfan is an important city, and Anlu is also an important city!

There was no other way, so Wu Gong could only continue to send reinforcements, prepare to hold off the Jin army under the city of Zaoyang, and wait for an opportunity for a decisive battle.

This is the opportunity that Pushan Zhongyi has been waiting for.

While waiting for Wu Gong's elite troops to be thinned out to a certain extent, Pushan Zhongyi sent his general Shi Mobian to lead the Wuyi Army to watch over the Song general Wang Xuan in Guanghua. He personally led two Heza Meng'ans and 6,000 of the Jin Dynasty's most elite soldiers and horses, abandoned the Song army and all the baggage behind them, and ran more than a hundred miles in one day and two nights. With the attitude of dying if they did not succeed, they arrived at the foot of Fancheng.

At this time, there were only more than a thousand regular troops of the Song State in Fancheng, and the rest were all young and able-bodied civilians. Under the attack of Pushan Zhongyi who personally led the army to climb the city, the city fell into chaos in an instant and was captured in one fell swoop.

Until this time, the two cities of East and West, which supported Fancheng, had not even reacted. They thought that some troops from the front had retreated to rest.

By the time they recovered from this chaotic night, Fancheng had already been lost. It was too late to do anything. The defending general could only tell Wu Gong, who was on the south bank of the Han River, this fatal news. When Wu Gong received this news, it was like being struck by lightning.

It turns out that the Jin army's fierce attack on Zaoyang and the division of troops to Guanghua have always been a strategic deception, a feint to the east and attack in the west. The real killer move is here!

It’s not that Fancheng can’t be lost, but it was lost too quickly!
Although Wu Gong rushed to Xiangyang and launched several counterattacks, facing the best troops led by the best commander of the Jin Dynasty, Wu Gong's more than 10,000 elite troops stationed in Xiangyang were completely helpless.

Moreover, after Fancheng was occupied by the Jin army, the Song army fighting in Guanghua, Junzhou, Zaoyang and Xinyang completely lost their support and became an isolated force.

Even if these Song troops could not be quickly defeated, the morale damage caused by the occupation of their retreat would certainly be unparalleled.

If the war drags on for another half a year, Zaoyang can send reinforcements through Anlu and still hold on, but the remaining troops will really be killed without a burial place!
By then, the Jin army would have cleared the area north of the Han River and would cross the river from Fancheng to attack south. Even with the assistance of the navy, Wu Gong believed that they would be unable to stop them.

In desperation, Wu Gong and Wang Che could only write a joint letter to apologize.

This military intelligence document then fell into Liu Qi's hands.

After recounting the whole story, Lu You couldn't help but sigh repeatedly, but he also stamped his feet fiercely, his heart filled with resentment towards the royal power.

If the Huai River and the Huai River hadn't been so corrupted, the original strategic situation should have given Song a huge advantage. It was precisely because of Wang Quan's cowardly escape that the situation in the world became so chaotic.

Kill!

On the other side, Ye Yiwen became a little flustered when he saw Liu Qi and Lu You lose their composure to such an extent. However, this Privy Councilor who knew nothing about military affairs really didn't know why the consequences of losing Fancheng would be so serious, and he was immediately at a loss.

Liu Qi also knew that if he wanted Ye Yiwen to agree to the next military action, he had to let him know that the situation was urgent. However, he was really confused at the moment, so he could only signal Lu You to ask him to explain.

Lu You was also undeterred. He took out his sword from his waist and quickly drew the general topography of Shu, Xiangfan, Lianghuai, and Jiangnan on the ground. He explained to Ye Yiwen, "Sir, please look, this is Jingxiang."

"There are vast plains above and below Jingxiang. To the north is Nanyang, and to the south is Jiangling. But the area between the two is not completely flat, but is separated by Dahong Mountain. There are two roads on either side of Dahong Mountain. To the east are Zaoyang and Anlu, which are the places heavily protected by the Wugong Taiwei."

Seeing that Ye Yiwen was still confused, Lu You continued to explain: "Zaoyang belongs to Suizhou, and this place was the Sui State during the Spring and Autumn Period.

The Records of the Grand Historian records: In the thirty-fifth year, Chu attacked Sui. Sui said, "I am innocent." Chu replied, "I am a barbarian."

Why did historians record this event, even though they were so careful with their writings? It was because after Chu defeated Sui, it entered the land of Nanyang and began to threaten the heartland of the Central Plains.

After hearing this, Ye Yiwen suddenly realized and motioned Lu You to continue.

Lu You then pointed his sword towards the west side of Dahong Mountain and said, "The other route is the Han River. The place that controls the Han River is Xiangfan.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu's repeated defeats at the siege of Xiangfan by the Wei army were so powerful that they resonated throughout China. This was because, having captured Xiangfan, the road ahead was clear, allowing him to take Xuchang directly. The same was true of Yue Fei.

Ye Yiwen seemed to understand something, and stroked his beard and said, "In other words, if the Jin thieves capture Xiangfan, they can go south along the Han River and head straight for Jiangling?"

Lu You nodded and drew a line on the ground with his sword. "That's right. If the Jin thieves gain a foothold in Jiangling, they can move downstream and take Jiankang directly. The natural barrier of the Yangtze River will become a false threat, and Jiangnan will be in danger."

Seeing Ye Yiwen lost in thought once again, Lu You could only continue to use historical examples: "During the Jin Dynasty, Wang Jun conquered Wu, and during the Sui Dynasty, Yang Su conquered Chen. Both were like this, going downstream with unstoppable force. For our dynasty, Jiangling is even more important to us. Remember, during the Spring and Autumn Period, after the Chu State's capital Yingdu, located on the Jiangling Plain, was captured, Qu Yuan, in despair, simply drowned himself."

After hearing this, Ye Yiwen finally understood everything.

After realizing what was happening, this privy councilor lost his composure even more than Liu Qi and Lu You: "General Liu, if that's the case, doesn't it mean that if Xiangfan is lost, the Song Dynasty will be in danger?"

Liu Qi nodded: "That's right!"

Ye Yiwen lost his composure even more, but his behavior was different from the fear that Lu You had imagined. Although he was trembling all over and his voice was trembling slightly, his tone was still firm: "Then as the Privy Councilor and as the Commander-in-Chief, shouldn't I, as the Privy Councilor, do something important to save the country at this time?"

Liu Qi looked him up and down as if he were meeting him for the first time. After a moment, he said, "Over in Xiangfan, no one is able to reach us. We can only rely on General Wu. Not to mention that we can't fly over there, even if we could, the court would definitely not agree."

Liu Qi pointed to a spot on the map and said, "To turn the situation around, we have to fight to the death!"

Ye Yiwen looked in the direction Liu Qi's finger was pointing, and his eyebrows couldn't help but jump.

That is the West Quarry.

The location of Wanyan Liang's 30,000 troops.

"But this isn't something the Huaidong army can accomplish on its own," Liu Qi continued. "We need the consent of Liu Dalang, Cheng Pocai, Yu Xianggong, and Li Fanzi. We also need to come up with a feasible plan as quickly as possible. The opportunity to fight may very well come within a few days!"

"General Liu, you should prepare the troops here first. I will go to quarry the stones myself!" Ye Yiwen finally took on the responsibility of a prime minister and immediately stood up and said, completely ignoring his poor horsemanship and old age and frailty.

But before Lu You could say anything to persuade him, he heard someone calling out his name outside the door. An urgent document, eight hundred miles away, was sent from Cai Shi.

Why does a loud drum need a heavy hammer?

Liu Qi and Ye Yiwen were both brave and resourceful, and Yu Yunwen and Li Xianzhong were not stupid either. How could they not think of what Liu Qi could think of?

(End of this chapter)