"In the process of fighting with us, the Song army has grown stronger, although the Song army is inferior to us in terms of firearms, but the Song army can already make up for the lack with numbers," Li De, the king of Liang, said to the two: "And the number of the Song army is several times that of us, the logistics supply line is very close, and the logistics supply is much more convenient than ours, and if we want to completely annihilate the Song army in Huainan, I am afraid there will be great losses."
Li Ke, the king of Qi, also said: "Don't forget that the Song army also has a Jiangnan water division, although it was wiped out by us last time, but it is still strong, according to Yipintang, the Song army is now recruiting troops on a large scale in Jiangnan, building weapons, warships, and firearms; These will be transported to the front, and now the situation is already serious. ” "Two elder brothers, you don't have to worry about the problem of troops, before coming, this king has reported to my father, and my father allowed us to recruit troops independently, in Bianliang City, we have put a lot of grain, grass and weapons, and my father has allowed us to recruit 800,000 troops."
"The package does not include Li Hu'er's department," Li De asked Li Qing.
Li Qing said: "My father didn't say it explicitly, but I think it shouldn't be included; Now there are 300,000 troops on the front, and with these 100,000 troops, that is to say, we can still recruit 400,000 troops; These 400,000 troops, the two elder brothers, can recruit 200,000 troops to expand the two major armies of Yuzhou and Xuzhou, and I plan to supplement the remaining 200,000 troops to the Praetorian Guard Legion and the Jizhou Legion, which is the scale of our four major legions reaching 200,000 people."
Li Qing's distribution has been recognized by Li De and Li Ke, doubling the strength of the army is quite possible for the two of them, after all, Li Qing is now the Central Plains patrol envoy, Li Qing must ensure that he has an absolute military advantage over Li De and Li Ke, that night the three of them sent their respective henchmen to recruit troops from all over the Central Plains, and the originally retired Xia Army soldiers came to be invited to enlist, these are all veterans, and they can become veterans with a little training.
However, these are not the limits of the Xia army, since the vast area of the Central Plains, the population of the Great Xia Empire has increased dramatically, the Xia army has also improved the military service system in the Central Plains, the Xia army implements the compulsory soldier system, not the recruitment system, all adult men have to participate in military training every year, so the combat quality of the Xia army is very high, compared to the recruitment system of the Song army, the recruits of the Xia army can be immediately put into battle, and the Song army needs at least half a year of military training.
The Xia Emperor Li Liangzuo, who was born in the military, paid special attention to the construction of the Xia army, and most of the entire Great Xia Empire was actually centered on the construction of this army, so the Xia army was much higher than the Song army in terms of equipment and food and treatment, and the army became a very important way for many people to embark on the pinnacle of life, and he was even more loved by the people than the imperial examination, so as soon as the recruitment list of the Xia army came out, young people from all over the country began to sign up enthusiastically, hoping to join the army; However, the requirements of the combat units of the Xia Army are very high, and the number of them is limited, and only the best of them can really go to the front-line combat troops.
In just a few days, 400,000 Xia troops were recruited, and began to gather from all over the country to march to the front line, in order to speed up the speed of the march, the newly recruited soldiers from all over the country were all lightly armed, not to mention weapons, even armor was not issued, each person just carried a period of military rations and two pairs of shoes, and each place was resting in addition to replenishing military rations, so the marching speed of the Xia army was surprisingly fast, and it took only ten days for 300,000 Xia troops to complete the assembly in Haozhou City.
At the same time, Li Qing, the king of Yan, and Li Ke, the king of Qi, led an army of 100,000 people who had also crossed the Huai River, and Li De, the king of Liang, returned to the camp of the Yuzhou legion located in Luzhou, and the supplementary strength of the Yuzhou legion, the 100,000 army, had not yet arrived at this time due to the distance; As for the plan of attack on Song, long before the three of them separated, they had already formulated a top-secret operation.
In the large camp of the Yuzhou Legion; Li De, the king of Liang, summoned all the generals, Li De glanced at the generals and said, "Let's talk about it, what are your plans?"
Xu He first stood up and said: "Lord Wang, the Song army has a million and hundreds of thousands of troops in the Huainan region, and a million troops in the Chuzhou region alone, and even if our army is replenished by the expansion of the army, it is only 800,000 troops, and the Song army is at least more than double that of us, and it is still increasing its troops."
Li De looked at Xu He with a cold face and said, "These are what you have to say."
"It's not."
Xu He hurriedly denied it: "The last general means that attacking our army from the front will definitely suffer heavy losses, in this case, why don't we attack from the side, the border line between our dynasty and the Song Dynasty is nearly 10,000 miles, except for some special terrain, there are many places that can be used as a breakthrough, as long as we have one to attack the south of the Yangtze River, the defense line of the Great Song Dynasty will be completely finished." ” Li De smiled and said, "The idea is good; The herald ordered the army to withdraw from Luzhou tomorrow and attack Shuzhou. ” "Obey the order," the generals immediately took the military order.
On the Chuzhou front, the elite of the Xia army surrounded by 800,000 Song troops, under the command of Yan Shu, did not let the Song army eat all, but also suffered heavy casualties, 200,000 Xia troops lost more than 100,000 people, basically have been disabled, of course, your Song army did not get any benefits, casualties are more than twice that of the Xia army, the battle of Chuzhou lasted 12 days from the first day of engagement, the two sides from long-distance firearms warfare, to face-to-face hand-to-hand combat, the big one is very tragic.
On the battlefield thirty miles north of Chuzhou City, the land has been completely stained red with blood, and there are broken corpses everywhere, but despite this, the Xia army still held on to the camp in Jiangbei, and after the reinforcements led by Li De, the king of Yan, crossed the Huai River and arrived in Haozhou, the Song army withdrew to Chuzhou City to defend.
Outside the north gate of the Jiangbei camp of the Xia army, Yan Shu knelt on the ground and waited for the arrival of the army led by Li Qing, the king of Yan. ” Li Qing glanced at Yan Shu and said, "The herald deposed Yan Shu from all official positions and demoted him to an ordinary soldier; In addition, there will be a hundred sticks. ” Zhao Ge next to him immediately persuaded: "Lord Wang, is this hundred army sticks too much, the last general implores the prince for the sake of Brother Yan's past military exploits, don't fight this hundred army sticks." ” After Zhao Ge finished speaking, he knelt on the ground, and Li Qing said angrily on the spot: "This king is already extraordinarily gracious if he doesn't execute him, and beating him with a hundred military sticks is light, because he made a mistake in command, and hundreds of thousands of brothers died, could it be that he wronged him by beating a few sticks, and then persuaded him to be guilty of the same crime as Yan Shu." ” Yan Shu thanked him: "The last general will thank the prince." ” Li Qing passed through the camp and came directly to the outside of Chuzhou City, at this time the Song army has built a complete fortification in Chuzhou City, Chuzhou's solidity is not low than Shouchun City, now Li Qing knows nothing about the defense of Chuzhou, the Song army also built several small cities around Chuzhou City and Chuzhou City formed a corner, can help each other.
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