Chapter 1867 Renzijuan sits and observes the situation, while Yucun wanders

 A series of news spread throughout the capital and beyond, causing the entire Zhou Dynasty to be shaken.

The Xuanfu army annihilated the entire Shanxi Army in one fell swoop. More than 50,000 troops were routed. Several prefectures and counties east of Zhending Prefecture were all captured. Jizhou, Xinhe, Nangong, Zaoqiang, and even Hengshui and Wuyi were also captured, posing a direct threat. Arriving at the Jizhen Army stationed at Jingzhou and Fucheng.

The Datong Army took the opportunity to invade the north, and Sun Shaozu took the opportunity to launch an attack from Ling County to Wuqiao and Ningjin, hoping to form a pincer offensive with the Xuanfu Army to the west, and the Jizhen Army was not seen on the Jingzhou and Fucheng lines.

You Shilu was also caught off guard. As a last resort, he had to completely abandon Jingzhou and Fucheng and retreat to the north. In the end, he even felt that he could not stop, so he simply let go of Jiaohe and Dongguang and retreated to the earliest position. The Botou-Nanpi line is the only way to stabilize the position.

However, You Shilu also knew that the purpose of the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army was not to capture the prefectures and counties such as Hejian Prefecture, but to completely annihilate this effective force in their hands.

After the defeat of the Shanxi Army, the only thing left to fight on the northern front was the more than 20,000 troops in his own hands. If he lost even his own troops, then Sun Shaozu would really be able to march straight in and the troops would be ready. It’s heaven.

At that time, the imperial court could either desperately deploy the Liaodong Army or the main force of Jizhen in the hands of his brother to guard against the Chahar people, or it could only completely abandon Hejian and the southern part of Shuntian Prefecture, and simply defend the capital city, but in that case , I am afraid that the imperial court is really on the verge of collapse.

Therefore, for You Shilu, as long as he keeps his army, it is not a big deal to temporarily lose a few states and counties. As long as his troops are still there, Sun Shaozu will not be able to go north unscrupulously, and this battle will still have to be fought.

The defeat of the Northern Front war had an extremely huge impact on the capital. The DPRK and the Central Government were in an uproar, especially those who had high hopes for Su Shengdu. They were tossing and turning and could not let go.

An army of 50,000 people, the elite of the nine sides. Even if the Shanxi Army is not as good as the Xuanfu Army, Datong Army and Jizhen Army, it is still almost the same. Moreover, how could 50,000 people be defeated so easily? Now the entire The war situation on the northern front suddenly took a turn for the worse, Hejian might be lost, Sunchon Mansion suddenly faced the threat of enemy forces, and the capital was shaken.

For Nanjing, the capture of Xia Town and the interception of the canal brought no less shock than the defeat of the Shanxi Army to the imperial court in the capital.

 You must know that water transportation is interrupted, and it is absolutely impossible for the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army to sustain themselves for a long time relying solely on local supplies in Shandong.

Now the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army are limited in strength and can only control Dongchang Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture along the canal. Jinan Prefecture only controls Qihe, Yucheng, Lingxian, Linyi, and Deping west of Licheng. , Shanghe, Tai'an and other prefectures and counties, as well as prefectures and counties farther east such as Wuding, Binzhou, Qidong, and Zouping, basically have a laissez-faire attitude.

These places also maintain a unique state of silence. They are unwilling to provoke the Datong Army and Xuanfu Army who are close at hand. Even some of the material requirements put forward by the Xuanfu Army and Datong Army will be met to a certain extent. However, they did not accept the appointments and arrangements of the Nanjing court, and would resist any excessive demands, so both parties maintained a strange tacit understanding.

Jia Yucun stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back and sighed. He returned to the desk, picked up the letter, and read it again.

 The letter was written by Feng Ziying,

The content is not that different. It neither requires me to express my attitude nor do I ask myself to do anything out of the ordinary. It is just a very ordinary conversation, which is no different from the normal letters in the past. It is just that there is something more meaningful in the final book. suggestions.

See the situation clearly, consider it carefully, and leave room for leeway. Meanings like this are hidden in words, and Jia Yucun certainly understands the meaning.

How long can Nanjing support this? This is what Feng Ziying means in his words. Half a year, one year, or two years?

 In Feng Ziying's letter, he never seemed to think that Nanjing could last more than two years, and it could only be two years at most, and everything should be over.

Is that really the case? Jia Yucun stroked his beard and pondered.

The sound of footsteps came from outside. Jia Yucun knew that Yan Mingxiang was coming and turned around.

"grown ups!"

"Mingxiang, how is the situation?" Jia Yucun looked at the other party and asked with some expectancy.

"It's hard to say. The news from all sides is messy, and there are all kinds of opinions. It makes people panic outside." Yan Mingxiang paused before saying: "The news from the north must be beneficial to us. There are more, and there is less news from Xuzhou, but there are random rumors down there..."

Jia Yucun frowned. This was a reasonable thing. Unfavorable news must be blocked in Nanjing. He even arranged for three groups of government officials to enter and leave the market to prevent the news from spreading randomly. But what was the truth? The capital of Jinling Prefecture is in chaos and it is unclear.

"Random spreading?" Jia Yucun pondered: "I'm afraid it may not be spreading randomly, but some people don't want this kind of news to spread too much."

Yan Mingxiang was stunned, "Your Excellency, I am afraid that the news in Nanjing or Xuzhou will be too shocking, and the impact on the entire situation in Jiangnan will be too dangerous."

"Chen Jixian's performance was too disappointing, or too unexpected. Fengxian and Peixian, such important places, were easily captured by the Northwest Army. He didn't even have time to react in Xuzhou. Damn it, even if water transportation is cut off, Zhaoyang Lake and Dushan Lake are already unstable places, and now that Xia Town is controlled by the Northwest Army, how can the grain ships heading north get there?"

“Go around?” Yan Mingxiang asked casually as he didn’t know much about the geographical conditions in the north.

 But Jiayu Village is different.

 After arriving in Jinling, I have been paying close attention to the geography and topography of the entire South Zhili. Xuzhou, as the northern gateway to South Zhili, has a particularly important geographical location, so Jia Yucun is also very concerned about it.

"Go around? How to go around?" Jia Yucun sneered, "The Northwest Army controls the choke point of Xia Town. Needless to say, Dangshan, Fengxian and Peixian in the west must be firmly controlled by the Northwest Army. Crossing the canal and capturing Teng County and Yixian County has already established a line of defense in this section. How to bypass it? If you take the land route, you have to go to Tancheng, Yizhou, Feixian County, and Sishui to bypass Jining. , but this section of the road is hundreds of miles long, how can we transport it? By carriages and laborers? Who can bear this?"

Yan Mingxiang said politely: "Without the food, wages, medicines and weapons that we used to have in Jiangnan, how can the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army rely on local supplies from Shandong to survive?"

Jia Yucun slowly shook his head: "In a short period of time, or two or three months, it may not matter. After all, Dezhou, Linqing, Dongchangfu and Jining, a series of canal cities, are all the original Shuici warehouses, and they originally had a lot of grain. , relying on water transport, some of the rice grain transported there was still stored. However, the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army were not popular in Shandong, and it was difficult to collect additional grain from places other than along the canal. Therefore, if the water transport was cut off, it would inevitably be a waste. …”

"What should we do? The Huaiyang Army and the Xuanfu Army march north and south to retake Xia Town and resume water transportation?" Yan Mingxiang was a little anxious. "The northwest army's defense area is so wide, from Shunde Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture to Daming Prefecture. There are also several prefectures in Henan south of the Yellow River, which run from north to south and east to west for hundreds of miles. If the Xuanfu Army and the Huaiyang Army go all out to open up this lifeline, they should be able to do it, right?"

"Huh, the question is, is Chen Jixian trustworthy? Who knows whether his **** is in the north or in Nanjing? Feng County Pei County was thrown away by him. Who knows whether he did it intentionally or unintentionally? I heard that Huai fled back to Xuzhou from Feng County Pei County Yang's army did not suffer too much losses, it was just defeated, but not many were killed or captured, and basically all of them fled back to Xuzhou." Jia Yucun's tone became very relaxed, "In this case, I hope Is it possible for him to cooperate with the Xuanfu Army to retake Xia Town? Nanjing is probably still worried about whether the Northwest Army will take the opportunity to go south to capture Xuzhou. What if Chen Jixian simply leads the way for the Northwest Army and goes south directly from Xuzhou? What about Huai'an and Yangzhou? Who can stop them?"

Yan Mingxiang was shocked, "No way? Prince Yi Zhong has so much trust in Chen Jixian. Even if he fails in the battle, he won't stab Prince Yi Zhong in the back, right?"

"Mingxiang, what are you thinking?" Jia Yucun sneered, "Who doesn't have faith in Chen Jixian? Doesn't the emperor have faith in Chen Jixian? How did he get the position of the general of the Fifth Army Camp? Feng Tang failed to accept him as the general of the Fifth Army Camp. He did it. Doesn’t the emperor not have enough trust in him? Then why did he propose to go south to serve as the commander-in-chief of Huaiyang Town? Didn’t he know that at that time, the capital needed veteran generals like him the most? If Prince Yi Zhong really is If you trust him, you won't resist his requests. Then again, with a person like him and such a performance, who would dare to confide in him?"

Yan Mingxiang finally got a taste of the words from his boss's mouth. After calming down, he lowered his voice and said, "Sir, do you mean that I'm afraid Xia Town won't be taken back?"

"I'm not optimistic, but if they can't take it back, what will the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army do? If they want to continue to hold on in Shandong, they must take back Xia Town and restore water transportation. But if they can't hold on in Shandong, they will lose After reaching Shandong, the imperial army will go south and enter southern Zhili territory, and Nanjing will be out of business." Jia Yucun mused: "Now it depends on whether Niu Jizong can successfully capture Xia Town, but he cannot count on Chen Jixian, Chen Jixian will not hold him back and cause trouble. That’s pretty good.”

"If Xia Town cannot be recaptured, the Xuanfu Army and the Datong Army will not be able to maintain their position, and Shandong will not be able to defend it." Jia Yucun stood up and said, "If Shandong cannot be defended, what else is there to say?"

 (End of this chapter)