Tibet

Not long after, the soldier brought a heavy bag. Li Ye opened the bag and took out a porcelain ball. It could be seen that the porcelain ball was very thick, with an eye on it, and a small piece of unlit match rope inserted in it. It should be The part that touched the ground happened to be a match rope, so the fire was suppressed and the complete porcelain bottle fire thunder was preserved.

Li Ye sighed in his heart that this must be Feilong's invention. He skipped the stages of paper shell fire thunder and wooden shell fire thunder and came to porcelain shell fire thunder. He went back and studied it carefully.

Li Ye looked inside the bag again, and there were some porcelain pieces and some iron nails. Li Baozhen quickly reminded: The iron nails are quenched with poison, Jiedushi must be careful!

Li Ye nodded, put the porcelain ball into the bag, handed it to the soldiers, and asked Li Baozhen: How many people are there in the enemy army?

It's over 100,000, about 120,000 to 30,000.

The strength of the troops was beyond Li Ye's expectation, so he could only act according to the original plan. Li Ye sighed and said to everyone: Dengzhou can't hold it anymore, let's rely on the Han River to defend it!

He immediately led the army to evacuate south and returned to Xiangyang.

Two days later, An Qingxu led an army of 100,000 people to Nanyang County. Nanyang was basically an empty city. Only a few thousand old and weak people were left in the county town of more than 100,000 people, and the remaining officials and citizens all evacuated southward.

An Qingxu was extremely angry and ordered to kill all the thousands of people remaining in the city. He led the army to continue southward. On the way, he received news that the army coming from the east encountered the main force of the Tang army. The army was defeated and lost 20,000 people. Wu Lingyu He fled back to Yuzhou with the remaining army.

This news made An Qingxu really dissatisfied. He did not want to use Wu Lingyu at all. This man was simple-minded and did not consider the problem thoroughly. However, his father liked him very much and appointed him as Xu Yu's military governor, leading an army of 30,000 to attack from the east. Dengzhou, as expected, was defeated again.

An Qingxu couldn't bear it anymore and was about to explode. At this time, Yan Zhuang advised him: Your Highness, fortunately we didn't count on Wu Lingyu. His failure will have little impact on us.

An Qingxu said bitterly: If he does not fail, he can at least intercept the Tang army at Luyang Pass.

Next to him, Cui Qianyou also advised: Your Highness can report to the emperor and impeach Wu Lingyu, but now we must go all out to cross the Han River. I believe that crossing the Han River is our top priority!

An Qingxu held back his anger, nodded and said, Okay! I'll deal with him later.

He immediately ordered: The whole army will advance at full speed and go south to cross the Han River!

A hundred thousand troops marched toward Xiangyang in the south at lightning speed.

The characteristic of the Han River is that it is narrow in the upper reaches, generally only more than sixty feet. After leaving Hanzhong, the Han River suddenly widens, and the river is about two miles wide. The widest part is the Xiangyang section, which is seven or eight miles wide. Then it enters the lower reaches. The Yangtze River narrowed again, only one mile wide.

Therefore, although Dengzhou was captured by the Yan army, Li Ye was not very worried because he still had the Han River as the most important line of defense.

Fifty thousand Jianghan Tang troops have set up camp on the south bank of the Han River. At the same time, the Jianghan troops also have a sizable navy, which was established by Li Dai. The navy consists of 7,000 people and has more than 500 large and small warships. There are hundreds of warships worth more than a thousand stones alone.

Most of the Jianghan navy were civilian ships, mainly cargo ships, but there were also more than 50 real warships, including seven building ships, 12 fighting ships, and more than 30 walking boats and mongooses. .

These more than fifty real warships are actually the Jiangling Navy of the Yangtze River Navy of the Tang Dynasty. Their home port is in Jiangling. They are responsible for combating water piracy and maintaining shipping. They have about a thousand troops and are affiliated to the Yangtze River Navy.

However, the Yangtze River Navy was recruited by Yong Wang Li Lin, and the Jiangling Navy was intercepted by Li Dai in time. Li Ye established the Jianghan Navy, which was expanded with the Jiangling Navy as the core. All the soldiers were young people who grew up along the Han River and the Yangtze River. People are all proficient in water properties.

In addition, Li Ye also established a special water army, codenamed Swordfish, which is actually a water ghost. They are all white stripes in the waves, with extremely superb water skills. Each one is equipped with water jets and water jets.

Yuliangzhou is a riverside island on the Han River. It is very large, equivalent to a small county town. It is very close to the north bank, but still about three miles away from the south bank.

Yuliangzhou became the bridgehead for the defense of the Han River. The Yan army must have attacked Yuliangzhou first, and then used Yuliangzhou as a springboard to launch an attack on the south bank of the Hanshui River.

In the Chinese army's tent, Li Ye convened important generals to discuss the defense strategy of the Han River. Li Ye slowly said to everyone: I know that everyone is very concerned about Yan's porcelain ball fire thunder. I am familiar with this weapon. It was invented by Feilong. Yes, it was discovered by Taoist priests in alchemy. Its raw materials are saltpeter and sulfur. It can burn when exposed to fire. It can explode when burned in a porcelain bottle. It can be called porcelain fire thunder. In fact, I am also making this kind of gunpowder. Unfortunately, there are no saltpeter mines here in Jingxiang, but there are in Bashu, and I have sent people to Bashu to buy them.

General Zhenfeng raised his hand and said: Jiedu Envoy, it is said that a porcelain fire thunder exploded and killed twenty-three soldiers. Is it true?

Li Ye said calmly: What General Yu said is true. It is true that a porcelain fire thunder exploded and killed twenty-three soldiers, but there is no need to be afraid. These twenty-three soldiers died of poisoning. They were all tempered. He was hit multiple times by poisonous iron nails, which has nothing to do with the porcelain fire thunder itself.

Just like when we shoot people with poisoned arrows, the enemy can be poisoned and die. In the same way, if there are no poisoned iron nails and the light porcelain fire thunder explodes, no one will die. At most, he will be slightly injured. The power of thunder is actually very small, so there is nothing to worry about.

Li Baozhen asked: Excuse me, Jiedushi, is there any way to prevent people from being hurt by poison-quenched iron nails?

Li Ye smiled and nodded, Of course there is a way. The simplest way is to lie down. When the enemy's porcelain fireball comes, lie down immediately and block your head with a shield, or hold your head with your hands, because iron nails are all Shooting upwards, unless it explodes close to your body, the poison-quenching iron nails will definitely not hurt you. We must convey my method to every soldier. After training a few more times, everyone will become proficient.

Everyone was talking about it. They didn't expect that the porcelain fire thunder defense method was so simple. Everyone took the reassurance and wanted to go back and convey it to the soldiers.

Li Ye smiled again and said to everyone: Let me boost everyone's confidence again. Our kerosene is actually more powerful than Yan Jun's fire thunder. The fire thunder is afraid of water and will be extinguished when it falls into the water. But our kerosene It can also burn on water, so they cannot use porcelain fire mines to defend the Han River, and I guess everyone will not have the chance to see the Yan army's porcelain fire mines.

Everyone laughed, Li Ye waved his hand and said: Let's not talk about porcelain fire thunder anymore, let's talk about the defense of Han River. The ships in Jiangbei and Dengzhou have been seized by us and moved to the south bank. Unless the Yan army transports ships from the Central Plains, but we It is believed that the Yan army is more likely to use skin rafts. These are Hu people's ships. The leaders of the Yan army are basically Hu people. They will definitely use skin rafts to cross the river. Therefore, we must carry out defense based on the characteristics of skin rafts and resolutely The enemy troops were wiped out on the Han River.

Military Advisor Li Bi said slowly: We also need to consider another possibility. The Yan army will choose other places to cross the river, such as Gucheng County in the west, Ledao County in the south, etc. How should we deal with this situation?

Pei Xiu raised his hand and said: I think we can build two fast cavalry, one stationed in Gucheng and one stationed in Ledao County, each with about 5,000 people. Once the enemy is found crossing the river, they will rush over immediately. , carried out a half-crossing attack on the enemy, and also deployed some naval forces and swordfish in these two counties.

Li Bi smiled and said: General Pei's idea coincides with mine. I also suggested deploying troops in these two counties. But the question is, how to find the enemy crossing the river?

Li Ye smiled slightly and said, The military advisor must have a good idea. Why don't the military advisor tell us about it?

Everyone said: Military advisor, just tell me directly!

Li Mi nodded and said: The ancients used beacon fire to call the police. We don't need to build beacons, but set up mobile scouts. They are set up on the south bank and the north bank. Dozens of groups can be set up. Each group has its own patrol range. The navy can also Patrol the river, and once we discover that the enemy is trying to cross the river, we will immediately fire rockets, and we will also fire rockets from the south bank to notify the cavalry and navy.

Li Ye really admired that this was actually a very effective tactical strategy to establish a defense system.

I agree with the military advisor's plan. Is there anything else you can add?