Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

On the Guijiang River, the green ink landscape is quiet, and the reflection of the boats in the mirror-like water is so clear that it seems like a fairyland and not like the world.

But at this time, the filthy orange flames, black and thick smoke rising, suddenly burst, a huge roar reverberated in the mountains, the verdant rivers and mountains were dyed red by the flames of war, and the birds and beasts in the mountains took off and ran in panic under the artillery fire.

Large flocks of birds move like black clouds among the cliffs by the river.

On the surface of the river, the calm water surface like glass was instantly shattered by the howling shells, splashing everywhere, and bursting apart in an instant.

It was not only the calm river that exploded, but also the ships of the Southern Han Dynasty headed north.

Thirty miles away from Guizhou on the river, the Qin army encountered the Southern Han Fleet going north to block it.

They don't have many ships, far less than the scale of the Qin army, but the battle on the river is different from that on land. The width of the battlefield is limited, and it is difficult to launch with more troops.

In the south against the north, the navy is always the best chance of winning, but this time it is quite different.

The Qin army's vanguard gunboats began to dispatch, and the hundreds of meters of the river made it easy for the gunboats to deploy.

Before the warships of the Southern Han Dynasty approached, hundreds of artillery began to roar...

On the big river, the roaring shells are hard to catch with the naked eye, and only black light and shadow can be vaguely seen across the water and mountains.

Those wooden warships, with their tall masts and thick decks, exploded instantly like a watermelon hit by a heavy hammer, and red flesh flew along with the debris.

Hundreds of artillery roared and opened fire on the river, and the calm river allowed the gunners of the Shenhuo Army to show off their skills, far less than the bumps they experienced when they were training in the Huaihe River.

However, the blocking navy of the Southern Han Dynasty was passively beaten in panic and bewilderment. The two armies were separated by about two miles. They did not expect the attack to come so suddenly and horribly.

The dozen or so large ships in front were riddled with holes and leaked everywhere before they approached.

They didn't know what they were facing at all, and they didn't understand what the situation was, but many people were terrified and watched in horror as the indestructible warship was smashed into powder in an instant.

The topless sailor holding a steel knife on the bow watched in horror as his colleagues around him instantly turned into two pieces, and his upper body could not be found at all.

The scene was horrifying, the exploded hull made a horrible creaking sound, and the huge impact caused the ship to shake violently on the river surface, making it unsteady at all, and many soldiers jumped into the river in panic.

They never imagined such a scene.

Soon, the ships of the Southern Han Army began to turn around in horror and prepare to flee south. When this happened, they exposed a wider side to the Qin Army, neighing, shattering, and gradually tilting under the rain of shells... .....

The big boat that could still be supported, after the sideboard was exposed, instantly turned into a lone boat on the river full of holes, crumbling.

Thick smoke, flames, wailing, flickering flames, and thunderous roar echoed among the green waters and green mountains without stopping for a long time. The smell of gunpowder smoke and sulfur filled the valley, and the blue smoke settled on the surface of the river. As the war continued, huge The cannon roared, and more and more ships loomed.

Half an hour later, the artillery fire gradually subsided, and the battle had become a head-on confrontation, turning into a pursuit by the Qin army's ships.

Guo Ting said he was standing at the bow of the boat, the gunpowder smoke in the distance hadn't dissipated, blocking his vision, the originally clear river was now full of wreckage, fire, corpses and blood everywhere.

a mess.

The strange and handsome landscape is stained with blood, and it looks like a dilapidated scene.

Guo Tingwei didn't have time to regret, he couldn't help laughing, not only because of this victory, he happily pointed to the wreckage on the river more than 100 steps ahead, and said excitedly: "Did you see it?" That's the place where the bandits are closest to us, and their most fearless collision with a ship is only there!"

Everyone grinned. Most of them were originally from the Shu Kingdom, the generals of the Jiangnan navy, who surrendered after Hou Zhou occupied Huainan.

Most of them are well versed in water warfare, which is why they are reused by officials, but they have never fought such water warfare in their life!

The battleship with hundreds of bandits could not get close, the two sides hadn't joined the ship, and the bandits' bows and crossbows hadn't fired many arrows, and they were completely defeated!

......

There was no suspense in the subsequent war. The army that took advantage of the victory and went down the river was heavily surrounded in the evening, and then hundreds of cannons began to bombard the water army camp.

Faced with this unheard of and unprecedented attack, the water village defenders quickly collapsed. Half an hour after the shelling, all the defenders in the huge Jingjiang water village in the northeast of Guizhou City ran and surrendered.

When it was getting dark, the follow-up large transport ships approached the water village under the cover of gunboats, and sent a large number of infantry to board the water village through the Nanhan military port, with little resistance.

Even if there is a defeat on the front line, it is normal for the morale to collapse in the rear. However, such a smooth flow still made the cautious Guo Tingwei and Si Chao suspect that the Southern Han navy was deceitful. Formerly controlled and occupied the water village that had been battered by artillery, and detained a large number of surrendered soldiers.

Only then did we know the reason why the Southern Han navy surrendered so quickly. The most important thing was that the blocking fleet in front was defeated, and the governor of Guizhou immediately took his family by boat and ran south to Panyu.

As the largest tributary of the Pearl River, the Guijiang River can go directly to Panyu, which is convenient for foreign enemies to attack, and it is also convenient for one's own people to escape.

The coach ran away, and the soldiers below had no intention of fighting.

The second is that the Southern Han Dynasty was particularly superstitious, and it was heavy on ghosts and gods. The emperor recognized witches as godmothers. One can imagine the atmosphere. Facing the artillery of the Qin army, many soldiers of the Southern Han Dynasty would He actually thought that Qin Jun was blessed by God, and asked Thor to descend to the earth. He has supernatural power and can't fight at all, so he might as well surrender.

Even many generals and soldiers firmly believed in it. After seeing the Qin army landed, they knelt and worshiped, shouting that the gods came to the world, begging for mercy.

This situation was also unexpected, Guo Tingwei and Si Chao couldn't laugh or cry, they could only say that Liu Wei dug his own grave, he was a king who took the lead and believed in ghosts and gods, and the people's army followed suit.

That night, the Qin Army navy moved forward to occupy Jingjiang Dazhai and seized more than 400 warships. In fact, there were more ships in the military port, but many were damaged by artillery fire.

This shocked the Qin army. There should have been more than 1000 warships in the military port at the time, but only a few hundred warships went to meet them, and it was useless to park more directly in the military port.

This situation also refreshed their cognition. They only found out after asking the generals of the Southern Han Dynasty that because of the complicated situation, the local governor could not command the local army. Only a few thousand people met them.

By the next day, the defenders of Guizhou in the south had surrendered and led the generals and officials out of the city to welcome the king into Guizhou.

After entering Guizhou, both Guo Tingwei and Si Chao felt that the battle was like a dream, it was that simple?The most severe disease in the northern part of the Southern Han Dynasty, the legendary Jingjiang Military Town, with [-] soldiers and [-] warships, was taken down just like that!

You must know that such important towns are often very difficult to attack. At the beginning of Shouzhou, there were only a few thousand defenders, and a [-] army besieged the city for more than a year. Back in Taiyuan, Zhou Shizong's [-] army could not attack the city for a long time, and the casualties were heavy. Unwilling to withdraw troops.

They are all ready to fight a fierce battle here, vowing to defeat the largest military group in the north of the Southern Han Dynasty, but they did not expect the gap to be so huge.

However, regardless of the gap or not, this is a great achievement, and it also means that Jingjiang Junzhen, the biggest obstacle on the route of the West Route Army, has disappeared so easily, and the battle has gone too smoothly!

After the two discussed it, they immediately sent people to report the victory, and then prepared to rest and reorganize the navy, contact the East Route Army, and go down the south of the Guangxi River in one go, heading straight to Panyu.

Chapter 421, Front and Rear

Shi Congyun was very comfortable in Wei Palace, and Fu Da and Fu Er, the sisters, had a completely different experience.

The Empress Dowager Fu is very charming and sensible, but the second younger sister Fu, who is careless, is actually more shameless, but when the two sisters are together, it is another experience that makes his blood swell.

Before this time, Emperor Shi couldn't help but sigh, it's so cool to be the emperor.

The empress dowager's thighs were pillowed and soft. The reason why he was so relaxed and comfortable was of course that something happy happened to him.

In late April, when the battle report from the front arrived in Daliang, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty rejoiced, and Shi Congyun was also very happy. After thinking about it, I can only use one word to describe it, that is-two blossoms!

This time, the south of the Five Ridges is going east and west, and two roads are blooming!

It is quite different from the original attack on Shu. At the beginning, the attack on Shu also advanced in two ways, but the North Route Army marched smoothly, but the East Route Army fought a tough battle and failed to advance in parallel.

This time it was almost at the same time. The battle report of the East Route Army entering Hezhou was sent to his desk after dinner that day. He was not happy for a long time. The next morning, the West Route Army sent an urgent report, breaking Jingjiang Town and entering Guangxi. State.

Double happiness came to the door, excited Shi Congyun hugged Empress Fu and pecked, which made a group of old officials blush.

A few direct ministers headed by Fan Zhi and Dou Yi also criticized him. Emperor Shi was very happy and didn't bother to argue with them, and they all said they knew it.

After reading the detailed battle report, Shi Congyun was also very moved. Often times it is not how good they are, but how good the opponent is. Most of the great achievements in history are like this, but the positive is against the negative, and the freshman is against the Decaying, the advanced against the backward, the result must be like a miracle.

Generally speaking, one of the meanings of multi-pronged marching is to prevent an unfavorable stalemate in a certain war, and there are still opportunities elsewhere. However, the blossoming of these two roads really made Emperor Shi a little embarrassed. Where did he think hard, and why did he go two ways at the same time, just go directly to A and it would be over.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong with being cautious.

There is a saying in Sun Tzu's Art of War that you can't win by yourself, but you can win by the enemy. Now that I think about it, I really have a subtle feeling.

The battle ahead is still going on, but Shi Congyun is much more relieved. He won Hezhou and Guizhou, and the east and west are wide open.

In the east, you can go directly to Guangzhou through Shaozhou, and in the west, the Guijiang River is a first-class tributary of the Pearl River. The navy only needs to go down the river, and it will soon reach the capital Panyu.

Judging from the fighting power displayed by the Southern Han army before, it was very difficult for them to block it.

Emperor Shi put down a lot of heart. If it wasn't for the war that was still going on, he could hardly wait to live the life of Jiuchi Roulin.

.........

At the beginning of May, battle reports came one after another, and the two armies headed south one after another.

The west route captured Zhaozhou in early May, and the east route captured Lianzhou at the end of April.

The Southern Han army also took action in the follow-up.

According to Pan Mei's information, Li Chengwo, the governor of the Southern Han Dynasty, has led the follow-up army to assemble near the Lianhua Peak in Shaozhou, preparing to meet their army.

Shaozhou is the descendant of Shaoguan, which is the main route to the south. If the Qin army can't be stopped, the south will be the Gwangju Plain. Once the northern field army enters such a plain, the Southern Han Dynasty has almost no possibility of counterattack.

It is wise for them to make a move to guard Shaozhou with heavy troops.

Pan Mei said that they captured the prisoners of the Southern Han Dynasty and claimed that there were 10,000+ troops near Shaozhou, which he found unbelievable.

Shi Congyun also felt that it was not credible. Unless the support staff were also counted, there could not be 10,000+.

Pan Mei analyzed the pros and cons, and believed that the victory was assured. If the East Route Army went to attack Li Chengwo, the worst case would be a stalemate there. Moreover, he was very confident in defeating the enemy. You can also take advantage of the concentration of troops on the Eastern Front and drive straight in.

Seeing that he was full of confidence, Shi Congyun wrote back and asked him to make his own decision, leaving all the southern front war to Pan Mei. Guo Ting said that Si Chao, Liu Renshan and others were going to live a corrupt life like an emperor.

Speaking of which, since he became the emperor, he hasn't really enjoyed the emperor's blessings seriously. He is either fighting or preparing for war.

It's time to reward himself. Emperor Shi is very happy to prepare a talent show in the autumn, and choose beautiful women from all over the world to enrich his harem. He has long wanted to do this, but he has been holding back until now.

It's refreshing to think about it, let him choose the beauties in the world, how cool it would be, that's not 180 grades higher than Haitian, it's exciting.

But in May, one thing disrupted Emperor Shi's beauty pageant plan, and that was the flooding of the Yellow River.

The period of the Five Dynasties was a period of high incidence of floods, and there were also natural disasters. Another important reason is that there is no bottom line in the wars of various countries, especially the competition in the Central Plains and Hebei. In the Houliang, Later Tang, Later Han, and Later Jin, several embankments were artificially broken due to wars, resulting in countless people being killed. The living people were displaced and suffered unspeakably.

Afterwards, there were also sequelae, that is, the Yellow River was more likely to break its embankment and divert its course, and there would be floods at every turn.

Of course, Qingming politics is always the best guarantee against disasters. According to historical records, there were more natural disasters in the early Tang Dynasty than in the Five Dynasties. However, because of the clear politics and favorable national organization, it is far from the disasters that would cause casualties as soon as the Five Dynasties. Numerous people are displaced, disaster victims are everywhere, and people compete for food.

In the later Zhou Dynasty, several disasters occurred in the past few years until the Qin Dynasty, which were effectively contained and did not cause large-scale casualties.

The south is still fighting, and at this time, you can go back without any problems, so Emperor Shi can only put his harem beauty pageant plan on hold temporarily, and instead devote himself to the work of fighting floods and disaster relief. To show his importance, Emperor Shi personally went to Several states and counties on the front line went to direct the work.

Of course, he didn't dare to move too far, for fear of the plague.

Emperor Shi was clear-headed, he was still fighting ahead, and was victorious. Especially at this moment, no accidents could happen in the rear, no matter what.

So he sat in the township personally, afraid that the officials in the middle would cheat and exploit them, and cause something to happen. If in the past, they could settle accounts later in the autumn, they would investigate again when something happened, but now nothing can happen.

He was already used to running around outside. Anyway, he was a person who came from the war, so the fatigue was nothing.

In late May, the torrential rains became heavier and the water shortage became more serious. Several prefectures and counties along the Yellow River were flooded. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, thousands of people died, and countless people went missing.

Fortunately, food and supplies were mobilized from the surrounding area to temporarily allow the victims to survive.

The fact that Emperor Shi was on the front line made officials dare not be lazy, and a large number of auxiliary soldiers and township soldiers were mobilized urgently, and they were sent to the disaster area to maintain order and rescue the people.

However, these big soldiers are not the People's Liberation Army of later generations, and if they are not careful, they will cause incidents of extortion and mutilation of the victims. Shi Congyun issued a strict order, beheading more than a dozen thorns in succession before suppressing them.

If he didn't dare to do this before, if it was the late Tang and Five Dynasties, the generals who dared to do this would probably be turned against by their soldiers, but now the times are different. The emperor has great prestige among the people. The behavior of the emperor, the behavior of the court, is in stark contrast to the behavior of others in the previous hundred years.

The disaster victims supported the imperial court and listened to the orders, which made the disaster relief work smoother than expected.

At the same time as disaster relief, battle reports of southern victories continued to come in, which greatly boosted the morale of the army and the people. Generally speaking, natural disasters were terrible, but they were not comparable to the man-made disasters caused by various warlords and princes since the end of Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.

By the beginning of June, the rain gradually became lighter, most of the victims were arranged properly, the prestige of the imperial court became higher and higher, and the situation gradually improved.

In the south, Pan Mei also came to give a memorial. They have already reached eighty miles north of Lianhua Mountain, and they are ready to start a battle with the active main force of the Southern Han Kingdom...

Chapter 422, Powerless

Generally speaking, a huge mountain will have a sunny side and a sunny side.

In Shi Congyun's memory, when he was a child, adults called the side facing the sun the front mountain and the side facing the sun the back mountain.

The back mountain is rich in water sources, the soil is soft and fertile, mostly black soil, and the trees are tall and lush, mostly broad-leaved forests.

However, the back mountain is generally not chosen for camping. Even if the water source is very important, the short light time is very fatal, especially during the peak period of torrents and mudslides in May and June, camping in the back mountain is very dangerous.

The front mountain is mostly as it is in front of you, with low and sparse trees, dry land, scarce river water, and is not prone to landslides, mudslides and other disasters, so it is a suitable place to camp.

However, when camping in the front mountain, the water source must be paid attention to.

Days of torrential rain turned the hard soil slope into mud, which became more slushy and sticky after being stirred by soldiers, officials, and victims of the disaster. After being exposed to the sun, the surface of the red soil suddenly became sticky and slippery, as if smeared with lard. If you don't pay attention, you will slip and fall, and it will be fatal if you are on a steep mountain road.

These have all become huge obstacles to disaster relief.

The mountain on the opposite side is even more devastated, yellow and green, with mud and rocks rolling down from time to time, making horrible crackling noises, like a watermelon with rotten skin, large-scale landslides, mudslides exposed soil and rocks, and large areas of red Huang Dadi was turned upside down.

Most of the villages on the mountain have been destroyed. In the face of nature, human creations are so fragile that they can be easily destroyed.

The sound of the rumbling river can still be heard in the valley below, and the huge sound echoes on both sides, and it can be heard clearly on the mountain.

The heavy rain has ended for two days and the sky has cleared up, but the flood has no sign of abating in the slightest. The original stone bridge on the river has been completely washed away, and many people along the coast have been washed away, and there is a high probability that the bodies will not be found.

After the army arrived, they built two temporary bridges by the river to ensure that the supplies could be transported. Most of the people in the front mountain were not affected by the heavy rain, but the disaster in the back mountain was very serious. Two villages were even completely destroyed by landslides and mudslides. Almost all the people's bones are gone.

The surviving people were concentrated in the highlands of Qianshan, where Shi Congyun’s camp was also located. The corpses were piled up on the top of the mountain to prevent the water from washing them away, but it is not a long-term solution for the people to live with the corpses.

In order to prevent the plague from causing more chain disasters, Shi Congyun ordered all the corpses to be burned on the spot under the pressure and the people's cries and pleadings.