Baimadu is located about 70 miles west of Xiangyang City, but this 70 miles is not a straight line distance, nor a river distance, but a winding road distance.

The beach at Baimadu is very large, but the terrain has clear boundaries.

On the south bank of the Han River, in the upstream area next to Baima Ferry, there is a large area of ​​hills with twists and turns like a labyrinth, and most of the mountains near the river follow the trend of the river.

Although the mountains along the river are not very high, only about 100 meters on average, they are also steep and difficult to navigate, making crossing the river a difficult and difficult task.

Baimadu and the lower reaches are completely different, approximately flat, but with more trees and vegetation.

The Han River near Baimadu is very wide, almost 2,000 meters long, but most of the river is densely covered with shoals and sandbars. Only a small part of the river not far from the south bank is slightly deeper, but it is still deeper than Sheepskin Beach.

shallow.

However, the deepest area where people can pass through is mainly concentrated in the mountains on the west side of Baimadu. The area directly opposite Baimadu and the downstream area on the east side is only four to five hundred meters that can be waded through. Further downstream, it suddenly becomes deeper.

It drowned people.

Although the river is indeed a bit shallow, Baima Ferry used to be a ferry, a ferry crossing for boats, not a place for people to wade across the river.

There will be such extremely low water levels.

The lack of water in winter is only a small reason, but more importantly, it is caused by severe droughts in recent years, which is an extreme situation created by the Little Glacier.

After all, this place is far away from Xiangfan and the location is relatively remote. Except for a small number of fishermen and a small number of nearby villagers, the average Xiangfan people really don’t know the current hydrological conditions of Baimadu.

After all, Baima Crossing is a place where people cross the river by boat, and most people would never expect that the water here would suddenly become so shallow.

Furthermore, most of the places where you can wade across the river face mountains, which is a dangerous place for soldiers. In addition, it is far away from Xiangyang, so Zuo Liangyu did not pay attention to it.

But Zuo Liangyu was very cautious and sent the exploration horses around here.

On the morning of the third day of the twelfth lunar month in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign in the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng's troops, who were responsible for attacking Fancheng, had to stop their exploratory attack after receiving a fierce firearm attack from Zuo Liangyu's defenders.

At this time, one of Li Zicheng's subordinates forwarded news from a fisherman that there was a shoal further to the west that was not guarded by the army, and that the water in the shoal here was very shallow on this winter day, even shallower than Sheepskin Shoal.

A large group of people can pass without boats at all.

It's just a bit far, a bit off the beaten track, and the road and terrain are not ideal. However, this fisherman knows the trails and can save a lot of time.

Li Zicheng immediately sent people to find more villagers who had defected to find out more, and soon obtained further evidence.

The main reason why the Peasant Army did not obtain this high-value information in a timely manner is that many villagers actually do not have access to senior figures in the Peasant Army, and it is even less possible for them to understand the Peasant Army's combat deployment, which often results in a delay in a lot of valuable information.

In addition, there are indeed not many people who know the water situation of Baima Crossing River, which further causes the delay of information.

After receiving this extremely valuable report, Li Zicheng decisively terminated the continued exploratory attack on Fancheng, although Luo Rucai's troops were conducting a raid on Sheepskin Beach and it was unclear whether they could succeed.

Although Fancheng was only an earthen city, the left army had many firearms and had been prepared for a long time. The effect of Li Zicheng's exploratory attack was very poor.

The difficulty of attacking Kaifeng and his experience in February when he defeated Zuo Liangyu and defended Licheng in Henan Province also made Li Zicheng not interested in storming a fortress, and it was not in line with his character.

Li Zicheng then resolutely turned his main force to the west, and at the same time sent reconnaissance cavalry to conduct sentinel inspections of Baima Crossing as soon as possible.

After receiving clear confirmation, Li Zicheng's cavalry began to gallop, and the infantry brigade also accelerated its pace.

And veteran Zuo Liangyu, who had long been keenly aware of the abnormality of the peasant army, was also unambiguous.

As soon as Li Zicheng's main force moved, Zuo Liangyu sent his deputy Wang Yuncheng to lead the cavalry left in Xiangyang to gallop towards Baimadu. At the same time, he ordered Prime Minister Hui Deng's troops who were on standby at the foot of Wanshan Mountain to provide support.

Outside Fancheng, there is a vast plain, and Zuo Liangyu climbs up to look at it. Li Zicheng's small number of troops is okay, but it is really impossible for the army to hide its traces, especially in order to save time, Li Zicheng's westward army cannot be too far away from the Han River.

Zuo Liangyu has been running Xiangyang for half a year, and this is not the first time he has come to Xiangyang. It is impossible for him not to know the situation at Baima Crossing. He also understands that Li Zicheng's entire army is unlikely to be moving just for small beaches such as Sheepskin Beach.

However, the reason why no troops were sent to defend Baima Crossing before was because Zuo Liangyu had never thought of defending Xiangyang, and believed that it was impossible to defend Xiangyang, so he had already prepared to run away.

Since we are planning to run away, we cannot involve a large number of troops at Baimadu.

Although the terrain is very favorable to the defenders, the water is too shallow, making it difficult to compete with land-based attacks and defenses, and it is useless without a small number of people.

The White Horse Crossing is too far away, and if a large force is thrown over it, it is very likely that it will be stuck and unable to escape.

Therefore, Zuo Liangyu only released exploration horses at Baima Crossing, and placed more hopes on the peasant army not being able to discover Baima Crossing for a while or never, and on his troops being able to do a good job in clearing out the wilderness.

The peasant army was intimidated by the mountains.

You must know that if the defenders defend at Baimadu Pingshan, the casualties of the attackers will be quite terrible.

But Zuo Liangyu didn't expect that Li Zicheng would discover it so quickly and that he really wasn't afraid of casualties.

After realizing that Li Zicheng might attack Baima Ferry, Zuo Liangyu hesitated.

It's really disappointing to give up this eternal fortress so easily.

And Zuo Liangyu found that he had missed one thing, that is, no matter what, he had to get through today.

Otherwise, once the peasant army attacks from Baimadu, Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River will be a dead city, and the peasant army will arrive at the foot of Xiangyang City this afternoon.

With Li Zicheng's fierceness, once Xiangyang is surrounded, no one can escape.

Therefore, Zuo Liangyu immediately left Fancheng to Xiangyang, and personally led the elite main force in Xiangyang to move westward to support.

If the peasant army rushes to the White Horse Ferry, he can quickly reach the battlefield; if it is for another ferry, it can also ensure effective reinforcements.

Instead of going along the river, firstly, the road conditions along the south bank of the Han River were not ideal; secondly, going along the river would take a lot of detours; thirdly, he was afraid that the peasant army would discover his military mobilization and change the main direction of attack again.

Therefore, Zuo Liangyu's army will not encounter Li Ping who is defending at Sheepskin Beach.

To ensure safety, Zuo Liangyu left his most trusted friends Fang Guoan and Chen Keli in Fancheng to take charge, and left his son Zuo Mengeng in Xiangyang City to take charge, and sent his most trusted old subordinate Wang Yuncheng to the vanguard.

Wang Yuncheng was from Liaodong, known as the "King of Iron Cavalry", and was Zuo Liangyu's loyal subordinate.

The elite main force led by Zuo Liangyu was mainly composed of direct members of the headquarters controlled by Zuo Menggen, because at this time it was too late to mobilize the troops in Fan City.

What's more important is that the fleet has already withdrawn, and there are not many ships on the Han River for the troops in Fancheng to quickly cross the river to the south bank, and time does not allow it.

Therefore, Zhao Jin's soldiers and horses, who had been in Xiangyang, naturally followed Zuo Liangyu out of the city.

There are about 3,000 troops entering and exiting the city from Zhao (all are adult male soldiers, the old, weak, women and children have stayed in the city), of which about 1,200 are directly under Zhao Jin (his service camp has not been moved), and about 900 are under Shi Ming's direct command.

Wang Chengwu has about 400 people.

Li Shengcai has the smallest number, with only about 200 people.

Liu Shixiong did not go out with the army, but stayed in the city with his wife Zhao Meiling to take care of everyone's property, women and children (at Zhao Meiling's strong request).

Zhao Jin's troops, who received the urgent order and had already prepared for battle as required, set out just after noon and hurried all the way until they arrived near Baimadu at Shenshi time (15:00 to 17:00), falling behind on the way.

There were five to six hundred people, including Li Shengcai.

It was said to be 70 miles, but after taking many small roads, I estimated that the actual distance was only about 25 kilometers.

This is equivalent to a speed of about eight kilometers per hour.

Although it was lower than the standard of 10 kilometers per hour for emergency marches in later generations, considering the training time of Zhao Jin's troops and the physical fitness of the soldiers, this speed was actually not low.

Moreover, a continuous three-hour forced march basically reached the physical limit of ordinary people, and it also put a greater test on the willpower of the troops.

Zhao Jin's troops were the first infantry to arrive at Baimadu, except for Prime Minister Hui Deng's infantry. This had a lot to do with their good leggings and relatively strict training.

Of course, Zhao Jin's rich personal experience is also important.

A few miles behind Zhao Jin, there was a sparse infantry force of tens of thousands of Zuo Liangyu. Zuo Liangyu basically mobilized all the elite and close forces in Xiangyang City.

"General Zhao's troops are about to arrive." A soldier reminded Zuo Liangyu.

"It's really fast. This Zhao Jin is interesting." Deputy General Wang Yuncheng shouted again.

Zuo Liangyu, who was standing on the mountain and being defended by all the troops, retracted his gaze to the north and looked eastward again like everyone else.

They had been keeping an eye on when the infantry group would arrive.

Zuo Liangyu, who arrived ahead of schedule in the second half of the journey, could easily see the main force of the infantry forming a very long line on the mountain about 100 meters away. He could also distinguish Zhao Jin's troops who were always at the front.

, even these infantry often have to walk through the woods.

Moreover, since Zuo Liangyu had been with the main force of the infantry in the first half of the journey, Zhao Jinbu's training advantages had already been more intuitively displayed in front of his eyes.

"The flag has not fallen, the army is not in chaos, and the drills are quite good." Prime Minister Hui Deng next to Zuo Liangyu said after taking a few glances.

Since Zhao Jin was very close to Baima Crossing, Prime Minister Hui Deng, who saw Zhao Jin's troops marching for the first time, could already see clearly.

"Well, there are some rules." Zuo Liangyu nodded and said.

Zuo Liangyu dared to cross his main force in advance precisely because Hui Dengxiang's infantry, which had a distance advantage, arrived at Baima Cross early and established a basic line of defense.

"Liang Bi, quickly collect all the infantry at the foot of your mountain from the ferry, and secure this area of ​​the mountain to prevent the intruders from taking risks and attacking from the river below the mountain. After all, the river there is shallower, and there are still many obstacles close to us.

There are large sandbanks where a large number of troops can be gathered, and it is hard to say whether the intruders will select elite troops from further west to attack them, as they are cunning by nature!" Zuo Liangyu suddenly said after pondering for a while.

"Isn't this... no longer waiting?"

Prime Minister Hui Deng was stunned for a moment. Liangbi was his nickname.

"We need to hurry up. The rebel infantry is about to arrive. The mountain road is difficult to travel. If we are in danger, we may not be able to support them for a while. Zhao Jin's troops will arrive soon. There should be no serious problems at the ferry at the foot of the mountain. Besides, you and Le'an's cavalry are still there.

Here." Zuo Liangyu glanced at the north again and said.

Le'an is Wang Yuncheng's character.

"It's an order."

Prime Minister Huiden's eyes flickered for a moment, but he still clasped his fists and responded to the order.

…

Note:

Many historical records say that White Horse Crossing is 70 miles west of Xiangyang City (about 600 meters in Ming Dynasty). Zuo Liangyu used his height to attack Li Zicheng in the battle.

There are many place names related to Baima in Xiangyang, such as Baima Village, Baima Cave, Baima Temple, Baima Village, etc., but their locations are either not along the river, or their distance from Xiangyang is far different from what is recorded in the history books.

However, the distance mentioned in historical records may be the distance of big roads rather than straight lines. Zuo Liangyu's army may have taken some more labor-saving paths during the march, otherwise it would have been difficult for Zuo Liangyu to move his troops 70 miles in a short period of time and be severely undertrained.

It's impossible for the army to do it.

There is some information that Li Zicheng crossed the river at Baima Cave, although the distance is indeed much closer. However, the terrain near Baima Cave is too special. The large and small mountains around it coincide with the westernmost side of Wanshan, which is equivalent to closing the door.

The overall topography of the south bank of the Han River is very critical. If this place could easily cross the river without defense, it would go against basic common sense.

Due to the inability to conduct further research and not writing history, the description of Baima Crossing is based on the terrain near Baima Cave as a reference. The logic cannot stand up to scrutiny. Please do not take it seriously. After all, it is just a story.
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