It is said that Renzong Zhao Zhen and the important ministers who went with them saw the huge power of the artillery, and their hearts were suddenly settled.

In the early morning of the next day, Zhao Zhen's attitude towards the rebellion of the Great Liao in the south suddenly hardened, he refused to negotiate peace, and ordered to increase the troops to the Song-Liao border on the Hebei Road, and resolutely countered the provocation and blackmail of the Great Liao; At the same time, the northwest border was also ordered to strengthen vigilance to prevent the Western Xia from taking advantage of the opportunity to sneak attack.

However, many important ministers in the Great Song Dynasty held opposing views, that is, they wanted to persuade Zhao Zhen to give up the idea of facing the war, and send people to negotiate peace with the Great Liao, so as to avoid the rekindling of war between the Song and Liao as much as possible.

At this time, Lu Yijian, the affairs of Tongping Zhangshi, stepped forward and said: "Official, Weichen has received the news that the Great Liao delegation has entered the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, and it will be able to reach Tokyo in ten days. ”

Kou Zhun retorted: "Lu Xiang, we can't passively wait for the arrival of the Liao envoy without taking precautions; The peace talks are not that the Great Song Dynasty was led by the nose of the Great Liao, and it is not "to do the best of the material resources of the Great Song Dynasty and form a friendship with the Liao State," peace has never been achieved by playing lip service, it is really won from war. ”

He also said: "If the Liao army dares to attack, the Great Song Dynasty will fight hard, and the better the Great Song soldiers fight on the front line, we will stand up in the peace talks and try our best to safeguard the national interests of the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Meng Ming came out at this time and said:

"The official family, Weichen has three assertions about the southern invasion of the Great Liao:

First, Liao is now a paper tiger, strong outside and capable in the middle, and his domestic anti-war voice is very loud;

Second, Da Liao is of course very arrogant, and he will not be unreasonable when he can be unreasonable, if he is reasonable, he must be beaten and forced to do so; ”

Third, what can be conceived or cannot be refused, see the right time to concede, when the great Liao is unreasonable, can not give in, when bluffing, when it does not work, must be able to reverse the situation. ”

Meng Ming added:

There is a saying: "Fight with one punch, lest a hundred punches come." To stop the war with war, we cannot sit idly by.

Under weak conditions, a strong counterattack will be carried out to defeat the enemy, ensure national security, concentrate superior forces, and focus on breaking through the deadlock. If the enemy's means of attack pose a real threat to the other side, it will have a deterrent effect and arouse the attention of the other side, and the other side will not dare to easily fight back.

Otherwise, a painless attack will only lead to the opponent's intensified counterattack, so the strategic idea of stopping the war with war is proposed. ”

At this time, the privy envoy Xue Kui came out and said: "Master Meng said okay, good one" and beat it with one punch, so as not to come with a hundred punches. "That's a brilliant statement. Weichen agrees with the views of Bachelor Kou and Bachelor Meng, for Da Liao to dare to attack, it must be beaten and made to feel that "the tiger's ass can't be touched", only after making it pay a heavy price, Da Liao will have a long memory. ”

At this time, the voice of the main battle in the court prevailed, Zhao Zhen suddenly became emotional, and after discussing with the Queen Mother, he ordered an additional 100,000 troops to the Song-Liao border, and sent the privy deputy envoy Zhang Dexiang to supervise the army.

At this time, Qian Weiyan, the governor of the political affairs, suddenly said forward: "Official, Weichen has a proposal, now that the new army has been formed and trained for a long time, let the new army rush to the front line and accept the baptism of war, it will become a real force." ”

When Meng Ming heard this, he immediately felt that Qian Weiyan had ill intentions and wanted to use the new army, because the new army had just passed the military training period, and it was a group of recruits who had not seen blood, and let them go to the battlefield at this time, undoubtedly wanting the new army to go to the battlefield and die.

The privy envoy Xue Kui also saw Qian Weiyan's sinister intentions, and just wanted to open his mouth to object, he saw Meng Ming glaring at him frequently, so he swallowed the words back into his stomach.

After all, there was constant opposition from the top and bottom of the court to the formation and training of the new army and the improvement of the status of the soldiers, and the new army must show its strong combat strength as soon as possible and prove its strength to live up to high expectations, so as to dispel the fierce opposition and win the respect and different views of the people of the world for the soldiers.

Yang Wenguang also participated in this early dynasty at this time, and he was standing by Meng Ming's side, Meng Ming also saw his sad face, and also knew his worries.

Meng Ming whispered comfortingly: "Brother Zhongrong, we are ready to send arrows, after all, those old stubborns are a thorn in the flesh of our new army, and we want to get rid of them quickly; Therefore, our new army must meet the challenge, play the majesty of the new army, and respond to these old stubborn slaps in the face. ”

Yang Wenguang also knew that Qian Wei was playing Yangmou, so he could only obediently jump into the pit, and he couldn't retreat.

Yang Wenguang came out of the ranks, and then he half-knelt on the ground, clasped his hands into fists, and gave a military salute to Zhao Zhen.

I heard him say in a loud voice: "Official, the last general has come to ask for war for the new army, and the new army will definitely "come as soon as it is called, be able to fight, and win the battle." ”

Zhao Zhen could only respond at this time, and in accordance with the new military system, he awarded Major General Yang Wenguang the title of division commander and Major General Meng Ming the title of division political commissar.

At present, the strength of a division of the New Army is 12,000 people, and this time Meng Ming added a brigade to the establishment of the New Army.

The number of troops at all levels is as follows: a squad is ten to twelve; A platoon is three squads of thirty to forty people; a company of three platoons, ninety to one hundred and twenty people; Two hundred and seventy to three hundred men in three companies of one battalion, nine hundred to one thousand men in three battalions of one regiment; There are 3,000 to 4,000 men in one brigade and three regiments, and 10,000 to 12,000 men in three brigades in one division.

At this time, the new army had just recruited 6,000 recruits, and had just reached half of the number of its division, when Meng Mingzuo asked Zhao Zhen to allow him to draw elite forces from the cadets of the Royal Military Academy to serve in the new army.

Among them, Guo Zun and Li Zhaoliang were awarded the post of colonel brigade commander, and Di Qing, Chong Huichang, Cao Ning, Gao Wenhuan, Shi Yanbin and others were awarded the post of colonel and regiment commander.

At this time, Meng Ming and Yang Wenguang were discussing the matter of the new army opening the front line, and the two estimated that it would take about 20 days for the new army to travel from Tokyo to the front line, and an hour was set aside during this time to train the new officers and men in war knowledge, especially in the discipline of the army.

The army was opened, Meng Ming also went with injuries, Zhang Miaoniang dressed up in disguise, and also followed him to the battlefield, guarding the left and right, and also taking care of his diet and daily life.

The Forces nouvelles were each issued with improved flintlock pistols, and each of them carried 200 rounds of ammunition at any given time; In addition, Meng Ming also set up an artillery battalion with a total of 30 howitzers.

Originally, Meng Ming was not going to sacrifice the big killing weapon of artillery, this was his backhand for the pacification of Western Xia and the capture of Youyun, and he wanted to rely on this battle to settle the situation. But he was forced by the situation and had to save his life.

Eighteen days later, the new army arrived at the front line, and Chong Shiheng also rushed to the new army when he heard the news, and arranged the new army in a small mountain pass, which belonged to the Taihang Mountains, fifteen miles away from the border line, and was at the back of the defense line.

Chong Shiheng was also kind, he knew that the new army had not yet formed a combat force, so he was sent to the front line to die, so he secretly protected them.

There is a winding path in the mountain pass, which is a hidden path to the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, and when the Great Liao invaded the south in the past, a small number of Liao troops would also invade the territory of the Great Song Dynasty along this trail.

Meng Ming asked the new army to set up camp along the rational terrain, and there was a mountain spring not far from the camp, the water was clear and sweet, and the water was abundant, which could meet the food and drink of the army.

The 30,000 Pi Room Army and the 5,000 Wuding Army of the Great Liao were already stationed fifteen miles away from the Song Realm, and the camp of the Liao army was a large area of black oppression, stretching for several miles.

Their camp is the most common wooden shed camp, where the enemy situation is urgent or the terrain is not conducive to building a city and digging a trench, as long as there are trees, you can cut down trees and erect fences, because digging small pits in the ground that can stand trees, building simple lookout posts, etc., is much easier than building a city or digging a trench, and more importantly, it can quickly form a camp.

Moreover, they looked down on the weak Song army in their hearts, so the camp layout was simple and the defense was not tight, but they thought that the Song army would not dare to come.

There is a small village not far from the foot of the mountain where the new army is stationed, there are only about 20 families, most of them are hunting for a living, this village is no longer human, they may also think that the Song Liao war is about to start, so they hide in the mountains with their families.

On this trail where the new army was stationed, there were still chariots and horses passing by, and most of them were caravans. At that time, the Song-Liao border was already in a very high state of combat readiness, so it was indispensable to check these caravans to see if there were any Liao spies in them.

At this time, a huge caravan came, and there were more than 30 carriages, and I saw the carriage slowly passing by, the sound was lonely and monotonous, and the horses pulling the carriage were all jujube horses, handsome and strong, and the horses' hooves knocked on the ground, splashing bursts of sand mist.

One of the carriages is particularly prominent, its carriage is decorated with simple and elegant, it should be the carriage of the caravan principal, and I saw a long pole on the top of the carriage, and a signboard was hung on the pole, with red characters on a black background, and the words "Cao Family" were written on it.

After a while, the convoy arrived at the barricade set up by the new army, and saw an old man in Chinese clothes coming over, so I heard him say: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are the caravan of Wang Cao's family in Jiyang County, Tokyo, please raise your noble hand and let us pass back to China." ”

Meng Ming also arrived at the scene at this time, and he asked: "You said that you are a member of the Cao family in Tokyo, but you have a certificate, of course, even if you have a certificate, you have to check it as a rule, now is the time when the Liao and Song Dynasty wars are about to start, and you must strictly investigate to prevent the infiltration of the Great Liao spies." ”

When the old man heard the sound, he looked at Meng Ming, and saw that his face was happy, and he hurriedly stepped forward to greet him.

I heard it and said: "It turned out to be Meng Ju Ma Ye, Xiao Lao'er is Cao Linshou, the third housekeeper of Cao Mansion, I have seen you in the mansion before, my Cao family's caravan is rushing back to Tokyo from Daliao Shangjing, this is my voucher and the guide of the business." ”

After hearing this, Meng Ming hurriedly took the relevant procedures and examined them carefully, and after some inspection and verification, it was determined that these procedures were true, legal, and effective, and the soldiers who inspected the goods did not find any abnormalities or prohibited items, and then let them go on the spot.