The ant-like enemy army rushed up again, but Zhao Yu smiled after seeing it, not only did they move slowly, but they even flinched after hearing the sound of artillery again, but were disrupted by the scattered cavalry gathered on the left flank. Through many battles with the enemy Han army, even if he didn't get the information in advance, he knew that Longxing Wanhu Mansion was composed of new annexed troops, and he couldn't help but sigh that the Yuan Ting Han army was also a litter of weasels and rats.

Everyone knows how much the population of Mongolia is, even if Genghis Khan unified Mongolia with only a million people, it is inevitable that there will be deaths and injuries in successive battles. In the war against the Song Dynasty, the infantry of the Song army were passive and inferior to the cavalry of the northern nomads in the field, and they were even more inferior to the Mongolian iron cavalry, but how many Song people were there? How many Mongolian talents are there? Even with an exchange ratio of 10 or even 20 to one, the Mongol descendants of Temujin could not help but die!

Therefore, if the Mongols really had to rely on their iron cavalry to attack the Southern Song Dynasty, after more than 20 years of war, the Mongols would probably be extinct! On the battlefield of the Mongol-Song War, it was not the Mongol iron cavalry that really put the Song army in trouble, but the northern traitors who were driven by the Mongol iron cavalry, who accounted for a considerable proportion of the army of the Yuan Dynasty, except for the Mongol army and the Tanma Red army, and were in a pivotal position in the battle.

As early as the time of Genghis Khan, the Khitan, Jurchen and Han armies of the Dajin Kingdom were constantly attached to the Mongol Khanate, and the troops recruited in the newly conquered areas later became the Han army in a broad sense; Later, in the conquest, the Khitans lost a lot, so they had to supplement and expand from the Han people in the Central Plains. After Kublai Khan ascended the throne, he also signed nearly 200,000 troops from the Central Plains to supplement the Han army; At the time of the fall of the Song Dynasty, a large number of Song troops descended to the Yuan, which was called the New Attached Army or the New Attached Han Army and the Southern Army by the Yuan people.

Therefore, the composition of the Han army in the Yuan court was complex, with the Khitans being the main component, in addition to the Qi people, the Jurchens, the Han people in the back of the mountain, the Han people in the Central Plains and the Han people in the south. In the early days of the Mongol state, there was no distinction between the branches of the army, and the army was all cavalry. After being recruited to the Han army, there were infantry, and soon the craftsmen and soldiers who made and used siege artillery were concentrated, which was called the artillery army or the gunner army; Those who were skilled in water warfare in each army were also grouped together to form a navy or sailor army. After the entry into the Yuan Dynasty, the artillery army and the navy army were highly valued, especially the training and expansion of the navy army was included in the army development plan.

After the reunification of the whole country, the Yuan court reorganized the Han army and some of the Semu troops that were originally subordinate to the Mongol army, plus the newly attached soldiers who were divided into various armies, and set up nearly 100 Wanhu Mansions and Marshal's Mansions to take charge of these armies. In addition to equipping some 10,000 households with artillery and naval armies, special institutions such as the Artillery Sailor Marshal's Office, the Gunner Craftsman Man's Mansion and the Naval Army Marshal's Mansion were also set up. Most of these institutions and armies belong to the local town army system. Most of the gunners and craftsmen who were transferred to the capital were subordinate to the Ordnance Superintendent.

After recruiting a large number of newly attached soldiers, the Yuan court began to break up its original organizational system and divided it into the central guard army of the Yuan army and the local Zhenxu army; Or with Mongol, Han, and Nanren officers, establish a new military government, and manage the newly attached soldiers. Whenever a war broke out, the new soldiers from each army were always sent out to the army first, and the new soldiers who did not participate in the war had to be engaged in tuntian and work service. After years of war attrition and attrition, the number of new annexed armies was decreasing day by day, and a considerable number of new annexed armies were gradually consumed by the various military organizations and complicated wars of the Yuan court.

The north is the heart of Mongolia and has become the key garrison area of the Mongolian army and the Tanma Red army. After the death of the Song Dynasty, most of the Han troops who had a foothold in Jiangbei were stationed in various parts of Jiangnan, and only a few troops remained in Jiangbei. The south of the Huai River was mainly garrisoned by the Han army and the new attached army, and part of the Mongolian army and the Tanma Red army were deployed to monitor it. The border area was defended by the Mongol clan and the subordinate Mongolian tribal army, which was divided into feudal areas or out of the town, and controlled the south and pressed the south with the north, and could cover the retreat to the steppe if necessary. At the same time, Wanhu Mansion and Marshal's Mansion were successively established in Jiangnan, and the subordinate army was mainly composed of the Han Army, and the newly attached soldiers and some Semu soldiers were involved.

This deployment of the Yuan army highlights the scheming of Kublai Khan and others, and shows the characteristics of internal and external maintenance and layer by layer. In the Dadu, Shangdu, and hinterland regions, the central Sushu army was stationed as the core of military control. The Mongol army on the steppe in the north and the Tanma Red Army stationed in the north and south of the Yellow River and in the important places of Shaanxi and Sichuan formed a circle of defense lines to protect the center. The Han army and village soldiers stationed in the Jiangnan area and the border areas formed a larger line of defense. In the event of a war, not only the local army will participate in the war, but also the troops of the neighboring provinces and the Tanma Red Army can be quickly transferred, and if necessary, the guards can also go to the battle.

Kublai Khan's intention was to monitor the Han army in various provinces through the Tanma Red Army, and to have the backing of the guards and pro-army, so as to form a relatively strict system of suppression; In addition, his deployment was not only to guard against foreign concerns, but also to the hearts of the Mongol nobility. Internally, the Mongol army, which was the main force of the Mongol Empire's conquest, was still mixed with various Mongol tribes that had been annexed and held hostage by the Genghis Khan family, but these tribes did not enjoy their full trust, and even the Mongol relatives often fought among themselves over the throne of the Khan, power, and grassland resources.

Relying on part of the army led by the "Han Chinese" to suppress the border areas or quell the civil strife in the hinterland of Mongolia, the effect of suppressing the dog's tooth and controlling each other. It seems that this system is perfect, but in Zhao Hao's opinion, it only seems to be beautiful. First of all, the Han army had a low status in the Yuan army system, and all important positions in the army were held by Mongols, and Han generals were not allowed to trespass, and Mongols who lacked military experience still had to serve as the nominal commanders.

Han generals were not allowed to command the Mongol armies, and the Mongols had to be the commanders when they fought together, which was actually a natural and pragmatic institutional arrangement for the Mongols in the early days. Objectively speaking, the steppe peoples themselves possessed a relatively sufficient reserve of military talents, and in addition to the Semu group that had been attached to them earlier, there was no urgency to absorb Han Chinese to enrich the command system, on the contrary, there were still many young Mongolian officers who could only command the Han army and the new annexed army at first.

Subjectively speaking, in the eyes of the Mongol aristocracy, the "Han Chinese" were nothing more than conquered people, and for the Mongol army, the auxiliary forces composed of subjugated ethnic groups had only a weak and short-term use value. This shows the humble status of the Han army group in the eyes of the early Mongol conquerors, and regardless of whether the Mongol army was willing to accept the orders of the "Han" generals and prohibit it, even in the absence of a subordinate relationship, friction and strife between the two sides were inevitable.

Of course, Zhao Hao was not amused by these, but because he knew that the master only used traitors, and it was a routine in history. In the war to conquer Jiangnan, the armed forces known as the Han princes at that time were often these traitor troops who fought with the Song soldiers first, and the Mongols pressed the formation, and when the few rounds of confrontation came down, the infantry of the Southern Song Dynasty was exhausted, and the traitor army was also exhausted. At this time, the recuperated Mongolian iron cavalry attacked, and the Southern Song Dynasty infantry quickly failed, so the Mongols showed their invincible image in front of the traitors, you can't beat it for so long, and my iron cavalry attacked, and the deal quickly collapsed, so it just deterred the traitor army.

However, the illusion is only compared to those low-level traitors and puppet armies, and the leaders of those traitor armies know what is going on, so the Mongolian upper nobility has capable people to win over these traitor leaders. Didn't you in the Southern Song Dynasty not let these warrior leaders have a high status? I reversed myself and adopted the Han dynasty marquis system, these warrior chiefs were similar to warlords and emperors, so naturally they were inclined to the Mongols, and when those Han princes were scolded and killed by the Southern Song Dynasty soldiers and civilians of the same race, they would say in a neat voice: The Mongol Great Khan is kind to my family, let us be the marquis...... What benefits did the Great Song official family give me!

With the abolition of the Han army and the loss of command, the disparity in status became more and more widespread, and even if they were tens of thousands of households, they could not marry a Mongolian lady. And the Mongols are even more distrustful of the Han army, except for the guards of the Han army, they can not be stationed north of the Huai River, the new annex army usually trains with wooden knives, and the real guys are locked in the warehouse, and they will only be issued to them in wartime, but Tuntian and cannon fodder can't forget them, and they have become a miscellaneous army, which has also caused dissatisfaction among the Han army's high-level, and the contradictions between the two sides are deeper.

Now Ezhou City is the Yidu Zibo Wanhu Mansion stationed, but the Wanhu is the Dalu Huachi Mongol Timur does not spend part-time, and the Han Wang Ying is only the deputy Wanhu. In the first two battles, the leader was the Pingyang Taiyuan Wanhu, although they broke through the defensive line, but failed to make a contribution, and the cavalry suffered artillery fire in the subsequent attack, Wanhu Zhang Heng was killed, the cavalry suffered heavy casualties, and the rest fled. At this moment, it was replaced by Longxing Wanhu, which was mainly based on the new attached army, and Zhao Yu knew that this was obviously trying to consume his strength.

"Have the enemy forces in the city been dispatched?" Zhao Hao twisted his face and asked.

"Your Majesty, there is a cavalry army out of the city!" Qin Linfeng said with some surprise.

"But the Red Army?" Zhao Hao asked again.

"Exactly, did our army retreat to the camp?" Qin Linfeng was even more strange, why did His Majesty sit there and watch the battle all the time, but how could he have expected the situation from miles away?

"No, since they're out, don't go back!" Zhao Yu waved his hand and said with a smile.

"Your Majesty, the Tanma Red Army is much stronger than the Han Army, and you should avoid its edge!" Wen Tianxiang frowned and said, he felt that the protectors had been fighting for a while, but they still had to face the current infantry army, and His Majesty would have to even touch the Ma Chi army, which was too much.

"No, they have their own people to deal with!" Zhao Hao shook his head and said, "Fire the trumpet cannon, order the naval army to enter the South Lake, block the east gate of Ezhou City, and never let the enemy army retreat into the city." ”

"Your Majesty, the current enemy has tens of thousands of people, if the city gate is sealed and the enemy's retreat route is cut off, he will definitely attack our army camp with all his strength, it is better to retreat to the camp!" Mrs. Xu also suggested. The battle just now was actually very shocking to her, and the defenders only used a brigade of troops to crush the attack of the enemy cavalry. What is even more rare is that when the enemy's attack was the most fierce, they were still as steady as Mount Tai in the face of the impact of more than a thousand enemy horses, and the formation was not chaotic at all, which showed the harshness of their training at the beginning, but she still couldn't help but worry about continuous combat.

"Don't say much, fighters are hard to find, if this battle is successful, our army can go down and capture Ezhou City. Even if the battle attempt cannot be fully achieved, it can inflict heavy casualties on the enemy and lay the foundation for the siege. Zhao Hao saw everyone's worries, and in order to eliminate everyone's concerns, he explained.

"Oh, Your Majesty had already expected that the Tanma Red Army would go out of the city to fight?" Wen Tianxiang asked.

"I'm not a fortune teller, I can know everything." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "I just made a judgment based on the development of the battle situation, you have all seen the enemy army break through our two trenches with surprise attack tactics one after another, and want to cut off the retreat route in a roundabout way, and the intention is already clear, not to break the siege, but to fight a decisive battle with us." ”

"Well, what Your Majesty said is true, if Your Majesty hadn't taken the opportunity to order the two armies to retreat and give up the trenches, our army would have been divided and annihilated!" Qin Linfeng nodded and said.

"Hehe, I still didn't dare to be completely sure at that time, but the enemy army quickly sent cavalry to charge into battle, which dispelled my doubts." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "I have fought with the enemy Han army many times, and their usual trick is to consume the strength of our army with weak brigades first, and when the veteran soldiers are tired, they will send a fresh army to break through the defense line in one fell swoop, especially the Mongols are good at using this trick, so I dare to judge that the enemy's Ma Chi army will come to pick up the advantage." ”

"Since Your Majesty couldn't determine that the Tanma Red Army would leave the city at that time, why did he ambush the naval army in Nanhu in advance?" Song Lian asked again.

"I was worried that once we fell into a crisis, we could order the navy to come and respond to it, just in case!" Zhao Yu explained.

"I see, Your Majesty is taking precautions, and has already laid out the plan in advance, so that no matter whether you advance or retreat, you can defend it!" Song Lian nodded.

"Your Majesty's layout is meticulous, everything is expected of the enemy in advance, and the ministers admire it!" Xie Fang said with a salute.

"Alas, you have all been deceived by Your Majesty......" Chen Dun frowned as he watched a group of people 'tout' repeatedly.

"Don't be rude!" Before Chen Dun finished speaking, he was interrupted by Mrs. Xu and reprimanded him.

"Sister, I'...... I'm telling the truth, Your Majesty didn't expect to be defeated at the beginning of the war, and the deployment of the naval army was on standby, wanting to block these enemy troops outside the city, and since the Tanma Red Army came to look for death, they could only take them with them! Chen Dun and the little emperor have always spoken casually, and they were told by their sister, but they quickly reacted and said the words in their stomachs.

"Hehe, Mrs. Xu don't blame him, although what Chen Dun said is not all right, it is not far from ten. I want to suppress the defenders of the enemy's eastern city with a naval army, catch up with the enemy when they retreat, seize the door, and seize the city! Zhao Yu smiled and said his original intention, looked at the battlefield situation and ordered, "Let Li Zhen prepare for a counterattack!" ”……