Yuxi Timur was not surprised by the calm in Jiangnan, he knew that the Spring Festival was approaching, and the Han people attached great importance to it. In addition, the current war is taking place in Jiangbei, and the successive battles are victorious, which will cause people to misunderstand that the war is far away from them. However, for them who wanted to cross south to attack Lin'an, it was a godsend, and they were caught off guard by the Southern Dynasty court, and when they received an urgent report to reorganize their troops, they were already approaching the city.

Think about this moment, it is the coldest time of the year, the Yangtze River has entered a deep dry period, the river surface narrows, the water flow slows down, and it is also a good season to use soldiers; Most of the armies stationed in Henan Jiangbei Province participated in the war to destroy the Southern Song Dynasty court, and were stationed for many years, and later integrated the ten thousand households. And then there is the Privy Council of the current ruling province, which controls more than 100,000 troops in the two capital Wanhu Mansions, and is already willing to use it for himself at this time. and the great khan's trust and expectations, he can be said to have taken advantage of the time, place, and people.

The situation seems to be very favorable to his side, although Yuxi Timur still has a little worry in his heart, but he also knows that he is ready to send it at this moment, and if he drags it out and misses the fighter, he doesn't know how many years it will take. And where in the world is there a 100% sure victory, after thinking about it again, he decided to gamble on his fate and Dayuan's national fortune.

After making up his mind, Timur immediately gathered his generals and ordered troops to be dispatched, ordering the troops to rush to Rugao, Shandong, Hebei, and Wanhu Saisana to lead two 10,000 troops to rush through the starry night, and be sure to arrive at the ferry port in Jiangkou Town within three days, immediately organize the crossing of the river to seize the ferry on the other side, and erect a pontoon bridge to cross the river. After crossing the river, there was no need to wait for the arrival of the army, and immediately set out to capture Changshu, seize the materials hoarded here by the Song army, and provide heavy supplies for the follow-up operations of the army. After receiving the replenishment, he did not stop, continued to attack and advance in the direction of Pingjiang, and drove straight to Lin'an.

The 40,000 and 4,000 troops of the Chinese army were led by Yuxi Timur himself, and each unit rushed to Jiangkou Town to cross the river at an interval of ten miles by day and night, and at the same time sent reconnaissance cavalry to intercept the approaching Song army patrol cavalry to prevent the march route from being exposed; The rear army was led by Wanhu Hatusun, the capital of Huaibei in Henan, with 20,000 troops and infantry troops to set off afterwards to prevent the enemy from discovering their attempt to cross the river and resolutely intercept the Song army that was trailing.

At the same time, Yuxi Timur ordered Zahuertai to attack Taizhou, open a reinforcement route, and attack the right flank of the Song army, so as to contain and confuse the Song army and cover the southern crossing of the army. He also secretly met with the messenger sent by Ma Shao, asking him to inform the king of Zhennan and Ma Shao to hold on to Yangzhou City at any cost, and try their best to deal with the Southern Dynasty, and the siege of Yangzhou will be solved within half a month.

In the early morning of the next day, although the Jiangyan Mongolian army camp still heard more drums and horns from time to time, it was actually no different from the empty camp, and only the old, weak, wounded and sick of the remaining troops were left in the camp. Thirty miles away, the Zahuertai Department was at a loss, and they were still challenging outside Taizhou City, but they seemed to be very weak-minded, and often as soon as the cannon in the city sounded, they immediately fled away......

"Bald, how many miles away from Changshu!" A group of Mengyuan cavalry moved quickly along the road, turned a corner, and the commander of the ten thousand horses, Basa, urged the horse to climb the high slope on the side of the road and reined in the horse, asking the people who were following him about the matter.

"Ten thousand households, there are still sixty miles!" Bald looked at the surrounding terrain, then took out the sheepskin map in his arms and compared it and replied.

"We're not halfway there, can the scout be rewarded?" Yasa looked around, frowned and said to Bald Maxim, he felt that the situation was very strange, because it was too calm all the way.

Last night, Basa led his troops to the town of Jiangkou as a vanguard, where the Hui Hui Navy had arrived in advance and stood by in a river bay, and immediately began to erect a pontoon bridge when he saw the arrival of the army. When the Song army guarding the ferry found out, they immediately lit a beacon fire to raise an alarm, and relied on the walled fort to open artillery in an attempt to stop the bridge. However, the Song army stationed there was only one battalion and three patrol ships, so there were not many troops.

Although the artillery fire of the Song army was sparse, it still caused a lot of obstacles to the construction of the bridge, and destroyed the pontoon boats used as supports several times. Regardless of their weakness, their three patrol ships clashed back and forth in the river, maneuvering with their own sailors who drove their ships and forced crossings, and sank more than a dozen ferries with only two small cannons on board. The fierce battle lasted until the early hours of the morning, and only then did a team of men and horses successfully smuggle from the upper reaches to contain the Song troops in the fortress from the flank, attracting their firepower, so that the bridge was successfully erected. Until this moment, the surrounded Song army saw that it was invincible, and the reinforcements were delayed before leaving the fort and fleeing eastward.

Although the Song army arrived one after another, the foundation was lost, and it was soon dispersed by its own cavalry. As the brigade crossed the river, the ferry was already firmly in their hands, but by this time it was already dawn. Basa's order was to quickly capture Changshu after crossing the river, regardless of the enemy's harassment, and go all the way forward, taking advantage of the weakness to occupy this logistics supply area.

Basa knew the truth of the speed of the soldiers, and he had no opinion on the capture of Changshu, but it was difficult to dispel the doubts in his heart, he felt that although there was a fierce battle between the two sides crossing the river, both the scale of the battle and the subsequent counterattack of the Song army were far from the previous estimates, which inevitably made him think that it was too easy, as if the Song army deliberately gave way to the ferry.

There was a pimple in his heart, and he looked at the wolf smoke everywhere, and Basa hesitated for a moment, but he still obeyed the order to organize and carefully count the team, and prepare to pack the equipment and set off. However, he also knew that the march of the army was actually a very complicated task, especially when it was deep into the hinterland of the enemy territory and the situation ahead was unknown, so he ordered the brigade to slow down, and first sent out scouts according to the custom.

Scout cavalry can be understood as scout + signal soldier, which is the task of detecting the enemy situation and reporting information during the march. It can be said that the scout cavalry is the eyes and ears of the army, and they are generally composed of ten-person teams, and they should pay attention to looking at each other when scouting, and cannot leave their respective sights. When the army marches, no matter how many roads the troops are divided into, each road must set up reconnaissance cavalry, each road has a total of 24 teams, scattered in all directions, each person is one mile apart, and the maximum dispersion range can reach more than 20 miles

Each scout was equipped with a number of horses, and in addition to bows and arrows, long knives, horns and flags, they were also equipped to alert the army in case of emergencies. It is said that the flag is actually a flag gun, the gun is more than a foot long, and a small flag with a foot width is placed under the gun head. If the enemy team is spotted, the flag will be waved left and right, and when the scouts behind see it, they will pass the message to the commander in layers. If the enemy is still far away and it is not a sudden encounter, then just click the flag slowly. If the enemy is aggressive, then draw a circle and wave the flag.

If it is a topography problem, such as no road to go, narrow water, etc., there is no need to wave the flag, just spread it layer by layer. In order to prevent the enemy from expelling the scout cavalry and interrupting the information, military law stipulates that the scout cavalry cannot be completely returned, but retreats according to the enemy's expulsion strength. If the enemy's expulsion team approached, the first scout retreated to the other scout one mile behind. If the enemy continues to pursue, they will retreat in turn. When the enemy expells the team and retreats, then the scouts and cavalry return to their original positions, and in this way, the enemy advances, I retreat, the enemy retreats, and I advance, and the teams proceed in turn.

The geographical difference between the north and the south is mainly due to the difference in terrain. Although there are high mountains in the north, the plains are dominant, and the Changpo rivers outside the Saiwai can be seen at a glance. The southern provinces are very different, with steep mountains and rivers, vertical and horizontal waterways, and no land can be ambushed or intercepted. Therefore, in addition to being skilled in arching horses, the cavalry marching in the south must also be good at climbing, but whenever you encounter a place where the mountains are steep and you don't go immediately, you must abandon your horse and go up the mountain to explore, and all the valleys and dense forests can not be missed.

When there was no problem, the scouts stood there with their flags in their hands, and the scouts behind them galloped back to report to the army, and the army marched to the place where the scouts were standing to find a wide and flat place, and stationed them in a line to stand guard, and then the scouts continued to search forward until they were out of the valley. If something unusual is found to be encountered by ambushes, the scouts are killed or the flag is waved, the scouts in the rear should also quickly run back to the army to call the police, and then the main general will arrange the army in a formation according to the mountain to meet the enemy. If the scout at the head is not killed, he can be allowed to escape at will and not return to the barracks for the time being. When the battle is over, the scouts will be rewarded.

In addition, the reconnaissance cavalry obtained information only to the main general, if there is a reconnaissance cavalry back to the battalion to report the investigation information, whether it is important or not, the officers and soldiers along the way are not allowed to intercept and interrogate, only need to go directly to the Chinese army to report to the commander-in-chief, and then the commander-in-chief will convene the officers of various departments to discuss. If anyone dares to intercept the scout cavalry in the middle of the way and interrogate information, it will be dealt with by military law.

In addition, "an army of more than 10,000 is boundless", and when marching, tens of thousands or even 100,000 troops can even be tens of miles long. Due to the long distance between the troops, the golden drums were not heard, and the flags were not visible, so they had to rely on the scouts to transmit information through words. The reconnaissance is divided into multiple stages before and after, and it is easy to make mistakes and omissions in the transmission layer by layer, so it is stipulated that the transmission of information should not be nonsense, and the key points should be condensed, and the content should not exceed three sentences, and then passed layer by layer. When passing, you need to repeat the confirmation before you can continue to pass backwards.

"Wanhu, now that our army has penetrated forty miles into the enemy's territory, all the scouts and cavalry have not found the Song army of the brigade, and we must speed up the march, otherwise we will not be able to reach Changshu before dark!" Seeing that Wanhu was still hesitating, he was careful everywhere when he marched, and when he encountered valleys and dense forests, he would be on guard, and he would not move forward until the search was completed, and he looked at the sun anxiously.

"It's better to be careful, you are full of smoke, and the news of our army's crossing of the river must have been known to the enemy, but this road is too quiet!" Basa looked around again, and although he couldn't see a single enemy in front of him, he was still uneasy in his heart, and he always felt that there was danger lurking ahead......