"I'm glad to die."

In the imperial tent outside Chaozhou City, Zhao Lie looked at the Tang newspaper that had just been delivered, and said a pun with a smile, "I'm really happy to die." ”

Under the tent, Jiang Fenglie, Shi Yang and other generals all laughed.

Zhao Lie raised the Tang newspaper in his hand: "The advance of the Yuan army was defeated and retreated to Tingzhou, and Boyan's plot to destroy my righteous division in southern Fujian was shattered. Prime Minister Wen and the leaders of the She Army have done a good job, what a good start, we have to thank you and be happy! ”

There was laughter in the tent.

Deputy Marshal Zhang Shijie has always been rigid and is the only one who has not laughed, but his heart is relieved, fortunately, Minnan withstood it. Zhang Shijie, who was born as a military general, has never been optimistic about Wen Tianxiang's commanding ability, and once said to Zhao Lie, thinking that Wen Tianxiang is the talent of the prime minister rather than the talent of the general, and should sit in the court instead of going out of the town.

Zhao Lie also agreed with this, but still agreed to Wen Tianxiang's request and sent him into Fujian to command more than 100,000 She troops. There is no other reason, what he likes is Wen Tianxiang's prestige and appeal in Fujian and Jiangxi. As long as there is this duke in charge, Fujian and Jiangxi will be stable, and no fault is merit - at this point, it is better than any good general plus 100,000 soldiers and horses.

At present, it seems that the She army in southern Fujian under the command of Wen Tianxiang did a good job, and at a very small cost, they killed the vanguard of the Yuan army, Wanhu Guan, and frustrated the momentum of the Yuan army.

In fact, strictly speaking, this time I am happy to die. However, this kind of thing is to judge the hero by victory or defeat - if he wins, it is called going into the tiger's den alone; If you are defeated, you will die.

As soon as he was happy, the situation in southern Fujian changed dramatically. The morale of the left army of the Yuan army was greatly reduced, and the main general died before the battle began, how can this battle continue?

Although Wang Weiyi is a deputy general, he has not always followed the happy old subordinates, but has only been transferred for a short time. Previously, Wang Weiyi was Zhang Hongfan's general, but he was promoted to 10,000 households because of the capture of Wen Tianxiang in the battle of the empty pit, and was transferred to Tingzhou. This time, because of the war in southern Fujian, Boyan transferred him to Xingxing as a deputy general. As soon as he died, he couldn't control the old department of Happy at all, whether he fought or retreated, they quarreled, and they all treated Wang Weiyi as a clay puppet.

Wang Weiyi has also been sandwiched by Zhang Hongfan, a famous general, whether a battle can be fought or not, how many points there is to win, and how much is a little forced in his heart. Seeing this situation, he decisively ordered the withdrawal of troops. When the happy old troops clamored to avenge the main general and opposed, Wang Weiyi decisively took down these people, and then immediately pulled out the camp and fled to the old nest in Tingzhou.

The Yuan army was constantly attacked by the rebels of various villages along the way, lost a lot of baggage, and even killed and wounded hundreds, plus those who fled and disappeared in the chaos, and finally lost thousands. Two days later, Wang Weiyi led the Yuan army to finally flee to Shanghang, which was under the jurisdiction of Tingzhou, and confronted the Longyan She army from afar.

At this time, the 200,000 army led by Boyan and the forward troops had been stationed in Tingzhou.

When Wang Weiyi heard the news, he hurriedly went to Changting, presented the details to Bo Yan and asked for guilt.

It doesn't matter how Boyan punished Wang Weiyi, the important thing is that the plan of the Yuan Army's Left Route Army to quickly sweep away the She Army in southern Fujian was aborted, and the fighter plane was lost. Although the strength of the Yuan army's left route army has not been damaged, the threat to southern Fujian is still there, and the 200,000 troops of Boyan are also coming in a steady stream, but in the same way, the main force of the Song army is about to converge with the She army. Once the two armies converged, it meant that the best opportunity to exterminate the She army had passed, and Boyan's various plans to break it had gone bankrupt on its own. Next, you can only shake it head-on.

In the meantime, there was also a small episode.

Due to the Northern Expedition of the Song Army, Pu Shougeng, the Zhongshu Zuo Cheng of Fujian Province and the envoy of Quanzhou City, who was ordered to return to Quanzhou to defend the defense, learned that the Yuan army was approaching Tonggu Mountain, and immediately sent 5,000 men and horses to attack Changtai to contain the She army. As a result, as soon as the Quanzhou Yuan army arrived at Guming Mountain in the northwest of Changtai, it received the news of the defeat of the Yuanzuo Route Army, and the whole army hurriedly turned back and accelerated its escape back to Quanzhou. From beginning to end, I only glanced at the Changtai city wall from a distance. And the price of this glance is that dozens of truckloads were discarded along the way, and hundreds of soldiers and civilians fled.

The Yuanzuo Route Army was defeated and retreated, and the bait mission of Zhangzhou was completed. At the end of May, Wen Tianxiang, in his capacity as the right prime minister of the Great Song Dynasty, issued an ultimatum to the Yuan army in Zhangzhou, urging the defenders to surrender.

At this time, Longxi City, Zhangzhou Prefecture, was surrounded by more than 100,000 She regiments, like a weak woman surrounded by a group of strong men, which was called a pitiful. originally expected the Yuan army to come to the rescue, but the rescuer died first. Although there were large armies of the Yuan army gathered thousands of miles away, the distant water could not save the near fire. And Longxi's city defense was broken by the She army twice in three years, and the defense was fragile, how could it withstand more than 100,000 She soldiers?

Just one day later, the Yuan army of Zhangzhou surrendered, and southern Fujian was red.

Wen Tianxiang, Chen Zhi, Mrs. Xu, Chen Hangyan and other officials immediately settled in Zhangzhou.

At the beginning of June, he received an order from the Son of Heaven to establish the Fujian Governor's Office. Wen Tianxiang served as the governor, and Mrs. Xu, Chen Jiaoyan, Huang Hua, Chen Guilong, Luo Bantian and other leaders of the She army all entered the Wujie Doctor and General Huaiyuan, and according to the size of the meritorious service, they served as commanders and commanders, and officially became the generals of the Great Song Dynasty. The troops under their command were also converted into box soldiers, as the second echelon of troops in the imperial court except for the forbidden army, that is, the Dragon Bird Army.

The overall situation in southern Fujian has been determined, and Chaozhou naturally can't stop the main force of the Song army, the Dragon Bird Army, for a long time. Almost at the same time as the defeat and retreat of the Yuanzuo Route Army, the two cities of Chaoyang and Jieyang under the rule of Chaozhou were successively shelled by the artillery battalion of the Longque Army. The city walls of the two cities are only covered with bricks on the outer walls, and in recent years, due to frequent wars, the Song army, the Yuan army, and the Haikou have been repeatedly destroyed, and the city wall has many gaps, which are quite broken. After only three volleys of artillery, the wall collapsed into a huge gap.

Before the defenders could react from the darkness, they were killed or captured by the Dragon Sparrow soldiers who charged into the city. In one day, two cities were connected.

Such a frightening achievement, but Zhao Lie, his generals and even the soldiers were accustomed to it. started by attacking Guangzhou and scaring Li Heng away. The Dragon Bird Army went all the way north, swept all the way, but whenever it encountered the city, it would first go down to the spy, and if it refused to surrender, it would then stage the drama of "artillery bombardment, infantry rushing". Under the high-speed bombardment of this epoch-making 24-pounder cannon, the rammed earth wall of the Song Dynasty could not withstand it at all. As soon as the city wall collapsed, in the face of a huge musket phalanx with murderous spirits, how could the soldiers of a county town resist it?

In this way, Zhao Lie led his dragon bird army, out of Qiong in April, Pingyue in May, and at the beginning of June, the soldiers reached the last city of Guangnan East Road, Chaozhou Prefecture, under the city of Haiyang.

As far as city defense is concerned, Haiyang, as the state office, is better than Chaoyang and Jieyang, but it is just as vulnerable in the face of heavy artillery.

At this time, Haiyang City and Longxi City were almost a pair of brothers and sisters - red Zhangzhou in the north, Meizhou in the south, which had long fallen into the Song army, and the Song army in the south, and ...... in the east The sea is full of water.

After all, the head of the guard of the Chaozhou Yuan Army was not broken, and he did not dare to use the city wall to test the cannon of the Dragon Bird Army, so he directly raised the white flag, opened the door and knelt to welcome the Emperor of the Song Dynasty.

On the fifth day of the first month of June, marked by the surrender of Chaozhou, the whole territory of Guangnan East Road was restored and connected with southern Fujian. At this point, the first stage of the Northern Expedition was declared victorious.

However, at this moment, the right army led by Li Heng and Wanzhidu had joined forces in Shaozhou (now Shaoguan), and broke through the Yingde Mansion, and the iron cavalry rolled and killed Guangzhou.