Rumble! Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

The sound of cannons shook the sky, heavy iron balls crossed the river, and fell far away in the middle of the rout of the Yuan army on the shore like ants on a hot pot, splashing blood and mud to the sky, and the frightened wails of tens of thousands of horses could still be faintly heard even if they were separated by heavy mountains.

The Yuan army that fled from Shanghang to Ganzhou, Changting City in Tingzhou is the only way, and the place name of Changting, I want to know, must be on the side of the Ting River, with the river as the name. In the land of Jiangjiang, the water network is vertical and horizontal, and many roads are close to the river, and even many places need to be crossed by boat. As a result, the Yuan army fled all the way, and was tragically beaten by the gunboat. The terrain of western Fujian is complex and rugged, the road follows the mountain with seven bends and eight turns, and no matter how fast you go on land, you can't go as fast as a boat...... At the moment when they saw the ghostly gunboat with hanging boots, the Yuan army was in no mood to cry, shook off a handful of tears and snot, and dragged the tired body to continue to flee for their lives.

Until the third day of the rout, the gunboat strangely did not reappear, and the Yuan soldiers, who had already run almost out of breath, all increased their quotas with their hands, glad that they could finally survive. At this time, there was a large river that was not too wide in front of it. Here is the east-west direction of the Ting River out of Changting when a tributary of the north-south direction, after crossing this river, go forward forty or fifty miles, you can reach Changting City.

However, when more and more Yuan army routs gathered in this place called Mengdong Ferry, collecting boats to prepare to cross the river, a stunned and thunderous scene appeared-the gunboats of the Song army appeared one after another from the bend of the river on the opposite bank......

This is the commander of the Song army, Jiang Fenglie, took advantage of the speed of the gunboats, grabbed ahead of the Yuan army, occupied the place where the Yuan army must flee westward, and the Mengdong ferry, a tributary of the Tingjiang River, locked the river by crossing the boat, changed the pursuit into an interception, and blocked the way for the Yuan army to flee westward.

When the Yuan army was driven to the riverbank by the dragon and bird army, which was chasing and beating fiercely, the four gunboats that had been waiting for it fired in unison, exchanging iron for blood, wantonly harvesting the lives of the Yuan soldiers, and the Yuan soldiers wailed and jumped wildly, and there was no way to enter the sky and the ground.

Half a day later, the main force of the infantry army of the Dragon Bird Army also pursued, constantly approaching, and the gunboats flanked back and forth, slowly squeezing tens of thousands of troops on a deserted field within a radius of only ten miles on the south bank, and there was a danger of being annihilated at any time.

On a high mountain more than ten miles away from the river bank, after escaping for three whole days, the exhausted generals such as Boyan, Instigated Du, and Baijianu saw this sad and powerless scene from afar, and their faces were bitter, and they couldn't even raise their anger. They are not in the mood to be angry, and they are not in the mood to protect themselves. The immediate priority is how they cross the river. If you cross the river, you will live, and if you can't cross it, you will die.

At this moment, the remnants of the Chinese army of Boyan, Instigation and others only have 2,000 men and horses of the Hebi Red Army and a section of the Chinese army, about 1,000 people. These 3,000 remnants were all cavalry, and it was only with the advantage of speed that they could run ahead - not in front of the Song army, of course, but in front of the friendly army.

Since ancient times, the dividing line between life and death on the battlefield has been that you don't need to outrun the enemy, you just need to outrun the friendly army.

It's just that, compared to the gunboats of the Song army, the remnants of Boyan's army still ran a little slower. When Changting City was in sight, Boyan and the others were desperate to find that their escape route had been cut off by Song Junsheng. Fortunately, Boyan and other generals were old in the military, and even when they were fleeing, they did not forget to release a sentinel cavalry to investigate, and as a result, this cavalry fell into it, so that the main force of Boyan's Chinese army woke up in time, avoided the main road, and rushed into the mountains regardless of the dangers of the thorny road, so that he could escape.

Seeing that the last tens of thousands of remnants of the army on the river bank were cut off, the rear was reckless and deep mountains, and there were imposing dragons and sparrows on the side, and the remaining Mongolian and Han generals on the top of the mountain had to admit a sad fact, the last tens of thousands of remnants were afraid that they were finished.

In just three days, more than 100,000 yuan of soldiers were wiped out!

Until now, many Mengyuan generals have still not recovered from this unprecedented fiasco, including commanders like Boyan and Instigation.

During the period of defeat, Boyan and Instigation often reflected on the reasons for the failure of this battle. Although victory and defeat are commonplace, even Boyan, who is regarded as the god of war by the Mongols, has not lost battles in the course of his military career, but it is relatively rare, and it is a matter of the early years. Since he led the army to the south, he has almost never been defeated, and there are very few small defeats, let alone such a big defeat! Fiasco! Defeated!

Why is this happening? Is it that Zhao Lie and Jiang Fenglie's ability to dominate is too high, and they use soldiers like gods? Is the Dragon Bird Army too strong, far superior to the Mongol Army? Or is the armor unfavorable and the grain is insufficient?

Boyan finally found the answer on his own - neither!

To be fair, whether it was Zhao Lie or Jiang Fenglie in this battle, the battlefield command performance was decent, neither stunning nor standard, and they were basically qualified military commanders. However, that's all, compared with the changeable tactics and the scheming Boyan, it is more than a step behind, and it has repeatedly fallen into passivity in terms of strategy, not only was the Yuan army thousands of miles away from the grain route, but even the king was surrounded, almost repeating the mistake of the siege of Liu Bang Baideng, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty in the past.

As for the army, although the Song army has become stronger, but it also depends on who it is compared with, in terms of the quality of individual soldiers, the meat-based Mongolian soldiers are definitely stronger than the vegetarian-based Song army, and the Mongolian combat power is on the rise at this time, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is world-class, and the Song army is really incomparable.

In terms of armor and food, at least in the past few months of fighting against the Song army, it was quite sufficient, and it did not hold back the army at all.

However, the Yuan army, which had such a clear advantage in all this, suffered a crushing defeat tactically. Although the Song army is inferior to the Yuan army in all aspects, they have strong force, directly break the situation with force, and tear apart all the plans of Boyan, compared to the epoch-making tactics and weapons of the Dragon Bird Army, the tactics of the Mongolian Yuan army are several centuries behind - you know, at this time, the tactics of the Mongolian cavalry have swept half the world!

And in the face of newer and more advanced firearms tactics, the bow horse is destined to be backward, and if it is backward, it will be beaten - this is the case in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the same is true for Meng Yuan!

"Until you have your own muskets and artillery, you can't fight a decisive battle with more than 100,000 troops with the Dragon Sparrow Army." In the end, Boyan had to reluctantly come to this conclusion, which would also be the advice that he, the prime minister of the empire, would definitely give when he returned to the north. At the same time, he will also make suggestions to the Great Khan, negotiate peace with the Song, rest the sword soldiers, and make every effort to prepare for the battle against the northern kings, so as not to fall into the danger of being caught in a two-sided situation.

Just when Boyan learned from the pain and was deeply worried about the future of the empire, Liu Jun, the general of the new annexed army who went to explore the road, hurried over, full of fatigue, bowed to Boyan and Instigation, and said in a hoarse voice: "The prime minister, the deputy marshal of the capital, the last general will inquire in many ways, the gunboats of the Song army lock the river, and even requisition and send boats of the nearby villagers to patrol the river." As soon as it was discovered that we had the intention of crossing the river, they ordered the boatmen to set off fireworks and flags, and the gunboats came to surround and kill them...... From here and within dozens of miles upstream and downstream, there is no hope of crossing the river, and another idea must be made. ”

Instigated Du frowned and said: "Avoid dozens of miles upstream and downstream, can you cross the river from other places?" ”

Liu Jun shook his head: "No." Within a radius of 100 miles, only here the water flow is slow, and the undercurrent is very little, which is convenient for the army to cross, and if you are in other places, the water is dangerous, the reef undercurrent is all over the place, and the prime minister's body is not suitable for danger. ”

"The river cannot be crossed, and the mountain cannot be crossed." Baijia Nu roared in despair, "Could it be that we are going to be bitten to death by Song Dog alive here?" ”

Liu Jun's face was as earth-colored as earth, and he didn't dare to answer. The rest of the generals of the Yuan army were all desperate.

At this time, a general came out of the ranks, and it was Wu Jiming of the next ten thousand households, who bowed down to Boyan and said: "The last general has been the general of Tingzhou for several years, so I know something. Not far to the southwest, there is a pull-out bank, and there is a small road leading to Ruijin. From here, if you travel more than 100 miles to the southwest, you can reach Ruijin, and you can get rid of the pursuit of the Song army. ”

Baijianu was excited and shouted: "Why didn't you say it earlier? ”

Wu Jiming said bitterly: "This road is narrow and dangerous, rugged and difficult to travel, it is difficult for the infantry to pass, and it is impossible for the cavalry to ......."

He didn't say anything, but the generals of Zhumeng understood what he didn't mean, and they didn't dare to speak out for a while, and they all looked at Boyan and waited for him to make a decision.

Boyan said decisively: "The whole army abandoned the horses, rushed at full speed, and went to Ruijin." ”

The generals responded with a bang, and they dispersed to prepare, and the thousands of Mongol soldiers who had received the order grieved and hugged their companions who accompanied them in the northern and southern wars, and although it was difficult to give up, no one dared to disobey the order.

When leaving the top of the mountain, Boyan Lerma looked back, but saw the river fog surging, faintly saw the Song army gunboats, and farther away, Changting City was faintly visible. However, in the end, it is out of reach.