"Toot toot toot...... ......"Just as the prince's thoughts drifted to the vast prairie, and before he could let him spread any more, a hurried sound of bull's horn interrupted his imagination. In order to prevent the Southern Song Dynasty soldiers from crossing the river by boat, the Mongolian army sent dozens of scouts on the north bank of the Han River, patrolling day and night.

"Damn Nanban! It's not quiet for a moment, what's the matter? He even arranged the camp on the main road not too far from the river, and there were Han army camps on the left and right, so they lined up on the side of the Han River.

"Handsome! On the river, there came a large number of Nanban boats, very large, as high as a hill, and they were over there...... "Hearing Kuo's complaint, his own soldiers hurriedly rode out, and after a while they ran back and reported what he had heard.

"It's a boat again! Check it out! Kuo Du heard the word boat and his head hurt, originally he thought that after crossing the Yellow River, there was a larger grassland in front of him, and he could let the Mongolian athletes gallop on horseback, but he didn't think that the more he went south, the more rivers there were. The mountains can't stop the Mongols and the Mongols, but the river is too annoying, and if you can't find a suitable ferry, sometimes a ten-zhang wide river can turn these steppe heroes into bears.

If it weren't for the Han army who were familiar with the terrain to lead the way, just dealing with these endless rivers would have annoyed him to death. Now it's good, there is another Han River about the width of the Yellow River in front of me. This makes Kuede very, very annoying. I thought that there was a wider Yangtze River ahead. Kuan is a little desperate. Luckily, the rivers weren't connected, and there was land in between, which the Mongol cavalry could intersperse, otherwise he really couldn't think of any way to deal with the damn Song Dynasty ships on the river.

"So big!?" Not far out of the camp, Kuan ran up to a high ground next to him, standing here can see the Han River left and right. At this time, there were already several generals of the Mongolian army who were also watching with their hands on the pergola, and when his eyes had just crossed the high ground, he couldn't help but gasp. There are five boats on the river slowly approaching this direction, and the three boats in the middle are not particularly eye-catching. The two ships, one at the head and the other at the end, were very eye-catching, and their towering masts and dense sails looked much larger than the other three.

"Shi Wanhu, are there many big ships like this in the Southern Dynasties?" People sometimes can say the words of fighting the heavens and the earth, but if they are suddenly confronted with an unknown object, their hearts will inevitably be shaken. This situation is extremely common among ordinary people, and it is less obvious in special populations. Kuo is a special group of people, and he also let the huge sailing ship show the coercion of the influence, not obvious is not obvious, there is still there is.

"Great. The two ships, one head and one tail, were not from the Southern Dynasties...... Among the generals who had served in the naval division and were well acquainted with the ships of the Southern Dynasties. "Shi Wanhu is Shi Tianze. He was a Han army general, who was also a native of Jin earlier, and his father was a squire of Hebei, who led his hometown father to surrender to Mongolia when Genghis Khan besieged the central capital of Jin, and was named ten thousand households by Genghis Khan. In Shi Tianze's life, he is better than his father, and he has advanced with his military exploits. suppressed the Red Jacket Army and swept through many places in Hebei, and it has become five roads and ten thousand households.

This time, following Kuo out to the south, Shi Tianze has also made many great contributions, and Zaoyang City was won by his troops. This person has a good brain, is good at taking advantage of the opponent's weakness to carry out psychological warfare, and is even better at appeasing the people in the war zone, and does not use killing as a weapon. At this point, he and Yelu Chucai advocated that they should govern and turn the hearts of the people to the side of Mongolia, and did not advocate slaughtering the city if there was nothing to do.

One more thing to say here, in the Mongol army that attacked the Southern Song Dynasty, the real Mongol cavalry accounted for less than 20%, and the rest were all subsidiary armies, including the Han people of the Jin State, the Jurchens, the Hui people, the Tubo people, etc., and almost all the ethnic groups located on this land participated. And there are only Han people on the side of the Southern Song Dynasty, this is the problem, why can Mongolia unite so many ethnic groups, while the Southern Song Dynasty can only fight alone? On the one hand, the military strength of the Southern Song Dynasty is indeed not successful, and on the other hand, part of the answer can be drawn from the attitude of the Southern Song Dynasty court towards the generals of the Jin State.

"Has he ever seen a ship of any country? Goryeo or Japan? "Kuode felt the need to find out the origin of these two strange ships, and all countries that dared to oppose Mongolia would be severely punished.

"Yu Dashuai, this ship is very similar to the ship that burned Dengzhou two years ago, and the last general's family went to sea in Dengzhou for generations, and the ship they described to the last general is like this, the mast is very, very high, and the sails are very, very many." Shi Tianze immediately had a deputy general next to him, and immediately answered Kuo's question.

“…… Dengzhou sailors are damned! When I go back this time, I would like to suggest that the Great Khan build more big ships! Swanhu, you take the time to help me write a shipbuilding thing. I don't know what's going on over there with Tath, with these ships here, the difficulty of taking Xiangyang has increased again! Kuo waved the whip in his hand to vent the depression in his chest. Although he was not familiar with ships and sailors, as long as he was not a fool, he could understand that the addition of such five ships in the Han River would definitely be harmful to the Mongol army attacking Xiangyang. Compared to the self-made rafts of the Mongol army, those boats were simply high mountains, difficult to cross, and required countless lives of soldiers to make it possible.

"Marshal, it's not impossible, you just need to recruit people in the army who are familiar with the nature of the water, swim across them at night, and chisel through the bottom of their boats. It is true that these ships are huge, but they must also be cumbersome, and once docked, they can easily be immobile. There are many soldiers among the last generals who grew up by the sea, including the last generals, and they are all willing to go! Hearing that there was a deep sorrow in Kuo's words, Shi Tianze's vice admiral immediately stood up and offered a plan, planning to use Kong Pei's fleet to find a good future for himself. Although the Mongols are ferocious, they advocate strength, and whoever has the ability to eat and drink spicy food. Since it is a soldier to fight, when you can make meritorious contributions, you must rush forward with your life, which is also one of the reasons why the Mongolian army is brave in battle.

"Good! You go back to prepare first, and Ben Shuai will personally set up a banquet for you in the evening, as long as you get rid of these big ships, and after capturing Xiangyang, you will remember your first merit and return to the camp! Kuode listened to the words of the lieutenant general, and immediately turned his worries into joy. If you fight a war, you have to do this, your subordinates use your life, and your generals command well, that is, you will be invincible.

Kuo Zhu and others here are pondering Kong Pei, Kong Pei, Wen Nan, and Luo Youde are standing on the stern of the Haibo at this time, holding binoculars, and they are also pondering the Mongolian troops on the north shore. As soon as the fleet turned the corner, the Mongol camp came into view. It is the dry season in winter, so there is no need to worry about floods or anything, so the Mongolian army camp was built along the high ground on the north bank of the Han River, which stretches for miles at a glance, which is very scary.

"Brother Kong, can you do the Yingzhou tactics again and give the Mongols a disadvantage?" Luo Youde is not as knowledgeable as Wen Nan in terms of combat, at least Wen Nan has experienced large and small battle scenes with Hong Tao, and he is just hearsay, no matter how much he listens, it is better to feel it in person.

"No! Sir said that when you come to unfamiliar waters, you must explore first, and you should not rush to the shore. I think it's better to transport the grain and grass soldiers to Xiangyang City first, and then make a decision after meeting the envoys. Sure enough, when Hong Tao was away, Wen Nan immediately regarded himself as a military expert and shook his head and began to analyze. Don't really say it, his point of view is very reasonable, it is a stupid way to take one step at a time, I won't make mistakes, how can you bear with me?

"The transfer envoy is right, we can't take risks, let's go to Xiangyang first!" Kong Pei and Wen Nan have similar thoughts, he is not here to make meritorious contributions, his task is only to escort the cargo ships to their destinations safely, and then bring them back, even if the task is 100% completed. As for the operation of Yingzhou City, it is just a matter of urgency, and it does not belong to the work of the escort fleet, even if you can pick up a rabbit with grass and grab a handful, it must be 100% safe under the premise.

"Sir, you must be careful of Zhao Fan! His heart is very small, and his frame is very large. We traveled thousands of miles to send him food, grass, ordnance, and reinforcements, but he didn't even show his face, and from beginning to end, he was an ordnance master who was in charge of handing over on the dock. "Speaking of Xiangyang City and Zhao Fan, the Jinghu envoy stationed here, Kong Pei is full of complaints. With a steady and old character like him, he can clearly express his dissatisfaction with anyone, and this person really makes him anxious.

"Hey, old Kong, there's no need to be so stingy. In any case, Zhao Fan is a member of the imperial court, although he is in Xiangyang City, but at this time it is wartime, he must be busy with things, and not being able to meet everyone in person at the dock does not mean that he is a person. Hong Tao felt that what Kong Pei said was a bit too personal, he put himself in his shoes, if he sat in Xiangyang and faced the Mongolian army, I am afraid that he would not always be able to think about going to the dock to meet a grain fleet, after all, Zhao Fan did not know the power of Kong Pei's warship, and there were more big things that he needed to plan. It can only be said that Zhao Fan's emotional intelligence is not too high, and he is not very good at appeasing people's hearts, Kong Pei's accusation has passed.

"Sir is a gentleman's belly and a villain's heart...... Zhao Fan was standing on the tower of the city at that time, and after unloading the grain, grass, and ordnance, he gave the order that all the crew members were not allowed to enter the city, and that they should be incorporated into the fleet along the river and under the command of one of his lieutenants. Kong Pei listened to Hong Tao's relief, smiled bitterly, and told what happened later. (To be continued.) )