Zhang Jun, who had just been promoted to the commander of the Zaoyang Army not long ago, didn't know whether to congratulate himself on his good luck or scold God for not giving face, and as soon as he came out of Zaoyang City, he encountered a large number of Mongolian troops.

Zaoyang City is an extremely important node fortress in Meng Hui's planning, so after capturing Xiangyang, Meng Hui transferred Zhang Jun and the Zaoyang army to Zaoyang City to pacify the people and repair the city wall. Of course, before the series of chain fortresses set by Meng Hui and Jia Yidao was not completed, Zaoyang City, which was more than 100 miles away from Xiangyang City, was still far from reaching the level of a fortress node.

Therefore, when he received Kou Wen Buhua and led the army south to Xiangyang, Meng Hui had already ordered Zhang Jun's Zaoyang army to immediately destroy and burn everything in Zaoyang City, and rushed to Xiangyang City with the people in Zaoyang City to converge.

Zhang Jun is not stupid, although he is a little reluctant to reluctance to Zaoyang City, which he has just completed, but he also doesn't want to put his life here. So as soon as he received Meng Hui's order, Zhang Jun began to destroy and burn the city walls and houses that had just been repaired by him, and after knowing that the Mongolian army was about to kill, too many people wanted to leave Zaoyang City, and they wanted to take too many things, which also directly led to the delay in Zhang Jun's withdrawal.

When the scouts reported from the south, the Mongol army was less than thirty miles away from Zaoyang City, and now that Zaoyang City had been destroyed, it was obviously impossible to retreat; Escape, if there is only the Zaoyang army, it would be fine, but now there are tens of thousands of people with families in the Zaoyang army, and there is absolutely no way to outrun the cavalry of the Mongols, well, I don't know if there are cavalry from the road, thinking of this, Zhang Jun's eyes suddenly lit up.

Meng Heng's previous letter had already said that the 50,000 cavalry of the Mongol vanguard had advanced to the Xinyang area, which was less than two hundred miles away from Xiangyang City. Tangzhou! Yes, it must be the Mongolian army stationed in Tangzhou who wanted to make merit, so they came first.

If it was really the hateful Western Xia Dangxiang army stationed in Tangzhou, it would be a good opportunity to dampen the morale of the Mongols for the Zaoyang army and even for this big battle.

Since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, the surrounding areas have not been very stable, and it can be said that the Western Xia, Liao, Jin and now Mongolia have not been truly peaceful for a few years. In this process, in fact, the Great Song Dynasty had every opportunity to make the frontier more stable, but due to the two major strategic mistakes of the literati ruling the country, the Great Song Dynasty is now facing a great enemy that is almost impossible to resist head-on with the Mongols who swept across Europe and Asia.

These two major strategic mistakes were the alliance of the Northern Song Dynasty with Jin to resist the Liao and the destruction of the Liao State, and the alliance with the Mongols to destroy the Jin State when Li Zong ascended the throne a few years earlier. These two alliances seem to be clever, but in fact they are a move to lure wolves into the house.

If Song didn't intervene and sat on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, both sides would lose, and the Liao and Jin kingdoms sandwiched in the middle could also be used as a buffer zone.

If there is no Lianjin to destroy Liao, I am afraid that there will be no shame of Jingkang after the destruction of Liao; If there is no Lianmeng to destroy the gold, in case of a miracle, maybe the Great Song Dynasty will still have the possibility of turning over, and no matter how bad it is, it may be able to continue some luck.

Perhaps because they were tortured and killed by the Mongols too much, the Tangut people no longer had much courage in the face of the Mongols, but when they faced the Song people, they intensified their efforts, and they were even more cruel to the Song people in the occupied areas than the Mongols, which was not a secret to Zhang Jun and others.

However, Zhang Jun did not blindly start to be optimistic because of his speculation, he sent scouts to find out the specific situation of the Mongol army that rushed to Xinyang, and on the other hand, he sent people to the direction of Xinyang to contact the location of Ren Yi's Xinyang army and Zhang Ying's Suizhou army who retreated from Xinyang to Xiangyang.

Ren Yi's Xinyang army is far farther away from Xiangyang City than Zaoyang, and Zaoyang is the only way for him to retreat to Xiangyang City, Xinyang is too far away, lonely outside the Jinghu Theater, so Meng Hui did not include Xinyang into the defense system of the Jinghu Theater, gave up Xinyang early, divided troops to guard the place that can not be held at all, it is better to garrison troops to hold a few fortresses, this is Meng Heng's thinking, three days ago Meng Heng ordered Ren Yi to gather the Xinyang army and the people near Xinyang who are willing to go to Xianyang City, and withdraw to Xiangyang. And Zhang Ying's Suizhou army has also been waiting to withdraw to Xiangyang City with Ren Yi.

In the morning, Ren Yi's letter said that he had arrived in Suizhou City, and after resting in Suizhou City, he and Zhang Ying set up troops to go to Xiangyang City. At this moment, he must have received Meng Hui's military order, and the two armies were on their way to Zaoyang, and they were even about to arrive in Zaoyang City.

The two route armies of Ren Yi and Zhang Ying should be regarded as the closest army to Zhang Jun. If the two armies can arrive in time, and the Mongol army that rushed in is really the army of the Western Xia people, then with the Zaoyang army, the Suizhou army and the Xinyang army, Zhang Jun really plans to make a good start before the war.

However, he was also worried that Ren Yi and Zhang Ying were too busy to take care of themselves at this time. 50,000 real elite Mongolian cavalry came from the direction of Xiangyang, and it was difficult to guarantee that Ren Yi was not bitten by this Mongolian cavalry with 50,000 people.

If he is really bitten, then Zhang Jun can only rely on himself.

The scout came back quickly, and the news he brought back made Zhang Jun overjoyed.

The army that came down from the north was indeed not the elite of the Mongols, but the Western Xia army stationed in the city of Tangzhou. The number of people is not too much, only 30,000. This number is not much news, but it makes Zhang Jun's heart sink.

The Zaoyang army is only more than 20,000 people, if he really wants to fight with this greedy and reckless Western Xia people, then the tens of thousands of people who left together must divide their troops to escort them to Xiangyang, so that the troops under his command are afraid that they will be even more insufficient.

The number of Zhang Ying and Ren Yi's Suizhou Army and Xinyang Army is also about the same, if the three-way army joins forces and attacks these 30,000 Western Xia people, Zhang Jun naturally doesn't have to worry too much, but what he is worried about is that Ren Yi and Zhang Ying will not be able to come to join the battlefield in time. These people are not only the main force of the reclamation, but also the source of troops in the Jinghu Theater, and they must not be given up.

If Ren Yi and Zhang Ying's two-way army can't come in time, he only relies on the Zaoyang army of less than 20,000 people, and it is very dangerous to eat the fierce 30,000 Xixia army.

Zhang Jun hesitated for a while, sent two battalions of soldiers to escort more than 40,000 people with their families and families to speed away, and then summoned the generals in the army to start the discussion. After the tea time, the Zaoyang army, which had less than 20,000 people left, began to turn around and return to Zaoyang City.

……

Qianshan is one of the ten thousand households of Western Xia stationed in Tangzhou City, and one of the few five people among the Western Xia people who can rise to ten thousand households. The 30,000 elite soldiers of Western Xia under his command are also the capital that he can be proud of.

At noon, he received the command of King Zong's mouth, Wen Buhua, and he was ready to lead his troops south to cooperate with the army in the battle of Xiangyang, but in three hours, Qian Shan had already raised his troops and began to rush towards Zaoyang City, which was closest to Tangzhou City.

He didn't want to be a supporting role, and Wanhu was not the end of what he thought, Qianshan knew very well that once the army arrived, his small Wanhu was really nothing among the hundreds of thousands of households, and it was too difficult to build some military exploits at that time, and there were more monks and less porridge. Everyone, including him, thought that even if Meng Hui could fight well, no one would think that Meng Hui still had a chance of winning in the face of the warmth of the army who came to command the army in person.

Of course, this is also true, and the Mongols, who swept across Europe and Asia, did have this self-confidence.

Now that the army has not arrived, and Tangzhou City is the closest city to the battlefield, Qian Shan has long looked down on the Song army stationed in Zaoyang, and he only dared to act rashly because of the order of Kou Wen Buhua, but now that Kou Wen Buhua has already given the order, Qian Shan will naturally not give up this credit that is equal to giving it to others.

It was already dark, so even from a distance of dozens of miles, you could clearly see the sky-high fire in the direction of Zaoyang City in the distance.

Seeing this scene, Qian Shan's heart was even more determined. He was not surprised that the Song army was able to get the news of the imminent attack of the Mongol army, and the Mongols also knew the clues shown by Meng Heng before he launched the Battle of Xiangyang, but it was only because the Mongols did not take the Song army in their eyes or Xiangyang City in their eyes, so they did not take a more radical response.

Qian Shan is sure that it is impossible for the army to arrive so quickly, so the only possibility is that the Song army got the news that the Mongols were about to attack, and withdrew from the newly captured Zaoyang City in advance, and burned all available materials and grain buildings before withdrawing, including destroying the city walls, which was often done by the Song army in previous wars, in order to prevent the Mongols from getting materials that could be used to attack the city from these abandoned cities.

"The Song people have abandoned the city and fled, and looking at the fire, it must not have burned for long. The Song people must have taken away the ordinary people of Zaoyang City together, and they definitely won't be able to go far. Qian Shan sat on his war horse, as if he was talking to himself and as if he was analyzing the generals under him, "Command the army, turn around and rush to Xiangyang City, order all the scouts to come out, and once the Song army brigade is found, immediately warn with rockets." Ben was going to leave all the lambs of the Song army. ”

The Western Xia generals behind Qi Shan heard the sound and responded with a bang.

Military merit represents everything. The fleeing Song army was obviously already afraid, and such a no-effort military achievement naturally made the generals excited. Of course, in addition to military exploits, there are also those gold and silver treasures carried by the Song people, men and women, all of which are wealth. Tangzhou City has been squeezed dry, and Zaoyang City is particularly important.

Soon the scouts came with news that they had discovered the traces of the Song people who had fled. With an army of more than 20,000 and tens of thousands of people with their families, it is impossible to hide their whereabouts, not to mention that Zhang Jun has never thought of hiding his whereabouts at all.

Qian Shan looked at all kinds of clothes and even weapons scattered on the official road, but the smile on his face was even worse. At the sound of an order, the 30,000 Western Xia troops didn't even care about the basic marching formation, and began to desperately chase Zhang Jun and his party along the official road.

The trail is so obvious that you don't even need to think about it, you don't need to look for it, you just need to follow the parcels and footprints scattered all over the place.

The scene of the Western Xia soldiers being so wild, Qian Shan naturally saw it, but he didn't stop it. The Song army brigade, which carried a large number of ordinary people, had absolutely no chance of fighting with his 30,000 sons, not to mention that he had already figured out that the garrison of Zaoyang City only had 20,000 newly formed troops, not Meng Hui's descendant Ningwu army, but a patchwork of cards.

Such a group is not as large as him, the morale is not as high as his, and there are tens of thousands of people who are completely like lambs, if he is the general of the Song army, then the first choice is to flee, and the faster he escapes, the better. What's more, Qian Shan actually hoped in his heart that Song Jun would play some conspiracy and tricks beyond his strength.

In the face of 30,000 wolf-like sons, what about the less than 20,000 miscellaneous army, no matter how many tricks and conspiracies? In the face of absolute strength, all intrigues and tricks are false.

Once the more than 20,000 Song troops were cleaned up, the Song people who fled would truly become lambs. Thinking of this, Qian Shan couldn't help but lick his lips. I hadn't tasted fresh Song women for a long time, I hadn't heard those Song women wailing under me, and I felt the heat in my lower abdomen, but Qian Shan instead urged the army to run faster.

It seems that in order to guard against the Tanguts, except for the 500 people in the scout camp, the rest of the 30,000 troops of Qianshan are cavalry. Of course, it is not only the Western Xia people, the Jin people, the Song people are like this, the Mongols did not ration too many war horses, especially cavalry, to them, the real cavalry are the absolute descendants of the Mongols, now the cavalry in the entire Central Plains, in addition to the cavalry composed entirely of less than 300,000 Mongols, the total number of remaining cavalry is only 50,000 or 60,000, and these 50,000 or 60,000 cavalry are still scattered in the total number of more than one million servant army. This shows how tightly the Mongols controlled the number of cavalry.

Of course, this may also be related to the fact that war horses are consumed too much and are not easy to cultivate, even if the Mongolians who are good at raising horses, it is not so easy to train a qualified war horse.

This is also the main reason why he hopes that the Song army in Zaoyang City will stop and use some tricks, if the Song army really wants to escape, even if there are tens of thousands of Song people dragging down, it is really not easy for his 30,000 Western Xia army to follow behind the ass to catch up with them, if it takes too long, he is worried that if the army in Xiangyang City sends a large army to meet and meet, then it is estimated that the Song army will come over and bite him, and he will become a handful of rice instead of stealing chickens, which is definitely not what he wants to see.

Soon, the Western Xia army, which had been attacking for a long distance, began to show fatigue, and the Western Xia army, which was originally a swarm of bees, began to fall behind and gradually grew up on the official road.

In addition to some generals, there are also 5,000 soldiers of Qianshan, which are the most elite soldiers under Qianshan, and their usual treatment is much better than that of ordinary soldiers, and their discipline and physical fitness are much higher than ordinary Xixia soldiers. In addition to them, there are about one or two thousand Western Xia soldiers with good endurance, and the total strength of the first echelon is only about seven or eight thousand.

Then there is the second echelon, which should be regarded as the largest number of people, with about 20,000 people; The third echelon at the bottom should belong to the old, weak, sick and disabled, with only about two or three thousand people.

It can be seen that the 30,000-strong army of Qianshan is indeed elite. If it were an ordinary Song army of the same number, I am afraid that there are more than 20,000 people in the third echelon.

The red torches lit up, turning the entire official road into a long moving fire dragon in the city.

At this time, if someone looks down from the sky, they will find that a little in front of this fire dragon, at most about fifty miles, a ball of fire that gathers together but is much messier is also moving, although the speed is not enough, but compared with the moving fire dragon, it is much slower. In an hour or two at most, the fire dragon will inevitably catch up with the ball of fire that looks like a dragon ball.

The official road ahead suddenly became narrower and narrower, and the mountains on both sides of the official road were rugged and densely forested.

"General, do you have to be careful that the Song people set up an ambush here." A close general drove his horse to catch up with Qian Shan and said in a low voice.

"Tell the army to slow down, the forward 1,000 men pass first, and then the army will march in batches, and give the order to those wastes behind, so that they can hurry up and come to converge." Qian Shan was not stupid, and ordered in a deep voice.

Soon the 1,000 pro-soldiers of Qianshan passed through the narrow area without any abnormality, and soon the second group of pro-soldiers passed, and there was still no abnormality. While she was relaxed, she was a little disappointed. Since the Song people did not set up an ambush in such a place conducive to a sneak attack, they obviously fled.

"Bang!"

Just when Qian Shan was about to give the order to order the army to speed up through this not too long narrow official road to continue to pursue the Song army, a crisp bang suddenly sounded in the dense forest on the right side of the official road, which made Qian Shan suddenly stagnate.

"Enemy attack!"

With Qi Shan's hoarse roar, countless roaring sounds suddenly burst out from the dense forests on both sides of the official road. Immediately afterward, the war drums rang out in unison, and the monstrous shouts of killing resounded throughout the official road, and in the light of the torches, Qi Shan could clearly see that countless vague black shadows were waving cold swords and swords from the dense forests on both sides.

"Array, hold! Steady! ”

Under the frightened hearts of the Western Xia generals around Qian Shan, they did not panic, urging the war horses under their crotch to dodge the dense arrows like rain, while shouting loudly to appease the Western Xia soldiers who were in a little commotion because of the sudden attack.

The rain of arrows fell, and countless miserable howls suddenly sounded, and blood splashed everywhere, adding a bit of blood to this dark night.

The 1,000 Qianshan soldiers who were the first to pass through this narrow official road of only tens of zhang in length suffered the most care, and countless sharp arrows swooped down from the dense forest, and most of them were aimed at the 1,000 Western Xia soldiers who were hanging alone on the other side.

The first road pounced on the 1,000 Qianshan soldiers who were hanging alone, but the second road was directly from both sides of the official road to the place where Qianshan and others were standing, blocking the possibility of Qianshan rescuing the 1,000 personal soldiers and joining forces; The third way is to block the retreat of Qianshan.

Zhang Jun, the commander of the Zaoyang Army, took the lead, brandished the spear in his hand and quickly overturned a few Western Xia soldiers who met him, and led more than 2,000 personal soldiers to rush directly to the Chinese army of Qianshan.

, so that Qian Shan suddenly stagnated.

"Enemy attack!"

With Qi Shan's hoarse roar, countless roaring sounds suddenly burst out from the dense forests on both sides of the official road. Immediately afterward, the war drums rang out in unison, and the monstrous shouts of killing resounded throughout the official road, and in the light of the torches, Qi Shan could clearly see that countless vague black shadows were waving cold swords and swords from the dense forests on both sides.

"Array, hold! Steady! ”

Under the frightened hearts of the Western Xia generals around Qian Shan, they did not panic, urging the war horses under their crotch to dodge the dense arrows like rain, while shouting loudly to appease the Western Xia soldiers who were in a little commotion because of the sudden attack.

The rain of arrows fell, and countless miserable howls suddenly sounded, and blood splashed everywhere, adding a bit of blood to this dark night.

The 1,000 Qianshan soldiers who were the first to pass through this narrow official road of only tens of zhang in length suffered the most care, and countless sharp arrows swooped down from the dense forest, and most of them were aimed at the 1,000 Western Xia soldiers who were hanging alone on the other side.

The first road pounced on the 1,000 Qianshan soldiers who were hanging alone, but the second road was directly from both sides of the official road to the place where Qianshan and others were standing, blocking the possibility of Qianshan rescuing the 1,000 personal soldiers and joining forces; The third way is to block the retreat of Qianshan.

Zhang Jun, the commander of the Zaoyang Army, took the lead, brandished the spear in his hand and quickly overturned a few Western Xia soldiers who met him, and led more than 2,000 personal soldiers to rush directly to the Chinese army of Qianshan.