In addition to the necessary stay, all the defenders of Ezhou have lined up outside the west gate to welcome the arrival of the governor. Zheng Yunming did not want to really "drive" these soldiers who escaped from a hundred battles, in his opinion, this heroic city and its defenders are the real heroes of this magnificent battle, without the gritted teeth of tens of thousands of soldiers in Ezhou, there would be no subsequent campaign operations one after another, not to mention the sudden interception of the Mongolian army's traffic on the river in the form of surprise attacks. It was the joint efforts of the Ezhou army and the people to defend the defense, and always firmly pulled the main force of the Mongolian army to the periphery of Ezhou, so that they could not concentrate the absolute superior forces and the Song Dynasty to come to the aid of the army to start a decisive battle, because the threat of Ezhou always existed, so that the Mongolian military prepared before the siege and reinforcement strategy was invalid, and the Mongolian army failed to annihilate the reinforcements from all over the country to Jinghu. It's no small miracle.

But what a price such a miracle took! Zheng Yunming clearly saw that there were more than 40,000 elite soldiers who rushed to Ezhou and Ezhou before the war, and now less than one-third of them are lined up outside the city for review, and all of them are wrapped in white cloths, some are on wooden staffs, and some are hanging their arms with suspenders, and the soldiers who can really fight are estimated to be no more than 5,000 people, in fact, all the troops are covered with blood, and it is difficult to tell who is injured, and it seems that the people standing here are all lonely ghosts who have just crawled back to the world from hell.

Chen Guang and Wei Sheng stood at the front of the team, their armor was already torn, and the guard of honor that should have been equipped was long gone, only Wei Sheng's uninjured left hand firmly held the banner that had become a little blackened due to blood.

Zheng Yunming turned over and dismounted, slowly walked to the front of the two, and bowed deeply to the two people.

"The whole society of the Great Song Dynasty is all due to the two of you!" Although it is just a simple sentence, the entire Great Song Dynasty knows that this sentence has never been said from the mouth of Zheng Xianggong, of course, even if someone makes greater contributions in the future, it will probably be difficult to get such praise again.

Chen Guang suddenly burst into tears, the cry was so loud that the women and children in the inner city who were hiding from the scourge of war could hear it clearly, they didn't understand, why was the general who was calm and normal in the earth-shattering artillery attack of the Mongols, why was he crying as sad as a child at this time?

But soon, thousands of men who stood behind Chen Guang who struggled back from the line of life and death also began to cry loudly, the cry was like a landslide and tsunami washing away the anxiety and despair for dozens of days, and in the earth-shattering cry, Chen Guang's resounding response sounded: "Up and down Ezhou, thanks to the Prime Minister's life!" ”

In the midst of the weeping, only Wei Sheng had a straight face, and his eyes were as usual under the black and red stains, Li Tingzhi smiled: "Among the hundreds of thousands of people in Ezhou, only Wei Laohu is not afraid of death?" ”

Wei Sheng said expressionlessly: "When I went on the expedition, there was a saying in the letter of the Xianggong that the reinforcements would arrive sooner or later, but before the city of Ezhou was broken, the Xianggong had been believing everything since he led the troops, what am I afraid of!" ”

Zheng Yunming snorted, and then asked in a deep voice, "Is there only this one left in your subordinates,,,,,, you?" ”

He naturally felt like digging into the heart, in the past twenty years, he has trained several large armies, but in the end, what he really trusts is only Han Feng's cavalry and Wei Sheng's foot soldiers, and next, he will have a real decisive battle with the Mongols on the vast Central Plains, but at this time he has no tiger's foot soldiers to use. In order to win this big battle with life and death, he had to cut his flesh and blood as a sacrifice, but Zheng Yunming really saw that there was only such a small number of troops left in the tiger infantry he used to conquer, and he couldn't help but be moved.

Wei Sheng replied lightly: "The brothers who can move have gone out of the city to find a cheap way to kill the enemy, this is a good situation, who is willing to sit in the city in a daze." ”

Zheng Yunming was suddenly surprised, he only thought that Wei Sheng had reached the point of exhaustion, but he didn't expect that Wei Sheng still had the strength to open the city to chase and kill the enemy. But seeing Wei Sheng smiled: "What the prime minister said, even when it comes to the most critical time, don't let yourself fall into a helpless situation, the contact area between the inner city of Ezhou and the enemy army is narrow, so the various departments are organized into small corps, and take turns to fight with the enemy, although they can't annihilate the enemy in large numbers, but they can delay time, and at the same time let the various departments have time to rest, and when the Mongolian army breaks through the inner city, the various departments do have the limit of physical strength." But it is not that there are no casualties, because the minister said that those who use the good soldiers first use the right time and place to win, followed by the military revolution, and then exert physical strength, and the worst ones are piled up by human lives. Today, although there are many enemy troops, it has not really reached the point of forcing me to fill it with human lives. ”

Zheng Yunming didn't praise him, he didn't need to have any more praise for this henchman general who had been by his side since he was a teenager, in the past twenty years, the four young generals under his command have grown up rapidly and become the pillars of the Great Song Dynasty.

Suddenly, a fast horse galloped in the distance, and when he came to Zheng Yunming, he dismounted and said: "Wang Dutong has besieged Zhang Rou in Lingyidu, please tell the prime minister whether to capture and kill this thief!" ”

Zheng Yunming laughed, and he said loudly: "No matter how old you are, you still don't change this temper of asking for merit and reward, is it possible that I don't witness the scene of his Hunan army soldiers fighting bravely against thieves, and if I don't come with a few words of praise, he Wang Ziqiu won't be able to fight?" Tell him to catch this thief quickly! ”

As soon as the words came out, he immediately hesitated again and shouted: "Wait, wait for me to go in person." ”

On the shore of Lingyidu, hundreds of remnants of the Mongol army got off their horses and formed a tight circular defense line, each holding up an iron shield, one side by another close together to form a shield wall, in this era the dense formation of the shield wall in front of the artillery has no effect, but before the artillery comes up, they can still rely on firm discipline and the weight in their hands can hardly hold the iron shield company to build a temporary defensive belt.

When they saw that the Qingluo umbrella cover was slowly approaching, although they already knew that they would die, but for the sake of the kindness of ten thousand households decided to die together these hundred warriors also panicked, for twenty years, the Qingluo umbrella cover is like the nine beetles on the opposite side, the enemy army in the place where it went collapsed, everyone looked at it, and the seeds of fear had already been planted in the entire Mongolian army, this unprecedented defeat, but let this seed take root more quickly, and become an eternal shadow in the hearts of millions of Mongolian soldiers and civilians.

In the blink of an eye, the Qingluo umbrella arrived at the front line, and the governor under the umbrella looked at the prime minister Zheng Yunming and shouted: "Zhang Degang! You are already a caged rat, so you will abandon your armor and surrender immediately! I remember that you are brave and able to fight, and immediately abandon the darkness and turn to the light, and I will not be guilty! If you resist the army strongly, you will be powdered in the blink of an eye! Hugh hesitated, quickly put down his weapons and surrendered! ”

Xu Yuanjie was shocked in his heart, he usually saw Zheng Yunming persuade him to surrender, he was always humble and gentle, quoted scriptures and classics, and forced people with the general trend, never forced him with words, but he didn't expect Zheng Yunming to have such a fierce forced landing.

Zhang Rou gritted his teeth and didn't answer, turned his head to look at the river, the boat carrying his son Zhang Hongfan and dozens of soldiers estimated that it had arrived on the north bank at this time, when he ordered Zhang Hongfan to board the ship and retreat, the child would rather die than get on the boat, he must stay and live and die with his father, it was the army in charge He Boxiang who knocked him out and carried him onto the boat. Since the end of the annihilation of the army and horses under the Yizhou Wanhu subordinates is unavoidable, then in any case, there must be some seeds left for this steel division, as long as Mongolia is still there, as long as the Zhang family is still the owner of the Yanjing fief in Hebei, sooner or later this army and horses can be re-established.

As for Zheng Yunming's persuasion? Zhang Rou sneered and roared: "My generation has been in the south of the Yangtze River for ten years, and Hugh said that the soldiers, even if they kill women and children, they are enough to kill, Zheng Yunming!" How many old and weak women and children have died because of you in the territory under your jurisdiction, can such military exploits be called famous generals through the ages! ”

He was deliberately provoking Zheng Yunming, and as soon as these words came out, the Song army was in an uproar, and Wang Ziqiu's face sank like water, and he shouted loudly: "Did you hear Zhang Rou's words just now!" If you hear it, you will tear him to shreds! ”

"Wait." Zheng Yunming raised his hand to stop Wang Ziqiu's anger, raised his voice and shouted at the other side: "Zhang Degang, don't provoke me with words!" You can rest assured that this army is based on benevolence and righteousness, and when the Northern Expedition comes, it will never poison innocent women and children! ”

He waved his hand lightly and shouted: "Artillery team, send Zhang Wanhu on the road!" ”

Wang Ziqiu promised loudly, turned over and dismounted, grabbed a tiger cannon in three or two steps, stretched out his hand to gesture the distance, and shouted: "In front of the enemy!" Seventy steps! Three shotguns, loaded! Dozens of tiger guns that occupied the firing position next to the loaders quickly filled a large bag of gunpowder into the barrel, and then poured the shotguns, compacted them with iron rods, and the shooters struggled to fill the lead into the fire door, raising their heads and waiting for the final order of the capital.

Wang Ziqiu raised his eyes and looked at the hundreds of remnants on the opposite side, although they were already facing the last moment, everyone was calm and quiet, and there was no panic or fear. Even if it is an opponent, Wang Ziqiu couldn't help but praise in his heart, only such an army can be called a fierce enemy who has been fighting hard for twenty years, he raised his right arm, waved it fiercely, and shouted

"Fire!"

Outside the vertical arch hall of the Lin'an Imperial City, there are full of guards on duty, and the duty that has undergone military innovation has also changed its appearance, each squad has set up firecrackers, spearmen, sword and shield hands, with 30 people as a combat team, advancing and retreating like the front-line troops, which is a concentration camp for Zheng Yunming to train young officers. At this moment, every young imperial guard will be straight, they know that the important news may arrive at any time, if it is a great news, the emperor will definitely be furious because of a moment's delay, if it is unfortunate news, it is certainly a precursor to the catastrophe for the Great Song Dynasty, but it is not a great opportunity for these young people who are eager to go to the battlefield to make meritorious contributions