PS: The second update at 18 o'clock

Li Tingzhi sent troops to Huaibei or took the old road of the Southern Song Dynasty every time he went north, and under the cover of the Huai army in the Lianhai area, he directly crossed the Huaishui River and entered the Huaiyang army, and then he could follow the Huaiyang army north to Xuzhou and Shanzhou (now Shanxian County, Shandong), and from Shanzhou he could attack the Nanjing of the Song Dynasty - Yingtianfu.

For Li Tingzhi, this is the most cost-effective offensive route, especially without the cover of the Jiaozhou Naval Division, it will not make much sense to attack Jiaozhou and other places on the east side, and there is no telling what kind of net Zhang Hongfan, a difficult opponent, has prepared to wait for the Song army to collide with him, and Ying Tianfu is actually very close to Lianhai, Li Tingzhi has the strength and confidence to be able to take Ying Tianfu before Wen Tianxiang enters Luoyang, and this will definitely be an indelible achievement at that time.

It is precisely because of such a tempting target in front of him that Li Tingzhi did not hesitate to bet on Yangzhou, which he had worked hard for many years, and he gambled that before the entire Central Plains was stirred up, Boyan would not have the ability to defeat Ye Yingwu and capture Yangzhou.

Thinking that he could conquer Yingtianfu and even attack Bianliang, and Ye Yingwu could only be dragged by Boyan in Huainan, Li Tingzhi was secretly happy.

He Li Tingzhi was originally recognized as the number one general of the Great Song Dynasty, if it weren't for Ye Yingwu, a demonic young man who rose like a comet, I am afraid that the victory of the Xiangyang War should belong to Li Tingzhi and his Huai army, and now the ambassador and privy council envoy of the Great Song Dynasty along the river would not have fallen on Ye Yingwu's head.

Although he has never denied that Ye Yingwu is indeed a general who has not been met in a hundred years in the Great Song Dynasty, and he has the aftermath of Yue Wumu and Han Qi Wang back then, Li Tingzhi is still a little indignant when he thinks of this young man who took away everything that might have belonged to him.

But Li Tingzhi is not such a narrow-minded person, so naturally he will not think about calculating Ye Yingwu behind his back, nor will he think of joining forces with Jia Nidao and others to defeat Ye Yingwu in the court. Since everyone is a general of the Great Song Dynasty, the best way to fight is to see the real chapter on the battlefield and see who has the most credit.

This is also why Li Tingzhi set his sights on Ying Tianfu from the beginning, because conquering Ying Tianfu is definitely the greatest credit since the Northern Expedition.

Sitting on horseback, Li Tingzhi looked at the spring northern wilderness stretching in front of him, and looked forward to the moment when his flag fluttered above the gate of Yingtianfu. The soldiers of the Huai Army around him were also holding their heads high and their fighting spirits high, sweeping away the bad luck of the previous defeat of King Kong Tai.

After all, since Lianhai crossed the Huai, Li Tingzhi's 20,000 Huai troops swept through the Huaiyang army, and only a small group of panicked Mongolian Tatar sentinels fled along the way. And continue to Xuzhou is said to be just a Mongolian Han infantry thousand people stationed, if the Mongolian Tatar cavalry or Li Tingzhi still has to consider, for these Mongolian Han infantry soldiers used to defend the second-tier towns, Li Tingzhi did not take it to heart, if you really talk about combat power, such an opponent is far worse than the Huai army.

What's more, the Huai army has 20,000 people, and he can still be afraid that he will not succeed!

"General Qiyu, there is Xuzhou City in front." A sentry arrives on horseback.

Li Tingzhi nodded: "Are there still Mongolian Tatars in the city?" How many people can there be? ”

The sentry said with a smile: "The general is too worried, the Xuzhou City is already empty, and the subordinates who dared to touch the city just now did not see anyone in the city, and the gate of the urn city is also half-hidden, and it is estimated that the inside has long been empty." ”

Nodding slightly, Li Tingzhi couldn't help but let out a long sigh, who would have thought that the Mongolian Tartars, who were once invincible in front of the Song army, would be so weak in his heart that even Xuzhou, a major town in the Central Plains, could be said to be lost.

What's more important is that this Northern Expedition is different from the time when Duanping entered Luo, when Duanping entered Luo, the area of Huaibei in Henan Province had already allowed the retreating Jin army to loot and slaughter, ten rooms and nine emptiness, which led to most of the Song troops going north having no soldiers and no food, not so much being defeated by the Mongolian cavalry, but rather collapsing themselves.

And now this time, after nearly 30 years of slow reconciliation and recovery of the Mongols, these places that were once full of corpses and bones have reappeared, including the cities that are not as deserted as they used to be, so that the Song army of the Northern Expedition finally no longer has to worry about the poor turnover of military rations, and the grain and grass discarded by the Mongols when they retreated in the city are enough to replenish, and they don't even need to collect from the people.

"Enter the city and have dinner." Li Tingzhi smiled and waved his hand, the Huai army has been desperately moving forward since crossing the Huaishui, there are not many Mongolian Tatars on the road, and Li Tingzhi is bent on conquering Yingtianfu, so even the food is mostly on the road.

Now Xuzhou is in front of him, and Yingtianfu is close at hand, so Li Tingzhi doesn't mind stopping to let the tired Huai soldiers rest and rest, after all, the Huai army is not the Tianwu army, Ye Yingwu can withstand a day and a night to fight in Gwangju and Suizhou, Li Tingzhi can ask himself if he has this ability.

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Wang Dayong climbed up the hillside, but his eyes widened, and he looked at the Mongolian Tatar brigade that appeared under the hillside in surprise, and the black flags looked particularly dazzling on the turquoise field

However, it seems that the queue of Mongolian Tartar foot soldiers, which is full of 10,000 people, did not find the few figures on the hillside not far away, and still walked forward with steps, and five or six miles in front of them is Yangzhou, the foundation of the Huaidong Song army.

"There is nowhere to find when you step on the iron hooves, and it takes no effort to get it." Wang Dayong squinted at the Mongolian foot soldiers who looked like poisonous snakes moving forward in the field, "Lao Tzu thought that he could only go to Yangzhou City to fight with you, since he has collided now, don't blame Lao Tzu's men for being ruthless!" ”

Apparently the Mongol team of 10,000 men also realized that something was wrong, and when they looked sideways, they saw red flags fluttering up and down the hillside. I don't know when, a Song army appeared on their flank by mistake.

Face the music!

"Zuo Xiang Erlang, kill!" Wang Da pointed forward with the knife in his hand, and roared loudly, although he found it suddenly, but Zuo Xiang had planned to fight with the Mongolian Tatars at any time, so he had already prepared, and he was not afraid of this sudden enemy.

The war horse neighed, and the commander of the left wing of the town navy rushed down the hill first. Behind him, the left wing of the town navy marched in a neat array, and rows of spears flashed dazzlingly in the sun. And the crossbowmen were already standing still from both sides of the hill and at the same time pulled the trigger.

The Mongolian 10,000-man team obviously did not expect that these southern barbarians would be so bold that they would fight as soon as they met each other. They are not the Mongolian Han soldiers in the battle of Xiangyang, five thousand of these ten thousand people are just issued from the Central Plains, Hebei area of the new soldiers, and the others are also from the cities and towns of the second line of the old and weak, although they have experienced the battle of Jingangtai, but the victory of Jingangtai has nothing to do with them, it is all the credit of the Mongolian cavalry, these foot soldiers just followed behind a few shouts, and then calmly cleaned up the battlefield.

So at the end of the day, they still haven't encountered any recruits.

"Crossbowman, quick, crossbowman!" The commander who commanded them was a Mongolian-Chinese half-breed, and he commanded loudly in broken Chinese, and the guards behind him also shouted.

However, being frightened by this sudden Song army, where did the Mongol infantry remember that they should shoot the formation with their crossbowmen, and then the infantry attacked? What's more, they are not stupid, they can see it very clearly, this Song army has 10,000 people, not less than their own side.

The commander was in a hurry, the brigade was on the march, and it was difficult to contact and take care of it for a while, and the ten commanders under his command did not have much battlefield experience, so they were already in a panic at this time, and they didn't know what to do, where could they take care of their subordinates.

But no matter what, in the end, it is still a team that has walked through the battlefield, and this Mongolian infantry is not as vulnerable as the Zhenjiang Mansion garrison soldiers that Ye Yingwu faced before. There were already several thousand-strong teams slowly catching up with the Song army.

"Put!" The Song Jun Yu Marquis, who commanded the crossbowmen, had a calm face, and in fact, he didn't need to worry too much about dealing with such an enemy, he only needed to follow strict and regular tactics to crush the past, "The assault rifle is approaching, and the flying thunder cannon is ready!" ”

The Divine Arm Crossbow was the first to roar, and then the rapidly erected Flying Thunder Cannon showed its hideous face in front of it.

"Shield!" The Mongolian commander at the front shouted anxiously, but he didn't expect these southern barbarians to be really polite, and the dense arrows that came up were enough to drown his thousand-man team. As for the other teams, what about the others, their own 1,000 people can't stop the assault of tens of thousands of Southern Barbarians.

The commander looked back in surprise, only two or three thousand people slowly followed, and the rest of the soldiers were all in place in panic looking at the arrows and southern barbarians who were getting closer and closer! There are even people who have started to look around for a way to escape or a place to hide.

Ridiculous! The commander felt sad in his heart, he originally thought that everyone would fight bravely for Mongolia, but now he realized that the guy who originally shouted louder than the other slogan was just a despicable and shameless coward when it came to the battle array.

In the next moment, dense arrows roared and swept through this incomparably abrupt team of thousands.

"Commander, let's retreat!" A centurion held a shield and walked quickly, "That Boyan has already fled with his people, but he just let the brothers come to his death and attract the attention of Ye Yingwu, a Southern Barbarian who has suffered a thousand swords, why should we give him his life." ”

While struggling to pick off the arrows, the commander looked at a few subordinates who were walking quickly with some helplessness, and there were soldiers who were constantly hit by arrows and fell screaming. And a dark thing was already tumbling over the heads of several people, flying into the Mongolian infantry brigade behind.

"Boom!" An explosion completely broke the silence of the field, and also completely shattered the dependence in the hearts of the Mongolian infantry.

Without the cover of the Mongol cavalry, the robe was hesitant, and the southern barbarians came like a tide, accompanied by such sharp firearms. There is no way to fight this battle! He is like a prey in front of the Southern Barbarians.

"Quick Fix!" Wang Da rushed into the Mongolian soldiers with a horse, and the mace in his hand slashed through one bloody light after another, and the hundred cavalry in the left compartment closely guarded him, and then the periphery was the left van foot soldiers, with Wang Dayong as the tip of the sword, and rows of white tassels fluttering spears as the blade, the left wing directly split the Mongolian thousand people who bore the brunt of the attack!

A mallet smashed the brain of a Mongolian soldier who couldn't dodge, and Wang Da weighed the guy in his hand, and this thing was still easy to use when charging into battle. At that moment, while he rode forward, brandishing his mace, and constantly harvesting the lives of the Mongol foot soldiers, he shouted loudly:

"The king of the town navy is of great use here, who dares to fight with me!"

"The king of the town navy is of great use here--who dares to fight with me-"

One shout after another echoed among the panicked Mongolian foot soldiers, and Wang Dayong looked at the Mongolian commander in front of him who was sitting on the back of the horse and hurriedly dodging, sneered, the war horse neighed, the mace had been smashed hard, the blood was stirring, and the Mongolian commander screamed and fell off the horse.

"General, general, we surrender, we surrender!" A Mongolian centurion watched the commander who was still directing him forward just now being dealt with a mallet by this Song army general who had been killed, and he was really heartbroken.

The Southern Barbarian is so brave, what else is there to fight!

Wang Dayong sneered and surrendered, okay.

At that moment, he tapped the centurion's helmet lightly with his mace: "When something is not good, it is really foolish to go and work for the Mongolian Tartars." But for your sake, Lao Tzu can consider sparing you from death. ”

"General, please say, let the villain do whatever he wants, do whatever he wants!" The Mongolian centurion was already crying, as long as he allowed himself to save this little life, he didn't want to care about anything else.

Squinting his eyes and pointing ahead, Wang Da smiled fiercely: "Let those people surrender to Lao Tzu, otherwise you will be broken into thousands of pieces!" ”

Let everyone surrender? The Mongolian centurion breathed a sigh of relief, most of the centurions in his thousand-man team no longer wanted to fight, and now they were just struggling to support, as long as they roared that the centurion had died in battle, it was estimated that they would obediently put down their blades.

Sensing what this centurion was planning, Wang Da said in a cold voice: "It's not this thousand people, but your entire team of 10,000 people!" Lao Tzu doesn't want to go through the trouble of killing, hurry up! ”

The centurion's face turned white, but he still stood up tremblingly, and did not look at the dead centurion who fell beside him. At this time, it is still important to live, since those high-ranking Mongolian lords usually don't take us seriously, and now they are even more regarded as outcasts, so why do you have to work hard for them!

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"This is Xuzhou City?" Li Tingzhi looked at the empty city, and couldn't help but sigh softly, "It's a pity that it has been a hundred years old and has lost its prosperity." ”

Several Huaijun generals walking beside him nodded with deep sympathy, this looks not much different from an ordinary county town in the south of the Yangtze River, if it weren't for the clear writing of the word "Xuzhou" on the city gate, any Jiangnan people who came would not believe that this was a state capital.

"Let's go into the city and have a look." Li Tingzhi looked around, the urn city was even dilapidated, and he didn't know if it had been repaired in the past hundred years, and after this urn city, in front of it was the main city gate that was opened. Through the city gate, you can see the empty scene of the city, and it is really a dead silence.

Li Tingzhi slowly stepped forward, and several sentry riders who came first were already standing at the door, and when they saw Li Tingzhi coming, they hurriedly and respectfully bowed their hands: "General Qiqi, except for a few people, the city is empty, please rest assured that the general will enter the city." ”

smiled and nodded, but Li Tingzhi seemed to have discovered something, and looked at these sentry riders with some suspicion: "Why don't you remember seeing you, your heads are ・・・・・・?"

"Brothers, do it!" Seeing that he was recognized, the original smiling face of the leading ten generals suddenly turned hideous, and he pulled out his knife and pounced on Li Tingzhi!

"Mongolian Tartar!" Li Tingzhi's pupils contracted suddenly, and he didn't look at the disguised sentry horses of these Mongolian Han soldiers who were desperately blocked by the guards around him, and almost subconsciously shouted loudly, "It's not good, it's a trick, withdraw, retreat quickly!" ”

"Li Tingzhi, it's too late!" As if to answer Li Tingzhi's voice, a loud voice sounded from the urn city, a certain Shandong unified army envoy came out, waiting for you for a long time! “

Before the words fell, countless Mongolian soldiers poked their heads out at the same time, and all kinds of rolling stones and sassholes in their hands desperately smashed towards the chaotic Song army in the urn city. And the dense arrows like locusts fell from the city at the same time with the hot oil, and for a time only the screams of the Song soldiers were left in the urn city. And the gate of the urn city was originally small, but now it is completely blocked by arrows.

"Bang!" With a loud bang, the open gate of Xuzhou fell to the ground, cutting off the last retreat of the Song army in the urn city.

At the same time, there was also the sound of horses' hooves stomping the earth outside the city, and I don't know how many Mongolian cavalry were desperately rushing to this side, obviously the Mongols did not intend to let go of those Huai soldiers outside the city.

Li Tingzhi's heart seemed to be pinched hard, and a mouthful of blood had already spurted out.

He was defeated, and Huaidong was able to rely on the last elite, and he was about to lose everything! For this trap, the Mongol Tartars really took great pains, and sure enough, they were like a stupid trick in Vajratai, and ruined the credit that could have been obtained.

It's just that Li Tingzhi didn't understand from beginning to end, where did the Mongolian Tatars come from so many people!

Ta Chu looked at Li Tingzhi, who was spurting blood and fainting to the ground, smiled coldly, and arched his hand at the old man behind him: "Marshal, Ta Chu is fortunate not to be dishonored." ”

The old man smiled and nodded, but did not speak, as if everything was under control.

Ta Chu glanced at the old man with admiration, and couldn't help but secretly sigh, in the end, it is the marshal, and the name is well deserved! (To be continued.) )