Chapter 531: Ice and Fire

Zhao Huai and the others have strong martial arts, and their overall strength is better than that of the three of them, and they are a new force, so they suddenly forced the Yuan army in front of them to retreat.

Immediately afterwards, a hundred Song army daredevils quickly rushed into the south gate of Bianliang. Although the three Yuan armies stationed in the city arrived one after another, the daredevils firmly guarded the city gate under the leadership of Zhao Huai and others. Subsequently, 20,000 Song troops under the command of Jiang Wanzai also arrived in time, and in the face of absolute superiority, thousands of Yuan army officers and soldiers only resisted for a short time, and were defeated in a burst of muskets. Where have these defenders seen firearms, they thought it was a divine soldier descending from heaven, and they were terrified. The Han Chinese in the Yuan army surrendered, while the recalcitrant Mongol soldiers were quickly slaughtered, including the top general of the Yuan army in Bianliang, who was also killed by muskets.

Witnessing the power of firearms for the first time, Fan Liangfu, Meng Huanshan and others all felt incredible, and when they heard that there were more powerful artillery, they sighed in their hearts, no wonder the invincible Yuan army would be defeated in the Battle of Xiangyang.

Meng Huanshan and Cheng Fei were both veterans in the city, and they traveled extensively, and under their persuasion, these captured Han soldiers of the Yuan army were successively relocated, and most of them were willing to join the ranks of the Song army, and the rest were released by Jiang Wanzai's order.

Due to the strict discipline of the Song army, only two days later, Bianliang City returned to its former calm. For an army that would rather stay under the eaves at night than harass the people, it was easy to win the favor of the people of Bianliang, not to mention that most of the people in the city were Han Chinese.

Three days later, I received a good news from Jiang Wanzai, and agreed to the proposal of Jiang Wanzai and others to set up our army's first military region in the north, the Bianliang Military Region, and the first batch of officers and men was composed of the Han defenders who surrendered to Cheng, and was organized into a single army, with General Zhao Huai serving as the first commander of the military region and concurrently serving as the commander of the 30th Army, Fan Liang being reinstated as the deputy commander and senator of the 30th Army, and Meng Huanshan, Cheng Fei, and others serving as the battalion commanders of the five battalions.

After reading the battle report, I asked Gongsun Xiaochen to call Zhang Shun, Zhang Shijie and Wu Songhan to the big tent.

"See the Emperor."

"No courtesy. General Wu, two General Zhang, and now Jiang Aiqing has successfully captured Bianliang, and then there will be a state of stubbornness, therefore, grain and grass, and munitions will be the key, two General Zhang, you each lead the troops and horses of the headquarters, General Wu, you let the 17th Cavalry Army accompany you, and transport the materials to Bianliang as soon as possible while the Yuan army has not yet encircled Bianliang. ”

Wu Songhan and Zhang Shun hugged their fists and said: "Yes, the last general will respect the order." ”

But Zhang Shijie hesitated for a moment, and said with some worry: "Your Majesty, the first division of the Imperial Forest Army is far away in Bianliang, and if the general is gone, only the new third division will remain, will it lead to a shortage of musketeers?" ”

"General Zhang's rest assured that the defenders of Nanyang do not know the movements of our army, our army is waiting for work, and there are artillery, as long as you don't take the initiative to attack, you will be fine, you can go and return quickly. Now Bianliang has been restored, presumably everyone knows about the Yuan, and there is no large number of Yuan troops stationed along the road, so you go north from Xixia Town, and then take the official road shortcut. I will intensify my patrols tomorrow in case the Nanyang cavalry raids you, and the musketeers will accompany you to prevent the cavalry of Ashu. ”

Zhang Shijie said: "Yes, the last general understands." ”

As Fan Liangfu said, the political significance of the reconquest of Bianliang was far greater than the military significance, which not only boosted the Han people in the north, but also put Kublai Khan in a dilemma. After a long examination, Kublai Khan finally adopted the proposal of Wuliang Hetai, negotiated peace with the Western khanates, and sent a negotiating team headed by Zhenjin to the northwest border to negotiate peace with the four khanates, and if an agreement could be reached, at least 50,000 elite troops could be transferred back from the border passes. At the same time, Kublai Khan ordered that 10,000 Dadu garrisons and 30,000 new troops be sent to Bianliang, with the general Wanfu Chang Poluhuan as the commander and Ali Bo as the vanguard, intending to follow the example of the Duanping Battle of Luoluo and trap the Song army. Kublai Khan did not accept Hao Jing's suggestion to transfer troops from Nanyang.

When they learned that Bianliang City was broken by the Song army, Ah Shu, Boyan and others in Nanyang were all surprised.

"Boyan, the Song army divides its troops and marches north, aren't you afraid that our army will cut off its way back and become a lone army?"

"Dashuai, Boyan agrees, maybe it's because the Southern Dynasty army can't hold its breath after the Battle of Xiangyang, thinking that Zhao Yu is young and vigorous, like the old emperor of the Southern Dynasty when he was young, he is eager to make contributions, but I don't know what the emperor's plans are?"

Ah Shu said: "Today, the army of the Southern Dynasties is moving in all directions, the Sichuan army and the Jianghuai army have already launched operations, and even their sailors have gone north from the coast, and those who come are not good." There are not many troops around the emperor, and the new army has not yet become an army, so we should share the worries of the emperor, General Guo Kan. ”

"The end will be."

"This marshal ordered you to lead 15,000 infantry troops, set off immediately, stationed in Xuchang, hold on for the time being, and wait for the emperor's instructions to arrive, and then make the next plan."

"Yes, Marshal, the last general will obey."

"Shi Jian Jun, report to the emperor."

"Yes, Marshal."

"General Azhuhan, what is the movement of the Song army in Dengzhou recently?"

"Hui Dashuai, according to the report of the scouts sent by the pioneer battalion, in recent days, the Southern Korean army has gone to Luhe Town and Wadian in two groups to inspect the area, and there is a possibility of building a bridge over the Baihe River near Wadian. Moreover, the Song army that went to inspect the area of Luhe Town yesterday has reached 10,000 people, and it seems that they are building a camp. ”

"Bridging?" Boyan thought for a while and said, "The Southern Dynasty army and my middle army are the same number, since we first divided our troops to the north, if we divide them into two ways to attack Nanyang, it doesn't seem to be the best policy, once the firearms are separated, their power will be sharply reduced, no, one of them must be suspicious soldiers, and Zhao Yu will definitely only concentrate on attacking my Nanyang." ”

"General Boyan has a point." Ali Hague said, "If the Southern Dynasty divides its troops, with the speed of our cavalry, and concentrates its forces to destroy its way first, it will be able to win a great victory, so the last general thinks that the Southern Dynasty will attack from Luhe Town, and the matter of building a bridge is just a pretense." ”

"Well, this marshal agrees with the two of you, General Atahai."

"The end will be."

"Ben Shuai will give you 3,000 cavalry troops, inspect the tile shop day and night, and once you find that the southerners are building bridges, they will be destroyed immediately."

"Yes, the last general."

"General Ali Hague, General Azerhan."

"The end will be."

"The two of you will lead 20,000 cavalry to Luhe Town tomorrow, and if the Southern Korean army has no artillery, destroy the camp it has built."

"Yes, the last will be ordered."

Two days later, in the evening, about fifty miles away from the south gate of Xuchang, Zhang Shun and others met the Yuan army led by Guo Kan. In the case of poor preparation on both sides and the fact that both sides were on a rapid march, the ability of the firearm was very prominent, and it did not require too much physical strength for the musketeer to pull the trigger. Five hundred projectiles were thrown first, blowing up the Yuan army in front of them, and then, the second division of the Imperial Forest Army, under the command of Zhang Shijie, lined up to shoot, and finally the 17th cavalry army rushed to kill, and soon defeated the Yuan army, which had a sense of fear of firearms. Fortunately, Guo Kan, the commander of the Yuan army, had experienced a hundred battles, and in an unfavorable situation, he retreated in time and entered Xuchang with more than 7,000 remnants.

After Zhang Shun and Zhang Shijie discussed, they did not pursue and went to Bianliang overnight.

In the following days, Lü Wenhuan personally led a large army to set up a camp seventy or eighty miles west of Luhe Town, while the Yuan army attacked daily, but Lü Wenhuan did not resist, and immediately retreated when he saw the Yuan army attacking. And so on, the camp was largely unformed.

A few days later, Zhang Shun and Zhang Shijie, who were transporting grain and grass, successfully returned to Dengzhou, and on the same day, Lu Wenhuan also stopped building a camp.

On September 24, Kublai Khan of Dadu received three urgent reports during the court meeting, one was that Guo Kan encountered the enemy in Xuchang and lost thousands of soldiers; The second part is played by Liu Quan, the commander of the naval division, the naval division of the Southern Dynasties, under the personal leadership of Li Beiyang, has reached the coastal territory of our dynasty, our army lost the first battle, and the minister has rushed to the Shandong naval division base overnight; The other one was sent back from Liaocheng by the deputy general of the cowardly Xue army.

When Kublai Khan read these three battle reports, he sighed and suddenly felt weakness all over his body, and several joints hurt at the same time. At this time, Kublai Khan did not know that his joint pain was caused by gout.

"Retreat." Kublai Khan held back the pain and said.

It's really a coincidence that there is no book, ice and fire. That night, I also received three war reports, the first of which was sent by Wang Lixin, the commander of the Yunnan Military Region, that the remnants of Mongolia in Yunnan had been completely wiped out, and the next step of the military region's plan was to launch an operation to suppress bandits.

"Okay, Xiao Chen, order Wang Lixin to transfer 5,000 soldiers from the Yunnan Military Region to support the Western Route Army."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The other two battle reports were both from Li Tingzhi on the East Road, but one of them was forwarded by Li Tingzhi, and the three battle reports made me even more happy.

Li Tingzhi said in his war report that on 19 September, the armies of Yangzhou and Luzhou, the Northern Expeditionary Army of our Eastern Road, took a joint action and attacked Xuzhou, an important town in northern Jiangsu, in one fell swoop, destroying more than 5,000 enemies. Kefu in Xuzhou laid a good foundation for the attack on Shandong, and was the first victory after the Eastern Route Army advanced north. In addition, Li Tingzhi also forwarded a handwritten letter from Yin Yinglei, in which Yin Yinglei said that after dozens of days of arduous marching, in accordance with His Majesty's guerrilla ideology, our army finally got the opportunity to take advantage of the light enemy of the Mongol general Edu and the power of the projectiles to ambush the Mongol cowardly Xue in the area of Yansi Village in the west of Liaocheng, wiped out more than 4,000 people in the Edu Division, and killed his main general, Edu, while our army suffered only more than 500 casualties, and the only deficiency was that all the grenades had been used up.

"The Mongolian cowardice is really extraordinary, and it actually consumed thousands of grenadiers from General Yin." Yuan Jian sighed.

"Throwing bombs can be created one after another when they are gone, and the cowardly Xue Army is not so easy to cultivate." I smiled and said, "Gongsun Xiaochen, Tian Xiuyan, and Li Tingzhi are ordered to fight steadily, and also, find a way to contact Yin Yinglei and let him approach Bianliang." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."