Chapter 468 Unexpected Encounter

"Okay, General Lu, after the meeting, you rush back to Xiangyang overnight, and I will transfer you an artillery squadron, ten artillery pieces, led by General Yan Tianlei, the commander of the artillery battalion, and return with you tonight."

Lu Wenhuan, who had seen the power of the artifact, said happily: "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

"General Lu, General Wanyan is an expert in this, and the artillery placement of the two cities of Xiang and Fan is left to General Wanyan to decide. From the 23rd of this month, your army will be able to decide on the use of artillery at its own discretion, and find the right opportunity to strike hard at the enemy's stone throwers and the besieging Yuan soldiers, but at the same time, you must also pay attention to economy, knowing that the cost of a cannonball is equivalent to a hundred taels of silver. ”

"Yes, the end will be done."

On 21 May, more than 20,000 soldiers of the Song Army set out from the north gate and west gate of Yingzhou City one after another, and marched all the way north.

Due to the limited terrain, except for the cavalry, the rest of the infantry could only cross the undulating mountain road, and it was only on the evening of the 22nd that it converged at the southern foot of Songhepo at the same time as the artillery battalion.

Songhepo is a collective name for several small hillsides, the north of the hillside is Longwei Island, the west is Hanshui, and the north of Longwei Island is Lumen Mountain. This Longwei Continent is also the largest plain between Xiangyang and Yingzhou, and except for a small forest near the Bush Beach in the north, the rest of the land is suitable for large-scale cavalry field battles.

The Chinese army's tent was located in the middle of Songhepo, and 200 guards surrounded me in a ring.

After dinner in the army, I gathered a group of generals in the big tent and made the final arrangements for tomorrow's battle. According to the plan, if the Yuan army does not attack, tomorrow I will lead the second division of the Imperial Forest Army, the Wenzhang Division, the Broken Army, and the third chamber of the three corps to Lumen Mountain to conduct on-the-spot investigations, leaving only Zhang Shijie's first division to guard the Songhepo camp, and at the same time, the Cretan artillery battalion can find the most suitable attack point.

I didn't say anything all night, and like many soldiers who had never been on the battlefield, I spent it in excitement and nervousness, while veterans like Wu Songhan and Jiang Cai did not have the slightest sense of nervousness, only the desire to make meritorious contributions.

The appearance of the brigade will naturally make the Yuan army in Lumen Mountain aware of it. At three o'clock in the evening (9:45 p.m.), in the tent of the marshal of Lumen Mountain, all the main generals around Xiangyang City gathered inside, and under the auspices of Ah Shu and Boyan, they discussed countermeasures.

After Zhenjin's repeated humility, Ashu, the commander of the Yuan Army's expedition to the south, still sat in the main seat in the middle, Zhenjin sat in the first place on the left, and the first on the right was the deputy marshal Boyan.

Boyan first said: "Generals, the reinforcements of the Southern Dynasties finally couldn't bear it anymore, and arrived at Songhepo in the south of Longweizhou from this afternoon to evening, and set up camp in the Songhepo area. You already know the specific details, and in this case, let's discuss together, how should our army respond? ”

Ah Tinghan, who seemed impatient, said excitedly: "Dashuai, Zhenjin Prison Army, General Boyan, the Southern Dynasty army appeared in the area of Songhepo, and its purpose is to attack my Lumen Mountain camp to relieve the danger of isolation in Xiangyang City. According to what the last general saw, our army should take the initiative to attack and annihilate the enemy in Longwei Continent, not to mention, the emperor of the Southern Dynasty may be among them, if he is caught, we will be done. ”

Compared with the excitement of Azihan, Zhang Hongfan, another pioneer, was quite calm: "Judging from the news from the scouts, the Song army in Songhepo is at least more than 20,000 people, which is almost half of the Yingzhou army, and more than 20,000 people are mixed with horses and banners, there are the Royal Forest Army, the cavalry and infantry army of the third compartment of the Lin'an Military Region, and the broken army led by Jiang Cai in Yangzhou, these troops are the main force of the Song army. Or take the initiative to fight a war of annihilation. ”

The veteran Shi Tianze said: "Zhenjin Prison Army, Marshal, this army is not good, the last general thinks that it is better to follow General Zhang's intentions and make plans after the trial, after all, our army has limited knowledge of the new weapons and muskets of the Southern Dynasties." ”

Subsequently, most of the generals of the Yuan army expressed their opinions, in general, one was the opinion represented by Azhuhan, which directly ordered the army to attack and annihilate the enemy at Songhepo in one go, and the other view supported Zhang Hongfan, first probed, and then made plans.

Ah Shu looked at the arguing generals, and then looked at Liu Quan, who was speechless, and said, "General Liu Quan, what do you mean?" ”

Seeing the marshal's roll call, Liu Cheng had no choice but to say: "Marshal, the last general thinks that it is better to be careful." ”

Zhenjin smiled: "General Liu, you are from the Southern Dynasty, even if you have any opinions, you are just discussing at the moment, and it doesn't matter what you suggest." ”

"Yes, Lord Jin." Liu straightened up and said, "Marshal, generals, the Great War of the Yuan and Song Dynasty has lasted for decades, although our dynasty has the upper hand, but this time the appearance of the Southern Dynasty army in Songhepo is different from the previous habits of the Song army. General Han just said that Xiangyang is a lonely city, but in fact, it is not true, at least, the Han water route is still in the hands of the Song army, that is to say, the Song army has not yet reached the point where it must open up contact with Xiangyang, so the last general thinks that the Song army is implementing their anti-encirclement tactics. There is a big question here, our army obviously has a castle to defend, with the combat strength of the Song army, doesn't it just come up to send it to death? ”

The last of the generals to arrive in Xiangfan was the commander of the southern capital, and suddenly stabbed: "General Liu, isn't this the plan set by the emperor?" Siege reinforcements. ”

Liu Quandao: "General Suddenly, the problem is here, when the Song army is not completely isolated in Xiangyang City, it still wants to attack my castle with its shortness, is there a problem with this?" ”

Hu Thorn thought for a while and said, "Well, General Liu, it's reasonable." ”

"Generals, in this regard, the last general thinks that there may be two situations, one is that the commander of the Song army is a stunned young man, brave and unstrategic, and only knows how to fight hard. There is also the situation that they have something to rely on, and this support, the intuition of the last general, is his so-called musket. This point is like our army's return artillery, although our army only tried it at the north gate of Fancheng, but the soldiers of the Song army defending the city will be surprised, and repeatedly thought, if ten or a hundred return cannons are fired together, can they still hold it? ”

Boyan said: "General Liu, this first situation can be ruled out, the commander in command of this battle in the Southern Dynasty is Zhao Yu, although he is a stunned young man who has never been on the battlefield, but he is by no means just a stunned young man with courage and no strategy, on the contrary, even the emperor recognizes him as an opponent, so we only need to analyze the second situation." On that day, General Shudu could only hear a deafening sound, and before he could see clearly, almost all of our army's 100-man squad fell from their horses. I agree with General Liu that Zhao Yu of the Southern Dynasty relied on their muskets, and this is exactly unknown to our army. ”

Although the generals of the Yuan Army present have always looked down on the general Liu Quan, most of them feel that his words are quite reasonable, and they can't help but ponder.

"Haha." Ashuhan suddenly smiled and said, "Generals, don't want to grow the ambition of the Nanren. Early tomorrow morning, the last general will only lead the vanguard army of 10,000 horses to Songhepo and bring the head of the emperor of the Southern Dynasty. This time is really boring, General Ali Hague, who is besieging Fancheng, has already captured the periphery of Fancheng, and the last general, as a vanguard, has not made an inch, so how can he let the last general go to the activities. ”

For the Yuan army, which was good at field warfare, this kind of long-term siege without attacking tactics did make people of the type of Azhuhan quite impatient.

"General Han, the emperor of the Southern Dynasty has come to Xiangfan, are you still worried that there is no war to fight?" Ah Shu smiled, got up and said, "The generals will listen to the order, and tomorrow, together with General Boyan, Ben Shuai and General Boyan, will lead 10,000 people from the Ashuhan Division, 10,000 people from the Kuthorn Division, and 5,000 Cowardly Xue to fight in Longwei Continent." Generals, return to the camp at once, arrange the affairs of the various departments tomorrow, and gather here at dawn to go into battle with your commander to see what the muskets of the Southern Imperial Forest Army are. ”

"Yes, Marshal."

"General Atahai, you let your lieutenant pay attention to the Suizhou army in the east, Xia Gui of the Southern Dynasty has always been good at sneak attack warfare."

"Yes, the last general."

Although the weather in late May was hot, the soldiers were still fully armed. What is different is that the armor worn by the officers and men of the Royal Forest Army has been significantly simplified, except for the armor on the chest and behind the chest, the rest of the part is not covered by armor, and the attire of the 20th Infantry Army of the Lin'an Military Region that came to Songhepo with me this time is also obviously different.

This infantry army is a heavy armored infantry, all wearing infantry armor, and those who know how to know it can know at a glance that this is the equipment of the heavy armored soldiers of the Song army. The 3rd 20th Army is the only heavy infantry in the Lin'an Military Region, and it is a unit specially built by Yin Yinglei and Wang Anjie specifically for cavalry. The heavy armored infantry has a long history, and it is also the main infantry unit used by famous generals such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong to balance the cavalry a hundred years ago, and these heavy infantry are all selected from the army, armed with strong crossbows, heavy spears, large knives, large axes and other heavy weapons, and the weight of the armor and guns is as high as 40-50KG or more.

When fighting against the cavalry, the heavily armored infantry first slashed the legs of the weakly defended horses with broadswords, stabbed the horses with heavy spears, and then slashed and smashed the cavalrymen in the chest with various weapons. However, due to heavy equipment, mobility will be affected, and it can be said that it is the slowest of all the classes in ancient times.

As for the Broken Army, its attire is the same as that of the 17th and 19th Armies, all of them are light cavalry equipment, but the difference is that in the officers and men of the Broken Army, there is a casual pride and murderous aura, which cannot be compared with the cavalry and the Imperial Forest Army of the Lin'an Military Region.

Starting from Songhepo, it didn't take long to see the scouts exploring the road in front of him, "A large number of Yuan troops have been found ahead. ”

The Yuan army did not arrive at Songhepo, and our army did not approach Lumen Mountain, and the two sides seemed to have made an appointment, and met unexpectedly in the middle of Longweizhou.