On September 2, the fifth year of Shaoding, Hua Yue ordered Huang Yan to lead 20,000 Qin Feng troops to choose to cross the river from the east of Hezhongfu, and the Jin army had no strength to defend such a long line along the Yellow River. www.biquge.info In one day, 20,000 Song troops crossed the Yellow River, and then attacked in the direction of Henan Mansion non-stop.

On September 3, Huazhou was forced to land by Zhang Xuan, the commander of Qin Feng's army, and the soldiers and horses approached the outside of Tongguan, and within three days, all the areas west of Tongguan were occupied, and Tongguan has become a lonely pass, which has lost its role in shielding the Central Plains.

On September 7, the Jin army of Tongguan, under the leadership of Zhang Yi, the Han guard, opened the gate of Tongguan and surrendered to Zhang Xuan, the commander of the Qin Feng army of the Song army, and the metal Tongguan was recovered by the Song army. . .

On September 8, Huang Yan's troops entered the west of Henan Fucheng, and the Jin troops in the counties, towns and towns along the way all fled, and did not play a role in blocking the Song army at all.

But here, Huang Yan's advance was stopped, but it was not the Jin army that intercepted Huang Yan's troops, but a Mongolian elite army with more than 10,000 troops.

Huang Yan's department of the Mongolian army suddenly discovered the Mongolian army in advance, and launched a big battle on the bank of the Jianshui River, the battle of the Song army was hastily arranged, the Mongolian army light cavalry attacked, the speed was very fast, the Song army was defeated, Huang Yan personally led the cavalry to break, and the main force immediately withdrew to Xin'an County to garrison. In early September, Zhou Hao completed the clearing of the strong wall in the area south of Xinzheng, and all the local people moved south, and then led the army to the south of Xinzheng County, encountered a large number of Mongolian army resistance, Zhou Hao led the army and fought and retreated, the Mongolian army pursued closely, and then retreated to Xuzhou under the leadership of Meng Heng. . .

At this point, the military situation was completely clear, and Ogedai finally personally led nearly 100,000 Mongolian troops across the Yellow River and entered the Central Plains, forming a confrontation with the Song army in the area of Xuzhou.

In order to expand the occupied area, Wokotai did not march to Bianliang, but sent 30,000 Mongol troops to the west to attack Henan Province, where they intercepted Huang Yan's troops to attack Henan Province, and at the same time personally led the army to move to the Xinzheng area to Chen Station, and the front of the troops pointed to Xuzhou, where the main force of the Song army was located.

The situation in the Central Plains suddenly began to be chaotic, Li Xiaotian immediately led the army out of Junzhou to advance to the northeast, encountered a Mongolian army in the area of Shanshan and Guci Mountain, the two sides fought fiercely for a day, Li Xiaotian Jiankang army stopped in the area of Guci Mountain, blocking the Mongolian army from continuing to attack Junzhou...

Meng Heng personally led his troops and horses to camp in the area of the Shuangye River north of Xuzhou, and encountered the Mongol army in the south, and the two armies immediately started a major battle.

"It seems that Wokotai and Benguan have thought together, and they both want to defeat each other first and occupy the Central Plains alone! This Wokotai is ruthless enough! Unexpectedly, Zhongxing Mansion was forced to ignore by Yue Kun, and gathered heavy troops here to fight a decisive battle with our army at this time! Does he think I'm so easy to be gnawed off by him? Gao Huaiyuan stood at the door of the lobby of the Xuzhou Mansion with his hands behind his back, and sighed after listening to the military situation reported by the general. Handsome! The current situation in our army is very unfavorable! The strength of the Mongolian army is nearly twice that of our army, and their Great Khan personally marched, and almost all the soldiers and horses led by them were the elite of the Mongolian army, and the surrounding horses and rivers here were very unfavorable to the defense of our army! Our generals all think that it is not a very good choice to fight with them here, it is best to give up Xuzhou and temporarily retreat to Caizhou to set up defenses, so that we can gather more troops to fight a decisive battle with it, please make a decision! A staff general softly put forward the staff officer's opinion to Gao Huaiyuan.

Gao Huaiyuan frowned tightly and closed his eyes slightly, the positions of the various armies kept flashing in his mind, the layout of the entire battlefield kept flashing in his mind, and a set of plans kept being thought of by him, and they were overturned one by one...

"What is the situation of our army's grain storage and various material reserves in Xuzhou now?" Gao Huaiyuan asked the generals.

The general in charge of logistics immediately stood up and replied: "Commander! When our army occupied Xuzhou, Xuzhou itself had less than 10,000 stone of grain stockpiled, and our army obtained nearly 20,000 stone of grain in Xuzhou Jianbi Qingye during this period, and transported 20,000 stone from the direction of Caizhou these days, and Xuzhou's current grain stock was roughly about 50,000 stone, which was enough for us to maintain less than two months in terms of our army's current strength in Xuzhou! But with the addition of the people in the city and the surrendered soldiers, it is only enough to eat for a month!

As for all kinds of war materials, we are not very abundant, after these ten days of transportation, the city now only reserves 20,000 catties of gunpowder, 300,000 arrows, plus the total number of various arrows carried by the soldiers is about 500,000 to 900,000, 2,000 pairs of iron armor, 5,000 pieces of various swords and guns, plus the armor and weapons obtained by the surrender of the Jin army, it is only enough to last for a month! ”

This number seems to be a lot, but when it is allocated to each general, it is very few, 900,000 arrows, assigned to crossbowmen, each person is only a little more than a pot of arrows, only enough to cope with four or five major wars, and such a number, for the Song army's transportation capacity, is already the limit, starting from Ezhou, to Xuzhou, the straight-line distance is nearly 800 miles, the actual distance is more than 1,000 miles, and can not rely on water transportation, all rely on transportation, without modern means of transport, transport a stone of grain to Xuzhou, The transport personnel have to consume at least two stones of grain on the road, and there can be no loss at all, not to mention that the better the equipment of the Song army is now, the higher the dependence on logistics, and the need to transport gunpowder, bows and arrows, weapons and other materials, such consumption is even more astronomical. Therefore, after Gao Huaiyuan seized power, he waited so long to start the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, the main reason was not in the problem of troops, but in the problem of logistics and transportation.

At the beginning, the progress of the Song army was quite smooth, that was because the Song army carried a certain amount of supplies when it set off, and when the Song army fought farther and farther, the dependence on logistics became higher and higher, the amount of material delivery became larger and larger, and the consumption was more and more...

At the same time, the Song army still has a big problem, compared with the Mongol army, they have a fatal weakness, that is, they can not follow the Mongols, relying on robbery along the way to replenish military supplies, go to a place, kill all the people in a place, rob a place of property and food, rely on this to maintain the supply of military supplies, and their unique endurance is not comparable to the Han people, in this regard, the Mongolian army obviously has a great advantage.

After all, this time the north of the Central Plains, Gao Huaiyuan is going to plan to run the Central Plains, and in the future, use this as a base to continue to develop towards the north, and the Henan area here under the rule and exploitation of the Jin State over the years, the people have already been basically bankrupt and the people are not living, once the Song army sweeps again, then I don't know how many people in the Central Plains will starve to death! At that time, even if the Central Plains gets it, it will become a thousand miles of red land, and the people of the Central Plains will complain...

When the time comes, he wants to restore Hebei, Shanxi and other places in the north, but if he destroys the Central Plains, he will force the people of the Central Plains to be anxious, and he will definitely rise up to fight against the Song army.

Fighting this kind of thing is fundamentally different from what many people think, it is not possible to have soldiers and generals, it is necessary to make all kinds of preparations before going out, especially in terms of material supply, the slightest carelessness will lead to the collapse and even destruction of the army, and there are countless cases of defeat in history because of insufficient material supply.

Even according to the normal historical development, the Song army did occupy the area of Henan, but in the end, because Henan has been wiped out by the Mongol Tartar army, in the end the material preparation was not sufficient, and the Song army that entered Bianliang and Luoyang was finally ambushed by the Mongol army, and finally the whole army collapsed, and lost Henan, and there was no chance to confront the Mongol army north of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, when he set out for the Northern Expedition this time, Gao Huaiyuan attached great importance to the logistics and transportation of the Song army, and it can be said that he worked step by step, laying down one place to run another, and the logistics materials were transported to one place for hoarding, laying a good foundation for the next operation.

The number of the Song army seemed to be sufficient at the beginning of the war, but when it came to Xuzhou, the number of available soldiers and generals was due to the division of troops to garrison the newly occupied land, and they were also responsible for protecting the smooth transportation of grain routes, escorting materials with soldiers and horses, and taking care of the surrendered troops of the Jin State, so the originally abundant troops were occupied a lot during this period, and the soldiers and horses that could really be called up in Xuzhou had begun to be insufficient.

Now the troops he has in his hands are only less than 20,000 Jiankang troops under Li Xiaotian and less than 20,000 Ezhou troops under Meng Heng, with a total strength of only more than 30,000 people, compared with the nearly 100,000 troops of the Mongolian army, it can indeed be said that it is at a disadvantage.

What's more, the Mongolian army is also elite this time, the cavalry accounts for more than half, both mobility and combat effectiveness are more than the current Song army in the Xuzhou area, if there is a duel with the Mongolian army here, it can be said that the Song army is completely at a disadvantage, as long as there is some common sense people think that this battle is impossible, the Song army has no chance of winning at all.

This is also the reason why the staff officers proposed to retreat to Caizhou and fight a decisive battle with the Mongol army.

But is it really like this to give up the occupied Xuzhou, Junzhou, Linying, Yuncheng and other places, and return to Caizhou? To cede the hinterland of the Central Plains to the Mongol army? How should this move be played?

After this question was raised by the generals, Gao Huaiyuan kept thinking about it in his mind.

"Nope! We must not retreat to Caizhou at this time! Gao Huaiyuan stood in front of the lobby door and was silent for a long time, then turned around and said loudly to the generals in the lobby.

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