Chapter 519 Northern Expedition Conference

"Hehe, General Jiang Cai, this day will come sooner or later, and the development of firearms will become the trend of history, and no one can stop it." I smiled and said, "Generals, the Battle of Xiangyang has ended, the next stage of the focus is the Northern Expedition, I have already discussed with the Military Affairs Yuan and the main generals in the army, tomorrow morning, I will hold a military meeting here to announce the formation of the Northern Expeditionary Army, after the meeting, the five of you will lead your troops back to Yangzhou and Luzhou, ready to go north." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Somewhere in a hidden bush on the border of the Song and Yuan dynasties.

A young man dressed in a common person's costume said: "General Shi, this journey is quite smooth, presumably that Miao Zaicheng will only send people to the north to search, and he will definitely not think that we will go north after three hundred miles to the east, and there is such a secret passage." ”

The young man looked very capable, and after finishing speaking, General Shi did not answer, but looked south silently, not knowing what he was thinking. Another middle-aged man who was a little older said: "Needless to say, General Shi has both wisdom and bravery, and is known as Shuangjie in the Luzhou Army, how can Miao Zaicheng be compared." ”

The secret passage in the young man's words was discovered by Yang Lian Zhenjia, a priest at the end of the world, and the only one who knew this passage was Yang Lian Zhenjia himself, and the only one who knew this passage was General Shi in front of him.

The person known as General Shi is none other than Shi Yuqi, the commander of the 14th compartment of the Jianghuai Military Region.

A few days ago, Shi Yuqi received an order from Kublai Khan himself to try to get a sample of the firearm. In Luzhou City, there are only five muskets, and as a commander, he can easily take them, and at the same time, Shi Yuqi also knows that muskets are the most tightly controlled weapons in the army, even if they are taken out of the arsenal, it is difficult for a budding person to leave Luzhou City, let alone return to the Yuan Dynasty thousands of miles away.

After thinking about it, after discussing with the budding shopkeeper, Shi Yuqi finally decided to personally escort these muskets back to the north.

From the beginning of participating in the martial arts, in the past five years, Shi Yuqi has climbed up step by step and has become a box-level commander of the Jianghuai Military Region. In the past few years, the army of the Song Dynasty has undergone earth-shaking changes, and it can be said that Shi Yuqi is one of the witnesses. Occasionally, when she forgets her true identity, Shi Yuqi is excited about this change, but every night comes, when she is alone, she feels deeply uneasy.

Shi Yuqi sighed, looked around and said, "It's still early, let's rest here for a while, and when night falls, we will walk out of this forest, pass through a small mountain village, and then climb over two big mountains, and we will be able to reach the territory of my court." Kong Xiong, you take the two of you around to have a look, don't make any mistakes at the last moment. ”

"Yes, General Shi."

Kong Xiong is the young man who just spoke, and his identity in the budding firm is the second shopkeeper, and the other older person is the budding shopkeeper Tengge. The sprout firm is one of the strongholds of the Mongolian fine work department in the Song Dynasty, the purpose is to cooperate with Shi Yuqi's actions, to transmit information, this time to carry the musket to Dadu, Shi Yuqi is not at ease to hand over the musket to others, and he can't take it alone, so let the budding people evacuate with him.

Since Shi Yuqi was ordered to withdraw to the north, the budding firm lost the need to continue to stay in Luzhou.

"General Shi, is the musket really that important? The imperial court did not hesitate to let the general retreat north, many years of hard work. ”

"Tengge, the battle of Xiangyang between our dynasty and the Southern Dynasty has ended, and our army was defeated by the firearms of the Southern Dynasty, and, hey, it has lost tens of thousands of elites." Shi Yuqi said with a heavy heart, "With my martial arts, if I face several muskets, it is difficult to retreat at close range, not to mention that the Imperial Forest Army of the Southern Dynasty has tens of thousands of musketeers, as for artillery and projectiles, their power must not be weaker than that of muskets." ”

Tengge is proficient in martial arts, knowing that Shi Yuqi's martial arts are strong and above him, even in the Mongolian army, it is enough to squeeze into the ranks of masters, even he said so, it seems that the power of firearms is indeed extraordinary.

"I hope that the Great Khan, after getting these muskets, will be able to come up with a way to crack the firearms." Under the influence of Shi Yuqi, Tengge also became worried.

About half an hour later, the night gradually fell, Shi Yuqi glanced south, and then ordered: "Let's go." ”

"Yes, General."

A group of more than ten people quickly headed north, and soon disappeared into the night.

On the morning of 25 July, I held the last enlarged meeting of military affairs before the Northern Expedition in the conference room of the Xiangyang Marshal's Mansion, which was attended by all the senior generals of the army at and above the rank of van in the Xiangyang area.

"Generals, according to the pre-war plan, after the Battle of Xiangyang, our army will turn from defense to offensive, that is, when it is time for our Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, the main content of today's meeting is related to the Northern Expedition. It has been made clear that the Northern Expedition will advance northward with the Central Route Army as the main force, supplemented by two wings. Next, I will first announce the composition of the various armies and the appointment of the main generals. ”

I pointed to Shandong on the map and continued: "On the East Road, our Jianghuai Military Region has a total of eight compartments, of which, the seventh and eleventh compartments remain in Yangzhou and Luzhou respectively, and General Xu Wende and General Miao Zaicheng are commanded by the chamber to serve as garrisons in the two places, and the remaining six compartments of the troops and the broken army, a total of more than 80,000 people, form the Eastern Route Northern Expedition Army, which is made by the Jianghuai Military Region General Li Tingzhi as the marshal, the deputy commander General Xia Gui as the deputy marshal, General Wang Sheng and General Jiang Cai as the vanguard, and General Xia Qing as the senator. On August 15, the troops sent north to attack Shandong, the opponent of our Eastern Road Northern Expedition Army will be the Yuan Dynasty's East Route Army and Shandong garrison, the number of about 80,000 or 90,000 people, and the strength of our army is the same as the strength of our army, the commander of the Yuan army is Dong Wenbing, who once served as the commander of Kublai Khan's guards and pro-army, this person is both civil and military, served as the Shandong East Road for many years, and is one of Kublai Khan's favorite generals. However, Dong Wenbing is a Han in the north after all, and he is at odds with the Mongolian magnates, and he is quite at odds with Du Kehan, who is currently in Pingzhangshi in Shandong Province of the Yuan Dynasty, which should be exploited. General Xia Gui told General Li Tingzhi that the basic task of the Eastern Route Northern Expeditionary Army was to hold back the Yuan Dynasty's Eastern Route Army, and if the attack was blocked, the attack could be suspended. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Although Dong Wenbing was one of the three commanders of the Han army in the Yuan Dynasty and was extremely strategic, Li Tingzhi was also a famous general of our dynasty, and when the forces of the two sides were equal, Li Tingzhi would definitely not lose to the opponent. Compared with the Yuan army, the scarcity of cavalry in our army may be the only weakness, which is why I did not give the order to die.

I paused, shifted my gaze to Sichuan on the map, and said: "The Western Route Northern Expeditionary Army is composed of the Sichuan Military Region and part of the merged Miao Army. General Gao Gao and General Zhang Jue are now appointed as the chief and deputy marshals of the Western Route Northern Expeditionary Army, and General Zan Wanshou will stay in Sichuan, because the situation in central Sichuan is special, so the primary task of the Western Route Army is to advance westward, and then go north after recovering the lost territory in western Sichuan. The generals of the Western Route Army were not here, and after the meeting, Lu Aiqing of the Military Affairs Yuan sent his tasks and appointments to Chengdu in an expedited manner of 800 li. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Finally, the Northern Expedition in the middle of the road." I took a sip of tea and continued: "The Middle Route Army is composed of the Xiangyang Military Region, the Lin'an Military Region, the Imperial Forest Army, the Zhongshun Army and the Xingfu Army that has just arrived. General Lu Wenhuan, deputy envoy of the Xiangyang Military Region, served as the marshal of the Central Route Army, General Wang Anjie and General Zhao Huai of the Imperial Forest Army served as the deputy marshal of the Central Route Army, General Wu Songhan and General Meng Tianxiang served as the vanguard of the Central Route Army, two generals, Gongsun Xiaochen and Tian Xiuyan, served as the marching senator, General Duan Donglou served as the flag protector of the Chinese Army, and General Zhang Shun served as the grain transportation officer. Like the Eastern Route Army, the day of the Middle Route Army's departure was also scheduled for the 15th of the next month. When talking about the situation of the Middle Route Army, I suddenly mentioned the muskets again: "Generals, since the end of last year, the Gunpowder Supervision has successively produced more than 5,000 muskets, so the Imperial Forest Army will increase the establishment of the Third Division this time, the third division is composed of the former Imperial Forest Army Li Long's division and the new army that has completed training at the Imperial Forest Army Base in Lin'an City, with General Zhao Huai concurrently serving as the commander of the Third Division, and General Li Long serving as the deputy commander of the Third Division. ”

More than 10,000 muskets of two divisions of the Imperial Forest Army showed their skills in the Battle of Bush Beach, and at this time, there was an additional reorganized division, which greatly increased the confidence of the generals. As for the candidate for the marshal of the Northern Expeditionary Army in the Middle Route, I finally chose Lu Wenhuan, this is because the Central Route Army is composed of mixed armies, I don't want the Xiangyang Army in the Middle Route Army to be too imprinted, and secondly, because of Lu Wende's poor health.

According to history, Lu Wende died of a back attack in Xianchun for five years, that is, in December this year. At this time, although Lu Wende's condition was not too serious, he was often in pain and could not travel far. After the withdrawal of the Yuan army, Hans and others specially checked Lu Wende, but they could not find out the reason. I left Lu Wende in Xiangyang, also hoping that he could recuperate with peace of mind.

"The above is the situation of the Third Route Northern Expeditionary Army, General Xia Gui, about the detailed tasks of the Eastern Route Army, after the meeting, Lu Aiqing of the Military Affairs Yuan will tell you, and after you are clear, you will pack up and return to Luzhou and Yangzhou."

"Yes, the end will be done."

Xia Gui was directly involved in the formulation of the tasks of the Northern Expedition of each army, so there was no longer much need to explain.

"General Li Zengbo."

"The end will be."

"The East China Sea Fleet successfully prevented the Yuan Army's naval division from encircling Xiangyang City above the Han River, and now the Yuan Army's naval division has withdrawn north, and your unit has returned to the coastal base to stand by."

"Yes, the end will be done."