Chapter 521 Northern Expedition

"Firearms?" I nodded, and continued, "The northern lands of my Great Song Dynasty have fallen for a long time, so I don't blame you for joining the Mongol army. I have said so much to you today for two purposes: the first is that I will definitely take back the north, because it is the land of my dynasty; Second, you Han people in the north can only live as individuals in a country that truly belongs to the Han people. Like you, I am a Han Chinese, so I will not kill my compatriots for no reason, so after a while, you will change your clothes, receive street signs and coils, and go home. ”

"Emperor, Emperor, can the little ones really go home?"

"As soon as I open my golden mouth, will I still deceive you?"

Luda and Wu Liu glanced at each other, and suddenly knelt on the ground and said, "Little thank you, the emperor." ”

Immediately after, all the prisoners of war in the room knelt down and said, "The little one has thanked the emperor for his kindness." ”

I smiled and accepted the captives' kneeling thanks: "After you go back, I won't ask you to do anything, even if you join the Yuan army again after you go back, I won't care." There is only one thing, you remember to me, live well, and wait for me to lead the army to recover the mountains and rivers lost by my Great Song Dynasty. ”

"Thank you for your grace."

In the days that followed, I ordered the release of Han Chinese captives from the Yuan army who were imprisoned in the Lumen Mountain camp. The captives departed with joy on their faces, and from time to time they cried out, "Go home, you can go home." ”

When the Mongol prisoners of war in the camp learned that all the Han prisoners of war had been released, they were angry and envious at the same time. Yes, you can go home, go home, the Han people are like this, why not the Mongolians?

At the beginning of August, a large number of grenades, muskets and artillery ammunition arrived in Xiangyang with the officers and soldiers of the Lin'an base of the third division of the Royal Forest Army, almost on the same day, Meng Zhang of Ezhou also sent more than 100 soldiers to Meng Tianxiang, most of these soldiers are friends of the Meng brothers in the rivers and lakes and some good martial arts people around, they are familiar with martial arts, so they are only a little training, after matching the war horses, they were sent to Xiangyang by Meng Zhang, so that the number of soldiers of the Zhongshun Army increased to more than 600 people.

As for grain and grass, there was already a lot of hoarding in Xiangyang City, and the war supplies and resources of each base were constantly delivered, which was sufficient.

To my great excitement, before the expedition, the Royal Academy of Sciences sent me a pocket watch and a pair of binoculars, which had just been developed by the Academy of Sciences, and was several times larger than the pocket watches of later generations, and was like an alarm clock, the accuracy of which could be controlled within five or six minutes a day. The magnification of the telescope is about two times, and although the effect is far from ideal, it is 340 years ahead of the world's first telescope.

In 1608, the Dutchman Hans Lieberch invented the first telescope, and in 1609, the Florentine Galileo Galilei of Italy invented the 40x double-mirror telescope, which was the first practical telescope to be put into scientific applications. In terms of appearance, the telescope developed by the Academy of Sciences is not much different from the common binoculars in later generations, but the volume is much larger, the weight is quite outrageous, and of course, the effect is also much worse.

According to the plan, Jia Yidao, Lu Xiufu and Zhao Shunsun stayed in Xiangyang to form a temporary military and political center as a transit hub for liaison between the front and rear.

In the early morning of August 15, the autumn morning breeze blew, which was cool and refreshing. I rode on my war horse, surrounded by a group of guards, and came to the temporary station of the North Pioneer Camp outside the north gate of Xiangyang.

Wu Songhan and Meng Tianxiang, who were the vanguard of the Northern Expeditionary Army in the middle route, came to five meters in front of me and said loudly: "Your Majesty, our army has been prepared, please give the emperor an order." ”

"Okay." I looked at all the officers and men of the vanguard battalion who were ready to go, slapped their horses forward, lifted the dantian, and said in a loud voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, today is the time of our army's official Northern Expedition, all the officers and men of the second compartment of the Lin'an Military Region, all the officers and men of the Zhongshun Army, as the vanguard of the Northern Expedition, you will be the first batch of warriors to fight north in more than 30 years of our dynasty, I am proud of you." More than 100 years ago, our dynasty was defeated by the Jin people, which caused the regret of 'Jingkang shame', and now, the north is occupied by the Mongols, but no matter who invades our territory, as long as it is the territory of our dynasty, I and my people have the responsibility and obligation to go and take it back. Whether it is the capital of our dynasty, Bianjing, the mausoleum of the Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor, or the Great Wall, the Yellow River, are all left to us by our ancestors, how can this large homeland be invaded by foreign races, I as the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, as the leader of the Chinese family, I should work hard and move forward bravely, even if the front is an abyss, even if the front is full of thorns, I will never retreat. You are all good men of my dynasty, do you have the confidence to defeat the Yuan army and return my rivers and mountains? ”

It seems that after rehearsals, the soldiers of the pioneer battalion shouted in unison: "Our army will win, and the Great Song Dynasty will win." ”

The voices of more than 10,000 people came out at the same time, which was deafening and resounding in the sky.

I waved my hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then said, "Heroes of the Great Song Dynasty, let's go." ”

With my order, more than 10,000 soldiers of the pioneer battalion, led by Wu Songhan and Meng Tianxiang, left the north of Xiangyang.

A few hours later, the armies marched north.

The next morning, under the farewell of Jia Rudao, Lu Wende and others, I left Xiangyang City with more than 4,000 Chinese army guards composed of the pro-guard army, the black charcoal regiment and the Xingfu army, and embarked on the road of the Northern Expedition.

Along the way, the pioneer battalion opened a road in the mountains, built a bridge in the water, and annihilated the Yuan army located at the junction of Xindian Town and Mengjiapu, and fifteen days later, the army successfully came to Shangying Village, thirty miles south of Dengzhou City in Henan.

Dengzhou is located in the southwestern part of Henan Province, the central part of the Nanxiang Basin, and is the first important town from Hubei to the north into Henan. The terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, with few mountains and many plains, especially from Dengzhou to Nanyang, almost all of which are plains.

Shangying Village belongs to the hilly area, the scale of the village is not large, the people in the village are mainly planting cotton, because they often come and go with merchants in the Xiangfan area, so a few years ago by Lu Wende developed into a contact point of the Xiangyang Military Region, and it is also the only secret base established by Lu Wende in the north since I proposed to carry out armed work behind enemy lines.

After entering the village, I rested for a while, then gathered the generals and listened to the introduction of Dengzhou City by Xu Sanquan, Baozheng of Shangying Village (equivalent to Lizheng in the Southern Song Dynasty, that is, the village chief of later generations). This Xu Sanquan looks quite shrewd, not like a farmer at all, and looks like a businessman.

"Your Majesty, generals, since the Battle of Xiangyang, the Mongolian Central Route Army has retreated to Dengzhou and Nanyang. Although this Dengzhou city is not big, it is a rare fortified city in Henan, and it can even be said that it can be counted in the entire north, after the Mongols drove away the Jin people, they were not interested in building a fort in the city, and the small one had heard the Mongolian soldiers in the past mention that they Mongols have always advocated attacking, and in their opinion, there is no city that cannot be attacked. Dengzhou City was built by the Jin people in order to prevent the attack of the Yue army, and its main walls were made of whole stones, and then they were continuously strengthened to become today's scale. Even compared with Xiangyang City, it is not far behind. According to the news heard by the small detectives, there are currently about 30,000 troops in this Dengzhou city, the guards are Zhang Hongfan and Atahai, and the rest of the middle route army has returned to the Nanyang camp. ”

As I listened, I looked at the map spread out on the table and said, "Xu Baozheng, is the area from Dengzhou to Nanyang all plains?" ”

"Back to the emperor, exactly. The northeast of the Dengzhou area, all the way to the boundary of Nanyang, is almost a plain, which is very suitable for the cavalry to carry out large-scale operations. ”

"Well, even if Dengzhou City is strong, it can't withstand the repeated bombardment of our artillery, but we have to attack Nanyang, which is full of plains, but when it attracts the attention of our army, how to defeat the cavalry of the Yuan army in the field."

Xie Daolin smiled and said: "Your Majesty, rest assured, my Imperial Forest Army now has three divisions and 20,000 muskets, and it is bound to defeat its cavalry." ”

"It's not that simple, the terrain is open on this road, if the Yuan army attacks from all directions, once the 20,000 muskets are dispersed, even if they are divided into three places, there will be six or seven thousand, and then use three-stage shooting, each round will have two or three thousand rounds of ammunition, maybe the Mongolian cavalry will have a chance."

Wen Zhang then said: "Your Majesty, our army still has grenades available. ”

"The effect of throwing grenades is naturally not small, but after all, the number is limited." I said solemnly, "I don't want our army's musketeers and Mongolian iron cavalry to engage in hand-to-hand combat, Gongsun Xiaochen, Xiu Yan, tomorrow you and Xu Baozheng will go to the northeast of Dengzhou for a field trip to see how our army should march after capturing Dengzhou." In war, most of the factors of victory or defeat were actually decided before the war. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Xu Baozheng, your Shangying Village is in Cao Ying, your heart is in Han, you are really a model for the people of our dynasty, I will record your merits, and after the end of the war, I will reward Shangying Village and you for your deeds."

Xu Baozheng hurriedly knelt down and thanked him: "Thank you for the emperor's grace." ”

"Get up."

"Your Majesty."

"General Wu, General Meng, where is the pioneer battalion stationed?"

"Back to the emperor, at Taizigang, about ten miles away from the south gate of Dengzhou City."

"Okay, take me with you."

After a brief stop at Taizigang, I continued northward, about six or seven miles away, when I reined in the reins of my horse, took the binoculars from the hands of my guards, and looked at the city of Dengzhou from afar. Generally speaking, a human eye can see an apple more than 400 meters away, and with the help of a telescope, I can basically see the defenders of Dengzhou two miles away.

I looked at it for a while and handed the telescope to Fang Ling next to me. Subsequently, a group of generals also took turns to watch.