Chapter 461 Promotion to Deputy Marshal

Halfway through eating, Concubine Yang suddenly asked, "Official, how can you be sure that the child in the concubine's belly is a prince and not a princess?" ”

"Huh?" I sneered and said, "Concubine Shu, I am a true dragon emperor, of course this kind of thing is clear." ”

Fang Ling chuckled and said, "Yes, Sister Yang Fei, brother, the official family is a god." ”

"Yes, Hongu believes it too." Xie Daoqing said, "Official, you will leave the palace for a long time this time, and the workload of instructing the court and the central government will increase, so I propose that Concubine Qiu assist the queen in dealing with the folds together." ”

Among my concubines, Quan Jiu and Concubine Qiu's writing is the best, and Concubine Qiu is the most interested in government affairs, so I nodded and said, "Okay, Concubine Qiu, after I leave Lin'an, you will come to assist the queen in handling official business." ”

Concubine Qiu said excitedly: "Yes, the official family, the concubine will definitely assist the queen well." ”

Although I was very well prepared and confident about this expedition, at the moment before the expedition, I was as excited and excited as the recruits, but also a little nervous.

Back in the Funing Palace, I lay on the bed for a long time and couldn't fall asleep, and after making love with Quan Jiu repeatedly, I entered a state of sleepless in exhaustion.

In a daze, I suddenly heard a burst of gunfire outside.

"The battle has begun?" I hurriedly put on my clothes, picked up the golden pistol from the side of the bed, and walked out.

Outside, there was already gunsmoke, and the sound of killing shook the sky, I looked around, but I only heard the sound, but there was no one in sight. I was a little panicked and shouted several times, "Someone, someone." But my voice was soon covered by the deafening sound of gunfire and could not be heard at all. I checked the pistol, and walked forward boldly, and after walking more than ten steps, I saw two people and a horse in the thick smoke, and the person running in front of me was wearing a Song army uniform. ”

Le Lingshan heard my voice, hurriedly turned around and rushed towards the place where I was, more than ten meters behind her, but there was a Mongolian man in a yellow robe, holding a strong bow, the Mongolian Khan was riding on a war horse with a red body, his expression was indifferent, and he walked forward unhurriedly. Although I have never met this person, the words "Kublai Khan" suddenly come to mind. When the "Kublai Khan" saw that Le Lingshan had already run to me, he sneered, stretched his bow and arrows, and shouted, "Meteors catch the moon." Immediately, a dark green feathered arrow was fired.

I said "ah", and I didn't think of shooting with the weapon in my hand, but subconsciously took a step forward, and then turned around sharply and held Le Lingshan in my arms, and at this moment, the extremely fast feather arrow was less than a meter away from my back, and the strong wind brought by the feather arrow stabbed my back with a faint pain, and I secretly said, "My life is over." ”

However, the feather arrow did not hit me. At this critical moment, Fang Ling, who came out of nowhere, suddenly appeared behind me and used his body to block the arrow shot by "Kublai Khan".

I let go of Le Lingshan, turned around to look, only to see that the corner of Fang Ling's mouth had oozed blood, and a feather arrow in his chest pierced through his heart, my heart ached, and I raised my hand to be a shot, this shot just hit the opponent's eyebrows, and knocked the "Kublai Khan" off the horse. I didn't care about seeing the life or death of "Kublai Khan", threw away the gun, immediately sat on the ground, and held Fang Ling in his arms, Fang Ling blinked reluctantly, looked at me and smiled, and closed his eyes.

At this moment, Le Lingshan patted me on the shoulder, and suddenly smiled at me, and then turned into a puff of light smoke and entered Fang Ling's body.

I felt my brain go blank for a while, and I fainted to the ground.

That night, Kublai Khan received the latest battle report from Ah Shu and Boyan in an urgent 600 li. In this battle report, Ah Shu and others reported four points, one is that Ali's Hague Department had captured the outer city of Fancheng on April 24, and drove all the Song troops defending the city into the inner city; Second, the remaining two brigades of 5 to 6,000 men of the 2nd Division of the Southern Imperial Forest Army arrived in Yingzhou on 29 April; Third, Liu Chuan led the first batch of naval warships to tentatively engage in two battles with the Southern Korean naval divisions, and the victory was not decided; Fourth, Boyan personally led Xue to the south of Yingzhou, but did not have the opportunity to see the muskets of the Imperial Forest Army.

What intrigued Kublai Khan the most was the second article in the battle report, the Imperial Forest Army increased again. Of course, Kublai Khan knew that the Southern Imperial Forest Army only had a total of two divisions, and half of the troops had already arrived in Yingzhou, which meant that the probability of the Southern Emperor's personal conquest of Xiangfan had greatly increased.

Hao Jingdao, who finished reading the battle report: "Your Majesty, the ministers also agree with the emperor's inference that Emperor Song will personally conquer." ”

"Yes." Kublai Khan nodded, and said to Zhenjin on the side, "Zhenjin, you choose a day to go south, and join General Oluchi in the Nanyang camp, once you learn the news of the emperor's personal expedition, you will lead the 30,000 middle route troops left in Nanyang to Xiangyang." ”

"Yes, Father."

Hao Jing said: "Your Majesty, it seems that the emperor of the Song Dynasty is quite courageous, but if he personally conquers, he can save the second step of our army's southern expedition, so that as long as our army kills or captures the emperor of the Southern Dynasty in the Xiangfan area and forces him to surrender, maybe even the third step does not need to go." ”

"Yes, what the emperor said is very agreeable."

In the plan formulated by the Mongolian Kublai Khan, Ashu and others, the plan to conquer the south was divided into three steps, the first step was the battle of Xiangfan, taking the land of Xiangfan, controlling the north and south, and dividing the east and west; The second step is to go straight to the south of the Yangtze River, take Lin'an, and force the royal family of the Southern Dynasty to surrender; The third step was to march west to Sichuan, south to Liangguang, and north to Jianghuai, defeating the remaining military forces of the Southern Dynasties in one fell swoop.

If the emperor of the Southern Dynasty was killed or captured in Xiangfan, wouldn't it be clear that the first and second steps were in one place? Until this time, the entire high-level of the Great Yuan was still full of confidence in the combat effectiveness of the Yuan army.

Zhenjin said: "Father, General Zhang Rou, the deputy marshal of Zhengnan, has died of illness for many months, and the position of the commander of my Western Road Army has always been vacant. ”

"Well, real gold, I've already thought about it." Kublai Khan agreed: "Come here, quickly spread Dong Wenbing, Dong Aiqing, and the prince of Hedan to enter the palace to see me." ”

At the beginning of May, the overall construction of the capital of the Yuan Dynasty was still in full swing, and the ministers of the court and the central government basically lived not far from the palace temporarily. In less than half an hour, Dong Wenbing and He Dan entered the study of the palace one after another.

"See the Emperor."

"Excuse me, sit down."

"Your Majesty."

Dong Wenbing and the others finished saluting each other with Zhenjin and Hao Jing and sat down at the bottom of the seat.

Kublai Khan got straight to the point and said: "Dong Aiqing, Hedan, listen to the seal." ”

"The minister is here." The two of them hurriedly fell to their knees again.

"Dong Aiqing, since the end of last autumn, the old general Zhang Rou, the former deputy marshal of the southern expedition and the marshal of the Western Route Army, passed away from illness, and his position has been vacant.

"Minister Dong Wenbing thanks the emperor for his grace."

"Brother Hedan, I have transferred you to be the marshal of the Western Road Army."

"Emperor Xie, the ministers obey the order."

In the Mongol Han army, there were three major forces, namely the Shi family headed by Shi Tianze, the Zhang family headed by Zhang Rou, and the Dong family headed by Dong Jun and Dong Wenbing. During the period of the Mongol annihilation, these three families all switched to Genghis Khan, and became one of the forces that several Mongol Great Khans have always valued, among which Dong Wenbing and Kublai Khan have the deepest friendship.

Kublai Khan continued: "Zhenjin, inform the Privy Council and appoint Zhang Hongluo, the son of the old general Zhang Rou, as the commander of the Southern Army, to replace the vacant position left by Dong Aiqing after his promotion, which belongs to the name of the Eastern Route Army, and a gold medal will be given." ”

"Yes, Father."

Zhang Hongluo, strategic, through the history, good at riding and shooting, Zhang Rou's eighth son, that is, the starling brother of Zhang Hongfan, the pioneer of the southern expedition, was the head of the Shuntian Road and the marching army.

"Two Aiqing, sit down." Kublai Khan continued: "The Battle of Xiangyang has lasted for more than a year, what are the current movements of the Sichuan Military Region and the Jianghuai Military Region of the Southern Dynasties? ”

He Dan said: "Your Majesty, except for Xia Gui of the Jianghuai Army who led the army to Suizhou, the Sichuan Military Region and the Jianghuai Military Region of the Southern Dynasties only strictly guarded the passes of various cities, and there was no movement. ”

Kublai Khan said: "I received a battle report from the middle army today, saying that the other two brigades of the second division of the Southern Imperial Forest Army have also arrived in Yingzhou, judging from all indications, the emperor of the Southern Dynasty will personally conquer Xiangfan in the near future, which makes the battle of Xiangfan may far exceed the original expectations of our army, since the southern army in the east and west has no movement for the time being, I plan to transfer 15,000 people from each of the east and west armies to Xiangyang to support, and strive to kill the emperor of the Southern Dynasty in the Xiangfan area, as long as this move is successful, then the east in the future." , the Western Campaign will be much simpler. ”

"Yes, the emperor, the ministers obey the order."

"Zhenjin, after the meeting tomorrow, you will go to the Privy Council with the two Aiqing to complete the procedures for transferring troops."

"Yes, Father."

"Two Aiqing, you prepare first, as soon as the news of the Southern Emperor's personal expedition is confirmed, the reinforcements will be ordered to set off immediately."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Dong Wenbing continued: "Your Majesty, all the things that the ministers have done in Dadu have been completed. Early tomorrow morning, the minister will set off for the south and rush to the camp of the East Road army in the north of Huaishui, where the minister will first bid farewell to the emperor. After finishing speaking, Dong Wenbing knelt on the ground and kowtowed respectfully three times.

After Kublai Khan received this gift, he got up and helped Dong Wenbing up and said, "Dong Aiqing, remember what happened sixteen years ago." At that time, you and Wen Yong, Wen Zhong and other forty-six people rushed to Dali to serve in the expedition, prepared hardships, and since then followed the southern and northern wars, loyal, and made countless meritorious contributions, which is very rare. ”

Dong Wenbing said: "Following the emperor is the luck of the ministers. The emperor is wise and martial, which is really the blessing of my great yuan, and the power of the dog and horse is determined by the ministers to repay the emperor's grace. ”

Kublai Khan looked at this beloved general and said with a smile: "Okay, good, I have a family, why worry about the great cause." ”