Chapter 536: Rekindle the flames of war

Ali Hague said: "Yes, Dashuai, the last general understands."

Ah Shu let out a "hmm" and continued to order: "After General Ali Hague sets off, our army will raid Dengzhou. General Azihan, General Zhang Hongfan. ”

"The end will be."

"This commander ordered the two of you to each set off with 10,000 horses before tomorrow night, and attack the east gate and the north gate of Dengzhou respectively, and there must be no mistake."

"Yes, the last general."

"General Atahai."

"The end will be."

"You lead 15,000 infantry troops to stay in Nanyang."

"Yes, Marshal."

"The rest of the generals will set off at midnight tomorrow night with Marshal Boyan and Ben Shuai to attack Dengzhou."

The generals shouted in unison: "Yes, Dashuai." ”

At noon the next day, Gongsun Xiaochen and Tian Xiuyan reported with two scout team leaders, and Ali Hague, the general of the Nanyang Yuan Army, led his troops north. The difference is that the judgment of the two scouts is very different, one says that there are 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers and horses, and the other says that there are less than 10,000.

"Why is there such a big difference?" I thought for a moment and said, "I'll find out and report again." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After the scouts left, Lu Wenhuan said: "Your Majesty, the Nanyang Yuan army originally had about 100,000, and later Guo Kan took away more than 10,000 people, and there should be more than 80,000 people left. ”

"Well, Lu Aiqing is reasonable, and I feel the same way, if there are only 20,000 or 30,000 people left in the camp of the Nanyang Yuan army, it will be difficult to stop our army from attacking. Ah Shu and Boyan should understand that as soon as Nanyang is lost, the whole of Henan will be completely exposed to our army. ”

"Exactly." Lu Wenhuan said, "I don't think Ah Shu will do such a risky thing." ”

Tian Xiuyan said: "Your Majesty, wait for the last general to go and find out." ”

I know that Tian Xiuyan's martial arts are strong, so I can go: "It's okay, Xiuyan, bring more people." ”

"No, Your Majesty, it is convenient for the last general to act alone, although the last general is defeated by thousands of troops, but it is not difficult to escape."

"That's good, Quanyi, you pay for your face."

Zhang Quanyi clasped his hands into fists and said, "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

Lu Wenhuan watched the two of them walk out of the big tent of the Chinese army, and said: "Your Majesty, before General Tian and General Zhang come back, our army needs to readjust the strength of the Dengzhou battalion to advance and retreat freely. ”

I nodded and said, "In the current situation, it is undoubtedly beneficial for our army to divide our troops and fight. Lu Aiqing, the order went down, the armies entered a state of readiness, the west gate and the south gate were closed, the city gates were only open for one hour a day, and the garrisons in the west and south all retreated to Dengzhou City. The artillery battalion was stationed outside the east and north gates, and the large battalion outside the east gate was the main camp for strict defense. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

At three o'clock on the afternoon of the 26th, Tian Xiuyan and Zhang Quan rushed back to Dengzhou. The two of them ran all the way, and they didn't even have time to drink a sip of water, so they immediately reported to me: "Your Majesty, it has been confirmed that Ali Hague only brought 10,000 soldiers and horses. I infiltrated the enemy camp in the early hours of this morning and captured a centurion, according to his confession, Ali Hague made a big fanfare, but in fact there were only 10,000 soldiers and horses, the purpose was to confuse our army, as for the movement of the Nanyang army, this centurion is unknown. ”

"Confusing our army?" Fang Ling said, "Ah Shu doesn't care about Xuchang?" ”

"No, Xuchang can also be regarded as an important place for soldiers, unless ......" Lu Wenhuan said thoughtfully.

"Well, Lu Aiqing is right, Ah Shu is also basically clear about the strength of our army, Jiang Aiqing took away 20,000 soldiers, this time General Wu and General Fan took a large number of them, whether they know that Zhang Shunjun has advanced north, as long as they believe that Wu Songhan and Fan Tianshun took away forty artillery pieces, it is very likely to attack Dengzhou. My banner has always been in the camp of the eastern camp of Dengzhou, if Ah Shu captures Dengzhou, he can cut off the communication between my Northern Expeditionary Army and Xiangyang in the rear, and I can also kill me here, killing two birds with one stone. ”

"Kill two birds with one stone?" Fang Ling smiled, "Ah Shu is daydreaming, more than forty artillery pieces of our army are waiting for them." ”

I smiled: "Lu Aiqing, the herald will come here to discuss the matter." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Xiu Yan, I still have something for you to do, and your physical strength is acceptable?"

"Your Majesty, rest assured."

"Okay, Xiu Yan, you rest for a while, set off immediately, rush to the area of Jiaxian as fast as possible, order General Wu and General Fan to join forces, take the initiative to attack, concentrate firepower to annihilate Ali Hague first, and then return to Dengzhou, if I expect it to be good, the two armies can attack inside and outside, and this time there is a chance to hit Ashu's middle route army."

Tian Xiuyan said without hesitation: "Yes, the last general will go now." ”

At dawn on the 27th, after converging with the Yin Yinglei Department, Zhang Shun led the army to launch a fierce attack on the south gate of Xuchang. Twenty artillery pieces were aimed at the south gate in unison, and with the order of Wanyan Tianlei, the sound of cannons was like thunder, which instantly broke the peace of the early morning.

"Artifact, artifact." The first time Yin Yinglei saw the cannon firing in unison, they all couldn't help but cheer. They were already shocked by the power of the projectiles, let alone the more powerful artillery?

Even Yin Yinglei couldn't hold back his excitement, and secretly thought to himself: "The invention of firearms will completely change the traditional way of warfare, and the era of cold weapons will soon come to an end, and Your Majesty is worthy of being a god." ”

Since landing on the Shandong Peninsula, Yin Yinglei and Han Jing have been wandering around with their troops, completely like bandits, according to the prior plan, Yin Yinglei resolutely carried out my guerrilla policy, although on the surface, the Song army was very embarrassed, but it also made the pursuing Yuan army exhausted, and there was no gain. A few months ago, Yin Yinglei seized the only fighter plane, and at the cost of thousands of projectiles, he defeated the 5,000 cowardly Xue led by Edu, and the seriously wounded general Edu also died under Han Jing's gun. After the first battle, the Yuan army was frightened, and had to mobilize more troops to chase and kill.

For months, the troops marched incessantly, or more appropriately, fled, and sometimes had to keep an eye open while sleeping and napping, in case of an attack by the Yuan army. The difficulties and hardships of this are known only to Yin Yinglei and his subordinates. In the most difficult times, there were even a small number of deserters. Fortunately, most of the Song soldiers finally survived, and under the command of Yin Yinglei, they attacked the east and west, broke through the encirclement of the Yuan army led by Dong Shixuan and Li Tingsuo, and came to the city of Xuchang.

Although Xuchang City is also an important ancient city, it has not been warped for decades, and the city wall is far less solid than Dengzhou, which is at the border. About half an hour later, the south gate was blown down by artillery bombarded by concentrated fire. Yin Yinglei gave an order, and the two troops, under the cover of artillery, rushed towards the city gate like arrows off the string. Almost at the same time, Wen Zhang and Fan Liangfu led the soldiers of the Imperial Forest Army to also attack from the north gate.

Guo Kan, the defender of the city, led the army to resist desperately, but in the face of the superior strength of the Song army, he was helpless, and the defenders had seen the power of firearms before, and only held on for less than half an hour, and were led by Zhang Shun and Han Jing to attack the south gate.

"General, the Song army is overwhelming, hurry up and evacuate from the east gate."

"General, stay in the green mountains, don't be afraid of no firewood, while the Song army has not yet closed the siege, retreat."

Under the repeated persuasion of the surrounding guards, Guo Kan was heartbroken and led the remnants of the army to escape from the east gate of Xuchang. Guo Kan's martial arts are strong, and the soldiers of the Song army who surrounded him couldn't stop him, so he could only let him leave. When Zhang Shun, Han Jing, Wen Zhang, and other generals who had entered from the north gate came to the vicinity of the east gate, Guo Kan had already rushed out of the east gate with more than 3,000 Yuan troops.

The generals did not chase after them, but only wiped out all the Yuan troops in the city. Immediately after that, Yin Yinglei ordered the battlefield to be cleaned up, pacified the people in the city, and repaired the ruined city walls. After Wen Zhang, Fan Liangfu and Yin Yinglei, Zhang Shun, Wanyan Tianlei and others exchanged pleasantries, they took over the grain and grass in Zhang Shun's army, led the army away, and returned straight to Bianliang.

"General Zhang, report to the emperor that our army has successfully recovered Xuchang."

"Yes, Yin Shuai, the last general will obey the order." General Zhang Shun, who was the commander of the Lin'an Military Region, could not hide the joy in his heart when he reunited with Yin Yinglei, the military region's envoy, after a long month of absence. Soon after the formation of the Lin'an Military Region, some soldiers and horses went on an expedition to the Ryukyus, and after the start of the Song-Mongolian War, it was divided into several parts, and the main generals of the military region basically never got together.

At the same time that Yin Yinglei conquered Xuchang, the Nanyang Yuan army, under the command of Boyan and Ashu, launched an attack on the Song army in the area of Dengzhou. As the vanguard, Ashuhan and Zhang Hongfan each led an army and attacked the two large camps in the east and north outside the city of Dengzhou respectively.

The Song army, which had been prepared for a long time, stood at the front of the eastern camp and personally supervised the battle. Under the command of Lu Wenhuan, the commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army in the middle route, the soldiers of the Eastern Battalion first returned fire with muskets and bows and arrows.

"No artillery?" Seeming to be relieved, Asahan ordered the Yuan army to charge forward against the scattered muskets.

The Mongolian iron horsemen were fierce, and although people kept falling off their horses, they still rushed forward desperately. The speed of the cavalry was extremely fast, and it didn't take long for the Yuan army at the front to rush to seventy or eighty meters in front of the camp. This distance is exactly the effective range of the musket, the Imperial Forest Army defending the east is a brigade and a half of the second division, with the division commander Zhang Shijie ordered, all the musketeers pulled the musket trigger, the Yuan army in front of the deer antler fence and other obstacles, suddenly lost the other, was swept down by a burst of muskets.

However, the Yuan army did not stop attacking, although the casualties were not small, but after clearing the obstacles, another group of cavalry attacked. This group of cavalry was slightly different from the previous Yuan army, the people in the front were in pairs, holding a barrier such as a table of eight immortals, although the speed was a little slow, but they could block the fire of muskets.

The musket's ammunition hit it, leaving only a muffled sound that could not penetrate the table, let alone injure the person behind it.

Zhang Shijie was experienced, and when he saw it, he immediately ordered the musket to shoot at the opponent's horses. Due to the dark sky, Zhang Shijie did not see clearly, and the horses of the Yuan army were all wrapped in a thick layer of oilcloth.