Chapter 512: The Hero Returns Home

Gongsun Xiaochen first said: "Your Majesty, according to the report of the returning scouts, the Yuan army marched all the way north after retreating, and there was no intention of turning back. ”

"Okay, let's find out and report again. Jiang Aiqing and General Xia, has the task of cleaning up the battlefield been completed? ”

Jiang Wanzai said: "Back to Your Majesty, the casualties of our army have been basically counted, of which 4,364 were killed, more than 4,900 were seriously wounded, and more than 3,600 were lightly wounded. According to preliminary estimates, not counting the cavalry of the Yuan army killed by our artillery fire, in this battle, our army killed more than 40,000 enemy soldiers and captured more than 6,000 people, and the detailed data is still being counted. ”

"Well, report to me as soon as the statistics come out."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

I nodded and sighed: "Our army waits for work, and there are firearms first, and in the infantry combat that our army is good at, the casualties have reached more than 10,000 people, it seems that the combat effectiveness of the Yuan army is really strong." Jiang Aiqing, how much firearms and equipment is left in our army? ”

"Your Majesty, our army's grenades, artillery shells, and musket ammunition are all missing to varying degrees, especially the projectiles and shells, and if the Mongols launch another offensive of the same scale, our army's ammunition will be insufficient to deal with."

"Xiao Chen, let Lu Xiufu notify the gunpowder administration and step up manufacturing."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Fang Ling said with a smile: "Lord Jiang, Kublai Khan suffered such a big loss, where would he dare to come again?" ”

Jiang Wanzai also smiled and said: "Concubine Ling is right, presumably Kublai Khan doesn't have the courage anymore." ”

"Kublai Khan did not know the specific situation of our firearms, and if he knew, the outcome might have been different." After winning the battle, I am naturally in a happy mood, "Today's battle, the performance of the generals and soldiers is very outstanding, I am very satisfied with this, after the end of the entire Xiangfan battle, I will discuss the meritorious deeds, and the summary of the war will be carried out tomorrow, generals, if you have something to do, please play, and go back to the camp to rest if you have nothing to do." ”

Jiang Wanzai said: "Your Majesty, how to deal with the captured enemy troops?" ”

"Let's detain them first, and then deal with them when the fighting is over." I thought for a while and said, "General Zhu, these captives will be handed over to your ministry for the time being, and one meal a day will be provided, so that they will not starve to death and have no ability to escape, and from tomorrow onwards, one by one, we will interrogate them one by one to see if there are any Yuan army generals, and also, separate the Han and Mongols." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, the last general will obey the order."

Towards evening, the scouts came with the latest news, after the Yuan army retreated north, they stopped at the Lumen Mountain camp for a while, and then all marched towards the castle of Baihe City.

"It seems that Kublai Khan wants to withdraw his troops." After hearing the news, the scheming Jiang Wanzai spoke first.

"Well, that's a big possibility." Xia Gui, who was also experienced, agreed, "Your Majesty, since the fortress of the Yuan army in Lumen Mountain is empty, the last general suggests that our department be stationed there tonight." ”

I thought for a moment and said, "Yes." General Xia, this also saves the need to build a new camp in Guanzitan. Your army sent scouts outside at night, and if it was attacked by a large Yuan army, it could withdraw from the east. ”

"Your Majesty, rest assured, after today's battle, the Mongols' infantry army has suffered casualties, and the fortress of Lumen Mountain is quite strong except for the front, and Kublai Khan has no artifact available, so he should not let his cavalry attack."

"Okay, General Xia, it's not too early, you guys leave immediately, and it's time for me to give instructions for today's recital."

"Yes, Your Majesty, the last general will take his leave."

It was only at noon the next day that I got up from my camp bed, and slept for nearly six hours. Walking out of the big tent, it was already sunny outside, and it was a hot day.

After hurriedly eating breakfast and lunch, I saw Gongsun Xiaochen, Jiang Wanzai and Zhu Huan coming to the big tent.

Jiang Wanzai said: "Your Majesty, among the enemy captives this time is a Mongolian commander named Shudu, who was defeated by the Imperial Forest Army He Quchen in Tongfu Town outside Yingzhou City. In yesterday's battle, this was extremely fierce, and finally he was captured by the Guards due to exhaustion. General Zhu, you can tell the emperor about the interrogation. ”

"Yes, sir." Zhu Huan said, "Your Majesty, you were all escorted to the sixth camp by the emperor's personal guards, this person did not hide his identity, and personally admitted that he was a Mongolian commander. From the mouths of the other captives, the last general learned that this man was born in cowardice, and was currently serving in the Mongol Middle Route Army, and was highly regarded by his superior, the commander of the Ten Thousand Soldiers. ”

"The commander of the thousand is also the backbone of the generals of the Yuan army, and he is from the cowardly Xue, and I plan to use it in exchange for the captured battalion commander of our army, Wei Guohu. Xiao Chen, convene everyone to discuss this matter in the future. ”

"Your Majesty." Gongsun Xiaochen said with a smile, "All the generals are already near the big tent, waiting for the emperor to hold a summary meeting of yesterday's battle." ”

"Okay, Xuan."

After a while, a group of generals followed Gongsun Xiaochen into the big tent one after another: "See the emperor." ”

"The generals will be exempt from courtesy, and they will be flat."

"Your Majesty."

"Generals, before the meeting, I will talk about another thing, in the battle of Fancheng a while ago, the commander of the 228th battalion of our army made Wei Guohu fall into the hands of the Yuan army due to injuries, and in yesterday's battle, our army captured a thousand commanders of the enemy, so I plan to send someone to the Yuan army garrison in Baihe City to discuss the exchange of prisoners of war, which general is willing to go?"

Hu Yande first said: "The last general is willing to go." ”

"The last will go." Wu Songhan followed closely......

"The last general is willing to go." The rest of the generals also said in unison.

I thought for a while and said, "Wait for me to repair a letter, General Wu Songhan will go, Hu Yande, Shen Mo, and the two of you will lead fifty personal guards to accompany you to protect." ”

"Yes, the last general."

According to my dictation, Gongsun Xiaochen wrote a letter and handed it to Wu Songhan.

The fortress of the Yuan army in Baihe City is quite far away from the camp of Guanzitan, and it will take two hours to hurry up.

The horses galloped, the fifty-three people did not rest at all, and after half of the time (four o'clock in the afternoon), Wu Songhan and others came to Baihe City, which is located in the northwest of Xiangyang City.

A hundred meters away, Wu Songhan reined in his war horse and said loudly to the castle: "Listen to the people above, Wu Songhan, the third commander of the Lin'an Military Region of the Great Song Dynasty, has been ordered to come and deliver a letter to His Majesty the Emperor of my Celestial Dynasty, asking General Boyan to forward it to the Mongolian Great Khan." ”

The Yuan army guards who had already seen the Song army appear were waiting for them, and finally found that the other party only had fifty-three horsemen, so they breathed a sigh of relief.

After a while, Kublai Khan personally led Ah Shu and Boyan to appear on the fortress.

Boyan said: "General Wu, what's the matter?" ”

Wu Songhan didn't answer, took out the cloud-piercing bow, and didn't aim, only listened to the sound of "whoosh", and a feather arrow tied with a letter shot towards the place where Boyan was standing on the earthen wall. The speed of this feather arrow is not very fast, and when it came closer, Boyan stretched out his hand and grabbed the feather arrow in his hand.

"Wei Guohu? Is it the Southern Korean soldier captured by our centurion Yantai Hezong? ”

Ah Shu said: "Back to the emperor, exactly." ”

"Still alive, huh?"

"Alive."

"That's good." After Kublai Khan finished reading it, he nodded and said, "Shudu is also a fierce general of my dynasty, Boyan, this matter is feasible, it is scheduled to be exchanged in the middle of Lumen Mountain and Baihe City early tomorrow morning, and you can arrange the specific matters." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Boyan said to Wu Songhan outside, "General Wu, tomorrow in the middle of the morning (eight o'clock in the morning), there will be an exchange between Lumen Mountain and Baihe City, and the number of people brought by both sides shall not exceed fifty. ”

"Okay, General Boyan, I will say goodbye here."

When Wu Songhan and the others returned to Guanzitan, the entire camp was already shrouded in night.

Nothing was said all night.

In the early morning of the next day, Wu Songhan and Hu Yande took forty-seven guards and a soldier of the Song army who knew Wei Guohu to tie all of them upside down to a war horse, and arrived at the middle of Beihe City and Lumen Mountain on time in the middle of Chenshi. For middle- and lower-level generals like Shu Du and Wei Guohu, Kublai Khan thought it was dispensable, and he didn't deliberately pay attention to it, so naturally he wouldn't play any tricks.

The whole process went very smoothly, and the exchange of prisoners on behalf of the Yuan army was Ashuhai, Huaidu, and forty-eight cowardly Xue soldiers. After the two sides verified and inspected the exchanged prisoners of war, Wu Songhan and A Tinghai ordered the release of the prisoners at the same time.

It seems that Wei Guohu's spirit is still good, Wu Songhan nodded, dismounted and said: "Commander Wei, I am Wu Songhan, the third commander of the Lin'an Military Region, and I am here to take you home by the emperor's order." ”

"Home? Can I finally go home? Wei Guohu was very excited and said, "I didn't expect it, General Wu, when his subordinates were captured by the Mongols, he no longer had the heart to survive, I never thought that the emperor would know about the small one, and he ...... it" Speaking of this, Wei Guohu was already in tears.

"Commander Wei, you are a good man of our dynasty and a model for our army." Wu Songhan smiled slightly, and said after giving a standard military salute to the battalion-level general who was a few levels lower than himself, "National Tiger, get on the horse, go back to the camp with this general, and thank the emperor in person." After that, he personally helped Wei Guohu onto the war horse.

Considering Wei Guohu's physical condition, when returning to the camp, Wu Songhan and the others did not gallop their horses, but rushed back at normal horse speed.

When Wei Guohu returned to the Guanzitan camp with Wu Songhan and others, he was shocked on the spot that the current emperor of the Great Song Dynasty actually appeared in front of the camp, and he made a special trip to meet his small battalion commander.

There is no need to ask, Wei Guohu also knows that the person in the dragon robe in front of him is the emperor of the current Great Song Dynasty.

Almost rolling off the horse, Wei Guohu immediately knelt on the ground, and bowed: "Little Wei Guohu greets the emperor, long live my emperor, long live, long live." ”

"General Wei, get up." I took two steps forward, stretched out my hand to help Wei Guohu up, and said with a smile, "General Wei, are you well?" ”