Chapter 535 Dispatch to Xuchang

"Yes, Your Majesty." Jia Yidao and the others secretly thought to themselves while answering that His Majesty is really not thin on Lu Wende, and the weight of the reward is unexpected.

Lu Wende, a generation of famous generals at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, throughout his life, "self-exertion, maneuvering on three sides, large and small battles", created a series of brilliant achievements, in the Song Dynasty to resist the Mongol invasion process, its role can not be underestimated, can be regarded as the mainstay of the Southern Song Dynasty to resist Mongolia. The court of the Southern Song Dynasty also relied heavily on it, "listed in the three orphans, and worshiped in the two towns". After the surrender of Mongolia, Liu Cheng once said: "The southerners only rely on a black charcoal group. It can also be seen that it played an important role in the military of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Of course, Lu Wende also has an extremely corrupt side, corrupt and perverted the law, excluded dissidents, and took refuge in Jia Nidao, but at least during his lifetime, he did not surrender to Mongolia. For the loss caused by the establishment of the field, Lu Wende also felt guilty, and because of this, he suffered a fever on his back and died on December 10, 1269, the fifth year of Xianchun.

I sealed Lu Wende according to the memories of later generations, but I don't know what Jia Yidao and others think.

"Shichen, Lu Aiqing, Zhao Aiqing, the three of you will rest here for the night, and I will talk to you in detail about the Senate in the evening, and then return to Xiangyang tomorrow."

"Yes, your ministers obey."

"Lu Shikui, General Lu Shimeng."

"The end will be."

"Now that your father is ill, I order the two of you to return to Xiangyang with the three of you to show filial piety."

Lu Shikui hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the big war is coming, the last general is the Song army, at this juncture, is it ......?"

I interrupted: "Yes, you are the Song army, but you are also the son of man, although the war is imminent, there is no shortage of these days. I will give you a fifteen-day vacation, so go and return quickly. ”

Lu Shikui and Lu Shimeng didn't say anything more, and kowtowed to thank him: "Thank you for the emperor's grace." ”

Brother Lu Wende has worked hard in the Xiangyang Military Region for decades and has a high prestige in the Xiangyang Army, and I ordered Brother Lu Shikui to return to Xiangyang to see his father for the last time, also to buy people's hearts and show my benevolence and righteousness.

Of course, no one knew that Lu Wende's time had come.

In mid-November, Yin Yinglei received news that his troops had fled in all directions, finally escaped the pursuit of the Yuan army, and had approached the direction of Bianliang.

Although Yin Yinglei said it lightly in his letter, I know very well that the hardships can not be expressed in words, just like the 25,000-mile long march in later generations. After Yin Yinglei's headquarters ran out of grenades, I changed my original intention of establishing a base and instead asked him to join the army.

"Xiao Chen, map."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Gongsun Xiaochen answered as he unfolded the map on the wall.

"Xiu Yan, how many grenades are there in the army?"

Tian Xiuyan said: "Back to the emperor, there are currently as many as 18,000 pieces, according to Lin'an news, the second arsenal under the Gunpowder Supervision has started in early September, so the production speed is much faster." ”

"Okay, it's time to take Xuchang." I pointed to the map and said, "Jiang Aiqing's department has not much grain and grass left, winter is coming, we should get Xuchang as soon as possible and open up the communication between Dengzhou and Bianliang." Xiao Chen, the congregation will come here to discuss the matter. ”

A group of generals recuperated here for more than a month, and they had long wanted to send troops to attack the Yuan army. At this time, when they heard that the emperor had held a military meeting, everyone was gearing up and excited.

Gongsun Xiaochen, who was a senator with the army, first introduced: "Generals, at present, our Bianliang Military Region has expanded to the strength of two armies, although the Yuan army has sent many additional troops to Bianliang, but the Yuan army besieging Bianliang is still mainly concentrated in the south and east of the city, and the Yuan army on the west and north sides are all new troops who have failed to train, and they have long been repelled by our army's muskets and stationed fifty miles away. Therefore, our Bianliang garrison can enter and exit at will from the west gate and the north gate. ”

"Speaking of Xuchang, judging from the situation mastered by our army, there are only more than 10,000 Yuan troops in Xuchang City, and its guard will be Guo Kan, a famous general of the Yuan Dynasty. This Guo Kan is the descendant of Guo Ziyi, a famous general of the former dynasty, who is brave and strategic, has expeditions to the Western Regions, and has won a hundred battles. However, our army has the advantage of artillery, and it is not difficult to take Xuchang, the only thing to watch out for is the attack of the Nanyang Yuan army. Ladies and gentlemen, please take a look. ”

Gongsun Xiaochen pointed to the large map on the wall and continued: "It took our army scouts nearly two months to complete this detailed map of Henan. If the Nanyang Yuan army wants to attack our army, it may set up a position in the area of Yuncheng or Changwu army. At present, the conditions are ripe for attacking Xuchang, and taking into account all the circumstances, our army has drawn up the following preliminary plan. First, more than 6,000 people under General Zhang Shun's headquarters and two small artillery battalions led by General Wanyan Tianlei arrived in Xuchang through Jiaxian County north of Changwu's army, gathered at General Yin Yinglei's headquarters to form a forward force to attack Xuchang, under the unified command of General Yin Yinglei, and attacked the south gate of Xuchang in the early morning of 27 November. ”

"Second, General Wu Songhan led the troops and horses of his headquarters and one and a half brigades of the Second Division of the Imperial Forest Army, under the unified command of General Wu Songhan, to block the possible arrival of the Nanyang Yuan Army south of Jiaxian. Third, General Fan Tianshun led the troops and horses of his headquarters and the troops of the two brigades of the Third Division of the Imperial Forest Army, under the unified command of General Fan Tianshun, to block the possible arrival of the Nanyang Yuan Army south of Yuncheng. Depending on the movements of the Nanyang Yuan army, these two armies supported or deployed each other, mainly muskets and grenades, to block the reinforcements of Nanyang reinforcements to Xuchang City. ”

"Fourth, the rest of the troops are stationed in Dengzhou with the emperor and Marshal Lu, loose on the outside and tight on the inside, if the Nanyang Yuan army does not save Xuchang and attack Dengzhou with all its might, our army can retreat to the city of Dengzhou. Fifth, once Xuchang was taken, the troops of Yin Yinglei's Division, a brigade of the Third Division of the Imperial Forest Army, and the troops of the two armies under General Fan Tianshun were stationed in Xuchang, and the remaining divisions returned to their starting places. Sixth, if the Nanyang Yuan army is dispatched in large numbers and marches to Xuchang, our main force in Dengzhou will take the opportunity to advance eastward and attack Nanyang. The above is a draft for the attack on Xuchang, and I would like to invite all the generals to put forward their own views. ”

Wu Songhan said: "Your Majesty, generals, at present, the Nanyang Army is not moving, not because they don't want to move, but because they dare not move. As long as our army moves quickly, it is the best policy to take Xuchang before Ah Shu and Boyan can react. Therefore, the last general suggested that General Zhang Shun, who was in charge of the main attack, could sneak north in batches before the 27th, and only operate at night, and strive to act secretly. The last general and General Fan each brought 20 taels of virtual artillery wagons when they set off, so that the Yuan army, which was afraid of artillery, was worried. ”

"General Wu's proposal is very good." Zhang Shundao, "The last general has the guidance of General Fan Liangfu, the grain route where our army escorted military supplies last time was quite hidden, and this time we will definitely be able to arrive outside Xuchang City unnoticed." ”

Wan Yan Tianlei followed: "As long as we can reach Xuchang smoothly, the twenty guns of the artillery battalion will concentrate their fire on a city gate, and it should only take half an hour to blast out a passage." ”……

After more than two hours of careful summarization, I finally announced the battle plans of each army.

Since 19 November, all the scouts in the Dengzhou military camp have been dispatched to inquire about information along various roads in the east and north directions. On the evening of the 21st, General Zhang Shun personally led the troops of an army to quietly leave the Dengzhou camp and head north. Along the way, General Zhang Shun left soldiers at each key point to receive the follow-up troops and monitored the coming and going roads. On the evening of the 22nd, another group of men and horses under Zhang Shun's headquarters protected the artillery battalion and drove in the direction of Xuchang. At dawn on the 24th, Wu Songhan and Fan Tianshun each led their teams from the Dengzhou military camp.

After receiving the news, the commanders of the Nanyang Yuan Army, Boyan and Ashu, immediately convened their generals to discuss.

Boyan first said: "Marshal Ashu, generals, the purpose of the Southern Korean army going north this time is nothing more than two, one is to directly enter Bianliang, and the other is to attack Xuchang, an important town in the south of Bianliang. According to the report of our scouts, in addition to the musketeers who accompanied the southern army to the north, there were also forty sealed chariots, and the forty chariots should be pulling the artillery of the southern dynasty. If they attack Xuchang, then our army can block the Song army in the area of Jiaxian. ”

Ah Shu said: "Compared with the Battle of Xiangyang, the Imperial Forest Army of the Southern Dynasty Army has one more integrated division, that is, thousands of musketeers, which is not a good thing for our army." However, this time, the southern army moved north, which clearly divided the layout of its firearms. Therefore, Ben Shuai believes that our army should also divide its troops into two routes, one to the north, to fight with the Song army in Jiaxian, and the other to attack Dengzhou. ”

"Okay." Boyan thought for a while and said, "If the army of the Southern Dynasty and the north took away forty artillery pieces, then only fifteen artillery pieces remained in the Dengzhou army, but in the last month or two, I don't know if any new firearms have arrived in the Southern Dynasty?" But no matter what, since such an opportunity has appeared, our army naturally cannot let it go, and the more time passes, the more firearms the Southern Dynasties will have, and the more unfavorable it will be to our army. ”

Ali Hague said: "Marshal Boyan, marshal, give the order." ”

Boyan nodded and said: "There are a total of 70,000 or 80,000 troops in Dengzhou, half of whom went north, judging from the information that our army has, the emperor of the Southern Dynasty should not have gone north with the army, but stayed in Dengzhou, so the key target of our army's attack this time is in Dengzhou." The generals listened to the order, and Marshal Ashu assigned the tasks of each army. ”

"Generals, if you can kill the emperor of the Southern Dynasty, it will be worth losing countless Xuchang." General Ashu said, "General Ali Hague." ”

"The end will be."

"This marshal ordered you to lead 10,000 cavalry, play more flags, fanfare, and go to Jiaxian with 50,000 soldiers and horses."