Chapter 446 Nervous

On the evening of the fifth day of the first lunar month, I explained this year's overseas trade plan to Pu Shougeng and Xiao Tian at the Shifeng Commercial Bank, and as soon as I returned to the gate of the palace, I saw Lu Xiufu hurrying up from behind: "Your Majesty, the Xiangyang Military Region is eight hundred miles urgent. ”

"Eight hundred miles expedited?" I was stunned for a moment, this was the first eight-hundred-mile urgent battle report since the outbreak of the Battle of Xiangyang.

I let Xiao Qi read it out as I walked.

In the early morning of the first day of the first lunar month, the Mongolian army launched simultaneous attacks on the two cities of Xiangfan. The east gate of Xiangyang City was first attacked by the Mongolian army stone thrower, about two quarters of an hour later, the Mongolian pioneer Azhuhan led more than 10,000 soldiers to begin to attack the city, at the same time, a large number of Mongolian troops also appeared outside the north gate and the west gate, the attack on the north gate was another Mongolian pioneer Zhang Hongfan, the attack on the west gate was the Mongolian commander Atahai, the two of them each led more than 10,000 soldiers to my north gate, the west gate of the two launched a fierce attack. Later, according to the Fancheng Battle Report, at the same time, the 20,000 troops led by the Mongolian generals Ali Hague and Kong Yuan also began to besiege the north and west gates of Fancheng. This was the first large-scale siege of the city by the Mongolian army since the siege of Xiangfan, and the whole battle lasted for nearly an hour and a half. After the war, our army suffered 4,641 casualties, of which 944 were killed, and the preliminary judgment was that the Mongolian army suffered about 8,000 casualties, and the death toll was at least 2,000.

"What's wrong with the Mongols? Is it in a hurry? ”

Xiao Qi said: "Official, these Mongolians clearly don't want the people of Xiangyang to live a good year. ”

"Huh? Xiao Qi was right. Fang Ling said, "Brother, this may be Ah Shu's true intention, his purpose is not to attack the city in a hurry, but to disrupt the normal life order of the people of my Xiangyang City, so as to take the opportunity to attack the confidence of our dynasty." ”

"Huh?" Xiao Qi hurriedly said, "Concubine Lingniang, the little one just said it casually, and it shouldn't be true." ”

"Ling'er, Xiao Qi, the two of you are right, I fully agree, Ah Shu's intention should be like this."

Fang Ling and Xiao Qi laughed together: "Brother (official), is it really? ”

"Of course, as soon as my golden mouth is opened, how can I talk nonsense?"

"Chrysostom opens?" Fang Ling smiled, but his expression suddenly changed slightly, as if he remembered something.

"Ling'er, what's wrong?"

"Brother, I seem to remember something, why do I feel very familiar with this 'Chrysostom open' when you talk about it?"

Not long after I met Fang Ling, I said, "What's more, as soon as I open my Chrysostom, I will naturally not lose my trust in others." Fang Ling said at that time, "Don't be open-mouthed, this Chrysostom is only limited to the emperor, and the rest of the people can't say that." ”

For more than two years, I had thought of many ways to recover Fang Ling's memory, but I didn't expect that an unintentional sentence would make Fang Ling feel it.

However, Fang Ling still didn't think of anything in the end.

"Forget it, Ling'er, don't think about it, let's go see Concubine Yang, Xiao Qi, you go and inform the queen and let her go to Concubine Yang too."

"Okay, I don't want to."

Judging from the battle reports received in the next few days, the Mongolian army outside Xiangyang City launched two large-scale siege campaigns on the first and third days of the Lunar New Year. However, the commander of the Xiangyang Military Region, the Lu Wende brothers, was quite calm, after all, he was a general who had experienced a hundred battles, and he did not panic in the slightest because of this, and under the command of the Lu brothers, tens of thousands of officers and men of the entire Xiangyang Military Region still maintained high morale.

At the same time, Lü Wende's battle report also reported that the Mongol Liu Cheng intended to set up a fence at Guanzitan south of Xiangyang City, but his behavior was discovered in time by our fleet along the river and driven away.

As the envoy of the fleet along the river, Chen Yi is of course clear about his task, that is, before the warships of the Mongolian naval division enter the Hanshui Basin, the waterway from Yingzhou to Xiangyang must be unblocked, because there is currently no Mongolian naval division in the entire Hanshui Basin, so this task is very simple, but if such a simple task cannot be completed, then he Chen Yi can only go to Lin'an with his head.

Chen Yi was originally a cautious person, who did not offend the imperial power in the court, but also made friends with the prime minister, and was very careful in doing things, and would personally lead a warship to inspect the Han River section from Yingzhou to Xiangyang every day to prevent accidents. It is this careful style of action that makes Liu Cheng have nothing to do for a while, although the Han River Basin is in the period of low tide, but there is no naval warship, unable to compete with Chen Yi in the water, Liu Cheng knows Chen Yi's ability, and does not put it in his eyes, but in addition to watching the fleet along the river show off its power in the Han River, what can it do?

Before sending troops to Xiangyang, Liu Chuan built 500 warships in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in Sichuan, but was blocked by the main force of the fleet stationed along the Yangtze River in Chongqing, and could not cross the Diaoyu City by half a step, and the 1,000 warships built on the Shandong Peninsula were far from quenching their thirst, so they could only wait for the new shipyard in Wanshanbao to build warships, of course, this would not be until late March at the earliest.

Liu Quan, as the proud general of Marshal Meng Gong, knows the gap between the Song and Mongolian sailors clearly, although the disadvantages of Mongolia are obvious, but Liu Quan is full of confidence, except for Li Beiyang, the rest of the Song Dynasty's sailors and generals are not in his eyes, coupled with the strong support of Kublai Khan, Liu Quan believes that as long as the 70,000 sailors he built with his own hands are trained and the warships of the Wanshanbao base are made down the river, the fleet along the river is not his opponent at all.

For the water war, Liu Cheng is very proud. Of course, pride requires capital, in all fairness, Liu Cheng is indeed qualified, even Li Beiyang admires Liu Cheng's talent in water warfare.

For Liu Quan at the moment, he no longer has any ideas except for defeating the Song Dynasty sailors in the water battle. Although Kublai Khan treated him well, and often used the truth that the pearl should be used as the casting light and the good bird should be the choice of wood to warn Liu Quan, Liu Cheng knew that the fierce and barbaric Mongols had always looked down on those who surrendered, and even the Han generals in the Mongol army were incompatible with him, although they were polite on the surface.

At this point, Liu Quan has only one way to go. In recent years, Liu Quan has often paid attention to the situation in the Southern Song Dynasty, and is naturally very aware of the changes after the new emperor of the Song Dynasty ascended the throne. It's not that Liu Cheng didn't think about returning to the Song Dynasty, but he didn't turn back with a bow, and he Liu Cheng is not the kind of person who is two-faced and three-sworded.

In late January, Zhang Xi, the chief of the naval division, came to Liu Quan's tent and handed Liu Cheng a letter: "General, Liu Tao has a letter. ”

"Liu Tao?" Liu Cheng hurriedly saw it. Liu Tao said in the letter, "General, the first batch of 5,000 sailors has been trained according to the general's requirements, and the Great Khan has ordered that these 5,000 sailors be stationed in Xiangyang in advance, and they are expected to arrive in mid-March." ”

Liu Cheng said with a smile: "It's a good thing, just in time for the first batch of warships to be built." ”

"Yes, General, then the sailors of our dynasty will be able to compete with the sailors of the Song Dynasty on the Han River." Zhang Xi is a Han Chinese in Mongolia, and he admires Liu Quan's ability to fight water very much, and can be regarded as Liu Quan's only friend in Mongolia.

"Well, the battle of Xiangyang is the most difficult battle of our dynasty, although Xiangyang Lu Wende said that his character is inferior, but the war is not ambiguous, plus he has been operating Xiangfan for more than ten years, his subordinates Lu Wenhuan, Lu Wenxin, Lu Wenfu, Wang An, Niu Fu and others are all good generals in the world, and the Xiangyang army is mostly able to recruit the likes of war, this battle is not easy to fight."

"General, is it wrong for our army to attack Xiangyang?"

"That's right, as long as Xiangyang is taken, the Song Dynasty will have no chance of winning. The Great Khan's strategy of besieging the city and sending reinforcements was very correct, and I had always thought that the key to this battle was our naval division, as long as we could defeat the Song naval division in the Han River and block the waterway of Xiangyang, our army would be able to win a great victory. Lately, though, I've always had a bit of a nervous feeling that this battle isn't so simple. ”

"Why does the general feel this way?"

Liu Quan sighed and said: "General Zhang, you are not an outsider, it doesn't hurt for me to tell you, when the first emperor of the Song Dynasty was in power, there was a mess in the court, but now it is very different, since the restructuring of the Song Dynasty army, its combat power has been significantly improved, although it is still inferior to the overall military strength of our dynasty, but its new emperor makes me feel an inexplicable sense of fear." Judging from the performance of the new emperor, it is not possible to let the field outside Xiangyang City develop, but on the contrary, not only is the field still there, but also our army is allowed to build a castle in it, which makes me puzzled. ”

Zhang Xi didn't know the government of the Song Dynasty: "The general is too worried, maybe the emperor of the Southern Dynasty doesn't know the 'good deeds' that Lu Wende has done at all, besides, my Great Khan is wise and martial, Marshal Ashu and Shi Tianze are all resourceful, so they don't know these things." ”

Liu Cheng thought for a while and said, "I hope I'm too worried." ”

Kublai Khan, Ah Shu and others were all higher in strategy and wisdom than Liu Quan, but they all ignored one point, Liu Cheng was a former general of the Song Dynasty. And because of Liu Quan's identity, and the strategy of attacking Xiangfan was the first to be put forward, he did not report this doubt to Ah Shu or Kublai Khan.

Liu Cheng was extremely intelligent, but at the same time, the city government was also very deep, and if Kublai Khan was told this inference, it would be difficult to judge whether it was good or bad for him personally.

In the following month, the Mongol army besieging Xiangfan did not carry out another large-scale siege, but continued to attack the east gate of Xiangyang City with stone throwers every day, as before. The defenders of Xiangyang, as always, kept repairing the damaged city walls.

Judging from the news sent back from the north, the Mongol army in the Nanyang area had been reorganized in advance, but Kublai Khan did not order these troops to move south immediately.