"Chen Banxian won't come to save me!"

At the beginning of October, on the upper floor of the city of Chaoxi Gate at the east gate of Taiyuan, this shout echoed uncertainly, and the people around closed their eyes and bowed their heads, pretending not to hear this. Who is Chen Banxian? Of course, it's Chen Dexing, I don't know if it's because of the recklessness, the civil and military officials of the Eastern Tang Dynasty are particularly fond of giving people nicknames. However, Chen Banxian's nickname was not called by the officials, but by the Empress Dowager of the Tang Dynasty after she returned from Putuo Mountain.

Li Pu is a Confucian student, and he didn't call his mother like that at first, but now he has been trapped in Taiyuan City for almost ten days, and he stretches his neck every day on the tower of Chaoxi Gate in anticipation of Chen Dexing's reinforcements. But reinforcements didn't arrive for a long time. The Mongols began to dig a long trench outside the city of Taiyuan to besiege the city!

The Long Trench Siege ...... This is a long-term plan, if Chen Dexing's army is heading south, wouldn't Kublai Khan hurry up and transfer the tens of thousands of troops outside Taiyuan City to a decisive battle? At this time, Li Pu, who was quite determined when he was surrounded just now, finally couldn't hold his breath.

"He's going to wait for me to die before he comes to take over my territory, why am I blind and believe in this traitor?"

In Li Pu's view, the loss of the Central Plains by Meng Yuan is a foregone conclusion, and the Great Song Dynasty in the south is also a pile of dry bones. The future world is not Tang Jiming. And Datang is orthodox and follows the right path in China, which is definitely more popular with the people than Beiming, who specializes in crooked and evil ways. Winning the hearts of the people naturally wins the world, so the world must be Datang's. Unless Li Pu was killed by Kublai Khan......

This kind of thinking of his is also the idea of many powerful people in the North. Although Chen Dexing's resumption ceremony, it seems that it is more in line with the interests of the powerful people. But Chen Dexing also showed a strong tendency to expand abroad, and shouted the slogan of "Xia Jun Yimin", which is to seal everyone to overseas wild places to become kings!

It's a bit unacceptable. So between Tang Ming. Everyone still supports the Tang Dynasty, so Shi Tianze, Zhang Rou, Zhang Rong, Li Yinuge, Dai Quxue, these northern Han marquis. Only now will he be surrounded by the Mongols with Li Pu in the hapless city of Taiyuan.

Of course, these original Beidi Hanhou who followed Li Pu into Taiyuan together. The current envoys of the Tang Festival are not alone, but with their army. Closing the Three Guards Mansion soldiers and the Three Thousand Feather Forests brought by Li Pu, plus the three Jin Haoqiang troops who have successively defected to Li Pu these days. Now Li Pu has more than 100,000 troops around Taiyuan! Due to too many soldiers and horses, the Taiyuan city built by Pan Mei could not be placed, and a village was set up outside the north and south walls of the city as the two wings of Taiyuan City.

However, Li Pu, who had an army of 100,000 and obviously had the strength to fight, was frightened by the 200,000 Mongolian army that broke through Xinkou. didn't dare to fight, and let the Mongols surround themselves, only to stretch their necks and wait for their good son-in-law Chen Dexing to come to the rescue.

Pity. Chen Dexing is not a good person either! I didn't have the idea of saving Taiyuan at all, I just thought about beating Kublai Khan and messing with myself less. Therefore, the scale of the troops sent is not very large, and Kublai Khan can still grit his teeth and not withdraw the siege of Taiyuan - if Chen Dexing mobilizes 40,000 people to go south, it is estimated that he will be regarded as 80,000 by the Mongolian exploration horses! In this way, Kublai Khan did not dare to bring 60,000 men to meet the battle.

"Your Majesty, we can't sit still!"

Shi Tianze couldn't hold his breath, Chen Dexing didn't seem to be able to count on it, so he could only fight - if he didn't enter Taiyuan, it would be okay, he could also lead troops to join Chen Dexing. It's a big deal to change the scriptures of Tiandao and go to a foreign country to become a king. But now he is also trapped in Taiyuan City, where is there a way out?

Go and surrender Kublai Khan again? This matter is not reliable, even if Kublai Khan does not care about it now. Settle accounts after the fall!

"Your Majesty, let's fight with the Mongols!" Shi Tianze blew his beard and said, "The Mongols are nothing remarkable. They are horsemen...... Shanxi is also not a place for cavalry to play. ”

"That's right! Your Majesty, it's better to fight! ”

"Fight! Fight a fish and die in the net! ”

"Fuck. This Kublai Khan didn't let Lao Tzu live, and Lao Tzu would bite off a few pieces of his flesh even if he died! ”

"That's right! Fight with the Mongolian Tatars! Kill one enough Ben. Kill two to earn one! ”

A group of Hanhou in the north are also ruthless people, and they are all ruthless when they see that they have no way to live, and they are shouting that they want to fight hard.

Li Pu turned his head to look at his father-in-law Wang Wentong, Wang Wentong's face was calm, and he said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, Chen Dexing will not be able to die without help!" The third princess always had a way to convince him to send troops. Now the question is...... Chen Dexing will not really rescue Taiyuan. ”

"I won't really ......"

"Yes, but it won't be saved!" Wang Wentong stroked his beard, "But Kublai Khan didn't dare to ignore the reinforcements of the Northern Ming Dynasty!" ”

Chen Dexing was a ruthless man who killed Meng Ge Khan and defeated Tachaer in the first battle of Liaodong! Even if he only brought 10,000 soldiers out, Kublai Khan would have to fight with 120,000 points.

In contrast, Li Pu had a lot of dishes, and he had no outstanding achievements in the Han Dynasty for 30 years, and the battles with the Southern Song Dynasty also won and lost each other.

"Good! This is our chance! Li Pu stomped his feet, gritted his teeth and said, "Fight!" Lao Tzu fought with them......"

Lao Li suddenly roared: "Wang Wentong, take out all the property brought from Yidu and distribute it to the soldiers, and then tell them that if this battle is won, Lao Tzu will make them knights, and each of them will give 300 acres of grange...... All kinds of treatment are the same as those of the Northern Ming Shijue! ”

……

Zhending Road, Hutuo River.

Several bridges over the Hutuo River have been burned down, and boats on the north bank of the river have been towed to the south bank.

On the bank of the river near Zhending Road City, dense yurts have been erected. The yurt was not surrounded by carts around Gureyan, but very formally dug trenches, built walled walls, erected watchtowers, and even rammed earth piles like forts, on which bed crossbows and copper cannons cast by the craftsmen of Jingzhao Mansion according to the patterns sent from the front line!

On the other side of the Hutuo River, the flag of the Sun and Moon King was already flying high on a high ground. On the north bank of the Hutuo River below the heights, less than a hundred paces from the river beach, two infantry phalanxes of 6,000 men were formed, most of whom were dressed in shining silver armor and held spears more than a foot long, lined up in seven horizontal formations (the so-called phalanx), surrounded by crossbowmen and sword and shield bearers. Behind the large array, thousands of unarmored infantry soldiers of the Northern Ming Army were building barracks. There were also about 2,000 black-clad cavalry scattered around the large array and the barracks. In addition, around the high ground where the Sun and Moon King Banner is located, there are also silver-armored knights leading horses.

"Great Khan, the anti-Ming army is camping, their number seems to be less than 20,000, and there is also the Sun and Moon King Banner of Chen Thief......"

Niu Lin, who served as the captain of 10,000 people, stood on a very sturdy watchtower, pointed to the military formation on the other side of the river, and said to Kublai Khan, who had just arrived.

"What's that? How can it be so dazzling? Kublai Khan was immediately attracted by the steel armor of the infantry of the Northern Ming army.

"It seems to be...... Steel Armor! Niu Lin said, "It's not like wrought iron is so bright, and it's certainly not silver-plated wrought iron." ”

Cowardly Xue Chang'an Tong reminded Kublai Khan: "Great Khan, there has been a detailed report, many blacksmith shops in the Ming capital are sold with steel armor, they call plate armor, which is made of pure steel, and the price of each pair is 1000 to 1500 guan......"

"1500 kans!?" Kublai Khan rolled his eyelids, is this still a fucking A? It's putting gold on you! At least 4,000 of the 6,000 people in front of him are wearing this shiny armor, even if it is calculated according to 1,000 guan, it will cost 4 million guan!

An army of several thousand people spends tens of thousands of dollars to buy armor, this Chen Dexing is also very ambitious, right!?

"Where did he get all that copper?" Kublai Khan blurted out.

An Tong said: "The Great Khan should ask him where he got so much steel!" ”

Kublai Khan was stunned for a moment, but when he was careful, he also felt reasonable. It's not a question of money, it's a question of whether there is one!

A pair of armor weighs at least 30 kilograms, and 4,000 pairs of armor is 120,000 kilograms. 120,000 catties of steel! 120,000 catties of copper is easy to get, and 120,000 catties of silver can also be obtained, even if it is 120,000 gold in the era of the Great Khan of Ogedei, there is also a treasury in the city of Helin - Helin once stored a large amount of plundered gold and silver, but during the reign of Empress Naima Zhen and Guiyou, most of the gold and silver were squandered. 120,000 catties of steel ...... Even Great Mongolia has never had such a stockpile of steel!

"Where did they get the steel?" Kublai Khan asked.

An Tong said: "The minister asked the blacksmith in the army. They think that there is a secret method of steelmaking that can make a large amount of steel at once! ”

The art of steelmaking has always been a dream of blacksmiths, so it is not difficult for blacksmiths in the Mongol army to guess this.

"The art of steelmaking......" Kublai Khan took a few breaths of cool air. The warriors of the Mongol hosts did not necessarily have steel blades on their scimitars! The Northern Ming Dynasty actually beat steel into armor and wore it on their bodies, which can only show that their steel production is very high, far exceeding that of the Great Yuan and Song Kingdoms......

"Great Khan, do you want to send warriors across the river to test it?" Niu Lin looked at the Ming army wearing steel armor on the other side, swallowed his saliva, as if he wanted to rush over and grab a few pairs!

"Temptation?" Kublai Khan shook his head, "No...... Let's talk about the confrontation for a while. As long as it drags on for 10 days, Bianliang and Luoyang can be fully in my hands, and then it will be possible to do without a fight. In addition, send a few more thousand-strong troops to go around behind enemy lines, and don't get close to Yanjing, just burn and kill them on Baoding Road and the south of Yanjing Road. ”

Chen Dexing's steel armor and cannons are very difficult to deal with. But in the matter of the mobility of the troops, the Mongols still had an absolute advantage. Even if you can't win a frontal battle, you can still use cavalry maneuvers to maneuver with the enemy, cut off a grain route, harass the enemy's rear, and force the enemy to retreat. Therefore, Kublai Khan did not have the idea of a decisive battle with Chen Dexing, and the current confrontation across the river was just to attract Chen Dexing's attention. If Chen Dexing wanted to force the crossing of the Hutuo River, Kublai Khan could retreat further south. In short, it's okay not to go head-to-head with Chen Dexing...... (To be continued......)