Zheng Yunming and Bai Yijie stood on the tower of the north gate and watched the team sent to the north rush out of the city gate and drive towards the ferry. From there, they boarded the boat, took the boat back to the upper reaches of the Han River, and then landed on the shore, and began to inspect and reconnoiter the three northern cities.

"What do you think is the chance of winning this sudden north?" Zheng Yunming looked at the soldiers who came out of the whole team below with his pheasant in his hand, and asked casually.

Bai Yijie watched the team with bright armor and a clean lineup walking towards the north, thinking about things in his heart, and didn't hear Zheng Yunming's inquiry clearly for a while. But he knew that Zheng Yunming was only concerned about one thing at this time.

"Tangzhou has been emptied, and the sound of chickens and dogs has not been heard for hundreds of miles in Dengzhou. The most critical thing is that these two states are too far away from Xiangfan to play the role of outposts. He said to Zheng Yunming: "The most suitable outpost is still only Zaoyang City. In last year's battle, the people of Zaoyang were killed, but according to the information sent back from the north, the Mongols relocated hundreds of households in Henan into the city, and arranged for 150 Mongolian cavalry to carry their families and Shengkou to Zaoyang as a cantonment place. If you want me to say, the most likely contact with the enemy is Liu Quan's way. ”

Zheng Yunming frowned and did not speak.

Bai Yijie said with a smile: "The deputy capital is complaining about such an important place, how could he send Liu Quan?" ”

Zheng Yunming said indistinctly as if it was a voice coming out of his nose: "Liu Quan is keen on work, and he will ask himself to charge forward in every battle." After the war, when distributing the spoils of war and rewarding meritorious deeds, he was also careful and refused to give in to others. If he is allowed to see the enemy's forward troops, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not become famous and be defeated by the enemy alone. ”

"That's all reassuring." Bai Yijie gently shook his fan and said, "Liu Cheng is definitely not a puppet who only knows how to use brute force. When to engage the enemy, when to retreat, I believe he has this rule in his heart. ”

Zheng Yunming nodded, no longer talking about Liu Quan's matter, and said to Bai Yijie instead: "Yesterday, Chen Jiao took his two hundred guerrillas out of Xiangyang and went north. ”

Bai Yijie sighed.

Zheng Yunming could hear the abnormality in his tone. raised his voice a little: "If you have something to say, you and I don't need to shy away from something. ”

"I'm just curious that Chen Jiao's guerrilla warfare method must first gain the trust and cooperation of the local residents, and they can provide intelligence, supplies, and cover before it can be implemented. What can he do with his team to the no-man's land on the border between the two countries? ”

"They don't need to be as bold as going behind enemy lines," Zheng Yunming said, "Let them be active in the area in front of the enemy, and practice how to lurk, how to march covertly, how to raid in the dark, how to intercept the passes, how to burn the enemy's grain and grass, how to assassinate the enemy's leader, how to get rid of the pursuit of the Hu people's fast cavalry, and even how to move back and forth between the enemy troops." This will be the most leisurely time before the Great War, take advantage of this rare opportunity to practice well, and you will be comfortable in the real war. ”

Bai Yijie nodded yes, and said: "When the Jin people went south, Yan Zhao Jian'er organized their own volunteers to carry out extensive guerrilla battles behind the enemy, and there were hundreds of thousands of volunteers all the way in Hebei. killed hundreds of enemy leaders above Meng'an, and even almost captured Jin Taizong. This is what a magnificent heroic deed, it is a pity that since the imperial court crossed to the south, it only thought of the prosperity of the south of the Yangtze River, and was content in half of the wall, ignoring the bloody struggle of millions of anti-captivity athletes in Jiangbei, and no one in the north is willing to serve the Zhao official family today, every time I think of this, how can I not sigh! ”

Zheng Yunming said lightly: "Don't worry, now that the war between the two countries is about to enter a wonderful time, the heroes in the north are not as stable as they seem. After repelling the Mongol invasion this time, we can free up our hands to make a good deployment of a great plan to connect Heshuo. ”

"But the priority is to deal with the enemy in front of you." Zheng Yunming gestured in the direction of the north: "First of all, you have to severely frustrate the enemy's sharp spirit." ”

In the first Mongol invasion in the second year of Duanping, the prefectures and counties on the first line of Hanshui, except for the two cities of Xiangfan, were not captured by the enemy, Dengzhou, Tangzhou, Zaoyang Army, Guanghua Army, Junzhou and De'an Mansion were all occupied by the enemy, or the northern generals who defended this place surrendered to the Mongols and caused the city to fall, or the Mongols used a powerful offensive to capture the state city, in short, the Song Dynasty prefectures and counties on the first line were all controlled by the enemy.

Fortunately, the Mongols did not have the concept of complete occupation at this time, and after a hasty raid, they immediately drove the captive population and cattle and horses back north. In addition, the inhabitants of the surrendered prefectures and counties were forcibly expelled to the north, and corresponding overseas Chinese prefectures and counties were established in various parts of Henan. This is Yelu Chucai's suggestion to the Great Khan of Ogedei, the root of taxation lies in the population, only by firmly guarding the population that is included in the control every time, and not allowing the Southern Dynasty to get involved again, the tax can continue to enter the pocket of the Great Khan.

What a move! After this resettlement, Henan, which had been devastated by war for several years, was soon filled with new settlers from the south. The border area on which the Song Dynasty relied as a fence for Xiangfan was almost completely destroyed. The cantons and counties were uninhabited, the walls were completely razed, and not a single grain was left in the granaries. Even if the Song Dynasty sent troops to occupy these prefectures and counties, it would not be able to defend them for a long time.

In this way, Xiangyang was almost exposed naked in front of the eyes of the Mongol army.

But for the Mongols, there are also disadvantages. Although the border area of the Song Dynasty was destroyed, it was impossible to go south to conquer the Southern Dynasty from then on to supplement grain and grass along the way. They can easily catch the people who carry equipment, food, and build fortifications for them. Because on the way they were advancing, all the villages and fields had been destroyed by themselves, and the people had either been driven to death or fled far away to the south, and were reasonably resettled by the Jinghu Military Region.

If we want to march into Jinghu again this time, we must not carry any supplies and not carry any supplies as we did last year, but we must send people to build roads, open up passages, and repair bridges in advance, and then organize people from the rear to transport large quantities of grain to the front line and hoard them in advance. Because the Mongols did not have the concept that the army had to follow the baggage team, carrying grain and grass from the rear to follow the advance of the army, it was a kind of command constraint for the Mongol commanders, in order not to affect the progress of the war, the only way to adopt a relatively stupid method, that is, to send the people to carry the grain to the front to establish a grain cantonment, and then send a small number of troops to guard. Naturally, this matter will not be done by the generals of the Mongolian headquarters, because they have no idea how to dispatch people, how to collect grain, how to transport grain to the front, and how to set up camp troops to arrange defensive forces.

These things were all carried out by the Mongols appointed by the vassals in Henan. Although Henan has been ravaged by war, although the people are starving, and although the cattle and seeds for the next year have not yet been settled, all obstacles must be ruthlessly pushed aside for the great cause of the Great Khan's southern expedition.

Grain transport teams, craftsmen and baggage teams from Luoyang, Bianliang and several nearby prefectures and counties arrived in Dengzhou and Tangzhou one after another, and some even went south to Zaoyang's army, which was a stone's throw away from Xiangyang. What is even more surprising is that most of these grain, grass and baggage troops do not have decent troops to protect, probably because a fierce battle last year frightened the soldiers and horses of the Southern Dynasties, and most of the defenders in Henan were shocked by the strong strength of the Mongolian iron cavalry, thinking that no one in the Southern Dynasty who had eaten the bear's heart and leopard gall dared to go out of the city at this time to occupy these border areas that had long been deserted.

It was based on this misconception that they were completely unprepared for the imminent surprise attack of the Southern Dynasties.

The three-way northward attack team from Xiangyang Mansion progressed much more smoothly than Zheng Yunming expected.

Zhang Shunhe, the deputy general of the Jingchu Army, prepared to lead Dai Yanwu with 1,000 men and horses from Xiangyang along the Han River, and first arrived at the abandoned Guanghua Army. After not searching the enemy's situation, he turned to the north, and after entering the territory of Tangzhou, he came into contact with a small number of enemy infantry, won three battles and three victories, captured more than 50 enemy soldiers and 1,000 generals, and captured a lot of grain and carts.

Hu Yanyu, the deputy general of the Jing Chu army, led the men and horses of his headquarters and thousands of people under Meng Jing to cross the Han River, and went to Dengzhou along the main road, and encountered the enemy at Wangjiaqiao at the junction of Dengzhou and Fancheng. The enemy army was suddenly caught off guard by the Song attack and immediately retreated. As a result, in addition to capturing one enemy soldier and horse and more than 10 people, the Song army also calmly burned the wood that the enemy was going to use to repair the bridge. Hu Yanyu then led his army to the city of Dengzhou, where he was attacked by hundreds of infantry and light cavalry under the Mongol general Fan Yongji. Meng Jing's subordinates set up a phalanx of long spears, "blocking the wall and marching, spears like a forest", using a spear of eight feet with a heavy axe to engage in hand-to-hand combat, crushing the enemy, Hu Yanyu then found in Dengzhou City the three grain cantons just established by the Mongols, and burned them all, as well as various equipment to be used for siege, and also burned them.

Liu Cheng and Jiao Jin led the military horses from Xiangyang to Zaoyang City in the west. After landing from Hanshui, they advanced for a few miles before encountering the enemy, and the Tabai team attacked first, and Han Feng, the envoy of Tabai, took the lead and rushed into the enemy infantry with an iron whip. Most of these infantry were the soldiers of Xizhou before, and their own combat effectiveness was weak. The Song army took advantage of the situation to burn the wood prepared by the Mongols to make artillery and equipment for attacking Xiangyang, and seized grain by the way. Then Liu Chuan led the army to Zaoyang City, although the Mongol defenders in the city were few in number, but they were not afraid of the Song Dynasty's army, opened the door to charge Liu Quan's troops, and the Zhenwu army unfolded a triple queue of bamboo generals, fire guns and wooden bows in front of the formation, and fired three volleys at the cavalry attack line that was stretched out on the whole line.