This is Jiagu Liuqi's thoughts, and his little calculation Shi Tianze is also very clear.

But it is impossible to talk about these words to the Great Khan who is far away with Lin, Shi Tianze himself knows very well that although on the surface the Mongols trust the Han people and constantly reward them, in fact, their vigilance against the Han warlords has not relaxed for a moment, and if they show their dissatisfaction, they may be attacked and killed by the powerful Mongol army in an instant.

Since you have chosen this path, all you can do is patience.

Shi Tianze angrily hammered his chest, and roared loudly: "Retreat!" ”

The unwillingness and anger in his voice made even the soldiers in front of the tent unable to help shedding tears when they listened to it.

The first attack on Shatou City ended with such an ending, after the war, Yang Luo and Lu Xunzhidu celebrated, and what neither of them understood was that when the Tulong Army had clearly shown signs of the end of the crossbow, how did the enemy with absolute superiority give up the attack and take the initiative to retreat?

In any case, the families of the many old and weak women and children and the 5,000 soldiers in the Lao Crow Cottage were finally able to escape their lives under the iron hooves of the Hu people, which was the greatest contribution of the Lu Command and Yang Liang.

All this happened when Zheng Yunming's 3,000 main forces did not arrive in time.

Zheng Yunming arrived at the old camp in the evening, some time before the Mongol retreat.

"It's all my fault! Killed Xiang Ning! After entering Dazhai, the first thing Zheng Yunming said to Chen Guang was this.

Xiang Ning was the soldier that Chen Guang sent to report the military situation to Zheng Yunming.

After leaving the old crow cottage, Xiang Ning kept running towards Shatou City. For fear of wasting time by drowning, he rarely even drank water, and ran all the way to Shatou City.

But at this time, Zheng Yunming had already led the army to march out and go to Xiazhou.

When Jiangling Mansion learned of this, it immediately sent people to Xiazhou to report the news. But Xiang Ning was really not at ease, so he rushed to Xiazhou in the starry night.

As soon as he entered the gate of Xiazhou City, handed over the letter to the guards at the gate, he fell to the ground and never got up again.

Zheng Yunming realized that his judgment was completely wrong.

Not only did he pounce on himself, but he also completely exposed the empty old battalion to the enemy.

One wrong step, no regret.

"Things don't go without a turnaround." Wang Deng was still unusually calm: "There are still 2,000 people left in the cottage, and with Yang Luo and Lu Weng under the command, Dazhai will not be conquered so easily." ”

"Lao Ya Mountain is not far from Ezhou, Jiangling and Xiangyang, as long as there are generals from all walks of life to help, the situation in Lao Ya Mountain will not be too embarrassing."

"The top priority now is to march immediately and rush back to Old Crow Mountain!"

"At all costs, march back to Raven Mountain!" Zheng Yunming gritted his teeth and said.

In the sound of the hurried horn, the Tulong officers and soldiers who had just launched the defense in Xiazhou City were quickly gathered again.

"Don't carry anything that could slow down the speed!" Zheng Yunming shouted: "Except for the necessary weapons and armor and food, nothing else is allowed to be carried!" ”

"We want to return to the old camp as soon as possible to defend our families!"

"In the past few months, you have carried out all kinds of long-distance marching training, just to be able to cross the mountain and buy enough time when you need it today!"

"Whether it's the mountains or the river, it won't stop us! It must be us who will return to Raven Mountain before the Mongols! ”

Zheng Yunming shouted loudly: "Let's go!" ”

All the soldiers pulled up their skirts high, tied a knot at their waists, and tied their legs with strips of cloth to tie their leggings firmly. For the Tulong officers and soldiers who were accustomed to the skirts and costumes of the Tang and Song dynasties, this was a special measure taken to facilitate the rapid march. Later generations complained that the Chinese abandoned the skirt and adopted short pants. But it is undeniable that in terms of convenience of activities, short clothes and trousers do have their own advantages.

Of course, Zheng Yunming could not easily change the costumes of the people, all he could do was popularize the gaiters, which were longer than the marching invention.

The Tulong army usually marched, opening the road first, carrying the burden and carrying the burden in the middle, and the general was delayed. However, in the case of a rapid march, the elite was in the front, the main force was in the middle, and the slow-moving ones such as baggage and burdens were placed in the second team and guided by a small number of escorts, so as not to slow down the speed of the fighting troops.

This is to pursue the formation of marching speed, which is equivalent to completely abandoning the protection of baggage, because the team adopts the formation of a double column, so the army's queue is very long, no matter which direction the enemy attacks, it is easy to divide the team and surround each one.

In the opinion of Zheng Yunming, who is cautious in the use of troops, this kind of formation is simply the way to kill on the real battlefield, but sometimes this kind of death formation is really needed, such as when your old battalion may be wiped out by the enemy at any time.

One hundred and eighty miles in three days! This is also a rare marching speed in the history of Middle-earth, and the Tang general Li Yu rushed to Caizhou, and it was only seventy miles in one night, but they were in the wind and snow to break the enemy at night, and the difficulty was not comparable to today.

But with such an ordinary army being able to accomplish this task, Zheng Yunming still felt proud. It's just that this kind of physical exertion cannot be without a price for an army of the agrarian era.

At the very beginning, there were people who were constantly left behind, and although the medical officers and accompanying officers and soldiers continued to provide medical aid, some people fell to the ground during the rapid march, and even lost their lives.

Then, while the military discipline officer was busy supervising and managing the team, many soldiers who could not endure hardships took advantage of the darkness of the night to desert, and despite the loud scolding and even whipping of the supervising army and the marquis, they still could not stop it.

Actions that go beyond the norm always come at a cost. But after all, they rushed to Raven Mountain! When the soldiers rushed to the south gate out of breath, Zheng Yunming learned that the enemy had taken the initiative to withdraw his troops when he was almost able to break the walled city.

"It's not just the governor," the generals gathered in the lobby of the governor's yamen listened to Yang Luo's explanation in front of the Jingxiang topographic map: "The rescuers from all walks of life have news. According to the information transmitted by the liaison from the front, Ezhou sent 4,000 sailors and troops to enter the Hanshui from the Yangtze River and land east of Lao Ya Mountain, and 5,000 infantry from Jiangling. ”

"They're right behind us." Wang Deng said: "But the speed of the march is far inferior to ours. ”

"Gangneung's comrades have been pampered for too long." Yang Luo said disdainfully: "You have to practice hard." ”

Zheng Yunming pointed to Xiangyang and said: "Xiangyang has also dispatched 5,000 people to intercept the enemy's rear road, and I believe that at this time, it should have given a strong blow to the retreating Mongolian army." ”

Yang Luo raised his eyelids and said sarcastically: "Do you really dare to give the Mongols a 'strong' blow?" ”

Although his career in the army is not long, Yang Luo has mastered the characteristics of the various armies in Jinghu. He expected that the defenders of Xiangyang would not dare to break away from the cover of the city wall and pursue the Mongol army in the field with great fanfare.

Sure enough, Li Boyuan, who was sent from Xiangyang, broke the enemy army and only followed Shi Tianze from a distance, and carefully launched a sneak attack when Shi Tianze crossed the Han River, and captured the heads of several miscellaneous soldiers who had no time to escape.

Such an insignificant small battle was later exaggerated in Zhao Fan's report to the Privy Council as a "great victory" in annihilating thousands of enemies.

Li Boyuan was also promoted to the deputy capital of Jinghu, the doctor of Wuyi, and the Xuanzan of the Pavilion because of this "great victory". It was only a few days after the edict of promotion reached that he quickly fell from the peak of his life to the bottom.

After Yang Yu finished talking about the situation, everyone was silently recalling the thrilling scenes and scenes in this short period of ten days.

Before this invasion, almost no one in the Jinghu region really believed that the young Zheng Yunming, as a scholar, could bring out an army capable of fighting. They always thought that this was just a whim of the prime minister's son.

Even Zheng Yunming himself asked thousands of times in his heart: Can this army really go into battle, can it repel the enemy, and can it save my life?

However, in this unpredictable period of more than ten days, the Tulong officers and soldiers of the early 5,000 formations faced two powerful Mongol armies separately under the condition of dividing their troops into two places, and experienced all kinds of tests from the desperate attack of the black army and the Hejian soldiers to the repeated bombardment of siege equipment such as stone throwers and goose carts, and successfully protected themselves and the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jingxiang people from the blades of tens of thousands of foreign troops.

It was not until today that Zheng Yunming believed that his fate would be firmly tied to this army and could not be separated.

After the tent was dispersed, the generals hugged Zheng Yunming and walked out of the yamen, and Zheng Yunming raised his eyes and saw the point general platform guarded by the soldiers. You Yiying's general Chen Guang asked, "What to do with the 100 copper coins on the platform?" ”

Before the expedition, Zheng Yunming ordered to insert a hundred Shaoxing Tongbao into the feather arrows to be fixed, and sent special soldiers to guard them, and no one was allowed to approach, saying that he would wait until his triumphant return to enshrine a hundred coins in the Wushen Temple, and thank Lu Shang and other sages for their protection.

Thinking of this incident, Zheng Yunming couldn't help laughing, he climbed onto the platform, pulled out an arrow from the platform, took off the copper plate on the arrow, and threw it to Chen Guang.

When Chen Guang looked at the copper plate, he found that the front and back were the words Shaoxing Tongbao.

Zheng Yunming said with a smile: "The props used to joke in Lin'an Washeli, I didn't expect it to come in handy." ”

Divination or fighting with copper coins was very popular in the Song Dynasty, and sometimes the acrobatic artists in the market would also use this as a theme performance, among which the famous comedy is the story of using this special copper coin to make a thousand and then be revealed.

Chen Guang presented the copper coin to Lu Xunzhi with both hands, and Lu Xunzhi took the copper plate in his hand and said: "It's a pity, this method of motivating the three armies can only be used once." ”

"Soldiers don't need to throw copper coins next time." Zheng Yunming glanced at these companions who had experienced the war for the first time: "We don't need it anymore. ”