Since Song Qiliang Chen Dingding Jiangnan, there have been cars and ships. It's just that the popularity of vehicles and boats is still in the era before and after the Song Dynasty's southern crossing, Shaoxing two years of the official army tried to make four small boats, and later Dongting Lake Yang Qi and other so-called thieves, wantonly made all kinds of vehicles and ships, a total of more than 10 specifications, the big ones have as many as 24 cars, can carry 300 elite sailors. The vehicles and boats of the Dongting Navy were broken by Yue Fei's strategy of throwing grass into the lake and luring the enemy into the depths, and at the same time, he also obtained the method of making vehicles and boats, and the craftsmanship of Jinghu craftsmen to make vehicles and boats was also passed down from that time.

Vehicles and ships are extremely sharp weapons used in water warfare. Because the wheels can be stepped on by multiple people at the same time, once agitated, the movement is brisk, and it runs like flying on the vast lake. Emperor Wanyan Liang had conquered the south with an army of 600,000, and was stopped by the Song army and the water division when crossing the river at the quarry rock, and could not advance, at that time, the Song Dynasty Zhenjiang water army only galloped back and forth on the river with a few vehicles and boats, advancing and retreating freely, and the 600,000 army was hopeful. There is no longer the idea of crossing the river. However, vehicles and ships also have their own weaknesses, and the other weaknesses are needless to say, there are two biggest weaknesses of vehicles and ships: the heavy body of super-large vehicles and ships is difficult to obstruct in rivers, and the vehicles and ships are difficult to withstand the wind and waves, and cannot fight at sea. There was no obstacle to the latter one, and originally the Song Dynasty naval army had another sailing ship for sea confrontation. It's just that the first one is a bit troublesome, and it is indeed difficult for a giant warship carrying three or four hundred people to deploy in the main battlefields such as the Yangtze River and Hanshui.

Therefore, the scale of the vehicles and boats used to create river water warfare should not be too large, similar to the eight-car and sixteen-wheeled vehicles and boats planned by Zhang Bo for Zheng Yunming, which is already the limit that can be accommodated in river water warfare, according to Zhang Boe's idea, even the eight-chariot and four-chariot warships are cumbersome and difficult to travel when driving on the water, and it is best to build a large number of two-car and four-car warships for attack and defense. But Zheng Yunming still insisted on spending a lot of money to build a batch of eight-car ships, and his focus was not on today, but on the long-term consideration of the future. There will come a time when the Song army will be equipped with a truly powerful weapon of water warfare, and this weapon must have a warship with enough space to load it.

The eight-car warship is a good platform for loading huge weapons, the whole ship has 16 wheels and 40 oars, which can carry 220 fully armed warriors, 90 pedalers and oarsmen, the ship is divided into three layers, the deck is equipped with bed crossbows aimed at both sides, the middle floor is open to the gun window, and there are various large and small general cannons, and the lower deck is the pedal room for oarsmen and pedalers. Different from the traditional Song warships, the new car ships of the Jing'e Navy did not have a tall ship tower to accommodate the archers to release arrows in it, but only built a low command building at the stern, and the deck of the big ship was the main combat platform for the crossbowmen.

"Bow and arrow battles must occupy a height advantage, and a warship of this shape like the Jing'e Navy may suffer a loss if it really encounters a tall building ship." Zhang Yu once explained this to Zheng Yunming.

"All we have to deal with are some rafts and fishing boats, and even if there are no boats at all, we can have a high advantage over the Mongols." Although Zheng Yunming gave such an answer, Zhang Yu always disagreed, could it be that the Mongols could not learn to build ships all their lives, and could only use fishing boats as warships forever? He knew that there were also dense lakes in the north of the Dao, and if the Mongolian Xuancha Commander and the local powerful generals recruited craftsmen to build tall warships, with sailors who were accustomed to wind and waves, Zheng Yunming's low and large ships might not be able to gain the upper hand.

However, at this time, Meng Hui could no longer care about the use of this eight-car ship with a low building, and he now needed as many warships as possible, and tens of thousands of reinforcements were sent to reinforce Xiangyang by land and water.

On the main hall of the Yamen of Yingzhou Zhizhou, a huge table is spread out on a huge topographic map of Hubei, and there are dense red small wooden blocks outside the city of Yingzhou, each of which is a force of the Song army in Jinghu, and now the city of Yingzhou has become the forward base for all the Song troops to reinforce the upper reaches and counterattack the Mongol army near Xiangyang. Coupled with the important function of the supply warehouse, it makes Yingzhou busier inside and outside.

Meng Hui pointed to the map and said to Zheng Yunming: "The current Yingzhou can be said to have concentrated all the mobile forces that the imperial court can use in Jinghu. In addition to the 3,000 troops brought out from Xiangyang, 30,000 troops from our headquarters, 20,000 soldiers and horses from Jiangzhou and Huaixi led by Jianghai Dutong, 10,000 troops from Jing'e and Hubei who were stationed in Ezhou and Yueyang, and 12,000 troops under Ma Yangyi, the Jiangling army sent from Jiangling, totaling 75,000 troops, were preparing to start an unprecedented war with the Mongols. ”

"Having said that, just going all the way is not in line with the art of war." Before Zheng Yunming could speak, Yao Zhiyuan, the commander of Huguang, preemptively said: "Why don't you divide the troops and go to Xiangyang together, so that the Mongols can't defend themselves, then the siege of Xiangyang can be solved?" ”

Meng Hui listened to his words, but he was noncommittal, turned around and asked Zheng Yunming, "How is this plan?" ”

Zheng Yunming nodded at the commander-in-chief of Huguang, and said to Meng Heng sideways: "This is the art of war, but it is not applicable today, the strategy of dividing the army was originally to make the enemy unpredictable about the true direction of the army, so that the enemy could not deploy defensive forces, but the enemy army we are facing today is not only more than us, but also the cavalry with strong combat effectiveness and high mobility." Even if they divided their forces to guard the passes, they would have enough time to gather a strong field force to attack our army on the way, and at that time, our army's strategy of dividing the army would achieve the goal of the Mongols to break through. ”

Li Boyuan also hurriedly said: "That's right, back then, the Jin State used to use the trick of dividing the army to deal with the Mongols, but every time it was caught by the Mongols and beaten all the way, and then the rest of the roads collapsed together, almost none of them could succeed, but all the successful ones were concentrated all the way, highlighting the surprise soldiers, and giving the Mongols an unexpected blow." ”

Meng Heng looked up at Li Boyuan, as a typical general of the Northern Army, Li Boyuan was naturally unwilling to lead a group of men and horses to Xiangyang alone. For these people, the army in their hands is the capital to settle down, in case they encounter the main force of the Mongols on the way, even if the fast horse escapes for their lives, the army is annihilated, which is equivalent to the end of a comfortable life in the Southern Dynasty. He could not be consulted on this issue.

The only one who can be trusted the most is Zheng Yunming, his main force is still trapped in Xiangyang City, and he is responsible for guarding Xiangyang, in terms of wanting to relieve the siege of Xiangyang, there should be no one more urgent than him among the generals gathered in Yingzhou. He still asked Zheng Yunming: "Then according to the opinion of the deputy capital, how should it be handled?" ”

"It's actually quite easy to say." Zheng Yunming picked up a small piece of mahogany, which was the soldiers and horses representing his headquarters, and gently advanced along the Han River to Xiangyang: "I took 3,000 people from the headquarters, and took the Jing'e Navy warship to go first, and explored the tightness of the Mongolian army's encirclement of Xiangyang on the road, and after I returned to Xiangyang, the marshal led the army along the Han River and land to advance, Xiangyang has 60,000 defenders, and with Meng Shuai to attack inside and outside the periphery, the siege of Xiangyang is not difficult to dissolve." ”

Meng Heng muttered: "If the officials go first, wouldn't it be a surprise to the snake?" It is difficult to guarantee that the song will not be prepared for the advancing army. ”

"The army is gathered downstream, the Mongols have long known this, whether I go or not, it is the same will be strictly guarded, but I will go to Xiangyang first, one can see the reality of the Mongols on the water and land, and the other is that if I am not in Xiangyang, the generals in the city are not compatible, and Zhao Zhizhi will add a lot of trouble when coordinating the army."

Naturally, there is a matter that does not need to be said, Zheng Yunming's headquarters are all in Xiangyang City, although everyone respects him in Yingzhou, but what he can really command is only these 3,000 people. The original purpose of this trip out of Xiangyang was to prevent the Mongol army from bypassing Xiangyang and crossing the Yangtze River, but now after several beautiful land and water battles, the plan of the Mongol army to cross the river has been completely thwarted.

At this time, Meng Heng still had a worry, that is, the Mongolian army would use the mobility ability that exceeded that of the Song army several times, and used the tactics of attacking the east and the west to avoid the real and the false, first deceiving the main force of the Song army to rush to Xiangyang, and then taking advantage of the emptiness of the hinterland of Jinghu, to raise troops to invade the south again. This is one of the reasons why he repeatedly considered in Yingzhou and did not dare to move blindly.

What he didn't know was that the Mongols had lost interest in invading the hinterland of Jinghu again, and the reason for this was a factor beyond human control.

Zheng Yunming took advantage of the fact that the generals gathered around to discuss the battle situation, called Meng Heng to a place where there was no one behind the screen, and asked in a low voice: "I still have one more thing to worry about, it's not good to talk about it in front of everyone." At present, there are at least a dozen corps in the vicinity of Yingzhou, which belong to several divisions and divisions up and down the river, and so many different armies are gathered together, and disputes over the ownership of command may arise. ”

He frowned and said: "According to the practice of using troops in the imperial court, it is naturally most suitable for you to be the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Horse Army, which has the largest official position, and Shi Songzhi has indeed appointed you to control the military horses of the Jinghu Zhulu. But you have to know that after all, the envoy of the history of the Dao system is in charge of the envoy along the river, and most of the troops gathered here are under the jurisdiction of the Zhao envoy in Xiangyang City, and now the enemy army is surrounding Xiangyang, and the order of the Zhao envoy cannot go out of the high wall by an inch, so the commander needs to communicate more with the other deputy envoys of Jiangling, so as not to cause internal problems due to the disagreement of the generals. ”

The worry he said just knocked on the door of Meng Hui's heart, since ancient times, the princes have gathered and joined forces to dispatch, and the biggest problem is the implementation of command. Tang attacked Shi Siming with nine knots and 600,000 troops, and the combat power should be said to be at least five times that of Shi Siming, but the commanders did not cooperate, and the envoys sent by the imperial court not only did not play a positive coordinating role, but made trouble from it, which was the main reason for the defeat of the Tang army in Yecheng.