If you want to cross the river and sweep the south of the Yangtze River, you must remove these two thorny water forces. Möngke's solution was simple, and he set a high reward and recruited skilled craftsmen from all over the world to build new ships for Mongolia.

In the end, Möngke was provided with a new type of ship capable of suppressing the Southern Dynasties, and it was the naval craftsmen from Goryeo who presented to the Mongol Khan a new and carefully conceived style of warship, which was remodeled from ordinary ships, and the useless buildings were greatly reduced, and replaced with hardwood shells that covered the entire upper deck, like the backs of sea turtles. There is only a narrow crossroads in the middle for passage, and the ships are equipped with iron sharp corners and sharp blades around them, making it difficult for enemy jumpers to get close. According to the estimates of the Song spies, the ships were equipped with at least 14 to 16 guns equivalent to the Song Dynasty's trumpet-iron general cannons, to suppress the long-range firepower that the Song Dynasty boasted of.

This will be the trump card weapon that the Mongols used to destroy the elite sailors of the Song army. In addition, Meng Ge also recruited tens of thousands of shipbuilders and craftsmen, more than 100,000 people, and built 7,000 brand-new warships, which is an unprecedented number. Naturally, these ships were not large in size due to time constraints, and most of them were just small paddle boats, but there were enough boats to cross the mighty Yangtze River. When engaging the naval forces of the Song Dynasty, these warships were still able to take advantage of the wolves and tigers, and used their numbers to besiege the elite Song warships.

For Meng Ke Khan's arrangement, most of the Mongolian generals did not know whether such careful preparations and such a huge fleet could really shake the water surface advantage that the Southern Dynasty relied on to consolidate itself, after all, they have been suffering on the water in the past ten years, so that everyone defaulted to the fact that the northern naval army was inferior to the southern army, and they even adopted extreme combat methods, such as trying to build a dam on the Han River to block the Han River and form a 6 upper channel, Naturally, such a whimsical idea was easily broken by the coordinated operation of the 6th Army of the Song Dynasty.

The first water battle after going south proved that Meng Ge's idea was right, with 30 tortoiseshell ships as the vanguard of 1,000 small Mongolian warships, with the support of 6 ballistae and small artillery, attacked more than 100 warships of the Jinghu naval army that came to the trial, and the core of these warships was 20 Dongting gunboats, after a short and fierce battle, the Mongol army defeated the powerful Dongting gunboats for the first time in three years. The psychological support of this construction is extraordinary, and even when the good news reaches Taiyuan, there are cheers inside and outside the ears.

Ten Dongting gunboats were destroyed or captured, and the Song army lost more than 30 warships, although the results were not fruitful, but after all, it broke the legend of the invincibility of Dongting gunboats.

Next, the Mongol army advanced in parallel and began to advance to the hinterland of Jinghu.

The army was divided into four routes, Marshal Niu Ning led 70,000 horse infantry troops as the vanguard, and the vanguard troops who were besieging Yingzhou converged, except for still continuing to attack Yingzhou with 20,000 troops, all took the warship, went down the Han River, and directly took the city of Ezhou. Marshal Du led 50,000 cavalry to escort along the river, sweeping away all the Song Dynasty troops who dared to come to stop them.

Marshal Che Li led 30,000 guerrilla troops to attack Fuzhou and Huangzhou, and pinned down the troops stationed in Huangzhou, making it impossible for them to send timely reinforcements to Ezhou.

With Zhongshu Nahan as the second team, he led 100,000 horse infantry artillery, as the first phase of the siege force, to carry out the encirclement line on the periphery of Ezhou, build siege positions, build forts, dig trenches, build pontoon bridges, and wait for the arrival of the main army.

Finally, the 150,000 main elite troops led by Meng Ge himself, including the elite troops of the Western Expeditionary Army of Mongolia in the Far West, the main force of the Timid Xue who had been in Helin for a long time, and the Wuwei Army personally trained by Kublai Khan, and the accompanying army included Zhao Bi, the Jianghuai Jinghu Jinghu Jinghu Xuanfu envoy Yang Weizhong, the deputy Xuanfu envoy Hao Jing, and the Jingnan Xuanfu envoy Lian Xixian. The three of them formed the core team of the command closest to the Great Khan.

Under the three of them, they are equipped with Zhang Rou of Shuntian Wanhu, Shi Tianze, the envoy of Henan Economic Strategy, Alihan, the marshal of the Western Regions of the Tianxia Proton Army, the right-hand army of Wanhu Licha, the expedition of Wanhu Shi Shu (Shi Tianze's nephew), Li Zhen, the party member of Xiangyang Army and Horse Wanhu, Li Hub, the head of the Hedong Road March, Wanhu Nachen, the head of the Hongji Department, Liu Fuheng of the Dongping Road March, Xue Junsheng, the marshal of the artillery and naval army, and Zhang Zhongren, the marshal of the artillery and naval army, and the Zhongdu can also reach the Luhua Chi Khitan Yelumaige, the general manager of Pingyang and the two roads of Dalu Huachi and the craftsmen of all colors pinched the bones, The artillery army of Wanhu Yang Fu and others, each led the headquarters of the people and horses, and followed the Great Khan to drive out on the expedition.

In addition, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses from the Western Regions came to help in the battle, the farthest of which was even from Grugistan and Armenia on the west coast of the West Sea, of which Grugistan provided 2,500 archers who were skilled in cavalry and archery, and Armenia was sent by 500 elite ironclad cavalry led by Prince Haiergen. In addition, Gaochang's Yidu Protector (King) Mamula Dejin also led more than 10,000 soldiers from Gaochang and the nearby small states of the Western Regions to help in the war.

All the Mongol cowardly Xue army, all the proton army, the Wuwei army, the left and right hand ten thousand households, the Han ten thousand households, the Tubo soldiers, the Wuer soldiers, the Jurchen soldiers, the Khitan soldiers, the Tubo soldiers, the Dangxiang soldiers, the Bohai soldiers, the Goryeo soldiers, and even the various Hu soldiers in the Western Regions, the Mongols really poured out the big soldiers in the country this time, and were determined to take Jinghu first with an overwhelming advantage, and then take Lin'an directly.

At this time, the entire Great Song Dynasty was calling the name of the same person, Zheng Xianggong and his Shenwu New Army, where are they now? Everyone was eager to let this brand-new army grow their wings and quickly fly to Ezhou to stop this terrible army of Hu people.

At this time, Zheng Yunming was sitting in the tent built high on the red cliff, quietly watching the teams of warships against the water with a speculum. On the shore were countless cows, horses, and soldiers, and Mongolian oxen were dragging thick ropes and walking the embankment, and beside them, a procession of muskets, halberds, and new muskets was passing them and heading upstream.

The whole country looked forward to Zheng Yunming's soldiers and horses like they were looking forward to fighting fires, down to ordinary people and from privy ministers, all of them were asking: "Where is Zheng Yunming?" "When will Zheng Yunming be able to go to the front line?"

The most anxious is the Son of Heaven himself, since Zheng Yunming came out, he can receive the arrival of the messenger of the golden plate express shop every day, so that Zheng Yunming can report how many miles he has advanced today, and there can be changes on the road. After arriving in Huangzhou, the gold plate even reached two or three times a day.

Zheng Yunming knows the temper of the emperor he has served for more than ten years, the emperor has been invaded by the Mongols almost every year since the failure of Duanping into Luo, regardless of victory or defeat, the imperial court has to compensate the officers and soldiers who have not been in the war, renovate the dilapidated countryside, repair the destroyed city, and save the people who were exiled due to the war, which invisibly planted the seeds of fear in the emperor's heart, coupled with the country's weakness for three hundred years, for the victory or defeat of the official army against the Hu people, the whole country is actually not as confident as it seems, and it is even more so for the emperor. He couldn't wait to ask Zheng Yunming himself about the shape of the war every day, if it weren't for the fact that the ancestors and ancestors had too many historical lessons in the point of the middle emperor, he even wanted to learn from Emperor Taizong, a formation map to give himself the most prestigious military commander under his command.

Zheng Yunming seemed to be completely unmoved, no matter how the emperor urged, no matter how anxious the whole people were, he strictly ordered the warships to advance under the cover of the 6th army, and stipulated that the march of the 6th army should not exceed fifty miles a day.

Liu Kezhuang, a staff officer of the Governor's Office, has been his old boss for many years, and he has more or less considered the surging public opinion, and at least made a posture of rushing to the front line to rescue in the starry night, otherwise he will not be able to explain to public opinion.

Zheng Yunming just said calmly: "The Tartars are coming to attack this time, as long as our army can't deal with it, it will immediately be the end of the country's overthrow. ”

So he turned a deaf ear to the successive gold plates, and still demanded that the army march step by step, completely ignoring the fact that thousands of Mongol troops were constantly driving along the Han River towards the already isolated city of Ezhou.

On October 17, Meng Zhijing, the deputy envoy of Hunan pacification, led 20,000 Hunan troops to Chibi and joined the Shenwu New Army. Zheng Yunming ordered Zhang Shijie, the deputy commander of Shenwu, who was in the vanguard, to lead 11,000 of the Shenwu front army to attack and advance, and ordered Wang Jian, the deputy commander of the capital, and Zhang Shun, the deputy commander of the capital, to lead 5,000 of each of the left and right armies of Shenwu to escort the flanks, and began to tentatively advance to Ezhou.

At this time, the Mongol army was also seriously and firmly carrying out the Great Khan's plan to carry out a comprehensive encirclement of the important towns in the hinterland of Jinghu. Prince Mo Gedu led 30,000 horse infantry troops and more than 50 artillery pieces to besiege Yingzhou, and Zhongshu Nahan led 50,000 horse infantry troops and more than 30 artillery pieces to besiege Jiangling City, but the focus of these two places is not to besiege the city, but to send reinforcements, Mo Gedu's main task is to intercept and kill the local defenders from Huaixi and eastern Hubei, and Nahan's task is to take Yidu as the boundary to block the Song army that came down the river from Sichuan to rescue Jinghu.

In addition, Marshal Niu Phosphorus led an army of 50,000 troops to garrison Zhuankou, surrounded Yueyang City, and intercepted the main force of the Song army that came from downstream. Li Zhen also led 10,000 people to guard the entrance of Dongting Lake, and blocked some of the Jing'e and Ezhou naval forces that had retreated into Dongting Lake.

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