The city of Yingzhou has not undergone large-scale reconstruction, and most of the crescent forts and cross forts outside the city have not been repaired. Under the fierce bombardment of Lü Wenhuan's mortars, most of the fortifications outside the city were destroyed, and the trenches were also filled.

However, the current Yingzhou is also in danger, if the Song army in the rest of the country can no longer give strong assistance at this time.

Song reinforcements arrived on the outskirts of Yingzhou in the early morning, and the outpost soldiers stationed on the positions of the army could see hundreds of Song infantry lined up in the usual four-way marching columns, slowly advancing along the banks of the Hanshui River towards the Mongol positions.

In charge of the defense on the periphery were the Mongol soldiers of Henan, the soldiers and horses of Zhu Cheng of the Thousand Households of Luoyang Prefecture, Henan bordered the Song Dynasty, and the chances of receiving new things were much higher than in other territories. Therefore, the army in Shanghenan began to imitate the military system of the Song Dynasty in training and weapon refitting very early. But seven or eight hundred infantry rushed out of the barracks. Get in front of the antlers in formation. Infantry vs. infantry, vanguard warfare is very important, and if you are suppressed by the enemy in your position, you will be extremely passive.

Zhu Cheng's troops lined up in a large phalanx, the large array is composed of five small phalanxes supporting each other, each phalanx has more than 150 soldiers, and a large number of musketeers are deployed in the small formations on the left and right flanks of the front, and the musketeers learn the tactics of the Song Dynasty, and also take 50 to 100 people as a team, and the musketeers in front of them fire and then retreat, and let the musketeers in the back continue to fire, which is called serial marksmanship. Under the cover of this constant firepower, the Mongol infantry phalanx had firepower that could rival the Song infantry phalanx.

It was not easy to achieve this step, and the soldiers of Henan were not used to these bulky muskets, and they still had difficulty abandoning the expensive but effective crossbows, and even now, there were some crossbowmen in the musketeers. Similarly, the Mongols did not completely abandon the halberds as the Song Dynasty did, but only deployed pure spear troops in the military formation, and they were accustomed to deploying some plate armor halberders on both flanks of the formation, so that when the two sides came into contact, these halberders could provide effective cover for the guerrillas of their own army.

At this time, the Song army also began to form two hundred paces away from the Mongol army, and the two armies belonging to different countries also began to form a phalanx, slowly but firmly approaching each other in the flying lead bullets. The wars of this era are changing dramatically because of the appearance of one person, and everyone can only do their best to adapt to this drastic change that can be described as changing with each passing day.

When the troops advanced to a distance of only a hundred paces from each other, the Song army's phalanx suddenly stopped, and only allowed the musketeers on both flanks to continue firing at the enemy.

Zhu Cheng felt that something was wrong, his right hand was Han Shui, and his left hand was a forest, because of the rush of time, this forest was not cut down, if the enemy used this forest to make a fuss

As if to confirm this premonition of danger, the sound of horses' hooves sounded in the woods, and from the faint shadows of the trees, cavalrymen in black armor howled loudly, swords in their hands rushed out of the cover of the trees, and pounced on the unprepared infantry ranks.

Unlike the Song dynasty, the Mongols had very weak protection for their infantry. The main force of the Song Dynasty is the infantry, although the cavalry has been vigorously strengthened by various means over the years, and the cavalry has finally been able to fight independently, but the main force of the battle is still the infantry, in order to protect the infantry, the engineers, artillery and cavalry of the Song Dynasty, and even the ships are deployed around the infantry, trying their best to provide services for the infantry. But the core of the Mongols is cavalry, and its main mode of combat is also the movement of large cavalry corps, although the importance of infantry has become more and more prominent in recent years, but the change of military traditions of an army is difficult, it cannot be achieved overnight. Just like the Mongol infantry army that is now rushing out of its position, if there are one or two hundred cavalry covering on the flank, it can avoid a surprise attack from the flank.

The Mongols did not lack cavalry, but they lacked the consciousness of cavalry.

When Zhu Cheng's subordinates hurriedly changed their positions and raised their spears to meet the sudden blow of the enemy cavalry, someone in the army suddenly shouted: "It's Wei Sheng!" It's Wei Laohu here! ”

A few years ago, the Mongols had invaded Hezhou with 100,000 troops, and it was also the most critical time in Sichuan for many years in the War of Resistance, Zheng Yunming ordered Wei Sheng and Zhang Shijie to lead 10,000 elite soldiers to aid Hezhou, at the foot of the Diaoyu Mountain, Wei Sheng's army and the main force of the Mongolian army encountered, Wei Sheng took Zhang Shijie's troops behind, personally led 3,000 elites to break into the enemy formation, taking advantage of the opportunity that the Mongolian army did not fully expand the formation, a force broke through the Mongolian army's dozens of heavy formations, the Mongolian army Marshal Tahai ran on horseback, and the Mongolian army retreated.

This is the famous Diaoyu Mountain siege, Zheng Yunming said in the recital to Lin'an: "In the past, Guan Zhang, the tiger general in the world, now I have Wei Sheng, such as Liu Xianzhu related to Zhang Er." Since then, the fame of Wei Laohu has risen not only in the Great Song Dynasty, but also in the North.

Seeing Wei Laohu's black armored cavalry shouting loudly and clashing, the Mongolian army's military momentum immediately collapsed and disintegrated, the soldiers threw the spears in their hands, and began to take off the heavy armor on their bodies in a panic, no one had time to scold and stop them, because the one who ran at the front of the fleeing team was Zhu Qianhu himself, who had already taken off his armor and fled for his life vigorously.

Wei Sheng's cavalry chased the fleeing infantry into the Mongol position, waving swords, steel spearheads, and maces that burst into the wilderness, and as the infantry in front collapsed, the army in the rear also shook and routed.

Wei Sheng shouted with a grimace: "Don't stop, pursue at full speed, don't encounter the enemy's large cavalry, never relax!" There was no need for him to say anything, a vigorous assault was the magic weapon of the Wei family's army, and the knights roared and waved the blades in their hands, and went all the way up the Han River, heading straight for Yingzhou.

But within two or three miles of pursuit, a large force of cavalry of the Mongol army appeared. The nomadic cavalry with the atmosphere of the grassland spread out into a star-scattering formation, galloping over the mountains and fields, constantly firing feather arrows at the dense formation of the Song Dynasty ironclad cavalry.

The officers under Wei Sheng reminded loudly: "Don't disperse!" Don't stray from the line! Keep rushing forward! ”

The cavalry of the Song Dynasty, which was completely inferior in terms of quantity and had no advantage in the quality of horses, had a strict and advanced training system and concentrated assault tactics against the powerful Mongol cavalry corps.

The Mongols also often used concentrated assault tactics on the battlefield, but generally speaking, they were still accustomed to the traditional nomadic warfare methods of the steppes, that is, using large numbers of archers to carry out scattered raids and find fighters in the attack. Because of the thorough implementation of the concentrated assault tactics and the implementation of this tactic from beginning to end, we are faced with tremendous pressure on manpower, horsepower, and material support. An army that does not have a certain amount of national and organizational strength cannot be supported.

The reason why the Song Dynasty was able to fight with the Mongol army with cavalry was that it thoroughly implemented the system of centralized formation and attack.

Seeing that the bows and arrows could not stop the impact of Wei Sheng's cavalry, the Mongolian archers in front quickly gathered and formed a dense formation, killing and blocking Wei Sheng's offensive.

The Mongols' dense assault has always been to rush forward regardless of numbers, using their personal bravery to fight one-on-one to win. The cavalry of the Song army spread out shoulder to shoulder in small steps and marched forward in small steps, according to the description of the Mongol warriors, "as soon as the arm is raised, it can touch the arm of the friendly neighbor, how can such a horse fight!" ”

But when it came to fighting, the cavalry wall of the Song army showed its superiority, and each Mongolian cavalry faced not a single enemy, but two or three war knives, or even four or five cavalry spears, as described by a war historian, "The riding skills of the Mongols are still unparalleled in the world, and they control the war horses like butterflies flying on the battlefield, but once the cavalry of the Song army catches them, they also lose the ability to struggle like butterflies caught in a net." ”

In the fierce confrontation, the Mongol cavalry retreated, and Wei Sheng's banner, surrounded by thousands of iron armor, rushed all the way to the mortar position of Lü Wenhuan's army outside Yingzhou City. The sudden appearance of the Song cavalry made Lü Wenhuan's army unable to react, and the mortar sweep was destroyed by the cavalry that rushed into the position, and Wei Sheng also used explosives to blow up and sink most of the flat-bottomed boats parked by the Hanshui River. Not only did they destroy dozens of eagle guns and a large amount of food and ammunition used for field cover, but they also destroyed the most convenient means of transportation for the Mongols to move south. This was an extremely beautiful attack operation, and even Meng Ke Khan said sincerely after receiving the defeat report from the front: "The command of the generals of the Southern Dynasty in this battle is enough to be compared with Jebe and Subutai!" ”

However, such a light and swift raid could only boost the morale of the soldiers and civilians in Jinghu, but had no substantial impact on the overall situation, and Meng Ge's army was going to Xiangyang in batches to gather in batches. In addition to the horse infantry artillery army, the Mongol army was doubly excited that they finally had a water army that could rival the Song Dynasty's naval army.

In order to overcome the Yangtze River moats and launch an operation in the land of the Jiangnan water network, Möngke Khan's determination was unprecedentedly firm, not only recruiting sailors from Shandong, as in previous years, but also recruiting water-savvy men from Bohai and Goryeo to form a naval reserve, and recruiting shipbuilders from the Great Food Kingdom to build new warships that could rival the Song army.

Needless to say, the Song Dynasty's naval forces grew stronger and stronger with the support of new technologies, and their main three water forces had their own strengths, but each had the strength to suppress the Mongol naval forces. Needless to say, the well-known Dongting gunboats destroy the newly built ships of the Mongol army almost every year. The new sailor Guazhou Feihu stationed in Zhenjiang is the main force of the newly built iron flying bird boat, which is inlaid with iron sheet on the side of the ship, and sets up a huge defensive shield, which can effectively deal with the bow and arrow attack of the Mongolian army. And the flying bird boat is smooth, flying on the river, and the maneuvering is flexible. Zheng Yunming was assigned to the Huxiang army, and he made many miraculous achievements in many battles in the later period.