Yang Luo smiled and shook his head, the ancient marches and divisions, exaggerating the strength to show off the number of people is a must to do, 100,000 fraudulently claimed 500,000, 200,000 fraudulently claimed 800,000 examples are too numerous to mention. The opposing side will not be taken seriously, and the actual number of opponents will of course be calculated from the observation of the battlefield.

"Leave that at that." Yang Luo asked, "Is it that song when the unified army comes?" ”

"It's not that when we went south from Zaoyang, King Quchu was still staying in Zaoyang." Zhu Dingqi secretly looked at Yang Luo and Lu Xunzhi's expression: "I heard Zhang Qianhu say that this time it was the deputy marshal of the East Road March, the Jurchen Wanhu Jiagu Liuqi, who led the army south, and the deputy marshal was Lord Shi Tianze of the Dongping Fifth Road Wanhu. ”

"Is Allah the female commander?" Yang Luo looked up at Lu Xun on the seat, and both of them were thinking about one thing: it seemed that it was not the main force of the Mongols who went south this time.

Yang Luo patted Zhu Dingqi's back in approval, and continued to ask, "How many real Tartars are there who are going south together?" There are other teams, who are they? ”

"There are always six or seven hundred true Mongols, distributed in the brigade. Under every hundred households, there are Mongol war supervisors, as well as sentinels who scout the horses in front, and they are all Mongols. As for the other troops, small units of the Tibetans, Uighurs, Jurchens, and Khitans participated, but most of them were Han Chinese. ”

Obviously, this is the usual method of the Mongols, when they carry out a key campaign action or judge that the probability of victory in the battle is high, they will send out the core force with the Mobei people as the main force, with the cooperation of a large number of servant troops to carry out the campaign plan. And when they think that the probability of success of a certain operation is not very high, they will send a second-class miscellaneous army composed of the conquered peoples, and if they can win by luck, they will naturally grab additional benefits, and if they fail, there will be no great losses against the Mongol native army, which has only 95,000 households on the books.

Swift as a tiger in the forest, cunning as a fox in the snow, a fierce fighter when fighting for his life, and more shrewd than a businessman, this is the secret of the Mongols' dominance over the world.

Lu Xunzhi waved his hand and asked You Yiying to take the prisoners down and imprison them, and said to the generals: "Although they are all from the Han and Han tribes, they should not be treated lightly, but the Mongolian army has had no opponents in the north for a long time, and the momentum of the soldiers is like a fire, and it is unstoppable. Especially Shi Tianze, Dongping Wanhu, is really a tough enemy to deal with. ”

"I've heard of this man's name in the army." Yang Yi said: "When Peng Yibin, the head of Zhongyi, failed the Northern Expedition and was besieged in the suburbs of Zhending Mansion in Hebei, this son was still young, so he dared to stand out with fifty death squad soldiers and attacked Peng Yibin. He also led the army to connect dozens of prefectures and counties, and was known as the first heroic man in Hebei and Shandong. ”

"His deeds are far more than that," Lu Xunzhi patted the table with his hand: "Back then, this person led the army to fight with the martial immortals repeatedly, and the martial immortals he killed lost their armor and abandoned their armor, which has been rumored to be a joke in the market." But these legends are just legends after all. ”

"How powerful this role is, we will naturally be able to see when the Mongolian army arrives tomorrow."

The Mongol army marched not as quickly as expected. Although their vanguard troops, the Mongol reconnaissance cavalry, arrived at the battlefield very early, they were only scattered around the camp of Lao Yashan in the shape of a sea of children, silently monitoring the movements in the village.

Lu Xunzhi also knew that they were preparing for the siege of the army. But attacking Raven Mountain is not such an easy task.

Although Lao Ya Mountain is located in the Jing Mountain, it is a lonely peak, and on the east side is an unnamed small river flowing around the mountain, which also provides water for the moat under the walled city, and on the right side of the small river is a flat open area, which was originally arranged by Zheng Yunming to cultivate the fields. Before the wheat was fully ripe, it was harvested first, and even the people brought grain into the camp.

Both the west and south sides are undulating mountains, but none of them are higher than the main peak of Raven Mountain, so it is impossible to use this as a vantage point to get a glimpse of the situation in the city.

To the north is a wide plain, a small piece of flat land in the mountains called Bazi by the people of Hubei. This dam was originally called Lao Yaping, and Zheng Yunming thought that the name was a little rustic, so he changed its name to Kill Tatarping.

Of course, the Mongols did not know the way of the road, and even if they knew the way, they would not care about placing the camp of the army here, because the mountain of Lao Yashan is gentle in the north and rapid in the south, and it is obviously better to attack from the north.

But they were not busy attacking after the large camp was stationed.

The Mongols in Mobei are not accustomed to digging ditches and piling soil whenever they camp like the Han people, and the walls are strict. This was difficult for the cavalry to maneuver, so the Mongol army camped mostly in the field.

Shi Tianze's troops led by Jiagu Liuqi were of course the main force of the Northern Han Army and the Signing Army, and the formation and stationing maintained the old rules of the Central Plains. However, at that time, the Jin people had been in the Central Plains for a long time, and the influence of the Mongol invasion made the camp of the Mongol Han army look simple and clear.

There was not even a wooden fence, but a few horses were placed on the perimeter of the tent as a divider, and it became a camping camp.

Of course, such a humble camp represents absolute confidence in one's own garrison and field combat capabilities.

As long as those rats defending the city dare to take a step, they will be completely crushed.

And the humble camp does not mean the humble patrol and surveillance, in the outermost circle of the camp tent, the lights are constantly lit day and night, and the inside is full of night vigil sergeants.

"It's simple, but it's not to be underestimated." Lu Xunzhi stood on the mountainside of Lao Yao Mountain, looking at the enemy's camp from the towering lookout.

Yang Yu said with a smile: "You have been a scholar for many years, and your eyesight is still very good." ”

Lu Xunzhi looked at the enemy camp several miles away, and said lightly: "From the time I made up my mind to report to serve the emperor's orders on the battlefield, I deliberately protected my vision, and I didn't read in the dim light every night. My father used to reprimand me for being lazy when he was there, but when I told him about my ambitions, he stopped saying anything about it. ”

Similar to Lu Xunzhi, Lu Jiuyuan, a generation of famous Confucianism, has also devoted his life to restoring the temple and renovating the mountains and rivers. It's a pity that there was no prime minister from later generations to rely on in his time, so he could only bury his head in the scriptures and create a vast world of mental learning.

"It's too far from here, after all." Lu Xunzhi narrowed his eyes, trying to see every detail of the enemy camp clearly, but after all, the distance was limited, and he couldn't even see the crowd that came and went like ants clearly.

Yang said: "Zheng Guanren said that there is a tool called a speculum in the West, which is to polish two pieces of pure color transparent glass into a round piece, which is protruding in the middle and concave in the outside. By fixing the two pieces of glass at a certain distance, you can see the affairs from a few miles away, as clearly as if you were in front of you. ”

"You're saying the officials are going to use this tool as a lookout reconnaissance?" Lu Xunzhi said: "Then where is this speculum now?" ”

"I haven't been able to make it yet." Yang Wei sighed: "We have to wait for Liu Weng Tingmei's glazed workshop to produce a large number of finished glazed products according to the guidance of officials." ”

Lu Xunzhi snorted, no longer talking nonsense with him, but continued to observe the situation on the other side.

At this time, the Mongol battalion began to move, although there was no horn and beard, but under the guidance of several groups of flags, the people began to advance together in several ways.

They did not come close to the camp, but came to the three gates that could be accessed in the north, south and east, and began to dig trenches and build fences far away.

"It's going to be ready to trap us alive." Lu Xunzhi said in a calm voice: "If the camp is broken, none of the men, women and children in the village will be able to escape. ”

Yes, this time the Mongol army did not act at will like elsewhere in the strategy, attacking if it could, and walking around the village if it could not. They had a solid plan, just like in Zaoyang City, to completely destroy the large-scale Song army cottage in front of them with firm will and strong military strength.

The Mongol army was busy building fortifications all day, and had no intention of attacking.

The next day, the condescending Song army discovered that the Mongols had begun to prepare their siege equipment.

The trees near the left had already been ordered to be cut down by Zheng Yunming. But the Tulong Army is almost a drop in the ocean in front of the contiguous Jingshan mountains and forests. The logging teams of the Mongol army cut down trees day and night, and transported them to the camp for processing and assembly.

Lu Xunzhi, who observed this scene, immediately gave the same order.

"Let's assemble the artillery too!"

The cottage also began to get busy. Some people went to the warehouse to fetch wood, and some people began to build artillery launch positions behind the wall, and the craftsmen in charge of assembling began to concentrate on the assembly site.

The advantage of waiting for the enemy is that when the enemy comes from afar, everything is not yet available, and we are ready to stop.

Fan Wenbin of Zaoyang City can be called loyal and brave, but after all, he was immediately attacked by the Mongol army ten days after he succeeded Quanzi to become the Taishou of Zaoyang. He didn't have time, so he had to rush to rebuild his artillery truck.

Raven Mountain has been recuperating for several months.

During these months, the Earth Dragons cut down a large number of trees in the surrounding area, and made them into parts of artillery carts according to their size, dried them and stored them in a ventilated area.

In these months, Zheng Yunming had to arrange a day for the city defense drill every ten years. Under strict supervision, the gunners practiced every step of assembling, dismantling, firing, and correcting the firing point, as if they were veterans who had been operating these artillery trucks for many years.

During these months, Wang Deng and Lu Xunzhi even had ample time to select places that could ensure that the artillery trucks were unhindered and that could be hidden under the city walls from being observed by the enemy as reserve firing positions.

The pre-drilled and skilled artillery crews erected dozens of tall artillery trucks at the predetermined launch site at great speed, and each artillery truck quietly lowered its thick cantilever, waiting for the moment when a hundred stones were fired.

Standing on the wooden gatehouse, Yang Luo took off his sash and looked at the busy Mongolian army artillery assembly site in the distance.

"Or," he said to Lu Xunzhi secretly, "Let's shoot a cannon first?" ”