Zheng Yunming smiled slightly and said, "This is just one thing, and there is another thing, you don't believe that Peng Commander can lead you to win a water war, right?" ”

Sun Xiaoyi and Lao Wang glanced up at Peng Man at the same time, and immediately lowered their eyes, not daring to meet Peng Man's eyes.

"What don't you dare to say?" Peng Man said loudly: "If you lose, you lose!" This was a mistake in my command, and I pursued the enemy with the wind and water, but I couldn't control the speed of the ship, and crashed headlong into the enemy's fleet, so that the enemy could get close to my body to engage in hand-to-hand combat, and my small number of inferior people was exposed, which was purely because I did not know the art of war. ”

Zheng Yunming laughed, and he said to the two soldiers: "The idea of a smooth battle is not what you Peng Commander himself thinks. I asked him to do it again and again. I'm a layman like all of you when it comes to water warfare, but I don't think it's a big deal. At least we know the water nature better than the Mongolians, we grew up in the south of the Yangtze River, and we have been accustomed to water since childhood, even I, a young master from an official eunuch, can swim hundreds of steps in the water casually, not to mention you water people who beg for food in the wind and waves. You may not have seen how many corpses of the Mongol army were picked up in today's battle, they were not killed in battle, but fell into the water, and drowned without knowing the nature of the water. Losing a battle, it's not a big deal, as long as we hide in the water, the Mongols can't help us, what we want is that we can't lose this battle in vain, how to lose every battle, learn lessons, how to win every battle, rich experience, keep fighting, the Mongols will always be defeated one day. ”

Zhang Yu said loudly behind him: "The official's words are no longer heard!" What does it matter if you lose the first battle! Since then, we have learned that if we don't want to engage with the enemy in short combat, we should not fight with the sail and the water, it is best to go against the wind and water, and then go against the wind and water, and then not with the wind and the wind. Battles are accumulated with a little experience, and if you are afraid of war, you will not be able to become a climate for a lifetime! ”

Zheng Yunming stood up and patted Zhang Bo on the shoulder: "That's right, joining the army to fight is originally a matter of fighting with your life, and as a navy, you can't be timid and cowardly, the next battle must not only be fought, but also fought neatly, and you must win the victory!" ”

Sun Xiaoyi and Lao Wang glanced at each other secretly, and the generals talked a lot, but when they fought with real knives and guns, how could they guarantee that they would win?

This problem is not only worried by the soldiers of the Jing-Hubei Naval Army, but also by the civil and military generals of Ezhou.

"The Hu people are very strong in bow and arrows, and they are fierce and good at fighting, in terms of individual soldiers, they can be at least three or five soldiers and horses of the Jin State, I have never seen the Jurchens of Shaoxing with my own eyes, but it is said that these Mongolians' martial arts are the first in the world, and they are probably about the same" Zhao Juan looked at the topographic map of Jinghu Lake hanging high in the public hall and was very worried: "Even if they are not water-oriented, they can cross the river with a single boat, once they go ashore, who can stop them?" ”

"They are not so easy to cross the river, yesterday's battle has been seen very clearly, they are not familiar with the water, the boat is not good, once our army is pressing, their fleet will be disturbed by itself." Zheng Yunming replied categorically: If the firm confidence of the supreme commander is expressed at this time, these local officials will be easily shaken. There are by no means a few people like Zhang Guishou, who is now hiding in Yichang. "With me leading the navy, they must be intercepted in Jiangbei."

He pointed a sharpened, slippery, straight poplar branch upstream of the Han River. "The army of the Tatars is not only a place in Huangzhou, now it can be determined that there are thousands of Mongolian elite cavalry ambushes near Yingzhou, there are Fan cavalry and Han cavalry, and now the commander-in-chief of Yao Zhiyuan barely holds the city, and the atmosphere does not dare to take an extra mouthful, Yingzhou is the center of grain and grass transshipment in the west of Lake and Beijing, and this place must be saved, but there is no danger at present."

"The Jingmen Army, Lao Yashan and Jiangling are only scattered rangers, because Xiangyang shields most of the enemy troops in this direction, and this area is mountainous, and it is not easy for a large number of cavalry to move, and they cannot really exert their combat power. As for the situation east of Hanshui, it is difficult to say that it is optimistic, at present Zhang Rou is entrenched in Huangzhou, Yanshi is entrenched in Suizhou, Tasi is said to have arrived in De'an Province, and a large number of enemy troops have also been found in Gwangju and Qizhou. Zheng Yunming said, while pasting a small black flag on the topographic map, it is obvious that there are few black flags west of Hanshui, but the states and counties to the east are densely packed, the enemy's intention is obvious, since Xiangyang is suddenly difficult to pull out, and De'an has been trapped, they will follow the principle of least resistance to advance, from the direction of De'an to break into the east of the Hubei Road, the west of Huaixi, in the Song people's weak defense area, wantonly looting, and then full of loot and then turn around and attack Xiangyang City.

"I went all the way south by boat, and I also had a little contact with the Mongol ships, and the distribution of the Mongol naval forces was roughly numerous." Zheng Yunming beckoned Peng Man and Zhang Yu to come over, and this remark was mainly to the commanders of the two naval forces: "There are about 3,000 enemy ships in the upper reaches of Yingzhou, ready to carry a large army across the river to Huangzhou, and more than 2,000 remain near Xiangyang, some of which have already set off, and it is estimated that they will attack Jiangling against the water." There is also the fleet yesterday, carrying a large number of soldiers who have already gone to join Zhang Rou. In addition to the fleet that has already sailed away, Ezhou is the only way for the rest of the fleet, my plan is to first concentrate the warships in my hand along the river south to pursue these fleeing ships, and after they are all destroyed, quickly return to Ezhou, and defend this place, but not just wait for the rabbit, but observe the situation, if there is a chance, go upriver to lift the encirclement of Yingzhou, and if there is no opportunity, hold Zhuankou, and prevent the enemy from invading Jiangling and Ezhou. ”

Peng Man asked: "Why don't you divide the troops into two routes, I will lead a ship to Huangzhou to pursue, and the deputy commander only needs to lead the brigade to defend this place, but I am afraid that when our army pours out, the Mongolian army will suddenly cross the river with a large number of ships to take Ezhou, and our army will not suffer from the enemy on its back?" The art of war is based on the whole army, and it is better to be foolproof. ”

"The principle of employing troops is only to concentrate troops, and there is no such thing as dispersion." Zheng Yunming's tone was quite arbitrary: "The key to defending the territory is to capture the enemy's movements and adjust the deployment in response to the enemy's offensive. If you leave troops everywhere to defend, then the entire defense area will be a loophole. Now that the Mongols are looting in Suizhou and Fuzhou, how can they have the kung fu to cross the river to attack? When they gathered enough troops to take a boat south, it would be half a month later at the latest, and in these fifteen days, we quickly went east, defeated Zhang Rou, and then turned back to defend Ezhou, and the key was only on a quick word. ”

Fast is the key to the victory of all armies, to put it simply, as long as you are fast enough, you can win the war, and sometimes you can even reach the perfect state that Sun Wuzi dreamed of, and surrender without a fight. Speed is the life of an army, and a field army without speed cannot grasp the dominance of war even if it is brave and good at fighting. Zheng Yunming's understanding of this point is deeply rooted in the bone marrow, just because the speed of the infantry is impossible to compete with the pure cavalry team in any case, he has no choice but to ensure that he is invincible in the back and forth conflicts of the cavalry, but if the infantry alone wants to gain the upper hand in the war, even the world's number one general cannot do it.

However, the battlefield is limited to the Yangtze River, and the waterways extend in all directions. Zheng Yunming could use the naval vessels that the Great Song Dynasty was best at to increase the army's mobility. On this particular battlefield, the maneuverability of the ships even surpassed that of the horse team. Zheng Yunming was about to use this unique advantage of the Great Song Dynasty to launch a real internal battle.

And this battle, with the Jing'e Navy as the core element, first began with the defeat of the enemy ships in Huangzhou.

Meng Hui didn't know at this time that Zheng Yunming was planning a large-scale battle spanning hundreds of miles, and he was wholeheartedly preparing for a battle with the most elite vanguard of the Mongol army who remained in Huangzhou. On October 18, Meng Hui sent Zhao Wu, his younger brother Meng Ying and his commander Zhang Hanying out of the city to engage Zhang Rou, and the Song army took General Mu as the vanguard, shooting stone cannons to shoot at the enemy, and fought with Zhang Rou for ten rounds, without taking any advantage, so he had to collect his troops and return to the city. Zhang Rou took advantage of the situation to lead the troops to counterattack, all the way to attack the north peak of Huangzhou City, all the way to attack the west gate of Huangzhou, Meng Hui sent his own Xuanfeng army general Qu Shen to attack from the west gate, Zhang Hanying attacked from the north gate, and the enemy army fought fiercely under the city of Huangzhou, and he personally led the Chinese army out of the city to support, and finally repelled Zhang Rou's army.

Although this battle did not touch the city wall of Huangzhou, the shouts of killing resounded in the sky, and the people of Huangzhou were all terrified when they heard it. It wasn't until the Song army repelled the enemy that they were relieved.

The day after the war subsided, Meng Heng climbed the south gate tower of Huangzhou and raised his eyes to look into the Yangtze River. At the same time as the fierce battle in the city of Huangzhou, in Chibi, not far from the city of Huangzhou, the sailors of the Song army had just engaged a battle with the Mongol ships heading south from the upstream. Shi Songzhi, the envoy of the Yangtze River, personally wrote a letter to Jianghai, the capital of Jiangzhou, handing over all the naval forces near Huangzhou to him for command, and allocated a part of the Zhenjiang naval army to come for reinforcements. Jiang Hai led 600 warships to march forward noisily, and encountered thousands of Mongolian boats down the Wulin River in the upper reaches of Chibi. The Song army released rockets against the current, and sent small boats to intercept the enemy ships that wanted to get closer, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Mongol army's unstable foothold, the Mongol fishing boats were repulsed, and the Mongols fled dozens of miles to the upper reaches of Lu, and anchored on the river near Huilong Mountain, while confronting the Song army's naval division led by Jiang Hai, while waiting for an opportunity to go to Zhang Rou's garrison and join the army by land.