"If it's an ordinary path." Zhang Shun said: "There are too many to count. However, there are roughly three roads that the army can pass, one from the northern Luyanzhai Road to the pipeline, up to Xiangyang, down to Yingzhou. One is a detour from Baozhu Peak to Yingzhou, and the southernmost road follows the foothills slowly, although the road is farther, but the terrain is flat and suitable for marching. ”

This time, Zheng Yunming didn't dare to deploy defenses at will, he thought for a while and said: "Send a scout horse to the three-way sentinel to find out which road the enemy is taking." ”

At the same time, he asked Zhang Shundao: "Where can we temporarily garrison soldiers and horses, it is not far from the three roads, our army is temporarily resting and waiting for further information." ”

Zhang Shun thought for a while and said: "There is a hill nearby, which is called Wulipo. Suitable for Xiazhai. ”

Zheng Yunming shouted: "In this way, the whole army will rush to Wulipo immediately!" ”

On the road at the southern foot of Dahong Mountain, 5,000 infantrymen from the former Great Song Dynasty Qiangyong Army and now under the Mongolian De'an Governor's Office were marching towards Yingzhou in several columns.

The formation was often too sparse to be used when marching through enemy territory. However, the chief general who commanded the troops, the new commander of the Mongolian De'an soldiers and horses, and the five thousand households Xia Quan, believed that his team would not be suddenly attacked by the Song army.

His main confidence came from two things: at the front of his team was the 100 Tanma Red Army assigned by the Mongol commander Tachar, which was a specially selected elite unit of the Mongol army. Specializing in forward road opening and reconnaissance sentinels, as long as they are in front of the road, Xia Quan does not have to worry about his troops being attacked by the Song army.

Secondly, based on Xia Quan's experience as an official in the Great Song Dynasty for more than ten years, he did not believe that a Song army dared to break away from the cover of the city wall to meet it in this season when the Mongol army was infested. He is already familiar with the routines of the generals of the Song Dynasty, first of all, when they cannot hold out in a well-fortified city, waiting for the enemy to gather under the city to besiege, the generals and generals of the large and small will advance by land and water, and rescue the city by separate routes, so that the enemy will fall into a counter-encirclement and be forced to retreat or be defeated by himself.

As for daring to fight in the field, take the initiative to meet the enemy and crush him in the field. After the end of the Shaoxing era, few people have such courage. In his memory, only the deceased generals Bi Zai and Hu Zaixing can do this heroic act. Subsequently, the Song Dynasty relied on the remnants of the Red Jacket Army, which had been exiled from the north, and the ranks called the Loyal and Righteous Army Horses in the Southern Dynasty to conduct large-scale field battles.

At that time, the idols of the entire Great Song Dynasty were these scoundrels and Shandong athletes who were crisscrossing the battlefield. Under the command of Li Quan, the commander of the soldiers and horses of the Eastern Road of the Great Song Dynasty, and the heroic heroine Yang Miaozhen, there are generals known as the four fierce generals, they are Zhang Hui, the commander of the Flower Hat Army, who is known as Zhang Fei, the famous Hebei nickname, Shi Qing, the elite general of the Jin State in Huainan, the heroic Han Guoanyong, who is known as the iron tower hand and the heavy axe, and Xia Quan, who is known as the first in bravery. Under the command of Li Quan, these four fierce generals went south to the Jin army and went north to recover the whole territory of Shandong.

However, time has changed everything. Li Quan surrendered to the Mongols and rebelled against the Song Dynasty, and was stabbed to death by the Song army under the city of Yangzhou. Yang Miaozhen fled north to Shandong, and now huddled under the wings of Mongolia, no longer has the spirit of "four ladies in the sound of drums and horns, and there is no pear flower gun in the world". Shi Qing was killed by Li Quan because of internal strife, and Guo'an was stationed in Xuzhou for the Great Song Dynasty, and was killed by the Mongols who broke through the city and threw himself into the water.

Sai Zhangfei and Zhang Hui couldn't stand the suspicion and discrimination of the Song State, and finally turned their backs on the Song Dynasty and surrendered to the Jin State. In the decisive Battle of Sanfeng Mountain in Mengjin, Zhang Hui led his 20,000-foot army to fight hard, and died in the last battle.

Among the heroes of the Li family army in the Jiading era, only the lonely Xia Quan was finally left.

But fortunately, he made the right choice at the most critical time, Xia Quan thought so, compared with the mighty Mongol army in the world, these armies of the Southern Dynasty were too weak. The remnants of the Red Jacket Army have been moving between the Song, Jin, and Mongolian kingdoms for decades, seeking a glimmer of life in the cracks.

Today is finally the time to choose.

His future destiny is probably to perform hard under the command of a certain Mongolian marshal or prince, and then accumulate enough merits to return to the north to live a long life.

Xia Quan, who was tired of the wandering life, hoped most at this time to rush to Yingzhou and conquer it as the first merit dedicated to the Mongol Great Khan after surrendering.

He couldn't help but urge the front army to speed up the pace, even if he arrived in Yingzhou a minute earlier, it could reduce the chance of reinforcements from the Song army.

At this time, a flying horse in front turned back, and the Tanma Chibaihu Bonaitai stepped forward to ask about the situation, and turned around to report: "The warriors have found the camp of the Sinan people thirty miles ahead. ”

"That's a rare thing." Xia Quan said in surprise: "Could it be that the brothers of the Northern Army look at me and Lao Xia is not pleasing to the eye and want to take the opportunity to eat me?" ”

"Steward," Lu Ping, the most trusted general under Xia Quan's account and a thousand households of the marching army, said, "Do you want to wait until night for me to take five hundred brothers to the camp to steal?" ”

"No need." Xia Quan's eyes showed murderous aura: "Although Xia Quan is old, he is not old enough to be bullied by anyone, inform the Mongolian superiors, bury the pot and cook ten miles away from the enemy camp today, and they don't need to fight tomorrow, see that I Xia Quan will teach the southern army a good lesson with the strength of his headquarters!" ”

On the morning of the second day, the horn of assembly was blown in the Song army camp. The lookouts had already spotted a large group of enemy soldiers on the horizon.

Since the spies and the Mongol sentinels came into contact on the southern road, Zheng Yunming judged that the possibility of ambushing the enemy no longer existed. Because the terrain of the southern road of Dahongshan was still flat, the Mongol cavalry moved freely on this terrain.

Without cavalry, it means losing control of information, and without control of information, the options for combat are extremely limited.

Despite this, Zheng Yunming still decided to use the limited time to fortify the military camp at Wulipo, where he wanted to meet Xia Quan's troops, even if there was no way to carry out a surprise attack.

The generals of the Tulong Army already knew the general's temperament very well, but Zhang Shun objected to this opinion: "In the wilderness, the chances of winning a battle with the enemy can only be half and half, for the sake of stability, it is better to ask the general manager to temporarily go to the Dahong Mountain to garrison our army's cottage, and wait for the enemy to cross the Dahong Mountain before attacking behind." ”

"No need." Zheng Yunming immediately rejected his suggestion: "It is precisely because our army has been afraid of field battles for many years and does not have full confidence in itself that the enemy has unscrupulously plundered the people in the wilderness, and the morale of our army has become higher and higher, and the morale of our army has become more and more low. Today's coming is just a Song army like us, but a traitor surrendered to the enemy, if even such an army is afraid and dare not deal with it, how can there be a day in the future with the Tartars on the plain? ”

He picked up a command and threw it down, commanding: "Be sure to fight to the death with the enemy who is coming!" ”

In the earth-shattering sound of war drums, the camp gate of the Song army camp opened, and the leather army that rushed out first began to deploy in the front with the arrows of the Tanma Red Army.

Then came a hundred two-wheeled chariots.

When Zheng Yunming was in Lin'an, he was thinking about how to deal with the Mongolian cavalry, and after thinking about it, it was impossible for the ancients to solve the problems that the ancients could not solve with extraordinary wisdom.

In this era, the only thing that can delay the enemy's cavalry offensive is probably chariots, except for the castle walled fence.

The "General Essentials of the Wujing" describes in detail the manufacturing methods of the Song Dynasty's chariots, although the Song army relied on water networks to fight after the southern crossing, and there was little need for chariots. However, in the Northern Song Dynasty, the chariot was a very convenient instrument for fighting on the frontier.

Zheng Yunming carefully studied the shape of the chariot in the "General Essentials of the Wujing", and believed that the large four-wheeled chariot was no longer suitable for the battle to defend half of the rivers and mountains. Not to mention anything else, it was said that hundreds of people were needed to carry these big guys over when the river came, and it was already destined that the chariot would not be the best choice here.

What he needed was a lightweight weapon that could be carried by manpower.

With the help of carpenters recruited by the Tulong Army, Zheng Yunming modified the wheelbarrow traditionally used to transport supplies in the army, and the structure of the wheelwheel could not support the use of large firearms, so it had to be reformed into a two-wheeled structure. There is a shield in front of the chariot to protect against the threat of arrows, and two spears are extended in front of the chariot to deal with the onslaught of cavalry.

Unlike all the Song chariots of the previous generation, the new two-wheeled chariot added stakes to prevent recoil and pedestals for large firearms such as bamboo generals.

It's no longer just a paper tiger that relies on two immobile spears to scare opponents, but a new generation of fire-breathing behemoths.

However, apart from these 100 cars, Xia Quan didn't find anything special about the Song army opposite.

He stood at the forefront of the five thousand soldiers, watching the long spears on the hill opposite form a neat phalanx.

Obviously, the army on the opposite side was not yet elite, and the officers waved the blocking flag and the triangular solemn flag loudly when they were arrayed, and finally completed the phalanx.

Two teams of soldiers carrying halberds stood at the front of the phalanx of spears.

Guns are used to repel enemies, and halberds are used in hand-to-hand combat. The usual phalanx tactics were simply to place the spears in separate arrays or to place the halberders on either flank of the pike. After the gun array engaged, the halberdiers attacked the enemy's flanks.

But Xia Quanzhi had his own difficulties at the mercy of the commander on the other side of the road.

Halberds are usually wielded by veterans with better combat skills, who are able to inflict casualties within a manageable range using the halberd's different parts of the halberd from the spear.

This also makes the enemy dare not approach the spear phalanx too much, and for the phalanx with many recruits, the presence of the halberd team is a kind of protection for them.

They only need to stab the wooden spear in their hands under the cover of the halberd, without worrying about the enemy rushing directly for hand-to-hand combat.

Archers were deployed in the rear and on both flanks of the long armoured team, and the front of the archer ranks was covered by swordsmen armed with leather cards and broken blades, and once the opponent approached the archers, the swords and shields would get close to the enemy and engage in melee.

At the outermost part of the formation were some untidy auxiliary troops, their weapons in their hands uneven, and their banners were chaotic. It looks like they're just some improvised recruits.

Looking at the past, Xia Quan already had a good idea of how to fight the next battle.