Kublai Khan always felt that his court was very energetic, whether it was Lian Xixian in his thirties, Yao Shu in his sixties, Zhang Rou in his seventies, or ministers in their thirties and seventies. When it's time to discuss things, they all speak up and try to say as much as they can.

At the time of Li Pu's rebellion, Wang Wentong was Kublai Khan's Pingzhang political affairs at that time, and it was Li Pu who recommended him to Kublai Khan, and he was also trusted by Kublai Khan. At that time, everyone in Kublai Khan's court shouted, 'Wang Wentong should be killed!' ’

Now after getting the news that Li Pu divided his troops across the sea to attack Zhigu Village, these Han cultural officials were silent. It seems that they are not the ones who have the courage to speak up when they encounter things before. Just as Kublai Khan was watching the reactions of his ministers with interest, Hao Jing, who was highly regarded by Kublai Khan, spoke in a calm tone, "Your Majesty, you should send someone to check on this matter first." Zhigu Village is only two days away from most of the capital, so let's find out first. ”

The views of the civil official Hao Jing can be described as old-fashioned, older than Hao Jing, and the veteran Zhang Rou, who is already in his seventies this year, immediately followed and said: "Your Majesty, Shi Tianze is leading the troops to exterminate Li Pu, and Li Pu is not able to send troops to cross the sea to attack Zhigu Village. It was other armies who wanted to attack Zhigu Village. ”

Staring at Zhang Rou, a veteran in his seventies, for a moment, Kublai Khan recalled that when discussing how to deal with Wang Wentong, Zhang Rou shouted loudly, "Wang Wentong should be chopped!" With an exaggerated expression and a fierce voice, Zhang Rou at that time and Zhang Rou now look like two people.

The Hanchen expressed caution and then looked at Kublai Khan expectantly. Kublai Khan did not speak immediately, and he also had to listen to the thoughts of the Mongol ministers. Among the important ministers, Ahamat took the lead and said: "How many enemy troops are there in Zhigu Village? ”

Kublai Khan signaled to Wang Donglu, and Wang Donglu immediately went down to call the Mongolian soldiers who reported the news to the main hall. As a Mongol, even a Mongol soldier was only excited after seeing Kublai Khan. There was no fear, and the Mongol soldiers listened to Kublai Khan's questions in Mongolian with the attitude of seeing relatives, and then began to speak. The Mongolian 100 households in Zhigu Village thought that the enemy troops who landed must have numbered several thousand. Some of them did not come off the ship, and if you add the enemy troops on the big ships on the seaside, there are probably as many as 10,000 people.

After hearing this, Ahmat pondered for a moment, and then said: "Li Pu still has the strength to send tens of thousands of horses to attack Zhigu Village at this time? ”

Kublai Khan couldn't help but nod slightly. Zhigu Village is very close to most of them, and it is indeed very threatening for an army to land here. However, Kublai Khan did not agree with the judgment of the 'Li Pu troops' made by the defenders of Zhigu Village. Since Li Pu's rebellion, Kublai Khan sent a large number of troops under the leadership of Shi Tianze to exterminate them. Although this traitor did cause great trouble to the Yuan army, the Mongol army also made Li Pu struggle to support. At this time, Li Pu's division of troops is impossible to achieve no matter how you look at it.

In his heart, he was very satisfied with the Mongolian minister, and Kublai Khan opened his mouth and said to Hanchen: "Send an edict to Shi Tianze and ask how the fight is." ”

The Hanchens were all relaxed, and someone immediately went to do it. After drafting the edict and having it sealed by Kublai Khan, the senior Hanchen officials personally took the edict to the post station. Although these people's official positions did not need to be done by themselves at all, the senior officials of Hanchen still chose the best people and horses very seriously, and sent out the edict as quickly as possible.

After such a toss, it was already late at night. The 100 Mongolian households who went to Zhigu Village to find out the news only led the team to set off the next morning. In the evening, approaching Zhigu Village, they encountered a defeated Mongol army on the main road. stepped forward to stop and question, and the retreating Mongolian Baihu told the reconnaissance troops, "Zhigu Village has been lost." ”

The Mongolian hundred households who inquired about the troops were puzzled and asked the Mongolian hundred households who were retreating, "How many people are there in the enemy, and you can't hold it for two days?" ”

The retreating Mongol hundred households replied with a sad face: "The enemy has thousands of soldiers and horses, and they also have artillery. If we hold on any longer, we will be annihilated. It can only be withdrawn first. ”

As a Mongol, retreating from a strong enemy was not a wrong choice. A Mongol soldier who chooses the right time to retreat at the right time will never be despised. The same is true now, hearing the news, the hundred households of the troops who inquired asked the compatriots to lead the troops to continue to retreat to Dadu, and he himself was ready to lead his subordinates, who were all cavalry, to secretly approach Zhigu Village first.

Hearing such a brave plan, the retreating Mongols left someone to lead the way, and hurried to Dadu himself. After a night of silence, the Mongol army rushed back to Dadu in the afternoon of the next day. Near noon on the third day, Kublai Khan called the hundred households for questioning. The place of the questioning was not in the palace, but on the horse farm.

With Mongolian understanding of saluting the Great Khan, Baihu got up and waited for the Great Khan to interrogate. Kublai Khan didn't say a word, and Wang Donglu commanded someone to bring a small felt package. After opening, a somewhat rancid bloody breath came out. Wang Donglu pointed to the mangled corpse inside and asked, "Do you know this person?" ”

The corpse was miserable, with its head and shoulders intact, as well as its two legs. However, a huge piece is missing from the waist to the chest, the internal organs are basically hollowed out, and the broken ribs and vertebrae can be clearly seen.

Baihu shivered loudly, he had seen such a human body. A few days ago, when those people were dragging artillery to attack the city, the shells hit the people around Baihu. At that time, the shells were so slow that the naked eye could clearly see the shells streak through the air, so slow that they could really reach out and catch them.

One guy just reached out and fished it out, and Hyakhe thought that the guy should easily catch the cannonball with the mouth of the bowl. Then he saw that the guy's arm exploded in its entirety after touching the shell. It was not the shell that exploded, but the arm that came into contact with the shell exploded. The skin was torn apart, the muscles were torn off, and the bones of Bai Sensen flew apart. Because the speed was so fast, the blood didn't even have time to splatter.

Baihu was also stunned to see the poor guy who tried to catch the cannonball empty-handed, and then saw the cannonball directly hit the chest of another soldier behind him without stopping, and the sturdy man was like paper paste, and a piece of the cannonball was directly removed by the cannonball.

When Hyakho's brain was storing such a novel scene, and before he could process the information, the soldier who was hit first fell to the ground. Then blood began to gush from the stump of the soldier whose arm had been blown off, and the white bones, pink muscles, and trembling skin dancing in the air were dyed scarlet in an instant.

Then the soldier screamed. It wasn't a scream of pain, but a scream of fright from his blood-spurting stump arm. The stump arm before the bleeding reminded Baihu of the beef he had eaten, and at this time, the sweet smell of scarlet blood came to his face, and Baihe only felt a burst of nausea, and he held the city head that was damaged by the cannonballs, and spit out the meal he had eaten in the morning in one bite.

At that time, it was already a few days now, and it was still in front of the Great Khan Kublai Khan. But Baihu still felt a churning in his stomach, and he covered his mouth hard. Finally stopped vomiting in front of the Great Khan.

Kublai Khan didn't feel the loss of shape of the hundred households, because he felt uncomfortable in his stomach for a while, and Kublai Khan didn't go to see the hundred households at all. Compared to the corpses that Kublai Khan had seen, the corpse was so neat that it looked like a cow or sheep had been cut off. The stimulation brought by this shape made Kublai Khan, who had seen the mountains of corpses and the sea of blood, feel uncomfortable.

After settling down, Kublai Khan saw Wang Donglu let go of the hand that held his mouth, and continued to ask Baihu, "Do you know this person?" ”

"This ...... It seems to be a hundred households who went to investigate. "The 100 households who answered have a good memory.

After receiving a clear answer, Wang Donglu continued to ask: "Did the enemy use artillery?" ”

"I watched their artillery with its own wheels, and it didn't look that big. The shells that can be fired are far and ruthless. The rammed earth walls were hit by a few shots, and immediately a large mass of earth collapsed. When it falls on the top of the city, several people will die at once......" Hyakhe struggled to remember the battle.

After half an hour, listening to the Mongolian hundred households involuntarily repeating what he had said before, Kublai Khan knew that this person's memory had been emptied. asked people to stay in the hundred households, Kublai Khan said to Zhang Rou: "Who led the troops to Zhigu Village?" ”

Zhang Rou thought for a moment, but couldn't find a particularly good candidate for a while. At this time, the reliable Han generals all led troops to attack Li Pu, and the Mongol generals were not assigned by Zhang Rou at will. According to what the Mongolian Baihu said, as well as the Mongolian Baihu subordinates who were killed, the Mongolian Baihu was accidentally shot and killed at one hundred and fifty paces. One hundred and fifty paces away, even the best Mongolian archers with the strongest Mongolian hard bows might not be able to shoot that far. After the Battle of Ezhou, Mongolian craftsmen began to spend great efforts to study artillery and long-range return artillery, and after Liu Cheng surrendered to Mongolia, the artillery on the warship he brought was sent to Dadu for the craftsmen to carefully study and imitate. And after the granular gunpowder provided by the Great Song Dynasty was used up, none of these guns could have a range of more than sixty paces. Not to mention hitting people exactly one hundred and fifty paces away. If a Mongolian general was killed in action, Zhang Rou felt that she was probably really difficult to explain.

With her own bottom line, Zhang Rou thought for a moment and replied: "Your Majesty, the enemy army is coming from a long way, and there will definitely be no horses. We send cavalry to keep an eye on them from afar, their cannons must be heavy, and if the enemy dares to go far, we can surround and destroy them at will on the side of Zhigu Village. ”

This suggestion made Kublai Khan nod slightly. His attention was so absorbed by the powerful weapon of artillery that he forgot about the war itself. The Mongol army had numerous cavalry, and as long as the enemy's infantry was far from the coast, the cavalry could certainly destroy them. At that time, the weapons carried by the enemy naturally fell into the hands of the Mongol army.