On the seventh day after conquering the first two walled cities, Zhao Jiaren's troops attacked again. Just before leaving, Miao Zaicheng, the training of the Haozhou regiment, found Zhao Jiaren and asked to fight again.

The middle-aged man in his thirties said with a pleading expression: "Zhao Zhizhou, I came here to help in the war. But you let us defend the city, did you take us too lightly? ”

Zhao Jiaren didn't mean to underestimate Miao Zaicheng, he asked: "Every family must have a person who guards the house, does Miao Tuanlian feel that the person who is entrusted with the responsibility of guarding the family will be looked down upon?" ”

Of course, the truth is correct, but Miao Zaicheng still hopes to be able to participate in the battle. He said: "Zhao Zhizhou, you have so many subordinates, I still think you can let your subordinates defend the city." ”

"Miao Tuanlian, can I trust you?" Zhao Jiaren asked.

"What do you mean?" Miao Zaicheng asked puzzled.

Zhao Jiaren's face was solemn, "When I go out to fight, I don't want to worry about you taking people to do what you want to do." If you think I can trust you, please say so. If you don't believe it, the Mongols could have attacked the walled city and killed me in the back, and it was dangerous to stab me in the back. I need someone I can trust to stand behind me, and if you think I can't trust you, speak up. I'll adjust my deployment based on your answers. ”

Miao Zaicheng lowered his head and muttered for a while before he raised his head, "At least Zhao Zhizhou can trust me these days." ”

"Thank you very much!" Zhao Jiaren said. All he needed was credible people, and the Song army's performance in the field was very average, but its ability to defend the city was not ordinary.

got Miao Zaicheng's promise, and Zhao Jiaren marched again. The first two walled cities along the river in the front of the Mongol army were quite large, and some of the later walled cities did not invest such a huge amount of manpower, and the scale of the walled city built to protect the return artillery was relatively small. The walls were easily smashed in front of the ten-pound cannons, and there were three or four hundred people in the walled city, which were quickly destroyed under the siege of three or four thousand people.

After conquering two walled cities in one day, Zhao Jiaren ordered people to burn the things in the walled city clean, and led the troops to withdraw to the starting place.

Seeing Zhao Jiaren's victory so easily, Miao Zaicheng looked forward to the battle even more in his heart. Zhao Jiaren was worried that this man who really didn't know how to die would fight rashly with the Mongolian army, so he could only promise to bring Miao Zaicheng's men and horses to battle tomorrow.

Early the next morning, Zhao Jiaren left 4,000 people to guard his home. He took 6,000 land and water soldiers and horses and set off with Miao Zaicheng's 5,000 men and horses. It can be seen that Miao Zaicheng is very excited, and his subordinates are also quite excited because they have a battle to fight. After setting off for a while, Luo Qian came to report, "Zhizhou, Miao Zaicheng, those people have already run in front of us." ”

"Alas...... Let them go. Zhao Jiaren sighed.

Seeing Zhao Jiaren's passive response, Luo Qian hurriedly said: "Zhizhou, didn't you say that when the friendly army retreats, it will disrupt our array." If those people do that, will we not suffer in vain? ”

Zhao Jiaren smiled bitterly: "It depends on the training level of our army. I just hope that those people will understand how many bowls of dry rice they have eaten after they have suffered. Although they are completely unreliable in the field, I really expect them to defend the city well. No matter how much we can fight, we won't be able to spill beans into soldiers. ”

After hearing this, Luo Qian did not continue to oppose for the time being. Zhao Jiaren is right, the lack of troops is a problem that everyone did not consider before the war. really went to the battlefield, Luo Qian could understand what it means to have more, the better. As long as you are willing to obey orders, you can't fight a field battle, at least you can defend the city. Even if you can't defend the city, at least you can do manual work and be a laborer.

After walking for a while, Luo Qian asked unconfidently: "Zhizhou, do you think they can understand?" ”

"When encountering the test of life and death, where is the truth that cannot be understood?" Zhao Jiaren sighed.

Just when Zhao Jiaren was discussing war and human nature with his subordinates, Ah Shu had already led his troops to meet the enemy. Zhao Jiaren destroyed four walled cities, and the Mongol army was quite shaken. After reconnaissance, the Mongol army found that Zhao Jiaren's troops were not numerous. The three Mongol groups near Xiangyang now numbered about 150,000 men, and Zhao Jiaren's troops numbered just over 10,000. The art of war is cloudy, and ten rules surround it. Even if the Mongol army is unable to mobilize ten times the number of troops now, it can at least mobilize twice as many troops.

Ah Shu led 30,000 soldiers and horses to meet the enemy this time, and when he set off, he sighed in his heart that Zhao Jiaren, a young man, was a decisive and ruthless person. The first two camps are not enough, Zhao Jiaren conquered the two camps yesterday, if the ordinary general would probably send troops to garrison, but this young man decisively burned the camp and withdrew. The Mongol army was not given a chance at all. Such prudence and courage are by no means comparable to ordinary generals.

In order to familiarize himself with the Song State to be attacked, Ah Shu listened to those Confucian scholars tell some of the history of the Song Kingdom, and he found that whenever the Song Kingdom was in crisis, there were always some civil officials who would come forward to save the crisis. However, those civil officials were often unknown in the past, and this strange thing made Ah Shu feel quite puzzled. If these people had such ability, they should have become powerful generals of the Song State long ago. At least in Mongolia.

Just when he was thinking about what kind of civil official Zhao Jiaren was on the other side, Tanma came to report and met the advancing Song army in front. It should be Zhao Jiaren's subordinates.

Ah Shu didn't dare to slack off, and hurried to the front line in person. At this time, the two armies had already faced each other, and the Mongolian army was in good order, and the various troops were neatly arranged, and they were killed solemnly. The Song army on the opposite side was loosely formed and had no structure at all. To Ah Shu's great surprise, these people were still provocatively shouting at the Mongolian army, looking like they didn't know how to die.

At this point, there was nothing to say, and Ah Shu ordered, "Attack!" "The Mongol army, which received the order, began to operate like a machine.

First, a salvo of bows and arrows was fired, and when the rain of arrows poured on the Song army, the Song army, who had just scolded loudly, was in chaos. Even instinctively, the Song army, without a shield, hid behind those with shields, and they retreated like a herd of lambs hit by a rainstorm. After being shot down, the Song army retreated one after another, trying to get out of the range of the Mongol archers.

"Marshal, send cavalry to charge." The Mongolian general next to him hurriedly said. After fighting for so long and accumulating so much experience, the generals have a good sense of the rhythm of sending troops. As long as you attack from both flanks at this time, you can easily annihilate the Song army.

"Nope. Send infantry to fight them head-on. The cavalry attacked from both flanks. Ah Shu gave the order. He has greater ambitions, no matter whether Zhao Jiaren is not worthy of his name or not, this is a perfect opportunity to annihilate Zhao Jiaren in one fell swoop.

The order was conveyed, so Miao Zaicheng's militia did not collapse immediately, and they even survived until the battle with the Mongol army. At the beginning of the war between the two sides, these militia groups even withstood it for a while by courage. It was not until the two wings were fired at close range by the cavalry with cavalry bows that the entire militia completely collapsed.

Miao Zaicheng is good to everyone on weekdays, although he still tries to fight to the death on the front line, those members of the militia who have a good relationship with him carry Miao Zaicheng, regardless of his own wishes.

Under the orderly pursuit and drive of the Mongol army, the 5,000 militia lost about 10% of their strength and rushed towards Zhao Jiaren's troops like a torrent.