Zhao Jiaren's father, Zhao Zhizhuo, is a Confucian student, and he believes that benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith are the fundamental virtues of life, so each of the five children's names contains one word. Moreover, Zhao Zhizhuo also thinks that the first virtue that people should have is trustworthiness, and benevolence is not simply benevolence, but also includes the four virtues of 'faith, wisdom, courtesy, and righteousness'.

I don't know if this wish for the child played a role, but Zhao Taiwei himself thought that he had to have a letter. Since he dared to inform the Mongolian Great Khan that they had met recently, Zhao Taiwei naturally made preparations. On the second day after meeting the envoy, the Song army sent the vanguard to cross the Yellow River from the Mengjin pontoon bridge, and began to build a military station every thirty miles from west to east.

From the beginning of September, the Song army began to cross the Yellow River in turn. At this time, the Mongol envoys, who were unaware of this, began to embark on the road back to Kaifeng. On the evening of the sixth day of the ninth lunar month, the envoys who had tried their best on the road finally appeared in front of the Mongol Khan Kublai Khan, exhausted.

hurriedly reported the news of the annihilation of the fierce Huachi army and the capture of the fierce Huachi, and the envoy only saw the coldness on the face of Kublai Khan, and Kublai Khan seemed to care about this matter at all. After the envoy finished Zhao Jiaren's words, 'I will meet the Great Khan today', and presented Zhao Jiaren's letter. The Great Khan of Mongolia just said coldly, "Got it." Then let the messenger go down.

When he went out, the envoy was greatly disappointed, and he actually hoped that the Great Khan Kublai Khan would save the fierce Huachi Wanhu. But the Great Khan was busy with affairs every day, and Gorten Wanhu was captured for so long, and the Great Khan could not save him back. The envoy could only hope that the Song army would not kill the prisoners like the Mongols, so that the fierce Huachi Wanhu would still have a chance to be released alive.

Looking at the back of the envoy, Kublai Khan was extremely dissatisfied in his heart. This man was completely unable to find out any valuable information, and it was a real failure to get him to go. Of course, this was only because Kublai Khan had received a report two days earlier from the Mongols in the west that the Song army was marching towards Huaxian at a speed of more than sixty miles a day. When the Mongol envoys returned, the Song army was only a hundred miles away from Huaxian. According to the speed of the Song army's march, the two armies could meet in Huaxian in about two days.

More than two months ago, Kublai Khan considered himself invincible with an army of more than 150,000 troops, as he had done before. The fact now is that in addition to losing a large amount of territory, the Mongol army was able to gather barely 110,000 troops in Huaxian, including 5,000 Mongol troops released after Bianliang was captured, and 30,000 troops of Ashu. Both of these forces were ineffective in combat, and Kublai Khan did not trust them very much.

Before the envoy returned, Kublai Khan had sent Zhang Hongfan to lead 20,000 horses to flank the Song army, hoping to see the reality of the Song army. Kublai Khan recognized Zhang Hongfan's abilities and hoped that the Mongol marshal from Han Chinese origin would show his due ability.

Luoyang's geographical location is important because after leaving Luoyang, there is an endless plain to the west. To the north of the Yellow River is the Hebei Plain, and to the south of the Yellow River is the Huanghuai Plain, and Luoyang is on this dividing line.

Marshal Zhang Hongfan had limited knowledge of Chinese geography, but he was somewhat confident that he would fight on the plains. The characteristic of plain warfare is that it is convenient for maneuvering. Receiving orders from Kublai Khan, Zhang Hongfan did not attack the Song army head-on, but went all the way to the west, around the flank of the Song army.

Flanking tactics are a common and very effective tactic to cut off enemy teams while they are on the march, leaving them unable to take care of each other. Once successful, the enemy faces collapse. Great Khan Kublai Khan did not object to Zhang Hongfan's tactics, and if Zhang Hongfan could succeed in flanking, Great Khan Kublai Khan would immediately attack from the front of the Song army.

On the seventh day of September, Zhang Hongfan had arrived fifty miles west of Huaxian County. He did not attack, but set up camp with his troops. On the eighth day of September, the latest news came that the Song army had arrived at a distance of forty miles from the Mongol army on the seventh day of the ninth month. On the eighth day of the first month of September, they attacked again and went straight to the county seat of Huaxian County.

Zhang Hongfan was overjoyed when he learned the news, his father Zhang Rou was very fond of collecting books, and Hao Jing, who was now highly regarded by Kublai Khan, read in Zhang Rou's private library when he was young. Zhang Hongfan had read "The Art of War", and with the increase of war experience, Zhang Hongfan deeply believed in this book.

The "Military Contention" in "The Art of War" says that it is not enough to raise an army and fight for profit, and if you entrust the army and fight for profit, you will donate a lot. Therefore, the roll of the armor and the trend, day and night are not everywhere, double the road, a hundred miles and fight for profit, then capture the three generals, the strong first, the tired later, its law eleven and come; Fifty miles and fight for profit, then the general will be on the top, and his law will be half to; Thirty miles and for profit, two-thirds to.

It means that a fast march seems to be able to surprise the enemy with a first-mover strike, but the march is very hard, the strong soldiers run fast, the thin soldiers run slowly, if you run a hundred miles a day and night, only about one-tenth can reach on time. If the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces does not have such an army around him, there will be danger. If you run fifty miles in one day and one night, at most half of the people, the general will be in danger because of this. If you run 30 miles in one day and one night, you can only reach two-thirds of them.

With this level of marching of the Song army, they ran sixty miles in one day, and only half of the troops must have arrived at this time. Zhang Hongfan sensed that the fighter plane had arrived, and immediately ordered his 20,000 men to start heading south.

The Yuan army used in Kublai Khan's war against the Song State was basically the Han army, so the number of cavalry in the army was less than 20%. Zhang Hongfan brought out 20,000 horses, a cavalry team of 3,000 people, and the rest were infantry. Previously, Zhang Hongfan didn't want to be discovered by the Song army, so he shrank his troops. At this time, he felt that the battle situation could not be lost, so he took 3,000 cavalry and went directly south.

The plains were easy to march, and Zhang Hongfan's troops rushed out like tigers and wolves, and they felt really majestic along the way. However, the more Marshal Zhang walked, the more he felt that something was wrong. If it was a normal situation, the Song army should have split into several ways to attack, and the line would be very long, and Zhang Hongfan should soon encounter the Song army. But after the 20,000 people walked out for more than ten miles, they didn't see any sign of the Song army. Zhang Hongfan knew that the Mongol Khan would never deliberately trap him, and since it was said that the Song army had already acted, there must be action.

More than ten miles is not much of a problem for cavalry, and although Zhang Hongfan is cautious, he is not a timid mouse. Since he hadn't seen the Song army for more than ten miles, he continued to advance. After walking ten miles forward, Zhang Hongfan finally saw the banner of the Song army. He could see that four or five miles away from the Mongol army on the road was a yellow-orange walled city, with a high watchtower on it, and the banner of the Song Kingdom was raised.

Seeing that Song Jun had completed a walled city so quickly, Zhang Hongfan felt that something was wrong. When the horses approached, they saw that the walls of the walled city seemed to be made of straw, but the walls, the moats, and the horses were all there. It looks like the city is strong. Zhang Hongfan ordered, "Shoot it with a rocket!" "Since the outside of the walls is straw, the rocket can probably make it burn.

The rocket couldn't shoot too far, and as soon as the longbowmen in the cavalry approached about fifty paces to the walled city, puffs of white smoke rose from the walls, and Zhang Hongfan estimated that there should be a defensive force in the city, but he was not surprised. However, several longbowmen who had become the target of the attack had already been knocked to the ground, and the screams were heard, and the faces of the soldiers changed. Someone tried to go to the rescue, but was also knocked down halfway. No one wants to die anymore.

Zhang Hongfan sighed, although this hurt morale, he could only let those overly loyal archers withdraw themselves. He ordered: "Retreat first and then go back three miles!" ”

In the end, Zhang Hongfan's camp was in a small village seven or eight miles away from the roadside, and some villagers were arrested and inquired, and the villagers said that in the past few days, the Song army had been going east in an endless stream, and they didn't know why there was no one suddenly now. Zhang Hongfan is also very strange, which does not make sense. Unless it is the Song army, the whole army maintains a speed of sixty miles a day, but this kind of thing is to think about it, this kind of army is elite, and there are thousands of people who are already incredible. Mongolia was able to wreak havoc on the world, that is, tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry had very high quality. Although Zhang Hongfan knew that the Song army was well equipped, he still thought that these southern barbarians were all thin.

Early the next morning, Zhang Hongfan began to bury the pot and make rice. In Huaxian County, about fifty miles away from Zhang Hongfan, the southern barbarians, who were considered to be of low physical fitness, had already finished breakfast. The Song army left 10,000 horses and horses to guard various military stations along the way, 10,000 of the 60,000 troops were used as reserves, and the other 50,000 were all attacked from the camp ten miles away from Huaxian.

The ten-mile road was only an hour's journey, and the Mongol army had set up camp outside the city since it had been determined that the Song army had set up camp ten miles away the previous night.

Kublai Khan left 30,000 useless troops in the city, believing that the men would always have the ability to defend the city. The Mongol Khan Kublai Khan and the Marshal Boyan led their troops to move to both sides of the Song army, and Zhang Hongfan, who determined to cut off the Song army's back route, the Mongol Khan felt that the Song army's reckless behavior was the result of Zhao Jiaren's excessive expansion.

Kublai Khan was right, Zhao Jiaren was indeed very inflated. Each of the previous victories had inflated him a little, and until now, Zhao Jiaren had accumulated enough discussions, so he began to feel that the Song army, which now had the level of a European army in 17XX, could already fight the Mongol army.

At this time, Zhao Jiaren, who was in the military formation, did not have the mobile Mongolian army behind him, and what he saw at this time was the county seat of Huaxian County. When it comes to the county seat, everyone thinks of the sturdy walls made of gray bricks and stones. Zhao Jiaren used to think so. It wasn't until he returned to the Song Dynasty that he learned that the brick walls must have been built in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Song Dynasty would have built like this, how could it be a state capital.

Now the city wall of Huaxian County is made of rammed earth, and the height is more than two meters. This kind of thing does have a blocking effect on ordinary people, and now the city walls are full of Mongol troops, who not only have longbowmen, archers, but also artillery.

These things had no deterrent effect on Zhao Jiaren, and he ordered in a relaxed tone, "Attack!" ”