I understand Ma Tingluan's good intentions. The imperial palace must naturally have the image of a palace. The Song Dynasty was a celestial dynasty. Of course, it must pay attention to its own image. However, although the image is important, when life and death are at stake, survival is more important than anything else. I still Maintaining a gentle tone, he explained: "Ma Aiqing, I have calculated this matter in detail. The bulk of the palace's expenses include new construction, repairs, and maintenance of various buildings in the palace, the salaries of the people in the palace, and various external rewards. Wait. I have already informed you that from now until the end of the war, no new buildings are allowed to be built. No new support personnel are allowed. The annual major changes can be reduced to simple maintenance. At the same time, the salaries of everyone in the harem are reduced. This way First of all, I estimate that saving half of the cost should not be a big problem. The war between Song Dynasty and Mongolia will only last five or six years at most. We will see the outcome. Ma Aiqing, after the war is over, it will not be too late for me to carry out large-scale construction projects."
"Your Majesty is wise." Ma Tingluan thought for a while and praised. "Your Majesty, I have this report. Your Majesty's reduction of palace expenses should be publicized through the newspapers in Lin'an City. It should be widely advertised to increase the public confidence of our people. The cohesion and... what His Majesty said is directed towards..."
"Master Ma, it's the centripetal force." Wen Tianxiang said with a smile. "Your Majesty takes the lead in frugality and sets an example. It will definitely make the people in our court feel the pragmatic spirit of the royal family. The centripetal force will naturally increase."
"Oh, yes. It's centripetal force."
"Yes. This matter is settled. My dear friends, please withdraw from the court."
Hyping this kind of thing is a good thing. It is conducive to the people's wishes. I will naturally agree.
Whether you can do it or not, others have no way of knowing. If you can talk but not do it, sooner or later the people will think you are unreliable. Only if you can both do and speak can you be recognized by the people. Simply being high-profile or low-key is not advisable. Have both. And having it is the way of the emperor.
The next day, while having dinner at Shifeng Trading Company, I asked Yuan Ji: "Sir, have you seen the battle between Lu Wenxin, the leader of the Black Carbon Regiment, and the Mongolian marshal A Shu? This kind of battle before the formation and the battle between the martial arts people Are there any similarities between the contests?"
"Your Majesty, there are differences between infantry warfare and horse strategy. Infantry warfare focuses on skill and flexibility. Most of them use short weapons. Horse warfare pays more attention to strength and speed. Most of them use long weapons or heavy weapons. And you also need to know how to use them. With the help of the impact of the war horse. If it is under the horse, judging from the current strength of our generals, no one will be my opponent. But once we fight on horseback, my advantage will not be so great. Your Majesty still remembers the events of that day. Let’s fight the Anfeng Army. If Shen Mo and the enemy general Hu Chi are on horseback, it will be difficult for Shen Mo to succeed in the surprise attack."
I nodded and said with a smile: "The advantage you mentioned is not big, but it should be no problem to win."
Yuan Ji said: "Your Majesty, although I don't know the depth of A Shu and Lu Wenxin's martial arts, they must be not much different from Zhao Huai, Zhao Bao and others. I have confidence."
I know that Yuan Ji never lies. He said: "Sir, Lu Wenxian is called Dao Lu. The Zhao brothers are called Gun Zhao. Their martial arts skills are between the brothers."
"I and Zhao Huai discussed martial arts. In a single-handed battle, I can win. But in a melee with thousands of troops, the murderous aura cultivated by people like A Shu and Lu Wenxin on the battlefield is fundamentally different from that of Chen. This It’s not as good as being a minister.”
Hearing this, Fang Ling interjected: "Brother, I will also go to the battlefield to compete with the Mongolian Marshal Ashu. If I win, can I also be the Marshal?"
"Haha. I think it works. Marshal Fang."
"Huh. Brother, you are making fun of me."
"How dare you? When we get to the battlefield, I still need to rely on you to protect me."
Fang Ling smiled: "That's pretty much it."
Back in the palace, after approving the memorial, I entered the war room next to the imperial study alone. While looking at the three-dimensional terrain sand table in Xiangyang, I began to think deeply.
According to my guess, this exploratory attack by Mongolian Ashu is to understand the terrain around Xiangyang and the defense status of our army.
According to the original historical process, the Mongols would launch a large-scale attack in September 1268 after completing the construction of castles in Lumen Mountain, Baihe City, and Wanshan Fort outside Xiangyang City. From now on, the Mongols Judging from the progress, it has undoubtedly accelerated the construction of the fort. By March or April next year, the fortress of Baihe City will be completed. Therefore, the large-scale Battle of Xiangyang between Song and Mongolia is likely to be advanced.
The city of Xiangyang is strong. With the power of A-Shu, he will definitely think that trapping Xiangyang to death is the best choice. As long as Kublai Khan uses Xiangyang as the main place of attack in the south, a protracted Xiangyang war will be unavoidable.
I'm not worried about the castle in the fortress. The earth wall fortress built in a hurry will definitely not be able to withstand the bombardment of artillery and cluster bombs. The Mongols can build it if they are willing. The greater the investment, the more attention they will pay to it. I will just sit back and enjoy the results. Thousands of cannons will fire. Let the castle that the Mongols built with so much hard work become their burial place.
The night is already deep.
"Report to the officials. The Military Academy has forwarded the battle report of the Guangnan Military Region." Xiao Qi entered and reported.
"Where? Guangnan." I asked in surprise. "Is there a war in Guangnan?"
"The official family is indeed the Guangnan Military Region."
"Fan Wenhu is causing trouble." My first feeling told me.
In memory, during the Song-Mongolian War, the Mongols did not seem to launch an attack from Yunnan.
Xiao Qi didn't know the whole story. He said, "The officials will know after seeing it."
I said "Yeah" and opened Fan Wenhu's battle report and saw: Fan Wenhu reported to His Majesty and the Military Council. At the end of August, I received a letter of help from Dali Sariwei. It said that his disciple Jimu and dozens of Yi friends were in Jianshui. He was captured by the local garrison in Dongba Town outside the state. Jimunai was one of the three disciples of Sariwei and knew everything about Sariwei. However, Sariwei himself was unable to go to the rescue due to other matters. Therefore, I invited the Guangnan Military Region Help. We must rescue Jimu and others. After receiving the letter, I sent the commander of the 51st Army of Guangnan Military Region Tan Yuan, the deputy commander Li Wang and the commander of the Ma Army Camp Zhou Sheng to lead the only cavalry battalion of our military region. The army went west from the junction of Guangnan, Annan and Dali, and then went north through Dali. With the help of Ajia, the chief of the Yi people in Jianshui Prefecture, our army successfully invaded Jianshui Prefecture. There was no Mongolian army stationed in the prefecture. It only took half an hour for our army to defeat the defenders of the Duan family in Dali in the city. They captured more than 300 people under the prefect Achi and captured more than 200 horses. They burned grains, rice, armor, and houses, and rescued Jimu. There were thirty-seven people in the group. In this battle, our army suffered 41 casualties. Only two people were killed in action. The rest were all slightly injured. In mid-September, our army returned successfully. Jimu and others also left northward.
"Fan Wenhu did a pretty good job on this matter." I commented after reading the battle report. Regarding the battle of Jianshui Prefecture in the Guangnan Military Region, all the participating officers and soldiers were transferred to official positions.
Discuss merit and reward with the Ministry of War.
On October 14, I received another battle report from the Sichuan Military Region. In this battle report, Gundam, Zhang Jue and Zan Wanshou mentioned that our army had conquered Kaizhou (today's Kaixian County, Chongqing) on the third day of October. So far, the Sichuan Military Region has
Defeat all the Mongolian garrison in Chongqing.
Although these were insignificant victories, they greatly boosted the morale of our people and our soldiers. I immediately issued an order to give the Sichuan Policy Department one million dollars for labor.
On the same day, the commanders of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, Yin Yinglei and Li Beiyang, returned to Lin'an. After the meeting, I left them alone and listened to the progress of the Eastern Expeditionary Army's campaign.
After landing, the Eastern Expeditionary Army was unstoppable. Taking advantage of the domestic contradictions in Goryeo, it quickly captured Ganghwa Island, its temporary capital. After that, as Yin Yinglei said in his battle report, Goryeo's army and people were surprisingly united. They used guerrilla methods to
They kept harassing our army and it seemed impossible to gain a foothold in a short period of time. In the end, Yi Yinglei and Li Beiyang gave up their plan to continue going north.
Yin Yinglei, after Li Beiyang finished his report, he knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, the ministers are guilty. They failed to conquer the entire territory of Goryeo. Please forgive me."
I waved my hand and said with a smile: "Capturing Jeju Island and understanding the national conditions of Korea by the way is a great achievement. Assess the situation at the right time and make a prompt decision. What is the crime? You two, get up."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
"Li Aiqing. What is the condition of our navy during this long trip? Can it adapt to long-distance navigation?"
"Back to Your Majesty, the navy has accumulated a lot of navigation experience during this expedition. For example, formations, semaphores, the use of compasses, coping with harsh sea environments, etc. It's a pity that the artifact was not actually used."
"There will be a chance. I will allocate another forty artillery pieces to your navy before the end of the year."
Li Beiyang said happily: "Thank you, Your Majesty. That's great."
"Regarding the Eastern Expedition, I just need to sum up the experience. In the future, I will sail further to the Navy. Maybe I will sail to Jerry Polo's hometown."
"Venice." Li Beiyang said in surprise. "It's thousands of miles away from our country. It has to be the Shenzhou."
I smiled and said: "The Shenzhou is not the end of warships. If the steam engine can be successfully developed, it will not be difficult to build an armored steam warship larger than the Shenzhou. You all know that Mongolia conquered the South a few days ago.
Marshal A Shu personally led the troops to attack Xiangyang."
"I have heard about it."
"Yes. Judging from various signs, the Mongols will indeed use Xiangyang as their main attack site. They will establish surrounding fortresses, encircle the point to mobilize reinforcements, and take the opportunity to eliminate the main military force of our dynasty under Xiangyang City. These wishful thinking are good.
But they don’t know that the soldiers in our dynasty are no longer ten years ago. Moreover, they are even more powerful with firearms. Kublai Khan’s plan will definitely fail.”
"Your Majesty is wise."
"Your Majesty Yin Ai, Xiangyang is the main battlefield in the Song-Mongolian War. At that time, Lin'an Military Region, Luzhou, and Yangzhou Military Regions may all go to support. But Xiangyang is not the only battlefield. I remember that I discussed with you before about marching thousands of miles into the Taihang Mountains.