"Okay, General Lu. After the meeting, you rush back to Xiangyang overnight. I will assign you an artillery squadron with ten artillery pieces. It will be led by the artillery battalion commander, General Wanyan Tianlei. I will return with you tonight."
Lu Wenhuan, who had seen the power of the artifact, said happily: "Yes, Your Majesty."
"General Lu and General Wanyan are experts at this. The placement of artillery in Xiang and Fan cities is left to General Wanyan to decide. Starting from the 23rd of this month, your army can decide the use of artillery on its own. Find the correct one.
Opportunities. Severely attack the enemy's trebuchets and Yuan soldiers attacking the city. But at the same time, we must also pay attention to economy. You must know that the cost of one cannon shell is equivalent to one hundred taels of silver."
"Yes. I will obey the order in the end."
On May 21st, more than 20,000 Song Army officers and soldiers set off from the north and west gates of Yingzhou City one after another, marching all the way north.
Due to terrain limitations, except for the cavalry, the rest of the infantry could only cross through the rugged mountain roads. In the evening of the 22nd, they and the artillery battalion gathered at the southern foot of Songhepo.
Songhepo is the collective name for several small hillsides. To the north of the hillside is Longweizhou. To the west is Hanshui River. To the north of Longweizhou is Lumen Mountain. This Longweizhou is also the largest between Xiangyang and Yingzhou.
It is a plain. Except for a small forest near Guanzi Beach in the north, the rest of the land is suitable for large-scale cavalry field battles.
The Chinese army's tent is located in the middle of Songhe Slope. Two hundred personal guards formed a ring and surrounded me.
After dinner in the army, I summoned a group of generals in the big tent and made the final arrangements for tomorrow's battle. According to the plan, if the Yuan army does not come to attack, tomorrow I will lead the Wen Zhang Division of the Second Division of the Royal Forest Army.
, the Polu Army and the three armies of the Third Wing went to Lumen Mountain for on-the-spot investigation. Only Zhang Shijie's First Division was left to guard the Songhepo camp. This also allowed Crete's artillery battalion to find the most suitable attack point.
.
There was no words for the night. Like many soldiers who had never been on the battlefield, I spent the time in excitement and nervousness. But veterans like Wu Songhan and Jiang Cai did not feel any nervousness at all. They only had the desire to make achievements.
The appearance of a large group of troops will naturally make the Yuan army in Lumen Mountain aware. At 3:00 pm (9:45 p.m.), all the main generals around Xiangyang City gathered in the Marshal's tent in Lumen Mountain.
Inside, under the auspices of Ashu and Boyan, we discussed countermeasures.
After Zhenjin's repeated humility, A'shu, the commander-in-chief of the Yuan Army's expedition to the south, still sat on the main seat in the middle. Zhenjin took the first place on the left. The first place on the right was the deputy commander-in-chief Boyan.
Boyan first said: "Generals, the reinforcements from the Southern Dynasty finally couldn't stand it any longer. They arrived at Songhepo in the south of Longweizhou from this afternoon to evening. They set up camp in the Songhepo area. You all know the specific details.
In this situation, let’s discuss together how our army should respond.”
Azahan, who seemed impatient, said excitedly: "Commander, Zhenjin Supervisor, General Boyan, the Southern Dynasty army appeared in the Songhepo area. Its purpose is to attack our Lumen Mountain camp and relieve the isolation of Xiangyang City.
The danger lies in what General Mo has seen. Our army should take the initiative to attack and annihilate the enemy in Longwei Continent. What's more, the Emperor of the Southern Dynasties might be among them. If we capture him, we will be done."
Compared to Arakhan's excitement, another pioneer, Zhang Hongfan, was quite calm: "According to the news from the scouts, the Song army in Songhepo is at least 20,000 people. This is almost half of the Yingzhou army.
Moreover, there were more than 20,000 horses and flags mixed together. There were the Yulin Army, the cavalry and infantry from the third wing of the Lin'an Military Region, and the Polu Army led by Yangzhou Jiang Cai. These troops were all the main forces of the Song Army.
Therefore, the general believes that our army should first test its combat capabilities and then make a decision whether to rely on the castle in the field to fight a war of attrition or to take the initiative and fight a war of annihilation."
Veteran General Shi Tianze said: "Commander of the True Gold Supervisory Army, this unit is not a good one. I think it is better to follow General Zhang's wishes and make plans after testing. After all, our army's knowledge of the new weapons and muskets of the Southern Dynasties is limited. .”
Afterwards, most of the generals of the Yuan army expressed their opinions. In a nutshell, one kind of opinion was represented by Ashahan, who directly ordered the army to attack and annihilate the enemy at Songhepo in one go. The other opinion was that The law supports Zhang Hongfan: test first and then make plans.
Ah Shu looked at the arguing generals and then at Liu Zheng who said nothing and said, "General Liu Zheng, what do you mean?"
Seeing the marshal's roll call, Liu Zheng had no choice but to say: "Commander, I think it's better to be careful."
Zhenjin smiled and said: "General Liu, you come from the Southern Dynasty. If you have any opinion, feel free to say it. We are just discussing it now. It doesn't matter what you suggest."
"Yes, Lord Zhenjin." Liu Zheng stood up and said. "Commander, generals, the war between the Yuan and Song dynasties lasted for decades. Although our dynasty had the upper hand, this time the Southern Dynasty's army appeared in Songhepo, but it was different from the Song army. Their habits are different. General Han just said that Xiangyang is an isolated city. In fact, this is not necessarily the case. At least, the Han River waterway is still in the hands of the Song Army. In other words, the Song Army has not yet reached the point where it has to make a desperate effort to open up communication with Xiangyang. .So, the general thought that the Song army was implementing their anti-encirclement tactics. There is a big doubt here. Our army clearly has a castle to defend. With the strength of the Song army, why don't we just come up and die."
The last of the generals to arrive at Xiangfan, the commander of the southern capital, suddenly said, "General Liu, isn't this the emperor's plan? To lay siege to the city and bring reinforcements."
Liu Zhengdao: "The problem lies in the sudden assassination of General. Even though the Song army is not completely isolated in Xiangyang City, they still use their shortcomings to attack our castle. Isn't this obviously a problem?"
Hu Ci thought for a moment and said, "Yes, General Liu. That makes sense."
"My generals, I think there may be two situations in this regard. One is that the commander-in-chief of the Song Army is a young man who is brave and has no plans. He only knows how to fight hard. The other situation is that they have some support. And This kind of support and the last general's intuition is the so-called musket. This is like our army's return artillery. Although our army only tried it at the north gate of Fancheng, the soldiers guarding the city of Song Army will definitely be surprised. They thought repeatedly. What if. Ten or hundreds of artillery pieces were fired at once. Can they still hold on?"
Boyan said: "General Liu, this first situation can be ruled out. The commander-in-chief of this battle in the Southern Dynasties is Zhao Yu. Although he is a stupid young man who has never been on the battlefield, he is by no means just a foolhardy person. Leng Tou Qing. On the contrary, even the emperor recognized him as his opponent. Therefore, we only need to analyze the second situation. On that day, General Suodu only heard the deafening sound. Before he could see clearly, one of our troops Almost all the centurions fell off their horses. General Liu and I have the same view. Zhao Fu in the Southern Dynasties relied on their muskets. And this is exactly the unknown of our army."
Although the generals of the Yuan army present here have always looked down upon Liu Zheng, the surrendered general, most of them felt that his words were quite reasonable, and they couldn't help but ponder.
"Haha." Azahan suddenly laughed and said, "Generals, don't ask for the ambition of the Changnan people. Tomorrow morning, the last general will only lead his own vanguard army of 10,000 troops and go to Songhepo to kill the emperor of the Southern Dynasty. Come on, this period of time is really boring. General Ali Hague, who besieged Fancheng, has already captured the outskirts of Fancheng. As the vanguard, the general has not made any achievements. It is time for the general to go and do some activities. .”
For the Yuan army, which was good at field battles, this long-term siege without attacking tactic really made people like Arakhan quite impatient.
"General Han, the Emperor of the Southern Dynasties has arrived in Xiangfan. Are you still worried that there will be no battle to fight?" A Shu smiled and stood up. "Generals, listen to the order. Tomorrow, I and General Boyan will lead the Asa Han tribe. Ten thousand people, 10,000 people from the sudden assassination department and 5,000 Qie Xue are going to fight against Longweizhou. Generals, please return to the camp immediately and arrange the affairs of each department for tomorrow. At daybreak, gather here and go out to fight with me. Take a look. What exactly are the muskets of the Imperial Guards of the Southern Dynasties?"
"Yes. Marshal."
"General Atahai, ask your lieutenant to pay attention to the Suizhou Army in the east. Xia Gui of the Southern Dynasties has always been good at sneak attacks."
"Yes. The last general honors your order."
Although the weather in late May is hot, the soldiers are still fully armed. What is different is that the armor worn by the Imperial Guard soldiers has been significantly simplified. Except for the armor on the chest and back, the rest of the body is not covered by armor. .And the attire of the 20th Infantry Corps of the Lin'an Military Region that came with me to Songhepo this time is also obviously different from the attire of the 17th and 19th Cavalry Corps.
This infantry is a heavy armored infantry. All of them are wearing infantry armor. A knowledgeable person can tell at a glance that this is the equipment of the heavy armored soldiers of the Song Army. The 20th Army of the Third Wing is the only heavy armored infantry in the Lin'an Military Region. It is a unit carefully built by Yin Yinglei and Wang Anjie specifically for the cavalry. The heavy armored infantry has a long history. It was also the main infantry unit used by famous generals such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong to check and balance the cavalry a hundred years ago. These heavy armored infantry All of them are strongmen selected from the army. They are armed with crossbows, weighted spears, broadswords, axes and other heavy weapons. Together with armor and guns, the weight can be as high as 40-50KG or more.
When the heavily armored infantry faced off against the cavalry, they first used broadswords to chop the legs of the horses, which had weaker defenses, and stabbed the horses' bodies with heavy spears. Then they used various weapons to aim at the cavalry's chests and slash and smash them. However, due to the over-equipment Heavy. Mobility will be affected. It can be said to be the slowest among all arms in ancient times.
As for the Polu Army, its uniforms are the same as those of the 17th and 19th armies. They all have the same light cavalry equipment. The difference is that the soldiers of the Polu Army have an inadvertent look of pride and murderous intent. This is from the Lin'an Military Region. The cavalry and the imperial army cannot be compared.
Setting off from Songhepo, it didn't take long before I saw the scouts scouting the road ahead reporting back, "A large number of Yuan troops were found ahead."
The Yuan army did not arrive at Songhepo, and our army did not approach Lumen Mountain. The two sides seemed to have an agreement. They met unexpectedly in the middle of Longweizhou.