"Haha, General Jiang Cai, this day will come sooner or later. The development of firearms will become an unstoppable trend of history," I said with a smile, "Generals, the Battle of Xiangyang is over, and the focus of the next stage is the Northern Expedition. I have already completed discussions with the Military Academy and the main generals in the army. Tomorrow morning, I will hold a military meeting here to announce the formation of the Northern Expeditionary Army. After the meeting, the five of you will lead your troops back to Yangzhou and Luzhou. Get ready to go north,"
"Yes, Your Majesty,"
Hidden in the trees somewhere on the border between Song and Yuan Dynasties.
A young man wearing common people's clothing said: "General Shi, this journey has been quite smooth. I think Miao Zaicheng would only send people north to search, and he would never have thought that we would go three hundred miles east and then head north. And there is such a secret passage,”
The young man looked very capable. After he finished speaking, General Shi did not answer. He just looked south silently, not knowing what he was thinking. Another middle-aged man who was slightly older said: "Then It goes without saying that General Shi is both wise and brave, and is known as a double hero in the Luzhou Army. How can he be compared to Miao Zaicheng?"
The secret passage mentioned by the young man was discovered by Tianya priest Yang Liazhenjia. Apart from Yang Liazhenjia himself, the only one who knew about this passage was General Shi in front of him.
The person known as General Shi was none other than Shi Yuqi, the commander of the 14th Wing of the Jianghuai Military Region.
A few days ago, Shi Yuqi received an order from Kublai Khan himself, asking him to try to get samples of firearms. There were only five firearms in Luzhou City. As the commander of the chamber, Shi Yuqi could easily get them. At the same time, Shi Yuqi We also know that muskets are the most strictly controlled weapons in the army. Even if they are taken out of the weapons depot, it will be difficult for a budding person to leave Luzhou City, let alone return to the Yuan Dynasty thousands of miles away.
After much deliberation, Shi Yuqi finally decided to personally escort these muskets back to the north after discussing with the shopkeeper Mengya.
In the past five years since participating in the military examination, Shi Yuqi climbed up step by step and became the commander of the Jianghuai Military Region. In the past few years, the Song Dynasty army has undergone earth-shaking changes. It can be said that Shi Yuqi was one of them. One of the witnesses, Shi Yuqi occasionally feels excited about this change when he forgets his true identity, but every time when night comes and he is alone, he feels deeply uneasy.
Shi Yuqi sighed, looked around and said: "It's still early, let's take a rest here. When night falls, we will walk out of the woods, pass a small mountain village, and then climb over two mountains to reach the destination." I'm heading into the territory, Kong Xiong, please take the two of you to the surrounding area to see if anything goes wrong at the last moment."
"Yes, General Shi,"
Kong Xiong is the young man who just spoke. He is the second shopkeeper in the sprouting company. The other older man is Tengge, the chief shopkeeper in the sprouting company. The sprouting company is one of the strongholds of the Mongolian craftsmanship department in the Song Dynasty. The purpose was to cooperate with Shi Yuqi's actions and pass on information. This time he wanted to carry the musket to Dadu. Shi Yuqi was not sure about handing the musket to others, and since he could not hold it alone, he asked the sprouting people to evacuate with him.
Now that Shi Yuqi has been ordered to withdraw to the north, Germination Trading Company has lost the need to stay in Luzhou.
"General Shi, are muskets really so important? The imperial court did not hesitate to let the general retreat north. After many years of hard work,"
"Tengge, the Battle of Xiangyang between our Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty has ended. Our army was defeated by the firearms of the Southern Dynasty, and, hey, we also lost tens of thousands of elites," Shi Yuqi said with a heavy heart, "With my martial arts , if faced with several muskets, it would be difficult to escape completely at close range, not to mention that the Imperial Guards of the Southern Dynasties had tens of thousands of musketeers. As for artillery and projectiles, their power must not be weaker than that of muskets. ,"
Tenge was proficient in martial arts and knew that Shi Yuqi's martial arts skills were superior to his own. Even in the Mongolian army, she was strong enough to join the ranks of masters. Even he said so, it seemed that the power of firearms was indeed extraordinary.
"I hope the Great Khan can figure out a way to crack the firearms after getting these muskets," Tenge also became worried under the influence of Shi Yuqi.
About half an hour later, night gradually fell. Shi Yuqi glanced south and then ordered: "Let's go."
"Yes, General,"
A group of more than ten people quickly headed north and soon disappeared into the darkness.
On the morning of July 25, I held the last enlarged military meeting before the Northern Expedition in the conference room of the Commander-in-Chief's Mansion in Xiangyang. All military generals above Xiang-level generals in the Xiangyang area attended this meeting.
"My generals, according to the pre-war plan, after the Battle of Xiangyang, our army will turn from defense to offense, which means that it is time for our Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. The main content of today's meeting is related to the Northern Expedition. The Northern Expedition army will be led by the Central Route Army. It has been made clear that we will advance northward with two wings as auxiliaries. Next, I will first announce the composition of the various armies and the appointment of the main generals."
I pointed to Shandong on the map and continued: "On the east road, our Jianghuai Military Region has a total of eight troops. Among them, the seventh and eleventh compartments are left to guard the two cities of Yangzhou and Luzhou respectively. The commanders of the compartments are Xu Wende. The generals and General Miao Zaicheng served as the garrison in the two places, and the remaining six armies and the Polu Army, a total of more than 80,000 people, formed the Eastern Route Northern Expedition Army. General Li Tingzhi, the institutional envoy of the Jianghuai Military Region, served as the marshal, and Xia Gui, the deputy envoy The general served as the deputy marshal, General Wang Sheng, General Jiang Cai served as the vanguard, and General Xia Qing served as the counselor. On August 15, we sent troops north to attack Shandong. The opponents of our East Route Northern Expedition Army will be the Yuan Dynasty's East Route Army and the Shandong Garrison. , the number was about 80,000 to 90,000, which was equivalent to the strength of our army. The Yuan army was led by Dong Wenbing, who had served as the commander of Kublai Khan's bodyguard and pro-army capital. Jun Jing was one of Kublai Khan's favorite generals. However, Dong Wenbing was a northern Han after all, and he was at odds with the Mongolian dignitaries. He was quite at odds with Du Kehan, who was currently the governor of Shandong Province in the Yuan Dynasty. This should be noted. Use General Xia Gui to tell General Li Tingzhi that the basic task of the Eastern Route Northern Expeditionary Army is to hold back the Yuan Dynasty's Eastern Route Army. If the attack is blocked, the attack can be postponed."
"Yes, Your Majesty,"
Although Dong Wenbing was one of the three commanders of the Han army in the Yuan Dynasty and was very strategic, Li Tingzhi was also a famous general in our dynasty. When the strength of both sides was equal, Li Tingzhi would definitely not lose to his opponent. Compared with the Yuan army, our army's cavalry was sparse, perhaps because The only weakness is probably the reason why I didn't issue a death order.
I paused, turned my attention to Sichuan on the map, and said: "The Western Northern Expeditionary Army consists of the Sichuan Military Region and part of the merged Miao Army. After Wang Lixin stabilizes the situation in Yunnan, he will transfer a unit from it.
The army went north to join the West Route Northern Expedition. General Gao Gao and General Zhang Jue were now appointed as the West Route North Expeditionary Army.
The chief and deputy marshal of the expeditionary army, General Zan Wanshou, stayed in Sichuan. Because of the special situation in central Sichuan, the West Route Army's first task was to advance westward. After regaining the lost land in western Sichuan, it would then go north. None of the generals of the West Route Army were here. After the meeting,
Lu Aiqing of the Military Academy rushed his mission and appointment to Chengdu at a speed of 800 miles."
"Yes, Your Majesty,"
"The last one is the Central Northern Expedition Army," I took a sip of tea and continued: "The Central Army is composed of Xiangyang Military Region, Lin'an Military Region, Yulin Army, Zhongshun Army and the newly arrived Xingfu Army. Among them, the 17th Wing of Xiangyang Military Region stayed in Xiangfan.
, General Tang Yongjian, commander of Xiang, was appointed as the garrison of Xiangyang, and deputy commander Wang
General Fu was appointed as the garrison of Fancheng, and was under the command of General Lu Wende, the institutional envoy of the Xiangyang Military Region. General Lu Wenhuan, the deputy institutional envoy of the Xiangyang Military Region, served as the marshal of the Central Route Army. General Wang Anjie, the deputy institutional envoy of the Lin'an Military Region, served as the deputy marshal of the Central Route Army. General Zhao Huai of the Yulin Army served as the deputy marshal of the Central Route Army. Wu Song
General Han and General Meng Tianxiang served as the vanguard of the Central Route Army
, Generals Gongsun Xiaochen and Tian Xiuyan served as marching counselors, General Duan Donglou served as the flag protector of the Chinese army, and General Zhang Shun served as the grain transport officer. Like the East Route Army, the date of the Central Route Army's expedition is also scheduled for next month.
On the 15th,” when talking about the situation of the Central Route Army, I suddenly mentioned the muskets again: “My generals, since last year
Since the end of the year, the Gunpowder Supervisor has successively produced more than 5,000 muskets. Therefore, the Imperial Guard Army will increase the establishment of the third division this time. The third division will be composed of the former Imperial Guard Li Long and the new troops trained at the Imperial Guard Base in Lin'an City, led by Zhao
General Huai serves as the commander of the Third Division, and General Li Long serves as the deputy commander of the Third Division."
Two divisions of the Royal Forest Army with more than 10,000 muskets showed their talents in the Battle of Guanzitan. At this time, there was an additional reorganized division, which greatly increased the confidence of the generals. As for the marshal candidate of the Northern Expeditionary Army in the middle, I finally chose Lu Wenhuan
, This is because the Central Army is a mixture of various armies, and I don’t want the Xiangyang Army to be too imprinted on the Central Army. Secondly, it is also because Lu Wende is in poor health.
According to historical records, Lu Wende died of gangrene on his back in the fifth year of Xianchun, which was December of this year. At this time, although Lu Wende's condition was not too serious, he often suffered from pain and could not travel far.
After the evacuation, Hans and others specially examined Lu Wende, but they were unable to find out the cause. I left Lu Wende in Xiangyang in the hope that he could rest in peace and recuperate.
"The above is the situation of the Third Route Northern Expeditionary Army. General Xia Gui, regarding the detailed tasks of the Eastern Route Army, Lu Aiqing of the Military Council will tell you after the meeting. Once you understand it, pack your bags and return to Luzhou and Yangzhou."
"Yes, the general will obey the order,"
Xia Gui directly participated in the formulation of the Northern Expedition missions of each army, so no further explanation is needed.
"General Li Zengbo,"
"The end will be here,"
"The East China Sea Fleet successfully prevented the Yuan Navy from encircling Xiangyang City on the Han River. Now that the Yuan Navy has withdrawn north, your troops have returned to the coastal base and are on standby."