Tuo Lei has been patrolling around Kaifeng for two days. In just two days, his cavalry carried out more than twenty interceptions and killed at least three generals and no less than twenty generals.
Among officers above the rank of commander, as for the heads of regular soldiers, Tuo Lei personally participated in the examination of more than 3,300 heads.
And the civilians who died in this process were countless, maybe 30,000, maybe 50,000, maybe 100,000? The population in the Central Plains was prosperous, more prosperous than Hebei, which the Mongolian soldiers were familiar with, and far more than what they had in
What we saw in Hezhong in the Western Regions was like an endless supply of prey on the grasslands, which aroused the Mongols' tyranny.
When fighting against the Jin Kingdom and other countries in the Western Regions, the Mongols continued to destroy agricultural areas, destroy villages and towns, and massacre people in this way, thereby weakening the opponent's economy and making the people miserable. For the Great Zhou Dynasty, this must also be an effective method.
They have also blocked traffic in many large cities in Henan, directly cutting off any internal and external news from any stronghold. This will spread fear wantonly and force strongholds that have not yet been attacked to shake. With luck, some large and unsuitable cities may collapse from within.
Just like stupid rabbits jumping out of the hole one by one and falling into the hands of the hunter.
Everything went smoothly.
If I have to find one regret, it is probably because it is already winter and the farmland has been harvested long ago. No matter how trampled it is, the Han people will not lose anything. On the contrary, the Mongolian cavalry had to storm several military forts and pastures in order to seize pasture.
However, because a large amount of military supplies on the Henan Road had previously been transported to the north, the income was not sufficient.
This is not a problem for many thousands or hundreds of Mongolian households. They relied on burning, killing and looting the people to obtain a huge amount of property. The richness can be compared with the harvest of the Western Expedition. Stimulated by the interests, many people are
If you plan to attack Kaifeng, as for the source of military supplies, you can just worry about towing mines.
Regarding the restlessness of thousands of households, Tuo Lei didn't think it was a big problem.
The Mongols' desire for war was ultimately rooted in greed. Even with the prestige of Genghis Khan, they could not just let the Qianhus suffer losses every time. Anyway, the city defense of Kaifeng City was stable, and the Qianhus led people out of the city to fight.
The small group of Zhou troops touched each other and immediately knew that the fighting spirit of the Han people in the city was still there. Such a large city was guarded by tens of thousands of strong men, which was not something that could be easily expected.
In order to completely convince the Qianhus, Tuo Lei also asked Chiju Prince Consort to come forward and interrogate several prisoners to find out the details of Kaifeng City. The results of the questioning were in line with Tuo Lei's judgment.
This team that protrudes outside the city to rescue the wounded is not even a regular Han army. It is just a temporary gathering of craftsmen and convoy guards. At most, a few guards sent by the defender general Guo Zhongyuan were added. The real backbone of the defenders
The professional soldiers remained motionless at the top of the city from beginning to end, and these prisoners had only been seen from a distance.
Tuo Lei had already found out that the commander-in-chief of the Zhou army who was in Kaifeng at the moment was Guo Zhongyuan, who had fought against him on the battlefield.
It is said that this man was a gangster from Daxing Prefecture in Zhongdu. He was good at running the army with severe punishments and decapitation was a common practice. He often fought against powerful enemies. Before the two sides connected, those who did not obey orders were killed by him first.
Several.
Back then, Guo Zhongyuan relied on intimidation with axes and axes, and led a group of temporarily gathered farmers to withstand thousands of surrendering troops under Tuo Lei. Now that the elite of his headquarters are not moving, it is in line with this person's style to let the temporarily assembled miscellaneous troops go out of the city to test.
Obviously, for Guo Zhongyuan, he has suffered a huge loss now. In terms of merit and guilt afterwards, it is not impossible for him to be peeled off and lose his head. Therefore, it is he who was left behind in Nanjing to guard Kaifeng City. Bottom line. For this reason, his elite soldiers must be placed in the most important places and reserved for critical use.
If you really want to attack the city casually, you are completely stupid, and you are looking for trouble. Every subordinate of Qianhu in Mongolia is the foundation of their career. Qianhu is not a fool, and will not easily take the foundation of their career. Wasted in brutal siege battles.
On the other hand, the tow mine is not worried about the current military supplies.
In terms of understanding of the situation in the Central Plains, Tuo Lei can now be used by almost half a Han Chinese, and he is still the kind who has traveled far and wide for many years and has a very broad vision.
As early as when the good office plan was proposed, the Song Dynasty promised to give away a number of iron artillery, but required the Mongols to obtain it only after borrowing the Daolizhou East Road, and then directly use it for subsequent wars. In this case, if the Zhou Dynasty court When it came to accusations, the Song people could argue that they were robbed by the Mongols when Lizhou East Road was lost.
However, the main force of Tou Lei obtained these powerful gunpowder weapons in advance and used them all the way to the grassland in order to show their strength to the maximum extent.
The Zhou army's combat style was largely inherited from the Jin Kingdom, with great emphasis on equipment advantages. Under the threat of a large number of iron artillery, the Zhou army would inevitably mobilize a huge amount of additional material reserves, including grain, gunpowder and weapons, for temporary use on the grassland. Carts for setting up formations, various iron materials needed for camping, etc. Only when these are sufficient can the Zhou army fight a strong against strong battle with Mongolia on the grassland.
In autumn, it is possible to mobilize supplies to the north. The material transportation capacity brought by the boom in business during the Great Zhou Dynasty also ensures this. But now that winter has entered, it is a bit difficult to get supplies back.
The Yellow River, the inland river artery of the Central Plains, is shallow, and the Cao River in Hebei is even more frozen. Previously, a large amount of military supplies sent by the Zhou Dynasty from the Central Plains to the north were mostly stored in Qing, Xian and other states along the Cao River. It was impossible to transport them south in time. Possibly. Even if part of it is shipped to Tianjin, it cannot go south by sea.
In the past two years, Tolei has also made great efforts to explore the maritime routes of Zhou and Song Dynasties. It is said that in the three months from mid-September to the first of December every year, the north wind can be used to speed up the sailing speed. These three The month is the most smooth window period for the northern fleet to go south.
But in fact, the window is only two months from mid-September to mid-November. Every year in late November, the ports in Tianjin, Gaizhou, Fuzhou and other places are frozen, and most of the fleets that can go south are It departed from Yeseong Port in Goryeo.
Since the port is frozen, what is there to talk about? The supplies from Tianjin cannot even be transported to Shandong, let alone transferred from Shandong to the battlefield in the Central Plains!
Not to mention the lack of military supplies, even the elite troops in the northern part of the Great Zhou Dynasty could only rush back to the Central Plains if they traveled lightly and lightly.
The reality that various parts of the Central Plains were constantly being destroyed also caused them to be unable to replenish sufficient military supplies at their destinations, and finally came under the iron heel of the Mongolian army tired and unarmed.
Tow mines can guarantee that if the Mongolian army digs deep into the ground to plunder and feels that military supplies are a bit tight, then the Zhou army that goes south to rescue will have to live on grass roots. Considering that the Mongolian army destroyed a large number of villages and towns in the shortest time, it created a lot of
There are hundreds of thousands of refugees. If the Zhou army still wants to pretend to be a king to help the refugees, it will only be ten times more embarrassed than the Mongols.
The first half of the entire good office plan has been successfully completed, and Tuo Lei is looking forward to the second half with great excitement. For this reason, he has been running around since the army entered the Central Plains, making sure that the situation on every battlefield develops exactly as he expected, and does not appear.
A little unexpected.
During the rise of Guo Ning's power, there were only two real battles with the Mongolian army. One was in Shandong and the other was in Hebei. The two battles defeated Tuo Lei's headquarters and Genghis Khan's headquarters respectively, and their tactics were all the same.
Use a certain target to attract the Mongolian army and march straight in, then wait for work.
But this time, it must be the Mongols who are waiting for work. Kaifeng or some other big city is left as bait to attract the main force of the Zhou army.
Of course, there are no absolutes in war at any time. Just like when the Mongolians set up large groups to hunt, sometimes the climate is suitable, the grass is lush, and a large circle is busy, except for a few marmots, there is not enough food.
Target.
There was a little whitewash in what Tuo Lei told Qian Hu just now. That is, he actually had no news of the urgent arrival of reinforcements from garrisons from various places in the Great Zhou Dynasty, not at all.
It was ten days ago that he invaded the Central Plains by dragging thunder. At present, his subordinates were ordered to go out to slaughter and plunder seven thousand households. The range that the cavalry traveled daily threatened Xuzhou in the east, ran along the river in the north, and ran along the river in the west.
The enemy once approached Mengjin and burned the ferry there.
The war spread to such a large area within ten days. Even looking back at the Mongolian army's battles in the Western Region, it is like a raging fire.
On the fringes of this vast area, there are more than 200 Na Ke'er who were sent by Tuo Lei as detectives to monitor the movements of Han'er's army and collect information at any time. Driven by these Na Ke'er, some of them wandered around at will.
Aljinchi and Tolchi who fixedly controlled a certain road were divided equally, including many Nayan, centurions, ten-capion, and Batuer from five thousand households, a total of 416 teams of cavalry.
.
In addition to such a large-scale sentry cavalry, there are countless people running around to communicate with each other. There is always a special person watching over Tuo Lei. He himself has also been paying attention, waiting for Han'er's reinforcements to come, and waiting for the Emperor Guo Ning of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Coming with his powerful troops.
The problem is, no, no news at all.
Outside the scope of the Mongolian army's sweep, countless Han people fled frantically, countless garrisons and fortresses rushed to consolidate city defenses, and the pass defenders took the initiative to dig bridges and roads. They had various violent reactions. But there should be only one
Yes, there is no sign that the Zhou army mobilized on a large scale and intended to go south for rescue.
Tuo Lei felt very strange about this. He knew that Dazhou's intelligence work had always been very good. Before the operation, the Mongolian army relied on simple and crude killings to cut off their eyes and ears. But now, the army has rushed into the Central Plains.
It has been ten days, and all the previous disguises have completely failed. Anyone in the Zhou Dynasty court who is not a fool can see that their heart has been severely beaten. How could they not rescue him?
Perhaps... it's because there are too many border warriors in the Zhou Dynasty. These people have a heart as solid as stone. They can see their own soldiers and civilians being massacred, but they can still hold their ground? They must be trying their best to mobilize troops, but they are just hiding in the Mongolian outposts.
Riding in an unfathomable distance, I don't dare to go south easily.
Thinking of this, Tuo Lei couldn't help but sneer. If an army doesn't care about the lives of the people it governs, it's really difficult to control. But with the habits of the Han Dynasty, can it really be done?
Shi Miyuan, the prime minister of the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, did everything he could to exclude dissidents and ensure his own status. Even so, he was still coy about making a way out of the way and giving away some heads. Negotiations went back and forth for several months.
The Zhou dynasty is a new dynasty, so why should it have some respect? Even if it doesn’t care about the people, so many military camps are the foundation of the military!
Tuo Lei never believed that they could bear such a loss, never believed that they could endure such a massacre.
In order to prepare for the capture of some larger cities, Tuo Lei sent people to collect a lot of strong prisoners in Pan Gang in the east of the city, intending to use them to fill the ravines. Now he became fierce and asked the mighty man on the side.
Er waved his hand, intending to send someone to pass the order to take the prisoners to the bank of the Yellow River and kill a group of them, so that the people on the north bank of the river could take a good look.
But at this time, a knight suddenly rushed over and said a few words to the red horse prince. The red horse prince suddenly became angry and kicked the knight over.
