The development of the Great Zhou Dynasty to this point was really achieved through hard-fought battles. Among them, the largest scale, the most brutal battle, and the most glorious result was the one that took place in the deep winter of the fifth year of Longwu in the north of Jingzhao.
, the battle on the banks of the Yellow River.
In fact, everyone in the mission is familiar with the history of that war.
Because every two years in the past ten years, the Great Zhou Dynasty will choose a place within the territory to hold a grand martial arts competition. All roads and provinces in the Great Zhou Dynasty, as well as Jiangnan, Mobei, and the overseas Pan Kingdom, will send teams to participate. The participating elite soldiers and generals
In the first session, there were hundreds of people, but by the fifth session, there were fifty-five teams, with as many as 3,000 people.
These three thousand people gambled on the reputation and enthusiasm of the local military and civilians and participated in dozens of competitions such as riding, archery, short soldiers, long soldiers, hand fighting, weightlifting, throwing, marching, polo, rowing, etc. Each time
The process of the grand event is to simulate the various battles of the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, with competitions interspersed between large-scale exercises. In the end, the team with the most wins will win the championship of the entire competition.
The team that wins the championship will receive a reward from the court. The winner will also receive special favors whether he joins the army, politics or even farming and business. For this reason, the influence of this martial arts competition has become more and more important in recent years, and the enthusiasm of the participants
Getting louder and louder.
When the mission set out, a martial arts competition was held for the first time on the banks of the Qiantang River in the Jiangnan country. The simulated battle was the decisive battle that Yuan Haowen mentioned. Members of the mission happened to be specially invited to watch the exercise.
.
Although the participating soldiers did not use real swords or guns but were equipped with sticks and armor, the warriors were fierce by nature and would never make the exercise gentle. Every process of the exercise was filled with the fierceness of battlefield fighting. At the end of the day, blood splattered on the field.
It is common for people to be injured, and there are no fewer than two to three hundred people who have been seriously injured and left the field or even in urgent need of first aid from medical officers.
Compared with such high-intensity confrontations, the one-on-one fighting that is popular in Jiangnan is just a show. Many weak people in Jiangnan are so frightened that they fight each other just by watching this scene.
The ups and downs were displayed one by one during the exercise, which was even more astounding.
The function of the martial arts competition to show off one's martial prowess was fully demonstrated. The members of the mission were naturally excited to watch it, and by the way, they also reviewed the entire process of the battle.
At that time, the Mongolian Khan led his troops to march directly to Pujin, intending to join the rebels and intercept our army. However, the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty saw through the plan and used light cavalry to stop the attack. When the two sides first engaged in the battle, our army was outnumbered and was defeated by the Mongols several times.
The cavalry surrounded them heavily.
The most dangerous time was when the Mongolian cavalry broke through the gap in the Zhou army's main formation. They could rush in along the gap at any time and overwhelm the army. The generals around the emperor were scattered, and the only ones who could be mobilized were more than a hundred bodyguards and cavalry. So the emperor personally fought with
They fought hand to hand until the armies stabilized the situation and forced back this wave of attacks. More than half of the bodyguards and soldiers were killed and wounded. The emperor himself was wounded everywhere and his robes were stained with blood.
After the war that day, various units of the Zhou army arrived one after another. Seeing that the troops were strong, the emperor sent his generals to the north and west to seize various towns, forts, and passes to reduce the Mongolian activity space. He also sent troops to the north and south roads of Xihe River to disrupt the movement.
Mongolian flank.
During this period, Gao Xin, the deputy commander of Longxiang Army, raided the Mongolian army's pasture in Luochuan with 500 elite cavalry. He met the Mongolian army who came to rescue and defeated them in a battle. Then Gao Xin's troops were attacked by a Mongolian army brigade.
The attack resulted in heavy losses. Gao Xin ordered all the troops to retreat first, and then he led his own cavalry and fought hard.
When the Mongolian general Subotai took Gao Xin's life, monk Wanyan Chen arrived with hundreds of cavalry. In the ravine area south of Luochuan, the power of the heavy armored cavalry was fully exerted. The corpse of the Mongolian army
Filling the valley, the dead had no chance of winning. However, Monk Wanyan Chen himself was also seriously injured.
A battle of this scale was just a small scene in the entire battle. The battle lasted for more than ten days, with a total of more than 100,000 troops from both sides intersecting within hundreds of miles. The two armies repeatedly circled each other and made surprise attacks.
Encounters, interceptions, and ambushes on a large and small scale broke out one after another, like fleeting waves on the roaring sea.
However, what appeared under the waves was not water foam, but layers of blood and countless corpses.
The cost of such a war was astronomical. In order to support the war, the Mongolian army plundered all the savings of the Xia Kingdom. Many knights had begun to drink horse blood, eat camel meat, and collect large quantities of clothing and weapons from the dead. And the Zhou Dynasty's
The army is used to fighting rich wars, even if
They did not carry a variety of heavy weapons and equipment, and the amount of materials used was also huge. Especially the loss of weapons, even if Hebei and other places tried their best to ship supplies, they could not cope with it. Many times, swordsmen and shieldmen had no shields, and crossbowmen had no arrows.
, only in hand-to-hand combat situations.
I have to admit that this was the purpose of the Mongolian army's large-scale mobilization of the main force of the Zhou army. After losing their equipment advantage, the Han people, like the Mongols, could only rely on courage to fight.
In the fierce battles, the number of casualties was incalculable. Because of the protracted battles, many officers and staff officers were lost, and the organization of the army was disrupted and reorganized many times, making it impossible to compile casualty data in a timely manner. He originally commanded many subordinates.
The lieutenants in the team were simply used as ordinary soldiers, and there were also ordinary soldiers who were originally ordinary soldiers who sacrificed their superiors one after another and became chief officers of a unit.
Even the war horses in the army can feel the sadness of finding the bodies of their comrades on the desolate battlefield, and they neigh and lament from time to time in the night.
On the Mongolian side, the loss of troops was equally huge. Everyone who made up this army relied on the instincts molded by long-term slaughter and looting to persist.
Genghis Khan ran around all day long, inciting repeatedly day and night, telling everyone that this was the best and only chance to defeat a powerful enemy. If he won, there would be no more opponents for the Mongols under the sky, and the Mongols would
Will be the master of the world, and everyone will receive unimaginable wealth and glory. If they lose, the Mongols will lose their grasslands, their dignity, and their future. At the same time, the Mongolian army will be responsible for the execution of the fugitives.
The team never stopped for a moment.
The two ferocious beasts were covered in wounds but were locked in a fierce stalemate. Neither one was willing to retreat, and neither one could grasp the chance of victory that was always just ahead.
The situation lasted until New Year's Day of the following year, when heavy snow fell across Qinlong.
When the snow covered the battlefield, the snow was a foot deep on the ground, and everything as far as the eye could see was blurry. At this time, the scouts could not tell the direction, the horses were difficult to drive, and the soldiers were frozen and unable to form an army. Only the most elite and the most generously protected troops were able to form an army.
Only by approving people can we persevere in this environment.
The emperor of the Zhou Dynasty and the Mongol Khan coincidentally chose a certain time to launch the final attack on their opponents; and the march routes planned by the two parties were so close.
The moment the officers and soldiers of the two armies looked past the heavy snow and looked at each other, it was the scene described by Yuan Haowen. The Mongols' long-distance maneuvers and the Han'er's weapons were completely unable to be used here, and instead forced the two
The most outstanding warriors of the proud nation showed their will, strength and all fighting skills without reservation.
Thousands of soldiers crowded forward and fought hard. When their swords broke, they picked up the weapons on the ground and used them; when their horses died, they staggered forward; when they were injured, they roared and continued to fight until they could fight again.
He had no strength; he died in the battle, so he threw himself on the snow and let the white snow cover his red body.
Yuan Haowen was a scholar and did not actually participate in the fighting. However, after he arrived at Qinlong from the rear, he watched the battle scene from a distance as a member of the temporarily formed staff team.
So he clearly remembered the scene he saw at that time, and the roar that was poured into his ears at that time, inspired by the vitality of countless people, and then merged into the sky above the battlefield. In this roar, the once invincible conqueror was once again defeated.
When they failed, this failure completely broke their backbone and caused them to lose their original vigor. They had to admit that the newly rising Han Empire had overwhelming power.
Even though ten years have passed, Yuan Haowen's blood is still boiling when he recalls the situation at that time. And what that victory gave him was the confidence that as a Han Chinese, he does not need to be afraid anywhere.
It's not just Yuan Haowen, but every member of the mission.
So when the Arab cavalry captain finally killed the Madans to pieces and returned home, intending to praise his own military power, he saw that although the mission was well prepared, there was no admiration in the eyes of the members.
Yuan Haowen looked at him and asked doubtfully: "I heard that these Madan people were originally good residents near the port. They cooperated with many caravans and were praised by a certain emir.
...The situation in your country is so tense that even these good people are forced to become bandits?"
After hearing what the interpreter said, the cavalry captain's face became serious and he babbled for a long time. After hearing this, the interpreter did not tell Yuan Haowen for a moment.
Yuan Haowen urged him a few words, and then he reluctantly said: "The captain is saying that the heretics who deserve to go to hell are coming soon, and all kinds of hypocrites will do bad things sooner or later. If they seek death, let them die; even if they
If you don’t want to die, the Caliph will get rid of them sooner or later.”
After the translator finished speaking this paragraph, a look of fear appeared on his face. Obviously in their cultural tradition, once the topic extends to pagans, hypocrites, etc., it is very serious. No matter how close family friends are,
Once there is a conflict over this, it often goes on forever.
However, these guests from the East in front of me are all pagans. It is said that there are hundreds of gods believed in. The captain opened his mouth and said that pagans should go to hell. If his words fell into the ears of pagans, wouldn't it be equivalent to
threaten?
At this time, the cavalry captain also realized that something was wrong. He hurriedly pointed at the interpreter and said repeatedly: "Tell them, heretics are different from heretics."
Fortunately, the Han people generally did not take this thing seriously. They all fought and laughed, and the matter passed. Only a few members of the mission secretly murmured that originally, warlords from all over the country stood side by side, and then there were external enemies suppressing the territory, and there were ethnic groups inside.
The divisions, sectarian disputes... We have all read books, and this situation is familiar! It is clearly a scene of the end of the world!