end song

Chapter 418
The Tuojiang River flows continuously, passes by Yunxiang Mountain City in Jintang Gorge, and then goes down to Jianzhou, Zizhou, Fushunjian, and flows into the Yangtze River from Luzhou.

Just after the New Year's Eve, following the fall of Jianzhou, Zizhou also quickly fell.

The appeasement envoy of Tongchuan Road and Zhu Yusun who also knew Luzhou hurriedly moved the manpower and material resources of Fushunjian to Hutou Mountain City.At the same time, the Song army commanded Zhang Shi to sail across the Tuojiang River, preparing to face Niu Lin.

The two sides set up their own arrangements and inquired about each other, and gradually figured out the strength of the other side.

Niu Lin claims to have an army of [-], but in fact it has [-] troops, more than [-] warships, and even smashed the two cities of Jian and Zi, with high morale;
Zhang Shi claims to have an army of [-], but he has only summoned [-] troops and more than [-] warships for the time being. Because he is in the lower reaches and lost two cities first, his morale is inevitably low.

Zhang Shi has no confidence in this battle.

He seems to have not come out of the shadow of the Mahujiang defeat, and he is afraid of water battles.However, Niu Lin was far more cautious in using troops than Wu Liang.

The Song army in Sichuan and Shu was facing far more than Niu Lin's army. Wang Dechen was launching a fierce offensive against Kuzhu Pass and Dahuo City, which made Pu Zezhi stretched out and had no troops to support Zhang Shi.

"Reassuring envoy Zhu, can you send troops from southern Sichuan?" Zhang Shi finally asked Zhu Yusun, "I heard that Li Xia, the magistrate of Qingfu County, made another contribution in the battle of Chengdu?"

Zhu Husun ​​said: "Wei Wenbo was worried that the Mongolian army would attack Syria, so he transferred Li Xia to guard the Minjiang River a few days ago."

"Absurd!" Zhang Shidao: "Jian and Zizhou have been captured, and the Mongolian army is wantonly building boats on the Tuojiang River. Instead of defending Luzhou and defending Xuzhou, Wei Wenbo has selfish intentions. Let him do whatever he wants?"

Zhu Yusun was displeased, and said: "His concerns are not unreasonable. There are still thousands of Mongolian troops in Chengdu. What if they attack Xuzhou and attack Zhang Dutong's belly?"

"Yunding City is still there, how dare the Mongolian army abandon Chengdu?"

"There is no conclusion in the war, so be careful." Zhu Yusun said: "I have sent someone to ask Li Xia's opinion on this matter. He also thinks that it is safer for the Qingfu army to defend Xuzhou."

Zhang Shi asked: "As long as the comforter Zhu issues the transfer order, can't he still transfer some troops?"

Zhu Yusun was finally displeased, and asked back: "Zhang Dutong, 2 people guarding the river is not enough, is it short of 1000 people?"

Zhang Shi froze and remained silent.

Zhu Yusun's eyes fell, and he found that Zhang Shi's back was no longer straight, but a little stooped, and he always avoided people's eyes when he spoke.

This Sichuan general has lost his previous self-confidence...

"Ah." Zhu Yusun sighed, and said slowly: "Zhang Dutong should also understand that Wei Wenbo and Li Xia are both Chaozhong Ding... Prime Minister Ding's disciples. Although I am ordered to deal with the defense of Syria and Lu, I should also consider their wishes. Li Xia wishes Guarding Xuzhou, unwilling to come to Luzhou, and forcing him to come here, there are more than a thousand people in the area, will it be beneficial to the war?"

Zhang Shi smiled wryly, and said: "I was thinking of Shi Jun breaking Wu Liang's alliance, and I think that kid is a lucky general."

Zhu Yusun nodded and stopped mentioning Li Xia's matter.

Of course he could see clearly that Wei Wenbo's reluctance to support Luzhou was out of selfishness.

As for Li Xia, maybe he was really worried about problems with Syria's defense, or maybe it was because he and Wei Wenbo belonged to the Ding Party... In short, it was a bit disappointing.

……

Time gradually arrived in mid-February, Niu Lin ordered his general Wanyan Shizhu to be the forward, and went down the Tuojiang River first, but was blocked by the Song army.

The two sides fought fiercely, and the Mongolian army moved down the river, taking advantage of the geographical advantage and improving morale.

Most of the boats are small boats made of cow and sheepskin, which are very flexible. Soldiers jumped onto the boats of the Song army to meet each other hand in hand.

During the fierce battle, another two thousand Mongolian cavalry rushed out from the valleys on both sides, attacking the Song army from both sides of the bank, and snatched the ships.

The first line of defense deployed by Zhang Shi was torn apart by the Mongolian army, so he had to retreat to the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Niu Lin worked steadily, building a pontoon bridge all the way, advancing both land and water, and wanted to take advantage of the victory to fight Zhang Shi...

For Song Jun, the situation has been extremely unfavorable so far.

Zhu Yusun obviously didn't expect to be broken through the Tuojiang defense line so soon. Once the Mongolian army defeats Zhang Shi again, they can go straight to Chongqing and shake the entire Sichuan-Shu defense line.

He no longer cared about the possibility of the Mongolian army attacking Syria, and strictly ordered Syria to send troops to support Luzhou...

~~
Syria.

"What did Zhizhou say? Li Xia's soldiers and horses are gone?"

Jiang Chun asked in confusion, not understanding what it meant...

After the Lantern Festival, Wei Wenbo transferred Li Xia to assist in the defense of Syria. Soon, Li Xia readily accepted the order, and together with Zhu Cheng led the [-]th Qingfu Army and the [-]th Changning Army to the north and arrived in Syria.

At that time, Wei Wenbo was overjoyed, invited Li Xia to a banquet, praised Ding Daquan together, and decided to stick to Xuzhou.Afterwards, Li Xia led these 1000 to [-] people to garrison the upper reaches of the Minjiang River.

Unexpectedly, someone came to report today, and this soldier and horse disappeared.

"That's right." Wei Wenbo said with a worried expression on his face, "Someone saw him leading the troops back up the river."

"Going up the river? Where are you going? Jiading? Meishan? Chengdu?" Jiang Chun was very surprised, and said, "Could it be that he found the traces of the Mongolian army and went to pursue them?"

"Ask me, how do I know?" Wei Wenbo was very displeased, and said, "You are familiar with Li Feiyu, do you know why he is like this? In the past, he was so disobedient and made decisions without authorization?"

Jiang Chun hurriedly shook his head and said, "Feiyu has always...followed the orders of her superiors and never made her own decisions. This time, there must be a reason for this."

"Isn't it because of delusion?" Wei Wenbo suddenly leaned forward and asked in a low voice.

Jiang Chun was taken aback for a moment, feeling vaguely that his tone was not quite right.

This sentence was supposed to be a stern rebuke, but Wei Wenbo's tone was a little...probing and inquiring.

"No, Feiyu is not such a person, his family is still in Qingfu County." Jiang Chun replied, already feeling sad in his heart.

This Li Xia, since he knew the Mongolian army's southern strategy, did not go to defend Luzhou or Syria, and led the troops away without authorization, it would be a serious crime anyway, so don't be implicated.

Wei Wenbo was so worried that he almost shaved his beard bald, he couldn't help muttering: "Where did he go... I will send troops to support Zhu Anfu's mission right now, but the Syrian army has only [-] defenders in total. ..."

"Zhizhou, since the appeasement envoy has a transfer order, I'm afraid I have to follow it."

"This is Li Feiyu!"

Wei Wenbo cursed in a low voice, and in the end he could only transfer a thousand soldiers to support Zhang Shi along the north bank of the Yangtze River...

~~
On February 21, in the middle of the night, Zhang Shi looked at the confluence of the Tuojiang River and the Yangtze River, listening to the sound of the surging water, his face became more and more sad.

He has been unable to sleep for days.

In the past, Zhang Shi made great achievements under Yu Jie's command, but after being alone, he was often frustrated. Now he can't think of how to defeat the enemy in such a situation.

Suddenly, a soldier trotted over and said in a low voice: "General, someone wants to see the general, and he returned this..."

Zhang Shi looked down and asked in surprise, "It's him?"

……

After half an hour, Zhu Yusun was awakened.

"Zhang Dutong? What's the matter? The Mongolian army has attacked the camp."

"No." Zhang Shi said with excitement in his voice, "I have a plan to defeat the enemy."

Zhu Yu and Sun Daxi listened to him speak slowly.

"I have a brother from the same family named Zhang Wei who has been stationed in Yunding City for many years. He was persecuted by Yao Shi'an last year and surrendered to Mongolia in desperation. But he is loyal to my Song Dynasty and does not want to serve the Tartars for a long time. He is willing to set things right .”

The joy on Zhu Yusun's face faded away, and he asked suspiciously, "So what if the Mongolian army cheated?"

"I have been at war with the Mongolian army for many years. I have never seen these barbarians capable of tricks." Zhang Shidao: "Besides, Zhang Wei and I are brothers who grew up together. I trust him."

"Zhang Dutong."

"How about appeasement envoy Zhu trusting me once?" Zhang Shidao said, "Peace envoy Zhu will take over the military affairs temporarily tomorrow, and I will meet Zhang Wei in person to discuss the plan of cooperating internally and externally to destroy the Mongolian army."

Zhu Yusun just woke up, his mind was still a little confused, he couldn't help rubbing his face and thinking.

"Does the comforter not believe me?"

"No, but this matter..."

Zhang Shi resolutely said: "The defeat of the Mahu River is a great shame and humiliation in my life. Meng Pushuai did not give up and continued to retain me to guard Xulu. If I can't defeat the enemy this year, how can I lead the army again. Even if I know the risk, I will I don’t want to miss this opportunity, and I hope it will come true.”

Zhu Yusun let out a long sigh, and finally nodded...

(End of this chapter)