Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 949 0944 [Yue Yun is here too]

Chapter 949 0944 [Yue Yun is here too]

Wulahai City, also known as Wula City, Wuna City, Wulahai City, Wulanghai City and Wulohai City.

According to historical records, Genghis Khan launched five expeditions to Western Xia, three of which involved this city.

It was conquered by Mongolia twice, and it didn't take much effort.

The first was to use spies to intimidate, disguised as herdsmen and spread the news that if anyone dared to defend the city, they would be massacred, so that the defenders were unwilling to fight to the death. As the Mongols ran out of food and grass and could not continue to advance south, they looted the city and then withdrew.

The second time was even more decisive. The Western Xia army was defeated in Hexi (where Yue Fei launched a surprise attack), and the defender of Wulahai City was so frightened that he surrendered directly to Mongolia.

This most important fortress in northern Western Xia, with a military force of 70,000, seemed to be of little use in the face of the Mongol army.

What about facing the Ming Dynasty now?
Yue Fei and Han Shizhong conquered Tiande Military City, and food and grass were continuously transported from Shanxi. They asked the old, weak, women and children to return to their own pastures, and the chiefs of various tribes followed the young and strong to march westward, with more than 35,000 soldiers under their command!
Most of the soldiers came from various tribes on the grassland.

The equipment of these grassland cavalrymen depended entirely on their own economic strength. Not all of them were without armor, but some of them had iron and leather armor that had been passed down from father to son for several generations, from grandfather to grandson, and could still be used after some repairs.

Yue Fei was a member of a foreign army that had come from afar, so Han Shizhong automatically took on the role of commander.

They claimed to have an army of 200,000, and they drove away the scattered herdsmen who had not yet escaped along the way, and let these herdsmen spread fear to the Western Xia army.

Due to the delay in attacking Tiande Military City, Richard's vanguard troops had already reached Wulahai City.

Western Xia sent out thousands of light cavalry to spy on the grasslands and compete for the initiative with the Ming light cavalry.

Han Shizhong and Yue Fei's main forces were still thirty miles away, and the grassland cavalry of both sides started fighting.

"Two Protectors General, the imperial court is sending troops to help!"

"How many reinforcements have arrived?"

"Three hundred heavy cavalry!"

Han Shizhong and Yue Fei looked at each other in surprise. They did not expect that the emperor would throw heavy cavalry at them as well.

Soon, three hundred cavalry arrived.

There were more than 2,000 horses, more than 800 men, and more than ten mule-drawn carts. Not only did each heavy cavalryman have his own entourage, but they were also equipped with some common logistics personnel.

Those followers can also fight on horseback, and their equipment is superior to that of ordinary grassland cavalry.

"Greetings to Protector General Han and Protector General Yue!" Li Shifu dismounted and saluted.

Han Shizhong returned the greeting with a smile; he was not familiar with Li Shifu.

Yue Fei said happily: "I haven't seen you for a few years. You are now in charge of the heavy cavalry."

Li Shifu said, "These 300 heavy cavalry were built by Your Majesty two years ago. Both the armor for the men and horses is new heavy cotton armor, and even the auxiliary cavalry (escort cavalry) are selected from the entire army." He turned around and pointed, "General, look who this is?"

Yue Fei looked up and saw that the man had dismounted. He stepped forward and saluted, saying, "Greetings, Protector General Yue."

It was the nineteen-year-old Yue Yun!

Yue Fei asked happily, "Why are you here too?"

Yue Yun replied, "I graduated from the military academy last year and served as an auxiliary rider for the heavy cavalry. Apart from training, I did odd jobs. I was too embarrassed to tell my father in the letter. This year, an officer was promoted and transferred to Shaanxi. Because of my outstanding performance, I was transferred to the heavy cavalry as an officer. I can now command 30 soldiers."

"A great general." Han Shizhong commented with envy.

Old Han spent a lot of time in the army in his early years, being transferred to wars from time to time, and was separated from his wife for a long time, so he never had any children. It was only after he joined Zhu Ming that his wives and concubines gave birth to two sons and a daughter for him.

The eldest son had just come of age, but unfortunately he did not like military affairs and planned to take the imperial examination to become a civil servant.

Yue Fei said with a smile: "I heard that your eldest son is very talented. From now on, he will wear a big turban to bring honor to the family."

Han Shizhong muttered, "I hate people wearing big turbans the most!"

Upon hearing this, all the generals burst into laughter.

After moving forward for a while, Han Shizhong chose a place near the river to set up camp.

Yue Yun put on his armor like he was presenting a treasure, and even put armor on his warhorse. He ran to his father and boasted, "Father, look at how majestic I am."

"It's really impressive." Yue Fei nodded and smiled.

In fact, this full set of cotton armor is far less majestic than lamellar armor in terms of appearance.

Those who don’t know the details may think it is just a fake product!

However, it is lighter than traditional lamellar armor, has stronger defensive power, and is easier to maintain on a daily basis. The disadvantage is that the production cost is higher.

Today, the Ming Dynasty's heavy cavalry unit has expanded to 5,000 people, and all of them were replaced with heavy cotton armor last year.

The number of the Ming Dynasty's cavalry troops was expanded to 30,000, and about 60% of them were replaced with medium-sized cotton armor.

In addition, 60,000 imperial guards infantry and 130,000 northern outer garrison infantry also gradually changed into various types of cotton armor.

The reason why they didn't replace all of their armor at once was not because the arsenal's production couldn't keep up, but because they didn't know where to throw the replaced armor!
Nowadays, the armor-wearing rate of the second-line troops in some local states and counties has reached 100%, and the armor they wear is eliminated during the large-scale replacement of armor.

Yue Yun whispered, "Father, I heard that the cavalry units of the three major northern protectorates will start changing to cotton armor next year."

"Where did you hear that?" Yue Fei asked. Yue Yun smiled and said, "The teachers in the military academy. Many of the senior officials from the Privy Council and the Ministry of War have to take time out to come to the military academy to teach. They will tell you a lot of not-so-secret inside information. I performed very well in the military academy, and several princes and dukes were very kind to me."

……

Brother Richard finally arrived with reinforcements. When he met them, he asked, "How many Ming troops have come?"

"I'm not sure, but I heard it was 200,000." Li Quanlu answered shyly.

"Nonsense!"

Brother Richard was furious: "If there were 200,000 Ming troops coming here, the Ming army in Shaanxi would have already sent out a full force. The Tiande Military City was lost, and the land west of the Yellow River was also lost, and you haven't figured out the number of enemy troops yet."

Li Quanlu could only defend himself by saying, "It's difficult for the scouts to charge in. The grasslands are full of Ming cavalry. All the tribes of the Liao Kingdom on the grasslands defected to the Ming Kingdom, and were also brought here to kill them. I really... I really can't figure out how many Ming troops are here."

Cao Yu, the military supervisor of the Weifu Army, said: "Your Highness, Prince of Jin, it is better to defend Wulahai City until it snows heavily and the Ming army retreats."

"Whether to defend the city or fight in the field, don't decide yet. Let's figure out how many Ming troops there are!" Brother Richard became more and more angry as he spoke.

He dispatched 3,000 infantrymen to increase the number of troops blocking the cities along the way, and at the same time sent out more light cavalry to investigate.

Han Shizhong and Yue Fei, on the other hand, attacked the cities along the way.

Those barrier cities were small castles, either built on the bank of the Yellow River or on the southern foot of the Yin Mountains.

When Xixia was relatively wealthy, each castle would store enough food and repair it every two or three years. But now it is no longer possible. The food is seriously insufficient, the castles have not been repaired for many years, and some castles are even in a state of disrepair.

Why is this?
One was that the court's funding was insufficient, and the other was that money and grain were embezzled.

The rulers and ministers in the Xixia court were naturally afraid of the Ming Dynasty and believed that the military should be strengthened. But how could the local civil and military officials care so much? Especially in the area west of Tiande Military City, which was far from the Ming Dynasty border, everyone thought that they could not fight and were willing to embezzle the money and grain they handled.

Just yesterday, Han Shizhong and Yue Fei divided their troops and attacked a fortress. When the vanguard was still more than ten miles away from the fortress, the defenders in the fortress abandoned the city and fled.

Whoever defends is a fool.

One wall of the rammed earth castle is about to collapse. It has been exposed to wind, sun and rain for a long time and has not been repaired for thirty or forty years!
The last time it was renovated was when Emperor Huizong of Song had just ascended the throne.

In order to shirk their responsibilities, the Western Xia defenders who escaped from various castles all said that the Ming army had at least 100,000 troops, and some even said that the Ming army had 300,000 troops.

The light cavalry sent by Richard were also unable to get close to the main force of the Ming army and could only fight with the Ming light cavalry on the grassland in the middle area.

After the Ming army had destroyed 70% to 80% of the Xixia barrier, a Xixia warrior led more than a dozen light cavalrymen and sneaked into the vast grassland, disguised as Khitan cavalrymen and approached the Ming army camp. They also went around the Ming army camp and carefully checked the ashes left by the Ming army's cooking.

Some Xixia light cavalry also went around the south bank of the Yellow River, hiding in the desert during the day and galloping along the Yellow River at night, sneaking to the outside of Tiande Military City to secretly observe the situation.

Richard finally got a rough idea of ​​the Ming army's strength: there were several thousand soldiers left in Tiande Military City. The main forces of Han Shizhong and Yue Fei should not exceed 50,000, or even only 30,000 or 40,000.

Brother Richard began to struggle over whether to fight a decisive battle in the wild or to defend the city to the death.

These days, the Wei Fu Army has been recruiting conscripts like crazy, and the local military strength has exceeded 35,000.

The reinforcements brought by Brother Richard totaled more than 40,000 infantry and cavalry.

Further west, more than 10,000 reinforcements from the Zhenyan Army also arrived.

In other words, the total number of troops under Brother Richard's command has exceeded 90,000, more than twice the number of the Ming army!
However, the Wei Fu Army and the Zhen Yan Army had not fought for a long time, and their weapons and armor were extremely scarce, so their combat effectiveness was indeed limited.

The reinforcements that Brother Richard brought from the south were relatively much more elite.

There is no need to elaborate on the Iron Harriers. Even the soldiers who were conscripted had at least one piece of leather armor passed down from their ancestors, and many even wore iron armor passed down from their ancestors - the tribes there were richer, and their ancestors often plundered the State of Song, and some tribes even had armor bestowed by the imperial court.

Brother Richard was thinking: The main force of the Ming army came with 30,000 to 40,000 people, many of whom came from various tribes on the grasslands. The grassland cavalry was nothing. Then the real elite of the Ming army was probably only about 10,000. Can my soldiers defeat 10,000 elite Ming troops?

In the past, Brother Richard would not have thought so much and would have led his troops to attack long ago.

However, he was traumatized by Yang Zhi's use of firearms in the Hehuang Valley, and was also traumatized by the Jin cavalry. The Ming Dynasty destroyed the Jin Dynasty again, which made Richard even more afraid of the Ming army's combat effectiveness.

As a result, even though he had twice as many troops as the enemy, Brother Richard did not dare to fight rashly.

"Your Highness Prince Jin, an urgent letter has arrived from the capital!"

When Brother Richard opened the letter, he was immediately furious and extremely depressed.

He had previously received news of a rebellion in Dingzhou, but now he received news that tribes in Jingzhou, Huaizhou, and Shunzhou were also rebelling.

The imperial court was trying to quell the rebels everywhere. As food and fodder were difficult to raise quickly, they had to transfer food from the military warehouse of Chaoshun Army - which was the starting point for Richard's military supplies.

Brother Richard looked blankly outside the city. He could no longer defend the city and had to go out to fight the Ming army.

With an army of 90,000, the food and fodder are not enough to sustain the army.

With the food reserves of the Wei Fu Army, they could have survived the winter.

But that damn Li Quanlu, who led troops to rescue Tiande Military City last time, fled without a fight for no apparent reason, and also left a large amount of food and livestock to Han Shizhong. Brother Richard even suspected that the guy was embezzling too much and was settling accounts.

Brother Richard summoned all the generals and did not complain about the lack of food and grass. He just smiled calmly and confidently and said, "I have already found out the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. Although the main force of the Ming army has 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers, the real elite troops are only 5,000 to 6,000. You all go back and prepare. I will choose a day to fight the Ming army on the grassland!"

(End of this chapter)

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