The legend of the king of crossing

Chapter 521 Northern Expedition

"Firearms," ​​I nodded, and continued: "The northern part of my Great Song Dynasty has been occupied for a long time, so I don't blame you for your joining the Mongolian army. I have talked to you so much today. The first purpose is that I will definitely take back the north, because that is the land of my dynasty; second, you Han people in the north can only live as individuals in a country that truly belongs to the Han people. I and you The same, we are all Han Chinese, so I will not kill my compatriots for no reason, after the meeting, you will change your clothes, get the road signs and money, and go home, "

"Emperor, Your Majesty, can the little ones really go home?"

"Once I open my golden mouth, will I still deceive you?"

Lu Da and Wu Liu looked at each other, then suddenly fell to their knees and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, little one."

Immediately afterwards, all the prisoners of war in the room knelt down and said, "My little one, I thank the emperor for his kindness."

I smiled and accepted the kneeling thanks of these prisoners: "After you go back, I will not ask you to do anything, even if you join the Yuan army again after you go back, I will not care, the only thing is, you will remember it for me , live well, and wait for me to lead the army to regain the mountains and rivers that my Song Dynasty lost, "

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness,"

In the next few days, I ordered the release of the Han captives of the Yuan army held in the Lumen Mountain camp one after another. When these captives left, they all looked happy and shouted from time to time: "Go home, you can go home,"

When the Mongolian prisoners of war in the camp knew that all the Han prisoners of war had been released, they were furious and envious at the same time. Yes, they can go home, go home, the Han people are like this, so why not the Mongols.

At the beginning of August, a large number of ammunition for throwing bombs, muskets and artillery arrived in Xiangyang together with the officers and soldiers of the Lin'an base of the new Third Division of the Imperial Forest Army. Almost on the same day, Meng Zhang of Ezhou also sent more than 100 soldiers to Meng Tianxiang. Most of these soldiers are the friends of the Meng brothers in the rivers and lakes and some martial arts people around. They are proficient in martial arts, so they only received a little training. After they were equipped with horses, they were sent to Xiangyang by Meng Zhang. The number of soldiers increased to more than six hundred.

As for food and grass, Xiangyang city already has a lot of stockpiles, and with the constant delivery of war preparation resources from each base, it is enough.

What makes me quite excited is that before the expedition, the Royal Academy of Sciences sent me a pocket watch and a pair of binoculars. This pocket watch was just developed by the Academy of Sciences. It is several times larger than the pocket watches of later generations. The accuracy of an alarm clock can be controlled within five or six minutes a day, and the magnification of the telescope is about twice. Although the effect is far from ideal, it is 6 years ahead of the world's first telescope.

In 1608, the Dutchman Hans Libercy invented the first telescope. In 1609, the Italian Florentine Galileo Galilei invented the 40 times double-mirror telescope. This is the first practical telescope put into scientific applications. From the shape From the looks of it, the telescope developed by the Academy of Sciences is not much different from the binoculars that are common in later generations, except that it is much larger and weighs a lot. Of course, the effect is also much worse.

According to the plan, Jia Sidao, Lu Xiufu, and Zhao Shunsun stayed in Xiangyang to form a temporary military and political center, serving as a transit hub for the front and rear.

In the early morning of August [-]th, the autumn morning breeze blew, and it was cool. I rode my horse, surrounded by a group of personal guards, and arrived at the temporary camp of the North Pioneer Camp at the North Gate of Xiangyang.

Wu Songhan and Meng Tianxiang, who were the vanguards of the Northern Expedition Army on the Central Road, rode their horses up to five meters in front of me and said loudly, "Your Majesty, our army is ready, please give me your order."

"Okay," I looked at all the soldiers of the Pioneer Battalion who were ready to go, patted my horse forward, raised my dantian, and said in a loud voice, "Soldiers and soldiers, today is the time for our army's official northern expedition. Soldiers, all soldiers of the Zhongshun Army, as the vanguard of the Northern Expedition, you will be the first batch of warriors to fight northward in more than 30 years. I am proud of you. More than 100 years ago, our Dynasty was defeated by the Jin people, resulting in The pity of "Jingkang shame", now, the north is occupied by the Mongols again, but no matter who invades our territory, as long as it is the territory of our dynasty, I and my people have the responsibility and obligation to take it back, no matter Bianjing, the capital city of our dynasty, the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan, the Great Wall, and the Yellow River are all left to us by our ancestors. How can this large homeland be invaded by foreigners again? As the emperor of the Song Dynasty and the leader of the Huaxia clan, I will Don't care about yourself, go forward bravely, even if there is an abyss in front of you, even if there are thorns and thorns in front of you, I will never back down, you are all good men in my dynasty, do you have the confidence to defeat the Yuan army and return my country?"

As if after a rehearsal, the soldiers of the Pioneer Battalion shouted in unison: "Our army will surely win, and the Great Song Dynasty will surely win,"

The voices of more than 1 people uttered at the same time, which was deafening and resounded through the sky.

I waved my hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then said: "Heroes of Song Dynasty, let's go."

Following my order, more than 1 soldiers of the Pioneer Battalion, led by Wu Songhan and Meng Tianxiang, left the north of Xiangyang City.

A few hours later, the armies set out to the north one after another.

The next morning, after seeing off Jia Sidao, Lu Wende and others, I left Xiangyang City with more than [-] guards from the Chinese Army, the Heitan Regiment, and the Xingfu Army, and embarked on the Northern Expedition. the road.

Along the way, the Pioneer Battalion cleared roads across the mountains, built bridges when encountering water, and annihilated the Yuan troops located at the junction of Xindian Town and Mengjiapu. Fifteen days later, the army successfully arrived at the town [-] miles south of Dengzhou City in Henan Province. Shangying Village.

Dengzhou is located in the west-central area of ​​the Nanxiang Basin in the southwestern part of Henan Province. It is the first important town to enter Henan from the north of Hubei. The terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast. As far as Nanyang is concerned, it is almost all plains.

Shangying Village belongs to the hilly area. The scale of the village is small. The people in the village mainly grow cotton. Because they often communicate with merchants in the Xiangfan area, it was developed by Lu Wende as a contact point of the Xiangyang Military Region a few years ago. It is also the only secret base established by Lu Wende in the north since I proposed to carry out armed work behind enemy lines.

After entering the village, I took a short rest, then called all the generals, and listened to the introduction of Dengzhou City by Xu Sanquan, Baozheng of Shangying Village (equivalent to Lizheng in the Southern Song Dynasty, that is, the village head of later generations). Xu Sanquan seemed quite shrewd. , not like a farmer at all, but a businessman.

"Your Majesty, all generals, since the Battle of Xiangyang, the Mongolian Central Route Army has retreated to Dengzhou and Nanyang. Although Dengzhou City is not big, it is a rare strong city in Henan. It is worth mentioning that after the Mongols drove away the Jin people, they were not interested in building cities and fortifications. I have heard from Mongolian soldiers in the past that the Mongols have always advocated offense. In their view, there is no city that cannot be conquered. Dengzhou City was built by the Jin people back then in order to prevent the attack of the Yue Family Army. Its main walls were all made of whole stones, and then they were continuously reinforced to become the scale it is today. Even compared with Xiangyang City, it is also Not to mention too much, according to the information I heard, there are currently about [-] troops in Dengzhou City, the guards are Zhang Hongfan and Atahai, and the rest of the Central Route Army have returned to the Nanyang camp."

While listening, I looked at the map on the table and said, "Xu Baozheng, is the area from Dengzhou to Nanyang all plains?"

"Returning to the emperor, it is true that the northeast of Dengzhou and the boundary of Nanyang are almost all plains, which are very suitable for cavalry to launch large-scale operations."

"Well, no matter how strong Dengzhou City is, it can't withstand the repeated bombardment of my artillery. It's just to attack Nanyang. The road is full of plains. It should attract the attention of our army. The army was defeated,"

Xie Daolin smiled and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, my Imperial Forest Army now has three divisions with [-] muskets, and it is bound to defeat the cavalry."

"It's not that simple. The terrain on this road is open. If the Yuan army attacks from all directions, once the [-] muskets are scattered, even if they are divided into three places, there will be only six or seven thousand guns. Two or three thousand rounds of ammunition in one round may give the Mongolian cavalry a chance to take advantage of it."

Wen Zhang then said: "Your Majesty, our army still has throwing bombs available."

"The effect of throwing bombs is naturally not small, but the number is limited after all," I said seriously, "I don't want our musketeers to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Mongolian cavalry, Gongsun Xiaochen, Xiuyan, you and Xu Baozheng tomorrow Let’s go to the northeast of Dengzhou for field investigation and see how our army will march after capturing Dengzhou. In war, more than half of the factors of victory or defeat have already been decided before the war.”

"Yes, Your Majesty,"

"Xu Baozheng, you in Shangying Village live in Cao Ying and your heart is in Han Dynasty. You are indeed a role model for the people of our dynasty. I will remember your contributions. After the war is over, I will judge Shangying Village and you. reward,

Xu Baozheng knelt down to thank him: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."

"Get up,"

"Thank you, Your Majesty,"

"General Wu, General Meng, where is the vanguard battalion stationed?"

"Go back to the emperor, at Taizigang, about ten miles away from the south gate of Dengzhou City,"

"Okay, take me there,"

After stopping at Taizigang for a while, I continued to head north, and traveled about six or seven miles. I reined in the horse, took the binoculars from my personal guard, and looked at Dengzhou City from a distance. With my naked eyes, I can see an apple more than 400 meters away. With the help of a telescope, I can basically see the defenders in Dengzhou City two miles away.

I looked at it for a while, then handed the telescope to Fang Ling who was next to me, and then all the generals took turns to look at it,