Chapter 60: The sound of horse hooves after the autumn wind blows (3)

When Zheng Yunming was energetic and returned to Xiangyang with his mighty warships and elite soldiers, Bai Yijie sat in the hall of the Deputy Chief Commander of Jinge, staring at the map of Xiangyang City Defense, with bloodshot eyes slightly. Although Zheng Yunming had not been away for a long time, the environment inside and outside Xiangyang Prefecture had taken a sharp decline. The situation in Xiangyang, which was originally as stable as Mount Tai, became in danger again.

The main reason during this period is naturally very simple, because the Mongols had already plundered some of the resources, which was far less than the amount they had captured when they first went to Jinghu Lake, but it was enough to support them to carry out a short siege on Xiangyang again. Moreover, they recruited grain in Henan and Hebei for the first time, and sent troops to the front line. This was a bold and unusual attempt. During the war in the Central Plains, because there were Juyi and farms everywhere, the Mongols did not have to worry about the source of food and the supply of Shengkou. They just kept the powerful nomadic cavalry corps going back and forth across the wealthy Zhongzhou land, focusing on confronting the enemy.

However, after fighting with the Song Dynasty, they found that this old method had lost its effect. One reason was that although the efficiency of the Song Dynasty's government's actions was slow, it was much higher than that of the Jin Dynasty. They resolutely implemented a solid wall and clear the fields, leaving the Mongolian army without plundering and no gain. Secondly, the large and small water systems dominated by the Yangtze River were everywhere, which always hindered the advance of the Mongolian army, making it impossible for them to travel hundreds of miles a day like they were in Hebei and Shandong, and to plunder a large amount of wealth in a short period of time. Moreover, the people in the border areas of the Song Dynasty had already experienced wars and had rich combat experience and courageous spirit. The Mongolian army often encountered resistance when plundering, and even if they could plunder some materials, they would suffer losses.

Based on the lesson learned from the Southern Expedition last year, before the start of this year's Southern Expedition, Hao Jing suggested that Qu Fu arrange officials to supervise the collection of grain and grass, and then arrange troops to escort to the front line. Qu Fu was not careful about this matter, otherwise there would be no shortage of the grain and grass that had been gathered in advance and was burned by the Song army. When the army gathered at the city of Xiangyang, it was discovered that most of the grain and grass had not been delivered yet, so he could only temporarily organize the robbery of the south.

After Quchu sent Kuaima to urge the transportation of food, a large number of food and grass were finally escorted to the Xianghan front line, and the Mongolian army could finally settle down and prepare for the offensive against Xiangyang. This also means that they have always been effective in plundering the countryside to obtain food, and the tactics of using prisoners to attack cities have been abandoned. They will gradually accept the traditional attack tactics of the Central Plains army. This may put them on a heavy burden, but at the same time it can also provide huge attack power that is incomparable to nomadic tactics.

For Zhao Kui, this is not an unfamiliar tactic. In many battles he fought with the Jin Kingdom, both sides adopted this mode for offense and defense. It was not so much a special strategy, but rather that the Mongols restored the original war model of the Central Plains. In the 60th chapter, the autumn wind blew over the sound of horse hooves (3)

However, unlike the Jin Dynasty, Zhao Kui no longer faced a large number of Han infantry and a few elite Fan and Han cavalry. Instead, he had to face almost all the cavalry, with the world's number one field army with the Mobei cavalry as the core and the Han cavalry as the main force. Their combat power was far from comparable to Zhao Kui's past opponents.

This time, the prepared Mongolian army did not give the Song army any chance. They first removed the temporary fortress set up by the Song army at Xiaoshiqiao after the first peripheral battle in Xiangyang and killed 330 of them. Then the cavalry team surrounded them from all sides, and the army even went straight to the city of Xiangyang, shouting and shooting with the archers through the moat for a long time. Under the cover of the strong cavalry curtain, the Mongolian gunner army was able to speed up the reconstruction of the artillery carriages and fences destroyed by the Song people.

Of course, Zhao Kui would not sit still and wait for death. He sent his general Chen Hui to lead thousands of Zhongyi Army to join Meng Jing of Zhongshun Army. Wang Deng, the Jingchu Army, came out of the city and took the initiative to attack the enemy. The Song army gained its first battle, and the enemy retreated slightly. Just as Chen Hui was about to lead the army to chase, he was suddenly intercepted by the iron armored cavalry rushing out of both wings. Zhang Rou, thousands of households in Hejian and other places, rushed to the front with a spear. He and his subordinate He Boxiang led one wing of the army and suddenly cut off the attacking Song army in half. More than a thousand people led by Chen Hui were surrounded in the west of the city and could not return to the city. Later, Wang Deng, the commander of the Zhenwu Army, was commanded by Ru. The rigorous military formation like a mountain was fighting to the death, while using general cannons and muskets to open the way, step by step with swords and guns, fighting fiercely inch by blood, and then tore open the encirclement of Zhang Rou's cavalry and rescued the few remaining soldiers. In this battle, the three Song army defeated two of them, losing thousands of people. The commanders of the Song army, Chen Hui, Meng Jing and Wang Deng were all injured. Wang Deng was shot with an arrow. Zhang Rou on the opposite side was not without losses. Under the fierce bombardment of general cannons, a total of three hundred households were damaged. Zhang Rou's own helmet tassels were also concentrated by lead bullets. Fortunately, his iron pole was extremely strong and bounced the lead bullets away.

After this battle, the military and civilians of Xiangyang finally understood the real strength of the Mongolian army and had to rely on the city wall to hold on. To the north of the Han River, the Zhongyi Army commander and the guards of Fancheng also attacked Qin Wu, and after losing hundreds of people, they were forced to give up their attempt to rescue the ancient castle. The Mongolian army erected dozens of large nine-point ten-slight cannon vehicles around the ancient castle fortress, constantly bombarding with huge rocks, and finally collapsed the wooden corner tower in the northeast corner of the ancient castle. The army climbed the city from here to attack, annihilated all the hundreds of Song troops in the ancient castle.

At the same time, the Mongolian army divided several troops and launched a series of fortresses in the Nanshan Mountains. Before they could set up a catapult, they stacked soil into slopes, occupied high places to shoot at the castle, erected ladders, and set up a cowhide to attack. After a fierce and short battle, the Xianshan Fortress and a small fortress further south fell. The Lituoling Fortress, Niujiao Fortress and other fortresses at the heart of the battlefield were still firmly in the hands of the Song army. However, the defenders suffered heavy casualties, and had neither the strength nor the courage to provide support to Xiangyang City.

Then the Mongolian army began to prepare for siege outside Xiangyang City with confidence. This time, the 60th chapter of the song showed the sound of horse hooves after the autumn wind blew (3)

Making a more meticulous preparation than the first siege, he used tens of thousands of civilians and prisoners to dig a two-meter-wide moat outside the city, and after the trench, a wooden fence of eight feet high was established to block the Song army from attacking from the city and interfere with the Mongolian army's siege plan. Although it is a good choice to let these Sinansi infantry break out of the city and encircle and annihilate them, after a series of battles, Quchu judged that the Mongolian army had a chance of winning in the field outside the city. After all, the space to be deployed is too limited. The Mongolian cavalry has suffered more than once and there is not enough circumcision space outside the city and cannot release the maximum combat power. He must pursue a complete strategy.

First, he used a stone catapult to defeat the defense on the city wall, and then used a large number of soldiers to attack the city. This was the orthodox siege method learned from the Central Plains. This time, the Mongolian army established more than a hundred cannons in the west of the city, all of which were large cannon vehicles with more than seven tips, and the stones thrown were at least tens of kilograms. Standing at the head of Xiangyang, you can see that the stones prepared for the siege had accumulated into hills of large sizes on the Mongolian army's cannon positions. Tens of thousands of Ding Zhuang pulled the leather ropes in the loud slogans of the gunner army general manager and kept firing the cannon stones at the tall city wall.

If the defenders in Xiangyang City had not fought to the death and took a flat-bottomed boat out of the city to clear the obstacles every day, I would have been afraid that the waterway that was crucial to Xiangyang had long been cut off by the Mongolian army. The young deputy commander-in-chief, who was looking forward to by the military and civilians of Xiangyang, would have been unable to return to the city smoothly.

Even if the waterway in Xiangyang was barely smooth, Zheng Yunming's return journey was not safely arrived without wind or waves. The Mongolian army gathered on both sides of the straits kept shooting bows and arrows towards the fast-moving oars, and the arrows followed closely the oars in the white waves like bees. The Mongolian army even set up artillery crossbows on the shore to block them, but there were only a few, and the correct head was not high. In the end, a single oar was not damaged by the huge crossbow arrows.

Mongolian warships have also been approaching these Song army ships that obviously want to reinforce Xiangyang, but they do not seem to have the intention to fight to the death with these Song dynasty oars, and they will quickly escape once they are fired by muskets. Because these ships staying on the Han River only have more important functions than blocking the Song army. They are used as bridges for the Mongolian army to go back and forth between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the three regions. Fancheng to the north, Xiangyang to the south and the mountains east of the Han River to form a mixture. If these ferries are consumed casually, it would be ridiculous for the Mongolian army to block the north and south.

When the oars with arrows were inserted on the shields on both sides drove in from the Xiangyang Water Gate, they were warmly welcomed by the residents of the city. Not any general from the Song Dynasty had the courage to come back after leaving a besieged city, but Zheng Yunming, as a newly-established general in the Southern Dynasty, had a unique style.

Surrounded by the military and civilians, Zheng Yunming came all the way to the west gate and climbed the head of the west gate along the horse road. Zhao Kui and the generals had been waiting for a long time here.

"I know when I go back to Longshan." Zhao General Commander smiled and said to Zheng Yunming: "As long as the Mongolians cannot cross the river, the 60th chapter of the country's diplomatic relations, the sound of horse hooves after the autumn wind blows (3)

The task of giving me a military officer can be considered to be half successful.”

Zheng Yunming bowed and raised his head and said, "But the remaining half is the most difficult task."

He pointed at the dark army under the city and smiled, "Is Guangwu just that the same thing in Kunyang back then?"
Chapter completed!