On the 23rd of May, Xuzhou was forty miles to the west, and the foothills north of Xiaoxian County.
The sky was clear, the air was quiet and dull, and eagles were flying in the sky.
The rugged mountain road spreads and disappears far into the dense forest at the foot of the mountain. In the slopes in front of the mountain road, the sound of people's breathing gathers.
The smell of gunpowder wafted through the crowd, and lead bullets were pressed into the barrels.
Black flags spread word by word, and a queue of nearly a thousand people has already lined up on the slope.
Luo Ye stood on the stone and looked at the eagle in the sky. There was a faint tremor on the ground, and the enemy was coming.
This is a corner of the entire battle situation of the Xuzhou Great Retreat.
Since the ninth year of Wu Jianshuo, the Jurchen launched an attack to the south. As for the first half of the tenth year of Jianshuo, in the southern invasion of the Jurchen east and west armies, several vigorous large-scale blocking battles broke out in the Central Plains one after another, and the whole of Jin was integrated. For the sea of fire, the resistance of the Guangwu Army of the Daming Palace was also the most tragic. During this period, the resistance in Xuzhou was relatively stable. Apart from being besieged by nearly a million hungry ghosts in winter, in the first half of the tenth year of Jianshuo, after Wanyan Zongfu and Zongbi launched the siege, Xuzhou was less than three times defended. months, and the evacuation began in mid-May.
Compared with the 50,000 troops of Daming Mansion who resisted for half a year, and finally broke through the siege, more than 10,000 Chinese troops came to rescue, but only a few thousand people survived. The war in Xuzhou was not vigorous enough in the eyes of many critics. At least for Li Anmao, the prefect of Xuzhou who had originally invited the Huaxia Army to defend the city, the tens of thousands of reinforcements from the Huaxia Army and the tens of thousands of troops he had pulled up in Xuzhou, at least. It would be better to stay in these four battles for half a year or even a year. If he can kill himself, it will also fulfill his loyalty to the Wu Dynasty.
However, Liu Chengzong and others did not make such a plan from the beginning.
Since the 10,000-strong Huaxia Army came to Xuzhou, it has been working on the southward evacuation of residents near Xuzhou. Li Anmao already had the intention to die, and he did not have much opinion on the evacuation of the people, but did his best to cooperate with him. Later, when the hungry ghosts scattered outside Xuzhou City, Jurchen came to kill, and the remaining residents of the city took advantage of the spring to head south. Liu Chengzong and the nearly 50,000 Xuzhou defenders in the city fought tenaciously.
The Jurchen East Route Army has more than 300,000 troops. Since the winter of last year, they have been preparing for the siege of the city. Tens of thousands have defended the city of Xuzhou for more than two months. Later, Liu Chengzong and others knocked Li Anmao out at a meeting and captured him. The military power of Xuzhou announced the withdrawal of Xuzhou.
The number of soldiers under Li Anmao's command was as many as 50,000, but the composition was complicated. One part was Liu Yu's army before anyway, and the other part was just wandering people who joined the army for food. Li Anmao pulled up more than 50,000 people and wanted to drag the Huaxia Army here, but these 50,000 people had no fighting ability. After the arrival of the Huaxia Army, they trained with these people, cleaned up the military discipline, and had a heart-to-heart talk with them. Force to lift a part. Now that the Huaxia Army said it was going to leave, no one in the Xuzhou defenders was willing to obey Li Anmao's orders to stay there. At least during the retreat, no one dared to ignore the deployment of the Huaxia Army.
Xuzhou has been a land of four battles since ancient times. The city is located in a basin, surrounded by mountains and rivers with complex terrain. The rugged terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Zongfu Zongbi's East Route Army, in order to win a quick victory, chose to attack the city violently instead of encircling the city into a dead place. Was fiercely pursued by the Jurchen army.
However, for the entire retreat plan, the Huaxia Army has been exploring and deducing since last year. When the army left the city, Liu Chengzong divided the backbone of the Huaxia Army into several groups and chose rough terrain to block and retreat in an orderly manner. They came from different directions, but they were beaten in a bad way. On the 23rd day of May, the Xianling Mountains north of Xiaoxian County became the front fulcrum of the entire retreat.
The Liaodong army of more than 10,000 people is coming from nearby. The leader is Liu Guangji, the Han Chinese general in Liaodong, and the Huaxia army is a special regiment of nearly 1,200 people led by Luo Ye. They were formed as an experimental arm of the Huaxia Fifth Army. The entire equipment had not experienced actual combat, but the entire special regiment was composed of veterans of the Huaxia Army.
This special regiment performed quite well in the previous Xuzhou city defense battle, and did not use the new weapons equipped by their entire staff because the effect in the city defense battle was not necessarily good. At this time, I chose Chaoxianling as the defense. First, the terrain here is the most ideal. Second, after the retreat of the nearby friendly forces, this mountain pass is located on the prominent point of the front line, and the pressure of defense may be the greatest. The third point that Ye has not told many people: According to the previous tactical deduction, this place is most likely to be visited by the vanguard generals of the enemy army.
The most powerful vanguard general in the Jurchen Army is none other than the Jurchen "Fourth Prince", Jin Wushu, who almost dominated the offensive situation of the entire Eastern Route Army.
In Luo Ye's view, this is the most suitable place for new weapons to shine.
If something can be done, he wants to take a head.
It's a pity that the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and it was not Wushu who killed him.
This year's Jurchen South Expedition, more than ten years have passed since the first southward expedition. The east and west armies have raised nearly 600,000 troops. Although they have been cultivated for several years, they have once laid the reputation of "invincible" Jurchen soldiers. It is impossible to expand to this number. In fact, it is difficult for the Jurchen children who newly joined the army to reproduce the bravery that came out of the white mountains and black waters.
As a result, the entire army was joined by many other tribes, such as the second-class Bohai, Khitan, Xi, Han, etc. in Jurchen. In China, the Han people in Liaodong looked down on the southerners. In their eyes, the brave Jurchen was naturally more worthy of following, and it was a matter of course to follow the Jurchen to achieve fame in the process of the southern expedition.
At this time, the Han people in Liaodong had a low status in the Jin Kingdom, and therefore, in order to improve their status, they had to work hard. Liu Guangji was a fierce general under Zong Bi's command. In his barracks, at first, a Han slave was whipped to death every day to wake up the cowardly end of many Liaodong soldiers: "Those who dare not bleed should become slaves!" Later, Taizong issued a decree not to kill Han slaves at will. , Liu Guangji chopped off the hands and feet of a Han slave every day. If he was seriously injured to death, in his position, he would only pay for the punishment. In fact, under the protection of Zong Bi, even if the fine was fine, Liu Guangji basically did not need to pay.
Before the two sides met, Hai Dongqing and the scouts sent a message. The one blocking the front intersection was about a thousand-man team of the Huaxia Army. Because the terrain in front began to narrow, the battle was not good for the attacking party. Moreover, the Huaxia Army Arrive first, artillery must have been arranged in a slightly higher place, and the first wave of the attack will inevitably suffer huge losses.
The first time he brought the opponent's army into sight, Liu Guangji also noticed the strange formation of the opponent's formation in the telescopic mirror. At this time, the infantry formations were mostly phalanx formations. Even if the appearance of artillery caused a huge threat to the formation, it was still necessary to maintain the formation, otherwise the battlefield would be chaotic and could not stand the opponent's charge. But the array in front was only two or three rows of people, with flashy pistols in their hands.
This kind of pyrotechnic weapon of the Wu Dynasty has been available decades ago, but it basically has no major effect. It has a short range and poor power, and it is easy to explode its own eyes. Although since the rise of the Huaxia Army, all parties have attached great importance to gunpowder, but at least for this musket, it has not played a glorious role in any major battle for the time being.
Liu Guangji knew the prestige of the Huaxia Army. At this time, he frowned when he saw the incomprehensible picture, but behind him, there was not much room to turn around. In Zongbi's order, he must quickly break through Chaoxianling and cut into the middle of the retreating Huaxia army.
Even with a cannon, it's the same...
Glancing at the opponent's entire defensive line, Liu Guangji gritted his teeth. In such a shrinking terrain, if he wanted to attack, the opponent's artillery was the most feared weapon. But there is no other way. In past experience, the more violent the artillery, the more intense the attack. Only by breaking through into the opponent's position in one breath can the opponent's defense strategy be broken. Fortunately, on my side, there are enough manpower after all.
"Mummy! The dead bird is facing the sky..." Liu Guangji spit two saliva in his palm, and then waved the long knife: "Blow the trumpet! Children, prepare them for me"
The mournful horn sounded in this mountain pass. All the armies lined up. Liu Guangji rode on his horse, loudly boosting morale in front of his army. At the other end, Luo Ye's eyes were calm, he stepped off the big rock he was observing, came to the side of the formation, took the drumstick, and began to beat the big drum in front of him.
The drums roared and moved with their breathing, and the soldiers in the army raised their guns like Lin. Fighting on the battlefield, with one bang, two and three, and three, at this moment, both sides eager to quickly decide the battle boosted their morale to the highest level.
At 3:00 noon that day, Liu Guangji's army launched a charge. The surrounding terrain was complicated, and the detours were too far, so he couldn't wait any longer. Driven by military orders, the vanguard of the army, led by a light cavalry team, poured into the slopes of the mountain pass in a fan shape. The sound of cannons rang out, and the army column rushed up like a tide. The hysterical cry of this Liaodong army shot out. The first wave of arrows.
On the side of the Huaxia Army, facing the arrows, the long queue stood motionless with their guns raised. Due to the long and narrow queue, the hurried projectile did not cause many casualties, and a few people were hit by arrows. The charge in front was surging, the light cavalry team separated from the soldiers in the rear, and the formation began to gather as the terrain shrank. Someone's hand was raised high in the air.
"steady"
"steady"
…
"… "
…
"put!"
…
At the fan-shaped mountain pass, the cavalry was rushing in, and a long row of muskets was fired. The sixty-foot-long array that did not seem to be long, three hundred gunshots, three hundred clusters of green smoke, and three hundred lead bullets crossed the ground and stretched forward at the same time, and blood flowers bloomed in front.
After the musket was fired, the soldiers quickly crouched down. With the changing drumbeat, the three hundred muskets of the second team have been raised.
"Second Team Prep"
"put!"
The blue smoke rose in the countless roars.
"Hold on!"
"Third Team Prep"
"put!"
The shrinking slope turns into a huge mouth that engulfs life.
This is a corner of Xuzhou's great retreat. It did not stop the Jurchen from going south, and at the time, it did not attract too many people's attention.
During the entire Xuzhou retreat, Liu Chengzong took advantage of the complex terrain to launch a counter-offensive, defeated tens of thousands of Jurchen pursuers who were trying to gain merit, and harvested thousands of heads of the Jurchen East Route Army. On May 23, Luo Ye broke up Liu Guangji's crazy attack and then launched a counter-offensive. He killed Liu Guangji, who was leading the charge because of the defeat in the battle, and then dispersed the entire Attack team.
In a series of battles between the Jurchen and the Huaxia Army, facing the bravery of the Huaxia Army, the Jurchen side gradually came to see it.
****************
Lightning flashed in an instant, and the roar of thunder shook the sky.
Chengdu, thunderstorm.
In the room of the tea house, Cheng Zhouhai stood by the window with a gloomy expression, listening to the boiling voices from the streets and squares below. A public trial meeting has come to an end, and the scolding from the crowd almost drowned out the thunder in the sky: "Kill that old thing"
"None of them are good people"
"Kill! Kill kill kill"
In this public trial meeting, it was the great Confucianist Chen Song who had been preparing to burst the Minjiang River. These people were caught on April 27th. They were originally going to hold a public trial in about ten days. However, in order to complete the whole thing and make the Huaxia Army court's reputation and reputation, the whole process was very meticulous. All evidence, Testimony and arrest process are also published through newspapers and storytelling. On this day, Chen Song was sentenced to death, and his decision to dispose of his party members was announced one after another. Although it rained unexpectedly, the crowds who came to watch in Chengdu still blocked the road.
During the entire trial process, Cheng Zhouhai, who came here, has been negotiating with Ning Yi, hoping to replace this unrepentant old Confucian scholar in some way of compromise or exchange of interests, but Ning Yi never let go. At this time, the judgment was pronounced in public, and the whole matter had been settled, and Cheng Zhouhai's expression was obviously unhappy. He is a man with a deep sense of the city, but on Ning Yi's side, he doesn't care about showing such emotions.
"Chen Song below, how is it compared to Qian Xiwen back then? Back then when the Jurchen killed Bianliang, both you and the teacher have considered fighting the Yellow River, and you even made preliminary preparations in Xia Village! What, he's a bad guy, and you're a good guy!?"
He tapped the window with his hand and looked at Ning Yi who was sitting in the room drinking tea. At this time, besides him and Ning Yi, there were also Qin Shaoyu and Song Yongping in the room. Song Yongping was brought by Cheng Zhouhai to talk about the "business" with the Huaxia Army. He brought Song Yongping, and Ning Yi came to be beaten by Lin Yechan Qin Shaoyu, who was in a wheelchair after a broken leg, complicated negotiation matters to balance the human relationship in the business. At this moment, Ning Yi put down the teacup and raised his eyes.
"When Qian Lao was martyred, he only implicated himself, he is definitely not comparable. The disaster of Bianliang, facing the Jurchen, if you really can't beat it, you can only perish together. If you regard the Huaxia Army as a Jurchen. The same aliens, then Lao Qin and I are indeed no different from this Chen Song. But at least I don’t engage in massacres, and I’m somewhat better than Jurchen.”
"What is the difference between the death of one's Taoism and the death of one's country?"
"It's really not a big deal if you want to raise the bar, but I want to perish the Dao Lineage after confirming that your Dao Lineage has problems, and you and I can't find a way to improve it. It's not because I'm a child, if you accept my opinion, Then convince me that I will correct it. If you don't want to raise the bar, Chen Song is a bastard. You and I are clear. Whether it is from the perspective of people's heart or interests, I will be right to kill him. If you sit in my place Location, you will let someone who is ready to fight Minjiang to oppose me live!?"
In the past few days, it was not the first time that the two of them had raised the bar full of gunpowder, and Qin Shaoyu and Song Yongping could only stay out of it. In fact, Chengzhouhai came to cooperate with Ning Yi on behalf of the Princess Mansion, and Ning Yi did not hide anything. Over the past few days, Chengzhouhai has visited many places, and even the one that is operating at this time. Some weapons factories, some advanced concepts based on the development of physics, have always been revealed to the sea.
Ning Yi didn't care about what Cheng Zhouhai learned from the Huaxia Army, and even he was more active in "polluting" Chengzhouhai's thinking. This morning, they originally visited a newly built firearms workshop in Chengdu. Before they could see it thoroughly, they came here to visit the public trial. Cheng Zhouhai and Ning Yi argued for a while, the matter was settled, and he no longer insisted.
After both sides were silent for a moment, Cheng Zhouhai said: "I know you have always been very keen on firearms, but the fire gun was originally owned by the Wu Dynasty, do you really intend to put it on the battlefield? I know this thing, It is cumbersome to use, it is easy to blow yourself up, and the range is not as good as that of bows and arrows, have you solved all these problems?"
"Of course it hasn't been resolved." Ning Yi held the teacup, "but things will always be resolved slowly, the potential of bows and arrows has come to an end, a good bow will take two or three years to make, and the training of a sharpshooter will take ten It took a few years. There were indeed many problems with the musket at the beginning, and now it is only slowly balancing the range, but with the advancement of assembly line technology, its production will gradually be much faster than that of bows and arrows, and the training of shooters is also very simple. In the future Even a woman with a gun can kill you. Manpower is poor, material resources are infinite, and the knowledge of things is far from being seen."
"Then... sell this thing to me?"
"Okay." Ning Yi said with a smile.
Cheng Zhouhai's brows wrinkled, and Song Yongping and Qin Shaoyu's brows also wrinkled. Qin Shaoyu's eyes were relaxed, while Song Yongping was somewhat wary.
There is conspiracy.
Ning Yi sighed and stood up, but did not shy away: "I can sell you muskets, I can even sell you the whole concept of physiognomy, if you can really learn and defeat Jurchen, then of course it is the best. But You can’t learn it. When the enemy comes, you want to order something good, but there are endless ways to understand things. There will always be better things. How to ensure that you will always see better things, then everyone has to open their minds, Don't be bound by some things that are taken for granted. The people want to let them know, do you dare? Today, Junwu can push things, but it is because there is a war today, and after the war is over, it is better for the people to let them go.
"I'll sell the musket to you. I'm not afraid that you will imitate it. After you imitate it, I will have a better musket. And imitation may not be realistic. You are running out of time." Ning Yi smiled and tapped his fingers. Get off the coffee table, "The urgent news from this morning..."
He said, "The West Route Army... Xi Yin led the vanguard to cross the river."
It was still raining outside the window. Not long after, news of a pipe swell near Dujiangyan came, and Ning Yi rushed back to the front line with his people. Everywhere has his own problems. On the Jurchen side, in order to deal with the problems that arise at any time in the country, both the east and west armies had to speed up their southward movement. At the end of May, Xi Yin led the vanguard of the west route army to cross the Yellow River first, trying to reach the Xiangyang front line at the fastest speed. , in line with the strategic intention of the East Route Army to attack the front line of Zhenjiang.
Not long after crossing the river, Xi Yin received news from the frontline battlefield in Xuzhou. The appearance of the Chaoxianling musket made him even more vigilant. In fact, after the potential of firearms was discovered, the Huaxia Army, the Wu Dynasty, and the Jin Kingdom were all studying its application. In the Dazao Institute in charge of Xi Yin, they had also studied the burst gun, but there was no decisive breakthrough.
On the day of receiving the news, the mighty army was gathering at the port on the south bank of the Yellow River, and the flags were spreading like a forest. Xi Yin stood at the city head outside the port, and suddenly seemed to see the figure of the Huaxia army in the southwest, the Han army that had been resisting for more than ten years. Now the Jurchen army still has the upper hand, and if it continues, the Jurchen will still have the upper hand, but...
We must take advantage of the opportunity of this battle to decide the world.
He didn't think about it any more, just reconfirmed the idea of going south again in his heart.
If he is still young, he may not be willing to cooperate with Zongfu Zongbi's offensive of the West Road Army, but prefer to sweep the entire Wu Dynasty on his own side. It is best that Zongfu Zongbi and others can add more baskets like Huang Tiandang. .
But at this moment, Xi Yin put away such thoughts.
Lin'an, June.
The weather was so hot that only the sound of cicadas could be heard.
In the study room of the Princess Mansion, the ice-cold lotus seed soup was placed on the table, it was no longer cool, and there was no wind in the room. Messages from all over the world are gathered on this desk. Zhou Pei raised her head from the slip of paper. There were beads of sweat on her forehead, but her face was slightly pale. She felt the air was suppressed, and she put a hand on her left chest. Bang Bang Bang Bang, there was a drum-like sound.
In front of her, there is news from the southwest and news from the north. Before things come, people can imagine various turning points or solutions, but at this moment, the situation is getting clearer and more stable, and the preparations that can continue to advance from daily work have reached the limit of ability.
In the front-line areas north of the Yangtze River, the preparations for war have been pushed to the limit that can be pushed. The transportation and distribution of military rations and ordnance, the removal of spies, and the consolidation of defense lines have all been used to the limit. People are killing people every day, and occasionally there will be rogues who are forced to turn against them, but this is also necessary to maintain the entire war situation. As for the news from the southwest, Cheng Zhouhai will send all kinds of news and iron-blooded news in letters every few days. What Zhou Pei can see is the smoke of gunpowder and the tension in all kinds of news. root heartstrings.
This kind of breath made her feel palpitations, like a gambler waiting for the moment before turning on the dice clock, like a prisoner waiting for the moment when the sentence was pronounced. The breath of the entire Lin'an City was suppressed and silent. At this moment, no officials disagreed with the main battle faction. In the palace, Zhou Yong had not been to the harem for several consecutive days...