Chapter 453: Easily Conquer Yanzhou City
Kuang Sisi told her to ignore it and just follow Yulin's method, since the military power was in Yulin's hands anyway .
Kuang Sisi said with great emotion that this year was very good. Taking Hongzhou meant that the entire Jiangnan West Road belonged to the New Song Dynasty. The people were happy, their lives were getting better and better, and there was hope every year.
Then, the woman patted Zhao Feiyan's back and murmured enviously, "Swallow is very happy. Her man is fighting outside to protect the territory, and she has sisters to help her in the court. No one dares to compete with her."
I still feel bad about this kind of life, what should I do?
What Zhao Feiyan wanted was not the pleasure of being an emperor or ascending to the throne, but to live with Zhao Yulin.
She began to mutter that if her father was kind and righteous, she really wanted to ask him to come back and be the king, so that she and Brother Yulin could hide away in Xuzhou and play. That would be happy.
Kuang Sisi immediately told her to stop and not to have such thoughts. She told her: there are so many things she doesn’t know. Her father is really a bad person. He once condoned the Queen Mother to kill Yulin several times. Has he forgotten?
Her father even thought about killing her mother.
Zhao Feiyan was shocked. She believed that her mother would not wrongly accuse her father. How could a wife throw dirty water on her husband for her own selfish gain?
How could Zhao Yulin know the worries of Zhao Feiyan and her daughter? At this moment, he had already rushed to Tianshui City in Qinzhou and was discussing matters with the generals.
Gao Jin was overjoyed when he saw him, knowing that the battle would have to be fought.
Zhao Yulin did not hide anything and told them the Ministry of War's opinion. Since the brothers all wanted to fight, he would give them a hammer. However, the scope of the battle would be limited to Lingzhou and could not be expanded.
In a word, we are still short-sighted and cannot conduct large-scale mobile operations with cavalry as the Mongolian army did.
Hao Xiaoming and Lu Huacai agreed with his point of view. These brothers had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They knew that a general's success is built on the sacrifice of hundreds of soldiers, and the blood of the soldiers should not be shed in vain.
Lu Huacai said: His Qinzhidao Army will serve as a supporting force to help Lao Gao advance into Lingzhou.
Zhao Yulin denied Lu Huacai's statement. He believed that the attack on Lingzhou was a good opportunity to test the new tactics of the Guanzhong army. He let Feng Guiqi be nailed to Yulin Village, and the Qinzhidao Corps would attack Lingzhou with infantry and advance as far as they could.
Gao Jin's Northern Group reinforced Hao Xiaoming's mobile forces and headed straight for Lingzhou, determined to show the might of the Shenwei Army in one battle and make the Mongolian Army afraid of the thought of going south. The Ministry of War would mobilize the Hanzhong garrison to the north to assist in the defense, and the Northern Group had only one mission, which was to take back Lingzhou.
Lingzhou is the Western Xia Kingdom that has been destroyed by the Mongolian army. This area is backed by the Helan Mountains to the west and is a natural alluvial plain along the Yellow River with lush grass and water. After being occupied by the Mongolian army, it became the frontier barrier of the grassland empire.
After Zhao Yulin issued the combat order, he handed it over to Gao Jin. This time, Gao Fengzi would be fully responsible for the march north to Lingzhou, and would dispatch the Northwestern Army to coordinate the operation.
Gao Jin told him: Reconnaissance intelligence showed that the Mongolian army had 200,000 troops stationed in Lingzhou, and the Shenwei Army's northern group and western group also had 200,000 mobile troops. After the 40,000 garrison troops from Hanzhong took over the defense of Qinzhou and Pingliang, the entire army set out for Lingzhou.
Zhao Yulin didn't care and told his brothers that he was only there to deliver orders and how they did their work was their own business.
At night, he asked Wu Yuqi to continue to Chang'an, where he dispatched the Shunfeng Division to collect intelligence for the front line and paralyze the Mongolian army. He himself followed Gao Jin's forward command post.
Five days later, the 40,000-man Qinzhidao Army advanced rapidly westward and took Yanzhou directly.
The Mongolian army immediately became nervous.
This time the Shenwei Army's advance speed was greatly accelerated. In front were pathfinders driving oxen and horses to clear the way, clearing all the earthen mines they had buried; on the left and right were scouts running back and forth, with their detection and perception capabilities doubled compared to before; in the middle were infantry sitting on carts and marching quickly, and they surrounded the city of Yanzhou in just two days.
Moreover, this encirclement pattern was exactly the same as what their ancestors had told them. The Shenwei Army surrounded the city on three sides, leaving only one person behind, leaving Ximen behind for them to escape.
Damn, isn't this just bullying the grassland guys because they are timid and can't fight?
The one guarding the city was Kuo's son Menggedu. This kid was even more ruthless than his father. He immediately closed the city gates and drove the people in the city to fight the enemy.
Seeing that this guy refused to leave and was determined to die, the commander of the Shenwei Army, Du Baiyue, showed no mercy and started fighting immediately.
The artillery commander asked him: There are civilians on the city walls, bombarding the city will hurt innocent people.
Du Baiyue glared at him and said, "Let's fight. If we are indecisive at this time, the Mongolian army will seize this weakness of ours and let more civilians stand out to die, which will result in heavy casualties. Boom, attack the city immediately."
On the position outside the east gate, the artillery of the Shenwei Army set up three hundred improved catapults, and thirty red cannons concentrated their fire.
The red cannons only bombarded the city gates, while the catapults provided extended coverage. Half an hour later, the gates of Yanzhou City were wide open, and the infantry of the Shenwei Army immediately launched a charge.
Mengge Du was stunned at this time. He thought that Yanzhou City had thick walls and was not afraid of the attack of the Shenwei Army. However, he did not expect that the new catapults of the Shenwei Army had a fast firing speed and a long range. The power of the thunder bombs was greatly increased, so the Mongolian army immediately fled from the city wall.
Although the city gate was newly built, it could not withstand the alternating attacks of explosives and stone bullets and collapsed in minutes.
The artillery of the Shenwei Army repeatedly launched cluster firing at the city gate. This was the first time he had experienced this kind of fighting style. As soon as the Shenwei Army's artillery fire stopped, he drove the soldiers onto the city wall. Before they could stand firmly, thunder bombs were thrown down and continued to extend to the assembly area in the rear. The troops that had just been organized were covered by the artillery fire of the Shenwei Army.
Mengge refused to give in, so he led his men to engage in street fighting with the Shenwei Army.
This is the specialty of the Shenwei Army.
The Mongolian army conquered the world on horseback, and galloping across the grasslands and killing people was their specialty. The Shenwei Army had short legs and rich experience in defending cities, so they were certainly not afraid of street fighting.
By nightfall, Mengge Du had only the west gate left. This was because he had coerced the common people and made the Shenwei Army afraid of accidental injuries.
His subordinates advised him to give up and escape quickly, but he refused to accept it.
His father wanted him to follow Android to gain some experience, but he failed in the first battle and became a deserter. How could he go back to drink and brag?
However, the situation was stronger than the man, and there were wounded soldiers groaning in pain everywhere. No matter how young and energetic he was, he still had to consider his retreat.
This fellow discussed with a group of close followers and decided to escape at dawn, abandoning all the wounded and jars and pots.
But he had to take the silver he had looted.
The battle of Du Baiyue was very easy because Mengge Du underestimated the enemy. He saw that less than a quarter of the city guarded by the Mongolian army was left, and he estimated that Mengge Du was going to escape.
While deploying troops, he reported the battle situation to Lu Huacai.
When Gao Jin received the battle report from Yanzhou, the troops were advancing rapidly. Guo Chongma's 11th Column and Liu Honggen's 10th Column formed the vanguard and captured cities and strongholds along the way, taking the lead.
Android has been following the movements of Gao Jin's group of the Shenwei Army. He saw that the Shenwei Army was attacking from Dingchuan Village and Tiandu Village in the north, and was arranging troops to eat up Gao Jin's vanguard. Suddenly, he received an emergency rescue report from Yanzhou, and he was stunned. Damn, Mengge Du is really a fool. He just reported the enemy's attack on the city yesterday, but today he couldn't stand it anymore and asked for reinforcements.
Didn’t that guy swear that he could defend the city?
Android immediately came to his senses and concluded that this time the Shenwei Army was going to trap him and devour all his troops in Lingzhou in one gulp.
Otherwise, the Shenwei Army would not have launched a lightning-fast attack on Yanzhou.
You know, once Yanzhou is lost, the Shenwei Army will capture three more military camps and will be able to reach his Lingzhou city directly.
This is a means of strangling the opponent.
Android was a veteran, and an idea suddenly came to his mind. He quickly adjusted the deployment, gave up the plan to ambush Gao Jin, and retreated the entire army. He sent 10,000 cavalry to rush to Yanzhou for support. First, he had to block the Shenwei Army coming from Yanzhou and then annihilate it.
At dawn, Mengge Du opened the west gate and fled. Less than five miles out of the city, he was strangled by the cavalry of the Shenwei Army, and the two sides then engaged in a fight.
Mengge Du immediately sensed danger. His grandfather was an expert in this classic strategy of surrounding three sides and leaving one side vulnerable. Naturally, he had heard many such legendary stories. He knew that once he was caught by the enemy's pursuit, the chance of escaping was only one in ten thousand.
This guy took the lead, shouting and trying desperately to break out. The Mongolian army rushed to Lingzhou like a shot arrow. The Shenwei Army was like a burning torch, chasing the Mongolian arrow and setting fire to it, burning the arrow feathers and the arrow shaft, and burning straight towards the arrow head.
However, the cavalry commander Wang Gui who was in charge of the pursuit did not order his troops to block the Mongolian army, but only to pursue them closely. After chasing for thirty miles, the Shenwei Army stopped and waited for the infantry.
After Meng Gedu escaped from the pursuit of the Shenwei Army, he counted the number of people and found that there were less than a thousand people around him. This guy went to Lingzhou dejectedly, and after running another ten miles, he met the reinforcements who came to rescue him. He was so angry that he shouted and cursed the deputy general for wasting the opportunity to fight. Why didn’t he come earlier?
If the reinforcements had entered the city without rest last night, how could he have lost Yanzhou?
How dare the deputy general offend the eldest prince? He just listened to his scolding and punishment in obedience.
Meng Gedu thought about the fierce battle just now. Both sides were exhausted. Although the morale of the Shenwei Army's Desheng Division was high, they were also relaxing their vigilance. They certainly didn't expect his reinforcements to arrive. He wanted to rush over and fight back, not to recapture Yanzhou City, but to bite off a piece of meat from the Shenwei Army.
The scouts who came back later reported to him that the enemy cavalry were cleaning up the battlefield and retreating to rest.
He immediately ordered the army to fight again and launch a counterattack.
Seeing that their commanders were charging ahead fearlessly, the Mongolian soldiers all cracked their whips and chased after them.
Meng Gedu ran to the valley where a fierce battle had just taken place. He saw little smoke in front of him, the Shenwei Army was retreating, and dozens of horses were being driven in a scattered manner. He was overjoyed and shouted for the conch shells to be blown and for the soldiers to charge forward.
The Mongolian army quickly pressed forward, and more than a dozen soldiers of the Shenwei Army fled in panic.
However, that was the extent of the beauty he could see. Soon he heard explosions and smoke rising up. The entire gully was filled with the sound of the Mighty Army charging.
Damn, this is an ambush set by the Divine Might Army to attack him.
When the guy realized he had fallen into a trap, he immediately shouted to retreat.
