The Dinghai Navy is an army that is more like the Jin Army than the Jin Army. Its strengths are just like the evaluation of the Jurchens in their heyday by the Song Dynasty general Wu Yu in the early years: cavalry, perseverance, heavy armor, and missing bows.
However, in the past two years, the proportion of cavalry in the Ding Navy has actually declined.
Controlling the northeastern hinterland and the grasslands behind the Monan Mountains, there are extremely many horses. However, in order for horses that are kept on the grassland to become qualified war horses, they still need to go through a considerable training process. Ding Haijun is not like the Mongols, who naturally have tens of thousands of herdsmen on hand, and their progress in this regard is not fast.
On the other hand, Ding Haijun’s financial constraints are not fake. Since the end of last year, Ding Haijun has been working hard to make money through various channels. For example, Monan is selling cattle and sheep, relying on the consumption power of Zhongdu City's millions of people to eat a lot of sheep. But this money cannot be turned into armaments, because it quickly turned into cattle and was distributed to the military households and shady households that were constantly being resettled in Shandong and Hebei, just like filling a bottomless pit.
The Monan Grassland spends too much energy on cattle and sheep, and the war horses still rely on the original output of the northeastern hinterland. Compared with the number of Dinghai navy soldiers, which had more than tripled, the war horses were completely unable to keep up.
Furthermore, this time the navy went south, all the food and fodder they used relied on the savings of more than half a year. Guo Ning wanted to unify the Jin Kingdom, not to plunder and plunder grain. He must not allow his cavalry to chew grain fields, causing the people on Nanjing Road to hate him for nothing. As a result, the pressure on logistics is too great to be estimated.
Therefore, in addition to the two hundred scout cavalry, if we want to organize manpower to explore the battlefield situation, we have to draw it from other troops. Normally, the commander-in-chief would first mobilize the cavalry of his headquarters. With Guo Ning's casual words, the generals present would mobilize four hundred cavalry under his command. This shows that his ability to control the generals and the army is extremely strong.
Just when the generals were preparing to go back for mobilization, there was a rapid sound of horse hooves outside the Chinese army tent.
Ni Yi has been in the army for a long time and gradually accumulated experience. From a long distance away, he could hear the familiar ringing of bells: "My lord, this is a group of people I sent to the far post in the south. The leader is Bai Liunu from Caozhou. I immediately used the eight-hundred-mile expedited Luan bell. , when there is something important."
"Let them come!"
Ni took a big step and walked outside the Chinese army's tent, pursing his lips as a whistle.
The generals in the tent stood up to take a look, and in a blink of an eye, they saw the soldiers on guard outside the tent dispersed one after another. At the camp gate, under the red flag rustling in the wind, five or six cavalry rode in.
They were all dressed in ordinary people's clothes, some looked like farmers, some looked like hawkers. When they ran closer, those with sharp eyes saw that the leading cavalryman was holding a small red flag high with a painted on it. A black dragon bird graphic.
The scout cavalry pays attention to concealment and travels through the battlefield, and strives to be extremely strict. Unless the commander specifically requests it before the two armies meet, they will not participate in large-scale battles, let alone run with great fanfare. But the scout in front of him immediately hung up the bell and took out the iron dragon bird flag that represented the status of Duke Zhou's personal guard. This was to ensure that there were no obstacles along the way, which meant that something big was going on!
The generals were shocked and suspicious when they saw the scout cavalry dismounting their horses. They all knelt down in front of Guo Ning and said, "See the Duke."
"It's been hard work driving back and forth for several days in this poisonous sun."
Guo Ning returned to the table and took out a plate with wild fruits: "I just got a few fruits, which are sour and sweet to clear my mouth. Come on, you can share a portion and taste the freshness."
The scout leader named Bai Liunu took the fruit plate, bowed to Guo Ning to thank him, and then said: "To inform the Duke, I led a sentry to Chenzhou last night, and caught two tongues on the road. They were from Chenzhou." The defense envoy Lu Ziyu and the Caizhou defense envoy Wanyan Fozhu sent urgent messengers to Kaifeng."
According to Guo Ning's military plan, he personally led his troops to attack Kaifeng. It was Monk Luo and the Taishan troops of the Hongyi Army who were responsible for stabilizing the back road and expanding the flanks to deter the Jin army in Hao, Su, Shou and Si states.
But if Bai Liunu was not mistaken, Chenzhou and Caizhou, which were located to the west of Haozhou and connected Tang and Deng, could not withstand it. Was it Monk Luo's partial division that used fierce troops, or was it Shi Qing, Hao Ding, Xia Quan and others who fought extra aggressively in order to show their merit in front of the new master?
Guo Ning thought to himself and asked easily:
"Chen Zhou and Cai Zhou are in an emergency? Master Huifeng, Shi Qing, Hao Ding, and Xia Quan, are they moving so fast?"
"My lord, those who threaten Chenzhou and Caizhou are not our people." Bai Liunu took out the robbed letter from his arms and held it up with both hands: "It's the Song Army."
"Song Army? How could there be a Song Army?"
All the generals in the tent were puzzled. Someone laughed and said, "Could it be that they are salt thieves who have received official titles from the Song Dynasty? They often move with two to three hundred people. Maybe they are more courageous now."
Before this deployment of troops, the Kaifeng imperial court sent a large number of troops south to plunder. In the Huainan direction of the Song Dynasty, which is close to Kaifeng, Xu Jun, the commander of the garrison of the Jiankang Prefecture, had fought with Wanyan Xielie's soldiers and horses, and several other captains of the Kaifeng court were also killed by red coats. The line of troops heading south was entangled in the Song Dynasty by people called the Zhongyi Army.
In addition, Wanyan Saibu's troops in the corner of Hao, Su, Shou and Si were dealt with by Monk Luo. Wanyan Yoke's troops in Tang, Deng and other states had previously gone deep into the Song Dynasty to threaten Zaoyang, Xiangyang and others. People, the two families have been turbulently fighting each other.
It was precisely because most of the main forces of the Kaifeng court were entangled with the Song people that Guo Ning was given the opportunity to make a surprise attack.
In the view of the civil and military personnel of Dinghai Navy, including Guo Ning, once it was discovered that Kaifeng Mansion was threatened, the Kaifeng imperial court's southward troops would naturally rush back to help. However, the Song people had always been weak, but they may not have the courage to pursue them, let alone go deep into the Jin Dynasty. Within the country.
Did the Song people mentioned by the scout cavalry fall from the sky out of thin air?
On the land border between the Song and Jin countries, smuggling merchants and salt dealers were very rampant. In order to create obstacles for each other, the two families often granted certain low-level military positions to the salt dealers' private soldiers. That's why the soldiers suspected that Bai Liunu and other scouts had made a mistake.
But after reading the letter asking for help, Guo Ning frowned.
He handed the letter to Han Xuan and walked back and forth twice in the middle of the army.
"Zhao Fang, the envoy of Baomo Pavilion and Jinghu System of the Song Dynasty, followed the order of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty and led 20,000 elite troops to the north. He had defeated Tang and Deng. The two front generals were Jingxi Road Soldiers and Horses. Meng Zongzheng, the military commander of the Zaoyang Army, and Hu Zaixing, the deputy commander of the army and horses. These two are famous generals in the Southern Dynasties. They have captured Yancheng and are advancing on Kaifeng!"
There was a commotion among the generals in the tent.
And Guo Ning returned to the table, swept away the excess pen and ink, looked at the array carefully, and couldn't help but laugh: "Okay, okay, as expected of the Song Dynasty, which has been at odds with Dajin for hundreds of years, and worthy of being in control of the Song Dynasty, and holding the emperor in the palm of his hand. The powerful minister Shi Miyuan! This army came so quickly... I actually underestimated them!"
