Contrary to the good situation in the mountains, the situation at the bottom of the mountains is getting worse and worse. Sporadic people continued to escape the hunting of the Mongolian cavalry and fled to the mountains, and they also brought bits and pieces of news from the mountains. It is said that Xiong Ben recruited many bandits to retreat in Yongkang City, and also deceived a large number of fleeing people. Now he has more than 300 bandits, threatening nearly a thousand people. The poorly defended Hengyuan Village was plundered by Mongolian cavalry. Dozens of Xiong Ben's bandit soldiers and nearly a hundred civilians who were guarding the village were either killed or fled. There is currently no one in the village. After the Mongolian army retreated, Xiong Ben sent a small number of bandits to appear near Hengyuan Village from time to time to show that he had not given up the jurisdiction of Hengyuan Town.
During this period, the messengers from Chongqing Prefecture also took risks to enter the mountains. Commander Pan's letter asking Ouyang Xuan to mobilize troops to Fucheng became more and more urgent, and his tone became more and more severe. However, in the eyes of the Perak Army, this was purely a bluff. Although Ouyang Xuan ignored Pan Tongzhi's orders, he also sympathized with the innocent people in his heart. But he also clearly realized that with the current strength of the Perak Army, it did not have much advantage over the field army of the Southern Song Dynasty official army. It was Meng Lang who had to fight against the Mongolian cavalry.
The current weakness of the Perak Army is first of all due to its small number of people. Compared with the tens of thousands of troops dispatched by the Mongolian army and the official army in a single battle, the Perak Army's standing army only had 1,000 people and 500 semi-off-duty troops. Even if they were all dispatched, there would only be 1,500 people, which was less than a fraction of the Mongolian army and the official army. If the Pili Army's wealth reaches Fucheng, with Pan Zong's unique abilities, it will definitely be rushed forward and used as cannon fodder, and it will be quickly consumed. The current combat strength of the Perak Army is divided into three parts, namely the field battalion, the garrison battalion and the internal guard battalion. The Internal Guard Battalion was expanded and upgraded from the original guard force, with a total of 400 people. It consists of a guard company, a reconnaissance company, a counter-espionage company and a hoeing company. Dong Hu is still in charge. Functionally, the guard company is responsible for the security of military and political leaders and important institutions; the reconnaissance company is responsible for collecting external military and political intelligence information; and the counterintelligence company is responsible for preventing infiltration and destruction by various forces, and also preventing the leakage of advanced technologies. The Mongols are extremely good at using spies to detect situations and steal technology, as well as spread rumors, assassinations, and arson and sabotage. They are first-class masters; the anti-traitor company is specially designed to deal with traitors, and can even use physical means of elimination such as assassination. Under the invitation of the Mongolian army, a large number of Song officers and soldiers surrendered. It is no exaggeration to say that the main force attacking the Southern Song Dynasty was the new auxiliary army composed of surrendered generals and troops. The garrison battalion consists of five companies with 500 people, which is a semi-off-the-job reserve force. In addition, the garrison battalion also conducts military training for men aged 16 to 50 in the mountains during the off-season. In case of emergency, these five companies can be expanded to 3,000 men.
The Pili Army's shortcomings are also due to its lack of war experience. Now the core combat strength of the Perak Army is the field battalion led by Ouyang Xuan. The original five companies plus the newly established Tang Xiangwei Sixth Company, totaling six companies with more than 600 people. The field camp is a new type of army that mainly uses firearms. Although its combat power is better than that of the government's Xiang army, it has beaten the Xiong Ben gangsters to flight several times. But after all, the formation of the army was too short, and it had not experienced the tempering of fierce battles. According to estimates by Li Shuang, Yu Zhu and other senior Perak Army officials, the current combat strength of the field battalion is equivalent to that of the Forbidden Army and the Mongolian New Affiliated Army that have been fighting in the Southern Song Dynasty for a long time, even if the number of people is not much different. The army has no chance of winning if it faces the Mongolian cavalry. In addition to its own cavalry, the Mongolian army also had a large number of "Han troops" and "new auxiliary troops". The Mongolian Han Army was composed of all the northern ethnic groups in the area formerly ruled by the Jin Kingdom, including the armies of Han princes and other ethnic minorities. For example, the Khitan Liu Heima was a Han Army. The "New Affiliated Army" is an army composed of soldiers who were surrendered from the Southern Song Dynasty.
The Pili Army's lack of combat effectiveness is also due to the many shortcomings of its firearms. One of the shortcomings of current firearms is that the production technology of artillery and grenades is not yet mature, and it has not formed a crushing advantage over the cavalry. For example, the current grenade fire method relies on burning a match rope, and the explosion time is not easy to control. It usually takes two seconds to explode after being thrown on the ground, and it is easy for the cavalry to escape. This will make the infantry easily attacked by the Mongolian light cavalry during the march. There is no effective counterattack. If the grenade is improved to ignite with a pull cord or explode on touch, mass production of mercury fulminate and glass will be required. When the Mongolian army launches an attack in the plains, they often use heavy cavalry to charge. This is a tank from the cold weapon era. Both men and horses are covered with three layers of heavy armor. Spears and giant shields alone cannot stop its charge, but light muskets, The Tiger Crouching Cannon and grenades are too weak to break through three layers of heavy armor. The breech-loaded artillery was powerful enough, but it was bulky and had a slow rate of fire, making it inconvenient to carry while marching. The Mongolian army also learned to make and use gunpowder weapons in the long years of fighting with the Jin and Song Dynasties. Although they are far less sophisticated than the Perak Army's firearms, their battle-hardened elite are not afraid of firearms. Only by developing and mass-producing powerful new gunpowder and continuously improving the artillery casting process can the Mongols no longer be bloodthirsty and become good at singing and dancing.
The second shortcoming of firearms is that they are easily affected by bad weather. Perhaps due to auspicious stars, the Perak Army encountered good weather in previous battles, and bad weather did not affect the use of grenades or artillery. But when the caravan went to Qiongzhou to buy salt some time ago, it encountered rainy days in Dayi County. When the bandits rushed towards the caravan in the rain, the accompanying guards threw grenades one after another, but only two of the more than ten grenades that were thrown exploded, and the rest were misfired due to moisture in the gunpowder. Although the guards fought tooth and nail to repel the bandits, the casualties were considerable. Afterwards, the industrial company also improved the waterproof packaging to solve the problem, and reinforced the wrapping of gunpowder bags and grenades with grease cloth, but there was still no better solution to prevent the firearms from getting wet in rainy days.
The third shortcoming of firearms is that the level of manufacturing technology is still very low, and production capacity has not been increased. In particular, the yield rate of gun barrels has been very low, with a pass rate of only about 40%. Some unqualified artillery barrels even have dozens of potholes, some have abnormally rough inner bores, and some have caliber deviations exceeding the specified value. These unqualified artillery must be recast, resulting in insufficient artillery equipment for field camps. Fifty percent of the establishment number. As for the muskets, Ouyang Xuan asked the skilled blacksmith Hu to trial-produce the barrel. It took him more than a month to drill out a qualified barrel. If the accessories and polishing were added, a skilled craftsman would have to make three It takes a month to make a qualified musket. Moreover, although the produced muskets were powerful, their rate of fire, accuracy and range were not as good as those of bows and arrows. Only when equipped in large quantities and fired in salvos could their full power be exerted.
