In Ouyang Xuan's view, losing Meizhou is not a bad thing. At present, the Mongolian army and navy are rapidly expanding, and their strength is also expanding rapidly. Especially in this dry season, without the pressure from the Pili Army gunboats from upstream, the strength of the Mongolian navy is no longer inferior to that of the Jiading navy. When the traditional "Southern Ships and Northern Horses" equilibrium situation is broken, it is a wise choice to abandon Meizhou, which is undefendable, and shrink its troops to the core fortress of Jiading. Just like clenching your fingers into a fist, the blow will be more powerful. Yu Xing obviously understood this truth, so Yu Dazhong did not punish him after he abandoned the city and fled back. "Brothers fight tigers, father and son go into battle." In Yu Xing's eyes, the army was already private property. In his view, although Yu Dazhong was a coward, he was his biological son after all. It was far more reassuring to hand over military power to him than to hand it over to a general with a different surname.
Just abandoning the defense of Meizhou without fighting would be a disaster for the local people. The Mongolian army crossed the border like locusts, and after occupying Meizhou City, they burned, killed, and looted everywhere, leaving a scorched earth wherever they went. Fortunately, a few days later, Yelu Maizhu led the main force to Jiading. Since Meizhou is full of low mountains and hills, many people still hid in the mountains and escaped the massacre by the Mongolian army. Although these people escaped with their lives, they also lost their houses and property. They lived extremely hard in the cold wind of winter in the first month of the year. Although there are many Wubao villages in Meizhou that have not been conquered by the Mongolian army, the number of refugees they can accommodate is limited, and a large number of refugees are still living in the wilderness. In the midst of hunger and cold, weak and sick people continued to die of cold and starvation. In despair, they cursed the brutal Mongolian army and the Song army for fleeing without a fight. They also took Yu Xing and his son with them.
Dong Datou is one of these refugees. He was originally a fisherman outside Meizhou City. He had a mother and a younger brother and sister at home. Relying on farming during the farming season and fishing during the free time, life was extremely difficult, but it was possible to survive. When Yu Dazhong escaped by boat, he also tried to escape to Jiading with his whole family in a small boat, but was blocked by the Mongolian navy. In panic, he fled up a small river and fled to the rolling hills twenty miles away from the city. middle. Just three days ago, when he went out to look for food and returned to his hiding place, he found that his mother and younger brother had been killed by the Mongolian swords, and only his sister escaped by chance. At this moment, he was panicked and didn't know where to go. To the east and north are Longzhou and Pengshan occupied by the Mongolian army, so naturally they cannot go there. To the south was Jiading where the war was going on, and to the west was Yazhou where Han and Yi people lived together. Many refugees went to these two places.
Just when Dong Datou was hesitating, a group of soldiers and a group of refugees appeared on the path not far from the hiding place. The soldiers took things to the refugees, pointed in the direction, and continued towards Meizhou City. The refugees also headed northwest. Seeing the group of soldiers walking away, Dong Datou took his sister and hurried up to inquire about the situation. It turns out that the group of soldiers just now came from Pujiang County in the northwest. At this moment, the refugees were heading to Pujiang County, which is under the jurisdiction of the Perak Army, which has become famous in the past two years. After hesitating for a moment, Dong Datou pulled his sister to follow him and headed northwest.
Dong Datou's hesitation comes from the completely different views of the outside world on the Pili Army. The dock where he often stayed was a well-informed place. He had heard about the Pili Army many times, but everyone had different opinions. According to official sources in Meizhou, the Pili army did not respect the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, practiced all kinds of promiscuous techniques, and did not follow etiquette and rebelled against their superiors. The scholars under his rule were not familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, and did not regard the Three Cardinal Principles and the Five Constant Rules as a guideline; in the words of the traffickers and pawns, The Perak Army has a different image. It has strict military discipline, pays attention to fairness and equality, does not impose excessive taxes, and does not engage in red tape. It emphasizes that the more you work, the more you get. As long as you work hard, you can have enough food and clothing. Dong Datou is doubtful about the following statement. Didn't he levy excessive taxes? How can such a good thing happen! Which official in the government doesn't love money? Take the clerk who collects fishing taxes at Meizhou Wharf as an example. Dong Datou pays the tax every month, so doesn’t he have to give him a few fresh fish from time to time? Otherwise, this little official will find trouble with him at any time.
The reason why the Perak soldiers appeared in Meizhou was because of the military order issued by Ouyang Xuan. Currently, the Mongolian army is aggressively attacking Jiading, and the Perak Army obviously cannot sit idly by. However, because the waterway was blocked and the Perak Army was unable to fight the Mongolian army in the field, Ouyang Xuan ordered attacks from multiple directions to harass the Mongolian army with special operations. This first direction is the direction of Meizhou across the river from Pujiang River. There are four counties in Meizhou. In addition to Pengshan County, which was previously occupied by the Mongolian army, Meishan County and Qingshen County, Fukuo County, Zhoucheng were also occupied by the Mongolian army this time. Only the part of Danling County bordering Yazhou has not yet fallen. Since Qingshen County is too far away and there are very few Mongolian troops in Danling County, the Perak Army mainly operates in Pengshan and Meishan counties this time, and these two counties are also important food routes for the Mongolian army to attack Jiading.
The Perak Army had also collected intelligence in Meizhou before. Just to avoid offending Yu Xing and his son, they conducted reconnaissance in disguise and did not reveal the identity of the soldiers. This time Yu Dazhong abandoned the city and fled without a fight, which not only lost the support of the local people, but also gave the Pili Army a legal excuse to conduct public activities in Meizhou. The main force of this Meizhou military operation was the special battalion, and other troops from the Internal Guard Brigade were also mobilized to form more than ten temporarily established reinforced platoons. They did not attack cities and forts, but carried out ambushes, demolitions, night raids and other operations with the goal of disrupting the Mongolian army's food routes and the order of the occupied areas. Of course, rescuing and guiding refugees to the Perak military area is also one of the goals.
The reason why the military operations in Meizhou were based on strengthened platoons was because the Mongolian army plundered the countryside. The cavalry often moved in units of ten, and the infantry of the new attached army often moved in units of fifty. With a strengthened platoon, the army can easily defeat it. These reinforced platoons numbered between thirty and forty people and were mainly equipped with muskets, grenades, small shields and waist knives, as well as a few light tiger squatting cannons. Because the muskets were equipped with spears, they did not carry spears. Because of the many hills and low mountains, these reinforced platoons were not equipped with horses, but traveled through trails. With the strong physical ability of the special forces, the speed is not much slower, and the maneuverability is not easy to expose the target.
The special forces guerrillaed everywhere in Meizhou, causing the Mongolian army a huge headache. If the number of people pursued by the Mongolian army is small, they will be eaten, but if the number of people pursuing is large, the opponent will not show up at all. Although many trees in Meizhou have lost their leaves and the grass has withered in winter, it is extremely difficult to find a hiding place for dozens of people in the rolling hills. Dealing with guerrilla warfare is already a problem, let alone special forces with firearms. After more than twenty raiding teams were wiped out, the Mongolian army no longer dared to raid the countryside, and hundreds of people were sent to escort the food and supplies. However, this could not avoid being attacked. Often during the march, a few artillery shells would fall on the hillside. When the Mongolian army rushed to the top of the mountain out of breath, there were still people there. It was not safe for the Mongolian army to huddle in the city fortress. Shells would often fall from the sky while they were sleeping. Although they could not hurt many people, they were disturbed and unable to sleep all night long.
The Mongolian army also deliberately set up a trap and deployed heavy troops to lure the Perak army to attack. However, the special forces of the Perak Army were very vigilant and either did not fall for the trap or retreated before the encirclement was formed. There are lessons learned from the past. The special forces were more cautious, paid more attention to intelligence and reconnaissance, and did not fight uncertain battles at all. They even took advantage of the situation and deliberately led the pursuing Mongolian cavalry into mine arrays.
The Mongolian army was very angry at this kind of guerrilla tactics, but there was nothing they could do about it. At present, the main force is outside, and the hilly and low-mountainous terrain is not conducive to cavalry maneuvers, so they have to huddle in the city and hold on. Without the Mongols plundering everywhere, it would be much easier for a large number of refugees to go to Pujiang County.
