Ouyang Xuan knew that Yu Xing would not be satisfied, and would definitely intensify his efforts to stumble against the Pili Army secretly in the future. The most likely possibility would be to cut off the Pili Army's fleet to and from Bozhou. He has made two preparations for this. First, he asked Yang Yan to replace all the Nanyang Company sailors in charge of this line with Bozhou people and hang the flag of Bozhou Yang family. If Yu Xing wanted to seize the merchant ship, he would ask his father-in-law Yang Wen to negotiate with him. The second is to open up a land and water transport channel from Luzhou to Bozhou City. This line is actually hundreds of miles closer than the water line that passes through Chongqing and Fuzhou. However, it is not possible to reach Bozhou City directly from Luzhou via the Chishui River. It also requires walking on a hundred-mile mountain road to transport heavy goods such as bulk commodities and artillery. It is really not convenient. easy.
After envoy Yu Xing left, Ouyang Xuan put the matter aside completely, because he now had a more important thing - to capture the city of Chengdu and drive the Mongolian army out of western Sichuan. In the previous invasions of Shu by the Mongolian army since 1242, the city of Chengdu was massacred several times. The prosperity of its millions of people was long gone, and the city defenses were in dilapidated condition. However, because it is located in the center of the fertile land of the Western Sichuan Plain, its strategic location is extremely important, so it became the core city for the Mongolian army to operate Western Sichuan. Taking the city of Chengdu means that the Perak Army will occupy the fertile plains of western Sichuan, laying the foundation for the next step of expelling the Mongolian forces from Sichuan.
The army generally needs to rest after a war. On the one hand, it allows the soldiers to get sufficient rest, and on the other hand, it replenishes food, grass and equipment. This was not long after the end of the Jiading Campaign. The choice to attack Chengdu seemed hasty, but in fact it was Ouyang Xuan's careful decision after careful consideration. Before the Jiading Battle, he ordered the staff department to formulate a combat plan, and also ordered the military industry and logistics departments to make corresponding preparations. Even half a year ago, the special brigade, navy brigade, teaching brigade and caravan were planning reconnaissance matters. They sent a large number of reconnaissance teams to Chengdu, Hanzhou, Yunding City, Huaizhou and other places, and brought back a large number of Mongolian troops. Garrison, food and other information, and drew a map of the march route. The staff also formulated several sets of combat plans based on this intelligence data. Therefore, after the Jiading Battle, the military-government joint meeting quickly discussed matters related to the battle.
Ouyang Xuan believes that now is the best time to attack Chengdu, which is based on the following judgments. From a political perspective, because the two Mongol Khans were competing for power and had no time to attack the Han territories on a large scale, the Southern Song Dynasty court, which had gained a breather, did not take the opportunity to prepare for war. Instead, it paid external indemnities and sued for peace, and began to persecute Zhongliang internally, playing " The rabbit dies and the dog cooks" trick. After Kublai Khan led his army back to Kaiping from Ezhou, Jia Sidao boasted that he had defeated the enemy. The fatuous Lizong of the Song Dynasty believed him to be true, believed that he had the merit of reconstruction, and entrusted him with all the power in the court. After Jia Sidao took sole power, he began to collect charges against political opponents. The famous generals Xiang Shibi and Cao Shixiong were imprisoned simply for disrespecting him. The Perak Army's attack on Chengdu showed its opposition to reparations and peace, and the military action would inevitably lead to retaliation from the Mongolian troops in Sichuan and even the Mongolian troops in Jinghu and Lianghuai battlefields. When the war is tense, Jia Sidao and his like will also stop persecuting loyal ministers and good generals.
From a military perspective, the rivalry between the two Khans frightened the Mongolian soldiers in Sichuan. Now the secretaries Huoli and Qitai Buhua were executed, and Niulin was also deported to Kaiping. The remaining Mongolian soldiers were suspicious of each other and cooperated with each other. Coordination is not as good as before. Since the main battlefields between Kublai Khan and Ali Buge were in the Mongolian grasslands and the Qinlong area, Kublai Khan, who had initially taken control of Sichuan, mobilized a large number of Mongolian cavalry to go north to Qinlong, which greatly reduced the strength of the Mongolian army in Sichuan. Although the Sichuan Army still has about 15,000 troops, most of the new auxiliary armies have low combat effectiveness. Only the Hudu tribe and Liu Heima tribe have strong combat effectiveness. The former has one thousand Mongolian cavalry, while the latter's Mongolian Han army has one thousand cavalry and two thousand infantry.
On the other hand, the Perak Army currently has more than 10,000 people. In addition to the remaining personnel, it can dispatch field divisions, special forces brigades, teaching brigades, and naval brigades, totaling 9,000 regular troops. There are also tens of thousands of basic militiamen responsible for logistics and transportation, plus Jiading Zan Wanshou can also dispatch 2,000 men, which is more than the Mongolian army, and his firepower projection capability is several times that of the Mongolian army. At present, the only ones in the Sichuan Mongolian Army who can fight against the Perak Army are the 4,000 men of Hudu and Liu Heima. As for the combat effectiveness of the new annexed armies, they are not as good as the basic militiamen of the Perak Army. What's more important is that it is the flood season in July, and the large and small rivers in western Sichuan have wide water surfaces, which is very conducive to the warship operations of the Perak Army and Navy.
From an economic perspective, the population of Chongqing Prefecture and Qiongzhou now exceeds 500,000, with more than 3 million acres of fertile land. If the newly recovered Meizhou and Yazhou are added, the population has reached more than 700,000, and the farmland has reached more than 6 million acres. The dispatch of more than 20,000 people to fight will not have a big impact on economic activities, and food is also fully guaranteed. . On the other hand, in western Sichuan occupied by the Mongolian army, although the area of fertilized farmland was larger, due to their blind exploitation and expropriation, the population was less than 150,000, and there was no excess food at all. More importantly, in addition to the two most important indicators of population and food, the Perak Army also has industrial production capacity that terrifies the Mongolian army, and its war potential is several levels higher.
From a tactical level, the Mongolian troops in western Sichuan are currently stationed in counties under Chengdu Prefecture and in Hanzhou, Pengzhou, Mianzhou, Jianzhou, Longzhou and other places. The troops are scattered and lack effective coordination and command. Since the navy trained by Liu Heima had been completely disabled, the Mongolian army was unable to use the dense rivers in western Sichuan for maneuvers and could only rely on the two thousand cavalry for maneuvers. However, the Perak Army also had a cavalry brigade, which would offset its advantage. In this hot summer season, the horses produced by the Pili Army from the Fan region and the Dali Kingdom have an advantage over the Mongolian horses from the Mobei grassland. In this way, the Perak Army could concentrate its superior forces, seize Chengdu with lightning speed, and then defeat the other prefectures and counties one by one, even if it was announced.
This attack on Chengdu will involve the best of the Pili Army's infantry, cavalry, and water armies. It is not an exaggeration to say that it will be a battle of life and death. "The war is about economy and logistics." For this reason, under the coordination of Ouyang Xuan, the entire Pili Army is going all out for this battle. In terms of food, in addition to sufficient marching rations, Li Shuang ordered hundreds of pigs and old, weak, sick, and disabled horses and cattle to be killed, salted with smoke, and distributed to each soldier to ensure physical strength under high-intensity combat. For war horses and mules and horses transporting heavy artillery, roasted soybeans and broad beans and other refined ingredients also began to be added. In order to reduce the burden on the soldiers, Huang Dagen mobilized and modified a large number of civilian ships, especially light boats, for transportation through the dense river network. It is the rainy season and the road will become extremely difficult to travel if it rains continuously.
War is full of unexpected factors. For the Perak Army, whose main combat power is firearms, bad weather deserves special attention. Due to the widespread use of mercury fulminate fuses, the Pili Army's grenades and landmines do not need to be ignited when used. They are also wrapped in oil paper and oil cloth, so waterproofing does not pose a big problem. However, due to the lack of copper materials, most of the musket bullets currently used are paper shells, and the artillery powder bags are sealed in silk cloth. Although these ammunition were also sealed with tarpaulin, they were easily soaked by water under heavy rain. Although heavy rain will also wet the bow strings and seriously affect Mongolian cavalry shooting, the Mongolian cavalry can abandon the bow and use lances to charge into the formation. In order to prevent this from happening, Cao Ergou not only ordered more waterproof equipment, but also prepared many anti-cavalry weapons and tools.
Preparations for the war are in full swing, and the technical details of the battle are also raised in the sand table deduction and solved one by one. By the end of July, everything was ready to attack Chengdu, and they only waited for Ouyang Xuan's order.
