On the wall of Zhigu Walled City, the soldiers and civilians were silent. Everyone stared with wide eyes at the land and water Song troops coming from the east and filling the fields and rivers. Many people's faces were pale and their faces were covered with sweat. From their trembling bodies, you could see the fear and suffering in their hearts.
With so many Song troops, are they going to take Hebei in one fell swoop?
The more than a hundred Han troops on the wall were just cannon fodder during the siege of the Mongolian cavalry. The elite Han troops were all in Yanjing City, Zhending Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture. As for these stragglers and local people, they were selectively forgotten.
"Shi Er, what should we do? Are the two office lords being poisoned?"
On the wall of the village, Shi Da, the servant of the Shi Mansion, looked trembling and solemn.
He is not afraid of the Song army. His old master Shi Tianni has died in the battle, leaving these two young sons without heirs. If he loses his life in a fight with the Song army, Shi Tianni will be the last in the line.
"Big brother... calm down and wait and see! Maybe... the two yamen have not... met Song Jun!"
Shi Er frowned and looked at Song Jun in the distance outside the city, his face turned pale and he stammered.
"Do you want to hit it with a trebuchet..."
The officer came up, but before he finished speaking, he was choked back by Shi Da's cold words.
"The Song army has at least tens of thousands of people and hundreds of artillery pieces. How can we fight? If you fight, the whole city will be buried with you! Save it!"
"We have too few people, how can we fight against Song Jun? Let's wait and see, wait until the two yamen come back!"
Shi Er followed and spoke decisively.
"Generals, don't fight forcefully! There are not many villagers left in Zhigu Village!"
Several white-haired old men on the wall of the village begged the officers, Shi Da and others.
"I know! Don't worry!"
The two brothers Shi glanced at the officer and said impatiently.
The officer frowned and said nothing.
Although he was appointed by Yanjing, the Song army was powerful, and he did not want to offend the Shi family, but wanted to survive.
Not to mention, he is also one of the abandoned ones, no one cares about him.
The Song army was covered in iron armor, with countless artillery carriages and faint artillery. The knights were fierce and fierce, and their quivers were full. Their faces were weathered. The cavalry came from the dragon in rows. The official road goes forward, encounters the wheat fields outside the city, and automatically shrinks into a long line, all the way to the west. Even though the wheat in the fields had been harvested, no one from the tens of thousands of troops entered the fields beside the road.
A warship slowed down. On the deck of the warship, Shi Quan shouted loudly toward the wall of Zhigu Village.
"Shi Da, Shi Er, Tulu Gan, I am in the Song Army now, everything is fine! Don't act rashly, lest you lose your life!"
"Shi Da, Shi Er, we are fine. The Song Army will not do anything to us. Don't go against the Song Army! Wait until we come back!"
Shi Yi did the same and shouted to the wall of the village.
"It's Yanei! What should I do?"
Shi Da saw it clearly and was immediately dumbfounded.
"Tulugan, what should we do? Do you want to save the two yamen?"
Shi Er stared at the warships on the river bank and was helpless.
"What can we save? The Song Army is a steamship, how can we catch up with it? Didn't the Yameni tell us not to move, otherwise we will harm the Yameni! It's better to obey the Yameni's military orders!"
This time, officer Tulugan refused without hesitation.
A hundred people rushed into an army of 100,000 tigers and wolves to save people. Are you kidding me? Even if he dared, who would be foolish enough to die with him?
The warship left in thick smoke. Brother Shi had no choice but to look at the Song army heading west and began to comment.
"It's scary to look at him, he's such an elite man from Niang!"
Shi Da said a heartfelt sentence while sweating profusely.
"Fortunately we are not attacking Zhigu Village!"
Some Han soldiers spoke out with lingering fears.
The Song army marched non-stop, and it took a long time before they disappeared from the sight of the Mongolian army at the top of the city. The soldiers and civilians looked at me and I looked at you, all of them looked relieved and sweating profusely.
"If we fight again, the people of Zhigu Village will die!"
The white-haired old man followed with fear.
"If you could ride on a steamboat, what would it be like?"
Officer Tulugan said suddenly.
The Song Army's land and water formation rolled towards the north. On the deck of the warship, Meng Gong, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition, frowned as he looked at the endless plains on both sides of the bank.
The areas south of the Juma River, including the south of Yanmen Pass in Hedong to the west, were once the homeland of the Song Dynasty. However, it has been a hundred years since they broke away from the embrace of the Song Dynasty and were trampled by the iron hoofs of the North.
The Northern Song Dynasty sent troops to the north many times in an attempt to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, but all failed. The Jurchens rose up, defeated the Liao Kingdom, and occupied most of the sixteen states of Yanyun. In order to get back "Yanjing", the Northern Song Dynasty lost 200,000 taels of silver and 200,000 taels of silk each year, and another 1 million yuan of "tax money from the capital", and then "bought" the dilapidated Yanjing from the Jin Kingdom. The empty city of Yanjing.
A flash in the pan took back the city of Yanjing, and the Jurchens invaded the south on a large scale. Jingkang was so shameful that even the city of Tokyo was lost, let alone the distant sixteen states of Yanyun.
With the rise of Mongolia, the Jin people were driven back to the south of the Yellow River. Yanjing became the Daxing Prefecture of Mongolia and began to implement civil administration last year.
Yanjing City was the first fortress to be conquered in the Northern Expedition of the Song Dynasty King's Army, and he, Meng Gong, also had to take it. Not only is it to seize the foundation of eternity, but it is also the wish of more than 70 million people in the Song Dynasty.
His eyes glanced at the people watching attentively on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. They were sallow and thin, wearing short clothes made of coarse cloth and patched one after another. Many of them looked numb and looked like beggars. There were naked children with no clothes everywhere in the fields.
Meng Gong felt heavy and looked back sadly.
The Mongolian iron cavalry is all over the world, killing people everywhere. There is not even a tenth of the people in the two rivers left, and the people's livelihood is so miserable. It is really shocking.
"Fourth brother, Your Majesty doesn't really want to seize the Yanyun Sixteenth Prefecture in one fell swoop, right?"
Seeing that Meng Gong was in a heavy mood, his third brother Meng Jing, the former commander of the army during the Northern Expedition, quietly changed the topic from the side.
People's livelihood was very difficult, and this was the case in the Song Dynasty, let alone under the rule of the Mongolia, which only knew how to burn, kill and loot.
Meng Gong was very strict. He didn't know until now that the Song Dynasty King's army went north this time to seize Yanjing City and decide the outcome in one battle.
"Your Majesty calls this "beheading operation." Yanjing is the head of Hebei. Once Yanjing is captured, it means that Hebei has no head. First Yanjing, then Taiyuan, and then Yunzhong. The gates of the two rivers are closed, and then It’s the Central Plains.”
After wiping the sweat from his head, Meng Gong glanced at the north and smiled slightly.
More than 100,000 elite soldiers and 10,000 naval troops are transporting grain and grass from Dengzhou, Shandong. There are endless ships, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers will continue to be supplied...
Coupled with the fact that Du Gao's troops from Shandong entered the Central Plains and were eyeing it, the Song army was determined to win. This would be a national war worthy of being recorded in history.
"Your Majesty, you really dare to think! If he restores the Central Plains, won't he have a deepening misunderstanding with Princess Jin?"
Meng Jing shook his head, his eyes full of shock.
After crossing the Hebei Plain, we went directly northward by sea. The cavalry on the west route crossed the Yellow River and arrived at Yanjing together with the warships. The infantry arrived in two or three days. It faces the Dugao tribe in Shandong and the Yujie tribe in the west from north to south and east to west.
A three-pronged attack is a bold idea that only His Majesty can come up with.
"Your Majesty not only dares to think, but also dares to do it! He only has the Song Dynasty in his heart, and there is no princess of the Jin Kingdom."
Meng Gong was filled with emotions. He looked at the vast land of Youyan, and his heart felt heavy unconsciously.
"As the head coach of this Northern Expedition, I am walking on thin ice with trepidation. If I cannot win the city of Yanjing, I will have no choice but to raise my head to meet the king!"
The Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun has a dangerous terrain and is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It has always been the most important northern defense line of the Central Plains Dynasty. If the Song people owned the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun, they could renovate the Great Wall defense system built in previous dynasties. With the Song Dynasty's strong economic strength and population advantages, it would be even more difficult for the northern nomads to enter the Central Plains.
As for Meng Gong, if he could not capture the city of Yanjing, he would have no choice but to die to repay his kindness.
"Fourth brother, brothers fighting tigers, father and son go into battle. You and I are serving in the army together, so don't worry. The four of us brothers are also the generals of the Northern Expedition. This is an unprecedented event!"
Meng Jing's face was flushed and she looked a bit high-spirited.
During this Northern Expedition, four of the ten brothers from the Meng family came, the third oldest Meng Jing, the fourth oldest Meng Gong, the seventh oldest Meng Zhang, and the tenth oldest Meng Ying. If we can seize the opportunity and capture the city of Yanjing, we will definitely make great achievements, and it is possible to be crowned king and prime minister.
"Whether it's a grand event or a common enemy, we have to capture Yanjing City. If we can't capture Yanjing City, everything we say will be in vain, and we will live up to His Majesty's high hopes."
Meng Gong's expression became serious and worried.
In addition to the four Meng brothers, the emperor also transferred 20,000 cavalry led by Cao Youwan from the northwest border to assist. I heard that another powerful general, Lu Wende, was also leading his troops to join him in Hebei.
Forty thousand northwest cavalry, plus ten thousand cavalry commanded by Lao Shi Mengying, totaling fifty thousand elite cavalry.
In addition, Tian Yi, the emperor's childhood friend and the chief firearms instructor of the Jinling Military Academy, served as the commander of the artillery soldiers in the army, and Li Tang, the emperor's personal guard, served as the artillery commander.
It was obvious that the emperor wanted a complete victory and restored the Lianghe and Yanyun sixteen states in one fell swoop.
If he can't capture Yanjing City again, he can only find a piece of tofu to kill him.
"Capturing the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun is a great achievement that even Song Taizu Song Taizong has not completed. Once it is realized in the hands of you and my brothers, there will be no regrets in this life."
Meng Jing sighed unconsciously.
"Not bad! Restore the sixteen states of Yanyun, leave a name in history, and have no regrets in this life! This is what a man should do!"
Meng Gong said excitedly and suddenly became heroic.
Whenever he thought of the success of the Northern Expedition, his blood boiled and he couldn't help himself.
"Fourth brother, your Majesty sent your uncle here this time. What is the purpose of this?"
Meng Jing looked at Zhou Ping, who was standing on the deck in front of him and looked at him, and said curiously.
"Third brother, you don't know this yet, but His Majesty has appointed my uncle as the envoy of the Hebei Road System. As soon as I, the King of the Song Dynasty, capture the city of Yanjing, we will implement civil rule in Hebei and restore the people's livelihood in Hebei as soon as possible."
Meng Gong's words made Meng Jing blurt out in shock.
"Your Majesty is determined to win!"
Hebei Zhizhi envoys have been sent, and it seems that even if we don't capture Yanjing, we can't do it.
"Your Majesty has great talent and great strategy. He has an army of 300,000 men and is advancing from both the east and west. If the two rivers cannot be restored, we brothers will not go back. We will have no shame in going back!"
Meng Gong spoke generously and with great ambition.
"General, Your Majesty is strategizing, and the soldiers of the three armies will work hard. Our army will definitely take Yanjing City!"
The naval general next to him, Liu Zheng, was full of ambition and suddenly picked up the conversation.
"General, if you can't take Yanjing, just cut off my head, Wei Jinyu's neck!"
Artillery commander Wei Jinyu also said vigorously.
"Liu Zheng, Wei Jinyu, you are right. We have decided on Yanjing City!"
Meng Gong's heart surged and his mood suddenly became brighter.
If he wants to make great achievements and seal himself as a wolf, or Yuan Jia hastily and hastily looks north, he is trembling at this moment.
"General, General Lv Wende is coming with 20,000 cavalry to help. They will be here soon!"
When the scout came to report, Meng Gong let out a long sigh and put down the last huge stone in his heart.
When the troops returned to their positions, there were these arrogant generals, these tigers and wolves, hundreds of thousands of troops, countless artillery and cavalry. Even if there were more than 100,000 Mongolian troops in Yanjing City, what did he have to worry about?
