It was July 12, the ninth year of Hongwu in the Song Dynasty.
Tongling County, on the bank of the Yangtze River.
Two armies are facing each other across the river!
On the south bank of the Yangtze River, on a flat and open land near Tongling County, 24,500 Southern Song Dynasty Army Division cavalry have deployed one square array after another relying on the low banks of the Yangtze River. Although there are not many troops, the equipment of the more than 23,000 infantry troops is still very good, and they are all polished hot-forged infantry armor. As soon as the morning sun shines, there is a breathtaking cold light. About half of the warriors were armed with spears or long-handled knives and axes, and lined up behind each infantry phalanx, while those standing in front of the formation were warriors holding divine arm bows. In addition to being equipped with divine arm bows and belts, There are also hand knives, hammers and several bronze bombing pots that look like small wine bottles hanging on it!
There are also more than a dozen squat hotpot cannons and a dozen camel cannons mounted on carts lined up on the embankment.
What is more eye-catching than the equipment is of course the people who make up this army. All the warriors, no matter tall or short, looked very stocky and strong. And they are all very young, with the average age being in their twenties, which is when they are at their strongest. Now the Southern Song Dynasty court was indeed rich, and after the "abolition of military force and use of literature" reform, the three redundant and evil policies were almost completely eradicated, and it had enough financial resources to raise and train troops with full grain and full pay.
After these years of rigorous training, the new army of the Southern Song Dynasty has indeed become a powerful force... Regardless of anything else, just the rush march from Jinling City in the past few days would have been impossible without high military quality. .
And after nearly 300 miles of high-intensity marching, they can still maintain their current mental outlook and morale. How can they be regarded as the first-class army of this era?
Even Zhao Kai, who was standing on the second floor of a wine shop in Dukou Town on the other side of the Yangtze River and watching the battle with a telescope, couldn't help but nod and praise the army built with a lot of money in the Southern Song Dynasty.
"Yes, yes... If our Song Dynasty could have such elite soldiers ten years ago, how could it be difficult to declare peace?"
Yu Yunwen, a Hanlin scholar who was following Zhao Kai, smiled and handed over a sentence: "Although King Wu's small court has learned how to train troops, it still hasn't learned how to use them... They have fewer soldiers than us, and they are divided. They were demolished in Jiangdu and Jinling. Moreover, there is obviously a strong city of Jinling to rely on, so we can completely let our army cross the river, and then send troops from Jiangdu to cut off the Yangtze River waterway and trap us in the south of the Yangtze River.
In the end, tens of thousands of people were dispatched to block us on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and they blocked us along the way. The Yangtze River is so long, and they have to divide their troops everywhere. How many troops are needed? "
Zhao Kai laughed when he heard this and said: "To fight against the world with a corner, to fight against the empire with a vassal state... Their hearts are already weak. In addition, our achievements in the past ten years and our dynasty's 600,000 soldiers The number of heavenly soldiers. It would be strange if the monarchs and ministers of the Wu State did not advance or retreat and lost control! When they were advancing or retreating, they would give random orders like this.
Besides, even if Zhao Huan gathers all his elite troops in one place, can he defeat me? Haha, although his land division is elite, its artillery is weak and its cavalry is small... It's okay for a weak brigade, but it's not enough in front of me.
And they have never suffered from artillery bombardment, and they actually put their army behind the embankment... Think they can stop my artillery shells with the Yangtze River a few hundred paces wide and a embankment? Humph, wait and see! "
As he was speaking, there was a sound of footsteps behind him, and then the voice of the army commander Huang Wubing said: "Guan family, all the ministries have been arrayed, and the 80,000 soldiers are all armed and armed, just waiting for His Majesty's decree!"
"Okay!" Zhao Kai said with a smile, "Show out my six banners and recognition flags! Then give them half an hour of artillery preparations... Half an hour later, Li Shifu led the Second Army to cross the river first battle!"
"Here!"
...
"Long live Long live Long live......"
On the north bank of the Yangtze River, a huge cheering sound like a roaring mountain and a tsunami suddenly sounded, high and fierce, sweeping from the north bank of the Yangtze River to the south bank of the Yangtze River.
"Someone is shouting long live the mountain..."
"It's Zhao Kai...he's here!"
On a high ground outside Tongling County, Li Gang, the right privy envoy of the Song Dynasty, and Zhang Suo, the left privy envoy, were standing side by side, looking north.
The lineup of the Red Scarf Song Army on the north bank of the Yangtze River is also extremely amazing. The number of people alone is several times greater than that on the south side of the Yangtze River!
The armor is shining, the military flag is hunting, the team is in order, and the morale is high.
What's even more terrifying... is the cannon placed on the embankment outside Dukou Town on the north bank of the Yangtze River!
The 160 cannons of the four artillery generals have been placed in place, the gunners have been in place, and the ammunition has been loaded in place. The black muzzles of the guns are all pointed at the Southern Song Dynasty military formation on the south bank of the Yangtze River!
Seeing these cannons, Li Gang already felt bad... quite bad! Very bad! It feels very familiar!
It’s almost the same feeling as before the Battle of the Yellow River Ten Thousand Years Levee ten years ago! Is it going to repeat the same mistakes as ten years ago this time?
Thinking of this, Li Gang muttered in a low voice: "The Northern Army has a lot of barrels! And..."
Something feels wrong!
Zhang Suo on the side shook his head, "I'm not afraid...there is a Yangtze River across the river, and there are embankments to block it. When the Northern Army opens fire later, our people will squat down to avoid the bullets."
"Oh...that's good!" Li Gang muttered.
At this time, the shouts of the mountains on the north bank of the Yangtze River had stopped abruptly. This was the signal for the bombardment to begin!
The four artillery generals of the Northern Army, who had been waiting impatiently for a long time, drew out their straight swords at the same time, moved forward, and loudly ordered: "Fire!"
The gunners of 160 long-barreled cannons, short-barreled cannons, and mortars simultaneously sent the lit match ropes into the fire door, and tongues of flame spewed out from each muzzle!
Compared with the last time it attacked Yanyun, the artillery of the Northern Song Army had made some progress. Progress is mainly brought about by blooming bombs!
The "explosive bomb" technology introduced to deal with the tortoise-shell ships of the Southern Song Dynasty also gave the "short-barreled cannon" a new life, and howitzers such as the 10-pound short-barreled cannon also appeared.
These 160 cannons were placed on the embankments and docks on the north bank of the Yangtze River, only a few hundred steps (less than 1,000 meters) away from the Southern Song Army's positions on the south bank of the Yangtze River. It is already outside the effective range of the Southern Song Army's land division artillery, but for the better-performing Northern Song Army's 5-pound long cannon, 10-pound short cannon, 10-pound long cannon, and 25-pound mortar cannon, this distance can be used Produce maximum power and provide pretty good accuracy!
Polished solid bullets and explosive bullets were filled into the barrel of the gun one after another, and then spit out, flying towards the Southern Song Army's position on the other side... because the Southern Song Army's position was placed there generously, occupying an area of It's not too small, so the shells fired by these 160 cannons are almost never missed. The shells either hit the embankment or fell into the crowd behind the embankment.
On the Southern Song Army's position on the other side, plumes of smoke and fire suddenly rose up!
This is incredible!
Some of these pillars of smoke and fireballs rose up from the crowds of the Southern Song Dynasty infantry formation. When a ball of fireball rose up, a large area was thrown down around it, and the officers and soldiers who were not brought down also fell into panic... ...How is this going?
Why did it explode so well?
Whose frying pot exploded by mistake?
It doesn’t look like it, is it too powerful? Could it be that the Northern Army on the opposite side has developed some new type of explosive pot? If this is the case, this battle may be more dangerous than good!
"Boom boom boom..."
Then there was another terrifying scene of cannons roaring and shells exploding in the crowd!
Even if the infantry of the Southern Song Army had crouched down, they were still bombarded by artillery fire - it was a direct-fire artillery! There's no use squatting behind the embankment!
The Army Division of the Southern Song Dynasty, which had suffered two rounds of shelling, became even more chaotic. Some people wanted to escape, some wanted to find a place to hide, and some officers were trying to maintain order.
Just then, the third round of shells came over again!
This is not over yet!
Li Gang, who was supervising the battle at the rear, reacted quickly and immediately understood what was going on. "Blow up, explode the pot? The big tube of the Northern Army can hold the explosion pot... Damn it, why did I forget about Zhao Kai?" Are you good at strange and cunning skills?"
Zhang Suo was also anxious and hurriedly asked: "Yuanshu... what should we do? If the men just get bombed and don't fight back, their morale will definitely not be able to hold up after a long time!"
In fact, with dozens of mortars and short-barreled cannons that can open shells, it is impossible to defeat all of Li Gang's more than 20,000 men... not even a tenth of them.
But having to be bombarded all the time weakens morale too much!
When the morale of the Southern Song Army is weakened to a certain extent, the Northern Army can launch a cross-river charge... An army whose morale is close to collapse and the officers and soldiers are shrouded in panic cannot fight a fierce hand-to-hand battle!
Therefore, when the opponent reaches the south bank of the Yangtze River and engages in hand-to-hand combat, the Southern Army will most likely collapse at the first touch!
With the experience of many defeats, Li Gang knew something was wrong at the first moment, and made a prompt decision to Zhang Suo beside him: "Zhang Longtu... the situation is not right, so we can only use a trick. Use a trick." !”
"A plan?" Zhang Suo didn't understand at first, "What plan?"
Li Gang sighed: "Thirty-six strategies, walking is the best..."
Are you about to run? Zhang Suo never expected that Li Gang would become a coward now...
Zhang Suo shook his head, "Yuanshu, are you going to run away now...use a trick? Is this the end of the world?"
"Boom, boom, boom..." While the two were talking, there was another roar at the front, like the ground was shaking!
Li Gang glanced at the dozen or so fireballs that had just risen, and said with a wry smile: "We can't bear it... we must leave quickly! Keep the green hills here, don't worry about running out of firewood... Zhang Longtu, you Lead the infantry to go first, and I will lead the cavalry to cut off your rear!"
Zhang Suo was still hesitating, but Li Gang roared: "The official family only has these ten elite soldiers... We must keep some for him no matter what, so that the official family can have a way out!"
He even knows how to preserve his strength! If he had learned this skill early, Zhuang Zong and Zhao Ji would most likely still be around!
Zhang Suo asked: "Where are you going? Are you going back to Jinling City?"
Li Gang nodded, "Go back to Jinling first... When you see the empress, tell her to close the door for a few days as much as possible, so that the officials can have more time to retreat!"
