Chapter 326 I'm Not Resigned
Lai Chuanfang ordered Da Kui to lead 5,000 soldiers and horses, and his air force brigade and thirty mortars to set off immediately to Shanzhou. If they could really capture Shanzhou city, its strategic significance would be no less than that of capturing Luoyang.
Liu Qiguang wanted to do this very much, but he could only watch Da Kui earn military merit.
Lai Chuanfang smiled and said that there is always a chance. When General Cao arrives, we will plan carefully and we must take over Luoyang City.
When issuing combat orders, Zhao Yulin often told his brothers to act accordingly, and there were very few death orders to capture a city.
Because the battlefield situation changes rapidly, only the brothers on the front line know the enemy's situation best. If the brothers are not given the authority to act on their own initiative, they may lose the initiative and cause irreparable and significant losses.
But Lai Chuanfang criticized Liu Qiangguang, saying that he was not stable as the main general. There are always casualties in war. He cares about the lives of his brothers, so doesn't Lai Chuanfang feel the same?
Lai Chuanfang handed Liu Qiangguang a cup of hot tea and said: The Third Young Master asked us to attack Luoyang. This is a counterattack by our Shenwei Army against the Mongolian Army. There will be more brutal battles in the future. The wars will become bigger and bigger, and there will be more and more sacrifices. Everyone must be prepared to sacrifice.
When Cao Youwen arrived in Song County, he realized that the Mongolian army in Luoyang was well prepared and ready to defend the city to the death.
But he was unwilling to give up. He had suffered a great loss in Luoyang during the Eastern Expedition. Today, he had at least 100,000 soldiers, as well as an air force of hot air balloons and red cannons. He would definitely give it a try.
Miao Gui and Yang Xingyun quickly mobilized and deployed their troops, swept away the remaining enemies in the counties around Luoyang, and completely surrounded Luoyang.
However, after the Second and Third Column organized a tentative attack, they found that the situation was the same as Liu Qiangguang's, that Luoyang was too difficult to conquer.
The enemy blocked the city gate with mud and sandbags, and the gate became as thick as the city wall, more than ten meters thick, which could not be blasted open by the red cannon.
Although the Air Force cleared the enemies defending the city in the sky, they were unable to blow open the city gates. It was difficult to climb into the city from the ten-meter-high city wall, and it was too difficult for the soldiers to climb up the city using ladders.
After the Shenwei Army soldiers rushed to the city, the air force did not dare to approach and bomb. They could only block the enemy soldiers from a distance. However, both sides were desperate to reinforce, and the enemy used kerosene, thunder stones, and everything else. The casualties of the soldiers were too great, and the number of people rushing forward could not keep up with the number of sacrifices.
This attack resulted in more than 3,000 casualties, with more than a dozen generals in the squadron alone being killed.
Lao Cao had no choice but to stop and study new tactics.
At this time, good news came from Shanzhou.
Li Dagui had indeed carefully selected 800 warriors to cross the river at night and sneak into Shanzhou City. He had already wiped out the remaining Mongolian troops on the south bank of the Yellow River and opened up the waterway to the river.
Madd, that's great.
Cao was happy. The Shenwei Army had already controlled many ferry crossings along the river, except for Shanzhou. After taking over Shanzhou, the navy of Guanzhong could go down the river unimpeded. This increased his confidence in taking Luoyang.
However, it is still difficult to crack the iron nut of Luoyang just relying on the advantage of hot air balloon air force.
Lao Cao saw through the telescope that the thunder bombs that landed on the city wall only created some small holes, and the battlements on top were blown away. However, how many thunder bombs would be needed to blow down the city wall?
Seeing that the three attacks were fruitless and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, Yang Xingyun and Lai Chuanfang proposed to stop the attack. Miao Gui said that the Mongolian troops in Zhengzhou had come to reinforce and we had to plan what to do next.
Lao Cao first asked about the logistics supply. Miao Gui said that there was no need to worry about logistics, as the water transportation on the river was now open, so everything could be obtained.
Lao Cao was no longer panicked.
He said that since the city gate was blocked and they couldn't get out for the time being, then we should ignore the people in the city and fight the reinforcements, the Mongolian troops that came to reinforce.
The brothers were delighted and thought, this is a great way to encircle the enemy and attack the reinforcements, so they started planning immediately.
The early morning in Chengdu was very quiet, but there was some movement in Zhao Yulin's residence. The captain of the guard, Xiao Chu, called softly: "Third Master, the chief steward Dongmei is here."
Zhao Yulin was sleeping in Feiyan's room. When he heard the call, he immediately got up and asked what was going on.
Xiao Chu immediately replied that there was military news from Luoyang.
Feiyan had already dressed him up. Zhao Yulin came to the study and saw Zhang Guoan and Dongmei were there. He apologized for not letting them get enough rest.
When Wu Yuqi went on a tour to other places, Dongmei was the one who took care of Shunfengsi, and she had a baby who was less than one year old with her.
Dongmei smiled and said that there was an urgent military report. General Cao's attack on Luoyang was blocked and the enemy had blocked the city gate. Our artillery shells only made a small hole on the city wall, which was like tickling.
After reading the intelligence, Zhao Yulin understood Cao's thoughts. His army had besieged the city and suffered heavy casualties from the assault, but he was unwilling to give up, so he was sending back military intelligence to solicit opinions.
Zhao Yulin understood Cao Youwen’s intention. Old Cao must want to take over Luoyang City.
He thought for a moment, tapped the table gently, picked up the brush, drew a circle, wrote five words and gave them to Dongmei, asking her to pass them to General Cao immediately.
Dongmei looked at it with confusion, then immediately said goodbye to Guoan and left.
After all this, Zhao Yulin no longer felt sleepy, so he just sat down to meditate and practiced.
Shouchun in Huainan had been captured by the Mongolian army. Hubili was sitting in the back hall of the government office, unable to sleep, drinking tea and counting the stars by himself.
His army that led the southern expedition fought with the Song army at Xiaoyaojin in Hefei for three days. After all, the navy was not as strong as the Song army. The commander Zhang Rou fought desperately in two battles and withdrew from the Luzhou battlefield after suffering heavy losses.
He began to evaluate the significance of this war. Should he fight or not?
Hubili had already received the report that Shanzhou had been lost. The Shenwei Army had opened up the Yellow River waterway and surrounded Luoyang like an iron barrel, with the intention of not withdrawing the troops until Luoyang was conquered.
If we look closely at this battle, both the Mongolian and Song armies had gains and losses.
But he was already in danger, Yu Jie and Meng Gong were desperate to defend Hefei and block his passage to the south. Both of them were desperate to mobilize troops and fight, and intelligence showed that a detachment of Meng Gong was coming from Lu'an, aiming directly at Shouchun.
Tachaer and Meng Gong were sworn brothers. The elder brother had reminded Hubili that Meng Gong was very good at commanding troops and even more ruthless.
He was worried that if he continued to fight, all the fat meat in his mouth would be gone.
However, Hubili was very unwilling to give up, as he felt that he had not eaten enough on this trip south. The maid came in and changed his tea again, then quietly left, leaving him alone to continue counting the stars.
He thought for half a night and sent a secret letter to Prince Lu in Shandong, telling him that the Song army had been held back by him and asking him to take action and go south to rob.
After daybreak, Zhao Yulin accompanied the women to the government office for dinner.
The gentlemen have arrived, and they are all smiling. There is a good news from the front: the Shenwei Army has recaptured Shanzhou and completely opened up the river waterway. From now on, there will be a waterway from Guanzhong to the Central Plains.
However, Lord Ding asked him with some concern: Lord Cao wrote that Luoyang City has strong walls and the army has been unable to capture it for a long time. Is it because the casualties are too heavy?
Zhao Yulin nodded and told Ding Gong that he had sent a message to the front line to make its own decision, whether to advance or retreat.
Mr. Ding nodded with some disappointment.
He knew nothing about military affairs, and could only follow Zhao Yulin's advice and let the front-line commanders make their own decisions on advance and retreat.
Zhao Yulin said that the current situation was very good. We had taken Nanyang in one fell swoop and eliminated the threat to Xiangyang. We had already achieved our goal. Now we had easily captured Shanzhou, connecting Guanzhong with the Central Plains.
This will make it very convenient for future military deployment and governance.
All the gentlemen nodded with smiles on their faces.
Fan Zhong said that the Mongolian army is still a ferocious tiger and we must not underestimate it. We should use troops in moderation and accumulate small achievements step by step, and we will eventually be able to drive out the northern barbarians.
Everyone nodded. Zhao Yulin admired Fan Zhong's attitude very much. He was cautious and not reckless. He was indeed a pillar of the country.
In Luzhou and Hefei in Jiangdong, Tachaer and Koukoubuhua had received Hubili's order to cover the retreat in stages. Koukoubuhua was very reluctant, but he believed in Hubili's judgment.
In addition, Tachaer was well aware of Meng Gong's strength, and both of them knew that a stalemate in the war was not a good thing, so they immediately made joint arrangements and quickly retreated to Huainan.
Yu Jie and Meng Gong learned that the Mongolian army had retreated in the afternoon. The two veterans on the battlefield found that the Mongolian army retreated in an orderly manner this time. They pursued them closely twice, and became entangled after their vanguards suffered considerable blows.
They were wondering where the Mongolian army would retreat to?
Should we continue to charge forward and drive the Mongolian army across the Huai River? Or should we let them decide whether to stay or go?
The two generals sent out cavalry to monitor and then dispatched a small team to follow and recapture the counties and towns where the Mongolian army had withdrawn, and discussed how to drive the Mongolian army across the river...
In Linzhou, just north of Yan'an Prefecture, Prince Kuoduan was stationed in Linzhou City, waiting for the opportunity to rob the south when the direction of Yan'an Prefecture was empty after the war between Song and Mongolia broke out.
But Lu Huacai just kept doing nothing and didn't give him any chance.
When he received the victory report of Hubili's march south to Luzhou, he immediately received the defeat report of the Shenwei Army's attack and the fall of Nanyang.
Kuoduan immediately set out for Luoyang.
However, he received the news of the fall of Shanzhou while he was on the way, so he immediately pulled the reins and stopped going to Luoyang. Kuoduan quickly mobilized troops to strengthen the river defense line. He was now worried that the Shenwei Army would counterattack and break through the natural barrier of the river to attack Hedong.
After Cao Youwen dispatched troops to attack the Mongolian troops that were reinforcing Luoyang in two directions, the enemy stopped sending reinforcements.
While he was staring blankly, he received a secret letter from Zhao Yulin in Chengdu. After reading it, Lao Cao handed it to Miao Gui in a daze, not understanding what his brother meant.
Miao Gui was also confused after reading it, and handed it to the commanders for interpretation. All the commanders were confused after reading it, wondering what the Third Young Master meant.
At this time, the secret letter was passed to Li Dagui. He saw only five words: "Ten thousand kilograms of explosives." There was nothing else.
Da Kui asked what it meant?
The third young master only wrote five words and got nothing. What does it mean?
Liu Qiangguang said, "There is a circle, and the third young master also drew a circle to enclose the bomb."
Everyone was awakened at once, and Li Da Kui immediately said that he understood, the Third Young Master wanted us to make a 10,000-jin bomb to blow up those bastards in the city.
Everyone immediately rolled their eyes at him.
A ten thousand jin bomb?
How to pack?
How to get it into the city?
