Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Wulahai City, also known as Wula City, Wuna City, Wulahai City, Wulanghai City, and Orohai City.

According to historical records, Genghis Khan conquered Xixia five times, and this city was involved in three of them.

It was conquered by Mongolia twice, and it was not difficult.

The first time, spies were used to intimidate, disguised as herdsmen to spread the news that if the people in the city dared to defend, they would be massacred, making the defenders unwilling to fight to the death. Because the Mongolians ran out of food and grass, and could not continue to fight south, they looted the city and withdrew.

The second time was even more straightforward. The Xixia army was defeated in Hexi (where Yue Fei rushed and attacked), and the defender of Wulahai City was frightened to surrender directly to Mongolia.

This city, with a total of 70,000 soldiers and the most important strong city in northern Xixia, seemed to have no effect in the face of the Mongolian army.

What about the Ming Dynasty now?

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong conquered Tiandejun City, and food and grass were continuously transported from Shanxi. They asked the old, weak, women and children to return to their own pastures, and the chiefs of various tribes followed the young and strong to march westward, with more than 35,000 soldiers under their command!

Most of the soldiers came from various tribes on the grassland.

The equipment of these grassland cavalry depends entirely on their own economic strength. Not all of them are without armor. Some iron and leather armor have been passed down from father to son for several generations, from grandfather to grandson, and can continue to be used after repairs.

Yue Fei was a guest army coming from afar, and Han Shizhong automatically became the main general.

They claimed to have an army of 200,000, and drove away the scattered herdsmen who had not yet escaped along the way, so that these herdsmen would spread fear to the Xixia army.

Due to the delay in attacking Tiande Military City, Richard's vanguard had already reached Wulahai City.

Xixia sent out thousands of light cavalry to explore the grassland and compete with the Ming light cavalry for the initiative.

The main forces of Han Shizhong and Yue Fei were still thirty miles away, and the grassland cavalry of both sides fought. There were wins and losses, which was considered a draw.

"Two Protectors General, the court has sent troops to help!"

"How many reinforcements have come?"

"Three hundred heavy cavalry!"

Han Shizhong and Yue Fei looked at each other in surprise. They didn't expect the emperor to throw heavy cavalry over.

Not long after, three hundred heavy cavalry arrived.

There were more than two thousand horses, more than eight hundred people, and more than ten mule-drawn four-wheeled carts. Not only did each heavy cavalry have a dedicated escort, but also some public logistics personnel.

Those escorts could also fight on horseback, and their equipment crushed ordinary grassland cavalry.

"Greetings to Protectors General Han and Yue!" Li Shifu dismounted and saluted.

Han Shizhong smiled in return. He was not familiar with Li Shifu.

Yue Fei was happy and said, "I haven't seen you for a few years. You are now in charge of the heavy cavalry."

Li Shifu said, "These 300 heavy cavalry were built by your majesty two years ago. Both the armor for the men and horses are new heavy cotton armor, and even the auxiliary cavalry (escort cavalry) are selected from the entire army." He turned around and pointed, "General, look who this is?"

Yue Fei looked up and saw that the man had dismounted. He stepped forward and saluted, saying, "Greetings to Protector Yue."

It was the 19-year-old Yue Yun!

Yue Fei was happy and said, "Why are you here too?"

Yue Yun replied, "I graduated from the military academy last year and first served as an auxiliary cavalry for the heavy cavalry. Apart from training, I did chores. I was embarrassed to tell my father in the letter. This year, an officer was promoted and transferred to Shaanxi. Because of my excellent performance, I was transferred to the heavy cavalry as an officer. I can now command 30 soldiers."

"A tiger son of a general." Han Shizhong commented with envy.

Old Han spent a long time in the army in his early years. He was transferred to fight in many battles. He and his wife were separated for a long time and never had children. After he surrendered to Zhu Ming, his wives and concubines gave birth to two sons and one daughter.

The eldest son had just come of age, but unfortunately he did not like military affairs and planned to take the imperial examination to become a civil servant.

Yue Fei smiled and said, "I heard that your eldest son is very talented. He will be honored by wearing a big turban in the future."

Han Shizhong muttered, "I hate people wearing big turbans the most!"

The generals laughed when they heard this.

After moving forward for a while, Han Shizhong chose a place to camp by the river.

Yue Yun put on his armor like a treasure, and even armored his warhorse, and ran to his father to show off: "Father, look at me, am I so majestic?"

"Really so majestic." Yue Fei nodded and smiled.

In fact, this full set of cotton armor, in terms of appearance, is far less majestic than lamellar armor.

Those who don't know the details will think it's just a showpiece!

But it is lighter than traditional lamellar armor, has stronger defense than lamellar armor, and is more convenient for daily maintenance. The disadvantage is that the production cost is higher.

Today, the Ming Dynasty's heavy cavalry has expanded to 5,000 people, all of whom were replaced with heavy cotton armor last year.

The number of Ming Dynasty's cavalry has expanded to 30,000, and about 60% of them have been replaced with medium-sized cotton armor.

Another 60,000 imperial infantry and 130,000 northern outer town infantry have also been replaced with various types of cotton armor.

The reason why they didn't change all of them at once is not that the output of the arsenal can't keep up, but that they don't know where to throw the replaced armor!

Nowadays, the armor rate of the second-line troops in some local counties has reached 100%, and the armor they wear is eliminated during the large-scale replacement.

Yue Yun whispered: "Father, I heard that the cavalry units of the three major protectorates in the north will start to change to cotton armor next year."

"Where did you hear that?" Yue Fei asked.

Yue Yun smiled and said, "Military school teachers. Many senior officials from the Privy Council and the Ministry of War have to take time out to teach at the military school. They will tell many not-so-secret inside stories. My child performed well in the military school, and several princes and dukes were very kind to me."

……

Brother Richard finally arrived with reinforcements. When he met them, he asked, "How many Ming troops have come?"

"I'm not sure, I heard it was 200,000." Li Quanlu replied ashamedly.

"Nonsense!"

Brother Richard was furious: "If there were 200,000 Ming troops coming here, the Ming army in Shaanxi would have already sent out troops. Tiande Military City was lost, and the land in Hexi was also lost, but you still don't know the number of enemy troops."

Li Quanlu could only defend himself: "It's difficult for scouts to rush over, and the grassland is full of Ming army light cavalry. The former Liao grassland tribes all surrendered to the Ming Kingdom, and this time they were also brought here to kill. I really... I really don't know how many Ming troops are coming."

Cao Yu, the military supervisor of the Wei Fu Army, said: "Your Highness, it's better to defend Wulahai City until it snows and the Ming army retreats."

"Defending the city or fighting in the field, don't decide yet, figure out how many Ming troops there are!" Brother Richard became more and more angry.

He dispatched 3,000 infantry to increase the number of troops in the cities along the way, and sent more light cavalry to investigate.

And Han Shizhong and Yue Fei attacked the cities along the way.

Those obstacle cities are small castles, either built on the bank of the Yellow River or on the southern foot of the Yinshan Mountains.

When Xixia was slightly richer, each castle had to store enough food and repair it every two or three years. But now it is not possible. The food storage is seriously insufficient, and the castle has not been repaired for many years. Some castles are even in a state of abandonment.

Why is this so?

One is that the court does not allocate enough funds, and the other is that the money and grain are embezzled.

The monarchs and ministers in the Xixia court are naturally afraid of the Ming Dynasty and think that the military should be revitalized. But how can the local civil and military care so much? Especially in the area west of Tiande Military City, which is far from the border of the Ming Dynasty, everyone thinks that they can't fight, and they can embezzle the money and grain they handle.

Just yesterday, Han Shizhong and Yue Fei divided their troops to attack an obstacle city. The vanguard was still more than ten miles away from the castle, and the defenders in the castle abandoned the city and fled.

Whoever defends it to the death is a fool.

One wall of the rammed earth castle is about to collapse. It has not been repaired for 30 or 40 years due to long-term exposure to wind, sun and rain!

The last time it was repaired was when Song Huizong just ascended the throne.

In order to shirk their responsibilities, the Xixia defenders who escaped from various castles all said that the Ming army had at least 100,000 troops, and some even said that the Ming army had 300,000 troops.

The light cavalry sent by Brother Richard could not get close to the main force of the Ming army either, and could only fight with the Ming army light cavalry in the grassland in the middle area.

Until the Ming army had removed 70% to 80% of the Xixia barrier city, finally a Xixia warrior led more than a dozen light cavalry to sneak in through the vast grassland, disguised as Khitan cavalry to approach the Ming army camp. And they also went around the way the Ming army camp came, carefully checking the ashes left by the Ming army's cooking.

Another Xixia light cavalry went around the south bank of the Yellow River, hiding in the desert during the day, galloping along the Yellow River at night, and sneaking outside the Tiande Army City to observe the situation secretly.

Brother Richard finally got a rough idea of ​​the strength of the Ming army: there were several thousand soldiers left in Tiande Military City. The main forces of Han Shizhong and Yue Fei should not exceed 50,000, and may even be only 30,000 or 40,000.

Brother Richard began to struggle whether to fight a decisive battle in the field or to defend the city to the death.

These days, the Weifu Army Division has been recruiting people crazily, and the local strength has exceeded 35,000.

Brother Richard brought more than 40,000 infantry and cavalry.

Further west, the reinforcements of the Zhenyan Army Division also came with more than 10,000.

In other words, the total strength of Brother Richard's troops has exceeded 90,000, more than twice the strength of the Ming army!

However, the Weifu Army Division and the Zhenyan Army Division have not fought for a long time, and their combat effectiveness is really limited due to the shortage of weapons and armor.

Brother Richard brought much more elite reinforcements from the south.

Needless to say, even the soldiers who were drafted had at least one piece of ancestral leather armor, and many even wore ancestral iron armor - the tribes there were richer, and their ancestors often plundered the Song Dynasty, and some tribes had armor granted by the court.

Brother Richard was thinking: The main force of the Ming army killed 30,000 to 40,000 people, many of whom came from various tribes on the grassland, and those grassland cavalry were nothing. Then the real elite of the Ming army was probably only about 10,000. Can my soldiers beat the 10,000 elite Ming army?

In the past, Brother Richard would not have thought so much and would have led his troops to kill.

But he was psychologically traumatized by Yang Zhi's firearms in the Hehuang Valley, and was also psychologically traumatized by the Jin cavalry. The Ming Dynasty destroyed the Jin Dynasty again, which made Brother Richard even more afraid of the Ming army's combat effectiveness.

So much so that Brother Richard did not dare to fight rashly with twice the number of troops as the enemy.

"Your Highness, the King of Jin, an urgent letter from the capital!"

Brother Richard opened the letter and was immediately furious and depressed.

He had received news of the rebellion in Dingzhou before, but now he received news that there were also tribes in Jingzhou, Huaizhou, and Shunzhou that were rebelling.

The court was trying to quell the rebels everywhere. Since it was difficult to quickly raise food and grass, it was necessary to transfer food from the military warehouse of Chaoshun Military Division - that was the starting point for Brother Richard's military food.

Brother Richard looked blankly outside the city. He could no longer defend the city and had to go out of the city to fight the Ming army.

An army of 90,000 people, people and horses, could not sustain food and grass.

With the food stored in the Weifu Military Division, it could have survived the winter.

But that damn Li Quanlu, who led troops to rescue Tiande Military City last time, fled without a fight for no reason, and also left a large amount of food and livestock to Han Shizhong. Brother Richard even suspected that the guy was embezzling too much and settling accounts.

Brother Richard summoned all the generals and did not complain about the lack of food and grass. He just smiled calmly and confidently and said, "I have already found out the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. Although the main force of the Ming army has 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers, the real elite troops are only 5,000 to 6,000. You all go back and prepare. I will choose a day to fight the Ming army on the grassland!"