choke element

Chapter 1039 Choice (Part )

If someone could look down at the ground from a high altitude, they would see smoke everywhere in the vast area of ​​at least two hundred miles around Kaifeng.

This situation has been going on for several days.

At first, Tolui divided his troops into dozens or even hundreds of groups, who were armed to the teeth and looting and killing people everywhere. Within three to five days, they destroyed no less than a hundred military forts, villages and towns, and massacred tens of thousands of people.

Afterwards, the soldiers and civilians from all over the Central Plains fought back, fighting the Mongolian army with casualties ten times or even higher. In the past two days, dozens of battles broke out almost every moment, hundreds of broken limbs and arms fell everywhere, and their hot blood soaked the soil frozen by the severe cold.

Since the rise of the Yek Mongol Ulus, the might of their army has been like a storm and lightning that can bring death on the grassland. The people and livestock living on the grassland are like ants under the might of heaven and are completely unable to resist.

As the storm swept across a wider area, many wise Mongols gradually realized that humans could resist the storm. Towns, villages, fortresses, passes and other human-built things, on the one hand, represented the wealth coveted by the Mongols, and on the other hand, they could offset or even suppress the power of thunderstorms.

This kind of offset and suppression can be seen when the Mongolian army marched westward. However, the size of the Western Regions is limited after all. Even if there are a few large cities, the overall area is vast and sparsely populated. With the advantage of cavalry, the Mongolian army can travel hundreds of miles day and night, and can still fight when they want to fight and retreat when they want to retreat without any restrictions.

The Central Plains was much richer and more densely populated than the Western Regions. Moreover, as the new Han dynasty was in its infancy, the northern Han people were full of vigor after getting rid of nearly a hundred years of foreign rule, and their morale was also far greater than that of the Western Regions.

When people in so many towns, villages, fortresses and passes were all trying their best to resist, when the anger of millions of people gathered into a sea of ​​fire covering hundreds of miles, the Mongolian army itself was struggling in the sea of ​​fire.

Even if the Mongolian knights could kill ten times as many Han people in every battle, the number of Han people in the Central Plains was more than a hundred times that of the Mongols. The Han people could afford this loss. Moreover, the warriors and warriors among the Han people kept popping up like weeds that could not be cut.

Even though Tolui's troops lost at most a few people in each battle, the ambushes, interceptions, encirclements and blockades day and night still resulted in a large number of Mongols being killed.

The land where their iron hooves had stepped a few days ago was covered with burning buildings and corpses. Now a new layer had been laid down, and it was filled with more and more Mongolian knights.

Under such circumstances, the battle of Tolui's troops in Kaifeng did not have much significance.

Even if Tolui ignored the numerous threats from all sides and defeated the Kaifeng defenders who came out of the city to challenge him, it could not change the reality that he and his army were still trapped in a trap.

In the past two years, Tolui had been traveling in and out of the Southern Song Dynasty, learned the Chinese language, and learned many Chinese allusions. In his view, the entire Wufu plan was like the Chinese legend of a mantis catching a cicada.

The prosperous Central Plains is the cicada, and the Mongolian army led by Tolui is the praying mantis. The praying mantis destroyed the war potential of the Central Plains to the greatest extent, forcing the main force of the Zhou army to return to the long distance, becoming the oriole that hunts the mantis. As for the Mongolian army led by Genghis Khan, it is naturally the hunter who waits for the oriole to become exhausted and then strikes a fatal blow.

But who would have thought that the war potential of the Central Plains has now been stimulated?

These Han people who should have been slaughtered like pigs and sheep actually burst out with great strength. They were enough to avenge themselves, causing Tuo Lei's troops to fall into a dilemma of being attacked from all sides, and it was hard to tell who was the mantis and who was the cicada.

In other words, when the oriole does not have to focus on the mantis, the fight between the mantis and the cicada is no longer relevant. The outcome between the oriole and the hunter will determine the future of the Mongols and the Han people.

Contrary to what outsiders imagined, Tolui did not care much about the outcome of this battle.

In recent years, he has always been considered to be lacking in military talent, so his status could never surpass that of his three elder brothers. If he wanted to be content to be a young son guarding the stove, many of his ideas would conflict with those of the Mongolian nobles, including Genghis Khan, and he was almost a heretic. Therefore, he always hoped to establish himself with his own administrative talent. This situation could be in the Western Regions or in the Central Plains.

To achieve this goal, Tolui pushed forward the Ofu Plan. He had secretly calculated several times how the battle between Genghis Khan and Guo Ning would unfold, and whether it was possible for both forces to be severely damaged at the same time, leaving Tolui and his subordinates with room to relax.

But now, Tolui doesn't think so.

The war in the Central Plains would inevitably turn into a disastrous one with heavy losses. He eagerly hoped that Genghis Khan's army would turn the tide as soon as possible and save him from the difficult situation.

After all, where Genghis Khan is, is where the real strength of the Mongolian army lies. After sweeping across the vast western regions, the Mongolian army is much stronger than before. As long as Genghis Khan's army arrives, the current difficulties will no longer exist. Tolui has full confidence in this.

"No matter what, we have destroyed half of the Central Plains. Guo Ning's main force will definitely ignore us. They will definitely move south, and the Khan will also make a move at any time..." He paused, and then said, "That's the key! We continue to negotiate here, even if it is difficult, as long as they win, it will be worth it."

None of the companions around answered.

Everyone knew that Tolui just wanted to encourage himself and did not need answers from others. As warriors of the Yekmongol Ulus, all they had to do was to keep fighting the enemy.

At the same time, somewhere north of Kaifeng, north of the Yellow River.

The climate in the hilly area is colder than that in Henan. In winter, the snowy fields are almost completely covered in snow. The few trees and houses are blocked by the undulating terrain and are all covered by heavy snow.

From early morning, the north wind blew for several hours. The wind became stronger and stronger, blowing along the mountains in the northwest, making a strange humming sound.

The snow on the mountain was blown up by the strong wind and scattered everywhere, so that the traces of the road ahead were vague, and the only thing left was the horse hoof prints that stretched forward to indicate the direction of progress.

The snow kept rolling down in the sheltered area where the cavalry had gathered, piling up to nearly a foot thick. Even though the horses in front of them had repeatedly trampled on it, they were unable to dig up the grass and soil under the snow.

Marching in this climate was naturally hard. Even if all the knights in the team were wrapped in furs and cloaks, they would still be frozen to death. But the knights didn't care. They just slapped their bodies hard to regain control of their bodies when they set out again. Everyone, including Guo Ning, did the same.

Fortunately, the snow had stopped and the wind was rapidly subsiding, allowing hundreds of cavalrymen to speed up their progress.

The destination was just ahead, and today's march was slightly longer than expected. The knights were all silent, trying to conserve their energy and calories. Many knights chewed on dry food from the belt hanging next to the saddle while leading their horses.

Guo Ning was not hungry. He was concentrating on taking care of his horse.

He changed horses twice on the way, and the current black horse came from Xiangzhou Horse Farm. It was picked out from thousands of horses in the entire horse farm, so it was naturally tall and majestic, but it had not yet developed a tacit understanding with its owner.

After the bit was pulled hard, the black horse felt a little pain, so it neighed angrily and jumped up. Guo Ning climbed on the horse without stopping, then reached into the dry food bag and grabbed a handful of beans with salt, letting the warhorse lick it as encouragement.