choke element

Chapter 1040 Choice (Part )

The cavalry had not gone far when the scout in front fired a flare.

The team kept moving at the same speed, and following the officer's orders, dozens of horsemen galloped towards the southern mountains indicated by the arrows. Just as the cavalry team accelerated, they saw a horseman flashing out from the mountains, and judging from his attire, he was a messenger from the Zhou army.

The guide was ahead of the team, so it was not convenient to ask. This mountainous area was the watershed of some river, and it was quite steep. The cliffs on both sides faced each other, as if they were cut by a knife. The slope of the mountain road in the middle was not small, and the winding places were covered with snow. Looking from afar, you could vaguely see the reflection of ice.

Such a road is bound to be dangerous. If the riders are not careful, they will slip and fall, breaking bones and tendons. Seeing this, several cavalrymen shouted at the same time: "Be careful! Pull the horse back!"

But I never expected that the messenger rode his horse on the steep mountain road with complete calmness. Sometimes he shook the reins to urge the horse, sometimes he threw the stirrups to turn over, holding the saddle with one hand to run with the horse, and then jumped on the horse's back again. When he galloped, he was faster than lightning, and when he turned, he was as light as the wind. I saw him go down the mountain in a flash, his movements were like a jumping star, without any slowness.

In the blink of an eye, the messenger came closer from afar, blew a whistle to signal, and rushed past the cavalry.

Several cavalrymen could not help but praise him, while others were dissatisfied: "Hu Ligairen's riding skills are indeed good, but his brain is not working well, so he is not very useful."

Since the last years of Emperor Zhangzong of the Jin Dynasty, the number of cavalry in the Han area has been rapidly reduced. The court usually recruited the cavalry of the northern ethnic groups and relied on them as elite troops. After the Mongols attacked the Jin Dynasty, all the herdsmen in the northern border changed hands, and there were even fewer horses, so excellent riders became increasingly rare.

In the past few years, the Great Zhou Dynasty has continuously rebuilt pastures, cultivated good breeds, and acquired a large number of good horses from the north through exchanges with the northeast inland areas, and has re-trained a large number of soldiers who are proficient in riding skills.

These cavalrymen were able to follow Guo Ning and participate in important operations. They were all excellent riders in the Zhou army. However, the better riders were, the more they had to admit that the results of their training in the military camp were still inferior to the instincts that the fishing and hunting and nomadic peoples had tempered since childhood.

This gap is usually not noticeable, except when they are riding to perform various thrilling moves. Even if they can do it, they cannot do it as easily as eating and drinking.

Therefore, the Jurchen regime was overthrown, the number of Jurchens in the Central Plains continued to decrease, and the ratio of Jurchens to various ethnic minorities in the Great Zhou army was higher than before. Starting from the bottom of the army, striving for education and promotion, and then moving the family to the Han area, and becoming a noble Han from then on, has become the most common step for ethnic minorities in the northeastern border areas to advance.

It’s just that the Jurchens in the Northeast were divided into several ethnic groups, so if we only look at the military registration, it seems that the number of Huligai people has suddenly increased.

Fortunately, the Huligai people were generally honest and simple in character, and most of them remained at the level of grassroots soldiers. They did not cause a violent backlash among the soldiers, who at most said a few sour words.

At this time, the messenger rushed, went through several identity verification procedures, and delivered the military report.

The military report said that the battle in Henan was still going on, and many important military towns were still in their hands. There were even more fierce battles near Kaifeng. The Hebei garrison did not dare to move without orders. However, the defeated soldiers who had been supported in Mengzhou, Weizhou, Huazhou and other places had been reorganized and sent back to Henan to help. The morale of the soldiers was high, and they vowed to take revenge.

"When I arrived, two groups of troops and four hundred ferries had already gathered at the Mengzhou ferry, with sufficient military equipment and food supplies. They can cross the river at any time as long as the court gives the order." The messenger finally said in a serious tone.

When the Great Jin Dynasty was still in existence, when the Mongols attacked a place, the military generals in other places would either be as afraid of the enemy as a tiger and hide in their own military towns trembling in fear, or rush forward with passion and rashly send troops to rescue, but were immediately defeated by the Mongols at their leisure.

Anyone who has led troops knows that it is extremely dangerous to mobilize troops without the permission of superiors; often a thousand-mile dam is breached by an ant hole, and bad things are ruined by the recklessness of a few small people. Guo Ning knows even more that there has only been one army with both iron discipline and a proactive style since ancient times, and that army appeared more than 700 years later.

Therefore, since he started his army, Guo Ning has always adhered to strict military discipline and never allowed his subordinates to act arbitrarily based on their own likes and dislikes. At this time, the generals of the various military towns adjacent to Henan were not afraid of war and were fully prepared for support, but they still followed orders, which shows that the construction of the army was very effective.

Guo Ning rode his horse to a slope, took the military newspaper and looked at it carefully.

He had been traveling for days, and his face was frosted, but he was not impatient, but rather calm and composed. None of the many military officers beside him spoke, and at most they exchanged glances.

"How many people have been collected in Mengzhou? Have they been properly resettled? Have the injured received medical treatment?"

"The Mongolian army had not yet passed Xingyang. The few people who had fled from Zhengzhou, Heyin and other places were all settled around Luoyang. Not many people crossed the river to Mengzhou, and there were no casualties. When I came, the Mengzhou Defense Commissioner had reserved two ferries for transportation, which was enough."

"I heard yesterday that thousands of Mongolian cavalry were threatening Sishui. Were they repelled?"

"In fact, there are not a thousand cavalry, but three hundred-man teams, less than two hundred cavalry. Since last night, Guo Liushou led the military and civilians around Kaifeng to make a big move. The battle was fierce and the Mongols retreated. We have now sent an additional battalion of troops to set up a checkpoint at Hulao to prevent them from harassing us again. Another team of brothers rushed to Sishui overnight, but I don't know if they have arrived yet."

"What about the cities southeast of Henan Prefecture? How about the Songzhou and Ruzhou areas?"

"Calm and calm."

Guo Ning nodded and called the clerk to draft an order: "The guard in the southeast of Henan Prefecture must not be relaxed; the ferry crossings on both sides of the Yellow River must be strictly controlled, and no ferry boats can be left on the south bank every night. As for military affairs, follow the orders of Nanjing Guo, and do your best. There is no need to report separately."

The wars in various parts of the Central Plains were in full swing. Guo Ning rushed back, and the military reports he received along the way were all about the Mongols rushing around recklessly, but Guo Ning's heart was calm.

The various places in Jingzhao Prefecture guarded by Li Ting are now fully prepared for war and are as stable as Mount Tai. The Mongolian army obviously reached some kind of agreement with the Song people to allow them to invade the Central Plains; and their momentum was earth-shaking, but they could not take down any important military town. It is estimated that the total number is at most 10,000 or 20,000.

A few days ago, Li Yun sent an urgent report from Lin'an, saying that the policy of peace between the Southern Song Dynasty and its northern neighbor had not been shaken, and the Mongolian attack was due to Shi Miyuan's hope that there would be some chaos in the Central Plains so that he could take the opportunity to throw all his political enemies with radical ideas to the border military states, so he reached an agreement with the Mongols to let them pass through.

Everyone knew that this powerful official of the Song Dynasty would not do anything without profit, otherwise he would not have formed such a complicated political and business relationship with the Zhou Dynasty. But as a prime minister, he made such frivolous and arbitrary political choices, which was hard for Guo Ning to understand. Li Yun's secret report summarized the intelligence from several secret lines, which made Guo Ning believe it.

Perhaps Shi Miyuan only had his own power in mind. He bowed to the Jin Kingdom for power and later cooperated with the Zhou Dynasty for power. Compared with power, disputes between countries, wars and disasters, and the loss of lives were nothing. Even if the sky fell and the earth collapsed, he would not be shaken from his position as prime minister.

Perhaps he thought that it was a good idea to create a reason to deal with political enemies and to cause some trouble to the Great Zhou through some small means.

However, the Mongols were more mobile than expected, and Shi Miyuan only wanted to allow a small group of Mongol cavalry to pass through the border, so that he could shirk responsibility if the Zhou Dynasty investigated in the future. As a result, the Mongol cavalry penetrated everywhere, and 20,000 cavalry pushed along the Han River, breaking through hundreds of Song people's villages and causing countless casualties.

Shi Miyuan lost more than he gained, and now he is overwhelmed by the numerous memorials of accountability that are pouring in.

The 20,000 cavalrymen who arrived in the Central Plains naturally caused trouble. The focus of the Great Zhou's military strength was in the north, and there were undercurrents in the Central Plains before, so it was inevitable that they would suffer losses in the beginning.

But Guo Ning was very sure that as long as they could survive the fierce attack from the Mongols at the beginning, Guo Zhongyuan would be able to lead his troops to suppress the Mongolian cavalry. If they were luckier, they could even swallow them up in one gulp.

Guo Ning was a soldier who rose from the bottom. No matter how others praised him, admired him, and regarded him as a commander with extraordinary talent, he knew that he was just an ordinary soldier, one of the countless soldiers struggling on the death line in the northern border.

If there is any difference between him and ordinary people, perhaps it is only the knowledge he gained from that big dream.

In terms of bravery and tenacity, there are too many soldiers who can be compared with him; in terms of perseverance and perseverance, he has seen too many ordinary people. There are thousands of Han people, and some of them are outstanding.

Guo Ning, who was pushed by the times to become the emperor of the Xin Dynasty, only needed to break the shackles that had surrounded him for hundreds of years. Once the shackles were removed, the Han people would naturally burst out with great power. It was like a giant who had recovered his vitality. Even if he was covered in blood, he was enough to crush the enemies who looked down on him.

Guo Ning initially turned back on horseback because he was worried about the situation in the Central Plains. He had acquired more and more information in the past few days, but he still hurried on because of the enemy in another direction.

The so-called enemies included the main force of the Mongolian army that would appear sooner or later, as well as some people who had been recognized by Guo Ning and chose to serve the Great Zhou.