Time: the first day of February in the second year of Maode's reign, around seven o'clock in the morning.
This was also the day when, according to plan, the Song Dynasty army officially set off for the Northland.
The Imperial Calendar says: Today the Liubai Wuqu star flies to the northwest. The five elements of the Liubai Wuqu star belong to gold. It is suitable for traveling, offering sacrifices, breaking ground, and laying beds... Italy will benefit the northwest.
Overall, it was definitely a good day to set off.
So today, the army will set off immediately after swearing an oath.
Location: Just like the last battle in Zhuxian Town, where the army was reviewed before departure, this swearing-in ceremony was still held outside Kaifeng City, in the huge open space in front of the 'Monument to the Yimin of the Song Dynasty'.
The difference is that now, next to the 'Monument to the Yimin of the Song Dynasty', which is made of white marble, there is not only an additional cemetery where tens of thousands of soldiers of the Song Dynasty are buried, but more people will be buried in the future.
More importantly, there is a Jingguan built with the heads of more than 100,000 gold men.
After such a long time, it has been completely built up.
The pure white marble monument, the neat and quiet cemetery, and the Beijing view will make your scalp numb after just one glance.
After all the above are combined.
This place was immediately filled with a solemn, solemn, and solemn atmosphere; it can be said that in the entire Song Dynasty, there was no place more suitable for the army to swear an oath than here.
The only problem is that the weather looks a bit bad today.
It's obviously been more than a month since the beginning of spring, but today there is still a big dark cloud overhead, and a howling cold wind is blowing, causing the temperature to drop to three or four degrees below zero.
So much so that when people go out in this kind of weather, they feel a little depressed and depressed...
"Damn it! This damn weather~"
After clearly feeling the cold wind blowing on his face, a knife-like pain, Hu Biao complained in a voice that only he could hear.
Then, he was given a mouthful of cold northwest wind that made his teeth hurt.
But even so, Hu Biao still has no intention of giving up. Today is a swearing-in ceremony, and then changing his genius is an idea.
What the heck! There is only the last month left before the third phase of the mission ends.
According to the plan they discussed, they would need to march sixty miles every day to reach Yanjing City within twenty days.
Even though a march of sixty miles a day seems like a small amount.
But in previous history, only the elite soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were able to reach such a standard.
After all, it's not just about getting to the place, it's also about ensuring the necessary combat effectiveness.
But even if the daily 60-mile marching plan was completed, they would only have ten days left to fight along the way and to reach the city of Yanjing.
After all the calculations, it can be said that time is quite tight.
If I continue to write ink, if something is delayed on the way, wouldn’t it be the end of the world?
Therefore, the swearing-in ceremony must be held again today, and we will set off immediately after the ceremony.
With such an idea in mind, Hu Biao stood on a temporary high platform and looked around below and around.
With only the northwest wind blowing, making the sound of a large number of war flags flapping, and the occasional neighing of war horses, millions of people were horribly silent in a huge open space in front of them.
Yes, there are currently millions of people standing in the boss's area under the high platform.
This was the first time in Hu Biao's life that he had seen so many people standing together.
To be more precise, at such an important moment, almost all the people in Kaifeng City came; most importantly, there were 250,000 troops gathered on the scene.
In addition to the new army and the volunteer army, there are also miscellaneous troops sent from various places to support. The mobilized civilians total a hundred thousand people.
However, among the 250,000, 40,000 of the Third Army and 20,000 miscellaneous soldiers and civilians will not participate in the Northern Expedition.
With Ma Kuo as the commander-in-chief and Lao Hei, Dayu and Wu Zu as his deputies, they will go to Lin, Fu and Feng Sanzhou on Shaanxi Road to guard against the Xixia people.
Therefore, there were only 190,000 troops on site for the actual Northern Expedition.
Moreover, those miscellaneous soldiers and civilians were used to transport food and grass, and only 110,000 people were actually used for fighting.
Compared with the Jin people's military strength, the gap is really quite big.
Fortunately, the route of this Northern Expedition, after crossing the Yellow River, went north along Xiangzhou, Zhending, Damingfu, etc.; first, it was able to absorb the 30,000 Yue family troops in Xiangzhou.
The combat effectiveness of the Yue Family Army is still quite trustworthy.
In addition, after reaching Yanjing, if everything goes well, they can join the Yanshan army led by Fengrui, Zhanxiang, and Ali.
They should have 50,000 to 60,000 old-fashioned troops there, but their combat effectiveness is not guaranteed...
****
Amidst the deliberate silence of millions of people, including children, Hu Biao habitually looked at Queen Maode first and asked her to say something.
Seeing Queen Maode, she still shook her head to say no.
Hu Biao shook his sultry red cloak behind him, took the tin trumpet provided by a guard, and walked to the center of the high platform, preparing to deliver an important speech.
Of course, it would be impossible for the millions of people at the scene to hear the message with a simple tin speaker.
But it doesn't matter. At regular intervals among the crowd in the audience, there is a man with a loud voice holding a tin trumpet, waiting to repeat Hu Biao's words.
Just when I was about to speak, I looked at the millions of soldiers and civilians in the audience.
Their eyes staring at him were full of confusion, fear, reluctance, excitement and other extremely complicated expressions.
Hu Biao had a Hanlin Academy editor in his hands and wrote a colorful speech.
After kneading it into a ball, he just threw it on the ground and was blown far away by the biting cold wind. He didn't plan to read it according to the manuscript.
After taking a deep breath, Hu Biao's unusually short and vulgar pre-war mobilization sounds began to resound like curses:
"What the hell! The message of the Northern Expedition has been sent out a long time ago. I don't know how many times we have to fight whether we should let the Jin people go to court or not.
I really don’t want to talk about those big principles anymore.
Killing to pay for one's life, and debts to pay for money are all right. Therefore, the evil done by the Jin people in our Song Dynasty cannot be forgotten like this.
Now I, Hu Biao, am leading you on the Northern Expedition, not only to get back all that was lost, but also to get back even more, and also to get back the interest.
In a word, this Northern Expedition is about robbing money, food, and women~"
Good guy! Under Hu Biao's vulgar words, many scholars, senior officials, and scholars present could not help but frown.
But after it fell into the ears of the common people and military generals, these people were stunned at first.
But then there was a look of fanaticism on his face. I don’t know who took the lead first. Among the thunderous roars, there was only a simple and honest wish:
Murder to pay for life, debt to pay back money, robbery for money, food for grabs, women for grabs~
What's even more amazing is that amid such a roar that made people's scalp numb, the northwest wind that had been blowing for unknown days suddenly stopped.
At the same time, the dark clouds in the sky gradually dispersed.
A ray of golden sunshine that had not been seen for an unknown amount of time suddenly enveloped the place.
By an extremely coincidence, she landed on the high platform, and with Hu Biao and a group of netizens on top, the whole body of the empress of the Song Dynasty was illuminated golden.
For a time, such a miraculous scene left the great scholars speechless. At the same time, the soldiers and civilians below became even more fanatical.
After a long time, when the voice finally calmed down.
Hu Biao shouted: "Where is the First Cavalry Division?"
In the battle of Zhuxian Town, Zhou Battalion Commander, the former cavalry battalion who guarded Xiaoshang Bridge with AT and Yang Zaixing, quickly walked to the audience after hearing this and loudly said: "My subordinates are here."
"You are the vanguard of the army, clearing roads across mountains and building bridges across rivers~"
While Hu Biao said this, he also threw a command flag in his hand.
After taking over the command flag, Commander Zhou didn't waste any time. He quickly got on his horse and led the entire First Cavalry Division in a company-wide formation across the high platform.
The murderous aura that permeated the whole body was so real that many officials who came from all over the place to watch the ceremony looked so strange.
Finally, under the gaze of millions of people, the 1st Cavalry Division marched directly.
When these 10,000 vanguard cavalry left, Hu Biao picked up a new command flag and shouted loudly: "Where is the First Infantry Division?"
Immediately, another high-pitched voice responded with full force: "My subordinate is here~"
In the following time, another 10,000 people formed a neat square formation, marched neatly across the high platform, and started marching straight away.
In this way, all the troops took over Xianggong Hu's command flag.
One by one, they set off to the north and northwest, two different battlefields.
It should be noted that Hu Biao and his party stood on the high platform and watched everyone set off, and then started to follow them on their war horses.
During this process, all the characters in the departing troops gave a standard salute to these soul figures of the Song Dynasty before passing the high platform.
Hu Biao and the other 16 people also maintained military salutes and did not let go until everyone left.
Because looking at those high-spirited faces, they didn't know how many people were exposed to the First World War and would never be able to come back here alive...
