"These desperate people are just asking for their own death; send a signal to the Fifth Cavalry Regiment and ask them to prepare to intercept and pursue this broken army of golden soldiers~"
After putting down a monocular telescope in his hand, Hu Biao said this.
There was something high-spirited in his expression and tone.
Next to him, there were several netizens including the imperial concubine and the singer, as well as a group of officers and generals of the Song Dynasty including Yue Fei.
At this moment, although they did not say anything, the expectant expressions on their faces could actually show that they also agreed with Hu Biao's statement.
Today is already the fifth day of February in Maode's second year, and it's early nine in the morning.
It was also the fifth day after they set off from Kaifeng City to take the oath.
The reason why Hu Biao and others are so high-spirited is because the start of the Northern Expedition, at least so far, has been quite smooth.
Not to mention anything else, just because they have increased the daily marching distance of the army to seventy miles starting from the second day, you have made them happy.
The reason for this is all thanks to the good weather, and the weather suddenly warmed up rapidly.
On the morning of the day of departure, the temperature was still below zero; but by noon, the temperature was rising to 15 or 16 degrees Celsius.
And in the next few days, the temperature got higher and higher day by day.
During the day yesterday, the highest temperature reached 212 degrees.
As a result, the ice layer on the thick river surface that was originally frozen became thinner day by day and was about to completely melt.
This means that the large number of carts in the current marching team no longer need to carry full of food, grass and supplies.
It can be used to improve the efficiency of the army's march.
Based on this idea, Hu Biao and the others found a lot of empty seats on these big cars.
These empty spaces not only allow the soldiers to throw a twenty-pound backpack behind them onto the cart to reduce their burden when marching.
There are even some spare spaces where the soldiers can take turns to rest and recover some energy.
However, when it comes to these new-style carts, the biggest role they currently play is to reduce the time and energy that soldiers spend setting up camps every night when they camp.
Building camps every day is one of the key factors that affects the speed of marching.
In order to prevent opponents from stealing camps in the middle of the night and possible camp roars, armies in the Central Plains have been very particular about setting up camps since ancient times.
As for the effect, if the camp is set up strictly according to the military manual, it will naturally be quite good.
But this also means that there are many requirements when it comes to choosing a camping site; you need to pack up for a while when you set out in the morning, and there is still some time before dark in the afternoon, so you have to stop and build a camp.
Taken together, a lot of time and energy are wasted.
Otherwise, why would many of Mao's ancient armies only be able to march a mere thirty miles in one day? This is also one of the allusions to the legendary "retreat".
You know, modern people can generally walk ten miles in one hour.
A three-hour journey takes a full day.
Not only during the march, there are too many other things that require energy; in order to ensure basic combat effectiveness, you can only walk such a small distance in a day.
But with these new big cars, everything is different.
Just like the cowboys during the Great Western Gold Rush, they did the same thing when camping at night.
When the soldiers camped every night, as long as they gathered together as a regiment, loaded the carts with planks and formed a circle, a solid formation of carts immediately appeared.
The whole process only takes about twenty minutes at most, and there is no need to bother building a camp at all.
Even these large cars can have a wooden roof added to them.
This means that even if it rains, it will not affect the defenders' use of muskets and artillery, and they can continue to open fire.
In this way, Hu Biao and others discovered that the soldiers were still relatively relaxed after marching sixty miles a day, so they increased the daily marching distance by ten miles.
Although the quantity is small, the accumulation is still considerable. This can arrive in Yanjing a few days in advance, which can be said to make their plan more abundant...
As for the battle that happened at the beginning, what was it all about?
To be precise, the first battle of the Song Dynasty's Northern Expedition was an encounter.
According to the information passed back by Xichang Fanzi who was active in Beidi, the Jin army is now beginning to gather in the Yanjing area.
Even Wanyan Wu's begging for money was done by the imperial chariot himself. It seems that there should be the final main battlefield between the two sides.
But this does not mean that they can let the Song Dynasty's Northern Expedition army reach Yanjing so easily.
Wanyan Yan Mu, Wanyan Aguda, Wanyan Wu Qimiao, the half-brother of the two emperors of the Jin Kingdom, was one of the few famous veterans left in the Jin Kingdom.
As early as a few days ago, he led a total of 40,000 cavalry to meet the Northern Expedition army.
So, yesterday, when they left the boundary of Xiangzhou controlled by the Yue Family Army, and today they arrived at Fucheng, which is away from Daming Mansion, only thirty or forty miles away, the battle between the two sides began.
To be more specific, a Jin cavalry of about 3,000 people.
After breaking through the Song army's sentries and cavalry cruising around the army, they suddenly launched an attack.
It is a pity that these Jin cavalry were discovered by the sentry cavalry left by the army to roam outside eleven or twelve miles away, and an early warning was issued in time.
The sentry rider held a special sky-piercing monkey, and after pulling the fuse, the thing could rush up to Lao Gao.
After the explosion, even during the day, such a huge movement can be seen clearly from a long distance away.
So, wait until these three thousand golden cavalry rush nearby.
Immediately I saw it, all the Song troops stopped advancing, and connected their carts with each other, forming one weird car formation after another.
After a slight hesitation, the Jurchen acted as Captain Meng'an.
Still commanding his cavalry, he chose a slightly smaller car formation with only two to three thousand men and launched an attack directly.
It seemed that they were preparing to rush up before the New Army cavalry surrounded them, take advantage of them, and then leave.
Then, just like the comment given by Hu Biao: These people who don't know whether to live or die are just asking for their own death.
As these golden soldiers rushed over, first they faced and the car formations on the left and right used Napoleon field artillery with a longer range.
He continuously fired solid artillery shells, giving them a severe blow.
Even these Jin men obviously know the power of this kind of artillery because their colleagues suffered heavy losses in Zhuxian Town.
In the process of charging, they tried to keep the distance between them as much as possible, but they were still hit by huge cannonballs, which smashed bloody alleys in the charging team.
However, compared to the scene where the muskets waiting in the car formation and the shotgun shells fired by the Xiaofolang machine guns were greeted one by one, the intensity of this shelling was nothing.
Especially these Jin cavalry, after rushing to the position fifty steps in front of the formation.
The position in front of them seemed to have an invisible barrier, making them pay a staggering price for every step forward.
When I paid a huge price and rushed thirty steps in front of the formation.
When the grenades were thrown out one after another, the casualties reached the level of the Jurchen Meng'an Commander, and they were all so painful that they were trembling.
The battle finally started, but only after three or four minutes.
The Jin side suffered thousands of casualties and could not bear it any longer. Suddenly a soldier blew the horn frantically, preparing to hastily evacuate the remaining personnel.
It was only after they turned around that they ran away like they had been for two days.
A Song cavalry unit with a size of 2,233 had already arrived with diagonal thrusts; this was the 5th Cavalry Regiment of the 2nd Cavalry Division, which had already rushed over after receiving the flag.
The knights above were all controlling their horses with one hand, and holding a short blunderbuss with the hammer cocked high in their other hand.
That doesn't seem to be entirely correct.
Because Gao Chong, who was riding a magnificent green horse and rushed to the front, was only holding a chiseled gold tiger head in his hand.
However, such an operation will not affect the performance of this once "the most powerful general in the Southern Song Dynasty" at all.
Against the background of bursts of short musket fire, he rushed straight towards the Jurchen Commander Meng'an with the shadow of his gun all over the sky.
No matter who blocked him along the way, he would stab him, pick him up, or knock his horse off after a shot passed. There was no single enemy at all.
After a brief cavalry fight, only seven or eight hundred of the originally three thousand Jin cavalry escaped.
When they were beating their horses wildly to escape, everyone's face was full of fear.
Not only was the power of the Song Dynasty's firearms far more powerful than in the legend, but also, that Song Dynasty young general Duan was too powerful.
Because their Captain Meng'an was already being held in his hand like a pampered little chicken.
After mentioning Hu Biao and others all the way, they threw it on the ground like garbage; then they performed a new army's military salute on horseback and said loudly:
"I have met all of you gentlemen..."
At this moment, Gao Chong was truly the most handsome boy in the room.
*******
Although in such an encounter, the number of Jin people killed and captured by the new army was only more than 2,000.
However, under the good omen of victory in the first battle, the Northern Expeditionary Army naturally burst into cheers, and their morale immediately skyrocketed.
Even the pace of walking was a lot faster immediately; if we marched at such a speed, the distance could be increased to eighty miles per day, which would not be too much.
When the time reached that evening, another piece of good news came, and the morale of the Northern Expedition army skyrocketed again.
Why? Because after a long march, the vanguard of the army arrived outside the city of Daming Prefecture around noon.
By early two o'clock in the afternoon, the First Army and the First Artillery Division in front had basically all arrived outside this famous city.
For such an outer city, the circumference is 48 miles and 206 steps, with 17 gates, three gates on the south, and a wall of three and a half feet high.
Although the wall was still made of earth, it was covered with a layer of bricks. It could be said that the city was quite strong. Naturally, the Jin people had no reason to give up.
The city's defenders, composed of a thousand Jurchens and thirty thousand miscellaneous soldiers, had already prepared a large number of trebuchets, ballistas and other equipment.
We also prepared a lot of defensive materials such as wood, rolling stones, and gold juice, and even forcibly mobilized the people in the city to form a force of more than 20,000 people, who could top the city wall at all times.
Wanyan Wu Qimai and others naturally knew that it was impossible to use such a famous city to stop the Song Dynasty's Northern Expedition army.
However, based on their rich war experience, they reached a consensus:
There is sufficient food and grass in the city, and with the tall city wall and 40,000 cavalry roaming outside the city, it will take at least a month to delay the Song people before they can capture this place.
Although the new Song army was powerful, they should have suffered 20,000 to 30,000 casualties.
If it were replaced by other Song troops, it would be impossible to defeat them.
However, they soon realized that times were completely different.
Since the New Army of the Song Dynasty completed the complete weaponization of gunpowder, it was not just the field battle mode that changed, but the same was true for such siege warfare.
After the First Army arrived outside the city, Lao She, the commander of the army, had no idea that the whole army would rest for a night and then attack the city early tomorrow morning.
Immediately, he commanded a group of troops under his command and launched an attack on Daming City.
This is also the first time that the Northern Expedition army has conducted a siege battle. It can be regarded as a preliminary rehearsal for the future siege battle of Yanjing City...
After the battle began, the first thing the New Army took action was of course the First Artillery Division.
A total of 6 24-pound cannons, 24 12-pound cannons, 36 8-pound cannons, and 66 6-pound cannons were lined up outside the south gate of Daming City under the eyes of the defenders in the city.
There was no way! The defenders on top of the city, regardless of the trebuchets or ballistae in their hands, could not hit these Song people at all.
And near the artillery, there were many Song people's musket phalanxes guarding them. Since they did not dare to leave the city, what else could they do except watch helplessly?
After these artillery fire, the dense shells hit the wall and scattered debris.
The trebuchets, catapults, and human bodies were smashed to pieces, and the doomsday scene was as if the earth was shaking and the mountains were shaking. Many Jurchens supervising the battle at the top of the city were so scared that they peed their pants.
Not to mention the main force of the defenders, which was composed of the surrendered Song troops and the civilians captured by Jia Ding.
When many unlucky ones running around in great panic were knocked down by shells, flying masonry, and wood.
Those who survived squatted under the walls with their heads in their hands, praying that all this would end soon.
The war has begun, and morale has dropped to freezing point.
Of course, these people don't need to be so afraid, because even the Japanese field artillery during World War II would take a certain amount of time to blast through a city wall of this magnitude.
What's more, the current New Army of the Song Dynasty uses such an old-fashioned artillery that still uses black powder.
If you really want to bomb the city wall in this way, you will need to bombard it continuously for at least three to five days.
The problem is that Old Snake has never thought of relying on artillery to blast away such a majestic city; time is tight and the task is heavy, how can they have such leisure time.
When all the defenders at the top of the city were suppressed by artillery fire.
The suspension bridge here at the south gate was bombarded by ten artillery pieces. The iron chain that had been tightly pulled up suddenly came loose, causing the heavy suspension bridge to fall immediately.
Then, artillery, including three 24-pound guns, continued to greet the city gate.
Under the power of these shells, even the iron-clad city gate could not withstand ten minutes, and eventually fell down with dense holes.
Even now, the garrison at the top of the city has not completely collapsed.
Because Daming Castle is such a majestic city, the city gate has a structure of a 'barbican city'.
Specifically, even if you pass the first city gate, you still have to pass through an open area with a zigzag structure and open another city gate before you can officially enter the city.
During this process, the attackers were attacked condescendingly by the defenders from four directions, including front, rear, left, and right.
Fundamentally speaking, this is actually a trap.
But after blowing up the first city gate, Lao She didn't send a large army to rush in; instead, at his signal, hundreds of soldiers from the guard company were dispatched.
They carried large shields, carried two oversized 'coffins' respectively, and rushed into the city gate hole with a few arrows.
The next second later, these people escaped desperately; they only hated their parents for giving them a pair of less feet.
In fact, it is absolutely normal for them to have such a reaction.
Because the two so-called oversized ‘coffins’ were basically two wooden boxes each containing thousands of kilograms of black powder.
These people don't know exactly how powerful this thing is.
But they knew that the power of a ten-pound explosive bag alone was already terrifying.
So once a box with a charge of two to three hundred times more explosives explodes, its power can only be described as outrageous.
Before taking action, they were informed.
After the fuse is lit, it will detonate in about two minutes.
So if they don't run away now, as far as they want, have they had enough of living, and are they still waiting to be blown to pieces by these things?
In fact, just 115 seconds later, an explosion scene that even a modern man like Lao She was staggering appeared at the south gate of Daming City.
In short, after a huge burst of smoke and loud noise.
When everyone looked over in the smoke and dust that had calmed down a bit, they found that the entire city gate had collapsed, revealing a huge gap.
"Immediately, blow the charge horn" was immediately shouted out from the old snake's mouth,
Finally, with the sound of "tick tick tick~", the troops of the First Army swarmed in from the breach.
The resistance they encountered after entering the city can only be described as weak; in fact, because of such a low-dimensional blow, the defenders in the city almost lost all their will to fight.
In the evening, the entire Daming City was captured.
The old snake rode a war horse and swaggered into the city in the afterglow of landing. In front of him were surrendered soldiers kneeling down begging for mercy...
