After leaving Yinshan Pass, Song Yang went all the way north.
Soon we arrived at Dingseong, the capital city of Gwangju. We stayed in Dingseong for half a day, then walked north and entered the territory of Henan Province.
After passing Xinxi, you will reach Zhenyang, and going further you will reach Ruyang.
Before they arrived in Ruyang, a group of people came to greet them.
"I haven't seen you for a long time, Your Majesty!" The leader immediately greeted Song Yang when he saw him.
"Hello, uncle!" Song Yang said with a smile.
The person who came turned out to be Shen Dan. This guy originally worked with Liu Huairen in Raozhou.
After Liu Huairen went north to do logistics planning, he asked Shen Dan to come.
Now Shen Dan is the transit envoy to the five states of Henan, Ying, Bo, Xu and Chen.
It is equivalent to the combination of the highest military and political officer of the five states, the prefect of the five states and the garrison of the five states.
This position did not exist before, but now it is temporarily created, mainly for the rapid stability of the newly restored area.
In the first few years, King Hongzhou always wanted to ask Shen Dan to take over his class.
But Jiangzhou is getting bigger and bigger, Song Yang is getting stronger and stronger, and Shendan's development is of course getting brighter and brighter.
Returning to Hongzhou to take over would also be a step back.
The King of Hongzhou didn't say anything more and let Shen Dan wander around outside while he worked hard at home, hoping to find a successor...
Song Yang met his brother-in-law, and the two had a good time reminiscing about old times.
When he heard that the five states were becoming more stable, Song Yang became more and more satisfied with his brother-in-law's performance.
He even said that when the war is over, he and Liu Huairen will be asked to form a team, with one as the governor of Henan Province and the other as the governor of Henan Province...
December 27th is the Chinese New Year in three days.
Song Yang finally arrived in Kaifeng.
Yu Ming, Grand Master Gao, Liu Huairen and others were already waiting for Song Yang at the door.
There were snowflakes in the sky. Song Yang wrapped his coat tightly, got out of the carriage and took a breath of cool breeze.
The temperature dropped suddenly last night and it started to snow early this morning.
"Everyone! It's too cold! Go back to the city quickly!" Song Yang waved his hands hurriedly when he saw the people whose faces were turning red from the cold.
"Yes, yes! Let's go back to the city. It's too cold today!" Master Gao said hurriedly.
He is old and cannot bear the severe cold.
Even after wearing it several layers, it still doesn't work.
"It's getting colder and it's snowing. You don't have to come out to greet me in the future." Song Yang waved his hand and helped the old master get into the carriage.
A group of people entered Kaifeng. When the soldiers learned that Song Yang was coming, they all gathered on the roadside to pay their respects.
"Go back! It's such a cold day, so don't waste time outside anymore."
When Song Yang saw so many people waiting for him, although he felt warm in his heart, he was worried that the soldiers would be frozen.
"Your Majesty! We are not cold!"
"Yes! There are so many people here, it's not cold."
"Your Majesty, we know that you are here to celebrate the New Year with us. You are all very happy!"
The soldiers were chattering away, and Song Yang smiled and greeted everyone one by one.
After struggling at the city gate for half an hour, everyone returned to the Yamen.
"Your Majesty, as you can see, the soldiers all miss you."
Yu Ming said after a while.
"It's just too cold today. Again, don't arrange for anyone to come out to pick me up on such cold days in the future."
Seeing how everyone was so cold, Song Yang couldn't bear it.
He is a modified body. Although he can feel cold, his resistance to cold is very strong.
Ordinary people can't afford it.
There are no down jackets these days, so a not-so-thick cotton coat alone cannot withstand the cold for a long time.
"Old Yu. I have brought more than 5,000 pieces of cotton-padded clothes this time. You will have them counted tomorrow."
"Just now at the city gate I saw many soldiers' cotton-padded clothes that were too worn out. I asked them to get new ones."
Song Yang talked about the cotton-padded clothes.
Yu Ming said with a bitter face: "Your Majesty, more than five thousand pieces are simply not enough. Our shortage of cotton-padded clothes is at least ten thousand to twenty thousand pieces."
"So many!" Song Yang was surprised.
Liu Huairen stood up and explained:
"Your Majesty, although everyone in the army now has cotton-padded clothes, those cotton-padded clothes are all shabby goods."
"It was fine when it wasn't cold a few days ago, but now that the temperature has dropped suddenly, many of the too-shabby cotton-padded clothes can no longer withstand the cold."
According to Liu Huairen's statistics, the current shortage of cotton-padded clothes for the Central Route Army is 20,000 pieces.
"This..." Song Yang fell into deep thought.
The lack of cotton-padded clothes is really not an easy solution.
The main thing is that this thing takes time to produce.
"How much fighting power does one have with cotton-padded clothes? Thick cotton-padded clothes, cotton-padded clothes that can withstand the cold in the north." Song Yang asked.
"If the temperature does not continue to drop, the number of people who can fight is about 50,000. But if the temperature continues to drop or cross the river to go north... around 20,000." Yu Ming answered with a grimace.
"That's only 20,000. To annihilate Luo Xin's bandits, we must continue to go north!" Song Yang wrote down the number of 20,000.
"How many remnants of Luo Xin's bandits are there?" Song Yang asked again.
"Less than fifty thousand."
Song Yang calculated that 20,000 versus 50,000 was enough.
"Then 20,000 people will continue the Northern Expedition! The rest will stay in Kaifeng for the winter!"
Song Yang made a decisive decision and made strategic arrangements.
The army in the middle route dispatched 100,000 people.
Along the way north, some people must be left to defend the city in each newly restored area.
At this time, there were only a little more than 60,000 troops left in the army in the middle of Kaifeng.
Because of the cotton-padded clothes incident, only 20,000 people were able to continue going north.
So the gap in cotton-padded clothes is not 10,000, but 50,000!
Of course, if these 50,000 people just stay in the city, they do not need thick cotton clothes.
It cannot be said that there is anything wrong with Liu Huairen's statistics.
"Your Majesty, 20,000 Renaissance troops are enough to defeat the traitors, but if we want to eliminate them, it may not be enough." Yu Ming said with some worry.
After all, there are still 50,000 rebel soldiers. If they only send 20,000 soldiers, the rebel soldiers can still be escaped.
"It doesn't matter. There are ruins everywhere as you continue north. They have basically never been rebuilt after the natural disaster. Even Kyoto has been abandoned, so where else can they go?"
"As long as we defeat them again, I estimate that ten thousand of the bandit soldiers will be enough. At this point, people still have to flee north, where it is colder and it will not be easy for them to survive the winter."
"Let them starve and freeze for the whole winter first, and then we can calmly go north in the spring next year."
"At that time, it was just hunting rabbits and killing them all!"
Song Yang analyzed the situation. Master Gao and others thought about it for a while, and found that what Song Yang said made sense.
They all also agreed on the 20,000 Renaissance troops crossing the river and heading north.
"Is the Yellow River frozen?"
Song Yang asked key questions.
To cross Hebei and attack Luo Xin, we must wait until the Yellow River is completely frozen.
"The temperature has dropped significantly today. You can get on the carriage tomorrow!" Yu Ming said.
The Yellow River begins to freeze in mid-December.
It's just that the ice is so thin that people can't leave.
Around the 20th, people could already walk on the edge.
The temperature dropped again last night, and Yu Ming speculated that he would be able to cross the river tomorrow morning.
"Tomorrow morning..." Song Yang made a plan.
Tomorrow is the 28th, and the Chinese New Year is in three days.
Walking to the map, Song Yang looked at the map, finally tapped Anyang with his hand and said:
"Then we'll cross the river tomorrow! Let's go to Liyang to celebrate the New Year!"