Some of the people who came to join the Perak Army were from the Mongolian army. Among the Mongolian and Han troops under Wang Dechen's tribe, there was a centurion named Zeng Yong. Because he could not stand the brutality and bloodshed of the Mongolian army, he found an opportunity to bring ten of them with him.

More of his subordinates came over.

Although Zeng Yong was only a junior officer, he had an extraordinary background. He brought with him an extremely precious military book - "The General Essentials of Military Classics".

This book was written by his ancestors, Zeng Gongliang and Ding Du, famous ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty. Because it involved important military affairs, there were not many copies printed. It was only owned by senior generals of the Song Army. No one in the Perak Army had ever seen this book.

The book analyzes and evaluates the selection of generals and soldiers, education and training, troop formation, marching and camping, ancient and modern formations, communications and reconnaissance, city attack and defense, fire and water warfare, weapons and equipment, and many ancient battle examples.

Zeng Yong, a member of the Zeng clan, lived in Kaifeng Prefecture for generations and was ruled by the Jin and the Mongols successively. Therefore, he was forcibly recruited into the Mongolian and Han armies.

Although he was in the Mongolian army camp, Zeng Yong never forgot his Han identity and always cared about the Han region.

Li Shuang, Cao Ergou, Yu Zhu, and Huang Dagen, the top brass of the Perak Army, all praised this book and believed that it would be of great help to the Perak Army, but they could not deny whether to accept Zeng Yong's surrender.

Some people in the army also privately discussed that Zeng Yong might be a spy. After all, the Mongolian army was always full of conspiracies, and its spies were notoriously powerful.

Ouyang Xuan's attitude towards this is that heroes should be used with caution after being screened, regardless of their origin. If the Pili Army wants to grow and develop, it must have the courage to embrace all rivers, and cannot be hesitant in recruiting talents.

By mid-June, the Mongolian army had completely expelled the Song army, except for the Perak Army, from the western Sichuan Plain, and established its rule over the prefectures and counties.

During the offensive, the Mongolian army also invaded Hengyuan Fort and Xinjin City many times, but was easily driven away by the Perak Army.

The number of these attacks was only one or two hundred, and they were purely harassment in nature. This made the soldiers of the Pili Army led by Cao Ergou quite unhappy, and also made Ouyang Xuan anxious.

The Perak Army and the Mongols are inseparable and will have to fight. Only by destroying the Perak Army can the Mongols consolidate their rule over Western Sichuan. And the Perak Army can only have a place in Western Sichuan by defeating the main force of the Mongols in Western Sichuan.

At present, Niulin has led the main force of the Mongolian army to Chongqing to attack and plunder Chongqing Prefecture according to Mengge Khan's order. The main force of the Sichuan Mongolian army only has 5,000 cavalry and 10,000 new auxiliary troops.

The strength of the new annexed army is not a concern, but the Mongolian cavalry cannot compete with the Perak Army. Only with the strong city and powerful artillery, the Perak Army has a chance of defeating Liu Heima.

Waiting for the Mongols to attack the fortified city was Ouyang Xuan's strategy of waiting for work. The Mongolian generals stationed in Chengdu, Mi Zhehuoli and Baiyan Badulu, were extremely arrogant and wanted to raise troops to destroy the Perak Army in one fell swoop, but they were in charge of Chengdu's political affairs.

However, Liu Heima is a cunning man and will not be fooled at all.

In his view, the Perak Army was poor, tough, and had powerful firearms, so attacking them would not be worth the gain.

Meng Ge Khan's strategy to destroy the Song Dynasty was to first occupy Chongqing Prefecture, then open up the Xiajiang River, and then go down the river to conquer Lin'an. The first task given to them was to turn the rich western Sichuan plain into a Mongolian army to attack Chongqing Prefecture, etc.

Logistics base in eastern Sichuan.

Before leaving, Niulin also told Liu Heima and others that they only need to defend the city and the plains to block the Perak Army's momentum of developing from the mountains.

In his opinion, the Perak Army was just a scabies itch. Niulin's strategy was only half successful. In his mind, the cavalry was king. The powerful mobility of the cavalry could limit the movement of the infantry and limit its scope of activities.

around the fortress, and then trapped the Perak army in the mountains.

But he forgot that the Perak Army also had a navy equipped with artillery. If it was a warship with cold weapons, the Mongolian army could also use weapons such as crossbows and siege equipment to fight against the ship, limiting the power of the navy.

Activity.

But compared with the powerful artillery, these weapons are obviously not enough in water battles. With the cobweb-like river system, the Pili Army's navy has mobility that is not inferior to the Mongolian cavalry in the western Sichuan Plain.

Since the Mongolian army will not come to attack the city and kill people, Ouyang Xuan will use the navy to force them to kill people. Since they have been making a fortune in silence before and kept it secret, the Mongols do not know the development of the Perak Army, and even more

Unexpectedly, its naval strength expanded to the point where it could threaten itself.

In fact, the Sichuan Mongolian Army also had naval forces. Most of these water forces came from Yunding City and the Song Army's naval forces who surrendered under Pu Zezhi.

However, for these surrendered naval forces, the Mongols were more cautious than trusting, and did not provide necessary equipment and supplies. Instead, they restricted and monitored them everywhere.

Even in order to prevent it from rebelling, it was not allowed to undertake important military tasks, but was used for guarding and transportation.

Therefore, judging from the books, although the Mongolian navy in western Sichuan has more than 3,000 men and hundreds of ships, its morale is low and its armaments are slack. In addition, it is dispersed and deployed.

compared to.

In late June, heavy rains fell for several days in western Sichuan, causing the rivers in the plains to surge. Many low-lying areas became flooded and even turned into marshes. The abundant water allowed ships to move more freely.

Taking advantage of the rising water season, the Perak Army took action. When Huang Dagen led four companies from the water camp to appear on the Jinjiang River outside Chengdu, the Mongols thought they were their own fleet transporting grain.

After the Mongols occupied Chengdu, they sent land and water armies to attack south along the Jinjiang River. After successfully capturing Pengshan City, they were defeated by Yu Xing's troops in Meizhou.

Pengshan City is located where the Jinjiang River merges into the Minjiang River, and is the chokepoint of the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. After going up the Minjiang River and passing through Xinjin City, you can reach Chongqing Prefecture, Qiongzhou, Jiangyuan, Daojiang, Dayi, Pujiang, etc., respectively.

County, if you go up the Jinjiang River, you can go directly to Chengdu, and if you go down the river, you can go to Meizhou and Jiading Prefecture. The geographical location is extremely important.

Therefore, when the Mongolian army was defeated in Meizhou, they did not abandon Pengshan City, but stationed 500 cavalry and 500 naval troops here.

Yu Xing sent troops many times to try to recapture Pengshan City, but failed. Although his navy had the upper hand in the water battle, it was repeatedly defeated in the face of cavalry attacks.

These cavalry are also a huge headache for the current Perak Army. However, Ouyang Xuan's order was not to capture Pengshan City but to bypass Pengshan City and attack Chengdu. It was not difficult for Huang Dagen to complete this task.

In fact, the land distance between Xinjin City and Chengdu City is only more than a hundred miles, and by water, you need to first go south along the Minjiang River to Pengshan City, and then north along the Jinjiang River, a distance of nearly three hundred miles.

The waterway seems to be a long way away, but it is the fastest and safest route to attack Chengdu. Of course, with the current infantry strength of the Perak Army, if they attack Chengdu by land, they will be defeated by Mongolian cavalry charging into the formation or using harassment tactics halfway.

In this sneak attack on Chengdu, basically the entire Pili Army navy was dispatched. In addition to leaving one company and ten warships each in Huangjiadang and Xinjin City, eight companies and 200 warships participated in the operation.

In order to prevent Xinjin City from being attacked by surprise after the navy was dispatched, Ouyang Xuan transferred three companies of the field battalion to Xinjin City to garrison.

When the fleet transporting the field battalion passed by Chongqing Fucheng, the Mongolians in the city were in panic. Little did they know that Fucheng had long been regarded as a treasure by the Perak Army and they were not in a hurry to capture it.

When Huang Dagen led the navy through Pengshan City, the defenders in the city did not react much. On the one hand, this city had experienced many attacks by Yu Xing's troops, and the defenders had long been accustomed to it.

On the other hand, Huang Dagen only sent ten warships to clear the siege equipment on the city wall during the day to prevent threats to the Pili Army warships. Most of the ships passed through Pengshan City at night.

The Mongolian navy in the city had already been frightened by Yu Xing's navy, and was bombarded by the artillery on the Pili army's warships. They were unable to fight back. They simply hunkered down in the water fortress and did not even send out any reconnaissance ships.
Chapter completed!