The struggle of the reborn prince

After Zhao Tong became the reserve, the last obstacle on the road to the personal conquest was eliminated, and everything began to enter the countdown stage.But the emperor's trips are earth-shattering, let alone a personal conquest, and there are too many unknown factors for this trip, making the preparation work more cumbersome and lengthy.

The emperor had to leave a housekeeper at home when he went out. This time, Zhao Tuo chose Empress Zhu Shuzhen and Queen Mother Zheng Hongmei to supervise the country together, and left the two former emperors aside. But this is understandable, and the heart of defense is indispensable Ah, what if the two of them become addicted to officials and want to work for a few more days?But the two women are different, one is his wife and the other is his own mother, both of them are towards him from the bottom of their hearts, and they will never do anything to betray themselves, to ensure that they will have no worries in the front and don't have to worry about fire in the backyard.

In fact, Zhu Shuzhen is not bad at reciting poems and composing Fu, and her experience in dealing with political affairs is insufficient, and her ability is not as good as that of imperial concubine Yu Liyan, but the prince is his son. Those who strongly support their son's superior position can guarantee the smooth execution of their "last edict".The old lady Zheng Hongmei is even more amazing. Since she was a palace maid, she has helped the Empress Dowager Xiang deal with the government affairs, and she has gone through three dynasties. She has never seen anything before. Later, he also acted as the actual controller of the royal family, and played the role of the pinnacle of the sea at critical moments.

And Zhao Xin and Zhe Meiluan will accompany him to the expedition. This is not only because the two are born in the army, they can help him give advice, protect himself at critical moments, and also prevent other people from being overwhelmed.After all, both of them have certain influence in the court, and it is not impossible to make something happen while the emperor is away.Yu Liyan and Li Xiaoxiao are different, they have a shallow foundation in the court.Even if they want to do something, they are powerless, and besides, the two of them are in court.It can also stabilize Khitan and Xixia, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble for myself.

The ministers who stay in the court are also very important.Not only to deal with the daily affairs of the country, but also to ensure the stability of the DPRK and China, provide food and materials for the front, and send officials to receive the newly occupied land.And in case they die, they are ministers of Gu Ming, who must ensure the smooth transfer and transition of power so that there will be no turmoil, and at the same time assist the new master in handling the government and teach him how to govern the country.

Now the most suitable person for this job is Li Gang.He assisted the two emperors to take the throne, and he has rich experience in this area. He has a long history of prestige in the court, so he can take on this important task.The other candidate is Zhao Ren. Apart from himself, he is the only one who can hold back the arrogant soldiers in the past. At the same time, his loyalty is unquestionable. Take care of yourself.It's a pity that they can't witness the great moment of the Jin Kingdom's demise together with them.

Zhao Tong will act together with Beilu in the early stage of the war. He sent Zhao Lian and the advance team to Pingzhou to join Gao Chong to establish a forward headquarters.At the same time, the Leopard Wing Army was ordered to board a ship in Quanzhou and be escorted by the navy to march northward by sea.The inland river fleet it belongs to goes north along the canal; the Mingzhou and Haizhou naval forces gather to Dengzhou; the tiger generals, the leopard generals and the wolf generals each leave two brigades of soldiers to defend the capital, train recruits, and the rest march towards Yanjing; The winged, loyal and brave armies marched quietly towards Pingzhou; the guards left four brigades to guard the imperial city, and the rest went out with the emperor and served as camp guards and strategic reserves.Almost all the elites of Song Dynasty were mobilized for this expedition.He wanted to deal a fatal blow to Jin Guo with the power of thunder and completely wipe it out...

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At the time when the emperor was arranging the funeral in full swing and mobilizing the army to prepare for his own conquest.Ningbian Fort also launched the first war after the conflict between the two countries.Although it is early spring in Bianjing, it is still freezing and cold here.But the battlefield was full of excitement, and the Song army's artillery was constantly bombarding the fort.The soldiers did not take the opportunity to attack the city, but they were digging a deep trench with great effort. They used blasting to remove the thick layer of frozen soil, and then dug deeper.

"Commander, what are the Song troops doing?" Meng'an Xidali of Ningbian Fort asked Wanyan Yulie beside him. Now both of them were lying on the earth barrier beside the boundary trench to observe the actions of the Song army.

"They are digging ditches, can't you see it?" Wanyan Yulie said angrily. The Song army did not launch a violent siege as he imagined in the past two days, but continued to bombard them with artillery. The last trebuchet position will be used to place the trebuchet and the soil platform there and be destroyed together.Fortunately, he learned from his experience under the city of Pyongyang that year and did not put all the trebuchets out, otherwise there would not be a single one left.

"Commander, they should have filled the trench. What are they trying to do by digging the trench? Could it be that they want to surround us with this!" Xi Dali didn't see Wanyan Yulie's impatient look, and asked ignorantly.

"Do you think the people of Song Dynasty are as stupid as you, they dig trenches to surround us, how can we be trapped? Thank you for thinking!" Wanyan Yulie actually didn't understand why Song Jun dug trenches, but he knew it was definitely not In order to besiege them, this is not a lonely castle. If it wasn't for the fear of being discovered by the Song army's lookout post on the watch car, he really wanted to stand up and kick him. These days, the Song army has become more courageous and keeps approaching the front of the fort. , dedicated to attacking the ambushes on their own trenches. I don’t know how many soldiers died under the cold guns of the Song army. Everyone was so scared that they hid behind the earth during the day and did not dare to go out, and they did not dare to raise fire at night.

"Tong Jun, look at the trench dug by the Song Army leading to the Hun River at one end and extending to our boundary trench at the other end. Are they going to flood the city with water?" Xi Dali, who had been scolded, still kept his mouth shut, but he was not there. Asked, but in the form of self-question and self-answer.

"Flooding the city with water, you are so stupid. Our earth barrier is two feet higher than the Hun River. Can the water overflow it? It just turns our boundary trench into a moat, that can only be..." Wan Yan Yu Lie slapped this stupid subordinate hard, but he suddenly thought of something and suddenly stopped and shouted, "Order the archers to shoot arrows, and we must not let them dig through the boundary trench!"

Although Xi Dali didn't know what the commanding army was doing, his brain became more flexible after being slapped on the ear. He stopped talking and immediately mobilized the archers hidden behind the boundary trench to shoot arrows at the Song army digging the trench. When the rain fell, Song Jun immediately dropped his tools to escape, but some people were injured by Liu Ya.And Song Jun's artillery also fired immediately, firing at them, and the archers hurriedly avoided...

"Commander, the archers can't take it anymore!" Xi Dali said to Wanyan Yulie with a sad face. After the two sides shot at each other, the two sides began to play hide-and-seek, and whoever showed his head would be beaten.Of course, there was a generation difference in the weapons of the Jin army, and the price paid was a bit high, but the speed of digging trenches by the Song army was forced to slow down.

"Those who disobey the order and those who are cowardly, beheaded!" Wanyan Yulie said viciously, he had already seen through the Song army's attempt to dig trenches.

The boundary trench is more than ten feet deep and tens of feet wide. It took a lot of effort to dig it back then, and of course it was very laborious to fill it.But the Song army was taking a trick. They wanted to dig an artificial river to divert the river water into the boundary trench. The weather is still very cold now, and the river will freeze solid in just two days. The function of riding can reach directly under the trench wall.At that time, it will not be a few archers who will die, but will directly face the fierce attack of the Song army.

Wanyan Yulie knew that he couldn't stop the Song army's attack without the barrier of the trenches, so he stopped the Song army from digging trenches at all costs. In addition to using archers to shoot and kill the enemy soldiers, he also used the trebuchet to attack the enemy soldiers in advance. The river digging site was bombarded, hindering the Song army's construction, and the few cavalry troops in hand ventured out of the village to drive away the Song army.Even secretly sending soldiers at night to fill up the river bed dug by the Song army during the day, it can be said that they have exhausted their minds...

After Song Jun was "taught" by the emperor, he began to sum up his experience.After discussion, they believed that the most difficult stages of the offensive were the two stages of crossing the river and crossing the trenches. At this time, it was difficult to deploy troops due to terrain restrictions, and artillery could not provide effective support.Moreover, it is difficult to transport large siege equipment through floating bridges, and it is technically very difficult to manufacture a vehicle bridge more than ten feet long.If the amount of work to fill the trenches is too large to be completed in a short period of time, soldiers will be easily killed by the enemy.

However, these two most difficult problems were solved after the Privy Council delegated the authority to formulate detailed combat plans. Zheng Pingping and his colleagues only needed to advance the launch of the offensive from the planned April to before the weather warmed up.The frozen river surface allows the army to move freely, and using the river water to fill the trenches saves the troublesome work of filling them. All they need to do is dig a [-]-foot-long river channel.

During the military exercise, Zheng Ping knew that half of the reason for his failure was that in the early days of the war, the artillery as a supporting firepower was first destroyed by the emperor using the trebuchet. Therefore, he thought that to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy, he had to destroy the enemy's artillery first. Catapults, or limit their firepower, deprive the enemy of long-range fire support.

Zheng Ping entrusted this task to Cao Yi, the commander of the First Artillery Brigade. After reconnaissance, he found that the enemy's heavy trebuchets were all arranged in the fort, hidden behind the earth barrier, but the range of the large-caliber mortars equipped by the artillery brigade could completely cover the fort. everywhere within.And they only need to set up observation posts, find one and destroy one, or use concentrated firepower to launch to destroy the enemy's launch position.Destroy the enemy's long-range weapons, then the Song Army's rapid-fire guns can be safely and boldly deployed at the front to provide cover for the engineers.

With a perfect plan, the Song army smashed the Jin army's block with the powerful artillery firepower, and dug the river canal into the trench step by step.And with a loud noise, the ice-covered Talu River embankment was blown open, and the river water flowing under the ice spewed out and flowed into the moat continuously... (To be continued. .)