The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 410 Dad's Here to Help You

Li Heng is having a blast!

He himself didn't know why. He had only planned to plunder some grain and run away, but the more he fought, the smoother things went. Along the way, the cities of the pseudo-Qi Kingdom surrendered immediately with just a light touch, and no one put up any serious resistance.

He couldn't help but think, "Maybe the Jin Kingdom isn't that powerful at all. When they invaded the Central Plains, they were just like me. No matter where they went, the local generals surrendered without a fight. That's why the Jin Kingdom easily conquered half of the country."

Yes, that must be the case!
That's for sure!

If that's the case, then what am I afraid of?
Li Heng started to get cocky, no longer hesitating, and his troops pointed directly at Kaifeng.

Meanwhile, Liu Yu, the emperor of the pseudo-Qi state, had already sent messengers to the Jin state seeking help.

A group of Jin generals sat together.

Talan spoke first: "Li Heng, the traitorous general of the Southern Song Dynasty, has suddenly launched an attack on Kaifeng. Liu Yu, that good-for-nothing, is completely unable to resist and has now sent someone to ask for help. Gentlemen, what do you think we should do? Send them to help or not?"

Jin Wuzhu jumped out immediately: "Of course we'll help! Liu Yu is our dog. Even when beating a dog, you have to consider its owner. The Southern Song is so arrogant. Have they forgotten how powerful our Jin is? If we don't teach them a lesson now, they'll think our Jin is finished."

Ta Lan frowned and said, "The Southern Song is relatively easy to deal with, but the problem lies with the Northern Song. According to reports from the south, the Northern Song has been expanding its territory while Li Heng was away on campaign, and has successively captured four prefectures: Qingzhou, Yanzhou, Suzhou, and Haozhou. Although they have not taken any further action after capturing these four prefectures, I am always worried that if we send troops to teach Li Heng a lesson, the Northern Song will take the opportunity to continue its advance."

Jin Wuzhu: "Does the existence of the Northern Song Dynasty mean that my Jin Dynasty will never wage war against the south again? There is no need to be so afraid! It is just firearms. Although they are very effective in positional warfare, firearm units are slow to move and difficult to deploy. Our army can take advantage of speed and move freely in the vast Central Plains, so that his firearm units cannot even touch a hair of ours."

After hearing this, Talan felt that there was some truth to it.

If the Jin Dynasty continues to avoid war, the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties will be able to trample on the Jin Dynasty's face.

We must fight a good battle to demonstrate the power and prestige of the Jin Dynasty.

As for the difficult firearms, we can simply avoid them.

"Alright!" Talan said, "Zongbi, I'll give you five thousand cavalry. Go and teach Li Heng a lesson and relieve the crisis in Kaifeng. If you encounter the Northern Song army, fight if you can, otherwise retreat a hundred miles away to avoid their firearms units and harass their rear with high-speed cavalry."

Jin Wuzhu: "Leave it to me."

Once the Jin state had reached an agreement, they sent a messenger ahead to inform Liu Yu: "Your father has come to help you, don't be afraid!"

Upon receiving the news from the Jin state, Liu Yu was overjoyed and immediately dispatched the surrendered general Li Cheng with 20,000 troops to meet Li Heng ahead of time, waiting for the arrival of Jin reinforcements before delivering a fatal blow to Li Heng.
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"Report! Li Hengjun is almost at Kaifeng."

A messenger rushed into Qiao County and shouted urgently to Yue Wenxuan and Gong Erniangzi: "Chen Heng's army has won one victory after another, and is now less than a hundred miles away from Kaifeng."

Upon hearing this, Yue Wenxuan thought to himself: If history had not been drastically altered by the butterfly effect of my arrival, then Li Heng's defeat would not be far off.

However, the butterfly effect cannot be ignored. We cannot rely too much on historical fact, as things may change in unexpected ways. If we act entirely according to historical facts, we might suffer losses instead. Yue Wenxuan waved his hand and ordered, "Second Madam, issue an order to the entire army to set off immediately for Taikang."

Taikang County is about 170 li away from Qiao County.

Yue Wenxuan estimated that the time it would take the Northern Song army to walk 170 li from Qiao County to Taikang should be about the same as the time it would take Li Heng to walk 100 li to Kaifeng, because he was unlikely to encounter resistance, while Li Heng would have to clear out the defensive strongholds of the pseudo-Qi Kingdom while walking, or guard against sneak attacks from the pseudo-Qi Kingdom.

The Northern Song army immediately sprang into action. Plastic scouts dispersed to the northeast, and the infantry marched swiftly in a long, single-file formation. Niu Gao, who had recently joined the army, was placed behind the main force, learning to use muskets as he followed the main force.

Interestingly, the Northern Song army did not use cavalry to clear the way. Yi Zhangqing's cavalry unit and Niu Gao's troops walked together, both trailing at the very back of the column.

This surprised Niu Gao, who couldn't help but ask Yi Zhangqing, "When the Northern Song army marched, why did the cavalry walk at the very back?"

Yi Zhangqing laughed: "Our Northern Song army has a long-standing tradition that new weapons must be hidden until the very end. The enemy won't know that we've come up with a new trick until we suddenly bring it to their face."

Niu Gao understood. So that's how it is. The Northern Song Dynasty was so bad, I love it.

He added, “Whether it was the Jin Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty, or the Western Xia Dynasty, they all liked to let newly surrendered generals lead the troops to the front, but the Northern Song Dynasty did not let me fight the first battle, which is quite strange.”

Yi Zhangqing laughed again: "That's natural. When my husband and I first surrendered to the Northern Song Dynasty, they didn't let us lead troops into battle immediately. At first, my husband and I thought it was because we weren't trusted and were going to be ostracized. Later we found out that our fighting style was not suitable for the Northern Song army's fighting style. If they let us fight, it would only be a hindrance. We had to go to military school for a while before we could go into battle."

At this point, Yi Zhangqing glanced at Niu Gao's subordinates and said with a smile, "General, you haven't gone to the military academy yet. It's probably because the time you joined the army is rather delicate. We're about to fight in Kaifeng, so we haven't sent you to the military academy yet. After this battle is over, General Niu will definitely have to take all the capable officers in the army to the military academy for a few days."

Hearing her say that, Niu Gao became even more curious: "What exactly does this military academy teach?"

Yi Zhangqing: "It mainly talks about the practical application of firearms in combat! And it's divided into many branches. My husband majored in artillery, while I majored in musket cavalry. I heard that General Niu was an archer, so I guess you'll major in skirmishing when you go to military academy."

Niu Gao: "Is it all firearms? Aren't you going to teach anything else? Spear formation? Sword and shield formation? Heavy cavalry? Archer formation? Aren't you going to teach any of those?"

Yi Zhangqing laughed and said, "Young Master Yue said that in the future, wars will be dominated by firearms. As firearms become more and more common, all these cold weapons will be phased out."

Niu Gao: "..."

Niu Gao didn't really believe that statement.

Firearms have such a slow rate of fire that the enemy can get close after just one or two rounds, forcing firearm units to engage in hand-to-hand combat. How could they possibly eliminate cold weapons completely?

However, he had only recently been demoted and was still in a phase of being cautious in his words and actions, so it was not appropriate for him to express his opinions casually, and he had to hold back for now.

Just as we were talking, news came from the front that they had arrived at Taikang County.

(End of this chapter)