Chapter 53 The Battle of Song Man

At the end of February of the 36th year of Song Zhiping, the Song army in the southwest finally took the initiative to attack the barbarians under the leadership of Wang Chong.

The reason why Wang Chong changed his established strategy and took the initiative to send troops from Dingxi is that in addition to the grain and fodder in the western and Guizhou states were intercepted, and the grain and fod from Yunzhou was not enough to support 100,000 troops to hold on for a long time, the attitude of the court was the key.

A few days ago, the Ministry of War had issued him an extremely harsh order, and Wang Chong immediately sent troops to defeat the enemy to win, so as to promote the prestige of the Song Dynasty, otherwise what awaits him would be the disaster of prison. Wang Chong knew that this was already the ultimatum of the imperial court. If he continued to delay the army, the next letter would be his dismissal order. He is not reluctant to give up his current official position, but he also understands the consequences of being dismissed, so although he feels that this is not the time to send troops, he still has to mention his 100,000 troops attacking the barbarians in the west.

However, Wang Chong is an old general who has been in war for a long time. Even if he is a passive soldier, everything is still very organized. In order not to repeat the mistakes of the lonely army of the Xizhou Army that day and was almost completely annihilated by the barbarians, his dispatch of troops this time did not divide the army into the front, middle and rear armies as before, but changed to the left, middle and right armies.

Of course, this is also due to the terrain characteristics of the offensive route. Most of the barbaric land is mountainous, but there are also some changes. After entering the barbarians, it is a dense jungle at the junction with Song Man. The terrain here is still flat, but it is also a dangerous place mixed in the middle of the mountain beams. You must not pull the army too far away. Otherwise, once the enemy cuts off the middle road, the whole army will be in chaos.

Once the team is divided into three, the distance between the three people and horses is only dozens of miles away from each other. Once there is a problem in one of them, the other two roads can be rescued in time. Moreover, the three roaders go hand in hand, and they can also find the location of the barbarians faster, so that the barbarians can't escape and must confront the Song army head-on.

Although Wang Chong is extremely cautious, he is still very confident in his army. He believes that the Song army is far better than the barbarians in terms of strength, combat strength, and even weapons, weight, grain and fodder. The only thing the barbarians can rely on is their familiarity with the mountains and forests, which can have the effect of defeating the strong with the weak. That's how the Xizhou army Xiang Cang's army was defeated. And once the two sides really start a decisive battle, the Song army will have an overwhelming advantage.

The only thing to worry about now is whether the barbarians will turn to zero and hide in the deeper mountains and forests, so that Song Jun will return to no success. In fact, the barbarians had done such a thing at the beginning. When the Song army came, they hid in the vast mountains, making the Song army unable to use it. Once the Song army retreated, they came out of the assassination and chased after the Song army. For this reason, although the Song people had an overwhelming advantage in the southwest, they could not eradicate this disaster, so they had to set up soldiers on the front line of Dingxi City to prevent the barbarians from invading.

However, this time, the barbarians have annoyed the Song court. Wang Chong was determined to complete his battle, so he used this unfolding formation to kill the barbarian territory and find the whereabouts of the enemy and dealt a fatal blow to them. As for the consequences, he has no time to take care of them for the time being.

However, after passing through the nearly 100-mile jungle, Song Jun will encounter real difficulties and obstacles. The reason why the barbarians have always existed, so that the State of Song dares not say it lightly, is because of the more complex environment in the hinterland. In the hinterland of the barbarians, there are three or four gates, all of which are extremely high and dangerous, and the most difficult to defend. As long as the barbarians send thousands of people to guard the place with their hearts, it will be very difficult for the Song army to easily pass through this place and pose a real threat to the barbarians.

However, at least Song Jun will not think about these obstacles at present, because they must go through the dense jungle before they are qualified to appear before those more sad levels. And to pass through the jungle that is most likely to ambush soldiers and horses, they must divide their troops into three ways and lead the army forward in a safe way.

This steady method of marching has also reduced the role of the ward camp. They have no other tasks except to advance ahead of the large army and search for the traces of the barbarians every day, which also gives Xu Jinghong, these newcomers to the ward camp, a learning process. The only shortcoming is that a great credit that Xu Jinghong wanted could not come.

Song Jun quickly passed the town barbarians and then continued to move forward. This time, Song Jun did not intend to accept it. Their purpose was to find the main force of the barbarians and annihilate them in one fell swoop. In this way, it is necessary to go deep into the territory of the barbarians, and in this way, the responsibility of the scout camp will be heavier. In addition to finding the whereabouts of the barbarians, they also shoulder the responsibility of exploring the way and can no longer let the barbarians set traps somewhere like before.

After another day of march, the scouts finally settled down after the arrival of the large army. At this time, Xu Jinghong came to see Wang Junqing as usual and reported the information of the day to him. Because of his previous ability to track the barbarians, Xu Jinghong was promoted to a team in the camp after entering the barracks, so that he needed to report the information held by the team to Lord Dutong on time.

The primand battalion is a special existence in the army of the Song Dynasty. In addition to their soldiers who are better at fighting and being more agile than ordinary battalion soldiers, their systems are also different. In terms of the number of people, because the requirements of the scouts are extremely high, it is impossible for this battalion to have a huge number of 5,000 people like other battalions. Wang Junqing's scout camp is only more than 1,000. However, the combat effectiveness of this camp of more than 1,000 people is no different from that of a team of 5,000 people. Even at some point, this 1,000 people is more powerful than that of a team of 5,000 people.

In this thousand-person scout camp, there are 100 people as a team, and there are ten scout teams, which is much larger than the brothers under the ordinary team. Xu Jinghong's entry into the scout camp was able to get the position of team, which was also a kind of progress for him.

This is a very simple marching tent. Wang Junqing is looking at a topographic map in his hand by candlelight. Every day, he has to divide an area for his ten teams of people to search for these scouts who are good at finding the enemy's tracks, so as to provide detailed enemy situation for the army.

"What, have you gained anything today?" Wang Junqing saw Xu Jinghong coming, so he temporarily put down the map in his hand and asked. He still appreciates this new companion. Xu Jinghong and his original brothers have soon adapted to the work. Although they have not really shown their talents, Wang Junqing believes that they will not let themselves down.

Xu Jinghong smiled bitterly: "So far, although we have found some traces of barbarians, those were left by them some time ago. So it can be said that there is nothing."

"I have expected this for a long time. If the barbarians are really easy to find, how can we be dragged here by them all the time? Our biggest border problem in the Song Dynasty is the barbarians in the north. Whether it is the court or the general, they hope to transfer more people to the north. But until today, we still have 100,000 troops here, because the barbarians are too cunning. Wang Junqing seemed to comfort him and said, "But this time we are determined to deal with them. They are really hiding in 100,000 mountains, and we also have a way to dig them out!"

Xu Jinghong didn't think so. He didn't think that the Song army's march could really solve the trouble of the barbarians. You should know that this is the junction of Song Man. In the past, there are vast mountains, which will tear apart these 100,000 troops and scatter them in. I'm afraid they may not be able to find these thousands of continuous mountains and forests.

As Xu Jinghong, who has experience in later generations, has the most say. You know, in the 1930s, whether it was Chairman Jiang's army or the Japanese army, they were helpless in the face of our army that turned to zero and specialized in guerrillas. At that time, there were modern weapons such as airplanes and cannons. Didn't they still get nothing? And now the Song army wants to eliminate the barbarians in the mountains with 100,000 troops, which is really too whimsical.

Xu Jinghong once told Wang Junqing about this conclusion, but after a period of silence, the other party only gave an answer: everything has the above decision, and their only task as scouts is to find the way for the army to ensure the safety of the army. Such an answer made Xu Jinghong feel very frustrated. Only then did he know that there was still a long way to go to really dominate his actions.

Seeing Xu Jinghong's hesitation, Wang Junqing knew what he wanted to say, so he patted him on the shoulder and said, "You don't think too much about these useless things. I have also mentioned your concerns with the general. He said he would consider it."

After Xu Jinghong nodded, he put forward his other idea: "Dong, I thought that if we move forward with such a big push, it will only make the barbarians escape from the wind. If we really want to drive them out of the mountains, we still have to use some other methods."

"Oh? Is there anything else you can do?"

"A strange soldier all the way, copy the old nest of the barbarian!" Xu Jinghong immediately said that he had planned his plan for many days: "Although the barbarians do not gather in towns and their borders like our Song people, they will still have their own gathering place. For example, the lord of the barbarians is bound to have their own residence. As long as we can find this place and attack them, thus causing great damage to them, it is enough for the barbarians to take the initiative to confront us because of anger!"

After hearing this, Wang Junqing did not look surprised, but smiled and said, "It seems that you are eager to make contributions, and you want to use our scout camp as a strange soldier on the way to find the old nest of the barbarians and launch an attack. Is there anything wrong with what I said?

Xu Jinghong did not deny it and nodded, "Yes, that's what I think. Instead of searching for the whereabouts of the barbarians, it's better to take this risk and force them to fight with us.

"But have you ever thought that our 100,000 army can't find the traces of barbarians. How can we find them with only a thousand scouts? And even if we really find the location of the barbarians, are we sure to retreat after hitting them hard? This is the life of thousands of brothers. How can you make fun of it?

"This..." Xu Jinghong couldn't help but be silent. He really wanted to make contributions and completely ignored the various difficulties that might exist in doing so.

"Now our Song army has the advantage, and there is no need to risk like this, so I won't agree with your idea." Wang Junqing shook his head and then said, "Unless something unexpected happens later, we have to take this risk!"