Chapter 1220: Please enter the urn

Jiagou Station is a post station on the way from Xuzhou to Suzhou, there are still 60 miles away from Suzhou, this place is at the junction of hills and plains, and it enters the plain after Jiagou Station. Its topography is like a water urn with a leaky bottom, surrounded by low hills on three sides, holding a small plain with a radius of 30 miles in the middle, among which there is a lake water, and is divided into two parts in the north and south by a ditch that runs through the east and west, forming a special terrain surrounded by mountains on three sides, flat rivers on one side, and half mountains and half lakes.

With the opening of the post road, the establishment of the post station gradually gathered the population and gradually became a market town. Originally, the post station was only a small station used to transmit official documents, but due to the diversion of the old canal after entering the Yuan Dynasty, it became an important trade route to Xuzhou, and it also prospered rapidly and became one of the big post stations in Suzhou. At present, due to the war between the Song and Yuan dynasties, the frequent movement of the army has brought a lot of business to those merchants, and they are reluctant to give up and insist on staying here.

In the evening of that day, a large army of Mengyuan entered Jiagouji, numbering no less than 20,000 people, and their entry immediately filled the small market town. The streets were full of soldiers armed with guns and knives, speaking foreign languages they did not understand, and even the former arrogant Mongolian security chief did not dare to be presumptuous in front of them, and it could be said that it was a feast for them to arrange shelter for them and contact merchants to buy what they needed. And those ordinary people not only had to give up their shelters, but were also conscripted into the service of husbands to cook for these soldiers and herd horses.

Hara Luwei commanded Tie Maichi to enter the post station under the greeting of the post man, and stayed in the best guest room, after he washed up, the wine and food had been served, and he could not understand the post man's words, so he waved his hand to let him out, leaving only his own personal soldiers to wait. After a few bowls of wine, he breathed a sigh, and the fatigue of a day's running seemed to have eased a lot.

Three days ago, Tie Maichi received a holy decree from Dadu overnight, ordering him to quickly lead his men and horses to Fuli, and defeat the Song army in front of him with Tutuhabu, and then wait for the opportunity to intercept and kill the Song army retreating from Xuzhou, restore the lost territory in Huaibei, and wait for the opportunity to cross the Huai River and fight for Huainan. After receiving the order, he was a little surprised, according to the current situation, it should be to chase and kill the Song army retreating from Xuzhou, seize the hole on the Huai River, and cut off the passage for the Song army to retreat. And in this arrangement, wouldn't it be reluctant to seek the near and far?

However, even if Tiemai had doubts in his heart, he strictly ordered that he must carry it out, and he could only carry it out in desperation. He had also heard the news that Fu Li's garrison had sent surprise soldiers to attack the rear camp of the Song army, burning its baggage, grain and grass, and wounding the emperor of the Southern Dynasty, but Tie Maichi did not fully believe this. He didn't think that the Song army would be so careless and would easily burn down the camp, so when the Song army retreated, he did not rashly send troops to pursue, but he was worried that the Song army deliberately set up an ambush to lure him out of the city.

Therefore, after receiving the holy order, Tie Maichi did not immediately send troops, but sent scouts to track and retreat the Song army to see if it pretended to retreat. It was not until it was confirmed that the Song army had withdrawn 200 miles away that the troops were gathered, the troops left behind were arranged, and the front was ready to leave. As a famous general of Mengyuan, Tie Maichi does not lack wisdom, otherwise he would not be alive today.

There are 130 miles from Xuzhou to Suzhou, and there are many mountains along the way, if the Song army learns the news and sets up an ambush on the way, the terrain here can be used, and it is impossible to avoid this dangerous road when going to Fuli. Tie Maichi therefore decided to pass through this mountain road as fast as possible, and along the way, in addition to sending a large number of scouts and cavalry to reconnoiter carefully, he accelerated the speed of the march and did not give the Song army time to prepare. And as long as they enter the plain, if the Song army, with the infantry army as the main force, wants to surround them, it is almost impossible, and the Han army guard of Fuli is close at hand, and will send troops to meet them after discovering it, there is nothing to fear.

Today they galloped all the way, except for a short rest on the way, drinking horses, and feeding, all people did not get off their horses, horses did not unload their saddles, and they traveled more than 70 miles, and finally entered the ditch set before dark. Tie Maichi knew that although there was still one step away from entering the plains, but this place was like a city, as long as he held the entrances and exits at both ends, he could block the enemy's attack, and it was much safer than staying overnight on the plains, and he had to rest for a long time, and he decided to rest here for the night, and he would be able to reach Fuli tomorrow by walking another day.

Since the dispatch of the army, Tie Maichi has actually been uneasy, feeling that he cannot see the intentions of the Song army clearly. The army of the Mongolian King of the Steppe, which had been reinforced in the past, was halfway through the march and suddenly received an order to return to the north, saying that the Southern Korean naval army suddenly appeared under the capital of Qingzhou and had to return to defense, which made him really nervous for a while. Judging from his experience, he believed that this was a ploy of the Southern Dynasties, and wanted to prevent Xuzhou from obtaining reinforcements so that it could conquer this important town. However, the Southern Dynasty attacked him and saved him, which made him suffer and could not prevent the reinforcements from returning to the north.

Tie Maichi understood that the Song army was no longer the Song army of the past, they were able to raise troops from a small island, defeated famous generals such as Ali Hague, Liu Shen, and Instigated Du, and attacked Lin'an by sea, defeated all the four Han armies guarding the south of the Yangtze River, and controlled Jiangdong and Huguang in less than a year, and recovered the Jiangnan region. After that, Boyan's attempt to retake Jiangnan was thwarted, and through a series of small battles, they were forced to go on the defensive, and the peace negotiations were resumed, and Boyan was relegated to the northwest.

Last year, it was only because of a border conflict, which gradually evolved into a major war, which led to the loss of Yangzhou and the defeat of Yuxi Timur's army in Jiangdong. The annihilation of its entire army led to the collapse of the defense system of Jiangbei and Henan provinces, which allowed the Song army to take advantage of the situation to seize the Huainan and Jingxiang regions, enter Huaibei, and enter the Central Plains to threaten Gyeonggi.

This series of victories in the Southern Dynasty made Tie Maichi understand that this was not luck, let alone accident. In addition to the coach's good planning, there must also be a strong team that can fight well, so he has already put away his contempt for the Southern Dynasty. Tie Maichi concluded that it would be difficult to repel the current Song army with his existing forces. Therefore, while strengthening the city defense of Xuzhou, he recruited young people, raised grain and grass, and prepared for a long-term confrontation; On the one hand, he fought with the Song army for the outlying towns, trying to maintain a large defensive depth and keep the enemy at bay.

However, after several battles, the Song army relied on its sharp firearms to attack the city again and again, constantly compressing its own defenses, making him feel that the decisive battle could begin at any moment. At this time, the Song army suddenly gave up the opportunity to start withdrawing the army, although there was a reason why the Tutu Habu burned the Song army's baggage, grain and grass first, Tie Maichi still felt that the past was abrupt, he did not believe that the Song army did not have the strength to fight, if he was in the current situation, he would definitely launch a decisive battle.

Xuzhou, as an important military and economic and trade town, hoarded a large amount of grain, grass and baggage, and fought desperately to capture the city, and the crisis of material shortage would be immediately lifted. Even if it was difficult to take the city after a hard battle, Tie Maichi believed that the battle of the Song army would cause extremely heavy casualties to himself, and he was unable to pursue the troops at this time, so the Song army could naturally retreat safely. But the Song army was so silent, retreating two hundred miles without hesitation, leaving him with a confused face in the spring breeze.

Even if it was close to Fuli, Tie Maichi did not dare to be careless, and did not rest after dinner, but led the team to patrol the camp. Jiagouji is just a small place, only the post station is located on the more prosperous Lishh Street, scattered around two or three hundred households, at this time the house has long been requisitioned, by his direct thousand households stationed. In order to facilitate the drinking water of the war horses, most of the war horses were concentrated on grazing by the lake, and camps were set up on both sides of the road.

Tiemaichi rode along the road to the north, and after a short time, he crossed the stone bridge over the long ditch and entered the northern district, where more soldiers and horses were stationed and scattered in the surrounding fields. After asking for the warning, he continued to travel north for a few miles to the mountain pass, where the two mountains were sandwiched by a canyon four miles wide, which may be the name of the ditch set.

This is where Tiemaichi is most worried, the southern exit is only Rich, and he can block the enemy's attack with only a small number of troops. The mountain pass here is wide, and the enemy attacking from this direction can not only take advantage of the concealment of the mountain, but also the terrain at the bottom of the valley is open, and there is no shelter in the middle, which is convenient for the enemy to open a breakthrough when attacking, and can also block their retreat route.

At this time, the thousand households stationed here had already erected a fence with the felled trees, arranged horses and foothills in front, erected watchtowers, and established a simple defense system. Tie Maichi was not at ease with this, so he ordered people to dig a trench in front of him, and sent people to set up guard points on the mountains on both sides, so as to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the dense woods on the mountains to sneak into the market and launch a surprise attack. After inspecting again, he felt that there was no omission, so he urged the horse to return to the post station to rest in peace......

At midnight, a Song army quietly emerged from the mountain and climbed up the mountain along the path on the east side of the mountain. It is covered by a lush forest with a variety of tree species, and from a distance, the forest rises and falls with the different terrains of the mountains, resembling the waves of the sea, and the sound of waves under the blowing of the evening breeze obscures the heavy breathing of the soldiers.

Ni Liang led a team of guards along the mountain road trampled by the vanguard army, and although the night breeze was cool at this time, the front and back of his military uniform were already soaked with sweat and clinging to his body. The others were not much better than him, especially those soldiers carrying heavy guns and mortars on the rugged mountain roads were even more difficult, and from time to time someone would slip and fall down the hill with a cannon, and their noses and faces would be swollen, but they did not care to get up and move forward.

"Hold on for a little longer, now we have successfully intercepted the enemy army, and we can block the enemy's retreat as long as we climb over the mountain!" Ni Liang grabbed a guard who almost fell and said, at this time, they set off from Fuli, forcibly marched for more than 50 miles in a row, and arrived here in less than three hours, and then began to go up the mountain without stopping, all of them were already very tired......

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