The official team of the New Thirteen Farms and Ranches of Labor set off more than half a day later than the unofficial old gentleman's team, and everyone rode out on their horses for several hours, but they did not see the old gentlemen. The horses were tired, and the people rested at a post on the side of the road.

The man carried a bucket full of water and poured it into the large stone trough, and Tie Lin reached into the water to feel the temperature. Taking out his hand, Tie Lin only said the word 'cool'. The horses smelled the water and couldn't help but snort and wanted to lean their heads over. The six men gently held the horses so that they could not drink the water from the trough. If the horse's body temperature is high, it is easy to choke on the lungs after drinking cold water.

After a pause, the field leader sighed: "I didn't expect the old gentlemen to run so fast." ”

Tie Lin nodded yes, "Yes, I didn't expect so many old gentlemen on the road." ”

This was not the first stop they had made, and along the way they asked the fellows who passed by, and they offered answers to the old gentleman who had just passed. A few people chased after them, but they never met the old gentleman on their farm. At that time, I couldn't help but scold the guy for talking nonsense. Looking at the post station where they are resting now, nearly one-third of the many people are old gentlemen over forty years old. It was as if the old men of the entire Yuan Kingdom had made an appointment to go out together at the same time. There is no special difference with so many old men and a few old gentlemen in the farm.

Touching the temperature of the horses, Tie Lin said, "The temperature has decreased. A few of them let the horses drink and smoked cigarettes themselves.

The young man who came with him asked worriedly, "Field manager, can you catch up?" ”

The field director sighed. Even if it is to catch up, there are so many old gentlemen on the road, it is not easy to distinguish those people. It can only be said after getting to Kyiv.

After resting, the group set off again, and they stayed overnight. The closer you get to Kyiv, the more people are on the road.

"Captain, those men's beards ......," said the young man on the farm, pointing to a group of old gentlemen.

"Don't point at anyone. It's so rude! The field director shouted. Watching the young man put down his arm in a daze, the field director himself couldn't help but stare at some people and looked at it, the officials and troops of the Yuan State paid attention to hygiene, saying that the hair was stained with bacteria, and if the hair was brought into the wound when injured, it would increase the mortality rate, so everyone had to shave regularly.

The people on the road were obviously from the place, and they all had long beards. The beard is delicately braided, and it is very eye-catching. Equally striking was the fact that each of them had a spear and no armor, and was completely in the form of a light cavalry. Some people also rode horses and had beards, but nothing was done with them. But everyone had a shield on their backs and an axe or machete. This kind of shield-wielding infantry is more suitable for dismounting.

At present, the Yuan team only has three arms: cavalry, dragoons, and navy. The dragoons of the Yuan Kingdom also knew some riding skills, but they did not wield swords and spears to fight on horseback, and when they fought, they dismounted to undertake the work of the infantry, and in places where it was difficult for the cavalry to pass, the dragoons would also march on foot. Regardless of the regular army, there were no spear-wielding light cavalry, nor shield-wielding sword and axe soldiers. These people are all local militias.

Seeing that the city of Kyiv was in front, the field commander ordered: "Hurry up and enter the city." ”

A staging ground was set up at the gate of the city, and all the people who came came were registered and distributed in it. Hao Kang looked nervous, he never expected that Yuan Guo would be able to gather so many people. Fortunately, he has seen many times the scene of 100,000 people taking to the streets on major festivals in Hangzhou, and Hao Kang was finally able to give orders smoothly.

Most of the people who came knew about the farm they belonged to, but they couldn't tell the word, and most of them had strips of cloth with them written on them. The strip of cloth wrote the unit to which they belonged. That's it, thousands of paperwork are still busy with ugly faces.

The person next to Hao Kang introduced Hao Kang to what those different outfits were. Hussars with braided beards were the custom of the Marzas. When the time of war, the men of Marza, who had sons and no grandchildren, would braided their beards and went to battle with spears. Although there is no record of age, the Marza people used the model of offspring to carry out war mobilization.

The shield is a feature of the Slavs. These Slavs would engrave tribes, ethnicities, villages, and names on their shields. As long as a force is not completely annihilated, someone will come back or the shield will come back.

Orthodox beards are conspicuous, and most of them are Slavs. The national costume of the Poles is equally distinctive. In addition, the clothes are more sinic.,Wear a buttoned placket clothing.。 The person next to Hao Kang told Hao Kang that if the gang put leather pants on top of the trousers of the labor cloth, they would be Mongolians. The Mongols of the Yuan Kingdom were the most sinicized and most accustomed to horseback riding. Leather pants were wasted in the eyes of the Marzas, Slavs, Semu, and Poles, and the Mongols learned leather pants from the Han cavalry of the Song Dynasty and completely turned them into habits.

Hao Kang kept all this knowledge in his heart, and he was also very emotional in his heart. He didn't expect so many people to gather in the royal city, and now the royal capital Kiev has gathered more than 15,000 active and retired soldiers, and 10,000 horses from the royal capital have joined. In recent days, another 50,000 or 60,000 people have arrived from the vicinity of the royal capital. The total number of these people has reached 80,000. There were many more militias coming, and the total number could easily exceed 100,000.

"Please come over." Hao Kang said.

It didn't take long for the deputy secretary of the military department to come to Hao Kang, he was also in the place where the militia was settled, and after seeing Hao Kang, the deputy secretary said: "Prince, so many soldiers and horses are enough to defeat the thief army of the Kipchak Khanate." ”

Hao Kang couldn't help but smile, what he wanted to hear most was this sentence. If Hao Ren came back with the main force of the Yuan State, the thief army of the Kipchak Khanate would not be afraid at all, but this could not satisfy Hao Kang's mood at this time. Only by personally leading troops to take out the dog thieves of the Kipchak Khanate can the intense anger brought about by the panic of these days be appeased.

But Hao Kang was still a little worried, and he asked, "Is it really okay?" ”

After staying in the Great Song Dynasty for a long time, when talking about the armed forces, Hao Kang must think of unified military uniforms, unified equipment, and uniform actions. Even the schools in the Great Song City have military training twice a year in spring and autumn. The students learned to walk in the right steps and completed various parade drills. When people in the army talk about the war, they will also emphasize that the people of the Great Song Dynasty are quite martial, and there are many people who are good at fists and feet. But these people were undisciplined, unorganized, and in the face of the Mongol invasion, it was useless to go it alone. Not long ago, when the 100,000 Yuan team marched west, the grand and neat array made Hao Kang also feel that the Yuan State also had the same army as the Great Song Dynasty.

With so many fancy costumes in front of him, Hao Kang initially thought that those people might be trying to express something unfriendly. When he understood the characteristics of people in various places, he understood that the fifty or sixty thousand people gathered in Kiev had no ill will towards the Yuan royal family. That's the case, Hao Kang is not at ease with these people. Can these rabble-looking guys really play the combat effectiveness of a regular army?

After a long war, the deputy Shangshu replied confidently: "Don't worry about the prince, a telegram came yesterday, and the king sent 10,000 soldiers and horses to rush back." In two days you will be in Kyiv. In the past two days, let's build the pontoon bridge first. After the arrival of 10,000 elites, we can attack. ”

The Yuan built pontoon bridges over the Vistula River, first experimenting three times on the Dnieper River next to Kiev. Now the materials for building the pontoon bridge are all there, and in two days, the foundation of the four pontoon bridges is basically completed.

According to the demarcation of Kublai Khan, the Dnieper River was the boundary river between the Yuan State and the Kipchak Khanate, and the east of the Dnieper River was the territory of the Kipchak Khanate. Previously, Hao Ren was reluctant to bring a lawsuit against the Kipchak Khanate to the Great Khan, because the Yuan State effectively ruled over a large fertile area on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River.

Now that the faces are completely torn on both sides, there is nothing to talk about. Hao Kang and the loyal ministers of the Yuan State didn't care what the Kipchak Khanate thought, this time they must drive the Kipchak Khanate to the Volga River Valley, and they were not allowed to come within a thousand miles of Kiev. That being the case, the four pontoon bridges that were originally planned were simply built to connect the Dnieper in the wealthy Kiev region.

The 10,000 yuan team and the former Great Khan's army arrived in Kyiv at the agreed time, and Tieying saw a large number of people gathered on the road. Fortunately, these people were also sensible, and when they saw the regular army in bright armor passing, they all got out of the way. After arriving in Kiev, the capital of the Yuan Kingdom, Tie Ying still had the right to attend the meeting. However, Iron Eagle did not participate after one participation.

The Yuan State would not let the Great Khan's pro-army go into battle, this has long been made clear. In addition, the military meetings of the upper echelons of the Yuan State were still communicated in Chinese, and they spoke so short and fast that they could not understand it at all. Such a meaningless meeting is uncomfortable to listen to. Iron Eagle simply rested in his lodgings.

After a day's rest, some subordinates rushed to tell Tie Ying that a pontoon bridge had been built on Kiev's side, and Tie Ying was invited to go and see the excitement. Iron Eagle originally went out to kill boredom, but when he arrived on the bank of the Dnieper, he was shocked. I saw that the people on the shore were ramming the earth that had been dug up, and in the center of the rammed earth stood a huge iron pillar.

The person in charge of the overseer had originally prevented Tie Ying from approaching, but when he learned that Tie Ying was the commander of the Great Khan's army and the nephew of the Empress Dowager Kuo Kuozhen, he took him over to see it. The iron pillars are coated with a thick layer of asphalt to prevent rust. The inscription on the iron pillar has data. This is actually a three-meter-long iron pillar weighing more than 14,000 catties. At the top of the iron pillar was placed an iron ox of more than 4,000 catties.

On each side of the river there are two iron pillars and two iron oxen, and the iron pillars are buried two meters and five deep. The thick pontoon chains were wound around the slots left on the iron pillars. Iron Eagle pushed the iron ox with his hand, but the iron ox did not move. Even if you push hard, it still has no effect.

Looking along the chain, you can see that on the Dnieper River, a large number of ships are being fastened under the chain, and the chain is covered with thick wooden planks, most of which has been completed, and it will soon be passable. Tie Ying knew that this time the Yuan Kingdom was going to fight against the invading Kipchak Khanate, and he was sent here to be a witness.

Tie Ying couldn't help but feel sympathy for the Kipchak Khanate at this time, the Yuan State is so rich, if you don't rob the Yuan State, who will rob it. It's just that the Yuan State is too strong, and the Kipchak Khanate didn't expect to kick it on the iron pillar.

With the addition of 10,000 yuan of the country's regular army, the space for the military department to formulate plans has greatly increased. The 25,000 regular army could be used as the main force to defeat the Kipchak Khanate head-on. As for the vassals of the Kipchak Khanate, the Rus, they only made an offensive move and did not really go south. If they are willing to go both ways, the Yuan State Military Department will of course welcome them infinitely.

But the speed of crossing the pontoon bridge made everyone more concerned. The pontoon bridge is wide enough for two horses to pass at the same time. According to calculations, an average of about fifteen horses can pass by in one minute. One hour and sixty minutes is 9,000 horses, which can theoretically allow the whole army of 110,000 horses to pass through the pontoon bridge in 14 hours.

The Ministry of War made a plan according to this plan. As soon as the pontoon bridge is repaired, it will be carried out immediately. Two days later, after only six hours, the pontoon bridge temporarily stopped crossing the river. The bridge deck was trampled by horses' hooves, and the wooden planks had to be temporarily replaced. The people in the Yuan court were made impetuous, and some people couldn't help but complain about the Ministry of Industry. Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry also scolded back: "Even if it is flat ground, so hundreds of thousands of horses' hooves can step on it and form a ditch." These planks lasted for six hours, what do you have to say? This thing has to be laid with iron plates! ”

The attitude of the Ministry of Industry Shangshu is indeed very unfriendly, but everyone in the Yuan court can ride horses, so they don't care about the attitude with him. The Ministry of Industry Shangshu is not wrong, these pontoon bridges were not prepared for such dense traffic, and 50,000 horses passed in six hours, and the 50,000 horses of the Yuan Kingdom had to take at least ten different roads to march.

Hao Kang agreed with the Ministry of Industry Shangshu very much, and couldn't help but start a round, "Haha, I think it's not bad to wrap iron." But now it's too late, so I'll ask the boats to bring more bedding to the other side of the river so that everyone can sleep better. ”

This order was quickly executed. Boats could carry supplies in large quantities, and by the time it got dark, many straw mats were delivered to the east bank of the river. Tielin, who had already crossed the Dnieper with the brigade, was also assigned one. The straw mat was freshly made, and the temperature of wheat straw was exuded on it. In the bustling crowd, Tie Lin led his horse as if nothing had happened, and when he reached a forest, he pulled his trouser belt and led the horse into the forest. Finding a relatively hidden place to squat, Tie Lin looked around, and it seemed that no one was coming. He half-stood up and slowly shifted into the woods. After rounding a small slope, Tielin put on his trousers, turned on his horse, and set off in the direction of Kipchak Khan.

Originally, I thought that the Kipchak Khanate was very close to the Yuan team, but I ran out for fifty or sixty miles, and I didn't see anyone. At this time, some people suddenly rushed out of the forest next to the road, and looking at their outfits, Tie Lin first shouted in stammering Chinese: "Brothers, are you your own people?" ”

Those who rushed out were dressed in Mongolian costumes and did not react to Tielin's Chinese. They just shouted, "Don't move, or I'll shoot you." ”

Seeing that it was indeed a Mongol, Tie Lin straightened up on his horse and shouted loudly in Mongolian: "I am a spy of the Kipchak Khanate of King Meng Ge Buhua, you take me to see King Meng Ge Buhua, you will know if it is true!" ”