The arrival of Ni Liang led the cavalry brigade to relieve Zhao and the officials in the camp. They finally ended the situation of fighting alone. In the next few days, the First Brigade, Second Brigade, Third Brigade and Fifth Brigade, the Artillery Brigade successively boarded the ships of the Imperial Navy and arrived in large quantities of baggage, stationed in Sizhou, Linhuai, Hongxian and other places. The navy entered Guishan Town and strangled the waterway connecting the old canal and Hongze Lake.

At this time, Zhao Mengjin also led the Fifth Army of the Imperial Army and the First Army to stay in Yangzhou and the First Artillery Division. The First Cavalry Division arrived in Shanyang. After the Third Army of the Imperial Army and the Fourth Army of the Imperial Army of the East and the Fourth Army escorted the receiving officials entering the Lianghuai region to follow up to Guangzhou and Shouzhou areas, and took over the task of the Sixth Army to deploy defenses in Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain to cover the right wings of the Xiangyang divisions.

Now the situation has changed again. The previous division of the war zones no longer adapted to changes. Zhao divided the battlefield with Zhengzhou to Yancheng to Xinyang Yilu as the boundary. He issued another order to be the general manager of the marching of Jingdong East Road and commanded the imperial guards entering Huaidong and Huaixi; Jiang Jin was renamed the general manager of the marching of Jingdong East Road and the east road. In addition to commanding the Sixth Army and the Seventh Army that had entered Jingxiang and the 8th Army, the Second Cavalry Division and the Second Artillery Division, the Fourth Army was strengthened to command it.

At this point, the Song army gathered four imperial guards, seven brigades of the imperial guards, the other two divisions' main forces and the imperial navy, with a total force of more than 200,000. Zhao considered that these troops had just retreated from the Jiangdong battlefield, so he hurried to the new battlefield. He ordered the troops to rest after they were in place and prepare for battle. He also issued an order to reward the army, commend those who had made meritorious contributions in the Battle of Jiangdong, and rewarded officials with great meritorious contributions. The morale of the soldiers who went north with victory was even stronger.

Then Zhao summoned Zhao Mengjin and the nearby army, the fifth army and the imperial guards came to Xuyi to discuss the next combat plan and coordinate the actions of each department. According to the current intelligence, the personal troops of the Mongolian Yuan guards went south in two routes: the western route was composed of the five guards of the Han army and the left Semuwei, led by the commander of the Qinshi Guards, and led by Tutuha, the commander of the Qinshi Guards, and then crossed the Yellow River in Zhengzhou. After crossing the Yellow River in Zhengzhou, it had arrived in Kaifeng. The eastern route was composed of the Right Semuwei Army and Longzhen Guards, and Tiemaichi, the commander of the Halalu Guards, headed south along the canal, gathering the Guichi Guards and Xibao Chiguards along the way, and they had already passed Jeju.

The two groups of soldiers were claimed to be 300,000. Zhao analyzed that the total strength of the Mongol Yuan guards was about 200,000, and they were stationed in the two capitals. Although most of them were stationed around Dadu, the number of troops that could be mobilized was far from this. However, the information also showed that before leaving the capital, both groups of soldiers and horses signed large-scale enlistment and expanded their troops, and male soldiers over 16 years old were all recruited. From this calculation, in addition to the original garrisons along the way, the troops were not much different.

Judging from the enemy's deployment, both troops and horses were aimed at cutting off the Song army's access to the capital of the capital in the north, and the combat operations must be carried out to defend the two hub cities of Xuzhou and Kaifeng. Now, due to the wrong wind direction at the moment, the Mongolian and Yuan Eastern Army went south mostly against the wind. Although they occupied the convenience of the canal, the marching speed was not fast. In this way, the two troops arrived in Xuzhou successively.

Zhao's strategy is to defeat the enemy before the rainy season arrives, and relies on the new and old canals to launch defenses in Kaifeng, Yingtianfu, Xuzhou, Huaiyang and Haizhou. While forming a confrontation with the enemy in the Central Plains, it also waits for an opportunity to seize Shandong, forming a pincer attack on the areas south of the Yellow River, and then occupying a bridgehead to continue northward advance. To achieve this strategic goal, there must be a battle with the enemy, and the core of the competition is Xuzhou.

At present, Chen Fenglin's troops are fighting with the enemy for Xia Pi. Liu Zhixue's troops marched towards Suzhou and met with Duge's troops. This has formed a vague siege of surround Xuzhou from east to west. Zhao planned to divide troops into two groups to meet the enemy. In order to facilitate command, Zhao Mengjin commanded the imperial guards to attack Xuzhou; Ni Liang led the imperial guards to fight against the enemy troops on the western route, protect the flanks of the imperial guards, and captured Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture and Tokyo Kaifeng. The camp followed the imperial guards to operate and coordinated the two groups of troops.

Regarding this arrangement, the generals thought that the little emperor was suspicious of competing for merit, but they also felt that it was reasonable. After all, the political significance of regaining the two capitals was extremely great. It not only stabilized the position of the little emperor, but also further proved his orthodox position and blocked those doubts. In addition, the little emperor followed the army, which also avoided the differences between the various divisions in order to restore the two capitals' struggle for merit, making it difficult to fight together.

Just as Zhao and the generals were discussing the combat plan and formulating tactical details, an emergency report suddenly came. The Duge army, who was ordered to attack Fu Li, was attacked by the personal army of the Mongol Yuan guards, and Fu Li was lost. Fortunately, Liu Zhixue's department arrived at the reception and blocked the pursuers and did not disintegrate.

"The war report said that the Du Ge army was defeated because it encountered the enemy's firearms battalion. When did the Mongols have all the troops prepared firearms?" Zhao said in surprise after hearing this. He was attacked by enemy firearms as early as when he was conquering Quanzhou. In the subsequent battle, he also encountered so-called artillery such as rockets and thunder. Therefore, it was not strange that the enemy equipped firearms, but the Mongols enemy who used firearms in a system have never heard of it.

"It should be that Zhongxiao Army has been resurrected!" Wang Yinglin thought about it and suddenly said.

"Zhongxiao Army?" Zhao Mengjin was also stunned when he heard this, and later said, "What Governor Wang said was Zhongxiao Army of the Jin Dynasty? Is this not a legend?"

"What is Zhongxiao Army?" Zhao was confused by the conversation between the two, and the generals were also confused, not knowing what the two said, and he frowned.

"I also learned from old news that it is the most capable army in the Jin Dynasty. It is fierce in combat, and often attacks the crowd with few people and is invincible!" Wang Yinglin replied.

"The subordinates also said that the old man in the army said that the Zhongxiao Army was less than 2,000, and the military salary was five times that of other troops. They were good at using firearms, and the Mongolian army was often defeated by them. Everyone called it magic, but no one had seen it before, so they all thought it was just a rumor spread by previous generations!" Zhao Mengjin also said.

"Please tell me in detail!" Zhao Yi was interested. It was known in the Ming Dynasty that there was a Shenji Camp, a built-up army dominated by firearms, but now it has been at least two hundred years in advance, which made him interested, so he asked the two of them.

Seeing that the little emperor was about to arrive, Wang Yinglin and Zhao Mengjin told each of their knowledge. From their description, a unit that was enough to be a legend was formed in his mind.

Strictly speaking, Zhao felt that the "Zhongxiao Army" had the feeling of a modern special forces. First of all, the number of people was not large, and even when the combat effectiveness was strong, it would not exceed two thousand people. When they were dispatched, they often had hundreds to thousands of people. Secondly, the Zhongxiao Army was treated very high, with a salary three times that of other troops. Even after the defeat of the Sanfengshan Battle, the Jin Dynasty was in great difficulty in finance, it still "a man and a stone of grain a month gave five dou of grain" to continue to maintain the high military salary of the Zhongxiao Army.

In addition, the Zhongxiao Army was not all composed of Jurchens. Although the commander was always the Jurchens, the soldiers were "colored people". The "colored people" mentioned here refers to various ethnic groups other than the Jurchens. Overall, the Zhongxiao Army led by Chen Shangshi was the army of various ethnic groups that ended the Jin Dynasty invasion in Mongolia, including the Uighurs, Naiman, Qiang, Hun and the Han people who were captured and fled from the Central Plains.

In addition, there is a controversy about the way of fighting in the Zhongxiao Army. It seems that people are selected by cavalry and shooting, but they charge more and break the formation during their battles. For example, in the two classic battles of Dachangyuan and Gougu, they launched successful charges. Therefore, Zhao analyzed that they were carefully selected special forces and could adapt to almost any combat method with equipment charge, long and short soldiers, cavalry and shooting, infantry shooting, firearms, and even water battles. This omnipotence makes the Zhongxiao Army comprehensive and excellent combat capabilities, but it also limits the number of Zhongxiao Army.

During the battle of the Song League to destroy the Jin Dynasty and attack Xizhou, the Moranwudian sent more than a hundred Zhongxiao Army cavalry to imitate the accent of Mongolians. The Southern Song army mistakenly thought they were Mongolians, which made the Song army mistakenly thought they were betrayed by the Mongolian army, and they couldn't help but collapse and were captured by the Jin army. It can be seen that the Zhongxiao Army was able to successfully impersonate the Mongols, which was related to the warriors of the North Asian ethnic groups such as Naiman and Uighurs. And a small-scale battle can be seen from the comprehensiveness of the Zhongxiao Army's capabilities.

The firearms of the Zhongxiao Army can also be said to be the story. During the battle with the Southern Song Dynasty, the Jin Kingdom learned the technology of firearm manufacturing. The Jin Kingdom attached great importance to firearms and had a specialized research and development of firearms. In the process of fighting against the Mongols at the end of the Jin Dynasty, the Jin Kingdom showed firearms that were slightly more advanced than the Song people. During the Mongolian and Jin War, the Jin Kingdom often used cannons, cannon stones, thunderstorms, flying muskets and other weapons to defend the city and attack the enemy. Naturally, in Zhao's opinion, those were still in their original state.

Flying muskets are also a newly invented weapon. The method is to make a tube of 16 layers of yellow paper, about two feet long, and contain willow charcoal, iron slag, magnetic powder, sulfur, arsenic and other potions. When used, "tether with ropes to tie the gun ends. Sergeants each hung small iron cans to hide the fire." Sergeants fired with fire and burned the enemy. The flames could be more than meter out of the gunpowder, and the barrel was not damaged. During the Battle of Mongolia and Jin, Subutai led the Mongolian army to attack Peijing. The Zhongxiao Army used new weapons such as flying muskets to defend four cities together and fought with the Mongolian army for 16 days and nights, and finally forced the Mongolian army to discuss peace and withdraw its troops and win the battle of defense of Bianjing.
Chapter completed!