In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 281: There’s simply no way to run out of war horses

On the 21st, the Tufan people, led by Caibago, came to the southwest of Golmud Hot Water Hot Spring.

The Song Army camp opposite them was less than twenty miles away from them at this time, and the Song Army was northeast of the Golmud Hot Water Hot Spring.

The place where the two sides met was the wide valley between Burhan Buda Mountain and Tangguula Mountain, which was enough for hundreds of thousands of cavalry to gallop freely.

Even if the Tufan people with all cavalry are defeated, they can take their tribal men and fly away. Once the Song army is defeated, the infantry will definitely not be able to escape.

Brother Caiba is confident and high-spirited.

Almost at the same time that the Tubo people and the Song army were about to fight, a Song army of about three thousand cavalry, one man and two horses, was heading west in Yazhou, Sichuan.

It was the first time for the young Meng Jing to lead so many soldiers and horses. Standing on a high place, he looked back at the cavalrymen passing by one after another.

The cavalry are also young, and they are almost the most elite young cavalry trained in Sichuan in recent years.

After Meng Gong led his troops into Tubo from Diezhou, Meng Jing led another partial army, marched west from Yazhou, crossed the Gargong Snow Mountain, and raided the Sakya Monastery, where the Tibetan spirit is located, and the largest city, Luoxe (Lhasa), for thousands of miles. .

They set out from Yazhou and could cross the snow-capped mountains in about mid-March. The difficulty is not small. However, the most difficult part of the Gagon Snow Mountain is from June to October every year. It is the rainy season and it is difficult to walk. November to May is the dry season, which is better. Walk.

Of course, the Song army also did their homework before crossing the mountain. They crossed the Moxi Town Line at the foot of the mountain on the east side. The average temperature there was 13 degrees Celsius, and the temperature in March was about one degree.

Crossing the snow-capped mountains has never been done before by the Song Army.

But after more than ten years, someone did it.

In the original history of 1248, Yu Jie was guarding Sichuan at that time. The Mongolian army fought repeatedly but could not enter Sichuan, so they decided to take a detour to Tibet to attack Dali, and then entered the Song Dynasty from Dali.

When Yu Jie got the news, he sent [-] elite soldiers westward, the main force of which was Yang Wen's Tusi soldiers from the Yang family in Bozhou. They crossed the snow mountain and blocked the Mongolian army in the north of Gagong Snow Mountain. The two sides fought three times, and the Mongolian army lost three games in a row. , the general Tu Yi was captured by the Song army at Dadu River, and had no choice but to withdraw his troops and return north.

So it's not that the Song army can't fight. The demise of the Southern Song Dynasty is really because of the Southern Song emperor. If Meng Gong, Yu Jie and his like can live for a few more decades, and if they can be reused, it won't be a problem for Mongolia.

After Zhao Yurui asked Meng Gong to come to Sichuan, they looked for a shortcut from Sichuan to Tibet.

Meng Gong and Cui Yuzhi communicated, and Cui Yuzhi immediately said, he knows.

Cui Yu served as an envoy in Sichuan twice and knew the local customs and landforms well. Cui Yu communicated with the locals and determined that climbing over the snow mountain could be a shortcut. Some local businessmen, in order to do business with the Tubo people, would cross the snow mountain. Yes, it's not easy.

So Meng Gong sent a small force to climb Gagong Snow Mountain every year, mainly to explore the way.

If you enter Tubo from other places, you have to go around thousands of miles.

For example, where Meng Gong is currently located on the Golmud River, it would be more than 3000 miles for Meng Jing to go around to find Meng Gong.

But Meng Jing went directly over the snow-capped mountains, shortening the journey by at least 2000 miles.

In later generations, Fanxue Mountain was also the shortest way for Sichuan to enter the Tibetan territory. Of course, few people in later generations would go to Fanxue Mountain.

At this time, Tibet had not conquered it, and the Song army had not conquered it before.

After Meng Gong arrived in Sichuan, he sent a small team to try climbing every year. He believed that November to May was the best season for climbing the snow-capped mountains.

There has been no rain or snow all year round in the past few months, and the weather has been a bit cold, but as long as you keep warm, it won't be a big problem.

Because there was no rain or snow, we could keep the fire going to keep warm along the way.

Starting from December, Meng Jing sent a small team of nearly a hundred people to go ahead to clear the mountain road and search for fire resources. When they set off in early March, it was much more convenient. After crossing the snow-capped mountains, the firewood and fuel we brought with us were not used up.

The whole army only slept one night on the mountain, and no one suffered frostbite.

At this time, Meng Gong must not have known that under the guidance of the emperor, he became the first general in the Southern Song Dynasty to send troops to cross the snow-capped mountains. This feat was rarely achieved by anyone in the subsequent hundreds of years of history.

On March [-]th, the Tubo army was still gathering at Zhaling Lake. When the Song army came, Meng Jing's soldiers and horses had already crossed the snow-capped mountains and came to the Jinsha River.

This is still south of the Duosima area, but the troops to the north of Duosima are avoiding the Song army's front, while the troops to the south are converging towards Zhaling Lake.

Meng Jing was not in a hurry to send troops. If he sent troops too early, it would easily alert the Tibetan tribes. Then it would be troublesome for them to come to encircle and suppress Meng Jing with their entire army.

He patiently rested for a while by the Jinsha River. When the dry food he brought with him was almost eaten, Meng Jing set out on March [-].

At the same time as he set off, the Tubo army was approaching the Song army Meng Gong's troops, and he didn't know that another Song army had come over the snow-capped mountains thousands of miles behind him.

At this time, even if the Mongolian army is useless here, the Mongolian army's sentry cavalry is considered the strongest in the world, but they can only be released for two hundred miles at most, and they are completely out of control.

Meng Jing was thousands of miles away from them, and Tubo had no idea.

After starting from the Jinsha River, Meng Jing basically used the Mongolian routine. First, he sent sentry riders to carefully explore the road ahead to check that there were small tribes gathered there.

Then find a place to get close and rest first, and then attack suddenly after dark.

Every night, the Song army's three thousand fine cavalry surrounded the local small tribes, and then killed them all without leaving a trace.

Take away all the food and grass you can.

They went all the way to the west and wiped out seven or eight small villages without anyone noticing.When they crossed the snow-capped mountains, they rode two horses and lost more than 300 horses.

By the time they arrived at the Yarlung Zangbo River, each person had brought four or five horses, which was almost the same as during the Mongolian Western Expedition. They immediately loaded up all kinds of supplies or food they could bring.

There are many cattle and sheep in the middle that cannot be taken care of, so they can only be slaughtered and eaten.

It was now close to late March, and they were getting closer and closer to Luoxue (Lhasa).

There are many tribes here and the population is densely populated. Starting from the Yarlung Zangbo River, there are basically pastoral settlements every few dozen miles.

If it had been this time in the past, they would have been discovered long ago.

But this time Tubo summoned various tribes to fight, and every three households were selected. A large number of capable warriors in the tribe were selected.

After they ran along the Yarlung Zangbo River for two days, the Tibetans discovered that a large group of Song troops had arrived, causing panic in the area.

As soon as Meng Jing saw that he had been discovered, he stopped hiding and attacked directly. Every time he passed a village, if he saw that there were too many people and it was difficult to fight, he would shoot a few arrows and run away. , then turned around and left, rushing to the next pastoral settlement.

This time, they are simply equivalent to becoming robbers and bandits in Tubo, completely causing chaos in Tubo.
-
Northeast bank of Golmud River.

Amidst the loud sound of trumpets, the troops of the Song Army and the Tubo Army were moving one after another.

On the vast and huge basin, only two groups of people and horses were seen, like endless black clouds, overwhelming and endless.

Meng Gong was riding a horse at a high place, observing the formations of both sides.

There were more than a hundred thousand people and horses on the opposite side, but from his perspective, it was boundless, and he had no idea how many there were.

But Meng Gong estimated that the opponent's troops would not exceed about [-], which was also the limit that Tibet's current population could support.

Just because there are a lot of horses on the scene, it looks like there are more than 20 infantry.

There also seemed to be a lot of Song Jun.

Before the Song army entered Tubo, the cavalry consisted of one man and two horses, and the infantry had neither man nor horse. However, after entering for so long, they successively captured Diezhou, Ruogai Grassland, and Golmud City. The Song army looted everywhere. Now they have more horses than people, even the infantry. They are one man and two horses.

The carriage that pulled the cannon was changed from four horses to six horses, and six horses had to be replaced every hour.

There is no way, there are too many horses, and there is no way to use them up.

Thinking that the Song army couldn't even afford a cavalry force of a thousand men, and now they can't run out of horses, a smug smile appeared on the corner of Meng Gong's mouth.

He now somewhat understood what Emperor Zhao Yurui meant.

When he left the capital and arrived in Sichuan, Cui Yu didn't understand that the imperial court was planning something in Tubo.

It was only after Meng Gong's strong persuasion that Cui Yu supported Meng Gong.

Keeping Tubo will not only strengthen Mongolia's strength, but also leave opportunities for the Mongolian army to pass through here at any time, and taking Tubo will not only weaken Mongolia, but also block the west of the Southern Song Dynasty. Dali has no chance.

More importantly, you can get the best Hequ war horse here.

This is a good thing to weaken the enemy (Mongolia) and strengthen yourself. You must be one step ahead.

Both sides now have more horses than people, so the formation looks very huge and spectacular when spread out.

At this time, the Song Army's formation was already ready.

The [-] infantry battalion and the artillery battalion are in the middle, which is considered a large formation of the Chinese army. The right wing (north) of the infantry battalion is Shader's [-] cavalry (both heavily armored), and the left wing is Mengying's [-] cavalry ([-] Xixia Qingqi, [-] Song cavalry) Army Qingqi), behind the infantry camp were Li Pingxia's nine thousand Song cavalry.

The Song army used cavalry to form a "凵" shape, with the infantry camp in the middle.

At this time, the two sides have not joined forces, and the distance is about two miles. Meng Ying, Shader, Gao Liangyao, Li Pingxia, and infantry general Zhang Neng are all beside Meng Gong.

Everyone was staring at the Tubo formation two miles away, but most people seemed to be unable to see what was going on.

"The Tubo people fight differently from the Mongols." At this time, Meng Gong pointed to the Tubo army in the distance and said, "They are not good at riding and shooting, and most of them use cavalry to fight against their faces. The Mongols are capable of riding and shooting kites, so it is quite easy to defeat the Tibetans."

Everyone listened attentively.

Meng Gong continued: "Now we only have four thousand light cavalry, and the rest are heavily armored, and their maneuverability is not as good as that of the Tubos. Therefore, once a war begins, the cavalry on both sides will definitely compete to win -"

"The tribes that the Tubo people are most capable of fighting are the several large states near Luoche, including the Tseba sect and the Gar clan -"

In the past few decades, most tribes in Tubo had no war. Only the tribes near Luoche fought with each other for the Luoche. In the end, the Tseba brother of the Tseba sect unified the world, defeated all the tribes, and obtained the Luoche. some control.

Therefore, among the various tribes in Tubo, only a few tribes such as the Tseba clan and the Ga clan have fought wars in recent years.

"The Tseba clan and the Ga clan should be the main force in this battle. They have better armor. Most of them have leather armor and very few iron armors. Those wearing iron armor are the strongest private soldiers of their leaders. Every tribe has There won’t be more than a thousand people.”

Meng Gong had studied the various Tubo tribes in depth in the past few years, and once again reiterated the Song army's fighting style and tactics with the generals.

(End of this chapter)