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

Chapter 404 The Mongolian army has greatly increased in strength

The commanders of the five armies, Batu, Subotai, Mengge, Buri, and Guyu, were riding high on horseback, watching the endless army and cavalry crossing the river below.

The five people were in various moods, and I didn’t know what they were thinking.

It has been almost four years since Song and Meng negotiated peace, and the five-year period is about to expire. Everyone knows that after the five-year period, Song and Meng may start fighting at any time.

Originally, the main force of the Mongolian army dared to attack the Song Dynasty while they were marching westward. Now Wokuotai, who is far away in Guanshan, definitely does not have the courage.

Ogedai's messenger also found Batu last month and asked when Batu would return.

Batu led his troops to fight abroad for almost four years. His troops increased from 120,000 to more than 200,000, and their strength doubled. Wo Kuotai hoped to get his support.

But precisely because they had won countless victories here, Batu and the others knew that the strength of these 100,000 servants was average. It was not realistic to expect them to defeat the Song army. They must lead them through victory after victory to improve their strength.

Batu is now preparing to attack Bolan and Hungary. On the one hand, he continues to expand his army, and on the other hand, he trains and improves the capabilities of his servant army.

At this time, the Mongolian army was withdrawing from the territory of Rus to the direction of Bolan, and the entire army was preparing to gather in Galicia to rest.

"How long does it take to get to Galicia?" Guyu was the first to speak at this time. He was anxious to go back to support his father, but he couldn't make up his mind here.

Batu insisted on fighting Poland and Hungary.

Subotai raised his head and glanced at Guyu, and said calmly: "About a thousand miles or so."

Guyu glanced at the endless people and horses below and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

The Mongolian army is famous for its maneuverability and speed. When they come in with 120,000 troops, it may only take three or four days to cover a thousand miles.

But now, they brought with them a large number of servants and nearly a million horses.

Many small countries in the Principality of Ross did not have a large number of war horses, so they finally scraped together some transportation horses.

This greatly reduces their mobility.

Now there are more than 200,000 of them moving at the same time, and the servant army behind them cannot keep up with their speed. For the same thousand miles, they have to walk for five or six days, or even longer.

"When will the fight last?" Guyu asked again: "The Song people will start a war with us at any time."

Batu turned to look at Guyu: "The Song people have no hatred against Mongolia. As long as Hehan doesn't take the initiative to provoke the Song people, we will be fine."

"..." Guiyou.

Batu did not respond directly to how long he wanted to fight, because Batu didn't want to go back at all. He just wanted to keep fighting west and find a pasture suitable for him.

Guiyu looked at the other generals.

Subotai, Buli, and Brother Meng didn't speak.

This is the first time in Brother Meng's life that he has led an army alone. How can he give up such a good thing so easily.

Of course he remained silent.

If he returns to the army now, he may be deprived of the military power he finally obtained.

But this man only likes to drink. He was very drunk last night. Now his mind is not clear. He is still reminiscing about yesterday's wine and can't hear what Guyu and Badu are saying at all.

I won't talk about Subotai. He was originally the person who dragged the thunder, but he was unhappy with Wo Kuotai, so of course he didn't say anything now.

Among the five coaches, only Guyu wanted to go back, and the rest remained silent.

Guiyou gritted his teeth secretly, but he was helpless.

"Let's go." At this time, Batu pointed to the west and raised his riding whip: "The whole Galician army, let the world crawl and tremble under the iron cavalry of our Great Mongol Empire."

"Galicia" Meng Ge also shouted excitedly.

"Galicia" soon started from the soldiers behind them, and then spread to the entire army. The entire Mongolian army was cheering for Galicia.
-

In July of the fourth year of Yuanzhen, when Batu led his army to march towards Bolan and Hungary, Lin'an City of the Song Dynasty had just sent away the envoy of Holy Roman Emperor Philip II.

After the Mongolian army defeated the Principality of Galic, its Grand Duke Daniel Romanovich fled into Hungary.

Soon, news of the Mongol invasion spread to European countries, especially the cruelty of the Mongolian army, which slaughtered cities at every turn, leaving only the strong and strong as soldiers, killing all the old, weak, women and children, which really shocked Europe.

In March of the previous year, the Song Dynasty envoy went to Fiorentino Castle (later the Italian region) on the order of Emperor Zhao Yurui and met with Philip II.

The Song envoy hoped that Europe would be careful about the invasion of the Mongolian army and that it would be best to unite all countries to stop the Mongols, but this was rejected by Philip II.

Because at this time in Europe, the Pope ruled everything and could even appoint and dismiss the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Just a few years ago (1227), the stubborn Gregory IX was elected as pope, and he spent the rest of his life fighting with Frederick II.

When he took office, he ordered Frederick II to immediately lead the Crusade, but Frederick II's Crusade encountered the plague and quickly turned back. Gregory IX did not believe this was true, and he excommunicated Frederick II. Frederick II had to go to Jerusalem again.

The Crusade led by Frederick II was unique because he was good at negotiating, easily without using force, and achieved very good results. He obtained Jerusalem through negotiation, and even the Sultan of Egypt praised him. He was the best European monarch.

He also rebuilt the Kingdom of Jerusalem, married the daughter of the original king, and appointed himself king. This made Pope Gregory IX even more angry. He sent troops to attack Sicily. Philip II immediately returned the army and defeated the Pope. Pope Gregory IX had no choice but to declare a truce in 1230 and negotiate a temporary peace with Philip II.

In the second year of Yuanzhen (1234), when Zhao and Rui sent people to encourage Philip II to deal with the Mongolian army, Frederick II's son Henry VII, King of Germany, was opposing his father, and Philip II had no choice but to He sent troops to quell the rebellion and deposed his son from the throne.

The envoy of Song Dynasty went there at the wrong time, and happened to encounter his son's rebellion.

Moreover, Philip II was easily reluctant to use force.

The crusade he led was mainly based on negotiation, and he would only use force as a last resort.

In the war with the Pope, the Pope first sent troops to fight him. After being defeated by him, he did not fight back. This was due to the Song Dynasty and Mongolia. The winning side would definitely pursue the victory and kill the Pope directly, and then support another The obedient new pope.

However, Philip II still negotiated peace with the Pope and expressed his obedience to the Pope's will.

This person doesn't seem to like fighting, so in history, when Mongolia invaded Germany, the Pope strongly requested that soldiers from all over the world be gathered to fight, but this person still disagreed very much.

After meeting with the Song envoy, Philip II decisively opposed the use of force against force.

What's more, the Mongolian army had not entered Eastern Europe at that time and was in the Principality of Rus.

Philip II told the Song envoy that if the Mongols came, they would negotiate with the Mongols and try to avoid war.

The Song envoy was confused. If Zhao Yurui were at the scene, he would definitely say that you deserved to be slaughtered by the Mongols.

Zhao Yurui has always believed in only one principle: to deal with barbarians, you must be more barbaric than them.

Although the Song envoy failed, Philip II still communicated with the Song envoy politely, and moved the envoy this year to establish diplomatic relations. Of course, the main reason was to see what the Eastern Song Dynasty looked like. As a result, when the envoy saw the prosperous Lin'an, he was so frightened that he peed.

All European countries at this time are poor and dirty, their cities are small, and their populations are not large.

There were millions of people in Lin'an City, and the huge city and streets almost frightened the envoy of Philip II.

Then the receptionist from the Song Dynasty told them that the Song Dynasty was so prosperous, but it was oppressed by the Mongols. They were extremely barbaric and specialized in slaughtering cities and killing people. You Holy Roman Empire should be careful.

Philip II's envoy hurried back and reported the matter to the emperor.

In early July, as soon as Frederick II's envoy left, Zhao and Rui also left the palace.

He did not expect Europe to unite against Mongolia, because of the special environment in Europe and the conflicts between the pope and the emperor, it was actually difficult to form a unified consciousness, but he hoped that the exchange of envoys between himself and Philip II could change some of their ideas. At least it will be able to hold back part of Batu's army in the future.

Batu was outside for seven or eight years during his second western expedition. Zhao Yurui couldn't remember it, but it must have been more than five years, so once five years came, Zhao Yurui planned to conquer Mongolia.

As long as Europe can hold Batu back, and once he destroys Ogedai, it can use all its strength to deal with Batu.

The peace talks between Song and Meng were decided in Dingzhou in July and August of the first year of Yuanzhen.

Calculating the time, it will expire at this time next year.

Zhao Yurui led people to the foot of Phoenix Mountain while thinking about next year's strategy.

Of course, there were a large number of officials and troops waiting for the emperor at the foot of Phoenix Mountain.

As soon as the emperor arrived at the scene, Tang Bo, the assistant minister of the Firearms Bureau, Zhang Xiaoshi, the lieutenant general, and other officials were the first to greet him.

Zhao Yurui waved his hand casually first, and no one else knelt down.

After following the emperor for more than ten years, everyone like the emperor is used to his style.

"Your Majesty" everyone shouted in unison, and then led the emperor to a table with a smile.

On it are placed the latest flintlock guns that have been mass-produced.

When Zhao Yurui wanted to negotiate peace with Mongolia for five years, half of the reason was waiting for the flintlock muskets to be installed.

From the first year of Yuanzhen to the present, for more than four years, the firearms bureau has continued to improve. In the third year of Yuanzhen, it was finalized, and it began to equip and continue to improve.

This is the latest revised model, officially called the Yuanzhen Type 06 flintlock gun. This represents the sixth generation and is already the sixth generation product of the Firearms Bureau.

Zhao Yurui has come to play many times, and this time he looked at the new model with great interest, while Tang Bo was in charge of explaining.

This flintlock gun is four feet two long, shorter than the ones installed earlier.

The gun tubes are all made of fine steel. There are still two methods with different weights. One is drilled and the other is rolled and spliced.

The former can take fifty consecutive shots before it deforms. If it is not fired continuously, the service life will be longer. The latter will deform after thirty-five consecutive shots. After all, the splicing is relatively poor.

However, it is not impossible to shoot after deformation, because the size of the projectile remains unchanged, and if the barrel is deformed, the sealing will become worse, and the shooting accuracy and distance will be affected.

The former weighs eight catties and two taels in total, and the latter weighs eight catties and eight taels in total.

"Use 18 grams of granular gunpowder, and the projectile weighs 25 grams. The maximum range is about 80 steps. The best killing range is 100 to 80 steps. Heavy armor can be broken within steps." The craftsmen used the Song Army's If the Song Dynasty army can break the Zha armor, it will be easier to break the Mongolian armor.

Most of the Mongolian troops were lightly armored and could be easily broken within a hundred steps.

"The success rate of firing is about 80%." Tang Bo continued.

It is not easy to successfully fire a flintlock gun. According to Zhao Yurui's understanding, at the beginning, craftsmen discovered that flint may not necessarily fire. This step requires extremely high quality of flint. At this time, domestic flint was relatively poor, and the best Still Japanese.

The flints located near some volcanic rocks in Japan are the easiest to ignite into fire, so the flints on the Song Army's flintlock guns are all imported from Japan.

Then the craftsmen discovered that even if the flint was successfully ignited, the sparks would not be guaranteed to fall into the medicine pool.

Even if it falls into the medicine pool, it may not ignite.

Fortunately, Song Jun used the best formula of black powder in the world, and by improving the core spring, this problem could be solved.

Flintlock guns are the most demanding on springs and require very strong springs (flintlock guns are curved springs).

The arc spring is also the most difficult to process among all parts in this era. Fortunately, Zhao Yurui has a hydraulic machine tool and a vise, which solves this problem.

If in other eras, the flintlock gun still had one last ignition problem. First, after the primer was ignited, it might not be transmitted into the chamber, and there would be a delay.

The worse the quality of the gun, the lower the quality of the gunpowder and the higher the delay.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there was still a delay of several seconds.

The quality of Zhao Yurui's gunpowder is considered to be the best in this era, and it uses granular gunpowder to ensure that it can be accurately transmitted into the chamber, and the delay is controlled within two seconds.

Finally, Tang Bo said that as long as all the parts of the flintlock gun were adjusted and every link was taken care of, the theoretical firing success rate could reach over 90%.

But on the battlefield, the situation changes rapidly, and various factors such as sergeant maintenance, charging techniques, and even flint problems will cause the firing success rate to decrease.

Therefore, Tang Bo only dared to say about 80% in front of Emperor Zhao Yurui.

This can be understood both left and right. If you go to the left, it is 70%, and if you go to the right, it is 90%.

Of course Zhao Yurui didn't care. The craftsmen of the Song Dynasty were already the best in the feudal era. The shipbuilding skills of the Song Dynasty were lost in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. The level of steelmaking in the Ming Dynasty was only surpassed by that of Fujian. Iron and Su Gang can be compared.

So Emperor Zhao Yurui nodded from time to time while listening, his expression looking very satisfied.

Tang Bo also became more enthusiastic when he saw this.

"According to His Majesty's request, we all have fixed ammunition."

That is to say, the gunpowder and projectiles are all wrapped in a long oil paper tube, which can prevent moisture and is easy to carry.

To load, you bite open a paper tube with your mouth, first pour some of the ignition powder, and then stuff the rest and the projectiles into the muzzle of the gun.

"What if the first shot fails to fire?" At this moment, Quan Yong, who was standing next to the emperor, suddenly said.

Zhao Yurui always brings Niu Bao and Quan Yong with him, but Quan Yong is the only one in the entire Song Dynasty who can suddenly interrupt Zhao Yurui.

"Keep fighting." Tang Bo was stunned for a moment, but he quickly came to his senses.

(End of this chapter)