Liu Bingzhong took out a document and reported to Mengge the Mongolian countermeasures and weapons preparations...
"Hmm, not bad..."
Mengge nodded, but did not mention anything about rewards... In his mind, the Han people were inferior to the Mongols, and allowing them to participate in political affairs was the greatest privilege, so how could there be any reward?
"Kublai Khan, how many troops can be mobilized?"
"Great Khan, the border troops currently total 600,000, including 100,000 Mongols and 500,000 Jaghuts patrolling and defending the border along the Yellow River."
"Not enough!" Mengge's expression was particularly ferocious. "According to the latest intelligence from the Han merchants who fled from the Central Plains, the Wulin Army has mobilized at least 140,000 troops! 5,000 can defeat our 100,000-strong coalition army. 140,000 against 600,000, we have no chance of victory!"
"But Khan, they only have 8,000 Wulin troops! Even if you include the Jianghu troops, there are only 40,000! The remaining 100,000 are all former Song troops. We only need to send 20,000 troops to destroy the Song army. We don't need that many!"
Kublai Khan said helplessly, "Is the Great Khan frightened? Isn't this reaction too extreme? Even someone who has experienced fighting against the Wulin Army has not been as frightened as Mongke!"
Six hundred thousand troops, no matter where they are deployed, are definitely a formidable force! I can't say they can destroy the Wulin Alliance, but they can definitely stop their attacks!
"I want to destroy the entire Wulin Alliance in one battle and attack the Central Plains!"
Mengge said coldly, "Aren't their individual combat capabilities strong? I will overwhelm them with a sea of troops! The Han people are full of tricks, and we cannot give them any chance to turn the tables in this battle! As the Han military strategy says: A good warrior does not have glorious achievements! In this battle, we will not fight with strategy or tactics! We will rely on military strength to crush the enemy!"
"Kublai Khan, inform the Merkit, Tatar, Kerait, Naiman, and Oirat tribes that I will conquer the Central Plains in one battle! After defeating the Wulin Alliance, I will allow each of their tribes to plunder and massacre any city in the Central Plains! The Mongols will not take any of the spoils!
Therefore, all tribes must send me 600,000 elite troops!
No matter how powerful the Wulin Alliance is, I am no match for them. They can defeat my 1.2 million troops with only 40,000 men!"
The corners of Kublai Khan's mouth twitched a few times, and he wanted to refute... However, when he thought about the speed at which the Wulin Alliance took over Lin'an City in three days, destroyed the Song Dynasty in a year, and integrated the entire Central Plains in half a year, he swallowed the words back when they were on the tip of his tongue.
The main reason is that most of the cities bordering the Wulin Alliance are influenced by the Wulin Alliance... There are also many Han people among them, who are always hoping that the Wulin Alliance’s army will take back the Han country!
Especially after the Wulin Army defeated the Mongolian Army, there were many disturbances in Shandong and Shanxi... If the army had not been dispatched to suppress the border and guard against the Wulin Army, who knows what would have happened!
Therefore, under the command of Kublai Khan, Mongke and others, countless Mongolian leaders were attracted by the rich Central Plains, especially the looting after the city was broken, and rushed to the Yellow River battlefield with their young and strong men!
..................
A month later, a Mongolian army of 1.2 million gathered on both sides of the Yellow River, and the mighty army lined up on the other side of the Yellow River!
The scouts immediately discovered that something was wrong with the Mongolian army and passed the intelligence to Luoyang City. According to the previously planned strategic deployment, the border troops were withdrawn, leaving only outposts, and the rest of the defense forces were all withdrawn to Luoyang City.
In Luoyang City, Xiaolongnu, who received the urgent military intelligence report, immediately went to the palace and did not dare to delay!
This time, in addition to the familiar high-ranking officials, there was also the Dali royal family represented by Master Yideng.
"Everyone, urgent report from the scouts, please take a look!"
Xiao Longnu distributed the information with a serious expression... The moment Di Fan received the information, his face turned pale! Mongolia, are you preparing to finish this battle and not live on?
[One million and two hundred thousand troops... The Mongolian army really thinks highly of us!]
[Under normal circumstances, even if Mongolia established the Yuan Dynasty, its military strength at its peak would only be 1.5 million! Of these, 700,000 were Han troops, 800,000 were Jakhuti, and the number of actual Mongolian soldiers was no more than 100,000!]
[But what about now? Two hundred thousand Mongols, one million Jahuti... Haha, this has definitely drained all the young and strong men in the entire grassland, right?]
"Everyone, what do you think after reading the intelligence?"
After hearing Di Fan's inner thoughts, Xiaolongnu's expression became even more serious!
Even if she had great confidence in the Wulin Army, she still felt a heavy pressure from the 1.2 million-strong army... The other side was going to use all the strength of the country to decide the outcome in one battle!
"What else can we do? We have no choice but to fight this battle!"
Yue Suo spoke first. The Yue family had been fighting against the foreign tribes on the grasslands since Yue Fei, and they understood their intentions very well: "The Mongolian army wants to defeat us head-on! An army of 1.2 million is enough to withstand any strategy. There is no other way except to fight with brute force!"
"I agree."
After discussing with other members of the Zhong family, including Huang Yaoshi and other staff members, Zhong Mingliang came to the same conclusion: "This battle is a large-scale battle. They intend to use their absolute numerical advantage to counter the strength of our individual soldiers.
However, the enemy's number of troops has exceeded the scope of this strategy, and their deployment and marching are also measured, making a surprise attack impossible."
As they were talking, Shen, the former leader of the Xuanwu Altar of the Ming Cult and current staff officer of the General Staff, had already arranged the military situation on the sand table based on the intelligence... Everyone came to the place where the sand table was, looking at the dense, black flags representing the Mongolian army on the other side of the river, and they were all silent, not knowing how to respond.
Di Fan thought back to the battles he had seen, especially those in his past history and novels where the outnumbered side won, and raised a question.
"Food and fodder. How is the Mongolian army's food and fodder arranged? Is it possible to launch a surprise attack and burn their food and fodder and weapons..."
"I've thought about this as well," Yue Suo said with a frown, "but as far as I know, when the grassland tribes formed a large army, their military divisions were all led by each tribe. Half of the food and fodder was brought by themselves, and half was provided by Mongolia...
Once the army is assembled, the Mongolian army will send food and fodder down in advance. Burning just one or two waves of food and fodder will basically have little effect on the enemy.
"What about harassment? What about fatigue tactics?"
Di Fan proposed another method.
This time, it was Zhong Mingliang who taught him a lesson: "They have a full 1.2 million troops, and we only have 140,000. The scouts they sent out alone are over 10,000!
If we split up our forces to tire them out, they can also split up their forces to rest... then, it won't be them who are tired, but us!"
Another plan rejected...
Next, everyone proposed various strategies, including poisoning and night raids, but each was refuted one after another... As Zhong Mingliang and Yue Shuo had said, with an absolute number of 1.2 million, they had no way to use any strategies...
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