Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 720 Decisive Battle Moment
With a large amount of military supplies arriving in Yingzhou, the time for a decisive battle with the Liao army is ripe.

The arrival of [-] carts gave the Song army enough temporary means of transportation, and the army began to march towards Datong Mansion.

The 16 Song army dispatched included [-] cavalry and [-] infantry, but even the infantry had horses to travel. In the middle of the team were [-] carts, full of food and grass, heading north.

Of course, going north to Datong Mansion will not start a war immediately. The Song Army needs to find a base camp and hoard supplies and food.

It is of course good if there is a ready-made city, but if there is no city, then you can only build a camp by yourself.

Of course, the Song army will not make a temporary decision now. Their scouts have already figured out the situation. There is only one Huairen County in the south of Datong City, but this county is too far away from Datong City. The distance is more than two hundred miles, which is not suitable for Song Army. requirements.

The city that the Song army wanted was about [-] to [-] miles away from Datong City. Obviously there was no ready-made city, so they could only build a board-wall camp on the open land.

The site has been selected, about forty miles away from Datong City, close to a small river, the terrain is slightly higher, but the water source is sufficient.

Two days later, the army arrived at the destination. The [-] troops began to set up tents, and tens of thousands of soldiers rammed the earth and felled logs to build the camp wall.

It is impossible for the combat camp to be as extravagant as the Yingzhou camp, covering an area of ​​tens of thousands of acres.

The combat camp must first control the area. It is best not to occupy more than [-] acres of land, which is convenient for patrolling, otherwise the camp is too large and there will always be defensive loopholes.

Secondly, there should not be too many camps. In Yingzhou, 50 soldiers live in a big tent, but only [-] people can live in a big tent here on the battlefield.

After the [-] carts unloaded the grain and supplies, they continued to transport supplies to the south under the escort of [-] cavalry. At this time, the camp of the Song Army had been quickly set up.

A large camp covering thousands of acres appeared in the endless wilderness, and Datong City was dozens of miles away.

The spies of the Liao army had discovered the movement of the Song army a long time ago, and immediately reported the Liao army coach Yelu Wanshan.

Yelu Wanshan led the generals to the top of the city and looked into the distance.

Everyone's heart is very heavy. The arrival of the Song Army means that the confrontation that lasted for nearly a year is over, and the Song Army will start to attack Datong City.

Yelu Wanshan was really contradictory. He received an order from Emperor Yelu Hongji to defend Datong City, but his heart was like a mirror. The Song Army had powerful iron fire thunders. It's the same as Youzhou City.

What should he do?To fight or not?Yelu Wanshan was deeply troubled.

"Everyone talk, should we defend the city or go out to fight?" Yelu Wanshan couldn't help asking the crowd.

Everyone looked at him in surprise, General Xiao Lanyu bowed and said: "Commander, Youzhou City is stronger and taller than Datong City, and it was also easily breached by the Song Army. We will definitely not be able to defend Datong City, and we can only fight to the death with the Song Army. "

Du Buluo also said: "Our tribe's army never fights in the streets, only fights on horseback. If we want to defend the city, what's the point of us helping the battle?"

Ningbu and Ayike also expressed their agreement. They did not accept the defense of the city. They had to go out of the city and fight the Song army, or let them go back and fight in the streets. They could only die.

The generals were chattering, but they all had the same meaning. They didn’t want to be trapped in the city, and would rather fight the Song army. Yeluhan, the deputy general of Yelu Wanshan, suggested: "Actually, we can fight decisively first. If it doesn't work, we can retreat back to defend the city. Thinking that the Son of Heaven meant to let us stick to the Datong Mansion, not to teach us how to fight, we may have misunderstood what he meant."

Under the persuasion of everyone, Yelu Wanshan also made up his mind, "Of course we must use our own strengths. Defending the city is not our advantage. Then follow everyone's advice and fight the Song army!"

Everyone secretly despised, what do you mean by "according to everyone's words", if you lose, can you shirk your responsibility?

Yelu Wanshan immediately wrote a letter of war and asked his subordinates to send it to the camp of the Song army.

The camp of the Song army has been built. Dozens of sentry towers are distributed around the camp. Deep trenches have been dug around the camp. The second batch of fire oil soldiers and other materials have also been sent to the camp.

At this time, Fan Ning was leading dozens of generals to visit the fine steel ballista. Everyone was amazed by the powerful ballista, especially it could fire 36 iron arrows at a time, with a range of two hundred steps, and the penetrating power was extremely strong, which was even more impressive. With admiration.

However, Fan Ning found the front baffle of the fine steel ballista very interesting. It usually lay flat on the ground and could be supported at any time. The front was covered with two-foot-long wooden spikes.

Seeing that Fan Ning was very interested in the baffle, Du Qiu explained: "This is a horse baffle. In a critical moment, it can hold back the cavalry and protect the steel ballista from retreating."

"Put it up and let me see!"

Du Qiu hurriedly greeted, and dozens of craftsmen stepped forward. They lifted the wooden plank and supported it with brackets underneath.

All the generals are people who know the goods, and they all applauded. The strength of the cavalry lies in the first wave of the attack. If the first wave is forcibly blocked, the impact on the cavalry will be greatly affected.

Fan Ning asked again: "How is it fixed on the ground?"

Du Qiu took four one-foot-long iron nails and said with a smile: "Look, sir, these four long iron nails are used to fix them to the ground, they are very firm."

Fan Ning nodded. This idea is very good, but it is a pity that due to resource constraints, iron plates cannot be used, otherwise it will be bad news for the cavalry. From this point of view, it must be a pity.

At this time, a soldier ran in, knelt down on one knee and said, "Report to the Privy Envoy, the Liao Army sent someone to issue a letter of challenge."

"Where are the people?"

"Wait outside the tent of the Chinese army!"

Fan Ning left the camp in the warehouse area and returned to the main tent of the Chinese army.

At the gate of the big tent, Fan Ning met Yang Wenguang and Chong Er, and the envoy of the Liao Army was taken away.

Yang Wenguang stepped forward and handed the letter of war to Fan Ning, saying: "The Liao Army has requested a decisive battle with us in the wilderness. The time and place are determined by us."

Fan Ning looked at the gauntlet and asked, "Will there be fraud in it?"

Chong Er smiled from the side: "If it is a verbal agreement, there may be fraud, but this kind of written war letter generally does not have fraud. Khitan is more disciplined in this respect, unlike the Xixia people."

Fan Ning pondered for a while and said, "How about the final battle in three days?"

"Okay, you should be fully prepared."

"Where's General Zhong?" Fan Ning asked Zhong Er again.

"Beizhi also agreed to a decisive battle in the morning in three days' time."

"The location is Tatsunohara, right in the middle of the two camps,"

Fan Ning went back to the big account at random, approved the letter of war, and ordered someone to send it to the envoy of the Liao army.

He immediately asked Yang Wenguang and Zhong Er to discuss a decisive battle strategy. Fan Ning did not have much experience in decisive battles with large armies, but Zhong Er and Yang Wenguang had rich experience, and they were able to plan an extremely safe plan.

Three days later in the early morning, Fan Ning left 15 troops to guard the barracks. He personally led [-] troops out of the barracks and headed for Tatsunohara [-] miles away.
The terrain of Tatsunohara is flat, and most of it is yellow land, only some weeds grow sparsely.

The scouts of the Song army had explored this place a long time ago, and regarded it as the most ideal place for a decisive battle between the two sides.

When the Song army arrived at Longyeyuan, Fan Ning saw a black line from a distance. He waved his hand and ordered: "Put the battlefield on the spot!"

The Song Army was divided into five armies, the front, the middle, the rear, and the two wings. Among them, the front army had 4 soldiers, and except for [-] crossbowmen, the remaining [-] were all spear infantry.

360 fine steel ballistas also belonged to the crossbow army.

There are [-] cavalry on each side, and their task is to protect the central army and the front army from both sides.

Then there is the [-] Chinese Army, which consists of [-] cavalry and [-] infantry. Their task is to stabilize the formation and support the armies at the same time.

The rear army is 1 people. The role of the rear army is to prevent the enemy from attacking from behind and protect the back of the formation.

Fan Ning personally sits in the central army, Yang Wenguang is in charge of the front army, Zhong Er is in charge of the two wings, and the rear army is led by the commander of the capital Zhang Yan.

The Song army quickly set up their formation. Hundreds of soldiers knocked the iron nails of the horse fence into the soil. The fence temporarily lay flat, and 360 fine steel ballistas were deployed in the middle of the crossbow army.

Fan Ning looked coldly at the Liao army in the distance. The Liao army was slowly approaching the Song army. More than half of the Liao army were cavalry. Under normal circumstances, they should take the initiative to attack in order to take advantage of the cavalry. Collected from the intelligence department According to the analysis of various intelligences, the [-] mature women are really the "stepping stones" that Yelu Hongji forcibly recruited. They want to create conditions for the Khitan army and the two-winged cavalry to attack.

Fan Ning looked at the two wings of the Liao army and thought to himself: "I don't know if the grassland tribe's willingness to be inside should be true or false?" '

The great war is about to break out, the battlefield is full of murderous intent, a gust of wind blows, and sand and stones are flying all over the sky.

(End of this chapter)