Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 721 The decisive battle broke out
The Liao army had a total of 5000 people in Datong Prefecture, of which [-] Khitans stayed behind in Datong City.

The remaining [-] troops participated in the decisive battle with the Song army.

The [-] Liao army also approached step by step, and stopped about five miles away from the Song army. They also formed a formation.

The Naiman tribe and the Lieshan tribe are the left and right wings, the Dadan tribe is the rear army, the [-] Xi army and the [-] Bo navy are the central army, and Yelu Wanshan personally commands the army to fight.

There are [-] cavalry and [-] infantry in the [-] Qianqian Army, and they are the key to the entire war.

Yelu Wanshan was very conflicted, the combat effectiveness of the Mature Jurchen Division was far inferior to that of the Raw Jurchen, would it be wise to let them fight the former army?
But he must carry out the intention of Emperor Yelu Hongji and use war to weaken the strength of Miruzhen. That is to say, all the [-] troops must be consumed on the Datong battlefield.

This is a political mission for Yelu Wanshan, but if the political mission is carried out, it will weaken the military. In fact, according to his original intention, it is to let the three grassland tribes be the vanguard.

On the one hand, the three grassland tribes were resolutely unwilling, and on the other hand, the emperor Yelu Hongji's political pressure made Yelu Wanshan finally formulate this unsatisfactory formation.

Thirty thousand Mature Jurchen soldiers were ready. The first wave and the second wave were cavalry attacks. After the cavalry broke through the opponent's line of defense, the third wave of infantry would rush into the enemy's formation.

But they were facing 15 Song troops, and the huge pressure made them desperate.

Mature Jurchens are the Jurchens who have entered the farming civilization. They are very different from the raw Jurchens of the Wanyan family. They settled on the north bank of the Yalu River, some lived in the city, did small businesses and other livelihoods, and some lived in the countryside. To farm for a living.

The Jurchens have always had a close relationship with the Koreans. When the relationship between the Liao Kingdom and the Koreans deteriorated, the Jurchens would naturally be suspected by the Liao court.

Especially now that the Liao court’s financial resources are exhausted, in order to seize more wealth, Yelu Hongji began to make many racial ideas. Needless to say, the Han people were the first to be deprived of wealth, followed by the Jurchen and Kelei tribes in Khitan After a round of internal cleansing, Yelu Hongji's eyes were fixed on the mature female real person who was relatively wealthy but had a bad relationship with the imperial court.

Send Jurchen young and strong men to the battlefield, and leave the rest of the elderly, women and children at their disposal.

'Boom!Boom!Boom! '

The drums to prepare for battle have already sounded, and the Jurchen Liao army, which was preparing for the first wave of impact, tightened their horses. The Liao Kingdom has already faced a serious pig iron crisis. Failure to keep up caused Liao's pig iron production to plummet by 50%, and the quality was also unqualified.

The Jurchens are all in leather armor, carrying old spears and a wooden shield.

The war horse snorted and hit the ground continuously. At this moment, Yelu Wanshan swung his saber, and the drums beat suddenly.

The Jurchens shouted, "Kill—"

Ten thousand cavalry rushed out first, and ten thousand horses galloped, stirring up dust all over the sky, and charged towards the Song army's formation.
In the crossbow formation of the Song army, Yang Ying, the commander of the army, shouted: "The horse barrier is raised, the ballista is ready, and the crossbowmen are ready!"

The yellow flag was waved, and horse barriers were quickly erected one by one, forming a two-mile-long barrier. Immediately afterwards, 360 ballistas were loaded with iron box crossbow arrows, and each ballista had two strong soldiers strenuously winding up.

Nine thousand crossbow soldiers lined up in three rows and raised their crossbows together to aim at the galloping Liao army cavalry.

The second [-]-man cavalry team also ran in the distance, [-] horses galloped, forming a sea of ​​horses, the ground was trembling, yellow-red dust covered the sky, and the horses seemed to rush out of the chaotic world. wild horse with a long flying mane.

The cavalry is getting closer and closer to the Song army, five hundred steps, three hundred steps, two hundred steps
The front cavalry was the first to enter the killing distance of the ballista.

The red flag was waved down, and 360 ballistas were fired at the same time, countless small black spots rose into the sky, forming a black cloud like locusts, and shot all over the enemy's formation.

Like a storm, the rain of iron arrows shot into the enemy army group. The iron crossbow arrows were extremely powerful, and shot straight into the cavalry group in a straight line, piercing the shields and leather armor, and piercing the soldiers' bodies. Countless cavalrymen tumbled to the ground , The war horse was also shot, and fell directly to the ground, throwing the cavalry on its back, and lost more than 2000 cavalry in one round of arrows.

Immediately afterwards, the first round of [-] crossbow troops also released arrows. Three thousand crossbow arrows flew into the sky and shot at the overwhelming enemy army. Moments later, the third row fired.

At this time, the fine steel ballista started firing for the second time.

The cavalry of the Liao Army only ran a short hundred steps, and they were hit by nearly [-] arrows, including [-] iron crossbow arrows and [-] crossbow arrows.

The cavalry of the Liao army suffered more than 6000 casualties, which made them terrified.

But no matter how timid they were, they couldn't retreat. The [-] cavalry behind them had already followed, and they could only bite the bullet and rush towards the enemy camp.

At this time, the thousands of cavalry in the front were only [-] steps away from the Song army, and the fine steel ballistas had been withdrawn. Nine thousand crossbowmen raised their crossbows together, aiming at the Liao army that was getting closer.

Nine thousand arrows were fired together, just like the autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves. After all the people turned their backs, only more than 1000 people were still on the horses.

The second cavalry group of 150 people was only [-] steps away from the Song army. Yang Ying ordered: "The crossbow army retreats, and the pikemen form a large formation with long spears!"

Nine thousand soldiers of the Crossbow Army quickly retreated, and thirty thousand spearmen stepped forward. The two-foot-long spears were densely packed, forming a sea of ​​spears.

In front of the [-] spearmen is a two-mile-long horse barrier covered with dense wooden stakes and spikes.

More than 1000 cavalry finally reached the front of the Song army's formation first, and they saw clearly that there was a row of long wooden boards in front of them, and the wooden boards were covered with spikes.

The war horse couldn't jump over at all, and could only slam into it. Many soldiers screamed in fear.

"Boom!" Thousands of cavalry hit the horse barrier, some smashed the horse barrier, and rushed directly into the dense spears, some horses stopped quickly, and people flew over, but most of the horses could not stop On all four hooves, he hit the plank directly, and was pierced through the body by the long wooden stake spikes.

But in any case, the horse barrier relieved the impact force of the cavalry and greatly reduced the impact pressure of the spearmen behind.

The first batch of [-] Liao army cavalry was almost completely wiped out. This time the second batch of Liao army cavalry came up, and the real fighting began.

After paying the price of 2000 casualties, the Liao army finally smashed the horse barrier and entered the Song army's long spear formation.

At this time, the Liao army was attacking in an all-round way, and two prairie cavalry, one left and one right, also charged towards the two wings of the Song army.

Fan Ning could see clearly, and ordered: "The left and right flanks attack the enemy's flanks and kill them back!"

"Kill ah-"

Zhong Er roared, and the left and right [-] cavalrymen rushed to the left and right flanks of the enemy army. The cavalrymen fought together in a melee for less than a stick of incense. The Lieshan tribe on the left wing was the first to fail, and he led his men to turn around and run away. Immediately afterwards, the Naiman tribe on the right also retreated quickly.

The Dadan tribe didn't even confront the Song army, they also retreated, and the three prairie cavalry fled desperately in the wilderness, heading straight for the grassland in the north.

The Song Army did not pursue the third part of the grassland, the blue flag waved, and [-] Song Army cavalry surrounded the main force of the enemy's central army from both sides.

When Yelu Wanshan got the news that the third part of the grassland had retreated in defeat, he was so angry that he cursed. This is not a retreat in defeat, it is clearly an escape from the battle, and it is an appointment to flee before the battle, otherwise the Dadan department would not even have no enemy troops If you encounter it, turn around and run away.

The third part of the Grassland fled and immediately unbalanced the entire battle situation. Fan Ning seized the opportunity and ordered all the 15 troops to press up. The 15 troops surrounded the [-] enemy regiments, forming a huge iron barrel formation.

The [-] Liao army suffered heavy casualties, but there was no chance of turning the tide of the battle. Seeing that the army was getting smaller and smaller, the Song army became more and more courageous. The Western army was very brave and good at fighting. At that time, more than half of the [-] surrounded army had suffered casualties.

Lieutenant General Yeluhan shouted: "Commander, we are doomed to defeat, order to break through!"

Yelu Wanshan also knew that the defeat was over, he shouted: "The whole army breaks through to the north!"

The remaining [-] soldiers struggled to break through, but the Song Army's spear formation was so strong that they couldn't break out at all, and the casualties continued to increase.

Lieutenant General Yeluhan was shot by a burst of arrows, turned over and fell off his horse, and was trampled like mud by thousands of horses.

Yelu Wanshan was drenched in blood, but he finally found an opportunity. The Song army in the northeast corner was a little weak, and it seemed that they couldn't coordinate.

"Kill me! Break out."

He led the main force to storm the northeast corner, desperate to break out.

At noon, Yelu Wanshan led thousands of cavalry and finally opened a bloody road from the northeast corner and rushed out, but was blocked by [-] Song cavalry. Seeing that he could not break through to the north, Yelu Wanshan had to turn around and break out to the west .

In the end, only a few hundred people broke out of the encirclement of the Song army, and Yelu Wanshan was like a bereaved dog. He did not dare to return to Datong City, but fled to the northwest grassland.

The fierce battle for nearly four hours finally came to an end in the afternoon. Except for the third part of the grassland, the [-] Liao soldiers were almost wiped out, and only a few hundred escaped.

The Liao army killed more than 4 people and surrendered more than [-] people, while the Song army also paid a heavy price for more than [-] casualties.

In the evening, Fan Ning led an army of [-] troops to the city of Datong Prefecture. The [-] defenders had already fled, and the city gate was opened wide.

(End of this chapter)