The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The impact of the soldiers of the Xia army is obviously much greater than that of the Liao army, not only because of the advantage in numbers, but also because of the advantage of speed. Although neither side can charge on horseback, the speed of Xia army's sled chariot is several times faster than the opponent's. After eating fine ingredients and drinking clear water, the energetic war horses resting, galloped past under the driving of long whips, and the snow powder on the ground they stepped on was like a giant layer of snow waves rising from the vast land.

When the two sides were fifty paces apart, the first wave of bow and arrow shooting started at the same time. Arrows raining densely like migratory locusts criss-crossed across the low sky. The next moment, people neighed and horses screamed everywhere, and a large number of soldiers and horses were hit by arrows. The fallen horses and soldiers rolled forward on the snow, and deep trenches were plowed like mines.

The Liao army suffered from slow speed, cavalry became infantry, and had to stop when shooting arrows, but Xia Jun, who was on a sled chariot, was able to charge quickly while firing arrows, without any loss of momentum; The high speed also brought them greater casualties. The damage caused by the collision of vehicles and horses caused heavy losses to some of the charging troops whose formation was too dense.

The two sides only had time to shoot two rounds of arrows before they began to engage in hand-to-hand combat. In order to give full play to the advantage of numbers, Su Jin had ordered before the charge that once they contacted the enemy, the sled chariots in the front row must go straight into the depths of the Liao army to make room for those behind. Space, this can be done completely. With the high maneuverability of charging, the more than [-] chariots that rushed forward did not stop at all. His horses cut deep into the enemy's army.

None of the soldiers of the Liao army were willing to resist the fast-charging chariots at the horse's head. They all avoided and opened a passage, allowing the chariots to rush into the depths of the army. These sled chariots were like sharp knives, breaking through the Liao The army, this big cake, plowed out the roads; the subsequent Xia army followed suit, and in just half an hour, the entire battlefield had become a pot of boiling water, with bloody battles and bloodshed everywhere. [

The individual combat capability of the Liao army is much higher than that of the Xia army. If the cavalry charge under normal circumstances, even if the Xia army has 5 more horses, it will be difficult to resist; Among them, the soldiers of the Xia Army stood condescendingly on the sleigh carts, and they had already suffered a great loss in the combat terrain; what was even more disadvantageous was that the configuration of each chariot of the Xia Army greatly improved small-scale combat. Ability, the configuration of three archers, two large shield soldiers, and two pike soldiers not only guarantees the ability of long-range strikes, after entering hand-to-hand combat, the three archers also transform into sword and shield soldiers to ensure the ability of melee combat.

Spearmen can assassinate from a distance, sword and shield soldiers can slash and kill the enemy who intends to get close or climb into the car, and large shield soldiers hold shields with both hands to block the enemy's sure-kill attack. The power is much higher out of thin air.

The Xia army took advantage of the prestige of the first battle, relying on the advantages of numbers and the advantages of cooperation, quickly controlled the battle situation; the soldiers of the Liao army gradually showed a trend of decay, and the horses and sleigh carts ran around, which also greatly affected the follow-up of the Liao army. When chasing and killing, he often sees that the opponent's body is about to be cut with a single knife, but the cut is empty in a blink of an eye, because the horses pulling the cart are constantly moving, and it is really difficult to chase and cut with two feet in the snow.

Xiao Hui was very anxious, and immediately ordered: "Kill all the horses pulling the carts of the enemy army, and force them to stay where they are."

The soldiers of the Liao army immediately turned on the mad dog mode, and the guy in their hands turned from a human to a horse. In an instant, hundreds of thousands of horses fell on the battlefield. Of course, the price paid for doing so was huge. Calmly beheading the enemy, tens of thousands of soldiers were killed in the action of cutting horses.

The soldiers of the Xia army who lost their mobility could only stay in place, relying on the condescending geographical advantage to fight against the Liao army, but they were confined in the carriage, and the efficiency of fighting the enemy was greatly reduced. Outside the range of weapons, they can only stare. The Liao people have mastered this characteristic, and the front and back of the battle made Xia Jun in the car miserable.

Su Jin watched all this from the back of the battlefield. Of course he had a way to reverse this gradually passive situation, but he still made up his mind not to rush to give orders. Even though Zhang Yuan and others were anxiously asking him to find a way quickly, he just calmed down. Silent.

The casualties of the Xia army still increased. The Liao army who found the trick began to distance themselves, saw the opportunity and rushed up to greet a person with weapons, taking advantage of the small space in the car and the disadvantage of inconvenient movement to instantly kill a person, and then before the enemy counterattacked After retreating, the tactics adapted to local conditions were very effective, and the casualties of the Xia army began to increase. Thousands of soldiers on the sled chariots had been killed by this method. The gap flows down.

Under the ebb and flow, the number of casualties on both sides gradually narrowed, with more than 7 casualties in the Liao army, and more than 5 casualties in the Xia army.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Su Jin saw that Xia Jun's momentum had weakened after so much exhaustion, and it was difficult to turn around, so he turned around and shouted: "Three blasts of the trumpets, order the flanking ambush soldiers to launch an attack."

The guards around him got the order and hurried to deliver the order. Zhang Yuan said in astonishment, "Ambush? Where did we get the ambush?"

Su Jin laughed and said, "Do you still remember the order I ordered the army to wait for the dawn to pursue after the army of the Liao Kingdom was wiped out?"

Zhang Yuandao: "Didn't you say that Tianming is easy to hurry, and there are traces of the enemy fleeing, so there is no need to worry about escaping?"

Su Jin said: "Yes, but during the half an hour of waiting for dawn, I sent General Moreau to lead a detour from the southeast with 5 people, surrounded by the enemy's large troops far away. At this moment, they are already behind the enemy's side. .”

Zhang Yuandao: "Where did the fifty thousand soldiers come from?"

Su Jin shook his hand and said: "The [-] guards in the capital, plus the [-] defenders in Longzhou and Xiazhou, the Queen Mother of your country promised me that they would send another [-] troops under my command, which was delayed for seven or eight days. When we arrived, I sent General Moreau to take over. In a war, no matter how many people there are, you still need a fresh army to hold the line, and it will come in handy right now.”

Zhang Yuan is silent, this kid actually has such a skill, leaving [-] fresh troops to wander outside the army as surprise soldiers, what's even worse is that he doesn't even fart, it's okay to hide it from others, even himself in the drum.

"Tong Tong Tong" three trumpet cannons rang through the sky, and on the plain, the sound of a huge explosion spread dozens of miles away, and the three mushroom-shaped black smoke that rose up were also particularly conspicuous against the blue sky; as soon as the cannons fell, I heard the screaming sound from the southeast of the left rear of the battlefield coming with the wind, it was the echo of the sound of arrows; on the horizon, the dark soldiers of the Xia army rolled across the snow like the wind, and rushed straight towards the battlefield. Seven or eight thousand chariots had rushed into the battle situation. These fresh troops were full of energy for the first time, and immediately stirred up the battle situation like a huge force.

The originally stagnant battle situation became immediately passionate with the addition of this fresh force. The enthusiasm of the soldiers of the Xia Army was naturally multiplied by the arrival of reinforcements; while the Liao Army seemed to have been hit in the head, and they were all in a daze. Drenched in blood and sweat, his feet were still stepping on the icy water with blood stains and mud, and he forgot about this when the war started, but now he was covered in ice, and when the strong wind in the wilderness blew, he was cold from head to toe. [

Relying on the fierce momentum, Xia Jun quickly turned the tide of the battle. The Liao army was no longer eager to fight, and the soldiers in a small number of places had already begun to flee. His personal guards drove a large group of war horses to run and trample on the battlefield. At the same time, he quickly fled the battlefield with more than a thousand people in light clothes, and went straight to Liao Xingzong's king's tent.

The news of the commander's escape became the last straw that crushed the fighting spirit. The soldiers of the Liao army began to flee in all directions. It blocked the retreat of the soldiers of the Liao Army who were running back, allowing the Xia Army to easily chase and kill tens of thousands of heads.

Su Jin gave the order to pursue freely, but only the [-] fresh troops were able to pursue them. They had sled chariots to help them, while the others had lost the mobility of their horses, so they could only watch helplessly as the soldiers of the Liao army scattered and panicked. escape.

Since they couldn't chase people, Su Jin asked them to hunt horses around, and Mo Luo's pursuit was extremely fierce, and he chased and killed the Liao army until he reached the Helan Mountain Pass, where he gave up because of the steep terrain. Such as hemp.

All the generals in the Xia camp were beaming with joy and congratulated each other. When it got dark, the battlefield was cleaned up, and the number of casualties and annihilated enemies was also counted. The Xia army had nearly 11 casualties in this battle. In addition to the battle last night, the casualties were as high as 32 is a huge number, which is an astonishing number; while the Liao people were even worse. They sent 26 troops to the front and back, and less than [-] escaped, but they were wiped out as many as [-]. This is an unprecedented huge casualty .

No one expected that the cumulative loss of nearly 40 troops in the battle between Xia and Liao was nearly 11. Although Xia was the victor, the price paid was not small. In addition to the loss of 20 soldiers and horses, [-] war horses were also lost. If it hadn't been for the capture of a lot of war horses from the Liao Kingdom in the end, the entire Xia Kingdom's cavalry would have survived in name only; for a long time, Xia Kingdom had also started to lack war horses. joke.

The Liao people basically lost their strength in the first battle after this battle. Although they are known as a million iron cavalry, in fact, the main force of the Liao Kingdom is 30 palace tent troops plus 40 tribal soldiers. It is an army composed of ordinary people such as handymen and township regiments, which has little combat effectiveness; this battle consumed 17 palace tent troops of the Liao people, plus 70 tribal soldiers, and the [-] army was reduced by two-fifths. It is difficult to provoke a war. ,

(At the end of this volume, please read the next volume: Li Shengfeng Lei Tingge Xing)