The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

Zhang Xian and Zhu Wu placed their troops on the main road on the northwest side of Xinzhou, which was the only way to go to Fulin in the north and Taiyuan in the south.

A large number of troops and horses must go here, and the cavalry cannot go here. This line is open from north to south, and they can go vertically and horizontally, but they have no other choice but to pass here.

Xinzhou was not guarded by gold soldiers. After looting and scraping three feet of ground, it was abandoned directly. After all, there were few Jurchens and it was impossible to capture all the cities along the way.

This is also the main reason why the Jurchens did not occupy Kaifeng in the end when they originally surrounded Tokyo. Instead, they returned to the North with countless money and people.

At this moment, Xinzhou is almost empty. Except for some people who really have nowhere to go and who are physically sick or disabled, they have already run away.

Most of them went to Taiyuan for temporary refuge, and a few went to other places.

Zhang Xian and Zhu Wu finally discussed that if Wanyan Lou's family was really as decisive and far-sighted as Zhao Tao said, they would have gone south earlier and would definitely have arrived in Xinzhou first.

So they studied interception in the northwest of Xinzhou. In order to avoid losses, the two hit it off and decided to form a formation to defeat the enemy.

Zhu Wu is a master of formations. Although Zhang Xian knows more about ancient formations, when it comes to the wonders, mysteries, and myriad of changes, Zhu Wu is stronger than Zhang Xian.

Zhu Wu had been studying since he was a child. In the years after he went up the mountain, Zhu Wu was not busy. Apart from being worldly and dealing with Wu Yong, he was practicing formations.

The formations he has learned are very complex, and there are dozens of new formations he has created over the years, including large and small formations, ranging from those for hundreds of people to tens of thousands of people.

Zhang Xian has also created several formations in the past two years. In addition to the one used in Xixia, he also created the most proud work at the moment, called the Ten Thousand Army Destruction Formation.

This is a large formation that can handle tens of thousands or tens of thousands of people. It depends on how many soldiers are placed in the formation. It is more ruthless than the one used in Hexi before, so it is named Destruction.

He immediately told Zhu Wu about this formation in detail. Zhu Wu was overjoyed after hearing it carefully, and said that he had a similar one at home, and they were similar to each other.

He took out his own one, which turned out to be called the Army-Destroying Killing Formation. When the two of them compared it, it turned out that they were walking the same route. They had the same strengths and characteristics, but different weaknesses. They could just learn from each other's strengths and offset their weaknesses to form a perfect Army-Destroying Formation. .

The two of them kept studying and finally synthesized a new formation, which they called the Ten Thousand Army Execution and Destruction Formation, or the Ten Thousand Army Execution Formation for short.

Then the drill was arranged on the official road in the northwest of Xinzhou...

After listening to the report of the three hundred miles scout, Zhao Tong couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

It turned out that many suspected Juror soldiers were discovered within a hundred miles of Taiyuan City.

The so-called suspicious soldiers are those who do not know where they came from, where they are going, or what they are doing.

The scouts said that there were about three or five of them. The number of them was not large, but they were definitely not detective horses. There were as few as eight hundred and as many as several thousand. They were all elite riders, and some of them were not wearing leather armor, but were actually wearing armor. Iron armor.

Normally speaking, ordinary cavalry prefer to wear leather armor in order to pursue flexibility, convenience and the speed of coming and going. Zhao Tao's modification of his own light cavalry is just to inlay some iron sheets and steel sheets on the vital parts of the leather armor, not full-body armor. .

But the scouts said that among the Jurchen suspects there were some who were fully armored. This was no longer a light cavalry.

A name suddenly appeared in Zhao Tong's mind, that was "Guaizi Ma".

Could it be that this medium-sized cavalry has also come out?
Zhao Tong narrowed his eyes. In his memory, the Kaizi Ma existed as Tiefu Tu's exclusive wing guard. When Tiefu Tu charged, the Kaizi Horse protected its left and right wings.

During the battle with Tiefu Tu in front of Zhuxian Town, Zhao Tong did not see the Kaizi Horse, and thought that such medium-sized cavalry had not been built by the Jurchens, but he did not expect that it was already there.

In fact, if you think about it, Wanyan Zongbi can rush to Tokyo with ten thousand iron pagodas, and Wanyan Zonghan can't have anything special there, so this kidnapping horse should be his most important method.

The Kaizi horse is not a light cavalry or a heavy cavalry, but a medium cavalry. The Kaaizi horse does not have complete equipment. It only wears human armor, but the horse body has no other protection except the eyes and belly.

What the human body wears is a very thin steel armor. This kind of thin steel armor is also called piece armor. It is different from the chain mail armor worn by generals. Because of the pursuit of light weight, not rigidity, and flexible movement, the various parts of the armor are not They are locked together tightly, but tied with tendons, and there is a slight elasticity in their movements.

This kind of armor has various parts such as head, neck, shoulders, chest armor, body armor and other parts. It is generally composed of one or two hundred iron armor leaves woven, and its weight usually reaches about seventy kilograms. In later generations, it is eight It weighs more than ten kilograms.

This kind of armor is not as protective as normal chain armor, but it is more than ten times stronger than leather armor. Leather armor can only protect against some arrows that have lost their strength, or knives that are already dull. For other weapons The defense is minimal and the damage reduction is almost negligible.

But this type of armor can protect against all weapons, even blunt weapons that can defeat the ten wills with one force, it has some effect.

Although the horses were not protected by armor, their heads were wrapped in leather, leaving only their eyes exposed. The same was true for the horses' belly, making them more survivable than normal war horses.

The design of this medium cavalry is very targeted, that is, it is designed to restrain light cavalry, and it can also provide heavy armor protection.

The extra seventy or eighty kilograms is actually nothing to the cavalry. After all, it is not like heavy armor, which adds hundreds of kilograms of weight. The medium cavalry can bear more of this as long as they choose some better horses. As fast as a light horse.

Zhao Tong looked a little gloomy. He had made a mistake in his previous planning. Because of the battle in Zhuxian Town, he only saw the Iron Buddha Tu but no kidnapping horses. He thought that the Jurchens of this kind of medium cavalry had not been created. After all, it takes a certain amount of technology to tie thin armor. In terms of craftsmanship and craftsmanship, the Jurchens did not originally have these. The Kaizi Ma and Tiefu Tu actually appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty, after the Jurchens had accumulated a certain amount of experience.

But now it is all available. It is obvious that it has completely inherited Liao's forging technology, integrated and developed it again in a short period of time, and even exploded in skills, so it appeared early.

A wise man must make a mistake after thinking a lot. Zhao Tong shook his head mockingly.

Originally, from the fact that Tiefu Tu did not have the Kaizi Horse Guard Wings, it was judged that the opponent's Kaizi Horse had not been built. In fact, there was no problem, because the two things complemented each other. The Kaizi horse was born in response to the Iron Buddha. Its characteristic of restraining light cavalry is actually to prevent the enemy's light cavalry from bypassing the Iron Buddha from both wings and attacking the Chinese army.

Just like the relationship between Tie Yaozi and Hengshan Bubazi, but who would have thought that the two would be separated, one would be used by Wanyan Zongbi, and the other would be used by Wanyan Zonghan.

Perhaps it is the result of compromise between various forces within the Jurchens?
Originally, the Jurchen struggle between various forces should have become clear after the death of Wanyan Wu Qingmai, but the sudden back stabbing of Wanyan Aguda that year had already acted as a catalyst, subtly advancing this struggle. Then... Zhao Tamo I touched my chin. Is this a good thing?
He ordered the army to pause and stay where they were. They could not rush in without figuring out how to deal with the kidnappers. After all, according to normal logic, there must be more kidnappers than the Tiefu Tu.

A conservative estimate is that since the Jurchens can afford tens of thousands of expensive heavy armors like the Iron Buddha, the number of Kaizi horses must be at least twice that of the Iron Buddha, twenty thousand or more.

Under the kidnapping horse, the light cavalry he modified has no advantage at all. Since there are fewer men and horses than the opponent, he must find other ways to defeat the enemy instead of focusing on head-on collision with the opponent...

At this time, Xu Ning led his army straight to Shizhou, which was to the west of Hedong Road and formed a triangle with Fulin and Taiyuan. The Zhe family retreated all the way from Fuzhou and finally stopped in Shizhou.

The Jurchens did not attack Shizhou, and all the border cities were retreated. Instead, they attacked Taiyuan from Xinzhou to the south, which gave the Zhe family a chance to breathe.

Zhejia had previously accepted part of the Western Army that had been defeated from Yan. The Western Army of Yan was not like the remaining 20,000 people on the East Road who were brought back by Zhong Yanchong and Wu Jie. Instead, it was divided into several parts. Most of the people who were not dead ran back one after another.

Among them, some defected to Linzhou Prefecture, some defected to other states, and those who defected to Taiyuan were the most numerous, numbering nearly 10,000.

As for the casualties of the generals of the West Route Army, they were also very heavy, but they were stronger than those of the East Route Army. Yao Gu, Yang Keshi, Yang Weizhong, He Shen, Wang Yuan, Jiao Anjie, Liu Guangguo, Cookie, Ji Jing, Wang Yu , Wu Zihou and many other handsome generals were killed in battle.

Xin Xingzong's two younger brothers also died on the battlefield, but Zhong Shizhong and Zhe Yanzhi came back, and the three major generals and some young men from other families also ran back. Unlike Donglu, only Zhong Yanchong and Wu Jie were seen.

This actually proves that on the one hand, there is a huge gap in strength with the Jurchen army, and on the other hand, it is also the result of wanting to compete for credit when they joined the Liao Dynasty.

Before the Sixteenth State of Yanyun was restored, Emperor Daojun thought of dividing it into two roads, Yanshanfu Road and Yunzhongfu Road. With the establishment of the two roads, countless official positions were created.

In the northwest, generals and generals have been multiplying for hundreds of years, and each family has many children. Even if Wulu and Hedong Road occupy a large area, the actual location is only so much, and it will not change because of the territory. Therefore, the Yan and Diliang Road, which looks to be extra, immediately He was stared at by all the generals, who all wanted to stuff their own children in.

To serve on the sidelines in the Song Dynasty, background alone is not enough, you must have military merit, even if it is the same for the Zhe, Zhong, and Yao families. Without military merit, it is impossible to get ahead, so before the war against Liao began, a large number of generals' children entered the army. After Yanyun's Sixteenth Prefecture was conquered, many did obtain official positions.

But the Jurchens seized the Yan territory, and the Song army was defeated. These disciples who were in positions were miserable. Even if they had some skills, it was useless. They were defeated like a mountain. They were defeated for more than a thousand miles. Some of them died in battle even if they were seen. Well, there is news. Many of them died in the rebel army, and everyone around them also died in the battle. In the end, no one was seen alive, and no corpse was found after the death. It was said that they disappeared in the war, but in fact, nine out of ten of them were exposed in the wilderness. .

Before Xu Ning left, Zhao Tao analyzed the situation with him and asked him to have a good idea of ​​the situation of the Western Army at the moment. In addition to contacting Zheguang in Shizhou, if time allowed, he could go to the Jinning Army to see the commander in person. and asked him to go to Taiyuan with him.

The Jinning Army is located further west of Shizhou. The two are not too far apart, but the two families have not joined forces, but are doing their own things.

Zhongshi brought back seven or eight thousand troops from the Yan region and harassed the Linzhou area from time to time. Zhe Keqiu counterattacked Fuzhou several times, but all failed.

Xu Ning was not familiar with the roads east of Hedong. Under the leadership of the two brothers Zhiwu Zhigang, he took a circuitous route to the west. He ran for an unknown amount of time and picked up some guerrilla rebels along the way before finally approaching Shizhou...

After Wanyan Loushi finished writing a letter to Ba Lisu, he sent someone to Linzhou overnight. In the early morning of the next day, he began to order the burning of the city.

Although Fuzhou is not the capital of Hedong Road, nor is it the largest, it has the most fortifications in the city than Hedong Road, even more than Taiyuan.

Most of these fortifications were made of wood, which is dry and flammable. Most of the houses and mansions at this time were also made of wood. Generally, folk houses also had adobe, but in the larger mansions of wealthy families, many of them were made of wood. Wanyan Lou Shi Shi gave the order, and in a short period of time, the entire Fuzhou City was reduced to a sea of ​​fire.

Then he led people out of the city, originally wanting to gather together the Ba Lisu from Linzhou in the west. After all, there were only a few soldiers and horses at the moment, only 5,000. However, after thinking deeply, he felt that soldiers are very fast and they are all cavalry. The faster the better, even if they encountered The Song soldiers who were wandering outside could also crush them. Even if Zhe Keqiu came to intercept them, they were no match for him. In terms of retreating ten thousand steps, even if he didn't want to fight, he could still get around him because of his fast horse.

After thinking about this, he stopped waiting for the bus and set off directly to go south to Xinzhou.

This is the fastest way. If we go west to Jinning Army and Shizhou, it will be more than half the distance, and those two places are currently occupied by the Song Army, and they will also block it, which will not waste much time.

As for heading east to Daizhou, it would be more than half the distance, or even double the distance, which is not necessary.

The distance from Fuzhou to Xinzhou can be reached in one day if the cavalry is marching. However, his men are not like ordinary cavalry. They are all fast cavalry. They set out in the early morning and were already close to the thirty-mile boundary of Xinzhou City in only half of the afternoon.

At this time, Tan Ma came back to report that there were flags flying ten miles away from Xinzhou and there were loud gongs and drums. It seemed that a Song army was blocking the way.

Wanyan Loushi frowned when he heard this, and immediately asked someone to take the map and look at it. The terrain of Hedong Road is complex, with high northeast and low southwest. The terrain is mainly mountains and hills, occupying almost most of it.

Moreover, many places are covered with loess, the mountains and plateaus are undulating, and there are crisscrossing river valleys, making the landscape very rugged and difficult.

Wanyan Lou's room looked a little gloomy as he looked at the map. Ten miles away from Xinzhou is the most complex place in the area. Originally, this area was covered with mountains. It was adjacent to Taihang in the east, and there were also mountains in the south, west and north, no less than ten miles away. Several seats.

In addition, there are several large rivers, including the Fen River system and the Hutuo River. The ten miles north of Xinzhou City are not only important roads, but also dangerous roads.

"What's the banner of the Song army over there?" Wanyan Loushi asked the scout calmly.

"General, I can barely identify it. It should be the Chinese character for Zhejia."

"Zhezi..." Wanyan Lou's eyebrows relaxed slightly. It would be okay if it was the Zhe family. I am afraid that the Song Dynasty's soldiers from Tokyo will go north, but it is somewhat unlikely that the Song Dynasty's soldiers will go north. Ma should be anxious to relieve the siege of Taiyuan, why would he divide his troops here?

After thinking about it, he ordered the scouts to explore again, and then commanded the army to move forward slowly. (End of chapter)