Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1091 1086 [Eight Hundred Cavalry Charge]

Seeing that the Dali soldiers retreated to the camp several miles away shortly after noon, Yang Zaixing immediately sent cavalry down the mountain to scout.

Cao Xun came back soon and reported, "The enemy was acting strangely today. I led the cavalry to investigate, but they didn't try their best to stop us. They just shot a few arrows and fled in fear. It was as if... well, they let us pass on purpose to let us know that the Dali soldiers were going to withdraw."

Li Shao smiled and said, "The enemy suffered too many casualties when attacking the mountain stronghold, and they couldn't make any progress. They wanted to lure us down the mountain to fight in the field."

"Is the enemy really going to withdraw, or is it just pretending?" Yang Zaixing asked.

Cao Xun replied, "I can see clearly through the telescope that the enemy's camps are being packed up everywhere, and large groups of military tents have been put away."

Although Kunming has a mild climate, Yang Zaixing seems to be suffering from irritation and his lips have been chapped these days.

He unconsciously stuck out his tongue to lick it and began to think silently.

Suddenly, Yang Zaixing spoke: "Bi Jin is mature and prudent. Lead 800 regular soldiers and more than 1,000 auxiliary soldiers to guard the mountain stronghold. If the enemy takes advantage of the opportunity to attack from Dianchi Lake by boat, immediately light the wolf smoke to send a signal. The rest of the soldiers, come with me and try to pursue and see if we can find an opportunity to defeat the enemy."

When these words were spoken, all the generals were shocked.

They had only 6,000 regular soldiers and over 1,000 auxiliary soldiers, while the enemy had 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers.

Under normal circumstances, defending the mountain stronghold is a great achievement, but we actually have to send troops out to pursue?
Bi Jin dissuaded him, "General, the enemy is just trying to lure us down the mountain. Why do we have to fall into their trap? Moreover, we must divide our troops to guard the mountain stronghold and preserve the food and grass here, which will further weaken the forces available for combat."

Yang Zaixing waved his hand and said, "No. The enemy is already scared and their morale is extremely low. This can be seen from the last few attacks on the mountain. When the Dali soldiers heard the sound of gunfire, they turned around and ran away in a swarm, regardless of whether anyone was hit or not. Why should we be afraid of such weak soldiers?"

"Although there are tens of thousands of enemy troops, many of them are not wearing armor. They must be recruited from the prefectures and counties (local soldiers). They can't even form a neat formation. The retreat of tens of thousands of people will inevitably lead to chaos. We can seize the opportunity and defeat the enemy in one blow!"

Cao Xun reminded: "The horses of the Dali cavalry are better than ours."

"It's not that good. I will lead the cavalry into battle myself!" Yang Zaixing said.

Although there are ponies in all southwestern provinces, the top-quality ones must be Dali horses.

The average shoulder height of Dali horses is generally 5 cm higher than that of other southwestern horse breeds, and they also have the advantages of other southwestern horse breeds.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, official horse farms were set up in southwestern Sichuan and white Guangxi to breed mountain war horses. However, little was achieved in terms of horse breeding.

Northern war horses are not suitable for combat in the southwest, mainly due to terrain and climate issues. Historically, the Mongols bred horses in the southwest, but did not gain much after a hundred years of breeding.

Therefore, the cavalry horses under Yang Zaixing were mainly purchased from Dali, with a few coming from tribute from the Song family in Guizhou and official horse farms in southwestern Sichuan.

Would the Dali Kingdom sell its top-quality war horses to Emperor Zhu?

Now it is revealed in the battle between the two sides that the shoulder height of the Dali cavalry's horses is generally two or three centimeters taller than that of the Guangxi cavalry.

Moreover, the horses are faster.

Only the mounts of generals such as Yang Zaixing and Cao Xun were the best war horses in the southwest.

At this moment, Yang Zaixing was determined to pursue, and Cao Xun, as a cavalry commander, was unable to stop him. In fact, he was a little eager to try, because he knew how capable Yang Zaixing was.

After watching Yang Zaixing lead his generals and soldiers down the mountain, Bi Jin, who stayed behind in the mountain stronghold, had to quickly redeploy his defenses.

Bi Jin was from Yanzhou, Shandong, and historically was a general under Yue Fei.

But the main reason why Bi Jin was able to go down in history was because he had a good son - Bi Zaiyu!

Bi Jin in this time and space has never seen Yue Fei.

He first followed Zhang Shuye to Beijing to defend the emperor, then surrendered to the Ming army without knowing why, and was reorganized in Kaifeng and transferred back to his hometown. He was then assigned to Guan Sheng as a lieutenant in the ragtag army, and then followed Zhao Li to cross the sea to attack Liaodong.

After many years of wandering, Bi Jin had no stable backing and no decent military achievements. It was not until he was thrown to Guangxi that he was appreciated by Yang Zaixing.

A good fighter may not have great achievements. Bi Jin cannot be said to be good at fighting, but he is definitely good at defense.

Many of the generals under Yang Zaixing were crazy people who liked to fight recklessly.

Therefore, every time they went out to fight, they would definitely hand over their strongholds and food supplies to Bi Jin to prevent their lair from being raided by the enemy.

"Our army is short of manpower, so we have to abandon the first and second stone walls and everyone has retreated to the last stone wall."

"Go dig a trench immediately below the second stone wall."

"There's definitely not enough time to dig a deep trench. Just make it bumpy so that the enemy can't rush in at full speed when they attack."

“Move some of the rubble from the two stone walls outside back here to make rolling stones.”

"..."

Bi Jin was arranging defensive fortifications in an orderly manner, while Yang Zaixing had already come down the mountain with thousands of soldiers.

"No, do the enemy generals really dare to come?"

Gao Zhenshou was not happy but shocked when he heard the news. He was just luring the enemy and never thought that the Ming army would really come down the mountain.

Although I have suffered heavy casualties in the past two days, I still have more than 47,000 soldiers. You have thousands of soldiers and horses, but you don't defend the mountain stronghold, and you dare to come down the mountain to chase and fight?

You really don’t treat me as a human being!
At this time, the various Dali troops were retreating in an orderly manner, with elite troops arranging to provide alternating cover along the way. The baggage troops had even retreated northward for more than ten miles.

Gao Zhenshou did not retreat after receiving the news. He called all the generals and said, "The enemy general is a fool. He does not defend the mountain stronghold but wants to fight us on the plain. We should just annihilate them all!"

"Gao Jung-ri."

"exist."

"You will immediately ride to the northwest camp and lead the six thousand soldiers there. When we start fighting here, you will take a boat around to the west of the mountain stronghold and land, and attack the mountain without regard for casualties while the enemy's forces are weak."

"Yes!"

"Gentlemen, we have the advantage in frontal forces, and we have sent special forces to attack the enemy's lair. Once the battle begins, the enemy will undoubtedly be defeated."

"The Prime Minister has a brilliant plan!"

After some more discussions and arrangements, the generals returned to lead their troops into battle.

Yang Zhongyan looked confused and whispered, "Brother, what are the Ming troops doing on the mountain? Their main force is almost reaching Shanchan. He can just defend the mountain stronghold by himself. Then we can find an opportunity to turn against them. It's obvious that they will win. Why would they risk going down the mountain to pursue us?"

Yang Zhongsu sighed and said, "Those generals of the Ming army obviously don't take us seriously. A few thousand of them took the initiative to pursue tens of thousands, and they still think they will win."

"I don't even want to surrender to the Ming Dynasty when you look down on me like this." Yang Zhongyan was very angry.

Yang Zhongsu said: "Send someone to contact Zhang Zheng and ask him to join us in finding an opportunity to defect. Maybe we can establish a great…"

“Woooooooo~~~”

Just then, the bugle call sounded.

A messenger came running over and said to the generals who had not gone far: "Everyone, quickly gather your cavalry! The enemy cavalry is coming!"

"what?"

The Yang brothers looked at each other in astonishment.

He rode over to check what was going on, only to see that about 800 Ming cavalrymen, abandoning their infantry and charging straight at tens of thousands of Dali troops.

"How dare they!" Yang Zhongsu said in horror.

The various units of the Dali army had just stopped withdrawing and were still gathering in a panic but orderly manner.

The logistics troops could not be withdrawn for the time being, but most of the combat troops had already gathered together to form a battle formation.

If the Dali army had no cavalry, Yang Zaixing would have a chance to succeed in the raid with his 800 cavalry. The problem was that the Dali army not only had cavalry, but also had more cavalry than the Guangxi cavalry, and could quickly stop Yang Zaixing's 800 cavalry.

Maintaining cavalry is still very expensive, and they are the treasures of the princes.

Therefore, when they withdrew, the cavalry also evacuated separately, and none of them handed over their treasures. However, the cavalry of each unit was not far from each other, so they could quickly gather together to resist the enemy and prevent any accidents during the withdrawal.

Yang Zhongyan rode back on horseback to lead the Yang cavalry. When he came back with the cavalry, Gao's cavalry had already engaged in battle with Yang Zaixing.

Both sides are light cavalry, so normally they should shoot arrows first.

But Yang Zaixing led 800 cavalrymen to charge forward at an accelerated speed, and charged forward in a cone formation.

Gao Zhenming led the Gao cavalry and subconsciously split them into several teams, trying to keep some distance and shoot arrows from both sides.

When the two armies were dozens of steps apart, the Ming cavalry accelerated again.

Yang Zaixing even bent his bow and drew his arrow at high speed, and shot an arrow at the arm of a Gao family cavalryman.

The Gao cavalrymen who were engaged in direct combat were so frightened when they saw the Ming cavalry speeding towards them that they fired arrows at random and quickly dodged when they were still twenty or thirty steps away.

Ten to fifteen steps is the best range for a horse bow. After all, not everyone can shoot a strong bow.

The Guangxi cavalry were all wearing light mail armor, which was quite good at protecting against arrows. Horse bows shot from 20 to 30 steps away would have little killing power against the Guangxi cavalry unless the horses were knocked over.

Some arrows were also shot from both sides.

More than twenty Guangxi cavalrymen fell at once.

But they rushed through.

After rushing past the Gao family cavalry that came to stop them, they saw two infantry units that had already formed a battle formation in front of them.

Although the formation was completed, they were not close to each other, about thirty or forty meters away.

Yang Zaixing led 800 cavalrymen to slow down and change formation, and suddenly split into two.

One was led by him personally and passed directly between the two Dali armies, while the other was led by Cao Xun and passed in front of one of the Dali armies.

The Guangxi cavalry arrived too quickly, beyond the expectations of all the enemies, and the Dali archers didn't even have time to move to the front row to shoot.

Instead, the Guangxi cavalry slowed down and shot arrows at the Dali infantry at close range, causing some confusion between the two Dali troops.

"Blow the horn and chase the enemy!" Gao Zhenming, who was frightened by this way of fighting, suddenly came to his senses and ordered the cavalry to chase in shock and anger.

Passing through the two assembled Dali infantry units, the enemy troops a hundred meters ahead were still gathering in a panic. Yang Zaixing suddenly sped up his horse and said, "Charge!"

The enemy general of that army also had the surname Gao. In terms of seniority, he was Gao Zhenshou's uncle, but he was only in his forties.

"Quickly form a formation to meet the enemy!" the Gao general shouted in horror.

But the soldiers under his command were even more frightened. Faced with hundreds of cavalrymen rushing towards them, their own formation was in a disorganized state, and some of them began to desert the battlefield.

Until the Guangxi cavalry rushed to within thirty steps, more and more people fled.

When they rushed within twenty steps, even the Gao general began to flee.

Then the entire army fled.

Cao Xun led his troops to attack from the side, and the Dali army completely collapsed.

Gao Zhenming was chasing Yang Zaixing when he suddenly heard the rumbling sound of horse hooves coming from behind.

It was the Guangxi infantrymen who came riding on spare war horses and pack horses. Those pack horses were all Baise horses, and their average shoulder height was only 1.5 meters.

"Where do all these cavalry come from?"

Gao Zhenming was frightened and blew a horn to order the Gao cavalry to stop chasing the enemy and regroup to block the enemy behind them, otherwise the larger number of Ming "cavalry" would rush over.

When Gao Zhenming brought the cavalry back to fight, he saw that the Ming "cavalry" had dismounted and formed a battle formation.

There were even Ming "cavalrymen" who took down the tiger squat cannon and baskets filled with gunpowder and gravel from their horses...

"Bang bang bang!"

Some Ming soldiers who had just dismounted began firing their guns from a distance of a hundred steps.

"Dong-dong-dong-dong!"

“Woooooooo~~~”

There were chaotic sounds of war drums and bugles behind him. Gao Zhenming turned his head and saw that several of his own infantry units had been dispersed, and countless defeated soldiers had blocked the Dali cavalry who had come to assemble.

Some Dali troops who were originally forming a battle formation had no idea what was happening in front of them, and they saw countless defeated friendly soldiers rushing towards them.

So they also began to flee, and even the generals were unable to stop them.

Zhang Zheng originally wanted to find an opportunity to defect to the Ming Dynasty, and assembled nearly 3,000 soldiers early on, but he did not move closer to the main force of the Dali army. He just quietly waited for the opportunity to deal a fatal blow to Gao Zhenshou.

The idea was great, but his troops were defeated!
Before he could even change sides, three thousand soldiers fled on the spot.

Those soldiers didn't know that there were only 800 enemy cavalrymen, nor did they know that there were friendly infantry and cavalrymen in front of them who had not yet collapsed. They only knew that many of their own soldiers were running towards them, and they must have suffered a great defeat. If they wanted to save their lives, they had to escape faster than the friendly troops.

They are all too familiar with escaping.

In recent years, when we encounter rebellious barbarians, they often flee during the fight.

Those who survived the repeated escapes have all mastered various unique skills, and these life-saving skills are even passed down from father to son and from brother to brother in the Dali army.

Therefore, some new soldiers who had just entered the battlefield also knew when to run away, as their fathers and brothers had repeatedly warned them.

"Don't run, don't run, we want to defect to the Ming Dynasty!" Zhang Zheng shouted hoarsely, almost crying without tears.

Fear spreads like a virus, from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred, and in the blink of an eye more than a dozen Dali troops fled.

Gao Zhenshou was so anxious that he beat drums and blew trumpets, and kept dispatching troops to save the situation, but he could not stop it at all. Some of the organized troops actually fled with the defeated soldiers while being intercepted by Gao Zhenshou.

"Don't run away, I have decided to surrender to the Ming Dynasty!"

Yang Zhongsu was also shouting loudly. Half of his 6,000 soldiers had been defeated, and Yang Zaixing's cavalry was still three or four miles away.

In other words, Yang's army didn't even see the enemy before they were defeated by the fleeing soldiers in the front.

The cavalrymen of various surnames had completed their assembly, but they were bewildered by the sight of the infantry fleeing everywhere, and many cavalry generals led their troops to stay away.

Yang Zhongsu took his sons with him, abandoned the scattered infantry, and rode on horseback to join his brother's cavalry.

Yang Zhongyan asked: "What should we do?"

Yang Zhongsu pointed at Gao Zhenming's cavalry and said, "Lead the troops to charge behind him!"

Gao Zhenming was dealing with the Guangxi infantry who were riding on horseback, but he did not have the courage to lead the cavalry in a charge, so he simply rode and shot around the infantry in a sparse formation.

Cavalry and infantry shooting each other?

That infantry also has muskets and tiger squat cannons?

Gao Zhenming became more and more anxious as the battle went on, and his cavalry were so frightened that they dared not get any closer - in fact, not many of them died, but they were frightened by the firearms.

Further away, the Ming army's horseless infantry were still trotting forward, trying to join the mounted infantry.

Just then, the Yang brothers arrived with their cavalry.

Gao Zhenming quickly said to the messenger: "Raise the flag, let them bypass the enemy formation and attack from the rear."

The Yang brothers seemed not to have seen the command flag and accelerated their charge towards Gao Zhenming's cavalry.

The two sides were getting closer and closer, and Gao Zhenming finally felt something was wrong, but Yang's cavalry was already in the final sprint.

"Asshole, the Yang family actually rebelled!"

"Father, go!"

Gao's cavalry was ambushed from behind by Yang's cavalry and was instantly defeated without any preparation.

Li Shao, who led this Ming army infantry, immediately shouted: "Mount your horses, there are still enemy troops in front who have not yet collapsed!"

So, more than a thousand Ming army infantrymen found horses and rode on them again, and the tiger squat cannons and ammunition were loaded into baskets and hung on the horses' backs.

The first two Dali troops were obviously elite troops. They were the first to face Yang Zaixing's attack, but until now they have still formed a large formation and have not collapsed.

Although they did not collapse, they stood there at a loss.

The Dali generals who led them didn't know how to fight next. They didn't even dare to move casually, fearing that their soldiers would be led down by the fleeing soldiers.

Until the Ming infantry came on horseback and set up the tiger squat cannon dozens of steps away.

"Run away!"

The two elite Dali troops finally couldn't stand the pressure. They had seen wounded soldiers who were hit by the Tiger Crouching Cannon but did not die.

Before the Tiger Crouching Cannon was fired, the Dali elite troops were already in disarray.

The entire battlefield became increasingly chaotic.

It stretched for seven or eight miles, and was filled with defeated soldiers.

Gao Zhenshou was so shocked that he was speechless and was pulled onto a horse by his son and urged to escape.

He still had 3,000 elite soldiers around him who had not yet collapsed. If he responded calmly, Yang Zaixing's 800 cavalrymen would not be able to break through.

But with soldiers fleeing everywhere, can those elite troops really remain calm?

Yang Zaixing drove and killed the fleeing soldiers along the way, his eyes fixed on the big banner in front of him, and led the cavalry to charge forward.

Before he could get close, Gao Zhenshou's banner suddenly fell down.

However, Gao Zhenshou was dragged away by his son and personal soldiers, and his elite soldiers also fled for their lives. The wooden frame used to hold the big banner was knocked over by the fleeing soldiers.

"Defeated, the Prime Minister failed!"

The elite Dali troops who were scattered throughout the battlefield and had not yet collapsed discovered that Gao Zhenshou's banner had fallen, and finally determined that they had been completely defeated. They even suspected that Gao Zhenshou had been killed in the battle.

Yang Zaixing rushed to the big flag, but could not find any trace of Gao Zhenshou.

In anger, he led his troops to charge towards the enemy again. Whenever he spotted an enemy general, he would chase after him and kill him first regardless of his name.

Gao Zhenshou's warhorse was extremely powerful and it quickly passed countless fleeing soldiers and escaped to the front. In his panic, he even lost his son and his personal soldiers.

He fled all the way back to Guandu City, and after he revealed his identity, the defenders there were terrified.

Gao Zhenshou was invited into the city, but his head was still dizzy.

He still doesn't understand why his entire army suddenly collapsed?

He had made a plan to lure the enemy in advance, so he should have had plenty of time to set up the formation.

The enemy general led hundreds of cavalry to attack suddenly, which was a completely unreasonable way of fighting. What was even more ridiculous was that he sent cavalry to stop them, but they did nothing. Facing the charge of the Guangxi cavalry, his elite Gao cavalry actually forgot the military order and could only avoid them.

How to do?
The Gao family’s old nest is Guandu City, which is equivalent to Gao’s private Wu Castle.

After more than a hundred years of operation, this place has become the commercial center of the entire Dali Kingdom.

Gao Zhenshou suddenly woke up when the cold wind blew, and rushed to the Gao family's ancestral home on horseback: "Gather the clansmen and retreat to Dali immediately. Only take the gold, silver and treasures, and don't take anything else."

He didn't dare to defend Guandu City.

The Gao family’s ancestral home had to be abandoned.

The city of Shanchan (Kunming) could not be defended, so he had to lead his troops back to Dali City and then summon the princes in the west to come to the rescue.

(End of this chapter)