Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 950 0945 [Brother Richard vs. Han Yue]

This is a grassland about one hundred miles wide and more than three hundred miles long.

To the north is the western section of the Yinshan Mountains - Langshan Mountain, and to the south is the Yellow River, which is making a bend.

Wulahai City is located at the Langshan Pass. Its main function is not to guard against enemies from the east, but to prevent the various tribes in northern Mo from crossing the Langshan Pass and heading south.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong led an army of 30,000 and eliminated the Western Xia cities along the way, and had already entered the Shuofang County area of ​​the Han Dynasty.

In fact, even if there were not so many tribes in Xixia rebelling, it would be difficult for Richard to transport the follow-up food and grass. Because Wulahai City was located too far to the north, the Ming army could completely block the food supply and force the Xixia army in the city to come out for a decisive battle.

Again, the main function of Wulahai City is to prevent the northern desert tribes from moving south.

But the Ming army came from the east!
And they came very quickly. Richard could only arrive quickly with the reinforcements, but he couldn't quickly transport all the food and grass. He thought that the food stored in the Weifu Army was enough, but in fact it was not the case at all.

He did not question Li Quanlu because he would not get an answer even if he did.

"We will leave the city for the decisive battle tomorrow," said Li Quanlu.

The military supervisor Cao Yu said: "I will lead the remaining troops to defend Wulahai City without any risk."

Li Quanlu hesitated to speak, sighed and turned away.

One of them is a general and the other is a military inspector. Although they come from hostile factions, it does not prevent them from joining forces to make money.

Ye Lidegui, who was captured alive by Han Shizhong, was also involved!

The land outside the trap can be cultivated and used for grazing, and food is relatively abundant.

So, can we sell the stored food for money?

of course can!

When the Liao and Jin dynasties ruled the grassland, the Xixia civil and military officials here did not need to sell grain because this place was a must-pass place on the Grassland Silk Road.

However, as the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Jin Kingdom and took control of the grassland, Ming goods were continuously sold from Hebei and Shanxi to the grassland, and the grassland specialties could be sold to the Ming mainland nearby. The Wei Fu Military Division, a trade node, suddenly lost its original function, and the gray income of civil and military officials disappeared instantly.

If you want to continue making money, you can only start with food.

There was certainly no shortage of salt here, as there were salt ponds to the west and south, but there was an urgent need for ironware, cloth and tea.

Li Quanlu, Cao Yu and Yeli Degui teamed up to resell grain in the military warehouses during the year of the great disaster in Western Xia.

Part of the military rations were transported south to the counties surrounding Xingqing Prefecture to be exchanged for cheap salt there. Part of it was transported east to Dongsheng Prefecture to be exchanged for Ming Dynasty goods in transit there. Ming Dynasty goods could even be sold south to Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of the Western Xia Kingdom.

Why did Li Quanlu rush to save Tiande Military City?
Because it was also a trade transit station, a lot of military rations were transported there and stored, and a lot of Ming Dynasty goods were temporarily stored there.

Cao Yu also wanted to protect his wealth, so he followed Li Quanlu to fight. But halfway through, he became cowardly again, fearing that he would die on the battlefield, so he kept persuading Li Quanlu to withdraw his troops.

Li Quanlu was afraid of defeat and also wanted to settle accounts, so he simply withdrew his troops and left the food and livestock to Han Shizhong.

Why is Brother Richard unwilling to delve into this matter?
Because Li Quanlu is his direct descendant.

Li Quanlu has always paid tribute to Brother Richard with a portion of the profits from his business of reselling military rations.

He knew that Li Quanlu was reselling military rations, but he didn't know that Li Quanlu was so bold that there was not much left in the military warehouses.

They are all corrupt officials, no one should blame anyone else.

The large number of rebels around Xingqing Prefecture was closely related to Brother Richard. He relied on the tribes in the prefectures and counties around the capital, which had changed from nomadic to farming and were easy to control, and madly occupied the farmland of those tribes.

Historically, Li Renxiao implemented a series of benevolent policies, one of the important of which was the distribution of land.

That is, after Richard was killed, his family was confiscated and the numerous farmlands were distributed to the people. This alone immediately won the support of all tribes, and the tribal chiefs all supported Li Renxiao's reforms.

……

With an army of 90,000, it is a problem to arrange their troops on the battlefield.

He first sent 3,000 light cavalry to cross the desert on the south bank of the Yellow River and attack the Ming army's grain transport team. There were many oases at that time, and once they encountered the elite Ming army, the Xixia light cavalry immediately crossed the river and went into the desert.

This really annoyed Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, who could only send out light cavalry along the Yellow River to observe the enemy's whereabouts, and immediately light smoke signals to send a warning if they encountered any enemy.

The many Xixia obstacle cities that had been captured before had originally served as beacon towers, and now they were just the right place to station a small number of soldiers for use.

It was not until the Ming army approached within thirty miles that Richard finally led his troops into battle.

Thousands of weaker infantrymen were left behind by Brother Richard to defend the city.

Eight thousand cavalrymen from the Zhenyan Army were sent by Richard to ambush in the north, and then they circled around the Wuga River and reached the rear of the Ming army for twenty miles.

Richard sent out tens of thousands of light cavalry to make noise and disrupt the Ming army's light cavalry in order to achieve the goal of concealing the battlefield and to provide cover for the eight thousand friendly troops that were flanking.

Brother Richard personally led the remaining infantry and cavalry and advanced slowly.

On the side of Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, there were all cavalry, about 32,000 people.

The infantry were either left behind to defend the Tiande Military City or stationed at various barrier cities along the way. Even the artillery were left in the nearest barrier city, waiting to be towed over after the cavalry surrounded the city.

The distance between the two armies was gradually compressed to more than ten miles, and the light cavalry of both sides were still roaming and fighting.

When they were only three or four miles apart, Brother Richard deployed more light cavalry and ordered the infantry to form a formation and move forward. Of Brother Richard's 90,000 troops, the real core elite was actually only 8,000 people.

Two thousand personal troops.

Three thousand iron kites.

Three thousand powerful crossbowmen.

The crossbowmen were created by Richard. They are a relatively new type of soldier in the Western Xia army. They were built to break through the formation of the Song army and are even said to be able to shoot through the heavy armor of the Song army.

The bow arms of this powerful crossbow are all made of ox horns, and the arrowheads are cold-forged. Its penetrating power is better than that of ordinary crossbows used in Song and Liao.

Soldiers can come from all kinds of tribes, but they must be strong, as they are also equipped with shields to protect against arrows.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the powerful crossbowmen of Western Xia were defeated and did not recover until the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

During the years of the Ming-Jin War, Li Qianshun was building up the firearms unit, while Richard was restoring the crossbowmen.

Xixia actually had a kind of garrison troops, which were extremely well-equipped. They selected the sons of royal families and wealthy families to serve as soldiers. To put it bluntly, they were "hostage troops". When they were first established, they were all brave and good at fighting. Now they have become "Han generals", serving as palace guards and honor guards. If a war really breaks out, they will probably run away quickly.

At this moment, the two armies are facing each other.

The infantry from the two major military divisions in the south were lined up in the front row and on both wings, divided into several layers of military formations.

Some of the light cavalry went around the battlefield, some were stationed on the two wings, and there were two more light cavalry units guarding the two sides of the central army, responsible for coordinating the Iron Harriers' deployment.

Richard's personal soldiers and crossbowmen served as the central army and watched the changes.

Yue Fei stood on a small mound and observed the battlefield with a telescope. He soon discovered that his light cavalry could not hold on.

Those light cavalry came from various tribes on the grassland. They did not have enough iron arrows and their armor rate was very touching. Facing the Xixia light cavalry with the same equipment, but with more people, they began to retreat continuously during the battle.

"Order Yang Yi Zhong to attack!" Han Shizhong said to the messenger.

After the Battle of Hebei, Han Shizhong was transferred from Shandong to northern Shaanxi to help the court take away the military power of those warlords. It was at that time that Yang Yi Zhong joined Han Shizhong's army.

But with the waving of command flags and the beating of war drums, Yang Yi Zhong led 1500 brave cavalrymen to charge out.

The Xixia cavalrymen who were chasing the grassland light cavalry were frightened by this and pulled their horses back. They did not dare to fight the cavalry head-on, so they just shot a few arrows and ran away, luring the Ming cavalry into their own formation.

Han Shizhong shouted again: "Li Yu, attack!"

Li Yu was originally an officer of the Northern Song Dynasty's Xiang Army. Later, he became a powerful bandit in Shandong. At his peak, he had tens of thousands of soldiers. In this time and space, he was conquered by Zhang Shuye.

Yang Yizhong and Li Yu, each leading 1500 cavalrymen, rescued the retreating grassland cavalry. Then they continued to charge, braving the enemy's arrows, and rushed towards the light cavalry on both wings of the Western Xia army.

Although the cavalry were not as well armed as the heavy cavalry, both men and horses were wearing armor.

At this moment, many brave cavalrymen were shot by several arrows on both their horses and themselves, but they still bravely advanced forward and charged towards the two wings of the enemy army.

Han Shizhong shouted again: "Yang Jin and Liu Zhengyan go again!"

The generals under Han Shizhong are very interesting in history.

Yang Yi Zhong was ordered to lure and capture Yue Fei, Li Yu sent troops to stop Zhao Gou from marching south, Liu Zhengyan's mutiny frightened Zhao Gou into impotence, and Yang Jin also had tens of thousands of troops and was unwilling to be recruited.

"Go and ask Protector Yue to send out troops." Han Shizhong said to the messenger.

Soon, Yue Fei, along with Xu Qing and Wang Gui, led all his brave cavalry to charge out.

On the Western Xia side, Yang Yi Zhong and Li Yu had already disrupted the enemy cavalry on both wings.

Yang Jin and Liu Zhengyan led their troops to the front of the Western Xia army. When they were about 15 steps away, they shot arrows at the Western Xia infantry, and then the arrows drew a graceful arc and swept across the left and right wings of the infantry formation.

The infantry lances were longer than their cavalry lances, but the infantry on both sides had no time to turn around, and the Ming cavalry stabbed them when they passed by from the side. There should have been Xixia cavalry protecting there, but it had been disrupted by Yang Yizhong and Li Yu. Yang Jin and Liu Zhengyan rushed past the infantry and continued to attack the Xixia cavalry.

Brother Richard did not expect Han Shizhong to fight so wildly and to deploy a large number of elite troops at the very beginning. He was so scared that he quickly mobilized the Iron Harriers and Crossbowmen.

The 1,500 Iron Harriers led 5,000 light cavalry and charged towards Yang Yizhong's 1,500 brave cavalry. At this moment, Yang Yizhong had just killed 3,000 Xixia light cavalry, which meant that he was attacked from three sides.

The Iron Harriers had a bad reputation; after all, they were heavy cavalry, so Yang Yizhong didn't dare to confront them head-on.

Before the enemy army formed a siege, he changed direction and rushed towards the Xixia light cavalry in front of him. Yang Yizhong paid the price of more than 200 cavalrymen being surrounded and forced his way through the Xixia light cavalry, went around to the outside and followed up to meet Yang Jin.

At the same time, Yang Yi Zhong ordered the horn to be blown to remind Han Shizhong that the Iron Harriers were dispatched.

Just as a large number of Western Xia cavalry were chasing the four armies of Yang Yi Zhong, Li Yu, Yang Jin and Liu Zhengyan, the previously defeated Ming grassland cavalry rushed towards the Western Xia infantry formation again and shot arrows in turns.

The Xixia crossbowmen came forward with shields on their backs. They opened the brackets behind the shields, held the large shields upright in front to block arrows, and hid behind the shields to load arrows.

With round after round of volleys from powerful crossbows, a large number of grassland cavalry were shot and fell.

"General Li, please." Han Shizhong said.

Li Shifu, with his three hundred cavalry and his escort cavalry, followed silently behind the brave cavalry led by Yue Fei, Xu Qing and Wang Gui.

Yue Yun was nervous and excited, as this was his first time going to the battlefield.

(End of this chapter)