Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When Wanyan Lou's main force rushed two or three miles to the northeast, Wen Du Sizhong led more than a hundred light cavalry and flew towards the due north inconspicuously.

As a veteran who has experienced hundreds of battles, Wanyan Loushi is not blindly fierce, and he cannot hope for a single retreat.

However, when the soldiers under his command were frightened by the wooden cannons, Wanyan Loushi could not just flee over the mountains and ridges, as that would further weaken the soldiers' will to fight!

Therefore, they could only shout and attack through the valley, and then quietly sent people to check the escape terrain on the spot.

One light and one dark, both hands ready.

The mountains to the north and northwest of the battlefield, that is, the "eight" shape, are all common rocky mountainous areas in Shanxi.

Described in professional terms, its soil composition is: about 80% loess-like cinnamon soil in the soil, and about 20% thin-layer sandy shale-like cinnamon soil.

To put it more simply, it is a small amount of sand and gravel sandwiched in the loess.

The overall altitude is several hundred meters high, but the relative height of those mountains is only a dozen to tens of meters. Those that can reach one or two hundred meters are considered mountain peaks.

However, the loess has been eroded into ravines and ridges, and the mountains are criss-crossing.

There is no ravine that leads to the bottom. Often, after walking along the ravine for a while, you have to climb up the mountain ridge to advance, and then go down the mountain and walk through another ravine. One side of some mountain ridges has been cut straight by nature, making it impossible for war horses to climb up. If you go astray, you must find your way again.

At the narrowest point, the straight-line distance is only more than 300 meters, and the whole army can quickly climb over and escape.

At the widest point, the straight line distance is more than a thousand meters, and the ravines and mountains are intertwined like a maze.

Wen Du Sizhong took more than a hundred light cavalry and divided them into ten teams to the foot of the mountain in different places. They abandoned their horses and followed the ravine, climbing towards the highest mountain ridge nearby to observe, trying to find the shortest escape route that was most suitable for war horses to pass.

The vegetation in the mountains is dominated by low grasses such as vitex, yellowthorn plum, setaria, and white goat grass.

There are also a small amount of Platycladus arborvitae and Pinus tabulaeformis mixed in, which overall does not affect the climbing observation.

Wen Du Sizhong started from the foot of the mountain and went to the first nearby highland to observe, and then identified the direction of the four ravines and mountain ridges. It took more than ten minutes to basically get it done.

Then, we headed to another high ground for observation.

…

Twenty cavalry combat teams, namely 400 brave cavalry and 600 light cavalry, acted as the vanguard of the golden soldiers and quickly ran back to support.

They had no regard for the physical strength of the horses, and their speed reached 420 meters per minute.

This is the state of the heroic cavalry wearing armor!

In just about ten minutes, they met the retinues of the Ming Dynasty's heavy cavalry.

These retinues temporarily switched to light cavalry to perform reconnaissance missions. When they saw the Jin cavalry, they immediately blew the horn to warn them, and while blowing the horn, they fled back to the direction of the main force of the friendly forces.

Soon, the two thousand Ming Dynasty cavalry who stayed to defend against the enemy, waiting for work, attacked the vanguard of the Jin cavalry.

When the vanguard of the Jin soldiers encountered the heavy cavalry of the Ming army, they began to slow down to let the horses take a breather, and even reined in their horses and turned around to retreat slowly. Their mission was not to attack by force, but to arrive on the battlefield as quickly as possible, forcing the Ming army to divide their forces for defense and delay the Ming army's attack on the camp.

"Crush the enemy!"

Yang Yun raised his gun and shouted, and rushed forward with two thousand knights, followed by a thousand heavy knights and followers, waiting for the opportunity.

The Jurchen cavalry is a mixture of light and heavy cavalry, with twenty brave cavalry and thirty light cavalry forming a fifty-man team.

The Ming cavalry imitated the formation of Guan Ning cavalry, and was also composed of fifty people. But they are all knights, twenty-five of them are organized into a squad, and two squads form a squadron of fifty. (If it is expanded again in the future, light cavalry will be added.)

The formation of the Ming Army's cavalry squad, with twenty cavalrymen forming four five-man columns.

The squad leader is at the front in the center, and the flag bearer and herald follows behind the squad leader.

There are two very long ones, located in front of the left and right columns respectively.

There is also a supervisor at the very back of the team, who does ideological work in peacetime and supervises the fighting in times of war.

During the battle, the squad leader led his troops in a frontal charge.

If it is necessary to change directions and charge, the two commanders on the left and right should take the lead.

In the event of an emergency U-turn, the supervisor temporarily becomes the team leader and leads the team to charge in the opposite direction or retreat.

This configuration of grassroots officers allows the cavalry team to have people taking the lead at the front, rear, left and right, maintaining high mobility, high organization and high responsiveness.

The Jin cavalry began to cover alternately, shooting arrows while retreating, and occasionally organized small-scale counterattacks.

Firstly, they are trying to delay time, and secondly, they are also showing weakness to lure the enemy.

In other words, they are not willing to use their horses to attack quickly, and they have fewer troops and are inherently weak. Naturally, they retreated back, but they were defeated without being defeated, gradually leading the enemy towards our main force.

This is a common routine of the Jin cavalry. The Liao Army, Song Army, and Xixia Army all suffered heavy losses because of it!

But this time it was obviously different.

The cavalry of Liao, Song and Xia all liked riding and shooting, but did not like charging and melee combat. Therefore, the Jin cavalry could retreat calmly and even organize a counterattack during the retreat. The Xia cavalry of the Liao and Song dynasties, who had the advantage, would subconsciously avoid their countercharge, and then continue to pursue with arrows.

At this moment, the Ming Dynasty Qiaoqi led by Yang Yun charged forward with all their might. While chasing, shooting arrows.

When the Jin cavalry took turns to cover and retreat, the Ming cavalry ignored it and accelerated their charge forward with more troops and sufficient horse strength. Don't worry if you encounter golden soldiers cruising sideways. Since you have more soldiers, the friendly troops next to you will take care of them.

To put it in a simple sentence, the Jin cavalry is playing tactics, and the Ming cavalry rushes forward and is done.

"Woooooooo~~~"

The golden soldiers began to blow the trumpets and wave the flags wildly.

The name of the Jin general was Ohu, which was the same as Wanyan Ohu, the son of Aguda. The Jin cavalry in front of them, including the general Ohu, are all from the Jurchens of Liao, and were conquered by Wanyan Orugu's troops thirteen years ago.

Ohu detached four cavalry teams and organized a counterattack to cover the Jin soldiers who were about to be overtaken.

Based on his more than ten years of experience in cavalry battles, these Han cavalry would definitely be frightened away by the counterattack, and they would rush to distance themselves and shoot.

However, Daming Xiaoqi crashed directly into it!

Not only did the Ming cavalry hit him head-on, but the Ming cavalry squads on both sides also took the initiative to outflank and fight in close combat.

Four cavalry teams, totaling 200 Jin cavalry, were all surrounded and killed by Ming cavalry on three sides.

The remaining Ming Dynasty cavalry adjusted the charging position and distance, gradually moved closer in small groups, and continued to charge towards the remaining Jin cavalry.

The Ming Dynasty Xiaoqi is not a Liao Qi, a Song Qi, or a Xia Qi.

The Jin cavalry's tricks to lure the enemy didn't work anymore.

Not only did Ohu have a small number of troops, but his horses were also severely exhausted. He was so frightened that he gave up the two hundred cavalry and led the other cavalry to retreat at full speed.

Yang Yun divided his troops to kill the two hundred golden cavalry, and then personally led the army to continue the pursuit.

After chasing for about two miles, I saw the main force of Wanyan Lou's room coming from a distance.

"withdraw!"

"Woooooooo~~~~"

The Ming cavalry showed no interest in fighting, turned around and ran away.

In the battle just now, more than 180 Jin cavalry were annihilated, and many were shot and wounded during the pursuit.

Ohu rushed back with the defeated troops and said to Wanyan Loushi: "These Ming army cavalry are different. When our army covered the counterattack, they did not retreat!"

This is so fucking outrageous.

The Ming army's reaction was normal, but in Ohu's view, it was extremely abnormal.

Because the Liao Army, Song Army, and Xixia Army would subconsciously keep their distance, they rarely rush forward to engage in close combat—unless they already have a crushing advantage.

Wanyan Loushi said: "The cavalry of the Ming Army rushed out and retreated when they saw the main force of our army. It seems that our army camp has not fallen yet, otherwise they would occupy the camp defense. The whole army accelerated and moved forward to attack the enemy with the friendly forces in the camp! "

…

Jinbing camp.

When the defender Saba saw that Wang De had occupied the high ground, he immediately sent out 80 elite Jurchens to supplement the defense, and beheaded the frightened defenders in public.

More and more warriors who first climbed the camp ascended to the high ground, and Wang De began to lead his troops to rush downwards.

The battle only lasted six or seven minutes, and the Han army of the Jin Kingdom had been defeated there. Eighty Jurchen elites were killed and wounded more than 20 people.

More troops who first ascended the camp rushed to the top of the nearby wall from the high ground and attacked and killed the Han troops of the Jin Dynasty and the civilians of Menxian County who were defending the wall.

The civilian husband fled in fear, and the Jurchen war team could not stop him at all.

Seeing that the Han army of the Jin Kingdom was about to collapse, Saba had no choice but to throw in the rest of the Jurchen elites, and even rushed forward himself.

A messenger came on horseback and whispered to Chen Ziyi: "General, the main force of the Jin army is coming soon. General Yang asked if he wants to lead his troops in a bloody battle to delay time."

Chen Ziyi said: "No need, let him temporarily withdraw from the battlefield to the southeast, wait for an opportunity to spy on the enemy's situation, and then fight back. The valley here is too narrow to accommodate too many cavalry. Even if the enemy camp is captured, thousands of horses will be blocked at the entrance of the valley. It is also difficult to quickly evacuate into the camp.”

In Zhang Guangdao's plan, he never thought of quickly capturing the enemy camp and then letting all Chen Ziyi's troops withdraw to defend.

If that was the case, Wanyan Loushi definitely had no desire to fight, and probably led the whole army to the northwest and fled over the mountains. Although this situation can leave many enemies behind and force them to give up some of their armor and horses, it is very likely that more than half of them will be able to escape.

"The brave cavalry covers the heavy cavalry and retreats!"

The heavy cavalry, which had been temporarily converted into heavy infantry, suffered almost no casualties except for a few stepping on caltrops.

They didn't even engage in much combat, spending most of their time banging against the wall.

The arrows and spears of the Jin soldiers were unable to break through the heavy armor defense. They only dropped some loess blocks and injured a small number of heavy cavalry. These loess blocks were very light and the impact point was not high. There were very few heavy cavalrymen who suffered fractures. (Most of the loess blocks collected by the Jin soldiers from the valley were used to fill the village walls and block the doors, and very little was used as rolling stones.)

The valiant cavalry raised their spears to replace the heavy cavalry. The heavy cavalry slowly retreated from outside the village wall and went to the mouth of the valley to get their horses.

The real breakthrough point is on the two hillsides, but there is no fight at the bottom of the valley.

More than twenty knights had climbed to the high ground captured by the first camp, and they were shooting at the Jin Han soldiers diagonally below.

These Han soldiers of the Jin Kingdom had a low armor ratio, and they mainly wore leather armor, which could not carry bows and arrows at all.

After continuously shooting dozens of arrows from a high position, the Han soldiers of the Jin Kingdom fled on a large scale, and the Jin camp's defense completely collapsed.

Sa Ba led the Jurchen elite who were not entangled and quickly retreated to ride on their war horses. They had only about forty riders left, and they retreated and fired in the face of the advancing camp.

More Ming Dynasty knights climbed up the wall and shot towards the forty golden knights.

Several riders fell off their horses one after another, and the golden general Sa Ba fled in panic.

Wang De led his troops to chase down the defeated army, and divided dozens of warriors who first climbed into the camp to remove the loess blocks placed on the inside of the village gate, and then opened the village gate to welcome more friendly troops.

The retinues were already riding back from the battlefield, driving the horses of the valiant cavalry into the camp, and at the same time allocating manpower to put on horse armor for the heavy cavalry.

Due to the congestion at the entrance of the valley, the main force of the Jin Kingdom was approaching, and there were still hundreds of war horses that did not have time to retreat into the valley. They dispersed these horses directly outside the valley and waited for the battle to end before retrieving them.

Thousands of Ming soldiers mounted their horses outside the valley and withdrew into the valley in batches.

Chen Ziyi ordered: "The soldiers who retreated into the camp shouted loudly and pretended that they had not yet broken through the enemy camp! Some people came from various places outside the village wall and on the hillsides on both sides, raising their guns and shooting arrows, pretending to be fighting."

This is because they are afraid that the camp has been destroyed and the main force of the Jin soldiers will be scared away.

The valley is rugged and it is difficult to see the details inside from the outside.

In fact, it doesn't matter if the Jin Camp is not breached. As long as they use the narrow terrain to fight bloody battles on both sides and delay as much time as possible, the mission will be completed. Breaking the enemy camp was just an unexpected bonus.

When Wanyan Lou's room heard the roar of fighting, he ordered without thinking: "Our army camp is still there, attack the Ming army from two sides!"

This time, they went directly to Hezha Meng'an. The men and horses were all wearing heavy armor and rushed into the valley in small groups.