Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The Ming army resumed its march for four or five miles, and more and more Jin cavalry were in front, which pressed Chen Ziyi's horses to shrink.

"Something's wrong!"

Chen Ziyi rode his horse and ran to see Yao Pingzhong: "There are definitely more than 20,000 golden soldiers in front of us. Even my heroic cavalry can't get out."

Although Yao Pingzhong is eager to make meritorious deeds and loves to take risks, he is not a fool. He grew up in the army and knew that he might have fallen into a trap.

"The whole army stopped advancing, and all the troops formed formations and waited."

"The generals are here for a meeting."

Chen Ziyi called several cavalry generals to a meeting and asked them to talk about their experiences first. As a result, they encountered large groups of golden cavalry on the south, north, and east sides.

After listening to the summary of information, Yue Fei guessed: "I guess there are also golden cavalry in the west. We are already surrounded."

Liu Qi also reacted: "The Jin people have been acting. They voluntarily gave up Xinzhou and Daizhou just to lure us into a decisive battle here."

Wu Jie asked doubtfully: "If our army had not divided its forces and the total strength was two or three times that of the Jin people, would they still dare to fight a decisive battle here?"

"Definitely. Even if we are one against three, Wanyan Zonghan will still choose to fight," Yue Fei said. "In the past half month, I have talked with Han Chang a lot and asked about many Jin Kingdom affairs. According to Han Chang, Wanyan Zonghan will fight." Yan Zonghan had been invincible in all battles in the past few years, and the entire army was fearless from top to bottom. When encountering tens of thousands of enemy troops, they dared to charge with only twenty or thirty cavalry. Such a strong army was defeated one after another by our army. How can Wanyan Zonghan endure it?"

Chen Ziyi said: "It's a pity that our troops are divided into two groups, otherwise we can definitely wipe out all the Jin soldiers!"

Yao Pingzhong said with a smile: "Even if we divide our troops, we will still have the advantage."

…

The original name of Pingxingguan is Pingxingguan. As the name suggests, the inside of the pass looks like a bottle.

More than fifty miles east of Fanzhi County is the bottleneck, and the channel is about five miles wide. Continuing eastward, we enter Pingdu, which is about fifteen to twenty miles wide. This is the big bottle.

If you go south along the Gushan River, you will also enter a small bottle. If you lose the battle there, your entire army will be annihilated.

It is impossible to lure the Ming army into Xiaoping and encircle it, because the Ming army must first attack Magu and Meihui villages in the northeast of Xiaoping.

Therefore, the Jin soldiers performed all the way, with the purpose of luring the Ming army into the big bottle.

Acting must be done in full, and giving up Xinzhou and Daizhou is just the beginning.

When the Jin soldiers withdrew to Daizhou, they deliberately looted and plundered near the city, and also kidnapped craftsmen and evacuated to Yanmenguan. Then they looted on a small scale in Fanzhi County, and only robbed food but not people. These actions were all misleading the Ming army generals and releasing the wrong information that the main force of the Jin army retreated into Yanmen Pass.

In reality?

Wanyan Zonghan used a small group of cavalry to disperse the villagers, pretending to grab some food, and then retreated to various passes in the east. However, he sent the main force to hide at night and rush to Pingxing Pass.

The Peaceful Pass at Yanmen Pass is the most important. The Ming army did not dare to attack Yanmen, but they also did not dare to leave someone to watch. Therefore, if the Ming army wanted to expand its results, it would inevitably leave some troops in the west, and then the main force would head east toward Pingxingguan.

At this moment, Wanyan Zonghan reined up his horse and stood on the hill. After listening to the news from several teams of horse explorers, his face became more and more happy: "Zhang Guangdao has become arrogant after winning one after another. I thought the Ming army divided its forces. After that, at least 50,000 to 60,000 people will come, but I didn’t expect that there will only be 30,000 to 40,000 people.”

"This may be the only chance to reverse the situation of the war." Wanyan Lou's expression was serious.

It is not easy for them to eat the 30,000 to 40,000 Ming troops, because there are only 26,000 Jin soldiers here, and their strength is even smaller than that of the Ming army.

"Marshal, the Ming army has stopped advancing!"

"Then close the net."

Soon, wolf smoke ignited behind Wanyan Zonghan, and wolf smoke rose from east to west.

Thousands of golden cavalry received the order and fought out from the north and south valleys behind the Ming army to block the bottleneck of the big bottle. More than 30,000 Ming troops, as well as thousands of civilians and a large number of livestock accompanying the army to transport food, were completely trapped in the bottle.

The Jin cavalry from all directions continued to compress the space towards their prey.

This time the Jin people had no infantry, and all the infantry were on horseback, giving full play to their speed advantage. Even if they dispersed their forces during the outflank and encountered a partial counterattack by the Ming army, the Jin soldiers could quickly distance themselves and wait for friendly forces to come over and continue to shrink the encirclement.

…

Chen Ziyi sent his cavalry back to inquire on the way there.

After the smoke of the Jin soldiers rose, there was no need to pry, it was absolutely certain that they were surrounded.

Yao Pingzhong discussed with the generals and the entire army did not choose to retreat. Instead, they took advantage of the encirclement of the Jin soldiers to move closer to the Gushan River in the north to form a formation.

Otherwise, as long as the Jin soldiers stay around, the Ming army will not be afraid of starving to death, but will die of thirst.

In addition, if the formation is formed with the Gushan River at its back, the side near the river is not afraid of the attack of the Golden Cavalry.

The Ming army did not send anyone to break out and go back to ask for help, because the mouth of the bottle must have been blocked. If you want to break out, you have to send at least a thousand cavalry and charge desperately to get out. It is better to stay and fight the golden soldiers.

The two Gushan rivers merged into one in the small bottle. The Ming army was approaching the one flowing through the large bottle.

When the encirclement of the Jin soldiers was completely closed, more than 40,000 Ming troops (including civilians) had formed a large formation near the river.

The military rations can last for about half a month. Because it is close to Fanzhi County, there are not many civilians and food accompanying the army. Subsequent military rations can be continuously shipped from the county.

Yao Pingzhong didn't send anyone back to collect food for several days. The defenders of Fanzhi County must have known that something was wrong here.

Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Loushi led their troops to climb up to check, but for a while they didn't know where to attack.

The Gushan River flows from northwest to southeast, and the Ming army arrayed along the river.

In the middle position near the river are civilians, livestock and grain, as well as 3,000 Wutai rural soldiers. These rural soldiers are all young and strong rebels. They may not be good at fighting in the field, but there is no problem in defending by the river.

On both sides of the river, Wu Jie is on the left and Yao Pingzhong's headquarters is on the right.

The front army belongs to Guo Yaoshi's tribe, the left army belongs to Yue Fei's tribe, and the right army belongs to Liu Qi's tribe.

The Chinese army consisted of Yao Pingzhong's personal soldiers and Chen Ziyi's heavy cavalry.

Artillery and muskets are mixed among the various armies.

Qingqi and Xiaoqi surrounded the central army and were arranged in various channels in the formation.

A semicircle outside the formation was filled with carriages connected by iron chains. Outside the formation, there were iron caltrops scattered everywhere.

Wanyan Loushi actually didn’t want to fight. He had been psychologically affected: “Last year I fought with Zhang Guangdao in the wild, and the Ming army used this kind of vehicle formation. The terrain at that time was more difficult because the formation was based on the mountains, and the Ming army also had Crossbowmen are arranged on the hills on both sides. It is difficult to rush in with this kind of vehicle array equipped with artillery. Even if we can rush in, our army will definitely suffer heavy casualties. "

"The arrow is on the string, are you trying to persuade me to give up?" Wanyan Zonghan asked.

Wanyan Loushi said: "So what if all these tens of thousands of Ming troops are wiped out? If one-third or even half of us are killed, there will be very few elites left in Dajin. But there are so many Han people, Ming Dynasty The country can continue to recruit, and in two or three years it will be able to build a strong army."

Wanyan Zonghan said: "I lost half of it, but it is worth it to completely annihilate the Ming army here. If we don't win a battle, I'm afraid we won't be able to fight again in the future. The soldiers will run away when they see the Ming army."

"well!"

Wanyan Loushi sighed and said: "It is better to besiege instead of attack. The Ming army dragged here will run out of food. We only need to leave one part to watch, and send the main force to the west to fight for reinforcements. Although this kind of vehicle formation is very It's hard, but it's very difficult to move, so we can't help them if we try to support them."

"That would be more dangerous," Wanyan Zonghan said. "It is possible that the Ming army might not be able to rescue us, but instead be surrounded here!"

Wanyan Zonghan was not a god. From Daizhou City to here, there was a narrow strip of more than 100 miles, and the Jin cavalry could not go there to inquire. Even the news from Yanmen Pass could not be received by Wanyan Zonghan due to the obstacles of the mountains.

He didn't know where Zhang Guangdao's troops were. It might be two hundred miles away, it might be a hundred miles away, or it might even be dozens of miles away.

If the judgment is wrong and the bottleneck is unable to be defeated by reinforcements, and Yao Pingzhong in the bottle comes to kill again, then the Jin soldiers will be blocked in the bottle and attacked from both sides.

We must fight quickly and kill this Ming army at all costs!

In the past, if the Jin soldiers completed such a siege, even one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand Liao troops would be easily wiped out.

But the Ming army in front of him only had 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers, and Wanyan Zonghan was not sure at all.

After continuing to observe for a while, Wanyan Zonghan thought over and over again and finally ordered a tentative attack.

Two to three hundred teams of Jin cavalry, about four to five thousand people, began to shoot arrows at the Ming army's chariot array.

The first to counterattack were the Ming army's crossbowmen.

Then came the Ming army musketeers, which now expanded to 8,000, of which 6,000 were thrown to Yao Pingzhong.

The Jin cavalry were too scattered, and the Ming army's artillery was too lazy to fire. Even shotgun shells had no effect.

When fired from a cavalry position thirty or forty steps away, even armor-piercing arrows have very little power, making it difficult to cause effective damage to the armor-piercing Ming army.

The Ming army's crossbows were more powerful than horse bows at this distance.

If hit by a musket, say nothing.

After more than ten minutes of shooting, no one in the Ming army was killed, but hundreds of people were injured by arrows.

As for the Jin cavalry, hundreds of them were injured, and dozens more were killed.

Wanyan Zonghan felt extremely frustrated and ordered the cavalry to charge closer and then shoot. Because charging and shooting on horseback within fifteen steps will be more powerful than shooting while standing, which contains very scientific physical rules.

Group after group of Jin cavalry formed a sparse formation several meters apart, taking turns to rush to the car formation and shoot arrows at close range.

The Ming army's artillery finally launched, with triple firepower of crossbows, muskets, and artillery.

All the artillery fired cannonballs at a distance of forty or fifty steps.

Some Jin cavalry rushed within fifteen steps and indeed caused damage to the Ming army with armor-piercing arrows.

In the blink of an eye, dozens of Ming soldiers were hit by arrows, and several even died on the spot.

However, more Jin cavalrymen died, and most of them only rushed halfway, and even the men and horses fell down.

Qi Jiguang used this mixed formation of hot and cold firearms and vans to train in Jizhen and beat the Mongolian cavalry to the point where they did not dare to go south for twenty years. It was no longer a matter of how many Mongolians were killed, but that the Mongolians were beaten so much that they simply stopped coming and could not bring up the idea of ​​facing Qi Jiguang at all.

Wanyan Loushi looked like he had known this all along: "It's useless to shoot arrows, you have to rush in forcefully. But rushing in by force will kill many people, and it may not be able to break through the car formation. I already tried it last year."

"No matter how many times I die, I still have to rush forward!" Wanyan Zonghan was still stunned.

The trap is laid and the prey is caught.

But this prey was too fierce and bit the hunter with wounds all over his body. Now the hunter is going to fight for his life.