At the end of the Mao hour and the beginning of the hour, under cloudy clouds and dark sun, the sky and the earth slowly turned white. From the hazy gray fog, the field of vision became increasingly wider.
In the middle of winter, there was no snow in Hebei. But the wind howled and the weather became very cold.
Soldiers of the Song Army got up early in the morning to do morning exercises to stretch their muscles and bones. The camps that stretched for more than ten miles were filled with whistles and drums, and the sounds of drills came and went, with great momentum.
Nowadays, the morale of the Song army is strong, but on the other hand, the Liao army is much bleak. In addition to the fear caused by the two artillery rounds, the most important thing is that they have been going south since September. The Liao army has been hastily preparing supplies, and winter clothes are not complete.
The soldiers were still wearing autumn clothes, which were also very warm. However, as the weather got colder, snow gradually began to fall on the grasslands and in the north of Youzhou, and the temperature became lower and lower. The effect of autumn clothes was much smaller, making it difficult for them to bear this. Ice cold.
Yelu Zong really knew that he could not delay it any longer. Fan Zhongyan could not be in a hurry but he was. If you can't afford to fight with national power and consumption, and if you can't conquer the city with force, then you can only choose to try to fight to the death with the opponent in the wild.
With the desolate sound of horns echoing in the Liao army camp, the Jintaiyi Liao army camp, more than ten miles away from Baosai City, suddenly woke up from the deathly silence, with the sound of ping ping war drums, moo horns, and jingling gongs and drums. , sharp whistles, echoing in all camps.
Groups of heavily armed soldiers emerged from behind the crenellations of the rammed-earth village wall, bows unsheathed and swords drawn.
Everywhere was the sound of clanging leaves, anxious and angry urgings, shouts, short and urgent orders, sharp whistles and thumping footsteps, all of which made the whole wall a mess. .
About half an hour later, groups of Liao soldiers, led by their respective leaders, left the camp and formed an army outside the camp.
These soldiers were dressed in different uniforms and formed in scattered formations. Basically, they are the tribal armies of the Liao Kingdom, the Han armies of Nanjing prefectures and counties, the Bohai Navy and other national armies. They are complex and have many types of arms, mainly infantry.
The most elite cavalry in the Liao Kingdom was the Imperial Su Wei Army, also known as the Pishi Army.
They are the main force in field encounters and supervise the rear in city battles. Once the infantry breaks the city, the Pishi army will swarm up and loot all the property in the city.
Yes.
This is the Liao Kingdom's way of fighting and logistics.
The Liao Kingdom did not rely on logistical supply lines, nor did it pay its soldiers. The soldiers had only two sources of income - "grazing grain" and "money to reward the army."
The former is to rob soldiers while the latter is to distribute the spoils to the soldiers after victory, as a reward for the soldiers.
Therefore, it is okay for Liao soldiers to fight with the wind and loot everywhere. Once they encounter a situation where there is a solid wall and a clear field, there is nothing to loot in the field, and a solid city cannot be captured, the morale of the soldiers will fall to the bottom.
Yelv Zongzhen, Xingzong of Liao, was riding on horseback. He was in his twenties and strong. He looked at the vast ocean-like army under the hillside in the distance, without a trace of joy in his brows.
Now that the food and grass prepared by the Liao Kingdom in the early stage have been almost used up, and they can't get food and property from the Song army and the people of the Song Dynasty, the morale of the Liao Kingdom was high and they wanted to follow him to find Song. The soldiers were all disappointed.
This made Yelu Zong really regret his decision to go south.
Just pretend to be deaf and mute and wait for the situation on the Song side to be better. If the Song Dynasty continued to pay annual tribute, nothing would happen to Quan. If they stopped paying annual tribute, he could accuse Song of breaking the alliance and join forces with Li Yuanhao to go south.
However, Li Yuanhao was disabled at this time and could not help him contain the troops in the northwest of Song Dynasty. Now he was obviously a little alone. You can't defeat it, you can't attack it, you're really in a dilemma.
Now we can only fight hard and fight to the death. After winning the battle, he went home and continued to drink and eat meat, waiting for Song to send money. If you lose, everything will stop and you will basically be indifferent.
"Set off!"
Yelu Zongzhen is not a person who looks forward and backward. Once he has made a decision, he will implement it to the end.
He raised the sword symbolizing the emperor of Liao in his hand, and shouted to Tang Qi who was responsible for delivering the news: "Tell the soldiers, if we win this battle, let them loot the land in Hebei with your horses. If we lose, we will only Can we retreat to the grassland to blow the cold wind? Whether we can have a good year this year depends entirely on this battle!"
"yes!"
The Tang riders turned their horses around and headed down the mountain to deliver the news.
Then the big banner on the hillside began to wave. When the tribal leaders below saw it, they began to urge the soldiers of their tribes to march forward.
The rest of the Tangqi also dispersed and conveyed Yelu Zongzhen's orders to the generals everywhere.
The Liao army went all the way to the southwest. They were not heading towards Baosai City over there. The cannons mounted on the city had already frightened the Liao soldiers. If they were to attack Baosai now, they would undoubtedly be defeated. The whole army collapsed.
Therefore, the Liao army's goal was directly at the Song army's unfinished camp.
When Fan Zhongyan received the news of the Liao attack, he immediately issued military orders without any hesitation. The generals of all ministries followed the previous deployment and set up their positions to prepare for the enemy.
Why didn't he hold the camp?
The reason is very simple. The camp has not yet been built and the defense is not strong. Once the fortress is breached by the Liao army, the morale of the army will be weakened and the army may be directly defeated.
Therefore, we can often see in history books that when two armies confront each other, if one of the parties has just arrived on the battlefield and hastily set up camp to fight, the generals often do not choose to defend in the camp that has not yet been arranged, but instead go out and fight the enemy outside. beat.
For example, in the Battle of Dingbian, Mu Ying faced off with the enemy. The camp was not yet built, and the enemy came to provoke him. He led his troops out of the camp and defeated the enemy.
The first people to leave the camp on the Song Army side were the cavalry of various ministries.
After the scouts detected a large-scale gathering of Liao troops, the Song cavalry responded immediately. The cavalry was fast. After leaving the camp, they quickly advanced to a place two or three miles away from the camp. Then they stopped and stood up. After arranging their formation, they began to be on guard.
Then, each infantry unit came out of the camp in order according to their location and direction, and lined up on all sides at a distance of 20 steps from the camp to guard, forming a dense sea of people around the Baosai City.
Fan Zhongyan went into battle in person. Although he was a civil servant and did not wear armor, he rode a war horse and issued various instructions majestically on the stronghold.
After about half an hour, more than 100,000 troops were almost assembled. Looking to the left from the camp, one can see a dense crowd of people as far as the eye can see. Looking to the right from the camp, there is still a dense mass of people with no end in sight.
A large number of cavalry go back and forth between the battalions. These are Tangqi, which can also be called scouts, scouts, and scouts. Their role is not only to detect the enemy's movements, but also to convey the general's orders to all ministries and unify them. Coordinate such a large army operation.
Following Lao Fan's order, the army surged forward, with the defense city in front. Wang Deyong in the city has also mobilized troops and horses, and the heads of the Song army are constantly popping up on the top of the city, looking towards the northern horizon.
The Song army relies on the defense of the city, with 60,000 troops in the west of the city, 50,000 in the east of the city, 20,000 in front of the north formation, more than 10,000 people in the city, and 30,000 cavalry roaming around the outside, plus the troops from Cangzhou and Cangzhou who have already rushed to help. More than 30,000 reinforcements were sent from Qingzhou, Hejian Prefecture and other places, and the total strength of the Song Army reached more than 200,000.
If you stand on the top of the city and watch, you will see an extremely spectacular scene. On the east and west sides of the city, there are countless Song Army infantry phalanxes stretching out for at least seven or eight miles. They are like the waves of the ocean. It's still surging, with no end in sight.
On their periphery are the divine guards who are fully armed, holding shields and wearing heavy armor, and inside there are spearmen, sword and shield soldiers, bombardiers, crossbowmen and other types of troops. The cavalry was the first to leave camp, but stood behind the infantry when they formed formation.
Because in such a large-scale war, it is difficult for the general to command all capitals, battalions, armies, and compartments. He can only rely on officers and generals at all levels of establishment.
Therefore, the general often needs to control a certain amount of mobile troops. Once the collapse of each battalion occurs, he will immediately send manpower to supplement the battle.
Such mobile troops can only be served by cavalry.
By noon, the vast Liao army appeared on the distant horizon.
They also formed an infantry phalanx. The difference was that the Liao cavalry was large, so they not only placed the cavalry in the rear, but also mixed a large number of Liao cavalry on the two wings and in the main formation.
This is obviously Yelu Zong's real plan to make a desperate move. The ones at the front are basically heavy cavalry and heavy infantry from the Liao Kingdom. Even if they are hit by a grenade, they will not be injured. They have tested it. At most, they will have a concussion and the impact of the explosion. It was buzzing.
However, they also discovered that once a heavy infantryman was shot, if his center of gravity was unstable and he fell, he might be trampled to death on a crowded battlefield. It's like hitting heavy infantry with a blunt instrument. The armor is not broken, but the person inside is gone.
But the upper echelons of the Liao Kingdom decided to hide the news. As long as the heavy cavalry and heavy infantry resisted the first wave of grenades and allowed the remaining infantry and cavalry to rush into the Song army's formation and disrupt the opponent's formation, then everything would be safe!
The Liao army advanced slowly, and the earth seemed to be shaking. Their number was not much less than that of the Song Army, and they were also surging like a sea, with a mighty torrent of steel coming.
When the Liao army arrived three miles away from the Song army's formation and four miles away from Baosai City, the army had stopped.
It would definitely not be this distance in the past.
For example, during the Battle of Chanzhou, the Liao Army and the Song Army were less than one mile apart. If the Liao Army General Xiao Taolin hadn't been hit in the head by the eight-niu crossbow, which was like a sharpshooter, the Liao Army would have dared to get any closer.
After reaching this distance, the Liao people stopped, and then Yelu Zongzhen sent another knight to give Fan Zhongyan an ultimatum.
As long as Fan Zhongyan agrees to Yelu Zongzhen's conditions, there will be room for redemption for both parties.
Once the war begins, the Song Kingdom will be in doom.
Fan Zhongyan only gave one reply - get out!
When Yelu Zongzhen heard this, he was furious and issued an order for a general attack on the hillside behind him.
As the desolate horn sound resounded throughout the battlefield, countless Liao soldiers began to move forward under the urging of their leaders.
Four miles!
Three miles!
Two miles!
The firearms of the Song Dynasty never showed their power!
Because the shooting range of the "seven-tip cannon" and "nine-tip cannon" are basically between two and three hundred steps, only the "thirteen-tip cannon" can reach four to five hundred steps.
The thunderbolt fireball can be thrown a mile away by the catapult, which is installed on the tower several feet high.
Without the condescension, the range of the catapult will be greatly reduced.
One mile!
The Liao army was getting closer and closer, and many Song soldiers in the front row were already commotion, looking nervously at the enemy troops coming like a tide.
"Prepare the catapult!"
In the rear formation of each Song army, the catapults began to pull the tendon strings one after another. The soldier holding the thunderbolt fireball carefully placed the clay pot on it, while another soldier took out the fire sickle.
Soon the Liao army was getting closer and closer, reaching about 300 steps, or 420 meters, and was about to enter the range of the catapult.
"put!"
A large number of Song generals issued orders.
A few seconds later, the order was passed to the catapult camp, and then the soldiers lit the fuse with a fire sickle. With a "buzz" sound, the cowhide band was loosened, and with a "shoo" sound, the throwing spoon violently threw the pot. Got out.
Countless clay pots drew a gorgeous arc in the sky, many of them emitting gray smoke, and then accurately fell into the formation of Liao soldiers.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
The sounds of explosions came and went.
Many of them exploded directly in the air, and some fuses were blown out by the wind in mid-air, but most of the pots fell into the Liao army's formation smoothly, making a huge noise.
The Liao army formation immediately caused a lot of riots. Many soldiers were killed and injured, and some even tried to run away.
However, the military laws of the Liao State were strict, and the tribal leaders and generals suppressed the commotion, ordered the soldiers to rearrange their formation, and then continued to move forward.
No one charged.
They start running wildly when they are three to four hundred meters away. No matter how physically fit they are, when they reach the opponent's formation, they are already exhausted and have no physical strength. They are just fearless to die.
Therefore, the most correct way to fight is to withstand the enemy's artillery fire, get close to about fifty meters, and then start charging.
The riot was soon stopped, and the Liao army continued to move forward, as if there was no fear of death.
The next moment, the Song Army threw a second wave of thunder and fireballs.
Yelu Zongzhen on the hillside watched this moment nervously, and behind the Song army, Fan Zhongyan was also watching this scene.
The Liao soldiers were not fearless of death, but were forced to die under cruel military laws.
Fortunately, there are no batches of artillery. The lethality of thunder and fireballs alone is very limited. Even iron pieces cannot break through the heavy armor soldiers of the Liao army, let alone ceramic shards.
Therefore, even after two waves of baptism, the Liao army was still able to stabilize its position.
After a while, the Liao army had already approached 200 steps. They kept walking at a walking speed. It was expected that in three minutes, the two sides would be in close combat.
During these three minutes, Song Jun gave full play to its firepower advantage and continuously shot thunder and fireballs.
At one hundred steps, the crossbowmen on both sides finally showed their power, and dense arrows replaced the clay pots in the sky, covering the sky like dark clouds.
The tinkling sound resounded endlessly!
At this moment, the Liao army continued to advance, reaching less than fifty steps.
The bombardiers at the rear of the Song army raised their grenades one after another. The distance they could throw was actually only about twenty steps, about thirty meters.
that's enough!
At thirty steps, the Liao army's general attack officially began!
In an instant, with an order, countless Liao soldiers rushed towards the Song army like a tide!
And at this moment, two cannons were slowly pulled up on the high slope of the Song Army behind them, and a strange light emitted from the muzzles, pointing directly at the Liao Army's position!
(End of chapter)
