The soldiers in front of the formation kept falling down, making Xiao Tianyou look pale. These are all brave warriors of the Liao Kingdom. Although they belong to the Xi tribe, they are still precious armed forces. Facing the Song army, the combat power of these Xi warriors was comparable to that of the most elite Song army. However, in front of Yang Pengjun's firearms, these soldiers fell one after another before they could face the enemy.
Xiao Tianyou could see clearly from his horse that the Khitan army of the Xi tribe rushed seventy steps in front of Yang Peng's formation and had already abandoned more than three thousand corpses. If you want to rush into Yang Pengjun's formation, you will have to sacrifice at least 3,000 more people? Can my army withstand such casualties without collapsing? Xiao Tianyou looked very nervous. The enemy's firepower was too fierce and they were equipped with countless firecrackers and powerful crossbows. Xiao Tianyou originally had more than twenty machine crossbows, but this time when he marched thousands of miles to attack Yang Peng's lair, Xiao Tianyou did not bring any heavy machine crossbows. At this time, against Yang Peng, Xiao Tianyou felt that there was no artillery firepower.
Only cavalry can win! The enemy's front is very strong, but what about the sides? Xiao Tianyou waved his hand and shouted loudly: "Charge from the side!" A horn sounded, the flag of the Chinese army was waved, and four thousand Khitan vests and six thousand Khitan cavalry heard the order and galloped out of the Chinese army. They rode out from behind the Khitan infantry, gradually accelerated, and went around to attack the side and rear of the Huben Division. They hoped to encounter a vulnerable flank that could be broken down by the iron hooves of cavalry.
The so-called Liao Khitan army was the strongest in the world. At this time, 10,000 Khitan army cavalry rushed towards the flank of Huben Division. However, what they encountered was the flanks of the Huben Division as hard as iron. Yang Peng's phalanx had the same number of people in the four directions. Except for the artillery, which moved in the direction of the enemy's main attack, the infantry on the four sides had almost the same combat effectiveness. Guarding the left and right flanks were six thousand musketeers armed with live ammunition. They had been waiting for a long time for the Khitan army to charge into battle.
The Khitan vests and Xi tribesmen howled around the front of Master Hu Ben, separated from the left and right, and rushed to the two sides like two uppercuts. What responded to them was the roar of the soldiers of the Tiger Division from the side, which echoed throughout the fields.
"Kill the Khitan dog!"
The soldiers guarding the left and right wings were the Polu Regiment and the Entrapment Regiment. Although these two regiments were established later than the Frontier Regiment, most of the soldiers in these two regiments still killed the bandits and withstood the charge of the bandit cavalry. A veteran of the battle. Of course, there are two thousand recruits in the two regiments, but these recruits have also seen blood in the recent capture of Tianjing New City and the Battle of Jinghai. At this time, there is no problem in shooting calmly on the battlefield.
Especially at this time, the whole army's killing sounds were loud and united. The recruits also suppressed their inner fears and devoted themselves to fighting to kill the enemy. The soldiers aimed diagonally at the Khitan cavalry rushing from both sides and hit the two wings, and pressed the trigger. The crackle of gunfire rang out, more than two thousand rifles spit out tongues of fire, and two thousand rounds of bullets were fired at the Manchu Tatars and Khitan soldiers who were charging into the formation. The Khitan army's two-mile-wide front was hit hard. The cavalry in the front row seemed to have hit an invisible wall and fell from their horses with a huff.
The four thousand Khitan vests were okay. They wore two layers of armor. A rifle shot from 200 meters away could not penetrate their armor. After being shot, they just paused on their horses. The Khitan cavalry wearing cotton armor were miserable. After the firing, hundreds of Khitan cavalry were immediately killed, fell from their horses, and fell to the loess without making a sound. In the eyes of Master Hu Ben, these proud Khitan cavalry are just moving targets.
There were also injured people: their stomachs were punched, their hands were broken, and their legs were broken. Screams and shouts rang out from the mouths of the injured Khitan warriors, instantly causing the morale of the cavalry behind them to drop to freezing point. The corpses of cavalry and military horses lying on the ground became obstacles for the rear cavalry, blocking the charge of the rear cavalry. The cavalrymen fearfully walked around the corpses on the ground, or stepped over the wounded without being able to avoid them, trampling the wounded on the ground until they were bloody and bloody, and continued to rush towards the side of the Huben Division.
The second shooting begins. There was another crackling volley of gunfire, and a large amount of white smoke came out of the Huben Division's position. The smoke filled the surroundings of the soldiers, making the Huben Division look like a group of magic soldiers. Two thousand rounds of bullets broke through the smoke and shot at the Khitan cavalry rushing into the formation. They tore open small wounds in the rotation and penetrated hard into the flesh of the Khitan soldiers.
Blood bloomed on the bodies of nearly a thousand Khitan cavalry. The warriors who had been driving their horses recklessly just now lost the ability to move and fell under their horses screaming. The ground was filled with corpses and wounded for a while, and blood was gurgling out. The Khitan cavalry in the rear row bypassed and stepped over the corpses and wounded on the ground, but lost the courage to charge into the formation.
This is not charging into battle, this is charging into death! The center of the Khitan army stood on a higher ridge. Xiao Tianyou saw the tragic scene of the Khitan cavalry charging into the formation while riding on his horse, and felt his heart bleed. Nearly 2,000 Khitan cavalry and more than 3,000 Khitan infantry soldiers were killed in one fell swoop. How should I explain to the Queen Mother after returning to Youzhou? Although these Xi people are not Liao people, the Xi people now play an important role in the Liao Kingdom.
No one of Yang Peng's soldiers and horses was injured, but he had lost thousands of people. Can he win this battle? Is this battle really not something that should be fought? Xiao Tianyou gritted his teeth so hard that he didn't even notice it. The Xi tribe nobles in the Chinese army were even more heartbroken. They could no longer bear to see the horrors on the battlefield. They all looked pale and closed their eyes, as if the warriors who died in the battle were their brothers. Damn it, Xiao Tianyou actually used my Xi clan warriors as cannon fodder!
Xiao Tianyou's deputy general Zhang Hua looked at Xiao Tianyou and then at the battlefield, speechless. The firepower of the Song army was so fierce that the Khitan troops in front of the formation, especially the Khitan cavalry, were shrouded in fear of death. Their bodies were trembling and their faces were pale. The horses rushing into the formation slowed down and their formation became a little erratic. If the Khitan cavalry soldiers were not still around, the Khitan cavalry would have collapsed.
However, the four thousand Khitan vests have not been damaged yet and their structure is intact. Wearing two layers of heavy armor, they howled and charged forward, rushing to the front of the team. The third volley of gunfire began.
"Kill the Khitan dogs!" "Kill the Khitan dogs!!"
Under the command of the platoon leader, the riflemen on the rear stepped into the shooting position, and one platoon after another began to shoot at the Khitan soldiers rushing into the formation. Red flames emerged one after another, and two thousand flintlock rifles that were beyond this era fired conical bullets symbolizing death into the Khitan vests.
At a distance of one hundred meters, the cone-shaped bullet has enough kinetic energy to break armor! The bullet hit the body of the vest soldier, breaking through the cotton armor of the vest, breaking through the chainmail under the cotton armor, breaking through the skin of the vest soldier, and piercing the body of the vest fiercely.
Brutal blood blossoms bloomed on the bodies of the horse soldiers in the front row, and blood gushes out from the wounds like a fountain. The vests fell off their horses one after another, hitting the ground hard, rolling and shouting on the ground. Their helmets fell to the ground, revealing the bare scalp and ugly money rattails on the cavalry soldiers' heads. After twitching a few times on the ground, their corpses stopped moving.
For soldiers with powerful weapons, the difference between a good shooter and a poor shooter is huge. The former's combat power is even several times that of the latter. In order to improve the hit rate, Yang Peng's soldiers practiced target shooting an astonishing amount. The recruits practiced target shooting every day, and every gun was scrapped in three months. Veterans often perform maintenance exercises after reaching the target target, and practice until 99% of the time they hit the target at 200 meters! It is no exaggeration to say that all of them are excellent shooters.
At a distance of more than 100 meters, the soldiers' hit rate was astonishing, at least 70%. But this time, the Khitan cavalry soldiers rushed to the front, and more than a thousand were killed in one fell swoop. Seeing the Khitan vest soldiers being killed in groups in front of the formation, the soldiers of the Polu Regiment and the Entrapment Regiment were filled with the pleasure of revenge. They shouted in unison: "The morale of the Khitan cavalry can hardly be sustained. They have abandoned more than two thousand corpses in front of the battle. It can be said that they are using their fragile lives to resist the power of firearms. And this firearm is not a firearm of this era. It was a rifled gun two hundred years ahead of its time.
If the technological gap of fifty years is called a generational difference, the gap of two hundred years is a world of difference. The technical gap made this massacre particularly cruel. The few elites of the Khitan River Army who led the charge knew that the team had reached the critical point of collapse, and they were afraid that the cavalry would collapse and the sacrifice of the warriors in front would be meaningless. They anxiously blew the horn to boost morale.
The horn sounded, encouraging the cavalry to continue advancing.
After hearing the horn sound, the eyes of the Khitan horse soldiers all turned blood red. They had just killed more than a thousand people in front of the formation, and the battle loss rate was as high as 20 to 30%. If they hadn't seen that there were only three layers of thin fire gun soldiers on the opposite side, or if they hadn't firmly believed that they would win if they charged forward, they would have been defeated long ago.
It was the contempt for the close combat of the Song Army's artillery soldiers that supported them to continue to rush into the battle with their lives. Hearing the sound of the horn, nearly three thousand horsemen howled and thrust their heel spurs into the belly of the horse, stabbing the horse's belly until blood dripped, urging the horse to speed up and rush forward. They rushed towards the soldiers of the Tiger Division as quickly as possible, and soon reached fifty steps away from the Musketeers.
In the Song Dynasty, one step was one and a half meters, and at fifty steps, the horn bow could already reach the target. The Khitan cavalrymen on horseback shouted loudly with joy, bent their horn bows, and fired bows and arrows at the Ming army 70 meters away. I hope that I can use a hail of arrows to defeat Master Hu Ben’s fire gunner.
The Khitans in the front row fired arrows, and the Tatars in the back row barely found an angle to throw their bows and arrows, hitting the Polu regiment and the trapping regiment. More than three thousand bows and arrows pierced the sky and shot at the troops of the Huben Division. The bow arrows were like raindrops, flying towards Master Hu Ben. The ideal shooting range of the horn bow is within forty meters, and the distance of more than seventy meters is still a bit far, not to mention the immediate bumps and the aim is not accurate at all. Only three hundred bows and arrows hit the soldiers of Huben Division. More than three hundred soldiers screamed and covered their arrow wounds and withdrew from the formation.
However, the high morale of the Tiger Division was not frightened by the rain of arrows at all. In response to the rain of arrows, two thousand rifles fired furiously.
"Kill the Khitan dog!"
The soldiers of the Huben Division, who were more than 70 meters away and had excellent shooting skills, almost accurately shot each one, knocking down the Khitan soldiers who were bending their bows and shooting arrows one by one. At this distance, not to mention two layers of armor, even three layers of armor could not protect against Master Tiger's conical bullets. Nearly two thousand rounds of bullets were sprayed on the densely attacking Khitan soldiers, killing these warriors who had trained hard for more than ten years on bows and horses before taking to the battlefield.
If the soldiers of the Huben Division can become excellent archers by practicing hard for six months, the training time of an archer is measured in years. Without more than ten years of practice, these Khitans would never be able to become qualified warriors. These trainings take up a lot of time and manpower. But no matter how hard you train, no matter how brave the soldier is, facing a cone-shaped bullet can only end the matter with one shot.
This technical gap made the balance of the battlefield tip unreservedly to the side of the Huben Division. Shooting from a distance of more than 70 meters, the hit rate of the soldiers of the Tiger Division was over 70%. More than a thousand Khitan soldiers or Khitan horses were shot, and the Khitan soldiers who rushed to the front row to shoot arrows were suddenly wiped out. The sight of blood flying everywhere was like a massacre.
An elite member of the Xi army who led his troops into the battle was also shot. He was hit in the forehead by a bullet and died instantly. He fell off the horse without saying a word and fell lifeless on the cold earth. Seeing the tragic scene of the charging cavalry, the Khitan army's central generals were all speechless.
Xijun Yibai burst into tears, rushed to Xiao Tianyou's horse, grabbed Xiao Tianyou's right leg and said: "General, please order the withdrawal of troops, there is no way to fight!" He was in his fifties and had been living as a noble of the Xi tribe for a long time. , usually has a majestic air. But at this time, he was crying so much that he shouted hoarsely: "General, all the warriors of my Xi tribe are dead!"
Other Xi tribe nobles murmured: "It's over, the Xi army is over, they were defeated by the Song army!"
Xiao Tianyou's face was also completely white, which made his blood-red eyes even more ferocious. He shook off Yibai's hand and shouted loudly: "Let me go!" "Withdraw your troops now, and the warriors in front will die in vain." He shouted to Han Derang: "Han Derang, you lead five thousand infantry into the battle. !”
Handerang no longer had the calmness of the past, and asked with a trembling voice: "General, do you really want to charge five thousand infantry?" Xiao Tianyou yelled: "Head on us, and we will charge forward in just one breath! Charge! We will win if we go up there!”
Handerang stood there motionless. Xiao Tianyou shouted: "Today I will get rid of this powerful enemy for Daliao! Destroy Yang Peng! Charge forward. If we lose this battle, I will be responsible for the Queen Mother alone!" Han Derang gritted his teeth and rode towards the The infantry soldiers in front of the formation led their troops into the formation.
On both wings of the Huben Division, the Khitan cavalry rushing into the formation collapsed. They had already lost more than two thousand soldiers and no longer had the morale to attack Yang Peng's flanks. Where is the weak flank? This is the hard bone that lures the soldiers to come up and die. Six thousand Khitan cavalry rushed out, but now there are only more than three thousand left. But the firepower of those Song Army gunmen was continuous. Even with the archery skills that the Khitan people are proud of, they can't hit these gunmen. The Khitan cavalry shot and wounded more than 300 Song troops, but their own side suffered more than a thousand casualties.
The only hope is to rush forward and fight hand to hand. There are still fifty steps to go, and if we endure one or two volleys from the Song army, we can probably rush forward. But everyone values their own lives, and no one is willing to use their lives as cannon fodder to fill up the death zone in front of the formation. If he doesn't escape at this time, he will be the next one to be shot with a rifle.
What's more, if the Song army's cavalry shoots them for one or two more rounds, how many cavalry will be left on their side? Will the Song army be defeated in hand-to-hand combat by then? First, a dozen cavalrymen stopped rushing forward, turned their horses and fled north. The emotions of these deserters soon overwhelmed the charging ranks. Then dozens or hundreds of Khitan cavalry all began to flee. In the end, the more than 3,000 Khitan soldiers who were still alive had no fighting spirit and collapsed thousands of miles away. They turned their horses and fled in panic towards the east and west sides, hoping to escape the firing range of the Tiger Division.
After receiving several rounds of volleys, the six thousand Khitan cavalry, known as cavalry, turned into more than three thousand deserters in a panic, running wildly on the yellow soil of Tianjing New City. As soon as the Khitan cavalry fled, the more than two thousand Khitan cavalry soldiers who were still alive were nakedly exposed to the firepower of the Huben Division. The cavalry soldiers were not stupid. They knew that there were six thousand well-trained fire gunmen in front of them, and there was no way that more than two thousand people could rush forward. What's more, the two rounds of shooting just now killed more than a thousand vests. The casualty rate of the cavalry soldiers was as high as 40%, and their morale had collapsed.
Several Xi army elites shouted loudly, hoping to boost their morale. They blew the charge horn again, hoping to summon up the last strength to rush into the Tiger Division formation. However, their efforts were in vain.
Looking at the fleeing Khitan cavalry, the horsemen only hesitated for a few seconds, then turned their horses' heads one by one and fled to the east and west sides. Ten thousand Khitan cavalry abandoned four thousand corpses in front of the formation and fled in confusion. The so-called legend that the Khitan army is invincible is just a joke in front of Master Huben. Kill the Khitan dog! "
The Khitan cavalry was already fleeing, but the Polu regiment and the Trap regiment on both wings were still shooting. As long as the enemy does not escape the range of the rifle, he is still within the range of the musketeer.
The Polu Regiment and the Trapping Regiment poured two more rounds of bullets at the fleeing Khitan cavalry, killing many more Khitan cavalry who fled in panic. On the battlefield on the side, the Huben Division won a complete victory at the cost of 300 casualties, and there was no enemy standing in front of it. On the frontal battlefield, the Tatar infantry were still charging.
"Kill the Khitan dogs!" "Kill the Khitan dogs!!"
There was white smoke coming out of rifles everywhere, and the pungent smell of saltpeter permeated the Huben Division's battle formation. Amidst the roars of killing slaves one after another, the front selection group and the gangster group kept shooting at the Manchu and Mongolian soldiers, like a massacre. Every thirty meters the Khitan army advanced, they had to withstand a volley of rifle fire, and more and more corpses were piled up in front of the formation.
Seriously injured and shouting wounded people were everywhere, and no one paid any attention to them. A large amount of blood gushed out from the corpse, and blood was everywhere. It was spread on the ground like water after a heavy rain, exuding a disgusting smell of blood. The Khitan soldiers charging behind had to step over the corpses scattered on the battlefield and step on the blood on their feet before they could rush to the front.
The ones rushing at the front were the infantrymen of the Xi tribe. The Xi tribe brought 10,000 infantry this time, but they only withstood one round of artillery shells and three rifle volleys before being routed. The Xi clan abandoned 3,000 warriors in front of the battle, and when they rushed 140 meters away from the front of the Huben division, their morale collapsed. They fled back in a panic and fled the battlefield.
They were lucky. After they escaped, the Huben Division would target the other Khitan troops who were still charging and would not pursue them as they fled. They only sacrificed 30% of their soldiers and escaped from this massacre-like battlefield. Seeing the Xi tribe's infantry collapsed, Xiao Tianyou, who was standing on horseback in the center, snorted coldly.
When Yibai heard Xiao Tianyou's cold snort, there were two traces of tears on his face, and his hands were shaking - the casualties among the soldiers were too heavy. Only half of the 1,600 soldiers of Yibai's Xi army commander had escaped. . Hearing Xiao Tianyou's cold snort, Yibai glared at Xiao Tianyou angrily, furious.
Buyandai knelt on the ground, staring dumbfounded at the rout of the Xi tribe's infantry. Buyandai was the tribal leader of the Xi tribe. About one-third of the 1,800 warriors died on the battlefield. After this battle, what kind of leader will Buyendai be? He didn't know how to face his herdsmen when he returned to the grassland.
Because of Xiao Tianyou's tenacity, more than 10,000 Xi clan warriors have sacrificed more than 6,000 people. This is no longer a heavy loss, but a maiming. Hearing Xiao Tianyou's snort, Buyandai, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly raised his head and glared at Xiao Tianyou angrily.
The other Xi clan nobles also suffered heavy losses and were very angry when they heard Xiao Tianyou's snort. The soldiers had already worked very hard, but Xiao Tianyou, who used the Xi people as cannon fodder, was not satisfied yet. Xijun and the leader of the Waifanxi tribe looked at each other for a while, their eyes full of hatred for Xiao Tianyou.
All the nobles of the Xi clan have made up their minds. After returning to Youzhou this time, the Queen Mother must deal with Xiao Tianyou, who is good at light combat and uses the Xi clan people as cannon fodder. At this time, the Xi tribe warriors were defeated and the leaders needed to go out to organize the team. The nobles of the Xi tribe no longer stayed in the middle of the army, and rode out one by one to gather the defeated army. Xiao Tianyou saw that the Xi tribe army had been defeated and had no fighting power anymore, so he did not stop the Xi tribe nobles from leaving the army.
On the battlefield, the Khitan army was still charging forward. Behind the Xi infantry were auxiliary soldiers and followers who were used as cannon fodder. Most of the auxiliary soldiers were Liao people who failed to choose infantry armor. They only wore fragile cotton armor. There are also some Han people who raised the flag and became Liao people, also wearing simple cotton armor. Their combat power is far inferior to that of the armored bannermen.
The followers were even more miserable. Most of them were Aha from the Xi tribe, both Han and Korean. They don't even have continuous armor on their bodies, and their only weapon is a short knife in their hand. The Khitan army has strict discipline, and these slaves who surrendered to the Khitan army were kept obedient by the Khitan army's military discipline and did not dare to do anything they thought. For them, going into battle to kill one or two Song soldiers, making military exploits and raising the flag to become the Liao Kingdom was their lifelong ideal. As long as you raise the flag, you can have enough food, wear warm clothes, and change your life's destiny. If you keep doing Aha, you will one day die of illness or cold due to lack of food and clothing.
Because of their desire for military glory, although these auxiliary soldiers and followers were poorly equipped, their fighting spirit was not low. At a distance of 140 meters, more than 5,000 auxiliary soldiers and followers rushed out from behind the Xi tribesmen who were fleeing in both directions, shouting, and charged towards Master Huben with swords raised. What greeted these humble soldiers were one hundred and forty cannon fodder.
Aiming at the more than 5,000 auxiliary soldiers and followers, the powerful crossbow opened fire. There was only a loud "whoosh" and "whoosh" sound, and one hundred and forty powerful crossbows sprayed long arrows at the auxiliary soldiers and followers. A thousand long arrows were shot out at high speed and penetrated into the howling auxiliary soldiers and followers. Once they penetrated, there were two holes in the front and back. If the projectile passes through the torso, various organs will be immediately torn to pieces and turned into pulp, which will spurt out from the wounds like blood holes together with blood and water. If the projectile hits an arm or leg, it can immediately break the bones, or even directly break the entire arm and leg.
More than a thousand poorly equipped auxiliaries and followers were hit by shotguns and fell to the ground screaming. Some Tatars and two Tatars who were seriously injured but not dead were twitching and struggling on the ground, shouting for help, but no one paid attention to them. On the battlefield, the least valuable thing is life.
The more than 4,000 auxiliary soldiers who were still alive seemed to have known for a long time that there was a quagmire hell ahead, but they did not immediately collapse after suffering a fierce attack. With greed for military success, they gritted their teeth and continued to rush towards the front of the selection group and the gangster group. They advanced the battle line about thirty meters, and were hit head-on by rifles about 110 meters in front of the Huben Division.
A thousand soldiers who had loaded their gunpowder and bullets stood in the front row and shot at the Tatars in front again. The soldiers coldly aimed at the rushing auxiliary soldiers and followers and pressed the trigger. Almost every soldier of the Huben Division pressed the trigger, and blood sprouted from the body of an auxiliary soldier. The auxiliary soldiers and followers in the front row seemed to be called by name, and fell on the battlefield one by one. Those dead Khitan soldiers and two Khitan soldiers increased the number of corpses on the battlefield.
After all, what happened next will be explained later.
