"There is an enemy coming, a powerful enemy!"
Liu Ran raised his head and looked at the two-color flag rolled up on the watchtower.
Ding Haijun had not taught him the meaning of the semaphore, but after working together in the past few days, Liu Ran had come up with some rules. For example, if the flag is single-color or double-color, it means that the enemy is infantry, cavalry, or both. The number of left and right swings represents the number of enemies, in steps of ten, one hundred, five hundred, one thousand, and five thousand.
At this moment, the two-color flags were rolled up five times in a row, and then raised high again. This was the discovery of the enemy's infantry and cavalry brigade, numbering between a thousand and less than five thousand people.
This is the arrival of a powerful enemy, the arrival of the Mongolian vassal army!
Liu Ran returned to the camp and shouted sternly to his companions, asking them to lead the old and weak to the Wozikou seawall south of Zhigu Village for temporary shelter. The strong men who could fight with swords immediately formed a formation, preparing to respond to the call of Ding Haijun. .
This is what Tian Xiong, the guard here, will definitely tell Liu Ran to do every time he encounters enemy harassment in the past few days. He has already experienced it.
Unexpectedly, the messengers who came this time brought completely different orders. Seeing Liu Ran's full preparation, he was even a little confused: "There are many enemies coming this time. You tell the people to go south and do what they want." What? If the enemy surrounds Zhigu Village, how long can the people hide in the Wozikou seawall? Hurry up and take people around to the back and into the village!"
"The size of Zhigu Village is only this small. Thousands of us crowd in, wouldn't the military men... ahem, we're afraid that we won't be able to help, and we're also afraid that the military men won't be able to turn around."
Zhang Pingliang interrupted. Although he said this, what he actually meant was that he was worried that the defenders would use the refugees' surnames to pad their swords and serve as human shields for the city defenders... In the previous battles, Ding Haijun did not use the refugees, but who knew how many enemies there were. What will happen to them after they die?
After hearing Zhang Pingliang's words, the messenger immediately showed an angry look: "What is coming is the bandit army that is attached to Mongolia! This is all a trivial matter. Do you still need to deal with these people?"
He raised his voice and said loudly: "We are going to fight now, you just have to watch from the stockade!"
"Going to war?"
Liu Ran was stunned, and the messenger kept saying: "Hurry up! Don't delay our affairs!"
It would be best if we could really take refuge in the village. Everyone obeyed the order with a roar.
When Liu Ran and others entered the walled city, they understood why the messengers were rushing.
It turns out that the Dinghai navy's troops stationed in Zhigu Village have been fully prepared and are constantly being dispatched outside the city. Opposite the Lu River, in a small fortress in the direction of Xin'an Hainan, there are also hundreds of garrison troops crossing the river in boats and stationed around the refugees. camp and join the main force.
In fact, the combined strength of the two is not very large. After a small group of sentries came forward, infantrymen wearing gray military robes formed small square formations. There are about a hundred people in a square formation, three square formations form a horizontal formation, and then the three horizontal formations are arranged in an orderly manner. The swordsmen and shieldmen lined up side by side on the outer edge of the array, the spearmen were scattered among them, and then the archers filled the center of the array.
Due to the restriction of the depression terrain to the north of Zhigu Village, the shape of the entire military formation is irregular. But every horizontal formation and even square formation felt that the spears and spears were held high like a forest, and the flags were like clouds, and they were extremely orderly.
When the soldiers in the front row were in position, hundreds of Alixi were still walking through the formation. Some helped the main army put on armor, and some rushed to the base camp to pick up arrows or spare weapons according to the main army's instructions.
When the three horizontal formations were all in place, the Alixi people withdrew one after another and formed another small formation behind the formation. On the side of the small formation, the cavalry were in position.
Most of the cavalry were riding tall horses, and some of the horses were wearing vests.
At this time, all the regular troops in front of the horizontal formation were already wearing chain mail; the archers were also wearing light chain mail. In order to facilitate the movement of their shoulders when shooting bows and arrows, they raised the shoulder pads of their armors. Turn it over so that it stands just on both sides of the ears, and then secure it slightly with a leather band.
As the generals in the formation shouted and issued orders one after another, the entire team suddenly moved forward. In the process of advancing, the distances between the multiple phalanxes continued to change and appeared orderly, just like a giant snake opening and closing its cold steel scales, advancing rapidly on the frozen solid field.
Zhang Pingliang calmed the refugees in the walled city and ordered them not to move around. At this time, he climbed onto the wall of the walled city and was surprised at a glance: "What kind of army is this? Even the imperial army's elite troops don't have such equipment, right?"
Liu Ran shook his head: "Even the small army we have seen can't do it for everyone, right? What's more, how can the small army have such momentum?"
He had seen operations involving dozens or hundreds of people in the Ding Navy. Looking at the equipment at that time, he thought they were generals and soldiers in the Ding Navy. Only now did I realize that all of the thousands of soldiers and horses surrounding Zhigu Village were wearing armor.
In his early years in northern Xinjiang, he had seen the elite troops of the imperial court, that is, the elite of the armed guards. However, the equipment of the Ding navy was actually better than that of the armed guards.
Moreover, there are nominally tens of thousands of troops stationed in the central capital such as the Wuwei Army and the Weijie Army. In fact, there are not many troops that can actually fight. Many of them are just show-offs. They only look tall and powerful and can be used as fakes. Rely on and please your boss. Once the Dinghai navy's queue is lined up, the battle-hardened momentum becomes ten times stronger.
If the entire Dinghai Navy is like this...
In fact, Liu Ran was overthinking this. The Ding Navy has expanded too fast in the past six months. With such a large number of troops, it is impossible for everyone to wear armor, but Chen Ran brought only elites.
Liu Ran was shocked for a moment, and then looked at Zhang Pingliang. This young man's mouth was so wide open that his saliva formed a line in the air and kept dripping down. Beside the two of them, many defeated soldiers also looked shocked.
At this time, the Dinghai navy queue passed through the passage in the depression in front. As the rumbling drums sounded, the entire army began to move forward in neat steps.
"After all, there are only a thousand people, so it's still too much." An officer trembled: "If this is compromised, wouldn't Ambassador Guo Xuan of the Ding Navy be heartbroken to death?"
"Yes, yes, there are probably four to five thousand enemy troops coming. This battle is not going to be easy!"
The officer who spoke like this was a smart man who also guessed the flag of the Ding Navy. He looked at the others and whispered: "In case the Ding Navy's field battle is unfavorable, we have to find a way to secure Zhigu Village."
In these words, there is a meaning of occupying the magpie's nest. The border warriors were in trouble. Seeing that the military resources in Zhigu Village were sufficient, they sometimes felt dizzy.
Liu Ran glanced at a few Dinghai soldiers who were left behind on the far side of the city wall, and couldn't help but laugh:
"Such an army of a thousand people is perfect in every aspect from stationing, marching, preparing for war, and lining up. It is also supported by a huge fleet and backed up by the Dinghai Navy Headquarters in Shandong and Liaodong... Who dares to attack Zhigu Do you want to offend Ding Haijun by doing this? Aren't you afraid of death?"
"Ahem...I mean, we must also be prepared to help at any time!"
The officer laughed twice, explained a few words, and then pretended to watch the battle with his companions.
In fact, others understand their mentality. Those who can fight along the way and retreat to Zhigu Village are not timid and fearful of death. But on the one hand, they hope that Ding Haijun can defeat the enemy. On the other hand, they have a little selfishness in their hearts and hope that Ding Haijun will not be what they seem. powerful.
Otherwise... everyone is really worthless.
At this time, in the wilderness several miles away, horns and wailings were heard. Everyone cheered up and kept saying: "Coming, coming!"
"But I don't know which route the enemy troops came from."
"It's just those few. The Khitan Yelu Kechou Baer, the Bohai native You Xingzong, and the three ruthless men Shi Tianying, Xuetala Hai, and Brother Yang Jiezhi."
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