"It's just a matter of being promoted to a higher official level. I'm also going to give you an additional fifty acres of land? Not bad, right?"
After this military order was issued, some soldiers who had just joined the army were very excited, and most of them laughed. Such a meager reward may not be as good as the achievements in killing generals and flags in previous battles. This is obviously Guo Xuanshi showing his confidence to win to the entire army.
The person coming across from him is the Great Khan of Mongolia. This Great Khan has commanded a wolf-like and tiger-like crowd in the past few years, killing the people in the Great Jin Kingdom with blood and turning thousands of miles of mountains and rivers into Shura hell. This is true.
But since the rise of the navy, it has defeated many powerful enemies. On the battlefield, only swords speak for themselves. Wouldn't any famous general go up and kill him with a single blow? Now our army has strong generals and brave men, and the elite Mongol Khan also has one head, two arms and two legs, but he may not have one more life than ordinary people!
A burst of laughter was followed by exclamations.
They saw Dong Jin running away with a small group of cavalry. The Mongolian pursuers, numbering more than a hundred horses, were expanding along the two wings, like a giant hand trying to crush Dong Jin and others into its palm.
Because Ding Haijun was disguised as a baggage team heading north, and the soldiers and horses accompanying the team were only 500 elite cavalry led by Zhao Jue. These five hundred people must not only protect the safety of food and supplies, but also shoulder the responsibility of sentry patrols.
In the worst case scenario, if an enemy is suddenly encountered, tens of thousands of civilians will not be able to prepare for war so quickly. These elite cavalry also need to do their best to entangle the enemy and buy time for the large army.
Dong Jin's men promptly warned and patrolled with sentinels, and they did their best, but they couldn't even think about getting entangled with the enemy. The strength of the two sides was too far apart. After Dong Jin and others sounded the warning, they had no choice but to flee.
The weather was still cool at this time, but Dong Jin and others galloped wildly, feeling that the air around them seemed to be frozen, delaying their way forward.
After galloping for more than ten miles with all their strength, the knights' robes clung tightly to their bodies, sticking to their sweat and skin. The sweat on their bodies flowed loudly, quickly soaking through their clothes, and then dripped down their clothes, mixing with the hot sweat flowing from the horses, and swaying with the ups and downs of the horses.
In this direction, Ding Haijun's scouts were distributed in groups of five, with the farthest group reaching Guangli Bridge on the Marco Polo River. It was this group of cavalry that discovered traces of the Mongols surging from the mountains to the north. They immediately issued a warning and then rode away.
The number of Mongolian cavalry was extremely large. When passing Guangli Bridge, the speed had to be slowed down slightly, leaving some possibility for the scouts to escape. But a large number of Aljinchis then galloped out of the queue and chased after them.
These cavalrymen are members of Qixue's army, and all of them are outstanding riders. When they gallop, their bodies rise and fall with a unique rhythm, as if they are integrated into the horse. Their control of the horses' physical strength and running speed is even more wonderful.
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Over the past few years, wherever they went, they would inevitably bring carnage and blood. The enemies they pursued could only wail and cry. In the end, they had nowhere to escape and died in fields, woods, ravines, roadsides, and wherever they found them.
At this time, they crossed the barren fields and roads, kept pursuing them, and then used their horn bows to shoot accurate arrows, and used their scimitars to slash the Dinghai navy scouts at the rear of the queue.
In just a few miles' journey, Ding Haijun's scout cavalry gathered three groups of companions from different directions. Among them, Dong Jin was one of the best warriors out of ten, but the Mongols were extremely ferocious, and half of the knights were killed and wounded in the process of escaping.
There was also a group of sentry riders from Meng'an, Hebei, who were trying to defeat the army, and were also involved.
These Jurchens were all signed by Pusan Anzhen and joined the army last year. They were all nominally from the Zhenfang Qianhu in Hebei Province, but in terms of real military experience, they were far inferior to those of Ding Navy officers. What's more, they lacked enough vigilance. When the sentinels went out, they used leather ribbons or ropes to tightly tie the packages containing the stomach weapons, food, water bags, etc. to the horses' backs.
In this way, it is convenient when marching, but once attacked, there is no way to dismantle the ropes and discard the heavy packages. In this kind of short-distance pursuit, each rider must maintain the fastest speed. The extra weight will kill them immediately.
Relying on the cover of the Jurchens, Dong Jin and others rushed all the way to Liangxiang.
Dong Jin considered breaking into Lashigang directly and first asking his servant San Anzhen to hold a Mongolian hat on his head. However, the terrain to the east of Shigang is slightly lower. The grass grows as high as half a person. The terrain is undulating. It is too risky to run a horse in such terrain. If you fall down, you will die.
Dong Jin and others had no choice but to go around the stone hillock, hoping that the Mongolian old men would look up at the five-color flags unique to the Jurchens on the hillock and look for their bad luck first. But I never thought that not to mention those Aljinchi completely ignoring the Jurchens, even the main Mongolian army behind them, like dark clouds covering the ground, bypassed the high ground without hesitation and rushed straight towards Ding Haijun!
Dong Jin yelled and cursed repeatedly, but at this moment, the shouts of people and the neighing of horses suddenly started, and two teams of Mongolian cavalry unexpectedly surrounded him from the left and right. The sheep-horned bows in their hands were all strung up, and there were still dozens of steps away. The sound of bowstrings erupted continuously, and several arrows missed and immediately flew towards Dong Jin and others.
The stubborn sheep's horn bow coupled with the heavy snake bone arrows is extremely powerful, almost comparable to the strong bows used by the soldiers. There was only a muffled groan, and a companion behind Dong Jin was shot in the back. The broad arrow instantly penetrated the military uniform, then tore open the flesh and bones, and finally emerged in the chest.
Blood spurted out from the two wounds on the front and back. The companion insisted on riding the horse at first, but in the blink of an eye, he lost strength and fell off the horse like a rice bag. Because one leg was still hanging in the stirrup, his body was dragged violently. After being hit several times by stones and bushes, his limbs and torso were all shattered into pieces.
The dead knight was a prestigious Puli Yan. Seeing his tragic death, the other scouts became furious and took their bows to shoot back.
"Idiot! Don't cum now! Leave now!"
Dong Jin cursed continuously.
The subordinates were sobered by Dong Jin's scolding that they quickly put away their bows and arrows and continued to ride their horses with their backs bent. But just as they slowed down a little, two more people were hit by arrows in their shoulders and backs.
Fortunately, we are not far from Ding Haijun's array!
They ignored the blood and water splashing when the arrow feathers shook, and continued to beat the horses with all their strength. Finally, he threw away the pursuers for a while, and then rushed into the neat queue of Ding Haijun before they approached again. At this moment, the queue separated to both sides, opening up a passage for the sentinels to run.
The moment Dong Sheng and others urged their horses into the formation, the sword and shield hands on the left and right sides moved their bodies laterally to fill the gap again. They held their shields on the ground for a moment. After a roar, the passage in the array disappeared, and the back of the Qingqi was obscured by flags and figures. Only the shield array is densely packed, like a copper wall and an iron wall, connected with the steel jungle behind.
But the movements of the Mongolian Qingqi did not stop just because the pursuit target disappeared.
Hundreds of light cavalry were still moving forward in a straight line. The Mongols shook their braided hair on both sides of their heads, shouted wildly, and waved weapons such as swords, hook guns, or hammers, creating a terrifying momentum. They did not pay attention to the continuous queue in front of them. According to past experience, as long as a powerful charge was made, most of the Jin army would run away in panic, and the Mongolian knights just happened to step into the formation.
The two sides were only a few hundred steps apart. The Mongolian cavalry galloped and covered less than half of the distance in the blink of an eye.
But the golden army in front of them was different from ordinary ones. Facing the oncoming enemy cavalry, their formation did not waver at all. Not only the shield array in the front row did not move, but also the steel jungle formed by the spearmen in the rear with their weapons raised high!
This calm and motionless posture seems to be very unpredictable.
A Mongolian Batuer who led Aljinchi sneered. This Jin army is nothing more than more fully trained and more experienced. But they will never be opponents of the Mongolian warriors! He has defeated such an infantry formation countless times. To disrupt their formation and shake their military morale... it's very simple!
Under the leader's order, the cavalry suddenly made a circle. The speed of the horses hardly dropped, but the direction of action turned to the right, galloping horizontally in front of the military formation.
The Mongolian knights still shouted and howled, as if provocative and extremely arrogant. Some experts in riding and shooting simply stood on the saddle, opened their bows and nocked arrows, and fired several arrows into the ranks of Ding Haijun.
Of course, this is just acting. The other Mongolian knights stared intently at the enemy formation, trying to find signs of panic. As long as they see a little bit of panic or hesitation, they will remember this position, and then launch a series of attacks on the enemy in this position at the most favorable opportunity.
But they saw no sign.
The huge military formation was always solemn and calm. Under the cover of the flags, no panicked people could be seen in every horizontal team and vertical column.
It's not normal!
The more uniform the military formation, the more conspicuous the panic of some soldiers. Therefore, in some armies, experienced veterans will deliberately make noises and perform actions to cover up the panic of new recruits. But this military formation was too neat and stable, as if everyone's military morale was as solid as an unshakable mountain.
This Ding Navy is indeed different from the ordinary Jin Army! As expected, he is indeed a powerful enemy that even the Great Khan should pay attention to!
"Continue, let's go to the left and go around to the flank of the Jin army!" Batu'er shouted.
When hundreds of Aljinchi responded, they roared like thunder, and thousands of iron hooves flew. In the blink of an eye, they went from the front of Ding Haijun to the left, then around the back, and then to the right, making a complete circle.
As the war horse galloped, a full circle of smoke slowly fell, and there was no fighting along the way. The first few centurions to return to their original positions looked at each other, speechless for a moment. The arrogance in several people's eyes faded away, replaced by surprise or solemnity.
The troops dispatched by Ding Haijun this time were mainly infantry. The formation of infantry was much tighter than that of cavalry, so even a large formation of ten thousand people did not occupy a large space. Therefore, the Mongols could clearly see that this military formation was composed of multiple large and small square formations. The square arrays are stacked and related to each other, stretching across the grassland. Except for the constant sound of bugles and drums and the waving of the flags of the phalanx, all the people, even their shining helmets and weapons, remained motionless.
No matter which direction the Mongolian cavalry galloped, no matter how they approached or detoured, intimidated or lured the enemy, they could not shake the unyielding attitude of the naval officers at all.
