Monk Wanyan Chen reacted very quickly. As soon as the horse's back tilted, he held on to the saddle bridge and flew up.
Relying on the heavy armor he was wearing, he rolled on the ground two or three times, barely able to stabilize his body. Even so, his face was covered in blood from being hit by the gravel, and his arm and ankle on one side were so painful that they felt like they were about to break. Looking back, I saw that the front legs of the war horse were broken and could no longer be used.
"Change the horse!" Monk Wanyan Chen knelt down on one knee and shouted.
The cavalry ran without stopping, and the rear team had already arrived with their horses. Monk Wanyan Chen gritted his teeth, ran a few steps beside the horse, and got on the horse's back.
He shook his head abruptly, driving the terrifying scene of the iron artillery explosion out of his mind, and then said sternly: "With such power, what army cannot be defeated? Can this battle still be fought? We must not let those iron artillery continue to throw! Everyone Follow me! We have to destroy that convoy! The sooner the better!"
This group of cavalry was already running extremely fast. Following the shouts of Monk Wanyan Chen, everyone hit the horses repeatedly, driving the horses violently. The entire team seemed to have lost a huge arrow, and it shot up along the length. Qi shot over fiercely.
At the front of Ding Haijun's horizontal formation, the moment the old monk Fan died, the gap that had been highlighted by the Jin army's sacrifice of life was closed.
The soldier holding the spear used both hands to lift the old monk Fan, who was missing his calf, on the tip of the spear and raised it high. Because he used too much force, his two eyes suddenly bulged, which was very scary: "With my bulging eyes, monkeys and pheasants, I killed a thousand households of the Jin army!"
Dozens of people in the queues on the left and right cheered in unison. The lieutenant leading the troops shouted the order at the right time, and dozens of people took a step forward.
With just one step, everyone was once again facing off against the Jin Army soldiers arriving from behind, but this step simultaneously moved the battle lines on the left and right wings. In the blink of an eye, the entire horizontal formation suddenly roared like gray waves and became much more violent. The Jin Army on the opposite side did not look like a wave, but rather like a small boat floating on the tide of the sea, which could be capsized at any time.
Guo Ning, who was riding behind the formation, saw all this happening.
He suddenly asked: "Who is that lieutenant?"
Xin Cong immediately rushed out to investigate, and came back after a while to report: "He is a subordinate of General Liu Ran, named Zhang Pingliang. The three who just shouted to kill the enemy are also veterans of Zhang Pingliang's subordinates."
Guo Ning nodded and said to his left and right: "Liu Ran is a veteran on the battlefield, and he has many useful talents around him. This Zhang Pingliang is very good at leading a team to fight. Look, they just killed a thousand households, which greatly reduced the enemy's morale. Frustrated, our team just moved forward to suppress it. But if it moved too far forward, it would be easily surrounded by subsequent enemy forces on three sides, and it would also be unfavorable to the cooperation of friendly forces on both sides. So he just gave the order and took one step."
The attendant on the side suddenly realized: "One step is enough. With this step, he can take the entire horizontal formation one step forward. The formation will not be loose, which will put more pressure on the enemy."
Another attendant nodded: "It's remarkable that you can still be so calm when we and the enemy are at hand-to-hand combat."
Naturally, Guo Ning and his attendants did not know that the reason why Zhang Pingliang was able to remain calm was actually because his wife, Li Shi, repeatedly warned him before the expedition that he should not rush into things with passion and think more about everything.
After all, Zhang Pingliang is now an officer, with an exceptionally beautiful wife, a yard with two square feet, hundreds of acres of farmland, and two new shady houses.
Life is getting better, but after all, I am no longer as energetic as I used to be when I was barefoot and not afraid of wearing shoes. Including him, many grassroots soldiers on the battlefield began to figure out how to achieve the greatest victory at the least cost.
Guo Ning also had a vague feeling about this, but he didn't tell his attendants.
The combat effectiveness of an army comes from two aspects.
On the one hand, the warriors themselves are fierce and dare to die, but the strength in this aspect is actually somewhat rare.
For example, in the early days of the Jin Dynasty, it relied on a group of savages who were said to be "invincible" among the white mountains and black waters. This group of people conquered the east and west, and in less than twenty years, they destroyed the Liao Dynasty, defeated the Song Dynasty, and founded a great country. When they died of old age or were satisfied with their wealth, the combat effectiveness of the Jin Kingdom's army seemed to return from mythology to the human world.
The situation of Ding Haijun is similar but also different.
When Guo Ning started his career, he relied on the most fierce and brave group among the defeated troops in the northern frontier of the Kingdom of Jin. It has only been four years since his rise, and most of his companions are still young and high-spirited.
But in these four years, Guo Ning gave the soldiers very good treatment, making most of the soldiers who originally had nothing become small landowners with permanent property, and could even look forward to a better life.
Under such circumstances, the soldiers are no longer desperate beasts, and once the beasts become humans, they lose their original ferocity. This is a fact and there is no need to criticize it harshly.
These days are not like the future generations in Guo Ning's dream. People's hearts and ideas are not united to that extent. Using the slogans of the country and the nation to inspire soldiers cannot produce much energy.
If three years ago, we had used a horizontal formation to face the desperate charging Jurchens, and Guo Ning was not allowed to retreat, the formation would never retreat at all. Even if a hundred people died here, there would not be even a half-hole in the formation.
It can be seen that the willingness to dare to die in the army is indeed fading. Guo Ning must fill it with something from the other side to maintain or even continue to improve the combat effectiveness of the army.
That is the military's training level, tactical literacy, logistical support, ordnance and equipment and even military discipline, severe punishment and generous rewards, etc.
It seems now that people's energy has faded a little, but the combat effectiveness of the army has not declined, the capabilities of grassroots officers have been significantly improved, and the combat methods are very flexible, which is good.
Thinking of this, Guo Ning moved his horse forward, raised his head and asked, "How is the effect?"
What Guo Ning asked was naturally the effect of the iron artillery thrown. The battlefield where the two sides were fighting was blocked by smoke and dust. He was riding a horse and could not see clearly.
Zhang Lin took three steps and two steps at a time, and got down from the carriage.
"Lord, six iron artillery pieces did not explode, and seven more were thrown into the air. The forty-seven iron artillery pieces that bombarded the enemy's formation killed and wounded about 500 people of the Jin army. The enemy army has shown signs of decline, and our side The three thousand men and horses of the front line are enough to push them back."
This kind of gunpowder weapon was transported thousands of miles away, so it was inevitable that some of it would fail. Just like when a counterweighted stone machine was assembled on the battlefield, it was inevitable that some of it would malfunction in one way or another and become a piece of wooden furniture that frightened people. A single bombardment can determine the outcome of a battle involving nearly ten thousand people. The effect is already too good.
Guo Ning nodded: "It's a pity that the battlefield is too open. If the enemy's troops are not concentrated, the gunpowder's damage will be limited. And if the enemy's troops are concentrated, they will definitely be fighting hand-to-hand with our army. If an iron cannon goes down, If you kill a hundred enemies, you will be afraid of losing fifty or sixty."
"Exactly. And there's one more thing."
"Speaking."
"That day, when we fired iron artillery at the Mongols near the Triangle Lake, the key was not to kill, but to intimidate. The Mongols were barbaric and ignorant, and had always believed in the gods, so they regarded the power of the iron artillery as divine punishment such as thunder and lightning. , but I, the officers and men of Dajin, have had a lot of dealings with the Southern Dynasties, and even if they have never seen iron artillery with their own eyes, they have heard that the Song Dynasty people are good at using firearms to defend the city... They are not as frightened as the Mongols."
"So, we mainly have to rely on the power of the iron artillery itself."
"yes."
"Then do you think that with a few more rounds, we can achieve the effect of directly destroying the enemy's army without the need for soldiers to fight?"
"In my opinion, it takes three or four rounds to throw two hundred iron artillery guns out and kill and injure more than a thousand people. That's almost enough."
"We need two hundred for this one!" Guo Ning was stunned at first, and sighed longly: "We have too many places to spend money. Iron artillery is very expensive! In the past two years, the Ordnance Department has been asking for money. It’s as if you don’t want your life!”
"Ahem, lord..."
Zhang Lin bowed down: "Although our stone-throwing machine can reach far, we have to turn the capstan again and pull up the counterweight before each launch. We can't throw three or four rounds in a short period of time. In addition, the ones we brought The number of iron artillery is limited, and we still have Kaifeng City to attack later."
Guo Ning nodded.
"Then let the soldiers pack it up as soon as possible. The power of this round of throwing is enough for the front army to defeat the enemy, and it will definitely attract the attention of the Jin Army generals. They will soon mobilize their fine cavalry between the central army and the two wings. Charge over and we'll gather together to annihilate them."
He patted Zhang Lin's arm: "This one of yours is of great use. For now, just hold on to the car formation..."
Having said this, Guo Ning suddenly turned sideways on his horse.
On the gravel-covered plain, the hot wind kept blowing, making a rustling sound. This sound seemed to be mixed with other sounds, like the sound of rapids rushing under the dike, gradually coming from behind a long moraine in the southeast.
Guo Ning turned around again, held his saddle and looked up high.
In the direction of the Chinese Army, a hot air balloon was slowly floating at a height of about ten feet. On the balloon, a figure was waving two flags vigorously in a special sequence.
"Already here? So soon?"
Guo Ning thought for a while and laughed dumbly: "I'm afraid, someone was thinking about cutting off the connections between our departments from the beginning! How brave!"
