The heavy and chaotic sound of horse hooves echoed in the river valley.
The border troops from the three towns came to press the border, bringing the deepest blood pressure to the army of the Marshal's Mansion.
Most of the Mongolians under Liu Chengzong's main opponent in this life were the Ming army. However, in their lifetime, no Mongolian soldier had ever seen the Ming army filling the valley and marching in full force.
The battle the Mongols were used to was for thousands or even tens of thousands of herdsmen to encounter thousands or even hundreds of border troops inside and outside the Monan border wall. If they could defeat them before Ming reinforcements arrived, they would continue to plunder; If they cannot be defeated, they will withdraw their troops on the spot.
There have never been two armies facing each other.
The other part of the Mongolian soldiers and Fan soldiers who had never fought with the Ming army had encountered the most terrifying opponent before, Liu Chengzong's old border army.
Therefore, Liu Chengzong's plan of using Mongolian soldiers to attack first came to nothing. Those pale-faced Mongolians were not strong enough to undertake such a task, so he had to change his strategy before the battle and said to Yang Yao: "It seems that I want you to attack first. Kill the enemy's troops to boost their morale." , let Xie Erhu take charge."
Yang Yao laughed out loud while holding his helmet, put on his bowl and clasped his fists, saying: "The last general takes orders."
After that, he turned to Huang Shengxiao, who was standing at the top of the city commanding the city's artillery to adjust the angle of the artillery, and said: "Huang, please be careful and don't hit me on the head... Taiji, do you want to come and play with me?" "
Kuitu Taiji, who was watching the battle at the top of the city, shook his head like a rattle. He was playful but not stupid.
He was not like Xie Erhu, who spent half his life gnawing on Rhodiola rosea. The Han tribe suffered a lot at the hands of the Xuan Da border army, and he was beaten by He Huchen from the opposite side along the way west.
The psychological shadow that Liu Chengzong left on He Huchen was the same as the psychological shadow that He Huchen left on Guitu Taiji. The area is the same.
"I, I will study next to the commander. I wish General Yang a successful victory. You...be careful of Madman You in Yulin and that Manzi He in Ningxia."
Ruitutaiji took a deep breath. As Liu Chengzong marched eastward to attack the city and destroy the fortress, annihilating the native soldiers in an instant, he had completely corrected his mentality. He was not a guest of the Marshal's Mansion, nor was he the younger brother of the Mongol Khan.
He is just an ordinary envoy of the Han army stationed in the Marshal's Mansion in Qinghai. He is the same as the envoy stationed in the Marshal's Mansion in Turpan. He is just a battlefield observer, which is good.
Yang Yao smiled and patted Guitu Taiji on the shoulder. This interfering with Han Tu Taiji was more fun for him than those Mongolian nobles in the past. Their relationship was one-sided and good.
The so-called unilateral means that Guitu Taiji was particularly grateful to Yang Yao because General Yang gave him a pox.
Yang Yao inoculated him with pox, but he actually had no good intentions.
Ever since he received the mission of cultivating pox vaccines from Liu Shizi, Yang Yao had to be vaccinated against anyone who could breathe wherever he went.
Yang Yao The Mongolian soldiers in the fishing camp and the transport camp are also the soldiers of the generalissimo, and their lives are also their lives.
Just when he was thinking hard, Yang Yao saw Guitu Taiji, who was unable to play with Liu Shishi and was wandering around the mouth of the river. At that time, General Yang's eyes straightened, and he was happier than when he was leading the army in Guyuan.
Hey! What a coincidence, isn't it - there is an outsider here who doesn't feel sorry for him when he dies.
He went to ask Liu Shishi if he could put a vaccine in Guitu Taiji's nose.
Liu Shizi agreed, and Yang Yao was very happy, thinking that the commander-in-chief really had the same idea as him, and he didn't feel bad when an outsider died.
But in fact, the two people's thinking processes were different. Yang Yao believed that this matter was very dangerous, so he wanted to vaccinate Nututaiji; Liu Chengzong thought that this matter was not dangerous, so he agreed to vaccinate Nututaiji.
He didn't think about the danger at all. He just considered the impact that inoculating Guitu Taiji would have on the penis. After thinking about it for a while, he felt that it wouldn't have any impact, so he would just inoculate it.
Later, Guitu Taiji was arrested by Yang Yao, and he responded well and was no longer afraid of smallpox.
Ruitu Taiji didn't think much of this process. Didn't the generalissimo also have a ball of cotton stuffed in his nose? He had a ball and I had a ball. What does this mean?
It shows that our status is very high.
Until now, Gututaiji still doesn’t know that he is one of the experimental materials worthy of a special mention in the history of mankind’s fight against smallpox. His importance is second only to the monkey caught by Li Wanqing.
He confirmed that variola transplantation is effective as long as it targets people, regardless of race.
The monkey proved that the target of vaccination does not have to be a human being, it is more important than him.
Yang Yao went down to the city to assemble the cavalry soldiers. The 3,600 cavalrymen had been assembled under the leadership of Qian Commander Wei Qian'er, Han Shiyou and Yang Chengzu. They immediately led the army across the bridge from the south and formed an array on the east bank of the Huangshui River Bend. .
Not long after, Xie Erhu also led a Mongolian cavalry across the river. Six thousand Mongolian herdsmen were divided into two groups, located behind Yang Yao's horizontal formation.
Guitutaiji listened to the sound of drums and horns, and the dense cavalry arrayed in Hedong a hundred steps away. He sighed to Liu Chengzong: "General Yang's cavalry is well organized, and they are really good cavalry... The enemy is approaching, why doesn't the commander use it? That mirror.”
Liu Chengzong smiled, he was afraid of comparison. Yang Yaoce rode and stood in the middle of the other side. Behind him, Mr. Qian and Mr. Ba knew where they should stand. Each of them led his two horses and stood out of the camp four steps apart. Of course they looked neatly. .
Xie Erhu's Mongolian soldiers appear to be an army of 6,000 people. The manpower has been carefully selected and they are all people who have mastered certain combat skills. However, they are only familiar with team drills at the level of the Centurion. They have no camp drill habits. Six thousand people stand together. Not a whole.
He knew that the mirror Ruitu Taiji was talking about was the telescope in his hand.
Liu Chengzong shook his head, smiled and handed the telescope to Guantu and said: "You can play with it, I won't use it anymore."
He had already used a telescope to see the enemy's troops. They were marching in columns with the horsemen in front and the infantry behind. The infantry carried chariots, and the chariots were definitely equipped with artillery, but what was certain was that there were no heavy cannons weighing more than a thousand kilograms. .
This was enough information for Liu Chengzong, and he no longer needed a telescope.
If he is allowed to march, he will generally not put the cavalry in front. There is only one possibility for the cavalry to be in the front, and that is because the infantry is weak, so the cavalry will be used in the front to quickly seize some fortifications during an encounter. The purpose of the infantry is to allow enough time to form a formation.
This also confirms from the side the information that Dai Daozi's Tangqi received from the prisoners. The official army in the middle road included more than 10,000 border troops from the three towns and more than 10,000 native soldiers and banner troops. The existence of the latter is probably because the commander-in-chief of the three towns is based on the horse army. The reason before.
This is beneficial to Liu Chengzong.
Therefore, neither he nor Huang Shengxiao needed to use telescopes at the moment. He needed to use his naked eyes to accurately judge the enemy's distance.
This is an experience learned from long-term battles, and only the naked eye can judge accurately enough.
After a while, he and Huang Shengxiao shouted: "One thousand steps!"
From this distance, they could see the outline of the enemy, but they still couldn't tell whether it was cavalry.
The Tang soldiers who were preparing under the city immediately waved their flags, and the small yellow flags waved alternately in the west and east of the Huangshui River. The news was conveyed to the cavalry formation in the east of the river in an instant.
Xie Erhu's Mongolian cavalry immediately mounted their horses in large numbers, and then saw Yang Yao's cavalry still sitting in formation and getting off their horses again.
"Eight hundred steps!"
The enemy's cavalry could already be distinguished, and the waving military flags could be seen.
Twelve heavy artillery were lined up on the hill that was 10 feet high in the east of the city. The artillerymen slowly adjusted their firing angle with the distance. Huang Shengxiao was also adjusting his firing angle on the city. In his hand was a Buddhist gun captured by Nianbo Qianhu. Lang cannon.
There is nothing special about this cannon, but it uses a two-wheeled cannon. According to the inscription on the car body, it should be equipped with a red Yi cannon donated in the fifth year of Tianqi. However, I don’t know where the cannon went. It only has 500 kilograms of equipment. Franco's gun carriage.
But this gun carriage is very useful to the Marshal's Mansion because its design is very strict. It has a ground plate and a body light wheel, and the range mileage is marked. This is the experience that the Marshal's Mansion can learn from the gun carriage.
When news came that the enemy army was approaching 800 steps, Yang Yao nodded and still led his men to sit where they were.
The Mongolian soldiers behind them could no longer stand. The city said eight hundred steps, but to them it was actually close to six or seven hundred steps. Those Mongolian soldiers who mounted their horses without authorization could even vaguely distinguish the heads of the Ming army and their driving forces, even the cloth The dragon pattern on the chest of the mask can be seen as a blur.
The Ming army was still advancing, and suddenly a horn sounded. Liu Chengzong could see clearly from the city. The cavalry of the official army remained as usual, but the pace of the infantry behind them suddenly accelerated.
He knew that this was the preparation before the cavalry attack, and the infantry quickened their pace to prevent the cavalry from getting out of touch after the attack.
At this moment, Yang Yao stood up, got on his horse, reined in his mount, turned around, and faced his men.
The guards behind him rolled up their flags, and then the 3,600 horsemen of the Marshal's Mansion looked like undulating waves to the people on the city, standing up in one piece from front to back, and from the middle to the outside.
Liu Chengzong took one last look at the approaching officers and soldiers who were still marching in the distance. He turned to Huang Shengxiao and said, "That's it."
Huang Shengxiao raised his arms. Behind the Tushan position under the city, the artillery commander waved a flag and shouted: "Artillery, prepare!"
The orderly soldier carried a red flag on his shoulder and waved it. He galloped ten steps behind the artillery position. The commanders of the twelve artillery groups raised their flags one by one and stood at the position where the horsemen galloped past.
When the commander-in-chief of the heavy artillery waved the command flag again, twelve small flags were waved one by one, and then the heavy artillery roared, flames shot into the sky, and smoke filled the ground. Seven kilograms of iron bullets passed through the earthen mountains that shook like a soul out of the body, and crossed the river east with the sound of the whooshing wind. The heads of nearly 10,000 cavalry soldiers blasted towards the enemy formation in the river valley at a high angle of fire.
Yang Yao said nothing and sat up straight on the horse.
When the cannonball passed through the air, he pulled the reins and turned around. The hairs on his neck stood up one after another as he looked through his begging collar. He lightly tapped his mount with his feet, pressed the bridle and slowly moved forward.
Wei Qian'er, Han Shiyou, and Yang Chengzu got on their horses, and the 3,600 horsemen from the three thousand headquarters rose and fell again like waves. The red tassels on their coats and Zhangba's cavalry spears in front of the formation were like a huge wild rose, slowly pressing forward. go.
Liu Chengzong watched the artillery shells fall into the enemy's formation, but he did not take away the telescope that brought infinite freshness to Qututaiji. He expected that the artillery shells did not hit the enemy at the front. In fact, this was also his purpose.
Their observation distance on the city was a little farther than the artillery position. The artillery fired at a shooting angle of 800 steps. The artillery shells would pass over the front horsemen of the army and bombard the infantry line.
Under the threat of artillery, Liu Chengzong could sense the panic of the army's formation even though he was eight hundred steps away.
The pace of the infantry was suffocated, the officers hurriedly reorganized the team, and the pace of the cavalry was completely disrupted. Some accelerated and some stopped.
Liu Chengzong held on to the thick earth wall battlements and murmured: "Hold it, hold it..."
Behind Yang Yao's horse camp, the pace of the cavalry was involuntarily moving faster and faster, but the officers suppressed it.
Starting from Yang Yao at the front of the military formation, he drew out his Yanling Saber and thrust it sideways to the right. The three Qianzongs who were slightly behind him also drew their swords in turn and waved their swords to signal their officers to stop their mounts.
Immediately, the generals, chiefs, and commanders in the military formation showed their swords one by one, so that the cavalry formation remained four steps apart.
The cavalry at the front of the formation let out sighs. They shook their shoulders, shook off the shoulder ropes of Zhangba's cavalry spears, held the spear shafts in their hands, hooked the spear tail ropes on their toes, and slowly held up the spears. go ahead.
They are the army that has been studying in the training camp for the longest time in the Marshal's Office. Every soldier can learn the purpose of combat from the behavior of the general.
The cavalry of the officers and soldiers move forward, and the infantry has not yet formed a large camp. Their tasks fluctuate with the battle situation. If they can drive out the cavalry before the officers and infantry form a camp, the outcome of the initial victory will be established; otherwise, the battle will be based on the general situation. The commander's request is just to kill the enemy's troops with vigor.
So it will be frontier against frontier, horseman against horseman.
Yang Yao pressed the bridle and walked slowly. He saw from the side that the pace of the military formation had been suppressed and stabilized. Then he waved his hand and leaned the Yanling Saber on his right shoulder. The ground in front of him shook. Thousands of cavalry formed several sharp formations and ran toward him. When he came, he had a cold and contemptuous smile on his face.
Immediately, veins popped up on his forehead, and his expression suddenly changed: "Where are the Yansui soldiers?"
Hundreds of soldiers in the horse camp shouted: "The Yansui Army is here!"
Yang Yao asked again: "Where are the Guyuan soldiers?"
Once again, hundreds of soldiers in the horse camp shouted together, and even Yang Yao also shouted: "The Guyuan Army is here!"
Yang Yao asked again: "Where are the Ningxia soldiers?"
Hundreds more soldiers in the horse camp shouted in unison as they marched slowly: "The Ningxia Army is here!"
After only shouting fifteen words, Yang Yao's voice was already hoarse. He finally asked at the top of his lungs: "Where are the border troops?"
"The border troops are here! The border troops are here! The border troops are here!"
The sound echoed in the valley, even suppressing the sound of the hooves of thousands of cavalry three hundred paces away.
Yang Yao tapped the horse's belly with both feet, and the horse began to walk quickly. His whole body bumped and undulated with the mount. The bright Yan Fei Dao resting on his shoulder reflected the sunlight, and he slowly pointed forward with his arms.
The military formations behind them also began to change formations as they marched.
Among the three thousand generals, Zuo Baizong took the lead in accelerating past his respective thousand generals, and then six hundred horsemen came out in front of the formation one by one.
The three Zuobai headquarters were each divided into five groups, and the three Zuobai headquarters continued to accelerate, forming the first wave of three collision formations in front of the formation.
Rows of horse soldiers with spears and vests passed by Wei Qian'er, Han Shiyou, and Yang Chengzu in a non-standard straight line at four steps apart.
As they passed Yang Yao, these highly skilled cavalry soldiers slightly lowered their jaws, and their eyes under the shadow of their eyebrows stared intently at the approaching enemy cavalry.
A cavalry spear measuring eight feet long fell slowly from the palms of the horse soldiers. They either advanced with the spears in one arm, or let go of the reins and advanced with spears in both hands, launching a charge amidst the trampling of the horses' hooves.
Yang Yao maintained his forward posture with his sword raised. He knew that cavalrymen rarely clashed with each other.
But this time, only the real frontier troops can move forward!
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Good evening!
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