Xiao Shilu deliberately chose a day with a little snow to set off.
Because according to his estimation, these enemies who were spying on them in secret must have relied on one man, two horses or even three horses to be able to get ahead of them and ambush the sentries sent to Yunzhou many times during the winter.
And this kind of weather is not conducive to cavalry operations.
On their side, even with their strong bows and crossbows, they were not afraid of the cavalry attack in this kind of weather, so those who came to chase them would suffer a big loss.
However, this veteran general from the Yelu Abaoji period never expected that the people who had been spying on them secretly were not some grassland tribes from Mobei, but the cavalry of the Hexi Guiyi Army and the cavalry of the Fuzhou Zhejia.
After walking more than thirty miles from Fengsui Fort, the snow had stopped falling from the sky. Xiao Shilu clearly felt that this winter was not as cold as before.
In previous years, there would be at least two or three white disasters in a winter, which could completely bury a tribe of several hundred people, but this year, there has not been a single white disaster.
In the distance was the Hun River, and Xiao Shilu ordered his guards to find some places where the ice was still thick enough to cross the army.
However, although the uneasy feeling became stronger and stronger, no enemy appeared.
This would be difficult to handle. If he went back like this, his eldest nephew would definitely not be merciful.
Fortunately, at this moment, the sound of horse hooves suddenly sounded from all directions. Xiao Shilu looked up and saw a piece of white snow moving rapidly on the snow-white ground in the southwest.
Taking a closer look, it was not the snow that was moving, but at least thousands of cavalry in white robes, chasing after them.
soon! These chasing cavalrymen exchanged fire with Xiao Shilu's troops who were behind them, and the cry of killing immediately spread throughout the entire Hun River bank.
"Quick! Put on armor! Take away the war horses and set up the Yanyue Formation!" Xiao Shilu shouted angrily. He only had more than 300 horses behind him and they couldn't last long.
After hearing Xiao Shilu's order, thousands of elite Pishi troops began to help each other quickly put on the armor and stomach.
These half-fishermen, half-hunters and half-nomadic Khitans active in the white mountains and black waters are all excellent warriors.
Those who can enter the Pishi Army are the best among the elite. You must know that in the entire Great Khitan Kingdom, the Pishi Army only numbers over 30,000 people.
The grassroots organization of the Pishi Army is different from that of the Central Plains. According to the habits of the prairie cavalry, there are usually five people in a cavalry team.
When fighting, four people go up first, and the remaining one stays behind to look after the horses.
Because sometimes a cavalry charge cannot be accomplished overnight, and it is often necessary to change horses and mount again.
If there is no one to take care of the horses, the advantage of one person with two horses or three horses cannot be used, especially in this kind of evenly matched battle that requires repeated charging.
And this also has the advantage that when the enemy is defeated, the cavalry guarding the horses can immediately mount their horses, and then launch an attack under the leadership of the officers, which can also be used as a new force for the retreat.
But something was different at this moment. The reason why people took away the horses was because Xiao Shilu wanted to use bows and crossbows to deal with these incoming enemy cavalry.
hey-hey! Unexpectedly, we Khitans will not fight on horseback with you. I will fight on foot. A certain man has two thousand strong bows and crossbows. Let's see how your cavalry can withstand it.
There is a saying that the Khitan people at this time, how should I put it, they actually did not look like a nation outside the Great Wall, as can be seen from the two brothers Yelu Bei and Yelu Deguang.
Both of them were enthusiastic followers of Han culture. Yelu Deguang initially wanted to be a Confucian scholar.
Yelvbei had a collection of thousands of books, and when it came to the Later Tang Dynasty, he still wrote poems to clarify his aspirations.
This is because the Khitans are a nation outside the Great Wall that existed during the Tang Dynasty and were deeply influenced by the Tang Dynasty.
Second, the Bohai Kingdom, a large family that was destroyed by the Khitan, was very Chinese among the fishing and hunting people in the Northeast, almost like the Han people. The Khitans annexed the Bohai Sea, making themselves more like a Han dynasty.
At the same time, due to the extremely tolerant ethnic policy of the Tang Dynasty, the Khitans were not completely regarded as barbarians at this time.
The identity of Tang'er is very broad. When specifically referring to Han people, the title Tangren is not used. It should be Han'er or Hanzi.
This is one of the reasons why Yelu Deguang felt that he could enter the Central Plains.
The Khitan Kingdom was more like a strange thing in the late Tang Dynasty, somewhere between a vassal town and an outer vassal state.
The identity of their ethnic group outside the Great Wall is not pure. The Dadan people and the Zubu people are the real ethnic groups outside the Great Wall.
Sure enough, the cavalry charge on the opposite side was very powerful, and the three hundred cavalry left by Xiao Shilu were quickly dispersed.
Zhe Deyi's younger brother Zhe Deyuan didn't stop either. He chased after the Khitan cavalry and rushed towards the Khitan people by the river.
When charging, Zhe Deyuan was still a little surprised. Why didn't these Khitan people mount their horses? Were they frightened?
But the next second, thousands of arrows suddenly shot out in the Khitan army formation. The Khitan people who were in the crescent moon formation fired several arrows at the same time after banging their clappers.
The Zhejia's cavalry were not wearing armor at all, and they immediately shot down a large number of them, especially the unprotected horses, which fell to the ground screaming. Zhe Deyuan was shocked and quickly led his men back.
But as soon as he retreated, another drum sounded in the Khitan Yanyue Formation, and more than 300 riders came out. They were all high-headed horses that sprinted very fast. They immediately overwhelmed Zhe Deyuan and the several hundred vanguards. .
When Zhe Deyuan retreated more than a hundred steps and started to form a team, he immediately felt sorry for him and shivered as soon as he took stock.
After two rounds of arrows, they were chased and chopped on the buttocks. A total of thirty or forty people were killed, and at least fifty horses fell.
This was really an eye-opener. After Murong Nobunaga and others arrived, they drove back the pursuing Khitan cavalry. This was the first time that they had seen such a situation.
The Khitans, who had always been on horseback, formed a large formation of Yanyue bows and crossbows near the river, and then hid in the formation to attack the cavalry. This was a completely typical Han style of play.
As for the Han people, they carried out raids with all cavalry, similar to the grassland people.
After Murong Nobunaga was shocked, he immediately felt a burst of ecstasy, and he immediately raised his hand to Zhe De.
"General, let's dismount too. These bastards want to play crossbow shooting with us, Tang'er. I'm afraid they're crazy."
"Hahaha!" Zhe Deke laughed a few times. This was really a misunderstanding within a misunderstanding.
The Khitan people on the opposite side must have regarded their thousands of people as some kind of grassland people. By some mistake, the Khitan people actually used their own strength to attack their strengths. I am afraid they will suffer a big loss.
"The whole army is dismounted. Captain Murong has led a hundred divine-armed archers as the center. Let's have an infantry battle with the Khitans!"
Zhe De and others laughed loudly here, Xiao Shilu's expression suddenly changed over there, and General Kunfa beside him roared.
"No! Supervisor, they are not prairie rangers from somewhere, but people from the Southern Dynasties. The prairie tribes cannot afford thousands of sets of white robes!"
Xiao Shilu's nephew Xiao Qian also screamed, "Could it be a trap set by the Lord of Jin? Was the Jin envoy killed just because they were acting?"
Xiao Shilu looked at the horse that had been led away. It was too late to mount again.
However, if you fight on foot, just fight on foot. The Khitans often fish and hunt in the mountains and forests, so they may not lose to the Southern Dynasties if they fight on foot.
"It's not the Lord of Jin who sent troops. He didn't have the courage. This must be another so-called loyal minister of the Southern Dynasty who sent troops without permission!"
Xiao Shilu yelled, even if Shi Jingtang, the leader of Jin Dynasty, turns against him, he cannot admit it, so as not to shake the morale of the army.
There is a difference between fighting a vassal town where the Southern Dynasty sent troops without authorization and going to full-scale war with the Southern Dynasty.
"Murong Dalang, bring out our flag. Your Majesty has ordered us to show these Khitans and Beidi Tang'er who is back!"
Li Cunhui yelled at Murong Nobunaga, who immediately asked the few Hanshandu elite riders who had been following him to raise a flag of the sun, moon, stars and three stars fluttering in the wind.
Xiao Shilu felt as if he was struck by lightning. He looked at the Sanchen flag intently, and then shook his head violently.
"Impossible! The Tang Dynasty has not been around for decades, hum! I won't be fooled by you if you try to pull off a tiger's skin."
The formations of both sides were similar, and their tactics were also similar. They concentrated their strong bows and hard crossbows to shoot in the middle, and then spread out their wings like cranes on both sides, using a small number of archers and crossbowmen to form an outflank fire.
Hidden in the formation were several hundred more shock cavalry, wearing armor but not armor, to make the final decision.
The Khitan people left several hundred people to look after the horses, and the Guiyi army also left several hundred people to look after the horses.
At this noon, when the wind was freezing but there was no snow, the Guiyi Army stepped on a thin layer of crunching snow and launched an active attack.
'winter! As soon as the drum sounded, each team quickly beat the small drum in their hands. The fire chief and fire deputy were arranged at both ends of each row. They controlled the rhythm of the team and allowed the soldiers to walk out of the relatively straight queue.
Whenever they take about twenty steps, the small drum in the leader's hand will stop beating, and the army will stop for an instant, and then begin to adjust the queue to make the queue more orderly and ensure that no small team reaches the front of the entire formation.
Then the big drum of the commander of the Chinese army will beat again, and then the small drum of the team leader will start to beat again, and the army will continue to advance.
A total of three thousand infantrymen, armed with crossbows and rifles on their backs, walked in a very uniform pace.
And this slowly approaching pressure is very great.
A drop of cold sweat rolled down Xiao Shilu's forehead, although he thought in his heart that it was impossible for Datang to come back.
But this kind of powerful heavy infantry combined with cavalry is the most typical strategy of the Tang Dynasty.
Moreover, he also took a fancy to the enemy's central army, which had heavy infantry carrying shining Mo Dao.
You must know that since the late Tang Dynasty, the Modao Army, a military unit that consumed a lot of property and relied solely on money, has gradually disappeared.
The Jiedushi envoys will definitely not form the Mo Dao Army. What is the purpose of forming one? After spending all the money, when they rebel, will you cut yourself into pieces and divide them more neatly?
If you have the money to train Modao Army, why not give more to the soldiers to make them more loyal.
At least when trouble breaks out, considering the large share of wealth provided in the past, I will just drive you away instead of hacking your whole family to death.
Armored cavalry began to decline rapidly in the fifth generation, which was partly due to this reason.
Why spend so much money on armored cavalry? The money is so expensive that it can only be used to make the final decision on the battlefield. It is better to share the money with everyone and build good relationships.
And in this era, it would be incredible to be able to form a Mo Dao army and armored cavalry!
Li Cunxu had thousands of armored cavalry and conquered most of the country, which made Zhu Wen feel as if he had a son like Li Yazi.
Yang Xingmi traveled across the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers to form the Black Cloud Changjian City based on the Modao Army. He defeated invincible opponents throughout the southeast and became the first man in the Ten Kingdoms.
All in all, at this time, several countries in the world were standing side by side, and the governors from various places rebelled and surrendered at times. However, those who could maintain armored cavalry and Modao troops in the army were very rare. They must be the strongest among the strong. .
