"My brother lives in the north of the Great Wall and grew up among the trees. My ancestors were favored by the great dynasty. In the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the kings and ministers, fathers and sons, were no longer savages.
When the great dynasty declined, in the past fifty years, it merged with the Bohai Sea, surrendered the Jurchens, and collected all the tribes in the southern and northern deserts. He had the title of emperor and was fortunate to get the land of Yanyun.
In the past, the Xiongnu and the Turks did not have such power. Why did they dare to invade the south with their younger brothers as the stupid, stupid and cruel members of the Sima family of the Jin Dynasty?
The common people are easy to abuse, but God cannot forgive them! In the past four years since the sixth year of Tianfu, wars rang out across the north and south of the river, and beacon fires burned all over the Great Wall. , there is no rooster crow for thousands of miles, and the bones are exposed in the wild.
The Liao soldiers were far more brutal than the Yan thieves in the past. How can my brother pay for the sin of exposing the corpses of millions of people to the wilderness?
Now that we are trapped to death, why not abandon our weapons and surrender as soon as possible? If you can repent, you may be able to save your life and drink water from the Liao River again. "
"Arrogant! Such a rude Tibetan thief, how dare you regard me, the Great Khitan, as a barbarian! Sooner or later, you and Shi Chonggui will have to go to Huanglong Mansion to drink the water of the Liao River together!"
This was Zhang Zhao's letter of challenge for people to be shot into the city. Brother Guang was almost pissed to death.
Especially the phrase "grows among the trees" made Yelu Deguang even more angry. You are the one who grew up among the trees.
Yelu Deguang, who had to arrange a retreat these days, had become Yelu Deguang's confidant. He walked over slowly and said.
"Zhang Thief is just using his words. Your Majesty, there is no need to worry about it. I have already won the support of the generals above the junior general of the Pishi Army on my left and right, and I can leave for the north at any time."
Yelu Deguang sat down in silence, his desperate desire to escape from the current predicament and his illusions and unwillingness constantly impacting his brain.
After a long while, Brother Guang slowly shook his head and said, "It's not the right time yet. If we leave now and the morale of the army is shattered, how can we escape the pursuit of Zhang Thief's cavalry?
Moreover, he fled in a hurry before his defeat was revealed. Even if he returned to the north, it would be difficult to convince the public. "
Yelu Deguang agreed with each other, but he knew in his heart that the reasons Yelu Deguang said were just excuses.
The real reason is that after Brother Guang regained his confidence, he began to have illusions again. To put it mildly, he just couldn't cry until he saw the coffin.
However, Yelu Wuzhi was not prepared to dissuade him. Currently, the Liao Kingdom still had more than 70,000 men and horses around Yanshi City, with sufficient food and grass.
There are also more than ten fortresses and Guancheng on Mang Mountain. It is almost impossible to defeat Zhang Thief, but he still has the qualifications to stand for several months.
On the first day of October, seeing that the Yongliang army's trebuchets were about to be set up, Yelu Deguang finally couldn't sit still.
The Khitans originally had more cavalry than infantry, and the soldiers and generals were already complaining about being trapped in the city. They were still sitting there and being stoned, which might cause problems.
Therefore, after Zhang Zhao issued a declaration of war, Yelu Deguang quickly made arrangements.
The gates of Yanshi City were opened wide, and 10,000 Khitan cavalry and 20,000 Xi and Bohai infantry came out of the city.
Twenty thousand Khitan cavalry also marched from the Mang Mountain area they could still control to the large plain outside Yanshi City.
In addition, eight thousand Han troops controlled by Khitan generals also appeared on the battlefield.
Yelu Deguang rode his emperor's six chariots, holding a yellow Luo Gai umbrella, as the center of the army, with the Pishi army on the left and right as the middle army, the Shan and Xi armies on the left, and the tribal army, Bohai infantry and Jin army on the right. .
He is coming to have a grand battle with Zhang Zhao!
Zhang Zhao certainly welcomes Brother Ye Guang's "interesting" move.
In fact, Yanshi City is quite difficult to fight. It is backed by Mang Mountain and has strong city walls.
It took Yongliang's army more than a month to break through the natural barrier of Yanshi City, Yinluoshui, but within a few days it rained heavily, and the little water diverted by digging canals was nothing compared to the mountain torrents.
Zhang Zhao was originally afraid that the Khitans would leave the city and seize the stronghold by the Yinluo River with him.
Because at that time, in order to avoid heavy rain and flash floods, the Yongliang army had to withdraw half of its troops to the front line of Jinyong City for repairs, and the front line was forced to start rotation.
As a result, the Khitans didn't know what was going on. Apart from daily battles with small groups of cavalry, they did not send any large troops out of the city at all.
So after the weather cleared, Zhang Zhao quickly shot the letter of war in. Unexpectedly, the Khitan people responded immediately, which made Zhang Zhao extremely happy.
The distance from Yin Luoshui to Yanshi City is about six or seven miles. In the entire Central Plains, Yanshi City is an extremely rare mountainous and hilly place.
The overall terrain is high in the north and south and low in the middle. Only the Yinluo River impact plain on the bank of Yinluo River has the flattest terrain, which is a very suitable place for fighting a grand battle.
After uprooting the Khitan fortresses on the Yinluoshui line, the Yongliang army repaired the fortresses that were damaged by gunpowder and used them as military camps for their own defense and repair.
To fight a grand battle in such a large place, there is no room for conspiracy, ambush, luring the enemy, etc.
While the army was still slowly entering the fighting position, the light cavalry from both Yong and Liao sides were already between Mangshan and Yinluohe, and the dogfight had been going on for almost an hour.
It's just that Zhang Zhao didn't let Yi Cong take the lead this time. He sent out hussars from various towns.
The training and equipment of Yi Congxiaoqi are still a bit poor. Just covering such a large area, there is no need for them to increase casualties for their disciples.
The formations of both sides are similar. They form small square formations one after another, and then use the small square formations to form a large square formation. This is the basic formation recorded in the military book, the Bagua formation.
The so-called Bagua array is actually not a mosquito-repellent coil formation at all, nor is it the mysterious-sounding Qimen Dunjia or Jiugong Bagua array.
This thing is actually a formation named after the Bagua directions, which allows the commander to control the number of soldiers and generals in various locations and thus mobilize the army.
What you are looking for is not the appearance of the Eight Diagrams, but the location marked by the Eight Diagrams for easy command.
To put it more simply, we can bring it into the way of marking the direction of clocks in later generations. For example, Qian Gua is the twelve o'clock direction, Kun Gua is the six o'clock direction, etc.
"Shura Martial God"
The advantage of this is that when the messenger is delivering the order, he will not randomly pass on some outrageous things.
For example, if the commander instructs a battalion from the northeast to dispatch, the ordering soldier may be nervous and may hear that the battalions from the east and north are dispatched.
But when the Bagua is used to indicate the direction, he cannot misunderstand the Qian hexagram as the Kun hexagram.
Moreover, the combinations of this Bagua are diverse, and the directions marked are far more accurate and detailed than those of southeast, northwest, and northwest.
At the same time, in terms of drum sounds, specific drum sounds can be defined as the specific meaning of hanging, which will make it easier to convey clearly.
It can also use long and short knocking sounds to allow frontline officers to make pre-adjustments in advance. Once the messengers come together and both parties verify, they can make changes.
Therefore, the Yong and Liao sides set up a formation just outside Yanshi City that sounded mysterious, but in fact was not mysterious at all. It just required the coach to have a strong sense of direction and pass mathematics.
At this point, Zhang Zhao, who had received systematic training from later generations, was a few steps ahead of Yelv Deguang.
Brother Guang had to rely on the help of the officers and guards around him to control the tens of thousands of troops. King Zhang could do it with just a pen, a piece of paper, and a few messengers, which was several times more efficient than Brother Guang.
"Let the Barbarian Bears come forward! First, give the Beirut opposite a show of strength." After the formation was set up, Zhang Zhaoxian was ready to give the Khitans a show of excitement.
Hearing what Zhang Zhao said, the military attendant next to him waved the small flag in his hand, and a big drum standing next to the commander was immediately beaten.
Hearing the sound of the drum, a messenger immediately ran out from the bottom of the hillside. Immediately afterwards, the big drums standing around the armies also began to beat. The drums were two long and two short, representing the direction of the wild bear.
In the mind of the messenger, there is a map of the location of the Bagua array, which is the most basic requirement.
On Zhang Zhao's side, the messengers had a small test every three days and a big test every seven days. If they remembered the various formations and positions incorrectly, they would be punished, or even demoted in serious cases.
When the barbarian bear heard the sound of the drum, he began to put on armor, a layer of chain mail and a layer of cloth-covered iron armor.
He also had a heart guard the size of a pot lid fastened to his chest, and there were quite a lot of hoods, collars, and visors on his head.
After doing this, the stupid bear held a Mo Dao, a divine arm bow on his back, and a Hulu hanging on his waist. As if the devil was alive, he walked forward carrying an oversized flag.
Behind him, a carefully selected auxiliary soldier was holding an extremely long spear, with an air-dried head that could no longer tell whether the hair was combed or not.
Barbarian Bear walked between the two armies, planted the heavy flag on the ground, then picked up the spear of the auxiliary soldier with the human head stuck in it, and under the watchful eyes of all the Khitan people, he took off the human head, then threw it to the ground and used his right hand to He gestured with his feet on it.
"Do the northern captives across the way recognize this flag? There is also this head, which is the head of the captive thief Xiao Shilu. Lord Yao Gu of Liao, your uncle's head is here, do you dare to come and get it?"
The Barbarian Bear's voice was so loud that when he shouted, the soldiers on both sides of Yong and Liao heard it.
On the Yong Jun side, they naturally laughed in unison, insulting, teasing, and being weird.
On the Liao army side, after the barbarian bear dragged the banner over, they all recognized it. It was the banner of Xiao Shilu, the supervisor of the country's uncle.
Although Xiao Shilu has not been favored by Yelu Deguang in recent years, he is still the biological brother of Empress Dowager Shulu Ping and the biological uncle of Yelu Deguang. Suddenly all the Khitan people felt a sting on their faces. .
After the wild bear called Yelv Deguang Yao Gu and trampled Xiao Shilu's head under his feet, the Khitan people's anger erupted like a volcano.
"Your Majesty, please shoot this thief!" The first person who couldn't bear it was the shooter beside Yelu Deguang.
Yelv De's bright face waved his hand, and his shooting hand immediately jumped out of the formation.
He rode his horse to a place one hundred and fifty steps away from the wild bear, dismounted, took out the long-tip bow in his hand, and ran to a place one hundred and ten steps away before stopping.
This distance is somewhat beyond the effective range of ordinary bows, but the shooter is very confident. He is confident that with the bow and archery skills in his hands, he will be able to kill this majestic southern barbarian.
'Whoosh! ''Boom! '
The shooting hand took a deep breath, exhaled suddenly, and the arrow flew accurately towards the wild bear like a dragon.
The bear also took a deep breath and did not even change his posture, but straightened his back slightly.
This cunning giant bear just stooped deliberately because he suspected that the shooter would probably aim at his head, and he should have this shooting skill.
Sure enough, he was right in his bet. The moment the shooting hand's right hand left the bowstring, the bear stood up, and the bow and arrow directly hit the oversized breast shield on his chest.
Barbarian Bear only felt a tightness in his chest, and a huge push came, as if someone had punched him in the chest. It was a little uncomfortable, but he could still hold on.
With a sneer on his face, Shooter shouted from afar, "Nanmanzi, does the plan stop here?"
After saying that, two more arrows were shot out violently!
You know, what the archer is holding is not just a few bows, but a strong bow that weighs as much as a stone, and can shoot two arrows in an instant.
Um! I, King Zhang, also have the power of seven successes.
Barbarian Xiong really didn't expect that this shooting hand would hit him twice in a row. He was caught off guard and felt a sharp pain in his chest, which was so painful that he almost groaned.
However, that's it. The cloth-covered iron armor made of fine steel smelted from the blast furnace in Liangzhou is lined with chainmail. No matter what kind of bow it is, if it is shot from more than a hundred steps, it will definitely be impossible to completely break through the armor. of.
The wild bear grinned, and waved at the withered hand provocatively.
"Beilu? Does the plan stop here?"
Archer felt his face heat up, and his face turned red. He quietly grabbed an arrow with his left hand and suddenly ran forward.
He also realized that the wild bear might have a treasure armor on it, but no matter what kind of treasure armor it was, it couldn't be broken in a hundred or ten steps, so how could you resist it in eighty steps?
Under the blessing of the overwhelming anger, the shooting hand rabbit flew up and down, and reached the position of eighty or ninety steps in a few leaps.
He was about to draw the bow when he suddenly noticed that the giant bear-like man opposite him suddenly took out something that looked like a bow but not a bow from behind.
'Oops! It's over now! '
This was the last thought that flashed through Shooter's mind. He was careless.
According to common sense, those who wear three layers of armor generally do not carry bows and arrows, because it is very laborious to draw a bow while wearing heavy armor.
Moreover, the shooter is confident. With his skill, he can kill the opponent before he draws his bow.
But despite all his calculations, he never expected that the other party would bring a crossbow!
Click! The mechanical sound of the divine arm bow sounded, and the crossbow arrows fired by the powerful crossbow of two stones and one bucket instantly penetrated the chest and abdomen of the archer.
The huge impact even caused the shooting hand to sway a few times like a dead leaf in the wind.
When the blood sprayed out, a huge blood hole had been pierced through the lungs of the shooting hand.
He was breathing desperately, trying to complete the action of drawing the bow, but he couldn't complete it, which was originally an easy task for him.
After struggling for a few times, Shooter fell to the ground.
The wild bear grinned and said, "I can't hit you at a hundred paces. You came up to the eighty paces on your own."
"Look at me taking your dog's life!" Just when the shooter fell to the ground and the entire Khitan army fell silent.
A general wearing black armor, wearing a headgear that was obviously not in the Central Plains style, and a pointed helmet with a nose guard came out of the battle, shouting and cursing loudly.
This was a blond and blue-eyed general with the blood of a yellow-headed Uighur or a yellow-headed Shiwei. He had a yellow gelding on his hip and a long iron spear in his hand, and he charged towards the wild bear.
If they were fighting against each other on foot, they would be almost completely crushed. So, just as the yellow-headed hero rode out, Chen Tingxiao, who was closest to the bear, also rode out.
General Huang Touxiao also saw Chen Tingxiao and immediately rushed towards him. The two riders got closer and closer.
Suddenly, Chen Tingxiao pulled his horse and went astray. The blade of this weapon is extremely long. Most of the pictures of horses in later generations are actually 铩.
Compared with Ma Shan, Zhen was more conducive to thrusting, so Chen Tingxiao was stupid before confronting him.
Just when he pulled his horse and went astray, the little thief took out a spiked meteor hammer from his waist. He turned his body slightly to one side, and the meteor hammer whizzed and flew towards the yellow-headed general. .
General Huang Touxiao also guarded against the opponent's dirty tricks. Almost at the same time when Chen Tingxiao threw the meteor hammer, he also took out a halberd-like thing with his left hand and threw it towards Chen Tingxiao.
However, he didn't expect that what Chen Tingxiao threw out was such a thing!
Weapons like the meteor hammer are really difficult to practice, and they are still on horseback. There are not many people who are capable of this. Since I have to work hard to practice this thing, I might as well think more about how to use it.
As a result, Huang Touxiao general met the strange Chen Tingxiao.
At that moment, two screams rang out, and Chen Tingxiao was hit on the back of the head by a handhalberd. With a clang, he felt like stars were in his eyes and he almost fell off his horse.
But the Yellow-headed General was in misfortune. Such a huge meteor hammer hit the Huang-headed General directly in the face.
The barbarian bear only heard a tooth-piercing sound of hammering flesh. Huang Touxiao spattered blood on his face, howled miserably, shook twice, and fell off the horse.
In an instant, the Khitan company lost one member of the shooting team and the general on horseback. All the soldiers felt extremely embarrassed. Yelu Wuzhi and other Khitan generals looked at each other and wanted to stop them from continuing.
Because they can see that Zhang Zhao's Shandu is indeed a terrifying opponent. There are many masters and good equipment, and they may not be able to compete with them.
However, before they took action, the Khitan side of the battlefield heard the roar of mountains and tsunami. What they shouted was a person's name.
"Iwaki! Iwaki!"
"Iwaki! Iwaki!"
All the Khitan soldiers banged their weapons and let out loud shouts that shook the world.
In front of everyone's expectations, a giant man almost the same size as a wild bear, wrapped in armor like an ancient monster, appeared!
The giant man was not called Yanmu, but because his grandfather was named Yelu Yanmu.
This man was the great-uncle of Yelu Deguang and the grandfather of Yelu Wuzhi. This man was very tall and strong. He could tear open the made deer skin and his sound was like a loud bell that could be heard miles away.
Starting from Yeluyanmu, there will almost always be such giants in subsequent generations. They are a symbol of bravery among Khitan people.
The strong man who came out among the crowd was Yelu Chong, the half-mother of Yelu House.
Just by being conscious, Barbarian Bear realized that the person facing him would be a terrifying opponent who was evenly matched with him. He threw the divine arm bow to the auxiliary soldiers behind him, and holding his usual long-handled ax, he slowly Go forward.
Yelv Chong had no other weapons, just an iron bone flower in his hand. Two strong men, nearly 1.9 meters tall and weighing more than 200 kilograms, slowly approached as everyone watched in silence.
Er shouted loudly twice, and the two of them suddenly exerted their strength and rushed toward the opposite side. For a moment, the ground seemed to be shaking.
In this kind of duel between warriors, there is not much room for conspiracy, and they don't bother to use any conspiracy.
This is a battle of strength.
There are no fancy moves, because they don't work. With their size and wearing two layers of iron armor, there is no room for small assassination weapons, only hammers and axes.
In the clash of gold and iron, you hit me with a hammer, and I hit you with an axe. After several duels, Yelv hit the bear with a hammer on its head.
Blood immediately flowed from the bear's pocket, and even his eyebrows and eyelashes were red.
It was Barbarian Bear's turn. He used all his strength to hit Yelu Deguang's shoulder with the long-handled ax when Yelv Chong didn't hit him for the second time.
The sound of broken shoulder blades was heard. Yelv Chong, who had been hit hard countless times, couldn't bear it anymore. He screamed and the bone in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.
The bear didn't stop and immediately struck Yelv Chong's chest with his axe.
Just like a wild bear, blood immediately flowed out of Yelv Chong's chest, and his forehead was even dented.
"Silang!" Yelu Wuzhi howled miserably.
After losing all three battles, the Khitan soldiers looked at each other with bloodless expressions on their faces.
Barbarian Bear did not continue to hit the target, but walked back, cut off the flagpole of Xiao Shilu's flag that was standing on the ground with an axe, and then crushed Xiao Shilu's head with a kick.
"Kill them all! Leave no one behind!"
Yelu Deguang stood on the sixth throne of his emperor, already so angry that he lost his mind.
"The front army moves forward and attacks according to the planned plan!"
Zhang Zhao quietly wiped the cold sweat from his face. He was also afraid that the bear would die in battle! The blow to him and the Yongliang army would also be very severe.
"One, two, three, four, five!" Amidst the shouts one after another, every leader of the Yongliang Army was counting while beating the big drum in front of them as the army attacked.
Whenever the count reaches four or five, the entire army will stop.
The front troops of the Yongliang Army were all white crossbowmen wearing cyan leather armor and white footwear!
Compared with the elite crossbowmen of the Yongliang Army, the Khitan's Xiren and Bohai people's archers are a bit unsatisfactory.
Yelu Deguang didn't know at all. He, like everyone else, thought that what Zhang Zhao was most proud of was the Yongliang cavalry.
But in fact, the white crossbowmen under Zhang Zhao are also elite, because the first weapon that I, King Zhang, opened was the Divine Arm Bow.
When he was in the Western Regions, without the more than a hundred divine arm bows and a large number of horned crossbows built by the whole country of Khotan, in the battle of Poluzhou, Zhang Zhao might have been killed by Saktu.
The Khitan people had few crossbows, which became their unsolvable weakness. On the battlefield, the rumbling drums of the Yongliang army suddenly turned into rapid short drums.
In an instant, thousands of arrows were fired!
Not only the white crossbowmen in the infantry array also missed, but the hussars among the light cavalry on both sides who were dueling also began to use horn crossbows to intensively shoot at the Khitan cavalry.
The Khitan cavalry, who were suddenly hit by crossbows, immediately spread out. Yelu Deguang learned the lesson from Takamatsu last time and was careful not to be defeated by the Yongliang cavalry with a wall-mounted charge.
However, in fact, most of the people currently facing off against the Khitan cavalry are light-armored hussars.
Their training focuses on small group division, expulsion and close combat.
As a result, as soon as the Khitan cavalry dispersed, they were immediately blocked by a large number of hussars, and those who were hacked were turned upside down.
At the same time, on the front, the Khitan archers held fast and were brutally shot by a large number of crossbow arrows, and finally reached the effective shooting range of the bows and arrows. Arrows from both sides flew away, and the casualty rate began to increase dramatically.
After the battle reached a fever pitch, Zhang Zhao immediately ordered the long-awaited cavalry to put on armor and go into battle, constantly looking for weaknesses in the Khitan infantry to attack.
The Khitan people's tactics were similar. They all chose to dispatch iron cavalry to attack the opponent's infantry phalanx.
Zhang Zhao, who was in command on the hilltop, was not panicked at all, because he could see that the exchange ratio between the two sides was in his favor.
Almost all the Khitan soldier formations on the battlefield were shaken to varying degrees.
Especially after experiencing a large number of crossbow shooting, their combat capabilities and will to combat have been greatly reduced.
However, the Khitan still had an army of 60,000 to 70,000, which was more numerous than the Yongliang army, and the Khitan leader Yelu Deguang was on the battle formation, so it would not collapse so easily.
So Zhang Zhao looked to another place.
There, there was an army rowing on the water, which was clearly the Jin army's surrender. Perhaps, this was the breakthrough point for the Yongliang army.
