Outside Heyang Town, shouts of killing were heard one after another.
Bai Congxin mobilized 30,000 troops and lined up outside the city. Like a rock in the waves, they unwaveringly withstood the waves of Persian attacks.
The two sides fought from sunrise to early afternoon (three o'clock in the afternoon). After paying the price of four to five thousand casualties, the Persian army finally succeeded in breaking up the Han army's formation and dividing the Han army into three pieces.
However, Bai Congxin was not panicked at all, because the Persian army did not disperse his main force.
The four thousand heavy armored infantry as the main force and the six hundred troops led by Lu Sanlang himself are still gathering together, and have not reached their limit.
Even the less powerful troops who were cut and surrounded were unable to be eaten by the Persians.
Abu Yusuf felt a little bad in his heart, because he did not expect that the Han army was so tenacious and endured a hard fight. More than 100,000 people surrounded 30,000 people and fought for almost four hours, but the opponent still showed no sign of being overwhelmed.
On the contrary, it was a little troublesome on my side.
The Saman Persian army has never encountered such a tough opponent before. Under the excellent matching mechanism of the Hezhong region in the past, the cavalry basically went up to fight first, and generally speaking, it would be a decisive battle soon.
Your own cavalry defeats the opponent's cavalry, and then with a little scare, the opponent's infantry will collapse, and then you can just chase them down.
Those who can experience the cavalry battle first, and then the infantry shooting each other, and can fight for an hour or two are considered to be the heavenly soldiers in the river.
But today, after fighting for a full four hours, hundreds of thousands of Persian troops were exhausted, but the opposite side was still as solid as a rock.
Although Abu Yusuf used wheel warfare, in this bad weather, the troops who had been rotated for one round had obviously shown low morale due to fatigue.
Looking from a distance, the steps of the soldiers seemed extremely heavy when they put on their armor and walked around after taking off their armor frequently. Those who used to take out their bows and shoot three or five arrows before the battle now all directly Go up and fight with swords and guns.
As for the ordinary troops who had not received armor, the previously neat ranks began to look skewed, and some fell to the ground and passed out while walking.
When attacking, it was like going to death, dawdling and lifeless. Once they heard the sound of retreating drums, they instantly regained their vitality and retreated in a swarm.
"Oval, the main force of the Peach Blossom Stone People is the soldiers. Although they are very powerful, there are less than 10,000 people.
I will give you 20,000 cavalry. After this wave of infantry attacks, you will rush over immediately and be sure to open a gap in their square formation. "
Abu Yusuf used himself to save others and believed that the Han army's soldiers were almost at the last moment, so he decided to use his trump card, four thousand armored cavalry and sixteen thousand light armored cavalry.
At the same time, considering that the Han army still had more than 10,000 cavalry outside, Abu Yusuf first sent out his 500 elite cavalry to serve as sentry cavalry, and then summoned four teams of 10,000 people who were taking turns to rest, and arranged them in To the north and east, defend against the possible return of Han cavalry.
There is actually no problem with all this mobilization. There are both offensive blades and defensive shields in place.
But Abu Yusuf should not have met an opponent he would not have met.
They were twelve thousand fanatical religious knights who believed in the Six Dharma Sect, selected from the grasslands, and blessed with BUFFs such as tempered weapons and talismanic weapons.
The religious fanaticism of these Six Methods Sect disciplinary knights can only be compared to the martyred knights when the Tianfang Sect was first born.
Of course, this is only in terms of morale. In terms of combat skills, even the Martyred Knights are completely incomparable to the Punishment Knights.
Abu Yusuf had just changed his formation here, and Ovar's cavalry had not yet started to attack Bai Congxin's soldiers. The 40,000 troops responsible for defending the east and north sides had just begun to mobilize and had not yet arrived, when a sound came from the distance. Here comes the urgent alarm.
The disciplinary knights of the Six Dharma Sect have appeared!
It was this moment that Ruktu was waiting for, this chaotic moment of Persian army mobilization.
He took out the statue of Dharma King Bodhisattva that had been hanging on his chest and prayed a few words in a low voice.
Luktu clearly remembered what a miserable life the Xizubu people lived when the Supreme God did not send his stepfather to them, and when the mercy of the Supreme God did not spread to the grasslands.
When he, the son of a tribe leader, eats sheep, he has to count the lumps of salt he adds one by one. He tastes the soup after adding each lump. Once the salty taste is felt, he dares not add any more.
But now, Ruktu's face flashed with pride. There are no poor men on the grassland. Those who are still suffering from poverty should not have appeared in this world.
Men who cannot pick up a machete and fight for the Supreme Being are worthy of staying on the grassland and gnawing grass roots like cattle and sheep!
"Eagles of the Khan of Heaven! Punishment Knights of the Supreme Heaven, let all heretics wail in the endless hell forever. Kill them!"
In the sky, the dark clouds suddenly dispersed, and in the cold wind, a weak but tenacious sunlight shone through the layers of obstacles.
"Kill!" With a roar that shook the sky, 12,000 fine knights began to run towards the Persians from a distance of 500 steps.
No one cares about horsepower, no one is afraid, they just want the enemy to die!
The arrows in the sky were denser than raindrops, and they were shot out with loud copper whistles. First, the centurions at the front shot colorful arrows with strange sounds, followed closely by the centurions, and most of all the ordinary soldiers. .
They are very organized. The centurion will only draw his bow and shoot when he sees the direction in which the centurion is shooting. The soldiers below are all staring at the direction of the centurion's shooting. Anyone who does not draw his bow after the centurion shoots will shoot in the wrong direction. , you will be severely punished if you go back.
Therefore, when more than 10,000 bows shoot in one direction almost at the same time, there is very little error.
The lethality brought by such terrifying precision shooting is huge.
A Persian army of ten thousand people led by Luktu rushed forward, as if the god himself had drawn a bow from the sky and shot it. A huge groove appeared in the moving Persian phalanx in an instant, and countless soldiers fell to the ground and wailed loudly.
And there will not be only one wave of shooting, but one, two, and three waves, until the Persian army of ten thousand people is cut in half, crying and starting to collapse.
Then Lu Ketu, Chen Tingxiao, and An Cunzhong each led 4,000 cavalry to drive away the defeated Persian army. They hid behind these defeated troops, waiting for the defeated troops to disrupt their own army formation, and then immediately covered them up and killed them.
Occasionally, if the troops with stronger combat effectiveness were not scattered by the defeated troops, they would immediately shoot with strong bows until they collapsed and then attack.
This set of tactics would not have produced such an effect four hours ago.
But now, the Persian army, which had never experienced a fierce battle with the Central Plains army and could fight with high intensity for a whole day, was already exhausted and extremely hungry.
In this case, once they encounter an enemy they feel they cannot resist, many low-level soldiers and officers will often break the bank and choose to escape from the battlefield.
Why are you working so hard for a few hundred yuan a month?
Luktu and the others were divided into three groups and fought left and right among hundreds of thousands of Persian troops. Countless people fell in response. After several repeated attacks, Luktu finally found the biggest target of this battle.
It's not Abu Yusuf. Although he does have some ability and is also a famous general of Saman Persia, he is not very eye-catching in the Great Zhou Dynasty. His ability is only on the same level as his stepfather Lu Zhen Lu Sanlang, so there is no need to specifically target him.
The target Ruktu was looking for was the 20,000 cavalry led by Oval.
At least 8,000 of them were Gulam Guards cavalry from Bukhara, and more than 10,000 were Iqta knights and their servant cavalry composed of vassals from various places.
Compared with Abu Yusuf, they are the pillars of Samampos. Without them, it would be difficult for Samampos to hold on.
Just like two people looking for each other with flashlights under the dark night sky, Ruktu quickly discovered these Gulam Guards cavalry, and Omar also discovered these disciplinary knights who combined light and heavy cavalry.
In an instant, the eyes of both sides lit up, and the guards around Luktu took out the horns on their waists and blew them loudly, calling all the disciplinary knights to come over and assemble.
"Warriors of Allah, destroy the heretics!"
"The Supreme God will protect his devotees, and the eagle of the Khan of Heaven is invulnerable!"
The battlefield seemed to have become quiet, and both the Persian and Han troops around them all ran away quickly, as if they were making way for these two cavalry.
Blow the trumpet, trot slowly, draw your long sword and saber, and start running wildly.
The tactics of both sides are the same. They don't need to shoot with bows and arrows. They just start fighting hard and end the battle with the most courageous cavalry method.
boom! They finally collided with each other, and countless horses passed by each other. You didn't need any moves at all. You could definitely hit the enemy with a light wave or a poke.
White blades fly like frost, red stars bleed.
It seems that the battle two hundred years ago has reappeared in front of people's eyes, but the difference this time is that instead of being betrayed, the heavy infantry and heavy cavalry of the Han army, which had lost the cover of light cavalry, could only fight with Mo Dao's tired face. Attack on Persian cavalry.
Instead, the grassland cavalry, which had superior equipment, martial arts, and organization, and was armed with the Six Methods Sect, stormed the Persian cavalry, which was at a disadvantage in all statistics.
Therefore, although the Persians were eight to nine thousand more in number and had the advantage of being at ease waiting for work, they were still beaten in a panic. The two sides repeatedly charged and killed each other outside Heyang Town.
Gradually, the Persian cavalry could not hold on any longer. The disciplinary knights who were blessed with spiritual beliefs seemed to be tireless and could even rush forward without avoiding casualties. The more the Persian cavalry fought, the more timid they became.
At this time, Bai Congxin ordered his people to raise the silver-white flag of decisive battle, organized a wave of decisive soldiers composed of at least the vassals of the Inspection Department and their nephews, and took the lead in fighting out of the infantry formation.
Although they were extremely exhausted, in their desire for victory, they still burst out with extremely strong fighting power, killing tens of thousands of Persian infantry who besieged them and retreating one after another.
Abu Yusuf took off the iron armor on his head, and his hair was completely wet with cold sweat.
"Play music and order all the armies to come closer to me. Send messengers to the rear army and order them to be prepared to respond."
In a very short time, Abu Yusuf made a decision, a ruthless decision!
Now the cavalry on the opposite side is still fighting its final battle with its own cavalry, while the infantry on the opposite side has lost much strength. It is still possible to retreat, otherwise there will be nothing you can do if the cavalry is defeated.
Moreover, the Persian army still has a large camp five miles west of Heyang Town. There are more than 4,000 soldiers left behind and the civilians can make up 20,000 people. Let's retreat to the big camp to stabilize the situation before making a decision!
The Persian army began to retreat under the command of Abu Yusuf. Although it was chaotic, the general order was still conveyed.
On the battlefield, the Persian cavalry who were on the verge of collapse were not keenly aware that their comrades were constantly withdrawing from the battlefield, but General Oval saw it. Not only did he see it, he also vaguely heard the sound of retreating drums.
However, Oval sighed deeply and said nothing.
Because he knew that without them to contain these fanatical mahogany cavalry, the retreating infantry would be pursued one after another and suffer heavy casualties.
After countless thoughts quickly circulated in his mind, Oval took a deep breath, then raised his sword high again, and was the first to charge towards the Maohuashi Cavalry.
Once the number of people exceeds 10,000, it is boundless, let alone hundreds of thousands of people here. The numerous chaotic figures conceal the true purpose of Abu Yusuf.
As he expected, the divided Han infantry still had the strength to fight in formation, but after the threat of death decreased, many people began to lose strength, and the pursuit was not so fast.
But when Ruktu completely defeated the Persian cavalry and personally beheaded the Persian deputy Saral cavalry general Oval, he discovered that the Persian army had begun to leave the battlefield.
Luktu immediately ordered the pursuit, but the effect was not good, because the 20,000 Persian cavalry they had just defeated were the cream of the entire Persian army.
These dead cavalry left behind a large amount of iron armor, fine horses, and gold and silver ornaments. At the same time, their heads were also valuable trophies.
Luktu's ability to lead an army to attack and his reputation for bravery are very good, but his command and arrangement of the army is still lacking.
Not just anyone can be like Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui, who can handle everything on the battlefield when they are in their twenties.
Therefore, even though Ruktu kept blowing the rallying horn, there were still a large number of prairie cavalry who began to fight for the spoils.
And even if they heard his order and came to assemble, the men and horses began to lose strength due to the fierce charge and were almost reaching their limit.
Moreover, not only Ruktu's cavalry were competing for the spoils of war, but Bai Congxin's large number of infantrymen, composed of vassals and vassal soldiers, were also competing for the spoils of war. The only ones that could be assembled were those Bai Congxin recruited from the Forbidden Army. Thousands of soldiers.
At this time, if the Persians can have the morale to come back and fight back, they might be able to achieve good results. There are many armies and battles like this in history.
This is the profound reason why Zhang Zhou's personal army and the imperial army can become the strongest elites. In addition to their tyrannical fighting power, the discipline of Zhang Zhou's personal army and the imperial army is very strict.
There are strict and detailed regulations on how to clean the battlefield and allocate credit, so there will never be a situation like this.
In the end, Ruktu barely managed to gather six to seven thousand men to pursue the retreating Persian army. Although he also killed a large number of Persian soldiers, he was still unable to rush to the vicinity of Abu Yusuf and could not cut down the Persians. The flag was so large that it was impossible to completely defeat the Persian army.
. . . .
The five-mile journey seemed like hell to Abu Yusuf.
During this short five-mile journey, at least 30,000 of the 100,000 Persian soldiers and civilians who followed him were killed and captured. It could be described as a road of blood and tears.
Seeing that the camp was in sight and the soldiers and horses in the camp were ready to respond, Abu Yusuf finally felt a little calmer.
As long as we can hold on and wait until dark, we can arrange for the elite to start preparing to retreat. If we can bring back 30 to 50 thousand people back to Jeddah Fortress, we can still hold the north gate of Kangju (Samarkand).
At this moment, when he felt a little calmer in his heart, the rumble of war drums sounded from behind. On both sides of a silver-white Sanchen flag, huge tiger-shaped flags appeared on the plain in the distance, and began to Approaching at great speed.
Hu Guang is here!
"Why did the Han army from Suiye come? Didn't they all return to Suiye?"
Abu Yusuf screamed. He had fought back and forth with the Han army for several years, so he naturally knew what it meant.
Hu Guang's 10,000 infantrymen were not only a fresh force, but also the elite among the elite. Under the leadership of Hu Guang, they launched a general attack on the defeated Samampos army before Ruktu's pursuit troops arrived.
Within half an hour, the Persian army camp with more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians collapsed again.
This time it was a complete collapse. Hundreds of thousands of people, like termites whose nests had been overturned, ran towards the south toward the direction of the killing water.
In the evening, after an hour of struggling and escaping, the Persian army arrived at the Yaosha River, only to find that the thousands of Persian naval troops and water cities that remained here had long been captured by the Ningyuan Army and the Jin Kingdom Fan Army. Their only way out was There were dozens of boats left.
For a moment, the cries were loud, and the Han army attacked from three sides. A few of the desperate Persian soldiers and civilians were still howling and resisting, while most of them were stressed out in panic.
They kept escaping into the poisonous water in this dark and deep winter, and soon disappeared after splashing in the water.
. . . .
In the eighth year of the Shaoming Dynasty (AD 953), Saman Persia's Great Salar, a general with military power, the brother-in-law of Prince Salah, and the governor of Kangju City, Abu Yusuf, led an army of 120,000 and about 100,000 civilians. , a total of 230,000 people, the so-called 500,000-strong army went northward in an attempt to regain Shiguo City.
Abu Yusuf is not an ignorant fool, nor is he an arrogant young nobleman. On the contrary, he is precisely a rare famous general in Samambas.
Even Lu Ketu's evaluation of him was comparable to Lu Zhen Lu Sanlang.
Although Lu Sanlang was not very eye-catching among the star-studded generals of Zhang Zhou, his abilities were not weak at all. It was still very powerful to be able to sneak into the position of a grand duke of a foreign vassal even among pigs and dogs.
It can be said that Abu Yusuf's trip to the north was not only not irrational, but also somewhat well planned, because he happened to have a time lag with Hu Guang.
You must know that Hu Guang's Anxi Army has 20,000 people, and Suiye has no enemy threat. In the past three trials, Hu Guang led 15,000 to 20,000 people to help in the battle.
But for this battle, Hu Guang came in a hurry, and there were only about 9,500 people.
At the same time, because the battle came too suddenly, the Jin Guofan army was mobilized at the last moment.
It can be said that Abu Yusuf keenly felt the subtle relationship between Bai Congxin, Hu Guang and Lao Zhangzhong, and he has done the best he can.
However, in the end, all conspiracies and machinations must rely on strength to speak for themselves.
Abu Yusuf had exhausted all his plans, but his 120,000 troops faced Bai Congxin's more than 50,000 miscellaneous troops. Let alone defeat them, they could not even defeat them to a certain extent.
So despite his ingenious tactics, he ended up with his entire army annihilated.
In this battle, more than 10,000 of the 230,000 people in Saman Persia were directly killed, more than 40,000 were captured, and more than 30,000 were seriously injured and died.
Countless people died after poisoning the water. Even the river water was dyed red. At least 50,000 people died.
Among the remaining 100,000 people, only a few thousand were expected to be able to cross the river smoothly. The rest were either caught up and killed by the Han army or captured and made slaves, or died on the way out for various reasons.
In the end, there were only more than 4,000 people who followed Abu Yusuf and escaped to the Jeddah Fortress. It can be said that the entire army was wiped out.
Based on the fact that Samandro has a population of 4.3 million, and adult males account for 35% of the total population, there are about 1.51 million adult males in Saman Persia.
This time, at least 200,000 yuan was lost, or 13%.
What's even more frightening is that in this era, you can't mobilize as many people as you have. Some people can use violent agencies to collect some taxes, but if you want to recruit them after being severely damaged, that's basically a luxury.
Calculating it this way, the Emirate of Saman Persia lost at least 30% of the men it could mobilize in this battle.
Moreover, not every man can become a warrior. Even if everyone can, it cannot be trained in a short time.
At the same time, a large amount of materials were lost in this fiasco. Armor, weapons and horses accounted for at least 60% of the country's total. The grain and grass hoarded by the whole country in Kangju (Samarkand) were also basically lost.
There are only two to three thousand elite Ghulam guards left, and almost all the Iqta noble vassals in the country have been wiped out.
It can be said that after the disastrous defeat in this battle, the Emirate of Saman Persia has actually reached the edge of annihilation.
. . . .
Guo Tinger was wearing a green robe and a robe on her head, and several soldiers wearing cloth-covered iron armor were guarding her behind her.
Everywhere she walked, the Saman Persian captives who were wallowing in blood and mud, when they saw a gentle-faced official, kowtowed crazily on the ground, begging the official to forgive them and not let them become slaves. camp.
Guo Ting'er was stunned. She saw a man kowtowing to him crazily. Once upon a time, she had seen this man in Talas. He was Hakem (Governor-General of Herat Province of Samandro) and a close branch of the Samani royal family. .
This noble Hakem Al-Habad, who originally seemed to be in the sky, is now as humble as a wild dog wallowing in the quagmire.
Guo Ting'er slowly walked towards Hakeem. Hubbard stopped kowtowing and put his head on the ground very obediently.
Guo Ting'er slowly raised her foot, stepped on Hubbard's head that was already balding, and said in a very standard Khorasan accent Persian:
"Habad, His Majesty the Peach Blossom Stone Emperor, the Heavenly Khan of the Prairie People, the favorite concubine of Shah Shah (King of Kings of Persia), and the Princess Sefiyeh of the Samans, now recruits you as her loyal servant. Dog!"
As soon as these standard Persian words were spoken, the prisoners kneeling in the mud and water went crazy.
They howled wildly, and everyone knelt on the ground, wanting to kneel in front of Guo Ting'er and kiss his shoes. The blood flow did not stop even when the guards beat their heads with wooden sticks.
Hubbard trembled all over, and then shouted in surprise in the mud, "Princess Sefiye? Hubbard is willing to become Princess Sefiye."
No! The humble Hubbard is not qualified to be the loyal dog of Princess Saifir. It is enough for Hubbard to be the slave of the mahogany Sahabi (Your Excellency). "
"Hahahaha!" Guo Ting'er laughed crazily, laughing until tears fell down her cheeks. The scenes echoed in her mind, and she shouted in a thousand words:
"Hulu is so valuable!"
After venting his anger, Guo Tinger raised her hands to the Zuo Jinwu guards who had escorted him all the way.
"Brother Hu, lock up this Hulu. We will need him later. Let's go see General Tiger!"
On the battlefield where mud and blood were mixed, but where she felt extremely glorious and proud, Guo Tinger wiped away her tears, knowing that it was her turn to perform.
Samampos was destined to be destroyed, but not now, which is why the sage asked Princess Sefiye to recognize her as his sister.
