Shao Ling led his 500 soldiers, and according to Wang Xiao's hunting commander's flag military order, he slowly advanced towards the left flank of Yang Jin's army in front. After all, Yang Jin's army was not a regular army. There were not many bows and crossbows in the army, and there were not many obstacles on the road.
The regular army of the Song Dynasty had a large number of crossbows, most of which accounted for more than 70%. The attacking army often has to be baptized by the rain of arrows first. If it is not a truly strong army, it will often collapse on the road.
To fight the Song army, the Liao army relied on long-distance penetration and cutting off food routes. Xixia relies on making strides forward and retreating, and gathering superior forces in favorable terrain. The Jin army was different. It relied on strong frontal attacks and rapid cavalry maneuvers.
Yang Jin's army did not have these skills, so they could only gather in a dense formation and wait for Shao Ling to attack.
Wang Xiaolie looked to the west and saw that Zhai Xing's troops had already crossed the river and began to form formation on the bank. However, Yang Jin still occupies a favorable location and has a large number of people, so there is no disadvantage. Zhai Xing's army was about to cross the river, and it was obviously a very hard fight.
From Wang Xiaolie's position, the voices from the front line could no longer be heard clearly. I just saw Shao Ling's troops running straight into Yang Jin's left wing, where they were stalemate. The rest of the army stood quietly, waiting for the results there.
After a cup of tea, Yang Jin's military formation began to waver and became somewhat scattered. The two armies behind, Xie Linong and Yu Huan, cheered together when they saw this.
On the top of the mountain in the south, Niu Gao prepared his military formation and quietly observed what was going on below.
Yang Jin's army was disorganized after all. He did not investigate the surroundings of the battlefield and found no movement from Niu Gao. But now that the formation was in order, Niu Gao had no place to attack as he rushed forward, so he had to wait quietly.
As the sun rose above his head, Wang Xiaolie waited anxiously. Shao Ling moved Yang Jinjun's formation, but did not disperse it. The troops nearby provided timely support and stabilized the entire army. If the entire army's formation is not in chaos, there will be no opportunity to attack.
The sun streaked across the sky, and in the afternoon, Shao Ling's army had no choice but to withdraw, and the two armies continued to confront each other. Afterwards, there were only small-scale battles involving dozens of people on the battlefield, and there was no major battle. One day passed like this.
Returning to the military camp, Zhai Cong said to Wang Xiao Xiechashou: "Zhizhou, we must fight with all our strength and don't hesitate. Like today, when will we be able to defeat Yang Jin? A bandit like Yang Jin, the longer time goes by, the worse his morale will be. exuberant!"
Wang Xiaolie looked at Zhai Cong and said calmly: "Although Yang Jin's army was moved today, they did not scatter and there was no chance. Please wait calmly in the office. If there is an opportunity, I will naturally not let it go."
Zhai Cong said anxiously: "Our army is separated from Yang Jin's army by the Yi River. If not, we would have killed him long ago! Zhizhou——"
Wang Xiaolie waved his hand: "Ya Nei, you are watching the battle in our army. I already told you that you are not supervising the army! I have my own plan on how to fight!"
After saying that, he didn't even look back to the commander's tent. Zhai Cong was stunned there, not knowing what to say for a moment.
Wang Xiaolie disliked Zhai Cong very much in his army. He came to urge me to be even more annoying. From the bottom of his heart, Wang Xiaolie wanted to have a good relationship with the Zhai family and treated Zhai Cong with great courtesy. But it's one thing to treat him well, and another thing to let him dictate.
When the army is fighting, of course it hopes to have someone on the side to help. One more person adds more strength. Even if you just give an opinion, even if the opinion is worthless, that is still good. But it’s another thing if there is someone on the side dictating whether to do this or that. This is the reason why everyone hates the Supervisory Army from top to bottom.
Wang Xiaolie knew that Zhai Cong was a good person and did not want to fall out with him. But it was his uncle who died in the battle at the front, and the entire Zhai family army was in full force, vowing to fight Yang Jin to the death, so the way he looked at himself changed. No matter what he did, he felt he was not doing his best.
It was getting late, and Wang Xiaolie called the commander of the army to his commander's tent. After thinking about it, he sent another soldier to call Zhai Cong.
Zhai Cong entered the commander's tent and saw the commanders sitting on both sides, with wine and meat in front of each of them. There was an empty seat at the top, presumably for myself.
Wang Xiaolie said: "We have been fighting for a whole day today, with gains and losses. Let's discuss it here. If the yamen is free, we can sit aside and listen."
Zhai Cong was a little embarrassed and quickly thanked him.
Xie Linong said: "That's what Zhizhou said. Since the Yameni is not around, it is inevitable to guess. We are fighting life and death on the front line, and the Yameni may think that we are not trying our best. After listening to it together, the Yameni feels at ease."
Wang Xiaolie said: "When you say this, aren't you just guessing what's going on in the office? We ourselves shouldn't speculate, just say what you have to say. It's normal to be unhappy at the moment, so don't let it form knots in your heart."
Zhai Cong crossed his hands: "That's what Zhizhou said."
Wang Xiaolie raised the wine bowl: "Let's have a drink before we talk."
I drank wine and ate some pieces of meat. Wang Xiaolie said: "In today's battle, although Yang Jin's army formation was not disrupted, it can be seen that his army formation was not very tight. If we fight again tomorrow, it is best to find a way to be more intense."
Shao Ling said: "It's too slow to lead the infantry forward. Yang Jin's army is just a mob, otherwise how could it go so smoothly? Tomorrow we should all lead the cavalry and charge with all our strength. The infantry will panic when they see the cavalry."
Wang Xiaolie said: "We only have a few hundred cavalry, how many are there if we all gather together? Besides, I use Niu Gao as a surprise soldier. If all of them are infantry, it will be difficult to seize the opportunity even if there is a fighter."
Shao Ling said: "You don't need too many. As long as there are a hundred cavalry, it is better than the five hundred infantry soldiers today."
Wang Xiaolie nodded, unable to make up his mind for a moment. To be honest, cavalry should be used for this small group of troops rushing into battle. Cavalry is indeed used in most cases. However, there were too few cavalry in Wang Xiao's hunting army to do this.
Unlike infantry, cavalry has diverse tactics and is highly mobile. You can rush to the front of the formation to change direction, you can use bows and arrows to disrupt the enemy's formation, you can charge directly, and there are many different tactics. Once unfavorable, you can withdraw in time and change the direction of attack.
Zhai Cong on the side said: "Yang Jin has many cavalry on the bank of the Yi River to prevent us from rushing across the bank. If the governor has cavalry, he should use it as much as possible. If not, Yang Jin will transfer the cavalry here. On the contrary, it’s not good.”
Wang Xiaolie thought for a long time and said: "What you said makes sense. Let's do this. Tomorrow Shao Ling will lead one hundred and fifty cavalry and charge straight into the enemy's formation. Niu Gao will lead another one hundred and fifty people and still go to the mountain to be a surprise soldier. As long as Shao Ling moved the enemy's formation, and directly attacked the weak points of the enemy's formation from the mountains without waiting for the army to cover them. These three hundred cavalry are all the wealth in our army."
Shao Ling and Niu Gao crossed their hands and said yes.
Zhai Cong couldn't help but feel happy when he saw it. At this time, he was extremely anxious, wishing that Wang Xiao would stay awake and fight to the death with the enemy. It's just that when Wang Xiaoye returned to the camp just now, he said something inappropriate and he didn't dare to push it again now.
To be honest, Zhai Jin is the envoy of North Beijing Road and can mobilize Wang Xiaolie. Once Zhai Jin dies, Zhai Xing will not be able to hold a first-level official position, let alone Zhai Cong. Why should he command Wang Xiaolie to fight?
