Qian Song

Chapter 35
...

Fang La discussed with his rebel generals and a group of officials, and decided to adopt a strategy of luring the enemy deep, leading the Song army led by Cai Zun and Yan Tan to Xikeng, where they gathered and wiped out.

The Xikeng is about 25 miles southeast of Wannian Town. It is a big pit with a radius of about four or five miles.

After Fang La and his gang selected this pit, they immediately started to ambush...

The two Zhejiang provinces were the important areas of wealth and endowment in the south of the Yangtze River in the Zhao and Song Dynasties, and they were also the economic lifeline of the Zhao and Song Dynasties.

Therefore, the Zhao and Song Dynasties stationed a forbidden army in the Liangzhe area.

This Forbidden Army was well-equipped and trained regularly. Compared with the rebel army with simple weapons and no armor, it seemed to have an absolute advantage, even though the rebel army had dozens of times their number.

At least Cai Zun and Yan Tan, the commanders of the forbidden army, think so.

——Cai Zun and Yan Tan wholeheartedly thought that this was an excellent opportunity to invite credit for massacring the villagers.

Along the way, the Song army led by Cai Zun and Yan Tan never encountered any resistance. Occasionally, there were teams of suspected rebels. After seeing the army led by Cai Zun and Yan Tan, they were far away Frightened scattered.

This also seems to confirm Cai Zun and Yan Tan's judgment on the situation of the rebel army.

On the evening of November 22, the Song Army led by Cai Zun and Yan Tan successfully arrived at Wannian Town, more than 60 miles west of Qingxi County.

It is very close to Bangyuan Cave.

The Song army, who was exhausted from the long journey, planned to set up camp in Wannian Town, bury the pot to make food, and fight to Bangyuan Cave tomorrow to wipe out the group of rebels who dared to rebel.

But as soon as the Song army stopped, there was a burst of shouts, and then a rebel army with tens of thousands of horses appeared in front of them.

Seeing this, Cai Zun and Yan Tan immediately gave up camping and ordered the whole army to attack.

Seeing the Song army coming in full armor, the rebel army was so frightened that they turned around and ran away.

Seeing this, Song Jun chased even harder.

After chasing all the way to Xikeng, Yan Tan felt that there was a strong cloud in this valley, and the situation seemed a little bad.

Yan Tan just wanted to discuss with Cai Zun not to chase him any longer, so as not to fall into the trap of the rebels, but all the rebels they had been following before suddenly stopped and turned their guns.

Seeing this, Cai Zun also realized that something was wrong.

While Cai Zun and Yan Tan were hesitating, there was a sudden shout of killing, and then countless torches on the mountain reflected the river red.

Cai Zun and Yan Tan knew that they had been tricked, and hurriedly ordered their troops to retreat!
But it was too late - they had already fallen into the net of the rebel army.

The drums exploded!

Countless rebels with headscarves of various colors poured into the pit from all directions, accompanied by the cheering sound of war drums.

The first wave of rebel soldiers who charged were mostly old and weak, women and children. Although they only had the simplest bamboo spears in their hands, they bravely attacked the Song army, which was already armed to the teeth.

Immediately afterwards, countless rebels suddenly appeared around the resting pit. Under the leadership of the Manichaeists, they chanted loudly: "Burn my incomplete body, a raging fire. What joy is there in life, and why bother in death. To do good and eliminate evil, only Because of the light. Joy, sorrow, and sorrow, all return to dust. Pity me, the world, there are many sorrows. Pity me, the world, there are many sorrows..."

Later, Zeng Sheng, the deputy envoy of Jiangnan East Road who survived by chance, said to Zhao Ji: "Although there are many thieves and thieves, there are few weapons, but with the help of the people, the soldiers and horses sent on this road, each with their weapons, are struggling to kill the thieves. The thieves trapped an officer and soldier with hundreds of people, fighting back and forth, exhausting the officer and soldier..."

To put it bluntly, what Fang Layi's army used was crowd tactics.

This is the method of warfare that Manichaeism has passed down for hundreds of years, and it has always been the most powerful method of combat against the army.

At this crucial battle, Wang Gong and Laofo took out this strategy and made a comprehensive plan for Fang La.

Seeing that their side has been surrounded by groups, if they don't defeat the rebels, they will all die here. Forced to do nothing, Cai Zun and Yan Tan can only lead the Song army to fight.

The two sides started a life-and-death fight in this pit of breath.

I have to admit that in the era of cold weapons, weapons and equipment are still very critical.

Among the soldiers of the Song Army, even the lowest-ranking soldiers wore paper armor.

Don't think that the iron is not enough for paper to make up?

It is recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian that when Huainan was attacked in the Later Zhou Dynasty, the people were overwhelmed by looting, and they revolted one after another. They used agricultural equipment as soldiers and accumulated paper as armour. People at that time called it the "White Armor Army", and their combat effectiveness was extremely strong.

By this time, paper armor had become the standard equipment of the Song army. During the Song Renzong period, the Zhao Song court made [-] pieces of paper armor at one time and distributed them to the archers in Fangcheng, Shaanxi.

This paper armor is actually a mixture of extremely soft paper and silk, processed and hammered to soften it, stacked three inches thick, and four nails per square inch. If it is soaked by water and rain, it will be difficult for arrows to penetrate.

In front of his eyes, the simple bamboo spears in the hands of the rebel soldiers were really difficult to break through their defenses.

This is true even for paper armor, not to mention the soldiers of the Song Army in leather armor and iron armor.

It can be said that often the soldiers of the rebel army stab more than a dozen bamboo spears of the soldiers of the Song army, but none of them can kill a soldier of the Song army, but the soldiers of the Song army can continuously harvest the lives of the soldiers of the rebel army with their sharp knives and guns.

Seeing this scene, Fang La, who was personally directing the battle from a high place, couldn't help feeling a little thankful that he listened to Wang Gong and Laofo's advice and recruited the rebels without distinction, and used old and weak women and children to generalize the rebels in a very short period of time. The number doubled.

——In fact, if it wasn't stimulated by Li Cun's rapid development, Fang La might not have adopted Wang Gong and Laofo's suggestion, because before that, Fang La always felt that the old and weak, women and children were not combat power but a burden.

Fang La said sincerely: "If our army is not twenty times stronger than the Song army, it may not be known who will win this battle!"

Hearing Fang La's exclamation, Bao Kang, who had not agreed to use the auxiliary army to consume the physical strength of the soldiers of the Song Army before, couldn't help being a little shaken at this time.

In this battle, they used a series of strategies such as arrogant tactics, luring the enemy to go deep, waiting for work with leisure, using the dark night to make the sharp long-range weapons of the Song army lower their power, and so on. Bao Kang thought that they would be able to defeat the criminals easily. Song Jun, who killed many military strategists.

Who would have thought, Wang Gong and Laofo had a farther view, and firmly believed that even so, it was not safe. The Song army should be exhausted with auxiliary soldiers first, and then the elite should be thrown into the battlefield to win the battle.

Bao Kang glanced at the kind-faced old Buddha Wang Gong, and couldn't help saying: "This man is so amazing!"

Seeing that the morale of the auxiliary soldiers began to weaken due to the large number of casualties, without reinforcements, they would undoubtedly lose.

Fang La ordered: "All the generals obey the order and fight the enemy decisively!"

Fang Wu, Fang Qi, Lu Wan and other generals of the rebel army listened to the order and responded in unison: "No!" Then they each returned to lead their elite troops to attack Xikeng.

Although the elite equipment in the rebel army is still far from comparable to that of the Song army, but because of the dowry gift from Li Cun, these elite rebel soldiers can at least guarantee that each of them has a sharp spear in their hands - which can pierce paper armor or even A spear that pierces leather armor!
The key point is that the Song army came on a long march without eating, and was exhausted by the auxiliary soldiers.

The key point is that the number of rebels is too many, and often a soldier of the Song army has to face the siege of a dozen or even dozens of rebels.

Under this kind of chaotic battle with no skills at all, the Song army, which is too outnumbered, will be wiped out sooner or later.

But at this moment, a sudden change occurred!

——Under the brilliance of the morning star, a group of people suddenly appeared in the distance!
I saw that the soldiers of this team were all wearing soap-colored military uniforms with a slightly strange shape, their legs were tied up with leggings, a bulging grain bag was slung over their shoulders, a bamboo tube was hung on their waists, and squarely folded bags were carried on their backs. Square quilts, some of them wore standard Song armor (iron armor, leather armor, and paper armor), and some had no armor on their bodies.

Although the dress of this team is a bit weird, and the equipment seems to be pieced together, but the cold weapons, uniform movements, and the performance of orders and prohibitions all show that this is definitely a team that can influence the outcome of this battle. Elite men...

……

(End of this chapter)