Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 44 Field Battle ([-])

In the Song camp, the generals are trying to persuade the emperor one after another.

"Officials, the Khitan cavalry has [-] troops, and this time the Khitan general is Yelu Talie, the commander of the Khitan army and horses. Returning to aid, the Khitan cavalry drove straight in, with the idea of ​​attacking the heart, and the target was the Holy One, and the Holy One should retreat to Jinyang first." Cao Bin said first.

"Your Majesty, our army lacks cavalry, and the field itself suffers a disadvantage. Whether it is ordnance or deployment, it is not suitable to fight against a large number of cavalry. This battle is not easy to fight. Please make a decisive decision and return to Jinyang immediately. Leave it to me to wait."

"His Majesty……"

"Hmph... don't even talk about it. Commanding and controlling a large number of infantry with a small number of cavalry to fight against the Khitan cavalry, no one of you can compare with me." Zhao Kuangyin said with a cold snort.

Everyone was startled when they heard the words, only then did they realize that it was not Cao Bin or Pan Mei who fought the most powerful battles in Song Dynasty, but his own emperor. Otherwise, he would not be the one who belonged to the Huangpao family when Chen Qiao mutinied.

For a while, everyone stopped dissuading the emperor from leaving first, but Zhao Kuangyin said in a deep voice, "It's not that I don't know the wolf ambitions of the Khitan army, but this battle is of great importance. We must restrain the Khitan cavalry army here and hold it firmly." Securely protect Jinyang City behind, otherwise the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty will be handed over to others, so I must personally command this battle."

Speaking of this, he breathed out slowly, and said lightly: "What's more, if I expected it to be true, the Khitan army of iron cavalry went deep alone and traveled thousands of miles without having time to rest. It can only be eaten for five days at most, as long as we support the Khitan cavalry's first round of charge, their morale will drop greatly.

All the generals said yes with a bang, and a few civil officials on the side knelt and rushed forward, praising: "The officials are sages, and they will surely win the battle..."

The Khitan cavalry came too fast, just as Zhao Kuangyin set up a defensive formation according to the terrain, the Khitan forward cavalry had already charged.

Zhao Kuangyin was deep in the rear army, but he stood on the mobile watchtower with a tall yellow umbrella, and the bannermen and drummers under the stage set up a formation, constantly conveying Zhao Kuangyin's orders, dispatching the army nervously and orderly, waiting for the Khitan cavalry 's arrival

Zhao Kuangyin knew that this would be a tough and bitter battle.Fighting cavalry with infantry was already at a disadvantage. Fortunately, the Khitan iron cavalry was also exhausted and weak in succession.He also knew that this battle was imperative for the Khitans, because the Khitans had been entangled in internal strife in the struggle for imperial power a few days ago and refused to send troops.At this time, for Northern Emperor Yeluxian and Empress Xiao, they wanted to win at all costs, at least they wanted to draw.

However, at this time, Zhao Kuangyin still didn't know much about the determination of the Khitan people to go south to support and the total force they sent. Although he relied on the military situation brought by Ye Chen from Liu Nan, he learned that Empress Xiao of Khitan transferred the domestic conflict to the Song Dynasty , but he didn't know that it wasn't just a Khitan warlord who was fighting against him at this moment, the one who was going to fight him here was the famous Khitan Empress Xiao.

Ye Chen and Luo Yaoshun came with two hundred cavalry from the two thousand forbidden troops protecting the saltworks. They turned over a hillside and looked down to see a large open plain.

At this time, on the plain, two huge army formations were slowly mobilizing.Ye Chen had seen a siege battle a few days ago, but this was the first time he saw two armies fighting in a field battle.And it was a field battle with a total of 15 people between the two armies.

The big formation in front of him made Ye Chen dazzled at a glance.In the past, watching movies and TV, listening to storytelling, and talking about formations in a mysterious way, but those mysterious formations in front of these two large formations filled with murderous aura, it is simply a child's play, it is extremely ridiculous.

This is the real battle formation, without any fancy.In the final analysis, formation is actually the reasonable collocation and use of various arms, and the reasonable arrangement of armies with different tasks.It is only a necessary means for soldiers to maintain an attacking or defensive formation.Otherwise, once tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people go into battle at the same time, it will definitely become a chaotic melee, and it will be impossible to dispatch and command to exert their power.

Whether to have an array or not, under the command conditions at that time, the quality of soldiers, and the limitations of weapons, is an important factor in whether the maximum combat effectiveness can be exerted.I remember that during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Wang Meng, the former Prime Minister of the Qin State in the north, defeated the hundreds of thousands of cavalry of Qianyan with [-] infantry, all of whom had meritorious service in battle.But later, during the Battle of Feishui, the Qin army nearly a million years ago was completely defeated in front of the [-] troops of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.In addition to tactics, the main reason for defeating the strong with the weak and winning repeated battles is the merit of the battle formation.

Ye Chen and Luo Yaoshun reined in their horses and stood on the horse slope on the east side of the Song Army. Not far from their feet was a huge Song Army formation.Pioneer formation, strategy rear formation, large formation, front formation, east and west kidnapper formation, landless division of horses, refusal rear formation, policy vanguard formation...

At a glance, the small military formations with different functions are like countless chisels, axes, saws, files, awls, and pliers, forming a huge but sophisticated killing machine. There is a spacious space, but no one dares to rush in rashly, otherwise the team of hundreds or thousands of people will be smashed to pieces in an instant.

And in the northeast, that is, on the north side of the side they came from, there is actually the Khitan camp. I really don't know why their army bypassed the two armies of the Song army, Tongtianhe and Chayunling, and came to Jinyang City. of the north.

The front army of the Khitan cavalry is laying out the formation of horses. This is a cavalry assault tactic developed by Huo Qubing, the great general of the Hussars of the Han Dynasty in the past. The cavalry conical formations are arranged in an orderly manner. The use of horses, the distance between the horses is also different, enough space is left between the horses, so that when they charge, they deliberately allow the enemy infantry to dodge and make way.

But...the cavalry team also has dozens or even hundreds of rows, and each row of cavalry is staggered. Once they are allowed to exert their impact power, they can wipe out everything in front of them like a lawnmower.It took a long time for the Song army to train a qualified archer.However, Khitan does not have professional archers, because every knight on the grassland is a good archer.

"Keng Keng Keng Keng..." The Song Army started from the front, the spearmen clanged their iron armor, held scull shields and spears, and lined up in a dense formation. There were more than 50 rows and nearly a hundred rows. The spears were held high, as dense as an iron forest Generally speaking, he walked forward solemnly, and with a loud shout, all the staggered soldiers stopped suddenly, knelt on one knee, pointed their long spears forward, and formed a three-dimensional defensive spear array.

On the two wings of the spear formation, the spear-throwers and infantry archers under the wing protection of the pioneer formation also lined up and strode forward. At such a short distance, they could arrive at a fast horse. They only had to shoot three arrows and two spears. The best opportunity is to leave a passage for them to retreat to the main formation of the Chinese army in the middle of each army formation. In the formation, the "door" can be opened at any time to let them retreat. There are knives and guns on the outside, and bows and crossbows on the inside, so they can still cooperate in combat at any time.

On the opposite side, the conical chariot formation of the Khitan cavalry has also been set up. In the forefront are warriors with chain hammers, maces, halberds, fire forks and other heavy weapons hanging from the victory hooks. At a place within reach, at this moment they have bows in their hands, and one hand is slowly reaching for the quiver behind their shoulders.Looking back, the scimitar is like grass, and the reflections are like the scales of the river. In the middle of the army, a wolf-headed flag stands upright.

And there is a hillside behind the left side of the Khitan, behind which are hidden [-] death-defying cavalry, ready to look for an opportunity at any time, rushing to the camp from the side of the Song army, and directly killing the central army where the Song emperor is.

Empress Xiao stood on the rear army's chariot, a pair of wonderful eyes swept across the entire army, looked at Song Jun, and slashed down fiercely with her bare hands, a pair of charming bright eyes revealed a murderous look.

"Wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

"Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom..." At the same time, the Song army on the opposite side beat the drum without losing the opportunity.

"Kill!" 10 people yelled to kill like a thunderbolt, and thousands of arrows were fired, covering the sky and the sun, and the sun in the sky was dimmed.

Ye Chen and Luo Yaoshun saw that the battle formation had been completed and the battle was about to begin, but they dared not go forward, fearing to disrupt the battle formation, so they led two hundred cavalry to the east of the Song army to break through the mountain, only to see arrows piercing through the edges like locusts Generally overwhelming, the Khitan cavalry mobilized like a rolling flood, and the Song army on the opposite side was like huge rocky peaks standing still, and the flood was about to collide with the huge rocky peaks.

"Hey! In fact, infantry-based arms may not be invincible against cavalry-based arms. If it is in mountains, canyons, and swampy areas, it may still have the upper hand. But now in the plains and wilderness, our army is It is very disadvantageous. Especially our army has a fatal weakness against the enemy's cavalry, that is, it is difficult to pursue a victory and escape from a defeat. Therefore, the officials ordered our army to adopt a defensive position to drain the enemy's energy, and at the same time concentrate our army's strength. Five thousand cavalry on the left flank charged and harassed from the side." Luo Yaoshun explained to Ye Chen with a serious look on his face.

And almost as soon as Luo Yaoshun finished speaking, the [-] cavalry from the left wing of the Song Army rushed forward as soon as they were about to fight, and kept trying to restrain the cavalry from the right wing of the Khitan army, but they did not fight them head-on.

The infantry phalanx, after enduring the first round of violent impact by the enemy cavalry, began to advance step by step, rushing towards the cavalry center.This marching speed is very slow, and they must maintain a dense formation of spears like a forest during the slow march in order to offset the Khitan's cavalry impact advantage.

(End of this chapter)