Baiyanchi, at this time, Baiyanchi was still a huge saltwater lake.
Nearly twenty days after Zhang Zhao occupied this place, Xiazhou's distress army, led by Li Yiyin, finally came to the vicinity of Baiyan Pond to confront Zhang Zhao.
This time Li Yiyin recruited 30,000 cavalrymen from various departments of the Party, more than 7,000 elites from the Pingxia Department, plus hundreds of the famous Hengshan Buzi, and 600 chain horses controlled by his son Li Guangrui, for a total of nearly 40,000
From Zhang Zhao's side, people were everywhere.
More than 20,000 Zhang Zhao's Guiyi troops formed an array with their backs to the White Salt Pond. They were still in a neat formation with flags arrayed.
From Li Yiyin's point of view, thousands of heavy infantrymen in the Guiyi Army were all wearing cloth-covered armor, a specialty of Hexi.
This is a good thing. One piece of this kind of cloth-covered iron armor can be exchanged for five mature male slaves in Xiazhou. If it is a young woman and a boy of twelve or thirteen years old, it can be exchanged for at least ten, and it is basically priceless.
"Good armor! Good horses! Damn it, these Hexi Tibetan thieves are too rich, aren't they? My sons, if we can win this battle, we will definitely take away these thousands of armors, where will the world go?"
"
However, the iron armor of the Guiyi Army did not scare the poor party members of the Dingnan Army. Instead, it aroused their great fighting spirit. If they could defeat the Guiyi Army, the Dingnan Army would be able to replace their guns with cannons.
"We have only two or three thousand soldiers and thieves, so how can they be worthy of occupying this precious land? Tell your sons, if you win this battle, you can take five kilograms of white salt from this land home with you each."
After capturing Li Yiyin, everyone will have a herdsman. If you don't have a mother-in-law, I will grab one for each of you!"
Zhang Zhao was also very excited when he looked at the Party members of the Difficulty Army opposite.
If he can win this battle, he will have the final say in the Ling, Yan, Xia and other states. If he occupies this place, not only will he no longer be short of salt, but he will also have the entire northwest horse breeding land in his hands.
At that time, we can compete with Shi Jingtang. If we can't beat me, we can still retreat. This will block the source of war horses in the Central Plains. As long as the Khitans don't cross the desert, no one will be able to join the rebel army.
Amidst the sound of drums, Xiang Xiaoqi, a member of the party, rode his horse to the front of the two armies. He had a loud voice and was roaring from a few hundred steps away.
"You Tibetan thieves are not in the west of Hexi. Why are you coming to my camp? You know the laws of the country. How can I allow you to invade the territory with an army of 100,000 people?"
It's a fixed program, and Zhang Zhao also knows that this is a program.
However, after the last conversation with Li Congzuo in front of the battle formation, Zhang Zhao had made a conscious decision. He did not go forward himself, but asked one of the Bashimi guards beside him to come forward.
"You Rong slaves still know the laws of the country? Li Yichao refused to move the town, and Li Yiyin sent troops to occupy the country's salt pond without authorization. The King of Han raised an army and wanted to punish the rebels with death. If he returns to Xiazhou now and surrenders, he can still save his life!"
This meant there was nothing to talk about. Li Yiyin's face turned gloomy when he heard the shouting. Originally, he didn't want to fight Zhang Zhao. He also wanted to send someone to contact Zhang Zhao on his birthday this year.
Because from Li Yiyin's point of view, the Guiyi Army and the Dingnan Army should be of the same type! The two sides should cooperate with each other to avoid being annexed by the imperial court.
But looking at it today, although the Guiyi Army did not have many soldiers and horses, they had good horses and armor, and they obviously had the intention of annexing their Li family.
Even if he did not annex, Li Yiyin would never allow the Guiyi Army to seize the salt ponds in Yanzhou. The Dingnan Army relied on these salt ponds to make a living.
The whining horns of the horns were blown, and there was a roar among the Dingnan Army. At least six or seven thousand cavalry galloped out from the two wings of the Dingnan Army.
They spread out further and further, and from a distance looked overwhelming, as if they were about to be surrounded by the rebel army's main formation.
In fact, they wanted to do this. Both sides had more cavalry than infantry. The cavalry spread out at this time, making it easier to attack from the front, rear, left, and right.
As soon as the cavalry of the Dingnan Army came out, the flagman next to Zhang Zhao also waved the command flag.
Hu Zaile led the Uighur Yi from the left camp, Shen Nianban led the Uighur Yi from the right camp, Zhebu Jiashi led the Youyi Army, Huang Yanger also led a battalion of cavalry from Yingyang Town, a total of 6,000 light cavalry also dispersed.
As soon as they went out, as an appetizer before the war, the battle of more than 10,000 light cavalry began.
Both sides were spread out widely, and their tactics were very similar. They were common tactics used by light cavalry in the northwest.
Basically, there are small units of one or two hundred people, who are constantly fighting back and forth, with arrows flying towards each other like locusts. Occasionally, they will get close and get entangled with each other and chop with sabers.
However, the casualties caused by this kind of light cavalry battle are not particularly high. This can actually be regarded as a kind of trial.
Because the tasks undertaken by the light cavalry on the battlefield are more to cover and pursue the army.
In a light cavalry fight of this level, if one of the parties is unable to withstand it quickly, the battle will probably not be successful.
Because when there are many cavalry on both sides, one side's cavalry is obviously at a disadvantage, which means that if you win the battle, you will not be able to expand the results. If you fail, you will be entangled and the whole army will be annihilated.
Therefore, the light cavalry will be used in dogfights from the beginning to judge the opponent's strength. Only when the light cavalry has no obvious disadvantage will they continue to engage in elite decisive battles.
Otherwise, we need to shrink our troops, use light cavalry to cover the movement of the army, and then retreat into the city, continue the confrontation in the mountains and forests, or look for other opportunities to defeat the enemy.
The source of the light cavalry of the Guiyi Army is relatively complex, mainly the Uighurs, Dadan people recruited by Zhang Zhao, etc.
The cavalry of the Dingnan Army they faced was also a less core tribe among the party's tribes, and the combat effectiveness of both sides was about the same.
However, because the party members had to deal with harassment from other aspects all the year round, they had only mobilized collectively to attack the Tang army five years ago, and even had a slight advantage.
Seeing this situation, Li Yiyin finally felt relieved. As long as the light cavalry was not eaten by the opponent, Baiyanchi was only a hundred miles away from Xiazhou, so he could retreat if he couldn't defeat it.
At this time, the drums of the Guiyi Army began to beat with excitement. After the big drum beside the commander beat, the drums of the towns, battalions, capitals, and generals also began to beat. Zhang Zhao's main heavy infantry army began to put on armor and move forward.
Before them, more than 2,000 united archers had already avoided the armored elites of the Dingjun Army in the middle, interspersed from various military formations to the two wings of the Dingding Army, and carried out harassing and covering fire.
At this time, the Guiyi Army's formation was shaped like a fan shape like a wifi signal. The coach Zhang Zhao was at the rear, the cavalry were arranged at the waist, and directly in front were a large number of heavy infantry elites.
The infantry of the Dingnan Army also began to move forward with armor at this time. Everyone moved forward to the beat of the drum, trying to ensure the integrity of the military formation.
The united archers assembled according to one general, that is, about a hundred people, did not wear armor. They carried bows and shot at the infantry of the distressed army from the left and right sides.
Although the number of united archers is not large, the power of the bow is not very strong.
But after all, the Dingnan Army was not as powerful as Zhang Zhao, who could produce 6,000 sets of iron armor. In each Dingnan Army infantry phalanx, the armor-wearing rate of the soldiers in the rear section was still very low.
They couldn't resist the constant barrage of bows and arrows, and the good military formation was immediately harassed by the united archers scurrying around like rats.
Li Yiyin, who was behind the military formation, couldn't help it anymore. If the harassment continued, the damage would not be high, but the blow to morale would be too serious.
He immediately ordered two thousand of the party's unarmed archers to march out to expel the united archers who had returned to the rebel army.
But as soon as the unarmored archers of the Dingnan Army were dispatched, Li Cunhui, who had been waiting at the waist, immediately stepped forward.
Hanshandu's right-hand cavalry army, with more than a thousand cavalry wearing leather armor and chainmail armor inside or outside, set out immediately.
They were the elite of Zhang Zhao's horse army. Although the horses were unarmored, the men were armored. The horses were also the best broken-eared horses. The bows in their hands were also powerful and the arrows were the best.
As soon as they were dispatched, the party's unarmored archers who had just tried to break them into pieces suffered a big blow. They were completely inferior in terms of protection, attack power and mobility. Breaking them into pieces made it easier to defeat them individually.
Li Yiyin's head tightened when he saw it, and he quickly ordered the light armored cavalry of the Dingnan Army to attack.
Here, as soon as Li Cunhui saw the light armored cavalry of the Dingnan Army attacking, he immediately began to turn around and retreat.
The light armored cavalry of the Dingnan Army who came out of the formation were immediately overjoyed and chased after them directly.
The most taboo for armored cavalry to show their backs when fighting was that they thought Li Cunhui and others were looking for death, so they chased them extremely fast.
But before they could get close, the command flags of the Guiyi Army and the short drums commanding the cavalry sounded. Murong Nobunaga waved his hand, and the Xianshan Du Left Horse Army jumped out of the formation.
They made a slight circle, inserted themselves into the waists of the light-armored cavalry of the Dingnan Army, stopped them and started beating them hard with their horses.
The anxious Li Yiyin could only grit his teeth again, and more than a thousand of the remaining light armored cavalry of the Dingnan Army attacked again. At this time, the retreating cavalry of Li Cunhui's troops stepped forward to intercept again.
The light armored cavalry on both sides repeated the mating of dolls, wrapping each other layer by layer, constantly adding fuel to the fire.
The Unity Archers and Party Unarmored Archers who were wrapped inside were the most unlucky among them.
Because the closer to the center, the more intense the fighting becomes, and they are still infantry and do not have armor, so they can only gather together to survive in despair.
Not long after, nearly half of the 2,000 party-unarmed archers who first went into battle were killed and wounded. Two to three hundred of the 2,000 united archers who had returned to the rebel army were gone, and the ground was full of groaning and struggling wounded.
The cold sweat on Li Yiyin's forehead fell in large drops. Only then did he realize how difficult the Guiyi Army was.
The two light armored cavalrymen in Hanshandu were well equipped, had good horses, and their morale was high. Most of them had followed Zhang Zhao in the north and south and had rich experience.
Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui were even more heroic. Gradually, as the light armored cavalry directly under the Li family of the Pingxia tribe, they were beaten and ran around in confusion.
While the cavalry of both sides was entangled with each other, the main heavy infantry of both sides quickly came within shooting range.
The strong man from the Wang family was close to Zhang Xiaobiao, the eldest son of Da Lang from the Zhang family. Zhang Xiaobiao followed the strong man from the Wang family and walked forward. The further they walked, the more tense the atmosphere in the team became.
Suddenly, there was a sound of bow strings vibrating like fried beans in front of them, and the crossbowmen from both sides began to shoot at each other.
The arrow shafts of large single crossbows and wooden single crossbows are relatively short, and the strength of the crossbow strings is also strong, so they will make this short, heart-numbing sound.
Screams also began to sound one after another. Zhang Xiaobiao looked forward and saw that in front of his army, the strong crossbowmen who were as terrifying as bears and tigers when assembled were falling to the ground screaming.
Each fallen person had at least five or six arrow shafts stuck in their bodies. When many people fell, blood flowed from the corners of their mouths. This was because their internal organs were injured by the powerful force of the crossbow arrows.
The beating of the drums did not stop, nor did the roars of the fire chiefs in each row. While shooting at each other, the two sides were still approaching slowly, but at a much slower pace.
The wounded who fell on the ground were struggling and howling. The civilian husbands who had been beaten and the unity archers who were not selected and could only do some dirty work were dragged out of the military formation.
The blood on the ground and the screams in his ears put great pressure on Zhang Xiaobiao, who was new to the battlefield.
He suddenly discovered that in such a battle involving tens of thousands of people, personal bravery did not seem to be of much use.
At this moment, he actually envied the wounded who were dragged behind. At least for the time being, they were safe.
This chapter has been completed!