Location: Outside the town of Zhuxian Town, at the Central Military Department of the Jin Army.
After only two or three quarters of an hour at most, the atmosphere here changed from being indescribably relaxed and contented to a lifeless silence.
He glanced several miles away and saw the Song people lined up outside the camp.
When a group of Song soldiers who came out of camp were cleaning the battlefield, they hacked to death the injured warriors like chickens.
The corpses of warriors who died in battle were first stripped naked, then thrown into donkey carts like garbage, and then dragged away, which was a heartbreaking scene.
Then they looked at the front of their own formation. Those under the supervision of the war team were slumped on the ground, waiting to deal with the frightened expressions on the faces of the defeated soldiers.
The high-ranking Jin people in the army that defeated the Song Dynasty tried to say something after opening their mouths, but in the end they shut their mouths tightly.
I didn't say anything, and I didn't know what to say.
That's indeed the case, what did you say?
Originally, they were quite mentally prepared for the fact that this tentative attack could not break the Song camp in the end.
After all, Hu Yitong and his gang members were different from ordinary people in the Song Dynasty. They found it quite difficult to do this, but they were quite aware of it.
What's more, they were sure that at the critical moment, Hu Yitong would definitely use something called an explosive pack.
Therefore, in the last exploratory attack, the Song camp could not be defeated, and it was necessary to consume it through repeated attacks, and then rely on heavy cavalry to make the final decision. This was already in their plan.
But the one in front of me didn't even get within thirty steps of the opponent's camp.
We suffered heavy casualties and fled in disgrace.
The 30,000-man army suffered at least 4,000 to 5,000 casualties. Even Wanyan Zonghan's Han Chang, a famous general in the entire army, died on the spot.
Even the corpses were not snatched back, after such a result.
After letting them see it, they broke the defense collectively on the spot.
Now, there is only one thought left in my mind:
"Hu Yitong and these new Song troops must not be allowed to continue to live. Otherwise, over time, it will be a catastrophe for their Kingdom of Jin."
Because how much time has passed since the last fight?
These Song people, who were just pawns of traffickers before, were trained by Hu Yitong and others and equipped with this weapon said to be called the "Brown Bess Musket", and now they have such amazing combat effectiveness.
Many warriors in their army who were excellent in martial arts and fought countless battles were easily killed.
If in another year or two, more new Song troops were trained by Hu Yitong and others, would they still be able to defeat them?
After a long time, Wanyan Zongwang, the second prince of the Jin Kingdom, broke the dead silence at the scene with his words, but his tone was indescribably solemn:
"I originally thought that I valued Hu Yitong enough to regard him as a close friend of Dai Jin.
But I never thought that it was still far from enough. If I had known this, I would have killed more than half of the Song army last time, but I would have killed them at all costs.
So everyone, please put aside all the contempt in your hearts and your previous battle plans; take advantage of the fact that we have surrounded them here this time, and destroy them no matter what."
After hearing such a statement, everyone nodded.
It has to be said that this group of Jin generals in the early Jin Dynasty were all born in Yeluzi without exception, and they may not have even read a few serious military books.
However, through years of fighting, he has developed a beast-like battlefield intuition.
Naturally, we can see all the truths mentioned above by Wanyan Zongwang.
Even in a very short period of time, after adjusting his emotions, he came up with some countermeasures based on the current situation.
For example, Wanyan Zonghan, after pondering for a while, said:
"You don't need to be so depressed, there is no invincible weapon in the world; just like those explosive bags, if it is separated from the special terrain of Chubing Mountain, the threat will be greatly reduced.
By the same token, this kind of 'Brown Bess Musket' must also have flaws.
At a rough glance, I found that the reloading speed is too slow, the speed is far inferior to that of bows and arrows, and although the power is great, it is not much more powerful than the divine arm crossbows of the Song Dynasty.
Now that I have some preliminary methods, I might as well try them out one by one to see how they work.
The first is to immediately make some large wooden shields and have the soldiers carry them to the front of the formation, or put them on a cart and push them over. They can always greatly block the power of such gunpowder weapons.
In addition, in the previous battle with the Song people, didn't they capture a large number of yellow birch crossbows and form some troops?
They were all sent forward, and while the others were charging into the battle, they hid behind the big shields with the archers to shoot at the Song people. Even if they suffered double or triple losses, as long as they could exchange for a new Song army, it was worth it.
The second is to have the cavalry follow the infantry. Once the Song Dynasty's new army becomes more chaotic, the whole army will immediately rush forward.
Just rush as fast as you want, no matter what the casualties are, as long as you rush into the Song camp, I don't think the 'Brown Bess Muskets' in the hands of these Song people are anything to be afraid of."
I can only say that Yan Zonghan, the golden commander, is really quite powerful.
It was the first time I encountered a musket weapon that spanned the ages. In such a short period of time, I came up with two countermeasures. The key is that they are quite reliable.
Wanyan Zongbi also added a sentence later:
"I also want to tell the attacking soldiers that it is best to snatch back some of those 'Brown Bess' muskets so that we and the craftsmen in the army can study them carefully.
If anyone can do it, I promise to give you a generous reward.
If an official with a household of more than 1,000 is promoted to one level, the bounty will be 100 ingots, and there will be fifty male and female slaves; if an official with a household of less than 1,000 is promoted to the third level, the bounty will be the same as for both male and female slaves."
Regarding the above statement, the senior leaders of the Jin Kingdom present all nodded in agreement without any opinions.
Because it is not the tactics mentioned by the former Wanyan Zonghan, which may cause horrific casualties, but the so-called serious injuries mentioned by the latter Wanyan Zongbi.
In their opinion, as long as they defeat the Song people in front of them, there will no longer be any obstacle to their unification of the Jin Dynasty.
How many troops and slaves do you want then?
With this idea in mind, the first two to three hundred defeated troops who retreated, as well as some centurions and other officers were picked out and had their heads chopped off in public.
****
In this way, the first collision between the new army of the Song Dynasty and the army of the Jin Kingdom against the Song Dynasty ended temporarily after just one battle.
The reason is very simple. It will take some time for the Jin Army to build those large wooden shields.
However, looking at the scene where the Jin army retreated back to the camp amidst the sound of the horn, Hu Biao and others did not dare to relax at all.
The main reason is that they know very well that the battle just now is not even a warm-up, and the real hard battle is still to come.
It was also at this time that Barong, an assistant secretary, rushed over to Hu Biao and other personnel stationed in the Chinese Army.
From a distance, he was shouting: "Old Hu, the results and casualties of the battle just now have been calculated."
"Say it quickly, don't get carried away~" the imperial concubine on the side quickly urged.
Barong ran up to the crowd and reported despite being out of breath:
"In terms of results, we just cleaned the battlefield before the war and collected a total of 2,133 corpses; in addition, we seized a lot of weapons, armor, and gold and silver, which totaled more than 30,000 coins.
We suffered a total of 371 casualties, of which only 41 were actually killed. The largest officer among them was a deputy battalion commander.
However, the arrows of those Jin people are more vicious. They have been soaked in excrement water, and many of them have barbs and bleeding troughs. Even if these wounded people recover in the future, I am afraid that fifty or sixty of them will be left disabled."
After hearing this sentence, Hu Biao and others felt very complicated.
On the one hand, they are somewhat relieved that they can still accept the current casualty ratio.
On the other hand, it seems that the Jin people have not exerted much force yet, and the real fierce battle is still to come; God knows how brutal the next battle will be.
But now, they have no other choice.
It's just a matter of seeing who can't stand it first in such a war of attrition; as long as they can have the last laugh, none of them can survive here without fighting...
