Chapter 76: The Way of Benevolence and Forgiveness (9)
The attack on the Khitan livestock camp mobilized all the men in Bailang Mountain, with the scout team as the forerunner, and the soldiers with night vision were responsible for pulling and organizing the marching team. No torch was lit, no rest was allowed, and no one was allowed to speak.
After whispering, we finally arrived outside the camp before dawn.
The early morning mist has not yet dissipated, and there is silence outside the camp. The soldiers from the front camp surrounded the camp from all sides, and under the command of the team officers of each team, they rushed into the tents in sequence with neat steps. The whole process was very easy.
Quiet and orderly, it took less than a moment to control the situation. From time to time, there were several panicked shouts or crisp clashes of weapons from each tent. Those with better ears could still hear swords and guns.
The "pop" sound it makes when it penetrates the human body.
After clearing the Khitan people in the tents, the soldiers quickly gathered in order outside the camp. At the same time, the people who came with the army opened the fences and drove out the livestock in the pens.
Li Chengzhong was very satisfied with this orderly, quick and efficient manner. He did not even issue an order during the whole process. The soldiers completed the task under the leadership of the team officers and gang leaders. This was similar to the last time they attacked the winter camp of the headquarters.
Compared to this attack, it was quieter and more solemn.
Without a moment's delay, the front camp left the Khitan camp before the fog cleared and embarked on the return journey. Li Chengzhong rode on his horse and listened to Jiang Miao reporting the results of the attack as he walked.
"The ones who attacked the camp were the left team of Jiadu, the left team of Bdu, and the right team of Bingdu. There were no casualties in the whole army. Twenty levels were beheaded and seventy-three people were rescued..." Jiang Miao's face was a little solemn.
"Beheading level 20?" Li Chengzhong was stunned for a moment.
"Well... twenty-one leather tents, forty cattle, two thousand sheep, and no horses were seized..."
The number of cattle and sheep was not bad. Although there were few cattle, there were many sheep, but... there were no horses? Li Chengzhong couldn't help but feel nervous, and hurriedly called Xie Li and Wang Dalang from the rear team to him.
Xie Li and Wang Dalang also frowned and thought carefully. Wang Dalang murmured: "Yesterday, I and the instructor carefully counted. There are more than 80 Khitan soldiers and nearly a hundred horses. Why are they missing?"
Jie Li looked solemn and said to Li Chengzhong: "Sir, there must be a problem!"
Li Chengzhong's uneasiness worsened, and he quickly ordered the entire army to speed up. At the same time, he ordered Wang Dalang and Xie Li to disperse all the scouts and keep a vigil within three miles around the team.
When daylight came, all the scouts withdrew at the same time, almost as promised, running in a hurry. Li Chengzhong took a deep breath, and he already understood what this meant. He immediately raised his hand to signal to the entire army.
Stop.
"The main Khitan force is found ahead, about 800 people, with countless war horses prepared, five miles away from here!"
"The Khitan cavalry was found in the southeast, about 200 cavalry, approaching!"
"The Khitan cavalry was found in the southwest, about a hundred cavalry, following from a distance, but there was no further movement!"
…
He had fallen into a trap! Li Chengzhong's deep uneasiness was finally confirmed, and a layer of white sweat immediately oozed from the tip of his nose. But he knew that he was the commander-in-chief, and at this critical moment, everyone's eyes were looking at him.
Every move is related to the morale and safety of the entire army, and he must not show a trace of panic.
Li Chengzhong nodded, took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and then issued the first order: the scouts continued to be on guard, and the soldiers took out dry food and ate on the spot.
Under the command of the officers of each team, the soldiers of the front camp sat down neatly in groups, took out the dry food and started eating. They did not talk casually or whisper to each other. Everything was still so orderly and neat. The so-called bravery of a general.
, in fact, the army is not a brave general. Seeing the orderly and disciplined temperament displayed by the former battalion soldiers after a winter of training, Li Chengzhong suddenly smiled, feeling uneasy at first being seduced by the Khitans and falling into a trap.
and panic suddenly disappeared at this moment.
Okay, I admit that I was ambushed, I admit that I was plotted, but so what? If you want to eliminate us, you still have to show your weapon and fight us!
On the seventh day of March in the third year of Guanghua, after careful planning, the Khitan Pinbu finally successfully lured the Pingzhou Front Camp of the Lulong Army in Bailang Mountain to the grassland. When the Pingzhou Front Camp returned from clearing grass in the valley, they encountered an ambush.
The main force of the Khitan Ping tribe. The Khitan Ping tribe participating in the battle had a total of 700 cavalry and 400 cavalry infantry. The Pingzhou front camp of the Lulong Army had a total of 380 infantry and more than 50 cavalry. Among them, more than 30 cavalry surrendered for the Khitan.
, in addition, there are more than a hundred men and women.
This is the first field battle that has broken out between the Lulong Army and the Khitan people this year. Compared with the field battle that took place at the Guangbian Army at the end of last year, the number of participating troops on both sides was much smaller, and the disparity in strength was much greater.
However, the significance of this field battle was far-reaching. It not only affected the development trend of the entire Yingzhou, but also changed the pattern of Northeast China outside the Pass. After Li Chengzhong traveled through the country, his butterfly wings flapped many times. Only this time was the butterfly effect truly produced.
Tuli curled his lips slightly as he listened to the enemy's military information reported by the rangers. He couldn't figure out what his younger brother Wuli was doing this winter. There were just a few hundred Han soldiers in front of him, and Wuli was stunned by Bailang.
They were at a standstill in front of the water for several months, and even lost hundreds of Khitan warriors.
After Tuli captured Wuli, he inquired in detail about everything that happened outside Yuguan and at the foot of Bailang Mountain this winter. He also heard about the Khitan tribes' attack on Lulong's army at other fortresses in Guanqiang.
Combined with this, we know that the Han people are good at defense. After hearing about the looting of the Wuli winter camp, I laughed at this younger brother in my heart, and immediately thought of a way to lure the Pingzhou army out of the mountain. Sure enough, it was a small test, so I told him
Success.
On the grassland, facing thousands of warriors of his own, what kind of monsters can a mere few hundred Pingzhou Army do? Tuli no longer focused on the Pingzhou Army in front of him. He was thinking about how to attack
Yuguan. As for Wuli, he will be executed at the tribal elders meeting. He will use Wuli's blood to frighten the disobedient tribesmen. But Kedan, he will try his best to persuade this warrior to serve him.
As for the eldest mother - the woman from the Shulu family, Tuli really wanted her to accompany his dead father as soon as possible, but... forget it, let's send her back to the Shulu family, we still have to take the Shulu family into consideration.
Facial.
"The Han scouts have been driven back by us..."
"The Han brigade stopped and made no move..."
"The Han people are eating..."
…
Tu Li thought for a while, since the Han people are not moving, then I will go over there. I can deal with these Pingzhou troops as soon as possible, and I can also go back and plan the strategy of attacking Yuguan earlier.
Less than half an hour later, the Khitan brigade arrived a mile away from the Pingzhou Army. Two cavalry groups from the southeast and southwest also appeared on the battlefield. They moved closer to the Khitan brigade and sought contact. At the same time, at Pingzhou
A semi-arc-shaped encirclement formed in front of the army.
The arc-shaped encirclement actually locked the effective route of the Pingzhou Army. Any forward direction of the Pingzhou Army was blocked by the Khitan people. Tuli did not have to worry about the Pingzhou Army turning back. If the Pingzhou Army turned back,
Finally, he would be stunned and order the chase without hesitation. In the era of cold weapons, the practice of leaving the enemy's back to the enemy when the two armies were arrayed would only lead to the collapse of the entire army in most cases.
It seems that there are only two armies in Chinese history that can "turn" in front of the battle without collapse. One is the Mongolian army, which has repeatedly used this tactic to defeat the European coalition forces that far outnumbered itself; the other is the famous Ming Dynasty army.
Guan Ning general Zu Dashou, he successfully led his troops to "turn in" in front of the Hou Jin army many times without losing a single shot, at the cost of burying other Ming army brothers under the iron hoof of Hou Jin.
When Tuli saw the Pingzhou Army setting up an infantry phalanx, the formation was very strict, aligned horizontally and vertically, as if they were one body, he couldn't help but admire him, and slightly suppressed his contempt. There was only one row of spearmen outside the phalanx, that's all.
Do you want to stop the attack of Khitan warriors with such a thin spear formation? But no matter what, this formation of infantry cannot be driven away by cavalry. Tuli heard about the armored cavalry of the Tang Dynasty two hundred years ago, using
The kind of heavy cavalry that even wears armor on its war horses may be an effective way to deal with infantry formations. However, the cost of such heavy cavalry is too high, and it is not flexible and fast to use, so it is not suitable for fighting on the grassland.
After hearing about it, Yi Tuli didn't take it to heart.
Tuli called Bu Deng beside him and ordered him: "Give you two hundred men to tear apart the square formation of the Pingzhou Army. Let the warriors pay attention to avoiding bows and arrows to minimize casualties. After breaking in, they will directly kill Pingzhou.
General’s flag, bring down that flag for me!”
Bu Deng is the son of elder Rong Ge. He made many military exploits during the Eastern Campaign with Tu Li. Tu Li also valued him very much and ordered him to lead the troops this time. Bu Deng agreed excitedly and licked his lips.
He ordered two hundred Khitan soldiers together, ordered everyone to mount their horses, and then slowly galloped out of the Khitan formation.
During the Eastern Expedition, Bu Deng, large and small, also fought many battles with the Mohe people. When they were on the banks of the Daling River and at the foot of Yanjun City, the infantry phalanx put out by the Mohe people was denser and more compact than the phalanx of the Pingzhou Army in front of them.
It's just that the formation was not that neat. At that time, Bu Deng was ordered to attack, and he rushed into the Mohe people's infantry formation as soon as they met. In a short time, the Mohe people's formation was disrupted, which laid a solid foundation for the final victory. At this moment,
Bu Deng was not afraid of the sparse infantry phalanx of the Pingzhou Army.
Two hundred Khitan infantry mounted the war horses that had already regained their strength. After a brief reining, they followed behind Budeng and headed towards the Pingzhou military formation one mile away. The war horses moved forward slowly at first, and then gradually picked up speed.
When they were more than 200 steps away from the Pingzhou Army, they accelerated to the maximum speed.
Buden suddenly saw a black arrow rising from the opponent's formation. He only had time to shout "dodge..." before the arrow fell rapidly from the air and crashed into the group of cavalry.
In the middle, Budeng was shocked. The Khitan cavalry rushing in the front row saw the Pingzhou Army's arrows first because of their wide vision, so they all lowered their bodies to reduce the area for the arrows to hit, but the back
The Khitan soldiers were not so lucky. The Pingzhou Army's arrow rain came much earlier than expected. The Khitan soldiers in the back row were not ready to bend down and immediately suffered extremely heavy casualties. A chaotic burst of
Under the roar of the men and the neighing of the horses, Bu Deng lost more than thirty riders in just the first wave of arrows.
From the corner of his eye, Buden saw the process of a Khitan warrior beside him being hit by an arrow. The arrow fell from above, passed through the leather armor on the warrior's back, and disappeared directly. Even the arrow feathers penetrated into the warrior's body, and then
The warrior and the horse fell diagonally backwards... The man and the horse were not separated... What does this mean? It means that the arrow did not stop after passing through the warrior's body, and the remaining force was even enough for the arrow to penetrate the horse under the warrior!
Bu Deng was horrified, and the first thought that flashed through his mind was: The opponent has a crossbow!