This is a grassland about one hundred miles wide and more than three hundred miles long.
To the north is Langshan, the western section of the Yinshan Mountains, and to the south is the Yellow River that is turning a few bays.
Wu Lahai City is located at the Langshan Pass. Its main function is not to defend against enemies from the east, but to prevent Mobei tribes from crossing the Langshan Pass and going south.
Yue Fei and Han Shizhong led an army of 30,000 troops, wiping out the Xixia Yincheng along the way, and had already entered the Shuofang County area of the Han Dynasty.
In fact, even if there were not so many tribal uprisings in Xixia, it would be difficult for Brother Richard to transport subsequent grain and grass. Because Wu Lahai City is located too far north, the Ming army could completely block the grain roads and force the Xixia in the city
The army came out for a decisive battle.
Again, the main function of Wu Lahai City is to prevent the Mobei tribe from going south.
But the Ming army came from the east!
And it came very quickly. Brother Richard hurriedly hurriedly arrived, but he could only arrive quickly with reinforcements, but he could not transport all the food and grass quickly. He thought that Weifu Army's food stock was enough, but in fact it was not the case at all.
Son.
He didn't question Li Quanlu because he couldn't get an answer if he asked.
"We will leave the city for a decisive battle tomorrow." Li Quanlu said.
Supervisor Cao Yu said: "I will lead the remaining troops to guard Wu Lahai City without any risk."
Li Quanlu stopped talking, sighed and turned around to leave.
They have one governor and one supervisor. Although they come from mutually hostile factions, this does not prevent them from uniting to make money.
Yeli Degui, who was captured alive by Han Shizhong, also had a share!
The land outside Tao is arable and grazing, and the food is relatively abundant.
So, can the stored food be sold for money?
sure!
When the Liao and Jin Dynasties ruled the grasslands, the Xixia civil and military officials here did not need to sell food because this was the only place that the Silk Road on the grasslands passed through.
But as the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Jin Kingdom and controlled the grassland, Ming Dynasty products were continuously sold to the grassland from Hebei and Shanxi, and the specialties of the grassland could be sold nearby to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. The trade node of Weifu Military Division suddenly lost its original status.
As a result, the gray income of civil and military officials disappeared instantly.
If you want to continue making money, you can only start with food.
Of course there is no shortage of salt here, there are salt ponds to the west and south, but there is an urgent need for ironware, cloth and tea.
Li Quanlu, Cao Yu, and Ye Li Degui worked together to resell the grain in the army warehouse during the great disaster in Xixia.
Part of the military rations was transported south to the surrounding prefectures and counties of Xingqing Prefecture, in exchange for cheap salt there. Part of the military rations was transported east to Dongsheng Prefecture, in exchange for Ming Dynasty goods transferred there. The Ming Dynasty goods could even be sold south to the Xixia capital.
Xingqing Mansion.
Why did Li Quanlu rush to save Tiande Army City?
Because it was also a trade transfer station, a lot of military supplies were shipped there and stored there, and a lot of Ming Dynasty goods were temporarily stored there.
Cao Yu also wanted to protect his property, so he followed Li Quanlu in sending troops. He became timid midway and was afraid of dying on the battlefield, so he kept urging Li Quanlu to withdraw his troops.
Firstly, Li Quanlu was afraid of defeat, and secondly, in order to settle the accounts, he simply withdrew his troops and threw the grain and livestock to Han Shizhong.
Why doesn't Brother Richard want to delve into this matter?
Because Li Quanlu is his direct descendant.
Li Quanlu's profits from reselling military rations were always divided to pay tribute to Brother Richard.
He knew that Li Quanlu was reselling military rations, but he didn't know that Li Quanlu was so courageous that there was not much left in the military warehouse.
They are all corrupt officials, don't blame anyone.
The emergence of a large number of rebels around Xingqing Mansion is inseparable from Brother Richard himself. The tribes in the prefectures and counties surrounding the capital have been transformed from nomadic herding to farming, and they are frantically occupying the cultivated land of those tribes.
Historically, Li Renxiao implemented a series of benevolent policies, an important one of which was the distribution of land.
That is, after Brother Richard was tortured to death, his family was ransacked, and countless lands were obtained and distributed to the people in the country. This alone immediately won the support of various ministries, and the tribal chiefs supported Li Renxiao's reforms one after another.
…
Arrangement of an army of 90,000 on the battlefield is a problem.
He first detached three thousand Qingqi, crossed the desert on the south bank of the Yellow River, and went around to attack the Ming army's grain transport team. There were many oases at this time. Once they encountered the elite Ming army, the Xixia Qingqi immediately crossed the river and went into the desert.
This really annoyed Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, so they could only send light cavalry along the Yellow River to observe the enemy's tracks, and immediately light up the smoke to report the enemy's situation.
Many of the Western Xia cities that were captured previously had the function of beacon towers, and now they can be used with a small number of soldiers stationed there.
Until the Ming army approached thirty miles away, Brother Richard finally led his troops to fight.
Thousands of weaker infantrymen were left behind by Brother Richard to defend the city.
Eight thousand cavalry from the Zhenyan Army Division were sent by Brother Richard to ambush in the north, and followed the Wuga River to the rear of the Ming army for twenty miles.
Tens of thousands of light cavalry were sent out by Brother Richard to create a commotion and disrupt the Ming army's light cavalry, in order to achieve the goal of covering the battlefield, and by the way, they also provided cover for the eight thousand flanking friendly troops.
Brother Richard personally led the remaining infantry and cavalry to advance slowly.
Yue Fei and Han Shizhong had all cavalry, about 32,000 men.
The infantry was either left to defend the Tiande Army City, or stationed at various barrier cities along the way. Even the artillery was left in the nearest barrier city, waiting for the cavalry to besiege the city before dragging the artillery over.
The distance between the two armies was gradually reduced to more than ten miles, and the light cavalry of both sides were still roaming and fighting.
When the distance was only three or four miles, Brother Richard put in more light cavalry and asked the infantry to organize themselves into formation and move forward.
Brother Richard's 90,000-strong army, the real core elite, actually only has 8,000 people.
Two thousand pro-troops.
Three thousand iron kites.
Three thousand strong crossbowmen.
The strong crossbowmen were built by Brother Richard. They were a relatively new unit in the Xixia army. They were built to shoot through the Song army's military formations. They were even said to be able to shoot through the heavy armor of the Song army.
The arms of this powerful crossbow are made of horns, and the arrows are cold forged. Its penetrating power is better than the ordinary crossbow arrows of Song and Liao Dynasties.
Soldiers come from a variety of sources, regardless of race, but they must be strong because they are also equipped with shields to protect against arrows.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the powerful crossbowmen of the Western Xia Dynasty were crippled and did not recover until the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
During the Ming-Jin War, Li Qianshun was building a firearms force, while Brother Richard was restoring the crossbow force.
Xixia actually has a kind of garrison, which is ridiculously well-equipped. It selects clan members, and the sons of wealthy families serve as soldiers. To put it bluntly, it is the "proton army". When it was first established, they were all brave and good at fighting. Now it has been reduced to "Han generals", serving as The palace guards and honor guards would probably escape very quickly if they were to fight.
At this moment, the two armies are facing each other.
Infantrymen from the two major military divisions in the south were arranged in the front row and on both wings, divided into several military formations.
Some light cavalry went around the two sides of the battlefield, and some light cavalry lined up on the two wings. There were also two light cavalry, protecting both sides of the central army. They were responsible for cooperating with the Iron Kites to dispatch.
Brother Richard's personal soldiers and crossbowmen were waiting for the changes as the Chinese army.
Yue Fei stood on a small mound, observing the battlefield with a telescope, and soon found that his own Qingqi could no longer carry it.
Those light cavalry came from all parts of the grassland, and the iron arrows were not enough, and the armor coverage was also very impressive. Facing the Xixia light cavalry with the same equipment, but there were more people on the Xixia side, they started to retreat continuously.
"Order Yang Yizhong to attack!" Han Shizhong said to the ordering soldiers.
After the Hebei War, Han Shizhong was transferred from Shandong to northern Shaanxi to help the imperial court regain the military power of those warlords. It was then that Yang Yizhong came under Han Shizhong's command.
But they saw the command flag waving, and with a burst of war drums, Yang Yizhong led 1,500 knights to charge out.
The Xixia cavalry who were chasing the prairie Qingqi were so frightened that they reined in their horses and retreated. They did not dare to confront the Qingqi, so they shot two arrows at random and ran away, luring the Ming Qingqi towards their own formation.
Han Shizhong shouted again: "Li Yu attacks!"
Li Yu was originally an officer in the Xiang Army of the Northern Song Dynasty, and later became a Shandong giant bandit. At his peak, he had tens of thousands of soldiers. This time and space was conquered by Zhang Shuye's troops.
Yang Yizhong and Li Yu, each leading 1,500 cavalry, rescued the retreating prairie cavalry. Then they continued to charge, facing the enemy's arrows from the sky, and rushed towards the two wings of the Xixia army's light cavalry.
Although the valiant cavalry is not as armed to the teeth as the heavy cavalry, both men and horses are armored.
At this moment, many brave cavalrymen and their horses were hit by several arrows, but they still marched forward bravely and rushed towards the enemy's flanks.
Han Shizhong shouted again: "Yang Jin, Liu Zhengyan go again!"
The generals under Han Shizhong are very interesting in history.
Yang Yizhong was ordered to trap Yue Fei, Li Yu sent troops to stop Zhao Gou from going south, Liu Zhengyan's rebellion frightened Zhao Gou to the point of impotence, and Yang Jin also gathered tens of thousands of troops and refused to be recruited.
"Go and ask Yue Duhu to send troops." Han Shizhong said to the messenger.
Soon, Yue Fei led Xu Qing, Wang Gui, and all his knights to fight out.
On the Xixia side, Yang Yizhong and Li Yu had disrupted the enemy cavalry on both wings.
Yang Jin and Liu Zhengyan led their troops to rush to the front of the Xixia army formation. After about 15 steps, they fired arrows at the Xixia infantry, and then passed through the left and right sides of the infantry formation in a graceful arc.
The infantry spears were longer than their cavalry, but the two-sided infantry had no time to turn, and the Ming Dynasty cavalry thrust out their spears as they passed by the side. There should have been Xixia cavalry protection there, but they had been disrupted by Yang Yizhong and Li Yu, and Yang Jin
, Liu Zhengyan rushed past the infantry, but continued to attack the Xixia cavalry.
Brother Richard did not expect that Han Shizhong would fight so wildly and invest a large number of elite troops from the beginning. He was so frightened that he quickly mobilized iron kites and powerful crossbowmen.
The 1,500 iron kites and the 5,000 light cavalry collided head-on with the 1,500 valiant cavalry of Yang Yizhong. At this moment, Yang Yizhong had just killed the 3,000 Xixia qing cavalry, so he was being attacked from three sides.
Tie Yao Zi has a bad reputation. After all, he is a heavy rider, and Yang Yizhong does not dare to fight head-on.
Before the enemy formed an encirclement, he changed direction and rushed toward the Xixia Qingqi in front. Yang Yizhong paid the price of more than two hundred Qingqi being surrounded and suppressed, forcibly broke through the Xixia Qingqi, and went around to the outside to catch up with Yang Jin.
Convergence.
At the same time, Yang Yizhong ordered the trumpet to be blown to remind Han Shizhong that the Iron Kites were out.
Just as a large number of Xixia cavalry were chasing Yang Yizhong, Li Yu, Yang Jin, and Liu Zhengyan, the previously defeated Daming grassland cavalry rushed towards the Xixia infantry formation and fired arrows in turn.
The Xixia crossbowmen came forward with shields on their backs. They opened the brackets at the back of the shields, put the big shields in front to block the arrows, and hid behind the shields to load the arrows.
Round after round of powerful crossbow volleys were fired, and a large number of prairie cavalry were struck down by arrows.
"General Li, please." Han Shizhong said.
Li Shifu, with his 300 heavy cavalry and his retinue of cavalry, silently followed the brave cavalry of Yue Fei, Xu Qing, and Wang Gui.
Yue Yun was nervous and excited. This was his first time on the battlefield.
