Zhang Yue was half asleep in the camp when he vaguely heard a sad and shrill sound of the Qiang flute coming from the distance.
Zhang Yue was about to go back to sleep but suddenly noticed something was wrong, turned over and sat up immediately.
At this time, a sound was heard outside the tent, and then there was a series of footsteps and the sound of armor clashing. Zhang Shouyue, Wang Hou and more than ten generals, who were wearing armor, lifted the tent and came in: "Commander, the Qiang army is about to attack!"
Zhang Yue nodded.
He stood up with his clothes on and boarded the Chinese army's observation deck together with the generals. It was already dawn, and the shadows of the enemy's castle were still unclear.
"Commander, please listen!" Zhang Shouyue said into the strong wind.
Zhang Yue listened carefully, but he heard the unique wind sound outside the Great Wall, mixed with the whistle of horses and the sound of Qiang flute.
Zhang Yue asked: "Old General, what is this?"
Zhang Shouyue cupped his fists and said: "Commander, this is a Qiang song. The sound of this song is sometimes high-pitched and sometimes low. I suffered two Qiang raids when I was young, and I have also heard such Qiang music. Commander, I see ghosts." Zhang, Mu Zheng is planning a decisive battle today!"
Zhang Yue nodded, he relied heavily on the experience of veterans.
Xu Xi on the side questioned: "The Qiang people are inferior to us in military strength, so they dare to attack? Did the old general make this decision too early?"
"Could it be that the Qiang people want to flee, but are pretending to attack?" You Shixiong questioned.
Zhang Yue said: "No need to say more, prepare to fight!"
Zhang Yue issued the order, and the generals below were all gearing up. The governor added a reward of 100,000 yuan, and they were already jealous.
However, everyone, like Xu Xi, was a little skeptical. With a weak force, the Qiang people actually dared to attack a walled city defended by the Song army's superior force?
At dawn, Gui Zhang led his horse and left the military camp.
He had previously asked Wu Zhu to divine the dispatch of troops and concluded that victory was inevitable.
At this moment, Gui Zhang pointed at the eye-catching banner in the military camp of the Song Army and said to Mu Zheng: "Mu Zheng! I heard that the commander-in-chief of the Han people is a scholar, so we will fight for his flag with our lives. As long as it disrupts the morale of the Han people, we will chop him down." You can win if you knock down the handsome flag!"
Mu Zheng said: "Okay, I'll fight!"
Guizhang said without hesitation: "I'm here to fight, but if it doesn't work, you fight again!"
"good!"
Guizhang said: "Remember, with all our bloody courage, the Han people have more soldiers and horses than us. If it takes too long, we will be defeated!"
After saying this, Gui Zhang personally put on a bronze mask with a lion's head and a ghostly face, and his attendants brought him a war horse whose body was painted with gold, and the saddle was also decorated with jewelry and colorful feathers.
After Guizhang rode on the horse, he looked like a ghost and god, and the guards on his left and right also treated him like a god.
Guizhang raised his spear and shouted loudly, moving forward, followed by all his troops.
Mu Zheng looked at Gui Zhang's back with deep eyes, and then he also rode into battle.
As usual, a heavy fog broke out on the grassy beach separating the Song Army and the Fan Army. After the fog gradually dissipated, the military appearance of the Qing, Tang and Fan tribes was revealed in front of Zhang Yue.
I saw a high cart with tall wheels carrying sand and soil, followed by the Fan army pulling war horses. In front of and on the left and right of the Fan army were scouts responsible for patrolling the formation.
The vigorous cavalry stepped across the wet grass beach like the wind, and the dew on the grass blades also shook as the horses' hooves stepped on it.
At this moment, the Song Army's camp was also extremely busy, with various voices giving orders, as if they were singing in a hall. The person in charge was the veteran general Zhang Shouyue.
He held the flag in his hand and sat at the Chinese Army Observation Deck, looking far ahead. Zhang Yue stood aside cooperatively and acted as a competent background for this veteran who had been fighting for many years.
On the left side of the Song army's center, there were two brothers named Yao Si and Yao Lin, who were riding side by side and watching the Fan army attack.
"Gui Zhang is going to die today!" Yao Lin said.
"You really overestimate your capabilities!" Yao Si said to the hundreds of Yao family soldiers behind him: "When the Tibetan people rush into the formation, shoot their horses first!"
"And...don't eat too much!"
Zhang Yue, Xu Xi, and You Shixiong saw Gui Zhang and Mu Zheng's entire army.
"Commander, Guizhang and Mu Zheng are about to die. Congratulations to the commander, congratulations to the commander." Xu Xi had already congratulated Zhang Yue in advance.
Zhang Yue: "???"
You Shixiong also said: "Commander, after Guizhang and Mu Zheng have put their hands down, Qingtang can be worry-free for several years."
The fight hasn't started yet... Zhang Yue looked at the confidence of the two staff and didn't know what to say.
But Zhang Shouyue said to Zhang Yue: "Commander, Gui Zhang seems to be coming straight to our camp, please stay out of the way first!"
"Isn't the old general here?"
Zhang Shouyue said: "If something unexpected happens, it will not be a pity if the general dies, but as the commander-in-chief of an army, the commander-in-chief must not make any mistakes."
Zhang Yue shook his head and said, "I'm not going anywhere."
Zhang Yue knew that standing here was of no use, but like a flag, he could stabilize the morale of the army.
After Zhang Yue finished speaking, he sat down calmly and ordered Tang Jiu and Zhang Gong to put on another layer of thick armor.
Zhang Shouyue looked at Zhang Yue, who was wearing three layers of heavy armor and could barely move, and stopped insisting.
Zhang Shouyue also felt that the odds of victory were high, and reminded Zhang Yue that his avoidance was also based on human nature.
At this moment, a long series of horns sounded, and Gui Zhang, who was wearing a lion head and a ghost face, shouted loudly, and then his Fan army pushed the high chariot and launched an attack on the Song army.
Zhang Shouyu waved his flag, and the Song army also opened the camp gate to engage in battle.
Thousands of Song troops were deployed behind the trench outside the camp, and other Song troops climbed up the camp wall.
The Song army's tactics for defending the stronghold and the city were general.
Troops were sent to guard the sheep and horse wall outside the city, forming a high and low cross-shooting angle with the defenders on the top of the city. Only in this way can the power of the Song Army's arrow array be best exerted.
The Song army outside the trench was half-kneeling on the ground, holding a bow with open hands.
The 15,000-strong Song army that accompanied Zhang Yue on this expedition were all elites, and they could at least kill two bows with one stone.
Seeing that the Fan army was approaching 200 steps, the Song army's arrows were ready to go. When they reached 100 steps, with an order, the arrows hit the Fan army's high chariot like locusts!
After a while, the Tibetan army's high cart was baptized by arrows. The earth bags piled on the high cart were shot through by the arrows, and sand poured out from the breach.
The soldiers pushing the high cart were also knocked down by arrows from time to time.
Zhang Shouyue ordered the flag to be waved again, and the Song army's cavalry on the left and right wings also separated into thousands of troops and left the stronghold to harass the flanks of the Tibetan army.
Many of the cavalrymen on the left and right flanks of the Song Army were temporarily recruited from Xizhou, Hezhou, and were born from Qiang. Among them were Bao Shun and Xiqi, who were commanded by the familiar Qiang.
They led their cavalry across grassy beaches and shallow streams, harassing Gui Zhang and Mu Zheng's flanks.
As the general of Dongying, Bao Shun (Yu Longke) has defected to the Song Dynasty since the second year of Xining. He followed Wang Shao and Zhang Yue in all the battles. This time he led hundreds of cavalry to attack, and now they have all hidden inside.
Library envoy.
He knew that although the flanking cavalry he led was not the decisive force in the battle, it could reduce some pressure on the Chinese army by attracting more enemy troops on the flanks.
As for the front, Guizhang led thousands of Fan troops to use the cover of high chariots to attack the front of the formation and start fighting with the Song army. Zhang Yue, who was sitting in the middle army, looked at this scene and his breathing suddenly stopped.
