Human hearing is related to decibels and distance. Zhao Xi does not know the specific formula and cannot perform accurate calculations.
But he was certain that even if it was late at night, the Xixia people a few kilometers away would never hear them if the chariots and cannons were traveling on soft soil, or gravel.
Although he was once advised to march with horses and grass wrapped around their hooves, Zhao Xi did not listen. This does not mean that the advice was wrong, but it was simply impossible to deal with the noise of so many tanks and cannons.
So, I just let them all go.
It's nothing more than stopping the march at a specific distance.
When morning came again and noises began to be heard from the Xixia camp, the soldiers of the imperial court began to connect the chariots.
From this distance, we can already see the Xixia people's camp, which is probably only three to five miles. For both sides, this is considered contact. After all, this is a war.
The Xixia people were very crazy and did not send their exploration horses too far. Also, the defeat of various camps along the way had given the Xixia people the impression that the Song army was still the same.
The Xixia people were ready to organize their troops again and then continue to advance towards Qinzhou.
Although they have been attacking and advancing along the way, there is no decent resistance against the entire Xixia Jingqi.
As for Xixia, they believed that His Highness the Crown Prince of Song State would rely on Qinzhou's fortified city to launch an offensive and defensive war with them.
Because the Song army was good at defending the city. Moreover, nearly 200,000 cavalry went all the way south and released rangers to the outside, ensuring that their retreat would not be cut off and they would avoid being surrounded.
They did not believe that the Song army had enough troops to encircle and suppress them within a radius of several hundred miles.
In terms of mobility, the Song army, which was mainly infantry, could not compare with them.
Once a war begins, no matter where the war begins, response and support can be gathered quickly.
It is now Haoshui River. Behind the mountain ridges on the east and west sides, they have each arranged five thousand fine cavalry.
How many times they entered the Song Dynasty to fight, they always used this tactic...mainly advancing from the center.
In the past, when the two sides fought, the entire territory of Qinzhou was full of battlefields, and there were battles at any time.
Just like the last Haoshuichuan, it was also an encirclement and suppression by a non-main force front, which disrupted the Song Army's combat plan and ultimately achieved a great victory over the Song Army.
This time, it seems it will be the same.
The mobility of cavalry is not comparable to that of infantry. Zhao Xi also knows this, so he has arranged many combat units.
Moreover, the most important point is that Zhao Xi has not assigned any specific combat mission to any combat unit, nor has he asked anyone to support each other.
There are firearms and new armaments, and they have invested nearly twice as many troops as those in Xixia, and they are still ambushing in all areas that may become battlefields in advance. Each area should be able to form a situation of using more to attack less, and everyone is waiting for work.
Winning should be certain, it just depends on the degree of victory.
The basis of their chances of winning was that the Xixia people did not expect that they could ambush several days or even a month in advance. They never expected that there would be military rations that did not require the use of fire to make food.
"boom……"
When Zhao Xi ordered the firing of the first unloaded artillery shell, the Song army, which was encircling them, began to slowly advance toward the center.
At this time, the Xixia people also began to gather.
It's not that Zhao Xi is acting like a gentleman and waits until the enemy is ready before going to war. He also thought about a sneak attack, but the Xixia people were not three to five thousand, but seventy or eighty thousand.
It is definitely impossible to attack the whole line in a sneak attack. A small number of teams can attack in a sneak attack, whether it is the cavalry of the Western Army or the infantry of the New Army. As long as they penetrate into the Xixia camp, there will definitely be no return.
Since it is an encirclement and suppression, there is an overwhelming advantage, so there is no need to sacrifice soldiers to engage in so-called sneak attack tactics.
Therefore, it has become the current situation of head-on confrontation.
The chariots with their roofs uncovered... were rail carriages, with three gunpowder launchers fixed on each chariot.
At this time, the chariots were no longer horse-drawn, but were pushed forward by soldiers behind them.
From the front, it looks like iron plates moving forward one by one.
Following the chariots were wheeled cannons, followed by rows of new troops holding muskets, and then followed closely by the Western troops...
At this time, no side is the front or the flank. Except for the north side of Haoshuichuan, which is the direction from which the Xixia people entered the canyon, which is slowly approaching from both sides, the other directions are exactly the same...all chariots are heading towards
Push forward, compress.
At this time, if the Xixia people immediately turned around and retreated, Zhao Xi really had no choice.
Will the Xixia people retreat?
The answer is no. Without any contact, even if they didn't recognize the chariot, they didn't think their cavalry couldn't defeat it.
This is where the fight begins.
When the Xixia people saw chariots approaching from three sides, they didn't seem to panic at all... To be honest, Zhao Xi really admired the Xixia people.
They were all surrounded. Although the chariots were advancing very slowly, they saw that the entire encirclement was about to close, but they didn't care at all.
Just when Zhao Xi was thinking about how the Xixia people would respond, the Xixia people took action.
Horses galloped outward from the center, and cavalry were constantly gathering from three directions to besiege... This was a confrontation!
"Shuai Di..."
To be honest, in terms of strategic planning, Zhao Xi feels that he is beyond anyone in this era because he has thousands of years of experience as a basis.
But in this kind of battlefield where cold weapons were the mainstay, he still tended to let Di Qing make the decision on how to arrange tactics and choose the timing of the battle.
Zhao Xi is not very familiar with the speed of the charge of the war horse, the distance of the charge, and the explosive power of the charge of the war horse, especially the Xixia war horse.
But Di Qing knew the firing range of gunpowder bullets and the effective attack range of wheel cannons and muskets.
Therefore, Zhao Xi needs Di Qing's advice on how to fight and what tactics to adopt.
"Your Highness, after the war horses charge up, it should be the time to fire the gunpowder bombs. The altitude is twenty to twenty-five."
"As for the wheel cannon... after the first round of gunpowder shells is fired, the wheel cannon fires directly. For the musket, I suggest waiting until the soldiers can see the faces of the horses and cavalry clearly before firing..."
Di Qing wasn't sure, he just suggested this based on experience.
The speed of the war horse, once it charges up, one or two miles is the distance of a charge.
It takes time for the gunpowder bomb to land after being launched.
Since the Song Army had no distinction between the front and the two wings, the Xixia people also divided the cavalry teams into three directions in response to the Song Army's encirclement.
The war is about to break out!
"Rumble..."
Just like this sound, tens of thousands of war horses galloped, and the entire Haoshui River was immediately covered with the sound of horse hooves.
At this time, Zhao Xi could barely hear the whispers of the people around him.
At this time, the three chariots were close together, and Zhao Xi was standing on the top of the chariot.
There are different flags waving at the four corners of the chariot...