Abaoji witnessed the entire battle from beginning to end.
No, it can't actually be called a battle. It was just a tentative charge, and it cost sixty or seventy riders.
The enemy reacted quickly, formed a formation around the chariots, and could not get close at all under the heavy fire of rifles and bows.
The power of the riding bow is not at the same level as the walking bow.
"Great Khan, why don't you dismount and attack?" Yelu Yuwen looked at Bohai who had dismounted behind him, mocked the infantry, and suggested.
"Then let's attack." Abaoji nodded.
Want to leave in stride.
"Want to be stable!" Abaoji shouted.
Yu Wen turned back to look at him.
"It's just a taste." Abaoji said, "Don't force yourself. If the Xia people don't panic, forget it."
"Okay!" Yuwen raised Tieguduo and ordered his troops.
Abaoji casually broke off a willow branch and still stood on the hillside, watching silently.
He didn't have high hopes.
In the first wave of charges, the enemy not only did not collapse and run away, but instead formed a formation around the car, it said everything.
When you go deep behind enemy lines to intercept food routes, the ideal situation is to encounter enemy soldiers who are completely unable to fight. They disperse in a hurry, without any fighting spirit, and let you get supplies comfortably.
But if the situation is reversed, it will be very dangerous. He heard that when Li Shimin, the former Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, intercepted Liu Heita's grain road, he was surrounded by people and almost died. This was a hard time for guarding the army's grain.
Are these people in front of me tough? Maybe not, but they are definitely not just a bunch of people.
There were sounds of killing down the hillside. The Xia people hid behind the car formation and fired volleys of rifles and bows. The Khitan soldiers charging forward were poorly equipped and could only rely on dense shields to block the arrows.
But there were brave men from the Xia people who boarded the carriages and fired from a high position, not caring that they themselves had also become the target of the Khitan soldiers.
What's more, the archer can throw his missiles from a distance, which is very lethal against unarmored infantry, which is very annoying.
Abaoji frowned and looked at it.
The close combat between the two sides soon began. One side tried their best to attack the car, while the other side stood down and stabbed with spears and chopped with knives and axes.
One after another, people screamed and fell down.
One person after another bravely moved forward.
He could see that the Xia people were not elite, and could even be said to have average combat effectiveness. But the problem was that the Khitan infantry were also very average, and they would not be able to defeat them for a while.
The first wave of offensive collapsed, leaving behind more than a hundred corpses.
"Don't fight." Abaoji stopped Yelu Yuwen who was about to organize a second wave of offensive.
Yelu wanted to be safe but felt unwilling to do so, and said: "The Great Khan can actually be defeated."
"How many people are going to die?" Abaoji asked.
Yelu wanted to be steady and wanted to speak but stopped.
"At least two thousand people." Abaoji said, "Is it worth it?"
Yelu Yuwen sighed.
"How did I teach you how to fight before?" Abaoji said to himself: "When you round up wild beasts, you must wait until they are exhausted. To turn it into a military method, we use our advantage of having more horses to attack for hundreds of miles, making false and false claims.
In fact, it is unexpected, and the enemy is lured to go deep, gather and destroy them. The enemy here is well-prepared and has a desperate intention to fight. If enemy reinforcements arrive in a hurry and the marching army is not in order, they can fight. What can be fought?
You have to understand what is not allowed to be fought. Let’s go, send some people to keep an eye on them, scare these people, and don’t make them feel better. Let’s herd the horses, recharge our batteries, and wait for the opportunity.”
"Okay!" Yelu wanted to be on the safe side and immediately ordered the withdrawal of troops.
After a while, thousands of people disappeared behind the hillside.
Xingfang Ye jumped on the carriage and observed carefully.
The Khitans left some of their rangers behind to keep watch from a distance. He had a hunch that the thieves must be peeping in the dark, ready to deliver a fatal blow to them at any time.
If his subordinates were leading the imperial army, he would not be afraid at all, so he ordered a change of formation at this time. It was still a hundred miles away from Yingzhou, and he could still hold on for a few days. But he was not sure about a group of local peasants.
"Let's go!" After hesitating for a long time, he finally made up his mind and moved on.
"Going back to Bailang County?" someone asked.
It only takes two days to return to Bailang, but four days to Yingzhou.
"Going to Yingzhou, you're so scared!" Dongfang Ye jumped out of the carriage, asked someone to fetch a horse, climbed on, holding a riding bow, and said: "I'm watching from the outside, you just go on, it's okay.
"
"Yes!" The masters had no choice but to suppress their worries and continue moving forward after changing formations.
This trip lasted two days.
On the first day of June, we were still fifty miles away from Yingzhou City, and the number of Khitan people surrounding us increased significantly.
Yelu Quanzhong was a little nervous. He was wearing a piece of leather armor ripped from the corpse of a Khitan soldier, and he was almost sweating from the spear in his hand.
In the middle of the night last night, a Khitan brigade made a surprise attack and almost broke through the camp.
Fortunately, the Western commander took the lead and led hundreds of Puzhou soldiers to fight hard, and finally the Khitans were driven back.
In that battle, Tu Er died and Yue Sanlang was also injured. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured and was still alive and kicking at this time.
"Bang! Bang!" The Khitan people threw away a large number of heads and left laughing.
Yelu Quanzhong looked at the heads carefully.
He was not wearing a futou, so he must be a countryman from Tu Tuan. He subconsciously looked to the west. Could it be that some grain transport team was carried by the Khitan people?
The morale in the convoy was a little low. When setting up camp in the evening, there were many people whispering. Yelu Quanzhong couldn't help but ask Yue Sanlang: "Will someone attack tonight?"
Yue Sanlang glanced at him and asked: "Did the Khitan soldiers grow out of the ground?"
"What do you mean?" Yelu Quanzhong was puzzled.
"The Khitans are also human beings. They are also afraid of death and will not fight us head-on." Yue Sanlang said: "If there are still three to five days to go, I can't guarantee whether I can persist to Liucheng, but now it's only one day, so I encourage you
I have Yu Yong and I can get through it no matter what."
"That day..." Yelu Quanzhong was talking about those heads.
"It must have been some unlucky group of ghosts who killed the Khitan thieves." Yue Sanlang said: "Perhaps they failed to withstand the moment the Khitan people rushed to test them. Some people collapsed, which affected morale, and then the whole army collapsed. Maybe it was careless.
We held on for a few days, and then the Khitan people broke into the camp. After all, it’s really hard to be stared at all the time, and there will always be mistakes. We--we are actually quite strong, haven’t you noticed?"
"Uh..." Yelu Quanzhong sat down, leaning on his spear, and said, "It's best to have reinforcements come over."
"Don't think about it. Most of the previous messengers are dead, and the news has not reached Yingzhou." Yue Sanlang said: "It's only for one day. If the Khitan comes again tomorrow, shoot hard. Don't save arrows, shoot as many as you have strength.
, cum all out. But——"
"But what?" Yelu Quanzhong asked.
"We are a bit close to Yingzhou. The Khitans may not dare to come tomorrow." Yue Sanlang said: "Actually, if you were a Khitan -"
"I am originally a Khitan." Yelu Quanzhong said.
"Pah!" Yue Sanlang slapped him and said, "Instead of you being the Khitan chieftain——"
"Actually, when my parents were still alive, my family had some status. I can be considered a descendant of Guzhi." Yelu Quanzhong said.
"Pah! Pah!" twice in succession.
After feeling satisfied, Yue Sanlang said: "In my place, Abaoji, do you need to keep an eye on us? From Linyu Pass to Liucheng County, there are many grain transport teams on the 500-mile journey."
"Yes." Yelu Quanzhong nodded.
"You are a good young man." Yue Sanlang patted Yelu Quanzhong on the shoulder and said, "You can shoot accurately and you dare to fight. In the future, if you look at the opportunity, you might as well recruit some state soldiers."
Yelu Quanzhong smiled but said nothing.
While working in the fields, he kept studying. The official Lu Yan next door often helped him answer his questions, which was of great help.
After some time, Lu Guanren might ask a friend to let him study in Youzhou. Two hundred dollars a month, save some money and have a meal at noon, which is almost enough.
He wants to take the imperial examination, so what kind of warrior will he be?
The sky quickly darkened, and the sound of horse hooves outside had completely stopped. It seemed that the night could pass peacefully.
****
"Leapfrog tactics..." Shao Shude looked at the label on the map and whispered.
Wansheng Huangtou Army is already advancing towards Toad Village and will arrive within a few days.
The Khitans have tried their best to stop their advance, but so far, they have had little success.
Wansheng Huangtou's army suffered certain battle losses, but the main force was still there, their morale was not low, and Toad Village was close at hand.
The establishment of this village is attributed to the Heijian Army.
This group of mounted infantrymen selected elite troops and suddenly headed north at night, galloping for more than a hundred miles. After arriving at their destination, they immediately cut down the surrounding elms and willows, and before the Khitan people could react, they built a rough camp.
After the Khitan people found out, they surrounded them from all sides, but the attack failed. As time went by, the camp became stronger and stronger, and the thieves had no choice but to monitor the surroundings, hoping that the black army would run out of food. But then
With the continuous advance of Wansheng Huangtou Army, this hope was dashed.
He jumped more than a hundred miles in one night, like a frog leaping hard into the hinterland of Khitan. Yelu Shilu was probably sweating profusely by this time, right?
"Next step, Jingfan garrison." Shao Shude moved his finger up a little.
In the second year of Zhenguan in the former Tang Dynasty (628), the Songmo tribe (mainly Khitan) came to invest. The imperial court established Changzhou, and the overseas Chinese governed Jingfan and garrisoned the state.
This place was located in the Naiman Banner area in later generations, and it was more than a hundred miles away from Toad Village.
The Khitans were getting farther and farther into Khitan territory, and the Khitans could not stop Wang Shi from the front. All they could do was to harass the logistics line, or simply escape.
Shao Shude's finger slid down from Jingfan Shu, then westward, pointing at Yingzhou.
The grain road bifurcates here, one goes west and leads directly to Linyu Pass, and the other goes south and leads directly to Luhe Town (near Jinzhou).
Luhe Town was the place where military supplies were stored in the former Tang Dynasty. It is located on the seaside. This military town is actually relatively isolated and can only go north to Yingzhou. To the west, it is impassable because the Liaoxi Corridor has not yet fully emerged.
In the former Tang Dynasty, military rations were stored in Luhe Town by sea, and Shao Shude does the same now.
This is a relatively secretive logistics supply line, and the distance is shorter. Abaoji is a country boy, can he know?
"Your Majesty, Abaoji has revealed his flaws." Chen Cheng walked over and said.
"In May, the entire battlefield was covered with clouds and fog, and I couldn't see clearly." Shao Shude nodded and said, "To this day, it's clear."
Fog on the battlefield is a normal thing. When fighting against a nomadic tribe like the Khitan, which has many war horses, the fog is even worse.
Both sides are constantly sending out scouts to spy on the other side's intelligence, and are sending out large numbers of rangers to intercept and kill the other side's scouts.
When Shao Shude first marched into the army, he didn't know how the Khitans would respond.
Chen Cheng and others have deduced and believe that Abaoji will generally choose three tactics.
The first is to mobilize all the troops, concentrate the main force, and regardless of the situation, they all rush to Yingzhou to fight to the death with Wang Shi and decide the winner on the spot.
The second is to concentrate the main force and take advantage of their high mobility to first defeat the relatively weak one, boost our own morale, shake our will to fight, and then fight decisively with the potential for a great victory.
The third method is to adopt the strategy of luring the enemy deep into the enemy's territory, delaying and harassing the front, and then leading the army deep into the broken grain road behind us.
Now it seems that Abaoji has chosen the third tactic.
Shao Shude did not comment on whether his choice was correct or not. In fact, apart from the first decisive battle, the latter two tactics had their own advantages and disadvantages.
Just now, scouts came from the west to report that a large number of Khitan cavalry appeared between Linyu Pass and Yingzhou, attacking grain transport teams everywhere, causing certain losses.
After hearing this, Shao Shude knew what he was doing.
He knew that Abaoji was coming. Although no Khitan prisoners had been captured yet and it was not confirmed, he had a premonition that Abaoji was coming.
"Let Shi Jiantang and Shao Zhili search in the mountains." Shao Shude ordered: "Abaoji is running around, and there must be a lot of horses. At this moment, Baoji is hiding in some mountain valley and grazing, go and find him."
Soon someone prepared a decree and issued an order.
"First make yourself invincible, then wait for the enemy to be victorious." Shao Shude said: "Zang Dubao did a good job, fighting steadily and making progress step by step. Yelv Shilu was like a headless fly, circling around him. I think
There is no way at all. Send an order to Zang Dubao and tell him not to worry. There is nothing wrong with me. After the second village of Jingfan is established, store enough food and grass first and don't rush forward greedily. Every time you advance to the north,
Yelu Shilu is about to panic. The further back he gets, the more out of control he becomes. Push him away steadily and don't give him a chance."
"On the other hand, I have been trying to summon Liang Hanyong for so long and still haven't broken through. Is the sword still useful?" Shao Shude asked again.
After receiving the imperial edict, the messenger left in a hurry.
"What's going on over there at Chengjie?" Shao Shude looked at Chen Cheng and asked.
"Still sweeping the rear. Yesterday I came to report that more than 3,000 troops from the Khitan and Xi tribes had come to surrender. Wang Yanzhang has led people into Liaoyang and other places. The bandits are weak along the way." Chen Cheng replied.
Shao Shude hummed and sat back on the throne.
He is not worried about the outcome of this battle. In fact, everything is under control now. What he is worried about is that the enemy will run away and stop playing with him.
Zhu Di's 500,000-strong army marched into Mobei, complete with infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and their power was astonishing. However, the results were not ideal, and they returned empty-handed several times.
If the enemy doesn't fight you, this is the most helpless thing.
But Shao Shude has already made a plan for this, so it doesn't matter. You run, as long as you run, losses are inevitable, just chase, as long as you can catch up. Zhu Di is not interested in the grassland, I am interested, you run
