After the Hexi Army gathered in Linfen, thousands of troops were left to guard Linfen, while the 40,000-strong army continued to march toward Luzhou.
The Hexi Army has an abundance of war horses, which can ensure that every soldier has a war horse, even if he is not a cavalry, it can be used as leg power.
Among the 40,000 Hexi troops, 30,000 were cavalry, and there were also 2,000 heavy armored infantry, 2,000 sword and shield soldiers, and 6,000 crossbowmen.
Although they came from Linfen County, their luggage and food were provided by Huoyi County.
Three days later, 40,000 troops arrived on the west bank of Zhuozhang River. Shangdang County was located on the east bank of Zhuozhang River, and the outline of the city could be seen in the distance.
The Hexi Army built a pontoon bridge in just one night, crossed the Zhuozhang River, and set up camp in the northern part of Shangdang County.
Shangdang County is located in a huge basin, surrounded by mountains. The farmland in the basin is intertwined, and the terrain is flat. There is just a piece of wilderness where the battlefield can be set up.
As soon as the Hexi Army was stationed, a cavalryman rushed over and shot a letter with an arrow into the Hexi Army camp. A soldier presented the letter to Guo Song.
Guo Song opened the letter, which was written by Li Huaiguang himself. There was only one sentence in it, "The decisive battle will take place in the wilderness north of the city in three days."
Guo Song shook his head and handed the letter to Yao Jin, "It's very interesting. Li Huaiguang actually wants to fight us in the wild?"
Yao Jin smiled slightly and said: "My humble guess is that the other party probably knows about our Iron Fire Thunder and knows that they cannot defend the city, so they simply fight to the death."
Guo Song then asked Jia Qinglong, the marching Sima next to him: "What does Jia Sima think?"
Jia Sima pondered for a moment and said: "I think it is unlikely that they know about the Iron Fire Thunder. We only used the large Iron Fire Thunder on the Uighurs, so they have no reason to know."
Yao Jin said coldly: "Have you forgotten how to capture Jinyang Palace?"
Guo Song suddenly realized that they did use large iron fire thunders when they attacked Jinyang Palace. Li Huaiguang most likely knew about it. Otherwise, there is really no reason to explain that they did not defend a tall and solid city, but wanted to fight with cavalry.
The Hexi Army fought positional warfare.
Guo Song nodded, "No matter what, we still have to be fully prepared to fight this battle with the enemy."
.........
Yao Jin's guess was correct. Li Huaiguang did know that the Hexi Army had a very powerful siege weapon that could easily blow open the city gates and demolish the city walls. Once the opponent blew open the city gates at night, his army was not good at night fighting.
He is also not good at street fighting, and the result will definitely be a disastrous defeat. In field fighting, although the opponent has cavalry, his army is well-trained, and he will not suffer any losses in a really fierce battle.
After thinking for a long time, Li Huaiguang finally decided to compete with the Hexi Army in the wild, and the time was set in three days. If the army was defeated, he could retreat to Zezhou, but if the defenders were defeated, his entire army would be destroyed.
Li Huaiguang invited Han Yu to his official room, put a package on the table, and said to Han Yu: "Here are five hundred taels of gold. Thank you for your assistance for more than ten years, sir. This is a small tribute from me. Sir, please go back to your hometown!"
"
Han Yu knelt down and cried: "Your Majesty, don't you have any confidence in yourself?"
Li Huaiguang sighed and said: "The key is that I don't know, so I can only prepare for the worst. If I can make a comeback, it won't be too late for my husband to come to me again."
Han Yu had no choice but to kowtow three times and said: "My lord, take care, I hope we can meet again someday!"
"Take care, too, and go!"
Han Yu accepted the gold and went back to pack his bags. He was from Huazhou in Guanzhong, so he left Shangdang County with his wife and children in a carriage and headed south.
Li Huaiguang immediately called for his second son, who was called Li Cheng and was a scholar. He was in his mid-twenties. Li Huaiguang's eldest son died young, so the second son became the eldest son.
He said to his son: "I don't know whether I will win this battle. If I lose, I will retreat south directly and won't take care of you anymore. So you take your mother, two younger brothers and younger sister and take the first step!"
In addition to his second son, Li Huaiguang also had two young sons and three young daughters, all of whom were born to several concubines.
Li Cheng said in fear: "Where can the child go?"
Li Huaiguang pondered for a moment and said: "Three Cave of Cunning Rabbits. Back then, I bought a manor in Changzhou, south of the Yangtze River. Butler Wu knows where it is. He will take you there. If I die in battle, you will change your name and live incognito from now on. Do you understand?"
"Kid, remember!"
Li Huaiguang was also a little sad, and said to his son: "From now on, my brothers, sisters and mothers will be entrusted to you. I have prepared enough money for you. Don't think about becoming an official. You can be a rich man in peace."
Li Cheng kowtowed to his father several times, and Li Huaiguang asked his soldiers to take him down.
He walked to the window with his hands behind his hands, looked at the sky in the distance and said to himself: "I am the King of Jin, and you are also the King of Jin. Only one of the two King Jin can be left, so let us have a good fight! I, Li Huaiguang, would rather
A piece of jade will never be broken into pieces."
.........
Three days later, the two armies finally met in the wilderness north of Shangdang City. Dark clouds hung low and a cold wind swept across the wilderness. The two armies were two miles apart, with bright armor and murderous intent.
The Jin army was dominated by spear infantry. More than half of the infantry wore leather armor, but 10,000 of the soldiers wore iron scale armor. This was Li Huaiguang's core army. They were the best of the best. They were very powerful in battle. This is also
Li Huaiguang's confidence to dare to fight the Hexi Army in the wild.
The equipment of the other 5,000 troops is slightly weaker, but the combat effectiveness is not weak. Even the 8,000 militia troops have high morale, showing an aura of a newborn calf not afraid of tigers.
Twenty-three thousand troops formed one main body and two wings. The center army consisted of 5,000 of the most elite soldiers, including 3,000 cavalry, closely guarding Li Huaiguang. There were 9,000 troops on each side of the wings. They were the main force in this battle.
The Hexi Army pressed the entire 40,000-strong army at the same time, with 15,000 cavalry on each flank, commanded by Zhonglang Generals Pei Xin and An Taixuan. The Chinese Army had 10,000 infantry, including 2,000 heavy armored infantry, and 3,000 long cavalry.
The spear army and the five thousand sword and shield army were commanded by the commander Yao Jin.
The original crossbow army was transformed into a sword and shield army. The opponent did not have cavalry, so there was no need to prepare a large number of crossbow troops like dealing with nomadic cavalry.
As the commander-in-chief of the entire army, Guo Song was responsible for assessing the situation and deploying troops and generals.
At this time, Yao Jin whispered to Guo Song: "Your Majesty, the enemy army to the east should be their militia army!"
When Guo Song and other generals analyzed the enemy's situation last night, they all agreed that the enemy's weakness this time was that his militia soldiers were all newly recruited farmers who had not experienced the cruelty of war and could easily be frightened and attack.
The militia soldiers became the key to their victory.
Guo Song smiled slightly and said, "Why do you see it?"
"Based on my feeling, the enemy's murderous intent in the east is obviously weaker."
Guo Song nodded and said: "I have the same view as you, but I am observing the details. Although their team is neat, they are a little restrained and motionless. Even the posture of holding weapons has not changed. This is what the new recruits do."
Characteristics, secondly, the equipment is relatively weak, almost all of it is leather armor, unlike the army in the west, which is half leather armor and half scale armor."
"Your Majesty is right, it is indeed a characteristic of new recruits."
Guo Song immediately said to his soldiers: "Go and notify General Pei and ask him to use division tactics to attack the enemy on the east road!"
"Follow the order!"
The soldiers flew away.
The segmentation tactic in cavalry tactics is more suitable for enemy soldiers whose military morale is not stable and inexperienced. It is especially suitable for dealing with new recruits. Most of the recruits rely on collective strength to fight. Once they are divided and lose their psychological support, their morale will often collapse.
At this time, the horn sounded in the opponent's camp, and Guo Song also shouted: "Blow the horn and attack with both wings!"
‘Woo——’
The Hexi Army blew the horn, and Pei Xin waved his sword and shouted: "Kill!"
"Kill--"
The 15,000 cavalrymen on the left marched out first, followed by An Taixuan on the right, leading 15,000 cavalrymen.
Amidst the sound of war drums, the 10,000 Chinese troops marched towards the enemy's formation step by step without haste.
Li Huaiguang drew his sword and shouted: "Victory or defeat depends on one move, the spear phalanx can withstand the enemy!"
"Kill--"
The 23,000 Jin troops also burst out with earth-shaking shouts. They quickly formed a formation, with a large formation of spears on the left and right wings to face the opponent's cavalry.
The cavalry of the Hexi Army were specially trained in the tactics of dealing with enemy spear formations. They did not collide head-on. Instead, they quickly divided into fifteen teams, each with a thousand men. Some of the cavalry rushed to shoot arrows at the opposing soldiers.
This is why heavy armored infantry is used to deal with cavalry. Powerful cavalry shooting will make the infantry formation easily torn apart and create loopholes. Only heavy armored infantry who are not afraid of cavalry shooting can always keep the discus intact.
The soldiers who were hit by the arrows screamed and fell to the ground. The soldiers were injured by the arrows, causing a gap in the spear formation quickly. There was no time to fill the gap. Another part of the cavalry seized the opportunity that passed by like wolves and directly rushed into the gap.
.
The Jin army's spear formation was cut numerous times by the sharp swords of the Hexi army, and the originally monolithic spear formation became shattered.