Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The real elite of Xiliao were only stationed in Gaochang, with more than a thousand people.

Because the main force must stay in Hu Sihan's ear, control the Gyeonggi area of ​​Xiliao, and form a deterrent to further areas. Only when it is certain that a decisive battle will take place, will these elites be used as the core and local Dingkou or noble troops be mobilized to go out together.

In the Hezhong area, some elites from Western Liao were also stationed there, and soldiers and civilians who had fled from Xixia were also placed there.

These main forces are currently not on the front line!

Therefore, Xiao Chala'abu's task was to use the fortified city to hold back the Ming army and wait for the main force of Xiliao to arrive for support.

Relying on various fortresses in the mountains and canyons to stall for time, Xiao Chala Abu had gathered more than 30,000 troops.

Among them, there are 300 Khitan heavy cavalry and more than 800 Khitan elite infantry; 300 Uighur heavy cavalry and more than 4,000 Uighur elite infantry.

As well as more than 28,000 infantry and cavalry of various ethnic groups in the original Gaochang country, the composition of these troops was extremely complex, including Uygurs, Khitans, and Tubos. Religious beliefs are also diverse, including Nestorianism, Buddhism, Islam, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism... you name it. Moreover, their combat effectiveness is rather worrying. Some soldiers are actually no more than civilians.

There are more Gaochang nobles coming with troops from their respective territories, and it is estimated that they will eventually be able to gather an army of 40,000 to 50,000 people.

Relying on these troops, it is no problem to drag the main force from Xiliao to reinforce them.

Xiao Chala Abu initially planned to defend, but Wu Jie, the pioneer general, actually penetrated more than a hundred miles away from Yizhou (Hami) alone.

That's too much!

After the scout cavalry confirmed Wu Jie's strength, Xiao Chala'abu decisively sent troops, determined to eat this Ming lone army.

A cavalry general galloped over and reported the reconnaissance situation: "Xiangguo, the enemy army in the southeast has retreated, and they have all withdrawn to defend the mountain pass. Their cavalry is also suppressed and cannot come out, and it is impossible to come here to support the battlefield. ”

Xiao Zhala nodded dissatisfied: "Very good, eat this Ming army first, and then go and take back Shankou Village!"

Today's Xiliao still adopts the North and South Academy system.

Those who followed the Yelu Dashi to the west, including the Han people in the north, the refugees from Xixia, and the Islamic indigenous people in the Gyeonggi area, were all governed by the Northern Court of Xiliao.

The rest are all managed by the South Courtyard.

Xiao Weilila served as prime minister, and Xiao Chala'abu served as deputy prime minister.

At this moment, not only Xiao Chala'abu came to the battlefield in person, but Privy Councilor Yelu Songshan also came.

About 22,000 Xiliao infantrymen advanced slowly in the form of three armies on the left, center and right. 10,000 light and medium armor cavalry were placed on both wings. 800 heavy cavalry were hidden behind the Chinese army.

They wanted to take advantage of Wu Jie's arrival the day before yesterday and attack directly with all his strength before his footing was stable.

Wu Jie set up his camp on a gentle slope, which was originally the beacon tower of Xiliao. There was a small river flowing slowly under the slope.

The creek is extremely shallow, and the bottom is mostly gravel. It can be crossed by horseback, so it cannot be used as a battle barrier.

The auxiliary soldiers and civilians have built a basic fortress and protected the few remaining grain and grass, livestock and supplies in the camp.

When there is a shortage of soldiers due to casualties, brave men are selected from the auxiliary soldiers to temporarily supplement them.

Wu Jie picked up the telescope, observed carefully for a while, and asked the three generals around him: "How is it?"

Infantry general Wang Jun said: "The infantry of the two armies on his left and right were not even in the same formation when they advanced. They probably pulled the strong men from somewhere. This kind of army is not much stronger than the Xiang army of the former Song Dynasty. It was defeated by my battle." The troops collapsed after a few attacks, so the entire infantry formation in the Chinese army was all elite."

Cavalry General Yang Zheng said: "The enemy cavalry may be strong or weak, and many of the cavalry are not even wearing light armor. According to the information sent back in recent years, it is estimated that they come from the grassland north of the Tianshan Mountains, and they were urgently recruited from the grassland. Tribal cavalry. However, there are some unarmored cavalry hidden behind the enemy's central formation. The horses are extremely powerful and followed by auxiliary troops. Those hundreds of cavalry should be heavy soldiers from the Western Liao Dynasty. Riding without a doubt.”

Standing on the hillside and observing the battlefield with a telescope, you can even see clearly whether the war horses are horses. In ancient times, fighting was really a shameless thing.

Of course, things like telescopes cannot be hidden after a long time.

At this moment, Xiao Chalaa Buye was holding a telescope and carefully observing the movements of the Ming army camp. This telescope was made by a merchant who bought it from the Ming Dynasty for a large sum of money, and then asked the craftsmen to study, imitate and upgrade it.

Chariot general Li Siping said: "My chariot battalion can instantly defeat the enemy's elite Chinese army."

"Then let's go fight!" Wu Jie said with a smile.

Five thousand versus thirty-three thousand, the advantage is mine!

Although official and unofficial records of Yu Dayou’s famous battle, the “Great Victory at Anyinbao”, vary, there are three points that can be determined:

First, Yu Dayou's troops did not exceed 5,000 (the most outrageous records say there were only a few hundred); second, the enemy had at least tens of thousands of cavalry (the most recorded number was 100,000 Mongolian cavalry); third, Yu Dayou defeated the many with less. Chase the enemy and beat them hard.

Wu Jie's tank is slightly different in appearance and configuration from Yu Dayou's, but overall its long-range firepower is slightly weaker.

Yu Dayou was simply crazy. Each tank was equipped with five artillery pieces-three Furlong cannons and two Zhuzhu cannons.

And Wu Jie is only equipped with three French cannons.

Several village gates slowly opened, and eight hundred cavalry rushed out first, advancing dozens of steps to patrol on guard.

Subsequently, the wheelbarrow chariot placed behind the camp at the bottom of the slope was pushed out of the camp from various troop dispatch channels.

A chariot has 5 drivers, 2 of whom are helmsmen and observers, and the remaining 3 are responsible for pushing the chariot and serving as artillery assistants. There are also two small wheelbarrows behind the chariot, each with 2 drivers and artillery assistants, and the vehicles are loaded with sub-barrels and ammunition.

There are also the commander and the deputy commander, who are also musketeers. There are also 3 free musketeers, and there are 5 musketeers including the two commanders.

The remaining 6 people are all gunners and deputy gunners.

By the way, there are several long spears in front and on the sides of each chariot to prevent the impact of enemy cavalry, and baffles are also installed to prevent the enemy's bows and arrows.

The above 20 people belong to the chariot group, and there are 15 cold weapon soldiers behind the chariot.

The 15-man combat group includes sword and shield soldiers, long spear soldiers, halberd soldiers, and long sword soldiers... During defense, they are responsible for killing scattered enemies who rush through the rain of bullets. During the attack, they were responsible for attacking the enemy's formation that was disrupted by guns and cannons.

What?

The chariots need to be connected together to form a formation?

Are there chevaux de frise and caltrops outside the chariots?

None of them are needed, that would hinder my chariot's charge!

"Are all those wheelbarrows carrying the legendary cannons?" Xiao Chala Abu was puzzled while holding a telescope.

Yelu Songshan reminded: "Don't underestimate the enemy. After all, the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Jurchen barbarians. The Ming army in front of us, even if there are only a few thousand, should not be underestimated. You can first send the tribal cavalry from the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains to try. They have few armors and come and go like the wind. Even if they are defeated, they can evacuate quickly."

Xiao Chala Abu listened to the advice. Those Tianshan grassland tribal cavalry were conquered by Yelu Dashi before he annexed the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate.

Many of them belonged to the Khitan tribe, which was also considered Yelu Dashi's base at the time.

But now their role has weakened, and it doesn't matter if some of them die.

However, thousands of grassland light cavalry began to encircle the two wings of the Ming army. Seeing that the Ming cavalry did not move out, but hid in the chariot formation, they became more bold and divided into dozens of teams to prepare for rounds of charge and test.

The Ming army chariots were arranged in a standard hollow formation, with Wu Jie and his personal soldiers and cavalry in the center of the hollow formation.

A grassland cavalry team with dozens of cavalry took the lead in rushing towards the chariot formation.

Several chariot commanders facing them raised flags, indicating that their chariot teams were about to engage in battle.

The main and deputy helmsmen and artillery observers among the drivers were carefully observing the distance of the approaching cavalry.

The main and deputy gunners of each chariot were ready to fire at any time. The other seven drivers and artillery assistants, some picked up the sub-barrels and prepared to hand them out, and some squatted on the ground ready to reload at any time.

"About 200 steps (300 meters)." The main helmsman and observer shouted.

The main chariot commander held a copper whistle in his mouth, a flintlock in his left hand, and a small flag in his right hand.

"Whoa!"

The whistle blew and the flag waved.

The chief and deputy gunners operated the artillery to fire. After a shell was fired, the sub-barrel was immediately taken out. The driver and artillery assistant next to him handed over another sub-barrel in an instant. This sub-barrel was installed, and the artillery was ignited again, and the sub-barrel was replaced.

The first three shells were all fired, and it took only 20 seconds in total.

The fourth shell took a little longer because the assistant who handed the barrel was standing farther away.

The five flintlock gunners, including the chief and deputy commanders, did not raise their guns to shoot at the moment. They kept close-range shooting for the remaining enemies who rushed to the nearby area. Of course, if there were too many charging enemies, they would also choose to shoot at a long distance.

These chariots, each with three guns, each gun fired several shells continuously and rapidly, and the shells seemed to be fired all over the sky in an instant.

The cavalry in the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, who had never seen such a battle, were so scared that the survivors abandoned the dead and chose to flee more than a hundred steps away.

Xiao Chala Abu and Yelu Songshan and other Western Liao generals were holding telescopes and staring in astonishment.

Yelu Songshan said: "I finally understand how the Jurchen barbarians were destroyed."

Xiao Chala Abu said in horror: "Those Western Xia soldiers who fled to surrender did not tell the Ming Dynasty that there were such artillery chariots."

"Maybe it has only appeared in recent years." Yelu Songshan guessed.

The Western Liao infantry has completely stopped advancing, and the Western Liao cavalry also hid far away and dared not come.

The battlefield fell into a stalemate, but the Ming army sent some light cavalry out.

These light cavalry actually held a scoop net, ran out to pick up the iron bullets on the ground, and half-dragged them back to the chariot formation to deliver them to the artillery.

The shells of the small Franco cannon are actually very light.

Xiao Chalaa didn't see this and said to Yelu Songshan: "The Ming army may have limited artillery, so let the tribal cavalry spread out more and use up all the Ming army's artillery. Then advance the infantry formation and eat up all the Ming army in front of us."

Soon, the grassland cavalry came back again.

This time, there were 20 cavalry in a team, and the cavalry were seven or eight meters apart.

The Ming army's chariot commanders were too lazy to care about such a sparse cavalry formation. Only when the enemy cavalry rushed within a few dozen steps, the Ming army's flintlock gunners could shoot freely.

The horse bows and muskets shot at each other.

The grassland cavalry left some corpses and fled again. Their horse archery could not even cause slight damage to the Ming army. The arrow shield in front of the chariot was even covered with leather, and the power of the horse bow was like a tickle.

Yelu Songshan sighed: "Let's retreat to Yizhou City and hold on until reinforcements arrive. We can also abandon Yizhou City at a critical moment. These Ming troops are full of thorns and we can't take them down at all. We don't have many elite troops now, and most of them are temporarily recruited men. They will easily fall apart if a real fight breaks out."

Xiao Cha La A Bu was worried: "If we can't even fight with several thousand vanguard troops, how can we face the main force of the Ming army? Even if the elite of the Liao Dynasty came to reinforce, even if we repelled the main force of the Ming army, we would inevitably suffer heavy losses. Without the previous emperor to deter the tribes, once the elite of the Liao Dynasty suffered too many casualties, those nobles who believed in the Desert Religion would be ready to move."

"That's why we have to be cautious and can't lose here," Yelu Songshan said, "Withdraw slowly. The enemy's chariots are difficult to catch up. We can retreat to Yizhou City calmly. If the enemy dares to chase us, all cavalry will be dispatched to disrupt their chariot formation, and take the opportunity to counterattack with the whole army!"

Xiao Cha La A Bu thought this was a good idea, and ordered the whole army to lure the enemy to retreat, while observing the specific reaction of the Ming army.

If the Western Liao dared to lure the enemy to retreat, Wu Jie would really dare to chase.

Even if the Western Liao infantry formation was still intact and was just slowly retreating, Wu Jie still commanded the whole army to chase!

This time, the hollow formation became the Queyue formation. The drivers slung the noose over their shoulders and pushed the chariots forward to pursue slowly. The cold weapon infantry and cavalry followed in the Queyue formation at all times.

Xiao Chala Abu was overjoyed and ordered all the cavalry to attack quickly and go around the rear of the Queyue formation to kill. At the very least, when the Ming army changed its formation to defend, the cavalry should be used to disrupt the chariot formation.

This kind of light chariot formation is actually very sparsely spaced. 120 chariots form the Queyue formation, and the width of the battlefield is close to two miles.

The enemy cavalry came from a long way around, and when they got around to the rear, the Queyue formation had already turned into a hollow circle formation. Moreover, after forming a circle formation, they adjusted and rested slightly, and continued to advance in a circle formation, with all the chariots in the rear facing the enemy cavalry behind them.

When the circle formation moved forward, it was naturally impossible to maintain order, and the chariots everywhere looked messy.

Xiao Chala Abu stood on the tower car himself and saw it clearly with a telescope. He thought the Ming army's chariot formation was in chaos, so he immediately ordered the flag to be raised and the horn to be blown, so that the cavalry who had already gone around the rear could charge with all their strength.

The chariots turned very quickly. To be on the safe side, the cold weapon infantry had already gone out to defend, ensuring that the chariots facing the enemy turned to the front.

So what if the chariot formation was uneven?

That's called a stacked formation!

On the contrary, it was the offensive posture of this light chariot battalion.

When the light chariot battalion launched an attack, it was all wave-like and staggered. No matter whether you were cavalry or infantry, you could force it to be directly defeated from the front.

It was very simple to break this chariot formation, using a large number of "dead soldiers" to withstand its terrifying firepower.

When the Manchus first encountered the Korean musketeers, they tried the beauty of the dead soldier tactics. They let the cavalrymen ride two horses each, and the empty horses were chopped with swords to make the war horses crazy, and they forced to break through the Korean musketeers' barricades. If the empty horses could not charge, they would charge with people and horses. Although the war horses were afraid of death, they just needed to chop them crazy.

This dead soldier tactic was more defeated than won against the Ming army, so the shield chariot soldiers were invented to serve as dead soldiers.

Shield chariots could not stop the close-range attacks of small-caliber artillery, let alone large-caliber artillery. The main function of shield chariots was to block the artillery shotgun shells and musket bullets of the Ming army, which were the main killing weapons of the Ming army.

Light chariot battalions like Yu Dayou's could not stop the advance of shield chariot dead soldiers.

Even if you kill all the shield chariot soldiers, the follow-up troops of the Qing Dynasty are approaching.

After the Ming army suffered a loss, it improved the chariot formation again.

For example, Sun Chengzong's ultimate formation had ten layers of hollow chariot formations inside and outside, and the Qing Dynasty's shield chariot dead soldiers were not enough to consume. But this formation was too heavy and slow, with more defense than offense, and it had to be coordinated with a large number of cavalry.

However, the elite cavalry of the Ming army had already developed independent consciousness, and ordinary civilian supervisors could not command them at all.

At this moment, the Western Liao cavalry was charging hard.

Because it took time for the chariots behind to turn, the Western Liao cavalry had safely rushed to within a few dozen steps.

Under the full-speed charge of the cavalry, at such a close distance, they could rush to the front of the battle in an instant.

"Boom boom boom!"

Hundreds of small cannons were fired one after another, and the enemy cavalry that rushed to within thirty or forty steps suddenly fell in groups.

The fired shells changed!

Before Wu Jie ordered the attack, the whole army rested for a while.

It was at that time that all the sub-barrels were replaced with iron bead-like shotgun shells, which were like flowers scattered by fairies within a range of dozens of steps.

This thing was often used in the Age of Discovery, not to bombard enemy ships, but to bombard the deck at close range with shotgun shells. Countless shotgun shells were fired on the deck, and a large number of sailors and sailors on the enemy ship died.

But the enemy cavalry still rushed too close, and the follow-up cavalry continued to come.

But the firing rate of the Franco-cannon was too fast. The first three shots took less than 10 seconds on average, and the firing rate after that was about 15 seconds.

One after another, the sub-barrels were replaced, and one after another, the shotgun shells flew out.

The musketeers were also shooting at the enemy cavalry that rushed to a distance of 10 to 20 steps.

All the soldiers crossed the chariot, and all kinds of cold weapons were used. There were even soldiers who waved long swords to chop the horses' legs, chopping the scattered enemy cavalry that rushed over and were forced to slow down.

Some enemy cavalry even hit their heads on the long spears installed on the chariot.

There were corpses everywhere within a few dozen steps outside the chariot.

The Franco-cannon was still in rapid firing mode, but the Western Liao cavalry could no longer rush, and the survivors fled the battlefield in fear.

Wu Jie said: "Send the order, stay where you are, cool the barrels, and collect the shells."

Xiao Chala Abu, on the other hand, had a dazed look on his face, swallowed his saliva involuntarily, and gave an order with difficulty: "The entire army should move closer to the fort, rely on the fort to form a defensive formation, and take turns crossing the river to retreat to Yizhou City!"