Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Why did Zhu Kang only bring three thousand soldiers?

Because this is neither a war to destroy the country nor a war of conquest, three thousand soldiers are more than enough.

Du Yingwu dispatched about 40,000 troops.

Eight thousand of them are the Annan Forbidden Army, which is the absolute main force.

The other 20,000 are ten soldiers, similar to the Xiang army of the Song Dynasty.

There are more than 10,000 rural soldiers recruited temporarily, a ragtag group of people.

There are only so many troops left that Du Yingwu can mobilize. He suffered heavy losses in the battles in the past few years, especially the violent beating by Yang Zaixing, which led to a sharp reduction in Annan's military strength.

Thang Long and northern prefectures and counties were plundered, and the finances were on the verge of collapse. The Annan court had no money to restore the army.

After Du Yingwu's coup, local rebellions broke out everywhere, which also severely consumed military forces.

The border troops in the south did not dare to move, otherwise they would occupy the city and kill them in minutes.

Du Yingwu sent five thousand soldiers to surprise the city behind the Ming army, and was temporarily unable to return to participate in the decisive battle.

He also wanted to leave troops to garrison the two cities on the front line, and only more than 30,000 troops could really be used.

On Zhu Kang's side, there were three thousand Ming troops, five thousand local soldiers, and dozens of Annan navy warships.

The navies of both sides fought first.

The Annan Navy took refuge in Zhu Kang and fought against Du Yingwu's Annan Navy!

Although they were both Annan naval forces, the former was stationed on the Taiping River and could also fight offshore. He also crossed the sea to attack the Northern Song Dynasty and headed towards Qinzhou.

The latter is a proper river navy, stationed in Thang Long Palace and the surrounding water systems.

The battle lasted for about an hour, and Zhu Kang's side achieved a small victory.

Han Jing observed carefully with a telescope and concluded: "The navy on both sides did not fight desperately. They should be unwilling to kill each other."

Annan official Chen Kai said: "The leader of the water army in Shenglong Prefecture is Li Changlu, Marquis of Baoning. He neither opposes Du Ze's regency, but also does not fully support it. It is estimated that this person is waiting to see who wins. I will help whoever I want, and I just want to preserve my own strength.”

Zhu Kang smiled and said: "It seems that the enemy troops are not united."

…

"Why don't the navy fight to the death?" Du Yingwu asked.

Li Changlu argued: "The pirate army has a large navy and it is really difficult to win. The soldiers have tried their best."

Du Yingwu said with a cold face: "The navy army reorganized and cooperated with the horse infantry army to fight!"

Du Yingwu, who had carried out the coup less than a year ago, could not completely control the army.

Especially the naval army is not in the same system as the infantry, and the general in charge of the army is still a marquis.

He didn't even dare to punish Li Changlu severely, and had to promise more benefits to win him over.

Zhu Kang's camp was located at the intersection of Taiping River and Longjiang River. The side of the river was protected by the navy. No matter how many troops Du Yingwu had, he could not besiege on all sides and could only attack the west and south.

Du Yingwu has already mobilized the troops stationed in Tiandefu City.

At this time, the main force of the 32,000 Annan army slowly advanced from the west, and 10,000 people were divided to circle to the south for a pincer attack.

Zhu Kang placed 3,000 elite soldiers in front and 5,000 rabble-rousers on the sides.

The battlefield is a large paddy field.

The Red River Plain has two crops a year. The first crop is sown at the turn of winter and spring, and the second crop is sown in summer.

At this moment, the rice has been harvested, but the new rice has not yet been planted.

The paddy fields have not dried up completely. They seem dry on the surface, but when you step on them, you will find mud that is ankle-deep. The Red River Plain is harvested after the rainy season, and a lot of the water in the fields has not been drained. Naturally, the fields will become dry after two months of drying. Into this ghostly state.

Some of the farmland even has water!

Soldiers on both sides took off their shoes, rolled up their trouser legs, and moved forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

In addition to being easy to slip, it does not affect the movement very much. Soldiers who are familiar with this kind of farmland can even run in the mud.

Of course, that's a state without armor.

Zhu Kang's three thousand elites were all wearing armor at the moment, and they were medium-sized armors weighing about thirty kilograms. When acting, it is slightly affected.

"The enemy army in the south is full of mobs, and they can't even raise their flags in order," Du Yingwu observed carefully and said to the messenger, "order Liu Yu to attack fiercely in the south and defeat the enemy's flanking troops!"

Du Yingwu was indeed a qualified commander. Not long after Zhu Kang laid out his troops, he caught his weak point and took action immediately.

The side battlefield was too far away, and the flag order might be transmitted incorrectly, and a messenger would fly away along the field ridge.

The messenger is still running, and Zhu Kang's elite are already speeding forward.

There were even more than a hundred artillerymen, carrying cannons, shells and gunpowder, advancing on several field ridges.

Du Yingwu gave corresponding commands: "Li Yirong led his troops to fight, and Long Kan and Ding Congzhou led their troops to support them. Marquis Baoning, your navy will also kill them. The enemy camp is empty. Once the navy wins, they can directly attack the enemy." Even if we can't burn down the enemy's camp, as long as we hold on and wait for the enemy's flanks to be defeated, we can take advantage of the situation and mobilize the entire army to attack from both sides!"

"As you command!"

Annan's army mobilized quickly, and it was definitely a strong force in a small country.

Du Yingwu later even established a military academy to firmly control the army by training officers, and significantly improved the combat effectiveness of Annan's army.

The elite Ming army advanced more than ten meters, and Han Jing suddenly said: "Your Highness, advancing in muddy formation is too energy-consuming. It is better to let all the soldiers rush along the field ridge to kill."

"Arranged into many long snakes? How can we fight?" Zhu Kang said in surprise.

Han Jing said: "You can fight. What we are practicing is the Yuanyang Formation!"

Zhu Kang felt that it was extremely outrageous, but considering that Han Jing had perfect scores in all subjects in the military academy and had participated in many northern wars, he actually agreed: "General Han has full power to make the decision."

Han Jing ordered to stop advancing, called the middle-level officers, and explained the combat methods in detail.

The middle-level officers returned to their teams and called the captains of the Yuanyang team.

Soon, in Du Yingwu's shocked eyes, all 3,000 Ming soldiers stepped on the ridges of the fields and rushed forward like several long snakes.

Of course, it is possible to march like this, but now the two armies are fighting!

Du Yingwu was overjoyed: "Send an order, let Li Yirong, Long Kan, and Ding Congzhou line up and press forward. Li Hui and Ruan Xing led their troops to support."

The front armies of both sides were only a hundred steps apart, and Han Jing ordered the bugle to be blown.

The Ming soldiers running in the front jumped from the ridges into the farmland and quickly lined up. The subsequent Ming army was still galloping along the ridges, including the artillerymen carrying small cannons.

At this moment, it has entered the range of the infantry bow.

But except for the fierce generals with amazing arm strength, ordinary archers would not shoot arrows so far.

In the Tang Dynasty, archers were required to shoot at 60 steps, while in the Ming Dynasty, archers were required to hit the target at 50 steps. It was about 70 to 80 meters before they could start firing.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Ming army artillery began to fire, and it was the siege artillery left on the shore (disassembled from the navy ship).

These artillery aimed at Du Yingwu's central army, but many shells fell on the supporting troops between the front army and the central army.

The Annan general named Li Hui was leading his troops forward. He was just a supporting force and didn't have to lead the charge, but suddenly saw many black shadows falling.

"Ah!"

A personal soldier screamed, and Li Hui turned his head to see that the personal soldier's arm was broken.

There were not many casualties, only 20 shells.

The shells were difficult to bounce when they hit the mud, and some didn't even touch the people. Only eight Annan soldiers were killed or injured.

The elite Ming soldiers who jumped into the field just lined up the mandarin duck squads, and the squads were not in order. To outsiders, this was not even a military formation, it looked disorganized and chaotic.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

But they had already opened fire.

The distance was far, and there were not many musketeers, so they only hit more than a dozen enemy troops.

The Annan front army that pressed forward had more than 6,000 people, and the casualties of more than a dozen people could be ignored, and it did not even affect the overall morale.

But they could not run fast in the muddy march, and the Ming musketeers could calmly reload and shoot.

Du Yingwu did not dare to follow Han Jing's example and let the troops run closer on the ridge of the field before forming a battle formation. He knew what his army was like, and he estimated that he would be killed by the Ming army before he formed a battle formation.

There were another twenty or so mandarin duck teams, and when the two sides were 80 steps apart, they jumped into the field one after another to form a battle formation and fired at the enemy's front army.

The Ming army in the field behind them, after reloading, stepped forward in the mud to fight side by side.

When they were 60 steps apart, that is, about 90 meters, their respective crossbowmen began to shoot at each other.

Both sides of the battle were elite soldiers with complete armor. The effect of shooting arrows at such a long distance was negligible. Even if they were hit, they would only be injured.

The subsequent Ming soldiers were still running forward on the ridges!

The artillery did not stop until they were close to fifty steps.

They put down the gun legs and arranged them on the ridges, with the gun barrels facing the paddy fields on both sides at an angle, and began to load gunpowder and buckshot.

"Speed ​​up!"

Annan's front army general Li Yirong led his personal soldiers to charge on the ridges, but most of his soldiers were in the fields.

"Boom boom boom boom!"

The small cannons fired buckshot diagonally forward on the ridges of various fields, and muskets and crossbows were fired in the fields.

The Annan front army, dozens of meters away, was instantly covered by crossfire.

Li Yirong was fine on the ridges, but his army in the fields collapsed directly.

These Annan imperial guards were known as elite, but when they were at their peak, they were killed by the northern troops of the Song Dynasty. Now they are not as strong as before, how strong willpower can they have?

"Send a message to Ruan Xing to immediately step forward to support and suppress the fleeing of the front army!" Du Yingwu ordered in a panic.

Li Yirong's troops collapsed, but Ding Congzhou and Long Kan's troops on his side suffered less long-range firepower.

At the critical moment, Ding Congzhou drew his sword and shouted: "Follow me!"

He ignored the large troops in the field and led a group of personal soldiers to rush out along the ridge. He wanted to kill the mandarin duck team on the ridge and kill the artillery hiding behind the mandarin duck formation.

More and more Annan front troops, unwilling to be live targets in the field, climbed up the ridge and followed Ding Congzhou to charge.

There are five mandarin duck teams here, only half of them are left to guard the ridge, and the remaining four and a half jumped into the field to assist in defense. They only have 60 people, but there are hundreds of enemy troops rushing across.

Ding Congzhou was afraid of being hit by a musket, so he let a dozen personal soldiers rush in front of him.

These hundreds of people were in a long snake formation. After more than 20 people fell down after being shot or shot, they quickly rushed to the front of the five mandarin duck teams.

Then, they could not deploy quickly. There were obviously hundreds of people, but only the one in the front could engage in the battle.

The rest jumped into the fields randomly, completely lost their organization, and could only fight there on their own.

The five mandarin duck teams harvested in an orderly manner, and one died when they rushed up.

"Bang!"

Ding Congzhou was shot. The bullet was shot from two meters away and hit him directly on the forehead.

The remaining soldiers under his command immediately collapsed and fled.

"Your Highness, the friendly army has collapsed."

Zhu Kang turned around and saw that the 5,000 Annan friendly troops two miles away had been killed by Du Yingwu's troops and fled.

Zhu Kang urgently ordered: "The 20 cannons borrowed from the navy are no longer needed. Let the officials, doctors and gunners escape to the grain transport ship!"

Han Jing also learned about the situation and shouted frantically: "Fire another round of shotgun shells, and charge the whole army!"

Han Jing was not in a hurry. Those miscellaneous friendly troops were vulnerable to attack. They were just tools he used to disperse the enemy's forces.

He believed in the combat effectiveness of the mandarin duck formation in the paddy field terrain!

Even if the enemy had several times the number of troops, it would be difficult for them to be fully deployed in the battle.