Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

This is a grassland about one hundred miles wide and more than three hundred miles long.

To the north is Langshan, the western section of the Yinshan Mountains, and to the south is the Yellow River that is turning a few bays.

Wu Lahai City is located at the Langshan Pass. Its main function is not to defend against enemies from the east, but to prevent Mobei tribes from crossing the Langshan Pass and going south.

Yue Fei and Han Shizhong led an army of 30,000 troops to eradicate the Xixia Yincheng along the way, and had already entered the Shuofang County area of ​​the Han Dynasty.

In fact, even if there were not so many tribal uprisings in Xixia, it would be difficult for Brother Richard to transport subsequent food and grass. Because Wu Lahai City was located too far north, the Ming army could completely block the grain route and force the Xixia army in the city to come out for a decisive battle.

Again, the main function of Wu Lahai City is to prevent the Mobei tribe from going south.

But the Ming army came from the east!

And it came extremely quickly. Brother Richard hurriedly hurriedly arrived, but he could only arrive quickly with reinforcements, but he was unable to transport all the food and grass quickly. He thought that Weifu Army's food reserves were sufficient, but in fact that was not the case at all.

He didn't question Li Quanlu because he couldn't get an answer if he asked.

"We will leave the city for a decisive battle tomorrow." Li Quanlu said.

Supervisor Cao Yu said: "I will lead the remaining troops to guard Wu Lahai City without any risk."

Li Quanlu hesitated to speak, sighed and turned to leave.

They have a governor and a military supervisor. Although they come from mutually hostile factions, this does not prevent them from joining forces to make money.

Yeli Degui, who was captured alive by Han Shizhong, also had a share!

The land outside Tao is arable and grazing, and the food is relatively abundant.

So, can the stored food be sold for money?

sure!

When the Liao and Jin Dynasties ruled the grasslands, the Xixia civil and military officials here did not need to sell food because this was the only place that the Silk Road on the grasslands passed through.

But as the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Jin Kingdom and controlled the grasslands, Ming products were continuously sold to the grasslands from Hebei and Shanxi, and the specialties of the grasslands could be sold nearby to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. The trade node of Weifu Military Division suddenly lost its original role, and the gray income of civil and military officials disappeared instantly.

If you want to continue making money, you can only start with food.

Of course there is no shortage of salt here, there are salt ponds to the west and south, but there is an urgent need for ironware, cloth and tea.

Li Quanlu, Cao Yu, and Ye Li Degui teamed up to resell the grain in the army warehouse during the great disaster in Xixia.

Some of the military rations were transported south to the surrounding counties and counties of Xingqing Prefecture in exchange for cheap salt there. Part of it was transported eastward to Dongsheng Prefecture in exchange for Ming Dynasty goods transferred there. They can even sell Ming Dynasty goods south to Xingqing Mansion, the capital of Xixia.

Why did Li Quanlu rush to save Tiande Army City?

Because it was also a trade transfer station, a lot of military rations were shipped there and stored there, and a lot of Ming goods were temporarily stored there.

Cao Yu also wanted to protect his property, so he followed Li Quanlu and sent troops. Halfway through, he became timid again and was afraid of dying on the battlefield, so he kept urging Li Quanlu to withdraw his troops.

Firstly, Li Quanlu was afraid of defeat, and secondly, in order to settle the accounts, he simply withdrew his troops and threw the grain and livestock to Han Shizhong.

Why doesn't Brother Richard want to delve into this matter?

Because Li Quanlu is his direct descendant.

Li Quanlu's profits from reselling military rations have always been divided to pay tribute to Brother Richard.

He knew that Li Quanlu was reselling military rations, but he didn't know that Li Quanlu was so courageous that there was not much left in the military warehouse.

They are all corrupt officials, no one can blame anyone.

The presence of a large number of rebels around Xingqing Mansion is inseparable from Brother Richard himself. This guy relied on the tribes in the prefectures and counties around the capital to change from nomadic herding to farming, and frantically occupied the cultivated land of those tribes.

Historically, Li Renxiao implemented a series of benevolent policies, an important one of which was the distribution of land.

That is to say, after Brother Richard was tortured to death, his house was ransacked and countless fields were obtained and distributed to the people in the country. This alone immediately won the support of various ministries, and tribal chiefs supported Li Renxiao's reforms.

…

Arrangement of an army of 90,000 on the battlefield is a problem.

He first detached three thousand light cavalry, crossed the desert on the south bank of the Yellow River, and went around to attack the Ming army's grain transport team. There were many oases at this time. Once they met the elite of the Ming army, the Xixia Qingqi immediately crossed the river and went into the desert.

This really annoyed Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, so they could only send light cavalry along the Yellow River to observe the enemy's tracks, and immediately light up the smoke to report the enemy's situation.

Many of the Western Xia cities that were captured previously had the function of beacon towers, and now they can be used with a small number of soldiers stationed there.

Until the Ming army approached thirty miles away, Brother Richard finally led his troops to fight.

Thousands of weaker infantrymen were left by Brother Richard to defend the city.

Eight thousand cavalry from the Zhenyan Army Division were sent by Brother Richard to ambush in the north, and followed the Wuga River to the side and rear of the Ming army for twenty miles.

Tens of thousands of light cavalry were sent out by Brother Richard, causing a stir to disrupt the Ming army's light cavalry, in order to achieve the goal of covering the battlefield, and by the way, they also provided cover for the eight thousand flanking friendly troops.

Brother Richard personally led the remaining infantry and cavalry to advance slowly.

On Yue Fei and Han Shizhong's side, there were all cavalry, about 32,000 people.

The infantry was either left to defend the Tiande Army City, or stationed at various barrier cities along the way. Even the artillery was left in the nearest barrier city, waiting for the cavalry to besiege the city before dragging the artillery over.

The distance between the two armies was gradually reduced to more than ten miles, and the light cavalry on both sides were still roaming and fighting.

When the distance was only three or four miles, Brother Richard put in more light cavalry and asked the infantry to organize themselves into formation and move forward.

Brother Richard's 90,000-strong army, the real core elite, actually only has 8,000 people.

Two thousand personal soldiers.

Three thousand iron harriers.

Three thousand strong crossbowmen.

Strong crossbowmen were created by Richard. They were a relatively new type of soldiers in the Xixia army. They were built to shoot through the Song army's formation and were even said to be able to shoot through the Song army's heavy armor.

The bow arms of this strong crossbow were mixed with ox horns, and the arrows were cold-forged. The penetration was better than the ordinary crossbows of Song and Liao.

Soldiers came from all kinds of sources, no matter which tribe they were from, but they had to be strong because they were also equipped with shields to protect against arrows.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the strong crossbowmen of Xixia were crippled and did not recover until the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

During the years of the Ming-Jin War, Li Qianshun was building a firearms unit, while Richard was restoring the strong crossbowmen.

Xixia actually had a kind of garrison soldiers, whose equipment was outrageous. It selected the sons of the royal family and the wealthy families to serve as soldiers. To put it bluntly, it was a "hostage army". When they were first established, they were all brave and good at fighting. Now he has become a "Han general", serving as a palace guard and honor guard. If a war really breaks out, he will probably run away quickly.

At this moment, the two armies are facing each other.

The infantry from the two major military divisions in the south are arranged in the front row and on the two wings, divided into several layers of military formations.

Some light cavalry went around the two sides of the battlefield, and some light cavalry were arranged on the two wings. There are also two light cavalry, guarding the two sides of the central army, they are responsible for coordinating the deployment of the iron harriers.

Richard's personal soldiers and strong crossbowmen, as the central army, watched the changes.

Yue Fei stood on a small mound and observed the battlefield with a telescope. He soon found that his light cavalry could not hold on.

Those light cavalry came from various tribes in the grassland. They did not have enough iron arrows, and the armor rate was also very touching. Facing the Xixia light cavalry with the same equipment, but the number of people on the Xixia side was larger, they began to retreat continuously while fighting.

"Order Yang Yizhong to attack!" Han Shizhong said to the messenger.

After the Battle of Hebei, Han Shizhong was transferred from Shandong to northern Shaanxi to help the court take away the military power of those warlords. It was at that time that Yang Yizhong joined Han Shizhong's army.

However, the flag was waved, and with a drumbeat, Yang Yizhong led 1,500 cavalrymen to charge out.

The Xixia cavalrymen who were chasing the grassland light cavalry were frightened and retreated. They didn't dare to fight the cavalrymen head-on, so they shot two arrows and ran away, luring the Ming cavalrymen to their own formation.

Han Shizhong shouted again: "Li Yu attack!"

Li Yu was originally an officer of the Northern Song Dynasty's Xiang Army, and later became a Shandong bandit. At his peak, he had tens of thousands of soldiers. In this time and space, he was conquered by Zhang Shuye.

Yang Yizhong and Li Yu each led 1,500 cavalrymen to rescue the grassland cavalrymen who were retreating. Then they continued to charge, facing the enemy's arrows, and rushed to the light cavalry on both wings of the Xixia army.

Although the cavalry was not as well-armed as the heavy cavalry, they were also wearing armor.

At this moment, many cavalry were shot with arrows, but they still rushed forward bravely to the two wings of the enemy.

Han Shizhong shouted again: "Yang Jin and Liu Zhengyan go again!"

The generals under Han Shizhong were very interesting in history.

Yang Yizhong was ordered to trap Yue Fei, Li Yu sent troops to stop Zhao Gou from going south, Liu Zhengyan's mutiny scared Zhao Gou into impotence, and Yang Jin also had tens of thousands of troops and was unwilling to be recruited.

"Go and ask Yue Duhu to send troops." Han Shizhong said to the messenger.

Soon, Yue Fei led Xu Qing and Wang Gui and all his cavalry to fight out.

On the Xixia side, Yang Yizhong and Li Yu had already disrupted the enemy cavalry on both wings.

Yang Jin and Liu Zhengyan led their troops to the front of the Xixia army, and shot arrows at the Xixia infantry at about 15 steps, and then drew a graceful arc to pass through the left and right sides of the infantry formation.

The infantry lances were longer than their cavalry lances, but the infantry on both sides had no time to turn, and the Ming cavalry stabbed them when they passed by from the side. There should have been Xixia cavalry protection there, but it had been disrupted by Yang Yizhong and Li Yu. Yang Jin and Liu Zhengyan rushed past the infantry and continued to attack the Xixia cavalry.

Brother Richard didn't expect Han Shizhong to fight so wildly, and he actually invested a large number of elite troops at the beginning. He was so scared that he quickly mobilized the iron kites and strong crossbowmen.

1,500 iron kites led 5,000 light cavalry and rushed towards Yang Yizhong's 1,500 cavalry. At this moment, Yang Yizhong had just killed 3,000 Xixia light cavalry, which was equivalent to being attacked from three sides.

The Iron Harriers were notorious, and after all, they were heavy cavalry, so Yang Yizhong did not dare to confront them head-on.

Before the enemy army formed a siege, he changed direction and rushed towards the Xixia light cavalry in front of him. Yang Yizhong paid the price of more than 200 brave cavalrymen being surrounded and suppressed, and forcibly broke through the Xixia light cavalry, went around to the outside and followed up to meet Yang Jin.

At the same time, Yang Yizhong ordered the trumpet to remind Han Shizhong that the Iron Harriers were dispatched.

Just as a large number of Xixia cavalrymen were chasing Yang Yizhong, Li Yu, Yang Jin, and Liu Zhengyan, the previously defeated Ming grassland cavalry rushed back to the Xixia infantry formation and took turns shooting arrows.

The Xixia strong crossbowmen came forward with shields on their backs. They opened the bracket behind the shields, erected the large shields in front to block the arrows, and hid behind the shields to load arrows.

Round after round of strong crossbows fired, and a large number of grassland cavalrymen were shot and fell.

"General Li, please." Han Shizhong said.

Li Shifu led 300 heavy cavalry and his escort cavalry, silently following the brave cavalry of Yue Fei, Xu Qing, and Wang Gui.

Yue Yun was nervous and excited, as this was his first time on the battlefield.