Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The Liao Dynasty also had iron harriers, which were private guards of the royal family, clans, and nobles.

The Xixia Iron Harriers were originally imitating the Liao Dynasty, and later absorbed the characteristics of the heavy cavalry of the Karakhanid Khanate.

Its armor is very powerful, all using cold forging technology.

Han Qi once sent people to do experiments to collect data, using a strong crossbow to shoot at the iron harrier armor sixty steps away. Basically, the shot could not penetrate, and occasionally one or two shots penetrated, all by chance encountering the gaps in the armor.

Shen Kuo said that the cold-forged armor of the Xixia Iron Harriers could reduce the weight by two-thirds compared to the Song and Liao armor without reducing the defensive power. This data is probably a bit exaggerated, but it is certain that the Xixia cold-forged armor is lighter.

In recent years, the heavy cotton armor produced by the Ming Dynasty also uses water hammers and artificial cold forging for the inner iron sheets.

As for the war horses of the Iron Harriers, most of them come from Ganzhou Horse Farm. If it is changed to another name, everyone should have heard of it-Shandan Horse Farm!

The Ganzhou Horse Farm of Western Xia was larger than the Shandan Horse Farm.

However, the consumption of military horses during the Hundred Years War between Song and Xia was too great. Especially when the Song army captured Tiandu Mountain, Western Xia lost the horse breeding land there and had to buy war horses from Hehuang to supplement it. Then the Song army captured Hehuang again, and Western Xia could only increase the number of horses raised in other areas.

This was not the most fatal.

The real reason for the shortage of horses in Western Xia was the encroachment and occupation of the official horse farm!

Li Yuanhao wanted horses but not food, and when there was no food, he sent troops to rob.

But grabbing food was not stable after all. A hundred years later, the horse policy was corrupted, and many pastures were reclaimed as farmland. Those that were not reclaimed as farmland also reduced the number of horses raised and increased the number of cattle and sheep, such as the Ganzhou Horse Farm.

This situation was not reversed until Li Renxiao's reform.

Li Renxiao even specially formulated relevant regulations for the Ganzhou Horse Farm in the new law, prohibiting private occupation and encroachment of horse farms, and prohibiting horse farms from raising more cattle and sheep without authorization.

The problem is that Li Renxiao is only fifteen years old now. He has just ascended the throne and has not had time to reform.

What's worse is that with the rise of the Ming Dynasty, Xixia did not recapture the Tiandu Mountain and other horse farms, let alone occupy the Hehuang Valley, and even could not cross the border to plunder. Faced with years of natural disasters and man-made disasters, Xixia's horse politics became more corrupt.

For example, the Weifu Military Division continued to increase the area of ​​agricultural reclamation, increase the grain production there, and even resell military rations to make money. This was impossible before. The fertile Taowai area would rather starve than reduce the production of horses. If there was no food to eat, they would go to the Song Dynasty to rob!

In addition to war horses, the amount of iron smelting in Xixia was also sharply reduced.

The largest scale Xiazhou Iron Smelting, due to excessive iron ore mining, the output and quality were both reduced.

During the reign of Song Huizong, the actual combat effectiveness of the Xixia Iron Harriers had begun to decline due to the excessive losses in years of war. The war horses were not as good as before, the armor was not as good as before, and even the source of soldiers was not as good as before. Strictly speaking, they could no longer be considered heavy cavalry.

How could the source of soldiers be worse than before?

Because the Xixia Iron Harriers were basically hereditary. A set of armor was passed down for several generations, and combat skills were also inherited from the family.

This could ensure combat effectiveness in the early stage, but problems would inevitably arise if it was passed down for several generations.

First, there were too many casualties in a short period of time, and it was difficult to quickly replenish them; second, it was difficult for hereditary meritorious nobles to maintain their bloodiness.

The Xixia Iron Harriers during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song even did not dare to charge into battle, and had to defeat the Song army with bows and arrows before they dared to charge.

Heavy cavalry that did not dare to fight in close combat!

At this moment, about one-third of the Iron Harriers did not come from hereditary aristocratic families.

There was no way, because the adult males in many Iron Harrier families had died. But they occupied the quota, selected brave men from their respective tribes, and "lent" the armor to the warriors instead of joining the army.

And it was difficult for these brave warriors who dared to fight to climb to high positions by military exploits and bravery.

The middle and senior officers and generals of the Iron Harriers all came from hereditary aristocratic families. Many of them have lost their blood, but they still occupy their positions and refuse to move.

When the fight really starts, they will soon reveal their true colors.

…

Yang Yizhong was frightened by the reputation of the Iron Harriers. After joining Yang Jin's troops, he immediately distanced himself from them to avoid their sharp edge and rushed towards the Xixia Light Cavalry that was farther away.

Then they found that the Iron Harriers who were chasing them hurriedly did not rush over, but started shooting arrows from a long distance. After shooting one arrow and then the second arrow, it seemed that they had missed the best opportunity to encircle them. These Iron Harriers planned to shoot arrows and take a break first.

Richard also saw it and roared: "Give the order, let Fang Dangqili lead the troops to charge. Don't keep shooting arrows there. He is not leading the nomadic light cavalry, and he is not facing the Ming army infantry formation. If you dare to be afraid of the enemy and not move forward, you will be beheaded even if you win!"

The messenger first blew the horn and waved the flag, but the Iron Harriers only rushed forward for a while, then stopped and shot arrows there repeatedly.

In desperation, the messenger could only ride to the battlefield to shout.

Before Richard's order was passed, another group of Xixia light cavalry was defeated by Yang Yizhong and Yang Jin. Then, they rushed to the side of the Xixia infantry formation.

The Xixia infantry there turned around in a hurry to defend against the enemy. Yang Yizhong and Yang Jin's cavalry were divided into six groups, one after another, passing by the front of the formation, and shooting at close range while sweeping the formation.

Then, these Ming Dynasty cavalry turned and fled far away, attacking the Xixia light cavalry from all sides.

On the other side of the battlefield, Li Yu and Liu Zhengyan were also intercepted by the Iron Harriers, and they also pulled away to attack the Xixia light cavalry.

The organization of the Ming Dynasty cavalry was 25 people in a squad and 250 people in a battalion. There were officers in front, behind, left and right, and the speed of turning and advancing and retreating was very fast.

The Xixia light cavalry was divided into tribes, with a chief leading a group. The number of people in each group was not fixed, depending on how many soldiers the chief could recruit.

One slipped in, and was led by multiple tribal nobles. The command relied on the nobles' prestige and mutual understanding.

When the herdsmen who rode on horses all year round really faced large-scale battles, their flexibility was actually not as good as that of regular cavalry with strict military discipline!

At this moment, Yang Yizhong turned, and the deputy general on the right automatically took over the command and led six cavalry battalions to flee. The six battalions galloped for dozens of steps, and then split into two to attack the Xixia light cavalry coming from the front. Each battalion had an officer leading the charge at the first time, and each squad also had a corresponding commander.

The proportion of officers in the Ming Dynasty's Xiaoqi was more than six times that of the Xixia light cavalry.

Relying on the strict military organization and strict military discipline, as well as the military equipment that crushed the Xixia light cavalry, the Ming Dynasty's Xiaoqi could often disrupt and break down the Xixia cavalry with one or two combat mobilizations.

The Xixia infantry formation was still standing steadily at this time, and did not attack the Ming Dynasty's Xiaoqi, because the two sides were already fighting together. They continued to shoot arrows, aiming at the grassland cavalry cruising in front, and the strong crossbowmen were shooting and killing grassland light cavalry in large numbers.

And at the beginning of the battle, more than ten pigeons flew to the northeast.

When the Western Xia sent troops to make a long-distance detour, they often liked to use pigeons to transmit signals, which was sometimes more effective than wolf smoke.

The eight thousand light cavalry sent by Brother Richard to the rear of the Ming army for twenty or thirty miles had received the pigeons and immediately rushed to the Ming army's grain transfer station.

It was a relatively large obstacle city. After being conquered by the Ming army, all the artillery and some food were piled up in it. Only three hundred infantry, more than two hundred artillery and hundreds of grassland civilians were defending the castle.

"Blow the horn, the iron kites blocked the enemy!"

Brother Richard was giving orders again, because Yue Fei was rushing over quickly, and all the Western Xia cavalry intercepting along the way were rushed over.

The 1,500 Iron Harriers under Fang Dangqili had to fight this time, because Yue Fei led 2,000 cavalrymen to charge straight at him.

The Iron Harriers had 300 men in a battalion and 30 men in a squad, and the ratio of officers was half of that of the Ming Dynasty's cavalrymen.

Yue Fei did not dodge or evade, and even did not ride or shoot, but charged forward without hesitation.

On both sides of him were the leaders Xu Qing and Wang Gui, who were like three arrows, and they just rushed forward without any tricks.

Fang Dangqili gritted his teeth and fought. Their armor was better than Yue Fei's cavalrymen, but many hereditary officers of the Iron Harriers were afraid. They were timid and no longer had the blood and courage of their ancestors.

Yue Fei had a good horse and precious armor bestowed by the emperor, and he rushed to the front. His armor was better than that of the Iron Harriers!

His weapon was a "Zhangba Iron Spear", which was actually only two Zhang according to the Song ruler, which was about four meters.

The formation of Xixia Iron Harriers was relatively sparse, with the distance between the horses being five meters, which was called "easy battle method" in the words of "Six Strategies".

Yue Fei's cavalry formation was relatively dense, with the distance between the horses being about three meters, which was called "risky battle method" in the words of "Six Strategies".

Risky battles test courage and skills more, and if you are not careful, you will collide with the enemy cavalry!

Not to mention a hundred years ago, if it were the Iron Harriers fifty years ago, they would definitely adopt risky battle formations, but now their courage and skills are not up to standard.

Yue Fei rushed into the enemy formation first, located between two Iron Harriers, and thrust forward with a four-meter-long spear.

The Iron Harrier was knocked off by the impact, but did not fall off the horse immediately, but lay on the horse's back with a crooked face.

The Iron Harriers would never fall off the horse even if they died, because they tied themselves up with hooks!

This hook can also be taken off, and when the cavalry charged, it was thrown out to wrap around the enemy's horse legs, and the cavalry of the Song and Liao countries suffered losses. But its technical requirements are too high, and there are only records of it in the early and middle stages of the Iron Harriers. In the later stages, it seems that the Iron Harriers no longer use grappling hooks to fight.

Yue Fei stabbed the enemy with a spear, and let go of his hands to reduce the impact. The spear slid back a foot in his palm, and he immediately tightened his grip to release the force, and swept it towards the Iron Harriers on the other side.

At the moment of charging, Yue Fei had already dealt with two enemies.

Neither of them died.

The first one was stabbed so hard that his blood was boiling, and he was tied up by the grappling hook to avoid falling off his horse. This guy was dizzy and wanted to sit up, but was stabbed by Yue Fei's personal soldiers who rushed over. This Yue Fei personal soldier staggered forward, and the second personal soldier waved his bone flower and smashed it hard on the chest of the Iron Harrier.

The second one was swept to the side by Yue Fei, and was stabbed by Yue Fei's personal soldiers again, and was soon hit by the iron bone flower.

The first two rows of the Ming cavalry led by Yue Fei fought with long spears. Starting from the third row, they put away their spears and used blunt weapons to attack. This was a temporary charge tactic designed to deal with the Iron Harriers.

In order to facilitate close-range attacks with blunt weapons, Yue Fei arranged the formation more closely, and paid a corresponding price.

The subsequent Ming cavalrymen, because the formations of both sides were no longer neat and the spacing between the Ming army was narrow, many Ming cavalrymen directly collided with the Iron Harriers.

In the physical sense, both sides were in danger.

Yue Fei, Xu Qing, and Wang Gui, like three arrows, led the Ming cavalrymen to rush in.

Each team of Ming cavalry had five rows.

The five rows of the front team all rushed into the formation, and the five rows of the back team quickly followed and continued to attack.

The whole battle process was extremely tragic, but Yue Fei, who rushed to the front, has not been injured yet. His four-meter-long spear swept left and right, only responsible for knocking the enemy cavalry off balance, so that the subsequent Ming cavalrymen could use blunt weapons to deal with it.

After defeating two teams of Iron Harriers, the third team was defeated.

The Cavalry charged the Heavy Cavalry head-on and defeated them directly!

As the leader of the Iron Harriers, Fang Dangqili did not even dare to lead his troops to the front. He saw the tragic battlefield in the rear, and was so scared that he led his troops to turn to the side to avoid the battle, which made his Iron Harriers even less motivated to fight.

More than ten years ago, Fang Dangqili was also fearless.

His father died at the hands of the Song army, and his brother died at the hands of the Song army. He inherited the Iron Harriers armor and was determined to avenge his father and brother.

At the beginning, he made countless contributions and was quickly promoted. Later, he followed Richard to fight and encountered Yang Zhi's firearms troops in a narrow valley. At that time, he did not even participate in the battle, but abandoned his warhorse and armor, crossed mountains and ridges to follow Richard to escape, because if he did not run, he would be blocked in the valley from front and back.

Having lost his warhorse and armor, Fang Dangqili returned to Xingqing Prefecture in despair.

Cold forging armor is very slow. It took Xixia several years to rebuild the equipment of 3,000 Iron Harriers, and the quality was not as good as Fang Dangqili's ancestral set.

During this period, Fang Dangqili's will was worn out, and he began to indulge in sensual pleasures in Xingqing Prefecture.

When the Iron Harriers were reorganized, he couldn't even bear the heavy armor, and he was out of breath after riding a horse and waving a gun for a while.

From then on, he never fought a decent battle again.

They didn't dare to face the Jin soldiers or the Ming army, and everyone had a shadow in their hearts.

Fang Dangqili led more than 700 Iron Harriers to avoid the battle, and even didn't dare to rescue the Iron Harriers who were trapped.

Yue Fei continued to chase and kill, not giving Fang Dangqili a chance to regroup and fight again. Yue Fei's follow-up troops were attacking the trapped Iron Harriers, carrying blunt weapons and hitting two or three at a time.

Fang Dangqili's behavior of avoiding battle in battle made Brother Richard vomit blood.

Richard urgently transferred 900 Iron Harriers from the other side, leaving only 600 Iron Harriers with light cavalry to fight Li Yu and Liu Zhengyan.

At the same time, Richard also transferred 800 of his own cavalry to surround and kill Yue Fei, and ordered several Xixia light cavalry to harass.

But after Yue Fei's cavalry broke through this battlefield, Li Shifu's troops followed closely.

There were not many people, 300 heavy cavalry and 300 auxiliary cavalry.

All wearing heavy cotton armor and light cotton armor, they were inconspicuous on the battlefield, as if they were a cavalry wearing cloth armor.

Two groups of Xixia light cavalry took the initiative to run over to take advantage, and the arrows they shot were all blocked by cotton armor, and even the war horses were covered with cotton armor to prevent arrows. Another group of light cavalry blocked the front, and Li Shifu led the heavy cavalry to rush over, crushing the Xixia light cavalry like a crushing blow.

The nine hundred Iron Harriers that Richard Brother dispatched later were originally going to surround and kill Yue Fei, but now three hundred of them were sent to stop them.

They thought that three hundred people were enough, and what was there to fear about the cavalry wearing cloth armor?

"Heavy armor, this is heavy armor cavalry!"

After the battle, the Iron Harrier officers shouted in fear.

Seeing that the three hundred Iron Harriers were overwhelmed, and Yang Yizhong and Yang Jin led the cavalry to defeat the Xixia light cavalry and go around the side and rear of his central army, Richard Brother finally panicked at this time.

He asked more infantry to retreat in formation, and he also led the central army forward to strengthen the infantry formation of the rear army, so as to ensure his own safety.

Yue Fei was still chasing the Iron Harriers, and while avoiding the battle and fleeing, the Iron Harriers' formation was completely chaotic, and they could not and dared not turn around to fight.

Yue Fei, Xu Qing, and Wang Gui chased the Iron Harriers and kept eating away.

The Xixia light cavalry around them did not dare to look at the charge. They were so frightened that they only dared to shoot arrows at the Ming cavalry from a distance.

Fang Dangqili did not know how far he had fled. At first, he did not think of escaping. He just led his troops to avoid the battle temporarily. But he turned into a rout without knowing why. He could no longer organize an attack, and he did not even dare to stop running.

He looked back again, but saw that the iron harriers under his command had been cut into several sections by the Ming army.

The Ming cavalry general who rushed in the front was leading more than a hundred cavalrymen to chase closely, and his cavalrymen were killed on horseback one after another.

Yue Fei led his troops to rush closer and closer, and the remaining iron harriers behind Fang Dangqili were finally scared and fled, hoping to leave the battlefield alive.

There were only a few people left around Fang Dangqili.

Yue Fei's warhorse accelerated again, and the iron harriers in front of him avoided one after another, leaving only Fang Dangqili alone.

Yue Fei chased him and stabbed him with a spear, but Fang Dangqili unexpectedly came back with a stab.

While dodging urgently, Yue Fei urged his horse forward. He hung up his spear, drew out his iron mace, and hit Fang Dangqili's left shoulder with one mace.

Fang Dangqili felt that half of his body was smashed, and he was leaning on the horse's back and could hardly sit up straight.

Yue Fei's horse speed slowed down slightly, and he hit him with another iron mace.

Fang Dangqili vomited blood wildly, and his body hung on the horse's back and fainted. His internal organs were all injured, and he was probably not going to survive.

"Arrange the team and charge back!"

Yue Fei shouted.

The cavalry led by Yue Fei, Wang Gui, Xu Qing, Yang Yizhong, and Yang Jin, as well as the heavy cavalry led by Li Shifu, attacked the cavalry and iron harriers of the personal army that Richard Brother had transferred.

There was no chance of rout, and they were directly surrounded and annihilated.

Richard Brother had no way out, and he had no fresh troops that he could still use.

Although there were more than 30,000 Xixia cavalrymen deployed on the battlefield, most of them were tribal cavalrymen. Once the Iron Harriers were defeated, they were useless against the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty!

Even before the Iron Harriers were defeated and fled, they were defeated countless times by the Ming Dynasty cavalrymen, and each time they fled far away and ran back to shoot arrows.

As for the infantrymen, they were even more useless. Apart from shooting and killing the Ming Dynasty grassland cavalrymen, they could only stand there and watch the rest of the time. They did not dare to move over a large area. Once they moved, the formation would be disrupted and the entire army might collapse.

Brother Richard now only has a thousand cavalrymen and a few Iron Harriers who escaped from the gaps in the infantry formation.

He was protected by tens of thousands of infantrymen and surrounded by the Ming army.

The Ming cavalry could not break through the infantry formation for a while, but Brother Richard could not continue to fight, and he did not even dare to order a retreat.

There were still more than 20,000 Xixia light cavalry on the battlefield, but most of them fled far to the periphery of the battlefield, and had no idea how to fight against the Ming cavalry and heavy cavalry.

Perhaps this was the secret of the Jin cavalry that year, when only a thousand people could defeat tens of thousands of Liao and Xixia armies.

In the face of fully armed armored cavalry, no matter how many grassland light cavalry there were, they were just decorations.