In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

The Song army was on a small hill. These hills were not high, with the shortest being a few meters and the highest being only a dozen meters, and there was a long gentle slope below.

But even so, it was not conducive to the cavalry running.

In the battle of Jieqiao between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao in the late Han Dynasty, Yuan Shao's general Ju Yi also ambushed on the gentle slope, and when the white horse righteous came close, he suddenly rushed out, shot with bows and crossbows, and defeated Gongsun Zan.

However, even so, Li Yuanhao still did not let the soldiers dismount and fight on foot, but ordered the soldiers to charge at the small hill.

The reason is that after all, it is a long gentle slope rather than a right-angled high slope. Horses can rush up the long gentle slope, and infantry run slowly. The Song army is likely to be high above on the slope, constantly shooting bows and arrows, and only a few rounds are needed to cause a large number of casualties to them.

If the cavalry ran faster, then the Song army would only have one round at most. As long as the cavalry rushed up with shields, the casualties would not be too great.

Therefore, in order to reduce casualties and get both sides into close combat more quickly, Li Yuanhao had to consider using the short-term burst of horses to sprint to achieve the purpose of giving full play to the melee advantage of the Xixia army.

In fact, his consideration was correct.

The Song army had been rushing for dozens of kilometers, with no time to rest, and the men and horses were exhausted. At this time, they were attacked and had no chance to breathe. As long as they were close, the Xixia army would surely defeat the Song army.

Even when Li Yuanhao saw that his troops were getting closer and closer to the Song army, he began to laugh at the Song army general who led the team for not knowing how to fight.

The Song army was originally short of horses, and Fan Zhongyan sent such a general. Isn't that to send the cavalry to the head?

However, just when Li Yuanhao was looking forward to his Xixia cavalry rushing all the way to the gentle slope and tearing the fragile Song soldiers into pieces, he saw a scene that shocked him.

The Song army on the slope did not take out the imagined crossbow, but a small black long-handled iron hammer.

Yes.

Li Yuanhao's eyesight was very good. Although it was a distance away, he did see that it was a small iron hammer.

It is less than one foot long.

It is a bit similar to the small golden gourd hammer, but smaller than the golden gourd hammer.

Could it be that the Song army wanted to use the hammer for close combat?

A hint of doubt flashed in Li Yuanhao's eyes. Such a small hammer with such a short handle, what power can it exert?

But just when he was wondering, when the Xixia army was about twenty feet away, the Song army pulled the buckle of the long handle of the small hammer, and then a puff of green smoke came out from the end of the handle.

At this time, the Xixia army was still running forward, and the Song army immediately threw it forward.

As the saying goes, it is better to catch it than to throw it well. The distance thrown by the Song army was actually less than fifteen feet, that is, about fifty meters, which was still taking advantage of the high ground. If it was on flat ground, it would be at most ten feet away.

However, in the process of pulling the ring, throwing it out and flying for a few seconds, the Xixia army had already run to about fifteen feet, and the fast runners had even run to ten feet.

Thousands of Xixia soldiers saw the smoking hammer above their heads fall into the crowd.

Some of them even hit the heads of the Xixia soldiers. Some agile masters actually raised their hands to catch the hammers when they fell, and then opened their palms and looked at them in confusion.

They knew that the Song army had firearms, but the Song army's firearms before were no different from toys.

The barely useful thunder mines (land mines) still required horses to run over the trip wires, and the power of the horse's legs touching the trip wires drove the thunder mine ignition mechanism under their feet, and then detonated.

So in the Xixia people's cognition, the Song army's firearms were weak and complicated to operate. Apart from making loud noises to scare people, they were basically useless.

This caused them to have no idea what the hammer in their hands could do.

A Xixia soldier raised his head and saw the falling object, took it, glanced at it casually, and threw it behind him, and continued to gallop on his horse.

The next second.

"Bang!"

The first explosion sounded.

The Xixia soldier only felt a huge force coming from behind him, and he didn't even feel any pain. His whole body seemed to fall lightly in the air.

Before the man landed, explosions rang out one after another around him, "bang bang bang bang", just like the firecrackers set off during the New Year in Bianliang City, crackling, the sound was louder than the sound of firecrackers, deafening, like thunder.

The grenade fell into the crowd, exploding blood flowers. The mud splashed, and the shock wave generated by the explosion disturbed the nearby war horses, and the fragments were embedded in the horses' bodies.

In an instant, the Xixia army was thrown to the ground, and the entire formation was gone. The frightened war horses ran around, causing a large number of Xixia soldiers to fall off their horses, or fall to death or be trampled to death, and the hillside was in chaos.

Zhang Kang looked at the chaos below indifferently, almost all of the Xixia army. Li Yuanhao laughed at him for not understanding military affairs, and Zhang Kang laughed at him for not understanding grenades.

Some generals also suggested that he take a rest before entering the battlefield, but Zhang Kang deliberately let the soldiers run all the way. As a general with many years of battle and rich experience, Li Yuanhao could not fail to see whether they had come from a long journey or had rested and reorganized.

Only by making the enemy believe that they had no physical strength and that they rushed here without any rest to rescue the security forces, would Li Yuanhao be fooled and immediately organize troops to attack them.

Obviously Zhang Kang did not make a mistake.

Li Yuanhao was not wrong either. He made the most correct choice, but he did not expect the Song army to invent new weapons. Just like the Japanese invaders did not expect the United States to invent the atomic bomb before surrendering.

As the sound of explosions continued to sound, the situation on the battlefield changed instantly. Screams, horses neighing, wailing, and the sound of hitting the ground were heard endlessly. Dust was everywhere. The battlefield was instantly blown up by grenades, trampled by horses, and blown up by the wind. shrouded in dust.

The key is that the Song Army had more than one round of grenades. Because it was inconvenient to carry, each soldier of the Song Army only carried two grenades in his waist. After throwing them, the next batch was thrown outside. In just thirty seconds, The Song army threw more than 10,000 grenades.

Nearly half of the Xixia army was directly bombed, trampled to death, or thrown to death, because in addition to those who were bombed in front, those far behind were also made to fall by the frightened horses, colliding, squeezing, and trampling each other, causing casualties. countless.

Li Yuanhao was shocked.

In less than a minute, he didn't know what happened, but he saw roaring everywhere, and before he could recover, his Xixia cavalry collapsed.

Almost immediately after this brief daze, his eyes turned red and he roared: "Quick, blow the retreat order, quick!"

In fact, there was no need for him to issue such an order, the Xixia army was already retreating.

But the Song army was not just for nothing. The two rounds of grenades were almost thrown, so Zhang Kang immediately ordered: "Kill!"

"kill!"

At this time, the Song army had little physical strength and the horses were very tired, but they could not hold back their high morale.

Who would have thought that the once arrogant Xixia cavalry would collapse in one encounter.

At this moment, every soldier had a fanatical and fierce expression on his face.

Almost as soon as Zhang Kang gave the order and the charge horn sounded, all the soldiers of the Song Army pulled out the ring-headed straight knives at their waists.

Thanks to year-round trade with Xixia and Tubo, the Song Dynasty had a large number of cavalry.

During the Renzong period, the number of forbidden troops was as high as 680,000, and there were more than 400 cavalry battalions alone, with a population of 220,000. It's just that there are a lot of empty pay, idle soldiers, old and weak soldiers, and the actual number of cavalry is only one hundred thousand.

Moreover, the weapons of the cavalry of the Song Dynasty were mainly spears, spears, and broadswords (straight swords with ring heads). They adhered to the concept that one inch is long and one inch is strong. The latter were rare, and those with spears and spears were mostly used.

But it’s really inconvenient to hold a spear with a grenade in it. It’s impossible to hold a spear or spear in your left hand, and you have to bite the pull tab with one hand with your right hand to throw the grenade.

So this army all uses broadswords.

Anyway, after the grenades, you just need to clean up the battlefield.

Zhang Kang gave an order, and Di Qing, Zhang Yu, Zhe Jimin and other powerful generals immediately galloped over with their brothers in charge.

At this time, the Xixia army was in chaos, and order collapsed. They were caught off guard and were almost cut through by the Song army. Countless people were killed. A large number of soldiers fell off their horses. The formation at the rear also collapsed and fled in all directions.

There were no tactics at all. The Song army only had to ride their horses and rush over, brandishing the straight sword in their hands. Then they raised the sword and dropped it. The blood spurted out half a meter away, and the head fell off, killing a Xixia man.

It was almost a massacre.

Yuan Hao personally led the troops to fight, and he himself was in the rear. Seeing this situation, he did not bother to call the soldiers to retreat, and quickly reined in the horses and ran back.

In this chaos of war, Zhe Jimin had early set his sights on Li Yuanhao's banner at the rear of the Xixia Army in the distance. He patted his horse and said to his brothers behind him: "Brothers, follow me and kill. The banner in front is Zhao Yuanhao. Kill him." If you take his head, the court will reward you greatly!"

You must know that when Li Yuanhao proclaimed himself emperor, the Song Dynasty placed a large bounty on Li Yuanhao's head at the border.

If you kill him, you can't say that you will be directly promoted to Privy Councilor, but you can at least be regarded as rising through the ranks, rising several levels in a row.

Moreover, rewards such as gold, silver, copper coins, silk and silk fabrics are worth hundreds of thousands of coins. It can be said that you can rest on this merit book for a lifetime and have nothing to worry about.

Under such encouragement, the soldiers whipped the horse's buttocks like crazy and followed Li Yuanhao all the way to the charge.

The horses were in pain and pursued wildly, frightening Li Yuanhao in front.

He looked back anxiously from time to time, and when he heard someone shouting, "That big flag in front is Zhao Yuanhao," he immediately ordered the soldiers who were resisting his flag to throw down the flag.

Even if the general, Da Huang, is brave enough to lead an army, but now that the army is gone and the army is defeated like a mountain, what is the use of this flag.

As a result, as soon as he threw the flag, the pursuers behind him slowed down.

It's not that his flag has any magical power, but that the Song army traveled a long distance, and many of the horses sprinted over such short distances. After only four or five miles, they were all foaming at the mouth and dying of exhaustion.

Zhe Jimin's horse even weakened under its feet and fell directly, almost knocking him into the mud. When he turned over and got up from the tired horse, he spit out the dust that fell into his mouth, and then When he raised his head to look, he could only hit the ground hard with his whip, annoyed at the lack of strength of the war horse.

But the next moment, another group of cavalry rushed past. The leader was an elderly officer in his fifties. Logically speaking, Fan Zhongyan selected elite soldiers. There was no reason to choose such an old soldier as a junior officer.

But Zhe Jimin quickly recognized that the man was Zhou Mei, the Marquis of Yu, the capital of the Tianwu Army.

Although Du Yuhou is not a high-ranking official, the Tianwu Army is one of the upper four armies and has thirty-four battalions under its jurisdiction. In theory, excluding the empty pay, there are about 17,000 people. Du Yuhou He is the deputy general of the commander of the Tianwu Army, which is regarded as a mid-level officer.

If we follow the military, Zhang Kang is a general, Zhe Jimin is a battalion officer, then Zhou Mei is almost a school-level officer. Even though he is in his fifties, he even participated in the Battle of Chanzhou when he was young.

Zhe Jimin found that Zhou Mei and his men had all changed to Xixia horses. After the collapse of the Xixia, the battlefield was full of ownerless war horses.

The Xixia war horses were much more energetic than the Song war horses.

When Zhou Mei passed by Zhe Jimin, he even smiled at him, as if to say, "Young man, you are still too young, learn more."

The next second Zhou Mei brushed past him, and ran towards Li Yuanhao with about 200 men.

Li Yuanhao had already thrown down the flag. Zhou Mei stared over and saw the black cloak behind Li Yuanhao, so she shouted: "The one wearing the black outer cape is Yuanhao. Kill him and you will get a big reward!"

"Huo!"

"Kill!"

"Behead Yuanhao!"

"Hurry up, kill him!"

The soldiers in the rear were encouraged and chased him again.

Li Yuanhao in front was already scared out of his wits. Although the distance between the two sides was still a little far, it was obvious that being chased by the other party was really heartbreaking.

In a hurry, hearing the faint shouts from behind, Li Yuanhao had to untie his cloak and throw it out.

It seemed that there was some magic after throwing things.

Zhou Mei couldn't chase him for a long time.

Because the Xixia army attacking Taoluo Village was almost crazy.

Weiming Congshun originally led the Xixia army to attack Taoluo Village, and beat Liu Huaizhong to lose his armor and helmet, and was about to break through the fortress.

Turned around and saw.

Oh my goodness, something big happened to the boss.

If Li Yuanhao made any mistakes, it would be a good thing if he died. If he didn't die and escaped, he would be punished later. Even if Weiming Congshun was his cousin, he would probably die.

So Weiming Congshun quickly withdrew his troops and led his troops to rescue him. He also organized a thousand-man army to stop Zhou Mei as soon as possible.

The Song army in the rear completely collapsed the Xixia army, and thousands of Song soldiers continued to pursue them.

Zhou Mei and the more than 1,000 people sent by Weiming Congshun to protect the emperor fought together, but soon the Song army in the rear and the Xixia army in front also rushed in. About 8,000 Song soldiers fought a bloody battle with more than 10,000 Xixia soldiers.

Some Song soldiers still had some grenades left, and they threw them before they got close. The explosions came one after another, and the tragic fighting was endless. Li Yuanhao was also able to catch his breath at this time.

Just when he found that the reinforcements from the rear had arrived, he reined in his horse and was about to take a short rest and then command the battle. In the chaos of the troops in front, a small team of about 300 Song soldiers suddenly jumped out, and they penetrated the Xixia army like gods and demons!

Just when the team was about to turn back and fight, the young general in the front, covered in the blood of the enemy, seemed to have discovered something, turned his head and looked, and suddenly looked in the direction of Li Yuanhao.

Li Yuanhao was less than a mile away from the young general. When he was looked at by the young general's sharp eyes, it was like being hit by two sharp arrows in the throat. A vague but strong sense of danger seemed to fall from the sky, and the terrifying oppression was like an invisible hand grasping his heart, making him breathless.

The young general had tattoos on his face, and he looked handsome but covered in blood. He stared at him fiercely like a devil crawling out of hell, and then shouted loudly: "The one riding a white horse in front is Yuanhao, kill him!"

Still coming?

Only this thought flashed through Li Yuanhao's mind, and then he turned his horse and ran away almost instinctively!

He had followed his father and uncle to fight in the northwest many times.

He was not afraid to fight in person.

But the explosion caused by the small hammer thrown by the Song army just now had scared him to death.

Moreover, the young general on the opposite side was able to break through the entire Xixia army that intercepted the rescue by himself. It was easy to mess with him.

It was better to run away and return to the frontier as soon as possible.