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

January 24th, the seventh year of Song Qingli's reign, is a day worth remembering.

The Liao people chose to retreat in order to advance, pretending to withdraw from Xijin, hoping to lure the Song army to go deeper, and then counterattack, catching the Song army by surprise.

However, at this critical moment, Song Army coach Fan Zhongyan made a decision that went against his ancestors.

In the past, when the Song Dynasty faced this kind of situation, it would only obey, let alone take the initiative to attack. Even if the Liao people were riding on their necks, they could only guard the city gates and not dare to open a crack.

Now Fan Zhongyan ordered the entire army to attack and surprise the Liao army.

Moreover, there is still no organizational discipline. The army is the unit and the middle and upper-level generals such as military commanders are the commanders.

The Liao people were really caught off guard. They never expected that the Song army would dare to play like this. They did not form a formation or organize the army, but just rushed out in groups of stragglers.

But it was precisely this lack of organization and discipline that caused the Liao people to be dispersed and become equally unorganized and undisciplined.

There is a famous fool's law in later generations.

Never argue with a fool, he will drag your IQ down to his level and then crush you through his rich experience.

Such is the situation today.

The Song army pulled the Liao army into the same situation without formation. There was no unified command on both sides, each fighting its own way, and it was a mess. So the comparison was the small-scale combat capabilities of both sides.

Can the Liao army compare with the Song army?

Obviously not.

How can you compare to having hundreds of people far away and shooting you completely with two rounds of muskets?

Therefore, except for the fact that the Liao army resisted tenaciously for a while before the Song army arrived one after another, it was basically defeated later.

The sky was getting dark, and only the last ray of the setting sun was left. The sunset covered the sky, and the world seemed to be gray and shrouded in fog.

The dusk crow returned home in a deep voice. Now it was about seven or eight kilometers away from the north of Xijin. Yelu Zongzhen's team finally arrived belatedly.

The 200,000 troops and horses must retreat in an orderly manner, first and then later. Otherwise, if they retreat together, if something unexpected happens, the three armies may collapse instantly.

The Battle of Julu, the Battle of Jingxing, and the Battle of Feishui are all very typical examples.

Therefore, the Liao army retreated in an orderly manner.

Originally, with the Liao army's mobility, it could actually be withdrawn in one morning at most, and there was no need to delay it until the afternoon.

However, the current Liao army is no longer the Liao army that came and went freely in the past. They need to carry heavy artillery, resulting in much worse mobility than before.

Therefore, when Yelu Zongzhen regrouped his large forces and rushed back, part of his central army and the broken rear army were almost completely intercepted by the Song army. Now most of the rear army is in Xijin City.

The gentle breeze blew slowly, and with the last trace of fish white in the west, Yelu Zongzhen saw thick smoke billowing in the distance. He couldn't help but smile and said to his left and right: "It seems that the city of Xijin is already on fire. If nothing goes wrong, Song Jun will either Either putting out fires or fighting with our rear troops."

"Your Majesty, there were many of our defeated troops on the road just now. I'm afraid things are not that simple. Maybe the Song army has already entered the city at this time."

Xiao Ying was still awake and said to him: "We should rush to help immediately."

"Report!"

At this moment, another scout came rushing over and said: "The Song army has entered the city of Xijin, and a fire broke out in the city."

"Are they still fighting fiercely in the city?"

Yelvzong asked in a hurry.

This issue is very critical. If the Liao army is still fighting the Song army in the city, it means that Xijin has not completely fallen.

At this time, their main force suddenly arrived, possibly trapping the Song army in the city.

Fighting at night is the only way for the Liao army to get closer to the Song army. If the Song army is flanked by two sides, it will be in danger of overturning.

The scout said: "Now we have many entanglements with the Song army in the wild. There are enemy and enemy soldiers everywhere. We can only watch from a distance. I really don't know what is going on in the city at this time."

"Incompetent people who are greedy for life and afraid of death!"

Yelu Zong was really furious. He raised the whip in his hand and gave the scout a hard whip, and cursed: "Even if he is dead, you have to go and see him immediately."

"yes."

The scout hurriedly turned his horse and ran to the rear.

They are all scout teams, and the team leader comes to report. The battlefield is too dangerous now, and now we can only go deep into it to check for information.

After the scouts left, Yelu Zongzhen, Xiao Ying, Xiao Xiaoyou and others fell silent.

Zhang Jian is currently in Shunzhou. He is not in good health. After all, he is over eighty years old and had already evacuated early. Therefore, Yelv Zongzhen does not even have a suitable and reliable staff member around him.

The battlefield information is too confusing.

One moment they were talking about the defeat of their army, and the next moment they were talking about the defeat of the Song army.

Some people say that the Song Army invaded Xijin City, and others say that the Song Army suffered heavy losses when attacking Xijin City.

Some people even said that their Liao army had been completely defeated. Even though they did encounter a lot of defeated soldiers when they came over, the problem is that they still heard a lot of good news.

This made Yelu Zongzhen completely confused as to how to judge.

"Your Majesty, I feel that we still lose more than we win. Although the Song army did not reorganize their troops and fought with us in the wild, their firearms are indeed powerful. It is impossible to defeat them head-on."

After a while, Xiao Xiaoyou said in a deep voice: "So I think the best result now is that although many of our troops have been defeated, some of them are still struggling with the Song army. We should gather the defeated soldiers while Let’s set off for Xijin immediately.”

"Well"

Yelu Zongzhen hesitated for a moment, mainly because there was mostly bad news along the way, which made him hesitate.

"Your Majesty, troops are valuable and quick, and we cannot delay."

Xiao Ying also advised.

"Well, I'll do as you say."

Yelu Zongzhen nodded.

In fact, they were originally going to rush back for reinforcements and fight the Song army decisively.

It's just that the various messy news on the road affected his judgment. Now he simply doesn't judge anymore and just kills him.

In fact, the current analysis of the situation in Jincheng is similar to Xiao Xiaoyou's analysis.

The Song army and the Liao army were fighting in the wild. After all, the two sides were not in a situation where hundreds of thousands of people formed a frontal formation, and then one side defeated the other side. After the army was completely defeated, only the pursuit was left.

Instead, soldiers and horses from both sides met in the wild. Both sides were involved in small-scale battles involving hundreds or at most thousands of people. The strength of the middle- and lower-level officers was tested.

At this point, even though the Song Army has reformed its military system in recent years, there is still some gap between the Song Army and the Liao Army in terms of tactical literacy. After all, the Song Army relied on battle formations in the early years, and it was not easy to catch up in a short period of time.

Even if firearms are used, if the Liao people are charging, if they cannot adjust their mentality in time and stabilize their fear, they may turn around and run away out of fear if they are not careful.

This has nothing to do with weapons and equipment, but simply a matter of tactical literacy. Just like in the Korean War, our army used outdated weapons to drive the unlucky troops with the best equipment out of the 38th parallel.

Therefore, facing this surprise attack, the Liao army was able to stabilize its formation at first. Using their excellent tactical literacy of middle and lower-level officers, they can also fight a counterattack from time to time.

But as time goes by, more and more Song troops rush to the battlefield, and the advantage of long-range firepower is reflected. In addition, those Song troops in front who can crawl out of the blood sea of ​​corpses can quickly change their mentality. Naturally, the more they fight, the more brave they become. .

Therefore, although the Song army's offensive was slightly unsatisfactory at the beginning, most of the battles were actually over by this time. Many Song troops were chasing the fleeing Liao army everywhere, and the wilderness became even more chaotic.

It didn't take long for Yelu Zongzhen's large army to finally arrive on the battlefield.

The flames in Xijin City were still burning. It was impossible for the Song army to extinguish such a big fire. They could only dig isolation belts everywhere to separate the Yamen of the General Manager of Xijin City from other buildings.

But even so, this government office, which is about 800 meters long, 500 meters wide, and covers an area of ​​400,000 square meters, still has a large number of buildings in flames.

Thick smoke billowed up into the blue clouds, illuminating half of the sky south of Xijin.

In the midst of the chaos, every few hundred meters in the wilderness, you might see corpses of Liao soldiers, as well as various scattered weapons, flags, and armor.

Some of the ownerless horses ran around in panic, some stood there at a loss, and some even walked to the river to drink water and eat grass leisurely.

Various shouts of killing pierced the night sky.

"Report!"

At this moment, Fan Zhongyan had entered the city and was standing at Kaiyang Gate in the south. In the distance, about one kilometer away from him, was the raging flames inside Danyang Gate.

Under Kaiyang Gate, the Song army was going in and out, escorting the prisoners back to the camp.

The battle was so chaotic that the Song army could not capture all the Liao soldiers at once. Every time they captured people, they were captured by hundreds and hundreds, which looked like ants moving.

The scout rushed to Fan Zhongyan and said, "Ms. sir, there is a Liao army group about ten miles away to the north."

"It seems that Yelu Zongzhen led the evacuated troops to return to support."

Fan Zhongyan said to Wei Huanzhi, Wang Su and others beside him.

Wei Huanzhi said: "If that's the case, should we immediately assemble the team and fight them to the death?"

Fan Zhongyan pondered for a moment, then raised his head and looked into the distance, and whispered: "If I were Yelu Zongzhen and saw the fire in the city, I must not know the situation inside the city. Do you think I should come to rescue immediately?"

"What do you mean, sir?"

Wei Huanzhi opened his eyes wide. If the troops were not assembled at this time, would there be any accidents?

"There is no need to assemble the army, just send all the Weiyuan cannons in your hand to the city wall."

Fan Zhongyan said.

"But what if the enemy sends a small army into the city to investigate?"

Wang Su made an opinion.

"Then we will send a small team to fight them and stop them near the city gate. There is chaos in the city now, and the Liao people will be very anxious. As long as they stop people at the city gate, they will not be able to figure out the situation in the city."

Fan Zhongyan said: "We are in chaos and bring them into chaos. When they have to attack the city, we will order the entire army to raid."

Now the Song Army is fighting guerrillas. Dozens of Song troops are running around outside. When they encounter a large Liao army, they will definitely not be stupid enough to fight against the Liao people. Therefore, the Liao army will inevitably focus its main attack direction on Xijin City. .

The gates of the city have been blown down, and there is nothing to defend. Moreover, if the troops are assembled now, it will be even more chaotic. It is better to engage in a trap and bring the main force of the Liao army within the range of artillery fire.

Just when the Song army had not assembled its troops, the main force of the Liao army was less than six kilometers away from Xijin. In front of Yelu Zongzhen, there were about dozens of soldiers who collapsed.

These defeated soldiers were not soldiers, but middle and lower-level Liao officers such as military academies, petty generals, and centurions.

Originally, when the Liao people ruled the army, Khitan nobles served as mid-level and upper-level officers, commanding various ministries, including teams of other ethnic groups.

However, during the period of Emperor Shengzong of the Liao Dynasty, it happened that middle and lower-ranking Han officers killed their superiors and led their troops to return to the Song Dynasty. Therefore, all the troops in the Liao Kingdom were replaced by Khitans as officers, and Han people could only serve as lower-level officers at most.

At this moment, Yelv Sect was really asking about the current situation of these people.

Now the battlefield is really chaotic. Not only are dozens of Song troops shooting everywhere, but there are also dozens of Liao troops fleeing, fighting, and disintegrating.

Therefore, even if they arrived at the battlefield, they could only see the messy scene in the surrounding wilderness, with loud gunshots. The small groups of Song soldiers and horses retreated when they saw them, and the Liao soldiers also came over one after another. They still had no idea what the specific situation was. have no idea.

"The southern thieves were so powerful. They killed many of us even when they were far away, so the soldiers didn't even dare to get close."

"Stop talking nonsense. How powerful are the Southern thieves? We rushed forward with their firearms and started slashing and killing them. They were running around like they were being chopping melons and vegetables."

"Yes, you are too afraid. As long as you can withstand up to three firearms kills from the front, our strength will be when you get closer."

"You are just talking nonsense. We have more than a thousand soldiers, but now there are less than 200 left."

"Your Majesty, we fought bravely and never acted like cowards."

Many middle-level and lower-level officers were talking gibberish.

As they said, the Song army was indeed defeated head-on.

After all, the Liao people's close combat ability far surpassed that of the Song army, and I still have to admit this.

But in most cases, the Song army's firearms had the advantage first, and another round of attacks caused the Liao people to be defeated.

It’s just that no one dares to say that they were beaten to the point of losing their armor by the Song Army. They can only say how brave they are and how brave they are to bear the bullets of the Song Army and launch a death charge.

From this, Yelu Zongzhen got the following information. First, part of their central army and rear army were slightly defeated, but they were not completely defeated. They are still fighting with the Song army in the wild.

Second, they were fighting the Song Army head-on, and it seemed that they had no chance of victory. As long as they can rush in front of the Song army with bullets in hand, they may be able to win back a victory.

"What's the situation in Xijin City now?"

Yelu Zongzhen raised his head and looked into the distance. The flames were still burning, and the city of Xijin shrouded in thick smoke seemed to be a sea of ​​fire.

"We haven't learned this yet, but we know that the Song army entered the city, and it didn't take long for a fire to break out in the city."

A Liao general replied.

"Did you see Song Jun coming out?"

"Nothing."

"oh?"

Yelu Zongzhen narrowed his eyes.

This shows that there may be two situations in the city now.

First, the Song army destroyed the Liao army and was putting out the fire.

Second, the remaining Liao troops in the city were still fighting to the death with the Song troops in street battles, making it impossible for the Song troops to escape from the city.

If it is the former, then taking advantage of the Song army to put out the fire and attacking them, they will definitely win.

If it is the latter, it would be better to attack the Song army from both front and rear.

Thinking of this, Yelu Zongzhen asked Xiao Ying and Xiao Xiaoyou: "What do you think?"

"I feel that soldiers are valuable and quick, so I should attack Xijin immediately."

The two said at the same time.

"Why?"

Yelu Zongzhen asked.

"Because it is impossible for the Song people not to know that we are here, but so far there has not been a situation where the Song people have blown the horns to gather troops."

Xiao Ying analyzed: "This only shows that the Song army in the city was too busy to take care of themselves and could not assemble the troops in time. Fan Zhongyan made a miscalculation this time. He thought he could win in a chaotic battle, but he did not know that this was the way to death."

"Yes, the chaos has indeed disrupted our deployment, but it has also disrupted their deployment. I think now is the best time."

Xiao Xiaoyou also said.

"good."

Seeing that the two people's analysis was similar to his own conclusion, Yelv Zongzhen did not hesitate and shouted: "Order the front troops to send two troops to enter from Tongtian Gate and Gongchen Gate respectively to see what is going on inside. If it is true, then attack in large numbers. Be sure to do so." Let the Song army be buried in Xijin City!"

"yes!"

Everyone responded, and immediately sent troops to the front army.