"Boom—" The thunder in the sky had been sounding all night, but the rain hadn't fallen yet. The clouds on the plains were getting lower and lower, and the thunder and the sound of iron barrels were intertwined, which made many Khitans fearful, and they fell to the ground in their tents to pray for the blessing of eternal life. In the wilderness, Yelu Dashi whipped his mount violently, and the accompanying horsemen rushed to a hill with the emperor in their arms, and when they looked up, they saw that the empty field was covered with the corpses of Liao and Song soldiers and war horses. Two miles away is the camp of the Song army, a team of people and horses under the nose of the Khitan horses, as long as the sky is exposed to the white belly, the Song army will go out of the camp to invite the battle. The Liao army and the Song army have been fighting fiercely for three days, and many people are a little exhausted, but this battle will continue.

"Where has Brother Tie gone, it's only a hundred miles away, why hasn't he arrived yet?"

Yelu Dashi's face was as iron as iron, and he frowned and looked at the Song army in the distance. The Xijing army originally cowered like a rat, and Yelu Dashi thought that only deterrence would make Cao Di dare not act rashly, but Yue Fei's department suddenly burst into the battlefield like a mad dog, and the Xijing army also joined in. At a glance, the military discipline of the Xijing soldiers is far inferior to that of the Zhenguo army. However, after all, the Xijing Army was one of the four major camps of the Song Dynasty, with a large number of men and horses, and sharp armor. Under the all-out battle, tens of thousands of elite soldiers of the Liao State were unexpectedly difficult to parry. While taking advantage of the advantages of cavalry, Yelu Dashi repeatedly fought with the Song army for iron barrel fortifications, and at the same time ordered Yelu Tiege to lead elite cavalry to copy the rear road of the Song army. The tens of thousands of elite horsemen led by Yelu Tiege are no more than a hundred miles away from the royal account of Yelu Dashi, and if they don't stop, one day is enough. However, a day and a night passed, and Jerodage's men had not yet arrived.

"Your Majesty, the Lord of the North Courtyard has sent news from the horse, Zhao Xingde's department suddenly pulled out the camp and went south, it seems that he wants to fight with Cao Di and Yue Fei, in order to ensure the back road of the imperial camp, the Lord of the North Courtyard is supervising the people of all departments, and making every effort to stop the actions of Zhao Xingde's people."

"Zhao Xingde again?" Yelu Yanshan listened impatiently, and suddenly shouted: "Your Majesty, let me lead the troops to charge the battle again and kill all these southern barbarians." "There was a trace of blood oozing from the white silk wrapped around his forehead, which was scratched by an iron bullet when he rushed into battle yesterday. Nanban viciously mixed lead into the iron bullet, and after a night of work, the wound still did not heal, but showed signs of fever and suppuration.

"Yanshan has to recuperate first." Yelu Dashi shook his head, muttered, and looked up at the dark clouds in the sky.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning stabbed down from the low-hanging clouds, as if a huge lightsaber was about to split the earth, and one after the other, the thunder of "boom-" "boom-" and "crackling-" thundered like beads, and then the rain fell like a torrent. The heavy rain was extremely powerful, accompanied by strong winds, and the camps of the Liao and Song armies were in chaos, and the soldiers avoided one after another. The Xijing army, which had just come out of the camp and lined up, retreated in a chaotic manner, and there were several other Zhenguo military camp phalanxes next to them that did not seem to have received military orders, and were still standing upright in the wind and rain, unmoved.

The lightning in the distance one after another, which was terrifying, and the heavy rain poured down, but the emperor still immediately looked at the hills, and the important ministers of the Liao State did not dare to avoid it. "Go back," said Jerodishi, frowning, "and let the warriors rest for a few hours." Only then did the ministers surround the emperor as if they had been granted amnesty, and returned to the imperial camp in embarrassment.

Dozens of miles away, thick clouds hung down on the ground, and thunder was faint. I don't know if the ground was shaking slightly because of the thunder or the sound of horses' hooves.

Under the siege of countless Khitan cavalry, tens of thousands of Song soldiers formed a formation to the south. On the open field, dozens of battalion phalanxes were like chess grids, alternately moving forward. When each battalion arrived at its designated position, it immediately planted its antlers to defend itself, and the battalions that lagged behind immediately pulled out their antlers and marched forward through the gap between the battalions in front and the battalions.

There were constantly bold Khitan cavalry approaching the Song army's formation, and after many days of fierce battles, both sides had figured out the details of the other party. The Khitan cavalry adhered to the rule of "forming a column without fighting", galloped to a distance of thirty or forty paces from the Song army, and harassed with arrows while shouting threats, hoping to delay the advance of the Song army with minimal losses. At the same time, the Song army's array sounded from time to time with the sound of "bang" and "boom", bursts of green smoke rose up, some cavalry were shot off their horses by the guns, and the rest of the cavalry fled away like frightened rabbits. Because of the harassment of the cavalry, although the Song army did not suffer any big losses, the speed of the march also became very slow.

"Dashuai, the rainstorm is coming," Ouyang Shanbing said, "Do you want to camp to avoid the rain?" ”

"There are no tents in the army," Luo Xianshi said with a smile, "One person just has a felt blanket, what kind of rain to shelter from?" Lu Mingyu, Deng Yuanjue and the others nodded. In order to reduce the weight of the burden without bringing tents, the soldiers complained, but Zhao Xingde was the same as the commander-in-chief, and these days, the Song army was also accustomed to the marching life of eating and sleeping in the open air.

On the Henan Plain, the Liao army's fortified walls and fields were extremely thorough, and if there was no grain and grass transportation behind, Zhao Xingde's troops still could not stay in one place for too long. Moreover, in just a few days, the number of rebels who raised troops to serve suddenly increased, and the military needs of Fanxian County suddenly became tense. There were large groups of Khitan cavalry in front of and behind the Song army, and the Liao army stopped the horses in all directions, relying on the superiority of the cavalry, almost completely severing the connection between Zhao Xingde's department and other Song troops. The news of the battle between Cao Di, Yue Fei and Yelu Dashi, Zhao Xingde was a day and a night late to learn from the Khitan captives, and he immediately ordered to leave 3,000 firecrackers to defend Fanxian, and tens of thousands of horses and horses to the south, striving to cooperate with Yue Fei and Cao Di to threaten Yelu Dashi's imperial account from the north.

"All departments insist, go further, although the Khitan cavalry comes and goes like the wind, but we will attack it and save it, they have to hold on to us here," Zhao Xingde's face was obviously concave, and his stubby beard was like a weed on a barren land. He said hoarsely, "Our army is extremely tired, but the Khitan cavalry is the same. The heavy rain is not good for the cavalry, we can't do it in the rain, but the Liao dog is also enough to choke, to deal with the scimitar and spear, we still have big axes and spears! ”

"What Dashuai said is, call him a Liao dog," Lu Mingyu said with a smile: "If we want to go south, we will go south, and go north and north." "Obey!" All the generals laughed and bowed down to receive the order. Just entered the plain from the mountains, some generals were still hanging, thinking that it was difficult to resist the Liao army's iron cavalry on the flat ground. However, these days, Zhao Xingde's troops have been in strict formation, fighting from afar with artillery bombardment, and stabbing with long axes and spears in the near distance, and the Khitan cavalry has nothing to do. Under the threat of the cavalry at all times, although the march was slow, the generals also understood that if they did not dismount to defend the important places and cooperate with iron barrel cannons, the Khitan cavalry could not stop the tens of thousands of Song troops from advancing slowly.

On the horizon in the distance, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck the ground very close, and the electric light flashed everyone's faces white.

"Crackle-crack-" The thunder was deafening, the war horses neighed, and after the Khitan cavalry was temporarily flustered, they saw that the Song army was still maintaining a formation and slowly moved forward, and besieged it again. At this time, the ground trembled slightly, it seemed that a large group of cavalry was approaching, the movement of this large group of cavalry charging into battle was completely different from the harassment of ordinary cavalry, Lu Mingyu and the others changed their faces greatly, and before they could give a warning, Zhao Xingde had already ordered: "Form a formation on the spot!" As soon as the words fell, the shadow of a line of cavalry had appeared in the sky, compared with the Khitan cavalry that had been harassing around, although these cavalry formations were only a vague line in the sky, and the momentum was not very fast, but they invisibly brought great coercion.

"The handsome man has an order!" Lu Mingyu shouted: "All the great array! ”

"Formation!"

"Deploy a large array on the spot!" "Formation!"

Since the Northern Expedition, the Song army under Zhao Xingde has been fighting against the Khitan cavalry, from the capital commander, battalion commander, down to the ten commanders, and even ordinary soldiers, and the vigilance of the cavalry has been almost instinctive. With the shouting, the distance between the camps and phalanxes was rapidly shortened, and the original chess-grid formation rapidly shrank into a dense large array, and the cavalry, artillery battalion, and baggage battalion of Yang Zaixing's headquarters were all wrapped in the infantry array. The Song army unsheathed its swords and spears and waited for the cavalry that was coming.

The sudden arrival of the cavalry also surprised the Liao army, and some of them were reinforcements sent by the North Courtyard, and they immediately went to meet them. "Damn," scolded the Commander Yerutri, "is the mischievous in the Yingchang Mansion finally willing to come out?" "A few days ago, because His Majesty's imperial camp was dragged by Cao Di in the south, Yelu Tiege, the privy envoy of the Northern Court, specially dispatched the troops of Yingchang Mansion to attack Zhao Xingde, but Xiao Qi, the guard general of Yingchang Mansion, refused on the grounds that he did not follow the emperor's orders and could not leave the defense without permission.

The thunder was like a burst, the "thunderbolt" rang non-stop, and on the open plain, the electric fire danced like a silver snake.

"Do you have to attack during a thunderstorm in order to get some money?"

Yang Ren looked at the Khitan cavalry in front of him with some worry, many Khitan helmets were full of sharp iron, which seemed to be mighty, but in a thunderstorm, he was a good guy who led the thunder to attack. "I hope it doesn't hurt the pond fish, damn it." Looking at the Khitan soldiers and horses coming over, Yang Ren subconsciously touched the iron mask, took off the horse lance, and pointed straight ahead.

With his actions, the five hundred cavalry of the entire battalion stretched out their horse lances forward at the same time, forming a dense line of lance tips, and the strong war horses seemed to feel some kind of code from their masters, and began to gallop with all their might. The Khitan cavalry on the opposite side noticed that something was wrong and began to flee in panic, however, it was too late. The vast battlefield made the entire ten battalions of cavalry of the White Feather Army stretch out in a straight formation, five thousand elite cavalry arrays to attack, each line of cavalry is more than a thousand people, divided into five front and rear lines, behind the White Feather Army, there are 10,000 cavalry of the Rampage Army and the Capture Thief Army, also lined up in a charging formation, this fifteen thousand iron cavalry rushed from west to east, like a huge iron broom sweeping across the vast plain.