Chapter 407: The Battle of Dingxiang

"Great victory, great victory, my lord!" Chen Quankang excitedly waved the note in his hand, walked up to Zhang Yunwen, and said excitedly.

When Zhang Yunwen heard this, he stood up with excitement and greeted Chen Quankang: "Hurry up and show me!" ”

Chen Quankang handed over the information and said: "The big battle that happened the day before yesterday was reported to this army last night, but it was really fast enough!" ”

Zhang Yunwen smiled smugly: "Of course, flying in the sky is always faster than running on the ground!" ”

This information is in the format of a military newspaper, and it is even a military newspaper itself. The above summary records the course of the battle, which is often summarized in four or five words, such as "entering Dingxiang, the enemy is defeated, chasing it", and what "fighting in Zhennuoshui, great victory". And when talking about the merits of the master, he uses more pen and ink, such as words such as "willing to risk arrows and stones, and strive to be the first". In the end, when describing the results of the battle, I also took a picture of Li Shimin's horse first, and then narrated it.

Seeing this military report, Zhang Yunwen couldn't help but look away, and automatically ignored one of the things.

In this battle of Zhennuoshui, Xue Wanche led 1,500 elite horsemen, rushed into Xue Yantuo's horse formation, and killed and dispersed most of the horses with knives, guns and grenades. The Tiele army, which had lost its horses, was suddenly at a loss, and in the face of the raging cavalry led by Li Ji, they scattered and fled, and the army formation collapsed. Li Ji and Xue Wanche led the army in a fierce pursuit among Xue Yantuo's army, beheading 2,000 and capturing 10,000 enemies. The rest of the remnants of the army fled north with Dadu.

As a result, the first battle between Datang and Xue Yantuo ended with a great victory for Datang.

When Zhang Yunwen showed this military report to Li Shimin, Li Shimin immediately laughed: "At the beginning, Shiyun said that he broke Xue Yantuo's tactics, and I considered the people of Xue Yantuo at that time, but the bow and horse are two things, and if you want to break it, you can only break this bow and horse." However, the Xue Yantuo people dismounted and formed a formation, how to break the bow, only to break their horses with strange soldiers, so that their army was unstable, and the formation was in chaos so that the Xue Yantuo army was broken, and it was easy! ”

Zhang Yunwen hurriedly smiled and echoed: "Your Majesty and Li Shangshu are the heroes who see the same thing!" ”

Li Shimin listened to Zhang Yunwen's sycophancy, and his face couldn't help showing a look of pride.

At this time, it was already November of the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, and snowflakes began to float in the sky of Chang'an. Further north, in Dingxiang City and the entire Monan grassland, the first heavy snow has compacted the gradually yellowing pasture.

Escorting 10,000 captives, when he returned to Dingxiang City, Ashina Simo led the Turks out of the city to greet him.

When these Turks saw the long line of captives, they couldn't help but be dumbfounded. They clearly remembered that when Li Ji rushed into the Turkic camp, he only transferred 6,000 Turkic cavalry, and together with 1,000 Tang cavalry, he chased after the 30,000 Xue Yantuo cavalry. In this regard, most of them think that this is simply a sheep's mouth. However, now that the record of 3,000 beheadings and 10,000 prisoners was in front of them, the Turks looked at the Tang army with fearful eyes.

"Now Dadu has fled to the north and is nowhere to be found. However, the main force of Yi Nan who entered Dingxiang City was still not damaged. An army of 60,000 was slowly approaching, and in the meantime, the rest of the Metro's armies continued to join it. Looking at the formation, this man clearly wants to have a decisive battle with the old man! Li Ji sneered and pointed to the map and said.

In his lower position, sitting was Ashina Simo, the king of Huaihua County. Listening to Li Ji's words, the king of Huaihua County said worriedly: "The enemy army is strong, and we may not be able to stop it!" ”

Li Ji smiled and said, "King Huaihua, do you know what His Majesty planned before leaving?" ”

"Huh?"

"Your Majesty wants to take all the Tiele troops that came to attack Monan in one fell swoop, completely suppress Xue Yantuo's forces, and restore stability in the northern Xinjiang! As a courtier, we want to follow Your Majesty's words to wipe out this Xue Yantuo people! ”

At the end, Li Ji's words were already with a hint of coldness.

Ashina Simo was slightly stunned, and then hugged his fists and said, "Obey Your Majesty's will!" ”

As time went on, the weather became colder and colder, and the snow on the ground was thick enough to cover the instep. On Xue Yantuo's side, the number of troops has also increased from 60,000 to 80,000.

Facing the 80,000 army, Li Ji smiled coldly and looked at the Tianwei generals who were covered with thick withered grass. In order to be able to eat these Xue Yantuo troops in one fell swoop, Li Shimin specially allocated 20 cannons and 100 small cannons to Li Ji. Because Li Jichi came to Dingxiang's aid and traveled in the starry night, he rode first and followed the foot. As for the artillery and baggage, they were left behind. Now, as soon as these artillery pieces arrived in Dingxiang City, Li Ji felt more confident.

Watch as the snowflakes gradually fall, not reaching the instep of the foot. Li Ji knew that this decisive moment was coming.

This time, Xue Yantuo moved the crowd and came from afar. Now the snow is falling, and it is much colder than in previous years, and I don't know how many livestock will freeze to death. Therefore, Xue Yantuo must make a quick decision, finish the Tang army as soon as possible, and then plunder Mo Nan to make up for the losses of Mo Bei. The longer it drags on, the greater the loss.

Finally, in mid-November, the Tiele battalion, which was stationed north of Dingxiang City, began to move south.

Yi Nan looked at the south with some distress. At this time, he couldn't wait to cut down the envoy who was rumored that Li Shimin was going to seal Mount Tai.

Li Shimin wanted to seal Mount Tai, but didn't he stop sealing Zen in the end? Why didn't this person send the information earlier, he had to wait until his troops went out of the desert and pointed directly at Monan, and then he sent the information, saying that Li Shimin had stopped sealing Mount Tai and had changed to Luoyang.

However, this Dongjia Luoyang and Fengzen Taishan are two different concepts. The former belongs to the people's livelihood under the emperor's inspection, and the emperor is in charge. The latter is to worship heaven and earth, as long as you leave Chang'an, you have to wait until the completion of the Zen seal to come back.

Therefore, when he sent troops and received that Li Shimin stopped sealing Mount Tai and hunted Luoyang in the east, he already had a faint sense of remorse in his heart. However, there was no turning back from the bow, and he had to go all the way to the dark. Not to mention anything else, if the Tang army is really defeated, then Mo Nan and Mo Bei are afraid that he Xue Yantuo will be in charge.

In the snow, Xue Yantuo's soldiers, wearing thick robes, galloped wildly.

30,000 Xue Yantuo cavalry, as the vanguard, quickly advanced southward. Behind them, 50,000 Xue Yantuo infantry soldiers were also marching quickly in the snow, striving to reach Dingxiang City as soon as possible.

And Li Ji has already been waiting in Dingxiang City. First of all, outside Dingxiang City, two artillery positions were constructed according to the different firing ranges of the two types of artillery. Mortar positions are in front, artillery positions are in the back.

Of course, these two positions were heavily guarded.

As for the rest of the footmen, they set up camp according to his old habits.

When the scouts reported that Xue Yantuo's army had arrived thirty miles north of Dingxiang City, Li Ji's eyes flashed, and he said to the generals under his tent: "Everyone, this Xue Yantuo's army is pressing the border, and its momentum is like a rainbow, so you should hit it head-on and hit its morale!" Hmm, who are you willing to take 10,000 cavalry to attack Xue Yantuo head-on? ”

As soon as these words fell, the generals below volunteered to give Xue Yantuo a head-on blow.

Li Ji's gaze swept over the generals, and finally said, "Xue Wanche listens to the order!" ”

Xue Wanche was immediately overjoyed, and hurriedly came out and said, "The end will be!" ”

"Order you to take your own troops and horses, lead 10,000 cavalry, and go north to meet Xue Yantuo. Only win, not lose! In addition, there is no artillery support in this battle, it will be a hard battle, and General Xue is ready! ”

Xue Wanche said in a deep voice: "The last general obeys the order!" ”

Then Li Ji sent two more Zhonglang generals to serve as Xue Wanche's deputies.

Immediately, Xue Wanche and the two Zhonglang generals led 4,000 Tang cavalry and 6,000 Turkic cavalry to the north to meet the enemy.

At the beginning, there were only 15,000 cavalry brought by Li Ji, and after arriving at Dingxiang City, Ashina Simo took out 5,000 war horses and handed them to Li Ji, which increased the number of Li Ji's cavalry by 5,000 to 6,500.

10,000 cavalry, under the leadership of Xue Wanche, came to the outside of Xue Yantuo's camp thirty miles away.

As soon as he arrived here, when he was still nearly a thousand steps away from Xue Yantuo's camp, there was a commotion in the camp, and then a cavalry of Xue Yantuo, estimated at 15,000 to 20,000, rushed out of the camp.

When Xue Wanche saw Xue Yantuo's cavalry rushing out of the camp, he couldn't help but smile coldly, and shouted: "Rush—"

10,000 cavalry rushed towards the Xue Yantuo cavalry. The reason why he rushed and killed like this was that Xue Wanche was worried that those Xue Yantuo were using that trick of dismounting the cavalry, so he charged first and shortened the distance between the two armies as much as possible.

Xue Wanche's trick really worked, because the two armies were too close to each other, I am afraid that after Xue Yantuo dismounted, he shot two rounds of arrows, and the cavalry on the opposite side had already rushed to the front. Therefore, after General Xue Yantuo was slightly stunned, he roared and let the army start to charge as well!

Two armies of cavalry charged at each other at great speed.

During the charge, the middle lane gradually protruded, while the two wings gradually fell behind. The Chinese armies of the two armies were the first to collide together.

The inertia was so great that the knights could barely restrain their horses, and the two knights quickly staggered by. In the midst of the lightning and flint, the two knives slashed out one after another, slashing at each other.

Here you can see the elite level of the soldiers. The Tang soldier made a half-split move first, and cut the throat of Xue Yantuo's soldier with a single sword. Then he leaned back again, dodging an oncoming scimitar.

From the middle army to the flanks, the two cavalry finally collided completely.

The war horse galloped forward quickly, and Xue Wanche held the horse lance in his hand and kept stabbing out. On the red tassel under the lance, blood was already dripping down. With each swing, blood splattered in all directions.

I don't know how long I killed, but there was no one in front of me. It turned out that Xue Wanche and his own soldiers had already chiseled through this Xue Yantuo army once.

More and more knights rushed out, and when they saw Xue Wanche, they leaned close to it and reformed the formation.

Finally, the confrontation was over, and the two armies again pulled out a distance of five or six hundred paces. In the clearing in front of them, countless corpses lay on the ground or hung on horses. Horses stood beside their masters, touching their master's corpse with their mouths from time to time.

Xue Wanche took a deep breath, looked at the Xue Yantuo cavalry on the ground, waved the horse lance in his hand, and shouted: "Kill-"

The horses galloped as fast as they could, charging towards each other as fast as they could.

The battle lasted for an hour and a half. Outside Xue Yantuo's camp, blood was shedding and corpses were piling up.

Finally, when Xue Yantuo's army was about to retreat, another 10,000-strong cavalry was killed in Xue Yantuo's camp, which made Xue Wanche have to make the decision to retreat south.

When Xue Wanche led the army back to the camp in Dingxiang City, only half of the cavalry remained. Among them, the Don army consisted of 3,000 and the Turkic army of 2,000.

"Good!" After Li Ji listened to Xue Wanjun's report, he slammed a few cases, "General Xue personally led the army, fought bravely to kill the enemy, and suffered two knife wounds and one arrow wound, so he should be credited with the first credit!" After this battle, Xue Yantuo's army must come in a big way. So comrades, don't let your guard down and face the enemy with all your heart! ”

"Whoa!" All the generals bowed in unison and said.

Li Ji is right. On the second day, Xue Yantuo's army marched on all fronts and pressed towards Dingxiang City.

The infantry advanced slowly, and the cavalry held on both flanks, one to prevent the Tang cavalry from making a detour to sneak attack the two flanks, and the other to pursue after defeating the Tang army.

Among the Tiele army, the Xue Yantuo army was the most well-equipped. However, only the cavalry and a third of the foot soldiers were armed with bows and arrows, and the rest of the foot soldiers had only a scimitar, and some of them had a wooden shield. As for the armor on the body, only officers can wear leather armor, and ordinary non-commissioned officers can wear leather armor is already considered good.

With such equipment, how can it be comparable to the well-equipped Tang soldiers? Therefore, although Li Ji saw the black and oppressive army in front of him slowly coming over, he was quite unimpressed, and he still had artillery support.

Seeing that Xue Yantuo's army was about to enter the maximum range of General Tianwei, Li Ji told them not to rush to fire, and asked him to adjust the range a little closer, preferably overlapping with the fire of mortars.

The non-commissioned officer who operated the cannon in the back immediately lowered the angle of fire and brought up the shell with less gunpowder.

Xue Yantuo's army slowly advanced while taking out the bow and arrow on his back. When they finally reached the range of the bows and arrows, they stopped, and one by one the bows and arrows were pointed at the Tang army's formation, raising them to the sky.

Li Ji smiled coldly and motioned to his soldiers to defend. In an instant, huge iron shields were erected, forming an inclined plane, which could completely meet the feathered arrows falling into the sky.

Then the soldiers dodged away, and the ballista carts were pushed out.

This is the last batch of ballistas to be put in stockpile. Since the beginning of the production of mortars and artillery, these ballistas have been discontinued, and the thirty or forty ballistas in front of them are still in existence.

When the ballista carts were pushed out, there was a commotion in Xue Yantuo's army on the opposite side. They knew it, and they were terrified of something so terrifying. I saw the bolts the thickness of the baby's arm glittering in the sunlight.

At such a close distance, these extremely penetrating crossbow arrows would probably stop after five or six people had been strung together.

As soon as he saw these ballistas, Yi Nan immediately decided: "Shoot the arrows and shoot all those who operate the ballista to death!" ”

In an instant, feathered arrows rained down.

Almost simultaneously, dozens of crossbow arrows flew out.

The arrows rained down, but the losses of the two sides were worlds apart. With the protection of an iron shield, and almost everyone in the Tang army wearing armor, the power of this arrow was weakened to only two or three percent. Although it was said that ten thousand arrows were fired at once, there were not many Tang troops killed and wounded. On Xue Yantuo's side, on the contrary, dozens of crossbow arrows shot out, and each crossbow arrow began to penetrate from a soldier at the front, and it was only after a string that it stopped.

As soon as they saw this "human meat skewer", Xue Yantuo's soldiers were all frightened.

"Stop!" Yi Nan frowned and looked at the losses of both sides, knowing in his heart that the previous method of dealing with the Mobei nomads would not work at all in front of the Tang army. For today's plan, there is only one hard fight.

The immediate herald said: "Forward! Tiele warriors, use the scimitars in your hands to cut the throats of the Han people! ”

So the 50,000 foot soldiers rushed towards the Tang army camp one by one as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.

The ballista continued to fire, but the effect was not as good as the last time. The distance between these Tiele people was already much larger than before, and there was plenty of room to dodge.

At this time, as Xue Yantuo's soldiers advanced, most of Xue Yantuo's soldiers had already entered the range of mortars.

"Fire!" Li Ji said softly to the herald beside him.

The artilleryman, who had long been unable to hold back, saw the handsome flag waving, and excitedly put the shell into the barrel at the moment. The Tianwei General Cannon behind also spit flames and spewed out cannonballs.

Suddenly, the cannonballs whistled, almost in unison. Shells fell one after another, exploding in the area. The sparks visible to the naked eye, the shock waves in circles, the soldiers who were blown up to the sky one by one, everything was intertwined in front of Yi Nan's eyes, and he suddenly thought of the Tang Dynasty's expedition to the Eastern Turks, wasn't it exactly this kind of weapon?

Without Yi Nan giving an order, these soldiers all ran backwards in unison. At this time, the artillerymen hurriedly adjusted the firing angle and fired shells one after another again.

It wasn't until Xue Yantuo's soldiers ran out of the artillery's firing range and did not receive any more shelling that Yi Nan and the soldiers breathed a sigh of relief. A feeling of fear spread in my heart.

At this moment, I only heard neat footsteps from behind.

Yi Nan's face changed greatly, and when he looked back, he saw that in the gradually dissipating gunsmoke, Tang Jun walked over with neat steps.