The details of the operation were agreed, and the armies immediately moved into intensive preparations for battle.

At the same time, the undercurrent was turbulent in the direction of the outer lake, and the commanders of the legion, Temir and Esses, inspected the mammoth war elephants that had just arrived at the front line, and Temir touched the shaved mammoth and said:

"Now that the lake is blocking it, they are not needed yet, and they must be dug before they can be used."

"They wouldn't have dreamed of our plans, and this time they're going to bury them forever." Eses said viciously, unable to hide the killing excitement on his face.

"We can't rejoice too soon, their food is running out, and they will soon come out of the west mountain of the Khubi Palace, and we must be fully prepared. Besides, they have that damn fire and thunder, which must be taken care of. ”

"But as long as our beast soldiers arrive, they can die without a place to be buried, and no matter how powerful the weapon is, it will be useless in front of the beast."

Temir looked at Esses coldly, and said unhappily:

"I advise you, Ethes, that there is no good fruit to eat from arrogance. The Northerners killed more than a thousand of our wolves in a single battle, and they are no longer what they used to be, remember. ”

"But we're still fighting them and they're powerless, aren't they?"

"That's because they are in civil strife, and the latest battle report shows that the northerners used several powerful weapons that have never been seen before, and the power is very huge, very similar to the fire and thunder used by the northerners in the Chubigon Valley, but it is even more powerful, and we can get this weapon by exterminating the northerners in the Chubigon Valley, so we must not take it lightly."

"Fire Thunder" is a priest of the Jinxuedi people, who has studied the sound and light phenomenon emitted by the black powder used by Baili Yan, and redefined the newly coined vocabulary to describe this new weapon. Fearing that the appearance of fire and thunder would soon turn the tide of the war, Temir was eager to eliminate the coalition forces entrenched in the valley and obtain the secret of black powder.

Therefore, starting from December of the same year, in the low-lying land of 30 miles north-east of the outer lake, 50,000 gold Xue Di minfu were mobilized to dig deep, and at the same time the river channel was excavated to lead to the outer lake to divert the water, and finally the outer lake was filled with soil, leaving only a ditch on the basis of the outer lake, and the water from the upstream was discharged into the low-lying land 30 miles away.

In this way, mammoths and unicorns can pull siege equipment through the outer lake to the valley cofferdam, with elephants in the town, no matter how the water is drained upstream, it is difficult to shake the mammoth war elephants.

Five days later, Su Fangyi once again summoned Bailiyan and Gongliang to discuss sending troops, and then dragged on for another two days, and the army began to move to Xishan.

After two years of repair, the road to the West Mountain has opened two roads, one is to climb over two mountains, and there are stone steps on the way up and down the mountain, and all of them have been widened, which can accommodate five or six people side by side. The advantage is that the distance is close, and you can act in a big team, but the disadvantage is that no matter how good your physical strength is, you can be tired enough to choke from two mountains a day.

The second road is an S-shaped mountain road, the road is narrow and long, the distance is long, but it saves physical strength, but Bailiyan is more worried about the mudslide, so the trees along the way are not cut, and the road is very narrow, only barely allowing two people to pass, or one person leading a horse.

The West Mountain is the terrain of the mountain pass, both sides of the mountain are higher, there is a slightly lower flat land in the middle, the area is extremely limited, the people are stuffed and can accommodate more than 20,000 people, the follow-up army, can only stop between the mountain road and the path, wait for the front side of the people to drive out of the West Mountain Cave Entrance, occupy the flat land and hills on the periphery of the West Mountain.

Over the past few months, the Kinchedi have filled most of the swamps that once stood in the woods to facilitate their march.

The mountains and forests on the periphery of Xishan are still scattered with the scouts of the Jinxuedi people searching for the way into the mountain, and because they cannot understand the entrance and exit of the coalition forces in Xishan, their camps are set up in the northwest, southwest and due west respectively, arranged in an arc fan-shape, each battalion is forty miles apart, and thirty to thirty-five miles away from the exit of Xishan.

Since the three large battalions were not deployed in a zigzag shape, this gave the coalition forces an opportunity to take advantage of it. In Bai Liyan's opinion, this is such a very low mistake, even if there is an ambush in the dark, dividing more than 100,000 horses into three, and arranging the serpentine fan near the woods, it is still a huge mistake.

Of course, since it could not find the passage of entry and exit of the coalition forces, it was so deployed that it could stretch the battle line to the widest possible and facilitate its surveillance and vigilance, and there were objective reasons and tactical requirements. However, its tactical guidance was to block the coalition forces in the valley, and although there was merit in such a deployment, it underestimated the determination and strategic means of the coalition forces to go out of the mountains.

Su Fangyi's plan was to attack the nearest barbarian camp in the northwest from the Xihe section, so that the southwest camp was 80 miles away from the northwest camp, and it was difficult for the infantry to reach it in a day, and only the enemy's west camp and cavalry could be reinforced.

Due to the terrain and landform, the Jinxuedi people did not have many cavalry outside the West Mountain, and they were all scattered in three large camps, and the cavalry was not a big threat.

This time it was Gongliangwen who attacked the northwest camp of the barbarian army, concentrating 15,600 bows and crossbows, with a total strength of more than 70,000 people.

As soon as the sky was dark, the valley was quickly released from the cave in Xishan, and a fierce offensive was launched against the northwest camp in the second half of the night, and the smell of gunpowder could smell a trace of bitterness dozens of miles away under the blowing of the air waves.

Bai Liyan stood on a hill outside the cave, saw the fire, and knew in his heart that Gongliangwen must have succeeded this time.

To counteract the threat of crossbow arrows to throwers, Tanaka created a large number of thickened wooden shields to ward off arrows. In battle, the shield hand is in front, the spear and the sword are shrunk back, and the covering thrower quickly approaches, throwing gunpowder and alcohol.

At the same time, the craftsmen were ordered to build a human-powered stone cannon cart with a relatively close range, push it to a distance of 130 steps, and use manpower to pull the lever and throw the alcohol clay pot and black powder bag to increase the killing distance and delivery volume.

Due to the limitations of tools and landforms, it is not enough to make larger equipment in the short term, and even if it is made, it cannot be transported out of Xishan.

At the same time as Gongliangwen led the army to attack, Su Fangyi transferred another 70,000 people out of the mountain and assembled in the open space outside the West Mountain, only more than 30,000 of the 70,000 people were equipped with weapons, and the other more than 30,000 weapons and a small amount of armor were equipped with the defenders on the west bank of the outer lake and the cofferdam, so it was necessary to wait for Gongliangwen to withdraw to the valley after dawn and transfer the weapons to the reserves.

At dusk, the Gongliang army withdrew one after another, an hour in advance, and the evacuation could be described as unhurried.

When the camp was attacked last night, the Jin Xuedi people had already received the scout alarm, so it was logical for them to collectively set out to strictly guard the camp, but unexpectedly, when the coalition troops arrived in front of the camp, stone artillery carts, grenadiers, crossbows, gunpowder cans, and alcohol canisters were overwhelming.

The Gongliang army quickly withdrew to the valley, transferred the weapons to Su Fangyi and other troops, and when it was dawn, the scouts came to report that they found two honorary regiments of 30,000 people each ambushing the soldiers, and quickly rushed to the northwest camp for reinforcements.

"The barbarian army really has ambushes, Yan Gongzi, are you sure?" Su Fangyi asked.

Bai Liyan put away the binoculars and took the conversation, and said confidently:

"Please rest assured that this battle will be won!" After finishing speaking, his eyes turned to Jiang Jie: "Jiang Jie! ”

"The subordinates are here!"

"Command all armies, prepare to attack!"

"No!"

Su Fangyi designed wheel warfare, taking advantage of the surplus manpower and lack of weapons and armor of the coalition army, transforming the shortcomings into combat power, and using the wheel combat method to make the barbarian army tired of running back and forth.

The three camps of the Jinxuedi people are fan-shaped and distributed among the trees, all thirty to thirty-five miles away from the western mountains. No matter how the coalition army went out of the mountains to attack any of the three large battalions, the barbarian army did not have time to reinforce it, and the coalition army did not entangle and contact it at all, and immediately withdrew after killing and wounding with alcohol, gunpowder, and arrows.

By the time its reinforcements arrived, the coalition forces had already withdrawn to the valley, and another wave of men and horses would rush to the next target, so that the soldiers could fully rest in rotation, and as long as they were properly scheduled and repaired, they could launch almost unlimited raids and assaults.

Of course, the Jinxuedi people may also have thought all this through, and quickly pounced on the West Mountain when the coalition army attacked their large camp, but in fact, at least on the first day, they did not have the ability to organize a counterattack, and even this counterattack was futile, the coalition army controlled all the hills and high ground outside the West Mountain, and feinting against the coalition army was almost no different from sending them to death.

Bai Liyan led an army of 70,000 to quickly pounce on the southwest camp, arriving before noon, the large array was 100 steps away from the east of the enemy camp and was on standby, the stone artillery carts were entering the battle position, and the throwing group relied on the large array to advance, under the cover of shields and spears and short knives, divided into two echelons, and approached the enemy camp 25 meters and 50 meters.

The first echelon is ordinary grenadiers, and the second echelon is Tian Peng and other wrestlers, who can still be more than 60 meters.

The Jinxuedi people are equipped with bows and crossbows, and even have crossbows and other weapons with greater lethality, and the thickened wooden shields are extremely effective against strong bows and hard crossbows, and the bed crossbows of the Jinxuedi people are more general, and the giant crossbow arrows can still penetrate the wooden shield to cause damage.

Even so, it's better than a giant crossbow arrow piercing several people. The Gongliang army besieged the northwest camp last night, and the dead were all pierced into the body by the giant crossbow arrows piercing the wooden shield, and the other minor and serious injuries were all caused by stray arrows.

Attacking during the day is extremely effective for vision, and Bai Liyan ordered the throwing team and stone artillery carts to give priority to solving the bed crossbow and other large-scale killing weapons. Compared with the unknown enemy situation at night, the Jinxuedi people did not dare to attack rashly in the camp, and the Jinxuedi people found that the throwing group was prominent in front of the coalition army, and tried to go out of the camp to counterattack.

"Jiang Jie, the herald blows the trumpet!"

"Yes, my lord!"

A short trumpet sounded, and the throwing group fought and retreated, and the large formation quickly advanced twenty steps, and the throwing group retreated into front of the formation, and at the same time the stone artillery wheels bombarded to cover the withdrawal of the grenadier group.

As soon as the pursuing barbarians left the camp, they were immediately covered by the allied crossbowmen, and the medicine packs and alcohol fired by the stone artillery carts followed.

In this way, the Jin Xuedi people tried to take advantage of the situation that the coalition army only attacked the east gate, and the west, south, and north gates were suspended in the air, and 30,000 people quickly marched out of the camp from the west gate to the north, trying to defeat the northern flank of the coalition army first.

When the barbarian army detoured to the north, Bailiyan dispatched troops and quickly adjusted the deployment:

"Jiang Jie, order Lu Gao and Yuke to join forces and quickly make a detour to the northern flank of our army. Command Tian Peng, send the dead soldiers to blow up the camp for me! ”

"Yes, my lord!"

Compared with the night attack of Gongliangwen, Jin Xuedi did not dare to attack rashly when he did not know the enemy's situation. Baili Yan attacked the camp at close range during the day, and the troops of both sides were close at hand, and it was clear that there was nothing to hide. The combat effectiveness of the coalition army is uneven, and the armor is extremely lacking, even if there are 20,000 more horses than the Jinxuedi people, the frontal casualties are quite large.

This is also why Bailiyan lined up at the east gate and did not surround the four gates, which was by no means an unintentional mistake. Because it is only when the passively beaten side is attacked violently and cannot return fire, the passively beaten side will seek a roundabout tactic and strike the enemy from the flank.

(End of chapter)