On the steppe, near the south, there was a huge tower, where less than 5,000 troops were left to garrison when the main army had already moved north to clear the nomads.

On the premise that the nomads on the entire grassland have been cleared up, there are too many troops left, which is meaningless, and this part of the troops is also to guard against the Liao State in the south.

The purpose of the army going to the north is very simple, it is for the huge gold mine on the border between Inner and Outer Mongolia, Zhao Xin only knows a general location, but this approximate location, the location of the gold mine can already be determined to a radius of about 50 kilometers, as long as the surrounding tribes are cleaned up, and careful searching, this super large mine should be found.

Copper is useful at any time, for the previous Northern Song Dynasty, that is currency, but after the Dinghai Navy popularized the Dinghai currency, now the circulation scale of the Dinghai currency has been very large, enough to support the consumption of the entire Northern Song Dynasty, in this case, the total amount of copper coins began to decrease, a large amount of copper obtained, basically no cash value.

However, it is not advisable to deny the role of copper money, you know, copper has an irreplaceable role in the power revolution, whether it is wires, or some electrical components used for conduction, copper is irreplaceable.

After all, in the entire Northern Song Dynasty, there was no large-scale copper mine, and after the existing copper money was smelted, it needed to invest more, and once the Dinghai Navy completed the research of large-scale generators and promoted the deepening of the power revolution, copper was not enough.

More than 5,000 people, to protect almost 100,000 square kilometers of land, must be stationed in a centralized manner, and then send personnel into those high platforms.

The high platform of the steel structure is not suitable for people to go up, but for trained scouts, it is still possible to climb to the highest place, as long as there is a height of 50 meters, with the cooperation of the telescope, the surrounding larger movements, almost all can be seen at a glance.

This is just to control the surroundings and detect danger in advance, but on this day, on the southernmost platform, they saw movement more than 100 kilometers away, although it was very far away, it didn't seem clear, but there was a huge amount of smoke and dust, and there was obviously movement somewhere.

In the south, only the Liao State, after ruling out the cause of the weather, then there must be a large group of knights advancing.

100 km, for a cavalry with all their might, is only three hours, which is already equivalent to being close at hand.

Faced with an imminent threat, the scouts immediately sent out a signal, a red flare, lit up in the sky, this is a dangerous signal, it must be taken seriously.

Soon, a small group of people, on horseback, began to give orders around after asking the scouts for details.

The troops have been concentrated as much as possible, but in the end, this concentrated force is only about 2,000 people, and the remaining 3,000 people are just going to patrol more than 100 kilometers away, and there is no way to come.

In this concentrated process, the scouts continued to investigate, according to the speed and size of the smoke, it can be seen that it may be between 10,000 and 20,000 cavalry, looking at the speed of the rise of the smoke and dust, it is obvious that this should be an army.

An army of 10,000 or 20,000 people appeared in this area, and it was still well-trained, so the only possibility was the Liao army.

It took more than five months for the Ding Navy to finally take down these nomads in the north of the Liao State, and the Ding Navy was already careful enough, but with the closer and closer distance with the Liao State, it was the first time that the Ding Navy had contact with the Liao State.

2,000 against 10,000, or even 20,000, although the relative number is very different, but the two commanders of the Dinghai Navy are not worried at all.

They are the elite troops in the Dinghai Navy, equipped with about 200 heavy cavalry, and about 300 heavy infantry, looking at the movements of the Liao cavalry, they should come directly here, they have almost an hour to build a position.

Encounters are definitely different from waiting for work, for muskets, there is a fixed position, and that can definitely play a role than a sudden battle.

Some of the trenches are built to resist horses, and there are defensive devices in a certain position, mainly used to block arrows.

The biggest difference between a musket and a longbow is the range of the musket, although these bows and arrows equipped by the Liao State may not be able to exceed the range of the musket, but the necessary preparations are still required.

About an hour later, the preparation had been completed, and the Liao army of the other side had entered a distance of more than 30 kilometers, and seemed to have discovered this huge high platform, adjusted the route slightly, and came to this side.

The two regiment commanders, constructing two separate positions, were horns of each other, and the most important thing was that they had enough artillery on hand.

Artillery, the most powerful weapon of the Dinghai Navy, even if these troops entered the steppe, they already carried a light enough artillery, probably the smallest three-pounder gun, but such artillery was still not suitable for movement.

The main forces went to patrol, but only carried about a third of the artillery, a full 5,000 people, almost 150 guns, of which more than 120, remained here.

Artillery is the king of land warfare, which has been clearly proved not only before, when some experiments were carried out, but also in the attack on the nomads, whether it is a city, a wall, or a yurt, these can not withstand the front of artillery.

Among the 2,000 people, if all the artillery was controlled, they could not even line up the camp, and in the end about 50 artillery pieces were used, 25 guns per regiment, and they were escorted to the very center of the entire camp, waiting for the arrival of the Liao army.

Although the Liao army did not have binoculars, but on the premise of marching on the grassland and having an unobstructed view, neither the iron tower nor the army could hide it, especially the spies who broke ahead, they guarded the safety of the entire army, and after discovering the problem, they quickly returned.

Whether it is a peculiar, very towering iron tower, or the army waiting here, both of these are strange, if the navy's military formation, the number of people is a little more, maybe the Liao State does not dare to come up, but there are only about 2000 people, 10 times the difference, the Liao State just thinks that this is some horse bandits on the grassland, after a little adjustment, after sorting out, they are outflanked.

The faces of the two regiment commanders showed a smile, they waited for their work, in order to obtain the greatest results at the lowest cost, the combat effectiveness of the navy was very strong, but this combat effectiveness was not unlimited, the number of people was hard wounded, if the other party did not come up at all, and left far away, they did not dare to come forward to pursue at all.

But now, if the 20,000-strong Liao army wants to come up and fight hard, it depends on whether its teeth are so sharp.

The distance of dozens of kilometers has been adjusted again, and it is probably about half an hour after the two sides discovered each other, and rushed together.

The clothing of the Liao army looks relatively sophisticated, it seems to be the attire of the Tielin army, but there is no large number of heavy horses, among the 20,000 people, the proportion of heavy horses is about one-tenth, there are 2,000, and the rest are basically knights wearing leather armor and carrying out key protection.

Liao in the prairie, hegemony for a long time, whether it is military strength, or equipment, they have the absolute upper hand, heavy cavalry is the largest weapon of Liao, used to attack fortifications, but if it is facing the Northern Song Dynasty, maybe the heavy cavalry will be used as the main force to deal with the grassland, part of it, even in the process of marching, there is no armor piercing.

Liao was probably more than two miles away, sorted out the military formation, put 2,000 heavy cavalry in front, and cooperated with various arms in the back, and then launched a group charge, a sharp camp, without the slightest mercy.

At this time, the largest 20 six-pounder guns could reach them, but in order to achieve greater results, they did not move, but put the other party in.

The distance of more than 2 miles is not a very long distance for a cavalry at full speed, and if the maximum speed is calculated at 50 kilometers per hour, two miles may be the time of eighty or ninety breaths.

Looking at the heavy, murderous cavalry, rushing towards here, having experienced several wars, the Dinghai soldiers, who knew their combat effectiveness, did not move at all, under the leadership of the officer, silently made preparations, until the Liao army crossed half the distance, and when they were about a mile away, the officer issued an order.

The responsible flag lit up, and the gunners who were already ready to aim at the area began to move, load, and fire, and after a few breaths, a huge roar sounded in the muzzle of the artillery.

The huge sound directly caused turmoil in the opponent's camp, but this turmoil did not last long, not because the artillery was not loud enough, but because the speed of the artillery was very fast, maybe not faster than the speed of sound, but it was about the same, after the chaos caused by the sound, just after it was generated, the artillery blossomed in the cavalry camp.

If it's just a sound, it's just a scare, for a professionally trained cavalry, sound training is a must, on the one hand, let the horse gradually adapt to these special sounds on the battlefield, on the other hand, the knight can also control, after all, it's just a sound.

But the artillery is not as simple as the sound, the key is the power, because of the appearance of Zhao Xin, the Dinghai did not take the traditional route, there is no solid bullet like the original artillery, it is directly a hollow bullet plus a flowering bullet, this thing, the lethality of the soldiers on the battlefield is very huge.

80 shells, almost all concentrated in the rear of the Liao camp, according to a shell, a radius of 12 meters of the circle to calculate, almost a coverage range, is nearly 400 square meters, 80 shells, almost covered 32,000 square meters, this is a relatively large area, if converted to the cavalry, it will probably cover more than 3,000 cavalry.

If it is only a solid bullet, then for these cavalry advancing at high speed, the lethality is limited, the cavalry is different from the infantry, when charging with all its might, even if it is a cluster of heavy cavalry, there is a certain distance between each other, not to mention the light cavalry.

However, the flowering shell is different, accurate calculation will make the shell explode directly after it lands, and the huge explosion power will push all kinds of shrapnel to cover the entire threat area.

Because it was in the rear, they were all knights in leather armor or light armor, and in front of the cannonballs that had been enhanced by the damage, almost half of the 3,000 cavalry who were shrouded in it were injured, and a considerable part of them were very seriously injured.

Such a result was beyond the expectations of the Liao army, they did not expect that the other party's strange weapons were so strong, when charging at high speed, as long as they dropped their horses, then they would definitely die, and even the resulting turmoil would affect the camp.

However, the well-trained Liao army still adjusted it and increased its speed as much as possible, and for 1 mile, running with all its might, it may not even be 150 breaths, and it can be crossed.

It's a pity that their calculation was wrong, a total of 80 guns, in a well-trained gunner, in a very short time, can complete a shot, 150 breaths of time, can complete at least 6 guns, according to the first wave of lethality, I am afraid that 20,000 people can kill most of the wounded.

In fact, this is impossible, the first artillery has such an effect, on the one hand, it is the other side rushing over, without concealment, on the other hand, how can it not be calculated clearly, every coordinate is calculated, basically, the artillery is concentrated, all in dense places.

After that, when the Liao army continued to charge, the follow-up accuracy was not high, and the second shot began, the casualties continued to decrease, and when the Liao army approached 200 steps, the artillery simply stopped.

Artillery in this era, has just appeared, the artillery of the Ding Navy has been quite mature, but the power and accuracy of this artillery is not very high, 200 steps is already a very dangerous distance, in order to avoid accidental injury, it is better to stop.

After 5 rounds of blows, even if the lethality was reduced, the casualties brought exceeded 8,000, that is, in a short period of more than 100 breaths, the 20,000 Liao army almost lost 4 percent.

This is a huge reduction, if it is changed to a frontal battlefield where the soldiers meet, this battle damage can almost determine whether a unit is disabled, but this is a cavalry charge, when charging, there is no distraction at all, let alone caring about anything else, even if it is a turn, after the cavalry accelerates, it can only rush forward.

The only good thing now is that there is no big reduction in 2000 heavy cavalry, they still maintain a relatively dense camp, the number of the other side is about the same as the heavy cavalry, as long as the heavy cavalry is close, it can produce huge lethality, although the losses are relatively heavy, but as long as you win, you can do it.

The Liao State thought that as long as they rushed to the nearest place, they would not have thought that on the opposite side, less than 2,000 troops, would give them an unforgettable lesson, so that they suffered heavy casualties, seeing that there was only one or two hundred paces away, for most cavalry, it may only take a few breaths of time to be able to cross, but like a natural danger, blocking their way forward, until defeat.