The crops that have not yet matured in the farmland outside Guizhou have long been harvested, and at this moment, thousands of horses are galloping on the flat field, and tens of thousands of armored cavalry are holding spears, galloping forward like an ocean, and even this land seems to be trembling.

There is a cloud in the art of war: cavalry against infantry, and infantry in plain areas against cavalry.

Liu Yanqing, who was actually in charge of the command this time, held 30,000 of the most elite iron cavalry of the entire Great Song Dynasty, and in the face of the horizontal defensive position of the Zhennan Army, he did not hesitate to choose the tactic of cavalry attacking in front and infantry covering and killing.

These Great Song cavalry, who had fought with the Western Xia for many years, were the first time that they had such a hearty horseback to attack the enemy, after all, they had been abused by the Western Xia cavalry most of the time in the past.

The sun is in the sky, the sky is like a fire, and the hearts of the Great Song cavalry are also on fire.

Tong Guan, the envoy of Xuanfu, had already announced to the whole army that if this battle was won, in addition to a large amount of silver rewards, and after attacking Zhennan, the whole army could plunder for three days.

Thinking that they were about to use the blood of these thieves to stain their blades red, and exchange their heads for gold and silver, these battle-hardened cavalrymen were even more murderous.

When the nearly 10,000 Great Song cavalry roared on the horizon, the Zhennan Army, which was ready to wait, also took action, and the artillery located behind the army formation and on the city wall took the lead.

These artillery, which has been improved several times by the craftsmen of the arsenal, has been changed from the original cast iron to cast steel, and then different parts of the gun are treated with complex annealing and quenching procedures, so that the casting process continues to improve, and finally these heavy guns with a length of about 3 meters, a caliber of 110-130 mm, and a weight of more than 2 tons are finally manufactured.

The firing range of these artillery pieces can reach about three kilometers at most, and Lei Lingzhen, who was holding a telescope, saw that the Great Song cavalry was about to enter the firing range, and hurriedly shouted: "Open the cannon!" ”

As the commanding soldiers in the city waved the banner in their hands, all the artillery above and below the city immediately spewed out a burst of flames, and the Great Song cavalry array, which was rapidly charging several miles away, suddenly flew in the mud, and every solid cannonball that fell could harvest several lives.

The intensive artillery fire launched by the Zhennan army caused heavy losses to the Great Song cavalry, and thousands of knights flew in the flesh and blood of the first charge.

In the rumbling cannon, a large number of frightened war horses were also the main reason for the failure of this charge, as the so-called knowing oneself and knowing the enemy, invincible in a hundred battles, and not knowing the enemy's intelligence at all, it is not surprising that Liu Yanqing and other generals of the Western Army received this defeat.

The Great Song Fang reorganized the cavalry troops to prepare for the second charge, using this time, the artillery of the Zhennan Army was also busy cleaning up the hot artillery, although the range of this huge cannon is not small, but the shortcomings of not being able to shoot continuously are also very fatal, fortunately the Song Army did not know this.

After the defeat in the first battle, the next few cavalry charges, the Song army finally learned to be smart.

The cavalry troops of the Great Song Dynasty began to spread out and attack the defense line of the Zhennan Army, which greatly reduced the lethality of the cannons that could only fire solid iron bullets, and the defect of not being able to shoot for a long time was also seen by the Song generals.

After several attempts, the Great Song army quickly regrouped and began its first general offensive.

It can be said that Liu Yanqing and others chose a very good timing, this is the window period formed after the transition of all artillery launches, several reluctantly fired artillery guns were blown up because of overheating, seeing this situation, Ling Zhen, the artillery commander, had to order to stop all artillery firing.

Without the cover of artillery, the cavalry of the Song army smoothly came to the position of the Zhennan army, with a cavalry side card on his left arm and a cavalry cavalry in his right hand shouting: "Kill!" Kill! Kill! ”

With the chorus of tens of thousands of cavalry shouting, the guns pointed diagonally forward, and the horses galloping rapidly with no end in sight, the murderous cavalry exuded a violent aura that rose to the sky.

"Don't be afraid, prepare!" Spartacus, the commander of the 1st Army of the Zhennan Army, stood at the front of the position, opened the wooden box full of grenades in front of him, and ordered loudly.

After the barbed wire and trench fortifications, the soldiers of the 1st Regiment of the Zhennan Army, which had been the longest army, stood up.

Some of these soldiers are dark-skinned Jiaozhi people, some are fair-skinned Bai people, and there are no big difference between the Gu and Han people, but they have long recognized themselves as a Zhennan people, their home is behind them, and all of them know that they must not retreat.

"Kill! Kill! With an earth-shattering roar, nearly 10,000 Great Song cavalry took the lead in front of the fortifications of Zhennan Kingdom.

......The first wave of attack of the Zhennan army came from the grenadiers behind the trench, countless grenades were thrown, and the sky covered dozens of meters in front of the battle like a torrential rain, the difference was that all those raindrops exploded.

"Bang bang......" The dense gunfire rained down again, and the Zhennan soldiers lying in the trench opened fire in unison.

This time each shooter has three loaded smoothbore guns by their side, so they can reach the highest rate of fire in the shortest amount of time.

The Great Song cavalry who had been lucky enough to survive the grenade explosion were immediately subjected to intensive fire from smoothbore guns, and the cavalry and war horses that had been beaten into a sieve fell one after another, and the area 100 meters in front of the trenches and barbed wire fortifications in Zhennan was suddenly bloody......

After the first day of fighting, the most precious 30,000 cavalry of the Great Song Army lost two-thirds, but even the first line of defense of the Zhennan Army did not break through.

That night, in Tong Guan's tent, many Great Song generals were discussing tomorrow's battle on both sides.

Zhang Shuye, the envoy of the Fifth Road, said: "Pacify the envoy, the defensive ability of the Zhennan Army is too strong, if our army continues to attack so hard tomorrow, I am afraid that the losses will expand." ”

Tong Guan had a gloomy face, looked at Zhang Shuye coldly and asked: "Now that the two armies have faced each other, is it possible that our 200,000 army will face the 40,000 people who are rebelling against the thieves, and we will not be able to escape?" ”

"It can't be said to be an escape." Zhang Shuye pointed to the map that looked like a landscape painting and said: "As far as I know, although the firearms of the Zhennan Army are fierce, they need a lot of bullets and gunpowder. Therefore, as long as our army is temporarily stationed in the same place, does not go to battle, and uses the remaining cavalry to attack the other state capitals on the Quang Nam West Road, and copied it from behind, it can cut off the logistics and food routes of the enemy's main force in Guizhou. ”

After listening to Zhang Shuye's suggestion, Tong Guan asked, "According to your method, how long can we defeat Li Nan?" ”

"This ...... It depends on how much food and ammunition the Zhennan army has hoarded in Guizhou City, and it is estimated that it will be about half a year......"

"Half a year?" Before Zhang Shuye's words were finished, Tong Guan interrupted angrily: "Do you know how much grain and grass our 200,000 army consumes every day, do you know that the saint sent several imperial decrees one day, urging them to suppress the thieves?" ”

In fact, Tong Guan didn't say one more thing, now the Liao State has gone to the general trend, because the Song State and the Jin State have already signed a maritime alliance, so now the Jin State is constantly urging the Song State to send troops in accordance with the alliance.

If the Great Song Dynasty broke the promise, the matter of returning the sixteen states of Yanyun would be stopped, and Tong Guan's dream of becoming the king would also disappear, so he would be so eager to take down the thief leader Li Nan in one fell swoop, and quickly lead the army north to establish immortal achievements.