Volume 1 Born Out of Thin Air Chapter 40 The Battle of Zhongdu II
Lan Tai led a cavalry of 100 men to the left of the Jurchen formation, and Halig stood in the front row of the infantry phalanx in the middle.
The Jurchens soon discovered the problem, and the Liao army did not come up and storm as Aguda had envisioned. In this way, the Jurchens will not be able to seize the loophole to counterattack, which is very unfavorable to the battle situation.
The Jurchen top brass generally believed that the Liao army, which had absolute superiority in strength, would attack head-on, and the current situation was obviously beyond their expectations.
"Great Khan, the situation is not right, what do the people of Liao want to do?" Ah Qimai and Ji also came to Ah Guta's side together to discuss how to fight next.
Yan also looked worried, "Great Khan, it can't go on like this." If the Khitans slowly pressed up like this, our military formation would collapse sooner or later. Ah Guda glared at Han Ye angrily, and then observed the Liao army formation......
"The Khitans are moving, look at the Great Khan!" Ah Qimai's eyes were sharp, and he saw the changes in the Liao State phalanx.
The Liao army formation did advance slowly according to Yeluming's plan at first, but soon Emperor Tianzuo became impatient. The Jurchens only have 50,000 people, do you treat them as 500,000 and attack them?!
The Liao State attacked first, with 30,000 cavalry on each flank, pressing towards the Jurchen formation. Ah Guda breathed a sigh of relief, just move, there was no Jurchen in the plan to attack this item first.
Many people in later generations said that if the Liao State slowly approached the Jurchen army formation, not to mention defeat, at least it could defeat the Jurchen development momentum. However, history has no ifs, and it is impossible for the Liao State, which has hundreds of thousands of troops, to only defend and not attack, not to mention that the logistics have reached the limit. If the Jurchen doesn't want to fight Da, they can shoot their horses and leave, and the Liao State can't launch hundreds of thousands of troops and travel thousands of miles to fight a decisive battle.
A total of 60,000 light cavalry first roared past in front of the Jurchen infantry phalanx, and the galloping of 10,000 horses made the earthquake tremble, and the Jurchen infantry was in a commotion.
The greatest deterrent to the cavalry group's charge is that the infantry does not think that the ground is trembling, but that his whole world is trembling, and he seems to have become a small leaf in the stormy waves!
Helig led a large team of shieldmen, clad in double armor, and stood in the front row.
The Jurchen warriors basically had double or even triple layers of iron armor, and the soldiers of other ethnic groups could basically guarantee one leather armor and one iron armor.
As a pioneer, Helig is an iron armor on the outside, and a layer of chain mail on the inside, and the iron helmet is already fully protected. But now he regretted being a pioneer, because it was the first time that even the most courageous Jurchen warrior had seen so many cavalry charges!
From time to time, there were soldiers in the queue who collapsed, most of them Jurchen tribal soldiers, and there were also real Jurchens, and they were bumping around. A few of them have lost their minds and are shouting, and the morale of the army has begun to fluctuate.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Ah Guta immediately put down the death battle order flag, and the Jurchen armor soldiers closest to the riot soldiers immediately surrounded them and killed them with iron guns, big swords, maces, and maces. Then he cut off his head with a short knife and tied it to his waist, and the smell of blood was in his nose.
Although he had expected this situation, Ah Guda still felt a little overbearing, after all, the other party had 200,000 cavalry! But there is no way out for himself, every Jurchen has no way out, life and death are at stake, only everyone is fighting for their lives!
The infantry phalanx finally had no danger and did not collapse completely. The Liao cavalry did not attack the neat infantry phalanx to death, but instead rushed to the Jurchen cavalry on both flanks. The Jurchen warriors of the infantry phalanx knew that they had no way out, so they persevered.
Heilig was drenched and out of breath. He swallowed and wanted to take a few sips of water because his throat was swollen.
Lan Tai saw the cavalry of the Liao people rushing towards him, and immediately ordered the auxiliary soldiers to pull the horse well and retreat. The large shield hand that had been prepared for a long time stepped forward to cover the Jurchen warriors, and the rows of spears and knives behind them were diagonally upward.
Xiao Zhen led the cavalry, and he had already rushed to a place of less than a hundred meters, and he did not directly attack the phalanx, but used a rain of arrows to attack.
With the order to "release the arrows", tens of thousands of arrows rose into the air, and then "fluttered" down. The Jurchen armor soldiers behind the big shield hand bowed their heads, holding small round shields, and those with iron helmets simply bowed their heads and blocked hard.
The voice of "dang, dang, dangdang..." sounded in the position of the Jurchens, just like the soundtrack of the galloping sound of thousands of horses in the Liao Kingdom at this time. The arrows that fell became less and less, and the 30,000 cavalry, mainly the servant army, soon swept in front of the formation.
After the first impact, Lan Tai looked to the left and right, and found that although there were arrows all over the ground, there were not many of his own fallen armor soldiers.
Although the Khitans are still skilled in bowing horses, their bow strength is really a bit small, about 30 kilograms. It's okay to use for hunting, but for these humanoid beasts with two layers and three layers of heavy armor, there is no pressure at all.
Only a few of the unlucky Jurchens were killed by arrows through the cracks in their armor, and thousands more were wounded. Every great war of this era, after which some soldiers who were wounded by arrows were infected and then died in agony.
Xiao Zhen showed superb cavalry art, and the 30,000 cavalry were divided into six groups, which were turned around and quickly reunited into a cavalry torrent.
"What a beautiful tactic!" Ah Guda couldn't help but cheer for his enemies, and the guards and Jurchen generals around him also admired this young general of the Liao State. After all, the Jurchens are a fishing and hunting people, and they are on par with the nomadic Khitan in terms of bow and arrow attainment, and they are even better than the bow power. But there is still a big gap in large-scale cavalry operations because of the lack of experience.
Looking at the archers approaching again, Lantai ordered his subordinates to remove the big bow on their backs according to the drum and trumpet. Adjust the bowstring a few times with your hands, then take aim with the arrow.
Hard bows, heavy cavalry, and dead soldiers are the three-plate axes that the Jurchens of this time and space rely on to rampant in the world. The big bow used by the Jurchens can reach 200 catties.
In the heyday of the Jurchens, the average bow strength of the soldiers remained at 130-150 catties, which was quite terrifying. The 150-pound Jurchen bow, equipped with heavy arrows, can penetrate a wrought iron plate 3 mm thick at a distance of 90 meters!
The trumpeter's order was given, the drummer blew, the junior officer shouted loudly, and the experienced Lantai instinctively shot an inverted triangular heavy arrow at... A horse.
That's right, in order to guarantee victory as much as possible, it is necessary to kill and wound as many enemies as possible. After summing up the experience, Ah Gu strictly ordered to shoot people and horses first at the beginning of the army.
Although the horses were very sorry, every Jurchen soldier resolutely carried out the order, and they could have shot the birds at fifty paces, of course, they were sure to hit the arrows.
With the sound of the low and powerful bowstring of "Jumping", waves of heavy arrows screamed and shot towards the Liao cavalry... The horses underneath.
Lantai's arrow directly tore open the neck and trachea of a horse, blood gushed out, and the rider was thrown more than 10 meters away, and was trampled into flesh by the iron hooves behind him as soon as he landed.
Looking down on the battlefield from above, countless horses can be seen making unbelievable movements, throwing riders out in a spray of blood, and then falling to the ground to break their bodies or crash into other horses, causing even more chaos.
Lantai constantly adjusts his breathing, and it is the prerogative of veterans to reasonably distribute his physical strength in battle. Taking a deep breath and using the strength of his arms and waist, Lantai once again shot a heavy arrow at a horse......
On the west side of the Jurchen cavalry position, in front of the simple horse rejection trench, it has become a slaughterhouse, and the Liao cavalry has left a place of corpses of men and horses. This attack of the Liao State lost about 20,000 cavalry, while the Jurchen side lost less than a thousand people!
A swamp of the lake of blood appeared in front of Lan Tai, in which countless horses and wounded soldiers struggled, like a squirming demon flower on a picture, looking beautiful and strange.
A bloodied Liao servant cavalryman took his arm and walked towards Lantai with a smirk. Several hairy Jurchen armor soldiers, along with Lan Tai, pinned him to the ground. The young man's body was facing the sky, arms raised, and an eerie smile on his face.
Although it was a cold winter, Lan Tai, who shot violently, was sweating profusely, and he couldn't help but feel a little dazed. The snow in front of him had been melted by his own sweat, and Lan Tai forced himself to calm down, and there was a big battle next.
Relax your arms and adjust your breathing. Lan Tai silently prayed for a great victory for the Jurchens, and then returned to see his wife and children with the rich booty.
……
Through the accounts and material exchanges with Gongzhong, Li Xiang and Li Mengkong gradually became acquainted. Li Xiang took advantage of the fact that he had a lot of resources at his disposal, and found some work for Li Mengkong's children to copy, annotate and translate, as well as organize simplified characters.
With the binding of interests, Li Mengkong gradually dated Li Xiang's peers, and the two often drank and talked about the mountains.
Although Li Mengkong didn't know Li Xiang's true thoughts, he faintly felt that Li Xiang and him were even different from ordinary readers in Da Zhou. It was a very special atmosphere, very sunny, very organized, very free. Yes, it's freedom, it's up to me.
Li Mengkong once asked Li Xiang that the children in Mengxue do not understand the words of the sages, and what should they do when they grow up without respecting their teachers, respecting their parents, and not abiding by morality?
Li Xiang was slightly drunk and said, could it be that before Confucianism, the Chinese people would not respect their parents and worship their ancestors?
Li Mengkong was sweating profusely in an instant, trembling all over, and there was lightning in Li Xiang's brain. Li Xiang's inadvertent words tore a crack in Li Mengkong's "Dao Heart", and also brought the first free air to Da Zhou.
Before Confucius and Mencius, did my Chinese people not recognize their ancestors? Nowadays, there are still less than one hundred "saints' children", but among the common people, how many of them are beasts who do not recognize their ancestors?
Who said that honoring one's parents, benevolence, righteousness and morality can only be found in Confucianism? Where are the other doctrines that oppose respecting teachers?
When did I start to become the "patent" of "Confucianism" in my traditional Chinese virtues, and I began to attribute these excellent things to Confucianism, which was born before Confucianism!
How many of the three outlines and five constants, the induction of heaven and man, and the benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith in Confucianism are inherent in the Chinese nation itself? How many of them have been claimed by Confucianism in the past thousand years? How much knowledge has not been collected and summarized by the "children of saints", is it all rubbish?
Why do those people covet the merits of heaven and put all the good things into one family? Why do you repeatedly emphasize Taoism, as if without Confucianism it would be hell on earth?
And why do you emphasize benevolence, righteousness and morality while reducing the craftsmen who master the productive forces to lowly status?
Why do you advertise "self-denial and revenge" on the one hand, and on the other hand, keep slaves, have three wives and four concubines, hide acres, reject ideas, and take refuge in other races?
Since there are teachings and no classes, can it be said that there are so many great Confucians, and none of them can take the time to revise the simplified characters? You must know that Mingyue Village, which has just turned 2,000 people, has begun to bear fruit!
Since it is not the king's land under the whole world, why is it difficult for the imperial power to go down to the county?
Since the words of the sage can bring peace to the world, why are dynasties constantly changing? If it were to be replaced by any other doctrine, would it be better or worse than Confucianism?
Li Mengkong staggered, and Li Xiang asked Xiong Chengwu to send him off, so as not to have an accident.
Looking at the golden ridgeline under the hazy sunset in the distance, and then looking at the teenager who was working hard to learn various subjects in Mengxuezhong, a smile appeared on the corner of Li Xiang's mouth.
The law of historical cycles, I seem, grabbed your tail... It's really a coincidence, if I had grown up in the environment of Da Zhou, I would definitely not have stumbled into such an idea.
The next day, Li Xiang posted a list in the public middle school, and all the books of the hundred schools of thought would be rewarded handsomely if they were brought back.
Li Mengkong didn't sleep all night, his eyes were bloodshot, and his wife wiped her tears beside her.
Hearing that Li Xiang was looking for hundreds of books, Li Mengkong's eyes regained their brightness. "Don't worry, I just can't figure out something. It's good for the little master to make a move, and I want to know the answer......"
It was also on this day that the great Confucian Wang Jue was "kidnapped" by Liu Chengdong and temporarily lived in Qingfeng Village.