When the Liao people were going to attack with all their might, it was unrealistic to continue the movement. Dong Renzhang flew to report again: "The Liao people seem to be going to attack in a big way, Guo Deployment please patrol the border to shrink the formation, so that the Liao people will not have a chance." ”

Li Buqi looked at the slowly approaching Liao infantry formation and nodded in response, and ordered the Zhenwu army convoy to tightly surround the rear and two wings of the infantry formation that had already launched the Pingrong array, and even the horses pulling the carts were unloaded and concentrated together, and the side vans were directly connected to each other, surrounding the infantry and cavalry like a camp fence.

Since the Liao people want to attack on a large scale, then use bows and crossbows to deal with it, the cavalry of the Song army is too precious, especially the cavalry of the police division, and it is still very useful, and it must not be fought casually.

After the force shrank, the Song army became a rectangular compact formation, and Li Buqi handed over the command of the rear car formation to Gao Zunyu, in fact, it was handed over to Yang Shiqing, and there was no need to stay behind to command, so he took his own soldiers to the position of the Chinese army with a banner to meet Guo Kui. Guo Kui saw Li Buqi and said: "Patrol the border, victory or defeat is here." ”

Li Buqi was confident: "Our vehicles are loaded with more than 600,000 arrows and a large number of other combat equipment. As long as we don't mess with ourselves, I want to see how much blood the Liao people are ready to shed. ”

Guo Kui glanced at the rear and said with some concern: "The Liao infantry army has come up. It's a bit of a problem. ”

Although the cavalry has strong mobility and rapid assault, it is inferior to the infantry in attacking fortifications. And in fact, although this battlefield has left a walled fort set up by the Song army every ten miles, it is still not suitable for large-scale cavalry impact.

Thanks to the many years of operation of the Great Song Dynasty in Hebei, although the Great Song Dynasty has a huge shortage of timber, Hebei is full of forests. Although the Song army can only form a rectangular formation due to the restrictions of the woods, the right flank has a considerable length of time to be covered by the woods, and the path that the Liao people can attack is greatly limited. Moreover, after Guo Kui and the generals repelled the attacks of the Liao cavalry one after another, the fear of the cavalry has been eliminated a lot. It's just that his own number is small, so Guo Kui is more worried about being entangled by the Liao infantry and tearing up the formation.

Li Buqi said with a smile: "Guo Deployment just rest assured." Those vans were just as effective against infantry. Guo Deployment just needs to take care of the left and right and the front, and the back will be handed over to the Zhenwu Army. ”

Guo Kui was also relieved to see that Li Buqi was full of confidence and said. As he was talking, there was already a sound of bangs in the rear, and the arrows began to be fired.

After the Liao infantry formation entered a distance of about 250 meters, the ballistas on the side vans began to fire javelins, and then the light trebuchets also began to fire.

Because there is residual snow on the ground that can act as a buffer, and the mud balls thrown from a long distance cannot be broken when they fall to the ground, the killing effect is limited. Therefore, in the face of the Liao infantry, the trebuchet fired oil canisters and fireballs this time.

These fireballs are made of a mud or stone ball thickly wrapped in straw, wheat straw and linen, which is dipped in fire oil and ignited in the iron spoon of a trebuchet. These fireballs are filled with oil, and anyone they touch will ignite flames that are difficult to extinguish. Even better, these fireballs are soft on the outside, can bounce and roll on the snow, deal more damage, and at the least can disrupt enemy formations. And the ignited thin-walled canister will splash the burning oil everywhere even if it is smashed on the snow, and the psychological pressure on the enemy will be even greater.

After the Liao people entered a distance of 100 meters, the steel crossbows of the Zhenwu army began to be fired, and pieces of crossbow arrows covered the Liao army's array. The three-edged armor-piercing arrows and streamlined and smooth arrow bodies make the crossbow arrows more penetrating, and the shields raised by the soldiers in the front row of the Liao army are all shot through. Every time the arrows rained down, some people rolled to the ground howling, and their shields were even more powerless against the small javelins fired from the ballistas, and many people's shields were split along with their bodies. However, under the threat of the officer's cold and shining broadsword, the Liao people still ran to the side van in front of them screaming regardless of the casualties.

When some people finally rushed under the side van with crossbow arrows and javelins, they encountered the same problem as the cavalry, that is, they had no way to start. The carriage board can't be knocked on, it can't be chopped, and at most it can only smash the wheels. But the wheels are also iron-cladned, so it's not easy to smash. Drag the vehicles, they're locked together, and you're not stupid to smash someone's wheel when they're killing you with arrows and javelins!

Some Liao people tried to get under the car and fight the Song army hand-to-hand. But no sooner had they had gotten through the cart, and before they could stand up, a multitude of spears and axes stabbed them, and they were slain under the cart when they could not escape.

According to Xia Xingmei's deployment, as soon as the infantry rushed to the front of the car formation, the Liao cavalry moved. A group of cavalrymen braved crossbow arrows to run to the front of the cart formation, and saw that the infantry was helpless against the cart formation, and thought that the infantry had run such a long way and had no strength, so they threw out the iron hook to hook the side van, and then beat the horse and ran away, trying to drag the car away. The problem is that there are interlocking parts in the front and rear of the side car, and now the cars are locked together, and they can't be dragged at all, and the riders on the horse are shot to death on the horse one by one.

When the Liao attacked the rear of the Song army, the other three directions were also launched at the same time.

Compared with the previous attacks, the Liao people seemed to have no hesitation. To the sound of rumbling war drums and whining horns, the cavalry of the brigade swarmed out of the forest passages in three directions. Unlike the previous light cavalry, the spearhead of this attack was an elite cavalry wearing iron armor and even the horses were covered with leather armor. The cavalrymen in the forward position each led two or three horses in leather armor and strung together with ropes, and when they rushed into the range of the Song army's bow and crossbow, they stabbed the horses on the buttocks of these horses and let them charge straight into the Song army's formation, while they hid behind these horses and continued to charge while shooting arrows.

This kind of cavalry impact has always been the nightmare of the Song army, so the training of the Song army in Hebei is mainly aimed at the impact tactics of the Liao cavalry. Under the shouts of the officers, the spearmen in the front row of the Song army half-crouched on the ground, stuck the tail of the four- or five-meter-long spear into the snow and stepped on it with their feet, allowing their bows and arrows to fall from the sky and hit their armor. When one person fell, the people behind him immediately made up for it, and the five rows of bright spears always maintained a height of more than one meter and neatly pointed in the direction where the Liao soldiers and horses were rushing.

Behind the pikemen were half-crouched skirmishers, armed with broadswords, heavy axes, and bones, ready to meet the enemy forces that rushed into the formation, while the archers swam between them, ready to shoot the Liao who broke through the crossbow arrows.

The impact of the galloping horse in front, even if the spearman can stab the war horse of the Liao people, will be rushed by the huge momentum. But the slightest resistance of the pikemen would stop the cavalry charge, and the skirmishers would rush up and engage in hand-to-hand combat, slashing the riders upwards and the legs of the horses down, and protecting the archers. If they can't completely block the Liao, then they will be defeated. Because behind them were crossbowmen, the crossbowmen of the Great Song Dynasty basically did not practice hand-to-hand combat skills.

Behind the axemen, the crossbowmen methodically fired their powerful crossbows. One platoon of soldiers fired and retreated to the rear to wind up the arrows, and the other row immediately took their place and continued firing. Although the crossbowmen were already horribly pale, they were still the same as they were trained in peace, marching forward and backward with neat steps, aiming and firing crossbow arrows, because they understood that they were the main force against the Liao cavalry. This is not only because the number of crossbowmen in the Great Song army accounted for about seventy percent of the soldiers, but also because everyone knew that the infantry only relied on hard crossbows to block the onslaught of large-scale cavalry.

This was the standard defensive tactic of the Song army. Li Buqi couldn't help but nod as he watched the orderly operations of all commands. It seems that the Hebei Song army has not degenerated to the extent of Song Huizong's time in this era, as long as there is a capable general with it, it can still fight. In this way, he has the confidence to kill Western Xia first.

Guo Kui was also carefully observing the battlefield, as Li Buqi added some changes to the standard tactics of the Song army.

Because Li Buqi emphasized the role of Wangshan, the crossbowmen in battle were divided into two arrays. The crossbowmen in the front basically shoot at direct aim, while the crossbowmen in the back array shoot according to a fixed gauge with the longer-range Divine Arm Bow, so that the crossbow arrows they throw will form an arrow curtain in front of the forest passage, allowing the Liao people to suffer a wave of damage before rushing into the front crossbowmen's direct strike range.

Theoretically, as long as there were enough crossbowmen, the Song army could cover the entire attack route of the Liao people under a rain of arrows. This partially solves the problem of limiting the width of the array on the number of crossbowmen that can be shot at a time, increases the density of crossbow arrows, and really turns the Liao people on their backs. In particular, the Liao cavalry, who rushed out from between the trees and attempted to attack laterally, suffered more casualties because they were exposed to the crossbow for a longer time.

Of course, so many Liao soldiers and horses always rushed through the rain of arrows. The archers desperately shot arrows at the Liao cavalry and horses that rushed to the front, but a section of the pikeman's human wall was still knocked out of the gap, and the short men were driven up by the chiefs, and used all kinds of heavy weapons to desperately cut down the horses that rushed through the human wall, blocking the cavalry behind. The newly replenished pikemen pressed over with their spears and pushed the Liao people out again.

In all sections that were not protected by partial vans, there was a phenomenon of the Liao people chiseling through the Song army's spear array, but the Song army gritted its teeth and pushed back again and again. For a while, there was danger everywhere.