At night, the city of Xiazhou is already very quiet, the streets and alleys are dark, the Song army still implements strict martial law during the day and a curfew at night, only at noon will the people in the city be allowed to go out to receive relief, the food in the hands of the people in the city has long been looted by Sajin's men, and can only rely on the relief of the Song army to survive.

The martial law and curfew of the Song army were not without effect, just yesterday, the patrol soldiers of the Song army found that someone was secretly assembled, so they notified the scout camp, Zhang Shun led more than 1,000 soldiers to take this organization of dead soldiers who were ready to cooperate with the Western Xia army to seize the city, and killed more than 120 outlaws in the Western Xia.

Li Yanqing stood at the head of the city and looked at the west, the Western Xia reinforcements had already appeared one hundred and fifty miles away, with an army of 30,000, which was a huge temptation and test for Li Yanqing.

"Wen Jin, do you think we should pull the army out and fight a battle with the Western Xia army?" Li Yanqing looked at the West and asked in a deep voice.

Wen Jin is Liu Kuang, at this time Liu Jian is standing next to Li Yanqing, he has followed Li Yanqing for many years, and he already knows Li Yanqing's character well, he knows that Li Yanqing asked this question on a whim, it must have been carefully considered, and it must have been weighed up with pros and cons.

Liu Jian thought for a while and smiled: "How much does Dutong know about this support army?" ”

"I know that the 20,000 cavalry is the elite of the Western Xia Army, and they are incorporated into the Iron Harrier Army, and they are good at riding and shooting, and the other 10,000 infantry are also the tribal army that follows the Tuoba Department, stationed in Xingqing Mansion for a long time, with elite equipment and brave combat, it can be said that these 30,000 troops are the capital of the Western Xia Army."

"Do you think we can defeat them?"

Li Yanqing nodded slowly, "We also have brave and good soldiers, and there are firearms that far surpass the enemy's army, not to mention that our army is three times larger, I think we can fight with the enemy." ”

After a pause, Li Yanqing said in a deep voice: "If we want to destroy Western Xia, this level must be crossed, and we must defeat them in a dignified manner." ”

"Since the capital has made up its mind, let's fight!"

Li Yanqing's gaze suddenly became deep, and he said slowly: "Let the Jingzhao Army rise completely in this battle!" ”

.........

The dark clouds hung low, gusts of wind blew, the sand and dust covered the sky and the sun, and in the wilderness west of Xiazhou City, 100,000 Song troops took up their positions, patiently waiting for the arrival of the Western Xia army.

The 30,000 Western Xia army was already seven miles away, and the battle line of the Song army could be seen from a distance, Brother Richard never thought that the Song army would line up to meet the battle, which was also the result he hoped for the most, he didn't bring siege weapons at all, he couldn't attack the city, he just came to try his luck, if the Song army was willing to fight with him, of course it was best, but if the Song army was unwilling to fight, he could only quickly withdraw from the Gobi to Xingqing Mansion, and would not waste time here.

It seems that his luck is good, Li Yanqing is actually willing to set up a battle with himself, this is a rare strategic decision of the Song army, generally the Song army uses strategy or surprise soldiers, this kind of hard-fought battle, since Di Qing has not appeared.

Brother Richard said to the dozen or so generals around him: "The Song army has an army of 100,000, three times as many as us, this is their advantage, we must avoid their advantage, we can't fight with them one-on-one." ”

Brother Richard pointed at the Song army with his sword, and continued: "The Jingzhao Song army has undergone changes since last year, if I guess correctly, this 100,000 army should be Long Xiangwei and Hu Benwei as the two wings, Li Yanqing's direct guard is in the middle, and our 30,000 troops cannot fight them in three ways, we must concentrate our forces to attack Li Yanqing's Chinese army, as long as Li Yanqing's Chinese army is crushed, the two wings will also retreat without a fight, so my tactic is to garrison the flag with 10,000 infantry and respond immediately, while 20,000 cavalry will attack the Chinese army, do you understand what I mean?" ”

"Understood!" The generals shouted in unison.

"The cavalry is arrayed, and the army enters the decisive battle zone!"

The 30,000 Western Xia troops began to march in formation, maintaining a state of attacking at any time, and walked towards the Song army line step by step, the so-called decisive battle area is three miles away from the opponent, this distance is the best distance for the cavalry to launch an offensive, so that the cavalry can fully gallop.

Li Yanqing looked at the Western Xia army in the distance, and he said to Wang Gui and Liu Kuang, the deputy governors of the left and right: "The enemy's strength is effective, and it will definitely not fight with us in an all-round way, and will definitely concentrate on attacking the Chinese army. ”

"Obey!"

Wang Gui and Liu Jian each saluted and rushed to their respective teams.

The 100,000-strong army fought a decisive battle with the Western Xia army in an eagle formation, on the surface, the Chinese army was not much, only 20,000 people, 40,000 on the left and right flanks, in fact, Li Yanqing studied Li Chage's tactics thoroughly.

Richard's tactics were also the usual tactics of the Western Xia army and the Liaojin army, using the advantage of cavalry to attack the enemy's central army, directly crushing the opponent's Chinese army, triggering the collapse of the whole army, and the countless defeats of the Song army were defeated by the enemy's tactics.

But today, Li Yanqing's Chinese army is different, they are not ordinary infantry, there are heavy infantry, firearms battalions, scout battalions, and crossbow barracks, and the crossbow army alone reaches 10,000 people.

Li Yanqing's musketeers were mainly used to deal with heavy cavalry, but today they didn't need to fight, and the crossbow could shoot through the enemy's armor.

At this time, the enemy army had already entered the combat zone, and Li Yanqing immediately ordered: "Prepare the divine arm crossbow!" ”

The blue flag was waved on the flag platform, and Zhang Wei, the commander of the Divine Arm Crossbow Army, immediately shouted, "Array!" ”

The 10,000 Divine Arm Army had actually been prepared for the big battle, and they were divided into three rows of 3,000 men each, of which the first row was 4,000 men, and they used three shots to attack the enemy army.

In the distance, Richard could see very clearly, the Song army's arrow array was in his expectation, this is also the traditional tactics of the Song army, although the Western Xia cavalry will have losses, but the defeat must be the Song army.

Brother Richard is very aware of the power of the Song Army's divine arm crossbow, the general leather armor can be shot through one hundred and fifty steps away, and the armor can be shot through one hundred steps away, but if the cavalry is holding a shield, it is only possible to shoot through the shield and leather armor within sixty steps, if it is armor, it is forty steps to double penetrate, but forty steps away is a rush for the cavalry, and the Song crossbowmen actually only have one chance to shoot.

This is the main reason why the Song army was defeated in the Hundred Years War and the Western Xia, and the Song army was also constantly pursuing advanced weapons, and the invention of the divine arm crossbow was to replace the weakness of the original crossbow that could not penetrate the enemy's armor.

If it is an ordinary Western Xia cavalry, mainly leather armor, and there are relatively few shields, the divine arm crossbow can indeed exert great power, but today is different, today it is a Western Xia cavalry wearing armor, and there is a strong shield, no matter how powerful your divine arm crossbow is, what is the use?

Brother Richard sneered and ordered sharply: "Attack!" ”

"Boom! Boom! Boom! "The drums of war were beating.

The 20,000 Western Xia cavalry shouted and began to launch suddenly, and the war horses galloped, killing the Song army three miles away like a mountain and a sea, the dust covered the sky and the sun, the earth was trembling, and soon they ran to a range of one mile.

Zhang Wei yelled, "Raise the crossbow!" ”

The drum sounded, and the 10,000 crossbow army raised the divine arm crossbow, but unfortunately the distance was too far, and it was obscured by dust, Richard could not see the details, if he came closer, he would definitely be surprised, the first of the three sections of the four thousand crossbowmen, their crossbow arrows were different, and each crossbow arrow was actually tied to a two-inch-long thin tube, which was the bursting arrow that the Jingzhao Song army only entered the war for the first time this year.

This kind of arrow that binds gunpowder existed a hundred years ago in the Song Dynasty, but the explosion of gunpowder at that time was not enough, and it could only be used to set fire, and the power was not great, and now the gunpowder arrow is renamed as a burst arrow, which has a strong explosive power and strong lethality, which can blow up the shield and blow up the iron armor.

The armor of the Western Xia army was not made of whole piece of pig iron, and the Western Xia did not have so many strategic resources, but made of pig iron into thin slices like fish scales, and then strung with ropes, draped on the shoulders, chest, back and abdomen, which belonged to a kind of light armor.

The iron sand in the gunpowder tube is a threat to both horses and people, and the violent explosion can also startle the horse, which is completely different from the previous god arm crossbow.