Li Chenghao's 10,000 iron horsemen went all the way south, and arrived at Bole City at dusk, which was originally the supply point of the Western Xia army, but now the grain and grass have been scavenged by the Song army, and the military city is empty, and there is nothing, which makes Li Chenghao very worried, they are urgently sending troops, and they did not carry grain and grass, and they all rely on Jingzhou and Shunzhou along the way to get supplies, and as a result, to the south of Lingzhou, all the sources of supply have disappeared, and they have not much grain and grass to supply in Shunzhou, and they must return early tomorrow morning at the latest.

"General, we've caught a spy!"

Several soldiers pushed a middle-aged man with a big tie up in front of Li Chenghao, and the man knelt down and kowtowed: "General spare my life, I'm not a spy, I'm just a runaway slave." ”

Li Chenghao picked open his shirt with a sword, and there was indeed a slave brand above his chest, Li Chenghao said coldly: "You are a Song slave?" ”

"The villain is exactly!"

"Then why don't you go south with the others?"

"The villain's wife and children are in Xingqing Mansion, the Great Song Dynasty has no relatives, the villain doesn't want to go south, and wants to go back to Xingqing Mansion, so he escaped halfway and begged the general to spare his life!"

Li Chenghao nodded and said, "You don't have to be afraid, I won't hurt you, but I want to know the details of the southward journey, where are the warehouses and materials of Baitong Mountain and Song Nu?" ”

"They all went south, and they were transported south on sheepskin rafts, and hundreds of thousands of Song slaves also followed."

"When was it?" Li Chenghao asked.

"I started going south two days ago, but I walked relatively slowly, and the villain was the last group of Song slaves, and he only escaped from the team at noon today."

Li Chenghao was overjoyed in his heart, he only passed through here at noon today, and he walked a maximum of dozens of miles in half a day, and the Baimachuan Grand Canyon was more than 100 miles long, and the cavalry could completely catch up, so he hurriedly asked: "How many Song troops follow?" ”

"Probably a few thousand!"

"Are they all cavalry?"

The man shook his head, "No cavalry, only infantry!" ”

Li Chenghao's heart was overjoyed, and he said to the man: "As long as your information is true, I will let you go to Xingqing Mansion afterwards." ”

The man kowtowed again and again, "Thank you General for your success!" ”

Li Chenghao turned around and shouted: "Pass my order, the army speed up, be sure to catch up with the enemy before dawn!" ”

Ten thousand iron horsemen picked up their speed and pursued along the shallow riverbed in the direction of the canyon.......

When night just fell, the army arrived at Qinggang Gorge, Li Chenghao raised his head and stared at the military village on the mountain for a moment, it was dark and swarthy, there was no light, nothing could be seen clearly, it was not easy to go up the mountain to explore, at least they had to detour for more than 40 miles, they had no time.

Li Chenghao could only bet that there was no army stationed above, he thought about it and said to one of his subordinates: "You lead a hundred brothers to go first, if there is no abnormality, light a torch!" ”

His subordinates received the order and led a hundred cavalry to run into the canyon, and about a quarter of an hour later, the light of torches appeared seven or eight miles away in the distance, and the hundred cavalry had successfully passed through the Qinggangxia military village.

Li Chenghao was a little relieved, and immediately ordered: "Pass my order, the army will enter the canyon!" ”

10,000 iron horsemen started and rushed towards the canyon........

Gong Zuwen watched the Western Xia cavalry in the canyon from the mountain, the mighty cavalry was as many as 10,000 people, and on the low wall, nine hundred Song troops were ready, dealing with the Western Xia army was nothing more than rolling wood and stones and firearms, fire oil had no effect here, and it was enough to kill the enemy with iron fire thunder and earth-shaking thunder.

Half of the cavalry has passed, Gong Zuwen has not yet ordered the attack, the soldiers are secretly anxious, at this time, a general whispered to Gong Zuwen: "The cavalry is going south at full speed, I am afraid that they will be able to catch up with Song Min in one day, it is better to let them retreat in difficulty." ”

Gong Zuwen shook his head, "The enemy army has no supplies along the way, it will not go too far, if there is another blockade in front, the front and rear roads of the cavalry will be blocked, even if this army is not completely annihilated, at least most of it will be explained here." ”

Will there be a block ahead? Of course, there will be, Gongzu Wen ordered Yang Du to lead a thousand people to block the end of Qinggang Gorge more than ten miles away, unless the enemy army does not want war horses, they will not be able to cross the fortifications built by the Song army at all.

Gong Zuwen patiently waited for the opportunity, at this time, most of the Western Xia army had passed, and the last two thousand or so people were entering the canyon, the time was finally ripe, Gong Zuwen gave an order, "Shoot!" ”

The long-awaited 500 Song crossbowmen fired crossbow arrows at the same time at the bottom of the mountain, and at the same time, 300 soldiers threw iron fire thunder into the canyon, and the iron fire thunder was specially cut short to prevent the firearm from exploding into the water before it exploded.

The sudden attack caused a great confusion in the cavalry, although the Iron Harrier cavalry was a heavy cavalry, and all men and horses were wearing armor, but the real Iron Harrier cavalry in Western Xia was only 3,000 people, which was a real armored cavalry, and the armor of men and horses decorated with iron sheets.

This is also limited by the national strength of the Western Xia, it is impossible for 80,000 iron harriers to use iron armor, Western Xia does not have so much pig iron to make equipment, except for the 3,000 core cavalry is iron armor equipment, the rest of the 77,000 cavalry are using leather armor, this kind of leather armor can resist ordinary bows and arrows at a distance of fifty steps, but it can never resist the Song army's divine arm crossbow, even if the shield is used, it will be shot through together with the shield.

Five hundred crossbow arrows were fired, and more than two hundred soldiers were shot one after another, screaming and falling from their horses, and the sudden change surprised the last two thousand cavalrymen, who instinctively held on to the reins and did not dare to advance rashly, and at this moment, three hundred iron fire thunders fell from the sky.

Iron Fire Thunder has never been able to become the mainstream of the Song Army, the main weight is large, an Iron Fire Thunder weighs ten catties, and forty or fifty pounds of Earthquake Thunder is not much different, but the power is much smaller than the Earthquake Thunder, people would rather use the Earthquake Thunder, on the contrary, the Flying Fire Thunder, the mutant brother of the Iron Fire Thunder, shines in the defensive battle of the city.

Today, Gong Zuwen used iron fire mines, 300 iron fire mines were thrown from the air, except for dozens of iron fire mines that fell into the water and became dumb mines, the remaining more than 260 iron fire mines exploded violently before entering the water.

The shock wave of the iron fire and thunder is not big, all rely on the flying iron pieces and iron nails to blow up the people and horses, for a time the people in the canyon turned over on their backs, the screams and neighing continued, the war horses were frightened, they turned around and galloped wildly, many soldiers could not control the war horses, fell from the horses, and were ruthlessly trampled by the war horses behind, and the casualties of the cavalry were extremely heavy.

This time, the Song army carried iron fire thunder was specially designed for cavalry, each iron fire thunder was filled with two hundred small thistle thorns, and at the same time as the iron fire thunder exploded, the tribulus thorns were also covered with canyon riverbeds, which almost cut off the cavalry's retreat.

Two thousand cavalry in a mess, Li Chenghao was stunned, there was an ambush of the Song army in the big village on the mountain, at this time, the ambush encounter of the rear army made him helpless, the explosion in the canyon was particularly loud, so that the war horses that had passed the ambush point also began to be restless.

Li Chenghao suddenly came to his senses and shouted: "Plug the ears of the war horse!" ”

The soldiers took out the fine flax and stuffed it into the ears of the war horse, and the war horse calmed down a little.

After a while, the explosion in the canyon gradually subsided, only hundreds of cavalry rushed from the mouth of the canyon, other cavalry were either killed or wounded, or the horses were frightened and fled, and only more than 400 cavalry of the 2,000 rear army broke through and followed the team.

Li Chenghao's heart was depressed, he turned around and shouted, "Where is that Song slave?" Bring him to me! ”

In the middle of the morning, a soldier reported: "General, that Song Nu did not come with him with the rear army. ”

"What!"

Li Chenghao suddenly felt that he had been deceived, I was afraid that the man was a spy who Song Jun deliberately stayed in Bole City to lure him into Qinggang Gorge.

"General, what are we going to do?" Adjutant General Ying Tainian asked in a low voice.

Ying Tainian is the youngest son of Shangshu Yinggui of the Ministry of War, only in his early twenties this year, strong in martial arts, good at riding and shooting, and is a fierce general in the Western Xia army.

Li Chenghao's heart was a little chaotic, his original plan was to go south to chase the retreating material rafts and Song slaves, when he found out that he had been deceived at that time, his original plan was shaken, if there was no harvest after pursuing south for more than half a day, then they would face the danger of cutting off food and grass, soldiers and war horses would starve, and their combat effectiveness would decline rapidly.

Another reason is the real combat effectiveness of the Iron Harrier Army, the Iron Harrier Cavalry established at the beginning of the Western Xia Dynasty is composed of the elite selected from the elite of thousands of troops, extremely heroic and good at fighting, and the three hundred cavalry can be invincible.

However, the Iron Harrier Army was established nearly 90 years ago but has never experienced any war, and today's Iron Harrier cavalry is composed of the noble children of various tribes, becoming a kind of symbol, and is called the 'murderous vase' behind the Western Xia Army, alluding to the iron harrier Although it is well-equipped, it has no actual combat experience, and the vase is no different.

Li Chenghao knew that the combat effectiveness of the Iron Harrier was not high, and he wanted to lead the army to retreat, but he was worried that he would not be able to explain when he went back, so he hesitated for a while.

Seeing that the lord was hesitant and secretly despised in his heart, Ying Tainian proposed: "It's better to lead the army to take a step ahead and see the situation ahead." ”

Li Chenghao had nothing to do at this time, so he nodded and agreed to Ying Tainian's suggestion, "You lead a thousand cavalry forward, and if there is a situation, report to me immediately!" ”

"The first battalion comes with me!"

Ying Tainian waved his hand and led a thousand cavalry to gallop south, but the cavalry only ran out for a few miles, and there was a faint scream in front, and for a moment, Ying Tainian ran back with hundreds of cavalry in embarrassment, hugged his fists and said: "General Qiyu, the Song army has built fortifications in the narrow place ahead, the arrow rain is sharp, and the brothers have suffered more than 300 casualties, which is really unbearable." ”

At this moment, Li Chenghao made up his mind, and he shouted, "The whole army will break out with me!" ”

Li Chenghao turned his horse's head and rushed towards the outside of Qinggang Canyon, but he was greeted by the 1,000 Iron Fire Thunder and 200 Sky-Shaking Thunder that the Song Army had already prepared.