What it feels like for a nightmare to become a reality, no one can describe. However, when Yang Zongbao led the army to the city of Datong Mansion, he experienced this feeling for the first time.

Although he was dismissive of Zhao Linger's words, he couldn't avoid the impact of Zhao Linger's words on his subconscious.

That night, the sentence that if the Khitans put down their bodies and dismounted to fight, they would definitely be able to pose a great threat to the Song army had been haunting Yang Zongbao's mind.

Yang Zongbao was not an idiot, of course he knew that even with artillery, the Song army was not necessarily invincible. But at the same time he is a conceited man. He had simulated countless times in his mind what to do if he stood opposite this Song army? But the results of countless deductions told Yang Zongbao that he was not capable of defeating this Song army.

Since he doesn't have this ability, most of the Khitans don't have it, and Yang Zongbao, who was born in Jiangmen, has quite a conceit about his talent as a general.

It is precisely because of this conceited existence that he has always been at odds with Zhao Ling'er, because that little girl is so genius, and her control of the battlefield may only be comparable to her grandfather Yang Ye in Yang Zongbao's memory.

Sometimes this kind of thing does not only happen between literati, but also between two people who have great talent in the same field.

Zhao Ling'er's genius is that Yang Zongbao had a sense of crisis for the first time, and this sense of crisis made Zhao Ling'er's words a nightmare that Yang Zongbao had been haunted for a day.

Yang Zongbao couldn't figure it out, dismount to fight, what kind of dismount to fight? Simply abandon the words of the war horse. The Khitans may not even be able to defeat the traditional Song army, which was not equipped with artillery.

However, when Yang Zongbao led his troops to advance to the city of Datong Mansion. He finally knew what it was all about.

Just after Zhao Weiji established a military school. A course called war review was introduced into military education, and the battle reviewed in the first lesson of this course was Zhao Weiji's last battle so far: the Battle of Lanyuan.

At that time, Yang Zongbao was also in that class, although he was not a student, but as a representative of the young general who was auditing, he personally participated in the review of that class.

What impressed all those present in that class was the impact of rifles and artillery on warfare.

Except for one person, there was one person who saw something different, and that person was Zhao Ling'er, who was sitting not far from Yang Zongbao at that time. But because she was disguised, no one recognized her.

And the different thing that Zhao Ling'er saw happened to appear in front of Yang Zongbao now, and that thing was the trench.

Yang Zong was impressed by such things as trenches, but he was not profound. He was even a little dismissive, he had the impression that it was just a small ruse against the cavalry, and if there were enough artillery and rifles, such things should not appear on the battlefield again.

It's just that what Yang Zongbao didn't know was that the real purpose of this trench was not to deal with cavalry. Its real use was to deal with artillery and rifles.

Zhao Weiji didn't expect that what he really wanted to give to the Great Song Dynasty was only learned by his daughter in the entire Great Song Dynasty. He didn't want to be learned, but the Khitan learned it cleanly.

Now Yang Zongbao has some of them, and there is no way to do these trenches. If you bombard it with artillery, it seems that there is nothing you can do about the Khitan soldiers who are lying in ambush in the trenches.

And the striker sent over to explore the road happened to be pulled directly into the ditch by the Khitans who were ambushed in the trenches, and they were killed without even pulling the trigger.

It can be seen that the Khitans have made full preparations for this defensive battle, and the trenches under the city of Datongfu have blocked all the routes that the Song army can enter, and if you want to attack the city, you must cross a heavy trench network.

"General, you can't march at all." Yang Zongbao's lieutenant is now as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. He didn't expect that the small trenches would actually block the way of the army.

Yang Zongbao picked up the binoculars and looked at the trenches in the distance, and from time to time he could see signs of Khitans moving in the trenches, but the cannon couldn't hit it, and the rifle couldn't be aimed.

I can only watch the Khitans hurry, and they don't dare to approach, because once they get close, they will be killed by the Khitans. But if you don't get close, you can't do anything, and you'll be hurt by cold arrows that come out from time to time.

At this time, an idea popped up in Yang Zongbao's mind, that is, what his father said before he went out on the expedition would be that if things were wrong, he would immediately withdraw from the army.

However, Yang Zongbao quickly expelled this idea from his mind, he couldn't just go back like this, if he went back like this, he wouldn't have to raise his head in front of Zhao Ling'er in the future.

Just when Yang Zongbao was still thinking about countermeasures, the soldiers of the Song army gradually began to stir, and the morale of the entire Song army had reached the highest point due to the previous continuous victories.

However, due to the highest point reached, the current Song soldiers fell into a very strange state, and too many consecutive victories made them a little unacceptable that this battle had not made any progress at all.

Now the morale is declining very rapidly, and the whole regiment has begun to waver.

"General, something is not quite right about the general." The lieutenant general, who had already sensed the change in the morale of the whole person, hurriedly spoke out, hoping to remind Yang Zongbao.

"Huh?" Yang Zongbao, who was awakened from his contemplation by the adjutant general, was still a little confused about the situation for the time being: "What's wrong?" ”

"There's something wrong with morale."

Yang Zongbao, who reacted this time, hurriedly looked around, this look didn't matter, at a glance, the entire army behind him was already a little commotion.

Yang Zongbao, who knew what was going to happen, quickly withdrew his troops, let the artillery stop the shelling, and retreated ten miles back to set up the camp.

Just when the soldiers were setting up camp, Zhao Ling'er's words resurfaced from Yang Zongbao's mind: the proud soldiers will be defeated, and the proud soldiers will be defeated.

Now Yang Zongbao finally knows the meaning of this sentence that the arrogant soldiers will be defeated, in addition to referring to the possible mistakes due to the light enemy, there is another meaning, that is, the psychological gap after the winning streak.

Due to the light enemy, Yang Zongbao became the first general to cause the Song army to suffer casualties in this battle. And due to the psychological gap, now the morale of the soldiers has become problematic.

But for this situation, Yang Zongbao has no way, and the only way to quickly restore morale now is to be born quickly, but the current situation makes it impossible for Yang Zongbao to achieve a quick victory.

If a quick victory cannot be achieved, there is no other way to drag on like this but to withdraw the troops.

Just when Yang Zongbao was still in distress, the night also fell unconsciously. The camp of the Song army, which had just lit up the lights, went to welcome a group of uninvited guests.

A large number of rockets suddenly appeared in the sky and rained down on the Song army's camp, igniting all the military tents at once.

This made the Song army camp, which had already had a problem with morale, explode all of a sudden, and the entire Song army soldiers panicked, and even some overwhelmed soldiers unconsciously pulled the trigger of the rifle in their hands and shot the bullet at their robes.

It turned out that after the Song army withdrew, the Khitans who were hiding in the trenches did not retreat into Datong Mansion with them, but squatted in the trenches until nightfall.

When night fell, the Khitan soldiers did not quietly climb out of the trenches, and then the cover of night approached the camp of the Song army, and after the lights in the camp were lit, the Khitan soldiers who waited for the target ignited all the rockets they carried, and then shot at the camp of the Song army.

Due to the huge movement outside the tent, Yang Zongbao could no longer stay in his tent, and when he rushed out of the tent, he saw chaos.

Some people were fighting fires, others were saving people, and some people were thrown down by other companions, and their guns were taken away from them, in short, it was chaos.

Yang Zongbao, who didn't know what was going on, quickly pulled over a small soldier who ran past him and asked, "What's the matter, is it that the Khitans have attacked the camp?" ”

"Seems to be? In short, a bunch of rockets suddenly flew out of the sky, some people were shot, and more tents were set on fire. ”

"So, what about those who were knocked down?"

"They? They seemed to be afraid that the guns in their hands had gone off the rails, and they accidentally hit their companions. ”

After learning this, Yang Zongbao let go of the little soldier and let him leave him.

At this time, Yang Zongbao regretted it incomparably, he regretted that he should not let so many soldiers die for the sake of his indifferent face.

But he didn't bother for long, because he knew that there was more important things to do now. He immediately summoned the soldiers who had nothing to do and asked them to take their guns to the vicinity of the camp to set up defenses.

"Quick, quick, get around and set up. If nothing else, the group of Khitans who sneak up on them will soon come. "I have to say that Yang Zongbao's response is very correct.

Just after the Song army finished deploying, the Khitans appeared, and the Khitans with scimitars rushed menacingly from the east of the camp.

"East, east, quickly drop people from other directions to the east." With the advent of the Khitans, Yang Zongbao constantly mobilized soldiers.

As soldiers from other places continued to be sent to the east of the camp, the Khitan night attack was finally resisted, but after this battle, the Song army suffered great losses.

The grain and grass carried by this forward force was basically burned, and the troops of 5,000 men suffered nearly 2,000 dead and wounded, and even 10 artillery pieces were lost.

This made Yang Zongbao have to finally choose the site to withdraw the army and return to the camp of the entire army in the rear. (To be continued......)