Huo Wangxi rushed back to the station without resting, then rushed to the temporary command tent, grabbed one of the combat staff officers and asked, "What is the latest battle situation?" ”

Staff Officer: "Report to the commander, judging from the reconnaissance, the Liao army that attacked our department this time should be the remnants of the army on the right flank after the defeat of our Sikou Pass a few days ago. This Liao army has about 10,000 combatable soldiers, almost all of whom are infantry, and they do not carry miscellaneous soldiers and logistics materials, it seems that they want to take us down in a battle. ”

"Think beautifully!" Huo Wangxi said disdainfully: "Just after losing the battle and still being so arrogant, it's really not a long memory!" In that case, then let's not be polite, and give a long memory! ”

Counselor: "Your Excellency, please!" ”

"Hmm" Huo Wangxi knocked on the table, stared at the sand table for a while, and asked the staff officer: "In addition to this Liao army, have you found any other movements of the Liao army?" ”

Staff officer: "According to the information from our spies and commander-in-chief, there is no abnormal movement of the surrounding Liao army, it is estimated that we are too few to bully!" Do you want to transfer our five brigades back? ”

Huo Wangxi did not answer, but asked rhetorically: "How far is this Liao army from us?" ”

"Probably five miles away!" The staff officer looked at the records.

Huo Wangxi: "So, it's too late to mobilize them now, since that's the case, let's play more and fight less today." ”

The staff officer smiled evilly: "Commander, what kind of trick are you going to use today?" ”

"Little bunny! Can't speak! Huo Wangxi scolded: "When did the envoy use a trick? That's called a stratagem to understand or not! It's terrible to be uneducated! ”

"Yes, yes, you're a ploy!" The staff officer pretended to give in and said, "I wonder what plan you have to make the little one gain insight today?" ”

Huo Wangxi: "I don't need to plan this time, I'll just fight them head-on!" ”

"Huh?" The staff officer said suspiciously: "Lord Commander, this is not your style!" Think about every one of our drills where you're not all plotting, uh, no, it's plotting. Why are you thinking about it today? ”

"Humph! It's not that you guys don't fight! Huo Wangxi said angrily: "You said that you used to be a border army, and you have fought a little bit of a small battle. But when I fought with the Liao army a few days ago, there were actually many guys who were still trembling there. We are an elite army built by the Holy Lord, and the Holy Lord has very high hopes for us, how can we do such a bottom-down thing! Therefore, the envoy plans to take this opportunity to exercise the courage of the soldiers, and at the same time to hit the confidence of the Liao people, and not to always look like Lao Tzu is the best in the world! ”

"But ......," the staff officer hesitated, "wouldn't that be too risky?" After all, we only have five brigades here, although the miscellaneous ones add up to 10,000 people, but the regular combat strength is only 5,000 people, and the Liao army is twice as large as ours! ”

"That's what I want! We just fight more and less head-on, and we have to beat them to be afraid, so that they will have to hide when they see us in the future! Huo Wangxi said domineeringly: "Now, listen to my orders, send the 1st Brigade of scouts out to keep an eye on the rest of the Liao army, and report back immediately if there is any situation." Then gather the 400 scout cavalry of the remaining four brigades as our cavalry troops. The bed crossbows of the major teams were also gathered and arranged in our camp. Once the battle begins, let our five infantry battalions go to the top, and the cavalry and logistics men stay behind to guard the camp and protect the various bed crossbow squadrons. ”

Staff: "Yes!" The subordinates will arrange it. ”

……

On the side of the Liao army, Xiao Xunbu set off with his troops after eating early in the morning, walked dozens of miles, and arrived at the place where the Qinglong 4th Army was stationed at noon. Xiao Xunbu saw that this time was embarrassing, so he simply ordered his soldiers to take a break and eat something to recover their strength by the way.

Huo Wangxi didn't mean to take advantage of them, and waited until the Liao army finished eating and lined up before he ordered loudly: "The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th brigades of the Qinglong 4th Army meet the enemy!" Give me a hard fight, and let those Liao barbarians taste our awesomeness! ”

Roar...... Roar......

5,000 soldiers held their weapons, let out a deafening roar, and walked towards the Liao army in a neat pace in the coordination of drums.

Xiao Xunbu dared to come and call for a moment when he saw that the Song army had actually sent 5,000 men and horses, and then ordered his soldiers to start charging, while he himself led a team of guards to press the formation behind.

"Order all units, stop advancing, adjust formation, and disperse into squads to start melee combat after engaging the enemy!" After Huo Wangxi saw the troops leave the camp three hundred meters, he gave a second order.

The military order is issued, the drums stop, and the soldiers stop.

After checking the flags, the squadron leaders conveyed the latest instructions to the soldiers: "The commander has an order, all shield soldiers change their short guns, and kill the enemy in close combat in small units!" ”

Boom Boom ......

The shield soldiers slammed their shields into the earth, and with their free hands they turned the barrels of their guns, and soon dismantled the original four-meter-five super spear into three sections. The shield soldiers put the two dismantled handles into a special pouch on each other's backs, and took the remaining part with the spear head, thus completing the transformation of pikemen into pikemen.

After they finished changing their short guns, officers at all levels began to arrange their formations again, and according to the previous exercise, each squad built a circular formation, with a distance of two meters between each circular formation, weaving a dense human-shaped net.

When everything was ready, the Liao army also walked to a position two hundred meters away from them. This strange formation of the Song army did not affect the pace of the Liao army's attack, they thought that their number was twice that of the other party, and it was more convenient for them to divide and encircle themselves.

Therefore, when they were two hundred meters away from the Song army, the Liao army also planned to charge. Before they could run, however, they were stunned by a rain of arrows that burst in. They had also seen this rain of arrows before the Sikou Pass, and many of the brothers had turned into human skewers at that time. Their attention was always fixed on the pile of "fat meat" in front of them, but they didn't notice the rain of arrows rising from the rear camp of the Song army.

The Liao soldiers saw that there were unlucky brothers around them who had become skewers, and they unconsciously stopped, and turned to look at the boss behind them in a panic.

Xiao Xunbu was going to be treacherous, hanging behind and not being affected by the crossbow arrows, so he shouted very calmly: "What are you doing in a daze? I want to stand there and get shot! Hurry up and get mixed up with Song Jun! ”

"Yes! As long as they are mixed with Song Jun, there is no way for them to use their bed crossbow, and the king is still brainy! The soldiers of the Liao army rarely praised their boss in their hearts, and then rushed towards the Song army with all their strength, and no one wanted to stay and suffer the second round of crossbow arrows.

But it takes up a lot of space for 10,000 people to stand together, and they can't all rush into the Song army's position at once, there are always some people who are still desperately rushing forward, and they are stuck on the ground by round after round of bed crossbows. A quarter of an hour later, the Song army fired five rounds of arrows, and all the soldiers of the Liao army passed through the death zone. Fortunately, they were not very stupid, they did not shoot stupidly, except for the first two groups, the Liao army in the next few rounds were very consciously dispersed. Therefore, in these five rounds of arrow rain, a total of 5,000 crossbow arrows were scattered by a hundred bed crossbows, and the Liao army was probably less than 1,000 wounded and killed, which did not make them hurt their muscles and bones.

Seeing that the Liao army had all made peace with his own people, Huo Wangxi had no choice but to order the bed crossbow to stop firing and let the four hundred temporary cavalry regiments prepare in case of accidents.

At the same time, the shield soldiers of the Song army, who were at the forefront, still stuck their shields into the soil as if they were dealing with cavalry, so as to resist an attack of the Liao army. Except for some soldiers at the front who had no time to react and were squeezed to death by their companions under the guns of the Song army, the others avoided the edge of the gun array, rushed in according to the gap reserved by the Song army, and completed the tactical goal of dividing and encircling according to their wishes.

Huo Wangxi saw that the fire was almost over, so he ordered again: "Start the formation!" ”

As he gave the order, the drummer, who had been silent for a long time, beat the drum again......

"Shield!" The squad leaders shouted loudly when they heard the familiar sound of drums.

"Hah!" The team's six shieldmen in charge of perimeter protection shouted in unison and lifted their shields into the earth.

Zhao Zhen originally in order to realize the idea of this squad in battle, the production of this shield is also painstaking, with iron as the skeleton, covered with iron sheets, and also equipped with iron buckles on both sides, when marching can be used as a strap on the back, when encountering this kind of squad ring formation, you can also connect several shields in pairs. In this way, the squad formed a veritable iron bucket to prevent the enemy from being scattered by the enemy during the movement.

A Liao soldier dodged the spear stabbed by the Song army in front of him, quickly drilled in front of the shield with the spear, and without hesitation, raised his scimitar and slashed at the shield.

"Whoop! It's so hard! Seeing that his beloved scimitar had jumped a few gaps, the Liao soldier couldn't help but let out the last sigh of his life, and then he was sent to the west by another spear.

The other Liao soldiers were also like him, cutting and kicking. However, apart from drawing a few marks and strings of sparks on people's shields, there is no use for eggs.

It can be seen that the professional ethics of the craftsmen of the Song Kingdom who built these shields are still okay, and they did not engage in some fakes to make up for the numbers. The only thing that is a little bad is that these shields are too heavy, each has to weigh twenty or thirty pounds, even if these shields are carefully selected "Hercules", they can't resist for too long, they have to be inserted into the ground to rest for a while, and they are dragged by carriages when marching.

More and more Liao troops began to find out that the Song army was tired, and no longer cut people's shields in vain, but tried every means to attack the people hiding inside, although this was more difficult, but there was no precedent for success.

However, Song Jun is not a fool, and it is impossible to stand stupidly and poke at others.

So, the various squad leaders gave the next order: "Left Rotation!" ”

A small circle that was originally stationary all moved one after another, perhaps left-handed, or right-handed, in short, all of them rotated irregularly with the mood of the squad leader. Moreover, in the process of rotation, it was also accompanied by spears that appeared from time to time, so that those Liao troops who walked through it were careless, coupled with the continuous shooting of several crossbows in the center of the circle, the speed of loss of Liao soldiers increased a lot unconsciously.

At the beginning, the Liao army was twice as large as the Song army, and Xiao Zhuobu felt that his own number on the battlefield still had the upper hand, and he didn't notice the trickiness for a while. However, half an hour later, he found that those Song troops were still slowly turning in circles, and although his own army was mixed among them, he didn't know when it had become a minority, and one by one they were trapped in the torrent of the Song army's iron wall and could not move.

It wasn't until this moment that Huo Wangxi really let go of the stone in his heart and sighed: "The overall situation is decided!" ”

"Not good!" However, the staff officer shouted beside him: "The Liao army seems to want to slip away!" (To be continued.) )