While successfully capturing the camp of the Song army, Xiao Hanli was a little puzzled, could it be that the rumors in the past that the Song army had repeatedly defeated the Jurchens and recaptured countless lost territories were all fake, and with their current combat effectiveness, they were not the opponents of the Jurchens in any case, but he had to wonder if there was fraud in it, but he couldn't grasp the point for a while. Now that it was getting late, it was not conducive to pursuit, and the Song army's camp had been burned down, so it was imperative that they quickly find a camp and prepare to camp.

He camped near a hill known locally as Isana, a long, narrow, steep hill with a flat summit. Not far to the south of this mountain is another small hill, Storey Mountain, and there is a small pass between the two mountains, which is the only way to the North Garden. The east side of the two mountains is a wasteland that is more than 20 miles long from east to west and more than 10 miles wide, which can be used for grazing. The wasteland stretches north to the edge of the desert, where tall sand dunes abound. To the south, it stretches to the foot of the wind-eroded hills of Marata.

In the east, there is a seasonal river, and now in the dry season, the river has dried up, revealing a riverbed about two feet deep, but because of this river, it can produce water without digging very deep, which can provide sufficient drinking water for people and animals. The camp of the Liao army was on a high ground east of Isana Mountain, and although it was convenient for grazing and getting water, the view to the north and south was blocked by sand dunes and mountains, and it was not open enough. Only by constantly sending scouts to patrol the surroundings can we prevent enemy attacks and ensure the safety of the camp.

However, at this moment, Xiao Hanlira's main focus was not here, but where the Song army fled, and he led his guards to search northeast in order to find out where the enemy army was gathered. Also because of the lack of wood, the Liao army was unable to build a camp. This place is relatively closed and easy to defend, and everyone is tired after another day of chasing. And the coach didn't say it explicitly, who doesn't want to be lazy. Besides, the new defeat of the Song army will definitely not dare to attack the camp. So they did not dig trenches or build cities, but sent rangers to patrol around the camp.

At the moment of nightfall, Xiao Hanli returned to the camp, and before he could clean up the mess, he received a report from the reconnaissance cavalry: there were a large number of Song army activities in the southeast, which made Xiao Hanli even more puzzled, thinking that the Song army's previous performance was to pretend to be a pig and eat a tiger to set up an ambush and lure himself here. The thought of hovering kept him awake all night, and the next morning, before dawn, he sent two thousand men to search and advance in the southeast direction. Further ascertained the Song army's intentions.

Then Xiao Hanlira, who was uneasy, sent two groups of scouts to search in different directions, looking for the fleeing Song army. However, the news brought back by these scouts did not dispel his suspicions, but was overwhelmed by conflicting information, and it was impossible to find out the movements of the Song army, let alone their troop deployment and attempts. After spending a day in anxiety, Xiao Hanlira suddenly received a distress letter from two thousand-strong troops searching southeast in the early morning of the third day, saying that their camp had been surrounded by Song troops who had come out of nowhere last night, and that they were now attacking fiercely and asked for reinforcements.

Xiao Hanli did not dare to slack off after receiving the report, and hurriedly ordered Yelu Hongda, the commander of the former army, to lead 10,000 soldiers and horses from his headquarters to reinforce. And now he still can't judge Song Jun's intentions. And their whereabouts are uncertain, and rash use of troops may be ambushed by them. Therefore, he did not move the camp, and chose to camp here, waiting for the exact news of the Song army before deploying the next move. At this time, the number of Liao troops in the camp has been greatly reduced by nearly half!

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Compared to the fanfare offensive of the Western Liao army. Song Jun avoided fighting and seemed much more low-key and unusually calm, which was actually Zhao Li's intention. When he received a letter of persuasion from Xiao Hanlira, he already realized that the Liao State had refused to settle peacefully. A war between the two armies was inevitable. So he ordered his troops to be ready for battle, but not to attack rashly. He never fired the 'first shot', he did this to show that the war was completely provoked by the Liao State. The Song army was a passive response.

But no one seems to have noticed that it was Zhao Li's 'weakness' in the previous stage that led the Liao army to believe that the problem could be solved through war. In fact, the strength in Zhao Li's hands is not to be underestimated, there are two infantry brigades, half an artillery brigade, as well as 30,000 troops from various ethnic groups and more than 6,000 baggage troops, with a total strength of more than 45,000 people.

In the eyes of outsiders, Zhao Libu belonged to a standard miscellaneous army, and only two infantry brigades and half an artillery brigade of the forbidden army were considered to have combat effectiveness, but they were too poor in mobility, and there was no advantage in fighting in the open grassland with the Western Liao army, which was dominated by cavalry. Even if the battle is won, the two legs can't outrun the four-legged ones, and the enemy can't be severely damaged to expand the results of the battle, and the best way is to use the advantage of firearms to consume the enemy's vitality, but he just slapped his swollen face and gave up the only stronghold on the grassland.

Secondly, the one with combat effectiveness is the 30,000 co-affiliated army, they are drawn from the various nomadic tribes of the Great Song Dynasty, and the combat effectiveness is there, but the problem is that the roads are complicated, it is difficult to unify the dispatch, although the number of people is large, it is difficult to form a joint force, and even in the battle, it will form chaos. Compared with the Turks in the Western Liao Army, who also used cold weapons to fight, they were inferior to their opponents in individual combat ability, and they did not have an advantage in the melee, so they could not become a force that decided the outcome of the battle.

As for the baggage troops, in the eyes of ordinary people, they cannot be counted as armies at all, not only are their combat effectiveness equal to zero, not to mention their slow movements, they are also the most vulnerable troops, they need to use a large number of troops to protect them, and they involve a lot of energy on the part of the commanders of the troops. Therefore, in terms of combat effectiveness alone, there is only a reduction of points, and there is no possibility of adding points.

Zhao Li was very clear about the situation of his troops after dividing his troops - more than enough defense and insufficient attack. Relying on the city to defend the enemy can't help them, but the same passive defense can't achieve the emperor's intention, and it is difficult to achieve the goal of forcing Western Liao to subdue and making it give up armed intervention in Gaochang, but it can't hit it hard and make the two sides form a mortal enemy, thus blocking the road to future cooperation. After some thought, Zhao Li thought that any army could give full play to its maximum combat effectiveness as long as it was reasonably dispatched and made the best use of everything, otherwise there would be so many examples of winning more with less in the world.

From a comprehensive point of view, the two infantry brigades of the forbidden army system with the strongest combat effectiveness in the Song army should be attacked, defended, and the shortcomings of poor mobility can be compensated for by setting up ambushes in advance and using terrain to limit the enemy's army; The second is the baggage brigade, which is regarded as a logistics unit, but it can be equipped with the same equipment as the combat unit, has received the same training, and is fully capable of the task of garrison and defense, and can also be used as a reserve. As for the state army, they come from the border troops, because they are stationed in the border hotspots all the year round, they have to guard against the surprise attack of the enemy army at all times, the highest level of combat readiness, the most rigorous training, and the same combat effectiveness.

On the contrary, the combat effectiveness of those tribal armies that are also the people and the army is at the end of the Western Expeditionary Army, because the natural behavior of the people on weekdays is scattered and difficult to restrain them, and there is a problem of poor communication between the commanders of different tribes. But Zhao Li thought that these were still minor problems, not that they could not be solved, the important thing was that the tribal army, as the only cavalry strength under him, undertook the heavy task of breaking through the enemy's defense line.

When the cavalry broke the formation, the cavalry in front of the front could only fight hand-to-hand with the enemy on the spot after the charge, but compared with the main Turkic army in the Western Liao army, the Turks were better at individual combat, coupled with the physical strength of the Mongol soldiers and the height of the Mongolian horses, it was a nightmare for the cavalry, and it was easy to be surrounded by the enemy and wiped out. Of course, this is not what Zhao Li wants to see, so it must be resolved......

After Zhao Li left with the main force of Gao Pet, he went out to hunt every day, in fact, how could he have that leisure, he used this rare time to turn around Yanbo City for hundreds of miles, where there is a ditch, where there is a mountain, where to set up an ambush, where to camp. And conniving at the soldiers to behave in the city, not repairing the armament is also to show those Western Liao spies, and then take the initiative to negotiate with the Western Liao and withdraw from Yanbo City not only to express that they do not want to be the enemy of the Western Liao, but also to deliberately show weakness and paralyze the enemy.

After the war, Zhao Li used the Mugultures to block the Western Liao army, not only to give them a dismount, but also to practice the new tactics he had figured out. In his opinion, the only advantage that the Mengwu army can have compared with the Tuque people is the bows and arrows in their hands, and the forbidden army of the Song Dynasty has been equipped with firearms over the years, and the good ones are left for the state army to use, but in addition to the battle captured, there are a large number of piles in the warehouse, which are used by the emperor to aid friendly troops.

As the main force in the rebellion against the Jurchens, the Muguls of course also became the target of assistance, and the armor on their bodies and the bows in their hands were all made in the Great Song Dynasty. The Song army's cavalry bow and infantry bow were universal, and the range was longer than that of the Western Liao army's cavalry bow, and the power was greater, so that the enemy could fire first, so as to gain the first opportunity. The formation of the two wings protruding from the front is the Song army's glaive formation, so that when the enemy is attacked on three sides when charging, it will inevitably suffer heavy losses under the dense rain of arrows, and most of the soldiers in the front row will fall, thus creating obstacles for the soldiers in the back row to fill in the position.

When the Mongol cavalry rushed in front of them, when the enemy failed to organize the formation, it meant that both the infantry and the cavalry were almost stationary, and the Mongol cavalry tore apart the enemy, whether it was an individual soldier or a formation, with the help of the huge impact of the horses, and took the opportunity to break the formation. In today's battle, the Western Liao army was too strong, and the Mughurs were not proficient in the use of new tactics, so they did not achieve the expected results, but achieved the purpose of luring the enemy...... (To be continued......)