Qu Chu straightened up on the felt sedan chair, looking at Xiangyang City in the distance, and the Song army infantry who came out in front of the city in formation. A waiter took out a silk silk and gently wiped it on his head, wiping the fine beads of sweat from his forehead.

Since the beginning of the southern expedition, his health has been so bad that he can't even ride a war horse, but just sit in a lele cart pulled by oxen to deal with all kinds of marching affairs. When he was in battle, he only took a soft sedan chair carried by eight people, and most of the affairs in the army were handed over to Tath and Kouwen Buhua to manage.

He struggled to stand up, looking at the Song army in the distance on the sedan chair, after a while, he saw Tath with a number of horses coming from the front, he knew the temperament of Tasi, like the famous general Mu Huali of the previous generation, Tath is the longest to watch the enemy at close range, although this is a very high risk for the main general of the first army, but it can also receive huge benefits, it is precisely because of this that many famous generals will take the risk of being captured by the enemy and be happy.

Qu Zhu leaned his body on the cushion and asked weakly, "How did the Sinan Si army in front of it arrange the formation?" ”

Tath dismounted and saluted, holding the horsewhip in his hand and said: "The Sinan Si people form four phalanxes, and there are six rows of phalanxes standing in front of them, which seem to be the roles of long-range archers, with pikemen and heavy axemen in the rear, and the two wings are a mixture of spears and bows and arrows, which are specially used to cover the central formation, but the most important thing is not this. Instead, the Sinan Si people set up a rejection horse in front of the formation to block the assault of our army. ”

Qu Chu laughed, and he said in a deep voice: "In other words, they seem to be bent on defending and don't plan to take the initiative to attack our army?" What a foolish act. ”

Tath said without hesitation: "It doesn't matter, we only need a team of warriors to lure them out, and then the team will attack them from all sides, just like when we used rabbits to lure foxes and then used falcons to catch them, this trick of the southerners is not half useful to us." ”

Qu waved his hand and said: "You led the troops to fight, I am very relieved, your performance last year was much better than Ta Cha'er, Ta Cha'er was confused, and he actually did not actively reinforce the troops of De'an Mansion, resulting in them being wiped out by the Sinan Si people." Now that you are the commander of one person in the army, don't have any scruples and give full play to your talents! ”

He paused for a moment, and then said: "But it is still inappropriate for you to have a private meeting with Zheng Yunming before the war, in case someone reports this matter to the Great Khan after the war, you can't tell it even if you argue." ”

Tath said indifferently: "Let them say, Zheng Yunming is an extremely precious talent to the Great Khan, according to the confession of the Sinan Si people captured last year, those bamboo generals who sprayed gunpowder and stones were all invented and designed by him, and now wherever the army reaches, the tribes living in the dome can no longer be found, and every time the army advances to a country, it will inevitably face a strong city made of stones and bricks." Even if you use the Han land's catapults to attack, sometimes you can't do anything. As long as we can persuade Zheng Yunming to serve the Great Khan, we will be able to obtain this terrifying weapon, and there will never be a city under the blue sky that the Mongols cannot attack. We can gallop as much as we want until the end of the world. ”

Qu Chu nodded, and said: "There will definitely be no shortage of these fire-breathing monsters in the formation of the Sinan Si people, and the warriors must be cautious when approaching the enemy's formation. ”

Tath agreed, and then shouted, "Let Copyist start attacking!" ”

Zhao Kui had already turned to the Xicheng Tower to watch the battle, and saw the opponent's large array slowly turning, and thousands of cavalry were scattered like flying crows, scattering in three, three, five, five, five, and five, forming an extremely loose formation and galloping towards the Zhenwu army that had completed the formation.

What struck him as fresh was that the black battle flags held high by the Mongol cavalry that had dispersed this time were embellished with a white cross, which had not been seen during the attack last year.

He turned his head and asked the generals, "What kind of men and horses are this, and why is the battle flag tattooed with a cross pattern?" ”

Everyone didn't know, only Yang Luo said: "Here is the military horse of the Hu people and thousands of households." ”

"The departments of copying and thinking are all barbarian tribes conquered by Genghis Khan." Zheng Yunming said: "The barbarians are all Nestorian disciples, and they believe in the cross, and when they go out in an anti-line formation, they must first sacrifice to the sect leader and then go to war. ”

"It is really strange that the Hu people believe in it," Yang said, "where in Middle-earth can there be a belief in a cross?" ”

Zheng Yunming held the battlement and looked at the movement of the Mongolian cavalry, and said casually: "What's so strange about this? They did not believe in Nestorianism, but it was the Nestorian Christians from the Central Plains who fled to the north to preach in the tribes. ”

Zhao Kui said with a smile: "Do the officials also know about this matter?" ”

"I just know a little bit about it." Zheng Yunming replied: "The Christianity is all over the countries of the Far West, and like the religion of the Central Plains, there are many sects, and there is a great sect in the Balkans called Nestori, and his views are very different from the others, so he left angrily. He led a group of disciples into the tent of the Persian king and preached his own sectarian views in the Persian region, and the world thought that this sect was a branch of Christianity, although the views were inconsistent with the authentic ones, but they must always be in the same line, just as the six ancestors Hui Neng broke away from the Northern Chan and established the Southern Chan. This Nestorian sect was widely spread in Persia and Turkic places, and during the reign of Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, the believer Aroben led 21 monks from Persia to Middle-earth, and was allowed by the Tang Emperor to build temples in Chang'an and preach doctrines. The Tang people called it Jingjiao, so Jingjiao flourished in Chang'an City for a while, and there were many believers. His followers, like Buddhist monks, took the spreading of doctrine as the basis, so they traveled all over the country to preach, and even went to Naman, Mongolia, Khitan, Turkic and other places. ”

"When Wuzong destroyed the Buddha, Jingjiao was hit hard, and the monks and nuns were forced to return to the world. A large number of monks fled to Mobei in the Western Regions, and took root in Jingjiao here. Therefore, there are many people who believe in crosses among the barbarians in the Western Regions and Mobei, but in fact, most of them are from the indoctrination of the Central Plains of the Tang Dynasty. ”

The Naiban cavalry in the distance seemed to be responding to Zheng Yunming's introduction, rushing back and forth with the banner of the white cross, roaring loudly, as if they were showing the prestige of God, but they were not in a hurry to take the initiative to attack.

Zhao Kui smiled: "It seems that these barbarians are not as eager and warlike as the real Mongols. ”

"This is by no means the case, when Genghis Khan fought with Naiman Sun Khan on Mount Taishan, the Naiban warriors were brave and able to shoot, and shot the Mongol army from the mountain, which also made the Mongol army fall into embarrassment, if you talk about the enthusiasm of the war, they will not lose to the real Mongols." Zheng Yunming said: "I'm only afraid that they are looking at the situation of our army, maybe soon."

As he was talking, Naiman's formation suddenly changed, half of the soldiers rushed over, pulled their bows and wound them, and began to gallop and shoot at the Zhenwu army formation, and the other half of the people began to concentrate in large numbers at a speed like lightning, and spread out in horizontal formations on the front and two flanks of the Zhenwu army.

Although the light archers of Naiman were not as light and agile as the cavalry of the Mongolian headquarters, they were superior in their exquisite archery skills, and the light cavalry quickly advanced to a distance of only dozens of steps from the Zhenwu army, and braved the arrows of the Zhenwu army to burst an arrow, and then quickly escaped out of the bow and arrow distance. If it was in the army of the ordinary Song Dynasty or the Jin State, this would inevitably cause a riot in the military array, but the military appearance of the Zhenwu Army was able to hold on to it in the midst of this scattered attack.

"This is Wang Deng's army." Zhao Kui said to Zheng Yunming: "The Great Song Dynasty has not seen such a well-disciplined army in the past few decades, if everyone is like Wang Jingsong, why should we be afraid of the Mongolian million-strong army." ”

Zheng Yunming's tone was worried: "The enemy is about to start attacking, and only by keeping their positions in a position when the iron cavalry is rushing can they be regarded as an army that can compete with the Mongols a little." ”

Just as he was speaking, the armored cavalry shouted in unison, urging the sit-down war horse to start slowly, the war horse spread its four hooves, first marched in small steps, and then gradually accelerated, and when it advanced to a hundred or ten steps away from the Song army's formation, the ironclad cavalry from all over the field was already attacking at full speed.

When he watched the tide of heavy cavalry coming shaking the earth, Wang Deng understood why the Jin Kingdom had so many tenacious and daring armies, and such abundant manpower and materials in the Central Plains, but it was still defeated in every battle, so that the turtle cowered in Henan and did not dare to come out.

In the face of the astonishing assault of the Mongol heavy cavalry, unless the infantry is extremely trained and able to maintain absolute discipline, the non-commissioned officers will surely panic and collapse.

And if it moves in one impulse, the Mongol army must throw all its forces into the opponent's collapsed formation, regardless of the number of outnumbered. Taking advantage of the situation to cover the kill, the two wings are divided, and the pursuit is pursued while driving, even if the opponent's 100,000 army is difficult to parry such a cavalry assault.

Whether or not they can hold the first wave of the other party's impact is related to the life and death of the entire Zhenwu army.

And the moment of survival is just around the corner. Wang Deng shouted loudly: "The onslaught of the enemy is coming!" Hold on! ”

His orders were passed down layer by layer by the generals of the large and small armies who pressed the formation: "Stabilize the formation!" "Hold on!"

The soldiers clenched their weapons tightly and waited for the moment when the tide of enemy cavalry rushed in amid the thrilling sound of horses' hooves.

The Dahongshan crossbowmen who stood at the forefront of the entire formation were not as nervous and anxious as their robes, they were engrossed in estimating the distance between the enemy's forward and themselves.

At the moment when the cavalry rushed within 100 paces, Dai Yanwu, the deputy general of the archery army, said briefly and powerfully: "Shoot!" A row of crossbow arrows flew out of the crossbow arms with great force, and some cavalry began to fall down in the enemy's forward, but it was obvious that the opponent did not lose his courage with such a fierce shot, and still rushed towards the Song army's formation.