Although he was mentally prepared when he decided to intercept alone, and even secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he found the Khitan army lined up by the glimmer of the morning light, Yan Shiyong still subconsciously clenched the handle of the long knife in his hand when facing the Khitan army forward with almost twice the strength of his own and the main force of the Khitan army behind him that was nearly four times his own. Although he knew that all the cavalry regiments under his command were well-trained elite soldiers, although he believed that as long as he did not give orders, even if he fought to the point that the soldiers would not take a step back, and although he still had the fire support given by one of the three cavalry reinforcement infantry companies of the "Flying Dragon Army" that his uncle urgently added after the search army set off, Yan Shiyong still did not think that he could retreat with one enemy and six enemies. In fact, when he first got the news of the Khitan army, Yan Shiyong's best choice should be to approach Yanjin City in Yinzhou with a small force to monitor the movements of the Khitan army, and he led the main force of his headquarters to join up with the other two search armies, and then pounced on Yanjin City in Yinzhou to encircle and annihilate the enemy army with all his might.

But having said that, Yan Shiyong couldn't do this. On the one hand, the Zhou army did not deliberately hide its whereabouts when it went south, and it was only a matter of time before the Khitans found themselves being tracked - it is estimated that if the whereabouts of the Khitan monarchs and ministers were not too secretive, the news that the Zhou army was following and pursuing would have reached Yelujing's ears long ago. No one dared to guarantee that Yelujing and his men would not get the news of the southward movement of the Zhou army until they joined up with the other two search armies. And once they get the news that the Zhou army is approaching, the Khitans, who have become frightened birds, will inevitably accelerate their escape. If they continue to go south, they will retreat to Liaoyang City according to the original plan. But if they are in a hurry, give up the plan to retreat to Liaoyang, but escape directly into the deep mountains and old forests, and then want to dig them out, it will be even more difficult and uncertain; On the other hand, as the nephew of Yan Chongren, the Marquis of Sima Bujun, the pro-army of the guard, the son of Yan Chongyi, the general soldier of Fujian, and his uncle was one of the brothers of the "Qingyuan", the founding uncle, the deputy commander of the front division of the palace, and the general Zeng Zhilin, he asked Yan Shiyong to make a move of not advancing in front of the enemy and waiting for friendly troops in front of all the soldiers under his command, he really couldn't convince himself, and he couldn't afford to lose this person. Therefore, in public and private, Yan Shiyong at this time had to lead the army forward, face the Khitan army, and do everything possible to hold back the Khitan army until the main force of the search army led by the main general Cheng Fei arrived.

Of course, although Yan Shiyong is mentally prepared to spill blood on the battlefield and fight to the last man, he is not brave and strategic, he only knows the reckless man who is not afraid of death and fights the enemy. In the face of an enemy army several times larger than himself, Yan Shiyong did not use the usual tactics of cavalry to hedge with the other party, but first quickly maneuvered more than 2,000 soldiers and horses under his command to a small hill with excellent terrain that had been preliminarily arranged three miles away from the north gate of Yanjin City in Yinzhou last night and had been preliminarily arranged. Subsequently, four of the five battalions of the cavalry regiment of the "Security Army" under his command were divided into two clusters of about 1,000 men each, and arranged under the slopes on both sides of the small hill to guard the left and right. He himself led the remaining cavalry battalion and a reinforced infantry company of the "Flying Dragons" to act as the backbone of the defense, and built improvised fortifications on small hills to maximize the advantage of his own firepower to resist the Khitan army's attack.

Seeing that the Zhou army did not start a cavalry hedge with him, but pulled the horse to a hill, putting on a stubborn posture, Yelu Xiuge, who led the front army of the Khitan army, couldn't help but nod slightly, and secretly said that the person who led the Zhou army this time did not seem to be a mediocre or reckless man, but a person who knew how to fight, even if the other party did not carry many artillery, he had to deal with it carefully, so as not to be calculated by the other party and waste this good opportunity to lead him to fame. Therefore, Yelu Xiuge immediately ordered the front army to change formation, and ordered two thousand-man teams to attack the Zhou army from the east and west, forcing the two cavalry thousand-man teams who were responsible for covering the Zhou army's flanks to attack and break away from their own formation, and must find ways to drag them on the periphery and prevent them from coming back to help. And he himself led the remaining three thousand troops to directly capture the main formation of the Zhou army, in order to use the absolute superiority in strength to defeat it in one fell swoop and achieve a quick victory. In this way, it can not only make the main formation of the Chinese army not have much opportunity to use the advantage of firearms to consume its own troops, but also prevent the battle from dragging on for a long time and allowing the other Zhou pursuers to have time to catch up—Yelu Hugo does not believe that the Zhou army only has this small group of pursuers.

Although he knew that all the men and horses in his headquarters could be gathered together to hold off the Khitans as long as possible, Yan Shiyong also knew very well that once the two thousand teams of the Khitan army in the east and west rushed up, the four battalions he placed on the two wings would definitely suffer a great loss because of the terrain and the cavalry that basically had no fortifications to protect them. Therefore, at the same time that the two thousand-strong teams of the Khitan army in the east and west broke away from the team and went to the periphery, Yan Shiyong also immediately ordered the cavalry of the four battalions on his two wings to break away from the main formation and hedge against the enemy.

If the Khitan army only had the 5,000 soldiers and horses in front of them, Yan Shiyong's decision could be said to be no problem. On the one hand, a flank cavalry attack could not only contain a part of the enemy's forces, but also avoid the disadvantageous situation of the cavalry of the four battalions, which lacked fortifications and terrain protection, from being passively beaten. On the other hand, although there are less than 1,000 men and horses left in the Chinese army's main formation, and there are less than 200 "Flying Dragon Army" among them, with the simple fortifications that have been arranged last night, it is still certain that it can resist the attack of the 3,000 Khitan army. But the problem is that in addition to the 5,000 soldiers and horses in front of him, there are 10,000 Khitan troops under Yanjin City in Yinzhou three miles away, and if necessary, they can join the battlefield in an instant. In a sense, Yan Shiyong's tactical arrangement was based on the fact that the Khitan army would enter the battle in batches, and would not press the remaining 3,000 soldiers and horses of the front army and the tens of thousands of troops under the city together. In other words, Yan Shiyong's tactical arrangement was a gamble, betting that the Khitan army did not take its own 2,000 soldiers and horses, mainly "security forces" who were not equipped with firearms, into account, and that the Khitan army would only use the 10,000 horses under the city to destroy the last will of the Zhou army to resist or save the face of attacking with superior forces but not being able to attack for a long time only when its front army completely gained the upper hand or had not been able to succeed.

However, it turns out that Yan Shiyong made the right bet this time. Although he was very much in favor of the enemy's battle arrangement, and warned himself to be careful and cautious in commanding this famous battle. But it is precisely because this is an important battle that can make him famous, so Yelu Xiu Ge does not want to be shared by others in his heart, especially Yelu Xianshi and his 10,000 horses who were watching the enemy for himself in the back, and did not rush up to pick peaches until the last moment. Therefore, before the attack on the main formation of the Zhou army began, Yelu Hugo had already made up his mind to take down the opponent by himself, and unless the Son of Heaven issued an order to recall the headquarters, he would never send a signal to ask the Chinese army to join the battle.

Yelu Hugo was determined to kill the Zhou army by himself, and the cavalry team of 1,000 men on his left flank was already only more than 150 steps away from the two cavalry battalions on the right flank of the Zhou army. Half of the cavalry on both sides at the front of the assault queue raised their cavalry bows almost simultaneously, opened their bows like a full moon, and fired the first rain of arrows at each other. Although it was difficult to aim accurately on a high-speed galloping horse, it was useful for hundreds of people to shoot in one direction, and the cavalry on both sides who were hit by the arrows were fifty or sixty people. It's just that although the probability of hitting an arrow is the same, its killing effect is very different.

Under the protection of the multi-layer composite armor with excellent performance, the arrows of the Khitan army pierced the cloth cover and soft outer layer of the cavalry armor of the Zhou army at most, but could not penetrate the stainless steel chain mail in the middle, let alone the soft lining. The arrows used by the Zhou army that were made by mature production lines and completely conformed to the principles of physics made the Khitan cavalry suffer a lot. The light leather armor of the cavalry they wore was like a piece of tissue paper in the face of such arrows, and it did not play the slightest role in protecting against such arrows. Therefore, after a few rounds of arrow rain, only fourteen or five cavalry on the Zhou side fell to the ground because they were hit by arrows, but the Khitan side lost hundreds of people.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was less than thirty paces, and there was no time to bend the bow and shoot the arrow. As a result, the Khitan cavalry put the cavalry back into the bow bag as quickly as possible, picked up the weapons they had at hand, and formed a wedge-shaped formation specially used for cavalry hedging and breaking the formation in a very short period of time, preparing to chisel through the Zhou army in one fell swoop, and kill the majesty and save face in the white-knuckle combat - after all, no matter how good the armor is, it is impossible to resist the slashing, stabbing and slashing of scimitars, spears, and maces. However, when a group of Khitan cavalry straightened up and waved the blades in their hands to rush towards the Zhou army, the knights who rushed in front of the opponent did not immediately make the same action, but after putting away the riding bow, they raised the hand-held repeater with a steel crossbow arm hanging on the other side of the saddle, and fired the first volley at the Khitan cavalry who completely exposed the front of their bodies on the opposite side. In just two or three breaths, the 200 armed repeaters who got the opportunity to shoot shot nearly 2,000 tailless iron short arrows shot at the oncoming Khitan army.