On June 20, the vanguard army of the Western Route Army of the Great Song Dynasty attacked the fort and broke through the fortress, defeated several Jin troops who were harassing and harassed, and reached the city of Zhaozhou. Jiang Wei, the commander of the vanguard official lion general, ordered to leave the city three miles and go down to the village, and he led a team of personal guards to survey the terrain. At this time, it is almost evening, they ride their horses and gallop along the river, the cool breath of the river water comes to the face, the duck river and the mixed river converge here, the silver-white river water, the green reeds, mixed with the wild flowers of the purple and red, the blue sky and white clouds are clearly layered, which makes people feel refreshed and happy.

Jiang Wei climbed a sand hill near the river bank and looked out into the distance of Zhaozhou City, which was not large and sat on a high platform. There is a ditch in front of the city, there are three zhang high, it is built with an earthen plate, it is covered with white ash, it is square, and the circumference is seven miles. In front of him is the commanding heights of this region, Daqing Mountain. It is said that it is a mountain, but in fact it is a low sand hill, and the western section is the battlefield of the battle of Chuhedian.

At this time, the former battlefield has been reclaimed into farmland, and the spring wheat planted is not yet ripe, and the rows of neat ridges stretch into the distance, and it seems that there are no traces of the fierce battle of that year. But if you look closely, you can see the white bones scattered in the field, and when the horses walk by, you can hear the crunch of bones breaking from under their hooves, and the layers of human and horse bones can be seen scattered under the surrounding mounds. It can be seen that the battle was fierce, and the bloody war was felt, and the casualties were so heavy that after many years, there was still no way to bury the bones, so that it could only be slowly covered by the wind and sand.

Jiang Wei turned around and looked south, only to see that this section of the river was meandering, with sandy beaches, sandbanks, and rivers all over the place, the width of the river was different, and the beaches on both sides of the river were very wide. Now it was the season of good water, and he estimated that the width of the lower river was more than two or three miles. There are also 300 steps in the narrow place. On the opposite bank, you can see that the flags are densely packed, and the camp is connected to the camp and cannot see the edge. However, it is strange that there is no pontoon bridge between the two banks, and there are few boats on the water.

"Commander. There was a cavalry in the city running towards us, presumably to find us in camp. Just when Jiang Wei wanted to see the depth of the river, the pro-soldier in charge of vigilance reported.

"Hey, their courage is really not small, they dare to open the city and send troops to provoke!" Jiang Wei turned his head to see a cavalry of about 200 men galloping towards him, obviously trying to expel the enemy troops who dared to peep into the city. And he hasn't seen this kind of scene for a long time, and as long as you don't shoot at the Jin army guarding the border trenches in the border area, they don't care what you look at or do. It is best to have nothing to do with Xiang'an, but it can also be seen that the soldiers of Zhaozhou are different from other places, they are bold and brave, and they dare to fight.

"Commander, the enemy is overwhelming, let's hurry up, it's also troublesome to be entangled by them." As soon as the soldiers heard it, they knew that the commander was the one who wanted to 'provoke', so he quickly grabbed the reins of his horse and persuaded him.

"You ......" Jiang Wei also wanted to reprimand a few 'cowardly' soldiers, but they didn't give them a chance at all. He whipped his horse's ass twice and pulled him away. Seeing them retreat, Jin Bing didn't want to let go of the chase behind them. Jiang Wei wanted to turn back to engage in the battle several times, but was stopped by his own soldiers, and soon the patrol patrolling outside the camp found that the commander was in distress. Quickly caught up to meet the demand, and the pursuing Jin army left in a hurry......

Jiang Wei, who usually wears a pillow, tosses and turns tonight, and feels that the tent is unbearably hot. Outside the tent, there was no movement except for the footsteps of the patrolling soldiers and the buzzing of mosquitoes. He rolled over in irritation, remembering what he had seen when he visited the city. I always felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't figure it out for a while.

"Does the Zhaozhou army really think that they can stop our attack on their own?" Jiang Wei rolled over again and muttered to himself. Its strength is only 5,000 people, even according to the common sense of using troops to 'besiege the city', their own army has 20,000 people, they should also ask for reinforcements or abandon the city to flee, and the soldiers in Jiangnan have no sign of reinforcements, but they can deal with it calmly, isn't it too strange.

"Could it be that the Zhaozhou army is all possessed by a bone, and has the ability to break 30,000 or 100,000?" Jiang Wei became more and more puzzled, and simply sat up.

"Ah Guda took advantage of the ice on the river to cross the river and attack the Liao army at night, and attacked it unpreparedly and caused chaos...... Jiang Wei suddenly grasped the fleeting thought in his mind. The Zhaozhou army put on a posture of defending the city alone, while the Jin army in the south of the Yangtze River pretended to defend the river with no intention of reinforcements, and then repeated the trick of crossing the river at night to surprise with the army and catch themselves off guard. But the main force of the Song army was still thirty miles away, and there was no time for reinforcements, so they took the opportunity to wrap themselves in dumplings.

"Immediately order all the ministries to discuss the matter in the big tent!" Jiang Wei figured out the joint and shouted at the soldiers on duty outside the tent......

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Under the waning moon, countless horses floated in the turbulent river, some Jin soldiers lay on horseback, and some led the reins of the horses and struggled forward under the drag of the war horses. And their goal is a light on the other side of the dark bank, that is the bright lights on the city of Zhaozhou, in the army of floating horses swimming, Wanyan Yanying's legs are tightly clamped between the horse's belly, the river has not reached the chest and abdomen, his clothes and armor are tied behind the saddle, and the long knife is hung on the saddle bridge, which fluctuates with the river, but it does not feel cold in the summer night, but feels refreshing.

But the cool river water did not calm Wan Yan Yanying's hot heart, but was as turbulent as the river flowing eastward. When he was ordered to command the Battle of Zhaozhou, he knew that this was an extremely difficult task, and 100,000 enemy troops with sharp firearms broke through the pass and captured the city all the way, invincible and unstoppable. The Jin army suffered heavy losses, was demoralized, and had no victory in either field or defensive battles, so he thought that it was not advisable to defend the enemy head-on, or passively hold on to the fortified city. But Taishi had already ordered Zhaozhou not to be lost, so he had to find another way.

At the beginning, Wanyan Yanying wanted to constantly harass the marching brigade of the Song army with rangers, and once it appeared chaotic and could take advantage of the opportunity, he would enter it, guide the elite soldiers in ambush to kill them, or destroy their baggage. However, the scouts of the Song army spread far away, and the combat effectiveness of the scouts was not weak, so that they could not use their scouts to wipe them out and make it impossible to give early warnings, especially the Mughurs who joined the Song army, they had been grazing and hunting here for generations, and they were familiar with the terrain here, and their actions were more alert and cautious, and it was even more difficult to get rid of them.

Subsequently, the Song army shrank its marching formation, strengthened its vigilance, and the chasers, who were good at counterattacking and harassing and clearing operations, also increased their striking intensity and search range, making it impossible for Wanyan Yanying's ambushed army to hide, and the rangers suffered heavy casualties. It was difficult to get close to the marching brigade, let alone the surprise attack of the large army. It is also difficult to succeed in destroying the Song army's baggage. They marched by boat instead of car, parallel to the brigade. It was simply impossible to get close to the flotilla.

The tactics of harassment could not prevent the Song army from approaching Zhaozhou, and Wanyan Yanying had to do another way. He understood that now the title of 'invincible Manchu was given to the Song army, and their soldiers could be worth tens of thousands of gold soldiers, even the tens of thousands of troops of the most elite Manchu Jurchen Army could hardly be wiped out in a frontal attack, and it would take three times as much as the enemy to hold in a defensive battle, which could only be done without artillery to provide fire support. Therefore, it is impossible to defeat the Song army brigade, and only by concentrating forces to fight its lone army can it have a chance of winning, so the Song army forward that broke away from the marching brigade became the preferred target of Wanyan Yanying.

Of course, even in the face of a 'lone army', Wan Yan Yanying did not think that he could break 100,000 with '3,000'. He selected five 10,000-strong troops from the tribes and pro-armies near the Beijing Division to participate in the attack. And choosing to raid in the middle of the night is also unacceptable.

First, out of his knowledge and experience of the firearms of the Song army, Wanyan Yanying understood that the most important thing in fighting the enemy was to minimize the damage caused to them by firearms. Relying on heavy armor to increase defense is the most undesirable, not only the effect is limited, but also because the increase in weight makes the war horse unable to impact quickly, and also affects the flexibility of the soldier's action. However, in order to reduce the damage of the Song army's firearms, it can only use a rapid assault to quickly attack its formation, and engage the enemy in the form of close combat, so that the Song army's artillery will not be effective, and the Lianzhu guns will not be able to shoot wantonly, and the Song army will not have time to adjust the formation and use the 'stone wall' charge that it is good at. This is the best way to minimize your losses.

Second, through the investigation of Guò, Wanyan Yanying learned that the forward army of the Song army and the brigade of the Chinese army were about 30 miles apart, and after the Chinese army received the news of the attack on the front, it rushed to reinforcements at the speed of a rapid march, and it only took half a day at the earliest. Therefore, the time left for them is not rich. It is required that the Jin army cannot fight a protracted war, but must fight a quick battle. To achieve this goal, a surprise attack is the most appropriate way, and in order to paralyze the enemy army. Wanyan Yanying also deliberately showed weakness, and the army remained on the south bank. It made the Song army feel that it was an illusion that it could not pose a threat to itself with only a few thousand Zhaozhou troops, so it relaxed its vigilance.

Another question that Yan Yanying had to consider was how to deal with the aftermath. If your own battle plan is successful. Although the Song army may retreat or hesitate because of this, he estimates that the possibility of being retaliated by the Song army is the greatest. So he had to come up with a foolproof strategy that would make the most of this victory, not only to prevent the Song army from crossing the river, but also to force them to retreat......

The time in the water seems to be long and short, after swimming through the heart of the river, Wanyan Yanying's crooked body was steadily washed by the rapids and looked up ahead, the striker had already gone ashore, and the lights of Zhaozhou City were still there, which showed that the situation had not changed, and the Song army did not know that there was a large army attacking. He slammed his heel into the belly of his horse, and the horse picked up, and the soldiers who were gathered around him followed.

After a while, Wanyan Yanying felt a shock in his body, and the hooves of the war horse finally stepped on the bottom of the river, and at this time, a soldier who had already come ashore waded in the water and dragged the war horse ashore. By the moonlight he looked around, and now about three or four thousand men had come ashore, and the soldiers were busy putting on their armor, arranging their weapons, hanging their bowstrings, and preparing for battle, and in the midst of which people were constantly leaning in. According to the plan, at least 20,000 troops should have gone ashore, but now there is obviously not enough of this around, apparently washed downstream by the river, or lost because the river fog did not see the lights on the city of Zhaozhou.

"Commander the army, the surrounding situation is as usual, and no Song army scouts have been found." The first to lead the army ashore, Wulin Shijianu, came over to give a salute and said.

"Well, how many of your soldiers have come ashore?" Wanyan Yanying didn't care about changing his wet clothes, so he ordered his own soldiers to put on armor for himself, he nodded and asked.

"The unified army, three thousand troops have gone ashore, they have been assembled, and they can set off at any time, and the rest of the troops are going ashore one after another." Wu Lin Shi Jianu said.

"Very good, you immediately lead the troops to set off, after crossing the sand gang, go five miles to the Song army camp, try to hide and get closer, the closer the better, start to storm the camp three hundred steps away, and set fire everywhere after entering, the more chaotic the better. Ben Shuai will gather troops and then arrive to encircle and annihilate the Song army. Wan Yan Yanying was anxious, but now that the war has not started, and he can't expose his intentions too early, he can only have as many people as he wants, and send as many people as he wants, so as not to have too many dreams at night.

Wulin Shijianu took the order and left, Wanyan Yanying watched them gradually disappear behind the sand beam, and ordered his soldiers to look for the generals who came ashore in the east and west directions to quickly assemble here, but several tens of thousands of troops were launched from multiple ferries, and the soldiers who were scattered by the river in the dark were distributed on the river bank for more than ten miles, and it was difficult to concentrate for a while, and more people were sinking and floating in the river, and now that the time has passed, the sky will be bright in two hours, and they will pay greater casualties without the cover of the night.

"Where's the noise, go check it out!" Wanyan Yanying was reorganizing his troops and horses, when he suddenly heard bursts of shouts and the sound of horses' hooves from the north, and because of the obstruction of the sand beam, he couldn't see the lights on Zhaozhou City and the situation over there, so he hurriedly asked people to take a look.

"Don't worry, maybe it's just the rangers of the Song army, and the last general will send someone to kill them immediately." Captain Pucha said.

"No, you immediately order the army to occupy the sand beam in front and set up defenses, in case the Song army finds out that we have crossed the river to block it!" According to the time estimate, Shi Jianu should not have arrived yet, but the sound of horses' hooves is getting louder and louder, mixed with gunshots, and a team of rangers of up to 100 people will never have such a big movement, the biggest possibility is that they encountered the Song army brigade and were forced to fight. However, many troops did not go ashore in the swimming, and if the Song army really killed them, wouldn't it be impossible to advance or retreat.

"Yes, Commander!" Pucha quickly summoned the more than 5,000 people who had just been assembled by the headquarters to seize the only commanding heights in this area.

"Unified army, the big thing is not good, the lights in the direction of Zhaozhou City are messy, and there is a hidden sound of guns, it seems that the Song army is attacking the city. Another army was coming towards the riverbank, but it was too dark to see the flag, and I didn't know which soldiers and horses it was! The soldiers sent to observe the movement flew away and flew back, panting and reporting.

"Quick, immediately blow the horn, so that all armies can assault in the direction of Zhaozhou and engage the Song army." As soon as Yan Yanying heard it, she knew that the worst she had expected had happened, it must be that the Song army had discovered the Shijianu department that was preparing for a night attack, and a battle broke out between the two armies, while the Zhaozhou army went out of the city to reinforce, and now there was only an opportunity to take advantage of the Song army's hasty battle to launch a general attack early...... (To be continued......)