The Song army was driven like a duck to Zhao Jiaren's Chinese army, and the Mongol army made extremely smooth progress. The distance between the two Song armies was not too far, and after only running for more than twenty minutes, the exhausted militia saw Zhao Jiaren's army neatly lined up. Marshal Ashu, who personally commanded the battle, took a small earthen bag, which was already considered a high place on the battlefield. Sitting on the war horse, Marshal Ah Shu was from top to bottom, looking at the situation on the battlefield condescendingly.

The Chinese army of the Song army was lined up in a dozen neat phalanxes, and the distance between each phalanx was very large, and this kind of formation that did not conform to the laws of war at all surprised Marshal Ashu. Without waiting for Marshal Ah Shu to make targeted arrangements, those militia groups driven by fear saw the main force of the Song army, and they didn't know where the energy burst out, and they rushed to the Song army array.

If it is an ordinary Song army array, the entire army is lined up in a large formation, and these militia groups try to enter the large array to get the protection of the Song army, and the Song army must refuse the militia in order to maintain the integrity of its array. The collision on both sides would instantly disrupt the array of the Song army, turning the entire army into a rout.

It's hard to see that Zhao Jiaren had already expected that those rabble would be easily defeated, so he put up such a formation that could allow the rout to pass quickly? Marshal Ashu came to such a conclusion. If this is true, it means that Zhao Jiaren still has a lot of vision. However, such praise only strengthened Marshal Ashu's desire to eliminate Zhao Jiaren.

At this time, there was no need for the marshal to give an order, and the Mongol army, which had rich experience in covering and killing, began to speed up to chase the rout of the militia group. It's time to harvest these heads. However, Marshal Ah Shu miscalculated, white smoke rose from Zhao Jiaren's phalanx, and with the sound of cannons, some of the pursuing Mongol soldiers were knocked down.

There is a countercurrent in the rolling flow of people who charge forward, and even a small countercurrent is very conspicuous. What's more, this countercurrent is expanding, and the Song artillery is shelling at an alarming speed, and the shells fall accurately into the ranks of the Mongol army. Listening to the panicked screams of the enemy can boost the morale of the troops, and listening to the screams of your own people can make the morale of the troops plummet. What's more, shells kept flying overhead, and no one knew if they were the next to be hit, and the Mongol infantry slowed down like this.

Ah Shu was greatly surprised, he didn't expect that the Song army's military formation was actually hollow. As far as he knew of the battle, the military formations relied on dense queues to achieve combat effectiveness, and the hollow phalanx was like a well-blown pig urine bubble, although it looked huge, it could be broken when it was poked. However, at least at this stage, these 'pig urine bubbles' of the Song army played a role, and the artillery in the center of the phalanx fired accurately, not only the pursuing Mongol infantry suffered losses.

The sound of artillery seemed to stimulate the militia who had tried their best to flee for their lives, and they even accelerated the speed of their escape, and even forcibly widened the distance between them and the Mongol army. As they approached the Song army, some people stepped forward to guide the militias, and the soldiers who guided them shouted at their throats: "Don't stop after passing through, there is a boat behind you to pick you up." ”

The distance between each phalanx was more than forty meters, and all the pikemen were flat-ended with their spears, and no one was allowed to approach. Seeing such a posture and hearing that there was a boat to pick them up, the militia did not pause, and ran forward with the last bit of strength.

Seeing that the gap between the Mongol soldiers and the Song army was getting wider and wider, Marshal Ashu ordered the cavalry to start attacking. However, the target of the attack was not the fleeing Song army, but the Song army array. From the first time he saw the Song military array, Marshal Ah Shu saw that many tall poles were erected in the center of the Song military array, and there were people on the poles. Before the Song army's action later, the people on the poles waved small red and green flags on them, and they could barely see their movements even if they were far away from the phalanx. I think they were the observers of the Song army's operations.

Since this is the case, it shows that this Song army is not fighting indiscriminately, but is fighting with an obvious purpose. In this case, the battlefield is changing rapidly, and since the enemy is not as Marshal Ah Shu expected, there is no point in adopting the previous tactics. What's more, at this time, the defeated soldiers had already passed through the Song army array like a tide, and the neat phalanxes that had been briefly submerged in the sea of people once again revealed their neat figures.

After receiving the order, the Mongolian cavalry quickly formed a queue and began to approach the Song army array, but they did not participate in the pursuit, and at this time they received the order to attack, and the cavalry charged in high spirits. Marshal Ah Shu found that the movements of the cavalry were a little strange, which was completely different from the usual vigor. At first, the marshal thought it was because the summer in Xiangyang was too hot.

Horses are very delicate creatures, too cold is not good, too hot is not good. The Battle of Xiangyang encountered such problems, and the Mongol horses, who boasted of their hardships, were also prone to illness. However, after looking at it for a moment, Marshal Ashu felt that the riders were spending a lot of energy trying to reassure the horses, which was not something that horses would do when they were sick.

When the cavalry approached the array on the far left of the Song army, they saw the arm of the man on the high pole in the array fluttering, and suddenly threw something out of the military formation. The things exploded as soon as they approached the Mongol cavalry, making a loud noise. The horses, which had been a little frightened at first, were now completely shocked. They all turned around on their own, trying to leave the Song army that had frightened them.

The cavalry were also frightened by the loud noise, and when they saw that the horses were about to run, they tried to restrain them. So many horses rose up and tried to throw off the cavalry on their backs like crazy. The cavalrymen were caught off guard, and some were thrown off their horses.

It is not only the horses in close proximity that suffer from this shock, but also the horses that are farther away show greater uneasiness. Now Marshal Ah Shu wanted to understand what was happening, these horses had not stopped such a fierce cannonball, and they were frightened. But after all, they are military horses and have experienced a lot, so they didn't go crazy at first. And Zhao Jiaren on the other side obviously calculated this, so he made targeted preparations. So that the Mongol cavalry temporarily lost its combat effectiveness.

Retracting his gaze from the cavalry, Ah Shu looked up at the Song army opposite. I saw that the defeated soldiers had already passed through the Song army array at this time and disappeared into the distance. Marshal Ashu's plan to try to break up the Song army's array with a rout completely failed.

Not only that, but with the sound of war drums, the phalanx, which was originally quite far away, actually moved at a neat pace. It didn't take long for the loose arrays to be rearranged into a neat array. Although this army numbered only 3,000 men, it was a real elite.

"Surround them." Marshal Ashu ordered. He has 30,000 horses in his hands, and according to the military common sense of ten rules, he is completely able to surround this elite. And Marshal Ashu is also determined to annihilate this elite no matter what the cost. No matter how many of the previous garbage Song troops there were, Marshal Ah Shu was confident that he would defeat them. However, this elite Song army is not something that can be eliminated if it wants to, and it takes a very good time to have the possibility of elimination.

Marshal Ah Shu could think of it, and Zhao Jiaren also thought of it. For the lives of himself and his subordinates, Zhao Jiaren attaches great importance to it. Today is already a miscalculation, even if Zhao Jiaren has already overestimated the field combat ability of the militia group, it turns out that Zhao Jiaren still overestimated the militia. If you wait any longer, you will probably be surrounded by Mongolia in the wilderness. Without waiting for the Mongol army to surround him, Zhao Jiaren ordered the retreat to begin.

As soon as the troops completed the contraction, Zhao Jiaren divided the troops into two rounds and staggered retreat in the mode of one team covering the other. Each round of retreat was held down by artillery shelling. If this array is placed in the 21st century, middle school students can fully grasp it in a month at most. However, in my Great Song Dynasty, it took two years for the troops to be able to march in such a queue.

The Mongol troops on the opposite side were also quite cooperative, and with each round of artillery, the Mongol infantry marched a point slower. After five rounds of artillery bombardment, the Mongol infantry only cooperated with Zhao Jiaren's retreat from a distance. This made Zhao Jiaren can't help but slander, the Mongolian soldiers are much more reliable than the Great Song militia.

As for the cavalry, after panicking for a while, they also made a dog-like charge. After Zhao Jiaren fired a loud bomb, the Mongolian horses once again went crazy.

When he first watched the performance of the two armies, Marshal Ah Shu still had some angry expressions. Looking at it, his face returned to calm. Rushing to grab merit when there is an advantage, and rushing to flee for your life when you are inferior, this is a common situation in the army. Even the Mongol army was the same. He never imagined that an army would be able to face the crisis so calmly, obeying orders and following commands when retreating. Looking at the neat actions of Zhao Jiaren's troops, the marshal had to suspect that this Song army had specially trained this kind of thing that all soldiers tried to avoid.

With such an experience, although what happened after that was unreasonable, Marshal Ah Shu was not surprised. The Song army withdrew to the river in an orderly manner, using the local terrain to form a defensive system with the naval forces in the river. The horses of the Mongol cavalry were frightened and could not organize an efficient charge. The Mongol infantry was not as elite as the Song army, and after only a few artillery shots, they refused to charge. The main force of the Song army held the array so strictly, and waited until all the panicked militia groups boarded the ship, and then calmly boarded the ship. They all boarded the ship before dark, and the fleet easily jumped out of the Mongol encirclement and went down the river.

Marshal Ah Shu did not give the order to pursue to death, and when the retreat formation of the Song army was completed, the marshal understood that there was no chance for him to encircle and annihilate the Song army from the beginning to the end of this battle. There is only one thing that the marshal is puzzled about, since there are such elite troops, why did Zhao Jiaren bring those garbage that will collapse at the touch of a button to the battle.

When he returned to the camp, it was already late at night, and Generalissimo Boyan made a marching bed in Ashu's big tent and fell asleep on it. Seeing Ah Shu coming back, the guards hurriedly woke up Boyan. The two sat opposite each other, and Boyan asked, "Is there good news?" ”

Ah Shu was amused by this question, and he replied with a smile: "I have thought about it several times along the way, if today's incident is repeated, I can only fight the same as now." This is actually the post-war summary of Gorten Wanhu relayed by Boyan, and Marshal Ah Shu was deeply impressed by this, so he used it.

Boyan didn't smile, he next asked about today's battle situation and results. The Mongol army can probably be described as having always had an advantage in the war situation. However, it is difficult to say the results of the battle, because they wanted to lead the Song army to disrupt their own army, and the Mongol army did not wantonly kill the militia. The total number of dead and captured members of the militia group from the general view of the battle is about six or seven hundred.

However, more than 300 Mongols were killed and more than 200 wounded by the shelling, and the total number was almost as good as the losses of the militia groups. As for Zhao Jiaren's Chinese army, there may have been casualties, but they took all the dead and wounded with them. On the battlefield, except for those shells that hit the Mongol army, Zhao Jiaren's Chinese army did not even leave a single hair for Ah Shu.

The Mongol army conducted a post-war summary that night. The Song army took a lot of roads, and the overall defeat made it more troublesome to deal with, so it didn't summarize that night. The next morning, Zhao Jiaren prepared to convene a meeting to sum up and discuss yesterday's valuable combat experience. As a result, Miao Zaicheng took some militia leaders to Zhao Jiaren's big tent to plead guilty.

The killing is not too much, the attitude of the militia is sincere, and Zhao Jiaren is not easy to tell them, 'Your defeat has long been expected by me'. He could only ask people to help the leaders of the militia group up, invite them to the big tent of the Chinese army, and then asked in a kind tone: "You have done your best, so you don't have to worry about the past." But I want to ask how many members of the militia are willing to stay here. ”

Looking at the embarrassed expressions of Miao Zaicheng and the leader of the militia group, Zhao Jiaren knew that he had asked the key point. With an impulsive spirit, he went out to fight with the villagers, and his first thought after escaping death was basically to leave the battlefield and return to his hometown. Zhao Jiaren sighed secretly in his heart, but he didn't feel any regrets. This kind of thing is completely conceivable, and many famous militia groups in history were finally named the 'XX Army', such as the Yuejia Army and the Han Family's Army. There are countless militia groups in history, and this kind of 'XX Army' is only a handful, which is enough to show the vulnerability of militia groups when fighting far from their hometowns.

Since Miao Zaicheng didn't speak, Zhao Jiaren continued: "Everyone has worked hard to serve the country on the battlefield. If you really want to leave, I don't think you should force you to stay. ”

Miao Zaicheng seemed to be burned by the fire, he stood up and said with a face full of shame: "I lost my ugliness in front of Zhao Zhizhou this time, I know that Zhizhou dislikes it, and I don't have the face to stay here anymore." Zhizhou's life-saving grace will be reported later. I took my leave. ”

After speaking, Miao Zaicheng turned his head and left. The other militia leaders looked at them with shocked faces, then got up one after another to apologize, and then followed Miao Zaicheng away. Looking at the backs of the leaders of the militia group with secret joy, Zhao Jiaren sighed slightly. He actually thought he might be angry, but he realized that he really wasn't. Thinking of the danger of forcibly leaving the militia group that wanted to leave to guard the walled city, Zhao Jiaren even felt lucky. Yesterday's battle proved that the enemy is very predictable, and the friendly forces are not.