Chapter 301: Deployment

In the early morning of the next day, before the sky was clear, the forbidden army in the north and south of Qigou Pass made a fire to make food, and the east had just been brightened, and the army had already set off. At this time, it has entered the summer, marching all the way against the sun, all the troops are miserable, but the military discipline is strict, Pan Mei, Cao Han and other generals still have considerable prestige in the forbidden army, and try their best to maintain it, so they can maintain the speed of traveling a hundred miles a day and rush forward. Many of the soldiers simply piled up their robes, armor, and blades on their mules and horses, and hurried bare-chested. Because of the huge loss of horsepower in recent days, the cavalry did not dare to ride the war horse anymore, they all took off their armor and led the horse to march, and the Anxi army fed the war horse with concentrated feed such as eggs and soybean meal that were reluctant to be used on weekdays.

On the evening of June 21, Kong Shouzheng urged the east and west cavalry in front of the palace to rush to the city of Zhuozhou, and merged with the east and west classes in front of the palace led by Fu Qian, and at this time Zhao Jiong was in Fu Qian's army, seeing Kong Shouzheng coming, he immediately ordered the second general to lead the elite cavalry of the squad to Zhuozhou City to challenge, Zhao Jiong was dressed in armor, and personally boarded the viewing platform built in the imperial camp to supervise the battle. The Khitan army deceived the Song army with few soldiers, with 5,000 cavalry to fight, who knew that the elite cavalry led by Kong and Fu Erjun actually broke the cavalry with horses, defeated the Liao cavalry on both wings, surrounded and outflanked in the middle, and forced the surrender of 500 Khitan soldiers, the Khitan cavalry could not form an army, and when they wanted to return to Zhuozhou, Liu Houde, the Zhuozhou judge who stayed behind, actually closed the door, and the Khitan soldiers had to go around the city and run back all the way to the north.

After the capture of Zhuozhou, the door of Youzhou was wide open, the imperial camp led by Zhao Jiong was really with the Khitan soldiers, and won a complete victory, the east and west classes in front of the palace commanded Fu Qian to kill the Khitan soldiers to build a Jingguan, the banner battle was lined up on both sides, and ordered five hundred surrendered Khitan soldiers to line up and surrender, Zhao Jiong was overjoyed, and praised Fu Qian.

After the Battle of Zhuozhou, the imperial generals Kong Shouzheng, Gao Huaide, and Liu Tinghan led the army to chase the defeated Liao soldiers until the city of Youzhou, while Zhao Jiong followed closely under the protection of Fu Qian and the guards of the east and west classes in front of the palace, and waded through the Sanggan River again. This time, Zhao Jiong's imperial expedition was carried out day and night, and it took only four days and nights before dawn on June 23, and Zhao Jiong's imperial camp approached the south of Youzhou from the Song-Liao border and stationed in Baoguang Temple in the south of the city.

On the evening of June 23, the Anxi army followed the main force of the imperial camp to the city of Youzhou, looking at the tall and thick city wall of Youzhou, Wu Yingying's heart couldn't help but feel a little heavy, and these days the 100,000 forbidden troops who were tired of running for their lives were invariably relieved.

The high-intensity march over the past few days had made the forbidden soldiers almost a little numb walking dead, and the soldiers took off their blades and armor from the mules that accompanied them and leaned against each other. The battalion that had just settled down was in a mess. "The Liao soldiers are coming, and they are guarding the camp!" "General Kong encountered the Khitan army in the north of the city, go to the rescue quickly!" "Don't act rashly!" "Protect His Majesty's imperial camp in Baoguang Temple!" The officers of the various departments issued contradictory military orders to their subordinates, which made the already chaotic forbidden army even more chaotic.

The Anxi army is trained according to the plain, the foot soldiers form a long spear and a knife, a circle formation including a sword, shield, bow and crossbow, the banner of the Anxi army is erected in the middle, and the cavalry relies on the infantry army to stand as a whole, and the Anxi hussar centurion Cai Ran is commanding the hussars to circle around the formation to drive away the chaotic army. Wu Yingying only stood in front of the formation, looking at the tens of thousands of forbidden troops who were panicked and running around with emotion.

In the distance, a forest and a royal flag officer rode by. Seeing that the Anxi military camp was still neat, the flag officer shouted loudly: "Your Majesty has an order, the Japanese cavalry, the east and west classes in front of the palace have found Khitan reinforcements in the north of the city, and all the troops will work together to defeat the enemy army quickly!" After speaking, regardless of whether Wu Yingying and the others heard it clearly, he bowed his hand to the forest and headed towards the forbidden army assembled in another place.

Lin Zhong saw Wu Yingying's gaze, turned his horse forward, and said in a deep voice: "Wu Jiedu, the former army patrol encountered the Khitan brigade, and we will go to reinforce here. He didn't have time to say more, so he whipped the horse's buttocks hard, and turned his head north to catch up with the subordinates of the cavalry who had been galloping north. The Xiao cavalry army is recruited from the children of the good family of the border county, at this time after a long journey to the city of Youzhou, just ready to rest, almost all of them are not in good clothes, many soldiers are almost shirtless and caged with armor, holding all kinds of blades in their hands, all of them are not neat on weekdays, although they are a little panicked, but they are still desperate to gallop towards the north of the city that is fighting.

Wu Yingying's heart suddenly moved, raised his horsewhip and pointed to the whereabouts of the Xiao cavalry, and said: "Tens of thousands of troops here are in chaos, but it is more dangerous, let's go to the north of the city to see the situation on the battlefield." So he ordered Zhang Zhongyao and Cai Ran to take the hussars forward first, and personally led the other tooth army to march forward on foot, along the road of the three thousand cavalry, towards the place where the shouting and killing were fierce.

Zhang Zhongyao came to the north of the city, and saw that the Liao soldiers at the head of Youzhou City kept shouting to cheer for the friendly troops outside the city, but they closed the city gate tightly and did not dare to come out for reinforcements, which seemed a little timid. A Song army of about 5,000 horsemen was stationed outside the north gate of Youzhou under the banner of the Iron Cavalry, and the leading officer was angry and scolded at the halberd of the city head with his soldiers. Zhang Zhongyao knew that this was the Song army's partial division that was monitoring the soldiers and horses in Youzhou to prevent them from rushing into the battlefield, so he bypassed them and went north, and within a few miles, he came to the south side of the battlefield.

At this time, in the early summer, the rain is sufficient, the land near the left of Youzhou is moist, the dust is not raised, the vision is clearer, a group of cavalry of the Song and Liao armies circled back and forth, collided with each other, entangled and fought together, and set up a lot of camp accounts in the distance, many of which had been burned and burned, and the horses were scattered and fled. At a glance, the cavalry of the Song army wearing red tassels was far less than that of the Liao, but they were brave, and they were even sharper, so they were on the attacking side on the battlefield. The Liao people seemed to have been raided by a surprise attack, and many of them were wearing only Khitan leather jackets, revealing half of their arms, each holding a scimitar and spear, gritting their teeth and fighting fiercely with the Song army. At the same time, the cavalry of the Song army rushed from the south and rushed into the battlefield one after another, and with each support arrived, the morale of the Song army was boosted by one point, while the morale of the Liao people was lowered by one point.

Zhang Zhongyao was watching the battle, and Wu Yingying had already led the follow-up army to arrive, and when he saw this, he asked: "How is the battle situation?" Zhang Zhongyao said: "The Liao people seem to have been raided, and there are not many people, and a big victory can be expected." Seeing this, Wu Yingying nodded silently, and saw that the Liao cavalry was centered on the Chinese army camp, resisting the superior Song cavalry one after another. Although the defeat has appeared, it is not chaotic, and there are faint commanders who will reorganize the cavalry scattered by the Song army and put them back into the battlefield. "If you hold it for too long, can you let us go and kill it? The hussar centurion Cai Ran lifted the horse lance and looked at Wu Yingying expectantly, under him was a Hexi fierce horse that was happy to see the battle array, and when he saw this, he couldn't stop snorting and digging his hooves, as if he was as impatient as his master and wanted to gallop.

Wu Yingying watched the enemy formation for a long time, the Liao army was not more than 10,000 horsemen, according to the conventions of the art of war, the Liao people encountered several times their own Song cavalry and immediately retreated, but this group of Liao soldiers was still struggling to resist around the Chinese army camp, it can be seen that there must be a commander in the camp to supervise, at this moment to maintain the camp, the only hundreds of Liao soldiers in the Chinese army are dismounted with bows, most of the front of the Song cavalry is constantly impacting, but the back is empty.