Chapter 8: Mules and Horses

In the "Infantry Drill Code" compiled by Cao Shen, a famous general in the Han Dynasty, it is said that among all kinds of martial arts, the bow and crossbow are the first. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The strong bow and crossbow have always been a sharp weapon for the military, and the Song State inherited the aftermath of the five generations, and attached great importance to all kinds of weapons, but ............... The Tangut people located in the northwest border are also the Tangut people who established the country by force............ He is more accomplished in weapons.

Right in front of Guan Shanhe, the bows and horses of the Western Xia people were skillful........... and cunning on full display. First move his mind with words, and then strike a thunderous blow to his head.

Guan Shanhe hurriedly looked back, only to see the captain surnamed Zhang holding a knife in his right hand and shouting loudly: "Miscellaneous people, what are you going to do when you turn around?" Look ahead for me! ”

Glancing over, not far away, half of the arrow was slanted into the dirt. Seeing that the chief officer was fine, everyone was relieved and clenched the swords and guns in their hands.

To no avail, the Western Xia knight stared at this side for a moment, pulled the reins, pulled the horse and turned to leave. Subsequently, the Western Xia cavalry behind him also galloped away with their horses.

Seeing this, Captain Zhang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart, and let go of his somewhat paralyzed hand. The Western Xia knight just now shot an arrow from a distance of one hundred and fifty steps away, and he could still have such strength, he must be the sharpshooter among the Western Xia people. Although there are many people on his side, the other party is full of cavalry, and if he really hangs by his side, he can only send a signal for help.

The first contact with the Tanguts ended hastily, but he always felt that something was wrong, and the place they patrolled was near Guyuan, thirty miles away from Huaiyuan City, which was at the forefront of the line. The rangers of the Tangut people can go so far, but imagine how bad the situation is in Huaiyuan.

Sure enough, a few days later, news spread that the army of the Tangut people had arrived at the foot of Huaiyuan City. As for how many? Some said 50,000 and some said 100,000, anyway, there were different opinions in the camp, and the tense atmosphere was better than one day. Then the regimental trainers pulled out the camp and went north, and under the leadership of the Xiang army, they spent a day entering the victory village ten miles away from Huaiyuan City.

Desheng Village is a large camp group built outside Huaiyuan City, consisting of the main village and seven surrounding firewood villages. Trenches, arrow towers, horse rejections, bamboo sticks can be seen everywhere, and in addition to the usual lack of horses, armor and swords and guns are piled up. There are even three eight-bull crossbows with a range of up to 600 paces in the main village.

What was hard was that as a regimental training that was even lower than the Xiang army, Guan Shanhe and others were assigned to the firewood village outside the main village. This firewood village is not big, the location is also on the flat ground, although there is no geographical advantage at all, but it is less than five hundred steps away from the main village, that is to say, if you attack this firewood village, it will be directly exposed to the range of the main village's eight-bull crossbow. The same is true of the other six firewood villages, all of which are within the long-range strike range of the main village. And if you ignore the peripheral firewood village to directly attack the main village, the soldiers and horses in the firewood village will attack and disturb it. In this kind of battle, which only requires maneuvering for a short distance, the disadvantage of fewer cavalry will not become the shortcomings of the Song army, and the advantage of the Song army's good at foot combat can be fully exerted. This is the so-called mutual horns in the art of war, and from the perspective of fighting, the relationship between Desheng Village and Huaiyuan City is also this kind of flickering horn.

There are 300 soldiers in the chaizhai where Guan Shanhe is located, and the captain stationed there is Zhang Kang, who led the troops to patrol the previous time. Three hundred people is not crowded in this chai village, but there is not much free space either. If the enemy comes to attack, you can only resist hard. However, this is originally the role of the chaizhai, which is used to consume the enemy's strength and morale.

I was worried for two days, and every day I nested in such a small and broken place, eating, drinking, and Lazar together, and the smell became very unpleasant. However, the Western Xia did not come to attack Deshengzhai and Huaiyuan City, they left one part as a surveillance, and plundered the four directions with the rest of the troops. The soldiers and horses in the city are mainly the forbidden army in Guanzhong, many people have settled in the local area, and a large part of the remaining soldiers and horses are archers and village soldiers recruited locally, and their houses and property and family members are in this vicinity.

I don't know what the generals defending the city thought, maybe he also had family and relatives outside the city, or maybe he couldn't suppress the surging emotions in the city, so he sent many small teams back and forth to strangle the Tangut people who were attacking everywhere. Originally, this kind of thing should have been best done by the local army and the forbidden army stationed here for a long time, but because of the same fucking reason - the temporarily assembled unity soldiers had no human rights - the Jiuquan regiment of Guan Shanhe's department was sent to do this kind of thing.

With straw sandals on his feet and a hat on his head, Guan Shanhe walked in the Hengshan Mountains with all his men and horses. Due to the loss of the sixteen states of Yanyun, the Song army has always lacked war horses, but there is still no shortage of horses and the like. In addition to pulling horses, the Song State also had a very widely used animal - mules. The mule is an animal that eats less, has great strength, and has good endurance, and the only drawback is that it is completely infertile, but for the Song people who lack excellent war horses, it is better than nothing. Now there are only two horses in Guanshanhe, but there are four mules and three donkeys.

As a scout, there is not a need and should not be with too many people. However, the Song people have always been at a disadvantage in the scout war with the Western Xia people, so now the scouts of the Song army are based on the capital, about ten people. Guan Shanhe asked Huang Er to bring four people to follow him about two miles behind him, and he took Huang Mazi and the other three people to walk in front, because the danger was greater in the front, so Guan Shanhe brought two horses and three mules with him, leaving only Huang Er and them with one mule.

On the edge of the Yokoyama mountain range is a large area of hills, and in many places the horses cannot gallop away, so they can only lead the horses slowly, and in this kind of place, mules and horses are more often used to transport supplies to save physical strength. Mounted attacks are only performed when there is a clear objective. And more often than not, it's a sudden encounter.