After daybreak, the Jin army did not immediately attack.

Instead, some cavalry was sent to fetch the infantry who were making sure the retreat was clear.

The Liaodong Han'er hard army led by Han Chang was about 3,000 people, all of whom came on horseback this time, and belonged to the elite infantry of the Jin State.

The core elite is the 2,000 Iron Floating Slaughter led by Wanyan Huonu, and the more than 5,000 Jin Guo Xiao Cavalry led by Wanyan Saili and other clans.

In addition, there are cavalry under the command of Boluhuo and Shenguo, a few are Jurchen cavalry and light cavalry, and most of them are grassland tribe cavalry, totaling more than 2,000 people.

The total number of troops invested by Wanyan Lou's room is about 13,000.

There are also more than 3,000 foot soldiers, which are the garrison troops of Yu County, and their combat power is not very strong, and their morale is not very high. These people were not brought to the battlefield, but together with thousands of people, they took over the hard army to ensure the retreat and guard the military rations and materials in the camp.

Due to the terrain of the valley, it should be no problem for these miscellaneous soldiers to hold the camp.

Let's talk about the army's side.

Zhang Guangdao led 3,000 reserves and set up a command platform at the eastern foot of Fangshan Mountain, overlooking the entire battlefield.

Xu Ning was in charge of a large array of more than 6,000 vans.

The two small hills behind the side of the large array were garrisoned by two generals, Wu Jue and Liu Qi, each leading more than 3,000 troops.

The total strength of the Ming army on the battlefield was about 17,000 people.

However, the 5,000 cavalry of Chen Ziyi, Yang Yun, and Geng Zhongnian did not know where Zhang Guangdao was hiding at this time.

More than 4,000 people under Yao Pingzhong's command, including Wang De's first camp, are currently missing.

In the south of the military city of Pingding, there were still 1,000 Ming troops stationed.

In the southwest of the ruins of Zhao Jianzi City, there is a Ming army's Gukou camp, in which there are only 500 soldiers and a large number of people.

The decisive battle did not begin until noon, because Han Chang's hard army needed to rest after arriving at the battlefield.

But before that, Wanyan Lou had sent light cavalry to scatter to investigate, wanting to know where the Ming cavalry had gone.

"Wanhu, the light cavalry has searched so far, and there is no trace of the enemy horse!"

"Revisit."

Wan Yan Lou Room frowned, the Ming army had thousands of cavalry, and they disappeared after fleeing yesterday. If this new force does not appear, he will not dare to attack with all his strength, and he must leave a core force for defense.

After the hard army was almost rested, Wanyan Lou finally gave the order to attack.

He did not directly attack the Che Formation, but sent a hard army around the hills northwest of the Great Array, trying to conquer the small hill that was not very high.

Some Jin Guoxiao horsemen are also ready to dismount and attack the mountain at any time. The remaining cavalry should protect the mountain siege troops, and at the same time guard against the Ming cavalry from killing out of nowhere.

Just as he was about to attack the mountain, a team of Jin Guo light cavalry rushed back: "Wanhu, the cavalry of the Ming army is in the valley more than ten miles away in the southeast. More than 100 light cavalry of our army entered the valley to investigate, but only escaped back with less than 20 horsemen! ”

It is not a simple valley, and there is a cave after entering, and there is a mountain depression six miles long and four miles wide where soldiers can be hidden.

Wanyan Lou ordered the action to be stopped, and asked Na Wen Du Sizhong: "What is there?" ”

Wen Du Sizhong questioned the sentry in detail, and finally concluded: "It should be the valley leading to the Rejected City." From the rejection of the city to the northwest, it can attack and block the retreat of our army. From the city to the southwest, you can lead to the military city of Pingding. From the rejection of the city straight to the east, you can attack the Chengtian village to enter the well. The enemy cavalry is coming directly to the west, and can quickly rush to the battlefield here. ”

Wanyan Huonu suggested: "Father, it's better to ignore the enemy in front of you and annihilate the enemy cavalry to the east." ”

Wen Du Sizhong said: "It is difficult for the enemy cavalry to attack if they hold the river valley. Even if our army can win, the enemy only needs to leave a few hundred men behind to block the valley, and then flee back to the Pingding military city from the southwest of the city. First, it is difficult to attack, and second, if it is won, it can only be defeated. ”

What the hell is this terrain, Wanyan Lou Room is a little difficult to ride a tiger, and he finally feels that he has too few troops.

The hiding place of the Ming cavalry is too disgusting, not only can they take a detour to attack the rear camp of the Jin soldiers, but they can also kill the main battlefield from the opposite direction, and they can also calmly retreat to the city when the situation is not good.

Zhang Guangdao saw that the Jin soldiers who were about to attack the mountain stopped moving, and immediately understood that his cavalry had been discovered.

But it doesn't matter, the hidden card is exposed, then the open card is played.

As long as the Jin soldiers do not withdraw immediately, it will not have much impact on the entire battle situation.

Do you want to withdraw your troops?

Wan Yan Lou began to hesitate.

I couldn't retreat, and I finally met the main force of the Ming army in the wild.

If you withdraw today, the next step will inevitably be a siege war of attrition. And it will soon snow in winter, when it will be more difficult to siege the city, and if it drags on until spring, there will be a shortage of military rations.

Whether it is fighting a war of attrition or delaying time, Jin Guo can't bear it.

Because the overdraft of the people in the south this time is too serious, once the war is dragged on until next year and there is no progress, all the states and counties in the Jin State will definitely revolt and rebel. At that time, if the Ming army attacked, Jin would be in trouble at home and abroad, let alone quelling the rebellion and annihilating the enemy, and he would not even know where to find military rations.

Wanyan Lou had a realization in his heart that the high-ranking generals of the Jin State were too optimistic about the southern expedition and did not consider the adverse consequences of the battle.

This battle shouldn't have been fought at all!

From a tactical point of view, Wanyan Lou Room should retreat immediately, and it is clear that the battlefield here is a trap.

From a strategic point of view, Wanyan Lou must fight, and this is the only chance to solve Shanxi's predicament.

Since you want to fight, you should think about how to fight.

Do you go east to fight the Ming cavalry first?

However, the cavalry of the Ming army has a passage and can escape back to the city at any time, and Wanyan Lou's room is likely to be tricked by walking dogs, and then they will have to return here to attack the Ming army's big array.

Retreat to the retreat channel first?

That's no different from a direct withdrawal.

Divide the troops to guard the camp at the exit route?

The battlefield was already understaffed, and it was impossible to divide the troops.

After thinking about it, Wanyan Lou Room actually had only one choice, that is, to attack with all his strength to annihilate the enemy in front of him!

If you win the war, you won't worry about anything.

If you lose, everything will be over.

made a decision in his heart, and Wanyan Lou didn't want anything else.

This kind of critical situation has been encountered countless times by the Jin Kingdom, and each time it is solved by fighting to the death. He drew his sword and shouted: "Tough army attack the mountain!" ”

Under the leadership of Han Chang, the spearmen of the Jin State began to organize an attack on the mountain defended by Wu Jue.

The troops of the brothers Wu Jue and Wu Ling did not strictly follow the mandarin duck formation, and it was not the same as the stacking formation method they invented in history.

After observing Yang Zhi's training, they absorbed the core idea of the Mandarin Duck Formation, thinking that this came from the "Lieutenant Zi Shuwu Order", so they compiled the formation according to the characteristics of the soldiers under their command.

Familiar with military books, has understanding, and has been in actual combat for a long time, this kind of military general is different.

The Wu brothers have many archers, but they don't have the financial resources to make a large number of divine arm bows for the time being. And they took the spear first, followed by the strong bow, and the weak bow again, and placed the horses in front of them.

It is also a squad of eleven or two, and each squad is then formed into a large team, and the dogs and teeth of each team are staggered, which can alternately attack and retreat, and the uneven formation can also encircle and kill the enemy in formation. As long as multiple teams don't collapse at the same time, they can be constantly arrayed, and the reserves can easily replace the disabled allies.

Seeing that the hard army of the Jin State was still at the bottom of the mountain, Wu Jue's first row of strong archers began to fire a volley. Slightly closer, the second row of archers shoots again.

The hill was not steep, and before the Jin soldiers could get close to rejecting their horses, the first attack was forced to withdraw by the archers.

Zhu Ming did not form an army of archers, initially because there were not enough bows and arrows, and later because there were not enough archers. The Marshal's Office and the Privy Council proposed the formation of a crossbow army, but there were too many equipment needed to build for a large expansion of the army, and the large-scale manufacture of strong crossbows could only be carried out.

And Yao Pingzhong's old department has no shortage of bows and arrows, and there is no shortage of archers.

The Yao family's station was the new territory of the Great Song Dynasty, and Tong Guan made a riotous operation back then, and dispatched the archers of the six northern roads to the border. This led to a number of serious consequences, one was the lack of archers in the other border armies; Second, due to rampant corruption, a large number of archers from all walks of life who were transferred to Hehuang died and fled. There's also a lot of mess.

However, it also led to the fact that the number of archers in the Yao family army was far more than that of melee soldiers, and all of them were veterans who had practiced archery for many years!

These border archers lacked food and clothing when they were soldiers in the old Song Dynasty, and were often in danger of starving to death. Their morale in the war was extremely low, and the price of their arrows was clearly marked, so they lived by shooting those arrows and receiving rewards.

In the new Ming Dynasty, although Yao Pingzhong commanded the old department, the imperial court sent military judges and food officials.

Wages and salaries are to be paid in full, and there is no longer a matter of cutting off people's heads.

These two changes alone made the old Song archers burst out with a strong will to fight!

The first attack of the Jin State hard army was blocked, and the second group was soon organized, and hundreds of horsemen also dismounted and prepared for foot battle.

At the same time, thousands of Jin Guoxiao rode and began to alternately cruise and shoot arrows in front of the Ming army's large array.

It was not until the fourth wave of attacks that the Jin infantry finally rushed up and pushed down the rejecting horses in front of Wu Jue's formation.

Wu Jue's front-row spearmen, in uneven formations, alternately advanced and launched wave attacks.

In the middle of the battle, the archers in the second row were still throwing the golden soldiers further behind, but the strong archers in the first row drew their swords and went up to the melee combat.

Who said archers can't be melee?

Their melee weapons were two-handed broadswords that were heavily equipped in the Liao and Song dynasties.

The length of the sword is only seventy or eighty centimeters, but it is ten centimeters wide at its widest point. The head of the sword is not sharp, but in the shape of a gui, so it is not used to stab, but to slash and break armor.

This is a standard sword that originated from the Five Dynasties, and because there was too much armor on the battlefield, it was changed to a stabbing attack.

Strongbowmen slashed through the gaps left by friendly pikemen with broadswords in both hands—not only in melee combat with their swords, but also in strong armor.

The armor of the hard army of the Jin State is about thirty or forty catties.

After being slashed with a broadsword, it is no different from being slashed with an axe. It has a slight blunt attack effect, and can also try your luck to cut some of the braided ropes of the armor. If you cut it to the shoulder, the huge impact force is like a hammer smashing, and the whole arm will be painful and numb.

The composite formation of pikemen and giant swordsmen, and it is also a stacked battle method of wave attack, which caught the hard army of Jin Guo off guard as soon as it appeared.

Jin Bing was directly stunned, he had never encountered such a situation, and he didn't know how to deal with it at all.

Once again, the enemy was repulsed, and Wu Jue ordered not to pursue, but to let the soldiers restore the barrier fortifications against horses.

Looking at the hard army that hurriedly fled back to the bottom of the mountain, Wan Yan Lou's expression became more and more solemn, because the cavalry attack was also not smooth.

The Ming army here has a combat effectiveness far beyond his imagination.

(End of chapter)