At the beginning of the end of the day, in the dark clouds and twilight, the sky and the earth slowly turned white, and from the gray mist, the field of vision became wider and wider.

In the middle of winter in December, there was no snow in Hebei. But the wind was howling and the weather was getting cold.

The soldiers of the Song army got up early in the morning to do morning exercises, and the camps that stretched for more than ten miles were full of all kinds of whistles and drums, and the sound of drills came and went, and the momentum shook the sky.

Now the morale of the Song army is booming, on the other hand, the Liao army is much darker, in addition to the fear caused by the two cannons, the most important thing is that they went south from September, the Liao side of the material preparation is relatively hasty, winter clothes are not complete.

The soldiers were still wearing autumn clothes, and the autumn clothes were also very warm, but as the weather got colder, it gradually snowed in the grasslands and the north of Youzhou, and the temperature became lower and lower, and the role of autumn clothes was much smaller, making it difficult for them to bear the cold.

Yelu Zong really knew that he couldn't delay it any longer, Fan Zhongyan could not be in a hurry, but he was in a hurry. If you can't afford to fight for national strength and consumption, and you can't attack the city with a tough siege, you can only choose to fight to the death with the other party in the wild.

As the desolate sound of the horn echoed in the Liao army camp, the Jintaiyi Liao army camp, which was more than ten miles away from the city of Baosai, suddenly woke up from the death-like silence, and the sound of ping-pong war drums, moo horns, jingling gongs and drums, and sharp whistles kept echoing in the camps.

Bands of heavily armed soldiers emerged from behind the battlements of the rammed earth wall, bows and swords unsheathed.

Everywhere there was the sound of the hula and clatter of ironclad leaves, the sound of anxious and angry urging, the neat shouts, as well as the short and urgent sound of orders, sharp whistles and clanging footsteps, all of which made the wall of the wall chaotic.

About half an hour later, groups of Liao soldiers left the camp under the leadership of their respective leaders and formed an army outside the village.

The soldiers were dressed in different attire and formed in a fragmented formation. Basically, it is the tribal army of the Liao State, the Han Army of Nanjing Prefecture, the Bohai Navy and the rest of the subordinate armies, with complex types and many types of troops, mainly foot soldiers.

And the most elite cavalry of the Liao State was the Imperial Court Guard, also known as the Leather Room Army.

They were the main force in field encounters, and in city battles they were rear overseers, and once the foot soldiers broke through the city, the leather room army would rush up and loot all the belongings in the city.

Yes.

This is how the Liao fought the war and how it was logistical.

The Liao State does not rely on logistical supply lines, nor does it pay its soldiers, and there are only two sources of income for soldiers - "beating grass valleys" and "rewarding military money".

The former is a robbery, and the latter is a reward for distributing the spoils of war to the soldiers after victory.

Therefore, it is okay for the Liao soldiers to fight the tailwind battle of plundering everywhere, but once they encounter the situation that the walls are clear, there is nothing to grab in the field, and the hard city cannot be attacked, the morale of the army will fall to the bottom.

Liaoxing Sect Yelu Zong Zhen was riding on horseback at this time, he was strong in his twenties, and his eyes looked at the vast ocean-like army under the mountain slope in the distance, and there was no trace of joy between his eyebrows.

Now that the grain and grass prepared by the Liao State in the early stage have been almost used, and the food and property cannot be grabbed from the Song army and the people of the Song State, the soldiers of the Liao State who were originally high in morale and wanted to follow him to find the Song State to bite the fat meat fiercely have been disappointed.

This made Yelu Sect really regret his decision to go south.

Pretend to be deaf and dumb, and wait for the situation on the Song side. If the Song State continued to pay the annual tribute, nothing would happen. If they no longer pay the annual tribute, he can also accuse the Song State of tearing up the alliance and then uniting with Li Yuanhao to go south.

But Li Yuanhao was disabled at this time, and he couldn't help him contain the troops in the northwest of the Song Kingdom, and now he was obviously a little alone. If you can't break it when you hit it, you can't attack it, it's really a dilemma.

At the moment, I can only fight to the death. After winning the battle, he went home and continued to drink and eat meat, waiting for Song Guo to send money. If you lose, everything is over, and it's basically cool.

"Let's go!"

Yelu Zongzhen is not a person who looks ahead and backwards, since he has made a decision, he will follow it to the end.

He raised the sword symbolizing the emperor of Liao in his hand, and shouted to the Tang cavalry who was responsible for delivering the news beside him: "Tell the soldiers that if this battle is won, the land of Hebei will be plundered by horses at will." If we lose, we can only retreat to the grassland to blow the cold wind. Whether you can have a good year this year depends on this battle! ”

"Yes!"

The horsemen turned their horses one after another and went down the mountain to deliver the news.

Immediately after that, the banner on the hillside began to wave, and when the leaders of the tribes below saw it, they began to urge the soldiers of their tribe to march forward.

The rest of the Tang cavalry also spread out in all directions, conveying Yelu Zongzhen's orders to the generals everywhere.

The Liao army went all the way to the southwest, they didn't want to go to the city of Baosai over there, the cannons on the city had already scared the Liao soldiers, and now let them attack Baosai, it would undoubtedly collapse the whole army.

Therefore, the Liao army's goal was to directly target the unbuilt camp of the Song army.

When Fan Zhongyan received the news of the attack of the Liao State, he did not hesitate at all, and immediately issued a military order, and the generals of all departments set up their positions to prepare to meet the enemy in accordance with the previous deployment.

Why didn't he keep the camp?

The reason is very simple, the camp has not yet been built, the defense is not strong, once the fortress is broken by the Liao army, it will lead to the discouragement of the army, and it may face a direct rout of the army.

Therefore, we can often see in the history books that when two armies face each other, if one of them has just arrived at the battlefield and rushes to meet the battle when the camp is closed, the generals often do not choose to defend in the camp that has not yet been arranged, but the army goes out and fights the enemy outside.

For example, in the battle of Dingbian, Mu Ying confronted the enemy, the camp was not built, and the enemy came to provoke, so he led his troops out of the camp and defeated the enemy.

The first to come out of the camp on the Song army's side were the cavalry of various divisions.

After the scouts detected the movement of the Liao army in a large-scale assembly, the Song cavalry also immediately responded. The cavalry was fast, and after leaving the camp, they quickly advanced to a place two or three miles away from the camp, then stopped standing, and after setting up a queue, they began to be on guard.

Then, the infantry units went out of the camp in turn according to the direction of their position, and lined up on all sides at a distance of twenty paces from the camp, forming a formation of overwhelming a sea of people, located around the city of Baosai.

Fan Zhongyan personally went into battle, although he was a civil official and did not wear battle armor, but he rode a war horse and issued all kinds of instructions on the village majestically.

After about half an hour, more than 100,000 troops had already been assembled. Looking to the left from the camp, there are dense human heads that cannot be seen at a glance. Looking to the right from the camp, there are still dense human heads and boundless.

A large number of cavalry between the battalions are interspersed back and forth, these are the Tang cavalry, which can also be called scouts, scouts, scouts, their role is not only to detect the enemy's movements, but also to be responsible for conveying the orders of the commander-in-chief to the various departments, and coordinating the operation of such a large army.

With Lao Fan's order, the army surged forward, and in front of it was the city of Baosai. In the city, Wang Deyong has also mobilized soldiers and horses, and the heads of the Song army continue to pop up on the city, looking at the northern horizon.

The Song army relied on the city of Baosai, with an army of 60,000 in the west of the city, an army of 50,000 in the east of the city, 20,000 in front of the north of the city, more than 10,000 people in the city, and 30,000 cavalry cruising around the periphery, plus more than 30,000 reinforcements from Cangzhou, Qingzhou, Hejianfu and other places that have been rushed over, the total strength of the Song army has reached more than 200,000.

If you stand on the top of the city and watch, you will see an incomparably magnificent scene, on the east and west sides of the Baosai city, at least seven or eight miles out of the Song army infantry phalanx, the pressure is surging like the tide of the ocean, and you can't see where the end is.

They are surrounded by heavily armed, shield-wielding and heavily armored Shenwu guards, and inside there are spearmen, sword and shield soldiers, bombardiers, crossbowmen and other types of troops. The cavalry was the first to leave the camp, but when they lined up, they stood behind the infantry.

Because in such a large-scale war, it is difficult for the chief general to command all capitals, battalions, armies, and compartments, and can only rely on officers and generals at all levels.

Therefore, the commander-in-chief often needs to master a certain number of mobile troops, and once the phenomenon of the collapse of each battalion occurs, he will immediately send manpower to replenish the operation.

And such a mobile unit can only be held by cavalry.

By noon, on the distant horizon, a vast Liao army had already appeared.

They also formed an infantry phalanx, the difference is that there are many cavalry in the Liao State, so not only the cavalry is arranged in the rear, but also a large number of Liao cavalry are mixed in the two wings and the main formation.

This is obviously Yelu Zong's intention to make a desperate bet, the front ones are basically the heavy cavalry and heavy infantry of the Liao State, even if they are hit by a grenade, they will not be injured, they have tested it, at most it is a concussion, and it is buzzing from the impact of the explosion.

It's just that they also found that once the heavy infantry was shot, if the center of gravity was unstable and fell, they would be trampled to death on the densely populated battlefield. It's like hitting a heavy infantry with a blunt weapon, the armor is not broken, and the people inside are gone.

But the upper echelons of the Liao State decided to hide the news, as long as the heavy cavalry and heavy infantry resisted the first wave of grenades, and let the rest of the infantry and cavalry kill in the Song army's formation and disrupt the opponent's formation, it would be foolproof!

The Liao army slowly advanced, and the earth seemed to tremble. Their numbers were not much less than those of the Song army, and they were also surging like a sea of waves, and a mighty torrent of steel was surging.

When the Liao army arrived three miles away from the Song army formation and four miles away from the city of Baosai, the army had stopped.

In the past, it would never be this distance.

Like the Battle of Lanzhou, the Liao army and the Song army were less than a mile apart, if it weren't for the Liao army's general Xiao Tzu Rin who was shot in the head by a divine shot, I'm afraid the Liao army would dare to get closer.

After reaching this distance, the Liao people stopped, and then Yelu Zongzhen sent another knight to come and give Fan Zhongyan an ultimatum.

As long as Fan Zhongyan agrees to Yeluzong's true conditions, then there is still room for redemption between the two sides.

Once the war starts, the Song Kingdom will be doomed.

Fan Zhongyan only gave one reply - get out!

When Yelu Zongzhen heard this, he was furious and gave the order for a general attack on the small hillside behind.

As the sound of the desolate horn resounded throughout the battlefield, countless Liao soldiers began to continue to move forward under the urging of the leaders of the various departments.

Four miles!

Three miles!

Erli!

Song Guo's firearms have never been powerful!

This is because the firing range of the "seven-tip cannon" and "nine-tip cannon" is basically between two and three hundred steps, and only the "thirteen-tip cannon" can reach four or five hundred steps.

The thunderbolt fireball can be thrown a mile away by a catapult, and the catapult is installed on a tower several feet high.

Without condescension, the range of catapults will be greatly reduced.

One mile!

The army of the Liao State was getting closer and closer, and many soldiers in the front row of the Song State had already appeared in a commotion, and their eyes were nervously looking at the enemy troops who were surging like a tide.

"Catapult ready!"

In the rear of the Song army, the catapults began to pull the strings of the ox tendons, and the soldier holding the thunderbolt fireball carefully put the clay pot on it, and the other soldier took out the fire sickle.

Soon the Liao army was getting closer and closer, and it had reached about three hundred steps, that is, four hundred and twenty meters, and was about to enter the range of catapults.

"Put!"

A large number of Song generals gave orders.

A few seconds later, the order was passed to the catapult camp, and then the soldier lit the fuse with a fire sickle, and with a "buzz", the cowhide band was released, and with a "boom", the spoon threw the clay pot violently.

Countless clay pots streaked across the sky in a brilliant arc, many of which were emitting gray smoke, and then fell precisely into the military formation of the Liao soldiers.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

The sound of explosions came and went.

Many of them exploded directly in the air, and some of the leads were blown out by the wind in mid-air, but most of the clay pots successfully fell into the Liao army's formation, and a huge noise broke out.

The Liao army array caused a lot of riots in an instant, and many soldiers were killed and injured, and some even wanted to run.

However, the military law of the Liao State was strict, and the leaders and generals of the various tribes suppressed the riots one after another, stopped the soldiers from rearranging their formations, and then continued to move forward.

No one charged.

At a distance of three or four hundred meters, they ran wildly, and no matter how good their physical strength ran in front of the opponent's formation, they were already so tired that they had no physical strength, and they were just fearlessly sent to death.

Therefore, the most correct way to play is to withstand the enemy's artillery fire, get close to about 50 meters, and then start charging and raiding.

Soon the riots were stopped, and the Liao army continued to move forward, as if not afraid of death.

The next moment, the second wave of thunderbolt fireballs of the Song army was thrown over.

On the hillside, Yelu Zongzhen was nervously watching this moment, and in the rear of the Song army, Fan Zhongyan was also watching this scene.

The soldiers of the Liao army were not afraid of death, but under the cruel military law, they had to be sent to death.

However, fortunately, there are no batches of artillery, and the lethality of thunderbolts alone is very limited, and even iron pieces cannot break through the heavily armored soldiers of the Liao army, let alone ceramic fragments.

So even if it is two waves of baptism, the Liao army can still stabilize its position.

After a few moments, the Liao army was already two hundred paces closer, and they maintained their walking speed, and it was expected that in three minutes, the two sides would be close to each other.

During these three minutes, the Song army gave full play to its firepower advantage and constantly projected thunderbolt fireballs.

At a hundred paces, the crossbowmen on both sides finally exerted their might, and the dense arrows replaced the clay pots in the sky, like dark clouds, covering the sky.

The sound of tinkling is endless!

At this time, the Liao army continued to advance, and it was less than fifty steps.

The bombardiers in the rear of the Song army raised their grenades one after another, and the distance they could throw out was actually only about 20 steps, about 30 meters.

That's enough!

At thirty paces, the general offensive of the Liao army officially began!

In an instant, with an order, countless Liao soldiers rushed towards the Song army like a tide!

And at this moment, on the high slope of the Song army in the rear, two cannons were slowly pulled up, and the muzzles of the cannons emitted a strange light, pointing directly at the Liao army's position!

(End of chapter)