The south bank of the estuary is a mess at the moment.

The thousands of Western Xia troops who rushed out left behind a place of corpses, and fled westward in a hurry, not even their baggage.

The Western Xia army on the north bank saw with their own eyes the crushing defeat of their garrisons in the southern forts and forts.

Li Yuanhao did not have a large number of artillery, and this raid on Qingtang was going to cross Qishan, so naturally he didn't bring any of them, and then he temporarily deployed a batch from Zhuo Luocheng, plus a batch captured from Qingtang City, a total of more than 50 guns.

These artillery pieces were all arranged in the city of Michuan, Huangzhou, because Li Yuanhao himself knew that if his strategy was successful, then the Song army would definitely think that the west was his main force.

In this way, the main force of the Song army attacked the west, and he deployed the main force to the east. Then no matter whether the Song army chooses to attack or defend, the main force in the east can act at the opportunity.

The entire strategic task of Li Yuanhao is actually very simple, he knows that it is impossible to destroy the Northwest Army of the Song Army in a battle, so he must defend the west and attack the east, and the two sides fight each other's bayonets to strive to complete the strategic victory on the east side, and respond to the Liao side to move south.

In order to complete this strategy, Li Yuanhao had to use the limited artillery to defend the city, so that when the Song army attacked Miaochuan City, it would encounter more than 50 artillery pieces.

Therefore, the defenders in the estuary area were no different from symbolic interceptions, without heavy artillery, facing the firearms of the Song army, such as chopping melons and vegetables.

They were valiant but very valiant, brandishing the scimitars in their hands, howling like wolves in their mouths, and galloping towards the Song army, as if all those who stood in their way would be torn to powder.

And then there was no then.

The Song army rode on horseback, and shot several times in turn, and a large number of Western Xia cavalry fell like this, and died quietly, fifty zhang away, and suddenly fell off their horses as if they had been hit hard.

This obviously frightened the rest of the Western Xia army, and then they all turned their horses' heads, their faces were frightened, and they fled in a hurry.

Looking at their distant backs, Jia Kui spat under the horse, spit out the dust that had just flown into his mouth, and then squinted his eyes at the dust flying in the distance, and muttered: "Vulnerable." ”

"Look, General."

The guard next to him pointed into the distance.

Jia Kui looked in the direction he was pointing and saw that on the north bank of Huangshui, countless Western Xia troops were watching this scene in amazement.

"Huh."

Jia Kui smiled, rode his horse to the edge of the water, and squinted his eyes to look at the other side.

There was a commotion on the other side.

Many of the Western Xia soldiers on the north shore also showed frightened expressions on their faces, their eyes were wide open and their mouths were slightly open, as if to say, "Don't come here!"

"They must have boats in the camp, search for me, and if there are a few small boats, I'll sweep the north ones out as well."

Jia Kui immediately shouted to the soldiers behind him.

"Yes."

Soldiers stormed the camp on the south bank.

As Jia Kui guessed correctly, the camp on the south bank did have a few ships for communication with the north bank.

Soon they had six small boats towed from the camp to the nearby river.

"Up, up, up!"

Jia Kui personally led the team, more than 20 people on each small boat, and about 100 people arrived on the boat.

The water was not turbulent, and the group swam over quickly.

Halfway through, there was another commotion on the north bank, but a moment later a Western Xia general shouted something in Western Xia.

Immediately after that, the Western Xia soldiers took their bows and crossbows from their horses' bellies and began to bend their bows and arrows, quietly waiting for the enemy to come within range of their bows and crossbows.

"Stop the ship, stop the ship."

Jia Kui shouted, and when they got on the boat, they tied a few large stones weighing hundreds of pounds with ropes to serve as anchors.

Since it was not the flood season, the ship quickly stabilized.

When the Western Xia soldiers on the other side saw them stop, they thought they were afraid, and they shouted and made noises, and their faces changed from the previous horror to bursts of strange laughter and screams, as if mocking the cowardice of the Song army.

However, Jia Kui narrowed his eyes, measured the distance, and then said, "Fire!" ”

"Fire!"

The soldiers on the ship squatted or stood on the bow and side of the ship, and began to pull the trigger towards the opposite shore.

"Bang bang!"

The muzzles of hundreds of guns spewed flames and white smoke at the same time, and then more than a dozen people fell on the opposite bank.

It was only at this time that the Western Xia soldiers on the other side realized that something was wrong.

The enemy was at least seventy or eighty feet away from his side, that is, about two hundred meters, which was beyond the range of the bow and crossbow, but the enemy could hit them.

Although the accuracy is relatively poor, it can't stand a large number of Western Xia soldiers standing by the river in a long snake formation, and the river embankment is full of their people.

No matter how erratic the bullets are, it's still easy to hit them. In particular, they are still on war horses with a clear goal.

Many Western Xia soldiers were not even shot, but their horses were heavy, some of them fell to the ground in pain, some fled in fright, and some simply jumped into the river and drowned half to death.

Seeing this scene, the surrounding Western Xia soldiers panicked and began to retreat in panic.

Then as soon as they retreated, the Song army could advance, anyway, how much the enemy retreated, how much they advanced, forever remained outside the range of the bow and crossbow, constantly shooting harassment.

Let's be honest.

The Western Xia soldiers on the south bank were hit hard because the Song army could cover with firepower, and it doesn't matter if the accuracy is poor, make up a firepower net to see how you dodge.

But it was not easy to shoot the Western Xia soldiers on the north shore, they brought a large number of fixed ammunition on board, and it was estimated that more than a thousand rounds were fired, and very few actually shot the enemy, and there were only a dozen unlucky eggs.

It can't stand the fear of the Western Xia people and horses, especially the horses.

Even if Li Yuanhao has learned to be smart now and has learned to plug the ears of horses to prevent loud noises, it is difficult to blindfold his eyes with an eye patch.

Neither the cost nor the fact that the charge was blindfolded at the moment could only expose the horses to gunfire.

After more than a dozen rounds of shooting, the Western Xia cavalry dispersed, and Jia Kui led the soldiers to the beachhead, and more than 100 such as organizing a firepower network, forcing the surrounding Western Xia soldiers not to dare to cross the thunder pool by half a step.

Immediately after that, the ship began to turn back and continue to pick up people.

At this time, if the Western Xia army took the opportunity to rush regardless of casualties, even if the firepower network organized by more than 100 people shot 1200 people, it would still be no problem to take them down.

The guards on the Western Xia side were not stupid people, but they understood this, and began to constantly shout for the soldiers of all departments to quickly complete the assembly.

However, when the number of people was small, they were just sent to death, but most of the Western Xia soldiers had already been frightened, and the frightened horses were scurrying around, and it was not easy to reorganize the personnel to launch an offensive, and it was urgent to take time.

The two sides raced against time, and after almost a quarter of an hour, the Western Xia finally reluctantly organized a team of 3,000 men, lined up in formation, intending to launch a death charge.

But before they could start, they fell into despair. Because the next wave of soldiers of the Song army had already rowed small boats to the shore quickly, and they were also lining up musket arrays.

With the current posture, I am afraid that even if you rush over and win, it will be a miserable victory at best.

The generals of the Western Xia army gritted their teeth and shouted loudly in the Western Xia language: "Warriors of our clan, the eagle will not bow its arrogant head to anyone, even if it is death, it will not shake our honor, kill!" ”

"Kill!"

The group that followed Li Yuanhao to fight the country can also be regarded as the elite of Western Xia, and they are so fearless of death that they launched a death-like charge.

Seeing this, Jia Kui, who had built a defensive line on the shore in the distance, sneered and shouted, "Dig guys." ”

Immediately a soldier walked up to the boat and began to carry the grenades.

Although muskets and artillery are equipped in a large area, the Song army has always had reserves for this thing, after all, it is a firearm and a cold weapon, how can it not prepare anything?

Song soldiers hung two or three on their waists, and when they crossed the river for the second time, Jia Kui asked people to carry a large number of grenades to the boat.

At this moment, about thirty people abandoned their guns and moved grenades to the front of their positions.

The remaining 200 or so men continued to form a three-stage firing formation, aiming their guns at the Western Xia cavalry who were charging at them on the northern plain.

"Shoot!"

When the cavalry was more than 100 zhang away, that is, almost 300 meters away, Jia Kui shouted loudly.

Although the reloading of Mini rounds is not as convenient and simple as that of rear-loading rifles, the range is not far behind.

During the Civil War, Sergeant Gray, a sniper of the Confederate Army, also performed the miracle of shooting and killing the general of the Northern Army, John Sedgwick, with a Whitworth rifle from 900 meters away.

And this rifle construction is even inferior to the musket of the current Great Song Dynasty.

Because the Whitworth rifle was designed without Mini bullets in the early stage, and hard projectiles were used, the muzzle was easily jammed by the bullet during loading, so that it could not be fired.

It was not until later that Mini bullets began to be used, and the lack of airtightness led to insufficient combustion and the problem of remaining inside was extremely serious.

Nowadays, the weapons manufacturing of the Great Song Dynasty was vigorously studied by the imperial court, unlike the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the West, which were often modified and designed by folk craftsmen or gunsmiths themselves.

The strength of a country, the strength of an individual, and the degree of completion of the designed firearms are naturally incomparable.

So to a certain extent, the firearms of the Great Song Dynasty are more advanced than those of the American Civil War, and even stronger than those in the Guangxu period at the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1880.

Basically, we have reached the threshold before the First World War, that is, before the invention of smokeless gunpowder in France in 1886, and after 1890, the world abandoned black powder and began to vigorously develop modern rifles.

At this moment the enemy's cavalry regrouped and again launched an offensive towards the river. Dozens of musketeers fired at once, followed by the second, third, fourth, and repeated, as if there was no end.

The Western Xia cavalry in front fell like harvesting wheat, making the Western Xia general who was also following the team in the charge already sweating, and a wave of fear arose in his heart.

But he didn't dare to have any thoughts of slowing down or leaving the battlefield.

The march and battle sometimes rely on such momentum, once the momentum is not out, or if it is discouraged, then the army is really defeated and defeated.

Therefore, the Western Xia side could only continue to rush forward, praying that God would bless them and that bullets would not fall on their heads.

The distance of 100 zhang and 300 meters, less than a minute, seemed to the Western Xia soldiers to have passed more than half a century, so long and frightening.

But after paying the price of hundreds of people, the remaining 2,000 people finally came to the front, which made the surviving general of the Western Xia army excited and nervous.

I was excited that the god of luck really favored me and kept me alive. Nervously, he saw with his own eyes that when he was about to get close to thirty zhang, Song Jun suddenly took out a grenade that frightened them.

This thing is all too familiar to the Tangut people.

Before the Western Xia soldiers could react, they heard the Song army already shouting: "Bombardiers prepare!" ”

"Throw!"

Thirty zhang is more than 90 meters, and the bombardiers can't throw it with all their strength.

But this is a predictive attack.

Song Jun took out the grenade, pulled the fuse, and threw it out, which was estimated to take a few seconds.

And these few seconds were enough for the Western Xia cavalry to run fifty or sixty meters away.

"Bang bang bang!"

The first round of grenades caused almost no lethality.

Because there are very few that can be thrown to 50 meters, most grenades fall at about 30 meters.

But even so, it caused the horses to be frightened, and the Western Xia soldiers instinctively feared and subconsciously reined in the horse rope to slow down the effect of the offensive.

Immediately after the second and third rounds, the grenades continued to explode, and the Western Xia soldiers who rushed into the smoke and dust turned over on their backs.

And the musketeers are still harvesting lives.

After waiting for more than ten seconds, only a few Western Xia soldiers with less than a hundred scattered people rushed in front of them.

"Kill!"

The battlefield was chaotic, some received bayonets at the head of the gun and prepared for white-knuckle combat, some continued to throw grenades to confuse the enemy's formation, and some still maintained a shooting posture.

After a while, it seemed that many Western Xia cavalry approached again, and the two sides fought fiercely together, and finally began to fight with cold weapons.

However, at this time, the Song army fought more and more, but the Western Xia army fought less and less.

Because six small boats were constantly transporting the Song army back and forth, three quarters of an hour had passed since the Tanguts organized the army, which was enough for three or four small boats to go back and forth.

Soon the number of the Song army had exceeded 500 people, the Western Xia army was defeated and retreated, and the Western Xia army on the entire north bank was scattered, and even the general of the Western Xia army was not lucky for the second time, and was killed on the spot by eating a grenade.

"Humph!"

Jia Kui pulled the bayonet out of the corpse of a Western Xia soldier and snorted coldly.

Smoke and dust were everywhere around, and gunpowder smoke was filled.

The neighing of horses, the shouts of soldiers, the screams of enemies, and the sound of scattered guns and grenades were all over the place.

He raised his head and looked around, the battlefield was about a kilometer away, and there were enemies fleeing in disarray.

Although there were casualties on his side, there were not many, only a few unlucky ones died, and then there were twenty or thirty wounded soldiers.

Most of the soldiers were in good spirits, as if they had been beaten with chicken blood, but their feet were not comparable to their horses, and many Western Xia soldiers did not come close and ran away, leaving them with a distant back.

"Phew! A group of cowardly thieves. ”

Jia Kui spat on the ground again, it is true that the saliva cost of the war is true, in addition to the northwest wind and the dust, the dust caused by throwing grenades is also all over the sky, and even many soldiers are covered with dust.

"General, what should I do? We can't catch up. ”

A soldier reported to him.

"Occupy their camp and report to the lieutenant marshal, we have taken the estuary!"

"Yes."

The soldier went back.

In this battle, only 3,000 Song troops defeated more than 10,000 Western Xia troops on the north and south banks of the estuary.

Moreover, thousands of people were killed and wounded, and their own casualties were almost negligible, which can be described as an easy victory!

(End of chapter)