Chapter 447: Vulnerable

As the saying goes, when there are tens of thousands of people, there is no limit. The cavalry of more than 20,000 people, carrying the captured war horses, dispersed in the formation of the charge, and the scene was extremely spectacular.

The knights carried long spears, and their bodies rose and fell with the horse's back. There was no fear in their eyes, but no firmness, and some were just numb. That was because they had killed too many people and cut too many livestock in the past year, and were accompanied by blood all day, which brought them indifference to the lives of others and their own lives.

The chaotic sound of horse hooves, I don't know when the rhythm was synchronized, and it became a sound of clatter. It shook the earth and swung far away. In the raging wind and the setting sun like blood, a long, boundless black shadow appeared on the horizon and entered the field of vision of the Xixia defenders who were forming a formation outside the city. It stopped five miles away, and the killing atmosphere rose.

Not long after the Fubei Army moved eastward, the Xixia scouts had received the news. No one thought that this army would really attack Xingqing Prefecture, but at this time, it was too late to come over the large encirclement of dozens of kilometers.

Looking at the cavalry arrayed in the distance and the infantry of at least 50,000 people on the side, Wang Yan was not surprised why there were so many troops here when the front line was hit hard.

Because it is easy to understand. He basically drove most of the people to the big cities in the south. Xixia is a nation of soldiers. At this critical moment, they have to go to war even if they are not full. Therefore, most of the male adults in Xixia who are over 10 years old have gone to the battlefield. Moreover, the troops and horses that were fighting against the Liao Kingdom in the east were also transferred to the south. This is to unleash all the war potential to resist this national disaster. Therefore, there is no shortage of soldiers, but the quality is reduced.

On the other hand, the Song Dynasty did not lack cavalry troops, but the only elite troops in the system were the Fubei Army. If the Fubei Army could be completely destroyed, it would not only boost morale, but also weaken the Song Dynasty. After all, if the Fubei Army was let go, went out to rest, and then turned back to the front battlefield, it would definitely not be a joke. So this time, they are serious. With the fate of the country on the table, Xixia would rather give up part of the frontline battlefield and retreat, but also withdraw troops to completely destroy the Fubei Army. This is called saving people and losing land, but both people and land are saved.

So in this battle, if the Fubei Army is destroyed, Xixia will have room for easing and can still toss for a while. If it cannot be destroyed, Xixia will be finished this time.

This is the largest group battle since the birth of the Fubei Army. In the past, when they encountered such a lineup, they would run away and never fight head-on. Now it is no longer possible. The rear has been cut off and there is no place to run. Trip ropes and pits, these things are likely to be arranged in time. Of course, even if they are arranged, there is no way, only to charge. In a real tough battle, if the Fubei Army can survive a few thousand people in the end, with these people as the foundation, the Fubei Army will be considered to be the absolute best light cavalry unit in the world.

As for the annihilation of the army, it is just an adjective. Xixia can't kill everyone without leaving a single person, so there are always defeated soldiers who flee. Anyway, he couldn't die, but it would be difficult to report to Zhao Ji if he went back.

"Send the order, send 5,000 troops from each wing to support the attack, and the rest of the people will be the vanguard and form a front arrow formation."

As his voice fell, the generals around him waved flags to pass the message. Soon, with the flag signal, 5,000 people were separated from each side of the army. After a brief chaos, they quickly formed a formation to charge the formation and attacked one after another.

The flanks need to take a detour, run far away, mainly attack the infantry on the flanks, divide the battlefield, and destroy the enemy's army. Wang Yan looked at the smoke and dust on both sides, and said without looking back: "The outcome of this battle is unpredictable, you two must follow closely. If you fall off your horse, you will either be trampled to death by the enemy or by your own people."

He said this to the two military supervisors behind him. The safest position in the entire army is behind him. After all, he was slashing in front, and the army formation was separated, so there was always a vacuum behind him. This was the key to the two military supervisors' survival until now.

Hearing Wang Yan's words, the two responded, holding sabers in one hand and holding the reins tightly in the other, twisting their buttocks back and forth on the saddle, and pushing their feet hard in the stirrups. The dark and overwhelming enemy army was so overwhelming that anyone could not see it.

Seeing that the enemy changed its formation and began to shoot arrows, but the cavalry in the middle did not move, Wang Yan casually pinned Ma Shuo horizontally in the groove on the saddle, then picked up the tied bow and took three arrows in his hand. Following his actions, the cavalry behind him followed suit and all moved in unison.

When the dense clattering sound behind him stopped, Wang Yan shouted, rushed out of the formation with his legs clamped on the horse's belly, and began to speed up. The soldiers in the rear followed tacitly, drawing their bows and arrows at the same time, and began to shoot according to their estimates.

At a distance of five miles, there were soldiers coming from the opposite side, and three rounds of arrows were almost right. Of course, the opposite side was also shooting arrows, and this was mutual. Some were unlucky and their horses were shot, and some were not unlucky and their people were shot, and they all died in different ways. Fortunately, the battle formation was reasonable, and there would not be a situation where one horse fell and delayed the people behind, so the direction could be adjusted in time.

Rushing forward under the arrows, after firing three arrows in a row, Wang Yan calmly bent down, pinned the bow to prevent it from falling off, and then picked up the eight-foot-long Ma Shuo lying on the horse's back, clamped it under his arm, bent his body slightly, and rushed into the enemy army.

In this era, the first cavalry was of course a fierce general. Just like the left and right wings he had just sent out, one leader was Lu Junyi, and the other was Dong Ping. They were not fierce, and did not have the indomitable momentum, so they could not be the vanguard. This was a general.

Wang Yan had no interest in knowing who the opponent was. He just stared at the enemy from a distance. Both of them tacitly held their weapons and adjusted the angles as their bodies rose and fell. This was a psychological war with only one chance. It depended on prediction and courage. Whoever lost would die. But the enemy general might be disappointed because he was always the winner.

The enemy general was still changing the trajectory of the spear before the battle, trying to confuse the judgment. It might be useful for others, but it was useless for Wang Yan. He was seen holding Ma Shuo and swinging in a large range. In the enemy general's unbelievable eyes, he pushed away the constantly shaking and scheming spear tip, and then stabbed him directly in the stomach. The quality of this armor was good. Although it broke the defense, it only penetrated a little. The enemy general was in pain and gave up his weapon, holding the spear head that was stabbed into his stomach with both hands.

At this time, he was already horizontal in the air...

The principle of leverage was there. It was already amazing to be able to hold a weapon more than four meters long under the armpit with the arm, not to mention that it could move in a large range like him. Although there are many people who can do it, it is a war after all, not just that one, so it is a great test for the reasonable allocation of physical strength. There are very few people as fierce as Wang Yan, and he is so relaxed, powerful and swift, and caught off guard.

Wang Yan did not stop at all. He used the impact force and his own strength to carry the enemy's body to crash into the soldier who followed in the back row, and the soldier who was directly hit fell off the horse. Before he could think of anything else, the men behind Wang Yan rode their horses to catch up, and the horseshoes of the horseshoes stepped on his face with a click...

Pick, poke, and poke, he did not need to kill all the enemies in front of him. In fact, he only needed to destroy the balance of the enemy, and the men following him would naturally chop him to death before the enemy soldiers recovered. He was very efficient, like a real arrow, sweeping the enemies in front of him.

The collision of 10,000 cavalry was just a matter of a moment. Soon, Wang Yan broke through the enemy army, but he did not stop, because there were infantry holding shields and spears in the back.

Wang Yan was fearless. He threw Ma Shuo with great force, piercing through the shield and nailing the soldier behind him to the ground. His horse was also fearless. It jumped high and stepped hard on the shield with its hooves. As for the cold spear, it was not scary. Because most of their war horses were wrapped in a layer of light armor on the front to avoid being injured by head-on collision.

He picked up Ma Shuo, who was nailed to the ground, and smashed it hard on the head of the enemy soldier with both hands. Long weapons, although difficult to use at this time, are undeniably more powerful. He is an expert in playing with guns. He basically doesn't hit other places. He either hits the head, picks the head, or pierces the head. To deal with such small infantry, one shot is enough.

Even the two military supervisors who followed closely behind him held their sabers diagonally to see who would be unlucky. The two of them couldn't swing it either, so they took advantage of the speed of the horses and stabbed it with the blade facing outward. The saber is sharp, and with the speed, this kind of soldier can basically wipe out a row with one stroke, which is the advantage of cavalry over infantry.

At this point, Wang Yan has understood that Xixia is going to be gone. Although this is the first large-scale group battle, he can also see the quality of the soldiers. The troops fighting with them now, whether cavalry or infantry, are not very combat-effective. He can see that the old are leading the new, but the old are leading too many new, which is the key to the problem. From this point of view, Xixia has reached the end of its rope.

Of course, maybe their real elites are blocking him from behind, after all, as for strategy, there are four directions to go, true and false, real and fake. Just like he doesn't know where to live, the enemy doesn't know where he will go, and will not think that he will go to the most difficult place.

Now it seems that he is lucky.

As the killing like cutting leeks continued, the troops on both wings finally killed in from the side, and then without instructions, they turned around without saying a word and continued to slaughter in the battlefield that had just been separated.

It was also at this time that the army of Xixia began to disintegrate.

People had their own judgments about the battlefield situation. Seeing Wang Yan lead his team to kill through the cavalry, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, he took Ma Shuo and swung him, and some people were even swung away. So many people died, and even the speed of the Fubei Army's horses could not be reduced. Seeing that they were about to be killed, there was still a fight? If they didn't run, they would be picked up by others.

So the people behind the army formation became more and more scared. They didn't dare to swing their swords forward. They didn't want to die. The only way was to turn around and run.

There were supervisors in the rear. They also knew that this batch of soldiers was not good, and they also knew that the opponent was strong, so they did their duty and cut those who ran away.

At the beginning, some people were indeed scared, but seeing Wang Yan and his men getting closer and closer, more and more people were afraid, so they naturally broke through the supervisors and began to run towards the city gate. More and more fleeing soldiers led more and more people to flee, and naturally the whole army was defeated.

Instead of chasing them to the city and making them targets, Wang Yan led his team to a big tail swing. After killing a bunch of fleeing soldiers sideways, he asked his men to wave flags and pass orders, and turned their horses around and headed south directly.

He ignored the cavalry behind him. There were still countless soldiers and horses behind him, and they couldn't attack the city now. There was really no need to entangle them. The right thing to do was to run away quickly.

The current situation was much better than he had imagined. The Xixia soldiers were too weak in combat effectiveness, and they were forming a battle array when they first came, which showed that they were not fully prepared. In this case, there was no need to go north and go back. It was the best strategy to take advantage of their unpreparedness and then stab them from the rear.

The Xixia cavalry was almost half damaged in the previous confrontation, and the remaining people did not dare to continue the pursuit. Therefore, Wang Yan led the Fubei Army and went straight to Jingzhou, which was not far away, regardless of the darkness.

The last time he communicated with Yang Jian was a month ago. Today, Xixia has such an arrangement again. The battlefield ahead must have changed a lot. He didn't know these things. He told Yang Jian only the big strategy, which place to take, how to force Xixia step by step, etc. Other than that, how many troops and how to dispatch them were not his business, and those generals would make up for it.

Yang Jian didn't know anything. All he could do was nod and agree to endorse the actions of his generals. At the same time, he fought for logistics, so that the civil and military officials behind him would not be too greedy and ensure the supplies of the army. With only these two points, Yang Jian was already a qualified commander, far ahead of Tong Guan.

Tong Guan was too greedy. As the commander-in-chief, no matter how he fought, he would be credited as long as he won. But Tong Guan was shameless and wanted to take credit from his subordinates, wanting to let his cronies take the position. He was too ungrateful.

Wang Yan, who had been looking for a way all night and crossed the river the next morning, found that the Song army had already arrived in Jingzhou and set up camp thirty miles away to rest, and Yang Jian and Zhong Shidao were there.

Hearing that a large number of cavalry were coming, they were naturally nervous and alert, but after Wang Yan took out his Wang Zi General Cavalry and tied the Fubei Army Flag to the spear, they avoided misunderstandings and did not fight among themselves.

"My husband, you are back in one piece. You don't know that in the past year, the emperor has asked about you every three days, and the letters from Chang Diji have been sent to us one by one. They are all worried about you."

Yang Jian was very enthusiastic and personally led the horse for Wang Yan. He was very enthusiastic. First, he took Wang Yan's money. Second, anyone who knows can see that this time Xixia will be destroyed, and he is the commander-in-chief. When this battle is over, Tong Guan is nothing. This is his great benefactor, he must be served well.

Zhong Shidao, who is already 70 years old, looked at Yang Jian's flattering look, and compared it with the way he used to be humble but actually arrogant to himself. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, this is still a matter of one thing conquering another. But he didn't have any opinion on Yang Jian. After all, he had worked with Tong Guan before, and there was a comparison. Yang Jian was serious and good, never talking nonsense, saving too much worry.

Wang Yan waved his hand: "Okay, make arrangements, let the soldiers of the Fubei Army settle down, boil water for bathing, and serve good wine and food."

"Don't worry, my son-in-law, I have already arranged it, and I guarantee that the meritorious soldiers will eat and drink well."

"How are the wounded who were sent back before recovering now?"

In the previous battle, although the enemy army was in a bad condition, their losses were not small. Only more than 14,000 people came back, and the rest of them stayed there. Xixia will definitely not kill them all, but I don't know how they will be treated. It depends on fate.

"Those who can fight are now guarding Xiliang with those heavy cavalry. Those who can't fight have been sent back to their hometowns for recuperation. The pension money has also been sent back. We are watching it personally. We have also supplemented a lot of it ourselves. We have also informed the local authorities and promised not to treat them harshly."

"Send them a letter and ask them to move east and get closer to this side." Turning back to instruct the personal soldiers, Wang Yan looked at Master Zhong on the side and said, "Old Master Zhong still looks so energetic."

"The general's demeanor is also better than before." Master Zhong laughed and said, "General, don't say more here. Go wash off the dust first. The wine and food are ready. We will talk while eating."

It is true that the army cannot drink alcohol, but Wang Yan and other Fubei Army soldiers have returned, so they have to drink. Besides, even if the whole army drinks together, according to his understanding, there will be nothing to worry about even if they report it. This is a real thigh.

After washing up, in the central army tent, in addition to Yang Jian and Zhong Shidao, all other qualified generals came to welcome Wang Yan and report the situation to him. They all knew who the real boss was in this battle. Judging from the current situation, they also recognized the strength of this boss. They were all eager, after all, this was a great achievement to destroy a country.

While eating and drinking, while listening to people's stories, Wang Yan also had a grasp of the overall battlefield situation.

The southeast and northwest of Ningxia had all been conquered by the Song Dynasty, and it was reconnected with the Liao Kingdom in the east. Now it can be basically surrounded on three sides, only the north has not moved. It was also because this time Xixia drew troops to besiege the Fubei Army, and the front line lost a large area of ​​​​territory. Now this battle has not been completed, it can be said that Xixia has been cold.

Although Xixia still has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, it is because the Song Dynasty army is carrying out a war of attrition, slowly forcing them. Although they are beaten by them, they are not beaten too fiercely, but they are constantly hanging them. It is by consuming resources that Xixia's living space is being compressed step by step. Too many soldiers is not a good thing, Xixia can no longer bear it.

Wang Yan also does not want to kill all the male adults in Xixia, because all the people in Xixia are soldiers, and without soldiers, there will be no male adults. They are all labor, there is no need to waste them, and they also cause large-scale casualties on their side...

Zhong Shidao took a sip of wine. He was old and in poor health, so he couldn't drink too much. He just wanted to show his respect to Wang Yan. He asked the key question: "General, weren't you originally scheduled to come back from Xiliang? Why are you in Jingzhou now?"

After listening to Wang Yan explain the situation, he pondered for a moment and said: "I estimate that the bridges across the river have been cut off at this moment. Maybe the Li family has also fled north, either to the Uighurs or to Mongolia. They still have some wealth and soldiers to protect themselves, but it’s a pity..."

Of course Wang Yan had thought about this, but he didn't know the specific battlefield conditions at the time. Otherwise, he would have definitely gone north to Helan Mountain as planned. In fact, the most likely possibility is that the people from the Li clan had already run away when they were heading east. If there is any intention of surrender, when their soldiers are dispersed, someone will try to surrender. Even if they were hesitant at that time, they should send people to Jingzhou to study the surrender when they come back, but now there is enough time, but there is no movement from Xixia, so they can only run away.

He shook his head and smiled: "It's no pity, they can't run away. Now there are no Xixia people in the northwest, and the Uighurs don't dare to cross over. The Mongolian tribes, after we take over the Xixia land and open trade routes, we still have to follow As long as we tell those tribesmen who are engaged in cattle and sheep business, the Li clan will come to Bianjing to dance for Jinshang."

When Wang Yan said this, everyone who was originally feeling sorry for not catching the enemy monarch laughed loudly and stopped studying those useless things.

If you want to say that people really need to make progress, look at the group of people who are doing this. They used to think that they could win the war and not be tormented by the civil servants. Now that we have destroyed Xixia, we begin to regret that we were unable to capture the enemy's monarch. This is progress, great progress.

When asked about his next action plan, Wang Yan shook his head and smiled. He knew that these people were afraid that he would not be satisfied and take the credit. After all, Xixia is about to die now. As long as you lead troops to surround a few cities, no one will have to die. When the food and grass in the city are exhausted, someone will naturally offer the city. There will definitely be no accidents. It is time to divide the fruits.

He replied that after a few days of recuperation, the North Korean Army stayed to cooperate with the operation, and he took his soldiers home. Hello, me, hello, everyone...

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