Chapter 655 0650【Just Charge and It’s Done】

When Wanyan Loushi's main force ran two or three miles to the northeast, Wendu Sizhong led more than a hundred light cavalry and ran inconspicuously towards the north.

As a veteran who had experienced hundreds of battles, Wanyan Loushi was not just fierce, and he could not rely on a single retreat.

However, when his soldiers were frightened by the wooden cannon, Wanyan Loushi could not directly say to escape over the mountains and ridges, which would further weaken the fighting will of the soldiers!

Therefore, he could only shout to attack through the valley and quietly send people to check the terrain for escape.

One bright and one dark, two hands are prepared.

The mountains to the north and northwest of the battlefield, that is, the "eight" shape, are all common soil and stone mountainous areas in Shanxi.

To describe it in professional terms, its soil composition is: about 80% of the loess-like brown soil, and about 20% of the thin layer of sandstone-like brown soil.

To put it more simply, there is a small amount of sand and gravel in the loess.

The overall altitude is several hundred meters, but the relative height of those mountains is only a dozen to dozens of meters, and those that can reach one or two hundred meters are considered peaks.

However, the loess has been eroded into gullies and ridges.

There is no valley that can be passed all the way to the bottom. Often, you have to walk along the gully for a while, climb up the ridge, and then go down the mountain to another gully. One side of some ridges is cut straight by nature, and war horses can't go up at all. If you go wrong, you must find a new way.

The narrowest place is only more than 300 meters in a straight line, and the whole army can quickly cross and escape.

The widest place is more than 1,000 meters in a straight line, and the gullies and ridges are intertwined like a maze.

Wendu Sizhong led more than a hundred light cavalry and divided them into ten teams to the foot of the mountain in different places. They abandoned their horses and followed the gullies, climbed up the highest ridge nearby to observe, trying to find the shortest and most suitable escape route for war horses.

The vegetation in the mountains is mainly low-lying grasses such as vitex, yellow barberry, foxtail grass, and white sheep grass.

There are also a small amount of arborvitae and pine, which do not affect the observation from the heights.

Wendu Sizhong started from the foot of the mountain and went to the first nearby high ground for observation. Then he identified the direction of the gullies and ridges around, which took more than ten minutes to basically complete.

Then, he went to another high ground for observation.

…

Twenty cavalry combat teams, namely 400 brave cavalry and 600 light cavalry, ran back to support as the vanguard of the Jin soldiers.

They did not care about the physical strength of the war horses, and the speed reached 420 meters per minute.

This is the armored state of the brave cavalry!

In just about ten minutes, they met the escorts of the Ming heavy cavalry.

These escorts temporarily switched to light cavalry to perform reconnaissance tasks. When they saw the Jin cavalry, they immediately blew the horn to warn, and fled back to the main direction of the friendly forces while blowing the horn.

Soon, the two thousand Ming brave cavalry who stayed to defend the enemy rushed to the vanguard of the Jin cavalry while waiting for the opportunity.

When the vanguard of the Jin army encountered the Ming army's heavy cavalry escort, they began to slow down to let the war horses take a breath, or even reined in their horses and turned around to slowly retreat. Their mission was not to attack, but to reach the battlefield as soon as possible, forcing the Ming army to divide its troops for defense, and delay the speed of the Ming army's attack on the camp.

"Crush the enemy!"

Yang Yun raised his gun and shouted, leading 2,000 cavalry to rush forward, and 1,000 heavy cavalry escorts followed behind to wait for an opportunity to move.

The Jurchen cavalry was a mixture of light and heavy cavalry, with 20 cavalry and 30 light cavalry organized into a 50-man team.

The Ming cavalry imitated the Guanning cavalry organization, which was also composed of 50 people. But they were all cavalry, 25 people were organized into a squad, and two squads formed a 50-man squadron. (If it is expanded again in the future, light cavalry will be added.)

The formation of the Ming army cavalry squad, of which 20 cavalry formed four five-man columns.

The squad leader was in the front of the middle, and the flag bearer and messenger followed behind the squad leader.

The two squad leaders were located in front of the left and right columns respectively.

There is also a supervisor at the back of the team, who usually does ideological work and supervises the battle in war.

During the battle, the squad leader leads the army to charge head-on.

If it is necessary to change direction and charge, the two squad leaders on the left and right will lead.

If it is an emergency turn, the supervisor will temporarily become the squad leader and lead the whole team to charge or retreat in the opposite direction.

Such a grassroots officer configuration allows the cavalry squad to have people leading the front, back, left and right, maintaining high mobility, high organization and high responsiveness.

The Jin cavalry began to cover alternately, shooting arrows while retreating, and occasionally organizing small-scale counter-charges.

They were trying to delay time and show weakness to lure the enemy.

In other words, they did not care about the fast charge of war horses, and they were weaker with fewer troops. Naturally, they retreated, but they did not collapse, and led the enemy to their main force little by little.

This is the usual routine of the Jin cavalry, and the Liao, Song and Xixia armies have all suffered a lot because of this!

But this time is obviously different.

The cavalry of Liao, Song and Xia all like riding and shooting, and do not like charging close combat. Therefore, the Jin cavalry could retreat calmly, and even organize a counter-charge during the retreat. The Liao, Song, and Xia cavalry, which had the upper hand, would subconsciously avoid the counter-charge, and then continue to pull and shoot arrows to pursue.

At this moment, the Ming cavalry led by Yang Yun rushed forward without hesitation. While chasing, they shot arrows.

When the Jin cavalry took turns to cover the retreat, the Ming cavalry ignored it, relying on more troops and sufficient stamina of the war horses, and rushed straight forward. It didn't matter if they encountered Jin soldiers cruising around, anyway, they had more soldiers and the friendly forces next to them would deal with it.

In a simple sentence, the Jin cavalry was playing tactics, and the Ming cavalry just rushed forward and it was done.

"Woo woo woo woo~~~"

The golden soldiers began to blow the trumpets and wave the flags wildly.

The name of the Jin general was Ohu, which was the same as Wanyan Ohu, the son of Aguda. The Jin cavalry in front of them, including the general Ohu, all came from the Jurchens of the Liao Dynasty, and were conquered by Wanyan Orugu's troops thirteen years ago.

Ohu detached four cavalry teams and organized a counterattack to cover the Jin soldiers who were about to be overtaken.

Based on his more than ten years of experience in cavalry battles, these Han cavalry would definitely be frightened away by the counterattack, and they would rush to distance themselves and shoot.

However, Daming Xiaoqi crashed directly into it!

Not only did the Ming cavalry hit him head-on, but the Ming cavalry squads on both sides also took the initiative to outflank and fight in close combat.

Four cavalry teams, totaling 200 Jin cavalry, were all surrounded and killed by Ming cavalry on three sides.

The remaining Ming Dynasty cavalry adjusted the charging position and distance, gradually moved closer in small groups, and continued to charge towards the remaining Jin cavalry.

The Ming Dynasty Xiaoqi is not a Liao Qi, a Song Qi, or a Xia Qi.

The Jin cavalry's tactics to lure the enemy didn't work anymore.

Not only did Ohu have a small number of troops, but his horses were also severely exhausted. He was so frightened that he gave up the two hundred cavalry and led the other cavalry to retreat at full speed.

Yang Yun divided his troops to kill the two hundred golden cavalry, and then personally led the army to continue the pursuit.

After chasing for about two miles, I saw the main force of Wanyan Lou's room coming from a distance.

"withdraw!"

"Woooooooo~~~~"

The Ming cavalry showed no interest in fighting, turned around and ran away.

In the battle just now, more than 180 Jin cavalry were annihilated, and many were shot and wounded during the pursuit.

Ohu rushed back with the defeated troops and said to Wanyan Loushi: "These Ming army cavalry are different. When our army covered the counterattack, they did not retreat!"

This is so fucking outrageous.

The Ming army's reaction was normal, but in Ohu's view, it was extremely abnormal.

Because the Liao Army, Song Army, and Xixia Army would subconsciously keep their distance, they rarely rush forward to engage in close combat—unless they already have a crushing advantage.

Wanyan Loushi said: "The cavalry of the Ming army rushed out and retreated when they saw the main force of our army. It seems that our camp has not fallen yet, otherwise they would have occupied the defense of the camp. The whole army accelerated and moved forward to attack the enemy with the friendly forces of the camp! "

…

Jinbing camp.

Seeing that Wang De had occupied the high ground, the guard general Saba immediately sent out 80 elite Jurchens to supplement the defense, and beheaded the frightened defenders in public.

More and more warriors who first climbed the camp ascended to the high ground, and Wang De began to lead his troops to rush downwards.

The battle only lasted six or seven minutes, and the Han army of the Jin Kingdom had been defeated there. Eighty Jurchen elites were killed and wounded more than 20 people.

More troops who first ascended the camp rushed to the top of the nearby wall from the high ground, attacking and killing the Han troops of the Jin Dynasty and the civilians of Menxian County who were defending the wall.

The civilian husband fled in fear, and the Jurchen war team could not stop him at all.

Seeing that the Han army of the Jin Kingdom was about to collapse, Saba had no choice but to throw in the rest of the Jurchen elites, and even rushed forward himself.

A messenger came on horseback and whispered to Chen Ziyi: "General, the main force of the Jin army is coming soon. General Yang asked if he wants to lead his troops in a bloody battle to delay time."

Chen Ziyi said: "No need, let him temporarily withdraw from the battlefield to the southeast, wait for an opportunity to spy on the enemy, and then fight back. The valley here is too narrow to accommodate too many cavalry. Even if the enemy camp is captured, thousands of horses will be blocked at the entrance of the valley. It’s also difficult to quickly evacuate into the camp.”

In Zhang Guangdao's plan, he never thought of quickly capturing the enemy camp and then letting all Chen Ziyi's troops withdraw to defend.

If that was the case, Wanyan Loushi definitely had no desire to fight, and he probably led the entire army to the northwest and fled over the mountains. Although this situation can leave many enemies behind and force them to give up some of their armor and horses, it is very likely that more than half of them will be able to escape.

"The brave cavalry covers the heavy cavalry and retreats!"

The heavy cavalry, which had been temporarily converted into heavy infantry, suffered almost no casualties except for a few stepping on caltrops.

They didn't even engage in much combat, spending most of their time banging against the wall.

The arrows and spears of the Jin soldiers were unable to break through the heavy armor defense. They only dropped some loess blocks and injured a small number of heavy cavalry. These loess blocks were very light and the impact point was not high. There were very few heavy cavalrymen who suffered fractures. (Most of the loess collected by the Jin soldiers from the valley was used to fill the village walls and block the doors, and very little was used as rolling stones.)

The valiant cavalry raised their spears to replace the heavy cavalry. The heavy cavalry slowly retreated from outside the village wall and went to the mouth of the valley to get their horses.

The real breakthrough point is on the two hillsides, but there is no fight at the bottom of the valley.

More than twenty knights had climbed to the high ground captured by the First Deng camp, and they were shooting at the Jin Han soldiers diagonally below.

These Han soldiers from the Jin Kingdom had a low armor ratio and mainly wore leather armor, which could not carry bows and arrows at all.

After continuously shooting dozens of arrows from a high position, the Han soldiers of the Jin Kingdom fled on a large scale, and the Jin camp's defense completely collapsed.

Saba led the Jurchen elite who were not entangled and quickly retreated to ride on their war horses. They had only about 40 horses left, and they retreated and fired in the face of the advancing camp.

More Ming Dynasty knights climbed up the wall and shot towards the forty golden knights.

After several riders fell off their horses, Jin General Sa Ba fled in panic.

Wang De led his troops to chase down the defeated army, and divided dozens of warriors who first climbed into the camp to remove the loess blocks placed on the inside of the village gate, and then opened the village gate to welcome more friendly troops.

The retinues were already riding back from the battlefield, driving the horses of the valiant cavalry into the camp, and at the same time allocating manpower to put on horse armor for the heavy cavalry.

Due to the congestion at the entrance of the valley, the main force of the Jin Kingdom was approaching, and there were still hundreds of war horses that did not have time to retreat into the valley. They dispersed these horses directly outside the valley, and then retrieved them after the battle was over.

Thousands of Ming heavy cavalry went outside the valley to mount their horses and retreated into the valley in batches.

Chen Ziyi ordered: "The soldiers who retreated into the camp all shouted loudly, pretending that the enemy camp had not been broken! Some people also came from the hillsides outside the camp wall and on both sides, raised their guns and shot arrows, pretending to be fighting."

This was because they were afraid that the camp had been broken and the main force of the Jin soldiers would be scared away.

The valley was rugged and the specific situation inside could not be seen clearly from outside.

In fact, it didn't matter if the Jin camp was not broken. As long as they used the narrow terrain to fight on both sides and delay the time as much as possible, they would complete the task. Breaking the enemy camp was just an unexpected surprise.

Wanyan Loushi heard the roar of fighting and ordered without thinking: "Our army's camp is still there, attack the Ming army from both sides!"

This time, they went directly to Hezhameng'an, and the soldiers and horses were all heavily armored, and rushed into the valley in batches in small teams.