Chapter 468: The Lion Fights the Rabbit with All Its Strength

The rolling dust and smoke went straight to the sky.

In the evening sunset in the Western Desert, the earth was painted as red as blood by the setting sun.

I don’t know why, it was orange before, but now it is more vivid, but it is also slowly getting darker.

Herds of cattle and sheep are driven by the shouts and whips of herdsmen, slowly heading home.

Some people shouted loudly and hummed in their own ethnic language.

Some people kept shouting, urging the cattle and sheep at home to go home quickly.

Others sang songs in strange accents.

If you understand the language of the ancestors of ethnic minorities, you can vaguely distinguish that it is a folk song of the ancestors of the Uighurs during the Tiele tribes.

"Chi Lechuan, under the Yinshan Mountains, the sky is like a dome, covering the four fields. The sky is vast, the fields are vast, the wind blows the grass low and you can see cattle and sheep"

But soon, such peace and tranquility was broken.

The herdsmen found that many dense black spots appeared on the trade road in the south leading to Dunhuang.

Experienced herdsmen recognized at a glance that this was definitely not a caravan, but an army.

Because caravans usually have dozens or hundreds of people, and the largest caravan has only a few thousand people. It will never be like now, where you can't see the end at a glance.

On the contrary, only the army will have such a situation.

So after seeing a large group of people suddenly appear in the distance, the herdsmen quickly galloped their horses and ran to tell each other.

At the same time, Di Qing and his team stopped.

It was late August, whether it was the grassland or the northwest Gobi, it was the time for cattle and sheep to fatten up in autumn. All herdsmen, as long as they still had cattle and sheep at home, had to graze outside.

It was already evening, and a large number of herdsmen drove the cattle and sheep back and drove the livestock to the sheepfolds, cattle pens, and horse pens built with stones or wood.

But in such an ordinary situation, Di Qing and his team found something unusual.

Dust and smoke were rolling in the west, and a large number of cavalry were also galloping. Experienced scouts could tell the approximate number of enemies just by looking at the scale of the smoke and dust.

There was no shortage of such scouts in the Song army, and they quickly reported the situation to Di Qing.

However, Di Qing was not afraid of this situation. With an order, the Song army began to change direction, no longer rushing north to Yizhou City, but heading northwest.

"Your Majesty, the Song people changed direction."

In the northwest, about five miles away from Yizhou Tucheng, Aqi Fuluo, who led an army of 80,000 Uighurs, planned to stay in Yizhou tonight.

Yizhou was just a small earthen city, and it certainly couldn't accommodate so many people and horses. They would stay outside the city for one night, and wait until tomorrow to find out the movements of the Song army, and then reorganize the troops and horses to attack the Song army head-on.

Unexpectedly, they heard that the Song army had arrived halfway and had not entered Yizhou City, and they should be only about ten miles away from their position.

While Aqifuluo was hesitating whether to launch a surprise attack on the Song army directly or wait and see, he heard the news of the Song army's attack.

This surprised him.

Why.

Twenty thousand Song soldiers, attacking his 80,000 troops?

Who gave them the courage?

But now was not the time for him to think. Ten miles was only about five or six kilometers.

It usually takes an hour to walk, and if the horse walks at a slow pace, it can basically arrive in half an hour.

This means that Aqifuluo only has about two quarters of an hour to reorganize his troops.

If he cannot arrange the formation as soon as possible during this period, he will be attacked by the enemy.

"Your Majesty, the Song army must want to attack unexpectedly. We must immediately form our troops, otherwise we will be ambushed by the Song army."

The general Abaximi next to him advised: "Please make a decision quickly, Your Majesty."

"Yes."

Aqi Fuluo finally reacted and shouted: "Form a battle array, form a battle array!"

"Woo woo woo woo!"

Then the desolate horn resounded through the sky.

The cavalry of the Western Region Uighurs retreated step by step in the face of the Western Xia cavalry, but it did not mean that they were weak.

On the contrary, as a grassland nomadic people, it is their nature to fight on horseback. If they were facing the Song army more than ten years ago, they would have a great chance of winning.

At this moment, as the sound of the horn sounded, a large number of cavalry in the rear began to gather quickly and adjust their positions according to the square formations one by one.

What is the concept of 80,000 cavalry?

In a radius of several kilometers, there were people shouting and horses neighing everywhere, densely packed with human heads and horse hooves, and the stench of various feces mixed with the smell of horses was disgusting.

However, the Uighurs had long been accustomed to all this. Under the leadership of their respective tribal leaders, they urged their horses and began to line up in order.

On the vast Gobi Desert, they found a relatively high gentle slope and overlooked the distance.

As the Uighur cavalry stood on the slope one by one, they also stood on the distant horizon like a crescent arc, constantly extending to the south.

If you look from the direction of the Song army, you will see that on the horizon that stretches for several kilometers, from northeast to southwest, facing them in the southeast direction, all are Uighur soldiers wearing leather armor.

There is really no end at a glance.

"Sir, how to fight?"

Jia Kui, who has risen from the Qinzhou Army to the current Qinfeng Road Army Deputy General Manager, is no longer the young general he was back then, but a strong-looking backbone in his forties.

He looked into the distance, saw the countless heads, and the oppressive feeling of looking down from a high place, and for a moment he was a little dazed.

Since Li Yuanhao's defeat, we haven't met a decent opponent for many years.

Di Qing narrowed his eyes.

Strategically, he despised his opponents, so he dared to fight the enemy head-on without hesitation.

But a lion will fight a rabbit with all its strength, so it cannot be underestimated in tactics.

So he looked around and saw that the enemy had temporarily deployed its formation, so he said: "They must want to swoop down from a high place and use their strength to launch a charge. Once we attack their center, we will inevitably be sandwiched by their two wings."

"Yeah."

Jia Kui also noticed this, and after a little thought, he said: "Why not attack their two wings directly and force them to come to the rescue in the center, so that they can't take care of both ends?"

However, Di Qing shook his head and said: "If my guess is correct, there are still some soldiers and horses in their rear to protect the two wings and the center. Once we attack the two wings, we will be bypassed by their soldiers and horses in the rear."

"What should we do then?"

Jia Kui asked.

Di Qing pondered for a moment and said, "This formation is most afraid of being attacked from behind after the two wings are doubled, because the two wings were originally spread out, and the rear formation could rush to help. But the two wings are close to the middle, and the rear formation is difficult to come quickly, which will disturb the arrangement of the middle formation, so you can pretend to attack their middle formation first, lead the enemy to double-team, and then attack their two wings, so as to complete the double-team and counter-double-team."

The formation listed by the opposite side looks like a crescent arc, but it is actually a V shape, but they can't see the corner below the V.

Because this set of tactics has long existed in ancient times, it is called the Goose Formation, which is recorded in "Sun Bin's Art of War".

This formation is strong in the mobility of the two wings, so cavalry is often deployed on the two wings, infantry is deployed in the middle, and there are troops in the rear to prevent the enemy from detouring, which can be said to be both offensive and defensive.

But no matter how strong the formation is, there must be weaknesses. Water has no constant state and soldiers have no constant shape. Once the formation changes, such as the two wings are encircled, there will inevitably be flaws.

Under normal circumstances, the two wings will surround all the enemies, so there will naturally be no threat in the rear, and there will definitely be no flaws.

But if the enemy feints to attack the middle, attract your two wings to encircle, and then break the weak defenses behind your two wings, and then sweep the middle and rear formations, that is another matter.

Therefore, it is impossible to march and fight only according to the formation, but to adapt to the situation. If the enemy changes, you have to change yourself, otherwise you will be passively beaten.

However, in fact, the Song army traveled thousands of miles this time, and the supply line was too long. Although they did not bring heavy artillery of more than 2,000 kilograms, they still had small artillery of 200 kilograms. With the formation of muskets, even if they fought head-on with the Uighurs, they would inevitably be defeated.

However, Di Qing's ambition was not limited to defeating the Uighurs.

Because in a frontal attack, once the guns and cannons sounded, at most the Uighur soldiers in the middle formation would be defeated. When the people on the two wings and the rear formation saw this situation, they would definitely run away in a swarm.

The gains and military exploits would be much less.

But if a feint attack attracted the enemy's two wings to come to clamp, then the two wings would definitely not be able to escape, and might even implicate the rear formation who wanted to come to rescue.

At that time, it might be possible that the Uighur army would be completely wiped out.

So in short, Di Qing did not want to rush over and defeat the Uighurs directly, but wanted to expand the results of the battle and give the Uighurs a profound lesson, so that they would know who is the master of this area of ​​the Western Regions.

"Sir, I am willing to be the bait!"

Jia Kui said.

"Okay."

Di Qing summoned several generals and pointed to the distance and said: "Jia Kui leads 8,000 men to enter the battle formation, Wang Shiyun leads 5,000 men to feint to attack the enemy's left wing, and Sun Guangyi leads 5,000 men to feint to attack the enemy's right wing. They will advance into their battle formation in three directions. After they enter the battle formation, you will immediately change to a circular formation and attack the enemy in three stages!"

This tactic is actually a trident, which is a normal formation for attacking the goose formation. In "Sun Bin's Art of War", it is a variant of the hook formation.

Because the two wings of the goose formation are often cavalry, and the middle is infantry and crossbows, once the middle crossbows and infantry push horizontally, and the two wings come over again, they can effectively strike the enemy.

For example, during Alexander's attack on India, the Battle of the Hydaspes River, which broke out with the army led by King Porus of India, adopted this set of tactics.

Therefore, in the face of the goose formation, if you want to attack it, you must hold the enemy's two wings and flanke them, and only after breaking through the middle and detouring can you achieve results.

Di Qing was obviously pretending to respond normally.

But a normal response requires that the combat effectiveness and number of the two armies are not much different, or even better than the enemy.

If the number of people is small and the combat effectiveness is poor, such a response is tantamount to surrounding all the troops by the enemy.

Soon, the Song army completed the change of formation. Jia Kui shouted, and the horn of the headquarters sounded a melodious long sound. Eight thousand knights followed behind him, like a sharp arrow piercing the enemy's heart.

On the left and right sides, Wang Shiyun, the deputy commander of Qinfeng Road, and Sun Guangyi, the military commander of Qinfeng Road, each led 5,000 people to rush to the enemy's two wings.

On the hillside in the distance, the Uighur general Abaximi saw this situation and said happily: "Your Majesty, the Song people are stupid. They actually beat the many with the few. Now is the right time to rest and wait for them to charge, and then surround and destroy them."

"Very good, let's do it."

Aqi Fuluo nodded with satisfaction. Obviously in his eyes, the Song army was already a turtle in a jar.

Soon the two sides were getting closer and closer, and when they were about to enter the range of the Uighurs' crossbows, the Song army slowed down two miles away and finally stopped one mile away.

Both sides fell into silence for a while, and the Song army had entered the encirclement.

However, the Song army did not continue the attack, which disappointed Abbasimi, who had originally planned to wait for the work and wait for the Song army to attack with bows and crossbows before ordering the entire army to charge.

But thinking about it, the Song army was not stupid enough to use cavalry to attack the gentle slopes of high places. This situation is reasonable now.

So Abbasimi immediately reported to Aqifura: "Your Majesty, it is time to attack."

"attack!"

Akifuluo issued a military order.

"woo woo woo woo!"

The desolate horns resounded across the sky, and all the Uighurs began to urge their horses, coming down the gentle slope, and then began to accelerate.

Tens of thousands of cavalry swooped down, and the scene was so spectacular that the heaven and earth seemed to tremble.

At this moment, outside the battlefield in the distance, Di Qing narrowed his eyes. Almost at the same time as the Uighurs were moving, he issued a military order: "Come with me to kill the enemy's two wings. Zeng Yong, you lead five hundred people and attack their rear."

"yes!"

Zeng Yong responded under the jurisdiction of Huizhou soldiers and horses.

It seems a bit incredible that 500 people attacked the enemy's rear formation with 10,000 or 20,000 troops.

However, Di Qing arranged it like this, and he could predict the result.

Soon the Uighurs had rushed in front of the Song army. Less than a hundred feet away, the Song army had already set up a circular formation and raised their muskets.

"three!"

"two!"

"one!"

"shooting!"

As Jia Kui's roar pierced the sky.

Countless sharp whistles also followed the sound of the former army headquarters.

The next moment, the Uighurs who had rushed thirty feet away heard a nightmare sound.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Flames erupted from the muzzle, and dense bullets penetrated directly through the cavalry group.

Before a large number of Uighurs could realize what was going on, they immediately fell over.

Those in front fell down one after another, and those in the rear also suffered. Even if they were not hit, they were overthrown by the fallen men and horses in front. For a while, the Uighurs fell into great chaos.

However, the gunfire had not stopped yet. The Song Army, which had developed a breech-loading rifle, loaded the weapon very quickly and quickly ushered in the second shot.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The sound of gunfire continued, and the Uighurs' formation was completely in chaos.

Akifuluo, who was watching on the mountain, widened his eyes with disbelief on his face. While he was stunned, a large number of cavalry came galloping from the flanks.

Some charged towards their rear formation, and hundreds of others made a surprise attack directly in the direction of his royal court. The billowing dust and smoke were like arrows leaving the string, and they seemed to be trying to capture the thief first.

Even before the two sides came into contact with each other, the Uighurs were already defeated!