Enemies are extremely jealous when they meet each other. The Liao Army and the Peking Army have long been enemies. When Ma Sanbao's 10,000 cavalry saw a group of cavalry in front of them, they rushed over shouting slogans. The number of the cavalry was relatively small. There were about 1,000 people. When they saw more than 10,000 people rushing towards them, they naturally retreated while fighting. They had no intention of fighting head-on.
The Liao army finally saw their old enemy, so there was no reason to let them go so easily. They chased each other wildly. Both sides chased each other, and soon ran for several hundred meters. However, most of the Liao army soldiers wore heavy iron chains. The weight of the Zijia is obviously much bulkier than the steel wire chain mail issued by the Peking Army, so the horses cannot run as fast.
The thousand-man team being chased seemed to deliberately want to amuse the pursuers behind them. They always ran a few hundred meters in front of the pursuers, not far or close, so that the pursuers could see them, but they couldn't catch up. When Ma Sanbao's men chased them for a mile, the dozens of charging horses suddenly lost their front hoofs. The people on the horses were suddenly thrown to the ground, and they were seriously injured even if they were not dead.
"No, it's a horse nail, please take a detour," Ma Sanbao responded quickly. He had long heard that the Peking Army liked to use landmines and horse nails, but he didn't expect that he would also encounter it.
After being blocked by the horses and nails, the thousand-man cavalry team that was still "escape" suddenly turned their horses and rushed over to shoot arrows at the Liao army who were still dumbfounded. Dozens more people were not happy to be hit by arrows. Just when the Liao army drew their bows and prepared to fight back, they turned their horses and fled dozens of meters away. They were already out of the range of their bows and arrows. The Liao army wanted to divide their troops to pursue them, but they hit their horses and ran away. A hundred meters away, you can't catch up even if you want to.
Being severely "teased" by a thousand-man team and losing nearly a hundred troops, Ma Sanbao was furious, but he had no choice but to continue heading westward with the whole army, trying to join Zhu Neng's troops in front as soon as possible. However, he had just walked a few dozen meters when a cavalry team of a thousand people suddenly rushed out from behind a hill on the side. They took up their bows and fired at the Liao army indiscriminately, and then ran away like the wind.
"You bastard Peiping Army, don't run away if you have the guts." Dozens more people in the Liao Army were injured by arrows. Ma Sanbao was so angry that he cursed his mother. However, this time he didn't lead anyone to chase him because he had already seen the horse nails nailed once. , didn’t want to attack again, so he asked the army to slow down and sent out sentries to look around the army to clear the way.
As a result, the Liao army's march was much slower, and it took an hour to complete the remaining few miles. Fortunately, there was no harassment from the Peiping army along the way, but when Ma Sanbao arrived at Zhu Neng When the troops were stationed in the camp, they found that except for a pile of corpses, there was no one alive outside the camp.
"General Ma, we are late,"
"God damn the Peking thieves, we won't stop until we kill all of you." The Liao soldiers looked at the corpses here, their eyes began to become bloodshot, because the people standing here were their "brothers" who had been born and died with them for many years.
The Liao Army hated the Peiping Army. Why didn't the Peiping Army hate the Liao Army? In the catastrophe a few years ago, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed and injured in Shuntian Prefecture. This bloody account was naturally recorded on the head of the Liao Army, so the Peiping Army took action this time. , showed no mercy at all, didn’t even persuade them to surrender, just killed them all.
"General, look," a soldier pointed at a hillside. Ma Sanbao looked in the direction pointed, and his blood pressure suddenly spiked because there were more than a dozen spears standing on the hillside, and a corpse was hung on each spear. Judging from the clothes of the corpse, it must be a Liao army general who died in the battle.
Hanging corpses as a provocation,
"Beiping thieves, I swear you won't be a human unless we kill all of you," Ma Sanbao was completely furious. At this moment, there was a rapid sound of horse hoofbeats from the north. He followed the sound and saw that there was another team of thousands of people. Appear,
"Chase and kill them all," Ma Sanbao shouted and took the lead in pursuit. At this time, he no longer remembered that he had another combat mission.
Tens of thousands of people were chasing after them, and of course the thousand-man team took off, scattering horse nails on the ground as they ran. Ma Sanbao's eyes turned red, and after chasing him for a few hundred meters, there were dozens more people. Unfortunately, he was attacked, and he suddenly realized: The damn Peking Army loves to use horse nails.
When Ma Sanbao led his troops to make a detour, the thousand-man team actually turned around and charged back while loading their bows with arrows. As soon as they approached a distance of 300 meters, there was a volley of fire. The front line of the Liao army suddenly became chaotic, and then The formation was also very cooperative, and immediately rushed out from both sides, preparing to outflank the thousand-man team.
However, after the thousand-man team fired the arrows, they turned around and ran wildly, not giving the Liao army a chance to fight back with bows and arrows. They quickly opened a distance of 400 meters and ran in front of the Liao army at a short distance. Ma Sanbao The cavalry of the Peking Army was so arrogant that they were so angry that they gritted their teeth and ordered to keep chasing. They had to catch up.
After chasing for several miles, the thousand-man team changed their horses collectively, and then accelerated like crazy. After a while, they ran far away, leaving only the Liao army's ten-person team eating sand. It was almost noon. Ma Sanbao watched the enemy disappear in front of his eyes. He suddenly pulled the reins and shouted: "No, I've fallen into a trap."
"You fell into a trap, what fell into a trap?" The generals around Ma Sanbao didn't know why.
"We have fallen into a trap. The main force of the Peking Army is not here and has been transferred long ago. Only a few thousand-man troops are here to deliberately harass and contain our army."
"Ah," those generals were also surprised. As senior generals, they also knew that their combat mission was to contain the main force of the Peking Army. Now, not only have they not found the main force of the Peking Army, they have also been fooled around by several thousand-man troops. This is really So shameful,
"Damn those Peiping thieves, they have the guts to kill our brothers, but don't have the guts to fight with us, they are a bunch of bastards," another general yelled crazily,
"Since the main force of the Peiping thieves has left, scolding is of no use. We should send a letter to His Highness, informing him of the matter, and asking for instructions on what our army should do next," Ma Sanbao suppressed the anger in his chest and said sternly,
"There is no need to ask for instructions. Since the Peiping thief has turned into a turtle, let's attack his shell directly. I don't believe that the city of Peking cannot be broken," a general said bitterly,
"Yes, let's attack Beiping City and smash the shells of the Peiping thieves," other generals responded one after another.
Ma Sanbao frowned and said, "His Royal Highness has ordered that the attack on Beiping City be left to the rear army. Our army must not act rashly."
"In that case, let's join up with His Highness and storm Baoding Mansion together." The generals were still furious and wanted to find an outlet no matter what.
The main force of the enemy army was lost, and Ma Sanbao also knew that it was useless to stay where he was. Seeing what his generals said, he agreed to send his troops south to attack Baoding Prefecture. While driving forward, Ma Sanbao thought: Peking Army Where did the main force go? At this moment, the sound of rumbling artillery fire came from the southwest, which directly woke him up.
"The main force of the Peking Army is in the southwest," Ma Sanbao was not worried but overjoyed. He took the lead and ran in the direction of the sound of the cannons, because he knew that no one else was using cannons on the battlefield except the Peking Army.
Although the Liao army brought more than a dozen artillery pieces with them on this trip, they were left behind to be used as siege weapons. They had never had the habit of letting the cavalry carry these cumbersome cumbersome weapons, let alone in field battles. Use, after all, gunpowder and artillery shells are very expensive, so only losers like the Peking Army use artillery as "cannon sticks" and put them around.
"However, it's good to fire the artillery. Once the artillery is fired, it will show where the main force of the Beiping Army is. If you rush over at this time, you may be able to flank the friendly forces. It is possible for the two armies to outflank the Beiping Army and defeat the Beiping Army."
With this good wish, Ma Sanbao waved the riding crop in his hand louder, and his troops flew to the southwest like a gust of wind. However, what they never expected was that the Peking Army was divided into three groups. What kind of main force, and they are digging into a pocket without even realizing it?
About twenty miles away from Ma Sanbao's headquarters, the roaring sound of artillery fire came from here. The Middle Route Army led by Wan Lei was here, and encountered Zhang Wu's troops of the Liao army who were rushing south. Zhang Wu's troops were about to attack south. , Wan Lei certainly would not sit idly by and the two armies started a tug-of-war on the plain without saying a word.
Wan Lei's central army had 13,000 men, and its combat power was obviously stronger than Zhang Wu's 10,000 men. It also had a home field advantage. Relying on these three major advantages, the Peking Army just used a small plan to defeat them. Zhang Wu's troops were surrounded by a river. No matter whether Zhang Wu attacked by force or by trickery, they could not get past the Peking Army's defense line.
Seeing that Zhang Wu could not break through, he sent out cavalry troops to attack the Peking Army over and over again, trying to hold back the Peking Army so that other route armies could move south smoothly. This tactic was very good, but what Zhang Wu didn't know was that, The army in front of us is not the entire main force of the Peiping Army. It is just holding back a column.
Moreover, in order to contain this column, Zhang Wu's troops suffered heavy battle losses. Almost every time they charged, hundreds of troops were lost. Moreover, the artillery deployed outside the encirclement always bombarded the encirclement, and many men and horses were killed. Shock injuries, combat strength continues to decline,
The heavy cavalry of the Peiping Army wore steel armor that could not be penetrated by arrows or cut by knives. No arrows fired at them or knives struck them could hurt them, and the light cavalry behind them kept using them. The arrows suppressed the Liao army from a distance and tried to avoid close combat with the Liao soldiers, so there were very few casualties. Even if they were accidentally injured, they were mostly flesh and blood wounds, and their lives were safe.
The two sides fought for half an hour, and Zhang Wu's 10,000 troops dropped to 6,000, and most of them were injured. Their combat effectiveness and morale were plummeting. Wan Lei, who was fighting outside the formation, saw that the enemy troops were exhausted. When it was almost done, with a wave of his hand, the heavy cavalry launched an assault and strangled the remaining defeated generals.
This time, the Peiping Army did not try to persuade the enemy to surrender as usual, but went straight in to slash and kill. The first mace was danced so loudly that the skin and flesh were torn apart wherever it passed. , because in the eyes of all the soldiers of the Peiping Army: the Liao Army was not worthy of being prisoners. Only death can repay the heavy blood debt owed. Only enough blood can comfort the souls of the martyrs.
"Report, a cavalry has appeared in the southeast and is rapidly attacking Baoding Prefecture. The column on the left is engaging the Liao army and is unable to stop it." A cavalry sentry rushed to Wan Lei's horse and reported urgently,
For this battle, all the Peking Army's mounted sentry troops have been dispatched and a complete network of outposts has been established in Shuntian Prefecture. Different from the general flying cavalry transmission, the Peking Army's intelligence transmission uses semaphores, and each outpost is Several kilometers apart, the outposts are equipped with several flag bearers and mounted sentries. Each piece of information is transmitted quickly from station to station, so the speed of information transfer is very fast.
"How far is it from our army?" Wan Lei asked urgently.
"It's twenty miles away from us," the sentry said as soon as he finished speaking, he drew a small arrow on the simple map handed over by the staff to indicate the enemy's location and direction of travel.
"Is the Sparrow team nearby?" Wan Lei asked with the staff behind him.
"There are seven sparrow teams nearby. They should have launched an attack by now. Some of the sparrow teams further away should also be approaching there," the staff officer said while flipping through his notepad.
"Okay, pass the order and ask Captain Liu to lead a thousand cavalry troops to intercept the attack quickly. The purpose is to entangle the enemy. The main force of our army will follow soon," Wan Lei ordered,
"Sir, that army in the northeast..." the staff officer asked in a low voice, because according to the original plan, after destroying Zhang Wu's tribe, the middle column army would divide its troops and go north, and together with the right column in the north, they would quickly encircle and annihilate Ma Sanbao. Department, now that the strategy has suddenly changed, I am afraid that the right army will be in some difficulty, because the right column has already assigned 6,000 troops to assist the left column.
The left column was even more difficult. Zhou Tianshou divided 20,000 people into three detachments and fought with the Liao army's three 10,000-person teams. They were obviously at a disadvantage in terms of strength. Moreover, the Liao army's purpose was to break through the defense line and go south to Baoding Prefecture. Therefore, they always made crazy attacks and attacks again and again. The left column could not hide and had to fight head-on, so the casualties were very high.
"Send someone to deliver a message to Commander Zhao, asking him to take charge of the cavalry. Try to fight as quickly as possible, and then return at full speed to rescue the left column. By the way, send Commander Li, Commander Zhang and Commander Gao, each with two thousand troops. , go immediately to support the left column, and the others will follow me to pursue the Liao army,"
Six thousand men were transferred at once, leaving Wan Lei with only 7,000 troops. These 7,000 men went to pursue the Liao army composed of nearly 10,000 people. Although it was somewhat difficult, it was not impossible to win. However, the biggest difficulty was not It came from the enemy, but from the Peking Army itself.
The middle column led by Wan Lei has been fighting from early morning to now. It has experienced two battles. Both the soldiers and the horses are exhausted. In addition, in order to rush on the road quickly, this pursuit battle must be carried out lightly. The light cavalry lacks The protection of the steel armor will not give you an advantage in a real fight with the Liao army, and the casualties will probably be huge.
Although most of the officers and soldiers of the Peiping Army shared the same hatred with the Liao Army and did not hesitate to fight against the Liao Army, the last thing Wan Lei wanted to see was for his elite soldiers to die in battle, so he had to personally lead his troops to pursue them, and most of them were elite guards. Compared to The regular army and the elite loyal guards have stronger combat power and are better able to save their lives on the battlefield.