The car formation continued to move forward, and Zhang Long loudly announced the rewards and punishments in the formation.
"You all must move forward in this battle without any retreat..."
"The first-level beheading will reward you with a reward of 5,000...Beheading the third-level officer will lead to a promotion..."
"Those who were slightly injured were given a thousand dollars... Those who were seriously injured were given five thousand dollars... The families of those who died in the war were given fifty acres of land and ten thousand dollars..."
"Anyone who attacks the enemy in front of the battle, kill him! If he refuses to patrol the front, kill him! Anyone who abandons his sword to defeat the enemy will implicate the three clans. The male members of the family will be sent as slaves in the army, and the female members will be used as maidservants..."
"It doesn't matter whether it's soldiers or civilians, it's the same..."
As Zhang Long announced the rewards and punishments one by one, the morale of the entire car formation gradually recovered. Although the soldiers were still gasping for breath nervously, they held the weapons in their hands tighter. The civilians also started to move from the carts.
Take out the wooden spears, swords, shields and other items sent to Bailang Mountain to defend against the enemy.
When the chariot formation was one and a half miles away from the Khitan cavalry, more than a hundred cavalrymen emerged from the Khitan cavalry formation and slowly rode forward... When they were about 600 steps apart, these Khitan cavalry began to accelerate... Five hundred steps apart, the Khitan cavalry will
The horse power is pushed to the maximum, the shouts and shouts resound throughout the grassland, and the sound of horse hooves shakes the whole field!
"Stop!" Zhang Long immediately ordered the car formation to stop: "Get ready to meet the enemy!"
Faced with the rushing attack of more than a hundred Khitan cavalry, both the soldiers and civilians of the Pingzhou Army turned pale, and most of them were trembling and trembling. If they were not surrounded by the car array, I am afraid that many of them would have died.
He ignored military orders and ran away.
Especially the spearmen and sword and shield soldiers who were guarding the front, their faces were pale with horror, and the swords and guns in their hands kept shaking.
Although Yuan Xingqin was young, he had experienced the Battle of Hejian. His family's spear skills were passed down from his family, and his martial prowess was extraordinary. Seeing signs of instability in the front army of the chariot formation, he hurriedly asked Zhang Long for orders, and then he got a war horse and a bright-painted gun in his hand.
, jumped out of the car formation. Ignoring the Khitan cavalry approaching quickly behind him, he turned to face the two rows of Pingzhou soldiers in front of him, curled up the lacquer gun in his hand, raised it high above his head, and shouted loudly to encourage him.
In order to boost his morale, he turned around to face the oncoming Khitan cavalry. He stood at the front of the car formation and shouted loudly: "Khitan dog thieves, come and die!" Under his leadership, these soldiers finally stabilized.
Live your mind.
According to the previous rehearsal, when the Khitan cavalry rushes to a distance of 150 steps, the archers in the car formation will sequentially fire the first round of four waves of arrows. The angle of the arrows is upward, and they will come out in an arc.
It will crash into the oncoming Khitan cavalry at a maximum range of about 120 to 30 steps.
But at this moment, these archers were so nervous that they couldn't breathe smoothly. I don't know who didn't hold the bowstring, and the first arrow was shot out immediately. The arrow shot crookedly, floated high, and I didn't understand why.
After the arrow was fired, all the archers couldn't stand the pressure of the cavalry charge, and regardless of distance, regardless of the previously rehearsed "four-stage strike" method, they fired the arrow fastened to the bowstring at once.
I saw a cloud of black arrows flying out in a mess, and then they landed on the path in front of the Khitan cavalry's attack. They all missed and none of them hit.
Zhang Long was furious, but he didn't care to investigate his fault, and loudly urged the archers to cock the arrows. At this time, the Khitan cavalry had rushed within a hundred steps, and the original rhythm of firing arrows had been completely disrupted. Zhang Long also controlled it for a while.
The archers couldn't help but panic, so they had to shout and order the archers to shoot on their own.
Although the previous wave of arrows did not injure a single Khitan, it revealed the presence of a large number of archers in the chariot formation. The Khitan cavalry seemed to be taken aback, and their horses slowed down slightly, then divided into two teams and avoided the front of the chariot formation.
, bypassed from both sides. This detour caused most of the second wave of arrows hurriedly shot by the Pingzhou Army archers to miss. Only a few of them were lucky enough to be inserted into the arms, legs and feet of several Khitan cavalry.
However, no serious injuries were caused and no one was killed.
The Khitan cavalry circled around both sides of the chariot formation and entered the range of fifty steps. This distance was within the shooting range of the riding bow. Those who were skilled in riding and could shoot from horseback took off their bows and fired back into the chariot formation. However,
Riders who can mount and shoot are among the elite warriors in the tribe, and their number is not large. Coupled with the bumps in the high-speed running on horseback, the hit rate of the arrows shot is very low. If this method of mounted shooting does not reach a certain scale,
and quantity, cannot achieve dense coverage, and its effect is extremely limited.
After the Pingzhou Army archers experienced the initial tension and panic, their hands on the bowstring began to stabilize gradually. They were unable to do anything to the Khitan cavalry who were galloping around the chariot formation, so they aimed their arrows at those who were more daring.
The cavalry dared to stand still and fire arrows. In an instant, a volley of arrows was fired, and several bold Khitan cavalry were shot off their horses on the spot, causing a burst of cheers in the car formation.
This was Zhang Long's first time commanding an army to fight. No one listened to his loud shouts in the chaos. He couldn't think of a solution for a while and couldn't help but sigh. He simply ignored the archers who were doing their own thing and turned around.
He went to greet the gunmen in the car formation and asked them to raise their guns to protect the car formation. Seeing that the Khitan people did not dare to approach the car, these gunmen relaxed a little and under Zhang Long's command, according to the previously rehearsed formation,
They formed a tight formation, with guns pointing out of the car, and at the same time they cheered for their own archers.
There were also several brave Khitan cavalry who rushed to the edge of the cart, trying to jump in with their horses, but they were pointed at by a forest of spears and had no choice but to turn their horses and dodge away.
Although the arrows fired by the Khitan people were few and their accuracy was insufficient, it was not difficult to hit the arrows due to the dense crowds in the chariot formation, which also caused casualties to the Pingzhou Army. There were several spearmen standing beside the chariot formation.
Inadvertently, he was hit by a bow and arrow sent by the Khitan cavalry, which immediately caused a panic. Zhang Long hurriedly ordered his sword and shield men to stay close to the outermost row of spearmen to provide them with cover.
After fighting like this for a while, the two sides exchanged bows and arrows. Seeing that the car formation was well protected, the Khitan cavalry could not find a chance to break in, so they left more than ten corpses behind, fled far away, no longer approached the cart, and gradually returned to their own formation.
among.
Zhang Long then wiped the sweat from his forehead and quickly organized the queue and rearranged the soldiers. Then he ordered people to go outside the car formation and cut off the heads of the Khitan people who were shot to death. After counting, he got more than ten heads.
, seventeen people of the Pingzhou Army in the chariot formation were hit by arrows, ten of them were slightly injured, four were seriously injured by arrows, and three of the most unlucky spearmen were pierced through the throat by Khitan arrows and died on the spot.
.
There was also an unlucky fellow among the civilians who had his shoulder bruised by a stray arrow. He exposed the wound on his shoulder and went to Zhang Long: "Zhang Yuhou, someone is injured, so come and collect the thousand yuan."
Zhang Long looked at the civilian husband's wound and saw that it was just a scratch. He said angrily: "This doesn't count!" Seeing that the civilian husband was still trying to explain, he immediately glared and said: "Don't be naysayers, such injuries don't count.
Damn it!" When the man saw him getting angry, he muttered unwillingly and left.
When he engaged in the battle just now, Zhang Long's mind was confused. At this moment, he reorganized his thoughts, gathered the archers, emphasized the sequence and timing of firing arrows again, and finally said loudly: "Without someone's order, whoever will do it on his own will
Archery, I am engaged in military law!"
At this moment, the two armies were facing each other one mile apart, and no one made any next move. Just now, Yuan Xingqin's move to boost morale at the forefront was noticed by Zhang Long, so he called him to his side, praised him, and then asked: "
Yuan Duizheng, what do you think is good now?"
Yuan Xingqin curled his lips. To be honest, after the battle just now, he looked down on Zhang Long's command on the battlefield. He also came from a wealthy family and had a well-educated family. Although he was young, he had his own strategies. Moreover, Yuan Xingqin
He first joined the Yier Army and made meritorious service in Hejian. It was only because of his good relationship with Zhao Zaili that he gave up the Yier Army and joined the Pingzhou Army, so he had a sense of arrogance in his heart. But he is currently
My own Shangguan, so I couldn’t say anything. He just said: "Of course, according to the previous rehearsal, we pushed through. You are leading the team from the front, and Yu Houqi is in control of the car formation. I don’t believe that we can’t rush through. It’s just that Yu Houqi is here.
Fan must command those archers well and not act as randomly as before." There was a hint of accusation in his words unconsciously.
Zhang Long was a simple man and did not delve into the disrespect in Yuan Xingqin's words. He only felt that what he said was the truth. He couldn't help feeling ashamed for a while, so he spent a lot of time to reiterate the military order before ordering the car formation to move forward.
The Khitan cavalry formation pressed forward.
After the baptism of the first battle, both the Pingzhou Army and the civilians in the car formation seemed to be in a different spirit, and their confidence had recovered a lot. Zhang Long's command of the archers gradually got on track. After all, the Pingzhou Army had rehearsed together for seven days.
, after the initial nervousness and panic, and with the support of the car formation, everyone calmed down a lot.
Relying on the range of the foot bow far exceeding that of the cavalry bow, Zhang Long commanded the archers to start firing arrows one hundred and fifty steps away from the Khitan cavalry formation. Although the distance was too far and no casualties were caused, it caused the Khitan cavalry formation to become loose.
The Khitan cavalry obviously did not want to suffer this loss, so they left the frontal battlefield and cleared the way forward. They just gathered around the chariot formation and monitored it, looking for flaws in the chariot formation.
The Khitan people divided more than twenty cavalry and began to run back and forth on both sides of the chariot formation. These cavalry were skilled in mounted archery, and the arrows fired from their horses were fast and accurate, greatly increasing the casualties in the chariot formation. Zhang Long commanded
The archers and Khitan cavalry exchanged fire, but the opponent was on horseback and running quickly, so the arrows fired had little effect. Zhang Long ordered covering fire again, and finally shot down several Khitan cavalry. However, this shooting method was not effective for the Khitan cavalry.
For Lu Longjun, the exchange ratio is really bad, and the consumption of arrows is very large, so it is very cost-effective.
If this road is very far, then the outcome of Zhang Long and Hepingzhou Army will not be too good. Because the initiative on the battlefield is completely in the hands of the Khitan cavalry, and the location and time of the battle are completely decided by the Khitan cavalry, no matter day or night, Pingzhou Army
The state army must always maintain the integrity of the vehicle formation with great willpower and physical fitness. As long as this state is maintained for three to five days, the entire team will be followed from a distance by the Khitan cavalry, constantly harassing them, and looking for opportunities to break through.
This is the fundamental reason why cavalry is invincible when facing infantry on the grassland.
Unfortunately, Bailang Mountain is only fifty miles away from Yuguan, and the place where the two sides met is even closer to Bailang Mountain, so the above disadvantages do not exist. When the silhouette of Bailang Mountain gradually became clear in the afterglow of the setting sun, due to nervousness and
The tired and beleaguered Pingzhou Army finally saw Li Chengzhong's troops coming to meet them. The two sides gathered together, and there were loud cheers on the grassland.