The commander-in-chief of Zhangye's garrison is called Bi Gui'an, who is the younger brother of Bi Lege, the Uighur king of Xizhou, and the second-ranking figure in the Uighurs of Xizhou, the marshal in charge of the army.
Bi Gui'an sent five thousand troops to sneak attack Dadou Bugu, but failed and almost the entire army was destroyed. Even two days ago, Liangzhou's lord general Pu Gumi escaped back, and the five thousand troops were completely destroyed again.
He suffered two disastrous defeats in just one or two months, which really frightened him. The Song army who fought to pull out the valleys could only use fire to defeat them. The key was Liangzhou City. The Song army actually called for lightning strikes and destroyed the city wall in one fell swoop.
Bi Guian couldn't believe his ears. Was Pugumi deceiving him?
Bi Gui'an was really restless and immediately sent someone to find Cao Yuan for questioning.
Cao Yuan was the younger brother of Cao Changchun. It was because of his betrayal that the Yellow-headed Uighurs were destroyed. Although Bi Lego promised to make him the chief of the Yellow-headed Uighurs, judging from Bi Gui'an's actions, they wanted to
All the Yellow-headed Uighurs were annexed, which made Cao Yuan shocked and angry, but he had no choice but to drown his sorrows in wine. He spent the whole winter in a state of drunkenness.
The reason why Cao Yuan betrayed his brother was that Cao Changchun wanted to implement the Han system, that is, the succession of father to son, breaking the Uighur tradition of succession of brother to brother.
This made Cao Yuan, who considered himself the heir of the Yellow-headed Uighur, extremely dissatisfied. However, his city was relatively deep and Cao Changchun had never noticed it. So when Cao Changchun sent him to Gaochang to negotiate an alliance with the Uighur King Bileg,
He himself also made a secret agreement with Bigo.
In the past two days, Cao Yuan also heard the news about the Song Army's Western Expedition. He did not dare to drink anymore. He had a glimmer of hope for the Song Army, but he was also afraid of the Song Army's arrival. He hoped that the Song Army would defeat the Xizhou Army and allow him to recover from the epidemic.
Yellow-headed Uighur, but he was also afraid that Chen Qing would hold him accountable, which really made him worry about gains and losses.
Cao Yuan arrived at the tent and bowed respectfully at the door, "Your Highness Bi Gui'an, are you looking for me?"
"I have something to ask, please come in and talk!"
The two sat down on the carpet, and Bi Guian asked with a smile: "You have been dealing with Chen Qing for a long time, so you should know his army very well!"
Cao Yuan leaned forward and said, "My brother and Chen Qing are sworn brothers. He knows Chen Qing's army better. I just heard some things from my brother."
"Are they good with fire?"
"That's right! They are very good at using fire both in attacking and defending cities. I heard from my brother that the Jurchens and Xixia people were defeated several times by their fire attacks. They used a kind of fire oil to light fires.
It burns very quickly."
Bi Gui'an nodded. No wonder Dadou Bugu failed miserably. Without any preparation, of course he would fail.
"I heard Pu Gumi say that someone in the Song army knew sorcery. With a lightning strike, the city wall collapsed completely. Is that true?"
Cao Yuan sneered and said, "Does Your Highness believe in sorcery?"
"To be honest, I don't really believe it, but I don't understand how the wall could collapse?"
"It should be firearms. You should have seen all the Song Army's firearms!"
The Xizhou Uighurs had a close relationship with the Northern Song Dynasty. They often sent envoys to Tokyo and Bianliang to pay tribute. The envoys also brought back some novelties from the Song Dynasty, including firearms.
"I know about firearms, but they won't blow down the city wall!"
"That's because you don't understand Chen Qing's army. My brother said that the kerosene and gunpowder of Chen Qing's army are so powerful that no city can defend it."
Bi Gui'an's face suddenly turned ugly. If he couldn't defend Zhangye, should he abandon the city and retreat north? Or should he fight to the death with the Song army on the grassland?
The next morning, Chen Qing's army continued to advance westward, but it did not go very far, probably only about ten miles away. Scouts came to report that they found the main enemy army twenty miles away, with eighty or ninety thousand horses.
Chen Qing smiled and said to Yang Zaixing: "It seems that your judgment is correct!"
Yang regained his energy for a while and asked: "Excuse me, the prince, how should we fight this battle?"
Chen Qing said calmly: "Use the tactics used in Xixia against the Jurchen Army to form five infantry formations. I will personally command them. Li Muqing will be my deputy general, and 30,000 cavalry will serve as peripheral auxiliaries. They will be led by Yang Dutong and Gaodu Tonghe."
Liu Dutong will each lead one force, and we also need a special force, Xiao Liu Dutong!"
"Here I am!" Liu Qiong stepped forward and saluted.
"You lead 20,000 cavalry around the enemy's back, and when the battle is stalemate, surprise the enemy's back."
"I humbly obey the order!" Liu Qiong accepted the military order and left.
"Where is the Tang Dynasty?"
"I'm humble and obey my orders!" Tang Qian stepped out.
Chen Qing took out another command arrow and said, "You lead an army of 3,000 scouts and use three mad dog iron fire thunders to blow up Zhangye City. I guess there are no defenders in the city. You fight into the city and occupy Zhangye City!"
"Obey the order!" Tang Qian took the military order and left.
Chen Qing then said coldly to the generals: "We once defeated the world-famous Jurchen cavalry. Although we don't understand the Xizhou Army, we will definitely defeat them completely."
The troops raised their arms and shouted, "Kill——"
The shouts soared into the sky.
Although the Song Army's 100,000-strong army came on horseback, the services were different. First there were 50,000 cavalry and 50,000 infantry. Then there were scout troops, heavy armored cavalry and chariot troops among the cavalry. But this time there were 3,000 heavy armored cavalry.
It was not brought because, on the one hand, the training was not enough, and secondly, it was mainly used to deal with infantry and was useless on the grassland.
The chariot army is a chariot army, with mobile firing positions, gunpowder barrels, heavy oil fire cabinets, bed crossbows, etc. They are generally deployed in infantry formations.
There are many types of infantry, including spear corps, short spear corps, crossbowmen, heavy shield corps, firearms corps, flying dragon army, and heavy armored infantry. Among them, the most lethal one is the flying dragon army, with a total of five thousand people.
There are a thousand people in each formation, throwing short steel spears. Once they are targeted, you will definitely not survive.
The five thousand heavy armored infantry is the newest unit. It was converted from Wanyan Nianhan's black armor army armor. It is also five thousand soldiers. Each soldier is more than 1.9 meters tall, wearing heavy armor and holding a foot long in hand.
A foot-long three-pointed, two-edged knife that can chop and stab.
Ten miles away from the Xizhou Army, the Song Army set up a large formation. It looked densely packed like a city wall, but was actually five infantry formations. Once a battle broke out, the formation could be changed at any time.
The Han army has very high requirements for formations. Practicing formations is the top priority for every Han army. The formations are ever-changing. Five large formations form one extra large formation. Once the cavalry enters the formation, they will be cut through by Song soldiers.
They were broken into small pieces and eaten one by one.
At this time, the war drums in the Song Army's formation sounded, slowly and dullly, "dong-dong-dong-"
A black line appeared in the distance, 80,000 enemy cavalry appeared, and a low ram's horn sounded on the grassland, "Woo——"
Bi Gui'an was secretly delighted. The opponent actually had infantry in the majority. In this way, the initiative in the war was in his own hands. If he could win, he would fight. If he couldn't, he would leave. What could he do to me?
Bi Gui'an didn't find it strange at all. The Song army he knew was like this, with infantry as the main force, supplemented by a small amount of cavalry.
The two armies were getting closer and closer, and finally stopped three miles apart. The west wind hunted on the grassland, and the battle flags were flying. The Xizhou Army had a traditional wolf-head flag, while the Song Army had a black dragon red-bottomed flag, inlaid with gold edges. This
It means that the county prince Chen Qing is in the army.
Bi Gui'an understood this. He narrowed his eyes and shouted loudly: "The two wings are ready to attack!"
The trumpet sounded continuously, and the cavalry on both wings was eager to attack. On the left was the Yellow-headed Uighur army, with 20,000 cavalry, commanded by Cao Yuan, and on the right was 20,000 Xizhou cavalry, commanded by the 10,000-strong servant Gumi.
The central army consisted of 40,000 cavalry led by Bi Gui'an himself, composed of 30,000 Xizhou Army and 10,000 Huangtou Army.
Of course, the Yellow-headed Uighurs have been exterminated. They all wear the same armor, leather armor, spears, bows and arrows, small shields, and are skilled in horsemanship.
"Attack on both wings, kill -"
Bi Gui'an waved his sword and roared, and the horn sounded continuously: "Woo! Woo! Woo!"
Forty thousand two-winged cavalry rushed out at the same time, like two floods bursting through the embankments, rushing towards the Song army's formation three miles away.