On the top of the city wall of Xingqing Mansion, following an order, a soldier lit a match.
With a muffled "boom" sound, the copper barrel spit out a cannonball, which hit the Yuan army's line in the distance.
From the lookout, you can see the scene of broken shields and scattered limbs and pieces of flesh.
When you raise the lookout tube and scan the Yuan army's line, you will find that the Yuan army's not dense front line has begun to retreat again, which is actually deliberately consuming the Tang army's firearms.
This is the third time that the Yuan army has besieged Xingqing Mansion, and it has been for five days.
"Dong Wenbing is trying to besiege us to death. Unfortunately, he must be more unstable than us." Li Zengbo put down the watch tube and said slowly.
After the New Year, the old commander rarely came to the battlefield to command in person. He would only stand on the watchtower and talk slowly to the generals.
It's like civil servants don't know how to fight, they only know how to talk and point fingers.
However, Yang Ben understood that Li Zengbo wanted to train young generals as soon as possible.
"You have all read the documents from Chang'an. The prince Zhenjin of Meng Yuan is in Hehuang, and Song He has already taken hold of him."
At this point, the topic went off the rails again, saying: "You always said in the past that attacking Xingqing Mansion and attacking Hetao was a great achievement, and that no one wanted to guard the rear. But now you see, Song He is the one who wants to establish a
The one who deserves the most credit.”
The generals were ashamed and clasped their fists one after another.
But Li Zengbo was still scolding them relentlessly.
"Look at how Kublai Khan planned it. The Khan's position must have stretched thousands of miles. If you don't defend Liangzhou and don't make preparations early, when you turn around for the decisive battle, you will find that you are attacked from both sides. It will be too late! You will only focus on the enemy all day long.
It’s a big battle, a decisive battle, but you don’t know that before you can react, the enemy has already made secret arrangements.”
It is inevitable for people to become verbose as they get older, and Li Zengbo spoke slowly, so it was normal for him to annoy these young generals.
But Yang Ben knew that these words were exactly what was happening in the Ningxia army today. Ever since His Majesty took power, he had not lost any important battle, and every lieutenant in the army was gearing up to make contributions.
At this time of year, the most feared thing is that a defeat is very likely.
"What the commander taught me is to be remembered forever."
Li Zengbo's voice suddenly became louder and he shouted again: "If Meng Yuan is going to fight to the death now, are you ready?!"
The generals were stunned.
They actually did not think that the Yuan army would move south in large numbers within three to five years, as Kublai Khan had not yet fully recovered from the struggle for the throne.
Moreover, I heard that his son Mang Gelu was leading an attack on Gaochang with more than 100,000 troops.
So after a moment of silence, everyone straightened their backs.
"Ready!"
Li Zengbo nodded slowly and said: "Continue to say, Song He has bitten the real gold in Hehuang, and Dong Wenbing must go to meet him. Your Majesty has already prepared for this. The area from Xingqing Mansion to Liangzhou has been fortified and clear. Our Ningxia army can only defend
Xingqing Mansion must also bite Dong Wenbing’s tribe and never give him a chance to rescue him."
"Yes, we will fight to the death to prevent the Mongols from entering Hexi!"
However, the generals here were so steadfast in their oath that within two days a scout came back to report that the Yuan army had more than 10,000 reinforcements.
With this change in troop strength, the soldiers of the Tang Army immediately felt that this battle was difficult to fight.
They were confused when listening to Li Zengbo's words, and then they realized that the old marshal had already anticipated the situation.
Next, it is not difficult to guess the tactics of the Yuan army.
Only one day later, the Yuan army came for reinforcements from Hetao and began to surround Xingqing Mansion, allowing Dong Wenbing to withdraw his troops and march south to Xining Prefecture.
Cui Bin's passage through Liangzhou and into Hehuang could only be regarded as the entry of a small group of troops. Dong Wenbing's attack on Xingqing Mansion was originally only a tentative attack.
But as this large force moved south, bursts of smoke rose along the Yellow River defense line from Xingqing Prefecture to Lanzhou, and the battle situation instantly became tense, as if there was a sign of a full-scale war.
Fortunately, the officers and soldiers of the Tang Army had already prepared their mental preparations after being reminded by Li Zengbo.
"Follow me to pursue Dong Wenbing."
Yang Ben put on his armor, strode past the array of his soldiers, and nodded to the generals.
"Needless to say, just as we answered the commander-in-chief, we are determined to fight Meng Yuan to the death, and we promise not to give Dong Wenbing a chance to rescue Zhenjin."
The sergeants of the army mounted their horses one after another, raised their swords and shouted.
"Capture and kill the son of the chieftain! Capture and kill the son of the chieftain!"
Yang Ben originally wanted to boost morale, but at this time he was inspired by the soldiers. He shouted loudly: "Soldiers of the Tang Dynasty! We once killed Meng Ge, the arrogant leader, and brought the arrogant Mongolia to a standstill. Now Kublai Khan's son
If he dares to sneak under our noses, can we let him go?"
"No! The thief can't escape!"
"Set off."
Yang Ben waved his hand, and each of the cavalrymen drove their horses to follow him.
The city gates of Xingqing Mansion were opened wide, and two thousand cavalry rushed out, heading south, towards the Yuan army's defense line surrounding them.
Behind them is Helan Mountain.
It is precisely "the formation is like clouds under the Helan Mountain, and the feathers are flying and heard day and night."
~~
Shatoupo.
This is an important military town halfway from Xingqing Prefecture to Xining Prefecture. Genghis Khan crossed the Yellow River here and stationed at Liupan Mountain during his expedition to Xixia. He died of illness the following year.
This time, Dong Wenbing and his army were passing by and could not go to Xipan Mountain to worship Genghis Khan, so they could only hold a hasty ceremony in Shatoupo.
Just after the ceremony was over, a Tang Army cavalry force of 2,000 men attacked them.
It didn't cause much damage, but they trampled on a few tents and killed more than ten people and dozens of cattle and sheep.
In the past, the Mongolian cavalry used to sneak attack on the Han people's baggage lines, but I didn't expect that these Han people would dare to sneak attack on the Yuan army after they had horses.
A large group of Yuan troops pursued them, and when they reached the Yellow River, they were bombarded by the Tang navy with artillery fire, so they had to retreat. It was already dark and it was already dark.
As a result, that night, the Tang army came back to kill again. The sound of killing was so loud that it caused the soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty to startle. As a result, the Tang army only shouted to kill outside and did not rush to the camp.
Although the Mongolian soldiers could fall asleep while sitting on horseback, they were really tired after such a commotion, and their marching speed was slowed down a lot.
"Yang Ben."
At dawn, Dong Wenbing stood astride his horse, holding up the lookout tube and looking at the flag of the Tang Army in the distance, chewing on the name and sighing in his heart.
For the Yuan army, Yang Ben was also a well-known enemy general. His fighting characteristics were fierceness and decisiveness. His famous one was flying across Yuanxiang Road to take Jianmen Pass. When the Tang army attacked Xingqing Mansion, he was even more famous.
He was the vanguard. Immediately after attacking the city, he led a group of cavalry to attack Hetao, forcing Tuohu, who had already arrived in the Western Regions, to return to his division.
Like a vicious dog with bared teeth.
Dong Wenbing knew that if he let such a vicious dog chase him and bite him, if his leg was bitten and lame, his trip to Xining Prefecture might not be able to save King Yan, but he might trap more than 10,000 of his troops.
He then decided to turn around and fight Yang Ben...
To the west of the battlefield is the vast Tengger Desert, and to the east is the roaring Yellow River.
More than ten thousand Yuan army cavalry spread out in a boundless formation.
The sand and dust kicked up by the horses' hooves covered the sky. When you were stuck in the sand and dust, you could only see chaos when you opened your eyes. You couldn't even see the flags and orders. The cavalrymen running back and forth delivering the orders couldn't cover up the horses' neighing with their shouts.
Centurions and ten-centurions each commanded groups of Yuan army cavalry heading west into the desert, making the already boundless formation larger and longer.
This kind of battlefield with more than ten thousand cavalry is different from dozens and hundreds of people. Victory or defeat does not depend on hand-to-hand combat. Dong Wenbing's tactics are very simple. A frontal confrontation attracts the Tang army, and then sends troops to kill from the side, surround Yang Ben, and cut off Yang Ben's baggage.
After surrounding them for several days, they waited until the Tang army's morale had dissipated, and then defeated them in one fell swoop.
Of course, as the most outstanding general among the younger generation of the Tang Army, Yang Ben was likely to see his strategic intentions and could only choose to shrink back.
After they merged with the baggage, the marching speed would slow down, and Dong Wenbing could cover up and kill them. At least he could slightly inflict a small damage on the Tang army, so that Yang Ben could no longer pursue and bite him.
This is the case with pre-war deductions. It is precisely because the battlefield is changing rapidly that a good general will consider all possibilities and predict the enemy's reaction.
But this time Dong Wenbing did not predict correctly.
Yang Ben did not shrink back his front line, but instead faced the center of the Yuan army.
In doing so, he may want to win before the Yuan army encircles him, or he may have support... Dong Wenbing is worried about the third possibility, that is, Yang Ben knows that he will lose in this way, but he would rather lose his troops and generals to hold him back. If it is
This must be because the Tang army already knew that King Yan was in Hehuang.
If the Tang army came so decisively to capture King Yan, even he was not sure that he could protect King Yan Zhouquan.
As the fighting continued, sand and dust rose and fell, covering the brim of Dong Wenbing's cymbal hat with a thick layer.
He stationed his horse and commanded under the scorching sun. He watched his cavalrymen running back and forth. Some of the injured fell to the ground and twitched, and some died in the battle. Ren Kong's horse ran past. He felt more and more that Yang Ben, this evil dog, was really biting him now.
With his own calf meat trapped, he was desperately trying to smash the vicious dog's head with a big stick as soon as possible.
"Winter! Winter! Winter!"
Even the sound of war drums was like the muffled sound of a big stick hitting a dog's head, but the vicious dog refused to die and became even crazier, biting its own legs harder.
Of course, there is no suspense about the outcome.
The Tang army with a strength of 2,000 can only be transformed into dogs, not tigers.
Suddenly, the incessant sound of war drums seemed to become stronger.
A general rode over, found Dong Wenbing, and whispered in his ear.
"real?"
Dong Wenbing was surprised and disbelieving, so he drove his horse eastward and rode all the way to the hills beside the Yellow River.
He held the horse's belly between his legs, let go of the reins with both hands, took out the amethyst jade sight tube from his arms and wiped the dust. He kept spitting sand from his mouth.
Anyone who has never been in a military formation with thousands of horses galloping around can never imagine how big the dust is, especially when fighting in this desert.
When I raised the lookout tube, the first thing I saw was the long-lost nine-pin white banner, which was erected on the top of the mountain on the other side of the Yellow River.
Kublai Khan also had a guard of honor like this, but it was impossible to appear here in Kaiping.
Then, the one who came was obviously the "Xili Jihan" who was stationed in Liupan Mountain.
When I raised the watch tube a little, I saw a larger dragon flag standing in front of the left side of the nine-pin white banner.
This dragon flag is taller and bigger. The long hanging quills on the top are fluttering in the wind, and it is magnificent. It makes the nine-pin white banner behind it pale.
"Commander, the Tang army on the other side has begun to cross the river." A soldier came forward to report.
Dong Wenbing nodded and murmured: "Li Xia is here in person... Isn't he afraid of turning a small war into a national war?"
At this time, it was unknown how many troops Li Xia had, but Dong Wenbing couldn't help but feel tremendous pressure because of his personal expedition.
"Even Li Xia is here, King Yan is in danger..."
Dong Wenbing's eyes became more and more worried.
He had to retreat and asked Tatzal for more reinforcements.
As for today's battle, the result was exactly the opposite of what he expected, with Yang Ben chasing him and severely injuring him.