The river in front of us is called Hongliugou because red willows grow in some sections of the river.
It passes through the desolate Gobi Desert, and its water source is melted snow and springs along the way. Due to the instability of the water source and the large amount of evaporation, the flow is seasonal every year.
At this moment, it is approaching the drying season.
From Xingxing Gorge to here, Hongliugou is the "largest river" and relies on several springs to sustain life along the way.
Therefore, it has great strategic value!
Before the Ming army captured Yizhou City (Hami), Hongliugou would be the only drinking water supply place for the Ming army. The fortress blocking it was also a stronghold that the Ming army must capture.
The Xiliao army slowly retreated towards Hongliuzhai, while Wu Jie's troops accelerated their pursuit.
Among Wu Jie's eight hundred cavalry, three hundred were light-armored rangers and five hundred were medium-armored knights.
When the infantry chariots were chasing, these eight hundred cavalry also went out to protect the two flanks. They did not need to kill many enemies, they only needed to delay the enemy cavalry to bypass them slightly, so as to prevent the chariots and infantry from having time to change formations and being flanked.
In order to cover his main force approaching Hongliu Village, Xiao Chala'abu sent out all his cavalry.
These miscellaneous cavalry no longer dared to approach the chariots, but they dared to attack the Ming cavalry due to their large numbers.
The eight hundred Ming army cavalry were not eager to fight. They shot and retreated with their bows and arrows, leading the Western Liao cavalry to the front and sides of the chariot.
"Woooooo~~~"
The horns of countless Xiliao cavalry were blaring, and the nobles or chiefs were five or six hundred steps away from the car formation, so they were frightened and quickly led their troops to other directions.
They were frightened by the chariots and did not dare to get too close.
Wu Jie also felt a little helpless that the enemy was so timid and afraid of death. There were too many enemy cavalry, so he had to change his formation slightly, making it impossible to quickly pursue the enemy's main force.
In fact, during the retreat of the Xiliao infantry, except for the elites of the Chinese army, most of the infantry no longer had a formation to speak of.
They ran towards Hongliuzhai in a chaotic manner, without regard for the front or the rear, or the left or the right. The generals were unable to restrain them at all.
If Wu Jie had two or three thousand knights in his hand, he could rush over at this time and kill the Xiliao infantry until the entire line collapsed.
After all, there are not enough cavalry.
It is too difficult to get here from Xingxingxia. As a vanguard force, it is impossible to bring too many cavalry. Their chariots, artillery, and ammunition are already extremely difficult to transport, and it will not be possible to move fast if there are thousands more cavalry dragging them behind.
More than 10,000 miscellaneous soldiers fled to the vicinity of Hongliuzhai in chaos, but Xiao Chala Abuqin led the elite infantry to cut off the rear, and let more than 9,000 Western Liao miscellaneous cavalry lag behind the Ming army.
After a long time, the entire Xiliao army retreated to the village fort to reorganize.
"Leave all the food and grass in the stronghold, and send an additional 1,500 people to guard the stronghold!" Xiao Chala'a Bu quickly issued a military order.
They came from Yizhou City, more than a hundred miles away, and did not bring much food and baggage. They could only sustain the army for a few days, and now they were all stored in Hongliu Village, just for the soldiers guarding the village to continue to use.
By the way, the garrison of Hongliuzhai was increased to 4,500 to prevent the Ming army from easily occupying this place.
Seeing that the Ming army's chariot formation was getting closer and closer, Xiao Chalaabu said: "The cavalry stayed behind and all the infantry crossed the river and retreated!"
He also didn't think about an orderly retreat because the composition of the troops was too mixed.
However, they saw nobles of all sizes, with their small number of elites, and countless miscellaneous soldiers with little fighting ability, rushing towards Hongliu Valley in a chaotic manner.
The knee-deep river water can be crossed quickly.
The river bed is full of gravel, and once the drying season comes, even the river bed will turn into a Gobi Desert.
There were about nine thousand Xiliao cavalry, running back and forth around the chariot formation at a distance. As long as the chariots dared to turn into a moon formation or a horizontal formation and advance, they would rush in from all directions, forcing the chariot formation to adjust their formation and distance themselves.
Wu Jie was very annoyed by this tactic. He could not keep the Xiliao infantry and could only leave some cavalry corpses.
"Pass the order..."
Soon, the Ming army's vehicle formation transformed into a half-moon shape and accelerated forward, leaving half of the infantry to defend at a relatively rear position.
The various Western Liao cavalry who were cruising around behind came from different tribes and did not receive exact military orders, so they made different choices.
At first, they all rushed forward, trying to scare the Ming army soldiers.
After charging to a certain distance, some cavalry slowed down and retreated, while others swept to the side. These were more timid and did not dare to take risks and continue charging for fear of being hit by the car formation.
There were also a small number of Xiliao cavalry who thought that the Ming army's chariot formation had no time to change their defensive formations, so they seized the opportunity and chose to accelerate forward.
The car formation was indeed too late.
But the cavalry has been waiting for a long time!
I saw 300 Ming Army light cavalry and 500 Ming Army brave cavalry, forming more than 30 cavalry squads. They were divided into two groups, and in a relatively dense formation, they rushed towards the Xiliao miscellaneous cavalry that was three times their own number.
This was completely beyond the enemy's expectation, because from the beginning of the war to now, the Ming cavalry has never engaged in the battle.
They subconsciously believed that the Ming cavalry had little combat effectiveness.
To make matters worse, since many Xiliao cavalry withdrew, the cavalry that chose to continue to charge forward became many sparse groups. They had no friendly reinforcements on their left and right, and were afraid of being shelled. The formation was extremely scattered, with the cavalry spacing eight meters apart. above.
Judging from the data, 800 Ming cavalry charged against more than 2,000 enemy cavalry.
When the fight finally broke out, the eight hundred Ming Cavalry were divided into two groups and were encircling and annihilating more than two hundred enemy troops in a local area.
The cavalry general Yang Zheng rushed to the front. The cotton armor on his shoulder was hit by an arrow, and the light armor of the war horse was also hit by two arrows. At this moment, he rushed into the sparse enemy cavalry formation and picked off a Xiliao cavalry with one shot. Withdrawing his gun, he swept down a cavalryman, and with the third shot, he knocked over a chief.
The two hundred or so Western Liao cavalrymen melted almost instantly.
The Ming Dynasty cavalry in the rear row slowed down and swept towards the enemies farther away on both sides.
Those enemies were also in a loose formation and had no friendly forces nearby to support them.
Facing the sudden attack of the Ming Dynasty cavalry, the first reaction of the Xiliao cavalry who chose to retreat or sweep away was not to rush to the rescue by relying on the large number of people. Instead, they were so frightened that they fled quickly, widening the distance!
These chiefs or nobles usually do not belong to each other, and they may even have feuds.
How could they risk rescue without clear military orders?
What's more, Xiao Chala'a Bu and Yelu Songshan were already retreating with their main force. The orders they received were only to slow down the enemy, and they would only go all out if they were stupid.
Of the 800 Ming cavalry, only more than 20 light cavalry were shot to death and wounded, but they caught a larger number of enemy cavalry and pursued them fiercely.
After chasing him all the way, the Xiliao cavalry further away fled one after another.
The Xiliao cavalry directly in front of and on both sides of the car formation had no idea what was happening at this time. They had no view of the battlefield where the cavalry met.
Seeing friendly troops escaping one after another, those guys thought they were defeated, so they all chose to run away without explanation.
A famous scene occurred.
The Ming army's cavalry, which already numbered less than 800, chased nearly 8,000 Western Liao miscellaneous cavalry to kill them.
The miscellaneous cavalry bypassed Hongliu Village and the main infantry force that was crossing the river, and fled through Hongliu Valley before gradually slowing down to check the situation.
The Xiliao infantry were frightened by this battle and were completely confused. Even some Gaochang elite infantry dropped their weapons and pushed and accelerated across the river.
Xiao Chala'abu was furious and personally led more than 2,000 elite cavalry to cut off the rear, including several hundred heavy cavalry.
Those heavy cavalry were on their way back, and they didn't even have time to put on heavy armor, so they went out into battle brazenly without armor.
Wu Jie, who was standing on the watchtower cart to observe the battle situation, put down his telescope and said: "Blow the trumpet to ask Yang Zheng to withdraw and the chariot to speed up."
The enemy's more than 2,000 cavalrymen who were behind the enemy's rear were immediately known to be truly elite.
Even if the Ming cavalry could win, they would suffer heavy losses. What's more, those Xiliao cavalry who were scared away stopped after escaping across the river. If they continued to let the Ming cavalry fight, they would probably overturn.
Wu Jie felt sorry for the elite soldiers he had trained, and did not want to throw them all into gambling.
When the Ming army's chariot formation advanced to the river, the main force of Xiliao had already retreated far away - many miscellaneous soldiers did not call for retreat at all, but fled to Yizhou in disorder, even throwing away their armor along the way in fear.
There are still 4,500 unlucky people from Xiliao who are left to defend Hongliu Village.
These guys have basically been abandoned. Xiao Chala Abdu is still waiting for reinforcements. How can he send people back to rescue them?
In this battle, the Ming army lost 6 people and injured 23.
Except for two valiant cavalry, whose horses stepped on the stones of the Gobi Desert and fell off their horses, the rest of the casualties came from light cavalry who were hit by arrows during the charge.
Of course, the Ming army also lost a lot of gunpowder...
More than 3,000 Xiliao cavalry died in the battle, some were killed by firearms and melee infantry, some were killed by Ming cavalry, and the rest were killed by auxiliary troops cleaning the battlefield.
More than a thousand Xiliao infantrymen also died. They were trampled to death by friendly troops when their retreat turned into an escape.
The auxiliary soldiers and civilians came out of the camp, cleaned the battlefield, burned the corpses, and brought back the captured horses and armor.
However, Wu Jie led his army and blocked the village outside Hongliu Village, which had no moat.
The 4,500 defenders were so frightened that they trembled.
Wu Jie said to the guide who was proficient in Uighur language: "Go and persuade us to surrender!"
The guide was a spy who had been among the merchants all year round. He said: "General, these are dead soldiers. Their families are all controlled by Xiliao. Once they surrender, the whole family will become slaves. If the officers surrender, the male members of the family will also be killed.
Put to death."
Wu Jie said: "Tell them that if their wives are gone, they can remarry, and if their sons are gone, they can be reborn. Their parents don't want to see them lose their lives. As long as they surrender the fort, after the city of Yizhou is captured, I will be the wedding host for them."
Choose women to start a family. If they don’t surrender, millions of troops will come to kill them, and Xiliao will definitely be defeated. I will find their families and kill them all!"
Under the protection of the shield bearer, the guide came to the outside of the village wall and shouted continuously.
Soon, there was a commotion among the fort defenders.
Some people who are afraid of death no longer care about their parents, wives and children at home, and only hope that they can survive after surrendering.
What's more, Wu Jie is still threatening to kill their whole family.
They had just witnessed the power of the Ming army and did not think that Xiliao could win. What if they defended the fortress but the Ming army attacked Yizhou and Gaochang killed their whole family?
Some of the garrison guards of these fortresses came from Gaochang and some from Yizhou, and they were mainly Buddhists and Nestorians.
If the Gaochang Uighurs were still there, they might have a little sense of belonging.
After the death of Yelu Dashi, in order to prevent the king of Gaochang from colluding with foreign enemies and joining the Ming army, Queen Gantian had captured the king and completely destroyed the Gaochang Kingdom.
What sense of belonging can they have to Xiliao?
Why should you sacrifice your life for Xiliao?
After some persuasion to surrender, the guide came back to drink water to soothe his throat.
The defenders still did not move, but the generals and officers were already arguing privately.
Their only burden of surrender was that the Ming army kept its word. In order to resist the Ming army's invasion, Xiliao used all their propaganda to smear the country, and the Han people almost turned into cannibal demons.
Wu Jie used his telescope to observe the reaction of the defenders. After a while, he gave the order: "Fake attack on the fortress, scare and scare."
360 small artillery pieces were dragged nearby and fired, all aimed at the war sheds and arrow towers of the fortress.
As the war shed and arrow tower became riddled with holes, the village gate slowly opened.
Wu Jie smiled and said to the officer beside him: "Send Qingqi back to Shankou Village and say that I have won a great victory. Sang Zhong, the thief of Zhiniang, must be there. He didn't come to rescue me when I was surrounded. I will take care of him slowly in the future!"