Since the troops had fled back, Li Renyi could not see the body with his own eyes and could only guess what happened based on the soldiers' descriptions.
After listening, Ding Zhongyi said: "In future battles, generals cannot lead the army to charge. They must hide in the formation and command, otherwise they will inevitably become the target of public criticism."
"Not bad." Li Renyi nodded.
Ding Zhongyi added: "We have not encountered the divine artillery mentioned in the request for help so far. These Han soldiers want to lure us to invest more troops and are determined to eat up all our troops."
Li Renyi asked: "We know this, but can we withdraw our troops? The King of Jin has already detoured to the south. Once we retreat here, the King of Jin will become a lonely army and go deep. We can't lose the Southern Army, and the King of Jin can't ignore it. The relationship between China and China is so great that neither you nor I can afford it."
"Do you know that there is a danger of annihilation of the whole army, so you still have to head forward?" Ding Zhongyi looked a little anxious.
Li Renyi said: "I am the commander-in-chief and you are the supervisor. If you are willing to take responsibility, I will withdraw the troops."
These are all angry words. Ding Zhongyi, a Han Chinese, cannot bear such responsibility at all.
Ding Zhongyi said: "Let's wait for news of the surprise attack."
They sent 3,000 people to enter from a valley in the north, then crossed the mountains and ridges into another valley, and were able to get around to the rear of the Ming army several miles away.
We retreated and set up camp that day and did not launch any more attacks.
At midnight, the surprise army returned disgraced.
There were not many Ming troops guarding the trail, only a thousand men, and they had no firearms. However, with the help of the favorable terrain, they killed the Xixia soldiers who had taken a detour and made a surprise attack, and fled in panic.
The first battle was lost, the surprise attack was ineffective, and Li Renyi was completely blinded.
It's not that he is incompetent in commanding troops, it's that he has never fought this kind of battle and doesn't know how to deal with it.
And the terrain is so disgusting!
After dawn, Li Renyi convened a meeting with his generals to brainstorm countermeasures.
With your words and my words, a few generals said it was time to retreat, while most of the generals clamored to attack by force.
As for how to attack by force, no one can tell the specific tactics.
Ding Zhongyi suddenly said: "The river near the left is very narrow. Can we build a dike to store water, and then open the dike to flood the enemy troops downstream?"
Li Renyi shook his head: "If it can't hold much water, it will probably not be submerged up to the waist. At most, it will overflow to the shore and wet the enemy's legs. Moreover, embankments will be built upstream and the water level will drop sharply downstream. The enemy will definitely be able to guess the strategy."
"Then camp and stay still, stalling for time with the enemy, and wait for King Jin to launch his attack in the south," Ding Zhongyi said.
Li Renyi asked: "What should I do with the Nanjun Division?"
Ding Zhongyi guessed: "The Henan Military Division is probably gone, otherwise he would not sit back and watch the Han people divide their troops and come here."
Li Renyi thought hard and actually followed the advice, huddled in the camp and never came out.
This made Yang Zhi extremely uncomfortable. He had already put oil in the pot and was about to stir-fry a plate of delicious food, but the food did not want to be poured into the pot.
This Xixia army consisted of more than 60,000 people. In the first battle, they suffered casualties and more than 4,000 prisoners, and the deputy capital commander was also killed inexplicably.
They were really scared of being beaten!
Now that he is guarding the camp, it is really difficult for Yang Zhi to attack. He must leave people to defend the city, and he only brought more than 12,000 troops. Should he attack the enemy camp with nearly 60,000 soldiers?
Once you take the initiative to attack, not only will your own terrain advantage be lost, but the enemy will also occupy favorable terrain.
"We can fight," Li Jinyi said. "In the most open area upstream, the river valley is only more than two miles wide, which is much narrower than the downstream. Even if our army only sends out 10,000 people, we can form a formation to block the river valley.
And what's the use of having more enemy soldiers? Can they fully deploy? The extra soldiers will either wait stupidly in the rear, or climb up the hills on both sides to shoot arrows. Our army also sent troops to capture the hills, making it impossible for the enemy troops on both sides to
After bypassing the enemy, all that's left is to storm the enemy camp!"
With Yang Zhi's character, he would not easily fight like this, but there were tens of thousands of Xixia troops behind him, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and fight.
"Then attack the enemy camp!"
Immediately the whole army crossed the river and moved forward. After approaching the enemy camp, the main army formed an array in the river valley, sending two thousand soldiers on each side to occupy the hills on both sides. More than a thousand musketeers also followed them to attack the mountains.
These hills are not steep, and the reason why they are impossible to march is because they are endlessly undulating.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the population exploded, and villages even formed one after another in the low places between the mountains.
The Ming army was very dispersed when attacking the mountain. They took the Yuanyang squad as a unit, followed by a musketeer, and climbed up in groups of thirteen people.
Stones were constantly being pushed down the mountain, but no serious casualties were caused. The irregular, unpolished stones did not roll quickly on the not-so-steep hillside.
Climbing halfway up the mountain, arrows rained down from the top of the mountain.
There were many troops on the Xixia side, and they couldn't deploy in the valley anyway. So they simply sent a large number of troops to the hills for defense. The Ming army really couldn't attack them for a while.
"Array forward!"
Yang Zhi did not expect to capture the top of the mountain, as long as the enemy did not flank the main force from there.
Thousands of troops lined up horizontally, filling the valley with only some passages left by various ministries in the middle.
The Tiger Crouching Cannon and ammunition were also carried, and they advanced slowly, getting closer and closer to the enemy camp.
Due to the rush of time, the enemy's camp had not yet dug trenches or piled earth barriers, and only had some wooden fences as protection walls.
About a hundred paces away, the entire army stopped.
Forty tiger squatting cannons were brought to the front of the formation, and an iron bullet the size of a fist was first inserted into it, and then shotgun the size of a pigeon egg. This method of loading can hit farther than using all shotgun shells.
The river valley here is about 1,400 meters wide, and the river flows close to the mountains on the west side.
The enemy camp blocked the river valley. Countless enemies were guarding behind the wooden fence, and not a single general could be seen. Even the lower-level officers deliberately stood behind the soldiers.
These Xixia generals finally did not dare to stand in the front anymore.
Artillery commander Deng Xia had studied with Zhu Guoxiang for several years. At this time, he used a celestial ruler to measure the distance and adjust the shooting angle of the Tiger Crouching Cannon. The specific method was to use analytical geometry to measure the impact point of the parabola.
"Test the gun!"
"Boom boom boom boom!"
At a distance of more than a hundred steps, which was only about two hundred meters, a small number of iron bullets as big as fists flew out among countless shotguns.
The Xixia soldiers behind the wooden fence watched the bullets flying in the sky, and then they heard screams one after another.
Deng Xia held the telescope to observe and ordered: "Cannon legs forward half a degree!"
The Tiger Crouching Cannon, a small cannon that can move quickly, naturally does not have a very precise angle adjustment device.
It is a cannon barrel with cannon legs on the front end to support the ground, just like an animal squatting on the ground. If you have never seen a tiger squatting, you must have seen a dog squatting, that is, sitting down with the hind legs retracted and the front legs straightened to step on the ground. .
The collar of the gun leg moves forward, that is, the angle of the gun barrel is adjusted downward.
The second salvo after adjusting the angle was obviously more accurate. The wooden fences of the Xixia camp fell down row by row, and the Xixia soldiers behind the wooden fence were also hit by shotguns.
Seeing the Ming army loading ammunition again, the Xixia soldiers who were still alive turned around and ran away, and the supervising team could not stop them at all.
There was a simple high platform on the south side of the camp. Li Renyi stood on the general platform and witnessed what had just happened.
The two armies are still outside the range of ordinary bows and arrows. Only a few archers who can draw strong bows can shoot that far. But those thunderbolt cannons can actually hit them!
The third salvo came quickly, but there were always some areas that it missed, so I adjusted slightly left and right to hit it.
After another round of shelling, finally no enemy dared to stand at the wooden fence.
However, after the Xixia soldiers who were holding on to the wooden fence fled, the Ming army did not pursue the victory, but the entire army slowly advanced again.
After traveling a certain distance, it stopped and the Crouching Tiger Cannon was placed on the ground again.
This plan is to use a large infantry formation and artillery fire to push it all the way!
At this moment, the infantry formation has passed the contested hilltop, and there are a large number of Xixia soldiers on the mountains on both sides.
Ding Zhongyi said anxiously: "These Ming army's divine artillery are just like the Song army's thunder cannon. They need time to reload the cannons. We cannot let them shoot down. After the cannon is fired, order the cavalry to attack from the front. The soldiers from the hills on both sides also rushed down to attack! The cavalry was divided into three teams. If the first and second teams were hit by artillery, the third team would continue to charge."
It's easy to say, but a little confusing to implement.
A large number of Xixia infantry retreated automatically and did not obey military orders very much, blocking the passage of troops.
The Xixia cavalry slashed their own infantry all the way, and then the passage for troops was opened.
The cavalry were also afraid of artillery and did not dare to get too close.
By the time these cavalry rushed over, the Tiger Crouching Cannon had already been loaded with ammunition. Nearly half of the first wave of cavalry fell during the charge. Moreover, the trajectory of the shotguns was elusive. Some of the second wave of cavalry that followed were also affected by stray bullets. .
The fallen human and horse corpses caused the cavalry rushing from behind to slow down slightly.
The gunners retreated one after another and hid in the infantry formation.
The remaining cavalry finally rushed to the Ming army's formation. They came to destroy the cannons, just like the cavalry went out to destroy the siege equipment.
These people actually got off their horses, drew their swords and hacked at the cannon body, and some tried to set it on fire with torches.
Until now, the Xixia generals still don’t know that this thing is not made of wood at all!
"Dang-dang-dang!"
The collision of iron weapons kept making sounds, and the Xixia cavalrymen who were brandishing their swords were instantly stunned.
Iron?
The rattan players threw javelins, and the captains shot arrows, calling to the cavalry one after another. The armored knights might not have died from their injuries, but their stopped horses fell dead one after another, and some injured horses rushed wildly around.
If it weren't for the Xixia soldiers coming from the hills on both sides, Yang Zhi would have ordered the infantry to charge.
The main force of the Ming army quickly changed formations. There was no need to worry about the river blocking the river on the west side, but they formed formations on the east side to engage with the enemy coming down the mountain.
These Xixia soldiers rushed down the rugged hillside. They had no formation at all, but they had to face the Ming army's formation, which was waiting for them.
As the Ming army adjusted its formation, a group of soldiers came out from the west position to attack the cavalry who stopped to destroy the cannons. The Xixia cavalry whose horses were still alive fled one after another.
Then, the Xixia troops who came down the mountain to attack were also defeated by the Ming army's formation.
"Catch up and occupy the hilltop!"
Li Jinyi, who was in charge of the front line command, immediately seized this opportunity, divided his troops to chase the defeated troops up the mountain, and took advantage of the situation to occupy the top of the mountain.
Then he went south from this hilltop to join the troops who had attacked the mountain before, and attacked the enemy troops on the other hilltop from the north and south.
"Capital, those cannons are made of iron and cannot be destroyed!"
The cavalrymen who fled back were all crying.
Li Renyi looked blankly at the Ming army in the distance and muttered: "How do you fire a cannon made of iron?"
Ding Zhongyi asked: "The torsion bar is also made of iron? If you cut off the torsion bar, the cannon will not fire."
The cavalryman replied: "There is no torsion bar. It is just a big iron pipe with a few hoops on the outside and two legs in front of it."
Belt hoop?
And two legs?
Ding Zhongyi said confusedly: "Is it some kind of monster?"
