In the spring, Seljuk Sultan Sanjar led an army of 150,000 to conquer Khwarezm, and claimed to have an army of 300,000.
King Ajisi of Khwarezm was shocked and quickly sent people to ask for help from Yelu Dashi.
Yelu Dashi did not go to the rescue foolishly, and once again used the method of besieging Wei to rescue Zhao. He ordered the troops of all ethnic groups to gather in the Fergana Basin, while the Gaochang army stayed in Hami to guard against the Ming Dynasty chasing Xixia and killing them.
The original intention of Sanjar's attack on Khwarezm was to force Yelv Dashi to send troops, then encircle the point to recruit reinforcements, and then wait for work to clean up the Xiliao army.
One besieges the point to rescue, the other besieges Wei and rescues Zhao.
After all, Sanjar could not bear the pressure, because he had to save the Western Kara Khanate, but Yelu Dashi did not necessarily have to save Khwarezm.
The city of Samarkand was high and deep, so Yelüdashi did not waste his troops in attacking the city. He kept besieging the city and waiting for the Seljuk reinforcements to come.
When Sanjar's army approached, Yelu Dashi immediately withdrew northward.
To the north of Samarkand, there is a long and narrow grassland called Katwan.
The Katwan grassland is surrounded by mountains to the north and south, and Sanjar led his troops to pursue them, forcing Yelu Dashi to the edge of the grassland next to the mountains.
Yelu Dashi seemed to be cornered, and Sanjar was confident to fight the decisive battle.
He even put his queen and scholars in the army to fight together, and asked painters and poets to prepare works about his victory.
Not all of the 150,000 Seljuk troops were brought to fight.
Just as Yelv Dashi had to guard against the Ming Dynasty, Sanjar had to guard against Khwarezm.
Ahjisi's troublemaker was once Sanjar's favorite general, and his combat effectiveness was still very impressive. A full 50,000 Seljuk troops stayed in the west to guard against Ahjisi's troubles.
The army of the Western Kara Khanate had long been crippled by the Yelv Stone, and could only stay in Samarkand to defend the city and guard grain and grass.
Therefore, the total strength of the Seljuqs in the decisive battle was just over 100,000.
The total strength of Xiliao's decisive battle was only a little over 70,000 - 80,000 to be precise. There were about 8,000 Ge Luolu mercenaries, who were hidden in the valley by Yelu Dashi in advance. Two of them were already hidden.
The moon has not come out yet, this is information that Sanjar is completely unaware of.
…
The decisive battle is about to break out.
Yelu Dashi called all the generals from all tribes to lecture: "I have explained all the principles to you and to the soldiers under your command. Now I will repeat them again."
"The soldiers who came with me from Mobei must all have fresh memories of the hardships they suffered along the way. If we lose this battle, there will be no place in the world. We have no place to go. Everyone has only one choice.
That means dying in battle here!"
"As for the soldiers of the Kara Khanate, my rule is enlightened and benevolent. Even if they capture the big city, they will not rob or kill. But who is on the opposite side? That is the Seljuq Khan Sanjar. If he loses this battle, he will
He will rule the entire Karakhanate. He will sack cities and villages, leaving his cronies as city lords and shepherds. Everything you have will be taken away by the Seljuqs. I am not scaring you, what happened to Khwarezm last year
, I think you have all heard about it."
"As for the Geluolu army, I won't lose a single gold coin for the money I promised you, and I won't have to pay tribute for the next three years!"
"This is the battlefield I selected last year. As long as you lead your troops to fight to the death, the enemy will definitely fall into a trap."
"We will win!"
The overall battle plan has already been informed to the generals of all races.
Although it is very risky, the chance of winning is very high. All the generals shouted together: "We must win! We must win!"
The next day, the two armies took up positions, and their formations were very similar.
They all divided their troops into three armies: left, center and right, and then let the light cavalry go out to shoot arrows.
There are 2,000 heavy cavalry in Xiliao, which are placed at the rear of the right army.
However, Seljuk had 5,000 heavy cavalry placed at the rear of the central army.
The battle began, and both sides sent light cavalry to fight.
The Xiliao light cavalry was defeated and quickly retreated to the side and rear of the infantry formation. The Seljuk light cavalry took turns passing by the Xiliao infantry formation, constantly shooting at the Xiliao infantry who used their shields to block arrows.
Soon, Sanjar discovered that the right army in Xiliao was unstable, so he ordered: "The enemy's right army is the weakest. Move the entire army over there and concentrate our forces to attack the right army!"
So Seljuk's left, center and right armies slowly advanced to the right side of Xiliao.
The left, center and right armies of Xiliao also moved slowly to the right as a whole. However, because the order was issued late, they could not keep up with the movement, and the Seljuq army took the lead.
As a last resort, Xiao Weili led the Western Liao right army to retreat towards the valley at the rear, and relied on the mouth of the valley to defend it with all his strength.
Seljuk's left army and central army violently attacked the Xiliao right army guarding the valley entrance.
As long as the Xiliao army is defeated, the victory or defeat of this war will basically be determined.
"Leave it to you!" Yelu Dashi said to Li Tiansheng.
"I will not give up even if I die!"
The Han general Li Tiansheng, with the only 2,000 heavy cavalry in Western Liao, took a roundabout route and outflanked the Seljuk rear.
Yelu Dashi himself led the soldiers of the Chinese army to attack the nearest Seljuk Chinese army.
Xiao Chala Abu led the Western Liao left army to flank and outflank the Seljuk right army.
The battlefield situation soon became like this: Seljuk drove a Xiliao army into the valley, but Xiliao in turn semi-surrounded the Seljuk army.
details as follows--
The right army of Xiliao retreated to the mouth of the valley and was attacked by the Seljuk left army and the Chinese army.
The Western Liao Central Army flanked the Seljuq Central Army.
The left army of Western Liao attacked the Seljuk right army in a roundabout way.
The heavy cavalry from both sides collided.
Sanjar remained calm in the face of danger and quickly mobilized troops to counterattack.
He detached a part of the Central Army officers and soldiers to personally lead the army to attack the Western Liao Central Army. He also asked a part of the Seljuk right army to separate and fight together with the Western Liao Central Army coming from the side.
Then divide the Seljuk heavy cavalry into two parts, one part will attack the Western Liao heavy cavalry, and the other part will cooperate with the remaining friendly forces to attack the Western Liao left army.
The battle lines began to stabilize and became extremely stalemate.
The more than 70,000 Xiliao army half surrounded the more than 100,000 Seljuk army.
However, the armor and weapons of the Xiliao army were more crude. At the critical moment, Yelu Dashi personally went into battle and led the reserve team to charge forward to stabilize the battle.
"Defeated, the enemy was defeated!"
The Seljuk soldiers approaching the valley shouted, and the morale of the nearby Seljuk troops was immediately boosted.
However, Xiao Orila, who was firmly defending the valley, could not withstand the fierce Seljuk attack. The entire right army retreated and fled deep into the valley.
The Seljuq left army and the center army, who had already become angry, drove the Xiliao right army into the valley, and even Sanjar himself chased in. Sanjar's queen, attendants and scholars also rushed in.
valley.
Those scholars also wear armor and fight!
"kill!"
Yelu Dashi led the Western Liao Central Army to rush to the valley entrance as quickly as possible and completely blocked the valley.
At the same time, in the ravines on both sides of the valley, more than 8,000 Gululu mercenaries were divided into several groups and rushed out, cutting into several sections the Seljuq army that was chasing into the valley.
When Xiao Weili saw that the ambush troops had come out, he quickly reined in the defeated troops and immediately turned around to fight back.
Sanjar was shocked when he was ambushed. He led the Chinese army to turn around and rush towards the mouth of the valley, but the Yelu big stone blocked them there.
It was extremely thrilling for both sides.
Seljuk's left army and center army were divided and surrounded in the valley.
The central army of Xiliao was also attacked from both sides. Yelv Dashi personally led his troops to block the entrance of the valley. He was attacked by both the Seljuk central army in the valley and the Seljuk right army outside the valley. The former were trapped beasts and they all rushed out desperately.
, the latter wanted to rescue Sudan and killed them all.
The Chinese army under the personal command of Yelu Dashi became the center of the entire battlefield.
He cooperated with the Xiliao troops in the valley to surround the two Seljuk armies. He also cooperated with the Xiliao troops outside the valley to surround the other two Seljuk armies.
To put it another way, Yelu Dashi himself was also surrounded.
As long as Yelu Dashi's central army is defeated, the Seljuqs can make a decisive comeback in this battle!
The next battle lasted for six hours.
Five thousand Seljuk heavy cavalry took turns charging towards the Yelv Rock. Li Tiansheng led two thousand Xiliao heavy cavalry, tightly entangled the Seljuk heavy cavalry, and used his life to buy time for the right army to encircle and annihilate.
The left army of Western Liao also stormed the Seljuk right army outside the valley.
Let’s talk about the eight thousand Galulu mercenaries. Their equipment is extremely backward, but they are all mountain infantry. In the complicated valleys, they were defeated by the well-equipped Seljuk troops time and time again. They climbed mountains to escape and rushed down again and again.
.
Xiao Weili's troops suffered heavy losses when they faked defeat, and were now cooperating with Ge Luolu's mercenaries to encircle and annihilate the enemy.
Gradually, the Seljuq army was divided and surrounded in the valley, and it was unable to hold back the Yelv Dashi Central Army, which was also surrounded.
However, the Central Army of Xiliao was almost collapsed, and Yelu Dashi himself was injured in many places.
Under the life-saving charge of the Sudanese guards' infantry, Yelu Dashi's central army was penetrated. Sanjar led some of the remaining soldiers to rush out of the valley and joined the remaining Seljuq heavy cavalry outside the valley, but he left his wife and scholars behind.
The troops were all thrown into the valley.
The Seljuk left army and the center army in the valley were all but dead.
The Seljuk right army outside the valley was also shaky.
Sanjar did not dare to fight anymore, so he fled in panic with a small number of heavy cavalry and light cavalry. The heavy infantry of the Sudanese Guards who followed him out of the valley were surrounded and annihilated by the Xiliao army.
"we won!"
The soldiers of Xiliao cheered and shouted, and Yelu Dashi, who was covered in blood, also smiled.
But it was a bit sad to laugh.
More than half of the Xiliao army suffered casualties, with more than 15% killed.
Especially for Yelu Dashi's central army and heavy cavalry, the death rate was close to 40%, otherwise it would have been impossible for Sanjar to rush out of the valley and escape.
These are the core elites of Xiliao, and the heavy casualties made Yelu Dashi's body hurt!
But it was said that Sanjar fled back to Samarkand, and without consulting the king of the Western Kara Khanate at all, he ordered the grain, grass and houses in the city to be burned down.
Li Tiansheng led the Xiliao cavalry in hot pursuit. Sanjar was so frightened that he continued to run away. The king also abandoned the queen and ran away with him.
Li Tiansheng's cavalry was exhausted and did not choose to continue the pursuit. Instead, he ordered the people in the city to put out the fire.
After a while, Yelu Dashi came with the main force.
Officials of the Western Kara Khanate came out of the city to greet him, knelt down and kowtowed and shouted: "The great Juer Khan, you are the king of kings and the greatest monarch in the world!"
Yelu Dashi pointed to the city wall: "What is this place called?"
An official of the Western Kara Khanate replied: "Reporting to the great Jur Khan, this is Samarkand."
Yelu Dashi said to the generals behind him: "It's too hard to say. This city is located between several large rivers. It can be renamed Hezhongfu."