Thirty thousand cavalry came overwhelmingly and entered the 200-step line. Guo Ziyi ordered: "Fire the arrows and thunder!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The drums beat loudly, five thousand large yellow crossbows were fired at the same time, and five thousand arrows and thunderbolts were shot out at the same time, disappearing in the air in an instant, and shooting at the rear of the enemy cavalry.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" There was an explosion when it hit the ground. It was extremely spectacular. This was not an explosion of fifty, but an explosion of five thousand thunders. If one thunder killed two people, it would be ten thousand people, let alone more than two people.
There were violent explosions, the sound of explosions covered up the screams, and thick smoke filled the air.
The cavalry in front were so frightened that they pulled on their reins one after another. The cavalry in the back rushed towards them, shouting and neighing, and the battlefield became a mess.
The 10,000 heavy crossbow soldiers quickly cooperated to cock the bow, loaded the second arrow and mine, lit the match, and fired again.
Five thousand arrows and thunderbolts were fired at the dense group of cavalry again. The first round exploded, and the smoke from the battlefield had not yet dispersed. The Khitan cavalry were in shock. However, the second round came again, and violent explosions occurred in the crowd again.
Xu Zongran, the general commander of the Modao Army, couldn't help but sigh. They, the Modao Army, had no chance in this battle.
Yelu Salade, like all the Khitan soldiers, was stunned by the explosion in front of him. When the smoke cleared, he saw thousands of cavalry rushing back desperately. In just two rounds of explosions, more than 25,000 people were killed and injured.
people.
This frightened the remaining 60,000 Khitan troops.
At this time, the Tang army's horn sounded, and Xi Wanli led 30,000 cavalrymen to dispatch, followed by 10,000 spear soldiers.
Yelu Salad knew in his heart that the morale of his army was completely gone, but he did not dare to retreat. Once he retreated, the infantry would cause the entire army to rout.
He had no choice but to bite the bullet and shout: "The whole army comes forward to fight!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The 60,000 Khitan troops had to fight hard, with 20,000 cavalry in front and 40,000 infantry behind.
As the two armies gradually approached, the Tang army's cavalry drew out exploding arrows, stretched their bows and nocked arrows, and shot at the other side's cavalry.
They used old-fashioned explosive arrows. Old-fashioned explosive arrows are prone to explosion. No matter they hit the opponent's armor or hit the ground, they will explode. Since their introduction, they have caused hundreds of casualties to Tang Army soldiers.
For this reason, the Firearms Department made another improvement and changed the small clay pot at the front of the explosive arrow to a small porcelain pot, making it no longer so fragile and would only explode if it hits hard objects such as stone slabs and wooden boards.
Although the safety was greatly improved, the practicality was greatly reduced, and it was not as popular with the Tang army soldiers as it was initially.
Under the strong appeal of the majority of soldiers, the Privy Council made improvements, allowing two types of explosive arrows to be used at the same time, and distinguishing them by color, red for old, black for new, and also limited the scope of use. For example, old explosive arrows are not allowed to be used during training.
, In addition, the special arrow kettle has been improved, and most accidents are caused by soldiers accidentally causing explosions when drawing arrows.
Thanks to a series of targeted improvements and the increasingly proficient operations of the soldiers, explosion accidents have been rapidly reduced. In the past two months, no explosion accident has occurred.
At this time, the soldiers of the Tang Army used red-feathered explosive arrows, which are old-style explosive explosive arrows. They will explode regardless of whether they hit the enemy.
The 30,000 Tang Army cavalry fired tens of thousands of exploding arrows in an instant, which rained down on the opponent's 20,000 cavalry, triggering a series of crackling explosions. Countless Khitan soldiers screamed and fell off their horses. A random arrow caused more than 5,000 casualties.
people.
The rest of the cavalry were so frightened that they turned around and fled. Three thousand Tang army cavalry were chasing after them.
The flight of the 20,000 cavalrymen triggered the desperate flight of the 40,000 infantrymen behind them. The Khitan army was defeated. Yelu Salade shouted repeatedly and could not stop it. When he saw that the situation was over, he had no choice but to sigh and follow the horse to escape.
The Tang Army's 30,000 cavalrymen chased them for nearly 40 miles in one breath. The 20,000 cavalrymen led by Xi Wanli were extremely powerful. They were not in a hurry to kill the enemy soldiers, but stabbed them with one shot and continued to pursue them, leaving a back door to pursue them.
10,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry were killed in the follow-up attack. This was extremely efficient, and tens of thousands of Khitan troops could not escape death in the end.
Of the 90,000 Khitan army, only Yelu Salade and his thousands of cavalry escaped the Tang army's pursuit, while the rest of the 90,000 Khitan army was completely wiped out.
But the Tang army did not stop the pursuit. Zhang Dian led 10,000 cavalry to pursue him all the way north. According to the order given to them by the emperor, Yelu Salade must be killed, and no one of his descendants was allowed to be left alive.
This is the red edict, and it is also the highest edict in the Liaodong Campaign. Although he does not know why, Guo Ziyi still carries out the order to the letter.
This task fell on Zhang Dian.
At dawn the next day, faint shouts of killing could be heard from ahead, and Zhang Dian immediately led his cavalry to follow them.
I saw corpses of Khitan cavalry all over the ground. It was they who had been chasing thousands of Khitan troops for more than eighty miles. They were intercepted by Nan Jiyun's army. In a big battle, almost the entire army was destroyed.
When Nan Jiyun heard that Zhang Dian was chasing Yelu Salade, he hurriedly ordered the entire army to search for the body, but the target was not found.
At this time, a general said: "General Nan, I saw about a hundred cavalry guards and one person breaking through the encirclement to the northeast."
Zhang Dian was in a hurry and immediately wanted to lead his army to pursue him. Nan Jiyun quickly prepared two horses for Zhang Dian and brought him a month's worth of dry food.
Zhang Dian then led 500 elite cavalry in pursuit toward the northwest.
Among the three armies heading north, Guo Ziyi needs to face the main force of the Khitan. His team does not dare to move too fast for fear that the team will be too long and be ambushed by the enemy. Nan Jiyun's army must cooperate with Guo Ziyi, and they cannot move either.
Too fast.
Only Ma Lin's army had a clear mission, which was to sweep across the Khitan's home base. The 50,000-strong army marched hastily without any worries, and entered Pingdi a few days ago.
The army marched all the way north. That morning, a river suddenly appeared in the distance. Endless tents were stationed on both sides of the river. They found the home of the Khitan people.
Ma Lin drew his sword and shouted: "Come in, all men will be killed without mercy!"
The 50,000-strong army marched toward the Khitan's lair in overwhelming numbers.
Three days later, Guo Ziyi's army also arrived at the Khitan's lair. By this time, the 50,000 Tang troops had already combed the entire Khitan tribe several times like a comb combing their hair.
Like the Xi people in the south, all the Khitan nobles were killed, including men, women, old and young. The remaining young and strong men who dared to resist were all killed by the Tang army, leaving only a small number of older men and the second generation.
There are more than 100,000 women and children, all ordinary people.
Of course, although the Khitan tribe is large, with a population of nearly one million, the core tribe has a small population, only hundreds of thousands of people, and the rest are dependent tribes, such as the Xi tribe with a population of more than 200,000, some Xi people, and Shiwei people
, Mohe people, Bohai people, etc.
These dependent tribes were basically all gone more than ten days ago, and each of them went to find a place to make a living, or to rely on other tribes.
The Khitans have been fighting for more than 20 years without stopping, and the army has consumed huge amounts of money. This time the Tang army launched the final decisive battle against the Khitans.
Except for the nobles, the Khitan did not go to the battlefield. All the other young and strong men were equipped, and they assembled an army of 90,000. The young and strong men were gone, only middle-aged and elderly men were left. In addition, the average life span of the Khitan people was very short, and most of them only had
They can live to be more than forty years old, and nobles can live to be fifty or sixty years old.
After killing all the nobles, there were basically not many adult men left, less than 10,000 people, and the rest were children under the age of fourteen.
Guo Ziyi was always prudent. He did not allow the soldiers to violate these Khitan women. Instead, he gathered them together, got them into a cart, swept away all the Khitan wealth, and drove to Yingzhou in a mighty manner.
Guo Ziyi thought carefully. Many of his soldiers did not have wives. He considered selecting tens of thousands of young women to be wives for his soldiers.
Preserving their innocence is actually preserving the face of our own soldiers.
He expressed his thoughts to his subordinates, and the generals unanimously agreed not to indulge the soldiers.
They also registered the soldiers who were willing to marry these Khitan women, and all of them were registered, and they were selected and matched after they camped in the state.
The Khitan has been destroyed, but there is still one last chapter, which is Zhang Dian's pursuit of Yelu Salade.
Zhang Dian is known as the first scout of the Tang Dynasty. He has rich experience and strong tracking ability. He keeps a close eye on the opponent based on the horse's hooves and the traces and smell of the horse's passing.
In the hills and mountains of the north, Zhang Dian has been tracking the opponent for three days. Yelu Salade tried several methods but failed to get rid of Zhang Dian. Instead, his men continued to decrease. From the initial 120 men,
It was reduced to more than fifty people, some of whom were sent out by him, and some who secretly left him.
At this time, they had entered the territory of the Shiwei tribe. Yelusalad had a good relationship with the Shiwei tribe. He wanted to find the Shiwei tribe. They had been without food for two days. If they continued to endure it, they would eventually starve to death.
.
At noon, after crossing a mountain, Yelu Salad suddenly saw hundreds of large tents at the foot of the mountain. He was immediately overjoyed and ran towards the group of tents with his last fifty men.
Two hours later, Zhang Dian and his men also discovered the tent group.
At the same time, he found the horse hooves that he had been following outside the tent group and disappeared into the tent group.