The Hexi Dangxiang formations were somewhat scattered and inconsistent. Some were exhausted and sat on the ground panting; some drew teams out to dig trenches; some were thirsty and looked around. There was also the slanting sun that made people's eyes open.
not open.
Thousands of cavalrymen rushed down the hillside to the west, and the timing was perfect.
"Crash..." The thin spear embankment could not stop the torrent of cavalry rushing down.
Hundreds of cavalrymen from the left wing rushed at the front, inserted dozens of steps straight into the formation, and almost penetrated the entire enemy formation. They strictly followed the pre-battle arrangements, driving left and right to widen the gap, followed by thousands of cavalrymen.
The remaining cavalrymen swarmed in and directly cut the enemy formation in the middle.
The infantry without formation is completely like a lamb to be slaughtered.
The leader of Hexi Dangxiang still had his horse, so he abandoned the army and ran away. However, there were too many rebels, and they could not raise their horse speed at all, so they were quickly intercepted by the garrison that caught up with the cavalry army.
With a straight thrust, the big and small heads fell off their horses one after another and were trampled on.
From here we can see how decisive Tuoba Sigong was in his escape at the foot of Youzhou City last year. Seeing that the defeat was certain, the leaders of Hexi Dangxiang tried to abandon the army and escape, but in the end they were a step too late and all did the same.
Kill the innocent soul trampled by the horse's hooves.
The tactics of the cavalry army are almost a replica of the Khitan cavalry in the early Northern Song Dynasty. They stare at you like a pack of wolves, preventing you from eating and sleeping well, making you nervous or even in a trance, exhausted, and morale low. And they themselves have two weapons
Horses or even three horses can be divided into several groups. When you are nervously arraying to meet the enemy, some of them are always eating, drinking, sleeping and resting to maintain sufficient physical strength. This is a ghost of being undefeated.
The Song Army was extremely unsuited to this tactic at first and suffered heavy losses. Now that it is used on Hexi Dangxiang, they cannot compare with the Daliang Forbidden Army in any aspect, and it is natural that the entire army will be annihilated.
Of course, there are ways to break this tactic. Either strengthen the wall and clear the field, leaving the enemy cavalry with nothing to plunder and restrict its mobility, or send cavalry of the same size to defeat the cavalry. But Hexi Dangxiang could not do both, and failed there.
It's inevitable.
After the formation was defeated, the leaders and generals either fled or died, and these thousands of Hexi party members were now beyond saving.
As the battle progressed into the night, various ministries came to report the results one after another. The civil servants kept writing, and by the end of the day, more than 2,700 people had been beheaded, more than 3,400 people had been captured, and some grain, grass and equipment had been seized.
Killing more than 6,000 of them in one battle is heartbreaking even if the Hexi Party is outnumbered. But there is no way, war is like this, no one will take care of you just because you are weak. You are poorly equipped and poorly trained.
, you may not be able to win the battle just by relying on your bravery and brute strength. Especially when you encounter this kind of weird and fierce cavalry tactics, you will not lose unfairly.
"Transport the head to the foot of Huaiyuan County and build it for viewing in the capital." Zhe Siyu ordered.
The scribes who accompanied the army gave him a somewhat complicated look. The warriors in Lei Jingguan showed off their martial arts, which the warriors loved to do, but Marshal Shao didn't like it. General Zhe usually looked at him as a cautious person, but now he was in charge of an army fighting alone, and he was like this
High-spirited.
However, after this battle, Oritsugu Yu's name will be resounding throughout the northwest and he will join the ranks of famous generals. This killing field is really a vanity fair tailor-made for warriors.
After the general order was given, the soldiers gathered the captured heads and placed them on the captured carts, preparing to transport them to Huaiyuan City early tomorrow morning and make an emergency landing in the county.
The cavalry brigade was still resting nearby and sent out scouts from a distance to keep watch.
"Wei Wu marched on Hebei and marched to Dunqiu. The Black Mountain bandits Yu Du and others attacked Dongwuyang. Wei Wu led his troops into Xishan and attacked Du and other villages. After hearing about Du, he abandoned Dongwuyang. Wei Wu fortified it inside and destroyed it greatly.
"The night on the west bank of the Yellow River is a little chilly, and Song Ju, an important member of the shogunate's army, is reading historical battle examples to Oritsugu. This is Marshal Shao's request, so that the generals should study hard and draw inferences from one example to improve their own skills.
"Where does this come from?" Zhejiyu blinked his eyes and said, "I know what it means, how should I say it?"
"This is called destroying the void," Song Ju said.
"Yes, it's to destroy Xu!" Oritsugu smiled and said, "I know how to destroy Xu, but I can't think of how to say it at the moment."
When Linzhou broke up the family, his grandfather Zhehua was not famous, but he only consolidated the family's foundation in Linzhou. In Zhezongben's generation, Zhejiba became a general, and Zhejiyu was strictly speaking the second generation.
The general is still the kind who doesn't have a very deep foundation.
There are some things that he knows whether to do and how to do them. He has a very keen sense of smell on the battlefield, but he just can't express them. Every time Marshal Shao assigns homework, he has to find someone to go over it together.
"The general led the cavalry group into Hexi, which is a mistake. Today, the party in Hexi was defeated in front of the formation, and it was trapped." Song Ju continued: "The cavalry army has achieved great success this time."
"The commander-in-chief has arranged all these things well." Oretsugu Yuu has not been idle for so many years. Some of his words are treacherous: "Elite soldiers and strong generals are in my hands. If you can't make military exploits, you will be unworthy of the commander-in-chief's great trust."
"Actually, if the rebel army doesn't move in the afternoon, I plan to send people to set fire at night. The rebel army has no cavalry and cannot catch up with our army. After setting the fire, if there is an opportunity, we can shoot some more cold arrows.
If the bandit army dispatches a large group, we will mount our horses and run away. When they return, they will come back to attack. With such rotation, the bandit army will definitely be exhausted." Oritsugu Yu said: "However, the bandit army's infantry is not strong, so these methods will not be used.
Come on, hey hey."
"General, you have learned the essence of how to use cavalry." Song Ju complimented.
There was no talk all night. Early the next morning, Wei Mengbao set out first with the heads of Hexi Dangxiang. At noon, the main army also set off. As a result, when they were halfway there, the former army came to report that Huaiyuan County had surrendered.
Oritsugu Yu was overjoyed and immediately led the main force of the cavalry army to the county seat before nightfall.
Huaiyuan County has a large population, almost as much as Lingzhou City. During the Beizhou Period, 20,000 households moved here. There is a ready-made water conservancy network and a relatively abundant grain production. Since the Ming Dynasty, every time I immigrated to the Hetao area, the situation has been unfavorable.
When the time comes, the local people will be moved back to Lingzhou and the territory in the north will be abandoned.
For example, in the early years of the imperial dynasty, when the Liang Dynasty conquered the capital, Fengzhou, which was located behind it, appeared to be Turkic, but secretly surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. Later, after breaking with the Turks, all the people moved to Lingzhou, so Lingzhou's population has always been large.
However, after the rise of Tubo, Lingzhou became the front line of the war. Especially after the mid-Tang Dynasty, there were many military disasters here, the people were displaced, and the household registration decreased rapidly. In the late Tang Dynasty, Tubo was in decline, and the population of Lingzhou recovered somewhat, but it was not more than
40,000. In some counties, even if you walk twenty or thirty miles outside the county seat, you will hardly see anyone. Everywhere is a paradise for wild animals.
The fertile fields are abandoned and the canals are clogged. How sad!
On April 14, after obtaining some supplies, the cavalry army continued southward and reached Hongjing County (ie Baojing County) in half a day.
Outside the city, they met hundreds of sergeants from Lingzhou. Hongjing County was closed to the public and the sergeants were shouting curses. However, they were surrounded by cavalry troops and surrendered on the spot.
After interrogation, it turned out that they were here to collect grain. Oretsugu dispatched cavalry on the spot to search the surrounding villages. As expected, many Lingzhou sergeants were captured who were looting. They were all taken back to Hongjing County for custody. The total number exceeded
Thousands of people.
This county is near Yongning County in present-day Ningxia. It was Cangcheng during the Northern Wei Dynasty. There is a dense network of irrigation canals built in the Han, Wei, Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties nearby. Unfortunately, too much population was lost due to wars, and most of the water conservancy facilities were abandoned.
, and the farmland is also covered with grass.
On the 15th, a large group of cavalry appeared outside Lingwu County again. This county is also west of the Yellow River and across the river to the northwest of present-day Lingwu City. Lingzhou was not slow in its actions and sent more than a thousand people to assist in defense.
, and recruit the strong people in the city to defend the city, and Lingwu County must not be lost again.
It's not that they don't want to send more soldiers and horses, but they are really in short supply. Now there are only two thousand government officers in Lingzhou City, plus two thousand state soldiers who are not so well-trained. Four thousand people can't be less to guard a big city.
Oritsugu Yu was not in a hurry and sent most of the people out. They herded horses to eat grass and collected grains and beans. At the same time, he took two thousand horses to patrol the river bank to see where there was a place to cross the river.
At the same time, he received a military report that the Yi Cong Army had completed crossing the river and joined the Dingyuan Army. In addition to leaving a thousand people to protect Minzhuang and escort the food and equipment, the main force of 5,000 people began to move southward towards Lingwu County.