Liu Ran raised his head and looked at the two-color flag rolled up on the tower.
Ding Haijun did not teach him the meaning of flags, but after working together in the past few days, Liu Ran came up with some rules. For example, if the flag is single or double-color, it means that the enemy is infantry, cavalry, or both.
.The number of left and right swings represents the number of enemies, in steps of ten, one hundred, five hundred, one thousand, and five thousand.
At this moment, the two-color flags were rolled five times in a row and then raised high again. This was the discovery of the enemy's infantry and cavalry brigade, numbering between a thousand and less than five thousand.
This is the arrival of a powerful enemy, the arrival of the Mongolian vassal army!
Liu Ran returned to the camp and shouted sternly to his companions, asking them to lead the old and weak to the Wozikou seawall south of Zhigu Village for temporary shelter. The strong men who could fight with swords immediately formed a formation, preparing to respond to the call of the Ding Navy.
.
This is what Tian Xiong, the guard here, will definitely tell Liu Ran to do every time he encounters enemy harassment in the past few days. He has already gained experience.
Unexpectedly, the messengers who came this time brought completely different orders. Seeing Liu Ran's sufficient preparation, he was even a little confused: "There are many enemies coming this time. You tell the people to go south and do what they want."
What's more? If the enemy surrounds Zhigu Village, how long can the people hide in the Wozikou seawall? Hurry up and take people around to the back and into the village!"
"The Zhigu Village is only of this size. Thousands of us are crowded in. Wouldn't the military men... ahem, we're afraid that we won't be able to help, and we're also afraid that the military men won't be able to turn around."
Zhang Pingliang interjected. Although he said this, what he actually meant was that he was worried that the defenders would use the refugees' surnames to pad their swords and serve as human shields for the city defenders... In the previous battles, the Ding Navy did not use the refugees, but
Who knows what will happen to them when the number of enemies increases?
After hearing Zhang Pingliang's words, the messenger immediately showed an angry look: "What is coming is the bandit army that is attached to Mongolia! This is all a trivial matter. Do you still need to deal with these people?"
He raised his voice and said loudly: "We are going to fight now, you just have to watch from the stockade!"
"Go to war?"
Liu Ran was stunned, and the messenger kept saying: "Hurry up! Don't delay our affairs!"
It would be best if we could really take refuge in the village. Everyone obeyed the order with great enthusiasm.
And when Liu Ran and others entered the walled city, they understood why the messengers were in such a hurry.
It turns out that the Dinghai navy's troops stationed in Zhigu Village have been fully prepared and are constantly being dispatched outside the city. On the opposite side of Lushui, in a small fortress in the direction of Xin'an Hainan, there are also hundreds of garrison troops crossing the river in boats and stationed around the refugees.
camp and join the main force.
In fact, the combined strength of the two is not very large. After a small group of sentries came forward, the infantry wearing gray military robes formed small square formations. There were about a hundred people in a square formation, and three square formations formed a horizontal formation.
, and then the three horizontal arrays were arranged in an orderly manner. The sword and shield players were arranged side by side on the outer edges of the arrays, the spearmen were staggered in between, and then the archers filled the center of the array.
Due to the restriction of the depression terrain to the north of Zhigu Village, the shape of the entire military formation was not regular. However, every horizontal formation and even square formation felt that the spears and spears were held high like a forest, and the flags were like clouds, and they were extremely orderly.
When the soldiers in the front row were in position, hundreds of Alixi were still walking through the formation. Some helped the main army put on armor, and some rushed to the base camp to pick up arrows or spare weapons according to the main army's instructions.
When all three horizontal formations were in place, the Alixi troops withdrew one after another and formed another small formation behind the formation. On the side of the small formation, the cavalry were in place.
Most of the cavalry were riding tall horses, and some of the horses were wearing vests.
At this time, all the regular troops in front of the horizontal formation were already wearing chain mail; the archers were also wearing light chain mail. In order to facilitate the movement of their shoulders when shooting bows and arrows, they raised the shoulder pads of their armors.
Turn it over so that it stands just on both sides of the ears, and then secure it slightly with a leather band.
As the generals in the formation shouted and issued orders one after another, the entire team suddenly moved forward. As they advanced, the distances between the multiple square formations continued to change and appeared orderly, just like a giant snake opening and closing.
The cold steel scales advanced rapidly on the frozen solid field.
Zhang Pingliang calmed the refugees in the walled city and ordered them not to move around. At this time, he climbed onto the wall of the walled city and was surprised at a glance: "What kind of army is this? Even the imperial army's elite troops don't have such equipment, right?"
Liu Ran shook his head: "Even the small army we have seen can't do it for everyone, right? What's more, how can the small army have such momentum?"
He had seen operations involving dozens or hundreds of people in the Ding Navy. Looking at the equipment at that time, he thought they were generals and soldiers in the Ding Navy. Only now did he realize that there were thousands of soldiers and horses around Zhigu Village.
All are armored.
In his early years in northern Xinjiang, he had seen the elite troops of the imperial court, that is, the elite of the armed guards. However, the equipment of the Ding navy was actually better than that of the armed guards.
Moreover, there are nominally tens of thousands of troops stationed in Zhongdu such as the Wuwei Army and the Weijie Army. In fact, there are not many troops that can actually fight. Many of them are just show-offs. They only look tall and powerful and can be used as fakes.
Rely on and please your superiors. Once Ding Haijun's queue is lined up, the battle-hardened momentum becomes ten times stronger.
If the entire Dinghai Navy is like this...
In fact, this was Liu Ran's overthinking. The Ding Navy has expanded too fast in the past six months. With such a large number of troops, it is impossible for everyone to wear armor. It's just that Chen Ran brought elites.
Liu Ran was shocked for a moment, then looked at Zhang Pingliang. The young man's mouth was wide open, and his saliva formed a line in the air and kept dripping down. Beside him, many of the defeated soldiers also had shocked faces.
At this time, the Ding navy queue passed through the passage in the depression in front. As the rumbling drums sounded, the entire army began to move forward in orderly steps.
"After all, there are only a thousand people, so it's still too much." An officer trembled: "If this is compromised, wouldn't Ambassador Guo Xuan of the Ding Navy be heartbroken to death?"
"Yes, yes, there are about four to five thousand enemy troops coming. This battle is not going to be easy!"
The officer who spoke like this was a smart man who also guessed the flag of the Ding Navy. He looked at the others and whispered: "In case the Ding Navy's field battle is unfavorable, we have to find a way to secure Zhigu Village."
There is a hint of occupying a magpie's nest in these words. The border warriors were in trouble, and seeing that the military resources in Zhigu Village were sufficient, it was possible for them to feel dizzy for a while.
Liu Ran glanced at a few Dinghai soldiers who were left behind on the far side of the city wall, and couldn't help laughing:
"Such an army of a thousand people is perfect in every aspect from stationing, marching, preparing for war, and lining up. It is also supported by a huge fleet, and the Dinghai Navy Headquarters in Shandong and Liaodong provide backup... Who dares to attack Zhigu
Do you want to offend the navy by doing this? Aren't you afraid of death?"
"Ahem... I mean, we must also be prepared to help at any time!"
The officer laughed twice, explained a few words, and then pretended to watch the battle with his companions.
In fact, everyone knows their mentality. Those who can fight along the way and retreat to Zhigu Village are not timid and afraid of death. But on the one hand, they hope that Ding Haijun can defeat the enemy, and on the other hand, they have a little selfishness in their bones.
, I hope that the Ding Navy will not be as powerful as it appears.
Otherwise...it's really worthless to everyone.
At this time, in the wilderness a few miles away, horns and wailings were heard. Everyone cheered up and kept saying: "Coming, coming!"
"But I don't know which route the enemy troops came from."
"It's just those few. Yelu Kechou Baer from the Khitan, You Xingzong from the Bohai Sea, and Shi Tianying, Xue Ta Lahai, and Brother Yang Jie are these three ruthless people."