The light of the sword is like the moon reflecting on Kyushu

Chapter 1939 Let them see the power of one gun, three swords and arrows!
Eunuch Li said: "Yes! The losses are huge!"

Zhao Guangyi's eyes turned a little cold. "It is very expensive to build a cavalry of Iron Harriers! It is not easy to train 3,000 heavy armored soldiers, and they actually built 30,000 of them. The daily cost is more than a thousand gold coins. Could it be that Mr. Li has emptied his family's wealth this time?"

Eunuch Li said, "Your Majesty, I am a little confused."

"Oh?"

"Since the Xiazhou Li family dared to send troops to support the Northern Han, it shows that they don't take our Song Dynasty seriously at all! It seems that their constant claims of submission to our Central Plains Dynasty are all false! They definitely covet the Central Plains! But what I can't understand is that since they covet it, why don't they take advantage of the opportunity and attack the capital of our Song Dynasty directly?"

"Then guess what the reason is?"

"Your Majesty, I am stupid. I thought that our army of 200,000 soldiers was assembled and marching north, and the emperor personally led the army. This would definitely make Xixia think that we have already sent out all our troops, and the rear defense must be empty! So if they want to take advantage of us, they should take the opportunity to raid our backyard nest at this time. This is the best strategy! But they chose to come all the way here to confront us head-on, which is tiring and exhausting. Theoretically, the chance of winning is low! I don't understand this!"

"Haha. This question is actually a bit complicated. They didn't dare to raid our backyard, and first of all it should be the credit of the Imperial City Bureau!
As far as I know, the spies of the Imperial City Department lurking in Xixia have sent some false and real signals to Xixia, at least making them think that although I personally led 200,000 troops to the north to fight against the pseudo-Han, there are still 300,000 elite troops in the capital waiting for the opportunity! In addition, there are three armies totaling 300,000 troops stationed at the northwest gateway fortress. Let me ask you, how dare Xixia act rashly?
Besides, even if the Western Xia cavalry is very powerful, the journey from Western Xia to Tokyo is thousands of miles. As you said, it is a long and tiring journey. Even if they reach Tokyo, they will be exhausted. How long can they hold out?
In war, what matters is not only equipment, but also money and food! The Art of War clearly states that launching a large-scale war requires calculating the material consumption of "a thousand chariots, a thousand leather chariots, and a hundred thousand armored soldiers". The daily consumption reaches "a thousand gold" to maintain the movement of a hundred thousand troops!

If their logistics supply cannot keep up, their spirit of relying on their courage to go deep into the enemy camp alone is commendable! But the biggest disadvantage of fighting alone is the lack of logistics supply. As long as their supply source is cut off, they will either sit and wait for death or surrender! They can't cause any trouble at all! "

Liu Yu said: "Then they will have an advantage if they run over here?"

Zhao Guangyi said: "It's different here! Here they have the home advantage! Jinyang is their base camp!
They seemed to be rushing to help the Northern Han, but in fact they were waiting for the opportunity to attack at any time! Because their cavalry had been waiting here for a long time! This also showed that they had colluded with the Northern Han for a long time!

In addition, according to secret reports, Xixia's national policy is to walk a tightrope! Find a balance between "taking advantage of the situation" and "independence"! They are very bold and think they can play with the two dynasties of Song and Khitan in the palm of their hands! They win over one and suppress the other, forming a three-kingdom situation! "

"But they are joining forces with Khitan to deal with us. How can there be any balance?"

"This just shows how smart they are! We are the ones who initiated the war this time, so in their eyes, we are now strong and powerful, and our strength is far greater than that of the Khitan, so they will unite with the Khitan to weaken us! On the contrary, once the Khitan goes south and actively attacks us, I estimate that Xixia may also unite with us to resist the Khitan!"

Eunuch Li's eyes lit up: "Allying with Wu to fight Cao? What the emperor said really makes sense!"

Zhao Guangyi said: "Does it make sense? This is just my guess! If the Khitan army really marches south, humph, I guess we'll be thankful if Xixia doesn't stab us in the back! Why their cavalry appeared here, I believe only Li Deming knows!"

"Your Majesty, this time when the Xixia Iron Harriers sent troops to help, the Imperial City Department didn't even notice anything. This is a serious dereliction of duty!"

Zhao Guangyi thought to himself: You said you had no grudge against the Imperial City Bureau, but aren't you trying to put the blame on Wei Qiansui again?

He asked softly, "Is Wei Shijie here?"

Eunuch Li said, "The people from the Imperial City Department have just reported that Prince Wei is on his way and is expected to arrive tomorrow morning."

Zhao Guangyi deliberately put on a stern face: "Humph! When he comes, I must ask him where the 60,000 cavalrymen from Xixia and Khitan came from!"

At this time, the 50,000 infantrymen of the Song Dynasty's left wing had nearly 5,000 casualties! The Khitan cavalry was indeed fierce and brutal!

The more casualties there are, the weaker the morale of the entire army! The weaker the combat effectiveness, the more scattered the formation will be! The more scattered the team is, the weaker the combat effectiveness will be.

Especially in this open area, the Song infantry had no chevaux de frise to hide behind, and no spears to attack and kill. Facing the heavily armored cavalry, they had no power to counterattack. They were almost like fish on the chopping board, at the mercy of others! Fortunately, the crossbowmen kept covering them and were able to make some weak counterattacks!

The Luoyang Tigers are all veterans of hundreds of battles, and their combat power is unquestionable. Especially those "King of Soldiers" who are the bravest among the three armies, can cut off the arm of the Khitan heavy cavalry with a single blow!

But unfortunately, the only equipment at this time was a long sword and light armor! The long sword was too short compared to the horse lance, and before the blade could touch the opponent's armor, his chest had been pierced by the opponent's horse lance!
The attack power is not at its peak, and the defense power is greatly reduced! The difference in combat power between the two sides is too great!

The right wing seemed to have an advantage in terms of military strength, with 20,000 cavalry and 50,000 infantry, but the situation was still not optimistic.

The 50,000 infantrymen can only wait for opportunities to pick up the enemy's weaknesses on the periphery. The only ones who can really fight the Iron Harriers head-on are the Song Dynasty's heavy cavalry!

The Song army had fought with the Western Xia army before. Although they knew that their cavalry was powerful, it was not until this direct fight that they discovered how terrifying the opponent was!
Although both are cavalry, the combat power of the Xixia Iron Harriers seems to be stronger than that of the Khitan Iron Forest Army!

No matter from the strength of the armor, the speed of the warhorse, the lethality of the long weapons, or the coordination of the entire team's tactics, any aspect seems to be superior to the Khitan cavalry!

Outside the city of Jinyang, tens of thousands of iron hooves trampled the earth like rumbling thunder, and the dust was stirred up.

The 20,000 heavily-armored cavalrymen of the Song Dynasty formed a spearhead formation and charged towards the Xixia cavalry! The dark iron armor reflected the faint light, and the horses were also fully armored, with only their eyes exposed!
The 30,000 Iron Harriers of the Western Xia Kingdom charged towards the Song Dynasty cavalry in a crane-wing formation! The black heavy armor glowed with a dark blue light, and the whirlwind axes and camel bone bows on both sides of the saddle were filled with murderous intent!
Two torrents are "rushing" towards each other on the earth, both like raging waves, determined to swallow up the other!

When the vanguards of the two armies collided, the sound of metal clashing was like heavy rain hitting iron, continuous!
A Song cavalryman wielded his sickle spear to pick at the horse's leg of the Xixia cavalryman who was charging from the opposite side, but was unexpectedly blocked by the Xixia cavalryman with a mace! Before the Song cavalryman could return his spear in time, he was strangled by the neck by a lasso thrown by another Xixia cavalryman and forcibly dragged off the horse, instantly drowning in the torrent of iron hooves!
Another fierce Xixia cavalryman wielded his mace crazily and smashed the skulls of three Song cavalrymen! He was born with supernatural power, and the helmets were as soft as paper in front of him!

But he was not proud for long, because he suddenly felt the horse sink down, and it turned out that the horse's legs had been cut off by the hook and sickle spear! He fell off the horse as the warhorse leaned forward, and was also drowned by the torrent of iron hooves!

More and more bodies are falling on the battlefield!
The Song cavalry was no worse than the Western Xia in terms of individual combat capability, but this time it was a large-scale battle, 30,000 versus 20,000, and the Song army's strength was only one-third less, so it was obviously at a disadvantage!
Moreover, in terms of cavalry combat flexibility and tacit coordination, the Song cavalry was not as good as the Western Xia cavalry!

After the two torrents collided for a round, the two sides had already switched positions.

After they had created a suitable distance, the cavalry of both sides turned their horses around at the same time, with the rear army becoming the front army and the front army becoming the rear army, and they began to charge again!
They started by trotting and accelerated, and as time went on, the speed of the horses on both sides became faster and faster. When the speed reached its peak, the impact force was also the greatest.

The leaders of both sides had calculated the distance well, so the moment the two armies clashed was also the moment when the horses of both sides were at the fastest speed and the impact of the cavalry was at its peak!
The cavalry on both sides were both fearless and brave, but the Western Xia cavalry had one-third more strength and more sophisticated tactical coordination, so after this round of confrontation, a large number of Song cavalry fell again!

The Xixia Iron Harrier Cavalry used a "hook rope" to rigidly connect the rider to the saddle. This special device was made of leather or metal chain, and passed through the lock structure reserved in the armor to form a seat belt-like function. Even if the rider died in battle, the body would still be firmly tied to the horse's back by the hook rope, maintaining the posture of "man and horse as one", and would not fall even after death!

There are three major advantages of not falling even though dead. The first is psychological deterrence. The rows of "unfallen" cavalry corpses create visual oppression, exacerbating the enemy's rout. The second is to maintain the formation and prevent the fallen horse corpses from obstructing the subsequent cavalry charge route, maintaining the continuity of the shock wave. The third is to save manpower. The troops can be quickly reorganized by recovering the horses and armor. Just cut the grappling rope and remove the corpses!

Once the Song cavalry were injured or died, they would inevitably fall off their horses!

This just happened to create three disadvantages for the Song army! First, it caused psychological pressure on their own soldiers! Every time one person died, the team lost one person, visually forming an irreversible trend of defeat for their own side;
Second, the continuity of the formation was destroyed! The cavalry corpses fell to the ground, which would hinder the cavalry's charge route. In serious cases, the entire cavalry would be tripped up, accelerating the defeat of the entire unit!
Third, the horses and equipment could not be recycled. Once a Song cavalryman died, his body would be trampled to pieces by countless iron hooves, and his armor would be trampled beyond recognition, severely deformed, and his scales would fall apart, completely losing its recycling value!
As one side gains strength, the other loses strength, and the Song army is doomed to defeat!

Song general Liu Yu clenched his fists, tried to control his emotions, and said in a deep voice: "General Pan! The infantry on the left can't hold out for much longer! Once the Khitan cavalry are killed, they will definitely join forces with the Xixia cavalry. At that time, my 20,000 heavily armored cavalry will also be annihilated! And then... they turn around, then... Your Majesty..." He didn't dare to say anything more! Of course, you have to be careful if you violate taboos!

Pan Mei was as steady as a rock, and said calmly, "Don't worry, General Liu! As long as everyone holds on for a while longer, our reinforcements will arrive!"

Liu Yu was a little puzzled and asked, "Our reinforcements?" He was involved in all the mobilization and deployment of the army before it left Beijing. How could there be other troops coming to support? He was a little surprised!
Pan Mei said calmly: "General Liu, before we set out, did we discuss that Northern Han would definitely ask Khitan for help, and Khitan would definitely send cavalry to support them? Didn't we have a conclusion on this already?"

"Yes. Didn't the Marshal send three groups of troops to block the route that the reinforcements must take? Everyone knows this."

"What I want to say is, since I had expected the Khitans to send out cavalry, don't you find it strange? Why didn't I prepare a backup plan? And let the enemy's cavalry slaughter our infantry?"

"To be honest, I do feel very strange!"

"In fact, I have already arranged a countermeasure!"

"Oh?"

"You should have heard from other channels that General Cui Yanjin Cui is also on this Northern Expedition mission."

"I heard about it. Could it be that the reinforcements are from his team?"

"Not bad!"

"But I heard that General Cui set out a few days ago. How come he is lagging behind?"

"Because the troops he leads this time are quite special!"

Liu Yu's eyes suddenly flickered: "Special? Could it be... that mysterious firearms camp?"

Pan Mei's gaze towards the battlefield suddenly became fierce, revealing a bit of viciousness, "Not bad!"

This time, Cui Yanjin led a newly formed mysterious army!

Forty crossbow carts, each with six soldiers;
Five hundred musketeers, each armed with a single-barreled musket!

Three thousand armor-piercing soldiers, each armed with an iron-framed bow and equipped with armor-piercing arrows!
It was a pity that the Song Dynasty was short of war horses, so they were not given horses. Otherwise, these 500 musketeers should be called musketeer cavalry, and the 3,000 armor-piercing crossbowmen should be called 3,000 armor-piercing cavalry archers!

What a pity! Due to the shortage of war horses, the good cavalry system can only be included in the infantry sequence!

The entire team was affected by the crossbow carts and their marching speed was slow!

Now Pan Mei can only wait!
The soldiers of the Song Dynasty could only fight hard!

Once the firearms battalion is in place, the offensive and defensive situation will inevitably be reversed!

Pan Mei has absolute confidence!

One of the reasons why the Khitan cavalry was the most powerful in the world was that their heavy armor was difficult to break!

The arrows used by the Song Dynasty's Armor-Piercing Army this time were all "alloy arrows" containing black gold, which were almost exactly copied from the famous "Black Gold Armor-Piercing Arrows" in the martial arts world!
It is incredibly powerful and can break heavy armor!
Another thing that makes Pan Mei so confident is the fire gun! This is also the latest secret weapon developed by the Song Dynasty! Pan Mei privately calls it a fire gun! Because its appearance is similar to a spear, it can use gunpowder to fire lead bullets!
The invention of the fire lance was an accident. A few years ago, there was a wonderful craftsman in Shouchun Prefecture who was always imaginative and creative. On New Year's Eve, he saw children setting off firecrackers and suddenly came up with the idea of ​​trying to create a new weapon. He immediately started to work. He used a bamboo tube as the barrel, put gunpowder in it, and then filled it with broken porcelain pieces as projectiles. After setting it off, the broken porcelain flew out, and he created the first fire lance.

The test results are amazing!
So his interest was thoroughly aroused, and he continued to improve and experiment.

However, the barrel exploded several times during the test, almost causing casualties, so the bamboo tube was replaced with bronze and iron.

The ejected "hidden weapon" was also constantly debugged accordingly, changing materials and shapes. In this process, he found that only by using round lead bullets with a diameter that matched the barrel could the best spatial airtightness be guaranteed inside the barrel to the greatest extent. This would allow the explosive thrust generated by the gunpowder to reach its maximum limit, and the ejected lead bullets could also achieve the strongest penetrating power!

After several improvements, it was finalized until it became suitable for actual combat!
It is extremely powerful and can penetrate several layers of blue bricks!

So the drawings were presented to the court.

Emperor Zhao Guangyi was very pleased and rewarded him with ten thousand gold coins!
At the same time, Wei Qiansui was put in charge of secretly building weapons and forming a special forces force of 500 people!
I want to equip the armor-piercing troops and musketeers with war horses, but there are no horses!
The two teams had no choice but to be classified as infantry and belong to the musket battalion!

Liu Yu said: "But when will the musket battalion arrive? If we can't get here within half an hour, I'm afraid we will die!"

Pan Mei turned his head and said to the messenger: "Let the infantry on the left retreat, and the army in the center attack!"

Liu Yu said: "Marshal, are you preparing for a battle?"

The two teams attacked alternately, using a rotation method to consume the opponent's manpower while allowing their own soldiers to rest in time.

Pan Mei said: "Have the crossbow battalion ready. Ten three-bow crossbows, two hundred divine arm bows, and twenty thousand longbowmen will gather at Gen. Then when the two groups of infantry change positions, lead the Khitan cavalry to Ze. This way, when the cavalry chases our retreating troops, they can only chase from the northwest to the southeast. In this way, all the soldiers in the crossbow battalion will aim from the southeast to the northwest and shoot at the invading enemy head-on. They almost don't need to adjust the shooting direction, and the hit rate will increase several times!"

The herald immediately waved the flag!
Liu Yu's eyes flickered. "When the Khitan cavalry attacks head-on, the three-bow crossbow will also shoot head-on. In this way, the cavalry will not be in motion in the eyes of the archers! The hit rate will be extremely high!"

Pan Mei's eyes were grim as he said, "Let them also see the penetrating power of one spear, three swords and arrows!"

Thank you Yudong for your strong support and encouragement!