People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 369 Di Qing’s Pocket Formation
On the Yushui River, more than twenty Song warships formed a formation.

Directly east of them is Yuguan City.

To the southwest is Guangning City.

In this way, the entire Song Army's defense lines were three, forming a three-character shape.

However, because the terrain of Yushui is lower, it is almost difficult for artillery to hit the front, so the frontal pressure is almost entirely on Yuguan.

It's not that Di Qing doesn't want to go back, but he has three considerations.

First, if they retreat to Yushui, the enemy can take advantage of the situation and occupy Yuguan, condescendingly shoot at them on the water from the city, and the Song army will suffer a lot.

The second is that this will reduce one line of defense and put much less pressure on the Liao army. If they are not careful, they will be forced back to the sea.

The last and most important point is that he drew his sword and rode his horse, intercepting the central location of Yuguan, and forcibly cutting off the main traffic route between Xijin Prefecture and Liaoyang Prefecture of the Liao Kingdom, which was equivalent to cutting the two-headed snake in half.

Since it is a two-headed snake, both the head and the tail have venomous fangs, so they must bite back from both ends. Then Di Qing is bound to be attacked from both sides by the Xijin Mansion and the Liaoyang Mansion, and will be in an unfavorable situation of being double-teamed from both front and rear.

Shulvchuiliji nodded, then waved his hand and said: "You lead two thousand people and detour from the north gate, and I will detour from the south gate. Do you understand?"

Two thousand more soldiers came from the boats outside the city, relying on the city wall for defense. Although the muskets were powerful in field battles, it would be difficult to defend if the cavalry detoured to both sides, so a city was naturally the best choice.

A large number of Song soldiers panicked and put away their firearms aimed at the east gate and headed towards the west gate.

Shulvchuiliji squinted his eyes and scanned the city. There seemed to be a lot of people on it, but an experienced veteran could tell at a glance that there seemed to be only a few hundred people on it. Moreover, he could not attack the east gate and go around the west gate.

He looked around and saw from a distance that the Song army was already on guard on the city, with heads popping up densely. His heart sank for a moment, knowing that he was late.

So the cavalry behind them reined in their horses and stopped their charge.

Wait a minute.

Hu Yanshou hurriedly ran to the west gate again. He was really exhausted.

Hu Yanshou shouted almost roaring.

Di Qing's command was determined, and he ordered his soldiers to form a formation at the top of the city, aiming their muskets downwards, and then said to Huyan Shouyong beside him: "Therefore, we must give them a head-on attack. After repelling this enemy group, we immediately began to attack the city. Transport artillery and stop enemy troops."

"Well, we have already asked them to hide under the river slope. Once the Liao people come, we can rush out."

Lieutenant General Die Tatsuya asked: "Xiang Wen, what's the matter?"

Just now he went to arrange the two thousand ambush troops, then came to the top of the city to arrange the array, and had to run up and down the city.

"They are not many in number, so we can mobilize another two thousand soldiers to defend them. The biggest problem is that there must be other troops behind them. If they are surrounded by a large Liao army, it will be very difficult."

Immediately in the wilderness, five thousand cavalry soldiers from the Liao Kingdom divided into two groups and rushed towards Yuguan in a mammoth manner.

"Yes."

"Have you hidden everything?"

"Yes."

On the top of Yuguan City, Di Qing was looking at the Liao army galloping in the distance with a telescope. Their soldiers have already set up a formation at the top of the city. Although they don't have artillery, they do have muskets. It shouldn't be a big problem to stop this wave of enemies.

If there are too few lines of defense at this time, there is only one result waiting for Di Qing - that is, the Song army is surrounded from all sides and is in a hurry, and it is very likely that it will be annihilated by the enemy.

"Yes, Marshal."

Only Di Qing still stood there calmly, while Hu Yanshouyong hurried over and said, "Commander, it's just as the commander said, they went to the west gate."

Then Hu Yanshouyong went over personally to direct the soldiers in battle.

"Let the people on the ship fire a few cannons. The Liao people are not fools and will not be easily fooled."

"stop!"

Thinking of this, he immediately said: "The enemy has occupied the city. It is impossible for us to rush through from the front, but do you still remember? The man just said that the Song Army used artillery to blow down the west gate."

Soon, in the dust and smoke, Shuluchuiliji was already less than three miles away from Yuguan. He suddenly raised his hand and shouted: "Stop!"

Die Cida also opened his eyes wide and said, "Xiang Wen means that we bypass the east gate and charge through the west gate?"

The messengers in the rear shouted loudly. In fact, this kind of shouting was of no use, but they would wave their arms and issue military orders.

"Not bad!"

Shulvchuiliji's official title was Xiangwen, which was equivalent to the commander of the first army of the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Di Qing must allocate troops reasonably, allowing Yuguan to deal with the enemies in the east, Guangning to deal with the enemies in the west, and the Song army on Yushuang to block the entire Yuguan passage to deal with the Liao army that detoured several kilometers north and south from Yuguan. Or rush to help Yuguan and Guangning at any time.

There was a burst of exclamation at the head of Yuguan City, and someone shouted: "The enemy has taken a detour."

Repeated assassination should also be carried out.

Of course he knew the result of the cavalry attacking the city, not to mention that they were originally a marching team and did not even have supplies on them. When passing through the cities in various places, the local cities were responsible for the supplies.

Hu Yanshouyong already understood Di Qing's good intentions and nodded repeatedly to express his understanding.

"General, are we going to the west gate?"

Fortunately, the Song army had abandoned their heavy armor and went into battle lightly. At most, they only carried rifles on their backs, otherwise he would definitely be paralyzed from exhaustion.

I remember that the person who escaped before said that the enemy used artillery to destroy the west gate of Yuguan and enter the city. In other words, the west gate of the city was broken?

This means that they don't have much food with them, and they don't have any siege equipment. If they can't attack when the enemy's foothold is not stable, it will be difficult to complete the siege battle.

"Do you still need me to tell you? Go to Ximen immediately and start running."

At this moment, the Liao army divided into two groups, bypassing the east city of Yuguan and heading towards the west gate.

Just when they arrived near the corners of the city walls in the southwest and northwest of Yuguan, they heard the roar of artillery and more than ten black cannonballs falling from the sky.

However, these artillery pieces hardly had much lethality. Except for an unlucky guy who was knocked off his horse by a stone thrown by a falling cannonball from a distance of more than ten feet, there was not even a single casualty in the rest.

The reason is that the Liao people dispersed and ran away, and the most important point is that the water level of Yushui is relatively low.

Under normal circumstances, unless the water rises greatly, the river cannot exceed the city, and there will be slopes in the river embankments. Moreover, it is already early winter, and Yushui has also entered the dry season. It is already very good for ships to be able to sail in, let alone float the ships. .

Therefore, under such circumstances, except for the two Flying Tiger frigates, which were two stories high and could barely fire with the artillery on the second deck, the other ships could not hit the Liao cavalry.

However, the river embankments are inherently high and low. Some places are slightly lower and some places are slightly higher. Therefore, except for some places, ships can still take care of most areas. In this way, Shanhaiguan can be blocked and the Liao people cannot cross the river.

'They really didn't have time to take precautions. Now they only need to rush over and enter the city from the west gate of Yuguan to clear out the enemies in the city. It's a pity that the bridge was destroyed by them. 'Shulu Chuiliji felt relieved when he saw the Song army hurriedly moving their positions at the top of the city. This meant that the Song people were really unprepared.

The only bad news is that the bridge on Yushui River was destroyed by the Song people, and there are still Song warships floating on the river. Even if he recaptures Yuguan, people can return to the ship, and then they can only look at the river and sigh.

'Forget it, let's recapture Yuguan first. As long as we recapture Yuguan, we can also mobilize artillery from the rear to drive away the ships on the water at Yuguan or on the river embankment. '

Shulu Chuili Ji thought.

There were only a few hundred Song troops in Yuguan City. Although the Song army's muskets should not be underestimated, and the city gate terrain was narrow, it would indeed be difficult for the Song people to use muskets to attack them, but they were not without countermeasures.

Shulu Chuiliji touched the grenade on his waist. Currently, the Liao Kingdom only had muskets that it had not yet developed. Simple firearms such as grenades, artillery, and thunderbolts had long been copied by them.

As long as they rush to the city and throw grenades into the city, even if they can't kill many Song troops, they can still disrupt their formation. They only need to rush into the city to win.

"Hahahahahahahahaha, the artillery of the Song Dynasty is nothing more than this, men, kill them."

Over there, Die Cida also saw that although the Song artillery looked fierce, it could not hurt them at all. He suddenly felt heroic, shouted heartily, and moved forward fiercely despite the gunfire.

Thousands of war horses galloped in an earth-shattering way, making a roaring sound as they stepped on the ground, as if the entire ground was shaking.

In the clouds of dust and smoke, they quickly bypassed the north and south city gates of Yuguan, and soon gathered near the west city gate. The Song troops who hurried over from the west city gate opened fire on the city.

However, if the firearms did not form a firepower network, they would have no power at all. Facing the thunderous Liao cavalry, their accuracy was extremely poor. It can be said that only a few of the 5,000 Liao cavalry were hit by bullets.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

The Liao people roared fiercely, howling like wild wolves, and roared in various Liao languages.

They quickly arrived outside the city. The troops at the front took out grenades from their waists and threw them over the city wall almost before they even got close to the city gate.

Except for Chang'an, Luoyang, Bianliang and other capital cities whose walls can be more than seven or eight meters high, the walls of other ordinary county towns are generally only three or four meters high, with a maximum of five or six meters. Ordinary people can easily throw them over.

After a while, various explosion sounds were heard in the city. When they ran to the West City Gate, they saw a mess outside the West City Gate. There were bullet holes everywhere, and the shells were embedded in the masonry walls.

But whether it is a rammed earth city wall or a masonry city wall, it has great resistance to artillery. It is almost rare for artillery to collapse a city wall. Therefore, these shells only make the city wall dent, but the entire city wall does not have any damage. What a big loss.

On the contrary, the city gate has been blown down. After all, compared to the thick city wall, even the iron city gate cannot withstand the baptism of cannonballs. At this moment, through the city gate, you can still see many Song troops already arrayed in formation on the streets.

"kill!"

The first one to rush over was Tatsuya Tatsuya, who roared angrily.

Immediately, a large number of Liao troops began to rush in from the west city gate, and then the Song muskets began to fire. Some people took out grenades and threw them, and various explosion sounds were heard.

Shuluchuiliji had also arrived, and it was only then that he noticed the terrain behind Yuguan City.

Yushui is less than one mile away from the city. The terrain is a continuous steep slope. The slopes of each layer are not very high, but many small reverse slopes are folded, making it impossible to see the situation in the direction of Yushui.

Only the two tall warships floating on the river were rising and falling, and the black muzzles above could be vaguely seen pointing in the direction of Yuguan, but no one fired.

The reason is that if it fires, it is easy to accidentally injure friendly forces.

'Sure enough, just as I thought, after arriving at the West Gate, they did not dare to continue firing artillery. '

A flash occurred in Shuluchuiliji's mind, and he immediately rushed towards the city gate.

At this critical moment, he was already relatively cautious. He saw the panicked Song army in the city and the Song warships on the Yushui River. If it were an ordinary opponent, the Song army would probably be defeated.

It's a pity that he met Di Qing.

Di Qing was still standing on the east gate tower at this moment. There were still about a hundred Song soldiers on the east gate, guarding against the possibility of a small group of Liao troops attacking.

Then I saw scouts coming over and reporting: "Report, the Liao people have passed through the south gate."

"Report, the Liao people have passed through the north gate."

"Report, the Liao people have approached the west gate."

"Report, the Liao people are attacking the west gate."

The scouts kept reporting the battle reports from the front to Di Qing, when they heard that the Liao people had begun to attack the west gate.

Di Qing raised his head and said in a deep voice: "Have they all gathered at the west gate?"

"Already gathered."

the scout replied.

"Blow the horn."

"Yes."

At that moment, the messenger sounded the trumpet.

The horn sound from the east city gate sounded, and another messenger blew the horn a hundred meters away. Then, the horn sound was passed from layer to layer, and the horn sound was also heard from the west city gate.

The desolate trumpet sound seemed to spread throughout the world, causing the Liao army's offensive to stall, because the Liao army behind was quite surprised.

This rhythm is not the horn rhythm command of the Liao people.

Shulu Chuiliji looked around in confusion. He knew that this was not their horn, it could only be the horn of the Song people. What was the sound of the Song people's horn?
While I was puzzled, I suddenly heard someone shouting heartbreakingly: "Song people, they are Song people!"

Before Shulvpuriji could follow the sound, he heard gunfire from behind.

When he turned his head, he saw that in the direction of Yushui, under the continuous gentle slopes, thousands of Song army heads emerged from nowhere. They pointed their guns at the Liao army that was attacking the city, and kept firing. Shooting bullets.

"what?"

Shulu Chuiliji's eyes were filled with tears. He never expected that the people of Song Dynasty were actually lying under those small gentle slopes, quietly waiting for their arrival!
It's also his fault that he didn't know much about the terrain near Yuguan and suffered such a big loss.

But it's obviously too late now.

It was seen that as these ambush troops continued to fire, a large number of Liao soldiers fell down, and the rear was in chaos. The front did not rush in for the time being. The entire Liao army was already in extreme chaos.

they.

Falling into the pocket formation deliberately prepared by Di Qing!
(End of this chapter)