People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 390: Without martial ethics, it’s a mess

For the Liao army, the city was not important, but the effective strength of the enemy's troops was important.

The enemies are all dead, and even if the city is in ruins, they can eventually rebuild it.

But if the army is defeated and killed, it will be useless no matter how much territory it takes, and it cannot be defended.

So they chose to burn Xijin and force the Song army to fight them to the death.

For the Song Army, the city was actually not important.

Their strategy was to eliminate the Liao people, drive them out of Yanyun, and recover the sixteen states of Yanyun.

Even if the city is burned down, it is within the allowable loss range.

However, if we could kill two birds with one stone, not only saving the city but also defeating the Liao people, wouldn't it be the best of both worlds?

Fan Zhongyan decided to implement this strategy.

The majestic Xijin City stands on the vast plain, like a small hill protruding from the horizon, stretching from east to west for more than ten miles.

"Report."

"I just checked the horse to report, but there was no movement."

Yelu Zongzhen's motorcade slowly headed north, on a hillside about three or four kilometers outside the North City Gate.

Yelu Zongzhen glanced at the horizon in the distance with regret. After a while, after the large forces of the Liao Army withdraw, the rear troops of the Liao Army will light the fish paste and remaining winter firewood that have been arranged in the city, and will analyze the Jin. burn.

French artillery, on the other hand, is mostly made of bronze or iron. Not only does its rate of fire not exceed two rounds per minute at most, but its range is only about three kilometers.

At this moment, Tan Ma galloped over.

Even though there is no gasoline in this era, the military supplies will prepare fish oil and animal oil. In addition, most of the buildings in the city are made of wood. Once a fire is lit, it will turn into a sea of ​​​​fire in an instant.

He believes that the tactic of queuing to kill at the beginning of the firearms era in later generations of the West was a helpless move due to immature firearm technology.

Thick smoke filled the city walls.

But why was the tactic of queuing to kill later abandoned?
Isn't it because firearm technology is becoming increasingly mature and the rate of fire has been greatly improved, so there is no need to arrange formations for fire coverage?

After Yelu Zongzhen sighed with emotion, he asked his close confidants: "How is the Song army?"

Next to him, Zhang Jian comforted him: "Your Majesty, why should you worry? Defeating the Song people is the top priority. If we can defeat the Song army in this battle, maybe we can also obtain a large amount of their ordnance. As long as we can get their guns and cannons, even if Xijin is burned down It’s also something worthwhile.”

"Boom!"

After a while, he came closer and reported: "The Song people sent out a large group of scouts to watch from a distance."

The confidant replied.

But when the Song army besieged the city, they were blinded and forced to abandon the city in an attempt to lure the enemy deeper.

The muskets at that time were far from meeting the requirements in terms of power and rate of fire, so they could only line up and cover the firepower through a dense square array to achieve long-range strikes.

Therefore, it is almost difficult for the Liao army to fight in the wild. Whether it is artillery or muskets, the range advantage is too great, and they have no way to defeat the Song army. Only when defending the city can we use the range brought by the height of the city to barely suppress it.

But after years of exploration, Fan Zhongyan gradually summed up a lot of experience in the use of firearm tactics.

"It's a pity that Xijin has been the tallest, thickest and most populous city in Daliao for several dynasties, but today it will be reduced to nothing."

Rows of Liao soldiers riding war horses slowly came out of the north gate of Xijin. At a glance, they saw endless black dots, densely packed like countless moving ants, moving along the north city gate. Several official roads outside the gate extend to the north.

The current firearms of the Song Dynasty are in such a stage of change, the peak of front-loading guns and the beginning of rear-loading guns.

Yelu Zongzhen shook his head: "If our cannon fires one round, they can fire three or four rounds. Once they dig trenches under the city and our artillery cannot suppress their artillery, we will be in danger."

Therefore, Fan Zhongyan believes that as the level of technology improves, slowly changing the way of fighting is also a change that adapts to the times.

Yelu Zongzhen sneered: "Fan Zhongyan's reaction is so slow?"

Standing on a high slope, you can see the mountains and rivers in the distance.

As soon as he finished speaking, a large number of artillery fire sounded in the city.

It is surrounded by villages, farmland, forests, and small rivers. At this time, the villages are dilapidated, the farmland is deserted, and the forests have been cut down. Only the small river is still flowing quietly.

If it were not possible to defeat and defend, who would be willing to make dangerous moves and abandon the city without caring about it?

During the Franco-Prussian War, Prussian artillery was the Krupp artillery, which used a steel rifled barrel. The standard rate of fire was six rounds per minute, and the effective range could reach more than four kilometers.

"Ah."

At this moment, in Xijin City, a large number of Liao people came out from the two north gates.

This is also one of the important reasons why the Liao people are willing to abandon the city.

"Yes, their guns are really powerful."

Before the second year of Qingli, it was okay. The Song army was mostly equipped with bronze artillery, and the range was only a little more than two kilometers.

He sat on horseback and looked out.

With the existing muzzle-loading gun technology and rate of fire, it has basically reached the level between the Opium War and the Franco-Prussian War, and at that time, the tactic of queuing to kill had been gradually phased out.

After the second year of Qingli, the Wu'an Iron and Steel Plant started producing steel cannons, and the sophistication of the Song army's weapons and equipment skyrocketed, almost crushing the Liao army's bronze cannons.

The Liao people were still limited to traditional tactics, thinking that war should be a legionary battle, with everyone forming formations to attack each other.

"hehe."

Yelu Zongzhen narrowed his eyes and said, "Continue to explore."

This was what he expected.

When the Song people discovered that something was wrong, they would definitely send a large number of scouts to detect the situation.

The defenders in the city must have opened fire to drive away the Song army's scouts.

Moreover, Yelu Zongzhen also deployed a large number of cavalry on the periphery, carrying grenades, and the Song army's scouts fired a few shots at most to harass.

When Fan Zhongyan wakes up from his slow temperament and organizes his troops to launch a massive attack, it will probably be dark and their troops will have already evacuated from Xijin.

So he wasn't worried at all.

Countless Liao troops in the distant wilderness are still moving slowly northward. Their moving speed cannot be considered fast, but it is not slow either.

Due to the long siege of the city, the amount of food and grass in Xijin was not much, so the Liao army basically did not need to carry much baggage. Except for dismantling some artillery, many people were working alone.

Time passed minute by minute, and it was approaching the end of the hour. At this moment, about half of the Liao army had withdrawn.

At this moment, more than 400,000 Liao troops and more than 200,000 Song troops gathered in Xijin Mansion of the Liao Kingdom. Naturally, they were not piled together, but scattered in the surrounding cities.

But Xijincheng has the largest number of soldiers and horses on both sides.

The Song army numbered approximately 100,000.

There are about 160,000 Liao people, plus the Liao troops from Yuhe and Wanping, there are about 200,000 troops. Naturally, it is not that simple to retreat with so many people.

From the third quarter of the morning to the end of the sixth hour, an hour and a half passed, and there was still a steady stream of Liao people retreating in an orderly manner.

And along the way to the rear, the Liao army was still setting up artillery positions.

Once the Song army pursues, they will immediately use artillery to stop them.

In the seemingly deathly silence of the Song Army, a loud horn sound suddenly sounded from the main camp of the Song Army.

More than ten kilometers away from the north city of Xijin and five or six kilometers away from the south city, the Song Army camps seemed to be awakening from the dead silence. All the camp doors were opened, and then large groups of Song Army cavalry rushed out.

"Song Army, Song Army is out."

"Report it quickly."

"Prepare to fire the artillery."

When the Liao scouts who were observing the Song army in Xijin City and around them saw this scene, they suddenly panicked.

No one expected that the Song Army would launch a large-scale attack at this time.

Didn't they prepare their troops and horses in advance, line up in front of the formation, and then march forward?

However, not only the Liao army was a little panicked at this time, but the Song army was also a little confused.

Because Fan Zhongyan only assigned strategic tasks, not combat tasks.

You must know that only one and a half hours, or three hours, have passed since the Liao army officially left the city.

After the Song army scouts discovered that the Liao people had left the city, they had to observe them for at least half an hour to make sure that these people were not troops transporting grain and grass, but actual troops evacuating.

The scouts then reported their conclusions to Fan Zhongyan. It would take half an hour to run from the north gate of Xijin to the camp.

Fan Zhongyan will hold another meeting, and then the camp leaders will disperse and run back to their own camps, and finally gather their troops and horses to leave the camp.

The whole process seemed to take three hours, but there was basically no time wasted. From reconnaissance to judgment to analysis and final decision, it was very fast.

If Fan Zhongyan arranges another combat mission, he must send out scouts to continue to investigate the current distribution of Liao troops, and then arrange where each unit will attack and in which direction.

This process will inevitably take a lot of time. The Song Army will definitely not be able to send troops before at least the afternoon. The fighter planes are fleeting. It is very likely that the Liao people will successfully retreat due to this delay, and a dragnet has been laid out in the rear waiting for the Song Army. .

Therefore, Fan Zhongyan simply did not assign combat tasks and directly asked the soldiers of each battalion to dispatch troops. He only needed one to dispatch immediately, cutting up, dispersing and disrupting the retreating troops of the Liao Army.

After the Song army left the camp, they were a little at a loss.

Where to go?

At this moment, Zhang Kang was riding on horseback.

Although he was a civil servant, he had a muscular body and a rather fierce face. He searched everywhere with his eyes. He glanced at Xijin City and then looked to the east.

The deputy general next to him asked: "Ms. sir, where are we going?"

"Do you still need me to tell you?"

Zhang Kang pointed his finger to the east and said: "Bypass Xijin and attack the retreating Liao army from the flank."

"Yes!"

The deputy general responded, then waved his hand and said: "Let's go!"

Then the eight thousand elite soldiers led by Zhang Kang took the lead and galloped toward the wilderness plain to the east.

Seeing this, some Song army generals who were closer to Zhang Kang's camp followed suit and simply led their troops eastward.

Farther away, there were a large number of Song Army generals looking around with telescopes.

We must know that the circumference of Xijin City is 530 miles, and one mile in the Northern Song Dynasty is 4.8 meters, which means that the average length and width from east to west, south to north are about kilometers.

The camps of the Song army were not connected together, but were divided into military units, with each camp ranging from about 5,000 to 10,000 people.

Fan Zhongyan's main camp has 30,000 people. About five kilometers south of Xijin City, there are nearly twenty camps of different sizes connected from east to west.

The easternmost camp is even more than eight kilometers away from the westernmost camp, so the Song army basically doesn't know what its troops are doing.

Fortunately, these Song generals were not fools. They knew that the South Gate of Yijin would definitely not be able to penetrate, so after a short pause, they all headed west or east, bypassing Yijin City, and galloped toward the northeast and northwest. And go.

The Song army's movements were quickly captured by the Liao army behind the city of Xijin. These people had to wait for the large forces to evacuate, and then set fires everywhere in the city to burn Xijin, thus forcing the Song army to pursue them.

But at this moment, I saw that the Song Army did not seem to follow the routine. For a while, they hurriedly fired artillery everywhere, shooting continuously at the Song Army in the wilderness in the distance.

However, the Song army galloped and ran very fast, and did not get close to within five kilometers of Xijin.

Liao people's artillery, with the blessing of the city, generally has a range of about three kilometers, but that is a flat shooting range. If it is fired upward without any calculation of accuracy, it is still very easy to hit a range of five kilometers, but the hit rate is basically random. .

Countless Song troops surged away in the wilderness like a tidal wave. There were galloping Song soldiers everywhere within a radius of dozens of kilometers. Only two-quarters of an hour later, Zhang Kang's troops took the lead in bypassing Xijin and arrived at the rear of the Liao army.

There are two north city gates in Xijin Prefecture, Nanjing, Liao Dynasty. The one closer to the west is called Tongtian Gate, and the one to the east is Gongchen Gate. There are actually some ancillary streets and busy markets outside the city.

But after the war started, the people in Xijin City had already fled in all directions. There was only a very small population in the city, and the busy streets outside the city had naturally been deserted for a long time. Only a large number of Liao soldiers were still evacuating.

At this moment, I suddenly saw dust and smoke billowing in the northeast, and countless horses galloping. For a moment, there was a commotion among the Liao people's migrating team. At the same time, there were scouts running out of the city and shouting: "Song people are attacking!"

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

"Array, array!"

The desolate horn sound resounded across the sky.

The evacuating Liao army generals kept shouting, rectifying their troops and arranging their formations.

What was surprising was that the Song troops seemed to have no interest in them at all, but passed them and continued heading north.

"Why did the Song people suddenly send out troops? Didn't they prepare their troops and horses first before attacking?"

"Oops, they are attacking our rear troops."

"There are artillery on the city. They dare not get close. We must catch up and delay them."

"Khitan warriors, follow me!"

Naturally, the generals of the Liao army were not all idlers, and many of them soon realized what they were doing.

They were near the north city gate. There were artillery on the city, so the Song army would naturally not get close, so their target must be the troops that had withdrawn.

For a time, the Liao army became more chaotic. Some of them stayed in place and did not move. Some chased in panic and spurred their horses on. Others were at a loss and scurrying around like a group of headless flies.

Before the Song army attacked, the Liao army itself was already in chaos.

(End of this chapter)