People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 468 The lion fights the rabbit with all his strength

The billowing dust rose straight into the sky.

In the evening sunset in the Western Desert, the earth is painted as bright red as blood by the setting sun.

I don't know why, but the orange color before has become brighter, but it is also slowly getting darker.

Herds of cattle and sheep, driven by the shouts and whips of herdsmen, slowly headed towards home.

Some people shouted loud slogans and hummed tunes in their own ethnic languages.

Someone kept shouting, urging the cattle and sheep at home to go home quickly.

Some people even sang songs in strange accents.

If you understand the language of the ancestors of ethnic minorities, you can vaguely distinguish that it is a folk song of the ancestors of the Uighurs during the period of the Tiele tribes.

"Chi Le Chuan, under the Yin Mountains, the sky is like a dome, covering the four fields. The sky is vast, the fields are boundless, the wind blows the grass low and you can see cattle and sheep."

But soon, this peace and tranquility was broken.

The herdsmen discovered that many densely packed black spots had appeared on the trade route in the south leading to Dunhuang at some point in time.

Experienced herdsmen recognized at a glance that this was definitely not a caravan, but an army.

Because a caravan usually consists of only dozens or hundreds of people, and the largest caravan has no more than a few thousand people. It would never be like it is now, with no end in sight.

On the contrary, this situation only occurs in the military.

So when they saw a large group of people suddenly appearing in the distance, the herdsmen quickly rode their horses to the top and ran to tell each other.

At the same time, Di Qing and his team stopped.

It is late August, and whether on the grassland or in the northwest Gobi, it is the time for cattle and sheep to fatten up for the autumn. All herders, as long as they still have cattle and sheep at home, have to graze them outside.

It was already evening, and a large number of herdsmen were driving their cattle and sheep back, driving the livestock into sheep pens, cattle pens, and horse pens built with stones or wood.

But in such an ordinary situation, Di Qing and his companions discovered something unusual.

Dust and smoke were rolling in the west, and a large number of cavalry were also galloping towards them. Experienced scout cavalry could tell the approximate number of enemies just by looking at the size of the smoke and dust.

There was naturally no shortage of such scouts in the Song army, and they quickly reported the situation to Di Qing.

However, Di Qing was not afraid of this situation. With a command, the Song army began to change direction. They no longer headed north directly towards Yizhou City, but headed northwest.

"Your Majesty, the Song people have changed direction."

In the northwest direction, about five miles away from the earthen city of Yizhou, Aqifuluo, who led an army of 80,000 Uighurs, planned to stay in Yizhou tonight.

Yizhou is just a small earthen city and certainly cannot accommodate so many troops. They will stay outside the city for one night first. After finding out the movements of the Song army tomorrow, they will reorganize the troops and launch a head-on attack on the Song army.

Unexpectedly, they heard that the Song army had arrived while they were still halfway there and had not even entered Yizhou City. They should be only about ten miles away from their location.

Aqifuluo was hesitating whether to launch a direct attack on the Song army or wait and see, when he heard the news of the Song army's attack.

This surprised him.

Why.

Twenty thousand Song troops suddenly attacked his army of eighty thousand?

Who gave them the courage?
But now was not the time for him to think. More than ten miles was probably only five or six kilometers.

Normally it only takes an hour to walk there, and if the horse walks at a leisurely pace, it will basically take half an hour to arrive there.

This meant that Aqifuluo only had about fifteen minutes to reorganize his troops.

If he cannot form a battle formation quickly during this period, he will be attacked by the enemy.

"Your Majesty, the Song army must be trying to take us by surprise. We must immediately deploy our troops, otherwise we will be ambushed by the Song army."

The general Abashimi next to him advised: "Your Majesty, please make a decision quickly."

"Yes."

Aqifuluo finally reacted and shouted, "Form a battle array, form a battle array!"

"woo woo woo woo!"

Then a desolate horn sounded through the sky.

The Xizhou Uighur cavalry was defeated by the Western Xia cavalry, but that doesn't mean they were weak.

On the contrary, as nomadic people of the grassland, fighting on horseback is their nature. If they were facing the Song army of more than ten years ago, they would have a great chance of winning.

At this moment, as the horn sounded, a large number of cavalry in the rear began to gather quickly and adjusted their positions according to phalanxes one by one.

What does 80,000 cavalry mean?

Within a radius of several kilometers, there were people shouting and horses neighing everywhere, densely packed with human heads and horse hooves, and the stench of various feces mixed with the smell of horses was disgusting.

However, the Uighurs had long been accustomed to all this. Under the leadership of their respective tribal leaders, they urged their horses and began to line up in order.

On the vast Gobi Desert, they found a relatively high gentle slope and overlooked the distance.

As the Uighur cavalry stood on the slope one by one, they stood like a crescent moon on the distant horizon, extending continuously to the south.

If they looked from the direction of the Song army, they would see that on the horizon that stretched for several kilometers, from northeast to southwest, facing them in the southeast, there were all Uighur soldiers wearing leather armor.

There's really no end in sight.

"Husband, how do you fight?"

Jia Kui, who has risen from the military commander of Qinzhou to the deputy military commander of Qinfeng Road, is no longer the young general he once was, but a strong-looking backbone man in his forties.

He looked into the distance, saw the countless heads, and felt the oppressive feeling of being looked down from a high place. For a moment, he felt a little dazed.

Since Li Yuanhao's defeat, he has not encountered a decent opponent for many years.

Di Qing narrowed his eyes.

Strategically he despised his opponents, so he did not hesitate to confront them head-on.

But when a lion fights a rabbit, it also uses all its strength, so tactics cannot be underestimated.

So he looked around and saw that the enemy had temporarily deployed their troops. He said, "They must want to swoop down from a high altitude and use their strength to launch a charge. If we attack their center, we will definitely be trapped by them on both wings."

"Ah."

Jia Kui also noticed this, and after a little thought, he said, "Why not attack them directly on both wings, forcing them to come to the rescue from the center, so that they can't take care of both ends?"

However, Di Qing shook his head and said, "If my guess is correct, they still have some soldiers in the rear to protect the two wings and the center. If we attack the two wings, we will be outflanked by the soldiers in the rear."

"What should we do?"

Jia Kui asked.

Di Qing pondered for a moment and said, "The most feared thing about this formation is that after the two wings are doubled, there will be a roundabout attack from the rear, because the two wings were originally spread out, and the rear formation could come to the rescue. But the two wings are moving closer to the middle, and it will be difficult for the rear formation to come quickly, which will disturb the arrangement of the center formation. So we can pretend to raid their center formation first, lure the enemy to double-team on both wings, and then attack their two wings, so as to complete the double-team and counter-double-team." The formation listed by the opposite side looked like a crescent arc, but it was actually a V-shape, but they couldn't see the corner below the V.

Because this set of tactics already existed among the ancients, it was called the Goose Formation and was recorded in "Sun Bin's Art of War".

The strength of this formation lies in the high mobility of its wings, so cavalry is often deployed on both wings, infantry is deployed in the middle, and there are troops in the rear to prevent the enemy from detouring and encircling the rear. It can be said to be both offensive and defensive.

However, no matter how strong a formation is, it is bound to have weaknesses. Water has ever-changing state and soldiers have ever-changing shape. Once the formation changes, such as being double-teamed on both wings, flaws are bound to appear.

Under normal circumstances, if the two wings surround all the enemies, then there will naturally be no threat from the rear, and there will definitely be no loopholes.

But if the enemy feints to attack the middle, attracts your two wings to double-team, then breaks through the weak points in your defense behind the two wings, and then takes advantage of the situation to sweep the middle and back formations, that would be another matter.

Therefore, when marching and fighting, it is impossible to just follow the formations. Instead, you have to adapt to the situation. If the enemy changes, you have to change as well, otherwise you will just be beaten passively.

However, the fact is that the Song army traveled thousands of miles and the supply line was too long. Although they did not bring heavy artillery weighing more than 2,000 kilograms, they still had small artillery weighing 200 kilograms, plus a formation of muskets. Even if they fought the Uighurs head-on, they would inevitably be defeated.

However, Di Qing's ambition was not limited to defeating the Uighurs.

Because in a frontal attack, once the guns and cannons sounded, at most they would defeat the Uighur soldiers in the center. When the people on the two wings and in the rear saw this situation, they would surely flee in a swarm.

There will be much less gains and military exploits.

However, if a feint attack is used to attract the enemy's two wings to come in, then the two wings will certainly not be able to escape, and may even drag down the rear troops that want to come to the rescue.

By then, it is possible that the Uighur army might be completely wiped out.

So to put it simply, Di Qing did not want to rush in and defeat the Uighurs, but wanted to expand the results of the battle and teach the Uighurs a profound lesson, so that they would know who is the master of this area of ​​the Western Regions.

"My husband, I am willing to be the bait!"

Jia Kui said.

"it is good."

Di Qing summoned several generals and pointed to the distance, saying, "Jia Kui will lead 8,000 men into the battle formation. Wang Shiyun will lead 5,000 men to feint at the enemy's left wing. Sun Guangyi will lead 5,000 men to feint at the enemy's right wing. Divide into three groups and advance into their battle formation. Once they enter the battle formation, you will immediately change to a circular formation and attack the enemy in three sections!"

This tactic is actually the trident, which is a normal formation for countering the goose formation. In "Sun Bin's Art of War", it is a variant of the hook formation.

Because the two wings of the goose formation are often cavalry, and the middle is infantry with bows and crossbows, once the bows and crossbows in the middle fire a volley of infantry and push forward, and the two wings then encircle them, they can effectively strike the enemy.

For example, when Alexander invaded India, he used this tactic in the Battle of the Hydaspes River against the army led by the Indian King Porus.

Therefore, when facing a goose formation, if you want to meet it head-on, you have to block the enemy's two wings and encircle them, and only after breaking through the middle and making a detour can you achieve results.

Di Qing was obviously pretending to respond normally.

However, normal response requires that the combat effectiveness and number of the two armies are not much different, or even superior to the enemy.

If there are few people and their fighting power is poor, such a response is tantamount to having all the troops surrounded by the enemy.

Soon, the Song army completed the change of formation. Jia Kui shouted, and the horn of his unit made a long and melodious sound. Eight thousand knights followed behind him, piercing the enemy's heart like a sharp arrow.

On the left and right sides, Wang Shiyun, deputy commander of Qinfeng Road, and Sun Guangyi, commander of Qinfeng Road, each led 5,000 men to attack the enemy's two wings.

Abaximi, the great Uighur general, saw this on the hillside in the distance and said in great joy, "Your Majesty, the Song people are stupid. They are fighting against a larger force with a smaller one. We can wait for them to charge and then surround and destroy them."

"Very well, let's do it."

Aqifuluo nodded with satisfaction. It was obvious that in his eyes, the Song army was already trapped.

Soon the two sides were getting closer and closer, and when they were about to enter the range of the Uighurs' bows and crossbows, the Song army slowed down two miles away and finally stopped one mile away.

Both sides fell into silence for a moment, and by then the Song army had entered the encirclement.

However, the Song army did not continue the attack, which disappointed Abasimi, who had originally planned to wait for the Song army to tire itself out and then shoot with bows and crossbows during the attack before ordering the entire army to charge.

However, it seems that the Song army is not stupid enough to use cavalry to attack the high and gentle slopes, so the current situation is reasonable.

So Abasimi immediately reported to Aqifro: "Your Majesty, we can attack now."

"attack!"

Aqifuluo issued the military order.

"woo woo woo woo!"

The desolate horn resounded through the sky, and all the Uighurs began to urge their horses down the gentle slope and began to speed up.

Tens of thousands of cavalrymen swooped down, the scene was so spectacular that it seemed as if the heaven and earth were shaking.

At this moment, outside the battlefield in the distance, Di Qing narrowed his eyes. Almost at the same time as the Uighurs took action, he issued a military order: "Follow me to attack the enemy's two wings. Zeng Yong, you lead 500 people and attack their rear directly."

"Yes!"

Zeng Yong, the military commander of Huizhou, agreed.

It seemed a little unbelievable that five hundred people could suddenly attack the enemy's rear line of 10,000 or 20,000 troops.

However, Di Qing arranged it this way, and he could predict what the result would be.

Soon the Uighurs rushed to the front of the Song army. Less than a hundred feet away, the Song army had already set up a circular formation and raised their muskets.

"three!"

"two!"

"one!"

"shooting!"

As Jia Kui's roar cut through the sky.

Countless sharp whistles also blew from the front army headquarters.

The next moment, the Uighurs, who had already rushed to a distance of thirty feet, heard a nightmarish sound.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Flames spurted out of the muzzles, and dense bullets penetrated the cavalry group directly.

A large number of Uighurs had not yet realized what was happening and immediately fell to the ground, people on their horses and horses fell down.

The people in the front fell one after another, and the people in the back also suffered. Even if they were not hit by bullets, they were knocked down by the people in front who fell. For a while, the Uighurs fell into great chaos.

However, the gunfire had not stopped yet. The Song army, which had developed breech-loading rifles, reloaded bullets very quickly and quickly received the second shot.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The sound of gunfire continued, and the Uighur formation was in complete chaos.

Aqifuluo, who was watching on the mountain, widened his eyes with disbelief on his face. While he was stunned, a large number of cavalry came galloping from the flank.

Some launched a charge towards their rear, and hundreds of people attacked directly in the direction of his royal court. The dust and smoke rolled up like an arrow shot from a bow, which seemed like they were trying to capture the leader first.

Before the two sides even came into direct combat, the Uighurs had already been defeated!
(End of this chapter)