The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 282 The fight started
Li Han, the magistrate of Yishui County, was lying on the city wall at this moment, gazing eastward.

Behind him was a small force of puppet troops from the pseudo-Qi state, numbering only a thousand, along with several thousand local soldiers, archers, and local militias assembled by wealthy gentry and villagers.

These people were timid and lacked morale; fear etched on their faces.

When they first heard that the Northern Song army was attacking, they panicked and many of them wanted to surrender immediately.

But just when they were in their most panicked moment, Pang Di arrived with two thousand Yan'an soldiers.

Tell them not to be afraid, that he will protect them, and to guard the city well while he launches a surprise attack to defeat the Northern Song army.

Pangdi's words put their minds at ease for the time being.

But at this moment, upon hearing that the Northern Song army was advancing directly towards the city, they panicked again.

"Look, they're here, they're here!"

Someone screamed, and Li Han and the others looked eastward and saw a large banner with the character "Song" fluttering in the wind. Under the banner, an army was slowly marching towards the city. The infantry at the front looked...so familiar.

Li Han exclaimed in surprise after just one glance: "It's the Iron Pagoda! My God, that's the Iron Pagoda! It's painted red!"

It turns out that the front row of the Northern Song army consisted of three hundred heavy infantrymen.

Their armor was the double-layered heavy armor of the Iron Pagoda, which they had seized from the Jin soldiers during the last battle. These armors had been riddled with holes by muskets, and the Song army patched them up and then repainted the entire suit of armor red.

We, the sons and daughters of China, look the most handsome in red.

The moment these three hundred red ironclad cavalry appeared, the morale in Yixian County collapsed.

The local gentry screamed in terror: "They killed the Iron Pagoda and stole their armor!"

"The rumors are true, they really did defeat Bone Wei!"

"We're finished. They can even defeat the Iron Pagoda, what are we compared to them?"

The city was instantly thrown into chaos...

Gong Erniangzi watched from afar as the people on the city wall wandered around like headless flies, and couldn't help but smile. She turned to Yue Wenxuan and said, "True Lord, it really works well to paint the heavy infantry red armor and place them at the front."

Yue Wenxuan laughed, "They're so far away, yet they send heavy infantrymen in armor. They'll be exhausted by the time they reach the city. It's such a simple principle, but the people in the city don't understand it."

Gong Er Niangzi also laughed: "Hahaha."

The heavy infantry was brought into battle this time mainly to intimidate people.

Chaos erupted in Yi County, and soon fighting broke out on the city walls.

A local gentryman, leading fifty of his servants and tenants, launched an “attack” on County Magistrate Li Han.

Li Han was naturally unwilling to surrender without a fight, and immediately ordered his men to counterattack.

The two sides exchanged blows on the city wall, each slashing the other with a sword and thrusting a spear at the other.

As the fight went on, a local gentryman joined in.

Then another local gentry member joined.

Then the common people started taking action too...

Once the common people take action, the battle will end immediately.

After all, it was the era of cold weapons. If the people of the whole city joined together to cause trouble, no official could withstand it.

Li Han was a corrupt official who oppressed good people, so of course the people wanted to punish him.

In the blink of an eye, Li Han became a corpse, kicked off the city wall and crashed onto the ground outside the city.

far away……

Pang Di, who was hiding in the woods, saw the chaos in the county town from afar and couldn't help but curse inwardly: Damn it! I'm hiding here to wait for the Northern Song army to attack the city. When they're halfway through the attack, I'll attack from behind and surely defeat them in one fell swoop.

The enemy hasn't even started attacking the city yet, and it's already like this inside. Does that mean my plan is doomed?

never mind!

do not care!
The arrow is on the string and must be fired.

Pang Di roared and leaped out of his hiding place: "Yan'an soldiers, attack!" More than two thousand Yan'an soldiers shouted in unison...

The fighting ability of these Yan'an soldiers is quite mysterious. You might say they were strong, but they weren't really that strong. When the Jin army invaded Shaanxi, they swept them away like autumn leaves in the wind, and the soldiers surrendered obediently with almost no resistance.

However, it wouldn't be accurate to say they were weak. They fought against the Western Xia Kingdom on the western frontier for many years, often routing the Western Xia army. It was common for one or two hundred Yan'an soldiers to defeat one or two thousand Western Xia soldiers, and they could even win.

So, are they strong or weak?
The Yan'an soldiers jumped out of their hiding places and charged towards the rear of the Northern Song army, howling.

Generally speaking, when the enemy is attacked from behind, they will definitely panic. The rear of a large army is usually composed of auxiliary troops and laborers, which are particularly prone to collapse. One charge and they all collapse.

But what they didn't expect was that just as they rushed halfway, they saw the bald auxiliary soldiers behind the Northern Song army suddenly split to both sides, revealing a large number of war chariots.

These chariots had already turned around and were now arrayed in front of them.

A thought flashed through Pangdi's mind, and he exclaimed inwardly: "Oh no! They had already set up a chariot formation facing my direction. Those bald auxiliary soldiers were just a decoy, deliberately blocking my view."

By the time he realized this, it was too late.

The musketeers in the wagon formation raised their muskets...

This time, instead of closing the distance to ten zhang before firing, they opened fire directly at a distance of thirty zhang.

Ten zhang is the firing distance when facing the enemy's elite troops.

Thirty feet is enough to deal with small fry!

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The sound of muskets rang out, and more than a dozen Yan'an soldiers who were charging down instantly fell.

Not many fell, because the accuracy of a musket at a distance of thirty feet was a mystery.

Many bullets hit the ground or flew into the air, losing their killing power by the time they fell back down, only making a sound as they hit a person's helmet.

Such a casualty ratio wouldn't frighten the Jin soldiers, but it would be enough to scare the Yan'an troops.

Someone exclaimed in surprise, "What kind of sorcery are they using?"

"They took down Zhang Sanlang from such a distance."

"Li Silang is also dead."

"Wang Mazi won't survive either."

"Sorcery! It must be sorcery!"

"Ahhh!"

Amidst a series of panicked screams, the Yan'an soldiers turned and ran.

Only Pangdi remained, charging forward alone.

He once charged alone against the Western Xia army, so he wasn't intimidated by charging alone against the Northern Song Dynasty now...

"Archers, conserve your ammunition, no need to fire."

Zhang Yong and the commanders of each platoon were all shouting: "Conserve ammunition!"

Everyone watched coldly as Pang Di charged forward alone.

Pangdi charged and charged, and finally reached the front of the chariot formation. He swung his spear forward and thrust it, but with a "bang," it was blocked by the huge chariot door, completely useless.

But he was still not willing to give up and tried to push the door open and rush inside.

Just then, a huge wheel suddenly flew towards him.

It turned out to be Zhang Dashu!

To conserve ammunition, Zhang Dashu couldn't use heavy muskets. He grabbed a wheel that had fallen off a chariot during a formation change and used it as a projectile, smashing it over Pang Di's head.

Pang Di roared and thrust his spear forward, attempting to "poke the iron chariot," but the thrust was futile. The chariot wheels knocked his spear away, and with a "bang," he was thrown off his horse.

(End of this chapter)