Datang New Order

The car formation continued to move forward, and Zhang Long loudly announced the rules of rewards and punishments in the formation.

"Everyone in this battle needs to work hard and not back down..."

"The reward for beheading a first-level official is five thousand... Beheading a third-level official is promoted to one level..."

"One thousand for the slightly injured... Five thousand for the seriously injured... Fifty acres of land and ten thousand for the dead..."

"Whoever faces the latter before the battle, behead! Those who hesitate to patrol the front, behead! Those who abandon their blades and surrender to the enemy will implicate the three clans. The men in the family will serve as slaves in the army, and the women will serve as servants in the official workshop..."

"Regardless of soldiers and civilians, it is the same as this case..."

Following the announcement of Zhang Long's reward and punishment regulations one by one, the morale of the entire chariot gradually recovered. Take out the wooden spears, sword shields and other things sent to Bailang Mountain to defend against the enemy.

When the chariot formation was a mile and a half away from the Khitan cavalry, more than a hundred cavalry jumped out of the Khitan cavalry and slowly rode forward... When the distance was about [-] steps, these Khitan cavalry began to speed up...[-] steps away, the Khitan cavalry would The horsepower was pushed to the maximum, shouts and shouts resounded through the grassland, and the sound of horseshoes shook the whole field!

"Stop!" Zhang Long immediately ordered the car formation to stop: "Get ready to meet the enemy!"

Facing the dashing attack of more than a hundred Khitan cavalry, the faces of the Pingzhou Army, whether soldiers or civilians, were pale, most of them trembled and trembled non-stop.If it weren't for being surrounded by the car formation, many of them would have turned around and fled regardless of the military orders.

Especially those spearmen and sword-shield soldiers who came out of the chariot formation and guarded the front, their faces turned pale with horror, and the swords and guns in their hands kept shaking.

Although Yuan Xingqin was young, he had experienced the Hejian War, and his family passed down his spear skills and extraordinary martial bravery.Seeing that the army in front of the chariot formation showed signs of instability, he hurriedly asked Zhang Long for orders, then dismounted his horse, and with a lacquer gun in his hand, he jumped out of the chariot formation.Regardless of the fast-approaching Khitan cavalry behind him, he turned around to face the two rows of Pingzhou soldiers in front of him, twisted the lacquer gun in his hand, raised it high above his head, and shouted loudly to boost morale.He turned around to face the oncoming Khitan cavalry, stood alone at the front of the chariot formation, and shouted loudly: "Khitan dog thief, hurry to die!" Under his guidance, these soldiers finally stabilized their minds.

According to the previous rehearsal, when the Khitan cavalry rushed to a distance of 150 steps, the archers in the chariot formation would successively fire a total of four waves of arrows in the first round.The angle of the arrow is biased upwards, and when it shoots out in an arc, it will crash into the oncoming Khitan cavalry at a maximum range of about [-] to [-] steps.

But at this moment, these archers were so nervous that they could not breathe freely. It was unknown who hadn't held the bowstring, and the first arrow was shot out immediately.After the arrow was fired, all the archers couldn't bear the oppression of the cavalry's impact. Regardless of the distance and the rehearsed "four-stage strike" method, all the archers fired the arrow on the bowstring.I saw a mass of black arrows flying out, messy and chaotic, and then landed on the road ahead of the Khitan cavalry's attack, all of them missed, and none of them hit.

Zhang Long was furious, but he didn't care to pursue his fault, he loudly urged the archer to buckle the arrow and rewind.At this time, the Khitan cavalry had rushed within a hundred paces, and the original rhythm of firing arrows was completely disrupted. Zhang Long couldn't control the panicked archers for a while, so he had to shout loudly to order the archers to shoot by themselves.

Although the previous wave of random arrows did not injure a Khitan, it revealed the existence of a large number of archers in the chariot formation.The Khitan cavalry seemed taken aback, their horses slowed down a bit, and then they divided into two teams, avoided the front of the chariot formation, and went around from both sides.This detour caused most of the second wave of arrows hastily shot by the archers of the Pingzhou Army to fail. Only a few hit the big luck and stuck in the arms and legs of several Khitan cavalrymen, but did not cause any major damage. Injuries, and no one fell off the horse. …,

The Khitan cavalry circled to both sides of the chariot formation and also entered the range of fifty paces, which was within the range of cavalry bows.Those who are skilled in riding and shooting took off their bows and arrows and shot back into the chariot formation.But the riders who can ride and shoot belong to the elite warriors in the tribe, and the number is not many. Coupled with the bumps during the high-speed running of the horse, the hit rate of the arrows shot is very low.If this method of riding and shooting cannot reach a certain scale and quantity, and cannot achieve dense coverage, its effect will be extremely limited.

After experiencing the initial tension and panic, the archers of the Pingzhou Army gradually stabilized their bowstrings. They could not do anything to the Khitan cavalry galloping around the chariot formation, so they aimed their arrows at those who were more courageous. Cavalry who dare to stand still and shoot arrows.In an instant, random arrows were fired, and several bold Khitan cavalrymen were shot off their horses on the spot, causing cheers in the chariot formation.

This is Zhang Long's first time commanding an army to fight, and no one listened to his shouting in the chaos. He couldn't think of a way for a while, so he couldn't help but sighed, and simply ignored those archers who were doing their own thing, and turned around. Go to greet the gunmen in the car formation and ask them to hold up their guns to protect the car formation.Seeing that the Khitans dared not get close to the cart, the spearmen relaxed a little bit from their nervousness. Under Zhang Long's command, they formed a tight formation according to the formation rehearsed before. Their own archers cheered.

There were also a few brave Khitan cavalrymen who rushed to the edge of the cart, trying to jump in with their horses, but they were pointed at by a forest of guns, and they turned their horses' heads helplessly to hide.

Although the Khitan's arrows were few and not accurate enough, but the chariot formation was densely packed with people, it was not difficult to shoot them, which also caused casualties to the Pingzhou army.A few spearmen beside the chariot formation were a little careless and were shot by bows and arrows sent by the Khitan cavalry, causing panic immediately.Zhang Long hurriedly ordered his sword and shield hands to stay close to the spearmen in the outermost row to provide them with cover.

After a short battle like this, the two sides shot at each other with bows and arrows. The Khitan cavalry saw that the chariot formation was tightly guarded and could not find an opportunity to break in, so they left more than a dozen corpses and avoided them far away. among.

Only then did Zhang Long wipe off the sweat from his forehead, and hurriedly rearranged the queue and rearranged the soldiers.Then he ordered people to go outside the chariot formation and cut off the heads of the Khitan people who were shot to death, and got more than ten heads.After counting, 17 people from the Pingzhou Army in the car formation were hit by arrows, ten of them were slightly injured, four were seriously injured by arrows, and three of the most unlucky spearmen were pierced by Khitan arrows through their throats. died.

There was also an unlucky man among the peasants whose shoulder was scratched by Liu Ya. He exposed the wound on his shoulder and went to Zhang Long: "Zhang Yuhou, so-and-so is injured, so-and-so came to get the thousand dollars."

Zhang Long looked at the civilian husband's wound, saw that it was just scratched, and immediately said angrily: "This is not counted!" What the hell!" Seeing that he was angry, the man muttered unwillingly and left.

Zhang Long was in a mess when he started the battle just now, so he reorganized his thoughts at this moment, gathered the archers together, emphasized the sequence and timing of firing arrows again, and finally said loudly: "If there is no order from someone, whoever will shoot the arrows on his own will Archery is a military practice!"

At this moment, the two armies were facing each other a mile apart, and neither of them made any next move.Zhang Long noticed Yuan Xingqin's morale-boosting behavior at the forefront, so he called him to his side and praised him, and then asked, "Captain Yuan, what do you think is better now?"

Yuan Xingqin curled his lips. To be honest, after the battle just now, he somewhat looked down on Zhang Long's impromptu command.He is also from a wealthy family and has a long history of education. Although he is young, he has his own strategy in his chest.Moreover, Yuan Xingqin was the first to join the Yier Army, and made contributions in Hejian. It was only because of his excellent relationship with Zhao Zaili that he abandoned the Yier Army and joined the Pingzhou Army, so he felt a sense of arrogance in his heart.But he is currently his superior, so it's hard to say anything, he just said: "Of course, according to the previous rehearsal, let's forcefully push through, a certain lead the team at the front, and Yu Hou is in control of the car formation, if you don't believe us, we won't be able to rush through. It's just that Yu Hou must command those archers well this time, and he can't act recklessly like just now." There was a trace of accusation unconsciously in the words. …,

Zhang Long is a simple person, and he didn't go into the disrespect in Yuan Xingqin's words. He just felt that what he said was the truth, and he couldn't help being ashamed for a while, so he spent a lot of time reiterating the military order, and then ordered the chariots to move forward. The Khitan cavalry forced them over.

After the baptism of the first battle, the Pingzhou army and civilian husbands in the car formation seemed to be in a different spirit, and their confidence recovered a lot.Zhang Long's command of the archers was also gradually on the right track. After all, the Pingzhou Army rehearsed together for seven days. After the initial nervousness and panic, with the support of the car formation, everyone calmed down a lot.

Relying on the step bow to shoot far more than the cavalry bow, Zhang Long directed the archers to start firing arrows one by one from 150 steps away from the Khitan cavalry formation. Although the distance was too far to cause any casualties, it made the Khitan cavalry formation loose.The Khitan cavalry obviously didn't want to suffer this loss, so they left the frontal battlefield, gave way to the front, and just surrounded the chariot formation to monitor, looking for flaws in the chariot formation.

The Khitan people separated more than 20 riders and began to run back and forth on both sides of the car formation.These cavalry were good at riding and archery, and the arrows shot from their horses were fast and accurate, which greatly increased the casualties in the chariot formation.Zhang Long commanded the archers to shoot at the Khitan cavalry, but the opponent was riding fast and the arrows they fired had little effect.Zhang Long ordered another covering shot, and finally shot down several Khitan cavalrymen.But for Lu Longjun, the exchange ratio of this shooting method is too bad, and the consumption of arrows is very large, which is very cost-effective.

If the road is far away, Zhang Long and Pingzhou Army will not end well.Because the initiative on the battlefield was completely in the hands of the Khitan cavalry, and the place and time of the battle were completely decided by the Khitan cavalry. No matter day or night, the Pingzhou army must always maintain the integrity of the chariot formation with great willpower and physical fitness.As long as this state is maintained for three to five days, the entire team will be dragged down by the Khitan cavalry's tactics of following from a distance, constantly harassing, and looking for opportunities to break through.This is the fundamental reason why cavalry are invincible against infantry on the grassland.

It's a pity that White Wolf Mountain is only fifty miles away from Yuguan, and the place where the two sides meet is closer to White Wolf Mountain, so the above disadvantages do not exist.When the figure of White Wolf Mountain gradually emerged in the afterglow of the setting sun, the Pingzhou Army, which was exhausted due to tension and fatigue, finally saw Li Chengzhong's troops who had come to support them. masterpiece.