Volume 3 Chapter 73 Military Order
Besides, since both sides have sent out their troops, they have no choice but to fight.
The first Song army unit, led by Qiao Ze from Qinfeng Road, was ordered to attack Jinsu Mountain, but was spotted by the Jin army scouts shortly after leaving the camp. Immediately, Wanyan Shensi (real name Yelu Shensi, surnamed by Jin Taizu), the vanguard of the Jin army's Wanhu Mawu, was ordered to lead ten Khitan Moukes, a total of a thousand cavalrymen, to abandon their cloth bags, leave the main group, and attack Qiao Ze's troops.
On the local battlefield, cavalry came and went like the wind. Therefore, in the morning, when the dew had not yet dried, Qiao Ze had just led his troops ten miles out of the camp and was still five or six miles away from Jinsu Mountain when he ran into Wanyan Shensi head-on and started a battle.
The battle process is simple, fast and fierce.
Among them, although Wanyan Shensi's troops were all Khitan cavalry, the troops organized according to the Meng'an Mouke system still had the characteristics of the Jin army... and as Wu Jie summarized, the main force of the Jin army has always had the advantages of cavalry, heavy arrows, armor, and most importantly, the advantages of the soldiers' endurance and strong execution.
On the other hand, the Qinfeng Road troops led by Qiao Ze inevitably seemed to be short of horses and armor, and the quality of the soldiers themselves was also worrying.
Therefore, although Qiao Ze had tried very hard to deal with it, only two quarters of an hour later, as the Song army suffered nearly a hundred casualties from the heavy arrows of the Jin army, they still fell into a complete disadvantage in the battle. In this situation, in order to protect the entire army, Qiao Ze immediately chose to fight and retreat behind him, and Yelu Shensi obviously received some specific instructions, and chose to chase and kill without hesitation.
With the continuous and effective killing of the Jin cavalry, Qiao Ze's troops soon could not hold on and quickly fell into a state of fleeing. The troops also lost their ability to resist, and large-scale casualties began to occur... Fortunately, everyone's escape goal was the same, and the terrain here was complex. Even though the Song army was a little panicked when fleeing, a ditch appeared here and a muddy swamp there after the water evaporated, which brought great trouble to the heavily armored Jin cavalry, and kept Qiao Ze's troops in a state of collapse but not dispersion.
In this way, the not very effective pursuit and massacre continued for a while, and the Song army continued to leave many corpses. But as the remaining troops of Qiao Ze rushed up the high slope of the plateau six miles east of their own camp, the Jin army finally suffered a large-scale delay - Qiao Ze did not lose his mind. He specifically chose the steepest section of the gully to wait for the plateau to retreat. The steep gullies on the edge of the plateau were a big trouble for the Jin cavalry, who had to detour to both sides of the plateau to find a gentle slope.
However, that was the end of it. When the Jin cavalry finally made their way around the plateau, they discovered that the Song army's reinforcement force of no less than five or six thousand people, divided into two groups, had already left the camp to rescue them.
However, Wanyan Shensi looked at the two troops that were shining slightly in the sun, moving quickly and in neat formation, and he chose to withdraw without hesitation... His thousand cavalrymen had no chance of gaining any advantage against the main force of the Song army of such size and morale.
"What's the point of fighting this war?"
After bringing back Qiao Ze's troops, Xin Yongzong, the commander of the imperial camp, looked at the losses of Qiao Ze's troops and could not help but complain to Li Qiong, who was beside him and sent out to rescue them. "Two thousand isolated troops, didn't Wu let General Qiao go out to send them off in vain? Moreover, our camp is so high, many soldiers saw the defeat with their own eyes, didn't they lose morale in vain?"
Of course, Qiao Ze knew that Xiao Xin was trying to curry favor for the sake of his uncle Qiao Zhongfu, and as the person who received the order, he knew some inside information. However, he had just escaped from the tiger's mouth and was inevitably in a state of embarrassment. However, he was too lazy to say anything and just turned his head to see the situation of his subordinates.
"That's not the case."
At this time, Li Qiong, who had been stationed on the plateau and looking around, had a stern expression and shook his head. "General Wu's move does make sense. He is looking for, or guessing, a suitable battlefield for the decisive battle! If nothing unexpected happens, we will fight on this piece of Dongpo Plateau today! The terrain, size, height, field of vision, and distance are all suitable!"
Xin Yongzong looked at the plateau under his feet in astonishment, and suddenly woke up... Even if he had no talent, Li Qiong had said so much, how could a leader not understand? Moreover, Qiao Ze, the person involved, did not refute it at all.
Furthermore, the Jin army obviously wanted to take Jinsu Mountain to gain a visual advantage and a secondary base for launching a general attack on the Song army camp. However, Jinsu Mountain was only fourteen or fifteen miles away from the Song army camp. At such a long distance, they would definitely not be able to defeat the Jin cavalry. So, as everyone thought, the fight for Jinsu Mountain was a false proposition from the beginning. Facing the main force of the 30,000 Jin army, it was impossible for two thousand isolated troops to produce any substantial results.
However, this was not Wu Jie's purpose in asking Qiao Ze to attack.
The process of the two thousand troops' collapse has naturally highlighted the advantages of the Dongpo area:
First, Dongpo was five or six miles away from the Song army camp and ten miles away from Jinsu Mountain. This was the effective distance for the Song army, which was mainly composed of infantry, to support and attack from the camp, and it could also ensure that it would not be easily controlled by the Jin army.
Secondly, since Dongpo is a plateau slope, and the main slope is on the east side, it is destined that it is much easier for infantry to climb this battlefield than the opposing cavalry;
Third, the height of Dongpo was no higher than the foot of the mountain where the Song army camp was located, so the view was clear and convenient for command;
Finally, Dongpo is extremely large and long, hundreds of steps wide and more than ten miles long, making it convenient for the main force to deploy here. At the same time, the swamps formed by the evaporation of water mostly end here.
only……
"Marshal, are you going to abandon your camp to meet the enemy?" In the central camp of the Song army, Liu Xi, who had been staring at Dongpo for a long time, turned around and looked at Wu Jie with a look of surprise.
"It's not that I want to, but once the Jin army occupies Jinsu Mountain, they can see our true strength, and then occupy the east slope, they can divide and break the main camp." Wu Jie frowned and looked at him seriously. "And don't forget, when we argued about setting up the camp before, I said that occupying the high ground was more for vision and command, and I didn't refute Liu Dutong's argument that swamps are the best for delaying cavalry... Now the area of the swamps has been halved, but it can still delay the Jin army cavalry. Moreover, some swamps are still muddy without water, and it may have a miraculous effect. Do we have to abandon these swamps and let the Jin army climb the east slope calmly and then besiege the camp? Besides, the summer weather is hot, if the Jin army approaches the camp, what can we do with fire attack?"
Liu Xi was stunned for a long while, then he angrily said: "If you had listened to me earlier, what would have happened if you had set up a camp at the foot of Dongpoyuan?"
Wu Jie was too lazy to pay attention to such meaningless complaints, since the other party had already agreed to the strategy of fighting.
However, Liu Qi, the governor of Lizhou Road, stepped forward and advised his brother: "General, what the Marshal said makes a lot of sense... and even if we had set up a camp in Linze at the foot of the plateau, how could we abandon our superior military strength and stay in the camp? The camp is so large that we can't provide effective support. If we stay in the camp, we will most likely be defeated one by one. We have to take the initiative to fight."
Liu Xi was completely speechless, while Zhao Jiu, who was sitting next to Wu Jie, did not say a word, but glanced at the brothers at this time.
But regardless of all this, it is undeniable that the Song army lost the first battle and the Jin army won the first battle, but what followed was an unbearable blank period on the battlefield.
After the Song army withdrew, they guarded the camp carefully. To put it nicely, they were waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out. To put it bluntly, they could not grasp the initiative in the battle and could only respond passively. After the victory, the Jin army did not intend to take the opportunity to launch an attack. Under the leadership of Wanyan Loushi's five-colored sun-holding flag, the 30,000-strong army marched calmly towards Jinsu Mountain... Armor and cloth bags were piled on the marching baggage carts, and the war horses were free, without any hesitation or restlessness.
This is understandable, of course, as they are also gathering their strength and preparing for the upcoming battle.
Moreover, a few high-ranking officials of the Jin Dynasty also understood that they were also trying to buy time and seize the opportunity to fight for the reinforcements of the Fourth Prince Wanyan Wushu... In a word, it was impossible to start a full-scale war too early, nor could it start a war too late.
In this way, time passed little by little, until it was almost noon, when the sun was about to reach due south, the sunlight began to gradually dim, and the air became a little stuffy.
"Will it rain?" In the midst of silence, Song Dynasty official Zhao Jiu finally asked the first question of the day.
"It's hard to say." Without Wu Jie saying anything, Wang Yuan, the commander of the Imperial Camp, took the initiative to speak up. "The clouds are not heavy, maybe it will rain, maybe it won't..."
"Is rain a good thing or a bad thing?" Zhao Jiu asked seriously.
"If it rains, pouring rain, it will be a great benefit." Wang Yuan hesitated for a moment before saying, "The Jin army's cavalry, heavy armor, and heavy arrows will all be ineffective, and our army has multiples of them, which is enough to win in a hand-to-hand battle in the rain. But if it doesn't rain for a long time, this kind of weather will be a great benefit to the Jin army who are afraid of heat - without direct sunlight, they can go out at noon."
Zhao Jiu nodded... There was an unstable variable in the war, but it could not be relied upon. On the contrary, any commander should consider these variables from the worst perspective. It was no wonder that Wu Jie was so restless.
"Let the whole army stop right here, put on their armor and horses, and prepare for battle."
There were tens of thousands of troops stretching for more than a few miles, with most of the troops still lagging behind him. Lou Shi had already arrived at Jinsu Mountain and was looking far ahead. He withdrew his gaze from the five-colored sun flag above his head and simply issued a military order on the stool.
The military order was quickly passed on, and it took tens of thousands of troops several quarters of an hour to completely stop. After waiting for a while, Lou Shi carefully observed the positions of his own troops and the positions of the enemy's camp. After glancing at the top of his head, he gave the second military order without hesitation:
"Let Wanyan Zhehe's tribe be the vanguard, lead fifty of our tribe's moukes, carry cloth bags, and set out immediately. When we come across swamps and marshes, we will use the bags to pad the ground and rush to the northernmost camp of the Song army!"
The military order was immediately issued, and then, around noon, Wanyan Zhehe's Jin army launched a large-scale attack.
Seeing Wanyan Zhehe sending out troops, Lou Shi was not in a hurry and issued the third military order:
"Let Yelu Ma's five troops seize the hillside on the east side of the Song army camp, and let Deputy Commander Balisu lead 10,000 Haner troops as the rear, and march out immediately!"
Bali turned around and said, "General, I will lead the Han army. Who should I hand over the dozens of Mouke besides my own Meng'an to? Xie Buchu or Pei Mantunian? Who should I choose as the commander?"
"No need to command the troops." Lou Shi looked at Balisu and ordered calmly. "I will personally assign them to support you!"
Balisu said nothing more and turned around and went down the mountain.
In the afternoon, the Song army discovered the movements of Wanyan Zhehe's troops, but the camps were connected and they had no time to mobilize troops. A small camp on the northernmost side was easily broken by two Meng'an and more than ten Mouke of the Jin army. The defeated soldiers scattered into other camps, causing chaos.
"Liu Qi!"
Wu Jie observed the situation from afar and without hesitation, he ordered his troops to go out. "The Yilizhou army will leave the camp and rush north to fight this army. The left wing (north side) of this battle will be handed over to you!"
Being the left wing of the army was a task that they had undertaken when they formed the battle line and marched forward. Liu Qi did not hesitate and immediately took the order and set off.
After Liu Qi left, Wu Jie did not stop for a moment and gave another order: "Wang De's troops in the imperial camp will march forward to seize Dongpo! Wang Yan's troops and the troops of Qinfeng Road will provide support!"
The commanders of various units took the order and left, and passed the order up layer by layer. After a while, the camp was opened, and tens of thousands of troops poured out of the camp, but then split into two. Liu Qi's troops went to deal with the attack of Wanyan Zhehe on the left wing, while the troops in the imperial camp came out in full force, divided into two layers, front and back, and rushed to occupy Dongpo.
The commanders of both sides acted in unison. When the Song army rushed up the east slope, Yelu Ma's five troops had already climbed up the plateau slope with the advantage of cavalry. The 3,000 troops of Fu Qing's army at the forefront of the Song army were caught off guard. As soon as they reached the plateau, they were surrounded on three sides by 5,000 Jin cavalry.
For a moment, heavy arrows were fired continuously, and the cavalry charged from the flanks with cavalry spears, weakening Fu Qing's troops layer by layer like peeling skin. In a moment, this core main force of the Song army was defeated.
But soon, Wang De, Zhang Jing, Qiao Zhongfu and Xin Qizon arrived together, and a wide battle line was opened up, rushing back like a big net.
Seeing that they were about to be surrounded from the opposite side, and that the Song army's troops were coming in an endless stream in astonishing numbers, almost overwhelming them, Yelu Ma Wu hurriedly ordered a retreat, but his troops were entangled with the remnants of Fu Qing's troops and were unable to obey the order.
In the midst of surprise, at this moment, the deputy commander of the Jin army, Wanyan Bali, led 10,000 Han soldiers to Dongpo. The follow-up troops of the Jin army completely responded, and Yelu Ma's five tribes were able to take advantage of the situation to withdraw.
In this way, the Jin army had 10,000 Haner troops and 6,000 to 7,000 cavalry. The infantry was commanded by Wanyan Balisu and the cavalry was commanded by Yelu Mawu. The Song army's Fu Qing troops were directly defeated, and the remaining 35,000 troops were divided into ten groups, with Wang De's six groups in the front and Wang Yan's four groups in the back. The two armies had no less than 50,000 people, each occupying the east and west sides, and started a fierce battle directly on the Dongpoyuan.
The 50,000-strong army shouted for battle together, and the shouts and cries of killing shook between Yao Mountain and Wulong Mountain. Dust flew on the slopes of the plateau. The light of the armor was completely obscured, and the formation was not clear for a while. The only way to observe the battle situation from a distance was through the flags and the swaying of large troops.
"It's a stalemate, but the king's army has the upper hand!" Wang Yuan watched for a moment and couldn't help but report to the fully armored Zhao Guanjia. "The king's army has more soldiers and is pushing the Jin army to the east!"
Zhao Jiu did not say anything, but looked from the general platform to the left front of the central army camp with Wu Jie. While Wang Yuan was observing the battle situation on the plateau, the battle situation there also changed dramatically - Liu Qi led the Lizhou Road troops to counterattack Wanyan Zhehe, and not only immediately drove the Jin army Meng'an who broke through the Song army camp on the left wing out of the camp area, but also took the initiative to pursue him!
Taking advantage of the height advantage of the central army camp located at the foot of the mountain and the wide view from the general platform, Zhao Jiu saw a scene that was unprecedentedly shocking without anyone explaining it to him... Thousands of Jin soldiers, after successfully passing through the swamp using some kind of cloth bags or something, were trapped in a mobility dilemma in the muddy swamp area without water. Liu Qi led the Lizhou army to chase here, but without hesitation, the entire army abandoned their horses and entered the swamp, and surrounded the thousands of Jin cavalrymen who had difficulty moving in this swamp!
"Du Tong!"
A horseman came galloping over, and shouted loudly from a distance of a hundred steps on the foothills. "The Song army decisively went out of the camp to seize the plateau. The troops are extremely heavy, and they are all elite troops in the imperial camp. The deputy governor (Balisu) requested support! He said that if he doesn't get support, he is afraid that he will not be able to hold the plateau!"
Lou Shi sat still and was about to speak.
"Du Tong!"
Another rider came from the northwest, also shouting from a distance, but more anxious and impatient than the previous rider, even with a hint of screaming and crying in his voice. "My Wanhu (Wanyan Zhehe) accidentally fell into the mud, and fifty Moukes were surrounded by thirty of the Lizhou troops of the Song people! The Song army abandoned their horses and fell into the mud, fighting hand-to-hand with us. If there is no reinforcement, I am afraid there will be countless casualties!"
Lou Shi was stunned. The battle took place on the side close to the Song army camp. Although Jinsuluan was a high ground, he could barely observe the battle on Dongpoyuan and the distribution of the Song army camp, but some places could not be seen at all.
He also didn't expect that so many main forces would be in crisis right from the start.
However, after a moment's thought, Lou Shi regained his composure and immediately gave the order: "Pei Mantu Nian, Wanyan Xie Bu, march out!"
Upon hearing this, the two generals immediately stepped forward and obeyed orders.
"You two are Yin Shuke's old subordinates, and you are the most appropriate. I wanted to stay with you for support, but the war is tense and I can't care about much." Lou Shi was calm and serious. "You two take all the 40 Moukes left by Balisu, split into two groups, and rush up from both sides of the plateau. Whether it is a pincer attack or a breakthrough into the gaps between the various parts of the Song army, or whether Balisu has other military orders at that time, I don't care. I just want you to protect Balisu and Yelu Mawu, and use the army to maintain the position on the plateau slope... Do you understand? I only want that piece of plateau!"
Although the two generals were somewhat surprised, how could they not understand the military order, especially to rescue their own leader?
Therefore, the two generals immediately received the order, and then quickly went to gather the troops and prepare to go to the plateau for support. The messenger of Balisu was overjoyed and simply turned around and rode back to report.
"General..." Upon seeing this, Wanyan Zhehe's messenger felt a little hopeful, but also a little flustered. The Jin army had only 30,000 troops, and 20,000 had already been sent out. Now they had directly sent forty Moukes from Dongpoyuan to support them. Did Lou Shi have to rescue his own 10,000 households personally?
"You can rest here." Lou Shi glanced at Zhehe's messenger and recognized him as Pu Liyan, a brave man beside Zhehe, but he slowly called another person. "Uncle Po!"
Meng'an Wanyan Poshu, the commander of Loushi's headquarters, immediately stepped out and said, "General!"
When Wanyan Zhehe envoy saw this person coming out, he was also very happy.
"You go there in person and tell Wanyan Zhehe." Lou Shi looked at his confidant and said calmly. "Tell him that I don't care about his guilt for being careless and falling into the quagmire, but now that things have come to this, please ask him to hold on there. If he attracts support from the Song army, and all the troops and time are spent on him, even if the whole army is wiped out, I think it is worth it!"
Wanyan Poshu was Lou Shi's confidant, so he naturally knew about the Fourth Prince's reinforcements, so he immediately realized Lou Shi's intention , but he was still obviously a little uneasy: "General, what if the general is dissatisfied?"
"Then issue a formal military order!" Lou Shi remained calm. "Tell him that Wanyan Lou Shi, the commander-in-chief of the Shanxi Army, has issued an order that Wanyan Zhehe, the gold medal holder, and his thirty moukes must die in the mud beside the Song army camp!"
Wanyan Poshu understood and was about to get up and mount his horse to deliver the order in person, but before he turned around, the messenger from the Zhehe tribe on the gentle slope of the mountain had already turned pale and rode away to the northwest.
As he ran down the mountain, he reined in his horse and turned back under Lou Shi's emotionless gaze, shouting loudly from afar: "General! I know you must have a plan! And there is no need for Po Shu Meng'an to personally pass on such a military order. I will explain it to my family members! Let Po Shu Meng'an recuperate here to prepare for your plan!"
After saying this, the man did not look back and rode his horse directly towards the northwest.
A single horse galloped away, stirring up a cloud of yellow dust, but it quickly subsided. Then, Pei Mantunian and Wanyan Xiebu each led 20 moukes to attack from the left and right, heading straight for the north and south ends of Dongpoyuan, stirring up dust that rolled like two long dragons.
During the whole process, Wanyan Loushi was speechless except for his bright eyes, which showed no sign of avoiding anything that happened in front of him.
