Volume 4 Chapter 76 Color
When the Zhao Song officials crossed Hengshan and had not yet reached Youzhou, a battle suddenly broke out between the two most important cities of Western Xia, specifically in the area on the west bank of the Yellow River between Xingqing Prefecture and Lingzhou.
On one side of the battle was the main force of the Song Army's 30,000-strong Imperial Camp, consisting of the front army, central army, and cavalry, assisted by some newly surrendered Dangxiang cavalry.
The chief commander was Yue Fei, the commander-in-chief of the front army of the imperial camp. The main generals included Qu Duan, Wang De, Liu Qi, Li Shifu, Zhang Jing, Qiao Zhongfu, Fu Xuan, Fu Qing, Zhang Zhongyan, Zhang Zhongfu, Zhang Xian and other veteran generals.
Young players like Guo Jin and Yang Zaixing are not worthy of being on the stage.
On the other side was the main force of the Western Xia army, which was composed of the Western Xia Iron Harriers, the Poxi Army, the Central Guard Army, and the Zhuosheng Army, totaling more than 40,000.
Among them, the commander-in-chief was the King of Jin of Western Xia, Weiming Chage, and the military supervisor was Weiming Renli.
In addition, there is the Iron Hawk general Wei Ming Yi'e, whose name is exactly the opposite of the Western Xia general Wei Ming Yi who was executed dozens of years ago. He is a young royal general after Cha Ge came to power; there is also the former Hongzhou defender Wei Ming Yun Ge who temporarily led the remnants of the Central Guards; the Zhuosheng Army general Wei Ming Yu who led his troops to capture many castles of the Dingbian Army during the Jing Kang period; and the old general who had been on diplomatic missions to the Song Dynasty several times, the governor of the Poxi Army Wei Ming Ji.
Under the many royal family members, there are inevitably Wang Xingzhuo of the Wang clan, Ling Jiezheng of the Lingjie clan, Renduo Shitai of the Renduo clan, including Bali Longdeng who persuaded Wei Mingcha Ge to return to Xingqing Prefecture that day, and so on... These people are all hereditary leaders of the great Dangxiang clans, and are also the backbone of the army.
As for Renli's elder brother, Pu Wang Weiming Renzhong, he stayed behind in Lingzhou Prefecture with the Han Prime Minister Wang Shu who escaped. Also staying behind were many Han generals and ministers, including the grandfather of the current Xixia Crown Prince and the father of Concubine Cao, Cao Laolinggong.
At the critical moment, the Dangxiang people still did not trust the Han people.
To be fair, this battle came a little late and was very unfair.
The reason why it is said that he was late is that the decisive battle between the two countries' main forces should have been used to decide the outcome, but at this time, the capital of Western Xia had been lost, three of the four core ruling areas had been lost, and the only area that was still visible, Houtao, was probably about to be gone.
Therefore, this main battle was not so much a decisive battle as it was a battle in which the Xixia people were forced into a desperate situation by the alliances, schemes, raids, betrayals and other strategic activities of the surrounding powers, and had no choice but to use their last huge capital to fight for survival.
This is actually why we say he is unfair.
Originally, the Xixia people should have been able to defend themselves in order to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out, and the Song army should have been unable to bear the risk and took the initiative to attack. Originally, everything should have been fine... However, the reality is that the Song army calmly divided its troops to guard the cities on the other side of the river, and only after the Xixia people were forced to gather under the city of Lingzhou and prepared to risk crossing the river from there, did they calmly gather their troops and wait for the enemy somewhere on the west bank of the Yellow River.
The Yellow River was too wide, and the Song army's cavalry patrolled the river constantly. Although the Western Xia people could obtain various intelligence from the other side of the river, it was all delayed and chaotic, and they could not obtain real-time military intelligence at all.
But even so, even though the Xixia people knew that this battle would be difficult to fight, they still had to come, because the situation was getting worse day by day, and Chago couldn't drag it on... If he really dragged it on, the army would probably gradually disperse.
"The Song army made a big mistake!"
In the early morning, Wei Ming Cha Ge stood at the ferry crossing on the Yellow River and spoke recklessly to the surrounding generals, not caring about the frequent glances of the soldiers on board. "And there are three big mistakes... First, you shouldn't fight with us Tanguts in the wild. Our Iron Harriers are indestructible! Second, you shouldn't abandon the river defense and let our army cross the river. It shows that the commander of the Song army is a waste! Third, you shouldn't have failed to capture Shunzhou until now, and let Zhang Li leave us a base on the other side of the river!"
At this point, without waiting for the other soldiers to respond, Wei Ming Cha Ge drew his sword and swung it vigorously in the air: "In this battle, we swear to kill Yue Fei and Qu Duan, take back Xingqing Prefecture, and then go back to welcome back His Majesty and the Crown Prince, and re-establish the Great Baigao Kingdom!"
Upon hearing this, the surrounding generals drew their swords, raised their blades, and shouted in agreement.
After saying this, Weiming Chago gritted his teeth, put away his sword, dismounted, separated from his black ox flag, and each boarded a sheepskin raft and headed for the other side.
The commander-in-chief personally went up first, and naturally the morale of the surrounding soldiers was boosted... The crossing also became smooth.
However, when Chago boarded the sheepskin raft, the excited expression on his face dimmed visibly - the reason was simple, the Xixia coach himself knew that he had just been talking nonsense!
Not to mention whether this pretentiousness could make those big bosses with ulterior motives change their minds a little, even he himself felt unbearable. In fact, since coming to Lingzhou, he, Weiming Cha Ge, was the person whose confidence declined the fastest among the remaining Xixia group!
The reason for this is not because he is disloyal to Li Qianshun, nor is it that he is unwilling to fight to the death for the Great Bai Gao Kingdom, but because this King Jin of Western Xia, who is usually greedy for money and lustful, and has various conflicts with Wei Ming Renzhong, is indeed the most militarily talented and experienced general among the Western Xia people.
It is said that in history, after Wei Ming Cha Ge took over the Xixia army under the order of his brother, he noticed the corruption and degeneration of the Xixia army very early. After defeating Liu Fa and reaching the peak of his reputation, he still believed that the traditional Xixia tactics of fighting in the mountains with infantry and fighting in the plains with iron harriers were outdated, and he insisted on learning from his defeated generals, the Xixia army.
He believed from the beginning that the Iron Harriers would be courting death if they encountered the Song army's strong bows and crossbows on the plains, and the Infantry would be courting death if they encountered the Song army's heavy armor and long axes in the mountains. The Xixia people were able to occasionally defeat the Song army before because of the Song army's lack of discipline and logistics, not because the Xixia people were so good at fighting.
Therefore, we must emulate the Song army to establish a strong bow unit and expand the projection capability.
Li Qianshun, who trusted Chago very much, of course followed suit. But unfortunately, Xixia's national strength was limited. The Iron Harriers could only support a few thousand soldiers, the Infantry could only support a few thousand soldiers, and the Poxi Army had only two hundred soldiers. Under such circumstances, it was really beyond their ability to develop powerful bows and crossbows. In the end, they could only let the entire army, whether on horseback or on foot, carry bows. But this kind of bow and arrow was useless in front of the heavily armored troops.
However, as soon as Weiming Chago arrived in Lingzhou, he inquired carefully from the fleeing people and knew that the army on the other side had an astonishingly high armor rate, and had excellent military discipline and strict military formations. This kind of army was what Chago feared the most, or rather, Chago knew very well that the main force of Xixia, which was neither good nor bad, was afraid of this kind of army... It was not that he was afraid now because of the situation, but that he had been afraid of this kind of army more than ten .
But the brothers Weiming Renzhong kept urging him to march, as if he, Weiming Chage, would be a sinner of the Dabai Gao Kingdom if he didn't!
Of course , they had to march forward. If Hengshan fell, and the only remaining stronghold on the other side, Shunzhou, also fell, the army would collapse on its own, and he, Cha Ge, would really be a sinner of the Great White Gao Kingdom. But then again, did he forget to divine when he came here?
While he was daydreaming, as the sheepskin raft stopped in the shallow water, the turbid waves of the Yellow River swayed gently above the raft with the breeze. Cha Ge, who was sitting cross-legged on the raft, felt a chill under his crotch and immediately came to his senses. Then he quickly put on his helmet, pulled down his mask, jumped directly from the raft, drew his sword, waded ashore.
After coming ashore and before leaving the river beach area, the King of Jin of Western Xia just looked up and instinctively felt a pang in his heart.
There was no other reason. The waist-deep wheat was trampled by the army and was in a mess. Some of it was done by the army that had just landed, but there were also many traces that were obviously left by the large army before. Most of the wheat that had been trampled on the ground before had turned yellow, and it was as eye-catching as spots on a person's face in the green field. However, a small amount of wheat that had fallen to the ground now raised its head stubbornly.
But soon, they were trampled to the ground again by the disorderly troops of their own army.
This is the bank of the Yellow River. Wheat has only one season a year, planted in spring and harvested in autumn. Everyone knows clearly what the consequences will be if the summer wheat is trampled like this.
"Tell them to be careful and try not to trample the crops." Cha Ge blurted out the order, but then, perhaps because he felt that it was inconsistent with his usual image, he quickly added, "This is my family's land!"
The attendants who had just gathered looked at each other, but no one went to pass on the message… His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin, relying on the favor of His Majesty, likes to seize other people’s houses and land. This is known to everyone, so everyone believed what Cha Ge said, but the problem is, in the current chaotic landing situation, how is it possible to avoid the crops?
"Forget it! Tell my sons that this is all my land, let them go without worry!" Cha Ge came to his senses and waved his hand helplessly with heartache.
While waving his hand, he felt a sigh in his heart... After a long time, he didn't know whether he really wanted to seize the house and the land, or he was just playing a tacit trick with his brother to defile himself.
After an unnecessary storm, the black bull flag representing Chago was slightly lifted up by the summer breeze, and the Western Xia troops on both sides cheered together.
The situation seems to be very good.
However, the cheers were just the signal. At this moment, about three miles away, behind a small canal that could be crossed by one person, the Song army soldiers who had been waiting for a long time no longer hesitated. Following the whistle and flag waving of the leading Song army officer, they immediately jumped on their horses, and then jumped into the wheat fields and river beaches ahead, and then harassed, shot, divided and drove away the troops that had just landed.
Obviously, probably because of the wide field of vision, the Song army could not place its main force too close, so it did not carry out a large-scale attack halfway across the river, but chose this method to deal with the landing of the Western Xia people... After all, no matter what, the Song army would not miss this window of opportunity to carry out the most efficient killing and morale-destroying.
Perhaps this attack was expected, and Cha Ge did not panic. He climbed onto a wet warhorse whose horse it belonged to, and actively urged the flag forward. At the same time, he sent orders in all directions, asking the surrounding soldiers to gather around him.
At the same time, Xixia officers and leaders at all levels began to do the same thing on several other river beaches.
The effect was significant. The skirmishers sent out by the Song army were typical light cavalry, equipped with only a spear and a bow. They could only hunt down those scattered people crossing the river. They did not dare to confront the Western Xia army that had gathered together and established a beachhead.
However, at the same time, it must be admitted that these skirmishers still effectively delayed and affected the crossing of the river by the Xixia troops. And soon, what surprised Chago a little was that these skirmishers seemed to cause a commotion beyond their killing ability... It was indeed a commotion, and Chago could not think of a more accurate word than this... From what he saw on horseback, there were many places where the sergeants of their own side could obviously gather under the general's banner, but after seeing these mounted skirmishers, they chose to shout angrily and pursue them, which was likely to be a loss; and in some places, the shouting and chasing were the same, but there was unexpectedly no fighting. After shouting a few times with the attacking skirmishers, those soldiers actually followed the specific skirmishers and plunged into the wheat field, and then never came back.
"What's going on?!"
Wei Ming Cha Ge roared loudly under his black bull banner.
He had no choice, even though the result was nothing compared to the casualties and delays caused by the Song army's cavalry skirmishers. But the problem was that the Song army's cavalry raid was completely expected, but this phenomenon was beyond Chago's understanding... As a commander-in-chief and a battlefield commander who was about to fight a big battle, he could never allow this to happen.
Following Chago's stern questioning, several officers and bodyguards split into small groups and went out in all directions, rescuing and gathering the troops while trying to intercept and interrogate them.
Soon, an attendant hurried back and brought back an unexpected but reasonable answer to Cha Ge: "Your Majesty! Most of the attacking soldiers are local Tanguts... They said that according to the rules of the Song army, whether you bring back a head or a living person, you will be treated as a regular soldier with a salary of fifty coins a year! Even if you just rush to the shore and turn back, you will also be rewarded with three dou of grain!"
Cha Ge was stunned, his body swaying on the wet warhorse before he stopped.
But after a moment, realizing that he had no other options, he hurriedly turned back, but only urged his troops to cross the river quickly, move forward quickly, and assemble the troops in the open wheat fields.
But it's not that simple.
Even after turning his attention back to the war itself, Chago still encountered difficulties... The speed of crossing the river was too slow, and the number of Song army's cavalry soldiers was increasing. It seemed that every time a group of Western Xia troops crossed the river, a corresponding proportion of cavalry soldiers would join in the beach harassment.
The actual number comparison between the two sides has always been in a suitable range of two to one to three to one.
Quantitative change leads to qualitative change. As the numbers of both sides increase sharply, the bloodiness of this raid is also increasing.
Gradually, as batch after batch of Song cavalrymen continued to harass and hunt on the beach, even at the cost of unnecessary casualties in a harassment war in order to continue to delay the pace of the Western Xia army's assembly, Cha Ge keenly realized that the Song army sent out these troops not just for a little harassment... there must be a greater tactical purpose.
But he had no way to deal with it.
However, the mystery was soon solved. When the Western Xia army had exceeded 20,000, suddenly, with flags swaying and rolling in the distance, and dozens of trumpets sounding together, the lightly armed cavalry, whose number had approached ten thousand, suddenly abandoned the Dangxiang people on the beach and retreated to the north and south sides.
However, there were also a small number of Tangut cavalry who had obviously just joined the group and had no sensitivity to discipline. They were unable to withdraw in time and became prey of the Xixia people.
Cha Ge did not care about the gains and losses, nor did he pay attention to the two groups of light cavalry that withdrew. He just kept giving orders, asking the troops to quickly organize the horses and camels and quickly gather around the general... At this time, gathering the troops was the only thing to do.
But not long after, the attendant behind him suddenly called out to Cha Ge: "My lord, it seems like there is a red flag waving on the top of Lingzhou City?!"
Cha Ge immediately turned around and saw a red flag waving on the temporarily raised watchtower on the top of Lingzhou City, which was not far from the Yellow River behind him... This made Cha Ge and the attendant feel confused, because the red flag meant that a large army was attacking, but on this side of the river bank, it was clearly a large group of Song army cavalry who had just dispersed... But at the same time, Cha Ge also noticed that the speed of crossing the river for those troops that were dragging on the other side of the river was greatly slowing down, which seemed to confirm the correctness of the red flag.
When he thought of this, Cha Ge turned around, stood firmly on the horse under the black bull's banner, looked to the west in silence, and waited quietly.
After a moment, everything was answered - above the green wheat waves in front, under the black body of the Helan Mountains, a red line changed from being vague to being obvious and clear, and it became wider and more dynamic, until it became a clear red wave.
On the beachhead, the Xixia people's movements became smaller and smaller, their actions became more and more cautious, the atmosphere became more and more tense, but their actions also became more hurried and flustered... After all, everyone knew what that red wave was.
The Xixia officers also realized why the Song army did not guard the river defenses before, and why they sent so many light cavalry to suppress the harassment? The Song army was not so arrogant as to give up the attack halfway across the river, but they realized that the terrain here was open. If they set up their battle array along the river, the Xixia army could easily see them from the high ground on the other side of the river. Why would the Xixia army charge into your battle array?
If you want to attack the enemy halfway across the river, you can only hide far away like you are doing now, let the scattered soldiers harass and contain the enemy, and then wait until the Western Xia army is really halfway across the river and cannot turn back, and then take the opportunity to approach.
Almost every soldier in the Song army was on horseback. It took them only the time it took to squeeze a pot of camel milk from the time they appeared to the time they arrived within a mile of the Western Xia army formation. However, after arriving at the designated battle position, the Song army did not launch an immediate attack. Instead, they calmly stood their ground and sent messengers over.
“My commander Qu has some gifts for His Royal Highness Prince Jin of Western Xia. One is the head of Xue Yuanli, the governor of Xingqing Prefecture, and the other is the head of Weiming Zhangli, the governor of Shunzhou… Commander Qu once said that the reason Shunzhou has not been conquered is that they are waiting for Prince Jin to cross the river. Once Prince Jin has crossed the river, the useless Zhangli will naturally die.” The messenger stopped just outside the range of an arrow shot from the Western Xia army formation. After the two attendants behind him threw the two objects on the ground in front of the formation, he left a few words and rode away.
The Western Xia army was in turmoil for a while.
And the commotion was getting bigger and bigger… The attendant couldn’t stand it any longer and called out to Cha Ge again: “My king, look back at Lingzhou City.”
Chago, who had been unmoved before, turned around and remained calm - even though he saw with his own eyes that many tribes that stayed on the other side of the river had stopped their advance at some point. And under the banner of Weiming Yunge, who had not yet crossed the river, there seemed to be some abnormal movements. This was the main reason for the army's commotion.
"What did you want to say just now?" Cha Ge looked for a long while, came back to his senses, and suddenly laughed at the servant beside him.
" Your Majesty... I just want to talk about Lingzhou..."
"Before." Cha Ge reminded him. "When you were reporting that the Tangut tribes were trying to persuade the Song people to surrender us, you obviously didn't finish your sentence."
"I...I, I wanted to say that a leader who went to investigate the matter followed those stragglers instead." The attendant hesitated.
Cha Ge nodded: "You want to say that I, Cha Ge, am deceiving myself."
The servants looked at each other in confusion.
But Chago continued to sigh: "I am deceiving myself. Who doesn't deceive themselves? But the key is, since I got the news, I should have done nothing wrong, right?"
The attendant nodded quickly: "Your Majesty is wise and decisive, how could he be wrong?"
"There is still a mistake." Cha Ge sighed. "If I had not listened to those bastards and had directly forced the troops to stay in Hengshan, maybe I could have done something..."
The attendant, as well as the other attendants and officers under the Black Bull's banner, were all silent.
"But that's not right." Chago continued to sigh to the already flustered attendant. "That would only waste a few more days, and it would not end well either... And by coming here this time, I can finally tell the world, and those who write books in the future, that I, Chago, am loyal to Your Majesty."
At this point, no matter how embarrassed and at a loss the servant felt, he could only nod in agreement hurriedly.
Cha Ge did not embarrass the other party anymore. Instead, he took a deep breath and looked from the other side of the Yellow River behind him, which was already somewhat turbulent. He first looked at the river ferry where the turbulence was getting bigger and bigger, then the Yellow River behind him, and then his eyes swept from his own position, and looked back to the front of the formation, and finally passed the Song army formation that was obviously making final preparations, floated over the Helan Mountains, and aimed at the clear and cloudless sky.
Let’s talk about it.
The Yellow River is yellow, the kind of yellow whose roar is so majestic that it puts everyone else to shame;
The Xixia people loved white, which is how the Great White Gao Kingdom got its name. Therefore, the entire Xixia army, including the group of iron harriers on the left wing wearing dazzling armor, were all white, but those without armor looked like snow, while those with armor looked like ice.
The wheat seedlings are green, so tender that one cannot bear to touch them;
The Song army was still red, and the red uniforms formed a line, like a wave of fire, eager to take action;
The Helan Mountains have no snow-capped peaks. From a distance, they appear dark and oily, like several black war horses galloping toward the sky, showing off their fur in the sun.
And finally, there is the sky. The sky is an unprecedentedly deep blue, so clean and blue that can encompass everything.
Cha Ge swore that he had never seen such beautiful colors layered in front and behind him in his entire life... From this point of view, his life was worth it!
"Send a message to Wei Ming Yi E, and have him lead the Iron Harriers to bypass the Song army's flank from the south and charge at the Song army from the upwind position! The Song army has no shortage of horses right now, so tell him not to try to get too deep, but to charge from the flank!"
“Yes!”
"Send a message to Wei Mingji, and have him quickly organize the camel cannons of the Haopoxi Army. Without them, our infantry won't be able to hold out!"
“Yes!”
"Tell Wei Mingyu to lead the rear troops immediately and follow me to march forward with our backs to the river!" Cha Ge once again drew his shining sword. "I will be the vanguard in this battle!"
After saying this, the Western Xia army, which was defending with its back to the river, did not wait for the camel cannons of the Poxi army to be ready, nor wait for the Iron Harriers to successfully go around, but followed the black ox banner of the commander Weiming Chago suddenly to the west, and then the whole army raised their flags and drums, and then all parts of the army shouted at the same time, and then swarmed forward, summoning the last bit of courage and taking the initiative to attack the Song army.
This scene made Yue Pengju, who was under the four-character banner on the opposite side, stunned for a moment, but only for a moment, he took off his gun holster and waved it forward casually. As he waved it, the Song army, which had surrendered the barbarians and reached 40,000 people, had both cavalry and infantry, and was clearly armored, and like a flash of fire, it pressed towards the 20,000 Western Xia army in front.
The ice and fire were in a stalemate for about half an hour. After half an hour, the ice and snow suddenly melted, and then turned into Red Water and flowed into the Yellow River, but quickly disappeared.
There were no surprises or miracles in this battle. In the end, the Song army attacked the enemy halfway across the river and wiped out more than 20,000 core forces of the Western Xia who had crossed the river on the banks of the Yellow River.
