Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 295: Breaking through the Helan Mountain Pass! (4k ha!)

Salt pond.

The Salt Lake is only a few dozen miles away from Yanzhou City. It is a very important city in Yanzhou, guarded by hundreds of soldiers.

Su Yun was looking out at the salt lake from a distance, with three thousand Jingsai soldiers behind him.

At this time, several riders were galloping towards them from a distance, and the scouts immediately went to greet them. After a while, several riders came to them together.

The dusty scout knight said excitedly: "General, Helian Pu has led more than 2,000 soldiers out of the city!"

Su Yun immediately smiled and said, "Great, the old fox finally came out of the cave. It's worth our hard work in Xingqing Prefecture."

This time, Su Yun sneaked into the territory of Yanzhou, Xixia, via the Bao'an Army and the Dingbian Army. He divided the army into dozens of groups and attacked everywhere, raiding the salt fields in order to give Helian Pu the illusion that he was being harassed by a small group of cavalry. Sure enough, Helian Pu sent 2,000 soldiers out of the city to encircle and suppress the enemy.

Su Yun grasped the movements of the 2,000 soldiers and ambushed them in the southeast direction of Yanzhou, annihilating the 2,000 soldiers in one fell swoop.

Later, when he saw that Helian Pu had closed the city gates, he went straight to Xingqing Prefecture and suddenly attacked the Jingzhou garrison. The Jingzhou garrison was said to have 20,000 to 30,000 troops, but in fact there were only about 10,000 troops.

Su Yun sent troops to provoke at the gate of Jingzhou. The Jingzhou garrison commander saw that Su Yun had only 3,000 soldiers and horses, so he sent out his entire army to attack, intending to annihilate all the 3,000 Jingsai troops at the gate of the city.

It was not the Jingzhou garrison commander's fault for being careless, as the Western Xia army was truly unrivaled in field battles. In the past, the Song army was rarely willing to fight them in the field, let alone come directly to Jingzhou, the heart of Daxia. In the eyes of the Jingzhou garrison commander, the three thousand soldiers were here just to deliver merit, so they would never let go of such a good opportunity.

So tens of thousands of soldiers and horses came out in full force, but they didn't expect that the Song army didn't follow the rules and directly bypassed the Western Xia Iron Harriers and attacked the infantry that hadn't yet completed their battle formation, disrupting the battle formation in an instant.

In fact, there is no big problem with the command of the Jingzhou garrison commander. He just needs to open the city gate first and let two thousand Iron Harriers go out of the city first. Even if the Song army has any troubles, the Iron Harriers can respond to them. After the infantry has completed its formation, they can cooperate with the Iron Harriers to hunt down the isolated Song army that has penetrated deep into the city. They will surely achieve success!

But the Song army was really cunning. They suddenly launched an attack. The Iron Harriers rushed forward, and then the Song cavalry general shot and killed the Iron Harrier general in person. The Iron Harriers immediately lost their unified command, and then other assistant generals of the Iron Harriers took over. After the Song army got close, several people suddenly shot and killed the general together.

After several such incidents, the Iron Harriers suddenly lost their command, allowing the Song army to disperse. However, instead of annihilating the Iron Harriers, the Song army bypassed them and charged directly at the flank of the 8,000 infantrymen lined up under the city.

Originally, the battle formation of these 8,000 infantrymen had not yet been formed, and their own Iron Harriers were dispersed. At this time, they were attacked on the flank by 3,000 Jingsai troops, and they collapsed all of a sudden!

As a result, this battle directly wiped out more than half of the Jingzhou defenders!
It sounds simple, but of course it is not that simple in reality.

This involves a huge amount of gaming.

Su Yun took advantage of the arrogant mentality of the Xixia generals and lured them out to fight outside the city, and this was just the beginning.

In actual combat, Su Yun's method of defeating the Iron Harriers was to use his own bravery to lead the charge personally, and then shoot and kill the opponent's main general with one arrow.

Then the assistant general of the Iron Harriers wanted to lead the Iron Harriers. The Jingsai Army used a cavalry tactic of the Qing Dynasty called the "Five-Step Shooting Method".

The reason for this tactic is that if you want to maximize the combat effectiveness of the cavalry, the best way is for a commander like Su Yun to lead the charge personally, and all the cavalry only need to follow the commander. This can solve the command problem when thousands of cavalry attack at the same time on a large scale.

Friends who have fought in wars in ancient times know that cavalry fights differently from infantry. Due to their extremely high mobility, knights must leave a sufficient distance in front, behind, left and right. This distance is approximately the space required for five infantrymen. Therefore, when thousands of cavalry charge together, there is no way to effectively command them.

Therefore, the most effective way is for everyone to follow the main general to charge and fight together. Wherever the main general goes, the other cavalry will follow.

Therefore, once the main general of the cavalry army is killed, the cavalry army will lose its command and will soon fall into chaos and be killed one by one by the enemy.

Therefore, when Su Yun used the Qing Dynasty's "Five-Step Shooting Method" to shoot and kill the enemy's main general, the Iron Harriers' resistance decreased.

However, Su Yun did not seize this opportunity to kill the Iron Harriers, but directly attacked the infantry that had not yet completed their formation.

Some people always think that cavalry is much more powerful than infantry. Once they meet, no matter how many infantry there are, it will be in vain.

It's not that this idea is wrong, but this situation rarely occurs. For example, in the battle of Jingzhou, when the defender of Jingzhou wanted to go out of the city to fight, the first thing he did was to let the cavalry leave the city first, so that the infantry could deploy their troops calmly.

Once the infantry is deployed into battle formation, with the assistance of the Iron Harriers, no matter how strong the Jingsai Army is, it will have no choice but to flee in embarrassment.

The combat effectiveness of the infantry can only be exerted through the military formation. If there is no military formation, even if tens of thousands of people face hundreds of cavalry, they will be no match.

Therefore, Su Yun gave up on killing the Iron Harriers. After dispersing them, he immediately bypassed the front of the infantry and attacked the flank directly. With this charge, the Jingzhou Army, which had not yet completed its formation, quickly collapsed.

Su Yun led three thousand Jingsai soldiers to charge back and forth, killing two to three thousand people, and the rest all fled!
As soon as Jingzhou was broken, the Jingsai army, led by Su Yun, immediately marched straight to Xingqing Prefecture. The entire Xingqing Prefecture was immediately shaken, and the troops near Xingqing Prefecture immediately came to support the king. Huaizhou was the closest, so the Huaizhou garrison immediately led the Huaizhou army to Xingqing Prefecture.

Halfway through the journey, Su Yun led the Jingsai Army to ambush. The Huaizhou Army was unable to form a military formation. Once the Iron Harriers were broken by the Jingsai Army, tens of thousands of troops were immediately defeated. The Jingsai Army killed two thousand people, and then immediately withdrew into the Mu Us Desert and disappeared.

When it appeared again, it was near this salt pond.

If they don't run away, the nearby Dingzhou Army, Shunzhou Army and Xiangqing Army will surround the Jingsai Army.

And Su Yun's target was not Xingqing Prefecture. After all, Xingqing Prefecture had high walls and deep moats, which could not be broken by 3,000 cavalrymen. He made a detour of thousands of miles and broke through the Helan Mountain Pass. His goal was still to take Yanzhou!

Although Yanzhou City is not as powerful as Xingqing Prefecture, it cannot be conquered by 3,000 cavalrymen. But if the defenders can be lured out, there will be a chance to conquer it.

That's why Su Yun made such a trip. As expected, Helian Pu finally came out.

Su Yun turned around and ordered: "Get ready to go!"

The order was passed down through various commanders and was quickly organized. Three thousand Jingsai troops headed towards Yanzhou City.

The Yanzhou Army led by Helian Pu slowly headed towards Xingqing Prefecture, sending out many scouts along the way and being extremely cautious.

A large army on the march is very vulnerable.

In order for infantry to form combat effectiveness, they need to form a battle formation, and the formation must be square, with the thickness of the front, back, left and right sides not much different. The front is the sharpest side of the army formation, while the flanks and rear are fatal weaknesses. Therefore, when the army fights, it must keep more reserves in order to block the enemy's attack from the flanks and rear.

However, when marching, it was difficult to march in a line on the road because there was no wide enough road, so they could only move forward in a long line.

If this kind of formation is attacked, the soldiers will basically just flee in all directions.

This has nothing to do with whether the soldiers are good at fighting, because everyone knows that without forming a military formation, personal strength is not enough. Even if you are as brave as Lu Bu and Xiang Yu, when you are in a chaotic army without a formation and facing an organized enemy force, you will only have one way to die!
Helian Pu was therefore very cautious. As long as the scouts were placed far enough away, the army would have enough time to complete its battle array before the enemy arrived, so there would be no need to worry about sneak attacks.

But because of this, the army's marching speed was not fast, and after a whole day, they had not even reached the Salt Lake.

In this case, we have to sleep in the wilderness tonight.

But it is normal to march outside.

When the sun was about to set in the afternoon, Helian Pu ordered his men to quickly build the camp and prepare to cook for the night.

Hehe, of course you have to be diligent in serving the king, but it’s enough to just make a gesture. If you run so hard, what will you do if you really run into that ghost-faced general?
After Helian Pu gave the order to set up camp, he leisurely ordered his soldiers to boil water, not to cook, but to make some milk tea.

Although you are away from home, your quality of life cannot be reduced.

Moreover, the wealthy and powerful people in Xingqing Prefecture might lack tea, but he, the governor of Yanzhou, had no shortage of tea. Xu Lixin and others were also good people. Although they asked him not to buy salt, they still gave him a lot of gifts.

Helian Pu quickly drank the milk tea. The aroma of the milk tea was so fragrant that after taking a few sips, he actually started to sweat slightly. He felt that all the pores in his body were opened and he felt very comfortable.

Helian Pu thought that the nobles in Xingqing Mansion were probably all like ants on a hot pan, and he couldn't help but smile knowingly: It serves them right!
Helian Pu was in a very happy mood and took another sip, but then he frowned because he heard the rapid sound of horse hooves, followed by rapid shouts: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! The enemy is three miles away!"

With a clang, the cup in Helian Pu's hand fell to the ground. Then he jumped up like a monkey and said hurriedly, "I'm here. Where is the scout? Come over and explain the situation!"

The scout came at full speed, jumped off his horse a dozen meters away, and stopped when he was in front of us. Then he immediately said, "General! The enemy has thousands of cavalrymen, hunting our scouts all the way. They were not discovered until they were five or six miles away. Our scouts quickly reported back, but the enemy was already following us!"

Helian Pu's face turned pale, and he immediately gave a loud order: "Form a battle formation! Form a battle formation! The Iron Harriers will attack immediately to meet the enemy. We must buy at least a quarter of an hour for the rear army, at least a quarter of an hour! Fight to the death! Fight to the death!"

Eight hundred Iron Harriers attacked swiftly and headed towards the distance to meet the enemy.

The leader of the Iron Harriers charged ahead, with tears glistening on his forehead under the setting sun, both because of the hot weather in May and June and because he was extremely nervous.

Eight hundred cavalrymen versus thousands of cavalrymen, you can imagine what the outcome will be!

After running for only a short while, they heard faint thunder ahead, and a large amount of smoke and dust rose into the sky in the already dim air.

The Iron Harriers were experienced and immediately realized that the enemy was close at hand!
The leader of the Iron Harriers shouted loudly: "Meet the enemy! Meet the enemy! Fight to the death! Fight to the death!"

After a moment, the enemy in front was clearly visible. Thousands of cavalrymen were roaring over, and the eight hundred Iron Harriers rushed forward without hesitation.

The leader of the Iron Harriers led his men to charge forward, but when they got close, dozens of enemies suddenly shot arrows at him. Before the leader of the Iron Harriers could say anything, his face was covered with blood!
Afterwards, the three thousand cavalrymen and the eight hundred cavalrymen charged together. Although the eight hundred cavalrymen who had lost their leader fought with all their might, the number difference was too great and they had lost their command. Soon, only about a hundred of the Iron Harriers were left, and after breaking away, they ran away without looking back.

You can be brave, but everyone is afraid of death. You can die once, but if you fail to die once, it will be difficult to die again.

Su Yun didn't care about the hundreds of escaped Iron Harriers. What he lacked most now was time. Once the other side formed a team, the best opportunity for battle would be lost.

So Su Yun went straight forward without stopping.

The three thousand Jingsai soldiers rumbled to the Yanzhou army's base, only to see that the Yanzhou army was still in chaos. Three miles was just a moment for the cavalry. The eight hundred Iron Harriers did block them for a while, but the Yanzhou army was setting up camp after all. Many soldiers had already taken off their armor in order to work, and it would take a lot of time to put it back on.

It was not so easy to prepare all kinds of armor and weapons to form a military formation in just a short moment. Therefore, the little time that the Iron Harriers managed to gain was not enough. Therefore, when the Jingsai Army arrived, there was still a noisy scene.

Su Yun would naturally not be merciful. After dozens of cavalrymen dragged away the barricades, he led his army to attack the camp!

The scattered infantry faced an organized cavalry force that was twice as large in number. No one had the courage to resist. When the Jingsai Army attacked the camp, they gave up forming a battle formation and instead scrambled to flee in all directions!

Helian Pu was more alert than anyone else. When he saw the cavalry appear in his sight and the military camp was still noisy, he didn't even put on armor, but mounted his horse and fled with dozens of his personal soldiers!
However, how could Su Yun let him run away? If he wanted to take Yanzhou City, he had to rely on this man.

Su Yun ordered the Jingsai Army to massacre the Yanzhou Army, while he led hundreds of cavalry to chase for more than ten miles and finally captured Helian Pu!
That night, Su Yun brought Helian Pu back to Yanzhou City, shouted to open the city gate, and directly occupied Yanzhou City!
Su Yun didn't feel relieved until he entered Yanzhou City. This was an extreme operation. He made a detour of thousands of miles, broke through the Helan Mountain Gap, surrounded the enemy and attacked the reinforcements, and took the opportunity to occupy Yanzhou City. At this point, the whole grand strategy was considered to have completed a small step!

(End of this chapter)