Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 130: Draw the bow and ride the horse, forgetting life

The Yelu Xingge tribe was originally a Khitan Meng'an organized according to the Meng'an Mouke system of the Jin Dynasty. After being settled in Shandong, they rebelled because of the heavy taxes and military service.

The Jin Dynasty was on guard against the Khitans, so although the Khitans were registered according to the Meng'an Mouke system, the Khitan Meng'an never appointed a Meng'an official.

This also led to the fact that Yelu Xingge was not the leader of this group of Khitans from the beginning.

To sum up, his identity determines that he is different from ordinary Han rebels.

Yelu Xingge has no base.

This is a familiar place for the Han people, not Liaodong outside the Great Wall.

Even if Geng Jing could only escape death a hundred times, as long as he raised the banner of resisting the Jin, with his status as a Han hero, Han heroes would naturally respond to him.

But he couldn't do what Yelu Xingge did. Unless he also grew long hair, wore Han clothes, and changed his surname to Liu, which Han person would voluntarily choose to follow the Khitans?

So Yelu Xingge really cared about his tribe, not only the 500 cavalrymen who could go to the battlefield, but also the women, the elderly, the weak and the children in the tribe.

Without these people, his five hundred cavalrymen would be like a tree without roots, like duckweed floating in the water, and would eventually scatter.

Xin Qiji grasped this point of Yelu Xingge.

You may not fight for the Tianping Army, you may not fight for Xin Qiji, but you must fight for your tribe.

Therefore, Yelu Xingge could only obediently rely on the Xinzi Army camp, gather his troops and prepare for battle.

In less than a moment, Shuhu Ali, the vanguard of the Jin army, arrived with thirty cavalrymen. He did not massacre the defeated soldiers, nor did he try to loot property. He just kept advancing and killed all those who blocked his way, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Under the slaughter of Shuhu Ali, even though the defeated army was disorganized, they dared not occupy the official road again. They were like rape flowers trampled by naughty children, and they split to both sides.

Seeing that the Jin army had only thirty cavalrymen, Yelu Xingge wanted to take advantage of this and annihilate a small number of the enemy troops to gain the upper hand. He immediately ordered his deputy general: "Xiao Pennu, you continue to organize the troops here. Li Yizhenjin, you follow me!"

After saying that, Yelu Xingge, who was still shirtless, roared, holding a shield in his left hand and a spear in his right hand, and literally took the lead, charging towards Shuhu Ali.

The one hundred Khitan cavalrymen behind him followed suit, ignoring their inadequate armor and charging forward with their spears.

It should be said that this desperate fighting style really surprised Shuhu Ali. The thirty cavalrymen were at the end of their charge and were slowing down to regroup. So Shuhu Ali instinctively mobilized the Jurchen cavalry to retreat.

Thirty Jurchen armored cavalrymen each drew their bows and shot arrows, trying to weaken the Khitan cavalry by using a circular shooting method.

However, the Khitan cavalry was not fully armored and was almost entirely light cavalry. They were so fast that they rushed to Shuhu Ali in just a round of arrows.

But it was this round of arrows that allowed Shuhu Ali to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the Khitan cavalry, because he found that the arrows shot so hastily could easily knock the Khitan cavalry off their horses, which showed that the enemy was simply unarmored light cavalry.

Shuhu Ali reacted instantly. In this narrow and long terrain, in this chaotic situation, with the defeated soldiers blocking our way on all sides, no one could accelerate to their maximum speed. In a chaotic battle, why would our Jurchen armored cavalry be afraid of your Khitan light cavalry?!

Thinking of this, Shuhu Ali simply reined in his horse, took up his bow and sword, and fought with the Khitan cavalry.

The other thirty Jurchen armored cavalry followed suit, picked up their long swords, and started to kill wildly.

"rush!"

Yelu Xingge's surprise attack was effective. At least four Jurchen armored cavalrymen were stabbed in the gaps of their armor by spears and fell off their horses.

But in the subsequent melee, the Khitan light cavalry was practically helpless against the Jurchen armored cavalry. The reason for this was that when both sides were using light and swift weapons, the armored cavalry could rely on their armor to withstand many attacks, but the light cavalry would end up bleeding profusely after just one hit.

The only thing light cavalry can rely on is speed, but armored cavalry are not armored cavalry that can tire their horses to death after running a few miles. Although armored cavalry is slow, it is definitely not like a turtle crawling. Once light cavalry is entangled by armored cavalry and caught in a melee, it is generally difficult for them to survive.

It can only be said that it is not unreasonable that medium-armored cavalry that takes into account both defense and speed can become the mainstream in East Asia.

Yelu Xingge also realized something was wrong. He used his shield to knock a Jurchen cavalryman off his horse and shouted, "Retreat, retreat to the edge of the camp!"

After saying this, he shook his muscles and threw his round shield, hitting Shuhu Ali and freeing Li Yizhenjin. Then, the Khitan tribal leader ignored the retreat of the light cavalry beside him and rushed forward with his spear, trying to capture and kill Shuhu Ali.

Shuhu Ali only saw a flash of white before his eyes, and then he saw a ferocious-looking man rushing towards him. He could even hear the tinkling sound of the golden rings that tied the man's braids. Before he could react, a spear pierced his eyes like lightning.

Shuhu Ali's roar was mixed with fear and anger, and he swept his long sword with all his might.

The two long weapons collided with each other, making a dull sound. Shuhu Ali's arms felt numb and the long sword in his hand almost fell to the ground.

He was already old and did not dare to compete with Yelu Xingge at this time, so he turned his horse back.

Since Yelu Xingge succeeded in his attack and forced the enemy's main general to retreat, he also felt intimidated and turned around to flee.

However, Yelu Xingge had some tricks up his sleeve. While he was fleeing, he was cheering loudly to boost morale, as if he had won a great victory.

But Yelu Xingge's little tricks could not change the fact that the Khitan light cavalry could not defeat the Jurchen armored cavalry in a close combat.

Moreover, although Shuhu Ali retreated, his support arrived immediately.

Another Jurchen cavalry, consisting of a mixture of more than a hundred armored cavalry and light cavalry, led by Shuhu Ali's nephew Shuhu Chitie, came rushing over, stepping on the corpses of the defeated army.

"Chitie! Did you see that Khitan kid? Kill him for me!"

After feeling slightly ashamed, Shuhu Ali immediately became angry, pointing at Yelu Xingge's back and roaring loudly.

Shuhu and Chitie looked at each other from a distance, nodded silently, then whistled, summoning the Jurchen cavalry to charge forward suddenly.

In cavalry combat, there is nothing much to say when one is chasing the other, they just gallop on horseback.

However, when they arrived at the Xinzi Army camp, the Khitan light cavalry that were fleeing in front suddenly split apart, and the thing that had been hiding behind the Khitan light cavalry was revealed.

There were five hundred heavily armored infantrymen armed with spears, axes, and divine arm bows.

These soldiers were also Xin Qiji's proud foundation, and were also the basis for his status in the Tianping Army.

At this time, these soldiers were led by his cousin Xin Jinglun and followed Liu Huai to form a square formation in the narrow passage of seven or eight hundred steps between the camp and the foot of the mountain.

At this time, the Jin cavalry was only thirty steps away from the Xin Army soldiers, and their speed had reached the extreme, making it impossible to avoid them.

Shuhu Chitie was at the front of the cavalry. He knew that even the cavalry in the back row could rein in their horses and stop, but he found it difficult to stop.

But this situation aroused his ferocity. Shuhu Chitie roared angrily, clamped his legs tightly around the horse's belly, and the warhorse's speed became faster instead of slower. He raised his eight-foot-long spear high in both hands and thrust it out suddenly, using his body as a cannonball to smash into the spearmen.

In the dim firelight, the more than one hundred Jin cavalrymen seemed to be recreating every time the Jin cavalry had trampled on the enemy in the past few decades, and they launched an attack on the strong formation head-on with roars and screams.

(End of this chapter)