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

Chapter 222: Leading the Charge to Fight for the General

a moment ago.

"You didn't come out?"

Wen Dunhunyu looked at the county seat of Ju County behind him and said with some disappointment.

Lan Cheng, one of his generals, said, "Those Dongping bandits are only a handful. How dare they attack our thousand-man army? Give them two courage!"

Wen Dunhunyu shook his head. "I never expected them to dare leave the city and fight us. I just hoped they'd have some courage to attack our main camp. Alas... what a bunch of rats! I've wasted all my efforts, mobilizing all the regular troops and leaving only the signed troops to guard the main camp. I even left the food and fodder there as bait."

Hui Lancheng patted his chest and said, "Isn't it just a small county town like Ju County? Once we defeat the enemy, I will personally lead my guards to the city, seize it, and present it to the general."

Wen Dunhunyu sneered and didn't bother to pay attention.

He needed to bring the entire army as intact as possible behind the Loyal Army to support Meng Tian's frontal attack to defend the country. How could he throw away his life in a mere Ju County?

Hui Lancheng stood on horseback, gazing into the distance for a moment and saying, "General Pushan seems to be in danger. Should we continue to wait for these Dongping bandits?"

"No more waiting. If they don't want to come, then don't come. I'll deal with them later." Wen Dunhunyu put on his helmet and said, "Pass on my military orders, mount your horses!"

Behind them, a thousand Jin soldiers who had already formed a battle formation but were sitting cross-legged with their horses stood up, pulled up their horses, and then jumped on their horses.

Wen Dunhunyu didn't say much, but just asked the soldiers to blow the horn, and then slowly moved forward with his own Meng'an flag.

The thousand cavalrymen behind him also moved forward slowly, adjusting their formation while running, and their pace became faster and faster until it reached a rapid speed.

Until then, all the soldiers of the Second Meng'an of the Wuxing Army shouted and fought at the same time, and their voices actually drowned out the thunderous sound of horses' hooves for a while.

Let’s talk about the Wuxing Army... or it can be said that the military configuration of most of the Jin Dynasty’s regular armies at this time was similar. They often concentrated the most elite armored cavalry with five kinds of weapons in the First Meng’an. Once the battle began, the one thousand people of the First Meng’an would become the absolute main force.

Of course, this also led to a decrease in the combat effectiveness of the other nine Meng'ans.

For example, the Wuping Army led by Wanyan Alin attacked the Song Dynasty in history and was unstoppable in Huaixi, defeating Wang Quan, the commander of Jiankang in the Song Dynasty.

Even such a powerful army, during the Battle of Caishiji, forced its way across the Yangtze River. The hundreds of elite soldiers who had landed were cut off by the navy under the command of Yu Yunwen, and all of them were killed on the banks of the Yangtze River. Wanyan Alin immediately lost his courage and felt that he could not continue the battle.

The reason in the final analysis is that the first Meng'an is not good enough, and the other Meng'ans are even worse.

Of course, each army has its own complex situation. Except for some commanders who are lying idle, each army has its own unique strategies to improve its combat effectiveness.

As for the Wuxing Army, since it was primarily composed of Meng'an and Mouke households, it had no shortage of mules and horses. Of course, high-quality war horses were scarce, but there were still many second-rate war horses.

Wendun Hunyu has always been Meng Tian's external brain in the Wuxing Army, and his status is relatively transcendent, so his second Meng'an has a lot of horses, so that he can require the five infantrymen of his unit to not only be able to ride horses to travel, but also to be able to fight on horseback.

It is not required to be proficient in archery and horsemanship, but at least when following the armored cavalry in the charge, one can form a formation and keep up with the pace of the attack.

These five Mouke infantrymen were not like the warriors equipped with five weapons during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, nor like the common cavalry of the Jurchens. Instead, they were more like the mounted infantry called dragoons that appeared in 17th century Europe.

The reason why Wendun Hunyu launched such a massive cavalry charge was simple.

Pushandong's Seventh Meng'an used a fierce offensive to expose the Tianping Army's greatest disadvantage. The Tianping Army's weapons, equipment, soldiers, and generals were not seriously flawed, but it seemed that because the army was formed too recently and had no time to get used to each other, there was often a disconnect in coordination.

The battlefield was incomparably chaotic. Once a real fight broke out, amidst the fierce fighting, military envoys, drums, and banners might be useless. If orders were not issued in a timely manner, it would often lead to a situation where each hundred-man squadron would fight on its own. At this time, the coordination between the various captains and captains would be crucial. Nowadays, captains were no longer familiar with each other; many didn't even know each other's names.

This disconnect was most severe between the armored cavalry and infantry of the Tianping Army, making it difficult for both sides to achieve large-scale coordination. The Tianping Army's infantry was clearly more elite than the armored cavalry, so if they wanted to defeat part of the enemy first, what better choice was there than the armored cavalry on the right wing?
When Yelu Xingge discovered that Wendun Hunyu was pointing the spearhead at him, all the hairs on his body stood up instantly.

However, at this time, if they retreated, the right wing of the infantry formation would be exposed, and even if they ran, there was nowhere to escape, because the Xianggong River was behind them. If the organization was disrupted, they would definitely be driven into the river.

"My fellows, follow me, Yelu Xingge! Charge!"

Yelu Xingge raised his spear high, not caring how many people around him could hear his order. After a loud roar, he rode out on his horse.

The five hundred armored cavalry of the Tianping Army formed cones in units of one hundred people, and within these cones, there were cones in units of tens. These cones were combined together to form a huge cone formation.

Like a spear thrust forward.

The Second Meng'an had light cavalry deployed on both wings, and the mounted infantry behind the armored cavalry were not professional cavalry after all, so the formation was relatively scattered, thus forming a goose-shaped formation with an extremely wide horizontal surface.

Like a big spread out net.

Yelu Xingge had fought against the Jin army more than once and knew that although it seemed that the Wuxing Army was trying to encircle the Tianping Army's armored cavalry, in fact, the enemy was hiding the armored cavalry under the cover of light cavalry, using cone formations against cone formations and penetrating tactics against penetrating tactics, hoping to defeat the Tianping Army in one fell swoop through the heavy formation.

The light cavalry deployed on both wings of the Jin army were not intended to fight in battle, but to intimidate the delayed supporting infantry, and to chase the enemy to the north when the Tianping army's armored cavalry collapsed.

At this point, it doesn’t matter how much you think about it.

The battlefield was a vast plain, with the two sides only two miles apart. In just a moment, the two armies collided like meteorites, smashing into each other.

The clash of cavalry is like the collision of two clay pots filled with water; victory or defeat, life or death, is decided in a moment.

In a moment, the strong survive and the weak die, that's all.

In less than half a minute, Yelu Xingge of the Tianping Army was defeated.

When Wen Dunhunyu was about to chase the enemy northward and completely defeat the right wing of the Tianping Army, something surprising happened.

Although the Tianping Army's armored cavalry had been defeated and the command systems at all levels had obviously failed, there were still groups of armored cavalry who, although defeated, did not collapse, and took turns harassing and attacking the Jin army.

The Jin army did not want to get entangled with these stragglers, so they also sent out a small group of cavalry to fight against them.

An even more bizarre thing happened. The Tianping Army, which was defeated in a large-scale military battle, was extremely tenacious after being dispersed into small units. Even their riding and martial arts were not inferior to the regular army of the Jin Dynasty. Not only could small cavalry units of the same size not defeat them, but some of them were even surrounded and killed on the spot.

The blue ox and white horse flag, which was obviously held by the Khitan commander, actually began to gather the armored cavalry after retreating for a while to stabilize the line and tried to charge repeatedly.

When did these Han and Khitan people become so resilient?

No one answered Wen Dunhunyu.

Wen Dun Hunyu only knew that these fights had undoubtedly blocked his advance, preventing the expected rolling up of the bead curtain.

As the general reserve, Li Tieqiang took advantage of the gap between Wendunhunyu and Yelu Xingge to quickly organize manpower, arranged the infantry that had not yet been deployed to the battlefield into a large formation, and pressed towards the Second Meng'an of the Wuxing Army to block Wendunhunyu's pursuit.

(End of this chapter)