The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 197 They Will Attack Us First

As soon as Gu Wei finished speaking, he heard the scout shouting, "General, look north, look north."

The main force of the rebel army led by Zhang Yong appeared from the northwest of the Guwei tribe.

A large army of two thousand people cannot be compared with the small force defending the city.

At the front, more than a dozen chariots were lined up in a row, merging together to form a huge, wide wooden wall, which slowly advanced towards the Jin army like a city.

Gu Wei: "Huh? Han'er dares to go around my flank?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the scout shouted again: "General, look south, look south."

The royal protection army led by Wu Jialiang appeared from the south of the Guwei tribe.

The troops here were slightly smaller, but also had more than a thousand people. Ten chariots were lined up side by side, forming another huge wooden wall.

These two military formations, together with Jiaoshui County, formed a T-shaped position, and Guwei was located right in the middle of the three openings of the T-shape.

If the pseudo-Jin thieves were surrounded like this, they would definitely be panicking and the soldiers would have already started thinking about how to escape.

But the real gold thief was completely different. Gu Wei even laughed out loud: "Hahahaha, Han'er actually used this kind of cunning tactics, but it's useless."

The soldiers under his command were equally fearless, and their morale was not affected in the slightest.

A young general pointed at the rebel army in the direction of the city gate and said, "General, there are the fewest enemies on this side, but there are a lot of chevaux de frise and caltrops protecting their flanks, making it difficult to fight. But..."

He turned his hand and pointed to the group led by Wu Jialiang. "There are fewer Han people on this side than in the northwest, and they don't have chevaux de frise or caltrops to protect their flanks. We can attack from this side."

Gu Wei shared the same idea and said with a smile, "Alright! Let's defeat the enemies in the southwest first, then turn around and take down the enemies in the northwest. We'll completely defeat the two armies Han'er has sent out to fight. Han'er in the city will naturally open the gates and surrender."

"Prepare!"

Just as the Jin soldiers were about to start fighting...

Wu Jialiang also put on a serious expression and shouted loudly: "Everyone, be careful. The first wave of the Jin army's attack will definitely be directed at us."

Guan Sheng, riding a large black horse, holding a ring spear in his hand, with his trademark broadsword hanging at his waist, said with a smile: "I'm just afraid they won't come."

After saying that, Guan Sheng turned back and shouted at Yu Fanwen, "Brother Yu, Brother Jialiang is not good at chopping people. In the melee later, you should protect him more."

Yu Fanwen nodded, silently swung his spear, and stood behind Wu Jialiang. He was not good at horse fighting, so he could not ride a tall horse like Guan Sheng, holding a ring spear and preparing to fight the Jin soldiers. He could only act as a guard for Wu Jialiang.

However, the position of guard is reserved for strong men, such as Dian Wei and Zhao Yun.

Wu Jialiang: "Artillery, artillery, get ready, no need to hide your weakness anymore!"

The words "No need to hide your abilities anymore" instantly energized the artillerymen.

The two tiger squat cannons in Wu Jialiang's team immediately pushed forward.

The soldier in charge of pushing the cart had a smile on his face, and his facial features were almost squeezed together.

The soldiers nearby couldn't help but curse: "The Jin thieves are about to attack us, and you're still laughing like that?"

The artilleryman was beaming with joy: "These cannons have been made for ages, but I've never had a chance to use them. Now I can finally use them. How can I not be happy?"

Another artilleryman also said: "I really want to shoot something."

Everyone: "..."

The two crouching tiger cannons arrived at their positions almost instantly...

The two cannons were mounted on two small tricycles. The artillerymen pushed the carts easily next to the light carts. The two light carts were slightly apart, like two doors opened a little, so that the thin barrel of the Tiger Crouching Cannon, only as thick as an arm, could be protruded through the door. Guan Sheng grinned: "Finally, I can see this cannon hitting people."

Yu Fanwen: "I haven't been hit yet."

The person next to me: "..."

Someone shouted, "Hey, don't just look at the artillerymen, musketeers, you guys have to take action too."

The musketeers all responded, "We've been ready for a long time. Damn it, we've only been training for the past year without a single actual battle. We were already itching to fight when we fought the fake Jin bandits last time. We want to shoot something too."

There are ten light vehicles in the front row, each equipped with four musketeers.

Ten carts meant forty musketeers, all of whom extended the muzzles of their muskets from the firing holes.

The bird gun is a type of smoothbore gun. Its iron bullets usually fly around when fired, making it difficult to hit the target. However, after switching to lead bullets, the bullets became much more stable. Because lead is soft, the impact of the gunpowder explosion causes the lead bullet to deform, tightly locking it in the barrel, making it more stable when fired.

Of course, it's only slightly better than using iron bullets, but still not that accurate. Rifling is necessary to truly hold the bullet steady and ensure it flies forward steadily when it leaves the barrel.

So Wu Jialiang added loudly: "Don't fire the tiger squat cannon and bird gun too early. Hold back and wait until the enemy cavalry enters ten feet before firing."

"As ordered!"

At this moment, the Jin cavalry had already begun to charge...

Guwei led light cavalry, so their charge was different from that of heavy cavalry.

The Jin army's heavy cavalry was called Iron Pagoda. Both the men and horses were wearing heavy armor, and some even wore two layers of armor, as thick as tanks. The heavy cavalry did not run very fast when attacking, but lined up side by side, like a wall of steel, slowly advancing forward, crushing everything they encountered.

Some unofficial media outlets claim the Song army used hook-and-sickle spears to hook the legs of the Iron Buddha's horses, then beheaded the fallen knights. That's completely untrue. The truth is, when faced with a large group of iron horses charging towards them, the hook-and-sickle spearmen were so frightened that they couldn't even stand still. They'd run away and think their parents had given them two legs, so what was the point of hooking the horses' legs? Furthermore, once the Iron Buddha dismounted, he transformed into a top-notch heavy infantryman, needing no horse to chop down the hook-and-sickle spearmen and send them home crying for their mothers.

Of course, the light cavalry could not advance side by side like this!
Because the light cavalry could not withstand the spear formation, if they dared to advance head-on, the spearmen did not even need to hook the spears. They just needed to hold up their spears and place them in a hedgehog shape facing the front, and the light cavalry would rush up and kill them one by one.

Therefore, the tactics of the light cavalry were to charge towards the enemy formation, shoot arrows after rushing into the range of the bows and arrows, and then pull horizontally to both sides, hanging on the corners to pass through the enemy's formation, shooting arrows as they passed.

After shooting, keep your distance and make another charge like this!

Repeat this several times until the other party collapses, or you get tired and leave.

Five hundred light cavalrymen, as the first line, charged towards Wu Jialiang's troops...

While rushing, prepare to shoot arrows.

The range of a horse bow is usually shorter than that of an infantry bow.

Horse archers usually had to run to a distance of between 10 and 17 zhang before they could shoot, but this distance was still farther than the 10 zhang distance Wu Jialiang required his firearms to be used.

So the first to take action were the rebels' melee soldiers, all of whom were equipped with bows.

The next to take action were the Jin cavalry.

The last ones to take action will be the firearms troops.

The rebel melee soldiers shot first... but archery is not so easy to practice. They usually focus on practicing melee weapons. This wave of arrows did not pose much threat to the Jin cavalry. Most of them missed, and the few that did hit could not penetrate the leather armor.

Then the Jin cavalry archers also took action. Just like when they shot at the Wu army, they threw their arrows high, which flew over the chariot's guardrail and hit the rebel army behind them.

But the rebel army had been trained for a long time and their tactics were the same. The rattan shield soldiers immediately raised their shields to protect themselves and their comrades around them.

The arrows hit the rattan shield, making a thud-thud sound.

(End of this chapter)