The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 248 Retreat

Amid the sound of drums, the rebel army began to move forward.

The enemy's catapult position had collapsed, and there were no huge stones threatening the chariots. Madam Gong Er immediately seized this opportunity and launched a counterattack.

The central army moved forward, and the Zhang Yong and Wu Jialiang armies on the flanks formed an inverted T-shape and began to move forward at the same time.

Some of the trebuchets retracted their legs, reinstalled their wheels, and moved forward alongside the rebel army. Once they were about two hundred meters away, they deployed their legs again and began deploying their trebuchets once again.

Qi Chongli and the Thirty-Second Eunuch, the two people in charge of "watching the battle", now focused all their attention on the four large cannons. They saw that the four cannons did not move forward with the troops. They were still standing still, and the small artillery battalion built around them did not move at all.

Qi Chongli understood immediately: "This cannon has a very long range, a mile or two is no problem, so there is no need for them to move forward with the troops. They can continue to fire and provide cover for the infantry's advance."

Sure enough, the four cannons continued to fire.

At this time, they no longer needed to attack the opponent's catapult positions, and began to target the opponent's tanks.

The shells landed on the enemy's tank, and the huge door panel shattered into pieces with a "crack", and the soldiers behind the vehicle were instantly killed, it was a miserable sight.

Moreover, the four cannons mainly bombarded the infantry formation in the middle of the enemy, that is, the Khitan soldiers led by Bali Yuanshan.

The mountains are far away and I feel like I am under a lot of pressure!
The morale of the soldiers under his command was shaken by a few artillery shells. Everyone was thinking about escaping. How could he fight this battle?
Soon, the front rows of both armies were within a hundred meters.

From time to time, huge rocks flew out from the sky above the heads of the rebels and fell into the Jin army's formation. The front shield carts had been smashed to pieces by the rocks. Then the rebels' door panel carts split to both sides, and the giant crossbow carts appeared. With a buzzing sound, huge arrows as thick as a child's arm shot towards the Jin army.

These giant arrows were not used to shoot people, but to shoot shield carts.

The huge door panel could not withstand the huge arrow. With a crisp sound, the door panel shattered into pieces.

The Jin army was beaten into a state of confusion...

Up to now, the two armies had not even fired an arrow at each other, but the enemy's iron bullets, stones, and giant crossbows alone had already made the Jin army lose its way.

Bali Yuanshan couldn't bear it anymore: "Retreat! Retreat!"

Seeing this, Gu Wei had no choice but to give the order: "Sound the horn."

At the sound of the gong, the Khitan, Tieli, and Han soldiers all began to retreat...

Since ancient times, the most difficult part of fighting a war has been retreat.

Only a strong army can maintain discipline during a retreat.

However, ordinary armies often collapse when they retreat.

The first to collapse were the Han army led by Zhang Cheng. Once they started running, they had no order and were in complete chaos. Their emotions infected the Tieli people next to them, and they also began to collapse.

The discipline of the Khitan soldiers was originally okay, but the chaotic Tieli and Han soldiers rushed into their formation, disrupting the Khitan formation, which finally collapsed with a loud noise.

Guan Sheng and Yu Fanwen were overjoyed when they saw this. They both slapped their horses' butts at the same time and wanted to rush forward to chase and chop the fallen dog.

However, at this moment, the sound of a bugle call was also heard in Gong Er Niang's central army.

Guan Sheng was surprised: "Huh? You're not going to chase me?"

Yu Fanwen also said: "Now is the time to chase and chop off the enemy's heads."

Wu Jialiang: "Don't be silly. It's right to withdraw our troops and not pursue them now." Guan Sheng and Yu Fanwen looked at Wu Jialiang in confusion...

Wu Jialiang pointed at the Jurchens behind the Jin army.

The three cavalry teams of the Jurchens were still stable. The three hundred Iron Pagodas in the middle did not move at all, and the fifteen hundred Crooked Horses on each wing were also eager to try.

Wu Jialiang said, "If we desperately pursue their infantry now, the soldiers will compete for credit, disrupting their formation. Moreover, once our soldiers are entangled with the enemy, our cannons, catapults, and crossbows will be useless. This will give the cavalry an opportunity. The Crooked Horse can attack from both flanks, and the Iron Pagoda can charge head-on, which could very well lead to our defeat."

Guan Sheng and Yu Fanwen suddenly realized: "Damn gold thief!"

Wu Jialiang sighed, "The Jin bandits are truly formidable. Even though we have the upper hand, the Jurchens remain unfazed and are still searching for opportunities to counterattack. They are nothing like the rubbish we fought before. Withdraw our troops. We can still have a fight against the Jin bandits."

Both armies withdrew their troops, but the difference was that the Jin army was "defeated" and was in a rather embarrassing state when they withdrew. They were not even qualified to clean up the battlefield and retreated ten miles obediently back to the camp.

However, the rebel army was victorious and retreated with ease. After the Jin army completely retreated, the rebel army was given the right to clean up the battlefield.

A large group of bald auxiliary soldiers came to the battlefield, collected the bodies of the enemy soldiers, stripped them of their clothes and armor, burned the naked bodies, and then buried them... The catapults abandoned by the enemy now belonged to the rebels. We had no guns or cannons, so the enemy made them for us.

An auxiliary soldier found a cannonball in the bushes. It weighed ten pounds, but he could carry it by himself. He ran back with the cannonball in his arms, laughing heartily, saying, "I found a cannonball. What a great achievement, wasn't it? The iron from this cannonball could make dozens of spears."

"A great achievement!" Qian Zhuoqun, who was in charge of logistics, also came and wrote an entry in the account book: "Recovered a shell. The reward for retrieving the shell is five cents."

The auxiliary soldier was rewarded with five cents and was as happy as a hundred-pound child.

With this precedent, the other auxiliary troops immediately understood and rushed to the battlefield shouting, searching desperately without leaving any inch of land. After a while, they found more than a dozen artillery shells.

Qian Zhuoqun counted them and found that only one was missing, which was probably picked up by the Jin army.

While the auxiliary soldiers were cleaning up the battlefield...

Yue Wenxuan brought a group of civil servants, Qi Chongli, and thirty-two eunuchs to the vegetable market in the city.

At this time, Caishikou was as lively as the New Year, with countless people partying here. There were local county residents, refugees from Mizhou, refugees from Weizhou, and even refugees from Qingzhou farther away.

When they saw Yue Wenxuan coming, the refugees knelt down on all sides and shouted, "Your Majesty is mighty!"

Qi Chongli was a little curious: "Your Majesty, why are you not going to reward the soldiers now, but instead running to the city to meet the people?"

The Thirty-Second Eunuch also whispered, "Yes, paying the soldiers is more important. Don't let the palace thieves... ahem... the palace heroes buy the soldiers' hearts..."

Yue Wenxuan smiled: "I want to take this opportunity to solve the logistical problems."

Qi Chongli was surprised: "Logistics?"

Yue Wenxuan: "Iron, gunpowder!"

Qi Chongli: "How can we solve this problem with these ordinary people?"

Yue Wenxuan laughed and said, "Most of the refugees here were chased all the way here by the Jin soldiers. They just arrived in Jiaoshui County and haven't settled down yet. Many of them are still spending the night in street corners and alleys. When local officials wanted to assign them jobs, they refused to work because they were ready to run away again at any time. And now..."

Qi Chongli understood instantly: "Now that they can focus on their work, it's a good opportunity to mobilize them to help with mining and making more firearms."

(End of this chapter)