Sun Tu knew early on that the enemy was strong and we were weak. Even if he was prepared, he would not dare to let these thousands of tiger soldiers confront the Liao Kingdom's elite cavalry head-on. So when he confirmed that he had been targeted by the Liao people, he made arrangements early, just waiting for the enemy to step into the trap.
The camp at the foot of the hill was just a cover-up to lure the enemy in. Before dark, when he had confirmed that there was no one around him, he secretly brought all his troops to the mountain, leaving only dozens of Gao Qiu's men guarding below. Serve as a night watch soldier. These people have long been unable to resist and can only obey Sun Tu's arrangements, otherwise they will still only die under military law.
Of course, doing this is a bit risky. Sun Tu is not sure that the Liao soldiers will choose to attack the military camp tonight. Once dawn comes again, everything will be exposed; secondly, going up the mountain certainly occupies a certain geographical advantage, and it is condescending. It is easier to kill the enemy and defend yourself, but once the enemy is surrounded, they will be completely trapped here, and it will be extremely difficult to break out of the encirclement.
Fortunately, Sun Tu could bear these two points. After all, his purpose was only to lure the enemy to attack and hold them until reinforcements arrived. It would be over in a day or two at most. Anyway, the opportunity is only once. If the enemy doesn't come tonight, then we will look for another opportunity.
The result was exactly as he wished, and the Liao soldiers attacked at night. And because of the rapid charge of the horses, even if they noticed something strange in the camp, it was too late and they rushed directly into the range of the crossbowmen on the mountain. At this time, Sun Tu would miss the opportunity and immediately ordered to release arrows, so as to kill the enemy by surprise.
At the moment of landing, random arrows were as dense as rain, and they were splashed towards the Liao cavalry below. When the people screamed and the horses neighed, many people had been hit by arrows and fell, and many people hurriedly circled their horses and fled in all directions. But because they were surrounded by tents that had been set on fire, their room for movement was not as wide as they had imagined. They only ran a few steps and then stopped again. In this way, they could only change their moves, wave their weapons to block, and look back to escape.
At this time, the strength of the elite cavalry of the Liao army was revealed. Even though they were suddenly attacked and shot by a one-sided barrage of arrows, they did not completely lose their minds. Even if they continued to retreat, they still maintained a certain level of fighting. The formation looked scattered, but it was not scattered, and they were always on guard against possible attacks from above.
In fact, Sun Tu really had this idea. Behind him, there were thousands of cavalry who were ready to move. But after seeing such a scene by firelight, he didn't dare to take the risk. The superiority of the fighting strength between the two sides is obvious. Now that the enemy is retreating without chaos, if they really send the cavalry to kill them, they will probably send the sheep into the tiger's mouth. It is better to let them press the formation from the side and the rear.
And during this hesitation, the enemy retreated even faster and had withdrawn from the Song Army camp, leaving only a hundred corpses behind. The price paid was not as high as imagined. But in this way, Song Jun's position has been completely exposed, and it's hard to say who took advantage.
Xiao Yanping looked at the still dark hills with gloomy eyes, and said softly: "This Song general is a bit brave and strategist, and he actually dared to use this to set up an ambush even though he knew that we were targeting him. But he also underestimated me, the Khitan warrior. What does this setback mean? Zhebaili—"
As he shouted, a lanky Liao cavalry general came out in response. He was also hit by an arrow on his shoulder, but he didn't take it seriously and swept away the mountain.
With one glance at Oka Shangfang, he was waiting for his general's military orders.
"Take three hundred soldiers to the back and try to attack. Remember, if the Song army still fires arrows, you must avoid the edge first." Xiao Yanping gave the decisive order.
"Yes." Zhe Baili immediately responded to the order, ordered his cavalry, then quickly rushed forward, bypassed the hill, and headed straight to the rear.
At the same time that he led his troops out, two other generals also received orders from Xiao Yanping, and led people to launch tentative attacks on the hills from the left and right sides.
But this time, Sun Tu had already made preparations. There were crossbowmen on all sides of the hill. Once the enemy came into range, they fired arrows decisively, wounding twenty or thirty more people, and frightened the opponent into retreating again. Stay away from hills.
After this test, more than an hour had passed. The sky was gradually getting brighter, and the Liao army at the foot of the mountain was able to see clearly the situation above. As his general had judged early in the morning, this grain transport team seemed to be escorted by only a thousand people. The team is actually all Song troops, and they are fully equipped with bows and crossbows and plenty of arrows. Looking from below, you can see the dense and terrifying arrow formation shining with cold light.
Over the past hundred years, the Song and Liao sides had fought for hundreds of people, and the Liao people had long experienced how powerful the Song army was in bows and crossbows. Now the enemy is occupying a high place, making it difficult for them to deal with it for a while. Even Xiao Yanping frowned deeply after receiving the report from the three generals: "You didn't even leave any flaws?"
But immediately, he laughed again, such an opponent is more interesting, and his hard work during this period is not worth it. At that moment, he glanced at the sky above his head and said: "Stop attacking for the time being and keep an eye on them first. Everyone has worked hard all night. Let's eat and rest first. Once we have regained our energy, we can attack the mountain again." In fact, he A strategy has been decided, but this must first allow the soldiers and horses to have sufficient mental strength.
The Liao army was indeed a little tired. After hearing this, they dismounted one after another, took tents, wooden fences and other objects from the Song army camp and set them on fire, and then grilled the dry food and meat they had with them, planning to consume them with the Song army.
At the same time, the Song army on the mountain also lit fires and buried pots to make rice. After a night of hard work, they were also hungry. Fortunately, they also moved grain, grass and other supplies to the mountains, otherwise they would have taken advantage of the Liao army below.
A strange scene occurred here. The two hostile armies of Song and Liao were actually facing each other across a hill, while each was getting something to eat.
"General, if we can trap them for three to five days, this Song army will definitely die. I have checked around, and there is no water source up and down this mountain. It is impossible for them to bring too much water with them..." At this time, Zhe Baili came over. Xiao Yanping whispered next to him who was chewing a piece of dry bun. It is said that the food they used was also the food team of the Song Dynasty that they had robbed before, which can be regarded as a full use of the strategy of supporting war with war.
After hearing this, Xiao Yanping was not very happy and only nodded slightly. Seeing that his subordinates had questions, he pointed at the hill in front of him: "Do you think the Song army will have no back-up preparations? This is the Song Dynasty. No matter how prepared they are, they are just a piece of bait. I think soon, the real threat will come. It’s coming soon.”
"Ah, this..." Only then did Zhe Baili understand, and he suddenly worried: "Then how should we deal with it?"
"So we must fight quickly. We must capture them before dark tomorrow. Do you have any
Confidence? "Xiao Yanping said, sweeping over the generals.
These people were all the elites of the Liao army. When they heard this, they shouted loudly: "Yes! I am about to kill them to avenge the previous brothers!"
"Okay, let's rest for half an hour and then attack!" Xiao Yanping swallowed the hardened steamed bun in one gulp, and then closed his eyes to recover his concentration.
After a while, some Liao soldiers screamed a few more times, but they finally discovered that in addition to the smoke rising from cooking, there was also a thick black smoke column rising straight into the sky. It was the smoke that conveyed military information to the distance. . This time, Xiao Yanping's judgment was confirmed.
But he didn't take it too seriously. He only opened his eyes briefly and then closed them again. He believed that there were no other Song troops nearby, so the ones the other party wanted to notify were naturally the defenders of Yanmen Pass. And even if the soldiers and horses there rush over quickly, they won't be able to get there in two days. By that time, he would have killed all the Song troops on the mountain and left freely.
Half an hour later, Xiao Yanping suddenly opened his eyes and jumped up from the ground. When he jumped on the horse's back, he held a hard bow in his hand and shouted: "Surrounded by mountains, use bow to bow to consume the arrows of the Song Dynasty. "As he said that, he took the lead and rushed straight to the front of the hill.
The horse he was riding was one of the best horses in the Liao army. Now he was firing with all his strength, and his speed was even faster. In the blink of an eye, he had rushed into the already dilapidated military camp. At the same time, he drew his bow and arrows, and in one fell swoop, He shot toward a figure under the military banner above.
When he sent people to harass and test from three sides just now, he had already found the location of the person who gave the order, and this time he was targeting him.
The treasured bow in his hand was much stronger than ordinary crossbows, and its range was still higher than that of the Song army who were condescending. He was still more than 200 steps away from the mountain, and the arrows were already whistling up the mountain, heading straight for Sun Tu under his banner.
Sun Tu's reaction was also very quick. After hearing the movement, he who was sitting upright immediately drew his sword and pounced sideways. In a flash of cold light, he happened to block the flying arrow. With a bang, he felt a strong force coming, and his arm was shaken by it. This made his heart tighten: "What a domineering arrow!"
The surrounding subordinates didn't react until this moment. Some hurriedly stepped forward to protect them, while some crossbowmen in front hurriedly bent their bows and nocked arrows, firing arrows at the enemy who had already charged.
This comparison alone revealed the disparity in strength between the Song and Liao soldiers. In terms of reaction to the battle, the Song army was more than one step behind the opponent. The generals were attacked, and they responded accordingly.
And an even more embarrassing scene also happened. After Song Jun released his arrows, he discovered that the enemy suddenly stopped just outside the shooting range. The dense rain of arrows he shot was completely useless and fell lightly on the enemy. to the ground without causing any harm.
And this was not just the front, the other three sides were also attacked by the Liao army at the same time. However, the rain of arrows fired down could not damage the enemy at all. They actually calculated the range of the Song army, and this attack was just a bluff.
After learning this result, Sun Tu's face suddenly sank. The Liao army wanted to use this move to consume their own arrows. Then, his eyes fell on the wolf-fang arrow that he had blocked just now, and his heart skipped a beat. He had recognized the arrow and the identity of the Liao general at the foot of the mountain!