The sun was blazing overhead, and all I could see was yellow earth, gravel, and withered grass and bushes. Shi Yanchao took a gulp from his cowhide water bag, then turned to a linen-clad guide next to him and said, "Go north and there's a river."
The man said: We are walking along the Changyuan River, but during the dry season, this section of the river valley dries up. There will be water a few dozen miles further north.
At this moment, a cloud of yellow dust suddenly rose in the distance, and a horse galloped over. When it got closer, the knight jumped off his horse and knelt down in front of Shi Yanchao's horse: "My lord, we have discovered a large number of Northern Han enemy troops."
Shi Yanchao immediately became alert and asked: How many troops are there
At least tens of thousands of knights, very close
As soon as Shi Yanchao finished speaking, he suddenly felt that something was wrong, as if there was thunder in the sky. When he looked up, he was startled and saw a black line coming from afar on the horizon covered with yellow sand. He recognized that the black line was a group of soldiers and horses. He was not hallucinating. The faint muffled sound he heard in his ears was the sound of countless horse hooves in the distance.
Shi Yanchao was immediately furious, and without saying a word, he whipped the knight with his whip. The knight covered his face and screamed. Shi Yanchao cursed: "I only discovered it so close, how did you do it? What use is there for the scouts to take you? I
Lord, spare my life. The knight obviously knew Shi Yanchao's temper and kept kowtowing on the ground. We have limited manpower and we all paid attention to the places blocked by the hillside. We didn't pay attention to that kind of place. It looks flat, but it is actually stacked up and down. The enemy is hiding in batches underneath. You can't see anything from a distance.
The general advised: The enemy is approaching, my lord, you should first decide on a strategy of war and defense, and don't bother with a villain anymore.
Shi Yanchao was furious. He looked around and heard from the scouts that the Northern Han army had tens of thousands of soldiers. He was the vanguard and had only 2,000 cavalrymen under his command. He then remembered the order Guo Shao had sent to him last night, telling him to stay where he was when he encountered the enemy and not to fight when he was tired.
Although Shi Yanchao is brave and warlike, he is a veteran who has been in the battlefield for many years. He is alone here, so he certainly does not want to attack an enemy force that is more than ten times his size.
He ordered all the troops to turn around and return along the same route. Shi Yanchao immediately said, "Get close to Dong Zunhui and the others."
He did not follow Guo Shao's order to stay where he was, because the official orders issued by the central army to the generals usually have a sentence: All commanders can act according to the actual situation. Guo Shao's order asked him to stay where he was after discovering the enemy. The premise of this order was that large enemy troops would usually be far away. After all, there were too many people and the target would make a lot of noise. It was rare for them to suddenly approach, otherwise it would be too easy to launch a sneak attack. Now, if he still followed the order rigidly, he would soon engage the enemy. What was the difference between this and taking the initiative to attack
The situation of the vanguard was reported to the central army by fast horses. At that time, Guo Shao was still in the valley near the lake. Only the vanguard Shi Yanchao, and the troops of Dong Zunhui and Zhang Guanghan who were in front to support Shi Yanchao, had left the mountain area.
After reading the complicated description of terrain and situation in the letter, Guo Shao only understood the key point: Shi Yanchao and his men were ambushed, but the battle had not yet begun.
He discussed with the ministers and generals in the military office, and gradually realized the seriousness of the situation. This feeling is like a delayed pain in life, that is, when a person encounters pain, he cannot feel it immediately, and it takes a while to slowly react; just like being cut by a knife, sometimes you can't feel the pain immediately.
The news reported back by the vanguards roughly confirmed the number of Northern Han troops, which was estimated to be more than 30,000.
Wang Pu said seriously: "The ambush of the Northern Han army was very sudden, and our situation is very bad. The vanguard Dong Zunhui has one army and Zhang Guanghan has three armies, which together only have more than 12,000 people, less than half of the enemy's army. Our army is completely at a disadvantage; the most disadvantageous thing is that we have marched for half a month and walked nearly a thousand miles to get here. The soldiers and horses are exhausted, while the Northern Han army is well rested. This battle is quite disadvantageous."
Guo Shao nodded without saying a word.
Wang Pu said: "It was discovered too late. It seems that we cannot avoid this battle. We are forced to fight. The vanguard and Dong Zunhui and Zhang Guanghan on the left and right wings cannot retreat. The valley behind is full of people and cannot be passed. The main force of the army is still on the valley road and cannot be assembled in a short time. If there is one day or even half a day, it is still enough to deploy; but according to Shi Yanchao's report, the distance between them is less than five miles. They have to move together immediately to prepare for the battle.
A general said: How about we retreat to the mountains
Wang Pu shook his head and said: "Most of the soldiers are cavalry, and there is no road on the mountain, so it is very difficult to climb the mountain. Moreover, it is too late for the military order to come back; according to the report from the front, Shi Yanchao and others did not make any decision to retreat to the mountain.
Li Chuyun also said: This is the first time we have encountered this since entering the Northern Han Kingdom. We ran away as soon as we saw it, and this has dampened our fighting spirit.
At this moment, Guo Shao's voice suddenly came out, everyone
Everyone stopped talking and looked sideways.
Guo Shaodao: Immediately send a fast horse to order Shi Yanchao and the other three to deploy on the spot to face the front army head-on. The left and right routes of the front army will temporarily follow the command of Zhang Guanghan, the commander of the left wing of the Longjie Army. Shi Yanchao will act alone. I will immediately lead the guards to the front line and personally command this battle.
Among the three men in the front army, the one with the highest military rank was Shi Yanchao, who was the commander of the Palace Front Division, the position of Zhao Kuangyin in the past; but Guo Shao did not trust this man's overall command ability at all. Why was Shi Yanchao's military rank so high? Because he was too useful as a vanguard, and he had made too many contributions. If he was not promoted, it would be unacceptable.
In contrast, although Zhang Guanghan's military position was only the commander of the wing, he had long been in charge of the marching and deployment of 20,000 troops, so it was safer to use him. However, Shi Yanchao might not accept Zhang Guanghan's command, which would be more troublesome.
Therefore, Guo Shao made this arrangement temporarily when the matter came to an end, in order to avoid confusion in military power. Because of Shi Yanchao's presence, he had to go there in person, or send Li Chuyun to go there, in order to unify and control the situation of more than 10,000 people in front.
Guo Shao led more than 300 cavalrymen and rushed north.
When he hurried to the front line, he found that the battle was about to begin. A large number of enemy troops were within a mile of him, and the battle was about to begin.
There was no chance to even summon the generals to say a few words before the battle. Guo Shaoxian observed with his own eyes that the Northern Han army had large cavalry on the left and right wings, with infantry in the middle, and the entire army formed a half-moon formation; he guessed that the Northern Han army was not all elite, and there might be some troops from local vassal states. Because according to the intelligence and estimates of the Privy Council, there were only more than 30,000 elite troops left in the Northern Han Kingdom, and it was impossible for Yang Ye to bring them all out for a one-shot deal. But the most disadvantageous situation for the Zhou army was that they had not been repaired and the troops were relatively tired.
Guo Shao took a look and decided not to summon the generals, but decided to let all the soldiers know that the emperor was here, firstly to boost morale, and secondly to let everyone know that there was someone who unified the military orders.
He immediately ordered his personal soldiers to raise the yellow dragon flag and ride their horses to the various formations. When the soldiers saw Guo Shao riding the tallest horse, they quickly shouted, "Long live the king!"
The Zhou army's formation was not a formation, but three groups of people gathered together to form a rectangular formation. Yang Ye heard the earth-shaking shouts from the opposite side, and he felt a little weird. The Zhou army had come a long way and was shouting with spirits. But he soon discovered that there were faint yellow flags in the camp, and immediately guessed that the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty might have arrived in the camp.
Humph. Yang Ye looked at the situation in front of him disapprovingly, and made a sound with a cold and confident look on his face.
As a military commander, he did not like any convoluted conspiracy, but he was familiar with the art of war and had experience in actual combat. He knew the techniques of battle formations, which was to create favorable conditions and opportunities for himself.
The preparations for this duel were very successful. Yang Ye used his familiarity with the terrain of the Northern Han Kingdom and suddenly appeared at the right time. He did not come up with this tactic out of thin air. He had in mind to attack the enemy halfway across the river. However, there were no rivers here, so he just applied the military tactics. No matter what method he used, he knew that the Zhou army could only fight against one-third to one-half of his own troops. Moreover, he was well rested and waited for the enemy to tire themselves out, so he could deal with the enemy coming from afar. Everything was perfect.
Yang Ye saw that because his side had more people, they could spread out more horizontally and completely controlled the offensive and defensive initiatives on the battlefield; another detail was that the Northern Han army was accidentally on a higher ground than the Zhou army. The terrain of this area was not mountainous, but it was indeed a plateau with different levels; the Northern Han army was just at a high point when they chased here, while the Zhou army was at the bottom of a fault slope.
This battle must be won. Yang Ye looked around and said, "No matter if the emperor comes, or even the king of heaven comes, I will defeat this enemy force." He gave the order, and when the drum sounded, the central army moved slowly, while the left and right wings attacked as the main force.
We have more people and the two wings are wider, so the advantage lies in the wings.
After the drummers in the central army were ready, a row of soldiers puffed up their cheeks and blew the heavy and dull horns, and the rumbling drums also sounded. The west wind blew obliquely on the battlefield, and sand and rocks flew everywhere. In the wild grass and shrubs, there was only smoke and tides of people and horses.
The cavalry camps on both sides slowly began to move, a group of war horses slowly rushed out, gradually speeding up, and had already outflanked the Zhou army. The rumbling sound of horse hooves was like thunder in a clear sky, and everyone's eyes widened, and their spirits became highly tense.
The two armies went to war very quickly, without sending troops to shout at each other. At this point, there is nothing to say, and only force can decide when they meet.
Kill, kill, kill! Soon, crazy shouts rang out between the two armies, and all kinds of noises mixed together on the battlefield, making it noisy.