Chapter 168 Victory in the first battle

Chapter 168 Victory in the first battle

Chapter 168 Victory in the first battle
Xiao Xia also carefully studied the reasons for the disastrous defeat of the two thousand soldiers of Ziyang County. The key was the wrong decision made by the commander Xu Lin. He adopted the strategy of ambushing the enemy, but in fact they were foreign troops and were not very familiar with the terrain.

On the contrary, the enemy was very familiar with the terrain, and was well-rested, waiting for the arrival of the palace soldiers. They knew every move of the palace soldiers clearly. How could the enemy not know that Xu Lin wanted to ambush him?
In the end, the Liao soldiers launched a counter-ambush, and the army's confidence collapsed. How could they not be defeated?
Xiao Xia first occupied a commanding height. Although the terrain was only less than two meters higher, if the enemy came to kill them, they would have to attack from above, which would be a bit difficult, so the Sui army took advantage of the terrain.

Half an hour later, a dark mass of troops came running in the distance, gradually approaching, with a number of about 10,000 people.

Two thousand infantrymen of the Sui army lined up in the front, with one thousand cavalrymen hiding behind them. The infantrymen were holding bows and arrows, ready for battle.

Xiao Xia stood on the slope and looked closely at the enemy army. He saw that the enemy soldiers had almost no equipment. They were wearing cloth clothes, and some of the soldiers were wearing leather armor, which was captured from the Sui army. They were holding various knives and spears, but had no bows and arrows, nor shields. They were of varying heights, weights, and body shapes, and most of them were barefoot.

Judging from the team, the other side seemed to be a motley crowd, but they had been hunting for many years and looked very strong and sturdy.

The enemy leader shouted a few times, and the horn sounded, "Woo--"

Ten thousand people ran, shouted, brandished spears and swords, and rushed up the hillside in a black mass.

This is a typical Liao people tactic. In fact, there is no tactics, no formation, and no waiting and watching. It seems very impatient. An army of 10,000 rushes forward without thinking. It is completely a group fight, relying on numbers and momentum to overwhelm the opponent.

"Prepare the bows and crossbows!" Xiao Xia shouted.

Two thousand soldiers raised their bows and arrows or crossbows, aiming them at an angle upwards, ready to shoot at the enemy.

The Liao soldiers had already rushed to a distance of 150 steps. Xiao Xia shouted, "Shoot!"

Bows and crossbows were fired together. Two thousand arrows and crossbow arrows were shot at the running Liao soldiers. A large number of enemy soldiers were shot and fell to the ground.

Xiao Xia saw that although the enemy had a large number of troops, their combat effectiveness was not high. He ordered the three generals, "If the enemy retreats, you will attack them directly!"

"Follow the order!"

Xiao Xia immediately pointed his spear and shouted, "Cavalry, attack!"

"Woo——"

The horn for the cavalry attack sounded, and Xiao Xia personally led a thousand cavalrymen to rush out, rush down the hillside, and kill the Liao soldiers stationed in the flag hall a mile away.

In fact, Xiao Xia could have fired two more rounds before attacking, but he was worried that his infantry would be overwhelmed by the enemy's momentum, so he had to buy time and defeat the enemy leader's army as soon as possible.

A thousand cavalrymen swept down the hillside like a mountain torrent. Xiao Xia led the way, wielding his spear and slashing along the way. The cavalrymen followed their commander and galloped at full speed, wielding their spears and stabbing the enemy, causing the Liao soldiers to cry and scream, stumble and flee in all directions, with countless casualties.

The reason why Xiao Xia dared to lead one thousand cavalrymen to fight against ten thousand Liao soldiers was because the advantage of cavalry in war was too great.

Especially when facing infantry teams, cavalry can not only use bows and arrows to shoot down an infantry team at a long distance, or inflict heavy casualties, but they can also charge on horseback, use the impact of the horses to break through the infantry line, and then fight in close combat.

Moreover, the Sui army only needed a small number of cavalry to hold back the Liao soldiers and slow down their marching speed, making them extremely uncomfortable. They could not escape and could not fight. This is what is meant by "a hundred cavalry surrounding the enemy can encircle ten thousand; a thousand cavalry spread out can cover a hundred miles and destroy strong enemies."

Therefore, Xiao Xia was not worried that he would be defeated. If he could not defeat the opponent, the thousand cavalrymen could withdraw directly. Moreover, when shooting a person, one should shoot the horse first, and when capturing a thief, one should capture the leader first. As long as he could defeat the opponent's main general, why would he worry about the defeat of his Liao soldiers?

The chief general of the Liao soldiers was separated from the main force of the Liao soldiers, which gave Xiao Xia's cavalry a good opportunity.

Xiao Xia led the Sui cavalry to cut a bloody path and continued to kill the 3,000 flag soldiers stationed hundreds of steps away.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Liao army commander immediately shouted, "Order the troops to withdraw and besiege the enemy cavalry!"

"Dang! Dang! Dang!"

The bell rang rapidly, and the six or seven thousand Liao soldiers, who were less than fifty steps away from the Sui army's infantry, turned around and retreated. Giving up halfway has always been a taboo in the army. Because the soldiers did not know why they were retreating, many people thought that the cavalry had defeated the main general, so they ordered a retreat.

Two thousand Sui army infantrymen took the opportunity to shoot arrows like rain. The retreating Liao soldiers fell down one after another and fled in panic. The Sui army cheered like thunder.

Seeing the high morale of the soldiers, the three generals immediately shouted, "All troops, charge!"

"Kill--"

Two thousand Sui infantrymen holding spears chased the Liao soldiers from behind. The Liao soldiers were in chaos and ran away in all directions. The Sui infantrymen were even more motivated and killed thousands of Liao soldiers, who cried and howled like ghosts and wolves, and were completely defeated.

Xiao Xia led a thousand cavalrymen and had already arrived in front of the enemy's flag-garrisoned army. Three thousand Liao soldiers rushed to fight. The Liao army's chief general was nearly two meters tall, with broad shoulders and a strong waist, and was extremely majestic. He was wearing iron armor and an iron helmet, which was wrapped tightly. The red tassel on the helmet fluttered like a horse's tail.

The Liao general held a large iron spear in his hand. He shouted like thunder and commanded the Liao soldiers to fight fiercely with the Sui army.

Xiao Xia also knew that the situation was critical. If the retreating Liao soldiers and the garrison soldiers joined together, the Liao soldiers would quickly stabilize. Once stabilized, they would counterattack, and his two thousand infantrymen would most likely turn victory into defeat.

Xiao Xia fixed his eyes on the enemy's main general, who was the key to his victory. Xiao Xia roared, and his long spear flew, killing people like cutting grass, invincible. He gradually killed his way through the enemy, opened a bloody path, and attacked the main general of the Liao army.

At this time, the leader of the Liao army also saw clearly that the leader of the Sui army who was killing him was actually a young general.

He immediately wanted to take advantage of the other party's youth, and with a roar, he urged his horse forward and thrust his spear. Xiao Xia swung his long spear and chopped at the other party's spear shaft. "Bang!" The spear shaft was swung away, but the spear blade slashed along the spear shaft towards the other party's fingers, as fast as a flash of cold light.

It was so fast that General Liao was terrified and unable to dodge. Between his finger and the spear, he could only choose his finger, and the spear slipped out of his hand. However, General Liao never dreamed that cutting his finger was just a feint to distract his attention.

The Liao general suddenly felt a pain in his throat and found that the long spear blade had pierced his neck. This was the last scene he saw.

The Liao general's eyes went dark and he fell backwards off his horse. The long and wide blade of the spear had cut his neck in half, and the Liao general died tragically on the spot.

Xiao Xia cut off the head of the Liao general, held his head high up, and shouted: "The commander is dead! The commander is dead!"

The Sui soldiers cheered together. The Liao soldiers saw the head of their commander. The red tassel like a horse's tail was particularly eye-catching. It was the commander's mark. All the Liao soldiers understood that the commander was dead.

The morale of the Liao soldiers collapsed in an instant. First, more than a thousand soldiers stationed at the flag turned around and fled. Then, the other six thousand or so Liao soldiers who had retreated were also led to collapse. More than seven thousand Liao soldiers fled in panic.

Three thousand Sui soldiers were chasing after them, killing people till heads rolled down and corpses were scattered all over the ground. The entire official road was filled with corpses and dyed red with blood.

Xiao Xia led a thousand cavalrymen and chased for more than twenty miles. A large camp appeared in front of them. It was the Liao army camp. The remaining two or three thousand Liao soldiers fled into the camp.

Xiao Xia led the cavalry and suddenly increased the speed, and rushed to the camp together with the defeated soldiers. There were originally a thousand defenders in the camp. They held bows and arrows but could not shoot. The Sui cavalry and the defeated soldiers were mixed together and could not be distinguished.

The thousand defenders were about to retreat, but it was too late. More than three hundred Sui cavalrymen had already arrived in front of them. In an instant, spears pierced their chests, and the archers screamed and fell to the ground.

Hundreds of archers at the back dropped their bows and arrows and fled, crossing the camp together with the defeated soldiers and escaping into the mountains and forests three miles outside the camp.

It was this forest that saved the lives of more than a thousand Liao soldiers. Xiao Xia led the cavalry and stopped chasing them, but turned back to the Liao soldier camp.

In this battle, the Sui army killed 11,000 Liao soldiers, while the Sui army also lost more than 100 soldiers and injured 200.

There were hundreds of tents in the camp. The soldiers began to search for valuables. They found that the Liao soldiers had almost no money on them, so they guessed that they had all left it in the camp. But strangely, there was nothing around the Liao soldiers' beds, and not a single five-zhu coin was found.

At this moment, dozens of soldiers suddenly cheered. They found five large tents where wealth was stored. Xiao Xia also rushed over. He was shocked by the situation inside the tents. He saw mountains of copper coins and hundreds of boxes of gold and jewelry.

In addition there were silk and cloth. There were tens of thousands of rolls of silk alone, which filled up a large tent. There were more than 200,000 rolls of cloth, which filled up three large tents.

The soldiers quickly counted the coins and found that there were nearly 200,000 copper coins alone. Xiao Xia immediately distributed the copper coins to the soldiers, 70 strings to each cavalryman, 50 strings to each infantryman, and double the amount for the soldiers killed in battle. Each lieutenant received 500 strings, and each lieutenant received 1,000 strings.

The cloth and silk were given to the commander-in-chief Wei Xuan, while the gold, silver and jewelry were presented to the emperor.

When the soldiers got their share of the money, they cheered loudly.

However, the copper coins became a burden and could not be taken away. Xiao Xia thought of a way. He put each person's money into a bag and sewed it up. The bag was written with the soldier's name and military number. Then he found five large ships, put the copper coins on the ships, and had 150 logistics soldiers guard them.

The rest of the seized materials, including gold, silver, jewelry, silk, cloth, tents, food, weapons, etc., were stored in the warehouse of Neijiang County Government, sealed and guarded by fifty internal logistics soldiers.

Two hundred wounded soldiers were also left in Neijiang County for treatment.

After settling the property and wounded soldiers, Xiao Xia led 2,700 soldiers and continued to attack Dalao County.

(End of this chapter)