Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The climate south of the Dadu River is warm and humid, so it is basically impossible to march and fight in summer.

This dispatch of troops took place one month after the autumn harvest. It takes time for local grain to enter the warehouse. After the grain arrives, the temperature will be slightly cooler.

Even so, there are still sultry weather occasionally, which makes wearing armor uncomfortable.

Like ordinary horse soldiers, Ju Ming wore cloth armor, whose main function was to protect against arrows.

But he also had a chain-mail vest inside, which was a high-end item in the Northern Song Dynasty. Because the metal drawing technology is immature, and it is too labor-intensive to create, and requires high technical skills from the craftsmen, Ju Ming asked his father to buy one at a high price through connections.

The cavalry of the two armies approached, then automatically slowed down, and took out their bows and arrows to shoot at the opposite side.

The Han cavalry on Ju Ming's side all use standard horse bows, which have a slightly farther range than the barbarians' earthen bows.

After practicing bow and arrow for several years, Ju Ming was already extremely accurate in shooting on foot, but still lacked some proficiency in shooting on horseback. After he stopped his horse, he drew his bow and fired, and the first arrow hit the target accurately.

Li Bao, on the other hand, rode his horse and fired without any pause, and hit the barbarian soldier in the chest with one arrow.

This guy brought his own northern war horses. Due to the shortage of commanding officers, he had been commanding infantry before. In the previous battle, the junior officers who had performed well were temporarily promoted by Ju Ming, and some soldiers were recruited from civilians. Li Bao finally escaped and became a cavalry commander.

The cavalry from both sides shot at each other back and forth. Ju Ming and Li Bao alone were killed and wounded more than ten people one after another.

To be honest, this horse fight was very amateurish.

On the northern battlefield, it was more like an encounter between a small group of scouts. Neither of them had any cavalry formations to speak of.

Especially the Han cavalry and the barbarian cavalry on Ju Ming's side are completely out of touch. The barbarian cavalry could not understand Chinese and fought on their own throughout the whole process, being led by the leaders to shoot arrows. And he acted very timid, not daring to get too close, and most of the arrows shot into the air.

"Rush over!"

"Woooooo~~~"

The barbarian soldiers on the opposite side blew their horns, and Qiao Li took advantage of the large number of soldiers to charge. He was very irritated by the shots fired by Ju Ming and Li Bao, and saw that the barbarians under Ju Ming were out of touch, so he gave up shooting each other and chose to charge.

Ju Ming led the Han cavalry to attack them head-on, but the first reaction of his barbarian cavalry was to run away, completely becoming two completely unrelated parts.

Cornucopia became extremely excited, spreading its hooves and accelerating, rushing to the front in an instant.

Li Bao and Deng Chun followed on horseback, gradually widening the distance. Li Baoma is faster and slightly ahead. Deng Chungen slowly held his mace and shouted to charge.

The more than forty Han cavalry behind them saw how brave the three generals were, and they all rode their horses to follow.

The formation was extremely spread out, and the distance between horses was more than two meters.

But it can barely be seen that it is a wedge formation, with Zhu Ming, Li Bao and Deng Chun as the arrows.

While galloping, Li Bao suddenly drew his bow and aimed at the opponent's general.

Qiao Li was so frightened that he quickly lay down on his horse, but this arrow was shot at the horse. The arrow hit the horse's neck hard. The horse under Qili's crotch did not die immediately. He went crazy in pain and threw Qiao Li high on the horse's back.

Ju Ming rode the cornucopia as fast as lightning, stabbing out an iron spear weighing more than ten kilograms in his hand.

While he was still trying his best to control his frantic horse, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Ju Ming approaching and subconsciously ducked to dodge.

The iron spear thrust out by Ju Ming suddenly turned downward and pierced into the exquisite leather armor on Piao Li's body. The leather armor was also inlaid with iron pieces, but it only protected key parts. The tip of the spear penetrated instantly, and the huge impact knocked him off his horse.

Piao Li was so proud of his bravery that he actually charged forward and was gone as soon as they met. The guards on both sides had no time to rescue him.

Ju Ming withdrew his gun and swept away, and the personal guard in front of him was swept off his horse.

Deng Chun had also followed up, wielding his mace and charging forward, almost one at a time.

Li Bao was actually still shooting arrows at an astonishing rate, specializing in picking out barbarians with exquisite leather armor.

Cornucopia is becoming more and more excited. It does not need to be controlled by its owner at all. It rushes forward spontaneously and knows how to avoid various obstacles.

Ju Ming took advantage of the momentum of his horse to move forward. He was wearing chain armor, his horse was tall and elegant, and he had sophisticated weapons in his hands. Rushing into the midst of these barbarian cavalry is like a tiger rushing into a flock of sheep. There is no enemy wherever it passes.

This made Li Bao and Deng Chun behind them much more relaxed. The three of them were like sharp awls, forcibly cutting a passage through the barbarian cavalry.

The Han knights further behind became very angry and accelerated their charge one by one. Their momentum actually overwhelmed the enemy ten times their size.

The barbarian knights who had surrendered to Ju Ming fled a short distance away and then stopped, intending to continue observing the situation. Seeing how brave the Han army was, they also followed suit.

One thing ebbs and the other ebbs and flows, and the barbarians begin to collapse.

The main reason is that their master is dead. Then it was cut open from the front. The command system had failed, and the cavalry in the rear row subconsciously turned to escape.

Ju Ming's blood boiled all over, and he finally felt the thrill of a cavalry charge.

"Of the one hundred cavalry, only two or three can really be used, five or six can follow up, and the rest are all waste." This was the sentiment of a French cavalry officer in the Napoleonic era.

It was extremely rare for ancient cavalry to engage in confrontation and strangulation. Often, one party would take the initiative to avoid the battle before direct contact. Or after contact, one of the formations was broken, and the remaining cavalry began to flee.

The two sides were involved in a melee, which meant that both sides were elites.

If the two sides pass each other, they can turn around and reorganize the charge. This kind of scene will not be seen once in a hundred years.

Among a hundred people, only a few people decide the outcome of a horse battle, so strong generals are extremely precious.

Zhu Ming, Li Bao, and Deng Chun were the first to charge into the enemy's formation. There were more than 40 cavalry behind them who could follow up. The victory of this battle was already established. The Barbarian Cavalry who followed up at the end was just the icing on the cake.

Looking down from a high altitude, hundreds of barbarians were fleeing on horseback, being chased by a smaller number of enemies in a panic.

After a few miles of open space, the flat land next to the river quickly became narrow.

The barbarian cavalry scrambled to escape, often running into each other with men and horses. Some simply jumped into the river and swam to escape in fear. Or you can abandon your horse and climb up the mountain, and you can survive if you enter the mountain.

Ju Ming took the lead and rushed into the narrow area. When he caught up, he fired his gun, one shot at a time. The enemy had no power to resist. What he needed to pay more attention to was not to step on the corpses and stumble over the cornucopia, or collide with the horses that had lost their owners.

The enemies who fled slowly could not reach the narrow areas at all, and were surrounded and killed in the open areas. A large number of barbarians chose to dismount and surrender.

After chasing for seven or eight miles, until he could see the main force of the barbarians, Ju Ming reined in his horse and stopped.

Li Bao rushed behind Ju Ming and laughed: "It was so refreshing to kill!"

Ju Ming said: "Go back and clean up the battlefield."

"Yes!" Li Baole immediately turned around.

However, Ju Ming continued to advance on horseback. Ju Meng, who had been marching before, was now panicking and forming a formation to meet him.

"The thief chief comes forward and speaks!" Ju Ming shouted.

The distance was too far to hear clearly. When Zhu Ming came forward alone, Ju Meng took Sun Shu as an interpreter and also rode over to negotiate.

Ju Ming turned over and dismounted, letting Cornucopia take the opportunity to rest.

Ju Meng shouted: "That Han official, why do you want to attack me? I pay tribute every three years and I am very loyal to the court. But it's you Han officials who don't give me enough money when I buy things."

Ju Ming shouted: "You yourself do pay tribute every three years, but you don't allow other tribes to pay tribute, and even intercept the trade teams of various tribes. The imperial court treats the barbarians leniently and has tolerated you for many years. If you don't change after repeated reprimands, you can only send troops. Now take the lead If I surrender, I can still spare your life!"

"I am the Great Ghost Lord of the Hundred Barbarians. The barbarians here are all my subordinates. It is not the court's turn to intervene in how I treat them!" Ju Meng shouted.

Zhu Ming shouted: "That Han man, go back and tell the ghost masters of all tribes, big and small, that whoever is willing to defect in battle, his crime will be forgiven, and he will be rewarded for his meritorious service. Anyone who kills Ju Meng will be rewarded heavily, and the minor ghost master will be promoted to a big ghost master. The Great Ghost Lord is promoted to the Great Ghost Lord!"

Ju Meng was furious and drew his bow and arrow.

Ju Ming also took off his bow and arrow, and both sides shot out almost at the same time.

The distance is too far, no hits...

But Ju Meng was so frightened that the arrow flew past him. He immediately turned around and ran back to the formation. He also warned Sun Shu: "Don't say those words to others!"

"yes!"

Sun Shu quickly agreed, but his belief in betrayal became even stronger.

This magistrate was so fierce that he actually led the cavalry himself and defeated the Pioli vanguard cavalry.

Seeing that the barbarians were about to complete their formation, Ju Ming was too lazy to waste any more time and rode back to inquire about the situation.

Deng Chunying came up and said: "More than 300 war horses have been captured, and the ears that have been cut off are not counted. Five Xiang army horsemen were killed on our side, two of them were shot to death, and three were killed by arrows thrown by the war horses." .More than twenty were injured, most of them from arrow wounds."

Casualty rate 50%?

Although it is outrageous, it is still normal. The barbarian bows and arrows are not very powerful, and the arrow injuries only need to be treated in time.

But it was said that Ju Ming returned with more than 300 war horses. Whether they were Han cavalry or barbarian cavalry, they all showed off their victory loudly.

When the news came out, the whole army was shocked.

Empress Yu Wenchang said fearfully: "Don't take such risks again to succeed!"

Ju Ming smiled and said: "How can these horse troops be trained without a head-on battle? Don't worry, Governor, I led the army to charge when I was sure. Those barbarian cavalry have no rules at all, and their bows and arrows and armor are also rudimentary. The barbarian generals Even more reckless, he actually rushed to the front, and there would be no suspense if he killed this person."

Yu Wenchang was both impressed and worried at the same time, and said, "You still have to be careful in the future."

"I would like to listen to your words." Zhu Ming didn't take it to heart.

He is not a fool. If the enemy general Qiao Li is hiding in the army, he will not attack the enemy head-on with a small number and a large number.

The barbarian lord rushed forward to kill him, so Ju Ming certainly couldn't let go of the opportunity.

Ju Meng, the Great Ghost Lord of Baimandu, is in a dilemma at this moment.

Piao Li was his most valiant son. He had fought and charged into battle for many years and had never lost a battle.

When the barbarians faced Piao Li, they were often frightened by Piao Li's vicious reputation before they even made contact with him, and they were fearful from top to bottom.

Now he died in battle in a daze, which was a blow to Ju Meng and seriously affected his military morale.

Do you want to continue attacking?

Just when Ju Meng was hesitating, a fast boat came from behind.

A barbarian soldier came to report: "Master Du Dagui, the Lianglin tribe is attacking our village!"

This was Qiao Huan's persuasion. After learning about the victory of the Han soldiers, the two Linman tribes finally decided to send troops to stab the chrysanthemums. Moreover, they were timid and did not dare to attack Pugulong. They only went to sneak attack the remote small village of Qionbu Sichuan Man.

Ju Meng thought repeatedly and gritted his teeth before ordering: "Go over and kill all the Han people in front!"

Having come this far, he could not withdraw his troops. He had to defeat the Han soldiers first, and then turn around and go back to deal with the two forest barbarians. Otherwise, if we lead our troops to retreat now, we will most likely be attacked by Han soldiers and two Lin barbarians.