Troubled Times: Start with 800 Dead Soldiers

Gu Tingye dreams of achieving the same results as Li Jing in his previous career.

This cannot be wrong. After all, every general has the idea of ​​becoming an outstanding general.

Especially Gu Tingye, who came from a famous family and wanted to make contributions.

And the Tianwu Army he commanded was the face of the Forbidden Army of the Song Dynasty!

What is a facade? It's the elite, the most powerful army!

The name of the forbidden army, Tianwu Army, appeared in the Later Liang Dynasty.

"Five Dynasties Meeting: All the Armies in the Capital" - In December of the second year of Kaiping in Houliang (that is, 908 AD), the Left and Right Dragon and Tiger Army were renamed the Left and Right Tianwu Army, and together with the Left and Right Tianwei Army and the Left and Right Yingwu Army, they were collectively called the Sixth Army. .

After the "Chen Qiao Mutiny and the Yellow Robe Reincarnation", this army swept across the entire south of the Yangtze River in less than 10 years. It was an absolutely rare elite and an important armed force that the entire Song Dynasty relied on.

Asking Gu Tingye to lead the Tianwu Army to attack Su Xia's headquarters was enough to show how worried Zhao Ji was at the moment, and even dispatched his own elite troops to attack him.

Among the Forbidden Army, the elite four armies are composed of the Japanese Army, the Tianwu Army, the Dragon Guard Army and the Divine Guard Army.

The main duty of these four troops is to defend Kaifeng (Bianliang, Tokyo) and protect the emperor's safety.

Among the four armies, the Peng Japanese Army, Tianwu Army, Dragon Guard Army and Divine Guard Army have the strongest combat effectiveness, so they are called the Upper Four Armies. According to the establishment of the Forbidden Army of the Northern Song Dynasty, the total strength of one army is 5, and the four armies should have 4 troops.

But precisely because it is the most elite force, it is better to have less than to waste.

When recruiting the Tianwu Army, you have to look for height, body shape, and whether you are ugly or not. After all, this thing serves the emperor. What if the soldiers of the Tianwu Army are too ugly and scare the emperor.

Therefore, none of the four armies is full. Not only are they not full, they are also seriously short of manpower.

The total strength of the Fourth Army is only more than 3, less than a quarter of the standard of the Forbidden Army.

Among the four armies, the most domineering is the Tianwu Army. The soldiers of the Tianwu Army are basically the highest paid among the upper four armies, and the equipment is also the best. They are not only responsible for the task of defending the capital, but also serve as a guard of honor. They are among the armies. Among them, the status is also the highest.

In normal times, Gu Tingye didn't have many opportunities to go out to fight. He was always responsible for defending the capital and welcoming foreign envoys as support. The soldiers in his hands were all arrogant and powerful generals and had no chance to fight.

Now that the opportunity has come, the imperial court has agreed to send them to the battlefield. How can Gu Tingye not be excited?

There's going to be a war!

But Gu Tingye obviously overestimated himself. He felt that he could defeat the Su Xia Army. But his mistake was that the military force that the Northern Song Dynasty could most rely on was not their Tianwu Army.

But the Western Army, then someone may ask, what kind of army is the Western Army?

In fact, the Western Army is also a Forbidden Army, but some of it is also a Xiang Army.

Including the Forbidden Army, Tibetan soldiers, archers and other arms stationed in Linzhou, Fuzhou and other parts of Shaanxi Sixth Road and Hedong Road bordering Xixia.

For example, we know Lao Zhongjinglue Xianggong.

Well-known generals include Di Qing, Miao Jing, Wang Kai, Wu Ying, Wang Xin, Zhong Shiheng, Jingtai, Hebin and so on.

Also, as we explained before, because Hu Yanzhuo would become an obstacle to Su Xia, Su Xia took advantage of Murong Yanda and transferred Hu Yanzhuo to the Western Army (see Chapter 104 for details, Su Xia transferred Hu Yanzhuo away) .

The place Hu Yanzhuo obtained was the Western Army, which was the army fighting Xixia in the northwest region.

Since these armies have been at war with the Xixia army for many years, it is no exaggeration to say that they are the only armies in the Song Dynasty army that can fight.

In real history, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the suppression of La in the south of the Yangtze River and the northern expedition to the Liao Kingdom all relied on the power of the Western Army.

Therefore, the Western Army was the cradle of famous generals and strong armies in the Northern Song Dynasty.

When the Jin Kingdom marched southward, the Song Dynasty monarchs and ministers also used millions of Western troops to scare the Jin people. In the early days of the Southern Song Dynasty, the mainstay was the remaining troops of the Western Army, which was the most powerful field army in the country.

As for the "showy" Tianwu Army of the Northern Song Dynasty, at this time, it was already inferior to the previous generation.

Gu Tingye, Zhao Wenhui's successor, was a little proud at the moment. He looked at his eight thousand elites and selected the most elite 5000.

Gu Tingye looked at his sergeants and said: "Brothers of the Tianwu Army, in the past hundred years since I came to Taizu, our Tianwu Army has rarely had the opportunity to send troops on a large scale. Today, the imperial court finally used us to fight. Let us We are going to wipe out the rebellion in Dengzhou and Qingzhou, and I will lead my brothers to rush over and wipe out the rebels."

"Suppress the rebels."

"Suppress the rebels."

These proud and powerful soldiers of the Tianwu Army are usually very proud, but they must be shouting slogans loudly.

After Gu Tingye shouted a few slogans, it was naturally not difficult.

But Gu Tingye had confidence in letting them charge into battle, but these Tianwu Army soldiers were a little confused.

However, they still feel in their hearts, are there any enemies in the world that the Tianwu Army cannot defeat?

Miss our ancestors?

Gu Tingye looked at his sergeants with satisfaction and issued the first combat order. He removed the Tianwu Army's logo, dressed lightly and simply, put on cotton-padded clothes and brought provisions. As for the red Forbidden Army uniform, it was to be worn inside the cotton-padded clothes.

The color of the Tianwu Army's clothing is red. The original design was so that even if the sergeants were injured during combat, their combat effectiveness would not be affected and they could continue to kill the enemy. However, in the heavy snow season of winter, such bright red clothing obviously did not meet the need for camouflage and would only Expose your goals.

However, because this was still a cold weapon operation, psychological shock was more important, so no one would bring up the concept of camouflage. Under the direct command of Gu Tingye, the Tianwu Army quickly dispatched troops and approached Gao Qingcheng.

On the other hand, Duan Pengju commanded his reorganized cavalry troops to prepare for an assault from Hebei East Road.

For Duan Pengju, his cavalry losses were not significant.

Compared with Gu Tingye's high-profile attack, his cavalry troops adopted a "broken into pieces" state. The court asked him to dispatch 5000 cavalry. After much thought, Duan Pengjun still felt that the [-]-man target was too big to deal with the Su Xia army.

With this in mind, he selected 8000 cavalrymen from his more than 800 cavalrymen. They were really one out of ten!

After all, a surprise attack does not depend on large numbers of troops, but on having elite troops!

He did not expect to become a commander of elite troops like Huo Qubing. Huo Qubing once led eight hundred elites to attack Shan Yu's tribe and achieved a huge victory in one fell swoop.

Seal the wolf house!

Duan Pengju had never thought about it this way, but he knew that Su Xia was difficult to deal with. He led eight hundred elites to conduct a simple surprise attack, and it was enough to fool the officials (Zhao Ji) with some results.