Chapter 375: All the heroes (55)

Spring goes and autumn comes, and the leaves in the palace turn yellow and green again and again. "People have joys and sorrows. The moon has eyes and roundness. This is a matter that is difficult to be complete in ancient times. I hope people will live long and share the silk of the moon with thousands of miles away." This is the inscription of the cemetery of Liu Jiangjie.

Liu Jiangjie's death caused a deep sense of frustration in Hou Dayong's heart. After becoming emperor, he could determine life and death in one word and wealth in one word. He could lead his army to conquer Nanjinghu, Western Shu, Southern Han, Southern Tang and Wuyue, but in the face of impermanent fate, he was always a weak person.

In another world, he could not understand why the great Qin Shihuang was tirelessly looking for the elixir of immortality, nor did he understand that the wise Emperor Taizong of Tang had an obsession with gold and stone beyond ordinary people. At this time, he stood in the same position as Qin Shihuang and Emperor Taizong of Tang. He could fully understand the state of mind of these great emperors.

However, Hou Dayong is the most special monarch. He has scientific knowledge that has never been found in this society. This is the accumulation of human beings and the knowledge precipitation after thousands of years. Although Hou Dayong only remembers some achievements, such as genes, light years, chlorophyll, etc., these fruitful knowledge gives him a broader mind and more rational thinking than the people of this era.

Although he was heartbroken about Liu Jiangjie's death, he did not make him abnormal, but he just cherished this hard-won life and happiness even more.

Liu Jiangjie was sleeping next to Chunlan. These two miserable women had just unfolded the flower of life, and a gust of wind blew, and quietly withered into mud. The cemetery was not big, and the cemetery was very simple for the royal family, but the burial ceremony was extremely grand. Hou Dayong planted an evergreen tree himself. How to evaluate this behavior made the historians very embarrassed. They still respected history and recorded the burial in the original place without making any comments, because the merits and demerits were evaluated by future generations.

In a blink of an eye, the tenth year of Hanxing arrived.

In the past five years, many major events happened in the Great Zhou Dynasty. After the demise of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the Wu Yue regime, which had always regarded the Central Plains dynasty as orthodox, took the initiative to surrender to the Great Zhou Dynasty. After Qian Jiao went to Daliang to meet Hou Dayong, he was shocked by the prosperity of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the strength of the Black Eagle Army, and his desire to resist was completely reduced. Wu Yue became a part of the Great Zhou Dynasty without any war.

The Battle against the Northern Han started in the spring of the sixth year of Hanxing. The Northern Han was centered on Taiyuan and the place was not large, but the Northern Han army was well-known, far worse than the army of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Hou Dayong led his army to fight in person. After careful planning, the troops were divided into two groups, one from Daizhou to attack Taiyuan, and the other one started from Shiling Pass, advancing north from the side, cutting off the traffic line between the Northern Han and the Khitan.

At the beginning of the war, Khitan general Yelu Sha led his army to aid, but was defeated and forced to retreat. After the Great Zhou army surrounded Taiyuan City, Hou Dayong used his old tricks to break Youzhou and buried hundreds of barrels of black gunpowder under Taiyuan City. After blowing up the city wall, the Northern Han lord Liu Jiyuan surrendered, but only when the one-eyed general Liu Jiye fought hard in the south of the city. Liu Jiyuan personally recruited surrender. Only then did Liu Jiye surrender to the Great Zhou. After surrendering to Zhou, Liu Jiye restored his real name - Yang Jiye.

In the summer of the tenth year of the Han Dynasty, on the day of Liu Jiangjie's death, Liu Jiangjie's daughter Hou Sijie was able to run freely in the cemetery. Under the leadership of Hou Xiaoqing, she used a butterfly net made of bamboo poles and fish silk threads to catch the dancing golden butterfly in front of the cemetery. Hou Dayong led all the children including Hou Zonghu, Hou Zonglin, Hou Xiaoqing and other children to solemnly offer flowers to Liu Jiangjie's cemetery. This is a procedure that must be carried out every year, and the children regard this procedure as a spring outing.

After presenting flowers in front of the white marble stele, Liu Jiangjie personally swept the cemetery to Chunlan, and Hou Dayong directly boarded the warship to Youzhou. On the Yongji Canal, thousands of sails competed for flowing, and countless troops and logistics supplies were transported along the river.

Guo Jiong led his army out of Taiyuan. He led 50,000 troops from the backbone of the former Jinshan Camp, Richi's troops and Lingzhou Black Eagle Army as the backbone, and attacked the Khitan to the capital from the west.

Fuhu General Jiang Hui followed the marine navy commanded by Shi Ying. He went to sea from Dengzhou and was preparing to go ashore at Zhulongkou, Liaodong. Zhulongkou was once a transit place for the Bohai Kingdom's naval army. After the demise of the Bohai Kingdom, the Khitan army was not good at water wars, so the transit base was abandoned. After receiving Hou Dayong's secret letter, Sumo and Mohe tribe suddenly led their troops and occupied this small beach to welcome the navy sent by his brother Hou Dayong.

In August of the tenth year of Hanxing, the four main forces of the Tiger, Leopard, Wolf, and Xiong Wei army led by Hou Dayong were assembled in Youzhou, quietly crossing Gubeikou, and along the way, they defeated several blocking Khitan troops and advanced towards the Khitan Zhongjing Dading Prefecture.

After the Battle of Youzhou, the Liao Lord Yelu Shulu had already known the consequences of the Great Zhou army. Hearing that the Great Zhou Emperor Hou Dayong personally fought, he did not dare to neglect. He personally led 150,000 troops in the imperial tent, went out to Beijing, and went to Zhongjing to fight the main force of the Zhou army.

In Datun, south of Zhongjing and north of Luanhe River, there is a very wide flat land, which is most conducive to cavalry combat. The main force of the Khitan army was the cavalry, and Yelu Shulu wanted to lure the Zhou army to the Datun plain. Then he fully utilized the advantages of the cavalry and wiped out the main force of the Zhou army in Datun in one fell swoop.

In fact, what the Khitans thought was exactly what the Black Diao Army thought. On the morning of October 10th, the tenth year of the Hanxing year, Hou Dayong was overjoyed when he learned that the Khitan army had appeared in Datun. He followed the plan and ordered the Black Diao Army to go to Datun without stopping and prepare for a decisive battle with the main force of the Khitan army.

On the 10th day of the 10th autumn of the 10th year of the Hanxing period, the main force of the Black Eagle Army and the main force of the Khitan Army collided head-on in Datun, and more than 200,000 troops turned the plain of Datun into a large military camp.

The 80,000 Black Eagle Army had 60,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry.

When the Black Eagle Army was first established, the cavalry occupied the absolute main force. Then in the war, the proportion of infantry gradually increased. On the one hand, it was a restriction on the supply of horses. On the other hand, after the war test, the mixed infantry and cavalry forces were more powerful than the simple cavalry. Simple horses or infantry have insurmountable shortcomings, and it is still acceptable to take on a certain aspect of the task. If you want to win a large-scale battle, you must rely on a mixed infantry and cavalry team.

The sixty thousand infantry troops were arranged into an open "V" formation, which was a type of the Yanxing Formation. The Black Eagle Army improved the ordinary Yanxing Formation based on the weapons and equipment. The front left wing was the Langwei Army of 15,000 people led by Wang Tengxiang, and the right wing was the Xiong Wei Army of 15,000 people led by Cao Bin. The central army was extremely strong and divided into two parts. The front was the Leopard Infantry Army led by He Wulang, and the rear was the Huwei Infantry Army of the Central Army, where the Emperor Hou Dayong of the Great Zhou Dynasty was located.

The Black Eagle Army has thousands of chariots equipped with Western Shu crossbows, which are extremely combat-effective in fighting on the plains. Each chariot has two Shu horses. The Shu horse is small in shape, but it endures hardship and has mixed food. It is most suitable to use it to pull a chariot.

These thousand chariots are divided into two parts, located on the left and right wings respectively. The Western Shu crossbow has an advantage, which is that it can turn at will. Therefore, five hundred chariots can include all front, back, left and right in the attack range.

The 20,000 cavalrymen left the phalanx and cruised behind the infantry and military formation. The 20,000 cavalry did not directly join the battle group at first. They were Hou Dayong's powerful weapon to lock his throat with one sword.

The 150,000 Khitan army commanded by Yelu Shulu, whose cavalry occupies 100,000 and infantry only 50,000. The two armies faced each other, and the Khitan army was extremely distributed. Several war horses ran on the Datun Plain, with military flags hudding, covering the sky with bad luck, dust was everywhere, horse hooves sounded, and the army was extremely powerful.

Yelu Shulu didn't know that the current Emperor of Great Zhou was the barbarian of Sumo and Moe who had captured him alive. He pointed to the Zhou army's strict but slightly dull formation and said to the general Yelu Sha around him: "It is said that the Emperor of Great Zhou has suffered great wars. Today he saw his formation. But Er, General Yelu, you lead your troops around from the left wing, go south from Lijiazhuang, and then rush the Zhou army from behind to disrupt the formation."

Seeing Yelu Sha and his men quietly leave, Yelu Shulu raised his horse whip and said to the general Xiao Yuanr: "Leave 10,000 people to protect the central army, and the other horses charge with all their might and fight to the death with the Zhou army. The Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Hou Dayong, is in the central army. You lead 20,000 iron-armored cavalry and attack the central army directly. As long as you capture Hou Dayong, the enemy will be in the leader, and the defeat will be determined."

Yelu Shulu has been emperor for more than ten years. Over the years, there have been constant wars in the Khitan territory. The barbarians in the north, the Uighurs in the west, and the Marini in the east have been constantly fighting with the Khitan army. As the lord of the Great Liao Dynasty, he has accumulated rich war experience in countless attempts. When he saw that the Zhou army was not large, he was ready to use his military strength to attack with thunder to completely eliminate the main force of the Zhou army.

Hou Dayong had a serious expression. Since the establishment of the Black Eagle Army, this was the largest decisive battle. If the main force of the Khitan could be eliminated in one battle, the victory of the Liao Dynasty was decided. If this battle was defeated, conquering the Khitan would have to go through more twists and turns. However, with the strength of the Black Eagle Army, he believed that the Black Eagle Army would definitely win in this battle.

With the sound of thunder, a sound of roar came from the Khitan army, and the war horses stepped on a cluster of yellow fog and rushed towards the Zhou army from all directions. Yelu Shulu had a 150,000 army, except for the 10,000 guards. Ten thousand troops went south, and 120,000 troops rushed towards the Zhou army like a flood.

The Black Eagle Army's training was so strict and the equipment was sophisticated. The war was so complex that it far exceeded that of the Khitan Army. They were not frightened by the crazy Khitan Army. They each held weapons and each stood on their posts, waiting for the officials to order.

Hou Dayong and Shi Hu stood on the temporary wooden command platform. Seeing that the Khitan army did not conduct a tentative attack at all, they launched a full-scale attack. They turned their heads and said to Shi Hu: "Yelu Shulu is not stupid. He did not use oil-adding tactics and knew to concentrate superior forces to fight annihilation war." Shi Hu was the commander-in-chief of this Datun Battle. He looked at the Khitan cavalry who could not see the border and said calmly: "The more Khitans come, the less we will lose." Then he ordered loudly: "Two-wing crossbows, three-section volleys."

After receiving the order, the commander blew three copper trumpets, one long, one short, and one long. The copper trumpet is a unique command whistle of the Western Shu Crossbow Camp. It has extremely strong penetration.

When the copper trumpet soared into the sky, the Western Shu crossbows on both sides of the left and right wings were fired out. After the transformation of the Western Shu crossbow, it can fire ten crossbow arrows at the same time at a time, and it can also continuously fire ten crossbow arrows in succession. One thousand crossbows, each crossbow is equipped with four people, and there are four thousand crossbow troops and two thousand war horses. The crossbow attacks are all three-stage, that is, one thousand crossbows are divided into three groups. Each group takes turns to shoot during attack, which can constitute a continuous attack power on the enemy.

Facing the overwhelming Khitan army, there was a loud bang, and more than three thousand thick crossbow arrows rushed towards the dense Khitan soldiers. They rushed to the front of the Khitan cavalry, like heavy sandbags, and fell heavily. In a blink of an eye, they were stepped into a ball of flesh by the battle surface behind. At this time, the Great Liao Dynasty was still in an upward period, and the Khitan soldiers and civilians were also full of vitality and confidence. Faced with such heavy casualties, the Khitan riders did not retreat, and launched an attack on the Zhou army on the wide plain as if they were homeless.

Seeing that the Khitan riders were about to rush forward, a few Black Eagle Army soldiers who had never been on the battlefield showed fear.

The stone tiger was still like a stone Buddha, with his eyes as clear as a knife, and ordered: "Gunpowder Formation." This gunpowder Formation is also the latest tactic of the Black Eagle Army. The principle is very simple: put black gunpowder, iron sheets, iron bullets and other debris into the barrel, and then insert it into the lead line to make a large explosive pack that can delay the explosion. Put four wooden barrels on the carriage, and the horse pulls the carriage blindfolds his eyes with a black cloth, then ignite the lead on the barrel, and then whip hard, and then drive the murderous devil into the enemy's formation.

This is the masterpiece of the military weapon supervisor Wang Jue. He made the gunpowder leads extremely exquisitely. There are different color segments on the leads, indicating the distance that can be burned. After a long period of training, the gunpowder array has been well trained. After ignition, the soldiers slapped the war horses hard, and the war horses were in pain and rushed out suddenly.

All these war horses were blindfolded, and they had no sense of direction. They rushed in towards the Khitan army in a daze. There were countless loud bangs, and the flowing powder barrels exploded in the Khitan army.

The 150,000 troops led by Yelu Shulu were all the Khitan's most tax-based imperial troops. After being attacked by the Western Shu crossbow, they could still charge forward regardless of casualties. However, when the gunpowder barrel exploded, the explosion was shocking. Although these Khitan men were brave, they were most afraid of the thunder, lightning, wind, and rain in nature. Now the sound of these gunpowder explosions is even better than the thunder in the world. In the shock of the Khitan men, many people retreated, and the Khitan army behind them was still moving forward, and there was a little chaos in the Khitan army.

During the chaos, the Western Shu crossbows were still attacking each other in a wave of their own heads. A large area of ​​the Khitan army fell. The undead had injured his hands and broken legs, and moaned helplessly on the ground.

Yelu Shulu did not expect that the Zhou army was so powerful. Looking at the warriors lying down, he said angrily: "Beat the drum hard, don't retreat." With the drum beats behind the Khitan Army, the Khitan soldiers cheered up again and desperately rushed towards the Great Zhou army. A group of black-armored riders suddenly stepped up from behind and rushed straight to the central army of the Black Eagle Army. This was the 20,000 iron-armored cavalry led by Xiao Yuanrang.

The Baowei Army is located in front of the central army and is also the protruding unit of the entire army. The leader is He Wulang, and the generals are Chen Meng, Wang Lantian, Duan Wuwei, and Wang Yansheng, all of whom are charging into battle. This is a steel knife specially used by Hou Dayong to smash the enemy's attacking ground.

With the sound of war drums, He Wulang waved his spear, and Chen Meng led 15,000 Leopard Army infantry to face the Khitan iron armored cavalry and prepared to resist.

Ten thousand soldiers were divided into three square arrays. In front of the square array is a chest-like infantry square shield, and there are spearheads at the bottom of the square shield. When arranged, they can be inserted into the soil. Behind the square shield are spearmen and crossbowmen. As an assault force, the Leopard Army has extremely well-deserved weapons. Each person has a five-tiger general crossbow, equipped with ten machine boxes, and a total of one hundred crossbow arrows. The entire Leopard Army has two million crossbow arrows. This equipment requires great financial resources. Therefore, after ten years of hard work in the Great Zhou Dynasty, only one assault force of the Leopard Army can be armed to the teeth.

The Khitan iron armored cavalry was about to rush in front of him. With a sharp whistle, the soldiers in the front raised the infantry shields, stabbed them hard to the ground, and then put down the two fastened support frames behind the shields. In this way, the infantry shields were extremely stable. Then, the shield-holding soldiers squatted down and held the square armor with their bodies. In a blink of an eye, an iron wall was erected around the infantry military formation. Countless crossbowmen and spearmen guarded behind the iron walls. A large number of crossbowmen held the crossbows of the Five Tiger Generals who could fire continuously, and continued to use short iron crossbows to shoot at the dense Khitan army.

The five tiger generals have a range of the shooting range of the crossbows that is not as good as the Huang Hua crossbow, but their short-range penetration ability is extremely strong and their firing speed is fast. The Khitan black armored cavalry quickly tasted the damage. A large area fell down in front of the iron wall, and a few riders rushed into the iron wall. They were assassinated by the dense spearmen.

The black-armored rider was extremely powerful. Although he suffered a heavy blow, he continued to rush up after killing red eyes. He charged several times, but he could not move the Black Eagle Army at all. Xiao Yuanrang was the number one general under Yelu Shulu. Seeing that the situation was wrong, he ordered: "Change the hunting formation." He also said: "Come the crossbowman of the army."

The black-armored riders are worthy of being the elite Khitan army. After hearing a few long-horn trumpets, they immediately changed their fighting style. The black-armored riders turned their horses, circled a large circle, and ran towards the left wing. While running, they shot at the Black Eagle Army with bows and arrows. Many of the Black Eagle Army soldiers in the formation were also shot.

This move is the strength of the nomadic people. At that time, the Huns liked to shoot arrows around their prey. Therefore, Xiao Yuan gave this move to the hunting formation. However, when the black armored knight changed its position, he was attacked by the left-wing Western Shu crossbow. When the black armored cavalry left the battlefield, more than 4,000 people died in front of the Black Eagle Army.

Xiao Yuanrang's deputy general was a Khitan royal family. He was shot off the horse by a thick crossbow and stepped into a meat group by the chaotic cavalry. If it were an ordinary army, he would inevitably lose his fighting spirit when encountering this situation. Xiao Yuanrang's iron armored cavalry were elite Khitan warriors. They took advantage of their cavalry's advantage and began to move towards the rear of the Black Eagle Army.

When watching the battleground in the distance, Yelu Shulu saw that the iron-armored cavalry had withdrawn from the battlefield due to heavy losses, he was anxious and angry, so he had to order his troops to retreat.

The Battle of Datun came to an end for the time being, and the Khitan army temporarily stopped its attack.

The Black Eagle Army did not take advantage of the victory to pursue it, but instead rested on the spot. One thousand chariots were weapons and tools for transporting grain and water. The Black Eagle soldiers sat on the spot, took the Tongxing cake with beads and beads and grass, and ate it with the water bag.

Hou Dayong rode a war horse and patrolled the Black Eagle Army's positions. The Khitan's first attack suffered tens of thousands of soldiers and generals, but the Black Eagle Army suffered extremely light casualties, which made all the Black Eagle Army soldiers excited and had a strong self-confidence. When he saw His Majesty coming in person, he burst into cheers.

In the afternoon, the Khitan army's formation changed, and dozens of angry soldiers appeared in the formation. In addition, hundreds of large wooden shields were made of wooden boards. Under the cover of anger and huge wooden shields, the Khitan infantry advanced step by step.

Thousands of archers bent their bows and arrows, forcing the Black Eagle Army's position. The Black Eagle Army has many crossbows, which is conducive to direct shooting and continuous shooting, and is powerful. The Khitan Army has many bows and arrows. Compared with crossbows, bows and arrows have disadvantages and advantages. The archers have pointed the arrow upwards and shot iron arrows into the sky. The iron arrows drew a beautiful parabola in the sky and fell into the Black Eagle Army formation with a roar, which caused many casualties to the Black Eagle Army.

Hou Dayong had two thousand cavalry in the middle of the army, and the leader was the one-eyed general Yang Jiye. Yang Jiye was the former Liu Jiye. He was the general of the Northern Han who surrendered to the Great Zhou Dynasty. He thought he had fought with the Black Diao Army for many years and would definitely die this time. He never expected that the Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Hou Dayong, valued him so much that he not only allowed him to enter the Black Diao Army directly, but also allowed him to follow him and command the two thousand cavalry of the personal guards.

Yang Jiye was the emperor's grandson in the Northern Han Dynasty, so he naturally understood the weight of the commander of the personal guards. He was a loyal and righteous person. In the Northern Han Dynasty, he was loyal to the king of the Northern Han Dynasty. When he arrived in the Great Zhou Dynasty, he was wholeheartedly loyal to the Emperor Dayong of the Great Zhou Dynasty. When Yang Jiye was in the Northern Han Dynasty, he led troops to guard the northern border all year round, fought countless battles with the Khitan army, and knew the consequences of the Khitan army. He knew that if the Khitan archers continued like this, the Black Eagle Army would suffer heavy casualties.

He slapped his horse to Hou Dayong and shouted: "Your Majesty, this will not work. Let the general lead five hundred cavalry to rush to the formation and kill the Khitan dog's archer."

Hou Dayong trusted Yang Lao Linggong, who was famous all over the world. Seeing that the situation was not optimistic, he nodded and said, "Go, fight quickly and decide quickly, don't fight in love."

After Yang Jiye received the order, he immediately held up his spear and walked out of the central army position and right-wing personnel from the side, leading five hundred cavalry to penetrate the Khitan army's bow and arrow positions.

After the Battle of Datun began, this was the first time that the Black Eagle Army took the initiative.

Yang Jiye and the five hundred elite soldiers were the most tax-produced cavalry in the Black Eagle Army. They were all excellent in riding skills and fierce in combat. After going around from the right wing, they immediately leaned over the horse's back, held a spear and ran towards the Khitan bow and arrow position.

Seeing that the Zhou cavalry was dispatched, the Khitan army sent a thousand cavalry to stop them. Yang Jiye grabbed the horse's belly, and five hundred cavalry forward with the sound of wind, forcing the thousand cavalry in half. After breaking through the enemy cavalry, they did not care about the fallen soldiers and gritted their teeth and rushed towards the Khitan archers.

Khitan archers were firing at the Zhou army's positions with all their might. Suddenly, hundreds of cavalry and Zhou army rushed into the formation. They had to put down their bows and arrows and draw out their waists to resist. The cavalry of the Black Eagle Army's personal guards and war horses were also carrying armor. After running at full speed, they were unstoppable. Most of the archers were assassinated in a blink of an eye, and the remaining archers had to run around.

Another Khitan cavalry surrounded from the front.

Yang Jiye rushed to the front, picked up the Khitan general with one shot, and shouted, "Those who blocked me died." Many riders have recognized Yang Jiye and said in surprise: "It's Liu Wudi."

Seeing that the Khitan riders were slightly depressed, Yang Jiye led the cavalry out of the encirclement of the Khitan cavalry. He took the lead and ran towards the west side. Hundreds of Khitan riders were chasing each other. They did not expect that the riding skills of these riders were no less than that of the Mongolians in the north.
Chapter completed!