Poor Family Chapter 864

  Chapter 864 Qinggang Trap

Li Chenghao's 10,000 iron cavalry went all the way south and arrived at Bole City at dusk. Bole City was originally a supply point for the Xixia army, but now the Song army has looted all the food and grass. The army city is empty and there is nothing. This makes Li Chenghao very worried. They are urgent The troops were dispatched without carrying food and grass, and they relied on supplies from Jingzhou and Shunzhou along the way. As a result, when they reached the south of Lingzhou, all sources of supplies disappeared. They did not have much food and grass to supply in Shunzhou. return trip.

   "General, we caught a spy!"

  Several soldiers pushed a heavily tied middle-aged man in front of Li Chenghao. The man knelt down and kowtowed: "General, I am not a spy, I am just a runaway slave."

  Li Chenghao used his sword to pry open his skirt, and there was a slave brand on his chest. Li Chenghao said coldly: "Are you Song slave?"

   "The villain is right!"

   "Then why don't you go south with the others?"

   "The villain's wife and children are in Xingqing Mansion. Da Song has no relatives. The villain doesn't want to go south and wants to go back to Xingqing Mansion, so he escaped halfway and begged the general for mercy!"

  Li Chenghao nodded and said: "You don't have to be afraid, I won't hurt you, but I want to know the details of going south, where are the warehouses and supplies of Baitongshan and Song Nu?"

   "They all went south, transported south on sheepskin rafts, and hundreds of thousands of Song slaves followed."

   "When did it happen?" Li Chenghao asked.

   "I started going south two days ago, but I walked slowly. The villain is the last batch of Song slaves, and I just escaped from the team at noon today."

  Li Chenghao was overjoyed. He passed by here at noon today. He could walk dozens of miles in half a day. The Baimachuan Grand Canyon is more than 100 miles long, and the cavalry can catch up. He asked quickly, "How many Song troops will follow?"

   "About a few thousand people!"

   "Are they all cavalry?"

  The man shook his head, "There are no cavalry, only infantry!"

   Li Chenghao was elated, and said to the man: "As long as your information is true, I will let you go to Xingqing Mansion afterwards."

  The man kowtowed again and again, "Thank you, General!"

  Li Chenghao turned back and shouted: "Pass my order, the army will speed up, and must catch up with the enemy before dawn!"

   Ten thousand cavalry speeded up and chased along the shallow river bed towards the canyon

Just after night fell, the army arrived at Qinggang Canyon. Li Chenghao looked up at the military camp on the mountain for a moment. It was dark, without a gleam of light, and he couldn't see anything clearly. It was not easy to go up the mountain to investigate. At least forty detours were required. Well, they don't have time.

  Li Chenghao can only bet that there are no troops stationed above. He thought for a while and said to one of his subordinates: "You lead a hundred brothers to go there first. If there is no abnormality, light a torch to signal!"

  The subordinates received the order and led a hundred cavalry to rush into the canyon. About a quarter of an hour later, the light of torches appeared seven or eight miles away, and the hundred cavalry had successfully passed through the Qinggangxia military stronghold.

  Li Chenghao felt relieved, and immediately ordered: "Pass my order, the army will enter the canyon!"

   Ten thousand iron cavalry were launched, and they rushed into the canyon in a mighty manner.

Gong Zuwen watched the Xixia cavalry in the canyon from the mountain. There were as many as 10,000 cavalry. On the low wall, 900 Song troops were ready. To deal with the Xixia army was nothing more than rolling logs, stones and firearms. , Fire oil has no effect here, iron fire thunder and shock thunder are enough to kill the enemy.

The cavalry had already passed halfway, and Gong Zuwen hadn't ordered an attack yet, so the soldiers were secretly anxious. At this time, a general whispered to Gong Zuwen: "The cavalry is heading south at full speed, and I'm afraid they will be able to catch up with the people of Song in a day. It's better to let them get out of trouble.”

Gong Zuwen shook his head, "The enemy army has no supplies along the way, so they won't go too far. If there is another blockade ahead, the cavalry's front and rear paths will be blocked. Even if this army is not completely wiped out, at least half of it will be explained here. .”

  Will there be any blocking ahead? Of course there will be, Gong Zuwen ordered Yang Du to lead a thousand people to stop the attack at the end of Qinggang Gorge more than ten miles away. Unless the enemy does not want horses, they will not be able to cross the fortifications built by the Song Army.

  Gong Zuwen waited patiently for the opportunity. At this time, more than half of the Xixia army had passed by, and the last 2,000 people were entering the canyon. The time was finally ripe, and Gong Zuwen gave an order, "Shoot!"

  The long-awaited 500 bowmen of the Song Army fired their arrows down the mountain at the same time, and at the same time, 300 soldiers threw iron fire mines into the canyon.

The sudden attack caused the cavalry to be in chaos. Although the iron kite cavalry is a heavy armored cavalry, and both men and horses wear armor, there are only 3,000 Xixia real iron kite cavalry. Centaur armor.

This is because Xixia is limited by its national power. It is impossible for 80,000 iron kites to use iron armor. Xixia does not have so much pig iron to make equipment. Except for 3,000 core cavalry who are equipped with iron armor, the remaining 77,000 cavalry use leather armor. This kind of leather armor can resist ordinary bows and arrows at a distance of fifty steps, but it can't resist the **** arm crossbow of the Song Army absolutely. Even if a shield is used, it will be shot through together with the shield.

Five hundred god-armed crossbows shot in, and more than two hundred soldiers were hit by the arrows one after another. They fell from their horses screaming. The sudden change surprised the last two thousand cavalrymen. At this moment, three hundred iron fire thunders fell from the sky.

Tiehuolei has never been able to become the mainstream of the Song army. The main weight is too large. A Tiehuolei weighs ten catties, which is not much different from Zhentianlei of forty or fifty catties, but its power is much smaller than Zhentianlei. Many people prefer to use Zhentianlei. On the contrary, Feihuolei, the mutant brother of Tiehuolei, shines in the defensive battle of the city.

Today Gong Zuwen used iron fire mines, 300 iron fire mines were thrown from the air, except for dozens of mines that fell into the water and became dumb mines, the remaining 260 iron fire mines exploded violently before entering the water up.

The shock wave of the iron fire thunder was not big, and it relied entirely on the flying iron sheets and nails to injure the horses and horses. For a while, the people in the canyon turned their backs, screams and hisses continued. The horses were frightened and turned around and ran wildly. Falling off his horse, he was trampled mercilessly by the horses behind him, and the cavalry suffered heavy casualties.

This time the Song army carried iron fire mines that were specially designed for cavalry. Each iron fire mine was filled with two hundred tiny thorns. When the iron fire mine exploded, the thorns also covered the riverbed of the canyon at the same time. The retreat of the cavalry was cut off.

Two thousand cavalry were in a mess, and Li Chenghao was stunned. There was an ambush by the Song Army in the Dazhai on the mountain. At this time, the ambush of the rear army made him helpless. The war horse also began to get restless.

   Li Chenghao suddenly came to his senses and shouted: "Block the ears of the war horse!"

  The soldiers took out the flax and stuffed them into the ears of the horses, and the horses calmed down a little.

Not long after, the explosion in the canyon gradually subsided, and only a few hundred cavalry came rushing from the mouth of the canyon. The other cavalry were either killed or injured, or their horses fled in fright. Only four hundred of the two thousand rear cavalry came over and followed. team.

   Li Chenghao was very depressed, he turned around and shouted: "Where is that Song Nu? Pull him to see me!"

   After a long while, a soldier reported: "General, that Song Nu was with the rear army and did not follow."

"What!"

   Li Chenghao suddenly felt that he had been fooled. I am afraid that the man Song Jun deliberately stayed in Bole City as a spy to lure him into Qinggang Gorge.

   "General, what should we do?" Deputy General Ying Tainian asked in a low voice.

  Ying Tainian is the youngest son of Yinggui, Minister of the Ministry of War. He is only in his early twenties this year. He is skilled in martial arts and is good at riding and shooting. He is a fierce general in the Xixia Army.

Li Chenghao was a little confused. His original plan was to go south to chase the retreating supplies and Song Nu. When he found out that he had been deceived, his original plan was shaken. Facing the danger of food and grass being cut off, both soldiers and horses will starve, and their combat effectiveness will decline rapidly.

  Another reason is the real combat effectiveness of the iron kite army. The iron kite cavalry formed at the beginning of the founding of Xixia was composed of the elite selected from thousands of troops. They were extremely brave and good at fighting, and three hundred cavalry could be invincible.

However, the iron kite army has been established for nearly 90 years, but it has never experienced any war. Today's iron kite cavalry is composed of noble children from various tribes, and has become a symbol. Although the iron kite is well-equipped, it has no actual combat experience, no different from a vase.

   Li Chenghao knew that the iron kite was not very effective in combat, and wanted to lead the army to retreat, but he was worried that he would not be able to explain when he went back, so he hesitated for a while.

  Seeing that the general was hesitant, Ying Tainian secretly despised him, so he suggested: "It's better to lead the army one step ahead and see the situation ahead."

  Li Chenghao had nothing to do at this time, so he nodded and agreed to Ying Tainian's suggestion, "You lead a thousand cavalry forward, and report to me immediately if there is any situation!"

   "First Battalion follow me!"

With a wave of his hand, Ying Tainian led a thousand cavalry to gallop to the south, but the cavalry only ran a few miles, and there was a faint scream in front of them. After a while, Ying Tainian came back with hundreds of cavalry in a panic, fists clasped. Said: "General Qi, the Song army built fortifications in the narrow place in front, and the arrows rained sharply. The brothers suffered more than 300 casualties. It is really difficult to pass."

  At this moment, Li Chenghao made up his mind, and he shouted, "The whole army breaks out with me!"

  Li Chenghao turned his horse's head and rushed out of the Qinggang Canyon first, but what greeted him was a thousand iron fire thunders and two hundred shock thunders that the Song army had already prepared.

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end