January 24, the seventh year of the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty, is a day worth commemorating.

The Liao people chose to retreat in order to advance, pretending to withdraw from Xijin, hoping to lure the Song army deeper, and then counterattack and catch the Song army off guard.

However, at this critical moment, the commander-in-chief of the Song army, Fan Zhongyan, made a decision that went against his ancestors.

In the past, the Song Dynasty was timid in the face of such a situation. Not to mention taking the initiative to attack, even if the Liao people were riding on their necks, they could only stay in the city and dared not open the door.

Now Fan Zhongyan gave the order for the entire army to attack and surprise attack the Liao army.

Moreover, there is no organizational discipline at all. The army is the unit, and the commanders are middle and senior generals such as the army commander.

The Liao people were caught off guard. They never expected that the Song army would dare to do this. They did not even form a battle array or organize the army, but just rushed out in groups of stragglers.

"What does my husband mean?"

"oh?"

Not long after, Yelu Zongzhen's large army finally arrived at the battlefield.

Fan Zhongyan said to Wei Huanzhi, Wang Su and others around him.

Some of the ownerless war horses ran around in panic, some stood there at a loss, and some even walked to the river to leisurely drink water and eat grass.

Therefore, even if they arrived at the battlefield, they could only see the chaotic scene in the wilderness around them, with loud gunshots. The small groups of Song soldiers retreated when they saw them, and the defeated Liao soldiers also came over. They still didn't know what the specific situation was.

In fact, the current situation in Xijin City is similar to what Xiao Xiaoyou analyzed.

Therefore, when Yelu Zongzhen regrouped his large army and rushed back, part of his central army and the rear army that was left behind were almost all intercepted by the Song army. Now most of the rear army is in Xijin City.

The Song army was coming in and out of Kaiyang Gate, escorting prisoners back to the camp.

"A cowardly, incompetent person!"

However, the current Liao army is no longer the Liao army that could come and go freely in the past. They need to carry heavy artillery, which makes their mobility much worse than before.

Thick smoke billowed up into the blue sky, illuminating half of the sky south of Xijin.

In the chaos, every few hundred meters in the wilderness, one could see the corpses of Liao soldiers, as well as various scattered weapons, flags, and armor.

Even if firearms were used, if one could not adjust one's mentality and calm one's fear in time when encountering a Liao charge, one might turn around and run away out of fear if one was not careful.

The battle was very chaotic, which resulted in the Song army being unable to capture all the Liao soldiers at once. Each time they captured people, they captured hundreds at a time, which was like ants moving house.

At this moment, Fan Zhongyan had already entered the city and was standing at the Kaiyang Gate in the south. In the distance, about one kilometer away from him, was the raging flames inside the Danyang Gate.

"Report!"

"Are they still fighting in the city?"

The 200,000 troops had to retreat in an orderly manner, some in the front and some in the back. Otherwise, if they retreated together, if something unexpected happened, it would cause the three armies to collapse instantly.

They are all scout teams, and their team leaders come here to report. The battlefield is too dangerous now, and they can only go deep into it to gather intelligence.

If it is the latter, that would be even better, attacking the Song army from both front and back.

Never argue with a fool, because he will drag your IQ down to his level and then crush you with his rich experience.

A Liao general replied.

But in most cases, the Song army's firearms had the upper hand first, and the Liao army was defeated with another round of attacks.

Therefore, the Liao army evacuated in an orderly manner.

There is a famous fool's law in later generations.

This question is very critical. If the Liao army is still fighting with the Song army in the city, it means that Xijin has not completely fallen.

"Then we should send a small force to engage them and stop them near the city gate. The city is in chaos right now, and the Liao people will be very anxious. As long as we stop them at the city gate, they won't be able to figure out the situation inside the city."

"Why?"

After a while, Xiao Xiaoyou said in a deep voice, "Therefore, I think the best outcome now is that although many of our troops have been defeated, some are still entangled with the Song army. We should gather up the defeated soldiers and set off for Xijin immediately."

But even so, a large number of buildings in this government office, which is about 800 meters long, 500 meters wide and covers an area of ​​400,000 square meters, are still engulfed in flames.

"Hmm"

However, during the reign of Emperor Shengzong of Liao, there was an incident where a Han Chinese mid-level and low-level officer killed his superior and led his troops to surrender to the Song Dynasty. Therefore, all the Liao troops were replaced by Khitan officers, and the Han people could only serve as low-level officers at most.

"You are talking nonsense. I had over a thousand soldiers, but now there are less than two hundred left."

"We haven't found out yet. We do know that the Song army entered the city, and soon after, a fire broke out in the city."

Yelu Zongzhen narrowed his eyes.

“No.”

Things turned out just as they said, the Song army was indeed defeated head-on.

The sky gradually darkened, and only the last rays of sunset remained. The sunset glow obscured the sky, and the world seemed gray and shrouded in fog.

Xiao Ying analyzed, "This only shows that the Song army in the city was too busy to take care of itself and couldn't rally in time. Fan Zhongyan miscalculated this time, thinking he could win by engaging in a chaotic battle, but he didn't realize it would be a recipe for death."

"Your Majesty, speed is of the essence in war. We cannot delay."

Can the Liao army compare with the Song army?

Yelu Zongzhen raised his head and looked into the distance. The flames were still burning, and the Xijin City shrouded in thick smoke seemed to be a sea of ​​fire.

"Have you seen the Song army coming out?"

Even though the Song army had reformed its military system in recent years, it still had some tactical gaps with the Liao army. After all, the Song army relied on battle formations in the early years, so it was not easy to catch up in a short period of time.

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