After several years in Hedong, the Jin army generals were familiar with geography. After a rough calculation, they found that the distance of 120 miles was within the limit of a long-distance charge by war horses (200 miles).
If we travel this distance quickly, we can reach the destination in two or three hours (four to six hours), which means before midnight. If we travel slower, for example, if we want to leave room for retreat and slow down the horse's speed, the destination will be after midnight at the latest.
All in all, this was a raid that was within the theoretical radius of cavalry combat... and the Jurchen cavalry had definitely played more difficult and extreme tactical moves than this... but it was still very dangerous and a test of the troops' capabilities.
Especially now, the Jin army seems to have lost the spirit to shake mountains and cut rivers, and it is not known whether they can hold on.
But the fact is that Wanyan Zhehe carried out the military order without fail. At midnight, without being sure how many people had fallen behind, this veteran of the Jin army successfully arrived at the pass. After a little preparation, he began to set fire to the extremely simple Song army camp.
This is cavalry, this is the power and significance of elite cavalry.
Cavalry has never had any strategic mobility. No cavalry can march day and night without logistics, or fight over a distance of three thousand miles in half a month. But within a few days, tactically, they can do things that infantry cannot do or even think of.
Since Wanyan Zhehe had launched a surprise attack, fires broke out and shouts of killing shook the sky. Immediately afterwards, Balisu also led his troops to launch an assault from the front of the pass.
To be honest, Li Yanxian underestimated the enemy.
He is also a human being. After the death of his old rival Lou Shi, after sitting in silence for eight years, the entire army marched north. As the only commander-in-chief who held a large stronghold on the other side of the Yellow River, unlike Han Shizhong's pre-war attitude, he was extremely eager to stretch his fists and become the vanguard of the main attack direction.
He did take the lead in seizing Tieling Pass, but the troops were too exhausted, and once he seized the pass, he felt an inexplicable sense of security.
Moreover, he did not make any mistakes after arriving at Tieling Pass - after capturing Tieling Pass, he immediately set up camp on both sides of the pass, and did not allow the defeated troops in the north of the pass to enter the pass, but only allowed them to set up camp behind the pass. Then, without time to deal with the melee during the day, he sent scouts across the battlefield that had just subsided to investigate the movements of the Jin army.
But as soon as Balisu withdrew his troops who had fought in daytime, he urged Wanyan Zhehe to attack in darkness.
So, he just didn't make a prediction.
But after all, he still underestimated the enemy, but this underestimation was not in his own mind, but in his reckless advance for the sake of gaining credit. Because of his recklessness, his army fell into a state of extreme exhaustion, and this state caused the army to actually lose control and organizational ability in the dark... In a word, he overestimated his army and underestimated the determination of the Jin army, and he should have informed Han Shizhong earlier.
At the same time, what is more intuitive and fatal is that the combat effectiveness of Li Yanxian's troops is indeed mixed, which can be easily seen from the battle process.
The chaos started from Yan Ping's troops. The tired soldiers encountered a night attack. The hastily erected camp was easily trampled by the Jin army, and the troops dispersed into the night. But soon, the Jin army's raiding troops were stopped by the second camp, that is, Dong Xian's troops... Dong Xian was recognized as a greedy person, but he was also recognized as a good fighter. The chaos in his defense area was obviously slowed down, which gave the Song army a chance to breathe.
Li Yanxian climbed the pass and looked at the scene from afar, his face as gloomy as water, but he had no good solution.
As for night raids, it has been like this since ancient times. He could only stay inside the pass and stabilize the camps from the inside out. If he really sent out troops to rescue at night, with the level of his troops and horses in the outer areas, plus the current state of exhaustion, the number of soldiers devoured by the chaos itself would far exceed the casualties of the rushing cavalry itself... And again, the army was too exhausted.
Moreover, this is the south of the pass, which is an organized army. The north of the pass is already in chaos. The rebel army and the small remnants of the imperial camp's central army, which had just gathered after a whole day of fighting, were simply attacked and their camps were blown up by the sudden attack.
Fortunately, their experience during the day taught them that they could go into the mountains.
"Jiedu."
In the chaos, a man followed Li Yanxian's personal guards and hurried to the pass. He greeted Zhang Qi, the deputy general of Dongxian. "My commander asked me to report that the Jin army can't gain an advantage here, and it seems that they are preparing to withdraw and attack from another camp..."
"I see." Li Yanxian took a deep breath and said in a cold tone.
Zhang Qi, who was standing nearby, took the opportunity to take a look down and understood why Jiedu Li acted like that. Here in Guannan, of the seven camps of the Song army, one had collapsed, one was in battle, and of the remaining five, only three were fully lit, with two half-lit and somewhat chaotic... Obviously, when facing the surprise attack, these two camps used this method to remind the Jin army that they were a weak army and could be attacked!
Zhang Qi wanted to persuade Li Yanxian, but he didn't know what to say for a moment... In today's battle, the Song army's underestimation of the enemy, greed for merit, and arrogance were clearly revealed.
This is not just a problem faced by just one or two individuals. It is a systematic problem that exists in the imperial army after three years of propaganda, recuperation and generous treatment.
There will definitely be all kinds of weird chaos in other places, and we will have to pay with blood to learn a lesson.
As he was thinking this, Zhang Qi suddenly felt that the light in front of him seemed to be brighter. He looked towards the camp at Guanxia, but found that it was only a moment and the situation at the camp at Guanxia had not changed fundamentally.
For a moment, Zhang Boyu (Zhang Qi's pen name) thought that his eyes were blinded by a light somewhere in the night, but the next moment, he noticed that Li Yanxian, Li Jiedu, who had a gloomy face, no longer looked at the chaos in the camp below, but looked towards the southeast.
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