Chapter 375: Fast Man and Fast Horse
Prince Han of the Song Dynasty has said so. As the commander-in-chief of the Jin army in Hedong, and having brought the Five-Colored Sun Flag, Balisu certainly cannot retreat like this. If he really retreats like this, the morale of the army will be completely lost.
So, from the evening of October 6th to the afternoon of October 8th, in just two days and nights, the Jin army and the Song army engaged in continuous and intensive fighting in the narrow area north of Tieling Pass and south of the Ruishui River.
Among them, there were fourteen fully measurable frontal battles in which both sides deployed more than a thousand troops.
Except for the small-scale cavalry confrontation in the evening of the sixth day, starting from the second day, the commanders of the two armies almost unanimously chose a similar strategy, that is, to send troops in a dispersed but organized manner... If the Jurchens took the initiative to attack, they would usually use Meng'an as a unit, with a minimum of five or six hundred cavalrymen, and as the day went on, perhaps with the arrival of auxiliary troops behind them, they would start to form an organized team of a thousand people, half cavalry and half infantry. This was also the traditional tactic of the Jin army. If the Song army took the initiative to attack, they would usually choose a commander to lead a varying number of his own subordinates into battle, with as few as one or two thousand and as many as four or five thousand.
No matter which side attacks, the other side will send out troops of equal strength to respond, or basically respond in a ratio of one to two to one to three of cavalry and infantry.
As for the selection criteria, both sides were in sync. Balisu would go into battle in order according to the sequence of the marching ten thousand households, and whoever's turn it was would be the one to go; at the Guan Shang stage, the three Jiedushi sat still. On the first day of the battle, Wang Shixiong, who had killed a Jin army soldier Puliyan (deputy Mouke, captain of fifty cavalrymen), came back with a lottery tube in his hand, and needed people to go into battle. Marshal Han drew one casually, and without even looking at it, he handed it to Deputy Governor Jie Yuan. Whoever drew the lottery would lead his troops into battle unconditionally.
In addition, both sides did not forget to tighten their fences. The army camps in front and behind Tieling Pass became more and more solid, and Balisu also withdrew the entire army camp to the north bank of the Huishui River, and let Wanyan Zhehe, who was slightly injured, lead the troops that returned that day to stay in Quwo City behind him.
Combat is just weird like that.
It was a fierce battle, and it was definitely a fierce battle. The frequency of the fighting was there, and it was impossible for them to just fake fight after entering the battlefield. The number of casualties was also there, so how could it not be intense?
But although it is tacitly understood, there are also some tacit understandings.
It was as if after the surprise attack phase after the war, both sides found the chaos and uncontrollability unbearable and wanted to take the opportunity to adjust and stabilize the battle line so as to build strong camps, fight a stupid battle, form a confrontation and prepare for a decisive battle.
The subsequent development of the war situation seemed to be moving in this direction.
At dusk on the eighth day of October, Fan Yihong, the commander of Li Qiong's army, led his subordinates who were reorganized from the Eight Character Army and arrived at Tieling Pass first.
That night, a messenger from Liang Xing's army, the most powerful unit in the Taihang rebel army, rushed out of Chenguan Pass and brought the news that Liang Xing's army had failed in its attempt to block the Longde Prefecture army on the other side of Chenguan Pass.
However, the Jin army in Longde Prefecture could do nothing, because the Song army had already set up camp at the Xiling Pass at the exit of Chenguanxing. The reinforcements from the Eight Character Army, which were extremely familiar with the Taihang Mountains, starting with Fan Yihong and ending with Mengde's army that arrived the next day, all moved directly into the prepared camps as soon as they arrived.
The Jin army could break through the Taihang righteous army, but it was unlikely to break through the Eight Character Army, which was once the Taihang righteous army but is now the main force of the Imperial Camp, at the mountain pass.
In fact, the war that broke out on October 9th fully verified this point.
On this day, at least 10,000 Jin troops rushed out of the Chen Pass and directly attacked the Song army camp at the Xiling Pass. At the same time, Balisu also led the army of the Huishui River, but took the Jiang County passage that Wanyan Zhehe attacked that day and night, trying to open up Jiang County and try to connect with the Jin army reinforcements in Longde Prefecture.
This was a very serious military situation. Han Shizhong did not dare to be negligent. Although he still sat firmly at the pass, he sent Ma Kuo to station in Jiangxian County and asked Li Yanxian to immediately lead his troops out of the pass to attack the direction of the Huishui River, trying to bite the tail of Balisu from the north of the pass and force the other side to return for support.
The battle was safe and sound. The Jin army was separated by the Jiang Mountain that stretched for dozens of miles, and it was impossible to organize an assault force to reach the city directly. Not to mention the county seat of Jiang County, even the Song army's increasingly large and mutually supportive camps were difficult to break through. The Song army was not unprepared. Just in this broken place, dozens of veteran generals who had been used to fighting came to their senses and took precautions early - there had been constant fighting in the north of the pass in the past few days, and they also mobilized local civilians and the aiding rebels in the south of the pass to urgently dig several simple trenches, supplemented by simple fences, to form several military connection lines similar to corridors to connect Tieling Pass-Jiang County-Xiling Pass, and also to ensure logistics and hinder the Jin army cavalry.
In this situation, both sides had no choice but to cease fighting after a whole day of fierce fighting.
But what is interesting is that the reinforcements from Longde Prefecture did not retreat directly. Instead, they set up camps. Balisu's army did not withdraw directly to the north of the Huishui River. Instead, it sent Wanhu Tuhesu to set up camps on the south bank of the upper reaches of the Huishui River, near the Jiangxian Passage. The two sides responded to each other from a distance, as if they were trying to pincer the Song army from the north and south, maintain military pressure, and then hold out here waiting for reinforcements to arrive for a decisive battle.
But this behavior has caused some people to have doubts.
"I naturally knew that something was wrong."
On the morning of October 11th, Han Shizhong noticed that the weather was getting a little cold as soon as he got up. He hurriedly drank a bowl of mutton soup, ordered a hot pancake, and went straight to the pass. However, he saw the two large flags on the pass shaking slightly, and many Song army soldiers were a little timid. He frowned even more, and just as he sat down, Li Yanxian, who had been waiting there early, told him bluntly that the situation was not right.
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