"What's going on?!"
Wei Ming Cha Ge roared loudly under his black bull banner.
He had no choice, even though the result was nothing compared to the casualties and delays caused by the Song army's cavalry skirmishers. But the problem was that the Song army's cavalry raid was completely expected, but this phenomenon was beyond Chago's understanding... As a commander-in-chief and a battlefield commander who was about to fight a big battle, he could never allow this to happen.
Following Chago's stern questioning, several officers and bodyguards split into small groups and went out in all directions, rescuing and gathering the troops while trying to intercept and interrogate them.
Soon, an attendant hurried back and brought back an unexpected but reasonable answer to Cha Ge: "Your Majesty! Most of the attacking soldiers are local Tanguts... They said that according to the rules of the Song army, whether you bring back a head or a living person, you will be treated as a regular soldier with a salary of fifty coins a year! Even if you just rush to the shore and turn back, you will also be rewarded with three dou of grain!"
Cha Ge was stunned, his body swaying on the wet warhorse before he stopped.
But after a moment, realizing that he had no other options, he hurriedly turned back, but only urged his troops to cross the river quickly, move forward quickly, and assemble the troops in the open wheat fields.
But it's not that simple.
Even after turning his attention back to the war itself, Chago still encountered difficulties... The speed of crossing the river was too slow, and the number of Song army's cavalry soldiers was increasing. It seemed that every time a group of Western Xia troops crossed the river, a corresponding proportion of cavalry soldiers would join in the beach harassment.
The actual number comparison between the two sides has always been in a suitable range of two to one to three to one.
Quantitative change leads to qualitative change. As the numbers of both sides increase sharply, the bloodiness of this raid is also increasing.
Gradually, as batch after batch of Song cavalrymen continued to harass and hunt on the beach, even at the cost of unnecessary casualties in a harassment war in order to continue to delay the pace of the Western Xia army's assembly, Cha Ge keenly realized that the Song army sent out these troops not just for a little harassment... there must be a greater tactical purpose.
But he had no way to deal with it.
However, the mystery was soon solved. When the Western Xia army had exceeded 20,000, suddenly, with flags swaying and rolling in the distance, and dozens of trumpets sounding together, the lightly armed cavalry, whose number had approached ten thousand, suddenly abandoned the Dangxiang people on the beach and retreated to the north and south sides.
However, there were also a small number of Tangut cavalry who had obviously just joined the group and had no sensitivity to discipline. They were unable to withdraw in time and became prey of the Xixia people.
Cha Ge did not care about the gains and losses, nor did he pay attention to the two groups of light cavalry that withdrew. He just kept giving orders, asking the troops to quickly organize the horses and camels and quickly gather around the general... At this time, gathering the troops was the only thing to do.
But not long after, the attendant behind him suddenly called out to Cha Ge: "My lord, it seems like there is a red flag waving on the top of Lingzhou City?!"
Cha Ge immediately turned around and saw a red flag waving on the temporarily raised watchtower on the top of Lingzhou City, which was not far from the Yellow River behind him... This made Cha Ge and the attendant feel confused, because the red flag meant that a large army was attacking, but on this side of the river bank, it was clearly a large group of Song army cavalry who had just dispersed... But at the same time, Cha Ge also noticed that the speed of crossing the river for those troops that were dragging on the other side of the river was greatly slowing down, which seemed to confirm the correctness of the red flag.
When he thought of this, Cha Ge turned around, stood firmly on the horse under the black bull's banner, looked to the west in silence, and waited quietly.
After a moment, everything was answered - above the green wheat waves in front, under the black body of the Helan Mountains, a red line changed from being vague to being obvious and clear, and it became wider and more dynamic, until it became a clear red wave.
On the beachhead, the Xixia people's movements became smaller and smaller, their actions became more and more cautious, the atmosphere became more and more tense, but their actions also became more hurried and flustered... After all, everyone knew what that red wave was.
The Xixia officers also realized why the Song army did not guard the river defenses before, and why they sent so many light cavalry to suppress the harassment? The Song army was not so arrogant as to give up the attack halfway across the river, but they realized that the terrain here was open. If they set up their battle array along the river, the Xixia army could easily see them from the high ground on the other side of the river. Why would the Xixia army charge into your battle array?
If you want to attack the enemy halfway across the river, you can only hide far away like you are doing now, let the scattered soldiers harass and contain the enemy, and then wait until the Western Xia army is really halfway across the river and cannot turn back, and then take the opportunity to approach.
Almost every soldier in the Song army was on horseback. It took them only the time it took to squeeze a pot of camel milk from the time they appeared to the time they arrived within a mile of the Western Xia army formation. However, after arriving at the designated battle position, the Song army did not launch an immediate attack. Instead, they calmly stood their ground and sent messengers over.
“My commander Qu has some gifts for His Royal Highness Prince Jin of Western Xia. One is the head of Xue Yuanli, the governor of Xingqing Prefecture, and the other is the head of Weiming Zhangli, the governor of Shunzhou… Commander Qu once said that the reason Shunzhou has not been conquered is that they are waiting for Prince Jin to cross the river. Once Prince Jin has crossed the river, the useless Zhangli will naturally die.” The messenger stopped just outside the range of an arrow shot from the Western Xia army formation. After the two attendants behind him threw the two objects on the ground in front of the formation, he left a few words and rode away.
The Western Xia army was in turmoil for a while.
And the commotion was getting bigger and bigger… The attendant couldn’t stand it any longer and called out to Cha Ge again: “My king, look back at Lingzhou City.”
Chago, who had been unmoved before, turned around and remained calm - even though he saw with his own eyes that many tribes that stayed on the other side of the river had stopped their advance at some point. And under the banner of Weiming Yunge, who had not yet crossed the river, there seemed to be some abnormal movements. This was the main reason for the army's commotion.
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