The south bank of the river mouth is now in ruins.
The thousands of Xixia soldiers who rushed out left behind a field of corpses and fled westward in panic, leaving behind even their baggage.
The Western Xia army on the north bank witnessed with their own eyes the disastrous defeat of their own defenders in the camps and forts to the south.
Li Yuanhao had a small number of artillery pieces. This time, he had to cross Qishan Mountain to raid Qingtang, so naturally he didn't bring any with him. Later, he temporarily transferred a batch from Zhuolao City, plus a batch seized from Qingtang City, totaling only more than 50 pieces.
These artillery pieces were all arranged in Miaochuan City, Huangzhou, because Li Yuanhao himself knew that if his strategy was successful, the Song army would definitely think that his main force was in the west.
In this way, the main force of the Song army attacked the west, and he deployed the main force to the east. Then, no matter whether the Song army chose to attack or defend, the main force in the east could act accordingly.
Li Yuanhao's entire strategic mission was actually very simple. He knew that it was impossible to destroy the Northwestern Army of the Song Dynasty in one battle, so he had to defend the west and attack the east. The two sides fought with bayonets, striving to achieve a strategic victory on the east side and support the Liao Kingdom's large-scale southward advance.
In order to complete this strategy, Li Yuanhao had to use his limited artillery to defend the city. In this way, when the Song army attacked Miaochuan City, it would encounter the obstruction of more than 50 artillery pieces.
Therefore, the defenders in the river mouth area were no different from a symbolic interception. Without heavy artillery, facing the Song army's firearms was like chopping melons and vegetables.
They were extremely brave, waving their scimitars, howling like wolves, and galloping towards the Song army on horseback, as if anyone who stood in their way would be torn into pieces.
And then nothing happened.
The Song army rode on horseback and took turns shooting several times. Large groups of Western Xia cavalry fell down and died silently. They were fifty feet away when they suddenly fell off their horses as if they were hit hard.
This obviously scared the rest of the Western Xia army. They immediately turned their horses' heads, looked terrified, shouted something, and fled in panic.
Watching their receding figures, Jia Kui spat under his horse, spitting out the dust that had just flown into his mouth. Then he squinted his eyes and looked at the dust flying in the distance, muttering, "They can't withstand a single blow."
"General, look."
The guard next to him pointed into the distance.
Jia Kui looked in the direction he pointed and saw countless Western Xia soldiers on the north bank of the Huangshui River staring at the scene in amazement.
"hehe."
Jia Kui smiled, rode his horse to the bank of the Huangshui River, and squinted his eyes to look at the opposite bank.
There was a sudden commotion on the other side of the river.
Many Xixia soldiers on the north bank also had terrified expressions on their faces, with their eyes wide open and their mouths slightly open, as if they were saying - don't come over here!
"There must be boats in their camp. Search them for me. If there are a few small boats, I will clear out the ones to the north as well."
Jia Kui then shouted to the soldiers behind him.
"yes."
The soldiers rushed into the camp on the south bank.
As Jia Kui guessed, there were indeed several boats in the camp on the south bank, which were used for communication with the north bank.
Soon they had dragged six small boats from the camp into the nearby river.
“Up, up, up!”
Jia Kui led the team personally, with more than 20 people on each small boat, and about a hundred people were on board.
The Huangshui River was not very turbulent, and the group swam across quickly.
While they were still halfway there, there was another commotion on the north bank, but a moment later a Xixia general shouted something loudly in Xixia language.
Then the Xixia soldiers took out their bows and crossbows from their horses' bellies, began to draw their bows and put arrows on them, and waited quietly for the enemy to enter the range of their bows and crossbows.
"Stop the boat, stop the boat quickly."
Jia Kui shouted, and when they got on the boat, they tied several large stones weighing hundreds of pounds with ropes to serve as anchors.
Since it was not the flood season of the Huangshui River, the boat quickly stabilized.
When the Western Xia soldiers on the other side saw them stop, they thought they were scared and shouted loudly. Their faces changed from the previous fear to bursts of strange laughter and screams, as if they were mocking the cowardice of the Song army.
However, Jia Kui narrowed his eyes, measured the distance, and then said, "Fire!"
"Fire!"
The soldiers on the ship squatted or stood at the bow or side of the ship and began to pull the trigger towards the opposite bank.
"Bang bang bang bang bang bang!"
Flames and white smoke spewed out of the muzzles of hundreds of guns at the same time, and then more than ten people fell down on the opposite bank.
It was only at this point that the Xixia soldiers on the other side realized something was wrong.
The enemy was at least seventy or eighty feet away from them, which is about two hundred meters. This was beyond the range of bows and crossbows, but the enemy could still hit them.
Although their accuracy was poor, they could not withstand the large number of Xixia soldiers standing in a long line by the river, and the riverbank was full of them.
No matter how erratic the bullets were, it was still easy to hit them, especially since they were riding on war horses, making them a clear target.
Many Xixia soldiers were not even hit by bullets, but their horses were badly injured. Some horses fell to the ground in pain, some ran away in fright, and some simply jumped into the river and drowned half to death.
Seeing this scene, the surrounding Xixia soldiers panicked and began to retreat in panic.
Then, as soon as they retreated, the Song army could advance. No matter how much the enemy retreated, they advanced by that much, always staying out of the range of bows and crossbows, and constantly shooting and harassing.
to be honest.
The Xixia soldiers on the south bank suffered heavy losses because the Song army was able to provide fire coverage. It didn't matter if the accuracy was poor, they could just create a fire net and see how you could dodge it.
But it was not easy to hit the Xixia soldiers on the north bank. They carried a large number of fixed bullets on the ship. It is estimated that they fired more than a thousand rounds, but only a few of them actually hit the enemy, only a dozen unlucky guys.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
