The fierce battle lasted for less than half an hour. As the midday sun shone through the dark clouds onto the earth, the setting sun of early winter passed by, and the ground outside the west gate of Yumen Pass was already in a mess.
The Song army ambushed two thousand musketeers and, together with hundreds of soldiers in the city, launched a fierce offensive against the surging Liao people.
In that situation, a large number of Liao soldiers gathered near the west city gate and became living targets for the Song army. It can be said that they suffered heavy losses, with corpses everywhere.
Those who were shot but not killed, those who were killed on the spot, or those who were injured when their horses were frightened and fell off were lying on the ground, and all kinds of wailing sounds were heard in the air.
Di Qing coldly issued the order to clear the battlefield and send the enemies who were not yet dead to the west to meet the Buddhist Tathagata believed in by the Liao people. Then he ordered to start transporting artillery into the city immediately before the new Liao army arrived.
What he didn't expect was that after the Liao people fled, they swept in again.
Because there was a Bohai and Jurchen army of more than 10,000 people behind Shulü Chuliji, when they learned that the Song army was fighting at Yuguan ahead, the leading general, instigated by the fleeing Shulü Chuliji, led his troops to attack Yuguan without stopping.
The reason why they did not stop was that after Shulü Chuoliji and others escaped, they gathered the remaining soldiers from a distance and observed the situation of the Song city. They found that the Song people were unloading cannons from the ships. They guessed that they must be installing cannons on Yumen Pass, so they came to attack impatiently.
After all, once the Song people installed the artillery, cooperated with the riflemen to guard the west gate, and had the cover of ships on the river, the entire Yumen Pass would be like an iron barrel and could no longer be captured. That was why the Liao army tried so hard to prevent the Song army's artillery from entering the city.
But that was already evening.
And just when Di Qing cut off the passage to Yumen Pass, he killed every Liao soldier who came, killed every group that came, and chopped down every army that came.
The war in the northwest was almost coming to an end.
Li Yuanhao stood on the top of the mountain and looked into the southeast. A large number of Song troops were scattered. The rest of the Song army left a pile of corpses and fled in a panic. Behind them, countless Western Xia soldiers were desperately chasing them, but they could not catch up.
Firstly, the Song army had no shortage of war horses, and secondly, they carried firearms and could shoot backwards on horseback when being chased, so the Xixia people did not dare to chase too close.
This situation made it difficult for the Xixia people to continue to expand their victory through close combat with cold weapons after the Song soldiers were bombed.
"What a pity."
Li Yuanhao licked his dry lips. This was Qiliping in Western Xia, and it was also the shortest way for the Song army to reach Xingqing Prefecture.
He planned with great difficulty and hid his main force so tightly, but the final result was not very ideal. The Song army came with more than 10,000 people, but only less than a thousand were killed or wounded in the initial artillery attack.
"Originally, the Song people did not have so many war horses. It was during the last peace talks that they were forced to sign the treaty, which allowed the Song people to possess so many war horses."
"But it's also helpless. We sold so many cattle, sheep and horses to build these artillery pieces. There are gains and losses."
"Forget it. It was already very difficult to successfully ambush the Song army. Now that the Song army is defeated, we can also confiscate their spoils of war, or even take advantage of the situation and attack them to capture their border camps."
Li Yuanhao thought to himself.
During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, because his father Li Deming had a good relationship with the Song Dynasty, Qingtang and Western Xia both maintained a supply of war horses to the Song Dynasty, resulting in a relatively stable price for Song Dynasty war horses at that time. The average war horse was maintained at around 20 strings of cash, and the better ones were only 50 strings of cash.
However, during his reign, starting from the Jingyou year, the export of war horses to the Song Dynasty was prohibited. Coupled with the Liao Kingdom's continued blockade, it became increasingly difficult for the Song Dynasty to obtain war horses, and the price of war horses skyrocketed.
According to the "Wenxian Tongkao" written by Bi Zhongxun, an official in the middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty, from the Baoyuan period to the Kangding period and then to the Qingli period, the price of war horses rose from more than 60 strings of cash to more than 100 strings of cash. The price of a better war horse even reached 150,000 coins, or 195 strings of cash. It can be seen how expensive war horses were.
This led to the Song Dynasty being extremely short of horses and lacking mobility. It suffered repeated defeats in battles with the Western Xia and had almost no ability to fight back.
But it’s different now.
Because the Song Dynasty forced Li Yuanhao and Yelu Zongzhen to sign a contract, they were no longer allowed to prohibit the supply of war horses. In addition, in exchange for the so-called "annual tribute", the Liao Kingdom used 3,000 high-quality uncastrated war horses at a price of about 166 strings of cash per horse to exchange for 500,000 strings of cash, allowing the Song people to breed war horses.
Under such circumstances, the price of war horses supplied by Qingtang, Xixia and Liao plummeted. Starting from the first year of the Qingli period, a war horse initially cost more than 100 strings of cash, but by the second year it had dropped to 80 strings of cash, and now it only costs more than 10 strings of cash.
With the advent of war horses, the Song people's mobility increased significantly. Although the mobility of heavy artillery and field artillery such as the Weiyuan cannon was still not as good, the Song people were already very powerful with their muskets.
It was a miracle that Li Yuanhao was able to set an ambush, use artillery to defeat the Song army led by Ren Fu who made a surprise attack, and then let the cavalry mainly equipped with cold weapons pursue and kill them.
"Report! My king, something bad has happened."
Just as Li Yuanhao was looking far to the southeast and watching his soldiers chasing the fleeing Song army, a horseman came galloping towards him with a terrified look on his face.
While still at the foot of the hill, he was stopped by Li Yuanhao's personal guards.
But Li Yuanhao also heard the voice, turned his head and said with a sullen face: "Let him come over."
"yes."
The guards responded and let the cavalry pass.
The cavalrymen galloped up to him. He was covered in dirt, his hair in tangles. He struggled to dismount and said with a mournful face, "Your Majesty, the Song army has breached Zhuolao and Miaochuan cities. Our army has suffered a crushing defeat!"
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