The next day, Yang Yan, Zhao Yueru and others led 30,000 Song troops to Shunzhou.

It should be only seventy or eighty miles away from Shunzhou, and it can be reached in one day at most, at this time, the reinforcements of the monk Wanyan Chen have not yet arrived, and the Western Xia Emperor Li Renxiao was also greatly surprised when he learned about it, and hurriedly gathered the ministers of civil and military affairs to discuss countermeasures.

The other ministers all thought that the Song army was powerful, and the main general Yang Yan was a person who was very good at using troops, and it was difficult to win the battle if he dared to fight, so they all advocated strictly guarding the city and waiting for the arrival of the Jin army before making a decision.

However, only Gao Shandu immediately said that the Song army was only 30,000 horses, and now the Xingqing Mansion area has gathered 150,000 or 60,000 troops, and the area around Shunzhou is full of Gobi Desert, it is difficult to set up an ambush army, and it is just conducive to the cavalry army's battle, so it is completely possible to take this opportunity to concentrate superior forces and give the Song army a head-on blow, if the Song army can be defeated, it can also boost the morale of the Western Xia army, so he resolutely asks for the order to fight.

It turned out that Gao Shan was in the Western Xia army, and he had always been subordinate to Wei Ming Jizhong, and he was quite dissatisfied with him, and he always wanted to find an opportunity to prove that he was not worse than Wei Ming Jizhong. Although he is now dead, this idea of Takayama still exists. And when attacking the Song Dynasty, he led an army alone, attacked Hezhou, and contained the strength of the Song army, so he did not directly fight with Yang Yan, although he also heard the defeated army talk about how the Song army was, but after all, he had not personally experienced the power of artillery and the elephant army, so he was also a little dismissive in his heart, and even thought that it was possible that the defeated army deliberately exaggerated to cover up his incompetence. Now the Song army took the initiative to attack Shunzhou, and also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to win the battle, as if people were proving their ability.

Although Li Renxiao doesn't like martial arts, he also feels that what Gao Shan said is not unreasonable, he subconsciously still has a little bit of Li Yuanhao's blood and courage back then, and he didn't admit defeat like this, so he thought about it again and again, and finally decided to send troops to meet the Song army according to what Gao Shan said.

However, although there were many soldiers and horses in the Western Xia, they had to defend Xingqingfu, Shunzhou, Jingzhou and other places, and only half of the men and horses could be dispatched, with a total of 80,000 troops. But this is almost three times that of the Song army, and Gao Shan also felt that it was enough, so he was also very happy, and led the army with Lang Zhitongjin, Ye Likui, Wei Mu Yanping, Wuzang Anhuan, Dong Mingzhao, Wuyi Dage and other generals.

Outside the city of Shunzhou, it is indeed a barren Mogobi, if it is the sky, you can see that it is five or six miles away, so neither side can set up an ambush. However, the Song army had flying eagles patrolling in the air and discovered the Western Xia people and horses early, so Yang Yan took the lead in choosing a piece of high ground and seized the geographical advantage. And erected a high platform to command the whole army to fight.

When the Western Xia army discovered the Song army, the Song army set up a formation with scriptures. However, seeing that the Song army was indeed only more than 30,000 people, and most of them were infantry troops, Gao Shan was also greatly relieved, half of the 80,000 troops he led were cavalry troops, and there were 1,000 "Iron Harriers", so he was also full of confidence that he could defeat the Song army. However, the generals who went out with the army to defend Mu Yanping, Wuzang Anhuan, Dong Mingzhao, and Wuyi Dage were still apprehensive, and the last defeat had a deep impression on them.

At this time, Wei Muyanping rode his horse to Gao Shandu, pointed to the row of tall figures in the Song army's formation, and said: "Gao Shuai, you see that is the elephant army of the Song army, that is, they defeated the 'Iron Harrier', and they must not underestimate the enemy." ”

Gao Shan hadn't answered yet, and the general on the other side, Lang Yantongjin, sneered: "General Wei Mu, did you make the Song army scared?" I don't think there is anything to be afraid of in Song Jun at all. "He is Gao Shandu's confidant general, he is always arrogant, no one in his eyes, and he usually looks down on Wei Mu Yanping, so he can't help but ridicule at this time.

Wei Muyanping frowned, and immediately sneered at each other: "That's the case, why don't General Lang Yan ask for orders to fight, let's wait here to witness how General Lang Yan shows his might and breaks the Song army." ”

Gao Shan frowned and said, "Don't say it, it must make sense that the Song army can defeat Wei Minglinggong, and we must not underestimate the enemy now." If the Gao Song army does not move the elephant army, we should not use the 'iron harrier' for the time being. ”

Lang Yantong said: "Gao Shuai, it's so difficult to say that our 80,000 army has arrived here, just because the elephant army will not fight, Gao Shuai, the last general is willing to take the lead and see what the Song army has to offer." ”

Gao Shan nodded, and what he said made sense, now the Song army is obviously putting up a defensive formation, just waiting for the Western Xia army to attack, but it is obvious that there are many Western Xia soldiers and few Song soldiers, is it difficult to stop like this? So Gao Shandu immediately said: "General Lang, you take 5,000 men and horses and go to attack the Song army first." ”

Lang Tongjin immediately received the order, led 5,000 cavalry troops, and rushed towards the formation of the Song army. Wei Mu Yanping, Wu Zang An Huan and others sneered on their faces, watching the waves go out of the battle in the advance rate.

The Song army listed a phalanx, and in front of it was a sword formation composed of 3,000 heavily armored hemp sword troops. On both sides of the line, a row of vehicles formed a chariot formation, and 6,000 crossbowmen were placed in the second row, of which there were only 2,000 archers, and there were 2,000 crossbowmen, and 2,000 archers. This time, Yang Yan brought out all the repeating crossbowmen and divine arm archers of the Song army. The cavalry was on the flanks, and the elephant army was at the end of the army.

The first was the Divine Arm Archer, who gave the Western Xia army a head-on blow, and the arrows flew more than two hundred paces away with a roar, shooting towards the Western Xia army. Suddenly, more than 100 Western Xia soldiers were shot and fell off their horses, but they were trampled into pulp by the torrent behind them in an instant.

After the god arm bow was fired two or three rounds, the archers, even the crossbowmen began to shoot arrows, the Song army's arrow rain was dense several times at once, more of the Western Xia army fell off the horse, and at the same time stumbled a lot of cavalry behind, for a time people turned over on their horses, people and horses neighed, and before they rushed to the front of the Song army, the Western Xia army lost nearly 2,000 men and horses.

However, even if they dodged the rain of arrows and rushed to the front of the Song army, it did not mean that they would be safe, because what awaited them was a bright blade. In the face of hundreds of broadswords slashed at the same time, it was simply impossible to dodge, and the knights who rushed up all fell in front of this almost indestructible sword array. It only took more than half an hour for Lang Yan to lead the army and retreat, with 5,000 cavalry troops, and the rest was less than 2,000. Left on the Gobi between the two armies were countless corpses of men and horses, and some horses that had lost their knights, running in all directions.

With two arrows in his body and crooked armor, the protified man returned to the battle, kneeling in front of Gao Shandu and pleading guilty, Wei Mu Yanping, Wuzang Anhuan and others wanted to ridicule him a few words, but seeing that he was defeated so badly, they couldn't bear to say anything. Gao Shan shook his hand and said, "Victory or defeat is still a common thing, but everyone has seen that although the Song army is small in number, it must not be underestimated." ”

In fact, Gao Shan didn't expect him to be able to break through the formation of the Song army just now, it was purely a tentative attack, and it was best to draw out the elephant army of the Song army, so that Gao Shan could see what was so powerful about this army that had defeated the "Iron Harrier". However, what Gao Shan didn't expect was that the 5,000 cavalry did not inflict the slightest blow on the formation of the Song army, and the Song army had not used the elephant army, so it beat the Western Xia army so badly, it seems that the Song army is really difficult to deal with.

At the same time, the bow and arrow of the Song army also brought a great shock to Gao Shandu, although Gao Shandu had long known that the bow and arrow of the Song army was powerful, but it was also greatly surprised by him. Because Gao Shan did not know that the Song army was equipped with continuous crossbows, it was judged from experience that the Song army should have at least 10,000 archers to shoot such a dense rain of arrows. On the one hand, an army is a combination of many different military branches, and the archers will account for 10% to 10% of the proportion of 10% to 10% of the Song army, and sometimes the archers will account for 20% because of the good use of bows and arrows in the Song army. But never before has such a high percentage been reached.

There are many archers, and compared to the defending side, they naturally have a big advantage, and it is a combination of archers and Ma Zha knife formations like the Song army. However, archers have little melee ability, so if the enemy breaks through the defenses, the entire army will collapse immediately. And to break through this combination of archers and hemp swords, it is naturally the most effective to use the "Iron Harrier".

The "Iron Harrier" is the strongest army of the Western Xia Army, if it was in the past, no matter who led the army, he would not hesitate to send the "Iron Harrier" to battle first, and rushed across the enemy's formation in one fell swoop. But the last time Wei Ming Jizhong's fiasco lesson still made Gao Shan have some concerns, the entire Western Xia only had a total of only 3,000 "Iron Harriers" last time Wei Ming Jizhong took half of it, and the result was a loss of more than 800 horses, which can be regarded as a major loss, if it wasn't for Wei Ming Jizhong dying on the battlefield, he would definitely be heavily responsible.

Although he hadn't seen the strength of the Song Army's elephant army with his own eyes in the tentative attack just now, looking at the huge body in the Song army's formation, which was obviously much taller than the other horses, Gao Shan knew that this army was definitely not easy to mess with. However, if the "Iron Harrier" is not used, it will undoubtedly make the combat effectiveness of the Western Xia army greatly dismantled, and it will also increase the difficulty of defeating the Song army. Therefore, whether to use the "Iron Harrier" to fight hard with the Song Army now, and how to use the thousand "Iron Harriers" in his hand, is the most headache for Gao Shan, and he can't help but let Gao Shan think about it for a while.

But now there is not much time for Takayama to weigh the pros and cons. Therefore, Gao Shan had several thoughts in his heart, and finally made a decision not to send the "Iron Harrier" for the time being, and instead use the infantry army to attack the Song army's Chinese army, although the loss would be greater, but it was possible to take advantage of the Western Xia army's numerical advantage and drag the Song army across. At least we can force the elephant army of the Song army out first, and take a look at the combat effectiveness of the elephant army of the Song army.