. The Song army, which was in front of Lanzhou City, still maintained its formation and was unmoved, but once the Western Xia army entered the range of the Song army's bow and crossbow, it would be shot mercilessly.

After another round of artillery bombardment, the four artillery pieces were fired in a row, and then Yang Yan, who was commanding on the city wall, gave the order: stop the shelling and attack the whole army.

"Knock-knock-" The dense beating of war drums replaced the shelling just now, and the three armies of the Song army launched in unison, advancing towards the Western Xia army that had been in great turmoil.

The Song army had 2,500 cavalry troops on each flank, all of which were cavalry of the Ma Army Si Xiao cavalry, and at this time, under the leadership of Cao Xun and Wei Jiao, the main generals of the left and right armies, let go of the war horses, accelerated their advance, and rushed up to the flanks of the Western Xia army through the Chinese army. A thousand cavalrymen with crossbows rushed to the front, and as soon as they came into range, they began to fire crossbow arrows. For a time, the arrows were like locusts, and they all shot towards the Western Xia army.

At this time, the Western Xia army had already been frightened by the artillery bombardment just now, and before the Song army could rush up, it was shot into a large area by a dense rain of arrows. Seeing this, Wei Ming Jizhong also knew that the defeat was certain and could not be contained, so he had to lead his own soldiers and the "Iron Harrier" to retreat to the camp.

The cavalry of the Song army did not pursue very quickly, nor did they follow the Western Xia army to catch up, but from the edges of both sides of the Western Xia army, always maintaining a distance of dozens of paces, only using continuous crossbows to shoot fiercely, their use of continuous crossbows was very skillful, and the Western Xia army almost fell in pieces. The other cavalry were all protected by the crossbow cavalry, and as soon as a small group of Western Xia troops counterattacked, they immediately stepped forward, slashed and stabbed with swords, and killed cleanly.

At the same time, the middle of the Song army also rushed up, and only 2,000 armored cavalry did not dispatch, and honestly collected troops and returned to the city. The other soldiers automatically divided into groups of dozens of people, and used shields, spears, broadswords, short knives, and bows and crossbows to cooperate with each other to pursue the Western Xia army. Only the corpses of the Western Xia army were killed all over the field, and the weapons, armor, flags and other things that were still under were all along the road.

Although the war was still going on, at this time there was jubilation on the tower of Lanzhou City, and the artillerymen began to sweep the barrels. The crossbowmen who remained at the head of the city began to celebrate this great victory in advance. Everyone knows that artillery is the primary contributor to this great victory. This is the first time that the artillery army has been able to achieve such a big victory, so the artillerymen are very proud.

Fang Mao came to Yang Yan's side and said, "Yang Shuai really expected things to be like a god, and with a bombardment of cannons, the Western Xia army was defeated and left. This is not a small victory. ”

Yang Yanzhi's face was calm, this result had already been expected by him, and Fang Mao said: "Let the soldiers quickly check it and see if there is any damage to the Shenwei cannon." Send people out of the city to order all the armies not to fall in love with war, and if the Western Xia army escapes back to the camp, they will immediately withdraw their troops. In addition......" Yang Yan paused and said, "Send someone to see if there is any news from Commander Gao." ”

Fortunately, when Wei Ming Jizhong went out to fight, in order to prevent accidents, the defense of the camp was arranged quite tightly, so when the defeated army retreated to the front of the camp, the remaining generals immediately sent troops to respond, so that the Song army did not enter the camp.

Seeing that the Western Xia army was prepared, and Yang Yan's general order arrived, Yang Changpeng, Cao Xun, Wei Jiao and others also immediately collected their troops and returned to Lanzhou City.

According to the results of the battle, more than 6,000 people of the Western Xia army were killed in this battle, more than 1,400 people were captured, 420 war horses were captured, and a number of other swords, guns and banners were captured. And the Song army's own casualties were less than two hundred. It can be regarded as a big victory.

After returning to the city, almost all the soldiers crowded into the city, wanting to see the Shenwu cannon that had made the first achievement today, and the city wall was crowded. However, there were artillery guards here, and the soldiers only waited to see from a distance of three feet.

However, the generals above the commander can come to observe at close range, Yang Changpeng, Cao Xun, Zhang Wenzhu, Wei Jiao and others all came to surround the artillery, looking east and west, and there was a lot of discussion. Cao Xun stretched out his hand and touched it, but at this time the cannon body was still hot, Cao Xun couldn't help but stick out his tongue and said, "Big brother, what kind of guy did you bring here, who can fight so far." And it almost deafened my ears,"

Yang Yan smiled slightly: "This is what Wei Chang and they made up, called artillery, and now the emperor named it after the scriptures, called Shenwei Cannon, and the ordnance supervisor only made a total of five, and this time I brought four." ”

Yang Changpeng also praised: "With such a sharp weapon, it is simply easy to defeat the Western Xia army." What was my heart before the war? It turned out that Zihao was really confident. ”

Cao Xun patted the cannon body and said: "It will be simple to fight in the future, no matter who he is, take this guy to bombard him first." ”

Yang Yan smiled bitterly: "You guy has become a family person, why are you still so brainless when you do things." If the cannon is really such a god, why did I have to spend so much trouble coming to Lanzhou this time? Or just send you these four cannons and the soldiers who fired them, or not. ”

Yang Changpeng was a little puzzled, and said: "Although Xiao Cao's words are exaggerated, they are not unreasonable, at least they can fight a thousand steps away, but with this, it is very rare." Therefore, it is indeed a good idea to bombard it with artillery before every battle. ”

Yang Yan shook his head and said, "It's the first time you've seen the cannon, so you've been frightened by it. In fact, although this guy fights far, it takes too long to fire each shot, and it takes a pillar of incense, and he can only hit far, not close, and there is no way to do it within two or three hundred steps. And it weighs thousands of catties, it is very difficult to carry, and it is good to defend the city, but on the battlefield, it is not very useful. And once it rains, the gunpowder is useless when it gets wet. It's just that the Xixia army encountered it for the first time, and it was beaten by a surprise, and after suffering a few losses, it will naturally come up with a countermeasure. In fact, today, if they could ignore the artillery bombardment on the battlefield just now, rush forward desperately, and at the speed of the cavalry, at most, they would be able to engage with us. ”

Cao Xun stuck out his tongue again and said, "Why is something powerful, when it reaches the mouth of the eldest brother, it becomes full of flaws." ”

Yang Yan shook his head again, with an expression on his face that rotten wood could not be carved, and said: "I don't know how many times I have said this, nothing can cover the world, whether it is a cannon, even a crossbow, an elephant army, or an iron floating map, an iron harrier, these all have weaknesses, so as long as they target the weaknesses, it is not difficult to deal with." ”

As they were talking, they saw a guard hurriedly come to Yang Yan and said, "Yang Shuai, there is a letter from General Gao's side, please take a look at it." As he spoke, he held the letter above his head.

Yang Yan was waiting for the news from Gao Zhen's side, and after hearing it, he hurriedly took the letter, and after opening it and reading it, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and immediately said: "If the order goes down, the commanders and commanders of all armies will immediately come to my hall to discuss matters." ”

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After the Western Xia army was defeated and returned to the camp, Wei Ming Jizhong immediately ordered to close the camp gate, and set up strong bows and crossbows to strictly defend it, so as to prevent the Song army from taking the opportunity to attack the camp.

In addition to the dead and missing, more than 3,000 soldiers were wounded. Wei Ming Jizhong ordered the military doctor to treat the wounded, and then immediately gathered the generals to discuss countermeasures.

Wei Muyanping said: "Linggong, according to the last general, we have attacked Lanzhou for nearly two months, but we have returned in vain, and the troops are exhausted, and now we are newly defeated, morale is low, continue to fight with the Song army, I am afraid that it will be unfavorable to our army, it is better to temporarily withdraw the army back to the north bank of the Yellow River, and wait for the opportunity to send troops to attack the Southern Song Dynasty." ”

Wuzang An Huan also said: "General Wei Mu is reasonable, Ling Gong, I think we should withdraw the army." ”

The other generals also spoke, and they all agreed to the withdrawal.

In fact, although the Western Xia army was defeated in this battle, the loss of men and horses was only five or six thousand, and it did not hurt the bones. Even counting the soldiers killed since the beginning of the war, the total number of soldiers killed in the battle is not more than 15,000, and it can be said that the strength is still there, and the number of troops is still more than that of the Song army. It's just that the blow received in today's First World War is too heavy, and it is a form of war that has never been seen before, and the Song army was able to fight from a distance of a thousand steps, which makes people shudder to think about it. This is beyond the tolerance of the Western Xia generals.

And Wuzang Anhuan, Wei Mu Yanping, Nuo Yi Xinghai, Du Luoqing, Dong Mingzhao, Wu Yi Dage and others are all the generals of the younger generation in the Western Xia Army, and they boast of their bravery on weekdays, and they have seen the Song and Jin countries fighting back and forth in recent years, very lively, Yang Yan, Wanyan Changzhi and other young generation generals of Song and Jin have become famous, and they all have a competitive heart, looking forward to one day being able to lead the army to conquer Song and Jin, and make great achievements and become famous all over the world. Therefore, before sending troops to attack Lanzhou this time, they were all full of ambition and excitement, and felt that it was their opportunity to show their talents.

However, the army of more than 100,000 troops, after nearly two months, could not capture a Lanzhou city, which also made them gradually understand that the conquest was not as simple as they imagined. And today's defeat has made them completely awake, and now Yijing is no longer in the era of Emperor Jingzong, this is the case in Western Xia, and the same is true in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Wei Ming Jizhong naturally understands the mentality of these young people, they are indeed the best young generation generals in the Western Xia, and they are also the hope of the Western Xia Army in the future, but if they want to become a qualified general, they still need to go through the tempering of the war, but I don't know how many of them can pass this hurdle.

At this moment, I saw a guard hurriedly approaching the big tent and said, "Ling Gong, Xingqing Mansion has sent an urgent message, please Ling Gong take a look." ”

Wei Ming Jizhong was slightly stunned, did something happen in Xingqing Mansion? When I took it and looked at it, I couldn't help but tremble, and my face changed greatly.