The Battle of the Eighty-Six Small Shang River (4)

Despite the unprecedented blow, the Song army's war elephants did not slow down in the slightest, and the war elephants in the front row began to trot forward. 88dU8 is also far away from the ranks of the war elephants, so the war elephants behind can bypass the fallen war elephants in the front row in time and still maintain the phalanx forward.

In the Jin Army's formation, the soldiers who operated the bed crossbow were busy pulling the winch again, reloading the crossbow gun, and firing again. Countless crossbow spears flew out and shot towards the elephants, and at the same time, the archers of the Jin army also opened their bows and arrows, of course, their targets were not the war elephants, but the Song soldiers who followed the war elephants.

Although the elephant did not advance quickly, the degree of bed crossbow shooting was far inferior to that of bow and arrow, so after three or four rounds of bed crossbow shooting, the war elephant rushed to a distance of less than thirty paces from the Jin army's array.

However, at this time, the Song army at least eighty war elephants were shot through the body by powerful crossbow guns, and fell on the battlefield, forming one huge mountain after another, and among the advancing war elephants, about twenty or thirty war elephants were advancing with crossbow guns, and from time to time there would be war elephants who fell to the ground because they could not support it.

Before they came into contact with the Jin army, they caused such a big loss in Yijing, which had never been seen in the history of the Song army's war elephant legion. But at this time, after all, the elephant army rushed to the front of the Jin army, and no matter how powerful the bed crossbow was, it no longer worked. And the elephants seemed to be enraged by the heavy blow just now, and while the angry elephants hissed, hugged their long trunks, and ran briskly, they rushed up towards the golden army.

At this time, Wanyan Chen monk also knew that now was the time to fight hard, fortunately, Wanyan Changzhi had the experience of successfully fighting against elephants, and the fifteen thousand Jin troops were prepared with the scriptures, and the record of successfully shooting dozens of war elephants just now also increased the confidence of the Jin army against the elephant army, so with the order of Wanyan Chen, the Jin soldiers also bravely jumped over the bed crossbow and rushed up against the elephants.

This time, however, the Jin army miscalculated, as they were facing an elephant that had been enraged by the Eijing. Don't look at the size of elephants, they usually move slowly and leisurely, in fact, they can also run, but they can't keep it for a long time, and the running degree is really not slow. And the elephant army that runs fast has more strength and stronger impact.

Therefore, the first batch of Jin troops who came into contact with the elephant army were not knocked to the ground outside the column, rolling all over the ground, and the spears were also dismantled, and many people were even knocked out by the war elephants, and some were thrown out after being caught by the elephant's proboscis, or pierced by sharp blades mounted on heavy armor, and some were trampled under the thick elephant's paws, and let out a scream that cracked their lungs.

At the same time, the cavalry on both sides of the Song army also rushed to kill and started a fierce battle with the cavalry on both sides of the Jin army. Once again, the Song and Jin armies engaged in a full-scale fierce battle.

Although many Jin troops had experience in dealing with war elephants, they knew that it was much more effective to attack elephants on the legs. However, when the real action began, the Jin army was sad, this time the Song army even protected the elephant's legs and put on a layer of leather armor, so it can be said that this time the elephant's whole body was almost invulnerable.

And with the experience of the last battle, the infantry who followed the elephant also paid more attention to protecting the two sides of the elephant, and the cavalry on the elephant's back also waved the long ge, constantly killing the golden soldiers who attacked the elephant.

In the face of the coordinated operation of the soldiers, although the Jin soldiers worked very hard, they were also extremely tenacious, and tried every means to fight the elephants, stabbing with spears, slashing with knives, shooting arrows, and even using primitive punches and kicks, and also successfully knocked down some elephants, but on the whole, they still could not stop the strong impact of the elephant army. Sometimes a dozen Jin soldiers can't even stop the onslaught of an elephant. The Jin army's position was also constantly squeezed little by little, cracked, and then crushed.

When Monk Wanyan Chen saw it, he also knew that if he didn't think of a way, the Jin army would definitely be defeated, and it seemed that the best way to deal with the elephant was to shoot with a bed crossbow, so now he could only take the risk of lifting the bed crossbow again and shooting the elephant army in formation. Although I will injure my own people by mistake, I can't take care of it much.

So the withdrawn bed crossbow was once again raised to the front of the formation, the winch was triggered, and the soldiers who controlled the bed crossbow did not need any orders, they all aimed their crossbow guns at the target, and then shot their own shots. At this time, the distance between the two sides was very close, the shortest was only more than ten steps, and almost as long as they were shot by the bed crossbow, they would inevitably be penetrated through the heavy armor and deeply inserted into the huge body of the elephant.

The bed crossbow once again caused a huge killing poke on the elephants, and at this moment, thirty or forty more elephants of the Song army were shot by the crossbow guns, and at least half of the war elephants fell immediately. But at this time, the two sides were in a scuffle, so while shooting the elephant, there were also many Jin soldiers and Song soldiers who were shot, and at such a close distance, a crossbow gun would penetrate the bodies of three or four soldiers, and even many people were carried up by this strong force.

And this sudden blow also caused the elephant army to immediately appear and shoot the bed crossbow nearby, and also realized that this is the weapon that can bring real danger to themselves. Therefore, many Song soldiers controlled the elephant and rushed towards the direction of the bed crossbow erection. And Jin Jun, who controlled the bed crossbow, was also busy pulling the winch, reloading the pistol, and preparing for the next shot.

I saw an elephant with three crossbow guns on his body under the command of Song Bing, roaring again and again, shaking his huge body, a burst of rush, forced out of a passage among the Jin soldiers, and rushed in front of a bed crossbow that had just been prepared.

Almost at the same time, several more bed crossbows were knocked over by elephants. The second round of the Jin army's bed crossbow was less than halfway through. After the second round of bed crossbow shooting, although more than a dozen elephants were shot down, other elephants immediately rushed up again, destroying more than a dozen of the remaining bed crossbows. The remaining five or six bed crossbows immediately shifted their positions, and when they reached a relatively safe place, they were lowered again and fired at the elephant army, but the power of the bed crossbows was greatly reduced.

Monk Wanyan Chen couldn't count on the bed crossbow when he saw it, so now he could only rely on the number of soldiers to win. Therefore, an order was immediately given that all the infantry, except for the hoplites, should go into battle to meet the elephant army. At the same time, he ordered the cavalry to attack as well, striving to defeat the cavalry on both sides of the Song army, and enveloping the back of the elephant army to attack.

The battle between the two sides also entered a white heat, the Song army struggled to resist the Jin army's attack on both flanks, and the Jin army also struggled to resist the Song army's attack in the middle. The current battlefield is to see which side first transforms its advantage into victory.

However, at this time, Yang Yan led the follow-up men of the Song army to kill them.

In fact, the two armies of the Song army, Si Ta Bai Jun and Infantry Si Xiaoshun Army, with a total of more than 14,000 horses, had already been assembled, but Yang Yan saw that the Song army had not yet been defeated on the battlefield, so he was not in a hurry to put the assembled troops into the battlefield. Instead, he patiently observed the battle situation and looked for an appropriate time to deal a fatal blow to the Jin army.

And now on the battlefield, both sides have reached the time of victory and defeat, and Yang Yan also knew that it was time, so he ordered that all the assembled men and horses were dispatched, divided into three routes, and added 5,000 troops to each wing, and Yang Yan himself personally led the remaining 3,000 cavalry troops into the battlefield in the middle.

The entry of such a new force into the battle immediately changed the situation on the battlefield, and after the two wings of the Song army were replenished, they immediately stabilized the position and no longer retreated. And the middle of the Song army, after Yang Yan's 3,000 elite cavalry joined, immediately completely defeated the last resistance of the Jin army with a devastating force.

Seeing that the general trend was gone, Monk Wanyan Chen had no choice but to order the withdrawal of the army again. After the Song army took advantage of the situation to chase and kill for more than ten miles, it only killed countless corpses abandoned by the Jin army, and then the army was withdrawn.

This battle was the battle of Guanjian where the Song army swept the periphery of Kaifeng Mansion, and it was known as the "Battle of Xiaoshang River" in history. The Jin army invested 50,000 troops, of which half were cavalry infantry troops, including 8,000 Tiefutu, 2,000 arrow-breaking troops, and 3,000 heavy infantry, while the Song army's strength was 45,000, including 12,000 cavalry, 5,000 armored cavalry, 6,000 heavy infantry, and 800 war elephants.

The result of the battle was the final victory of the Song army, but the process was a wave of three demolitions, ups and downs, from the morning of the first day to the afternoon of the second day, during which a total of three battles were born. First of all, the Song army took the lead, occupied Xiaoshang River, and defeated the vanguard of the Jin army, for the first battle, and then Wanyan Chen monk led a large cavalry army to arrive, and attacked the position of Xiaoshang River overnight, and Yang Yan also arrived with the army in Tianming, repelled the Jin army, for the second battle; In the afternoon, the two sides began to fight for the third battle of Xiaoshang River, and the monk Wanyan Chen led the army to march again, while the Song army fought back and defeated the Jin army again, and finally ended in the occupation of Xiaoshang River.

After the war, the losses of each were as follows: the Jin army lost more than 13,200 people, including more than 5,600 cavalry troops, including more than 1,800 Tiefutu and more than 600 arrow-breaking soldiers, and more than 5,800 wounded. The number of Song troops killed in the battle was more than 9,500, and the cavalry army had more than 200 cadres and more than 3,300 wounded. However, the loss of war elephants was as high as 147 heads, and another 43 needed to be treated, and they could not participate in the battle for the time being. In addition, 1,253 Jin troops were captured, 672 horses, more than 6,000 swords, guns and weapons, and more than 3,400 sets of armor were captured.

If only from the comparison of the losses of the two sides, the results are almost the same, but in the end the Song army still completely occupied the Xiaoshang River, and after this battle, the Song army occupied the initiative to attack Kaifeng Mansion, so Yang Yan ordered Qi Fang to march again and attack Xuzhou.