Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 415 The Battle of Gaoliang River (Part 2)

"The Khitans were indeed fierce and brave."

As they crossed the bridge and entered the forest, they saw a large number of Khitan soldiers charging forward, shields in hand.

Amidst the crowd, a dazzling light burst forth, accompanied by a thunderous roar.

These Liao soldiers actually waded through the minefield with their own feet.

"His Majesty."

After observing for a while, Pan Mei explained, "Judging from their attire, they don't seem to be from the Khitan main tribe."

"They must be Han Chinese from the north, or people from Bohai."

During the Tang Dynasty, China was the most powerful and vast country, and the people of the Tang Dynasty followed the footsteps of the Tang army's iron cavalry to all parts of the world.

After the decline of the Tang Dynasty, the people in these areas gradually became slaves of the barbarians.

In order to survive, serving the barbarians became a matter of course.

As for the Balhae Kingdom, it actually existed after Goguryeo was destroyed by the Tang Dynasty.

A kingdom established by various Mohe tribes, including the Sumo Mohe, and the remnants of Goguryeo.

The country was named Bohai because Emperor Li Longji bestowed upon its leader the title of Prince of Bohai.

Thirty years ago, the Balhae Kingdom was destroyed by the rising Liao Kingdom.

Their land and people thus became the property of the Khitans.

More than a hundred years later, these people also rose up with the Jurchens again, destroying the Khitans and the Northern Song Dynasty.

However, from beginning to end, he was just a henchman being used.

"Oh." Lin Dao nodded in realization. "I thought they were really fearless, but they're just suicide soldiers."

After experiencing the storm of steel balls directed at the enemy, the Khitans chose to send their slaves to traverse the minefield.

It must be said that this is the best solution in the short term.

As for charging forward on horseback to wade through the minefield, the Khitans were reluctant to do so.

The status of slaves was, of course, inferior to that of warhorses.

"Your Majesty," Pan Mei suggested, "should we send the combat engineers to deploy some more?"

"No need."

Lin Dao shook his head, "This measure was originally intended to buy time to cross the river."

"If we bomb them too hard, we might scare them away."

"Let them come over!"

With no more landmines detonated, the Khitan tribal soldiers began to swarm forward.

They rode in and unleashed a hail of arrows at the Imperial Guard's formation.

The imperial guards, dressed in their finest attire, only needed to lower their heads.

Their powerful bows and crossbows served as a fierce counterattack.

Wave after wave of arrows rained down, and the tribal soldiers fell in droves.

Yelü Shulu, who was watching the battle from a distance, knew that the longer the battle dragged on, the more southern troops would cross the river.

It will only be harder to fight then!

He gritted his teeth and sent out Pi Shijun.

The Liao History records the Pishi Army as follows: "They selected the elite troops from across the land and gathered them in the heart of the army."

In reality, they were the imperial guards of the Liao emperor, the imperial guards of the Liao state.

Its territory was mainly composed of the Shiwei and Dilie tribes.

Internally, they were named after birds of prey, and were divided into the Eagle Army, Dragon Army, Phoenix Army, Tiger Army, Bear Army, Iron Pigeon Army, Falcon Army, etc.

The book boasts that the Pishi Army has 300,000 cavalry.

Given the productivity of this era, it was simply impossible.

The largest cavalry mobilization in history was when Modu Chanyu besieged Liu Bang, deploying 400,000 cavalry.

This is the largest in history.

Did the Khitan's Pishi Army have 300,000 cavalry?

Isn't this ridiculous?

The actual number of riders was over 30,000.

They were dressed in bright armor, well-equipped, and brave in battle.

Yelü Shulu was also a ruthless person; he didn't hesitate to make a decision when necessary.

Large numbers of Bohai people, Han Chinese from the north, Koreans, and many other mixed-race people and cannon fodder who couldn't even name their tribal origins were driven forward.

They shouted and charged forward, brandishing their weapons and braving the arrows.

Many of those who lagged behind were desperately dragging away all the barbed wire.

"There are so many people."

From the perspective of the forest road, the enemy troops in front of us were densely packed, surging in like a tidal wave.

"People always say there are few people on the grasslands, but where are there few people here?"

In fact, from the Tang Dynasty onwards, the population carrying capacity of the grasslands did not change much, but the Northeast region was gradually developed.

The population of those tribes that engaged in fishing, hunting, or even farming saw a significant increase.

Especially after acquiring the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, the grain production here fed even more people.

At this time, the Liao Dynasty had a population of at least several million.

Although it is insignificant compared to the Central Plains, the Central Plains has been the most populous country in the world for thousands of years.

However, if you compare it to any other country, the Liao Dynasty would undoubtedly be a populous nation.

A mere tens of thousands of cannon fodder was no big deal for the Liao Kingdom.

"Move forward."

Lin Dao instructed, "Hold on, kill them all!"

The drumbeats, accompanied by the roars of officers of all ranks, conveyed the emperor's will.

The Imperial Guards used one hundred men as the basic tactical unit and created the simplest square formation.

Long-armed soldiers, leaping soldiers, sword and shield soldiers, archers, and crossbowmen are arranged in order.

Slowly moving forward in response to the drumbeats.

The Tang Dynasty army was a mixed force, with various military branches combined into one unit.

The advantage is that it can coordinate combat forces and work together to kill the enemy.

As for the disadvantages, they are very demanding on the soldiers; they must be professional warriors who have undergone long-term training.

This is why the soldiers of the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties were usually mainly composed of pure units. Inadequate training and poor combat effectiveness meant they could only rely on single-weapon equipment.

Yelü Shulu, who was watching the battle from a distance, was also secretly alarmed.

"The Southern army is indeed formidable, daring to charge directly!"

The Imperial Guards, advancing instead of retreating, clashed with these cannon fodder like the Great Wall.

Swords and spears slashed and thrust, arrows flew everywhere.

Compared to the seemingly disorganized Liao cannon fodder, the Imperial Guards were clearly well-organized.

The soldiers moved closer together, using their weapons to block the enemy.

Swordsmen and shieldmen stood guard on either side, fighting off the cannon fodder who had dodged the barrel spikes and charged forward.

The leaping soldiers crouched beneath the various long weapons that were constantly thrusting, crouching low as they went to slash and kill.

The archers behind them pointed diagonally into the sky and unleashed a rain of arrows.

If the losses are too great, others will step up to replace the existing formation.

The cannon fodder who attacked them appeared to be in a state of great chaos.

Many of them even rode horses and charged directly into the army formation.

There were all sorts of weapons, but no coordinated formations or combinations whatsoever.

From Lin Dao's perspective, it looked like those chaotic and ugly villains in a movie, courting death.
His gaze swept past these cannon fodder and looked into the distance.
Too far away to see clearly, Lin Dao took out his binoculars.

This is a genuine military-grade binocular; specialized training is required to use it effectively.

"The Pishi Army." Looking at the groups of cavalry gathering several miles away, Lin Dao nodded repeatedly. "What a prestigious name."

The crossing point that Lin Dao chose was actually a bend in the Gaoliang River.

The imperial guards crossing the river were positioned in the pocket of this bend.

The straight-line distance between its two ends is about six or seven li.

In this special environment, if the Pishi army wanted to launch an attack, they would have to charge straight at the enemy.

They couldn't rely on the speed of their warhorses to carry out flanking maneuvers.

In other words, cavalry must charge into the enemy lines!

During the Han and Tang dynasties, cavalry charges were not the overwhelming force depicted in movies.

In reality, infantry in formation, relying on their dense array of long weapons, possessed extremely strong resistance against cavalry.

It was precisely because they knew these things that tens of thousands of cannon fodder willingly sacrificed themselves.

Their purpose is to wear down the Imperial Guards and disrupt their formation.

Without a dense formation and without sufficient stamina, cavalry can charge through infantry.

At that time, it was a one-sided massacre.

The Pishi army, numbering nearly 30,000, stretched across the land in a vast and imposing manner.

They rode slowly forward, gradually increasing their speed.

After putting away his binoculars, Lin Dao turned to the side and instructed, "The decisive battle is coming, everyone stay alert, don't embarrass yourselves!"

He didn't just sit and watch the show.

After some mental calculation, he decided to wait until the Pissam soldiers charged over and got caught up in the melee, losing their momentum, before deploying the heavy mining trucks.

In that case, not many people will be able to escape.

During this time, Lin Dao called several imperial guards to come up to the observation platform to help set up machine gun mounts.

The mount for a Gatling rotary machine gun.

The MG machine gun has a high rate of fire and great power.

The barrel needs to be replaced after firing for a period of time, which affects the efficiency of continuous firepower output.

Given the sheer scale of this battlefield, Lin Dao decided to use the Gatling Gun Bodhisattva to deliver these Khitan elites from their graves.

Fixed gun mounts and tracks for transporting ammunition.

A dozen or so ammunition boxes filled with bullets were stacked to the side for later use.

One of the ammunition boxes contained a full five thousand rounds of ammunition.

The bullets in this box are different from ordinary bullets.

On the ammunition belt, there is a specially painted tracer incendiary round every three rounds.

This thing wasn't meant to be used against the Pishih army, but rather to fire at the Molotov cocktails in the shallow trenches dug by the engineers in the previous battle.

The bottles contained only gasoline with a small amount of delay additive, and they were not sealed.

Lin Dao planned to use tracer incendiary bombs to ignite the gasoline, intimidate the warhorses, and cut off their retreat.

Even specially trained warhorses fear the raging flames.

He wanted to retain as many Pirch soldiers as possible.

Lin Dao moved his fingers to make adjustments before firing. After these were done, the Pi Shi army, several miles away, began to gradually accelerate.

The earth trembled as tens of thousands of warhorses galloped, their heavy hooves trampling the ground.

The cannon fodder fighting on the front lines scattered in panic when they saw the Pishi Army charging towards them.

This was an instruction given before the departure: upon seeing the Pishi army begin their charge, one must immediately move aside and not obstruct the cavalry's charge route.

The cannon fodder ran wildly to both sides, and some even plunged headfirst into the sorghum river.

On the side of the Imperial Guard, drums beat continuously and banners fluttered in the breeze.

Officers at all levels shouted orders and readjusted their formation.

Those who suffered heavy losses were all reassigned to the rear.

Those who were previously in the reserve team have now stepped up to take the lead.

Just as they finished adjusting, the Pi Shi army, who were charging ahead, had already closed in within dozens of steps.

Arrows were fired simultaneously from both sides, and a rain of arrows like dark clouds flew across the sky.

Because of the extremely high density, the strange phenomenon of arrows colliding in mid-air even occurred.

The warhorses were extremely fast, and when they were more than ten paces away, the Pishi soldiers threw out their short spears, throwing axes, and other weapons again.

Riding the momentum of the impact, these objects, carrying powerful kinetic energy, slammed into the body of the Imperial Guard holding the long weapon.

In an instant, the imperial guards at the forefront fell like wheat that had been struck by a sickle.

‘Click! ’

On the towering viewing platform, Lin Dao pulled the bolt to directly electrify the gun.

The Gatling gun's six barrels began to spin at high speed.

The next moment, orange-red gunfire shot out half a meter away!
(End of this chapter)