Chapter 21 second quarter

Between Chouchu and Maochu on May 26th, the Liao army (or to be more correct, the Liao army that was always in a state of emergency preparations and ready to attack at any time) after midnight preparations took action, starting from Langoudian in the east and fighting in the west. As far as Fan Village, on a position along the river stretching for more than forty miles, seven or eight ferries were selected, and they crossed the Baigou River successively to launch a full-scale attack. It was a sunny, standard, hot day in the north, but before the sun came out, a cool wind blew from time to time along the river.Night, like a dark curtain that is not completely closed, always reveals a ray of light.Groups of Liao troops poured out from their original barracks in the mysterious and bright night and gathered at the designated ferry.They are excitedly preparing to cross the boundary river they have been thirsty for a long time, and have a big battle.

Although the vast majority of the Liao army is mentally prepared to attack, although Yelu Dashi's military plan has been carefully considered and deployed intensively. Still can't do this.Because it is impossible for any war to be built accurately according to the pre-drawn construction drawings like building a house.All kinds of unforeseen factors hindered and changed the original plan, making it impossible to fully and correctly implement it.After some teams have made all the preparations, a new situation suddenly occurs, which delays the departure time.Some teams were blocked by other teams marching across the ground while advancing smoothly, and had to stop and wait in the chaos.The troops that should have been concentrated at the crossing at A, lost their way in the darkness, follow the other troops to gather at the crossing at B, and the two ranks join together to form a powerful attacking force.The originally designated Ferry C suddenly found an obstacle that was not expected in advance, and the troops automatically moved to Ferry D that was not in the original plan and was indeed much better than the original plan.They didn't consult their superiors because they couldn't find where they were, and they didn't receive new orders because they couldn't find them and didn't know how they were doing with the plan.Everyone obeyed the actual situation at the time and place that was more authoritative than the plan, and through the will of the masses and individuals, made impromptu decisions and modifications, and happily prepared to cross the river.

According to the plan, when and where to cross the river to fight, this is still secondary. Everyone is happily preparing to cross the river, which is the most important thing.As the commander-in-chief of the entire army, Yelu Dashi's important contribution is not to formulate such an attack plan, but to understand, master, cultivate, and expand this emotion of the soldiers, and to use it in a sudden attack. superior.Because of this, he can seize the opportunity to win. But that's not to say battle plans aren't important. The plan was not executed accurately, and it was later proved that most of the temporarily revised plan was more realistic and more likely to be implemented than the original plan stipulated by the superior, but it was spontaneous after all, not out of the unity of the leader Will, not fully balanced.Therefore, at the beginning of crossing the river, there were chaos at various ferries that were not estimated by Yelu Dashi in advance. This gave the Song army an opportunity to take advantage of it, but the soldiers of both Liao and Song did not realize this.The turbulent Liao army only wanted to cross the river to attack the Song army, but did not expect that they were also in danger of being attacked.The defending Song army discovered early on that a large number of Liao troops were dispatched from the rear and gathered at the riverside to prepare to cross the river, and some were already crossing the river.The defensive troops hurriedly forwarded the alarm to their superiors layer by layer, and held their positions by themselves.Seeing that the activities of the Liao army became more and more sluggish, they did not take any blocking action to prevent the enemy from crossing the river.

This is because they have lost the will to fight. If the Song army is strong and strong, and if they are in a regular war, then without waiting for orders from superiors, any mid-level or lower-level officer, any soldier will take advantage of the confusion before and during the crossing of the Liao army. The situation, without hesitation, proactively, and happily attacked.This is called in the famous "Sun Tzu's Art of War": "Soldiers attack halfway." The practice of war has proved that this is a beneficial experience in most cases.Can receive the expected results.Even soldiers who have never read the art of war, from practice, know how to seize this favorable opportunity to attack and turn their passive position into an active position.

But the current Song Army is far from that.Most of them are in a depressed state of mind.They perform tasks mechanically, patrol the designated places, launch flags within the designated range, and withdraw and take over at the designated time. All these are what the superiors ask them to do, and have nothing to do with themselves.To make soldiers who should be closely related to the fate of the war become so insensitive is the greatest effect of a bad commander from the opposite side.The absurd ban issued by the Xuanfu Division and the handling of the Li Xiaozhong incident dealt a huge psychological blow to the soldiers. They had already lost their confidence and determination to cross the river and strike. The courage of the enemy to fight together and die together.

Not only the soldiers were like this, but the mid-level and upper-level officers were even more depressed. When they heard such an urgent alarm, they were also filled with fear and were afraid of taking responsibility.The only thing they can do is to report the situation, push the responsibility up quickly, and wait for the more senior officers to decide their actions. Soldiers crowded to the river to observe the movements of the Liao army in the brighter and brighter sky before dawn.They pointed and poked, discussed and yelled loudly, and told each other what they had seen about the movements of the Liao army, as if they were a group of bystanders watching the fire from the other side.At this time, the Liao army was busy crossing the river, and was not in a hurry to wipe out the Song army who did not hinder them. Therefore, before the real battle began, the two sides seemed to maintain a friendly relationship that was not hostile, but also non-aggressive. .

"It's all cavalry," said the famous Clairvoyant.He was the first soldier to discover the activities of the Liao army, the first to report to the officer, and was ordered to stay on the spot and continue to observe the movement of the other side, so he had the highest right to speak. "Follow after another followed, all in armor, so mighty!" "I heard their iron armor clattering and their horses' hoofs slapping and slapping. I think they ran straight from Yanjing to here. After a night's work, they ran sweaty and foamy." A "shunfeng ear" added clairvoyance There was no sound, and he had no doubt that this army came from Yanjing from the sound. He also seemed to hear the voice of Emperor Liao sitting on the Jinluan Hall in Yanjing city giving orders.

"The army was transferred from Yanjing from afar, and they moved out of their hometown to use it. We know that we will do a big job here today." The cavalry moved from Yanjing, this conclusion has been unconditionally recognized by everyone, someone asked: "How far is Yanjing from here?" "It seems as if Tokyo is as far away from here." "Far in the sky, close in front of your eyes," Shunfeng Er immediately added in order to protect the conclusions from Yanjing from attack, "Cross the Baigou from here, and then cross the Huntong River, and walk through Jizhou and Linhuang Mansion , this is Yanjing Mansion, which is much closer than our Tokyo."

"They don't beat gongs, and they don't beat drums," Qianliyan asked intentionally, "it's just whining—what are they whistling about?" "It's called a 'conch'." Shunfeng Er has profound knowledge of all kinds of speakers, "I know this thing. On the Northwest battlefield, the Hexi family didn't use this, they only used 觱篥." "It's not called a conch," Clairvoyance laughed humorously, "It's called a conch, what your brother was bragging just now was confused with Jiang and Linhuang's mansion, and it was the big fa conch."

"Listen to them whining—the whining is so beautiful," interjected another soldier with a bigger conch. "It's called 'Zhaojun Chusai'. Do you know a man with a red head Dou, Wang Zhaojun, who is riding a silver-maned horse, will play the pipa after a while, and come to reward the army!" "Where is Wang Zhaojun? This time I think it is their Xiao Guanyin who came from Yanjing to reward the army. Look at this Guanyin empress, everyone is going to open their eyes today." "Bah!" A soldier spat, made a grimace on purpose, and said exaggeratedly, "I heard what you said, and the truth is that Xiao Guanyin is here. When I opened my eyes, who knew I only saw a man with a pot-bottomed face?" Hei Dahan, riding a black horse and running around along the river, is not discouraged!"

"Brothers, don't make a fuss." Clairvoyant, who had a formal mission, suddenly pointed to the opposite bank seriously, "Everyone, what the hell is that dark guy dragged to the edge of the river?" "A boat." "I bet you, there is no edge or edge, it is a raft, where is a boat?" "Didn't they drag a few more rafts over there? It seems that they want to build a pontoon bridge," Qianliyan pointed to that side again and said, "My good brother, please run to Dutou to make a report." "There are people in full armor and horses in full armor. With these few rafts, can all these people and horses be crossed?" Some people worried about the Liao army, lest they would not be able to cross the river. "Don't underestimate the raft. When our army crossed the Yellow River, the river bank was high, the river was wide, and the river was rushing. With a few rafts and a few round trips, we were all crossed. How could Fan Zi Can't we use this raft to cross the river?" "The cowhide whose head has been cut off needs to be fully inflated and tied up before it can be used as a raft to cross people." This one also joked to the French conch expert, "My brother blown such a big cowhide. If it wasn't for my brother to blow it up, how could anyone else blow it up like this!" "It's not all because of me blowing up the cowhide raft, so I brought you here to see the big black man with a face at the bottom of the pot. Today is your luck, and you will run into the door god before dawn." Boat to fight back. "Isn't there a few ships coming there?" Someone shouted loudly, as if they had discovered a new continent. "What are you afraid of? I think the Tartars are clumsy, they just can't hold the boat. After watching it for a long time, you can only sail for such a short distance." "Northern people ride horses, while southerners sail boats. They are really good at each other," someone sighed. "They have six legs, including men and horses. My parents only told me to have two legs. After a while, they will fight each other. My two legs will compete with their six legs to see who is stronger. Who is weaker?" The word "confrontation" made them return to the real world more clearly, thinking that one aspect of this "confrontation" might be themselves. Soldiers "watching from the wall" by the river.Seeing the enemy army preparing to cross the river, about to cross the river, and crossing the river, no one doubted that their purpose of crossing the river was to carry out a fight.Few of them thought that they would bear the brunt and would soon be the one to fight.Because they were not prepared for battle in their minds, their superiors did not prepare them to meet an incoming enemy.They did not join forces to prevent the Liao army from crossing the river.They don't know how this massacre will start and how it will end. They especially don't know what they should do in this melee, and how to play the role that a soldier should play.It seems that all of this has to be decided by the superiors, and there are superiors above the superiors. Maybe they have to wait until the government issues an imperial decree before deciding whether they can stand up to fight.All this is very far away, and they still have time to doze three times by the river.They wasted one or two of their most precious hours talking and laughing like this. By the time senior generals such as Zhong Shidao, Zhong Shizhong, Wang Zhi, and Yao Pingzhong saw the situation was not good, they issued an impromptu order to fight back and went to the front to supervise the battle. It was too late, and the Liao army had successfully crossed the river at most of the ferries. A prairie fire is formed, and the overall situation is corrupted and out of control. Is this a soldier's dereliction of duty?Is this because the middle and lower rank officers have not fulfilled their responsibilities?No!They are all victims of Xuan Fusi's wrong decision.Xuanfu Division's wrong decision is now being punished as it should be.Even so, even if the Liao army's offensive has come like a tide, there is no historical record that Tong Guan, who was the Xuanfu envoy at that time, had any ideological activities when he heard the urgent battle report, and ordered any contingency measures .