"Brothers, hurry up, we are almost to Zhuozhou again."

The person who spoke was of course the captain in Cao Bin's army.

Since the food route was robbed last time, the entire army was in danger of running out of food, so they naturally gave up on Zhuozhou, which didn't have much food reserves in the first place.

At this time, Cao Bin's troops began their march to Zhuozhou again, but these guys who had healed their scars and forgot about the pain did not know that Zhuozhou was now a big trap.

"How far is it to get to Zhuozhou City?" Cao Bin asked his scouts.

"Back to Taiwei, we will be there in less than sixty miles."

Just at this time, a scout came back from the front: "Report to Lieutenant that traces of Liao cavalry were found not far ahead."

"The whole army is in formation, ready to meet the enemy."

After Cao Bin gave the order, the entire army formed a formation and prepared to meet the enemy.

Soon the Khitan cavalry appeared in sight, but there didn't seem to be many Khitan cavalry in front of them.

Soon these Khitan cavalry also launched a charge, but the strange thing is that this group of Khitan cavalry did not charge directly towards the Song army, but kept detouring around the Song army camp.

Since the Khitan cavalry did not conduct a direct frontal attack, they just took a roundabout way and then fired two arrows. This made the Song army very embarrassed.

Although it did not cause any substantial damage to the Song army, it was very annoying and tiring. Just when the Song army could not bear to send out cavalry to attack, the Khitan cavalry retreated.

After doing this, the Song army did not have any extra physical energy to march again today, so they started making rice and setting up camp on the same spot.

That's not all. In the evening, the Khitan cavalry came for a night attack. It was said to be a night attack, but there was no real attack. They just made trouble for you, threw one or two torches and started a fire, etc., but there were no casualties.

, but it’s true that I didn’t sleep well.

Early the next morning, the Song army had to go on the road again. After dragging their exhausted bodies for less than ten miles, another scout reported that the Khitan was attacking.

Okay, here we go again, let’s form an array.

As usual, the arrows are on the string, the sword is unsheathed, and the gun is ready.

Then, just like yesterday, the Khitan cavalry began to circle back towards the Song army camp and release cold arrows.

This again? Shoot the arrows, shoot the arrows.

However, a problem was discovered. The aiming speed of the archers could not keep up with the horizontal movement speed of the Khitan cavalry. It was completely pointless.

Can't use bows and arrows? Then use cavalry. But the cavalry was just above that, so the Khitan army withdrew again.

Okay, don't leave now. I haven't had a good rest in the first place, so I'm even more tired now. Let's set up camp and strengthen security tonight.

It is true that the security has been strengthened, and the Khitan no longer rushes to the military camp to set fire to it, but they have changed their tactics. The Khitan people are directly sent to drive a large number of horses around your military camp. The sound of horse trampling is enough this night.

It's noisy.

The Song army struggled for four days before they reached the gates of Zhuozhou City. When they arrived, the entire Song army was almost as if they had lost their souls.

But don't think that the nightmare is over when you reach Zhuozhou City. The Song Army's nightmare has just begun at this time.

Brother Yelvxiu has been sending troops continuously to harass the Song army for the past four days. In addition to the strategy of tiring the enemy, he also has another biggest purpose, which is to divert the Song army's attention.

During these four days, Brother Yelvxiu had already laid out Tianluo Di in Zhuozhou, waiting for the Song army to surrender.

Just when the Song army was ready to attack the city, Khitan cavalry started pouring out from all directions.

This strange scene was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for Cao Bin. He never expected that Brother Yelvxiu, who had not even dared to pursue him before, had already set up a trap and was waiting for him to sneak in.

Cao Bin, who had just reacted, hurriedly ordered a battle, but under the double blow of huge shock and fatigue accumulated over several days, the Song soldiers did not make any effective resistance at all.

The war suddenly turned into a one-sided massacre, and the Song army would be harvested one after another like weeds.

At this time, Cao Bin fell into despair. He regretted listening to his subordinates' advice and felt that the last failure was just an illusion. Only now did he understand that it was an illusion that the Khitan did not dare to pursue.

At this moment, a cavalry unit suddenly appeared on the west side of the battlefield.

This cavalry began to rush towards the Khitan encirclement at an extremely fast speed.

Just when they were about to touch the outermost part of the Khitan encirclement, they heard the leading general shout: "Light the fire."

Then I saw the soldiers of this cavalry taking out a spherical object one after another, and then lit it with fire sticks and the fuse on the sphere.

Then I heard the general just now shout again: "Launch."

These cavalrymen took out a slingshot and shot the ball into the sky.

I saw these spheres falling towards the Khitan army one after another, and then exploded one after another. Although the explosion effect was not strong, it still opened a gap in the encirclement.

The cavalry that suddenly appeared rushed directly into the enemy's formation through the gap.

This cavalry was Zhao Weiji's unit, and he was the one who made these spherical bombs.

This kind of bomb is of course a simple grenade made by Zhao Weiji. However, due to the limitations of the production process, the explosive power of this grenade is not huge. Only multiple ones used together can produce relatively large power in a small area.

Because of this situation, it is of course not suitable for the infantry who are mainly preparing to attack the star-spreading formation. Moreover, since hand throwing and slingshot ejection cannot push the grenade to a long distance, it is naturally given up in positional battles.

However, this kind of grenade has a miraculous effect in defending the city and countering the encirclement. Use the cavalry to shoot the grenade with a slingshot before attacking the encirclement, and you can easily open a hole in the encirclement.

Therefore, Zhao Weiji, who was sure that Cao Bin would be surrounded, resorted to this method to try to rescue Cao Bin's troops.

Li Jiguang led the cavalry into the encirclement and immediately found Cao Bin.

"Captain Cao, I am a subordinate of General Zhao of the Central Route Army. I am here to rescue Captain Cao on the order of General Zhao. I also ask Captain Cao to quickly gather his troops and break out with us."

After hearing Li Jiguang's words, Cao Bin didn't have any excuse and immediately ordered people to quickly pack up his troops and prepare to break out.

However, because the situation was too chaotic, Cao Bin could only muster about 7,000 cavalry to break through.

Seeing that time was running out, Li Jiguang couldn't control that much. Anyway, Zhao Weiji's order was to rescue Cao Bin and save as many others as he could.

So more than 7,000 cavalry began to break out with Li Jiguang's troops.

Breaking out of the encirclement was still the old way, using grenades to blow a hole in the south of the encirclement. Then everyone took this opportunity to rush out and quickly move to the south.

Not far to the south, Zhao Weiji had already arranged the infantry troops in formation, waiting for Li Jiguang and his cavalry troops who had broken through to return.

Seeing a part of the Song army break through, Brother Yelvxiu reacted immediately. He ordered Xiao Dalan to lead a part of the army to chase the group of missing fish, and he led the large army to start the final encirclement of the remaining Song army.

kill.

The preparations led by Xiao Dalan were naturally blocked by Zhao Weiji's troops.

Xiao Dalan had naturally heard about the power of the Star Spreading Formation, and was just about to experience it for himself.

After actually coming into contact with this formation, I realized that the troops were like being stuck in a quagmire. When they gathered together, they would be hit by strong bows and crossbows. Once they dispersed, they would be restrained by the Song army's small teams one by one. Moreover, these small teams could gather and disperse freely, and cooperate with each other.

The restrictions placed on the horses by the sudden muskets soon completely contained the Khitan cavalry.

Then the supporting cavalry began to disrupt the battlefield, and soon the Khitan troops began to be defeated one by one.

In the end, even Xiao Dalan was directly captured alive by Li Jiguang.

…

"There is no return again? That formation again? How magical is this formation?" Brother Yelvxiu, who was cleaning the battlefield in Zhuozhou, was really helpless after hearing the news that Xiao Dalan had no return.

He could no longer resist this formation that could continuously capture two of his generals.

After this battle, tens of thousands of Song soldiers were killed by the Khitan army. Almost all of them, except those who broke through, died on the battlefield. Only a very small number surrendered to the Khitan army.

Brother Yelvxiu ordered his sergeants to collect the corpses of the Song soldiers who died in the battle and build a Jingguan to commemorate his military exploits.

…

Cao Bin, who successfully escaped here, is now in Zhao Weiji's tent. Although his official position is much higher than that of Zhao Weiji, he is just a defeated general now, so naturally he can't tell Zhao Weiji what to do. He was polite after seeing Zhao Weiji

Angry.

And Zhao Weiji here did not do anything rude to Cao Bin, and was still very polite, because Cao Bin was still useful at this time, and he wanted to use Cao Bin to receive another army. Over there was Mi, who was Cao Bin's assistant.

Letter troops.

Shortly after Mi Xin's troops captured Xincheng, they were ready to move forward, but were blocked back to Xincheng by the Liao [***] troops. By this time, they had been surrounded in Xincheng for some time.

Zhao Weiji planned to return directly to rescue Mi Xin at this time, and then use Cao Bin to take over Mi Xin's troops.

Only with Mi Xin's troops, plus the troops he already had, did Zhao Weiji believe that he could have the ability to fight Brother Yelu Xiu.

In Zhao Weiji's impression, as long as Brother Yelvxiu is defeated, there will be no rescue for the Liao army on the western battlefield. In this way, even if Pan Mei and Yang Ye fail to capture Xijing Datong Prefecture in the end, they can safely evacuate.

But what Zhao Weiji didn't know was that the trajectory of history at this time was already different from what he knew at the beginning. There was a wizard Yelu Mo who had never been recorded in history in the Liao army, and there was also Empress Dowager Xiao's subordinate

That amazing army.

At this time, the Song troops on the western battlefield could not sense the fate they were about to face. At this time, they had been held back by the Yingzhou defenders for a long time and were still thinking about how to capture the city.
Chapter completed!