The 80,000-strong army of the Ming Dynasty's expedition to the Western Regions was not fully committed to the battlefield.

Auxiliary soldiers and civilians were stationed at the strongholds along the way from Xingxingxia to Yizhou City to transport and protect grain and grass.

From Yizhou City, the main soldiers were left to guard the city. There were 6,000 Ming Dynasty soldiers guarding the city. The first was to guard against sneak attacks by Xiliao hidden troops in the Barkol Basin, the second was to escort the grain transport team to send the subsequent grain to Gaochang, and the third was to guard against the local

The hungry people or nobles suddenly rebelled.

The Ming army camps around Gaochang were built to guard water sources and surround the city.

Half of those camps were now empty. The main troops were sent to the decisive battle in the wilds of Xiliao, and the remaining troops and baggage were transferred to the two camps in the due east and north.

Excluding these soldiers who defended the city or stronghold, the Ming Dynasty's main soldiers actually used in the decisive battle were only more than 50,000, and they were divided into three to surround the Western Liao reinforcements.

Of course, there are other forces.

For example, when attacking the fortresses around Yizhou and Gaochang, a total of more than 6,000 enemy troops surrendered, hundreds of which were local nobles who took the initiative to seek refuge.

In addition, the Ming army acted benevolently and recruited the young and strong among the hungry people as soldiers. Now the Ming army has a total of seven thousand servants.

Some auxiliary soldiers and civilians were also dragged to the battlefield.

Counting all the servants, auxiliaries and civilians, the total number of troops engaged in the decisive battle was about 82,000.

Zhong Yanchong's tribe, located twenty miles southwest of Gaochang City, was the first to engage the enemy.

He had more than 20,000 people in his hands, arranged in a huge vehicle formation.

They are all four-wheel sidecars, and they don’t need any chains. The parts of the chariot can be fastened together in twos.

As for the Western Liao reinforcements, there were horses... too many to count.

Using horses to attack the barrier of firearms troops was a tactic used by the Manchus before the invention of the carriage. It was also the most rudimentary tactic that ancient generals could come up with.

Afraid that the horse would rush into battle without risking his life, he made a simple blindfold out of black cloth.

After wearing the blindfold, the horse can only see a little of the ground in front of it, and it has no vision until it is about to hit the chariot.

But I saw that the Xiliao cavalry had one person and two horses, and the ones without people were mostly bad horses. They had transported supplies for them along the way, and now they had to rush into the car formation for them.

About three hundred steps away, the Ming army's field artillery with a slightly larger caliber fired.

There were not many artillery shells, and most of the Xiliao cavalry could still drive their horses forward.

Within 200 steps, smaller caliber artillery is fired, which is the kind of French machine gun used by Wu Jie.

The sub-cannon barrels were constantly replaced, the shells were fired continuously, and more and more cavalry or horses fell.

Perhaps because they were not fully adapted to the sound of artillery, Xiliao's war horses began to panic, and the cavalry team became chaotic. They were forced to drive the bad horses to charge in advance, slashing the horses' buttocks with knives or stabbing the horses with spears. The injured and crazy bad horses could only charge forward.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

At about ninety paces, the Ming army's flintlock guns began to fire.

"Boom boom boom boom!"

About eighty paces, the Ming army's artillery was replaced by shotguns.

Those bad horses were injured in the buttocks and frightened by the sound of cannons. They were in two states of fear and madness, but because they wore blindfolds and had extremely narrow vision, they could only run forward.

One after another, the horses fell, and in a blink of an eye, the battlefield was littered with horse corpses.

And those Xiliao cavalry were still charging, and their horses also wore blindfolds. These people were all dead soldiers used to charge into the battle!

Xiao Orila looked at the battlefield with a cold expression. He had no other choice but to adopt this tactic.

The first wave of charge consisted of 300 cavalry and 600 horses, divided into three teams and charging forward layer by layer.

The first team, fifty steps away from the car formation, had already died with only a few lucky ones left.

The second team barely managed to get within thirty steps, but very few of them were left dead.

The third team actually rushed to twenty steps.

Before the third team was finished, the second wave of 300 cavalry charges had already begun. They only repeatedly attacked that narrow section.

By the time they reached the third group of eight cavalry groups, the barrel of the French cannon was close to overheating.

"Commander Zhong has an order, don't worry about the overheating of the cannon barrel, shoot out the cannonball first!"

The French cannon is not easy to explode, and overheating of the barrel will affect the life of the gun.

The Ming army was still firing, but the last group of the third group of cavalry in Xiliao collapsed. Eight hundred people had been killed in front of them. Those who rushed to the front of the car formation sporadically would also be killed by muskets, and a few of them would be killed by muskets.

was stabbed to death with a spear.

Dead soldiers are alive after all, they have their own thoughts, they are also afraid of death and want to live!

The fourth group of cavalry did not continue to charge forward, but retreated slightly to wait for orders.

A circle of soldiers around looked at Xiao Weili.

He issued a military order before the battle. When attacking the car formation, if the team retreats and the captain is still alive, the captain will be killed. If the captain dies, the entire team will be killed.

"Behead it!"

Following Xiao Weili's order, the law enforcement team ran to surround the retreating third group of cavalry.

Of the one hundred stormtroopers, there were only about seventy left.

The cavalry captain was a minor nobleman from the Gyeonggi region of Western Liaoning. Facing the surrounding law enforcement team, he shouted angrily: "I don't accept it. This is asking us to die. We have never fought like this!"

Not only this group of cavalry, but other cavalry nearby also thought so deeply. Seeing that this man was going to be executed, they couldn't help but feel sad.

He was still beheaded, and the military orders were as clear as a mountain.

Li Tiansheng, the general of the Xiliao cavalry, rushed to the Chinese army in person and said to Xiao Orili: "More than 800 cavalry and more than 1,000 horses were lost, but only 20 or 30 cavalry rushed in front of the chariot formation. They were killed before they could collide with the chariots.

Firearms and spears killed them all. This tactic does not work. Even if we can break through the car formation in front of us, we don’t know how many cavalry will die. This is not the main force of the Ming army at all!"

Xiao Weili was silent.

The general next to him didn't speak either.

This battle should not have been fought, and Gaochang City should not have been saved.

We should give up all the territory of the old Gaochang Kingdom south of the Tianshan Mountains, and then rely on the vast mountains to the west to guard Xiongguan. Fighting in that kind of terrain, the Ming army's tanks cannot move at all, and even the artillery will be affected by the shooting angle.

But what can Xiao Weili do?

Queen Gantian did not want to lose her territory, and many generals in the army were also clamoring to go to war. Xiao Orila could only lead his army to come thousands of miles away to rescue.

And it has to be resolved quickly.

Gaochang City is not easily destroyed by artillery. If there is a shortage of water in the city, wells can be dug to make up for it. What is really scary is that someone changes sides.

How many years ago did Yelu Dashi conquer Gaochang?

In the beginning, they just treated the king as a puppet and sent confidants to supervise the state affairs. Government and military affairs were still in the hands of Gaochang nobles.

Then it directly administered the area around Gaochang City, and the rest of the territory was still managed by local nobles.

The true and complete annexation of Gaochang only took two or three years, and Xiliao could only manage a few large cities personally.

If the battle lasts for a short period of time, even if the Gaochang nobles have a lot of thoughts, they can only accept the command and fight bravely with the Ming army. But if the siege lasts too long, it is impossible to say how many nobles will commit suicide and rebel.

Yelu Dashi was weaker back then, but why did he choose to fight Seljuk?

I am afraid that if we delay for too long, the complex army will inevitably change, and it will be able to exert its maximum combat effectiveness in one go.

"The main force of the Ming army is here!"

Northeast.

Li Yanxian personally led more than 50,000 people and approached the battlefield overwhelmingly. After forming the formation, the battlefield was seven or eight miles wide. This was because the servant army, ambush troops and civilians were placed at the back, otherwise the servant army and auxiliary troops would be wider after they were deployed.

.

The Xiliao cavalry kept coming back to report, and Xiao Orila also went to check it out personally.

He also had a telescope, and he observed carefully from a high place, and soon fell into deep despair.

Behind Li Yanxian's main force, a force of more than 30,000 people slowly approached. Xiao Chala'abu came from Gaochang City to join the battlefield.

The battlefield situation is as follows:

Zhong Yanchong and Xiao Weilia are facing each other from east to west, Li Yanxian's headquarters is further north, and Xiao Chala'a is farther east.

Xiao Weili divided his troops and asked Brother Yelutie to stay here, watching over Zhong Yanchong who had formed a turtle formation, and not letting Zhong Yanchong escape and interfere with the subsequent battle.

He himself led the main force to move north, trying to stop Li Yanxian, and then together with Xiao Chala Abu who came to the battlefield, they attacked from east to west and killed Li Yanxian's main force.

At this moment, a group of cavalry rushed from behind: "There is a Ming army attacking the camp!"

Xiao Weili asked: "How many pillars of smoke?"

"Three pillars," said the cavalryman.

"The camp is safe and sound, there's no need to panic," Xiao Weili said.

Although there were only a few thousand soldiers left in his camp, there were still many armed civilians, and the troops were reduced and concentrated to protect the food, grass and baggage. It was impossible for the Ming army to capture the partial divisions that had been bypassed in a day or two.

Just when the main forces of the two armies were facing each other in formation, another group of light cavalry returned with bloodshed.

"The enemy is coming. They are all elite armored cavalry. Our cavalry can't stop them!" a cavalry major reported in panic.
To be continued...