The Liao army had a total of 85,000 people in Datong Prefecture, of which 5,000 Khitans remained in Datong City.

The remaining 80,000 troops participated in the decisive battle with the Song army.

The 80,000 Liao troops also approached step by step and stopped about five miles away from the Song army. They also set up formations. The 30,000 mature Jurchen troops were the front army, responsible for continuously attacking the main formation of the Song army.

The Naiman tribe and the Lieshan tribe are left and right wings, the Dadan tribe is the rear army, the 10,000 Xi army and the 10,000 Bohai army are the central army, and Yelu Wanshan personally commanded the army to fight.

Among the 30,000 former troops, there were 20,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry, and they were the key to the entire war.

Yelu Wanshan was very conflicted. The combat effectiveness of the mature Jurchen tribe is far less than that of the Jurchen tribe. Is it wise to let them fight the front army?

But he must implement the intention of Emperor Yelu Hongji and use war to weaken the strength of the mature girl. In other words, all these 30,000 troops must be consumed on the battlefield of Datong.

This is a political task for Yelu Wanshan, but if he performs a political task, it will weaken the military. In fact, according to his original intention, he was to let the three grassland tribes be the vanguards.

On the one hand, the three grassland tribes refused, and on the other hand, the political pressure from the emperor Yelu Hongji made Yelu Wanshan finally formulate this not very satisfactory formation.

Thirty thousand mature Jurchen soldiers were ready, the first and second waves were both cavalry attacks. After the cavalry broke through the opponent's defense line, the third wave of infantry would enter the enemy's formation.

But they were facing 150,000 Song troops, and the huge pressure made them desperate.

The mature Jurchens are Jurchens who entered the farming civilization. They are very different from the birth of the Wanyan family. They settled on the north bank of the Yalu River. Some live in the city, do small businesses and other business, and some live in the countryside, so they mainly make a living by farming.

The Jurchens have always had a close relationship with the Goryeo people. When the relationship between the Liao Kingdom and the Goryeo deteriorates, the Jurchens will naturally be suspected by the Liao court.

Especially now that the Liao court has exhausted its wealth, in order to seize more wealth, Yelu Hongji began to make many racial ideas. Needless to say, the Han people were the first to be deprived of their wealth, and then they gave birth to the Jurchens and the Krei tribe. After a round of purges within the Khitan, Yelu Hongji stared at the wealthy Jurchens who were relatively wealthy but had a dissatisfactory relationship with the court.

The young and strong Jurchen men were sent to the battlefield, and the remaining elderly and women and children were left to them to deal with.

‘Dong!Dong!Dong!’

The drums were ringing before the battle, and the Liao army, who were preparing for the first wave of attack, tightened their horses. The Liao Kingdom had already experienced a serious pig iron crisis. Five hundred thousand Han people were rescued by the Song army, while other ethnic groups could not keep up with mining and smelting, which caused the Liao Kingdom's pig iron production to drop by 70% and its quality was not up to standard.

The Jurchens all had leather armor, old spears, and wooden shields.

The war horses sniffed and kept hitting the ground. At this time, Yelu Wanshan waved his sword and the sound of the war drums suddenly rushed.

The Jurchens shouted, "Kill--"

Ten thousand cavalrymen were the first to fight out, and ten thousand horses galloped, stirring up dust in the sky, and storming towards the Song army's formation...

In the Song army's crossbow formation, Yang Ying, commander, shouted: "The horse blocking plate is raised, the crossbow cannon is ready, and the crossbowman is ready!"

The yellow flag was waving, and the horse-blocking plates were quickly supported, forming a two-mile-long barrier. Then 360 crossbows were loaded with iron box crossbow arrows, each of which had two strong soldiers struggling to skeletons.

Nine thousand crossbow soldiers lined up in three rows, and raised their crossbows to aim at the rushing Liao cavalry.

The second team of 10,000 cavalrymen in the distance also ran with them. Twenty thousand war horses galloped, forming a sea of ​​war horses. The earth was trembling, and yellow and red dust covered the sky and the sun. The war horses seemed to be wild horses rushing out of the chaotic world, with long manes flying.

The cavalry was getting closer and closer to the Song army, five hundred steps, three hundred steps, two hundred steps...

The cavalry in the front took the lead in entering the killing distance of the crossbow.

The red flag was waved, and 360 crossbows were fired at the same time. Countless small black dots rose into the air, forming a locust-like black cloud, covering the sky and shooting towards the enemy's formation.

The rain of iron arrows, like a storm, shot into the enemy group. The iron crossbow arrows were extremely powerful, and shot into the cavalry group in a straight line, shooting through shields and leather armor, and shooting through the soldiers' bodies. Countless cavalry rolled to the ground, and the war horses were also shot, and they fell directly to the ground, throwing the cavalry on their backs out, and the arrows lost more than 2,000 cavalry.

Immediately afterwards, the first round of the three thousand crossbow troops also fired arrows. Three thousand crossbow arrows rose into the air and shot towards the overwhelming enemy troops. After the first row was shot, they began to pull the strings and shoot arrows quickly. Then the second row was launched, and in a moment, the third row was launched.

At this time, the steel crossbow began to fire for the second time.

The Liao cavalry rushed for only a hundred steps and was hit hard by nearly 30,000 arrows, including 20,000 iron crossbow arrows and 9,000 crossbow arrows.

The Liao army's cavalry suffered more than 6,000 casualties, which made them frightened.

But no matter how frightened the enemy, they could not retreat. Ten thousand cavalrymen were already coming up, and they could only bite the bullet and rush towards the enemy camp.

At this time, the thousands of cavalry in front were only eighty steps away from the Song army, and the steel crossbows had been removed. Nine thousand crossbowmen raised their crossbows and aimed at the Liao army that were getting closer and closer.

Nine thousand arrows were fired together, like autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves. After a man was overturned, only more than a thousand people were still on the way.

The second group of 10,000 cavalry was only 150 steps away from the Song army. Yang Ying ordered: "The crossbow army retreats, and the spearmen form a spear formation!"

Nine thousand crossbow soldiers quickly retreated, and 30,000 spearmen stepped forward in one step. The two-meter-long guns were densely packed, forming a sea of ​​spears.

In front of the 30,000 spearmen were two-mile-long horse-blocking boards, covered with dense wooden stake spikes.

More than a thousand cavalry finally took the lead in killing the Song army's formation, and they saw clearly that there was a row of long wooden boards in front, covered with spikes.

The war horse could not jump over, so it could only hit it, and many soldiers screamed in fear.

"Boom!" Thousands of cavalry hit the horse blocker, some smashed the horse blocker, and rushed directly into the dense spear. Some war horses stopped quickly and flew over, but most war horses could not stop their four hooves and directly hit the wooden board, and were pierced by the long wooden stakes.

But no matter what, the horse-blocking plate removed the impact force of the cavalry, greatly reducing the impact pressure of the spearmen behind.

The first batch of 10,000 Liao cavalry was almost destroyed. This time, the second batch of Liao cavalry came up, and the real battle began.

After paying the price of two thousand casualties, the Liao army finally smashed the horse-blocking board and entered the Song army's spear formation.

At this time, the Liao army was fully charged, and the two grassland cavalry, one left and one right, also rushed towards the Song army's two wings. They obviously had no strong murderous intent and were hesitant, without the unstoppable momentum.

Fanning could see clearly and ordered: "Assault the enemy's wings on both sides and kill them!"

"Kill--"

Zhong Yan roared, and 50,000 cavalry left and right went to the enemy's left and right wings. The cavalry fought in an instant, and fought fiercely for less than a stick of incense. The Lieshan tribe on the left wing could not support it first. He led his men to turn around and escape, and then the Naiman tribe on the right wing also retreated quickly.

The Dadan troops had not even confronted the Song army, and they also retreated. Three grassland cavalry fled in the wilderness without any chance, fleeing straight to the northern grassland.

The Song army did not pursue the three grasslands. The blue flag was waving, and 50,000 Song cavalry surrounded the main force of the enemy's central army from both sides.

Yelu Wanshan received the news that the three divisions of Grassland were defeated and retreated. He was so angry that he cursed. He did not retreat because he was defeated. It was clearly a matter of escaping at the battle, and it was agreed to escape before the battle. Otherwise, the Dadan division would not have turned around and fled without even touching the enemy.

The escape of the three grasslands immediately caused the entire battle situation to be unbalanced. Fan Ning seized the opportunity and ordered all 150,000 troops to be suppressed. The 150,000 troops surrounded 40,000 enemy troops, forming a huge iron barrel formation.

The 40,000 Liao army suffered heavy casualties, but there was no chance to turn the situation around. Seeing that the army was getting fewer and fewer, the Song army became more and more brave and braver. The Western army was very brave and good at fighting, and the cavalry also fired arrows to the Liao army inside from the periphery. In just one hour, more than half of the 40,000 surrounded troops had been injured and killed.

Deputy General Yelu Han shouted: "Master, we will definitely lose, order to break through!"

Yelu Wanshan also knew that the defeat was decided, so he shouted: "The whole army broke through to the north!"

The remaining 18,000 soldiers struggled to break through, but the Song army's spear formation was strong and they could not break through at all, and the casualties continued to increase.

Deputy General Yelu Han was shot by a raid, turned over and fell off his horse, and was trampled like mud by thousands of war horses.

Yelu Wanshan was covered in blood, but he finally found an opportunity. The Song army in the northeast corner was a little weak and seemed to be unable to cooperate.

"Kill with me! Break out."

He led the main army to attack the northeast corner and tried every effort to break out.

At noon, Yelu Wanshan led thousands of cavalry to finally break out from the northeast corner and rushed out, but was blocked by 20,000 Song cavalry. Seeing that Yelu Wanshan could not break north, he had to turn around and break west.

In the end, only a few hundred people emerged from the encirclement of the Song army. Yelu Wanshan was as anxious as a dog who was stranded and did not dare to return to Datong City, but fled towards the northwest grassland.

The fierce battle that lasted nearly four hours finally ended in the afternoon. Except for the three grassland troops, the remaining 50,000 troops were almost destroyed, and only hundreds of people escaped.

The Liao army suffered more than 40,000 casualties and surrendered more than 8,000, and the Song army also paid a heavy price of more than 6,000 casualties.
Chapter completed!