"County Lieutenant, the Mongol army has sent troops to attack the mountain from the west again, what should we do?"
Xiong Shan, after leading his men to kill a squad of Mongol scouts who had ascended the mountain, returned to the summit and felt disappointed by the situation before him.
The plan to ambush the Mongol army on the narrow path had failed. While the current tactic of throwing stones from a height could inflict casualties on some Mongol soldiers, it could not secure victory.
Moreover, while three hundred Mongol soldiers and two hundred auxiliary troops were attacking the mountain, the patrolmen on the summit numbered only one hundred.
Li Xia was still staring at the foot of the mountain, murmuring as if calculating something.
"Two hundred Mongol soldiers, one hundred Dali auxiliaries... nearly a hundred trackers... two hundred captured soldiers on the shore... how many captured soldiers are on the boats?"
"County Lieutenant?"
"No rush," Li Xia said. "Continue to defend the mountain."
Not far away, Mao Yi'er, leading a squad, loaded a basket with stones and shouted an order.
"Launch the catapults!"
The seven squads in front pulled hard, sending stones crashing down towards the mountain base.
"Quick, keep loading stones!"
As Mao Yi'er was still shouting, someone suddenly grabbed his collar.
Yang Ben pointed to the west and roared, "Squad Leader, do you see? The Mongol army is flanking us from the mountain!"
"Why are you asking me? We're loading stones."
"If we don't stop them, we'll be surrounded, or the Mongol army will bypass us to the county town!"
Mao Yi'er didn't understand these matters. He shook off Yang Ben's hand and shouted, "Just follow orders, load stones and throw them."
"I'm going to take my men to stop them..."
Before Yang Ben could finish his sentence, Xiong Shan rushed over and kicked him.
"Fill the catapults with stones!"
"This is not how you fight!" Yang Ben, having been kicked, felt a surge of anger, his face turning red. He finally suppressed it and shouted, "Don't you see?! The Mongol army is surrounding us."
"All of you, be quiet," Li Xia suddenly commanded. "Adjust the catapult aim, and hit the two hundred Mongol soldiers holding the rear at the foot of the mountain."
He raised his hand and pointed directly at the formation of the Mongol deputy chiliarch, Nige.
"County Lieutenant, but the Mongol army is still attacking the mountain..."
"Ignore them, hit their rear guard!"
Yang Ben glanced at the Fujian River to the east and was the first to react. He suddenly roared, "That's right, load the stones, adjust the catapult aim, and fire!"
Nige looked up and saw a large stone hurtling towards him.
"Damn it."
He cursed and ordered his troops to scatter.
He couldn't understand how this Song general was commanding. The summit was about to be taken, yet instead of fleeing or blocking, they were throwing stones. What was the point?
Suddenly, someone shouted, "Boats! They have boats."
"Boats?" Nige was stunned. "Does Qingfu County have a navy?"
"Boom!" The falling stone smashed into the Mongol formation...
Nige didn't bother to see if anyone had been hit. His gaze shifted to the Fujian River, where he saw Song army ships moving swiftly downstream.
"Not only boats, look..."
Upon closer inspection, he saw that in front of the Song army ships were many floating logs, carried by the swift river current, crashing violently into his three ships.
"Quick, shoot arrows!" Nige roared.
With a "bang," the floating logs collided...
On the mountaintop, Li Xia surveyed the mountainside. The Mongol and Dali auxiliary troops climbing upwards were still attacking, numbering five hundred in total.
This was the advantage he had gained by occupying the high ground, using one hundred men to draw five hundred.
However, the decisive point of this small battle today was not here.
It was on the water.
Li Xia had been pondering the difference between his own approach and Zhang Shi's when facing the Mongol army outside the city. The key difference was that Zhang Shi attacked against the current, while he attacked with the current.
The advantage of flowing with the current versus against it was a world of difference.
"Boom!"
As the floating logs collided with the three Mongol ships, a large Qingfu County ship came sailing down the river.
Bao San stood at the bow, directing operations and personally waving the command flag.
"Drop anchor!"
Anchor ropes were thrown from the large ship, hooking onto rocks and trees on the east bank, bringing the vessel to a halt in the middle of the river.
"Fire arrows!" Bao San roared again.
A volley of arrows rained down upon the Mongol formation. At the same time, the Mongol army also fired arrows at the ships.
The Mongol army had to guard against falling stones, while the Song army, sheltered by the ships' decks and shields, and with more arrows, held their own in the exchange of fire.
Amidst the screams, the first to scatter were the trackers.
"Run! Run away..."
The three Mongol ships, unable to drop anchor, were hit by the floating logs and had lost their trackers, immediately beginning to drift downstream.
"Fire arrows!" Bao San ordered, while shouting, "Captured brothers! Turn your weapons! Turn your weapons!"
As the Song soldiers fired their arrows, they shouted, "Turn your weapons..."
At the same time, eight more small boats sailed downstream, pursuing the Mongol ships that had been washed away on the Fujian River.
These small boats were led by Jiang Fan, who stood at the bow of one of the boats, staring intently ahead.
Behind him, the patrolmen were still shouting.
"Captured brothers! Turn your weapons!"
...
On one of the Mongol ships, a captive named Yu Tian was still being forced by the Mongol soldiers to row, trying to stabilize the ship. He suddenly turned his head to look.
In the ship's hold, sacks of grain were stained with blood, and the captured women were huddled in rags.
Yu Tian glanced again and saw twenty Mongol soldiers on the ship, with over a hundred rowers.
Further away, Nige's two hundred Mongol cavalrymen, armed with bows, were moving further and further away.
Suddenly, with a "clink," a grappling hook was thrown from a Qingfu naval small boat and caught onto the ship.
A Mongol soldier put down his bow and drew his saber to cut it.
Yu Tian suddenly stood up, grabbed a wooden oar, and smashed it down.
"Brothers! Turn your weapons!"
"Kill!"
As the shouts of killing erupted, Jiang Fan's spirits lifted, and he ordered his patrolmen to pull hard.
"One, two!" Xu Kui roared the chant, leading his squad to forcefully pull the small boat towards the ship captured by the Mongols.
"Charge!" Jiang Fan led the charge, brandishing his grappling hook, and was the first to climb onto the ship...
Nige frowned, sensing that something was wrong.
By this point in the battle, he had not lost many of his scout cavalry, but he had fallen into a strategic disadvantage.
He had sent three hundred Mongol soldiers up the mountain, leaving only two hundred in formation to guard four hundred Song prisoners.
If these Song soldiers were to turn their weapons, break through the Dali auxiliary troops, they would disrupt his lines.
The next moment, another large ship sailed downstream from the upper reaches of the Fujian River, docked below Balo Mountain, and two hundred Song soldiers leaped off the ship, flanking them...
"Kill!"
Liu Jinsuo and Lou Hu arrived at the battlefield by boat, quickly disembarked via the path between the Fujian River and Balo Mountain, and charged out with their sabers.
Their target, however, was not the Mongol army, but the two hundred prisoners at the foot of the mountain.
Soon, the two hundred prisoners broke and fled, triggering the collapse of the Dali auxiliary troops...
"Boom!" Another large stone fell from the summit of Balo Mountain, smashing into Nige's formation.
Just as Nige had anticipated, the battle had turned unfavorable, and faster than he had expected.
The Song army held the advantage of the downstream current, and their reinforcements were too fast.
Under the attack of falling stones, the Mongol horses were startled; the ships on the river continuously attacked with arrows; the captured soldiers on the two large ships had been incited to revolt; the Song soldiers had already outflanked them; the Dali auxiliary troops had collapsed...
Nige decisively ordered a retreat to the west.
He was not defeated, but intended to use his usual tactic of luring the Song soldiers into the open terrain to the west, and then using the advantage of cavalry to outflank them.
The two hundred-man companies of Ga'erdi and Tumen Baoyin, who were climbing the west side of Balo Mountain, heard the horn.
They looked back and understood Nige's order.
"Outflank the pursuing Song army."
Ga'erdi and Tumen Baoyin both issued orders.
"Quick! Turn back down the mountain and outflank them!"
On the summit of Balo Mountain, Li Xia gazed at the battlefield and quickly ordered, "Notify Liu Jinsuo at the foot of the mountain to just break up the Dali auxiliary troops, no need to press the advantage. We will take down one hundred-man company first."
"Yes!"
The battle flags fluttered...
The Song army did not pursue the main Mongol force, allowing the Dali auxiliary troops to scatter across the mountainside. Instead, they turned and outflanked the hundred-man company of Xiri on the mountainside.
In this battle, Li Xia not only aimed to defend the county town but also did not greedily seek to annihilate the entire Mongol army.
He was learning to command little by little, learning to use the mountain and water features to divide and outflank. He would be satisfied with annihilating a small hundred-man company.
More importantly, he could allow his soldiers to grow rapidly through these small victories.