When the two thousand Beimang cavalry closest to the city walls received Zhong Tan's orders, they began to accelerate their charge, launching wave after wave of mounted archery in an attempt to suppress the formation of Xiaguang City's infantry as much as possible while assisting their own soldiers in their retreat. At the same time, the foot archers on the city walls, which had a longer range than the mounted archers, decisively gave up on killing the Beimang infantry and turned toward the Beimang cavalry that were currently making their way out of the city. The cavalry commander, Zheng Lin, raised his arm and paused. The cavalry no longer advanced and began to slowly retreat fifty paces. The vast majority of the arrows from the city walls landed within these fifty paces. Zheng Lin turned around and surveyed his surroundings, feeling somewhat depressed. Apart from the infantry that were urgently retreating from the flanks of the cavalry, the main culprits that were preventing their cavalry from rushing to the battlefield just so happened to be the infantry formations that were supposed to be in charge of following up on the siege. Otherwise, as long as they had two thousand cavalry to block the city gates, given the current number of crossbows in Xiaguang City, they wouldn't be able to pose too much of a threat. Then, even if the four thousand cavalry couldn't completely stop the infantry from leaving the city, they would at least be able to make it impossible for them to spread out their formation comfortably.
Zheng Lin's cavalry could be considered the elites of the eastern front. Apart from the fact that they hadn't brought any spears because they hadn't expected to charge into the enemy formation, they had all sorts of mounted bows and foot archers. Lassos, axes, and all sorts of other weapons were also present. They were all clad in uniform chainmail, which was even more extravagant than the leather armor of ordinary grassland cavalry.
Zheng Lin's unmoving cavalry seemed like a crane among a flock of chickens amidst the fiercely retreating Beimang infantry.
Very soon, several cavalry reinforcements arrived with great difficulty, making their way through the infantry. Altogether, there were about three thousand five hundred cavalry. However, opportunities on the battlefield were always fleeting. Under the skilled assistance of nearly a thousand auxiliary troops in charge of transporting supplies, the Youzhou infantry had already calmly formed up outside Xiaguang City's gates, their numbers as dense as hedgehogs. However, for some reason, this infantry did not place the three axes, antler wood, caltrops, or barricades in front of their formation. Zheng Lin couldn't help but find this rather strange. For better or for worse, Xiaguang City was the last strategic town on the Hulukou defensive line. Even if they had never thought of going out of the city to control cavalry by foot, the city should still have these common military items stored up. Zheng Lin chuckled. It was better that there weren't any. Those large barricades with four slanted logs and holes for metal spears, as well as those simple barricades that the strategist had explained countless times, truly made a cavalry commander like Zheng Lin feel his scalp go numb just from hearing about them.
Zheng Lin carefully observed the division of troops among the Youzhou infantry. Sure enough, it was just as those scholarly strategists had said. The sturdy shieldmen with the strongest physical strength raised large shields almost as tall as a person at the front, while the sharp spears in the back thrust out from the shields. Above the rattan walls, there were many rows of 'spears' that made the cavalry feel a chill even in the middle of summer. Behind them were the axemen who gave up on cold blades and wielded large axes. Behind them were the archers who could draw their bows and kill the enemy before the cavalry, as well as the waist crossbows and rear crossbows, which had a longer range than the infantry bows. Zheng Lin subconsciously raised his butt off the back of his horse, trying to get a clearer look. However, it was very difficult for him to discover any more of the profundities of the Yan Clan's old battalion.
A thousand-man commander who had come from the grasslands of Beiting to the Hulukou asked with a smile, "General Zheng, what do you say? Why don't you let me lead the troops in a charge first? It's not a bad idea to test the waters. "
Zheng Lin looked at this young thousand-man commander. He was the eldest son of a certain clan that occupied a large area of fertile grasslands in the north. He was young and full of vigor. Previously, he had accomplished quite a number of military exploits in the Beacon Fort around Luanhe City. Now, he was just waiting to break through Xiaguang City and go on a killing spree in Youzhou. It was said that this kid had already discussed with a group of Beiting nobles of similar background. When they entered Youzhou, they would ignore everything else and work together to set their sights on that place called Yanzhi County. The women there were so beautiful that even the men of the Central Plains of Liyang would drool over them. When the time came, they would pick out a few hundred of the most beautiful women to enjoy alone, while the other women of Yanzhi County would be sold to the nobles of the grasslands. Not only would they earn money, but they would also earn favors.
Zheng Lin, as the son of a noble clan of the Southern Dynasty, did not have a good impression of these nobles of Beiting. Over the past twenty years, there had been countless examples of minor nobles of Beiting abusing their power in Western Capital of the Southern Dynasty. However, Zheng Lin still shook his head and said, "That four thousand infantry is the old battalion of Yan Wenluan of Youzhou. They are the direct descendants of the direct line of descent. We shouldn't rashly charge into their formation. General Zhong only asked me to cover their retreat. We can't be greedy and advance prematurely."
That thousand-man commander chuckled and said, "Whether or not I'm advancing prematurely will have to wait until I lose the battle. Every one of the thousand men under my command is an elite cavalry that can drill into the belly of a horse like playing with a toy. General Zheng, since you don't dare to charge into the formation, you can just wait on the side and watch me provide support."
Zheng Lin said expressionlessly, "Oh, then this general will quietly wait for the report of victory."
The young thousand-man commander laughed out loud and took the lead to rush into the heavily guarded phalanx of infantry.
One thousand cavalrymen were divided into two rows of two hundred cavalrymen. There was a large gap between the five rows. The first two rows were mainly composed of short and tall "heavy cavalrymen". Everyone was holding their original spears or iron spears seized from Beiliang's Fort Wu. Their armor was also better than that of the last three rows. Thus, they quickly advanced forward. This kind of cavalry charging formation that the grassland people were very familiar with. The formation was simple but flexible. At the end of the Dafeng Dynasty, they had achieved great results against the Central Plains infantry, causing the Central Plains to be filled with smoke. Every time they were about to clash with the Central Plains infantry, the last three rows of light cavalrymen would suddenly speed up and charge out from the gaps between the iron cavalry. They would either shoot out a dense rain of arrows or throw out short spears. If the enemy's phalanx of infantry could maintain a stable formation, then the heavy cavalrymen would not rush into the formation. Instead, they would make an arc and slide out from the two wings of the phalanx. If they could not find an opportunity on the two sides of the phalanx of infantry, then they would return to their original spot and repeat until a hole appeared in the phalanx of infantry. Then, the iron cavalry would launch a truly lethal charge and create a gap for the light cavalry behind.
In the past, the grassland cavalry that galloped freely on the territory of the Dafeng Dynasty had greatly improved both their armor and weapons due to the various benefits that Hong Jia brought to the north.
Unfortunately, the enemy this thousand-man cavalry was facing was the heavy armored infantry of Yan Wenluan, the Beiliang Frontier Army.
It was not the embroidered pillow dynasty that was boasted by some rich and powerful people that "all the dynasties died because they were weak, only the Dafeng Dynasty died because they were strong."
When they realized that there were only a thousand cavalry charging alone.
This infantry square formation made a shocking move, going against the common sense of the art of war and putting down the shield wall and spear forest that were the essence of the horse repelling formation.
It was only between 300 and 100 steps.
Under the sharp arrows of the large number of crossbows, the thousand cavalry that were shouting were thrown off their horses. A total of 600 of them lay down.
What happened next was also completely different from what was written in the military books. The infantry formation didn't continue to fire arrows at a large scale. Instead, they shot down the dozens of mounted soldiers who tried to escape from the battlefield. The front line readied their shields and spears.
It was like saying, "Cavalry charging formation?" "Then please come!"
After realizing that their thousand-man commander had an arrow pierced through his chest, the remaining 300 Beimang cavalry charged over without caring about their lives.
They charged towards those sharp horse repelling spears.
After one charge.
The entire infantry square formation was still as stable as a rock!
In front of the shield.
In the spear.
The 300 Beimang warhorses, without exception, were all pierced through by the two-and-a-half-foot long spears.
On the walls of Xiaguang City, a short, one-eyed old man was accompanied by Youzhou General Huangfu Qiong and Provincial Governor Hu Kui, the two Beiliang border officials. From start to finish, the old man did not even glance at the one thousand Beimang cavalry seeking their own death. Instead, he looked even further north, outside the gourd. He muttered to himself, "In three days, the four cavalry armies will be able to enter the gourd, right?"
— —
Outside the mouth of the calabash, the twenty thousand Youzhou cavalrymen were divided into two. Commanding Cavalry General Shi Yulu and Agile Cavalry General Fan Wenyao each led two thousand cavalrymen and continued north. They were in charge of destroying the grain transportation of Longyao Province and intercepting those wandering cavalrymen.
The deputy general of the Youzhou cavalry, Yu Luandao, personally led sixteen thousand cavalry to welcome the arrival of the two cavalry armies. When the time came, the Youzhou cavalry would act as guards for the latter.
Even though the two cavalry armies added together only amounted to more than half of the Youzhou cavalry.
But Yu Luandao was not angry at all.
— —
Two days later, a group of ten thousand cavalry broke away from the main army and charged into the gourd.
There were dilapidated fortresses and unmanned beacons.
It was a scene of devastation.
A gust of wind blew past the city of Crouching Bow City.
These ten thousand cavalry did not stop at Crouching Bow City. When they circled around the city, all the cavalry took out their Beiliang blades and raised them high up.
The Great Snow Dragon Cavalry.
They silently headed south.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
