After Northern Mang became the Imperial Preceptor of this dynasty under the Decree of Peace, they were no longer the same as they were in the past when it came to attacking huge cities and towns that were difficult for warhorses to leap over. In the first Great Battle of Liang Mang, Dong Zhuo broke through the number one town at the border of Li Yang, Hutou City. Zhong Tan Lian broke through Youzhou's Hulukou City, Crougong City, and Luanhe City. Not only that, the grassland cavalry who aspired to annex the Central Plains had also studied deeply on how to break through the dense infantry formation. Chunzhi Bo Tuoba Qi Yun was even more knowledgeable in this field. Before he officially joined the army, during the meeting between the monarch and the minister, he specialized in discussing the battle of cavalry and infantry. He spoke eloquently and in detail, making the Northern Mang Empress, who was familiar with military affairs, exclaim in admiration.
Under the promotion of the Taiping Commandery, almost every Generals of the Southern Dynasty would have one or two military advisors from the Pivotal Hall of Xijing. Most of these people were young, who were brought to the Southern Dynasty by Hong Jia. They could be considered as the third generation of scholars after their families took root in the grassland. There were also young and strong Xue Wei who came from the Norland of the grassland, but there were not many of them. Most of the Generals of the Southern Dynasty sneered at them and regarded them as the military supervisors. In fact, there were some top nobles in the Southern Dynasty who were willing to pay attention to this group of young people. General Yang Yuanzan, who had died in the battle at Hukou City in Youzhou. At that time, Yang Yuanzan brought a large number of young talents from the Pivotal Hall of Xijing. There were as many as a hundred of them, but they were all turned into piles of bones. Although the old lady finally exchanged Liu Jinu's body in Hutou City for several heads, including Yang Yuanzan's, she showed a rare stingy and mean attitude about Yang Yuanzan's posthumous title after he died on the battlefield. She did not even give a token order to appease the Yangs. It was said that the Emperor even pointed at the head of the old general in the lime box and said to the Taiping Commandery standing beside her that Yang Yuanzan deserved to die for destroying her ten years of foundation!
When the five Generals of the Southern Dynasty met to discuss whether to fight this battle or not, a Pivotal Hall of Xijing with a low rank suggested to divide the army into two groups based on Ma Lange's description. 30,000 cavalrymen would attack the corridor and 20,000 cavalrymen would go south to help the Crone Mountain. Only one of the five Beimang generals from different military towns agreed. The other four rejected this overly conservative proposal. The middle-aged general from Maolong Military Town was known for his violent character in the Southern Dynasty. He directly bent over and pointed his whip at the young man's nose, scolded him for being a kid who didn't even know how to speed was the most important thing in war.. how could he know the importance of war. be quick... He also asked the young man in a strange tone, "Are you a spy planted in the Southern Dynasty by the Beiliang Frontier Army?" The only old General who agreed with the young man's cautious proposal couldn't bear it. Just as he was about to say something to smooth things over, he heard the other three Generals, who had similar positions and more power, laugh out loud. The men of the grassland, especially the strong in the army, always believed that they could be killed but not humiliated. The young man whose father had died in battle outside Beiliang was so angry that his eyes turned red. He almost ground his teeth to pieces. In the end, he took the initiative to ask to be the vanguard of the cavalry. Before he left, he sneered and said, "After I die, I'll see how you die in the underworld."
The four ambitious Generals didn't care at all. The young man who had read a few tattered books and didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth wanted to die. They, who had no relationship with him, couldn't be bothered to stop him. However, after the 2,000 vanguard cavalry ran into a wall, all of the Generals began to realize that the situation wasn't good. It wasn't that they didn't understand the natural mobility brought by abandoning the warhorses. It wasn't easy to use cavalry to break through the infantry formation head-on. The cavalry who opened the way would inevitably die when they ran into the formation. However, even the oldest Generals didn't expect the infantry formation's defense to be so shocking.
If it was said that the five thousand infantrymen hiding behind the Horse Barricade Formation shot out arrows like a torrential downpour, it was still within reason. However, there were still more than one thousand of the two thousand cavalrymen who charged behind the wall. The bloody scene of both men and horses dying in an instant was still extremely shocking to the captains, who had seen many bloody battlefields. These two thousand elite cavalrymen were undoubtedly two thousand men of sacrifice. Almost everyone knew that they would die if they charged forward, so they began to accelerate at the edge of the range of the crossbows. When the thousand or so cavalrymen crashed into the Horse Barricade Formation, their momentum was actually the strongest and their speed was the fastest. When a single cavalryman crashed into the Horse Barricade Formation, relying on the inertia brought by the galloping warhorses, the terrifying impact was self-evident.
In the end, more than 1,000 men of sacrifice, men and horses, all died under the long spears!
No less than 600 warhorses were directly pierced through by the long spears.
The most terrifying thing was that the second group of cavalry was almost visible to the naked eye. Those strangely long 'spears' displayed incredible toughness. After piercing through the warhorse corpses, most of the spears only bent and didn't break before they were pulled out of the corpses. For example, the normal cavalry of the Southern Dynasty's border army was usually given a cavalry spear. Often, it would break after one or two charges. Only the elite soldiers under the direct command of great generals like Dong Zhuo, Liu Gui, and Yang Yuanzan were able to repeatedly ram into the formation without breaking. However, as the grassland cavalry who were familiar with archery and horses, they all knew that even the Winter Thunder elite cavalry under the command of Orange Province's Sectional Magistrate Murong Baoding's spears were not as … unreasonable as the spears in the hands of the Liuzhou monk infantry army.
Although these 2,000 cavalrymen were a little timid, before the horn of retreat sounded behind them, no one dared to turn around and retreat.
It wasn't that these cavalrymen didn't care about their lives, nor were they completely unafraid of death. Although the border army of the Southern Dynasty was not as strict as the Beiliang's Xu family, if they retreated at the last minute, not only would they implicate their superiors, but also their whole family. They really couldn't be timid.
As the 2,000 cavalrymen were charging, the Liuzhou infantry army in their sight slowly moved back more than ten steps. The shield formation was still like a wall, the infantry spears were still like a forest, and the arrows were still like rain.
The young Xijing advisor who died on the battlefield when he was 20 years old happened to be hanging on a slanted infantry spear before the infantry army retreated.
It was like a scarlet sugar-coated haw, both funny and tragic.
Before he died, his chest and the head of his mount were pierced through by the infantry spear. The young man used all his strength to reach out and hold onto the infantry spear. The corner of his mouth twitched as if he wanted to say something, but he couldn't open his mouth.
If he could return alive, he would definitely insist on taking a detour to the south. He would tell the five Generals of the border army who mistakenly thought that a great achievement was at their fingertips that this thing was called a long spear. The shaft was extremely tough, the grip was extremely strong, and the tip was extremely sharp! When the sharp knife and heavy axe struck, there would be the sound of metal and stone. It would never crack or break. It had always been the white blade and the sharpest weapon that countless cavalry generals in the central plains dreamed of. The Han family of Jizhou, who had been competing with the grassland cavalry army for nearly 400 years, always had the tradition of "taking the spear after the death of the father". This meant that a good spear that was hard to break was far more suitable to be a family heirloom than a good knife that could cut through iron like mud. Killing the enemy on horseback with a long spear in hand was always successful. The cavalry general who held the spear almost didn't have to worry about the force of the spear hurting his arm. How bad could it be to use the infantry formation to stop the horses?
The second wave of 2,000 cavalry still didn't survive, but in the end, the infantry formation was loosened. Hundreds of cavalry crashed into the first row of Liuzhou monk soldiers with shields and died with blood splattering everywhere. In total, more than three hundred lances of the thousand paces had been broken.
The poet of the Great Feng Dynasty once wrote a border fortress poem that had been passed down to this day. It described the outstanding military exploits of a famous general at the border, but in front of the battle, he was defeated by the enemy. This sentence was simple and straightforward, but it was also very vivid.
The word "defeated" was the finishing touch.
One of the Generals sitting on horseback couldn't help but raise his butt and look at the battlefield in the distance. He was dumbfounded and couldn't say a single word.
They weren't afraid of dying, but if they died so quickly, how could they fight the war? Even if it were two cavalry armies fighting, how long would it take to charge and break through the enemy's formation with a short 300 paces?
The Generals of the Maolong Army, who had previously mocked the staff of the Cardinal Hall of Xijing, secretly swallowed his saliva. He turned his head stiffly and said to the old Generals, "Should we leave this place and take a 60-mile detour to Laohu Mountain?"
The old general, who actually only had 6,000 cavalry under him, shook his head and said in a deep voice, "The most difficult thing for a cavalry to break a infantry formation is at the beginning. This Liuzhou monk soldier's barricade is the most powerful, causing us to suffer heavy losses. This is reasonable. I believe that as long as we break through those few rows of spears, the rest will be much smoother."
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