The battle between the Li Mu cavalry and the mountain barbarian heavy infantry was a battle between the strongest spear and the strongest shield. Especially on the narrow mountain path, it was a test of the skill and tactics of both sides.
Amidst the sound of hooves, the cavalry were like sharp knives, fiercely stabbing into the mountain barbarian infantry square formation. The rugged mountain path was like flat ground under the cavalry's superb horsemanship.
"Block!" The front row of barbarian soldiers gave the order.
With a swoosh, fine steel shields were erected like cards, instantly forming a shield wall in front of the formation. There were three layers of shields, and they were even half a meter tall.
The black panther totem carved on the outside of the shields looked cold under the sunlight. Inside the shields were mountain barbarian soldiers wielding axes, using all their strength to hold the shields.
Because they had rushed into battle, the entire process was smooth. As they got closer, they could see the mountain barbarian soldiers' palms were sweating, and the veins on their foreheads were bulging.
They were nervous and excited.
Boom ~ ~ ~
The charging cavalry were like high speed tanks. With an unstoppable momentum, they smashed the front row of barbarian heavy infantry into disorder.
The hastily formed shield wall was immediately broken. Under the control of the cavalry, batch after batch of fine warhorses leapt into the air, instantly crossing over the already broken shield wall.
In the air, the white light of the curved blades flashed, and blood splattered.
The barbarian soldiers who could not dodge in time were either killed or trampled into meat paste.
The first line of defense was thus broken.
The cavalry's attack was too sudden, not giving the barbarian soldiers any time to prepare. No matter how well trained the barbarian soldiers were, they could not instantly change from a marching state to a fighting state.
During the march, the soldiers' weapons and equipment were all put away.
Hastily accepting the battle was already at a disadvantage.
More importantly, because they were marching on the mountain path, the vanguard was not equipped with crossbowmen at all. It could be imagined how terrifying it would be when the enemy cavalry charged without the slightest interference from the crossbowmen.
In addition, the Li Mu cavalry was indeed fierce, and the vanguard was in a somewhat sorry state.
The barbarian soldiers were barbarian soldiers after all.
After suffering a loss, the troops at the back immediately reacted.
In this short period of time, an even more powerful shield formation had already been quietly assembled. Li Mu's cavalry clearly felt that the resistance from the front was getting stronger and stronger.
From time to time, he would suffer the attacks of the Mountain Barbarian's battle axes from both sides.
What was even worse was that when the leading cavalry officer looked over, all he could see were densely packed mountain barbarian soldiers. He couldn't see any artillery at all.
It was basically impossible to break through the entire barbarian defense line.
"Retreat!"
The leader of the cavalry was very straightforward and did not linger to fight.
Once the military order was given, the well-trained cavalry immediately changed their formation. The rear army became the front army and retreated along the original route.
On such a narrow mountain path, the cavalrymen were actually able to make a complete turn. If he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, he would have found it hard to believe.
Li Mu's cavalry really deserved its reputation.
In just a short while, the enemy cavalry was like a whirlwind, hurriedly arriving and disappearing, leaving behind a ground littered with corpses and battle wreckage.
The barbarian soldiers looked at the messy battlefield, and then looked at their own short legs. They could only watch as the enemy left, wanting to cry but no tears came out.
From the dejected expressions of the barbarian warriors, Li Mu's display of strength this time was very successful. This clearly sent a signal: the allied forces were not the slightest bit afraid of the Leopard Troop's attack!
When Han Xin received the frontline battle report, he muttered to himself, "It's a bad start!" For the first time, Han Xin had a direct understanding of Li Mu's combat style.
In the first round of the contest between the two famous generals, Li Mu had a small victory.
After the interlude, the army continued marching.
A small local conflict could not affect the course of the war.
The real battle between the two sides would still be resolved at Guiping Pass. In the end, it was still unknown who was more skilled.
At around three in the afternoon, the vanguard of the First Army Corps, the mountain barbarian heavy infantry division, finally arrived at Guiping Pass and began to set up camp.
Compared to the mountain path, the area in front of Guiping Pass was much wider, more than thirty meters wide. Even so, it was still too narrow for the army.
The barbarian soldiers panted heavily, staring at the stronghold in front of them, and began to form a formation in front of the pass.
An hour later, the major divisions arrived at the frontline one after another. The entire army formation stretched for more than ten miles. In reality, the only one that could truly threaten Guiping Pass was the First Army.
The remaining four divisions could only watch the show for the time being.
After the formation was completed, the P1 cannon, the protagonist of the war, was pushed to the front of the formation and unveiled its mysterious veil. As soon as it appeared, it was tightly guarded by the barbarian soldiers.
On the top of the city wall, Li Mu looked at the cannon in the enemy's formation with a complicated expression.
The previous cavalry raid did not achieve the desired result. As soon as he received the news, Li Mu knew what kind of bitter battle they were about to face.
Next, it depended on whether the second tactic he prepared would work.
…
With the roar of the cannon, the next scene of the war was simply a copy of the Second Army Corps' attack on Xuanwu Pass. Under the bombardment of the cannon, the garrison at the pass was beaten to the point of losing their temper.
The only difference was that at the beginning, Han Xin gave the order to directly blast open the gate of Guiping Pass. The huge gate was riddled with holes in the face of the cannon.
Han Xin was sure that Li Mu would not easily give up the plan to attack the cannon. Therefore, he simply blasted the gate and left the other side to carry out a surprise attack.
Sure enough, less than half an hour later, Li Mu's cavalry rushed out again. Compared with the previous raid, the scale of the cavalry this time was even larger, as if they had come out in full force.
The vast cavalry broke through the wreckage of the gate and crushed it to pieces.
"Ready!"
As soon as Li Mu's cavalry came out of the gate, the cannons immediately stopped firing.
If a mere eight cannons fired at the same time, they could indeed pose a certain threat to the cavalry, but they absolutely could not stop the cavalry from charging to the cannons.
Although the P1 cannon had been modified by the No. 7 Research Institute, its firing frequency was still far lower than that of a crossbow, and even slower than that of an archer.
A cavalry charge at such a short distance could only be fired once by the cannons. How many casualties could a volley of eight cannons cause to the cavalry?
At this stage, the only ones who could fight against the cavalry were the infantry, or to be precise, the heavy infantry. And the heavy infantry of the mountain barbarians were undoubtedly the trump card of the heavy infantry.
The mountain barbarian heavy infantry, who had long been ready and full of fighting spirit, quickly formed a formation in front of the cannons.
This time, the mountain barbarian soldiers came prepared, determined to teach the enemy a bloody lesson. After suffering several losses in a row, the mountain barbarian soldiers could be said to bear a grudge against Li Mu's cavalry.
"Come on, bastard, have a taste of my tomahawk!" The mountain barbarian soldiers looked extremely excited.
And behind the mountain barbarian soldiers, Han Xin had already arranged archers to ambush them.
This tactic was almost the same as the one Zhang Han had chosen. The only difference was that, due to the limitations of the battlefield, Han Xin could not arrange a cavalry unit to launch a surprise attack on the flanks.
Could it be that a similar scene was going to repeat itself?
Han Xin looked at the charging cavalry of Li Mu, his brows tightly knitted, not relaxing at all. He would never believe that Li Mu would be so stupid as to copy the same tactic as Yan Liang to destroy the cannons.
There must be a trap.
Compared to the fierce general Yan Liang, Li Mu was a master of tactics.
The next scene confirmed Han Xin's guess.
After Li Mu's cavalry rushed out of the gate, they did not spread out according to the normal tactic, but maintained a narrow formation, piercing into the mountain barbarians' formation like an arrowhead.
What was even more strange was that after breaking through the mountain barbarians' first line of defense, the cavalry did not continue forward. Instead, they suddenly split into two, evenly moving to the left and right sides.
Following closely behind, the cavalry began a second wave of charge along the opening that the front army had broken through. After breaking through the second line of defense, they also scattered to the left and right sides.
And so on.
The whole cavalry unit was like a drill. Through the relay, they opened up a gap in the mountain barbarians' formation at lightning speed.
At the same time, the cavalry that constantly scattered to the two sides blocked the mountain barbarian soldiers on both sides from approaching the gap, covertly maintaining the gap.
Needless to say, this tactic was created by Li Mu, specially designed to destroy the cannons.
"How dare you!"
A roar came from the mountain barbarians' formation. Being humiliated by the enemy in such a way, the dignity of all the mountain barbarians had been trampled.
The mountain barbarian soldiers who had come to their senses, under the leadership of their officers, tightened their encirclement, preparing to encircle the cavalry that was constantly dispersing to the two sides and make them mortal enemies.
In order to cause effective damage, the mountain barbarian soldiers directly abandoned the shields in their hands and fiercely chopped at the legs of the horses with their axes. Once the cavalry fell off their horses, they would immediately be chopped into meat paste.
In the blink of an eye, Li Mu's cavalry suffered heavy losses.
On the other hand, Li Mu's new spiral charging tactic was also displaying a miraculous effect.
In less than ten minutes, the relay cavalry completely broke through the mountain barbarians' defense line. Two P1 cannons were powerlessly exposed in front of the cavalry.
Their following fate could be imagined.
Under the cavalry's reckless charge, the two cannons were destroyed on the spot.
Even so, they were still not satisfied. The cavalry unit that followed behind wanted to follow the gap and attack the cannons on both sides, wanting to destroy all eight of the cannons.
Unfortunately, the fierce mountain barbarian soldiers would not give them this opportunity.
The more the cavalry unit charged in, the longer the line of defense became, and the more contact they had with the mountain barbarian soldiers. Because of this, the cavalry that followed behind could not smoothly disperse to the two sides.
They basically died under the mountain barbarians' axes before they could even retreat.
After the cavalry destroyed the two cannons, the mountain barbarian soldiers, who were extremely furious, launched their most powerful attack. The gap that had just been broken through was completely blocked by the mountain barbarian soldiers on both sides.
The entire battlefield was like a pocket, and the mountain barbarian soldiers "closed" the opening of the pocket again. Unknowingly, the entire cavalry unit had already mixed with the mountain barbarian soldiers, entangling with each other.
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.
