Before Jin Feng threw out the horse trap and the Macedonian phalanx, Dakang's best way to deal with the cavalry was to strengthen the walls and clear the country, and hold on to the city.
The so-called strong wall and clearing the field means clearing out the people around the city, leaving no food, and then relying on the tall city wall to resist the cavalry.
In the early stages of the war, this trick was still very effective.
Although the cavalry moves quickly, it also consumes supplies quickly. The city wall of Dakang is built high, steep and strong, making it difficult to break through. Since there is no food to grab from outside, the cavalry will soon retreat.
No matter in ancient or modern times, at home and abroad, war is the best driving force for innovation.
It was not easy for the party members to go on an expedition, so they naturally did not want to return empty-handed, so they gathered talents from all walks of life to study how to break through the city wall of Dakang.
It was against this background that siege engines were created.
The so-called siege vehicle is actually very simple. It has four wheels, with a huge log seven or eight feet long carried in the middle. It uses huge inertia to crash into the city gate.
Although simple, it is very effective.
In the second year after its creation, the party members used their siege engines to smash through the gates of more than a dozen cities one after another and plundered countless people and wealth.
The cavalry traveled across the entire Guanzhong Plain and fought eastward until they stopped at Tongguan on the edge of the Yellow River.
Of course it was not that they were stopped by Tongguan, but that the Dakang court sent an extremely generous apology.
This was the case for the next dozen years.
It was not until Dakang began to recruit civilians to dig moats around each city that the impact of the siege engines was contained.
Nowadays, party cavalry rarely uses siege vehicles when they go on expeditions. These were built by Li Jikui's staff who worked overtime to deal with the phalanx.
Some improvements were also made, and two rows of sharp blades were installed on both sides of the giant wood.
Isn't your bamboo very long? It can be longer than the huge tree that can pass the siege truck?
A siege engine can break through a city gate more than ten inches thick, but it can't break through your shield?
On the mountain plains, Cheng Peng, Ding Yunfei and their two phalanxes had been confronting the party cavalry for several hours.
Everyone is thirsty and hungry.
But they are persisting and waiting.
Waiting for General Fan in Weizhou City to send reinforcements to rescue them.
Just like they went to rescue the Tielin Army.
But until evening, they did not receive reinforcements from their own side, but instead received reinforcements from the enemy.
Dozens of war horses, dragging siege engines, rumbled into the battlefield.
"Brother Cheng, they have brought the siege truck, what should we do?"
Ding Yunfei, who finally calmed down, panicked again. He pulled Cheng Peng's sleeve and was shaking nervously.
"Brother Ding, at this point, we can only give it a try."
Cheng Peng also looked solemn: "I hope we can stop the siege engines."
"Why doesn't General Fan send someone to rescue us?"
Ding Yunfei almost cried: "And that Qinghuai, we are trapped here to rescue his Tielin Army, why doesn't he care about us?"
"how could I know?"
Cheng Peng threw away his sleeves irritably, somewhat understanding why Qinghuai was unwilling to pay attention to those dandy generals.
Zhuo Ban had already become impatient with waiting. As soon as the siege vehicle arrived, he immediately launched an attack on the phalanx.
Three siege vehicles were lined up in a row, more than ten meters wide, aiming at the square formation where Cheng Peng and Ding Yunfei were.
The sharp blades on both sides of the giant tree shone with a cold light.
"Everyone, cheer me up. If we can't survive, everyone will die!"
Cheng Peng immediately arranged two more rows of shield soldiers and concentrated them opposite the siege vehicle.
Following Zhuo Ban's order, dozens of party men shouted slogans and slowly started pushing the siege vehicles.
"Hold it!"
Cheng Peng roared to encourage the soldiers.
It's a pity that the power gap between the two sides is too big.
The speed of the siege vehicle was getting faster and faster, and it crashed into the phalanx with a roar.
The huge logs carried inertia and easily tore through the defense of the shield soldiers and penetrated into the phalanx.
The shield soldiers and spear soldiers on both sides all died under the blades on both sides of the log.
The siege engine rushed to the center of the phalanx before stopping due to exhaustion.
"Quick, fill up the gap immediately!"
Cheng Peng roared and ordered his soldiers, trying to fill the gap.
But how could Zhuo Ban give him this opportunity?
Hundreds of cavalry followed the siege vehicles and rushed into the phalanx through the gap.
The spearmen inside the phalanx only had long and thick bamboo in their hands, which no one could hold. How could they fight the cavalry?
After the party cavalry rushed into the square formation, they began to kill wantonly!
Fortunately, the bamboo was thick, which blocked the movement of the war horses to a certain extent, making the cutting process slower.
Cheng Peng was so anxious that his mind was running rapidly to think of countermeasures.
But the Macedonian Phalanx is like a durian. As long as the hard thorny shell is broken, the soft pulp is left inside.
If someone breaks into the interior, there is basically no solution.
Seeing more and more people dying, Cheng Peng had no choice but to order the messengers to ring the gong.
This is the signal to disband the formation.
Ever since the siege engines appeared, Cheng Peng knew that the formation could not save them.
If they still insist on gathering together, they can only be killed slowly.
It's better to run away each other and survive one by one.
The veterans obviously figured this out. The gong rang only once, and the two formations suddenly dispersed, and the soldiers fled in all directions.
Naturally, the Dangxiang cavalry would not let them escape and immediately tightened the encirclement, especially focusing on intercepting them on the official road back to Weizhou City.
The Dakang soldiers who have survived to this day are basically veterans, and are much more experienced than the auxiliary soldiers and new recruits who died in the morning.
After they dispersed, they did not rely on instinct to run along the original road to Weizhou City. Instead, they formed a group and rushed towards the nearest woods carrying bamboos.
Some veterans even took advantage of the situation and stabbed one or two cavalrymen to death.
The scene suddenly became chaotic.
But the chaos did not last long before it stopped.
Dakang soldiers either fled into the woods or died here.
The setting sun reflected and dyed the sky red.
But what is redder than the sky is the blood on the ground.
Zhuo Ban wiped the blood from his face and laughed heartily.
After this battle, half of the shame of his capture was washed away.
In fact, he wanted to take the opportunity to surround Weizhou City, but his staff sent people to severely stop him.
Because of the scout reports, the Fan Jiajun who defended the city dug many disguised horse traps in the open space outside Weizhou City. It would be easy to get caught if you approach rashly.
Moreover, the combat effectiveness of Fan's army was even stronger than that of Tielin's army. It was impossible to attack Weizhou City with Zhuoban's manpower.
On the contrary, it is possible to be attacked by Fan Jiajun.
Zhuo Ban had no choice but to order his troops to retreat.
After nightfall, veterans began to appear outside Weizhou City.
According to statistics, out of the more than 5,000 Ansu and Yongan coalition troops, only less than 700 people returned in the end.
The Ansu Army and Yongan Army were completely defeated.
General Fan's head turned white overnight.
Qinghuai also didn't sleep all night. At dawn, he called his bodyguard Liu Qiong and asked:
"How many garrison troops do we have in General Camp?"