Chapter 8 The decisive battle is all about the details
Author: Glorious Little Rabbit
Chapter 8 The decisive battle is all about the details
The Xiongnu chief sat in the tent, closing his eyes and meditating. Several Han women were kneeling on the ground, holding Hujia and Huqin, playing music with their heads lowered.
Perhaps because they were frightened and did not sleep well, several women played a little messily, but only one of them played without making any mistakes.
The leader of the Xiongnu clan thought that this girl was proficient in music. After two months, she could play the Hujia as if she had been learning it for several years.
If this girl was beautiful, she might be included in his account, but this girl is extremely ugly.
Not to mention his facial features are a little crooked, and the birthmark on his face is black and red, which is extremely scary and makes people reluctant to take a second look.
According to her own words, her face was disfigured because she was burned by charcoal fire when she was a child.
The leader of the Xiongnu tribe also became suspicious and asked someone to wipe her face vigorously. As a result, the woman's face even bled after being wiped with a wet cloth. The black and red color did not fade at all, so the leader gave up angrily.
Hearing the uneven music, he felt irritated for no reason and drove the girls out.
He has a noble status. In order to prove himself to his father and tribe, he has been plundering in the Han Dynasty all year round. His armor is much better than that of other Xiongnu tribes.
This time, taking advantage of the civil strife in the Central Plains, he led hundreds of young men to go out together. In half a year, they robbed a lot of places and made a fortune.
Now, as long as you leave the valley and walk a few hundred miles to Bingzhou, you can return to your tribe and reunite with your wife and daughter!
Everyone was eager to return home, but now the team of hundreds of elite soldiers was disturbed by dozens of hunters who didn't know where they came from, making them unable to advance or retreat!
Something is wrong!
There must be something wrong!
What are the benefits of those hunters doing this?
When he thought of this, he was horrified. He stood up and walked out of the tent, shouting: "Start immediately and head north out of the valley!"
The Huns soldiers had a hard night last night and did not sleep well. Now they were woken up after sleeping for less than an hour. Everyone had a tired look on their faces and was slowly getting dressed.
A cavalryman with armor wanted to put the armor on the carriage next to him, but the general came over and shouted: "Why, the enemy will appear at any time, why don't you think about the armor?"
The cavalryman cursed secretly in his heart, reluctantly put on his armor and was about to mount his horse, but the general cursed again: "Do you want to tire the horse to death?"
"What if the enemy comes and the horse can't run anymore?"
The cavalryman couldn't help it anymore and complained: "I didn't sleep last night. I am already weak. Now I have to walk in armor. If we really have to fight, what will I do if I don't have the strength?"
Several soldiers nearby also echoed the words, and the scene was a bit chaotic for a while.
In fact, the reason why both sides say this is because of the habit of fighting on horseback.
In a battle formation, the factors that determine victory or defeat are the right time, place, and people.
Harmony is the human element, morale, weapons, armor, formations, strength and weakness are all very important.
Whoever can maximize the strength of the soldiers in the battle formation can control the outcome of the battlefield.
In fact, a very critical factor is the physical strength of the soldiers.
No matter how powerful a soldier is, if he is exhausted when he goes to the battlefield and cannot display his abilities, it will be all in vain.
Therefore, since ancient times, how to preserve the physical strength of soldiers before starting a battle or even during battle has been the most concerned thing for generals.
The first is armor weapons.
When the war is not started, when the troops are marching, the soldiers must put all their weapons and armor on the baggage carts for transportation, and they only wear light clothes to accompany them.
In this way, even if they march dozens of miles in a hurry, the soldiers will still have the physical strength to fight the enemy.
If it were like in later movies and TV shows, the soldiers marched in full armor and armed with weapons. After a long time, the soldiers would not be able to lift their hands.
At this time, most people wear straw sandals. If they carry heavy loads for a long time, their legs and feet will be damaged.
I'm afraid that within a few days, the soldiers will be useless.
After marching with heavy loads for a long time, most of the soldiers would have been paralyzed from exhaustion, if not death from exhaustion. How could we fight?
Therefore, it is a common practice in the army that soldiers travel lightly and carry heavy loads, all of which are carried by baggage vehicles.
This is also the reason why a sneak attack can easily lead to a big victory, because whether it is at night or on the march, the attacking party is fully equipped with weapons and armor, while the attacked party has empty hands and no protection. After being broken in by the opponent, it is very easy to attack in a short time.
The whole army collapsed.
This is also the reason why General Hu asked the cavalry to wear armor. They were harassed last night and the enemy's situation is unknown, so they naturally need to be vigilant.
But here comes the problem. If the cavalry wears armor and rides on a horse, it will greatly increase the burden on the horse.
War horses are more valuable than soldiers. If a war horse loses its stamina and cannot run in battle, the cavalry will become useless.
In fact, it is difficult for even the best war horses in the North to support two or three all-out charges of fully armored and heavy cavalry. Under harsh terrain, there is even only one chance.
This is also the reason why many times on the battlefield, the cavalry fails to charge forward and is defeated by the opponent's counterattack.
Therefore, when cavalry usually marches, they do not ride on horses, but lead horses on foot, and people and horses walk side by side. When there is a battle ahead, they can take out their armor and weapons from the baggage cart and mount their horses to fight.
In several Liangzhou armies with strict military discipline, if the cavalry rides on a war horse without authorization during the march, in serious cases, they may even be beheaded!
Now the Xiongnu tribe is facing a dilemma.
If the cavalry wears armor and walks, they will be exhausted.
If you mount a horse and ride, the horse will not be able to bear the physical strength.
If you don't wear armor, if the enemy comes to surprise you, you won't be able to respond in time.
The noise reached the ears of the Xiongnu chief. He thought for a long time and finally gave the order.
The front army was composed of unarmored light cavalry exploring the road, the rear infantry cleared the way, the armored cavalry were walking and leading their horses in the center, the baggage carts transporting armor and weapons were guarded by cavalry in the center, and the captured women were followed at the rear.
This was already the safest method at the moment. As soon as the order came out, everyone followed it and the team began to move slowly.
Yuan Xi stood two hills away and felt a little anxious when he saw the Xiongnu team beginning to move forward.
The other party actually left early!
Outside the valley, there are thousands of acres of wheat that are about to be harvested. This is the food that Beixin City has worked so hard for this year, and it will be harvested soon.
The Xiongnu will definitely plunder the wheat fields, and these thousands of acres of wheat will definitely not be able to escape, so this battle cannot be avoided.
What Yuan Xi had to do was to drag the Huns soldiers into the valley as much as possible so that Ju Yi could have time to arrive.
He remembered what Ju Yi said before leaving last night.
"Then if Zhao Yun doesn't wait for a long time, he will definitely realize that the Huns here are trapped by us and will rush over."
"Although I am confident enough to defeat him, in order to reduce variables, I decided to kill all the Hun soldiers before he arrives, leaving no one for him!"
Yuan Xi hoped that this would be the case, but now that the Huns were leaving early, he was afraid that Qu Yi's idea would fail.
The Huns' convoy appeared on the road down the valley.
Close.
Yuan Xi stretched out his arm and pulled out an arrow from the quiver behind his back, feeling that the arrow was heavy.
He began to draw his bow.
Dozens of archers around him all acted like this.
The bow strings were fully drawn, and the dozens of light cavalry in the vanguard of the Huns below had also entered the range of the arrows.
With a whistle, Yuan Xi released his fingers, and an arrow shot out.
The soldiers around him loosened their bowstrings one after another, and dozens of arrows flew out. The first few cavalrymen were hit by arrows and fell from their horses.
Yuan Xi watched his arrow hit a person's thigh, and secretly thought it was a pity, but he forgot to squat down, exposing his body.
When several Huns cavalry saw this, they immediately shot arrows at Yuan Xi!
Yuan Xi was stunned, and a bone arrow flew towards his face without any deviation!