At dawn, Tantai Xuanye was riding a horse on a small slope, looking at the Qiufeng Plain in the distance.
Qiufengyuan is just a few miles ahead. As far as you can see, it is full of green grass and full of life.
Yan Yue's soldiers and horses wanted to cross Qiufengyuan and quickly arrive at Xuzhou City last night, but after receiving the military order from Tantai Xuanye, they could only camp on the spot.
Qiufengyuan is a vast area with a radius of twenty miles. Some people once even suggested building a horse farm here, but after all, the area was limited, and the forage here was not conducive to raising high-quality horses, so they finally gave up.
But this wilderness is the perfect place for cavalry to exert its advantages.
At dawn, Tantai Xuanye led a team of people from outside Qiufeng County to the camp on Yanyue's side.
The decisive battle was imminent, and he wanted to see the environment of Qiufengyuan with his own eyes.
Looking at the vast expanse of plains, Tantai Xuanye's face was grim, but he increasingly couldn't understand why She Yue made such a stupid decision.
Could it be that Qin Xiao really transferred reinforcements from the northeast?
Tantai Xuanye once felt like most people that Qin Xiao's Long Rui Army was just a bunch of rabble.
But the continuous battle reports in the Northeast made him start to pay attention to Long Ruijun.
He never looked down upon the Liaodong Army. Although the Liaodong Army was no longer what it used to be, he never doubted that the Liaodong Army was still one of the few elite troops in the Tang Dynasty that had combat effectiveness. In fact, its combat capabilities were probably even higher than those of the Shence Army.
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Of course, the Shence Army was an elite force of the Tang Dynasty. It was well-equipped, and its sergeants were selected very strictly. Their daily training was never relaxed.
But the biggest weakness of the Shence Army is that its duty is to defend Kyoto, and there are not many opportunities for actual combat.
The border troops of the Tang Dynasty were always on alert
Even if there is no major military action, small conflicts will occur from time to time.
Just like the Liaodong Army, although it has not engaged in military operations with surrounding forces for many years, the so-called bandits that appear from time to time in the four northeastern counties require the Liaodong Army to frequently send troops to suppress bandits.
The last real battle of the Shence Army was the encirclement and suppression of the Queen Mother Society in Qingzhou more than ten years ago. Since then, they have not conducted any real military operations for many years.
Long Rui's army can annihilate the Liaodong Army, so in Tantai Xuanye's opinion, the combat effectiveness of Qin Xiao's army is definitely not inferior to the Shence Army.
If Qin Xiao massively mobilizes the Long Rui Army to come for reinforcements, it will certainly be bad news for the Shence Army.
But he also understood that the Liaodong Army had just been annihilated, and there were still many post-war affairs. It would take less than half a year to completely stabilize the situation in the Northeast. And during this half year, Long Rui's army had to stay in the Northeast, and it was impossible to mobilize a large number of troops.
Enter customs.
Moreover, he himself was the leading general, so of course he knew that a large number of troops would be mobilized for reinforcements, and they would be mobilized from the Northeast to Xuzhou. All preparations would not be completed in a short time.
Unless every one of Long Rui's troops had wings, it would be unbelievable that reinforcements could arrive in Xuzhou in such a short period of time.
The scout rangers sent out have not rushed back to report, especially the scout rangers who went east to investigate. Tantai Xuanye has been waiting for news.
Before Tantai Xuanye came to Qiufengyuan, he had already ordered He Taiji to lead his troops to move to Qiufengyuan, and the two groups of soldiers and horses met Qiufengyuan.
By noon, He Taiji had arrived with his troops and horses. The two groups of soldiers and horses totaled nearly 30,000 people, forming a large area of darkness.
But I will be there tomorrow
There was a field battle in Qiufengyuan, and the siege equipment was naturally not used. Tantai Xuanye ordered the baggage team to evacuate ten miles to the rear. All the civilians and strong men were also in the baggage team, and the remaining more than 20,000 combat troops and horses were
Deploy the front line.
At dusk, three of the four groups of mounted scouts sent out rushed back to report the information.
Scouts from both the north and south routes found no trace of the enemy, which meant that there was no ambush or any other troops within a hundred miles of the north and south wings of Qiufengyuan.
However, the scouts who were keeping an eye on Xuzhou City had already come back to report that a group of soldiers and horses had already left the city. They were not many and seemed to be the vanguard camp of the Xuzhou Army.
Sure enough, before dark, a group of soldiers and horses arrived at Qiufengyuan first. There were not many soldiers, only about two thousand people. They stopped less than ten miles away from the Shence Army and stood by.
This vanguard battalion is almost composed of infantry. If the Shence Army launches an offensive at this moment, they can completely eat up these soldiers and horses in a short time.
Some generals in the Shence Army were gearing up and asked Tantai Xuanye for orders to attack first and annihilate the vanguard battalion.
However, Tantai Xuanye also knew that it would be easy to capture this vanguard battalion. However, She Yue had issued a letter of war, and the two sides agreed that the decisive battle would take place after dawn tomorrow, so before that, both sides must abide by the agreement and not launch an attack.
Soldiers are deceitful, and when they actually use troops, they may not really abide by such an agreement.
But if an attack is launched at this time and the enemy's vanguard camp is swallowed up, She Yue will probably change his mind and continue to hold on to Xuzhou City, and the decisive battle of Qiufengyuan will come to nothing.
This is certainly not the outcome Shence Army wants to see.
fruit.
So after the vanguard battalion arrived, Tantai Xuanye only sent out his rangers to pay attention to the enemy's movements and did not act rashly.
But when the generals of the Shence Army saw that She Yue actually let a vanguard battalion arrive at Qiufengyuan first, they increasingly felt that She Yue really had no experience in using troops and was simply seeking death.
Although many generals, including Tantai Xuanye, suspected that there was fraud, in the face of absolute strength, most generals felt that even if there was something fishy, it would be impossible for the enemy to resist the Shence Army in a fight.
Bingfeng will only be completely annihilated in the end.
That night, Xuzhou garrison troops arrived at Qiufengyuan from time to time.
At first, the strength of the Xuzhou Army was far inferior to that of the Shence Army, but soldiers and horses continued to arrive overnight. It seemed that there was a steady stream of soldiers and horses from the other side, which even made the Shence Army feel uneasy.
This may seem like the opponent's general has no talent for using troops, but in fact it seems to be a strategy, which can be said to be a psychological tactic. The soldiers and horses continuously arrive on the battlefield, creating a kind of psychological pressure on the enemy.
Tantai Xuanye certainly didn't feel sleepy that night.
He received continuous reports that night, and a group of troops from the Xuzhou Army arrived at regular intervals, which made him sneer in his heart.
As expected in the battle book, She Yue will have a showdown with the Shence Army in Qiufengyuan.
Until dawn, the enemy troops were still coming from the rear.
The last scouting rangers finally came back at dawn and reported that there were no traces of soldiers and horses in the east of Xuzhou City and that there were no reinforcements to reinforce Xuzhou.
This also made Tantai Xuanye feel relieved, but he was even more surprised as to why She Yue would be so desperate.
Qiufengyuan,
The enemy's soldiers and horses were already a mass of black people, and their strength was no longer inferior to that of Shence's army.
Moreover, the opponent's formation is also very neat. The Chinese army is naturally the strongest, and many soldiers and horses are deployed on both wings.
However, the enemy troops were almost all infantry, and the few cavalry were deployed on both wings.
The enemy cavalry is visibly sparse.
The number of cavalry in the Xuzhou garrison was not large, and Qin Xiao dispatched thousands of cavalry to rush into the rear of the Shence Army, so the cavalry remaining in Xuzhou City was naturally even rarer.
The two armies were arrayed in Qiufengyuan. Last night, the Xuzhou Pioneer Battalion was still about ten miles away from the Shence Army. By daybreak, the formation had obviously moved forward, and the Shence Army had also moved forward in formation, although there was still some distance between the two sides.
Although they are far away, they can vaguely see the opponent's formation.
Both sides also sent rangers back and forth in front of the formation to convey various military orders.
Field battles on the plains were the battlefield that Tantai Xuanye was best at.
When Tantai Xuanye served the frontier army in Wuchuan Town, the enemies he faced were the Tusun people on the Monan Grassland.
There is a vast plain above the grassland, which is the vastest battlefield in the world.
Tantai Xuanye used 300 cavalry across the grassland, made great military exploits, and shocked the world. Therefore, battlefields like Qiufengyuan were like a fish in water for Tantai Xuanye.
Tantai Xuanye had already laid out decisive battle tactics before.
He has nearly 4,000 cavalry in his hands, which is far superior to the Xuzhou Army. In this kind of plains duel, the cavalry will of course play the most important role.
The most important role of the cavalry is to disrupt the enemy's formation by attacking and causing the enemy to fall into a state of disarray, so that the infantry can take advantage of the situation and break into the scattered enemy's formation.
If it was a heavily armored cavalry, maybe
You can attack from the front, but the Shence Army is all light cavalry. If thousands of light cavalry attack from the front, it will certainly disrupt the enemy's formation, but the price paid will be extremely heavy. Therefore, those who really make good use of cavalry will never
Instead of causing the cavalry to attack head-on, it will circle back to the enemy's flanks and pierce the enemy's ribs like a dagger.
With their absolute advantage in speed, the cavalry can make detours quickly, while the huge infantry formation changes its formation as slowly as an elephant. The larger the troop strength, the slower the movement speed. Often, the enemy cavalry will be able to move before the formation changes.
Can calmly appear on the flank and launch a surprise attack.
Therefore, when setting up formations on the battlefield, if the cavalry force is sufficient, both sides will deploy cavalry on the flanks to fight cavalry against cavalry.
Once the strength of the cavalry is far from being able to compete with the opponent, they can only deploy a large number of shield soldiers and pikemen on the flanks to resist the cavalry's surprise attack.
In today's decisive battle, the Xuzhou cavalry was naturally far from able to resist the Shence Army, so Tantai Xuanye had already agreed with his generals that four thousand cavalry would be deployed on both wings. After the battle began, the cavalry would take the lead in detouring from both wings and launching an offensive from both wings.
After disrupting the enemy's formation, the main force of the Shence Army can launch an offensive across the board and fight the enemy head-on.
On the battlefield, people screamed and horses neighed, and the two legions seemed to be ready for a decisive battle.
Tantai Xuanye's eyes were stern, he was riding on horseback, holding a knife on his waist.
He had previously worried that Qin Xiao would secretly mobilize troops from the northeast for reinforcements, especially cavalry.
He knew that Qin Xiao had been developing cavalry in the Northeast. In several battles to annihilate the Liaodong Army, Qin Xiao recruited many Liaodong cavalry and even had hundreds of imperial guards under his command.
Laidao was conquered by Qin Xiao and all were incorporated into the Longrui Cavalry.
Everyone knows that Qin Xiao does have a powerful cavalry regiment.
If Qin Xiao secretly transferred Long Rui cavalry reinforcements from the northeast and even entered the battlefield for today's decisive battle, then it's hard to say who would win.
But now it is confirmed that Xuzhou has no reinforcements, so although today's battle has not yet begun, the outcome is almost certain.
Just as the generals of the Shence Army said, no matter what She Yue’s plan is, it is impossible to compete with the Shence Army just by relying on the soldiers and horses from the various state battalions in Xuzhou. In the face of the absolute strength of the Shence Army, She Yue can’t play any tricks.
No matter what tricks you try, it won't help.
Amidst the sound of the trumpet, it was the Xuzhou Army that took the lead in advancing forward. The Shence Army also waved its flags, and the entire army began to move forward.
But soon, the Xuzhou Army stopped. Amid the rapid sound of drums, a group of men and horses galloped out from the Xuzhou Army Formation. There were only seven or eight people. In the lead was a man with a tall head and a big horse. His whole body was black and shiny. The man on the horse had gray armor.
Wearing a black helmet and carrying a long bow, the horse is like a dragon and the man is like a tiger.
This small group of men and horses galloped straight towards the Shence Army. Two of them were holding battle flags. One side was a flag with the Chinese character Tang, while the other side had a big "Li" written on it.
The Shence Army already had archers with their bows and arrows ready, and they were just waiting for an order to shoot the group of people.
Tantai Xuanye's eyes were like lightning, staring at the gray-armored general, with a trace of astonishment on his face. Then he clenched the saber at his waist and coldly uttered two words: "Qin Xiao!"