On the eighth day of April in the second year of Wende, there was deep silence on Xiedan Ridge in the northwest of Tianbao County (now west of Yongchang County).
This is a high point in the Hexi Corridor, blocking the military road. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, a city fort was built and troops were sent to guard it.
Why is it necessary to block the military road? Because Liangzhou is not an ordinary inland state and county, and the water resources are not that rich. When the army is dispatched, drinking water must be available, and Xiedanling just has it.
The same is true for some notched valleys in Yinshan Mountain.
There are obviously so many tunnels in the mountains, so why do everyone focus on a certain one? It's simple. There are "springs" along the way, which are good for horses to drink, and they are also wide enough for carriages.
Xiedanling is also such a place, and it is also called "Shuiquanzi".
At the end of the period, Lu Yan, the prime minister of the Lu family, led more than 500 cavalry to pursue them all the way and rushed to Xiedan Ridge.
At the foot of the mountain, nearly two thousand cavalry were slowly gathering. They came from the Amo, Tuyuhun, Longjia, Sogdian and other tribes. The formation was led by more than 400 cavalrymen from Beiwedu.
As for one person and three horses, the Leopard Cavalry, which is theoretically not weak in mobility, has fallen far behind.
The Uighur cavalry swimming east of Xiedan Ridge has become insignificant. They have been driven or killed, and there are only a few left. They can no longer pose a threat to the logistics supply line of the pursuing army.
Now, Shuofang's army needs to control Xiedan Ridge and let the chasing army pass through this most convenient channel.
"Whoosh!" An arrow struck, grazing Lu Yan's shoulder and piercing the chest of a knight beside him.
The knight screamed and fell off his horse.
Before Lu Yan could react, more arrows flew in. Then, large groups of cavalry rushed out from both sides of the valley and stream.
On this complex terrain, the Uighurs perfectly maintained their body balance, their bows and strings sounded continuously, and the cavalry fell off their horses one after another.
Going up and down hills is not an easy task for cavalry.
When going up the mountain, you have to lean forward and when going down the mountain, you have to lean back. The terrain is complicated and you have to constantly make other adjustments. Archery and fighting are very inconvenient. The Han cavalry couldn't do it, but the Huns in the Han Dynasty did it. At this time, the Uighurs
People do even better.
The three major advantages of the prairie cavalry are: good riding skills, good archery skills, and hard work; the three major disadvantages are: poor equipment (lack of long-range crossbows, lack of protective armor, and even the use of bone arrows), weak melee combat skills, and low organization.
But this is not absolute.
At this time, the equipment of the Uighur cavalry was okay, although it lacked armor. The organization was also better than that of the ordinary grassland tribes. It was indeed short in melee combat, but the three major shortcomings made up for two, and it was completely incompetent on complex terrain.
They need to fight at close range, and they are instantly made to look like gods descending to earth.
This is a well-prepared ambush!
Hemo was suddenly attacked, causing heavy casualties. Lu Yan looked at his own children who fell one after another, and was extremely sad and angry. He was chasing too fast!
"Come on, Prime Minister!" The entourage pulled Lu Yan's horse's rein and hugged him back down the mountain.
When the cavalrymen at the foot of the mountain saw it, they immediately dispersed without anyone's orders.
Cavalry combat in the prairie is very different from that in the Central Plains.
The place is too big and there is too much room for maneuver!
When the Xiongnu faced the Han army attacking the grassland, they dispersed and used dozens of cavalry to fight. They took advantage of their strong cavalry and archery capabilities to fight.
The Han cavalry simply "dismounted and fought on the ground", using powerful crossbows to drive them away from a distance and kill them.
The two sides battled with wits and courage, tried their best to exploit their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, and killed each other. But in the end, the Han army was the better, because your Huns' tribal tent can't run as fast as a horse. Once I find it, you can't
You've been wandering around fighting, so just fight me honestly.
The Uighurs' main tent was in Xiedan, Ganzhou, and Xiedan Ridge was located in Tianbao, Liangzhou. There was no place to defend for the time being, so they were able to take advantage of the complex terrain here. After the ambush was completed, they could fight in small-scale fights.
They had already experienced the pain of large-scale cavalry formation fighting in the south of Liangzhou City, and they did not want to suffer it a second time.
A Uighur cavalryman fired his horned bow in succession, shooting down three Momo cavalrymen. Then he clamped the horse's belly, attached another man, and smashed the iron bone in his hand, knocking the man off the horse.
The combination of man and horse is very good!
During the charge, the ground was rough, but his movements were not out of shape at all, and he completed the kill perfectly through the leverage and combination between the man and the horse.
If Li Shaorong were here, he would probably be impressed. He once mocked the poor riding skills of the horse-riding infantrymen who became monks in the Xuanwu Army, but this Uighur cavalry general's equestrian skills seemed to be better than him. People have to sigh that his skills are good.
Specialize. Let’s not compete with the prairie people who use pony horses to herd animals, just focus on using your own advantages.
The battle continued. Taking advantage of the success of the ambush, the Uighur cavalry pursued them all the way to the bottom of the mountain.
"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Arrows flew across the sky, screaming again and again.
The cavalry on both sides did not have any formation, they just rode and shot at mid-range on the grassland, constantly circling.
The people carrying Weidu rushed forward.
Hundreds of cavalry were divided into two groups, and suddenly circled to both sides of the largest group of Uighur cavalry, firing arrows at a medium distance.
Classic double-shooting tactic!
The Uighur cavalry charged forward, only to be met with dozens of spears flying towards them, and more than a dozen of them fell off their horses without making a sound.
The remaining people continued to accelerate, trying to break out of the circle of fire from the Weidu cavalry.
But after throwing the gun, the tall and capable soldiers took out the lighter two-meter short horse rifle from the holster, and rushed forward without any fear.
The sounds of horses thrusting into flesh, the sounds of swords and guns clashing, the neighing of war horses, and the screams of death were all intertwined.
The Uighurs lacked armor, so they were at a disadvantage in close combat and were quickly scattered.
The shooting continues.
The cavalry and shooting skills of the sergeants at Beiweidu were no worse than those of the Uighurs at medium distances. They also had the unique skill of throwing spears at close range. They were also protected by armor when fighting face to face. Therefore, this group of more than a hundred Uighur cavalry were directly beaten to death by them.
, and his own casualties were no more than twenty.
Although small and medium-sized cavalry fights on the grassland are not as spectacular as large-scale cavalry group charges, they are especially bloody and the number of casualties is not small.
The elite soldiers backing Weidu had been ridiculed by the cavalry of various armies who were good at melee combat, and now their value was directly reflected.
Even if they go to the Central Plains and encounter small and medium-sized enemy cavalry in a large wilderness, they still have an advantage.
As for large-scale cavalry groups, I won't fight them. That is a matter for the cavalry of each army. Quite a few of them gave up riding bows and used heavy long horses in order to cooperate with the infantry in combat.
The cavalry army is a joint force and has no obligation to cooperate with anyone.
The Uighur cavalry who rushed down the mountain were quickly wiped out.
"Go to the ridge!" ordered a Beiweidu deputy general.
In the face of the great victory in Liangzhou, Shuofang's army's orders were still very effective. The leaders of Sumo and other tribes began to gather the riders and charge up the flat and gentle slope.
He had suffered the loss of an ambush before, but now he came to his senses and began to take advantage of the number of people to shoot from a distance and attack upward little by little.
There is still a shortage of mounted infantry! At this time, if there are hundreds of infantry armed with bows and crossbows, it will be so troublesome.
****
On the grassland east of Xiedan Mountain, a large group of camels is marching.
These were contributed by the mobilized tribes of Liangzhou, carrying corn, beans, and arrows and sending them to the front as hard as they could.
Next to the camel team, there were a large number of carriages and horses heading in the opposite direction.
The carriages and horses were loaded with goods, and tens of thousands of men, women, and children followed numbly, looking tired.
They were all prisoners of various tribes abandoned by the Uyghurs, mainly Amo. In addition, there were many Liugu Tubo tribesmen. These were all surrendered. I don’t know where the strong ones in the tribe went. Some people said that they were taken by the Uighurs.
They were taken away, I guess. But if there are so many old and weak people left behind, wouldn't they be captured by others?
What I didn't mention was that there were more than 20,000 six-grain Tibetans, all of whom were sent to the three counties of Shengzhou to be registered as households.
As for the rescued Fumo women and children, they were a weapon to control the Fumo tribes who were chasing the Uighur cavalry. They were all temporarily placed in Guzang and Shenniao counties in Liangzhou, and were also organized into households.
Shao Shude led the Tianzhu Army with 7,000 steps of riding on the post road to Ganzhou.
The battlefield is now in chaos again.
The cavalry army, the leopard cavalry capital and the Tibetan tribesmen and horses, totaling more than 17,000 cavalry, are being divided into several echelons to pursue the retreating Uighur and Tibetan coalition forces to the west.
At first, the Uyghurs sent small groups of cavalry to harass and delay the pursuit of the army, but the effect was not very obvious. In the end, Lord Umu finally gave up and gave up the idea of taking the Tibetan tribesmen to flee westward, and instead took their strong and powerful troops with them.
, go by horse west.
This guy is really interesting!
At first, they wanted to take the captives, cattle, sheep, and property with them, but later found that it was unrealistic. After the defeat of Liangzhou, the Tang army pursued them across the board, so they gave up on this and instead persuaded the Liugu Tubo to migrate with them.
But this was also very slow. After delayed actions had no effect, Lord Umu finally recognized the situation and gave up the six grains of Tubo women and children, taking only Jingzhuang with him.
Tossing back and forth, but not shedding tears before seeing the coffin, this is a bad thing!
"Commander, General Wang, the envoy of Feng'an Army, is here." Lu Ming, the tenth general of the army, rode over and reported.
"Let him come over."
Wang Qianyu arrived quickly: "I've seen the commander-in-chief."
"General Wang, in this battle, we raided Hongyuan Valley and Zhuanglang Valley and broke the enemy's morale, which is a great achievement." Shao Shude said: "How many people are there in your department?"
"Feng'an, we have nearly a thousand cavalry in the second army, and another thousand Fan cavalry."
"Is there a short horse or a lance?"
"Some of the soldiers carried horned bows and short horses."
"Don't bring a long horse with you. Bring a short horse with a horned bow and pursue the Uighurs immediately."
"As commanded."
Chase! Chase as fast as possible! This is the top priority now.
The cavalry of the Chinese Dynasty, adhering to the legacy of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, used horse spears that were thicker, heavier, and had longer blades. They were much heavier than the lances of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in later generations, because the training direction of the cavalry was not purely about assassination on horseback - the horse spears
Martial arts are different from riding spears and lances. They are more complex and comprehensive, and the cost of training is higher.
The ones hanging next to the saddle are usually short horse poles, and the long horse poles can only be held in hand, which makes it difficult for them to march alone without the baggage troops.
Nowadays, if we want to pursue the Uighurs, we naturally need to use lighter long weapons to carry bows and arrows to kill the enemy.
In the future, will the traditional cavalry training subjects need to be reformed? Can Ma Shu be eliminated?
Shao Shude actually had a plan. If he could defeat Ganzhou in this battle, he would recruit troops from the Ganzhou Uighurs and form a special cavalry unit.
This unit has a good foundation in horsemanship and superb archery. They also specially manufacture very light and cheap spears to use as long weapons for them - yes, they are despised by many horse warriors as being too light and not large-scale.
The popular riding spear.
After several years of specialized training, we can see whether it is better to use a cavalry unit with light lances or a cavalry unit with long horses.
If the cost-effectiveness is high enough, I might as well stop making horse-steeds in the future, as they can’t even be used as bows. It’s even more damn difficult to train, as the blade is more than 60 centimeters long, and the front part is extremely heavy. The training time is much longer than that of riding a spear.
, it’s more difficult to master.
After Wang Qianyu left, Shao Shude thought about the remaining cavalry that had not been sent out.
"Where is Yang Yue? Where is he now? He has more than 3,000 Han cavalry." He asked.