In the rolling hills of the platform, more than 3,000 cavalry were marching.
Hao Zhenwei was a little uneasy.
He suffered the loss of being attacked by cavalry once. That time he attacked halfway across the river. The Art of War emphasized it over and over again, but there was no way.
This time we set out to attack the ferry. They left in good spirits but returned in dismay. The most embarrassing thing was that they didn't bring any baggage with them. There were only dozens of carts carrying some essential supplies for the army.
In the distant valley, there are camps, carts, and food. As long as they reach there, they can rest.
The north wind howls like a ghost crying and a wolf howling.
Hao Zhenwei felt irritated after hearing this.
Ge Congzhou, what are you pretending to be? How about marching in two directions, using the mountainous terrain to prevent Shao's cavalry from entering? Can the mountains be walked? How to pull a cart? I can't say, I still have to go to a relatively flat place.
The wind has become stronger again, and the sky is overcast. It's only October, isn't it going to snow?
Ahead is a dangerous and narrow mountain road.
The more than 3,000 of them are also old soldiers, so they naturally know what to do.
The main force first formed an array outside the pass.
Immediately, teams were drawn, and two teams of a hundred people were closely connected, with guns and flags on both sides, and bows and crossbows outside, and they moved forward slowly.
After the front team passed the pass, they chose a favorable terrain to set up their formation, with their bows and crossbows lying on high ground, and their spears arrayed in front to help the following troops cross the pass.
Of course, there are also people who don’t want to go to such trouble, so they just leave it to fate. Maybe it will be fine after ten times, but something will happen on the eleventh time. If you often walk by the river, there is no way your shoes won’t get wet.
The military system of the country and the dynasty requires this even when marching on the inside.
The northern vassal towns that have been fighting all year round can abide by it, but if the peace lasts for a long time, I'm afraid it won't work. Without him, it would be troublesome!
Some people may say that you can spread out scouts far away. This is indeed useful, but you cannot rely solely on this.
There are more than 3,000 of them, and there is one scout in each direction within five miles, one more in each direction ten miles away, one more in fifteen miles, and no one further away.
When some armies are marching, they will be stationed thirty miles away. The scouts will still be in groups of two or three, each with two or three horses.
Of course scouts are useful, but if they thought they were safe, would there still be such a thing as an ambush throughout the ages?
At this time, five miles away to the north, a bloody fight had just ended.
A Bianjun scout covered his neck and breathed out, his mouth full of blood foam.
The two Xia army scouts were breathing heavily.
A life-and-death fight only lasts a moment, but it consumes a lot of energy and energy.
One person put away the flag carried by the Bian army scouts, walked to a high place, estimated that the time was almost up, and rolled up the flag.
This is a signal that there are no thieves. If there are thieves, the flag will be unfurled.
When another scout sees it, he will raise a flag in response.
Of course, this is the method during the day, and it will be more complicated at night. A group of three or five people is necessary, and a hidden bunk must be set up, but again, it cannot be 100% safe.
However, if you camp at night, the risk may not be greater than during the day, provided that your camp follows the rules.
After raising the flag, the Xia army scouts disappeared behind the hillside.
In the valley below him, a large group of cavalrymen led their horses and left their resting positions, preparing to go into battle.
Hao Zhenwei was riding on his horse, looking around. Feng Ba was thinking about something and was absent-minded.
Suddenly, on the mountain forest in front, a scout raised a flag high, and the flag stretched out, as if it was faintly tinged with blood.
"There are thieves!" Hao Zhenwei didn't need to say anything, Yu Hou had already seen it and immediately shouted a warning.
The sergeants were in panic.
Du Yuhou led his men forward, kicked and beat them, and ordered the sergeants to calm down and start forming formation.
They are all veterans. Under normal circumstances, they would not panic at all, but this time is different!
The sound of horse hooves is already close to your ears, it must be within five miles, or even closer!
Hao Zhenwei roared and ordered the cavalry to mount their horses and rush forward with him to buy time for the infantry to form their formation.
Feng Ba also woke up. He summoned a general and asked him to lead the cavalry behind Hao Zhenwei to provide support at any time. There were also some cavalry left beside the infantry, but only about 200 cavalry were used for counterattacks at critical moments.
Only a few dozen large vehicles were pulled over and placed across the road to act as obstacles.
There are still too few carts. If there are more, place them on both sides of the infantry. Let the shield bearers, spearmen, and infantry archers get on the carts, and use the range advantage to drive away the thieves and cavalry. The army will move forward slowly, and maybe there will be a chance to return to the camp.
It's too late to say anything now. This time we went to attack the pontoon ferry, and we didn't bring many luggage vehicles at all!
Under the mountain slope not far away, a large group of Xia army cavalry rushed out diagonally.
Some armed with lances rushed forward, but more people moved to the wings.
Hao Zhenwei was born as a military general, and his riding skills were naturally not weak. He made perfect use of the horse stick. When fighting head-on, he would pick up one person, then sweep him away, and then knock down another rider.
valley
Arrows rained down from the mountains on both sides, and armors jingled incessantly.
Ridiculous power of riding a bow!
But before he could finish laughing, his horse suddenly stumbled and fell off the horse.
A horse rushed towards him, the tip of the spear flashing with cold light. Between the lightning and flint, he suddenly dodged and avoided the killing move, but his helmet was knocked off.
He calmed down and was about to look for an empty horse when several more horsemen rushed towards him. One of them fired two arrows in a row, one of which missed and the other arrow hit his unprotected forehead like a ghost.
Blood soaked into the red forehead, and then blurred his eyes. Hao Zhenwei fell on his back, raising a cloud of dust.
The fighting continues.
More than 4,000 cavalrymen from Silver Spear City came out in full force. The complex terrain provided them with a huge combat power bonus, allowing them to give full play to their riding and archery advantages and injure the enemy with arrows.
Hundreds of cavalry from Zhaoyi Town were unable to stop the rangers who were bypassing both sides. The speed of the two long dragons slowed down a bit when they rounded the mountain slope, but they still rushed forward without hesitation.
"Whoosh!" The infantry bows fired a volley outside the range of the cavalry, and the silver spears at the front all fell off their horses.
The remaining cavalry went around the messy vehicles, and the horse's speed dropped again.
Feng Ba's infantrymen worked in groups of three and cooperated with each other to knock the cavalrymen off their horses and then kill them with swords.
This is the unique skill of Zhaoyi's infantry. During the middle Tang Dynasty, Zhaoyi's infantry was said to be the best in the world. After the infantry formation was broken open, they would often form a small group of three, and the three small groups would form a large group to knock the cavalry off their horses.
One kill.
This is actually a rather strange thing. When an infantry formation is driven away by cavalry, it is generally doomed. However, Zhaoyi's elite soldiers can continue to fight until they can no longer hold on and eventually collapse. However, the enemy cavalry general estimates that
I already want to die, this exchange is a loss!
At the end of the Later Jin Dynasty, these virtuous militia warriors and the Forbidden Army infantry beat the Khitan cavalry to the point of losing their temper. After the formation was broken up, they continued to fight, exchanging infantry for cavalry, causing you to lose blood.
But their performance today was a bit poor. Maybe it was because their morale was low after defecting to Zhu Quanzhong, or maybe it was too hasty. Only some of them were still fighting with their lives, and the people behind were obviously hesitant, and they were almost breathless at the critical moment.
A common problem of the army in the feudal era was that the level fluctuated too much!
When the light was high, the cavalry who broke into the formation were hooked off their horses and killed like wild dogs. When the water was low, they were chased to the north, causing chaos.
The rear formation was still shooting arrows, but it was obviously sparse.
The more than 200 cavalrymen who remained at the end were hesitant. They didn't know whether they should charge back and kill them, and then make a final struggle.
At this moment, on the hillside to the west, the sound of war drums suddenly sounded, and there were also faint shouts of killing.
This was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The cavalry whistled, and while there was still some distance left, they slapped their horses and fled.
Feng Ba also got on his horse and prepared to flee.
However, dozens of horsemen came towards him and were surrounded by people on the left and right wings. After a chase, all the soldiers were killed and injured. Feng Ba's horse was killed by arrows and fell to the ground, shouting "I am willing to surrender".
Who among the rebellious army can hear his words!
Several cavalrymen rushed forward, and Feng Ba was furious. He knocked down one of them with his mace, but his head quickly flew up high and fell heavily.
Both generals of the Bian army were killed.
After the two generals were killed, some of the Bian army broke up and fled up the mountain.
The infantry who could not escape stayed in place in despair, using their rifle bows to shoot down the Silver Spear cavalry who came too close. Some people knelt down and abandoned their weapons, shouting "I am willing to surrender."
In the end, fewer and fewer people resisted, more and more people surrendered, and the equipment was thrown all over the floor, which looked quite spectacular.
Yang Hongwang rode forward, looking at the extremely messy battlefield and sighing.
The fighting will of Helong Qianghu is far worse than theirs!
Those Qiang and Hu are savages, but when the situation is not right, they will never resist stubbornly. They will either run away or surrender, simply and neatly.
He then looked at the mountains to the north. There were silver spears and cavalrymen dismounting, chasing the defeated Bian army who was fleeing into the mountains and forests.
How many years did Li Keyong fight against Zhaoyi Town? It seems to be quite a long time.
Last year, Li Keyong ordered Zhaoyi Town to select 500 elite soldiers and send them to Jinyang. He probably also took a fancy to the skills of these infantrymen. I wonder how many of them are among the 500 in today's battlefield.
The commander-in-chief has feelings for the Zhaoyi infantry. In the initial Tielin capital, there were many Zhaoyi soldiers brought over by Chen Cheng.
If you can get the five states of Zhaoyi, select the best from among the people, and train for a few years, you will have another infantry and iron army.
In fact, their civilian foundation is very good. Many of the recruits they recruit have mastered the most basic skills, and the training cost will be greatly reduced.
It's a pity that in Li Ke's hands, he didn't manage it properly!
"The military envoys probably captured about 2,000 people, including Zhaoyi soldiers and Biansong soldiers, but very few Tongzhou soldiers." Wang Chong came over to report.
In fact, the exact number of people has not yet been calculated, so he only took a general glance.
"We killed more than a thousand thieves and some escaped. Do you want to chase them?"
"Let Zhe Silun's men chase him. Isn't he coming?" Yang Hongwang glanced to the west. The ones who had just beaten the drums to disrupt the enemy's morale were the children of the Zhe family who had followed.
"Assemble a thousand cavalry, let the prisoners lead the way, go to their camp, collect the baggage and return it." Yang Hongwang ordered: "Today's battle also had an element of luck. I caught up with the Bian army marching back lightly. That's all, we won.
There’s nothing much to say. Go back to the Sun Floating Bridge, cross the river and go south. Take a break and meet the auxiliary soldiers of the Zhe family. By the way, Feng Ba’s head has been taken care of and put in a box.”