Although the infantry shield formation of Zhao Wangjun cannot be compared with the formation experts of Longwu Army, their ability to fight in formation is certainly not bad.
Military formation, this is the business of those who eat in the Central Plains Dynasty.
When the nomadic dynasties in the north faced the armies of the Central Plains dynasties, they had an ancestral motto - "Don't fight in formation."
Even for the former Song Dynasty, which was criticized for being weak, when it completed the entire formation of tens of thousands of soldiers, the Khitan's wolf cavalry still couldn't take any advantage.
It was just the first round of attacks by Longwu Army's catapults that destroyed the formation of King Zhao's Army first.
Originally, the shield formation in the front line was able to resist the Longwu Army, but the burning rubble from the catapults flew everywhere, causing the shield formation of King Zhao's army to be destroyed.
Once the shield array is in chaos, it will be unable to withstand the rain of arrows poured down by Long Wujun.
The Shenji Crossbow equipped by the Longwu Army was improved by General Da Zhou. It has increased the rate of fire, increased the range, and strengthened the armor-breaking ability of the arrow. Of course, the cost has also increased by 20%, and the manufacturing process has also increased.
With three channels, the manufacturing time is also nearly 40% longer.
However, these changes are all worthwhile. Now there is a generational difference between the divine machine crossbows of the Long Wu Army and the divine machine crossbows equipped by the Zhao Wang Army.
If the combat power of Longwu's soldiers cannot be equal to that of other front-line troops in a short period of time, then Yang Qingyuan and Cao Xueyang will have to find a way elsewhere.
At this moment, Da Zhou's understanding of ordnance was not deep enough. Although he paid attention to it, he did not pay enough attention to it.
Because Yang Qingyuan had a vision beyond this era, he focused on ordnance.
Even the later Blue Stars still did not pay enough attention to ordnance. The use of tactics, strategies, and the training of soldiers have always been the focus of the Chinese Art of War. This is also true for pla.
It wasn't until a war in 1990 that the PLA was awakened, reforms began to be implemented, and new weapons were researched.
A gentleman's life is not different; he is good at things and fake things.
As long as the ordnance is properly operated, it can exert combat effectiveness beyond ordinary people, such as the current Longwu Army.
Their armor, crossbows, and shields have surpassed the equipment of King Zhao's army.
The first rain of arrows fell, and thousands of elite infantrymen of King Zhao's army fell in the rain of arrows.
Armor, this is the equipment that almost all the elite soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty have, but the armor of King Zhao's army that could withstand Hou Jin's strong bow in the past was easily torn apart by the arrows of Long Wu army, leaving no resistance.
"Big Shield! Come forward!"
The leading captain waved the flag and shouted to convey military orders.
Facing the dense rain of arrows, a shield array must be formed to reduce casualties as much as possible.
It's just that the first round of arrow rain from the Longwu Army has just fallen, and the second round of arrow rain has already risen into the sky.
"Three consecutive shots!"
The speed of the new version of the Shenji Crossbow was nearly 20% faster than the old version, and the second round of arrows was more chaotic than the soldiers of King Zhao's army imagined.
Under the sun, the tapered arrow shone with an icy cold light.
Although this seemingly simple triangular pyramid is not as scary as a double-hook arrow, it is actually designed to imitate modern bullets and has amazing armor-breaking capabilities.
Just as King Zhao's army was regrouping, a second round of arrow rain interrupted their progress, and nearly a thousand soldiers fell to this rain of arrows.
In an instant, the formation of King Zhao's army became even more chaotic.
Immediately afterwards, the third, fourth, and fifth rounds of arrow rain came one after another.
The three-stage continuous shooting ensured that Long Wu's army's arrow rain could fall uninterrupted, without giving the Zhao Wang's army's front troops any chance to breathe.
The chaos in the former army also attracted Zhang Shimei's attention.
After listening to the report from the soldiers, Zhang Shimei's expression became more solemn. He knew that he had unintentionally committed the taboo of underestimating the enemy.
Originally, Zhao Wangjun and the Southern Army knew each other well. Both sides had the same equipment, the same training methods, and similar tactics.
Zhao Wangjun's understanding of the Southern Army allowed them to better deal with the Southern Army.
But now the Longwu Army seems to have become a completely unfamiliar army. Their weapons and equipment and even their tactics are different from the original Southern Army.
"Instruct the front troops to retreat slowly and regroup!"
Zhang Shimei understood that it was extremely difficult for the forward battalion to reorganize its formation under the sudden rain of arrows from the Longwu Army, and the opponent's generals would not allow the forward battalion to do so.
It is better to order the army to advance first and then retreat.
Although on the battlefield, ordering a retreat would be a huge blow to the morale of the army, this is now the best solution.
"No, Zhang Shimei may have to retreat! Send the order, the forwards will bite them! Don't give the enemy a chance to regain their strength!" Cao Xueyang predicted the movements of King Zhao's army in advance, and things turned out as she expected.
"Command the Thunderbolt Chariot to move forward. Six hundred and fifty steps ahead, Xu Jin barrage!"
"Order the crossbowmen, sword and shield bearers, and spearmen to advance. Three hundred steps ahead, Xu Jin will rain arrows!"
Orders were issued from Cao Xueyang one after another. On the battlefield, flags, horns, and war drums were the best means of conveying orders.
Long Wujun already has a mature and complete system of ordering methods for this.
The flags are waving, the horns are sounding, and the drums are beating!
Before King Zhao's army wanted to retreat, the forward of Long Wu's army began to move forward.
The army advanced like a forest, and as it moved forward, there was not much confusion in the formation.
"..."
Zhang Shimei looked at the battle situation at the front from the rear, his face already as gloomy as water, "What a Cao Xueyang! What a Long Wujun! I really underestimate him!"
"The horse archers were ordered to take advantage of the enemy's advance and expose its weaknesses to attack its weak points and interfere with its army's advancement!"
Zhang Shimei has understood that it is not a wise choice to fight Long Wujun in an infantry battle.
Although I don't know what kind of tactics Long Wujun is using, he has vividly interpreted the eight words in the tactics "as slow as a forest, as motionless as a mountain".
Whether it is defense or advancement, there are not many flaws to speak of.
The advantage of King Zhao's army was never the infantry, but the cavalry, which came and went like the wind.
The advantage of the cavalry must be used to create a loophole in the Longwu Army, otherwise today's battle will be defeated.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Then let's see who is my cavalry, who is as fast as the wind, or your infantry, who is as solid as a mountain!"
As Zhang Shimei's order came down, the cavalry archers who had been standing still in the formation moved!
The riders of this bow cavalry may not be the most brave and skilled in the Zhao army, but their riding and arching skills are definitely comparable to the elites of Beigan.
Being able to shoot left and right on horseback is just the basic requirement for being selected as this archer cavalry.
"Be careful of the bow rider on the left!"
The moment the horse archers appeared, the Longwu Army immediately became alert.
"Two hundred and thirty steps to the left, covered with arrows, let go!"
Long Wujun felt great pressure from the sudden appearance of this cavalry archer.
What should I do if the pressure is too much?! Then defeat them and cripple them, then there will be no pressure anymore!
But at the moment when the rain of arrows rose into the sky, the commander of the cavalry also made a judgment!
"change!"
Under the command of this commander, the originally galloping horse archers drew a long arc in front of the Longwu Army's formation.
Only the hundred riders at the rear had no time to escape and were hit by a hail of arrows, falling off their horses.
Three thousand feather arrows only produced such a result, which made Long Wujun's heart feel as if a basin of cold water had been poured on him.
King Zhao's army is not a weak force that is vulnerable to attack. On the contrary, they are the most elite soldiers and horses in the world.
Sure enough, a counterattack by King Zhao's cavalry archers followed.
This group of horse archers turned around and then turned around again, charging straight towards the Longwu Army.
The leader of this cavalry group was Zhang Shimei's son Zhang Wenbi. Although he was not very old, he was indeed a rare general who could command cavalry.
From the attack just now, he roughly estimated the shooting interval of Long Wujun.
The Longwu Army on the side did not adopt a three-stage continuous shooting strategy, so their shooting speed was not as continuous as the Longwu Army on the front. This was Zhang Wenbi's opportunity.
In an instant, the speed of the horse archers increased, and more than three thousand horse archers drew their bows on the backs of galloping horses.
Different from ordinary cavalry bows, Zhang Wenbi's cavalry absorbed the strengths of Hou Jin's cavalry and used long-tip bows.
This kind of bow has a huge bow body, a long and reversely curved bow tip, and an obvious string pad at the root of the bow tip. The huge bow body can increase the pushing force and distance of the arrow with small deformation of the bow arm.
Although it increases the burden on the bow arm, the leverage effect is more obvious, making it more suitable for using heavy arrows.
This bow is designed for shooting heavy arrows with long bows and large draw lengths. The bow body is stable and can be stringed for a long time and with large draw lengths.
This is one of the tactics commonly used by the Hou Jin Dynasty. The shooting intervals between the Zhao Wangjun's cavalry crossbows and infantry crossbows are very large. The Hou Jin Dynasty's archers and cavalry are accustomed to using this assault tactic to take advantage of the time difference to concentrate their troops and continuously shoot arrows during the charge to achieve the purpose of killing. .
Taking advantage of the gap in the firepower of the firearms troops, they quickly rushed to the junction, forming a high-density and powerful rain of arrows at close range. Even the heavy armor of the Zhou army may not be able to block such heavy arrows.
At the same time, horse archers can not only rely on horses to quickly approach the effective killing range, but can also quickly evacuate the enemy's fire coverage.
Three thousand heavy arrows sounded as the bowstrings of the cavalry archers were fired, and they were thrown towards the Longwu Army's camp.
Then Zhang Wenbi immediately turned his horse's head and led his troops to retreat to the side.
"Big shield! Up!"
At the moment when the archers and cavalry drew their bows, the captain of this unit's eyes narrowed slightly and he immediately gave an order.
The shield bearers in the team immediately formed a shield formation in a hurry and raised the shields in their hands above their heads. This is one of the compulsory subjects for the Longwu Army, but this time there is too little time!
King Zhao's army had never encountered Long Wu's army's tactics, and Long Wu's army was not too prepared for this method of warfare.
Due to lack of preparation, the shield array had many loopholes. The heavy arrows of the archers fell through the loopholes, and then slowly expanded.
Under a hail of arrows, more than 400 people in the Longwu Army were injured by arrows.
"Fight back! Shoot back!"
The captain of the Longwu Army ordered a counterattack in the shortest possible time.
The divine machine crossbowman loaded the crossbow and fired back in the shortest possible time.
But when they completed this series of actions, Zhang Wenbi's cavalry had already run 300 steps away. Although the divine machine crossbow was launched in the shortest time, it still did not have a very good killing effect.
Only dozens of arrows hit a few unlucky ones at the end of the archer cavalry team, and the rest of the cavalry had already run out of the killing range of the divine machine crossbow.
Such a situation could not help but make the captain of the Longwu Army feel a sinking feeling. They seemed unable to cope with this method of warfare.
Zhang Wenbi was naturally aware of this. He could use the speed of the bow cavalry and the dense rain of armor-piercing arrows from the heavy arrows to cause considerable damage to the Longwu Army's turtle shell array. Then he turned his horse's head and planned to do the same thing.
Seeing the archers and cavalry of King Zhao's army turn back again, the captain of Longwu Army knew that these people were launching another attack.
"The whole army is on alert, and the divine crossbows are launched to stop the enemy!!"
When Zhao Wangjun made another sprint, Long Wujun's magical crossbowman fired again.
Thousands of crossbow arrows headed towards the bow cavalry.
"I'm waiting for you!" A smile appeared on Zhang Wenbi's lips, and then the horse archers once again drew an arc before the arrow came.
Although hundreds of people were hit by arrows and fell from their horses, Zhang Wenbi did not show any concern in his eyes.
Compassion does not command troops!
Because of this round of arrow rain, Long Wujun once again had a firepower gap.
The strength of the troops on the side is obviously not as good as that on the front, so it is impossible to adopt the method of three-stage continuous shooting or even multi-stage continuous shooting like the front, so the rain of arrows is also unsustainable.
The horse archers accelerated again and charged towards the Longwu Army's formation.
"Careful! Shieldhand!"
The Longwu soldiers who had experienced this before immediately deployed a shield formation, but the heavy arrows thrown by the horse archers still caused a lot of damage, and nearly three hundred people were hit by arrows.
After the first attack, the archers of King Zhao's army fled again, leaving no chance for Long Wu's army to fight back.
After repeating this four times, the Longwu Army had damaged thousands of soldiers and horses, but still had no good way to deal with this group of horse archers.
Zhang Wenbi, with only three thousand archers and cavalry, was able to hold back the forward push of Long Wu's army.
"Hahahaha! My hero!"
Zhang Shimei felt comforted when she saw Zhang Wenbi being so heroic.
Zhang Wenbi was taught by him and King Zhao, and Zhang Wenbi, who was already talented, grew up rapidly.
Originally, Zhang Wenbi had always been with King Zhao. Firstly, he was really optimistic about Zhang Wenbi and taught and trained him. Secondly, he also had the intention of provoking. After all, Zhang Shimei had an army of nearly 300,000 people. No matter how much he trusted King Zhao with his character, he could not trust him.
There will be checks and balances on it.
But before this decisive battle, in order to appease Zhang Shimei, Zhu Kai specially asked Zhang Wenbi to lead his Qingqi to come to the rescue, so that Zhang Shimei could let go of his hands and feet and fight.
As expected by King Zhao, when Zhang Shimei saw Zhang Wenbi leading his army, his original loyalty value of ninety-five increased to ninety-nine almost instantly.
What else can I ask for if I have this lord? How can I not die in the service of my lord?!
In the Longwu Army formation, Cao Xueyang also discovered anomalies on the side.
The most important thing about the Longwu Army's tactics at the moment is the formation of the military formation, but now because of the attack from the side, the Longwu Army's frontal push has also been affected.
If he ignores this and continues to press forward, there will be flaws in the Longwu Army's formation, which is not what Cao Xueyang wants to see.
"Send orders to the front troops to form formations and hold on!"
