The drums were thundering outside the White Horse Temple. People in the temple heard the movement and were busy preparing for the battle.
At this time, the troops in the White Horse Temple included more than 3,000 light cavalry brought by Li Tai from Yique, and more than 2,000 sergeants such as Han Xiong who traveled across the mountains and ridges to meet at Mang Ridge.
With more than 5,000 infantry and horsemen relying on the White Horse Temple, it is quite a battle. After all, even if the opponent has tens of thousands of people, only a few thousand people can be put into combat in each round of offensive. No matter how many military formations there are,
It will appear too thick and clumsy, making it difficult to make changes on the battlefield.
The current White Horse Temple was probably rebuilt during the Cao Wei Dynasty. Although it was repeatedly damaged by wars, it has been repaired. Therefore, the entire temple is still relatively complete, but some Buddhist halls and walls have collapsed.
There was a collapsed and damaged section in the middle of the east wall of White Horse Temple. After Li Tai led his troops to settle in the temple, he did not order any detailed and complete repairs. He only cut down the trees in the temple and set up a fence to barely isolate the inside and outside.
In addition to the historic buildings, there are also many large and oversized pine and cypress trees growing in the White Horse Temple. Probably because these trees grow in Buddhist resorts, they have not been cut down and damaged.
It's a pity that when Li Tai came here, he was naturally not polite to these trees and directly cut them down for suitable purposes.
Anyway, even if these trees were left behind and survived to future generations, they would just serve as a backdrop for young ladies wearing Hanfu to check in. Who would have known that there was a wonderful fate between such an awesome man in history.
At this time, the drum outside the temple has sounded for the second time, and it is getting faster and faster, which means that the time for the enemy to launch an attack is getting closer. Usually at this moment, the enemy's formations are also laid out.
, you can determine where the enemy’s attack focus is through the layout of the battle formation.
At this time, Li Tai stood on the high pavilion in the temple and saw that the enemy infantry formations were mainly concentrated in the direction of Jinyong City in the east, while in the south and west were cavalry troops advancing from the banks of Luoshui and Gushui rivers.
It is obvious that Zhu Hunyuan, who is the governor of Luozhou in the Northern Qi Dynasty, is very familiar with the damage to the White Horse Temple. The gap in the wall on the east side of the temple has not been repaired by Li Tai, even after it has been renovated.
It is still a weak point in defense.
After all, there is no super-effective building adhesive like cement concrete nowadays. Even rammed earth construction requires a process of drying and strengthening. In short, we only need to focus our attack on the east section of the temple wall.
, and the White Horse Temple is a long temple, the contact area on the east and west sides is longer than the front, and the defenders need to be spread out more to completely defend it.
As for the cavalry deployed on the other two sides, it is naturally to prevent the people and horses in the temple from escaping outwards. This standard formation of three surrounded and one missing seems to have left an exit to the north, but the only way to escape north is to go straight to Mengjin.
But in the end, the Yellow River blocked the way, and it was still a dead end.
But from this battle, Li Tai knew how strongly the enemy general Ke Zhu Hunyuan wanted to kill him. But honestly speaking, he really didn't feel that there was a conflict between him and Ke Zhu Hunyuan.
With such great hatred, after all, I have offended many people, and who are you?
As the enemy's battle formations were deployed and they advanced along the road with the sound of drums, the peace of the Buddhist resort of White Horse Temple was greatly lost, and the atmosphere of chilling was immediately filled.
Li Tai walked down the high pavilion, and at this time, a thousand elite cavalry had already assembled and put on their armor.
When he saw Han Qinhu, who was also standing in the queue, still holding his own horse pole, Li Tai was slightly surprised. He raised his hand and tapped him with his finger and pulled him to the side to signal him to get out of the queue.
Stay in the temple and do not follow yourself out to kill the enemy.
There is always a place for shelter in the temple, but there are no eyes for swords and arrows on the battlefield outside, and Li Tai cannot take good care of him. It is not that he underestimates Han Qinhu, but this kid is still only a thirteen-year-old boy after all.
Following him to the battlefield like this is still a bit uneasy.
When Han Qinhu saw this scene, his mouth dropped, and he turned his eyes away, simply turning a blind eye to Li Tai's instructions. The young man had a strong temperament, and he had been following General Li in and out for the past few days, and as a result, he was involved in a battle.
However, he stayed in the temple during this time. This was tantamount to running away in the face of battle. It was a cowardly behavior that Han Qinhu could never accept!
Li Tai's face darkened when he saw this. At this time, Han Xiong next to him also saw this scene and hurriedly stepped forward to clasp his fists at Li Tai and said in a deep voice: "Whose son is not made of flesh and blood? But since he is wearing this military robe,
You can never give in and seek perfection in everything.
It is an honor for this boy to be appreciated by the general. I believe that he will be able to make great achievements in the coming year and honor his ancestors. However, if he fails to stay in this small formation, he can only blame him for his poor luck in fortune. He has no blame for others!"
Hearing that Han Xiong was so open-minded, Li Tai said nothing more and went straight to the front of the military formation, buckled his saddle and turned over to mount his horse. At this time, all the soldiers behind him also mounted their horses.
"When attacked internally and externally, the locations are different, but killing the enemy on the battlefield is the same. The east bandits are fierce and stubborn, let them open their eyes again today, our army is always victorious, and it is definitely not a wasted reputation!"
Li Tai briefly waved to the soldiers who were staying in the temple, then waved behind him and took the lead in riding out of the temple gate, followed by the soldiers who followed him.
As for the soldiers who were left behind in the temple, they could not help shouting loudly: "Always win, always win!"
More than half a mile southeast of the gate of White Horse Temple, there is a land slope covering an area of several acres, with the highest point nearly two feet above the ground. Originally, there was a tall tower named Qiyun Tower. However, the tower has already been damaged.
It was destroyed and not rebuilt, leaving only the rammed earth tower foundation.
After Li Tai led his troops out of the temple, they did not directly attack the enemy's formation. Instead, they rode towards the slope. Then the soldiers relied on the slope to quickly rein in their horses and formed an array. They looked at the slow-moving soldiers with calm expressions.
Slowly approach the enemy formation here.
The soldiers of the Qi army who were advancing the array also saw this scene. Zhu Hunyuan, who was supervising the battle from the east army array, frowned slightly when he saw this. He immediately ordered the array flags to be changed and asked the cavalry on the south road to separate.
A brigade of thousands of people took the lead in attacking, trying to drive the enemy's cavalry team back to the temple.
At the same time, he made the infantry battle formation here shrink slightly to avoid being attacked by the enemy and scattered and defeated.
The enemy troops had already advanced to a few miles away from the White Horse Temple. After receiving the military order, a cavalry team from the south immediately whipped their horses and accelerated forward. Soon they broke away from the group and charged straight towards the slope.
go.
Facing this menacing enemy cavalry, Li Tai did nothing to retreat. He just ordered the two hundred archers in the formation to line up in front, drawing their bows and ready to shoot.
Because the horses are too big, it is generally difficult to take care of both cavalry and bows during battles. Therefore, two hundred archers are specially allocated to the team as a force that prioritizes strikes and disrupts the enemy's formation on the battlefield. This archer battalion under Li Tai's command
The commander-in-chief was Yu Wenshan, the son of Yu Wengui, who had inspired him to form such a special warfare team.
Yu Wenshan was also a general, he was proficient in martial arts, and he was very attentive to the training of the shooters. At this time, when he saw the enemy cavalry galloping towards him, Yu Wenshan, who was at the forefront of the formation, shouted loudly: "
shoot!"
In a very short period of time, all the novice archers had already drawn their bows and shot two arrows. There were originally cavalry archers in the enemy team who were twisting arrows and setting up their bows, but they did not expect that the shooting range on the other side was still long, and there were dozens of cavalry or people in the enemy team.
Or their horses fell to the ground after being struck by arrows. Although they hurriedly drew their bows and fired, they were unable to bring any substantial impact to the enemy's formation due to the lack of range.
The first few dozen knights in the queue were hit by arrows, which naturally greatly affected the formation of the entire team. Fearing that the enemy would take advantage of the situation and rush down, the knights in the team hurriedly shot a resounding arrow to the side. The knights immediately turned around after hearing the sound.
The horse's head headed in that direction, swimming around the front of the slope, preparing to reorganize the battle formation and fight back again.
Li Tai did not pay attention to the attacking team at all. His eyes were only fixed on the infantry formation advancing from the east. The entire battle formation was divided into two parts, the front and rear, with more than 5,000 troops.
The crowd is the largest battle formation on the entire battlefield.
Coupled with several other formations, Zhu Hunyuan invested tens of thousands of troops in this first round of offensive. It can be seen that this is by no means a tentative attack, and it is very much a posture to complete the victory in one battle.
This also allowed Li Tai to confirm that the change he expected had indeed occurred, and it caused great psychological pressure on Zhu Hunyuan, so he launched a massive attack contrary to his previous one.
The enemy cavalry team that wandered to the side came back after a short rest, but was still shot back by the shooters. There was no way, with both sides being elite combat cavalry, any tiny bit of it would not matter.
Any advantage can determine the winner. Li Tai's elite cavalry stands on high posts and waits for work, so naturally they will not be easily dispersed.
But the enemy cavalry team did not give up. Instead, they bypassed the high hills and stopped directly in front of the White Horse Temple to isolate Li Tai's team from the temple.
After all, the White Horse Temple is not a formal military building. It does not have horse faces, battlements and other facilities. Although the enemy cavalry is very close, it is difficult to effectively attack them in the temple.
But this is not the focus of the battlefield. Seeing the enemy's infantry formation getting closer and closer to the damaged city wall to the east of the White Horse Temple, several dull tremors suddenly erupted in the temple, and soon there were several black arcs going straight. Quickly smashing from the temple into the enemy formation outside the city.
Boom, boom, boom!
The end point of the arc landed in the enemy's formation, and soon there was a thunderous banging sound. It turned out to be huge cannon stones. Anyone hit by them, even if they were protected by heavy armor, All of them had broken muscles and bones and vomited blood!
"It's Heyang cannon, Heyang cannon..."
The Qi soldiers who had experienced the previous Heqiao battle immediately shouted in panic, while the Qi soldiers near the impact point of the shells were even more shocked, not only because they saw the power of the cannon stone with their own eyes, but also because of this The shape of the cannon stone is weird.
The abdominal cavity of a general wearing scale armor was dented by a cannon stone, and the cannon stone embedded in his abdomen was actually a Buddha head several times larger than a human head. The Buddha head was originally a symbol of kindness and benevolence. His face looked compassionate, but now it was covered in blood, like a ferocious Rakshasa!
"Kill! Break through the bandit formation and capture the enemy general!"
Naturally, Li Tai would not give up this opportunity. Taking advantage of the enemy's formation being in chaos after receiving this blow, he directly ordered his troops to charge towards the enemy's formation.