In the age of cold weapons, a brigade of nearly 100,000 cavalry had sufficient room to accelerate and launch a charge. It could be said to be an unstoppable force.
Being in this torrent, running forward without any hindrance, gives people a feeling that everything is under control and victory is in sight. This feeling is not at all what you can feel when a cavalry charge is blocked.
, but for some reason Ma Chao always felt some uneasiness throbbing in his heart.
"This feeling... is wrong, something must be wrong!" The moment he heard the trumpet of the defeated horse in front of him, he could no longer control his emotions and shouted directly.
Ma Dai pressed hard on the tilted iron helmet on his head and followed closely beside Ma Chao. Hearing Ma Chao's cry, he asked worriedly: "Brother, what's wrong?"
"Something's wrong," Ma Chao shook his head hard to shake off the rainwater flowing down his face, and shouted sternly: "Bozhan, try to investigate quickly, I want to know what the battle situation is like with the front army!"
"...Here!" Ma Dai hesitated for a moment before taking the order.
This order can be said to be quite unreasonable.
Although the Xiliang cavalry army has many soldiers and horses, the queue is huge, and the distance between the front and rear is several miles away. But the cavalry brigade runs so fast. If there is no obstacle, the distance from the central army to the current position of the front army is nothing more than
Just a cup of tea.
Try to contact the former army to find out the situation of the war? Is this necessary?
What's more, the army has completely entered the rhythm of charging. Tens of thousands of cavalry are rushing in one direction. Being in it is really like a light boat swinging in the stormy waves. It's okay to go along with the momentum of the waves. If you want to turn or
If you turn around, you will most likely be smashed to pieces by this huge wave.
To put it bluntly, the war has reached this point, even if it is known that the Qingzhou Army has set up an ambush, there is nothing that can be done to change it. All the chips have been placed on the gambling table, and the direction of the bet has been chosen. The remaining
The only thing you can do is give it your all and then resign yourself to fate.
If the horses must be reined in, the rear army should barely have a chance to do it, but in Ma Dai's mind, no force in the world can stop such a large-scale cavalry charge on such plain terrain, no matter what.
Traps can also be dashed through with great strength.
What is the point of exploring the situation of the former army now?
The biggest trouble is the current weather. In such a heavy rain, the scenery can only be seen as a blurry shadow dozens of steps away. A hundred steps away, it is like two different worlds.
The battlefield was filled with loud sounds of drums and horns, and both sides interfered with each other. No one could take care of the details. They could only convey some established orders, such as advance, retreat, or certain tactics and plans planned in advance.
If you want to investigate the situation ahead, you can only order warriors with extremely high riding skills to take risks and advance forward during the charge of the brigade, and then pass the obtained information back through certain specific methods.
This approach is quite dangerous and not very timely. To come back and sacrifice just because of Ma Chao's unfounded concerns is a bit wrong no matter how you think about it.
That's why Ma Dai hesitated. However, from Ma Chao's expression and tone, he felt the unusual solemn aura. After a slight hesitation, he still chose to believe in Ma Chao's intuition. All famous generals will always have extraordinary abilities in some aspects.
Characteristics that are beyond the imagination of ordinary people, just like the legend in the world, Wang Yu's uncanny ability to predict, and his brother's battlefield intuition.
"Go forward, see Ling Ming, and tell him that if there is something different ahead, you can use the tactics he thinks are most suitable and try to repay him at the same time!" Ma Dai ordered a few guards and shouted.
"Here!" Several personal guards promised, urging the horses to reach their maximum speed, and disappeared in the rain in the blink of an eye.
After the personal guards left, Ma Chao suddenly fell silent. He no longer shouted for a fierce battle like when he first launched the charge. Instead, he issued an order for the middle and rear armies to hold down their speed and not charge too fast. Because of his order, the middle and rear armies
There was even a brief disconnect between the army and the former army.
You know, in a mounted battle, this is a taboo!
Thousands of horses galloped, the sound of horse hooves was like muffled thunder, but the few messengers who rushed forward were still missing. Watching the cavalry around him gradually disperse, they began to beat the horses' belly with the soles of their boots to speed up. Ma Chao's face became more and more green.
Heavy.
"Report..." At this moment, a cavalryman suddenly emerged from the rain curtain and galloped in the opposite direction to the galloping army. Although the cavalrymen along the road all knew that this was one of their own, they tried their best to
He tried to dodge, but in the end he could not avoid the huge effect of inertia. After passing through the gaps between four rows of cavalry, he finally collided with the fifth row of cavalry.
The two horses that collided made an earth-shattering neigh. The surrounding cavalry were also yelling and trying to dodge, but how could they escape?
The cavalry on horseback panicked, and the messenger in the mud closed his eyes and waited for death. Seeing that this person was about to be trampled into a pulp together with the battle report, a figure suddenly rushed out from the side, completely unaffected by the chaos, and accurately.
Arriving at the center of the chaos.
That was a knight, a knight with extremely good riding skills! Not only did the horse run very fast, but while galloping past the messenger, the knight on the horse also used a method of hiding in the stirrups and reached out to grab the messenger.
The silk ribbon around his waist directly lifted him up from the muddy water!
Everything happened in a flash of lightning. Even the messenger came to his senses only after hearing his lord's shouts and questions, and found that he had already circled around the gate of hell and escaped.
"Don't be in a daze, tell me quickly, what's going on ahead? Is something going on?"
"My lord, something bad has happened! The enemy has formed a skirmishing formation. It doesn't seem like a big threat, but it's actually extremely scary! Among the former troops, General Ma has already died on the battlefield, and General Yang has gone deep into the enemy's formation, and there is no news at all.
, I’m afraid it’s all too doomed. General Pang said, it’s too late to stop the attack now, we can only survive in death and strive to survive!”
"How is it possible?" Ma Chao shouted in disbelief: "How can the skirmishing formation be so powerful?"
"The enemy has a crossbow machine that is said to be able to fire continuously, but for some reason our army's paper armor suddenly lost its effect. We were caught off guard and were plotted!"
"..." Ma Chao was so angry that he couldn't even yell.
In fact, when the messenger and his cavalry collided just now, he realized that something was wrong. The design of the paper armor to prevent crossbows did not rely on the hardness, but the weakening buffering capacity. The arrow was shot on the paper armor.
Even a weak weapon can still make a hole in the surface of the paper armor. The only difference is the size and depth of the gap.
Therefore, in addition to bows and crossbows, paper armor also has a considerable defensive effect against attacks by melee weapons.
But when it hit just now, the paper armor on the cavalry was flattened with a 'pop', without any buffering effect. If I had to describe it, it was almost like two sandwich doughs colliding.
"It's rain, it's this rain! On the surface, the paper armor is afraid of fire, but in fact, it is most afraid of water... We have been plotted, and we have been plotted to death by that thief Wang Yu!" Ma Chao bit his steel teeth.
There was a gurgling sound, a stuffy air filled the chest, and the heart seemed to be squeezed tightly by someone's hands, and might burst at any time.
When Cao Cao sent the paper armor, he warned that the weakness of the paper armor is that it is afraid of fire and does not give the enemy a chance to carry out fire attacks. It should also be protected from moisture when storing it. However, this precaution to avoid moisture is common to all weapons and equipment.
Yes, iron armor will rust if it gets wet, and leather armor will become moldy or even hairy, but such concerns do not prevent the armor from getting wet during combat.
Because of this common sense, Ma Chao did not deliberately conduct experiments to explore the weaknesses of the paper armor, but always carefully set up a stronghold and march, not giving the enemy a chance to set fire to attack.
Ma Chao has experimented that even if he is shot by a rocket, the knight wearing paper armor has a chance to abandon the armor and survive before being burned by fire. But he never thought that what paper armor is really afraid of is water, and it is not an ordinary fear.
.
After only being exposed to the heavy rain for such a short time, the sturdy paper armor became almost like paste and dough. Let alone blocking arrows, Ma Chao even doubted that if it had been exposed to the rain for longer, these paper armor would not be able to withstand the heavy rain.
Will it be blown away in pieces by the wind? Thinking about the repeating crossbow mentioned by the messenger, no matter how dull you are, you will know that you have fallen into the enemy's plan.
"Wang Pengju, you are so ruthless and poisonous!" Ma Chao cried out sadly, moved his spear forward, and shouted loudly: "Send the order, the entire army will disarm, charge to the death, fight with all your strength, and fight until death!"
"The whole army will disarm until death!" All the generals shouted in unison, passing the order down one level at a time.
The soldiers wearing paper armor had long felt that something was wrong. They didn't know that the defensive power of the paper armor was ineffective, but they all had personal experience of the rapid increase in weight after the paper armor absorbed water.
Paper armor is not light to begin with, but after it gets wet, the weight increases exponentially. It feels almost the same as iron armor, but it has lost its defensive power. Why keep it if you don't throw it away? Throw away the heavy burden, and again
Inspired by the general, the speed of the Xiliang army suddenly increased, and the momentum of the attack became more violent.
"Form a dense formation, advance as a whole, and rush into the enemy's scattered formations!" The order issued by Ma Chao only pointed out the general direction, but when it came to the specific details, he still had to go through Ma Dai's level.
Ma Dai was an excellent lieutenant general. He understood the main points of the message conveyed by the messenger very well. Based on this, he broke down the orders of the general Ma Chao into details and formulated the most suitable tactics for the current situation.
Although the Qingzhou Army's repeating crossbows are powerful, the Qingzhou Army's formation is mainly focused on side killing. In this case, it is better to break through the front and not give the opponent's repeating crossbows a chance to show off. Doing so will increase a lot of casualties, but
It's better than just being beaten and not being able to retaliate.
As long as Wang Yu has no other tricks, this battle will be won in the end. This is not so much Ma Dai's judgment as it is his expectation. The real feeling in his heart is that the entire Xiliang army,
Running wildly on a road of no return. (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!)