Chapter 738 Battle in the Wind (Part 1)
To fight or not to fight, that is the question.
Up to now, Liu Cong has only received reinforcements. They are not the troops sent by Liu Jing and Butai, but two thousand cavalry who crossed east from the northern border of Xiayang County, Feng Yi County.
This ferry is located in the northwest of Pishi County, Pingyang County.
The Pi family lived in Hejin County in later generations.
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the name was changed to "Longmen County" because there was Longmen Mountain in the west of the county.
In the history of this county, the descendants of the Wang family from Taiyuan moved there, giving rise to the Longmen Wang family, which is relatively famous.
More than twenty miles northwest of the county, there is Longmendu, one of the crossings of the Yellow River. This group of cavalry crossed the river from here.
The level of Longmendu is still a bit poor.
It is possible to pass a caravan, but it is a bit useless to pass a large army. The reason is also very simple: the Yellow River has just left the Shanxi-Shaanxi Grand Canyon, and the water is rushing and the danger is greater.
The really good hydrological conditions are Pubanjin and Fenglingdu, but the latter is located in the south of Zhongtiao Mountain, and on the other side of the ferry is the narrow river floodplain east of Tongguan. The army cannot deploy, and it is easy for people to be trapped in unfavorable terrain and the whole army will be annihilated. .
To sum up, only Kabanjin is suitable for passing through the army.
After two thousand riders arrived at Wang's Manor for supplies, they planned to head south quietly. However, the border of Hedong was full of Jin army's informants. After being discovered by Wubao, it was easy for them to get the news, and the march lost its suddenness, so We can only head south honestly and arrive at Liu Cong's camp in Wenxi County.
Liu Cong had a good impression of this army, and vaguely saw the elegance of the cavalry unit that followed him straight into the Jin army's formation during the Battle of Changping.
He knew the reason: he won the battle in Guanzhong, gained confidence, and had good equipment, so his morale was high.
But except for this troop, no other troops came.
Currently, he only has 6,000 Forbidden Army infantry and cavalry, more than 15,000 men, plus 2,000 new cavalry, for a total of more than 23,000 people. Liu Congduan is already All the troops that can be gathered in time.
If he is willing to wait a little longer, there will probably be 20,000 people who can come back for reinforcements.
But the problem is that the Jin army on the opposite side will also wait for reinforcements.
After two or three days of observation, spying, and prisoner torture, the thieves on the opposite side took Hou Feihu with him, about 10,000 people.
More than 6,000 people came from the direction of Anyi, with a total force of 22,000 to 3,000.
But this is not all of his strength.
Liu Cong is absolutely sure that if he waits any longer, the other party will gather more troops, just like him.
If the other party wants to fight, then go ahead and fight, dilly-dallying, fussing over everything, like a bitch.
On November 29, the two sides chose a relatively open wilderness with a tacit understanding and deployed their formations on the east and west sides.
******
The north wind howls and the grass withers.
The sun struggled to climb up into the sky, dark red, without feeling a trace of heat, as if it was also forced to go on a battle.
Liu Cong withdrew his gaze, feeling a little depressed.
The Han army put up a large formation in the shape of a pin.
The protruding part in the center is six thousand infantry, of which the two thousand in the front are relatively elite and are iron-armored warriors, while the four thousand in the back are uneven and not very elite.
There are two wings on the side and rear of the central formation, similar to the central army formation. There are a thousand elites in front of each, and three thousand miscellaneous soldiers are distributed in the back.
There are also ballistas scattered in front of the two wings and in the gap between the small formations of the Chinese army, and they are being pushed forward at this moment.
The archers are mostly distributed on the two wings, with fewer on the front, replaced by a large number of shieldmen.
This formation is very obvious. The Chinese army attracts the main force of the Jin army, because they attack the most fiercely and have the strongest combat effectiveness. Then the smaller troops move forward quickly and attack from both sides.
An ancient and classic battle formation.
The drums have started beating, which sounds a little dull.
Liu Cong did not find the warm-blooded feeling he had when the war drums were beating. He only felt that it was a little cold today, very cold, and it was cold to the bones.
The battle flags were flying.
When the wind direction changes slightly, the flag seems to break away from the flagpole and fly back.
As the army advanced, some young men on the left and right wings raised their hands to shield their eyes from the wind and sand.
Liu Cong’s eyes twitched but he didn’t say anything.
After blowing westward for a while, the wind changed direction and blew to the southeast again.
Some of the old men in the formation immediately stooped up, as if to block the biting cold wind that penetrated their necks.
Liu Cong subconsciously turned his eyes and looked at the Jin army formation opposite, his eyes wandering uncertainly, as if he was looking for their flaws and ugliness...
After seeing the battle array set up by the Huns, After the formation, Hou Feihu thought about it and decided to "pay tribute" to Master Shao and use his favorite military formation: Yanyue Formation.
This formation is both offensive and defensive, and its core is also to attack the enemy's flank - mainly the left wing.
He could see that Liu Cong was also helpless. There were few elites and weak troops. No matter what formation he set up, it was useless. He could only fight to the death.
Actually, Liu Cong's best tactics are still the same as before, which is to defend in steps and resist step by step.
But it may be that it didn't work in the end, or he was tired, and the huge strategic disadvantage forced him to seize the only opportunity desperately in an attempt to reverse the disadvantage in a single battle.
This situation usually happens to gamblers who are desperate to lose and invest their last bit of money in the hope of recouping their losses, or at least making up a large part of their losses.
"Set up the Yanyue Formation, with Yu An, the commander of the Xialou Tribe, as the right-wing commander, and march out fifty steps in a square formation."
"Use the Heijin Army as the central army, my dear Lead it."
"Use Wuya General Yang Quan as the left wing, and set up a formation fifty steps behind."
Standard oblique attack formation.
There are more than three thousand soldiers on the right wing.
The Chinese army has more than 5,000 black soldiers.
There are more than four thousand Yang family troops on the left wing.
There are also thousands of cavalry on both sides, arranged on the wings or in the rear, which have not yet been dispatched.
After the drum beat, flags were waving non-stop on the battlefield, which was dazzling.
The direction of the wind kept changing, blowing here and there.
The command vehicle moved forward slowly. In the strong wind, the corner of a flag blew towards his face. Hou Feihu pushed it away and looked forward calmly, even indifferently.
The soldiers marched in formation, and sometimes dead branches and leaves swept in and hit the armor leaves head-on, making a slight sound.
The officers looked at the soldiers with evil eyes.
The soldiers held their heads high and continued to move forward without any noise or commotion, just like sculptures.
There is no way, the conditioned reflex has been hit by military sticks and horse whips. Whoever dares to move will not be able to beat you to death!
Hou Feihu gently rubbed his chin, his calm eyes scanning every corner of the enemy formation.
Master Shao once commented on him: He is good at calculation and likes to fight clever battles. Wang Queer once commented on him: his methods of boosting morale before battle were insufficient.
Jin San said that he looked like a dead person and his blood was cold.
When a normal person hears the beating of war drums, shouldn't his blood surge up?
Shouldn't normal people feel so heroic when they see the densely distributed military formations and flags?
Shouldn't normal people yell when they see blood splattering and flesh flying everywhere?
Hou Feihu didn’t.
He felt that he would not be excited, moved, angry, sad, or shed tears. Even among thousands of armies, he did not have that feeling of surging blood. He kept calculating: Where is the enemy's flaw? Where did the enemy show weakness? How to exploit this vulnerability?
Zhang Daniu once patted him on the shoulder and said that the battlefield must be full of enthusiasm. One day, when you encounter an enemy who is obviously not as strong as you, has inferior equipment, and inferior training as you, your enthusiasm will suddenly burst out. If you break through your formation with reason, you will know that those calculations are useless.
Hou Feihu was doubtful about this. He had never encountered it before and did not dare to say dogmatically that it was impossible.
Will such a figure appear in the Huns formation today?
The sun gradually rose, and Hou Feihu felt a warmth.
He looked up and saw that the sun was as red as blood, just right for killing people.
******
The sound of horse hoofbeats came from the Xiongnu formation.
Liu Cong finally couldn't bear it anymore and ordered the cavalry to be dispatched to shake the opponent's position.
Having fought many battles, he knew that the opponent was fierce and had high morale, making it clear that they were a strong force.
Before walking, there was no chaos in the formation and no noise at all.
This kind of silent oppression has had a subtle impact on our own side.
The cavalry on the opposite side was also dispatched, and they seemed to be Jie people.
The cavalry from both sides fought resolutely on the left and right wings of the battlefield. The infantry had not yet engaged, and the cavalry from both sides were already lying on the ground.
Half of the two thousand Forbidden Army cavalry were dispatched and outflanked them from the right rear.
Wearing iron armor and holding spears and halberds, these people marched forward bravely.
The cavalry was also dispatched on the opposite side. Judging from the flag, there was no doubt that the troops were captured, and there were more than a thousand cavalry in total.
The two sides slowly increased their horse speed, and then charged together.
Sure enough, just as Liu Cong expected, the army of soldiers on the opposite side were directly dispersed.
The Forbidden Army cavalry continued to move forward, and hundreds of brave cavalry soldiers rushed up again, and were once again rushed to the ground.
Then hundreds of brave cavalry troops were overwhelmed again.
Break three formations in a row! Liu Cong's face finally showed some color.
There was finally some noise on the enemy side, which made Liu Cong very satisfied. He thought that all of you were made of iron. It turns out that you are just like Tuoba Xianbei. If you rush over, you will die and you will be in chaos. .
The smoke and dust in the Jin army's rear formation became even bigger.
Many cavalrymen who were still resting and not planning to dispatch mounted their horses one after another.
Liu Quan, the general of Heqing Town, held a wooden pole and surrounded him with more than 3,000 cavalry. He fired his bows left and right, hoping to repel the Han cavalry with his numerical superiority.
The Shengsheng Army and Qiaoqi Army that had been dispersed earlier slowly gathered together and launched another counterattack.
The Imperial Guard cavalry made a circle and slowly circled back to their own formation.
Liu Cong’s face looked ugly again.
"Dong dong dong..."
"Woo——"
The drums and horns on the frontal battlefield were arguing, which quickly attracted Liu Cong's attention.
"Crash!" The Chinese infantry on the opposite side stopped, put their spears at their feet, then picked up their strong bows and raised them diagonally.
"Woo——" The sound of the horns sounded again like a reminder.
“Buzz——” Liu Cong looked at the sky, and arrows like locusts came towards his face.
"Doo!" A feather arrow landed on the big shield, making a crisp yet dull sound.
"Ding!" The feather arrow landed on the iron armor, failing to penetrate deeply and trembling.
"Poof!" The arrows landed on the unarmored peasant soldiers, and screams continued, causing some commotion in the formation.
"Buzz——" The left and right wings of the Han army accelerated their pace, and more and more archers came out, and also launched a round of projectiles.
The dense arrows fell into the Jin army's formation, causing small splashes of water, and soon returned to calm.
Liu Cong frowned.
I have long heard that the Yinqiang and Heigui armies are the Shao thief's personal army. All members can draw bows and shoot arrows, all members can fight in close combat, and all members are wearing armor. Now it seems that this kind of attack at a distance of a hundred paces The projectile just tickled them.
Looking at our own side, even if it was a projectile, there were still many unlucky ones who were injured or killed.
"Dong dong dong..." The sound of the drum attracted Liu Cong's attention.
As the infantry on both sides approached, the formations changed again.
Due to the rapid forward movement of the left and right wings, the large vertical formation slowly turned into a horizontal formation, and then tended to turn into an inverted vertical formation.
The Jin army on the opposite side still maintained a diagonal formation.
More than three thousand soldiers were on the right wing, running the fastest and almost catching up with our left wing.
More than five thousand soldiers are in the middle. This is the black army.
Thousands more people are on the left, falling at the very back.
Liu Cong has studied this formation.
Roughly speaking, the black army is called the "end of the month", and the left and right wings are called the "crescent moon".
When engaging in battle, based on the end of the month, the crescent moon is rotated to flank the enemy, hence the name "Moon Formation".
On the battlefield, there are actually not so many tricks. The core is "side attack", "circling behind" and so on.
The two sides line up and attack each other from the front. That is too stupid. It is far less likely to collapse the enemy than a side attack.
"Huh——" Another strong wind came, making it difficult to open one's eyes.
The strong wind swept away and soon became calm.
Liu Cong opened his eyes and found that the soldiers on the opposite side had quickened their pace and rushed towards his left wing.
The battle officially begins.
(End of this chapter)