Chapter 322 Merits and Demerits
Song Zhen's bravery was like a splash of water. There was movement but it was quickly submerged in Guo Liang's armored formation.
After killing three people, Song Zhen, who failed to receive follow-up reinforcements, was sandwiched between two armored soldiers who came up, and then was stabbed in the neck from behind with a sword.
Blood was gushing out desperately. Song Zhen knew that he could not survive. He struggled to look north, but halfway through the struggle on his neck, his whole body was drained of strength and fell limp to the ground.
Song Zhen died.
The Song Dynasty was just a microcosm. The attack of the Daibei Tuqi was not interrupted by the death of one or two people.
After sixty breaths, Daibei's sudden cavalry increased their horse speed again. Guo Ying and Jia Xiong led the last sudden cavalry through the rain of arrows, and finally hit Guo Liang's front.
The only way infantry can compete with cavalry is through perseverance, courage and strong formation.
Courage allows soldiers to face galloping horses without giving up their formation, and perseverance allows soldiers to fight to the death. All of these are for one thing, which is to maintain a strong formation.
Guo Liang's troops have quite a few of these, and they even have more than ordinary infantry camps, that is, armored weapons.
After the sudden cavalry rushed up, what they encountered was not the expected retreat of Pi Yi's bandits, but a forest of spears and thorns. Their horses were frightened and kept retreating, or they just wanted to get around these "porcupines".
But it's a pity that Guo Liang's troops were fully deployed. On such a long front, these people were stabbed wherever they went.
The Daibei Tuqi's first impact failed to knock Guo Liang's body away, so they had no chance later.
After the infantrymen in the front row stopped the Daibei Tuqi, the archers in the back row were able to calmly release arrows at these unarmored targets.
Screams rang out from Guo Liang's position, and soon two unique Han army flags were unfurled by Guo Liang's men, and they shouted:
"The thief will be killed by me, Gao Jian!"
"The thief will be killed by me, Sun Sheng!"
Following these two explosions, the surviving Daibei Tuqi lost their courage and retreated like defeated dogs.
Under the Youzhou Cavalry Military System, no matter what the circumstances, the military flag is not allowed to be abandoned. Anyone who loses the flag will be beheaded! Even if the battle is defeated, as long as the military flag is still flying on the battlefield, officials and soldiers of various ministries are not allowed to withdraw from the battlefield. Those who retreat without authorization will be killed! If the flag of the department is lost, the officials and officials of the department must assemble under the flag of other departments.
Only when all the flags on the battlefield have fallen down can the battlefield be evacuated.
At this time, all the flags of the Daibei Assault Cavalry have fallen to the ground. Without the leadership of the general, the remaining Assault Cavalry will subconsciously withdraw, whether it is to evacuate the battlefield directly or move closer to other units later, but they must Get out of this fire.
So, in a panic, the Daibei cavalry turned their horses and evacuated towards the west.
But they didn't know that they would be covered by the rain of arrows from the Taishan Army again.
The front of Guo Liang's troops was in chaos, and people kept cutting off the heads of Han cavalry and hanging them on their waists. Fortunately, the generals on both sides were still there, scolding their subordinates for such behavior.
Despite this, when Daibei's assault cavalry retreated, Guo Liang's shooters still missed the opportunity to shoot. But other departments of the Taishan Army do not.
The attack of Daibei's sudden cavalry only affected Guo Liang's troops. The five hundred shooters on the left and right, especially in the middle, had long been idle. Now that the enemy cavalry had reached the coverage area, how could they let it go.
So under the orders of the military officials, arrows shot from three directions once again covered the Daibei Tuqi on the way to escape.
This time, Daibeitu's horse speed was much slower than before, and this section of the road became their end.
After a long day, the sun finally sets in the west.
The setting sun is rendering the earth, giving the battlefield a red filter, which is also the color of blood.
The fighting on the battlefield is actually still going on. The right formation of the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans in front is still holding on. More and more broken troops have thrown themselves into the formation to hold on after escaping the pursuit of the Han army.
Especially after they knew that the Taishan Army was coming, the Youzhou Cavalry that was raging on the battlefield were mobilized, and the Qingzhou Yellow Turban was also recovering visibly to the naked eye.
But the noisy fighting was theirs, and in the eastern corner of the battlefield, there was only silence.
The advance of the Youzhou Assault Cavalry has stopped. In fact, after the Daibei Assault Cavalry attacked without permission, Cui Jun had already ordered all the troops to stop so that he could readjust their formation.
It was at this stop that the riders in the front row of the Youzhou Cavalry could see the miserable scene in front of them.
The small land was densely covered with arrows, and countless generations of Beituo cavalry were crucified there together with their horses.
A war horse was lucky enough to be alive, but its owner fell asleep without knowing what happened. So it was still licking its owner to make him wake up quickly.
But it didn't know that its owner was lying on his back with his limbs spread out, his face contorted in pain. Beside him, there were still a few people who were still alive and were trying hard to crawl towards home.
In this situation, the sun sets in the west, and the arms are broken and the limbs are broken.
All the Youzhou Cavalry were speechless. They knew the strength of the Daibei Cavalry and they were also a powerful force in the border area. But right here, from the time they charged to being defeated and finally being covered in arrows, it only took a moment.
It takes ten months for a person to be pregnant to be born, and another sixteen years to grow up, but it only takes this short moment to die.
However, Youzhou Tuqi did not pity them, just because these Daibei people were really a disaster.
Just now, more than 20 Daibei cavalrymen rushed out of the rain of death arrows, but found that their retreat was blocked by the Youzhou shock cavalry who were pressing up.
Instead of dismounting and praying for forgiveness from the sudden cavalry robes, they actually raised their weapons and pointed them at today's robes.
When they saw that the only thing blocking them was an outer wing of the cavalry with less than ten people, they all raised their swords to rush through.
This rebellious behavior directly ignited the anger of many marksmen of Youzhou Tuqi. Without any orders, they picked up their bows and arrows and shot all the twenty generations of northern warriors to death.
Many white horse knights under Gongsun Zan also participated in the sniper killing, and he did not stop them at all.
These knights from Daibei are arrogant and careless, which is the malignant sore of Youzhou Tuqi. Gongsun Zan has long been unable to bear it, and he might as well die here.
But little did Gongsun Zan know that it was their extremely xenophobic Han mentality that made warriors like Dai Bei, who lived together between Hu and Han, so sensitive and rebellious.
But with Gongsun Zan's temperament, even if he was aware of it, he wouldn't care.
No one has counted how many Daibei knights died.
But as spectators, we can know that the entire Daibei Tuqi battalion participated in the charge. There were 400 cavalry, of which 223 were killed, 106 were wounded and lying on the battlefield, and only 71 were captured. . A total of three hundred horses were missing or killed in battle.
A glorious division with a history was completely destroyed on the east side of the battlefield, shaking the determination of the Youzhou Cavalry behind to continue charging.
At this time, Cui Jun, the leader of Youzhou's sudden cavalry, had already decided to retreat, but he saw the soldiers coming from behind and knew that Lu Zhi must let him continue fighting.
Cui Jun was in a daze, looked at his hometown in the north, took a deep breath, and spit out:
"Let it go."
As soon as these words came out, the five cavalrymen in the first row in front of the formation lowered their horses, and then each row lowered their horses in turn.
At this time, after the destruction of the Daibei Cavalry, there were still about a thousand Youzhou Tuqi, and the larger ones came from behind to join them.
After reorganizing the formation, the thousands of cavalry were still arranged in a cone formation.
Specifically, there are five riders in the first row, and then there are two more riders in each of the next six rows, and then the rest are all formations with the same number of people. This is a typical conical array with a narrow front and large depth.
This formation was born out of the infantry battle formation, but in fact there are big problems.
The advantage of the infantry charging in a conical formation is that the rear row of infantry can advance against the front row, which can create forward pressure and penetrate the opposite horizontal formation.
But cavalry charging is not possible. In fact, pressing forward and backward will frighten the horses and cause chaos. Coupled with the flaw of the cone array itself, it is easy to be attacked from both sides. Therefore, the cavalry charges in a cone formation, which only has the disadvantages of this formation but not its advantages.
A more reasonable formation should be to arrange the cavalry in a horizontal formation, because the same strength of troops in a horizontal formation will have more advantages in terms of impact strength and attack sector.
In addition, charging in a horizontal formation can better utilize the discrete characteristics of the cavalry. Once the front is blocked, the horizontal formation can extend from both wings of the enemy to outflank it and attack the enemy's weak link.
Since the cone formation has so many shortcomings and the horizontal formation has so many advantages, why did Cui Jun arrange such a cone formation? Is it because he doesn't know how to fight?
no.
It's because the current Youzhou Cavalry cannot form a horizontal formation.
There are many advantages to directly attacking with a horizontal formation. But there is a prerequisite, that is, the riding group must have certain training.
In the past, the Youzhou Assault Cavalry could carry out horizontal force attacks from various ministries. But now, the thousand-strong cavalry team comes from almost five departments. How can they have team training with each other?
Therefore, if Cui Jun dogmatically asks his men to charge in horizontal formations, the final result will be that the gaps between the teams will become wider and wider, and they will not be able to form an effective impact on the phalanx of the Taishan Army on the opposite side. .
It was precisely because of his understanding of the military strength under his command that Cui Jun decided to deploy such a cone formation.
He had already given the order and when the attack started, all the troops rode slowly and did not speed up until they were a hundred steps away from the Taishan thief.
During this process, the cavalrymen in the following rows had to spread out to the left and right as they marched. When they hit the Taishan bandits, they would hit them in a horizontal formation.
From a column to a horizontal formation, these are the necessary training for the Youzhou Assault Cavalry, so it goes without saying.
There are even other things to say about Cui Jun's conical formation.
Why didn't he just charge in columns with equal numbers in each row? But what about setting up an echelon with two people in front and behind? Because after Cui Jun observed the formation, he discovered that the Taishan Army on the opposite side was a large formation with a width of a hundred people. After the Youzhou sudden cavalry attacked, the cavalrymen in the front rows would inevitably be flanked from left to right.
Therefore, Cui Jun placed an extra rider on the left and right after each formation, specifically to protect the sides of the front row, and he would also be protected by the back row.
The reason why only six rows of such echelons were arranged was because the cavalry behind them would evolve into a horizontal formation during the charge, and naturally no side protection was needed.
But no matter what, the five people in the front row are the most dangerous.
Therefore, Cui Jun also specially mobilized five warriors in the army to serve as the leader.
They are: Shanggu Yanrou, Youbeiping Shanjing, Liaoxi Wangmen, Yuyang Li Zhong, and Guangyang Tianyue.
Each of them is a warrior in his unit. They may be unknown people in the mainland, but only the barbarians on the frontier know the terror of these people.
From the arrangement of the formation to the dispatch of the entire force, Cui Jun's abilities are undoubtedly demonstrated, and he can be called a first-class tactician.
In this way, Cui Jun felt that he had done what he could do. He hesitated for a moment, and finally blew the horn in his hand, and the ten guards behind him also blew it.
The dull horn sounded in the hearts of Youzhou Tuqi. Apart from praying, they could only rely on instinct and start to mount their horses.
"Tap~tap~"
Thousands of hooves hit the ground. Just as the sun was setting in the west, maybe only two moments before sunset, the Youzhou Cavalry finally embarked on the charge.
This is a battle between a thousand elite cavalry and 3,500 elite horse foot.
The Youzhou Assault Cavalry did not directly attack the front of the Taishan bandit, because the front of the bandit was already covered with the corpses of Daibei Wuren, so the Youzhou Assault Cavalry chose to insert diagonally from the southwest.
The distance is getting closer and closer, and the war horses are getting faster and faster as their companions are chasing them.
Finally, when there were still three hundred steps away, the Youzhou Cavalry began to accelerate. The first six rows of cones were sprinting, and the forty-five rows of cones behind were spreading to the left and right.
Ling Qi, who was running from the center of the battlefield, arrived in a shaky manner.
He shouted:
"Youzhou Cavalry retreated from the battlefield."
But unfortunately, with thousands of horses galloping, who can hear the voice of one person, only the last commander Cui Jun heard it.
Cui Jun's eyes darkened when he heard these words, and without caring about other emotions, he galloped on his horse to stop the charge of the Youzhou cavalry.
Cui Jun clamped the war horse between his legs, smashed the golden gong crazily with his hand, and shouted:
"Retreat to the wings!"
"Retreat to the wings!"
The assault riders behind heard the sound of gold and saw the general coming forward in person. They ignored their doubts and controlled their horses to make a larger turn, preparing to retreat from the two wings of the Taishan bandits.
Cui Jun's horse rode faster and faster, and Jin Ye's cry became more and more urgent.
From back to front, more and more assault riders began to turn, but in the end it was still too late.
The five brave generals in the front row have already crashed into the Taishan Army formation.
These five generals have excellent equestrian skills and physical fitness. They jumped onto Mount Tai's military formation as soon as they came into contact.
The person responsible for the defense in this direction was Sima Weizhou, the left army of the Eastern Expedition Army.
This former oar-wager has grown into a very outstanding general in the long battle. After discovering that the Youzhou Cavalry was about to attack from his side, he had already changed his formation.
There are also three rows of steps and two rows of swords. Behind him were 500 archers from the Chinese army to support him, and 500 cavalry to prepare. It can be said that the response was very quick.
But the conical head of Youzhou's sudden cavalry was a selected warrior hero, and his combat power exceeded Wei Zhou's expectations.
These heroes from the border areas are so fierce that they despise life and death. Once they rushed into the formation, under the leadership of the five leading generals, they rolled up a ball of flesh and blood on the left side.
The gap in the front line is getting bigger and bigger, and more and more Youzhou knights are rushing in.
During the fight, Yan Rou was hit in the chest by a knife that came from nowhere. The opponent's force was so strong that the entire chest was split apart, and Yan Rou's hair was scattered all over the place.
Yan Rou retreated slightly to the robes at the back, and now they were basically dismounted and fighting on foot.
With the protection of Pao Ze, Yan Rou also had time to take a look at the battlefield at this moment.
The phalanx of the Taishan thieves has been broken open. Although it has not been broken yet, as long as the subsequent horizontal formation is unfolded, the thieves' array will be broken up with an overwhelming force.
Wait, where are the soldiers?
Yan Rou suddenly discovered that the following soldiers had not followed. He turned around and saw that the following assault cavalry did not charge, but rowed away along the front and left wing of the thief.
Seeing this scene, Yan Rou's blood welled up.
He realized:
I and others were sold!
Yan Rou lived in the grassland as a child and had her own unruly nature. At this moment, her blood boiled over and she shouted:
"Brothers, we were betrayed by the stupid Cui Jun. They have already run away!"
As soon as this statement came out, the warriors who were fighting were in an uproar. They did not believe Yan Rou's words, but as long as they looked at the outer battlefield, everyone knew that what Yan Rou said was true.
After a moment of silence, someone said:
"The dog betrayed me, why should I sacrifice my life for him? I surrender."
"It's down."
Just like that, before the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans in the left formation could react, the brave Han army who had just fought with them surrendered.
What a travesty!
But is this really a travesty?
At least not to Cui Jun, who is currently trying to coordinate the evacuation of his troops.
Cui Jun was sweating profusely and tried his best to retain the essence of Youzhou Tuqi. For this reason, he was spotted by someone.
He is Pan Zhang, the cavalry general of the Taishan Army's Eastern Expedition.
Zhang Dan, who had been observing the battlefield situation, knew that the other side was about to run when he started to turn behind the Youzhou Cavalry.
He immediately ordered Pan Zhang, who was waiting, to attack with five hundred cavalry, and he must give the opponent a hard blow.
Pan Zhang had already prepared his troops hard. As soon as he received the order, he drove out from the passage of the rear army, and finally attacked Youzhou's sudden cavalry who were flanking him.
The Youzhou sudden cavalry who came out from the right wing were confused and didn't know why they had to withdraw from the battlefield. Then they were surprised by Pan Zhang, so they had no fighting spirit. They didn't even have a formation or organization, and they dispersed directly from the battlefield.
During the collision, Pan Zhang went to great lengths to kill himself, directly killing his side's left formation, and then he saw Cui Jun.
There's no way I can't help but see it. Cui Jun is wearing straight clothes and a blouse. He's such a character.
Pan Zhang roared angrily and attacked Cui Jun directly.
Pan Zhang chased on one side and Cui Jun ran on the other, but Pan Zhang's horse was not as good as Cui Jun's. Seeing Cui Jun running away like this, Pan Zhang yelled:
"How dare you fight with me, you courageous rat!"
Today, Cui Jun didn't know what was going on. When he heard this sentence, he actually came back to fight with Pan Zhang. But he was no match for Pan Zhang. He was knocked off his horse with one blow.
Pan Zhang jumped down, held Cui Jun down, and was about to cut off his head.
Cui Jun was anxious and said hurriedly:
"Do you know who I am?"
Unexpectedly, Pan Zhang smiled cruelly and cut him with a knife, causing blood to splash all over his face.
After skillfully cutting off the head, Pan Zhang tied the wide-eyed Cui Jun around his waist, then stroked the head and said proudly:
"I don't care who you are, you look like a big shot. If I cut off your head and take it back, people will know it. Naigong is making a profit this time, haha!"
In this way, Cui Jun, the seed of a generation of famous generals, died here, but he saved the lives of eight hundred Youzhou riders.
Who can say whether it is merit or demerit?
(End of chapter)