A black line appeared in the distance, the thunderous sound of horse hooves rolled in, and the earth began to tremble slightly.
The battle flags of the various generals of the Daizhou Army gradually became clear.
The Tang army's military formation has not yet taken shape.
This time when heading north to Yanmen, the preparations made by the Tang army were not sufficient, but they would face the Daizhou cavalry, and they still brought large shields and spears.
However, they were repeating the mistake of the past when the Youzhou Army was raided by Daizhou Cavalry, and encountered Daizhou Cavalry in a spacious and flat field.
And they were even worse than the Youzhou army. Before the Youzhou elite were attacked, they had set up two rows of shield walls, causing damage to the Daizhou cavalry.
At this time, the Tang army seemed too panicked when they suddenly encountered the enemy. For them, the tactics of strong armor, large shields and spears were not enough time. The spears were taken out, but the large shields could only be scattered.
Putting them neatly in front is not so much a protective effect as it is more emboldening.
The well-trained Youzhou frontier army is obviously more elite than the Jinyang soldiers and horses.
The shortcomings of the Jinyang garrison's insufficient combat power were fully exposed at this moment.
Because they had only experienced some wars to suppress bandits in the chaos of the past few years, and there were only a handful of people in the army who had ever accompanied the army on an expedition to Liaodong.
The essence of the Tang army is not in Jinyang.
The cavalry general Zhang Da looked at the overwhelming cavalry formation in the distance and closed his eyes in despair. It's over. These five thousand men and horses are where his hard work lies. He originally wanted to attach himself to Tang Gong and win a wife for the Zhang family.
When Yinzi came back, he didn't expect that he would be buried here.
What makes people even more sad is that Zhang Da, just because he was born in a humble family, unlike those people who all have family backgrounds, can only stay in Jinyang and work as a gatekeeper until today. He has not made any achievements, and
Now, the road ahead is cut off.
The cavalry army came from the wild. Zhang Da saw the sun, moon and stars flag among the cavalry, with the word "Li" written on it in big letters. There was nothing else.
Li Po, who was neither a minister of the Sui Dynasty nor a subordinate of the Tang Dynasty, who rose up in Daizhou, did not die, and finally rebelled.
For this battle, Li Po was more fully prepared and did not conduct a long-distance attack. He only waited for the Tang army to enter Yanmen before leading his army to fight. Therefore, rows of armored heavy cavalry finally appeared in large numbers for the first time.
In the military formation.
Just like many times before, there was no nonsense. As soon as the army arrived, preparations for the attack were completed while marching without stopping at all.
With the heavy cavalry as the forerunner, the army swarmed forward.
In fact, by this time, the cavalry had too many tactical choices. The hedgehogs were gathered in one place and the Tang army's vanguard, which was not well protected, was like an appetizer for them to eat.
But Li Po didn't want to waste too much time here, so he issued the military order as soon as the scout reported.
The two wings of the army did not need to participate in the battle. They moved forward directly. With the heavy armored cavalry, the hastily formed infantry formations were broken up without the need to go all out.
Simply and rudely crushing them is the most time-saving way.
He didn't even think about driving the Tang army to defeat their central army. In front of such a large group of cavalry, all tactics seemed a bit ridiculous.
The large army did not have many armored and heavy cavalry, only two thousand. This was not because of the lack of armor, but because of the lack of tall Hexi horses.
The prairie war horses were too short to carry such a weight and gallop forward, and Li Po had no preference for heavy armored cavalry.
Such cavalry can only show its terrifying power on a set battlefield. Not only is it expensive, it is also too bulky, and the logistics pressure is also very high.
But this battle was naturally designed for heavy armored cavalry.
The cavalry, both men and horses in heavy armor, are like moving fortresses. They don't move very fast, but they are indeed a nightmare for infantry formations.
At this time, without fighting, the morale of the Tang army was shattered.
This is a new army. When they faced the chaotic bandits, their morale was high, their military morale was stable, and they had some prototypes of a strong army.
But when they faced a desperate situation, their shortcomings were exposed. They lacked the soul that a strong army must have, a soul that is poured with the blood of the enemy and written by victory.
Some soldiers of the Tang Army screamed, dropped their weapons, and fled backwards. Chaos immediately began to spread. No matter how Zhang Da and the officers roared, kicked, and even killed the deserters, they could not stop the collapse of the Tang Army.
But everything is in vain.
Scattered arrows came and hit the armor with a tinkling sound, making a pleasant sound. However, they did little damage to the heavy cavalry. Only a few unlucky ones were hit by arrows in the eyes and knocked down their horses.
The heavy cavalry crashed into the already shaken military formation, making a loud noise, but it was completely different from the attack on the Youzhou Army formation.
Countless human figures were knocked out like dolls with a series of fracture sounds and blood spurting out.
The heavy cavalry in the front row broke their spears, knocked away their shields, and entered the Tang army's formation with almost no hindrance, leaving behind bloody paths. They trampled everything in front of them.
smash.
The five thousand Tang troops had almost no power to fight back in the face of such a heavy blow. They encountered the worst enemy on the worst battlefield.
Rows of heavy cavalry pushed forward, and the Tang army's formation was in pieces.
The light cavalry followed behind to cover up the attack. The army spread across the field and completely overwhelmed the five thousand Tang troops. Those who escaped or resisted were all trampled by the cavalry. The sharp steel swords were not stained with much blood.
But the horse's hooves were dazzlingly red.
After the army passed by, the ground was in a mess. Under such an attack, the soldiers of the Tang army had no chance to surrender. The five thousand Tang army, except for Zhang Wenju's troops who were the first to leave, the other four thousand people were among the cups of tea.
The entire army was nearly wiped out.
Chariot general Zhang Da died in battle...
On the spacious gallop, grotesque corpses were trampled to pieces by war horses. It was almost impossible to tell the difference between you and me. The ground was bright red, and the smell of blood was so strong that it made people sick.
All the work of cleaning up the battlefield was left to the Daizhou Infantry that followed closely behind, much to the chagrin of both Yuchi brothers and Xue Wanche.
And this is just the beginning of this battle, a bloody beginning.
After hearing the news, Li Yuanji, the main force of the Tang Army, could hardly believe his ears.
Dou Jing, who was in despair, did not need to count on him. At this time, the most decisive person turned out to be Dou Dan, the son of the Dou family.
When life and death are at stake, if there is even a moment of hesitation, His Highness Prince Qi, who has just become the Prince of the Tang Dynasty, may have to answer to Daizhou.
Dou Dan, who could smell the danger, burst out with astonishing energy driven by the desire to survive.
Yes, it was a matter of survival. He had heard too many rumors about Daizhou cavalry coming and going like the wind. If the army was attacked and encountered a large group of cavalry in such a place, he would not dare to think about the consequences.
What a miserable situation.
His experience also determines that he can respond faster than others, because after all, he served in the Ministry of War of the Sui Dynasty for a period of time.
He did not expect to organize his army to fight the enemy, but immediately took the lead in asking Qi King Li Yuanji to return to Fenyang first.
Of course, this was not allowed by Li Yuanji. Why did the commander flee before fighting? Furthermore, the enemy situation at the front was unclear, and Zhang Da led his army to resist the enemy in front. How could he give up so easily?
The shadow of falling into a trap hung over everyone's minds, but there were too many reasons waiting for them, making everyone hesitant.
In desperation, Dou Dan didn't want to explain too much to Li Yuanji. He just said sternly to everyone: "Your Highness's safety depends on the country, how can you ignore it? Come and remove your armor for Your Highness. Who will command the army to resist the enemy on Your Highness's behalf?"
?In the future, he will be blessed with his wife, children and family..."
When everyone heard this, they were immediately shocked and many thoughts became clear.
At this time, Qi King Li Yuanji had no choice. Several tall and muscular guards came up and took off Li Yuanji's armor.
Dou Jing took a step forward and took the armor without hesitation and put it on.
At this time, he already had the intention of death. He was not calm all the way back. The scouts of the Daizhou Army who followed them like a shadow patrolled near them for a long time. He did not know the hostility and had fallen into a trap. This thought had followed Dou Jing.
All the way.
First, he made inappropriate remarks in Yanmen and asked Li Po, the general manager of Daizhou's march, to send troops to attack Fenyang. He was suspected of forcing Li Po, the general manager of Daizhou's march, to rebel against him. Then he led the Jinyang army into a trap and trapped the king of Qi.
After returning, he could no longer explain.
It's better to lead the troops in a battle here. If you win, you still have a chance of survival. If you lose, it's over.
There was no need to say anything more at this time. Dou Dan glanced at his brother and sighed in his heart, they brothers are unlucky, why are they following this guy?
"The army is entrusted to you. If we can win, Your Highness will celebrate your victory in Fenyang."
Afterwards, Dou Dan led the guards of King Qi and personally silenced King Qi who was screaming hoarsely, hugged him and fled towards Fenyang.
Timid people live long, this saying is very suitable for Dou Dan.
Li Yuanji just took advantage of him.
In fact, at this time, Dou Dan just believed that King Qi was of no help in the army. If he was really defeated and made a mistake, the Dou family would be in big trouble. They are not afraid of ten thousand, but afraid of the worst.
He resorted to such means because of his own thoughts, and he did not want to be buried with His Highness.
In fact, this is nothing new. The prince leading troops to go on an expedition has been commonplace since the reign of Emperor Wen.
But no one thinks that a prince should be brave and brave. He was in front of the battle. Yang Guang led the army many times, but he never hurt a hair. Obviously, Li Yuan's sons were much better than Yang Jian.
Of course, this is also due to current events, and it is difficult to compare.
Just like now, the people who supported Li Yuanji back to Fenyang were only worried about being punished by His Highness King Qi later, and did not think about anything else. Some even felt that Dou Dan's move was a bit excessive.
But it turned out that they escaped very quickly...