Xu Tang's body was as solid as a rock, and he slashed down with the Mo Dao in his hand. The cold sword light broke open the war horse's head, and blood burst out. The war horse had no time to let out a mournful cry and was already dead, but the huge body was driven by inertia.
He crashed forward and fell down.
The two warriors rushed forward with shields and pressed against the chest of the horse that had rushed forward three or four feet and was about to fall. They pushed the dead horse to the side and fell down, so as not to disturb their nearby horses.
The prisoner general on his back was hit by seven or eight sharp arrows, and his robe and armor were dyed red with blood, but he continued to stab him with a spear frantically, with incomparable bravery, until two spears pierced him from the side.
He let out an unwilling howl under his armpit, stood with his gun in his sight, and refused to fall down even when he was about to die.
There was a rain of locust arrows flying overhead, and the whistling sound caused by the arrows seemed not to be as sharp and loud as the shouts, howls, and weapon clashes on the battlefield, but it felt unusually clear, just like the late autumn had already
A bit of chilly wind blew.
When crossing a river to seize the beach, the most unavoidable thing is to be attacked halfway across the river, but it is unavoidable.
The generals who fought to seize the beach first laid out planks one by one on the silt that had been set on fire to remove the reeds, forming several narrow and unstable plank roads, and then used these plank roads to gradually enter the relatively open and dry beachhead to form formations.
, this will take a certain amount of time. This also means that before the enemy can react, it is impossible for too many soldiers and horses to enter the north bank.
After hearing the news, the intercepted enemy troops took advantage of the fact that the landing troops and horses had not yet established a stable footing, and launched a decisive and fierce attack. If the landing troops and horses were not careful, they could easily be defeated.
This will not only cause heavy casualties to the generals who landed in the early stage, but will also cause subsequent troops to lose the space to land, resulting in a serious setback in the landing operation.
At this time, the elite soldiers and horses who are the first to land are required to withstand all the pressure. Not only can they not retreat even half a step, but they must also rush to the outside as much as possible to gain more time and space for the subsequent troops to land and form formations.
The first few hundred men and horses to land were all heavily armored infantry from the selected vanguard army. They had conducted many beach grabbing drills before. Although they could only rely on a small number of refined iron shield vehicles at the beginning, they were able to withstand the enemy's rush like a rock.
Thousands of infantry and cavalry assembled in a short period of time made a fierce impact; after the armored soldiers landed on the beach, they did not even bother to form an formation to attack. Some of the troops were gradually added to the frontal array to avoid being torn apart by more enemy troops coming from all directions for reinforcements.
After opening a gap, more men and horses will be landed later, forming a new offensive front from both wings, and directly charging towards the outside against the rain of locust arrows.
At the beginning of landing, it is necessary to get as many heavily armored infantry with strong defense as possible ashore as quickly as possible to form formations. Naturally, there will not be many elite archers accompanying them; and due to the chosen landing location, the northern bank has a large depth of silt, making the battle difficult.
Ships cannot provide strong support near the shore, so in crossbow shooting, the vanguard will suffer a great loss.
However, the generals who landed in the early stage were all wearing heavy armor. Most of those who were hit by arrows were injured in their forearms, shins, feet and other parts. Only a few of them were shot in vital parts. They could still continue to fight in a short period of time, and their combat effectiveness would not be reduced.
Seriously weakened——
Of course, the Huaihe River coastline on both sides of Huaichuan City is more than fifty or sixty miles long, and not only one or two reed swamps were set on fire in advance. The enemy could not predict the exact landing point for the forward troops, so they only had time to assemble in a hurry.
Light armored cavalry and horse infantry came to intercept and were unable to carry heavy and inconvenient war weapons such as crossbows and catapults, which limited their attack power.
In a battle where iron and blood directly compete for life, the enemy cannot get any advantage from the heavy armored infantry of the Selected Front Army, let alone tear apart the dense array composed of hundreds of heavy armored infantry of the Selected Front Army.
, thwarted this time's battle to seize the beach.
At three o'clock in the morning, we saw that almost two thousand soldiers from Beijing and Xiang had successfully landed in front of Changtanzhai.
Before the ballista could be pulled over, Yue Hailou, who personally showed up at Changtan Village to supervise the battle, ordered that there was no point in abandoning the interception operation and waited for more reinforcements.
Come over and set up arrays on both sides of Changtan Village.
The Jingsheng Army, supported by Jingxiang Industry and Manufacturing Co., Ltd., not only has a very high armor rate among its soldiers, but is also equipped with more and more sophisticated light and heavy weapons than them.
In addition to being adjacent to the Huai River in the south and close to the Ru River, Huaichuan City also has several wider streams and rivers crossing the canal in the north - the Yongjin River not far to the north of Changtanzhai is connected to the Ru River in the west.
It is a semi-artificial canal that flows from the north side of Huaichuan City and connects to Yingshui River in the east.
Yue Hailou could not imagine that if they voluntarily gave up their strongholds such as Changtanzhai and asked the Beijing-Xiang navy to clear the obstacles, so that the armored warships could directly enter the Yongjin River, what other means would they have to restrict the selection of the vanguard army and the Jingsheng Army along the Yongjin River?
The river opens in the direction of Huaichuan City.
Therefore, they must not retreat into Huaichuan City easily.
Otherwise, the most likely possibility is that they were selected as the vanguard in Huaichuan City and were surrounded by elite soldiers and horses of the Jingsheng Army, while reinforcements found it difficult to get close.
If they don't want to give up Huaichuan easily, the only feasible option is to organize more elite soldiers and horses to carry out resolute sniping on the frontal battlefield where the Jingsheng Army will land on a large scale.
Now that the distance is slightly increased, although more selected vanguard troops and the elite Jingsheng Army will be called into the north bank, thousands of elite Red Guards cavalry who are coming from Jiaopi for reinforcements will also come from the flank??????
?????????Launch a large-scale assault to free up space.
Under the dissuasion of Chen Zixiao, Liu Shiwang, Han Gui and others, Xu Huai could only stay on the south bank to supervise the battle, while generals Shi Hu and Chen Jin went to the north bank to command the frontline operations.
Xu Huai stood on the makeshift watchtower and had a panoramic view of the battlefield on the north bank, which was only seven or eight miles away. The enemy's infantry and cavalry were still moving southward from the Fangzhai further north to the vicinity of Changtanzhai on the south side of the Yongjin River.
As they gathered together, the intention of the battle was obvious.
The Military Intelligence Staff Department has already formulated a detailed combat plan for this situation. In addition to sending more refined iron shield vehicles and other war equipment, along with the Jingsheng Army's first town generals, they will continuously land ashore to fill the gap on the beach.
In addition to the intensive formation on the frontal battlefield, hundreds of small flat-bottomed stackers were also dragged into the silt, forming multiple more stable plank roads connecting the beachhead positions, so that once the battle started, reinforcements could enter the beachhead more quickly.
The position is also convenient for quickly bringing the wounded back to the south bank for treatment.
Xu Huai had no doubts about winning the first battle across Huaihe River.
However, due to the limited beachhead position and the narrowness of the battlefield, they were unable to transport more troops to the north bank immediately to participate in the battle. The beachhead position they currently occupy does not even have room for the front cavalry troops to deploy from the flanks.
.
In the battle that was to be held in the afternoon, they could only rely on the 10,000 elite soldiers of the First Town of the Jingsheng Army and the 2,000 heavy armored infantry of the Selected Front Army. They would fight a bloody battle with the Jingxi Infantry Cavalry, which might be two or three times their strength. Xu Huai knew that it would be very difficult.
Avoid heavy casualties.
In the early morning battle to seize the beach, the two heavily armored infantry units of Xu Pang and Sun Yanguan were selected as the vanguard. Although they withstood the pressure and stood firm, the cumulative casualties exceeded 200 people, and the casualty ratio was already quite terrifying.
Xu Pang and Sun Yanguan were both wounded by arrows. At this time, they were unwilling to retreat to the south bank and insisted on staying on the north bank as the backing of the first town of Jingsheng Army to avoid the possibility of the troops landing on the beach being overwhelmed by the red cavalry.
Everyone knows that crossing the Huaihe River to the north is not an easy task. It is impossible for the Red Husbands to withdraw from the Central Plains without a fight.
In the afternoon, Zhong Changqing followed Yue Hailou to climb the wall of the village to watch the battle. At this time, the number of elite infantry and cavalry gathered on the left and right sides of Changtan Village exceeded 20,000, and the number of troops who selected the vanguard army and the Jingsheng Army to enter the north bank also exceeded 10,000.
There were more than two thousand people, no one could wait any longer at this time, and the fierce battle started with the sound of war drums and "woo woo" trumpets.
There was no room for detours or insertions. Zhong Changqing saw that the generals of the Jingsheng Army were slightly out of shape. In addition to deploying tight formations on both wings to prevent their cavalry from raiding their flanks,
Outside the wing, on the front of the battlefield, there were three armies of thousands of armored soldiers, surrounded by refined iron shield chariots and other war equipment. They took the lead in attacking towards them, as if three conical torrents were flowing and surging on the plain.
The light armored cavalry galloping with bows could not effectively suppress the armored infantry of the Jingsheng Army. Even the horses under their crotches had a greater target and were easily injured by arrows. They could only temporarily withdraw from the battlefield, leaving the infantry front lines of the two armies fierce.
And when they collide directly, there will be a bloody fight.
Although it was visible to the naked eye that their casualties were more tragic, Yue Hailou still gave the order coldly and sent groups of troops into the battlefield.
Zhong Changqing pursed his lips and looked extremely serious, but he knew very well that there was no way they could compete with the elite soldiers and horses of Beijing and Xiang on the frontal battlefield. What they could do was to take advantage of the fact that the Beijing and Xiang troops could not calmly launch more battles on the north bank.
With many soldiers and horses, they gathered two to three times the superior force on local battlefields to carry out resolute sniper attacks, thereby consuming the effective strength of the Beijing-Xiang army.
Even if they have to pay two or three times more casualties, as long as they can dampen the spirit of the Jingxiang Army, the mission entrusted to them by Zhennan King Ulul Lie will be successfully accomplished.
After all, in addition to occupying most of the Central Plains, Chihu also successfully conquered the Dangxiang people. There were too many people who could be recruited into the camp and compete for consumption.
Of course, Yue Hailou, Zhong Changqing, Meng Jie, Jiang Zhaode and others are more willing to organize the battle near Huaichuan, and they also believe that Jingxiang will incorporate Jingsheng
The army's time is still short, and its elite level should be much inferior to that of the Tianxiong Army, which is mainly deployed in Rucai and other places. If a battle is organized here, the casualties of the elite soldiers and horses in the west of Beijing may not be too ugly.
Unfortunately, the defensive formations on the flanks of the Jingsheng Army were so tight that the Red Husband Cavalry had no chance to enter the battlefield. On the narrow frontal battlefield, fierce fighting mainly occurred between the Jingsheng Army and the Jingxi Infantry Armor.
It has been a year since the new Jingsheng Army was established, and the grassroots military officials have basically received two or three rotations of training, which makes the Jingsheng Army capable of making tactical adjustments on the seemingly chaotic and fierce battlefield with the capital team as a unit. This is exactly the case.
A concrete manifestation of whether the troops and horses are more elite and have stronger combat effectiveness - the severely injured troops quickly broke away from the front line and retreated to the warships via the plank road. The new troops disembarked and entered the battlefield via the plank road. This made the narrow beachhead position difficult to deal with.
The restrictions on the deployment of the victorious army's troops and horses are reduced to a minimum.
This also allowed Jingsheng's army to always maintain strong fighting spirit and sharp combat effectiveness on the north bank.
However, as casualties continued to accumulate among the soldiers and horses in the west of Beijing, the fighting spirit of the generals seriously declined. Several groups of newly launched soldiers and horses could not last long before being easily defeated, resulting in even more heavy casualties.
Seeing this scene, Yue Hailou also knew that the limit of the troops in the west of Beijing was there, and it was much inferior to the newly formed Jingsheng Army for Beijing and Xiang. He ordered Zhong Changqing, Meng Jie, Jiang Zhaode and others to return to their original positions.
Under the cover of thousands of elite cavalry from the Red Guards on both wings, we are going to shrink the troops and horses on the front line and prepare for a more purely defensive battle.
Zhong Changqing, surrounded by dozens of guards and soldiers, rode back to the main formation. However, before he formally gave the order to pull back the front line troops, he heard loud beating of drums in front.
He stood on horseback and looked to the south, only to see that the infantry of the Selected Front Army, which had not been dispatched in the afternoon as the Dinghai Shenzhen, split into two torrents of a thousand men, and charged diagonally towards the cavalry array on both sides of them.
At this time, the main force of the Jingsheng Army on the north bank almost came out in full force and came towards them.
At this moment, Zhong Changqing thought with fear that the infantry of the Selection Front Army dared to attack the more dominant Red Husband Cavalry array in a loose formation. He wanted to pin down the Red Husband Cavalry on both sides of them so that the main force of the Jingsheng Army could directly kill them.
The main formation?
Zhong Changqing's hands and feet were trembling a little. At this time, he would never dare to order the front line troops to withdraw. Instead, he blew the horn himself, raised his shields with the troops in his own formation, picked up his swords and guns, and went to the front line to kill.
Life and death are at stake here, but there is no reason to retreat...
