Xu Huai held the handle of the knife at his waist solemnly, stood on the watchtower, and looked at the battlefield seven or eight miles away.
The two thousand heavily armored infantry of the Selected Front Army, led by Xu Pang and Sun Yanguan, exchanged positions with the troops and horses of the Jingsheng Army deployed on the flanks. They did not stop but moved forward amidst the increasingly fierce sounds of war drums and horns.
They continued to advance to the side and front, like two giant black arrows, pointing directly at the enemy's red cavalry formation deployed on both sides of Changtan Village.
The Red Hussars, who had the greater strength, had never had the chance to participate in the battle because of the tight defensive lines on the flanks of the Jingsheng Army. At this time, when they saw the heavy infantry soldiers of the Selected Front Army taking the initiative to kill them, it was like raindrops splashing into the boiling water.
The oil pan is boiling.
Teams of riders quickly moved into action:
Some people dismounted, held shields and spears, and formed a solid formation, responsible for containing the offensive momentum of the selected vanguard army.
Although there are not many red armored and heavy cavalry, four to five hundred people form four conical formations on the two wings of the dismounted infantry. They will bear the important task of drilling through and tearing apart the vanguard array.
The light armored cavalry holding crossbows were like the light wind, quickly spreading out to the outside. There were even nearly a hundred elite horse archers, rushing towards the front line of the vanguard, shooting arrows quickly and accurately.
He shot into the marching array of the vanguard army, and quickly galloped to avoid it before the crossbowmen in the vanguard array could fight back.
At this moment, the sound of war horses screaming was like a strong wind blowing across the roaring Huaihe River, clearly reaching the ears of everyone watching the battle on the south bank.
On the front of the battlefield on the north bank, in addition to leaving a small number of reserve troops in the rear, the First Town of the Jingsheng Army also moved in full force at this moment, dividing into several torrents, not only sweeping the more than a thousand Western Han troops from Beijing on the front, but also
They went straight to the main formation of the Han army in the west of Beijing and quickly killed them.
To attack a large number with a small number means to stir up the enemy's formation as quickly as possible, and never give the enemy time to react calmly and adjust their deployment.
Chen Zixiao, like Xu Huai, stood expressionless on the watchtower, unable to tell the sadness or joy in his heart.
Although Han Gui was smiling, Liu Shiwang could tell that Han Gui was pretending to be relaxed, and he himself was feeling uneasy at this moment.
Whether the initial battle can achieve a good result will not only determine the trend of the Huaihe River crossing, but will also directly affect the deployment arrangements for the next three to five years, so people cannot help but be nervous.
When deploying before the war, everyone tended to seek stability in the first battle. On the first day, they even only required to obtain a stable foothold on the north bank and build one or two simple camps near the Huai River. This would count as a victory in the first battle.
However, when the first day of the battle progressed, Shi Hu and Chen Jin, who were supervising the battle on the north bank, saw that the Han army's position in the west of Beijing had loosened, so they sent people across the river to ask for instructions. They wanted to press all the troops and horses on the north bank up before dusk, and fight with Beijing.
The Western Han army fought a decisive battle.
Han Gui, Liu Shiwang, Zhou Jing, Zhang Xiongshan and others all advocated caution, but Chen Zixiao believed that the time was right and a decisive battle should be carried out in advance, and Xu Huai finally gave his support.
Whether it was Shi Hu or Chen Jin who, after seeing the Han army's position in the west of Beijing was loosened, intended to significantly strengthen the offensive on the first day in addition to the combat plan, or whether Xu Huai finally gave support, it was mainly due to the terrain restrictions on the north bank of the Huaihe River that the vanguard army was selected.
The cavalry troops had no way to enter the north bank immediately, which was their insurmountable weakness.
Under normal circumstances, even if the Jingsheng Army could defeat the Han Army in the west of Beijing from the front in the coastal area near the Huaihe River, it would not have a large-scale cavalry force to cooperate with the pursuit and defeat, and would even have to be suppressed by the Red Husband Cavalry.
There is no way to cause serious damage to the Han army in the west of Beijing.
Before the war, Yue Hailou deployed the main force of the Han army in the west of Beijing to the north of Huaichuan, in many cities and towns about thirty to forty miles to sixty to seventy miles away from the Huaihe River coast. In the past year or so, he focused on strengthening
The construction of the walled city in the northern part of Huaichuan formed a stepped defense line from Ruyin to the south, passing through Quanhe and Jiaopi to connect with Huaichuan.
Yuehai Tower is deployed in this way. On the one hand, there are many silts and branch rivers near the Huaihe River, which can easily be cut in the east-west direction. Only by deploying the main troops and horses in Zhucheng Walled City in the north can we quickly attack the point where Beijing and Xiangxi cross the Huaihe River.
It allows for faster sniping and interception, and it is also more convenient to cooperate with the red cavalry in the Pingchuan area between Ruying.
Of course, Yue Hailou also considered that the sniper attack failed and the Han army in the west of Beijing might be defeated by the elites of Beijing and Xiangzhou in the Linhuai area.
He placed the real focus of defense on the north side, keeping a certain distance from the Huaihe River. Once the troops and horses were defeated, the defeated troops could quickly escape north to Jiaopi south of Yingshui River under the cover of the red cavalry.
, Quanhe and other places were regrouped, and the strength of the Han army in the west of Beijing would not be greatly damaged - further north and east, the Ru River took over Ying to form a floodplain area covering two to three hundred miles.
No one will be able to enter combat until the winter is completely frozen.
However, nothing is absolute.
If a frontal defeat occurs at dusk, the Han army in the west of Beijing will be defeated without organization or command. After dark, it will be chaotic and people will be panicked. Most of the defeated troops will spontaneously go to the Huaihe River, which is closer to the east????
????????????Escape from Sichuan City instead of escaping to Quanhe, Jiaopi and other places farther away.
In this way, as long as the Jingsheng Army has the opportunity to encircle Huaichuan City, it will have the opportunity to truly eliminate the effective strength of the Han Army in the west of Beijing, thereby truly gaining a strategic advantage on the battlefield in the west of Beijing, instead of a stalemate and unnecessary attrition - Later
This is the wishful thinking of Chi Huren, Yue Hailou, Zhong Changqing and others.
On the first day when Shi Hu and Chen Jin crossed the Huaihe River to seize the beach, they determined to defeat the Han army in the west of Beijing before nightfall, mainly in Huaichuan, Quanhe and the important towns downstream of the Ying River, Yingzhou and Ruzhou.
, including the Han army in the west of Beijing and the Chihu garrison, the total strength of the enemy army was still far greater than that of the Jingsheng army and the Xuanfeng army.
They were worried that if it was postponed to the next day, the enemy forces assembled on the frontal battlefield would be larger in size and more heavily defended, making it even more difficult to defeat the enemy forces from the front.
Of course, such a decision, in addition to taking great risks, is also destined to bear greater sacrifices and casualties.
The heavy infantry and armored soldiers of the forward army must be on the battlefield and form a formation to resist the strong attack of the Red Husband Cavalry. Of course, there is nothing to worry about, but taking the initiative to attack the Red Husband Cavalry is a completely different matter.
However, the vanguard army must first contain the Red Husband Cavalry on both wings, so that the Jingsheng Army could attack the Han Army's main formation in the west of Beijing unscrupulously from the front.
One after another, the piercing light of the sword slashed towards the armored heavy cavalry of the Red Guards. Wherever the blade struck, the armor was broken and blood splattered, making them invincible. But at the same time, the Red Guards warriors on horseback brandished their spears filled with thorns and were also choosing their front.
The heavy armor array of the army's attack brought with it a shower of blood.
The cold wind blew and the war horses roared.
Although generals would unfortunately fall down all the time after a battle with the vanguard army, it is amazing that the heavily armored infantry could not fall behind when facing the heavily armored cavalry.
Han Gui, Liu Shiwang and others saw this scene on the south bank and felt a little relieved.
Even one of Xu Huai's original intentions in setting up the heavy armored infantry battalion was to select strong and elite soldiers, wear solid armor, and use heavy weapons such as mo knives, heavy spears, and large shields to catch the red soldiers from the front.
The attack of cavalry armor - when attacking, the space for heavy weapons to play a role is much smaller - to make up for the disadvantage of the shortage of cavalry in Beijing and Xiangxiang, but there was no chance to test the results of the formation of heavy armored infantry battalions on the battlefield before.
In the previous two or three hours of fierce fighting, the Han army in the west of Beijing did not gain the slightest advantage. They also suffered huge casualties, and their morale had already dropped sharply.
At this time, they saw that Jingsheng's army was like a torrent, attacking from the front several times fiercely, like a strong wind sweeping fallen leaves. The Han army in the west of Beijing on the front line could not see the Red Husband cavalry coming to reinforce them on the two wings, so they immediately became a little panicked.
At this time, although Zhong Changqing and some generals knew very well that the front line must not collapse, and decisively drove more troops and horses to the front line, they could not make up the huge gap with Jingsheng Army - Jingsheng Army on the North Bank
, the selection of the vanguard army to launch the decisive battle was very sudden, and they were not given time to adjust their deployment calmly.
As groups of soldiers with the will to resist were eliminated, dispersed, or defeated, the forward line of the Han Army in Western Beijing was like a collapsed dam. Once a gap was opened, it would be hit to pieces by the torrent even more quickly.
Defeat is always an accelerating, irreversible, and compensating process.
At this time, Zhong Changqing personally led his five to six hundred elite troops to fight out from the main formation. When he was still three to four hundred steps away from the forward line, he collided with the soldiers of the Jingsheng Army who were determined to advance towards the main formation of the Han Army in the west of Beijing.
I have a clear and profound feeling of how helpless and powerless I am after my defeat is doomed.
Although the Han army gathered in the west of Beijing to Changtanzhai was twice as strong as the Jingsheng army, at this moment, Zhong Changqing felt that the front, rear, left and right
They were the soldiers of Jingsheng's army who fought hard.
Zhong Changqing rode on horseback. He still had a field of vision of three to four miles from the horseback. Within his field of vision, there were many soldiers of the Han army in the west of Beijing, or even more, but the effective resistance was basically
They were all disintegrated, so that he had the illusion that he was completely immersed in the vast sea of Jingsheng's army. No matter how many soldiers he and the Han soldiers in the west of Beijing were, they were just duckweeds that were tossed up and down by the torrent and destroyed wantonly.
Zhong Changqing felt timid at this moment, and the soldiers around him were also cut into several groups by Jingsheng's army. He did not dare to rush forward anymore, waving the spear in his hand, and gathered as many direct guards as possible, and went towards
Kill from the side.
Zhong Changqing finally broke away from the main attack direction of Jingsheng's army. When he saw that there were less than a hundred people left in his direct lineage, he wanted to cry without tears. He rushed to a flat hillock and anxiously looked at the battlefield in the distance. He saw the Western Han army in Beijing at dusk.
The main formations on both wings of Changtanzhai have been attacked sharply by more than ten thousand Jingsheng troops, and they are quickly stirred up. There is resistance, but it is extremely weak and pale.
The two heavily armored infantry and horses of the Selection Front Army did not launch a continuous offensive against the Red Husband Cavalry. At this time, they had retracted and retreated to the two wings of the area where the front lines of the two armies had previously engaged. This was just the right time to cover the main force of the Jingsheng Army.
side rear.
After the vanguard troops and Jingsheng troops on the north bank were almost all out, they made room for the soldiers and horses on the south bank to cross the river. At this time, groups of troops were quickly disembarked through the plank road. After a short gathering, one or two hundred troops came to the shore.
, a team of two to three hundred people went directly into battle.
Seeing this scene, Zhong Changqing knew that the situation was over. Seeing that Yue Hailou also withdrew from Changtan Village surrounded by guards, he stopped trying to save the defeat. He stopped thinking about anything and took more than a hundred guards to Jiao.
He retreated in the direction of Pi, hoping to wait until Jiao Pi before finding a way to assemble the defeated troops.
After wading across the shallow Yongjin River, the sky was completely dark at this time. Fortunately, the stars and moon were still there, so we could not see the vegetation on the left and right clearly. The outline of the woods in the distance was also vaguely visible.
However, at this time, there were obviously fewer defeated troops encountered on the road, and more of them were red cavalry retreating to the north. Zhong Changqing's heart suddenly began to throb:
Not only did they know that the Yongjin River was shallow and silted, they even built multiple Jin bridges on the Yongjin River in advance and filled in dozens of weirs and embankments to cut off the Yongjin River. Normally, they didn't have to worry about the blocked escape route to the north, but
After the ordinary soldiers were killed and defeated, the sky and the earth were dark. How could they still find a way to escape to the north with a clear head?
