In the era of cold weapons, when cavalry faced each other, it was always the easiest to chase, the one with the most lethality, the one with the least damage to itself, and the greatest results.
During the pursuit, both sides actually have their own advantages. The Turks have excellent riding skills and can flee in all directions, so the success rate of escape will be relatively high.
But in this way, without the organizational structure, the Turks would not be able to fight against the Tang army, and the Tang army was powerful, with hundreds of cavalry, enough to defeat more than a thousand or even thousands of cavalry.
Therefore, the key now is that the Turks cannot be allowed to gather calmly, but must be driven and dispersed. The Turks' scattering without a clear purpose also caused the Tang army to lose an obvious pursuit route. This is the main reason why Su Dingfang suggested dividing the troops.
But the general route is clear. The one most likely to gather troops is Jieli Khan, and this man must have fled northwest, trying to cross the Great Wall and escape back to Wuyuan County.
But Li Shan didn't expect it to be so easy.
The Turks are good at horsemanship and are best at dispersing and gathering, but they are also difficult to organize under such circumstances. More importantly, the grassland tribes cannot be compared with the Central Plains and have always maintained relative independence. Fighting to the death is basically a matter of
It won't happen.
Li Shan, who was surrounded by layers of guards around Li Kai, was a little impatient. There were Turkic cavalry in all directions within sight along the way, but as soon as they saw the flag of the Tang army, they all fled.
Li Shan looked to the left and right sides. Although he couldn't see it, he knew that the cavalry of the Tang Army were advancing together on both sides. Once the Turkic soldiers gathered in a large scale, they would use scouts and bugles to communicate.
Six thousand cavalry pursued them, divided into four groups, each with more than a thousand cavalry.
Zhang Baoxiang and Xue Wanjun are the first team with unparalleled charge. Su Dingfang, Zhang Zhongjian and Li Shan, followed by Li Kai are the second team. The two teams are roughly in the middle. Once the battle lasts for a long time, the two teams work together to break the formation. If there is a small group of enemy troops
, one team destroys the enemy, and the other team goes around.
Just then, Zhang Baoxiang and Xue Wanjun's team defeated more than a thousand Turks and dispersed them. Su Dingfang led his troops to bypass and continue to pursue northward.
Liu Shirang, Xue Wanche on the left, Zhang Gongjin and Zhang Shigui on the right, marched together to lead the generals. Li Shan only left Shuozhou Sima Qin Wutong who was appointed by Li Yuan a few months ago.
After walking around a forest, Li Shan's eyes lit up, he shouted in agreement, took the telescope handed over by Li Kai and looked at it for a few times, then licked his dry lips, "Finally something gained!"
There were about three thousand Turkic cavalry gathered in the distance ahead. To be able to gather such a large number of troops, the leader was either a general under Jieli Khan or the leader of a large tribe. No matter which one he was, he proved to be very powerful.
Seeing the incoming Tang army, the Turkic soldiers were in a commotion, but they did not flee straight away, but spread out in formation to the left and right. Seeing this scene, Li Shan was even more excited, and accelerated his horse, holding the horse in his hand high, while Li Kai was thrown away
Next, we can only let Guo Pu lead his personal guards to follow him.
One side was attacked by the enemy before withdrawing its troops, and its morale was greatly reduced. It was also pursued by enemy cavalry. The other side pursued and fought fiercely, refusing to give up, and its morale was high.
There was almost no suspense. A wave of crossbow arrows rained down from a distance. Zhang Zhongjian took the lead in charging into the formation and penetrated the weak Turkic center with one blow. Su Dingfang then led the entire army to press forward and charged diagonally into the Turkic formation.
In fact, when fighting in the wilderness, the Turks often rely on the strength of their cavalry to hang from a distance and kill the enemy soldiers with bows and arrows. They will only choose to engage in head-on confrontation when the opponent can't stand it or the formation becomes loose.
But in these years, and even in the pre-Sui period, when the Central Plains armies went out for battle, although they relied on well-equipped heavy cavalry, in general they still relied on chariot formations to defend first and then attack.
During Li Shan's year in Daizhou, he completely changed this combat mode. Against the Turks, it was always cavalry against cavalry.
Caught off guard, Tang Qi's sharp charge smashed the Turkic center army and the right side. Li Shan, who only killed two Turkic soldiers, glanced at Guo Pu standing aside with dissatisfaction.
Su Dingfang raised the horse's shaft high, turned the horse's head and headed left again. This time, he encountered little resistance when charging into the formation, and the Turkic soldiers scattered and fled.
Li Shan slowed down his horse, feeling a little strange in his heart. The Turkic brigades he encountered along the way were usually composed of tribes, with more than a thousand and as few as hundreds. This was the only one that could gather 3,000 Turkic soldiers, but they were defeated so easily.
.
"Mr. Lang!"
Zhang Zhongjian came on horseback, carrying a embarrassed Turkic man in his hand, "Mr. Lang, this man wants to see you."
Guo Pu on the side glanced at this burly but strange-looking man. He remembered that this man had always been called Your Highness, but now he was called Prince... It seemed that he had figured out that he could no longer stay under Li Yaoshi's command.
Li Shan, whose mind was filled with bloodshed and killing, didn't hear it at all. He showed a seemingly gentle but actually ferocious smile to the Turkic man who was thrown on the ground, "It turns out to be Brother Simo."
Ashina Simo struggled to get up and knelt on his knees, "King Handan..."
Without waiting for the other party to say anything else, Li Shan had already drawn the sword in his hand, and without even bothering to dismount, pointed it directly at Ashina Simo's face, "Say!"
When they met for the first time in the Liangyi Palace that day, the young prince was generally quite elegant although he was very aggressive. However, his whole body now exuded a strong smell of blood. Ashina Simo trembled slightly, but did not speak.
Li Shan sneered and said: "Brother Simo, if you want to see me alone, you can only escape with your life."
"In eight days, countless soldiers under my command were killed and injured, Gu will never stop here!"
"Brother Ruosimo is of no use, why should I spare your life?!"
After a pause, Li Shan slightly pressed his legs against the horse's belly, took a few steps forward, and held his long sword high, about to chop it down with one blow.
"The Great Khan..." Ashina Simo was sweating like rain and shouted: "The Great Khan is in front!"
"As expected!" Li Shan's lips curled up slightly, "Jieli ordered you to gather troops and cut off the rear, and you dare not disobey!"
Su Dingfang, who came over, nodded slightly in agreement. Jieli Khan must have begun to gather his troops now, but he might have heard from the deserters that the Tang army was quickly pursuing him, so he threw Ashina Simo off the back to buy time.
This can also explain why three thousand Turks faced more than a thousand Tang cavalry. Although they clearly had the superior force, they had no intention of fighting and were defeated with one blow.
"How many troops?" Li Shan asked.
"Thousands of people..." Ashina Simo knew that his life was almost guaranteed to be saved. "They have already raised the flag of sweat, sent guards to disperse, and gathered troops."
"How far away?"
"Twelve or three miles away."
Li Shan turned to look at Su Dingfang, who took a deep breath and said, "Send out scouts and gather the left and right armies..."
"How long will it take to wait?" Li Shan said decisively: "Let's set off immediately. Now our morale is like a rainbow, we will be able to defeat the enemy. Leave the scouts behind and let the scouts inform Zhang Baoxiang, Liu Shirang, and Zhang Gongjin."
Su Dingfang gritted his teeth. In fact, he also knew that in the current situation, pursuing and defeating the enemy as soon as possible was the right choice. The longer he delayed, the more troops Jieli Khan would have in his hands. He was just worried about Li Shan's
safety.
No longer paying attention to the scattered Turkic squads, more than a thousand Tang troops left their corpses on the ground and set off again, galloping towards the northwest.