The trumpet sounded loudly, and He Jinyi roared and ordered the soldiers to form formations and prepare to face the enemy.
The panicked soldiers adjusted their formations, pulled out their swords with tired bodies, and began to form formations. But everyone's heart was actually as cold as a cold pool.
A few miles ahead, the ferry was blazing with flames. The imperial soldiers and horses had already attacked the ferry and burned the ships. At the rear, the officers and soldiers' cavalry had also caught up.
There is no way forward and nowhere to retreat. This is the end of the road.
He Jinyi originally thought of dividing his troops into two groups, using part of the troops to resist the cavalry attack, while the other part of the troops continued to go to the ferry for rescue. But he quickly gave up this idea.
The opponent is a cavalry. Whether it is charging or detouring, they can easily catch up with their own troops and cut off the way forward. Instead of being attacked by them while moving, it is better to form a formation and fight them to the death. I am thinking too much now.
On the contrary, it is not a good thing.
It's urgent, so let's focus on the present and block the cavalry's attack first.
The densely packed rebel soldiers began to form a defensive formation on the spot. The spearmen and archers began to form a formation. The spearmen stood in front, and the archers bent their bows and arrows behind the spearmen, preparing to meet the rushing enemy cavalry. He Jinyi believed that
, with the powerful striking power of our own archers, we should be able to make the enemy cavalry pay a heavy price.
Amidst the rumble of horse hoofbeats, a thousand cavalrymen approached like dark clouds. They were the more than a thousand cavalrymen of the Zhenwei Battalion led by Zhang Yin.
Zhang Yin's troops arrived at the north bank of the Yellow River at Lingzhou Ferry in the early hours of this morning. After arriving, they discovered that Yang Yiqing had led an army to cross the Yellow River and occupy the ferry. However, the tens of thousands of rebels north of the ferry had disappeared.
After meeting Yang Yiqing and others, everyone exchanged information and opinions simply and quickly, and determined that the rebels' intention was to escape to the Hetao. So they immediately formulated a pursuit plan.
Yi Shi Yong and others led 3,000 elite soldiers down the river in a large boat to seize and attack the Yellow River ferry and block the rebels' escape route. At the same time, the army launched a pursuit on land.
Zhang Yin led a thousand cavalry to pursue the rebel soldiers and horses, and then Yang Yiqing led the army to come for reinforcements. As long as Shi Yong and Zhang Yin could surround the rebel soldiers and horses and hold them back, the army that arrived later could defeat He Jinyi.
The main force of the rebels was completely wiped out.
Of course, in addition to this, the army will detach 10,000 soldiers and horses to go upstream along the Yellow River to clear out the rebel soldiers and horses at Qingtongxia Ferry and the Zhongwei area of Ningxia. This will form a comprehensive encirclement and suppression situation, which can be carried out in a short time
Completely calm the situation.
After a short rest, Zhang Yin led the cavalry to pursue them. Even though the rebels had left seven or eight hours earlier, the cavalry was several times faster than the infantry. So after a day of pursuit, they finally caught up here.
Climb the rebel troops.
Zhang Yin did not launch an attack rashly. The cavalry stopped a few hundred steps away from the formation. Zhang Yin squinted at the dark enemy formation in front of him and pondered deeply.
"Why stop? Kill him in one go." Feng Mazi shouted in confusion.
Zhang Yin waved his hands and shouted: "Don't be too noisy, didn't you see that they have already set up a formation in front of them? Although it is not a big problem for a thousand of our brothers to break through the rebel formation, it will not be glorious if the losses are too great.
"
Zhang Mazi stared at the enemy formation in front, smacked his lips and nodded.
"The Marquis said that exchanging lives for lives is a last resort tactic. If the Zhenwei Battalion wants to become an elite force that can crush the enemy, it must work hard on its equipment, tactics, and its own military literacy. It can kill thousands of enemies without any effort.
No harm will be done. But we must not act recklessly and risk the lives of our brothers. That is the stupidest way." Zhang Yin said.
Those are the words Zhang Yanling said many times after reflecting on the loss of more than a hundred Nanzhen Fusi brothers after the Battle of Dushi City. These words have already formed a consensus in the minds of generals Zhang Yin and Chen Shi.
"It's up to you, how do you think we should fight?" Feng Mazi said.
"General Feng, this way, you and I will divide our troops into two groups and detour from the north and south sides to avoid the enemy's frontal defense formation. I will cut into the enemy's formation from the south side, and you will cut in from the north side. Let's fight through it.
"With the speed of my cavalry, they won't have time to adjust their defensive formation." Zhang Yin said solemnly.
Feng Mazi geared up and said loudly: "Okay, let's do it. This will be a lot of fun."
Zhang Yin frowned and said: "General Feng, remember, don't be too eager to fight, don't be impatient. Carry out the method of rushing and killing, interspersed with detours. If there is no opportunity to cut in, you can attack and kill with crossbow arrows from the flank. The main purpose is to kill the enemy, disturb the enemy, disrupt the enemy, and block the enemy. We can start from
Attack from any direction and lead them by the nose. The initiative is mine."
Feng Mazi laughed and said: "There are some skills. Commander Zhang, it turns out that you are a capable guy just like Mr. Marquis."
Zhang Yin waved his hands and said: "How can I compare with Lord Hou? The light of fireflies dares to compete with the sun and the moon? Don't praise me anymore. Be prepared, use bows and crossbows for long-distance battles, and then use fire blunderbuss to blast one round
, open the gap, rush in and slash with a long knife. Don’t slow down, rush up. Don’t get entangled.”
"I know, I know, it's almost dark, let's start quickly." Zhang Mazi said repeatedly.
Zhang Yin nodded and said no more. He loudly ordered: "Brothers, check the equipment, load the firecrackers, and prepare to attack."
All the soldiers quickly checked their equipment, crossbows, firecrackers, knives and guns, patted their horses' manes, and got ready to charge. Although the men and horses were running continuously, they were very tired. But the battle was imminent, so both men and horses concentrated and became nervous.
"Kill!" Zhang Yin raised his long sword, swung it forward, and let out a short but powerful shout.
"Kill!" all the cavalrymen shouted in unison, urging their horses to start charging.
"Get ready, get ready. The archers are getting ready to release arrows. Shoot them hard. There are not many of them, so shoot them all to death." In the rebel formation, He Jinyi waved his sword and shouted at the top of his lungs.
The rebel archers were ready with their bows and arrows ready, waiting for orders. Once the opponent's cavalry rushed within the shooting range, they would shoot a hail of arrows.
The speed of the cavalry increased from slow to fast, and they were getting closer and closer to the position in front of the rebel formation.
Three hundred steps! Two hundred and fifty steps! Two hundred steps! One hundred and eighty steps!
The rebel soldiers panted nervously, and the archers slowly pulled the bow strings, making a creaking sound. One hundred and fifty steps is the range of a strong bow, and one hundred steps is the range of an ordinary bow. In the blink of an eye,
The cavalry will then enter shooting range.
However, the formation of the opponent's cavalry suddenly changed. The cavalry troops separated into two groups a hundred and eighty steps away and turned in a diagonal thrust. The two cavalry units circled toward the rebel flank, one from the south and the other from the north.
"Damn it." He Jinyi cursed loudly. He realized that he had met his opponent. The opponent was obviously not a fool. He took advantage of the cavalry to start a roundabout attack and attacked his own flanks. This was also what he was most worried about.
If he had enough pikemen and archers, he could form a defensive formation around the entire army. Unfortunately, he didn't have so many archers and pikemen at hand. In a hurry, it was enough to quickly assemble in the front.
It's the limit of what he can do.
"Flanks, flanks, the archers move to both sides. Quick, quick!" He Jinyi yelled.
The rebel archers hurriedly moved to both sides, and the formation instantly became a mess. Under He Jinyi's loud urging, the archers panted and ran to the flanks. They were already exhausted, and now they were even more exhausted.
She stretched her neck and panted heavily, using up her energy to feed.
However, foot strength and body strength are completely incomparable. The huge rebel formation is a hundred paces away from the front to the side. When some archers rushed to the flanks with sweat on their heads, they only saw flying past and thought.
They looked at the backs of the cavalry rushing towards the rebel rear. After they fired a few symbolic arrows into the air, they lost the cavalry figures in the dusk, leaving only a dark cloud of smoke in front of them.
Soon after, they heard the roar of firecrackers, shouts of death, and the screams of fighting coming from the direction of the rear formation.
The archers and spearmen didn't know whether to be thankful or regretful. Originally, they were ready for the battle. But at this moment, they suddenly became bystanders. The cavalry ignored them and directly bypassed them and entered the rear formation.
among.
He Jinyi shouted loudly: "Support, support the back line. Hurry!"
The soldiers stood there, squirming slowly. Everyone was tired and numb to He Jinyi's noise. They delayed consciously.
The rebels were in the rear formation, and two cavalrymen rolled over, like two sharp knives thrust diagonally into the ribs of the rebel formation, making sharp cuts. Bows and arrows and firecrackers opened the gap, and then the cavalry plunged in.
.
War horses neighed, long knives rose and fell, smoke and blood splashed into the air, and screams and cries resounded throughout the earth. The two sharp knives were as sharp as a butcher's meat knives, sliding through the dense crowd without any hindrance.
He wandered around. Everything in front of him was cut open and turned into flesh and blood.
Zhang Yin himself was surprised. He didn't expect it to be so smooth. He overestimated the strength of the rebels. He thought it would be a fierce battle, but it turned out that the rebels in front of him no longer had any fighting spirit.
They would not even take the initiative to attack. Wherever the cavalry went, they scattered like duckweeds on the water, and fled in all directions like fish. There was no desperate posture at all.
An army that has lost morale is just a lamb to be slaughtered, meat on the chopping board. The number of people is no longer important.
"The imperial court has a decree to only punish the first evildoers. Those who follow will not be corrected, those who surrender will not be killed, and those who resist will be killed without mercy." Zhang Yin shouted sternly.
"If you don't kill anyone who surrenders, those who resist will be killed without mercy!" The cavalry's loud shouts floated in the air, hammering into the hearts of the rebels like a heavy hammer.