In the last few days of mid-June, on the northwest plains near the high wall that the Wei army was repairing, the scouts of the Wei and Han armies took the lead in launching a fierce battle.
At this time, the Wei army's scouts were no longer limited to the Black Crows. There were hundreds of Shanyang cavalry formed by King Yan Zhao Hongjiang at a great expense, as well as the Nan Yan cavalry under the command of General Wei Mu, the general of Nan Yan, including the new Yanling army.
More than 2,000 Yanling cavalry were formed to join the reconnaissance and surveillance mission against the Korean army in Wu'an.
It has to be said that in the face of Korean cavalry, Wei's cavalry can only be said to have just started, so that the cavalry sent out often rarely return unharmed, especially when they encounter Lou Fan under the command of Han General Shanggu Shou Ma She
When riding on the cavalry, even if Wei Qi turned around and fled immediately, it would be difficult to escape the latter's pursuit.
But no matter what, Wei Jun's scolding cavalry more or less got some information about the Han army in Wu'an.
Judging from the flags on the banners, the Han army in Wu'an at this time roughly included Ma She's Shanggu Army of 30,000, Lian Pi's Taiyuan Army of 30,000, Qin Kai's Yuyang Army of 20,000, plus Dangyin Hou Han Yang and Bao Yuan.
, Feng Ting, Jin Yao and others' remnant troops totaled approximately 140,000 to 140,000.
Judging from the number of troops, the Wei army has an advantage. After all, the five Wei armies of Su Wang Army, Wei Wu Army, Nan Yan Army, Shanyang Army, and Northern Army together total more than 200,000.
But in terms of military configuration, the Wei army is completely at a disadvantage. After all, of the 150,000 soldiers and horses of the Han army, at least one-third are cavalry, and the rest are a mix of infantry and crossbows; but as for the Wei army, all of them are cavalry.
Adding all the cavalry together, the total number is only 10,000, and the rest are infantry.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun felt very puzzled at first: It is clear that the Korean army has an absolute advantage in cavalry and should make full use of the advantage of the cavalry to engage in mobile warfare with the Wei army. Why did the Korean army gather their troops in Tiaoling and put on a show of preparation?
What's the posture of a decisive battle with their Wei army here?
As a result, Zhao Hongrun understood it two days later. Because on June 22, the Korean cavalry bypassed Handan and attacked "Zixian County".
At that time, the Shanyang Army of King Yan Zhao Hongjiang was stationed in the upper reaches of "Zishui", while the Northern Army of King Huan Zhao Hongxuan was stationed in "Zixian". They were responding to their brothers' call and preparing to join the battle group, but they were unexpectedly attacked by Wu An.
A sneak attack by the Korean army.
If it weren't for the rapid support of the Shanyang Army of Zhao Hongjiang, King of Yan, the First Army of the North stationed in "Zixian" might have lost this city.
Later, Zhao Hongrun learned that the Korean army attacking Zixian was the cavalry under Ma She, the Shanggu guard, and the general leading the cavalry was Ma She's deputy general Xu Li.
This Xu Li is not simple. He led his Shanggu cavalry to flee in Zishui and Zixian areas. The Shanyang Army and the Beiyi Army were exhausted. They could only passively defend themselves in order to protect themselves. If they left the city easily, they would be attacked.
to the attack by Xu Lijun.
This passive situation did not improve slightly until the Shanyang Army and the Northern First Army imitated the King Su Army and built Wugang chariots.
As for the Han general Xu Li, who was a cavalry force, Zhao Hongrun had no good solution. After all, the scope of his activities was on a flat land between the upper reaches of Zishui, Zixian, and Handan. It was obvious that he wanted to disrupt several routes.
Regarding the liaison between the Wei armies, although Zhao Hongrun could expel the Korean cavalry by repairing a low wall with cement, at this time the main force of the Korean army in Wu'an was watching eagerly, and Zhao Hongrun was really powerless.
He could only count on the Nanyan Army stationed on "Hanshan" south of Handan City, hoping that the cavalry battalion of the Nanyan Army could restrain Xu Li's army.
On June 24, the Korean army in the Tiaoling area began to exert pressure on the Gaoqiang area and tried to attack the Gaoqiang repaired by the Wei army.
Due to the unremitting harassment of Ma She, the guardian of the upper valley, the Wei army has not been able to repair the high wall very far. It is only two miles away. This level of high wall defense has a range of at least thirty miles according to visual inspection.
For the battlefield, the effect it can play is minimal.
Zhao Hongrun was very dissatisfied with this. After all, in his planned strategy, the Wei army under his command at this time had to at least build a high wall that was more than ten or twenty miles long. This would greatly reduce the risk of a large-scale fighting between the Wei and Korean armies.
At that time, the nearly 50,000 Korean cavalry posed a huge threat.
But as the saying goes, things are unpredictable. First, there was harassment from Shanggu Shou Ma She, and then Julu Yanju's navy attacked the Wei army's water route. As a result, the Wei army on the front line failed to complete the task given by Zhao Hongrun on time.
At this point, Zhao Hongrun can only rely on Wugang chariots and Yuma heavy cavalry - the Korean infantry is not something to be afraid of. As long as Wugang chariots and Yuma heavy cavalry can contain Wu'an's cavalry, then this war will be
The victory will eventually belong to their Wei army.
It is undeniable that Zhao Hongrun did think so at first, until Sun Shuke, the general of the Yanling Army stationed at the high wall, sent an urgent message for help to Handan.
At that time, Zhao Hongrun was stunned after learning the specific situation. Why? Because the Korean army in Wu'an actually imitated the Wei army's Wugang chariots and built thousands of Wugang chariots, and used them to attack the high wall.
It has to be said that in addition to greatly restricting cavalry, war weapons such as Wugang chariots can also play a very good defense against enemy infantry and crossbowmen. The key is that this kind of chariot does not
It doesn't have much technical content and can be copied just by looking at it.
"They...how can these Koreans be so shameless?"
Including Zhao Hongrun, the generals of King Su's army were very angry after learning that the Han army in Wu'an had imitated Wugang chariots, thinking that the Han army had shamelessly plagiarized the wisdom of their Wei people.
But to be honest, this kind of thing is actually not uncommon among the countries in the Central Plains. After all, there is no intellectual property rights in this era, and it is common to steal and imitate each other: Wei's chariots were powerful in the past, and all the countries in the Central Plains imitated them; and then the Korean cavalry
With a strong rise, Wei State followed Han Qi's example and secretly formed "Dangjun Youma".
Now, the Wei army's Wugang chariot was stolen by the Koreans, which also shows that this war weapon is indeed a sharp weapon on the battlefield.
Of course, Zhao Hongrun was a little depressed about this: I strongly recommend the heavy cavalry to you, for which I was almost trapped in Shangdang County. Instead of stealing the heavy cavalry, you actually stole the Wugang chariot?
In addition to being depressed, Zhao Hongrun strongly believed that he must once again "prove" to the Korean army the need to build a heavy cavalry in this battle, otherwise, his carefully planned plan may really be disrupted by the ugly Wugang chariot.
.
It has to be said that Zhao Hongrun misunderstood this matter. It was not that the Han army did not notice the power of heavy cavalry. In fact, in the eyes of Bao Yuan, Jin Ao, Feng Ting and Dangyin Hou Han Yang, they had no regard for Shang Shui.
Yuma's fear of heavy riding is much higher than that of Wugang's chariot.
The problem is that building a set of heavy cavalry armor is not only expensive but also complicated in workmanship. The war is about to begin, so how can Bao Yuan and other generals have the time to raise huge sums of money to build heavy cavalry armor?
In contrast, if you want to steal the Wugang cart, you have to put it simply. After all, this thing has no technical content. It is just a baffle on the cart. Anyway, the Korean generals do not require it to be built to be similar to that of the Wei army.
The Wugang chariot is so strong.
It has to be said that when both the Wei and Han armies had Wugang chariots, the role of the cavalry and crossbowmen on both sides was greatly reduced, while the status of the melee infantry quickly increased.
This situation greatly increases the chance of survival of the Korean infantry in front of the Wei crossbowmen, but in the final analysis, it cannot shake the foundation of the Korean army. After all, if nothing unexpected happens, the role of the Wei heavy infantry on the battlefield is obviously better than that of the Koreans.
The light infantry is bigger.
The "thing" in the sentence "If nothing unexpected happens" actually refers to the variable Taiyuan Shou Lian Pi.
The reason why Sun Shuke could not withstand the attack of Wu'an Han army and urgently asked for help from Handan was because Taiyuan Shou Lianbu personally went to attack the high wall and killed several people with his strange weapon that looked like a mace or a long-handled knife.
The thousands of generals under the Yanling Army, with a posture of being invincible, frightened the Yanling Army soldiers and generals near the high wall.
Even before the reinforcements sent by Zhao Hongrun to Gaoqiang arrived, Sun Shuke suffered a defeat at the hands of Lian Bu and lost Gaoqiang.
There was no way, the Wugang chariots in the Korean army greatly limited the combat power of the Wei army's crossbowmen, making it impossible for the Wei army to resist once fierce generals like Lian Pi reached the high wall.
What's even more disgusting is that Lian Piu singled out the Wei Army non-commissioned officers and generals to be killed. When the Wei Army non-commissioned officers and generals who were in charge of command died, the ordinary Wei soldiers would naturally fall into chaos, and how could they resist.
In the evening of the same day, after receiving the message from Sun Shuke asking for help, Zhao Hongrun received news about Sun Shuke's defeat and retreat.
He was not surprised by this, because the length of the high wall was so short that the Korean army could easily go around the back of the high wall. If the high wall was two or thirty miles long, you would let the Korean army
Take a detour and take a look?
Not to mention that the one who attacked the high wall was Taiyuan Shou Lian Pi. This was a Korean general who defeated Wei general Jiang Bi in Jinyang County, Taiyuan County. Sun Shuke was just a general who was stronger than a commander. There was no way he could be like Lian Pi.
It's hard to go into battle personally to boost morale like that, let alone defeat Lian Pi.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun had no intention of blaming Sun Shuke, but just sent someone to invite General Shao Hu to discuss sending troops with him.
The next day, June 25, Zhao Hongrun and General Shao Hu led Su Wang's army and Wei Wu's army respectively, preparing to use troops against the Korean army.
In fact, the Wei army could also choose to defend Handan and wait for the Wu'an and Han armies to attack Handan.
After all, Handan has a solid city wall. With the help of city wall defense, the Wei army should have a higher chance of winning.
But the problem is that Handan is the royal capital of South Korea. God knows how many people in Handan City, which seems peaceful at the moment, are waiting for an opportunity to prepare a fatal blow to the Wei army - just in case these people jump out when the Han army in Wu'an attacks Handan.
, set fire to harass and disrupt the situation in the city, and the Wei army might be defeated in the battle to defend the city, ruining all the previous advantages.
Therefore, it is better to be tough and go directly out of the city to fight, which can also show the momentum of the Wei army - after all, Zhao Hongrun's previous efforts to occupy Handan and fight against South Korea to the death, how can he retreat to Handan City without destroying his majesty?
Doesn't it look like he is afraid of the Wu'an and Han troops?
It is for these reasons that Zhao Hongrun chose to fight together with Wei Wujun. He wanted to use this battle, or to put it more arrogantly, win this battle, to interrupt the counterattack of the Wu'an Han army and force them to lower their heads and sue for peace with Wei.