ps: The new year is approaching, and the editor who saved the manuscript has been killed in battle. I will try my best to keep updating. After the new year, I will resume one chapter at noon and one chapter at night, and three updates as appropriate. The updates for the past two days have been at night, sorry.
Zaifugen was not surprised at all that there were deserters among the infantrymen of his army.
Although the Chu State punished deserters very severely, even so, if they were asked to attack a camp that was almost impossible to conquer, the infantry in the army would inevitably choose to escape, especially if someone took the lead.
The law does not blame everyone.
If it were in the past, Zaifu Gen would most likely be filled with resentment and gnashing his teeth over this. He would just wait to return to his own camp afterwards, pick out and execute the soldiers who took the lead in escaping one by one, as a warning to others.
But today, he remained silent, as if he had not seen the defeat of the frontline infantry at all.
The reason is that the infantry casualties on the front line have been too heavy so far, and what makes people sigh is that there are almost no corresponding gains for those huge infantry casualties.
You must know that as of now, the number of casualties of the Chu army's vanguard infantry has reached nearly 10,000. The corpses are piled higher and higher outside the opposite Wei camp, especially in the area of the spear forest. It seems that a line completely composed of Chu soldiers has been piled up.
The bunker built by the corpses was half a foot high.
The blood dyed the land red, making the ground outside Wei Camp look like a land watered with red blood from a distance.
And after paying such a heavy price in casualties, did the Chu army's infantry gain anything?
No!
So far, none of their soldiers has successfully climbed the walls of the Wei camp.
Faced with this tragedy, not to mention that the Chu infantry on the front line had no fighting spirit, even Zaifu Gen himself gradually lost confidence in conquering the Wei camp.
According to common sense, if you cannot attack for a long time, you should temporarily withdraw your troops and think of other good strategies.
However, Zaifugen did not issue an order for the entire army to retreat for a long time. The reason was simply because the current number of casualties had not reached the "hard target" set by Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo, which was a full 30,000 people.
"Attack! Continue to attack the Wei camp!"
Zaifugen issued the latest order.
But in fact, he no longer had any high expectations about whether he could conquer the Wei camp in front of him.
Because in his opinion, the defensive layout of the Wei camp has become more and more solid as time goes by. For example, more and more arrows are fired back at the phalanx of 10,000 long archers under his command.
Gradually, the longbowmen suffered heavy casualties.
The number of those trebuchets rushed to be manufactured in the Wei camp gradually reached thirty or forty. Although the direct casualties caused by these thirty or forty trebuchets to the 10,000 longbowmen were not serious, their
The intimidating power is far greater than that of thousands of Wei long archers.
The most direct manifestation is that in order to avoid the tragedy of being killed by the huge mud thrown by those catapults, the 10,000 longbowmen have gradually begun to avoid the mud thrown by the Wei camp.
Is this a good thing?
No! This is not a good thing at all in Zai Fu Gen’s opinion.
Because even if a long archer successfully avoided the mud thrown by the Wei army's projectile stone, the direct impact of this incident was to make the Chu soldiers in a small area near the soldier have no intention of suppressing them with bows and arrows.
Wei soldiers in the Wei camp.
Therefore, from the perspective of a general, the soldiers' avoidance of mud is more serious than being directly killed by one or two soldiers. After all, because of the relationship between those few soldiers, the soldiers in a small area nearby appeared.
There was confusion in the formation.
You must know that if the formation is chaotic, there is no guarantee that soldiers will be crowded and trampled, which is far more serious than direct casualties.
"Tap tap tap"
The sound of horse hoofbeats came from far and near. Zaifu turned his head and took a look, and saw General Cheyu galloping towards him on horseback.
Zai Fugen frowned, because he had already guessed the purpose of this colleague's visit. After all, not long ago, he had ignored Zi Cheyu's suggestion twice in a row to send messengers to plead with him to withdraw his troops.
Sure enough, the general Zi Cheyu rode his horse to Zaifu Gen and whispered to the latter: "Zaifu, withdraw your troops. If we continue to fight, it will only increase unnecessary casualties... We have no siege equipment. Our army has no siege equipment.
This Wei camp cannot be conquered!"
Zaifugen's eyes were still focused on the battlefield ahead. Hearing this, he said in a deep voice: "Zi Che, you also know Lord Xiong Tuo's order. Don't make things difficult for me."
Zi Cheyu naturally understood what the so-called Lord Xiong Tuo's order meant. Hearing this, he frowned and said, "Having said that, what benefit does it bring to the war situation by such a needless increase in casualties?... Haven't you noticed?
The infantry in the front have been fleeing one after another. You should understand that in our country, the punishment for deserters is extremely cruel, and the soldiers will never dare to escape easily. Whenever there are soldiers fleeing on the battlefield, it means that the battle has ended.
The odds of winning..."
Zaifu Gen remained silent. In fact, he understood what Zi Cheyu said, but due to the order of Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo, he could not choose to retreat now.
After thinking about it, he sighed melancholy: "Don't make things difficult for me, General Ziche..."
Hearing that sound, General Zi Che's expression changed slightly, and he opened his mouth several times to speak but then stopped.
At this moment, there was a loud noise and exclamation from the front.
Zaifugen and Zi Cheyu looked up and saw that a Wei cavalry circled out from the west side of the Wei camp and launched a sneak attack on the 10,000 longbowmen. They successfully used the sprint speed of the horse power.
He broke into the formation of the long archers.
Zi Cheyu took a closer look and estimated the number of Wei cavalry.
The number of troops is neither too large nor too small, less than a thousand cavalry.
"Aren't you going to withdraw your troops yet?" Zi Cheyu glanced sideways at Zaifugen and said coldly: "Thousands of cavalry soldiers are enough to disrupt the formation of nearly ten thousand longbowmen..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zaifu Gen said calmly: "It's just a thousand cavalry. Even if there are all long archers there, it's not impossible to surround and kill this Wei cavalry."
"But we will pay at least five times the casualties!" Zi Cheyu took over the words and replied coldly: "Don't forget, our army only has 10,000 longbowmen. If we lose casualties trying to snipe the Wei cavalry,
More than halfway... it will be even more impossible for our army to conquer this Wei camp!"
Zaifu Geng was silent when he heard what he said. After all, what Zi Cheyu said was indeed true. Take the battle against Wei Ying as an example. Not to mention almost all of them, they relied entirely on those 10,000 longbowmen to defeat Wei Ying.
There were casualties among the Wei soldiers inside. If there were no longbowmen and the infantry alone attacked the camp, it would be like sending the Chu soldiers to die, and they would die in vain without any reward.
Because of this, the long archers in the Chu army are currently far more valuable than the infantry. After all, every long archer is a favorable guarantee for attacking the Wei camp in the future.
Looking at the formation of 10,000 long archers and pondering for a moment, Zaifu Gen exhaled a long breath, and finally sighed: "That's all, just follow what you said... But before that, the infantry still have to complete a certain task
The final mission.”
Zi Cheyu was stunned when he heard the words, and then he seemed to have thought of something and frowned: "I personally led an infantry to drive away the Wei cavalry. If there is a chance to surround and kill them, that would be better. If not, then kill them."
Expulsion is fine. On your side..."
Having said this, Zi Cheyu glanced at Zaifu Gen, shook his head and said no more, then rode away on his own.
Not long after, Chu General Zi Cheyu led his infantry formation to support the nearly 10,000 long archers. While ordering them to retreat slowly, he ordered his infantry to build a defense line to block the nearly 1,000 Wei cavalry.
Take advantage of the opportunity to kill.
The nearly a thousand Wei cavalry were exactly the 800 cavalry led by Bailiba, the general of Junshui Camp. He followed Zhao Hongrun's instructions and waited for the 10,000 Chu long archers because the Wei long archers on the wall of the Wei camp
When the backfire and the shells thrown by many catapults in the camp caused some confusion in the local formation, he led the eight hundred cavalry to take the opportunity to kill them.
I have to say that this sneak attack was very successful. The reason was that the attention of the 10,000 Chu long archers was concentrated on the southern wall of the Wei camp, and no one was on guard against the possibility of a small army coming out of the Wei camp.
There were so few cavalry that Bailiba led the 800 light cavalry into the phalanx of 10,000 Chu long archers without any danger.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. The Chu people responded quickly. Not long after, a Chu general led a group of infantry to build a defense line and ordered the longbowmen in front of the defense line to circle left and right.
Previously, because of the small number of cavalry under his command, Bailiba did not dare to lead his troops too deeply. He only made sudden attacks back and forth on the edge of the long archer formation. Now that the Chu soldiers have built a defense line, Bailiba
The 800 cavalrymen and the 3,000 Chu long archers in that area immediately opened a distance.
Being distanced in front of an army of archers can be extremely fatal.
Who is the Chu general? The Chu troops nearby are at his command, so his commanding ability is impressive...
Bailiba didn't know that it was the Chu army's general Zi Cheyu who personally led the infantry to build a defensive line, so he secretly wondered about the Chu general's unparalleled leadership. No, the Chu army was obviously killed by the cavalry he led, and the Chu army was running around.
After hearing Zi Cheyu's scolding and orders, the long archers gradually became more orderly. They changed from the helter-skelter scurrying just now and divided into two teams neatly, bypassing the defense line formed by the Chu army infantry.
.
Seeing this, Bailiba, who was determined to expand his victory, immediately changed his direction and led his eight hundred cavalry to retreat to the northwest.
Therefore, if he is not greedy enough and still plans to follow the long archers and continue to pursue them, the crossbowmen who are waiting strictly behind the Chu army's infantry defense line will let him understand why bows and crossbows were once known as the most despicable weapons in history.
The invention of weapons of war.
Therefore, whether for the sake of the eight hundred cavalry under his command or for his own life, Bailiba did not dare to continue the pursuit. In order to avoid the arrows from the Chu army on the opposite side, he had no choice but to lead the cavalry under his leadership.
They made an emergency detour, waiting to quickly leave the range of the Chu army's long archers, and then decide whether to continue to peek from the side and prepare for an opportunity to sneak attack, or whether to just see the situation and return to the Wei camp.
But in any case, his purpose of leading the cavalry out of the camp was achieved, because the 10,000 long archers of Chu had gradually retreated to the rear, and the withdrawal of these long archers meant that the Chu army had given up.
He made plans to continue this battle.
The Chu army finally retreated. (To be continued.)