Strictly speaking, this field battle was not the first official confrontation between Li Jing and Xu Shiji. However, the previous battles were all offensive and defensive battles. The Wagang Army led by Xu Shiji itself suffered too much in terms of geographical location, not to mention the use of weapons in the offensive and defensive battles.
There is a huge reliance on equipment and equipment.
Nowadays, field battles are different. Although sophisticated weapons and equipment are still critical, especially terrorist weapons such as gunpowder bags and grenades, relatively speaking, the advantages of weapons and equipment are not so obvious.
Therefore, who is strong and who is weak in a field battle depends most on your battle skills, mentality, consciousness and the quality of your soldiers. No one relies on hard work unless you outnumber the enemy several times and don't care at all.
One's own casualties.
Due to personal experience, Li Jing is actually better at defense, but obviously his offensive ability is not weak either.
And Xu Shiji was famous for being good at attacking because the Wagang Army had been attacking cities and plundering territory everywhere in recent years.
However, now the two of them have just switched. The one who is good at defense is on offense, and the one who is good at offense is on defense. Moreover, their offensive or defensive abilities are not weaker than their original specialties.
The so-called famous generals are just like that, they are both offensive and defensive, able to defend and attack.
Li Jing is famous for his good defense, just because he used to be the defender of Mayi County. When faced with the northern Turks in the Sui Dynasty, most of the time he focused on defense and could not give him a chance to attack.
Xu Shiji was famous for his offensive skills, not because he was not good at defense, but because he had attacked everywhere in these years. The Wagang Army was invincible in the Central Plains and had little chance to defend.
This battle lasted for three hours, until the wind and rain came down. The Wagang Army suffered more than 3,000 casualties, most of them infantry. The Far East Army's Bao Xiong Battalion also suffered more than 200 casualties. This was the last battle of the Bao Xiong Battalion.
The result of using grenades.
More than two hundred people died in the Baoxiong Camp. Wang Junlin said nothing, but his face remained calm. Li Jing did not dare to fight anymore. He gave the order and ordered the troops to retreat. The Far Eastern Army retreated quickly. Xu Shiji breathed a sigh of relief, but it was too late.
Rest, quickly assemble the army, and lead the Wagang Army to rush towards Fengyang City.
Not to mention the role of the war horse in battle, even if it can only serve as a means of transportation, one side can only use its legs to rush forward, while the other side can accumulate physical strength until it explodes in battle. What a huge difference is this.
Both Li Jing and Wang Junlin knew that allowing the Wagang Army to rush forward at this time would weaken the Wagang Army's combat effectiveness and morale.
Therefore, Xu Shiji knew full well that Li Jing or Wang Junlin did not allow their troops to engage in a life-and-death duel with them, intending to consume their physical strength, morale and fighting will, but he had no choice but to bite the bullet and rush on his way.
This is a conspiracy. Even if you know exactly what the other party does and what their purpose is, you still have no way to resolve it. There is no flaw to find and it is impeccable. Even if you know it is a trick, you still have to dig in.
Just like when the current battle was in full swing, the Far Eastern Army's troops at the Xiaohedao Pass had almost been dispatched. It is not an exaggeration to say that the two military strongholds have now become empty cities.
At this time, as long as three to five thousand troops are sent, the two military strongholds may be easily captured. However, even if Xu Shiji knew about it, there was nothing he could do. As soon as his troops moved here, the spies of the Far East Army Intelligence Department could accurately grasp the situation in time. Under Wang Junlin's rule,
The army will naturally be mobilized accordingly, and with the advantage of cavalry, Xu Shiji's sending people back would be a sheep in the tiger's mouth.
Xu Shiji even suspected that Wang Junlin sent out the Baoxiong Camp in full force just to lure their Wagang Army to send people to attack the two military villages at Xiaohedao Pass.
In fact, Xu Shiji's guess is very close to the real situation, which is what Wang Junlin thought. However, Xiaohedao Pass is not without defenders, and there are thousands of troops from the engineering and supply camps.
Although these soldiers are not as good as the Far Eastern Army's Bao Xiong Camp, Tiger Camp and other units in the field, they are actually not weaker than the ordinary armies of other forces in the world, not to mention that they are only defending the military camp.
And since Wang Junlin and Li Jing led the Baoxiong Battalion to hunt down the inner camp of the Wagang Army led by Xu Shiji, the officers and soldiers of the engineering and infantry transport battalion who stayed behind were not idle either. Not only did they dig out the trenches that the Wagang Army had filled before, but they also
Another trench was dug, a large number of killing traps were laid, and countless landmines were buried.
At this time, if the Wagang Army really bypassed the Baoxiong Battalion cavalry led by Wang Junlin and Li Jing and ran to seize the Xiaohe Mountain crossing, they would not be able to capture the two military villages without more than ten times the number of troops and without filling the trenches with corpses.
In this way, the army was long, and the ghosts of Wang Junlin and Li Jing were lingering along the way. The two armies fought and fled, and they went through countless battles, big and small, which seriously slowed down the Wagang Army led by Xu Shiji.
It wasn't until the second day that the attack suddenly stopped. Because the front was Shuitou Town, the response point Xu Shiji had arranged for him.
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In Shuitou Town, Li Jing, who was leading the pursuit of nearly 10,000 cavalrymen from the Baoxiong Battalion, stopped one mile away from the Shuitou River Bank. On the river bank were the corpses of more than 400 Wagang Army soldiers. Behind him were nearly 10,000 cavalrymen from the Baoxiong Battalion.
The roadside was full of surrendered soldiers, about three thousand in total. They were all the infantrymen of the Wagang Army who were left to the last. Facing the cavalry of the Storm Bear Camp, they did not have the physical strength to escape, so they had no choice but to surrender.
Li Jing led the cavalry to catch up with many straggler infantrymen of the Wagang Army along the way. These infantrymen were all elites of the Wagang inner camp. Some of them were killed, and a small number fled into the mountains and fields. Nearly half of them chose to surrender.
If they were fighting against foreigners such as Turks or Goguryeo, they would not surrender under normal circumstances. However, when fighting against the Far Eastern Army, because of Wang Junlin's prestigious and holy name, they would not feel much burden to surrender.
Li Jing ignored the pursuit of the stragglers who fled into the fields and mountains on both sides, and pursued them all the way to Shuitou Town, a key point nearly eighty miles away from the Xiaohedao Pass.
Li Jing caught up with the Wagang Army defenders by the river and killed more than 400 Wagang Army soldiers in two rounds. However, he soon discovered something unusual in the river. The Wagang Army on the opposite side also formed an array. If he rushed over rashly,
It is very likely that some of the cavalry were cut off from the south bank by the current, and were surrounded and killed by the opponent's army, which was ten times more numerous than the enemy.
He sent people to investigate and found that Xu Shiji actually sent people to build a dam upstream.
Wang Junlin and Shen Guoer hurried to Li Jing's side, raised their binoculars and looked around. There were 3,000 Waggang Army cavalry and nearly 20,000 infantry outside the post station in Shuitou Town opposite. Xu Shiji's banner was clearly visible, but their formation was somewhat
There was chaos, and it was obvious that they had formed their formation in a hurry. They seemed to be waiting for the cavalry of the Storm Bear Battalion to cross the river.
Li Jing said to Wang Junlin and Shen Guoer: "Your Majesty, Commander Shen, the Wagang Army built a dam in the upper reaches. The water in the river is very shallow and the flow rate is slow. Their cavalry and infantry
They all wade through the water easily."
Wang Junlin asked: "Has the water been released upstream now?"
Li Jing shook his head and said: "Prince Qi, I don't know yet. I have sent people to investigate upstream."
Shen Guoer said: "The spies I sent have not been successful in investigating Shuitou Town. It turns out that the Wagang Army is building this thing here."
This is the second time that the cavalry of the Storm Bear Battalion suffered a setback today. First, they were blocked by the fire at the Wagang Army camp during pursuit, and now they were blocked by the river in front of them. It must be said that Xu Shiji's battlefield adaptability is very powerful.
The burning of the camp and the water blockage were obviously Xu Shiji's designs. He also specially sent Du Yi to strengthen the defense of Shuitou Town in advance, so that Shen Guoer did not know the details of the opponent's construction of the dam upstream in advance.
When Wang Junlin looked at the terrain of this place, he understood that it was very appropriate for Xu Shiji to choose this place as their resting and blocking point.
Because the terrain here is narrow and blocked by rivers.
"I'm afraid it will be too late to send someone to notify the engineering supply camp to send trebuchets and long-range crossbows." Wang Junlin frowned and thought for a while, then asked: "How do you plan to deal with it?"
Li Jing replied: "Your Majesty, I have just sent two thousand cavalry to dismount and march upstream to bypass it."
Shen Guoer shook his head and said: "Xu Shiji should have left more than just this manpower. There must be people in the valley to the east to support him. They should be Du Yi's troops who stationed in Shuitou Town in advance yesterday. They probably want to wait for our army to cross the river. Conduct sneak attacks and flanking attacks on our troops."
While a few people were talking, the sound of roaring water came from upstream. A tide rushed down, hitting splashes of water in the river bed, and the water quickly filled the river bed.
At this time, the distant Wagang Army formation sounded the sound of gold, and they turned around and left the two-mountain road in Shuitou Town. In the end, only two thousand soldiers were left to surround Xu Shiji's banner. They pressed the formation at the end, waiting for the other Wagang Army After the army was far away, he calmly hit his horse and galloped away.
At this time, the Far Eastern Army was blocked on the other side of the river. Xu Shiji did not have to worry about the Storm Bear Battalion catching up. In fact, he was very sorry. He originally thought that the Far Eastern Army could wade through the river, but was washed away by the flood from the dam he prepared upstream. There was chaos, and then he led his army to take the opportunity to turn defeat into victory.
As a result, Li Jing's eyes were sharp and he saw through Xu Shiji's conspiracy and was not fooled.
Wang Junlin looked at the momentum of the water in the river and saw that there was no sign of decreasing. He watched Xu Shiji's banner getting farther and farther away and said calmly: "Xu Shiji..."
He originally wanted to say a few words of praise that Xu Shiji was worthy of being Li Ji, the British Duke of the Tang Dynasty.
Historically, Li Ji followed Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty to pacify the four directions, attacked Xue Yantuo twice, and pacified Qibei. Later, he destroyed Goguryeo and became the main general who expanded the most territory in the Tang Dynasty. If Li Jing had not destroyed the Turks, the greatest scourge of the Tang Dynasty, who would have? The God of War is really not sure!
Naturally, these words cannot be said to Shen Guoer and Li Jing. Wang Junlin paused and then said: "Fortunately, there is a special operations brigade led by Zhang Tiangang near Fengyang City, and their army is lagging behind Xu Shiji, so we can still catch up. , otherwise this time Xu Shiji would really have led the main force of the Wagang inner camp to withdraw like this."