From the perspective of tactical choice, it is not a reasonable tactic for Liu Mengyang to let the vanguard charge forward regardless, because it will expose weaknesses.
But Liu Mengyang still did it, because he deliberately made this weakness so that the Tatars would have the courage to charge forward.
His subordinates didn't know what Liu Mengyang was thinking, let alone the Tatars opposite.
After all, Liu Mengyang's idea is too shocking, and ordinary people cannot understand Liu Mengyang's idea: he does not seek victory or defeat, but only seeks to kill the enemy.
The Tatars saw hundreds of leading troops of the Tang Army coming out of the Stonehenge in front. At this time, Batu was also sitting hundreds of meters away making final preparations. He was riding a horse and running in front of the cavalry.
Running back and forth, shouting all kinds of encouraging words.
Finally, I saw him holding his scimitar high and giving the final order: "Charge!"
Thousands of Tatar cavalry began to launch a tidal wave of attacks. They did not rush forward in a swarm, but as usual, they were divided into three waves, each with more than 300 riders.
The speed of the cavalry charge was very fast, and they soon entered the range of the Tang Dynasty artillery, and the artillery shells began to explode in the cavalry charge array.
In order to obtain greater lethality, the Tang artillery used expensive howitzer shells instead of solid shells. The explosion of each shell would cause casualties ranging from a few to more than ten Tatar cavalrymen.
The casualties caused by the artillery shells are not the most important. What is more important is that the violent explosions of the artillery shells and the thick smoke will frighten the horses.
Although firearms have appeared on the Chinese battlefield very early, before the Tang Dynasty, they were generally not used much. Even the Ming army, which previously claimed that the proportion of firearms and equipment had reached 10%, actually did not.
That's too much.
In the past, wars in East Asia mainly relied on bows, arrows, swords and spears.
Many military horses are still not used to explosions and thick smoke on the battlefield, and are frightened by them.
In order to prevent the horses from being frightened on the battlefield, the Army of the Tang Dynasty conducted habitual training on the horses all year round, that is, there would be an explosion every three days so that the horses could gradually get used to the sound of explosions on the battlefield and avoid being hit by enemy artillery.
, the horses ran around everywhere.
But it is obvious that the Tatar horses do not have such conditions. Even though they have experienced a lot of shelling and have taken some targeted precautions, their horses are still frightened by the explosions, and then cause
Chaos.
That is to say, the Tatar cavalry formation is not dense. Even if it causes some chaos, it will be quickly adjusted by the cavalry with superb riding skills. There will never be a situation where the cavalry will be shelled and the cavalry will completely collapse.
Condition.
If that were the case, the Tatars would not have to fight, they would just surrender.
The Tatar cavalry continued to charge. Although the shelling killed many cavalry, it did not stop the Tatars from charging. On the contrary, it made them speed up because the Tatars also knew that delays during the charge would
If left for too long, you will suffer greater casualties.
But as long as they rush forward, the Tang army's artillery will be useless. Their artillery can't fire at both sides at the same time.
The Tatar cavalry at the front were lying on their backs, their whole body rising and falling as the horses ran, but they maintained a very stable posture. Most of them held bows and arrows in their hands, and their sabers were also ready.
good.
According to a conventional battle, they would charge to a distance of tens of meters and shoot arrows, then directly abandon their bows and arrows and charge forward to fight with their sabers.
Three hundred meters, one hundred meters, and soon they rushed up!
After crossing a hundred meters, they bent their bows and set arrows, and after rushing for dozens of meters, waves of arrows flew out from these cavalry, and then shot at the queue of Datang infantry in front.
The leading troops of the Tang Dynasty Army that rushed out first, numbering about 300 people, did not form a hollow square formation as usual when they first rushed out, but formed a dense three-row formation.
At this time, they also started shooting under the command of the officer!
After the shooting was completed, he did not reload, but held the rifle tightly in his hand. The front end of the rifle had a bayonet sleeve, and some soldiers in the back row began to throw grenades!
The intensive shooting almost caused the Tatar cavalry rushing in the front to fall down in pieces like cut wheat. The subsequent explosion of dozens of grenades overturned piece after piece of Tatar cavalry.
Such fierce firepower almost killed and wounded the nearly 100 meters of Tatar cavalry in front!
But the Tatar charge had already reached its highest speed. Even though all the Tatar cavalry in the front row were killed and wounded, the Tatar cavalry in the rear instantly passed through the white smoke raised by the explosion of the grenade, and then rushed to
The front of the Tang infantry array!
The next moment, the dozens of Tatar cavalry who were the first to rush directly hit the bayonet square!
Suddenly, people fell onto their backs and screams spread across the entire battlefield, even covering up the sound of explosions!
Batu in the rear showed excitement when he saw his cavalry successfully charging forward. He waved the Mongolian scimitar in his hand, screamed strangely, and charged forward with the last wave of about 400 cavalry!
Facing the charge of thousands of cavalry, no matter how brave and skillful the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were, they would not be able to resist with only 300 people!
The infantry's tight defense line seemed to be made of paper, and was broken through in an instant. A large number of Tatar cavalry filed in through the torn gap, and at the same time slashed the Tang infantry on the ground with their scimitars.
However, although the infantry of the Tang Dynasty were torn apart from the defense line, they did not fall into complete collapse. Instead, they dispersed to form small teams of more than ten or dozens of people to continue fighting.
These are not soldiers of the reserve division, but soldiers of the 13th Infantry Division, the main infantry division!
They are all soldiers who have been trained for many years. They have been strictly brainwashed during the training process and have already formed the instinct to obey orders in combat.
If it were an offensive operation and faced such heavy losses, it would definitely be impossible to continue the attack, but in a defensive operation, it would not collapse so easily.
Especially when facing a cavalry attack, every infantry officer of the Tang Army knew that they must not mess up. Even if they die, they must maintain the formation. Once the formation is messed up and completely collapsed, the enemy's cavalry can easily
Carry out a hunt.
At the same time, the Tang Army's ability to withstand casualties during defensive operations was far higher than when attacking.
So even though the Tatar cavalry broke through the defense line, it still did not collapse immediately!
The 300 infantrymen of the vanguard suffered heavy casualties and could only maintain a small formation to protect themselves, and they were dissipating in the charge of the Tatar cavalry at a speed visible to the naked eye. More infantrymen of the 13th Baggage Regiment were behind.
But they continued to advance in a dense formation, and then intercepted the incoming Tatar cavalry, and then used bullets and bayonets to kill those Tatar cavalry who finally rushed over, but had lost their impact!
The fighting situation between the two sides at this time is like two spears colliding!
They hit each other badly!
However, this kind of casualties were not taken seriously by the high-ranking generals on both sides. Liu Mengyang was at the rear. In order to get a better observation angle, he stood on the roof of a tall four-wheeled carriage, and then
Looking at the battle ahead.
With an expressionless face, he continued to issue combat orders, allowing the follow-up troops to continue rushing upward!
In his sight, the 300 infantrymen who led the battle had fallen in large numbers, with only a few dozen remaining standing in a circle to resist. However, the Tatar cavalry in front of them roared towards them like an endless stream.
These three hundred infantrymen are finished!
Even the 500 infantrymen who rushed forward in the second wave were caught in a bitter battle. They faced the attack of the Tatar cavalry!
At this time, both sides did not shoot arrows or shoot, but fought in the most primitive way. The Tatars used sabers, and the Tang infantry used bayonets and sabers.
This is definitely a battle in which one thousand enemies are killed and eight hundred losses are suffered!
Xin Ai Huang Taiji in the rear just saw that Batu in front led thousands of cavalry to successfully rush into Nanmanzi's array. He was still surprised and directly ordered a second wave of attacks, which was another thousand cavalry!
But as time passed bit by bit, he saw that the charge of Batu's cavalry was completely covered by the numerous Tang infantry. Even the second wave of Qianqi began to fall into a bitter battle.
He finally frowned!
The southern barbarians on the opposite side did not break up and rush out as he expected. Instead, they surrounded the cleared passage. The passage, which was no more than a hundred meters wide, continued to add troops and rushed forward to fight with his cavalry.
.
Although the current situation seemed to have a huge advantage for his side, as if he could completely break through the enemy's interception at any time, he knew very well that if he really wanted to completely defeat these four thousand Southern Barbarians, he would need to increase his troops.
But is it okay to continue to increase the number of troops?
In this case, isn't it just a tactic to add fuel to the fire?
Not only did the opponent respond with fueling tactics, but he himself also engaged in fueling tactics.
If we continue fighting like this, we will certainly have a great possibility of annihilating this Nanman transport force, but our losses will also not be small. Is it a loss of one thousand cavalry or two thousand cavalry?
In addition, if I can see such a situation, can't the Nanmanzi general on the opposite side see it?
Aren't they afraid of being completely wiped out when they engage in fuel-adding tactics?
Xin Ai Huang Taiji was thinking, but Liu Mengyang opposite him slowly showed a smile!
That's it!
That's it!
The troops were invested bit by bit, and the two sides engaged in the most primitive hand-to-hand fighting, and finally fell into an entanglement, forcing the Tatars to continuously increase their troops, and finally it became a war of attrition.
Let this stone formation become a meat grinder for both sides!