This time was considered to be the most comfortable few days for Master Wang as he went deep into Annan territory.
Just like this, they hunted game and rested in the deep mountains and forests. It was not until the fifth day that the soldiers who were released discovered that the Annan Army from the direction of Langson was coming.
During the past few days of investigation, I have become very familiar with the terrain in this area.
The topography of Annan is a continuation of the topography of Guangnan, especially similar to that to the west of Yongzhou. The mountains and water shapes are sometimes separated and sometimes closed.
Therefore, there are many ambush locations.
Zhao Xi chose a gourd-shaped terrain that stretched for about ten miles.
In this era, it was not yet possible to split mountains and build bridges. Most of the roads followed the shape of the mountains and water. The same was true in Annan, where roads were still separated by ditches between two mountains.
The first narrow place should be the most suitable for an ambush, but Zhao Xi let it go.
"The generals of the Annan army have been on the battlefield for a long time and are not incompetent. The last ambush was due to the urgent need to support Langsong, so the possibility of Wang Shi occupying Langsong was considered. Therefore, the ambush was possible."
"Langsong was safe and did not fall. The Annan army will definitely send out sentries on the way back to conduct reconnaissance along the way. This ambush point will definitely be investigated..."
Zhao Xi saw everyone's expressions of inquiry, so he had no choice but to explain in detail.
War is never simply about force.
This is indeed the case. The Annan Army has been searching forward since they left the city of Langsong. The width of the outpost is almost ten miles, and even if it is a mountain, they will still climb mountains and ridges.
The bottom of the gourd has been passed, and the waist of the gourd has also been passed, but the ambush point has not yet been reached.
Zhao Xi chose a relatively wide place for his ambush this time, and it was only relatively wide.
"The escort battalion is placed at the rear and retreats after three rounds of firing. The Western Army is placed at the front and retreats after three rounds of gunpowder bombs."
This military order...
"The cavalry in the front group frightened the horses and turned back, and the infantry in the rear group swarmed forward. The trampling and chaos were more numerous than the number of kills."
As Di Qing said, Zhao Xi did think so. Even though he was numerically superior, he never thought about fighting head-on.
The war horses have not been trained to explode gunpowder bombs, and they are bound to be frightened after being thrown.
Of course, it is not ruled out that after the first ambush, Annan will think of a way to deal with it.
Zhao Xi thought about it carefully. He didn't think of any way to prevent the sound of gunpowder shells and the impact of shock waves on the war horses.
Stuffing the ears of a war horse? Not only is it difficult for knights to control it, but once a war horse has its ears blocked, the shock wave to the war horse will cause the war horse to have nowhere to vent after being impacted, and the war horse will become even more crazy.
Unless it is daily training and the war horses become accustomed to it, there is no other way.
…
The battle started when Annan's army relaxed.
Don't be surprised, it will be fine if you scout a few places in a row where you can ambush and are suitable for ambush.
Therefore, the Annan Army thought that this return trip was like their second support to Lang Song... The Song Army was insufficient in number, or had already gone to Guangyuan, or even thought that it had evacuated Guangnan and returned to Yongping Village.
After all, entering the country alone is not a good strategy.
"Sure enough, my ears are plugged!"
"The cavalry does not rely on commands to control the horses, but relies more on daily tacit understanding. The movements of the hands and feet can make the horses obey."
Zhao Xi still doesn’t understand the cavalry...
There's no way. Two small tree trunks and a rattan can't be as accurate as a bow and arrow, and a crossbow.
Now we can only rely on quantity.
Although there was no chaos at the first moment of the ambush like the last time, the war horses no longer obeyed the knight's command, and walked slowly away from the sound.
Then, the war horses gathered more and more.
"elevation……"
Zhao Xi was also anxious and almost shouted out the artillery command.
Zhao Xi took a quick look, walked directly to a firing position, squatted down, and put the arrow shaft with gunpowder bullets tied on his shoulder...
"Launch at this angle..."
Subconsciously, this soldier definitely did it subconsciously. Otherwise, with His Royal Highness carrying it like this, he would not dare to fire it... This is a gunpowder bomb!
While the soldiers were still stunned, gunpowder bombs really exploded in the area where the war horses were gathered.
With the demonstration, all firing positions were followed...the war horse went crazy, even crazier than being frightened by gunpowder bombs.
At this time, the rear team was driven forward by the rounds of fire from the escort battalion, and they were also rushing forward somewhat frantically.
Then, the cavalry and infantry were completely mixed together. The neighing of the war horses and the howls of the crowd mixed together, and it was very miserable.
"retreat!"
Regardless of the outcome of the battle, Zhao Xi saw that the escort battalion had evacuated to the front line position and quickly ordered the entire army to retreat.
After traveling about twenty miles, Zhao Xi arranged another attack...
Thirty miles further, another attack...
This is not killing, this is murderous intention and courage!
Di Qing was convinced after seeing His Highness the Crown Prince's rogue operation.
He now sympathizes with Annan's army. Really, they are all in the military and can understand Annan's mood at this time.
The first time, whether it was round fire or gunpowder bombing, not many people were actually killed. However, when the cavalry and infantry were in chaos, they attacked each other and were injured, and too many were trampled.
I originally thought that it was over, and no one could leave the wounded and run away, and then they supported each other and moved forward...
As a result, this kind of attack came again and again, and the number of wounded increased again and again. By the end of the third time, the nearly ten thousand Annan army had no power to fight.
But Zhao Xi let him go and didn't beat him severely.
"Let them go back to Guangyuan Camp. That will also make the Annan Army in Guangyuan Camp feel the same way."
Nothing can affect military morale more than the howling of soldiers.
Thirty percent battle damage is almost the limit of the collapse of the entire army. Now, less than 10% of the Annan Army's soldiers died, but the actual attrition was close to 30%.
How else to fight?
But now Master Wang is full of fighting spirit.
After going deep behind enemy lines and fighting several times, they were still intact. There were more than 10,000 soldiers, and not a single one was injured.
No one believes it, but His Highness the Crown Prince has created such a miracle.
Because he never let the soldiers fight at all, he just harassed them and tried every means to harass them until he disrupted the morale of the Annan army and dispersed them.
It's time for a general attack now, right?
not yet!
Zhao Xi gave the order again and everyone set off towards Gaobang.
Gao Bang can be defeated. He has gunpowder shells and squatting tiger cannons. With the current morale of Master Wang, it won't be too difficult to defeat him.
Everyone, including Di Qing, thought that Zhao Xi was going to order an attack on Gaobang.
If Gaobang is captured at this time, it will definitely make things worse for the Annan Army deployed on the Guangyuan border.
That's a grain storehouse!
However, Zhao Xi still did not let the soldiers attack Gao Bang, and continued to throw gunpowder bombs around the city wall as before.
This time, we didn’t even kill those who broke out of the city. We simply gave the order to evade the Annan army that broke through in Gaobang.
No matter how many, avoid them all and never allow direct contact.
Even support from Guangyuan direction... no ambush was arranged.
"Guangyuan can't send reinforcements. Whether Gaobang has been breached, the Annan army stationed in Guangyuan is in despair. Now, we need to make Gaobang's defenders also despair."
Being surrounded, being blown up by gunpowder bombs from time to time, and still unable to call for reinforcements... Gao Bang's defenders were probably really desperate.