The roaring torrent of cavalry rolled toward the west.
A thunderous sound resounded across the vast plains, and a brigade of three thousand cavalry, like countless bulldozers, wanted to raze everything to the ground.
The defenders of the Qinghe Kingdom, who had been running in the distance for a day, heard the devilish roar again in the evening, and suddenly became panicked. Various shouts, the sound of weapons, and the sound of armor clashing could be heard incessantly.
The number of defenders in each of the several cities was small, but the total number was close to tens of thousands. The infantry were not actually afraid of the light cavalry charging into the formation, they were afraid of the long-range volleys of the light cavalry.
Therefore, as these tens of thousands of people fled westward, they formed a defensive circle on one side and erected shields on the outside. They retreated step by step and were quite vigilant.
And Xu Rong was not in a hurry to fight them. He pressed forward step by step and kept pressing forward, which was slowly consuming the enemy's physical strength and willpower. Therefore, he seemed to have chosen an extremely stupid method, which was to chase them all the way.
He only killed and injured more than a thousand people, but eventually fell into Guo Tu's ambush.
Yan Wei, the defender who led the army this time, looked at the enemy troops that had roared in from a distance, and smiled coldly: "Don't panic, everyone, the reinforcements behind us have arrived. As long as they are led into the ambush point, the supervisors will definitely make them look good. The whole army will
Form a formation and retreat slowly."
"retreat!"
The messengers went out separately to convey instructions to various departments.
After a day of exploration, Yan Wei already knew the enemy's fighting style. Except for long-range shooting, he would never forcefully rush into the formation to attack, so he retreated confidently and boldly. He did not believe that the enemy would suddenly attack this time.
Sure enough, just as he expected, when the distance between the two sides was less than a hundred feet, the enemy had already begun to slow down, and then about fifty feet away, all the cavalry made a beautiful turn and headed north at a ninety-degree angle. At the same time, countless
Arrows were shot from the cavalry formation.
Horseback riding and archery at the same time!
As the most elite veterans, these cavalry from Zhuo County in Youzhou are worthy of being called elites. They not only have superb horse control skills, but also have powerful projectile capabilities. They are not much different from Gongsun Zan's White Horse Yicong.
Although he cannot reach the level of Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu and Tai Shi Ci, who can ride a horse and shoot a bow from left to right, he is much stronger than many southern generals.
More than three thousand arrows fell with a crackle. The essence of throwing is not to pursue accuracy, but to pursue large-scale destruction. Although Yan Wei had ordered the soldiers to raise their shields, there were still hundreds of unlucky ones hit by arrows. Along the way,
Their casualties were basically due to this.
However, Yan Wei knew that the enemy could not last long, and the endurance of horses was much worse than that of humans.
People can walk for a day, but horses cannot run for a day, and continuous sprinting in a short period of time is a great test on the physical strength of the horses. They were able to retreat here with only the loss of more than a thousand people, because the horses cannot run for a long time, and often after several rounds of riding and shooting
, the enemy will have to stop to rest and regain power.
As long as he survived these rounds, the enemy would have to stop and rest. By that time, it would be the time for them to retreat. At the same time, he also knew that Sui Yuanjin's vanguard had already arrived, so he did not worry at all that the enemy could eat them.
Xu Rong commanded the cavalry to launch several rounds of mounted shooting again. Some people may ask, why must mounted shooting be done? Can't they stop where they are and shoot arrows at the enemy's camp?
no.
Because when mounted shooting is in the moving stage, it is a moving target. If both sides stop in place and stand still, the enemy can also eject. For horses and soldiers without armor, shooting against infantry will obviously be more disadvantageous.
.
For example, in the later Yuan Dynasty, Temujin's Mongol army used cavalry and archery to push across the north. According to historical records, the Mongolian army would use the mobility of cavalry to stay within 100-200 meters of the enemy and constantly harass the enemy with cavalry and archery.
Wait until the infantry formation is dispersed before they start charging into the formation.
Mounted archery was originally an extremely advanced skill in the Han Dynasty. In historical materials, only Lu Bu, Dong Zhuo, Liu Bei, Huang Zhong, Tai Shi Ci, Ma Dai and others have clear records. After all, there are no stirrups, so strong horse control skills are required.
, so that you can maintain balance and shoot arrows on horseback.
But now that stirrups are available, many ordinary cavalry can do this after rigorous training. Therefore, Xu Rong gave full play to the advantages of riding and shooting and beat Yan Wei's group to death without any losses.
Give the enemy a blow.
After several rounds of cavalry fire, Yan Wei killed and injured hundreds more, which had a huge impact on their morale. Many soldiers were on the verge of collapse, and even those in the front line who were under the greatest pressure were already showing signs of collapse.
.
Being chased by cavalry for a whole day would cause anyone to have a psychological breakdown. Fortunately, when Yan Wei could not control the situation, Sui Yuanjin's vanguard finally arrived in the direction of the boundary bridge in the rear and rushed to support him.
After the new troops arrived, they began to cover Yan Wei's troops and horses as they retreated.
At around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Yan Wei's soldiers had been running for dozens of miles for six or seven hours since the morning. Their energy and energy had reached the limit, and they finally waited for reinforcements.
, all relaxed and started running back quickly.
In a short period of time, the army actually showed signs of becoming loose.
Who is Xu Rong?
Originally, he only planned to drive these people away. For the western battlefield, the main focus was on harassing the enemy rear. For example, Yuan Shao deployed garrison in the south to relieve the pressure on the frontal battlefield.
However, the enemy's sudden relaxation made him keenly aware of the opportunity. He suddenly made a few gestures, and the messengers went out separately to convey the order.
"What, two-wing strangulation?"
When Wang Dan heard this instruction, he couldn't imagine his ears.
Originally, they had three thousand cavalry against eight or nine thousand infantry, and their advantage was quite obvious. But when the enemy's reinforcements arrived, they no longer had the advantage. At this time, they chose to attack on two wings. Isn't this contrary to common sense?
How can there be any sense in the world not to attack when the enemy is weak, but to wait until the enemy's reinforcements arrive before attacking?
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "The governor said that the enemy's formation is in chaos at this time, and it is the time to strangle."
The person who conveyed the order was a close aide of Xu Rong, with a rather cold look. They had followed Xu Rong for many years and had long known Xu Rong's abilities. They never had a good attitude towards those who questioned their master.
Now Xu Rong's official position is only Captain Yingyang, but he has a temporary position called Governor, which is also commonly known as Commander-in-Chief. This is why he is clearly on the same level as Wang Dan and Li Bo, but he can lead them and become the commander-in-chief of the West Route Army.
.
Wang Dan's face turned slightly ugly after hearing this. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said, "I understand."
Soon the messenger conveyed the order to several cavalry commanders.
The crowd divided into several groups and suddenly dispersed. There were three thousand people, three groups on the left and three groups on the right. The total number was about 1,500 people on each side. They violently increased their power and began to speed up.
Over there, Yan Wei was still rejoicing that he had escaped death, while Sui Yuanjin planned to slowly cover Yan Wei's retreat, and slowly retreat towards the ambush point a few miles behind him.
The ambush point is located in a hilly area, surrounded by many hills and slopes. As long as they lead the cavalry in and fire a volley of crossbows from the left and right slopes, they are guaranteed to make these people drink.
After the most mobile cavalry was dealt with, the infantry who entered the Qinghe Kingdom became lambs to be slaughtered.
Thinking of this, Sui Yuanjin urged the soldiers to retreat while looking at the enemy's situation from a distance.
The next second, his pupils shrank.
Because he discovered that the enemy did not continue to pursue them from the front, but suddenly increased their speed and took a detour to the flanks.
Originally, it was okay to go around the flanks. The soldiers he brought had shields and could withstand them.
But the problem is that now that Yan Wei's army has relaxed, the originally dense defense line has been loosened, and many soldiers have begun to retreat. The entire wilderness is scattered with a large number of defenders heading towards the boundary bridge to the west. The defenders he brought
It is simply impossible to defend all soldiers.
"broken."
Sui Yuanjin slapped his thigh and turned to look into the distance.
I saw the enemy cavalry suddenly disperse and accelerate. Because they were not far away, less than seventy feet away, they completed the split attack in an instant. They bypassed the own troops in front and launched a fierce attack on Yan Wei's troops behind them.
Yan Wei's troops were still immersed in a safe atmosphere before taking a few breaths. The next moment, they were suddenly charged into the formation by cavalry. In an instant, they were on their backs.
The spears of the first row passed through the military formation like a sieve, dividing the formation, and then the cavalry of the following rows waved their sabers, constantly harvesting human lives.
The sudden attack disrupted Yan Wei's retreat, and panic began to spread. Countless people fled like ants in the wilderness, turning the entire rear formation into a pot of porridge.
Faced with this situation, both Yan Wei and Sui Yuanjin had no choice but to watch helplessly as the army collapsed and began to rout towards the ambush point in the west.
The cavalry followed closely behind, driving the broken troops down the high and low slopes.
On the slope in the distance, Guo Tu's face was ashen. He never expected that the front would be so useless. The original plan was to lure the enemy into an ambush point, and the infantry could enter the valley formed by the hills on the left and right as planned.
The infantry can climb up the slope, but the cavalry cannot. When the frontal attack turns into a feint attack, the archers on the slope can fire a volley, and the cavalry can be killed here.
However, the defeated infantry disrupted all his rhythm. If he fired an arrow now, there were Yan Wei and Sui Yuanjin with a total of 15,600 troops at the foot of the mountain. This was half of his troops. How could he dare to make up his mind to fire an arrow?
"hateful."
Guo Tu said viciously: "What do Yan Wei and Sui Yuanjin do to be able to defeat a mere three thousand cavalry?"
Chunyu Qiong said anxiously: "Supervisor, don't worry about them for now and think of a way. If we let the broken troops disperse our headquarters and the enemy cavalry and infantry come over together, we will be completely defeated."
Since the scouts sent out were often strangled by the enemy's cavalry, they did not know that there was no infantry behind Xu Rong. They only regarded the cavalry as the vanguard and the infantry behind.
Now that the front army on one side has been defeated, the original plan has completely failed, because if these front troops follow the previous strategy, they must pass through the hilly roads on both sides and start walking up the slope. There are some forest trees on the steep slope, which can be used to escape.
Launch cavalry.
But now that the retreat has become a rout, the soldiers cannot retreat in an organized manner into the mountains and forests on both sides. Once they continue to run west, they will pose a threat to the soldiers they originally ambushed, and instead they will disperse them all.
Neither leaving nor staying. For a time, Guo Tu and Chunyu Qiong were in a dilemma.
Countless times in history, a small number has defeated a large number. The front army was often defeated, and then the middle and rear armies were implicated. The most typical example is the Battle of Feishui. Xie Xuan led the Beifu troops across the river and defeated Fu Jian's front army, and then the massacre
It was said that the Qin army was defeated. The defeat of the front army and the hindered momentum caused Fu Jian's central army and the rear army to fall into chaos and collapse across the board.
As an excellent commander, Xu Rong also found an opportunity to defeat Guo Tuchun and Yu Qiong's former army. He used the mobility of the cavalry to go around to the rear and attacked the loosened Yan Wei troops. Sui Yuanjin was also thrown into chaos and was driven away by them.
Then began to retreat this way.
Now the problem is placed in front of Guo Tu.
What should he do?
Decisive order to retreat, or order to fire arrows regardless of the life and death of the front army?
You know, the range of a crossbow is not very long, probably in the range of fifty to two hundred meters.
The front army is in a rout. They have the advantage of cavalry mobility. They only need to stay within 200 meters of their front army. Even if Guo Tu orders arrows to be fired, only Yan Wei and Sui Yuanjin will be shot to death, and they will not be hurt at all.
The cavalry behind.
But if you don't fire arrows, there will be no need to fire arrows when the defeated troops scatter your original formation. It will directly become a huge rout. At a distance of 200 meters, people can speed up and catch up at any time.
When the time comes, it will instantly turn into horseback riding and slashing.
In summary, this war is definitely lost. As for how to lose, it is Guo Tu's own choice.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! But there is very little time for him to choose. In just a few minutes, the former army has already ran over.
After a while, he sighed and said: "If a good plan fails, the fault lies with the vanguard! The plan was well-planned, but the command was improper!"
Chunyu Qiong was not stupid, and immediately understood that Guo Tu wanted to shift the blame to Yan Wei and Sui Yuanjin who were in front of him, and immediately took over the conversation and said: "If it weren't for Yan Wei and Sui Yuanjin's mistakes, we would have won this battle long ago. By then we must have
Report their guilt to Duke Ming!"
"Withdraw troops!"
Guo Tu was also decisive and directly ordered a retreat.
There is no point in ambushing now. The rout will disperse the soldiers they ambushed. When the time comes, the small rout of the front army will turn into a major rout. It is better to stop in time and preserve the strength.
At present, on the high slopes of the hills in the distance, groups of crossbowmen retreated one after another, and the defenders originally set up at the hilly pass in front also fled towards the West Boundary Bridge.
Xu Rong sent troops to pursue them one after another, killing countless people along the way. None of the meritorious officers accompanying them could help them count their merits.
Because wherever the cavalry passed, there was almost no grass. The soldiers' hands were numb from cutting. All they had to do was to keep swinging their swords, and their heads would fly up like leeks. The whole land was filled with blood and blood.
Killing.
In the end, both sides chased and fled. Guo Tu's troops suffered heavy casualties and ran to the vicinity of the boundary bridge. Because the terrain was open, they could only continue to defeat if they ran again, so Guo Tu ordered to form a defensive formation on the spot.
Xu Rong conducted several rounds of cavalry shooting and once again wounded some of the enemies, he ordered the cavalry squad to disperse and pursue the dispersed enemies.
If he had those 7,000 infantrymen behind him, Xu Rong could find a way to kill Guo Tu's troops.
But since he only had these 3,000 cavalry, there was no need to tangle with Guo Tu's main force.
Today, 3,000 people fought against Guo Tu's 30,000 to 40,000 people. Tens of thousands of prisoners were killed and wounded, and countless others were missing and trampled.
This is an amazing achievement, enough to shock the world.
The sun had completely set and it was dark. In just two hours from the end of the afternoon to the third quarter of dusk, Xu Rong had achieved a great victory.
Seven or eight thousand people actually died at the hands of the cavalry. It was very easy for each person to kill two or three people.
In addition to those who ran away, were trampled by his own people, and those who knelt down and surrendered, Guo Tu brought out nearly 40,000 troops, but now only half of them have returned. It can be said that they returned in a great defeat.
As night fell, the cavalry began to disperse and return to the team. Each one held a torch and the swords in his hands were full of dried blood, escorting the prisoners back to evacuate.
Xu Rong looked sternly as he watched the soldiers obey his instructions in an orderly manner.
He was still very comfortable commanding this troop. Back then he was commanding Dong Zhuo's most elite Xiliang cavalry, and now he was commanding the most elite Youzhou cavalry. He was very satisfied with both the tactics and the personal qualities of the soldiers.
If it were an ordinary army, even if it won a big victory, it might not have such great results.
Wang Dan came over panting, sweating profusely and said to Xu Rong: "Commander, we have counted more than 4,000 prisoners. How should we deal with them?"
Xu Rong's narrow eyes flashed fiercely, and he hesitated whether to kill them all. This would not only kill the enemy's strength, but also greatly intimidate the enemy and enhance the morale of his own army.
The most important thing is to be so decisive in killing, and you will definitely build an iron army. The enemy will be frightened by it, and your own people will be a hundred times more confident. It can also make yourself, an "unknown person", instantly famous all over the world, and enter the eyes of all forces.
.
But after hesitating for a moment, he still shook his head and said: "The fourth general once said that Qingzhou lacks labor force. If you can take prisoners, try not to trap and kill them. It's better to take them back to farm."
Um...I didn't say I wanted to trap him.
Wang Dan felt a chill in his back, and realized that his boss was really a ruthless person. He no longer dared to show his previous contempt, and said respectfully: "As you command! Commander, should we rest where we are now, or should we go back overnight?"
Ganling.”
"go back!"
Xu Rong waved his hand and said coldly: "This battle is not over yet, I must turn Yuan Shao's rear upside down!"
"only!"
Wang Dan was sincerely convinced and had no objections.