Chapter seven hundred and fiftieth IX Xi Liuyuan war
In November, King Li Yu of Guangping and King Li Siye of Xiliang County mobilized an army of 120,000 people and held a swearing-in meeting on the Xiyuan of Wugong County. After killing three animals to sacrifice to heaven, they began to issue orders to all armies.
As the general of the world's troops, Li Yu must of course lead by example and personally command. Although he has no experience in this, Li Siye had already written the battle plan last night, and he spent half an hour memorizing it, just in time to show his face today.
Even though he had prepared in advance, Li Yu could not help but feel nervous. Naturally, it was impossible for him to recite the full text with emotion. The words were intrusive and blunt, making people feel like he was reciting lines.
"My fellow soldiers, in today's battle we must defeat the rebels and recapture Chang'an. On the day of success, all three armies will be rewarded." He took out the command arrow from the command arrow pot and shouted below: "Zang Xiye!"
Zang Xiye stepped out of the queue and crossed his hands: "The end will be here."
"I order you to lead the Flying Tiger Cavalry as the left wing vanguard, responsible for investigating the enemy's situation and assisting the left side of the Chinese army."
"Here!"
"Duan Xiushi!"
Duan Xiushi also stepped forward and crossed his arms: "The end will be here."
"I order you to lead the Han navy as the vanguard of the right wing and be responsible for assisting the right side of the Chinese army."
"Here." Duan Xiushi stepped forward to take the token and returned to the queue.
Li Yu shouted again: "Guo Ziyi!"
Guo Ziyi crossed his hands and stepped forward: "The general will be here."
"I order you to lead Shuofang's army as the rear army to prevent the enemy's troops from bypassing the enemy's rear and attacking."
"Here," Guo Ziyi bowed towards Li Yu and crossed her hands, then turned her head slightly to face Li Siye who was standing next to Li Yu, and nodded to show support.
Li Yu drew out his command arrows one by one, and ordered the friendly troops who came to support such as the Geluolu cavalry and the Bahanna cavalry, ordering them to follow Zang Xiye's left wing and Duan Xiushi's right wing respectively, as a supplement to the cavalry team.
He pulled out the last arrow from the pot and turned to look at Li Siye: "Doctor Li."
Li Siye quickly turned around in front of him and crossed his hands in front of his chest: "The general will be here."
"You take charge of the infantry and artillery battalions of the three towns as the central army, and act together with my commander to march south of the Wei River towards Chang'an!"
"Here!"
The three armies marched forward in a mighty manner, marching along the Qinling Mountains from the Yixian Post Road. Because the Tang army carried too much baggage, the cavalry had to slow down and could only travel more than forty miles a day.
Fourteen days later, the Tang army arrived in Xianyang via Xingping. The Tang cavalry sent out came to report that the rebels had set off from Jinyuan and Chang'an. Li Siye ordered the troops to slow down and ordered Yan Xiaosi to deploy the artillery battalion and advance together.
Oxen-horses pulled artillery carts through the fields that were loose in winter. The cavalry passed through the ditches on both sides of the fields. Behind them hung hunting flags, thousands of them like layers of cumulonimbus clouds.
The design structure and continuous expansion of Chang'an City make its city defense capability extremely low. The more prosperous and wealthy a large capital city is, the more difficult it is to hold on. Not to mention that the Qujiang Pool leaves a large gap in the city, and the city is nearly seventy miles away.
On the long outer city wall, the overall deployment of troops is a huge problem. The siege team only needs to randomly find a few points to attack, and then suddenly change directions, which is enough to make it difficult for the defending generals to take care of it. But once the Tang army is put into street fighting in the city,
The people in Chang'an and Wannian counties hated their rebels to the core, and they would definitely help the Tang army fight the rebellion together, and then they would fall into the vast sea of people's war.
Therefore, Li Guiren and An Shouzhong decided to take the initiative as they did last time, taking the initiative outside Chang'an City and waiting for work, waiting for the Tang army to come forward for a head-on confrontation of blood and fire.
The strongest combat force in the Tang army was Li Siye's Hexi, Beiting, and Anxi armies. As long as the Tongluo cavalry and Yiluohe were concentrated to attack the Hexi army and defeat it, the rest of the enemy forces would naturally retreat and flee.
The two sides finally set up an array on the Xiliu Plain on the other side of the Zao River. Li Siye ordered the Chinese army to wave the flag to stop the team, and faced the enemy to form a large hollow formation with four in front and three in the back. The cavalry overlapped like fish scales.
To the left and right of the Hollow Formation, part of Shuofang's army in the rear set up the Moon Formation, with Guo Ziyi firmly in the center. He hoped that the enemy would attack from behind and let Li Siye see that the strongest army in the world was not necessarily the Anxi Army.
Another reason why Guo Ziyi set up the Crescent Moon Formation was that he was worried that Li Siye's strange hollow square formation would be overwhelmed by the enemy's army. At that time, his Crescent Moon Formation would be unaffected by the defeated army to the greatest extent and could play a comeback role.
There are six rows of seven hollow phalanxes in the front, rear, left and right. The first row facing the enemy formation is for infantry, which is used to block the cavalry charge. The charging horses will dodge when they see the bright tip of the knife. The second row is for shields.
When the enemy's horses stopped and began to attack with bows and arrows, the shield soldiers came forward to cover each other with the infantry. The four rows behind were all crossbowmen to attack the charging enemy.
Li Siye and Li Yu's Chinese flags were behind the hollow square formation. This was also a slightly flat and long hollow formation, but guarding the front of the formation was the famous Modao team.
In the center of the hollow formation is a Xuanwu heavy cannon covered with felt cloth. There are thirteen guns arranged in each formation. This configuration is actually somewhat dangerous. The soldiers can feel the flames blowing from their backs over their heads. If that happens,
If the cannon explodes or malfunctions, the most dangerous person is the person standing not far in front of the cannon.
During the two or three months that Li Siye was dormant in Fengxiang, he had been conducting confrontation drills between hollow square formations and cavalry. In order to simulate the authenticity of the battlefield, he specially asked Yan Xiaosi to test the artillery behind the neatly arranged soldiers to train them.
Frightened by the thunderous sound of cannons.
On both sides of the Tang army, two cavalrymen were the first to line up. They drew their bows on horseback and fired an arrow into the formation. The advent of the artillery era will make this method of shooting formation a mere ritual.
The rebels arranged the cavalry as the main force in the center, while the infantry was on both sides. Once the attack started, the cavalry would become the spearhead of the entire army. As long as a gap was drilled into the enemy's formation, the entire formation would rush forward.
Collapse.
An Shouzhong was about to send someone to shoot arrows to establish a position. Li Guiren said quickly: "Don't be fooled by Li Siye. You forgot that his army has an explosive weapon with a very long range. Let's withdraw."
Two hundred steps to avoid being attacked by him unexpectedly."
The rebels began to retreat slowly, and Li Siye ordered the hollow phalanx to move forward, including the artillery and ammunition trucks in the phalanx.
"Don't retreat! The Tongluo cavalry comes forward and attacks the enemy's main formation! Keep the rest of the formation away from the enemy!"
The battle began at this unexpected moment. The rebel cavalry wearing flip-ear helmets charged forward. They deliberately kept their distance apart to prevent being hit by the dense Xuanwu artillery.
The Xuanwu cannons in the Tang army's formation ignited the twisters, and hundreds of artillery pieces spit out thunderous flames one after another, exploding among the charging enemy troops. The horses fell to the ground, and the soldiers riding on the horses had their right legs crushed and were killed.
They howled like pigs. Many war horses were frightened and slowed down, hindering the charge from the rear.
Yan Xiaosi stood in the hollow formation in the center, waving the red flag and ordering the artillerymen to clean the barrels, charge powder, and twister. The whole process seemed extremely long. The rebel cavalry accelerated towards the hollow formation.
Ma Phosphorus, who commanded the hollow formation, waved the flag and ordered the front row infantrymen to squat half-crouch, press their tails into the soil, and stab forward with their spears at a 45-degree angle. The crossbowmen in the rear row began to shoot arrows at the charging cavalry.
Arrow. The rebel cavalry rushed forward and slowed down. They took out their horned bows and pointed them at their infantrymen, trying to open a gap in the hollow square array.
Ma Phosphorus immediately waved the flag, Mingtiao Dang stepped forward with his shield to protect him, and the crossbowmen continued to throw arrows from behind.
Yan Xiaosi commanded the soldiers to replace the artillery shells with iron bar fragments and load them into the muzzles, and waved a flag to Ma Phosphorus. Ma Phosphorus immediately directed the front row of the phalanx to retreat to both sides, exposing the muzzles of the seventy artillery pieces to the enemy.
In front of the army.
The enemy cavalry began to charge forward. They all wanted to seize this golden opportunity to overturn the enemy's fire-breathing cannon barrel and kill all the gunners. Yan Xiaosi silently thought about the distance in his heart and ordered people to light it.
He turned around and began to wait for the enemy cavalry to approach quickly.
After experiencing the first two rounds of artillery shells, they mistakenly believed that as long as they rushed fast, the shells would only explode behind them. At this moment, they had rushed to the artillery, and the dawn had arrived.
The seventy Xuanwu cannons in the front row spurted out blazing flames, and countless hot iron filings and fragments of killing fragments were ejected from the muzzles. The cavalry rushing at the front fell directly to the ground, and their bodies were broken like pieces.
The cloth was torn with countless scars by the iron pieces, and a row of human and horse corpses were piled up in front of the Tang army's formation.
Li Guiren was furious and quickly ordered: "Tell the cavalry to withdraw. The Yiluohe and Tongluo cavalry must not be lost! The infantry formation is forward!"