In this battle, the black-armored army only lost more than twenty people.
Most of these twenty people were injured by the Chu cavalry because they lost control of their balance and accidentally fell off their horses during the battle. Some of them were injured by the Chu army because their horses were frightened and ran away.
Chu Qi Shao said there were more than 3,000 casualties.
The reason for this approximate number is that it is unclear how many skirmishers fled and hid in the woods.
This casualty ratio broke the record of the Black Armored Army's water battle.
This side of the river was full of corpses of Chu cavalry, as well as ownerless horses running around.
Of course, the Black Armored Army would not waste it. They collected all these war horses, Chuqi, armor, equipment, etc.... In this era where resources are few and production relies entirely on manpower, these things are a big fortune.
Especially those war horses. After gathering them, there were more than 2,000 of them, almost enough to give another horse to the Black Armored Army.
Of course, sometimes the role of these things is not just as simple as wealth.
Xiang Luo was frightened after these two battles. How dare he continue to fight the black-armored cavalry? He quickly ordered the Chu cavalry to post sentries along the river to prevent the Qin army from crossing the river.
This preparation makes sense.
If the black-armored army can mount and shoot as a whole and is not afraid of arrows while wearing rattan armor, it will be almost invincible in this kind of "non-contact" mounted battle.
Therefore, once the Heijia army sneaks across the river, the Chu army on the other side of the river will be doomed.
On the other hand, Xiang Luo immediately sent a messenger to inform Xiang Yan, which of course included the Black Armor Army's tactics... He had already suffered a loss, but he could not let Xiang Yan suffer another loss.
His generals even tried to persuade Xiang Luo to retreat:
"Captain, the black armored army is powerful, but our army has no way to deal with it."
"It's not an option to continue like this. How long can we wait for the arrival of Liangjun..."
The general said it does make sense.
The Black Armor Army was only the vanguard, and the Daliang Army behind it was the main force of the Qin Army.
At this time, the Black Armored Army's cavalry could not forcefully attack or cross, but it would be different when the infantry of the Daliang Army arrived.
When the time comes, under the attack of the Daliang Army and the Black Armored Army, how can these Chu Cavalry survive?
How could Xiang Luo not know this? He sighed and said:
"Do you think it's better to withdraw the troops at this time?"
"As soon as our army withdraws, how can the black-armored army not pursue them all the way?"
"I'm afraid that our entire army will be wiped out before we can return to Ru River!"
When the general thought about it, it was true.
If Chu Qi wants to withdraw, how can he withdraw?
Leave two thousand people behind?
But how can two thousand men be enough to defeat three thousand black-armored troops?
It's enough for these two thousand people to guard one bridge each. How about guarding a river that is more than ten miles long?
So it is conceivable that doing this will easily allow the Black Armored Army to cross the river and chase them one after another. At that time, the Chu Cavalry will even be divided into several parts and unable to support each other.
But if more people are sent to the rear, such as two thousand to guard the bridge and two thousand to guard the river... At this time, the total strength of the Chu cavalry is only more than 6,000. Leaving four thousand behind is not called a withdrawal, but an escape.
In other words, the Chu army was not only defeated this time, but the more than 6,000 remaining cavalry were stuck here and did not dare to move due to the combat power of the black armored army. They were beaten and beaten but could not move or leave.
Xiang Luo sighed and said:
"We originally thought that the 10,000 cavalry troops could quickly encircle and annihilate the black-armored army, but unexpectedly, these 3,000 black-armored troops could annihilate my 10,000 cavalry troops!"
Although this is somewhat ironic, it is true.
The general asked nervously:
"Captain, what should we do?"
Xiang Luo replied:
"This place is more than a hundred miles away from Ruyin. The Liang Army should arrive around noon tomorrow."
"Our army will stay here all night, and when it gets dark, our army can take advantage of the darkness to retreat."
The generals nodded in agreement.
This is indeed a good idea. If Chu Qi wants to escape, he can only escape at night.
Because the tactics of sticking to the enemy like the Black Cavalry require good visibility, it is difficult to use them at night.
For example, you can clearly distinguish between friend and foe in the dark.
In fact, it is easy to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, because the Heijia army is covered in black armor, while the Chu army wears reflective leather armor, which can be distinguished by a little moonlight or starlight.
The problem is that the bows need to be fired at a relatively long distance, and if the black-armored soldiers cannot be seen at night in their black armor, the horses will easily collide with each other... This is no joke, and if you fall off the horse, you will almost die.
The more serious problem is actually the inability to see the terrain clearly at night and to ride a horse quickly.
For example, there is a pit on the ground, or there is a dead tree lying in front of you...
If they were galloping on horseback in the dark night and were galloping as a team, and if they fell down and started a chain reaction, they wouldn't need the enemy to kill them, and they would lose more than half of their lives.
However, if the speed of the Black Armor Army slows down, another problem will arise: without the speed advantage, it will be unable to maintain a distance from the enemy and conduct "non-contact warfare."
Therefore, this Luo is considered a talent. He relied on his familiarity with horses to deduce that the tactics of the Black Armored Army were not suitable for night battles.
However, even though Xiang Luo was smart, he still missed one point: the marching speed of the Liang Army was not as slow as he thought.
Xiang Luo took it for granted that he calculated the Liang Army based on the marching speed of other infantry.
Ruanqiao Town is more than a hundred miles away from Ruyin, and the infantry marches fifty miles a day, so it will take two days.
At this time, there is only one day before the Daliang Army sends troops, which means that the Daliang Army will not arrive until around noon tomorrow.
There's nothing wrong with that.
However, the Daliang Army had already adapted to jogging under Shen Bing's training, and since they did not wear armor, it was not a problem to march seventy miles a day.
In addition, we had to drive for a while at night, so we arrived at Ruanqiao Town in the afternoon.
I won’t go into detail about what happened next.
As soon as Daliang Army Bu arrived, they immediately launched an attack on Chu Qi.
The one who attacked was the bridge guarded by Chu Qi.
The Black Armored Army was afraid of being besieged by Chu's cavalry at the bridgehead, but the infantry of the Daliang Army were not afraid, especially since the Daliang Army was equipped with wolves.
I saw groups of infantry steadily crossing the river along the wooden bridge and forming an arc formation on the other side.
The Chu cavalry also hoped to block the Daliang army with bows and crossbows, but the Daliang soldiers held vine shields to block them, and the crossbows could not hurt them at all.
If the crossbow arrows don't work, let alone charging into the formation.
In this era, chariots were usually used for charging into battle. As for the cavalry...if you just block it with a horse rifle, the cavalry charging into battle will fall off their horses in rows.
So Chu Qi had only two choices: dismount and fight on foot or escape.
There is actually no choice in this.
The Qin army had 30,000 Liang troops plus 3,000 Heijia troops, for a total of 33,000 people.
The Chu army only had more than 6,000 cavalry, and the more than 6,000 cavalry were frightened and demoralized by the black armored army. How could they fight?
So Xiang Luo no longer cared about whether he was being chased or not, and fled with his men at the first command.
The black-armored troops were not polite. They crossed the bridge and chased them from the rear... Three thousand cavalry chased and killed more than 6,000 enemy cavalry, and the enemy cavalry had almost no resistance. This was a wonderful sight.