Guo Song was in the right-wing cavalry team, with hundreds of soldiers guarding him. He was closely observing the instant changes on the battlefield. Shatuo's cavalry was indeed powerful in combat, and more importantly, their riding skills were superb, even surpassing the Tubo army. They
Give full play to the high speed and flexibility of the cavalry.
The Shatuo cavalry suddenly disappeared on their horses while running, sometimes stabbed with spears, and sometimes slashed with swords. Many Shatuo cavalry were always able to break through with superb riding skills when surrounded by Tang army cavalry.
However, the cavalry of the Tang Army had no individual performance and did not run at high speed. They always maintained their formation. This was the advantage of the Tang Army. They had tacit cooperation and tight formation, but at the same time they also appeared to be more stable than flexible.
Guo Song had to admit that the Tang army was indeed inferior to the opponent in terms of riding skills. Although they were well-trained, well-coordinated, and had twice the number of opponents, they were still unable to defeat the opponent.
On the contrary, the heavy armored infantry showed great lethality, advancing step by step, killing the Shatuo cavalry, causing their heads to roll and their limbs to fly everywhere.
The fight couldn't continue like this. The cavalry couldn't take advantage of it. The cavalry had to be more flexible. Guo Song took out two command arrows and said, "Instruct the fifth and tenth battalions to convert to cavalry archers!"
"Follow the order!"
The two soldiers took the command arrow and ran away separately. One of them found Pei Xin, raised the command arrow and shouted: "General Pei, I have ordered your fifth battalion to be converted into cavalry archers!"
Pei Xin nodded and ordered: "The fifth battalion will be converted to horse archers!"
At the same time, Wu Zhiyuan also ordered, "The tenth battalion will be converted into horse archers!"
The Tang army changed its tactics. The cavalry of the Tang Dynasty did not have high requirements for the formation, and more emphasis was placed on speed and concealment. The cavalry of the Tang army was like a tiger with two wings. In the tight formation, there were cavalry running at high speed on the outside. The Tang army was a little stuck in a rigid formation.
The formation was revitalized.
Two thousand cavalrymen were galloping at high speed outside, constantly drawing their bows and shooting arrows at the Shatuo cavalrymen. The cold arrows made the Shatuo cavalrymen unable to guard against them, and they were hit by arrows and fell off their horses.
This move really worked. In just a few rounds of cavalry shooting, more than 500 Shatuo cavalry were hit by arrows and knocked off their horses. The emergence of long-range strikes activated the entire Tang army's cavalry. The formation began to exert powerful power, constantly compressing Shatuo.
The range of movement of the cavalry, the Shatuo cavalry began to become like fighting in the desert, and the advantages of high speed and flexibility were gradually suppressed.
Once the Shatuo cavalry could not exert their advantages, their morale began to decline rapidly.
The Tang Army became more and more courageous as they fought. The heavy armored infantry was invincible. Even the dense infantry phalanx with spears was built like a copper wall. More than a thousand Shatuo cavalry tried to overwhelm the Tang Army's infantry camp. Instead of succeeding, the heavy armored infantry turned around and counterattacked.
The Shatuo cavalry were killed in pieces, and several breakouts failed. A thousand Shatuo cavalry were gradually swallowed up by the front and rear attacks of heavy armored infantry and spear infantry.
At this time, the Shatuo cavalry was divided into three parts by the Tang army's cavalry, leaving only just over 3,000 men. The Tang army's cavalry began to gradually shrink the encirclement.
Guo Song ordered: "The heavy armored infantry retreats! The spear infantry presses forward!"
The trumpet sounded, the flag waved, and a thousand heavy armored infantry began to withdraw from the battlefield.
The three thousand spear phalanx was also divided into three and joined the siege battle in three battle circles. They were responsible for blocking the loopholes and preventing the Shatuo cavalry from breaking out of the siege and escaping.
Zhu Xie Moshan was so anxious that he shouted, "Break through and retreat! Break through and retreat!"
No matter how much you shout, it's no use. The cavalry formation of the Tang Army is like three tight nets, advancing and retreating in unison. The advantage of the formation is that it can cooperate with each other, so that each Shatuo cavalry will always face more than five enemies when breaking through.
The Tang army's cavalry intercepted and killed him.
"General, there seems to be a gap over there!"
A Shatuo cavalryman suddenly discovered a gap in the northwest corner and shouted in surprise,
Zhu Xie Moshan also saw the gap. He hesitated for a moment, then immediately galloped towards the gap. At this time, he could no longer care about the other soldiers. He was lucky to save his own life.
This was indeed a small gap in the encirclement of the Tang army. It was caused by the speed gap between the cavalry and the infantry. The cavalry was too fast and the infantry could not keep up for a while. However, this gap was also fleeting. Zhu Xiemoshan led more than a hundred Shatuo
The cavalry seized this extremely brief opportunity and rushed out of the encirclement.
Looking back, I saw that the small gap had disappeared, and the hundreds of cavalry behind had not been able to get out.
At this time, the Tang Army's scout cavalry on the periphery came towards them and fired arrows intensively. Dozens of Shatuo cavalry were hit by arrows and fell off their horses. Zhu Xie Moshan was so frightened that he hugged his horse's neck and ran as fast as he could.
After traveling for more than thirty miles, there were only a dozen cavalrymen left to follow.
Zhu Xie Moshan wanted to cry but had no tears, so he had to flee in panic to Shatuo's lair...
With the last group of Shatuo cavalry being killed by random arrows, the fierce battle that lasted for three hours finally came to an end.
The battlefield was littered with the corpses of the dead. More than a thousand Shatuo prisoners of war sat dejectedly in the open space, surrounded by hundreds of Tang troops guarding them.
In this battle, the entire 8,000 Shatuo cavalry army was wiped out. More than 6,700 people were killed and more than 1,200 were captured, most of them with minor injuries. They were the lucky ones. After being surrounded, a thousand captain
He led them to dismount their horses and kneel down to surrender, and finally escaped the clutches of death.
The Tang army also suffered more than a thousand casualties, including more than 500 killed and more than 700 injured. The injured were gathered together, and a dozen military doctors were applying medicine to clean their wounds.
Pei Xin led thousands of soldiers to clean up the battlefield. The bodies of Shatuo soldiers were burned together and buried deeply. Various items were piled together. More than 5,000 war horses were collected.
In the distance, a camel team loaded with food and supplies was walking towards the battlefield. Guo Song stood up and said to several soldiers: "Go and notify Jinman County and tell them the situation!"
Several soldiers got on their horses and galloped towards Jinman County.
At this time, Li Bing brought over the surrendered commander. This commander was very young, only in his early twenties. He looked somewhat like a Han Chinese, especially his face and eyebrows, which did not have the flat shape unique to the Shatuo people.
With his round and wide-set eyes, Guo Song's heart moved. Could it be that this person has Han ancestry?
This captain was very timid and stood tremblingly in front of Guo Song. Li Bing smiled and said: "Your Majesty, this is the captain they surrendered to. His name is Zhu Xie Tengyun, his Chinese name is Xu Tengyun, and he is the son of Zhu Xie Jinman."
Zhu Xiejinman was the special envoy of Shatuo who came to negotiate with Guo Song twice, and is currently the prime minister of Shatuo. Guo Song pondered and asked, "Is your mother Han?"
Zhu Xietengyun nodded and said in fluent Chinese: "My father lived in Luoyang when he was young, and met my mother there. My mother followed him to Shatuo, but she was not accustomed to the climate and died of illness soon after. My father later married another
The daughter of the chief of the Secret Service is my current mother, but they have no children."
"Are you an only child?" Guo Song asked again.
"Yes."
Guo Song nodded, pondered for a moment and then asked: "How is Shatuo's situation now?"
Zhu Xie Tengyun's eyes dimmed for a while, he shook his head and said: "The Chuyue Department and the other six departments are relatively loose to begin with. If there is meat to eat, everyone respects the Chuyue Department as the eldest brother. But without the meat to eat, everyone is a little incompatible with each other, especially Zhu.
Xie Jinhai suffered two disastrous defeats, and the six tribes lost tens of thousands of men. The elders wanted to skin him and they had a falling out the first time. But because of Ge Luolu's artificial pressure, everyone had to unite together. Now Ge Luolu appears.
With the civil strife and the absence of external pressure, the six tribes all wanted to get something out of Shazhou. As a result, Zhu Xie Jinhai was defeated again in Shazhou. This time the trouble was serious. The six tribes threatened to separate and put forward unacceptable conditions to the Chuyue tribe.
"
"What conditions?" Guo Song asked.
"Choose one of two conditions, either put Zhu Xie Jinhai to death or compensate three million sheep. Chu Yue only has less than five million sheep in total, how can you give them three million sheep?"
"Then hand over Zhu Xie Jinhai to them. Are you Khan still reluctant to part with such a curse?"
"impossible!"
Zhu Xie Tengyun shook his head and said: "Zhu Xie Jinhai is in Xizhou. That is his home base. He has five thousand troops in his hands. There is nothing the Khan can do against him."
"Then how many troops does the Chuyue Department have now?"
Zhu Xie Tengyun sighed, "The Chu Yue Department currently has six thousand troops. In addition to the thousand guards around the Khan, there are also Zhu Xie Jinhai's five thousand troops in Gaochang."
Guo Song was startled, could Shatuo be so miserable?