Chapter 273 Powerless
Chapter 273 Powerless
"Woo——" the horn sounded.
Dense arrows flew out, and the first targets were the cavalrymen who were marching and shooting outside.
Soon, the palace soldiers fired the loaded crossbows and aimed directly at the Hun infantry that were attacking them head-on.
How could light cavalry have any decent armor? A leather armor would be good enough, let alone iron armor!
Therefore, the striking effect caused by the bow and crossbow is very considerable.
Just now, the palace soldiers fired a round of individual crossbows, and the silver spear soldiers fired three rounds of bows. They not only drove away the mounted archers, but also shot the Hun soldiers who dismounted and fought on foot in front of them into pieces.
After shooting the bows and crossbows, most of the people picked up spears, heavy swords, large shields, ring-handled swords, long-handled axes, wooden clubs and other weapons, and stood solemnly behind the deer horns and baggage carts.
Only a small number of soldiers with extraordinary arm strength were still drawing their bows, ready to wait for the enemy to get closer so that they could switch to a less strenuous method of shooting arrows.
The first wave of Hun soldiers had already rushed over, and their appearance could even be seen clearly.
Some had shaved heads, some tied their hair up, and some even had braids - it was obvious that not all of them were real Huns, or rather, the vast majority of them were mixed Hu.
The battle started immediately.
Sergeant Ji Shou took the hook-sickle spear that could hook the horse's legs and hooked the enemy soldier's head directly. Squad leader Zhao Huai raised his knife and the head fell to the ground at the feet with a "bang".
A long spear came from the opposite side, and the big shield could not block it, and it passed by Zhao Huai's ear.
The comrade next to him immediately thrust forward and hit the enemy right in the throat.
Unexpectedly, a man of great strength came from the opposite side. The wooden club swept down two people with a whistling sound and hit the third person on the head. This person fell down without a sound.
"Swoosh!" An arrow flew and hit the strong man in the face.
The strong man screamed in pain and reached out to grab the arrow shaft, but a ring-handled knife next to him chopped his arm directly, almost breaking it at the elbow.
Another spear came from the Hun, but was blocked by the big shield.
A long axe fell from the sky and knocked down the man with the spear.
Inside and outside the deer horns, close combat scenes occurred one after another, and it was very bloody.
People from both sides kept falling down, and blood gathered into a pool, making a "click-click" sound when people stepped on it.
Jin San held a heavy lance and first swept it across, directly knocking away three or four spears. The two men on his left and right stepped forward quickly, thrust the spears out and then retracted them, and then thrust them forward again.
In just a few breaths, he had already stabbed four people down.
A Hun in heavy armor rushed in with a roar, completely ignoring the open chest. He swung his heavy halberd and knocked down one man in an instant. Then he rushed forward again, and the sharp halberd blade scratched the throat of a Silver Spear Army soldier, and blood spurted out.
"Ah!" Just as he continued to rush forward, he was shot in the instep and knee and fell to the ground in pain.
"Whoosh!" The long axe swept across and almost cut off half of his neck.
"Swoosh!" A tricky arrow flew over and the old soldier of the Silver Spear Army who was just waving the long axe was hit by the arrow and fell on his back.
"Swoosh! Whoosh!" The archers of the Silver Spear Army quickly discovered the person who suddenly shot the arrows. They drew their bows and arrows from the left and right and killed him instantly.
After the five hundred soldiers fired another round of crossbows, the Xiongnu cavalry archers could not withstand the casualties and fled away one after another.
Chang Can did not hesitate at all and ordered his troops to abandon crossbows and use swords, cross the deer horns, and encircle them from the left and right wings.
There were still about two thousand Huns who had rushed to the front, and it was extremely crowded.
The people in front kept falling down, and the people behind bravely stepped forward with extremely crazy looks.
For them, this battle was a complete waste of time. Even if they had to sacrifice a few lives in exchange for the other side's life, it would be worth it.
Moreover, they had no way to retreat. Two hundred steps behind them, there were three thousand authentic Hun cavalrymen from the five tribes lined up to supervise the battle. If they retreated without fighting, these people would really dare to charge directly at them.
The soldiers from the palace who came from both sides focused on speed. After rushing into the crowd, they chopped and swept with their heavy swords without stopping for a moment.
Their actions finally calmed the Hun infantry down from their madness.
The people in the front were unaware and were still fighting with the Silver Spear Army, but the people behind them had already begun to retreat and flee backwards.
The palace soldiers ignored the fleeing enemy troops and simply encircled them from the rear, attacking them from the front and back together with the Silver Spear Army, killing all the Huns who had not yet fled.
The Hun cavalry started to move and slowly began to speed up.
However, he did have a trick up his sleeve. He did not really charge into the fleeing soldiers, but instead went around to the sides and then rushed towards the Jin army.
But because of this delay, it was too late to catch the palace soldiers who had escaped from the formation.
They retreated through the gap, and the Silver Spear archers stepped forward and fired a volley of shots.
The Hun cavalry retreated in disappointment, leaving behind dozens of corpses.
The field became quiet again.
In a distance of just two hundred steps, countless corpses of men and horses were lying in all directions.
On both wings of the Deer Horn Formation, there were two to three hundred corpses of Xiongnu horse archers lying on each side, and no one had cleaned them up from morning to noon.
The wind whistled and wailed, as if singing a dirge for the victims on both sides.
Liu Li, King of Anyang of the Han Dynasty, stopped his horse at Gaopo and watched everything in front of him in silence.
Useless!
It's really useless!
Three thousand light cavalry dismounted and fought on foot, and were smashed to pieces.
He saw clearly that there were only about 2,000 soldiers on the opposite side, who were capable of long-range shooting and close combat, and all of them were wearing armor and had good coordination.
Let alone three thousand people, even if we doubled the number to six thousand, we wouldn't be able to break through - unless they were six thousand well-trained heavy armored infantry.
But where would so many heavily armored infantry come from?
The Han Dynasty did have elite infantrymen who were good at fighting, but they were the Yulin and Huben soldiers who protected the emperor. They should still be under the command of Grand Marshal Hu Yanyi, and it was unknown whether they had left Dayang. The only infantrymen near Luoyang were those of Zhao Gu and Wang Mi.
The former was a strong man from the fortress, and his fighting power was not strong.
The latter was defeated three times in two years. After finally training a few people, they were immediately killed and corpses were everywhere. When will they be able to grow into elite soldiers?
Infantry is not enough, only cavalry is available, which means they are just walking on one leg, which is really not enough.
Fortunately, the Jin army also had one leg to walk on, and their cavalry was not good enough.
If he had to choose, Liu Li would choose cavalry. He would fight when he wanted to and leave when he didn't want to. He was very proactive.
Unfortunately, Liu Li's cavalry now lost the initiative and they had to fight, not retreat.
The third round of attack begins...
******
On the west bank of the Jianshui River, the battle ended very early.
At the moment the armored cavalry rushed out, the Xiongnu light cavalry decisively gave up the charge and scattered in all directions, trying to use their speed to wear down the Jin armored cavalry.
The light cavalry led by Duan Xiong did not give them this opportunity. A fierce charge directly dispersed the Xiongnu light cavalry that tried to gather.
The armored cavalry turned around and trampled on the fleeing Xiongnu soldiers, just like a dump truck crashing into a crowd. Wherever they passed, corpses were everywhere, and it was a horrific sight.
They attacked repeatedly twice, until a group of Hun light cavalry made a big circle and tried to surround them, then they quickly retreated back to the camp and were protected by the infantry's bows and crossbows.
After a while, Duan Xiong also returned with the light cavalry.
The battle was effectively over.
The less than 4,000 light cavalry on the west bank of the Jianshui River, plus the 4,000 to 5,000 infantrymen of Zhao Gu's army temporarily transferred here, were completely unable to defeat the thousands of Jin troops in the camp.
How can we continue this war?
In the afternoon, Wang Mi also climbed a high slope and overlooked the battlefield.
He just arrived.
After receiving the order, more than 3,000 infantrymen who could ride horses were selected and rushed to the west bank of Jianshui River day and night.
When he heard that they were going to encircle and annihilate Shao Xun's army of more than 10,000 soldiers, he felt both excited and frightened.
After hearing the composition of the troops, he gave up immediately.
He really wasn't jealous of Zhao Gu.
The Huns now grant high positions to every Jin general and scholar who is willing to surrender. Even a fortress commander like Zhao Gu can become a general with a high title. How can he be jealous?
The quality of Zhao Gu's troops reminded Wang Mi of himself in May last year, which was really not good enough.
Asking them to attack the camp of veteran soldiers who have experienced many battles is simply seeking death.
To be honest, this was just a siege, and we could still use our own lives to exchange for the lives of the enemy veterans. If it was a field battle, we would be beaten to pieces and not be able to exchange many lives for the enemy.
The reason why Shao Ze was unwilling to fight in the field was entirely because he was concerned about the presence of the Xiongnu cavalry, or because he was eager to cross the river and did not want to take the risk of engaging with them on the west bank.
Otherwise, the thousands of people under Zhao Gu would have died in this field today.
I won’t fight this battle!
All the soldiers added up are less than 20,000. If a few thousand more are killed or injured, the cost will be even less. What's the point of fighting?
A new round of offensive was launched on the other side of the river.
Wang Mi looked at it leisurely, feeling pleased.
After this great battle, the imperial court should have understood the importance of infantry, right? Should they strengthen infantry training?
The opportunity might come, hehe.
The main general Wang Mi did not move. His subordinates Cao Yi, Xu Miao, Gao Liang and others understood that the minister wanted to conserve his strength, so they talked and laughed, looking at the Huns on the other side who were beaten to bloody pulps by deer horns and carts for the second time, and did not regard them as friendly forces at all.
Soon, the commander-in-chief on the west bank of Jianshui River, King of Xichang Liu Rui, sent people to urge them to go into battle.
"How harsh, envoy!" Wang Mi did not say anything. Cao Yi observed his expression and made an excuse first: "Our army has traveled day and night and arrived this morning. We are not strong enough and have no energy. Why would we go to war?"
"Zhao Anbei's troops have already attacked twice in a row, but you are just sitting here and watching. Is that justifiable?" The messenger pointed at the men in the fort who were trying their best to attack the Jin army camp and asked, "The King of Chu sent the Minister of State here not just to watch the battle."
Wang Mi still said nothing, just watched the fighting between the Jin and Han armies.
Zhao Gu's main force was not here, and the commander who was sent here was unknown. This was considered the second attack. They barely advanced to the vicinity of the camp, and the two sides fought for a while with spears, halberds, powerful crossbows, and hard bridges and horses. The fort guards could not hold on anymore, leaving hundreds of corpses behind, and retreated in a hurry.
The Jin cavalry attacked again, and even the infantry rushed out of the camp, shouting in a fierce battle.
"Oh no, the army is defeated. Pass my military order to retreat five miles and regroup." Wang Mi was "horrified" and gave the order.
Cao Yi and others understood and immediately went to pass on the order.
The messenger was so angry that his nose was crooked. He cursed loudly, but when no one paid attention to him, he could only leave in disappointment.
Almost at the same time, the Hun army on the other side of the river also collapsed, leaving hundreds of corpses behind again.
By this point, they had lost nearly three thousand men and their morale was almost unsustainable.
The sun gradually moved westward. Wang Mi, who was retreating, turned his head and saw that the Jin army had already begun to gather its soldiers, equipment, chariots and horses, and began to cross the river in a swagger.
Nearly 20,000 Xiongnu infantry and cavalry east and west of Jianshui just stared at them stupidly, unable to do anything.
When the sun had completely set, the Jin army had all gathered and marched into the old city south of the Han River.
The Hun infantry and cavalry scattered and disappeared into the night.
(End of this chapter)