Chapter 1154 Deep and shallow

Chapter 1154 Deep and shallow

Chapter 1154 Deep and shallow
Sure enough, just as Zan Jian expected, by evening, more Hun cavalry gathered around.

They ranged from a hundred cavalrymen in one group to several hundred cavalrymen in another, divided into ten groups, moving around the vicinity.

Zan Jian's troops, acting as the vanguard, had no choice but to learn the tactics of the Jin Dynasty, using chariots to guard the two wings while the infantry marched in the middle to prevent the enemy from charging directly.

But what can I say about this tactic? It really requires a lot of quality from the soldiers.

In the past, Ma Long held an "open audition" in Luoyang and finally got 3,500 elite soldiers. Only then did he break through the encirclement of Tufa Shu's mechanical cavalry and successfully rescued Liangzhou. However, they lost contact for a period of time, which made people think that their entire army was wiped out.

Shao Xun also built a special side-carriage, trained the soldiers in combat tactics early on, and selected elite soldiers with silver spears who were proficient in both close combat and long-range shooting and were well-equipped with three types of weapons.

It is really dangerous for ordinary soldiers to do this, and they may not be able to withstand it. Let me ask you one thing, can you trust your comrades to defend the mission and sleep peacefully while the enemy cavalry harasses you day and night?

Zan Jian's troops had to stop after only walking a few miles.

A corner of the chariot formation had been opened, and the cavalry temporarily assigned to them had their armor and lances removed and replaced with horse bows as their main weapons, ready to attack at any time.

But Zan Jian hesitated and did not give any order for a long time.

The reason is very simple. It is not easy to maintain some cavalry in Shu, and the cost is very high.

It is easy to find a source of cavalry. Although the young men in the six counties are somewhat corrupt, there are more than 200,000 people, and there are always tens of thousands of men of military age. It is not difficult to pick and choose a few thousand people.

If these people are not capable, there are still Qiang people grazing in the mountains to the west. They have no shortage of cavalry talents, but they lack qualified war horses.

So far, there are only about 5,000 cavalry in the country, 2,000 of which are in Hanzhong, 1,000 in Jiangzhou, and the remaining 2,000 have all been brought here.

Upon learning that the Xiongnu cavalry was attacking, the emperor sent a thousand cavalry to help, but now two hundred have been killed, leaving only eight hundred. If he sends them out, I don't know how many will be able to come back.

He had just observed that the surrounding Hun cavalry might number two to three thousand in total. If eight hundred men took off their armor and rushed forward to fight the Huns with horseback archery, even if it was a one-for-one exchange, it would still be a big loss.

After thinking it over, and after the cavalry commander looked at him several times, Zan Jian ordered the cavalry to dismount and walk, and ignored it.

Just hold on for a while. Guanghan County City is just over ten miles to the south. You can take a breath there and make other plans later.

The convoy continued forward.

Seeing that the enemy cavalry did not attack, the Huns surrounded them like a pack of wolves without any orders from Wanqi Ke.

For a moment, the sound of horse hooves and arrows breaking through the air could be heard in the valleys and hills. This scene almost brought people back to the moment when Shao Xun led the Silver Spear Army from Yiyang and marched towards Luoyang.

Same situation, same tactics, just with some adjustments. Now the Liang army uses mounted archers to test whether Li Cheng's infantry can hold on and whether they will panic.

At the critical moment, Li Yu seemed to be inspired. He was seen holding a long spear, standing on an ox cart, glaring at the Xiongnu cavalry cruising in the distance.

As if they sensed his gaze, more than a hundred riders came straight over.

Their pace was neither fast nor slow, and they slowly dispersed their formation as they marched, until they were two hundred steps away, and finally slowly accelerated.

Li Yu became nervous in an instant.

His followers held large shields in front of him and on both sides, almost blocking his vision. It looked very funny.

"Swoosh! Whoosh!" The Liao people archers on the ox carts couldn't hold their breath and shot their arrows first.

It was too far away, posed almost no threat, and wasted an opportunity.

The speed of the Xiongnu light cavalry was getting faster and faster. When the archers were busy shooting the second round of arrows, the Xiongnu light cavalry's horn bows also shot out arrows.

In an instant, people on both sides fell down screaming.

"Bang!" A muffled sound came from a shield in front of Li Wei, and the arrow penetrated the skin and nailed into the wooden board.

Li Wei only felt that the blood color on his face faded a little.

"Dou! Dou!" Two more arrows flew over, and the shield made continuous sounds.

Not far away there seemed to be screams and painful neighings of horses.

"Archery! Archery!" Maybe it was because of too much pressure, Li Yu suddenly shouted, "Crossbow! Where's the crossbow? It's been so long since you installed it?"

"Ah!" A scream came from nearby. It turned out that a close follower holding a large shield on the ox cart was frightened by Li Wei. His hand shook, the shield tilted, and he was shot directly in the thigh.

"Waste!" Li Yu didn't know who he was scolding, he just yelled neurotically: "Shoot! Everyone, shoot!"

Everyone was hesitant and didn't know what to do.

Zan Jian, who was far away, saw this, sighed, waved his flag, and ordered a hundred knights to put on their armor and mount their horses, and rush out from a corner of the chariot formation.

A group of Hun light cavalry rushed too close and shot too attentively, and were intercepted by the charging cavalry and were directly dispersed.

The cavalry of the Cheng army chased after them for hundreds of steps, and only then did they vent their anger and return victorious.

While the threat here was lifted, the other side fell into crisis again. More than 200 Xiongnu light cavalry waded across a river on the east side and unexpectedly rushed to a few dozen steps away, firing horn bows continuously. The Yao people infantry on the ox carts screamed miserably, and countless people fell to the ground. Even the infantry who were marching were frightened and squatted on the ground without moving.

Zan Jian also dispatched a group of archers and crossbowmen, and under the cover of sword and shield soldiers, they barely drove away the enemy cavalry.

He had just breathed a sigh of relief when the left rear reported an emergency again, so he sent out more people.

The left rear was stabilized, and news came from the front: more than 200 Xiongnu cavalry dismounted and fought on foot.

So he ordered the Liao soldiers in the front to hold their ground, and mobilized another 300 men to provide support, and ordered the cavalry to attack and kill the Xiongnu cavalry who had dismounted...

They fought on and off throughout the afternoon and had only traveled a few miles when it was getting dark again, so the entire army stopped, leaving the horses and carriages at the foot of the mountain and setting up camp on the hill.

At this time, Zan Jian discovered a headache-inducing problem: throughout the entire afternoon, the archers shot at least a dozen arrows, and at most dozens of arrows. Even if they did not pull the bows at full strength, they still lost a lot of physical strength.

He took a round and found that the group of people who shot the hardest had sore and weak arms. They would be unable to fight again in a short period of time and had to rest well.

Zan Jian remained silent.

If everyone knows how to shoot arrows, they can easily take turns at this time, maintaining a continuous and dense rain of arrows to block the harassing enemy cavalry, increase their casualties, undermine their morale, and make them dare not try easily.

This is how things often go. If you hit the opponent head on at the beginning, and let them see that they can't take advantage, they won't fight hard because it's meaningless. But if you give them hope, the Huns will take advantage of you because they see hope of breaking through the chariot formation.

But - where in the world are there so many people who can shoot arrows?

In order to deal with the grassland cavalry during the Han and Wei dynasties, the infantry of archers and crossbowmen were specially strengthened, but the number was only about 40% to 50%.

In the Former Jin Dynasty, if the Luoyang Central Army could achieve 30% of its strength, it would be good.

There are even fewer troops in Shuzhong, and 20% is considered a lot.

The overuse of archers was only a problem. Now Zan Jian was more worried that someone would come to harass him at night. Would these soldiers with less battle experience be unable to sleep because of the noise?

While Zan Jian was worried, Wanqi Ke was in a hidden valley, summarizing the day's battle process with his soldiers.

"Captain, I found that most of the enemy archers only carried a bow, and they are probably not used to close combat. Once we get close and attack them, they will most likely flee in all directions." Someone said.

"Oh? Really?" Wanqi Ke was overjoyed.

He had heard his father talk about how the archers who rushed over to kill Emperor Shao suffered a great loss. Those guys directly drew out their ring-handled swords to fight with him, and their skills were very superb.

Later, I found out that the Silver Spear Army had a battalion of 6,000 people, equipped with "ten points" of bows, "ten points" of spears, and "nine points" of swords - the reason why there was one point less of swords was because there were also miscellaneous people such as crossbowmen, clerks, grooms, and doctors.

You're going to dismount and fight in close combat with such an army. Are you trying to save your life?

But there are still many troops in this world whose archers and crossbowmen are "not familiar with swords and guns" and can only "surrender and be killed" when faced with close combat - "The archers and crossbowmen do not learn to use swords and guns. Although each of them carries a sword, they have never been taught." Although this sentence refers to the Northern Song Dynasty, it is actually very common. Troops like the Fubing that are required to be able to fight both close combat and long-range shooting under the legacy of the Fubing are exceptions.

"Really, Captain." Someone else said, "I took some people off their horses to try it out during the day. Those Liao people's crossbowmen did bring short weapons, but I think their hand-to-hand combat skills may not be as good as ours. This is not the Silver Spear Army or the Black Gun Army. We can fight them."

Wanqi Ke was delighted to hear this.

After fighting for so many years, I finally encountered an army with very few archers and weak close combat.

Actually, this is right.

Who brought up the bad habit of the northern infantry to fight at close range and shoot from a distance? This made their cavalry very uncomfortable and restricted in every way.

"I will personally lead some people to give it a try tonight." Wanqi Ke slapped his thigh, stood up from the ground, and said, "Pick some strong men with good eyesight and who can fight on foot, and follow me to fight."

"Yes, sir." Everyone answered in unison.

"Captain Huan is coming..." Wanqi Ke shook his head and said, "The troops from Feilong Mountain will come, and the Pingyang, Xihe Qiao, Wang, Liu, Bu, Lan and other tribes will have troops coming here, and even the Shilou Mountain Hu will come. Alas, I heard that Governor Duan is coming too."

"Right Cavalry Guard?" Someone asked in surprise, "Didn't they go to Dianjiang?"

Wanqi Ke glanced at him and sighed, "How can Dianjiang compare to Li Xiong? Upon hearing that he was coming, Duan Liang led his army directly north. If Li Xiong is killed, Shuzhong will be settled."

Everyone felt a sense of urgency.

Family members know their own business. They may not be weak, but they are still far inferior to the cavalry "guards" such as the Left and Right Cavalry Guards - because most of the palace soldiers came from the various guards, they were also called "guards" in the Daliang Dynasty.

The guards eat better than you, train more than you, have better equipment than you, ride better horses than you, and have fought more battles than you. How can you compare?
When these people come, it's like eating shit while it's still hot.

"Divide the troops into two groups." Wanqi Ke thought for a while and said, "Hurry them in the first half of the night to make them unable to sleep and lose a lot of strength. In the second half of the night, dismount and fight on foot. If it doesn't work, forget it and wait for Captain Huan's men to come."

"Captain, do you want to attack Li Xiong?" someone asked, "They are ten miles to the north."

"Let's test the enemy's vanguard first and find out their strength before besieging Li Xiong. We must not let him escape this time." Wanqi Ke shook his head and insisted on his opinion.

Everyone stopped talking and took their men to rest, waiting for the order to go into battle.

(End of this chapter)