The scouts came to report that the army was thirty miles away from our army and began to camp. Bai Qi gave the order and set up camp to rest. Then he found Wang Jian and Li Dare to discuss countermeasures with several military doctors.

Bai Qi said: "The terrain scouts in this area have been explored, and there is a large flat area ahead, which is conducive to cavalry conflict and our army's formation, so it is not easy to judge the victory or defeat." This is the first time that my Qin army and the Ming army have fought head-to-head, once defeated, not only Huayin is difficult to protect, Tongguan is difficult to protect, and the king's hegemony is also in vain. Therefore, when the battle is fought tomorrow, the whole army must fight to the death. ”

Wang Jian said: "The general doesn't have to worry, my Qin army's children, all of them are not afraid of death, and they are bent on killing the enemy and making meritorious contributions." ”

Bai nodded: "I know this, but we don't know the tactics of the Ming cavalry." The Qin army has spanned more than 1,000 years, and there are more wars and chaos in the world, and the current popular tactics are no longer familiar to our army back then. At that time, we mainly relied on chariot soldiers in field warfare, but as far as I know, chariots have disappeared for more than a thousand years, and now the cavalry is the main combat force, and it is not yet known whether my Qin crossbow can restrain the cavalry of the Ming army. ”

Li Dang said: "Back to the general's words, the villain has already tried our army's crossbow arrows, full of strength, within a hundred steps, can penetrate the iron sheet, within one hundred and fifty steps, can penetrate several layers of cowhide." It is not a problem to use against cavalry. ”

Bai Qi looked at him: "The cavalry of the Ming army, many of them have iron shields, and it is impossible to shoot them all." Once they approach our army's formation, how can they resist? ”

Wang Jian replied, "The spearmen in front of my formation are enough to break their cavalry. Bai shook his head: "The cavalry of the Ming army is not the Huns, they have horse shoes, they can shoot arrows while running, the speed of the horses is fast, our crossbows are not easy to shoot them, and our army is defending in place, the Ming army can easily shoot our army." If we continue to fight like this, we will definitely suffer. ”

Everyone is right when you think about it, the Ming army is not a fool, and it is impossible to charge in a formation on horseback, so that a row of crossbow arrows can shoot down a piece. They will definitely be skirmishers, so that your crossbow arrows cannot be fired in a dense manner.

The power of the crossbow lies in the intensive firing.

Li Dang thought for a while: "General, if we don't use a crossbow and just use a military formation to fight the enemy, we will be tied up, and we can only use the crossbow to fight." ”

Bai Qi smiled weirdly: "Hard fighting? That's the practice of killing a thousand enemies and losing 800 yourself, and I never use this stupid method in vain. He ordered Wang Jian to hold the camp, and then took Li Kang and a few sergeants and rode out of the camp.

They ran in the direction of the enemy camp, and when they reached the middle ground between the two armies, Bai Qi stopped, looked at the terrain outside, and saw that there was a large wilderness, the weeds were green, and occasionally a few mulberry locusts grew, and the wind and grass were low, and there was silence. It seems that tomorrow's battlefield is here.

Bai Qi jumped off his horse, walked around the meadow, had a plan in his heart, and then ordered to return to the camp.

When he returned to the barracks, Bai Qi called Li Kang and secretly told him, and Li Kang took the order and went to arrange it.

Early the next morning, the war drums of the two armies were in unison, and the rumbling drums shook the field.

The Qin army poured out of the nest here, with five hundred crossbowmen in front, spearmen in the back, sword soldiers in the back, and finally pikemen, the army formation was neat and murderous. Looking at the side of the Ming army again, the three thousand horse army were in front, and the cavalry held a shield in one hand and a spear in the other, lined up in a long snake formation, and pressed up. The infantry in the back is also spears and iron shields, and their steps are neat.

The Qin army walked to the middle of the field, Li Dang gave an order, the whole army stood still, the Ming army lined up outside the Qin army's three arrows, He Huchen immediately stepped forward, raised his eyes and couldn't help but be surprised. He had never seen such a neat military formation. It seems that this people's army is trained, and all kinds of weapons are properly coordinated, crossbows, spears, shields, knives, guns, and long and short offensive and defensive weapons perform their duties, no wonder they can defeat Tongguan and Huayin.

This military horse should not be underestimated.

Although He Huchen was amazed, he didn't care too much, because although the enemy army was sharp, they were all infantry after all.

He raised the war knife in his hand, the horns on both sides of the Ming army formation horn sounded, the war drums sounded, the Ming cavalry began to move forward, at the beginning the war horse was trotting, and so on after running dozens of steps, the speed is getting faster and faster, these cavalry are skillful, if the war horse is urged at the beginning, then when rushing to the enemy, the speed of the war horse will be reduced, which is not conducive to breaking through.

They had to make sure that when the horses hit the enemy line, they were at the highest speed.

Li Dang stood in the front row of the military formation, commanding the crossbowmen. When the enemy began to rush forward, he ordered: wind up!

Five hundred crossbowmen kicked their crossbows in unison, wound them, set up their arrows, and took aim. Li dared to see the enemy army getting closer and closer, but he did not give the order.

Just when the Ming cavalry rushed to a hundred paces away, suddenly the horns began to blow on the Ming army's formation, and those cavalry suddenly changed direction, and the Ming troops on both sides did not rush forward, but outflanked both sides.

He Huchen was also a fierce general in a hundred battles, and he saw that the crossbowmen of the Qin army were waiting for him, and his cavalry would rush over, and there would be many casualties, so he ordered to change the formation. The 3,000 cavalry were divided into three teams, one team copied the left, one team copied the right, and one team attacked head, so that the front line was lengthened, the power of the crossbow arrows could be reduced, and as long as one team rushed into the Qin army's formation, the formation could be disrupted. With this kind of terrain, once the enemy army is out of formation, no matter how many people there are, it is useless.

As soon as he saw the enemy mutation, Li Dang gave a loud order, and the crossbowmen of the Qin army quickly divided into two groups and rushed to the two wings, without panic between actions.

At this time, the Ming army had rushed to within seventy paces, Li Kang still did not give an order, as steady as Mount Tai, and none of the Qin troops panicked.

The oncoming Ming army had already rushed within sixty paces, and suddenly the Ming army war horse in front let out a neigh, stepped on the air with four hooves, and fell into the pit.

It turned out that sixty or seventy steps away in front of the Qin army, Li Dang led five hundred Qin troops to dig dozens of pits overnight, this field was full of flowers and plants, after digging the pits, covered with some wild flowers and grass, it could not be seen from a distance, but as long as one step, it would definitely fall into it.

For a time, the Ming army's forwards turned on their horses, and hundreds of horses fell into the pit, either dead or injured. The horses behind couldn't hold their feet, and many fell into it, but the pit was not too deep, and after four or five horses fell into a pit, the pit was almost filled.

Later, the Ming army rushed over with the men and horses in the trap.

At this time, Li Dang gave an order, and hundreds of crossbowmen fired together, and the arrows were like flying locusts, shooting towards the Ming army.

The Ming soldiers covered it with shields, but many of them were shot by arrows and nailed off their horses, and many horses were also shot down, and they overturned together with the horses behind.

On the battlefield, people shouted and neighed, and made a mess.

It's just that the crossbow arrows of the Qin army are not easy to string, and only two arrows are shot, and the cavalry of the Ming army is already rushing to the front.

Li dared to shout: "Change the formation!" ”

The crossbowmen put away their crossbows and steadily retreated into the formation, and the spearmen behind them stepped forward and raised their spears against the heads of the enemy's horses.

They still want to use the same tactics they used last time against the neat king, but the Ming army is different from the civilian army, they know how to deal with the spear formation.

Seeing that he was about to rush to the front of the battle, the Ming soldier suddenly waved his hand and threw the spear in his hand. Those spears did not have red tassels, like javelins, and the tips of the spears were extremely sharp, the spearmen in the lead of the Qin army did not expect this hand, and the sword players behind did not have time to step forward to protect them.

The Ming army's move was very powerful, and the distance was very close at this time, and the javelin shot arrived, and it was impossible to dodge.

Hearing a series of screams, dozens of Qin army spearmen were pierced through the front heart by the Ming army's javelins, and fell backwards, and some javelins even penetrated two people. Nailed into a string.

As soon as these dozens of people fell, a big gap immediately appeared in the spear array, and after the Ming cavalry threw out the javelin, they drew the saber at their waists, raised their knives and shouted, and the war horses flew up with four hooves and rushed straight in.

Dozens of more Qin soldiers were knocked into the air, and the battle array immediately showed a state of disarray.

Bai Qi saw that it was not good, and hurriedly ordered: "The knife card hand stepped forward and plugged the gap." ”

The Ming army rushed in about 100 horsemen, and at this time, the knife players on both sides of the gap quickly closed and desperately blocked the gap, but there were no spearmen, and the Ming cavalry behind them rushed forward, and they could not be stopped by shields alone.

Bai Qi shouted loudly: "Shoot the war horse to death, and plug the gap with the dead horse." ”

When the pikemen of the Qin army heard this, they threw out their guns one after another, and the cavalry behind the Ming army was shot down in front of the military formation, and dozens of war horses struggled on all fours, unable to get up, and blocked the gap for a while.

At this time, the Qin army was also in a mess, and more than 100 horsemen who rushed in from the Ming army were trapped in the formation, rushing left and right, and killing dozens of Qin troops, but their number was too small, and the formation was small, and the conflict could not be opened for a while, and the soldiers of the Qin army stabbed indiscriminately, and many war horses were shot one after another, and fell to the ground.

The more than 100 Ming troops were soon all assassinated in the formation.

But at this time, the two wings of the Qin army began to show the appearance of insupport. There were fewer crossbowmen on these sides, and they could not stop the cavalry of the Ming army. The spearmen were also attacked by the Ming army's javelins, and many were killed and wounded. What's even worse is that the infantry of the Ming army came up, and He Huchen gave an order, and 2,000 infantry began to charge, aiming for ** arrows.

The Qin saber player only cared about blocking the Ming cavalry, but ignored the Ming infantry. When the rain of arrows came, their shields were still standing in front of them, forgetting to protect them above their heads.

Countless arrows fell from the sky and fell into the Qin army's array.

For a while, the Qin army began to take care of one or the other, blocking the rain of arrows on their heads, and unable to stop the cavalry rushing forward. The flanks on both sides of the battle formation have been broken open.

The casualties of the Qin army are increasing and have become critical.