Chapter 1469: Change of Formation
A sharp whistling resounded through the battlefield sky, and red fireworks burst into the air like rain. The Lingqi held high in the formation changed, and the formation of the entire Luoyan Army began to change rapidly. The cavalry formation of the Falling Goose Army contracted violently, while the infantry formation in the center of the formation began to expand. In less than half an hour, the overall formation of the Falling Wild Goose Army actually underwent a surprising change. The infantry formation suddenly changed from a tight phalanx to a circular formation. To be exact, it was an infantry formation of two concentric circles. Nearly 16,000 infantry of the Fallen Goose Army quickly formed two huge concentric circles with the spike wall of repulsing horses.
With the order of the rapid sound of the horn, the cavalry of the Falling Goose Army quickly retreated, retreating with great speed into the gap left by the infantry. As the gap closed, all the soldiers and horses hid in the circle.
Hundreds of thousands of Jurchen horse infantry soldiers were stupid, and when the other party connected the one-person high horse rejection wall to form a circular defense system, it felt like there was an additional circular city outline in the wilderness out of thin air. This city has protected the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of the other side. Not to mention anything else, the sudden change in the other party's formation is really amazing. The change of such a huge formation, there is no panic, and Ma Bujun does not have a little messy feeling with the tacit understanding, which shows that the other party has put a lot of effort into the practice of this formation change.
At this point, the reason why the 20,000 infantry in the zigzag formation was protected in it was also revealed. It is not only used as a support for the outer cavalry and the annihilation of the enemy's aggressive enemy, but also as a more important role in changing the formation at a critical time and turning the disadvantage into an advantage. Lin Jue studied military books, and he knew the importance of the army's combat formation in the cold weapon era, so he studied it a lot. In the past few years, the Luoyan army has been dormant in the mountains, training and training every day, so they have practiced almost everything they can practice, and no one knows if they will be able to use it in the future war. The training of this formation is also part of their drills.
It was the situation on the battlefield that had changed, and Lin Jue decided to change the formation. After 100,000 infantry joined the battlefield, the advantages and disadvantages of the battlefield had been completely unbalanced, how could Lin Jue let the situation tilt and become out of control. Therefore, it is the best choice to immediately gather troops and horses, form a circular defensive formation, and create the advantage of the terrain out of thin air.
"Excuse me? Are they going to be turtles with shrunken heads? Hahaha. Wanyan Aguda, who had already arrived in front of the battle in person, couldn't help but look up to the sky and laugh when he saw this scene.
"I'm scared at the moment. But it was too late. Give me orders, give me attacks. Is this really a city? It's just a wooden fence. They are cocooning themselves, aren't they becoming turtles in an urn? Shoot me arrows and shoot them all in the middle of the line!" Wanyan Agu shouted loudly.
The trumpets roared and the drums of war shook the sky. The Jurchen army approached from all directions, densely packed like ants around the circular array of the Luoyan army. Tens of thousands of Jurchen archers rode their horses and galloped along the periphery of the circle, and at the same time fired arrows at the soldiers and horses in the array of the Falling Goose Army. The arrows swished like rain, falling into the formation of the Falling Wild Goose Army from all directions, and tens of thousands of Falling Wild Goose Army horse and infantry soldiers gathered in that circular formation, which was indeed like a cocoon binding itself at this moment, becoming a live target for the opponent's archers.
Wanyan Aguda was laughing wildly, although he couldn't see the casualties in the battle, he could predict that the casualties would be heavy. Just shoot all the bows and arrows into the formation, and you can inflict great casualties on the opponent
The next is a breakthrough charge. Lin Jue was clever but was mistaken by cleverness, and he will be destroyed here today.
In the round array, arrows did rain down. Except for the position in the middle with a radius of several hundred paces, the opponent's bow and arrow are not within the range of the opponent's strong bow within a hundred paces around. More than 40,000 cavalry gathered in the formation, and although the formation was large, it was still full of people. Tens of thousands of people in the formation did have some intention of sitting still and waiting to die. However, the real situation was not as Wanyan Aguda thought, although the sky was dense with arrows, but the infantry on the outside of the formation was unscathed because of the shelter of the rejecting horses. The cavalry of the Luoyan Army is even equipped with shields. At this moment, dozens of cavalry spliced the shields and hinged them to form a huge arc-shaped shield wall, and the men and horses were hidden behind the shield wall, allowing the opponent's arrows to rain down, and they did not want to cause huge casualties. These were all countermeasures that had been thought of when training the formation, how could Lin Jue not consider the dangerous situation he would face after the formation changed. If he had been so negligent, he would not have lived to this day.
Finally, the Jurchens shot the quiver. Wanyan Agu felt that it was almost over, the Luoyan army in the formation should have suffered heavy casualties, and it was time to completely break through its formation and solve them.
"Pass my order, all soldiers and horses, prepare to charge." Wanyan Agu gave the order loudly.
The horn of the charge sounded, and the more than 200,000 Jurchen horse infantry troops reorganized their formation and made the best preparations for the charge. With an order, the Jurchen horse infantry in all directions charged towards the circle formation in the middle like zombies besieging the city. The circle array was like a small boat in the ocean, surrounded by black waves at the moment, and it seemed that it could not avoid the fate of subversion.
Countless crossbow arrows were fired from all sides of the circle, and the cavalry of the Falling Goose Army galloped along the open space in the ring between the two horseback walls, and they were riding at a height just enough to cross the height of the horse barrier wall to shoot the crossbow arrows at the rushing Jurchen enemy array. The infantrymen held their longbows and fired them diagonally, allowing the arrows to fall into the enemy battlefield in a perfect arc. Outside the circle, the Jurchens' soldiers and horses were densely packed, and there was no need to deliberately aim, and every arrow could hit the enemy. Under the dense rain of arrows, the peripheral Jurchen soldiers and horses turned on their backs and killed countless people.
But none of this could stop the Jurchen charge, and the first batch of Jurchen cavalry rushed to the perimeter of the horse rejection wall in just a dozen breaths. Because they had long seen the existence of the horse rejection wall, the Jurchen cavalry with superb riding skills tried to leap over the horse rejection wall on horseback. With their riding skills, if they are well prepared and the horses are capable enough, they can definitely leap over walls that are more than one person high. However, just as they arrived at the outside of the horse wall, Xu Kaiwai, and lifted the reins of their horses, the shooting hole of the horse wall fired in unison. The continuous shooting of crossbows from the hole was dense and ferocious, and the horses in the front row were shot in the chest and abdomen, neighing and tumbling to the ground. Under the huge gravity, even the man and the horse rolled along the ground, and then smashed heavily on the thick stake of the bowl of the horse rejection wall.
The entire horse rejection wall shook with a bang, and the countless Jurchen cavalry smashed their horses on the wall with the force of countless sledgehammers. Even though the horse wall is firmly anchored to the ground by wooden stakes. Even though they are connected by iron cables to form an unbreakable whole, under the continuous huge impact, the horse rejection wall in some places is still forcibly displaced by several feet. However, these horse-repellent walls are all made of short and thick logs embedded together with mortise and tenon joints, forming a three-dimensional structure
The pyramid is triangular in shape, so the structure itself does not loosen due to these impacts. It has no effect on the overall structure of the wall.
On the other hand, the Jurchen cavalry who hit the uneven stakes on the outer wall of the horse rejection wall had a disastrous fate, and some of them were directly hit with broken backbones, and they died without humming. That was lucky, most of them broke their tendons and fractured bones, broke multiple bones on their bodies, and lay on the ground wailing. Some of the injuries were not too serious, and they tried to roll and escape, but then from the hole in the wall of the rejection horse, countless spears came out of the hole like a poisonous dragon, and the blood-red red tassels trembled and poked out a ferocious round of thorns, which penetrated the body of the Jurchen cavalry who were rolling outside the wall and trying to escape, and then retracted into the formation.
The first round of assault is often the most violent, because under the straggler's charge formation, it is often the bravest warriors and the strongest horses who rush to the front. The cavalry charge often depends on the success of the first charge. In many cases, the first dash is enough to break through the enemy's defenses, and the follow-up is the icing on the cake. But the most ferocious charge of the first round was actually rejected by the rejection wall. The opposing line was not broken, but its own cavalry suffered thousands of casualties.
"Rush, at all costs." Wanyan Agu and his generals were red-eyed, the horns were more urgent, and the war drums were more intensive. One by one, the follow-up cavalry rushed towards the ring line of defense as if they were crazy. The roar of firearms, the screeching of arrows and crossbows, the loud thud of flesh crashing against the horse-barring wall, the creepy cracking of bones, the wails and cries before death were intertwined. The smoke and dust obscured the daylight, the blood stained the air, and the battlefield was no longer human, like purgatory.
This reckless assault finally paid off, and the feathered arrows of the Falling Goose Army could not bring down all the Jurchen cavalry that rushed outside the rejection wall, nor could the thorns of the two-zhang spear. Although countless Jurchen soldiers on the periphery of the Horse Rejection Formation were killed or wounded here, countless Jurchen cavalry leaped into battle on the corpses of their own companions that had gradually accumulated. The accumulation of corpses gave them a pedal that made it easier for them to leap into battle. Someone smashed people and horses into the formation, causing the defenders in the formation to dodge in a panic. Someone landed firmly inside, and immediately began to resume their scimitars and maces to slaughter the infantry in the outer ring of the horse rejection array. As the number of Jurchen cavalry breaking into the formation increased, the tens of thousands of horse infantry in the outer ring formation were already unstoppable. In addition, the outer horse rejection array has been destroyed a lot, and the opposing cavalry has continuously rushed into the outer ring formation.
The flame bomb rose into the air again, and tens of thousands of soldiers of the Luoyan Army in the outer ring were instructed, and the infantry withdrew to the inner ring under the cover of cavalry. The cavalry then quickly retreated into the inner ring. Although some of the broken soldiers and horses were annihilated by the Jurchens, most of the soldiers and horses still successfully withdrew into the inner ring to reject the horses. The diameter of the large circular array was reduced by a hundred paces, making it appear more crowded and narrow, but the second wall of rejection quickly closed, and the broken formation was reshaped again. The Jurchens only broke through the outer formation at great cost of heavy casualties, and they had to face the inner ring of defense with a more narrow combat space.
The cavalry of the Luoyan Army in the formation still released arrows outward, and dozens of platforms with a height of several feet were erected in the opponent's formation. The crossbowmen on the platform fired a frantic arrow at the Jurchen cavalry crowded in the outer ring, and the Jurchen cavalry was once again in the embarrassing situation of being hunted at close range.