Chapter 268: Artillery vs. Longbow
When Prince Alan heard that his 3,000 elites were surrounded by 30,000 Han troops and the Western Regions Alliance, he listened to the low archery and riding skills of the Han cavalry relayed by these loyal knights.
Prince Alain, who had already despised the Han people, was even more corroborated, and he believed that this was an opportunity to teach the Han people a profound lesson.
He left 5,000 men to defend Samarkand, and then gathered all his troops and went to the rescue of his men, including the 10,000 precious longbow cavalry.
The Kangju army, which was all cavalry, moved quickly, and reached the border the next day, and sure enough, in the distance, they saw the rising smoke and fierce shouts of killing.
Alan was quite happy, thinking that his subordinates were indeed elite, and they were still so energetic after fighting against an enemy army ten times their size for so long.
But the closer he gets, the more he feels that something is wrong, how can he go all the way without encountering many Han army obstacles?
Knowing that reinforcements are coming, they all ran away? Where did the shouting come from?
When Prince Alain led the army to the outskirts of the village, he saw those battle scenes, and his nose was even more crooked.
Where else are the Kangju cavalry? Defending and attacking the village were two groups of Western Regions coalition troops, and the corpses everywhere were Kangju soldiers.
The two groups of Western Regions Alliance troops were like acting, just shouting with their mouths, and a few piles of cow dung and other things were upgraded on the ground, and a high smoke rose up.
It turned out that before Alan's reinforcements arrived, the Han army launched a general attack.
A few shells were thrown into the village, and even the walls and confidence collapsed.
Three thousand Kangju elites, either dead or surrendered, and then the Western Regions Coalition Army acted here to attract Alain's attention.
Realizing that Prince Alain had been ambushed, he wanted to order the withdrawal of his troops.
As soon as the horn of the withdrawal of troops sounded, louder trumpets and rousing drums were heard all around.
A group of Han cavalry appeared in the surrounding wilderness, and more Han cavalry and soldiers of the Western Regions Alliance Army also emerged in the villages.
Alain, who had a mysterious confidence in his subordinates, ordered his elite 10,000 longbow cavalry to break through in the direction they came, without waiting for the Han army to form an encirclement.
He also found that although surrounded, the combined strength of the Han army and the Western Regions coalition army was at most twice his strength.
It seems that the reinforcements of the Han army did not come much, and I don't know if it was because the distance was too far, but the speed of the arrival was indeed a bit amazing.
The Kangju longbow cavalry launched their customary overwhelming attack, which was a thousand horsemen per row, ten rows in front and behind, and a distance of one horse between the front and back.
In this way, when they reach the range and exert the power of the longbow, they can form a dense rain of arrows to break the surface.
This tried-and-true tactic has become their fatal point today.
The longbow cavalry found that although the Han army's crossbowmen had a fast rate of fire, the range was not as long as their own longbows.
Moreover, their knights and horses are protected by chain armor, but they are not afraid of the shooting of crossbows.
Just when the Kangju longbow cavalry thought that they would be able to reach their effective range smoothly immediately, that is, one hundred and fifty zhang in front of the Han army.
There was a "bang" and "bang" sound from behind the Han cavalry, who were waiting for the battle, and then they saw black iron bumps, with sharp whistles, falling on top of their heads, exploding and blooming.
This is the mortar of the artillery battalion of the 3rd Cavalry Division conducting a test firing, looking for an effective distance.
The commander of the artillery battalion wanted to put the enemy within his maximum range, so that even if the enemy wanted to escape, he could effectively cover it.
After the test firing, the artillery battalion, which had found the firing range and landing point, immediately conducted a standard round of three rapid fires.
Ninety shells covered almost half of the phalanx of the longbow cavalry, and even though their chain armor had a good protective effect, the shock wave generated by the explosion, and the explosive force in the center of the landing point still hurt them enormously.
In particular, many of the horses were frightened by the sudden loud noise and strong flashes, and they scurried and jumped and lost control.
A second round of three rapid-fire fires landed in the enemy's ranks, and more longbowmen fell in pools of blood.
The remaining longbow cavalry began to retreat one after another without waiting for the order to retreat, and they had lost the courage to fight for such a terrible battle scene for a long time.
It was also the first time that Prince Alain saw the power of gunpowder, and he realized that he had been calculated by the Han people, and these powerful weapons of the Han people were aimed at their longbow cavalry.
All the previous shows of weakness were the tactics of the Han people to lure the enemy, and sure enough, the legend that the Han people fought was extremely cunning, and now it has been confirmed again.
Fortunately, the Han army did not occupy the absolute majority, and there were many Western Regions coalition troops involved in the encirclement.
Prince Alain immediately commanded the rest of his army to break through to the west, which appeared to be defended by the Western Regions coalition forces.
It's a pity that his choice has long been calculated by Sima Yi, and it looks commonplace, and the panicked Western Regions Coalition Army is actually pretending to be the soldiers of the Han Army of the Special Operations Division.
When the Kangju breakout force approached the firing range, the Western Regions Coalition Army, which was still running in a panic, suddenly lined up in a neat queue, releasing round after round of repeaters in an orderly manner.
Except for the longbow cavalry, the other Kangju cavalry were equipped with ordinary hunting bows, and they could only charge with crossbows while cursing the treachery of the Han Chinese.
In order to open up a way out, Prince Alain also gave up, and he ignored the sacrifices of his subordinates, forcing them to continuously charge with crossbows.
Fortunately, the Kangju cavalry invested a lot of money, and the ordinary cavalry were also dressed in light armor, and after paying heavy casualties, they really let them rush to the front.
At this time, a black iron cylinder with white smoke suddenly flew out of the Han army's array, and there was a wooden handle behind it, which was naturally a grenade.
The scene of hundreds of grenades exploding together looks more spectacular and shocking than the mortar shelling!
Moreover, there are many fragments of the grenade, which will cause more damage to personnel and war horses, and the sound of explosions and fires will frighten war horses.
The Kangju cavalry, who had never been exposed to the power of firearms, were as vulnerable as their horses.
The only courage had been thrown out of the clouds, and he didn't dare to stay where he was, so he could only turn around and flee again, but he was squeezed together with the follow-up troops who were urged up by Prince Alain.
The soldiers of the Han army took the opportunity to take a few steps forward and threw a wave of grenades again, and more Kangju cavalry were blown to the ground.
In particular, many of them were not killed directly, but lay on the ground groaning in pain, crying for help, and this effect actually destroyed the will to fight of the living more than the silent corpse.
Seeing this, Wang Quan ordered the whole division to launch a counterattack, and used a hand axe to open the way, a heavy hand axe flying with a handle, drawing a wonderful curve, reaping the lives of the enemy one by one.
The armor of the Kangju cavalry was as fragile as papier-mâché in front of the hand axe.
Hand axes are everywhere, arms are flying, heads are flying, blood is flying...
Prince Alan was almost desperate, but the weakest Western Regions coalition army was pretended to be the elite Han army, and they also had two magical weapons that would emit loud noises, thick smoke and bright light, like raging thunder.
The Han army also has a flying hand axe, which is not unfamiliar, but I didn't expect the Han cavalry to be equipped.
By the way, there are also their crossbows, which are also different from what they have seen before, and the crossbow arrows in them are endless, but they are not seen loading their arrows and winding them.
These devilish Han cavalry, even the weapons they use are terrifying killing weapons that will not appear in nightmares.