Chapter 237: The Battle of the White Dao

5,000 cavalry, 20,000 foot soldiers. This is the force that Li Ji brings.

After receiving the news from Song Yi, Li Ji immediately ordered the whole army to speed up, leading 5,000 cavalry to take the lead in advance, and the deputy general led the foot soldiers to hurry behind.

Before leaving, he specially instructed the lieutenant general to rush over with the infantry as quickly as possible.

Among the 5,000 elite cavalry, the 1,000 scouts led by Li Yang were also impressively listed.

"Song Yi, where is the location you are talking about?" Li Ji sat on his horse and asked Song Yi beside him, "If you can lead our army to discover the Turks first, then General Ben can spare you the crime of negligence!" ”

As soon as Song Yi heard this, he immediately sneered: "Hehe, don't worry, general, the kid remembers that place very tightly, even if he closes his eyes, he can find it!" ”

Li Ji scolded with a smile: "Then don't you hurry up and bring someone there!" ”

Song Yi hurriedly "snorted" and rode away with a large group of knights.

Li Ji looked in the direction they were going, sat on his horse, and seemed to be lost in thought. Beside him, the knight rode like the wind.

In this way, the 5,000 elite cavalry led by Li Ji did not take off their armor, did not get off the saddle, marched like the wind, and soon arrived at the place where Song Yi and them ambushed the Turkic rangers.

As soon as they arrived, a scout came over and said, "General Qiqi, when our army arrived here, the Turkic rangers had already occupied this place and set up a post. After the assault of our troops, this post was uprooted. The Turkic rangers scattered and fled. Team Song is already leading people to pursue! ”

Li Ji nodded, and while ordering the cavalry to dismount and rest, feed the horses with water and bean grain, and send scouts to reconnoitre.

It was past noon, and the knights were hungry and thirsty, but they did not dare to eat because they had not received orders, so they had to watch the horses under their crotches chewing on bean grain.

Li Ji looked up at the sky, the clouds were very thick today, blocking the sun. But it was sweltering, like the maddening dreary before a rainstorm in summer.

"Looks like it's going to rain!" Li Ji muttered. Seeing the soldiers swallowing their saliva, Li Jing asked the soldiers to eat, and he also took out a large cake and ate it with water.

Shortly after the soldiers finished their meal, several scouts galloped over, and it was Song Yi who was the first. As soon as the fat man got off the horse, he ran to Li Ji's side, and he didn't care about saluting, and said to Li Ji: "General, I have found the Turks, more than forty miles to the north!" Good guy, there are a lot of people, according to estimates, there are about 20,000 cavalry and about 15,000 infantry, I don't know if it is the main force of the Turks? ”

Li Ji held the horsewhip in his right hand, lightly tapped the palm of his left hand, and after a while, he suddenly smiled: "It doesn't matter if he is the main force of the Turks, even if he is not the main force of the Turks, as long as our army eats these tens of thousands of Turkic troops, Jieli will not be distressed to death at that time!" Of course, if Najieli is in the army, it will be even better! After speaking, his face was solemn, "Herald, pass my order." The whole army immediately set out for the north, encountering Turkic rangers along the way, and did not need to chase and kill, but let them go. After dealing with the Turkic army, they were only allowed to dismount and release arrows, and if the enemy army came to attack, they would immediately retreat and not engage in battle. Repeatedly, repeatedly harassed, slowed down the Turkic advance, and waited for our army's foot soldiers! ”

The five heralds saluted with their fists in unison, and then ran in different directions. It didn't take long for the knights of the Tang Dynasty to turn over their horses and gallop towards the north.

Forty miles was only half an hour's journey for the cavalry. Along the way, Turkic rangers haunt and wander. However, the Tang army did not pay attention to them, and hurried away by themselves.

After more than half an hour, the Tang army finally saw those Turkic soldiers.

I saw that on the wide and flat grassland, 15,000 Turkic infantry were neatly lined up, lined up in three large phalanxes, standing quietly on the grassland in the shape of a zigzag. With a short bow scimitar in his hand, it seemed to be waiting for the attack of the Don army.

Behind the infantry, 20,000 Turkic cavalry were sitting on horseback and looking at the situation. There is no doubt that as long as the Turkic infantry can resist the attack of the Tang cavalry, the 20,000 cavalry will surround and annihilate the Tang cavalry. Conversely, if the Turkic infantry was defeated by the Tang cavalry, the Turkic cavalry would immediately turn their horses, abandon the infantry and flee.

Five thousand Tang cavalry stopped about a mile away from the three infantry phalanxes. At this moment, Li Ji had already arrived in the army, looking at the other party's posture, he couldn't help but pout, and said to Li Yang beside him: "It seems to be indestructible, but in fact it is just a chicken and a dog!" ”

Li Yang hurriedly sent a sentence: "The general is smart!" ”

Li Ji suddenly smiled slightly, waved his hand and said, "Action!" Suddenly, the legs of the five thousand cavalry gently pinched the horse's belly at the same time, and the horse walked slowly.

When the Turks over there saw Tang Jun's actions, they suddenly felt a little strange, what are these Tang horses doing? You don't have to charge at such a close distance, but you walk slowly? At that moment, the Turkic general gave an order to let the infantry move forward slowly. After taking a few steps, the seemingly neat formation began to mess up.

So, step by step, the two armies slowly moved forward and approached on this vast grassland.

When the Tang cavalry was still 200 paces away from the Turkic infantry, Qi Qi stopped his horse, most of the cavalry turned over and dismounted, stood beside the horse, took out a longbow, took out five feathered arrows and stuck them in the ground. Some of the cavalry did not dismount, but took out their steel crossbows and aimed at the infantry slowly moving in front of them.

The bows used by the Tang army were foot bows, all longbows, mostly two stones, with a range of 160 steps. The Turks, on the other hand, used a riding bow, and in order to make it easy to aim on the running horses, they were all short bows, and it was already very good to be able to shoot them with one stone. Compared with the range of the Tang Army's infantry bow, the range of this Turkic short bow is only about 100 steps.

From dismounting to taking the bow and inserting the arrows, during this time, the Turkic infantry had slowly walked to a position of about one hundred and eighty paces.

The Tang army drew an arrow and put it on the bow, but did not open the bow. When the Turkic infantry came into range, at the shouts of a general on horseback, they pulled their bowstrings like a full moon, raised their bows forty-five degrees, and then let go at the same time.

"Zheng-" After a string sounded, a rain of arrows shot up into the sky, and then slammed into the oncoming infantry phalanx.

"Ahh

When the Tang army shot the second round, the phalanx began to crumble, and the Turkic soldiers retreated like a tide. The Turkic officials in the army were helpless in the face of the scattered infantry.

The remaining two infantry phalanxes stopped, standing outside the range of the Don army, but did not dare to advance any further.

The Turkic generals on the horses glanced at these infantry fiercely, looking at the Tang cavalry who had not yet mounted their horses, and hesitated in their hearts, whether to retreat, or to annihilate this is the Tang cavalry in one go?

After thinking for a moment, the Turkic general sharply drew his scimitar, pointed in the direction of the Tang army, and shouted: "Kill!" ”

Just as the Turkic cavalry roared and began to charge, the Tang cavalry quickly withdrew the feather arrows on the ground, then turned over on their horses, turned their horses, and walked cautiously to the rear.

After walking for a while, Tang Cai began to gallop on his horse, and retreated for two or three miles, then stopped his horse's pace, turned around, and looked at the appearance of the Turkic cavalry rushing over.

When the Turkic cavalry rushed to the place where the Tang cavalry dismounted and shot arrows, the cavalry in the front line stumbled at the same time, fell to the ground in unison, and then was crushed by the cavalry that rushed up from behind.

However, the tragedy did not end, and the Turkic cavalry continued to fall. On a distance of no more than fifty paces, no less than two hundred horsemen fell.

This was the trap created by the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion when the Tang army dismounted and shot bows and arrows, which caused such heavy losses when the Turkic cavalry charged. The tool, which is the size of an arm and half a foot long, is made of a thin layer of iron sheet with a tapered tip at the bottom, which can be inserted into the dirt when used. The scouts had each brought two or three of them, densely packed along the route, which was less than fifty paces.

After passing through this road full of horse pits, facing the Tang cavalry who was less than three hundred paces, a surge of excitement surged in the hearts of the Turks.

At this moment, those Tang horsemen turned their horses' heads and ran to both sides, revealing a large gap. At this time, the Turks saw two neat infantry phalanxes standing quietly, but the current rows of infantry were Mo sword soldiers armed with heavy Mo knives and wearing heavy armor. And behind the Mo Sword Soldiers, the arrows that were tilting towards the sky flashed with cold light.

Just when the Don cavalry fired the second round of bows and arrows, the adjutant general with the infantry had already arrived. Looking at the panting infantry, Li Ji directly asked them to form a formation to meet the enemy. After the infantry quickly formed a formation, he ordered the cavalry to return and prepare to fight with the infantry.

And at this time, the Turkic cavalry just charged.

The cavalry charged, unstoppable, only advancing and not retreating, and could not stop at all. If the cavalry in front tried to stop, they would also be pushed to the ground by the knights behind, which would be dangerous.

Therefore, the 20,000 cavalry had no choice but to rush into the already formed military formation of the Tang army.

Seeing the Turkic cavalry enter the firing range, only a neat string sound was heard, and more than 10,000 arrows flew into the sky, and then fell violently into the charging Turkic cavalry. The galloping Turkic knights were like they had been hit by something heavy, and countless knights were shot by a dense rain of arrows, fell to the ground, and were trampled by the cavalry behind.

In this way, in a short distance of one hundred and sixty paces, the Tang army fired a total of five rounds.

At this time, the Turkic cavalry had already rushed in front of the Modao soldiers.

Tall, sturdy, heavily armoured warriors wielded the weapon in array, their sharp blades slashing past the Turkic knights, splitting them in two. Blood gushed out, dyeing the Mo Sword Soldier red, like a demon crawling out of hell.

The so-called "advancing like a wall" refers to the knife wall of the Mo knife soldiers, because the Mo knife soldiers are lined up in a dense formation, so the Mo knife can only stab or split. As time passed, a wall of flesh and blood piled up in front of the Mo Sword Soldiers.

Although the Mo Dao soldiers are sturdy men selected by various armies, they gradually feel unbearable when they wield this Mo Dao weighing fifteen catties for a long time. From time to time, you can see the Mo sword soldiers on the knife wall being cut to the ground by the Turkic cavalry.

Li Ji looked at the situation on the battlefield, waved the command flag in his hand, and the five thousand cavalry rushed into the rear of the Turkic cavalry like a tiger, and the horse lance in his hand stabbed out, reaping the lives of the Turkic knights like chopping melons and vegetables.