"In the summer of the tenth year of the great cause, the public will be in the sea of flowers. It is a battle, and the public wins. Countless captives of Huma, all of them soothed the people, and the public won and even the Jade Gate. "When the historians, who have always disliked the Son of Heaven's personal expedition, sorted out the historical materials that recorded Li Wenyuan's personal expedition to the west, they would pass by an encounter with the Turkic cavalry in Huahai in only a few words. However, in that battle, Li Wenyuan used a mixed infantry division to defeat a similar number of Turkic cavalry, and the story of every veteran who participated in that battle relished it for a lifetime. After all, they experienced that legendary war first-hand and did things that people of their contemporaries could not have imagined.

"Did you really find out that there were no archers in the Turkic cavalry that came to attack?" Li Wenyuan stared at the eyes of the military lord in front of him and said.

"Back to the chief, this time we did investigate properly, after this cavalry heard that we were a pure infantry formation, they came lightly, and did not bring the bows and arrows they always carried with them. According to them, they are going to set aside those places and hang our heads to show off their exploits. ”

"I see, you go down." After Li Wenyuan sent away the person in charge of the military owl, he turned his head to Zhang Juntai on the side and said:

"Where are the Udrus' cavalry now?"

"Back to the commander, the Udru cavalry has now followed your orders and marched covertly and ambushed in Mobei. Once the rout of the Hu cavalry fleeing north is discovered, they can be strangled directly. Zhang Juntai said and handed a piece of information to Li Wenyuan.

Li Wenyuan nodded and said: "This is our first battle after leaving Jiayuguan in the west, and it is related to the morale of the army on this expedition. If this battle is won, we will leave an indelible impression in the hearts of these Hu cavalrymen, so that when they face our Western Regions County in the future, they will always have the psychological shadow of losing the battle with us, and as long as they face us, they will not be able to exert their full combat effectiveness. ”

At this time, a report from the scouts came from outside, saying that the Turkic cavalry that had come from afar had appeared less than two miles north of the sea of flowers. After hearing this, Li Wenyuan came to his senses, stood up and said to the herald next to him: "Order, the first mixed division of the First Army Corps will come out of the camp and line up, and I will personally lead them to the north to meet the Turkic cavalry." ”

After the herald left, Zhang Juntai said to Li Wenyuan: "Commander, it is a little inappropriate for you to personally take risks, it is better to watch the enemy's formation for me in the camp, and I will lead the first mixed division to meet those Turks." ”

Li Wenyuan shook his head and said: "Juntai, you are a rare handsome talent in our army who is both civil and military, and I can't compare to you in many places, but in terms of the use of musketeers, you are not as good as me." This time I'll give you a good lesson with these Turkic cavalry, and I'll teach you how to use musketeers to crush the invading enemy. ”

Zhang Juntai saw that he persuaded Li Wenyuan not to move, so he could only smile bitterly and nodded. He was as skeptical of the musketeers' combat prowess as the generals. It's just out of his consistent trust in Li Wenyuan. In this reorganization, he chose to unconditionally support Li Wenyuan. He had also seen the training of those musketeers, and knew that those muskets were indeed more powerful than bows and arrows. However, the range is only 200 steps, which is far less than the killing range of a bow and arrow. However, this musket does not require much physical fitness from soldiers, and the time cost of training is much lower than that of archers. It's just that after each shot, it takes a long time to reload, which is far less than the bow and arrow that can shoot an overwhelming number of arrows to kill the enemy.

However, with the civil strife of the Sui Dynasty, some craftsmen fled north to the Turks, so that the armor forging process of the Turks also improved. It is now also possible to occasionally craft armor that cannot be penetrated by arrows for cavalry. As a result, the Central Plains' always excellent arrow killing ability for the Turks has been limited. At this time, Li Wenyuan brought another musket. This weapon can penetrate the most common and heavy Mingguang heavy armor within two hundred steps, which made Zhang Juntai quite impressed.

But this time he was faced with the Turkic cavalry coming and going, and Zhang Juntai did not have much hope for the lethality they could inflict. The reason why he agreed this time was that Li Wenyuan risked his life and personally led the First Mixed Division to meet the Turkic cavalry. Or is it because in the first mixed division, there are nearly 2,000 heavily armored Mo sword soldiers. The armor worn by these Mo sword soldiers was designed by Li Wenyuan himself, and it adopted the appearance of iron cans that were criticized in later generations.

The entire armor was reserved for observation of the enemy and air holes for breathing, and the rest of the armor was closed as much as possible to prevent injury from the arrows and sabers of the Turkic cavalry. In order to reduce the impact damage of the cavalry to the infantry, Li Wenyuan chose to thicken the thickness of the armor, but this also made the weight of the entire armor reach dozens of catties, even if it is not a strange knife. In the experiment, a soldier wearing this heavy armor was confronted by the impact of a rushing horse, which broke its muscles and bones after hitting the armor of the Knife Soldier, and fell to the ground in agony. On the other hand, although the Mo knife soldier was also knocked away a few steps, he did not suffer any fatal injuries, and after slightly relieving the feeling of tightness in his chest from the impact of the horse, he got up from the ground again.

However, the Mo sword and armor are also too heavy, so each Mo sword soldier must be equipped with an additional horse to carry the armor and Mo knife. Therefore, these Mo sword soldiers are also nicknamed horse infantry. The nearly 2,000 Mo sword soldiers in the first division were composed of strong men selected by Li Wenyuan after stepping through the four counties under his rule, after all, not all of them had the physical strength to carry dozens of pounds of armor to move on the battlefield. If it is a person with poor physical strength, he may not hold out until the enemy attacks, and he has been oppressed by the weight of the armor and lost his combat effectiveness.

Zhang Juntai chose to believe Li Wenyuan and let Li Wenyuan lead the troops to attack, but it does not mean that he will not make any preparations. Instead, he gathered twenty of the most elite cavalry of his own guards and kept them on standby in the camp at all times. Once the battle situation is unfavorable, he will rush out of the camp as soon as possible and snatch Li Wenyuan back from the chaotic army array.

However, Li Wenyuan didn't know these things, and he was also holding a musket at this time, wearing the same equipment as the musketeers. In the middle of the formation, he commanded his Mosword soldiers and musketeers to form a large hollow phalanx. The outermost three layers of the phalanx were heavily armored musketeers, and inside were three rows of musketeers. Under careful training, the troops marching in a phalanx were orderly and did not appear to be in confusion. This made Li Wenyuan a little more confident in the victory of this battle.