The cavalry of the Wu army that attacked the Liang army was actually not very numerous, not the 3,000 cavalry arranged at the beginning, but only 1,000 people, and its commander was not Hou Zhan, but the young cavalry general Chai Kehong.

The reason why Chai Kehong was allowed to lead the troops was because Hou Zan suddenly felt unwell before sending the troops, although he insisted on leading the troops in person, how could Yang Wu agree? So in the end, let Chai Kehong replace it.

As for why only a thousand cavalry were used, instead of the three thousand previously planned, the reason was to keep it as secretive as possible.

After all, according to the plan, this raid will most likely need to penetrate deep into the area controlled by the Liang army.

The movement of 3,000 cavalry is too great, and it is too difficult to get close to the enemy army secretly, so Chai Kehong advocates using only 1,000 cavalry.

His proposition was also agreed by Hou Zhan, so in the end, a thousand people were mobilized.

When the Liang army withdrew to the area controlled by the Liang State, just as Yang Wu and others had predicted, the vigilance of the soldiers of the Liang army dropped rapidly, although the high-level generals were still a little vigilant in their hearts, but the soldiers below were homesick, thinking about how to go back as soon as possible, and they were not prepared for the upcoming raid at all.

In this case, not to mention those ordinary soldiers, even those scouts who were responsible for going out to reconnoiter the enemy's situation also relaxed and dealt with their own errands hastily.

In this way, when the main force led by Niu Cunjie was about to arrive in Songzhou, Chai Kehong led his troops to attack He Gui, who was located in the rear.

Why is it easy for the enemy to take advantage of the retreat of the army? Or why have so many armies in history been defeated when they retreated? In the end, there are two reasons.

The first reason is the lack of good command.

This era is not like later generations, there are all kinds of communication methods, telephone, telegraph, even the Internet, communication satellites, etc., which can issue orders to various ministries in a very short time.

In this way, if the officers and men of one division are attacked by the enemy, the other divisions can quickly get the news, and through the news from all sides, judge the strength of the enemy army, etc., so as to make the most appropriate response. At the same time, the orders of the generals of the various ministries can also be issued in time.

However, the present era is different, in this era when the means of communication are still extremely primitive, if a certain unit is attacked by surprise, it is impossible for other units to quickly get accurate information, and the commander's orders cannot be conveyed to the departments in a timely manner.

In this way, when they are attacked, those soldiers are very likely to develop fear when they do not understand the strength of the enemy's army, and this fear will often spread quickly throughout the army.

It would be nice if the generals could command effectively, but in reality, when they were raided, the generals would probably not be able to effectively command the various divisions, and would have to leave each division to fight on its own.

Another important reason is the mentality of the soldiers.

Because the army was in retreat, everyone was thinking about how to return to their hometown, etc., and they didn't realize that the battle was coming; When the enemy attacked, the first reaction of the soldiers in panic was definitely not to reflexively resist the enemy, but to flee immediately.

In addition, the retreating army is often in a state of march, limited by the width of the road, and the whole army is often very long, which is even more unfavorable to combat and command.

In this way, when attacked by enemy forces, it is easy to cause the entire army to break and flee.

This is how all the famous routs in history have happened.

For example, in the defeat of Zhu Wen two years ago, he commanded an army of about 500,000, but in fact, there were about 150,000 troops to attack Zhao, but Li Cunxian only led 800 cavalry to raid the camp of the Liang army, although it caused some casualties to the Liang army, but it was not fatal.

However, in the chaos, the Liang army did not know the strength of the Jin army at all, and several Liang soldiers who were released after being captured by the Jin army claimed that the main force of the Jin army had arrived, so in a panic, Zhu Wen couldn't tell the enemy army from reality, and finally chose to flee overnight.

And this fake news, which was eventually confirmed as a rumor, also made Zhu Wen seriously ill in shame and anger, and finally died.

Now the situation encountered by the Liang army is like this, in a panic, the soldiers who were attacked did not know that the Wu army actually only had a thousand cavalry, they thought that the main force of the Wu army had arrived, and suddenly the soldiers of the various departments broke and fled.

By the time the news reached Niu Cunjie, the 10,000 troops led by He Gui had already fled, and Chai Kehong, who had won the first battle, did not choose to stop, but led his command to continue to attack the main force of the Liang army.

At this time, the central army of the Liang army led by Niu Cunjie was also in a state of march, and many soldiers were not ready to face the battle.

At this time, the rout troops who escaped from He Gui's department had already spread the news of the Wu army's surprise attack to the Chinese army of the Liang army, and the officers and soldiers of all departments immediately panicked, and many soldiers were in a commotion, and people were panicked for a while.

Although Niu Cunjie quickly issued an order, trying to appease the soldiers and prepare them to meet the enemy, before his order was given, the cavalry of the Wu army had already killed him.

Seeing that the Liang army was still unprepared in the distance, it was looking a little dazed and at a loss at this time, many soldiers were crowded together, and the soldiers of each squad pushed each other, and they were so confused that they couldn't form a formation.

Seeing such a good opportunity, where would Chai Kehong hesitate.

He raised the bloody saber in his hand and shouted loudly to the surrounding soldiers: "Kill with Ben......

A thousand soldiers who had already been excited by the previous battle were even more enthusiastic at this time, their eyes were round, and their mouths shouted "Kill" like beasts.

Although this was only a thousand cavalry, the momentum they created was no worse than that of a charge of tens of thousands of troops.

In the face of this level of charge, Niu Cunjie was so anxious that he shouted loudly to the surrounding heralds: "Send the order to Wang Luzhi, let him immediately lead his troops to supervise the battle with the rear of the army, and if there are those who dare to escape, they will be killed immediately!" ”

"Send an order to Liu Jun, asking him to immediately rectify the officers and men of the former army, prepare for the enemy, and send troops to support our army."

"Send another order to Xie Xian and tell him that if he dares to take a step back, Ben will behead him!"

……

Niu Cunjie gave an order murderously, at this time he was like a beast that chose people to devour, his expression was hideous, and he did not have the usual general demeanor at all.

At this time, he regretted very much why he agreed to let Xie Yanzhang go back with the cavalry first.

If he kept Xie Yanzhang for another day, he would not be so passive after being attacked by a surprise attack at this time, and the officers and men of all departments were in a panic, and they had to adjust their formations and appease the army, but they were afraid that even if they blocked the surprise attack of the enemy, they would inevitably suffer heavy losses.

But if the cavalry led by Xie Yanzhang is still there, the cavalry will be fast, and even if it is attacked by surprise, it can react quickly; Second, because of the lack of horses, the soldiers of the Liang army were composed of the most elite soldiers, and their morale was extremely high, which was the best choice to deal with the enemy's surprise attack in this case.

Niu Cunjie regretted a little in his heart, but he didn't have time to let him think about it at this time.

He turned his head and saw that a few heralds had not yet moved, so he couldn't help but be furious, waved the whip in his hand and whipped it: "What are you still doing in a daze, don't you go to the herald?" By the time the herald had left, his face was frighteningly blue.

Although Niu Cunjie's response was timely, and the soldiers of all departments fought hard under his strict orders, they still could not recover the situation.

Under a magnificent cavalry charge, a thousand cavalry rushed into the Liang army like a wolf and a tiger, and the wide saber was like a talisman in the hand of death, constantly reaping human lives.

With the help of the power of the horses galloping, the sabers in the hands of those cavalry soldiers sometimes only need to wave lightly, they can easily split the enemy soldiers' blocks, slash the opponent, and sometimes even directly cut the opponent into two pieces, the scene of blood rain flying all over the sky makes people feel as if they have entered hell.

Because the Liang army was still in the marching formation before, it changed formation in a hurry at this time, and it became the soldiers of each battalion rushing up to resist in waves, this kind of tactics similar to adding fuel naturally could not block the charge of the Wu army, and their fighting spirit quickly collapsed under the charge of the Wu army's cavalry, and even the rear supervision team could not let them stop.

The fear of this collapse spread at first only in a few battalions at the front, and soon quickly spread throughout the Chinese army, and intensified, with soldiers fleeing everywhere.

Seeing this situation, Niu Cun scolded angrily: "Bastard, waste!" If you can't do this thing, what's the use of keeping him? ”

Fortunately, he was still a little sensible, and he did not directly order Xie Xian, the general who commanded in front of him, to be killed.

After he stabilized his mind, he ordered: "Pass on the general's order, and the commander makes Xie Xian improperly command, and he will be dismissed immediately!" Ordered his lieutenant general to take the place of command. ”

However, before the herald could go to deliver the order, a messenger came to report: "General Qiyu, General Xie has just personally led his guards into battle to resist the enemy, but unfortunately he was killed in battle......

Niu Cunjie was silent, the fierceness of the battle did not surprise him, and the swiftness of the enemy's assault also did not surprise him.

However, at this time, his Chinese army has reached the most critical time, if there is no turnaround, once the next army is defeated, the losses will be really unimaginable.

However, now it is difficult for him to even command all the troops, and in the face of this situation, he can not do much except try to gather more troops, and then go back to delay the Wu army and buy time for the reorganization of the army.

But his efforts did not have much effect.

After a while, the turnaround he longed for did not appear, and although the overseers desperately blocked it, and even hacked to death a large number of fleeing officers one after another, the rout of the army was still unavoidable.