Chapter 14: Cavalry Engagement

Starting from the west gate of Yanling City, Zhao Hao led the cavalry troops that formed the front arrow array according to his habit, and galloped towards the main formation of the Qin army. The Qin army was attacking Yanling City head-on, and Zhao Hao marched out of the west gate, which was the left wing cavalry unit of the Qin army.

The Qin troops were lined up, with foot soldiers and crossbowmen in the front, chariot troops in the middle, and the infantry and cavalry in the rear were prepared as surprise soldiers, and the security of the two wings was also handed over to the cavalry troops. This is a standard defensive formation. The Qin army used a crossbow, and the actual attack distance was about 300 to 400 steps. Beyond this distance, the lethality is very limited. And this distance is only a moment for the cavalry.

Gongzihua stood on the chariot, looking at the west side of the Yanling City Gate, a large number of cavalry troops suddenly appeared, although it was a little unexpected, but not too surprised, according to the intelligence of the Qin State, South Korea has been trading with the Zhao State for many years, exchanging the strong bow and crossbow for the excellent horses of the Zhao State, so the Qin State has already prepared. It's just that he originally estimated that there were only one or two thousand cavalry in Yanling City, but now, it seems that it has far exceeded his expectations. Still, it's not a big problem.

Gongzihua waved the command flag, the cavalry on the left flank was launched instantly, and the cavalry of the Qin State raised the bow and arrow in their hands, and roared towards a black cloud, accepting the provocation from the other party. The duel between the two cavalry was like two rivers flowing across the earth.

At this moment, neither Gongzihua nor Zhao Hao will realize that the historicity of this moment is enough to be remembered in the annals of history. Zhao Hao's unintentional raid plan created a historical moment worth remembering, and Gongzihua never imagined that when he waved the flag, he would also see the collision of the two concepts, even if this moment is not so classic, but its significance should never be underestimated.

The fifth grandson of the Yellow Emperor and the great-grandson of Zhuan Xuan, Boyi, was given the surname Win because of his meritorious service in assisting Dayu in controlling the water. Until the period of King Shang, Fei Lian, a descendant of Boyi, assisted King Zhou and was prominent for a while.

Fei Lian has two sons, one is named Evil Lai, and the other is named Ji Sheng. Evil came to be extremely powerful, was the right-hand man of the king of Zhou, and later King Wu of Zhou cut down, and the evil came to be arrested and executed by the king of Wu. Evil comes to have a child defense, the fourth grandson of the female defense, because he is good at raising horses, the deep Zhou Xiao King is happy, so he gave Qin fifty li as a vassal, so that he can continue the sacrifice of the surname Win, called Qin Win. This is the ancestor of the Qin State. When Qin Xianggong, King Zhou You was killed by Xirong, Qin Xianggong led troops to rescue, and escorted King Zhou Ping to move eastward, King Zhou Ping thanked him for his merits, and gave the land west of Qishan, and since then Qin has been among the princes.

And Fei Lian's other son Ji Sheng, the son is called Meng Zeng, Meng Zeng's grandson is the father, because he is good at control, he is favored by King Mu of Zhou, and helps King Mu of Zhou drive from the Queen Mother of the West to Haojing, quelling the rebellion of King Xu Yan, so he was sealed in Zhao City, and took Zhao as his clan.

In this sense, the Qin State and the Zhao State are the same ancestor relationship, one is good at raising horses, the other is good at controlling, and Qin Feizi, the ancestor of Qin, became a great sect because he inherited the sacrifice of the surname Win.

The people of Qin are really quite expert in raising horses, which is a skill passed down from their ancestors. The land west of Qishan is mostly barren, and the Rong people often fight, and the traditional chariot infantry is really unable to resist the opponent's attack, so the Qin people set up cavalry troops earlier.

The cavalry troops of the Qin State retained more of the characteristics of the Rong people, the clothes were more light and flexible like the Rong people, and the armor was covered, and the defense was also strong.

Later, with the inflow of Central Plains culture, the Qin people also began to trim their cavalry, not only equipped with brands and reins, but also let the cavalry wrap their heads with cloth and trousers and shoes, and join the battle sequence to become a special type of troops. It should be said that the Qin State not only had cavalry troops, but also its combat effectiveness was not weak.

The reason why it is said to be a collision of the two concepts is that Zhao developed the cavalry into a regular army and formulated the method of warfare, making it an independent branch of the military; Although the Hufu cavalry of the Qin State was not weak in combat effectiveness, it did not study tactics as an independent branch of the army, but participated in the battle as an auxiliary branch of the chariot soldiers, crossbow soldiers and other arms, mostly for some tasks such as intercepting grain routes, reconnaissance, and harassment. The meaning of actual combat is different, and the status of each country is different, and the concept of nature is also different.

But if you underestimate the cavalry of the Qin State because of this, it will be too light for the enemy.

Fortunately, Zhao Hao is not a person who underestimates the enemy.

Zhao Hao saw that the other party's cavalry troops were dressed, it seemed that the other party was more flexible than himself wearing Korean armor in individual combat, mainly based on bows and arrows, individual soldiers were holding short swords, and there were even people holding halberds, the weapons of this army did not seem to be uniform, and I don't know how the commanders of these soldiers should be deployed and used.

Zhao Hao had just broken up the Korean cavalry and divided it into the cavalry of Zhao State, so as to ensure that the Koreans could follow the pace of Zhao State's cavalry. He sat on his horse, raised his hand and waved it left and right, and drew another circle. The cavalry behind him comprehended, and automatically maneuvered according to his requirements, only to see the "Korean" cavalry moving at high speed, at the moment when it had not yet touched, it was automatically divided into two parts, and they were maneuvering behind him, and at the moment of maneuvering, the first wave of arrow rain shooting was ready, and he began to shoot at the cavalry of the Qin State. Shoot and go, never delay. The original standard configuration of the cavalry of Zhao included a bow and crossbow machete, but that was because of the relationship between the stirrup and the high bridge saddle, and now these secrets are hidden in the snow, and Zhao Hao and others are only equipped with a low bridge saddle and no stirrups, so he wisely gave up the crossbow arrows and switched to bows and arrows, and carried out covering shooting at about two hundred steps.

Since it is a covered shooting, the Zhao army has no requirements for the results, its purpose is to form an effective deterrent, which is very obvious in the role of dealing with Zhongshan, especially the car soldiers and infantry, many soldiers saw the Zhao army archery, subconsciously began to block or mess up the formation, the infantry was chaotic, it was easy to delay the impact of the attack, the car soldiers were in a mess, it was easy to have large-scale chaos, because the vehicle was clumsy to operate, and it was easy to cause overturning if the car was not careful, and once there was a car overturned in the high-speed driving car, Others will have to be diverted in time.

The purpose of Zhao Hao's first shot was also like this, but the Qin cavalry was obviously no stranger to this attack method, and the Xirong people who were in their company would also attack like this, so the Qin Hu cavalry seemed to have only been affected by some influences, but they did not slow down the pace of attack, in their opinion, they had to shorten the distance with the Korean army and shoot the opponent's attack.

The first impact did not achieve the expected purpose, Zhao Hao didn't care, the Zhao army regrouped from both sides still maintained the advantage of distance from the Qin army, Zhao Hao returned to the head of the formation, he looked back at the Qin army behind him, his eyes were solemn, so that he was not in a hurry to give orders, just like that, one chased, one ran, the Qin army and the Han army were in a race. The Qin army continued to roar behind them, and it seemed to them that this cavalry was about to collapse at the touch of a button.

Just when the two troops were able to chase back to the vicinity of Yanling City, Zhao Hao hurriedly ordered the cavalry to turn around and charge at the Qin army. At this time, the cavalry of the Qin army began to get excited again, as if intentionally or unintentionally, those cavalry holding halberds faintly ran to the front of the formation, the snowy halberd was shining under the sun, flashing cold, with the excited eyes of the Qin army, everything was like death, they were ready to harvest.

Zhao Hao charged at the top end, seeing that Qin Jun was getting closer and closer to him, he seemed to have felt the murderous aura of the other party, and immediately raised his hand high, stretched out his middle finger and index finger, and made a downward gesture three times. The two pairs of cavalry generals not far from him immediately understood this, and drove their horses to gallop left and right within their own range, while taking their bows and shooting at the horses of the Qin army. At the same time, the cavalry of the Zhao army gave way to the Qin army in the middle as if they had encountered the flow of stones, and went up retrograde from both sides. In order to avoid the bows and arrows of the Qin army, the soldiers of Zhao State clamped the horse's belly, hugged the horse's neck, and lowered their figures, but the Han army mixed in it did not learn such horse skills, some fell off the horse with arrows, and some were killed immediately.

The bows and arrows of the Qin army are mostly heavy arrows, and the arrows are heavy and have strong lethality at close range, and the bows and arrows of the Zhao army are mostly light arrows, and the light lethality of the arrows is limited, so after this round of confrontation, although the Qin army suffered the loss of the formation change, but the Zhao army's damage to the horses of the Qin army is also limited.

Just as the Qin army was preparing and preparing to kill the past and fight with the Zhao army again, he found that the Zhao army who had just been with him did not look back, and rushed straight towards the Qin army's main formation!

Zhao Hao's idea is very practical: in the face of a cavalry unit with similar equipment to you, but with a different tactic method, too much entanglement often loses its own advantage, and the purpose of this trip is not to annihilate the Qin army, that is to send it to death, but to disrupt the Qin army's offensive rhythm and delay the attack time, so he observed that when the Qin army's crossbowmen were ready to fire crossbow arrows towards Yanling City, they turned around and attacked the Qin cavalry, which could make the Qin people think that they were just fighting against the opponent's cavalry, and shoot with confidence, But when the Han army and the Qin army were about to leave, the Qin army had just begun to fire crossbow arrows, and it was too late to adjust, so he led the cavalry troops and rushed towards the Qin army's main formation, which was already close at hand.

Zhao Hao's maneuver made Gongzihua also startled, he didn't pay attention to Zhao Hao, but he also felt that Han Jun seemed to be too war-loving, but soon this concern was dispelled, Han Jun, combat effectiveness has always been like this. However, this time, he was indeed a little surprised, and hurriedly waved the order flag, the golden drum sounded, and the Qin army turned to the direction of Zhao Hao's coming in unison.

However, it was already too late. Zhao Hao's cavalry has not waited for the Qin army to change formation, has already stormed into the Qin army's crossbow position, the presumptuous horse's hooves stepped on the corpse of the Qin army, in the Qin army's position left and right, although there is no stirrup, but in the crowd, Zhao Hao and others, who have been accustomed to life on horseback with the reins, have opened the Qin army's crossbow position with their machetes.

The reaction of the Qin army was also very fast, the chariots and crossbowmen retreated one after another, the cavalry on the right wing sealed the front, and the cavalry on the left flank blocked the retreat, and it was impossible to turn back. Zhao Hao calmly commanded the cavalry and rushed towards the Qin cavalry in front.

This was the first frontal attack of the two cavalry, and the "Korean" cavalry, which had already killed the red-eyed, ran into the Qin army troops that were being mobilized. This shows at least two problems, the quality of the weapons of the Qin army is very good, and the quality of the soldiers of the Qin army is also high.

Even so, the Zhao army mixed in it is similar, although he is used to stirrups and Takahashi saddles on weekdays, but he often trains without pedals and saddles on weekdays, and he has to ride a horse to slash and slash, and act on bumpy roads. The training volume of the Baijin Battalion is very large, and the consumption is also fast, because the Juanjia Battalion is built according to the standards of Wei Wushu, and the Baijin Battalion will naturally not lose to them.

Therefore, in the face of the strong Qin army, the Zhao army showed extremely high combat effectiveness, and the two sides almost met opponents. On the contrary, because the Korean cavalry was not very well trained on weekdays, they immediately fell behind in the face of the Qin army. But in the face of the siege, the breakthrough is the most important thing, a group of people intersect with gold and iron, and when the Zhao army breaks out, the two sides have life and death for each other.

Gongzihua realized that this cavalry had disrupted the rhythm of his attack and could not be spared, so he raised the command flag and ordered a team of chariots to participate in the encirclement and suppression.

Zhao Hao didn't fall in love with the battle, and after breaking through, he didn't think about it, changed his strategy, and rushed towards the siege troops of the Qin army. At this moment, the cavalry, chariot soldiers, and even crossbowmen of the Qin army began to rush towards them frantically, with only one purpose, to take revenge on this cavalry force.

The Qin army besieging the city saw the other party attacking towards them, and subconsciously turned around to defend on the spot, most of these people were foot soldiers, and they could establish a defensive position by erecting a shield, but they forgot that they were attacking the city, Zhao Hao's cavalry was certainly dangerous, and the defenders above their heads were not easy. The storm kite observed at the head of the city for a long time, and when he saw Zhao Hao coming towards the siege troops, he immediately ordered to prepare the stone rolling wood, and after the other party turned to defense, the last wave of stone rolling wood smashed down one after another.

Zhao Hao seemed to see the smile of the violent kite on the head of the city, knowing that the other party had guessed his intentions, and he didn't delay any longer, glanced back, and roared loudly: "Shoot back!" Zhao Jun habitually stretched out his bow and arrows, tightly clamped the horse's belly with his legs, twisted his body, and shot towards the Qin army behind him without looking.

The Qin army, who was already anxious, could not take care of a lot, even if a comrade fell to the ground in front of him, he could not resist his own pace of advancement. But Gongzihua calmed down, Han Jun was able to prepare a stone to cooperate, who dares to say that there are other traps ahead? Hurry up and stop the offensive. However, even if the Qin army was very well disciplined, it was no longer able to stop at this moment, and it was now under Yanling City. The storm kite finally breathed a sigh of relief, the corners of his mouth lifted lightly, leaking an evil smile, and waved his hand down:

"Shoot the arrows!"

Arrows rained down.

(End of chapter)