The battlefield selected by Li Yanzhi was fifteen miles east of the temporary camp where the army was stationed. Facing the exit across the mountains. Where he led his troops to line up, you could clearly see the situation in Taniguchi and near to the left.

Through the sentinel cavalry report, Li Yanzhi knew that the 5,000 soldiers and horses led by Zhao Zhenqin would probably reach the left side of the valley at noon today. So in the morning, he ordered the three armies to have dinner, and then left the camp early and marched fifteen miles to line up here. Although this time he was waiting for work, the slightly thin troops of the department still made Li Yanzhi dare not be careless. He placed more than 1,000 auxiliary soldiers and the light armored infantry of the old battalion in front of the exit of the valley, and the 300 soldiers of the front battalion acted as the personal guards of the Chinese army. The remaining 200 armored horsemen were hidden on the leeward side of a large sand dune on the west side.

The light infantry dragged out dozens of carts and shield carts from the battalion, formed a circle, and formed a circle around the perimeter of the front of the formation. The shield set up by the shield cart was already equipped with nail boards full of thick wooden spikes. The sergeants and pawns of the round formation were led by Wang Cheng and Wei Xu respectively. Wang Cheng's subordinates were armed with spears and horses, arrayed in the outer circle, and spears with three turns, to guard against the enemy's strong conflict. The hundreds of soldiers in the inner circle, led by Wei Xu, were armed with bows and crossbows, ready to carry out long-range strikes against the enemy.

More than 200 armored horses unloaded their equipment behind the sand dunes, and rested for a while, hoping to recover some strength for the rest of the battle. Under the joint training of Cao Jian, Liu Jiwu, Tao Heng and others, these cavalrymen have already become a multi-functional cavalry. Reconnaissance and sentry are his profession, and they can also be used for wandering and harassment, and group charges. Not to mention that many of these generals also ran rampant in Longxi, wantonly attacking the transportation lines of Liu Zhao's army, and their ability to set fire to the backyard was also first-class.

Rao is like this, as to whether this cavalry can quickly adapt to play the role of a heavy cavalry, Li Yanzhi is also uncertain in his heart. However, he proposed the idea to Li Bai, so he was eager to test it out to see how well this cavalry had been trained for several years. In this era, the army generally marched at a speed of only forty or fifty miles a day, and the cavalry who traveled more than 100 miles a day was undoubtedly the darling and master of the battlefield in the era of cold weapons.

As for the expanded Striker Battalion, this time it can be said that it has served as a reserve and a warlord. If the battle in front is unfavorable, you can immediately enter the battle. Since the establishment of this battalion, all encounters have been bitter and vicious. These armies, trained with wealth and inhuman exercises, are also shouldered with the heavy task of turning the tide in every battle. And the performance of these generals from beginning to end does live up to the name of elite.

Another 400 soldiers who were proficient in the operation of bows and crossbows lay behind the bald mountains on both sides of the valley mouth, and several huge stones had been erected on the top of the mountain, and as soon as Zhao Zhen's troops left the valley, these huge stones would be pushed off the cliff. Whether or not they can block the enemy's retreat is an open question, but there is no doubt that even if the enemy turns back and flees, these boulders blocking the mouth of the valley will greatly hinder their movements.

Finally, there are the 200 soldiers of the Battle Blade Battalion who have removed their iron armor. and the subordinate governor sent by Li Bai to Li Yanzhi guarded the camp together. As a result, the number of garrisons reached more than 600, which was enough to deal with the small forces that the enemy might send out to steal the camp. When they were settled, the armies rested in their respective places. Li Yanzhi and Liu Jiwu, on a small sand dune behind the soldiers of the Zhanfeng Battalion, looked at the signals of their own sentinels on the bald mountains on both sides of the valley mouth.

After an hour, a sentry was erected on the bald mountain, raised the black flag and shook it for a while, and then waved it three times in a row to the south side.

The signal from the sentry was that the enemy had advanced five miles away. The long, slightly slow drum beat sounded, spreading to every corner of the battlefield, and the soldiers on standby in the field heard the drum and got up one after another. The foot soldiers in the chariot took up their horses, spears, bows, crossbows, and arrows. The mounted cavalry hidden behind the sand dunes put their horse armor on their horses, making preparations in a nervous and orderly manner.

The soldiers of the Warrior Battalion all stood in armor. Many of the faces were already drenched with layers of sweat, and the dust and gravel raised by the wind had accumulated on the sweaty faces of the soldiers, and soon these solemn soldiers were all flowers. looked disgraced, which made Li Yanzhi feel quite crying and laughing.

After another hour or so, Taniguchi had rushed out with dozens of enemy rangers. They just walked far around the chariot array lined up by the foot soldiers, and did not come forward. After observing for a while, several enemy horsemen rode to the edge of the chariot array and fired arrows at the chariot array. And under Wei Xu's instructions, whenever the enemy's arrows came, the infantry in the formation would shoot back with arrows according to Shiwu, and return the color to the enemy cavalry. Seeing that there were still a large number of crossbowmen hidden in this car array, and every time they released arrows to provoke, they would attract arrows on the scale of Shiwu to shoot back, and these cavalry soldiers under Zhao Zhen also knew that the enemy army in front of them was not a soft persimmon that could be kneaded at will.

Zhao Zhen's sentry cavalry and the Liangzhou Army infantry in the chariot formation were in a stalemate on the front line of the chariot array. There were also quite a few enemy cavalrymen who tried to bypass the chariot formation and go to the rear of the battle camp to probe the truth. However, whenever they made a move, the crossbowmen of the phalanx, who had fought back sporadically, would immediately shoot the arrows from the crossbow strings in their hands in the direction they were riding. In this way, it also forced those enemy sentry horses not to dare to move.

After a while, Zhao Zhen's main formation under the banner of "Zhao" gradually appeared in the valley. Xu was trekking for days, which made this army suffer a lot. Zhao Zhen was sitting on a tall horse in the Chinese army, and he had heard that the sentry cavalry had reported that there was an enemy attack, and he also thought that this enemy army would set up an ambush in the bald valley. However, after sending sentinels to confirm that the enemy army was arrayed outside the valley, Zhao Zhen began to feel disdain for the enemy in front of him.

A sentry returned to the front of the formation, detoured to the left of the Chinese army, and then entered the formation in front of Zhao Zhen's horse, and reported to Zhao Zhen: "The enemy army is arrayed outside the valley. There were about 1,000 people in front of the car. The outer ring is a spear, and the inner middle is a crossbow. After the formation, another 300 foot soldiers formed a phalanx. Behind a sand dune on the west side of the valley, there were more than 200 horsemen hiding. ”

When Zhao Zhen heard the news, she couldn't help laughing: "Zhang Gongting has no one in Liangzhou, and he actually sent this Yong general to fight against me?" and not to set up an ambush in the valley, but to form an array outside the valley. Do you think that with a pocket and two hundred horsemen, you can stop our army here? ”

Zhao Zhen pulled out his knife and pointed out the valley: "Pass my order." The former army is out of the valley and lined up! The right flank out of the valley lined up with guns to prevent the enemy from riding and attacking! The cavalry camp bypassed the chariot formation and headed to attack the array behind enemy lines! ”

Zhao Zhen's arrangement seems to be no problem. After all, under a tight array of spears, even armored cavalry could not play its due role. And the enemy array at the car formation is certainly well defended. However, once the west side blocked the onslaught of the enemy's cavalry, the own cavalry crushed the opponent's rear infantry again. The array of cars will be surrounded. At that time, the well-defended car formation will only be a turtle in an urn.

Under Zhao Zhen's strict order, the infantry of the front army quickly rushed out of the valley one after another with swords, shields, bows and crossbows, and began to line up outside the range of the opponent's chariot array bows and crossbows. The sword and shield bearers are in front, while the crossbowmen line up in the rear, placing themselves under the protection of the sword and shield men. At the same time, the soldiers with spears on the right flank also rushed out of the valley, while receiving the cavalry of the side who had just returned to the valley sentry sentry, on the other hand, they were arranged in several dense formations, and with the shout of the phalanx general, the spears that were originally pointing to the sky pointed forward in unison, and the array became like hedgehogs.

After the soldiers on both sides were lined up in array, the cavalry soldiers who were close to the left of Zhao Zhen's Chinese army rushed out one after another, passed behind the tight formation composed of swords, shields and bows and crossbows, galloped two or three hundred steps to the east, and then turned south, watching the sergeants of the car formation gritting their teeth from a distance, and always maintained a distance of more than two hundred steps from the car formation. The crossbowmen in the formation felt powerless.

Zhao Zhen's department has 5,000. The former army marched out of the valley and lined up, and the number was more than 1,500. And there were more than 1,000 soldiers in the gun formation on the right flank. The number of cavalry in the rear of the raid around the road was also nearly a thousand. In this way, Zhao Zhen was suddenly proud, and in the face of this enemy army, in addition to strategy and tactics, he also had the advantage in numbers. The forces in all directions were much stronger than the enemy's. Not only that, but there were more than a thousand elite troops in half-body iron armor in his rear formation.

Li Yanzhi saw that at the mouth of the valley, there were thousands of enemy cavalry walking around from behind the opposite formation, and he knew Zhao Zhen's plan in his heart. He looked at the cavalry that raised the dust in the sky, first to the east, and then to the south, apparently coming to his own rear formation, and when he shouted, "Round the formation!" ”

These soldiers of the Blade Battalion had learned a lot of experience in the harsh drills day after day and on the battlefield of corpses and blood, and they also had a certain reflex to password signals. After hearing Li Yanzhi's order, the more than 300 soldiers of the Zhanfeng Battalion moved in unison. In just a dozen breaths, a neat circle has been discharged. The soldiers with spears and lances stood in the front row, and the spears pointed outward, like hedgehogs shrunk into a ball.

Zhao Zhen couldn't help but be secretly frightened when he saw that the iron-armored foot soldiers behind the formation were discharged in such a formation almost instantly. Judging from the opponent's decisive change of formation, and the efficient and agile completion of the change of formation, the army in front of him, at least the three hundred or so foot soldiers behind the car formation, is definitely an elite force!

However, Zhao Zhen didn't have time to think. The cavalry in the charge also had no chance to change formation. The more than 1,000 horsemen carried a lot of sand and slammed headlong into the 300 foot soldiers who looked thin and vulnerable.

The lance-wielding foot soldiers in the first row crouched down, inserted the tail of the gun into the sand, and then held the barrel firmly. The sandy land here is no better than that of Jincheng, and no one knows what will happen to the enemy cavalry when it hits the tip of the spear. The first platoon of soldiers stared intently at the spears they clenched resolutely in their hands. And the enemy cavalry rushed closer and closer, and even the hideous faces were clearly displayed in front of these soldiers of the battle battalion.

Maybe it was just a moment, maybe it was a moment or so long, when the enemy cavalry that was charging forward finally collided with the guns that were pointed at them obliquely in front of the battle, and suddenly there was a tooth-sour "poof" sound of spears entering the flesh. Then came the sound of the barrel of the gun breaking under the tremendous force. The soldiers with broken guns dropped their broken guns, and this was not the first time they had encountered such a situation.

They all took off their long knives that were tied to their backs with ropes, and stood side by side side with each other. The enemy cavalry who had fallen to the ground shouted and neighed, and blood flowed all over the ground. Even the sand raised by the horsemen behind him turned a faint crimson. The undead horsemen crawled in the mess, some trying to get to their feet, but the hooves of the robes that followed them trampled their bodies mercilessly. Perhaps the last sound they could hear before they died was the suffocating sound of their own bones breaking.

There were also those who were slightly luckier than the robes: they rose from the heaps of dead comrades. However, before they could catch their breath, under the impact of the horses of the cavalry behind them, they involuntarily flew to the front of the enemy formation, and most of them did not have a chance to stand up again, and the last image of their lives was the flash of the enemy's sword in front of them.

Li Yanzhi and Liu Jiwu were both in the formation, and the two of them were also stubborn and stubborn, looking at the battle in front of them with solemn expressions. When the first few of the charging horsemen were killed under the wall of guns, the rest of the enemy army was faced with an awkward position: if they fought their way forward, their horses would likely trip over the corpses of the rest of the men and horses on the ground. Even if you don't trip and rush into battle, you are still faced with the enemy's long lance and long knife.

And if they stop at their horses, the allied robes that are rushing behind them will not hesitate to knock them off their horses. The stirrups are everywhere in Liangzhou, but because the trade routes are cut off, they are still a rare object in the Western Regions. In this awkward situation, the horsemen could only rush forward with each other, and many people walked on the road to death.

With the continuous onslaught of the enemy's cavalry, more and more guns were broken in the hands of the soldiers in front of the battle. Correspondingly, the soldiers with broken guns took out long knives one after another, and several rows of long knives formed an airtight knife wall. However, many soldiers were still hit by horses that were stabbed but rushed forward by inertia, and casualties began to appear in the army.

Seeing this, Li Yanzhi separated the soldiers beside him with a knife and squeezed into the front row. In any case, he wanted to show his soldiers in his own way that he, as the general of the army, fought with them.

Li Yanzhi had just squeezed into the front row, and a dissatisfied voice came from a soldier beside him: "What is squeezing? Li Yanzhi looked at the person who spoke, and the mask only showed two eyes, but he didn't know who it was. Just listening to the voice, I feel a little like Lu Yi.

"Lu Yi, you ......" Li Yanzhi hesitated, wanting to scold Lu Yi or two. However, in the corner of his eye, he saw another group of enemy cavalry rushing towards him. Li Yanzhi held the knife and said, "Be careful!" ”

As soon as Lu heard that the voice coming out of the mask was Li Yanzhi's, he was a little stunned, thinking that Li Yanzhi was going to scold him, but he just told him to be careful, and a warmth surged in his heart, he looked at the enemy cavalry who rushed towards him, and his hands holding the knife shaft tightened again.

The huge casualties caused by the strong charge of the circle made the enemy generals on the opposite side feel unbearable, and the enemy cavalry soldiers who rushed this time were guided and ordered by several bamboo whistles, divided into two columns, and each turned his horse's head to withdraw from the attack range of the foot soldiers. They began to gallop around this foot soldier, and with the sound of the bamboo whistle, the horsemen pulled the horse away, and then formed a circle, and immediately the riders bent their bows and arrows, and then a continuous stream of arrows began to pour into the array of the front battalion!

"Keep your head down!" Li Yanzhi shouted. The soldiers of the battle battalion, who had been tested by the fire of war for a long time, lowered their heads one after another, and let the arrows they shoot smash on the iron armor they were wearing, making a continuous clanging sound......