Chapter 13: The First Battle of the Feather Forest
Ouyang Xuan is not worried about the issue of command, the temporary command of the whole army is in charge of the deputy general Lang Oath, and the cavalry and all sides of the formation are commanded by full-time captains. Ouyang Xuan's mission was to charge into battle and kill the enemy chieftain. There is no red tape such as reporting names and surnames, and coming up and going straight to the point is to eliminate the other party.
The opponent's goose wing formation, the Chinese army and the wings on both sides concentrated half of the men and horses, a bit like flying swifts, and the whole moved forward in an orderly and orderly manner in the sound of drums and trumpets. The Yulin army marched forward in four phalanxes, each with four drummers in the middle, beating the drums according to the captain's command, and looked like four rectangular tanks rushing towards the huge swallows in the air. The flank cavalry drew their bows and arrows, galloped on their horses, and shot at the opponent's flank three hundred paces away, and each arrow would have a Wu soldier fall to the ground, and Ouyang Xuan's order to them was to cover the flank bows and arrows to meet the enemy in the infantry gun shield array. Then throw a gun from the rear flank and fight into battle.
Ouyang Xuan rode alone and swung his sword straight towards the Chinese army, just entered the 200-step bow and arrow attack distance, the arrow came like a flying locust, raised a shield to protect the horse's head, closed the tiger's wing mask, leaned over and the horse, galloped in, and swung the knife to cover the kill. The general of the Wu army did not know when he had retreated to the rear frame of the Chinese army. The sound of shouting and killing enveloped Ouyang Xuan, stabbing left and right, stumps like flying, rushing down all the way, Ouyang Xuan seemed to be like a god of war possessed, invincible, without the trouble of bows and arrows, making Ouyang Xuan even more unscrupulous, and went straight to the frame of the Chinese army.
The thick pikemen raised their guns in front of them, and they clung to the frame. Even though Ouyang Xuan was brave, the horse couldn't withstand such a large array of guns after all, so he could only ride his horse around, cover up around the frame, and clear out the vacuum. When there are few soldiers, return the sword into the sheath, take off the crossbow, and wind the arrow as quickly as possible. The knife in his right hand covered the front and back of his body, and when he rushed to the opposite side of the enemy general, he raised the crossbow in his left hand and fired, and in just a short moment, the crossbow arrow pierced through the helmet. Ouyang Xuan saw the main crossbow and galloped into the rear formation. Behind him, the infantry of the Yulin Army, the spear and shield phalanx, had already met the enemy. In the sound of the drum, the Chinese array continuously stabbed forward with spears, the knife hand kept mending the knife, the front row shield hand resisted the shield with his body, and as the drum beat moved forward little by little, the middle shield hand raised the shield to protect the top of the city, and after every three rounds of drums, the shield hand in the middle and the shield hand on the forward line swapped. The spearmen and knife men in the middle fill in the blanks in time to make up for the kills and clear the ground obstacles.
The cavalry galloping back and forth on both wings hung their bows, took off their javelins, circled their horses to kill the rear flanks of the enemy formation, threw their guns and fired sharply, the two teams of cavalry were like long dragons in the rear flank of the Chinese army 500 paces together, just in time for Ouyang Xuan, who rushed out of the formation, and found two captains, "Let the sergeant shout: the main general is dead, surrender quickly", "No", the two Pegasus turned around and passed on their lives. Ouyang Xuan drew his sword in his hand, raised it above his head, and shouted loudly: "The enemy master will be dead, let me cover up and kill." After speaking, the lap horse turned around, checked the BMW, held the sword back, and pointed forward with the blade of his right hand, "Kill with me."
After finishing speaking, the horse galloped into the rear of the Chinese army, and the cavalry followed, finished throwing the javelin in his hand, took the knife in his hand, divided into ten roads, and fanned the frame of the Chinese army with Ouyang Xuan as the arrow. There was no suspense, no surprises, the speed of the horse combined with the sharpness of the knife, and the whole battle showed a one-sided trend.
The soldiers of Wu are not unable to fight, and in the face of the guns and shields as solid as steel and the cavalry as fast as the wind, there is a feeling that they cannot be forced. Under the supervision of the captains of the battalions, they could only move forward, and before they reached the front of the gun and shield array, they were stabbed by the spears that came out of nowhere, fell to the ground, and were hacked to death by the long knives that stretched out from the gaps in the shields.
The chief general of the Wu army was the most depressed, and he originally killed with the army until he was under the city of Luoyang. Later, when King Wu heard that the imperial court had sent 10,000 newly established Yulin troops out of Huaiyang and went straight to his old nest, he had to send 50,000 elite infantry soldiers to march west along Huaishui, protecting the grain route in his rear at any cost. After consulting with the generals, it was agreed that 50,000 elite infantry soldiers were more than enough for 10,000 Yulin. Early in the morning, the whole army marched westward, and when the enemy was encountered, the two wings were killed by the archers on both sides, and the losses were huge, and a full 5,000 men had been hung up before they could meet the enemy. What's even more infuriating is that the main general of the other party actually did not report his name and surname, and rode alone into the Chinese army. Returning to the frame, he ordered the entire army to shrink its wings and advance slowly. And the enemy general who broke into the Chinese army alone was like entering a no-man's land, killing his own frame, and hurriedly ordered the spear battalion to escort him. When he saw the enemy general raise the crossbow from under the shield, he was still curious, and it was not until the moment the crossbow arrow hit him that he realized that it was a sharp weapon that could shoot more than 400 paces.
After the loss of the 50,000 Wu army, they were replaced by the deputy general, who faced a more cruel situation, and the shield array in front seemed to be indestructible, and there was no way to break the enemy for a while. The front was a mess, and the rear was broken by the enemy cavalry, so they had to raise their banners and order the whole army to gather with the central army and shrink the defense. Before the order was given, the enemy cavalry behind had reached the periphery of the pike battalion. The Chinese officer had to continue to give orders, get off the carriage, get on his horse and lead his troops to resist the enemy from behind. With a spear in his hand, he slapped his horse forward and came face to face with Ouyang Xuan on the front. "General of the Han family, Hugh is rampant, and he will come some", after speaking, he raised his gun and went straight to Ouyang Xuan to kill. When the horse's head was staggered, he raised his spear and stabbed his neck, Ouyang Xuan raised his shield and knocked the spear head, and when the horse kicked wrongly, he turned around and stabbed straight to the neck. The lieutenant general was also a master, and at the moment when the head of the gun was knocked open, the front hand was retracted, the back hand was forward, and the gun swept Ouyang Xuan's right rib from the bottom up. Just in time for Ouyang Xuan to turn around and dodge the general, he slashed across the armor with a sharp sound, and the blade had already passed quickly through the neck of the deputy general, and the head fell to the ground. Turning around, he picked up a spear that stabbed the horse's head with his sword in his left hand, and slashed at the pikeman on the right with his right hand, and the sword slit the throat of the pikeman with the horse's head. Galloping past, continuing the next round of slashing, the horse's forelimbs have already been covered in several places, and the cowhide and rubber resin front guard Kai is still too fragile. The cavalry behind followed closely, and several generals came down from the frame, all of whom were killed by Ouyang Xuan in one round.
When he reached the frame, he got off the horse, and after killing all the people on the frame with his sword, he cut off the flag, raised his sword and shouted: "Those who descend will not die!" ”。 With the felling of the flag of the Wu army, the number of surrenderers on the battlefield gradually increased, and more people threw away their weapons and took off their armor to escape. As it grew dusk, calm finally returned to the battlefield, and the strong physical strength ensured that the Yulin Army still had the strength to clean up the mess in the end.
The frame of the Wu army has now become Ouyang Xuan's command post, and he swore an oath, "Quickly count the casualties, escort the prisoners to the city, and do not kill without the order of the emperor." Ordered the county magistrate to organize the soldiers to clean up the battlefield and bury the corpses." "No". Lang swore to go down, and Pegasus gave the order. Call in the army master and Gong Cao, these two people are the secretaries sent by the Prime Minister's Mansion and the Taiwei Mansion to supervise the army and record meritorious deeds. "The main book will quickly report the results of this battle to His Majesty for 800 miles, show the aftermath of the capture, and report the merits of Cao Su's united front work, and report it to the Taiwei Mansion after approval." "No, the subordinate will receive the order, and this will be done."
The sun sets early in winter, and the afterglow of the sunset is like blood sprinkled on the red battlefield, which is even more solemn, and the results of the battle are quickly counted, Wu army 50,000 foot soldiers, more than 23,000 killed in battle, 12,000 captured, and the rest of the armor throwers scattered. Yulin infantry lightly injured 100 people, no serious injuries or deaths, cavalry seriously injured more than 10 people, lightly injured 100 people, no casualties.
This was a complete victory, and the result of the battle made the Yulin soldiers excessively excited, carrying their wounded robes and walking with the wind. The guns and shields were neatly stacked on the car, and they were still chattering about the battle just now. After reading the paper fold written in the main book on the frame of Wu Jun's carriage, after confirming that it is correct, he stamped his two general seals, the main book and Gong Cao each stamped their own seals, put them into the bamboo wax seal, and after engraving, they handed over to Hongling's urgent envoy together with the merit book written by Gong Cao, and reported to the imperial court overnight. The merit book was approved by Ouyang Xuan and stamped with his own seal and the seal of Gong Cao. The above records according to the battalion: on the 26th day of the first month of the first month of the year of Wuzi, the battalions of the Yulin Army went out ten miles in front of Ruyin County, defeated the Wu army of 50,000, killed 3 of 20,000, captured 20,000, and the rest were scattered; Waiting for Ouyang Shixuan's formation, the enemy's main general, and the deputy general, there are ten; The deputy general Lang's oath is meritorious and has no mistakes.
On the battlefield, the corpses were wrapped in linen cloth and loaded into trucks for transportation. No one cut off people's heads, in fact, it was a way for the Xiongnu and nomadic tribes to record military exploits because they had no written language, and the Han people had abandoned this method since the Spring and Autumn Period. Out of reverence for people and ghosts, it is forbidden to cut off the heads of fallen soldiers on the battlefield, and if the ban is broken, they will be buried alive, and this ban on the Central Plains battlefield lasted until the Southern Song Dynasty and was broken by the Jin soldiers. There were no Chinese after Yashan, and this customary ban was abandoned. Back then, Wu Zixu's digging of the grave and whipping the corpse was already a great rebellion, and it was shamed by the world at that time.
After all the corpses were transported away, the county magistrate invited several wizards and battlefield practices to offer sacrifices and comfort the dead. Originally, this job was supposed to be done by the Zhu people of the army (a full-time official who was responsible for sacrificing and comforting the ghosts and gods with the army in the Western Han Dynasty, equipped with two people per 10,000 people, and assigned by Fengchang Taizhu Ling) was robbed by the county magistrate who wanted to invite merit, and he could only let Gong Cao record it. When he set off, Ouyang Xuan knew that there were as many as 100 people in the army. In addition to the main book of the Prime Minister's Mansion faction, the Gong Cao of the Taiwei Mansion, there are also the Zhuren of the Taizhu Ling faction, the Lingtai attendant of the Taishi Ling faction (holding the clock and drums, etc.), the ceremonial officials and doctors who are often assigned, the full-time Hongling urgent envoys dozens of people, and the officials of the Zongzheng faction who deal with the affairs of the kings. It's that Ouyang Xuan wants to rebel, and these officials are a troublesome thing.
When I returned to the city, I checked the wounded, all of them were all traumatized, this Ouyang Xuan was still very good, and the heaviest one was a horseman, who was pierced through the chest by the right side of the spear. After disinfection with the brought penicillin, a simple suture was made. The white wolf brothers and sisters are now deeply loved by these wounded soldiers, licking wildly, and having a special person responsible for feeding water when their mouth is dry. Several debridement sutures were done and smeared with white wolf saliva. Each wounded man was given honey pills containing penicillin before returning to the camp with the white wolf siblings. Let Lang swear to find a Wu military captain who surrendered, and asked the location of the grain and grass of the Wu and Chu coalition forces, as well as the time and method of transportation.
"Order, the captain of the left cavalry took a thousand horsemen to set off in the starry night, three hundred miles to the northeast, and Linhuai looked for an opportunity to intercept the grain and grass of the Wu Chu army, the whole army rested for a day, and the troops sent to Surabaya the day after tomorrow", "No! Lang Vow hurriedly went down to make arrangements.