Chapter 9 Riding the Formation
The sound of the new-style brass trumpet sounded through the hillside, and a total of twelve cavalry flags from the four cavalry bureaus lined up in a long three-column formation, each row of more than 130 enters, and the spearheads and boring palladium centers erected on the array shone silver in the sun. The front row of the cavalry battalion uses a four-foot spear to wear scale armor, the second row is an eight-foot boring palladium, the third row uses a thickened and widened one-handed waist knife, and the back two rows are chain mail, and the cavalry in the same row is only three feet apart from each other, two steps between the flag team, and seven steps between the front and rear rows. They will serve as the main force to destroy the enemy formation.
Zhu Guobin came to the front of the formation ten steps, looked at the Houjin army lined up on the opposite side, and there was a deep hatred in his eyes, he didn't need any mobilization of the instructor, the Houjin army was already his hatred.
Both sides are excellent war horses, most of the war horses of the Wendeng cavalry were captured in the battle of Jisi, and Chongzhen supplemented a small part from Dengzhou Town in the fourth year, these horses all felt the atmosphere of the battlefield, and began to plow the ground with their front hooves violently, and shook their heads from side to side with a snort.
The flag-bearer's thousand general flags came to Zhu Guobin's side, and the standard-bearer pointed the red pennant obliquely forward, and in the sound of five short tones and one long tone of the advance trumpet, four hundred cavalrymen at the same time instigated the horses to start advancing, Zhu Guobin needed to accurately judge the distance and ensure that he would engage the enemy at the highest speed of the charge. At present, they are one mile away from the enemy, and they have to keep their slow pace to about two hundred paces, and the charge at a distance of two hundred paces is their most proficient subject, and the difficulty is only how to maintain a dense formation as the speed gradually increases. With rigorous training, these 400 cavalrymen were able to approach and charge up to 300 paces.
The four hundred war horses of the Wendeng battalion slowly advanced, and the twelve flag captains with the flags on their backs crossed the array and came to the right side of the queue five steps in front of them, they used the cavalry spears with small pennants and set them up above their heads so that the subordinates in the back row could also clear the position, these flag captains turned their heads from time to time to observe the position of the Qianzong flag, and the other front row cavalry observed the position of their respective flag captains, controlling their horse speed, and the entire cavalry array advanced straight to the rear.
Forty cavalrymen and Chen Xin's guards from the two thousand headquarters came to follow up behind the dense cavalry formation, forming a loose fourth line, and they gathered together in three or five horses, twenty paces away from the third row of the cavalry, serving as the horns of the hussars, attacking the enemy cavalry that broke through the front formation.
Chen Xin looked at the cavalry slowly advancing, the hand holding the reins began to shake under the excitement, there were only a few staff officers and sea dogs left around him, he wanted to participate in the cavalry charge very much, but he was a little afraid of death, and he was even more worried that the Wendeng group of dragons would be leaderless. From the perspective of combat, if he mixes in it, Zhu Guobin may not be able to let go of his hands and feet.
In a moment of thought, the drums behind him sounded, and the military formation of the fourth division of the reserve battalion appeared at the top of the slope. Chen Xin left the front with a few followers, retreated from the gap in the military formation to the rear formation, Chen Xin glanced at the south slope at the top of the slope, the 2,000 headquarters was also completed, and there were hundreds of auxiliaries in the back place, and then turned his gaze back to the cavalry battlefield.
A mile away from the Houjin soldiers of the Chinese army sounded the horn, the array slowly ushered in, they also found the Ming army infantry formation, but the Ming cavalry took the initiative to meet the battle, once retreated, it will be out of control. Besides, they came with a rainbow of momentum, if they fled when they saw the enemy, their morale plummeted, and the Ming infantry only had a thousand infantry, and the Houjin soldiers did not look at it.
The Mongol soldiers who had risen up were still fighting with the Ming army rangers, and the Ming army's rangers began to retreat to both sides, giving way to the middle position, and a part of the Mongolian soldiers in the middle rushed directly to the Ming army's large array, preparing to sāo disturb the Ming army in these arrays, and the Houjin large array also divided into some organized squads to strengthen the stragglers. These squads scattered to the flanks, shuttling in front of the formation, and shè with light arrows with their riding bows.
This is the most commonly used "Rava tactic" of the Mongol soldiers, in the era of Gengush Khan is one of the Mongol Empire's housekeeping skills, they generally use a thousand into the team, forming a wide arc of skirmishers to disturb the enemy's formation, by the commander of the thousand to control the battle of the skirmishers, luring the enemy to leave the formation or waver, the rear of the group to find the opponent's weak position for concentrated assault, and then cause the entire enemy formation to collapse.
But apparently the Houjin soldiers in front of them were not at the level of the Mongol army of Chenggu Si Khan, and their white spoon sāo disturbance was more like a kind of troublemaking, and the horses in the first row of Wendeng had leather armor masks on their heads, and there was a curtain of arrows on their chests, which could resist light arrows with a small angle of shè. In total, only five or six horses were wounded, and the second row of palladium boring hands quickly stepped forward to fill them.
The best efforts of the Wenden rangers also limited the opponent's play, and the three platoons of cavalry continued to advance against the light arrows of Sāo.
The gentle speed brought up the chaotic sound of horses' hooves, the two sides approached to three hundred steps, Zhu Guobin's thousand general flag leaned forward again, the trumpeter blew out the second advance horn, Zhu Guobin gently clamped the horse's belly, and the war horse that had been with him for more than a year jumped lightly and began to jog.
Zhu Guobin ignored the light arrows flying from afar, and observed his array left and right while running, the four hundred cavalry began to jog, full of surging horse heads, and the flag captain in the front row of the queue effectively controlled the team, the array was not chaotic because of sāo disturbance, the results of a year of hard training were reflected, and the array was still stable.
The horses' hooves on the gentle slope are no longer chaotic sounds, and the dense hooves slowly converge into a rumbling sound, which is like fairy music in Zhu Guobin's ears.
The distance between the two sides was only two hundred paces very quickly, because of the reason for the advance, Zhu Guobin regarded it as only a hundred steps, the flat array was like a moving horse wall, and the Mongolian soldiers in front of them did not have much room to maneuver, and retreated in front of the dense cavalry.
The Houjin cavalry appeared in front of Zhu Guobin completely, the iron armor of the soldiers was shining, most of their white spoon weapons were spears and broadswords, and some used maces and knives and sticks, and the same array was strictly organized at the beginning of the jogging, but the strict formation was only relative to the ordinary Ming army, their white spoon cavalry was wider apart, and the strength was not evenly distributed.
Zhu Guobin's blood surged, "Three speeds!" ”
Another trumpet of advance, the flag bearer turned the thousand flags in a circle and leaned forward, the twelve flag captains gave a loud order, and the pennant guns leaned forward again. The Wendeng cavalry heard the sound of the trumpet, and at the same time the horses accelerated, the rumbling hooves of the horses were like thunder running from far and near, and the red tassels on the rows of bright helmets were beating, like countless flickering red flames.
The Houjin rangers who were disturbed by Sāo did not dare to block the front of the troops, and fled to both sides, aiming their bows and arrows at the two wings, and the Ming troops on both wings counted in, but this loss had no effect on the large array.
Under the confrontation, the two sides only had the last hundred steps left in the blink of an eye, and it only took a few seconds.
"Stormtroopers!" Zhu Guobin shouted in the wind, and the two trumpeters blew a loud horn. Zhu Guobin and the twelve flag captains flattened their black flag guns, "Tiger! ”
The Wendeng cavalry shouted collectively according to military practice, and the spears erected in the first row were laid out in unison, followed by the boring palladium in the second row. The Houjin soldiers also let out the sound of conch trumpets, and they also flattened their spears and raised their broadswords, and both sides began to charge.
Chen Xin at the top of the slope involuntarily stepped on the stirrup and stood up, looking at the battlefield intently, his eyes were full of galloping horse strands and beating red tassels, and the soil and grass clippings carried by thousands of horses' hooves were flying everywhere, and the vibration caused by the galloping could even be felt at the top of the slope.
Zhong Laosi and Senior Brother Guan in the infantry formation both opened their mouths wide, their eyes were open for a moment, holding their breath and waiting for the moment of collision. The dense formation makes both sides have no way to retreat, and there is no room to dodge, and the killing and being killed are only in the moment when the horse's body is staggered, at this time, the individual combat skills and riding skills have no effect, and the courage of the male is reflected in the cavalry battle to the greatest extent.
The oncoming Houjin army began to show panic, and under the threat of dense spears in front of them, some horses ran diagonally to the side regardless of the rider's control, but diagonally towards the Ming cavalry formation that was also pouring in, their formation became scattered, but at this distance, the hedging cavalry could retreat without entering.
Under the rapid running, the cavalry array of the Wenden battalion began to curve, but the short distance was not enough to affect the integrity of the formation.
Fifty paces apart, the horse speed rose to the fastest, the two sides approached at a speed of about twenty meters per second, Zhu Guobin's face was flushed, his eyes were wide open, and he clenched the flag gun with the black sè pennant in his hand, and the head of the gun was aimed at the opposite Houjin soldier, this Houjin soldier was full of fierceness, holding a big knife to lead the front, and he was finally a little flustered at this time, because he had to face the attack of at least two spears.
The front row of Houjin was still trying to shè arrows, and a light arrow from the bow shè swished in, and more than a dozen Ming soldiers were hit, but only five fell off their horses, and the short distance was gone in a blink of an eye.
"Kill!!" At the same time, the cavalry formation of the Wenden battalion erupted in a hissing roar.
Boom, the torrent of two horses collided head-on, countless broken spear shafts and blades of shards flew, the sound of breaking and the collision of horses was endless, the sound of the blades rubbing against the armor made the roots of the teeth sour, and the horses that could not avoid it collided with each other and shattered their bones, some horses were knocked into the air, and some fell to the ground with the riders, rolling desperately on the ground.
At the last moment, Zhu Guobin's mount also deviated to the left disobediently, but did not let his spear deviate too much, he stared at the Houjin soldier, lowered his body, and staggered in the roaring hooves. There was a huge impact in his hand, and the body of the gun flew out of his hand in an instant, and the Houjin soldier with a miserable scream, the figure turned backwards, and then flashed in front of him.
"Stabbed." Zhu Guobin only had time to think about it, the corner of his eyes swept away, there was an empty position next to him, the trumpeter didn't know where he was knocked to, and several Houjin cavalrymen shook in front of him, one of the white-armored maces slashed in front of his eyes, Zhu Guobin just relied on instinct to dodge, but the mace was still far away, and the white-armored soldier had no chance to attack a second time, Zhu Guobin hurriedly pulled out the spare waist knife, and when it was ready, the horse had already run with him to more than 20 steps, and there was no enemy in front of him.
The dense formation of the Wendeng cavalry dominated, and more than 80 Houjin troops in the front row were shot down more than 60 in the first round of confrontation, and the remaining Houjin soldiers passed through the front line of the Ming army, and before they could catch their breath, the second row of cavalry walls came with dense boring palladium, and the sharp center and horizontal strands were like the sickles of death under the acceleration of the horses. Most of these Houjin soldiers had broken their blades or had no time to retract them, and they were almost powerless to fight back, and the dense and straight array on the opposite side gave them no room to avoid to the side.
Another round of duels into the back of the horse, the Houjin cavalry suffered heavy losses again, after the second column of the Wenden cavalry passed, the Houjin formation was in chaos, the place where the collision occurred was full of dead and wounded horse limbs, the interval between the two rounds was just a blink of an eye, the Houjin follow-up cavalry still did not have the opportunity and time to adjust their direction, they were slowing down, and the third round of the saber cavalry rushed up again.
They still maintained their formation, holding a thick-backed saber in their hands and roaring, with the help of hedging horsepower, they did not need to swing hard, as long as they grasped the handle of the knife when they staggered and swung it gently, they could bring flying limbs and a rain of blood. Even if there were piles of Houjin soldiers in front, they could only run headlong, and several riders were lifted high by the powerful habitual xìng, and smashed into the Houjin soldiers behind.
The formation of the Houjin soldiers is relatively thick, and in these concentrated places, the Wendeng cavalry cannot avoid in the dense formation, so they can only rush forward, even if they kill the enemy in the front row, they will be attacked by the opponent's rear row, or they will collide with the opponent's cavalry who can not dodge. In the back row, the Jin soldiers brandished their weapons to attack the Ming army rushing by, but the Ming army did not slow down, and continued to run forward, and in the blink of an eye, they staggered by. The Houjin soldiers in the thick part of the formation were thrown into disarray by the collision, and the rolling horses on the ground blocked their white spoon route, and they had to reduce the speed of their horses, which made them almost useless in the engagement.
The three rounds of attacks were like a storm, violently beating the Houjin Front to a thousand holes, leaving behind corpses and wounded, and the remaining Wenden queue did not stop at all, like a sudden surge of madness and went away in an instant, they continued to move forward, and after a hundred steps, they slowly slowed down and began to line up again.
After these three rounds, the Houjin soldiers lost more than 150 entries, the front was fragmented, all the ins were in a panic, and they completely lost their command, but the blow was not over, and the white spoon greeted them with a short roar.
The cavalry of the fourth platoon of the Chinese Guards and the infantry immediately followed, they blew bamboo whistles, and roared past in groups of three or five, specifically attacking the lone Houjin soldiers.
The rangers, who had begun to retreat to the flanks, were encouraged to come up again, and they gathered and scattered in small groups, attacking the Houjin cavalry with short guns and cavalry bows, and the battlefield was filled with white smoke and confusion.
The corpses were all over the place where they collided, the wounded soldiers and horses on both sides were desperately struggling and neighing, the two sides were stacked on top of each other in the place where the collision was concentrated, and some of the fallen cavalrymen of both sides came to their senses, drew their daggers or picked up the weapons that fell nearby, and fought with each other, and even some of the wounded ones wrestled with each other......
The leader's Zhenglan Banner Jia La'e Zhen was cut off in the left arm, and in the face of the inexplicable cold of this Ming army, he encountered this kind of cavalry fighting style for almost life for life.
The Houjin cavalry fought with those Ming ranger dogs. As soon as he glanced ahead, the dense infantry phalanx was advancing here, and when he saw the strict infantry column on the opposite side, he suddenly remembered the Ming army of Denglai, and the news he heard from the other bulls in the Zhenglan Banner seemed to be like this.
He couldn't help but tremble in his heart, and roared loudly to call out to the scattered troops, asking them to quickly assemble and prepare to flee back to Jinzhou to defend to the death, but those Ming troops did not collect at night and disturbed the Houjin soldiers to deal with it, and the continuous roar of short guns drowned out his horns, and the Houjin cavalry was in a state of confusion.
Goshha beside him suddenly said to him: "Master, look. After saying that, he pointed to the north.
Jiala Ezhen turned his head to see that the three columns of Ming troops had rearranged about one hundred and fifty paces away, when a military horn sounded, the large array began to jog, and the Ming army's rangers retreated to the infantry formation.
Jia La's forehead is really trembling, he can't think about it, according to this style of play, as long as he comes two more rounds, he will lose all this point, the flag owner will definitely kill him, and the most important thing is that he has no confidence to win, and now he must leave here quickly. But these cavalry occupied the north side, and they had to pass through their white spoon blockade, and if they fled from the hills on either side, the enemy would easily get ahead of them by the official road, and the troops would be completely scattered in those difficult terrains. If it was only to get around them, these cavalrymen who occupied the inner line were not slow, and a direct flank attack would be more deadly than a frontal charge.
So even if he didn't want to, he had to do it again with them, and the other party's infantry was less than two hundred steps, and he had to leave as much as he could.
This Jia La'e is really experienced in a hundred battles, and quickly thought of a way, he said loudly to the two white armors beside him: "Blow the trumpet, follow those who can follow, and those who are dragged will not wait, they will all rush behind the banner of Lao Tzu, don't pull away ......"