This was the first time that Bo Silin, as Li Siye's opponent, had fought with the Tang army on the battlefield, one of them was the supreme commander of the Tang army in the Western Regions, and the other was the governor of the Great Food Army in the Khorasan region, which was a contest between the same ranks. Only by defeating the people with the highest military level can they calmly accept the outcome of this war.

This time, there were more than 60,000 people in the Great Food Army led by Bo Xilin, and after the losses of Li Siye's Anxi Army after a long battle, there were still 38,000 people left together with Ning Yuanguo and Gelulu's co-subordinate troops, and the auxiliary soldiers sent by Kang Guo and Mi Guo in Hezhong were not considered combat strength.

Li Siye set up a battle formation outside Mulu City, and the direction of the military formation was not Mulu City, but the vast desert Gobi, as long as the battle was lost, he immediately withdrew to the Hezhong area to regroup.

This time, it is no longer a defensive Liuhua Formation, but a fish-scale formation that focuses on attack, this formation is like an irregular equilateral triangle, with the front and middle armies at the tip and center of the triangle respectively, and the sides and flanks are all used to outflank and cover the enemy.

He dared to put on this formation carried forward by Genghis Khan, mainly thanks to the horses and camels captured in the four wars, so that the number of cavalry of the Tang Army has far exceeded the infantry, and he can rely on mobility to perform this epoch-making tactic.

And Po Xilin placed four infantry phalanx arrays in front of the center, cavalry arrays on the sides and behind, and a row of more than sixty stone throwers to suppress the Tang army's Fuyuan crossbows with ultra-long range.

Ziyad said beside Hebosilin: "Grand Duke Abu should be careful, although the Tang army's Fuyuan crossbow does not have the range of a stone thrower, its accuracy is far higher than that of a stone thrower, and it can also fire a powerful explosive weapon, its sound is like thunder, and it can cause a fire, so the Tang army called it a fierce fire thunder."

And Bo Xilin said confidently: "I have already dealt with this matter, and I will send cavalry to attack the infantry to prevent them from shooting at close range with a crossbow. ”

Ziad tactfully persuaded again: "Although this method of the Grand Duke is not impossible, but all the Tang soldiers are equipped with bows and crossbows, and the range is from far to near, and the cavalry may cause a lot of losses when they are close to harass. ”

And Bo Xilin said in a deep voice: "How can there be no losses in a battle, as long as we make good use of the long-range advantage of trebuchets and use cavalry attacks to prevent the enemy from destroying trebuchets, the enemy's losses will be far greater than ours." ”

……

Li Siye looked at the rows of tall trebuchets hidden in the military formation on the opposite side, raised his horsewhip and said with a smile: "They brought out this big killing weapon again, this thing is very effective against military formations and fixed fortresses, so we have to use flexible fighting methods." ”

As he spoke, he shouted to the troops behind him: "Whoever can get on the horse will be mounted for me, and the regiment and brigade will be used as a unit to attack and harass, and the brigade commander and the captain will put the flag on my shoulder!" The Han Navy and the Qarluq cavalry are responsible for the frontal battlefield, the Anxi cavalry and the temporary cavalry army are responsible for the flank attack, and the commanders of the four armies must charge and retreat according to the orders of the Chinese army. Shoot arrows when you advance, when you take a detour, when you retreat, don't carry them hard when the enemy is in a stable formation, and don't be stingy with the arrows in your quiver! Because this will be the last battle of the Great Food Army! ”

"Whoa!" The shouts of the officers and men of the three armies shook like thunder.

The opposite big food army blew the rhinoceros horns, the slaves pushed the catapults and began to move forward, they knew the range of these big guys well, the Chinese army of the Tang army began to retreat back, the cavalry at the front end of the fish scale array gradually expanded and dispersed, this seemingly scattered battle formation minimized the chance of the catapults hitting.

Tian Zhen personally led the cavalry to charge forward, they leaned on the back of their horses, clenched their horn bows, and charged forward in a vertical formation.

Ziad didn't expect that the Tang army would use cavalry as soon as it came up, and he was secretly hesitating, and he had never seen the way the other party had just set up the formation.

And Bo Xilin raised his hand and pointed at Tang Jun: "What kind of battle formation is this, what kind of battle method is this, have you ever encountered it?" ”

Ziyad shook his head blankly: "I don't know, Grand Duke Abu, I've never seen it, it may be a new method of warfare." ”

"In that case! The cavalry postponed, and let our army's spear, giant shield, heavy armor and longbow combined phalanx teach a lesson to Li Siye, who didn't know what to do! ”

The phalanx of the Arabs absorbed the advantages of the Byzantine phalanx, the front two rows of heavy infantry had chain mail and tower shields, they would hold their shields on the ground to cover most of their bodies, the second row held their round shields high to protect them from arrows from above, and the pikemen in the rear extended their guns through the gaps in their shields, and the shiny and sharp spear heads would turn the horses that dared to crash into them into countless bloody holes. Their strategic thinking was similar to that of the Don army, a strong infantry phalanx was the key to victory, and the cavalry was able to pursue the enemy cavalry only after covering and winning after the defeat of the infantry formation. As long as the problem of not being able to chase after victory and retreat from defeat is solved, the infantry phalanx is still quite powerful.

They also have a weapon that the Tang army has never been equipped with, that is, the throwing gun on the battlefield, the biggest advantage of the throwing gun is the low cost of training, it takes two or three years of target training to train a qualified archer, but it only takes a month or even ten days to train a bidding gunner, as long as he has the strength and learns the basic operation movements, he can successfully throw the javelin in his hand into the charging enemy.

The Han navy rushed to a hundred paces away from the Great Food Army, the cavalry with strong scales and armor in front of the formation as a meat shield, the light cavalry in the rear pressed up, raised their heads and pulled their bows to shoot at the enemy, after the shooting, they did not hesitate, quickly turned back, and then another group of people rode over, another round of throwing, and then quickly retreated. This method of warfare is not very cheap, and the range of the infantry bow is slightly better than that of the cavalry. There were also many archers in the Arab army, and their dense volleys caused a lot of casualties to the Han cavalry.

Tian Zhen saw the flag waved by the Chinese army, and immediately ordered the Han navy to retreat, and the Qarluq cavalry followed closely, their riding skills were slightly better than those of the Tang army, and their activities were more flexible, but the armor was too weak, although there was the cover of the heavy infantry horse team of the Tang army in front of them, there were still a certain degree of casualties.

The two-wheeled cavalry harassment of the Tang cavalry did not shake the formation of the Great Eclipse infantry, and the other side was still in high spirits, and continued to advance with neat steps with the horns of the ox. Because the first five rows of the Great Eclipse Phalanx are basically heavily armored, the bow and arrow cannot be easily shot through, even if the thrown bow and arrow can be shot after the five rows, it will cause certain casualties. But as long as the formation in front is stable, even if there are casualties and riots in the middle, the officers and overseers in the back row can suppress everyone's emotions.

Li Siye then ordered the Gelulu cavalry to retreat, the infantry formation of the Great Food Army stepped forward in an orderly manner, the Anxi Cavalry Army and the temporarily formed cavalry army Danfan outflanked from both wings, and was rushed up from both sides by the rear Great Food Cavalry Formation to protect the two wings, and after a fierce battle between the two sides, the Anxi Army was defeated and retreated again.

The combat tactics of the cavalry fish scale formation are correct, but it seems that the enemy army cannot be gnawed, and the big cannibal forces are superior, as long as their casualties are not lower than the Anxi army, even if it is a one-to-one battle loss ratio, it is the Anxi army that is the first to be defeated.

Deputy Capital Protector Cheng Qianli said on Li Siye's side: "Doctor, your all-cavalry fish scale formation tactics seem to have failed, the infantry phalanx of the Great Food Army is extremely mature, they use cavalry to protect the two wings and the rear and continue to move forward, we have no way to start!" ”

"Who said that?" Li Siye smiled casually: "I still have a winning weapon magic weapon that I haven't used." ”

The flag-bearers of the five directions gave me an order, ordering the bombardment battalion to blend in with the cavalry of the Han Navy, throw them at the close range of cavalry, and blow up the enemy's heavily armored formation with fierce fire and thunder! Order the Qarluq cavalry to charge and prepare, and as long as there is confusion in the enemy's military formation, immediately charge with thousands of horsemen and envelop the people! ”