Chapter 31: Rounding

As a decoy for cicadas, the death squad has just been out of sight, and the yellow finch team, which is about to eat the praying mantis in one bite, also marches towards the predetermined location. The former left the official road and entered the forest, and the latter reached their designated position four or five miles away.

In order to save horsepower, the knights led the horses on foot. At this time, Gu Baihua's armored riders untied their armor burdens from their horses, helped each other put them on, and then patiently waited for the signal. The foot soldiers were busy unloading their equipment from the carriage, and after putting on their armor, they sat on the ground under the orders of Takato Bean to conserve their strength. Takato was still on his horse - he was in charge of directing the infantry and wanted to have a better vision. Since you don't need to charge with the horse team, you don't have to worry about horsepower.

The plan was perfect: after the signal was given, the horse team as a hammer would rush over and drag the enemy, and as long as the passage to the north was blocked, and the dog officers and soldiers were driven to the south, the infantry could hold the bottom of the pocket like an anvil.

There are armored cavalry in the north, elite soldiers in the south, and the surging water of the confluence of the three rivers in the west, and the dense forests in the east—normal walking will quickly consume a lot of physical strength, and the panicked routs rush into it, and it is only a matter of time before they are searched out.

Seeing the signal from the boat, Gu Baihua nodded slightly to Gao Tengdou, clamped his legs between the horse's belly, and the horse trotted up. The horsemen did not need to go into the forest to chase and suppress, they rushed over first to block the north road to guard the official road, and the battle was won. Marching between the valley birch with his left hand and his right hand probed, he had already pulled out the horse Shuo hanging on the saddle bridge, and danced a spear flower under the ribs, and the whole set & action was done in one go. Gao Tengdou couldn't help but secretly cheer in his heart, this barbarian is really worthy of being a horse thief, and few people can stop his life-threatening knife when he fights on foot, if you talk about the skill on horseback, there is really no one in the whole army who can match this guy. This guy seems to be more horselike than the Mongolian Tartar, no matter how strong the horse is, it will be as well-behaved as if it has been raised for several years in an hour, and people are more like growing on horseback. With Gu Baihua's movements, the armored cavalry behind him also put on a standard cavalry charging posture: charging with guns.

When the last armored cavalry galloped a few feet away, Gao Tengdou quickly commanded the soldiers to discharge the battle formation: the spearmen were on the outside, responsible for blocking the enemy cavalry charging formation, and the sword and shield soldiers were the main force of the search and suppression, forming a tight battle formation - because of the absolute superiority in strength, after removing the threat of the enemy cavalry and receiving the enemy, Gao Tengdou would order the small formation to disperse, and the soldiers would form groups of three or five to enter the forest to search and suppress.

A clarion call: "Enter!" The infantry began to press forward unhurriedly. These soldiers are all carefully selected elite soldiers, with rich experience in battle, and in order to maintain their physical strength, everyone is not very fast.

When Li Yaobi saw the rapidly approaching cloud of smoke and dust in the south, he immediately made a judgment: the thieves had fifty or sixty horses, which was definitely not something that his horsemen could handle. And the horses are gradually accelerating when they run, even if they immediately line up in formation to hedge, at this distance, the opponent's horse has already run out of character to reach full speed, and their speed will definitely not be able to be raised, and it will be a dead end! Immediately shouted: "Run north, run north!" Beckoning a few subordinates who had just come out of the forest, they desperately whipped their mounts and galloped towards Ansai County in the north.

There were only four riders running with Li Yaobi.

The lush vegetation greatly weakened the transmission distance and effect of sound waves in the forest, and although all the horsemen who heard Li Yao's warning were shouting in relay, the first few people who went deep were still a step too late to turn around, and before they could get out of the woods, Gu Baihua's armored cavalry rumbled past the forest. The enemy horsemen who were close at hand just grinned and pointed their rifles and other weapons at them menacingly, and no one stopped to fight.

The smoke and dust raised by the cavalry obscured the vision, and the rumbling hooves also swallowed up the neighing of Li Yaobi, and the few people who were dazed and did not know where to go glanced at each other, and instinctively rode their horses to the south, which was the opposite direction of the cavalry of the brigade. The horses had barely picked up a little speed, and through the already thinning smoke, they were horrified to find a blinding light shining in the distance: it was the tip of the spear and the blade, and the sunlight reflected off the iron armor!

Li Yaobi, who was running at the front, glanced back, followed by four panicked brothers, and then behind him, the black enemy cavalry, running straight along the official road.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to run away!" The fear quickly spreads throughout the body. The enemy rider has already run to full speed, and he has just trotted, can the mount with a distance of sixty or seventy zhang between the two sides be mentioned at full speed? The official road leads directly to the county seat of Ansai, which is also occupied by thieves, what should I do when I get to the city, do you rush over? Li Yaobian didn't understand it in a flash, and suddenly found that he didn't need to think hard: on the official road in the direction of Ansai County in front, several ropes had been pulled, and behind the ropes, there were dozens of thieves with guns and knives!

"Down to the river! Down the river! Li Yaobi shouted again.

Entering the forest is a dead end.

Indeed, when they came, they came through the forest. But at that time, there were auxiliaries who opened the way with firewood knives and led their horses to move over step by step. Regardless of whether the thieves and horses were followed by the infantry team or not, as long as they dismounted and entered the forest in half of them, they would definitely not be able to escape - the only way to survive in front of them was to jump into Yanshui!

Li Yaobao directly threw away the weapon, no longer urging the mount, and began to unload the armor at the same time. Damn, it's tied up too tightly! Li Yaobi pulled out the dagger and struggled to break the cowhide rope connecting the nail pieces in the bumps.

The sound of galloping horses' hooves was getting closer and closer, and there was a scream from behind, Li Yaobao didn't look back, he knew that it was the guy who ran at the end who was caught up!

"Li Tou'er, go down the river quickly!" , followed by a few water sounds next to each other. A is a treasure, it is impossible for each person to have a collar, some horsemen do not have armor, but at this moment they are more convenient. Li Yaobi finally broke free from the shackles of Zajia, and jumped into Yanshui when the pursuers were only three horses away.

The moment he entered the water, Li Yaobi caught a glimpse of his two hands struggling in vain and gradually sinking.

It was a vest that jumped into the river before it could be removed, and did not hold the horse's neck tightly. As soon as they entered the water, the horse's momentum came to an abrupt halt, and the horse's man was thrown far away under the action of the huge kinetic energy inertia - no matter how good his swimming skills were, he could not resist the pull of the heavy iron armor, and the horse, which had lost its owner's control, swam aimlessly and instinctively in the water.

Li Yaobi, who was clinging to the horse's neck, looked downstream with the wave load, and the other two unarmored horsemen did not sink after entering the water, but what awaited them was still death: the three or so small boats that seemed harmless to humans and animals that they had seen from a distance had rushed down the river like arrows, and one archer and two pikemen drilled out of each canopy!

A small boat rowed at the horse that had lost its owner, and a spear stretched out from the boat, and the reins were lifted up in the water, and the boatman reached out to grab it, and then the boat pulled the horse back to the shore. The boats on the other boats rocked the oars and struggled with the rapids, keeping the boats within a foot of each of them. The archers were unhurried, seemingly close at hand, the boat in the waves rose and fell, the first two arrows missed, but the archers were still unhurried—it was clear that the thieves were afraid of hurting their horses!

Fortunately, the boat rushed too fast downstream, and Li Yao Biscuit ran farther north. Now the boat was to the south, and to catch up with him was to swim upstream, and the other two companions attracted most of the attention, especially the thieves, who were more interested in the horses! Thinking about this truth, Li Yaobi let go of his hand without hesitation, let the horse go down the river, and stabbed himself in the direction of the opposite bank......

Gu Baihua reined in his war horse on the shore and looked into the river for a while.

There are some regrets.

He had always looked down on the little riding bow and did not bring it, otherwise the fellow who had abandoned the horse would not have been able to escape: he did not need to hit the vital point, as long as he stuck an arrow or two anywhere, and he could swim anywhere! However, I can't complain about the guerrilla - the riding bow is only half the size of the foot bow, and the power is even more pitiful, and the Mongol Tartars are rushing to the front in a row, holding the horse and stretching the bow, shooting an arrow and running, bullying the unarmored to scare and scare the recruits. Moreover, archery requires accuracy and strength - not to dismount and shoot! Shoot on the back of a bumpy galloping horse? Hehe, it's certain that the arrow won't go far, and it's not sure where it will fall.

After the whole team turned around, Gu Baihua did not rush to lead his troops to press back to the south again, but drove his horse to the dozens of ambushes and ropes to the north. Luo Shifan, Guan Jianlin and several other knights were bored watching the soldiers untie the stumbling horses. Gu Baihua raised his big finger and praised sincerely: "The little master is really good!" If it weren't for the little master's arrangement to block the troops and ships, he almost let a few dog thieves run away! ”

Luo Shifan smiled: "Brother Gu, don't be polite. The father wants the younger brother to have more experience with Brother Gu, and the younger brother himself wants to see the excitement, but can he make it? ”

Gu Baihua laughed: "Naturally, naturally. Little master, please! You'll be in the second row in a minute. It's refreshing and safe to see. Don't get too close, if the little master is short of a cold hair, Gu's dog head can't afford to pay if it is cut off, hahaha. ”

Everyone returned to the team with a smile, Gu Baihua and Guan Jianlin guarded Luo Shifan in the center with one left and one right, shouted and shouted, urged the cavalry formation, and trotted back to the south.

When the horsemen who galloped south against Li Yaobi, they saw the thick (thick enough for their horses) infantry team, and they didn't even think about the idea of rushing into battle, and set their mounts to run north again.

Farther away, smoke and dust rose again: the horse team that had just galloped back again!

Several people looked at each other in despair, dismounted, threw the reins in their hands, and ran into the forest while disarming.

On the side of the infantry team, the field of view of the high vine beans on the horse is wider than that of the soldiers. Seeing this, the long knife was drawn to the northeast: "Enter the forest to pursue!" ”

The infantry soldiers had already understood the combat mission, and according to the pre-plan, they quickly divided into teams of ten people and one fruit, and each fruit was separated by more than ten battles from each other, shouting and scattering into the forest beside the road. Each fruit was mixed in with two or three spearmen, and under the close protection of the sword and shield men, they would poke with spears at every suspicious bush in the dense forest where people could hide.

This knowledge point:

1. Those who ride horses are not necessarily cavalry, they may be genuine cavalry, or they may be mounted infantry. The difference is that cavalry generally uses long soldiers as their main weapon, and when fighting, they ride on horseback, and horseback infantry only uses horses as a means of transportation, and dismounts and fights on foot after receiving the enemy, and mostly uses short soldiers (similar to modern infantry fighting vehicles, the main function of combat vehicles is more focused on placing soldiers in appropriate places). Many of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty in later generations were mounted infantry.

2. Cavalry also has the difference between armored cavalry and unarmored cavalry, especially cavalry auxiliaries, who do not even have leather armor, but when the war is smooth, they will also chase with knives in order to grab the spoils of war.

3. In ancient China, due to the limitation of horse types, the weight of Hetao horses and Mongolian horses generally did not exceed four or five hundred catties, and the carrying capacity was weak, so light cavalry was the mainstay. The number of mounted cavalry, that is, heavy cavalry, that is, heavy cavalry, that can also put on horse armor for war horses, is very small. The iron float of the golden vulture is somewhat like Zheng Chenggong's Iron Man Army - Zheng Damu bought a lot of canned armor from the Dutch, but the European plate armor is mainly equipped with knights, even if it is a tall European, it is difficult for ordinary people to wear it well. Only 500 of the more than 100,000 Fujian and Zhejiang troops were selected, which seemed to be invincible, but it was difficult to recover from the loss again.

4. Cavalry marching will only be ridden all the time under necessary or special circumstances, most of the time it is to save horsepower and lead the horse on foot - unless it reaches the top match of two people and four horses: a war horse for war, a pack horse to carry a heavy cover, a horse to march on a horse, and a cavalry auxiliary to mow the grass and feed the horse and serve people. This kind of luxurious lineup needs to be piled up with silver: training aside, the comprehensive cost of raising a regular cavalry is more than 10 ordinary soldiers - if you were a general, would you choose to raise two or three top armored cavalry or a hundred-man infantry team?