Chapter Eighty-Seven: Out of the City to Fight
When the first rays of sunlight in the morning shone on the head of Metasequoia City, the alarm bells in the city had already sounded in all directions.
Twenty large phalanxes composed of 50,000 Loulan troops and 30,000 Che Chi troops are advancing with momentum as the goal of Metasequoia City at this moment.
The Loulan army, dressed in mud-yellow leather armor, looked from afar, like locusts covering the sky and the sun, and the dense hook spears reflected the sunlight, constantly shining with dazzling light in the array.
The Chechi soldiers, dressed in chain iron armor and wearing pointed helmets, held high large shields and scimitars, and the mighty procession could not be seen at a glance.
Thousands of colorful flags, representing hundreds of different divisions and battalions of the Loulan Army and the Chechi Army, flaunted their might against the approaching Metasequoia City, as if they wanted to steadily overwhelm the defenders in momentum.
According to the original plan of the Marquis of Durham, it was originally intended that the coalition forces would raid the city at night last night, and launch a series of fierce attacks on the city with lightning speed, and conquer the seemingly fragile metasequoia in one fell swoop.
However, Duolun, the leader of the Turkic Iron Pigeon Army, and Gelhan, the king of Chechi, stood up very tacitly and dissuaded the marquis's bold idea in time. The two of them had suffered a big loss in the ghost place of Metasequoia, and they had lingering fears for the cunning Li Jiangyao, so they naturally didn't want to see the coalition forces fall into each other's traps as soon as they arrived.
Duolun specially reminded Durham that when they were robbed and killed by Metasequoia soldiers and horses a few days ago, the combat power shown by the other party was by no means a simple rabble, but a regular army capable of leaving 500 elite gold armor alive, so they should not take this battle lightly.
Alekjan, on the other hand, considered that his troops had traveled a long distance and needed adequate rest, so he also advised Durham not to be in a hurry. Anyway, it is impossible for Metasequoia to grow legs and run away, and when it is dawn the next day, it is not too late to crush the remnants of the Holy Tang Dynasty with a strong lineup.
Although Durham was slightly dissatisfied, the three generals were all in unison, and they were not too stubborn. In the final analysis, it was the Loulan Army and the Che Chi Army who were fighting, if it was his sons and daughters who were here, they wouldn't have to pay attention to so much, and just start fighting happily.
At present, the kings of Loulanchechi and Chi have given themselves enough face, not only immediately stopped continuing the infighting, but also obediently led their troops and horses to attack Metasequoia, this small request of "rest for one night, fight again tomorrow", agreed to it. Besides, his own side has an absolute advantage, which can be said to be a sure victory, and what Lord Durham really needs to think about is whether to massacre the city next, so as to avenge the five hundred guards, as for whether to fight tonight or tomorrow, it doesn't matter at all.
So, Durham nodded in agreement, and according to Doron's idea, they fought a decent siege the next day.
Another question is who holds the command. In view of the fact that the troops who participated in the war this time were all the troops of the Western Frontier Alliance, it was really not easy for the Turkic deputy marshal to command these people. Therefore, the Marquis of Durham appointed Alikjiang as the commander of the Western Frontier Alliance, as the commander-in-chief of the siege operations, Gerhan as the deputy commander to assist, and he himself sat in the rear with Duolun to supervise the battle.
Duolun was supposed to stay in the court of Chechi and organize and plan the "search group" with Prince Gune, but he was worried that there would be any more moths in Metasequoia City, which was full of tricks, so he put aside the errand of finding the princess for the time being, and followed Durham all the way to Metasequoia to watch the battle, and if necessary, he could give advice to the deputy marshal. For example, last night, we dissuaded Durham from attacking the enemy in a timely manner and attacking the city overnight.
However, what Duolun didn't expect was that it was precisely his kindness that caused the coalition forces to miss the only chance to defeat Metasequoia.
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The three-way drum sounded, and the leader of the Western Xinjiang Alliance, Alikjiang, was wearing a full suit of armor and a horizontal sword in front of the army, looking full of ambition.
He knew that his nemesis, Gelhan, had suffered a lot of losses in Metasequoia City, and finally returned home. Therefore, Alekjiang wanted to take advantage of today's battle to establish his prestige, completely suppress Che Chiguo and Gelhan, and save that guy from thinking about the throne of the alliance leader all day long and opposing him in various ways.
More importantly, the Marquis of Durham, the deputy marshal of the Turks and the famous general of the Golden Clan, was at the rear of the position at this time, watching his every move, he must also seize this opportunity and prove to the Turks with ironclad facts that the position of the leader of the Western Frontier Alliance was by no means for nothing.
With this thought in mind, Alikjiang instructed his subordinates to let the whole army advance five hundred paces as a whole, and when they were close to the range of the bow and arrow at the head of the city, they would stop and line up, stabilize their positions, and then shout for surrender. If the other party is interested and obediently surrenders, then everything will be easy to do; But if the defenders of Metasequoia City were stubborn and dared to resist his heavenly might, then they would immediately divide the army into four routes, each aiming at the city gates in the east, west, north and south, and launch a fierce attack together.
This style of play is commonly known as "crushing".
Alekjiang secretly calculated in his heart: a small Metasequoia City, placed in the ghost desert of the entire Western Xinjiang, is not well known, even if a large number of remnants of the defeated soldiers who escaped from Crescent Bay are gathered, how exaggerated can the combat power be? Full of battles, they are no more than 10,000 people in the sky, 80,000 coalition troops are attacking at the same time, and every direction is an absolutely crushing advantage, how can it be unreasonable?
However, unexpectedly, as soon as the order of the Alek River was issued, before the Western Frontier Coalition Army could move, the gate of Metasequoia City in the distance opposite suddenly opened. The 20,000 Metasequoia garrison, lined up in formation, rushed directly out of the city to set up a formation.
"Yo?! They actually came out? Durham, who was in the rear, leaned out on the saddle, put up his curtain and looked into the distance, and said in surprise: "This Metasequoia City is a bit interesting, dare to give up the fortifications and go out of the city to fight?!" ”
Duolun was also puzzled, unable to understand why Li Jiangyao was so stupid.
"Hahaha......" Seeing the other party going out of the city, Alikjiang suddenly showed his signature arrogant expression, and laughed: "Metasequoia's little cub took the initiative to send him to death, God really help me!" ”
Since the other party has such courage, it seems that even shouting and surrendering can be omitted. Alekjiang pulled out his sword and pointed forward: "Pass my general's order, Che Chi's army is on standby, and the warriors of Loulan are advancing on all fronts!" ”
With his order, the eight Loulan infantry phalanxes at the front began to move, and the other two cavalry formations protected the left and right flanks, moving forward synchronously. Alekjiang commanded the Chinese army to suppress the formation, ready to launch a general charge at any time.
The seven Chechi army formations, which were located on the left side of the entire coalition front, remained in place according to his orders.
Almost at the same time, the Metasequoia garrison, which had already set up a formation outside the city, also followed the passionate war drums at this moment, and steadily greeted the Loulan army on the opposite side.
The 20,000 Metasequoia warriors who went out of the city to fight were divided into three horizontal formations that were customary to the Saint Tang army.
In the front row, there is a wooden oar shield nearly one person high. The huge shield spread out in one line, forming a protective wall for the entire formation. In the second row are spearmen, who can stab the enemy through the gap between the shields when they charge in front of the shield wall, killing and wounding the enemy. The third row are the sword and shield men and the great axemen, who are the main force of hand-to-hand combat, all of strong and brave warriors, ready to break through the battle. At the rear, there are three rows of archers. Standing in three rows, it is to facilitate rotational shooting, and it is specially responsible for destroying enemy troops from a distance.
After Li Jiangyao and Xu Youchang's careful training, this army has formed an extremely complex local garrison armed force with uneven basic qualities, and now it has begun to take the rudiments of a regular army, and the only thing lacking is only the brutal experience on the battlefield.
In the face of the rebels in the western Xinjiang who had defeated the main force of the Shengtang Dynasty in Crescent Bay, the Metasequoia soldiers did not have the slightest look of fear, on the contrary, they closely followed the drumbeat of the war drums and the shouts of the leading officers, and marched neatly towards the Loulan people.
The two sides drew closer and closer, until the two armies were less than five hundred paces apart, when the drums at the head of the city suddenly stopped, and the Metasequoia warriors shouted in unison: "Huha! The whole army stopped at the same time, and thousands of shields suddenly touched the ground, converging into a loud bang.
The 20,000 soldiers are the same person, walking in unison and moving neatly, which has a strong shock just from a visual point of view. Between the beginning and end of the army, it is revealed everywhere that this is a strong army that should not be underestimated.
The Alikjiang and Loulan armies bore the brunt of the attack and could not help but be shocked by this scene.
The three metasequoia phalanxes stood quietly in front of them, as if to remind the people of Loulan that this was not a simple phalanx in front of them, but a movable metasequoia city.
If you have the guts, you can try it!
At this moment, the eight-step and two-cavalry with a total of ten Loulan army formations in front were still advancing towards the Metasequoia Army, and the sudden stop of the Metasequoia Army immediately caused a lot of interference to their rhythm. Many Loulan soldiers were in a trance and had a kind of confusion that they didn't know whether to enter or stop.
When the two armies face each other, rhythm is one of the most crucial factors. As soon as the rhythm is out of order, it is inevitable that you will fall into a situation of losing ground. The Metasequoia defenders were able to disrupt the enemy's rhythm with just one movement and one stillness, which shows the cleverness of their commander.
Durham and Doren, who were watching the game from behind, were both experienced fighters, and their vision was naturally not bad. Seeing this, the two of them suddenly began to worry a little about Arik.
"Don't hesitate at this time, rush quickly!" "Hurry up and accelerate the impact!" Gelhan and Doron shouted almost at the same time.
In the face of such a well-behaved army, the best tactic should be to take advantage of the morale that has been mustered, rush and press the opponent, and strive to regain the rhythm. On the contrary, the most taboo thing at this time is to follow the pace of the other party, be led by the nose, and then fall into passivity.
However, it is a pity that His Royal Highness Alikjiang, the leader of the Western Frontier Alliance, is still a few ranks behind the level of the two Turkic generals.
Alekjiang was affected by the calm and calm attitude of the Metasequoia Army, and was worried that something would go wrong if he pressed it rashly, so after hesitating for a moment, he immediately ordered the trumpet to blow and let the main infantry phalanx temporarily stop and observe the opponent's virtual reality. At the same time, the cavalry on both flanks were instructed to quickly advance and launch a tentative attack.
After receiving the king's order, the Loulan cavalry, with 3,000 men on the left and right, immediately whipped their horses and quickly passed over the stopped infantry, like two pincers of huge iron pincers, and sandwiched towards the sides of the Metasequoia army.