Chapter 57: From Defense to Attack
Zhao Kuo also heard the movement on Qin Jun's side. But he had already made up his mind that tomorrow, the offensive must begin. If you can catch the Qin army off guard, it will be even better! From the cheers in the Qin camp, it can be felt that the Qin army still wants to repeat the old tricks tomorrow, so a sudden and resolute counterattack will definitely be unexpected and cause suddenness!
The whip urged him to make up his mind because he knew exactly how much food he had brought in, and in order to boost morale, he had been in charge of food for several days, and even gave double food to the troops who performed well. The doubling diet is not really doubled, but only increased by half, that is, from one bucket per person per day to one and a half buckets. For almost ten days, about a third of the food was consumed. He must hold out at least until October, when Zhao's grain is completely in storage, if not completely repulsive to the Qin army. Everything he is doing so far is to defeat, or at least inflict heavy losses on the Qin army.
With the arrival of a large number of reinforcements from the Qin army, the hope of repelling the Qin army became more and more slim, and the heavy damage to the Qin army became Zhao Kuo's goal. In any case, attacking combat is a must!
At the regular meeting just now, Zhao Kuo had assigned each army its own offensive tasks. The main direction of the offensive was still chosen to the south, but on the first day, the offensive had to be launched on all fronts. The offensive will begin immediately after repelling the attack of the Qin army.
Listening to the cheers of the Qin army, the Zhao army was also silently preparing, mainly adjusting the camp and mobilizing the soldiers who were stronger in battle to carry out the first counterattack.
Zhao Kuo inspected all the battalions with combat missions tomorrow that night, and talked casually with the officers and soldiers, expressing his contempt for the Qin army...... The officers and men also responded to the situation, although their hearts were full of tension and worry.
On the other side, the Shu people took out all their winter clothes, and there were only a hundred people in one battalion, but the other four hundred people were standing behind him. Although those hundred people were wearing three or four layers of winter clothes, there was no guarantee that they would not be injured, and they were blessed by other people, and at the same time, there was a battle between heaven and man in their hearts!
It's a sleepless night on both sides......
It was still the Qin army that left the camp first, with 5,000 people.
The Zhao army left the camp after breakfast, 5,000 men.
The Qin army beat drums and pressed on the Zhao army. With the sound of drums, the Qin troops in other areas also rushed out of the barrier and began to line up. The drums of the alarm on the Zhao army's position sounded, and the Zhao army, which was in charge of defense, began to enter the position. At the same time, the strong soldiers of Zhao Jun, who were in charge of the front-line assault mission, quietly crouched under the gatehouse together, ready to leave the city at any time. The reason why it was so early was so that the counterattack troops would be mixed with the defending troops and not be discovered by the Qin army. If the action is late, the movement of the Zhao army may be discovered by the Qin army.
The Qin army crossed the distance between the two armies and reappeared on the mountain bag. There the formation was rectified again, and then neatly pressed towards the Zhao army. The formation of the Zhao army remained unchanged and waited in place; When the Qin army advanced to a distance of 100 paces, it began to slowly retreat. The Qin army quickened its pace to keep up, and the distance between the two sides quickly approached. When there were only about thirty steps left on both sides, Zhao Jun's drums beat loudly, and Zhao Jun, who was retreating, shouted and rushed up. The Qin army also bravely rushed forward against the Zhao army.
This group of Zhao troops obviously had experience in shocking, and they did not immediately collapse under the impact of the Qin army, but held each other for a while before turning to the sides in the sound of the command; And a group of Zhao troops in the back had already rushed up, directly crushing the Qin army in the first formation. and engaged the second Qin army.
At the same time as the drums sounded and the frontal Zhao army charged, the doors of the Zhao army camp were wide open, and a thousand Zhao soldiers wielding halberds rushed out of each gate, and they swarmed up to fight the Qin troops who were scattered. Since the Zhao army in front of him retreated dozens of steps, these Zhao troops appeared right on the side of the Qin army.
Feeling the threat of the flank, the fighting spirit of the second Qin army declined, and it was also defeated by the Zhao army. The outcome seems to depend on the third formation.
But when the third formation of the Zhao army moved forward, the Zhao army suddenly shot a rain of arrows in the sky, and pounced on the Qin army that was scattered in formation.
The Qin army in the south was attacked by the whole army, so there was no three-layer winter coat protection, but they also put on their winter clothes and all other possible clothes, which were bloated and swollen, although they also reduced the lethality of many arrows, but there were also many wounded and lost their combat effectiveness. Seeing the situation, the Qin army did not dare to entangle with the Zhao army's strange soldiers, and dragged the wounded to quickly retreat.
The third formation of the two armies quickly approached, and the strange soldiers of the Zhao army also rushed towards the third formation of the Qin army. But before they reached the side of the third formation, the direction of the Qin army suddenly shot a rain of arrows. The Qin army, which had been dispersed, did not wait for the formation to reorganize, and first gathered the archers and fired at the Zhao army. Zhao Junqi fell in pieces. But under the urging of the drums, they still ran to the third formation of the Qin army desperately.
Their interference worked, and the third formation was routed by the Zhao army under their interference. The strange soldiers of the Zhao army quickly hid behind the regular soldiers and entered a safe area. Under the cover of the shield, the Zhao army rushed quickly in the direction of the archers. The archers of the Zhao army behind the formation continued to shoot arrows, harvesting the stragglers of the Qin army.
The main soldiers of the Zhao army followed the rout of the Qin army and approached the Qin army's position, and the strange soldiers rushed out from both sides and swarmed the Qin army's archers. The Qin army, which had formed a formation in a hurry, hurriedly entered the battle, unable to withstand the impact of the Zhao army at all, and collapsed at the first touch. At this time, the Zhao army behind him had already sorted out the formation and killed again; The strange soldiers who were wounded by the Qin army were supported by the lightly wounded and the seriously wounded were moved into the barrier with difficulty.
The Qin army Mingjin collected five miles and disengaged from contact.
To the surprise of the Qin army, the Zhao army did not stop attacking after occupying Xiaoshanbao and seizing the symbol of victory, and also slightly sorted out the team in the mountains, mainly replenishing the losses of the regular soldiers from the odd soldiers, and began to advance again. And on the vacant position behind, another regular soldier appeared!
Bai Qi's expression remained unchanged, and he whispered to Wang Di: "The Zhao people are counterattacking, and the whole army is on alert!" ”
Wang Yi immediately ordered the drums to be beaten and the army gathered. All kinds of drums sounded in different directions in Baili Changping......
When the Qin army's offensive in the south was launched, the attack on the Zhao army's fortress in the north was also launched in turn. This time, the Qin army boldly advanced to a death distance of seventy steps, and the Zhao army passed a rain of arrows, and many shield bearers could not resist the impact of bows and arrows, and fell to the ground one after another, while the Qin army behind them was covered by several arrows. This is something that can be seen: the Qin army came here last night. Three or four layers of winter clothes worked, although the Qin army had a lot of arrows stuck in its body, it still had the ability to drag the fallen Qin army to quickly retreat and get out of the range of the Zhao army.
As a result of being reminded, the Zhao army did notice that after the Qin army arrived at their position, they took off their shields and arrows from their bodies, and the arrows on the ground were also picked up. It seems that Zhao Kuo is right, the Qin army's attack is indeed here to pick up arrows. However, unlike yesterday, when there were zero casualties, this time due to the close distance, although preparations were made, there were still people injured, and blood stained winter clothes. Moreover, it was early autumn, the weather was still warm, and it was too hot to wear three layers of winter clothes, and after returning to the main formation, the soldiers took off their clothes, wrapped up their wounds on one side, and took advantage of the cold on the other.
Ten thousand people will ask Zhao Kuo, do you want to attack? Zhao Kuo observed and said, "Decline three times again." Wait for three formations, and come out! ”
After the second formation was repulsed, alarm drums sounded throughout the Qin army's position, indicating that the Qin army had discovered that the Zhao army had a sinister plan.
Finding that the Qin army was only starting to prepare now, a trace of regret came to Zhao Kuo's heart, wouldn't it be more advantageous to attack early? But he immediately cut off the thought and thought all about how to develop the offensive as planned.
To the south, the Qin army, which had retreated five miles to regroup, and the Zhao army, which was pressing forward step by step, engaged again in battle. This time in front of the mountain, the two sides killed in the dark, and they broke up and regrouped again, due to the large number of Zhao troops, there were strange soldiers harassing, and the scene was superior. However, some of the archers of the Qin army were specially used to shoot Zhao Qibing, and they also killed and injured many Zhao people.
After five rounds of bombardment between the two sides, the second main army of the Zhao army had appeared on the other side of the mountain, and the Qin army once again shouted gold and retreated to their own camp.
The Qin army was killed by the Zhao army and returned to their own camp, which had never happened since the Qin and Zhao wars in Changping, and the Zhao army rejoiced.
At the same time, in other sections, the Zhao army lying by the gate finally waited for the order to attack, they pulled the bolt of the door, opened the camp gate, and rushed out bravely. The first to burst out was a group of halberdmen, followed by shieldmen, followed by spearmen.
The Qin army was originally prepared to deal with the archers, and although there were some wounded in the two tentative attacks, they did collect many arrows from the Zhao army, and they did not release a single arrow. But during the third attack, even if they advanced to seventy steps, the Zhao army did not shoot arrows. Doctor Qin Jungong did not give up, and let the formation advance another twenty steps. This time, Zhao Jun shot with a double arrow, and someone was pierced by the arrow on the spot. The Qin army quickly dragged up the wounded under the command to "retreat", returned to their own positions, and was shot down a few more. Fortunately, the winter coat he wore was thick and not fatal. When they didn't care about picking up the arrows and withdrawing directly, they heard the shouts of landslides and cracks, and a large number of Zhao troops rushed out, brandishing halberds and rushing over. The Zhao army was already wounded, the formation was scattered, unable to resist, and desperately ran back. The Zhao army lined up seventy paces in front of the wall and pressed towards the attacking Qin army.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the commander in charge of the command decisively abandoned the attack, retracted the attacking Qin army under the wall, and at the same time ordered the defending Qin army to enter the position.
There were three offensive areas one after the other, but the general situation was not too much, and there was even a public attendant who saw that the Qin army on the left and right was counterattacked by the Zhao army, so he simply took the initiative to withdraw the army back. Moreover, the Zhao army on this section also broke out of the barrier and prepared to attack.
The offensive and defensive momentum was reversed in an instant, the all-out attack of the Qin army was repulsed, and the Zhao army switched to a full-scale offensive.
After the Zhao army was in order, it quickly rushed towards the Qin army's position. After they approached, the Qin army reported a rain of arrows, just as the Zhao army did. Zhao Jun did not seem to have received the task of picking up arrows, and braved the rain of arrows to move forward. At fifty paces, the Qin army, who was lying in front of the wall, stood up and forced them to leave the battlefield.