Chapter 60: Fierce Battle in Danshui
Seeing that only one salvo had repelled the attack of the Qin army, the ten thousand generals were very proud in their hearts, and they couldn't help laughing. Continue beating the drums and let the first soldiers rush forward. The 10,000 generals watched the Qin army drag the wounded back in embarrassment, and they became even more proud. Let the soldiers chase a hundred paces and summon them back with the sound of the bell. The second group of Qin troops who attacked added shield soldiers. After they rounded the boulder, the 10,000 men fired a salvo as they had done last time. The shieldmen were already unsteady on the hillside, and a thousand arrows were fired, and the huge impact almost knocked down all the shieldmen. Fortunately, they reacted in time, desperately raised their shields, blocked most of the arrows fired a second time, and then left in a hurry with the support of the halberders. This path, separated by boulders, became a blessed land for the Zhao army, and the Qin army tried several times but it was difficult to pass, but there were many casualties.
An hour later, the supporting Zhao army arrived. The 10,000 generals proudly showed their battle history to the Zhao generals who came over, and although those generals were a little confused, they were not good at directly slapping the faces of the 10,000 generals, and they all echoed and said some words of praise.
The reinforcements that came over didn't have to meddle in the battle in front of them at all. The Qin army didn't seem to have any special way to break through the Zhao army's defenses, but just tried the previous offensive routine over and over again, and naturally only got the previous results. At the cost of several Qin pawns being injured, they retreated. The reinforcements who came up to reinforce had nothing else to do, they sent envoys to report to Zhao Kuo that they had rushed to the front line to reinforce, and then the generals watched the battle on the barrier, and the other soldiers rested in place at the bottom of the mountain. Zhao Kuo had no other instructions, and the army maintained its current situation.
As the sun went down, the Qin army stopped its attack and retreated into the valley. The wounded had been evacuated earlier. Seeing that the Qin army was retreating, the Zhao army immediately sent someone to report to Zhao Kuo that Danzhuling had repelled the Qin army's attack "with the support of reinforcements". gave the supporting Zhao army a lot of face. Zhao Kuo replied: "All those who fight are eaten!" "Since the battle situation is stalemate here, he doesn't have the energy to go to Danzhuling. Only one doorman was allowed to go back with the envoy to deliver the order.
From morning to sunset, the twenty-four battalions of the Zhao army and the eighteen battalions of the Qin army fought inextricably, and the losses on both sides were very large; But the soldiers on both sides were red-eyed, and the lightly wounded returned to the battle. With the support of the fighting spirit, the Zhao army became more and more proficient in the formation, and the speed became faster, and slowly seemed to have some advantages. Zhao Kuo hoped that the sun would not set too early, and if it was two or three more hours, the Zhao army might be able to defeat the Qin army.
But the sun still went down, the huge mountain shadow covered the battlefield, the sky was dark, the Qin army Mingjin withdrew, and the Zhao army was powerless to pursue, so they could only Mingjin withdraw.
Zhao Kuo praised the armies participating in the war with extremely incendiary words: "Qin is tyrannical and poisons the world, and Lai Wu Zhao fights against it, and he must not be wanton." The party is righteous to Zhao, and the sky is also. Qin goes against the sky, and he will suffer from it! Heaven is gone, heaven is gone! Thou shalt rebel against the heavens! ”
Zhao Jun waved the weapon in his hand very excitedly and shouted: "Heaven is gone, heaven is gone!" ”
Zhao Kuo ordered the soldiers of the three armies to be eaten twice tonight!
On this day, there have been five military eclipses. Zhao Kuo has done his best to break through the deadlock!
At night, Zhao Kuo wanted to pull three armies over, but there was no room for so many newly arrived troops between the narrow southern barriers. Zhao Kuo had no choice but to rectify the camp first, and let 12,000 regular soldiers from 24 battalions, as well as 5,000 people from 10 battalions of strange soldiers who could fight, come over and set up camp to prepare for tomorrow's battle.
When Zhao Kuo was patrolling the camp, he told the generals of his discovery: the Zhao army of four battalions was about the same as the combat strength of the Qin army of three battalions; If tomorrow the Qin army is not many in battle, our army can overwhelm them with more than this quota, and try to get as close as possible to the opponent's barriers, and if possible, destroy them.
In the end, Zhao Kuo finally appeared on Danzhu Ridge, and listened to the report of 10,000 generals and two 5,000 reinforcements in person. The five thousand Qin troops couldn't take a step beyond that boulder. Zhao Kuo watched the boulder with his own eyes, and also went behind the boulder to inspect the bloodstains. Seeing that the damp bow and arrow could still cause serious casualties at a distance of fifty paces, he secretly rejoiced: tomorrow the archers can be put into battle. On the way back, he relayed the results of the battle of the 10,000 generals of Danzhuling to the generals of the various armies, telling them that the bow and arrow could be shot fifty paces away, and if necessary, they could try it out. Returning to the Great Horde, he asked the envoys to convey orders to the Zhao army guarding the southern stronghold, and prepare a thousand archers to go out of the city to fight.
In the early morning of August 15, the morning light gradually dissipated, and Changping ushered in a new day with the sound of drums. No one remembers that today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the frequent battles have already filled people's minds with desperate battles. But the Zhao army, which had been fighting with the Qin army in the south for a day yesterday, did not rise to the beat of the drums, and their officers of all ranks went to various places on the hills that night to have fun, and have not yet returned. The reward of food at night is the capital of their pleasure!
The routine point army was over, and each of the three armies that went out yesterday sent envoys to report to Zhao Kuo the number of non-commissioned officers, wounded, and various diseases, but they did not say that their middle-level officers were not in the camp at present, and the camp was actually in a state of sloppiness - this was the normal state after the war, and it was not worth reporting.
Breakfast was served as usual, and after breakfast the armies lined up for battle.
Zhao Kuo still went to the southern camp to supervise the attack operations in the south. He watched as the first team of four formations and twelve battalions marched out of the camp. The three battalions that reinforced this unit were battalions that had participated in battles, and their quality was better than that of the other nine battalions, and the formation was faster.
Drawing on the experience of the Danzhuling battle, Zhao Kuo also concentrated the use of a thousand archers, rather than scattering them in various battalions.
As the drums sounded in each other, the battle unfolded along the entire Danshui bank. Due to Zhao Kuo's advice, the Zhao army that went out to fight this time was one-third more than the Qin army, hoping to make up for the lack of training quality by virtue of the superiority in quantity. The sound of bowstrings from time to time also indicates that the bows and arrows have returned to the battlefield, and the bloody level of the fight has become stronger.
Zhao Kuo had people control the archers in the last row of the whole army, preparing to fire a salvo when the Qin army's formation was scattered, so as to give the Qin army's most powerful force a lethal injury. The odd soldiers were also lying in wait at the camp gate, ready to attack at any time.
Zhao Kuo intuitively saw that the Qin army that went out today should be the army that went out yesterday, and it was not replaced with a new force, which made Zhao Kuo happy in his heart. The intensity of yesterday's battle, I am afraid that it is difficult to recover from a night's rest, and today's Qin army can be considered a tired army; And he is a cutting-edge force transferred from the rear! Not to mention the numerical superiority, in terms of physical strength, his own troops are also superior to the Qin army!
The battle unfolded as Zhao Kuo had expected, with the only difference being that the Qin army was also equipped with archers and blocked the two sides before they charged, trying to disrupt the Zhao army's position. However, due to the lack of bow strength, Zhao Jun's formation only had a slight stagger, and it quickly adjusted and sent out a violent impact.
Zhao Kuo clearly felt that the Qin army was physically exhausted: in the previous few days of combat, the first impact usually ended in the defeat of the Zhao army, and the Zhao army had to use the second formation to supplement the impact in order to kill the first formation of the Qin army. But this time, the formations of both sides spread out almost simultaneously!
This was the case for three formations in a row, and the fourth formation became almost the decisive force: it collided violently with the first formation, and finally killed this formation! In a one-on-one situation, Zhao Jun was able to kill through the Qin army for a while, which had never happened before. But the joy did not last long, the second formation of the Qin army was also assembled, and they rushed up and smashed into the fourth formation of the Zhao army......
With a single command, the archers fired three arrows in a volley, chasing the retreating Qin army. This also angered the archers of the Qin army, and they also shot a rain of arrows in the sky, knocking down a large area of the Zhao army. However, due to the short range of the bow and arrow, it had little effect on the soldiers engaged in the battle, and most of the soldiers killed and wounded were retreating or in formation.
Due to the participation of bows and arrows, the rate of attrition on both sides increased rapidly, and a second team had to be sent out of the city in advance.
Zhao Kuo felt that there might be a turn for the better in the war here today, so he sent a military envoy and transferred another army over. Due to the fierce fighting along the Danshui line, he did not dare to draw from the Danshui defense line, but transferred an army from the troops that served as the easternmost fortress garrison to come down for the time being. Zhao Kuo predicts that the sun will be bright in the morning, and the sun will come in the evening. By the time this army arrived, the Zhao army should have also achieved decisive results here, and could launch an attack on the Qin army's fortress - this could not be completed by the field troops who had fought hard for a day, but should be transferred to another new force. In order not to weaken the defense of the eastern barrier, Zhao Kuo transferred another army from the hills to supplement the defense on the eastern side.
To the east faced a valley, and on the opposite side was a hill perfectly barrierd, making it almost impossible to attack. But that's only relative. The terrain here is not dangerous, and the opposite hills can only be held back until the enemy's action is delayed, and it cannot be defended without sufficient troops. And once this place is lost, the entire side back of Changping will be exposed! Therefore, both Lian Po and Zhao Kuo attach great importance to the defense here, although there has been no war here, but they dare not mobilize the troops here.
But now Zhao Kuo saw the dawn of victory, so he took the risk of mobilizing an army into an offensive operation; And at the same time, the first army was mobilized to reinforce it.
After the new troops were put into battle, the advantage of the Zhao army was even more obvious, and the Qin army was obviously passively parrying; Zhao Kuo thought that as long as he added a little more force, he could defeat them. However, the small battlefield could no longer accommodate other armies, and even sending surprise troops to fight was very crowded. Zhao Kuo had to hope that the Zhao army, which was currently fighting, would be able to defeat the Qin army as soon as possible.