Chapter 42: The Battle of Choshu
At dawn ten days later, the sun had not yet come out, and the breeze was blowing outside the city of Changzhou, and the green seedlings on the hillside in the distance turned up shallow waves, rippling forward wave by wave.
A desolate and long trumpet sound, breaking the silent dawn, accompanied by billowing smoke and dust, the Turkic army slowly spread over the small dirt slope outside the city of Changzhou, and appeared in the field of vision of the Tang army.
The army stretched for more than ten miles, the smoke and dust rose with the wind, slowly drifting westward, Ge Chi Laze rode to the heights, his dark and rough skin glowing with a metallic sheen, a large animal skin on his body slightly agitated in the wind, and the ornament of three wolf teeth on his bare chest slowly rose and fell with his long breathing.
Stepping down the dark war horse stood quietly, accompanied by heavy breathing, shaking the horse's head from time to time, this battle-hardened war horse also felt the breath of the big battle, and it slowly became excited.
The tall and wide walls of Choshu City were imprinted in the light gray pupils of Gechila, on which pennants were spread, swords and guns were numerous, and on the main tower in the middle sat a general in bronze armor, who was his opponent in this battle, and they had fought many times in the distant past, when they were not the commanders of the army.
But now they are the masters of this war, the life and death of hundreds of thousands of people, just in their thoughts, Gechila likes this feeling, he was born a warrior and a killer, the first warrior of the Ulica tribe.
Rows of stone-throwing carts were pushed out intensively, and the soldiers fixed the body of the cart on the position that had already been chosen, and the huge stone and the stone ball wrapped with a layer of fire oil on it were also pulled by the carriage.
Seeing that the stone-throwing cart was ready, Gechila waved his hand, and countless flaming stone balls smashed into the ancient city walls of Changzhou City like meteors.
After a splash of rubble, the city wall left countless deep pits, and the Tang army on the city wall had already been smashed to pieces, and many places were ignited, everywhere was smoke and flames, and the corpses that were stoned to death.
Before the Tang army came to its senses, the second wave came again, this time it was obviously calibrated, and all of them were smashed on the city wall, and for a while there were almost no defenders still standing on the city of Changzhou.
The enemy army has not yet begun to attack the city, the defenders on the city tower have to temporarily withdraw to the city, a burst of stone rain lasted for more than two hours, the north wall of Changzhou City has been riddled with holes, dilapidated, there are many top collapses, forming a large gap.
Zheng Gu and several generals climbed the main city tower that had already collapsed, and the enemy army was waiting in the distance, and did not immediately start attacking the city, and the two sides looked at each other like this.
"Get out of the city and fight, marshal," one of the generals recommended
"Yes, marshal, it is pointless to defend the north city wall, once the enemy army breaks through the north city, our army is all stuffed in the city, the formation cannot be expanded, and the combat power cannot be formed" Another general also echoed
"Street fighting in the city will hurt the people in the city more," the third general put forward
Zheng Gu took two steps forward, and looked into the distance, the enemy commander Gechila was standing on a high place alone, and he seemed to be looking at Zheng Gu as well.
After a long time, Zheng Gu slowly grasped the hilt of the knife and said in a deep voice: "Gather the army and go out of the city to meet the enemy", and the generals hurriedly went down to the city and conveyed the order.
In the city of Changzhou, three slender horns sounded, the sound reached several miles, the gate of the north city slowly opened, and a group of sergeants rushed out, forming a defensive formation on the open ground outside the north city.
When Gechila saw the Tang army marching out of the city, a wolf-like smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, he turned his horse's head, walked into the formation, and shouted: "The whole army retreats five miles"
The Turks slowly retreated, while the infantry moved to both flanks, leaving the middle position for the cavalry, which had always been the main force of cavalry.
At this time, the Tang army was also assembled outside the city, the whole army was arranged in a wing-shaped formation, the cavalry was on both wings, the front in the middle was a 5,000-strong Modao team, followed by a dense formation of light infantry, and the archers were in the rear.
"My lord, the defender of the Tang army is not incompetent, he put out this wing-shaped formation, the cavalry is on both sides, it is very convenient to outflank with maneuver, this is to prevent our cavalry from detouring left and right in the open field, the general should be careful to be surrounded" A marching staff officer stepped forward and humbly suggested to Gechila, look at the portrait, Jing is a Han man.
"You Tang people like to engage in these useless tricks, no matter what kind of formation he is, my Turkic cavalry just chisel through it" Ge Chila laughed, and the Han staff officer had to laugh twice and retreated.
After speaking, Gechila looked at the generals and said, "Who will take the lead?"
Immediately, several generals stood up and scrambled
"Leader of the Wolf King, I, Karaji, am willing to be the striker, to be your head wolf, to bite the biggest prey," the fierce young man stepped forward
"What kind of wolf is Karaji, I'm the Raider, Wolf King Gechila, please use our Raider Warrior as the striker" Another general of the Raider Division scrambled
The other generals wanted to say anything more, but Gechila raised his hand to stop it, he stood up and said: "Let Karaji be the head wolf of our Turks today, and let the Tang Dynasty people see how our Turks hunt."
Gechila looked at Changzhou City and said slowly: "Go, Karaji, turn the fertile land of the Tang Dynasty into a hunting ground for our Turks."
The battle officially began, and the cavalry of the Karaji Division, slowly pushing out, suddenly accelerated, and rushed forward to the Mo Dao team of the Tang Army in front.
And the Tang Army's Modao team also slowly opened the formation, expanding to both sides, increasing the distance between people, and everyone dragged the heavy knives longer than people behind them, inserted them in the sand, relaxed their bodies, and leaned forward.
The bow and arrow phalanx of the rear army had already sent out two waves of arrow rain, and the third wave of arrow rain had also reached its peak, turning downward, and accurately fell on the cavalry army of the Karaji department, and the Karaji cavalry raised their small shields one after another.
When they rushed to the front of the Mo Dao team, the cavalry threw away the small shield, drew out the long knife, and the first row of cavalry in front quickly closed together, forming a dense horse team, which crashed headlong into the Mo Dao team of the Tang Army, and immediately hit a gap.
The huge Mo knife of the Mo knife soldiers, with all the strength of the whole body, was mixed with sand and dust, from the front chest of the horse to the front chest of the knight, a knife was cut, and the blood splashed up a foot high, and the people and horses were castrated, rushing into the camp of the Tang army.
The cavalry of the Karaji tribe behind crossed the horse corpse in front of them one after another, rushed into the Mo horse team, leaned their bodies to the side of the horse, and dragged out the curved saber, and the knife dragged over the Tang army on the ground with the horse's momentum, and then took several people all the way and flew to the ground, leaving only the broken breastplate and the wounds inside, which were bleeding diligently.
Karaji's cavalry decreased slightly when they rushed into the Tang Army's Mo horse team, but the general trend remained the same, people continued to fall off their horses, and Mo sword soldiers continued to die, only to see a continuous black tide rushing forward in a huge sword light.
Soon it chiseled through the phalanx of the Mo Dao team, impacting the infantry phalanx behind, with the voice of the commander shouting, the infantry poured the giant gee that was more than a foot long together, and the descendants were on the shoulders of the predecessors, the body was tense, and the front feet were against the back feet of the predecessors, connecting into a whole.
And the Karaji cavalry encountered a thorn bush full of spears, and as the tip of the cavalry, let alone the thorn bush, the knife mountain also had to step over, otherwise, the cavalry behind would be silted, and the consequences would be more serious.
The whole battlefield is like a wild boar arched into a neat stabbing array, the infantry phalanx was arched all the way, the corpses and Changge flew to both sides, the lethality of the infantry to the cavalry was far less strong than that of the Modao team, but there were many infantry, and the battle was more complex and changeable.
After the cavalry penetrated, the infantry who were already in the battle formation threw away their long swords, drew their short knives, or killed people, or cut off the legs of horses, and Karaji's cavalry slowed down a little, as if they were stuck in a quagmire.
However, the bravery of the Turkic cavalry was far above the Tang army, and the entire Karaji cavalry was still advancing at the speed of the news, and at this time, the cavalry corps of the entire Karaji tribe had entered the battle camp of the Tang army.
Zheng Gu stood up, looked into the distance, and said, "The two wings are spread, and the middle is changing."
The drums sounded in the sky, the standard-bearers on the tower were rapidly waving the flags, and the entire formation of the Tang army was like a wild goose spreading its wings, and the infantry array in the middle suddenly expanded outward, leaving a large open space in the middle, surrounding the Karaji cavalry.
At the same time, a huge copper shield formed a circle on the inside of the clearing, like an iron ring, enclosing Karaji in the middle.
The situation on the battlefield suddenly changed, Gechila fought, looked at the form of the battlefield, he shouted: "The Turgish and Oghuz divisions attacked from both sides, piercing the wings of the Tang army for me, and the Geloro division and our Ulica division attacked from the same direction and joined the Karaji division in the middle."
The generals were ordered to leave, and Gechila turned on his horse, lifted his axe and spear, and rushed to the battle formation of the Tang army with a fierce Turkic iron horse
At this time, the iron circle in the middle of the Tang Dynasty quickly shrank, and the Karaji cavalry also formed a circular defensive formation, and the two sides were rapidly depleting.
The cavalry on both wings and the Turkic cavalry were connected together, and the two sides hedged and slashed each other, and for a time people roared and screamed, and the battlefield was miserable.
The two cavalry led by Ge Chila in the middle, like a torrent of iron armor, directly knocked over the Mo Dao team that had just organized the formation, and the heavy infantry of the Tang Army suffered heavy casualties after encountering Ge Chila, and Ge Chila was unstoppable for a while.
Although the Karaji division surrounded in the middle was quickly wiped out, the cavalry corps on both sides of the Tang army were disorganized and divided into several pieces after several interspersed and chiseled by the Turks, and fought back with difficulty in the turbulent storm of the Turks.
The central Gechila had already rushed into the array of light infantry, and he was like entering a no-man's land all the way, and the blocker died immediately, like a sharp knife, and slammed into the abdomen of the Tang army.
"Heavy cavalry corps, follow me" Zheng Gu stood up, drew out the war knife that had followed him for many years, turned over and mounted his horse, the armor of the bronze heavy armor, and there was a rhythmic impact in his neat movements.
The heavy cavalry legion that was originally guarding behind him slowly pushed out, and the infantry made a passage for them, it was time to meet Gechila, an old friend for many years, Zheng Gu thought, the long knife swung forward, and the heavy cavalry corps was like a fierce tiger, crashing towards Gechila.
ps: It's been super busy these days, and I've finally squeezed out a chapter