Guo Ning, who had been watching the battle calmly, shouted sternly: "Send the order to the front team, and those who retreat will be killed!"
Since the second half of last year, Ding Haijun has opened up the trade route to Liaodong, thus gaining access to war horses. Because the number of horses increased so rapidly, there was not enough land for grazing in Shandong, so Qianla Chucai summoned officials several times to discuss a response plan.
Guo Ning remembered that one of the plans was proposed by Liang Jushi. He said that deep in the sea east of Shandong, there was a large island named Tamluo. The chief of the island was called Star Lord and Prince, and he had been attached to Goryeo for nearly a hundred years. If we take that big island and make it a vassal of Dinghai Navy, it will be very suitable for grazing.
Guo Ning is really impressed with this island. In that big dream, he even traveled.
However, by the end of last year, all these discussions were put on hold.
There are three reasons. First, Genghis Khan went south this time, passing through the eastern part of the grassland and first arriving at Dading Prefecture in Beijing. Faced with the direct threat from the Mongolian army, generals such as Heshi Liehuanduan in Liaodong recruited troops one after another to expand their forces, and their transactions with the Ding Navy were greatly reduced. Secondly, the cost of supporting the cavalry is very high. Although the Ding Navy has financial resources from the sea, it needs money everywhere, and it is really impossible to continue to expand the cavalry team. Thirdly, starting from the second half of last year, a certain department under the Ding Navy had slightly opened up a special relationship with the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, and was able to purchase a small amount of armored ordnance. Naturally, the only items used in exchange were war horses.
As a result, the number of naval cavalry seemed less than sufficient compared to the rapidly expanding total force.
This time, there were 800 light cavalry and more than 400 heavy cavalry accompanying Guo Ning to Northern Xinjiang. Except for a small number of sentry riders who had to go out constantly to investigate, the rest were kept in the formation to prepare for the final decision at the critical moment.
Relatively speaking, the Mongols were so well off when it came to horses that it was enviable.
To the Mongolians, horses are like farm tools to farmers and boats to fishermen. They are inseparable and loyal partners and a part of the entire ecology. No one can count how many herdsmen there are on the grassland, and the number of horses is at least five or even ten times the number of herdsmen. Not to mention that the Mongolian army broke into the Jin Kingdom's pastoral center the year before last and took away hundreds of thousands of war horses.
A Mongolian knight usually brings three to five horses with him when he goes into battle. These horses are companions when fighting, a source of food when hungry and thirsty, and at certain times, like now, they become weapons themselves!
The number of horses charging into the battle was estimated to be around three thousand, and it was unknown how much effort it would take to gather them together. They densely formed a huge group, and for some reason they all fell into a state of rage. All the war horses were running as hard as they could, neighing wildly. The sound of hoofbeats and horses' neighing simply overwhelmed the roars of the soldiers of both armies.
When the horses appeared, they were not far from Ding Haijun's military formation. At that moment, it was as if even the smoke and dust in the sky had been stepped down, only to be raised again.
Relying on a handful of brave warriors with excellent riding skills to control the direction by whipping their whips repeatedly. Countless war horses collided with each other, separated and rejoined, and crashed into Ding Haijun's military formation on the entire wide front!
Mongolian horses are not a particularly tall and majestic horse breed, but the weight of a horse is as much as that of four or five ordinary people. It is an extremely strong animal! When the animals gathered into a large group of thousands, roaring like a violent wind through the open space in front of the military formation, the once calm soldiers lost their countenance.
The Mongolian light cavalry raised so much smoke and dust, it turned out to be to protect these beasts!
They come so fast!
The horses galloped at full speed, approaching the military formation in the blink of an eye.
The soldiers holding shields in the front row could already vaguely see the thick white air spurting from the nostrils of the horses, their abnormal red eyes, and their bulging muscles due to sweating from running wildly!
The Mongols have some special skills in raising horses. Did they use drugs or something that made thousands of horses angry and crazy, and brought out their bestiality? When such furious war horses are running in groups, they don't care even if there are spears and sharp blades in front of them!
The method of driving horses into battle is nothing new. However, horses are property after all, not dirt. When fighting the Mongols in the past, we would see at most thirty or fifty horses charging into the formation. The soldiers lined up more tightly and fired their guns at random, but they were still able to overcome it.
However, it is different to rush into battle with thousands of war horses. This is a forced exchange of the life of a war horse for a human life. Who among the ordinary Mongolians would be so generous? After being hit by so many big guys, and then being trampled by the following horses... he would definitely not be able to survive, not to mention not being able to survive, not even a scrap of flesh would be left!
The Dinghai fleet, which had always been stable, began to waver. Some soldiers' legs couldn't help but feel weak, and some were shivering even though their hands were holding their shields forward, so that the shields were shaking slightly.
A little further away, a soldier of the Military Law Corps held a big sword and shouted loudly: "The envoy has issued an order, and anyone who retreats will be killed!"
Zhang Xin, who was charged with marching, also drew his sword and stood fiercely in the front row. He looked left and right and stared at some soldiers whose faces turned pale with fright: "The envoy has an order, and anyone who retreats will be killed! I am standing here. If I Take a step back and behead!"
In the time it took him to say a word, several archers lined up behind him had already fired their arrows, and the arrows flew out from Zhang Xin's head and side.
For more than an hour before, the Mongolian light cavalry circled around repeatedly, but the Dinghai navy's formation remained motionless and showed no reaction at all. That's because Ding Haijun, from the commander to the officers, is very familiar with the Mongolian tactics, and knows that the best way to deal with this kind of light cavalry harassment is to ignore it. If the entire army braces itself to deal with it, it will lead to a rapid depletion of energy, playing into the Mongols' hands.
But it's different when a group of horses rush into battle. These horses are all crazy. If they rush into the battle, so many horses will trample, collide, and bite them, how many lives will they have to pay for it? ?
After all, the officers of the Ding Navy are well-trained and have rich combat experience. Since the officers came to restrain them, the entire formation remained stable. The shield bearers in the front row took advantage of the horses to rush and smashed the bulge at the bottom of the shield into the ground. And all the generals raised their voices and shouted: "Fire the arrow! Fire it again! Fire it again!"
The arrows in the second and third rounds came out in response.
These horses that were driven into the battle were naturally not the war horses that the knights rode when fighting, but the auxiliary horses and slave horses used to carry luggage and weapons, so there must be no stomach.
Arrows rained down from the sky, and blood flowers and screams bloomed at the same time. Some horses were seriously injured and staggered for a few more steps before kneeling or falling sideways. Because they were running too fast, they fell to the ground and rolled and slid forward, breaking their muscles and bones almost instantly.
In a dense herd of horses, the fall of a horse will often affect the surrounding horses. More horses were tripped by the fallen horses, forming a chain reaction. Horses fell to the ground and whined everywhere. When they were left behind, the horses seemed to thin out in the blink of an eye.
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But more horses became more violent because of their injuries, and they ran faster and faster. Before the archers could cast the fourth wave of arrows, the horses rushed to the front of the formation!
"The first team of swordsmen and shieldmen hold on! The second team goes forward, the third team goes forward! The first, second and third teams of spearmen go forward!" While the archers were shooting, the generals shouted wildly.
Before they gave the order, the swordsmen and shieldmen in the first row had already knelt down on one knee, pressed their shoulders against the shields, and connected the shields in a row. At this moment, those who dare to do this are extremely outstanding warriors. They relied on rigorous training and repeated indoctrination in the army to muster up the courage to use their flesh and blood to stand in front of the galloping horse!
The first team of sword and shield bearers were in position, the second team of sword and shield bearers, and the third team of sword and shield bearers trotted forward, stacking their shields like fish scales. Through the gaps between the fish scales, spears and spears more than ten feet long penetrated. The spearman stood with one foot in front and one foot behind, pointing the long weapons forward, and digging the tail end of the spear into the ground for leverage.
This series of scheduling is completed as quickly as possible.
The moment it was completed, a group of angry horses crashed into each other!
These horses are crazy, they are really not afraid of the threat of spears and spears!
The entire front row of the Ding Navy array was filled with the roars of the soldiers, the muffled sounds of broken shields, and the crackling sounds of spears and spears being broken. At least a dozen sword and shield wielders were thrown into the air by the huge momentum of the galloping horses, and fell to the ground screaming with their hands and feet tied.
