Chapter 397: Battle of Northern Xinjiang II
With a stick of incense, Commander-in-Chief Cao walked up to Zhang Kuang holding a roster.
"General, there are more than 1,200 casualties in the Bow and Arrow Battalion, including more than 700 minor injuries, more than 100 serious injuries, more than 400 killed in battle, and the Modao team lost more than 70 people, and more than 100 people were seriously injured. , more than 300 people were slightly injured. Ninety percent were killed by Turkic arrows, and 10% were killed by broken scimitars and slit throats."
Zhang Kuang frowned and took the roster from Si Cao's hand, with a hint of lingering sadness in his expression.
After looking at the roster for a while, he sighed wildly: "The losses are so heavy. This is just a tentative attack by the vanguard. What kind of losses will there be if the army attacks with all its strength? This general is ashamed of their parents!" "
Zhong Qiang looked equally bad: "General, the Turks' cavalry and archery are really great. Each of them is not weaker than our marksmen. This is their natural advantage. The brothers in the bow and arrow battalion shoot arrows." After the attack, he had no time to retreat before he was shot through the body by the arrow."
"There are still too few plate armors, especially the soldiers of the archery battalion who wear light leather armor. If they are equipped with plate armor, they will probably reduce their losses a little. The Turks' cavalry shooting should not be underestimated."
"Don't worry, General. We will eventually arrange for the brothers to shoot arrows and retreat, and we must not give the Turks an opportunity to take advantage of them."
"Ke Yan, why did Team Modao lose so many brothers?"
Ke Yan looked at Zhang Kuang in shame: "General, it's the last general who failed in his command. Please punish me, general."
"Don't think about taking the blame for your brothers. I, the general, didn't ask any questions. Tell the truth. What's going on?"
Ke Yan struggled for a while: "Back to the general, there are only two thousand Modao troops and a small number of spearmen, swordsmen, and shields outside the city. The brothers are inevitably a little panicked. The upper right corner of the battle formation has been lost. The general has not trained well. Please punish the general. .”
"Alas, it's my fault. I only wanted to test the power of Modao Team and ignored the pressure from my brothers."
"The general is Zhong Qiang and incompetent. The general mobilized so many arrows but still could not stop the Turkic cavalry's attack."
"I don't blame you. Turkic war horses are famous for their strength and swiftness. Coupled with the superb riding skills of the Turks, this is inevitable. Back then, an army of 300,000 soldiers marched north from the border. Although many Turkic tribes were captured, they also lost tens of thousands of people. It took tens of thousands of brothers to gain the reputation of being a powerful force in military disasters."
"General, why not let Dong Kaishan's light cavalry support us from both wings?"
"No, our cavalry fighting against the Turks' cavalry is like a sheep entering the tiger's mouth. Unless the heavy cavalry attacks the light cavalry on a large scale, it can give the Turks a thunderous blow. Our horses are not even inferior to the Turks' horses. , taken alone, there is no enemy."
"Well, the damage done by the Bed Crossbow is indeed impressive, but it is just too bulky. Otherwise, we would have to keep all these people."
"Zhong Qiang, don't blame yourself. There is a problem with my general's deployment. I was worried that using the bed crossbow too early would cause the Turks to retreat in horror, so I ordered you to use the bed crossbow only after 300 meters. I didn't expect that. These people are so brave and fearless that they can no longer control the situation so much. When the Turks enter within 700 meters, they immediately start firing arrows. We must reduce the number of close encounters and cannot let the advantages of their bows and arrows be used."
"General, when will the divine arm crossbows you mentioned be shipped to Northern Xinjiang? Although the strong archers have a long range, there are only a limited number of brothers who can draw the bowstring. Otherwise, they will not be able to rush to the city as easily as expected."
Zhang Kuang sighed melancholy: "It's coming, it's coming, time, what we lack most now is time. I don't know what the results of the main cities of the other six frontier fortresses will be. Their equipment is not as good as ours, especially Fuzhou." , the terrain is flat and open, which is a great advantage for the Turks!"
What Zhang Kuang never expected was that since the casualties in Fuzhou were smaller than those in Yingzhou, Shi Bibu's exploratory attack had to retreat for repairs because of the fifty eight-niu crossbows.
Fuzhou's Eight Ox Crossbow started shooting at 700 steps, which greatly interfered with the cavalry's charging formation, but had unexpected effects.
Turkic camp, during the interval between Ashinamo's attack on Yingzhou, the Turkic tent had been set up.
Ashinamo's lips turned white and his face was ashen as he looked at the Turkic soldiers who had come back with him.
There were less than 500 of the 3,000 cavalry left, and the 2,000 infantry were even more miserable. Each one was suffering from wounds, and only less than 300 returned.
Just a tentative charge of 5,000 men resulted in the loss of more than 4,500 people.
Some died under the rain of arrows, and most died under the chaos caused by the Eight Ox Crossbow.
It's not like the Turks had never encountered crossbow arrow arrays when they were attacking cities before, but such a free arrow array had never been seen before, and it was too lethal.
In the past, the bed crossbow lost its power after it could penetrate at most two people. Today, it can penetrate six people without losing its power, and it can even knock people under horses.
The most pity was the war horses. Because of the damage to the war horses, most people were damaged by their own cavalry.
The corner of Ashinamo's mouth trembled slightly. How could he meet his father with such a victory? The Dulu army divided into two groups and went south. The total number of soldiers attacking Yingzhou was more than 30,000. Nearly 30,000 soldiers were lost before the official battle began. One-tenth of the population is something that has never happened in the past ten years.
"Talmu has met the eldest prince, the eldest prince..."
Talmu looked at a group of ragged Turkic cavalry with a dull expression. If they were just in ragged clothes, Talmu wouldn't be so dull. What made him dull was the number of people in front of him.
The team of five thousand people now has less than one thousand people.
Based on past experience, King Duolu believed that even if the eldest prince could not open the gate of Yingzhou City, he would definitely fight to an even match, so Duolu and other generals were drinking and playing in the big tent and did not pay attention to the war at all.
"Only this few people come back?"
"Talmu, the southerners are crazy. They are blocking the sky with arrows. They are shooting out desperately. They have suffered heavy losses. It is better to go to see the father first."
Talmu looked at the place where the battle was taking place, and couldn't help but feel numb when he saw the densely packed corpses on the ground and the number of at least three to five arrows on each person.
He finally understood why the eldest prince's losses were so heavy. Such a dense rain of arrows could not be avoided no matter how superb the Turkic warriors' riding skills were.
The arrows fired in the first tentative battle were denser than in the past ten days.
"Yahamu, lead the injured soldiers to treat their wounds."
"It's General Talmu."
"Your Highness, the king will definitely be furious. You have to be careful."
"Uncle Talmu, you have also seen the situation on the battlefield. I hope you can explain a few words to Namo. The southerners' arrow array is too terrifying."
Duulu King Ashina sipped the wine glass in his hand and threw it on the ground. He looked at his frightened son with a ferocious expression: "What did you say? Only less than a thousand people came back out of five thousand people?"
"yes!"
"Trash, how did you lead the army? This king wants to expel you from the Golden Family. You are a shame to the Golden Family."
