Chapter 7 Aid
While Zhao Sanxi and the team officers were having a discussion in front of the enemy, the commanders and generals dismounted one after another, walked through the queue, and checked the battle preparations of their men: pulling the horse's girdle, tightening the cowhide rope buckle of the armor, drinking Cursing and ordering everyone to tighten their sabers (secondary weapons), water hyacinths and other intrusive bits and pieces, he deliberately loudly told the veterans a dirty joke about sneaking out in the middle of the night to find a fan after entering the city, so as to ease the nervousness of the recruits who were rushing to face the enemy. Feeling……
Before Zhao Sanxi issued the order for the entire army to attack, the entire army had been assembled and ready to go.
"Drive", "ho ho", "yo ha"...
Amidst the shouts and snorts of the war horses, the horse team, as still as a long snake, began to squirm.
During the run, the column gradually lengthened and dispersed, and then gathered together with the fruit as the basic unit.
In less than half a mile, the whole team had already vaguely formed several triangular shapes...
Wedge array.
The classic formation of cavalry charging into battle.
The knights clamped their carbines* and started at a trot. After Li Xu, they mentioned one-third full speed: To fully utilize the impact of the cavalry, you must first let the horses show their temper and then launch a thunderous blow!
Seeing the enemy's large group rushing towards them, Gao Tengdou said nothing and led the scattered cavalry who came forward to turn their horses and gallop back to their own formation.
According to the advanced orders of the high deputy general, the knights were divided into small teams. First, they passed several times in front of their own formations, and then passed directly through the passages between the small formations, gradually disappearing into the dust raised by the horses' hooves. arrive.
The dust obscured the attacker's sight.
Still half a mile away from the enemy's position, the horses were already running at half full speed.
In the smoke and dust on the opposite side, a swarm of migratory locusts suddenly appeared without any warning and rushed towards us.
The veterans rushing in the front row are familiar with this scene: the divine arm bow.
It's nothing, the opponent is projectile.
This is a disruptive shot.
You don't have to think about your accuracy. Whether you get hit or not depends entirely on luck. The crossbow arrow is indestructible within a hundred steps, but at such a long distance, even if it is shot, it will not matter: as long as you protect the front of the horse, lower your head, and are protected by the iron helmet and armor, it is difficult for the arrow to completely penetrate the cotton lining-at most, it will break the skin. Just seeing red.
"drive"!
The horse speed is getting faster and faster.
Brothers, rush!
Before the crossbowmen can cock their weapons again, their bodies will be pierced by our lances!
The distance of a hundred steps is only a few breaths.
The horses had reached three-quarters of full speed, and more arrows shot through the air from the opposite side.
The archers also started shooting.
It's nothing more - bows and arrows are just for bullying the unarmed!
Looking around, there were only six or seven riders who fell off their horses.
"drive"!
Brothers, rush!
The torrent of iron armor is unstoppable!
Fifty steps away from the enemy line.
The horses were at full speed.
Everyone's field of vision gradually narrowed: the enemy formation in front was no longer a black patch spreading over the mountains and plains, but slowly separated into bandits with increasingly clear faces!
I could see clearly from the bumps on my horse's back that there was no cover on the other side, and the horse that was attacking the front was not set up properly...
etc!
The smoke and dust raised by the enemy's cavalry gradually dissipated. What was going on? Why was the enemy not a continuous horizontal formation, but small hollow formations?
Oops!
If it is a horizontal formation, there are always places that the spearmen cannot protect... Even if the front row is full of spears, the defense line can only be one or two thin layers - if you risk a few inevitable lives, you can survive. Make a gap!
Then, the brothers behind them rushed in from the gap: the formation was broken! Then sweep out the two wings and outflank him - the battle is won!
But... why did the enemy set up a small formation?
It is easy for the armored cavalry to pass through the gap and come out of the formation - you are rushing here in a hurry, aren't you trying to block the reinforcements?
Before I had time to think about it, facing the bright tip of the spear, the horses had already begun to find openings on their own, somewhat uncontrollably, and the queue running at full speed began to twist and deform...
"drive"!
Each small wedge-shaped formation originally formed a huge spear-shaped impact formation. The teams at the rear, their sights blocked by the armored cavalry in front and the dust kicked up by the horse's hooves, were still galloping forward...
A large amount of foam came out of the mouth and nose of the war horse, the wind whistled in the ears, and the horse power had reached its peak: a man and a horse combined into one, weighing five to six hundred kilograms and running at lightning speed. In this era, there is no physical body. Can withstand this thunderous blow!
Suddenly, the drums beat loudly!
With the sound of drums, a cold light suddenly burst out in front of my eyes: each small formation looked like a porcupine, and the forest of spears crisscrossing the front and back were the sharp thorns that suddenly exploded all over the body!
The horses of the knights in the front row either slowed down suddenly, or suddenly jumped out from the diagonal thrust. His own horse was already at full speed. It was impossible to stop or avoid it in such a short distance. He could only watch as it hit him head-on, and both of them fell down. !
The horses galloping forward were no longer driven by their riders, and were completely driven by instinct to avoid them while galloping. Although the cavalry formation at this time had not yet invented the modern wall charge, the distance between each other in the wedge formation was not large, and there were thousands of horse heads. The tail phase is staggered forward and backward, and it is impossible to complete the overall turn and roundabout in such a short distance!
Fortunately, the gap between the enemy formations is not small - let's rush over first.
The formation was completely disorganized...
Looking at it from a distance just now, the enemy's defense line didn't seem to be very thick, but when I got closer, I found that these small formations were arranged at random. The horses sprinting at full speed would not be able to slow down suddenly for a while, and could only move at extremely high speeds in various directions. It intersperses itself between the gaps in the array. From time to time, horses inevitably collided, and the knight was thrown into the air. The moment he landed, he was trampled by the hoofs of countless comrades...
Due to the inevitable collision and squeezing of each other, some riders had no way to go and finally ran into a forest of guns.
The horse's neck and belly were immediately pierced by spears, and the horse fell to the ground neighing in grief. Due to the huge inertia, the knight was thrown high into the air, waving his hands and feet and fell far away - the man would definitely not survive.
The two rows of spearmen who were hit flew directly into the air a few feet away, their bones were completely broken, and they didn't even have time to scream!
Within the small formation.
The galloping horses dashed left and right in the gaps between the small formations. The knights had to control the horses, but also beware of the spears that pierced from time to time on both sides. Riding on horseback, one is taller and has a better view - but it also helps the crossbowmen in the formation to aim calmly. Archers who couldn't find a suitable shooting position simply drew their bows towards the sky and fired half-length bows: with such a dense cavalry team, arrows falling from the sky had a high chance of hitting.
The knights could not completely block the sharp blades coming from all directions. From time to time, a horse fell to the ground with a scream, tripping up more riders following behind. The knights who had just struggled to get up were pierced by sharp spears...
People shout horses neighing.
The sound of rumbling horse hooves, the sound of gold and iron clashing, the sound of flying feathers breaking through the air, the sound of sharp blades piercing flesh, and the sounds of screams...were intertwined together.
Blood splattered.
It was like a fountain of blood suddenly bursting out of the ground. In an instant, clusters of bright red blood flowers bloomed on the ground.
With blood flowers appearing everywhere, lives are withering away...
…
Finally, a knight emerged from the gap, and his horse's speed dropped to a small pace.
What came into view was a few sparse and horizontal rows of low horses a few feet away - behind the passage were two hundred cavalry of Takato Dou, who were waiting in full formation!
In normal times, such a height can be easily jumped over. But after running for dozens of miles for most of the day, and charging at full speed just now, the horse sweat had already soaked the cotton lining under the knight's leg armor - for the newly established war horse, such a simple defense line was an insurmountable chasm. !
The frightened knights suddenly realized with horror that it was difficult for them to control the horses under their crotches - they were lowering their heads and sniffing - there were clumps of fresh green grass scattered on the ground!
The green grass is scattered in a linear shape, and in front of it is——
Haystack!
The grass is freshly cut. The grass juice seeping out from the fracture exudes a rich fragrance. The armored knights who were panting violently could feel it. The smell was so strong, so refreshing, and so deadly!
A more deadly temptation is water.
The clear water in large and small wooden basins and barrels reflected the sunlight, and the rippling water waves were so tempting. Not to mention the horses, even the sweating knights could not look away from the clear water waves for a while. Move away.
The enemies, on the other hand, stood by in groups of several men, grinning ferociously. Each ambush team has one or two spearmen and three to five sword and shield soldiers...
It’s over!
——As long as you are a human being, you know that you cannot eat or drink in front of the enemy...
However, this truth...
Ma~don’t~understand!
*Cavalry charges with guns
Charge with a lance is a standard tactical action of the cavalry.
The lance is a special assault weapon, not the main weapon used by the general in movies and TV dramas. Unlike novels, unless absolutely necessary, in actual combat, the general will not personally lead the first wave of pig assaults, but will command from behind the formation. .
Since horses generate huge kinetic energy when running at high speed, if you hold a gun in your hand and the tip of the gun pierces the human body, the rider's wrist bones will most likely be broken on the spot. Therefore, you need to use a gun-clamping method to charge: clamp the rifle under your arm and use Just hold it with your hands to maintain direction and stability. In this way, as long as you touch the opponent, the force is enough to kill you with a fatal blow. In order to maintain balance, the rear end of the charger's rifle will have a counterweight.
Some experienced riders will even deliberately thin the gun rod about a few feet away from the gun tip. In this way, after the gun tip penetrates the enemy's body, the gun rod will break from here, releasing excess kinetic energy to better protect themselves.
The cavalry charge into battle was not all desperate like Zhao Sanxi's. Many times, when faced with the forest of guns in the front row of the enemy formation, the armored cavalry would gradually slow down, stop in front of the formation where the enemy spearmen could barely reach, and use their lances to stab the enemy soldiers in the front row - a person's load-bearing capacity is far away. Not as good as horses, unless there is a special horse-repelling lance, most of the long lances are not as long as the cavalry's special formation-breaking lance. This formation-breaking gun is a one-time weapon, it can be up to three feet long, and there is no need to pay too much attention to it. As long as it is long enough, you don’t have to worry about whether the gun barrel is straight or whether the knot is strong. As for the counterweight, it is even simpler. Just tie a stone to the tail. That’s it. The pile is placed on the cart, and the cavalry rushes back to get one and then rush back... Everyone concentrates on poking at one place, and when the enemy has no more lives to fill it in or completely collapses and runs away, the battle will be won.
Or rein up your horse and shoot an arrow a few steps away from the enemy's position (this trick is very useful to Mongolian compatriots). The infantry phalanx could only be beaten passively, constantly taking lives: humans could not outrun horses, and as soon as the formation dispersed, they would be chased and chopped down to annihilation. The only way to fight back is with bows and arrows. In the Han Dynasty, Li Ling did not fill the hole with human life, but surrounded the cart in an outer circle and fired at his fellow Huns inside. At this time, the Huns compatriots suffered a big loss: the horse bow was not as powerful as the foot bow, and the grassland and desert did not produce iron. The infantry on the opposite side was fully armored, and they also received an arrow. As a result, in the middle of the night, a subordinate soldier reported that Li Ling was out of arrows, so he attacked again and bullied Li Ling, who couldn't resist. In the end, Li Ling had to surrender. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had his whole family beheaded and Sima Qian was killed...until he met the military god Lao Qi. .
Qi Jiguang and Li Ling formed a chariot formation, but instead of using bows, they used blunderbuss! Not only that, Lao Qi personally supervised the work and stipulated that the gun must be made of 20 kilograms of Fujian iron, and the barrel must be drilled - the bullet fired is simply a small iron ball! The Mongolian compatriots were completely dumbfounded. They shouted "You are too cruel and I won't play with you anymore" and fled far away to Mobei...
postscript:
This article is original to the author and has not signed a contract with other online platforms.
