Early the next morning, Cao Ergou led the army to Chengdu, fifty miles away. It was a hot July day, so he planned to take advantage of the cool weather to hit the road. At noon, he took advantage of the bamboo groves and trees beside the road for shade to avoid the hottest sun at noon. In order to reduce the adverse effects of the scorching heat, the field division brought a lot of summer cooling equipment and a large amount of cold water on this trip. At the same time, the marching speed was reduced to save physical strength. Cao Ergou was not in a hurry. On the one hand, he was sympathetic to the soldiers. Although the soldiers of the Perak Army are mostly locals, and the horses are all Tibetan horses, they are more heat-resistant than the Mongolian army and Mongolian horses from the bitter cold areas of the north. However, activities under the scorching sun consume a lot of physical energy and can cause heatstroke or even heat stroke in the soldiers. sick. On the other hand, he judged that the decisive battle with the main force of the Mongolian army would not be under the walls of Chengdu, but on the way to Chengdu with the field division. The General Staff's pre-war war games also made the same judgment.
About twenty miles after leaving Wenjiang City, sporadic Mongolian cavalry appeared constantly around the marching troops. These rangers are the elite of Mongolia. They not only have excellent riding skills but also have rich combat experience. They actually escaped the pursuit and interception of the Perak Army cavalry and managed to get within a mile or two of the marching army. Many of the cavalry even escaped unscathed. On the contrary, only a few of the dozen reconnaissance cavalry squads sent to the front by the Perak Army were able to return as a whole team. Many squads lost more than half, and many of the people who came back were injured by arrows, and even carried several feather arrows. Judging from the casualty ratio of the cavalry on both sides, it is about one to two, that is, one Mongolian cavalry can be replaced by two Perak Army cavalry. However, the reconnaissance cavalry was still the eyes of the field division, and the intelligence they brought back determined the commander's perception of the battlefield situation. Therefore, Cao Ergou had no choice but to reluctantly send a large number of reconnaissance cavalry again to conduct reconnaissance.
After paying the price of dozens of cavalry casualties, the Perak Army's reconnaissance cavalry finally found out the general situation of the enemy. The Mongolian army that came to stop this time was similar to the Perak Army, with about 2,000 cavalry, 3,000 infantry, and about 5,000 civilians transporting baggage. Judging from the flags, Liu Heima should be leading the army himself, and there were also generals such as Hudu and Yelvmaizhu. Based on this analysis, Cao Ergou concluded that apart from the troops guarding Chengdu and other counties, all the main forces of the Sichuan Mongolian Army were here. The two thousand cavalry should include Hudu's one thousand Mongolian cavalry and Liu Heima's one thousand Mongolian and Han cavalry, and Liu Heima's elite Mongolian and Han troops should also be among the three thousand infantry. It seems that the victory or defeat of both sides in this battle will largely determine the success or failure of the Battle of Chengdu, and even determine the ownership of the fertile land in the Western Sichuan Plain.
In fact, Cao Ergou's judgment was not wrong. Because of the seriousness of this battle, Liu Heima decided to lead the army himself, leaving his sons Liu Yuanzhen and Liu Yuanli to lead 3,000 people to stay in Chengdu. The city of Chengdu is large and vast, and the firepower of the warships can only cover the south gate area. The Mongolian army can still rely on the north gate to engage in street fighting with the Perak Army. Although the Pili army attacking on the waterway had fierce firepower, they were blocked by the sunken ship. Even after the waterway was cleared, it would be difficult to capture the North City for a while. He has already seen that although there are three to four thousand Perak troops on the waterway, there are many ships and sailors, so there are obviously not many troops who can fight on land. Moreover, judging from the flags, the Jiading army was in the majority, so there was nothing to fear.
Liu Heima's wishful thinking was that after he led his army to defeat the Perak Army, he would then return to Chengdu and have a decisive battle with the Perak Army that attacked the city from the waterway. If the opponent's gunboats have strong firepower, they will hold on to the North City. In order to prevent the Perak Army from shelling, he had people urgently transfer food and grass supplies to Beicheng in preparation for a long-term war of attrition with the Perak Army. Even if the Pili Army's food, grass and ammunition can continue to come from the waterway, as long as it takes a few months, the war situation will turn around in the autumn and winter when the water is dry. The Perak Army's gunboats were large and bulky, and the Jinjiang River channel and water level were not as wide as the Minjiang River channel. If the Perak Army does not retreat before the water level drops significantly, the Mongolian army will have the opportunity to burn or even capture the gunboats in close combat at night.
The core of this combat plan is to defeat the Perak Army on land in a short time. Therefore, Liu Heima mobilized all the elite troops of the Sichuan Army this time, and even transferred the 500 cavalry stationed in Yunding City, preparing to complete his victory in one battle. In two or three years of fighting with the Perak Army, Liu Heima knew that the director of the Perak Army was nothing more than firearms. The Mongolian army is weak in naval warfare, but has advantages in land warfare. In addition to the unrivaled cavalry and archery, the Mongolian and Han troops under Liu Heima were also very powerful and had few opponents in close combat. He planned to take advantage of the mobility of the cavalry and defeat the Perak Army's formation in one fell swoop, regardless of casualties. As long as the infantry formation is in chaos, they will only be harvested by the cavalry. Of course, before charging into the formation, the cavalry of the Perak Army must be dealt with. But in his opinion, how could the Thunderbolt Cavalry be the opponent of the proud man of the North? The confrontation between the two reconnaissance cavalry just now also confirmed his judgment.
Of course Cao Ergou also knows his own strengths and weaknesses. The current shortcoming of the infantry of the Perak Army lies in their poor mobility, their strength lies in their powerful firepower, and their fatal weakness lies in being surprised during the march. With the presence of cavalry, the field division not only greatly expanded the warning range, preventing surprise attacks, but also avoided the fate of being "forbidden to stand", and also allowed the infantry to form formations calmly. As long as the formation is completed, you can hide behind the car formation and spears, and calmly use artillery to kill the enemy from a long distance. Given enough time, field divisions could even erect breastworks composed of sacks of sackcloth filled with soil and framed by steel bars. The impact resistance of this breast wall is much greater than that of car arrays and earth walls.
Liu Heima, who was skilled in battle formations, was also very good at seizing opportunities. When the armies of the two sides were three or four miles apart, he immediately launched an attack. From a strategic point of view, the Mongolian army needed to quickly defeat its current opponents and return to defend Chengdu. In order to achieve this goal, Liu Heima did not even bring siege weapons or food and baggage. He ordered that he only brought three days' worth of water and traveled lightly. From a tactical perspective, it was three poles in the sun at this time. Although the sun was a little bit fierce, it was not too hot, which was very conducive to the horse's charge. What's more important is that the Perak Army is still in a marching column at this moment and has not yet transformed into a defensive formation. It is the best time for the cavalry to make a surprise attack.
The battlefield terrain at this moment is also extremely conducive to cavalry. The plains of western Sichuan are originally broad and open, but there are no bamboo forests or groves within a radius of ten miles. Even the wormwood grows extremely low due to long-term siltation of ditches. If it were under the Perak Army, these fertilized lands would definitely be reclaimed and planted with rice fields. The current terrain was a battlefield tailor-made for the Mongolian cavalry. This made Liu Heima and the Mongolian generals very happy. They seemed to see the goddess of victory waving to them. They even fantasized about defeating the Perak Army in this battle. Victory entered Chongqing Mansion to capture Ouyang Xuan alive, and pocketed the firearms craftsmen and technology. Having accomplished such a feat, Kublai Khan would surely be overjoyed, and his wealth would surely be overwhelming.
Encouraged by Liu Heima and other generals, the Mongolian cavalry naturally had high morale. They roared and galloped towards the Perak Army. Attacking the left and right wings of the Perak Army were the Mongolian cavalry of the Kudu tribe, with 500 cavalry on each wing. The main frontal attack was the 1,000 Mongolian and Han cavalry led by Yelu Maizhu.
