But because of the price, I was reluctant to spend money to buy it. Because for the price of one Tianzhu horse, you can buy five Dali horses, three Goryeo horses and Jurchen horses. And because of the climate, the Jurchen and Korean horses arrived on Guangnan West Road, and their survival rate was too low. Therefore, except for a small number of senior military attaches who were allocated Tianzhu horses, all the cavalry were only willing to buy cheap Dali horses and give them to the cavalry.
But are those Dali horses, which are as big as donkeys in the Central Plains, used by cavalry? Those short Dali horses have no problem carrying supplies on mountain roads, but if they go to the battlefield, they are simply not worth mentioning compared to the tall war horses of the army. They don't need to hit you, they can knock you out if they hit you. Not only can it not be equipped with heavy cavalry, but even when used as a light cavalry horse, it cannot sprint.
The owner only bought more than a thousand Tianzhu horses and was reluctant to buy any more. Some of the thousand Tianzhu horses were given to the senior generals, and the rest were kept by his side and equipped for his bodyguards. The horses used by most cavalry in the army are not short Dali horses. They were obtained from Qianzhong Road and Guangnan West Road, and they were far inferior to the shorter Dali horses.
In the Guilin County Prince's Mansion, gold and silver treasures were piled up like mountains. I heard that the ropes used to string the money were rotten. It can be said that spending money to bribe officials is extremely generous. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of silk can be taken out without blinking an eye. But the real investment in armaments was done by Qiaokuosou. Although they knew that the imperial court was always good at cavalry, they were reluctant to invest in purchasing war horses.
Thinking of how he took refuge with the King of Guilin, Song Yan couldn't help but sigh inwardly. This Guilin County Prince is really from a business family. I always want to spend less and do more. Instead of spending a lot of money to buy a large number of war horses to form cavalry and maintain these cavalry and war horses, it is better to use half of the money to bribe the military attachés of the court. I'm afraid this approach is more cost-effective in his eyes.
These thousand cavalrymen all use high-quality Tianzhu horses. Although they may not be able to defeat these official cavalry, there is no problem in delaying them for more time. This is a battlefield. Those cavalry are all going to the battlefield. How can you be allowed to make plans here? Even the fight for the world is so calculated, and how can his method of scheming everywhere become a big deal?
It's just a matter of scolding, but in this current situation, I still have to hold on. Fortunately, his central army was disrupted, but after all, his 50,000-strong army was not something that more than 10,000 cavalry could eat up in a short period of time. As long as the opponent's infantry does not catch up, he still has the capital to fight. Moreover, there are two thousand troops and horses around him and more than 1,300 archers who have not been used yet, let alone chaos.
Looking at the chaotic battlefield in front of him, Song Xuan gritted his teeth and ordered, gathering the more than a thousand archers at hand, and firing arrows directly towards the Hualin River in the north, regardless of the enemy or ourselves. At least he had to stop the chaos on both wings so that he could find a chance to reorganize his formation. I have to say that Song Xan's move was indeed vicious. More than a thousand archers fired without distinction between the enemy and ourselves, although they also killed many of their own people.
But it was obvious that the officers and soldiers who were on horseback and had greater targets suffered greater losses. Under the rain of arrows, the northern cavalry suffered heavy losses and had to retreat temporarily. The cavalry brought out by Cao Rui were all light cavalry wearing only leather armor. Faced with this kind of diffusion, there is simply no resistance. In addition, he did not expect that Song Yan would gather so many archers to shoot randomly during the melee between the two armies.
Some cavalrymen on the northern front were caught off guard and lost hundreds of men and horses in one fell swoop. They had no choice but to withdraw from the bow and arrow range and prepare to reorganize their troops. And Song Huan's random shooting killed more of his own people than his fallen opponents. But after all, he now has a military advantage. The thousands of soldiers and horses he shot were not fatal to him at all, nor could they affect him at all.
Song Yan, who finally stabilized the battle situation, immediately blew the horn horn to mobilize troops and ordered all the troops to retreat and assemble to the north. And he took these thousand archers, plus some archers gathered along the way to hold down the position, and desperately fired arrows in other directions where the melee was still taking place. Trying to catch as many infantry troops in the melee as possible. At the same time, the chaotic infantry in the north was organized.
For Cao Rui, Song Yan's obscene and even crazy approach of killing everyone without distinguishing between friend and foe, hurting both sides, made him feel very disadvantaged. Therefore, seeing that there was no advantage left to take advantage of, Cao Rui also ordered the horn to sound the retreat and prepared to reorganize the formation. He couldn't bear to see his elite cavalry in vain being buried with Song Yan's infantry.
Under this lose-lose strategy that did not distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, we finally managed to stabilize our position and struggled to regroup with our troops. Song Xuan glanced at the battlefield, but couldn't help but burst into tears. However, after more than an hour of hard fighting, three-fifths of his 50,000 Chinese troops were eliminated. The entire battlefield was littered with corpses, with corpses of the dead and wounded soldiers wailing in pain everywhere.
Looking at the scene in front of him, Song Yan did not dare to be sad for too long. Using archers to suppress the formation, they retreated step by step towards Hualinshui, thinking of getting closer to the rear army. At least tens of thousands of troops, although separated by the Hualin River, can lean on each other and support each other. It was really impossible to retreat past Hualin River, so we retreated to Fengxin County to make plans. In today's battle, Song Yan knew that this was just the first step.
There is still no trace of the army headquarters that captured Ganzhou, and they are probably waiting for him somewhere ahead. As for whether that army would just wait for him in Ganzhou, or go to besiege Nan'an Mansion, Song Yan didn't believe it at all. During this northern advance, his biggest feeling was that the young generals sent by the leader in the south of the Yangtze River were more willing to take the initiative to fight than the last one.
The son of the famous Lord Ouyang, who was born in the Ouyang Shan family, can be said to have a family background. He will never be honest and just stay on the front lines of Ganzhou and Nan'an. If his judgment was correct, he might be waiting for him south of Zhangjiang. After making this judgment, Song Yan, who did not dare to go south, reduced his troops and retreated to the south bank of Hualin River.
, Song Xie knew very clearly that if he stayed here, he would only be attacked by the army's cavalry if he continued to stay. When the time comes, only God knows whether my subordinates can still hold on and how long they can hold on without collapse. Although this is a hilly area, there are almost no low hills. The cavalry can easily jump up.
And who is Cao Rui? As soon as Song Yan moved, he accurately judged his next move. Looking at the rebels who had regrouped and were retreating towards the south bank of Hualin River, Cao Rui did not even think about it. He ordered the generals around him to prepare for an assault from the left wing except for a part of the troops. The rest of the troops were facing forward. Press on. Out of the range of bows and arrows, the rebels were pressed southward step by step.
Don't stick too tightly, don't rush to attack, just press up step by step. After hearing Cao Rui's instructions, almost all the generals were confused. But Cao Rui didn't like to explain anything, so they didn't dare to ask unless he went out of his way to explain the reason. On the battlefield, there is absolutely no room for bargaining, and there is absolutely no room for bargaining.
At this time, the qualities of the soldiers and horses from the four major battalions as regular soldiers of the imperial court were shown. Even if they didn't understand the commander's military orders, no one questioned them or refused to carry them out. Then the main force of the rebels appeared, maintaining their formation and retreating northward step by step. The ten thousand cavalry placed by Cao Rui in the front were within the range of the rebels' bows and arrows, not far nor close, and followed unhurriedly.
Except for the cannons that also moved along, they stopped after walking two or three miles and fired solid bullets into the rebel formations in rows, almost no attacks were launched. Not even the archers fired their arrows. However, Cao Rui still admires the opponent he is facing. This guy was actually able to resort to the method of cutting off his tail to survive at a critical moment, and forced himself back with random shots.
But at this time, even though his military morale was already in chaos, he was still able to keep his composure. Being able to keep the entire formation in order and use archers to cover the step-by-step retreat northward is considered a talent. It's a pity that his subordinates are not very willing to fight for it. As long as the heavy infantry in front of him is defeated, his men will be unable to deal with the impact of his cavalry.
Judging from the performance of the rebels just now, all he needs to do is work harder. It is estimated that even if he has the ability, he may not be able to save himself. The problem I face now is when is the more appropriate time to launch a charge. Cao Rui, who was determined, had been keeping a close eye on the opposite formation since the enemy in front of him began to retreat. He led his own large group of cavalry and followed him unhurriedly.
On the one hand, he was looking for a suitable fighter plane, and on the other hand, he was waiting for the infantry coming down the river from Jiujiang Prefecture, as well as the dozen or so heavy artillery. On the other hand, he was also taking a rest on his horse. After a bloody battle before, not only the people were exhausted, but the horses were also very tired. This time when he went south, the court had equipped him with good party horses, so he didn't want to lose too much. Properly walking slowly will also help the horse to recover.
The most critical point is that when the rebel central army crossed the Hualin River, he had already used the distance between the rebel central army and the rearguard to send troops to destroy the rebel pontoon bridge on the Hualin River. The connection between the rebel center and rearguard was cut off. Compared with Ganshui River and Yangtze River, the amount of water in Hualin Water is indeed small. But the depth is as deep as one person, and it is definitely not something that the rebels can wade through.
He followed them so unhurriedly, making them tense all the time, guarding against his possible attack at any time. Especially their archers, Cao Rui didn't believe they could keep firing arrows like this. They all use two stone bows. If one person can shoot more than a dozen arrows in a row, it will be as big as the sky. When they are forced to the north bank of Hualin River step by step, it will not be too late to take action.
As for the fact that it's getting dark soon? He is a cavalryman, so he has nothing to fear even if he carries a torch. After all, he was a veteran. Although his original official position was not as high as Song Xuan's, Cao Rui, who had fought all the way up, had much more experience than Song Xuan, who had almost never fought in a war. Facing the hedgehog-like retreat method adopted by Song Yan, who was met with a hail of arrows as long as he pursued him, he was not in a hurry.
In fact, he also knew that it would be okay if he launched an attack now, it would just cause more casualties. But these people are all his old subordinates, and he doesn't want to lose too much in this battle. Because he still had to face the rebels' vanguard and the thousands of cavalry in the rearguard. Although in his eyes, the cavalrymen of the rebel rear guards who rode horses as big as donkeys were not considered real cavalry.
But the rebel front and rear defenders combined, after all, still have 40,000 troops. He only had 2,000 men to intercept the 30,000 troops and horses in the rebel vanguard, and only 1,000 men to intercept the rearguard. It's basically a bluff, just trying to scare them. If it is the rebels' rearguard, they will desperately reinforce it. If he suffers too much loss now, he will not be able to cope with the next war.
