Fifteen thousand people gathered on the plain with a radius of 20 miles. Just think about it and you know how crowded it is.
But no one dares to change formations. Once you change formations, the opponent will take advantage of your opportunity to attack with all their strength. That is no joke.
Because it takes time to change formations, just like the wild geese flying in the sky. One moment they are in the shape of a herringbone, and the other moment they are in the shape of a straight line. From a herringbone to a straight line, such a simple change takes time, let alone a large army changing formations.
The decisive battle has begun, and the problem must be solved within five days. Both sides have insufficient food and grass, no one can afford it, and no one dares to withdraw.
In the wilderness at night, the soldiers rested on the spot, half dozing and half alert, taking turns.
All cavalrymen should take good care of their own horses. Those who were frightened during the day have been dragged down and chopped down. If they are kept, they will have an impact on other horses.
This is why every war horse wears a blindfold, fixed on the cheek leather on both sides of the horse's eyes, because the horse's eyes can cover 360 degrees around it and can see everywhere. The blindfold is to prevent it from looking randomly and only direct its sight. Focus on the front.
It is especially important when charging into battle. If it sees the tragic death of its kind around it, it will have a psychological breakdown and will not be controlled by the knight.
Ranger teams, each consisting of ten people, will constantly roam outside to detect the enemy's movements to prevent sneak attacks.
In fact, with the two armies arrayed at such a close distance, there is no longer any sneak attack, and the sneak attack has no effect because the formation has already been set up.
In the improvised simple military tent, Yu Wenshu was discussing tomorrow's war with a group of generals.
Wei Xuan sat on the mat with a sullen face. Yu Wenshu ignored him when he called him. In short, he didn't look good.
Yu Wenshu dared to deal with Dong Chun, but he did not dare to deal with Wei Xuan.
"In the daytime battle, our army's formation was not disordered at all. It can be seen that Goguryeo's armored cavalry has a false reputation and is nothing to be afraid of. If he is still like this tomorrow, our army can fight decisively," Master Yinshi said.
Armored cavalry are originally the most suitable for rushing into formations, but Yuwenshu has already practiced an infantry formation specifically designed to deal with heavy cavalry, which is composed of platoonmen, spearmen, Modao teams, and bow and arrow teams.
The platoon soldiers resist the impact, the pikemen attack from a distance, the Modao team consists of three people surrounding one cavalry to block the joint defense between the cavalry and the cavalry, and the archers and arrows team shoots.
This formation was very effective today. The enemy's more than 10,000 heavy cavalry who rushed into the formation were recalled in less than two hours.
Because I can't rush in.
Yu Wenshu said with a smile: "I see that most of the enemy troops are heavy cavalry, so we will continue to use this method to wear down their energy. When their energy is gone, it will be a decisive battle."
Li Jing frowned: "We have to seize the time. If nothing unexpected happens, the naval forces coming to the general manager should have already stationed troops south of Pyongyang. Our army needs to fight quickly, and the enemy army has Pyongyang's support on its back, so it is not as anxious as us."
Yu Wen said: "Don't be impatient, pharmacist. The decisive battle has already taken place. No one can change this. Today is just a test. In the early morning, the enemy will use all their strength to break the formation. Our troops are insufficient and it is better to defend than to attack." "
Li Jing said: "What if the enemy doesn't attack tomorrow?"
"How is it possible not to attack?" Yu Shiji said: "Today's battle shows the impatience of the enemy. Our main force has arrived here, less than five hundred miles away from Pyongyang. Gao Yuan should have trouble sleeping and eating now. Seeing that our army is outnumbered, We will definitely charge forward with all our strength.”
"This is not called being outnumbered," Li Jing said with a wry smile: "The strength of the army does not depend on the number of troops. I have fifty thousand of the most elite troops to fight against the barbarians. I have the advantage. Now that I have successfully crossed the river, I should defeat them in one fell swoop." Let’s go straight to Pyongyang.”
Wei Xuan agreed: "The enemy's troops are mostly heavy cavalry, and there are too many of them. Once they suffer a heavy setback, they will fall apart. Our army should focus on attacking the middle army. As long as the middle army is in chaos, the cavalry on all sides will collapse without a fight."
The role of heavy cavalry is to charge into the formation, while light cavalry is used to harass and drive them away. However, if you cannot break the formation and cannot drive them away, their combat effectiveness is actually not as good as that of infantry.
Because your two legs are definitely more trustworthy than the horse under your butt, the real decisive battle depends on the infantry.
The cavalry can run fast, and they can also escape quickly.
"Yes," Li Jing nodded and said, "Tonight is a good opportunity. Our army should take advantage of the night and slowly advance to close the distance between us and the enemy. Heavy cavalry that cannot charge into the formation are just infantry sitting on horses, and there are many enemy troops. As a heavy rider, he does not have the strength to fight me in a decisive battle."
This is the shortcoming of Goguryeo's over-emphasis on its military units. It has an army of 100,000 and 60,000 heavy cavalry.
If you can break the formation, the lethality will undoubtedly be unprecedentedly terrifying, but if you can't break it, it's all in vain.
"No," Yu Shiji was the first to object: "Our army hastily crossed the river and is already exhausted. The battle during the day makes us even more tired. We must not move tonight."
Li Jing looked at Yu Wenshu, he was the one who made the decision.
Many of the generals in the tent now agree with Li Jing's strategy. After all, after today's first battle, they cleaned up the battlefield and found that the enemy's heavy cavalry had suffered huge losses, but our own formation remained unchanged.
So everyone has confidence.
Qiu He also agreed: "The enemy's armor is vulnerable to my refined weapons. The prince should be the first to contribute to this expedition. I will bring this magical weapon to defeat the thieves as soon as possible and join forces with Lai Huer." Attack Pyongyang."
Yu Wenshu's face was expressionless, and he was thinking secretly in his heart.
He wanted to delay. As long as he delayed, Lai Huer's side would definitely be tempted to attack Pyongyang. However, Lai Huer's subordinates did not have many refined weapons, and they were also temporarily recruited Jianghuai Navy and Lingnan Paiji. Hands, combat effectiveness is worrying.
It's unrealistic to just rely on Lai Hu'er to defeat Pyongyang, so he needs to wait for Lai Hu'er's big defeat.
If the navy is defeated, and Yu Zhongwen is trapped in Wu Gu, his military morale will collapse. There will definitely be many generals willing to withdraw their troops. If he deliberately plots a few small defeats, the main force will be defeated. No one can stop it.
If the front is defeated, the Liaodong army must withdraw before the water level of Banghai Road rises. Otherwise, supplies will be cut off, which will be extremely dangerous.
At that time, it will be a good opportunity for East Turkestan to take action.
Therefore, Yu Wenshu categorically denied: "The two armies are facing each other. It is a taboo to underestimate the enemy. Now that Yu Zhongwen has not crossed the river, I should put safety first. The enemy's strength is twice that of mine. If we attack them forcefully, we may be taken advantage of by the enemy. I have made up my mind, there is no need for you to discuss it.”
After saying that, Yu Wenshu looked at Yu Shiji: "What do you think?"
Yu Shiji was a civil servant and a flatterer, but he was very ignorant. In his opinion, risky things should not be done because he was with the army. If the army was defeated, he would have to finish it.
"The general manager should be cautious and prudent. Our army is indeed not prone to danger," Yu Shiji nodded.
Yu Wenshu didn't care about anyone's opinion, but he had to take care of Yu Shiji's face, and he was sure that Yu Shiji was a coward and would definitely not agree with Li Jing's attack strategy.
"Okay, all the generals will return to their headquarters. If there is any love affair, please report it immediately," Yu Wenshu made the final decision.
Li Jing, who left the military tent, had just mounted his horse when he heard the sound of hoofbeats behind him.
Wei Xuan rode up to him, leaned over and whispered, "I feel something is wrong."
Li Jing frowned and approached, "What does Duke Wei mean by this?"
Wei Xuandao: "I followed your words and attacked the dam with all my strength, in order to provide the main force with a gap to cross the river. But they couldn't cross the river, and they even divided their forces. Yu Wenshu said that Xue Shixiong threatened him, and if he didn't save me, he would withdraw. On the east defense line, I think he is making excuses, how could he be frightened by Xue Shixiong?"
Li Jing nodded: "The general manager has been on the battlefield for a long time, so he should not make such a wrong judgment. He should be able to see the intention of Duke Wei to take the dam, but he went in the opposite direction, which is really puzzling."
Wei Xuandao: "If we had forced the crossing at that time, with the strength of the Yiwei army, the Wugu defenders plus the remnants of Liaodong would definitely not be a match. However, the result was that the main force was divided, which gave people an opportunity to take advantage of. Now Zhongwen and Mai Iron rod, I'm afraid it will be extremely difficult, only 50,000 of us are left crossing the river, and we are blocked by a strong enemy, the prospect is not optimistic."
Li Jing sighed: "After we rendezvous the day before yesterday, I observed the army's baggage. There was not much military rations left for each of the soldiers to carry. I guess they were afraid of affecting the march and abandoned them halfway. But why were we marching in such a hurry when we came down from Liaodongnan?" , when you should be anxious now, you are not anxious anymore?"
"Don't spread the military rations to anyone else, as it may affect the morale of the army," Wei Xuan whispered.
The reason why the soldiers dared to abandon the rations was because Yuwenshu's army had more than 300 military vehicles, half of which were filled with rations.
But half of the military rations are for livestock, and the remaining half is no longer enough for them.
Yu Zhongwen was trapped, in need of food and fodder, and there was Gao Dayang's army blocking the front. In addition, the delay caused Lai Hu'er to advance rashly. Yu Wenshu's initiative to seek defeat was approaching success step by step.
Yang Guang had earlier ordered the main army to carry nearly a hundred kilograms of grain each, which had advantages and disadvantages. Now that there is a shortage of food, Yang Guang will be remembered.
People are afraid that you will be hungry, but you are still hungry.
Li Jing whispered: "I have sent Pei Xingyan to Wugu. I hope it's not too late. As long as General Manager Yu's main force can cross the river smoothly and our army's advantage remains unchanged, I'm afraid that if we spend too long here, General Manager Yu will not be able to support it and we can only attack by force." , once you are frustrated, it will be extremely difficult.”
"That's why I said there is a problem," Wei Xuan said: "Everyone knows now that it cannot be difficult to protect the children, but Yu Wenshu seems to be deliberately delaying it. As you saw tonight, the majority of the generals support the main battle. The advantages of our army's armor have been proven over the past few months, and Goguryeo's proud armored cavalry can do nothing."
Li Jing asked doubtfully: "The chief manager doesn't dare to delay deliberately? What's the benefit to him?"
"This is something I can't figure out," Wei Xuan shook his head and said, "So I can't make up my mind. Is he delaying intentionally, or is he really putting safety first? Let's wait and see. Anyway, the enemy and we are already in formation, and success or failure depends on it." Just three to five days.”
Li Jing smiled bitterly and said: "I'm afraid that the manager won't be able to wait for three to five days."
Wei Xuan also sighed, patted Li Jing's shoulder, and rode away.
(End of chapter)
