Amidst the thick and rapid sound of war drums, more than 10,000 Qingzhou troops collided with Liu Ling's troops who were blocking them in front of them.
As soon as they made contact, screams and blood mist erupted from the two lines. In front of the Qingzhou Army, where almost everyone was wearing armor, Liu Ling's men were instantly killed amidst the clash of swords and guns and the metallic squeak of armor friction. A large piece fell.
Unlike most of Shi Le's men who were cavalry, many of Liu Ling's men were mountain people from Hebei Province. These people were born mountain infantry. They were not barbarian light cavalry who guerrillaed like a pack of wolves, but could Infantry combat elites who can resist hand-to-hand combat.
This is also the reason why after Shi Le returned from defeat, he kept trying to persuade Liu Ling to stop the Qingzhou Army, but Liu Ling actually agreed.
Liu Ling thought that with his advantages in numbers and physical strength, he should be able to defeat these Qingzhou troops who dared to charge into the battle.
It was just beyond Liu Ling's expectation that after seeing Liu Ling's formation blocking the reinforcements from entering the city, these Qingzhou troops did not show any timidity. Instead, under the encouragement of a sturdy general, they became as fierce as a mad tiger. Pounce.
As soon as he met the enemy, Liu Ling discovered the difference between these Qingzhou reinforcements. It was not only because the ratio of armored soldiers of these Qingzhou troops was very high, but also not because these Qingzhou troops were not afraid of death. After all, Liu Ling had fought against Jintingzhou County soldiers. Horses also had elites with bright armor, and there were Jin soldiers who were brave and fearless of death.
What really makes Liu Ling feel a little scared is that these Qingzhou troops, who are both well-armed and fearless of death, are not just individual leaders in a certain army like the enemies they have encountered before, but almost the entire front. The Qingzhou Army is in the same state.
This would be very scary.
For example, if there are one or two tigers in the two wolf packs that are originally facing each other, then the numerical advantage may be used to make up for the gap in individual strength.
But a group of wolves is facing a group of tigers, so even if the difference between these wolves is ten times greater, it will still be dangerous.
Second, after marching in a hurry, these Qingzhou troops immediately threw themselves into the attack. They were able to maintain a neat array during the fanatical attack. They were able to maintain the order of the soldiers in the front and rear rows amidst the unique conch horns and whistles of the Qingzhou army. Taking turns to replace each other, performing quite skillful rolling attacks.
This almost cost Liu Ling his life. Although Liu Ling prided himself on the fact that his subordinates were equally brave and fearless of death, most of them relied on a blinding brute strength. How could they have done anything in the process of actually engaging the enemy? They alternately change their formations to engage the enemy, and every fight is a melee. Either they kill the enemy and collapse, or their own front formation weakens and is defeated.
This is the reason for the lack of daily collective training. In these bandit-style battles, the elite among them are often regarded as all-purpose fire fighters, often squeezing them to their last full strength in a battle, and rarely Can coordinate with the replacement military formation changes.
This kind of reckless tactics can always yield miraculous results when facing enemies who lack training and morale. Often, one or two rounds of charges can defeat the enemy.
However, at this moment, facing the Qingzhou Army who had been training with each other for several months, Liu Ling's bandits, who had already lost the upper hand and did not even make a bold move, appeared one after another and were exhausted. situation.
The rogue bandits, who had an overwhelming numerical advantage, actually appeared to be in a stalemate on the front line, and did not use their numerical advantage to encircle and outflank them on both wings.
Seeing that he had fallen into an unfavorable situation from the beginning, Liu Ling became anxious. He quickly mobilized his cavalry and ordered them to divide their troops into two wings and launch a strong attack on Qingzhou's flank and rear.
Although using these light cavalry to attack the well-organized infantry would require suffering huge casualties, Liu Ling had no choice. His infantry had become passive. If they could not attack from behind, the infantry with twice the numerical advantage would collapse. .
At this time, in this dense and fierce infantry battle, Liu Yu only needed to sit in the rear and command, and there was no need for him to fight in the formation.
Seeing that the Qingzhou Army, which was outnumbered, used skillful coordination to force the rogue army that was twice his own to retreat step by step, Liu Yu couldn't help but feel very proud.
Sure enough, as long as these semi-professional sergeants have enough material support and training time, they can exert several times more power than refugees and bandits.
In this kind of battle involving tens of thousands of people, individual bravery is almost negligible. The only important thing is the order and coordination of the array. Formation and coordination can allow a soldier to maximize his physical reserves and will not make him simple. It is vigorous and vigorous, and then it declines and then it is exhausted.
Of course, the most important thing is the morale of each individual soldier.
At this time, what the Qingzhou Army lacks most is the morale of beheading for merit.
Looking at the slowly advancing infantry front, Liu Yu felt a little regretful. What he lacked most at this time was the cavalry that could make the final decision.
If you have an armored cavalry in your hand that can break the enemy's formation, then you only need one surprise attack to completely break through the enemy's formation.
Just when Liu Yu regretted his lack of cavalry, he heard the sound of thundering horse hooves.
Liu Yu quickly followed the sound and saw that the enemy army on the opposite side already had a large number of cavalry, nearly ten thousand cavalry. They were dividing their troops into two groups, intending to bypass the Qingzhou Army infantry on both sides to attack.
Although these are all unarmored cavalry, and they are all short ordinary horse cavalry, the tens of thousands of them combined together can still create considerable danger if they attack the flanks of the infantry.
Seeing the situation, Liu quickly ordered to shrink his right wing first, where the Qingzhou Army was almost defeated. Then, Liu Yu personally led only 200 cavalry and 1,000 infantry reserves to personally rush to the left wing.
Although these thousand infantrymen were not many in number, they were indeed the tallest and strongest soldiers selected by Liu Yu from the army.
Each of these soldiers was more than seven feet tall, and they were all warriors armed with infantry spears and sabers.
Soon, when the Hulu bandits' cavalry moved around to the left wing, Liu Yu also led these reserves to the predetermined position to stop them.
At this time, many other Hulu cavalry went directly to the deeper rear, intending to directly attack the back of the Donglai Army.
If these cavalry that circle back can really exert their power to trap the enemy, then the infantry of the Qingzhou Army will likely face enemies from both sides and fall into great passivity.
In real combat, it will not be like the storybooks of later generations. As long as you attack around the back, the military formation will immediately collapse and fail. The formation of an army is usually a line composed of layers of infantry, not It is really like a person has two sides. If he is really a single person, he will definitely not be able to take care of both sides. As long as a military formation is strong enough, it can deal with enemies on both sides at any time. However, the intuitive pressure is A sharp increase, and it will also disrupt the original array. This is the danger that the army faces when it is attacked from two sides.
However, Liu Yu could no longer care about this at this time. After all, these bandits were several times larger than his own. All he could do now was to defeat those in front of him first.
Amidst the whimpering of horn horns, thousands of Hulu cavalry galloped towards the Qingzhou Army's left wing one after another.
The thousand Qingzhou troops who had just arrived here for support were like a thin human fence, which seemed to be crushed with just a slight bump in front of thousands of roaring cavalry.
Under the wild running of thousands of war horses, the ground seemed to be shaking, and waves of rumbling sounds spread along the soil to every Qingzhou Army.
"Raise your arms! Arrange in formation!"
In the loud shouts of the Qingzhou Army Brigade Commander, the three square formations of Qingzhou Army soldiers raised their swords in unison. The sharp metal tips were like life-threatening fangs, waiting for the Hulu cavalry to hit them as they got closer and closer. .
Rounds of light arrows were fired from the oncoming cavalry team. Most of them were shot blindly on the erratic horseback, because the cavalry in the back row could not see the situation in front of them and had no idea at all. The specific location of the Qingzhou Army infantry.
Many of the arrows still hit the target and hit the armor of the Qingzhou soldiers, making a clanging sound.
Two more leaped over the infantry array and landed in front of Liu Yu's horse. These light arrows did not even penetrate the frozen ground and fell to the ground.
Liu Yu glanced down and found that the arrow was not an iron arrowhead, but a bronze arrowhead. He didn't know where these Hulu cavalry had found such antiques from the pre-Qin era.
This kind of bronze arrowheads had already fallen behind in the Han Dynasty, but arrowheads had always been consumables. Liu Yu estimated that these bandits and Hulu were not self-sufficient. They should have been stubborn in robbing tombs.
Almost in the blink of an eye, these Huru cavalry rushed in front of them. However, unlike Liu She's idea of cavalry charging into the formation, and then both men and horses being turned upside down, both of them would be injured. In addition to some cavalrymen holding extra-long cavalry qiang, these Huru cavalry attacked the Qingzhou infantry. In addition, the rest of the cavalry passed through the surroundings and gaps of the three infantry phalanxes, and did not actually attack the sharp spear points and gun heads.
After all, even if these barbarians suddenly become unafraid of death and dare to attack the infantry at the head of the gun, their mounts will not be willing to do so. In fact, these horses and livestock are very smart. Without rigorous training, these horses will never They all automatically avoid dangerous gun points and will not actually attack densely packed gun formations.
In this roaring cavalry charge, these Hulu cavalry achieved very few victories. Instead, the infantry of the Qingzhou Army used the longer spears in their hands to knock off many cavalry who dared to approach.
At this time, the front cavalry and rear cavalry of these Hulu fell into a brief chaos. Some wanted to form a formation to attack again, some wanted to wander around and shoot with bows and arrows, and some wanted to continue moving forward. , went directly behind the Qingzhou Army to conduct a surprise attack.
At this moment, Liu Yu felt that this brief chaos was his opportunity!
"Everyone! Kill with me!"
Liu Yu shouted that he would lead the two hundred cavalry around him to counterattack the Huru cavalry on the left.
Different from the light armor of these Hulu, the mounts of Liu Yu's two hundred cavalry were already covered with thick felt. Although they were far from being comparable to the armor of the armored cavalry, they could not be compared with the light armor of these Hulu. The cavalry is still barely usable.
Soon, the cavalry that was the first to attack the left wing of the Qingzhou Army suddenly discovered that a cavalry with only a few hundred people not far away was rushing towards them. Looking at the cavalry coming in two rows, they originally had their own thoughts. The cavalrymen fell into chaos when they saw the sword and gun cavalry rushing towards them.
When some people turned their horses' heads to escape, and some raised them to meet the enemy, the two hundred cavalry led by Liu Yu had already collided with them in two rows.
Under the attack of the two rows of guns, the Hulu cavalry at the front had collapsed. These light cavalry had no ability to fight with this kind of armored cavalry.
However, Liu Yu succeeded with one blow and had no intention of engaging in a melee with these cavalry.
Taking advantage of the chaos of the Hulu cavalry in front of him, he retreated and formed a formation again for the second round of charge. In front of a group of Hulu rogues who had no discipline or cooperation, Liu Yu's two hundred cavalry were like a drill, lightly charging Three rounds of attacks were carried out easily. Although they only killed and injured a few hundred people, the Hulu cavalry on the left wing fell into a rout in an instant.
Not far away, at the head of Licheng City, Sun Fang, Licheng County Magistrate Zheng Jie and other officials were stunned as they watched the melee outside the city.
On the condescending city wall, Zheng Jie originally thought that the Hulu, who were several times superior, would probably defeat these reinforcements coming from afar soon, but Zheng Jie couldn't help complaining in his heart, thinking that these reinforcements had worked so hard to come. Just when they were about to die under Licheng's nose, they suddenly discovered that these reinforcements, who were outnumbered, actually launched a preemptive attack on the Hulu who were several times their size, and immediately gained the upper hand.
However, the Hulu cavalry that followed immediately divided their troops into two wings and were about to attack from both sides. When they were in danger, the smaller Qingzhou cavalry took advantage of the chaos and killed the cavalry on the left wing and fled.
"Okay, okay! It's indeed mighty!"
All of a sudden, everyone on the top of the city clapped their hands and cheered.
However, unlike these Licheng officials who were just watching and cheering, Sun Fang, as the city's guard, had other ideas in mind.
At this time, Sun Fang discovered that the Hulu outside the city had put all the troops in formation to use, and instead of reversing the situation, the Qingzhou Army counterattacked.
However, these Hulu fled far away and would regroup soon. If so, the Qingzhou Army would face endless battles.
Therefore, the best way at this time is to defeat these barbarians in one fell swoop, leaving them no chance to regroup.
Sun Fang had big beads of sweat on his forehead and thought anxiously.
Finally, I finally made up my mind.
He suddenly spoke.
"Donglai men, follow me out of the east gate and help kill the enemy!"
