Chapter 35: Black Tide
Everyone makes mistakes at some point, it's just that some people's mistakes won't have too serious consequences. But some people's mistakes will have a huge impact, even changing the course of history.
If Wen De knew that he had committed this mistake in a fit of anger, the Central Plains Knights would have re-emerged long ago and fought against Liao Dong again, I'm sure he wouldn't make such a mistake.
In the history of the Central Plains dynasty, several dynasties had heavy cavalry equipped with armor. In the recent Southern and Northern Dynasties period, heavy cavalry appeared many times in the continuous wars. Heavy cavalry was famous for its terrible impact force and destructive power in those famous battles, often crushing enemies several or even ten times their own number. This is a term that makes opponents tremble when mentioned, countless famous generals established their reputation with heavy cavalry.
Time has passed, and the years of heavy cavalry have slowly gone by. On the mainland, it is no longer possible to see the shadow of a heavily armored knight. A few years ago, the Goguryeo people occasionally discovered craftsmen who made heavy armor from the Han people who had fallen into Liaodong. They spent a huge amount of money to create 3,000 sets of heavy armor, but after they were made, they embarrassingly found that there was no place for heroes to use their martial arts. Goguryeo is a mountain tribe, and their trump card is the light cavalry unit, which can come and go freely in the mountains. In such a remote area, there was simply no need to use heavy cavalry in any battle.
After being stored for decades, the armor was discovered by the warehouse guards and reported to the king. Gao Yuan casually waved his hand and said, "Take it to Liaodong City, maybe it can still be used there." Even this king, who had once been enthusiastic about and revered cavalry equipment, had lost interest and thought it was just something exaggerated by the people of the Central Plains.
Not only the Goguryeo people, but also many of the Sui dynasty's generals believed that the cost of equipping heavy cavalry was too high and the restrictions on their use were too great. Moreover, there are now many ways to counter heavy cavalry. Therefore, heavy cavalry has become outdated and is no longer a formidable weapon. However, they all overlooked the fact that heavy cavalry was so renowned precisely because it could deliver a decisive, crushing blow at critical moments.
The thousand-strong Broken Army cavalry arrived at a place not far from Goguryeo in less than half a time, and along the way they rode on those war horses without armor, while letting the war horses equipped with horse armor run empty, which was also to ensure that the war horses could rush forward with maximum strength later.
In the pitch-black forest, all the horses' hooves were wrapped in cloth, and even their mouths were covered. Chen Kefu stared at the distant Goguryeo people for a while, who might have been scattered around the mountain valley due to their large army of over 700,000 soldiers. The camp was dispersed across several li of land. Some had already dismounted and set up tents, while others remained on horseback, and some even started fires to roast the wild animals they had just hunted.
Such a team made Chen Kefu think that he had encountered some nobleman who came out to hunt, this was not a military expedition, it was just a mob. In fact, Chen Kefu did not guess wrong, the commander of this army was the strongest, but the soldiers were the weakest. More than half of these soldiers were private soldiers of various nobles, so there was no discipline at all. Commander Yi Zhicheng had no way to deal with these people, and he also felt that after several days of continuous marching, the military expedition was indeed very tiring. These were also private soldiers of the nobles, and it was impossible to demand too much from them for the time being. He did not think that there would be Sui army appearing here tonight either. He thought that the way to lead an army should be to advance bravely, but he did not consider that he was leading a mob, no matter how powerful the general was, if he led a mob into battle, it was not certain whether they could defeat a second-rate general leading a second-rate team.
"Everyone change horses, prepare to charge. Luo Lin, in a moment you will personally hold the great banner of breaking the enemy camp. Everyone follow the banner as standard, and charge through the enemy formation all the way into the mountain valley. Remember not to get bogged down in battle, just follow me and charge forward. Once heavy cavalry stops, it's hard to start again. Without momentum, heavy cavalry becomes a clumsy turtle shell."
A thousand heavy cavalrymen were all clad in black armor, with black human armor, black horse armor, and black cloaks. A red tassel fluttered gently in the wind on their high helmets. Each person held a black lance, quickly gathering into squares outside the small forest. Following Chen Kefu's orders, they formed into fifty-man charge teams, each team consisting of one hundred men and horses. The thousand men were divided into twenty charge formations, with the Broken Army Camp's large flag beside Chen Kefu as their standard, swiftly completing their charge preparations on the open ground.
The summer night was long, but it was finally about to pass. The eastern horizon had a hint of dawn, and the faint light shone on the heavy armor of the Broken Army's heavy cavalry, reflecting a faint glow. A gentle morning breeze blew from the forest, gently lifting the plumes on all the warriors' heads, creating a wave of black ripples.
Chen Kefu stood at the front of the formation, calmly gazing out at the vast array of Goguryeo cavalry before him. Beside him were fifty of the most elite soldiers from the Broken Army Camp, these young and brave warriors all considered it their greatest honor to have been selected as Chen Kefu's personal guards. At this moment, they all tightly grasped the horse spears in their hands, excitedly guarding Chen Kefu on all sides. Before setting out, they had already promised several generals in the army that not a single one of them would die, and they absolutely would not let General Chen suffer even a scratch. All the soldiers had boundless admiration for this young man who came from an ordinary background, Chen Kefu was their idol and goal to strive for.
Chen Kefu's hand grasped the horse whip high and swung it towards the sky, and the thousand heavy cavalrymen behind him received their final order to charge. Each person shouted with all their might, "Glory belongs to us, Broken Army Camp will surely win!" Amidst the thunderous roar of voices, the thousand heavy cavalrymen of Broken Army Camp launched a fierce charge. This was the most powerful charge in this era, and many Goguryeo cavalrymen had just heard a loud rumbling sound and hadn't yet understood what was happening when they already felt a massive tremor beneath their feet like an earthquake.
A thousand heavy cavalrymen from the Broken Army Camp were divided into twenty charging formations, arrayed in a huge triangular arrowhead formation and charged towards the Goguryeo people on the plain below. Like a black wave, with an unstoppable momentum, with thunderous hoofbeats, they charged towards the Goguryeo people scattered all over the mountains and fields.
Chen Kefu and others' broken army camp heavy cavalry first rushed to, coincidentally, was the Goguryeo people's attack on the valley failed to retreat down several thousand teams. These several thousand teams in the valley outside had abandoned a large number of dead soldiers, retreated down after being arranged here, wounded soldiers also fought nearly 30%. Several thousand teams of soldiers at this time were all sitting, lying down. Even if there were some who hadn't been injured, they were both marching and making strong attacks, and after half a day, they were so tired that they didn't want to move at all.
Against the heavy cavalry that charged like a landslide and tsunami, these thousands of cavalrymen became the first among the Goguryeo people to experience the power of the Central Plains' heavy armor. The earth shook beneath their feet, the sound of horseshoes was like thunder, and they faced the heavily armored cavalry like devils emerging from hell. These Goguryeo people in the far east were stunned, they had never seen such cavalry before, not only were the riders fully armored, but even the warhorses were covered from head to toe, except for their four hooves flying about, many people couldn't believe that these men were riding horses. Especially on top of the horse armor, there were numerous patterns drawn, all depicting heavenly gods and such, which left many soldiers stunned.
The Goguryeo people were stunned, but Chen Kefu was not stunned, and the heavy armored cavalry that broke through the military camp was also not stunned. Row after row of heavy armored cavalry, like moving small mountains, brought unstoppable impact force, and those Goguryeo soldiers who were still stunned were knocked flying one by one. As soon as they fell to the ground, the second row of heavy armored cavalry had already charged over, and those Goguryeo people were instantly trampled into pulp like a mantis blocking a chariot.
Heavy cavalry was a raging tide, everything that tried to stop their advance was broken and overturned. Long spears pierced the sky, wheel blades shone in the sunlight. Under such a tide, one thousand-strong team after another of Goguryeo people were broken through by heavy cavalry, just like a strong crossbow arrow, piercing through thousands of layers.
The commander of Goguryeo, Eulji Mundeok, felt the immense impact of this cavalry as soon as they appeared. As a military god revered by the people of Goguryeo, he knew that if he didn't organize his brave warriors to hold off the charge of this unit, and let them continue their onslaught, the entire army composed of those nobles' private soldiers would collapse under the impact of this cavalry, which was like a messenger from hell. If they collapsed, they might even be pursued and killed by this small unit, numbering tens of thousands. This was something Eulji Mundeok absolutely could not allow to happen. Using his prestige, he quickly organized over 10,000 cavalrymen.
More than 10,000 Goguryeo cavalrymen led by Eulji Mundeok launched a frontal countercharge against the surging Sui heavy cavalry. It was a clash of knights and a collision between heavy cavalry and light cavalry. Like two black waves crashing together, there was an instant pause before the more intense collision.
Chen Kefu waved his spear at the incoming cavalry, and with a loud crash, he knocked the Goguryeo knight flying. Qingji also performed exceptionally well, although it was its first time wearing armor, it swung its horse head at a Goguryeo knight who had rushed to the side, and the sharp iron horn instantly pierced the knight's abdomen, tearing open a huge gash.
That cavalryman, holding a long spear, looked at the green horse with an incredulous face. He couldn't believe it either - why did he, a brave and mighty warrior of Goguryeo, end up dying under the hooves of a Sui army warhorse? This must be a dream, an illusion. With his last bit of resentment, he fell headfirst to the ground, swallowed by the black waves.
Yeon Gaesomun led a force of 10,000 men, the elite troops of Goguryeo. Unlike the noble slave-soldiers, they were seasoned veterans. Facing the Tang army's heavy cavalry, they showed no fear and charged forward with their long spears. However, something unexpected happened - whenever they thrust their spears, they only managed to spark a shower of fire, but had no effect on the Tang soldiers' armor. Some cavalrymen drew out their sharp sabers and slashed at the warhorses, thinking that they were just wearing leather armor. But when the blades struck, they let out a metallic ring, and apart from sparks flying everywhere and leaving a white mark, the horses remained unscathed.
The Goguryeo people couldn't cut through the Sui army's cavalry, but those Sui army cavalrymen's lances could easily pierce their bodies, and sometimes even used the lance head to smash their heads into pieces with a single blow. Some cavalrymen directly used the warhorse's massive impact force to knock them off their horses, and then let the iron hooves of the following cavalry trample them to death. When one by one Goguryeo people, with a warrior's bravery, launched a countercharge against the enemy's heavily armored cavalry, they were hot-blooded. But when they charged again and again, only to be swallowed up and trampled by the enemy's heavily armored cavalry without mercy, their hot blood began to fade away, and charging forward was no longer brave, but foolish.
The enemy's heavy cavalry was not afraid of swords and knives, they used light cavalry to confront the Sui army's heavy cavalry, it was just a death sentence. After counter-attacking for half a day, except for sending up corpse after corpse, they couldn't even slow down the enemy's attack rhythm. All the Goguryeo cavalrymen finally realized one thing, this armored cavalry unit was simply a group of monsters. They charged forward not out of bravery, but to die.
The Goguryeo soldiers collapsed, and humans have always had an unparalleled fear of the unknown. As a warrior, there is nothing more terrifying than an enemy that cannot be killed. At first, one or two cavalrymen retreated, turning their heads to disperse, and then, like a contagious disease, more and more cavalrymen began to try to avoid this torrent. They drove their war horses to both sides, never looking back.
Yeon Gaesomun retreated with the defeated Goguryeo cavalry to a small hill, and he wouldn't think like those ignorant slaves that these were some kind of ghosts. He knew this was the heavy armored cavalry equipped with 甲骑具装 from the Central Plains legend. Without trying, one would never know how terrifying the heavy armored cavalry described in military books and history books could be. It was too terrifying; he had just led his nearly ten thousand light cavalry to launch a countercharge against that thousand-strong army, hoping to crush them at once, but unexpectedly, it was his own army of ten thousand that was defeated. Yeon Gaesomun, known as the number one general of Goguryeo, relied on his many strategies; after carefully observing the Sui army, he decisively ordered, "All cavalry gather, half dismount and form a long spear array, and the remaining cavalry retreat to the two wings and rear to press the formation." At the critical moment, he recalled the military books that described using heavy infantry to break heavy cavalry, but since he didn't have infantry now, he might as well turn his cavalry into infantry.
At this moment, Yizhi Wende is not thinking about how to destroy the enemy army, but rather how to quickly gather his troops and stabilize their morale. If they can't defeat this heavy cavalry, then they won't even be able to eat away at them, let alone be defeated by the opponent. This kind of thing, he absolutely will not allow.
"Form up! Form up!" With the shouting, those Goguryeo people who retreated to the small hillside began to dismount and hold guns, forming into long spear arrays.
New book rushed to fifth place, still second in category, brothers and sisters push me again, use the recommendation tickets in your hands to blast me up...
