Chapter 25: Deploying Troops (Part 2)

  Just as Sima was filled with admiration for the Korean army, a sudden change occurred behind him.

  The rumbling sound of iron hooves came rolling from behind, and Sima Xin's face changed greatly. Relying on his many years of experience, at least three thousand cavalrymen were coming from behind, and they must be heavy cavalry. Light cavalry could not have such a great momentum.

  However, didn't the Wild King's Castle only have around 5,000 light cavalry? Where did the Korean army get their heavy cavalry from? The heavy cavalry of this era had extremely strict requirements for horsemanship. Normally, people could barely stay on a horse without falling off. (At that time, there were no stirrups or saddles; it would take a long time for an agricultural nation to train like a nomadic nation.)

  It's too late to think of such a complicated problem, Sima Xin forced himself to calm down and think of a countermeasure. In front of him was the Korean light cavalry, behind him was the Korean heavy cavalry, and his own side had just finished three rounds of charging, at the moment when the old force had just dissipated and the new force had not yet been born. Turning around to meet the enemy was not an option, for now, there was only one way: to muster up the courage to charge towards the Korean light cavalry.

  As for whether they would be caught up by the Korean heavy cavalry who had already started, that was no longer something he could decide. Heaven was playing tricks on him! One moment ago, he was thinking of making two more charges to wipe out the Korean army, and the next moment, he was praying to survive this charge.

  "Wind! Wind! Strong wind!"

  The Qin army no longer spared the horses' strength, desperately urging their mounts to gallop forward. The opposing Han light cavalry, on the other hand, was filled with renewed morale, sharp as a needle against a wheat awn, charging straight ahead.

  It turned out that today was obviously not a lucky day for the Qin army. The Qin army barely charged two-thirds of the distance before being caught up by the heavy cavalry of the Han army behind them. Since the Qin army had given their backs to the Han army, they had no choice but to accept the most humiliating way of death. Countless Qin soldiers were shot in the back with heavy crossbow arrows and fell off their horses. More were swept off their horses without any resistance by long halberds or long spears, and were trampled into pulp by the warhorses of the Han army.

  When the Korean light cavalry broke through and came out, there was not a single Qin army cavalry standing on the battlefield. The tiger riders did not stop at all, and without waiting for the light cavalry behind to catch up, they rushed straight to the west gate of Yeowang.

  Yeowang Ximen, 5,000 Han light infantry struggled to hold on, the abatis in front of them was filled with the corpses of Qin soldiers, but it was also on the verge of collapse.

  Under the Qin army's wave after wave of charges, the refused cavalry formation was on the verge of collapse. Although the archers and crossbowmen behind them were supporting their own side without stopping, and the stone-throwing vehicles were also continuously striking the Qin army, but in dealing with the scattered Qin army, such attacks were more like scratching an itch.

  A thousand Qin cavalry formed a team, taking turns to harass the Han army. One after another, the Qin army approached the Han army's phalanx formation, touched and retreated, and each Qin army would use the crossbow arrows in their hands to cut off the outermost layer of the Han army's phalanx formation. When the Han army was slightly slack, they would directly charge into the formation.

  If it weren't for the Qin army's cautious casualties, perhaps the Korean army's phalanx would have been broken long ago. Just as the Korean light infantry was gritting its teeth and barely holding on, a loud rumbling sound of horse hooves came from not far away.

  The general in charge of commanding these five thousand Qin cavalrymen was taken aback, thinking to himself: "Could it be that the Sima Lieutenant has already defeated the Han army so quickly?"

  The next second, a green large flag appeared in front of Jun Hou's eyes.

  "Enemy attack!"

  "Form ranks! Form ranks!"

  Several terrified voices rang out.

  Qin Junjumou desperately gathered his troops. At this time, only by quickly gathering the 5,000-strong army and launching a counterattack could there be a glimmer of hope. The small groups of light cavalry were unable to stir up even a ripple under the charge of the heavy cavalry.

  But all is too late.

  The Qin army divided its 50,000-strong force into small teams, which could indeed play a role in harassing the Han army and reducing casualties, but once they encountered enemy forces, their slow assembly speed would often be a fatal weakness.

  It's time for the Qin army to taste the bitter fruit.

  What is seen cannot be undone. Jun Hou's heart was set, and he led the two thousand-man teams that had gathered to charge forward. This was an unavoidable situation; if they didn't launch a charge now, their own speed would soon be unable to keep up. Light cavalry that couldn't keep up with the pace were no better than infantrymen, and at this rate, their own fate would only become even more miserable!

  Looking at the two Qin army thousand-man teams rushing towards him with reckless abandon, Tian Hu smiled coldly and raised his long spear, pointing it at the Qin army.

  "Kill!"

  "Kill!"

  "Kill!"

  Three thousand tiger riders let out their loudest roar.

  The outcome of the clash is self-evident, and the Korean heavy cavalry, which has gained speed, is unstoppable. The 2,000 Qin light cavalry are like snow meeting boiling water, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

  The remaining three thousand Qin cavalry were eager for revenge and hatred, but in a situation where they did not have the numerical advantage, their counterattack seemed more like a weak resistance.

  Just two rounds of charging, five thousand Qin army's elite cavalry were completely annihilated!

  Outside the walls of Wangcheng, the tens of thousands of Qin soldiers who were working hard to capture the city seemed still immersed in great shock. As they looked up at the increasing number of Qin soldiers climbing onto the city wall, victory was within their grasp. Yet such a huge twist had occurred.

  Is the Korean army really weak? When did the Korean army become so strong?

  Until more than 5,000 Korean cavalrymen charged towards the Qin army, the remaining Qin soldiers finally woke up and tried to assemble their formation to resist.

  "Form a phalanx! Form a phalanx!" The Qin army's officer, disregarding the Korean civilians, ordered his soldiers to assemble hastily. The only way for infantry to counter cavalry was to form a square formation; otherwise, it would be a fate of massacre!

  "Dad! Our troops have come to rescue us!"

  A child looked at the rolling Korean army and shouted loudly.

  The old man wept and wailed: "We have not been abandoned! We have not been given up on!"

  Looking at the panicked Qin army, one of the Korean civilians suddenly shouted: "Damn you, Qin dogs! I'll fight to the death with you!"

  A stone causes a thousand ripples. Perhaps the cruelty of the Qin army had long since sown hatred in the hearts of the Korean people, and seeing the Qin army lose ground, their own large army arrived in an instant, and the people who were just trembling with fear under the knives and guns of the Qin army rose up to resist.

  The Qin army became even more chaotic. Some of the Qin soldiers tried to go and meet the Korean cavalry, while others wanted to first suppress the resistance of the Korean people. The temporary chaos made it impossible for the Qin army to do anything. Because the Korean cavalry had already arrived nearby.

  The next battle was simply a massacre. A massacre, this is what the Qin army had experienced countless times before. Only this time, they became the target of the massacre.

  Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

  The Qin army's cavalry corps was defeated too quickly, and Hu Yang's central army had no preparation at all. It wasn't until the Korean tiger riders charged towards the city that Hu Yang hastily ordered 200,000 troops to rush to reinforce them urgently.

  However, the Qin army's movements were still too slow. Or rather, the Han army's movements were too fast.

  The disunited Qin army was harassed by the Korean civilians, although they had a slight numerical advantage, but since they could not form a phalanx, they could only fight individually.

  Under the shadow of death, the Qin army collapsed, dropped their weapons and ran towards the big camp. In the chaos, countless Qin soldiers followed blindly.

  The battlefield suddenly turned into a pursuit war, and the panicked Qin army forgot that two legs can't outrun four legs!

  The Qin army on the city wall lost their will to fight after this change. A small number of strong soldiers escaped with the help of cloud ladders, and most became prisoners of the Han army.

  The Korean civilians under the city were evacuated into Wangjing Castle under the cover of cavalry. To prevent any Qin soldiers from mixing in, all civilians were asked to identify people they knew. In this way, hundreds more Qin soldiers were identified.

  When the 20,000-strong Qin army arrived, they were met with closed city gates and countless crossbow arrows. The Qin army's lieutenant asked for instructions from the commander-in-chief and had no choice but to slowly retreat.

  The setting sun was like blood, and the great war finally fell. However, in just two hours of fierce battle, both Qin and Han paid a heavier price than yesterday's whole day.

  In this battle, the Qin army lost more than 10,000 elite cavalrymen. More than 6,000 soldiers were killed in action and over 1,000 were captured. Less than 3,000 men managed to escape back to the main Qin camp.

  The Korean army also suffered nearly 10,000 casualties. The light cavalry had over 3,500 deaths, and the heavy cavalry also had more than 300 casualties. Of the 5,000 infantry who came out of the city, less than 1,000 survived, and nearly 2,000 died on the city wall. On the civilian side, only 2,500 of the 6,100 civilians survived.

  But compared with the casualties of the Qin army, the casualties of the Han army set a new low in history. It was indeed a rare great victory!

  In this way, after two days of fighting, the Qin army lost a total of 21,000 men and more than 4,000 were injured. The Han army also lost more than 13,000 men, with over 5,000 wounded! There were only a little over 5,000 able-bodied men left in Xiangyang City.