Chapter Forty-Three Suddenly
What's wrong... just... rushed up like this, my face must have looked terrible, things in life are really unpredictable.
Just as I was grabbing the neck of that "very incompetent" military observer (supervisor) and doing some "unseemly" things that would make those imperial historians aghast, considering how much value to excavate from him for the sake of being a model for others.
As for the two adults' habitual and overly "intimate" teachings, the officials and attendants were already familiar with this scene, and suddenly felt that the air inside was stuffy and short of breath, dizzy and blurry-eyed, and they all took the initiative to avoid going outside to breathe in fresh air, and also filtered out some words that could make the historians grit their teeth and report, after all, everyone knew that these two were extremely troublesome masters, and it involved the dignity of the imperial family, no one wanted to find trouble for themselves.
Suddenly, outside, all kinds of drumming and horn-blowing sounds were loud, I was shocked for a moment, who dared to arbitrarily issue orders, no one could answer, but turned around to see behind a high-flying banner with the words "Ming Huang" (Great Emperor) on it, instantly stunned, it was actually the symbol of the emperor's personal expedition.
I couldn't help but secretly curse, this Emperor would still find trouble for me. How could he suddenly come up with this move? Isn't it clear that he's telling everyone I'm here and making me the target? Moreover, my hastily trained army relies mainly on drum signals for command. As long as there are drumbeats and flags, no matter where the main camp is, the troops know the orders. Not even the commander's flag needs to be raised. Now this move has disrupted all my military commands.
At that moment, the morale of various troops on the battlefield was greatly boosted, but on the other hand, the enemy army that had been battered and was on the verge of collapse suddenly seemed to have taken some kind of stimulant and burst out with a strong fighting spirit, taking advantage of the brief interval when the various troops were confused and did not know what to do. The troops that had been surrounded and killed were caught off guard and reassembled into one force, almost turning the tide of battle around again.
In the rolling smoke and dust, the enemy army, which seemed to have been beaten senseless, began to wildly kill their own people indiscriminately. Then we soon discovered that something was amiss - in this one-sided slaughter, those who were being killed were the soldiers who had tried to escape or surrender earlier, and some even grabbed people around them and used them as human shields to charge forward. What kind of strength is this? What kind of monster? They forced our lines back dozens of steps.
The captured war horses were allocated to those guys within the six battalions, temporarily forming a battalion that was supposed to be my elite troops. However, becoming cavalry is not as simple as having people and horses like in many YY novels. Training qualified cavalry requires a lot of time and money, whether it's the skills on horseback or the tacit understanding and experience of controlling the horses, none of which can be achieved in a short period of time. Temporary charges and ambushes can barely be handled by those guys who are good at riding and shooting since childhood due to their nomadic traditions, but as for the coordination and cooperation in battles, it's not even worth mentioning.
As a result, in the desperate and fierce counterattack that burst out of the blood road with their bodies, the cavalry suddenly became the most pressured and weakest side, even forming a situation where several people surrounded one person locally. Many people were knocked down and killed along with their horses, causing a great chaos for a while. Although Xie Si's cavalry quickly turned around and counterattacked from another direction, defeating the enemy's plan again, the infantry of the left and right armies quickly filled in the gap and closed it up. However, just because of this difference, the enemy who lost control suddenly produced a small number of people from the momentarily formed gap. Those surrounded enemies were even more desperate to use their bodies to block and strike out a blood road, only hoping to be able to delay for a moment, at the cost of being killed or trampled to death in an extremely disadvantageous situation, they desperately covered up this group of people and horses to escape, stubbornly holding back Xie Si's majority cavalry who wanted to pursue. Just to let this small group of people and horses escape, the remaining enemy was reduced by over a thousand again.
For the small number of people who escaped again, each department knew that there might be important figures, and they learned from their lessons. They only tightened up to annihilate the remaining enemies and did not divide their troops to block them because they had lost their mounts. No matter how fast they ran, they couldn't outrun our cavalry's pursuit.
Yet this group of people had only a little over a hundred, obviously all the enemy's elite, shouting and killing in unison could burst out with an atmosphere that shook the mountains and rivers, although it was a tired army but it was running away at an unbelievable speed. Seeing the enemy actually ran out from here, the remaining troops were also furious, and they started a frantic pursuit.
But the other side was extremely difficult to deal with, seemingly fleeing but actually making a false move, seeing that they were being chased and knocked down by more than ten people, suddenly changing formation and turning around, using the momentum of the horse to narrowly avoid the entanglement of the cavalry, paying the price of being trampled to death by more than ten people, and then rushing up the slope in one breath.
As Dai Le Ma's troops turned back to fight again, the remaining enemy on the slope also split into a stream and counterattacked. At the foot of the slope, they clashed with the pursuing cavalry in a desperate struggle, displaying terrifying tenacity in the fierce melee. As long as their limbs were not severed, they could even use the knives and guns embedded in their bodies to jump up and knock down the pursuing cavalry along with their horses. Even after falling to the ground, they could still use their bodies as a barrier to block the horses, cutting off the horses' hooves at the moment of being trampled to death. This desperate resistance managed to pull the cavalry back once again.
Earlier, in the melee below, it was not clear, but now from my observation, I can clearly distinguish that this group of cavalry and infantry is larger than usual, with bows and weapons that are bigger than normal. The leader, a general wearing black armor, had a helmet that fell off, revealing a shiny bald head, and a small pigtail-like braid at the back of his head. "It's the Khitan people," someone exclaimed. Although there were many non-Han soldiers in the Tang army, since the famous general Zhang Shougui repeatedly defeated the Khitan king and killed two great khans, the relationship between the Khitan people and the Tang dynasty had been tense. The only ones with a large number of Khitan soldiers were the three major jiedushi led by An Lushan, including the Pinglu Army and the Lulong Army under the Fanyang Jiedushi. This group of cavalry and infantry is particularly different from the others.
It can be judged from the armor that they are nomadic people who lack ironware, and the few metals they have are made into weapons. The main protection is multi-layered soft and hard leather armor, while the Central Plains army has never lacked ironware, so even ordinary soldiers can own steel-studded iron-plated armor on their chest, back, heart, and abdomen. As for the whole metal armor like Ming Guang's, only the 16th Wei and border armies have it. More precise ones like chain mail, ring mail, scale armor, and iron leaf armor are usually equipped with partners above or main generals. Only those above the rank of Xiao Wei can wear full-body armor from head to toe, while more complex combination-style full-body armor is a privilege of high-ranking generals.
Like this remnant enemy, everyone inside and outside the multi-layered structure of the composite armor, with multiple arrows inserted, does not seem to be hindered. Only someone with a corresponding status is worthy of wearing it. With the leader's bald head, black tiger swallowing chest, red qilin, black canopy, and purple bell, one can tell at a glance that he is the enemy general, and his identity is absolutely not simple. Wearing heavy armor and fighting for a long time, with dozens of losses, yet without showing any signs of fatigue. Those repeated impacts surprisingly didn't kill him, but only left crisscrossing scars of various sizes on his armor.
I was really surprised, what kind of army is this? The previous broken array had an obvious nomadic style of warfare, while the later cavalry and infantry coordination of the three talents array was a orthodox battle method in the Tang Dynasty's horse infantry manual. And this small group of people is even more different from the others, using the Hu riders' composite bow and arrow, but wearing heavy armor and wielding heavy weapons such as axes and maces, they are obviously all brave and skilled warriors. Being able to fight to this point without giving up, I issued the next order.
But the fatal thing happened again, and at this critical moment, the new recruits who didn't understand how to control the rhythm and speed wasted a lot of arrows. Seeing the enemy approaching, they panicked and shot randomly without considering accuracy, failing to bring down many enemies but almost exhausting all the arrows collected along the way by our army.
The troops waited for the enemy to gather, then abandoned their horses and rushed up in pursuit. However, they had already been left behind by a large distance and could only watch as the enemy suffered over ten casualties before charging into the layered trenches and refusing to retreat. They flew into the shooters' formation, killing wildly and stirring up a bloody storm. The scene was chaotic for a moment, and the weaknesses of the new army, who were experiencing their first battle, were thoroughly exposed. The front team was killed and fled in disarray, and at the critical moment, these untrained new soldiers proved to be ineffective. The enemy and our troops became completely entangled, and the rear team's new soldiers were at a loss, unsure whether to shoot arrows to block the mixed enemy forces among their own troops. Instead, they were thrown into chaos, and it wasn't until they were forced to the front that they remembered to rely on their numerical superiority to surround and capture the enemy. However, they were repeatedly caught off guard by the shooters' close combat cooperation and killed, resulting in a disorganized retreat.
The enemy charged forward, one in front and one behind, constantly keeping a distance, thus repeatedly breaking through our long, narrow formation. Although the strict order was to hold the position firmly and not move recklessly, using the terrain to block them layer by layer, but in the chaos of war, orders were not effective, and the fleeing soldiers became an obstacle to their own side. The remaining enemy, with only a hundred men, like a nimble dagger, avoided the strong points and attacked the weakest part of our defense line, causing our shooters, who were not good at close combat, to collapse at the slightest touch. In the midst of the chaos, they suddenly broke through to our central army.
I couldn't help but secretly admire the tactic of capturing the bandit and the king, although I didn't think of myself as a bandit. However, I had to admire the opponent's accurate grasp of the changing situation, quickly detecting the weakness of my central army, and being able to abandon the hope of breaking through again, staking everything on one throw to directly attack the vital point. Even if the surprise attack didn't succeed, it would give the enemy army trapped in a desperate situation another chance to break through. This was undoubtedly the best plan, relieving the siege, defeating the enemy, and forcing the commander to surrender, which could be said to have achieved three goals at once.
Seeing this small band of stubborn enemies, surrounding but not annihilating, repeatedly piercing through the gaps opened by the front and rear armies, directly threatening the central camp, the various armies on the battlefield were indeed **not yet**, all shocked, flags began to move, although I reissued the flag order to strictly guard each position, it was already too late, the idea of losing the central army had made people's hearts float and become anxious, unable to be suppressed. Under the fierce attack, the battle array clearly revealed many weaknesses, but the enemy seemed to have encountered similar command troubles, the main general had gone, unable to make good use of the opportunity, although there were those who broke through again, they were quickly cut down by the peripheral infantry until none remained.
This battle has turned out like this, both the immature me and the rash opponent have made many mistakes. Now it's just a matter of who makes more mistakes, accumulating enough to give the other side the advantage to win decisively. I had anticipated that those new troops might make mistakes on the battlefield, so I dispatched my personal army to hold down the fort. Unexpectedly, the chaos occurred in my own camp. As a result, I found that there were no reserve troops left beside me. This half-baked general of mine still lacks experience and didn't leave enough reserve troops. In the end, even the remaining personal army was dispatched to speed up the battle, giving the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. The current situation is partly my own doing, so I issued another order.
But even so, I think things are still within the controllable range. The prolonged battle has already exhausted the enemy's strength, and although my people are a bit weak, they can still hold on for a while, as long as this allows my troops to counter-encircle and annihilate them. Other troops have blocked all escape routes on the battlefield, so even if they can charge up, they will have nowhere to flee. Although there are only close combat limited archers and some flag-waving, shouting volunteers left on the hillside, according to my understanding over this period of time, compared to the distinctive military types with clear divisions in the West, the Middle-earth army has good versatility in training, and mastering musketry is originally a necessary project for infantry drills.
However, I soon found out that I had greatly overestimated the enemy's determination and willpower. Under the desperate blocking of the archers, this group of people broke in and out, and no one could stop them. Our army surrounded them with a large number of people, but was repeatedly broken through, and no one could hold on for a moment.
They seem to be completely unconcerned about breaking through or being surrounded, ignoring the fact that their rear is being encircled, and not taking advantage of their victory to pursue and expand their gains. They fight and then leave immediately, without any hesitation, as if they are driven by a desperate desire to die together with their enemies, hoping to drag down several more with them in a final stand. And the imperial flag on the other side clearly has the best target.
Relying on the new recruits of the shooting camp, although there were many people scattered around, they were not a match for the desperate blow. Although I had inserted many old soldiers to hold down the fort, it was difficult to see any effect. What's more, the shooting camp originally had no armor, and with the idea of using good steel on the blade, the limited weapons and armor were all allocated to the close combat infantry. According to someone's words, even if the archers went onto the battlefield, the war would be almost over. But unexpectedly, the crow's mouth was soon fulfilled. The unprotected shooters had the heart to fight bravely, but their weakened bodies could not withstand a single blow from the enemy's large knives and axes. Many of them were brave warriors who were experiencing this bloody and chaotic scene for the first time, and they were no match for the enemy who were like devils emerging from a blood spring. When the leading old soldiers were repeatedly killed in a extremely tragic manner, the morale of the others also collapsed instantly.
I waited for my own troops to gather, but the enemy had already approached within a hundred paces. The archers and crossbowmen on the periphery of our formation, disregarding their own lives, launched several rounds of fierce and indiscriminate shooting, barely slowing down the enemy's advance. However, it was still too late, and the enemy troops continued to push forward, trampling over the bodies of their fallen comrades who had been transformed into human pincushions by the hail of arrows. Despite this, dozens of brave warriors, undaunted by death, pushed aside their comrades who had been turned into "arrow pigs" and, under the leadership of a great general, charged forward with a fierce battle cry, bursting through the sparse arrow fire that rained down on them from a hundred paces away. They created a bloody storm of severed limbs and death within my hastily assembled imperial guard, shattering the last vestiges of resistance.
I'm not very satisfied with these two chapters myself, can't find that Iron Horse Golden Spear feeling, but for the sake of continuing the plot, I'll post them up first and make some changes later. If you readers really feel it's uninteresting, please just ignore it for now.
