Angry Banana
Chapter 705 Iron and Fire (6)
As the two sides engaged for the first time, there were not many fancy tactics employed. As the Jurchen camp suddenly lit up with torches, the Jurchen elite cavalry surged around like a flowing river, its momentum reaching a peak in an instant. However, faced with this scene, the men of the Huaxia Army merely tightened their hearts. As arrows rained down, the outer soldiers raised their shields, in a posture they had trained countless times, allowing the arrows to strike their shields with a pattering sound.
At this moment, the war drums began to beat. The army's formation advanced and unfolded, its pace not increasing too much, but with steadfastness and grimness. He Zhicheng's regiment led the way, Sun Ye's fourth regiment on the left flank and rear, and Lü Liangshan's two thousand infantry on the right, interspersed with the equipment teams of the Special Forces regiment. On the southeastern battlefield, Han Jing led two thousand cavalry, maneuvering to meet the cavalry led by Manduyu.
To the south, Yan Zhenguo's army was on the verge of complete collapse, the vast battlefield a scene of chaos. The war drums in the north startled the night, drawing the attention and eyes of many. The three hot air balloons in the sky had already flown over the walls of Yanzhou City, the soldiers on the balloons gazing into the distance at the battlefield. If the arrows fired by the Jurchen cavalry were like an onrushing tide, then the Black Flag Army was like a giant ship resisting the tide, breaking through the waves and pushing firmly towards the Jurchen camp on the hillside.
The cavalry formation firing arrows continued to spread and expand. In the southeast, Han Jing's cavalry and Manduyu's cavalry began to exchange volleys of arrows. To the south, the horse teams dragging the hot air balloons moved closer to the Huaxia Army's rear lines. Several thousand Jurchen elite cavalry who had emerged from the camp were already rushing to the flanks, while the Huaxia Army's military formation, like a vast living entity, was also constantly changing shape. The shield formation was tight, and arrows were continuously fired from the ranks towards the distant Jurchen cavalry, retaliating. But the entire formation continued to push towards the Jurchen camp without stopping for a moment.
When infantry fights cavalry, there are not many tactical choices. Cavalry is fast and dispersed, and the accuracy of infantry archery is too low with similar numbers. However, cavalry lacks armor and shields. Although ranged attacks can put pressure on the enemy, against a disciplined formation, the only thing the cavalry can rely on is initiative.
This was the normal state of Jurchen cavalry against the Wu Dynasty troops. The Wu Dynasty troops often used turtle tactics to force the enemy back, then reported their win rate to their superiors, eventually accumulating a win rate of up to 80%. However, once the Jurchen cavalry really found an opportunity and decided to charge, the Wu Dynasty troops, even with intact formations, always ended up in a complete defeat in the desperate fighting. This had nothing to do with tactics; it was purely the result of armies without the will to fight to the death being sent to the battlefield.
However, the Huaxia Army was different...
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Boom!
Boom!
Boom boom!
Each drumbeat accompanied the sound of forward footsteps, shaking the night sky. Around them, arrows rained down, with fiery sparks flying and falling from both sides. People felt as if they were in the bottom of a valley of arrows.
The sounds of orders and officers' shouts came one after another, sometimes even absurdly hearing laughter.
The black flags fluttered, Qin Shaoqian riding on horseback, occasionally turning to observe the surrounding situation. Soldiers of the Black Flag Army, in units of companies, were advancing across the mountains and fields. In the distance were the vast Jurchen cavalry. The horse teams dragging the hot air balloons had already come up from the rear.
Not having one eye sometimes made things inconvenient.
He frowned, and no one knew that such a thought flashed through his heart, which was filled with nervous emotions.
When people are nervous, they sometimes have inappropriate emotions. The Jurchens... This wasn't the first time he had faced the Jurchens. Several battles in the past, that tragic... it couldn't be called a tragic battle, only a tragic defeat and slaughter. The countless screams outside Bianliang City seemed to still linger in his mind, that desperate resistance. Every time this happened, his father's face, that graying hair, would flash before his eyes, as well as his brother's face...
In his family, he couldn't be considered a pillar of support. His brother was the one who inherited his father's mantle and knowledge. He himself was spoiled by his mother, and his temperament was flamboyant and unconventional in his youth. Fortunately, he had his father and brother to guide him, so he wasn't too ignorant. Since his father and brother were going to reach the end of the road of literary pursuits, he would join the army. One reason was rebellion, and the other was because of the arrogance in his heart. Since he knew he couldn't surpass his brother on the path of a scholar, he couldn't be too inferior either.
If a man is always looking at another man's back to move forward, perhaps the idea in his heart was to one day, in another direction, become like his father. Unfortunately, the corruption of the army and the petty behaviors of his colleagues quickly buried the thoughts in his heart.
The prosperous Wu Dynasty, with its singing and dancing, what did it matter if there were problems in the army? Banditry was still suppressed. His promotion in the army wasn't without the help of his father and brother's connections, but so what? If the world was really at peace, it wouldn't be bad to live like this for the rest of his life.
But the world was not peaceful after all.
The southward movement of the Jurchens brought down a heavy weight. He desperately charged with the trustworthy companions around him, seeing only the tragic deaths of his comrades. The Jurchens were overwhelming. Fortunately, there was Li Heng, a man of great talent, the struggles of his father and brother, and the sacrifices of many more, that pushed back the Jurchens for the first time.
That time, he thought there would be hope...
And this time, he was leading this different army to kill the Jurchens again. This time there was no Wu Dynasty, no father and brother, no millions of common people behind him, no righteous cause, nothing.
If his father and brother were alive, they might not like his current state too much, and they might not like Li Heng either. But they were gone after all.
With one eye gone, the world was different...
The army's front lines pushed fiercely to the front of the Jurchen camp. The shield formation moved forward. In the Jurchen camp, lights lit up, and the next moment, a rain of arrows carrying flames rose into the sky.
The fiery raindrops fell with a crash, and the tight shield formation remained unmoved. It was late autumn, and the arrow rain ignited the dry grass on the ground in patches.
Liu Chengzong waved his hand, and the cannon formation was pushed forward.
If, in this brief exchange, the Jurchens displayed swiftness like the wind and plundering like fire, then the Huaxia Army displayed slowness like the forest and immovability like the mountain. Facing the arrow rain and harassment, they pushed straight to the enemy's must-defend position, directly blasting open their gates. Let the cavalry play as they please!
At this moment, on a corner of the Jurchen camp wall, Wanyan Loushi was watching this scene with a solemn expression. He was interested in the enemy's firearms and that large Kongming lantern. Seeing that the enemy had already killed their way to the vicinity, he said to his guard beside him, "This is indeed the most aggressive Wu Dynasty army I have ever seen."
In the Huaxia Army's formation, Qin Shaoqian raised his head, slightly frowning, "Wait..." he said.
In the sky behind the army formation, a sudden change occurred. A gyrfalcon flying in the night avoided the arrows and scratched a hole in the outer wall of a hot air balloon. Because it was flying low, the hot air balloon was slowly falling.
Soldiers at the front of the formation, seeing this scene, lit the fuse. A barrage of cannons suddenly tore through the night sky. In an instant, countless explosions and flames rose, and the earth shook! Standing on one side of the wooden wall, Wanyan Loushi witnessed the power of the cannons for the first time. He punched the wooden wall in front of him, suddenly turned around, and left.
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Flames rose with the explosions. Standing at the front of the formation, Chen Libo felt as if he could feel the shaking of the wooden camp gate. He was the company commander of the third company of the first battalion of the first regiment under He Zhicheng. He stood in the second row within the shield formation, surrounded by densely packed comrades who had already gripped their sabers. Watching the scene of the explosion, his comrade beside him turned his head slightly. Chen Libo clearly saw the other party's grinding teeth.
"What if the cavalry is powerful? Attack the place that the enemy must defend. No matter how many Jurchen cavalry there are, they can't be without supplies. Let's see what Wanyan Loushi does."
"The hardest part is still ahead. Don't be careless. If it's as taught in class... Uh..." Chen Libo was slightly stunned, and suddenly thought of something. He shook his head immediately, It shouldn't be possible...
At this moment, the cannon barrage was over. Half of the Jurchen camp gate in front had been blasted down, and the remaining half was burning with flames, teetering on the verge of collapse. The surrounding soldiers were already secretly inhaling, preparing to charge. The next moment, the order suddenly came. It was the shout of a loud-voiced messenger: "Pass down the order to all units, hold your ground—"
Chen Libo raised his head and looked towards the top of the wooden wall not far away: "What is that!"
With a bang, a Jurchen soldier threw down a wooden bucket. Then, they saw that on the continuous camp wall, wooden buckets were being pushed down one after another. Some rolled down the slope, and some were directly smashed on the ground. Black liquid splashed all over the ground, and a pungent smell came over after a moment. This hillside was not steep, and the black liquid would not spread beyond the range of an arrow's shot of the Huaxia Army. But after a moment, flames blazed up, and what spread out before the Black Flag Army was a huge wall of fire.
That was oil.
In the Jurchen camp, Wanyan Loushi had already taken his spear and mounted his horse. The Jurchen soldiers who had thrown the oil ran towards their war horses. The horns sounded, and the sound was high and loud, signaling the Jurchens to begin their encirclement and attack. To the south, a total of seven thousand Jurchen cavalry had heard the signal and began to rush against the current to converge, forming a huge flood.
The two thousand men in the rear of the Huaxia Army suddenly began to contract their formation. The shields in front were firmly planted on the ground, supported by iron bars in the rear. People crowded together, setting up a forest of spears, pressing down on the spear shafts until they were too crowded to move any further.
The middle formation and flanks of the army had already begun to rush back. The Special Forces soldiers pushed the large cannons back frantically. And the seven thousand Jurchen cavalry had converged into a sea of tides, with arrows raining down from the sky.
"Hold your ground—"
Huge, hysterical shouts—
Time went back a moment, before the cannons fired. Qin Shaoqian raised his head and looked at the sky, looking at the scattered patches of firelight in the distance, slightly frowning: "Wait..." he said.
"There are too few arrows..."
This was the first confrontation between the Black Flag Army and the Jurchens. All strategic considerations were based on the premise that the Jurchens were almost invincible in the world. They had their own confidence and pride, and Wanyan Loushi even had the most brilliant record in the world. But the Black Flag Army had no reason to retreat—because they simply could not retreat. With the possession of cannons, the Black Flag Army resolutely chose the most rigid style of play. Everyone had calculated many possible situations, but there were always some things that were difficult to predict.
Wanyan Loushi truly considered the Black Flag Army as an opponent, and even with an unimaginable degree of importance, prevented the cannons and hot air balloons. Before the first battle, he evacuated the entire camp's supplies and infantry...
Attack the place the enemy must defend. If you think the other way around, what if he doesn't defend it?
On the right side of the front line, the sound of horses' hooves had already come over, not only from under the hillside, but also from the side of the burning Jurchen camp. A cavalry force was bypassing from the side. This time, the Jurchens were coming out in full force.
Chen Libo suddenly laughed. He said to his subordinates around him, "It's not that simple, as expected." The people next to him were still stunned, and then they laughed along with him.
"Change formation—"
The dense shield formation began to change direction. The spear forest was pressed down, and simple iron chevaux de frise were pushed out in front of the formation! Someone shouted: "What are we!?"
Countless people shouted.
"Hua! Xia—"
At this moment, on the hillside was a spreading, burning wall of fire. Not far below the hillside, seven thousand Jurchen cavalry had already formed a charge. There was no way to go forward, and there were pursuers behind them.
Chen Libo exhaled the air in his chest, smiling hideously: "Stupid Jurchens..."
He thought.
In front of him, the Jurchen cavalry's momentum was becoming clearer and clearer—
...
Forming an impact.