Angry Banana
Chapter 587: The Iron Cavalry Across the Land, The Long Spears in the Wind and Rain (I)
The vast battle came suddenly. Search: \(Complete\ Book\ God\ Station\) to read high-quality literature for free.
The battle that erupted on the night of the 24th of September, the thirteenth year of Jinghan, was also a huge and incomprehensible chaos for Ning Yi. Of course, this was also because what he was responsible for didn't penetrate deep into the high levels of the Wu Dynasty army. Even with the intelligence of the Secret Detective Division and Qin Shaoqian's leaks, Ning Yi's knowledge of the overall war situation remained crude. He only knew that on this night, Yao Pingzhong led his own 30,000-strong Yao Family Army to attack the camp as the vanguard, and then the entire army of over 200,000 soldiers near Bianliang surrounded them to complete a major battle.
The army of over 200,000 was a vast and immense ecosystem. In it, Ning Yi could only discern many things through numbers. If pushed to the present, the tens of thousands of Wu Rui Camp soldiers who began to break camp as night fell were like a mighty river, with no beginning or end visible in the darkness and wilderness. The twenty-odd large carts under Ning Yi's charge were at the rear of the formation, carrying hundreds of operable elm wood cannons. However, where these cannons would be deployed and who they would be used to snipe still depended on the development of the battle.
In fact, over a hundred elm wood cannons played a negligible role in such a large-scale battle involving hundreds of thousands of people. What Ning Yi valued more was the true power these cannons could unleash in actual combat.
The development of any weapon always requires such trials and tribulations. He had been working on the elm wood cannons for two years, and had used them once or twice before, but those were just small-scale affairs. If he truly wanted to perfect them, he would ultimately have to go through such refinement – this was his original intention.
The towns and villages around Bianliang, where the Wu Rui and Wu Wei armies were stationed, were twenty or thirty *li* away from Moutuo Ridge. The army began to break camp and advance as night fell. Since the area near Bianliang was mostly plains and their own territory, the speed of the march was not slow. If everything went smoothly, by midnight to early morning, they could completely sweep through Moutuo Ridge. Even if Yao Pingzhong's Western Army failed, the entire military formation could be connected.
Even though the Jurchen's Eastern Route Army had driven straight into Bianliang, at this time, everyone still had confidence and illusions about this battle. On the one hand, it was because they had to have confidence. On the other hand, they felt that even if things were bad, the Wu Dynasty's soldiers wouldn't be reduced to being completely incapable of fighting. Even if the sneak attack failed, over 200,000 troops fighting them head-on wouldn't be without a chance of victory.
After all, the enemy had reached the gates of Bianliang, so they could only burn their boats and pray for victory.
However, if there was an omniscient perspective, one would see that while the 200,000 troops were still halfway there, the first round of slaughter had already begun near Moutuo Ridge. Under the dark sky, tens of thousands of Jurchen cavalry surrounded Yao Pingzhong's nearly 30,000 soldiers and launched repeated attacks, crushing the Yao Family Army's battle formation in the first instance. Flames and blood bloomed in the wilderness, and the Jurchen cavalry plowed bloody furrows through the crowd, frantically tearing apart all organized units.
At the same time, the remaining 40,000 Jurchen cavalry at Moutuo Ridge divided into nine routes and spread out in a radiating pattern to the northeast and southeast. In this direction, the 200,000 troops of the Wu Dynasty were completely unaware, advancing with full force.
On the front line of the war, Yao Pingzhong chose to flee in the first instance. However, the direction he chose was not Bianliang, but the direction west of Bianliang, thus withdrawing from the stage of history. According to unofficial history, he ran more than 700 *li* in one night after his defeat, and eventually became a Taoist priest on Mount Hua. He attained enlightenment, came down the mountain after living for more than eighty years, and was still radiant and full of energy. Official history has no record.
The abandoned 30,000 Yao Family Army was massacred by the Jurchen infantry who rushed in after their entire structure was crushed. The ten thousand or so elite Jurchen cavalry that defeated them, led by the general Shulie Su, turned around and pursued the reinforcements to the east.
The wind and clouds in the sky became ominous...
****************
"I always feel... there's something wrong." In the midst of the advance of tens of thousands of people, Zhu Biao rode his horse beside the carts and said in a low voice.
The light of the torches was sparse, extending little by little into the distance. In this atmosphere of marching, the formation of tens of thousands of people seemed eerie and quiet. When the buzzing whispers came, they made the quiet even deeper.
"Don't be a raven," Ning Yi said, looking up from his horse. "Even if there is a problem, what can you do?"
……
Several *li* ahead of the Wu Rui Camp's marching formation, scouts advanced in the darkness.
A night bird flew across the sky.
A knight reined in his horse and listened intently. Another knight looked at the sky, then jumped off his horse and was about to lie down on the ground to put his ear to the ground when suddenly, a sound came.
"Careful!" The low and short shout, for these scouts, even in the most critical moment, could not shout loudly. However, with this low shout, warhorses attacked. Jurchen knights charged over, swinging their steel blades.
"Wah—" In the sharp and fierce shout, the blade light clashed with a clang, sparks bursting out in the darkness. The scout on the ground suddenly drew his sword and jumped out. Another Jurchen cavalry swung his blade past the place where he had just been. There were two Wu Rui Camp scouts and three Jurchen scouts.
"Kill!"
"Go!"
In the darkness, there were more low shouts of charging and fighting, warhorses running quickly in a small area, circling each other. The Wu Rui Camp scout who was originally on horseback galloped away, and a Jurchen cavalry was about to kill from the side. The Wu Rui Camp scout on the ground rushed over and pounced on him. The Jurchen's steel blade pierced into his body, but he also pulled the Jurchen down to the ground.
"Go!"
The wounded scout gave another low shout, got up from the ground, and faced the charging Jurchen warhorse. The Jurchen cavalry who was pulled off the horse by him rolled over and slashed him again. The Jurchen warhorse knocked him away, and he rolled a few times on the ground before staggering to his feet, and then was slashed to the ground again.
The scout's hooves galloped away, and the fallen figure was quickly submerged in the darkness behind.
The chase, with one in front and three behind, soon met other scouts in this wilderness, and then turned into a small-scale melee.
……
In an army of tens of thousands of people, it is not difficult to realize the sudden change in atmosphere. Whether it is commotion or panic, as long as it happens, it will sweep away like ripples in a short time, but not many people know what is actually happening.
This kind of atmospheric change can be real or false, especially at night. With a slight commotion, an army with lax discipline may explode due to a chain reaction. In wartime, the military law team is extremely sensitive to this kind of thing, and therefore, even though everyone feels some disharmonious atmosphere, everyone is still moving forward, watching quietly and nervously.
"What happened?" Ning Yi climbed onto the top of the cart and looked into the distance. On the edge of the sprawling army, there were faint signs of messengers riding horses. "Zhu Biao, go and ask."
"Okay." Zhu Biao reined in his horse and rode to the side. Not long after he left, the battle horn sounded, and someone shouted, "Form ranks!" The front of the sprawling formation quickly assembled.
"The Jurchens are coming." Someone said this, but as things had developed to this point, even if no one said it, everyone could probably understand what had happened. The army next to them quickly reorganized. Complex and high-pitched commands, the footsteps of tens of thousands of people, spread like a tide in the darkness. Soon, someone came running.
"Young Master Ning." That was a personal soldier from Qin Shaoqian's side, and he knew Ning Yi. Ning Yi cupped his fist and said, "What's going on?"
"The Jurchens are here, they came too fast. General Qin told you to act according to the situation. If things are impossible, take these things back quickly, and don't let them all be lost here."
"What do you mean by too fast? How fast?" Ning Yi quickly turned to the subordinates beside him. "Is there any place nearby that can be used as a sniping point? Find it quickly..."
Before he could finish speaking, from the distant hill, the shadow with scattered lights spread up.
Those were Jurchen cavalry, in the night, he did not know how many hundreds or thousands of cavalry were rushing towards here, with scattered lights, but soon, the light spots spread out, it was the cavalry who were igniting the arrows wrapped in oil-soaked cloth while galloping. In front of the Wu Rui Camp's formation, hundreds of people shouted in unison, "Form ranks——" This neat sound shook the entire night sky in an instant. Thousands of infantrymen crowded together on the plain, shields raised, spears like forests, archers drew their longbows, and then, the second formation in the formation shouted in unison: "Form ranks——" then the third formation.
In the training of the Wu Rui Camp, if we talk about the overall quality of the soldiers, the soldiers of the Wu Dynasty were not unusable, but under Qin Shaoqian's command, he would always save thousands of usable elite soldiers. Coupled with the one thousand plus people Ning Yi trained for him at Dulonggang, the combat power of these people may not be able to defy the sky, but Qin Shaoqian divided them into three parts, using this kind of neat shout to drive the morale of the entire battle formation when fighting, it was not useless, after all, the difference between the loud shout of thousands of people and the loud shout of tens of thousands of people, if you don't actually feel it, it is difficult for ordinary people to know.
A few thousand people shouting out like this was enough to give tens of thousands of people a symbol of "unity".
Arrows flew like locusts, passing through the night sky.
There was not much psychological preparation. After the Jurchen cavalry shot out the rockets, facing the rain of arrows that also flew, they did not mean to slow down. The few cavalry who were hit by arrows had been thrown behind the large army.
The distance between the two sides was so close that there was no chance for either side to release arrows.
Everyone drew their steel knives, roared, their eyes were red with congestion, thousands of Jurchen elite cavalry, in formations of several or dozens of riders, connected each other, and rushed straight to the front of the Wu Rui Camp's formation.
At this moment, no one could retreat.
In the Jurchen's tactics, the tactics of flanking and hitting from the side, preserving their own strength, and seeking the other party's flaws are called *Guaizi Ma*, the setting that the horse always walks crookedly on the chessboard is roughly from this. And when they really made up their minds to charge straight into the formation, the method of hooking each other between warhorses to fully expand the impact of several or dozens of riders was the Lianhuan Ma.
Under this kind of situation, even if there are people in the battle formation who are greedy for life and afraid of death, or even horses who are greedy for life and afraid of death, it is impossible to retreat.
In the battle formation, Qin Shaoqian widened his eyes and waved his hand sharply: "Kill!"
In the front, the soldiers who were squeezed on the front line were all in a horse stance, holding knives and shields, looking at the rapidly crushing cavalry, issuing a hysterical roar, their eyes were about to split.
"Kill——"
"Kill——"
"Kill——"
Three neat shouts rang out in the front, middle, and rear rows of the army, one wave higher than the other.
The distance of the war was shortened to zero.
The cavalry rushed into the dense infantry formation with a roar, one team after another, like crazy pile drivers, constantly ramming into the Wu Dynasty's army. Thousands of blade lights danced on the front line, blood exploded and splattered, warhorses and people were all smashed into fleshy mud on this crazy front line, the cavalry on the warhorses plunged into the dense crowd. The entire war, in the instant of this confrontation, escalated to the most tragic degree.
Qin Shaoqian commanded the troops to surge up quickly, and the cavalry also rushed up. He also wanted to leave some fresh troops, but at this moment, all retention was meaningless, retaining any bit of strength was just seeking death.
As a high-ranking general of the Wu Dynasty, he at least understood one thing, the usual winning rate of the Wu Dynasty's army against the Jurchen was a meaningless joke. Only when the Jurchen launched the Lianhuan Ma to charge over was it a real test and torture, that is: When the Jurchen really launched a frontal attack regardless of the consequences, who could stop this fierce army that had destroyed the entire Liao Kingdom.
"The Jurchen are not full of ten thousand, and if they are full of ten thousand, they cannot be resisted."
Cavalry and infantry, all rushed together, Qin Shaoqian's previous arrangement of three uniform shouts also played a role in boosting morale, like putting a tough shell on the Wu Rui Camp, blocking in front of the Jurchen.
At least...blocked for a while.
Soon after, the Wu Rui army collapsed completely.
On the same night, on the other directions of this plain outside Bianliang City, the remaining few armies encountered the same fate.
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