Chapter 923 Cavalry Ambush
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Ye County is located in the northeast of Wancheng, with the two places being about 180 miles apart. Because Ye County is known as the throat of Wan and the belly of Xu, it is of great importance to protect Xuchang and Cao Cao also deployed 10,000 heavy troops here.
The general of the county lord Ye was Cao Hong's deputy general Li Dian. Just two hours ago, Li Dian received an emergency message from Cao Hong. The Han army in Chang'an attacked him and ordered him to rush to Wancheng to gather immediately.
This news surprised Li Dian. He was Cao Hong's deputy general and the reinforcements of Wancheng were unshirkable, but he was a little embarrassed. He could not give up Ye County and let Xuchang's gate open. After some consideration, Li Dian decided to keep his general Zhao Di and lead 5,000 troops to defend Ye County, and he personally led 5,000 troops to Wancheng to gather.
Time has gradually come to an end. Five thousand Cao troops marched in a row on the official road, and Li Dian rode a horse in front of the team. He had fought with the Han army for many years and had a good understanding of the way the Han army fought. The Han army was particularly good at sending surprise troops, ambushing, stealing the city, and winning victory at the lowest cost.
This is Liu Jing's concept of the world, and he preserves the young and strong population in the war as much as possible. Although Li Dian himself agrees with this concept, the hostile sides are a life-and-death relationship. As a general of Cao, killing and injuring the enemy at the maximum level became Li Dian's unshirkable responsibility.
Li Dian was very cautious and kept sending scouts to explore the front. Several ambushings had occurred on the official road from Ye County to Wancheng, including the time when the tiger and leopard cavalry were brutally ambushed, which still makes Li Dian remember it deeply.
Although Cao Hong issued an emergency order, after the team walked for more than ten miles, Li Dian ordered the entire army to slow down the marching speed. This area is the edge of the Nanyang Basin, with undulating hills, dense forests, and numerous valleys on both sides, which are prone to ambush. Only by walking for more than twenty miles and entering the plains can we speed up.
At this moment, a scout rushed over and shouted from afar: "The army is moving slowly."
Li Dian suddenly felt something was wrong and immediately called: "Stop the march"
The scout rushed over and immediately reported: "General Qi reported to him that an abnormality was found five miles away, and there were a large number of ambushes in the woods."
Li Dian's heart sank. Sure enough, he encountered an ambush. He tried his best to calm himself down and asked again: "How many ambushers are there, what military branches are there?"
"I don't know the specific number. The dozen brothers who went to investigate only fled back, wearing arrows, were seriously injured and died. Before he died, he said it was a crossbow army."
Li Dian looked at the terrain from left to right, and they happened to enter a wide valley. The valley was about half a mile wide and seven or eight miles long. The mountains on both sides were steep and covered with dense bushes. This terrain was not conducive to ambush, but it was conducive to cavalry attacks.
Li Dian knew that after the Han army captured Guanlong, the cavalry strength increased greatly. From the southern army with no cavalry, which gradually evolved into a northern army with strong infantry. If the Han army was a cavalry assault, his trouble would be great.
But the cavalry was just speculating, and the ambush in front was a fact. Li Dian immediately ordered: "Send the entire army to gather immediately into the back army."
This is an effective strategy to deal with ambush. Since the team is long during the march, once an ambush is encountered, it will be cut into several segments, thus forming an unfavorable situation of each being a formation, and ultimately it will not escape the fate of being completely wiped out.
Therefore, if you find an ambush in advance, the best strategy is to quickly assemble and re-arrange the extended teams into formations. Even if the ambush comes out, you will not be afraid at all.
Li Dian was determined to leave the valley road, so he ordered to gather backwards. As soon as he finished speaking, a rumbling sound of war drums suddenly came from the front, and then shouted to kill the sky. This was the ambush that found that they had been noticed by the enemy, and turned against each other and broke out of the dense forest.
Li Dian shouted: "Quickly retreat and assemble"
Without his orders, thousands of Cao soldiers turned around and ran out of the valley. In the midst of noise and chaos, Li Dian suddenly heard a strange sound, as dense as drums, covered by the drums and shouts of killing.
Li Dian listened carefully, his face gradually became nervous, and he suddenly shouted, "Not good."
He had already heard the strange sound was the sound of horses running horses. Perhaps the horses were wrapped in thick cloth, and the sound of running was very low, but there were many people, so you could still hear it after running closer.
Li Dian suddenly realized that he had fallen into the trap of the Han army. The so-called ambush was just a bait. He deliberately made himself discover and instinctively gathering troops. Although it is not wrong to gather troops in a formation, it takes time for the army to assemble. Under the high-speed assault of the cavalry, the army often fails to assemble, but it is just conducive to the cavalry's concentrated assault and killing.
Li Dian shouted anxiously: "Stop withdrawing troops, line up the crossbows"
But it was too late. A dense cavalry team suddenly appeared fifty steps away. They were well-trained and rushed in the dark like a storm. This was only possible for powerful cavalry to attack in the dark. Only the tiger and leopard cavalry of the Cao army had this ability, but now the Han army can do it.
Li Dian was anxious and could only sacrifice his former army now, hoping that the former army could hinder the high-speed assault of the Han cavalry to the greatest extent and give the latter army valuable assembly time.
Li Dian turned his horse's head and ran towards the back army. He only ran for dozens of steps, and then he heard a shrill scream behind him. More than a thousand soldiers of the front army had been swept under the iron hooves of the Han army. If the spear was stabbed quickly, it pierced the enemy's chest. The sword was like lightning, slashed the enemy's head. The horse's hooves were like iron, and it broke through the enemy's chest and liver. For a moment, blood mist filled, limbs flew across the valley, crying and screaming sounded.
Although Li Dian had martial arts skills, he could not resist the intensive impact of the cavalry alone. He could only retreat to the rear army quickly and organize the rear army to resist. However, Li Dian ran out of nowhere. Suddenly, his shoulder was hurt in a severe pain, and his strength disappeared. He almost fell off the horse, and a cold arrow shot his shoulder in the dark.
Outside the stairs, Pang De put away his bow and arrow, shook his head regretfully. The arrow slightly deviated two inches, and could not hit the vest of the enemy general. "General, the enemy's rear army has assembled," a cavalry reported loudly.
Pang De sneered at the corner of his mouth and immediately ordered, "Ring the drum of the mountain."
"Dongdongdongdongdongdong"
The earth-shaking drums sounded, which was the order of the Han army to attack in full. Pang De led the Thousand Cavalry and a thousand soldiers pretending to be ambush to kill Cao's army from the front. At this moment, a chaos occurred in the rear of the Cao army, which had just assembled. Deputy General Leng Bao led the Thousand Cavalry to assault from behind and launched a fierce attack on the rear of the Thousand Cao army, who had just been arranged.
At this time, Li Dian had already rushed to the rear army. Although he was shot by an arrow on his shoulder and could no longer fight with the enemy generals, his command of the battle was not affected. He shouted: "Back to back, form a spear formation."
The Cao army stationed in Ye County was also an elite army. Although they were raided by the Han cavalry, they reacted quickly. Except for more than 1,000 front troops who had no time to retreat, the 1,500 rear troops were still successfully assembled. For weak brigades, gathering troops was only a convenient way for cavalry to massacre, while for elite troops, gathering troops could form an effective fight against cavalry.
At this point, Pang De underestimated the enemy a little. He should have conducted cavalry assaults while Cao's army was marching, cutting and surrounding the opponent, so that he could easily defeat the opponent. However, the disadvantage of this tactic is also obvious, which is that it is impossible to kill and injure the enemy in large quantities.
Ponde gave up this cutting tactic and adopted a centralized annihilation tactic, intentionally exposing the ambush and allowing the enemy to gather quickly. Although this is conducive to the concentrated elimination of the enemy, once the enemy gathers successfully, it will also pose a threat to the cavalry.
In the weighing of pros and cons, the general needs to know the enemy's combat capabilities very well. Pound underestimates the enemy at this point, which is related to his long-term command of cavalry, and he always has a bone contempt for the infantry.
Although the front of Cao's army was brutally massacred by the Han cavalry, they also hindered the rapid advancement of the Han cavalry and gave time to the rear of Cao's army to assemble. When the Han cavalry came forward and back, the 1,500 people from the rear of Cao's army had already assembled, quickly arranged a square formation of spears, and fought fiercely with the Han cavalry back to back.
This was a fierce fierce battle. The Han cavalry had an absolute advantage in terms of numbers and force. They attacked strongly and ruthlessly, and advanced step by step with the accumulated flesh and blood. However, the Cao soldiers fought back and forth, and then died. They used dense spear formations to counterattack the Han cavalry's assault. The horses fell from the spears, and the cavalry were stabbed to death by spears after being caught.
On the short and half a mile long front, dead people and horses were mixed with flesh and blood, forming a wall of flesh and blood. Although the Han army had the upper hand, they had to pay a heavy price for every step forward. They originally planned to end the battle in half an hour. After an hour, Cao's army still had two thousand troops, but the Han cavalry lost more than a thousand.
Pang De also became a little impatient. Cao's army's tenacious resistance made him unexpected. If he continues to fight like this, even if the opponent is wiped out, they will have to pay at least two thousand cavalry prices. This price is unbearable. Pang De began to regret that he should not underestimate the enemy, but should follow Leng Bao's advice and launch a surprise attack during the enemy's marching, so that at most it would only cost two people the losses.
At this moment, a soldier of Leng Bao rode on a horse and shouted loudly: "General, General Leng suggests raiding with a spike."
One sentence reminded Pang De. He slapped his forehead hard. He was so confused that he actually forgot the most sharp weapon of the cavalry against the cluster. He shouted loudly: "So quickly to let the sting cavalry come forward."
The so-called thorn cavalry is a small cavalry team formed by the Han army imitating the Kushan cavalry. The biggest feature of this cavalry team is that each person is equipped with ten short thorns made of fine steel. The short thorns are five feet long and weigh ten kilograms. The shape is streamlined, from thick to thin, and they are completed in one go. The front section is extremely sharp and looks like thorns, so it is called thorn cavalry.
Because this steel short spike is not easy to build and consumes a lot of money, it has only built more than 1,000 pieces and formed a small cavalry team of 10 or 20 people. Each of them is tall and has extraordinary arm strength. They ride a strong tall horse and can throw the short spikes for more than ten steps with their arm strength.
Although bee crossbows can also penetrate shields and kill and injure the enemy in large quantities, they can easily injure the army when the enemy and us are close together. The thorns thrown by manpower appear relatively accurate, dense and lethal.
In addition, you can also use fire attack to put turbulent oil into the enemy's formation and let the fire disturb the enemy's formation. However, it is not good for war horses, which can easily frighten the war horses and cause the cavalry to become in chaos. In this case, using thorns is the best tactic.
With Pang De's order, a team of cavalry rushed towards him. They rushed into the front line of the cavalry, pulled out the short steel spears from the spear sheath, and threw them into the spear formation of Cao's army.
Chapter completed!