Zhao Weiwang in the Warring States Period

Page 419

Li Mu stood up on his horse, watching the formation of the Qin army in front of him, a smile gradually appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"It's interesting that the leading general of the Qin army doesn't seem to know anything about armored cavalry."

This battlefield was carefully selected by Li Mu and sent to investigate in advance. It is a flat plain area, which is very conducive to cavalry operations.

How flat is it?

It is so flat that there is not even a decent small hill within a radius of twenty miles.

The reason for this is because Li Mu didn't want his cavalry to face a solid line of defense from the Qin people when they went to war.

But at this moment, in front of Li Mu, there is really a seemingly solid line of defense.

a wall.

car wall.

Hundreds of Qin Army chariots lined up in front of the Qin Army's position, forming a wall of vehicles.

And behind this wall of vehicles, Li Mu could vaguely see a large number of crossbowmen of the Qin Army standing behind.

"Do you want to use this car wall as a fortification, and then use the car wall as a cover to let the crossbowmen show their power, so as to achieve the purpose of delaying me here? Huh, but this Qin general really thinks that he can win like this ?”

Li Mu gave the order without hesitation: "Send the order, let the three thousand riders come forward to test it out, and investigate by the way, to see if the Qin army has such a car wall in other directions besides the front!"

With Li Mu's order, the flag-bearer behind him began to wave the banner, and the messengers even galloped back and forth. A moment later, three Zhao Guoqian cavalry rushed out of the formation, going in three different directions: front, left, and right. Outflank towards the Qin army.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Wang Ling, who was at the front line, suddenly changed his expression slightly, and immediately ordered: "Strengthen the guards on the two wings, and deploy five hundred crossbowmen from the front to the left and right wings, and the speed must be fast!"

It wasn't until this time that Wang Ling realized that he had made a mistake that he had taken for granted.

Since he had no experience in fighting cavalry, most of Wang Ling's guesses were obtained from chariot soldiers, which seemed to be similar to cavalry.

Before this battle, Qin's combat method was to use chariot soldiers to clear the way, similar to the role of tanks in later generations, while infantry followed the chariot soldiers and rushed along the roads and gaps opened up by the chariot soldiers.

The problem with chariot soldiers is that this unit is actually very cumbersome, so most of the time chariot soldiers can only be used for frontal assaults.

But the cavalry was different. The Zhao Guo light cavalry who appeared in front of Wang Ling at this moment did not have the burden of chariots, so they could easily make a big bend to attack the two flanks of the Qin army.

This is exactly the point overlooked by Wang Ling, who has no experience in fighting large-scale cavalry.

The Zhao people's cavalry moved much faster than Wang Ling imagined, and they were much more flexible!

Chapter 4 Fifteen Fierce Battle (Second Change)

What made Wang Ling feel a little relieved was that the combat effectiveness of the Qin army was not vegetarian. In just a short moment, the soldiers under his command completed the mobilization in time before the actions of the Zhao army's cavalry.

Compared with Wang Ling's tense face, Li Mu looked at all this from a distance, with a relaxed expression on his face, and he was even able to chat leisurely with his lieutenant general Xu Li.

"General Xu Li, do you think this round of attack will be effective?"

Xu Li thought for a while, then slowly shook his head: "It's difficult."

In fact, what Xu Li didn't say was that he felt that this was a waste of the lives of Zhao Jun's cavalry.

Li Mu saw Xu Li's thoughts, and laughed at this, noncommittal.

While the two were talking, the Zhao Guo Qingqi from the front had already entered the range of the Qin army.

Wang Ling gave the order without any hesitation: "Shoot!"

With Wang Ling's order, the crossbowmen of the Qin army who had already been prepared immediately pressed the trigger of the hanging knife without hesitation.

"Whoosh, whoosh!" The dense crossbow bolts were shot out immediately, covering hundreds of Zhao Jun cavalry rushing to the front.

Many cavalrymen of the Zhao army were hit by arrows and fell off their horses. For a while, there was a lot of smoke and dust. The sound of rolling horses and people's screams rang out in the smoke and dust, which made Wang Ling, who was watching all this, feel a little relieved.

It seems that there is nothing too remarkable about Zhao's side cavalry regiment.

But at the next moment, Wang Ling's pupils suddenly tightened slightly: "Huh?"

Amidst the smoke and dust all over the sky, Zhao Guo cavalrymen rushed out one after another, and continued to rush towards the Qin Army's chariot formation fearlessly.

Wang Ling suddenly discovered that the result of this round of salvo was much smaller than expected.

Zhao Jun's cavalry were scattered when charging, and the distance between horses and horses was widened, which prevented Qin Jun's crossbows from fully exerting their lethality.

Wang Ling didn't panic, and ordered again very calmly: "Quickly wind up and prepare for the second round of shooting!"

Although the cavalry was very mobile, Wang Ling knew in his heart that as long as his chariot formation was still there, these Zhao Jun light cavalry wearing simple leather armor would be helpless against his own defense.

After two rounds of crossbow volleys, the Zhao army cavalry in front of them finally approached within the range of the bows and arrows.

By this time, Wang Ling could even clearly see the faces of the barbarian cavalrymen rushing to the front. These barbarian cavalrymen from the state of Zhao were short in stature and their legs were bowed, compared to the tall soldiers of the Qin army, they looked somewhat Somewhat ridiculous.

But Wang Ling couldn't laugh at all. He sat on the saddle and skillfully bent his bow and set his arrows, shooting towards the Qin army's position.

Hundreds of bows and arrows gathered into a rain of arrows and fell on the Qin army's position. Many soldiers of the Qin army were unable to avoid the arrows and screamed.

Immediately afterwards, two extremely sharp voices pierced the air and pierced Wang Ling's eardrums.

Wang Ling frowned, looked intently, and found that the sound came from two arrows.

"This is Mingdi!"

Mingdi was originally created by nomads in the north, but was later used on a large scale by the cavalry of the state of Zhao, and became a tool for the cavalry of the state of Zhao to transmit orders and guide directions in combat.

Wang Ling's face changed slightly.

After the sound of these two gongs, the Zhao Guo cavalry who had rushed like a tide suddenly divided into two left and right groups from the center, and charged obliquely towards the left and right wings of the front of the Qin army.

In the process of changing direction, Zhao Jun's cavalry were still bending their bows and shooting arrows towards Qin Jun's position.

The horseshoes trampled on the ground, and billowing smoke filled the air. It looked as if sandstorms had blown up in front of Qin Jun's position, which greatly hindered Qin Jun's sight.

But the Qin army has a defensive advantage after all. Under the premise that Zhao Jun's cavalry cannot charge into the formation, Qin's powerful crossbow arrows have played a sufficient role, and wave after wave of arrows are shot from behind the chariot formation. , Let the casualties of Zhao Jun's cavalry continue to increase.

Military news one after another reached Wang Ling's ears.

"General, the Zhao army on the left and right flanks has circled to the rear of our army!"

"General, this divided cavalry has already circled to the left and right wings!"

At this moment, an extremely dense sound of horseshoes sounded again, and the smoke and dust that was about to dissipate in front of the Qin army suddenly became dense again.

Another Zhao army cavalry rushed out of the smoke and came towards the frontal position of the Qin army.

Wang Ling took a deep breath and suddenly felt a headache.