Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 16 The Battle of Zhonglingshui ([-])
"The New Book of Mengde" says: "The warriors are in the front, the trapped ones are in the middle, and the wandering horses are in the back."

Cavalry battles, even if they charge into battle, are not about rushing forward without any brains, but in batches, divisions, orderly, and formations, even in loose formations.When necessary, the roles of war cavalry, trapped cavalry and wandering cavalry should be changed, which is a very popular change in the art of war in the Tang Dynasty.

The Tiande Army originally had more than [-] cavalry soldiers, and later recruited [-] Turks and Uyghur auxiliary soldiers who could ride horses and archery bravely and fight bravely to join the army temporarily. However, their horses and equipment were not as good as those of the regular army. Riding and riding are also good.

The battle only lasted for a stick of incense, and the spearmen in front of the two sides were still testing each other. The cavalry of the Tiande Army came from the rear, but they did not attack, but stopped on the right side of the central army.

Shao Shude glanced, it should be the starting position of the cavalry.The current battlefield situation is far from clear, and they still need to wait.

In the battle field, the role of cavalry is pivotal, and in many cases it is even a final decision.They are needed for harassment, for breaking the formation, for fighting fires, and for chasing and fleeing. Without cavalry, with Shao Shude's current military academic level, he can't think of how to win.

When I chatted with Song Le before the war, I heard him tell the story of the battle between the Tang army and Song Laosheng at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

In the battle of Huoyi in the 13th year of Daye, the main infantry led by Li Yuan and Li Jiancheng faced Song Laosheng's 30,000 people horses. As soon as the battle broke out, the Tang army was at a disadvantage and the former army was defeated.Song Laosheng took advantage of the situation to launch a fierce attack. Li Shimin later recalled that "there are few righteous teachers", "Gaozu (Li Yuan) changed color", and "a few major defeats".At the critical moment, he personally led the elite cavalry to gallop down from Nanyuan, continuously assaulting Song Laosheng's weak rear formation. In addition, Song Laosheng himself made a mistake and was too impatient. Li Shimin succeeded, and the Sui army was defeated.

I have been in the army for many years since time travel, but I have never seen such a big scene.Before the two sides fought, more than 800 cavalry remaining in the Tiande Army once organized an assault on the main formation of the Shuozhou Army, but it was not a real charge, but mainly intimidation and harassment, so that they had no time to rest and were physically exhausted. Little loss.After the harassment was over, they had a small confrontation with the cavalry of the Shuozhou Army, and then they all returned to their own positions, waiting for the next attack.

The battle ahead finally became more and more intense. The spearmen on both sides realized that the other party was a veteran, so they gave up the temptation and started to stab.According to the regulations, a row of 6000 people guards the ground at 9600 feet. This is almost a crowd. The gap in the middle is very small, and they cannot move or turn around. They can only fight forward to assassinate. mental quality.

The Tiande Army had a total of more than 3300 people in the middle. The three front formations were all about [-] people. At this time, they were crowded into a small square formation. There were three groups of people in one row. There were seven rows in total. The spearmen, followed by three rows of soldiers armed with long axes and hooked scythes.

This is the difference between pure team and flower team.

The Song Dynasty popular pure team, that is, the archer team is the archer team, the spear team is the spear team, the weapons of each team are single, and the skills of the soldiers are also very single.

However, during the late Tang and Five Dynasties, the popular flower team, that is, a team had all kinds of weapons. Except for spears and bows and arrows, which were weapons that every soldier had to master, other weapons were selectively learned according to personal characteristics, which seemed not as good as pure team soldiers. Fine, but the ability to deal with complex emergencies on the battlefield is better.

There is no difference between pure teams and flower teams. It depends entirely on how the generals arrange tactics and use them rationally.

At this time, if a drone is released, it can be clearly seen that the Shuozhou army is the main attack and the Tiande army is the main defense.

The four-meter-long spear stabbed back and forth between the two armies, and the sword and shield fighters used their large shields to resist the stabbing spear, and at the same time slashed at the spears that the other side stretched out.However, it seems that the effect is limited. A qualified sword and shield player needs an average of three strokes to cut off a spear. The battlefield is so chaotic, it is difficult for them to create such an opportunity.

So you can see that the spearmen on both sides desperately stabbed, and from time to time someone fell down screaming, and then the people in the back row came up to make up for it.The jumping soldiers on both sides also launched a brutal "rat battle" in front of the two armies. Their equipment was small round shields and short knives.

Some of the jumping soldiers who successfully killed their opponents were nailed to the ground by the spears from the second row in the large formation on the opposite side when they moved further forward, bleeding all over the place.Occasionally, a few who succeeded in breaking through the past caused some small confusion, but soon died tragically under the greeting of the opponent's superior number of swordsmen, spearmen, and axemen.

In a word, the battle lines were stalemate, and the Tiande army had high morale and successfully withstood the most ferocious blow of the Shuozhou army.

And the stalemate is definitely not a good thing for the Shuozhou Army.The right flank of the Tiande army is flanking their rear formation. If the army cannot be resolved as soon as possible, the battle will be in danger!
Xue Zhiqin was also a decisive person. After observing for a while, he found that the Tiande army could not stand still, and he ordered the flag to be waved.

But the two armies are at war, so how easy is it to retreat?

Naturally, the retreat of the sharp arrows of the Shuozhou army turned into a rout.Fortunately, there are many veterans in them, and they know to go to the gap in the middle of the back formation. The interval between formations is [-] steps, which was originally a passage that was deliberately reserved.However, there are also some who can't carry it clearly, turning around and running like a headless fly, but all of them are killed by the arrows shot from the back line without any accident.

It sounds like a lot of things, but it's actually a very short time.Hundreds of people in the front line of the Shuozhou Army retreated, and the back line went up.This time, Xue Zhiqin personally led the team, about a thousand people, divided into two small squares, of which Yunzhou veterans accounted for more than [-]%, and the rest were the five northern tribes with braids.At this time, their morale was somewhat affected, but Xue Zhiqin was self-reliant and didn't care, and still took this group of people to kill.

The pressure of the fresh army in Shuozhou made the Tiande army feel the pressure.Xue Zhiqin brought a small phalanx that was relatively capable of fighting, and focused on attacking the capital that had suffered more casualties before the Tiande army, so he suppressed them all at once.The screams of killing on both sides were loud, and people kept falling, but others made up.

A professional soldier in the late Tang Dynasty, when he was willing to give his life, his combat effectiveness was quite good. As long as the grassroots officers were still there, he could always maintain a critical situation.

In the Five Dynasties, there were often cavalry generals leading teams to rush into large formations. As a result, the enemy's infantry did not collapse. Instead, they fought in small groups under the command of grass-roots officers. It is the elite infantry of Zhaoyi, who is known as the best in all towns, and Wei Bo's silver spear.

But the Tiande infantry was not so brave.After fighting for such a long time, the front three have lost a lot of staff, and the physical consumption is also quite large, which is a bit unbearable.Hao Zhenwei looked at it for a while, then turned his head directly to the military envoy Qiu Wei and said: "Li Wei's public soldiers have always been in harmony with each other. Go up, do the supervisors want to go with you?"

"The Sun Tzu says: 'The vigor is vigorous, the day is lazy, and the twilight returns'. Xue Zhiqin is brave to advance lightly, and he will not retreat even in battle. Well, at this great opportunity to kill the thieves, how can you stand by and watch!" After speaking, Qiu Weidao stubbornly pushed away the big shield in front of him, although his face was pale, he still stepped forward firmly: "Shao, Guan Er As the leader of the team, Hao Du will command the command, and don't care about the envoy."

"Okay! Qiu Shijun is a man!" Hao Zhenwei laughed, and regardless of whether what he said was a little wrong, he waved his hand: "Let me go!"

Well, fighting on the battlefield, of course it is impossible for someone to raise their arms and others will rush up.That's not being brave and bloody, but that you think you have a long life.Hao Zhenwei's 400 pro-army, plus Qiu Weidao's [-] guards, a total of [-] people, quickly formed a column formation.

This is an obvious shock column. The soldiers no longer carry very long pikes or spears, but mainly long spears, bows and arrows of more than two meters, and horizontal knives. The main will be the starting point, and some people will face the front in a column formation to prevent the enemy from rushing up in the rear, and some people will form a horizontal team to attack Xue Zhiqin's flank.

Hao Zhenwei's pro-military group is still very elite, and Shao Shude also pays great attention to the soldiers' formation training on weekdays, so the marching speed of the assault column is very fast, and the formation is relatively complete.The soldiers of the Weiguan Kairun team had poor discipline and insufficient training, and fell behind together with Qiu Weidao, but it didn't matter, they were not inferior to them.

The distance of seventy to eighty steps, when the column quickly charged and marched, it took less than 3 minutes to finish.After arriving at the predetermined location, one went forward. The soldiers knelt on the ground with their guns in their hands, facing the rear of Xue Bu. One maintains the column formation and is ready to charge at any time.

Xue Zhiqin had already discovered the movements of the Tiande army, but his troops were fighting fiercely and could not be adjusted at all, so he could only force this wave of attacks.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Shao Shude opened his bow and shot continuously, without aiming, and shot down two of Xue Zhiqin's personal soldiers just by feeling.Yes, he is more like a thief, and he directly finds the most valuable target to attack, but Xue Zhiqin, as the main general, of course has personal soldiers to guard him.They eat fragrant and spicy food on weekdays, and they often get rewards. If something goes wrong, the leader will also help them. With such excess treatment, they will naturally have to pay with their lives on the battlefield.

Seeing that Xue Zhiqin was not shot down, Shao Shude was not in a hurry and continued to find someone to call him.His arm strength is very good, and his archery skills are superb. He specializes in shooting Xue troop-level officers who have a flag on his back. He can often find a target in a crowd and kill him with one hit.After shooting down two more team leaders in a row, Hao Zhenwei also noticed the young officer who was very fast in drawing a bow and shooting arrows. He rode on his horse and shouted: "What a genius! Look for Hao after the war and get promoted to lieutenant general!"

"Drumming! March!" After shooting this wave of arrows, Hao Zhenwei saw that the Shuozhou army's rear formation had begun to move forward, and at the same time his horse team began to slowly accelerate, he immediately ordered the drumming, first to defeat the enemy army in front of him, the best way to attack Let's talk about the main force of the team.

As soon as the drum sounded, the two teams that were shooting arrows in front immediately turned around and slid to the rear to complete the team, while Hao Zhenwei personally led four teams of infantry to the left flank of Xue Zhiqin's department in a column formation.Xue Bu had already fought hard, and was hit by several waves of arrows flying from the flank just now, and his position was in chaos. He would be rushed again, and he couldn't bear it all of a sudden.

The morale of the front line of the Tiande Army, which was fighting head-on, was boosted, and their confidence was rekindled after they had been shaken.Under the command of the officers, the sergeants did not blindly rush for the merits, but maintained the basic formation, quickly squeezed the fleeing Shuozhou army, and easily harvested the victory.

The Shatuo cavalry that had just been dispatched was blocked by the defeated soldiers, and the speed dropped suddenly.They stabbed and stabbed the horses in a frenzy, but how could it be possible to open the passage for a while.Furthermore, even if the defeated soldiers dispersed, they would lose their speed. What is the difference between the cavalry who lost their speed and the target?
Not to mention, he can only withdraw.The cavalry of the Tiande Army were not vegetarians, and they had already taken action, and they even wanted to kill them and the infantry.So, after rushing in to pick up Xue Zhiqin, who was incompetent and furious, surrounded by the chaos of soldiers, he quickly left the rear troops and ran away.They are Shatuo cavalry, good at judging the situation and assessing the situation.

The front army retreated, the cavalry ran away, the flanks were attacked, and the Shuozhou army formed more than [-] men in the rear.They walked [-] miles to the battlefield in a daze, and fought a battle in a dazed way. There was no result. The terrible news of the collapse of the former army suddenly came. Suddenly the soldiers had no will to fight, and the soldiers had no will to fight, and they all ran away. Way to go.

The battle of Zhonglingshui has quietly come to an end. From the beginning of the battle, the whole battle took less than half an hour.

(End of this chapter)