Man Tanghong

Chapter 664 The Outrageous Battle ([-])
"Go up in one breath, or send someone to make a detour?"

After Li Yuanji decided to go to Maling for help, Li Shimin asked this crucial question.

Go up in one breath, that is to say, rush directly to Maling in one breath, and start a battle with the Turkic troops outside Maling City.

Sending people to make a detour means sending people to the rear for a sneak attack, or sending people to go around to the east to start a double attack.

Li Yuanji glanced back at the dense army behind him, and sighed: "It seems unnecessary to send someone to make a detour?"

Although there are more than 1 people in the strength department, he has more people under his command.

In a head-on battle, they can easily defeat the stepping forces, and there is no need to go around.

Li Shimin sighed: "But if we go up with one breath, we will hurt many soldiers."

Li Yuanji looked sideways at Li Shimin, and wanted to ask Li Shimin, isn't morale more important at this time?
As long as you can stand up when Maling is in danger, and as long as you can defeat a large Turkic army head-on when bad news from all over Gyeongju keeps coming, Maling's morale will soar to the peak. It will also give birth to the hope of defeating the Turks and defending Gyeongju, and morale will also improve.

Therefore, even if there will be some damage in this battle, it will be worth it.

Although morale is invisible, it is really important.

When the morale is high, a few people, dozens of people, hundreds of people, can chase thousands of enemies and fight.

When morale is low, tens of thousands of people may not be able to beat a few people, dozens of people, or hundreds of people.

So morale is very important to the soldiers, the people who support the soldiers, and the situation of the battle.

Therefore, when there is a way to improve morale, the commanders and those in power will do it without hesitation.

"But if we win, it will greatly improve my Tang's morale, no matter how big the loss is, it will be worth it."

Just when Li Yuanji was about to argue with Li Shimin, Li Shimin suddenly changed the subject and laughed.

Li Yuanji didn't know what to say for a while.

I don't know who Li Shimin learned from, but he started to breathe heavily when he spoke.

"Since the second brother thinks it's worth it, shall we march?"

Li Yuanji asked angrily.

Li Shimin nodded, and began to arrange the strategy for the march.

The scouts were required to rush to various places in Maling immediately, to sneak attack and assassinate the scouts, horse scouts and other intelligence personnel sent by the Turkic people.

The ancient scouts are a multi-functional unit, not only shouldering the important task of spying on the military situation, but also shouldering various tasks such as sneak attack, assassination, and blocking the enemy.

To be more specific, it depends on whether the higher-ups give orders, and if the higher-ups do not give orders, the teams in each scouting team have to judge by themselves according to the situation on the battlefield.

Therefore, Li Shimin asked them to sneak attack and assassinate, which is not considered difficult by the strong.

It is required that the pawns immediately deploy the arrow front formation when they enter the range of Maling City, and advance towards Maling City in eleven formations.

After entering the range of Maling City, Qingqi was required to detour and rush to the rear of the Turks immediately, cutting off the way for the Turks to retreat.

Li Yuanji was required to lead a fine cavalry to support the Yafeng formation, and was responsible for strangling the Turkic fine cavalry who raided the Yafeng formation from both sides and dispersed the Yafeng formation.

Cavalry has never been the main force on the frontal battlefield.

It is also difficult for cavalry to defeat the enemy through hedging when the two armies are facing each other.

On the battlefield, except for cavalry confrontation and assault, cavalry is rarely sent to the front of the formation to fight head-on with the enemy's swords and shields, pikemen and other vanguards.

Therefore, on the frontal battlefield where the two armies confronted each other, especially on the frontal battlefield with a large number of participants, the cavalry more often played the role of blocking the enemy's retreat, raiding the enemy's formation, and strangling the enemy from the flank.

When the scouts, Qingqi and other vanguard troops arrived within the range of Maling City, the Turks quickly received the news.

Ye Huda, the new head of the Turkic Forces Department, immediately slowed down the attack on Maling City, and turned around and mobilized all the followers to attack the place where Datang's army was deployed.

The defenders in Maling City clearly saw a large number of Turkic soldiers rushing to the southwest of the city, and they also clearly felt that the Turkic attack on the city began to decrease sharply.

At only 38 years old, but already gray-haired and bearded, Wei Mazheng of Maling County knelt on the top of the city wall and wailed loudly.

A crowd of fellow villagers who followed him to resist the Turks for many days also shed tears of grievance and excitement.

"Why did you come here!"

"You are finally here!"

"..."

Li Shimin seemed to feel the wail on Maling City, subconsciously raised his head and stared in the direction of Maling City.

At this time, Yu Wenbao cupped his hands and reported to Li Shimin on horseback, "Boss, the scouts reported that Ye Huda, who is on the strength department, has led more than ten thousand riders to charge here."

Li Shimin was stunned all of a sudden, being driven by Li Shimin, Li Jiancheng, who was reluctantly preparing to lead people to supervise the battle, was also stunned.

Li Yuanji, who had just put on his armor and was about to lead Jingqi into battle, was also stunned.

Li Jiancheng was the first one to come back to his senses. After he came back to his senses, he said in astonishment: "Does he think he is Xiang Yu?"

With cavalry against infantry, and it was still a head-on contest, with [-] against [-], and it was still a strong army against [-], the Turks actually launched an attack on their own initiative.

Although there was no hand-to-hand combat yet, Ye Huda, who was at the top of the strength department, neither formed troops, nor sent troops to harass him, nor even sent rangers to test Datang's reality.

It can be seen that he is going to fight directly with the soldiers and horses of the Tang Dynasty, and will not engage in those hypocrisy.

"Explore again!"

After all, Li Shimin is an old man. Facing the enemy's stupid behavior, he didn't lose his composure, nor was he overjoyed. Instead, he ordered Yuwenbao to send scouts to continue to investigate, to investigate clearly.

Yu Wenbao hurriedly ordered the scouts to investigate again.

After exploring again, the result was the same.

Li Shimin remained unmoved, and continued to ask Yu Wenbao to investigate again.

Yu Wenbao simply left the scene in person, and personally led people to investigate in the direction where the Turks were attacking.

After seeing the dark Turkic cavalry forming a barely visible formation and rushing towards the direction where the soldiers and horses of the Tang Dynasty were, Yu Wenbao hurriedly rode back to the army to report.

It is confirmed that what the scouts said in the first two times are all the truth, there is not a single lie.

Li Shimin finally stopped being calm, and said in disbelief: "They just joined Jieli not long ago, haven't they fought head-on with my Tang soldiers?"

Li Jiancheng gloated and said with a gloating smile: "They have never fought head-to-head with my Great Tang soldiers. They have never seen my real elite soldiers of the Great Tang."

Li Yuanji glanced at Li Shimin, then at Li Jiancheng and said, "I think they must have been in the Western Regions for a long time, and they were spoiled by the vassal states of the Western Regions."

Both Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng were taken aback for a moment, but after thinking about it carefully, this is really the case.

As a branch of the Western Turkic royal family, the Talibu is invincible wherever the Western Turks dominate the Western Regions. No one dares to provoke them.

Over time, this swarm-like combat method has been developed.

When I arrived in East Turkic, it was the first time I participated in the Eastern Turkic invasion of Datang. When I encountered the heavy troops of Datang, I would naturally adopt the combat method they are most familiar with.

However, this method of combat is very marketable and advantageous in the Western Regions.

But in Datang, there is no market at all, and there is no advantage at all.

The combat methods of the people from the Western Regions are still at the level of rushing forward in a swarm, retreating in a swarm, and chasing in a swarm.

Although they have been in contact with the Central Plains people for a long time, and some Central Plains people went to the Western Regions to avoid disaster, they learned some Central Plains people's combat methods.

But in essence, there is not much change.

I still like to use the method of bullying the few with more people and taking advantage of the mobility of the cavalry to surprise the enemy.

After encountering a strong enemy, they also like to rush forward to hedge against the strong enemy.

Perhaps in their view, they have a horse in their crotch, and they can fight when they can beat it, and they can run when they can't beat it.

But in the eyes of Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng, this is all courting death.

Not to mention how they broke through the three rows of sword carts at the front, the sword and shield soldiers, spearmen behind the sword carts, and the crossbowmen in the middle array were enough for them to drink a pot.

After the sword and shield soldiers broke through the sword and cart formation, they would use the scabbard as a pestle, put their shields on the ground, and cooperate with the pikemen to form rows of shield stabbing walls.

When the cavalry met, they would be stabbed with spears and turned into hedgehogs before they touched the shield.

Even if the shield is touched and the spearman's spear is broken by using the horse as a meat shield, the crossbowman behind the spearman will greet them with a powerful crossbow.

Not to mention that behind the crossbowmen there are all kinds of soldiers with large ordnance waiting in line, and a bunch of infantry with tripping ropes, horse-cutting knives and other weapons waiting to go into battle at any time.

For example, the scenes of cavalry directly breaking through the army formation in movies and TV dramas will never appear.

There will be no scenes of leaping horses flying over knife carts and shield walls.

Three rows of knife carts, seven or eight rows of shield walls.

Add up to a full ten feet wide, what kind of horse can jump over a place tens of feet wide on flat ground?
Not to mention that when the prancing horse flies, both the people on the horseback and the war horse will become the targets of the crossbowmen behind the pikemen.

A round of crossbow guns the size of a baby's arm was shot out, and even the gods had to bow down on the spot.

"Do you still need me to go off in person?"

Li Yuanji stared at Li Shimin and asked.

Li Shimin shook his head without hesitation.

What else is needed, the Turkic people are so stupid to directly bump into them, there is no need for Li Yuanji to show that extraordinary bravery to curb the momentum of the Turkic people's charge.

"Let your long sword army gather and stand by on the left."

The Changdao Army is the embryonic form of the Modaoying. In terms of cutting horses, it is sharper than the horse-cutting swords handed down from the Han Dynasty.

A ten-foot-long broadsword can pose a huge threat to cavalry, whether it is thrown to the ground or swept across the ground.

(End of this chapter)