Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 204 Battle with Hongchi ()

Soldiers who, deception also.

If Murong Ke hadn't stopped him, the Yan army would have suffered a disastrous defeat if they attacked the Liang army's heavy infantry head-on.

Xi Luoteng, who had previously suggested that Murong Ke should pursue him, now recalled the consequences and still felt a sense of fear in his heart.

"Jiangnan rats! Despicable and shameless! Last night, they talked about using a majestic formation to determine the winner, but now they are using tricks on the battlefield!"

Xiluo Teng was very angry about this.

Murong Ke was not complacent because he saw through the enemy's trap.

On the contrary, his expression became more solemn. Those Liang Jun who climbed up from the ground were covered in armor, which was so dazzling in the midday sun.

At the same time, the ambush soldiers who pretended to be corpses had retreated back to Liang Jun's formation, and Wang Meng's face was equally ugly.

Liang Jun has exposed his trump card that has been hidden before, which is the existence of heavy infantry.

During the march, in order to conceal the news, Wang Meng even kept covering the vehicle with black cloth, just for fear that the Yan army scouts would see the thick armor.

Unfortunately, after all the hard work, Yan Jun was not fooled.

As the saying goes, blessings never come in pairs, and misfortunes never come alone.

Although they only retreated thirty steps before being stopped by Wang Meng in time, it also caused a meaningless consumption of the heavy infantry's physical strength.

Liang Jun's heavy infantry uniformly used chain armor.

In the fifth century BC, the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the northern part of the Black Sea, first invented chain armor, which was later introduced to China from the Western Regions.

Today, through the improvements of Chinese craftsmen, chain armor has become of very high quality.

"Book of Jin Lu Guang Zhuan" once recorded: The armor is like a ring lock, which cannot be penetrated by arrows.

Chain armor is extremely effective in defending against arrows, but its performance in close combat is average.

Even so, the chain armor's defensive power against swords and guns is still better than the light armor equipped by the Yan army's horse archers and infantry.

After all, the weight is there. Although it is not as heavy as the foot armor of the Northern Song Dynasty, which weighed 60 to 70 kilograms, Liang Jun's chainmail armor is a full-body armor, including the helmet and mask, and it also weighs more than 50 kilograms.

This load does not include the broadswords, spears and other weapons used by the soldiers, and some soldiers also carry large shields.

Therefore, every ounce of physical strength of the heavy infantry is precious and should not be wasted on this unquestionable run.

Of course, if Murong Ke was really fooled and led his army to pursue him, that would be a different matter.

Wang Meng was quite upset about this.

When discussing with Huan Wen last night, when faced with Huan Wen's plan to retreat, he should not take any chances.

The reason why Wang Meng proposed to leave more than a thousand soldiers to pretend to be dead was because Wang Meng checked for Huan Wen's mistakes and filled the gaps, confusing the enemy generals and setting up an ambush at the same time.

Now that the plan failed, he exposed his trump card in advance and wasted the soldiers' physical strength, which can be said to be adding insult to injury.

However, Wang Meng quickly adjusted his emotions. Now that the matter has come to this, there is no point in regretting it.

Since Liang Jun retreated thirty steps and Yan Jun did not follow up, the distance between the two sides had increased to one hundred and thirty steps, which was beyond the range of both sides' bows and arrows.

The tense atmosphere on the battlefield was relieved.

Soon, with Murong Ke's command flag fluttering, the Yan army slowly retreated, temporarily distancing itself from the Chu-Liang coalition.

Murong Ke's move was not to withdraw from the battle, but to switch formations.

The advantage of the Yanxing Formation is to make full use of the arrows on both wings to suppress the enemy, but it is not conducive to hand-to-hand combat.

At present, Yan Jun's arrows cannot cause effective damage to Liang Jun, so naturally they cannot continue to maintain the flying geese formation and need to change the formation. Murong Ke had 90,000 infantry and cavalry under his command. The redeployment of so many troops would definitely cause chaos.

If the formations of the Liang and Chu coalition forces changed right under their noses, how could Wang Meng and Huan Wen miss this opportunity? The Yan army would surely be thrown into chaos and cover up the attack.

Therefore, the Yan army must retreat first.

Of course, if the Liang-Chu coalition forces followed from behind, they would undoubtedly be playing into Murong Ke's hands.

Yan Jun can keep retreating until Liang Jun's heavy infantry is exhausted, and then they can turn around and charge.

Wang Meng naturally knew this. Seeing the Yan army retreat and adjust their formation, he hurriedly asked the soldiers to sit down where they were and seize the time to regain their strength.

At the same time, he sent messengers to get in touch with Huan Wen and Deng Xia, and told them his guess about the main attack direction of the Yan army, which was Deng Qiang's cavalry phalanx.

The reason is very simple. The Chu-Liang coalition was divided into three parts, in the shape of "pin".

The Liangjun army formation at the front had already exposed its trump card, and it was impossible for Murong Ke to challenge a heavy infantry phalanx.

Huan Wen relied on his vehicles and formed a defensive formation, but it was also difficult to break through.

Therefore, if Murong Ke wanted to change his troop deployment, he could only rely on his cavalry superiority to attack the cavalry phalanx led by Deng Qiang.

When the Yan army rearranged its troops and approached again, Wang Meng stood on the command platform and saw the Yan army's formation from a distance. It was just as he had guessed.

Murong Ke placed the melee cavalry on the left wing and the archers on the right wing.

This move was naturally to use the melee cavalry on the left wing to attack the Deng and Qiang cavalry phalanx located on the right side of the rear of Liang Jun in the original formation.

The cavalry archers on the right flank harassed the Huan Wen infantry camp on the left side behind Liang Jun in the formation.

But while the Yan army adjusted its troop deployment, Huan Wen and Deng Qiang also completed the adjustment of their formation.

The Chu-Liang coalition forces were no longer arranged in a pin-shaped formation, but were divided into three armies: front, middle and rear.

Liang Jun's heavy infantry was still in the front, Deng Qiang's cavalry was in the middle, and Huan Wen's chariot formation was behind.

At that time, the Yan army was redeploying troops and adjusting its formation in the distance, which naturally gave Huan Wen time to move the chariot formation diagonally to the rear, so that the Chu army's infantry formation formed a straight line with Wang Meng's heavy infantry phalanx and Deng Qiang's cavalry phalanx. .

The infantry of Liang and Chu formed a square formation and protected the archers within the square formation.

The archers in their respective formations were responsible for protecting the cavalry between the infantry phalanxes.

If Murong Ke's melee cavalry attacks the Chu cavalry phalanx, they will be exposed to the arrows of the Liang and Chu infantry phalanxes.

Once the Yan army's cavalry charges with arrows and attacks the Chu army's cavalry, as long as they are entangled by the Chu army's cavalry, they can easily be surrounded by the Liang and Chu infantry phalanxes.

After all, the formation is dead, but the people are alive.

By leaving Deng Qiang's cavalry alone, he could avoid the Yan army's close combat cavalry and attack and harass from both directions.

Murong Ke frowned and thought about how to defeat the enemy.

In fact, the formation of the Chu and Liang coalition forces is solid in defense, but it is not conducive to pursuit and attack.

Murong Ke said to Murong Chui beside him:

"If we forcefully attack the enemy's position, we will definitely suffer heavy casualties. For this plan, if we cannot lure the snake out of its hole and lure the enemy with a false defeat, I am afraid that the two armies will be in a stalemate here for a long time."

Murong Chui nodded when he heard this, but said worriedly:

"Previously, the enemy tried to lure me by deceiving defeat, but now our army is using the same tactics again, but I'm afraid it won't be effective."

　The update is a little late. This battle is really difficult to write. There are too many revisions over and over again. I will take a leave tonight to reorganize it and finish this battle tomorrow.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)