Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 86 Cavalry's Achilles' Heel (Subscription Request)
"This Yuan army is not very good."

On the top of Chao County City, Lu Jin uttered a sigh that made Kang Maocai want to pick up a knife and chop someone.

Originally, Lu Jin thought that after breaking through the front line, there would be a long spear stabbing or something. He was looking forward to the effect of the 5.4-meter-long spear stabbing, but in the end, the opponent was directly defeated, which actually made him feel a little unsatisfied.
Standing on a big tree beside the official road, Chang Yuchun was also shocked and excited!
The group of people who just shot at his face within ten meters gave him a fright.

Chang Yuchun was also good at archery, and he was quite good at it. In his impression, bows and arrows were always long-range weapons, and he never thought that one day they could be used in this way!

However, judging from the effect of that wave of concentrated shooting, this tactic was extremely effective. The Yuan army was defeated in just one round. When the spearmen rushed up, the Yuan army was directly defeated.

It was also very interesting when the spearmen in the rear were chasing the fleeing enemy. Although the entire formation was scattered, Lu Jin's spearmen were still orderly in the chaos.

Those spearmen followed a large spear with a small flag or a cloth strip hanging on it, in groups of three or five, never fighting alone. Their assassination efficiency was very high, and it was not easy for the enemy to exploit the weakness of their spears being too long in close combat.

Looking at the defeated Yuan soldiers who had been chased away, Chang Yuchun kept saying, "I have learned a lot. This trip today was not in vain."

However, Lan Rong, who was with him, was almost scared to death, "Brother Yuchun, what should we do? They seem to be running towards us."

"Shh, don't make any noise!" Chang Yuchun reminded in a low voice.

Kang Maocai followed Chen Hong to the rear where the fleeing soldiers were. While gathering the fleeing soldiers, they ran towards the official road. However, how could Zhu Shou let them run away like that?

Zhu Shou led two battalions of spearmen and chased after them, shouting "Surrender and you will not be killed" as he chased.

Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong, the two cavalry battalion commanders, were unwilling to lag behind. Their job was to chase after the enemy's fleeing soldiers. Zheng Yong, in particular, led a group of horse archers to chase Kang Maocai fiercely, shooting arrows at them non-stop, scaring all of Kang Maocai's personal soldiers away from him.
A group of Shengwu Army soldiers, who were blood-thirsty, were chasing the fleeing Yuan army and passed under the tree where Chang Yuchun and his men were, but they didn't even notice that there were two people on the tree.

On the top of Chao County City, looking at the Yuan army that had been completely defeated, Lu Jin gave orders to the messenger.

"Immediately tell Zhu Shou, Ye Sheng, and Zheng Yong to stop eating and resting, and chase Kang Maocai to death! Chase him wherever Kang Maocai is, even if you tire yourself out or run your horses to death, you must catch him. I only want Kang Maocai's head!"

"Yes!" Several riders immediately ran down from the top of the city wall to pass on the order.

Yang Huan, the little follower who followed Lu Jin, was stunned when he heard the words, and then he took out the booklet "Gongshu Military Strategy: Quick Training for Generals" written by Lu Jin from his arms.

The manuscript of this book was handwritten by Lu Jin. It was not yet printed on a large scale, so the children in the training camp were organized to copy it by hand. Yang Huan copied this copy himself.

Open the book to Chapter 8, Fighting Style, the three fierce tactics: hit hard, charge hard, and chase hard, especially the courage to chase and attack hard.

There are countless ways to defeat your opponent, but to completely resolve the battle and expand the results, there is only one way, which is pursuit. Don't be afraid of hardship, don't be afraid of being tired. If you are tired, the enemy you are chasing will be even more tired. Not only are they tired, they are also more afraid of you. You have all the advantages, so why not chase?
Even if you can't run anymore, you have to chase in the direction of the enemy, using crutches, crawling, and rolling!
What does it mean to completely resolve a battle? After you defeat the enemy, if you fail to pursue the remaining enemies in time and completely annihilate them, the remaining enemy forces will be able to catch their breath and once again gather their troops to fight you repeatedly. You will then fall into a state of running around for your life, and eventually you will be defeated.

What does it mean to expand the results of the battle? After defeating the enemy, you capture 3,000 enemy soldiers, and there are still tens of thousands of them fleeing. If you do not pursue them at this time, the results of the battle will only be 3,000. But if you pursue the remaining enemies, you can capture 5,000, 8,000, or even annihilate all the enemy troops.

It is better to chase the poor bandits with courage, not to be a famous scholar!
Yang Huan read the contents of the book and listened to the orders given by Lu Jin. He had some understanding in his mind, but also had some questions.

He asked Lu Jin in confusion.

"General, the Art of War says 'Don't pursue an enemy who is desperate', why does it say here that we should pursue and attack relentlessly? If the generals give such an order, won't we fall into the enemy's trap of feigning defeat and luring the enemy?"

Lu Jin looked back at him and taught him, "Whether the commander should make such a decision or not should be judged based on the overall situation and the enemy's situation.

"For example, what is the total strength of the enemy army? I know Kang Maocai has nearly 20,000 soldiers, and he is stationed in many places. He can mobilize at most 10,000 soldiers for mobile operations. Now that his 10,000 main forces are here, how can he have extra troops to ambush me?

“Besides, he wouldn’t be so stupid as to use 10,000 main forces to feign defeat and deceive me. Even if he really deceived me, would those weak soldiers guarding the city have the courage to ambush me when they see that their main forces have been defeated?

“Even if he can still send out 3,000 troops from Heyang, I have already sent your brother Yang Jing to lead the Fourth Regiment to attack Heyang. The defenders there will definitely not be able to come to the rescue.

"So the overall situation now is that there are only two forces, us and Kang Maocai, within a radius of hundreds of miles. All of his forces have been contained or defeated by me. Now is the time to hit the drowning dog. Once we bite it, we cannot let go until we completely kill it.

“Finally, you have to keep a general reserve force to deal with possible emergencies. Zhu Liangzu’s 5th Regiment is in the direction of Hanshan. His position can be used for both offense and defense. No matter where an accident occurs on the battlefield, I have a chance to remedy it.

"Looking at the overall situation, I have no worries. If not now, when?
"Why do I say that we must be brave enough to pursue relentlessly? Xiang Yu, the King of Chu, defeated Liu Bang of Han many times. If he had pursued Liu Bang relentlessly after defeating him, he would have killed Liu Bang long ago, and there would have been no chance for the Han Dynasty to turn things around."

Yang Huan nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this, and Lu Jin added, "Don't skip when reading a book, read the previous part first, how to understand the enemy's situation and our situation, and take the example of feigning defeat to deceive the enemy.

"Suppose you know that the enemy has 13,000 soldiers in total, but you have only defeated 3,000 of them, and the enemy still has 10,000 main forces whose whereabouts are unknown. Then you have to consider whether the enemy is faking defeat. Do you understand?"

Yang Huan nodded again, "I understand. Thank you for your teachings, Marshal!"

Only then did Lu Jin turn around and continue to overlook the battlefield.

The messenger had already galloped out on horseback and quickly conveyed the order to Zhu Shou and Ye Sheng, but Zheng Yong could not catch up with them no matter what.

In the current battlefield situation, Liao Yongan is leading the main force of the Third Regiment and cooperating with Zhang Wen’s two battalions to capture prisoners and control the main battlefield.

Kang Maocai's right wing commander Ding Zhongrui was killed in battle, the front army commander Li Jun was captured, and the left wing commander Wang Ruheng was shot dead by Zheng Yong.

Zhu Shou led two combat battalions to pursue the main force of Kang Maocai's rear army. Ye Sheng was outflanking and intercepting them in the front, while pursuing the rear army commander Chen Hong and Kang Maocai's cavalry commander Lu Changyi.

As for Kang Maocai himself, well, this guy's condition is a bit weird.

The battlefield was outside the north gate of Chao County. He was originally going to turn left and head north to Hanshan, but now he was being chased by Zheng Yong, so he turned right and ran south. Seeing two groups of people in front and behind, one chasing and the other fleeing, he headed straight for Wuwei.
It was not that Kang Maocai knew that the earth was round and wanted to go around Hanshan from the south. So why did he go in the opposite direction? This has to do with the tactics of horse riding and archery.

Since most humans are right-handed, horse archers can basically only shoot arrows to the left side. The right side is an absolute danger zone and they can only take hits and cannot fight back.

There are several professional terms in horse archery tactics. The head-on charge is called "split mane", and at this time you can shoot arrows straight ahead;

When both sides occupy the right side, place the enemy on the left side, and charge towards each other, it is called "stirrup", at which time both sides can shoot to the left;
The last one is called "Ma Qiu", which is when the enemy is chasing from behind, the rider turns around and shoots arrows directly behind him.

That is to say, for a normal cavalry archer, his attack range is only 180 degrees in the left hemisphere. If he is a bit more powerful, for example, if he has a flexible waist, he can twist his whole body back and face backwards, then his attack range can reach 200 degrees.

But as long as you can't shoot with both hands and have no blind spots in 360 degrees, the area from 3 to 5 o'clock on your right side will always be your weak spot!
If the enemy goes around to the right rear side, then you can only wait for death. At this time, the enemy can shoot arrows at you continuously, but you cannot shoot arrows back. What else can you do except wait for death?
Archers are difficult to train, and there are even fewer who can shoot on horseback. Those who can shoot with both hands on horseback are simply outliers, freaks, and one in a million!
This is what is said in the Ming Dynasty military book "Wubei Yaolue·On Cavalry and Archery".

'If the enemy attacks from the right during a battle, it is easy to shoot if you can. If you cannot, you should quickly turn your horse's knees to the right to kill the enemy. Therefore, training horses is a top priority for military strategists, as it can determine your life or death in battle.'

It is difficult for ordinary people to draw a bow with their right hand, let alone with their left hand. Even if you are left-handed, you have to be able to draw the bow with both hands, otherwise there will always be a direction that will be a weakness for you.

Obviously, Kang Maocai and Zheng Yong were not the rare ones picked out of a million, so the two of them were like in an air combat dogfight, with the plane circling behind and biting six points, while the two of them were in a horse-riding and shooting dogfight circling to the right and biting four points.

In a horse and archery battle, whoever can occupy the right side will survive!
You run to the right? Then I will run even further to the right and put you on my left!

Then the two sides went right and right and headed for Wuwei County.
Kang Maocai was so anxious that he cursed and his eyes turned red. Why the hell was he chasing after him? !
Zheng Yong also had a hard time chasing. He held the bow and three arrows in his left hand. This was a rapid-shooting technique for cavalry warfare, which saved the time of drawing arrows from the quiver.

Zheng Yong also wanted to go around to Kang Maocai's right side, but Kang Maocai was not a fool. He specifically chose to run to places with obstacles on the right side, such as a road in front and a woods on the right, or a paddy field on the right side, places where horses could not run.

So Zheng Yong could only follow behind Kang Maocai and eat dust. Suddenly he shot an arrow forward and killed one of Kang Maocai's personal soldiers.

But seeing that they were getting further and further away, Zheng Yong became anxious. Just at this moment, his two subordinates, Xi Guobao and Zhang Huzi caught up with him. Zheng Yong hurriedly shouted at them.

"I'll chase him from behind, and you guys go around from the left and confront him! We can't let him get away!"

"Okay, drive!"

Upon hearing this, the two men immediately accelerated their horses, forced a big circle around Kang Maocai's left side, ran in front of Kang Maocai, turned around and attacked, this time they finally put Kang Maocai on the left side.

When the two men turned around and rushed towards him from the front, Kang Maocai was so frightened that his eyes were bloodshot and his pupils shrank. Then, more than a dozen arrows flew from Xi Guobao's side and shot him off his horse.

This Duke of Qi in history, the tool who helped Lu Jin kill Zhao Pusheng and the guy who knew Bao Yu's true identity, has finally died!
Two more chapters



(End of this chapter)