Chapter 149: Great Victory! The River is Stained with Blood! (4k)
Deep in a dense grassland, Su Ze looked into the distance with a telescope. The system map had already located the position of the Gaoche cavalry, but Su Ze was relieved only when he saw the splashes of water made by the Gaoche horses crossing the stream.
Now is the season when grass is lush and birds are singing. Such tall grass is just right for small armies to hide. The vastness of the grassland and the sparse population have both advantages and disadvantages for both sides in the war.
The advantage is that this is the most suitable battlefield for cavalry combat. Nomadic people have been fighting on such terrain for thousands of years, and no one knows how many dead bones are buried under the grass.
The disadvantage is that the grassland is too large. In grassland cavalry combat, because the lethality of cavalry is far greater than its defensive power, the party that charges first has a huge advantage, so reconnaissance is particularly important in cavalry duels.
In fact, it is not just reconnaissance. Cavalry is a high-speed moving force, and there is a lack of reference points on the grassland. Sometimes even if the enemy is detected, the scouts cannot catch up with the main camp of their own troops, or they return to the main camp but cannot clearly tell the enemy's position, or they can tell the enemy's position clearly, but the commander misjudged the direction of the enemy's advance, and there are many examples of this.
In short, in an era without satellites, high-precision maps, and radio communications, detecting the enemy was the number one challenge in cavalry combat.
But now that Su Ze has a plug-in, everything is different.
In order to prevent any conspiracy, the King of Gaoche kept Yu Jin, Gao Huan and others by his side and led them to attack the Rouran royal court together.
[The Yulin scout who is proficient in the Hu language] is naturally also in the team, and the red dot representing his position accurately marks the position of the Gaoche cavalry.
After receiving the military order from Li Chong, Su Ze immediately led his cavalry straight to the grassland without taking any detours, and directly intercepted the Gaoche cavalry in the direction they were advancing.
Now that the enemy's position has been determined and the pocket has been set, it's time to attack.
Su Ze looked at the map. The place he had preset for the decisive battle was in front of a valley of an unknown river.
The Gaoche people advanced along this river, and this open river valley was an excellent place to camp and rest.
The Gaoche people have already penetrated deep into the territory of the Rouran people. The Gaoche king is also an expert in using cavalry. The most dangerous time for a cavalry unit is when it is halfway across the river. Experienced commanders will first reorganize and gather the troops in the valley, and then cross the river together after the troops are assembled.
During this reorganization period, King Gaoche will definitely send out a large number of scouts for reconnaissance, and this is also the most dangerous time for Su Ze's army.
For Su Ze, there is also only one chance.
Looking at the Gaoche cavalry gathering in the valley and resting in front of the narrowest crossing of the river, Su Ze finally breathed a sigh of relief. The enemy's actions so far were all within his expectations, and now all that remained was the final decisive battle.
Su Ze did a final rehearsal in his mind. He looked at Su Lin beside him and said, "Raise the flags and form a battle line!"
At the same time when Su Ze raised the flag, a cavalry of about one hundred men emerged from the bushes to the north of the Gaoche cavalry's main camp.
Leading the way was the forty armored cavalrymen headed by [Calm Armored Cavalry] Su Jing. After the last battle, Su Ze selected twenty horses from the captured war horses and selected twenty men with excellent riding skills from the army and trained them for a month to form another armored cavalry squad.
Su Ze appointed Su Jing as the captain of one team, and let [Reckless Armored Cavalry] be the captain of another team, but he needed to be under the control of Su Jing during combat.
Behind the two teams of armored cavalry were sixty heavily armored cavalry carefully selected by Su Ze.
They were wearing half-body armor, while their horses were not, which put much less burden on the horses. They were divided into two groups, following behind the two teams of armored cavalry respectively.
A team of fifty people, a total of two cavalry teams, are the most elite cavalry under Su Ze.
In contrast, many soldiers in Su Ze's main camp were wearing light armor, which was enough to show how much importance Su Ze attached to this armored cavalry.
A large flag was raised, followed by a melodious military bugle call.
King Gaoche, who was camping in the river valley, was startled when he heard the military call. He quickly sent out his guards to investigate the situation, and soon he saw his panicked subordinates.
"Khan! To the north! Enemy attack!"
King Gaoche hurriedly rode forward on his horse, and he saw a terrifying scene!
The armored cavalry with ghost faces took the lead in the charge, and under the high-speed charge, they displayed the momentum of thousands of troops.
More importantly, the grassland behind them was deep. King Gaoche regretted why he did not send more scouts to explore the area between the two rivers. Looking at the two teams of hundreds of elite cavalry charging, King Gaoche could not help but suspect that there were more cavalry ambushing in the grassland behind.
Who would be willing to use such precious armored cavalry alone?
At such a distance and such a speed, the textbook-like armored cavalry raid by the two cavalry squads made the King of Gaoche, who had seen the elite troops of the Northern Wei Dynasty, consider retreating.
Although the speed of these iron cans is not as good as that of light cavalry, they are fast enough. They are fully armored and ordinary bows and arrows cannot hurt them at all.
With their huge kinetic charge, armored cavalry can tear apart any enemy that stands in their way.
To deal with this kind of cavalry, all commanders who understand military affairs have only one way, which is to keep distance, slow down the cavalry's charge, and wait until their horses are tired before surrounding and killing them.
Just as the King of Gaoche was about to retreat to the south, his confidant said, "Khan! There are enemies in the south too!"
All they saw was a tall banner standing upright with a big word "Su" written on it. This was a group of archers wearing mainly half-body armor and light armor. These cavalrymen surrounded the tall banner, spinning and pressing towards the Gaoche camp.
King Gaoche had never seen such a situation before. With pressure coming from both the north and the south, it was time for him to make a decision.
Crossing the river to break out was the first option to be ruled out.
With an army of 10,000, he would definitely be hunted down if he tried to cross the river at such a narrow estuary.
That leaves only two options: fight to the north or to the south.
The enemies in the north seem few, but the charge of the armored cavalry is extremely powerful. Most of the Gaoche cavalry are lightly armored, and the King of Gaoche has no idea whether there are ambushes in the rear. So there is only one choice left.
That was to break out towards the strange archer cavalry circle in the south. The circle was strange, and it was probably a trick up the sleeves of a young officer. The King of Gaoche had already determined that the army attacking him was from the Northern Wei, because only they had so many armored cavalry.
The King of Gaoche was already prepared to execute Yu Jin and the others. They must have found some way to pass on the message and let the Wei army ambush him!
Even the so-called emptiness of the Rouran royal court was the plan of that general of the Wei Dynasty!
King Gaoche sneered. Although the two teams of armored cavalry were very elite, the number of the other side was still too small! With such a big appetite, it depends on how strong your teeth are!
"Retreat south! Defeat the enemy's center first!"
King Gaoche looked at the fluttering banners. In such a big battle, the commanders must be present on the battlefield in person. As long as they are present, they can boost the morale of the soldiers.
But at the same time, once the commander-in-chief is breached, it will be the beginning of the collapse of the army.
The King of Gaoche saw that the number of Su Ze's southern cavalry archers was smaller than his own. He believed that the Gaoche cavalry were skilled in archery and horsemanship and would definitely be able to defeat Su Ze's central army.
As long as they cut down that big banner, the armored cavalry pursuing from behind would be slowly trapped to death.
The King of Gaoche had a good plan. He ordered his troops to break out to the south and called his guards to say, "Tie up those Wei envoys!"
-
A few minutes ago, at the moment when Su Ze's military bugle sounded, the [scout who was fluent in the Hu language] beside Yu Jin quickly took out a dagger and stabbed to death the personal guards of King Gaoche who were guarding them behind him.
Hou Jing's reaction was equally quick. He snatched the scimitar from his personal guards, chopped down two of them, and immediately shouted to Yu Jin, "General Yu! This way!"
"and many more!"
Yu Jin took off the travel cap on his head, handed the staff to Gao Huan, put on the Gaoche people's felt hat and fur coat, and said, "Follow me!"
Yu Jin led the crowd forward, and when he saw the Gaoche people, he immediately shouted in Gaoche language: "The Khan asked me to send the Wei envoy away!"
At this time, the military camp was in chaos. Seeing the fierce look of Hou Jing and others, the soldiers did not dare to intercept them. They actually let Yu Jin leave the Gaoche people's central army. Yu Jin also snatched several horses from several low-level soldiers.
At this time, Yu Jin mounted his horse, took the staff from Gao Huan and said, "Let's cross the river!"
-
Looking at the red dots in the Gaoche army moving towards the river, Su Ze felt relieved. Next, he just had to concentrate on defeating the Gaoche people.
Su Ze nodded to Su Lin, and Su Lin immediately rushed out with the cavalry around him.
At this time, the soldiers had assembled the military drum. Su Ze climbed onto the drum platform, pulled down his shirt and tied it around his waist, and began to beat the drum one by one.
The sound of drums replaced the sound of charge bugles. When the Gaoche cavalry arrived in front of this strange circular formation, they finally realized the power of this circular formation.
The circling cavalry had already prepared their bows and arrows, and they immediately fired when the Gaoche cavalry approached. The Gaoche people in the front row were shot by arrows and fell off their horses!
This was not the worst. The worst thing was that the cavalry had turned around after finishing shooting arrows, and the cavalry that came up from behind had already prepared for archery. Another round of rain of arrows fell with the sound of drums, shooting the cavalry that rushed up from the back row of the Gaoche people off their horses!
The entire formation was like a high-speed rotating washing machine, throwing out arrows like water drops. The dense arrows seemed endless, forming a continuous arrow curtain that constantly shot down the Gaoche cavalry!
King Gaoche's eyes almost burst open! So this is how the circle formation is used!
But when he understood how this formation was used, he became even more desperate.
It was obvious that the opponent's riding skills and archery skills were not as good as mine, but after using this formation, I was at a complete disadvantage.
The enemy is a cavalry running in a rotation. No matter how good your archery skills are, it is difficult to hit the moving enemy. What's more fatal is that your army is charging in a straight line. Only the cavalry in the front row can shoot arrows, and after shooting, they have to pull the bow again to shoot arrows.
The cavalry in the front row of the Gaoche people became living targets for the rotating cavalry. The cavalry in Su Ze's formation only needed to draw their bows, ride their horses, shoot arrows, and then return to the formation again. The continuous rain of arrows put great psychological pressure on the Gaoche people.
At the same time, Su Jing's armored cavalry slowed down.
The enemy fled too fast and exceeded the attack radius of the armored cavalry. So Su Jing ordered the cavalry to slow down halfway, but the huge inertia still made them rush several miles further than expected. Fortunately, the Gaoche people were so scared that they did not charge back at Su Jing who was slowing down.
Just when Su Jing was about to speed up the charge again, the army commanded by [Reckless Armored Cavalry] Su Mang did not slow down for a moment. Instead, he ordered the entire team to madly increase their horsepower and speed up the charge!
Under the two halos of [recklessness] and [indulgence], this team fell into a state of frenzy. They were like a sharp dagger, stabbing into the "kidney" of the Gaoche army from behind.
To be honest, the results of Su Mang's charge this time were only average.
However, the visual effect of the armored cavalry charging was too shocking. A high-chariot cavalryman who was unable to dodge was hit by Su Mang's raised lance, and both the man and the horse were smashed into pieces!
Su Mang rushed and killed three people in succession. When the horse's momentum slowed down a little, he immediately took out the ring-handled broadsword on the right side of the saddle, held the lance in one hand and the sword in the other, and started to kill in the Gaoche cavalry formation.
The ghost mask on his face was covered with freshly torn flesh, and even the head armor of his warhorse was covered in blood, as if he was an evil ghost crawling out of hell, immediately causing great fear to the Gaoche cavalry!
At this moment, Su Jing, who had already increased his speed, inserted himself into the Gaoche man's other "kidney" at the right time!
A kidney shot isn't fatal, but it hurts.
The Gaoche army in the north could no longer maintain its discipline. The characteristic of the grassland army is that it is good at fighting with the wind in its favor. Once the wind is against it, these loose legions will begin to find a way out on their own, and chaos will spread rapidly like a terrible plague.
The situation in the south was also not going well. Su Ze's whirling cavalry circle began to expand and advance amid the sound of drums. The soldiers surrounded Su Ze on the big banner and the drum cart and moved forward. The neighing of war horses resounded throughout the grassland, and the Gaoche people began to disintegrate!
Yu Jin, Gao Huan and others who had already fled to the other side of the river looked back and saw the Gaoche people's rout and destruction. This scene was deeply imprinted in their minds.
Especially Hou Jing, in his mind, Su Ze is already a military god! He has made every possible plan! He can defeat the enemy with fewer people!
Use cavalry to defeat the Gaoche people who are good at cavalry combat in a fair fight!
If this isn’t a god of war, then what is?
Yu Jin drew his sword, looked at the Gaoche cavalry rushing out of the river mouth, and said, "Let's go and earn some more military merit!"
Seeing Yu Jin rushing over, Gao Huan, Sima Ziru, Hou Jing and the Yulin scout who was proficient in the Hu language immediately rode up to catch up. The five of them caught the Gaoche cavalry who had just crossed the river by surprise and killed them off their horses in a few moves.
Sunset, the sound of the gong, and the blood-stained river!
Recover 8k today and start paying off debts tomorrow!
(End of this chapter)