Qiu Yizi also agreed with his opinion and nodded, "That's right, we can't wait and see now, it's better to fight first to test the opponent's strength. I just don't know how to fight, please give the order, General Cui!"
Cui Nan was not polite either, and said: "I will lead 10,000 troops to attack the enemy at the west gate. Your Highness Yi will lead his own troops and another 10,000 troops to attack the enemy at the south gate..."
Qiu Yizi was stunned when he heard this: He clearly led an army of 50,000, so why did each of them only lead 10,000 troops
After careful consideration, he suddenly realized: it turned out that more than 10,000 soldiers and horses had been lost during the march, and most of them were extremely tired when they arrived at the city of Hangzhou. Now, there are only 20,000 people who can be mobilized to launch an attack without rest.
Cui Nan continued, "We must win this battle in one go. If we lose, we must not linger on. We must come back and regroup before making plans. The rest of us should set up camp near the mountain and be ready to respond at any time."
Cui Nan, who was always frugal with words, rarely spoke such a long speech, but he made the deployment of the tactics very clear. Qiu Yizi nodded as he listened, and after discussing the details, he went down the mountain under the protection of Zhao Chengxiao and others to count the troops.
The troops led by Cui Nan were all imperial guards. Although the current imperial guards were all new recruits, the grassroots officers such as centurions, captains, and inspectors were all former sergeants of the old Youyan Dao. Although Qiu Yizi could not name many of them, he had met them once - so although he had never commanded these troops, he was not completely helpless.
Qiu Yizhi also saw that there were not many cavalrymen in the imperial army, and most of the horses they rode were not strong. He was also afraid that the Lingnan army camp had set up caltrops, tripwires, and chevaux de frise, which would make it difficult for the cavalry to charge effectively. Therefore, he simply ordered all the cavalrymen to dismount and walk, each holding a short knife, rattan shield and other light weapons, and arranged in a tight formation, bypassing a large paddy field facing the South Gate, and charging towards the small camp of Lingnan Road that was besieging Hangzhou City. As for Lin Shuhan, who was weak, he stayed in a safe place in the rear under the protection of Yuchi Jiming.
The troops marched quickly all the way, but the Lingnan Army seemed not to notice. Until they were only a hundred steps away from the enemy, there was still no reaction from the camp, as if it was an empty camp.
When Qiu Yizi was in Lingnan Road, he saw the Lingnan Army with his own eyes. Although their agility and ability were not as good as the old Youyan Army, they were no worse than the current imperial guards. Logically, they should not be so complacent.
Therefore, Qiu Yizi felt that something was wrong, and quickly ordered the troops to stop advancing, but ordered his seventy crossbow soldiers to move forward and fire a volley of shots at the enemy camp.
As a volley of crossbow arrows shot into the enemy camp amidst the violent storm, several screams were heard, and suddenly a cannon shot was heard. Countless elite soldiers filed out from the military tents in the barracks, pushed open the makeshift and somewhat crude camp gate, and arranged themselves in formation to meet the enemy.
Qiu Yizi saw that his opponent acted decisively, formed his array skillfully, and had a complete battle formation. It was obvious that this was not a hasty response, but that he had been prepared in advance. He wanted to lure him into a rash attack on the military camp and then ambush him to kill him by surprise!
Although the two armies did not fight, the situation on the battlefield had changed dramatically, from a surprise attack on the enemy to a head-on battle with the enemy.
Qiu Yizi, who was in charge of the command, was extremely grateful. He was glad that he saw the opportunity early and used a powerful crossbow to test the enemy situation. Otherwise, if he rashly rushed into the enemy camp and was ambushed by the enemy, the consequences would be disastrous.
So Qiu Yizi quickly concentrated and carefully observed the formation of the Lingnan Army in front of him.
The Lingnan Army was indeed small in number, with a total of less than 3,000 people. Their formation was quite neat and rigorous, but perhaps because they had been fighting against the Lingnan barbarians for a long time, they did not seem to know how to engage in a large-scale head-on confrontation, so they only formed a tight formation that could take care of each other - there was depth, but the width was extremely limited - especially when the troops were insufficient, it was very easy for the opponent's superior forces to outflank the left and right wings, and thus besieged and annihilated.
Seeing this, Qiu Yizi was already confident, and hurriedly called over several generals and inspectors in the army and gave them some detailed instructions.
These officers were all from the Old Youyan Dao and knew Qiu Yizi's abilities and identity. Since they heard that it was an order from him, they naturally obeyed it and hurried down to make arrangements.
Under normal circumstances, when Qiu Yizhi was sure of victory, he would always shout a few words to the enemy, asking them to lay down their weapons and surrender on the spot. This was because he was not really interested in killing and did not want to hurt more people; secondly, it was also to shake the enemy's morale and relieve his own pressure.
But what was needed today was a quick victory, and he could not delay any longer in front of the battlefield. Therefore, when he saw that the troops had gradually deployed according to his deployment, and knew that the time for battle was ripe, he gently pulled Zhao Chengxiao over, nodded to him, and signaled to start the attack.
Zhao Chengxiao saw this and waved his flag. Then he saw seventy strong crossbowmen holding up their crossbows, carefully aiming, and pulling the triggers at the command. There was a sound of the crossbow strings vibrating in unison, and a row of crossbow arrows were fired forward like thunder.
The crossbow is extremely powerful and is specially made to deal with the elite cavalry of the Turks. Among the Central Plains armies, except for the "Dangshiying" of the old Youyan Road, which can barely resist for a while, there are no other armies or weapons that can match it.
The Lingnan Army did not have the protection of the giant shields of the "Dangshi Camp", so naturally they could not compete with the powerful crossbows. The dense formation of the Lingnan Army also gave the powerful crossbows the best shooting target - after a volley of fire, forty or fifty people of the Lingnan Army were shot dead without any suspense.
Unfortunately, the militia directly under Qiu Yizhi only had 200 people, and among them, there were only 70 strong crossbowmen. If the number of 70 was multiplied tenfold to 700, then with just one or two rounds of strong crossbow shooting, most of the 3,000 enemy troops in front of them could be shot dead.
Originally, Cui Nan's army also had crossbowmen - the powerful crossbows under Qiu Yizhi's command were drawn from his camp - but the powerful crossbows were too heavy. This time, to lift the siege of Hangzhou, speed was of the essence. Except for the militia under Qiu Yizhi's command who had enough physical strength and legs to support them, the rest of the soldiers did not carry heavy weapons.
With such a strong force at hand, Qiu Yizhi did not think about anything else. He looked around and saw that the imperial army had already deployed its troops and the flank of the Lingnan army was completely exposed to his front. He ordered his crossbowmen to shoot two more arrows, drew the sword from his waist, and pointed it forward. Zhao Chengxiao, who was beside him, saw this and knew that it was an order for the entire army to charge, so he hurriedly waved the flag in his hand, and several war drums beside him also beat at the same time.
When the troops saw the signal, and realized that the Lingnan troops on the opposite side were small in number and that victory was a sure thing, their morale was immediately boosted, shouts of killing arose, and everyone bravely rushed towards the enemy.
Under attack from three sides with superior forces on the front, left and right wings, the Lingnan Army, no matter how elite and tenacious it was, could not withstand such a sharp attack. After a brief resistance, it threw away its weapons and retreated into the camp behind it.
Seeing that their opponents were defeated at the first blow, the morale of the imperial guards became even higher. The fatigue and exhaustion accumulated from several days of rapid marching in the wind and rain had long been forgotten, and they charged into the camp shouting loudly.
Qiu Yizi saw this situation from afar behind the formation and was overjoyed. As long as the fighting continued for a while, they would be able to kill all the Lingnan troops blocking the south gate of Hangzhou. Then, when the city gate was opened, they could cooperate with the garrison troops in the city to completely defeat the Lingnan troops. Then, they could deal with them according to the usual procedures and defeat the Lingnan troops besieging the city one by one. The siege of Hangzhou would be solved.
However, the battle was not as smooth as Qiu Yizhi had expected. Although the Lingnan Army was defeated and forced to retreat into the camp, they did not immediately disband and surrender. Instead, they fought a bloody battle with the imperial army in the camp. The camp was originally very small. Although the imperial army was numerous, they could not deploy all of them to exert their numerical advantage. The battle situation suddenly became tense.
However, the numerical advantage of the Imperial Guards remained unshakable. After fighting for half an hour, the Imperial Guards finally compressed the Lingnan Army to the edge of the city gate. As long as the defenders in Hangzhou opened the city gate, they could easily attack the gap behind the enemy.
Qiu Yizi was observing from behind the formation and the more he watched, the more strange the situation seemed to him. While such a big battle was taking place outside the city, there was no movement at all in Hangzhou. Even if the defenders had been frightened by the Lingnan Army before and did not dare to wave flags and shout on the city walls, not even a single one of them peeked out to check how the war was developing.
A terrible thought suddenly flashed through Qiu Yizhi's mind: "We've fallen into a trap!" He hurriedly pulled Zhao Chengxiao over and said, "Brother Zhao, hurry up, call back the troops!"
Zhao Chengxiao was stunned when he heard this, and thought: The war is progressing smoothly, and we are about to annihilate the Lingnan army in front of us, why should we "sound the retreat" at this critical juncture
However, military orders were as heavy as mountains. Although Zhao Chengxiao had thousands of doubts and confusions, he still ordered his soldiers to strike a copper gong the size of a washbasin hard. In an instant, the anxious and harsh sound of metal collision could be heard over the battlefield.
At this moment, a cannon shot was suddenly heard in Hangzhou City. The crooked dragon flags that were originally planted on the city wall were all knocked down at the same time. In their place were countless banners with the words "Lingnan Palace" inscribed on them. In addition, many soldiers appeared on the top of the city wall, holding bows and arrows, rolling stones, wooden beams and other city defense tools, and wearing Lingnan Taoist uniforms.
Then the South Gate was seen to be opened with a bang, and the troops rushing out were not those from the Jiangnan Jiedu Army, but those from the Lingnan Province.
As expected, I fell into the trap!
Since Qiu Yizi started leading the army into battle, he had always schemed against others and had never been schemed against by others. Faced with today's situation, he was unexpectedly at a loss and didn't know what to do: He couldn't understand why the city walls of Hangzhou were intact and the four city gates were intact, so how could the Lingnan Army break into the city
While he was thinking, he heard Zhao Chengxiao urging him, "Sir, look, our army can't withdraw, what should we do? What should we do?"
Qiu Yizi then came out of his deep thoughts and saw that the camp below the city was in chaos. The imperial guards who had fought their way in were pushing and shoving each other, unable to move at all, let alone retreat quickly.
The Lingnan army that appeared on the city wall at this time also saw the opportunity and began to shoot arrows and throw stones down.
Tens of thousands of imperial guards were huddled together in a small space. The Lingnan troops on the city walls did not need to aim carefully. They could effectively kill their opponents by just shooting and throwing in the general direction. The Lingnan troops under the city also took advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack, holding swords, spears, and halberds, and tried to attack forward.
Under such a fierce counterattack, nearly half of the more than 10,000 imperial guards were killed or injured in a blink of an eye, but it unexpectedly gave the rest of the troops the space and opportunity to escape from the camp.
Seeing this, the imperial guards who had managed to survive turned around and ran towards Qiu Yi without caring about any discipline. This was what they called abandoning their weapons and armor and being completely routed.