Zheng Yu saw that Tian Baozhu was killed in front of the enemy's formation after only a few rounds. He secretly cursed this common man who volunteered to challenge in front of the enemy, but he was also afraid that his own soldiers would be injured due to such a bad start. In order to improve their morale, they also ordered the whole army to beat the war drums and shout loudly.
In this way, the 100,000-strong army fighting each other to the death was actually shouting at each other on the battlefield, like two theater troupes singing a rival opera.
The loud sound of gongs and drums even alerted the besieged Jinling City. Regardless of the tight siege below, the defenders all gathered on the tall and majestic city wall to see what happened.
Zheng Yu, who was commanding the Lingnan Army, began to become anxious. He thought that after sending out troops with such a big fanfare, he could just beat the gongs and drums and then withdraw the troops. Regardless of victory or defeat, he had to engage in close combat with the enemy. Otherwise, it would be so tiring. But if it's all in vain, won't he become the laughing stock of everyone again
So Zheng Yu discussed it with Sun Hao, waved his flag, and ordered five thousand men on the left wing to rush out and attack Qiu Yi's right wing.
Upon seeing this, Qiu Yizhi waved his flag and ordered the right wing to remain motionless, but ordered five hundred crossbowmen to move quickly from behind the crowd to behind the right wing army. When he saw his opponent gradually walking in, he fired thousands of arrows to kill this army. The Lingnan Army shot and stopped the sudden attack.
It turned out that in addition to dividing the army into three parts: left, middle and right, Qiu Yizhi also divided the army into three parts: eighteen cavalry soldiers, two hundred rural warriors, and several hundred elites selected from the Jiangnan Dao Jiedu Army, a total of two thousand people. , assigned to myself to personally command, to play the role of mobile assault. The five hundred crossbowmen just now were the troops of Qiu Yi's relatives.
The general who commanded the 5,000 Lingnan Army saw that the enemy's army remained motionless on the surface but was changing secretly. He didn't know what tricks his opponent had in mind, so he casually fired a few bursts of arrows, regardless of how many enemies he killed or wounded. The army was sent to lead the army back to the camp.
Seeing this, Qiu Yizhi breathed a sigh of relief. However, due to the overwhelming number of opponents, he did not dare to pursue the enemy in large numbers. He ordered the army to carry the dead and wounded soldiers to the camp for recuperation and treatment. The other soldiers returned to their positions and waited for the enemy. action.
Seeing that the left wing failed to make a breakthrough, Zheng Yu sent another order, and the right wing also sent out five thousand soldiers to attack the opponent's left wing.
At this time, the crossbowmen who had just gone to support his right wing had not yet returned to their positions, but the enemy troops had already invaded. When Qiu Yi saw this, he quickly ordered the five hundred cavalry led by himself to rush out from the left wing without fighting the enemy troops. Just passing through the enemy's formation at a distance or not is considered a deterrent.
It was this move that made the leading Lingnan Army general fear that the enemy would attack his weak spot, so he cautiously rushed to a distance of twenty or thirty steps from the enemy. However, when he saw that the army's formation was motionless and there was no flaw for him to exploit, he had no choice but to do so. He shot two bursts of arrows angrily and then retreated to the formation.
Seeing that both attacks failed, Zheng Yu became anxious and ordered his entire army to advance in an attempt to overwhelm his opponents with their numerical advantage.
Just as he was about to give the order, Sun Hao beside him quickly stopped him and said, "No. Second prince, don't be anxious. It's still early. It won't waste much time if we send two more armies to test."
When Zheng Yu heard what Sun Hao said, he felt that he was a little too impatient, so he agreed, waved his command flag, and ordered the five thousand soldiers and horses on the left wing to march out again and attack the opponent.
After attacking for two more times, the result was still the same. It only caused about ten casualties to the opponent and about ten casualties to itself. It can be said that no progress was made at all.
Seeing this situation, Zheng Yu became anxious and wanted to command the entire army to press forward, but was still stopped by Sun Hao, saying: "Now the enemy is attacking and we are defending. If there is no progress, it is not a big deal. The enemy should be worried now." ah!"
Zheng Yu had other ideas, and said, "What the old general said is biased. Our army is twice as strong as our opponent's. If we seem to be invincible and undefeated like this, wouldn't we be laughed at by others if we tell it?"
"But having said that, the enemy's defense is very well-organized, and there is really no opening for attack. The battlefield is not wide enough, and it is not wide enough to set up a formation and attack the enemy's two wings calmly. I think, even if it is a There’s no need to rush today to decide the outcome, right?”
"What the old general means is..."
"What the general means is that although our army failed to annihilate the enemy today, it is quite acceptable to be able to explore the opponent's strength."
"No!" Zheng Yu immediately objected, "Qiu Yizhi and I have made an agreement to fight to the death today. Unless he takes the initiative to withdraw his troops, I will never withdraw first!"
Sun Hao was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and two words "child's play" suddenly popped up in his mind - always leading an army to fight has its own combat purpose, whether it is to attack a city or to plunder land, but I have never heard of it just because of fighting with the opponent. Just a bet requires tens of thousands of men and horses to risk their lives.
Sun Hao really wanted to scold Zheng Yu now, but Zheng Yu is now the commander-in-chief of the three armies, and he has the identity of the second prince of Lingnan. Even if he can listen to his scolding with an open mind, if he comes back in the future, he will Every extra word you say now is a big reason for bad luck in the future.
When he thought of this, Sun Hao felt indescribably disgusted in his heart, thinking about how to persuade the stubborn Zheng Yu to temporarily withdraw his troops. After he calmed down a little, he could explain the pros and cons and study ways to defeat the enemy. But for decades, Sun Hao had always made a living in the business of dealing with real swords and guns. He had never had the experience of admonishing a coach, and he didn't know where to start.
When he hesitated slightly, Zheng Yu waved his flag and ordered the army to beat the war drums. Tens of thousands of troops moved forward to the rhythmic beat of the war drums. Because the troops in Lingnan were numerous and powerful, and they had to prevent any weaknesses that could be exploited by the enemy, the advance was not very rapid, but instead they had an awe-inspiring and inviolable momentum and confidence in victory.
Qiu Yizhi, who was in the opposite formation, was actually afraid that the Lingnan Army would use this move.
Such a strategy of relying on the superiority of troops, pressing the entire front, and simply consuming it, although it seems a bit dull and dull, is also the most impeccable. Especially when the number of our own troops is weaker than that of the opponent, with a little attrition, the disadvantage will become more obvious, and the battle situation will develop in an uncontrollable direction.
However, Qiu Yizhi had already anticipated the opponent's actions when he discussed the tactics with Lin Shuhan, Zhao Chengxiao and others, so he naturally had backup plans. However, the top priority now is to consolidate the formation first and prevent his soldiers from—— Especially those Jiangnan Dao Jiedu troops - they were defeated after just a little contact with opponents with high morale.
So Qiu Yi's company issued several general orders. First, he asked the generals at all levels - starting from Zhao Chengxiao, Wu Changxi, Zhang Qi, all the way to Baihu and Wu Chang - to take the lead in fighting the enemy at hand-to-hand combat; and then to increase the rewards for military merit. , as long as the battle is won, regardless of whether the head is captured or not, each person will be rewarded with two taels of silver, and the rest of the meritorious people will be rewarded in addition; and then the military order will be reiterated. Anyone who cowers, retreats privately, or affects the morale of the army will be punished before the battle. Kill immediately without mercy!
After these general orders, the army formation, which was initially frightened by the overwhelming advance of Lingnan Road soldiers, calmed down a lot.
Upon seeing this, Qiu Yi ordered the "black-necked toad" to pass on the order, and the archers in the rear row fired at the enemy.
These archers were all improvised, and the crossbows they used were collected from all over, with different specifications, and the distance, power, and trajectory of the arrows they shot were also different. Therefore, although they were fired in unison, when they fell into the enemy's formation, they appeared sparse and could not cause much casualties to the opponent.
However, when faced with incoming arrows, people will instinctively dodge and block. After several bursts of arrow rain, the enemy's formation was slightly confused. However, the Lingnan Army lieutenant generals were all experienced in many battles. Seeing this situation, they quickly sent people to carry the dead and wounded soldiers down for treatment, and then quickly restrained the formation and continued to advance towards the enemy.
The formation of the Lingnan Army was not disrupted, but it was delayed a lot, finally giving Qiu Yizhi the opportunity to make further deployments.
A few strange drum beats were heard, and the soldiers in the front row of the army suddenly raised countless bamboo spears, which were as dense as a forest.
It turned out that this was a discussion between Qiu Yizhi and Lin Shuhan. They felt that the combat effectiveness of the Lingnan Army was far superior to that of the Jiangnan Jiedu Army. Especially in close combat, the Jiedu Army was far inferior to their opponents in terms of martial arts, morale, toughness, and discipline. They could only keep the distance. Only by avoiding close combat can you have a chance to win.
They also saw that the Lingnan troops were mostly wearing rattan armor, a specialty of Lingnan. Although it looked ugly, it was very tough. If it weren't for a sharp sword, it would be extremely difficult to split it. So after several experiments, they finally thought of using bamboo, a specialty of Jiangnan, and cutting it down to make a sharp point to use as a spear. Although this kind of bamboo spear is simple and the tip is not very sharp, it is very tough and will not break easily. It can just restrain the enemy's rattan armor. Because it was easy to make and had abundant raw materials, Qiu Yizhi had sent people to make tens of thousands of bamboo spears in just two days, enough to replenish them after they were lost.
These bamboo spears really played a big role on the battlefield. Countless spears were like dense forests and strong walls, blocking the Lingnan Army's offensive.
Most of the vanguard soldiers of the Lingnan Army were wearing rattan armor. The rough and dull bamboo spears like this were not enough to cause much damage to them. However, these bamboo spears were long and numerous, and they were staggered back and forth, making it difficult to take a step forward under their obstruction. He wanted to cut off the bamboo spear with his sword, but bamboo was hard and tough by nature. After several cuts, it only left some marks on the surface.
When Zheng Yu heard the report from the front, he was not slow to respond. He quickly ordered a huge ax specially used to cut bamboo and wood building materials to be transferred from the camp. He also selected hundreds of strong soldiers from the army to hold big axes specially for cutting. Bamboo spear.
This move was indeed quite targeted. A large number of bamboo spears were cut off in batches at the center of the entire army where the Lingnan Army was attacking.
Upon seeing this, Zhao Chengxiao, who was in command, quickly led his elite soldiers to reinforce, and added a large number of new bamboo spears to stabilize the situation.
Zheng Yu saw that he first used two wings to test and then pressed the entire army, but no substantial progress was made. He became more and more anxious and waved the command flag one after another, asking the three armies to move forward desperately and defeat the enemy no matter what the cost. Line of defense.
Sun Hao hurriedly stopped him and said: "Second Prince, our soldiers have tried their best and there is no hesitation or fear of death. If we continue to impose such strict orders, I am afraid it will chill the hearts of the soldiers at the front."
Zheng Yu already felt that the old man was a bit verbose, so he asked angrily: "Then what do you think we should do?"
Sun Hao thought for a while and said: "You can send people who are skilled in martial arts in the army to form a small team to attack the enemy's weak points or nodes. Once successful, the enemy's entire defense line can be defeated."
Zheng Yu was overjoyed when he heard this: "As expected of an old general, Jiang is still very old!"
After that, his face darkened, and he said to the generals around him: "Didn't you hear what the old general said? Why don't you go down and prepare for me? If you are slow and miss the opportunity to fight, don't see how I will deal with you!"