Qiu Yizi had been prepared for this move by his opponent, and immediately sent out his relatives' elite troops to cooperate with Zhao Chengxiao in the battle. The attacking enemy was repelled after just a brief contact.
Seeing that the surprise attack failed, Sun Hao knew that the opponent was not completely unprepared, so he stopped attacking and ordered his soldiers to be careful and not to move rashly. He himself camped in the formation to guard against enemy sneak attacks.
And so a sleepless night passed.
Although the soldiers of both armies had taken turns to rest, they were still exhausted and were driven to the battlefield to line up early in the morning.
The Lingnan Army and the imperial army were still engaged in an endless battle of attack and defense - after all, the imperial army was outnumbered and isolated, and after yesterday's battle, their combat effectiveness had dropped significantly, and their defense was obviously not as tenacious and solid as yesterday; unfortunately, the Lingnan Army's several offensives yesterday all met with setbacks, their morale was greatly dampened, and their attacks were not as sharp as before.
The two sides fought like this for a whole day, but it was still a draw.
On the third day, Qiu Yizi suddenly behaved out of character. Just as the two armies had finished forming their battle array, a sentry of less than a hundred soldiers suddenly broke out from the formation.
They were all wearing golden armor and brocade clothes. They had no swords in their hands, but they were holding a huge iron shield that was more than a person's height. They moved forward towards the front of the Lingnan army step by step.
Sun Hao had seen a lot of things. Seeing this scene, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "Dangshiying!" He then said to Zheng Yu beside him, "This is the 'Dangshiying' troops in the old Youyan army. They are the foundation of the current emperor's great cause and should not be underestimated!"
Zheng Yu had been extremely depressed fighting these past few days, when he suddenly heard that the enemy's elite main force had appeared. His mind was suddenly enlightened and he quickly stood on tiptoe. Sure enough, he saw that all the soldiers on the opposite side were hiding behind huge, red steel shields. He couldn't see their faces clearly, but it was like a small city moved to the battlefield, appearing indestructible.
Zheng Yu was somewhat confused, and hurriedly asked Sun Hao: "Old General, how should we deal with these enemy troops? Why not select 3,000 soldiers, advance and retreat quickly, and quickly surround and annihilate them, so that they won't get in the way?"
Sun Hao frowned and said, "No! The enemy army has used these core elites, which seems to be determined to win and well prepared. Our army must not act rashly. It is better to gather the archers and crossbowmen first and shoot them to stop their positions. What do you think, Second Prince?"
Zheng Yu felt that this strategy was a bit conservative, but it was indeed a very safe countermeasure, so he had to agree and ordered his men to gather five or six hundred archers to shoot at the "Dangshiying" troops opposite.
Unfortunately, most of the wood produced in Lingnan is hard but lacks toughness. It is perfect for making arrows, gun barrels, crowbars, etc., but it is not suitable for making the best bows and crossbows. Therefore, although the rain of arrows shot out is dense, they are close and soft.
The "Dangshiying" troops were originally specially equipped to resist long-range attacks by Turkic archers. The arrows of the Lingnan Army were completely unable to pose any substantial threat to them. Instead of being intercepted, they continued to advance forward for about ten steps before stopping.
Then another 70 or 80 soldiers rushed out from the government army, wearing only light armor, but each of them carried a huge crossbow and several pots of crossbow arrows. When they were two or three steps away from the "Dangshiying" troops, they did not hide behind them, but spread out on both sides of them, calmly used their feet to open the crossbow strings, put on the crossbow arrows, and without aiming, they fired at the enemy army, immediately causing casualties among 40 or 50 officers and soldiers of Lingnan Army.
After succeeding, this group of crossbowmen did not relax or retreat at all. Instead, they pulled the bowstrings again and fired a volley of arrows at the enemy at an extremely fast speed and frequency, killing or wounding another forty or fifty enemy soldiers.
For the Lingnan Army, which has 70,000 or 80,000 troops, the casualties of less than 100 people are completely acceptable, and they can naturally deal with it calmly and slowly study countermeasures. However, Zheng Yu has mobilized the entire army to fight Qiu Yizhi in a decisive battle in the past few days, but he has not gained any advantage. He only feels that his prestige as the second prince of the Lingnan Palace is gradually declining. Now he is at a loss in the face of this small group of soldiers. Doesn't it make him look even more incompetent
So he waved his flag and led the archers in his army to step forward and shoot arrows at the crossbowmen of the government army.
However, the range of these bows and arrows was much shorter than that of powerful crossbows. By the time they hit the "Dangshiying" troops, they had almost reached the limit of their range. The power of the bows and arrows was already very weak, and there was almost no need for the "Dangshiying" giant shields. The heavy armor they wore alone was enough to block the arrows.
The powerful crossbow standing ten steps away from the "Dangshiying" defense line was in a completely advantageous position of "I can shoot you, but you can't shoot me", and it kept firing seemingly endless crossbow arrows forward.
Zheng Yu, who was standing behind the formation, became even angrier when he saw this scene. He issued two orders in succession, ordering the archers to move forward twenty steps and shoot specifically at the crossbows of the government troops.
These archers of the Lingnan Army were not actually dull, but because their weapons were not as powerful as the crossbows in the hands of Qiu Yizhi and other militiamen, they did not pose a threat to the enemy. Of course, they knew in their hearts that they were already within the enemy's range, and if they rushed forward, they would become live targets for the enemy's crossbowmen. The Second Prince Zheng Yu's order was a real mess.
But military orders are as heavy as mountains. Rather than being killed by one's own comrades for disobeying orders, it is better to die under the enemy's arrows, or if one is injured but not dead, one can leave the battle and return to the camp to recuperate.
So they gritted their teeth, gripped their bows and arrows tightly, and took a few steps forward.
As expected, the government army's crossbowman Li Jia discovered the changes in the opposite formation, and immediately fired a wave of arrows at the archers who were slightly ahead, immediately killing or wounding more than forty of them.
By the time the archers of the Lingnan Army had moved forward to the point where their arrows could cover the crossbowmen on the other side, there were less than 200 archers left out of the 500. Before they could draw their bows and arrows, another volley of crossbow arrows attacked, killing half of the archers.
With casualties reaching such a high level, the Lingnan Army soldiers, no matter how high their morale, how skilled their training, and how strict their discipline, could no longer hold out. The surviving archers, seeing that the crossbowmen of the opposing government army were still pulling the strings and shooting, ignored any military orders, threw down their bows and arrows, turned around and fled to their own formation.
Zheng Yu saw them fleeing from afar and became even more angry. He immediately ordered the guards around him to arrest all these people and kill them on the battlefield to serve as a warning to others.
Veteran General Sun Hao hurriedly advised, “No, Second Prince. These people have already done their best. If they don’t retreat, they will be annihilated. If we punish them further, I’m afraid it will chill the hearts of the soldiers!”
"No, no! You only know how to say 'no'!" Zheng Yu was furious when he heard this. "I have listened to you for the past three days and wasted so much food and military resources, but I can't even defeat a mere 40,000 troops. If I listen to you again, won't my 80,000 troops starve to death or die of old age here?"
Sun Hao's heart sank when he heard this, and he quickly said, "Second Prince, I am also on the safe side and don't want our army to take risks. I remember that I was with the old prince once..."
When Zheng Yu heard that he was about to speak at length again, he immediately interrupted him impatiently and said, "I know you are going to bring up my father again. If my father were here, he would have killed this little thief Qiu Yizi a long time ago. Why would he allow you to take advantage of your age and seniority here?"
After hearing this, Sun Hao's tears almost burst out of his eyes. He hurriedly asked, "Second Prince, where did you get this from? Where did you get this from?"
"Alright." Zheng Yu interrupted Sun Hao again, "Pass my order! Except for those archers who were truly injured and unable to fight again, the rest who fled back without permission will be treated as disobeying military orders and deserting the battlefield. Push them down in front of the battle line and behead them! Pass the order down again, and those who are afraid of death will be dealt with the same way as them!"
When the messenger heard this murderous order, he was stunned and forgot to even agree.
Zheng Yu had lost all his patience and immediately shouted, "What? Do you dare to disobey military orders? Do you also want to offer sacrifices to the flag in front of the battlefield?"
These ruthless and decisive words immediately sobered the messenger, who quickly replied, "Yes... Yes... Yes!"
Not long after, the twenty-seven archers who had escaped back into the formation were tied up and escorted to the front of the formation. With the sound of a cannon, twenty-seven cold lights flashed, and twenty-seven bloody heads broke free from their bodies and rolled on the dry and hard ground in the winter in the south of the Yangtze River.
The executioner cleaned up the heads and displayed them one by one. Zheng Yu felt a little sick when he saw them, but he suppressed his emotions and said, "Tell my generals to select 3,000 soldiers from the central army and march forward immediately to engage in close combat with the group of imperial officials on the opposite side. After annihilating them, withdraw immediately and do not pursue them."
Sun Hao was disheartened by what Zheng Yu had just done, and he didn't say anything because he thought his order was not too radical.
All the soldiers and generals of the Lingnan Army were frightened by Zheng Yu's Shura-like actions just now. Upon hearing his order, a Lieutenant General named Tang Xi of the central army hurriedly assembled 3,000 troops and without any mobilization or instructions, he immediately picked up his swords and rushed towards the "Dangshi Camp" and the crossbowmen on the opposite side.
Seeing this, the "Dangshi Camp" under Qiu Yizhi's command on the opposite side did not fight hard against the opponent. The "Dangshi Camp" who had been defending the place for a long time actually raised their shields and slowly retreated. The crossbowmen behind them took this opportunity to shoot two rounds of crossbow arrows at the opponent, and then retreated immediately.
According to the generals before Zheng Yu, the goal was to surround and capture and kill the opposing troops, but they were now retreating towards their own formation. If they continued to surround them, it would be too deep and would violate the order of "no pursuit."
Originally, the Lingnan Army was under the rule of Lingnan King Zheng Gui, and they were flexible in combat. When faced with such a situation, the frontline commander could act according to his own discretion. However, General Tang Xi had just seen the archers who had retreated without permission being killed in front of him. Fearing that he would follow in their footsteps, he made up his mind, raised his sword high and urged the army to continue to attack the enemy.
At this moment, a team of infantrymen from Qiu Yi's formation - a total of more than 600 people - ran out from the team at a high speed. They did not confront the Lingnan army head-on, but made a small detour, passed by their left wing, and attacked their back.