However, now a small half of Qiu Yizi's former capable subordinates have been killed in the battle of Tongguan, and most of the remaining soldiers have been promoted by him to generals. That battle-hardened team no longer exists.
Therefore, when Qiu Yizi was preparing for the battle, he selected loyal and skilled fighters from the entire army and formed a commando team of more than a thousand people. He equipped them with the most elite equipment and sent Yuchi Jiming to teach them some martial arts to use as an assault force, which was just right for use in such a tense situation.
This surprise force was indeed full of courage. Wearing strong armor and holding sharp swords, they charged into the enemy camp in one assault. With only a small number of soldiers, they disrupted the opponent's formation and were about to turn the tide of the battle and launch a counterattack.
Zheng Xin had read many battle reports from the imperial court and was quite familiar with Qiu Yizi's tactics. Faced with such a situation, he immediately ordered the troops on the left wing to boost morale, temporarily relax the pressure on the enemy in the front, and concentrate their forces to drive out the enemy squad that had broken into the formation.
Zheng Xin's trick really worked. The team sent by Qiu Yizi that barely made it into the enemy camp could no longer gain a foothold in the enemy camp. After suffering two to three hundred casualties, they could only fight and retreat and break off contact with the enemy.
During this process, Qiu Yizhi clearly felt that the enemy's offensive had slowed down, which was actually an opportunity for the whole army to counterattack. However, the enemy's strength far exceeded his own, and he was in a situation of being attacked from both sides. He was afraid that if he attacked rashly, there would be a vacuum of troops behind him, and Zheng Xin would seize this opportunity to separate him from Zhao Chengxiao. At that time, the head and the tail could not take care of each other, and he would be defeated.
Zheng Xin could see clearly from behind the battle line. Although the battle was still intense, Qiu Yizi's adventure had not succeeded. The overall initiative of the battle was firmly in his hands.
Seeing such a favorable situation, Zheng Xin secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to make the next move, he heard someone beside him pointing forward and reporting: "Your Highness, what do you see over there?"
Zheng Xin looked into the distance and saw a big flag suddenly raised in Qiu Yi's formation. An arrow was pressed on the top of the flagpole, and on the arrow was a bloody human head. The long hair on the head was loose, but it was made dirty by the blood clots formed by dried blood.
Zheng Xin took a look and hastily looked away. He had already guessed the identity of the owner of his head, but he still had to ask: "Whose head is the one the enemy is hanging?"
The messenger officer replied tremblingly: "It seems to be Prince Zheng Chao's..."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Xin's facial features suddenly twisted into a ball, and he swallowed painfully, and scolded: "Qiu Yizi, this evil villain, actually did such a violent thing! What are the generals in the front doing? Hurry up and urge the soldiers to attack hard and take back Zheng Chao's head!"
In fact, Zheng Xin really wanted to throw the reserve troops around him into the battle at this time and defeat Qiu Yizi in one fell swoop. However, he finally calmed down and did not make such a decision.
Qiu Yizi is not an inhuman villain. He made such a move out of helplessness when he was at his wits' end. He just wanted to provoke Zheng Xin to get angry, and in anger, he would launch his reserve troops into the attack, exposing the gap behind him, thus creating space for the advance of the Bohao cavalry.
Unexpectedly, Zheng Xin was not fooled. The reserve troops remained motionless and continued to use the existing troops to consume Qiu Yizi.
Qiu Yizi had no idea what to do. After thinking for a long time, he could only send people to the Bohai people to ask them to separate 5,000 of the 20,000 cavalry to attack the enemy's right wing and rear, so as to relieve the pressure on the front army.
Unexpectedly, Prince Udun, who commanded the Bohai cavalry, sent a message saying that the Bohai soldiers did not speak Chinese and did not recognize the official military uniforms, so they could not be used separately. If they were forcibly divided into two groups to fight, friendly forces would inevitably be injured.
These words were specious and were just excuses. Urton was simply afraid that if 20,000 cavalrymen were dispersed on the battlefield, it would cause unnecessary losses, so he was unwilling to obey orders.
Qiu Yizi was such a smart person, how could he hide Wu Dun's petty mind from him? However, since Wu Dun was a foreigner who came to help in the war, he could not apply military law and could only curse him in secret.
Zheng Xin, on his side, had already seen through Qiu Yizi's strengths and weaknesses, and suddenly ordered a change of formation.
He saw that Qiu Yizhi divided the main force into two parts, and fought with all his strength in the left and right directions. This was already a very passive battle. This led to the fact that when facing Zheng Xin directly, he could only bully Zheng Xin, who was afraid to use the emperor as a shield, but in fact it was extremely empty, and there was no power to launch a counterattack in the front.
Therefore, Zheng Xin waved his flag and ordered the 20,000 idle troops who were preparing to defend against the enemy's frontal breakthrough to move to the right wing and attack the enemy's left wing where Qiu Yizhi was. As for the frontal defense, it was the reserve team led by Zheng Xin himself - Qiu Yizhi had no spare energy to organize an offensive on the front anyway.
All of these 20,000 fresh troops were put into battle, leaving Qiu Yizhi's 40,000 troops facing nearly 100,000 troops. This force was more than twice his own, making Qiu Yizhi increasingly unable to hold on.
Qiu Yizhi had experienced several critical battles and knew that he had to grit his teeth and persevere to have a chance of victory. However, Lin Shuhan, who was participating in the military affairs beside him, was already terrified and suggested to Qiu Yizhi: "Sir, it seems that our army can no longer support it. Please quickly mobilize the Bohai Iron Cavalry!"
Qiu Yizi gritted his teeth and held it in, telling Lin Shuhan not to worry. However, he himself felt like he was carrying fifteen buckets of water in his heart - he was extremely nervous. He issued orders from time to time, asking the generals at the front to continue to resist Zheng Xin's attack. Anyone who feared the enemy and retreated without authorization would be killed on the spot.
Although his orders were strict, they could not change the huge disadvantage in terms of military strength - the defensive formation in front of them was getting weaker and weaker, and the casualties were getting greater and greater. One could almost smell the blood and sweat emanating from the soldiers on both sides who were fighting in close combat.
Qiu Yizhi hurriedly organized a team of elite troops and wanted to launch a counterattack again, trying to catch the opponent off guard. However, he had used this move just now, and when he used it again, the opponent was already prepared, and it only slightly delayed the opponent's attack, and then quickly dissipated in the hail of bullets.
Seeing that Zheng Xin's heavy troops on the right wing were attacking more and more smoothly, there were only less than a few thousand men guarding in front of Qiu Yizi. It was only because of several military generals who were trained as local militias and led the charge into the front line of the enemy that they were able to barely maintain their morale and avoid an immediate defeat.
Seeing this, Lin Shuhan hurriedly advised: "Sir, the situation is not favorable to me. Please quickly mobilize the Bohai Iron Cavalry to help. If it doesn't work, you have to retreat a little, otherwise it will be dangerous!"
Qiu Yizi frowned and gritted his teeth, saying, "If I retreat half a step, the soldiers in front of me will also retreat one step, and the defense line will no longer be able to maintain. Don't worry, Mr. Lin, I predict that the situation will definitely change!"
Before he finished speaking, a sudden gust of wind blew in front of him. He looked up and saw an arrow shooting towards his chest, about to pierce his body. Qiu Yizi sat on his horse and wanted to dodge, but the arrow was so fast and close to him that he could not avoid it at all.
At this moment, Yuchi Jiming, who was guarding Qiu Yizhi, stretched out two fingers and clamped the arrow. He said coldly: "Uncle, please rest assured. I am here."
Beads of sweat immediately fell from Qiu Yizi's face. He swallowed his saliva and replied, "Of course. With Ji Ming here, no one can hurt me."
Although he spoke calmly, he was extremely nervous in his heart - although Yuchi Jiming was a martial arts expert, he did not have three heads and six arms; even if Yuchi Jiming really had three heads and six arms, and Zheng Xin fired thousands of arrows, could she really save her life in the rain of arrows
When it came to his own life, even Qiu Yizi panicked. He quickly told his men to pass on the message to Ulton, saying that the time had come and asking their entire army to launch a surprise attack on the enemy's left wing from behind. After a successful attack, they would quickly withdraw from the battle and wait for an opportunity to launch a second attack.
Prince Wu Dun of Bohai was caught in a complex and fierce psychological struggle. He was afraid that if he acted rashly, he would suffer unnecessary losses and weaken his own strength; he was also afraid that if he did not act, he would lose the opportunity to fight for the fruits of victory; he was even more afraid that because of his inaction, Qiu Yizhi would fail in the battle, and Zheng Xin would take control of the government and punish him for standing by Qiu Yizhi.
Therefore, when he heard the order from Qiu Yizi, his heart, which had been hanging in the air, finally settled down a little. He realized that instead of being anxious behind enemy lines, it would be better to go all out and make himself the winner of the entire war.
So Prince Ulton personally mounted his horse, blew the horn, ordered 20,000 cavalrymen to form a huge spindle formation, and rushed towards the flank and rear of Zheng Xin's army that was attacking Qiu Yizi.
Although both were northern nomadic peoples and both regarded cavalry as the core of their combat forces, there were obvious differences between Bohai and the Turks in their specific combat methods.
The Turks were good at riding and shooting, and they used light horses as mounts. When fighting, they always kept a certain distance from their opponents and avoided direct contact. They used bows and arrows to slowly deplete the enemy's manpower from a distance, and only launched the final attack when the enemy's casualties increased and morale collapsed.
Bohai State produced high-quality iron ore, and the Bohai people were also good at making all kinds of swords, spears and armor. Not only the knights on horseback, but also the horses under their crotches were mostly equipped with hard and thick breastplates. Therefore, during combat, the Bohai cavalry often formed dense formations, looking for the enemy's flanks, backs and other weak points, and defeated the enemy with an indomitable momentum. Such tactics may not have much advantage in the face of the Turkic cavalry, which was more mobile and came and went like the wind, but other than that, there were few opponents, which was the foundation of the Bohai State.
Therefore, Prince Ulton, who led the army, was extremely proud of his 20,000 cavalrymen, who were the elites of the Bohai Kingdom. He took advantage of the moment when Zheng Xin's troops were fully focused on dealing with Qiu Yizi head-on, and rushed to their side and rear without hesitation.
Ulton's arrogance was not without reason. The 20,000 cavalrymen under his command rushed into the enemy's formation, and knocked down the enemy soldiers in batches like a knife chopping tofu. In a blink of an eye, they killed and wounded two or three thousand enemy soldiers by spears, stabbings and horses. However, the offensive did not weaken at all and they were still thrusting deep into the enemy's formation.
The battlefield was so chaotic that Qiu Yizi couldn't see the battle situation in front of him clearly, but from the sharply reduced pressure on the enemy in front of him, he knew that it must be because the Bohai Cavalry had successfully advanced and killed a large number of Zheng Xin's troops.