Although according to Qiu Yizi's original plan, Zheng Xin had mobilized the Bohai Cavalry before the reserve troops were deployed, but such premature action caused heavy casualties among the enemy, and the balance of victory and defeat on the battlefield finally slowly tilted towards their side.
So Qiu Yizi quickly issued an order, ordering the soldiers behind him to immediately intensify the offensive, to attack the enemy forces in front of them which seemed somewhat chaotic, with all their strength, to take advantage of the victory to defeat Zheng Xin's offensive on his left wing, and at the same time to create an opportunity for Ulton to withdraw from the battle, so as to find another opportunity to attack Zheng Xin's reserve team.
Qiu Yizi thought that she had grasped the initiative on the battlefield, but it was still firmly held in Zheng Xin's hands.
Zheng Xin had long been aware of Qiu Yizhi's dispatch of Bohai cavalry to the south, but he had not seen him put them into use, so he was always wary of this invincible heavy mobile force. Now that Qiu Yizhi's last assault force had finally entered the battle, although it had caused great casualties on his side, Zheng Xin breathed a sigh of relief - knowing that Qiu Yizhi had played all the cards in his hand, and he still had more than 50,000 fresh troops in his hand that had not been used, he had already taken the initiative.
Zheng Xin then waved his flag and immediately ordered his 50,000 reserve troops who had not been involved in the battle to leave behind 10,000 troops in case of an emergency, and the remaining 40,000 troops to all be deployed in the attack on the right wing.
Zheng Xin had been prepared for the Bohai Iron Cavalry. The group of soldiers he sent out were specially prepared to deal with the heavy cavalry. They gave up the mobility of the infantry, which was not very outstanding. Each of them held a strong shield and a spear, arranged in a tight formation, and pressed forward layer by layer towards the cavalry from Bohai.
On their right wing, the most elite Youyan cavalry of the Han Dynasty rushed to the front and took the lead in fighting with the Bohai cavalry. After nearly three hundred years of population growth, all the wild mountains and wild lands in the country have been reclaimed as farmland, and there are no large grasslands for raising military horses. Youyan Dao said that the war horses used by these cavalry were maintained at great cost by the court. Although the number of people is small, they are good at training and rectification, and the military pay and equipment are all contributed by the armies of various places in the Han Dynasty. Therefore, they have the strength to confront the Bohai and Turkic cavalry head-on.
The Youyan cavalry was originally in the hands of Zheng Sen. Zheng Xin would rather risk the notoriety of slaughtering his brother and finally gained control of this force that could not be ignored. Finally, it played a role at this moment. Although the total number of Youyan cavalry was only about 5,000, they started fighting with the Bohai cavalry, which was in high spirits, as soon as they came into contact with it, and did not fall into a disadvantage at all.
Prince Uldun, the commander of the Bohai cavalry, saw the enemy reinforcements rushing towards him, and suddenly remembered Qiu Yizi's instructions to immediately disengage as soon as they made contact with the enemy. He quickly blew the horn and ordered his cavalry to turn their horses around and retreat the same way.
But when he gave the order, the Youyan cavalry sent by Zheng Xin had already started a fierce battle with the Bohai cavalry, making it very difficult to retreat.
Ulton was still anxious, and seeing that the main infantry of the enemy army in front was also coming to attack, he became even more at a loss. He hesitated for a moment and lost the chance to escape forever. He could only bite the bullet and engage in close combat with the heavy infantry sent by Zheng Xin.
In such a close combat, the Bohai Cavalry could have some advantage of being on high ground due to their riding skills, but compared with a fierce charge from a distance, this advantage was really insignificant, while the enemy's numerical advantage was real and unshakable.
Just like this, hundreds of thousands of infantry and cavalry were fighting in a mess in the wilderness. There was no question of tactics anymore. They were just competing to see who could kill the opponent faster.
By the time Qiu Yizhi got the information about the battle situation in front of him, it had been half an hour since Zheng Xin was deployed to the reserve. At this time, the battle situation had already taken shape - the left wing under his command was in a mess, and Zheng Xin's numerical advantage was getting bigger and bigger, and it was becoming more and more difficult to reverse; the right wing under Zhao Chengxiao's command, although under less pressure, had less than 40,000 troops, and could only barely maintain a balance against the enemy's 50,000 troops; and on the front, Zheng Xin still had more than 10,000 elite troops that had not been deployed, and he could only use the emperor as a shield and play some tricks.
Qiu Yizi had no advantage on the left wing, right wing, and center, and he no longer had any soldiers to use, and it seemed that he was already defeated.
In desperation, Qiu Yizi could only order his men to beat the war drums in an attempt to boost the morale of the entire army and launch a final attack on the enemy in front of them, trying to make a breakthrough and create chaos to break Zheng Xin's offensive.
However, as the saying goes, "The first attack is a great success; the second is weaker; the third is exhausted." After repeated encouragement, the morale of Qiu Yi's soldiers had been exhausted. No amount of encouragement would help. Moreover, as casualties gradually increased, it became increasingly difficult to maintain discipline. Slowly, groups of soldiers left the battle without permission.
Qiu Yizi became more and more impatient, but Zheng Xin felt more and more relaxed and happy. He smiled and said to himself, "For more than ten years, Qiu Yizi has always been frivolous and conceited. He relied on his talent and achievements to be favored by my father. Today, I finally defeated him on the battlefield. I will make sure that he dies without a burial place and never stand up again!"
Thinking of this, Zheng Xin waved his flag and ordered the remaining 10,000 soldiers under his command to join the battle and launch an attack on the enemy's right wing. He wanted to quickly defeat Zhao Chengxiao's troops, and then attack Qiu Yi from behind, thus establishing victory on the entire battlefield in one fell swoop.
Zheng Xin is worthy of being a veteran of leading troops and fighting in wars. If he were to deploy these 10,000 troops to the already chaotic left wing of the enemy army, it would only further disrupt the situation. Even if he could win, it would also increase his own casualties for no reason.
Zhao Chengxiao on the right wing had been fighting alone until now, and was already exhausted and on the verge of collapse. Zheng Xin's 10,000 new troops became the last straw that broke the camel's back, leaving Zhao Chengxiao unable to resist any longer. He could only command his troops to slowly retreat, otherwise his formation would be shattered by the enemy's powerful blows if he resisted forcefully.
But right behind him was Qiu Yizhi's troops, so if he retreated like this, he would be squeezed tightly together with Qiu Yizhi's troops. Seeing this, Zheng Xin commanded his troops to move slightly, and then surrounded Qiu Yizhi's tens of thousands of soldiers who had suffered heavy losses from three sides, leaving only a gap in the north - and this gap was slowly shrinking.
Lin Shuhan was a scholar after all. Seeing this scene, he panicked. He suggested in Qiu Yizhi's ear: "Sir, our army is not doing well in the battle. Shouldn't we take advantage of the opportunity when the enemy has not completely surrounded our army to retreat quickly and reorganize the army to fight again?"
Lin Shuhan only had a rough understanding of military strategy. How could Qiu Yizi, who was young but had experienced many battles, not think of what he could think of
However, although the army under Qiu Yizhi's command has fallen into a great disadvantage, it can still rely on the strong and reliable grassroots military officers to barely maintain the formation and avoid collapse. If an order is issued to start retreating, it is very likely that the courage will be relaxed, which will lead to the collapse of the entire army.
So Qiu Yizi did not answer Lin Shuhan's question, but shook his head, raised the pure black Western Region sword in his hand, and shouted loudly: "Brothers, hold on a little longer, there will be a turning point!"
His brothers could no longer hold on.
Originally, Qiu Yizi used 80,000 men to fight against the 200,000 men that Zheng Xin had deployed on the battlefield. However, by using a clever strategy, he only had one of his soldiers face off against two enemy soldiers. As long as the tactics were appropriate and the morale was high, they could still barely resist.
But as Zheng Xin put all his men into battle, Qiu Yizi, even with the help of the Bohai Iron Cavalry, could not avoid the situation of using one of his soldiers to fight against three or four opponents. And as the casualties gradually increased, this disadvantage was also gradually expanding.
Moreover, Zheng Xin on the opposite side was also quite knowledgeable in military strategy. Although he had a huge advantage in military strength, he did not surround all of Qiu Yizi's troops. Instead, he chose the tactic of surrounding three sides and leaving one side open, leaving Qiu Yizi's soldiers with a glimmer of hope. Once the morale declined beyond a certain limit, they would collapse from the gap in the north.
This limit seemed to be just around the corner. When the battle progressed to this point, the soldiers under Qiu Yizi showed obvious expressions of fear on their faces. It seemed that they were mechanically raising their swords to fight with their opponents at one moment, and would turn around and run for their lives in the next moment.
Zheng Xin's fighting style was cautious, and he observed for a long time behind the formation before he confirmed that Qiu Yizi's army had reached the limit of its capabilities. After careful consideration, he finally stretched out his hand to call for a few messengers, asking them to pass the order to the left wing, right wing and center, asking them to muster up the last bit of courage and launch a final charge, so that they could hold the final victory in their hands.
After hearing Zheng Xin's order, the messengers had not yet turned around to pass on the order when they suddenly heard several earth-shaking roars around them, which made their eardrums buzz. Then a gust of wind blew, picking up the stones and dust on the ground and rushing towards them.
After the strong wind died down, we looked in the direction of the sound and saw that under the cover of smoke and dust, more than a dozen huge ships had appeared on the surface of the Yangtze River. On the deck of one of the large ships, several black iron barrels were still emitting green smoke - these were the muzzles of the guns that had just fired the explosive bombs.
Although Zheng Xin was a prince who intended to conquer the world, he could not avoid being attacked by the strong wind. When he calmed down and looked towards the river, he was startled and couldn't help but whispered: "Oh no! Why is Li Shengjie here?"
Although Qiu Yizhi, who was still fighting desperately in the battle array, did not feel the strong wind caused by the explosion of the shells, he also heard the loud noise of the explosion. The sound sounded like thunder in the sky from a distance, but when he looked up, he saw a red sun that burned people's heads. Apart from that, there was nothing in the sky, not even a trace of clouds.
Qiu Yizhi thought that the roar in his ears was an illusion before he died, but after the roar, the pressure exerted on him by Zheng Xin's army was undoubtedly reduced. He was a man with clear thinking and experienced in many battles. He had guessed that Li Shengjie had come, but he was not sure. He was surrounded by countless soldiers and countless enemy troops, and he could not see clearly what was happening in front of him.
But this situation is related to the overall situation of the battlefield and must be mastered, so Qiu Yizi quickly turned his head and said to Yuchi Jiming who was guarding him closely: "Jiming, you have good eyesight, help me see what happened in front? Is Li Shengjie coming?"
Yuchi Jiming replied: "There are so many people here that I can't see clearly. Or I can jump up and look down from above to see if I can see the situation clearly."
This is indeed a good idea, but now the army is in chaos, with more than 300,000 soldiers fighting in a mess, and a stray arrow may come from anywhere, so Qiu Yizi nodded and said, "Okay, just be careful and don't get hurt."