When Zhao Sen rushed back to the mouth of the canyon with his men, about 70% of the 1,200 soldiers of the Zhechong battalion and the 200 cavalry entrusted to him by Li Xiaozong were left. There were almost no casualties without direct engagement with enemy forces. Therefore, when Zhao Sen immediately set up a defensive line at the mouth of the canyon without letting the soldiers rest, some cavalry who had nothing to do were met with contempt that made their conscience uneasy.
"Look!"
An infantryman sneered while arranging his quiver: "The equipment on his body is almost enough to buy a pawnbroker, but when we were fighting, he was wandering around... They all have the same fate, and theirs is just like that." Jingui."
Another soldier covered his mouth, and signaled that Zhao Sen, who had a bad face over there, was looking this way.
"What are you afraid of!"
The soldier who ridiculed the cavalry shrugged his shoulders indifferently: "It's a miracle that I survived this battle. If I don't say everything I need to say now, wouldn't it be a shame to go to hell and have my tongue pulled out?"
He looked at the knife wound on his right arm, frowned, and tore off a messy package: "When leaving the Qingxia, people on horseback walk in the front to show off their power, and when they retreat to guard the Qingxia, they still run away." In the front, unscathed. The reincarnation in the next life will naturally be in Tai Sui, but I would rather be a horse!"
Zhao Qi, the captain of the cavalry, had an extremely ugly face, and the sarcastic words from the infantry pierced his heart like a knife. Like all the cavalrymen of the Sui Dynasty, he was filled with pride when he got his own horse. Because of the shortage of war horses, not just any soldier can become a cavalryman. They are all very skilled, tall and strong, and their food and clothing are better than that of the infantry, and even their pay is double that of the infantry.
They also did work harder than the infantry, who drilled when the infantry drilled, and drilled when the infantry rested. Regardless of wind and rain, these cavalrymen are working hard for the dream of surpassing Mengyuan Qingqi in their hearts, but... When he arrived on the battlefield, he found that these arrogant cavalrymen he brought turned out to be the most useless people.
He didn't resent the ridicule of those infantrymen, and it wasn't even the enemy who resented him.
The hand holding Ma Qian tightly trembled slightly, Zhao Qi's eyes were burning with fire.
"Captain!"
A cavalryman couldn't stand the infantry's white eyes and sarcasm. He looked into Zhao Qi's eyes and asked loudly, "Are we just going to watch the deadly battle in Paoze like this? Can we just stand by and watch?"
"Shut up!"
Zhao Qi bit his lips and said: "We are cavalry, but first of all we are soldiers. Soldiers... have to obey military orders. If the general has not issued an order, you will all be obedient to me!"
"But… "
"No but!"
Zhao Qi's eyes looked at the herdsmen rushing towards this side after they gradually dispersed in the distance. He knew that Yajiang Pan Mei's brothers in Zhechong camp were all dead. Just now, his 200 cavalry were ready to charge to rescue Pan Mei, but they were stopped by General Zhao Sen.
They really watched the robes and others die in battle, doing nothing like useless waste.
That is more than 1,200 living lives, who were besieged to death by tens of thousands of disheveled herdsmen. During those bloody battles in Paoze, how much did you expect your companions to come to the rescue? But they didn't see Tai Sui's fierce red battle flag appearing behind the enemy until they were all killed in battle.
Zhao Qi's heart was bleeding, and he wanted to roar loudly to vent his dissatisfaction.
He couldn't help but look away from the enemy, and turned to look at General Zhao Sen. At this time, the cavalry he sent to ask Zhao Sen whether to go out came back with his head down, his face full of disappointment.
"Lieutenant... the general asked us to stand by."
The cavalryman spoke in a very low voice, as if he was afraid that his voice would hurt his heart too much.
"On call..."
Zhao Qi repeated it in a murmur, and the veins in the hand holding Ma Qian were exposed.
Not far from him, General Zhao Sen ordered the soldiers to set up defenses at the mouth of the canyon. Before the enemy could rush in, the soldiers hurriedly dug a lot of pits tens of meters away from the mouth of the canyon. These pits are shallow and not large, but once a fast-running horse steps in the pits, it will lose its center of gravity.
"fortunately!"
Zhao Qi wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to himself: "Fortunately, those herdsmen don't understand what is serious. They lost their minds because of the red eyes of killing and killing. They all rushed around Pan Mei's Zhechong camp without occupying it immediately Canyon, I’m afraid this is something Mandu wolves didn’t expect. These untrained herdsmen don’t know what tactics are, otherwise I’m afraid I’m a sinner now.”
"General!"
The watchman standing on a high place shouted down: "General Li's situation is not good! The enemy cavalry wandered around the army formation and shot arrows and did not attack directly. Our army formation is getting smaller and smaller!"
"What a vicious tactic!"
Zhao Sen's eyes froze, and after a moment of silence, he shouted loudly: "Order, bring the cavalry captain Zhao Qi to see me!"
"Here!"
The orderly agreed loudly, turned around and rushed out.
…
…
Li Xiaozong's forehead was already covered with sweat, his eyes were watching those Mongolian Yuan cavalry galloping past, the corners of his mouth were twitching non-stop, his expression looked extremely painful. Before marching, he thought that he had thought of all the tactics of Mengyuan Qingqi charge and how to deal with it, but the only thing he ignored was that the enemy's cavalry relied on their speed advantage to walk outside the formation, relying on their bows and arrows to make them soft. Like a knife, it grinds down the military formation little by little.
The enemy roared past forty steps away, but they couldn't kill the enemy. The boxwood cavalry bow in the enemy's hand was faster than the Sui's standard step bow. The most troublesome thing was that the enemy's speed was faster, and the arrows shot by the Tai Sui's archers would often fall behind the enemy. Even though he ordered the archers not to aim at people when shooting arrows, but to aim at the front of the person, the ratio of casualties between the two sides is still very different.
The only thing that shocked the enemy was the thirty heavy crossbows. But the heavy crossbow is too clumsy, if the frontal enemy is powerful. However, the enemy's roaming tactics made the heavy crossbow's power very small.
There were less than one hundred and fifty giant shieldmen, unable to protect the entire battle formation. But even if the giant shield hand can protect it, so what if you shrink inside and have no power to fight back
After struggling for a long time, Li Xiaozong bit his lip and finally issued a military order.
"attack!"
He raised his horizontal knife and shouted loudly: "It is better to charge and die than to do nothing like this!"
"forward!"
Less than 1,500 Great Sui infantrymen let out a roar, and then changed their formation. The giant shields were lined up on both sides, the archers were at the end, and the long spears rushed to the front. At the front are Li Xiaozong and his dozen or so soldiers. This is also the only cavalry in the current Sui army.
But during the charge, Li Xiaozong and his soldiers all jumped off their precious horses and ran forward together with the infantry, without any reluctance for their mounts.
"forward!"
"I'd rather charge and die!"
The soldiers shouted unwillingly, and everyone's face was full of determination.
Mandulang saw that the Sui people on the opposite side had changed their formation, and couldn't help laughing triumphantly: "Sui people like this dare to claim to be invincible in all battles? I wiped out almost half of him with only a group of herdsmen." If I want to, I can even continue to grind them to death with cavalry wandering tactics. But I will not do this... Since they chose to attack, let them see how the strongest army in the world kills people , How does the strongest army attack!"
"Blow your horns, let's fight!"
He drew out the scimitar and pointed forward, and the sound of thick horns sounded immediately. All the cavalry returned to the main formation, and then followed the mandu wolf to meet the Sui people and killed them.
Sui people are proud, and so are Mongol people. When the enemy chooses to charge, Mandu Wolf's pride does not allow him to evade and not fight. He just wants to defeat Li Xiaozong head-on, this guy who has been his opponent for three years across a mountain.
The violent and savage Mandu Banner herdsmen used crowd tactics to forcefully fill Pan Mei's Zhechong camp to death. The 1,200 well-trained elite soldiers of the Great Sui You Xiaowei died in battle with a little aggrieved just like this. Although none of them surrendered, the fact that the enemy was not Mongolian Yuan's regular army made each of them a little annoyed.
And those herdsmen who were red-eyed did not stop their horses because of the huge loss. When they realized that all the surrounding Sui people had been killed, they immediately turned their horses and rushed towards the canyon. Although... when Mandu Wolf told them before, he forced them to take the occupation of the canyon as the most important thing, but after the killing started, they could no longer control their humanity.
About 6,000 herdsmen mixed with men and women roared towards the mouth of the canyon. Because of the regulations of the rulers of the Mongolian Yuan Empire, each herdsman was only allowed to have one bow, so the pressure on the Sui infantry on the defensive side was slightly less Some. Otherwise, the 6,000 herdsmen would not be able to bear it for a long time if they kept washing the army formation with rain of arrows during the charge.
The crazy herdsmen shouted and urged their horses forward, and many people in the front fell because they stepped on the pit. But the companions rushing from behind did not give them a chance to dodge, and soon, the herdsmen who fell from their horses were trampled into a pulp. The horse's hoof stepped on the mud mixed with flesh and internal organs, making a pattering sound.
An eyeball that does not know who it belongs to is covered with dust, but it is stubbornly looking forward.
"Let the arrow!"
Zhao Sen issued an order loudly, and the few Sui army infantry poured out their arrows. The herdsmen who had no combat experience didn't know how to dodge, and those who were shot by the feather arrows fell down like dumplings.
The antlers that the Sui army placed at the mouth of the canyon before played a role in preventing the horses. The herdsmen didn't know how to dismantle these things in the shortest time. They jumped off the horses and awkwardly tried to remove the things that blocked the way. How could the archers give them time
Soon, the front of the antlers was covered with corpses.
The ground at the west entrance of the canyon seemed to be moving, and a high hill formed of flesh and blood was getting higher and higher.
When the soldiers of the Sui Army shot the quiver empty, they threw the long spear as a throwing gun. When the long lance was gone, they drew out their horizontal knives and prepared to fight in close quarters. And those herdsmen who suffered heavy losses could no longer ride over the high piles of corpses. They climbed off their horses and rushed over brandishing various weapons. Like bows and arrows, not every herdsman is qualified to own a machete.
In any country in any era in this world, the monarch will not allow the people to hold weapons that can resist his rule. Moreover, Mongolian Yuan is a country that lacks iron. Therefore, what many herdsmen waved in their hands was simply a sharpened wooden stick.
How could the dismounted herdsmen have an advantage in the face of the elite Sui army? Of course, when the number reaches ten times that of the enemy, the herdsmen can also see the dawn of victory.
When the hand-to-hand combat began, there were less than 400 Sui troops left. They barely formed a three-layer line of defense at the mouth of the canyon, which looked weak and pitiful.
The herdsmen fell layer by layer, and the soldiers of the Sui army also decreased one by one.
Just when the last sixty or seventy Sui soldiers were struggling to support, there was a sudden commotion behind the herdsmen. The herdsmen, who were already on the verge of collapse, finally couldn't bear the fear of death, and began to run away crying. If they found that what came from behind was only a cavalry with less than a hundred men, they might regret their choice of fleeing.
Li Xiaozong came back, with three arrows in his body, and his armor was covered with blood.
The cavalry came back, losing half their men. But they used horses to declare that although they were small in number, they were more terrifying than Meng Yuan's cavalry!
The infantry did not return, and all died in battle. Their bodies were left on the grasslands, and it is not known whether the spirits could fly back home through the canyon.
This was the first battle on the first day, and there were less than 200 of the 5,000 Sui troops who left Qingxia. Although they killed more than 8,000 herdsmen and more than 1,600 Mongolian Yuan cavalry, is this the first victory
Perhaps, it's just the first grief.