The place where Xiang Yan and Li Mu fought the decisive battle was near Huaiyang in later generations.
Huaiyang and Xiangcheng were later both part of Zhoukou City, Henan Province. Xiangcheng is adjacent to the Ying River to the east, and the decisive battle took place to the east of the Ying River.
As Li Mu said he would wait for Xiang Yan, he really did not launch a surprise attack on Xiang Yan who was on the march. Instead, he waited quietly for Xiang Yan to set up camp and prepare his army.
Xiang Yan admired Li Mu's keeping his promise, but also felt a little embarrassed.
The morale of the Chu army gradually dropped when they saw that the Qin army was waiting calmly for them to prepare their troops.
Why didn't the Qin army come to harass them? This was obviously because the Qin army looked down on them.
Li Mu planted his flag on the front chariot of the Qin army so that all the Chu troops could see that their enemy was the famous general, Wucheng Jun Li Mu.
The one who destroyed Southern Chu! (Li Mu: Get lost!)
Compared with Li Mu, Xiang Yan's record is not good enough. The Chu army has no confidence in Xiang Yan.
In order to boost morale, Xiang Yan decided to pull out his heavy cavalry to attack the Qin army formation first.
When Wang Jian led out heavy cavalry and broke through the three passes of Dabie Mountain of Chu State, Xiang Yan specially sought out those who had experienced that time and created heavy cavalry that was exactly the same as Wang Jian's.
Seeing Xiang Yan pulling the heavy cavalry to the front row, Li Mu smiled.
Although Meng Tian was almost thirty years old, his tone was still lively: "General, Xiang Yan is learning from us!"
Li Mu smiled and said, "Yeah."
The drum beats changed and the command flags waved.
The flag bearers of each square in the army received the order, waved their flags, and shouted slogans. The Qin army changed its formation, with the shield bearers moving forward and the chariots ahead of the shield bearers.
The Qin soldiers untied the reins on the chariot and pulled the horses behind them, leaving only the bronze chariot.
Then they leaned against the chariots and built up the chevaux-de-forces and the nailed boards.
Li Mu's army this time included both light and heavy cavalry, but he did not intend to use heavy cavalry against heavy cavalry.
Compared with heavy cavalry, infantry is "cheap". So when he and Wang Jian were discussing military affairs, they had already found the "solution" to heavy cavalry, which was to use heavy infantry against heavy cavalry.
Even if the heavy cavalry's casualty ratio with the heavy infantry is 1:2 or 1:3, the heavy infantry will still gain.
Furthermore, when other countries imitate heavy cavalry, they can only imitate what they can see, not what they cannot see.
Like horseshoes.
The Qin State lived together with the Western Rong, and originally made its fortune by raising horses on the grasslands. The Qin State was able to gather together tall and strong horses that could wear armor.
Although the horses can bear the weight of heavy armor, their hooves are severely worn out. If there are obstacles on the ground, the heavy cavalry horses can easily sprain their hooves.
Zhu Xiang led his disciples to improve the iron smelting method, and conducted in-depth research on "steel", which originally required "accidental" forging, and developed a method of pouring steel. The steel production of Qin State increased rapidly.
Li Mu and Wang Jian were finally able to equip themselves with another piece of magical warhorse equipment that Zhu Xiang had already given them - the horseshoe.
Li Mu had chosen the battlefield first. Although he did not harass Xiang Yan, he had scattered a lot of hard stones and inserted a lot of short wooden spikes in front of the Qin army's formation, waiting for Xiang Yan's cavalry.
Xiang Yan did not expect this, not because he was really stupid, but because Qin also had cavalry and chariots. If Li Mu had arranged obstacles to hinder horses on the ground where the two sides were fighting in advance, it would be obvious that the Qin army, which had stronger cavalry, would suffer more than the Chu army.
But he didn't know that the Qin army's war horses were luxuriously shod with horseshoes.
The two armies faced each other, with drums and trumpets blasting.
Xiang Yan took the lead in leading the heavy cavalry to charge, with the sound of killing shaking the sky and the murderous aura like a rainbow.
When the Qin army saw the heavy cavalry charging towards them, their army formation remained motionless, like a sculpture, and they were not at all frightened by the huge waves caused by the heavy cavalry.
Behind the heavy cavalry of the Chu army was the more agile light cavalry.
This group of light cavalry were all the best archers. Their role was to shoot at the Qin army after the heavy cavalry broke through the Qin army's shield phalanx, thus increasing the chaos in the Qin army's formation.
If the Qin army's formation was in chaos, the next step would be for the chariots to lead the infantry to charge and tear the Qin army's formation apart.
This was also the military strategy used by Wang Jian.
Li Mu took out a telescope.
Although Zhu Xiang did not make transparent glass, transparent crystal was rare enough to make a telescope for his good friend Li Mu.
Telescopes were a rare commodity, as they were made of precious materials and had to be finely ground by hand. In addition to the Qin prince Chu who took a telescope with him to be buried with him, even Qin Wang Zheng gave his toy telescope, which he had played with since childhood, to the generals who were going to war.
However, the toy telescopes had to be returned. The telescopes of Wang Jian, Lian Po, Li Mu and Nanjun County Magistrate Meng Wu were their own.
Through the telescope, Li Mu saw the arrangement of the various arms of the Chu army and immediately deduced the tactics that the Chu army would adopt.
He shook his head regretfully and said, "Those who learn from me will live, those who imitate me will die. Xiang Yan is only a good general."
Meng Tian seemed to be thinking about something.
Given his relationship with the King of Qin, the King of Qin would definitely give him the opportunity to lead an army when he reached the age of thirty. Wu Chengjun was now often teaching him the knowledge of being a general.
What Wu Chengjun meant should be that Xiang Yan is very good at learning and can use his advantages in battle, and his quality as a general should be considered top-notch in the world.
But there is still a fine line between Xiang Yan and the famous generals. This fine line is the difference between "learning from me" and "being like me".
"General Wang understands Xiang Yan's own tactics better than Xiang Yan does, so if Xiang Yan doesn't innovate, how can he defeat the Qin army? Is that right?" Meng Tian asked.
Li Mu nodded: "He is not as good as Zhu Xiang."
Although Zhu Xiang often comes up with unrealistic ideas, his thinking is much more flexible than Xiang Yan's, probably because he has not received special training in military tactics.
Of course, Li Mu said this only because his filter for Zhu Xiang was too strong.
If Zhu Xiang and Xiang Yan were to compete in siege, Zhu Xiang would not be able to compare even with flattery.
Xiang Yan had fought for so many years and had much more experience than Zhu Xiang. Zhu Xiang had to learn for many years just how to arrange stoves and toilets during a march.
However, there was no one in Qin who didn't have a filter for Zhu Xiang. Meng Tian immediately asked, "How can he be compared with Duke Zhu Xiang?"
The other lieutenants nodded.
Lord Wucheng, please don't say that. It's insulting Duke Zhu Xiang.
Li Mu's mood was very stable and he was in the mood to chat.
The heavy cavalry of the Chu army, who were shouting and killing, were already in chaos.
A heavily loaded warhorse would have difficulty running, so the heavy cavalry charge could only be used on a short stretch of flat ground. If it was half-armored cavalry, it could be used in a wider range of situations, but the terrain must also be taken into consideration.
Li Mu had scattered too many obstacles on the ground. Some horses' hooves slipped on the pebbles, some were pierced by wooden spikes, and some were scratched by sharp stones. As long as one horse deviated from the route during the charge, the entire heavy cavalry charge would be affected.
Heavy cavalry is too expensive. Xiang Yan only trained heavy cavalry, and this was the first time that heavy cavalry was used in actual combat.
When Wang Jian was training the heavy cavalry, he had Zhu Xiang's logistical support at all costs, and often used actual combat to train, so the horses and cavalry were already very skilled at charging. Even if someone was beating gongs, drums, and setting off firecrackers nearby, the horses would not be disturbed.
What’s more, Wang Jian’s heavy cavalry had horseshoes.
As a result, when the huge wave of Xiang Yan's heavy cavalry hit the Qin army's chevaux de frise, it had already lost its strength and could not even break through the first chevaux de frise.
The Qin soldier stretched out his sword from the shield soldiers, hooked the horse's leg, and pulled it lightly. The overloaded warhorse immediately screamed and knelt down.
After the heavy cavalry fell to the ground, a group of Qin soldiers rushed forward with hammers and other blunt weapons and hammered them hard.
The armor of the fully armed heavy cavalry was intact, but the bones, blood, brains and internal organs had been smashed into a mess. If the armor was removed, I'm afraid there would be no trace of a human being left.
When the heavy cavalry's offensive was broken, the fallen corpses formed a new line of chevaux de frise in front of the chevaux de frise.
The light cavalry at the back were not affected by the obstacles on the ground because of their light weight and successfully approached the Qin army. However, the arrows they shot at the Qin army were blocked by the corpses of their own people.
Some of the Qin army's infantry hid behind their shields, while the infantry in front of the shield soldiers hid behind the heavy cavalry and armored war horses, which were actually more reliable than shields.
"arrow!"
The flags changed and the drums beat rapidly.
The infantry retreated, the archers stepped forward, and the shieldmen tilted their shields backwards.
Arrows rained down on the light cavalry, and the Chu army's light cavalry retreated immediately.
"rush!"
The flags changed again and the horns sounded.
The Qin army's formation was separated, and the heavy cavalry that had been prepared in the middle of the formation had already mounted their horses. The horses started slowly and their speed became faster and faster.
The Qin army's heavy cavalry began to charge.
At this time, the Chu army's light cavalry was retreating, and the infantry also saw the flag signals, stopped charging, and prepared to turn and retreat.
When Xiang Yan saw that the heavy cavalry charge was thwarted, he was so anxious that he beat the drum himself, asking the Chu army to change its formation quickly.
But it was too late.
The Chu army did not expect that the heavy cavalry would be thwarted in the first charge, and the army was inevitably in chaos when retreating.
At this moment, the heavy cavalry of the Qin army was like charging a group of defeated soldiers, breaking through the Chu army without any hindrance.
Seeing this, Xiang Yan could only grit his teeth and order the remaining half of his heavy cavalry to attack and engage in a head-on confrontation with the Qin army's heavy cavalry.
"Heavy cavalry charging heavy cavalry is the stupidest tactic." Li Mu held a telescope and instructed Meng Tian and his deputy generals, "Although he did it hastily, if it were me, I would let the Chu army disperse immediately. I would rather retreat temporarily than use the remaining heavy cavalry."
Meng Tian nodded and said, "Heavy cavalry is used for attack, not defense."
Li Mu said: "However, Xiang Yan's ability in training soldiers is still good. This heavy cavalry is 80% similar to General Wang's. Unfortunately..."
Meng Tian said: "It's a pity that people like me die!"
Li Mu smiled and said, "If you can understand this, you can lead the army on your own."
Li Mu put down the telescope, got off the chariot, and jumped on his horse: "Come on, while you are still young, follow the Qin army to charge. If you don't charge in person this time, the next time we go out, you can only stand on the chariot and watch."
Meng Tian and other deputy generals laughed heartily and mounted their horses one after another.
Each of them held a spear, a lance, or a sword, which were the most suitable weapons for horse fighting.
"Boys, follow me and charge!"
Under the cover of his deputy general and personal soldiers, Li Mu rushed out with the heavy cavalry.
His tactics were surprisingly similar to Xiang Yan's, with heavy cavalry charging, followed by light cavalry, and then infantry phalanx charging.
Xiang Yan also mounted his warhorse and watched Li Mu rushing towards him, sweat dripping from his clenched sword in his hand.
He couldn't understand this brief contact.
Perhaps he could figure it out if he thought about it more, but now he had no time to think about it.
Li Mu held a saber in his hand and did not shoot at close range. Instead, he charged directly into the enemy formation with the heavy cavalry.
Ordinary cavalry used bows and arrows, but Li Mu's cavalry was well-equipped, so they would not have any problems even if the opponent's arrows hit their armor. They also had stirrups early on, so they were already very good at fighting on horseback, and the weapons in their hands were also long weapons suitable for fighting on horseback.
So when the Chu army was penetrated and the long-range attack was chaotic, Li Mu gave up using bows and arrows and directly used cavalry and infantry to engage in close combat.
Li Mu and his men were interspersed in the infantry phalanx of the Chu army. The Chu army did not dare to use bows and crossbows for fear of shooting their own people, so they could only use the weapons in their hands to fight against Li Mu and his men on horseback.
At this moment, the potential energy brought by the warhorse became a more terrifying weapon than the weapons in the hands of the cavalry, and no soldier could withstand the charge of the warhorse.
The cavalry's strength, combined with the potential energy of their galloping horses, can easily cut bones that are difficult to cut while standing.
The cavalry, who were trained to fight on horseback and had stirrups, could slaughter ordinary infantrymen.
Xiang Yan saw this and had no choice but to lead the light cavalry to fight Li Mu himself.
But in the chaotic formation of the Chu army, Li Mu was actually more flexible than Xiang Yan, the main general of Chu.
He always managed to avoid Xiang Yan's cavalry and plunge into another group of chaotic Chu soldiers and infantry.
Xiang Yan followed behind Li Mu's horse and became more and more frightened the more he chased.
He noticed that although Li Mu's sword did not move, he seemed to be able to do two things at once. He could always observe the weak points in the Chu army's formation and change the route of the people behind him at all times.
How could someone charge back and forth in the enemy's formation? ! Is this still a human being? !
Xiang Yan followed behind Li Mu. He could clearly see Li Mu's back and was only a little distance away from Li Mu. It seemed that he could reach Li Mu by just whipping his horse's buttocks. However, he felt more and more desperate.
It was such a short distance, why did he try his best but still felt that he was getting further and further away and could never reach her?!
Is there any general in this world who is more outstanding than Li Mu
Light cavalry charge into the enemy camp, charge repeatedly, hahahaha, who else can do it? !
Xiang Yan collapsed.
If Zhu Xiang knew about Xiang Yan's collapse, he would pat Xiang Yan on the shoulder and tell him not to despair because his grandson Xiang Yu could do it too.
Unfortunately, Xiang Yu and Li Mu were not from the same era, so it was impossible for him to follow Xiang Yan and fight against Li Mu.
What's more, if Li Mu met Xiang Yu, he probably wouldn't try to play Mount and Blade, but would use his troops to kill Xiang Yu.
Now Xiang Yan didn’t know that he had a grandson named Xiang Yu who was extremely talented.
His horse followed Li Mu, slowing down, and finally stopped.
"General..." The deputy general also stopped unconsciously.
The screams of the Chu army were heard everywhere.
When two armies fight, only one contact is needed to decide the outcome.
Although the Chu army still has some manpower left, everyone can see that it has been defeated.
The elite troops under Xiang Yan's command, which were mainly composed of his private soldiers, had been defeated.
Xiang Yan closed his eyes, his face full of despair.
He was wrong. He shouldn't have confronted the Qin army head-on.
The Qin army used provocation to force him to fight, which was to let the Chu army use its weakness to attack the Qin army's strength.
What is the strength of the Qin army? Its fighting quality is much higher than that of the Chu army.
What is the strength of the Chu army? It is the advantage of the terrain and the people.
Unfortunately, even if he did it again, he might fall into the trap again. Because he also had light cavalry and heavy cavalry, and he thought he was a general at the same level as Li Mu, and he didn't believe that the fighting quality of the Chu army was so much worse than that of the Qin army.
Although Li Mu seemed to have no plan, in fact his plan hit the human weaknesses of him and the Chu army.
It seems that this battle has not ended yet, but it was actually over when he was provoked by Li Mu.
By then I had already lost!
"General, quickly gather the remaining troops, it's still not too late!" The deputy general reminded, "Xiangcheng has not been taken yet! We can contact other county governors and feudal lords, it's still not too late!"
Xiang Yan came back to his senses from despair and collapse.
He took a deep breath and said, "Yes, Chu has not lost yet!"
I, Xiang Yan, lost to Li Mu, but the State of Chu has not yet lost to the State of Qin!
Xiang Yan immediately gave up pursuing Li Mu and sounded the retreat.
When the Chu army heard the call to retreat, they took heart and began to break out.
Li Mu had already rushed behind the Chu army.
He shook his arms which were sore from chopping people, wiped the blood off his face, and a smile appeared on his face again, which had been indifferent during the battle.
"Xiang Yan seems to have been in a panic for a while. It's a bit late to sound the horn now." Li Mu said, "Meng Tian, what should we do next?"
Meng Tian shouted: "Our army has arrived at the designated position. Surround three sides and let one side go. Let the Chu army attack Xiangcheng!"
Li Mu smiled and praised: "Okay, give the order."
Meng Tian rolled up his sleeves, thrust his butt left and right, pushing away other colleagues who wanted to compete with him, and beat the war drum hard with a drumstick.
Surrounded! Surrounded!
When the Qin army charged, they had already exchanged positions with the Chu army.
The heavy cavalry and light cavalry were in the original positions of the Chu army, and the infantry were on the two wings. The place where the Qin army was originally deployed was left empty and became an escape route.
When Xiang Yan sounded the horn to call back his troops, the Chu army naturally broke out to the place with the least people, and the defeated soldiers rushed to the place where the Qin army's pocket was not closed without hesitation.
After Xiang Yan led his soldiers to rush for a distance, he realized something was wrong.
In front of him, the Yingshui River lay horizontally.
"The Qin army is deliberately driving us to our death?" The Chu general gnashed his teeth and said, "General, we have no choice but to fight to the death!"
"No, look over there, there's a floating bridge!" someone said sharply.
When he saw the pontoon bridge, many Chu soldiers had already climbed onto it and were running towards the other side.
Xiang Yan was stunned. How could there be a floating bridge on the water
Soon, the terrain near the battlefield flashed through his mind and he paused.
"No, we can't cross! All troops, listen up, you are not allowed to cross the river!" Xiang Yan was horrified.
He guessed Li Mu's plan!
What is behind the Yingshui River? It is Xiangcheng!
With so many defeated soldiers attacking Xiangcheng, Li Mu wanted his Chu soldiers to attack the city for the Qin army!
But people saw a way to survive in desperation, and some had already embarked on this way. The commander's orders could not be stronger than the desire to survive.
Xiang Yan kept ordering the Chu army not to cross the river, but the Chu army rushed onto the pontoon bridge even faster.
Xiang Yan ordered his personal guards to kill the Chu soldiers who disobeyed his orders and to guard the entrance of the pontoon bridge to prevent the Chu soldiers from crossing the river.
The Chu soldiers on the pontoon bridge fled even more desperately, fearing that they would be caught by Xiang Yan; the Chu soldiers who did not rush onto the pontoon bridge saw their comrades who had successfully escaped behind the Chu general, and looked back at the dark mass of Qin army. They made up their minds and rushed towards Xiang Yan with weapons in their hands.
The way out is right in front of me, so what if I'm a general? I'll fight him!
This broad and sturdy floating bridge specially built by Li Mu became a battlefield between Xiang Yan's personal soldiers and ordinary Chu soldiers! The two sides fought blood-thirsty at the entrance of the floating bridge, and could no longer distinguish between enemies and friends!
When Xiang Yan was trying to stop the Chu soldiers from crossing the river, he also ordered the bridge to be burned.
But the floating bridge was built on water, so it was difficult to burn. Li Mu also built it very solidly, and most of the time waiting for Xiang Yan was spent on building the bridge. Under the attack of the Chu soldiers, it was difficult for them to destroy the floating bridge in a short time.
Li Mu led the Qin soldiers and slowly approached like a dark cloud.
The Chu army gathered at the entrance of the floating bridge, and the Qin army easily surrounded the Chu army at the entrance of the floating bridge. The pocket was tightly closed, and the only way out was the floating bridge.
However, this way of survival was guarded by Xiang Yan, and the Chu soldiers were unable to pass through.
Xiang Yan's eyes turned red with anger.
He was a fierce and fierce general. But in this battle, more Chu soldiers died at his hands than Qin soldiers!
Seeing that the fighting situation in front of him had eased a little, Li Mu ordered the Qin army to fire their bows and crossbows, once again casting a layer of fear of death over the Chu army.
Then, he asked the Chu people in the Qin army to shout in the local dialects of Chu: "General Xiang, are you going to force your comrades to death?"
General Xiang, are you trying to force your comrades to death
General Xiang, do you want all the Chu people who follow you to fight to death
General Xiang, are you crazy? You are actually turning your weapons against your fellow Chu people!
Open your eyes and see how many Chu people you have killed!
The sounds of Chu became louder and louder, more shrill and mournful, and reached the ears of the defeated soldiers of the Chu army from the Qin army.
The defeated soldiers of the Chu army could not help but question their generals with red eyes, why did they guard their only way out? Why didn't they kill the Qin people, but killed them, their comrades who had lived and died together? !
General Xiang, open your eyes and look around. You are surrounded by fellow Chu people who died with their eyes open! Do you dare to open your eyes and look around? !
"General, let's escape too."
Xiang Yan's deputy general and his personal guards couldn't hold on any longer, they cried.
Xiang Yan put down his weapon in a daze, and the Chu soldiers surged past him like a tide and rushed towards the pontoon bridge.
"Escape...?" Xiang Yan said to himself.
The deputy general said: "Even if Xiangcheng is captured, Chu still has a lot of land and many cities that we can still defend!"
Xiang Yan came back to his senses and cheered himself up.
"Yes, yes, we can still defend it!" He also boarded the pontoon bridge, "Let's go to Xiangcheng. If Xiangcheng is breached, follow me in and rescue the King of Chu!"
The State of Chu has not lost yet, not lost yet!
Xiang Yan also rode his horse onto the pontoon bridge, and the defeated Chu army crossed the Yingshui River without any obstruction.
The Qin army put away their bows and crossbows and waited quietly until all the defeated Chu soldiers had crossed the pontoon bridge before they stepped onto the bridge.
The defeated Chu soldiers actually forgot to destroy the pontoon bridge behind them.
They were all running for their lives, and could only see what was in front of them. They did not dare to look back at the dark Qin army.
When Xiang Yan and Li Mu were fighting, Xiang Cheng never thought of breaking out.
Li Mu brought 100,000 elite soldiers with him, and 200,000 to 300,000 civilians to support him. When he left Xiangcheng, the civilians disguised themselves as elite Qin soldiers and patrolled the gates of Xiangcheng.
Because the Qin army had been besieging but not attacking, Xiangcheng's several attempts to break out were severely beaten back, and they could not contact the outside world, and did not know that Xiang Yan had arrived. So they just thought today was an ordinary day of siege, and did not know that Li Mu had already led his elite troops away.
It was not until the defeated Chu army arrived that King Qi of Chu, who came to the city wall to observe in person every day, realized that something was wrong.
Where did the Chu soldiers come from? !
"Your Majesty, the soldiers fleeing outside the city say they are the soldiers of Lord Linwu and beg us to open the gates." The general guarding the city said, "Lord Linwu, Lord Linwu was defeated?"
King Qi of Chu was at a loss.
Linwu Jun is here? Linwu Jun has fought a battle with Qin? Linwu Jun... lost?!
(End of this chapter)