Chapter 600: Attack Halfway

Under the sun, on the green grass, several cavalry marched in unison, their horses' hooves trampled countless swaying flowers and chased away groups of small animals in the grass.

This was a group of Donghu cavalry that took a detour of a hundred miles to attack Dayan Lake. The general in charge was Yuwen Chui, the younger brother of Yuwen Ke, the general in charge of the Donghu Hetao War Zone.

Yuwen Ke was not a fierce general without a plan. On the contrary, he was known as a wise general among the Donghu. In his opinion, in the war between the Donghu and the Zhengdong Army for the Hetao Plain, the important thing was not the Xianfeng City and Tongwan City that the Zhengdong Army had inserted on the banks of the Liaohe River. These were just two nails. What was really important was the Dayan City that was under construction.

The Eastern Expedition Army set up Dayan County in Gaoyuan and built Dayan City on the bank of Dayan Lake. Once the success is achieved, the front Xianfeng City and Tongwan City will have a strong support point, and the Eastern Expedition Government can also continuously immigrate people to Dayan County. Within two or three years, the opponent can take root around Dayan City. At that time, Dayan City, Xianfeng City, and Tongwan City can form an iron triangle, and it will be extremely difficult to take it down.

The Dayan City under construction is not the Xianfeng City on the bank of Liaohe River. Tongwan City can be compared. Compared with Dayan City, Xianfeng Tongwan City can only be regarded as a relatively large castle.

More importantly, there are tens of thousands of civilians on the bank of Dayan Lake, so Yuwen Ke’s order to Yuwen Chui is to destroy the Dayan City under construction and kill as many civilians there as possible, so that they will be scared and killed, and never rush to the Hetao Plain again.

The Eastern Expedition Army on the shore of Dayan Lake was defeated, and Xianfeng City and Tongwan City immediately became rootless duckweed. With their retreat cut off and food and grass insufficient, it was only a matter of time before they were conquered.

It was Yuwen Ke's careful planning to set the time of the attack at this point. If it was earlier, his troops would not be complete. In particular, the shortage of infantry would not be able to threaten Xianfeng and Tongwan. If it was later, the tens of thousands of acres of farmland in Xianfeng City would harvest the first season of crops. By then, food and grass would be sufficient, and it would be more difficult to conquer the city.

And now, it was just right.

With these 5,000 cavalrymen, Yuwen Chui also took great pains to avoid the eyes and ears of Xianfeng City and Tongwan City and followed the Liao River. They had been traveling upstream for hundreds of miles, thus avoiding the enemy's scouts. If Xu Yuan discovered their purpose and sent his cavalry to intercept them, it would not be terrible, but the plan to raid Dayan City would inevitably fail. Sun Xiao, who had received the news, would inevitably shrink the front line, and it would be difficult to break the turtle shell of the Eastern Expedition Army's infantry. More importantly, without the five thousand elite cavalry. The vanguard, the Eastern Expedition Army of Tongwan and Liangcheng would surely come out in full force. Now the two armies have more than 20,000 infantrymen, facing the remaining thousands of cavalrymen and 10,000 infantrymen of Yuwen Ke. Yuwen Ke was not very sure, not to mention that he could not send all his soldiers across the Liaohe River. The east bank of the Liaohe River still needed troops to guard.

At the moment, it was only two days away from Dayan Lake, and Yuwen Chui could not suppress his excitement.

"Report!" The sound of horse hooves was urgent in front.

Several scouts rushed over. "General Yuwen, fifty miles to the left of our army, we found the Eastern Expedition Army, about 5,000 people, and about 500 cavalry. They are heading towards the Liao River."

"Whose flag?"

"Sun, it should be Sun Xiao's troops stationed in Dayan Lake."

Yuwen Chui was overjoyed. He was just taking a nap when someone brought him a pillow. Five thousand people, the Eastern Expedition Army stationed in Dayan Lake only had a total of five thousand people. It seems that Sun Xiao has come out in full force to support the vanguard Tongwan City. It seems that the other side wants to start a decisive battle with our army on the banks of the Liao River, and wants to defeat the opponent in one fell swoop, so as to establish a safe pattern on the west bank of the Liao River.

"Uncle, why don't we attack from the side first, defeat Sun Xiao's troops, and then turn to Dayan City. Dayan City is just a few civilians, and it is not worth a blow." Yuwen Ke's son, Yuwen Ming, stepped forward to offer advice.

Yuwen Chui stroked his thick short beard and nodded slightly. Yuwen Ke's order was to destroy the enemy troops in the direction of Dayan City, so Sun Xiao's troops were naturally within the scope of destruction. They actually came out in full force, which gave him a better opportunity. If he retreated in Dayan City, it would be more troublesome.

"Turn to the left and destroy Sun Xiao!" Yuwen Chui waved his hand, and thousands of cavalry turned and rushed towards Sun Xiao's troops.

Just as the majority of the Donghu cavalry turned and entered, Sun Xiao also received a report from his right side that a large number of Donghu cavalry were discovered. In an instant, Sun Xiao felt like he was falling into an ice cellar.

"Is it a large group of Donghu cavalry, not a small group of cavalry?" He tried to calm himself down and asked.

Several scouts also turned pale, "Commander, there is no mistake, there are so many cavalry that you can't see the end at a glance, I'm afraid there are tens of thousands of them."

"Where do the tens of thousands of them come from!" Sun Xiao shouted angrily. These scouts lacked experience in fighting against Donghu cavalry, and it was difficult for them to judge the number of opponents. Cavalry was not like infantry. Thousands of cavalry deployed, which was indeed nerve-shaking and eye-straining. Yuwen Ke only had about 10,000 cavalry in Hetao. How could they all appear here? Xu Yuan and Yan Peng were not fools.

There were no 10,000 cavalry, but there were 3,000 or 4,000 cavalry. Even if there were only 3,000 or 4,000 cavalry, the threat to Sun Xiao was already great. Retreat? Impossible, a distance of dozens of miles was a blink of an eye for the cavalry. During the march, the infantry deployed like a long snake. Once they were attacked by cavalry, they would be easily cut into several sections by the opponent and become the target of slaughter.

"Someone come!" In a blink of an eye, Sun Xiao had made up his mind, "Immediately send someone to Xianfeng City and Tongwan City to send a message, and the entire army will attack and fight the enemy."

"Follow your orders!" More than a dozen sentries came out of the crowd and ran towards Pioneer City and Tongwan City. If Yu Wenke sent thousands of cavalry to raid Dayan Lake, then under Pioneer City and Tongwan City, the enemy troops would Absolutely empty, Yu Wenke wanted to stay behind to guard the camp on the east bank. The maximum number of people attacking these two cities were seven to eight thousand infantry and four to five thousand cavalry. The combined armies of Xu Yuan and Yan Peng had nearly twenty thousand infantry. There are also more than two thousand cavalry.

Seeing the back of the sentry knight disappear in his eyes, Sun Xiao had calmed down. He knew that he had underestimated his opponent. He wanted to finish his work in one battle and fight his opponent on the banks of the Liao River. The battle on the west bank would be decided in one battle, and The opponent thought a step further. Now, what he has to do is to hold on here, attract the invading enemies, and then wait for news about the battlefields of Xu Yuan and Yan Peng under the Pioneer City.

"Immediately send a letter back to Dayan Lake and tell Guo Shangshu that there may be an enemy attack, and ask him to quickly organize the young men and prepare for defense." At this time, Sun Xiao's biggest worry was that his opponent simply ignored his troops and sent troops. A sudden attack on Dayan Lake would be terrible. Although there are tens of thousands of civilians in Dayan Lake, to the army, they are just a group of lambs without the power to resist. There are only a few hundred warning soldiers left behind.

Now, Sun Xiao only hopes that his attractiveness is strong enough to let the enemy deal with him first, thereby buying Dayan Lake a little time.

Now, he finally understood what Gao Yuan and Jiang Jiaquan had repeatedly told him when he came to the Hetao Plain. He had participated in too few battles. Over the years, Gao Yuan always left him behind to guard his hometown when he went on expeditions. Now suddenly Standing alone, his own shortcomings were immediately exposed and he fell into the opponent's scheme.

"The whole army forms a formation!" Sun Xiao suddenly pulled out his saber, "Fight to the death with the enemy!"

An hour later, when Yuwen Ke appeared in front of Sun Xiao, what he saw was a steel jungle. Five thousand infantry were arranged in five square formations, with four outside and one in the middle. They were well-proportioned and neatly arranged. Outside the formation, there were piles of temporarily dug shallow trenches, and the excavated soil blocked the path of the cavalry's attack. The blades of the spears shone with cold light, reflecting the sunlight in the sky, shining brightly. In the passage in the formation, cavalry patrolled back and forth. The dull drumbeat was beaten rhythmically.

"The Yan people like to set up turtle formations. This big formation looks beautiful upside down, but I don't know if it will work!" Yuwen Chui laughed. Five thousand cavalry against five thousand infantry. This battle is full of suspense. ?

"Amin!" he shouted.

"Uncle!" Yu Wenming galloped to his uncle.

"The Yan army's usual fighting style is to huddle up and defend. When our army launches an attack, they first use crossbows to carry out long-range attacks, and then use bows and arrows to cover fire. They are used to hitting me and attacking the cavalry. Finally, when our army rushes in front of their infantry , are no longer in formation, and if we encounter their heavy infantry at this time, we will not be able to take advantage at all. If you are the vanguard, how are you going to fight?"

"Uncle, the enemy has five phalanxes forming four corners, guarding the center in the center. If uncle uses me as the vanguard, I will attack the phalanx on the left front first."

"Frontal impact?" Yuwen Chui frowned.

"No, I will order my men to form a column and attack the front corner of the left phalanx. In this direction, it is impossible for them to arrange bed crossbows. In the phalanx next to him, the shooting angle covered by the bed crossbows is also smaller. In this way, This can minimize the casualties of our army during the charge, and this front corner is also the connection point between the left and right parts of the enemy's army, and is also the weakest point. If this corner is broken up, the phalanx can be defeated. "

"Yes!" Yuwen Chui nodded happily, "You are right and your judgment is accurate. However, this weakness is not shared by all enemy formations. It's just that Sun Xiao's command does not have enough cavalry to cover the flanks. He currently has only a few hundred cavalry, which can only be used as a mobile force. If you encounter an enemy with enough cavalry, your plan will not work. "

"But now, it works very well!" Yu Wenming grinned.

"Okay, let me take you as the vanguard and destroy this military formation." Yuwen Chui laughed, "This is the last enemy force around Dayan Lake. If he is eliminated, Dayan Lake will be like a naked giant. Girl, you can do whatever you want."

Hearing the shouts from the Donghu army, Sun Xiao sneered as he looked at the direction in which the Donghu cavalry were charging. Yu Wenming saw it very accurately, but they forgot that the Donghu army had a sharp weapon that the Yan army did not have. . This kind of long-range strike weapon has a range and power that is inferior to that of a crossbow, but far superior to that of a bow and arrow. It is enough to carry out coverage shooting, making any enemy's plans fall into vain.

"Let the enemy approach, cover and shoot from a hundred steps away!" Sun Xiaochuan gave the order. The power of the arm-opening crossbow is the greatest threat at the first time, but after the opponent is prepared, it will be greatly reduced. He will give the enemy as much as possible. Heavy damage. (To be continued...)