Chapter 692 Cavalry’s Edge

Tap tap tap!

As the vanguard, two thousand cavalry of Cao's army galloped across the land of Jiangbei, as if the long whip of the gods were lashing the earth, exuding a terrifying prestige.

Under a blue flag with the word "Cao", a brave general is dressed all over, holding a horse spear and a long sword on his waist. He has a strong face. It is Cao Ren, Cao Cao's younger brother.

"The whole army obeys the order! Charge forward and let this group of Jiangdong troops know how powerful our Huaisi Xiaoqi is!" Cao Ren said sternly.

"kill!"

Nearly two thousand Huaisi knights answered him in uniform voices. Although Cao Ren was born in the Cao clan, he was dissolute by nature. He went to the Huaisi area and organized dozens of riders to gallop around and make friends. A powerful ranger.

Since Cao Cao raised his army, Cao Ren has been extremely brave and generous. Relying on his prestige, he has gathered nearly a thousand knights and knights to serve under Cao Cao.

Nearly half of these two thousand Huaisi knights were knights-errant who had good relations with Cao Ren. Later, when Cao Cao took advantage of Liu Ye's campaign against Yuan Shu, he annexed the land of Huainan. Cao Ren recruited troops and horses locally to enrich his cavalry. Many people in the area had heard of Cao Ren's reputation, so many people came here because of his reputation, and were all assigned to Cao Ren's command by Cao Cao. After all, these rangers were unruly, and only Cao Ren, the "big brother", could control them.

The rangers are superb in all equestrian skills and are proficient in killing people in battle formations. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of these two thousand Huaisi Xiaoqi is very powerful. Cao Cao sent Cao Ren as the vanguard, and he led the infantry army and arrived later.

The power of two thousand cavalry galloping to kill is really huge. You must know that the cavalry is at least one person and two horses. Therefore, two thousand cavalry is four thousand war horses. They are galloping in rows on the wilderness. Many Jiangdong Bing was dumbfounded.

As the saying goes, the boats in the south are horses in the north. Most of the Jiangdong soldiers are from the south of the Yangtze River, and a small number are from the north of the Yangtze River. However, except for the more than a hundred knights under Taishi Ci, most of the remaining people are from Huainan at most. The three major horse-producing areas of the Han Dynasty, Liangzhou, Youzhou and Bingzhou, were all far to the north of the Yellow River. The number of war horses in the Central Plains next to them was much smaller, and the Jianghuai land further south was even rarer.

Normally, at most, only some military generals could ride war horses, but such a large-scale cavalry charge was unheard of for these Jiangdong soldiers who grew up in the south of the Yangtze River.

There were varying degrees of commotion in various military formations of Jiangdong soldiers. Even the elite veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles had expressions of surprise. People are always afraid when facing unknown things, let alone this group of soldiers. The cavalry was so loud.

Taishi Ci, Huang Gai and other generals all gave orders and urged them to organize their troops to get into position.

"What are you afraid of? They are just cavalry. As long as we form a tight formation, there is nothing to be afraid of."

Taishi Ci, who is proficient in cavalry warfare, ordered: "Cavalry is nothing special. Back then, the Xiongnu's hundreds of thousands of cavalry were easily defeated by General Meng Tian of Qin. As long as we form a tight formation and defend the enemy with crossbows, it will be fine!"

After Qin unified the six kingdoms, it faced a new enemy in the north, the nomadic Xiongnu. The Huns who raised horses for a living grew up on horses, so they were naturally proficient in riding skills. Although the Central Plains Dynasty had not conquered the country since King Wuling of Zhao After Hu Fu's cavalry and shooting, they were also equipped with a certain proportion of cavalry, but they were still mainly infantry.

However, Meng Tian led the 300,000 Qin troops and easily defeated hundreds of thousands of Xiongnu cavalry and captured the Hetao area, relying on tight formations and crossbows. The Qin crossbow is famous all over the world. At that time, the craftsmanship system of the Qin Dynasty was very strict, so that the error of the parts of the crossbow was extremely small. It is difficult to imagine that it was made by human hands instead of machines. Two thousand years later, the Qin crossbow in the Qin Dynasty Mausoleum even has Can kill tomb robbers.

The famous general Li Ling of the Han Dynasty once led 5,000 Han infantry to face the siege of 100,000 Xiongnu cavalry. He held out for several days and killed more than 10,000 Xiongnu cavalry. He relied on extremely sharp crossbows. It is said that that battle The war cost hundreds of thousands of crossbows alone.

"Hey, Gong Liu." Cao Ren laughed and said to Shi Huan on the side: "Look at these Jiangdong bumpkins who have never seen the world. I'm afraid we can defeat them without the Prime Minister leading the army."

The fear and turmoil of Jiangdong Army were clearly seen by Cao Ren, and he was naturally proud.

Shi Huan on the side said with a calm expression: "Brother Zixiao, don't be careless. Prime Minister Cao once said that we should be careful about this Zhou Yu. Since he is personally leading the army, it is better to be careful."

Cao Ren snorted: "Then pick a small enemy formation first and try it first!"

He looked around and saw a formation of Jiangdong Army attacking the north gate of Shu County, and his eyes immediately lit up.

"Send the order! Attack the Jiangdong Army at the North Gate!" Cao Ren shouted.

The generals at all levels in the army passed the order at all levels, from the captain to the army commander, from the army commander to the army prince, all the way to the commander and the corps commander. After receiving the order, two thousand Huaisi knights took control of their horses and galloped towards the north gate. And go.

Seeing Cao's cavalry charging towards them, Jiangdong's army outside the north gate couldn't help but panic. Fortunately, the veteran general Han Dang was in charge of the formation. He was originally from Lingzhi in western Liaoning. He was skilled in bow and horse. He could be said to be the northernmost person in Jiangdong's army. He was naturally familiar with cavalry warfare and how to deal with cavalry.

"Don't panic!"

Han Dang ordered: "Line up immediately, with the sword and shield bearers on the outside, the spearmen behind the sword and shield bearers, and the archers on the inside. When you see the enemy attacking, shoot them with arrows first, and then defend them with shields." Then, attack it with spears and spears!"

After all, Jiangdong's army was well-trained. Although they were a little panicked when facing the cavalry they had never seen before, they took action immediately after hearing Han Dang's order. In addition to the hundreds of people who attacked the city, the remaining two thousand people quickly followed Han Dang's order and formed a circular formation.

There are a total of four levels in this circular formation. The sword and shield bearers are at the outermost. They put down their shields to form a shield wall. Behind the sword and shield bearers are the spearmen. They stretch out their spears and lift them on top of the shield. It's like rows of muskets, forming a combination of offense and defense with the shield. Behind the spearmen were the archers of the Jiangdong Army. They had not spent much effort suppressing the archers of the Lujiang Army before, so each of them still had some strength left, ready to go with their bows and arrows.

At the innermost level were Han Dang and the guards around him. He was riding a horse, watching the galloping cavalry of Cao's army with a solemn expression. When infantry encounters cavalry on the plains, they must form a tight formation and be ready, otherwise they will be chased and killed if they break up. Although Jiangdong's army is elite, it is their first time to fight against cavalry. If something goes wrong, the consequences will be disastrous.

"No arrow can be fired without my order!"

Han Dang asked again. Archers are a powerful weapon against cavalry and cannot be ignored.