Jinting Han people

Chapter 769 Iron Cavalry Encounters Setback

Shortly after Tuoba Liuxiu launched a major offensive against the Han army's front, Kong Chang led the left wing of Shi Le's army to the flank of the Han army's central force, intending to launch another attack with elite cavalry.

As a key general among the eighteen cavalrymen known for his strategic acumen, Kong Chang's thinking was remarkably similar to that of Tuoba Liuxiu. Upon witnessing the collapse of the Han army's right flank, the first strategy that came to his mind was to use heavy cavalry to break through the Han army's southern flank. By cutting across in this way, the Han army's formation would be shattered, and the subsequent developments would be utterly devastating.

But when he led his troops to relieve Shi Hu's forces and arrived at the flank of the Han army, he found that the situation before him was far beyond his expectations. What appeared before them was not the demoralized Han infantry who had been shaken by the defeat, but a row of well-ordered chariots that had already been set up.

By this time, the sky was already quite bright, covered with dark clouds, and gusts of cold wind swept through, causing the Han army flags on the wagon formation to flutter in the wind. Between the side wagons, one could vaguely see the glint of cold light; the Han soldiers behind the wagons, holding long halberds, were densely packed and ready to fight.

This scene greatly alarmed Kong Chang, or rather, it surprised and troubled all the attacking Shi Le's cavalry. Tens of thousands of knights stopped a few arrows' distance from the chariot formation, then turned their gaze to their commander's position, awaiting Kong Chang's orders.

Kong Chang tapped his saddle with his whip, thinking to himself, "Although this is the first time our side has encountered a chariot formation on the battlefield, and we don't know its exact power, the king has given the order for a general attack, and our army has already arrived at the front lines. Now we have no choice but to launch an attack. Even if the enemy's tactics are unexpected, we are still under threat of being attacked from both sides, and we cannot afford not to attack."

He quickly realized that if the frontal attack on the chariot formation was ineffective, he could send another force to circle around to the rear of the Han army, turning the two-pronged attack into a three-pronged attack, thus ensuring victory.

So Kong Changxian said to Kui'an, "Brother Kui, take your three thousand cavalry and circle around to the west of the enemy army, and do your best to disrupt their rear."

Then he ordered Zhi Xiong: "Brother Zhi, lead five thousand cavalry to dismount and fight on foot. First, distract the enemy's attention. When Brother Kui launches his attack, suddenly unleash your power and tear through the enemy's lines. If you can successfully open a few gaps, I will advance with heavy cavalry. Then this battle will be considered a success."

As for the rest of the eighteen riders, Kong Chang was relatively young, so when he commanded, he was more respectful to his subordinates and did not yet have the commanding presence of a great general. He often addressed them as "brother," but his talent for command was undeniable. Kui An and Zhi Xiong both readily agreed and immediately led their troops to begin preparations.

Zhi Xiongxian led his cavalry forward like a dark cloud drifting in the wind, quickly closing the distance to within an arrow's throw of the Han army's chariot formation, intending to engage them in a firefight. However, after a volley of arrows, the fletchings of the arrows embedded in the chariot panels trembled slightly, while the Han soldiers behind the chariots showed no reaction. Clearly, they understood that the enemy would have to dismount before reaching them, and therefore were in no hurry.

Unfazed by any counterattack, the Jinyang cavalry quickly reached the wagon. Following pre-arranged tactics, they dismounted, set down their long spears, drew their ring-pommel swords with one hand, and raised their shields with the other, slowly advancing. During this process, the Jinyang soldiers were prepared to be felled by Han arrows, but unexpectedly, the Han army remained still, silently watching the enemy close in step by step.

The Jin Yang soldiers naturally interpreted this as the Han army's conservatism and cowardice. The enemy's weakness emboldened them, and their spirits soared. When they were only about fifty paces away, without anyone giving them orders, they spontaneously shouted and ran forward, treading on the still frozen and hard ground. They rushed to the front of the Han army's chariot formation, then brandished their cleavers and hacked wildly, trying to break down the wooden planks in front of them and clear a path straight to the heart of the Han army.

It was at this moment that the long-silent Han army finally began to move. Some men near the carriages extended their long halberds through specially made holes in the wooden planks, thrusting wildly at the enemy. Others lay prone on the ground, extending specially made sickle-shaped hooks from under the carriages to slash the ankles of the enemies in front of them. Those slightly behind the carriages hurled arrows into the air.

This was a tactic meticulously designed by Li Ju when training the charioteers, and it finally came in handy. With arrows raining down from above, long spear thrusts from the middle, and long hooks launching sneak attacks from below, this triple counterattack was truly killing these Jinyang soldiers. They might be able to endure the pain thanks to their armor, ignoring the arrows overhead, but they couldn't ignore the gleaming spear tips before them. However, this distraction meant they had no energy to defend against the sneak attacks from below. In an instant, the Jinyang soldiers near the chariot formation were hooked down one after another, dragged behind the formation, and torn to pieces by the Han soldiers.

This caused the casualty rate of the Jinyang soldiers to rise sharply. In contrast, the Han army suffered very few losses. Apart from a small number of people who were hit in vital areas by arrows, most of them were almost unharmed. Even the side wagons that were chopped down did not suffer much damage.

Faced with this unexpected situation, the Jinyang soldiers were almost helpless, and Zhi Xiong quickly called a halt to this doomed attack. Although he was known for his bravery in battle—having repeatedly covered Shi Le's retreat after defeats when Zhang Fang marched north to Ye City, earning him the nickname "Madman Zhi"—bravery did not equate to a lack of wisdom. Without a better strategy, he had no intention of blindly increasing his troops' casualties. Instead, he ordered his troops to temporarily retreat a short distance away, intending to await the outcome of the battle at Kui'an on the other side and then decide whether to engage again.

To his surprise, the battle situation of Kui'an's troops also encountered setbacks.

When Kui'an led his army across the long chariot formation and outflanked the enemy's central army from the rear, he found that the Han army there was also prepared for defense.

Although Mao Bao's crossbowmen did not have any side wagons to block the way, they each carried two wooden stakes of moderate thickness, which they drove into the ground to form two rows of makeshift chevaux-de-frise. They then stood ready at the rear, crouching diagonally and gripping their halberds upwards to prepare for the direct charge of the Jinyang cavalry.

Such rudimentary defenses were certainly not enough to deter the Jinyang cavalry; on the contrary, they fueled their competitive spirit. Kui'an even openly sneered, "We've really been underestimated! With these paper-thin things, do you think the Han people can achieve victory?" At his command, the Jinyang cavalry, brimming with morale, surged forward again, galloping ahead of each other. The thunderous sound of hooves, mixed with snow and grass clippings, rushed towards the Han infantry behind the barricades.

But Mao Bao, who was in the rear, had seen this scene far too many times. He was not flustered at all. He calmly took a sip of the milk he carried with him and mentally calculated the distance between the cavalrymen in front of him and his own side. When the enemy was about a hundred paces away, he suddenly shouted: "Rise up and fire the arrows!"

The moment the words left his mouth, a line of soldiers rose in unison from behind the crouching Han soldiers, each holding a crossbow. They had been hidden behind the halberdiers in the front ranks, ready to unleash their attack at this moment. Over seven hundred crossbows fired simultaneously, unleashing a dense barrage of arrows far more powerful and devastating than those fired by the archers! It was as if summer hail had suddenly struck a pond full of open lotus leaves, creating a continuous thud and felling a large number of the approaching Jinyang cavalry.

The sheer number of crossbows caught the charging Jin Yang cavalry off guard, but they knew that cocking the crossbows was extremely troublesome. Now that they had begun their charge, they couldn't afford to give the enemy a chance to reload. At Kui'an's urging, they hesitated briefly, then abandoned the wounded and continued their rapid advance towards the Han army. Unexpectedly, before they could even get close, they were met with a second barrage of fire from the Han army behind the horse-drawn embankment.

At this distance, the crossbows rendered armor and defense meaningless. The Jinyang cavalry never expected the enemy to have a second rank of crossbows at their disposal. Nearly a hundred cavalrymen were instantly riddled with crossbow bolts, causing another massacre. Some died on the spot, but many more lay groaning on the ground with bloody wounds. The cavalry behind could clearly see horrifying holes in their chests, arms, and abdomens, from which blood and organs gushed. The scene was so bloody and gruesome that even the Jinyang cavalry, accustomed to seeing death, couldn't help but shudder with fear.

This second round of firing completely extinguished the Jin Yang cavalry's will to charge. It wasn't that the knights were unwilling to charge, but rather that the horses were timid by nature and couldn't bear to see such a scene. No matter how the knights urged and cursed them, the warhorses jumped and neighed, refusing to move forward, creating a considerable chaos.

The cavalry, blocked at the rear, could no longer charge and could only draw their bows and arrows to exchange fire with the Han army. They were now firing with the wind at their backs, and their archery skills were quite proficient, but no matter how skilled the archer, the damage they inflicted was far less than that caused by the crossbows. This time, the Han crossbowmen raised their crossbows again, unleashing a third volley of rapid fire at the chaotic Jinyang cavalry. The casualty ratio between the two sides reached an alarming level once more, shattering the Kui'an tribe's offensive.

At this point, the Jinyang cavalry had no choice but to return to their own lines. Corpses lay strewn across the battlefield, and stray horses, their backs pierced with arrows, galloped haphazardly before the enemy lines. The tips of long iron spears were stuck upside down in the ground, and the small banners bearing the mythical beast Pixiu hung limply. The two barricades of the Han army, which were not far away, seemed impossibly distant.

Kui'an stood at the front of the battle line, witnessing the loss of nearly a tenth of his meticulously trained Jinyang cavalry in just a quarter of an hour. His frustration was indescribable, but outwardly he had to feign nonchalance and try his best to calm the frightened soldiers who had returned. Many knights dismounted and grabbed their horses' straps to prevent their terrified horses from leaping. At this moment, Kui'an anxiously pondered: crossbows were known for their great power and slow rate of fire, so why were the enemy's crossbows firing so frequently?

The reason is quite simple: the Southern Han Dynasty spared no expense in Li Ju's northward campaign, equipping him with a full five thousand crossbows. It should be noted that since Liu Xian entered Shu, his most important military equipment manufacturing had been crossbows. After all, the Shu region itself did not produce warhorses, and powerful crossbows were essential for countering cavalry or building a navy. Furthermore, since Zhuge Liang took power, Shu Han had consistently valued its crossbow corps, resulting in a considerable number of crossbow makers remaining around Chengdu. After Liu Xian consolidated these resources and painstakingly managed them for several years, even with the entire nation's resources, they only managed to produce a little over six thousand crossbows.

With such a large number of powerful crossbows, and with all of Mao Bao's crossbows cocked the night before the battle, two teams took turns firing at the front, while thousands of men behind them were dedicated to cocking the crossbows and preparing for battle. This allowed them to achieve a continuous barrage of fire. The Han army could pick them up and use them immediately, and skilled archers could even use multiple crossbows, which is why even heavily armored cavalry were powerless to retaliate.

Faced with this situation, Kui An was at a loss for a moment, because each of the armored cavalrymen was carefully trained and he dared not bear more losses of armored cavalrymen. So he could only surround them without attacking, and remain in place, while informing Kong Chang of his current situation.

Upon learning of the reports from Kui'an and Zhi Xiong, Kong Chang was immediately troubled. While Shi Hu's attack had been remarkably successful, his own offensive from both sides had stalled. Kong Chang certainly wouldn't underestimate himself, believing the gap between him and Shi Hu to be vast, but he also found it difficult to attribute the victory solely to Shi Hu's good fortune.

However, this was the reality. After Shi Hu defeated the Han army's right flank, the Tuoba Xianbei did not immediately launch an attack. Instead, while holding the Han army at the front, they placed their hopes on Kong Chang on the right flank. However, Zhi Xiong, who was assigned by Kong Chang, was unable to defeat the Han army's flank. They had no choice but to place their hopes on Kui An at the rear. As a result, Kui An was also unable to break through the stalemate, which led to a stalemate.

By this time, it was already broad daylight. Hearing that the battle had reached a stalemate, Shi Le, surrounded by his soldiers, carefully observed the Han army before him. He noticed that despite their initial defeat and overwhelming numerical inferiority, the Han army remained unfazed, their formation impeccable and flawless. He exclaimed in genuine admiration, "Truly living up to their reputation! In my long history of warfare in Hebei and the Central Plains, I have never encountered such an opponent. Where does Liu Xian get so many ideas?"

Despite the praise, as the commander-in-chief, Shi Le still needed to find a way to defeat the enemy. He secretly calculated: they had already gained some advantage, essentially winning one round against Li Ju, which was no easy feat. Continuing to fight head-on might not yield good results. Even if they won this battle, the Qi people would suffer heavy losses; would they be grateful? It would only cause them trouble. Why bother? But now that he had finally gained some advantage, if he let Li Ju leave, he would never have such a good opportunity again.

Amidst the hesitation, the roar of the Xianbei cavalry ahead filled the air, like a pack of beasts howling at the heavens, venting their fury. It seemed that no matter how Shi Le analyzed the pros and cons or devised tactics, Tuoba Liuxiu could no longer wait. He had already donned black armor for himself and his beloved horse, standing like a pagoda in the army. The surrounding Xianbei soldiers chanted his nickname in unison, deafeningly loud: "Da Yan Yu! Da Yan Yu!"

In the Xianbei language, "Yanyu" means tiger. Liu Xian, in his youth, had witnessed a Xianbei man with extraordinary martial prowess who was named after him. Therefore, "Da Yanyu" means the fiercest of tigers, the bravest of warriors.

As the eldest son of Tuoba Yilu, the current Great Chanyu of the Tuoba Xianbei, Tuoba Liuxiu would never allow himself to fall behind others on the battlefield, even if that person was his ally. Since Shi Hu had crushed the Han army's right flank, he was determined to launch a decisive attack, utterly defeating Li Ju in this single exchange, thus proving that the Tuoba tribe's dominance over the grasslands was not undeserved. (End of Chapter)