Chapter 22: Attack on the Qin Army
The eastern sky gradually turned a fish-belly white color, which also brought the first glimmer of light to the dark world.
Huan Qi stood on the chariot and looked back behind him, at this time, in front of and behind him, there was a Qin army team that could not see the head and tail at a glance. In the dim light, a long black dragon was formed. Huan Qi also silently estimated in his heart that after a night of rapid marching, the Qin army had at least walked out of the land of nearly three houses (one room is thirty miles), and it should be far away from the Zhao army, and now it can probably breathe a sigh of relief.
After receiving the news of the loss of the Qin army's Jingcheng camp yesterday, Huan Qi was shocked at first, but immediately realized that the Qin army has now fallen into an extremely dangerous situation, although the Qin army still has more than 100,000 troops, but after the Jingcheng camp was lost, the Qin army has fallen into the Zhao army's two-sided attack, difficult to attack, difficult to retreat, isolated and helpless. And now the Qin army's camp is full, and the grain and grass materials have all been burned by the Zhao army, and the grain and grass carried with them are only enough to support two or three days, and the morale of the Qin army is low, and the army has no fighting spirit, not to mention that the Zhao army is flanking from both sides, that is, the Zhao army is only fighting against the Qin army for a few days, and the Qin army is estimated to be defeated by itself.
Therefore, Huan Qi also immediately made a decision, and immediately ordered the Qin army to withdraw overnight, away from Fanwu, and retreat to Qiuyou to garrison. At the same time, the Qin troops stationed in other places were also ordered to retreat to Qiu You to gather.
So the Qin army, the brigade that attacked the Zhao army, also set off overnight, throwing away all the heavy baggage such as bed crossbows, stone-throwing cities, grain carts, gongs and drums, and only carrying the necessary materials such as grain, grass, and water with them.
Therefore, at this time, Huan Qi was a little relieved, but the Qin army had already fought a day's battle during the day yesterday, and after a night of rapid travel, at this time they were also sleepy, tired, hungry and dozing off. The infantry staggered forward almost step by step, while some of the cavalry fell asleep on horseback and fell headlong. Although the soldiers on the chariot were slightly better, because they didn't have to walk, they could sneak around on the chariot, but the war horse pulling the chariot couldn't stand it, and walked and walked, not to prevent the horse from stumbling in front of the horse, and as a result, the horse reversed and overturned. There have been many such incidents. And the pace of the march is getting slower.
However, the military law of the Qin army was extremely strict, and it had undergone strict training, so although the soldiers of the Qin army were exhausted at this time, they did not dare to stay, and still gritted their teeth and struggled to advance. If it was changed to the army of other countries, some people would have already laid down and pretended to be dead at this time, but in private, there were already quite complaints among the Qin soldiers.
At this time, a Qin general came to Huan Qi's car and said: "General, now that the soldiers are tired and tired, it is better to take a rest first, bury the pot and make food, and after a full meal, it is not too late to march again." β
Qin Jun is very tired now, and Huan Qi is also very clear, and he sees that Huan Qi is standing straight on the chariot, in fact, Huan Qi is also very tired now, and he wants to sleep well. It's just that as the chief general of the whole army, I have to hold on no matter what.
After listening to General Qin's construction, Huan Qi looked left and right, at this time the sky had just turned white, and the surroundings were still dark, and he couldn't see clearly, so Huan Qi said: "What kind of place is this." β
There are people on the left and right: "General Yu, this place is called Luoshi Slope." β
Huan Qi nodded, of course he knew what kind of place this was, thought about it, and said: "Walk forward for more than ten miles, and you will arrive at the Lishui River, where there is river water to drink, and there is also a river embankment to garrison, let the soldiers hold on for a while, and wait until they reach Lishui, and then rest and make food." β
Although the Qin army is now very tired, after all, the training is strict, and it has not reached the point where it can no longer hold on, and the military discipline of the Qin army is strict, so after Huan Qi's general order was handed down, the soldiers of the Qin army still did not dare to disobey the order, so they had to grit their teeth and insist on marching. And knowing that they could rest when they arrived at the edge of Lishui, the soldiers also had hope in their hearts, and they all gave birth to some strength, and the speed of the march was a little faster.
And Huan Qi's heart also relaxed a little, holding the wheel of the chariot with one hand, closing his eyes, and wanting to take a nap. But at this moment, only a dense and rapid sound of horses' hooves was heard, which sounded on the left and right sides of the Qin army brigade, and it became louder and louder from far to near.
Huan Qi's heart was suddenly startled, and he suddenly fell asleep, and looked left and right, at this time, the sky was a little higher, and he could also vaguely see that on both sides of the Qin army's brigade, countless cavalry shadows, each wielding a spear and a halberd sword, were rushing towards the Qin army.
At this time, Huan Qi couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart, the Zhao army would launch an attack on the Qin army at this time, seeing that he still underestimated Li Mu's ability to use troops, and this time the Qin army was more than lucky.
ββββββββ the dividing line βββββββββ dividing lineββββββββ it turned out that after receiving the news that the Zhao army had captured the Qin army's Jingcheng camp, Li Mu also immediately expected that the Qin army would definitely withdraw overnight, after all, Huan Qi was a person who was proficient in the art of war, of course he would not stay where he was and wait for death, and the Qin army had no choice but to retreat to the enemy, and there was no way out. And the Zhao army must also take advantage of the situation to pursue the Qin army, in order to completely defeat the Qin army on the northern front and completely win this battle, so Li Mu ordered the cavalry to rest on the plateau, and at the same time sent a large number of spies to explore the movements of the Qin army.
As Li Mu expected, the Qin army withdrew overnight, but Li Mu did not pursue immediately, but only sent spies to firmly follow the Qin army and make marks along the road. It was not until the second half of the night that Li Mu ordered an attack, and he personally led 8,000 cavalry as the front, including 1,000 elite cavalry on the plateau. Moreover, each cavalryman was equipped with two war horses, which were transferred along the road to maintain horsepower. He also ordered Yuan Xuan to lead 30,000 infantry to respond.
In fact, as Li Mu, he didn't have to personally lead the army as the front, but this time the Zhao army had the victory ticket in hand, and Li Mu also wanted to see the combat effectiveness of the elite cavalry with his own eyes, so he decided to personally lead the army to supervise the battle.
Although the time of the Zhao army's departure was a few hours later than the Qin army, because the Zhao army was a full cavalry army, and it was a person with two horses, it was also possible to rush at any cost, and the whereabouts of the Qin army were completely under the control of the Zhao army, so at dawn, the cavalry of the Zhao army caught up with the Qin army's brigade.
So Li Mu immediately ordered the cavalry of the Zhao army to change horses immediately, and some of the cavalry dismounted to fight, and then divided into two roads to attack from the left and right sides of the Qin army. The cavalry of the Zhao army was divided into several teams, and killed the Qin army's brigade from both sides, first of all, a rain of arrows, which killed and wounded the Qin soldiers, and then the cavalry of the Zhao army rode into the Qin army's team, stabbing and slashing, and immediately killed the Qin army on their backs, and killed countless people.
Although the total strength of the Qin army at this time was still 1230,000 people, far more than the Zhao army, but now the Qin army's ranks were stretched into a long one, and it was difficult to take care of the end of the line, while the Zhao army was attacking the Qin army. What's more, after a night of rapid marching at this time, the Qin army was already sleepy and lacking, demoralized, and the army had no fighting spirit, so it was okay to avoid forced marching, but when it started fighting, it was completely vulnerable. And the Zhao army is an all-cavalry assault, and the Qin army is naturally not an opponent.
As a result, in the blink of an eye, the Zhao army repeatedly rushed and killed several times, and the queue of the Qin army was also rushed into chaos by the Zhao army, although the Qin army's military discipline was strict, but at this time it could not restrain the Qin soldiers, except for a small part of the Qin army can avoid fighting with the Zhao army, the vast majority of the Qin army has no intention of fighting, and has withdrawn their weapons and armor, and scattered and fled. At this time, it is important for Bi Jing to save his life first, and military law can only be put aside.
But the Zhao army was all cavalry, although at this time some of the cavalry dismounted to fight, but still a considerable part was still on horseback, so as long as the Zhao army pursued, the Qin army could not escape at all.
The cavalry led by the plateau is naturally fighting on horseback, because it has gone through a baptism of battle, so now this cavalry army is also more proficient, at the beginning with the overall queue, back and forth twice, after the Qin army's array was disrupted, the cavalry immediately dispersed into a squad of fifty or a hundred people, chasing and slashing the Qin army on the battlefield, and their focus is to solve the remaining resistance of the Qin army, and the pursuit of the Qin army that has been defeated and fled, is handed over to the other Zhao army to do.
At this time, the Qin army had been divided into dozens of sections by the Zhao army, so the strength of the bottom resistance was only a few hundred people, more than a thousand people, and they were scattered in various parts of the battlefield, each fighting to resist the attack of the Zhao army, and most of the Qin army had been dispersed.
Once such a Qin army was encountered, there would be two or three cavalry squads of the Zhao army attacking from different directions. Moreover, the attack of the Zhao army was not blindly attacking the array of the Qin army, but first surrounding the periphery of the Qin army, and a part of the cavalry opened bows and arrows at the Qin army, trying to disrupt the Qin army's queue first.
And some Qin troops can still maintain the formation under the blow of the Zhao army's bow and arrow, so the Zhao army will maintain the attack of the bow and arrow, and send a small group of cavalry to arc impact, and most of them use long swords to slash and kill, with the help of the impact of the war horse, layer by layer to reduce the Qin army's array, and divide the Qin army piece by piece, until the Qin army's formation is completely disrupted for this.
It was in this way that the Zhao army used this method to completely break through the disastrous resistance of the Qin army, and in a short period of time, the Zhao army had broken up the small-scale resistance of six or seven Qin troops in a row. However, the Qin army was not completely vulnerable, and the middle-level generals of the Qin army also had considerable command ability, so they formed their own formations, relying on chariots and other tools to defend themselves, resisting the attack of the Zhao army. At the same time, they also tried to converge with other Qin troops in the vicinity to expand the strength of resistance. It still shows that the Qin army is well-trained in peacetime. Moreover, several resistance forces with a number of two or three thousand people were formed on the battlefield, so the battle was also in such mutual restraint and counter-restraint, and for a while it also formed a back and forth anxiety.