choke element

Chapter 1038 Steel (Part )

The death squad failed to break through the formation, and the Mongolian cavalry continued to gallop back and forth, like a flock of birds dispersing and gathering, passing through the open space in front of the two armies.

Occasionally, a horse would stumble after being hit by an arrow, and both the rider and the horse would fall to the ground, tumbling and creating a thick cloud of dust. But the cavalry would never be disrupted by this, and the nearby knights would just slightly pull the reins to avoid or jump over the fallen companions, as smoothly as a stream flowing over small pieces of gravel in the river.

While galloping, the knights unleashed an endless rain of arrows.

Hundreds and thousands of arrows whistled through the air and fell into the Zhou army's infantry ranks like rapid raindrops.

The sword and shield soldiers on the periphery of the small square raised their shields to protect themselves and their companions behind them. Most of the falling arrows hit the shields, making dense thumping sounds. However, their shield-raising movements were uneven, and many arrows passed through the gaps between shields and fell into the group of soldiers.

A series of muffled groans followed from beneath the shield wall. Even though the soldiers were protected by armor, they were still inevitably hit by arrows in their arms or thighs.

Just as the first wave of arrows passed, the second wave arrived. Because the cavalry drew an arc when running, the direction of this wave of arrows was slightly different from the previous one. The soldiers holding shields were inexperienced and most of them pointed in the original direction, so the arrows caused more casualties.

One soldier's arm holding the shield was pierced by an arrow shot from the side, and blood gushed out. He gritted his teeth and tried to hold the shield high, but the tendons in his hand were injured and he had no strength at all. He watched the entire shield slide off, revealing a gap about a foot long and wide in the shield wall.

"I'll do it!" the sign leader beside him shouted, and took a big step forward to hold the shield.

Because he rushed in from the side, he arrived first, but his arms were slower to exert force, and the shield was even slower to return to its original position.

A few dozen steps outside the shield formation, a Mongolian knight looked over here and immediately drew his bow and shot an arrow. This man was definitely a sharpshooter picked out of a hundred. The arrow was very powerful and came as fast as lightning. Paizitou was unable to dodge, and the arrow went straight into his face and out through his skull.

His tall body swayed twice and then fell down with a loud bang.

The blacksmith behind him cried out in surprise, and instantly realized that his boss was too unlucky and had no chance of being saved. He didn't care about anything else, and immediately stepped forward to hold the shield to stop him from falling further. In the blink of an eye, two more arrows flew in from the gap, making two dents in his armor.

One of his apprentices cursed loudly and shot two arrows with a crossbow. The arrows flew into the smoke and dust and could not be seen, and no one knew what they hit.

Fang the blacksmith kicked his apprentice to make him dodge, and then raised the shield back to its original position. The gap in the shield wall was blocked, leaving no loophole for the Mongols to exploit.

In these military formations, there were soldiers, clerks, scholars, craftsmen, merchants, and peddlers. When Guo Zhongyuan gathered the troops, he roughly forced them together.

Some of them fell, some groaned, some cried out in agony, but no one retreated.

I don't know who was shouting to give themselves courage, but everyone followed suit and roared.

Amid the roars, the closely connected military formations were like roaring beasts, shaking their steel and iron bones from time to time, symbolizing the will and determination of countless people without fear.

The Mongolian cavalryman who shot the leader of the banner dead with an arrow reined in his horse, looked at the dense shield wall with regret, and suddenly felt frustrated. Then he heard the horn calling them from behind... This team's outflanking and shooting still failed, and it was the turn of another team to come up and replace them.

The knight turned his horse back angrily, retreated several hundred steps and then joined the main group.

Running back and forth and shooting required extremely high horsemanship and archery skills, and was also very energy-consuming. The knight ran several times and shot out an empty quiver. His face was now covered in dust, and sweat washed out trench-like marks on his face.

He shouted a few times, calling for his companions, and found that only four people out of the ten-man team were still in sight, and the other three had run away.

This was nothing. The cavalry moved back and forth like the wind and always took the initiative. They were not worried that the Zhou army would suddenly attack and disrupt the Mongolian reorganization. So the knight was not in a hurry to find someone. He just dismounted with a gloomy face, then sat on the ground and used the knife he carried with him to cut open the skin of his shoulder and pick out the arrowhead embedded in it.

Every Mongolian is an expert in archery and also an expert in treating arrow wounds. When using a knife, he is silent and very focused.

This arrowhead was triangular and penetrated his leather armor, carrying a few strands of silk underneath and digging deep into the flesh. It was more difficult to deal with than the usual flat arrowheads. He could only cut open the muscles above first, and then slowly find the right angle to pick it out.

The process was extremely painful. Although the Mongolian knight said nothing, the veins on his forehead twitched several times.

He and his men had been successful in the Hezhong area of ​​the Western Regions over the years, winning one battle after another. However, after several days in the Central Plains, they saw the enemy becoming stronger and stronger as they killed more and more people, and they felt frustrated. Now, everyone had a gloomy face; some sat down to rest for a while, and then repeatedly called for water and food, hoping to recover their strength as soon as possible.

At least their mounts were still in good spirits. They brought the best horses this time, and there were enough of them. When they passed through the territory of Song, they abandoned some exhausted horses. Even though they were tired after running and fighting for ten consecutive days, the horses were still in good condition.

The knight rested for a while, then mounted his horse and walked back. He was obviously a famous warrior, and several groups of people in bright armor along the way bowed to him and saluted without stopping him.

He walked up to Tolui and said sternly, "Fourth Prince, the Han people on the other side are mostly novices! The officers' command is fine, but the subordinates' reactions are very slow and there are many loopholes!"

"And then? What's your plan?"

The knight was silent for a while, then gritted his teeth and said, "Press the whole army forward, force them to panic, and then raid their leader with all our might. Cut off the prey's head, and its four legs will just kick around!"

Tuolei nodded heavily: "That's a good idea! Go down and rest, and wait for my order!"

After the knight turned and walked away, Tolui sighed and his face turned pale.

Is there any good solution?

No one has a solution! There is no good solution!

All the solutions they proposed are dead ends!

Tuolei knew that there were few regular troops in Kaifeng City, and because the focus was on the north, even a lot of weapons and equipment were withdrawn. The team that Guo Zhongyuan had gathered was actually a civilian organization with a small number of officers as the skeleton, and it was not a strong army at all. So Tuolei hoped that his subordinates would divide and destroy it in the shortest time possible, and deal with the enemy on the weakest side first.

But he didn't expect that even though he had replaced four cavalry teams one after another, with more than 2,000 elite soldiers rotating and exerting the highest intensity of pressure, the enemy's formation remained stable. They might have constantly exposed flaws, but they made up for the shortcomings with high morale and unimaginable equipment allocation capabilities, resulting in his side being unable to seize the loopholes and could only rely on superior combat skills to fight piecemeal.

There was nothing wrong with piecemeal attacks. With the tenacity of the Mongols, they could harass and fight for days and nights. Even the strongest army could not withstand such consumption. The problem was that the enemy would not give Tolui such leeway.

More than a dozen experienced subordinates have come back to report. The results of their observations are similar. They all feel that the enemy lacks training and the ability to respond in time, but if they want to win, they must use the entire army to fight hard.

There was nothing wrong with the whole army pressing forward. Relying on the advantage of cavalry to concentrate forces in one place and defeat the enemy in multiple directions one by one was the most common tactic used by the Mongols. The problem was, if the whole army had to fight hard against such an army, what about the enemies who were eyeing them from other directions? They would soon form a momentum of encirclement!

How to deal with it?

Tolui had already sent people to investigate and found out that the enemies in other directions included two main forces of the Zhou army that had been scattered and reunited, and the elite cavalry of the Red Coat Army who had rushed in from the Song territory to provide assistance, as well as tens of thousands, possibly fifty thousand or even a hundred thousand, of angry civilians.

The Central Plains was as rich as the Southern Song Dynasty, and the resources available for war in the Central Plains were as abundant as those in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, the ferocity of the Han people in the Central Plains was ten or a hundred times greater than that of the Song people.

When they recovered from the chaos, a huge number of people and resources were reorganized and aggregated, forming an unimaginable steel wave in just a few days. Compared with the power of the steel wave, Tolui had to admit that his own forces were too weak.

Tolui suddenly regretted his decision and felt that it was a stupid idea to disperse his troops and kill and plunder everywhere.

No, maybe the whole Ofu plan was a stupid idea.

He still remembered his early defeat in Shandong. On that occasion, he led six thousand-man teams to attack a military fortress held by Guo Ning. As a result, the main force of the army was suppressed by Tiefutu, while Guo Ning himself led the elite cavalry and crushed Tolui's headquarters in a short moment and captured Tolui himself.

Tolui didn't want to repeat such painful memories again.

Therefore, before the Wufu plan, Tuo Lei insisted on leading his troops into the Central Plains. In this way, his father and brothers would directly fight with Guo Ning. Tuo Lei seemed to be in danger, but he was actually safe. He could calmly defeat the weak people in the Central Plains and then swallow up the benefits to strengthen his own strength.

He now confirms that the idea was a complete failure.

Because the Mongolian army had no way to deal with the Han soldiers and civilians in various parts of the Central Plains, and gradually lost its advantage, and became ants surrounded by the iron wave!

"Tell me, where is the main force of the Khan's army now?" Tolui asked in a hoarse voice, "We have been busy for ten days. They can't just ignore us, right?"