Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 4866: Fierce Battle on Snowy Night

Sai Rugongdun was short and muscular, wearing a bulky iron armor that made his entire body almost square. The hot air he exhaled from his mouth and nose condensed when it met the cold, making his thick beard covered with white frost. He stood in front of the general's tent with his hands behind his back, his hawk-like eyes staring in the direction of Zishankou, as if his sharp gaze could penetrate the wind and snow and see the swooping enemies.

In the wind and snow, the sound of thundering hooves could be heard faintly.

He asked a deputy general beside him: "How many enemy cavalry are there?"

The deputy general lay prone on the ground with his ears to the ground, listened for a while, stood up, and shook his head: "The enemy swooped down from the mountain pass against the wind, and the wind and snow covered the horse's hoof sound so it was difficult to distinguish. But based on my experience, the number of people should be within a thousand."

This was within Serugundun's expectations, but he asked again: "Besides this, is there any other large force following them?"

"The wind and snow are too strong, and we are upwind, so we can't hear anything."

"He chose to go down the mountain during such a heavy snowstorm. This kid Lun Qinling is really not honest."

Serugundun reached out and smoothed the ice off his beard, his thick brows furrowed.

If Lun Qinling really followed the agreement, he would not have to choose such a windy and snowy night. On the contrary, since Lun Qinling had to choose such a time, he must have used the wind and snow to cover up something.

A massive attack and a fight to the death?

Sai Rugongdun had previously believed that this was absolutely impossible, but now he was worried in his heart and was no longer as confident as before, because Qin Ling was really cunning.

However, at this moment, the enemy troops are approaching, and they cannot redeploy or change their formations. They can only hope that Lun Qinling will not be so crazy...

Having followed the Zamp for half his life to pacify various tribes and unify Tubo, Sairu Gongdon had experienced countless battles, with both victories and defeats but he remained calm. But this time, he gripped the hilt of the sword tightly and was nervous.

He felt a little regretful. It would have been enough to just block Lun Qinling at Zishankou. Why bother trying to lure Lun Qinling into the trap so as to end the war as soon as possible?

"Report! The enemy is attacking, and the ones charging in the front are armored cavalry and heavy cavalry, numbering about a thousand!"

"Which direction is the enemy charging?"

"The enemy cavalry just rushed down from the mountain pass, and it is still unknown."

"Probe again and report again!"

"Yes!"

The other deputy generals and lieutenants understood Serugundun's concerns and became nervous. Although Tubo was called an "empire", it was actually an "alliance" composed of a number of large and small tribes. The distribution of the core of power was also very obvious, that is, the leaders based on the tribe occupied the high position and in turn fought for the interests of their respective tribes.

The warriors who came to fight with Serugundun were all from the "Serugun" tribe, and their interests were the same as Serugundun's, so if there were losses in this battle, everyone's interests would be damaged...

Will Qin Ling fall into the encirclement?
Everyone was worried, and their originally firm beliefs began to waver for no reason.

"Report!"

The scout came galloping from the front, and before he got close, he shouted loudly on his horseback: "The enemy cavalry is swift and is heading straight for the center of the army!"

boom!
The most worrying thing happened. These battle-hardened soldiers and generals suddenly became nervous and began to whisper to each other.

As expected, he is Lun Qinling, and he will never fall into the trap...

Sai Rugong Dun calmed down. This was the worst time to panic. He raised his sword and shouted, "Why panic? Immediately, order the encirclement to be broken up. All troops should go back to support the central army. Send a troop to go around to the front to block the enemy cavalry's rear. We must stop the main force of the enemy coming from behind. We will first eat up the enemy's heavy cavalry, and then calmly defeat Lun Qinling! Everyone, get on your horses, follow me to guard the central army, kill the generals and the enemies!"

"Yes!"

The generals and soldiers calmed down, formed a battle array, and waited to stop the enemy cavalry from charging.

In the distance, the elite troops that formed the encirclement were hurried but not panicked. Some of them retreated to support the central army, and some moved northward towards Zishankou, trying to cut off the enemy cavalry's retreat, block the enemy's main force, and divide it front and back. In this way, the enemy cavalry was surrounded and could hardly take care of the front and rear.

We only need to stop the enemy's charging cavalry, and the situation will still be the same as dividing, encircling, and defeating them one by one, and the result will not be much worse than before.

The most important thing is to stop the enemy cavalry from charging.

It seems simple, but it is so difficult!
In the era of cold weapons when firearms were not yet mastered, armored cavalry was the "king of war" in field battles. They had impact, defense, destructive power, and greater mobility than infantry, which was enough to enable them to charge across the battlefield and be invincible.

The only ones who can defeat the armored cavalry are the armored cavalry...

Unfortunately, there is none under Serugundun's command.

In Tubo, where ironware was almost equivalent to a luxury, it was very expensive to make a set of iron armor for the generals. It was extremely rare for generals below the rank of deputy general to have a piece of iron plate attached to the chest and back to protect the vital parts, let alone armor for both men and horses?
Therefore, they could only use their flesh and blood to resist the steel swords and iron cavalry.

Sai Rugundon looked stern and ready for battle.

Amid the heavy snow and wind, the sound of hooves rumbled like thunder in the sky, beating like a war drum from far away to near, striking Sairugundun's heart. Then, the armored cavalry suddenly jumped out of the snow and wind, the horses raised their hooves and neighed, the soldiers raised their spears high, and charged into the defenders' formation in the snow and wind.

The rigorous formation was broken up in an instant. The huge impact force of the war horses knocked down and kicked away the soldiers in the front row, and then continued to move forward. The sharp spears stabbed and killed the soldiers behind one by one. The blood splattered on the ground and melted the ice and snow. The shrill howls and the neighing of the war horses suddenly overwhelmed the howling of the wind and snow. The whole camp turned into a battlefield, with blood and flesh flying everywhere, and it was extremely tragic.

Even though the defenders suffered heavy casualties, they still fought bravely and rushed forward one after another like a tide hitting a reef, trying to block and delay this torrent of steel with their flesh and blood.

Although the armored cavalry is invincible on the battlefield, it also has a fatal flaw - it cannot last long!

As long as it can be trapped in the battle formation and lose its mobility, the huge load will be enough to exhaust the soldiers and horses, and eventually turn them into beasts hunted by the infantry. But at the same time, the price to be paid to stop its invincible charge and trap it is naturally extremely high.

Sai Rugongdun's face was as cold as iron. He watched the soldiers of his tribe rush forward recklessly but were killed by iron hooves, spears and swords, with limbs flying everywhere and corpses scattered all over the ground. His teeth were almost bitten to the point of bleeding.

However, although the sacrifice was huge, the effect was also obvious. The armored cavalry slowed down little by little, and the advantage of charging was gradually offset by the human wave tactics. More and more soldiers gathered around them. As long as they could delay a little longer and wait for the elite troops in the encirclement to come for support, they would be able to gather and annihilate these armored cavalry.

A dozen huge arrows flew through the snow and wind, their tails dragging sparks as they rose to a high altitude before falling diagonally, flying over the battlefield and landing in the camp behind. When the arrows hit the ground, the gunpowder inside exploded, igniting the kerosene and throwing it in all directions, and countless tents instantly caught fire.

The fire was fueled by the wind and the wind helped the fire. Even though there was heavy snow and wind, the entire camp was soon burned down.

The fire was raging.

The war horses in the camp were frightened by the fire and they raised their hooves, neighed, and ran away in convulsions. The soldiers in the rear army wanted to put out the fire but they were unable to do so and could only watch it grow bigger and bigger. The morale of the defenders quickly collapsed under the fire.

After being suppressed for a period of time, the speed of the armored cavalry was picked up again. They galloped freely in the defenders' formation, killing people back and forth, causing rivers of blood and mountains of corpses.

Sai Rugongdun's face turned pale and he cursed loudly: "As for Qinling, I will fight you to the death!"

Looking back at the commander's tent that was on fire and the soldiers running, shouting, and collapsing in the flames, a trace of despair emerged in his heart.

He now faced a difficult decision: should he order a retreat immediately, preserve his remaining forces, and retreat to the Yak River behind to regroup and wait for the next battle, or should he insist on not retreating and wait for the elite troops on the other side of the encirclement to withdraw before retreating the entire army?

The former choice would cause the elite troops to be attacked and charged by armored cavalry. If they were entangled by Lun Qinling who arrived later, the probability of the entire army being annihilated would be very high; while the latter choice meant that he might also be surrounded and die in battle here...

After only a moment's hesitation, the scouts came to report that Lun Qinling had led a main force of several thousand mixed infantry and cavalry to attack from behind. Sai Rugongdun roughly estimated the time required for the elite troops on the other side of the encirclement to withdraw, and immediately ordered the entire army to retreat.

Just as he turned around surrounded by guards, he heard someone shouting from behind: "Sai Rugongdun, don't run away! Do you dare to fight me?"

When Sai Rugundun looked back, he saw the armored cavalry galloping like a steel torrent, unstoppable and about to break through the encirclement. The leader was a tall man holding a strange weapon, a nail-headed hammer, and rushing forward, screaming at him.

Sai Rugong Dun snorted angrily: "The courage of a common man!"

They whipped the horses' buttocks hard with whips and took the lead in retreating southward. The formation that had been barely maintained under the charge of the armored cavalry collapsed instantly.

To measure the combat effectiveness of an army, we must not only look at whether it is fearless when charging and whether it is rigorous when forming a battle array, but also whether it can "retreat without chaos" when retreating. The last point is particularly important. Many armies are brave and fierce when fighting a favorable battle, but once they suffer a setback, their morale will drop instantly and they will collapse at the touch of a button. Although the army of the "Sairu" tribe did not collapse at the touch of a button under the command of the famous Tibetan general Sairu Gongdun, it was obviously unable to "retreat without chaos."

When the more than 10,000 rear troops saw their commander retreating, they had no desire to fight and fled, suffering a crushing defeat.

Lun Qinling led the main force to swoop down from Zishankou and attack the enemy's center. Halfway through the attack, he saw many enemy troops rushing back from the food and fodder storage areas to provide support. He also received the news that Sairu Gongdun had retreated. He made a prompt decision and immediately sent someone to inform Bolun Zanren not to pursue them. He ordered him to turn his horse around quickly and cooperate with him to completely defeat these elite enemy troops.

In the midst of the wind and snow, the remnants of the "Sairu" tribe fled in panic and were completely defeated.