Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 5169 Successfully Crossed the River
The crescent moon is like a hook, the stars are twinkling, and the cold light is sprinkled on the river surface. The waves are sparkling and the river water is like ink. You can vaguely see a floating bridge built on the water surface, connecting the north and the south. There are continuous figures boarding the floating bridge from the north bank and moving slowly to the south.

Ao Fu, who led the army, saw that the Tang army had not yet crossed the river. He felt relieved and ordered sternly: "Charge! Destroy the pontoon bridge and stop the enemy. Don't let them complete the crossing of the river!"

The soldiers behind him rushed forward frantically.

In the dark of night, one army charged madly along the river bank, trying to destroy the pontoon bridge before the other side crossed the river; the other army swayed on the wooden boards of the pontoon bridge, trying to keep their balance, but also speeding up as much as possible, trying to reach the shore before the enemy arrived.

Both sides gritted their teeth and put in all their efforts, unwilling to be left behind.

Everyone knows that whoever arrives first will have the upper hand...

Wang Xiaojie was already sweating under his iron helmet. The armor of the cavalry was too heavy. The floating bridge under their feet shook with every step their horses took. In addition, the wooden boards were too thin and were crushed by the horses' hooves from time to time. There was also the sound of "splash" falling into the water behind him, as the soldiers failed to keep their balance and accidentally fell into the river with their horses.

Seeing the enemy troops rushing along the shore, Wang Xiaojie felt extremely anxious.

In a hurry, he suddenly jumped off his horse and shouted, "Every other person, get off the horse. The horses are in the middle, and the people are on both sides. Follow me to the shore to resist the enemy!"

Although standing on the floating bridge was shaky and my steps were unsteady, it was much better than riding a horse. Especially since I was wearing armor and a helmet, it was much lighter after all. I stepped on the wooden planks and rushed forward with a thump-thump sound.

Behind him, the soldiers who were carefully crossing the river on the pontoon bridge quickly followed the order. Every other soldier dismounted, handed the reins to his comrade, and walked towards the shore.

Just as the enemy troops arrived, Wang Xiaojie finally crossed the pontoon bridge, stepped on the mudflats, drew out his sword, and shouted: "Line up, form a battle formation, and repel the enemy!"

"Hoohoo!"

The soldiers behind him stepped onto the shore one after another, drew their swords and fought side by side with him, forming a formation in silence.

On the floating bridge, the war horses moved forward slowly.

Auf was nervous when he saw the enemy troops had landed. But when he saw that the enemy troops were all infantry, he breathed a sigh of relief and waved his sword: "Charge!"

boom!
In the darkness, countless thunder bombs were lit and thrown into the ranks of the Arab army. For a moment, flames shot up into the sky, shrapnel flew everywhere, and the Arab soldiers who were charging fell one after another. The rest were frightened and involuntarily slowed down their pace and hesitated to move forward.

Auf's eyes were bloodshot, and he swung his sword to knock a soldier to the ground, shouting: "Those who retreat in the face of battle will be killed! Just get close, and the enemy's firearms will not be able to be fired! Charge forward and kill them!"

The personal soldiers on both sides turned into a supervisory team, hacking and slashing at those soldiers who hesitated or even wanted to turn around and run away with swords and axes. With the help of Auf's prestige, he finally stopped the army that was about to collapse and continued to charge forward.

The distance between them was more than ten feet, and in an instant they came into close combat.

Seeing that the Tang army was indeed unable to use firearms after getting close, the Arab army became greatly encouraged and rushed forward madly, shouting and yelling.

From the battles of Hengluo City and Kesan City to the present, the two armies had basically no chance to engage in close combat. The Tang army had always been shooting from a distance and chasing the Arab army. The Arab army was also an invincible army that roamed across Asia and Europe, but was beaten and fled in disgrace, unable to fight back. They had been holding their breath for a long time, and now that they finally had the opportunity for close combat, their morale was naturally high, and they were holding back their efforts to win back a victory.

However, the Tang army was fully armored, almost armed to the teeth. Swords, spears, swords and halberds fell on the Tang army one after another, and sparks flew everywhere, but they could not hurt them at all. Only heavy weapons such as iron axes and copper sticks could leave a dent on the Tang army's armor...

The Tang army's swords were extremely sharp and could easily cut through the leather armor of the Arab army. Even the bronze chain mail was cut with deep marks.

These Tang troops were invulnerable to swords and spears. Not only did their formation not break up, but they kept advancing and pressing forward, and actually pushed back the Arab army, which was dozens of times larger than their own...

Aof's eyes were bloodshot, and he waved his sword frantically to drive his soldiers forward. He had suffered a lot from the "armored cavalry" along the way. He knew that the first batch of Tang army crossing the river must be the "armored cavalry". These armored cavalry were the same as the Tang soldiers in front of them, covered in iron armor and invulnerable to swords and spears. Even if his own strength was ten or a hundred times that of the Tang army, he could only let the armored cavalry charge left and right in his formation and kill at will, while he could do nothing to the enemy.

Boom!

A burst of rapid horse hoof sounds was heard, and Auf's face changed drastically. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a series of black shadows crossing the river from the floating bridge, leaping up and landing on the shore. They were the "armored cavalry" with both men and horses in armor.

The Tang army finally crossed the Sabao River...

In the dark night, war horses carrying soldiers jumped from the floating bridge to the shore, their iron hooves making dull sounds as they stepped on the ground. The horses were wearing chain mail and masks, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed, and the soldiers on horseback were covered in iron armor. Both the man and the horse were in black, except for the sharp blades of the swords in the soldiers' hands.

As soon as they landed, the armored cavalry quickly formed into teams of three without anyone leading them, with one rider in front and two riders in the back, forming one "sharp arrow" after another, and rushed straight into the formation of the Arab army with the roar of iron hooves.

The warhorses galloped with powerful kinetic energy and broke into the enemy formation irresistibly. The warriors only needed to drag the sword in their hands horizontally to the side, and they could use the speed of the warhorses to easily cut through the enemy's body. As for the enemy's counterattack... it was like scratching an itch through a shoe.

The Arab army collapsed instantly.

Auf was cold and in despair.

From ancient times to the present, heavy cavalry has been the trump card of every dynasty and country. However, even the Persian cavalry that once roamed across Europe and Asia was limited by the extremely high cost and extremely low efficiency of iron smelting. The number of people that could be dispatched at any time was only a few hundred. Unless it was a decisive battle, they would never easily step onto the battlefield, because the loss of each heavy cavalryman was extremely huge.

When Amir conquered the Persian Plateau and destroyed Sassanid Persia, he could only use the "add fuel" tactic in the final battle to annihilate the Persian cavalry, and almost wore down the Persian cavalry with a casualty ratio of 20 to 1...

After the fall of Persia, because the Arabs did not care about technology, their skilled iron smelting craftsmen disappeared. As a result, the iron smelting technology of the Arab Empire was extremely backward. Not only was the iron quality of weapons and armor extremely poor, but it was also impossible to produce enough steel to forge armor to equip an army.

It is almost impossible for the Tang army to continuously deploy heavy cavalry in wars for a long time...

But no matter how impossible it is, the reality is happening right before our eyes.

The "armored cavalry", which was carrying too much weight and had difficulty in the journey, arrived at Sabao River only a few days after the Tang light cavalry and immediately engaged in battle.

Add to that the devastating firearms...

Auf no longer had any hope, turned his horse around and rode away.

Beside him, the armored cavalry of the Tang army were like "chisels" that pierced through the battle formation, and then gathered together with more and more cavalry in parallel rows, driving their horses and drawing their swords, rushing forward like a steel wall.

It's overwhelming and irresistible.

The Arab army retreated like a tide, dragging Auf down with it, and fled madly towards the city of Aludi.

The Tang army's armored cavalry followed slowly behind. In the distance, three pontoon bridges had been completed. More and more Tang troops crossed the Sabao River like a rolling torrent and arrived at the south bank.

……

Fuhuman wielded his sword and slashed continuously. He was covered in blood and could no longer tell whether it was his own or the enemy's. The warhorse under him was sweating profusely and panting with exhaustion. The number of guards around him was decreasing, and they were surrounded and squeezed by the enemy. The entire army was destroyed in an instant.

However, before he could realize that his life might be short, he felt the pressure around him suddenly ease. The Arab army that had just bypassed the right wing to block the Tang army's landing suddenly retreated like a tide. They were in disarray, with people shouting and horses neighing, and fled eastward desperately.

Even the enemies who were originally besieging and strangling them retreated suddenly. Fuhuman and the few dozen remaining guards formed a circle and defended strictly. However, these Arab soldiers did not even look at them. They just wished their parents had not given them two more legs and fled desperately...

Then, the dull sound of horse hooves came from afar, and a team of Tang cavalry advanced like a wall, chasing the rear of the Arab army and cutting melons and vegetables.

In a moment, all the Arab troops retreated, leaving Fu Human and his group abruptly on the battlefield...

Seeing the Tang cavalry marching forward without stopping, Fuhuman was horrified and quickly raised his arms high, shouting in Chinese: "Our own people! Our own people!"

The neat array of armored cavalry was separated in the middle, and continued to rush forward from both sides like a tide.

Fu Hu let out a long breath. After escaping death, he found that his whole body was exhausted and he couldn't even lift his sword.

But he had no time to rest, and immediately led his personal guards to follow the Tang army back to the city.

……

At this moment, the city of Aludi was in chaos.

Yazid searched for Tong'e but couldn't find her. He had no way to vent his anger at being betrayed, so he led his troops out of the city, intending to form a battle array to resist the Tang army that might successfully cross the river.

However, he misjudged the morale of his troops. Upon hearing that they had been betrayed by Tong'e and his son and that the Tang army was about to cross the river, the Arab army, which had long been frightened by the Tang army, was completely panicked. Although they did not dare to disobey Yazid's military orders, they hesitated on leaving the city, waiting for an opportunity to rush into houses, shops, and warehouses, burning, killing, robbing, raping and pillaging.

Yezide was so angry that he screamed, but he didn't care about the crimes committed by his soldiers. Instead, he cared about the fact that these people had no intention of fighting when they were facing a powerful enemy. Couldn't they wait until they defeated the Tang army before doing these things?

He immediately sent out a supervision team to search street by street, driving all the soldiers to the west of the city, and happened to run into Auf who was retreating...

Upon hearing that the Tang army had crossed the river and Aou had suffered a crushing defeat, Yezid's legs went weak and he had difficulty breathing. He had only one thought in his mind: run!