Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 186, Fighting the Grassland

Twenty miles away from Fang Yong’s camp, a grassland soldier was reporting.

"Reporting to the two commanders, the commotion that just occurred was caused by an encounter with a group of Han scouts!"

The eyes of the two generals riding on their horses lit up instantly.

A governor laughed and said:

"Great! The Han emperor must be right ahead. Advance at full speed and capture him alive to restore the glory of our Golden Family!"

The person who spoke was named Gong Yulie, and the other general next to him was named Batu Xiong. Both of them were generals who were ordered by Kah Khan to pursue Emperor Longqing's troops migrating south.

The two men's position in the army was Dutong, roughly equivalent to a Wanhuchang, but their actual power was much greater than that of an ordinary Wanhuchang.

Because Kah Khan's rule on the grassland was in the form of a federation formed by the union of various tribes, Gong Yulie and Batu Xiong were both the commanders under Kah Khan and the leaders of the major tribes in the grassland.

The soldiers under their command are all members of their respective tribes, so they have considerable self-control.

At this time, after hearing the news about the Han emperor, the two immediately wanted to lead their troops to pursue.

At this time, the soldier tried to dissuade him:
"Two commanders, don't be impulsive. We just fought with the Han scouts and found that they were different from the Han people we encountered before. Their fighting power was very strong and their equipment was exceptionally good. We fought with twice as many people and still suffered heavy losses. They escaped. The two commanders must not underestimate them!"

After hearing this, Gong Yulie sneered and swung his whip to hit the soldier hard.

"Asshole, my grassland cavalry is over ten thousand strong and invincible, how can it be compared with the mere Han people. Moreover, on this plain, even if the enemy has an army of 100,000, I am not afraid. You bastard, you are scared to death, how dare you disrupt the morale of my army? Come on, kill him and sacrifice him!"

Upon hearing this, the soldier immediately begged for mercy.

However, Gong Yulie had a violent temper. He ignored the soldier's pleas for mercy and ordered his men to kill him. He put his head on a rope and hung it under the blue Goshawk battle flag!
Afterwards, Gong Yulie prepared to give the order and move forward.

Batu Xiong, who was standing by, saw this and spoke out to stop Gong Yulie.

Batu Xiong said, "Wait a minute, let me kill one man as a sacrifice to the flag, and then we can go on."

As he said this, Batu ordered his soldiers to go to the surrounding villages and capture a civilian to sacrifice on the dark red Canglang battle flag.

The eagle and the wolf are the totems of their tribe. The two men, who have little cultural knowledge, firmly believe that the power of the totems can protect them and ensure victory in every battle.

On the other hand, Fang Yong also learned the news that the grassland army was about to arrive.

He hurriedly assembled his generals to prepare for the next battle.

According to the description of the scout team that escaped back, the grassland army was less than 20 miles away at this time. Because it was night, the exact number of the enemy could not be seen clearly, and it could only be roughly estimated to be between 20,000 and 40,000, all of whom were cavalry.

Fang Yong looked a little ugly.

In this situation, there is no way to escape and the only choice is to fight.

But this battle was at a considerable disadvantage for him.

Because of the type of troops they are, cavalry has a great ability to suppress infantry on the plains.

Although he also had some cavalry, there were only 5,000 of them, all of them light cavalry, which was a big gap compared to the large number of cavalry on the grassland.

The rest of the infantry could only rely on defensive positions to fight against the cavalry, but in this temporary base, the defensive facilities were not perfect. If they wanted to resist the charge of the grassland cavalry, they would inevitably suffer heavy casualties.

If the opponent had 20,000 cavalry, it would be fine. He had the confidence that he could rely on his own strength to force his way into the battle, kill the general and seize the flag. But if the opponent had 40,000 cavalry, it would be a little difficult.

If the enemy general chooses to shamelessly hide in the army formation and use the lives of a large number of soldiers to fight against him, even if he has extraordinary martial arts skills, it will probably be difficult for him to break through in a short period of time.

At this time, Jiang Ji suddenly stood up.

"General, Ji has a plan!"

As time was of the essence, Jiang Ji did not keep the secret and directly told the story of his plan.

"General, you can lead the cavalry alone, withdraw first, and then go around and position yourself behind the enemy."

"Send another general to lead the rest of the infantry out of the camp to engage in battle, then pretend to defeat the enemy and order the soldiers to abandon the gold and silver and flee back to the camp to defend. The barbarians on the grassland are extremely greedy and will rob gold and silver when they see them. At that time, their formation will be in chaos, and you can take the opportunity to attack them from behind. We will attack them from both sides and the enemy will be defeated!"

Fang Yong frowned slightly when he heard this.

"If we follow this plan, there will be heavy casualties!"

Jiang Ji said: "If you want to accomplish great things, how can you have a woman's kindness?"

Fang Yong's eyes narrowed when he heard this. When facing a real crisis, he was never a weak person.

He immediately made up his mind and said, "Okay, let's follow this plan. Who dares to be the general?"

Wei Xing stepped forward, bowed and said, "I am willing to go!"

Fang Yong personally helped Wei Xing up, patted him on the shoulder, and said:

"The important task of defeating the enemy this time will be handed over to General Wei!"

Wei Xing said: "I will definitely live up to your trust!"

At this moment, Fang Yong led 5,000 cavalrymen out from the rear of the camp.

Wei Xing assembled the remaining 25,000 soldiers and generals, selected 20,000 to fight, and left 5,000 to support. He "borrowed" gold, silver, and jewelry from various officials and nobles, especially a large amount of gold from King Zhongshun. After all preparations were completed, he led the soldiers out of the camp three miles away to form a battle line to meet the enemy.

The two sides soon met. Gong Yulie watched from afar and saw teams of Huaiyin troops standing in formation under the light of a large number of torches.

Although it was difficult to see the exact number of the other side due to the darkness, the approximate number range allowed us to determine that the number was not much different from that of our side.

Gong Yulie couldn't help but praise:
"This group of Han people is really different from the previous ones. Apart from anything else, their courage to come out and fight is worthy of admiration!"

Batu Xiong said:

"That's all. If they dare to engage in a battle with our grassland cavalry in the wild, they will surely die, no matter how powerful they are!"

Gong Yulie nodded in agreement.

Then, Yumie Yu and Batu Xiong said together:
"attack!"

The grassland cavalry rushed down and began to charge from a distance of 500 meters, with their iron hooves rolling and unstoppable.

Wei Xing shouted in the army: "Form a battle array to meet the enemy!"

The Huaiyin soldiers immediately raised their shields and spears.

The cavalry began to draw arrows after reaching about 150 meters.

Wei Xing hurriedly said: "Shield defense!"

At 100 meters, a large number of arrows were thrown out.

The Huaiyin soldiers put up shields above their heads.

However, in order to quickly intercept Emperor Longqing's southward migrating troops, Fang Yong carried light shields, which were not particularly effective in defending against arrows, and many shields were pierced by arrows.

The Huaiyin army suffered a lot of casualties, and a gap appeared in the army formation, and the grassland cavalry rushed over!

The strong combat qualities allowed the rest of the Huaiyin Army to quickly fill the gaps in the formation and block the grassland cavalry.

The war horses charged into the army formation, and their speed of a 500-meter sprint was no different from that of a car!
The Huaiyin army thrust their spears into the horses' bellies, killing the grassland horses. However, the remaining impact force still sent the Huaiyin army flying and killing them.

Once the two sides come into contact, it will be a brutal contest of blood and flesh crushing.

Wei Xing conducted the command calmly.

Seeing that the charge of the war horses paused for a moment, he quickly gave orders.

"Crossbows ready, fire!"

The next moment, countless arrows were fired from behind the Huaiyin army's formation, killing a large number of grassland cavalrymen and their horses.

On a real battlefield, especially against high-speed moving cavalry, it is generally difficult for arrows to hit the vital points, especially now that it is night, it is even more difficult to hit.

Therefore, Wei Xing could only use the spear formation, use the flesh and blood of the soldiers to block the impact of the cavalry, and then use bows and arrows to shoot the enemy at close range.

Fortunately, the number of enemies was not as many as the general had predicted. If Wei Xing had brought crossbows and artillery, he would even have the confidence to completely block the grassland army with the troops at his disposal.

Behind, Gong Yulie and Batu Xiong saw that the first wave of charge had failed, and a hint of surprise flashed in their eyes.

"I didn't expect that the Han emperor's men were really capable! Organize another charge, target the left wing, right wing, attack!"

At the command, the sound of horse hooves was heard again.

(End of this chapter)