My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 290 A general who does not know the weather and geography is a mediocre person

Sun Ce and Zhang Liao broke down in their conversation. Both sides were furious and stopped talking nonsense and started to charge directly.

However, both of them were veterans and would not act rashly. Although they were going to charge, they still had a plan and each of them left a reserve force, only sending a part of their troops to test the enemy's strength first.

Especially here, Sun Ce brought along veterans like Huang Gai and Han Dang to assist him, as well as brave generals like Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin to charge into the battle formation. Even if Sun Ce wanted to rush forward, Huang Gai and Han Dang would stop him.

Sun Ce was well aware that his own military strength was absolutely superior, at least ten times more than the enemy's, perhaps even twenty times. However, the vast majority of his own troops were infantry. If he allowed the cavalry to go first, his numerical advantage over Zhang Liao would not be obvious.

Therefore, Sun Ce paid great attention to preserving the combat effectiveness of the cavalry. He only let Zhou Tai lead thousands of infantry vanguards to charge first, and put all the cavalry as part of the reserve, placed on the right side of the formation, with Han Dang in charge and ready to make a detour at any time.

In today's battle, both sides lined up on the south bank of the Qinhuai River. Sun Ce's army attacked from northwest to southeast along the river, while Zhang Liao attacked from southeast to northwest. Therefore, the left wing of Sun Ce's army was close to the Qinhuai River, and the right side was relatively open, with a little room for detour.

Sun Ce placed the relatively weak new soldiers and able-bodied men on the left wing to prevent them from being attacked and causing instability on the flank, and placed the relatively elite troops in the middle and right sides, especially all the cavalry, on the far right side of the formation, to facilitate outflanking later.

It would be best if Zhou Tai could entangle and stick to Zhang Liao from the front, and then use his cavalry to encircle and cut off Zhang Liao's retreat.

Han Dang's native place is Lingzhi County in western Liaozhou. He is a typical Youzhou native and one of the most skilled generals of the Sun family in commanding cavalry corps. Another veteran left over from the Sun Jian era, Cheng Pu, is from Youbeiping County in Youzhou. His ability to lead troops is slightly better than Han Dang's, but Cheng Pu is now in Wu County helping Zhu Zhi and Zhou Yu defend the rear and is not here.

The generals after Huang Gai were all recruited when Sun Jian came to Changsha County in the south to quell the rebellion, or even later. These people were generally from the south and were only used to mountain and water battles, but not cavalry.

……

Sun Ce had a good idea, but Zhang Liao was not weak either. He could see Sun Ce's plan just by looking at the opponent's charge formation.

And when he found that Sun Ce only used the vanguard infantry to charge at him and held back the cavalry of Sun's army and refused to move easily, Zhang Liao's face also became solemn.

Zhang Liao immediately relied on the fact that his army was composed of pure cavalry and could change formations flexibly and agilely, and issued an order to change formations to his general Cao Xing:
"You and the rear troops must not move rashly! I will lead the front troops to test the enemy. If I cannot break through the enemy formation and retreat, you will fight on horseback and shoot to pin down the enemy's vanguard and cover my retreat!"

Cao Xing immediately took the order, and Zhang Liao divided the three groups of 1,200 cavalry into two groups. He led two groups to attempt to charge, and left one group for Cao Xing to prepare for support.

The mobility of cavalry is much stronger than that of infantry, so as long as you keep a backup plan, if the charge is unsuccessful, you can still easily break away from the enemy. As long as there are friendly troops in the rear to support and contain them, it is easy to keep a distance and will not be stuck and killed by the infantry.

During the Han Dynasty, the combat methods of the cavalry in the northern states also differed. The Liangzhou horses were good at frontal charges and bloody hand-to-hand combat, while the Youzhou cavalry were good at mounted archery and roaming like the Wuhuan and Xianbei. The Bingzhou cavalry used both tactics, but neither was as professional as the Liangzhou or Youzhou cavalry, but they were better in versatility.

Zhang Liao was a cavalry general of Bingzhou, and his style was similar to Lu Bu. Although the number of Bingzhou veterans under his command was now very small, when Xia Pi was presented to Liu Bei by Chen Deng, he still led nearly a thousand cavalrymen to surrender.

Later, Guan Yu allocated several hundred cavalry to Zhang Liao, so Zhang Liao's subordinates were good at both tactics, and the combination of light and heavy cavalry was very balanced.

Soon, with the sound of hooves and shouts of killing, Zhou Tai's 4,000 infantry vanguards and Zhang Liao's 800 heavy cavalry collided head-on. Because they were all mobile warfare, Zhou Tai's troops could not form a tight spear formation, but only fought independently during the charge, and they could not form a formation in advance to set up crossbows to shoot at the enemy.

As soon as they came into contact, Zhang Liao ripped several large wounds from Zhou Tai's front-line soldiers, and blood and flesh flew everywhere. Some of Zhang Liao's cavalrymen were also stabbed and cut by spears, swords and shields, and fell down, with men and horses falling and fighting in a mess.

"Hold on! Don't panic! As long as we hold Zhang Liao back, General Han will help us kill the rebel!" Zhou Tai had received instructions from Sun Ce before the battle and knew his mission. Even though the first wave of casualties was extremely tragic, he did not retreat at all, still wielding his sword and slashing wildly, shouting at the top of his lungs to boost morale.

Normally, when using infantry to defeat cavalry, you should never charge head-on. The infantry should be on high alert, get into formation, and wait for the cavalry to charge.

As long as the spearmen stood shoulder to shoulder with their spears pointed outward, the cavalry would definitely pay a heavy price if they collided head-on. The range and armor-piercing power of the bows and crossbows used in infantry combat were far greater than those of the cavalry bows. Even if the cavalry hesitated and fired at them in front of the formation, the infantry would not be afraid.

But today's situation is very special. Sun Ce is trying to save time and break through.

If he still fought in battle array, Zhang Liao would definitely not fight him immediately, but would only hesitate and delay from a distance.

If it takes an hour or two, Zhao Yun will arrive. If it takes longer, Guan Yu will also arrive, and then Sun Ce will be finished! Time is not on Sun Ce's side.

Therefore, Sun Ce had to take the initiative to make some sacrifices and adopt a posture of using light infantry to charge against cavalry. He would rather suffer heavy casualties in the first wave of his own side in exchange for Zhang Liao's willingness to charge against him.

Even if Zhou Tai's troops suffered heavy losses in the end, as long as Zhou Tai stuck to Zhang Liao and bought time for friendly forces to encircle him, his mission would be accomplished.

Under such circumstances, it was no surprise that Zhang Liao easily killed Zhou Tai's vanguard with his first line and cut Zhou Tai's troops into pieces.

Zhou Tai had a five-fold advantage in numbers, but the cavalry formed several wedge-shaped formations and tried to penetrate, so Zhou Tai's army could not make use of the numerical advantage. After several points were breached, Zhang Liao penetrated horizontally to tear and expand the gap, and Zhou Tai soon fell into chaos.

Zhou Tai himself fought hard, killing several cavalrymen under Zhang Liao's command and a garrison commander, but he could not stop the gradual collapse. Fortunately, his sacrifice finally bought time for the friendly forces, and the second formation led by Jiang Qin had already approached.

Unlike Zhou Tai, who needed to race against time, Jiang Qin's troops had arranged a tight spear formation and archers who could block the formation, and they advanced steadily.

After Zhang Liao's troops defeated Zhou Tai, some of his cavalry officers, in a moment of impulse, did not turn back to fight back, but tried to continue charging the second formation of the Jiangdong Army. As a result, they soon suffered a small loss at the hands of Jiang Qin's step-by-step strategy.

Zhang Liao's cavalry had to leave behind dozens of corpses, immediately retreated, turned their horses around, and continued to pick on the weak.

Zhou Tai's army's formation was already shaky, and hundreds of soldiers were defeated and fled almost every cup of tea.

But in this process, more than a thousand Jiangdong cavalry led by Han Dang finally circled around from the right and were about to maneuver into position.

Although Zhang Liao was brave, his keen observation ability was not disturbed by the bloody charge.

He still maintained the calmness of an excellent cavalry general. Seeing that he was about to be attacked from three sides by Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, Han and Dang, he decisively chose to order a retreat.

"The entire army, follow me and retreat! Don't fight to the end! Cao Xing will support us!" Zhang Liao took the lead in charging, slashing left and right to kill several people who blocked the way, and then led the team to retreat.

A few of Zhang Liao's cavalry were stuck and after charging left and right they were unable to break away, and paid the price of dozens of casualties. However, they eventually took advantage of the cavalry's speed and fled away from contact with Zhou Tai's army.

Zhou Tai's light infantry had no formation at all, so they were unable to organize a concentrated attack with bows and crossbows when Zhang Liao retreated. They could only send off Zhang Liao with dozens of sparse arrows in the chaos.

"Chase him! Don't let Zhang Liao get away!" Zhou Tai roared at the top of his lungs, regardless of the fact that his men were already scattered all over the place.

He knew that the opportunity to stick to Zhang Liao was gained at the cost of heavy casualties, so how could he just let Zhang Liao get away?
Zhou Tai's own soldiers were no longer useful, so he dragged Jiang Qin into the front line to charge with him. Jiang Qin had to change his tactics and speed up a little, no longer caring whether the formation was tight enough.

In an infantry charge, it is impossible to have both the strictness of the formation and the speed of running. The faster you run, the more loose the formation will be. The higher the formation discipline requirements, the slower you will run. You must make a trade-off.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast the infantry increased their speed, they were still powerless against the cavalry who were determined to escape.

On the other side, Han Dang, who came from the right side, was composed of pure cavalry. But if Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin were disconnected, Han Dang would not dare to go up alone. If Zhang Liao and Cao Xing caught him and made a surprise attack, Han Dang and his more than 1,000 cavalry would be killed here, and Sun Ce himself might not be able to escape.

And as Zhou Tai's army pursued, they noticed a detail that they had not noticed during the previous battle:
"How can Zhang Liao's cavalry run so fast? Won't his cavalry slip on the trampled snow? Why can't General Han's cavalry run faster than him? This is impossible!"

Watching Zhang Liao retreating like the wind, not at all affected by the melted snow that was repeatedly trampled on the battlefield, Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin, who almost slipped every few steps during the charge, immediately began to doubt their lives.

Finally, after carefully observing the dead horses and injured horses left behind by Zhang Liao's cavalry who were killed in the previous melee, Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin suddenly realized what was going on.

"Zhang Liao actually wrapped straw around the horse's hooves in advance? How hateful! Our army lacks experience in cavalry combat on ice and snow! When the lord left the city, he certainly didn't treat General Han's cavalry horses like this!"

Zhou Tai and others quickly realized the seriousness of the problem, but there was nothing they could do.

The cavalry tactics of southern generals were not as well-coordinated as those of northerners, and many details and precautions were easily overlooked. Ultimately, it was because they had too little actual combat experience and had encountered too few extreme environments.

In addition, Sun Ce's army had been surrounded in Moling City before, and was not very familiar with the weather and geographical changes outside. How could Sun Ce have expected the extent of the snow and snow outside the city in the past few days? Would the Qinhuai River freeze over?

These weather and geographical information are very easy to obtain for Liu Bei's army, which controls a vast area outside the city, because the battlefield is always under their control.

For Sun Ce's army trapped in Moling City, they were completely in the dark. Even though they knew it would snow in the next few days, they could not have anticipated the extent to which the potential battlefields would be harmed by ice and snow.

The weather must be combined with the specific geographical environment of a specific location to deduce a comprehensive and complete battlefield environment.

Unexpectedly, tying straw around the hooves of Han Dang's cavalry was only the beginning of Sun Ce's army's negligence. They would have to pay a higher price for their negligence in various details later on.

The snow on the battlefield did not have much impact on both sides during the first wave of the charge. Because the two sides were fighting, the snow in front had not been stepped on by anyone, so there was no problem of slippery when stepping on it for the first time.

However, when one side withdrew and the other side pursued, the snow in the places they passed was repeatedly trampled and compacted, melted and froze again, and it was all slippery thin ice. Sun Ce's army stumbled in pursuit with untidy steps, and even trampled on each other after slipping in some places.

(End of this chapter)