Chapter 244: The Battle of Western Cao

The sound of horns in the low ground resounded throughout the field, and the boundless Great Food Army was like black waves, surging towards the east, spears were densely packed like forests, murderous intent, and huge footsteps were neat and powerful. The cavalry on both wings guarded the infantry, and the spearheaded and Sogdian archers were at the forefront, killing the Tang army ten miles away with an unstoppable momentum.

Ten miles away, 20,000 Tang troops had also completed the army. The formation was arranged in a flat wilderness, and it was still the Yanyue Formation used in the Battle of Baishui River. Like the three thousand soldiers, it was only expanded nearly ten times, forming a huge half-moon formation covering an area of ​​two miles. Infantry and crossbowmen were concentrated in the middle, and there were arc-shaped cavalry formations on both sides. Although the appearance was each other, the essence inside was completely different. Five thousand crossbowmen were equipped with a crossbow. This kind of crossbow requires feet to cooperate with Zhang Xian, which was very difficult, but the range was 240 steps, and the effective killing distance was 150 steps, while in the five

The Thousand Crossbows were equipped with a bed crossbow in the middle. After repeated debugging by Liangjiang, this bed crossbow was fired with a twisted string. A nine-inch-long iron arrow was placed in the steel pocket. One shot was ten arrows, and the effective killing range was more than 500 steps. There were a total of 400 bed crossbows, dragged by horses, and the cavalry used a horn crossbow, with an effective killing distance of 60 steps. This formed a far, medium and nearly three layers of strikes. However, in front of the crossbows, there was a row of huge cowhide wooden sheds, arranged at forty-five degrees of oblique angles, and the cowhide was covered with smooth grease. This was specially made to defend against the attacks of the Dashijun catapult.

The Tang army general Li Guangbi looked calmly at the Dashi Army approaching step by step from afar. He was full of expectations and commanded 20,000 people to fight together. This was the first time in his life. For this reason, he was full of gratitude to Li Qing'an. This trust made him willing to use his life to be loyal to him.

"General, the Dashi Army has no opportunity to follow!" The soldiers' shouts came from the Tiaowang Dou.

Li Guangbi immediately waved his hand and ordered: "Remove the cowhide!"

The soldiers quickly moved dozens of cowhide pants away. At this time, the Dashi Army slowly stopped two miles away and began to set up the formation of private troops. They did not continue to move forward. The other party's caution was expected by Li Guangbi. In fact, they began to compete a few days ago. Li Guangbi did not siege the city, and the Dashi Army did not go to fight. Their ideas were consistent, and they all wanted to take action, trying to understand the other party's background more comprehensively. This time the Dashi Army went to fight, but there was a hesitation of tentative attack in the battle, without the violent and decisiveness of both jade and stone. This subtle hesitation made Li Guangbi realize that the other party's battle was very likely to be forced. If this was the case, then he would have a 70% chance of winning in this battle. However, the other party was only two miles away, which was a little too close to the battlefield.

The Great Food Army did not all go into the attack. After all, this was not a small-scale conflict. It was a medium-scale battle. It was a survey between each other before a major battle came. This was the destined to be cautious in both sides' use of troops. Qi Yade stared at the crossbow in the Tang army. It was the first time he had seen such a weapon, and his eyes were full of interest. He had guessed that this must be the powerful long-range weapon of the Tang army.

Chiade turned around and glanced at the ready soldiers and ordered decisively: "The first to third regiments of the First Regiment, the fifth and sixth regiments of the Second Regiment were ready to attack!"

The First Legion was also the Sogdian Legion, which used Sogdian infantry as the main force, and the two cavalry regiments of the Khorasan Army as the cover of the flanks. This was the first tentative attack. The rumbling drums suddenly sounded, and the excited war horses sniffed heavily. The spears were thrust out of the scabbard. The Dashi Army launched the two thousand cavalry covering the three thousand Sogdian infantry, like a torrent that rushed out of the breach dam and rushed towards the Tang army.

The Tang army was still as stable as Mount Tai, motionless. Only the crossbowmen slowly raised the crossbow and extended into the air at a thirty-degree angle. There were five rows of crossbowmen, two steps apart from each row. They would fire at the other side at 150 steps and attack the other side in five rounds of launch. The crossbow shooting soldiers also raised their hammers and prepared to fire with one blow. The other side was getting closer and closer. The raised shield formed a black shield wall, and the cavalry was not fast. Following the infantry, they protected the two wings of the shield wall from left to right.

Li Guangbi's brows were frowning tighter and tighter. What did the other party send only 5,000 people to do? Did they want the Tang army to eat it in pieces? It is impossible. They would not have known the sharpness of the Tang army's bow and arrow, but let the five thousand people die. Li Guangbi vaguely realized that the opponent's tactics would not be that simple. At this time, the enemy had entered the range of the bed crossbow, and the Tang army's war drums were slowly ringing, which was reminding the decision makers that the time for the bed crossbow to be launched. Li Guangbi stared at the main force of the Dashi Army two miles away. He gritted his teeth and said, "The bed crossbow is not allowed to be fired!"

The hammer of the bed crossbow operator was slowly lowered, and the four hundred powerful bed crossbows did not shoot, and the enemy continued to advance, and had already made three hundred steps. At this time, the general of the Dashi, who was in charge of the first wave of attack, roared, "Kill!"

The five thousand troops suddenly accelerated. They ran quickly and rushed towards the Tang army formation. Li Guangbi ordered sternly: "The crossbowman is ready to shoot!"

Five thousand crossbowmen picked up the crossbow arrows, aiming the cold arrows at the sweeping Dashi Army. The crossbowmen kept adjusting the shooting distance through looking at the mountain.

"Two hundred steps...one hundred and fifty steps..."

"Shoot!" Li Guangbi issued a command to shoot. In the first round, a thousand crossbow arrows rose into the air, and suddenly disappeared. They rushed into the enemy group with the whistling wind. The Great Food Army slowed down and raised their shields to greet them. There was a jingle and jingle collision sound mixed with the screams of someone being caught in the arrow. The arrow rain was too dense, and dozens of people were still shot to death. The new metal shield of the Great Food People blocked the Tang Army's first round of arrow rain. Then, the second and third rounds, the overwhelming rain of arrows roared, so dense that it was breathless.

The Tang army used five rounds of shooting to keep the bows and arrows at the most intense strikes. The Dashi Army made great progress. Every step he took had to pay the price of nearly 100 people being killed by arrows. They could not fight back. Although the Tang army's arrow rain was too dense, they could not make any moves. More importantly, their bows and arrows were far less sharp than the Tang army, and their range was not that far. In just thirty steps, the Tang army shot fifteen rounds of arrows at the Dashi Army like a heavy rain, and the saturation strike of 15,000 arrows. The Dashi Army also paid nearly 900 casualties in the arrows.

Under this great test of will and courage, the Sogdians could no longer withstand the chaos began to appear. At this moment, two thousand Huroshan cavalry left the infantry, they walked around from behind and rushed towards the Tang army's position as fast as possible.

At this moment, like a sudden change in the storm, the main force of the Dashi Army behind launched the horn sounded throughout the sky, the sound of horse hooves rolled across the field like thunder, and 20,000 troops rushed out. Qi Yade waved his sword and pointed at the front and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Kill here!"

The Tang army's crossbow was also launched at the moment when two thousand Huluoshan cavalry rushed up. The hammer was swung, and four hundred crossbows were fired at the same time. Four thousand nine-inch iron arrows were shot out from the steel pocket, and with a force of gold cracking stones, it was shot strongly at the two thousand cavalry.

Although the equipment of the Khorasan cavalry was far better than that of the Sogdians, they were wearing tough leather armor, and ordinary swords were difficult to cut through, holding spears and shields in their hands, and even their war horses were wearing armor. They were only a hundred steps away from the Tang army's position, and one hundred steps. For the Dashi war horse with strong sprinting power, it took only ten seconds to rush through, but this short 100 steps became the source of the nightmare of the Dashi Army.

Two thousand cavalry seemed so thin and fragile in front of the four thousand iron arrows. One iron arrow pierced through the shield and directly penetrated the chest of the Dashi soldier. The arrow with blood and flesh broke out from behind and shot through the abdomen of another soldier. The two thousand cavalrymen turned their horses and fell down, foaming at the mouth and died. Under them were the soldiers who were wriggling in pain, pressing the blood-burning hole in their bodies, making the final struggle on the brink of death.

The powerful iron arrow not only shot through the cavalry, but also gave the final blow to the Sogdian soldiers who were in a mess behind the cavalry. In an instant, more than 800 people fell to the ground screaming.

"Oh my God!"

Qi Yade in the distance saw the power of the crossbow, and he screamed in surprise. When Hou Meide described the power of the Tang army's bows and arrows to him, he felt that Hou Meide was more shirking responsibility, but at this moment, he saw this terrifying scene with his own eyes. More than half of the 2,000 most elite Khurasan cavalry were killed and injured in a powerful enemy arrow. In just a hundred steps, no one could rush over, and the last hundreds of people were also killed in the overwhelming rain of arrows in the Tang army.

After a few years, the fearful power of the Tang army's crossbow arrows would still awaken Qiyade from the nightmare. After the war, he spared no effort to promote the Tang army's crossbow arrows in the Dashi Army. Gradually, the powerful crossbows of the Arabs originated from this, and the crossbows became a nightmare in the Western Christ world, so that Western gentlemen had to sign an agreement before the war and were not allowed to use the Arab crossbows.

Although the Tang army's bed crossbow was powerful, it also had an obvious flaw, which was its slow winding. Although the Tang army invented the ox cart and was put into use in the First Battle of Broken Leaf, it still could not keep up with the speed of the strong winds sweeping over the Great Food Army.

The turbulent cavalry of Dashi had already rushed to two hundred steps away, and the rain of arrows from the Tang army crossbowmen was also shot out, and people kept falling off their horses in the speeding spree, but they could not stop the rapid impact of nearly 15,000 cavalry of Dashi. They swung their swords, raised their shields, galloped their horses, and shouted and killed throughout the world.

It was already sixty steps, and at this time, the archers and cavalry were firing at once. The black rain of arrows covered the sky and shot into the enemy cavalry. The deaths and injuries of the Dashi Army increased. However, the Khurasan army was the elite of the Abbasid Dynasty after all. They were not afraid of arrows and fought bravely for the first place. The warning line for the Tang army's crossbow soldiers to retreat was generally twenty steps, but the enemy cavalry was too fast. When they were forty steps, the crossbow soldiers were ordered to retreat.

As the last round of crossbow arrows were shot out, the crossbowmen quickly retreated, and the crossbow was dragged away by war horses. At this time, the Tang army fought against the two thousand Modao soldiers, the sharpest cavalry. Two thousand heavily armored Modao soldiers lined up in two rows, and the two-meter-long Modao soldiers swung out, and the cold light shone.

Regarding whether the Modao Army should fight in this battle, there was a dispute between the top leaders of the Tang army when deploying the battle. After all, this is not a battle to determine the outcome, it is just a battle to test the background of both sides. There is no need to expose its strength too early.

But the head coach Li Qingan disagreed with the opposition and insisted that the Modao Army go to fight, and ordered Tian Zhen to be responsible for commanding the two thousand Modao Army.

As soon as the Mo Dao Army came out of the formation, they ushered in a scattered cavalry like a sea of ​​big-foot cavalry charges. The first thing was that the overwhelming short spears roared over, and the sharp short spears could not shoot into the heavy armor of the Mo Dao Army. They lined up closely together to resist the first wave of the big-foot cavalry with a collective force.

"Boom!" A huge wave, like a stormy wave, the air waves scattered, and dozens of Modao soldiers were knocked over, but the Modao hand in the back row immediately made up. Modao roared Tian Zhen, and the snow- bright big sword slashed down, splitting a cavalry commander and his men and horses in half. Blood plasma flew, internal organs rolled down, and the smell and blood came to his nose.

The Modao soldiers flew over with long swords, and the sharp blade cut the soldiers and war horses into a river of blood. The Dashi Army behind them threw countless short spears at the Modao Army, as dense as rain, but these sharp short spears still had no effect.

The battle of the Modao Army surprised Qi Yade. He did not expect that the Tang army also had heavy armored infantry, all of which were tall and mighty. The big sword with a cold light seemed to be the natural enemy of the cavalry. Seeing that his Khurasan cavalry had suffered heavy casualties, he immediately ordered: "The cavalry of the First Legion attacked the front, and the cavalry of the Second Legion attacked from the side!"

The rapid sound of the trumpet conveyed the commander's order. The Tang army's Modao team was instead dealt with by Sogdian cavalry, while the Khurasan cavalry fought against the Tang army's eight thousand cavalry, and the other two thousand cavalry of the Tang army protected the Modao army's back and wings.

The Tang army had a total of 20,000 people, including 10,000 cavalry, 5,000 crossbow soldiers, 3,000 scouts and sway soldiers, and two thousand Modao soldiers.

After the crossbow soldiers retreated, they transformed into garrison troops, using bows and arrows to protect the army's baggage and command center, and continued to shoot arrows to support the battle between the cavalry and the Modao Army, while the scouts and the jumping troops spread their wings and perimeters to prevent the enemy from sneak attacking or attacking the flanks.

At this time, the two armies fought fiercely on the two-mile-long front, with swords fighting each other, spear fighting, war horses intersecting, screams one after another. General Hou Meide of the Great Food led a thousand cavalry to bypass the Tang army's defense from the side, attempting to sneak attack the command center of the Tang army, but they were intercepted by the Tang army's jumping army, which was the sword and shield army. They were guarding the periphery, but Hou Meide's sneak attack was ineffective, and the dense rain of arrows from the crossbowmen shot them back.

Li Guangbi was in the middle of the garrison, and he carefully observed the combat characteristics of the Dashi Army. The Dashi Army was completely different from the Hu soldiers on the grassland. They were disciplined, well-trained, and brave in combat. Their biggest advantage was that the horses were fast, but their equipment was not as good as the Tang army, armor, bows and arrows, and horizontal swords. This was the guarantee that the Tang army could gain the upper hand.

However, the Sogdians in the Great Food Army were obviously much inferior. Their seven thousand cavalry were killed by the two thousand Modao Army and retreated step by step and began to tend to be defeated. The Sogdians' weakness will become the source of failure of the Great Food Army.

Qi Yade also discovered this, and he achieved his goal, testing the combat effectiveness and combat characteristics of the Tang army. The army was highly morale, well-equipped, and well-trained like them. He witnessed all these with his own eyes.

Seeing that the Sogdians were killed half of them like chopping melons and vegetables, and the defeat was decided, he knew that there was no need to continue fighting. Qiyad immediately ordered, "Get off!"

‘Woo--’ The horn of withdrawing troops was blew, and the Dashi Army retreated like a tide. The seven thousand infantry who came to support were arrested. The cavalry guarded on both sides and began to slowly retreat to Dongcao Capital. The Tang army chased for a while and shot the Dashi Army's retreat with bows and arrows, but the infantry were holding large shields in their hands, and the effect of bows and arrows was not great. At this time, the Tang army camp was filled with gongs, and the Tang army also withdrew.

As the Dashi Army gradually moved away, the 300 female guards in the Tang army began to get busy, quickly stopped bleeding and bandaged the injured Tang army, and asked the soldiers to carry the wounded soldiers into the camp with a stretcher, and emergency rescue of some seriously injured Tang army soldiers.

Although this battle was a tentative battle, the Dashi Army suffered heavy casualties, with nearly 10,000 casualties, most of which were under bows and arrows. The Tang army captured 3,000 wounded soldiers, and the Tang army also suffered nearly 1,000 casualties.

Two hours later, Li Qing'an's 10,000 reinforcements slowly arrived at the camp. At this time, the Tang army's strength reached nearly 30,000.

"The last general Li Guangbi met with the general!"

Li Guangbi greeted Li Qing'an's horse and half-kneeled and bowed.

Li Qingan dismounted and helped him up and said with a smile: "This time Guangbi defeated Qi Yade and avenged Gao Xianzhi with an arrow. I will report to the court and give him a heavy reward to the general."

Li Guangbi was moved and hurriedly said, "The last general dare not rob the commander of the deployment. The victory of this battle is because the commander is good at dispatching troops, and the soldiers sacrifice their lives. The last general's contribution is not worth mentioning."

Li Qing'an smiled and said, "It has always been a tradition of the Anxi Army to judge rewards based on merit. If this were not the case, how could Li Qing'an today come from? I have my own sense of responsibility."

He looked at the sky again. It was already dusk and said, "This time I brought heavy siege tools. Let's take a night off first, prepare for the siege, and start siege tomorrow."

As soon as he finished speaking, several scouts rushed toward the Dongcao Capital City. Li Qingan saw that they were running anxiously, and couldn't help but be stunned. What happened? Several scouts ran to Li Qingan and turned over and dismounted to report: "Report to the general, the fire in the Dongcao Capital City is soaring into the sky, and civil strife seems to have occurred."

Li Qingan immediately turned around and ran up the viewing tower, put on the curtain to look towards Dongcaocheng. He had a very good eye and vaguely saw black smoke rising in the city.

"Transfer my order, and ten thousand cavalry rushed to Dongcao City immediately!"

The 10,000 cavalry brought by Li Qing'an ran towards Dongcao City without stopping. Civil strife did occur in Dongcao City. Qi Yade's defeated army returned to the city, but the two thousand Dongcao soldiers who went to fight with him were wiped out. The soldiers' families were extremely sad and made trouble, which aroused the serious dissatisfaction of the people of Dongcao with the destruction of their religion. The people of Dongcao took up their weapons and took to the streets. They rushed to the city gate, burned the shops of the big cannibals, and killed the patrols on the street.

Seeing that the situation was serious, and the Tang army reinforcements arrived again, he immediately decided to evacuate Dongcao and return to Samarkand.

When Li Qing'an's army arrived at Dongcao City, Qi Yade had been evacuating for half an hour. The city gate was wide open, and tens of thousands of Dongcao people went out to greet the city. They greeted the Tang army with cakes and clear water, shouting the name of the Lord God Ahuramaz, and were extremely excited and welcomed the Tang army into the city with great enthusiasm.

Li Qing'an rode his horse into the capital of the second Sogdian Kingdom. At this time, the deputy king of Dongcao, Shiahu, knelt down and said, "I welcome the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty to enter the city. I am willing to swear to be loyal to His Majesty Tiankang of the Tang Dynasty to the death."

"Where is your king Suti? Why didn't he come to greet me?" Li Qingan asked coldly.

"Reporting to the general, Suthina knew that he was guilty. He ran away with the cannibals, and he still took his wife and daughter. There was no one in the palace."

Li Qingan snorted heavily, "Have you run away? It's a good deal for him."
Chapter completed!