Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

"The enemy general is Xue Guyan, with more than 5,000 elite cavalrymen under his command. They arrived at Jinguchuan the day before yesterday, set up camp at the weir, and have besieged Jingu Cangcheng..."

Gao Le, who led the cavalry scouts to investigate the enemy, reported the situation one by one, and Li Tai frowned after listening.

He knew that the Eastern Wei was not a soft persimmon. The previous smooth attack was only due to the chaos in the defense of the Heluo region caused by Hou Jing's rebellion. After a series of attacks, the enemy would react and would definitely try to counterattack, but he did not expect that the counterattack would come so quickly and fiercely.

Whether it was the enemy general Xue Guyan or the more than 5,000 elite cavalrymen he led, Li Tai did not dare to neglect them.

Xue Guyan was a famous general of the Eastern Wei. He was the rear guard of the army in the Battle of Xiaoguan. He cut off more than a dozen swords in one day. Such a heroic deed made people feel afraid when they heard it. As for the 5,000 elite Jinyang soldiers, they were an armed force that was enough to travel across Heluo and be invincible at the moment.

"Although the enemy cavalry is coming fiercely, judging from their formation, most of them are lightly equipped and do not have sufficient supplies. They may be good at riding and shooting, but they are not good at attacking. We only need to defend the city defense and wait for them to run out of food. They will definitely flee and the danger will be resolved."

After pondering for a while, Deputy General Tian Hong said: "Besides, Li Taiwei also ordered us to defend the city and cover the flanks of the army. Steady defense is the best strategy to deal with the enemy."

After hearing this, several other generals nodded and said that even if they did not consider who the enemy generals were, the 5,000 elite cavalry alone was a powerful force, especially in the flat Heluo Plain. Even if the troops were several times larger than the enemy, they had to be careful to guard against them.

Li Tai's troops only had more than 5,000 real combatants. Even if they broke through several cities and captured thousands of surrendered people, it would be difficult to put them into battle without sufficient reorganization.

Although Li Tai's cavalry also has more than 3,000 people, they are still not superior in number, and their quality may not necessarily be able to beat Xue Guyan's troops.

Although there are many people who followed him deep into the enemy's Jinyang, and fought and defeated famous generals like Liu Feng, there is also a great deal of trickery, which does not mean that his troops are more elite than the elite Jinyang soldiers who have fought many battles.

After listening to the opinions of the generals, Li Tai said: "Although the enemy cavalry is lightly equipped and has no sufficient supplies, the Jin Gu Cang City has it. Now General Han is alone with more than a thousand troops trapped in Cang City. If I don't rescue it and Cang City returns to the hands of the enemy. The enemy can take the city to replenish the city and linger. Moreover, because of their rapid advance and retreat, they can turn to attack other parties. If they just stay in the city, how can they be stopped? By then, I don't know if the progress of the army will be disturbed, and I am afraid that the offensive and defensive of all parties will be changed!"

When the generals heard this After a while, He Ruo Dun stood up and clasped his fists and said, "Since the enemy must attack and we must rescue, there is no trick to use, only bravery to win. I ask you to give me a thousand men to rescue Jingu City, and entangle the enemy with light cavalry so that they can't attack the city with all their strength. When they are exhausted and want to leave, we can chase them and we will surely defeat the enemy in the wild!" Although He Ruo Dun often offends people because of his sharp tongue, this suggestion is a more appropriate way to deal with it at the moment. But as soon as he finished speaking, Li Quji spoke again: "A few days ago, I went to Jingu City to supervise the transportation of materials and goods back. The city is 50 miles away from Guancheng. The enemy is now besieging the city to lure out reinforcements. I must have sent light cavalry to rescue them, which is within the enemy's expectations. It is a tiring journey to fight against the enemy's elite troops. It may not be easy to advance or retreat."

More than 50 miles is not too far, but the light cavalry will inevitably consume a lot of physical strength, especially the physical strength of the warhorse. If they fight against the enemy's elite cavalry that is several times stronger than their own, it is obvious that they will be in great danger.

He Ruo Dun thought for a while and said, "What if they are equipped with two cavalry..."

No one answered this question, and even He Ruo Dun himself felt that it was a bit stupid after asking it, and there was no value in discussing it.

"Although the enemy cavalry is fierce, it is not impossible to defeat them. In the midsummer, the river is surging, and it is difficult for iron hooves to move between the gullies and mudflats. Now we are advancing by land and water, with chariots and cavalry mixed together. Although there are many enemy cavalry, it is difficult to stop them."

A living person will never die from urination. Li Tai will not be so arrogant as to think that he can break Xue Guyan's elite troops in a field battle, but it does not mean that the enemy is invincible.

The most powerful thing about cavalry is naturally its super mobility, but if mobility no longer exists, or if the battle is no longer determined by mobility, then the enemy is not as terrible as it seems. There are actually many ways to limit and offset the mobility of cavalry.

"But, but Li Taiwei's previous order is for us to defend the city..."

Seeing that Li Tai has decided to send troops to rescue Han Xiong's troops in Jingu City, Tian Hong said hesitantly. He is also a brave general, and he is not afraid of fighting, but he has some concerns about the commander's order.

"So General Laotian must stay here to defend the city gate. I will lead a part of my troops to reinforce Jingu City and repel the enemy army, so that the army's flanks will be safe."

If the enemy breaks through Jingu City and regains the Luoxi base, then the power of these 5,000 elite cavalry will be greater in the Luoxi battlefield. At that time, even if Li Tai wants to go further, he will be blocked in the city gate and cannot move forward.

So Li Tai has to rescue Han Xiong's troops. He can't be ashamed to answer Han Qinhu when he asks him where his father has gone in the future.

So after some preparations, Li Tai led 3,000 infantry and cavalry to leave the city gate and head towards Jingu City along the Gushui River.

Several boats followed the army, carrying more than 500 soldiers and a lot of military equipment. However, there were still more than 50 carts on the shore, with tall compartment walls and hardwood horns on each cart. Twenty soldiers were arranged on each cart, half of them were equipped with swords and shields, and half were equipped with spears and lances.

In addition to the armored soldiers equipped with these carts and boats, there were more than 1,500 cavalry, divided into three camps, front, middle and back. These cavalry did not leave the army formation, but were located between the car formation and the boats and advanced together. The actual effect seemed to be that the car formation protected the cavalry. In order to match the marching speed of each other, the cavalry in the car formation even led the horses and walked in the formation.

This group of people and horses had just left the city not long ago when they were observed by the enemy scouts and quickly reported to the commander.

Because of the lack of repairs in recent years, the Qianjin Weir in Luoxi has been silted up and flooded. Now it is no longer the grand occasion of collecting thousands of gold every day. It has become a pond filled with stench. Valley water flows into the pond from the southwest side, and then overflows from the east side and flows into the Luo River.

The Jingu Cangcheng is located on the south side of the pond, half of it is on the trestle bridge on the water surface, and half of it is on the river bank. The stone dam on the river bank is also part of the Cangcheng wall, extending several miles to the left and right.

At this time, a large-scale military camp has been built outside the river bank. The military camp is distributed on several sides, blocking all the passages on the Cangcheng shore. In the camp, there are many floating platforms made of reeds, branches, and wooden boards. These floating platforms are placed on the muddy river bank and can carry people and horses to pass through, and can bypass the embankment to attack Cangcheng.

But taking Jingu Cangcheng is not the only purpose of Xue Guyan's trip. Retaking Guancheng and sweeping the Western bandits out of Heluo is his goal. To achieve this intention, the Cangcheng in front of him is an excellent bait, so he did not rush to order his troops to attack Cangcheng. While making orderly preparations for the siege, he dispatched troops to bring the surrounding areas of Luoyang back under control.

When Xue Guyan learned that the enemy in Guancheng could no longer hold back and sent troops to reinforce, he could not help but sneer, and immediately led a thousand light cavalry in the camp to go west along the Gushui River to test the enemy's strength.

The two sides rushed to each other and soon met on the south bank of the Gushui River. When they saw the strange marching formation of the Western Army, many Eastern Army knights looked suspicious.

"Humph, I thought the leader of the bandit army was a wise and brave talent, but he dared to attack my city and attack Luoyang. It turns out that he is just a cowardly and mediocre rat!" Xue Guyan pointed at the army formation still marching by the river and sneered: "This formation is a turtle formation created by the southerners because they are afraid of the elite cavalry. They use chariots to block our attack, and there are many bows and crossbows on the boats, so I dare not get close. Now this bandit general is particularly cowardly. Although he has considerable cavalry, he dare not use it outside the formation. He hides in the formation thinking that he will not be damaged, but it only makes him more embarrassed and cowardly!" After hearing Xue Guyan's explanation, all the personal soldiers laughed, and they were eager to fight. Xue Guyan ignored his subordinates' noise. Although he revealed the mystery of the enemy formation, it did not mean that he knew how to crack it. This formation with chariots as the main force was called the box formation by the southerners. It was originally used to restrain light cavalry in field battles, and it was often set up near water, so it was difficult to attack it with fire. Just as many people know that cavalry wins by speed, it is not possible to summarize any miraculous tactics against cavalry. When the light cavalry encounters this tortoise shell box formation, they can only break through it by force.

"The enemy general imitates the southerners' chariot formation, but the chariots are much simpler than those of the southerners. My men, open your eyes and look carefully. This attack will definitely break one of the enemy's chariots!"

Xue Guyan roared, waved the horse spear in his hand, and rushed straight to the front of the enemy formation. The distance between the two sides quickly closed, and the Western Army soldiers between the chariot camps retreated to the back of the chariots.