The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 839 The Battle of Elizabeth
The same applies to the Western Turks. They may give up Yiwu, Gaochang, and even Beiting, but they will never give up the Yili River Valley.

The commander-in-chief of the Western Turks guarding the Ili River Valley was Ashina Mohedu, the uncle of Tongyab Khan. Last year, he sent his son Ashina Tai to destroy the Gaochang Kingdom and the Yiwu Kingdom.

Moheduo already knew that the Sui army had entered the Yili River Valley. He was extremely anxious, but he could no longer retreat and had to concentrate all his forces to fight the Sui army.

He then conscripted another 20,000 troops from the herdsmen, bringing his army to 50,000, which put his mind at ease.

That morning, he received news from his scouts that the main force of the Sui army was less than fifty li away from his Yabghu tent.

Moheduo had no choice but to personally lead an army of 50,000 to confront the main force of the Sui army.

The two armies finally met on the boundless grassland.

Mohe shouted, "Form ranks!"

The bugle calls of the Western Turkic army continued to sound, and they began to quickly adjust their formation. This was also the greatest advantage of the Western Turkic army: they were well-trained and quickly assembled, forming a main flank formation.

This formation is not a special structure; it's quite common and mainly involves the two flanks protecting the main formation.

He had 10,000 troops on each flank. The left flank was led by his son Ashina Tai, and the right flank by Wutong, a trusted general of Moheduo.

The Western Turks also had their own military system, with five commanders of ten thousand men under the commander-in-chief, and below the commanders of ten thousand men were commanders of a thousand men, a hundred men, and a ten-man commander.

Moheduo was most afraid of the Sui army's firearms, but at this point he had no choice but to bite the bullet and fight the Sui army to the death.

However, the Western Turks also had an advantage, namely the weather. The originally gloomy sky began to drizzle, which was very unfavorable for bows and crossbows and firearms, which gave Mohedu a glimmer of hope.

Mo Heduo brandished his sword and shouted, "Right wing, charge!"

"Woo-woo-woo" The deep sound of the horn echoed across the grassland.

The ten thousand cavalry on the right flank of the Western Turkic army began to advance slowly, each holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, controlling their horses with their legs and maintaining a tight formation. The two armies drew closer and closer, their shouts and cries mingling together, and the drums thundered, boosting the morale of their respective soldiers.

When they were still two miles away from the Sui army, ten thousand Western Turkic cavalry suddenly launched their attack. Their hooves pounded the ground, making the earth tremble, and the ten thousand cavalrymen swept in like a tidal wave.

Li Jing coldly watched the enemy cavalry charging in, their attack a probing assault.

He immediately ordered: "Heavy infantry, prepare to engage! Two thousand javelin throwers, prepare!"

Faced with the enemy's probing attack, Li Jing did not intend to serve a grand feast at the beginning; he would also entertain the enemy with some cold dishes.

General Xiao Tiancheng brandished his sword and spear and shouted, "Prepare for battle!"

Eight thousand heavily armored infantrymen strode forward, forming two rows, half-crouching on the ground, their eight thousand sharp swords and spears pointing to the sky at a sixty-degree angle.

Each sword and spear is two zhang long, or six meters. It is not a Mo Dao (陌刀), but a combination of a sword and a spear. It not only has the slashing sharpness of the Mo Dao, but is also extremely sharp for stabbing.

Four hundred paces... Three hundred and fifty paces... Three hundred paces, the Western Turkic army had already charged into the killing range of the Sui army's crossbow bolts.

In the fine, dense rain and mist, the Sui army had ceased firing their bows and crossbows. At Li Jing's command, the Sui soldiers raised their swords and spears, preparing to meet the first wave of attack from the Western Turkic army.

However, in the course of long-term warfare, the Sui army gradually developed many tactics, such as the heavy infantry always having to cooperate with spear-throwing troops.

The spear-throwing troops were responsible for killing the cavalry at the forefront and mitigating the impact on the heavily armored infantry.

Li Jing did not rush to order the spears to be thrown. He stared sharply at the shields in the hands of the Western Turkic cavalry. These shields were made of double-layered cowhide covering a wooden shield. Such shields could withstand the shots of ordinary crossbows, but could not withstand the steel spears of the Sui army.

They had gone fifty paces, but Li Jing still hadn't given the order.

The Western Turkic army's imposing and terrifying aura was awe-inspiring, but the Sui army's heavily armored infantry also possessed strong mental fortitude and remained unmoved.

Warhorses galloped, and the Western Turkic cavalry charged towards the Sui army with shouts. At a distance of thirty paces, Li Jing pointed his sword and roared, "Fire!"

The drums thundered, and two thousand short spears from the leading ranks of Sui cavalry suddenly shot forth, tracing two thousand parabolic arcs. Like a torrential rain, the spears whistled as they pierced the Western Turkic cavalry. The powerful steel spears intertwined, forming a dense storm that danced in the air with terrifying force, piercing the shields and armor of the Western Turkic cavalry, penetrating their bodies. Horses collapsed to the ground, and riders screamed as they fell from their mounts. In an instant, nearly seven hundred men and horses were felled.

The fierce spear thrusts demoralized the Western Turkic army, followed by a barrage of thousands of short spears that pierced the Western Turkic cavalry.

In just two volleys of short spears, the Western Turkic army lost a thousand men. After the two volleys were completed, the Western Turkic cavalry's momentum had greatly weakened, and they surged into the Sui army's heavy infantry's array of swords and spears like a tidal wave.

The Sui army clearly did not intend to commit its entire force to a chaotic battle with the Western Turkic army. They used the sharp sword formation of 8,000 heavily armored infantrymen, combined with the power of short spears, to defeat the Western Turkic army's attack.

The Sui army's sharp heavy infantry and dense, consistent spear rain inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. Waves of Turkic cavalry were slaughtered, their deaths extremely gruesome. Some were beheaded, while others were cut in half at the waist, and the air was thick with the pungent stench of entrails.

Despite the Western Turkic army's high level of training, they could not withstand the Sui army's heavily armored infantry tactics and were repeatedly defeated.

At this moment, Ashina Tai's 10,000 left-wing cavalry also charged forward.

The Sui army's five thousand cavalrymen under Yuchi Gong on the right wing and five thousand cavalrymen under Hou Junji on the left wing also charged forward, engaging the Western Turkic army from both flanks.

The two armies fought fiercely in the thick rain and fog, and the muddy ground and numerous puddles made the battle particularly exhausting.

At this moment, there are still 30,000 Western Turkic soldiers waiting for orders.

The Sui army did not launch a full-scale attack either; Li Jing led 20,000 troops to keep an eye on the enemy's main force.

At this point, signs of defeat were beginning to emerge on the right wing of the Western Turkic army. They had suffered more than half their casualties, lacked unified command and coordination, and appeared chaotic and disorganized. The right wing of the Western Turkic army was on the verge of collapse.

At this moment, the Western Turkic commander-in-chief, Mohedu, shouted: "All troops, advance!"

Thirty thousand cavalrymen began to charge.

Seeing that the time was right, Li Jing immediately ordered, "Prepare the arrows and lightning!"

Four thousand arrows were raised in a flash, aimed at the enemy's main cavalry force.

The Sui army's arrows and mines were waterproof; as long as it wasn't a torrential downpour, ordinary drizzle wouldn't affect the burning of the fuses.

Considering the long-term deployment to be carried out in the future, Li Jing brought four thousand heavy crossbows and a total of eight thousand archer and mortar crew members.

Faced with this decisive battle, all four thousand heavy crossbows were deployed.

"emission!"

Four thousand arrow-shaped lightning bolts suddenly soared into the air, trailing long plumes of black smoke as they streaked across the sky, exploding like raindrops into the crowd.

Thirty thousand cavalrymen were blown to pieces, their cries echoing through the air.

Then came the second, third, fourth... five consecutive rounds of explosions, totaling 20,000 arrows and mines, which resulted in more than half of the 30,000 cavalrymen being killed or wounded.

All the Turkic cavalry were terrified.

"Xu Shiji's army is to attack!"

At Li Jing's command, the last 10,000 Sui cavalrymen charged out from behind the 8,000 arrow-wielding soldiers. They were in neat formation, arranged in a complete square, their warhorses moving swiftly, their killing intent soaring, as they swept towards the 10,000 cavalrymen on the left flank.

With the Sui army's most formidable fresh force emerging, attacking from both the front and rear, the Western Turkic army's left and right flanks could not hold out, their morale collapsed, and they began to retreat.

The rout of the Western Turkic cavalry on the left and right flanks triggered a complete collapse of the Western Turkic army. Twenty thousand Sui cavalry pursued them, slaughtering the Western Turkic cavalry and leaving rivers of blood and corpses strewn across the fields.

Less than 20,000 Turkic remnants fled far away, leaving behind 50,000 elderly, weak, women and children in large tents, and about 100,000 herders who all became prisoners of war of the Sui army. The Sui army seized millions of cattle and sheep.

(End of this chapter)