The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 840 Final Battle

The Sui army did not stop. Li Jing left 10,000 troops to reorganize the situation, and then led another 30,000 troops to advance towards Suyab.

About two hundred miles from the Suyab River, the Sui army halted, as a massive army of 60,000 men appeared before them.

This was the Western Turkic Khan, Tongyabhu Qaghan, personally leading a large army to meet the enemy.

Moheduo deliberately concealed the fact that the Sui army possessed powerful firearms, only saying that he was ambushed by the Sui army and mentioning that the Sui army had powerful heavily armored infantry, but he made no mention of firearms.

Among Turkic nobles, personal interests often outweighed righteousness. Historically, it was this Mohedu who killed his nephew, Tongyab Khan, and became the ruler of the Western Turks. Deep down, he hoped more than anyone else that the Khan would be defeated.

Tongyagu Khan was furious. The 12,000 troops he had sent to Anxi had disappeared without a trace. He only learned from Sogdian merchants that there were Sui troops in Anxi, and then he realized that the Turkic army in Anxi had been completely wiped out.

Before he could lead his army to Anxi to retaliate, the Sui army attacked again from the Yili River Valley.

His Khan's dignity and living environment were both seriously challenged, especially since the Ili River Valley was one of the foundations of the Western Turks, and it could not be lost under any circumstances.

This was intolerable. Tongyagu Khan immediately summoned the royal court and all the Western Turkic soldiers in the vicinity, preparing to fight to the death.

Although the Western Turks boasted that they had hundreds of thousands of archers, considering that the entire Turkic population was soldiers, these hundreds of thousands of soldiers were actually just hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men.

More importantly, the Turkic territory was extremely vast, and the various tribes were very scattered. The Tongyagu Khan could only quickly summon three major tribes: the herders living around the royal court, the herders in the Ili River Valley, and the tribes around the Yibo Sea.

This army of 60,000 was assembled from the royal court of Suyab and the Yibohai.

The two armies drew closer and closer, eventually stopping about two miles apart.

"Khan, look! Those are their heavy infantry!"

Mohedu pointed ahead, his face full of terror. Tongyehu Khan looked in the direction he was pointing and was also secretly surprised. He saw a cavalry force of about eight thousand men emerge from the Sui army. The normally magnificent warhorses looked very small under their feet.

This Sui cavalry unit consisted of exceptionally large and imposing individuals, each clad in heavy armor, with helmets completely sealed, revealing only their eyes through two small holes. Each soldier carried a sword or spear. This army was the Sui's former elite force—the heavily armored infantry.

But they are no longer the strongest infantry; the strongest infantry has been replaced by the Arrow and Thunder Army.

The heavily armored infantry dismounted two miles away and began to line up. Eight thousand heavily armored infantrymen were arranged like a mountain wall, and they marched step by step toward the Western Turkic army led by Tong Yabghu Khan. Their momentum was as heavy as a mountain and they were invincible.

Their incomparably fierce killing intent made it seem as if any enemy soldiers who appeared in front of them would be torn into mincemeat.

Tongyagu Khan's warhorse staggered back several steps. He seemed to feel the immense pressure from this imposing aura. He immediately steadied himself, brandished his longsword, and shouted, "Amuti, you lead five thousand elite cavalry to meet the enemy!"

Upon hearing the order from Tongyagh Khan, Commander Amuti immediately raised his horn and blew it. Dozens of hornmen sounded in unison, and Amuti brandished his broadsword, leading five thousand elite cavalrymen in a charge against the enemy's heavily armored infantry.

The five thousand elite cavalry were semi-heavy cavalry, with soldiers wearing armor that could withstand arrows and ordinary spears and bayonets.

The cavalry were selected from 100,000 Turks, each tall and strong, to become the elite personal guard of the Tongyabgu Khan, and the entire nation devoted its resources to forging them into armor.

However, the Western Turks' national strength was ultimately limited, and they were unable to make armor for their warhorses. This left their cavalry with a fatal weakness: their warhorses.

Once the warhorse falls, the soldiers will find it difficult to escape due to the cumbersome nature of their armor.

On the other hand, their lack of armor-making technology meant that their armor could not provide full coverage, leaving their hands, legs, and neck unprotected.

This elite cavalry rarely participated in battles, but today, Tongyabhu Khan, fearing the Sui army's heavily armored infantry, finally ordered them to fight.

Five thousand iron cavalry galloped on horseback, like an iron torrent, and the earth trembled.

Li Jing used his telescope to observe the surging Turkic cavalry. He put down the telescope and said, "Immediately notify Xiao Tiancheng to attack their warhorses."

He had already realized that the cavalry's greatest weakness was their warhorses.

Five thousand cavalrymen charged menacingly toward the heavily armored infantry, only fifty paces away.

A burst of rapid drumbeats rang out, and two thousand javelin throwers took the lead, hurling two thousand gleaming spears at the foremost warhorse.

In an instant, warhorses neighed in agony, soldiers screamed, and chaos ensued. The throwers had undergone years of rigorous training, their steel spears capable of being thrown sixty or seventy paces away, each with perfect accuracy. If they failed to kill two thousand men, it was only because of repeated shots, such as a soldier being pierced by three spears.

More than a thousand warhorses were stabbed to death and fell in front of the battle formation. Many soldiers had just gotten up when they were trampled to death by the warhorses behind them.

Countless soldiers were trampled to death by the surging cavalry. The cavalry behind paused briefly, but their speed was too great, and they still charged into the Sui army's formation.

With a deafening boom, the powerful impact of the iron cavalry knocked dozens of heavily armored infantrymen to the ground, but the heavily armored infantrymen behind them stood firm like mountains. They shouted in unison, their swords and spears flying, aiming straight for the hands, feet and necks of their opponents. In an instant, they cleaved hundreds of cavalrymen into thousands of pieces. The scene was filled with severed limbs and heads, the stench of blood was pungent, and it was hard to breathe.

Heavy infantry is the nemesis of cavalry. Although the elite cavalry of the Western Turks were exceptionally brave, they were helpless against the mountain-like wall of heavy infantry. They were forced to retreat step by step by the heavy infantry, and men and horses fell and blood flowed like a river as the heavy infantry advanced.

The throwers unleashed another barrage of shots, killing over a thousand more men.

Enraged by the killing, Amuti found an opening, roared, spurred his horse forward, and with all his might swung his sword horizontally, decapitating two throwing soldiers, their blood spraying all over him.

Amuti laughed triumphantly, but before his laughter subsided, four heavily armored infantrymen charged in from the left and right. With a flash of their blades, his warhorse let out a miserable neigh as all four legs were severed, and it tumbled to the ground with a thud.

After throwing Amuti more than ten feet away, he had just gotten up when Xiao Tiancheng rushed towards him. A flash of cold light was seen, and Amuti's head flew off.

Seeing that more than half of his five thousand elite cavalry had perished, Tongyabhu Khan roared in desperation, "Charge the entire army!"

"Woo--Woo--"

The 50,000 cavalry of the Western Turkic royal court swept in like a surging tide.

Five hundred steps... four hundred steps... three hundred steps... two hundred steps.

Li Jing coldly ordered, "Prepare to launch the Arrow Thunder and Whirlwind Thunder!"

The so-called whirlwind trebuchet was a small catapult that could throw a fire bomb weighing eight to ten pounds two hundred paces away. The small catapult was carried by camels, so it was also called camel trebuchet, but the soldiers preferred to call it whirlwind trebuchet.

The arrow thunderbolt weighs only half a pound, while the whirlwind thunderbolt weighs ten pounds, with thousands of poisonous nails inside, and a kill area of ​​fifty paces.

The so-called poison nail is just a name; its appearance has nothing to do with nails. It is just an iron particle weighing about 1 gram, coated with a potent poison. Even if a soldier steps on it, it will not pierce the sole of his shoe, but will simply sink into the soil, and the poison will wear off after two or three days.

The Whirlwind Thunder was originally intended for siege warfare, but it's also good for field battles.

Two thousand small catapults were ready. Three soldiers were in charge of each small catapult. The soldiers drove in the anchoring stakes, turned the winch, and put the ten-pound iron bomb into the catapult basket.

At the same time, two thousand crossbow bolts were also ready to be fired.

Seeing that the enemy had advanced to about 150 paces, Li Jing immediately ordered, "Fire!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The drums beat rapidly, and whirlwind thunder and arrow thunder were launched simultaneously.

Four thousand large and small fireballs shot down on the heads of the Turkic cavalry, covering an area of ​​two hundred to three hundred and fifty paces, involving tens of thousands of enemy soldiers.

Four thousand bombs exploded with a deafening roar, sending Turkic cavalrymen sprawling and falling to the ground, their horses neighing and soldiers screaming in agony.

The Turkic soldiers' formation was thrown into chaos, and at the same time, the elite cavalry at the vanguard also collapsed.

Less than two thousand cavalrymen turned and fled. At this moment, a second round of arrow grenades and whirlwind grenades were launched, exploding again in the dense crowd.

The terrified Turkic cavalry finally realized what was happening and turned their horses around to flee for their lives.

Tongyahu Khan slapped Mohedu hard across the face, and only then did he realize the real reason for Mohedu's crushing defeat.

Tongyagu Khan also turned his horse around and fled under the protection of several thousand personal guards.

(End of this chapter)