Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 164: Hundred Cavalry Defeats the Army

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

The soldiers shouted in panic and their formation was in chaos.

The soldiers couldn’t find their squad leader, the squad leader couldn’t find his platoon leader, and the platoon leader couldn’t find his centurion leader.

The cavalrymen lying in ambush on the grassland attacked from both sides and tore a hole in the Da Xi army in an instant. Especially the general wearing the metal mask, who was extremely brave and challenged several Da Xi generals in a row. No one could stop him.

The cavalry under his command were equally brave, as if each of them had fought their way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. At this moment, they were like tigers among a flock of sheep, and the Da Xi army was no match for them.

Gao Zhi was very frightened when he saw this situation, but fortunately, as the commander, he still had basic combat command capabilities.

He quickly issued military orders, ordering the soldiers not to panic, to form groups of thirty on the spot, and to form the most basic spear formation to meet the enemy, and those who fled would be killed without mercy.

After the order was passed down, the soldiers barely recovered some fighting strength and began to form a battle formation to fight the enemy.

The spear formation is the simplest formation. Spearmen hold spears in the front, which is both defensive and offensive. It is very effective against cavalry. The disadvantage is that it is not flexible enough and it is difficult to change the formation.

Therefore, there are often archers, swordsmen and shieldmen behind the spear formation to make up for the shortcomings of the spear formation.

However, because Gao Zhi was too focused on marching speed, the soldiers placed heavy armor, shields, bows and crossbows, quivers, gunpowder, cannons and other weapons and equipment on the baggage train. Now the baggage train was left far behind, and the soldiers simply did not have enough equipment to fight the enemy.

Most soldiers only had the most basic long swords and spears. Although a few soldiers carried longbows, they had too few arrows to form a suppressive force.

In addition, because the soldiers were all scrambling to drink the snow spring before, the soldiers are now distributed very unevenly. Some places are full of spearmen, and some places are full of swordsmen. There is no coordination at all. It is already very difficult to form the simplest spear formation with a group of thirty people, let alone expect anything else.

At this time, the two cavalry units on the left and right sides of the grassland had cut Gao Zhi's army in half.

Seeing that the enemy cavalry were few in number, Gao Zhi ordered his soldiers to surround them.

However, the already sparsely distributed Da Xi army was fine when forming a battle array on the spot, but once they took the initiative to attack, they became extremely slow.

Relying on his extensive combat experience, General Du accurately judged the battlefield situation.

He led his cavalry to charge indiscriminately in the chaotic army, avoiding positions with many spearmen and attacking the weak points of Gao Zhi's troops. After several charges, Gao Zhi's army was thrown into chaos.

Gao Zhi organized encirclement several times, but they were broken by the enemy. The morale of the army dropped sharply and there were many signs of collapse. Gao Zhi knew that the army would be in chaos if it continued like this, so he hurriedly ordered a reorganization, raised the commander's flag, and asked the soldiers to gather at his position.

However, it was very inconvenient to convey orders amid the chaos of the army.

Before the chaotic soldiers had time to gather together, General Du led his troops to rush over first.

Upon seeing this, Gao Zhi hurriedly ordered his soldiers to stop them.

The more than 300 cavalrymen around the general were wrapped in iron armor and were not afraid of arrows. They broke through Gao Zhi's soldiers in one round.

Gao Zhi was a little flustered, and hurriedly ordered his guerrilla general Bi Chuan to lead troops to stop them.

Bi Chuan led his troops forward, and he swung his halberd and chopped straight forward, but the general dodged by leaning sideways on his horse.

General Du fired his spear back and stabbed the hind leg of Bi Chuan's horse.

The warhorse leaned forward in pain, and Bi Chuan was thrown off the horse.

The soldier behind General Du did not hesitate and stabbed Bi Chuan to death with a single shot.

Gao Zhi was horrified to see Bi Chuan fall off his horse and die in the first round. He also felt a strange sense of familiarity when he looked at the figure of the grassland general, which made him even more uneasy.

So he hurriedly ordered his lieutenant general Ning Bo to lead troops to stop them.

Ning Bo was the top martial arts scholar during the Kangning period. He was extremely powerful and wielded a long-handled war hammer. He was extremely strong and no one in the army could match him.

Ning Bo led his troops forward and smashed down with a hammer, but General Du blocked it with the handle of his spear, and the two sides were evenly matched. But in fact, Ning Bo met the enemy with a hammer, and the power was all in the front, but General Du was able to block it with the handle of his spear, which was enough to explain the problem.

Ning Bo naturally knew this. Seeing that he could not defeat the enemy by force, he instantly clamped his legs around the horse's belly, and the horse immediately accelerated forward.

As the horse accelerated, Ning Bo took the opportunity to pull the opponent with his hammer. Seeing this, General Du immediately changed to holding the gun with one hand and leaned back to avoid the move.

The two sides were evenly matched in this move, and their figures intertwined.

Their respective soldiers followed at this time.

There's no such thing as one-on-one duels on the battlefield, just charge in together if you can!

General Du faced off against several Daxi soldiers alone. After a few spear strikes, several people fell off their horses, either dead or injured.

On the other side, Ning Bo also faced several soldiers under the general. He smashed down with a hammer, but was blocked by the other side.

One of the soldiers threw a hand axe and Ning Bo dodged quickly.

Another soldier thrust his spear straight into Ning Bo's armpit from the side. Ning Bo was startled and quickly put away his hammer to block it.

At this time, a soldier shot an arrow from a distance. Ning Bo was using a hammer and his movements were slow. He had no time to dodge and could only slightly turn sideways. The arrow hit his left rib directly. Fortunately, he was protected by armor, so the arrow did not penetrate his heart and lungs.

Ning Bo gritted his teeth and fled on his horse. General Du came after him from behind and shot him with a spear. Ning Bo had no time to dodge and was knocked off his horse by General Du. He was trampled to death by the horse's hoof.

Gao Zhi was horrified when he saw Ning Bo's tragic death and the enemy general was about to charge at him.

He knew that as the commander at this time, if he fled, the already somewhat scattered soldiers would definitely flee with him, and the army would then be in chaos and eventually suffer a great defeat.

But nothing is more important than staying alive!
Seeing that the enemy general was beyond human power and was about to charge at him, if he didn't run, wouldn't he be waiting for death?

Seeing that the enemy was getting closer and closer, Gao Zhi did not hesitate and directly summoned his personal soldiers to escort him to escape.

At the same time, he ordered Qi Jianhui to lead the remaining soldiers to cover their retreat, which meant they were sending themselves to their deaths.

Before Qi Jianhui could refuse, Gao Zhi had already escaped.

At this time, the enemy general had already rushed over. Qi Jianhui saw that he could not escape, so he could only yell, "Serve the country with loyalty!" and then rushed towards the enemy general.

General Du looked at Qi Jianhui who was rushing towards him with a gun. For some reason, he did not use his full strength, but just blocked it with his gun, and then said in a deep voice:
"Get out of the way, let me pass, and I'll spare your life!"

Qi Jianhui felt that the voice seemed familiar, but he couldn't figure out who it was. Moreover, how could he surrender to the enemy in public on the battlefield? You know, his family is still in the capital!

So Qi Jianhui yelled,
"You Tartar dog, I am the descendant of the Marquis of Xiangyang, and my family has been loyal for generations. How could I surrender to you?"

As he said that, Qi Jianhui turned around and stabbed the other person's arm with his gun.

Upon seeing this, General Du pushed Qi Jianhui's spear away, then stabbed Qi Jianhui in the shoulder and knocked him off his horse.

"Don't kill him!"

After giving the order, General Du went straight towards Gao Zhi.

Gao Zhi panicked when he saw this. In order to save his life, he ordered his men to cut off the commander's flag, throw away their armor and weapons, and disguise themselves as ordinary soldiers to escape.

However, General Du had already memorized Gao Zhi's figure clearly in his mind. Even though Gao Zhi changed into a soldier's clothes, General Du could still recognize him.

When Gao Zhi's soldiers saw that the commander's flag was gone, they thought that their commander was dead. Their morale immediately dropped and they fled in panic. In the chaos, they didn't know their rank, north or south, or who was in the front or the rear. They only knew how to escape, and countless people were trampled to death.

(End of this chapter)